Webwizzer

Faster Browser Than Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari Etc.

2008-09-04T12:45:00.006+08:00

If you want faster and more richer internet experience then try Google Chrome. It's still in beta so expect more features coming... Check it's JavaScript performance againts other browsers:

Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News

Visit Google Chrome Website

Add Website Thumbnails In Your Google Search Result

2008-08-04T10:48:00.003+08:00

Now spice your Google search results with this cool and very useful Firefox add-on! This little add-on adds previews or thumbnails of websites within Google and Yahoo search results page.

Firefox Add-ons Page
Google Preview Add-on Page
Click Here to Install (Firefox only)

Webwizzer Update - Domain Change

2008-03-10T14:57:00.002+08:00

Webwizzer blog is now back to blogspot.com (Blogger hosted domain). The http://webwizzer.net/ domain now contains my online portfolio...

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Free Graphics #18 - Windows and Apple Wallpaper Webwizzer Style

2008-03-02T12:03:00.003+08:00

I call this set "Lit My OS" wallpapers. Very simple design with dark, horizontally-distorted, dark-gray to black gradient background and glowing foreground (logos). I wasn't able to make wallpaper art for awhile because I focus myself in making glitter graphics for my other website, Graphics99. Anyway, you can download these wallpapers by using the links below...

Download Apple Wallpaper 1680 x 1050 pixels (Zip 63 kb)
Download 3 Windows Wallpaper 1024 x 768 pixels (Zip 276 kb)

The Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) - Great JS Utilities and Controls for Everyone

2008-02-28T19:35:00.010+08:00

Well, not really for everyone. I mean, this amazing free (under BSD license) JS library from the Yahoo Developer Network is for webmasters who are building online applications, widgets or just want to have more interactivity and style to their websites. The library includes buttons, tab interface, text editor, color picker, calendar, data grid, charts and much more. Check it out!

Description from Yahoo! Developer Network:

The Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.

For more information and documentation please visit the Yahoo! Developer Network website. You can also use the direct download link below.

Download YUI Library
Download Cheat Sheets (PDF)

Fantastic Flash MP3 Player with PHP and MySQL Back-end... Free!

2008-02-28T05:53:00.009+08:00

Almost everyone today has his/her own social network or blog. And one particular craze that’s been spreading like wildfire in almost everyone’s profile page, aside from YouTube videos, is a Flash MP3 player…

I found this fantastic Flash MP3 player called FLAMPlayer from www.flamplayer.com. If you’re a webmaster, a site owner or just someone who’s HTML/Flash savvy then take a look at this...

Description from their site:

“This is an mp3 player built in Flash, and so, it can be embedded in an Html page. It works using PHP and MySQL. The database stores the authors and tracks characteristics, the PHP scripts manage the communication between the Flash player and the MySQL database.

FLAM Player includes a back-end allowing the fast addition of tracks, the edition of authors or tracks characteristics, the creation of playlists and the simple integration of the player in a page.”

It's not really that great looking... It looks like the first WinAmp 5 series. But it doesn't really matter. Its back-end is what I'm after... You could download it free from its official website: www.flamplayer.com

Design Inspiration Webs # 1

2008-02-27T06:15:00.007+08:00

If writers have "writer's block" then web designers / developers have one also. I don't know what it’s called though... (Designer's block? webmaster's block?)... Once in a while we need some inspiration to get our creative skills and talents on the move. Here are 2 of my favorite websites where I get most of my design ideas in constructing websites...

Best Web Gallery

CSS Remix

A "Design Inspiration" category or page will be part of the new magazine-blog site that I'm planning to construct...

Hello World... Again

2008-02-23T13:56:00.003+08:00

Webwizzer blog will be redesigned for the 3rd time in the next couple of weeks. I've been very busy these past few weeks --- I've constructed 3 websites (2 clients and 1 of my own) and these client sites will be launched soon... I'm also planning to transfer this blog to a Wordpress platform to accommodate the new design... See yah!

Update: I've decided not to transfer to Wordpress (this blog)... Instead I'm gonna make a new magazine-blog with Jay as a co-author. It's still on draft though...

