Korayem's Online Trail

Mario Addicts Raise over $5,000 for Charity, LIVE on Ustream

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:12:37 -0700

And you thought playing videogames was a waste of time! The guys over at MarioMarathon.com are currently holding a live session, playing through all of the main entries in the Mario series to raise money for charity.

Soon you'll be able to buy any top-level domain you want: .y

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:31:39 -0700

In 1996, Microsoft bought the domain Slate.com from a guy named John Slate. Back in the early days of the Web, it paid to have a snazzy dot-com name to call your own. In conversation, the proper noun slate can refer to, among other things, a restaurant in

15 jQuery Plugins For A Better Photo Gallery And Slideshow

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:59:09 -0700

Photo Gallery, picture gallery, or slideshow is the best way to showcase your images/photos to your readers. There are a lot of different methods to create them and today we are going to look into different jQuery plugins that can be used to create a better photo gallery.

40 Free and Essential Web Design and Development Books

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:25:28 -0700

Google Books is perhaps one of the most untapped design and development resources…time to change all that. In this post there are over 40 web design and development books freely available from Google, they range from CSS, HTML, XHTML, DHTML, Actioscript, Javascript, Ajax, Perl, Ruby, MooTools, jQuery, Firefox and evem iPhone development.

Jaw-Dropping Examples of Beautiful Contact Page Designs

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:06:17 -0700

We have seen beautiful example of about page designs, 404 page designs, logos and so on. This article shows you some of the best examples of contact page designs.

How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with BackTrack

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:52:42 -0700

You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should opt for WPA encryption because WEP is easy to crack. But did you know how easy? Take a look.

Let's Play

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:34:51 -0700

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Was visiting Doha and planned on getting in touch with Richard Messenger. For some unknown cosmo-reason, i found a message from him in my inbox!!

He was getting in touch and checking on me due to my long absence on flickr! "how did he know i was there!?", I asked myself!

I messaged him back and before you know it, we were photowalking in the industrial area in Doha.

We were having tons of fun. People there were very welcoming and engaging until some weirdo came out of no where and stopped us, claiming its illegal to shoot there because of the american military base nearby. Though we were pissed off, i thanked god later cause he gave us more time to talk. We discussed various topics from education, politics to photography.

It was soo natural, that chit-chat was all natural as if we were friends for decades. Richard is so young at hear that i didnt feel i was 26 and he's 56 :)

I was amazed by the openness he had. I gladly responded to his questions about muslims and how cultures are mixed with religion. Richard has a lot of experience in almost everything. He's a very good speaker. We even read common books and exchanged a lot of tips. Especially the internal/external STICK :)

I also got a chance to hold the 5D Mark II with my bare hands!!

Thanks Richard for this GREAT day. Hope you're enjoying your vacation and inshallah all shall be better when you come back...

BTW, check me out while shooting this photo..

-----------------------------
Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير

Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

Check out my other most interesting photos

Michael Jackson's Patented "Smooth Criminal" Leaning Shoes

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:33:23 -0700

Patent number 5255452, filed in 1992, shows how Michael Jackson and his dancers could lean at 45-degree angles during live performances of the song "Smooth Criminal".

Vintage 2.0 - Glossy Retro Takes Over Web Design

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:25:34 -0700

An Inspired Mag reader said a few posts ago that the round corner buttons are dead. I think precisely the same mate, I know how you feel about the so-called web 2.0 buttons and shiny blingos! But what about this new futuretro style, that combines the web 2.0 (clean) look with a vintage touch?We've made a roundup of 25 websites that mix the re

Everything you missed in the Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:59:14 -0700

Rewind Theater...

New Muslim Cool – Tonight on PBS – 10 PM EST (DCs WETA PBS not showing it, see post)

MR — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:06:45 -0700

NEW MUSLIM COOL airs on PBS, Tuesday, June 23 @ 10 pm

Premiere Date: June 23, 2009

Synopsis
Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he’s moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. New Muslim Cool takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through streets, slums and jail cells — following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing. Produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).
For more info, please go to

www.newmuslimcool.com
www.pbs.org/pov/newmuslimcool

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Dear friends & family,

Thank you to all who’ve expressed support and helped to spread the word regarding the film NEW MUSLIM COOL.

Unfortunately, we have learned that WETA (DC’s local PBS) has opted not to show the film this evening We are very disappointed that they would miss the opportunity to reach DC’s very diverse market with this film.

Please encourage your contacts to contact WETA and ask them to add NEW MUSLIM COOL to their programming schedule:

WETA: Audience Services Number 703-998-2724
http://www.weta.org/contact

For those unable to view it in their cities, it will be available after its television premiere as an online video stream in its entirety at www.pbs.org/pov/newmuslimcool

Again thanks for your support!

Zaheer Ali
http://www.zaheerali.com

IBM's Freeware Symphony Suite Takes Aim At MS Office

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:23:02 -0700

The kicker: Lotus Symphony is a free business productivity software suite. In this economy, might companies looking to shave pennies any and everywhere might look closer than usual at freeware, especially freeware developed and supported by IBM.

Mishary Rashid al-Efasy to lead Taraweeh this Ramadan in California!

MR — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:00:26 -0700

أعلن الشيخ مشاري راشد العفاسي اعتذاره عن إمامة المصلين في مسجد الدولة الكبير لهذا العام خلال رمضان المبارك، وذلك نظرا لارتباطه بإمامة المصلين بإذن الله في صلاة التراويح والقيام في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية في ولاية كاليفورنيا بمسجد المركز الإسلامي في «ارفاين» الذي زاره في عام 2007 كوفد وممثل عن دولة الكويت.

