Twitter has come a long way and is expanding like it was an unstoppable force in the virtual world. In its awesome evolution, we’ve compiled some of the coolest articles featuring its various usage on the net.

TWITTER CHANGES THE WORLD OF POKER WITH A "TWEET"
Read Write Web.com featured an article about a poker game by an elderly man who probably used Twitter to his advantage at a $10k stake game in Vegas recently.

As a growing number of poker players are beginning to send out short messages to the world via Twitter, existing poker media is being disrupted and the news sites are scrambling to out-compete with each other in responding to the players’ direct and immediate communication with their fans. Players are reading each others’ Tweets, too, and that has consequences.

 

BRINGING TWITTER TO YOUR SITE WITH TWEETBOARD
TechCrunch.com featured an article that depicted one of Twitter’s global usage as a main conversation spot on the Web, and now it can be applied to any site with Tweetboard forum, as seen to the left…

Once a site adds the Tweetboard code to their site, a site-wide tab appears which allows visitors to have forum discussions by simply logging into Twitter (via OAuth). All the conversations are threaded, and comments appear on Twitter as well, potentially drawing in a larger audience into the specific conversation.

COLLECTION OF RECENT UPDATES ON MASHABLE AND TWEETS FROM YOUR COMMODORE 64
Here we have a small collection of Twitter articles featured in Mashable.com

Space Twitter
Imagine being able to text message from space! That’s exactly what transpired for the first time in this part of history captured by Mashable, when astronaut Mike Massimino became the first human to Twitter from outer-space!

The tweet in question comes courtesy of NASA’s Mike Massimino, a.k.a Astro_Mike , whose status update reads, “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!

Mashable also complied some inspiring Twitter backgrounds, as sampled below:

Doug Cone (@nullvariable) : Doug, a web designer and consultant, brilliantly integrates his face with his brand and contact information in this spacey theme.

CoolTweets (@cooltweets) : CoolTweets, which collects, well, the coolest tweets on the web, gets an A for its simple and clean layout. Perfect for many brands.

Justine Ezeraik (@ijustine) : The popular new media star has a balanced theme reflecting her brand.

7 Helpful Twitter Background Resources

MyTweetSpace: MyTweetSpace is one of the simplest ways to create a Twitter background with minimal effort.

TwitterBacks: This website provides a set of templates perfect for creating your ideal Twitter background.

TweetStyle: TweetStyle offers free background templates, custom Twitter backgrounds, and a few useful blog posts on the subject of the backdrop.

Free Twitter Designer: This handy little app provides an easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme.

TwitBacks: This is another tool for creating backgrounds.

TwitterGallery: TwitterGallery is a directory of themes based on color and category.

Peekr : If you stumble across a great Twitter background and want to take a quick look at it in its pure form, the Peekr bookmarklet is the way to go.

 

5 Ways to Post Twitter to Facebook
Mashable.com featured an interesting article concerning guidelines as to how to apply our Twitters into Facebook as status updates.

From auto-updating your Facebook status, to more calculated updates, we think these five ways to share Twitter updates with Facebook will satisfy those of us with a predilection for maintaining dual social presences.

1. Auto-Update with a Facebook Application
If you’re looking to automatically post your Twitter updates straight to Facebook, the Twitter application (by Twitter) is your best bet.

2. Use a Twitter Client
Two such applications are TweetDeck, a desktop client (rivaling Seesmic Desktop), and PeopleBrowsr, a multi-purpose web-based application.

3. Via Facebook Connect
Facebook Connect offers site developers and website owners an immediate way to let new users log in to their sites using their Facebook accounts.

4. Just Speak It
Vlingo’s mobile application for Nokia, BlackBerry , and iPhone does speech recognition for a variety of functions, but we love it for status updates.

5. Ping Your Page or Profile
You can use Ping.fm and HootSuite together to disseminate your tweets everywhere. Plus, there’s also a convenient way for admins to link their Facebook Pages with Ping.fm to seamlessly post updates.

Ashton Kutcher Hits 2 Million Followers on Twitter
Mashable.com made a featured article regarding the next milestone of Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter follower base, where he has now reached a huge sum of over 2 million people!

Ashton’s rise to the top of the Twitter food chain has certainly been helped along by the competition with cnnbrk and his appearance to talk all things Twitter on Oprah . His closest competition for Twitter’s #1 comes from @TheEllenShow account, which is still about 300,000 followers behind.

Making Millions via Twitter
Mashable.com came across one of the benefits of Twitter in the business sector as computer giant Dell can testify as being one of the biggest companies using social media. It used its Twitter account @DellOutlet to tweet out major discounts and sales increased in no time!

It has gained quite a following (620,000+ followers) and sold a lot of computers – at the end of last year, they surpassed $1 million in revenue , after about a year and a half’s worth of tweeting. Well throw those numbers out the window, because Twitter’s phenomenal growth and Dell’s social savvy have pushed sales from Dell Outlet to over $2 million , in 1/3 the time needed to pass the first milestone. And @DellOutlet is still on the rapid rise.

Twittering From Your Commodore 64
News.Cnet.com featured an article by Matt Hickey concerning the new usange of Twitter through Commodore 64, and applying its function through an application called Breadbox 64.

Not only does Breadbox 64 allow you to tweet, it also lets you access your friend feed, as well as individual friends’ timelines. And, of course, Van den Brande also has details on the hardware in a post on his site, like the MMC plug-in ethernet adapter, as well as various screenshots. It looks pretty awesome.

TWEETCRAFT - THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT TWITTER CLIENT
Tech Crunch.com featured an article about Twitter’s influence on The World of Warcraft fans. It revolves around an in-game Twitter client for the popular online game that allows the user to send and receive Tweets within a game, especially useful when waiting for raids to start.

TWITTER WHORE - THE ESSENTIAL TWITTERING AND FOLLOW ME
This video is but one of the many videos by @lisa_nova featured in deburca.com that demonstrates what Twitter can be to some people and the driving force of increasing followers - no matter how ridiculous or annoying it may be, attention is everything to some people.

TWITTER USERS CAN NOW "BUY" FOLLOWERS
Telegraph.co.uk wrote an article about the new feature of Twitter where users are now able to literally "buy" new followers through a new company called uSocial.

The company finds potential followers by searching through Twitter to discover areas of common interest to match people more closely. uSocial then send these potential followers a message, alerting them that there is someone on Twitter they might want to follow. The potential follower then decides whether or not to follow that person.

HIGH QUALITY TWITTER ICON AND TWITTER TOOLS FOR DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS
Hongkiat.com featured some pretty cool high quality Twitter icons that are so adorable and catchy!

Tools And Tutorials For Designers And Developers
What would Twitter be without properly knowing how it works and using its right tools to make full use of it? Smashing Magazine featured an article for designers and developers to refer to various sites, tools and tutorials to help them "Twitter". Here are some of the many tutorials featured in the article:

1. Twitter Development Links
Twitter Technology Blog
Twitter API Wiki home page
Twitter API Announcements - Google Groups
Twitter Development Talk - Google Groups
Follow Twitter Development via Twitter

2. Introduction to the Twitter API
Twitter API for Dummies
Using the Twitter API
Get Started With the Twitter API
Getting Started with the Twitter API

3. Building Your Website Around Twitter
Build Your Own Social Home!
How to Create an RSS-Enabled Micro-Blog with Twitter
How to Make a Unique Website for Your Twitter Updates
How to Build a Maintainable Website Using CushyCMS and Twitter
Send Message from a PHP Page Using the Twitter API
How to Run Multiple Twitter Feeds on the Same Page
Add Twitter to Your Blog (step by step)
Scripting Twitter with cURL
PHP + Twitter + Google Calendar + SMS
TwitterZoid PHP Script

For those not already following us on Twitter, please do so, or drop a tweet using our Tweetboard…

LANGUAGE RSS ICONS, BUTTON DOWNLOADS, FICTION ICONS, FREE FONTS & MORE FREE STUFF!
Andrea from CSSGlance designed five cool Language-based RSS icons that are meant to identify content in different languages that was once only a thought.

Komodomedia.com featured these finely Refined Social Network Icons:

Mochivation.com featured some downloadable buttons with various themes and designs:

With the option of being able to download free resources online, there are countless elements and theme-based icons to download. Noupe.com featured some cool and free high quality icon sets that are based on famous feature films, Japanese anime and other interesting concepts.

When most would look for free icons and picture resources, those who are into Typography and copy-writing would want to have some free typeface or fonts to facilitate them. Fontex.org features the very best hand-picked free fonts:

While icons and fonts are on the menu for free stuff, templates for websites give a big helping hand for the designer too, as Smashing Magazine featured in an article about free PSD and (X)HTML Templates.

Speaking about templates, ThemeForest.net featured an article that presented a Free template File for the Month of July 2009 called Nice & Clean exclusively from YA Design.

Starting today, each marketplace in the Envato network will be offering one free template for the entire month. This site template is the complete package: five page theme, portfolio slider, AJAX contact form, etc. From now until July 31, it’s 100% free!

Smashing Magazine featured an article concerning Icon sets specially for Web Designers to use:

Naldz Graphics featured some free high quality doodle Photoshop Brush sets:

ONLINE BACKGROUND GENERATORS, DYNAMIC FONT REPLACEMENTS, AND MORE
Numerous elements are put together to make a website look beautiful and classy. And there are many online applications to help designers get the very best for their website designs.

A website’s background may seem to many as an after-thought in design, but it is equally important to help bring out the information of the website. Single Function.com featured an article consisting of a few interesting Online Background Generators.

MODIFYING IMAGES INTO PATTERNS
Studio Ludens created a free pattern creator that literally turns images into unique patterns:

Regarding online assistance, DezinerFolio.com featured some pretty handy text replacement solutions.

Whilst on the topic, let us recommend Font Jazz the simplest of them all…

Smashing Applications wrote an article concerning an interesting open source invoicing application:

And what better way to manage your code anywhere through an online PHP control application?

Referring to correct resources is essential in web design. Therefore Ext Core is the right choice for your Cross-Browser Javascript Library.

Ext Core is a cross-browser JavaScript library for building dynamic web pages. It includes the following features high performance, lightweight, clear, maintainable code, an intuitive, easy to use API with an MIT Open Source license

BUILDING ONLINE GAMES USING SIMPLE METHODS
For the online game junkie, creating a new game is cool. And what better way to do so than with a variety of free game creation applications as featured in CNet News.

CREATING AN ONLINE PROFILE AVATAR WITH MANGA CONCEPT
Ever wanted to know how you would you look as a Manga character or simply need a cool avatar to represent you online through the various social networks that you use?

EXCHANGING REAL-TIME DATA ONLINE WITH A.P.E. (WITHOUT RELOADING PAGES)
Exchanging data in real-time online with thousands of users is easier to do with Ajax Push Engine.

As a complete packaged solution, it is designed to push real-time data in a lightweight, highly scalable and modular way, only using Javascript for the client side. With the use of those Web Standards, APE is fully cross-browser and uses all the latest browser features and provides backward compatibility for older ones.

And that’s why today is such an exciting day, because today marks the launch of KalturaCE…

Kaltura Community Edition (KalturaCE) is a free, self-hosted, community supported version of Kaltura’s Open Source Online Video Platform.

Following installation any site can gain comprehensive video and rich media functionalities including video management, searching, uploading, importing, editing, annotating, remixing and sharing. It is intended to solve all your video-related needs, and allow you to easily create your own rich-media applications – all behind your own firewall and on your own servers.

Guess what we are playing with today…?

