IMNS http://www.iamnatesmith.com Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:18:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Imnshttp://feedburner.google.com Gradient XHTML & CSS Site Template http://www.iamnatesmith.com/gradient-xhtml-css-site-template/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/gradient-xhtml-css-site-template/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 23:49:01 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=124 @Mojo Themes for only $22. Gradient is a clean and simple design that can be used as a great canvas for any site. It comes with a lot of great features and 3 stylish themes.]]> My new website template Gradient is for sale at @Mojo Themes for only $22. Gradient is a clean and simple design that can be used as a great canvas for any site. It comes with a lot of great features and 3 stylish themes.

DemoPurchase

Theme Features

  • 3 Themes (Dark / Chocolate / Blue)
  • Valid XHTML and CSS – Tableless Design
  • jQuery Enhanced
  • 2 Different Logo Designs
  • 2 Slideshow Options: Cu3er 3D Slideshow and jQuery FancyTransition Slideshow
  • Degradable Drop Down Menu with Lavalamp Transitions
  • Fully Functional Ajax Contact form that degrades gracefully
  • Multiple Page Templates
  • All PSD files Included
  • Compatibility. Works in: IE6+, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome

Template Files Included

  • Home Page (Strips Slideshow)
  • Home Page (Cu3er 3D Slideshow)
  • Static Content Page
  • Full Width Static Content Page
  • Blog Page
  • Single Blog Page
  • Portfolio Page
  • Single Portfolio Page
  • Contact Page

jQuery Powered

  • Portfolio Lightbox Effect with Hoover Effect
  • Lavalamp Menu Transition
  • Drop Down Menu Transitions
  • Smooth Scrolling
  • Ajax Contact Form

Support

Please post support questions on the Mojo Themes website in the comment section.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/gradient-xhtml-css-site-template/feed/ 0 Mojo Themes, the ThemeForest Alternative http://www.iamnatesmith.com/mojo-themes-the-themeforest-alternative/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/mojo-themes-the-themeforest-alternative/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:01:41 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=134 Mojo Themes, a fairly new site that is loosely modeled after ThemeForest. So far my first impressions are very good. I like the layout and the site design is pretty awesome with some nice vector illustrations in the background. I had a chance to talk with one of the owners and he was a super nice guy, which counts for a lot in my book. Here are some of my observations about the site so far.]]> I recently signed up at Mojo Themes, a fairly new site that is loosely modeled after ThemeForest.  So far my first impressions are very good.  I like the layout and the site design is pretty awesome with some nice vector illustrations in the background. I had a chance to talk with one of the owners and he was a super nice guy, which counts for a lot in my book.  Here are some of my observations about the site so far.

What they offer?

You can purchase WordPress, HTML/CSS, Tumblr, PSD , Email and Magento templates.   They do have a link to a "more " section that currently has nothing under it, so I assume they are planning on offering more in the future.  As of right now, the selection is pretty small, but in time I am sure that will change soon as people find out about the site and their templates.  The templates they do offer seem pretty well made with the high quality designs you expect from an upscale market place like this.

What's the same?

A lot of the site is the same as ThemeForest.  Most of the categories, the quality of themes and the overall structure of the site is very similar.  One thing I have noticed is that the organization of Mojo Themes is a lot better than ThemeForest and I personally like the design of the site a lot more.

What's different?

The first thing I noticed is that they don't have a "friends" feature built in,  which to me is great.  So many sites now-a-days have social networking features built into them, when it's out of place and not needed.  I have friends on facebook, which makes sense.  On a site like this, it's really just a pain in the butt and to much time out of my day to build up a friend list.

Like I said before, things seems to be laid out better and in more user friendly locations.

One more thing...

I had to throw this two cents in before I finished.  The support for the site is awesome.  I emailed these guys at almost 1am and got a reply in less than 5 minutes and they were super nice.  I then made a suggestion about the site and they literally changed it on the spot, right away.  It's hard to find really good support like that on the web and I was very impressed.

In conclusion

Overall, I hope this site takes off because it's really well done.  Hats off to the founders JR Farr and Brady Nord for doing such a great job creating the site and I wish you the best of luck with it.

