I know I barely write anything here anymore, but I thought I would share this list. Who doesn’t love a good list?

I work professionally as both a designer and web developer. This list of 15 links are websites/blogs I frequent on a daily basis for inspiration, how-to’s and generally sites that stave off the boredom. This list isn’t in any specific order.

QBN
http://www.qbn.com/
QBN is a great source for both design job postings and inspiration. There’s new featured sites/articles daily and also a big community showing off other links and interesting art-design related content.

Bittbox
http://www.bittbox.com/
Bittbox is all about finding good (and mostly free) resources for designers. It’s not quite updated everyday, but it’s still good to check it out everyday in case something new is posted. Whether you’re looking for good fonts, stock textures, stock vectors, and much more, there is tons of it on this site, usually for free.

Uncrate
http://uncrate.com/
Uncrate is all about the newest stuff. Whether you’re into furniture, gadgets, music, cars, this site has all the newest cool “things” that are available to buy.

Subtraction
http://www.subtraction.com/
Subtraction is a blog written by Khoi Vinh, a very inspirational designer working at NYTimes.com. Not only can this guy design but he can also write, very well (better than me). It’s not always updated daily, but there is a huge, and I mean HUGE archive section on his writings. Topics range from Art, Design, Computers, Net/Pop Culture, Web Design and more.

Yay! Monday!
http://yaymonday.com/
Yay! Monday! is a weekly collection of websites, art, photography, design and video by Chris Kalani. He didn’t dig my UNDATA project, but i’m not bitter.

Design Observer
http://www.designobserver.com/
Design Observer is definitely a good read, when you are in the mood to read. The articles here are top notch; expert writing staff. The topics vary quite erratically, but they are always interesting and they always make me think at the end of the read. This site also has a huge archive of writings.

Design You Trust
http://designyoutrust.com/
Design You Trust is a design blog for the masses. Any designer or artist is able to register and post a new blog about their own work, work they find inspirational or pretty much anything design or art related. Despite the freedom expressed here, the posts seem to be all very good (save a few), and very inspirational.

A List Apart
http://www.alistapart.com/
A List Apart is another one of those good, top quality reads, especially for those in the web design field. Expert writing staff. The archive on this site is also huge. “For People Who Make Websites”.

The FWA
http://www.thefwa.com/
The “Favourite Website Awards” is a daily updated website that features… websites. Lots of the websites featured on this site are top notch inspirations. Many are very flash heavy; the site itself is made in flash. This website has a great archive, and it’s fun to view what was hip in web design a few years ago.

Web Designer Wall
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
Web Designer Wall is all about showcasing the latest “web trends” in a very informational fashion. The tutorials featured here are very personalized, which is probably the reason it doesn’t get updated frequently, but when it does, the articles are always great. A website by Nick La.

Cool Hunting
http://www.coolhunting.com/
Cool Hunting is a good resource to find out all the new and “cool” design and art related things going on. The items shown are usually very design/art culture orientated. It’s kind of like a mix between Uncrate and Design You Trust, two sites also featured on this list.

Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
Smashing Magazine is one of those must-reads for any graphic or web designer. There’s tons of inspirational material, design resources (most of them free), and lots and lots of lists about many different subjects.

etc.
http://www.fortysomething.ca/mt/etc/
etc. Is probably one of the best web resources out there. This site loves lists, tons and tons of useful lists on CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Web Development Tips, and etc. (pun intended). Don’t let the sub domain address fool you, this is one serious web site.

Good-Tutorials
http://www.good-tutorials.com/
Good-Tutorials is a website dedicated to, well you guessed it… tutorials! There’s thousands of tutorials on here for lots of different software and languages including CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and more. I know there’s lots of good tutorial websites out there (another pun intended) but I prefer this one due to how the main page is layed out.

N.Design Studio
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/
Another one by Nick La focusing on blogging and a section of tutorials and freebies concerning mostly Illustrator and Dreamweaver. Make sure you check out the Design Resources page.

Well that’s it for now. I’m sure there’s lots more out there that I should of added, but didn’t. Maybe I’ll post some images later.

PART 1
Look, before I even get started. I am not a Microsoft fanboy and I am not a Apple fanboy, and I don’t hate either of their operating systems either. I am just a person that uses both Windows and Mac OS on a frequent basis for graphic design, web design, gaming and even just surfing the net. I hear people almost everyday praising Mac/Apple computers, whether it’s my teachers, co-workers, friends or family. These people can all have one of these statements applied to them:

1. They have never been familiarized to a Windows PC, and refuse to be.
2. They use a Mac to check emails and surf the web.
3. They don’t even own or use a Mac at all, they just repeat what they have heard.

