Life With My Geek: Man Cave Has Jumped Shark

 

I’ve taken a lot of heat, here at home, since the man cave post.  Although I have my geek’s permission and full support to write about his, um, idiosyncrasies, , it appears that the sharing of the feelings for the Dave Cave was too much.

What upset him the most, however, was the fact that I didn’t let everyone know that he did, indeed, pull up his manties and attend the concert with me.  I am here to set the record straight:  Dave attended a social event without a gun to his head or an electronic device in hand.  Sadly, the Reverend Peyton and the entire Big Damn Band broke down in Jerome, depriving us of his music, his wife and her washboard, and leaving us with only the opening band.

Upon returning from Las Vegas, my geek announced that he had made a decision.  This sort of announcement is almost never a good thing.  It usually culminates with things like the geek eating everything with chopsticks, walking around in his underwear, or napping in his motorcycle helmet. 

The big decision?

Response will no longer be elicited when references are made to the office, the Dave Cave or the man cave.

Yep.  The man cave has officially jumped the shark.

But, take heart all you men with special places that belong only to you.  This is the dawning of a new golden age; it is now the era of the Man Bunker.

Tags: Application Packaging, Esoterica, Virtualization

Aldersgate Group calls for ‘Beyond Carbon’ economic strategy

 Water and other resources should be given equal importance to carbon by policy makers if the country is to remain competitive and provide jobs.

Tags: Application Packaging, Green Computing, Greent IT, Virtualization

What’s between your Smartphone and your computer?Better and cheaper than a iPad

 

Apple introduced the iPad back on January 27th as the missing link between the smart phone, or the iPhone as they want to presented, and you laptop or desktop computer, the market need something in between, their answer the iPad. My full  review can be found here.

The price for the iPad is a little to expensive, cheaper than projected, starts at $499 for a simple 16 GB of storage. Yet I do believe that Apple is right, there is room for a device between the full computer and the smartphone, Steve Jobs made it clear that is not the Netbooks. I believe those devices have been really popular and I am sure Mr. Jobs sees them as a threat to his beloved iPad.

This weekend my wife, she is more technical that she thinks, surprised me with one of this Netbooks the Asus  Eee PC 1005, with 250 GB hard disk, 1 GB of RAM, 10 inch screen, just like the iPad and with Window 7 Starter already installed.

My first impression was the weight then I took it out of the box, very light 2 pounds only, perfect to carry on your backpack. Battery life is one of the best features in this device, between 9 to 11 hours, depending on what are you doing with it. I fully charged the device and while I’m typing this I haven’t use even 3% of the battery. Also is good to note the power supply is pretty small, many laptops or netbooks come with this huge power supplies that make carrying the device, not that good if the power supply is heavier than the computer.

The mouse pad has a zoom in, zoom out feature using 2 fingers in some applications; Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word, I tried with Adobe Reader and works just like the iPhone. The computer comes with a webcamera and microphone build on the top of the screen. If I look for a feature that disappoints me a little, I have to say the keyboard. Even being a full keyboard, is pretty small, when you are used to something bigger, I think I’ll get used to soon, also the noise and how it feels when you are typing is very cheap plastic feeling. I should not expect the Commodore 64 keyboard in one of this computers.

Something to note, this device comes with a manufacture application to provide you with online storage, I won’t be disabling that at all. Looks like you can share that storage with other computers, I wonder if I can set it up as my backup destination.

In a few words, this is the device to do the normal things of every days tasks. Still going to install Visual Studio 2010 on it.

Related read about the iPad

http://alpascual.com/blog/where-will-ipad-fit-in-2010/

Cheers

Al

Tags: Application Packaging, Blog, Virtualization

MSFT – A Simple System for Microsoft Session Feedback

 I’ve been to lots of conferences or meetings where people (Microsoft or not) are delivering technical sessions relating to Microsoft technology. I’ve also spoken at lots of those things as well. A recurring problem is getting feedback. Sometimes it’s a long paper-based form to fill in. Sometimes it’s a website or a terminal where you tick boxes to provide your view on the sessions you’ve seen. Sometimes it seems that the organiser has gone to great lengths to make it so difficult for you to provide feedback that you don’t bother and the speaker is none the wiser as to whether they did a great job or not. The obvious solution these days is to use something like Twitter and people do exactly that but I wondered whether it might be possible to come up with a simple, “standardised” way of providing session feedback via Twitter rather than leaving it to be ad-hoc. How would that help? It’d help the speaker as they could easily formulate a Twitter search to find their feedback or write a tool to do it. It’d help the...(read more)

Tags: Application Packaging, Off Topic, Virtualization

How I use Social Media: Part 2–Facebook

  Last week I started a seies about how I use social media, starting with Twitter. This week I'm going to talk about Facebook. What is Facebook? They tell me that Facebook started out as a way for Harvard University students...

