Coke's New Design Direction

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2008/id20080825_105720.htm
"When David Butler joined Coca-Cola (KO) almost five years ago, he was given, as he tells it, "the Post-it Note mandate: We need to do more with design. Go figure it out." Butler, who had come from a gig as director of brand strategy at the interactive marketing and consulting firm Sapient, had soon written up a 30-page manifesto laying out a design strategy for the company. But if Butler, who's now vice-president for design, has made an impact at the beverage giant, it's not because of some heady proclamation. Instead it's because he has learned the most effective way to implement design strategy at a company as large and complex as Coca-Cola: avoid the word "design" as much as possible."

Postmortem Bioshock

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3774/postmortem_2k_boston2k_.php
"

[Gamasutra is proud to be publishing notable Game Developer magazine postmortems online for the first time - starting with project lead Finley revealing the creation of 2K Boston/Australia's seminal BioShock.]

The story of developing BioShock is an epic one and isn't easily expressed in 10 postmortem points. The team and the game changed remarkably over the course of development. A company was acquired. The team size doubled. The product focus changed from RPG hybrid to shooter.

It's easy to talk about the processes we used to develop the game, but it's harder to describe the creative spark that somehow managed to turn the most unlikely of premises (a failed underwater art deco utopia set in the 1960s) into a marketable shooter. It took a visionary to make the creative choices to guide the game, and an incredibly talented and hardworking team to bring that vision to life."

Smashing Magazine: Top 10 CSS Table Designs

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/13/top-10-css-table-designs/
"Tables have got to be one of the most difficult objects to style in the Web, thanks to the cryptic markup, the amount of detail we have to take care of, and lack of browser compatibility. A lot of time could be wasted on a single table although it’s just a simple one. This is where this article comes in handy. It will show you ten most easily implemented CSS table designs so you can style your tables in a zap!"

Chicago Tribune: Underwater, a disturbing new world

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-great-lakes-invasives_30jul30,0,5835308.story
A Tribune team follows researchers to the bottom of Lake Michigan as they try to explain the rapidly shifting ecosystem
"OFF ATWATER BEACH, Wis.—This place should be an underwater desert.

But as the three researchers wearing scuba tanks and lead weights drop through the water, the landscape of rounded stones 30 feet below is disturbingly full of strange, new life.

In just a few years, the gravel and white boulders that for centuries covered the bottom of Lake Michigan between Chicago and the Door County, Wis., peninsula have disappeared under a carpet of mussels and primitive plant life.

The change is not merely cosmetic. In the last three years or so, scientists say, invasive species have upended the ecology of the lakes, shifting distribution of species and starving familiar fish of their usual food supply."

MArk Cuban Blog: A Couple of My Rules for Startups

http://www.blogmaverick.com/2008/03/09/my-rules-for-startups/
"My buddy Jason had a GREAT post about rules for startups. Read it, love it learn it.

Of course, anyone who has started a company has their own rules and guidelines, so I thought i would add to the meme with my own. My "rules" below aren't just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them as well."

27th May 2007, the second trip to the Zone of the Chernobyl atomic power stations

http://www.nuclearflower.com/pripyat/pripyat.html
"

This trip to the alienated Zone of the Chernobyl atomic power station was much more interesting than last year. We left early so that we would have more time.

As to the risk (as many ask) I will say the following: the background level in the Zone is not a big danger (except for several places where one would not think of going). The intenisty of the exposure dose of radiation at 10 km from site is not high. The dose received by us for a day is comparable to what would be received on one transatlantic flight. Greatest danger is risk of inhaling a hot particle, a slice of nuclear fuel from a reactor. The probability of this is low, as compliance with the safety precautions and rules of behaviour in the Zone aims for zero, but the possibility exists, therefore everyone solves it for themselves, and I have, for a long time, solved it for all.

Having left Kiev at 7:30am by minibus with air conditioning (hurrah!) we stopped at the village Zalese which is now a completely impassable jungle though it once had a population of more than two thousand people, then called into Chernobyl for a short briefing. We were surprised by the huge, monumental constructions intended for cooling water. The closer we approached, the higher our radiometres read, these places did not previously pass activation test and visitors did not go in the general area, we appeared to be the first visitors allowed there. Still not too close as readings rapidly increased on approach.

We then went to a viewing place called "Shelter". The wind blew from station to us, the background level on the platform was one third of what it was in June last year, the work on strengthening and repair of a sarcophagus goes on effectively enough.

Pripyat—a phantom city—is not present on maps anymore, a city about which many people will know nothing, a city which will reduce to ruins over the years but which for the people who were involved it is important and will always be remembered. In the street it is hot, more than 30°C, every couple of hours we are in the bus to be cooled down and have a bite.

We found a strongly radiation infected ladle-capture. It was amusing to observe how some people with radiometres were hysterically peeping with excitement to find the hottest point on it, and other people, on the sly, departed far away from it."

How to enable kerning in Firefox 3?

http://ubuntu-snippets.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-enable-kerning-in-firefox-3.html
"If you don't know about kerning please visit wikipedia article on kerning. Kerning deals with space adjustments between letters to make words more readable. Now a days most of the fonts are shipped with kern hinting but very few applications make use of this extra information. Firefox 3 now officially supports kerning for text elements.

Please make sure you only apply kerning to the elements which use larger font sizes because you won't observe much difference with smaller ones. And use kerning carefully as it could slowdown page rendering because of extra math calculations.

With Firefox 3 you can use the css property text-rendering to enable or disable kerning. text-rendering takes following 4 possible values.

• auto - default value of text-rendering. Gecko will try to guess which one of the following option to use probably based on some kind of global setting.
• optimizeSpeed - will disable font kerning.
• optimizeLegibility - this option enables kerning & ligatures.
• geometricPrecision - this option also enables kerning."

Think Simple Now: Connect with Your Creative Writer

http://thinksimplenow.com/creativity/connect-with-your-creative-writer/
"Do you have to complete a piece of writing but are putting it off? A report, a blog article, or a letter? Are you finding that the moment you sit down to write, your mind seems to go blank? Crap! Writers block! What can you do about it?

Although, the term writers block is popular, this feeling of blockage and mind blanking is not specific to writing, but of any creative feats. Other examples include, brainstorming for a new business, dancing, musical performances, music composition, painting or photography. I’ve personally experienced this during my photography work, blanking out as I stand in front of a client waiting for me for direction. I call these Creative Blocks, where your mind just comes up empty and you feel lost. It’s purely mental."

Popular Mechanics: Why Pixar Is the Apple of Hollywood

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4270580.html?series=6
"LOS ANGELES — To see the influence of Apple on Pixar, you don't have to look much further than WALL*E—not the cute trash-compacting robot from the studio's eponymous new film (though he does boot up to the Mac chime and own an iPod), but his polished white paramour, EVE. Part iPhone 3G, part Asimo, she's the animated equivalent of the next product that might be unveiled by Steve Jobs, who effectively runs both companies. Except for the laser blaster, perhaps."

Mashable: 30+ Must-Have Updated Firefox 3 Extensions

http://mashable.com/2008/06/26/firefox-3-extensions/
"We’ve put together a list of 30+ must-have Firefox 3 extensions that we know you’ll enjoy, whether you’ve upgraded to Firefox 3 and are looking for something new to add to your browser, or have yet to make the upgrade and are looking for a reason.

We cover everything from useful tools to social bookmarking and more. Let us know which extensions are your favorites."

Chicago Tribune: Jesus in China: Christianity's rapid rise

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-jesus-1-1-webjun22,0,833717.story
"The rise of Christianity is reshaping the officially atheist nation, its politics and the way many Chinese view the world. The Tribune's Evan Osnos reports from Beijing and the countryside."

Preview: CNET's new, improved look

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9974373-80.html
"The new CNET home page includes a carousel highlighting several stories across News, Reviews, and Downloads, as well as an integrated video player for CNET TV content. Click on the image for a full view.