During day 2 of Google I/O, they dropped a bombshell called Google WAVE, which will without a doubt revolutionize online communication through an OpenSource browser-based collaborative protocol that will surely replace emails within the next three to five years…

Built by the same engineering team who are responsible for the Google Maps API, and who, for the past couple of years have been secretly developing this new service out of Sydney Australia, the more and more that they explained about this platform and protocol, the more and more one’s jaw finds itself dropping towards the floor.

As Mashable were quick to point-out…

The concept behind Google Wave is to “unify” communication on the web. It’s a hybrid of email, web chat, IM, and project management software. It features the ability to replay conversations because it records the entire sequence of communication, character by character. Because of this, discussions are also live in Google Wave: you will see your friends type character-by-character.

The features don’t stop there, either. Google Wave also supports the ability to drag attachments from your desktop into Google Wave. It loads that file and sends it immediately to anyone in the conversation. It’s also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog.

CNET were amongst the first to officially break the news and have since posted the following video, live from the Google I/O conference where they first announced this news to the world:

(be warned that this video is 90 minutes, but well worth it)

The API feature set of WAVE is phenomenal, and some of the demos being showcased by Google include live translations between 40 different languages as you type, where integrated form functionality and Google Maps are just some of the native possibilities encouraged by the platform. What’s most important here is the underlying protocol (not just the product or platform, but the underlying technology itself) is also OpenSource, which is a clear attempt to put an end to the static irrelevance of POP3 email messaging protocols.

Waves can be created and hosted by anyone, not just Google!

This must surely have Microsoft VERY worried - for in many ways, it threatens Microsoft Exchange, which may ultimately become the first truly powerful platform that Microsoft releases as an OpenSource project, but then again, perhaps that’s taking dreams a little too far…

Without exaggeration or flamboyance, this is quite possibly the most interesting and exciting technological (internet-based) breakthrough since the internet itself…

It also helps to explain why there were never any rumours that Google might buy Twitter or why they were not participating with live-communication - because it’s quite clear they have just reinvented what LIVE communication is really all about…

THE MILLION TWEETS OF ASHTON KUTCHER
And what about Oprah’s first tweet …? Or the whole Ashton Kutcher Vs Larry King in the quest for one million twitter followers, who then goes and get one million Facebook fans whilst he is at it…? Am certain that the fact that one of the new online animated shows from his media company is primarily available from within Facebook certainly helped.

The most impressive aspect of this milestone is that Ashton has grown from around 400,000 fans to over 1 million fans in under 3 days! It’s an impressive feat and it shows the viral nature of Facebook public profiles.

We feel it is Facebook that is responsible for this final stage of saturation, which has in many ways even made it possible for Twitter to grow the way it has, something that is somewhat limited here in Asia but nonetheless a force well worth keeping in sight…

With growth at a staggering rate of over 480,000 users a day and demographic shifts of the over 35 year olds doubling a day , it is no surprise that rumours of Microsoft buying Facebook for US$50 Billion have re-surfaced and some have taken notice.

Yahoo!’s stock price shot up  on the news of his comments, but I think the press and the markets are missing the big picture: Microsoft’s is using the “potential Yahoo! deal” as a red herring with investors . Ballmer is using Yahoo! to convince the market that Microsoft needs to buy Facebook to compete with Google, and to set a price floor of 50 billion for the acquisition.

It’s not all rosy at the top though, the recent re-design they forced upon users almost caused riots in France , and their sudden change in their Terms of Service caused quite a up-roar with those that care, forcing Zuckerberg to quickly re-strategize.

The fact that Facebook may eventually sell our personal data is another matter entirely, and the fact that the platform is being used for blackmail and countless other spamming and scamming techniques , it seems only natural that Facebook would fight back with private groups for families .

The Consumerist has noticed a seemingly slight but very important (and disturbing) change in Facebook’s terms of service , regarding user-generated content. In short, all of the content you’ve ever uploaded on Facebook Facebook reviews can be used, modified or even sublicensed by Facebook in every possible way…

With plans for adding the ability to integrate Facebook chat directly into Facebook Applications , and the news that some Facebook developers are earning over US$ 700,000 a month , it’s impossible to miss applications as fun and engaging as the ones that BuddyMedia (a company specifically developing Facebook Applications) are creating. Take the new InTru3D application for Intel :

In talking about 3D worlds for Facebook, how could we not mention Sacred Seasons & Small Worlds?

Turn based multi-player games have been a huge hit on Facebook but there are few that have a real-time multiplayer environment. Sacred Seasons can’t see any reason why there shouldn’t be more multiplayer games, especially massively multiplayer games. So the team behind this virtual game environment has ‘created a Facebook application that combines the Sacred Seasons world with the Facebook community.

Given SmallWorlds’ focus on social media integration, it’s not surprising to see SmallWorlds with a Facebook app. It’s designed to push engagement and media-sharing opportunities, which is a core concept for the SmallWorlds virtual environment to begin with.

The SmallWorlds Facebook app mostly consists of an embedded version of your SmallWorlds creation on your Facebook Profile. From there, you can interact within the SmallWorlds virtual realm without leaving Facebook.

With that said, please come VISIT US ON FACEBOOK and find our if and how we utilised the following:

• 30+ Business Apps for Facebook
• Strategies for Developing Fan Pages
• Optimising Fan Pages
• Facebook Application Development Strategies
• The Facebook Flash ActionScript API

THE BUMPTOP EXPERIENCE IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here! The awesome reinvention of the Desktop in 3D with cool Social Site Integration - The BumpTop has arrived.

Fact is; the desktop has not seen any major innovation in a while. It’s still the same lines of icons on a 2D area. Neither the Mac OS nor Windows goes as far as BumpTop does to completely reinvent and re-imagine the user experience when it comes to the desktop.

Two years ago, a bright engineer, Anand Agarawala, gave a presentation at the TED conference about a new technology he and a team were working on that showed how they believed the desktop should work. Just like how people use a real desk, they believed that the user should be able to interact with desktop items in 3D, pin up photographs, pile related items into stacks, and more.

RISE OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD
Revenues, trends and investments have been poured in by the millions towards the availability of virtual goods and advertising concepts. Companies like Habbo raked in a whopping $74 Million from such methods by using the interactive features to lure teenagers, which makes up more than half of its profit.

Popular mostly outside of the U.S., Habbo Hotel is a mostly free online virtual world which earned $30 million in revenue in 2006. The site is targeted towards a younger demographic ranging from 13 to 18 year olds (90% of users fall in this range). It is free to register and walk around the hotel, yet users can pay extra for more functionality, club membership and furnishings for their hotel room.

Millions have been spent on investments in 63 Virtual Worlds by related companies in 2008, resulting in an astounding $594 Million! Virtual World Management has now officially become the leading trade media company for the virtual world. The Executive Director for Virtual Worlds Managements quoted:

“Nineteen youth-oriented properties received over $70.47 million over the course of the year. The bulk of that was in Q1 and Q3. As more and more youth worlds came to market over the course of the year, spectators worried that the space was overcrowded. Others have seen it as a sector for opportunity, and it appears as if venture capitalists are still at least somewhat interested.”

While that certainly makes a good investment profit sector, discussions on using this brave new media for enterprises have been ongoing. Second Life Grid featured a detailed article on usage of this media.

Today, hundreds of global organizations, including Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and Northrop Grumman, use the Second Life Grid platform to bring distributed teams together in a shared virtual workspace to collaborate, meet, learn, and prototype new offerings.

Speaking about Second Life, Profy featured an article about a $10 Thousand improvement expenditure for Real Life applications.

Today the team is announcing Linden Prize, a contest with the $10,000 in prize money to be paid to a member or a team of Second Life residents for the most innovative in-world project that will improve real lives outside of the virtual world.

With this interesting approach, business meetings in the corporate world are also venturing into virtual conferences to avoid the hassles of real meetings.

As featured in articles for Cnet News, and Read Write Web, Avatars and the Enterprise Virtual Worlds are proving to be more effective than Web Conferencing.

IMPACT AND EVOLUTION OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD
On the subject of the impact and influence that Virtual Worlds have on society, Mattel’s Barbie Girls, which used this media as its marketing source,amassed 11.2 million sign-ups, most of which are of the fairer sex. According to an article in Giga AOM, it’s now about to launch a subscription option for memberships. This incredible strategy can certainly rake in billions within no time! As such, other deals involving Virtual Worlds from the likes of IBM are fast becoming common knowledge. Here we feature some articles from Read Write Web regarding the global impact of Virtual Worlds and Second Life.

There’s been a lot of speculation - and hype - about using virtual worlds for enterprise learning and collaboration. In January, a Forrester report into the use of virtual worlds in the workplace was analyzed, which claimed that “within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today”. However at that point there seemed to be much work to do before virtual world software became user friendly to the enterprise crowd - “you’ve practically got to be a gamer to use most of these tools”, Forrester noted in January.

This year was a rocky one for virtual worlds. They continued to move out of the spotlight as media darlings and found, instead, more taciturn media and struggling communities. Second Life dealt with stagnant numbers and Google decided to pull the plug on Lively .

Now, the shot in the arm for Second Life seems to be as simple as a redesign that emphasizes the benefits of the community to would-be users and encourages them to register to try the service for themselves. Plus, they’ve thrown some Cooliris -like panning interactivity in there for good measure.

 

THE VIRTUAL EVOLUTION COMES TO FACEBOOK
Many social websites will definitely be influenced to use at least a small part of the virtual world media to enhance online response. In an article in All Facebook, we discovered that the web-based virtual world platform of Smallworlds is releasing a Facebook application that is designed to push engagement and media sharing opportunities.

Once you’ve added your SmallWorlds virtual environment on Facebook, you can go on to crate avatars, decorate rooms, play games, watch videos, listen to music and embark on the popular SmallWorlds missions, offering a pretty robust virtual experience that’s akin to the standalone site. There’s also a more social option of making your Facebook profile accessible to others within SmallWorlds, linking the SmallWorlds site with individuals’ Facebook pages in a deeper manner.

 

MOVIE VIRTUAL MAGIC COMING TO LIFE IN REALITY
Hollywood movies have paved the way for creative ideas when it comes to advanced technology. And the virtual world has been used as a concept for countless movies. "Minority Report" was a futuristic sci-fi movie, that involved a revolutionary spatial user interface, that has now been made possible, as seen in this video from Fubiz.

Dubbed g-speak, the mind bending OS combines gestural information, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels, to deliver what the creators call the first major step in a computer interface since 1984. The G-Speak system basically “consists of an off-the-shelf DLP projector and special gloves embedded with reflective beads".

IDEAS FOR THE VIRTUAL WORLD
As society itself begins to shift towards a more interactive future, ideas and preferences are needed more to be fully accustomed to the usage of Virtual World media. Here we have two examples of what this Open Virtual World could be spawned from - Beyond the online boundaries of a Metaverse will be the legends of a counter-culture long forgotten….

The key deliverables of the OpenSource Metaverse Project are a server engine and a client component.

The server engine can be installed, configured and administered by anyone to create their own metaverse, somewhat analogous to an Apache web server for web content. Instead of web pages, a metaverse server will serve up the data and contents of a 3-D virtual world that can be customized by the administrator.

Beyond 2 establishes a foundation for four types of virtual world simulation: Physical, Logical, Cognitive, and Narrative. Beyond specifies an API for the Physical simulation model and provide bases classes and abstractions for the Logical, Cognitive, and Narrative simulations.

 

VARIETIES OF VIRTUAL WORLDS AND OPEN SOURCES
Here we feature some cool open source virtual worlds where custum-made applications can be created by using those sources as a base. Among these are RealExtend, Open Croquet, Qwaq, Project Wonderland and Project Darkstar.

