Episode 77 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week your hosts are Patrick O’Keefe ( @iFroggy ), Brad Williams ( @williamsba ), and Kevin Yank ( @sentience ). Listen in your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can also download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #77: Paper or Blu-ray? (MP3, 37.9MB,... 

The Dollar ReDe$ign Project is an open submissions project organized by New York designer Richard Smith to rebrand the US dollar. The concept behind the project is “that the ‘only’ realistic way for a swift economic recovery is through a thorough, in-depth, rebranding scheme – starting with the redesign of the iconic US Dollar”. Designers from all over the world have responded to the call and as is the case with many design... 

Are you ready to start freelancing full-time? There’s no magic formula for freelancing readiness. The point at which each person feels ready is different, and will depend on their lifestyle, goals, discipline, and target market, as well as a myriad of other factors. There are, however, indicators that can suggest you might be in a good position to strike…  Read More →

One of the biggest sources of confusion for new iPhone developers is memory management. If you’re accustomed to using convenient, garbage-collected scripting languages, you may be wondering why memory management is even necessary. Although Cocoa does support garbage collection, it was deemed too great an overhead for a phone platform. Therefore, it’s important for developers to know how to…  Read More →

Did you know that September is International Strategic Thinking Month? That alone might not mean much to you, but what if I told you that thinking strategically can make you more confident, improve your leadership skills, help you problem-solve, and give you the tools you need to make better decisions? Not a bad deal, right? Strategic thinking is the process of gathering information, analyzing the data and the impact it could have on you and... 

MPEG LA, the group that licenses the H.264/AVC codec, has announced that web streaming of video files encoded using the format is free. The group had previously stated it would remain royalty-free until 2016, but that deadline has been lifted. MPEG LA have not given specific reasons for the change, but the arrival of free codecs such as WebM would have influenced their decision. The big question: how will this affect HTML5 video? Although the... 

Yesterday, I wrote about how to build and sustain momentum in your business. One of the worst things that can happen to cause you to lose momentum is getting sick. And the most frustrating part is, even if you take care of yourself and try to avoid illness, you don’t have complete control over the situation. As the seasons start to cool off here in the northern hemisphere (soon, I hope!), everyone starts to feel a little off. It may be... 

A Facebook page has been set up by a group of lovers of United Airlines tulip logo in a bid to save it from obliteration in favor of a “mash up” of Continental Airline’s blue and gold globe logo. Continental and United are merging and the airline’s CEO’s have reached an agreement to place Continental’s stylized globe logo and blue color scheme on all jets operated by the new United. After the merger United will be one of the... 

In my previous post, I discussed the Closure Compiler’s REST API . In this article, we’ll develop a small PHP program that shows how the API can be used to compress JavaScript code whenever you need it. Why write your own system? You’ll find that several free tools handle this task; one of the first PHP JavaScript compressors was written by Ed Eliot . Sometimes, however, they require technologies you don’t use —... 

Momentum can be powerful, whether it’s about knocking out your to-dos for the day, making progress on your long-term goals, or just developing an ongoing sense of achievement. It’s also a great way to prevent falling into and getting stuck in a rut. Here are a few of my favorite ways to build momentum when I’m starting to feel a bit sluggish with my work. Shake Up Your Goals I get bored easily, so I typically have a few personal... 

The days of tiny JavaScript files are long gone. Today’s monolithic web applications contain client-side code running to thousands of lines. Browsers and download speeds may have improved, but optimizing JavaScript has become increasingly important. The techniques adopted by professional developers include: Placing script tags at the end of the HTML body so the content appears quickly and is not delayed by code loading and execution. Reducing... 

This week the focus of the SitePoint community is Facebook . There are a couple of exciting things happening and both of them involve me giving free stuff away to you! It doesn’t get much better than that, right? The first of the things is the culmination of my first monthly ‘Get To Know Us’ campaign. Those of you that follow us will know that the campaign involved weekly biographies of staff members with a focus on Wordpress... 

Episode 76 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week, Brad Williams ( @williamsba ) interviews Allan Cole and Jeffrey Way , two of the four authors of SitePoint’s new book, Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes . Listen in your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser! Just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can also download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: …  Read More →

Internet Explorer 9’s new interface has been revealed following an article published on a site run by one of Microsoft’s Russian subsidiaries. The screenshot was removed almost immediately, but it was too late — the image quickly dispersed throughout the web: Microsoft has refused to publicly comment about the leak but, if it’s a fake, it’s very good one. The screenshot shows a minimalistic user interface reminiscent... 

Developers detest tests. It’s tedious to verify code which is obviously perfect. To make matters worse, the humble web developer rarely knows what OS or browser a user will choose and must test a variety of platforms. The top 5 browsers may be relatively easy, but they’ve been joined by an increasing varied and powerful array of mobile devices. JavaScript is particularly problematic. Developers are creating complex client-side applications...