Useful Utilities

A great list of utilities for all kinds of work has been compiled by Anil Agarwal of Digital Inspiration fame. Read it here - http://www.labnol.org/software/essential-guide-to-internet-and-computer-software/6260/

Subtile: Generic menu Firefox extension

Subtile: Generic menu Firefox extension: "Subtile Firefox extension

Subtile is a Firefox extension that provides generic support for toolbar menus.

The menu can be located anywhere in the browser toolbars, attached to an icon that can change its appearance when an event occurs.

If you are a Webmaster, you can create your own menus and distribute them easily to your users. With the dynamic capabilities of Subtile, you can alert people when some content has changed or new messages are available.

If you are simply a curious Web user, enjoy the available menu configurations."

Silverlight Cheatsheet Poster

10 useful techniques to improve your user interface designs

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/15/10-useful-techniques-to-improve-your-user-interface-designs/

Very useful article. Incredibly good advice.

Creating Games

This page has a nice tutorial on creating an addictive game in flash.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kongregate/shoot-the-shootorial-game

How to create ERDs and databases

1. List all entities
2. Find Relationships [E-R matrix]
3. Draw Cardinality
4. Define Primary keys
5. Draw ERD
6. Eliminate many-to-many relationships
7. Identify attributes [attribute entity matrix]
8. Map attributes - only 1:1 with each entity
9. Draw final ERD

Firefox Extension for Amazon S3

S3 Firefox Organizer

S3Fox Organizer for Amazon(S3Fox) v0.4.5: (NEW!) This firefox extension(browser plugin) provides an user friendly interface for Amazon's S3 (Simple Storage Service) . Its interface is very much similar to the FTP interface that lists local folders in the left panel and S3 buckets/files/folders in the right panel. Files/folders can be moved from the local computer to Amazon's storage space and vice versa. Follow the pre-requisites & steps described below to start using S3Fox Organizer.

Thumbnail Creator

http://www.thumbizy.com/

CSS Stacked Bar Graphs

http://www.thewojogroup.com/2008/12/css-stacked-bar-graphs/

50 Most Beautiful Icon Sets

http://www.noupe.com/icons/50-most-beautiful-icon-sets-created-in-2008.html

Especially useful are number 15 and 16.

Free Mail Server

hMailServer

10 Common Typography Mistakes

From The Design Cubicle

The goal of this post is to help designers and clients understand the importance of good type skills, while avoiding some common mistakes. Please keep in mind that most of these mistakes are subjective and can be changed varying on the project, goals or circumstances.

Read the full article here.

Mobile Phone Apps

Some Links for developing mobile phone applications

[1] <http://south08.webdirections.org/>

[2] <http://www.webdirections.org/resources/pete-ottery-tim-lucas-developing-for-iphone/>

[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android>

[4] <http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/>

[5] <http://www.android.com/market/>

[6] <http://www.webdirections.org/resources/gabriel-white-sensing-context-in-mobile-design/>

[7] <http://www.androidlocale.com/

>

[8] <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/09/23/two-apps-that-lower-the-iphone-development-barrier/>

[9] <http://phonegap.com/>

[10] <http://code.google.com/android/documentation.html>

Creating a free browser toolbar

This site offers an easy way to create toolbars: Conduit


To install directly, click here: Install our free toolbar

To go to our download page and install, click here: Download our free toolbar

Color Cop - A free nice color picker

Color Cop is a multi-purpose color picker for web designers and programmers. It features an eyedropper, magnifier, variable magnification levels, 3 by 3 and 5 by 5 average sampling, snap to websafe, color history, and a 42 color complementary palette. Color Cop will convert RGB decimal values to Hexadecimal color codes. It has color code support for HTML Hex, Delphi Hex, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic Hex, and Visual C++ Hex. Color Cop is a multi-purpose color picker for windows.

PHP utf-8 cheatsheet

http://www.nicknettleton.com/zine/php/php-utf-8-cheatsheet

LAMP developers who plan on creating sites that support Internationalization (i18n) should stop by this article first. Altering MySQL tables to use UTF-8, installing and configuring the PHP mbstring extension, and changes to their code are all covered.