We’ll be on the lookout for even more news and features regarding the Virtual Worlds of the future…

ARCTIC PAPER 2009 AGENDA CREATION
Helene Ryenbakken teamed up with four other creative people and created the 2009 Agenda for Actic Paper - a paper production company with the idea of showcasing some paper qualities while promoting Arctic Paper and Studio3.

The theme of the agenda is computer and internet on paper. You have these expressions from the paper world that the internet and computer have borrowed, and now we borrowed them back – in an internet wrapping.

INGENIUS LANDSCAPE CONCEPTS OF LEVI VON VELUW
Levi van Veluw is a renowned designer with an awesome imagination of realism in his work. Here we take a look at one of his achievements in one blog article of Abduzeedo - "Landscapes"

Levi van Veluw´s photo series are self-portraits, drawn and photographed by himself: a one-man-process. His works constitute elemental transfers; modifying the face as object; combining it with other stylistic elements to create a third visual object of great visual impact.

Using the human body as a design concept is always fun and imaginative. In a blog article from Design You Trust, we discovered an interesting design made for Socks Anatomy depicting the human muscle structure and giving off a unique illusion of realism.

Within the subject of creativity, you should check-out Siggi Eggertsson’s work:

AMAZING PACKAGING DESIGN COLLECTIONS
Packaging is a living example of graphic design in physical reality. Numerous blogs such as Dzine Blog and The Dieline blog have compiled whole galleries of them for all to see. It’s wonderful to see what a little bit of imagination and creativity can accomplish within the world of packaging.

Dzine Blog’s compilation of 45 Really Nice Packaging Designs:

The Dieline compilation created articles featuring some of the world’s most creative packaging from Jeff Krichmar and The Soda Studio

Other cool packaging creators such as Turner Duckworth and The Brand Union were also featured.

BOTTLE PACKAGING DESIGNS AT ITS BEST
When it comes to packaging, alcoholic beverages are often the cream of the crop. As featured in the articles of Abduzeedo, Designer Daily and Touchey, these packaging creations are by some of the world’s greatest designers and are truly unique if not attractive examples of world-class design..

NAME CARDS OF EXCELLENCE
A name card can carry great importance as it projects the introduction to a company. Here are numerous collections of some of the world’s greatest name card designs featured in blogs such as Altered Advice and Abduzeedo.

Among the most unique in these is the AEN business name card. This is probably the best example for the effectiveness of being simple and stylish at the same time!

This is as minimalistic as one can get without crossing the line of insanity.

CONCEPTS THAT ARE LITERALLY OUT OF THE BOX
Art can be defined in various ways. Digital art is one way to tweak any masterpiece into a unique blend of photo manipulation and creativity as featured in one of the articles of Hong Kiat’s design blog.

Out of bounds (OOB) photos are post processed photos where the contents are taken outside the boundaries, presented in creative 3-dimensional perspective. OOB photos can be achieve with some basic photo editing skills. Getting an interesting OOB photo depend largely on the photo angle and individual creativity.

As the digital age evolves, digital concepts in 3D using JavaScript are also being taken to the next level. Kawanet and Nihilogic are but a two blogs that feature articles concerning this new step into Java modifications and online interactivity.

With the introduction of online JavaScript modification, interactive experiments such as CubeScape have been created, where users can build, destroy and view their block-building progress along with the option of being able to save their progress online.

THE BEST PLIGG CMS THEMES

Astuteo featured an article concerning the Web Development Project Estimator that allows web designers and site developers to thoroughly estimate the costs of web projects.

CHINESE NEW YEAR DESIGN REFERENCES AND HIGH-QUALITY SOUNDS
Festivals are fun and should be celebrated with creative cards and other festive merchandise. Hong Kiat compiled a few Chinese New Year creative designs for designers’ reference.

Downloaded the best sounds of Sound Snap
We have encountered various sites for design free resources, today we discovered Soundsnap, a site where you can search and download high quality sound effects and loops.

EXTREMELY USEFUL PHP TOOLS, NECESSARY PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES, HIGH-QUALITY ICON SETS AND SOME EXTREMELY COLOURFUL TEXTURES
Cool free resources can sometimes be hard to find, but Smashing Magazine have some of the best articles that feature some of the best downloadable resources available. Here we take a look at some of its massive contributions to the world of creativity.

50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools
Compared to Python and Ruby, PHP is widely more favoured through the examples of Facebook, Digg and WordPress. Smashing Magazine posted an article featuring 50 useful PHP tools that drastically improve programing workflow.

Here are but a few of the 50 PHP Tools that are features in this article:

1. Debugging Tools: Xdebug, Gubed PHP Debugger, DBG, PHP Debug, PHP Dyn
2. Testing & Optimization Tools: PHPUnit, SimpleTest, Selenium, PHP CodeSniffer
3. Security Tools: Securimage, Scavenger, PHP-IDS, Pixy PHP Security Scanner.

50 Must-Have Photoshop Brushes
Photoshop is a testiment to the designing world. Its constant introduction of various brush effects offer designers the ultimate variety for creativity. Smashing Magazine made a compilation of 50 must-have Photoshop brushes to enhance designing capabilities. Here are a few of those brushes:

1. Paint Splatters: Splashes of Paint, Photoshop Set Brushes, Gradient Splats
2. Brush Strokes: Simple Smudges, Watercolour Brushes, Messy Spraypaint
3. Textures: Paint Peel Pack, Grunge Brushes, HI-RES Dirt Brush Set

50 Free High-Quality Icon Sets
Beautiful icon sets are the best freebies to have online. Smashing Magazine has made a special compilation of links to free High Quality icon sets perfect for web applications and other creative ideas.

31 Most Colourful Collection of High Quality Free Texture Packs
Backgrounds, patterns and quality textures are some of the most demanded freebies in the net. And here, Smashing Apps featured an article of 31 most colourful collection of these beauties.

DESIGN RESOURCE: 30 PLUS FREE DOWNLOADABLE QUALITY PSD FILES
If they say leaving your mark so that others can learn, then some designers are generous in their offerings. Dzine Blog made a compilation of 30 plus PSD files for free downloads.

SHUTTERBORG, A NEW ONLINE WORD PROCESSOR
This unique tool allows you to open any URL on the Internet and edit it pretty much like an Office document. Read Write Web made an article to help us understand this new tool thoroughly.

The word processor itself is rather rudimentary. There are some basic options for formatting your text, aligning it, highlighting it, etc. You can also choose to insert photos and links from the “Insert” menu or create bulleted and numbered lists.

 

THE WORLD’S GREATEST BUSINESS MIND
You have a great business strategy and want to start somewhere. The World’s Greatest Business Mind by The Message Group is a free online Viral Marketing Campaign provider is your best option.

Do you know somebody who qualifies as the next “World’s Greatest Business Mind”? Submit their details to the right then click “Preview” to personalise the news report with their name. Click “Send” to surprise them with the good news in their inbox.

 

THE FLUID 960 GRID SYSTEM
Design Influences featured a wonderful collection of a resource templates for Rapid Interactive Prototyping. A remarkable reference for starting from scratch.

THE STRIP GENERATOR
Ever wondered in creating a comic strip online? Strip Generator can help you as a sprigboard to create some cool comic strips using its free templates and image collection.

FREE LANGUAGE RSS FEED ICON SET
What good is an RSS tool if it is not found in the language that you are familiar with? CSS Glance made an announcement in one of its posts about the Language RSS Feed Icon Set, in which these icons can be used to differentiate multilingual RSS Feeds.

FREE CSS / XHTML THEMES
Solucija: The Internet Encyclopedia is a site that offers a selection of some of the hottest web templates available for your designing needs.

Speaking about free templates, CSS Templates Market: CLEO Studio is another freebie plus premium based site that helps you find the best template for your designs.

ENHANCING YOUR BLOG WITH TAGGIFY WIDGET
We discovered a post by Taggify Blog that demonstrates how its widget can be used to enhance a blog with cool functionality through popup tooltips for posted photos.

Step 1: Install Taggify Widget  on Your Site
Step 2: Add Taggify Editor bookmarklet to your Favorites
Step 3: Authorize with Taggify Editor
Step 4: Mark Out Persons on the Photo
Step 5: Add Textual Notes for the Person

ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIAL OF SIMPLE NINJAS AND CREATING A SLEEK WEBSITE CONTENT BOX
Sometimes, less is more. As shown in Spoon Graphics, creating vector ninjas can be so fun when so little is needed to make them look cool!

It can be quite tricky getting the hang of Adobe Illustrator, but if you take a step back and concentrate on the basics there’s a range of options for creating great looking images that you can create and have fun with!

There are numerous Photoshop tutorials on the web to help you get that perfect effect for website designs. Here we have Photoshop & You showing us the ropes on a sleek content box.

This effect could be put to good use on business websites, such as hosting sites, product sales pages, portfolios, and more.

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE 960 CSS FRAMEWORK, CREATING A CUSTOM WORDPRESS PLUGIN, AWESOME TWITTER INTEGRATION AND RUNNING PERSONAL TINYURL SERVICES WITH PHURL.
We came across a fantastic site called Nettuts Plus; which boasts and impressive set of tutorials for designers of all levels. We have compiled a few of its awesome collection for your reference.

A Detailed Look At The 960 CSS Framework
Once you take the opportunity to spend some time with 960, you’ll be amazed at how much time can potentially be saved when developing your web applications. At the very least, take ten minutes to review the framework.

Creating A Custom Wordpress Plugin From Scratch
Knowing something from scratch is always helpful and time saving. This amazing tutorial in Nettuts Plus shows us exactly how to get it right with detailed easy steps to follow.

10 Awesome Ways To Integrate Twitter With Your Website
Nettuts Plus featured an article that shows you a few ways of integrating a website with Twitter (An online service for communities to stay connected through exchange of quick, frequent answers to that question of what you’re doing). This in turn will help enhance the website’s popularity.

1. Twitter Widgets
2. Twitter Buttons
3. Twitter Tools
4. TwitThis
5. TweetSuite
6. Chirrup
7. Tweet This
8. IntenseDebate
9. Aweber
10.Twitterfeed

Running Your Own TinyURL Service With Phurl
For microblogging services to work smoothly, URL shortening services are a must, Nettuts Plus gives a tutorial on ways to run your own TinyURL service with Phurl.

In 140 characters, you don’t want the URL you’re linking to eating up 100 of them. Or worse, it might not even fit. Enter TinyURL, and a bunch of other services that give you a shorter custom URL pointing to the target site.

 

27 OF THE BEST PHOTOSHOP WEB LAYOUT DESIGN TUTORIALS
Photoshop is the preferred choice for web-design, and to have detailed tutorials that show you just how simple design can be is a useful thing to have. Dzine Blog made a compilation of some of the best Photoshop Web Layout Design Tutorials that will blow you away!

CREATING A COLOURFUL SITEMAP WITH JQUERY
Smashing Magazine featured a simple tutorial on how to create an attractive Sitemap using jQuery.

Content-heavy websites with a deep navigational structure can benefit from sitemaps . A sitemap contains links to every important page on a website, often visually organized in a hierarchy. They generally should not have opening and closing mechanisms to display the hierarchy.

 

CREATING AN ASTONISHING ICAL-LIKE CALENDAR WITH JQUERY
Calendars are interesting when designed with style. In this tutorial featured in Stefanoverna, it teaches you how to create astonishing iCal-like calendars using jQuery.

One of the most common requests from clients when it comes to Wordpress personalization, is to add a basic event calendar to their website. Finding a good place to position a big table like a calendar within your Wordpress template is always a taught work.

