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Free website monitoring with Google Docs

I’m a happy customer of website monitoring server Hyperspin (www.hyperspin.com) but if you want a simple and zero-cost alternative there is another solution: Google Docs! It really works (just got my first alert :)) Check out the tutorial here http://bit.ly/HiT8BQ

How not to do an auto-responder campaign

Think before you press the auto button A few days ago +SitePoint send me a new offer for their new CSS Anthology book. I happily access their site and request a sample chapter which arrives promptly. A few minutes later I am the proud owner of the book (I even posted about it here http://bit.ly/GGb2h6). [Continue reading]

It's not you, it's the user

Software as social hacking Finding out how you site/app/whatever is being used and percieved by the users is as important (or more) as your original specifications for it. This is what Grupper (a social service that sets up up drinks between 3 men and 3 women) discovered when they realized that cancellation rate for their [Continue reading]

Page flip effect with jQuery

Burn Flash, burn Here’s another use of Flash that can be converted to #HTML5 / #CSS3 : turn.js provides an easy to setup page-flip effect with just a few lines of codes. Get it here http://bit.ly/FOHmkX and also check out this tutorial of an Instragram-powered "magazine" using turn,js http://bit.ly/ym1cDo Google+: Reshared 3 times Google+: View [Continue reading]

How to fit a large table of data in a small screen?

You don’t ;) So you decided to join the mobile world and create a unicorn/droid-ready version of your site. If you happen to use big tables of data on one of your pages you find out they don’t really fit in a small screen. The good guys of the filament group have come up with [Continue reading]

Responsive design strategies

Through fluid grids and media query adjustments, responsive design enables Web page layouts to adapt to a variety of screen sizes. As more designers embrace this technique, we’re not only seeing a lot of innovation but the emergence of clear patterns as well. I cataloged what seem to be the most popular of these patterns [Continue reading]

The CSS3 Anthology, 4th Ed.

Just got Sitepoint’s CSS3 Anthology book by +Rachel Andrew which has been updated to a fourth edition. It’s a good over-400-pages reference book with basic and not so basic practical examples of using #CSS3 . Hot topics covered:* Responsive design: Smart layouts for all devices* Stylish layouts: With tabular data, text styling, and CSS positioning* [Continue reading]

Glyphs, Icons, Pictograms, Free!

I’ve been a long time user of the famfamfam.com icon library but recently I’ve been looking for something fresh. Here are some very nice choices for your icon greed :) Entypo by +Daniel Bruce Over 100 icons in EPS or as OpenType font. Free with attribution (you can donate, 50% goes to wikipedia)http://bit.ly/wEuNiE +GLYPHICONS by [Continue reading]

Advanced text-around-image wrapping

Not magic, JavaScript Here’s a small gem of #jQuery coding: jQSlickWrap is a #plugin which allows for easily wrapping your text around images, respecting the image’s content, as you would do in a DTP program. The specs: – Client-side, Sliced and Diced Sandbags using HTML 5’s new <canvas /> element– CSS-based padding– Sandbag "resolution" is [Continue reading]

Google+Blog for WordPress v.1.1.2

I had previously wrote http://bit.ly/yNwPxo about +Daniel Treadwell’s Google+Blog plugin which imports your #GooglePlus posts into #WordPress . I’ve been a happy user ever since so I’m jumping to the opportunity to post about it again as it has recently been updated. These are changes of v.1.1.0 although it has been silently been updated to [Continue reading]

Want Apple-styled maps on your site?

In the new version of iPhoto announced two days ago, #Apple has dropped using #GoogleMaps in favor of +OpenStreetMap, an open-source initiative for map data. Given that Apple was kind enough to NOT give credit to #OpenStreetMap (see more http://bit.ly/xM3YGt) I’d say it’s ok to use Apple’s map tiles on your website. And you can [Continue reading]

The Inverse Thumbnail Malfunction

Web development fail of the day: when the full-sized image is (much much) smaller than the thumbnail :)

Develop for mobile faster with Adobe Shadow

At least that’s the promise of #Adobe ’s newest lab experiment: Adobe Shadow The official description: Adobe® Shadow is a new inspection and preview tool that allows front-end web developers and designers to work faster and more efficiently by streamlining the preview process, making it easier to customize websites for mobile devices. In essence, Adobe [Continue reading]

