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Before you buy a domain name and plaster it all over the place, check out 'Top 10 Worst Domain Names' from Unofficial Dreamhost Blog. Of course, these names are already taken, but it gives you an idea of what to look for in your own so you don't send the wrong message.

Here they are:

1. A site called “Who Represents” where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
   www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
   www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
   www.penisland.net
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
   www.therapistfinder.com
5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
   www.powergenitalia.com
6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
   www.molestationnursery.com
7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
   www.ipanywhere.com
8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
   www.cummingfirst.com
9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
   www.speedofart.com
10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
    www.gotahoe.com

Make sure you check out the original post to see 20 more and also a few extras in the comments...

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The folks over at simplehelp.net posted a very nice little article entitled '10 ways to get the most out of your Apple Remote'. The best thing about all 10 of them is that they are open-source or free! I particularly liked the idea of pairing your remote with your Mac to keep someone at the local coffee shop from driving you crazy as they flip through your iTunes songs.

Here's the list:

1. iRed Lite - your Apple Remote on steroids
2. iTheater - an open source Front Row alternative
3. iAlertU - good luck stealing my MacBook from the inet cafe
4. Aurora - never get out of bed to hit Snooze again
5. Pandora Boy - Pandora + Apple Remote = bliss
6. Using the Apple Remote in Linux - for the dual-booter in all of us
7. Tip: Pair your Apple Remote w/ your Mac - avoid embarrassment during your Keynote presentation
8. Tip: Put your Mac to sleep w/ the Apple Remote - one less reason to get out of bed
9. Tip: How to listen to Internet Radio in Front Row - until you-know-who kills inet radio entirely
10. Tip: How to play backup DVD’s (Video_TS) in Front Row - should have been included by default

Head over to simplehelp.net to see the original, complete article, including screenshots and a more detailed description.

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Found some very cool photography on a few different sites and thought I'd share...

Time-lapse Photography

This guy did a pretty cool flash movie to show some of his time-lapse photography. I've seen time-lapse photography used a lot on TV and in the movies, but I think this one is cool because you can control it by moving your mouse across the screen.

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/flash/cntower_timelapse.swf

Transparent Screens

This one isn't a website per se, but is actually a slideshow that someone put together on flickr. Looks like they took a picture, set the computer up in the scene, and set the original picture as the background on their desktop in just the right position so that everything lines up, making the screen look transparent. Then they took another picture to show the result. I think I may try this. I'll post the results when I do.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/sets/180637/show/

Panoramas.dk

This site has all kinds of panoramas, form the Eifel Tower to MacWorld '07. Looks like the most recent is a memorial ceremony for those that died in the Virginia Tech shooting. It's a lot like those virtual tours you see on real estate websites, but of much larger areas than a single room or a back yard. The quality is amazing on some of them.

http://www.panoramas.dk/

Change Me

What caught my eye about this site was the clever flash movie, but what the site is about is very interesting as well. It seeks to foster discussion through the use of images. As stated on the site itself:

Change Me is a worldwide project that brings people together to share ideas through powerful imagery. Each participant submits an image along with a short commentary explaining why that image has special meaning to them. The goal is to find an image that will make an impact on the people viewing it, an image that might Change Me in some way. The project is open to everyone.

The project is supported by Getty Images. They have volunteered to donate $10 for each entry (up to $250,000) in support of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Cool site for a very good cause.

http://changeme.gettyimages.com/

PBase

This is a huge collection of user submitted photos. It doesn't sound like anything special, but what makes it so cool is that you can search by a few different things such as country, keyword, or the coolest of which (I think), by camera. It has a ridiculous number of different camera models to chose from, all with pictures of the actual camera, which is helpful if you know what the camera looks like, but can't remember the exact model number. In most cases, EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) information is available, so you can also see details such as shutter speed, ISO, aperture, etc. for each picture.

http://pbase.com

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There are a few web development tools that I find myself using on a regular basis, so I figured I would tell everyone else about them. Some of them are pretty widely used, so you may already be familiar with them, but here goes...

Firefox Extensions:

HTML Validator:

This one provides a nice, easy way to see if your pages validate using Tidy and OpenSP. When your page validates, it shows a green checkmark in the lower-right corner of your browser. If not, it will show how many errors and warnings it found. Viewing source will show you which line the errors are on, as well as the specification for each.

Another nice thing about this extension vs. others is that all of the validation is done locally. I often work on pages for my company's intranet that are behind a firewall, and therefore, cannot be validated using the W3C validation website or other tools that go out to the Internet to provide validation. The W3C does provide a way to upload files, but to me, this is a pain, and is why I would rather validate locally.

Firebug:

This is the only Javascript debugger that I've found that's worth anything. And believe me, this one's worth its weight in gold. Anyone who has done any type of debugging of JavaScript without a debugger is painfully familiar with using alert() to display debug messages. And then removing them all is yet another pain. With Firebug, you don't have to do this. It lets you step through the code, watch variables and set breakpoints. This beats pop-up boxes any day.

