“If you attempt to use a 24-bit translucent PNG image as a background image or as an element’s SRC attribute, IE6 yields an unsightly grey (sometimes greenish) background behind the image’s translucent colors.

This script reclaims all your background positioning controls by avoiding AlphaImageLoader, AND fixes the grey background issue!”

Huge list of great Mac apps. Just think they forgot a few, such as Textmate, Fluid and Quicksilver

For the next two weeks, Sitepoint, is giving away the book The Art & Science of CSS .

Nice.

A very nice collection of free icons.
hat tip: foo

This is a very simple Firefox extension that allows you to view the background image of a link by right-clicking on it just as you can with most other HTML elements.

Works great. I will use this all the time now.

Some great free open-source plugins for Photoshop and Illustrator. On a side note, here are some good Photoshop Grunge Tutorials from Smashing Magazine.

The Internet Marketing Handbook is a free resource that contains almost 100 tools and learning resource that help to master Internet Marketing. An awesome resource at seomoz.org!

Good article on CSS. Here’s a couple more: Get Started With CSS3, Architecting CSS, Eric Meyer’s Reset CSS and Dave Shea’s Markup Guide.

(hat tip: Foo)

“Firebug is a web development tool for tweaking CSS, debugging JavaScript and more. In part, it’s like juiced-up “view source” for seeing how sites are put together. But Firebug really shines when it’s used to streamline your own development. ”

Great site with information on Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. Also, Trevor Morris Photographics has a great resource of Photoshop keyboard shortcut cheat sheets as downloadable pdf files.

Last April, A List Apart asked

Designers, developers, project managers. Writers and editors. Information architects and usability specialists. People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?

This year they are at it again.

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

So get on over to A List Apart and take the survey.

I TOOK IT. And so should you.

I wrote previously about the Internet Explorer 6 disappearing image problem, and its solution:

position:relative;

but even then that sometimes doesn’t fix the problem. In those instances, usually when a background image is placed on paragraph, you can use:

height:1%

IE6 reads/interprets height as min-height. I have seen it used like this:

p {

}

The underscore makes it so IE6 is the only web browser to see it.

I use this method to send SMS from my Mac since I’m a much better typist on the computer than on the phone.

Nice!

I searched and searched Google for this and couldn’t find exactly how to do this via .htaccess anywhere. I found similar information, such as how to redirect from directory to directory, but not how to redirect all pages to just one page in the same directory. After some trial and many errors, I figured it out.

So here I post my .htaccess for posterity, and my own need. Hope this helps others as well.

RewriteEngine On
# don't redirect .css, .jpeg, .jpg, .png or .gif extensions
# the extensions are separated by a pipe ("|")
RewriteRule \.(css|jpe?g|png|gif)$ - [L]
# if the request isn’t for index.php then
# redirect to index.php
RewriteRule !^index\.php$ /index.php [R=301,L]


**NOTE: if this is a temporary redirect, you can substitute this for the last line:

RewriteRule !^index\.php$ /index.php [L]

The line RewriteRule \.(css|jpe?g|png|gif)$ - [L] is used so that image and css calls are not redirected.

So basically this will take any page called for in http://www.example.com/something/ and redirect it to http://www.example.com/something/index.php as long as the .htaccess file is in the /something directory.

Looks like a great application to use as a scratchpad for song ideas while you are out and about town.

Now if he could just get a decent web page design going….

Is it web based?

Who is the audience?

What style or impression are you going for?

The answer to these and other questions will dictate the type and style of icons, and fonts for that matter, that are used for a particular project.

Below I have gathered links to many of the icons sets I like and have used in past projects. May are free sets, but some will cost you a little dough.

One in particular, which I use often, IconBuffet, has a type of token trade system for icons as well as a store to buy icons.