وكان الشيخ العفاسي قد أم المصلين في المسجد الكبير خلال العشر الأواخر من رمضان المبارك لمدة 10 سنوات متتالية منذ عام 1420 إلى 1429 هجرية.

وأقام الشيخ العفاسي خلال زيارته لتلك المساجد محاضرات ولقاءات دينية، كما زار استوديوهات كثيرة في هوليود متخصصة في التصوير المرئي والإخراج كما أكتسب الشيخ العفاسي خبرة جيدة في مجال الأعمال التلفزيونية، وتلقى الشيخ مشاري العفاسي خلال زيارته للولايات المتحدة الأمريكية في ذلك الوقت دعوة للقراءة في الكونجرس الأمريكي.

Rough Translation:

Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al-Afasy announced his apology in that he’ll be unable to lead salat-tu-taraweeh this year at the grand state mosque (in Kuwait). Instead, due to a commitment he made Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al-Afasy will be leading salat-tu-taraweeh and qiyam at the Islamic center in Irvine, California, U.S.A., which he visited in 2007 as part of an acting delegation on behalf of Kuwait.

Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al-Afasy had lead salat-tu-taraweeh at the grand state mosque for the last 10 nights of Ramadan for the past 10 consecutive years (1999-2008).

During his 2007 trip, Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al-Afasy gave lectures and attended religious meetings. Likewise he visited many studies in Hollywood that specialized in visual photography and output. Also, he gained excellent experience in the field of television. Lastly, during his trip, he received an invitation to recite at the U.S. Congress.

Sources 1, 2

Impressive Silverlight Visualizations With Source Codes: Descry

Umut M. — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:01:14 -0700

Descry is a project to demonstrate the power of data and information visualization as a communication tool.

Currently, there are 4 examples provided, all built with Silverlight & come with the source codes.

There are also 2 very nice articles shared on visualization:

For a demo, click here.

P.S. Descry is not a toolkit. It contains classes and fragments of code or design elements that can be reused.

Special Downloads:
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jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
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Tags: Silverlight

Wolfram Alpha, the Answer Engine

Alex Chitu — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:19:00 -0700

Wolfram|Alpha launched yesterday and it's an useful complement to a general-purpose search engine like Google. Wolfram|Alpha doesn't search the web, it uses data from authoritative databases and an engine powered by Mathematica to obtain the results.

"Wolfram|Alpha aims to bring expert-level knowledge and capabilities to the broadest possible range of people—spanning all professions and education levels. Our goal is to accept completely free-form input, and to serve as a knowledge engine that generates powerful results and presents them with maximum clarity," explains the "about" page.

Even if the homepage's simplicity reminds you of Google, it's a good idea to check the examples page before entering a query. Alpha can't handle any kind of query, so it's important to know its strengths: advanced Math calculations (graphs, equations, prime numbers computations, matrix operations), conversions, facts about weather, population, food, minerals, people, places.

You can enter simple things like numbers, dates, words, HTML color codes, chemical formulas and you'll get a lot of interesting information. The service shows intuitive visualizations and comparisons to better understand the information.

Wolfram|Alpha could be a great way to expand Google Calculator and other Google OneBoxes.

Get Microsoft Office 2010 or Office 14 for Free!

Abbas — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:06:58 -0700

Microsoft recently announced its latest version of Office suite, Office 2010 or Office 14 as it is known internally.

Office 2010 is expected to hit the market and be publically available in first quarter of 2010 and will come in both 32-Bit and 64-bit. Company also announced that this version of office will run on any machine which was already running Office 2007, users will be able to upgrade and enjoy the advance features and technology without upgrading their hardware.

Office 2010 is compatible with Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 as expected.

As Microsoft is nearing its Techinical preview milestone it is ready to distribute the software to a limited group of users and get their feedback.

This version of Office will also include “Office Web” which is supposed to be the online version of the office suite which will compete with online applications like Google Apps and Zoho.

Office2010TheMovie.com is where all the action will happen. The site runs a countdown for the Technical Preview milestone at the end of which selected users will start receiving their copies of Office 2101.

Signup for a free copy of Office 2010 here if you want to be one of the early testers of the software suit. The list will be announced in July. Visit Office2010TheMovie.com or Office 2010 Blog for more information.

Tags: Free Microsoft Office, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Office 2010

Panorama 3-D (Possible) Representation of the Prophet’s (s) House

MR — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:33:52 -0700

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

3-D Representation of the Prophet’s House. Beautiful!

“The picture shows a replication of The Prophet Mohammad’s (peace be upon him) House. The model of the house was built to give people a glimpse of the way the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) lived. This house is just a part of a bigger exhibition of the life of the prophet (peace be upon him).

The house was reproduced based on authentic narrations that describe the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) house.

The Exhibition is held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”

http://fieldofview.com/flickr/?page=photos%2Fbahimashat%2F3372829764%2Fin%2Fset-72157603538368056%2F

Seems relatively legitimate. I do have some reservations on the actual size, although the images may not show the true proportion of the actual house.

Note: You’ll need the shockwave player plugin for it to work.

My Google Profile

(author unknown) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:19:08 -0700

Check out my new Google profile.

