aplus new media

Blueprint CSS + Grid Layouts = Easier

CSS grids are possible and potentially pretty easy using this 'unknown, untested and unused framework '. Looks great, and not as bloated or obfuscated (IMO) YUI. Pushing and pulling across columns consistently fills such a need in complex layouts.

Apple Releases Safari For Windows

During the keynote at the WWDC conference, Steve Jobs announced that Safari is available now for Windows XP and Vista. Wow. Very weird launching Safari in Windows-land, but it is slick and OSX native looking. The iPhone is changing the game.

Google Gears Up for Offline Storage

Google is gunning for the offline AJAX application crowd by announcing an open-source browser extension to allow offline storage and sync capabilities to your browser.

Performance Tuning For Websites

Web Developers are kind of like gearheads in that they always want to tweak their code/cars to go faster. With the increased mass adoption of JS libraries (that add significant weight to your pages) and the graphics/css that go along with most sites, performance tuning your website is as important as ever. Check out the css compressing WordPress plugin and optimization tips to get a bit more zip in your site with Gzip.

10 Ways to be productive with 37 Signals Backpack

I have been using 37 Signals product Backpack since it launched and really find it useful for keeping myself organized. I use it for basic to-do lists and love the reminder feature. Web Worker Daily has posted a summary of 10 ways to use the Backpack service to be more productive. Useful stuff.

How To Avoid Code "Bloat"

Excellent article/slideshow that goes over some solid tips on keeping your code lean. Even while dealing with real world challenges like the Man vs. Instruction Manual Challenge. Funny and worth a read.

Giving gReader a CSS Makeover

Jon Hicks has done myself and many Google RSS reader users a big service by creating a custom stylesheet(and the Stylish Firefox plugin) to transform gReader to a much slicker, OSX-like RSS reader.

Making dev on Windows feel better

Some great tips on making development on a Windows box have a more Mac-like look and feel.

New Guy at Nonfiction

So, I have started at my new job at Nonfiction Studios. Everything feels both new and familiar at the same time. The people are great, and very welcoming! I am making myself at home and thoroughly enjoying the all Mac development. Exciting times and interesting challenges lay ahead.

Time For Change = Mixed Emotions

Well, the desk is clean, the farewell email has been sent and pints have been downed. That is right, I am moving on from Critical Mass, my place of employment for the past 3 years. It is a weird feeling knowing you will not be working with the people you have been with on a daily basis anymore. But, change is good, and I am very excited to be moving a different direction (although not that far) and getting a chance to work with some new and also great people at my new home. Thanks for everything, CMmers.

Swifr (not the WetJet™)

Sifr for images. Easy, and effective for all your rounded, bordered, drop shadowed image needs. Great implementation to solve a common problem.

Access Virtual Hosts in OSX from Parallels

Being able to test on Windows using Parallels for Mac is great but being able to hit your local server using Virtual Hosts from Windows is the best of both worlds. Sounds nice but can be a bit of a pain to get working. I found this great tutorial that really helped. I still have an issue with non-static IPs and such but for testing sessions this does the trick.

Prototype 1.5 released (with docs)

With the release of Rails 1.2, (which is a big deal too) comes a shiny new home for my favourite javascript framework Prototype This is a great step for the community and will foster discussion and knowledge amongst us developers. Feast on the Prototype API reference Bookmarked.

Parallels is amazing!

Since buying my MacBook, I have been extremely happy with OSX and all the nice goodies that come along with it. I am now addicted to coding in Textmate and have done my best to bring Jedit in line with my own bundles(superAbbrevs) and other shortcuts. The only issue I have run into is testing in Windows. But now with Parallels desktop I can have my cake and test it too! The new beta release offers a bunch of new features including coherence mode, which allows you to run Windows apps alongside your native OSX. It truly is the best of both worlds.

FAT helps usability

This javascript library allows you to add unobtrusive "focusing" to elements of your choosing. It essentially adds a opaque overlay to the page while highlighting a selected element. It is best to see it in action. This could be the next yellow-fade-technique. Add some user-friendly FAT for your next project.

Line Rider

This innocent little flash game/toy is single handedly reducing ROI at companies around the world. The concept is simple but incredibly addictive, you draw a "course" that a little tobbogan-dude attempts to navigate. Way too much fun. Check out this vid, and this vid.

