The IE8 Speed Fix!

I hate Microsoft.

Its been a solid few months since I've been using IE8 (only for website testing, not everyday browsing). I noticed that every so often (more often then not), one of the tabs in IE would just hang. It wouldn't load the page. I'd open a new tab to fix it... and it wouldn't load either. I'd pop into Google Chrome and the same URL would load fine. This would also happen in IE8 pop-up windows.

I finally decided to do some research on the issue, and to my surprise, there's actually a solution. So far, it seems to have worked for me. Hopefully it'll do the same for you:

1) Open Command Prompt (Start > Run > Type: 'cmd')
2) Type: 'regsvr32 actxprxy.dll'
3) You should see an alert box pop up saying something was successful.
4) Reboot.
5) Enjoy a less buggy IE8 experience.

I'm running XP and this solution works great. Not sure if this solution will work for Vista users or not. If it doesn't, the next best thing would be to find the IE8 installer and reinstalling IE8 completely.

Poster Design as Inspiration

I'm always on the lookout for different sources of inspiration to help keep my designs fresh. This book is pretty awesome. Its called 'New Masters of Poster Design' and is a collaboration of poster design from around the world.

First off, the designs are out of this world. Some of the designs have me wondering, "Woah - what client would ever say 'Yes!' to that!?! Its too crazy!" Its obvious that the designers hired to do this work were given 100% creative freedom.

Secondly, the creative influences in this book are global... and it shows. There's so much variety in the designs. The book exposes you to creative genius that you'd, otherwise, be hard pressed to experience.

Lastly, by nature of poster design, its a completely different format then web or corporate collateral design, at least in this book. Much of the strange formatting used in the posters (which work well for posters) can be used to influence new ideas in formatting web designs or corporate collateral.

All in all, its a great purchase. I purchased it just over 8 months ago and I still take a peak through it once or twice a month as a creative refresher.

Pick it up at Indigo - http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/New-Masters-Poster-Design-Poster-John-Foster/9781592532223-item.html.