RapidWeaver
YourHead
Loghound
Rapid Ideas
Henk Vrieselaar
SteadFast
Apple
RapidWeaver is a great
Mac-based website development kit.
Like most Mac software, it's easy to use. One of its best features is that it is very extensible. Third party additions are usually reasonably priced and very effective. RapidWeaver not only produces beautiful, W3C-standard websites but it's also a ton of fun to use!
RapidWeaver's online forums may be its greatest asset. The community that has formed around RW is very helpful and supportive and very creative!
bu11frogg.com is built and maintained with RapidWeaver.
Like most Mac software, it's easy to use. One of its best features is that it is very extensible. Third party additions are usually reasonably priced and very effective. RapidWeaver not only produces beautiful, W3C-standard websites but it's also a ton of fun to use!
RapidWeaver's online forums may be its greatest asset. The community that has formed around RW is very helpful and supportive and very creative!
bu11frogg.com is built and maintained with RapidWeaver.
YourHead's plugins for
RapidWeaver are some of the best out there. I
use Carousel and Accordion quite often, and
Blocks is also a favorite. They've got a new
piece coming out soon called Kwix, and it
looks to be very cool!
Like RapidWeaver, YourHead's software is reasonably priced and offers unparalleled support through their online forums.
bu11frogg.com uses YourHead's Columns, Carousel and Accordion plugins.
Like RapidWeaver, YourHead's software is reasonably priced and offers unparalleled support through their online forums.
bu11frogg.com uses YourHead's Columns, Carousel and Accordion plugins.
Loghound also produces
some indispensable RapidWeaver plugins.
Namely, Sitemap.
If you want your website to show up in web searches, you need a sitemap of your website. Yes, you could build one by hand (although I have never done it!). And yes, you would have to update it every time you made any significant changes. Or you could let SiteMap do it for you, and it will also do other helpful things as well, like ensure that none of your webpages are using the default file names.
bu11frogg.com uses SiteMap.
If you want your website to show up in web searches, you need a sitemap of your website. Yes, you could build one by hand (although I have never done it!). And yes, you would have to update it every time you made any significant changes. Or you could let SiteMap do it for you, and it will also do other helpful things as well, like ensure that none of your webpages are using the default file names.
bu11frogg.com uses SiteMap.
Rapid Ideas is a maker
of premium RapidWeaver themes. These themes
are always very functional and very beautiful,
and contain elements seldom found in themes
such as bundled image managers (saves a bit of
mucking about with digging through file
structures to supply a custom header image),
nicely documented greybox support, and
downloadable demos.
bu11frogg.com uses a Rapid Ideas theme. Using a Rapid Ideas theme is always a pleasure!
bu11frogg.com uses a Rapid Ideas theme. Using a Rapid Ideas theme is always a pleasure!
Henk Vrieselaar makes
some beautiful RapidWeaver themes, as well as
themes for the RapidWeaver add-on, Carousel.
Henk's website is also a great source of
RapidWeaver code snippets, which make it
easier to add custom code to your RW website
if you are not a full-bred programmer!
bu11frogg.com uses one of Henk's many detailed Carousel themes.
bu11frogg.com uses one of Henk's many detailed Carousel themes.
SteadFast Networks website hosting.
http://steadfast.net/
The shared hosting is cost-effective, fast, and has solid uptime. Their website is uncluttered and the services they offer are simple to understand and use. Website hosting is very complete, with many of the latest open source offerings fully available on even the Basic or Starter plan.
Great for websites and webmasters who are starting out and probably all the way up to the old pros, SteadFast Networks is rated number 1 (as of December 31, 2007) by Hostjury.com.
http://steadfast.net/
The shared hosting is cost-effective, fast, and has solid uptime. Their website is uncluttered and the services they offer are simple to understand and use. Website hosting is very complete, with many of the latest open source offerings fully available on even the Basic or Starter plan.
Great for websites and webmasters who are starting out and probably all the way up to the old pros, SteadFast Networks is rated number 1 (as of December 31, 2007) by Hostjury.com.
Apple makes some of the
best hardware and software available to
consumers today.
When I was getting my baccalaureate degree in computer science in the late 1990's, I remember several programming classes stressing critical elements of "good" programming. Elegance in design was one of those elements, and it was the one which almost no one could achieve. In the IT industry, the focus of design is very often on the speed: the speed of the machine, the speed of delivery, the speed of results. If a relatively small amount of speed is sacrificed during the design and development stages, it is then possible to go after some elegance.
Elegant design is not just "looking pretty," although OS X's eye candy is pretty impressive. Elegance in design is also about usability, consistency, and ease-of-use. Sony is one company that markets heavily on design elegance. If you pick up a Sony device, you will almost intuitively know how to use it. Apple's software is typically the same way.
This is not to say that everything Apple does is perfect, or that their software is flawless. People aren't flawless, so how can we expect anything we do to be flawless? But taking price and the state of the competition in recent years into consideration, Apple has got a formula for building great systems for creative people to get things done.
When I was getting my baccalaureate degree in computer science in the late 1990's, I remember several programming classes stressing critical elements of "good" programming. Elegance in design was one of those elements, and it was the one which almost no one could achieve. In the IT industry, the focus of design is very often on the speed: the speed of the machine, the speed of delivery, the speed of results. If a relatively small amount of speed is sacrificed during the design and development stages, it is then possible to go after some elegance.
Elegant design is not just "looking pretty," although OS X's eye candy is pretty impressive. Elegance in design is also about usability, consistency, and ease-of-use. Sony is one company that markets heavily on design elegance. If you pick up a Sony device, you will almost intuitively know how to use it. Apple's software is typically the same way.
This is not to say that everything Apple does is perfect, or that their software is flawless. People aren't flawless, so how can we expect anything we do to be flawless? But taking price and the state of the competition in recent years into consideration, Apple has got a formula for building great systems for creative people to get things done.