Posted by David Starr on Aug 31, 2009 in
Dotnet |
View Original Article
This episode is a recording I made during my talk at the Agile 2009 conference in Chicago. The session, “Agile for Families, Iterating with Children”, was surprisingly popular. In addition to the slides and the audio, I am including a link to the IEEE paper that went along with this session. That’s right! There is an IEEE paper about Agile at home. Awesome
The slides from the talk are available below. The slide deck I am posting here is a bit larger than the one used in the talk. These slides include some interviews with the Starr kids that were left out of the slides at the conference for time reasons.
This episode is less rocket surgery, and more brain science. I hope you enjoy the show.
Get the show here

Tags: Agile, CodeCast
Posted by Rick Strahl on Aug 31, 2009 in
Dotnet |
View Original Article
Ran into a post from Scott Sandersen earlier in which he laments the verbosity of doing things like odd/even parsing in an iterative loop in ASP.NET MVC. Steve proceeds to show an abstract solution which is a great idea for more complex scenarios, but if all you need is odd even type parsing may be a bit of overkill especially since it such a common scenario.
I tend to use a slightly simpler approach for odd even figuring based on a logical variable that’s changed in a loop. Here’s what my version of similar code looks like:
<% bool oddEven = true;
foreach (CodeSnippetListItem snip in snippetList)
{ %>
<div class="<%= (oddEven = !oddEven) ? "evenclass" : "oddclass" %>">
Content goes here...
</div>
<% } %>
That’s not too bad to read as far as tag soup goes. The key is a logical var that is simple ‘not-ed’ – this can be done after the { or as I’ve done here direclty inline of the expression. The only hard part with this code is figuring out whether it starts on odd or even :-}
Another option is to use some client script code – jQuery can make short work of applying classes after the page’s been loaded.
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$(".snippet:odd").addClass("listalternate");
});
</script>
Given the two approaches I think the former is the better choice because I like to keep the display at the point where it’s applied in the HTML or style sheet and just in case JavaScript doesn’t work the display is consistent either way.
Options are good though…
© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2009

Tags: MVC
Posted by Mehul Harry (Developer Express) on Aug 31, 2009 in
ASP.Net,
Dotnet |
View Original Article
Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine are conducting the 2009 community choice awards. We’d really appreciate your votes for DevExpress.
Spend about 30 seconds and please cast your votes for DevExpress. We’re nominated in the following categories:
On page one:
5. Best Business Intelligence & Reporting Product - DevExpress XtraReports Suite
10. Best Development Tool - DevExpress CodeRush
On page two:
32. Best Free or Open Source IT Tool - DevExpress CodeRush Express
If you’re wondering why DevExpress wasn’t nominated for a particular category then add your own DevExpress product by using the “Other (please specify)” textbox under each category. For example:
33. Best Vendor Tech Support – [Other (please specify): DevExpress]
Be sure to fill out the last category (#34) with your name and email address. This allows them to weed out fraudulent or duplicate votes and you could win some cash or prizes.
Thank you for your voting support! Click here to vote now for DevExpress!

Tags: ASP.NET Awards, CodeRush, DXperience, Vote, XtraReports
Posted by W3Avenue Team on Aug 31, 2009 in
Javascript,
Tutorials |
View Original Article
This update covers tutorials, how-to, screen casts, tips and techniques that you should have read in August 2009. Featured authors include: Soh Tanaka, Matt Aimonetti, Enrique Ramirez, Giulio Bai, Dario Gutierrez, John, Kevin Liew, Christoph Dorn, Pallav Nadhani, Cameron Chapman, Vasilios, Satbir Singh, Michael Owens, Lam Nguyen, Chris Spooner, Jean-Baptiste Jung, Janko Jovanovic, Chris Coyier, Jeffrey Way, Ibrahim Al-Rajh, Jon Phillips, Curtis McHale, Jacob Cass, Inayaili de Leon, Alex Coomans and Nuno Franco da Costa.

