Funny, just when I get One Thing New looking great, I decide to close up shop. Well, I’m not leaving blogging all together. But I’ve been thinking about my goals recently, and being a professional blogger isn’t very high on the list.

Turns out my highest goal is to take my part time freelance Web development and see if I can’t make a go of it full time. To that end, I’m going to consolidate the Rob Lindsey brand and focus on my Web presence over at RobLindsey.com.

Yeah, I just redesigned that site, too. But I’m going to change it up again. The main page will be a blog, which will deal with a lot of the topics that have popped up here. And you’ll be able to find out about my services and other pursuits on the sub pages.

For better or worse, I’ve got the blogging bug. So, instead of trying to become a blogger, I’m going to focus on becoming a developer who has a blog. There’s a difference. Anyway, thanks to all who have read and commented on this blog in the last three plus months. It’s been a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll come over to RobLindsey.com and check it out when I get up and running.

In my Grab Bag the other day, I wrote a blurb about the launch of Adobe Apollo. At the time, I was excited about it because everyone else was, but since then, I’ve done some homework to see what all the hubbub was about. Turns out, unlike your typical over-hyped new Web technology (I’m looking at you twitter), Apollo could actually be something. Maybe — dare I say it? — the Next Big Thing.

So what is Apollo? Here’s how Adobe describes it:

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

That’s a mouthful, but what does it all mean? An analogy: Apollo is like a CD player and Apollo apps are like CDs. By itself, a CD player doesn’t do much but wait around to play CDs. And the opposite is true. But together, they make music. So when you download Apollo, it’s not going to do anything but wait on your computer to run Apollo apps.

There are other runtimes: most notably the Java runtime, which you’ve probably run across if you’ve spent any time on the Web. Apollo is the same thing, but there’s an important difference that sets it apart. Instead of having to take night courses to learn Java so you can program Java apps, Apollo lets you use all of Web development skill you already know to design applications.

I look at Apollo like a Web browser without the “browse.” Browsers already run applications. You go to check your Gmail; you’re running an application. Well, you’re not running it. It’s running on a server somewhere. With Apollo, the application will run on your desktop, which accomplishes two things: it takes some of the load off the server and it lets the user work offline.

It’s this second feature that the development community is salivating over. Compose emails, set up eBay auctions, fill in your calendar, change your lineup in your fantasy baseball league. You can do all of this offline (say, on an airplane or if your cable goes out) and once you’re back on the grid, sync up to the server with one click, implementing all of the actions you’ve completed on your desktop. Applications with hybrid functionality like that are called Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and a lot of people think they might be what becomes Web 3.0.

Pretty cool, right? But before we jump in with both feet, there are a couple of caveats before anointing Apollo Next Big Thing status.

1. Security
   Every new technology that has come along in the Internet age has gone through some growing pains while the kinks in security are worked out. I can’t see Apollo being any different. The runtime is designed for Web developers to leverage their existing skill sets to develop applications. Well, hackers have those same, if not more advanced, skill sets. Just something to think about.
2. Compatability
   The runtime is cross-platform, but does that mean the applications will be? I did some looking for early Apollo apps, and I found an Apollo music player. I’m not sure which platform the developer used to create it, but it wouldn’t run on my Mac. Whether that’s an issue with the runtime or with his app remains to be seen, but still, it wouldn’t run.
3. Efficiency
   The other major Web-related runtime is Java, and anyone who’s used a Java app knows that the runtime is pretty cumbersome. You have to wait a while for Java to launch, and then you have to wait for the app to initialize. It takes longer than it should. While all the sample apps I’ve tried for Apollo have been very quick, they’ve also been pretty simple. When developers start adding deeper functionality and more complex interfaces, will Apollo bog down, too?

That said, I really believe the Apollo project has way more upside than downside. If you think you’ve seen a lot of Web-based innovation in the last couple of years, I have a feeling Apollo is going to bring it to your desktop.

Today, I started working on integrating an installation of Gallery2 into an existing template. My client wants to add a photography portfolio to her freelance site, and she wants to be able to update and maintain it herself once I’m done. So after doing some research, I decided to go with Gallery2 (with Coppermine a close second) because of its great user interface. Turns out having an easy to use program doesn’t always mean it’s easy to install.

Gallery2 is an image gallery platform that uses PHP, Smarty Tags, and a database backend to let you organize and manipulate your images on your hosting server. Gallery2 is crammed full of features, which actually becomes its main weakness: it has feature-itis. While modifying one of the prepackaged themes, I keep finding myself cutting away whole chunks of extraneous code.

It’s pretty frustrating because at this point, I know enough PHP to realize that Gallery2 is overqualified for this job. But I don’t know enough to build my own application from scratch. So for now, I’m stuck having to cut back an action-packed application like Gallery2.

Another problem I’m having with the Gallery2 guts is that the album pages are laid out with tables. I’ve been a div man for years now, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve worked with tables as layout elements. I know pages of thumbnails can be considered tabular data and thus would warrant using tables. But I’d designed my template using divs before I chose the gallery platform. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but it’s frustrating nonetheless.

My final gripe with Gallery2 is the same I’ve had with every content management system I’ve worked with — I’m talking to you Wordpress, Joomla, Blogger, phpbb, Coppemine, etc. How about instead of giving me preloaded templates and themes that have tons of features I have to remove, you make the out-of-the-box template as bare bones as possible? Then, instead of ripping a template apart and removing the features I won’t use, which has been faster than building one from scratch in every platform I’ve used except Wordpress, I can add features to a solid foundation.

