Define your body background color

In IE there is no default background color meaning it’ll use what ever is closes to “white”.  If your going to use white as the default background alway define it for IE’s sake for the fact IE’s default BG isn’t fully white.  Unlike other browsers like FF and Opera this setting is set default to white.

Google Owns GoogleKnol.com

Apparently, doing some research I was going to try buying GoogleKnol.com to gain some profit off the deal which possibly could of made some money over time.  So I visit the domain, page doesn’t load but according to Whois.Net the domain is registered to Google already and is set up to 4 of Google’s nameservers already

Why not use its domain?

Not sure, it possibly could be like the gmail service where it redirects the domain to googles subdomain.

In Conclusion

Anyone who was trying to get this domain sorry your out of luck , would of been worth some money.

They can be used in various places such as: page loading, redirecting, uploading files, sending information using Ajax and so forth.

In this post I’ve made a wonderful package of progress bars.

By reading this post you’ll be able to make some beautiful progress bars for your own use.

I’ve grouped them into four parts:

1. jQuery progress bars

2. JavaScript and DHTML progress bars

3. Create progress bars using CSS

4. Create progress bars using Photoshop

I hope you to enjoy them.

jQuery Progress Bars

jQuery.UI ProgressBar Widget

HOWTO: PHP and jQuery upload progress bar

jqUploader

“jqUploader is a jquery plugin that substitutes html file input fields with a flash-based file upload widget, allowing to display a progressbar and percentage. It is designed to take most of its customization from the html code of your form directly – so you don’t have to do things twice . For instance, the maximum file size, if specified via html, will be recognized and used in the rich upload interface generated by jqUploader.

The plugin uses the form action attribute value (normally pointing to a server side script handling the upload and other data manipulations, and appends a variable “jqUploader=1″ so that the upload code is initiated when it sees that key/value is on the posted data.”

Progress Bar Plugin

This is a progress bar plugin for jQuery.

DHTML & JavaScript Progress bars

Popup progress bar

Todd’s popup progress bar script is used to provide a visual update of an event in progress. Use it, for example, to display a delay before redirecting to another page or loading a script/application

We’ve modified the script so it:

-Works in NS6 as well (default is IE4+ and NS4)
-Ability to specify duration of progress bar display (ie: 5 seconds)

WinXP Progress Bar (version 1.2)

A great looking pure DHTML progress bar that resembles the one seen in Window XP’s startup screen. All visual aspects of the bar can be customized, and the script can be invoked multiple times to display multiple bars on the same page. Script works in both IE5+ and NS6+.

Progress graphic on submit

scriptable progress bar

this is a step by step guide on how to extend xhtml with elements in your own namespace , render
your elements with SVG, style the output with CSS and make the whole thing scriptable.
so lets create a programmable progressbar

Knitters’ Progress Bars

Here are some HTML/Javascript progress bars.

Animated Progress Bars Using MooTools

“I love progress bars. It’s important that I know roughly what percentage of a task is complete. I’ve created a highly customizable MooTools progress bar class that animates to the desired percentage.”

Create Progress Bars using CSS

Pure CSS Animated Progress Bar

Here’s a simple demonstration of how you can create animated progress bar using pure css. The trick is very simple. We need 3 elements, one container and 2 nested elements.

Creating Progress Bar with CSS

“Famous free email service such Yahoo!Mail or Gmail use this feature to warn their users how many quota left to use. You can build progress bar using a simple css code and few images.”

CSS Progress Bar

CSS Progress Bar

Create Progress Bars using Photoshop

Animated Progress Bar

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the steps it takes to create an animated progress bar for your site or script.

Professionaly looking animated progress bar

For a serious interface project, we usually needed to create a nice Please Wait animation(progress).

Windows XP Progress Bar

Learn how to make a Windows XP Progress Bar
using adobe Photoshop.

Operation Systems

1- Windows XP – list of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP
2- Windows keyboard shortcuts you never knew existed!

