Wednesday, April 30, 2008

INFO.COM = Google, Yahoo, Live and more

Interesting this search platform/box, provides results from the best search engines like: google,yahoo search, live search, about, ask and more.You have plugins for internet explorer and firefox, see here: Plugins.Info.com ( http://www.info.com/ ) is a search platform that pulls together the best of breed search tools. From a single search query, Info.com provides results from the leading search

Flag Counter

Get your very own flag counter with just one line of HTML code. Flag counters are fast, fun, reliable, and best of all, free of charge! Our free counters can be added to virtually any site on the Internet. Flag counters don't require any complicated coding. Every time a visitor from a new country visits your page, a new flag will be added to your counter. The total number of visitors to your

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Cbox tagboard - For blogs, sites.

Get a Cbox tagboard for your website or blog and let your visitors leave you messages or chat with each other. Getting started couldn't be easier – sign up, get your code, and start chatting! Cbox gives your website an edge over the rest. It attracts visitors and keeps them coming back for more. It gives people with common interests a place to meet and chat – right on your own website! And

Monday, April 28, 2008

Little Intelligent Antivirus (LIA)

LIA (Little Intelligent Antivirus) is a new antivirus scanning engine developed in over 14 months by Corbitek Software. Although at the beginning, it has most of the more "grown-up" antivirus characteristics.The most important reason for you to use LIA is that it can work together with another antivirus installed on your system, therefore you will get double protection.LIA uses an innovative

Spybot - Search & Destroy - Video Youtube

If you use this anti-spyware, Spybot - Search & Destroy, see the video:For download the Spybot and see more info:SPYBOT - Search & Destroy Spyware

CCleaner - Tutorial - Video Youtube

For helping you with CCleaner, here is the Tutorial in video.

CCleaner - PC Optimization

CCleaner is a freeware PC optimization tool.It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner!CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space.The best part is that it's Small, Fast and Free!Cleans the following Windows components:* Internet Explorer: - Temporary File Cache -

OpenOffice - Create PDF Files & Ebooks - Video

Video Youtube: How To Use Open Office To Create PDF-FilesVideo Youtube: Creating PDF Ebooks with OpenOffice.

OpenOffice - Tutorial - Video Youtube

For helping you, OpenOffice -Tutorial in video Youtube.

OpenOffice

Crédits: OpenOffice website.OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.It is available in many languages and works on all common computers.It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Link Me - Link, Banners-Buttons

LINK:Name: Info 5 StarsLink: http://info5stars.blogspot.com/Banner 120x60Banner 125x125Banner 160x600Banner 468x60

VLC media player - "opensource" (free)

VLC media player - "opensource" (free)VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.It is a free cross-platform media playerIt supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecsIt can also be used as a

Friday, April 25, 2008

SPYBOT - Search & Destroy Spyware

SPYBOT - Search & Destroy SpywareSpybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer

GIMP - Image Manipulation (Free Software)

GIMP - Image ManipulationGIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program.It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter,

7-Zip - (Zip/Unzip)

7-Zip - (Zip/Unzip)7-Zip is open source software, that means FREE.Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. The unRAR code is under a mixed license: GNU LGPL + unRAR restrictions.Check license information here: 7-Zip licenseYou can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip.The main features of 7-Zip: *

Thursday, April 24, 2008

4 Free Anti-Virus

In the Portuguese website: UTILNET I saw this widget with 4 free anti-virus.For downloading, click in the picture: Credits/Source: UtilnetLink: http://utilnet.blogspot.com/2008/04/antivrus-grtis-widget.html