After more than a dozen years of bringing you our content surrounded by yellow and green, CNET is getting a new look. As you can see above, the carnival of colors is being replaced by a cleaner look that pivots off our content and our updated red CNET logo."

Vimeo: Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
"14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me."

Freelance Folder: 20 Must-Read Blogs For Freelance Writers

http://freelancefolder.com/20-must-read-blogs-for-freelance-writers/
"The idea of this post comes from Steven’s recent post on freelance blogging. Freelance writing certainly has many advantages and can be rewarding too.

It goes without saying that in order to become a freelance writer, you gotta love writing. But you should also consistently work on sharpening your skills. And how do you do that? Reading well-written articles and blogs is a very good start! This can help you write innovative and appealing content."

Blik Wall Graphics

http://www.whatisblik.com/
" blik. Wall graphics for the commitment phobic.

blik surface graphics are oversized, self-adhesive, removable decals that allow anyone to quickly & easily create decorative patterns or custom wall murals for home or office."

Girl Effect

http://www.girleffect.org/

http://www.girleffect.org/#/about/

Mezzoblue chalkwork icons

http://www.mezzoblue.com/icons/chalkwork/
"Chalkwork is a visually unified set of carefully designed royalty-free icons. Built to cover some of the most common icon needs of web and software designers, the entire Chalkwork family offers hundreds of computer and internet-related metaphors in a visually consistent style at 3 different sizes in up to 6 file formats."

LA Times: Your boss shouldn't read your text or e-mail messages without an OK, court says

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-text19-2008jun19,0,4172340.story
"The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of an Ontario police officer whose messages were obtained by the Police Department and reviewed without his permission."

Fail Blog

http://failblog.org/
"A collection of FAIL images"

How can I prevent my own content from being indexed or remove content from Google's index?

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35301&topic=8459
" How can I prevent my own content from being indexed or remove content from Google's index?

You can instruct us not to include content from your site in our index or to remove content from your site that is currently in our index in the following ways:

• Remove your entire website or part of your website using a robots.txt file.
• Remove individual pages of your website using a robots meta tag.
• Remove cached copies of your pages using a robots meta tag.
• Remove snippets that appear below your page's title in our search results and describe the content of your page.
• Remove outdated pages by returning the proper server response.
• Remove images from Google Image Search using a robots.txt file.
• Remove blog entries from Google Blog Search.
• Remove transcoded versions of your pages (pages we've reformatted for mobile browsers).

If the content is currently in our index, we will remove it after the next time we crawl it. To expedite removal, use the URL removal request tool in Google Webmaster Tools.

Media Temple Labs

http://www.mediatemple.net/labs/
" (mt) Labs

(mt) Labs is an extension of the product development team at (mt) Media Temple. We created (mt) Labs to give clients early access to the newest products and services currently in development. Join an active project and let us know what you think."

The Wall Street Journal: The Inside Scoop: Cold Stone Creamery

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121321718319265569-search.html?KEYWORDS=cold+stone+creamery&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
"Cold Stone Creamery attracted a lot of franchisees thinking it was a sure thing. It wasn't.

Earlier in this decade, Cold Stone Creamery was one of the hottest franchises around. The super-premium ice-cream stores attracted scores of franchisees hungry for a piece of the "Ultimate Ice Cream Experience."

Now many franchisees are selling their stores, overwhelmed by soaring bills and shrinking profits. Some have lost their homes, broken their retirement nest eggs or filed for bankruptcy."

Apple Insider: Apple's Open Secret: SproutCore Is Open for the Web

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/16/apples_open_secret_sproutcore_is_cocoa_for_the_web.html
"One of the biggest revelations at WWDC was quietly unveiled in a session on Friday morning entitled "Building Native Look-and-Feel Web Applications Using SproutCore." While Apple maintained high security during the entire NDA-sealed WWDC session, the secret of SproutCore is out because it is an open source project and people can't stop talking about it."

Web Designer Wall: 2008 Design Trends

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/2008-design-trends/
"About a year ago, I compiled a huge list of artistic sites. It seems like the trend has carried on in 2008 and is growing stronger (thank God the glossy style is gone). So what’s hot now? Pencil sketches, handwritten notes, card stocks, watercolor effects, collage art, script fonts, grungy and splatter ink backgrounds (glossy gradients are not "in" this year). Another trend to be on the lookout for are the vintage and retro styles which I’ve posted earlier this year. Here is a list of 82 sites picked from Best Web Gallery that show the current design trends."

makeuseof.com: Top Free Hosts To Store Your Files Online

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-free-file-hosts/?%3F
"Recently, the need for space has become immense. Files have become increasingly larger, there are more things to download and so on. Personally, I run out of space on multiple drives all the time. Maybe you are trying to get a file sent to someone, but it’s too large for an attachment on your email. Possibly you want to backup some files to download later or multiple times. That is why there are file hosts."

Best Typeface for 2008: PF Centro Pro

http://parachute-fonts.livejournal.com/1414.html
"The EDAwards is the premium venue that honors the best in European design. This year, the award for original typeface went to Parachute® for the Centro Pro typeface superfamilies. You may read the article for the awards and the making of...
at the parachute's blogspot."

Six Revisions: Readers’ Pick: 16 Sites for Web Design Inspiration

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/16_sites_web_design_inspiratio/
"A while back I wrote "Where to Go to Find Design Inspiration", where I listed some of my favorite places to peruse when I’m looking for design inspiration. At the end, I posed the following question to the readers: "Where do you go for design inspiration?", and asked that you contribute suggestions. This is a list of places that readers have recommended. Some I haven’t heard of, and several I’ve added to my own favorites list.

Without further ado – I present 16 sites that you visit for design inspiration."

Chicago Tribune: Office Spaces: Design Ideas

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/home/chi-080801-workplaces-photogallery,0,3635946.photogallery
"Tribune reporter Pat Kampert tours three Chicago office spaces--Google, Remedy and Digitas--with an environmental psychologist to see what works and what doesn't."

Toxel: 14 Creative Advertisements Part 2

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/06/04/14-creative-advertisements-part-2/
"14 Creative Advertisements Part 2"

Lifehacker: Five best antivirus apps

http://lifehacker.com/395046/five-best-antivirus-applications
"The internet is a glorious and exciting world, but unless you're properly protected with a good antivirus application, it can also be a dangerous one. We've come a long way since the days of Norton, with handfuls of excellent freeware software that can keep your computer safe from malware just as well as their bloated, more expensive counterparts. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite antivirus application, and today we're rounding up the five most popular answers. Hit the jump for an overview of the five best antivirus applications and to cast your ballot for the best antivirus app of the group."

Telegraph: The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/22/sv_rahn125.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox
"As Indiana Jones returns to our screens, John Preston looks at the Nazi archaeologist who inspired Spielberg's hero, and finds a story more bizarre than anything the director could have dreamt of

Very little is certain in the short life of Otto Rahn. But one of the few things one can with any confidence say about him is that he looked nothing like Harrison Ford. Yet Rahn, small and weasel-faced, with a hesitant, toothy smile and hair like a neatly contoured oil slick, undoubtedly served as inspiration for Ford's most famous role, Indiana Jones."

New York Times: Shigeru Miyamoto

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/television/25schi.html?ex=1369281600&en=ba45b9fad6e8e092&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
"IT’S O.K. to liken Shigeru Miyamoto to Walt Disney.

When Disney died in 1966, Mr. Miyamoto was a 14-year-old schoolteacher’s son living near Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital. An aspiring cartoonist, he adored the classic Disney characters. When he wasn’t drawing, he made his own toys, carving wooden puppets with his grandfathers’ tools or devising a car race from a spare motor, string and tin cans."