Slam City Jam Hits Calgary

I had the opportunity to write an article for online magazine R4NT.com about the recent skateboard contest taking place here in Calgary for the first time ever. Great contest and pretty cool to get the chance to write about my experience. Check it out: Slam City Jam 2006 in Calgary

CSS Browser Sniffing

This is the ultimate silly-css-hack-killing script. So simple, yet so brilliant. This 10 lines of JS will allow your styles to express themselves with an overarching (applied to the html element) class which is named after the browser engine being used. Gotta start testing this bad boy.

New Edition of Designing With Web Standards

Mr. Zeldman has sang his song, his work has been done, another edition of the industry-changing book will arrive this summer.
Since the first, modern web development best practices have never been the same. Looking forward to DWWS 2E.

Vitamin is good for you!

Ryan Carson has just made the web a healthier place by introducing an amazing source of articles, interviews, news and resources for the web community. It's well designed, usable, and full of information.
As your mother always said, Take Your Vitamins

Real Life Simpsons Intro

Someone has put together a real life version of the Simpsons introduction. Good for a laugh for any Simpsons fan. View the clip on YouTube

Why JSON can make your life easier

Dustin Diaz has published an esstry(entry + essay) on why using Object Literal or JSON syntax makes your code easier to read, more organized and properly scoped. JSON will help your javascript play well with others.

Yahoo! Makes A Great Move

Yahoo has recently released a great resource for web developers. The new UI library has been made available for use under a BSD license. I have had a look at some of the code and I am very impressed. This takes away alot of the pain developers feel when working on rich UI components and many other patterns. Great job, Yahoo! and thanks to the developers who worked on these rock solid tools that can be used anywhere.

IE7 CSS Details

I really have to hand it to the Internet Explorer developers. They have been very transparent with the details surrounding the new version of IE. This is a good move in my opinion, because it helps everyone understand what to expect and plan for it. Don't say they didn't warn you.

Great Coding Reference , AJAX

A useful coding reference that uses AJAX to lookup documentation for some of my favourite languages. Included in the site are PHP, MySQL, JS and CSS. Handy for those of us who "occasionally" forget things.

Top Ten Developer Quotes

Developers often utter the same phrases when code doesn't work. The author of this entry has got many of us pegged. To quote Homer Simpson, it's funny because it's true!

Programming Tips From Fishmeal?

A very useful reminder of how good programming habits can really help you, your co-worker and anyone else that touches "your" code. Some free programming advice to take to heart at

Rude Redesign

Super clean redesign from the legendary Rude. Good looking out on the linkage holmes. Check out Content Heavy

Ruby On Rails Rocks

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework that is taking the internet by storm. I have recently jumped into the deep end of this clear, powerful, intelligent, and beautiful language(& framework). My first official project will be launching early spring and I am really enjoying working with Ruby On Rails. If you want a taste of the language itself => Try Ruby In Your Browser

Kill Bill's Browser

A Kill Bill themed, highly entertaining site has emerged explaining 13 reasons to use Firefox over Internet Explorer. Really funny page, and I thoroughly agree. Kill Bill's Browser!

411 VS

411 is offering $53,000 for the best trick in a interesting format. Some insane stuff is going down. Vote for your fav trick/skater.

zFeeder - Personal RSS Reader

I have just come across a PHP based RSS reader script/app that allows total customization and integration into your site. It is called zFeeder and I am hooked. I am building my own template for viewing the feeds and will make it available soon.

Roll Your Own Search Engine

Rollyo is a new type of search. It allows you to essentially build your own search engine using sites you know and love. Or not. You can keep these "search engines" to yourself or share them with the public. A really cool idea and it's bound to improve as awareness grows. Go Roll Your Own!

Master Your iTunes Playlists

Andy Budd has published a very informative article on making iTunes Smart Playlists work for you instead of against you. Some great ideas to keep the ipod fresh.

The Honeymooners

After returning from a great honeymoon, I came back to a flurry of emails and unread RSS posts. We had an amazing time thanks to family, Under Pressure, Club Med and Turks And Caicos.