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The whale in the Amazon




A whale, which is said to weigh about 12 tons and is 5 and a half metres long, has been seen more than 1600 km from the Atlantic Ocean, deep inside the Amazon rain forest.
The whale ran aground on a sandbar deep inside the Amazon earlier this week but after being freed with the help of vets and biologists it disappeared shortly afterwards. Helicopters and boats were involved in a search of the area but nothing was found.
Local people had been splashing water on the whale's back and fin while it was exposed to the hot Amazon sun.
Reports of a mysterious animal in the area had been causing alarm among locals near to the Tapajos river, a tributary of the Amazon. Experts say the animal could have been in the area for a couple of months.
A biologist said it was thought the animal became separated from its group and swam upstream, until it ran aground near Santarem in Para state. While it is not unprecedented, it is unusual for whales to venture so far into fresh water.
The whale is not the only animal to get lost in Brazil this week, however. It is the second time that a lost animal has been seen in an unexpected location.
On Thursday, a young reptile - which was 1.5m long - turned up at a popular beach in Rio de Janeiro and had to be rescued by firemen.
They had been searching for the alligator for some time and had closed Barra beach, but despite this, some swimmers insisted on entering the water. The caiman, or yellow stomach alligator as it is known in Brazil, was taken to a local zoo for treatment for a broken leg.
This endangered species is normally found in freshwater swamps and marshes, and the fire service in Rio said it was the first time they had rescued one from the sea.

BBC News -17/11/ 07

Question 1 Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text:
a) Residents in the area kept the whale hydrated.
b) Whales had never appeared in fresh water before.
c) The alligator was injured when it was found.
d) The yellow stomach alligator is in danger of extinction.

Question 2 Answer these questions in your own words:
a) How did the whale get to the Tapajos river?
b) What did the authorities do to protect the local people from the alligator?

Question 3 Find a word or phrase in the text that means the same as:
a) par.2 soon
b) par.5 up the river
c) par.7 To appear

Question 4 Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning
a) It was thought the animal became separated from its group and swam upstream.
The animal…………………………………………………………….
b) The fire service in Rio said it was the first time they had rescued one from the sea.
The fire service in Rio said, “It………………………………………………………..
c) Despite the closure of Barra Beach, some swimmers insisted on entering the water.
Although………………………………………………………………………

Question 5 Write a short essay (90 to 110 words) on the following topic:

 Why are so many animals in danger?
Self-Access Group. CEP Santander


The whale in the Amazon




A whale, which is said to weigh about 12 tons and is 5 and a half metres long, has been seen more than 1600 km from the Atlantic Ocean, deep inside the Amazon rain forest.
The whale ran aground on a sandbar deep inside the Amazon earlier this week but after being freed with the help of vets and biologists it disappeared shortly afterwards. Helicopters and boats were involved in a search of the area but nothing was found.
Local people had been splashing water on the whale's back and fin while it was exposed to the hot Amazon sun.
Reports of a mysterious animal in the area had been causing alarm among locals near to the Tapajos river, a tributary of the Amazon. Experts say the animal could have been in the area for a couple of months.
A biologist said it was thought the animal became separated from its group and swam upstream, until it ran aground near Santarem in Para state. While it is not unprecedented, it is unusual for whales to venture so far into fresh water.
The whale is not the only animal to get lost in Brazil this week, however. It is the second time that a lost animal has been seen in an unexpected location.
On Thursday, a young reptile - which was 1.5m long - turned up at a popular beach in Rio de Janeiro and had to be rescued by firemen.
They had been searching for the alligator for some time and had closed Barra beach, but despite this, some swimmers insisted on entering the water. The caiman, or yellow stomach alligator as it is known in Brazil, was taken to a local zoo for treatment for a broken leg.
This endangered species is normally found in freshwater swamps and marshes, and the fire service in Rio said it was the first time they had rescued one from the sea.

BBC News -17/11/ 07

Question 1 Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text:
a) Residents in the area kept the whale hydrated.
b) Whales had never appeared in fresh water before.
c) The alligator was injured when it was found.
d) The yellow stomach alligator is in danger of extinction.

Question 2 Answer these questions in your own words:
a) How did the whale get to the Tapajos river?
b) What did the authorities do to protect the local people from the alligator?

Question 3 Find a word or phrase in the text that means the same as:
a) par.2 soon
b) par.5 up the river
c) par.7 To appear

Question 4 Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning
a) It was thought the animal became separated from its group and swam upstream.
The animal…………………………………………………………….
b) The fire service in Rio said it was the first time they had rescued one from the sea.
The fire service in Rio said, “It………………………………………………………..
c) Despite the closure of Barra Beach, some swimmers insisted on entering the water.
Although………………………………………………………………………

Question 5 Write a short essay (90 to 110 words) on the following topic:

