If you're a Mac user who's stuck using a Microsoft Exchange Server at work like I am, you're probably drooling over Google Calendar, too. The other day I got so frustrated, I decided to replace Entourage with Gmail and Google Calendar. It's not a perfect system. I obviously have trouble scheduling meeting rooms—but then I had that problem with Entourage, as well. If you want to give Google a try, here are the steps I went through...

I've been looking for the perfect bag. It can't be just any old thing. I need something big enough to carry my laptop, my lunch, my phone and wallet and keys, assorted manuals, a power adapter, an odd cable or two, a sweater, and a few books. That's a lot to shlep halfway across campus. So I decided it also has to be on wheels.

October 17

My elation over being able to sneak away from Macrebel camp has started to wear off. Funny, but I never really noticed before how dingy and out-dated Windows looks. Everything seems so flat and gray...and in desperate need of a serious makeover. Today I actually found myself missing the dock with its bright little icons.

September 29th

It's been a rough and exhausting week Ever since reaching Macrebel camp, I've felt like the world has turned upside down. Everyone here is very friendly and helpful, and the landscape is so bright and shiny and...clean. Yet it's not home. I miss my old comfortable habits and familiar ways of doing things. I never appreciated how many tasks I did automatically, without ever having to think about them. How quickly I could perform. Now I have to pause before attempting the smallest function. I still haven't located the backward delete button.

They were troubled times--times of strife and turmoil, man against man, browser against browser. Into this chaos of lawlessness, brutality and disregard for web standards, stepped a new contender. Sleek and powerful in a case of shining armor, the champion strode onto the field of battle bearing a new and mighty weapon that made strong Windows men quake and PC women swoon. Parallel, he called it, and fascinated, the people flocked to him...

One of the handiest "tricks" I've come across is having a layout template library at your fingertips. It's taken me a while to build mine, but now I have a tried-and-true layout for most of the common designs. It makes life a lot easier if you can grab a layout "skeleton," knowing that it will work for the design and won't present you with nasty little surprises halfway through.

Every now and then, I get edged out of a computer and have to go looking for a new one. Last time, my kids got interested in computer games, and rather than fight them over Dora Explorer, I gave them my PC and bought this laptop. This time, I'm vying with football season. Apparently sports radio, 24/7 ESPN and the sports page don't cut it anymore. To be a true self-respecting fanatical sportsaholic you have to be able to sneak onto your wife's computer when she tucks the kids in bed and hang tough while she sighs, clicks her tongue, taps her fingers and repeats for the tenth time, "Are you done yet? I have to get back to work."

I promised an update on Basecamp and how it's working for me. I've used it now for two clients for about a month and a half. At first I was very enthusiastic about it. I really liked the idea of keeping all communications in one place, and I particularly liked the to-do lists. I set up two for each project--a designer's to-do and a client's list--so it was clear what each of us still needed to do.

I'm in New York for, of all things, an auction at Sotheby's (it's a long story involving my husband and a Babe Ruth contract, but I'm sure you, too, have had it up to the eyeballs with sports, so I'll just breeze by all that). For the out-of-towner, NYC is like a jolt from a giant defibrillator. Everything perks up and picks up the pace. You find yourself moving more quickly and even talking faster. They should re-nickname it The Big Java.

Just got this week's Web Design Update in my morning's inbox, and once again had to stop everything, make a cup of tea and read it through. Laura Carlson, who puts out the newsletter, does a marvelous job week after week. For my money Web Design Update is the best webdev newsletter out there. So here'

Sorry, Bill. It was fun while it lasted, but I've fallen in love with another browser, and I'm never coming back. You can blame Christian Watson. He introduced me to Firefox.

I have to admit, I was skeptical at first. But I've found Watson's Smiley Cat Blog to be an invaluable resource, and he'd never steered me wrong before. So I downloaded Firefox and gave it a whirl, intending only to use it to check pages. The relationship got off to a rocky beginning. I couldn't get Firefox to work with HomeSite, which was terrifically frustrating. But once I figured out what I (yes, me) was doing wrong, I couldn't resist trying out some of the extensions for designer/developers and, well, one thing led to another and... You know, you never intend for these things to happen.

In the first article for their new Digital Web Magazine column, "Web 2.0 Design: Bootstrapping the Social Web," Richard MacManus and Joshua Porter discuss the future of the web and its impact on design.

[The] Web 2.0 world...is not defined as much by place and is less about visual style. XML is the currency of choice in Web 2.0, so words and semantics are more important than presentation and layout. Content moves around and is accessible by programmatic means. In a very real sense, we’re now designing more for machines than for people.

If the tools we use are indicative of our personalities, then call me Eve, 'cause I've got multiples. When I work on a design, my screen bristles with open tabs, and I jump around from one HTML editor to another so much I sometimes forget which one I'm in.