Regular Expressions with Examples

Suggested by Gaurav Sharma

Nice tutorial which illustrates the basic use of regular expressions with some nice examples:

Regular Expression Basics

A huge collection of Photoshop tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials A-Z

Slideshow of Great Designs

How to enable login using Google Accounts

The Google Client login API enables anybody with a google account to login securely in any application. Details about the API are here.

10 simple writing tips

Writing Tips

Javascript Libraries

JavaScript Library Overview

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: libraries javascript)

rounded corners using a single circular image

Suggested by Devendra

This is an article to make rounded corners using a single circular image.

Dot Menus

Quite an amazing way to present menus

See http://www.dhtmlcentral.com/script/script26.asp and http://www.piemenus.com/

An amazing menu

The Dot Menu

Supercharge Firebug

From Linux.com

Designing and building Web sites can be a maze of tasks these days. One tool that can simplify the task is the well-known Firebug
extension, which lets you edit and debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from
within Firefox. As useful as Firebug is on its own, it can actually be
extended past its initial setup with additional extensions that can
make your work as a developer or designer even easier.

Not a resource, but worth reading

Real Hero

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ngo india)

CSS Techniques for Charting Data

From Six Revisions:

There are many ways you can present numerical, chartable data by styling elements using CSS. Using CSS to style your data prevents you from relying on static images and increases your content’s accessibility.

Below, you’ll read about 8 excellent techniques for styling elements into beautiful, accessible charts and graphs.

Rules for Computing Happiness

From Alex Payne's Blog

Software

1. Use as little software as possible.
2. Use software that does one thing well.
3. Do not use software that does many things poorly.
4. Do not use software that must sync over the internet to function.
5. Do not use web applications that should be desktop applications.
   
   
6. Do not use desktop applications that should be web applications.
7. Do not use software that isn't made specifically for your operating
   system. (You'll know it when you see it because it won't look right or
   work correctly.)
8. Do not run beta software unless you know how to submit a bug report and are eager to do so.
9. Use a plain text editor that you know well.  Not a word processor, a plain text editor.
10. Do not use your text editor for tasks other than editing text.
11. Use a password manager. You shouldn't know any of your passwords save the one to your primary email account and the one to your password manager.
12. Do not use software that's unmaintained.
13. Pay for software that's worth paying for, but only after evaluating it for no less than two weeks.
14. Thoroughly delete all traces of software that you no longer use.

Hardware

15. Do not buy a desktop computer unless your daily computing needs
    include video/audio editing, 3D rendering, or some other hugely
    processor-intensive computing task.  Buy a portable computer instead.
16. Do not use your phone/smartphone/PDA/UMPC for tasks that would be
    more comfortably and effectively accomplished on a
    full-fledged computer.
17. Use a Mac for personal computing.
18. Use Linux or BSD on commodity hardware for server computing.
19. Do not use anything other than a Mac at home and Linux/BSD on the server.
20. The only peripheral you absolutely need is a hard disk or network drive to put backups on.
21. Buy as large an external display as you can afford if you'll be working on the computer for more than three hours at a time.
22. Use hosted services in lieu of hosting on your own hardware (or virtual hardware) for all but the most custom applications.

File Formats

23. Keep as much as possible in plain text.  Not Word or Pages documents, plain text.
24. For tasks that plain text doesn't fit, store documents in an open standard file format if possible.
25. Do not buy digital media crippled by rights restriction
    technologies unless your intention is to rent the content for a limited
    period of time.

ActionScript APIs

List of 22 ActionScript 3.0 API’s

Open source realtime virtual classroom

The University of the Western Cape and the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project, a collaboration of 13 African universities, has released the Chisimba/KEWL3 Realtime Virtual Classroom – or Realtime Communication Tools version 1.0.1. It can be downloaded here or here.

Some PHP Tutorials

Suggested by Jaswant: Click here

Templating Engines

An article on whether templating engines should be used at all or not.

Basics of Databases

Tutorial on getting started in Database Design

Tutorial on "How to Understand a Database Schema

500 Database Models to kick start development

Icons

http://www.iconarchive.com/

Improving Interface Design

A very insightful presentation on interface design:

Improving Interface Design

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: interface design)

10 challenging but awesome css techniques

From NETTUTS

10 Amazing CSS Techniques

Most designers and web developers only scratch the surface of the potent language that is CSS. In terms of programming languages, CSS has a fairly simple learning curve. That doesn't mean that CSS isn't a powerful language. Sometimes it's the small things that make a huge difference in a website design.