To those who wanna contact me: webwizzer[at]gmail.com

Simple, Pastel-Colored, Diskette Style Download Icons by Webwizzer

2008-01-15T13:42:00.000+08:00

A set of simple, pastel-colored download icons in PNG format. I created these diskette-style download icons in 4 sizes: 124, 64, 32 and 16 pixels… Download it free!

The design is simple and it was inspired by some old websites I surfed recently… Few web designers are still using diskette icons as download buttons nowadays. I think diskette icons are classic… They come in all shape and sizes. This set however is in pastel color and it looks good on simple web layouts with light colors.

Download PSD (93 kb zip)
Download 24 PNGs (47 kb zip)

Photoshop: Photographers’ and Designers’ Most Powerful Tool

2008-01-11T09:04:00.000+08:00

Check this amazing YouTube video… Photo retouching at its best!

Photoshop has come a long way… it has become one of the most powerful software out there and has gained enormous popularity to both photographers and web designers… I think it’s the best photo-image editing software. I’m a Photoshop user and I can attest to that. For first time users, it may be quite difficult to use but once you’ve learned the basics, you can do amazing things with it… I never had formal lessons on Photoshop… I just learned through practice and self study. There are a lot of free online Photoshop tutorials in the Internet today. You can find some of those here… I have Photoshop tutorials also in this blog…

Photoshop’s high price tag makes it inaccessible to many though. And if you’re looking for free image-editing software you can check them here…

Web 2.0 Remixed Buttons by Webwizzer

2008-01-10T06:34:00.000+08:00

Here's a set of 4 Web 2.0 buttons with a twist... A "remixed" version of DesignerFolio's buttons. It's experimental. I'm planning to make more of these and maybe incorporate some to my future web designs... if I receive positive feedbacks. The design still has the glassy look and of course the reflections and all that... I made some adjustments though and added a little more texture and shadows to the buttons. I don't want to start a new design revolution. I just wanted to have something out of the ordinary... but not so much. Music remixes are popular these days... that's one reason of doing this...

The image above is about 20% less the size of the original buttons so the textures and details aren't that so visible. You can download the PSD (Photoshop file) below...

Download Zip File (330 kb)

The Idea Shower: Solution to PNG Transparency in Internet Explorer 6

2008-01-06T23:32:00.000+08:00

I’ve been quite busy these past few days… but I still manage to look for new and interesting things on the web. One of these is The Idea Shower website. It’s a very interesting site, providing ideas and solutions for both new and seasoned web designers and developers. I found their “PNG Hover” article and script very useful for web designers. Although most web browsers now supports PNG transparency, unfortunately, IE6 still lacks this functionality. A lot of people still use IE6 aside from the fact that most web designers prefer the latest IE7 and Firefox. IE6 always gives me the headache. It lacks a lot in terms of how it displays web pages… and a host of other problems. The Idea Shower’s solution for correcting PNG transparency in IE6, as popular as it seems, is a JavaScript. You can download the script directly from their site using the link below and don’t forget to visit The Idea Shower. Who knows, you might stumble into a new and fresh idea that you could work on…

Download PNG Hover Script
Visit The Idea Shower

Free Image Editing Softwares: Alternative to Photoshop

2008-01-05T08:13:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year!

I have a lot of work to do this year. One of those, still... is graphics. Now, every now and then, I search the web for new and free stuffs that I could use in my profession. I found a lot. There are tons of free softwares (freewares) out there that anyone could easily download and use... We don't have to buy expensive softwares just to do something like basic photo retouching. I'm currently using Photoshop, but for an average user who wants just the basic functions of an image or photo-editor then this software might cost much and quite complicated to use. Anyway, here are 3 free photo/image editors that you might want to try out... get them, they're free!

Here's what she's talkin' about:
1) Paint.NET: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html
2) FotoFlexer: http://fotoflexer.com
3) Gimp: http://www.gimp.org

Deviant Art #16 - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Wallpaper

2007-12-26T15:05:00.000+08:00

Here's a Red Jumpsuit Apparatus wallpaper inspired by their song "Your Guardian Angel". The color is quite similar to my "She Devil" Deviation. I made 4 slightly different wallpapers but I only posted one in DeviantArt. So, you can only download all 4 wallpapers here using the download link below.

