Most popular posts on Cardeo in 2010

Creating a Fading Link Transition with CSS3
A simple tutorial explaining how to add fading to your text links using CSS3.

Coding an Animated News Ticker with jQuery and CSS
How to build a nifty little animated news ticker using jQuery and CSS. The ticker fades through a list of news updates that you specify.

Adding an Outline to Your Text Using the CSS3 text-stroke Property
A quick tutorial showing you how to add a stroke to text using CSS3.

Do I Need to Charge HST?
A useful little post for small business owners in British Columbia. Helping to demystify some of the confusion around the new HST tax.

Using CSS3 font-face to Add Custom Fonts to Your Website
A tutorial explaining how to use non-system fonts on your website using CSS3.

How to Create Circles with CSS3 and no Images
A tutorial showing you how to use the border-radius CSS3 property to create circles.

20 Most Useful Scripts From CodeCanyon.net
A collection of the most useful Javascript, PHP, and .NET from CodeCanyon.net.

CSS3 Minimal Admin
A free CSS3 Minimal Admin template from Cardeo.

How to Create a Custom Border Using CSS3 border-image
A tutorial explaining how to create a custom border with CSS3.

5 Premium Minimal Website Templates
5 of the best premium, minimal website templates from ThemeForest.net.

Ruby vs Python vs PHP

At work we run a couple websites using the python/django combo. I actually quite like django and recently read the Django: Visual QuickPro Guide. Although, I’m a django fan, I wasn’t totally sold on python and the extra sensitive syntax.

As far as PHP goes, I have some experience with WordPress theme design but PHP has never really sank in for me. I also recently finished reading Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Website, which is an excellent read for beginners. However, it didn’t really sell me on PHP after reading. It made PHP feel overly complicated and challenging to learn.

What really made my mind up was, the free web-based book Learn to Program, by Chris Pine. This is an amazing online resource. Chris starts from the very basics and talks about programming in general. He then moves into the Ruby language and does a great job of helping the absolute beginner along. If you are interested in programming or Ruby, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Next steps

Once I finally decided that Ruby was the language I wanted to concentrate on, I started to look for additional online resources. One of the better ones I found was rubylearning.org. They have a ton of free content, but they also offer some cheap online courses. I enrolled myself in the Core Ruby Programming course that only set me back $15. The class started this week and runs till the December. As I’m going through it, I’ll post some status updates and maybe even some tutorials.

Final thoughts

The Ruby versus Python argument is a sensitive one. At the end of the day, both languages are great and it’s more about personal preference. I decided to go with Ruby because programers actually refer to it as really fun to work with. Also, I’m a newb when it comes to this type of programming, and Ruby looks like it is a little easier to learn. What’s your opinion? Feel free to leave a comment below.

$400 in files for only $20! | Buy Now

What’s Included?

Here’s a list of everything included in the bundle:

ThemeForest.net Files
WordPress Themes, Website Templates, Photoshop Templates

• OPEN WordPress Portfolio Theme
• 96 Display Website Template
• BrandMedia Modern Photoshop Template
• Graphic Designer Email Newsletter Template
• DesignerWannabe Magazine Website Template

CodeCanyon.net Files
Javascript, PHP, Plugins, .NET, CSS

• AviaSlider – jQuery Slideshow
• CSS Griddler Pricing Grid
• Twitter Widget Pro for WordPress
• AJAX Contact Form
• Simple PHP User Counter
• jSocial Sharing Widget

GraphicRiver.net Files
Graphics, Templates, Textures, Backgrounds, Vectors, Icons, Fonts

• 8 Grunge Backgrounds
• Stylish Mosaic Backgrounds
• 6 Photoshop Actions
• Tileable Leather Texture
• Sexy Vector Laptop
• Flyer/Postcard Template
• Shiny Bubble Backgrounds
• Lead True Type 1.0
• Badges & Sale Tags
• Old TV Stock Image
• Solar Pricing Table
• Creative Pro Business Card Pack
• Light Bubbles PowerPoint Template
• The Newspaper Front Page Design Template
• Smart Photo Strip
• 21 Web Icon Set

$400 in files for only $20! | Buy Now

VideoHive.Net Files
Video Project Files, Motion Graphics, Stock Footage

• Reveal Transition
• The Elegant Spin HD
• 3D Identity
• The Shatter
• Sketch
• Incubus Logo CS3
• Onyx Logo

3DOcean.net Files
3D Models, Textures, 2D Concepts

• High Armchair
• HDRi – 1325 Sun Clouds
• Game-Ready AWP Sniper Rifle

ActiveDen.net Files
Flash Files

• 36 Coming Soon, Countdown Clock Template
• Photoshoot Creative Template
• The Archer WordPress Video Player
• Digital Boxes Preloader
• Unity3D Starter Pack

AudioJungle.net Files
Music & Sound Files

• One Fine Day
• Driving Far, Far Away
• Dreaming
• Space Battle Number Four
• Smoke Orchestra
• Space Sequence

Net.Tutplus.com
Premium Tutorials

• Coding a Complex Design into CSS and HTML
• Combine Hand-drawn Art with Photoshop
• How to Blend Images Together Using Adjustment Layers
• Ultimate Type Twisting with Adobe Illustrator

Extras

On top of all those files, there are a couple additional extras thrown in:

• $50 voucher for MediaTemple.net.
• $10 voucher for RockablePress.com

$400 in files for only $20! | Buy Now

Rockstar Personal Branding

Anyone who is serious about blogging, or building an online brand for themselves, needs to read this book. A great free read from the people at rockablepress.com.

