Archive for November, 2011
Mouthwatering Collection Of jQuery Plugins And CSS3 Tricks
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011I’m sure that at one point or another you were designing a website and thought it could use a little something extra. That bit of something that adds extra functionality or enhances what it already has, making it not only easier for the user to receive the information they seek, but also present it in a neat package.
In no particular order, I give you a handpicked collection of jQuery plugins and some CSS3 tricks to top it off. Surely, with these in your designer arsenal, your creations will stand out more than ever before.
jQuery
1. Fly-out menu
Excellent when using enlarged text for emphasis along with visual content.
2. Grid portfolio
A very elegant way of displaying items with the possibility of quickly previewing the content.
Suggestion: use with other resizing elements so that the user can see them rearrange.
3. Slide out contextual tips
Expanding tool tips with a smooth animation, revealing extra content only when the user wants it.
Suggestion: use with images that display several products (e.g. furniture) or when explaining the highlights of a design in your portfolio.
4. Quicksand – reorder and filter
Organise and reorder items to make it easier to find exactly what you need. Click once and just watch everything slide into place.
5. Sunday morning – translation plugin
A little old, but still awesome. It adds a simple and appealing way of translating a website or just parts of it.
6. jVectorMap
Interactive map with the possibility of expanding for other uses. Includes the world map, US, Europe and Germany.
7. Shuffle letters effect
An interesting effect that can be added to make text elements more eye-catching. Basically, it shows random characters as it reveals the actual text.
Suggestion: use sparingly so as not to make everything confusing.
8. Mosaiqy – picture shuffle
Display pictures in a simple grid that shuffles the elements in a Rubik’s cube fashion.
9. Sponsor wall flip
Although the title says “sponsor wall flip”, that’s just one of the many uses for this plugin. Show visual elements and put bite-sized information on the back.
Note: contains a little PHP.
10. Colourful jQuery clock
Add a colourful and modern clock to your design or perhaps even adapt it into a countdown for when launching a new website!
11. MopTip2
MopTip2 is a plugin that lets you add customizable tooltips to various elements. The tooltips can close automatically or be manually closed and they may also display images.
12. Grumble
Another tooltip plugin with the added bonus of being able to use virtually any CSS styles and transform them into whatever you may want.
13. jQuery Timelnr
Timelnr is a stylish timeline gallery with the option of placing it horizontally or vertically, and having it play automatically.
14. Flexible nav
By just marking certain elements in the HTML, this plugin will automatically create a navigation menu for you, acting like small bookmarks placed neatly on the side of the window.
15. Deck – HTML presentations
Ever thought PowerPoint or Keynote presentations were cumbersome? Then look no further! With Deck you can create online HTML presentations with a multitude of uses, perhaps enhancing an e-learning product.
16. Apple-like Retina effect
Enhance your content by letting users see the finer details with this Retina-like plugin.
17. jQuery pageSlide
Simple and effective, pageSlide reveals information by pushing the entire page to the side, thus not disrupting the positions of other elements.
Suggestion: it could be used to hide a vertical navigation, leaving room for full-page content.
18. jqFancyTransitions
A simple and sleek gallery with strip transitions and several formats.
19. Panning slideshow
A more interesting slideshow which pieces together the slides and pans through them with a slightly elastic effect.
Suggestion: given the effect, the slides could actually be parts of one big image for something more special.
20. jqZoom
Similar to the Retina plugin, jqZoom can be customized in more ways and has more zooming options, such as drag-zoom or through simple mouse-over.
21. 3D tag cloud
Add a little creativity to your tag cloud by turning it into a tag sphere! Just click and drag to rotate it and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. The plugin simply transforms all divs that have the class “tags” and contain an unordered list with links inside.
Suggestion: since all it needs is a div, why not be creative and apply it to a navigation?
22. JEffects
JEffects is a plugin containing more effects that can be applied to various elements within your website. For instance, it can be applied to input fields to create a very pleasant effect.
