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."

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."

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:"

Present Imperfect: Neither aroused nor inspired.

http://www.presentimperfect.com/archives/2008/01/neither_aroused.html
"Alrighty. Let’s just get this out of the way, shall we?:

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
-Steve Jobs on the Amazon Kindle

I could spend the rest of this post saying things like “hey, Steve, doesn’t that mean that sixty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or more last year?” Or pointing in the direction of the nearest behemoth bookstore superchain whilst making “duh” face. Or mentioning that I don’t think Amazon became the number-one online retailer in the universe by selling flyfishing accessories.

The comments on every site that published this quote are positively aglow with this kind of gleeful reactionary outrage. All over a statistic I can’t find anywhere — except in that quote.

This is because crazy genius billionaires make stuff up.

In fact, most crazy geniuses become billionaires by making stuff up. iPod? That’s a word from a language I invented when I was eight in order to secretly communicate with my imaginary dog-faced friend, Jorb from Orb. Okay, no. But it could have been, for all its made-upedness. And the iPod itself is a shiny fruit fallen to earth from an enchanted tree in a mystical fairy land populated entirely by crazy geniuses.

Really great ideas tend to be unique. Or, at least, they transform just-okay ideas into really great ideas by adding something unique.

If the Kindle fails, it won’t be because it’s ugly or because it uses only one font or because people don’t read anymore. It will fail because of a lack of imagination. The book was a fucking great idea. Seriously ace. Thank you, Aldus Manutius, you 15th-century Venetian crazy genius. The Kindle is not a unique idea, nor does it improve on Manutius’s really great idea.

Arthur C. Clarke, who has written way more about failure of imagination, once said, “Nothing will ever replace books. They can’t be matched for convenience, random access, nonvolatile memory (unless dropped in the bath), low power consumption, portability, etc.”

Of course, that hasn’t stopped Clarke from giving Amazon whatever permission it needs to turn some of his works into Kindle editions. But, hey: Crazy geniuses can also become billionaires by hedging their bets."

Tom Peters: You, Me, and Charlie

http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=010180.php
"Over Christmas I read George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War, the tale of the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan and the subsequent implosion of the Evil Empire, our undisputed nemesis for the first half century of my life. I can state with some certainty that it was the most incredible non-fiction story I have ever (!!) read. Last night I saw the movie—it was, for me, wonderful, though a pale reproduction of the full 550-page treatment by Crile. Turning to the practicalities of your and my day-to-day professional affairs, the story was peppered with de facto analyses of how Charlie did his amazing thing. He is indeed "larger than life," and yet his practical "can do" tactics have a lot to teach all of us. As I imagine it, 100% of the readers of this Blog are Professional Change Agents, fighting wars against the bureaucratic evil empires that impede success. So what follows is rather (!) lengthy for a Blogpost, but ridiculously short considering the importance of the subject matter:"

Lifehacker: Hack your metabolism

http://lifehacker.com/351394/hack-your-metabolism
"Need to get your metabolism going? Personal trainer and blogger Lauren proposes that you can bolster your metabolism by eating enough (not too little, like most people who diet), eating more frequently (5-6 small meals a day), and adding more protein and fiber to your diet. Exercise should also be added to your daily regimen. Weight-training, building muscles, and doing more high-intensity cardiovascular exercise are critical."
http://laurensfitness.com/2008/01/10/increase-your-metabolism-11-helpful-tips/

Think Simple Now: 8 Keys to Instant Charisma

http://thinksimplenow.com/relationships/8-keys-to-instant-charisma/
"There is a simple fact of human nature that states we all want to be liked. Don’t be afraid to admit it. If we think about it, underlying many of our actions, we are really seeking ways to validate ourselves and to fulfill this desire of being liked.

Have you ever met someone and instantly took a liking towards them? You can’t explain why, but you feel a fondness and you want to do things to help them. I’m not talking about sexual attraction, but a genuine and innocent feeling of fondness towards another person."