TechCrunch: PR Secrets for Startups

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/25/pr-secrets-for-startups/
"Editor’s Note: At a time when anyone can broadcast their opinions about your startup to the world, public relations requires a new level of engagement on the part of companies and entrepreneurs. But what are the new rules of PR? Guest author Brian Solis, who earlier this month wrote a post for us on the evolution of the press release, explains how public relations has changed and offers up 12 secrets of PR for startups. Warning: This a lengthy post. Its intent is to help companies navigate through the rough seas of traditional PR as it struggles, forcibly, to evolve and adapt to the new rules set forth by the Web (regardless of version number) .

Solis is the Principal of FutureWorks, a PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley and also blogs at PR 2.0. Along with Geoff Livingston, Solis recently co-authored Now is Gone, a book that helps businesses learn how to leverage new and social media."

Photos of bankrupt offices

http://mrtoledano.com/frame_bankrupt.php

Interactive Web sites draw minds, shape public perception

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/ps-iwd052308.php
"University Park, Pa. -- The interactive look and feel of a corporate website could help shape positive perceptions about the organization if the site includes a likeable design and features that engage the target audience, especially job seekers, according to media researchers.

S. Shyam Sundar, professor of film, video and media studies at Penn State, and Jamie Guillory, formerly an undergraduate student at Penn State, are trying to understand how interactivity in websites influences the public perception of an organization. In previous studies of websites of political candidates, Sundar had found that the candidates were rated more positively if their site had some interactive features, even though the sites had no new content, and the candidates held the same policy positions. But too much interactivity tends to turn off people.

"Websites with low to medium levels of interactivity create positive perceptions but for medium to high interactivity, it actually falls down," said Sundar. "In general, too much interactivity is not desirable, and may lead to information overload."

Whatever effects, positive or negative, on a site, interactivity acts as a volume knob that boosts the effect, he explained, noting, "Just through the presence of such features, people attribute meaning to the content or the nature of the site."

The Penn State researchers wanted to see if the same effect holds true even if the people viewing the website are highly engaged, or whether they form their opinions based on bells and whistles on a website only when they do not know enough about a topic.

In the current study, 116 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of seven websites representing low, medium, and high levels of interactivity. The students were specifically assigned to review the career section of these organizations because these sites require a higher level of involvement.

Features on these sites ranged from enabling a person to click on a link for job inquiries, follow a link for information on a specific job, submit an online application and view video footage of the company and its employees.

Students then answered a questionnaire on their perceptions of an organization based on their experience with its website. The study results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the level of interactivity on a career website and job seekers' perception of that organization.

"We found that college students looking for a job are more likely to apply to companies that have interactive websites with bells and whistles," said Sundar, who presented his findings today (May 25) at the 58th annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Montreal. "But the students use these features to make a logical connection."

The work received a Top Paper award from the association’s Public Relations division.

"We found that both liking and involvement are significant mediators such that people who saw a high interactive website liked it more, and they also got involved as a result of liking it more," he added.

The findings may have important implications for organizations. For instance, by simply tweaking the features on the website and without changing any of the content, a company could project a positive image to its targeted demographic.

In other words, the website of an organization could feature an optimal amount of interactivity specifically tailored to its target audience, and thereby control the impressions that people form of that organization.

But Sundar also cautions against being taken in by fancy websites that promise much and deliver little.

"We have uncovered a psychological phenomena here, that is the more interactive some thing is, more people -- especially college students -- are likely to buy into whatever is being advocated," said Sundar, who is also a founder of the Penn State Media Effects Research Laboratory. "We are trying to warn them against that potential danger."

Researchers say the next step is to figure out all the different meanings people are attaching when they are faced with new responsive features.

"Interactivity is multi-faceted in terms of the meanings it communicates. It is not just about interaction alone," added Sundar.

###

The Penn State Media Effects Research Laboratory is at http://www.psu.edu/dept/medialab"

slightlywarped.com: One man's trash

http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/onemanstrash.htm
"But is it art? Tim Nobel and Sue Webster take piles of trash and make art into them... but sometimes the art isn't apparent until you see it in a different light."

Forbes: Nine ways to prevent burnout at work

http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/12/health-prevent-burnout-forbeslife-cx_avd_0512health_slide.html?thisSpeed=30000

Create Debate Blog: How to spot weak arguments

http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/05/14/how-to-spot-weak-arguments/
"When you’re debating, you’ll come up against many styles of arguing, based on all different levels of arguing. If you’re in the debate to win, you’ll have to spot the flaws in opposing arguments and point them out, or exploit them like a weak spot. Sometimes it’s as easy as listening for fuzzy words. Here are some words and phrases that are easy indications of flaws:

many, all, a lot, every, none, nobody, much, more - Solid arguments use actual numbers with references to their source. These words can indicate implied statistics that show the debater is making up a fact rather than working off real data. Example: “Many Christians disagree”

never, always, usually, tend, trend - These may be blanket statements that imply cause and effect, or assumptions about overall responses and opinions that don’t hold up under scrutiny. Example: “the rich have always been getting richer”

I, I don’t think, I believe - including yourself in the argument can indicate thinking personal experience equals the overall trend. If the debate is not a poll or about individual views, this can be Hasty Generalization."

Cubicle Culture: Techs 10 Top Workspaces

http://valleywag.com/387593/techs-top-10-workspaces
"What makes for an appealing workspace? The envelopes they leave in your mailbox every two weeks. But after that, it comes down to design and amenities. Also, we like windows and brick. Lots and lots of brick. After spending some time on Office Snapshots, we present the ten best-looking offices in tech, below.
They like right angles and clean surfaces at Austin-based interactive agency Tocquigny's offices. We do too. Photos by pierpont.communications"

Mandolux - beautiful wallpapers

www.mandolux.com

AisleOne on Flickr: Books and Magazines

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yearofthesheep/collections/72157604094755966/
"This is my collection of graphic design books and magazines."

Smashing Magazine: Inspirational PDF Magazines

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/04/22/inspirational-pdf-magazines/
"PDF magazines are a great promotional tool used by companies and collectives. They are quick to put together, can be attached to emails, or made available as free downloads. Numerous visual arts publications from around the world are available for you to draw inspiration from. These magazines serve as excellent sources of both conceptual and visual design. Furthermore, it’s both interesting and important to know what other artists do — to explore new artistic style, learn new techniques and make new contacts.

View great illustration, photography, graphic design, painting, typography, and various other visual and communication arts. Dig into ideas with artist interviews and articles. Or flip through these pages to discover new visual solutions and styles. Below you’ll find both well-established and new PDF magazines for you to download and to draw inspiration from."

zehabits: 18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess

http://zenhabits.net/2008/04/18-five-minute-decluttering-tips-to-start-conquering-your-mess/
"

I’ve written a lot about simplicity and decluttering (I can’t help it — I’m passionate about it!) and I’ve noticed that a lot of readers share my ideal of having an uncluttered home or workplace, but don’t know where to start.

When your home is filled with clutter, trying to tackle a mountain of stuff can be quite overwhelming.

So here’s my advice: start with just five minutes. Baby steps are important. Sure, five minutes won’t barely make a dent in your mountain, but it’s a start. Celebrate when you’ve made that start!

Then take another five minutes tomorrow. And another the next day. Before you know it, you’ll have cleared a whole closet or a room and then half your house and then … who knows? Maybe before long your house will be even more uncluttered than mine. We’ll have a challenge!

For those who are overwhelmed by their clutter, here are some great ways to get started, five minutes at a time."

Dark Roasted Blend: Japanese Creative Barcodes

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/04/japanese-creative-barcodes.html
"Cut out your UPC label and... frame it

Barcodes, or UPC symbols, these ubiquitous emblems of our consumer civilisation, have received a radical makeover by a Japanese firm D-Barcode - and this time their ideas ended up on grocery products all over Japan."

