Street Fighter Characters: Beautiful Illustrations and Wallpapers

Posted by vitaly on Nov 29, 2009 in Design & Graphics | View Original Article

Street Fighter was unleashed 22 years ago by legendary video-game developer CAPCOM, becoming a worldwide phenomenon and the most popular game in its genre. It set trends in the video game industry, producing dozens of unforgettable characters that have entered pop culture.

Over time, characters such as Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Vega and Bison have become increasingly recognizable and well liked — popular enough, in fact, to be featured in cartoon series and even films.

Certain artists and designers work very hard to create inspiring Street Fighter art. Today, we’ve compiled illustrations, tutorials and wallpapers that are sure to take you back to the classic video game. Feel free to share your opinion about what you see. We’d love to hear from you.

Street-fighter-500x200 in Street Fighter Characters: Beautiful Illustrations and Wallpapers

(al)

Tags: character, illustrations, Inspiration, street fighter, Tutorial, wallpapers

CSS Resets

Posted by K. Scott Allen on Nov 29, 2009 in Dotnet | View Original Article

Every web browser has a default style sheet it uses when rendering content, and every web browser uses slightly different defaults. Perhaps a button will use an extra 2 pixels of width in one browser, but 3 fewer pixels in another. These differences are insignificant to many of us, but they worry some designers and keep them awake at night. This is where CSS reset style sheets come into play.

The goal of a CSS reset style sheet is to set the default styling for all HTML elements into a known state. A good CSS reset will effectively “undo” all the default styles any web browser might define. The CSS designer can then built their own style rules and feel relatively confident that a design will look the same across all browsers and environments.

For example, here is what you will be starting with after applying the YUI Reset CSS:

Black text on a white page background
Margin and padding for all elements set to zero
Table borders set to zero
All fonts sized 100% of base
Font-weight and font-style set to normal
and more …

There are a few CSS resets available on the web:

Note that YUI and Blueprint both include a CSS reset as part of a larger CSS framework.

Should I Be Using A CSS Reset?

This is the subject of some debate.

Some people feel a CSS reset creates more work – both for the designer and the web browser. The designer has to start from scratch and will write more CSS style rules to design a page that has been stripped of all aesthetics by a CSS reset. Naturally the browser will also work harder to process all these additional rules and cascades.

But, if you care deeply a design, and how that design will render around the universe, then you won’t mind any of the extra work. CSS reset can be good.

As Eric Meyers says in his post “Crafting Ourselves”:

Reset styles clearly work for a lot of people, whether as-is or in a modified form. As I say on the reset page, those styles aren’t supposed to be left alone by anyone. They’re a starting point. If a thousand people took them and created a thousand different personalized style sheets, that would be right on the money. But there’s also nothing wrong with taking them and writing your own overrides. If that works for you, then awesome.

For others, reset styles are more of an impediment. That’s only to be expected; we all work in different ways. The key here, and the reason I made the approving comment above, is that you evaluate various tools by thinking about how they relate to the ways you do what you do—and then choose what tools to use, and how, and when. That’s the mark of someone who thinks seriously about their craft and strives to do it better.

Eric’s commentary applies to many of the tradeoffs we face in software development.

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) Preview 8

Posted by Al on Nov 29, 2009 in Dotnet | View Original Article

I have been using MEF Preview 6 for Silverlight since the moment the came out, I have been really happy at that release, allows me to load XAP files dynamically in order to speed up the starting time of my Silverlight application as well as decompose my applications blocks to very maintainable pieces that will be downloaded on the clients machine on demand. So the love fest between me and MEF started on Preview 6.

MEF Preview 8 was release and I kept myself away from the download as I was still very happy to use Preview 6, fulfill all my needs. So why did I wanted to upgrade? Well, I had a few dlls that didn’t want to get into the package to get downloaded, so I thought that was time to upgrade to Preview 8 to see if there was any difference.

What’s MEF?

First let’s describe MEF for people that haven’t use this framework yet. The Managed Extensibility Framework will provide developers a way to load application extensions.