Featured Publications/Blogs include: DesignM.ag, Riding Rails, Smashing Magazine, WPBeginner, MyInkBlog, Flashtuts+, WebGurus, Queness, Christoph Dorn’s Blog, Nettuts+, Noupe, Web Developer Plus, PHP HTML Tutorials, AEXT, Line25, Janko At Warp Speed, CSS-Tricks, Afresherweb, Design O’Blog, Spyre Studios, Six Revisions, and Hongkiat.
- How To Create a Pure CSS Polaroid Photo Gallery
By Chris Spooner, August 31st, 2009
Site: Line25
- Using Compass and Sass for CSS in your Next Project
By Alex Coomans, August 31st, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
- Build an Elastic Textarea with Ext JS
By Nuno Franco da Costa, August 28th, 2009
Site: Six Revisions
- How To Create A Sexy Vertical Sliding Panel Using jQuery And CSS3
By Curtis McHale, August 27th, 2009
Site: Spyre Studios
- How To Create Brushes In Photoshop
By Jon Phillips, August 27th, 2009
Site: Design O’Blog
- Ultimate Guide To Web Optimization (Tips & Best Practices)
August 27th, 2009
Site: Hongkiat
- Vital Tips For Effective Logo Design
By Jacob Cass, August 26th, 2009
Site: Smashing Magazine
- Perfect Full Page Background Image
By Chris Coyier, August 21st, 2009
Site: CSS-Tricks
- A Crash-Course in Advanced CSS3 Effects
By Jeffrey Way, August 21st, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
- Automatically generate table of contents using jQuery
By Janko Jovanovic, August 20th, 2009
Site: Janko At Warp Speed
- 10 Useful WordPress Hook Hacks
By Jean-Baptiste Jung, August 18th, 2009
Site: Smashing Magazine
- Create a Letterpress Effect with CSS Text-Shadow
By Chris Spooner, August 17th, 2009
Site: Line25
- Taming Advanced CSS Selectors
By Inayaili de Leon, August 17th, 2009
Site: Smashing Magazine
- Kwicks for jQuery and an awesome horizontal animated menu
By Lam Nguyen, August 17th, 2009
Site: AEXT
- Flying With Mozilla Jetpack
By Ibrahim Al-Rajh, August 16th, 2009
Site: Afresherweb
- 6 Ways To Improve Your Web Typography
By Michael Owens, August 14th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
- How To: AJAXify WordPress Comment Posting
By Satbir Singh, August 11th, 2009
Site: Web Developer Plus
- Learn How To Create Your Own jQuery Plugin
By Giulio Bai, August 10th, 2009
Site: MyInkBlog
- 8 Regular Expressions You Should Know
By Vasilios, August 10th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
- The Definitive Guide to htaccess Techniques: Do’s and Don’ts
By Cameron Chapman, August 10th, 2009
Site: Noupe
- Model View Controller in PHP
August 10th, 2009
Site: PHP HTML Tutorials
- Create a Thumbnail Gallery with Slick Heading and Caption Effect with jQuery
By Kevin Liew, August 5th, 2009
Site: Queness
- Coding A HTML 5 Layout From Scratch
By Enrique Ramirez, August 4th, 2009
Site: Smashing Magazine
- 10 Tips for Writing Better jQuery Code
By Giulio Bai, August 4th, 2009
Site: MyInkBlog
- A Guide on Advanced Logging and Benchmarking with FirePHP
By Nuno Franco da Costa, August 4th, 2009
Site: Six Revisions
- 15 Killer Hacks for WordPress that Are Extremely Useful
By Editorial Staff, August 3rd, 2009
Site: WPBeginner
- Sticky (Fixed) SideNav Layout with CSS
By Soh Tanaka, August 3rd, 2009
Site: DesignM.ag
- Integrating FirePHP for Ajax Development
By Christoph Dorn, August 3rd, 2009
Site: Christoph Dorn’s Blog
- FancyPlayer – jQuery Fancybox and Flowplayer Integration Tutorial
By John, August 3rd, 2009
Site: WebGurus
- How do I learn Ruby & Rails?
By Matt Aimonetti, August 3rd, 2009
Site: Riding Rails
- Create Your Own Adobe AIR Application with Flash
By Dario Gutierrez, August 3rd, 2009
Site: Flashtuts+
So which articles you found most useful. Also feel free to recommend any article that we may have missed.
Similar Posts:
Tags: Roundup
Posted by Smashing Editorial on Aug 31, 2009 in
Design & Graphics |
View Original Article
Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.
And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?
This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.
Please notice:
- all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
- you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?
So what wallpapers have we received for September 2009?
Snow Leopard
“The new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, has just been released, so I wanted to celebrate it with new artwork. In some way, I designed it in contrary to the OS box design, which is a bit too aggressive. Well, mine is a bit too ’sweet’ probably :-)” Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
Colors of Autumn
"Illustration presenting the beginning of autumn." Designed by Berenika Kolaczynska from Poland.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Little Paris
"This was fun to play around with.Hope you guys like it.It shows the city center of Bucharest, Romania in the golden era of the city.Back then itwas called “The little Paris”.The image is part of an existing calendar ilustrating the old Bucharest in different times of the year." Designed by Ilie Vlad from Romania.