Tags: Application Packaging, Blogs, career, facebook, socialmedia, Virtualization

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: February 2010

 

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 70 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 February 2010?

[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]

Summer

"I thought I would like to make something relevant to the Aussie readers of Smashing Magazine. This is what February in Australia looks like!" Designed by Eli Burford from Australia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pizza and Wings

"Football season is coming to an end and March Madness is about to begin, carb up." Designed by Ashleigh Liggett from United States.

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• 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

Love Memories

"First time I try to paint a sketch in the computer. Beginner… but I like it! :)" Designed by Alicia De Freitas from Venezuela.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Childhood Sweethearts

"Remember the excitement of Valentine’s Day when you were in grade school? Remember the cheesy Valentines cards and the sugary treats; the silly love predictions? I’m hoping to invoke a sense of nostalgia with “Childhood Sweethearts.”" Designed by Leisha Farrell of Feral Bytes from USA.

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• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Imaginary Friends

"The inspiration for this illustration was russian rock’n'roll-song “Pharmacist, judge, beaver and owl” by Maksim Leonidov." Designed by Andrei Verner from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Elephants

"Big lovers!" Designed by Giada Degli Agostini from Italy.

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• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Watercolors

"February is the month for doing the things you love and loving the things you do." Designed by Heldrik Lynch from Peru.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Love is all around me

"February is a month when everyone and everything radiate love!I wish you to love and be loved:)" Designed by Anna Volkova from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Eternal Battle

"Eternal battle between photographers – to use them or not to use them…" Designed by Martin Cajzer from United Kingdom (originally Poland).

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Valentines Disaster

"Sometimes the best laid plans fail… even on Valentine’s Day." Designed by Popephoenix from United States.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1900×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1900×1200

It’s a French Kind of Love

Designed by Nicole Dominguez from USA.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Clockwork Decay

"I’ve been wanting to play with a steampunk-themed design for a while. So, I made that the goal of this month’s design. I started out with some watch pieces and I added in some grunge textures and played with the color palette. I really like the way the end result looks like rust, and has a real gritty quality to it." Designed by Arcane Palette Creative Design from USA.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Pink Textile

Designed by Indeziner from Romania.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

A little month i call Feb

"Corresponding colors to corresponding days of the week to correspond the awkwardness of limp-dated Feb." Designed by Alicia Souza from Australia.

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Colorfull Winter

Designed by Natasha Klever from Russia.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Cinema

Designed by Amandinelle from France.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Be My Valentine

"Teenagers in love! Isn’t love awkward at times?! Happy February!" Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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• 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

Grunge Love Hearts

"This isn’t the most amazing and complex of designs, but a lot of the times, simplicity is the beauty of things… this isn’t 100% simple, but it’s edging there! Happy Feb 2010 :)" Designed by Rosanna Bell from England, UK.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Everyday Love

"Designed for daily inspiration and encouragement to live a life of love." Designed by Millicent Bowman from USA.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×768, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Love Wallpaper

"Suffering from unrequited love? Care to attract your sweetheart right now?Try this free Love Wallpaper at work!Post your and your love’s pic files so that they fitted into the Love Wallpaper’s face silhouettes… Done! Meet your valentine, friend!" Designed by Rumake Web Agency from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Abstract Love

"This is my first wallpaper… February under the aspect of abstract love… Love isn’t always what we expect…" Designed by Mehdi Naqi from Belgium.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Valentine

"This is a present for valentine enjoy ." Designed by Vanhove Jonathan.

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• with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

It’s Amore!