Download all 4 here. (zip 2.04 mb)

Load Web Pages Faster Using Google’s Web Accelerator

2007-12-25T08:30:00.000+08:00

We all want websites to load faster. But most of us are not that very familiar on how to make web pages load faster or optimize our surfing speed through system tweaking etc… It really depends on the connection speed provided by our ISP (Internet Service Provider) and of course our computer system.

Good thing, Google has provided a free application that uses the power of its global computer network to make web pages load faster… Google Web Accelerator. It is a lightweight, easy to install application that automatically increase the download or load time of web pages. So here’s how it works according to Google:

Google Web Accelerator uses various strategies to make your web pages load faster, including:
Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic.
Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible.
Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it.
Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance.
Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays.
Compressing data before sending it to your computer.

Currently, this little application is available only to these systems:

Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP 3+ operating system.
Internet Explorer 5.5+ or Firefox 1.0+ browsers

Visit Google Web Accelerator in GoogleLabs
Download Directly from Google

Note: For security reasons, Google Web Accelerator won't speed up pages encrypted with the HTTPS: protocol (such as bank records pages). Also, Google Web Accelerator only speeds up web pages, not large data downloads such as MP3 and streaming video files. For more info visit http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html

Deviant Art #15 - She Devil

2007-12-21T19:13:00.000+08:00

Another "dark" Deviant art. It's supposed to be a (1024 x 768) wallpaper but I rotated it 90 degrees. Do whatever you want with it... Or you could use it as your Myspace or Friendster background. Download this using the link below and view the image in its actual size to see the details...

Download this graphic here.

Free Graphics #17- Webwizzer 37 GunMetal Bookmarking Buttons

2007-12-20T07:32:00.001+08:00

The number of websites out there is exponentially growing. And because of this, online social bookmarking has become very popular. It's one of the widely used online tools that benefit both web surfers and publishers in one way or the other. Almost all websites and blogs now have social bookmarking buttons. However, the design and sizes of these buttons are not standardized. I think there is a standard, but I’m not really sure about the details. The size, format etc… So, here’s a set of 37 bookmarking buttons I made for my blog. But I’m not planning to place these buttons for now because I’m currently making a Flash bookmarking tool... One reason why I made this, is that I don’t really like to have different sizes and multicolored buttons on my blog… You can download and use these buttons, change the colors or do whatever you want with it. It’s not really meant to replace your bookmarking buttons… But if you want to have style then this is for you.

Upload these to your server or any free file hosts. Change the URL of the image tag of your bookmarking button and that’s it…

Download GIFs (.zip 38 kb)
Download PSD File (.zip 185 kb)

Blogger Tips #1 – Custom Wider Post Editor

2007-12-19T06:31:00.000+08:00

The new Blogger is a success. Though improvements and fixes are still on going, there are a lot of bloggers out there who are continually looking for new ideas to further improve their blogs and Blogger itself.One of the things that Blogger needs to improve is its post editor. It’s quite small for people who write a lot and there’s not much room for editing... Not all bloggers know HTML etc. so it consumes a lot of time and it would be much convenient to have a larger post editor.

If you really like to have or want something like this (see image below), a larger post editor, then read on…

What you need:

1) Firefox web browser. (Get it here, free)

Firefox web browser may not be the number one (in terms of number of users) web browser out there but I’m sure it’s the best in its class. The ability to add extensions/add-ons to extend its functions is one of its major advantages.

2) Greasemonkey – A Firefox extension/add-on (Get it here, free)

This add-on allows you to change how the website looks and behaves using JavaScript when viewed in Firefox.

3) Note: install Firefox first.

Now, install Firefox web browser if you still don’t have one then run it. Get Greasemonkey extension using the link provided above or just click here. After restarting Firefox, go to UserScripts.org to get the” Wide Post Editor JavaScript – by Fat Knowledge” for Greasemonkey. Click INSTALL button located at the upper right corner of the UserScripts.org page.

You’re done. Log in to your Blogger account and go to the post editor. The editor will only be wider when viewed in Firefox. If you prefer to have it back to its original size, simply disable the script in the Greasemonkey extension. You can access Greasemonkey and other Firefox extensions at the “Tools” menu of your Firefox browser.

Wait, if you also want to have the smileys toolbar in Blogger’s post editor, go to Userscripts.org and install the script. Enjoy!