Note: not free.
23. PhotoShelf
PhotoShelf is an elegant gallery that allows you to scroll through a collection of images and zoom in on portions of the selected image. It can also add separators in the stack to organise your items.
Note: not free.
24. Grid accordion
A double accordion, if you will. It smoothly expands to an easier to read width and makes room for subcategories, also displayed inside an accordion.
25. Latest tweets tooltip
A very interesting plugin that lets you display the latest tweets about a certain topic inside a resizeable tooltip.
Bonus: a few CSS tricks
1. CSS3 Transitions, Transforms and Animations
Everything you wanted to know about CSS3, plus some tutorials on how to create some nifty enhancements.
Note: some tutorials contain some JavaScript.
2. Pure CSS Accordion
As the title implies, this simple but versatile effect is made with pure CSS transitions, taking advantage of anchors.
3. OS X dock
Create an OS X dock with CSS3 properties, including reflections to make your design stand out.
4. CSS media query
Learn how to hide and display elements according to the size of the screen. A step towards responsive web design.
5. CSS3 multi column
With just one line of code you can split a text container into columns, lending itself nicely to dynamic content.
1stwebdesigner – Graphic and Web Design Blog
Expedited Pass Port Service Provide Significant Advantages
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011Expedited passport services are an effective way to prepare for travel. There may be times when you need to get a passport and do not have the time to wait for approval. Here are ways that one may benefit from rush US passport.
Same Day Service
When you hire an expedited service for passports, you can receive everything that you need in a short amount of time. In fact, many of these businesses offer same day service. When one travels with just a few days notice, it can be extremely difficult to get all of your papers together in that time frame. A good service takes care of these things for you and makes traveling to another country possible.
Guarantees
A guaranteed service that deals in passports can remove any worries or doubts that you may have. For example, you receive your traveling papers or you do not pay for the service. This is excellent motivation for a business to take care of your needs promptly and efficiently.
Online Tracking
A good service for passports, especially with expedited passport services, will provide online tracking for your order. This way, you can check the progress of the order at any time. There is often no need to contact anyone to see how things are going when you have the information at your fingertips, twenty-four hours a day.
Removing Anxiety and Stress
International traveling can be very stressful and full of headaches. However, you do not have to concern yourself with passports, when you use a competent expediting service. You are free to do other things like shopping for clothing or other items for your trip. This can provide a relaxed and stress free environment.
Personalized Service
Personal service for applying for pasports can make the process much easier. For one thing, you are not dealing with a government agency for your needs. The service deals with the United States Department of State on your behalf. Employees of government agencies have little motivation to take care of your needs. They are paid if you are satisfied or not. However, private agencies are not paid unless they take care of all your needs.
There may only be one or two ways to contact the government concerning passports. Also, it may take some time to get a reply to a request for information. Private expedited passport services have very good customer support. Often times, they can be contacted in a number of ways, including real time online chat and the telephone. You also can contact them by email and if they are local, you can visit their office.
Ride The Search Engine Optimization Train To The Success Station
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011Using search engine optimization is an easy way to bring more authority to your website. Search engine optimization is a way of utilizing search engine algorithms to enhance how your website shows up in search results. This multifaceted approach is perfect for new businesses, enabling website owners to perfect their efforts through personalized tricks.
SEO Rescuer.com
Earn Extra Cash From Home (id=1267)
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011Work At Home In Your Own Hours From Any Where In The World Get Paid To Type Fill Forms Research And More Earn A Guaranteed Unlimited Income In A Variety Of Positions Http Tinyurl Com 69bbscu…
Chennai Classifieds
Top Five E-Mail Marketing Services
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011There are lots of e-mail marketing services on the internet and it might be difficult to choose because there are lots of options, features and pricing which you may need to consider. People also try to name the best marketing service on the internet, the same as they try to do with the CMSs, but it depends on what needs they have, so instead of looking at each of their features, today we take a look at what is special about each one of them.