Six Revisions: 15 helpful WordPress plugins for the savvy user

http://sixrevisions.com/tools-of-the-trade/helpful_wordpress_plugins_advanced_users/
"This article presents 15 WordPress plugins to help enhance and simplify the blogging experience of advanced users, especially web developers and designers. Most of the plugins were tested on a default installation of WordPress version 2.3.1 for basic functionality; relevant screenshots of the plugins in action are included.

What’s a savvy user?

1. A blogger with basic to expert knowledge of HTML/CSS, and for a lot of the plugins featured here, PHP and MySQL experience is highly recommended.
2. A blogger who needs to display complex content in posts and pages like displaying and colorizing code snipplets, running custom scripts only on certain posts or pages, incorporating custom web forms, etc.
3. A blogger who knows what they’re doing - The default configuration of WordPress is too "fool-proof". For example, with the visual editor turned on, it will add unexpected indents and line breaks even inside

    tags. Additionally, it blocks you from adding 
    tags, automatically "sanitizing"  them into 
    tags.

If you match any of the above criteria, read on and maybe you’ll find a plugin or two that will make your blogging experience more convenient."

BBC News: Refreshing Changes (Nwe Web Site)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/03/refreshing_changes.html
"This morning we launched a new look for the BBC News website, you can see what it looks like here on the right, with previous versions further down the page. We’ve been working on this for the past few months, and in fact it is still a work in progress, because the changes will continue to roll out across the site in the coming days and weeks, and beyond that we have further improvements planned for later in the year.

But for now – here’s what we’ve done:

First - we did some research asking you what you thought we should change about the site. Many of those we asked said leave it alone - don't change a thing. But it was also clear from the feedback we got that there were others who thought the site design could do with a bit of a revamp – something we’d been thinking about doing for a while.

So our designers embarked on a mission that they have called a “site refresh” - they say it’s “like gardeners doing a bit of pruning and weeding, but not digging it up and starting from scratch" ie it’s not a fundamental redesign of everything – many of the basics stay the same, because we know they work."

abuzeedo: How to create HDR Photos - HDR/Photomatix tutorial

http://abduzeedo.com//how-create-hdr-photos-hdrphotomatix-tutorial

There has been a lot of buzz recently about HDR photography, but many people assume that it's only limited to professional photographers. The reality is that just about anyone can take and process an HDR photo with most cameras and proper HDR software.

There are plenty of explanations of what HDR is and how it works, so we won't cover that here. If you want more background info, check out HDR explained so anyone can understand or Jon Meyer's popular HDR primer.

In this tutorial we'll go through the steps necessary to take your very own HDR photo and process it like a pro. What you will need:

1. A camera that allows you to adjust exposure settings.
2. Tone Mapping Software (In this tutorial we will use Photomatix, which is the most popular way to create HDR's.)

makeuseof.com: 4 Ways to Carry your PC on iPod or USB Thumbdrive

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/carry-your-pc-on-ipod-or-usb-thumbdrive/
"Do you want to take your favorite programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more wherever you go and use them on pretty much any computer ? If so here are four free tools that can help you with that. These are portable software packs that can be installed on any USB device. Download the pack, install it on your portable device and done. Use it at work, a friend’s PC, college lab, anywhere."

Telegraph.co.uk: The 101 most useful websites

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/03/30/sv_101websites.xml
"There are tens of millions of sites to visit. Not forgetting telegraph.co.uk, here are the only ones you actually need. Compiled by David Baker"

CSS Tricks

http://css-tricks.com/
"I’ve been really getting into this jQuery phenomenon lately. jQuery is tightly tied to CSS, so if you are already comfortable with CSS and are looking for ways to expand your possibilities, jQuery is the place to be. You can achieve so many cool effects with it, and there are so many good learning resources out there for it I think it makes sense for serious web designers to start getting their hands dirty with this. In the past few weeks, I’ve come across some great tutorials and roundups that have been helping me learn, so I thought I’d share."

Kotaku: Tetris Shelves: Modular Furniture Never Looked So Good

http://kotaku.com/373751/tetris-shelves-modular-furniture-never-looked-so-good
"We mentioned one form of Tetris shelves from New York's Brave Space Design a few years ago; but there are several options you may have missed if you saw these beauties way back when. While the regular open work shelves don't have a price listed ('Contact us for a quote!' is rarely a good sign for your wallet), you can get the colorful "flat" set for a mere $1500 per 10 blocks or the lovely bamboo version for $2000 per 10 blocks. Despite the expense and the fact that Tetris-inspired bookshelves would clash horribly with my decor, I think my books would look fabulous nestled in these creative, if pricey, shelving units."

Paul Graham: How to Disagree

http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
"The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. The web lets readers respond, and increasingly they do—in comment threads, on forums, and in their own blog posts.

Many who respond to something disagree with it. That's to be expected. Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing. And when you agree there's less to say. You could expand on something the author said, but he has probably already explored the most interesting implications. When you disagree you're entering territory he may not have explored.

The result is there's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. That doesn't mean people are getting angrier. The structural change in the way we communicate is enough to account for it. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that the increase in disagreement will make people angrier. Particularly online, where it's easy to say things you'd never say face to face.

If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. What does it mean to disagree well? Most readers can tell the difference between mere name-calling and a carefully reasoned refutation, but I think it would help to put names on the intermediate stages. So here's an attempt at a disagreement hierarchy:"

Peter Elst: Adobe MAX Chicago - Sneak Peeks

http://www.peterelst.com/blog/2007/10/03/adobe-max-chicago-sneak-peeks/
"If you thought the keynotes were exciting, wait until you hear what we got to see in the sneak peeks session. There was of course the disclaimer that technologies they demo may never make it as actual products, but what a lineup it was.

I’m in the process of uploading video for most of the demo’s we got to see, so bookmark this page and I’ll eventually have them all up — there are loads of them!"

Smashing Magazine: Adobe Photoshop Video Tutorials - Best Of

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/28/adobe-photoshop-video-tutorials-best-of/
"The best thing about Photoshop video-tutorials is that they allow you to observe professionals just as if you were standing nearby and looking over their shoulders. You can see step-by-step how buttons, collages or even paintings are created. Instead of reading through books describing what needs to be selected, activated and clicked, you can simply imitate mouse clicks knowing exactly that you are actually doing the right thing.
The learning curve is easier to climb and the result is easier to compare. More than that: you can observe how it is done from the very beginning to the very end and (sometimes) you can get explained why it is done in exactly this way.
We’ve searched through dozens of video-sites, forums, articles, blogs, portfolios and communities. And we selected 80 excellent Adobe Photoshop video tutorials which you can use as a starting point to improve your skills or observe how professionals do their job. Among other things, below we present Photoshop video tutorials about speed painting, design of buttons and interfaces, beauty retouching, digital matte painting, photo manipulation, effects and much more."

Demo Girl: How User Friendly Is Your Site?

http://demogirl.com/2008/03/25/how-user-friendly-is-your-site/
"I sign up and navigate through a lot of different Websites and services every single day so I can create screencasts to help my readers decide if they want to try them out or not. In doing this, I notice every little detail from arriving to the site, to locating my account settings, to signing out. It’s my job to know where the help pages are, how to change a password, and how to generally navigate through whatever site I’m currently creating a screencast for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ditched a service that I actually thought was kind of cool, but navigation was so horrible that I didn’t want to share it with you here - And that’s the topic of the screencast today.

I want to know if I’m crazy or if the very minor issues I’m showing you really do matter. I don’t think enough start-ups realize that it’s not only important to have a functioning site, but a functional site as well. What do you think? Let me know what issues bother you in the comments after you watch the screencast below:"

The 37th Button On Your Remote Control

http://blogs.bnet.com/harvard/?p=255
"Our headline today comes from a line used by innovation expert Scott Anthony in the excellent post Innovation Gone Overboard.

His point: Companies often try to freshen their existing products with too much innovation; the 37th button on the remote. But their mistake is your opportunity."