The structure of MEF is very simple to find out what extension to package.

Diagram from codeplex MEF

It’s time to write some code.

In preview 6 the way to get a package of assemblies was to create your Package Catalog

PackageCatalog catalog = new PackageCatalog();

and then added into a container

var container = new CompositionContainer(catalog);
container.ComposeParts(this);

So you can just download the package and attached it to your application:

          Package.DownloadPackageAsync(new Uri(sXap, uriKind), (s, p) =>
            {                
                catalog.AddPackage(p);                
                if (LayoutRoot != null)
                {
                    System.Collections.Generic.List&lt;System.Reflection.Assembly&gt; assemblies = p.Assemblies as System.Collections.Generic.List&lt;System.Reflection.Assembly&gt;;
                   
                    System.Reflection.Assembly assembly = assemblies[0];

Now let’s talk about how Preview 8 changes all this:

So instead of PackageCatalog() you need to create an instance of

AssemblyCatalog catalog = new AssemblyCatalog(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

Silverlight 4 and MEF

With Silverlight 4 or .NET 4 for that matter, now all this has changed, you won’t need to download a that module to use it on your applications, MEF comes out of the box as well as WCF RIA Services, also known as .NET RIA Services.

Cheers

Tags: Blog

Review: The Passionate Programmer

Posted by Sean Timm on Nov 29, 2009 in Dotnet | View Original Article

As an Elegant Coder, I suffer the fate of sitting in front of a computer screen for large parts of my day, and I can often be found at home in front of one as well. This can promote a fairly sedentary lifestyle if one is not careful. Over the years, I have been both more and less careful in this regard at various times. This has resulted in my current state – a state we will refer to (for purposes of this conversation) – as “overweight”. I’ve participated in a number of weight loss programs over the years until I finally wised up and realized that every successful program had at its heart two common factors – caloric restriction and exercise. I am now actively engaged in working both of those factors until I achieve a state we will call “fit”. However, becoming fit is not an immediate process. It is a daily process requiring both attention and discipline. I’m fond of saying, “It took me 15 years to achieve this weight. Do you expect it to be gone in 30 days?”

The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development by Chad Fowler is a book focused on helping you become fit as a developer – leading you along the path of life decisions that make the difference between a job and a remarkable career. As Chad says, “You don’t win a race by trying not to lose. And you don’t win at life by trying not to suck.” You have to be tactical, strategic, and deliberate if you want to avoid your career being “one big series of undirected coincidences.”

I won’t belabor all of the points you can find in this book, but I’d like to call out some things that stood out to me.

Be the worst
- If you’re the best, nothing is challenging and pushing you to grow/perform. Seek associations with people that are better/faster/smarter than you.
- You’re not as bad as you assume. Give yourself the chance to discover it.
Practice at your limits
- Chad’s background as a musician provided opportunity to compare skill improvement to music practice. While performances are expected to be as perfect as possible, practice is raw, gritty, and doesn’t always sound good.
- If all you’re ever doing is sitting down churning out elegant code, you’re not pushing at the edges (where all the improvement comes from).
Study the work of masters
- In the arts (and many other disciplines), much time is given to learning from the work of those that have gone before. In the past, this was more difficult in software development due to its proprietary nature, but the sheer volume and quality of open source projects makes this much more accessible now.
- Existing code reflects on your own capabilities for growth and new avenues of thought.
Focus on the present
- If your head is always in the clouds of tomorrow, you’ll miss the daily victories.
One topic Chad alluded to but didn’t build much on was approaching your career development in an Agile fashion. I thought this was a great concept, and from some comments on his blog, it looks like he’d like to build on this in the future. My takeaway was that I’d better start my sprint planning for my career.

There were many other points and topics covered including interaction with peers, management, and customers. Chad includes a number of “Act on It” exercises which will challenge you to grow in the areas he covers. Overall, it was a great read with a message I needed to hear, and I’d highly recommend it.

