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10 Tips for Effective Icon Design

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Everyone knows that Google Image Search sports a drop-down menu for filtering results by small, medium, large, and extra large sizes. You can eliminate this image size drop down. You can now search for images using exact dimension you want to have.

Just use the imagesize operator followed by the Width x Height in pixels, like so:

Here’s an example: [imagesize:640x480 muffin] finds 640px x 480px images related to muffins.

As the post points out, the imagesize operator is perfect for finding wallpapers that are the perfect fit for your screen.

Enjoy Googling and don’t forgot to Subscribe for RSS.

I wonder if you knew that visitors to your website form an instant opinion? And they form it about you and your offer. This instant opinion is created subconsciously. It happens automatically within the visitors mind. It happens automatically. Your site visitors can’t help themselves. It matters not a jot how clever the text is on your page. You can have paid an expensive professional to produce your copy for you. The visitor need not read a single word, and yet they will form their instant opinion.

The quality of the images on your web page won’t make any difference. Their quality doesn’t affect in this instant opinion. You might think if you make an unrepeatable offer, that your visitor is bound to be swayed by that! I’m sorry, the instant opinion clicks in, and your brilliant offer lies unseen. This is because the instant opinion is made when your web page is displayed to your visitor. You may have guessed there is something subliminal at work here. In a way, that is right. Immediate opinions are formed by visitors to every single website. You may have already worked out that the answer is colors. When your web page appears to your visitor, the colors you’ve used go to work on the subconscious of your visitors.

Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform – enabling you to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into your own site. Enable your users to seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site. Find their friends who also use your site. And also, share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook.

1- CSS font shorthand rule

When styling fonts with CSS you may be doing this:

There’s no need though as you can use this CSS shorthand property:

Much better! Just a couple of words of warning: This CSS shorthand version will only work if you’re specifying both the font-size and the font-family. Also, if you don’t specify the font-weight, font-style, or font-varient then these values will automatically default to a value of normal, so do bear this in mind too.

2- Two classes together

Usually attributes are assigned just one class, but this doesn’t mean that that’s all you’re allowed. In reality, you can assign as many classes as you like! For example:

Using these two classes together (separated by a space, not with a comma) means that the paragraph calls up the rules assigned to both Class1 and Class2. If any rules overlap between the two classes then the class which is below the other in the CSS document will take precedence.

Simply put, usability is making your website easy for your visitors to find the information they need when they need it.

A common misconception about usability amongst web companies is that usability is expensive. Yes, there are multi-national companies that spend thousands of dollars on usability tests and research, but for an everyday company usability is achievable without the knowledge of usability experts or without expensive equipment for testing.

Web designers have an even easier job to do, just by reading usability articles they can accumulate a fairly good knowledge about usability basics and how to implement them on a website.

1. Include a Tagline

A tagline is a statement or a motto that represents a company’s, or in our case a website’s, philosophy and mission. It should be the most obvious element on a website’s front page and it should clearly describe the website in one phrase.

Whether you’re freelance, employed or a business owner, we each have our own daily routine, which usually involves doing work to please someone else, whether that someone else be a client, end user, reader etc. But every once and a while I think it’s important to work on your own projects.

Why bother with side projects?

1. Take a break

Take a break from your normal routine and refresh your head. Exploring different ideas can get you out of a creative block and bring inspiration.

2. Expand your skill-set

Try out new frameworks, see what you can do with different APIs, test your design skills. The creative community never stops moving so you need to make sure you stay up-to-date.

3. Brand awareness – raise your profile

Whether you’re a freelance designer or a large corporation, side projects can help raise your profile simply by having your name associated with it.

4. Contribute to the community

It’s always good to contribute something to the community. It’ll be appreciated.

5. Have fun

You can have a lot of fun working on your own stuff because you’re in control of the brief and there’s no one to tell you what to do.

6. Passive income

It’s hard to beat an application that makes money while you sleep or get on with the rest of your life. You might not make a fortune, but a few extra bucks a week to fund your Saturday night on the rip is a welcome addition

7. Try stuff

If you want to be successful in life I believe you have to try stuff. If it works, happy days! If it doesn’t, learn from it and move on. “Luck favors the people who try stuff”, says entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki.