Also, I would like to point out that this is a totally unbiased review and I was not paid or contacted by mojo themes to write it.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/mojo-themes-the-themeforest-alternative/feed/ 3 Ajax contact form with reCaptcha support http://www.iamnatesmith.com/ajax-contact-form-with-recaptcha-support/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/ajax-contact-form-with-recaptcha-support/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:53:07 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=92 I have released an Ajax contact form for sale @CodeCanyon for only $7.00.  The contact form has a ton of features and is easily configurable.  It's a perfect fit for anyone that needs a highly customizable & feature rich contact form, but doesn't have a lot of programming experience.

DemoPurchase

Contact Form Features

  • 3 Stylish Themes
  • It gracefully degrades. Try it, turn off your JavaScript
  • Customizable Auto Responder
  • reCaptcha Support. It’s super easy to turn it on.
  • SMTP support
  • jQuery Powered AJAX + Animations
  • No programming knowledge needed. Control everything from one simple config file
  • All fields can have their validation turned on or off
  • Works in all major browsers
  • Tons of customizable options

Requirements

PHP5 + is Required for the contact form to work correctly.

Support

If you are having an issue with the form or found a bug, please post a comment in the comment section of ThemeForest and not here. That way anyone purchasing the form in the future can look through the comments that have already been posted and maybe find a solution to their problem.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/ajax-contact-form-with-recaptcha-support/feed/ 0 Domain Search Tools http://www.iamnatesmith.com/domain-search-tools/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/domain-search-tools/#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:45:29 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=7 Finding that perfect domain is a lot of work.  I personally have spent literally whole days trying to come up with something short, clever and with keywords in it.  I know there are a lot of different tools out there, but most have a few key flaws that make them undesirable to me.  Like for instance generating random words but not checking if the words are a registered domain.  It also seems like a lot of domain tools were designed in 1999 and haven't been updated since.  Fortunately, I have found a couple of really good tools that can help when searching for a good domain.

BustAName

This app is hands down the greatest tool I use when looking for a new domain.  It has so many amazing features, but just listing them off here doesn't do it justice.  You really should go try it out for yourself, it's free and you don't have to signup for an account.

BustAName has two great feature, the first being that you can just type a domain in and it will tell if you if the .com, .net or .org are available.  This is extremely useful when your brainstorming or trying out variations of  word.  The other great features is it's ability to combine words in a list into into two word domain combinations.   Each word in the list has it's own thesaurus for finding synonyms which comes in really handy for finding even more variations that you didn't wouldn't have come up with on your own.   This is really just the tip of the iceberg with this app, you should absolutely  go check it out.

Domain Pigeon

This site is sort of hit or miss, but I like the concept of it.  It takes a lot of 5 letter or less gibberish domains and lists them all in one place.  Most the time, the domains listed are crap, but every now and then you see something that is actually good.  A diamond in the rough.

Domainr

This is a clever little tool to help you find domains like: del.icio.us.  These domains can get out of hand fast, so you have to keep it simple and creative when choosing one.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/domain-search-tools/feed/ 0 My 7 Favorite Web Design / Programming Blogs http://www.iamnatesmith.com/my-7-favorite-programming-blogs/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/my-7-favorite-programming-blogs/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:39:40 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=20 There are a ton of lists out there like this, but I thought I would share my favorites.  Most if not all have good quality content and avoid the fluff.  You can also learn a lot and keep up with the latest trends by spending some time on these sites.

Nettuts+
Probably my favorite site on this list. Nettuts+ has a ton of useful information and tutorials. A great place to get your jQuery fix on.

Noupe
Noupe is a just a staple resource if you are designer.  It's a super quality site with a ton of good tips.

1stwebdesigner
If you like lists, then this site if for you.  Focused a lot on design and wordpress, I've gotten a lot of good information from this site.

Smashing Magazine
Just a good all around web design blog.

Six Revisions
A lot of good industry information.

CSS Tricks
This site has a ton of resources available for you.  They have great articles, freebies and a good code snippets section.

