Sunday, February 24, 2013

VotD

So I finally got to hear Anne Hathaway's version of "I Dreamed a Dream" and it's truly stunning. I'm a huge fan of "Les Mis" and there is a vulnerability to this version I haven't quite heard before. Somehow she makes this tried and true song her own (Man, I sound like I'm a judge on "American Idol", stop me, SOMEONE!). Anyway, the full scene from the movie is available at Vimeo, but I can't link to that video, so instead here's an abbreviated version from the trailer for your enjoyment:



And just for fun, here's her "For Your Consideration" video; clearly it worked!


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Things that make me go hmmm

I never understand why when businesses decide to redo their websites, they take the old website down entirely and put up a placeholder with the cheery "We're re-doing our site! Check back later!" Sometimes, those animated gifs (remember those from the mid-90s?) of a construction vehicle is displayed prominently. And the kicker is, "later" is always well after you need the information or you've already called to get it from them. I've seen some sites keep the messages up for months and months and it makes me wonder. Did they make the decision to design a new site and think they needed to take the old one down first before they could even start a new one? Did the person they hire to design the new site take longer than needed? Why not design the new one in the background and then upload it over the old one when it's finished? No matter how bad the old website looks, it looks a lot worse when customers can't easily get the information they want for months and months.