 Why are so many animals in danger?
Self-Access Group. CEP Santander


View and Share Documents Online

Zoho Viewer is a nifty tool that allows you to quickly upload and view your documents online without requiring any software to be installed. You can also share the document with your colleagues and friends. No sign up required. It is totally free.View and Share Documents Online: Get rid of attachments. Just upload your document, grab the URL and share it with your friends or post it in blogs

Anonymous free proxy - service online

HideMyAss is a free online web service, an anonymous free proxy service aimed at hiding your online identity.Use our service to hide your IP address and bypass your work/school web filter with ease.For example, is MySpace blocked at work/school? It won't be any longer if you use our free service.If HideMyAss is blocked, you can easily find another site from our network which will work.HideMyAss

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

JOOST - TV ONLINE

Pt/Br:Os mesmos criadores do Skype e do Kazaa, criaram agora o JOOST.O Joost é um software, freeware, que lhe irá permitir visualizar dezenas de canais televisivos através do seu desktop.O programa para além de ter uma boa qualidade de streaming, é muito leve e permite-lhe ainda adicionar gadgets ao ambiente de TV.Requisitos:• Processador Pentium 4, 1GHz• 512Mb de RAM ou superior.• Uma placa

KGB Free Keylogger

PT/BR:Free KGB Key Logger é um keystrokes, isto é um key logger.Este programa além da entrada por keystrokes (cada vez que pressionar uma tecla do seu computador), aceita também caracteres específicos como por exemplo umlauts), o dia e a hora em que uma determinada janela foi aberta... Etc.Apresenta duas funções muito importantes: guarda tudo o que for escrito de modo a que nenhum dado se perda

Monday, April 14, 2008

WebResourcesDepot.com, free web resources everyday

WebResourcesDepot.com is a very interesting site which provides everyday a lot of great and free web resources for designers and developers in order to help them to find new ideas and save time and money in their work.

On WebResourcesDepot.com you can find really everything you need in a simple way and, browsing site's categories, you can reach to resources related to brushes, buttons, fonts, icons, xhtml & css code or CMS, project/newsletter management applications and, more in general, all kind of tools which can simplify you web development

Subscribe Rss Feed
There are already more than 200 free resources presented and new ones added daily. In order not to miss the new resources visit Webresourcesdepot.com and make sure you grab the RSS feed (full content) of the site.

Suggest new resources
You can also suggest your site or the great web resources that you know here.

WebResourcesDepot.com


Related post
Get a review for your site

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Improve form usability with auto messages

Animated auto messages are useful to improve FORM usability and Scriptaculous is a great framework to use in this case.

This tutorial explains how to improve form usability adding an auto message which appears and disappears with a nice fade-in and fade-out effect when an user select a field.



I used Scriptaculous toggle effect to implement it. For more info download the full code or take a look at how it works.

Download this tutorial


Step 1: include scriptaculous libraries
Create a new page index.html and add a link to prototype.js and scriptaculous.js in the <head> tag of your page:

<script src="scriptaculous/lib/prototype.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="scriptaculous/src/scriptaculous.js" type="text/javascript"></script>


Step 2: HTML code
Add an input search field with an hidden input field with ID msgstatus to "save" the actual status of auto message (0=hidden; 1=visible):

<input type="text" name="name" id="name" onfocus="javascript:showMsg(1)"/>
<input id="msgstatus" type="hidden" value="0" />
<div class="msg" id="msg1" style="display:none;">
...some html code here...
<a href="#" onClick="javascript:hideMsg(1)"> Close </a>
<div/>

<input type="text" name="email" id="email" onfocus="javascript:showMsg(2)"/>
<input id="msgstatus" type="hidden" value="0" />
<div class="msg" id="msg2" style="display:none;">
...some html code here...
<a href="#" onClick="javascript:hideMsg(2)"> Close </a>
<div/>


If you want to add other input fields remember to use a progressive numeration for each message ID (id="msg1", id="msg2", id="msg3", id="msg4"...) and change the value of the parameter in input to hideMsg() and showMsg() functions.

