Wired: Best of Leopard Is Yet to Come: Innovative Third-Party Apps

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/10/cultofmac_1031
"There's been a lot of brouhaha about Leopard, but the most exciting thing about Apple's latest OS upgrade hasn't even arrived yet — a wave of third-party applications that make use of new technologies under the operating system's hood.

Core Animation could prove particularly revolutionary. A powerful programmers' toolkit embedded in Leopard, Core Animation makes it easy to create flashy, animated 3-D interfaces. While some observers dismiss such things as pure eye candy — mere special effects to make the UI pretty — others have said they may herald the most significant advance in computer interfaces since the original Mac shipped 30 years ago."

Fast Company: Motorhead Messiah

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah_Printer_Friendly.html
“Check it out. It's actually a jet engine," says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. "This thing is gonna be even cooler than I thought." We're hunched on the floor of Goodwin's gleaming workshop in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by the shards of a wooden packing crate. Inside the wreckage sits his latest toy--a 1985-issue turbine engine originally designed for the military. It can spin at a blistering 60,000 rpm and burn almost any fuel. And Goodwin has some startling plans for this esoteric piece of hardware: He's going to use it to create the most fuel-efficient Hummer in history.

Goodwin, a 37-year-old who looks like Kevin Costner with better hair, is a professional car hacker. The spic-and-span shop is filled with eight monstrous trucks and cars--Hummers, Yukon XLs, Jeeps--in various states of undress. His four tattooed, twentysomething grease monkeys crawl all over them with wrenches and welding torches."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/30/14161/066

PSD Tuts: Creating an Old-Collage Effect Poster

http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/creating-an-old-collage-effect-poster/
"One of my favourite 'looks' is the sort of old-collage feel of old photos and old paper. It's a favourite because it lets you work images and text together really easily. In this tutorial we'll put together a poster where there is a main photograph and a lot of text using the old-collage feel."

Siolon: Tools For Web Designers

http://www.siolon.com/2007/tools-for-web-designers/
"Everyone, especially computer people, love lists of resources. I do as well, and I decided it’s time to share many of the resources that have helped me in my career. All of these resources (except for the print books) are either freeware, open source, or the application offers a free version.

Even though I don’t list all the resources I’ve find you can browse my del.icio.us account for other resources I’ve bookmarked."

Wake Up Later: 7 Tips on Quoting Freelance Projects

http://www.wakeuplater.com/freelance-lessons/7-tips-on-quoting-freelance-projects.aspx
"One of the tougher aspects of freelancing is making sure you get paid a fair amount for your work. I'm sure every freelancer has at least one story of either getting grossly underpaid or not getting paid at all. So here are seven tips to help you improve your quoting."

Blogging Bits: 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Bookmark

http://bloggingbits.com/54-typography-resources-every-designer-should-bookmark/
"If you are a web designer, or a passionate CSS hobbyist, you must be aware of the impact well structured typography can have on your overall design. Though, optimizing your typography to work on old and new versions of plethora of web browsers on various operating systems can prove to be quite a headache. With the following list of resources, you can learn, optimize, and beautify your web typography, and never need to worry about those pesky compatibility issues again (I wish!)."

Free Wallpaper Pattern Brushes™

http://flyguydesigns.com/?p=16
"I had some time this weekend to sit down and crank out some new brushes from some vector stuff I have been doing. Here are some cool high resolution photoshop brushes for free download. Tattoo your print or web designs with this vintage, faux finish, grunge wallpaper, or what ever you want to call them style brushes. There are 32 brushes in this set. This is the first set of a series I am in the middle of working on. Im offering these totally for free so please use the brushes for your own personal use. My designs are not intended for resale. If you use them in your designs please throw some credit my way. Thanks, have fun. Cheers."

sacha grief: How I did it: Blue China

http://www.sachagreif.com/blog/how-i-did-it-blue-china/
"To celebrate the launch of my newest design, I tought I’d explain how I did it and what tools and plugins I used. Not to say that I did anything special. The blog (Blue China) is pretty simple, and not supposed to make it to the top of all CSS galleries overnight (although it would be cool if it did). But even so, I think designers are always interested in seeing how others work.

