ColorPad is a lightweight color picking application. Weighing in at only 148k and fully portable, it's no burden at all to tuck it in your flash drive toolkit.
Link: Featured Windows Download: ColorPad Helps You Grab Color Values
This alpha mostly improves upon the speed, smoothness, and usability of Fennec's existing features, but the newest thing to try out are two recommended extensions that can be installed. URL Fixer attempts to auto-fix common misspellings entered by fat thumbs into the address bar (like Gogle.com, perhaps?), while AutoAuth simply adds password memory for sites that require authentication.
If your not familiar with mobile Firefox then check out the video walk through below. Lifehacker also has a good overview with screenshots.
Link: Featured Early Adopter Download: Fennec, a.k.a. Mobile Firefox, Hits Alpha 2 with Speed Improvements
Many tutorials suggest that you set up the Zend AMF server directly in the bootstrap or index.php file. But what if you want to build a hybrid application with both Flex and HTML interfaces? In this case it's better to let the bootstrap file do its usual job of application dispatching, and to make the AMF gateway a controller.
Link: Zend_Amf – Wade Arnold – Zend Framework Wiki
For those wondering what database sharding is all about here is a great overview on the concepts and strategies involved.
This article is a primer, intended to shine some much needed light on the logical, process oriented implementations of these scalability strategies in the form of a broad introduction. More specifically, my intention is to teach the majority of these implementations by example. Examples will be formatted as imagined scenarios modeling real life scalability challenges.
Link: Scalability Strategies Primer: Database Sharding
An overview of Dojo toolkit integration with the Zend Framework
WCAG 2.0 addresses barriers to accessing the Web experienced by people with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive and neurological disabilities, and by older Web users with accessibility needs. WCAG 2.0 explains how to make content:
- Perceivable (for instance by addressing text alternatives for images, captions for audio, adaptability of presentation, and color contrast);
- Operable (by addressing keyboard access, color contrast, timing of input, seizure avoidance, and navigability);
- Understandable (by addressing readability, predictability, and input assistance); and
- Robust (for instance by addressing compatibility with assistive technologies).
Link: W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web
The title says it all…
Link: 40 Tips for optimizing your php code
There are definite advantages of using an agency versus using freelance information architects (insurance, not knowing who you are getting, etc.), but the article is pretty much a bash session for freelance user experience folks. This I find troubling because a) I’m a freelance user experience folk right now, and b) I used to manage a UX group about the size of Persona.
Link: Using Freelance Information Architects Vs. User Experience Agencies
Input masks integrate formatting cues directly into an input field to help signal how to correctly answer a question. These formatting instructions are automatically included in an input and cannot be removed by a user. More importantly, a user cannot enter other non-valid characters into the input field.
Link: Input Masks Design (Usability Tips and Tricks in Web Design)
Ridiculously simple API for translating a location into longitude and latitude coordinates. It also supports reverse Geo-coding which is retrieving the closest address for a given set of coordinates.
Link: Tiny Geo-coder – The fastest way to find latitude and longitude