The Django Book

This is a great place to start if you’re interested in getting into the Django programming language. Super thorough and great for beginners. djangobook.com

Getting Real

This is a great book for anyone thinking about creating a web app or online business. The good people at 37signals will not steer you wrong. gettingreal.37signals.com

JQuery Fundamentals

If you’re looking to get into javascript and JQuery, this is a great place to start. jqfundamentals.com/book

Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

This is an awesome book that teaches you how to build iPhone apps only using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It was my main source for the coding of my first iPhone app. building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com

PHP For Absolute Beginners

A great place to start if you want to learn how to code PHP, from zillr.org.

Designing For The Web

A great overview of design for the web from Five Simple Steps. designfortheweb.co.uk

Practical PHP Programming

Another great resource for PHP programming from tuxradar.com.

Eloquent Javascript

This is a great resource for beginners at javascript programming. eloquentjavascript.com

Star Wars, Lost Tribe of the Sith, Precipice

Ok this isn’t a web design book, but I like Star Wars and this book is awesome, go get it from starwars.com!

Javascript

Sexy Slider
SexySlider is a JQuery plugin that lets you easily create powerful javascript Sliders with very nice transition effects. Enhance your website by adding a unique and attractive slider!

jSocial
With jSocial you can easily place social share buttons under your articles and pages on your website. This script uses the jQuery framework and works completely client side. So you can use it on static and dynamic webpages.

Drop Menu
With this script you can make nice and interactive drop down menus. The advantage of this script is that it not only gives you the ability to make list drop down menu. You can also use a div as drop down element

Notification Messages
jNotice is the plugin for you, if you like to use some nifty popup’s on your websites or applications. This plugin is very customizable because you can select a div that you want to use as popup. In this div you can place whatever content you want.

iTunes Site Feature
The iTunes Site Feature is an unobtrusive jQuery plugin that lets you have an interactive image presentation on your website, much like the iTunes 9.0 store feature

jshare
Just share (jshare) a javascript, jquery script that allows you to add a sticky button on your page or you can use a link. It also has a built in email function that allows the user to share your page via email without leaving your page.

Super Menu Pack
Super menu pack is a collection of 10 cool menus, 5 in pure css and 5 using jQuery framework for customize or layout with your websites or applications and projects.

Flickr Import
Flickr Import is an extremely lightweight, quick and robust tool to display photos from Flickr onto your website.

PHP

Simple PHP Contact Form
This website component allows you to easily place a self-contained Contact Page on any PHP page of your website.

ThumbsUp
ThumbsUp allows you to let your site’s visitors vote/rate anything you want.

Quick PayPal Order For eGoods
Quick PayPal Order, which allows you to sell goods online, like PDF documents, ZIP archives, e-books, etc.

Poll
With this script you can easily place and manage polls on your website. The template systems give you the ability to customize the look and feel of the poll so it seamlessly fits in with the rest of your website.

PayPal Membership Subscription Manager
PayPal Membership Subscription Manager. Fully featured User Management System with PayPal subscription integration.

WordPress Theme Framework
The WordPress Theme Framework provides WordPress Theme Developers with an easy way to add quality to their theme’s by adding features of “Premium” themes without much work at all.

Mobile Phone Detection
With this class you can easely detect mobile devices. This class is very easy to use and support lots of mobile devices, even the new Mac iPad.

Simple URL Shortner
Simple URL Shortener is a template based shorturl generator application which uses technologies like jQuery and PHP . Easy to customize.

.NET

RSS Creator
This is a .NET form program that will let you connect to a FTP and create an RSS feed. This program will let you create as many RSS feeds as you wish. You can easy manage and create new news feed.

Smart Ajax Contact Form
It uses just 1 file to validate, process and send the completed contact form to your e-mail address.

Plugins

Lightbox Gallery For Magneto
Product images display in a lightbox on your Magento ecommerce website using this extension.

Popup Preview For Magneto
Create an inline “popup” preview effect on your Magento ecommerce website using this extension.

Free Extras

codecanyon.net offers a free file of the month. This month’s file is a Statistics Dashboard, make sure you pick it up.

“Open Source Bridge is a new conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way. It’s not a typical technical conference.

Here’s what makes it different: It’s entirely volunteer-run, by developers, for developers. This is the conference you’ve always wanted to attend. Session tracks are technology agnostic, based instead around shared community experiences and focused on similarities between projects, not differences. The geekery doesn’t end when the sessions do. There will also be a 24-hour hacker lounge for code sprints, bug bashes, session deep dives, bouncing ideas, starting new projects or just mingling and taking in the vibe.”

Microblogging with Laconica

Laconica is an open source microblogging platform. Founder, Evan Prodromou, gave straight forward presentation on what Laconica is and some of the things you can do with it. I left the session feeling excited about this software, and I’m looking forward to downloading it and playing around with it on my server.

Laconica is written in PHP and relies on MySql for the database end of things. Jabber is supported for IM, OpenID for authentication, and twitter integration that allows you to pass information back and forth. Currently they’re working on integration with Facebook and a paid, hosted service for the near future. This is definitely a piece of software to keep your eyes on.

Getting started in free and open source

This was a good intro to open source presented by Cat Allman and Leslie Hawthorne from Google. They touched on joining your first project, discussion etiquette, and general info about open source for newbies like myself. I’m going to write a more detailed post on this session in the near future. For now, I’ll leave you with this link of interest. producingoss.com is a great resource for your first open source project – from concept to completion.

However, I think the most powerful feature that Taco offers is the ability to preview php files locally on your computer. This can be a great time and sanity saver when you are coding a website using php. After all the years of satisfaction this free app has given me, I thought I would give it a little plug and hopefully some of you will also find it useful.

tacosw.com

WHOA – UPDATE! I was just taking a closer look at Taco’s website and it seems that the app is no longer Free. However, it’s only $24.95 and I would still recommend picking it up for the small price.