CREATING AN APPLE STYLE MENU AND IMPROVING IT VIA JQUERY
The Apple-flavoured Leopard-text-indent style is currently one of the most favoured menu styles. In this tutorial featured in Kriesi, you will learn how to create that particular style and improve upon it via jQuery.

CREATING A MENU LIST USING EITHER CSS BORDER STYLE OR BACKGROUND IMAGE
Creating menu lists for a website can be challenging. Sometimes all it needs is simplicity. In this tutorial featured in Web Designer Wall, it teaches you how to create a menu list using either CSS border styles or by using a background image.

INTRODUCING KREATEEVEE
Founded in 2003 and known as one of the pioneers of digital signage in Malaysia, Kreateevee is an MSC-Status company driven to serve the country better in terms of the digital frontier.

We pride ourselves in maintaining a talented, creative and motivated team capable of creating compelling multimedia & animation content specifically for digital signage. We are also able to cater for motion graphics, 3D animation, post-production as well as TVC production jobs.

PACKET ONE OPEN FLOOR PRODUCTIVE DISCUSSIONS, I-PHONE 3G AVAILABILITY IN MALAYSIA AND COMPETITIVE WEB HOSTING
Packet One is a new and multi-tasking network broadband slowly taking its root within Malaysian connectivity. Danny Foo managed to inquire valuable information of this broadband prodigy.

In all my business dealings so far, I’ve never seen the more senior staff getting involved in a normal discussion. Especially when this discussion isn’t about how much money the company should be making or who should be fired. This to me shows how committed and passionate are people at P1.

In the midst of accepting a positive change in network communication, Danny Foo also came across some intersting points in The Star newspaper as to why the Apple iPhone 3G is still not available in Malaysia. Most believe the reason behind it is that Malaysian telcos are unwilling to to sacrifice profits for a mere cool Apple iPhone.

Many have been asking why Maxis has taken so long to bring the phone to our shores . Some pointed out that a new model generally takes about six months to get here and some phone models are even launched in Malaysia before other markets.

Industry players said Apple was also known to take a big cut from the service provider’s sales for the iPhone; therefore, local service providers were reluctant to bring the phone into Malaysia.

One does not have to be a genius to realize just how unreliable our Malaysian Internet connections have been at snail speeds thanks to some irregular services from local network. Danny Foo came to discover that the problem lies not on the surface, but below.

Yes, apparently there’s an underwater cable disruption on TMNet’s website which they always assume for its customers to refer instead of informing us via email. Well, the next common question some clients ask me is; what’s the difference between hosting in Malaysia and outside of it?

 

THE STAR ONLINE REVEALS A CHALLENGING YEAR AHEAD, SLIGHT ASIASPACE ROLLOUT HICCUPS AND A NEW MALAYSIAN ANIMATED ADVENTURE
As we venture into an uncertain time because of the recent economic downturn, The Star Online discovered a prediction that growth for the information and Communications Technology (ICT) will fall to its lowest in a decade in 2009 as according to the Association of Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom)

We are still bullish on the outsourcing industry. With the economic slowdown, companies will be looking at ways to cut cost and outsourcing will be one way of doing this,” Pikom Chairman David Wong said.

Wong even expects the outsourcing industry to create more jobs within the ICT industry. “Unlike the manufacturing industry, the ICT industry will be creating jobs rather than losing jobs. We need more workers in the outsourcing industry. Currently we have only 70,000 people working in outsourcing companies but we need 300,000 by 2012,” he said.

Speaking of challenges, The Star Online posted an article stating that Asiaspace Sdn Bhd were facing a small obstacle of approval from local authorities and housing developers for the expansion of its WiMax coverage, as noted in an interview with Asiaspace chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Abdullah.

According to Abdul Ghani, SKMM’s target for WiMAX service providers was to make their ­services available to 25% of the population by the end of last year and 45% coverage in their third year of operation. Asiaspace has already invested up to RM200mil to set up 138 base stations to deliver its brand of Wireless Broadband Internet through WiMAX, Amax.

And while we’re on the subject of improvement, Comm & Tech made an article regarding Malaysia’s new animated film GENG which is set to bring about the outlook of Malaysian Animation internationally with its 12th February 2009 release.

Unlike typical animation films, Les’ Copaque only had 40 production staff instead of 120 and instead of using rather pricey Apple Mac workstations, they instead used widely available and highly affordable Windows-based PCs.

Geng features Malaysians from the three major ethnic groups living and interacting together very harmoniously and also reflects Malaysian culture and etiquette as an example of the ideal Malaysian society with all its unique features and characteristics.

As Malaysia’s animation horizons expand, The Star Online must have been thrilled to post an article reporting that Rythm and Hues Studio of Los Angeles will be setting up a high-tech studio on par with its LA studio, in Malaysia! Rythm senior adviser Shahril Ibrahim made an important statement on the studio choosing Malaysia as its third studio outside the US:

Malaysia was chosen because of Multimedia Development Corp’s (MDec) support for its sort of work, he said. Cost was another huge factor, apart from the big pool of students studying multimedia in Malaysia.

 

NUFFNANG’S VALENTINE’S DAY EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR COUPLES
In conjunction with Valentine’s Day, one of Nuffnang’s advertisers MySimplifieds.com is offering cheap but quality pink roses with easy online purchases for those who are registered in their database.

To purchase the roses for your loved one, you can either purchase online via Credit card or pre-book them for you to collect on the 14th of February at Cineleisure Mall. To add more icing to the cake, the first 50 people from Klang Valley who purchase the roses will also received a pair of movie tickets to watch the Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Cathay Cineplex on 9.30pm of Valentine’s Day itself.

These changes, challenges and promising turn of events in Malaysia can be seen as a positive outlook to the future for this diversified Asian country.

We have several developments taking place that require our clients to change their host files in order to view the project in its beta stage or on another server to the one presently being used, so have created this tutorial (and included a video at the end of the article) to help them change their host files.

For reference as to where the HOSTS file is located, please see the following:

The HOSTS file is a text file that contains IP addresses separated by at least one space and then a domain name, with each entry on its own line.

If you wanted to map a domain name within your local environment to a different server to the one mapped by the public DNS you would need to add an entry into your HOSTS file as follows:

When using the Internet most people connect to web sites, ftp servers or other Internet servers by connecting to a domain name. Internet applications do not communicate via domain names, but rather using IP addresses, such as 192.168.1.1. Therefore when you type a domain name in your program that you wish to connect to, your application must first convert it to an IP address that it will use to connect to.

The way these hostnames are resolved to their mapped IP address is called Domain Name Resolution. On almost all operating systems whether they be Apple, Linux, Unix, Netware, or Windows the majority of resolutions from domain names to IP addresses are done through a procedure called DNS.

DNS stands for Domain Name System and is the standard domain name resolution service used on the Internet. Whenever a device connects to another device on the Internet it needs to connect to it via the IP address of the remote device. In order to get that IP address, DNS is used to resolve that domain name to its mapped IP address. This is done by the device querying its configured DNS Servers and asking that server what the IP address is for that particular domain name. The DNS server will then query other servers on the Internet that know the correct information for that domain name, and then return to the device the IP address. The device will then open a connection directly to the IP address and perform the desired operation.

In Windows machines you may not already have a hosts file. If this is the case there will most likely be a sample hosts file called hosts.sam that you can rename to hosts and use as you wish. You can edit this file either from the cmd prompt using Edit or Notepad on windows or VI on Unix/Linux. Really any text editor can open and modify the HOSTS file. It is also recommended that if you use this file that you make periodic backups of it by copying it to another name.

Some people recommend that you make this file read only so that it will be harder to modify by a malicious program, which there are Hijackers that are known to do this, but there are Hijackers such as CoolWebSearch that add entries to the file regardless of whether or not its read only. Therefore you should not think that having your HOSTS as read only will make it safe from modification.

Probably the most common way people block ads like this is with something called the “hosts file”. The hosts file is a simple list of hostnames and their corresponding IP addresses, which your computer looks at every time you try and contact a previously unknown hostname. If it finds an entry for the computer you’re trying to reach, it sets the IP address for that computer to be whatever’s in the hosts file.

127.0.0.1 is a special IP address which, to a computer, always means that computer. Any time a machine sends a network request to 127.0.0.1, it is talking to itself. This is very useful when it comes to blocking ads, because all we have to do is specify the IP address of any ad server to be 127.0.0.1. And to do that, all we have to do is edit the hosts file.

It is important to note that there have been complaints of system slowdowns when using a large hosts file. This is usually fixed by turning off and disabling the DNS Client in your Services control panel under Administrative Tools. The DNS client caches previous DNS requests in memory to supposedly speed this process up, but it also reads the entire HOSTS file into that cache as well which can cause a slowdown. This service is unnecessary and can be disabled.

There are HOSTs file that are already made that you can download which contain a large list of known ads servers, banner sites, sites that give tracking cookies, contain web bugs, or infect you with hijackers. Listed below are web sites that produce these types of hosts files:

hpguru’s HOSTS File can be found here: http://www.hosts-file.net/

The MVPS Host File can be found at: http://www.mvps.org.

Hosts File Project can be found here : http://remember.mine.nu/

If you choose to download these files, please backup your original by renaming it to hosts.orig and saving the downloaded HOSTS file in its place. Using a HOSTS file such as these is highly recommended to protect your computer.

For those that prefer a visual reference, please see the following:

JIMMY SPOTS THE BEST HUMANITARIAN MESSAGE EVER
We have the privilege of showcasing one of our former staff’s (Jimmy Ngu) blog, where in one of his articles, he came across an awesome depiction of human rights using pure typography…

And while we’re on the subject of fantastic typography, check out these ultra-cool posters compiled by Cameron Mall that use nothing but fonts! Almost makes our eyes water…

This letterpress poster was handcrafted character by character over the course of roughly 100 hours. Characters from the Bickham Script Pro, Engravers MT, and Epic typeface families form the edifice featured in the artwork, the Salt Lake Temple . Additional detail photos available at Cameron’s Veer Portfolio .

 

BEAUTIFULLY PAPER-CUT ILLUSTRATIONS FROM YULIA BRODSKAYA
Yulia Brodskaya dazzles us with these beautifully hand crafted paper cut illustrations displayed in Designboom, Craftzine and Computerlove.

TYPOGRAPHY AS THE NEW ERA OF CONCEPT DESIGN
What if typography could become a design and a message all in one concept? These 70 inspiring 3D typographic examples compiled by Hong Kiat are truly amazing!

Talking about Typography being a message and illustration on its own, these two captivating designs by Mike Campau displayed in Behance Network are nothing short of ground-breaking!

Behance Network also showcased an interesting futuristic concept of typography by Luke Lucas.

Imagination is always the best weapon of creativity to convert typography into illustration as shown by Fanzi through Deviant Art.

THE COOLEST LOGO INSPIRATION SITES
If you’re a designer on the lookout for inspiration for your logo designs, sites such as LogoPond, and LogoDesignLove, who recently presented a collection of ambigram logos:

MORE INSPIRATIONAL SITES SHOWCASING THE BEST OF THE BEST IN LOGO DESIGNS
Dzine Blog made an awesome compilation of 54 creative and logo designs that will blow you away!

Speaking of reference and "raw" inspiration., check out Vintage designs compiled by Eric Carl on FlickR.

As we are on the subject of creative reference, Elite By Design has loads of Logo Design Tutorials and Resources, enough for any designer to feast upon creative ideas and references!

Logo design in today’s world has come to be one of the most important aspects of creating a brand identity and connecting with consumers. These resources are meant to give you the tools you need to design the perfect logo. However, nothing will help you more than practice, discipline, and endurance.