The 3 Important Design Aspects Both Client and Web Designer Must Agree

2007-12-18T00:32:00.000+08:00

Web design and graphics is a big business. Everything from print ads to websites, millions of transactions occur each day. The life of a graphics artist is not that easy. Though he (we) earns quite well in this field and he’s able to do what he really likes to do, designing and stuffs like that, it’s a hard job actually; especially in dealing with clients. There are a lot of aspects to consider and to agree with but these are the 3 most important design aspects both clients and web designers must agree to have a win-win situation:

1) Color – One of the key things designers would want to know from their clients are their color preference. Well, in this case, the graphics designer usually drops his own color preference and agrees to the client’s needs (wants). He’s lucky if the client agrees or just even asks for his suggestions. But most of the time, clients would always say, “I pay you, now you do what I want!” or “I want this and I want it this way”. This is ridiculous. The graphics artist has studied, even earned a diploma for Web Design or Fine Arts then why would he listen or agree to his client whose college major is Business Administration? The artist knows what colors compliment to the purpose of the website. If it’s an environmental site then he would know that pine green should be considered as the base color. There’s no argument, unless of course, if the graphics artist also prefers” luminous green over yellow” or “polka dots over bright orange”. Can you imagine how it’d look like? I wouldn’t place my company name in the footer or even my name in the meta tags if the website would look like alien from a 1930’s movie.

2) Layout – In the era of Web 2.0, web layouts has reached quite far from the old “table-layout” days. This is another problem that graphics designers are facing today, especially the old-timers, I mean the guys who witnessed the birth of the internet and the computer. Web 2.0 does not come from those guys but from the younger generations who are quite curios and playful with their designs. The credits of course go to the older guys who spent years coding these functions or scripts though. A good layout must also have a good functionality. Functionality in fact depends in the layout. Anyway, it’s actually very difficult to convince clients of the layout that would really be appropriate for them. A day of seminar and explanations would somehow help in convincing but in the end, they would always get what they wanted. Because screen resolutions vary and there are a bunch of web browsers out there, the layout would have to adjust and adapt well to things like these. Great if the designer uses new methods and expert in fluid layout design. But usually the problem would almost always come from the clients. I’m sorry to say that. Since most clients come from the corporate world, they have this “adaptation” and style distinct of the business world. It’s boring… black and white. Sometimes they’d prefer something more on text and less on the design and functionality aspects. The navigation location etc. must be accessible and must be one of the priorities. I mean, how would the website visitor read or view the site’s pages if he doesn’t even know where to click or navigate?... It’s just like posting a “word” document on the web, static. And it doesn’t look like a website anymore. If other clients would see this website, what would they say? Maybe less than a half would contact the web designer or webmaster to do business with them and maybe from the same group of “so corporate” clients. What about the others? Well, they just got another web designer…

3) Multimedia – Because the Internet has become very powerful and fast lately, multimedia in websites has become a fad especially to those sites targeted to the below-30-aged group. Aside from embedding multimedia like Flash in social networking sites, it has become more and more sought after in blogs and any other sites. I remember 2 years ago, most web developers stayed away from Flash animated websites. The reason: Flash websites cannot be indexed by search engines. They even avoid it as much as possible even for just using it as a banner. I don’t really agree to that. As a web designer, I would say that Flash is really one of the best material a web designer could use and exploit. Aside from its visual appeal, its scripting functions are really very useful.Here, it’s still the clients’ call if they want to have a full-Flash website, a video streaming website or anything that deals with multimedia. An average web designer or web developer would probably prefer CSS-based web design with a little Flash on the side maybe for the banner or navigation for its positive results both for functionality and design. The web designer is lucky if the client prefers the same. However, embedding multimedia would make the download time of your website soar high. Meaning, the visitors would click another link or go to other websites if the website loads slow.Most clients I encountered preferred flash embedded or other media embedded design. There’s this one client I had, he never really complained anything about my design but he insisted on placing a 3-minute-long banner animation. It was alright at first, the website loads in a considerable amount of time because the Internet connection is DSL. The problem aroused after a week or so. One client contacted me and got really angry because, as what the client said, his website is “slow” and it took a long time to load. The problem? He was using a computer with a dial-up connection. Gosh, I didn’t know it still exists. I knew that would happen actually and I already told him that.

