I haven't had a whole lot of time to sort out my bookmarks of late, but after a quick look through them this morning, here are a few that have caught my eye this month. 21 Most Visited Free Fonts 101 CSS Techniques 35 Portable Applications That Every Tech Needs 5000+ Resources To Do Just About Anything Online A List Apart Desktop Blogging Clients Gmail Tips and Tricks The Complete Web 2.0 Directory Top 10 Free Music Websites PNG Icons and Icon Packs Web 2.0 Badges Zamzar File Conversions Photoshop Brushes Web Design and Development Studio Web Developer's List Daily Colour Scheme Listamatic And that my friend, will do for now...

Following on from my previous post where I took a look at social networking and how interaction has changed on the Internet over the years, I came across a few programs which tie in chat programs, email and social networking in one neat package. I used Trillian years back, and cannot remember why exactly, but no longer have it on my system. Probably just got left behind as upgrades, new drives and new machines evolved. There are quite a few of these all-in-one programs available now though - Trillian, Pidgin, Miranda and Meebo - as examples, but the one that really caught my eye was Digsby. From the authors' themselves: Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as 'Delete' or 'Report Spam' with just one click. digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to. First impressions are quite good, with the only problem as ...

When I first started out with computing, I used to connect to the Internet using dial-up technology and with a 1200 baud modem. I vividly remember the exact tone it made and the screams of joy I cried when the connection actually made it through and I was on the Internet! Moved on through 9600 and 38700 baud and so on and each connection became more stable and faster. But the Internet that met my eye was nothing like the Internet I see today. I progressed to the point where I owned my own Bulletin Board and felt like I was a king in my own castle, especially when I started getting bulletin board members who actually visited me from other locations. I could chat with people, send emails and even managed to build up a 100,00o+ strong file system ready for downloads and sharing. It was magic and it was all done via DOS [better known now as the Dead Operating System]. So the Internet back then was 90% black and white or possibly 8-bit colour depending on your monitor at the time. And the biggest joy of owning a bulletin board was the interaction from other members. People you ...

Colour [or 'color' for those of USA persuasion]: a quality which objects have, and which can be seen, only when light falls on them. No matter where you look, you see colour! Wars have been waged over them and others play with them. They bring fear, happiness, sorrow and all the myriad of other emotions we all exprience. Red rag to a bull, green with envy, as calm as the blue sea, black with hatred - are just some of the feelings and 'vibes' associated with colour. And in this new world known as the Wide Web World, Web Wide World, World Wide Web [or Internet], colours are used in thousands of different ways. However, as any web designer will tell you, there are colours and then there are colours. It's all black and white you see - but not really. White and black are not generally known as black after all [yes, yes, I know black and white are not colours but that's not the issue]. The point is, white becomes #ffffff and black becomes #000000 and everything colour-wise works from these junctures. And as you delve deeper into colours and you work with them daily in code, you start to ...

Once upon an eon ago, I used a webmail product called Hotmail. Truth be told, I think I still have an account or 50 in place, but none of them are ever used. I have also used Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, a work-based Outlook Web Access [OWA] and numerous other email options. But one stands out head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion, the monster we all know as G-Mail [or GoogleMail for some]. For more information on why it is called G-Mail in some places and Googlemail in others, do a quick search on Google itself. And why do I choose G-Mail? Basically, it works. It rarely has any downtime, it is so easy to set up and use and it's quick, reliable and does everything I want. The fact it is web-based has obvious benefits in that it is accessible from any location with an Internet connection and it has all the functionality and features that I need. The 'but' though comes from my personal wish to set up an email account in my own fashion. Functionality is excellent and so is the ability to use it as your base email portal - by directing all other email accounts ...

Being in the lucky position that I find myself in at my place of employment, where because we have Microsoft sponsorship [which basically means we have a huge amount of the latest Microsoft products at our disposal - and ALL for FREE] you may wonder why I would ever go looking for an open source alternative. Well, there are several reasons actually, but without digressing too far from the main point here, sometimes open source is simply thrust upon you. And anyway, I am a big fan of open source. Take the example of VirtualBox. I use more virtual servers than physical these days and the thing is, once you start using virtual systems, you really do wonder how you ever coped without. They are quicker [when configured correctly] and they are so easy to backup and to restore in times of disaster. I use Virtual PC 2007 for many of my personal experiments and this allows me to use whatever operating system I need without the need for extra hardware, and I use Virtual Server 2005 for some of the more demanding tasks which require server capability. Both of these products are free and readily available - a fact that ...

Listen to most people who call themselves web designers but who do not care what a website looks like on any browser bar the one they choose for themselves, and you soon realise, well actually - they are not really web designers. Car manufacturers make cars with bio-fuel options, different colours, and cater for people of all sizes with seat controls, safety belt adjustments and so on. TV channels know that what appeals to one will not appeal to another. Common sense stuff you would think and yet wannabe web designers cannot see beyond the scope of their noses. Anyway, for those people who do actually want to make their websites work in most browsers and try and reach a bigger audience with a stable design across all platforms, Browsershots is an excellent tool for use in this aim. From the maker of Browsershots: Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser.