If..Else Log

Typetester by Marko Dugonjic is an online application for checking, comparing and choosing typefaces. As you'd expect from Marko, it's very swish indeed.

To celebrate the fifth year anniversary of AvalonStar, Bryan is holding a contest with some wonderful prizes. The theme is simple; simply design a T-Shirt which is either related to his site or to the catchy slogan "I dream of Avalonstar". The deadline is set for Wednesday the 21st of September, just a few days away so get cracking!

Tristan has released his long awaited Zen Photo gallery.

As well as the usual gallery features, Zen Photo features:

• Flexible uploads: You can automagically create an album by FTP'ing photos in the /albums folder or via the web based control panel
• Comments: Everybody likes comments.
• AJAX-powered edit-while-you-browse: Because Ajax is cool.
• Theme engine: Customise it to fit in with your blog or create a custom gallery theme. Now you have no-one to blame for the bad markup.
• Hosted on your own site: Control, flexibility and peace of mind

Maybe it's time for me to move away from my custom flash gallery.

At the 2005 Tokyo Game Show, Hideo Kojima unveiled the trailer for MGS4.

Couple of initial thoughts (watch the trailer first before reading on):

• Midway through the trailer, Snake almost keels over with chest pains and requires a medical shot to continue. The symptoms appears reminiscent of FoxDie which Snake was infected with by Naomi (MGS1).
• Snake appears to be significantly older than he was in MGS2 yet Otacon has aged relatively little. Another side effect of FoxDie or perhaps even the treatment for FoxDie? Genetic deterioration due to the cloning process ala Dolly?
• Battle weary; possible dying; hunted and outmatched. Things look grim for Snake. This is perhaps the bleakest we've seen MGS.
• The new metal gears (less bipedal tank and more bipedal soldiers) look almost a mix of Metal Gear Rex and Ray. Has the evolution of the metal gears changed to match the changing face of warfare? More urban and less large-scale? And are the desolate city the result of internal strife or international warfare?
• We know via MGS3 that the Patriots were the most successful of the Philosophers. Have the events of MGS1 and 2 changed this? Are the war-torn environments a result of an unbalancing of political powers brought on by the widespread knowledge and impact of the various Metal Gears?
• The new graphics, whilst technically impressive, have less character than previous MGS titles. More SplinterShell-ish and less of the Kojima charm this time round. Likewise, the setting; probably too future-tech for my liking.
• Background music is pretty low key as is the general scene itself. After the crowd applauding entrances of Snake in the previous two MGS titles, this was quite a come down.
• No real gameplay elements on show. The "Solid eye system" looks to be a gameplay feature as does the interchangable gun. The onscreen trailer text suggests "no hiding" as do the Terminator-esque visual systems of the enemies yet the urban environment would argue otherwise.

All in all, I have to say that it's slightly anti-climatic. We'll need to know and see more before we can draw real conclusions but as compared to the trailers for the previous titles, it's really a let down. Yes, it's just a trailer, and yes, we shouldn't make judgement before even seeing something more substantial, but I can't help feeling disappointed especially after the last trailer…

Identityworks looks at and writes about brands and corporate identity. For example, their review section gives a look at Quark's new image.

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I did not foresee this… the Nintendo Revolution controller is revealed.

I've no time right now, but rest assured I will be writing more on this. Watch this space.

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Matt Dawson is frustrated by bad logos.

"Does my design look crap because the logo is so ugly? Or is the ugly logo sapping me of any creativity and inspiration so that I’m not capable of producing a good looking design?"

Marcus Ranum's has an article on the six dumbest ideas in computer security. Well written and thought provoking.

Coldforged, author of several WP plugins, is back!

I wish I had time to write more on this but unfortunately I don't. It appears that Time Warner and Microsoft are in advanced talks over Microsoft buying a stake in America Online.