1. MailChimp
This service is maybe the most popular on the internet and is well-known in the e-mail marketing arena due to its focus on usability, design and heavy marketing. However, MailChimp offers much more than a funny mascot and good design. It is actually a powerful tool you can use. It is incredibly easy to use although it offers many high-end features. The main dashboard is optimized and is the place where it all starts – all the web applications can be added, deleted and customized from there.
Many experts in e-mail marketing lack HTML skills and MailChimp gives a helping hand here as well. You can use your own code, but if you don’t have enough knowledge of web design, then you can use the available free templates. They are tested and optimized for MailChimp, therefore using one of them may even be better than creating your own. If you own a MailChimp premium account, you will be able to use all the premium templates for free.
MailChimp
Another advantage of MailChimp is the way you can populate the mailing list, where this great tool offers lots of options. You can even build your form or use one of the available ones. You can even embed a form into your site and MailChimp makes it easy for you to customize it.
There are also iPhone and Android applications you can use for MailChimp and one of their great features is their push technology which lets you know all about the contact you’ve flagged as VIP. This way it is easier to monitor specific clients and get all the information about them in a matter of seconds. MailChimp can easily be integrated with third-party services such as Facebook, Twitter, Google suite, SurveyGizmo, Zendesk, Capsule, Amazon or eBay.
The features that stand out at MailChimp are the sleek interface and design, the premium high quality templates, the “forever free” membership, the third-party service integration and the VIP monitoring of subscribers.
There are many pricing options if you wish to use MailChimp and regardless of your needs, I am sure this service has something for you.
The conclusion is that MailChimp is the most popular e-mail marketing service on the internet for a reason. It offers many useful features that make it unique on the market and it is also easy to use for anybody. The “forever free” plan is also a very good way to start.
2. Campaign Monitor
This tool is another important service in the marketplace and is well-known for its design and development community. It is not easy to cover all the features it offers, because there are literally tons of them, but we can take a look at the key ones.
Campaign Monitor is very easy to use, thanks to its main dashboard which is optimized for usability and useful users guide. Moreover, all fields that require filling in are accompanied by a brief description, so that you will never fill the fields in with incorrect information.
If you use Campaign Monitor the service lets you save the templates you use in order to reuse them again. You also get two sample templates for free and you can even customize them to fit your needs. The templates are coded and optimized for Campaign Monitor, but they need to be downloaded and then imported into your account. This might not be a problem for the more advanced users, but if you are less experienced it might be a deal-breaker.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor integrates Analytics among its best features and lets you manage subscribers and do many other things in the same area; not having to jump to separate areas of the dashboard is definitely a plus. Campaign Monitor lets you integrate the service with lots of third-party software, so it is easy to launch your campaign from wherever you want. Testing is also very easy to do and this is important, because it is a crucial part of every campaign. However, you will have to pay for each additional test you want to conduct.
The key features of this service are the pre-loaded templates, free and ready to go, the resale tools, Analytics integration, e-commerce integration (with Shopify and Magento among others), the testing capability and the integration with Content Management Systems such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla.
Like MailChimp, Campaign Monitor offers a variety of pricing options including monthly, high volume or pay as you go. You can purchase monthly plans for unlimited campaigns or simply pay for each of the campaigns you run.
The conclusion is that Campaign Monitor is another leader in the marketplace and with its reasonable pricing it’s an option you should look into if you need an e-mail marketing service. The system is very easy to use and powerful and it is ideal for everybody, but it might be good to have some technical experience for the most advanced features and modules.
3. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a bit different from the other two we’ve talked about, because it targets a different market, relying on, and very dependent on, social referrals via Facebook.
Constant Contact is also very easy to use and one of the advantages is the fact that you can phone them for help, real-time chat and the learning center. There are also seminars you can attend to get started with this tool, which is perfect for small business.