Mapping GPS Data

Robert Raguet-Schofield — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:06:50 -0700

I’m a GPS addict. I have a handheld GPS, a computer GPS, a GPS phone, two GPS watches, two GPS cameras, and maybe some others. Wherever I go, chances are pretty good I have at least one GPS with me. Anytime I run/bike/hike/walk/ski I keep a record of where I went using GPS. Now that I have all this data I want to make use of it in a meaningful way. Mathematica is a fantastic tool to analyze all my geographic data.

Here’s an example from a recent trail run I did at a nearby park. The data is stored in a GPX (GPS exchange format) file, which is a specific type of XML. We can bring the data into Mathematica using Import.
(more…)

20 Photography Twitters Worth Following

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:43:52 -0700

"The microblogging social media site, Twitter is a great way to keep up on what's happening in your social group as well as your industry. If you're a photo enthusiast like us, these 20 microblogs should surely bring joy to your Twitter feed every minute of the day."

13 ASP.NET MVC extensibility points you have to know

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:46:06 -0700

One of the main design principles ASP.NET MVC has been designed with is extensibility. Everything (or most of) in the processing pipeline is replaceable so, if you don't like the conventions (or lack of them) that ASP.NET MVC uses, you can create your own services to support your conventions and inject them into the main pipeline. This post shows 13 extensibility points that every ASP.NET MVC developer should know, starting from the beginning of the pipeline and going forward till the rendering of the view.

WorkGrabber.com - Sweet ASP.NET MVC 1.0 + jQuery Application

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:01:24 -0700

Mike Bosch shows us his latest creation using ASP.Net MVC: WorkGrabber.com is a social marketplace for local contractors and customers to interact and get projects done.

5 Most Common Asked Questions When Using .Net RIA Services

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:01:03 -0700

From the comments on my previous articles on .Net RIA Services and from the search queries that lead to those articles, a pattern of a recurring set of questions showed up and I am sure that most .Net RIA Services enthusiasts face the same issues. This post address a few of these issues

Verifying and Restoring a Differential Backup using T-SQL In SQLServer

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:31:15 -0700

Quick guide to verify and restore a differential database using T-SQL.

Setting up a minimal ASP.NET MVC project in Visual Studio

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:46:02 -0700

In this post we will walk through the required steps to create a project that contains the minimal amount of configuration and code to get ASP.NET MVC running. In the course of this post you will get a better understanding of Routing and the MVC framework.

Being a software startup in a recession

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:01:02 -0700

Lessons learned about being a software startup in a recession.

Setting up a minimal ASP.NET MVC project in Visual Studio, part 2

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:31:15 -0700

Second part on how to set up a minimal asp.net mvc solution, without the craft of the default template.

Get It Together With Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4

Chris Orwig — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:00:45 -0700

It’s exciting that Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 are finally here. And now is the time to ask, “Is this new version worth the upgrade?” For me, the answer is a resounding yes! These two new programs have revitalized my workflow and creativity in unbelievable ways. On that note, the intent of the following tutorial is to help you take better advantage of these programs.

1 ADD STARS AND LABELS
After importing your images into Lightroom, it’s time to find the keepers. First, press G to enter the Library module Grid view. Scroll through the entire set of photos to become familiar with them. Then go back to the top, click on the first image, and press E to enter the Loupe view. Use the Right and Left Arrow keys to navigate through the images. When you find a keeper, press 1–5 to give it a star rating, or 6–9 to assign a color label. The star and label ratings appear in the Toolbar below the images.

2 FILTER TO FIND KEEPERS
With your images rated and ranked, use the filter features to sort the wheat from the chaff. The quickest way to access the filters is to press Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F). Next, click on the Attribute tab and choose an option for filtering (we’re sorting based on a one-star rating and red label). Now, you’ll only see the images you tagged with those rating values. To focus on the images, press the Backslash key (\) to hide the Library Filter menus. To minimize the interface even further, press Shift-Tab to hide the Module picker, Filmstrip, and the left- and right-side panels areas.

3 DEVELOP MODULE BASICS AND TIPS
Press D to navigate to the Develop module. Open the Basic panel by clicking on the panel name or by pressing Command-1 (PC: Ctrl-1). Move the sliders to improve the image. For more control, press Option (PC: Alt) while moving the Exposure, Recovery, or Blacks sliders to switch to a view that reveals a clipping mask. For faster image processing, press the comma and period keys to select the different adjustments in the Basic panel. The adjustment option will appear as an overlay on top of the image (as shown). Then press the plus (+) or minus (–) keys to increase or decrease the values, respectively.

4 USE THE ADJUSTMENT BRUSH
Now it’s time to work on more specific or localized aspects of the photo. Choose the Adjustment Brush (K) from the Toolbox. Next, modify the sliders for the type of effect you’d like to create, such as Exposure. Next, select a brush Size, Feather, Flow, and Density. Feather controls the edge transition of the adjustment. Flow controls the rate of the adjustment (typically a lower amount works best). Density controls the overall intensity of the effect. Turn Auto Mask on to limit the adjustment to a specific area; turn it off to make a more general improvement. Paint the adjustment on the image.

5 ADJUSTMENT BRUSH SPEED TIPS
The Adjustment Brush is one of the most revolutionary improvements in Lightroom 2; therefore, it’s worth learning how to quickly work with this tool. Press the Left and Right Bracket keys ( ) to decrease and increase the brush size, respectively. Press Shift- to decrease and increase the brush Feather. Press 0–9 to change the Flow amount. After you’ve started to use the tool, press the O key to turn the mask overlay on and off. To better evaluate the mask, press Shift-O to cycle through the different mask colors (black, red, green, and white).