We must put in mind that we have different areas of expertise. Web designers and graphics artists spent hours on perfecting there craft and I think clients must also respect that. It doesn’t mean that he could make the designer do the things he likes because he’d pay him. The designer knows what’s best for both him and his client. He doesn’t want to make something that would degrade his reputation and lessen his abilities to improve. So the client has really nothing to worry about as long as he chose the right designer. (Note: not all designers are programmers and not all programmers are designers)

These are the most common design aspects we must consider and agree with. Good balance is the key. Long and several sessions of meetings, discussions and drafts about these aspects may reduce conflict between clients and designers.

Deviant Art #14 - Where's The Flower?

2007-12-16T07:29:00.000+08:00

Get the wallpaper here (1024px x 768px only)

Free Graphics #16 - Christmas Glitter GIF

2007-12-15T14:50:00.000+08:00

It's 10 days before Christmas! Here's my first Christmas animated GIF post for you to use. Use it in Friendster, Myspace or anywhere... Copy the code above to where you want it to appear. I will be posting more stuffs like this soon...

Free Graphics #15 - Glassy Blogger Logo

2007-12-13T07:38:00.000+08:00

I finally got a new domain name for this Blogger blog! Webwizzer.net is now active. But I’m still setting it up. I just forwarded that new domain to webwizzer.blogspot.com for the mean time. By the next couple of days the new domain name will be fully working. You might be asking why I didn’t go for the “.com” domain… Well, I have personal reasons for that. Anyway, here’s an “accidental” graphics I made awhile ago. It’s my glass version of Blogger’s logo.

Sorry for the watermark. Don’t worry, you can download the Photoshop (PSD) File without the watermark using the link below.

Download File (.zip - 134 kb)

Graphics Tools #1 - Virtual Photographer Filter

2007-12-12T06:43:00.000+08:00

Adobe Photoshop has become very popular in recent years. The power of this photo-editing software makes it so popular even with its high tag price. Photoshop, however, is quite difficult to use especially for beginners. But when you get to know its functions and capabilities, you will definitely be amazed by this software.

For amateurs, using “filters” in photo retouching is the best way to manipulate or fix photos in Photoshop. There are a lot of free Photoshop filters out there and this is just one of them that caught my attention.

VirtualPhotographer filter by optikNerve Labs has many photo retouching functions that anyone could use easily. You don’t have to do the color brightness, saturation or exposure adjustments manually and individually. This filter can do all of these for you including other image effects like newspaper, fashion and glamour effects are just a click away. There are over 50 presets that can automatically apply to your photos.

Resource Name: virtualPhotographer

Function: Photoshop filter

Publisher: optikNerve Labs

Homepage: http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

Cost: Free

Webwizzer Rating: 4.8 / 5

Download: Click here to download from optikNerve Labs (.zip 221 kb)

Update - Lost Files at Hotlinkfiles.com

2007-12-11T07:30:00.000+08:00

Hotlinkfiles.com has recently removed its free membership accounts for its users. Sad to say that I’m one of those unfortunate members who used Hotlinkfiles.com’s file hosting services. Most of the downloadable files here are lost (maybe deleted) and cannot be retrieved anymore. I need to update those download links in the next couple of days if I could locate and get my backup files. Anyway, my current file hosting provider is Imageshack.us for image files and Imgbolt.com for flash and other file formats. I’m still looking for any free host for my JScripts, PHP and compressed (.zip/.rar) files.

If you know a free web file host please message me using the form below or you could simply comment directly at this post. Thanks.

Resource Site #2 - SnapFiles.com

2007-12-11T03:26:00.001+08:00

SnapFiles is one of my favorite freeware and shareware sites. The website is well-designed and it’s easy to navigate to look for the software you’ve always wanted. Like most software download sites, SnapFiles has product screenshots, user reviews and popularity ratings aside from the software descriptions to guide you which software to download. Useful tools for your PC ranging from photo editors, sound recorders to system maintenance and tweaking can be found here together with other free and free-to-try applications.

Site Name: Snapfiles
Site URL: http://www.snapfiles.com/
Resources: Freeware and Shareware Applications
Access: Free
Webwizzer Rating: 4.3 of 5