lifehack: Design Better with CRAP

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/design-better-with-crap.html
"The power and ease-of-use of today’s computer applications has raised the bar drastically on the quality of design expected in the documents we produce. As recently as ten years ago, it was typical to produce business letters, memos, and other documents using a courier-like, monospaced typeface, often with only underlining available for emphasis of key passages or section headings. The only options for correcting typos and other mistakes were white-out, pencilled-in marks, or re-typing. Our documents looked boring, but they were expected to look boring."

Mashable: ONLINE STORAGE: 80+ File Hosting and Sharing Sites

http://mashable.com/2007/07/28/online-storage/
"From sending one document to backing up an entire business, data storage is the key to everything nowadays. Due to popular demand, we’ve put together a list of more than 80 of the leading file hosting services, many of which are completely free."

Mashable: Web Development Toolbox: 120+ Web Development Resources

http://mashable.com/2007/07/28/web-development/
"As rewarding as web development is, it can also be a pain sometimes, especially if you spend half your time looking for the right tools and resources. Well, we’ve done the work for you with this one, and have compiled a list of over 120 web development resources to make your life easier."

Performancing: 10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (at least once)

http://performancing.com/10-articles-all-bloggers-should-read-at-least-once
"I have about twenty bloggers working for me at any given time. Many new bloggers are often not familiar with the details of blogging software (e.g. the screwy video embed issue with WP) or they don't know much about the art of blogging (other than writing about the blog's topic)."

CNN MONEY: 31 Startups (NOT inthe U.S.)

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0707/gallery.web_world.biz2/index.html
"It's not just Silicon Valley. The user-generated revolution is in full swing worldwide. Business 2.0 Magazine picks the best non-U.S. sites to watch."

10 Tips for Razor Sharp Concentration

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-tips-for-razor-sharp-concentration.html
"Writing to-do lists and keeping a schedule may keep you organized, but does it really help you get more done? I believe that organization is important, but what you really need is focus. Being able to sit down and concentrate intensely on your work for a few hours. Even a half hour of focused effort can get more done than an entire day of distraction and multitasking.Here’s some tips to get into a state of deep concentration where work flows easily:"

Office Snapshots: Pics of Digg, Revver, Craigslist, and more

http://officesnapshots.com/

Colour Lovers: 32+ Common Color Names for Easy Reference

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/24/32-common-color-names-for-easy-reference/
"Are you tired of the other kids at Summer Color Camp laughing at you because you thought chartreuse was a shade of pink? Still having nightmares about the time you called a Salmon colored dress Mauve? With our help you’ll never call Azure, Aquamarine again and will be name dropping colors like they’re hot potatoes."

thought bucket: Urban Typography

http://thoughtbucket.tumblr.com/post/5536133
"Urban Typography"

faveup: Slick New Design Inspiration Site - Logos, Cards and Websites

http://faveup.com/
"Slick New Design Inspiration Site - Logos, Cards and Websites. A slick new gallery of logos, business cards and websites ..."

lifehacker: Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret

http://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.php
"Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime..."

Blasting the Myth of the Fold

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of
"We are all well aware that web design is not an easy task. There are many variables to consider, some of them technical, some of them human. The technical considerations of designing for the web can (and do) change quite regularly, but the human variables change at a slower rate. Sometimes the human variables change at such a slow rate that we have a hard time believing that it happens."

Slate: The 12 Types of Ads

http://www.slate.com/id/2170872
"In 1978, Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett. Though his position implied expertise, Gunn felt he was often just throwing darts—relying on inspiration and luck (instead of proven formulas) to make great ads. So, he decided to inject some analytical rigor into the process: He took a yearlong sabbatical, studied the best TV ads he could find, and looked for elemental patterns."

Mashable: Work Together: 60+ Collaborative Tools for Groups

http://mashable.com/2007/07/22/online-collaboration/
"With businesses and families spread out more and more, we’ve dug up 60+ sites that will help everyone be on the same page."

