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The B-Zone
The B-Zone has a clean, attractive layout -- the format is pretty standard, with a main column for entries and a sidebar for 'extras' (like a tagboard, blogroll, and links to the archives). But the author, Bjoern, has done some work to give his site a personal touch, with a menu tab, photo 'buttons', and wallpaper that looks like... well, wallpaper, actually. The overall effect lends the site an inviting, professional feel.
So, on to the content. From Bjoern's About Me page, I learned -- among other things -- that he's an IT consultant living in Hamburg, Germany. I dug into the archives for a look at his life. Much of the content centers around his job, his musical loves, and significant events in his personal life. It's pretty standard fare for a personal weblog, but Bjoern manages to spice up many of his entries with interesting photos and links to local sites and people. Some of his recent entries read and look more like magazine features; he appears to be experimenting with using photos and commentary to augment his personal stories, with considerable success.
In addition to the blog itself, Bjoern offers a few extras of note -- several pages of original photo art, a guestbook, links to songs that he's written, even a page of his own downloadable freeware. Some of the sections (those on 'Coding' and 'Music', for instance) are still under construction and light on content, but I appreciate his commitment to offering a variety of content on the site. It's a nice touch.
All in all, 'The B-Zone' is a very attractive and interesting personal site. Those of us not familiar with Germany can gain a glimpse into the life of a young professional there, while Bjoern's friends, music fans, and technophiles may also find something of interest. If you're looking for 'bits, bytes, birds, bollocks and booze', as the tagline says, then check out 'The B-Zone'. It's well worth the visit. I rate the site 4.5 out of 5.
This site was reviewed on 2004-03-21 by charlie.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
charlie felt that The B-Zone deserved a rating of 4.5.
The B-Zone “world of bits, bytes, birds, bollocks and booze” belongs to Bjoern, and if ever a blog lived up to its tagline this would be the it. The reader is immediately presented with a colourful striped design principally in blue, beige, and white . I’m not sure whether it is intentional but it has a very retro feel about it, and against all my expectations I found it actually worked well with the content here.
A brief introduction to the author resides here, providing details about likes, dislikes and occupation in list format. What stands out for me is his hobbies, listed as “everything creative - writing, fine arts, photography, music; coding; dressing up & going out” - you’ll quickly learn that a lot of what you find on this site are arranged around these items. There is in fact a lot to this site, blog aside there’s freeware for downloading, exceptional artwork, and music. There is a section entitled coding, which unfortunately was offline the three or four times I visited this site for writing this review.
The weblog part of this site was added to an existing site in July 2003 for the express purposes of highlighting software releases and writing the odd titbit about his everyday life, and that is ultimately what you find on these pages. There’s a lot to see, and a whole range of subjects covered - obviously programming and computers is a central theme so I expect this site to appeal to fellow geeks such as myself. Bjoern writes well, short concise entries quickly becoming longer and more detailed as the blog ages. Not everything held my attention, but on the whole I did enjoy what I found here, especially the references to his programming endeavours. That is once I managed to drag myself away from Solitairy Bjoern, which was strangely addictive.
The design as I said is based upon a vertical striped background. The colours work well together and despite my initial beliefs was not at all hard on the eye. It suit’s the content, and I believe the personality of its owner very well. The site is easy to navigate, with the added touch of a ‘top’ link on every post - a small detail but actually very helpful in navigating this site. All in all the design worked, there were no serious navigational issues and the only real draw back for me was the unfinished areas - there is nothing so frustrating for a visitor than finding an potentially interesting area of a site, only to discover “Content will be back within a few hours, please check later” especially when it happened to be significantly longer than a few hours - each occasion I visited over the span of a few days it was offline. It’s not really good design practice - if a section isn’t finished or is under construction don’t upload it until such time that it is finished.
There is a lot of see at the B-Zone. First impressions of the tagline led me to believe that the content of this site would be a little ‘laddie’ but this was not the case. Well written entries covering IT and everyday events, excellent examples of freeware for download, and really exceptional artwork all make this site a worthwhile viewing experience. Completion of the unfinished areas and this is definitely one of the better personal weblogs.
This site was reviewed on 2004-03-21 by fembat.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
fembat felt that The B-Zone deserved a rating of 4.5.
2 reviewers gave The B-Zone an average rating of 4.5000
Site Stats
Site Category: Personal
Reader Rating: 1.6667 based on 3 votes
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