A List Apart Redesign

I was pleasantly surprised to see a wide, elegant, and clean redesign from one of my favourite reads, A List Apart. Some may say a fixed 1024 layout is premature, or simply too wide, but I really like it.

Concrete Powder Photo Annual

Concrete Powder, a long standing FREE Canadian Skateboard Magazine, has released their photo annual. Great job as always, and it is nice to see Calgary local Johnathan LaChance get some coverage. Also in the issue, Travis Stenger Has Serious Pop Wow.

Vanilla is tasty!

My new favorite flavour is Vanilla. What is it? Vanilla is a new breed of of web forum/bulletin board/discussion software. It is simple, extensible and standards based. Sound good so far? The recipe goes like this.... Take the idea of a message board, take out the tables, add intuitive css and markup, blend with extensions and unique features. Pour into a open-source, LAMP server and enjoy! Get Vanilla

Improving DHTML In Internet Explorer

When writing JavaScript, performance is always something to keep in mind. As Internet Explorer still holds the majority amoung average web users, it is important to understand how to optimize your scripts in relation to the IE engine. This MSDN article on speeding up DHTML in IE is an oldie but a goodie.

The Great Wall Has Been Ollied

Danny Way is officially the gnarliest skateboarder ever. From jumping out of a helicopter to grinding serious rails he has made his mark in professional skateboarding. He has upped the ante once again by launching the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! Insane.

Retro Video Games Site

Every Video Game is a site devoted to reliving the glory days of the NES and it's counterparts. You can play all your old favorites in a Java Plugin. Serious time waster. Ahh, the memories of knocking Bald Bull on his butt.

Writing Efficient JavaScript

When writing modern unobtrusive JS, it is important to keep efficency in mind as your code is usually executed on page load and can slow down the user experience if not coded well. This article explains some techniques to write efficient JS code Found via FiftyFourEleven

Simulating CSS Child Selectors in IE

Eric Meyer has posted an interesting technique to twist IE's arm into supporting child selectors. It is actually pretty intuitive but it can result in slightly cryptic css. Worth the effort to avoid the "classitis" that can result from attempting to make IE happy.

Sith Sense

Darth Vader uses the force to read your weak mind. He guessed correctly in 22 questions for me. Whoever produced this for Burger King did a good job. May the force be with you.

DeVry.edu is alive!

While this has been off my plate for quite some time, it is nice to see a project like this finally go live. Welcome to the new semantic, standards based site for DeVry.

Typographic Illustrations

Some great flash illustration using typographic forms. My favorite would have to be the Notorious B.I.G. Pretty time consuming I am sure, but beautiful.

Client Managed Markup

Dave Shea has published an interesting read on why semantics matter and what type of pipe to use in external walls. He pulls together some great examples and has posted a Markup Guide that he supplies clients as part of the deliverable. After all, if you know what type of pipe to use and why, you probably will use the right one and not just the cheapest.

Firefox 1.1 (Deerpark) Alpha RC

Firefox 1.1 has been released for Alpha testing. So far, the builds are fairly plain and are focused on functionality. Bugs are being actively worked on and I would recommend getting the zipped version to be safe. That said, the real release can't be too far away.

Google Portal Launches

Google has done it, they are entering the portal space. The service is available in beta right now and it is somewhat limited but has plenty of potential. You can add, edit or remove pieces of the portal interface which includes: weather, google news, gmail, movies, and other news sources. The UI is also draggable and they are using a heavy dose of Ajax to store preferences etc. New Homepage = Google Portal.

Roll Your Own: The Backpack API

37 Signals have upped the ante again. They are offering up an early version of the API to their newest web app, Backpack. Now for some creative coding....hmm?

AJAX to the extreme

Backbase is an amazing demonstration of the power of AJAX. Rich UIs without flash are possible, but the downfalls of flash are prevalent. Issues such as back-button disabling, bookmarking and useless animations come to mind. However, these guys have solved a few of the issues. Pretty impressive overall.

FunnyFox From Europe

Some really funny ads out of Mozilla Europe. The notebook one is a little lame but, what can you do? Enjoy the ads and spread FireFox!

Inspecting The DOM (in IE)

When debugging web pages/applications Firefox is miles ahead. Mainly because it comes with a native DOM inspector. IE is usually more of a challenge(understatement alert!). However, there are a few options out there:

• DOM Inspector
• DOM Spy

IE is not bundled with an inspector to provide the freedom to choose. Uh ok...

