RasterWeb!

The folks at Apple wanted to let us know the new MacBook Pro is “The art of more.” More features! More speed! More brightness! More! More! More!

But the folks at 37signals keep telling us that “less is better.” Less features! Less options! Less! Less! Less!

So who do we believe? Are they of two different worlds?

Actually, I think both companies strive for simplicity in their systems. While no one wants to think of buying “less” computer (we always want bigger, faster, more in hardware, don’t we?) people do like simplicity in their software. Both Apple and 37signals try to offer simple, easy to use software, and I think they’re both succeeding in that area.

I was watchin a video from Markus Sandy that featured an interview with Mena Trott of Six Apart. I often work while having videos playing on my second monitor, so I was just-barely watching, but as I was, I almost thought I was watching a White Stripes video. Am I the only one who sees a resemblance?

Luckily, the “Mena Trott Six Apart” text reassured me as to who it really was…

Did I say I was using osCommerce? I’ve switched to Zen Cart, which so far, is looking much better… I’ll post a review once I get deeper into it.

As for osCommerce, I started down the path of customizing the templates and layout, and started to get fed up. I’ve been using XHTML for over 5 years now, and when I have to move code from HTML 4 to XHTML that’s not much fun or a good use of my time. Since Zen Cart is a fork of osCommerce, which is much closer to a standards-based application (XHTML+CSS) I switched. More on this as we get deeper into it.

One of the strengths of WordPress has been that they say they “focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability” and while this isn’t always 100% correct, it’s mostly correct… enough to allow you to not worry about the details and focus on what you can do with the application.

Exciting times we live in, eh?