"When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine." Designed by April Joy E. Jasmin from Philippines.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

EvilScreen

Designed by Misti Kenison.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Valentine

"Blow the love over everyone you know!" Designed by VeraART from Brussels, Belgium.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Couple in the City

"Kisses can be incredibly sweet! Just a romantic wallpaper. Happy Feb! :)" Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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• 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

Less Hooks more Books

Designed by Klement Grgić from Croatia.

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• without calendar: 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900

Love Is Not Simple

"Love is not simple… I think everyone knows that! Just a little wallpaper for you all to enjoy (I hope!) – Happy February :)" Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Footprints

"Yes it’s another Valentine’s inspired wallpaper, I just couldn’t resist! Enjoy (with love)." Designed by Federica Sibella from Italy.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 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: 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

True Love

"Valentines Day chocolates are the perfect gifts to melt a heart." Designed by Manish Jinwal from India.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

A Tree of Love

"February is a month of “LOVE”, so i create “A Tree of LOVE”" Designed by Sandhya Banshal from India.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Mid Term Valentine

"February bring is love and mid term exams. It is about fitting that valentine between all those examination dates." Designed by Kumar Ritwik from India.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Love flight

"Let’s up in the clouds in this February. You shoud give credence the love flight." Designed by Roman Volkov aka dacascas from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Valentine

"Happy Valentine’s Day …" Designed by Soodabeh Amirakbari from Iran.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Sweet Clouds

"It’s a party in the clouds, sweets all round!" Designed by Chris Alexander (Yipori) from England.

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• 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

Retro Love

"A retro themed Wallpaper Calendar, inspired by Deandesign." Designed by Abdus Salam from Pakistan.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Chocolate Heartz for Valentines

"Valentines Day chocolates are the perfect gifts to melt a heart." Designed by Manish Jinwal from India.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Abstract Love

"This is my first wallpaper… February under the aspect of abstract love… Love isn’t always what we expect…" Designed by Mehdi Naqi from Belgium.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Bird Love

"A motive is dedicated to all that keeps warm with love in cold winter days." Designed by Art design, Tina Krašovec from Slovenia.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Valentine

"Happy Valentine’s Day." Designed by Dragos M from Romania.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

The ambitious february

"abstract illustrations for better next month" Designed by ebaq from Poland.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

lovereal

"I didn’t want to design the normal routine love wallpapers… so I thought to do something different. Hope you like it." Designed by Zainab Sule from Nigeria.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050

Vanessa

"She loves snow and snowdrifts most of all in life." Designed by Lex Rusakoff from Russia.

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• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 2560×1600

Frozen Bike

"February is freezing and the frozen bike has its rest. It becomes part of the landscape." Designed by Ester Liquori from Italy.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1600×1200

Raindrops

"Wall inspire by a macro photography taken by me with a reflex camera in the glass of my car." Designed by Alejandro Pratto from Argentina.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Winter Olympics Vancouver

"It’s a wallpaper about the Winter Olympics Vancouver 2010 and I made this because when it’s the Olympicsthere is alot of advertising but there isn’t for the Winter Olympics and the Winter Olympics are just as much fun as the Olympics." Designed by Kenneth Driege from Belgium.

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• 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

Love wall painting

"Hey! This is my latest idea on the subject “Valentine’s day”. I know that not everybody loves Valentine’s day but i do! So i hope that you lovers will love my valentine calendar too.Cheers and happy Valentine’s day!" Designed by Alexandra Ipate from Romania.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Superheroes in Love

"Two super lovers… for the lovers’ month. Pop art style." Designed by Davide Vicariotto from Italy.

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• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Sultan

"The most famous actress in Turkey, T?rkan ?oray, known as Sultan of Turkish cinema." Designed by Banu from Turkey.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Geeky Love

"This would be my second wallpaper design for Smashing Magazine. Since it’s going to be Valentine this February, and since I’m such a geek, I tried to combine those two things together. I hope you’ll like it! And Happy Valentine’s Day, guys!" Designed by Adrian Wildandyawan (Ryan|Kon) from Indonesia.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Good Morning

"While wandering in the desert (you are on some kind of secret mission),the night catches you up and you fall exhausted, dehydrated and pass out.This is the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning…" Designed by Akif Top from Sweden.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1920×1200

Snow Bird

Designed by Kenneth Meert from Belgium.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Smashing Valentine

"A Valentines Day themed wallpaper for Smashing Magazine." Designed by Jared Williams from United States.