Gantt charts with Javascript

I’ve been using an old #jQuery plugin called "jquery.gantt" with limited features and it was time for an upgrade. My search ended with JSGantt, an open source #javascript solution that covers everything you would want:– Task, (collapsible) task groups & milestones– Multiple dependencies– Multiple formats (day, week, month, etc)– Data loading through XML Get JSGantt [Continue reading]

MySQL ordering alphabetically with empty strings last

Here is a small #MySQL tip: Say you want to order your query results alphabetically, but keep the empty fields last, what do you do? If you do SELECT string FROM table ORDER BY string;You will get ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘, ’1′, ’2′, ’3′, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ But if you doSELECT string FROM table ORDER [Continue reading]

Social Media tracking with ThinkUp

There are various solutions (with varying paying options) if you want to monitor your #social network efforts but there is also an open-source solution. +ThinkUp, led by +Gina Trapani, is a web application that can provide you statistics on your #Facebook , #Twitter and #Google + accounts and pages. Included are likes, reshares and responses [Continue reading]

Right-click menus in HTML5

The image below is from the future. :) It shows a context-related right-click menu implemented with just a few lines of #HTML5 code. This is already part of the official HTML 5 spec but is only supported by Firefox at the moment. The spec describes menus that are related to a section, can have sub-menus [Continue reading]

Responsive design wireframing

The #responsivedesign concept is quickly becoming a must-have item in any new web design project. But while the miracle of "code once, run everywhere" is upon us, some challenges are ahead for the designer. Suddenly, it’s not one #wireframe , but three or four (for each #layout of the website). And while there may be [Continue reading]

Responsive menus: one code to rule them all

If you haven’t joined the mobile web yet, you should really start thinking about it. 66% of 24-35 year olds already own web-hungry smartphones in the United States. +Webdesigntuts shows us how you can have one piece #HTML / #CSS code for your menus for both your mobile and "full size" visitors. Check it out [Continue reading]

The Cross-CMS Perception Matrix

In the spirit of the latest "What People Think I Do / What I Really Do" meme (more at http://chzb.gr/A6accB), here is how #CMS developers view other developers and their favorite system. I think each CMS has it’s own purpose and use but there no harm with a little fun :) Included: #WordPress , #Drupal [Continue reading]

Multi-lingual content in Drupal 7

If you’re building a site with multiple languages on #Drupal you’re going to need two things: translation of the interface and translation of the content. The +Lullabot people have you covered on that with an extensive guide on how to have your site interface and your nodes (content) translated. http://bit.ly/wFB5Vk Side-note: Trying to post a [Continue reading]

Improve your SEO with XML Sitemaps

One process often suggested to improve your search engine rankings are creating your #sitemap in XML format and submitting to search engines. #Google and #Bing are among the search engines that support the format. But a simple dump of every single page on your site might not be the best way to go about it. [Continue reading]

The greatest Flash animation there has ever been

After 15 years, at last there is a reason for the existence of Flash. It’s called The Scale of the Universe by Cary and Michael Huang and you have to see it now http://bit.ly/wWGTVg Google+: Reshared 2 times

How to Design User Flow

Getting visitors to your site is one thing. But once they are there, you need to provide an exciting/useful/engaging/you-name-it experience if you are going to have results. The good folks at conversionXL.com have a very thorough post on how to guide your visitors to the desired action (whatever that may be: sale, quote form, support [Continue reading]

Tracking your visitors' location with PHP

If you are in a situation that you need to show different content to your visitors depending on their location, an easy way to do it is with #PHP using MaxMind’s IP database. MaxMind is offering commercial database of locations for IP addresses, but they also have a free product GeoLite Country http://bit.ly/yoPj7C It is [Continue reading]

12 Steps to organic keywords optimization

+George Aspland at +Search Engine Land has posted a comprehensive guide on improving your search engine ranking through careful curation of your content and code. His 12 steps: 1. Choose The Keywords To Focus On2. Prioritize Your Keywords3. Check That Important Content On The Page Is Getting Indexed4. Ensure The Indexed Text Is Unique5. Try [Continue reading]

Weekend WordPress reading

Just got this! http://t.co/GdRVvuWu Digging into WordPress +Chris Coyier and +Jeff Starr is 400 pages of WordPress knowledge. Just updated to cover WP 3.3 (and with a promise of free future updates forever!) this looks really good. Hopefully, I’ll repost soon with a review of the book :) Edit: just discovered the "All AJAX" theme [Continue reading]

Don't forget

For your #WebDevelopment checklist: Always remember to buy that stock photo you are using on your front page before going live :)

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