Getting started with Constant Contact is not as easy as with the other two, but it is not difficult either once you play with it once or twice. The service is set up for a low-tech approach which is shown by the huge number of templates. However, they do not look fantastic, but pay off in the end through the sheer volume.
You can use the templates even if you are not an expert in HTML, because the editor ensures you will not corrupt them. It is easy to add content (which can be done by dragging and dropping) and to customize it afterwards.
Constant Contact
This service targets business owners who require services such as online surveys and event marketing, therefore it offers different features than the first two we’ve reviewed. With the event manager you can promote and sell tickets for events (with Google Checkout and PayPal integrated so clients can pay right there), while the marketing system helps you promote and announce events.
Although online surveys might not sound related, they are a great addition because by creating and promoting them you can figure out what your subscribers are into. This helps because you don’t have to conduct campaigns outside of Constant Contact. This concept is simple to use, very useful and everybody considers it a key feature. Other unique features are the social media integration, template library, e-mail building using drag and drop, help options and spam testing solutions.
Constant Contact has several different payment options, but all of them are monthly fees. The fees depend on the number of subscribers, but there are lots of discounts if you pre-pay, so you might opt to pre-pay to get a better price. They offer a 60 day trial works if you want to see how the service works, this should b enough time to see whether or not this is the right option for you.
Although it is not as visual as MailChimp or Campaign Monitor, it is also a serious and important service in the marketplace, thanks to its unique features and event promotion capabilities.
4. iContact
This service is mainly targeted to professionals with the need for a robust feature set, while not neglecting the basic features every e-mail marketing service needs.
One of the disadvantages of iContact is the fact that the interface is a bit difficult to use and it takes some time to get used to; some people might even feel overwhelmed by the number of options they have on the landing page. However, iContact offers a number of good features, like the integration of an RSS-to-email tool. This allows users to send e-mail to a list of RSS subscribers and iContact is one of the few e-mail marketing services to offer this.
Another good feature of this service is the option to automatically send a series of auto-responses. For example, when someone subscribes to one of your lists, you can automatically send him several e-mails over a period of time, and can include offers and special information, but also call to action buttons in these mails. This will help you work faster and will make the contact with the clients more automatic.
iContact
Although it is not WordPress, iContact has its own blogging platform where you can post content and then send it to subscribers. Unfortunately you can’t integrate this platform with another one and API for WordPress would be a very good addition to this feature. iContact integrates Twitter and Facebook very well and allows you to create e-mail sign-up forms on your Facebook page.
You can also conduct surveys with iContact, which is always a good feature because it gives you an insight into what your audience likes and wants.
Some of the key features of iContact are the RSS-to-email service, the spam testing and auto-response options, built-in survey tools and the extensive social media integration for Facebook and Twitter. iContact membership can only be bought on a monthly or yearly basis and the pricing can be seen here. There are several payment options and you can also try the service for free.
The bottom line is that iContact is a service you should consider, but not if you are a small company or are not prepared to take some time to learn your way around the dashboard. iContact targets large companies with a need for premium features and therefore you might not need it for simple tasks only.
5. AWeber
AWeber is another top e-mail marketing service on the internet, although it really has nothing that stands out at first glance – however, you might be surprised if you dig in deeper.
The panel is easy to use and it does not take a lot of time to get used to if you have a bit of experience working with other control panels, but it might be confusing if you have no experience with e-mail marketing at all.
AWeber offers lots of tools for creating sign-up forms and helps you run A/B testing and find which form works best for you – quite a unique feature on the web today. All these forms you create can be embedded into other websites and there is also a WordPress plugin that allows you to display the form on blogs running the PHP platform.
AWeber
The third-party integration is very interesting, because it is unique as well. This allows you to set up e-mail parsers to skim the confirmation e-mails in your payment system, if you have one. The service focuses a lot on growing your mailing list and is optimized in such a way that no other service is. If you dig a bit more into the e-mail parsers options you will find a lot more options and you will definitely start loving AWeber.