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• with calendar: 1280×1024
• without calendar: 1280×1024

Sexy Valentine

"Becuas of the event on the 14 ferbruary ‘Valentine’ I wanted to spice up the desktops of the people." Designed by Johan Teirlinck from Belgium.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

February

"Winter is exiting. Spring is on its way. February is to celebrate the coming season." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.

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• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Skyward

"I’ve been really digging information graphics lately, so I decided I’d incorporate that into this month’s wallpaper." Designed by Colin Parks from Canada.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Snow Rainbow Cat

"”Don’t worry rainbow kitty.the snow is melting and soon,the sun will return and make the colors of the rainbow shine bright. “I got inspired by the song “colors of the rainbow” by Dj Skeptyk." Designed by Rolies Renske from Belgium.

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• 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

Colourful Life

"January takes the winter with it. February comes with colorful life…" Designed by Rajeesh from India.

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• 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

An Extraordenary Mountain View

"I wanted to express an extraordenary winter landscape." Designed by Stijn Serruys from Belgium.

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• 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

Simple Love

"I wanted a minimal desktop calendar this month. I was inspired by the crisp snow/frost outside as well as my favorite day of this month – Valentine’s Day." Designed by A. Monday from USA.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900

Feb Twenty Ten

Designed by Giles Van Gruisen from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Valentine’10

Designed by Segers Sven from Belgium.

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• 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

Smashing Robot

"There is a robot on my design, consist of real engine parts." Designed by Ammar Ceker from Turkey.

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• 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

On Air Equalizer

Designed by Weckx Ennio from Belgium.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

8 Track

"I took this photo a few weeks ago in a “junk shop/flea market”. Although 8 tracks were a little before my time, I remember some of the artists in the photo. I loved the color combinations and patterns all those 8 tracks created. Take a trip in the wayback machine!" Designed by Stacy Blackman from United States.

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• 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

Monochrome February

"February is a time of year where the days are short and dark, weather often is gray, and the ground sometimes white – but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be beautiful" Designed by 3D Wallpaper Studio from Denmark.

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• 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

Struggle For Future

"If you dare to struggle today, You will dare to win tomorrow." Designed by Prashant D Barakale from India.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Sairá

"This is a bird (Tangara desmaresti) from my contry, with the colour from ours simbols and flames." Designed by Romy Campos from Brazil.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1900×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1900×1200

Sweet Home Clothing

"-" Designed by Vladyslav Samsonov from Germany.

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• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Month of Hearts

"February the month of Valentines, I hope this month brings many Valentines to you." Designed by Stephanie Lam from Australia.

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• 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

Adjust Your Tie

"This illustration should give february a person with a touch of snob appeal. Adjust your tie and welcome february. Strangely done in illustrator." Designed by Jonas Seydel from Germany.

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• 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

February Sentense

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

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

For Haiti

"Your help is urgently needed. Please visit www.redcross.org to find out how you can take part in the relief effort underway in Haiti." Designed by Umer Tahir from Canada.

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• 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
• without 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

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 February, folks!

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: calendar, Wallpapers

Tags: Application Packaging, calendar, Graphics, Virtualization, wallpapers

Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in January 2010

 

This update covers tutorials, tips and techniques that you should have read in January 2010. Featured publications include: A List Apart, Perishable  Press, DevSnippets, Webdesigner Depot, Nettuts+, Inspiring Pixel, Gaya Design, PV.M Garage, Line25, Woork Up, Six Revisions, Tutorialzine, Papermashup, WPWebHost, TechPortal, Yehuda Katz, Codrops, NuRelm, Queness, PHP Web and IT Stuff, DLOCC, WebM.ag, Jon Galloway, DevMoose, CSSKarma, AEXT, Viral Patel, and JankoAtwarpSpeed.