 

EVOLUTION OF CAR LOGOS
Talk about updating yourself! Car crests, logos and emblems need constant upgrading to keep pace with the changing flavours of their consumers. Neatorama wrote an interesting article regarding this on-going trend.

THE NAUGHTY SIDE OF LOGO DESIGN
Having a laugh is one thing, but making fun of something is totally another. The logos compiled and entitled Logo Design Gone Wrong, shows us just how simple it is to twist reality into dirty humour! You’ll have to see them to believe them…

THE SHEER MAGNITUDE OF DAVID AIREY’S CREATIVITY
Mr David Airey is a phenomenal self-employed graphic Designer with vast arrays of knowledge in logo design that we have had the continued privilege of admiring!

A recent article he wrote shows the process of creativity.

Keywords to be associated with the design include confidence, strength, dependability, and self-assurance. At the same time, my client wanted to remain down-to-earth, accessible, and perhaps a little different.

LUKA PENSA’S INTERVIEW ON LOGO DESIGN
Being able to tap into the mind of brilliant people can be cool, especially when you’re dealing with one of the top Logo Designers around : Luka Pensa. CSS Globe managed to show his generosity through a free icon set made exclusively for its readers:

CHRIS CHAMELEON’S ALL OF ME
This music video by Shotopop creates an visually eerie atmosphere to accompany the music.

INTO THE PINK (BY PLASTIC)
Into The Pink (by Plastic) is aimed at demonstrating the power of the latest graphic cards out there.

Whilst focused on cool Flash clips; Pixel-8 created a simple but effective short video called P.E.T. Recycling that draws our attention to the importance of recycling:

PRETTY LOADED - THE MUSEUM OF PRE-LOADERS
Pretty Loaded is an archive of preloaders that preload other preloaders, which has in-turn become a tribute to a vanishing art form amid a constantly changing digital landscape…

INTERACTIVE FLASH EXAMPLES FROM WAGNER PAULA
This collection of cool Flash experiments by Wagner Paula may just tip the iceberg regarding the capabilities of Flash, so please visit and enjoy!

PAPERVISION AUGMENTED 3D REALITY VIA THE WEBCAM
This awesome 3D virtual Augmented Reality image we came across through Didn’t You Hear and Boffswana uses sensors on a printed surface and reacts when it makes contact to the webcam!

To get your own, just visit this page and download and print the required symbol. Then, point your webcam at the symbol and watch the creature spring to life.

It works in real time, so you can move either the camera or the symbol all around and the creature will react accordingly, and it’s even aware of depth, so you can move the symbol close to or away from the camera, and the creature will grow or shrink as if it was a real object.

SOME AWESOME INTERACTIVE 3D FLASH SITES POWERED BY PAPERVISION
Whilst on the topic of PaperVision, and for those who have not already seen polished results, we strongly recommend you look at Cleoag.ru, The Eco Zoo and PaperVision 3D, where you can experience some seriously interactive Flash!

RETURN OF THE OLD SCHOOL CONCEPTS & COOL ICONS OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY
Sure, today is about advanced designs, but that does not mean that old school ideas or designs can be just thrown away. Paul Kadysz made this message clear in his designs at Freebies Dock.

How did I get the idea? There’s a lot of free icon sets containing modern, shiny icons. Servers, hard disks, consoles, globes, speakers, LCD screens, etc. But what about good old times? Why not to have an icon of an old school camera on your desktop? I started with the TV icon and than got some ideas from friends.

Speaking of icons, Elite By Design is a cool blog that has links to various useful freebies, but has taken the time to compile a list of the very best icon sets from around the world, providing the idea-seeking designer a chance to download some inspiration.

Icons are a staple of the design industry – every day new sets are being released into the world, most often with little to no attention. Today we are going to showcase new fresh high quality icon sets perfect for your design project. Enjoy!

FREE WEB 2.0 LOGO DESIGN DOWNLOADS
Logo designs are constantly evolving to suit the identity of the company it represents. At Logo Instant, we can get all the inspiration we require to create or emulate any kind of logo. Here are but two of the many logos that you can download for free:

COLLECTIONS OF DESIGN ELEMENTS
Design is the name of the game, and having a vast array of inspirational designs you can draw from, can certainly help us out of a pickle. We discovered Pattern Tap, which showcases good interface design elements. Finally, someone is following in the footsteps of the Smiley Cat!

Speaking of Smiley Cat, we thought it best to re-introduce the Elements of Design as an alternative web design showcase (through the Smiley Cat Web Design Blog by (Christian Watson) that serves as one of the best resources for specific design elements such as search box, comment cards and much much more. Christian recently starting adding online shopping cart elements as well…

ADORABLE AVATARS
Dezinerfolio compiled a cute collection of Human Avatars that can help to better present the identity of an individual, and with 25 different sets to choose from, practically all of us would be covered…

SOME OF THE HOTTEST FREE FONTS TO DATE
Snap 2 Objects offers free design tips, and loads of freebies for inspiration. They recently compiled a list of some of the coolest free fonts being used today…

Tutorials helps those who want to learn the ropes before engaging in their own creations on the web. Here we have compiled a few interesting tutorials that may be of help to you and your assignments. PSDTUTS (Photoshop Tutorials) provides some of the coolest tutorials around in creating great work to display anywhere. Perhaps one of the most profound of these tutorials is a recent one by Collis (the master and chief) that teaches us how to enhance a simple design layout by giving it a more professional look.

In this tutorial we’re going to put together a quick, simple but effective layout and then create variations using backgrounds, photos and patterns. We’ll also look at how to make seamless tiled backgrounds out of a photo, methods for ending a single photo and simple ways to create pixel patterns.

PADOLSEY’S GUIDE FOR A GREAT WEBSITE DESIGN & EXECUTION OF WEB EFFECTS
Nettuts (Net Tutorials) featured one particular freelance web developer known as James Padolsey, who has a knack for details in making a website effective and interesting.

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to create a style switcher using jQuery and PHP. The end result will be an unobtrusive & entirely degradable dynamic style switcher which will be quick and easy to implement.

Here we learn how to mimic the i-Google Interface in another of Padolsey tutorial from Nettuts

In this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to create a customizable interface with widgets. The finished product will be a sleek and unobtrusively coded iGoogle -like interface which has a ton of potential applications!

Instead of going into the library to fish out tons of books related to the creation of the internet, Melih Bilgil created an amazing animated video that was brought to our attention by Read Write Web that provides us with an easy to understand history of the internet:

History of the internet is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to file-sharing, from arpanet to internet. The video uses a new type of info-graphic called PICOL icons , which will soon be made available for free on picol.org . PICOL stands for Pictorial Communication Language - it’s a project that aims to create “a standard and reduced sign system for electronic communication.” PICOL is free to use and open to alter.

With the invention of the internet, people are connected to eachother so much more in the concept of indirect social communication. One of the biggest impact felt recently as a result of such connective force, is Facebook, where Mashable recently revealed these startling statistics:

Back in August 2008, Mark Zuckerberg posted on the official Facebook blog that Facebook had reached 100 million users . Now, only 4 months later, this number has grown 50%: Facebook now has 150 million users, and, these are active users we’re talking about. How they determine this number at Facebook is unknown to me, but it probably means that users who’ve just created an account which sits idle for a long period of time aren’t included. This is huge; Facebook is growing incredibly fast, and at this pace it will will reach 300 million users by the end of 2009.

With this in mind, Webware reported that Burger King are trying something different on Facebook, encouraging people to delete 10 of their friends from their network in order to get a free burger as part of the Burger King Whopper Sacrifice campaign:

Burger King has put out some interesting campaigns as of late, but this one piques our interest because of how gleefully it pokes fun at our social-networking obsessions. “Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test,” the Whopper Sacrifice site explains. “Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice ten of your friends.

The funniest part: The “sacrifices” show up in your activity feed. So it’ll say, for example, “Caroline sacrificed Josh Lowensohn for a free Whopper.” Unfortunately, you can’t delete your whole friends list and eat free (however unhealthily) for a week. The promotion is limited to one coupon per Facebook account.

In other Facebook news, there is now a way to get anyone drunk - minus the hangover, through donations disguised as beverages. CNet takes a look into this new wave of Social-e-Commerce:

The concept is, in theory, very similar to start-ups like buyyourfriendadrink.com . But services like that are only compatible with participating bars, and Give Real has found a workaround that will make its gifting service compatible with any bar that accepts credit cards. You opt to send a drink to a friend, your credit card gets charged, your friend chooses to accept the payment, and his or her credit card will be credited for that amount of cash when a purchase at an establishment considered a bar, restaurant, or cafe is made.

With Facebook’s developer platform now running relatively smooth, and the launch of their new connect initiate, Ruhani Rabin demonstrates exactly how and why we should connect:

Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site, Connect and find their friends who also use your site, Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook, Have Trusted secure authentication via Facebook, Provide Real Identity, Link their friends with your site, and Distribute your site throughout social networks!

Like all inventions, it has its benefits and disadvantages, where Sexy Widget posted a very informative article concerning the Pros and Cons of Facebook Connect.

By easing registration requirements, offering increased distribution, and solving for what to do with a new user with no friends, Facebook has come up with three very compelling arguments for online communities to take Facebook Connect for a spin.  The distribution piece in particular is brilliant - it makes Facebook both a Federator by distributing its registration system AND an Aggregator, by pulling in Internet wide activity into a central newsfeed.  It’s also classic hub & spoke strategy .  Facebook is telling us site owners that they will trade us traffic for distribution of their registration system.  For all of Google’s might, their lack of a central newsfeed limits the ability for Google Friend Connect to drive you traffic.

It’s not only commercial businesses such as Burger King that are turning to Social-Media - even the latest American president see’s benefits:

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA ADDRESSING THE NATION WEEKLY ON YOUTUBE
Some politicians tend to avoid transparency but newly President-Elect Barack Obama uses YouTube to reach out to the entire nation, as discovered by Read Write Web.

Some people are already saying that posting to YouTube is just the strategy of the week for pandering to young people. They point out that Obama’s account on Twitter, almost the most popular account on the service, has been dead silent since the election ended. Posting to YouTube is different though. It’s repurposing media, cross posting it, it’s simple. The Obama campaign has already posted almost 2000 videos to its YouTube account.

Few traditional media companies are embracing Social Media, unlike the New York Times, who utilize online social networking to circulate stories:

The social network is intended for you to recommend articles to your friends, share reviews for shows or movies and track comments left by your friend on various articles of the online version of the newspaper.

CONCLUDING PREDICTIONS AND DESIRES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THE YEAR 2009
Read Write Web made some initial predictions as to what social media had to offer in the year 2009

Over the course of the past year, we found ourselves drawn to the apps, services, and features that helped us better organize the madness that is information overload. We added our friends to lists in both FriendFeed and Tweet Deck, we categorized our RSS feeds and even cleared out some for good, we de-friended the strangers we had collected on Facebook, we synced our social network friend lists, and we found ways to multi-post to our preferred networks. Yes, we became more efficient..but there’s still so much room for improvement. We want Google Reader add-ons, better friend synchronization tools - not to mention friend list sanitizers!

There’s certainly no concrete way of telling what the next technological evolutionary step for mankind could be. As they say, the human mind has no limits, and nor does NI-Limits!

For those of you who cannot afford the comfort and security of hiring a professional web-development agency such as ourselves, who are able to fully support all our client’s needs, across all forms of media and regardless of the complexity of the project, you may be interested in hiring a Freelancer.

It is with great pleasure that we have finally managed to find ten Malaysian freelancers with quality high enough to make it onto a Top Ten list, shown here in no particular order:

Kailoon

NI-Limits and Kailoon have been in contact since the beginning, as both our blogs were born around the same time. He has produced countless tutorials and released several freebies, such as icon sets and free Wordpress themes.

