Little Asterisk

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ said.But just in case, I feel obligated to say this looks cool enough to be of assistance. Enter any term and it will intelligently calculate its value. For instance, enter your birth date and see other important things that happened that day (besides you being born, of course ).And check this search out:http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40+years+smokerIt basically outputs some very interesting information. More admirable, it detected the person I was talking about (don't worry, he's fictive - just like me! But he's not me. ) was male, a smoker and 40 years old. Then it calculated its cholesterol, LDL, HDL and a bunch of graphs. Cool!

Oh, so I see this topic is really becoming popular (hehe ) so here's a very good read on Web Typography:http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ cool tips here

Crap. I didn't think of them. Probably because I haven't had much contact with these in the past. Will add them now. EDIT: There it is, all added.

So, following the recent PHP vs. ASP topic (where there has also been some talk on Ruby on Rails and Python) I've decided to also make another one, where you declare your favourite Content Management System. Now, since I've posted a few already in the previously mentioned topic, I'll list them here again as mahesh2k suggested: 1. Wordpress is probably my favourite CMS, easy-to-install, easy-to-use and has a large community behind it. It also has extensive documentation ( https://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page ) which will be of much help when you decide to use it for your CMS of choice (believe me, you will choose it after a while) 2. Site Managr CMS (that's a Web 2.0 name ) - Looks like the old Wordpress, seems to have interesting features (Events, more extensive Analytics), built entirely on CodeIgniter. The Demo page ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) is not working, unfortunately. 3. MediaCore Video / Podcasting CMS will be interesting to all you podcasters out there, free and "fresh out of the oven." It has features to pull data from { insert_service_name_here } to your blog, and an extensive documentation (reminds of Wordpress a bit). 4. Stacey App File CMS doesn't use databases for pulling content to the user but literal files and, therefore, cannot enable commenting on your blog. It's not a problem, though, because you can easily make the commenting system using a service like Disqus. Built on PHP. 5. I don't know, just seemed right to have five list items. Perhaps Cushy CMS, which doesn't have to be installed on your server but just uses classes to edit particular HTML elements. Not suitable for a blog. Free to use. So, there you have it - five CMS examples, but I'm sure (or I hope ) you can suggest even more. What's your favourite? Update, 6 hours later: Of course, how did I forget... 6. Joomla, also an Open-source CMS, probably one of the more complicated ones to use (at least in my experience, it is). Their website seems a bit cluttered, but overall it's still an OK product. 7. Drupal, community plumbing. Free, but I have never used it so cannot speak for its quality. Anyone have comments? 8. ExpressionEngine, only its "core" version is free for personal projects (I believe), otherwise offers some cool stuff but in my opinion is not better than Wordpress. Some of the big names in Web/Print/Graphic design use it, though, like Jason Santa Maria and Veerle Piters. 9. Speaking of big-name designers, Elliot Jay Stocks uses a hosted solution for his blog nowadays (it used to be powered by Wordpress), called "Harmony App". He's already said a few words about it on his blog ( http://www.elliotjaystocks.com/blog/perfect-harmony/ ), but it's important to note how it now seems as if the CMS came out of beta testing. I personally don't see the future in already hosted blog solutions, but would be really happy if Elliot and Harmony App proved me wrong. Update #2, est. 1 hour after previous update And, of course, we also have... 10. Magento is cool if you intend to sell stuff on your website (that is, eCommerce). I'm not a big fan of their site (barely found pricing and all the first time there), but I think there's no better way of selling stuff on line than Magento. If you're a "skilled individual" (I think they've put it like that) you can download and manage the free version, but otherwise you're going to have to pay a subscription fee in order to receive all support. If you'd like to learn about programming for Magento, I suggest you check out a tutorial series by NetTuts where they teach you just that ( https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-magento-ecommerce--net-4223 ). Update #3, est. 3 hours after previous update A coincidence perhaps, but this is yet another new CMS I've found in the recent few days: 11. Refinery CMS is a Ruby on Rails-based CMS and a fairly fresh one for that matter. Seems to be very nice and I intend to further see how it works as I learn more about Ruby. Update, 09/11 I'm adding a comparison engine to the list which mahesh2k suggested. Should not be used for comparisons due to some wrong stats, but it's just fine for finding a new CMS you're eager to use. http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