The iPhone Is No Desktop

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2278816,00.asp
"People are willing to make a device that you can drop in the toilet or leave in a taxi cab the next desktop computing platform. Ridiculous.

by John C. Dvorak

Time and time again we've heard that bigger is better—until the technology revolution came along, that is. Now, the emphasis is on smaller, cheaper, and faster. I've always subscribed to the notion that smaller is superior—until recently, when I saw that smaller is actually becoming a problem."

Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/motorola-insider-tells-all-about-the-fall-of-a-technology-icon/
"Last month we were contacted by the late Geoffrey Frost's personal adviser at Motorola; until Frost's death in 2005, Numair Faraz worked under the Motorola's former CMO -- the man widely regarded as the father of the RAZR. Like many (ourselves included), over the years Numair has become increasingly disenfranchised with the company's direction -- enough so that he compelled us to publish his letter to Motorola, its board of directors, and MOT investors everywhere regarding the company's egregious missteps and mismanagement.

In researching the myriad claims raised in this letter -- which we believe to be true -- we also discovered a number of other unsettling things about Motorola's corporate past in the last five years, such as certain gross corporate excesses demanded by Zander and his inner circle (like a small fleet of extravagant private jets, where most companies that size might only have one, if any), or the fact that Motorola's current CEO, Greg Brown, is so technologically out of touch he refuses to use a computer for communications, and has all his email correspondences printed by his secretary and replied to by dictation.

There's no doubt in our minds that Motorola is in dire straits. But today's news of the company's broken-off mobile division only serves to cement the fact that the company no longer knows how to conduct its core consumer business, and is squandering time and money as it flounders in a market that long since passed it by. Motorola did not comment on this story. Letter posted after the break."

wakeup later: The Evolution of Websites: How 10 Popular Websites Have (And Have Not) Changed

http://www.wakeuplater.com/index.php/website-building/evolution-of-websites-10-popular-websites.aspx
"I was in high school in the mid-nineties when I first encountered the ever-expanding world of websites. At the time, I didn't realize that my future career would rely on this industry -- one which did not exist when I was in elementary school. Now in the year 2008, having created websites for over half my life, I look back and see how much websites have changed in the last decade and a half. At the same time, I can see how little they've changed as well, and I've realized that the internet as we know it today is only a teenager, with many years of growth still ahead. So in the vein of change, let's look at ten popular websites and their evolution throughout the last many years. (Note: All pictures can be clicked on to view a larger size.)"

20+ Excellent Resources for Desktop Wallpapers

http://reencoded.com/2008/03/13/20-excellent-resources-for-desktop-wallpapers/
"If you have to stare at something for 8 or more hours a day, why not make it something interesting? Sure there are tons of places to find wallpaper on the web … but a lot of them are hard to navigate and highly disorganized. Divided into five helpful categories, with introductory descriptions and sample screenshots, here are over twenty of the best collections, communities and other resources on the web for finding excellent desktop wallpaper."

DRMARDY.com:

http://www.drmardy.com/repartee/historygreatreplies.shtml

PSDTuts: Seriously cool photoshop explosion effect

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/seriously-cool-photoshop-explosion-effect/
"Explosions are cool. Seriously cool. So when I received some emails asking about how to create a break apart, explosion effect, I knew it'd be worth making a tutorial on. Read on to find out how to break apart a body, then add some awesome lighting and glow, nopattern style, to finish the image off."

blogwell: 100+ Resources for Web Developers

http://blog-well.com/2008/03/04/100-resources-for-web-developers/
"There is some amazing stuff out there on the Web–resources, tools, tricks, and tips. Problem is, as a Web developer, you spend so much of your time just keeping up with new technologies - learning, playing – and this doesn’t leave much time to go hunting for the latest and greatest tool, or for a better way of doing things.

So we’ve put together a list of over 100 resources to help make your life as a developer easier; where to find snippets of code, sites that automate processes, cheat sheets, lessons, useful tools and a couple of silly videos to give your brain a break if you make it through to the end. Please enjoy!"

FORTUNE: The trouble with Steve Jobs

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/02/news/companies/elkind_jobs.fortune/index.htm
"Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk."

ReadWriteWeb: Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_live_workspace_vs_google_docs_feature_by_feature.php
"Today, Microsoft announced that the Office Live Workspace beta is publicly available for everyone to access. The site, a free web-based extension of Microsoft Office, lets you access your documents online and share your work with others. Some say that the service's launch is a direct response to Google's entry into the web office space with their Google Docs online service. If that's so, then the question now is: did Microsoft just trump Google Docs? Or does Google Docs still rule online office suites?"

ReadWriteWeb: Internet Explorer 8 Launches

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_explorer_8_has_arrived.php
"Microsoft's next-generation web browser, Internet Explorer 8, has arrived. In a surprising move, after the demo of IE8 and its new features at today's session of the MIX08 conference, the startling announcement was made: "It's available for download now". The new browser showcases many new features and improvements, like Facebook and eBay integration, standards compliance, and the ability to work with AJAX web pages. What's most notable about IE8, though, is more than a sum of its parts. If anything, this launch shows that Microsoft is not taking Firefox's creep into browser market share lightly."

iPhone Review: The 10 Best iPhone Applications

http://iphone-app.blogspot.com/2008/03/10-best-iphone-applications.html
"With the recent surge in iPhone applications popping up everywhere, it might seem nearly impossible to decide which ones to try out. I have lined up the top 10 applications your iPhone won't be complete without. The following selection is based on parameters such as usability, price, utilization of system resources, stability and update speed.


1.The first application to really cause serious change in the way we use the iPhone is the Installer, which surpassed other competing applications. This app concentrates all available applications, allowing you to receive updates on the different apps. Its simplicity and the fact that it enables to download and install applications without any need for a computer have definitely earned Installer a place of honor in the iPhone application pantheon. All you need are some good sources for updates:"

Abuzeedo: 10 trends that will define logo design in 2008

http://abduzeedo.com/10-trends-will-define-logo-design-2008
"The last article I wrote about logo design was about logo trends from past years. But now, 2008 logo design is getting some cool trends already.

It's important to be at the center of all design trends, because most of clients want to be at the hype. And the hype for trends right now are pretty cool. Some have been out there for some time now, and others are somewhat new. Check it out."

Think Vitamin: Awesome up your design with A.B.

http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/awesome-up-your-design-with-ab
"A new trend in web design is the rise of ambient — or auroral — backgrounds (A.B. for short). One of the spearheads of the new trend is Drew Wilson and with this tutorial Drew pulls back the curtain and lets you in on all his little secrets.

So you want to add some sweet savory flavor to you website, but you can’t place your cursor on what is lacking in your design and what needs to be added. May I suggest something I call Auroral Background (A.B. for short). It’s a great way to add depth and “awesomeness” to your design. With enough practice using the techniques I am going to show you, your designs can start looking like this:"

I Love Typography: A Guide to Web Typography

http://ilovetypography.com/2008/02/28/a-guide-to-web-typography/
"Typography for the Web has come a long way since Tim Berners-Lee flipped the switch in 1991. Back in the days of IE 1.0, good web typography was something of an oxymoron. Today things are different. Not only do we have browsers that support images (gasp!), but we have the opportunity to make our web pages come to life through great typography.

First, it’s worth noting that Typography is not just about choosing a font, or even distinguishing one typeface from another. In recent experiments, trained Monkeys were able to correctly identify Helvetica 90% of the time."

It's Shocking, We're Pissed, Wii Fit Sorta Works

http://kotaku.com/362216/its-shocking-were-pissed-wii-fit-sorta-works
" Let's get this out of the way: Wii Fit does work. Why wouldn't it? It's based on time-trued exercises. Stuff like doing sit-ups, push-ups and jogging. Well, jogging in place. But, to what extend does it work? For the past month, I've used Wii Fit on nearly a daily basis. Wii Fit isn't something you can review in 8 or time hours of play. You need weeks, months even! My Wii Fit workout was interrupted by two breaks: One for when my wife was sick (and I then got sick) and another when my wife was sick again (Nintendo, please make Wii Healthy, kthanxbai). Like with most things, results do vary from person to person. For me, some of it worked brilliantly. And some of it not.