Where to start

a. Take notes

Take notes when you think of projects and put them on your to-do list. I carry around a small notebook in my laptop bag and constantly add ideas to my ‘Someday’ list in Things.

b. Talk to other creatives

Talking to others will spark new ideas.

c. Read

Read a book from an inspiring designer or look at a book of visuals to get ideas.

d. Mashups

APIs make it very easy to launch small apps. Look at all the Twitter mashups now available. Think of different uses for Google Maps, Flickr, YouTube.

e. What would you find useful?

Chances are that if there was a website or tool that you would find useful, then there are 100s or 1000s of people who would also find it useful.

Finally, remember.

Luck favors the people who try stuff.

Over the past 10 years, the MySQL database has become incredibly popular on the Web. Every WordPress blog is driven by a MySQL database, which contains the blog’s posts, settings, comments and much more.

While plug-ins and even coding hacks can solve some problems and achieve some tasks, sometimes you don’t have any other choice than to execute SQL commands in phpMyAdmin or directly to the database via SSH. Let’s take a look at 8 useful SQL hacks for WordPress. Each section of this post presents a problem, suggests a solution and provides an explanation to help you understand the solution.

1. Creating a Backup of Your Database

The problem. While the tips in the rest of this post have been tested, you should definitely not try any of them without first having a proper backup of your MySQL database.

The solution. To create a manual backup of your WordPress database, follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress database.
2. Once done, click the “Export” button located in the horizontal menu.
3. Choose a compression method (personally, I use gzip), and click the “Execute” button.
4. Your browser will ask you if you want to download the backup. Of course, select “Yes,” and then store it on your hard drive.

Explanation. Note that creating a backup of your WordPress database can be more easily executed with the WP-DB-Backup plug-in. WordPress users should install this plug-in if they have not yet done so and create regular backups of their data.

2. Batch Delete Post Revisions

The problem. Post revisions, a new WordPress 2.6 feature, can be very useful, but they also increase the size of your MySQL database. Sure, you can manually delete posts revisions, but that’s very long and boring work.

The solution. The solution to this problem is simple: we batch delete post revisions by using a simple SQL query. The result can be almost unbelievable if you have a lot of posts: Your database size will be reduced by half!

1. Log in to phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress database.
2. Click the “SQL” button. Paste the following code in the SQL command window:
   
   

   DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = “revision”;
   

   DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = "revision";

3. You’re done. Depending on how many posts you had in your WordPress database, you may have saved lots of precious space!

Code explanation. The wp_posts table has a field named post_type. This field can have one of many values, such as “post,” “page” or “revision.” When we want to get rid of post revisions, we simply run a command to delete any entry in the wp_posts table in which the post_type field is equal to “revision.”

Source:

• How to: Batch delete post revisions

As the new year is just around the corner, some of you might resolve to take a step forward into becoming a freelancer. With the way the economy has been, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the freelancer ranks grow in the next few months. Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Build an emergency fund. This not only puts you at ease, it allows creativity to flow. What’s more, you won’t come across desperate to clients. Speaking from past personal experience, which includes both being dirt poor starving and comfortable with some savings, you want to live in the latter situation. (Not meaning to sound facetious.)

While I did manage to write 60 short stories and 900 pages of one computer programming book while I was freshly out of work for the first six months of 2002, as soon as my funds dwindled and I had to borrow money from family, I found it increasingly harder to write anything. (Of course, it didn’t help having to do 10-12 hour shifts of physical labor at crappy wages.)

2. Set a suitable work rate. Actually, set more than one rate, depending on the services you’re offering. You do not necessarily have to set a lower rate than others just because you’re a new freelancer. When deciding on your freelance rates – whether hourly or by the project, you should use a number of factors: your costs, desired profit, your skills and experience, your client, market demand and any others that are relevant to your niche(s).

3. Utilize the Web to the fullest. Most freelancers these days are “web workers,” but not all of them take advantage of the bounty available online. One benefit of running a freelancing business online is that you can bootstrap it with a blog/ website and social media sites for promotion. There’s also an incredible amount of free software for your operations, invoicing, managing finances, brainstorming (mind mapping) and more.