˙˙˙˙ʇsod sıɥʇ ƃuıdʎʇ ɥsıuıɟ ı sɐ uoos sɐ ʞool ɐ ǝʞɐʇ oʇ uɐld ı ʇnq ’sʞɹoʍ ʇı ʍoɥ ǝɹns ʎlʇɔɐxǝ ʇou ɯ,ı ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ dılɟ oʇ noʎ ʍollɐ llıʍ ʇɐɥʇ looʇ (lnɟǝsn ʎlǝʇıuıɟuı puɐ) ʎʇɟıu ʎɹǝʌ ɐ sı ǝɹǝɥʇ

FLIP YOUR TEXT

The concepts introduced around “Web 2.0″ have shifted the way users interact with the web and their data. This presentation is an excellent vision of where the web is going (beyond rich user interfaces)…

Nova Spivack at The Next Web Conference 2008 from Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Vimeo.

I came across an interesting article on Techcrunch that discussed How to Build a Web App in Four Days. I really like this approach, and I’ve always felt it could be extremely successful given the right team and the right environment…

I noticed an idea in the article that I liked so I thought I’d blog it. The author makes a great suggestion to paint an entire wall with blackboard paint. I’ve used blackboard paint in the past in my daughter’s room, and it works really well. If you have an extra (yellow) wall, and creative people around, you should give it a try….I’m sure they’d fill it up in no time.

As for the website that they built in four days, well, you can watch more about it here:

Who’s Matt? from Carsonified on Vimeo.

jottit.com

Good news from Techcrunch:

Adobe has created a special Flash player for the search engines that acts like a virtual user going through each application. It actually goes through the runtime of each Flash application and translates it into something the search engines can understand. So all of those fancy interactive Flash Websites and other rich Internet applications that have been invisible to search engines, can now be seen by them.

Techcrunch Article

This is a very cool little application that will allow you to very easily install and run Internet Explorer 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6 and 7. It’s especially nice to be able to test pages in IE 6 and 7 on the same machine during development…

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

This may not be a new technology, but it’s new to me. And, I spent $9.00 calling information last month. So, if you like to call information, but don’t like spending the cash. Check this out:

http://www.google.com/goog411/

I’ve found some helpful tools, cheeseball humor, jobs and other random information about freelancing on this site:

http://freelanceswitch.com/

Every now and then, there is an idea executed on the internet so well, it could make almost any concept look wonderful. But what if the concept was great to begin with AND was executed flawlessly? This is rare, but a friend of mine turned me onto such a case: Grooveshark.

Grooveshark allows you to search for and stream basically any song in the world. How this is legal, I don’t know, but it works wonderfully. The interface has animation and smoothness not seen in many desktop, let alone web, apps. And its usability rivals iTunes.

I have a feeling this website could replace many iPods at work, having a phenomenal selection with no setup, installation, or signup required. Just logon and start listening.

So Adobe finally released their online version of Photoshop. It is a Flex based RIA called Photoshop Express. While the tool is a very nice tool, it only slightly similar to the desktop version, and IMO doesn’t really deserve the “Photoshop” name. The Express version seems like more of an online photo manager repository type thing. Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture? Maybe Adobe is planning to integrate the online tool very closely with the desktop tool, which might justify the name. Either way, the app itself is pretty slick.

Check it out here: Adobe Photoshop Express

Here is a cool link for you to check out.. If you were ever a fan of IPIX this goes a few steps further!

Immersive Media

www.searchme.com

http://www.thepocketgeek.com/

Pretty interesting Flash game/site which seems to fall in with “The Sims” or one of those virtual pet-type websites. It’s a fun idea, but the audio gets annoying real quick so you’ll probably want to toggle it off.

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/hillary.htm

A little Flash game that is addictive and creepy all at the same time. Makes me wonder if ole’ Bill isn’t sitting at a computer somewhere, dragging her all over the screen, and laughing his head off. There are also some other variations - “Falling Hillary in a Bikini” (think I just threw up a little in my mouth) and “Falling George Bush.”

http://robobrawl.com/

This little gem definitely takes the cake as “site of the month.” RoboBrawl, promotional minisite for Intel Xeon, is very well executed on so many fronts - user experience, design, illustration, typography, animation, usability, sound, music… it’s the total package. Build a robot, fight in matches, upgrade your weapons, and challenge friends to a full-on cage match. It’s hard to hide the man-crush I have for this site.