Tags: Agile, books, Craftsmanship

Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in November 2009

Posted by W3Avenue Team on Nov 29, 2009 in CSS, Javascript, PHP, Tutorials | View Original Article

This update covers tutorials, how-to, screen casts, tips and techniques that you should have read in October 2009. Featured authors include: Soh Tanaka, Chris Coyier, Andrew Burgess, Paul Burgess, Burak Guzel, Lam Nguyen, Janko Jovanovic, Adnan Osmani, Sam Dunn, Chris Spooner, David Walsh, Mike More, Jeffrey Way, Ashley Ford, Zac Siswick, Kevin Liew, Mary Lou, Steven Bradley, Gaya Kessler, Samuel Folkes, Leigh Kaszick, Matt Ward, Abhin Sharma, Tom Kenny, Mike Smith, Martin, Roy, Siddharth, and Rob Conery.

Featured Publications/Blogs include: Smashing Magazine, Soh Tanaka, Nettuts+, CSS-Tricks, JankoAtWarpSpeed, AEXT, Tutorialzine, PaperMashup, Spyre Studios, Build Internet, Line25, David Walsh Blog, Jeremy McPeak, MoreTechTips, AddyOsmani, Queness, Inspect Element, Web Design Ledger, Gaya Design, Samuel Folkes, Brenelz Web Solutions, Van SEO Design, A Blend of Programming and SEO, Chromaloop, Weke Road, and Codrops.

10 Usability Crimes You Really Shouldn’t Commit
By Chris Spooner, November 30th, 2009
Site: Line25
Facebook Style Footer Admin
By Soh Tanaka , November 29th, 2009
Site: Soh Tanaka
Paging Records: Use jQuery to Scroll Just In Time
By Rob Conery, November 27th, 2009
Site: Weke Road
Fixed Position Table Headers
By Zac Siswick, November 27th, 2009
Site: Chromaloop
You Don’t Know Anything About Regular Expressions: A Complete Guide
By Jeffrey Way, November 26th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
Top 20+ MySQL Best Practices
By Burak Guzel, November 25th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
Building an Image Gallery with Progressive Enhancement
By Andrew Burgess, November 24th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
5 Useful Coding Solutions For Designers And Developers
By Soh Tanaka, November 23rd, 2009
Site: Smashing Magazine
An Awesome CSS3 Lightbox Gallery With jQuery
By Martin, November 23rd, 2009
Site: Tutorialzine
Creating a Web App from Scratch (8 Part Series)
By Chris Coyier, November 23rd, 2009
Site: CSS-Tricks
Image with Toolbar and Navigation Overlay
By Mary Lou, November 23rd, 2009
Site: Codrops
Bubble Effect with CSS
By Lam Nguyen, November 22nd, 2009
Site: AEXT
Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery
By Sam Dunn, November 20th, 2009
Site: Build Internet
Use jQuery and PHP to scrape page content
By Ashley Ford, November 18th, 2009
Site: PaperMashup
Forgiveness in UI design
By Janko Jovanovic, November 17th, 2009
Site: JankoAtWarpSpeed
Creating a 3D carousel from scratch
By Abhin Sharma, November 17th, 2009
Site: Brenelz Web Solutions
Anatomy of a WordPress plugin
By Roy, November 17th, 2009
Site: A Blend of Programming and SEO
9 Most Common IE Bugs and How to Fix Them
By Siddharth, November 16th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
How to Use Retro Colors in Your Designs
By Tyler Denis, November 16th, 2009
Site: Six Revisions
How to Create an Author Info Section in WordPress
By Chris Spooner, November 16th, 2009
Site: Line25
Optimizing External CSS & JavaScript Files With PHP & mod_rewrite
By Samuel Folkes, November 12th, 2009
Site: Samuel Folkes
How to Create a Photo Gallery using the Flickr API
By Paul Burgess, November 12th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
11 Ways to Increase Your jQuery Performance
By Adnan Osmani, November 11th, 2009
Site: AddyOsmani
Get a URL’s Reddit Score Using PHP and JSON
By David Walsh, November 11th, 2009
Site: David Walsh Blog
The Basics of Object-Oriented JavaScript
By Leigh Kaszick, November 11th, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
Getting Closer to Google Closure
By Mike More, November 10th, 2009
Site: MoreTechTips
Easy to Style jQuery Drop Down Menu Tutorial
By Kevin Liew, November 10th, 2009
Site: Queness
CSS Backgrounds: 12 Solutions To Common Questions
By Steven Bradley, November 10th, 2009
Site: Van SEO Design
Create YouTube-like adaptable view using CSS and jQuery
By Janko Jovanovic, November 8th, 2009
Site: JankoAtWarpSpeed
Displaying the Total Number of Twitter Followers as Text on WordPress
November 8th, 2009
Site: WPBeginner
Quickie CSS3 Tricks with Fallbacks
By Chris Coyier, November 6th, 2009
Site: CSS-Tricks
How To Design A Hand-Drawn Vector Pattern Using Pencils, Photoshop And Illustrator
By Matt Ward, November 5th, 2009
Site: Spyre Studios
Simple CSS Tips that Go a Long Way
By Tom Kenny, November 5th, 2009
Site: Inspect Element
Ten Tips for Becoming a Better WordPress Developer
By Mike Smith, November 5th, 2009
Site: Web Design Ledger
ASP.NET from Scratch: Lesson 1, Lesson2
By Jeremy McPeak, November 3rd, 2009
Site: Nettuts+
Presentation Cycle: Cycle with a progressbar
By Gaya Kessler, November 3rd, 2009
Site: Gaya Design