"...when I started regularly going to the swimming hall, my weight dropped quite a bit, and it felt like my overall fitness had increased as well. I started thinking that getting fit could actually be fun."
—Shigeru Miyamoto

Last year, I began power walking. This writing job involves a great deal of sitting. And since I work at home, there's not much impetus for me to leave the house. (Getting dressed is a challenge most days as well.) Back before I got married and I spent my time talking to semi-pretty women and getting in bar fights (no, really), I weighed in at a meek 130 pounds. Know: I'm 5 foot 11 inches. I was super model thin, and shopping at chic Japanese boutiques was no problem. Then I got married, decided to quit smoking two packs a day and get very, very fat. I jumped up to 177 pounds. Blame Mrs. Bashcraft's delicious cooking or being able to down a half a bottle of sake. A big bottle. All of my super swank designer clothes were too small. I suffered a horrible embarrassment at a Paul Smith boutique, where I used to shop regularly, where none of their sizes could fit me. Hello fat American! But, as I approach thirty, the slow realization has set-in: We don't live forever. (That, and you can buy big designer clothes in America.)"

Abuzeedo: 20 Beautiful HDR Pictures

http://abduzeedo.com/20-beautiful-hdr-pictures?=main
"There are some photography techniques that really give me the goose bumps, but the good ones. HDR is one of those techniques... and you'll probably love these as much as I do.

"In computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows." - From Wikipedia.

What I've read on some foruns is that a program called Photomatix does the job... Does anybody have already used it? I'm looking forward to it. Well... either way, if I don't get to use it, I'll probably find out how to simulate that effect on Photoshop. All this pictures are from a Flickr HDR Group."

Wired: 'Google Bomb' an Enemy

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/%27Google_Bomb%27_an_Enemy
"Google bombing involves manipulating search engines' contextual search methodologies to cause a certain search phrase to point to an unexpected page, usually for comedic or satirical purposes. A recent example of a Google bomb happened in January 2008, when the search phrase "dangerous cult" returned the Chuch of Scientology home page as the top search result.

Google bombing -- also known by the more generic term "link bombing" -- works with any search engine using a relevancy algorithm similar to Google's. For example, run a search for "miserable failure" in Yahoo Search. You'll see prominent links to President George W. Bush's biography at whitehouse.gov at or near the top of the list.

The heart of the system is Google's PageRank algorithm, as well as equivalent competing technologies. The PageRank system assigns a numeric score of 0-10 for each page on the web. Google derives a page's ranking from the PageRank scores of all other pages that link to it.

The key to Google bombing is to generate outgoing links to your target from highly-ranked sites. Get enough highly-ranked sites pointing to your target using the same phrase, and you'll push the target site to the top of the list of search results one sees when entering that mischievous phrase.

Here's how to do it."

Fortune: Ending software patents: Has the time come?

http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/02/28/ending-software-patents-has-the-time-come/
"

Attempting to ride a wave of corporate and judicial disenchantment with aspects of the current patent system, a new project was unveiled Thursday designed to, as its name bluntly indicates, End Software Patents. (Press release is here. The group’s “first yearly report” on the state of software patents is here.)

The group is intended to become a clearinghouse for information and a hub for those strategizing legal challenges, according to its executive director, Ben Klemens. Though End Software Patents will not initiate litigation of its own, it will be on the lookout for appropriate test cases to support as they arise, he says.

Though the project is being sponsored and funded by leaders of the Free and Open Source Software movement, it hopes to attract support from the wider community of businesses, financial institutions and universities that have all been blindsided in recent years by lawsuits over software patents and their close-cousins, business-method patents."

Business Week: Apple, Buy Back This Stock

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080227_160304.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech
"It's sitting on a huge pile of cash—and there are compelling reasons to return some to shareholders"

ReadWriteWeb: 6 Adobe AIR Apps to Check Out

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/some_adobe_air_apps_worth_a_look.php
"Adobe's AIR platform allows developers to create web applications that run on your desktop without the need of a web browser. Now that AIR has dropped the beta tag (see our previous coverage), it's time to look at some of the AIR apps you can use today. And if you want to know why we here at Read Write Web are so excited about AIR, read more of our analysis about the platform to get caught up. Did your favorite app make the list?"

garfield minus garfield

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/
"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?

Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb."

Wired Magazine: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free
"At the age of 40, King Gillette was a frustrated inventor, a bitter anticapitalist, and a salesman of cork-lined bottle caps. It was 1895, and despite ideas, energy, and wealthy parents, he had little to show for his work. He blamed the evils of market competition. Indeed, the previous year he had published a book, The Human Drift, which argued that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public and that millions of Americans should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. His boss at the bottle cap company, meanwhile, had just one piece of advice: Invent something people use and throw away.

One day, while he was shaving with a straight razor that was so worn it could no longer be sharpened, the idea came to him. What if the blade could be made of a thin metal strip? Rather than spending time maintaining the blades, men could simply discard them when they became dull. A few years of metallurgy experimentation later, the disposable-blade safety razor was born. But it didn't take off immediately. In its first year, 1903, Gillette sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. Over the next two decades, he tried every marketing gimmick he could think of. He put his own face on the package, making him both legendary and, some people believed, fictional. He sold millions of razors to the Army at a steep discount, hoping the habits soldiers developed at war would carry over to peacetime. He sold razors in bulk to banks so they could give them away with new deposits ("shave and save" campaigns). Razors were bundled with everything from Wrigley's gum to packets of coffee, tea, spices, and marshmallows. The freebies helped to sell those products, but the tactic helped Gillette even more. By giving away the razors, which were useless by themselves, he was creating demand for disposable blades. A few billion blades later, this business model is now the foundation of entire industries: Give away the cell phone, sell the monthly plan; make the videogame console cheap and sell expensive games; install fancy coffeemakers in offices at no charge so you can sell managers expensive coffee sachets."

Ars Technica: MetaRAM quadruples DDR2 DIMM capacities, launches 8GB DIMMs

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080224-metaram-quadruples-ddr2-dimm-capacities-launches-8gb-dimms.html
"Since its launch in January 2006, the only thing that has been publicly known about former AMD CTO Fred Weber's new venture is its name: MetaRAM. Clearly, the stealth-mode company was working on something to do with RAM, but what? As of today, MetaRAM is finally ready to talk about its technology, and it appears to be a pretty solid evolutionary step for the tried-and-true SDRAM DIMM module. In short, MetaRAM's technology enables DIMM capacity increases of two or four times, so that a single DDR2 MetaSDRAM DIMM can hold 4GB or 8GB of memory while still being a drop-in replacement for a normal DIMM.

Because MetaRAM's high-capacity DIMMs look to an Intel or AMD system like normal DDR2 DIMMs, the company expects to see servers with memory configurations that would normally require expensive custom hardware to become significantly cheaper. One of MetaRAM's channel partners will soon announce a server with 256GB of main memory for under $50,000, with 500GB boxes on tap for a higher price points"

Web Urbanist: 10 (More) Pieces of Clever Transforming Furniture: From Tetris Tables to Rooms in a Box

http://weburbanist.com/2008/02/24/10-more-pieces-of-clever-transforming-furniture-from-tetris-tables-to-rooms-in-a-box/
"Why is transforming furniture so alluring? Does it appeal to our sense that innovation is progress, the fact that fewer materials for more uses is sustainable or simply a return to the childhood love of things that we can actively change and shape as we wish? Whatever the reason, these designs range from humorous and impractical to jaw-droppingly cool. Be sure to scroll all the way down: the best (pictured briefly above) has been saved for last!"

