A Web Developer's Bookmarks

Like many web developers out there I strive to stay on top of developments in the industry. I love my RSS reader dearly. But now that I'm spending much of my time running the business - as opposed to before we started HG and I spent most of my time in production - I'm finding it difficult to stay on top of my bookmarks. By the end of each week I have a set of 8 or 10 tabs open in Safari that I've kept open all week... been meaning to read them... just didn't have/find/make the time. I've got folders upon folders of "Read This Stuff" or "Bookmark Cleanup" or "Ideas for (x, y, z)" Others have written about the info glut problem. Second In-Box Syndrome, Unread Item Guilt... whatever you want to call it. There are even people developing elegant solutions to this problem. So at least I know I'm not alone. So I thought I'd post my latest collections here in a list. This is approximately 6 months worth of bookmarks. They're not all new, but they were all new to me in 2009. It's a good glimpse into my mind to see what aspects of web & business development are important to me lately. Obviously, I've been doing a lot of jQuery & WordPress work these past six months! It's been interesting trying to categorize these. Many of them fit into multiple categories.

CSS

• Smashing Magazine: Take Your Design To The Next Level With CSS3
• Sitepoint: First Look: Object Oriented CSS
• Net Tuts: A Detailed Look at the 960 CSS Framework
• 24 Ways: Making Modular Layout Systems
• For A Beautiful Web: Five CSS design browser differences I can live with
• Martin Ivanov: Setting Opacity and Other Filters in Internet Explorer 8
• Pathfinder Development: What does your CSS Swiss Army knife look like?
• CSS3.info: Everything You Need To Know About CSS3
• 24 Ways: CSS Tables - The First Tool You Reach For
• Snipplr: HTML Test Page for CSS Style Guide
• w3avenue: CSS3 Unleashed – Tips, Tricks and Techniques
• Perishable Press: CSS Hacks for Different Versions of Firefox
• Craigmod: @font-face: The Potential Of Web Typography

jQuery

• Smashing Magazine: 45+ New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience
• New Media Campaigns: CSS Sprites2 Refactored: Building an Unobtrusive jQuery Plugin
• Web Appers: iPhone Style Checkboxes in jQuery
• David Desandro: jQuery Masonry
• Soh Tanaka: Simple Toggle with CSS & jQuery
• FlowPlayer: jQuery Tools - The Missing UI Library for the Web
• Web Appers: Autoresizing Smart Columns with jQuery
• Woork: How to implement a news ticker with jQuery and ten lines of code
• Noupe: 37 More Shocking jQuery Plugins
• Newism: BigTarget.js - Increase the size of click targets and get more call-to-action conversions
• jQuery For Designers: Fun with Overflows
• NetTuts: How to Mimic the iGoogle Interface
• TVI Design: Improve your jQuery - 25 excellent tips
• .Net Answers: jQuery Selectors - Looks just like CSS
• James Padolsey: New jQuery plugin: Fly Off Page
• Boban Karisik: s3Slider jQuery plugin
• Learning jQuery: Making a jQuery Plugin Truly Customizable
• jQuery Dev: jQuery UI.Layout Plug-in
• Webstandard: Best of jQuery-Tutorials & Best of jQuery-Tutorials - Part 2
• Compare Networks: CompareNetworks jQuery'd Bread Crumb - jBreadCrumb

AJAX

• Net Tuts: 20 Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know
• Live Labs: Seadragon Ajax
• jQuery For Designers: Play School: Easy Ajax - load
• Remy Sharp: Stop treating Ajax as something special
• Dev Snippets: 10 Best Sources of Ajax/Javascript Examples and Demos

Forms

• CSS Tricks: Building a Customized and Dynamic Ordering Form
• Position Absolute: A jQuery inline form validation, because validation is a mess
• Janko At Warp Speed: Building a better web forms: Context highlighting using jQuery
• Smashing Magazine: 12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process
• No Margin For Errors: prettyComments, a solution to comment boxes
• Joren Rapini: jQuery Validation Contact Form with Modal + Slide-in Transition

Navigation Menus

• Dev Snippets: 10 Brilliant Multi Level Navigation Menu Techniques
• Freelancer Magazine: The Ultimate Navigation with CSS level 3
• CSS Tricks: Color Fading Menu with jQuery
• Bill Beckelman: Enabling and Disabling Menu Items in jQuery contextMenu.js Plugin Demo

User Interface Design

• Net Tuts: 10 Principles of the UI Design Masters
• Smashing Magazine: 40+ Helpful Resources On User Interface Design Patterns