OK, I'll open a new topic soon and put all the CMSs there for a better and easier preview. As for Ruby, I haven't tried yet since I'm not that familiar with Ruby and I don't know that much about the particular language. However, I do intend to start learning more about it soon and when I do, I'll be definitely using a local server (I use XAMPP for testing PHP, for instance, but you could also use something like WAMP, MAMP or... I don't know, some other -AMP). Testing locally has a few great advantages for me, mostly because it's much faster and doesn't waste any bandwidth. I don't know if I'll have time for a tutorial once I install Ruby but a Google search on the matter returns a few videos which might be worth a shot: https://www.google.hr/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=install+ruby+on+rails Let me know if this helps.

So, there is another very interesting CMS/Website management software -- and I'm not yet a hundred per cent sure how to describe it -- I've noticed just now, that helps you publish podcasts. It's based on Python, and also available as a plugin for Wordpress and Joomla, which is great for people who already have their own content publishing systems set up. https://www.workday.com/en-us/pages/mediacore.html (P.S. Is everyone OK with me posting new cool CMSs I find here? I can make a new topic if anyone thinks I shouldn't be posting here.)

I believe it's a nice idea you have going here, but you sorted it out wrongly (in my mind, at least, it seems so). Web design and logo design should probably go together either as "Web and logo design" or "Branding services" (I don't know, sounds logical to me that way). Web development should be a separate point (I would also point out "*Some CMS* Integration", if you do offer that), maybe together with "Support and maintenance" -- "Web development, support and maintainance, Wordpress CMS integration", for instance. Web hosting definitely needs to be a separate point.As for training students, I would rather go with something in lines of "additional training" (like; help with design assignments).You should also provide "Elevator pitches" for all of these points (something your site visitors can read in less than sixty seconds).Hope this helps, and post your site here once you finish it!

So, here I am -- thinking about using a Google Webfont on a Website -- when it occurs to me that perhaps some people will already have it installed on their systems! The brave Javascript-lover I am, I decided to use a JS-based solution to test if a user has that font installed on their system and -- accordingly -- install the font from Google webservers or not.But then it occurs to me how stupid I am; Google probably already covered that area! Well, I've decided to check that in their documents (documentation) and couldn't really find any word about that. So I ask you, dear colleagues, does Google try to see if the user has, say, Droid serif, installed on their PC?I suppose so, but there's around 50 kilobytes in question here so I'm not going to play the guessing game...

I don't believe they would publish this new search without extensive testing on how it would impact different browsers, Operating Systems, bandwidths, even PC configurations. It COULD become worse, but - knowing that they (Google) wouldn't put their reputation (as a search engine) at stake just to publish a "new cool feature" - I don't think it will. I also believe that Google will provide you with the possibility of going back to the "old" way of searching the web because; let's face it, a lot of people might feel intimidated by the new technology (maybe not intimidated, but rather unfamiliar). Just look at how they handled background images for their homepage ( if you don't know, the option was a default for a few days until a vast amount of searches on Google was related to "How to remove the background image from Google homepage" ). It still exists, but it's just buried somewhere inside.