Like iContact, AWeber can also send sequential auto-responses. This is one of the key features of AWeber, but also the bunch of e-mail templates (more than 150), sign-up form templates (more than 100), extensive sign-up form optimization tool, the WordPress plugin for embedding forms, blog-to-mail automation and the e-mail parsers.
AWeber can be used with a monthly fee, depending on the number of subscribers you have. The first month you will only have to pay . Unfortunately the service can’t be used on a trial basis, which is a bit weird, but the for the first month is not a big commitment either.
The conclusion is that AWeber is one of the most surprising services on the web, offering many unique and useful features, especially the great e-mail parsers.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is not easy to choose the right e-mail marketing service for you business and it might also take some time and money until you find the perfect one. I hope this article spares you some money and time and will make you choose the best option to fit your needs.
1stwebdesigner – Graphic and Web Design Blog
How The Smartphone Invasion Changed The Way We Live
Monday, November 28th, 2011Have you ever went out and realized that you left your smartphone at home? You may feel panicked, maybe even a separation anxiety though you’ve only gone an hour without your phones. These reactions are common, and clear evidence that phones have taken over our lives.
Smartphones have secured a strong place in our lives. We take them everywhere with us, 24/7–even to bed. Smartphones are already an extension of us, an important limb to our body. If phones are taken away from us even for a day, we feel naked, like we can’t function as well without it.
Smartphones have made us more sociable. Or, is it the other way around?
In the workplace, on dates, on parties, even during religious meetings, we bring our phones with us. ‘Mind if I take this?’ is a common phrase we hear everywhere. It seems like now, calls can’t wait until later. Are smartphones merely a fad? Or will it influence humankind’s way of living and communicating?
Analyzing the Numbers
Take a look at today’s teenagers: they sit in front of the TV, texting with their friends or posting a status update on Facebook with their smart phone. During commercials, they pass time by playing Angry Birds on their iPad. This is the life of today’s teenagers. It’s found that the age group consumes 10.5 hours of media in a day, according to Credit Suisse. If this research is really true, the statistics can be a bit worrying.
A telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, from the UK did research about smartphone usage:
- 37% adults and 60% teenagers admit to being addicted to smartphones.
- 51% adults and 65% teenagers say they use their smartphones to socialize with others.
- Many smartphone users use their phones during mealtimes, in bed, and even in the bathroom.
- 58% males own a smartphone, compared to 42% females.
- Majority of adults prefer the Apple iPhone, while majority of teenagers prefer the BlackBerry.
Around the world, smartphones now represent 24% of all mobile phone sold around the world, which is up from 15% last year. In the next year, we could expect the numbers to go up to 50% and in a few years, every phone will be a smartphone.
Addiction to smartphones and the internet isn’t uncommon. There are even clinics for internet addicts 0n the other side of the world, South Korea. What is the root of our new found dependability on a tiny gadget?
How the iPhone Revolutionized Smartphones
Phones, for more or less a decade, have been the chosen method of communication. But now, their scope has increased by leaps and bounds, thanks to the iPhone. Smartphones now allow us to stay connected to the internet 24/7, we can connect through social networking sites and blogs wherever and whenever. This phenomenon is fairly new, having started 4 years ago with the introduction of the first iPhone.
The iPhone 4 is currently the bestselling smartphone in the market, but few people know how the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone industry. It has changed our behavior. We no longer need a calculator to do our math–the iPhone can do that for you. We don’t need the weatherman for our weather forecasts–iPhone does a better job at that.
The App Store, particularly, has been a game changer in the industry. This feature allows users to get free or paid applications for gaming, productivity, literature, music, entertainment and more. Users have the option to update their software and applications, so the iPhone doesn’t get obsolete very fast. Other mobile companies such as Google, Microsoft and Palm have their own App Store versions to emulate the success found by Apple.