6 OPEN IN PHOTOSHOP AS SMART OBJECT
After completing your work in Lightroom, you might want to take the photo into Photoshop to add some finishing touches. You can open images to Photoshop several different ways, but here I want to highlight the new Open As Smart Object option. This technique gives you extra flexibility once in Photoshop. In Lightroom, press the G key to enter Grid view, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the photo, and select Edit In>Open As Smart Object in Photoshop.

7 WORK WITH SMART OBJECTS IN PHOTOSHOP
With the image open as a smart object in Photoshop, you can continue your normal Photoshop workflow; for example, you could add a Curves adjustment layer, apply a filter, etc. The advantage of using smart objects is that they preserve the source image, allowing you to make nondestructive editing to the layer. The photo layer will appear with the smart object options. Double-click the Smart Object thumbnail to open the RAW image in Adobe Camera Raw to modify or change any of the RAW adjustments. As you can imagine, this added bit of flexibility is extremely helpful.

8 CONVERT TO BLACK & WHITE
After completing and saving your work in Photoshop, it’s time to head back to Lightroom. And let’s say you want to convert another image to black and white. Select the photo and press D to select the Develop module. Next, press Command-3 (PC: Ctrl-3) to open the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel. Click on Grayscale to access the Grayscale Mix controls. Move the sliders to darken or brighten different areas of the photo, or click on the Target Adjustment tool (circled) and click-and-drag up or down on the image to increase or decrease the brightness of that area, respectively.

9 LIGHTROOM GRAYSCALE AND VIRTUAL COPIES
To evaluate your progress, press the Backslash key (\) to toggle between before and after views. The problem is that when converting to grayscale, the before view goes all the way back to the original color image, making it impossible to compare different types of black-and-white adjustments. To remedy this problem, select your grayscale image and press Command-’ (PC: Ctrl-’) to create a virtual copy. Next, make further grayscale adjustments and then press \ for before and after views.

10 OPEN AS LAYERS IN PHOTOSHOP
Virtual copies allow you to create two different versions of the same image. In this example, one version has no sharpening and a high luminance noise-reduction amount to reduce the noise and soften the sky, while the other version has normal sharpening applied. To take advantage of both settings, press G to enter Grid view. Select both images, Control-click (PC: Right-click), and choose Edit In>Open As Layers in Photoshop. This will open both photos in one layered Photoshop document.

11 LAYER MASKING IN PHOTOSHOP
The layered document contains two photos: one processed with the sky in mind and the other processed for the foreground. To combine the two photos, select the sky layer and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Next, choose the Brush tool (B) and paint with a soft-edged black brush across the lower portion of the photo. This will conceal the foreground so that only the sky shows through. If the mask edge is too sharp, Photoshop CS4 now has the ability to soften the edge by increasing the Feather amount in the Masks panel (Window>Masks) to better blend the layers.

12 USE LIGHTROOM FOR PHOTOSHOP PANORAMAS
The new Photoshop CS4 auto-blend and auto-align features are better than ever and are used for a wide range of purposes, including creating panoramic photos. To take advantage of these features, in Lightroom press G to enter Grid view. Select the files you’d like to combine, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) and choose Edit In>Merge to Panorama in Photoshop. This will open Photoshop and the Photomerge dialog. It’s usually best to choose the Auto option. New to CS4 are the options for Vignette Removal and Geometric Distortion Correction for better results with photos captured with wide-angle lenses. Click OK to create the pano.

—CREDIT: RALPH CLEVENGER

13 CROP PANO IN PHOTOSHOP
Now you’ll need to crop your panoramic photo. Choose the Crop tool (C) and click-and-drag over the image. The grayed-out area shows what will be cropped. Move any of the anchor points to resize the crop. Press Return (PC: Enter) to apply the crop. For faster results, double-click inside the crop area. Another great way to crop is to use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M). Click-and-drag over the area of the image you want to keep, then choose Image>Crop to remove the unwanted area.

ALL IMAGES BY CHRIS ORWIG UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Adobe Illustrator CS4: Isolation Mode

Dave Cross — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:58:00 -0700

Dave Cross talks about the new-and-improved Isolation Mode in Illustrator CS4 which is now easier to use and understand.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

YouTube - تحذير لكل مصري خارج مصر - لا تسمع و لا تشاهد هذه الأغنية [feedly]

(author unknown) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:38:41 -0700

أغنية الحدود - فرقة الأصدقاء

حنان
منى عبد الغني
علاء عبد الخالق

فرقة لذيذة كان عاملها عمار الشريعي و عملوا تلات البومات في تلات سنين

الأغنية دي من أشهر اغانيهم
أغنية تشد أعصابك و توقف الدم في العروق

Microsoft Announces SuperPreview for IE Browser Testing

Walter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:02:14 -0700

Browser testing is a hot and frustrating issue among web designers and developers alike. In most cases, developers design for one target browser and once they’re done, they start tweaking their design to make it compatible with other browsers.

There are many ways to test a website before launching, and these include having multiple browsers and operating systems installed, running virtual machines with different configurations or using a hosted image service where a screenshot is produced for a given browser version and operating system to be used for comparison purposes.

Starting today, there’s a new way for testing browser compatibility developed by Microsoft and it’s called SuperPreview. In this article, I’ll be giving you a brief review of SuperPreview as well as comparing and listing alternate systems for testing your website designs.

