Thomas Hambach - Web engineer

The time has come to rub your eyes in disbelief! ClanCommandCenter Clan Cms finally has a release available for download!

It may have taken a long time, but rest assured that it was well worth the wait. I’m sure it’s a common problem, when developing free and opensource software, that real life may halt you from working on it and thus creating delays.

Either way, glad to have the clan cms available for download. Happy downloading!

Although, to you foreigners, it may seem like there is not going to be a Belgium in the near future …

For a project of mine, I had to find a database that contained all cities of Belgium with their postal codes and GPS locations (longitude & latitude). Since I couldn’t find such a database (or I had to pay too f***ing much) I decided to create one myself.

Since I’m such a commie, I’ve decided to share this database with anyone that needs it! Please refer to this page to download the database. At this time it’s only available in Dutch. Maybe some day I’ll take the time to translate it into english. Maybe some cash would make me work faster? Send your donations to PayPal address: thomas@rdlt.com …

Download database of all cities in Belgium with postal code and GPS location!

Download een database met alle steden in België met postcode en GPS locatie!

1. snap.com pop-ups when you hover over an external link in a news/blog post. They are just as annoying as pop up ads telling me I have won a trip to the sunny beaches of Hawaii! If I want to see the website, I’ll click on the link.
2. Advertising fest. Place your ads wisely or make it seem like they aren’t ads. Adding them wildly across your page distracts me from actually reading your content. Not to mention, most of these ads are loaded off-site and increase your website loading time.
3. Your website uses AJAX/AJAH to load in big chunks or all of your website content. Making it impossible to bookmark a page.
4. I cannot see whether a piece of text is a hyperlink. At least have the decency to give it another color, making it bold or underlining it.
5. The contrast between your text and the background colour is too high or too low. For example… pink on baby blue or dark gray on black.
6. “We are working on this page” or “Under construction”. Preferably with an image that has the text “Don’t worry, Homer is on the job, man!“. If your website isn’t done, don’t put it online or at least hide the pages that aren’t done.

What can annoy you when browsing a website? Leave a comment!

A friend of mine, Gilles Maes, is writing a thesis on readability, both online and offline. To make his research just a tad easier, he has set up a simple web survey. It speaks for itself that once he has received enough data, he will publish these results.

The idea is that you play around with the font family and size until you have found your favourite combination. Once you’ve done that, simply fill in the tiny little form saying why you prefer it. The reason why he is asking for your Age and Web experience is to have a better understanding of how certain audiences experience fonts.

Choosing your flavour is very simple. On the left side, you can click on each different sub menu: Mono space, Sans Serif, Serif & Font Size. When you click that item, a sub menu will fade in, giving you several options. By clicking any of those options, the text above the form will change.

Personally, I’m not really a fan of a certain font. I always pick the font that matches the subject. E.g. a “grunge” themed website should have a Serif font.

Click here and take part in this short survey!