Read/WriteWeb's New Comments Feature: SezWho

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sezwho_comments_community.php
"At the beginning of this week we introduced a new comments feature on Read/WriteWeb, called SezWho. Basically it introduces comment rating, reputation and filtering to this blog. SezWho was created by one of our occasional writers, Jitendra Gupta - whose team installed it onto R/WW. You can check out the full list of features in the SezWho FAQ, but in this post I want to summarize how it improves R/WW's community."

Taco Widgets

http://www.tacowidgets.com/
"Taco Widgets is a Macintosh* software company based in Boulder, CO. Established in 2005 by a couple of widget-loving geeks, we strive to make the very best Dashboard and Yahoo Widgets with the hope of making the process of simplifying tasks easy, intuitive and fun."

Austin Heller's Blog: 10 Things Nintendo Should Do in Mario Kart Wii

http://www.austinheller.com/2007/07/things-nintendo-should-do-in-mario-kart.html
"So after the fun week that was E3 (more like "min-E3"! LOL!), the newest game in a franchise that I hold dear to my heart was given new light, and that was, of course, Mario Kart Wii.
In case you've been living under the video gamer's equivalent of a rock for the past two weeks, the game will feature single car-style driving, new characters, new levels and, yes, online play. Shocked? Surprised? Yeah, me neither. Still, for a game of its caliber, there is quite a bit of stuff that could make it totally, completely awesome, so here's my 10-item list:"

Daniel Burke: Delta, Tango, Bravo

http://www.deltatangobravo.com/
" My name is Daniel Burka. I'm a partner at silverorange and I'm the creative director at digg.com. I've also helped found Pownce where I design the UI.

I'm a newish San Franciscan and I play a little disc golf, fall off rock climbing walls, and kick soccer balls over the net."

Oddica: Designer T-Shirts

http://www.oddica.com/catalog/index.php
"The focal point of our company is our Artists. How they interpret a particular idea, and how that idea looks on a shirt, determines whether a customer is going to buy, plain and simple. Our job is to stay behind the curtain and seamlessly deliver the Artist's vision to our customers. Our goal is 100 percent satisfaction, to our Artists and our customers."

Tutorio.com: Create an almost photo-realistic wood grain texture in Photoshop.

http://www.tutorio.com/tutorial/photoshop-wood-texture
" Create an almost photo-realistic wood grain texture in Photoshop."

Dan Pirato: Comics

http://www.bizarroartist.org/
"Dan Piraro is indisputably one of the best cartoonists currently playing the game. Piraro’s daily Bizarro is like fresh air compared to the rest of most comics pages — it’s surreal, opinionated, and consistently funny."

"Bust A Name" Helps You Find A Good Domain Name

http://www.clazh.com/bust-a-name-helps-you-find-a-good-domain-name/
"I found this great tool called bustaname for brainstorming Domain Names. I wish I had know of this tool when I registered my Website. Coming up with a cool and short domain name is very hard. This tool is useful since it does most of the work for like making combination of words automatically and showing only the available which are available for registration.

Type the keywords that that you want to be in your domain name, you can also click the red icon next to each word to add more related keywords."

Apple OS X: Icons, Screensavers, etc.: Most recent

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/
"About Dine-O-Matic Icons
This fun icon set is based off the various neon cuisine types seen in the Iconfactory’s popular Dine-O-Matic Dashboard widget. Now you can have the fun signage from Dine-O-Matic right on your desktop.