RSS Reboot

Since my experience with RSS has been pretty much an addicition I thought I would add to the signals, and hopefully not the noise.

Fire FTP is HOT

I have been looking for a integrated ftp client for Firefox for a long time, and finally I have found what I have been searching for. FireFTP installs as an extension and opens in a new tab. It has all the features of most ftp clients and is totally free, easy and built for Firefox. Hot.

D & D Sortable Lists (Now for IE)

The first time I saw this I was amazed, then I realized it was only for Firefox. As much as I would like to write off the failure as an IE problem, I couldn't get as excited as I would like to. Now however, it works in IE. Brilliant.

The Power Of The Grid

D. Keith Robinson, a well versed web author and devloper/designer has redesigned his personal site. It is a very refreshing look and is heavily dependent on a traditional grid system. The result is a clean, crisp and modern site that let's the content speak for itself. My only critique would be that the brand is lost to a rather anonymous design. Good work, as usual.

TILT - Injecting Tables With Script

In the modern world of web development, it is common to dismiss tables to the abyss because of their past abuse. But, as any seasoned dev knows, sometimes tables do a great job keeping layouts together in even the most extreme circumstances. Enter TILT, or how to inject stabilizing tables into a page via JS. Funny Article.

IE Officially Dropped From OSX

Good news to all the web developers cursing MacIE at this very moment. The step-child browser is not bundled with the new version of OSX. While this doesn't mean immediate respite from it's quirks, it does mean that last rites are being performed and Mac users will be forced to use the superior Safari product.

37 Signals Backpack

The guys at 37 Signals know what they are doing. Besides writing a great book, they have just launched a new piece of web software called Backpack. Seems like a useful tool for organizing small projects or life in general.

Brothercake Object Detection

Brothercake has put together a great script that allows object detection in real-time as the page loads. That way you don't have to wait for the onload event to attach behaviours. Nice.

May 1st Reboot

The new design is live. Glad to take part in the CSS Reboot.So much inspiration in one place. Congratulations to all the other participants. Here's to many more.

Family Guy Returns

The best animated show on TV is un-cancelled! New episodes of Family Guy air tonight.

Internet Explorer 7 PNG Support

According to the developer responsible, IE7 will have native support for true alpha transparency at a pixel level. Great! And the good news is the current hacks should still work. One thing I give Microsoft credit for is serious backwards compliance, almost to a fault.

The Darth Side of the Moon

Who knew Darth Vader had a blog? He posts regularly about topics befitting an evil leader. Things such as Stormtrooper fashion and personal feelings really help you get to know the real Darth. Hilarious!

Inspecting The DOM (in IE36)

This is content.

PHP Cheat Sheet

Great collection of all the PHP functions, syntax and all the other things I seem to forget on a regular basis. Found Via

Calgary Hitmen

Great run for the team this year. I really enjoyed watching some of Canada's national sport in the absence of the Flames.

Choose Your Own (Select) Adventure

Interesting technique to solve the cross-browser impossiblities of styled select boxes using

Could be pretty useful.
Visit Site

CSS Reboot May 1st

I have decided to redesign for the annual May 1st Reboot. However, as this is usually a Flashturbation thing, I am joining the standards based CSS reboot and will launch May 1, 2005. Whoah, that's soon. Better get to work.

MacroDobeeMedia or Whaaa??

The titans have merged. I was pretty shocked to learn that the two biggest producers of new media software had combined. I am looking forward to what they will call the next iteration of products. Frustrator, DreamLive CS 2006?

IKEA Space for Living

Just finished a site for IKEA Canada's new HGTV television show. I have yet to see the actual TV program but the site was fun to build. Have a look and go buy some Swedish furniture.

Stand Alone with Rob Thorpe

Calgary's community resource for skateboarding photos, videos and trash talk. Rob keeps it real with posts and an active message board. The news section aggregates industry sources in one convenient place.

Aardvark Firefox Extension

A useful extension for everybody's favourite browser Firefox that allows for runtime DOM information and manipulation. Similar to the amazing Colorzilla, yet more interactive.