Now let me add that, as is always the case when I discuss Open Source applications, I am eternally grateful for all the hard work the developers put in so that I can have access to these awesome products. When I have problems with these platforms, I’m typically as frustrated with my own limitations as I am with the applications. So just because I whine a little, don’t think I’m not appreciative. I’ve just had a hard day, and now I feel better. Thanks for listening, Internet!

Time for a little roundup of some loose ends rattling around my brain these days. But first I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be taking Sundays off from posting starting yesterday. I’m getting some more freelance work, and I’m going to dedicate most of my weekends to that for the near future. Now, on to a Monday Night Grab Bag!

1. Joost
Last week I got my beta invitation for Joost, and I’ve been playing around with it some. For those who don’t know, Joost is a new Web 2.0 company that has created an application for streaming television on your computer. As opposed to the majority of Web 2.0 apps, which use your Web browser to push their user interface, Joost is a program you have to download and run locally. Another innovation of Joost is their adoption of a peer to peer back end for distributing the server load of their streaming content.

So far, it’s worked really well for me. I think I was one of the first couple of rounds of the OS X beta testers, and the program is a little buggy. Also, besides MTV, BET, and Comedy Central, there aren’t many channels of recognizable programming. I know that CBS just signed a contract to supply content, and I’m sure other networks will follow suit. But for now, there isn’t a lot on that struck my fancy.

If Joost takes off, I think we’ll start to see a lot more of these hybrid client apps that run on your desktop with Web 2.0 functionality. And on a related topic…

2. Adobe Apollo
Adobe has released a new runtime environment and SDK for developing applications that could run a lot like Joost using traditionally Web-only programming languages (HTML, Javascript, Flash, etc.). I haven’t downloaded it to check it out yet, but Apollo and Microsoft’s Silverlight could set the stage for the next Web revolution. Or they could fizzle. Time will tell.

And speaking of fizzling…

3. The Web 2.0 Bubble
I subscribe to Mashable, a blog that covers news and trends in social networking sites. It’s an excellent blog, but every day I’m amazed by stories they cover of some new Web 2.0 startup getting funding for letting users share pictures of their cats or some such thing. It reminds me a lot of the last days of the Web 1.0 boom during which investors were throwing money at any- and everything that had .com at the end of it. The recent buzz around twitter, a fairly useless one-trick pony with a funny name and some shiny graphics, has me worried. Could twitter be the death knell of Web 2.0? I can only hope investors and entrepreneurs are wiser this go around.

So there you have a few things I’ve been thinking about recently. Looks like I’ve got some waiting and seeing to do. I’ll keep you posted down the road.

I was perusing digg this evening, and I came across this article about color choice and on screen readability. According to the study, Times Roman italic in green on a light yellow background (sound familiar?) is the optimal combination from a readability standpoint. Choosing a good color scheme for your site isn’t just necessary to facilitate reading; it’s also important to pick colors that reflect the meaning and intention of your site.

If you’re bringing a pre-existing brand to your Web site, you should chose colors consistent with your logo, signage, letter head, business cards, etc. Your purpose for creating your Web site is to extend your brand, and if you go off on a color tangent on your Web site, it will be harder to maintain your brand identity from the real world to the virtual one.

If you are creating a brand from scratch on your site, choosing color goes hand in hand with establishing a brand identity. You’ll have to consider which colors best reflect your brand, if you want your color palette to be muted or bold, how many colors to use (too few is boring, too many is confusing), and how to combine those colors to best express your message.

Selecting your color scheme is an extremely subjective task, and it’s different for every business. So, rather than a step-by-step tutorial about color picking, I’ve put together a list of online resources that can guide you through the process.

1. Complete Color Matching Guide
   This site is about as comprehensive a list of color resources as I’ve ever seen. Of particular interest are the links to articles about the meanings, symbolism, and psychology of colors. For instance, did you know that yellow can represent intelligence or that different shades of green can mean anything from peace to jealousy. It’s fascinating.
2. 10 Tools to help you select a Web 2.0 Color Palette
   As the title says, this is a blog post with a great list of online tools for creating Web 2.0 color schemes. My favorite is ColorBlender.
3. COLOURLovers
   I haven’t even scratched the surface of exploring this site yet. From their About page: “COLOURlovers is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.” The article that brought me to this site is an excellent analysis of the color palettes of Grammy-winning album covers. COLOURLovers looks like an incredible resource for designers of all kinds.
4. ColorZilla
   ColorZilla is a Firefox plugin that lets you pull colors from any Web page you’re visiting. I certainly wouldn’t advocate lifting entire color schemes from other people’s sites, but if you come across a shade of blue that you really like, this tool makes it easy to grab it. In the past if I wanted to do that, I’d take a screen shot of the browser and use the dropper tool in Photoshop or GIMP to get the color. This plugin is much easier.
5. Hex Hub HTML Color Codes
   I’ve posted this link before, but it is my go-to resource for picking colors. As much as I love the widgets that let you slide a bar or scroll around a color wheel to pick a scheme, there’s something about being able to see every color available on one page that is easier for me. A lot of times, I’ll find a shade of the color that I like on the Hex Hub, and I’ll take it to one of those automatic color schemers to flesh out the palette. Nonetheless, I use this site all the time.

Choosing colors is such a fundamental part of creating any sort of design project that a lot of folks, I think, take for granted how important it is. I hope these resources point you in the right direction when it’s time to develop your site’s color palette.