Posts from the category General

Posts in this category are (in the main) not assigned to one of the more specific categories in this website.

  • Whether because they slow down the loading of the site, get in the way of what the visitor is looking for, or are often ignored as a type of ad banner, many websites would benefit from moving away from these legacy page elements to implement better and more user-friendly alternatives.

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  • My erstwhile mentor in Brienz taught me throughout our years working together that if a website functionality is worth creating, it’s worth creating so that it can be used in more than one project. Programme once, install many times. This is a credo I’ve maintained since I started programming for content management systems and one…

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  • I’m not a fan of one-page websites, as a rule. But making sure that they load as quickly as possible goes a long way to making them acceptable.

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  • The Leviathan

    The Leviathan

    Read more about this short film.

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  • The necessary evil

    The Swiss need foreigners to keep their tourism industry afloat, but many resent the fact enough to complain about it, publicly and loudly.

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  • Google Translate App

    Google Translate App

    Mind: blown. The app isn’t anywhere near as snappy or as accurate as the “fun” promotional video would suggest, but it does optically recognize text in a foreign language of your choice and translate it live for you on your smart phone screen. The translations are a bit hit-and-miss, but if this kind of technology is

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  • Harder to Roteflue

    Hiking in the rain along an unexpectedly steep route from the viewpoint above Interlaken.

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  • Filming in the dark at 4,000,000 ISO

    Canon’s upcoming ME20F-SH can capture digital video at 4 million ISO. At a price.

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  • Terry Abraham’s wonderful outdoor films

    Terry’s videos make me want to turn off my computer and head for the British hills immediately: whether to a well-known place like the Lake District or to places which will be new to me.

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  • Ich schreibe seit den späteren Neunzigern Blogposts und lerne seit 2001 Deutsch. Nach drei, vier Jahren hierzulande, am Anfang fast nur von Schweizern umgeben, hatte ich die neue Sprache einigermassen in Griff. Viele Stunden im Büro, viele Stunden vor Stefan Raab im deutschsprachigen Fernsehen, haben mich weiter gebracht. (Von Raab habe ich gelernt, dass es in der Tat eine

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  • Ladies bike for sale

    Jo bought a new bike in 2012 but hasn’t used it as much as she’d expected, so it’s up for sale at Fr. 450 (or near offer). It’s a 21-speed Kalkhoff bike, made of aluminium, and in near-new condition. If you’re interested, there are photos and details at http://velo.mhm.li/: please do get in touch via email, Twitter

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  • Science fiction, scary monsters and a know-it-all attitude

    Doctor Who has been sending chills up my spine since I was a teenager. And the trailer for the next series looks as if it may be great. Although I agree with Thomas Capon: give the Daleks a rest, for goodness sake!

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  • Using bounced flash to improve the quality of light in your portraits.

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  • First to Tierwang via Bachalp

    A picturesque hike on the way to the Faulhorn, from Grindelwald First in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland.

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  • Facebook implemented Open Graph tags a long time ago, so that links from blogs and websites automatically pull in preview images and a summary text. That helps the viewer to see more about the linked page without having to click through. Twitter Cards does the same thing for Twitter. I’ve been lax and only just recently

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  • The tourism organization for Lake Lucerne has just launched a great-looking new website. Modern design, nice typography, beautiful pictures and a simple navigation all add to the experience. But one small improvement could be made by adding a few simple lines of code to the .htaccess file: making sure that visitors to the site automatically

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  • The Great Escape

    The Great Escape

    A lovely idea from Graubünden Tourism. Set up an interactive video advertisement in Zürich’s main station, showing what a beautiful part of the Alps you could end up in by just getting on a train. Then invite passers-by to join you by printing them a free ticket on the spot. (And wait for the initiative to spread across

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