Apparently there’s this thing called Google, and you can just type in what you’re looking for and it finds it.

Amazing, eh?

Hence, I found another tool. It’s called Pixel Ruler. Take a guess what it does.

I just found a tool we all will probably find valuable. It’s called Virtual Magnifying Glass. It basically allows you to bind a hotkey to transform your mouse into a magnifying glass. If you’re like me, you’re constantly squinting to assess some tiny graphic flaw, and then you may end up taking a screenshot into Photoshop and zooming in several times to be sure. This tool eliminates the need for that.

This is something that I’ve heard come up a lot in conversation and in a lot of different places across the web. Lee Brimlow brings up some interesting points in an article worth reading over at
The Flash Blog. Check it out. Flash is Not a Stepping Stone!

I have worked some with the AS2 Yahoo! maps components, and the AS2 version integrated pretty well with Flex, but I have been anxiously waiting for an AS3 version.

With only a couple of lines of code, literally, you can get their mapping component working in your own Flex app…

Check it out here:
Yahoo! Maps AS3

MINUIT
http://www.minuit.co.nz/
Cool site. I love the illustrative style and the game-like play. The overall concept reminds me a lot of Red Interactive, which is an awesome site. It was launched about a year ago, but since then they’ve added several extras.

RED INTERACTIVE
http://www.ff0000.com/

The ASTRA website (Yahoo/Flash Developer Center) sums it up best:

ASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications, is a collection of Flash and Flex components, code libraries, toolkits and utilties developed by Yahoo! for ActionScript developers. These libraries available under the terms of the open source BSD license.

Yahoo has built components that are available for Flex 3 AND Flash CS3. The components are well documented, and they appear to be easily skinnable. Great work Yahoo!

What designer hasn’t poured their heart and soul into a project only to have it bastardized by some corporate suit? Well since it’s Friday, I decided to post a few funny, designer-related links that have been passed to me over the last couple of months… all of which make me feel better after a “creatively challenging” week.

Make the Logo Bigger
http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/003259.html

Make My Logo Bigger Creme

Microsoft Designs the iPod Package

simplifyyourwork2008.com

So you’re telling me there’s a Microsoft site out there that is clean, simple, creative, AND playful? Is the universe ripping apart at the seams? But I guess they only get partial credit because the site is targeting Mac users.

I’m such a sucker. Ok, Aral…what is it already?

The Ultrashock community has been a big inspiration for me over the years. I haven’t spent as much time on their site lately, but I used to really enjoy reading through their forums.

A site upgrade may have been long overdue, but they have certainly outdone themselves this time around. They have hooked up one of the sweetest Flex sites I have seen. I’m not sure how practical this type of implementation is (especially in regards to search engine compatibility), but it sure looks cool :). It also looks like they have earned an FWA site of the day. Nice!

Finding that perfect color combination can sometimes be a tough nut to crack. I find that for me, it’s all about inspiration, so here are 5 great resources for “color-block.” And of course they’re presented in a list… because everyone loves lists.

5 - COLORJACK
http://www.colorjack.com
Extremely useful online utility that allows you to create color palettes by experimenting and tweaking a whole slew of options. When you’re done, you have the option of exporting your swatches to Illustrator or Photoshop.

4 - COLORZILLA
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
Sometimes inspiration comes from other sites or random images floating around on the WWW. So instead of hitting the ole’ “print screen,” I use ColorZilla. It’s one among a plethora of useful plugins for FireFox. Basically once installed, you’re able to sample any color displayed within your browser in all its hexadecimal glory.

3 - BEHR COLORSMART
http://www.behr.com/behrx/workbook/index.jsp
Behr has a fun application for choosing paint colors for your home, and I find that it’s a great resource for finding interesting palettes for design work. One advantage that I see in the site is that you get to see what’s hot and trendy in interior design.

2 - KULER
http://kuler.adobe.com/
Kuler, from Adobe Labs, is by far the sexiest of the five resources listed here. It has a slick interface and intuitive usability. The “create” feature is clean and fast, and the social, community aspect is great.

1 - COLOURLOVERS
http://www.colourlovers.com
…the queen mother of color sites. Although Kuler has a better “mixer” tool, COLOURlovers has a superior online community full of people who are passionate about color. The blog posts are interesting, and they truly seem to have their fingers on the pulse of color trends. And as an added bonus - the site is beautifully designed.