Doesn’t seem like two minutes since I was mentioning the near 20,000 hits Design Shack had in it’s first couple of weeks online. It’s now a few months further on (around 4 to be precise), and the growth I’ve seen with the site has been really amazing. We passed the 500,000 views (not hits, people actually clicking and viewing a design) mark a few days ago, so this is more of a milestone post than anything!

I’m off to see the amazing Katie Meula next Friday, and really looking forward to it. Her new album is excellent, and she’s an incredibly talented artist. Her great mix of Jazz and Blues makes for a great set of relaxing, chilled out songs.

From Webmonkey’s review:

If you don’t have a .Mac account, you can still publish a site with iWeb. If you choose the “Export” option in the File menu, your site will be packaged up and placed in a folder on your desktop. From there, you can upload all of your content to a hosted domain via FTP. iWeb doesn’t have any built-in FTP client, so you have to resort to using a third-party client like Transmit or Fetch if you don’t have a .Mac account.

Also, non-.Mac users are required to enter a URL for their site when it’s exported, or else some of the RSS functionality is lost. Also, the fancy Ajax slideshow won’t work outside of the .Mac servers. You can still publish a photo slideshow and post it to your independently hosted site, but you’ll get the older .Mac slideshow container without the Ajax controls and without the sleek special effects.

So that’s great news. Although a .Mac account is required for a few features, most of the functionality of iWeb will still be usable to those without an account. .Mac is far too expensive in my opinion - if it was around half the price I’d create an account in a snap, but as it is, it’s just a little too much for the meagre 1gb diskspace offered etc.

I love winning things. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to work hard for something and acheive it! But to just have something given to you, it’s a really nice feeling. I entered a contest on iLounge recently to suggest a slogan for Vaja cases. I suggested this:

Vaja. Quality Redefined.

They clearly liked it, as I was one of the winners of a $100 gift certificate for their amazing lineup. So my iPod will be soothed, comforted and protected by a nice Vaja case in the very near future! It’s great, cause it’s something I’d never have bought outright - too expensive!

I’ve just been invited to the recently opened Newsvine as a beta tester, and am very impressed with the slick design and functionality of the website. It has the potential to be an amazing news resource, and a great ad revenue tool for those who want to write their own content.

The main aim of the website seems to be to create a huge news resource, with lots of people contributing articles or linking to other interesting content across the web. You receive your own ‘column’ when you sign up (mine’s http://mac.newsvine.com) which you can post to, and maintain as your section of the vine.

I think this is going to be big! If you haven’t yet got an account, I’ve got 20 to give away. Just comment or drop me an email and I’ll be happy to send one through.