They also make great icons to assign to res... Read more."

codesqueeze: 101 Ways To Know Your Software Project Is Doomed

http://www.codesqueeze.com/101-ways-to-know-your-software-project-is-doomed/

Web Designers' Interviews: ROB WEYCHERT from Happy Cog Studios

http://www.designinterviews.com/?p=95
"ROB WEYCHERT from Happy Cog Studios
Rob Weychert is a bright personality, both literally and figuratively. His red beard and distinct web design style portray an outstanding character. Rob is an Art Director of the Philadelphia office of Happy Cog Studios. Having received a formal design education in print media, Rob has been successfully working on adapting traditions of print media to the web. His personal website won recognition by Web Standards Award for its “eclectic mix of classic and contemporary typefaces and type treatments” the next day after it was launched. Rob has worked with Advertising Age, The New York Stock Exchange, Comcast, and Sub Pop Records to name a few, and co-authored a book on Web Standards Creativity with Andy Budd. In addition to all that, Rob is an artist and a writer."

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The music industry nobs have finally figured out what we're doing

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/music-industry-nobs-have-finally.html
"So you've no doubt seen this story or one like it explaining that Universal Music Group won't renew its iTunes deal. And you've seen people saying that the majors are trying to "recalibrate" their relationships with us. Actually what's happening is they're crapping in their pants. They woke up one day and realized that we've got 80% share of digital downloads. Suddenly all the power in the value chain resides in one player. Oops."

Youtube: Building starry night in second life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVDVggLqsA

men.style.uncut: Christopher Walken Uncut

http://men.style.com/details/features/full?id=content_5751
"Christopher Walken Uncut
The idiosyncratic actor talks about his relationships with John Travolta (love him!), ice cream (stay away!) and, of course, cowbell (more!) in our extended Q&A."

dvguru: ten video sharing services

http://www.dvguru.com/2006/04/07/ten-video-sharing-services-compared/
"The number of video-sharing sites has shot through the roof recently, as dozens of companies try to become the Flickr of the online video world. To this end, many video services have started offering new features like editing and remixability in an attempt to snatch a piece of the ever-expanding online video pie. But for the average user--who just wants to post a video on the 'net and share it with some friends--there are already too many options out there. All one really wants to know is, which site is going to work, with the least amount of hassle?"

The Sad Song Video: 15 Seconds of video, made into video

http://www.fredoviola.com/

Everaldo: Icon design portfolio

http://www.everaldo.com/
"My name is Everaldo Coelho. My job as an illustrator and a designer began in 97. Since then I worked with almost every company “flavors”. I did it enough times to realize that, no matter if its a big a corporation or a small the company, at the end of the day it’s all about human beings. And I really like that!

In 2003 the demand of work was greater that I could handle. I hired 2 assistants and this was the beginning of the Yellow Icon, that now counts with 12 professionals.

I have a very simple base for my work: “The human being as the measure of all things”. I don’t make design for products, I make design for people."

Crystal icons: http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/

Brusheezy: Thousands of free PS, etc patterns and brushes

http://www.brusheezy.com/patterns

WordPress: How to Handle Thousands of Visitors on Yuor Blog

http://blog.thembid.com/index.php/2007/07/17/how-to-handle-thousands-of-users-with-your-blog/
"There have been multiple occasions where I am trying to read an article and the website is down. I have encountered this multiple times where people say something like: “I got around 13,000 hits and server couldn’t handle it”. There are even websites that become popular by making the content of the popular article available. One of these cases is DuggMirror, a service that mirrors Digg articles and makes them available in case the source is unavailable. If you are running a blog and you have your own server, here are a few tips to easily handle at least half a million hits per day."

Colour Lovers: Some Summer Color Lovin' Inspiration

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/17/some-summer-color-lovin/
"In looking for great summer colors, I scoured the internet for inspiration. I mostly found summer fashions and make up, but when I finally stopped looking… I found my colours and it turns out that I didn’t have to go anywhere else.

Started by Harbinger, the Time for Some Summer Lovin’ post has brought out some of the best parts of summer colour love, and we took it another step further…"

Signals vs. Noise (37 Signals): 5 business lessons from Costco

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/505-5-business-lessons-from-costco
"How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart explores the interesting formula for success that CEO Jim Sinegal has implemented at the nation’s fifth-largest retailer: Sell a limited number of items, keep costs down, rely on high volume, pay workers well, have customers buy memberships and aim for upscale shoppers, especially small-business owners. In addition, don’t advertise – that saves 2 percent a year in costs."

