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Why are all browser logos and icons round (and blue)?

I'm not a professional graphic designer, but I've been doing web development for years and got to know a few things about it, both intentionally and accidentally. I hope my designer friends won't get mad with me simplifying design in this post, but the way I see it, there are mostly two main purposes design serves. One is to support function (present both in industrial and graphic design) and the other is to enable effective representation and communication (specific for graphic design).

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written 10.4.2010 12:23 CET on chronolog
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The Risk board game dice roll probability calculator and battle simulator

I know there are plenty of you out there who love to play the board game Risk. We're hooked on the Lord Of The Rings edition, and I still need to check out the very rare expansion pack one of my friends recently got. As you will see, I'm getting ready for it with all I've got, developing myself a weapon that will help me dominate the game. Something that will turn the odds in my favor without actually cheating. Say hi to my Risk battle simulator, which is able to calculate the chance of winning for specific Risk situations.

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written 17.3.2013 17:32 CET on chronolog
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5 reasons why I won't steal your idea

Since I'm a software architect and a web developer, I get often approached by people with their new ideas. In most cases, for some quality feedback, and on lucky days, for a rough quote about the costs of such a project. These people are usually very secretive about what they have, making me explain to them that it's far from my interest to steal that idea. One time, a guy even made me sign a Non-disclosure agreement before I could make him an offer for a service he was thinking about. After bargaining with me, he chose a different contractor, but ended up doing nothing, at least to my knowledge. He was obviously focused on the wrong things, instead of getting feedback from as many sources as possible, he was investing energy into bureaucracy and protection of his idea. Let me tell something to him and all others out there: Focus on your product, and don't worry about me stealing your idea. I won't. I have at least five reasons not to.

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written 5.2.2013 10:22 CET on chronolog
29609 views   •   4 likes   •   13 comments  •   Like   •   
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Me vs. IT 2.0 vs. Enterprise 2.0

In 2009, I was very excited to present a few funky things we've been developing with Neolab, at the largest independent IT conference in Slovenia. The world was obsessed with "2.0" back then, and we were determined to join that hype. Facebook was already big at that point, and it was becoming clear they will make a huge impact on the future of technology. Tim O'Reilly wrote a seminal article on the topic, arguing how Web 2.0, the new generation of the internet (and software!), has changed everything.

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written 30.7.2014 21:41 CET on chronolog
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Force touch is the new multi-touch

When I first saw the video demonstrating Force Touch on one of Huawei’s new phones a few weeks ago, I found the feature pretty much useless. You have this amazing new sensor, and a scale application is the best you can do with it? Supposedly, the Chinese manufacturer has beaten Apple at introducing this new feature, but the fact is, Apple has done something completely different. The Force Touch 3D Touch - iOS integration has the potential to change the way we interact with our phones, in a similar way than multi-touch gestures did years ago.

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written 14.9.2015 23:12 CET on chronolog
5748 views   •   1 like   •   Like   •   
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Can social content curation without negative actions (dislikes, downvotes) even exist?

There are people who create content. Millions of them, producing enormous amounts of data and information every day. On the opposite side, you have the consumers, people who absorb most of this content for various reasons. And there are those in-between, an emerging layer of people who filter this content and pass the one worth consuming forward to others. These people are called content curators, a breed that's becoming more and more important these days, perhaps even more important than the original creators themselves. After all, they're the ones categorizing and cleaning up the chaotic Web.

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written 19.1.2012 18:04 CET on chronolog
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Television and Social media? How did my recommendation engine miss this connection?

November has been a great month for this blog. For the first time in history, I managed to get more than 1.000 unique users on two different blog posts in a single month. Which is awesome, thanks! The first post was about the TV show Dexter and its Facebook game Slice of life. The other was about Slovenian TV show Soočenje and its buzz on Twitter. Just two posts, nothing special, right? Wrong. It's really obvious, but I missed it somehow. Both posts are talking about combining television and social media, silly me! I can't believe I failed to see it, but I did, and so did my blog. Not that it really matters anymore. You know those fantastic coincidences that happen sometimes and put everything into place? This story is full of them.