Overview

SuperPreview is a new free standalone application from Microsoft (still in beta) which enables you to see how your websites will look across different versions of Internet Explorer making migration from IE6 to 7 and 8 much easier than before, without have to start up a Virtual Machine to run IE6, or have a separate computer dedicated to running IE6. They’ll also be releasing a paid version which will handle the non-IE browsers. In this review, I’ll be discussing the free version only. I should mention that this is a very early preview release, so more features and fixes should be coming in the future.

Availability

The beta version of SuperPreview will be announced today at the Mix09 conference and will be available for free download to the general public shortly after that. [UPDATE] Software was released today prior to MIX09, and earlier than originally expected and is now available: Download Microsoft SuperPreview

I was approached by Microsoft to test an early beta version and I’ve been working with their development team over the past few days by giving them feedback and suggestions.

The release version of SuperPreview for Internet Explorer will be available in the summer of 2009.

There’s also a full version which includes support for Firefox and Safari. This is a PAID version which will be part of Expression Web 3. You will have the option to enable it from Expression Web or as a standalone. Estimated release date is also summer of 2009.

SuperPreview

SuperPreview is a pretty cool idea and it’s the first time that I’ve seen this kind of browser testing functionality available as a standalone application as opposed to a hosted service. You basically enter the URL (or local file) that you want to test and it shows you the preview in two versions of IE at the same time, in a split window. It comes with the IE6 rendering engine built-in and requires you to have IE7 or IE8 in order to compare them.

A major drawback is that, at this time at least, they have no concrete plans to release a Mac version, although this may be added in the future. I had to test this on my Mac using Parallels which produced a few bugs, such as slow response time and flickering on some of the loading screens. Also, the user interface is pretty unattractive and not very user friendly in my opinion, although they claim to be fixing this for the final release.

Also, there’s no hosted solution available yet, which would be especially useful for those of us on Macs who cannot install IE for testing purposes.

Key Features:

Pointer Modes: Allows you to click on individual page sections for comparison. The section’s HTML tag name, its class or ID name, size and position attributes are displayed in the status bar.
Image viewing: Compare Photoshop comp against the baseline browser to ensure that everything lines up in the browser to match your original design.
Dom Highlighting: You can highlight specific DOM elements to see which where there are alignment differences between the browsers. It displays the positions of the rendered elements and their CSS properties.
Positioning Guides/Rulers: Use rulers to measure the layout differences between browsers. When you position a ruler in one browser window, the ruler in the second browser moves with it.
Layout views: View side-by-side either horizontally or vertically, or overlay mode.
Zoom: To select the level of magnification.
Multiple resolutions: Not yet available in this beta release, but will be included in future releases.
Thumbnail display: Previews a thumbnail at the bottom of each panel with a miniature map like view of the entire site so that you can quickly click on a different area of the page.

Examples:

The toolbar showing the different guides and rulers

Guides and rulers with DOM highlighting show the differences in rendering in IE6 and IE7

Choosing local browsers, remote browsers or images (screenshot of full version with non-IE browser support)

Pros:

No need to install IE6.
Side by side comparison and choice of layout views.
Can compare Photoshop comp against baseline browser.
Guides and rulers to measure positioning differences between browsers.
Overlay mode will show if there are many discrepancies.
DOM highlighting is useful to find and identify differences quickly.
Zoom capability.
Free for IE browser previews.
Displays PHP and ASPX pages (provided that you have PHP installed on your system).
Supports whatever the native browser supports, including Ajax and JavaScript.

Cons:

Currently it works with IE8 in IE7 emulation mode, which is apparently about 90% good. They’re working on making true built-in IE7 and IE8 rendering.
No version for Mac yet.
Resolution option not currently available in the beta version.
Free version only compares among different versions of Internet Explorer and paid version only compares among browsers that you have installed.
Unattractive UI and icons (at least in the beta version).
Overlay mode is confusing to identify which browser is which.
No hosted solution available yet.
No support for ActiveX (including Flash).
Cannot compare with Mac browsers.
Cannot click on links to navigate the site.
Slow refresh/loading time (at least running XP in Mac with Parallels).
Thumbnail preview is useless for very long web pages.

Other Testing Methods

A common method for testing a site (besides installing a number of browsers and operating systems) is to use a hosted service that takes screenshots of your web page as viewed in different browsers and operating systems. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

BrowserShots

Supports multiple browsers, Java, Flash, Javascript and screen resolutions. Easy to use and free.

Browser Photo

Supports multiple browsers and versions as well as Windows, Mac and Linux. From 800×600 up to 1024×768. Price: $15 for one time use, or $150 per domain/year for unlimited use

CrossBrowserTesting

Supports multiple browsers and operating systems. You pay per minute of usage. Requires Java. Free trial.

Browsercam

Supports any browser, any operating system. Includes JavaScript, DHTML forms and more dynamic functionality. Option for remote access and mobile page development. From $19.95 for one day usage for browser capture.

BrowsrCamp

MAC OS X browser testing using screenshots. From 800 px resolution up to 1600. Free for Safari 3.1.2 screenshots. Paid service from $3 per day.

NetRendered

Checks how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5. Free.

Litmus

Checks every browser and any platform and includes bug tracking. 50 test a month is free but only for IE7 and Firefox 2. 23 Browser support starts at $24 per day.

Finally, you could install multiple browsers, or use virtual machines for further testing.

Virtual Software:

Allows you to install multiple operating systems on the same computer

حملة في الأسكندرية لجمع المصاحف القديمة وإهدائها لمسلمي إفريقيا

(author unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:39:30 -0700

9 Free And Open Source Bug Tracking Softwares

Umut M. — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:18:39 -0700

A web application or a software development process always has bugs which is very normal in a hundreds of lines of code. The important part is tracking & fixing them.