In this post we're going to outline 10 awesome CSS techniques for web developers who know their stuff.

Firebug extension for PHP

FirePHP enables you to log to your Firebug Console using a simple PHP method call.

Graphing in PHP

How to create graphs in PHP

Firebird RDBMS

Introduction to the open source Firebird Database.

Cheat Sheets

A nice collection of cheat sheets on different technologies.

Writing Secure PHP

A very nice article on good coding with some valuable tips.

Linux Origins

In 1991, Finnish hacker Linus Torvalds posted the following message to a discussion group: "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones."

The project he was referring to eventually grew into Linux, the open source operating system.

Web based apps for Designers

23 free and online web based applications specially for web designers and developers which are very helpful. Most of them are not very well known but they are really amazing in respect to their features.

19 Most Essential and useful open source applications

19 Most Essential and useful open source applications. Most of them are top of the list projects that have an open source industry leading popularity.

PHP - A beginner's guide

PHP 101

A nice structured way to learn PHP.

10 Principles of the CSS Masters

These CSS tips are gathered from some of the most respected designers on the planet. These are 10 excellent principles that any web developer or designer can find useful, meaningful, or challenging.

42 Resources of Inspiration for Graphic Designers and Lovers of Design

Sources of Design Inspiration

Free Icon Sets

96 of the Best Ever Free Icon Sets - For Web Designers, Developers and Bloggers

20 Amazing jQuery Plugins and 65 Excellent jQuery Resources

The definitive collection of jQuery resources

Good collection of Vector Tutorials

13 Amazing Sites to find all the Vector Tutorials you could ever need. All of these sites are listed here by the quality of the tutorials that they offer, and not by quantity.

Top 10 Web Design and Development Podcasts

Top 10 Web Design and Development Podcasts. Listen, Learn and Be Inspired.

Collection of AJAX Resources

A great collection of AJAX resources. Has everything that one might need.

Adobe Fireworks Extensions

Adobe Fireworks is almost as powerful as Photoshop. Here are the best 75 Adobe Fireworks Extensions (MXP), nearly all are compatabile with Fireworks MX, 8 and CS3 (and quite a few with Fireworks 3 and 4).

PHP Application Tools

PHP Applicaton Tools, aka 'pat' is a collection of LGPL and GPL PHP-based software destined to make everyday web development easier

A useful collection of PHP Tips

There is more than one way to achieve the same result when programming in PHP. Here are many shortcuts that are useful.

phpGACL - Generic Access Control Lists

A PHP class offering Web developers a simple, yet immensely powerful "drop in" permission system to their current Web based applications.

PHP Login System

A complete login system with detailed code explanations is available here.

ASCII Generator

A fun way to generate ASCII images. - http://www.network-science.de/ascii/

Google Analytics

Huge amount of useful content on SEO and SEM at the Conversion University

10 Adobe AIR Apps for Web Designers

Suggested by Gaurav Arora

10 useful Adobe AIR applications. AIR is a new technology that makes creating online as well as offline applications easy. We have used the technology in creating an adaptive testing CD.

Useful Ajax Resource

Suggested by Rahul

www.ajaxrain.com

A number of readymade scripts are available here.

Tabs from CSS

Tabs created using pure CSS

http://labs.silverorange.com/archive/2004/may/updatedsimple

Getting a scratched CD to work

We’ve all got many precious discs that have been ruined by careless handling, regular damage while using or by the pet dog’s mauling.

Use these cool pointers to get some of them working again:

1. Clean the surface of the disc by running water (warm is better). You can even use soap or mild detergent to clean the grime. Always rub the disc from the center going out. Do not rub the disc in circular motion.
2. Let it dry in the air. This in itself may get it to work sometimes.
3. If that doesn’t work polish the CD using the inside of a banana peel, toothpaste or brasso. Again remember to gently rub from the center going outwards.
4. Once it gets going - the first thing to do is to quickly copy all data on to your PC - just in case it fails again.