Hi! I’m kailoon and I am a web designer from Malaysia. Drawing and designing is my passion. I am well versed not only in the usage of Photoshop and Illustrator but also in CSS/XHTML and PHP as well. Windows is my platform of choice.

I’m taking freelance jobs and at the same time I work as a part-timer for Envato.. I’m also one of the reviewers for ThemeForest.

Some examples of Kailoon’s work includes:

Ikram Zidane

Although Ikram’s website is now offline, and no one seems to know where he is, this guy was one of the first Malaysian designers to get international recognition, and worked with NI-Limits on several smaller projects before disappearing. Examples of his work can be seen on FlickR.

I’m a 17-year-old dude from Malaysia. Enjoy designing, coding and cursing while at it.
During the day, I’m a student, but at night, i keep ikram-zidane.com and working as a freelance web designer. I’m Male and Single.

If anyone knows what ever happened to Ikram, please leave a comment below.

Some examples of Ikram’s work includes:

Bel Koo

We have attempted to contact Bel Koo several times before, but so far with no luck - fortunately, Kailoon recently managed to get a hold of her and published the interview on his site - seen here. Although we feel her previous website was much nicer than the new one, it’s great to see change!

I’m a web designer (not programmer), diploma in Graphic Design at P.I.A (2003 - 2006). I have been working in the freelance web design for well two years(2006-Present), some of my work have received recognition and displayed on some web design gallery.

Some examples of Bel Koo’s work includes:

Ikram Omar

Having never spoken to Ikram, we cannot say for sure what he is all about, but are eager to meet the man and get to know him. The founder of Filament Phase, this veteran designer knows his stuff and wishes he had lectured at several gatherings around Asia…

Filament specializes in creating interactive websites. The result is a great look, a great experience and a great web design.

Some examples of Ikram’s work includes:

Tommy Ng

Tommy is another freelancer who we have yet to speak with in person, but have traded an email or two. His minimalist style stands-out from the crowd, and clearly understands the concept of less is more.

I am a freelance web designer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Below are some of my completed web design projects. Feel free to browse through them to have an idea of my approach in web design and the types of websites I enjoy creating.

Some examples of Tommy’s work includes:

Art Geex

NI-Limits and Art Geex have been in contact for several years now, and if it were not for the fact that she was based out in Sarawak, she would be a much welcomed member of our family - nonetheless, we wish her all the best for the coming year!

My real name per IC is Hayaty Mahdini. No, I am not a male and yes, I love all type of art; I called myself Artgeex because of that.

This is a version 6.1 of my website. Why point one? Because it’s a revision of my version 6; this newer version is much simpler, and above all, more sincere than the previous one. To me, sincerity plays a major role in whatever I do.

Some examples of Art Geex’s work includes:

Izuddin Helmi

This new comer makes it direct to our Top Ten list, simply from his entry to the recent WooThemes contest. We tried to initiate contact with the designer but have so far heard nothing back, and without an About Us page ready on his site, we know very little about him.

I’ll update my about me page soon!

Some examples of Izuddin’s work includes:

Timothy Su

Timothy managed to find his way onto our Top Ten list at the last minute, and came from viewing an old post written a year or more ago that also did a bang-up job of introducing Malaysian freelancers.

Not having met the man, we do not exactly know much about him but are nonetheless interested in meeting him.

Yes yes I know I’m fugly get over it.

Timothy Su Yi Cheng. Naturally awesome and bitchy. Design music alcohol art internet clothes shoes shorts. Money.

Some examples of Timothy’s work includes:

Hasrimy

He recently re-designed his website an opted for a more personal approach..

I’m sooo inspired by Netdiver and Computer Love. Gosh! Look at all the great stuffs they have. Envy them? Nay… Even though I lead a hectic life, juggling never ending tasks, almost become an insomniac but I’m improving, almost every time. Who knows, they might be the one who got inspired by me *wink*.

I am proud to be Malaysian and now its time for Malaysia to be proud of me! It’s definitely not a pretty job but someone (which in this case is ME) has to do it! hasrimy.com is expanding and exploring more and moreeeee opportunity. I’m still green and I need U to add more colours into me.

Some examples of Hasrimy’s work includes:

Wong Yeng Kit

Kit may be based in the chilling UK, but he is nonetheless Malaysian, a freelancer and a talented designer, which is why he has made it onto our list and why we also look forward to him coming back to Malaysia one day to come and meet our team!

I am a fresh graduate multimedia designer and currently staying in United Kingdom. I am a person who has high passion in design technologies, art and illustration. One of my dreams is to master all the design technologies and become one of the TOP designers in the world, and now, I am working toward it! I love to draw since I was a child and this hobby has leaded me into the design field. I found myself especially interested into the accessible website design ever since I come to know about the W3C web standard (year 2007). Nowadays, I spend most of my free time in researching web design technologies.

Some examples of Kit’s work includes:

In short, Malaysian design is finally starting to move forward. If anyone else from Malaysia has a portfolio they would like to share, or have a project that it too important or complex for freelancers - please do not hesitate to contact us!

THE DESKTOP 3D PRINTER
In this particular article, O’Reilly discusses the evolution of printers…

But even with our memory-stingy printers, Apple had enough buying power to drive their costs below ours. We were selling a couple of hundred units a month; I don’t know how many units Apple sold, but I’m sure they were buying the same memory for their Apple IIs, Lisas (remember those?) and early Macs. So we lost the battle to economies of scale, and that’s a battle that’s hard to win when you’re playing against a company a hundred times your size.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the 3D printer market. Desktop Factory looks a lot like Imagen: an aggressive, focused startup built around one product. Desktop printers probably aren’t built around commodity parts, like processors and memory (and, for that matter, the Canon marking engine); the commodity parts are now much cheaper (RAM is pennies a meg). But what happens when HP or Apple gets into the game? Will Desktop Factory be the first to sell a 3D printer for hobbyists, or will we have to wait for Apple?

The LaserWriter drove standardization on PostScript, which in turn drove a new generation of text editors and typesetting products. That work is continuing with products like InDesign. 3D CAD software strikes me as being roughly where text editing and page layout was in the 80s. Is Desktop Factory the company that will drive a renaissance in 3D design tools? Will their printer interface become a de-facto standard that allows others to play? That’s what it will take for them to survive. These days, Imagen doesn’t even merit an entry in Wikipedia.

T-SHIRTS THAT MAKE GEEKS DROOL AND AN AUTOMATIC TEMPERATURE CONTROL MUG
If you are wondering what is the best gift to present to your partner, this cool t-shirt that interacts with body distance making sure you stay close to each other, and imagine enjoying your coffee with each sip that’s as good as the first without having it go cold with the automatic temperature control mug.

SELF-PICTURES IN OVERHEAD VIEW AND TAPPING UP YOUR OWN PHONE LINE
Bring out the inner child in you as you have fun taking pictures of yourself with the concept of the paper whirlwind. Then if you feel your safety is threatened by prank callers, trace the culprit with your very own phone tap gadget where it stores every information of incoming and outgoing calls.

UNDERWATER LIGHT SHOWS AND MUSICAL FLASH DRIVES
Specially for those who wallow in bathtubs for hours on end, the underwater light show will keep you submerged till you wrinkle all over. And if you’re on the go and not wanting to have a "lifeless" Flash Drive, check out the latest Flash Drive that plays music literally!

LAUNCH OF APPLE’S TIME CAPSULE & THE WIRELESS DIGITAL PHOTO FRAME
We compiled this the latest news we can find about the progress of Apple’s Time Capsule external HD.

Looks like Apple has started to ship its Time Capsule - the newest external hard drive from Cupertino which is just about the only solution available for those who want to perform wireless Time Machine backups from your notebook. The Time Capsule debuted at Macworld, being an 802.11n Wifi base station that was equipped with a choice of 500GB or 1TB hard drive, enabling you to back up files to the drive or share files across a network without having to hook up to a cable. The 500GB and 1TB model will retail for $299 and $499, respectively.

On the subject of functionality, we came across a cool wireless digital photo frame that is easy to use.

THE CURVY IVIEW AND ICE CUBES IN 10 MINUTES
The design of the iView looks to be based on old 1950’s wraparound cinema screens as the screen comes around to surround the viewer. And the Ice Cube Maker machine can make sure that you have emergancy back-up ice cubes should an unexpected party arrives!

THE PHONOFONE II AND THE RSSTROOM READER
While some designers go for a contemporary or futuristic look, the PhotoFone II owes its unique look to the past. Talk about creative, the

RSStroom reader is so named because it can print the latest RSS updates on toilet paper!

SURFING THE WEB IN STYLE AND THE WAY DESKTOPS SHOULD BE MADE
Being seated in a single position can be absolutely boring, and the surf chair may give a little bit of comfort. Talking about practicality, a desktop should be made as it’s called: a DESKTOP!

THE ULTRA COOL FOLDING BALCONY!
Seriously, this has to be considered one of the best inventions in history!

Do you live in a northern European country where the houses do not have balconies? Do you wish your new ultra modern house has something special? Well the award-winning BloomFrame balconies designed by Hofman Dujardin Architects is here to make you happy. This is a rather innovative window frame that can form a balcony when it is pushed out. This is very popular in Sweden especially now that global warming is making things up there nice and sunny!

THE GLIMMERING ZULU AND CRISVECTOR’S LIMITLESS IMAGINATION OF DIGITAL ART
FFFFound lives up to its name through discovering art that resembles Japanese painting characteristics but with a twist of modernization, and be prepared to savor the magnificent digital arts of Crisvector where each creation is set to draw a sense of awe and creativity.

MAGDALENA’S CONTINUATION CONCEPT AND THE ART OF PURPOSE
An interesting collection of continuous art flow can sometimes be as fluid as the creations of morphing designs and photo rendering.

HUMOUR OF ALED LEWIS AND FANTASY INSPIRATION OF JACEK YERKA
Designs with a touch of humour is always interesting to have a tickle with and inspirational art can sometimes look like spawn of dreams.

FICTIONAL ART OF LUDVIGSEN AND THE COOLEST SHOWCASE OF ART ON THE WEB
An amazing array of art pieces by Henning Ludvigsen shows a blend between reality and fantasy while awesome pieces of art are collected in a cool showcase online.

HILARIOUS DIGITAL DESIGNS BY NIKO
Who would have thought that digital design can be funny and yet cool at the same time?.

ANDREW’S UNIQUE DIGITAL MANIPULATIONS AND INSPIRATIONAL PATTERNS
Tweaking reality is one thing, but getting it to look cool like Andrew did is awesome. And patterns can sometimes sum up the level of creativity behind each repetition.

PUSHING THE LIMITS OF REALITY DESIGNS AND MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGNS
Olli Pekka Jauhiainen created some magnificent art by testing designing limits while Hi There displays some cool designs based on technology.

THE PINK PARTY FEEL AND A NEW MEANING TO BEING LOVE-SICK
Demen displays some of his creative skills while we are introduced to a beautifully designed picture of being "love-sick"

DESIGN OF A TINY WORLD AND THE ABSTRACTIVE STASH OF LUXURIOUS DESIGNS
Jesar demonstrates that in design, a tiny world can look like entire continent, while Flark brings forth the new meaning of beautiful compact designs.

FLICKR’S COLLECTION OF ABSTRACT AND CREATIVE ARTWORKS
Here is a cool array of Coling0405’s artwork that’s worthy of a second look.

NADINE’S AMAZING ART FEAT AND BUILDING ANIMATION THROUGH JQUERY
What better way to showcase your artwork than in a cool art gallery and we capture the philosophy of creating animation with jQuery.