Whether you are a one-person-army or have teammates, it is a big time-saver to use a bug tracking software.

Besides having the bugs listed in a comprehensive way, most bug/issue tracking applications let end-users to submit bug-feature requests that will end up in a better product.

Here are 9 free & open source bug tracking softwares, both desktop & web-based, for a better development process:

WebIssues

WebIssues is an open source issue tracking & team collaboration application that has 2 parts:

The server: a PHP-MySQL based server where the data is stored, notifications are sent
The client: a desktop application for users to connect to the server (Windows & Linux supported)

A permission-based user system enables the ability of "multiple users working on different projects".

Issue types are flexible & customizable. Issues can be easily filtered & reports can be created for a snapshot.

eTraxis

A PHP bug tracking software that works with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL and Oracle.

Unlimited projects can be created with any number of users working on them. Users working on the project can easily see the bugs assigned to them or see the general status of the project.

eTraxis can notify users with e-mails & has a reminder system. The software has multilanguage support.

Bugzilla

This Mozilla Foundation supported/developed bug tracking system allows individual or groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs in their product effectively.

Considering Bugzilla is used by Mozilla, Open Office, RedHat, NASA, Facebook & hundreds of other popular companies, it is a very mature & feature rich application.

It can perfectly track bugs & code changes with time tracking and notifications. Teammates can communicate with each other & users of the product can become a part of the bug tracking system by submitting bugs

Trac

Trac is a improved wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects.

It has an interface to Subversion (or other version control systems), an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.

A timeline displays all current and past project events in order, for a better overview of the project. There is also a roadmap which shows the list of the upcoming milestones.

Mantis Bug Tracker

A web-based free bug tracking system, written in PHP and works with MySQL, MS SQL, and PostgreSQL.

Mantis has a multi-level hieararchy: projects>sub-projects>categories>bugs where users can contribute to each item if they have the access rights.

The application has powerful features like an integrated wiki, chat, RSS feeds, time tracking & much more.

BugNET

BugNet is an open source ASP.NET bug tracking tool.

Email notifications, reporting and per project configuration of fields and values allows efficient management of bugs, feature requests, and other issues for projects of any scale.

The Bug Genie

An open source issue tracking system for improving the development process by managing bug reports, feature requests and user feedback.

The Bug Genie is built with PHP, has multilanguage support & provides an easy to use interface.

It can be integrated with Subversion, displays roadmaps automatically & much more.

Issue Tracker By ASP.NET

A simple yet working issue tracker by ASP.NET.

The application lets you to create projects, projects members/permissions & issues to be assigned to members.

Issues can be tracked, related issues can be displayed & more. Issue Tracker supports MS Access & MSSQL for storing the data.

Eventum

Eventum is a issue tracking system built by the MySQL team.

It helps organizing tasks & bugs within a development project. It has various features from notifications to reminders & reports to RSS support.

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Tags: Asp.Net, Desktop, MSSQL, Mysql, Php

SXSW Typography:Quit Bitchin and get Your Glyph on [feedly]

(author unknown) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:17:43 -0700

NerdDinner.com and Two Views of ASP.NET MVC Views [feedly]

(author unknown) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:55:00 -0700

Phil and Scott (and the other Scott) announced the open source Nerddinner.com project and their free ASP.NET MVC eBook today. Actually, the free eBook is a single chapter of 185 pages, which is at least 50 pages longer than any chapter in Tolstoy’s War and Peace (and over half the size of my entire workflow book). Amazing.

In any case, I was looking through the code this evening and a thought struck me. You can divide the nascent world of ASP.NET MVC developers into two camps:

The people who use strings don’t love to use strings – they just use them to get work done. But the people who hate strings really hate strings. They’d rather be caught using goto label than ever type a string literal, and they exterminate string literals from as many places as possible.

The views in Nerddinner.com are full of strings:

<p> <label for="Title">Dinner Title:</label> <%= Html.TextBox("Title", Model.Dinner.Title) %>
 <%= Html.ValidationMessage("Title", "*") %>
</p>

The “Title” string is significant – it has to match up with the name of a controller parameter or the name of a model property when data movies in and out of the controller. A typo in the view, or in a model, can create bugs. Compare the “stringy” views to the views in another open source MVC application - CodeCampServer:

<%=Html.Input(a => a.AttendeeID)%>
<%=Html.Input(a => a.ConferenceID)%>

This is another example of using LINQ expressions to implement “reflection without strings”. A typo here yields a compiler error. The technique is quite powerful and implementations are popping up everywhere, including inside the MVCContrib project.

Errors can be caught with either approach, but you can catch errors earlier and perform safer refactorings if you take Nancy Regan’s advice and Just Say No (to magic strings).

I’m curious – which approach do YOU prefer?

What I Do When My jQuery Code Doesn’t Work [feedly]

(author unknown) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:51:59 -0700

When my jQuery code doesn’t work, it usually means I’ve done something terribly wrong with my selectors. Thus, my first rule of debugging code that uses jQuery:

Make sure the selector is actually selecting what you want selected.

I can liberally apply rule number one before fiddling with event handlers and method calls that come later, because it’s easy to do and saves me time.

Step 1: Navigate to the page with a problem and open FireBug.*

Step 2: Type your opening selector in the command bar of the console.

Step 3: Verify the object length is > 0

If you need to take a look at the objects you’ve selected, then a little console logging inside FireBug goes a long way.