CGSociety: Fish, Rats, Chefs and Robots

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4144
"Sometimes, a studio discovers its best talent right under its nose. That was the case with Jason Deamer, 33, who is the character art director for Pixar Animation Studio’s upcoming feature animation ‘Wall-E,’ and was one of four character designers for the studio’s current release, Disney/Pixar’s scrumptious animated treat, ‘Ratatouille.’"

Forbes: Best Cities for Young Professionals

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/2007/06/21/cities-jobs-young-forbeslife-cx_mw_0621realestate_slide_3.html?thisSpeed=undefined

Times Online: Tesla Roadster

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/new_car_reviews/article2036260.ece
"People think that if you’re a car enthusiast you have something against electric cars. Not in the least. To me the nice thing about electric vehicles is, if nothing else, they free up the gasoline for our other cars.

I think many car enthusiasts see the future as one where they will use some kind of electric car or hydrogen car during the week and will save their sports cars for the weekend, just as you would play golf or football at the weekend."

Kyle Cordes: YouTube Scalability Talk

http://kylecordes.com/2007/07/12/youtube-scalability/
"Cuong Do of YouTube / Google recently gave a Google Tech Talk on scalability.

I found it interesting in light of my own comments on YouTube’s 45 TB a while back.

Here are my notes from his talk, a mix of what he said and my commentary:

In the summer of 2006, they grew from 30 million pages per day to 100 million pages per day, in a 4 month period. (Wow! In most organizations, it takes nearly 4 months to pick out, order, install, and set up a few servers.)"

How To Split An Atom: How To Define Web 3.0

http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/how-to-define-web-30-2/
"Over the last few months I have written a weekly piece on how the Web is evolving. Taking into account the current trends in technology, and the direction in which the web is developing I have tried to define Web 3.0. At the end of volume one of this discussion piece, I think we have come a long way. To help you digest everything, I am presenting you with the entire article as How To Split An Atom’s Definitive Guide To Web 3.0, Volume One. I’ve made some editorial changes and commentary along the way. Technology evolves quickly and the online space has managed to change even between when I started this article and now."

Blabbermouth.net: HENRY ROLLINS Discusses His Trip To Iran

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=76639
"Chris Catania of PopMatters.com recently conducted an interview with punk rock icon Henry Rollins. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Q: So how was your recent trip to Iran?

Henry: Well, I had gone to Iraq with the USO and that was very ... (hesitates) ... interesting, then I took a trip on my own to Iran just to look around and that was a really good time. It's a lot more peaceful in Iran than in Iraq in the present time. I met a lot of interesting people and I was able to walk around the city without feeling like I was in any kind of danger. That was really cool. I went because all I hear in the U.S. media about Iran is that they're going to kill us all and our lives are all in grave danger. And that may be true but I'd like to think there is more than one story out there. So that's why I went."

Technology Review: The Secret of Apple Design

http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=18621
"Apple, Inc. has made an art of not talking about its products. Fans, journalists, and rumormongers who love it or love to hate it have long had to practice a sort of Kremlinology to gather the merest hints as to what is coming next out of Cupertino."

Design Observer: Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/025896.html
"Last night, after eight years, 86 episodes, and untold quantities of gobbagool, The Sopranos finished its run on HBO.

And this is what we've learned."

ideas on ideas: Interview with Erik Spiekermann

http://www.ideasonideas.com/2007/06/spiekermann-business/
"Erik Spiekermann has a remarkable CV. His design insights are respected, his typefaces have become standards and he has developed design systems for global brands. In addition he is a founder of MetaDesign and the driving force behind SpiekermannPartners. For ideasonideas’ first interview I’m going to ask Erik how he manages the challenges found in running a design business."