The Apple iPhone is quite a unique case such that it has kept its selling price constant since its first release in June 2007. Apple has sold more than 100 million iPhone’s in the past four years. Growth in other countries such as China has reached to 600%.
Apple seems very intent on destroying the PC for good, and is so far doing a great job. The Cloud allows you to keep all your data on the internet, to be readily available for your PCs, tablets, smartphones, etc. There will come a time when you no longer need those bulky hard drives, as Apple’s iCloud makes local storage less important.
Will Smartphones Replace the PC?
In a few years’ time, many of the gadgets will be obsolete because of the smartphone: the calculator, telephone, voice recorder, alarm clock, video camera and even the flashlight. In a few years time it may also replace the PC.
There are already apps for anything and everything you need. Need help with your diet? There’s an app for that. Need to make graphs and tables? Yup, they have it. To-do lists for your daily tasks? Of course. As Apple always says: ‘I have an app for that!’
There are a few weaknesses with smartphones, however. For one, they cannot compare with the PC when it comes to gaming. Limited storage equals limited features, and thus they lose when it comes to hardcore gaming, photo manipulation, 3D animation, video editing, and such. So while smartphones rule in convenience and instant connectivity, they cannot yet compete with PC’s extensive gaming, editing, and others.
Smartphones can do the most necessary tasks that you can do with your PC. It can connect to the internet, use social networking sites, and organize our lives. Thus they’re fast replacing the PC, which used to be the most irreplaceable piece of technology in our lives. But now we see that smartphones are now quickly catching up. PCs have always sold more than smartphones. At the start of 2010, 85 million computers were sold as compared to 55 million smartphones. Many analysts predict that a crossover will happen by 2012–instead, by the end of 2010, 94 million PCs as compared to 100 million smartphones. Where PC sales have gone stagnant, smartphones continue to grow rapidly in sales. Smartphones have come a long way, and many believe that this trend won’t ever reverse.
Despite the growth of smartphones, manufacturers put little emphasis on security. Teenagers make up the largest demographic of smartphone users, and have little concern about hackers and identity thieves. There are still some features that need to be improved (battery life, most specifically). Maybe in the future we can see features to make the smartphone more powerful such as solar battery charging, built-in projectors, 3D imaging, even fingerprint scanners for online buying.
Smartphones are still a fairly young technology with plenty of room to grow. In a few years time, they could be obsolete–or they could make us even more dependent on them than before. For now, it’s a waiting game, and nothing is ever predictable in this world. Right now smartphones are in and PCs are out–a trend that might or might not change. Overall, smartphones are a huge contender in becoming the most influential invention of the decade; and they show no signs of slowing down.
1stwebdesigner – Graphic and Web Design Blog
Packaging/Hardgoods Designer (Pacific Palisades)
Monday, November 28th, 2011Maui and Sons, surf/lifestyle brand is seeking enthusiastic creative packaging/hardgoods designer for full time in house position with 3-5 years experience.
Qualified candidates must have strong computer skills in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign to develop original packaging and hardgoods branding for action sports products.
Please respond with your resume, salary requirements and link to online portfolio.
- Location: Pacific Palisades
- Compensation: depending on experience
- Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
- Please, no phone calls about this job!
- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
Job posting from: Graphic Design Jobs
Food Safety (COJ233412)
Sunday, November 27th, 2011The Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research
(TIAR) Food Safety Centre ( FSC) is a central portal
for all issues related to Food Safety for the
Australian food.
(http://foodsafetycentre.com.au)
NASA’s Curiosity rover is on its way to Mars (video)
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
It’s been described by the scientist in charge as “the most complex mission that has ever been undertaken to the surface of another planet,” and NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now well on its way to Mars…
Hospital Placements For Hospitalplacements.com
Saturday, November 26th, 2011Exclusive Health Care Industry Job Site…
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