"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?" -- Homer J. Simpson Our modern, hyper-connected world can sometimes be a real efficiency killer. We all have problems with time management. Some of us stay up until 2am trying to get our 24-hour cable tv money's worth. That same group stumbles out of bed at 10am. Others can't seem to get something started until a deadline is ...read full entry

Here's a list of my 7 favorite keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Photoshop. Some of these may be nothing new to you, others may be foreign. Either way, feel free to add on to this list below! Multiple Undo/Step Backward Ctrl + Alt + Z New Layer Ctrl + Shift + N Duplicate Layer Ctrl + J Save for Web Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S Zoom In / Zoom Out / Fit to Window Ctrl + = "Zoom In" Ctrl + - "Zoom Out" Ctrl + 0 "Fit to Window" Copy Merged Ctrl + Shift + C Launch ImageReady Ctrl + Shift + M read full entry

There's nothing worse than opening up a page and immediately being bombarded with an audio sales pitch or random sounds that are meant to get my attention. They get my attention alright. And I've decided to do something about it. Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox web browser that blocks flash from playing when a Web page is first loaded. Not to worry, if you really want to view a flash animation on a web page all you have to do is click on the place holder arrow graphic and you're good to go. The latest stable ...read full entry

Achieving active states on specific pages and categories has never been easier! I have come across many developers online who have simply given up too easily when it comes to automating their Wordpress installations. I can't blame most of them though...there really isn't a whole lot of concrete documentation on this subject. Not for novices/beginners, anyway. The following is the method I used personally to build this site's nav menu: (place this code in between your head tags and edit as you see fit) <?php if ( is_home()) { $active = 'one'; } elseif ( is_page('14') ) { $active = 'two'; } elseif ( is_page('15') ...read full entry

The Wordpress publishing platform has taken over the blogosphere over the past few years -- and with good reason. It's fast, free, easy to use, and most importantly: scalable. Community support for Wordpress is outstanding! I stumble across a new plugin or two everyday! Now, not all plugins are created equal and neither are websites. Scalability Matters Wordpress may not be the best Content Management System on the planet right out of the box, but with some tweaking you can create some really special things. With that said, I've compiled a list of the top 8 plugins I absolutely must have ...read full entry

A "favicon" is displayed to the left of a URL in your browser's address bar & in your Favorites folders. This is a really easy way to stand out from the crowd...just follow these simple steps: Open Photoshop or your favorite graphic editing program Create a small 16x16 pixel GIF or PNG image that is relevant to your site Save it as "favicon.ico". (If using Photoshop, you way need this plugin) Once you're done, upload the image file to your website's root folder and add the following code somewhere in between the head tags: Just switch out ...read full entry

Wordpress users take note and upgrade your installations with confidence. "Today we have two security-related releases available for both users of our main 2.2 branch and the legacy 2.0 branch. As these releases include only security and minor bugfixes they should not cause any plugin or theme compatibility issues, so you have no good excuse not to upgrade." Visit the Wordpress Blog for further details read full entry

For your tinkering pleasure, I present some of the best collections of wordpress themes I've found online: Feel free to add to this list.. 20 WordPress Themes That Don't Disappoint 100 Favorite Wordpress Themes The Best Minimalist WordPress Themes 10 Fresh, Elegant and Clean Wordpress Themes 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven't Seen read full entry

Here are some tools to help you conserve time and energy: 1. ColorZilla ColorZilla is a great extension for Mozilla's Firefox web browser. The main feature here is the ability to get a hex color reading straight from the browser and into your favorite photo editing program. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 2. Aardvark Another great Firefox extension that allows you to see exactly how a web page is contructed, block by block. Mouse over effects include: element type, css classes, IDs, and more! 3. Wikimedia Commons A huge collection of free ...read full entry

Man, it seems that over the years I've heard this same story countless times. I had a client a few years back who had to take a guy to court just to get his domain back after the site went untouched for over a year! Where are all of these "web designers" coming from? In 2005, Genma Stringer Holmes, founder of Holmes Pest Control in Nashville, hired a Web designer she'd met through her church. She wanted him to create two Web sites to boost sales for her 11-employee, $500,000 company. Holmes wasn't looking for anything particularly fancy—she just wanted an informational site about her company that ...read full entry