At least I know I am. Reading about how a master webdesigner like Jesse Bennet-Chamberlain redesigned the Expression Engine site was a great source of inspiration, and made me realize the importance of icons in web design. And reading about some high school kid designing his Dragon Ball Z fan site (no, I’m not talking about myself, I’m not in high school anymore !) can give you that warm feeling of knowing that some people are even worse at design than you are."

roscripts.com: Tableless forms

http://www.roscripts.com/Tableless_forms-112.html
"I consider this a very important step in learning web design the right and straightforward way. CSS is no longer just a way of adding some simple styles to an element in your page. More and more web designers work very much with styles in order to create a unique and easy to maintain website.

You can see some inspirational examples by visiting a gallery like CSSREMIX or cssdrive. Those are CSS galleries that won't showcase just any kind of website. The design must be unique, CSS based, valid, XHTML etc. It's a great starting point if you're into learning to design."

Apartment Therapy NY: Best Products: Ikea Countertop With Vika Legs

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/tables-dining-occasional/best-products-ikea-countertop-with-vika-legs-007644
"We just built one for our office.

In the annals of great Ikea DIY products, this desk/table solution is one of our favorites, as well as one that is so clean that it can fit into a fancy home or a student's digs.

Enter Slideshow

Take the Vika Inge legs by Olle Lundberg which will only run you $40 and, rather than fiberboard & laminate, skip over to the kitchen section and get the Pronomen solid wood countertops which will only run you about $49 and come in multiple lengths and widths. Then put the two together."

456 Berea Street: Using JavaScript instead of target to open new windows

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200605/using_javascript_instead_of_target_to_open_new_windows/
"In my recent post about The target attribute and opening new windows, I stated that when I am faced with no other choice but to open a link in a new window, I prefer using unobtrusive JavaScript instead of the target attribute. The reason is that I always use a strict doctype, which does not allow the target attribute.

What I did not say was exactly how the script I use is constructed, but I guess I should have. A few people commenting on the post thought that I was suggesting the use of JavaScript to insert the invalid target attribute simply to hide it from the W3C Markup Validator. Cheating to pass validation is not what I am proposing."

Nitrome: Flash games

http://www.nitrome.com/
Nitrome: Flash games

Freelance Folder: 25 Reasons Yuo Didn't Get the Gig

http://freelancefolder.com/25-reasons-you-didnt-get-the-gig/
"These are some personal observations, reasons I probably would click away, not hire someone, not call back.

Combined with some personal experiences, and some reasons I believe I didn’t get a gig at some point. Gotta learn from our mistakes. :)"

thuiven.com: 35 website footer designs, trends and styles.

http://www.thuiven.com/viewentry/35-footer-designs/
"As you might already know, good web design - in most cases - should contain basic elements such as easily used (yet beautiful) navigation menus, attracting headers, well written content, and for last, footers. In this post I would like to talk more about the last element that is becoming a very fascinating issue these days - the kinds and styles of footers."

Escapist Magazine: Zero Punctuation: Super Paper Mario

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2563-Zero-Punctuation-Super-Paper-Mario
"Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and does the occasional feature for Australia's Hyper Magazine. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com."

Photoshop Roadmap: 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes

http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2007/10/25/100-awesome-high-resolution-photoshop-brushes/
"Lets dive today into a sea of brushes. Hundreds of thousands of sets are lying undiscovered like pirate treasures all over the web. Due to this phenomenally vast amount of Photoshop brushes available, directories are becoming very popular lately.

Designers are collecting them like mad. Not to mention that finding the most unique or bizarre set is a must.

And believe me, in this case, size does matter… So, here’s my contribution to all the Photoshop brushes starving hordes of designers and artists, including myself: 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes. And don’t forget to check the list of brushes sites and directories at the end of the article!"

Vandelay Design: 25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/minimalistic-web-design/
"It seems that everyone has a different opinion of what qualifies as a minimalistic design. Here are 25 websites that make use of very little unnecessary design elements but still manage to pull off a beautiful appearance. When it comes to design, if you feel that less is more, I’m sure you will find inspiration from these sites."

Vector Magic: The online tool for precision vectorization

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/
"This site traces bitmap images, turning them into beautiful vector art. Just upload your image and we will convert it for you."