$("div > a").each(function() { console.log($(this).text()) })

I hope this tip saves you as much time as it has saved me!

* Technically, any JavaScript execution environment will work, like the Visual Studio immediate window, but the FireBug / Firefox combination is simple and works every time. Another one I like is the jsenv bookmarklet from squarefree.com.

FriendFeed Brings Real-Time Updates to the Desktop [feedly]

(author unknown) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:14:33 -0700

I thought that when FriendFeed added the option to receive updates over Google Talk, it might be the feature that finally got me addicted to the social aggregator. Alas, constant updates via instant message proved to be a bit too much for my tastes, and I disabled the feature.

Today, the company is rolling out a new notifier, this time in the desktop format with an Adobe Air application. The app addresses the potential information overload problem with a number of features to customize both who you see updates from and how often you see them.

After installing the application, you can specify which of your friends you’d like to see updates from, so long as you’ve organized them into groups on FriendFeed. For example, if you only want notifications from people you know in real life, or only your co-workers, you can specify such in the app’s Settings. You can also specify how often you’d like to see these updates, in terms of seconds.

Perhaps most importantly, the application lets you engage with the community of FriendFeed with the ability to either “Like” or comment on items right from within the notification. This is an option in the Google Talk feature as well, but it requires a special syntax to make it work over IM.

Of course, for the real FriendFeed addicts, there are already plenty of third-party desktop applications you can use for keeping up with the site in real-time. But the new Notifier adds a nice, lightweight option for users, and is something I could see myself using once I get the options configured such that I’m not overloaded. It also seems like something Facebook should do, but judging from their past imitations of FriendFeed, it’s conceivable we’ll see something similar from the social network at some point.

Additional FriendFeed Resources From Mashable

- Top 10 Web Applications for Friendfeed

- HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Friendfeed

- 7 Desktop Applications for Friendfeed

- 7 Essential Greasemonkey Scripts for Friendfeed

Reviews: Facebook, FriendFeed

jQuery Plugin Development - 10 Tutorials To Get Started

Umut M. — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:46:26 -0700

jQuery, one of the most popular JavaScript library, has a huge selection of plugins which makes it more powerful.

On the other hand, there are much more codes/modules, from simple alert functions to complex galleries/form validation methods, that are hard-coded inside websites & not converted to plugins.

For sure, not every code must become a plugin, that would be meaningless. But converting the ones to be re-used will save a lot of re-development time & if shared with the community, will make the code itself better.

jQuery offers an easy to learn & flexible environment for creating plugins. Here are 10 tutorials to get you started:

You may also like: 9 Free And Open Source Bug Tracking Softwares.

Why Create A jQuery Plugin?

James Padolsey discusses the need & reasons for creating a jQuery plugin.

He clearly puts of the advantages provided like portability, time to be gained & more.

Plugins/Authoring From jQuery.com

The first stop for everyone planning to create a jQuery plugin.

It covers the logic, naming patterns & steps like:

Collecting static functions in objects
Options
Customizing animations

Developing A jQuery Plugin

Jonathan Snook is sharing his thoughts on developing a jQuery plugin.

A quick look to the basics & advantages of "why we need a plugin".

jQuery Plugin Tutorial, In-Depth For Absolute Beginners

A tutorial for absolute beginners, including fresh JavaScript developers.

It clearly shows the advantages of jQuery & creates a simple plugin named "Shuffle" by describing every step in detail.

Building jQuery Plugins

A tutorial for creating 2 different plugins:

jQuery.tabify: for creating tabbed contents easily
jQuery.lessMore: a plugin that can hide any number of childs of a given parent object

The Definitive Guide to Creating a Practical jQuery Plugin

NETTUTS shows the steps of a jQuery plugin development by creating a simple image loader plugin.

The plugin loads the images at the backstage, they are saved in the visitor’s browser cache, so, they will be usable throughout the rest of the site.

How To Create A Plugin For jQuery

yensdesign describes the basics needed like the difference between jQuery & jQuery.fn objects. Then creates an input highlighter plugin.

Building Your First jQuery Plugin

This is the tutorial for creating the jTruncate plugin, a well-known plugin for truncating text.

It includes tips like using jQuery rather than $, usage of extend method & more. At the end of the tutorial, you’ll be created a fully-functional plugin.

Learn How to Create a jQuery Plugin

A step-by-step tutorial on creating a jQuery plugin that dynamically adjusts the styling of a specified element for always keeping it vertically and horizontally centered on the page.

The tutorial is supported with a screencast as well.

A Plugin Development Pattern

Karl Swedberg, a developer who already created several plugins, is sharing his experiences for a better jQuery plugin development process.

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Tags: Javascript

ASP.NET MVC Sample Application at www.ASP.net/MVC

Stephen Walther — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:51:24 -0800

"Wish me Forgiveness"

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:14:15 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Postprocessed in Lightroom..

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DONT COPY OR USE THIS PHOTO WITHOUT PERMISSION

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير

Best Ranked #275 on FLICKR EXPLORE!! thanx everyone for your comments and faves.

Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

Check out my other most interesting photos

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Iconic

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:20:20 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Not my basic idea of a flickr upload, but I think it is ok.....isn't it?

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DONT COPY OR USE THIS PHOTO WITHOUT A REQUEST

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير

Best Ranked #164 on FLICKR EXPLORE!! thanx everyone for your comments and faves.

Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

Check out my other most interesting photos

See where this picture was taken. [?]