Web Design Library: How to Make a Folder Icon

http://www.webdesign.org/web/photoshop/web-layout/how-to-make-a-folder-icon.6433.html
"In this tutorial you will learn how to create a nice folder for your desktop or a website."

bittbox: Random Free Vectors - Part 6: Foliage

http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/random-free-vectors-part-6-foliage/
"I haven’t released a vector set in a while so I decided to change that tonite. This is a set of free foliage vectors I made in Illustrator. They are available in AI, EPS and SVG formats, so hopefully they will be useful to a good many of you. Add them to your toolbox and show us what you make (if you want) at the Bittbox user showcase on Flickr. I hope you like them, enjoy."

Poromeno's Stuff: Learn Python in 10 minutes

http://www.poromenos.org/tutorials/python
"So, you want to learn the Python programming language but can't find a concise and yet full-featured tutorial. This tutorial will attempt to teach you Python in 10 minutes. It's probably not so much a tutorial as it is a cross between a tutorial and a cheatsheet, so it will just show you some basic concepts to start you off. Obviously, if you want to really learn a language you need to program in it for a while. I will assume that you are already familiar with programming and will, therefore, skip most of the non-language-specific stuff. The important keywords will be highlighted so you can easily spot them. Also, pay attention because, due to the terseness of this tutorial, some things will be introduced directly in code and only briefly commented on."

Colour Lovers: Color Inspiration: Monsters and Dubious Characters

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/10/color-inspiration-monsters-and-dubious-characters/
"At COLOURlovers we are all about the color love… but over at Mojizu.com they’re all about the character art love. There are thousands of very creative, cute & funny creations at Mojizu… but we chose just a handful to bring home and share with you."

Pentagram: Sign of the Times

http://blog.pentagram.com/archives/2007/07/sign_of_the_times.php
"Last week, the Times Square district gained its latest sign as the logo of the New York Times was installed on the Eighth Avenue facade of its new Renzo Piano-designed headquarters tower.

But what looks like a simple sign—if a 110-foot-long logo set as a 10,116-point version of the newspaper’s iconic Fraktur font can be called simple—is actually an intricate assemblage of nearly a thousand separate custom-designed pieces, each a painted extruded aluminum sleeve a little more than three inches in diameter."

Veerle's Blog: What a designer has to do when looking for a job

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/what_a_designer_has_to_do_when_looking_for_a_job
"If I take a trip down memory lane to the time that I was looking for a job, I immediately remember very vividly how hard it was to get noticed or heard. I’m talking pre-internet days so things were handled via snail mail. If you were lucky, you got invited for an interview to show your portfolio and hope for the best. So fresh out of school with nothing much to show from the ‘real’ world in my portfolio, except for school work was a hard nut to crack to be honest. Even desktop publishing was in its early days so most of my work consisted of hand crafted dummies, painted logos and lots of sketches, paintings and drawings."

Slate: Starbucks Economics (SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF THE ELUSIVE "SHORT" CAPPUCCINO.)

http://www.slate.com/id/2133754?
"Here's a little secret that Starbucks doesn't want you to know: They will serve you a better, stronger cappuccino if you want one, and they will charge you less for it. Ask for it in any Starbucks and the barista will comply without batting an eye. The puzzle is to work out why."

Mashable: 10 Most Beautiful Social Networks

http://mashable.com/2007/07/09/beautiful-social-networks/
"If you asked most MySpace-haters what’s their problem with the service, they’d probably say: it’s ugly. Meanwhile, people tell us they are switching from Twitter to Pownce because it’s prettier and easier to use. For those who prize beauty above all else, we brought together 10 of the prettiest social networks.