Step 3: JavaScript functions
Now, in order to enable Scriptaculous fade-in and fade-out effects, add this code into the page on your page for the function showMsg() which displays an auto message when an user click on input field:

<script language="javascript">
function showMsg(idElement){
idEl= idElement;
statusMenu = document.getElementById('msgstatus');
if(statusMenu.value==0){
statusMenu.value=1;
Effect.toggle('msg'+idEl, 'appear'); return false;
}
}


...and this code for hideMsg() function to hide the menu when an user click on the link "close":

function hideMsg(idElement){
idEl= idElement;
statusMenu = document.getElementById('msgstatus');
if(statusMenu.value==1){
statusMenu.value=0;
Effect.toggle('msg'+idEl, 'appear'); return false;
}
}</script>


How you can see code and structure are very simple to understand and ready to reuse in your projects. Download the zip file with the full code, including CSS and Scriptaculous framework.

Download this tutorial

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Nice animated menu using CSS and Mootools

This tutorial illustrates how to implement a nice animated menu using Mootoolsand some lines of CSS and HTML code ready to reuse in your project.

This is the basic version with a basic design, but you can customize it how you prefer modifying the CSS related source code.


Download this tutorial Live Preview

Step 1: HTML Code
HTML code is very simple. You have a layer with ID mymenu which is your menu container, section header (H3 tag) and section content (ul list) which contains some sub-links for each section:



... so, HTML code is something like this:

<div id="mymenu">
<h3 class="toggler menusection">Menu Section 1</h3>
<div class="element menusection">
<ul>
<li><a href="1">Link 1</a></li>
<li><a href="2">Link 2</a></li>
<li><a href="3">Link 3</a></li>
<li><a href="4">Link 4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

<h3 class="toggler menusection">Menu Section 2</h3>
<div class="element menusection">
<ul>
<li><a href="1">Link 1</a></li>
<li><a href="2">Link 2</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- Add here other sections... -->
</div>

You can add other sections using the previous structure for each new section.

Step 2: Javascript Code
Ok, now add a link to mootools framework in the tag of your page using this line of code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="mootools.svn.js"></script>

...and add this code in the <head> tag of the page:

<script type="text/javascript">
window.addEvent('domready', function(){
var accordion = new Accordion('h3.menusection', 'div.menusection', {
opacity: false,
onActive: function(toggler, element){
toggler.setStyle('color', '#333333');
toggler.setStyle('background', '#FFFFCC');
},
onBackground: function(toggler, element){
toggler.setStyle('color', '#FFFFFF');
toggler.setStyle('background', '#999999');
}
}, $('mymenu'));
});
</script>


Step 3: Customize CSS code
You can change the look of your menu simply changing some lines of CSS code:




It's all! Download source code to reuse it in your projects.

Download this tutorial

Anti-virus Online - Scan Online

McAfee FreeScan helps you detect thousands of viruses on your computer.Based on the award-winning McAfee VirusScan engine, FreeScan searches for viruses, including the latest known "in the wild" viruses, and displays a detailed list of any infected files. Should viruses be found, FreeScan even provides links to more information about the viruses and what you can do to clean your system.Link

Monday, April 7, 2008

DesignFlavr, design inspiration

DesignFlavr is an awesome resource of the best Artworks / Websites / Design Related Contents, where you can find inspiration and a lot of new ideas for your design projects. The site mission is to help support to the vaste and ever groving number of designers and artists around the web providing high quality visual contents.


DesignFlavr is not only a classical gallery of CSS websites (that you see everywhere) but it's mainly a portal about everything around Design and Digital Art for example Flash/CSS Websites, Illustrations, Vector Art, Portfolios, Urband Art, General Design and other.
The site interface is very clean and you can select several options to browse all its content choosing for example a Category, Colour Scheme or Popular Tag.



You can also rate each artwork, add your comment and choose the way to arrange and browse all content (most viewed, newest, higest rated).



Resources link is another interesting DesignFlavr section where you can find a lot of useful, daily updated, links/post about some of the most interesting topics design-related on the web.

Submission
If you are an Artist or Web Designer and you want to to submit some work (Artwork or Website) for inclusion on DesignFlavr, take a look at this page.

Support
If you want to support DesignFlavr take a look here to find a collection of nice icons/banner to add on your site.

DesignFlavr


Related post
Get a review for your site

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Scriptaculous effects compilation ready to use

This post is a compilation of five Scriptaculous tutorials ready to use in your projects (with source code to download) inspired to some Web 2.0 sites.