Work Flow for Third Pary Ad Insertion to Production

Posted by Tom Barker on Nov 29, 2009 in Flex | View Original Article

Continuing my theme recently of detailing work flow issues and the resultant work flow solution, an issue that had been cropping up over the past several weeks and months is how to deal with third party ads changing creatives mid-campaign...

Tags: Blogs, career, management, workflow

How to Install CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Nov 29, 2009 in CLoud Computing, General, Technology News | View Original Article

In this post we will explain how to install or re-install CloudBerry Backup add-on for Windows Home Server.

Originally it is from here http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/04/19/how-to-install-or-remove-an-add-in-for-windows-home-server/

Open WHS server shared folder: \\YOUR WHS\Shared Folders\Software\Add-Ins
Copy the add-in (it is likely to be called WHS_CloudBerryOnlineBackupSetup_v1.3.1.371o.msi) to the Add-Ins folder.
Launch the Windows Home Server Console.
Click the Settings button on the Windows Home Server Console to open the Settings screen.
Click Add-ins in the left pane.
Click the Available tab. You should now see CloudBerry Online Backup add-in listed.

Please note you should uninstall previous versions of CloudBerry Online Backup if you ever had it before.

___

CloudBerry S3 Backup for Windows Home Server is WHS add-on that automates data backup and restore to online storage powered by Amazon S3 cloud storage. It comes with onetime fee of $29.99 (US) and you can download fully functional 30 days evaluation version at http://www.cloudberrylab.com/default.aspx?page=backup-whs

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.

The Character of Cloud Computing

Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Nov 29, 2009 in CLoud Computing, General, Technology News | View Original Article

Here's an important reminder for cloud service providers: character counts. Ethics, Values, and Trust are table stakes – for anyone who wants to succeed in business long term – but especially for cloud service providers. As a cloud customer, I am not simply buying/renting your hardware and software. I am grafting my company onto yours. We are intermingling our corporate DNA. I am loading my databases on your disk drives. I am modifying my internal processes to map to your services.

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Answer My Query

Street Fighter Characters: Beautiful Illustrations and Wallpapers

Street Fighter Characters Artwork

Street Fighter Characters Tutorials

Street Fighter Characters Wallpaper

CSS Resets

Should I Be Using A CSS Reset?

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) Preview 8

Review: The Passionate Programmer

Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in November 2009

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Work Flow for Third Pary Ad Insertion to Production

How to Install CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server

The Character of Cloud Computing

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