Virb - generally known as the designer’s MySpace, Virb lives up to the hype by offering sleek and easy-to-customize profile design. The details on various features, for example music and video player, are quite polished - even the ads look nice. If blinking images, huge sigs that mess up the formatting and colorful backgrounds make you insane, Virb is the right place for you."

Mimeo.com: On-Demand Personal Printing

http://www.mimeo.com/
This is more of a personal bookmark... want to try these guys sometime.

Sci Fi Tech: Why Second Life will never go mainstream

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/06/28/shift_why_secon.html
"I'm convinced that most reporters who write about Second Life have never explored the world themselves. Maybe they read blogs about it or get press releases with screenshots from Linden Labs, but if they had actually "been" to the "3D online digital world," they wouldn't write about it as if it were a normal place, one where going shopping for Reeboks, attacking John Edwards' campaign headquarters, or raping innocent victims are everyday occurrences."

MacApper: How To: Create Custom Icons for your Mac

http://macapper.com/2007/04/21/how-to-create-custom-icons-for-your-mac/
"Have you ever wanted a custom icon for a hard drive or folder? I have, and I found out that it is easy to do, even if you can’t make an icon from scratch. For example, I got tired of seeing the default white removable drive icon whenever I plugged in my CompactFlash reader. I decided to make a custom CompactFlash icon to use instead."
From Nick: Quick note, this process, I've had problems with icons that have hollow centers. The click area doesn't register right. For solid shapes, like the example, works great, and the icons come out just fine.

Tech Report: TR's July 2007 system guide

http://techreport.com/etc/2007q3/system-guide-0707/index.x?pg=1
"WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW mid-range and high-end DirectX 10 graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia behind us, it's high time for a new system guide. We've neglected the guide a little lately, but we've been swamped with other pursuits, including Computex and "Weighing the value of today's processors." In the meantime, the hardware landscape has been altered quite substantially. Processor and memory prices have plummeted, new CPUs and graphics cards have been released, Intel has rolled out a new generation of chipsets, and other manufacturers have introduced an array of new products to keep things interesting. With those changes in mind, we've concocted a brand-spanking-new system guide to, er, guide you through picking the latest and greatest hardware for a new build."

Instructables: RSS Desktop (Windows)

http://www.instructables.com/id/EGZNXBSS9FEP286O4B/
"I was tired of useless pictures hanging around my desktop so i decided to turn my desktop into a constantly updating RSS bullitin board.

I just loaded a shot of my my background as a game too(JT's blocks from Yahoo)!

I have also included the full HTML with JavaScript and better screen shots in the .zip file."

urlgreyhot: OmniGraffle Wireframe Palette

http://urlgreyhot.com/personal/resources/omnigraffle_wireframe_palette
"This is my very basic set of shapes for making wireframes (low-fidelity web page schematics) in OmniGraffle (Mac OS X). The image at right shows the wireframe stencil in action. It consists of a very basic set of shapes including: browser chrome, title and footer block, icons, form elements, a greeked text block, text headings, some boxes, label and note blocks, navigation elements, and some icons created entirely in graffle."

Shawn Blanc {dot} net: 7 Weblogs too well designed to read via RSS

http://shawnblanc.net/2007/7-weblogs-too-well-designed-to-read-via-rss/
"Some of my daily reads that I often click out of my RSS reader to read from the site itself. These blogs have stellar content and a beautiful design."

The Public Speaking Blog: How To Create A Technical Presentation That Makes Steve Job Green With Envy

http://blog.ericfeng.com/three-strategies-to-develop-a-technical-presentation-that-packs-a-punch/
"Been wanting to write a blog entry on how to deliver a technical presentation for the longest time. And then this video came along which got me off my lazy butt. First, watch this really short (1′47″) clip. It helps if you have no clue what “Social Networking” means. Even if you do, watch it. Like me, you will be impressed with both the effectiveness and effortlessness of explaining such an elusive term. One of the viewers even commented how happy HIS MUM was as she finally understands what social networking means. So much for online dictionaries and wikipedia…"

Flash map: Imperial History of the Middle East

http://redir.mivzakon.co.il/redir.aspx?id=7001
"Who has conquered the Middle east over the course of world events?
See 5,000 years of history in 90-seconds..."