It includes: images slider Flickr-like, opacity change, drag and drop to reorder a list, fade-in effect and Edit in Place.

1. Simple images slider to create Flickr-like slideshows
A simple image slider ready to use to implement a Flickr-like slideshow.

2. Opacity change using Scriptaculous
This tutorial explains how to use Scriptaculous to implement a nice opacity change effect for a layer and its content.

3. Drag and drop to order list elements with Scriptaculous
This tutorial explains how to use Scriptaculous to implement an HTML list with drag and drop feature to reorder list elements.

4. Effect appear (fade-in) using Scriptaculous
Digg-like fade-in effect which you can see when you click on the Login link on the Digg topbar.

5. Edit in place with Scriptaculous and PHP
This tutorial explains how to implement a simple Edit in Place effect (Flickr-like) using Scriptaculous and PHP


Related Content
Mootools effects compilation
Five web 2.0 CSS menu tutorials

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Top-Down approach to simplify your CSS code

What is the correct approach to design a CSS file? Today I want to return to talk about a topic very popular on my blog about which I already dedicated two popular posts (optimize your CSS files to improve code readability and write a well structured CSS file without becoming crazy). Now I want to try to reply to this question I often receive from some readers of this blog:
What is the correct approach to design a CSS file?
In this post I want to illustrate some tips which can help you to write a better CSS code using a Top-Down approach.


Top-Down approach
I think the best way to design a CSS file is using a top-down approach, in other words first defining the main sections of your layout (in general an high-level design is composed from 4-6 main section) and after defining all single elements which compose these sections. So you can proceed to write your code in a more structured way avoiding unnecessary code. In fact, defining main sections is simple and not so problematic. The "unwanted code explosion" happens when you define the detail elements. To simplify this process take a mind these two simple "rules":
- minimize the number of CSS elements
- use/redefine HTML standard tag (P, H1, UL, LI...) instead of creating new classes
For example, in your blog, to design the post title style you can redefine <h1> tag instead of defining a new class "post-title".

Define main sections
How I said, before starting to write your CSS code you must have clear in mind which are the main sections of your page layout. For example, in case of a blog with a typical 2 columns layout you can identify these main sections:



Your high-level layout is composed from these section:
1. Header (#header)
2. Main content section (#main-content)
3. Sidebar (#sidebar)
4. Footer (#footer)
Second step is identify all elements which compose each section. Take a look at the following example to have an indea about how to proceed.


Header section
A typical header section contains the website logo and the navigation bar:



You can inlcude the website logo in the CSS background property of #header element in the following way:

#header{background:url(logo.png) no-repeat;}

Someone could say: "but in this way I can't add a link to my home page to the logo". Yes, but I think this is not a dramatic issue which compromises the usability of your site. If you add a link "home" in the navigation bar is exactly the same thing. So, you can design your navigation bar using <ul> tag with a <li> element for each link you need (home, about, contact...). In this way your CSS code will be something like this:



How you can see, you don't need to define a class "#navigation-bar" beacuse your navigation bar is defined using <ul> tag in the #header section (#header ul, #header ul li). In this way your code will be clear and simpler to manage. In any case, to improve the CSS code readability I suggest to use comments to separate each single section element and indent your CSS code.


Main content section
In a typical blog structure, the main content section contains in general the body of post (title, date, text, tag...) and it can be represent in this way:



So, a good way to design it using CSS is redefining these standard HTML tag for the #main-content section:
- Post section paragraph (<p>)
- Post title (<h1>)
- Post date (<h2>)
- Post tag (<small>)
...and CSS code will be something like this:



... simple and very readable.


Sidebar
Another example: take a look at my sidebar. It contains some section which you can design in this simplifyed way, using just <h1> and <p> tag:



...and CSS code will be like the following:



I suggest to use this simple approach to all sections of your websites. I think it can help you to write a better code simplifying in the same time the complexity of your CSS files. Take a look at the following related content links to find other infos about this topic.

Related content
Optimize your CSS files to improve code readability
Write a well structured CSS file without becoming crazy

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Blog Design Madness Round 3...

New day, new round in the Blog Design Madness competition... Today is started the third round and I hope to arrive to the final round! You can vote for woork at this link:

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/competition/round-three/

Thanks to everyone for your vote!