Posted: February 7th, 2010 | Author: Kurt | Filed under: Inspiration | 5 Comments »
As much as I would like to take all of the credit for the ideas behind this blog, it actually had quite a bit to do with the wonderful amount of web design resources that are available out there. There is a huge number of bloggers, freelancers, and designers out there who publish wonderful ideas and designs that inspire plenty of others, including myself. So, I wanted to highlight some of the resources that have inspired me.
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Posted: February 6th, 2010 | Author: Kurt | Filed under: Linux | 9 Comments »
You can capture video of all of the amazing things happening on your desktop with one of Linux’s many screencasting applications. These programs are perfect for creating demonstrations for blogs and tutorials, and for illustrating projects with more than just still images.
Many different programs are available, and they all provide a different set of features, options, and output formats. When choosing, consider the degree of control you want to have over your video resolution and whether the video is intended to work on non-Linux operating systems. Common open source output formats, such as FLAC and Ogg Theora, work natively on Linux but require software and plugins on proprietary operating systems. User interfaces also vary greatly; some applications are nothing more than an icon in the system tray while others depend on large interfaces with many options.
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Posted: February 5th, 2010 | Author: Kurt | Filed under: Web Design | 29 Comments »
Images increase download time for end-users and workload for web designers, slowing down the time it takes to fully develop a concept for clients. Furthermore, images can add unneeded clutter and increase search-engine blindness, detracting from the principle of simple web design.
You don’t need images to create a deep and beautiful web design. Instead, you can use CSS, typography, and optical effects to do many of the same things and instead only use images when they are clearly needed. If you like these tips, you should check out the bonus tips for five more ways to stop using images in web design.
Before we get started, there is one potential downside to these techniques that needs to be mentioned. Because of the (awful) state of standards-compliant browsers, not all of these ideas will work (or look the same) in all browsers. Therefore, there may be times when you might opt to use an image instead when you want an element to be sure to render the same across all browsers. One way to test browser standards is via the Acid3 test. And, you can see how your design will look in a variety of different browsers with BrowserShots.
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Posted: February 4th, 2010 | Author: Kurt | Filed under: Linux | 6 Comments »
Backing up data can be difficult, especially when you only want to copy files that changed since the last backup. It can be even more troublesome when you have to remember to start the process manually,or you have to delete old backups to make room for new ones. Because of these difficulties, some people decide not to back up data at all, and feel the pain when they accidentally delete the wrong file or their system crashes. TimeVault is a backup utility for Ubuntu that addresses these problems.
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