1. They have never been familiarized to a Windows PC, and refuse to be.
There exists some real die-hard fans of Apple out there that have never really touched a Windows PC in their life because they are convinced it doesn’t work as good, as fast, as fluid, or even work at all. Some of these people only use one reason, and one reason ONLY to why they use Macs over Windows PCs. Some of those reasons include:

• Mac <OS 10,9,8…> is so much easier to use and more user friendly than Windows.

You’re just being blinded by the graphic user interface and the hardware exterior. Let’s face it, Mac’s interfaces through computing history usually look better than their Windows counterpart. The presentation and overall look of the monitors and hardware exterior is also much more appealing then the standard PC (non-gaming that is). But instead of making up fake excuses, just go out and say it, “I like the way they look”, because even the newest Mac OS is not any easier than XP or even Vista. It’s the same damn thing and you know it, there’s just different methods of doing the same thing.

• Microsoft stole Windows architecture from Apple, and continue to copy them to this day.

Of course, there’s variations to this claim, but it’s still a pretty stupid reason not to use something, even if it is true. We import lots of things to our country from different places all over the world, for examples spices. At one time, thieves may have stole these spices and brought them back for trade. Does that mean you shouldn’t use pepper because it was stolen and traded at one point in time? A pretty weak analogy, I know, but it’s a pretty weak claim too. Microsoft continues to do what works, what the users want; if they didn’t then we would all be using Macs right now.

• Macs don’t get viruses or spyware.

That’s weird that there’s tons of virus protection software out there for Macs then, isn’t it? The most popular PC-based scanner and protection software usually also have a Mac version. That’s really strange, isn’t it? Look, it’s true that there’s less of a security risk on Macs because virus programmers usually want to create the biggest impact on the public, so why would they go with 10% (actually 7.6% as of June 21st, 2007) of the computing population over 90%? The percentage is rising though. Let’s see how the Mac stands up against security issues at 20% or 30%. I think Microsoft is doing a real good job at controlling security at 82.4% of the market share, especially with their advancements in Vista.

2. They use a Mac to check emails and surf the web.
These are possibly the worst type of Mac users of them all. Of course you love Macs if all you do is read email and surf the web, because that’s generally all it’s good for (don’t get mad yet). I mean, even with emulating software (weird that there’s tons of emulators out there for Macs to run Windows applications and games, but not many Windows to Mac emulators) you are not going to be able to run millions of useful applications and games. And while on the subject: It’s emulated, so it’s not going to run at a full Windows speed, if it actually runs at all.

While I’m at it, let’s dispel another thought. Most people think that all graphic designers, animators, movie makers or any type of creative professional at all use Macs. Sure, that was how it was a long time ago; unfortunately the stereotype stuck. All Adobe/Macromedia (now Adobe anyways) work for both operating system now, interchangeably. The only thing different is the hotkeys and some of the interface; which are all based around the keyboard for Macs because they refuse to get out of 1980 and supply a default two or three button mouse. Hell, even some Adobe programs only ever seen light on Macs in the most recent Creative Suite, like Adobe Premier Pro CS3 (which is hailed to be better than Apple’s Final Cut Pro).

For one last comparison, let’s take a look at Maya, a very powerful 3d animation program (used at Pixar). You need a very powerful computer to be able to run and render in Maya. You will not be able to run this program effectively on your standard Mac computer, because Mac computers don’t innately come with good video cards (because of no gaming support), and will not be able to run or render Maya, or very poorly. Yet, on the Windows-based PC side, any computer with 1GB of ram or a decent video card will be able to run it. Supposedly one of the minimum requirements for Maya is also a three button mouse, which I found hilarious.

3. They don’t even own or use a Mac at all, they just repeat what they have heard.
Look people, you have never used a Mac, you have never owned one. You probably really want to buy one, because in all honesty, it’s the cool thing to do, and they look so damn nice. But really, is it worth it? Is it worth the extra thousand dollars to be so non-conforming that you end up being an even bigger cliche? But please don’t think you know anything about the Mac OS, because you don’t.

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Sure, buy a mac if you want to read a PDF, if you want to surf the web, and maybe even to match with your iPod. Buy a Mac if you want to design, make movies, or do anything. Because, in the end, it’s the same thing as a Windows PC, just more trendy. It has faults, it is fallible, just like Windows, just like Linux, just like you. Stay tuned for part 2 where I write about designing on a Mac.