WebGyver Revisited

Free Graphics: Badges and Seals

Posted by admin on January 27, 2009  |  1 Comment

Sometimes you just need a good graphics badge or seal, right? And usually, it’s just a starting point for something you will finish in Photoshop or Illustrator anyway, so you need it for free.

Obviously, when you generate a graphic, it’s up to you to import them into Photoshop or Illustrator and use them as templates or elements of a collage. Or, if you’re totally gung-ho, you could transfer your customized seals and badges to iron-on paper and create your own T-shirts.

Head on over to the WORDPLAY blog, where you can find good summaries of what the Official Badge Generator and the Official Seal Generator at says-it.com (where you can also find the famous Church Sign Generator, the Concert Ticket Generator and the Soft Drink Generator that lets you design graphics of soft drink cans).

Badges: Currently, you can choose from six (6) different badge designs. Once you’ve selected a badge design, you can then customize the text that shows up on the badge, fine-tune the colors and adjust the overall size of the badge.

Seals: Currently, they have 10 different seal shapes to choose from — and since I hate to end a sentence with a preposition, let me just point out that the customization settings for seals also include emblem choices and broder settings.

One word of warning: Once you start playing around with those graphics generators, it’s hard to stop. So if you end up spending an hour or more generating badges and seals for office pranks and humorous fake IDs, don’t blame me.

Blink property still alive and well in CSS

Posted by admin on January 23, 2009  |  No Comments

You know, for years I’ve been hearing jokes about the <blink> tag in deprecated HTML code by inexpoerienced web designers, and somehow, I though to myself, “Surely, nobody is actually still using BLINKING text anymore in today’s web development.”

Then I read through pages of PayPal developer documentation for a recent project and found this beauty:

Hey, I’m not saying it’s really, really bad, but I was a bit surprised. Perhaps it is an internal issue at PayPal, and perhaps they’ve been getting a lot of support calls about finding the link for the PDF version of the Order Management Integration Guide. Then I thought, “Aren’t there better ways of addressing such issues?”

Then I took a quick look at the source code:

Because I, too, do silly things if I don’t get enough sleep, I am not going to make any snide remarks about the web design practices of others. They have their own reasons for doing what they’re doing, right?

Still, after a while, the blinking “PDF” text really started to annoy me. Why? Because I’ve been told over and over again that it’s bad practice and poor usability to use BLINK? Or because it’s simply . . . annoying? I don’t have a good answer, but I know I won’t be using the BLINK property in any of my web work if I can somehow help it.

If you’re so smart, what would you have done? Good point. How about nice little icons? One for the PDF link, and another one for the forum? After all, the idea is to catch someone’s attention, right? Perhaps something along these lines:

Of course, I am not saying that my quick-and-dirty idea is better than what the developers at PayPal did, but it’s different. In the end, as I said, we all have our own reasons for doing what we do — and the way in which we do it.

jQuery 1.3.1 to the Rescue — Thank You!

Posted by admin on January 22, 2009  |  No Comments

jQuery 1.3.1 has been released about 11 hours ago, and it has resolved all of the previously encountered 1.3 issues (see my previous entry).

Having installed and tested this latest release, I’m happy to say that all of the IE7 JavaScript issues my clients were reporting a few days ago have gone away. Apparently, there was a problem when end users accessed web sites that had their domains forwarded & masked. Since doing so will basically place the web sites into an HTML frame environment, a portion of jQuery, specifically dealing with frames, was encountering problems.

At any rate, all is well, the clients are happy, and I want to thank John Resig and the jQuery team for all of their hard work.

jQuery 1.3 not ready for production

Posted by admin on January 21, 2009  |  3 Comments

Editor’s Note: Corrections added (Jan. 21, 2009 / 2:00 p.m. MST).

jQuery 1.3 will throw several errors in Internet Explorer 7 if you are:

1) forwarding a web site and

2) masking the URL.

The jQuery team has acknowledged several bugs and stated on their web site that an updated version (1.3.1) will be released some time this week. As of this morning (January 21, 2009), no updates have been made available yet.

Just in case you’re Google-ing this issue — and you can’t find much, and you think you’’re going crazy — the following JavaScript errors has have occurred on one of my client’s web sites.

1. Access is denied

In the debugger, the following jQuery 1.3 syntax is highlighted:

Here’s the text:

if(document.documentElement.doScroll&&!l.frameElement)

Summary: This is obviously not a big deal, as long as you don’t have picky clients. And as long as your clients don’t forward and mask existing web sites to different domain names.