Time: 50 Top Websites of 2007

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1633488_1633530_1638406,00.html

Cameron Moll: Typefaces no one gets fired for using

http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/001168.html
"Make a list. Tested typefaces that are rock-solid reliable for print, web, or both."

Sacred Sites at Sacred Destinations

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/index.html
"Nearly every culture in human history has sought to encounter and honor the divine, the mysterious, the supernatural or the extraordinary in some way. This most often occurs at sacred sites - special places where the physical world seems to meet the spiritual world. Such sacred sites might include awe-inspiring natural places, sites made special by their connection to a god, a saint or a religious hero, places where miracles occurred, or buildings made sacred by their use for worship or ritual."

Digital Web: Why Textpattern? An Interview with the Authors of Textpattern Solutions

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/why_textpattern/
"Web developers have many options these days when choosing a CMS or blogging engine. Why has Textpattern become your preferred solution?"

Inspiration Bit: 16 Best-Loved Font Bits In Web Design

http://www.inspirationbit.com/16-best-loved-font-bits-in-web-design/
"The first 6 bits of fonts on this list are considered “web-safe” - they’re supported by all major browsers on any platform. The fonts in the following 2 bits come pre-installed on most but not all systems. The fonts in the last 8 bits are mainly used for decorative purposes, and implemented on the Web as sIFR or saved as images."

Opera beta "Kestrel": Preview (CSS 3 Support!)

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/kestrel-is-coming
"The last couple of months we've been working hard on the upcoming Opera 9.5 release, codename Kestrel. Opera 9.5 will contain many cool new features, improvement of existing features, and we fixed a lot of bugs. Within a few weeks we will publish 9.5 weeklies on this blog so everyone can start playing with it."
via: Hicks Blog

The Serif: Your Daily Dose of Inspiration

http://www.serifpublishing.com/
"The Serif is your daily dose of inspirational design links from around the globe.

This site is updated throughout the day, subscribe to our RSS feed or bookmark us.

If you’d like to suggest a link, email jim (at) serifpublishing.com"

MADtype

http://www.madtype.net/index.html
"You are now viewing the newly updated MADType website! I've updated the site to show all of my current retail typefaces. I've also updated my portfolio case studies of all of the custom fonts I've been working on.

I have made the site much easier to navigate with fewer clicks and have also made the type showings much bigger. So enjoy, and please email me if you have any comments or criticisms."

Mac Mame: Mameintosh

http://mameintosh.com/
"MAMEintosh is a resource for MAME enthusiasts looking for tips and tricks how to build their own cabinet. This site is based on my experiences of building a MAME cabinet.

Details about the first cabinet are available in the "MAMEintosh v1" section on the left. A second version of the cabinet is in the works which will be a cocktail style cabinet in a very neat and small form factor.

I'm working towards converting the machine(s) into kit form so you can easily build your own without having to go to complete efforts of building from scratch."

Furbo.org: The Human Interface Guidelines still matter, even with special effects

http://furbo.org/2007/07/03/the-hig-still-matters-even-with-special-effects/
"Changes to the Dock in Leopard do not follow the Human Interface Guidelines"

Songs of Praise (with subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY

Mashable: Online Music: 90+ Essential Music and Audio Website

http://mashable.com/2007/07/06/online-music/
"Online music has always been popular, and now social networks, peer recommendations and personalized radio stations are helping fans find bands faster than ever before. Here are more than 90 sites for musicians, fans, and everyone who enjoys music."