Reviving this topic which almost became dead (outrage! ), Google also is considering improving the "regular" Web search in the browser. It should have an Ajax-like functionality, where the results would update as soon as you would type a term into the search bar.Now, I am more sceptical about this "feature" than the image search (turn out to be quite OK), but we shall see what they will bring us. Fingers crossed!Until we can see and test the new search bar features in action, we can only feast (I hope that's the right word ) our eyes on this demonstration (I hope it doesn't take too much bandwidth or PC power to actually load the results in an environment like that):http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Okay, I've just found another great and interesting PHP Content Management System, built totally on CodeIgniter: http://designelemental.net/sitemanagr/ Like most free CMSs nowadays, its interface reminds me a lot like (the old) Wordpress which is -- quite frankly -- not such a bad thing. Wordpress has got a nice interface and, as long as Automattic is OK with it I'm OK, too. You can look at the interface on http://designelemental.net/ It seems to have an interesting analytics screen, as well as an "Events" page. They also have an integrated E-mail newsletter, but it's a shame the Demo link -- http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ -- on the site leads to nowhere (404 Error )...

Hey linekill, I just wanted to personally thank you for not using Comic Sans on your website for achieving a "girly, fun, approachable" (first things non-designers say when thinking of the disputable font) feeling over the website. As for the design, I think it's pretty good, only one thing: the posts need more padding, and the about page some small tweaking for achieving a more "funky/fun" look. I think the whitespace gives it some personality. On the picture below you can see what can be done with a bit more padding on the About page: The image is on http://prnt.sc/qx37 - unfortunately, the forum won't let me embed this type of link as an image because it doesn't have an extension. I just removed the border-top from the "About me" heading two tag and added a 35px padding all-round the main area. Here's the code: Again, can't embed image: http://prnt.sc/qx4o And I also added a 35px padding on the entry class (<div class="entry" style="padding: 35px;">), which you can't see in the above screenshot (unfortunately)... Sorry for that interference, I just had to do it. You don't have to take the advice, since that's just how I see it and it's just a minor change on your girlfriend's website. Another thing: (and note that I'm not a girl and I'm not overly competent to judge the color), but the pink is a bit too strong for my taste. Change as you see fit. Other than that, you did a pretty good job here. Congrats.

Thank you web_designer, I do have an insider that brings me all the top news in deed. His name is Twitter! Although I'm actually not "doing" Twitter, there are two guys who I check out for news every now and again: - Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag - not really a "guy" but great links coming), who also deliver great tutorials and articles on smashingmagazine.com - and Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman - as stated above, one of the biggest authorities in the web world), who also publishes some good stuff on zeldman.com. And then, when I find something exceptional and interesting, I remember the Xisto forum and go and post the stuff here. And since I kind of like to write, it's no problem to me to throw in a word or two about what I've published.

