The new homepage is covered in spanky-new graphics. It's got loads more content. It has a tonne more .CSS than the old one.

And yet it's only 500 bytes larger in size.

That makes me just a tiny bit happy. It was also entirely accidental. Now, hands up if you care. ... Anyone? No? Dust? Anyone...?

The new homepage is live. If it breaks, I don't want to know - I'm off to the bar.

p.s. I have 47 rejected variations of that bloody logo. Perfectionist or simply idiot? I say I'm the latter ;o)

Let's set the scene here: I'm sitting in a corner of the Sabb office. Somewhere behind my back and to the right, less than 30 metres away, the Waterhole is largely full of sportos (sports team members for the uninitiated) and Freshers. Most of them - especially the Sportos - are sampling the delights of Snakey B, a concoction of beer, cider and blackcurrant cordial capable (I lie not) of permanently staining stainless steel and everything else it comes in contact with.

It sounds foul. It tastes good. And it gets you horrifically drunk when not treated with the proper respect a very sweet, alcoholic drink should be treated with. And no-one shows Snakey B any respect whatsoever ;o)

So, while the fun's going on "over there", I'm sitting "over here" in the Sabb office.

I'm finalising the new UPSU.net homepage. I say finalising - I actually mean, "trying to shoehorn the UPSU logo into the space I have left to fit it in". And I'm trying to use the proper branding style, which means logo, and "the Union" text, and the bottom corner of a big purple circle around it.

So far, it looks crap. See for yourselves (click pics to enlarge):

• Version 1:
  
  
  
• Version 3 (2 isn't even worth mentioning):
  

Ok, so "crap" is probably a bit over the top. But it still looks pretty wrong.

I think, after two hours of deliberation, I'm going to drop the UPSU branding style, and just drop the logo and text into a stripey, rounded-edged oblong to fit in with the shape of the other boxes on the page.

It's a shame really, because the whole point of branding the homepage like this was to make the logo stand out from the rest of the page content - now I'm worried that the logo is going to blend into the page, or at best stand out for all the wrong reasons. But, that said, if I don't try it, I won't know - it's hard to picture how it'll look in my mind and decide if it'll look good or bad on the page at the same time.

I reckon I'll be able to go for a pint about midnight...

It's a blog. It's written by a chap who describes himself thus: "I make a living from writing for TV, radio and occasionally newspapers, though it has to be said that it isn’t much of a living. I am sure that you will not have heard of me". And it's quite funny really. Uhhm, that's about it. Linky goodness: smaller-than-life.blogspot.com

I have to be in work in a few hours. My head hurts, but at least my laptop's better now after I managed to kill it earlier playing with Vista. Oops....

(Further off-topic than a snowmobile in the desert. Or something...)

If you're interested in trying out Windows Vista, you can now download the RC1 version of Vista straight from Microsoft.

Because it's version RC1, it means Microsoft reckon it's almost finished - there are probably some bugs, but it's largely well-behaved. That said, you shouldn't really be thinking about replacing your working copy of Windows just yet, and there are some programs that probably won't work, but if you're curious ... ok, let's call a spade a spade here: if you're as much of a geek as I am - then you'll probably want to give this a go.

A couple of important things to remember:

• It's not a "final" release - things will crash, break, not work, misbehave... Basically, if your sanity hangs in the balance at the moment, this will probably tip you over the edge. Don't say you haven't been warned...
• You should install and run the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor before you try installing Vista - this tells you what software and hardware you have that won't work under Vista, and what software and hardware will probably misbehave.
• You can upgrade an existing copy of Windows (2000 or XP I think), but you can't uninstall Vista - again, if you use your PC for work, or have irreplaceable stuff - photos, music, videos, etc - you shouldn't do it, just in case it all goes horribly wrong.
• This version of Vista will work until May 31st 2007 - you'll then need to get the release version of Vista, or re-install an older copy of Windows.
• You'll need a "passport" sign in - if you use MSN Messenger, you can sign in with that e-mail address and password. Otherwise, you'll need to sign up for one.
  
• You will be given a working product key once you have signed in at the link, above. Remember to save the key - it'll also be e-mailed to you.

So far, I'm really impressed with Vista - it's actually faster than XP, has a lot of nice user interface touches, like the Launchy-style search in the start menu, and a search bar on every Explorer window. The sidebar is also a nice toy, and the gadgets actually work, which is always nice. It's probably a bit unfair to say Microsoft simply "borrowed" a stack of ideas from Apple's OS X operating system, but there's certainly a lot of inspiration there.

More information on this release of Vista can be found here.