ICONS OF CHRISTMAS AND UNIQUE HAND DRAWN ICONS
It is that special time of the year again, and PSDTOP Blog are presenting some wonderfully designed Christmas icons that are guaranteed to bring some Xmas cheer. Blog Spoon Graphics developed some cool hand drawn icons that give a new meaning to the word "original"

CUTE ANIMAL RSS FEED ICONS AND GRAPH ICONS
Animal conservation efforts have recently been taken to new heights by Smashing Magazine’s cute RSS icon designs with the animal species in mind. Smashing Magazine also featured some graph-styled icons that look pretty cool and professional.

COMPATIBLE JET30, FACING, EXTREME UPDATES AND COOL SOLUCIJA
Web templates are always useful when they can be downloaded for free and applied to your projects. Both Jet30 and Facing have these cool features. But when it comes to sleek looking free web templates, Extreme Updates and Solucija possess the beauty and style in their own special ways of design. To put icing on the cake, Smashing Magazine made a cool compilation of free templates available.

UNIQUE TEXTURES AND REALISTIC HIGH RESOLUTION TEXTURES
Websites are sometimes brought to life with just a simple use of unique background texture, the same goes to the site which rely upon realistic imagery.

PATTERN COLLECTIONS, COOL SLIDING MENU TABS AND FREE CSS CREATIONS
Patterns are unique as they create the illusion of continuation, thus making the website look infinite. Creativity of the tabs in a website is always a plus, thus having a cool sliding tab effect is sure to get the thrill of intrigue and influence users to create their own free CSS menus.

BRANDING AS AN INVESTMENT INSTEAD OF A COST
It has been a lengthy debate as to whether or not branding costs more than it earns, but in all honesty, if you look at branding as a cost, you are setting-off in the wrong foot, as discussed in a recent article by Branding Matters.

Alternatively, if you view branding as an investment, there are a few preconceptions you accept. For one, you expect to get a positive return on your investment. Secondly, you understand that in order to receive a positive return, it will take some time. Thirdly, you understand that the more you put in, especially in times where you can take advantage of situations to better position your investment, the more you will get out.

So apply those expectations to your brand. In times like these it’s very easy to want to button down the hatches and remove all ‘excess’ outflows. This couldn’t be more detrimental to your business. Because the markets will turn around and the economy will rebound. Where will your brand be when it does? Don’t you think that it’s better to position your brand now for success later? By viewing your brand strategy as an investment, it takes the ‘negativity’ factor away from what you put ‘in’ because it shifts your perspective from what you’re putting in to what you will eventually get out.

This is how we should view our brand development strategy. We should be positioning our brands for long-term success, just like you would desire for any investment.

BEAUTIFUL ANNUAL REPORT DESIGNS, CREATIVE CALENDAR DESIGNS & TIME DISPLAYS
Presentation or first impressions count when delivering the precious information of a company, so a well-designed annual report is always a good idea; while dates of important appointments in the calendar such as meetings and gatherings would no longer seem troublesome if you take it with an open mind, something that is always easy when there is something inspiring to see or interactive with.

Speaking of calendars, time is utterly important in life itself. And time can be displayed in various imaginative ways that capture the importance of its essence.

PATTERNS OF BEAUTIFUL CREATIVITY AND AWESOME CUSTOM DESIGNED ENVELOPES
From gift wrappers to wallpapers, and even in clothing, patterns define the inner beauty of a design and the feel it produces when setting eyes on them - a sight that is as well defined as custom-made envelopes and sales kits can be when designed with the passion of a limitless imagination.

COLOURFUL HEADERS FROM CORVUS AND THE SERIOUS MARCHAND DE TRUCS HEADER DESIGNS
Portraying an emotional feel to a design is always challenging, these two sites are examples of well executed feel designs.

PAIKO"S MINIMAL GRUNGE FEEL AND RESIDENCE HOTEL PARADISO"S EVOLUTIONARY BLOG
Mixing the art of grunge is one thing, but making interactive menus through its design is flawless. And while on the "flawless" subject, a blog can be just as good.

DREAM AWARDED LOGOS AND JET’S UNIQUELY MERMERIZING TEXTURE DESIGNS
Logos that are well designed deserves recognition and fame from the likes of Dream. And textures picturing the curves of complexity and beauty does not go unnoticed.

PEACEFULLY BEAUTIFUL HEADER OF DARA’S GARDEN AND BRANDED07′S HEADER CONCEPT COMBINATIONS
Each header has its own special attraction. Gardens and beautiful surroundings are always appreciated, while it takes a sense of experimentation to accomplish a feel of abstractive designs.

SUBTLE DESIGNS OF DRSOFT AND THE ARTISTIC MARVELS OF HAND-DRAWN AJAX
In some cases, it doesn’t take too much to look so good. And Klinkov discovers that no matter how, technology can never surpass the human instinctive touch of art.

THE CRAPPY CAT INTERACTIVITY AND THE TOUGH HEADER OF ONE FAST BUFFALO
Combining two functions as one feature in a grungy website is awesome, while the toughness of its subjects calls for a tough layout with a strong buffalo.

AWESOME GRUNGE WEBSITE FEEL AND A FUN INTERACTIVE COUNTRY-LIKE DESIGN
Fully executing the style of grunge into a cool website can only be described as intelligent and creative. This includes the use of subtle yet fun elements to convey a country style feel for a website.

HILARIOUS INTERACTIVITY OF COKE’S TASTEBUDS AND ELEGENT WEBSITE DESIGNS
Coke’s new concept of introducing its zero sugar level drink was taken to hilarious proportions, and what better way to showcase the quality of art in a majestically designed website layout.

THE WORDPRESS MANIACS AND THE YOUTHFUL VIGOR OF A ROUGH CITY LIFE
A group of WordPress worshiping developers came up with a website signifying their obsession with the program. And having a blog that shows the rough edge living of its youth is noticeably worthwhile.

A DELIGHTFUL SNACK OF DESIGN AND A SIMPLE DESIGN TO SCORE BIG
Design Snack consists of various creative designs from all over with its gentle colours and clear displays, and Junaid shows the depth of his design sense with a cool looking site.

THE LIMITLESS GROOVESHACK AND THE RADIANT EFFECTS OF ALFA ROMEO
A shack that provides music for your website is definitely a breakthrough in its own way while one automobile company shows us a part of its creations glow of quality.

ADIT’S SELF PORTRAYAL OF DESIGN AND INTERESTING WEB HOSTING SITE
Sometimes just having a gift within is all it needs to create a wonderful career as Adit describes in his site, and web hosting can be fun given the right design.

A TASTY SITE FOR ALL AND A PASSION INSPIRED WEDDING BLOG
One look at this delightful site "freshly baked" makes everyone a chef. And the passion of a wedding is conveyed in a design of tenderness.

A ZOOMII UNIVERSE OF BOOKS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Imagine having an entire library in one single website. That’s some serious work!

AN INTERESTING SCROLL SITE AND THE EVER SO LOVABLE SITE MULTIPLE ATMOSPHERE COMBINATION
Divvoted is one site that can be scrolled through its contents and yet stays true to its ‘base’, while Pojeta prefers one single elemental page.

A DESIGNER’S INTRODUCTORY PORTFOLIO AND THE CRAVE OF IMAGINATION
While up and coming designers steadily build their empire, the established ones take cool designs directly to a different level.

WEB DESIGN THE VISUALSOFT WAY AND 3D CARTOONY ENVIRONMENT SITE
Some companies take pride in their profession that the designs speak for themselves, others use the 3D concept in a cartoonish feel to inject fun.

KARIM’S DIRECT APPROACH DESIGNS AND THE COOL PALERMO GRUNGE DESIGN
Websites can look cool and pleasant with the slightest touch of simplicity while the grunge style showing toughness can be awesome depending on the sites contents.

THE EVOLUTIONARY INTERACTIVE SENSISOFT AND THE AARDVARK COMMITTMENT TO ENTERTAINMENT
Sensisoft came up with the cool time travel animations while aardvark brings us entertainment news in dark grungy style.

THE INTERACTIVE CREEPY CUBO AND THE CUTENESS OF BEBIKO
Creepy website found a new face, and bebiko warms away the fright with the cutest website design to date.

DELICIOUS TEMPTATION OF THE FARMHOUSE AND CLARITY OF SIMPLICITY
Sideways scrolling with a perfected personal touch from Farmhouse Fare and a simple touch to emphasize a clear display.

GOGGLE LAUNCHES WIDGETISED VIRTUAL WORLDS
Ever since the invention of Second Life, many other firms have tried to duplicate or take the concept of virtual interactivity to the next level. Tech Crunch discovered that Google came up with Lively: a browser based virtual world in which users are able to customize their avatars or "virtual self" and use it to interact with each other.

THE INTRODUCTION OF VIRTUAL ADVERTISING THROUGH SMALLWORLDS
And while the virtual avatars take us a step closer to true user personality, it had to be expected that advertising within these "virtual worlds" would come sooner rather than later. Marshable came across such an advertising concept by SmallWorlds containing elements used by companies such as Panasonic radios, and TVs, where companies can sell their products by "putting" it in the virtual world so users can learn about them.

ELECTRIC SHEEP RELEASE PRIVATE VIRTUAL WORLDS
Many are trying to take virtual interactivity to the next level and TechCrunch discovered that the CEO of Electric Sheep Company, Sibley Verbeck, launched a Flash-based 3D world application that is currently being offered as a hosted web software service.

THE BIRTH OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
While people interact with each other using these latest offerings in Virtual worlds, a conversation between artificial intelligence comes to thought: How sure are you that the person you are interacting with in the "virtual world" is another person’s avatar, or could it be artificial intelligence? Rensselaer tested this option in working with Second Life, and it appears it’s up to us to figure it out for ourselves.

TAG GALAXY FLICKR VISUALIZATIONS
Max Kiesler came upon an interesting use of the Flickr API that can be easily customized by the user to maximize the interactivity of this virtual image based world.

IBM COLLABORATES WITH SECOND LIFE TO CREATE VIRTUAL INTEROPERABILITY
As the expectations of users and online interactivity flourishes, TechCrunch discovered that "teleportation" of avatars between two different metaverses may soon be fully implemented as a cool tool that will truly avalanche the use of virtual worlds

MUXLIM PLANS FIRST VIRTUAL WORLD FOR MUSLIMS
Nobody should be left out of the evolving technological era and virtual reality. Tech Crunch discovered, that same notion is being planned by muxlim.com to create a virtual world specially created for Muslims who find recent virtual interactive worlds unsuitable for the culture of Muslims and Islam. If it is done, it will also pave a way for all religions to have their own virtual world respective of their faith.

The virtual world is said to launch in 4-6 weeks and will “allow the opportunity to wear a hijab, and go to prayer rooms.” Muxlim itself is your standard social network offering community features, blogs and video sharing. The revenue model will be VIP accounts, virtual gifts, virtual furniture/clothes, themes/styles, profile applications, advertising, branded communities and physical merchandise like t-shirts.

THE POSSIBLE FUTURE OF UI GUI
Speaking of paving the way for new ideas, here is a special introduction video for Ringo - a holographic interactivity interface that is possibly the future of UI GUI.

In line with Vision 2020, we have gathered several articles that shed some light into the current status of Malaysian Information Technology.