Design View: Quiet Structure: Consistent, Clear Web Design

http://www.andyrutledge.com/quiet-structure.php
"Like many people, I’m a big fan of CNN’s recent website redesign. While I believe that a few structural and hierarchical elements could have been addressed better, the overall result of this redesign is a very neat, very clean and clear presentation of information; exactly what an online news site needs."

engadget: Enwidget: Ten useful Apple Dashboard widgets

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/07/enwidget-ten-useful-apple-dashboard-widgets/
"Apple Dashboard widgets can be a quick way to reference your favorite data in a small heads-up-display. Just a few weeks ago we discussed some of the basic features of Tiger and Leopard widgets for Mac. Today I'll walk through some of my favorite widgets for productivity and fun."

Mark Boulton Design

http://www.markboultondesign.com/
"Mark Boulton Design is a small design studio. We have a knack for producing beautiful, simple solutions for today's web. Be it a website, a brand, a product or application; we have the expertise to provide you with a solution that will stand out in the marketplace."

Consumerist: Search Amazon For Deals Up To 90% Off

http://consumerist.com/consumer/amazon/search-amazon-for-deals-up-to-90-off-228705.php
"Why go to the trouble of manually hacking Amazon's URLs to search for bargains when we've got all the messy work done for you?"

JQuery: 1.1.3 Released! jQuery 1.1.3: 800%+ Faster, still 20KB

http://jquery.com/blog/2007/07/01/jquery-113-800-faster-still-20kb/
"I’m pleased to announce the release of jQuery 1.1.3. After many months of testing, developing, and more testing, we have a very solid release available for download. It comes with roughly 80+ fixed bugs and a handful of enhancements for good measure. Highlights include:"

ZD Net: Flock: social browser gets significant update

http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=236
"Flock has released a preview of a major update to its social web browser. As I noted in a recent post where I did a Q&A with Flock’s CEO, Shawn Hardwin, when Flock first launched, timed perfectly to coincide with a wave of web 2.0 hype, it seemed like a fresh and bold attempt to make a web browser that truly embraced the ’social web’. The browser wasn’t a passive application designed for reading web pages, but instead could ‘write’ to the web with support for emerging social web services through built-in a blog editor, drag ‘n’ drop access and publishing of photos on Flickr (and later Photobucket), and integration with social bookmarking service, Delicious. But then things went astray."

Smashing Magazine: Inspiration Package: 60+ Usable & Elegant Designs

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/04/inspiration-package-usable-elegant-inspiring-design-showcase/
"We all love beautiful, usable and impressive web designs. To achieve them, web developers need to focus on many aspects, but basically it all boils down to the question, how well the content is presented and how easily the information can be perceived. Harmonic color schemes are as important as solid and consistent typography. Precise visual structure and intuitive navigation are essential for both usability and accessibility. In fact, mostly it’s a keen attention to small details which gives web-sites a profound end enduring nature."

Colour Lovers: 13 More Great Color Legends

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/03/13-more-great-color-legends/
"A little while ago we showed you 11 of the Great Color Legends and why they exist… and now we’re back with 13 more great color legends… Green Cards, Blue Balls, Highlighter Yellow, Ferarri Red & more. Be sure to let us know if there is a great color legend you’d like us to cover in a future edition."

Campaign Monitor: 30 free HTML email templates to get you started

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/templates.aspx
"Getting your email to look great in all the major email clients can be a challenge at times, so we've done the hard work for you with these 30 free email templates. We've tested them in all the major email clients, so add your own content and you're all set."

450+ business card designs for inspiration

http://dailypoetics.typepad.com/photos/business_cards_and_other_/index.html
"I love business cards … little tokens of identity, with their everyday and ephemeral nature but also as a keepsake - a token of remembrance, this intrigues me, this enchants me ...

I admire the business or calling card as a medium for artistic expression and communication. Marveling at the typically tiny size but also the concept, story, meanings and design subtleties. Then I am absolutely captivated by the endless possibility for expressing an individual, a philosophy, an aesthetic or concept through the design with type, copy,materials and processes ..."