Although this topic might just go into many of the categories here, I think web-design best describes what was happening at "An Event Apart Minneapolis 2010". Now, if you don't know what An Event Apart is, chances are you don't "do" web development. But if you'd like to find out, I suggest you first visit the An Event Apart website ( https://aneventapart.com/ ).It's a conference run by the same guys who run "A list apart - for people who make websites" ( alistapart.com ) and it's one of the best conferences out there, with some of the best web designers, web developers and content strategy specialists speaking out there, on their stages (including the legendary Jeffrey Zeldman).Now, they don't publish any of their content on line nor they offer DVDs of the conference (since they're so famous in the web-development world they don't have to ) so this series of blog posts from Marc Drummond might come in handy if you want to learn something about what was happening there:http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, if you have the time, I highly suggest reading his extensive notes from individual presentations: - "Web 2.1" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/07/27/event-apart-minneapolis-notes-jeffrey-zeldman-web-21-medium-comes-age - A presentation by Jeffrey Zeldman about the history and advancement of the web during the years- "User Experience" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/user-experience/2010/07/28/event-apart-minneapolis-whitney-hess-diy-ux-give-your-users-upgrade - Obviously, a talk about User Experience (UX)- "How we make design decisions" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/07/29/event-apart-minneapolis-jared-spool-anatomy-design-decision - Being conscious of how you make design decisions can help improve the quality of those decisions.- "Content Strategy" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/09/event-apart-minneapolis-kristina-halvorson-%E2%80%9Cmessage-and-medium-better-conten - People don't come to your site just because it's nicely designed. Content is king.- "Key principles to keep in mind when working on the Web" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/12/event-apart-minneapolis-jeff-veen-how-web-works - Web is not print. You need to know what are the important principles of the Web.- "Mobile on my mind" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/07/31/event-apart-minneapolis-luke-wroblewski-mobile-first - Google designs for mobile devices first. The mobile device market will soon overtake desktop computers in internet access. So what are you waiting for? Optimize your sites for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. It will be worth you while.- "Keep things flexible" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/10/event-apart-minneapolis-ethan-marcotte-dao-flexibility - Connected to the recent article on A list apart about "Responsive web design" ( http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design ), talks about how we should give a great experience to users regardless of their screen size. If done correctly, it will greatly improve how users experience your site. just go to http://robot-or-not.com/ (for everyone who want to know if someone is a robot... or not) and try resizing the window. Watch the magic happen right in front of you!- "Patterns, Components and code - Oh, my!" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/erin-malone/2010/08/09/event-apart-minneapolis-erin-malone-patterns-components-and-code-oh-my - When do we have to be creative, and when can we stop reinventing the wheel?- "Making forms suck less" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/09/event-apart-minneapolis-jeremy-keith-paranormal-interactivity- "Don't forget to be human" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/02/event-apart-minneapolis-aarron-walter-learning-love-humans-emotional-interfa - Why to design for robots when humans will be experiencing our sites? We need to make design pleasurable.- "Everything old new again" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/05/event-apart-minneapolis-eric-meyer-everything-old-new-again - Eric Meyer, the "king of CSS", talks about some great CSS techniques. You must read this!- "Upgrading the experience" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/-event-apart/2010/08/03/event-apart-minneapolis-dan-cederholm-css3-experience - CSS3 and other new technologies are developing day after day after day. Why not take advantage of that and improve the experience of users browsing with new browsers? Dan Cederholm discusses this.- "What's in your toolbox?" - https://www.marcdrummond.com/dreamweaver/2010/08/04/event-apart-minneapolis-greg-rewis-weaving-modern-web - I didn't read this one, but according to the short description on the blog, Adobe's Greg Rewis (has an excellent category "Taming the web" on tv.adobe.com) discusses how Dreamweaver CS5 helps you in programming with new technologies like HTML 5 and CSS 3.

There's always something we'll be inventing and - although these inventions might not seem very important at the first look - I believe they'll mean a lot to the mankind. Like robots, perhaps. Maybe we'll start cloning natural resources, but I definitely expect for us to start thinking about making the Moon or Mars liveable on. OR, we'll just clone the Earth. So, as I once heard "We shouldn't be doing Artificial intelligence until we do something about natural stupidity." (free interpretation of the quote, I don't remember it 100%) Like Futurama automated, eh?

I've been incredibly productive posting news here lately, so why not continue in that manner? Because, you might not know, but it's been found out how many rounds (or moves, call it what you would like) you minimally need to solve this puzzle. It's twenty rounds, which has been proven recently by a few cool computers, and with a little help of Google. Up until now, it was thought that you'd need around 18 to 50 moves minimum for the easiest (that's 18) and the hardest (50) starting combination, and the Rubik's cube has around (take a breath here =)) 43.252.003.274.489.856.000 combinations. http://www.cube20.org/ P.S. Now that I know two news at once, I felt it wasn't necessary to open two topics at once (and please correct me if I shouldn't be doing it anymore), so I decided to cram up another news here: the iPad already existed 23 years ago! It wasn't functional as "the iPad" today, but it still did exist in the early Star Trek, where they decided to use a touch-screen interface instead of buttons (as most spaceships these days had) to reduce cost. And it basically had the exact function as today's iPad! I tell you, these were some smart people/designers back then! You can read all about this on Arstechnica.com, and here's an image of how it used to look like in Star Trek...:

