Opera Offers Free Registration Codes Today Only

"Opera 10-year online anniversary party: Get a free Opera registration code... Free registration codes are available until midnight CET (GMT 1) on Wednesday 31st of August."

See banner on homepage, act quickly ;)

Mercy Corps & Hurricane Katrina Assistance

"Mercy Corps is following news of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath with great concern for the immediate and longer-term needs of people living in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. A day after the hurricane stormed ashore, dozens of people have perished, millions are displaced and damage estimates are running into the tens of billions of dollars.

Mercy Corps is accepting donations to assist families who are displaced and who may have lost their homes to the hurricane."

I gave to MC to help after the Tsunami. They seem to be pretty efficient quoting "some 92 percent of our resources...directed to programs".

RocketFM is like iTrip for Desktop Computers

"RocketFM uses any available FM frequency to transmit audio through your home, car or office stereo system. Applications such as iTunes, GarageBand, video soundtracks and even streaming internet radio can be conveniently broadcast with RocketFM."

This could also be called AirTunes for the frugal type (considering it's about 1/3 the cost). The sound quality is quite adequate for me. Now I can play my full desktop sound library through my FM receiver - which had started getting dusty since I've gone all digital.

Adobe and Macromedia Stockholders Approve Acquisition

"Adobe Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. announced that the stockholders of each company voted in favor of Adobe's proposed acquisition of Macromedia at their respective special stockholder meetings held Aug. 24... The merger's one remaining hurdle is approval from the Department of Justice, which on July 11..."

Also, CNET has in interview with Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen.

Site Set Up to Track OS X x86 (Intel) Apps

List of Intel Compiled OS X Software. I'm sure this is one of many such directories to come.

Using Google Talk on other IM clients like iChat, GAIM, Psi or Adium

News of the new Google Talk services is all over the web. If you are on a Mac or don't want to use their proprietary IM client check out this list of other supported third party apps. Each has a link to instructions for how to set things up.

Counting on Your Brand's Name

brandchannel.com: "So why might a business choose a number over a word for a name? There appear to be a number of reasons..."

- Nice pun, I just wanted an excuse to post that funky new "3" logo.

Search Engine Spiders Lost Without Guidance

"The importance of robots.txt is rarely discussed by average
webmasters and I've even had some of my client business'
webmasters ask me what it is and how to implement it when I
tell them how important it is to both site security and
efficient crawling by the search engines."

Here's a good summary article, with tips, covering the use of a "robots.txt" file with your website.

Google Techs, Webmasters Mingle

"Google's code-talking experts, despite putting on a show of being helpful, weren't about to reveal their 'secret sauce' -- Google's tightly guarded formula for ranking websites. But that didn't zap the energy from the "Google Dance" -- an annual summer party that's become a metaphor for the behind-the-scenes twists and turns that can cause websites to rise and fall in Google's search results..."

Yahoo! Spends Tons of Money But Screws Up Elementary Web Marketing Detail

"Yahoo! launched an integrated marketing campaign today to promote its new music subscription service...When you're doing something with the Yahoo! brand on it, it has to be something that will make people want to yodel, and leave them with a smile"

That's all well and good, but I just tried to type in the URL: http://www.yahoo.com/music and guess what it goes to a dead link.

It is a basic assumption on the part of savvy web surfers that you can get to a destination this way, there should be a redirect on this path to Yahoo's 'correct' music site url (in this case http://music.yahoo.com/).

Adobe does this correctly. For example, see what URL http://www.adobe.com/photoshop actually resolves to. Same can be said for apple.com/itunes or apple.com/music - all redirects. See the trend? These folks get it, why doesn't Yahoo!?

It seems like a bit of a nit, but when you are speding that much $ and time to promote a service you've got to get the web marketing basics right.

zoomMenu Component by Flashloaded Riffs Off "Newsmap" Interface

Flashloaded recently released: "The zoomMenu component allows for multiple nested menus. These can be created either by inputting the values using the user friendly tree in the Component Inspector, through ActionScript or through an external XML file."

It is very similar to the UI for the site Newsmap, but allows for zooming. Flashloaded components have helped me out on projects before so I thought I'd point out this new one...

URL123 Takes on TinyURL

This new service adds a number of features beyond just link shortening. Free account adds things like custom subdomains (ex. http://jydesign.url123.com/...) and personal lists. I just signed up. Found via SVN.

E-paper chase

"Ultra-thin e-paper by Fuji doesn't need electricity to maintain its configuration."