3- Windows Vista – Windows Vista Shortcut Keys
4- Useful Windows Vista Shortcuts – Some useful shortcuts

5- Max OS X – Learn about common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.
6- Mac OS X Leopard: 200+ Productivity Booster Keyboard Shortcuts

7- Linux keyboard shortcuts you should know about
8- Ubuntu Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Browsers

9- Incredible Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts Which You Probably Don’t Know About
10- Firefox shortcuts
11- 20 Amazing Firefox Shortcuts to Save You Time and Money

12- Safari: Browser Window and Menu Shortcuts
13- Seven Simple Safari Shortcuts

14- Use Opera without a Mouse
15- Keyboard Shortcuts in Opera

16- Internet Explorer 7 Shortcuts

Software

17- Photoshop Secret Shortcuts
18- 18 Exceptionally Useful Photoshop Shortcuts
19- 28 More Exceptionally Useful Photoshop Shortcuts

20- Adobe Illustrator Shortcuts

21- Dreamweaver 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

22- Microsoft Word 2007 keyboard shortcuts

23- Zend Studio 5 keyboard shortcuts

24- Thunderbird Keyboard Shortcuts

25- Window Live Writer

26- Yahoo Messenger Keyboard Shortcuts

27- Windows Messenger Keyboard Shortcuts

28- Google Talk keyboard shortcuts

Online Services

29- Hack Attack: Getting good with Google Reader
30- Google Reader keyboard shortcuts

31- Gmail shortcuts

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends!

Despite the small size of the survey, and also keeping in mind that more than 50% of respondents are big enterprises (more than 1.000 employees), the study reflects qualitative trends in open source usage, as far as OpenLogic reports. I asked Kim Weins, Senior VP of Marketing at OpenLogic, another feedback.

Do you think the low satisfaction maybe related to the size of the customer?

Smaller companies might have lower expectations in terms of integration issues, probably the toughest one to address, and the more likely to meet in a complex environment. Commercial open source vendors are asked to sell more and more valuable OSS support, providing customers with a service level going beyond what they can get for “free” (as in beer) from communities and internal resources. In this respect it is no surprise that the time it takes to resolve an issue takes longer for commercial OSS vendors than internal resources or community mailing lists.

Among the other findings of the survey apparently software defects is not the top priority, while users need more often of help with configuration, integration or performance issues. Hybrid here is a keyword, and commercial open source vendors need to cope with proprietary solutions and custom-coded software.

Last but not least, how do you see players like OpenLogic fitting into this picture?

Flexibility seems a promising factor, and I would be glad to hear some feedback from OpenLogic’s customers.

Comments

First I am going to start off with a 300X400px canvas. I am going to leave my background white for now.

Next get your rounded rectangle tool

In a new layer create a rectangle in the middle of your screen leaving a pretty even amount of white around the shape and use 20px as your radius.

Use these blending options:

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

My result so far:

Make another new layer above that one and create another rounded rectangle with the same radius as the previous one, using the color white just so you can gauge the rectangle

Now add these blending options to that:

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

My result from that;

The icons can be used free for any personal or commercial projects.

The icons are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Minimalist Pixel Icon Set
The following are 26 random icons we’ve created over the last few months for different purposes.

These icons are licenced under a Creative Commons licence, so you are free to do whatever you want with them.

ExplodingBoy Pixel Icons
You can used pixel icons for application toolbars, content management systems, web applications, anything you like. They are divided into four different color sets — blue, pale blue, orange, and grey. They are ultra-simple, straightforward pixel icons. They are free for use!

PI Diagona Pixel Icons
High Quality and Free 10×10 and 16×16 pixel icons. The icons can be used free for any personal or commercial projects. Included 400 (200+200) icons in PNG format.

Icons Round-Up: Free Mini Pixel Icons
The icons are divided into 5 categories – File Type Icons, Web Design Icons, Web Blog & CMS Icons, User Icons, E-commerce Icons.

Bitcons
Bitcons, is a mini-pixel icon set (16×16 pixels) containing 121 individual icons for various subjects

Mini Pixel Icons (Angle Stlye)
16×16 Mini Pixel Icons (Angle Stlye) in .GIF Format

BacktoPixel: free icons

These icons are free to use in any kind of project unlimited times.

Free Icons pixel style

These icons are free to use in any kind of project unlimited times. Icon Sizes: 9×9, 18×18, 28×28 File Types: .png, .gif

30 Free Website Icons, Blog Icons, Symbol Icons
These are pixel icons, 15 16×16 icons and 15 matching 10×10 icons.

You have a license to use these graphic icons for commercial or personal use with some exceptions

Sizcons

The icons are free, so use them however you see fit. If you do use them, it would be nice to get a link displayed somewhere on your site saying where you got them, but it’s not required.

16×16 icons and 12×12 icons are available for download.

MINI ICONS
“Mini” is a set of 144 GIF icons available for free use for any purpose.

FLAG ICONS
“Flags” are 247 icons — in GIF and PNG formats — representing most countries in the world as small pixel icons. These flag icons are available for free use for any purpose with no requirement for attribution.