NY Times: The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 - 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html
"Summer blockbusters and holiday hits make up the bulk of box office revenue each year, while contenders for the top Oscar awards tend to attract smaller audiences that build over time. Here's a look at how movies have fared at the box office, after adjusting for inflation."

Made By Elephant: We craft user experiences

http://www.madebyelephant.com/
"We are a small creative agency specialized in designing websites and online applications.

No matter if it’s the website of a small company, or a large scale online application, you need an interface that fits like a well-tailored suit. There’s no “one size fits all”."

Interactions Magazine: Designing for Disagreement

http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=33
"Creativity is a leap of faith into unknown territory, and the thing that separates a creative problem solver is the ability to make the appropriate leaps. It is through a methodology - whether implicit or explicit - that a creative mind can navigate through a problem space, know when to make a leap, and how that leap will aid in delivering a richer solution to the problem. But, as defined, this event is a singular creative process. One person collects information, synthesizes it, and produces a creative result. The difficulty of methodology comes when individuals are asked to join a group and work together to solve a problem.

Increasingly, the problems the design community is being engaged to solve are compounding in complexity. As a result, what used to be something one person could solve alone now requires participation by a group of complementary collaborators. With such problems, the ways in which individuals solve problems has become less useful than understanding the ways a collaborative team solves a problem. While the individual approach should still be respected - the value of Design for today and tomorrow lies with understanding collaborative problem solving, the methods that enable a fluid design process, and the value of disagreement in solving complex problems."

ideasonideas: Design vs. Style

http://www.ideasonideas.com/2008/02/fuck_style/
"Design is such a multi-layered practice that it’s often difficult to define. That being said, I believe that the word “design” is increasingly confused with “style”. For example, to most “I like the way it’s designed” means that they like the way that something looks.

The visual aspect of what we do is highly important, and style has a place in that. For example, if we want to connect with a particular audience, employing a style can sometimes be helpful. That being said, it seems that style often leads efforts. We have to break this habit."

Joystiq: Wii Head Tracking

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/21/gdc08-boom-blox-to-include-head-tracking-seriously/
"At the end of the "Creating Boom Blox" session at GDC, executive producer Lou Castle revealed that you can use two Wii remotes on your TV (and some form of do-it-yourself LED headset) to control the camera in Boom Blox with your head. Seriously.

Speaking briefly to Joystiq after the session, Castle explained that it was more of an easter egg inclusion and they weren't planning to actively promote the feature. We'll have more from the Boom Blox session later this week. After the break, a video of do-it-yourself head tracking."

Mozilla Blog: 500 million Firefox downloads: complete; 500 million grains: in progress

http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2008/02/21/500-million-firefox-downloads-complete-500-million-grains-in-progress/
"Firefox just reached 500,000,000 downloads. This is an absolutely phenomenal milestone for Firefox. It is sort of hard to imagine what that number means. For some perspective, that’s roughly the audience size of 10,000 Rome Colosseums combined. It would be the weight, in kilograms, of 8,500 Boeing 747 airplanes. In dollars, for $500 million you and 15 of your friends can fly to the International Space Station."

Smashing Magazine: Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/21/powerful-css-techniques-for-effective-coding/

"Sometimes being a web-developer is just damn hard. Particularly coding is often responsible for slowing down our workflow, reducing the quality of our work and sleepless nights with pizza and coffee laying around the laptop. Reason: with a number of incompatibility issues and quite creative rendering engines it sometimes takes too much time to find a workaround for some problem without addressing browsers with quirky hacks. And that’s where ready-to-use solutions developed by other designers come in handy.

One year ago we’ve published the post with 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without where we provided references to the most useful CSS-techniques which are often used in almost every project. Over the last year we’ve been observing what’s happening with the CSS-based web-development, and we collected most useful CSS-techniques we’ve stumbled upon — for us and for our readers.

In this post we present 50 new CSS-techniques, ideas and ready-to-use solutions for effective coding. You definitely know some of them, but definitely not all of them. Some technique is missing? Let us know in the comments to this post.

Thanks to all developers who contributed to the CSS-based design over the last year. The community appreciates it."

Business Week: Social Media Will Change Your Business

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080219_908252.htm
"Editor's note: When we published "Blogs Will Change Your Business" in May, 2005, Twittering was an activity dominated by small birds. Truth is, we didn't see MySpace coming. Facebook was still an Ivy League sensation. Despite the onrush of technology, however, thousands of visitors are still downloading the original cover story.

So we decided to update it. Over the past month, we've been calling many of the original sources and asking the Blogspotting community to help revise the 2005 report. We've placed fixes and updates into more than 20 notes; to view them, click on the blue icons. If you see more details to fix, please leave comments. The role of blogs in business is clearly an ongoing story.

First, the headline. Blogs were the heart of the story in 2005. But they're just one of the tools millions can use today to lift their voices in electronic communities and create their own media. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace, video sites like YouTube, mini blog engines like Twitter—they've all emerged in the last three years, and all are nourished by users. Social Media: It's clunkier language than blogs, but we're not putting it on the cover anyway. We're just fixing it."

Gizmodo: Stairs Bookcase Actually Makes Me Want to Move to London

http://gizmodo.com/358636/stairs-bookcase-actually-makes-me-want-to-move-to-london
"Here's a great idea for anyone who loves books and doesn't have enough apartment space or a Kindle: a "secret staircase" made of English oak, lined with books left, right and center, leading to a loft bedroom in a Victorian 1898 apartments block."

Lifehacker: Use your wii as a media center

http://lifehacker.com/357869/use-your-wii-as-a-media-center

5 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP

http://www.5min.com/Video/5-Ways-to-speed-up-your-computer-7060

Bittbox: Dingbats Roundup: 16 Incredibly Detailed, Useful (and free) Dingbat Fonts

http://www.bittbox.com/fonts/dingbats-roundup-16-incredibly-detailed-useful-and-free-dingbat-fonts/
"Now, before I start, not everyone is going to think these are all useful, so if you don’t ever use tree silhouettes, fine. But some of us do. Personally, I love dingbats because (most of the time) I convert them to vectors in Illustrator and use them as very large elements in some cases. All you have to do is use the font in Illustrator and then go to Type > Create Outlines, and Bam. You got yourself a vector to work with. Here are some dingbat fonts that I thought you might enjoy."

Visualizing Fitt's Law

http://particletree.com/features/visualizing-fittss-law/
"In preparation for the redesigns and overhauls we implemented in Wufoo, I took some time to revisit a few HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) fundamentals with the hopes of gleaning something new out of the decades of research dedicated to making interfaces easier to use. One thing that surprised me was how most of the material was pretty dense, heavily geared towards mathematicians it seemed and written in the impenetrable language of the academic elite. You’d think that if they’d really wanted to make an impact (especially on designers), they’d create documents that were a bit easier to digest."

Poolga: iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers

http://www.poolga.com/
"iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers from a selection of designers and illustrators from around the world.

We love our iPhones and we love customizing them. But we hate the standard wallpapers and cheesy nature themes available everywhere. That's why we create our own, and thought it would be nice to share them. So here they are. Enjoy!*

We upload new wallpapers every couple of days. Come back often and stay informed!"

Graphis '57 and '58

http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/graphis_annual_57_58
"As promised, here I will continue with my series on Graphis Annuals of years past (previously: ‘59/60 parts 1, 2, 3 and ‘71/72). This time I’ll be presenting some material from the 1957-58 edition. It’s not my favorite year but it’s an interesting year because you can see the past and future jostling for position. Though much of it feels distinctly 50’s some of the 60’s advertising style that would soon overtake everything was already making inroads. Below I have culled 22 images for your perusal, so happy perusing.

The issue begins with an introduction by Charles Rosner which I’ll spare you the bulk of. It does strike me as disrespectful and lazy somehow to not at least offer a few words, however, for context’s sake. So here is a single paragraph to get light your way forward.