FamFamFam Silk Icons - Free

Icon Buffet - Some sets are free

IconFactory - Some sets are free

nDesign Studio Icons - Some nice inexpensive sets by Nick La

Icon Drawer - Some sets are free

Mezzoblue Chalkwork - Great set of icons from Dave Shea

IconShoppe - Some simple icons from Dan Cederholm of Simplebits.com

Ok, actually I’m going to give you more than just 7, because Smashing Magazine has also listed links to free icons around the web:

• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
  to spice up your posts with some nice illustrations or enrich your desktop with outstanding dock icons,
• Icons For Your Desktop and Icons For Your Web Designs
  with fresh high-quality free icons which you can use for your desktop; we also showcase free professional icon sets, buttons and vector graphics you can use for your web designs,
• 20 Free And Fresh Icon Sets
  with over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries,
• Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates
  with fresh high quality icons, buttons, vector graphics, templates and layouts.
• 40 Professional Icon Sets For Free Download 40 excellent, free and professional icons for desktop and web design.

“IE 6 actually had the best CSS support of any browser when it first came out… SEVEN YEARS AGO. The little bugs in it’s CSS support still haunt us to this day” …more from CSS Tricks

Lunarpages Web Hosting are running a second series of their WordPress design contest. The prizes are actually really fantastic:

First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting (Basic Plan)

Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash

Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

And, they have changed the voting system for this series because previously there were some cheaters, spammers “designers” who were getting votes in a questionable way.

The voting is still open to the community where each week 5 designs are chosen and the winner of that round gets into the final 12, however now rather than just the community deciding the finalist, Lunarpages staff now also vote and choose the entry. This is good because it really will prevent cheating and ensure an honest result.

Next week round 4 of voting begins, however it’s not too late to enter your theme. New submission entries close on June 22, 2008 and the best part is, Lunarpages do not require you to edit your links, or mention them in the footer of your theme.

After the contest ends, Lunarpages will post your theme on a free themes page for their 150,000+ webmasters, so it’s a great way to get your design exposed.

So what are you waiting for? Enter now!

Smashing Magazine’s brings you yet another list of good looking blogs.

D-R 1.0 is a clean and simple 2 column theme, works with Wordpress 2.0+ and has areas for Google Adsense and/or Amazon affiliate ads.

Download dr_1.zip

This theme is not widgetized. If you want to widgetize it, just read up at the Wordpress site, though you may have to edit the css.

D-R 1.0 uses the following plugins to work correctly:

Gravatar - for the comment avatars.

Related Posts - for the related post section of each post.

I won’t be giving any support for it though, it is released as is.

I do ask that you leave the “Created By Design Reverb” in the footer.

Other than that, use it as you will and enjoy!

With the CSS Working Group seemingly toiling in obscurity to pin down the exact wording of specs that may never be implemented in a real-world browser, the WebKit team is leading the charge in moving the web forward by implementing new CSS features that you’ll be able to use in production in just a few months’ time.

“Progress is a much better goal than perfection”

I’ve worked on this layout it seems forever, tweaking this, moving that. The previous theme was really getting old to me, it has only been up for 2 years, but I have always wanted to do more with it. Unfortunately due to time restraints and working on client projects, that just doesn’t seem to be happening. I guess it’s better to have too much work than not enough.

So in hopes of motivating me to work more on it, I present to you, for your consideration: Design Reverb 3.0.

position:relative;.

I just fixed a problem I had regarding an image floating to the left of some text. The problem was that the image just wouldn’t show up in ie6. I tried the clear float solution, but to no avail. Then I remembered another solution concerning images, floats and ie6 :

img {position: relative;}

Works like a charm.

From working with Ajax, to XHTML character references, the link list given on forwebdesigners.com is pretty comprehensive. Some of these links you may have seen before, but alot are new to me. They even give you a link to suggest a link they may have missed. I have definitely bookmarked this site, you should too.

I’m sure you will find something useful - 332 helpful links for Web Designers

From the contest page:

Lunarpages is having a WordPress Theme Contest!! All you need to do is design a unique WordPress Theme and upload it to our site for the chance to win!Just about anybody (with a few exceptions) can participate in the contest and the prizes are amazing!

