Design

MattPlays v2 - HD Gameplay Videos

I’ve wrapped up a redesign of my gameplay video site, MattPlays. On MattPlays, you will find me playing games and showing them off in a high-quality, easy-to-use manner. Next month will be the first year anniversary of the site, as I had launched it on August 31st, 2007. As of this writing, there are exactly 77 games with high-quality gameplay videos on both the PC and Xbox 360. That’s 23 shy of one hundred! I’m pretty proud of the site, and how far it has come.

Last.fm Sports A New Design

Last.fm has updated their site with a brand new design and I like it! It’s much improved over the previous design, and has a slew of new features. You can find my profile at Last.fm which has been tracking my listening habits for over 3 years now. I’m currently listening to my personal radio and it plays nothing but songs it knows I like. Really, it’s the last FM radio station you’ll ever need.

My New Site - AudioSurfBoard.com

I’ve put together a new website, called AudioSurfBoard. It allows gamers playing AudioSurf to share their videos of them playing, all on one site, using any video service they like.

If you’re not familiar with AudioSurf, think of it like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but without the cheap, plasticky instruments, or the limited soundtrack, or even the expensive pricetag. AudioSurf’s track-like stages visually mimic the music the player chooses, while the player races across several lanes collecting colored blocks that appear in sync with the music.

Here’s a video of AudioSurf in action, click the image below to view it:

Bedouin Soundclash - When the Night Feels My Song

You can find a lot more videos over at AudioSurfBoard.

AOL TV Listings

Since Yahoo’s TV listing service has gone down the (boob?) tubes (see the irate members dissing Yahoo), I’ve been looking around for alternatives.  The best I could come up with was Zap2It’s service, but the design leaves much to be desired.  Ironically AOL’s service has won me over, since it is powered by Zap2It, and it looks better, plus has a few features (favorites and recommendations) that are handy.

However AOL really cluttered up the page badly, so I used the Firefox extension, Stylish, to clean the page up considerably, and now I have a much better tv listing service than what I had before Yahoo totally trashed their service.  If you have Stylish installed, you can grab it at userstyles.org.  Here’s the before and after screenshots.

Before:

After:

Version 6 Redesign

As you may have noticed, shortly after the previous redesign of this site, I got sick of it and decided to do it again. You’re now seeing the result of redesign version 6 (this is the 6th redesign of GoodBlimey.) I’m still tinkering with it, but hopefully you like the new, bright look.

Essential Bookmarks for Web Designers

Steve lets me know about his nifty site that bookmarks all these resources and links that teaches and enhances any web designer worth his salt. It’s a pretty comprehensive collection that should be bookmarked and visited often. Essential bookmarks for web-designers and webdevelopers.

For Those Using Ancient Software

There’s no reason why anyone should be using Internet Explorer these days, and the numerous articles from the mainstream press and security companies have been a testament to that.

Therefore, I’ve put up a message to anyone still using ancient software, namely those using Internet Explorer, and AOL, that they have a choice to easily upgrade their software. This message is only viewable if you’re using Internet Explorer. If you’re not seeing the message, congratulations, you’re not stuck in the Stone Age of the Internet.

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