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written 27.11.2011 15:58 CET on chronolog
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Backpacking in Sri Lanka

Almost exactly 4 years later, in October 2013, I went backpacking to Asia again. My wife and I decided to go Sri Lanka, since it is a bit more wild than Thailand, but still not as chaotic as India. For three weeks we've travelled around the country, enjoying the madness of urban cities, mysteries of ancient ruins, beholding the majestic nature and loving the beautiful beaches. This diversified land can offer a lot to a traveler, and you don't need that much money to do a lot of different things. You just need to be prepared for an amazing adventure that this small island on the coast of India can provide.

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written 8.4.2014 8:11 CET on chronolog
9241 views   •   1 like   •   Like   •   
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Project: Chronolog
What happens if you combine a blog, twitter and friendfeed? Check out the chronolog.
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7364 views   •   1 like   •   Like   •   
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The impact of hyperlinks, toolbars and URL shorteners on Google Analytics

In the past few weeks I've done an extended analysis of visits on my blog, which made me wonder how the super fancy new web gadgets and features influence Google Analytics and traffic reports. By these new gadgets I mean the nowadays very popular URL shorteners, such as tinyurl or bit.ly, and the annoying inside-browser toolbars, used by Digg, Stumbleupon, Google images and other services. These inventions made me wonder, as well as probably many other bloggers, web developers and marketers do - are these things messing up the traffic statistics? To be sure, I had to try it out by myself and found out the following: No, they do not. Or better put, Google is smart enough to know what's happening.

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written 9.3.2010 19:51 CET on chronolog
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Tablets were invented for recycling old PC games

Remember when we were playing really great games on our first home computers in the 80s and 90s? Good times. My gaming journey started with the Spectrum 48K (snowman FTW!), and slowly progressed to where we are now. Today's games truly are a piece of art, I have to give full credit to ventures such as Angry Birds and GTAs, but back then, everything was so much simpler, as if different rules applied. Games were there purely for the gameplay, and were awesome even if they came in 4-bit colors.

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written 1.4.2014 22:15 CET on chronolog
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Slovenian grocers going for Web 2.0 design

It’s obvious that Slovenian grocers are using TV as their main advertising medium, the same as many others. Nothing wrong with that. Their commercials are typical for their industry, emphasizing actual promotions and discounts and going for direct sales mostly. Nothing wrong with that too. They finish off with their logo on the screen, so they do a bit of branding too. Reasonable, you have to use all marketing approaches. But wait a minute, why do their logos look Web 2.0?

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written 22.1.2010 19:12 CET on chronolog
2712 views   •   2 likes   •   1 comment  •   Like   •   
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Arthur C. Clarke envisioning the World Wide Web in 1968

One of the greatest thrills in my life is when I stumble upon a visionary prediction in any form – text, movie, novel, painting, etc. Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most acclaimed science fiction authors of our time, did just that in his famous novel 2001: A space odyssey. Most of us are acquainted with the plot and the scary artificial intelligence named Hal. The whole novel is really revolutionary for the age, but the thing I found most intriguing when I read it, is the detailed description of the technology we know today as the World Wide Web.

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written 31.1.2010 17:10 CET on chronolog
4009 views   •   1 like   •   Like   •   
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Facebook vs. Twitter - Part 1: The battleground

Facebook and Twitter are probably the two hottest Web 2.0 services available. A lot of us are familiar with both of them, but it's hard to predict which has greatest potential in the long run to take on the title of the main social networking service. The competition is on, but it's also obvious the race is long, even infinite. The World Wide Web runs on a time of its own, and we have seen major players vanish and marginal players with great ideas take the lead in years, if not months. Because I like to speculate on things like that, I bring you the first part of my thoughts on Facebook vs. Twitter.

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written 7.2.2010 11:50 CET on chronolog
6537 views   •   5 likes   •   391 comments  •   Like   •   
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What's hot on the web - Part 5: Cool and funny webcomics

There are probably millions of different webcomics online today. A few of them actually made it to the mainstream, with a bit of help from the social media and the cyber community. If you examine the most popular ones, you can see that they actually have a lot in common. They are short and to the point, providing great and funny content within usually simplistic drawings, with a focus mostly on geeky topics. After all, this geeky community is probably the driving force behind the World Wide Web and if they like it, the comic has a great chance to succeed. This part of What's hot on the web will display some of my favorites and help you spend a bit of your valuable time doing useless things.

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written 23.3.2010 18:52 CET on chronolog
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