Solution: For the time being, revert to jQuery 1.2.6 and wait for the jQuery 1.3.1 release.

The following error disappeared after I had stripped the page down to its bare minimum and disabled various IE7 add-ons.

It seems that this particular started disappearing when I disabled the add-ons from GrabNet (which, I believe, are a result of installing the free Orbit file download utility).

Let me make this clear: Although there seems to be a conflict with jQuery 1.3, this particular error went away after I disabled the GrabNet add-ons. However, for reference purposes, I’m leaving the error description in this article. Thanks to John Resig (!) for helping me figure this out.

‘n.props’ is null or not an object

And the debugger highlights the following jQuery 1.3 syntax:

And here is the text:

F=G&&n.props[F]||F;

Amazing Web Stats

Posted by admin on January 12, 2009  |  No Comments

Adam Singer just published a list of “49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats” over at the futurebuzz blog. I think he gathered some amazing statistics, and I recommend you visit his blog for the full story, along with all the citations for the sources, plus additional, relevant information.

Adam organized his stats in multiple sections, such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Blogosphere, etc.

Browser Statistics

If you’re interested in web browser statistics, or browser stats, and browser display information (or even individual “per browser” statistics), head on over to W3Schools for all the relevant information.

Check out the navigation menu on the left to see a number of available statistics.

Global Internet Statistics

If you’re into “the big picture” and want to know a little bit more about who might be browsing the web worldwide, or per continent, have a look at Internet World Stats.

They say that they re “”an International website featuring up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions.” And, yes, they do have a link called The Big Picture.

Here Comes Everybody / Web 3.0 / Clay Shirky

Posted by admin on January 8, 2009  |  No Comments

So who is this guy who knows what mistakes will occur with Web 3.0 GUIs and mobile interfaces? Clay Shirky is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations as well as a teacher of new media at NYU.

Shirky was the guest on NPR’s Talk Of The Nation (January 8, 2009), and you can access the podcast on the NPR web site.

Here’s an excerpt from Shirky’s book (by way of the Talk Of The Nation web site):

When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to bee life. Though the hive is not part of any individual bee, it is part of the colony, both shaped by and shaping the lives of its inhabitants. The hive is a social device, a piece of bee information technology that provides a platform, literally, for the communication and coordination that keeps the colony or from their shared, co-created environment. So it is with human networks; bee hives, we make mobile phones.

Check out the podcast, and who knows, you might just get interested in the book as well.

Web 3.0 – Free Podcast from NPR

Posted by admin on January 8, 2009  |  No Comments

If Web 2.0 is/was all about social networking, receiving feedback and getting in touch with the masses, then what will Web 3.0 do?

According to some industry insiders (such as Clay Sharky), Web 3.0 will be about people helping out each other, by building interesting and meaningful online collaboration tools — without financial gain as the motivator.

At least, that’s how the folks at NPR summarize the Thursday, January 8, 2009 episode of Talk Of The Nation. You can download the free podcast of the show approximately two hours after it’s aired. Correction: Audio for this story will be available at approx. 6:00 p.m. ET

Free Web Development Icons (high quality)

Posted by admin on January 7, 2009  |  No Comments

The generous folks at Creative 9 Design have some high quality icons for web applications and web development. One that I like a lot is called Rinoa Icon Set 1.

And did I mention that they’re free? You get 48 icons in .PNG format (24×24).

Who is this Creative 9 Design Studio? According to their ABOUT US page, they “a small design studio located in China .Our focus is on creating logo, icon, website, skins in a variety of styles at affordable prices.” Apparently, they have been around for a couple of years or so.

Solutions: Web Video Conferencing in 2009

Posted by admin on January 6, 2009  |  2 Comments

Remember the old days when you had to make reservations for the satellite room, hook up all kinds of hardware, sit in the right spot for the camera to “see” you and the microphone to “hear” you?

Fast forward to January 2009, and you can hold web video conferences from just about any computer (or even mobile device) that 1) runs an up-to-date operating system, 2) has a microphone and a webcam and 3) an Internet connection.

Without wanting to come across as extremely biased (although I reserve the right to remain subjective…this is my blog, after all), here are some of the top contenders in the web video conferencing arena.

ooVoo: This company has been hard at work over the past year, and it shows. Their products range from free web video conferencing to video e-mail and serveral variations of “web” and “video” related products.