V for Vendetta
"This wallpaper was inspired by the movie V for vendetta (one of my favourites), the quote is from a very dramatic part of the movie where V kills one of the characters after having said the line(hence the blood)." Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

Caballito
"Ride a small sea horse and find the depth of your own ocean." Designed by pampaneo from Spain.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Prelude
"An experiment with photo manipulation and digital collage techniques. (Many thanks to and that provide free high quality images for mixing and alteration. Also, thanks to for the free script font, Porcelain)." Designed by S. Beehler from Canada.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Sunset Supervisor
"My wallpaper is an illustration of the Sunset Supervisor, Jack the Gecko and the White Elephant on an expedition through the desert of time." Designed by Manuel Esposito from Germany.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Centuries
Designed by Valentin Bojilov.

Where Acorns Come from
"Acorns coming to life in September." Designed by Monica Corduneanu from Romania.

- preview
- with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
Queen
"Forest in Autumn." Designed by Jana Jelovac from Serbia.

Sticking Art
"The idea behind my wallpapers is ‘Smashing Magazine’ with it’s amazingway of taking art from every place around the world and putting it infront - it is the way I thank you for everything you do." Designed by Catalin Boroi from Romania.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Upside Down World Map
Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
Dussehra
"Dussehra is a very famous festival of hindu people. On this holy day lord ram killed dashanan (rawan). So it is a holy religious day and celebrated as the victory of truth and goodness over bad people. On this day, effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakaran and Meghanad are stuffed with firecrackers and set alight." Designed by Supriya Kunal Dcunha from India.

Illustration Talk Like a Pirate Day
"A little Illustration for the month of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day." Designed by Leo Lemes from Brasil.

Shattered
"September marks the beginning of Autumn and this wallpaper design is a geometric depiction of dead leaves falling from trees." Designed by Franz Jeitz from Luxembourg.

The Jam Factory
"The tastiest jam is being freshly prepared in the sky." Designed by Chris Alexander (Yipori) from England.

- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
- without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
Glowing Grunge
Designed by Sebastian Gonzalez from USA.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Potato Pirates
"September being the national “potato month”, and having the international”talk like a pirate day” on the 19th, inspired us at gelattina to create a wallpaper, celebrating these two things.. that’s why we have Mr. Potato Pirate and his crew!! ARGGH…" Designed by Débora Márquez from Gelattina, México.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050
- without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050
Neon House Spirit
"This deserted house needs some magic to return for life… so i send him a little bit of neon spirit light, maybe after it will recover his past life…and you some inspiration!" Designed by Dovi Vausk from Lithuania (resident Spain).

Music
"This is a little wallpaper I did according to abduzeedo’s supercool frilly bits typography tutorial of course i changed a lot of details so as to make it look different. The wallpaper itself has one simple word “Music” why? Because I love music I think u can get the hidden meaning yourself. " Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

Last Melitea
"Just another thought to the summer… September will bring a lot of nostalgia ;(" Designed by m-mstudio from Italy.