Featured authors include: Lam Nguyen, Tuhin Kumar, Chris Spooner, Jason Schuller, Louis Lazaris, Dan Wellman, Martin Angelov, Siddharth, Ashley Ford, Navjot Singh, Gaya Kessler, Burak Guzel, Piervincenzo Madeo, Peter Verhage, Yehuda Katz, Jeff Starr, Mary Lou, Chris Taylor, Kevin Liew, James Padolsey, Noura Yehia, Jason Cranford Teague, Devin Walker, Bill Peña, McBonio, Jon Galloway, Jean-Paul Bernadina, Tim Wright, Viral Patel, Shelley Powers, Janko Jovanovic,

• 10 Tips for Better Print Style Sheets
  By Pieter Beulque, January 29th, 2010
  Site: Webdesigner Depot
• The Easiest Way to Build your First iPhone App
  By Bill Peña, January 28th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Form Design with Sliding Labels
  By Tim Wright, January 28th, 2010
  Site: CSSKarma
• How to Add Content and Completely Manipulate Your WordPress RSS Feeds
  January 27th, 2010
  Site: WPBeginner
• Dynamic tabs using jQuery – why and how to create it
  By Janko Jovanovic, January 26th, 2010
  Site: JankoAtwarpSpeed
• Everything you wanted to know about SVG but were afraid to ask
  By Shelley Powers, January 26th, 2010
  Site: A List Apart
• oEmbed: An Open Format Every Developer Should Know About
  By Viral Patel, January 26th, 2010
  Site: Viral Patel
• Code a Backwards Compatible, One Page Portfolio with HTML5 and CSS3
  By Tom Kenny, January 25th, 2010
  Site: Inspect Element
• 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
  January 25th, 2010
  Site: WPBeginner
• How to Create a Cool Anaglyphic Text Effect with CSS
  By Chris Spooner, January 24th, 2010
  Site: Line25
• Automatically Create a Bit.ly URL for WordPress Posts
  By Jean-Paul Bernadina, January 22nd, 2010
  Site: DevMoose
• Custom Query Shortcode: Run a Loop inside Any Post/Page
  By Chris Coyier, January 21st, 2010
  Site: Digging into WordPress
• Using CDN Hosted jQuery with a Local Fall-back Copy
  By Jon Galloway, January 21st, 2010
  Site: Jon Galloway
• How to Make all Browsers Render HTML5 Mark-up Correctly – Even IE6
  By Bill Peña, January 20th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Timed CSS Stylesheet Switch Using PHP
  By McBonio, January 19th, 2010
  Site: WebM.ag
• CSS Transitions 101
  By Jason Cranford Teague, January 18th, 2010
  Site: Webdesigner Depot
• Modern CSS Typography and Font Styling Examples
  By Devin Walker, January 18th, 2010
  Site: DLOCC
• 10 New WordPress Wanted Hacks and Powerful Techniques
  By Noura Yehia, January 18th, 2010
  Site: DevSnippets
• jQuery 1.4: The 15 New Features you Must Know
  By James Padolsey, January 14th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Create a Beautiful Looking Custom Dialog Box With jQuery and CSS3
  By Kevin Liew, January 13th, 2010
  Site: Queness
• ASP.NET for PHP Developers
  By Chris Taylor, January 12th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Self-resizing Navigation Menu with jQuery
  By Mary Lou, January 12th, 2010
  Site: Codrops
• CSS3 + Progressive Enhancement = Smart Design
  By Jeff Starr, January 11th, 2010
  Site: Perishable  Press
• Creating a Custom Facebook Fan Page
  January 11th, 2010
  Site: PHP Web and IT Stuff
• Learning PHP 5.3 by writing your own ORM
  By Peter Verhage, January 11th, 2010
  Site: TechPortal
• How To Create Depth And Nice 3D Ribbons Only Using CSS3
  By Piervincenzo Madeo, January 10th, 2010
  Site: PV.M Garage
• ActiveModel: Make Any Ruby Object Feel Like ActiveRecord
  By Yehuda Katz, January 10th, 2010
  Site: Yehuda Katz
• Techniques for Mastering cURL
  By Burak Guzel, January 8th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Text with Moving Backgrounds with jQuery
  By Gaya Kessler, January 8th, 2010
  Site: Gaya Design
• Optimizing Wordpress Blog for Speed
  By Navjot Singh, January 7th, 2010
  Site: WPWebHost
• Build a JSON and PHP product gallery
  By Ashley Ford, January 7th, 2010
  Site: Papermashup
• CSS Reset: Ways and Advantages
  By Tuhin Kumar, January 6th, 2010
  Site: Inspiring Pixel
• jQuery Animations: a 7-Step Program
  By Siddharth, January 6th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• A Bullet-Proof Content Viewer
  By Dan Wellman, January 5th, 2010
  Site: Nettuts+
• Bring Flickr to Your Website Using JSON and jQuery
  By Melissa , January 5th, 2010
  Site: NuRelm
• Advanced Event Timeline With PHP, CSS & jQuery
  By Martin Angelov, January 5th, 2010
  Site: Tutorialzine
• Getting Started with jQuery
  By Louis Lazaris, January 4th, 2010
  Site: Six Revisions
• How To Add a Flickr Gallery to Your WordPress Theme Without a Plugin
  By Jason Schuller, January 4th, 2010
  Site: Woork Up
• The Basics of Typography
  By Tuhin Kumar, January 4th, 2010
  Site: Inspiring Pixel
• The Right Way To Build WordPress as a Community News
  By Lam Nguyen, January 2nd, 2010
  Site: AEXT