MISTAKES OF GOVERNMENT WEBSITES: SOMETHING WE NEED TO RECTIFY
As they say, a rotten apple mixed with good ones can spoil the whole basket. Such is the case when many are asked about the quality of Malaysian websites, particularly government websites. Many have seen these websites and have assumed all our websites are of the same quality, but these are clear mistakes that must be rectified and avoided in the future if we are to compete with the global quality of websites in general. Here are a few quality remarks that Danny Foo discovered regarding these "mistakes"

Browser incompatibility
Okie, everyone may be using Windows XP or Vista. But not everyone are using Internet Explorer. The smarter (or geekier) ones prefer Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and etc. So it should be a requirement to test on several browsers.

Unnecessary Flash media usage
So what you’ve got a nice introduction on the front? All I want to know is who won the election or how can I check my MyKad application online. And, what?! you want to force me to sit and see your introduction by disallowing me any method to skip the movie.

No direction information highway
The last thing I remembered, I clicked on how to find out more about applying a Malaysia MyKad but now I’m reading about illegal immigrants without a Malaysia MyKad. Hmm…must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Oh wait, I think I clicked on the wrong menu button. Hmm…that’s not it either. Argh, which is the menu I’m suppose to use.

Uninvited popup windows
Ahh, here’s the information I want. Then at the click of the mouse, I get a fright of my life because the computer just did something I never intended it to do. I’m also wondering if popup windows are the cause for making users forget they have a button on their browsers to go back to the page they previously visited.

Hence, if we are to compete, we have to be up-to-date with the current trends of web design, which will give Malaysia a better projection of itself…

THE AFFIRMITY OF FOREIGN VENTURE CAPITALISTS
In one way or another, foreign venture capitalists seem to know a good investment whenever they see one compared to their local counterparts, as noticed by The Star.

Foreign venture capitalists are taking the lead from their local counterparts, according to the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), caretaker of the MSC Malaysia initiative.

Roslan Zakaria, technopreneur development division head at MDeC, said the foreign VCs showed they are more aggressive during a pitch by 35 MSC Malaysia affiliated companies on the sidelines of WCIT 2008 recently.

“One VC offered a startup US$3mil (about RM10mil) immediately after it heard its plan,” said Roslan.

SPAMMERS EXPLOITING WORLD PROBLEMS
It is infuriating that many inhumane creatures out there are like reapers preying on those who care for the welfare of others as discovered by The Star Online. If this persists, people will loose faith in kindness…

One earthquake donation scam requested donations for the China victims, where the scammer used a legitimate website and inserted a fraudulent page under the root domain.

When the user clicked on the URL in the spam e-mail message, he was directed to the fraudulent site and asked to make a donation, Symantec said in a press release.

“Spammers are aiming to capitalise on the harsh economic situation and prey on those in our society facing financial pressures,” said C.M. Woon, general manager for Malaysia at Symantec.

“By adapting their tactics to fit current trends, spammers have been able to maximise the effectiveness of their attacks.”

THOUSANDS SIGN UP FOR W1MAX & A HEALTHY DEMAND FOR BROADBAND
The Star Online discovered that most people seem to acknowledge the effectiveness of wireless broadband technology. Hence when plans to expand this form of technology were made, people responded positively.

The subscribers had signed up for the service at P1’s booth during the Pikom PC Fair which was held here earlier this month. Others also signed up at Intel Malaysia’s booth at the same event.

The US-based chipmaker had earlier invested RM50mil in the form of convertible bonds to help P1 in its WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) service capital expenditure over the next four years.

“Now that we know where the interest for WiMAX is, we will be rolling out our services more aggressively,” Lai said at a press conference after launching P1’s service, called P1 W1MAX.

MSC BEGINS NEW CHAPTER AS IBM DEVELOPS A NEW COURSE FOR UNIVERSITIES
The Malaysian technological base MSC is finally opening up its horizons to bring in new conceptual connectivity with the community through the Multimedia Development Corp.

“Many people have asked us ‘what has MSC Malaysia done for me?’ and it was always meant to benefit everyone,” said MDeC chief executive officer, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali. MDeC is the custodian of the MSC Malaysia initiative.

He was addressing the media on the outcome of the 20th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting at the sidelines of the MSC Malaysia-Pikom Export Forum last week.

While MSC starts to look deeper into the community technology sector, IBM Malaysia initiated plans to collaborate with 11 local universities to establish and develop the concept of Multi-Discipline curriculum called the Service Science Management and Engineering. This is practically a better step to reach out to the people in a direct way.

The curriculum is a new academic discipline that mixes both technical and business aspects.

It brings together the present technical subjects such as computer science and ­engineering with ­business studies subjects like operations research, ­management ­sciences, ­business strategy, social and cognitive sciences and legal sciences.

The universities that will help develop the programme are Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, University Putra Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

FRIENDSTER MOBILE NOW AVAILABLE IN MALAY
The nation is taking steps to move further into the technological direction, by widening its network base and having Frienster also produced in the Malay language.

Friendster, Inc, the No.1 social network in Asia announced its mobile site is now available in Malay. The Marketing and PR director of Friendster, Jeff Roberto talks to Lucinda Joseph about this latest feature.

Microsoft has been updating itself constantly to offer more to the public. As such, we have gathered some of the most interesting and useful Microsoft Updates for you to learn more about the going ons in the world of Microsoft.

MICROSOFT POPFLY GETS A FUN GAME BUILDER
Cnet News came across a feature of Popfly where users are invited to create and play some of the most classic computer games with a modern touch.

The new feature: an environment for building casual games (think Solitaire, not Half-Life), called Game Creator. There are several templates with generic titles to start from (personal favorite: “Badly built wall”) or users can create their own games from scratch using a scripting system and a built-in, and entertaining, library of graphics and sounds.

MICROSOFT’S DAILY-CHANGING CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Either it is part of the corporate strategy to constantly change its strategies or momentary business partnerships, or Bill Gates is simply trying to gain further attention from those such as TechCrunch:

If Gates is out telling the world, as he did on Monday, that they need to acquire other companies to fix their Internet strategy, it doesn’t take very long to figure out that there isn’t another Yahoo out there on the market. Microsoft has a long term problem on its hands, and Yahoo may be the only remedy. So when Gates says Microsoft isn’t pursuing deals, what I translate that to is “We really, really want to buy Yahoo.”

 

MICROSOFT RESEARCH LAUNCHES WORLDWIDE TELESCOPE
Imagine star-treking on your PC or Laptop without having a telescope or being in an observatory centre. That’s exactly what this unique feature can do for you, and is the device that put Scoble into tears, as (not the Scoble part) reported by Cnet News:

WorldWide Telescope is a desktop application for Windows which does exactly what you would think. It essentially turns your computer into a telescope. You can choose from a variety of options from roaming the universe freely, to guided tours of various celestial features. You can join communities of stargazers and also connect your own telescope to your computer and control it with this application. Another option is to change your source of imagery to gain a different perspective.

WINDOWS 7: THE NEWS SO FAR, SPECULATIONS AND A PEAK AT WHAT TO EXPECT
4Sysops shed some light on the latest news regarding the much awaited Windows 7 and certain speculations about Microsoft.

The demo just shows some basic enhancements of Windows Explorer, a Screen & Animation Capture tool, a new Disk Usage Analyzer, an enhanced Task Manager, a short demo about Virtual Drive and the new Website, Blog and Portal Designer. The new Windows Explorer will get tabs and will allow you to display two folders side-by-side. Two features I have been waiting for a long time. This Virtual Drive thing seems to be interesting, too.

Speaking of Windows 7, Crunch Gear’s article gave us a sneak peak at what the whole new operating system would look like. If it is as good as it looks, Windows Vista should then be finally and most thankfully put to bed; chalked-off as a bad nightmare.

We can confirm these are indeed screen shots of the current build of Windows 7 as it will be introduced in 2010, but keep in mind that’s three years away and many changes might be made.

MICROSOFT CEO SUMMIT 2008 VIRTUAL PRESSROOM
This virtual pressroom was used for Microsoft Corp’s 12th CEO Summit. This is more or less like a giant projector for Microsoft CEOs to use during the conference, discussing issues and debate varieties.

Welcome to the virtual pressroom for Microsoft Corp.’s 12th annual CEO Summit. Established in 1997, the forum allows business leaders to discuss the most pressing issues affecting global business today. From May 13 to May 15, more than 115 CEOs from Global 1000 companies in 26 countries will gather on Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus for discussion, debate and interactive sessions in topics that include decoding financial markets, establishing cultures of execution and exploring how the Internet will evolve over the next five years.

MICROSOFT SURFACE IN LAS VEGAS
One of the most unique interactive touch-screen technologies has just hit the Viva Las Vegas heat, and The Inquisitr captured its flirtatious side with this cool video showcasing its benefits. In this case, it is used as a cool date hunting strategy.

We can certainly look forward to an interesting evolution of dating services and clubbing experiences through this unique piece of technology.

MICROSOFT CREATING TOWNSQUARE: AN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK
Facebook started it, but Microsoft hopes they can take it to the next level, as Cnet News discovered the revealing of TownSquare. Instead of friends interacting with each other, this is designed for businessmen - nothing much really, but interesting nonetheless to see that there is no stone unturned that Microsoft do not want a part of…

The service is reportedly similar to Facebook, in which Microsoft has a $240 million stake. Users can see others’ feeds of what they are doing, upload and view photos, and connect with each other in teams. The site has been in use at Microsoft since Janurary, the story said.

TownSquare also reads in news feeds from the Web and workflow information from the SharePoint groupware platform, Computerworld said.

Another Microsoft social network experiement, Wallop, spun out of the company in 2006 and more recently rebuilt itself as a creator of social applications for other, larger social platforms.

MICROSOFT GETS INTO INTERACTIVE TV ADS; PURCHASES NAVIC NETWORKS.
TechCrunch discovered that Microsoft are certainly making sure it gets the best out of Interactive TV Ads through purchasing an entire company known as Navic Networks, which feature online video customization and interactivity.

Navic’s ads are interactive overlays similar to what some advertisers are trying with online video. Except that they are targeted by zipcode to each cable subscriber. As you are watching a regular TV commercial, for instance, you could click on an overlay that opens up a window with more information on the screen, or ask for a brochure to be sent to you via e-mail or regular mail (since the cable company has your address, that should be easy).

TV still represents the majority of advertising spending, and Microsoft needs to be a player there if it wants advertising to become a significant portion of its revenues. While Navic brings interactivity to TV advertising, it does not yet tie back into online advertising campaigns. Microsoft could bridge that gap.

MICROSOFT TO ACQUIRE POWERSET FOR $100 MILLION: THE TRUE RUMOUR
RWW came across a rumour regarding Microsoft’s interest to acquire the San Francisco based semantic search engine Powerset for an estimated $100 Million.

Rumors about Microsoft’s interest in Powerset had been swirling around the Valley since last month, when Dan Farber first brought up the possibility in a post on CNet.

Powerset launched The consumer-facing side of Powerset currently only searches Wikipedia articles, but Microsoft is most likely more interested in using the underlying technology for its own search products like Live Search. Powerset’s specialty iproviding answers through natural language queries like “When was Henry VIII born?” Powerset licensed this technology from Xerox PARC.

Having backing from Microsoft could help the small company to expand beyond Wikipedia and start indexing more of the Internet. Powerset’s technology is still unproven to work well for anything but Wikipedia, but if Powerset does manage to scale beyond this, then it would allow users to by-pass Google’s keyword driven search in favor of just getting a direct answer to a large number of their questions.

Not long after this, The Inquisitr discovered that the rumour turned out to be true, and Microsoft made the move to acquire Powerset.

Word of the acquisition first surfaced last week. Today, Microsoft confirms the San Francisco natural language search company will become part of its “Search Relevance team.” The announcement at Microsoft’s Live Search blog seems to imply that most, if not all, of the Powerset team will survive the transition.