Crazy Apple News Site

We will miss you. This site wouldn’t exist without you, for what little that’s worth. Apple will carry on, and there will be wonderful advances based on what you did, but the world won’t be the same without you.

Salve atque vale.

-Nate

So, we noticed today that 1.) we didn’t write anything on Friday and 2.) what we wrote two weeks ago is no longer true. We said that TypeStylerX’s webpage had buttons that looked like this:

Ultra-Classy Button

And we mocked them for this, considering the nature of the product.  We are pleased to see that the buttons on the site now look like this:

Ever So Much Better!

Which is a change for the much, much better.

But…¹

There’s still so much more to do for the site.  And here’s where I’m on thin ice. First of all, props to Strider software for getting a new version out after 7 years. Props for hanging on for 7 years, and for that matter, having a commercial product on the market at all.  I’ve got any number of half-finished² programs that haven’t yet seen the light of day, and may not ever do so.  So with all that, they still got a web store up and functional, no mean feat in and of itself. Heaven knows that I don’t spend a whole lot of time on site design on this site.  I choose a WordPress theme, make a few changes, and run with it. So me criticizing someone else’s site design can be compared to a telephone conversation between a pot and a kettle regarding scorch marks.  But when layout matters, like when I’m making a site for a client, then I focus on every pixel on every browser, and spend almost as much time on the layout as the code.

But…³

This site has nothing to do with text layout, graphic design, or the like. I’m here to make fun of people in hopefully creative and theoretically amusing ways.  My site design is not integral to my message. If you are selling a product that is meant to make things look good, yours is.  Really, if you are selling a product full stop, your site design is integral to your message.  Pagehand‘s developer knows this, as does the gentleman who makes Scrivener. They have both designed beautiful sites that tell you exactly what the product does, with screenshots, trials, pricing and everything else easy to find and attractively designed. And their headers don’t look like they were made in 2001.

Well, you could say that this article is 1.) needlessly long, boring and preachy, 2.) more appropriate for my other site, or even 3.) more appropriate for throwing away entirely.  But hopefully someone at Strider Software will look into hiring a web designer to update their site⁴ . Or at least replace the header image and add a few screen shots.

Okay, I’m done. Theoretically funny posts return soon.

1. There’s always a “But…” [↩]
2. and in some cases, half-started [↩]
3. Sometimes there’s two “But…”s [↩]
4. I charge a very reasonable $35/hour. But something tells me that this post is not the place to advertise that fact. [↩]

CANS would like to wish Steve Jobs a speedy recovery and good health in the future. We’re sure that Tim Cook will do fine until you get back.

Get well soon.