A Little More Sugar for Testing Routes in asp.net MVC

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:46:04 -0800

Building on the Fluent Route Testing from MVC Contrib, this is another extension for testing ignored Routes.

35 Examples Of Beautiful City Photography | Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:43:00 -0800

hehe,,the first one is mine actually :)

Islamic Art

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:54:38 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير

Best Ranked #190 on FLICKR EXPLORE!! thanx everyone for your comments and faves.

Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

Check out my other most interesting photos

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Soul and Mind Purification on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:52:04 -0800

Soul and Mind Purification

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:22:28 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير

Best Ranked #106 on FLICKR EXPLORE!! thanx everyone for your comments and faves.

Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

Check out my other most interesting photos

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Me 2.0: The Tag Cloud of my Thoughts

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:42:21 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

A Tag Cloud created from my delicious tags using www.wordle.net/

Tag Cloud: A tag cloud is a set of related tags with corresponding weights. Typical tag clouds have between 30 and 150 tags. The weights are represented using font sizes or other visual clues.

Windows 7 Beta Build 7000

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:36:11 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Just finished downloading the beta and I am installing it to a 1.5GB Virtual PC...

------------Updates-------------------------------------------

Wow, well I never thought this screenshot would create such a stir. Seems that windows thing is an interesting topic to everyone.

But I love XP!
Well Windows 7 outperforms both Vista and XP by miles!! In this article "How does Windows 7 compare to XP?" there is a Proof!

My Vista Experience:
I've been on vista for over a year. The first thing I did when I first installed it is downloading SP1 and install it. Vista became very stable and ran very smoothly

I have to add that my laptop has 4GB of RAM which is more than enough for the Vista beast. I also installed the 64-bit edition to make use of my Dual Core processor.

Windows 7:
Most of the people look at OS upgrades as Software Upgrades. The latter is all about new features, better GUI, performance..etc. However the former is about more stability, security..(under the hood stuff).

With Windows 7 it seems that Microsoft is pulling what they've missed in Vista: truly new User Experience and very good performance (compared to Vista)

They redeveloped the very old toolbar thing and call it super bar now

The stupid UAC window (the source of users frustration and negative feedback of Vista) that shows up whenever you want to do system changes is much more intelligent now.

There is a new Paint and Wordpad!! they haven't been touched since god knows when!

Upgrading from Vista to 7:
My only concern is upgrading to Windows 7 license. I would love to see Microsoft appreciate those who DO HAVE vista license and give them a quite good upgrade price.

Here are some good links (with screenshots):
www.techreviewsource.com/content/view/227/1/
content.zdnet.com/2346-12554_22-256914.html (screenshots only)

Untitled

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:55:47 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير
Check out my other most interesting photos
Comment/Fave faster with Darckr

"This is a non-smoking flight"

nobody@flickr.com (KoRaYeM) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:49:25 -0800

KoRaYeM posted a photo:

Best viewed Large on Black. It really differs!! فرق كبييييييييير
-------
On my flight from Dubai back home. I was doing some business development in Gitex 2008.

HBW!!!
-------
Check out my other most interesting photos
Comment/Fave faster with Darckr
See where this picture was taken. [?]

Korayem's Online Trail

Mario Addicts Raise over $5,000 for Charity, LIVE on Ustream

Soon you'll be able to buy any top-level domain you want: .y

15 jQuery Plugins For A Better Photo Gallery And Slideshow

40 Free and Essential Web Design and Development Books

Jaw-Dropping Examples of Beautiful Contact Page Designs

How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with BackTrack

Let's Play

Michael Jackson's Patented "Smooth Criminal" Leaning Shoes

Vintage 2.0 - Glossy Retro Takes Over Web Design

Everything you missed in the Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer

New Muslim Cool – Tonight on PBS – 10 PM EST (DCs WETA PBS not showing it, see post)

IBM's Freeware Symphony Suite Takes Aim At MS Office

Mishary Rashid al-Efasy to lead Taraweeh this Ramadan in California!

Impressive Silverlight Visualizations With Source Codes: Descry

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YouTube - تحذير لكل مصري خارج مصر - لا تسمع و لا تشاهد هذه الأغنية [feedly]

Microsoft Announces SuperPreview for IE Browser Testing

Overview

Availability

SuperPreview

Key Features:

Examples:

Pros:

Cons:

Other Testing Methods

BrowserShots

Browser Photo

CrossBrowserTesting

Browsercam

BrowsrCamp

NetRendered

Litmus

Virtual Software:

Further reading:

حملة في الأسكندرية لجمع المصاحف القديمة وإهدائها لمسلمي إفريقيا

9 Free And Open Source Bug Tracking Softwares

Related posts

SXSW Typography:Quit Bitchin and get Your Glyph on [feedly]

NerdDinner.com and Two Views of ASP.NET MVC Views [feedly]

What I Do When My jQuery Code Doesn’t Work [feedly]

FriendFeed Brings Real-Time Updates to the Desktop [feedly]

Additional FriendFeed Resources From Mashable

jQuery Plugin Development - 10 Tutorials To Get Started

Related posts

ASP.NET MVC Sample Application at www.ASP.net/MVC

"Wish me Forgiveness"

Iconic

A Little More Sugar for Testing Routes in asp.net MVC

35 Examples Of Beautiful City Photography | Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

Islamic Art

Soul and Mind Purification on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Soul and Mind Purification

Me 2.0: The Tag Cloud of my Thoughts

Windows 7 Beta *Build 7000*

Untitled

"This is a non-smoking flight"

Windows 7 Beta Build 7000