Chicken Sunrise
"”The Inspiration for this Calender is the city of Mumbai itself. The city which usually never sleeps, but gets buzzing right in the early hours!I shot this picture of the hen, who was probably laying her eggs, but looks lost and sleepy in her thoughts! The graphic represents the hustle-bustle of Mumbai, represented by itstwo most common (and cheap) modes of transport- the three wheelers and the vintage FIAT taxi’s! Its Chaotic, Its Grungy, Its loud and Buzzing, but like thischaos has its own symphony which unfolds in front of you everyday!”A little bit about me - I’m Principal - Design at Pineapple Consulting ( www.pineappleconsulting.biz ), we deal into areas like branding and communication design, Product and packagingdesign, and interaction design! Located in Mumbai, India, I’m looking to meet some interesting people and projects from across the world!" Designed by Ameet Mehta from India..

S for September
"I made this wallpaper because I am a big fan of Typography especially the Old English type, I drew the S myself and then scanned it in and made a wallpaper, I hope you will like it, let me know what u think." Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

Brown September
Designed by Barney from Slovakia.

First Fog
"This is the day the first fog came to this valley after a hot summer. The castle is preparing for the autumn. My first contribution to Smashing Magazine, feels really good though I didn’t have much timeto work on this one. Thanks for the inpsiration and the best online magazine ever!" Designed by Akif Top from Sweden.

Field of Gold
"Ready to start again after vacation? Take a deep breath! If you use an unsupported resolution and would like a version please send me an email: I’ll do my best to create it." Designed by Federica Sibella from Italy.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Darkness with Rays of Light
"Here comes another September filled with equal darkness and rays of light. The darkness and light flows in circles. The birds are tweeting to welcome the spring. The colorful lights are all around.Blessed are us for this is a transformation of energy. That will return three-fold back!" Designed by Puneeta Prakash from India.

Circles
Designed by Hector Ruiz Gonzales from Peru.

Curiosity and the Rose
"Alaskan Malamute Dog and Red Rose, This work is dedicated to the Public Domain. You may use this photo for any purpose, including commercial." Designed by Photos8.com from USA.

The Blessed Night of Al-Qadr
"The first day of September 09 will be the 11th day of the Holy month of Ramadan in the Hijri calendar. The month of Ramadan is a very special month for the entire Muslim nation. Muslims are supposed to fast this holy month. Fasting is from first light of dawn until sundown, abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations. On the moral, behavioral side, one must abstain from lying, malicious gossip, quarrelling and trivial nonsense. Fasting is a great act of worship for the Muslim which he performs by neglecting his desires to please his Lord and hopes for His Reward. The last 10 days of Ramadan have special virtues. Among the unique virtues of these special nights is that Laylat al-Qadr (the night of veneration or honor) is among them. It is the night on which the Quran was sent down. God described it as being blessed and better than a thousand months. He forgives the previous sins of the one who stays up and prays during this night out of faith and in hope of earning the reward from Him." Designed by Ahmed Hassan Alley from Egypt.

Walking
Designed by Pedro Quesada from Spain.

Smashing September
"A type-based wallpaper celebrating Smashing’s September set of wallpapers!" Designed by Justin Zalewski Design from USA.

The Gift of The Nile
"The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that ‘Egypt was the gift of the Nile’, and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years." Designed by Mahmoud Ahmed Hamam from Egypt.

- preview
- with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900
- without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900
Zommmbie Girl
Designed by John Kichote from Poland.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Coils
"September, the time when most of the worlds students go back to school after the summer holidays, something to cheer them up." Designed by Aleksey from Australia.

Septypo
"Best month in the Year. Elegant Helvetica typography." Designed by Dannci from Slovakia.

Breathe
Designed by Misty Michelle from USA.

Dogtember
"Dedicated to all doggies missing their masters" Designed by Inna Dekhtiar from Ukraine.

Bye Bye Beach
"The photo was taken at Sidmouth (England) this summer. The arm is a friend who posed in other photos." Designed by Jesús Ludeña from Guadalajara, Spain.

September Colors
"”September Colors” wallpaper is based around colourful starting and peaceful endings. Most people think that the most favourable color for the month of September is purple but I refuse to agree. So i created this wallpaper with some mix feelings." Designed by DKumar M. from USA.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
September
"There are many remarkable events in september which make this month importantfor everyone.Some countries celebrate their independence day in it and some nations ascribe its daysfor remembering their heros. 11 September brings sad memories thus many good and bad belong tothis month. It also brings a special day (birthday) for me. Through this typographic wallpaper I try toexpose the value of september." Designed by NarjisNaqvi from Pakistan.

- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200
Autumn Green
"Autumn starts on or around 15 September in solar term. September begins on the same day of the week as December every year. September’s birthstone is the ‘sapphire’ which means clear thinking. The birthflowers for this month are the ‘forget-me-not’, and ‘aster’. " Designed by Sagar from Bangladesh.

- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200
- without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200
Tea anyone?
"In September the weather gets cold and it starts raining very often, here in Germany. A nice way to keep yourself warm is a delicious cup of tea. I designed a clean wallpaper with some nice typography-elements and a warm cup of tea to express all that." Designed by Jens Thamm from Germany.

September Sentense
"Just motivating sentence for September :)" Designed by Temeshi from Poland.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
A Geometric Vision
"This months wallpaper is inspired by the work of Andy Gilmore with the colours swatch based on the Blade Runner (final cut) DVD cover. The font is called Neighbourhood by Andy Chung" Designed by Paul Randall from England.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Rusting Beauty
"Old Changi Hospital in Singapore is a favourite amongst thrill-seekers and photographers for spine-chilling and paranormal experience. Served its purpose during WWII, decades of desolation brought the all-too familiar forlorn spookiness which abandoned architecture tends to present. Hopefully HDR techniques can bring out the rusting beauty in them." Designed by Wong Kuo Tsung Jordan from Singapore.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
Hang In There
"Things are always changing - hang in there: it’ll be alright." Designed by Marlaine Weber from Canada.

Existence
"Through thought and madness the gods of ages past dwell in eternal etherial lands, where time is lost and insight gained." Designed by Daniel Whyte from New Zealand.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Full Moon Dancing
"Just the imagination of the full moon dancing,inspired by the music album named “Buddha Moon”, produced by Chinmaya Dunster." Designed by Smalllotus from China.

Dream
Designed by Carolina Araujo from Brasil.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
September Song
"A dark visualization of “September Song”, a song composed 70 years ago by K. Weill and M.Anderson, recorded by many music monsters (Frank Sinatra, Sara Vaughan, James Brown,Willie Nelson, Lou Reed)… and printed on the background of this wallpaper." Designed by Daniele Marino from Italy.

- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Retro Fall
"Simple and minimalistic wallpaper with a retro feel based on my analog photographs from Tokyo." Designed by Adrian Tomic from Sweden.

- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Join in next month!
Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!
What’s your favorite?
What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing September, folks!
© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
Permalink |
9 comments |
Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: desktop, downloads, free, wallpapers
Tags: desktop, downloads, free, Graphics, wallpapers
Posted by W3Avenue Team on Aug 31, 2009 in
Javascript |
View Original Article
Pingdom is popular website monitoring service that helps you discover any problem with your website the minute it happens. You will be immediately alerted so you can take action before it affects your business. You will also be able to see detailed statistics of your website performance, giving you a historical record of all incidents.