PHP Debugging

Very useful article on how to code properly using PHP. A must read for every PHP developer.

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/php_lumberjack/

JQuery Crash Course

A one page course on JQuery with many useful links.

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/jquery_crash_course/

Design and Typography Resource

A very nice design and typography resource: www.veer.com

DHTML Week Planner and Calendar

A close approximation of Google Calendar

http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/index.html?whichScript=dhtmlgoodies-week-planner

Tool for temporary installs of software

Returnil Virtual System 2008 Personal Edition v2.0

Great for doing temporary installs of software:

a) you want to try out or test
b) you don't completely trust yet
c) you don't plan on keeping
d) you're afraid might break something

Partitioning Tool

This is an open source disk partitioner/formatter on steroids. Handles
everything. Also has a nice collection of tech tools to make your life
easier. Get it at: http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php

Regular Expressions Tool

The Regulator is an advanced Regular expressions testing tool, featuring syntax highlighting and web-service integration with Regexlib.com's database of online regular expressions.

Desktop Sharing

A VNC Alternative

CrossLoop simplifies the process of securely working with friends located in different physical locations and across different network environments. CrossLoop enables you to see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard on a remote computer. It is as if you are working side by side at the same PC.

You can get up and running with CrossLoop in under 2 minutes. Simply download and install the application and it will automatically configure itself to your network environment.

A Very Interesting SQL Tutorial

A great way to learn a little sql database stuff - GalaXQL - Cool interactive sql tutorial toy.

Project Management Tool

Redmine is a flexible project management web application written using Ruby on Rails framework.

Word Clouds

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Text Patterns Extraction

LineByter is a utility designed to find and extract patterns from text files. It’s free for personal use.

It includes some unique features like duplicate removal and the ability to specify multiple match and reject patterns, that make it ideal for doing things like extracting emails or urls from text files.

Some great free icons

http://www.yeeeeee.com/2008/08/13/the-worlds-most-beautiful-icons/

Design Stencil Kits from Yahoo

Yahoo has very useful design stencil kits for Visio and in PDF and PNG format to create mockups and wireframes of all kinds.

Freely available here: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/

The components they have include:

• Ad Units
• Calendars
• Carousels
• Charts and Tables
• UI Controls
• Form Elements

• Grids
• Menus and Buttons
• Mobile - General
• Mobile - iPhone
• Navigation and Pagination
• OS Elements

• Placeholder Text
• Screen Resolutions
• Tabs
• Windows and Containers

JSON and PHP

Guarav Arora has suggested a good article to read on the usage of JSON:

http://ditio.net/2008/07/17/php-json-and-javascript-usage/

Regular Expressions

Very useful article on using regular expressions for validation of different formats like usernames, email, phone numbers etc.

http://www.plentyofcode.com/2008/07/regular-expressions-for-username-date.html

Tutorials on the Zend Framework for PHP

A very nice collection of articles on the Zend Framework.

Zend Framework reviews, articles, tutorials, blogs and resources

Useful Articles on Programming

A collection of extremely useful articles on Programming. If possible, read all of them.

Useful articles and links
Useful articles and links 2
Useful articles and links 3
Useful articles and links 4
Useful articles and links 5

The Hitchhiker's Guide to PHP

A nice tutorial series on PHP from Oracle

The Hitchhiker's Guide to PHP

PHP vs J2EE vs ASP.Net

Some nice articles providing perspective on the three web application development languages:

J2EE vs ASP.NET vs PHP

PHP Vs ASP.net

PHP vs. ASP.NET Redux - Good article on Oracle

Testing Resources

A lot of testing resources are available on this page - http://testinghelp.googlepages.com/materials.

Screengrab Firefox Extension

Screengrab! is an extension for Firefox that makes it easy to save a web-page as an image. With it, you can save anything that you can see in a browser window - from a small selection, to a complete page.

You can download and install it from here.

Ajax Resources

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/20/ajax-javascript-solutions-for-professional-coding/

80 Graphic Design Links You Can’t Live Without

From the Outlaw Design Blog

80 Graphic Design Links You Can’t Live Without

A nice collection of graphic design links and web design links. A list every designer should check out.

Replacement for Windows Utilities

A list of replacements which are better than the originals for windows.