Pop Design Works

http://www.popdesignworks.com/
Interactive media design from Cincinatti, Ohio

Recycled Area: Freelance Graphic Design, Italy

http://www.recycledarea.co.uk/index.php
Alberto Seveso, Freelance Graphic Design, Italy

four5one:

http://www.four5one.ie/
Designer for music artists, including a lot of work for U2

10 Necessary Mac Apps for the College Student

http://dbachrach.com/blog/2007/09/17/10-necessary-mac-apps-for-the-college-student/
"Going through the first few weeks of college, I’ve found a few apps that have made my university life so much easier. Some of these apps will be things you have heard of. Hopefully, some will be new to you. Most of the apps have been designed for a much larger audience, but greatly help college students in particular."

Full Color Screen Printing with Photoshop

http://www.screensilk.com/2007/01/full-color-screen-printing-with-photoshop/
"If you have read my article, “The Secrets to Full Color Screen Printing”, than you already understand the underlying principles to 4 color screen printing. In that article we discussed the principles of the CMYK color model, color separations, halftones, and lines per inch (LPI). In this tutorial, we are going to take what we have learned, and using photoshop, quickly create color separations for output to transparencies for screen printing."

Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust

http://mybasepage.com/p.php?id=b6ynue
"There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website. The search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill"

I Have a New Favorite Web Browser: Flock

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/005768.html
"More than two years ago, I blogged about the preview version of Flock, a browser, built with Mozilla Firefox at its core, with a social bent. I said it showed promise and said I'd keep an eye on it.

And then...the Flock folks failed to release a final version and I sort of forgot about it. Two years later, this browser still isn't available in final form. But I've been using the iteration billed at the beta version of Flock 1.0--available for download here--for the past few days. And I'm so impressed that I've done something I didn't see myself anytime soon: I've dumped Firefox as my primary gateway to the Web. For now, I'm using Flock as my default browser on both my desktop Vista machine and my MacBook portable, and thoroughly enjoying the experience."

Job Aggregators

http://www.simplyhired.com/

http://www.jobster.com/

http://www.indeed.com/

An Event Apart San Francisco: Day One and Day Two Notes

http://www.silverstripe.com/aneventapart-san-francisco-day-one/
http://www.silverstripe.com/aneventapart-san-francisco-day-two/
"A day into Alistapart's intimate web conference, AnEventApart San Francisco 2007, and its clear where the industry is focusing: with the battle for web standards now entrenched, consideration can go into content (aka copy) strategy, as well enlightening the rest of us busy souls of some interesting coding and design tricks."

YouTube: The Real Hustle - Bartender Scams

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

YouTube: CHESS MASTER GARRY KASPAROV EXPLAINS POLITICAL NATURE OF OIL

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQYyPooETcI
Gary Kasparov interviewed by Bill Maher.

PSD Tuts: Applying a Realistic Tattoohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

http://psdtuts.com/photo-effects-tutorials/applying-a-realistic-tattoo/
"Our first guest tutorial comes from Arik, if you'd like to write a tutorial read more about how you can contribute.

There are lots of tutorials on the web that claim to achieve a realistic tattoo effect. Usually these tutorials instruct the user to import an image they want to use as a tattoo and to set it to overlay. Out of experience I can say that this does NOT look like a tattoo. It looks like...well...an overlayed image.

In this tutorial I will be demonstrating an advanced technique to achieve a realistic tattoo. We will be using masks, adjustment layers, displacement maps and several brushing skills will be applied."

Content, the King of Missed Opportunities

http://www.blogaboutcrafts.com/index.php?/archives/69-Content,-the-King-of-Missed-Opportunities.html
"I recently blogged about how having Adsense or other affiliate advertising on a business site can lead to reduced sales - see Adsense Kills Business.

One of the people who visited mentioned that they wanted 'to get something from the people who came' and didn't buy. This got me to thinking about the many sites I've seen where they have quality content that is well-written and informative, but fails to do it's job."

Fast Company: The Tao of Steve: Why We Keep Buying Apple Products

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/119/the-tao-of-steve.html
"The column you're reading right now was typed on an Apple PowerBook G4 whose fan is only slightly quieter than a Formula One racing car and which crashes in an equally spectacular yet horrifying manner. My previous Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) laptop began falling apart week one, when a flimsy plastic key on the flimsy plastic keyboard abandoned its tenuous hold and took a suicidal leap onto the nether regions of its owner's desk. Other keys, perhaps despairing of their own mediocrity, eventually followed suit."