So which articles you found most useful. Also feel free to recommend any good article that we may have missed.

Similar Posts:

• Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in November 2009
• Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in October 2009
• Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in August 2009
• Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in July 2009
• Really Useful Tutorials You Should Have Read in December 2009

You can also stay updated by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook or by subscribing to our FriendFeed.

Tags: Application Packaging, design, Roundup, Virtualization, wordpress

Ciao Switzerland, Bonjour France

 

It’s time to say Ciao (goodbye) to Zurich and the excellent group of developer attendees we met there. To sum up the 3 days we spent here: It was incredible!

I’m On A Mountain!

Let’s start with the location: the Hotel Kulm in Zurich is where the 2 day training was held. This hotel sits at the top of Uteilberg, has fantastic views and at this time of the year, there is snow everywhere:

 

The location put everyone in a good mood. Sort of. A snow storm followed us to Zurich, just the same as Day 1 in Frankfurt. While a couple of attendees were delayed, everyone made it to the class and enjoyed the course.

Fantastic Attendees!

The group of attendees here were a sharp bunch of developers. A few of them were also owners and founders of their own successful software companies. Check out the some of the pics from the class:

 

 

Special Guest

Marc Greiner also attended the class to both learn about the DevExpress ASP.NET controls but also meet with Oliver and myself. Both Oliver and I were humbled and honored to have Marc there and to finally meet him in person.

Marc’s involvement with the DX-Squad goes back many years as he’s helped many developers in the DevExpress forums. Thanks Marc!

Paris Or Bust

Now we drive to the last stop, Paris!

 

Stay tuned for more news from the European Road Tour.

Tags: Application Packaging, training, Virtualization

Silverlight in “Advert Worth Watching” Shocker! :-)

 There’s an ad over on MSN UK for the new “Mass Effect 2” game and it’s very distinctive as it’s done in Silverlight and has some really cool aspects to it such as making use of Smooth Streaming and DeepZoom. It’s not often ( well, ever ) that I’ve linked to an ad before or suggested that someone watch one but I think this is really worth a look at to see the sort of quality that you can get from Silverlight in an ad like this. It’s also worth going full screen with it and experimenting with the navigation system. Click the image below to jump to the page ( although, of course, ads run for a duration and so I guess it may not still be there if you get to this post in a few days/weeks time ). You can find more detail on the ad from the guys at Metia ( ooh – nice Silverlight home page too :-) ) who put it together. Steve Ellis has a post over here about it and Dean Gifford has one here which spells out a little more detail about what you’re looking at. I don’t know whether it’s a “true first” for Silverlight or not...(read more)

Tags: .NET, Application Packaging, Silverlight, Virtualization

The Cloud & the Fourth Amendment

 The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Basically, it says that law enforcement needs a court-ordered warrant – provided there’s probably cause – to make a search. Today, one of the biggest questions for enterprises considering moving data to the cloud is, under the Fourth Amendment, what kind of data protection they’re entitled to when in the hands of a third party. Now, however, there’s a new legal opinion of the application of the Fourth to the cloud. cnet has taken a look and reports that it’s not only right on the mark but that the courts sorely need to adopt it in deciding cases arising from cloud data privacy issues.

read more

Tags: Application Packaging, Virtualization