WordPress

• Smashing Magazine: 10 Killer WordPress Hacks
• Noupe: The Power of WordPress and jQuery: 25+ Useful Plugins & Tutorials
• Geeky Weekly: Wordpress Plugin – My Page Order (I can't believe that some sort of drag & drop page re-ordering like this didn't make it into WordPress 2.8. How much longer do we have to wait?)
• Noupe: 5 Trends of Popular WordPress Blogs - Part1
• Net Tuts: Adding Form Validation to WordPress Comments using jQuery
• Noupe: 40 Exceptional "CMS Enabling" WordPress Plugins
• WordPress.org: Flutter: WordPress CMS Plugin
• PSD Tuts: 30 Brilliantly Flexible Templates & WP Themes
• Crazy Leaf Design: 50+ New and Beautiful Free Wordpress Themes
• Balkhis: How to display Popular Post in your wordpress sidebar
• NetTuts: Create A YouTube Section With WordPress
• NetTuts: Building a Better Blogroll: Dynamic Fun with SimplePie and jQuery
• Webmaster Source: WordPress Post Thumbnails
• Smashing Magazine: 10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress
• Divito Design: 10 Un-Usual WordPress Plugins that Improved my Blog
• Smashing Magazine: 10 Useful WordPress Loop Hacks
• Six Revisions: 30 Excellent WordPress Video Tutorials
• NetTuts: Context Includes
• CSS Tricks: Hodgepodge of WordPress Tricks
• Matt Varone: Useful custom functions for WordPress
• Design Reviver: How I Learned To Build Wordpress Themes
• Matthias Kretschmann: HowTo: Set A Custom Gravatar Image In Wordpress 2.7
• WordPress.org: WP Wall Plugin
• Smashing Magazine: Wordpress Theme Development Frameworks
• Web Designer Wall: 30 Untypical WordPress Sites
• NetTuts: Mimicking Apple’s Address Book for the Web
• Roger Stringer: New WordPress plugin: WP-Clickmap
• Design Reviver: Premium Wordpress Theme Design - Part 2 - HTML + CSS + Wordpress Theme Files
• CSS Tricks: The Very First Steps After a Fresh WordPress Install
• Vandelay Design: Top 10 Blogs for the WordPress Community
• CSS Tricks: What to Ask a New Client Wanting a WordPress Theme
• Blog Perfume: 45 Best Free WordPress Themes of All Time & 45+ Essential WordPress Plugins for Pro Blogging

Drupal

• Drupal.org: Drupal 6 Theme Guide
• Design Reviver: 40 of the Best Premium Drupal Themes
• Mike The Coder: Starkish: A Drupal Starter Theme

Web Applications

• Smashing Magazine: 10 Useful Web Application Interface Techniques
• Omnisio: David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08 (great presentation on how to make a startup profitable from one of the partners of 37signals.com)
• Vandelay Design: Signs that a Website is Underperforming
• CSS Tricks: Pricing Order
• Think Vitamin: Launch a Business, Not a Side Project
• Entrepreneur Corner: 10 lessons from a failed startup
• A List Apart: Sketching in Code: the Magic of Prototyping
• Think Vitamin: Don’t Let Your Baby Die - How to use Social Capital to Market Your Web App

Social Networking

• WebAppers: SocialHistory.js Detects What Social Sites Your Visitors Use
• Think Vitamin: Designing User-Centric Web Sites
• Net Tuts: Develop a Social Media Website With These 10 Code Techniques

Ecommerce

• Smashing Magazine: 35 Free High-Quality E-Commerce Templates
• Vandelay Design: 50 Inspirational E-Commerce Website Designs
• ecommr: a collection of e-commerce interface and design elements
• Smashing Magazine: Use Conversions To Generate More Conversions
• ShopComposition.com: Stunning JS-based Ecommerce site
• The Wojo Group - simpleCart(js) + PayPal = E-commerce in minutes
• WordPress.org: WP e-Commerce Plugin
• CSS Tricks: eCommerce Considerations

Branding

• Smashing Magazine: How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
• A List Apart: Taking the Guesswork Out of Design

Business / Finding & Landing Web Design Jobs

• Web Designer Wall: Jobs for Designers and Developers
• Smashing Magazine: Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects
• DesignM.ag: 9 Ways to Get Your Design Portfolio Seen
• Seth Godin: The Intangibles
• CSS Leak: 19 Websites to Promote your Design News
• NetMag: The legal guide for designers
• Elance: Make Every Proposal Count
• Creative Briefing: 10 things you can learn from Gordon Ramsay about running a business
• Freelance Folder: How To Get and Use Customer Feedback
• Freelancer Magazine: How To Establish Your Freelance Business
• 24 Ways: Contract Killer
• Freelance Folder: Are You Wasting 90% of Your Prospecting Efforts?

iPhone App/Web Development

• VixML: Getting Started with VixML
• Engage Interactive: Tutorial: Building a website for the iPhone
• Positive Space Blog: iPhone Application Marketing: Reviewing Current Websites
• A List Apart: Return of the Mobile Stylesheet
• Flickr: Lessons Learned while Building an iPhone Site
• CSS Tricks: Create a Slick iPhone/Mobile Interface from any RSS Feed
• Mobify: Same Site, Now Mobile
• Web Designer Depot: How to Get Started with iPhone Dev
• iPhone Web Dev: Examples of iPhone-Specific Layout & Tricks
• MobiForge: Mobile App Design: Getting to the Point - Part II
• Smashing Magazine: Mobile Web Design Trends For 2009
• Net Tuts: 10 Tips for New iPhone Developers
• Matt Gemmell: iPhone Development Emergency Guide
• Mike Rundle: iPhone Application UI Design Patterns

Writing

• Skelliewag: Tutorial: How to Write a Viral-ready Article in 2 Hours Flat

Wine

• Financial Post: Profile: Going for the smooth finish
• Guillo Milia Design: Wine Label Design Portfolio

Miscellaneous

• ZenHabits: 12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk
• CSS Tricks: Applications: One Day in the Life of a Web Designer
• Web Designer Wall: Users Place More Weight on Design
• FolioStars: A Showcase of Exquisite Portfolios
• Axiis: open source data visualization