Am I the only one here who keeps track of technology news? I don't know, but here goes another very interesting piece of knowledge... Owners of Google Android devices (2.2 upwards) can download voice actions for their cellphones from now on! It's an interesting service, and -- if it works right -- might be a favourite amongst the public.Here are the videos:[media]http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ there's another one, but now looking at it -- it seems the same as the other one. Anyhow, it's on http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, what do you think? I'm a little sceptical since what they've shown so far seems too good to be true. Maybe they've made an early (late?) April fool's joke? But I'll be sure to download the application soon and test it out. It can't hurt me, right? ( Oh, P.S. It's free. )

Hehe, I am definitely going to freak out new members and visitors. But that way they'll know they shouldn't mess with me. By the look on your face I can see you're impressed by my genius... Naah, only kidding - I'll replace it once I remember something smart. But signatures look cool and I must have one. (P.S. This reminds me of one comic I've seen recently... Here it is: ) Right? As for the shapes, that's what regularly happens to me. I just see these cool brushes and have no idea where to start, and than it all ends up being one huuuge mess of nothingness (that's a cool word, nothingness ). @BloodTake Dankeschon. I mean... Grazie... Ummm. Thanks.

Thanks web_designer for thanking me And notice my new cool signature, huh? It's... Special! P.S. I've been playing with this Muro now, and this is what I've done. I'm no Leonardo Da Vinci, but I looooove to brag (actually; I'm lying, but you won't be mad -- will you? ): Hmmm... Weird monsters, eh?

Just a quick post today; goes into the web design area. ( Sorry Shahrukh, no more dialogs between us currently Maybe a bit later, huh? )Happy Cog ( happycog.com ) is one of the best web design companies out there currently, run by one of the legends and biggest authorities in web design, Jeffrey Zeldman ( zeldman.com ). They've got a nice and unconventional design layout (notice there's no ACTUAL menu, but only a nice little intro) and regularly publish case studies of sites they (re)designed which are a great insight for starting (and even the ones not starting) web designers and developers into how it all works. :)My favourites are the Wordpress case study ( only because it is Wordpress we're dealing with - http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) and Zappos ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) - because not only is Zappos famous, but also because it's more extensive than the average. However, I suggest you browse through all of them - it is really a great reading, not too long, but just exactly as it's needed to be. Now, since I've already talked about Veerle's blog (veerle.duoh.com) I think it's just OK to talk about Duoh's actual website and blog ( http://www.duoh.com/ and http://www.duoh.com/news/ ). It's a great piece of artwork, I think it goes very well with Veerle's stuff and it also gives powerful insights into development and design of some of their client's works.Again, as with Happy Cog - be sure to check it out!

Hi, So I was thinking the last few weeks about choosing an appropriate advertising solution for my own website, which will basically have to earn me lots of money. My eye caught one of them "premium ad networks" that look and feel great. You can see them in action on sites like zeldman.com (in the sidebar), elliotjaystocks.com/blog, jasonsantamaria.com (in the footer) and similar. The only flaw of these otherwise great networks is they cost a lot to the advertisers ( well, that's actually good for us, the publishers ), and that they're invite-only - which means you first must become famous and have good articles and design for them to take you in (Like Jason, Jeffrey and Elliot are; also, they aren't PPC which means their publishers must have a lot of monthly visits). They also don't charge by click, but give you a determined amount every month which does not change. Excellent! Perfetto! =) Now, there are quite a few of them in existence: - Ads Via the Deck ( on decknetwork.net ) - Probably the most "exclusive" and "classy" one, clearly states a month of advertising costs $ 7000 dollars and big companies like Adobe use it. - Fusion ads ( fusionads.net ) - Another great network, invite-only but also a lot cheaper than The Deck ( $ 1200/month ). - Ads by Carbon ( https://carbonads.net/ ) - Very similar to the other ones, but still fresh and new. I haven't found the prices yet. - Influ Ads ( influads.com ) - Not so exclusive, which is a by-product of the fact that you can contact them if you'd like to be a part of their network. None of the others don't offer that... =( I wanted to know your personal opinion on these, and weather you know any others. I'd love to find out more since they'd really look great with my current site layout (which isn't yet on line; but in progress ). Thanks!