First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting on our Basic Plan

Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash

Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

You can enter the contest, read the terms and conditions and all about the contest at Wordpress Theme Contest

One called “Pink and Black” and one called “Xmas“. They are variations on a theme I created for them in October.

Check em out. Also, Lunarpages will be announcing an awesome contest concerning Wordpress tomorrow. I will give up some information then.

I went by Best Buy with my father-in-law, who actually was the one who suggested and ultimately bought me the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 320 GB USB 2.0 external drive. He had seen it on sale there for $69.99.

Installation was as easy as plugging in a power source and then plugging in the USB 2.0 cable. Simple! Windows recognized it right away. I did have to download the Drive Manager software from the Seagate site, but that was quick as well. This is the first external drive I’ve owned, so I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and installation.

I’ve already created a backup of the “My Documents” folder, which will sync each evening at 5pm. I usually just burn a DVD of files I want to backup. Now I have an easier, automated solution. I can also use the drive to store my ever increasing iTunes library as well as my Adobe Version Cue files.

All in all it seems to be a good solution. I was concerned about the transfer speed with the USB 2.0 only interface, but it seems to be really quick. I guess time will tell.

Looking for a new WordPress theme? There are a lot of places to go check out before you decide - so make sure you do a lot of comparisons before you decide on the theme you want….

Check it out if your looking for themes and other Wordpress related stuff.

I’ve made a list of the top online applications I use on a daily basis. Which ones do you use? I know with the multitude of applications out there, I must be missing some. If so, what are they, and what are their pros and cons?

1. Basecamp - Basecamp is a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects (or simply ideas) and quickly create client/project extranets.
   
2. Concept Share - ConceptShare allows you to easily share designs inside Workspaces that contain designs related to a certain topic or project. It’s easy to invite people into a workspace. Invite team members, managers, clients, and consultants to add and reply to comments, chat and markup designs.
   
3. DropSend - Email large files easily and securely. This comes in handy for sending large print designs over the web. Have you ever tried to send a 300mb file to someone?
   
4. Picnik - online photo editor. Edit photos online from your browser. I tend to use this if I am away from my office to edit photos. My wife uses it quite often and loves it.
   
5. Kuler - Adobe’s online color scheme generator
   
6. BlinkSale - The easiest way to send invoices online. I do send invoices straight from PayPal from time to time, for certain clients.
   
7. CrazyEgg - Crazyegg is site tool which tracks what your visitors click on. It gives you an inside look at where you visitors click and where they click the most.
   
8. Google Apps - Googles “powerful communication and collaboration tools for your organization”. I use gmail and Google Docs the most out of their suite of applications.
   

Video Game Wallpapers - these are pretty good,

my current desktop

Photograph dual monitor wallpapers


Dual Monitor Wallpapers at VladStudio - This is a paid image site

Mixed Bag of Dual Screen Wallpapers


Over 1300 Wallpapers for Dual and Single Monitors

Some nice Hi-Res photo wallpapers from 9xmedia

DualMonitorBackgrounds.com



Claims to be “the largest dedicated dual monitor backgrounds website on the internet.

Here is what I’ve created so far:

Of course if you are looking for reliable, affordable web host, you can’t go wrong with Lunarpages. I’ve been using them for a few years now and have always received excellent service. They have plans starting out as low as $6.95 per month, and their dedicated servers are simply awesome! Be sure to check out their well written and informative blog, Lunartics, too

My mornings start off around 6 am. I go for a run, shower, feed the dogs, eat breakfast, make coffee, and turn on my computer. I work from home so once my computer is on in my home office, I am essentially at work.

I never Technorati. I don’t Digg and del.icio.us leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I do twitter when I have a lot of caffeine, and have been pownc’d. I flickr when a camera is around and have even been known to virb when the mood strikes.

I check email and then visit several sites that I check on a daily basis. They vary on content, some are blog related, some design related, while others don’t quite fit in any category.

Problogger.net and JohnChow.com are on my list of blogs I read to help me to increase and retain readership of this and my clients blogs.