Cute and clear icons
Cute and clear icons to use in your nifty web application. They are licenced under a Creative Commons licence, so commercial use is fine. Also feel free to make derivatives with the included Photoshop documents.

My Web Control Icons
Use these sets of grey, blue, green and red gif/png images in your web sites for admin buttons or whatever.

Kostenlose Icons

Bullet madness
A handy collection of bullets for your webdesign needs – these icons can add that little extra to your design and make your site stand out from the crowd.

In HTML, there are at least four ways to create a button. There are three input types, submit, reset, and button. There is also the button tag. To follow HTML standards we will us both the input type button, and the button tag, although the same practice can be applied to the submit and reset button. If you do apply the technique to either of those input types remember to change the value of the buttons to value=”". This will keep the words Submit, and Reset from showing up on your button.

Now let us look at the CSS part of the code.

.search_button{
background: url(images/search.jpg) no-repeat;
width: 25px;
height: 25px;
}

Yes, the CSS is that simple to create this effect. The part that is most important to the effect is the background image, which we have located on the server, in this case images/search.jpg. The width and height are not needed to create the effect, but are nice to make for sure you have complete control over the button. Now for the HTML.

<button class=”search_button”></button>
<input type=”button” class=”search_button”>

Now our buttons will have the image we created on it. This is a great visual way to direct users to your search bar. You an also use this for such things a upload buttons where there is an arrow pointing upwards, or for downloads. It also makes the default buttons not as boring, and allows you to design them to fit into your site. You no longer have to design around the buttons, but you can design the buttons around your design.

OpenID allows users to sign into mulitple web sites with a single log-in. On Eventful, users can now populate their profiles with MySpace photo, name, interests and more. Those who connect profiles to MySpace will automatically get Eventful alerts when their favorite act plays nearby with favorites based on which artists they have friended on MySpace. Eventful also recently added a MyTopArtist widget that allows fans to share favorite artist choices on their MySapce page. Both efforts increase the importance of acts keeping tour dates up to date on Eventful.

Flixster, a movie fan site, is using MySpace data availability…

to allow instant sign-on and friend connections for users with active MySpace accounts. Users are able to register for the Flixster site, populate their profile information and find their other friends from MySpace all without having to re-enter any information from their MySpace profile. Flixster and MySpace will then continue to sync information for as long as the user maintains a profile on both sites. Users keep complete control of what information they want to share and can unlink the accounts at any time.

FOR DEVELOPERS ONLY -

MySpace also announced enhancements to its Data Availability initiative for developers to allow caching and storage. Responding to developer feedback, MySpace introduced changes to Data Availability that will allow developers to store a users’ core profile, called the ‘portable profile,’ and cache all of the MySpace API’s for a 24 hour period of time for data fetched through the MySpace REST services. Items that are cacheable for a 24 hour period and must be removed when the cache expires are About me, Body type, Children, Drinker, Ethnicity, Has app, Heroes, ID, Interests, Jobs, Looking for, Movies, Music, Name, Network presence, Profile song, Profile URL, Relationship status, Religion, Sexual orientation, Smoker, Status and TV shows.

MySpace also allows developers to store certain core elements of user’s profiles. MySpace understands that having portable profile data is essential to giving users greater freedom with their online identity and has created granular scoping through OAuth to give the user control over what is shared. A user’s portable profile includes Age, Current location, Date of Birth, Gender, Nickname, Thumbnail URL, and only if the user has scoped access – Email, First Name, and Last Name.

More info @ www.developer.myspace.com.

Comments

What is Flash?
Okay, lets get down to basics. To introduce and establish what Flash is all about I am going to fall back on Wikipedia for a concise description:

BEFORE: Search Engines Could Not Crawl Flash
Up until recently the textual content found in .swf Flash files was, for all intents and purposes, just as unreadable for search engine spiders as the text in images; only HTML text on a page could be read and indexed by search engine spiders because they could not yet (and still cannot) conduct on-the-fly optical character recognition.

To explain this differently I think of the HTML that spiders can read like the braille-like feeling of running your finger over a letter written in ball point pen; you can feel the contour of writing. Whereas something unreadable like Flash or an image on a page is like running your fingers along a 4×6 picture of a road sign… you won’t feel anything, so by the same token the text on that road sign cannot be read by a search engine spider.