You can get an astonishing number of features for free (and even more if you’re willing to pay a very reasonable amount for the professional versions of their products and services). However, as with most web video conferencing services, you need to download their software to make it work. It’s no big deal, but the software currently requires you to have a PC, running Windows, or a Mac, running Tiger or Leopard.

Dimdim: As if you had to have a silly name to contend in this space, this company is definitely on its way to awesome. Check this out: Up to 20 participants in a free web video conference.

They basically have the following advantage:

With no software to download or install, Dimdim forever democratizes webbased live meetings. In seconds – right from your browser – you easily host or attend web conferences complete with audio and video, chat, screen and web page sharing.

iVisit: Right off the bat, these folks offer “multiparty audio and video conferencing for PC, Mac, and mobile devices.” They offer online video chats with up to 8 users, text messaging as well as recording & sharing of audio, photo and video messages — among several other features.

Unlike Dimdim, you will need to download their software. However, they offer quite a few free services & features, so it would be definitely worth your while, especially if you need to reach people on mobile devices.

TokBox: Told you they had a preference for silly names in this industry. Live video calling, video e-mail and video chats with your IM buddies. In a nutshell, TokBox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video. Here’s how it works: you sign up and they give you a link. When you want to talk with anyone, just give them the link – they click and you chat.

Geared towards the social network crowd, TokBox is easy to use with facebook and similar websites. No software to download. No cost. Embeddable on all websites and social networks.

Skype: Yup, the “little” company from Luxembourg started offering video calling some time ago. If you’re familiar with the service, you know that you need to download their software and register an account (which you can do for free for the most essential functions).

Making a video call using Skype requires a webcam (in addition to your headset or speakers and microphone). You install the software for the webcam, and then plug in the webcam to the computer. Skype will automatically detect the webcam and help you test the webcam (to make sure everything is working correctly). Once that is done, any Skype call can include video.

Gmail Voice and VideoChat: Nope, this is not a typo. Since they already had a silly name to begin with, why not join the web video conferencing game? You can now “video chat” from within Gmail. All you need is the hardware and a Gmail account. Plus the voice and video chat software from Google.

So far, I’ve downloaded the software, but I haven’t taken the time to take it out for a test drive yet. From what I can tell, however, this seems to be the most rudimentary implementation of web video conferencing I have seen. Plus it only runs on Windows XP or later. Oh, and only in supported web browsers (more information).

SightSpeed: A subsidiary of Logitech, SightSpeed is — according to their web site — the award-winning provider of Internet video chat and voice calling for friends and family, and video conferencing solutions for businesses. They claim to that their solutions are easy to install and set up so you can a) connect with everyone in your network, face to face, anyplace, b) save time, hassle, and money spent on travel, and c) help save our environment by minimizing your carbon footprint!

Additionally, they state on their web site that their “patented video technology ensures you get the best possible video and sound quality every time, unlike other online video services. SightSpeed offers the highest-quality, full-motion 30 frames per second video with clear audio and no annoying delay.”

However, before you start anything serious with SightSpeed, keep in mind that they give you a free 30–day trial, but they do not offer any kind of free version of their software and services.

Summary: Yes, I know, I’ve barely scratched the surface of web video conferencing solutions. However, working for another web video conference software company (which I have not listed here to remain at least semi-biased), I would say that the above companies are currently in the TOP 10 of this relatively young industry.

If you’re not familiar at all with any of those products and services, do your homework before you start downloading & installing a particular solution: Find out which company offers solutiosn that will work with your existing hardware. If you need to upgrade your computer system and/or hardware to be able to do all of this, it’s better to know that before you start getting your hopes up.

You might also want to confer with your family and friends, since they will need to be on the same page (i.e., using the same software and services) as you. If there’s a cost involved, think about the benefits you will get from web video conferencing versus the expenses.

Finally, let me just make it clear that this is not — and was not supposed to be — a comprehensive list of web video conferencing solutions any kind. There are many more products and services out there, and I am sure several of those are highly professional and worth your time and consideration as well.

Free Vector Button Set 2

Posted by admin on January 4, 2009  |  No Comments

Grab them while they’re hot. Free colorized vectors that you can use as templates or starting points for your own design work.

Here’s the direct download link: http://www.freepsd.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=37