Fast Company: Magic Shop: Are your frontline employees going to save or kill your most important quarter? At Apple, nothing is left to chance.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/magic-shop.html
"Day one at my new job. Sporting white headphones, I am plugged into a computer watching Ridley Scott's awe-inspiring "1984" Macintosh ad, reviewing the company history, and getting pumped up about my new workplace. Like most of my coworkers, I'm already a loyal fan of the company, so starting this job will take my interest to the next level. I'm working as a Mac specialist at the Apple Store."

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik (Kick Butt With Internal Site Search Analytics)

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
"I love Internal Site Search data.

It is a amazing peek into customer intent, which usually is quite elusive in our normal clickstream data.

I had first written about the wonders of site search analysis in a June 2006 post: Are You Into Internal Site Search Analysis? You Should Be. It is also covered in detail in Web Analytics: An Hour A Day."

Times Online: Google. Who's looking at you?

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2688404.ece
"In the blissed-out California sunshine, the glistening glass-and-steel curves of the Googleplex seem to sweep you up off the pavement with the promise of a glimpse into the future – and a good time. It is 8am on a Monday morning and battalions of high-tech foot soldiers arrive at the gilded palace of the online revolution. Laptops and lattes in hand, they step off conga lines of biodiesel-powered buses, chatting loud and fast about the latest skyrocketing Silicon Valley start-ups, which have names that sound like Teletubbies: Jajah, Orgoo, Ningo. Geek by geek, they head inside to begin surfing and controlling the quadrillions of bytes of information that surge through Google’s giant servers, and which crash on to our desktops and mobile phones every minute of every day."

Go Mediazine: Rule Three: Contrast, Contrast, Contrast

http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/rule-three-contrast-contrast-contrast/
"Good contrast in your design goes hand-in-hand with your color selections. Contrast is the value difference between the colors on your design. Value is how bright or dark the color (ink) is. Ever see a blank white canvas and as a joke someone says: “Hey – it’s a white cow in a snow storm!” This is an example of no contrast. White on white is no contrast – you can’t see anything."

PSDTuts: Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/elements-of-great-web-design-the-polish/
"When I put together designs I usually do so in two phases - Layout and Polish. During the layout phase I place the main objects on the page usually finishing with something that looks relatively complete. In the second stage - the Polish - I go over the design and adjust colours, type treatments, shadows, layers, and generally clean it all up. In this first of a series of tutorials on web design, we'll be looking at the Polish."

Inc.com: Turning Browsers Into Browsers

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070901/turning-browsers-into-buyers.html
"Anyone who does business online worries about how to boost Web traffic. But traffic is only part of the story. Equally important is the conversion rate--the percentage of customers who actually buy something. On average, companies report that only 3 percent of Web surfers actually buy, according to a survey by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation."

Tablecloth: table elements with style

http://cssglobe.com/lab/tablecloth/
"Tablecloth is lightweight, easy to use, unobtrusive way to add style and behaviour to your html table elements. By simply adding 2 lines of code to your html page you will have styled and active tables that your visitors will love :) Try to mouseover or click on a table below."

Virtual hosting blog: Webmaster Intel Basics: 25 Tools to Compile an In-Depth Dossier on a Competitors’ Site

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/webmaster-intel-basics-25-tools-to-compile-an-in-depth-dossier-on-a-competitors-site/
"Your rankings don’t just depend on how good your site is. They depend on the quality of your competitors’ sites as well. As a result, keeping an eye on your competition should be a regular part of every webmaster’s tactical plan. Use these 25 tools to get the lowdown on their sites."

Smashing Magazine: 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/09/30-usability-issues-to-be-aware-of/
"You don’t have to agree upon everything. As a professional web developer you are the advocate of your visitors’ interests and needs; you have to protect your understanding of good user experience and make sure the visitors will find their way through (possibly) complex site architecture. And this means that you need to be able to protect your position and communicate your ideas effectively — in discussions with your clients and colleagues. In fact, it’s your job to compromise wrong ideas and misleading concepts instead of following them blindly."