Smashing Apps
This blog has some good posts covering a wide range of topics, that keep me interested.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/my-7-favorite-programming-blogs/feed/ 1 Vibrant*Foto – A free site template with a portfolio http://www.iamnatesmith.com/vibrantfoto-a-free-site-template/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/vibrantfoto-a-free-site-template/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:36:28 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=36 Vibrant*Foto is a colorful template that is a prefect base for a creative professional.

DemoDownload

Key features of the template:

  • Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS 2.1 tableless files
  • 6 PHP template files
    • Home Page
    • Projects Page
    • Individual Project Page
    • Static Text Page (About Us)
    • FAQ Page
    • Contact Page (Fully Functional)
  • Fully degradable dropdown menus powered by jQuery
  • Portfolio page with jQuery powered lightbox
  • Cross Browser Support (IE6+, FireFox, Chrome, Opera, Safari)
  • SSI Includes for Easy Updating
  • Custom Logo (PSD Included)
  • Layout PSD Included
  • Well Documented Code
  • Working Contact Form with Server Side Validation

Extra Heading Images and Buttons

Here is a list of all of the heading images included with this template

You can preview them by going to about us >> extra stuff in the demo

  • about us
  • vibrant*blog
  • contact
  • featured
  • features
  • hosting
  • mail
  • mailing*list
  • personalized
  • pricing
  • process
  • resources
  • vibrant*support
  • testimonials

There are also a couple of extra graphical buttons included that aren't shown in the demo.

  • Mailing List
  • Search the Site
  • Specials
  • Buy Now
  • Online Demo

Support

The download comes with really great documentation.  The docs are located in the "help-files" folder, just open up "read-me.html".  Please look through the help files before posting any issues here.  Of course, if you do find a bug please let me know about it.

License

All of the Vibrant*Foto code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

It would also be cool if you kept the "Designed By: IMNS"  link in the footer, but I understand that sometimes it's just not as awesome to do that.

]]> http://www.iamnatesmith.com/vibrantfoto-a-free-site-template/feed/ 0 5 popular online code editors http://www.iamnatesmith.com/5-popular-online-code-editors/ http://www.iamnatesmith.com/5-popular-online-code-editors/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:50:48 +0000 imns http://www.iamnatesmith.com/?p=3 A little setup ... the other day I was working remotely on a computer that wasn't mine and I needed to edit some php files.  They didn't have any good IDE's installed on the computer and so I went in search of a good online code editor.  Here is what I came up with.

Amy Editor

Amy Editor is a really nice online IDE that is designed to look like your working on a Mac.  It has tons of features, including online corroboration and support for a ton of syntax's.  At the time of this article a few of the features weren't really working, so hopefully they get them straightened out soon.

phpanywhere

phpanywhere only works with PHP, but it is really nice editor.  It has all of things you are looking for in a good PHP editor, like syntax highlighting,  line numbers, support for projects and also a really impressive ftp file editor.

CodeRun

Coderun has some nice benefits, like not having to signup for an account and the ability to just preview / run your code right away.  It  reminds me a lot of Visual Studios, which doesn't give me that happy feeling all over, but maybe that's a bonus for you.  Seems like it has a lot of support for ASP type stuff, which I am not into so I can't really give a good review of that.

Kodingen

Where to start with this site?  The first thing I would do is watch their demo video, which is really helpful and shows you how powerful this app really is.

The site has a pretty crazy design , which can be good and bad, it really just depends on your preferences and whether you like it or not.  You can work on things as a guest, but the real features are only available if you signup for an account.  They have one click installers for a lot of popular applications which is nice.  You get your own preview / demo url and they have a very powerful ftp tool.

Bespin

"Bespin is a Mozilla Labs experiment on how to build an extensible Web code editor using HTML 5 technology."

HTML 5 is cool, but right now it's not supported in a lot of browsers.  Eventually this will change and i'm sure a lot more apps like Bespin will appear.

My closing thoughts are this.  Really if it's possible, you should carry around ubuntu on a thumb drive and then you don't have to worry about messing with any of these.  If that's not an option, these are nice alternatives that are simple and quick solutions to being stuck without your favorite editor.

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