Pingdom up till very recently was a pay-only service, but is now offering free accounts as well (with no strings attached). Pingdom Free has all the features of paid account types. The only limitation is that you can only monitor one website or server, but that should be enough for a lot of bloggers and hobbyist webmasters out there.
Features
- You handle all your settings from an online control panel. No need to install anything.
- Tests can be performed as often as every minute.
- Tests are performed from multiple locations on the Internet.
- You can get error alerts via both email and SMS.
- You get access to reports on downtime and response time.
- When an error is detected, Pingdom performs additional tests for you, helping you troubleshoot.
You can sign up for the Free account on the Pingdom homepage.
Similar Posts:
Tags: Hosting, performance, Tools, Website
Posted by Rick Strahl on Aug 31, 2009 in
Dotnet |
View Original Article
I have a fair number of applications that use pop up windows and other draggable elements that are stackable. When dragging and moving windows around the page it’s often critical to ensure that windows show up in the proper zOrder without having to explicitly assign the window order.
A typical scenario for this is dragging multiple windows like this:
When you drag one window that window should pop to the top of the zOrder and stay there once the window is dropped. The idea is that as windows are dragged the zIndex keeps getting re-arranged in such a way that the last dropped window/element ends up on top of the zIndex stack. You can try this out online here. If you use Add two windows are open – move them around to see how this works. Also notice that the List window always pops on top when Add is clicked and this is where the zIndex plugin discussed below comes in.
A long time ago (prior to jQuery Ui) I built my own draggable plug-in and one of the main things it did is upon dropping it would elevate the zIndex up by a few tick which was crucial. While that worked it was still guess work trying to find a zIndex that wasn’t already taken up by some other component but it worked more or less. At the time I allowed specification of a zIndex value for the dragged window and the component would bump that for each window dragged.
jQuery' Ui’s draggable initially didn’t have this feature (which was annoying), but it’s been added in later iterations as well using the stack option parameter. My lightweight version and jQuery ui version are fairly compatible so if the jQuery Ui one is loaded that will be used and both understand and use the stacking feature.
To set up stacked dragging using jQuery Ui and the draggable plug-in you might do something like this on all ‘dialogs’ (not jQuery.ui Dialogs):
$(document).ready(function() {
var dialog = $(".dialog")
.draggable({opacity: .25,
cursor: "move",
stack: { group: "*", min: 50 },
handle: ".dialog-header"
})
.shadow()
.closable();
});
and that handles the zOrder correctly without explicitly having to manipulate the z-index of any dragged elements. Surprisingly this isn’t the default behavior though.
However there are situations where you might have to manually force a window to the top. In my case I have several places where multiple windows are opened when a page is loaded or a button is clicked and they have to open in a specific stacking order. In order to accomplish this I have to force the windows to the top one at a time in the right order. Also internally in my framework there are a number of places where I definitely need to know the max zorder – for example for modal dialogs which should pop on top whatever content is on the page regardless of what their zIndex.
A small maxZIndex Plug-in
After having written some code to do this a few times I created a small plug-in that handles both finding the max zIndex and incrementing it by a specific value on the selected element(s). The latter is probably the more common case – it’s rare that you need to know the highest zOrder but don’t actually need to set it.
Anyway here’s the code that implements the plug-in and utility function in one implementation:
$.maxZIndex = $.fn.maxZIndex = function(opt) {
/// <summary>
/// Returns the max zOrder in the document (no parameter)
/// Sets max zOrder by passing a non-zero number
/// which gets added to the highest zOrder.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="opt" type="object">
/// inc: increment value,
/// group: selector for zIndex elements to find max for
/// </param>
/// <returns type="jQuery" />
var def = { inc: 10, group: "*" };
$.extend(def, opt);
var zmax = 0;
$(def.group).each(function() {
var cur = parseInt($(this).css('z-index'));
zmax = cur > zmax ? cur : zmax;
});
if (!this.jquery)
return zmax;
return this.each(function() {
zmax += def.inc;
$(this).css("z-index", zmax);
});
}
To use it I can do something like this:
function DoToTop() {
// Set the zIndex to max + 5
$("#divDialog").maxZIndex({ inc: 5 });
// Get the zIndex as a number
alert($.maxZIndex());
}
The first jQuery wrapped set function finds the max zIndex value and increases it by 5 on the divDialog element. If I use the utility function $.maxZIndex() I get the value returned instead. IOW, the utility function returns a value, the plug-in sets the value.
This plug-in and utility function setup may seem like an odd choice but I did want the option of not passing a parameter to the plug-in function that sets the zIndex. So doing just:
$("#divDialog").maxZIndex();
also sets the maxZIndex() with the default values – ie. incremented by 10. Why the increment? Often you want to inject other elements later for example a modal dialog is displayed first and the modal background added later with a lower zIndex and using an increment value allows for a little space to add additional elements if necessary.
The option parameter to the plug-in has two configuration values:
inc
The value to increment the max zOrder found in the specified group of elements. Defaults to 10.
group
A selector of elements that are searched for finding the max zIndex value. Defaults to “*”
Very simple, but highly useful at least in my code. I’ve been able to throw out a ton of z-index related code in various of my own plug-ins which is sweet. Maybe some of you might find this useful as well.
Resources
If you want to check out the sample shown above you can grab it from the West Wind West Wind Web Toolkit repository.
West Wind Web Toolkit Source and Examples
© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2009

Tags: jquery, West Wind Ajax Toolkit