I wonder what's up at E-Ink? They were to be US' answer to electronic ink display technology.

Burton Snowboards Tricks Out the Traditional "Breadcrumb" Navigation

Hey, maybe I have a poor memory, but I think this may be the first time I've encountred the use of a drop down list as the last item in a "breadcrumb" navigation menu. It's a great solution to offering access to mutiple child pages within a parent node. Nice overall job on the new 06 site Burton...

OK, So I'm Excited to See Ruby on Rails Gaining Traction

Ruby on Rails: "Rails is a full-stack, open-source web framework in Ruby for writing real-world applications with joy and less code than most frameworks spend doing XML sit-ups"

While you are at it, you have to check out the Getting Started Video that shows how you can create a blog app from scratch in 15min.

Enjoying: Silversun Pickups new EP...

I felt I had to mention that I've been really digging this new EP, especially the first track. Check them out, or go get it on iTunes...

The Free iPod Book and Back to School Guide

"It's here: The Free iPod Book & Back to School Guide, by iLounge.com. Covering all things iPod and iTunes, our first book includes exclusive sneak peeks at new iPod accessories from JBL, Belkin, Griffin, Oregon Scientific, Blumac and Sumo Cases, plus tutorials, contests, and more."

Nice work again, there are indeed a few neat previews of unreleased products.

Free Wi-Fi? Get Ready for GoogleNet.

"What if Google (GOOG) wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America?" -What if indeed

Quick Rant: Down with "Welcome to _"!

OK, I'm still seeing way too many sites that have poor title tags or even worse... gasp... a homepage title that begins with "Welcome to _". Sorry to pick on the particular site linked to above, but it touched me off.

OK here's the deal, the TITLE tags play a huge role in modern Google-era SEO. Make sure your title tag: A) starts with the name of your gig so it looks good & can be easily found in a users bookmark list B) contains a few of the most important keywords you'd want to be picked up on by a search engine C) Don't let your desire to fulfill 'B' override your ability to address 'A'.

More Than a Quarter of Web Marketers 'Flying Blind'

"Web marketers lack both the confidence and analytics to properly assess results, according to a study from WebTrends."

Data and charts about marketers, that suggest said marketers don't have enough data and charts.

Drawing Restraint 9

bjork.com "Drawing Restraint 9, a film by Matthew Barney with a soundtrack composed by Bjork, represents the first creative collaboration of two of the most protean, dynamic forces in music and fine art... The basis of Barney's approach is an operative tension between sculpture and film: the lingering attention to sensuous detail and richly organized aesthetics lends each character, costume, artifact, set, and architectural location within his work the frozen timelessness of sculpture... "

This promises to be interesting.

Survey unveils strong demand for Macintosh and Firefox support

"PresenterNet, provider of online interactive Web presentation services, today announced survey evidence identifying Firefox and Macintosh as key enablers to Web Conferencing success... It is also very clear that support of Microsoft Internet Explorer is not enough. Firefox support is now mandatory."

The Pulse of Modern Mobile Design

"When it comes to design for mobile devices, it’s tempting to take an ostrich-like approach: Hide your head in the sand and behave as though nothing is happening. Unfortunately, in the not-too-distant future, more people will be using mobile devices to access the Net; and no interactive designer will be able to ignore them..."

Yup, here's CA's take on the state of design for mobile.

Just saw Aimee Mann in Eugene at the Kesey's McDonald Theatre

Aimee and a full band put on a great show. Good banter between songs, where she walked the audience through the fictional storyline underlying her new 'concept album' The Forgotten Arm. She ended the show with my favorite song "4th of July" and then by taking requests and doing a verse from almost all the songs thrown at her on paper. Anyway, a fun show all around from a fellow Bostonian.

EVDB - The Events and Venues Database

"EVDB helps people find relevant events and share their discoveries with others. We're building a worldwide repository of event and venue data that the whole world can use. Our goal is to help people discover all kinds of events they might have otherwise missed..."

Interesting idea (Eventcasting), can accept 'ping' style linking as well as iCal.

Looks like Google can dish it out, but it can't take it

Google Snubs Tech News Outlet CNET "Google Inc. is refusing to speak with reporters at CNET's online news site after it ran a story that used Google's chief executive to illustrate how easily the company's search engine finds personal information.
Google told News.com, the online tech news service of CNET Networks Inc.), last week that it would not speak to any of its reporters for a year, according to News.com's editor. (Here's the CNET article)"

Whoa, if true this is a surprisingly childish move for a company that has been extoling the vitures of being able to zoom in on my house via satellite for free...