Quote: “As for the impact [of advertsising] on society: the economic implications are closely linked up with deep-rooted inferences. The ‘social function’ of advertising is to stimulate wants, to make people dissatisfied with the little they have, and to work harder and earn more. Yet this function—to stimulate dissatisfaction—is relatively recent, for the goods people want, the auto, the washing machine, the radio, the television, electric iron, dishwasher, are all products of the lasty forty years or less. All this is part of the transformation, of the Western world at least, to a high-consumption society. There is more advertising in the United States not because salesmanship is a peculiar American virtue, or vice, but because of the comparative opulence of the country. As Professor Galbraith has written, A hungry man could never be persuaded that bread that is softened, sliced, wrapped and enriched is worth more than a cheaper and larger loaf that will fill his stomach.” —Charles Rosner, Graphis annual ‘57/58."

Six Revisions: 10 Web-building Resources You Should've Already Bookmarked

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/10-web-building-resources-you-shouldve-already-bookmarked/
"I spend a large portion of my day connected to the internet, and as a result I’ve amassed a large collection of websites and links pertaining to web development. Here’s 10 of my favorites:"

Six Revisions: Eight Tips on How to Manage Feature Creep

http://sixrevisions.com/project-management/eight-tips-on-how-to-manage-feature-creep/
"Feature creep, also known as scope or requirement creep, refers to unforeseen requests for additions and changes that are outside the project scope. It typically happens due to inadequate requirements gathering, poor initial planning, and an unclear protocol for change implementation, among other things.

In this article, I’d like to discuss eight tips and suggestions, based mostly on my experience, to help minimize and manage the effects of feature creep in your own projects."

Neatorama: Evolution of Car Logos

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/18/evolution-of-car-logos/
"This article should come in handy for the next time you’re stuck in traffic: have you ever wondered why the Audi in front of you has a logo of four interlocked rings? Did you know that the Cadillac emblem was inspired by a family crest of a nobleman who later turned out to be a fraud? Or that Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea?

We took a look at the evolution of tech logos before. Today, let’s take a look at the fascinating stories behind the logos of some of the most popular cars in the world:"

Iwata Asks: Wii Fit

http://us.wii.com/wii-fit/iwata_asks/vol2_page1.jsp
"Now, for the second part of this series, I would like to interview the two men behind the development of the Wii Balance Board, the world’s first game accessory capable of measuring your weight and body balance. It’s interesting to note here that the two are from completely different divisions: one is from the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, which develops software, and the other is from the Integrated Research & Development Division, which develops hardware. I’d like to first ask Mr. Sawano to introduce himself and describe his responsibilities in developing Wii Fit. "

Netdiver Best of the Year 2007

http://netdiver.net/newsarchive/boty/boty07.php
"Netdiver Best of the Year are more than a yearly retrospective - or a trendy compendium. We share the same space as TIME Best of the Year (via Google) and for an online sub-culture design magazine, we think that's pretty awesome.

Review our 100 best of the best! These folks whatever their disciplines create memorable and dazzling projects, taking us to uncharted territories where imagination, skill, talent abide - inciting us to keep pushing forward."

NPR Free Live Concert Podcasts

Via Airbag Industries: Nekko Case live at the Disney Concert Hall. Thanks to Ryan for pointing us all to NPR's free live concert podcast. Amazing!

Fantasy League Typography

http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=75
"One of the things I most love about the design of the late nineteenth century is its unpredictability. Across all of the decorative arts there was a strong emphasis on novelty, and a succession of new technologies made it easier than ever to execute these strange and untested ideas. (You can see this in the terra cotta work of architect Louis Sullivan, or the elaborate inlays of furniture designer Gustav Herter.) The period was a riot of ornament, and to be sure, much of the work was awful: most of what we remember today is hopelessly cliché, or cloyingly overwrought. But then there are moments like these.

Above is a piece of nineteenth century engraving, which looks as if it might have been the product of a CalArts group project by Wim Crouwel and Louise Fili. (The rest of my fantasy league is no less oddball; images after the jump evoke Jonathan Barnbrook vs. John Downer, and Max Kisman vs. Marian Bantjes.) These excerpts come from an incredible collection of American sheet music from the period 1850-1920, currently being exhibited online by Duke University. The documents from the 1870s are my favorites, many of which are from the hand of an engraver named Reed (note his signature hiding in the fourth image below.) His stylistic pairings are among the more remarkable — above, the constructed sans serif and swelled rules are unexpected bedfellows. But some of my favorite moments are those in which unrelated visual agendas collide in the letterforms themselves. Is there anything more fabulous than the monoline blackletter of "Mazurka Elegante" below, or the squared-off shapes of the final line, "Tiny Birdlings of the Air?" Will you check out that lowercase g? —JH"

Ditch Your Cable Company With Free, Legal Alternatives

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ditch-your-cable-company-with-free-legal-alternatives/
"Ditching your cable company has never been more viable than it is today. The rise of online, streaming TV shows allows you to save on one of the most expensive household bills if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the convenience of having either a cable box or DVR. The main question you will need to ask yourself is what shows you actually enjoy watching. Several name brand shows are now available online in free, ad supported formats; if your particular shows are not available then you may be stuck with your cable company, at least for now. More and more shows are always coming online, so keep checking back to see if your favorite show is available."

Psychology Today: Field Guide: Sarcastic Masters

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070625-000002.html
"If there's such a thing as a congenital smart aleck, Rachel Mosteller is it. The 27-year-old Houston journalist has been ready with a well-timed barb since her elementary-school years. "I made my first quip when I was about 10. My parents were getting divorced right around my birthday, and I said, 'Well, isn't that a great present,'" she recalls. "That made my mom pretty mad."

Mosteller has continued to hone her sensibility ever since. "I tend to use it when I think people are taking themselves too seriously," she says.

Certified wisecrackers may see their snarky remarks as clever diversions, but because the distinction between a joke and an insult can be nebulous, they can easily damage relationships and careers with their one-liners. Frustrated by her company's practice of feting model employees with Hallmark-style gifts, Mosteller posted a send-up of the policy on her blog, The Sarcastic Journalist, in 2005. "You go and do something spectacular (most likely, you're doing your JOB) and someone says, 'Why golly, that was spectacular.' Then they bring you chocolate and some balloons," she wrote. Though she never disclosed her real name or the company's, higher-ups got wind of the post and she was promptly fired.

So why do wisecrackers keep their bons mots coming at the risk of alienating others? Though they may not be aware of it, sarcasm is their means of indirectly expressing aggression toward others and insecurity about themselves. Wrapping their thoughts in a joke shields them from the vulnerability that comes with directly putting one's opinions out there. "Sarcastic people protect themselves by only letting the world see a superficial part of who they are," says Steven Stosny, a Washington, D.C.-based therapist and anger specialist. "They're very into impression management."

Because humor and hostility often come mixed together, it can be difficult to pinpoint a wisecracker's primary intent. "Sometimes sarcasm is humor—purely a Don Rickles kind of joking—and sometimes it's just innocently insensitive," Stosny says. "But other times, it's devaluing." Everyone benefits from a wisecracker's comic relief, but if you are the target of regular swipes, it's best to assertively call the joker out. His hilariousness doesn't give him the right to belittle you."

White Hot: Silver loses its long-held top spot as the most popular car color.

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/412/white-hot;_ylc=X3oDMTE2MDVocjJhBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawNob3QtY29sb3Jz
"After seven years wearing the color crown, silver has been dethroned.

For the first time this century, more white cars were manufactured in 2007 than those in any other color, according to DuPont’s most recent color study.

In North America, 19 percent of vehicles manufactured in 2007 were either white or "pearl white," which is white with an iridescent or metallic sheen. Eighteen percent of 2007 vehicles were silver, and 16 percent were black, including black with metallic effects.

White has also taken a decisive lead in other countries, including Japan and Mexico. In Europe, however, black was far and away the top color. See the charts below for the full breakdown."