NOW: Search Engines Can Crawl Text in Flash
For the first time, on June 30th, 2008 Google announced it could accurately spider the textual content hidden within Flash files found on the Internet. This major announcement was enabled by a partnership between Adobe, Google and Yahoo where Adobe provided their proprietary Flash Player technology to the search engines so they could integrate it into their systems and successfully ‘read’ the content within Flash files. This technology has vast implications for Google’s and soon Yahoo’s indexes because, at least in Google’s case, this allows the search engine to index the content within over 70.4 million Flash (SWF) files. That is a vast amount of content that was previously inaccessible to the search engines and the ability to access it could add a lot of value for search engine users.

For example, an inspiring and eloquent Flash site like Forests Forever could be indexed which would expose more viewers to a website that provides a wonderful introduction to the world’s forests. Of course that is just one Flash site of many that will add value to search engines when indexed; it just happens to be one of my personal favourites.

Search Engine Optimization Now Possible with Flash
The implementation of Flash crawling technology means that the text within Flash can now be indexed and links can be followed. Here are some examples of the basic optimization that is now possible within Flash:

• Optimizing page content for specific keyphrase(s) to ensure a visiting search engine bot will correctly perceive the page’s topic.
• Using keywords within internal links to pass link juice from page to page; only applicable for sites where the Flash pages are broken down onto separate URLs.
• Providing emphasis (bolding) to particular words may help to emphasize keyphrase(s); but I am reaching here… it is unknown if this new technology provides text-importance recognition.

The Limitations of Flash Search Engine Optimization
Now that you have some idea of what can now be optimized for search engines here are a few pitfalls that still limit the search engine friendliness of Flash:

1. Single URL Flash Websites: Many websites I encounter still incorporate all of the website in a single Flash file; in other words as a user navigates the site they are still using the same URL but different pages appear. In such an instance the search engines will index the content and potentially drive traffic to the site but as Google cannot link to content within a Flash file all users will be sent to the beginning of the file. That type of indirect search result is likely to infuriate many searchers who have come to expect immediate results.

   Here is a quote from Google’s comment area on this topic:

   “We’ve heard requests for deep linking (linking to specific content inside file) not just for Flash results, but also for other large documents and presentations. In the case of Flash, the ability to deep link will require additional functionality in Flash with which we integrate.”

   That last line is interesting because it leaves room for interpretation. Do they mean Adobe will have to add the “additional functionality” to Flash or that Google needs to beef up their indexing technology to take advantage of the existing Flash functionality? Perhaps some Flash gurus out there could weigh in on this one. It is definitely an ambiguous way for Google to answer the question.

   If you need a work-around to deep-link single SWF files Adobe notes a solution: “you can create multiple HTML files that provide different variables to the SWF and start your application at the correct subsection. By creating multiple entry points, you can get the benefits of a site that is indexed as a suite of pages but still only need to manage one copy of your application.”
   
   

2. Text in Images is Not Indexed: Many Flash websites inexplicably incorporate a great deal of textual content within images and currently search engines cannot index text in images; I expect that will remain true for at least another year or two. As a result, a Flash website that includes a vast amount of text within graphics will not see a noticeable benefit to this enhanced crawling technology.
3. Resource-File Based Content Not Indexed: I noted this in Google’s comment area from their support team: “At this time, content loaded dynamically from resource files is not indexed. We’ve noted this feature request from several webmasters — look for this in a near future update.”

In addition, Google’s news release announced the following limitations to Flash that Google expects to surmount soon (quoted from Google blog):

1. “Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.”
2. “We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.”
3. “While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.”

Verdict: SEO for Flash is Still in Diapers
It is wonderful news that Flash is becoming more search engine friendly and there is no question that the addition of previously unattainable Flash content to search engine indexes will prove valuable. But the fact of the matter is that at this moment I wouldn’t dream of telling a client that Flash can be a competitive medium for search engine optimization. There are simply too many roadblocks that still exist and need to be addressed before a Flash website has any hope of competing with an HTML website on the basis of just search engine optimization. I do, however, see a couple exceptions to the rule:

1. At a certain point a threshold can be met where significant incoming links can push even the most un-search engine friendly website to the top rankings. As a result, it is highly likely that some Flash websites with a decent incoming link support structure will see vast improvements in rankings when their content is finally considered thanks to this new crawling technology.
2. In less competitive arenas (obscure keyphrases or keyphrases with little competition) the basic search engine optimization capabilities opened to Flash may very well be all that is needed to attain top search engine rankings.

In conclusion I would like to pass on extreme kudos to Adobe, Google and Yahoo for working this new technology into their systems. With all of the new multimedia formats coming online it has always seemed quite silly to me that Flash, having been around for years, was still not fully indexable. Thankfully Flash can now be crawled and the day where it could potentially compete for competitive rankings is on the distant horizon.

Comments