Well, you know - it isn't very much likely that they did that intentionally, but "there remains a conflict of interest in Apple acting as the sole steward of the iOS software universe while also filing patents in areas that have long been staked out by third-party developers," which is absolutely true (from - Venomous porridge - http://venomousporridge.com/post/909651311/whereto-patent-followup ).They can do whatever they want once someone submits an application to the App store, and it isn't OK to the developers for Apple trying to patent something that already exists on the market. They have a huge advantage to the developers because they know the platform already, know the hardware and all the smallest issues with iOS 4 (and 3) AND they also have superior monetary funds, so they -- in theory, at least -- are able to make better and faster software than the average developers.Another look at things can also be found on http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ like this made a big fuss once it became clear what exactly happened with the patent application.

So, while browsing the Interwebs recently (notice how I use "Interwebs" instead of Internet? ) I stumbled upon (not via StumbleUpon) a nice little piece of artboard on DeviantArt, called Muro (not exactly sure why). It's like a drawing board, which has some nice and cool brushes for you to show-off on line. Of course, you need to pay for some of the brushes (Well, they've got to make a living, too...) but the actual application is free - which is good. I think the application is made in HTML 5, which means you most probably won't be able to access it if you're using a crappy old browser like Internet Explorer 8 (and below). So upgrade now, before it's too late! :DAnyhow, it's a nice little artboard which lets you send your work to DeviantART (at least that's what THEY say, I haven't tried it out) and export it as a PNG image (I think, the export process basically throws a new window with your image inside).And I almost forgot the link, which is http://muro.deviantart.com/ Have fun... I know I will.

I don't know what has been happening with me posting news (and news about huge companies, that is) lately, but I guess I've been following the Portals more than I usually would recently. So, here go the news (well, three days old news - but still interesting...): Apple has tried to patent a travel application for the iPhone recently (and another one, but that's not important here ). They've set up the entire documentation and everything, but some information from the actual document seems to have leaked, leaving a bad image of what Apple has been trying to acheive - that is, to patent an application that already existed! "Figure six" (it's actually called like that in the patent application), the disputable wireframe of Apple's submitted patent (Wireframe obviously on the right, original left). Where to find out more: http://www.futuretap.com/blog/the-patent-case-we-havent-called Now, there are a few holes in the actual story (like; where can we see the entire document? I haven't done much research - and am not going to - but we should look at the entire document to draw actual conclusions), but as I see it there are only two possible options available: 1. This is a theft, and Apple hoped no one will notice them trying to steal an application that has already been produced. 2. (More likely,) Apple has submitted this image just as an example of what the application might look like (i.e. of other applications that do the same assignment). Now, I'm not totally into this whole "patenting" stuff nor am I a lawyer, but I don't really think that is allowed to be done. I mean, how would Apple react if I wanted to patent a mobile phone called "MyPhone?" And another thing I'm not happy with is that they're actually stomping the floor here (I don't know how to express myself otherwise - maybe making a "benchmark" ) and making a monopoly in the AppStore market - taking it away from Third-Party developers. And that's actually not good neither for them nor for the developers - I mean, how can they submit applications to the iPhone market if they know Apple (who probably has ten and more times the money and developers available) might try to patent the same kind of applications?! But, the sane thing to do now is to wait for an "official response" from Apple - although they probably won't actually say "Yes, we copied everything there", it'll at least enlighten the situation we're in. It IS a little suspicious the wireframe is EXACTLY the same as the actual application screenshot (even the time and carrier are the same!!).