Last.FM: Free the Musichttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music
"A few days ago we sent out some cryptic invitations to a press conference in New York that Felix and Martin are presiding over. We’ve had fun in the office reading the rumors and speculation, but it’s time to spill the beans:

As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website."

crestock.com: The 50 Most Popular Web Design Blog Posts, Resources & Cheat Sheets of 2007

http://www.crestock.com/blog/design/the-50-most-popular-web-design-blog-posts-resources-cheat-sheets-of-2007-114.aspx
"The past year has been an amazing period for those wishing to learn the ropes of design, whether you're a noob just getting into the game or a seasoned designer or programmer. As we enter 2008, let's take a look back at some of the most popular articles, resources, and tutorials that helped those who toiled away on the web everyday."

Smashing Magazine: 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/
"High-quality WordPress themes always come in handy. Whether you are looking for some design inspiration or professional coding solutions — in both cases you can learn a lot, you can apply them and you can build customized designs upon them without reinventing the wheel all the time.

In this article we present 100 free high-quality WordPress themes. Together with hundreds of other designs, these themes have been manually selected, installed and tested over the last weeks. They all can be downloaded, customized and used for free in both personal and commercial projects. Links to demo-versions provide a direct preview of a theme.

Please notice that the listed WordPress themes are presented in 8 sections: vibrant themes, simple & minimalistic themes, magazine style, grid-based, clean and legible, advanced, experimental, photoblog & videoblog."

Lifehacker: The 20 Best iPod Utilities

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/the-20-best-ipod-utilities-329507.php
"With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tons of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn't look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod."

There's No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogosphere_long_tail.php
" In 2004 Chris Anderson wrote an influential book called The Long Tail. In it, he argued that the future of business is to sell less of more. The main premise is that collectively, things that are in rather low demand can amount to quite large volumes. This is because there is a large number of people who belong to the long tail and they encompass a wide rage of tastes.

A classic example of successful long tail sales is Amazon. A substantial subset of the book sales for the largest online retailer comes from obscure books. Amazon itself could afford to stock up on rare books as well as offer these via numerous online partners. The net effect is that a lot of book sales occured in the long tail. This phenomenon is captured nicely in a quote from an Amazon employee: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.""

The Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas

http://www.skelliewag.org/the-top-20-ways-to-come-up-with-amazing-ideas-157.htm
"I’m a pretty prolific blogger — between regular posts at Zen Habits, and writing regularly for blogs such as Web Worker Daily, FreelanceSwitch, NorthxEast and more, and writing guest posts for other blogs (such as the excellent Skelliewag), I write a lot of posts every week.

And what’s asked of me most often, besides “How can you write so much?”, is the more difficult question: “How do you come up with so many ideas for posts?”

InsideNews: HOW to pretend to be a "Natural Leader"

http://unitedsys.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-pretend-to-be-natural-leader.html
"Some people are always listened to. What they say matter, and everyone pays attention whenever they speak.

Why is that so? There’s an air of authority about their every words and actions, which helps them in getting their point across, when others would not even be heard.

In short, they are what you and I would call “Natural Leaders.”"

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."

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."

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."

Design Bliss: 7 Sites for Free Vector Logos

http://www.designbliss.com/2007/09/18/7-sites-for-free-vector-logos/
"There are a number of sites out there that provide free vector logos of major corporate brands, etc. These could be very useful for mock-ups or student portfolio work."

Idents.tv

http://idents.tv/blog/
"If you interested in general typography on screen, idents.tv at http://idents.tv/blog/ has TV idents (who’d’ave guessed it) which are usually good use of typography."

Deziner Folio

http://www.dezinerfolio.com/
" Dezinerfolio is a site run by Navdeep and Naveen (brothers) from Bangalore, India. We love to share Quality Information and that is why we are up here... Hope you enjoy this site."