I then read some other developers and designers blogs. These include Matt Brett, Jeff Croft, Cameron Moll, Jason Santa Maria and Mark Boulton. These are the main ones I keep track of either in Google Reader or by visiting. Matt Brett touches on some design, but also on PS3 and Xbox 360 news and reviews. Jeff Croft focus is on web design and standards. Cameron Moll comments on all things web, and his new iPhone. Jason Santa Maria tells you whats on his mind, wether it be design, working for Happy Cog Studios or living in New York. Mark Boulton is the goto guy when it comes to grids and typography.

I use Bloglines still for some reason, which, since I use Google Reader, doesn’t make much sense, yet I do. The feeds I get there are mostly computer related. Simplebits, Joel on Software, Codebetter.com, Dave Shea’s Mezzoblue to name a few. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog, About Web Design and Engadget are others.

I then check out CNN.com and another good blog, in my opinion anyway, forgetfoo.com. He’s a fellow developer/designer, and while I don’t know him personally, he does post some pretty good stuff. I am not really sure how I found his site, I’ve just been going there for some time now.

I do visit other sites, whether it be for information and/or inspiration, but these are the main ones I check out on a daily basis. Which sites do you find helpful? Which do you visit for information? I’m curious to see the other design related sites out there that others use for inspiration and design help.

I wrote recently of some Free WordPress Themes I made for Lunarpages Web Hosting, and while building some other WordPress based sites, realized there were a few core plugins I use on a regular basis. These are all plugins that help to make my life and the life of my clients a much easier one.

I therefore give you my Great Eight:

Askimet - Spam is the bane of many a webmaster. I have test blogs that aren’t even listed that receive comment spam. Akismet is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again. Akismet is free for personal use, and it ships by default with WordPress 2.0 and later. I always keep this plugin activated.

Google Sitemap Generator - This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Google, YAHOO and MSN Search. Make your site more google friendly. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, then this plugin is for you!

Related Posts - Now called Related Entries - This plugin will output a series of “related” entries based on keyword matching. I use this on most of the blogs I create for myself and clients.

Add Meta Tags - This plugin adds XHTML META tags to your WordPress blog. Its design is based on the assumption that the WordPress categories are used as tags, so it requires no user configuration in order to work. On the other hand, the latest versions include all those features a SEO-concerned publisher would need in order to have total control over those meta tags.

All-in-One SEO - If I’m not using Add Meta Tags, then I’m using this plugin. Automatic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) out of the box for your wordpress blog. I was turned on to this plugin by John Chow. Works like a charm.

Gravatar - This plugin allows you to generate a gravatar URL complete with rating, size, default, and border options. The plugin makes available a tag called gravatar that, when used inside the Comment Loop, outputs the correct gravatar URL based on the commenter’s email address.

WP Contact Form - WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post. It currently works with WordPress 2.0+

Democracy - This plugin makes it easy to use, install, and manage a poll for your WordPress blog.

Everyone loves free stuff, and with the popularity of the Wordpress blog publishing platform, Wordpress themes abound on the internet. Just Google “Wordpress themes” and see how many results come up (I currently get results of over 60 million).

Lunarpages.com, being the awesome web hosting company that they are, offers their hosting customers easy setup of the Wordpress blog publishing platform through Fantastico, and through their blog, Lunartics, they offer free Wordpress templates as well.

Their first offering, “Green Theme”, was such a hit, that they aske me to create some new themes and create new graphics for some wordpress themes for them. The themes currently offered are not total from the ground up new themes. They are basically just graphical reskins of the “Green Theme” that they offer. More full wordpress themes and graphic reskins are projects in the works.

Lunarpages.com is a great web hosting company. If you are looking for reliable and affordable web hosting, be sure to check them out, I’ve been happily hosting with them for over 2 years now. Right now I have teamed up with Lunarpages to offer you $25 off any 12 or 24 month hosting plan. This includes their Basic, Business or Windows hosting plans.