One of my other favorite features is the DOM inspector. This is invaluable when you have a complex set of styles and you are trying to figure out which ones are being applied to a particular element.

Web Developer:

This is, by far, my favorite Firefox extension. I can't even begin to tell you about all of the features, so I'll highlight some of my favorites:

View Generated Source (View Source > View Generated Source):

This is different than the standard 'View Source' in your browser. It allows you to view the source of the page in its current state; which means, if you manipulated the page in JavaScript, you can see the resulting HTML and figure out why the page no longer looks right.

Outline Current Element (Outline > Outline Current Element):

This feature outlines each element as you hover over it and is great for debugging CSS issues. For example, if you've got a div that's not lining up correctly, you can hover over other elements around it to see if it's getting hung up on one of them. As you hover, it also shows the elements ancestry (at the top of the window), all the way back to the HTML root element.

Edit CSS (CSS > Edit CSS):

Ever see a page in your browser and wanted to try changing the CSS to see how it would look with a different font or background color... or any other CSS property for that matter? Well, this feature lets you do just that. It doesn't even have to be a page that you wrote or have access to the server it's hosted on. You can go to any page and edit the CSS real-time at the bottom of the screen.

Disable JavaScript (Disable > JavaScript > All JavaScript):

I use this all the time to see how nicely (or not) my pages degrade for those users that don't have JavaScript enabled. It's a simple but incredibly useful feature.

Websites:

Type Tester

This site allows you to see what various fonts look like at different sizes, leading, alignments, word spacing, colors, etc. It's a really quick way to see how things are going to look without coding the CSS. Even after you have chosen your options, you still don't have to code the CSS by hand. There's a handy 'Get CSS' link that generates the CSS for you based on the options you've chosen.

Colour Lovers (Color Pallette Chooser)

This is an absolute must for people like me who struggle with which colors to use in everything they create. It's basically a site that allows users to submit palettes of colors that they think look good together. Users name their color palettes and votes determine the most popular palettes.

Colr.org

This is similar to Colour Lovers, but it has a few extra features. You can upload your own image or type in a URL and it will grab the color palette from the image or URL. It also has a pretty cool story behind how it was created.

Color Contrast Checker

This tool helps you check to see if your foreground and background colors provide enough contrast to be easily viewed by users with a vision deficit or who are viewing your pages on a black and white device. I love the sliders on this one.

If you've got any other cool tools or sites to share, please leave a comment. I'll continue to post new blog entries as I find new ones.

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Someone came up with a great idea to remember those affected by the tragedy at VA Tech on April 16th. Please support this effort by posting a simple image to your blog on April 30th. For more information, please visit onedayblogsilence.com.

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I ran into this problem today, so I thought I would share, in case anyone else experiences the same issue...

I had a page that accepted an image upload via a form. I tested it pretty thoroughly and thought I had everything working, so I sent the link to a co-worker to have him give it a try. (If there's something wrong, this guy will manage to find it... and he did.)

For some reason, when he tried to submit the form, all of the other information would write to the database as it should, but the image wasn't being uploaded. I sat there baffled for a second, thinking it was that he was trying to upload a .jpg and I had tested with a .gif, but that wasn't it because I had tested with several .jpgs. I had the form tag's enctype attribute set correctly to 'multipart/form-data', but for some reason, when he tried it, it didn't work.

Turns out it was the 'upload_max_filesize' in the php.ini. I had it set at the default value of 2M (2 megabytes) and the picture he was trying to upload was 2.11MB. So, lesson learned: If you are going to allow uploads, check 'upload_max_filesize' in your script using ini_get(). Then compare the value to the file size being uploaded so you can make sure to tell the user when their file is too big.

Also, watch out for 'post_max_size'. It should be >= 'upload_max_filesize'. It is set to 8M by default, so you probably won't have an issue, but I thought I would mention it just in case.

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There aren't too many computer books out there that you can read cover to cover in one sitting and actually stay awake without the help of a few No Doze; however, CSS Mastery by Andy Budd, Cameron Moll and Simon Collinson is one of the few. It's short and concise enough to keep you from getting bored, but packed with enough information to be an invaluable resource. Even if you've never worked with CSS before, this book will get you up to speed in no time.

Of course, you won't be a CSS master by the time you reach the back cover, but that's what else makes this book so great - it's also a fantastic reference when you've banged your head against the wall one too many times trying to figure out why that div doesn't quite line up the way you think it should (even if it only happens that way in IE). I say this because I can't tell you how many times I've used this book for just that!

I've referred several friends and colleagues to this book and highly recommend it to anyone who plans on working with CSS. It's definitely one of the best computer books I've read, and by far the best on the subject of CSS.

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