Y2K All Over Again?

"New daylight saving may cause tech problems. When daylight-saving time starts earlier than usual in the United States come 2007, your VCR or DVD recorder could start recording shows an hour late... And that has technologists worried about software and gadgets that now compensate for daylight time based on a schedule unchanged since 1987."

People speculated that blackouts and such would cause riots and mark the end of civilization in 2000. So imagine the chaos that will ensue when people's older model Tivo clocks are wrong and fail to record the first episode of the Bachelorette Season 6!

First Look: Macromedia Studio 8

"Macromedia didn't let a little thing like a merger stop its engineering team from creating a whole new version of its Studio software. Creativepro.com gives you a first look at the beta software..."

Macromedia Studio 8 Announced

Get your wallet ready it's upgrade time: The Macromedia Studio 8 products - Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, Flash 8, Contribute 3, and FlashPaper 2. Note: No more Freehand and FlashPaper still is not at parity on Mac.

Among the many new features that I can't possibly summarize, Dreamweaver "now fully supports advanced CSS techniques, such as overflow, pseudo-elements, and form elements." which is a big relief. And, I'm sure I'm not the only one who asked them for it, but they did indeed implement 'my' page zoom feature request ;-P

Artists Against 419 hold August "Flashmob" against fake banks and scam sites

"The Artists would like to invite you to the August Flashmob. We will be attacking twelve of our least-favorite fake banks and lotteries... come join in the fun on August 8 at Midnight GMT!"

Never again?

At 7:15 p.m. EDT Friday (8:15 a.m. Japan time Saturday) "The people of Japan will commemorate the victims of the first atomic bomb, which was dropped by an American B-29 on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945."

See also:
'My God, what have we done?' - the commander of the 'Enola Gay'
BBC Video: Hiroshima marks 60 years since atom bomb

PixelRoller, rAndom international

"PixelRoller is a paint roller that paints pixels, designed as a rapid response printing tool specifically to print digital information such as imagery or text onto a great range of surfaces." ...Well done

Spell with flickr

Wow, somewhat like amztype but even more fun and practical. Type in your phrase, and this site will go and fetch images from flickr that spell that phrase. Not only that, you can: click on each letter to try different images; and then grab an html snippet to include the visual on your site. Just like I've done below...

From the Cubicle to the Crypt

Newsweek Health Beat "A new study shows that one-third of Americans are chronically overworked – and even more feel overwhelmed by their jobs. How this affects our health"

Man, I'd write an opinion here, but I'm way behind on a project, gotta go...

Amazon.com preps digital music service?

"Ecommerce giant Amazon.com appears to be preparing a digital music service to compete with Apple Computer's iTunes at last, according to a job listing posted on a popular industry blog."

Number 22: "Does she or doesnÂ’t she?"

TaglineGuru.com Releases List of 'The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948'. Read on, and flash-back to over 50 years of taglines, slogans, and jingles. Number 25 coming before 26 seems a little suspect...

IconBuilder 8 adds many new features

Some highlights include: Creation of Mac and Windows icons in standard and unique sizes; Creation of icon resources of any size up to 1024x1024 pixels; Standard and custom Grid Files and Presets that can be shared; Build icons for an entire project with a single filter pass; Pixel Grid and Coordinate Tool.

Yahoo! Unveils AdSense Alternative

"Yahoo's long-awaited self-service contextual ad network will launch in the United States in a limited beta test today, extending the reach of Yahoo! Search Marketing ads through small and mid-sized publishers."

Microsoft's CSS Plans for IE 7 Draw Cheers, Jeers

"After remaining mum for months over the extent to which it plans to support the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) standard with its forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 browser, Microsoft has gone public with its plans... commitment to comply with CSS2"

Apple Finally Designs a Mouse worth Using

"Apple - Mighty Mouse"

First Intel based chips, now a multi-button and scrolling mouse - all in a form factor that says Apple. If there's a product decision that could be followed up with a 'what (the h*&@!) took you so long?', the introduction of a multi-function mouse is just such an event.

I.D Magazine on Joshua Davis

"Pioneering programmer Joshua Davis works with a star pupil: his software."

I personally think that Davis is an iconic figure in terms of representing the blurring of traditional distinctions between 'designer' and 'developer'. His pioneering combination of visual and technical design skills represent a new hybrid 'designer' that has been emerging over the past number of years. This trend certainly has been raising the bar for folks on both sides of the fence, and has made it harder for people to craft accurate job descriptions ;)