http://brainstormsandraves.com/ An almost daily weblog about the web, design, development, standards, typography, music, and anything else. By Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns and WebsiteTips.com. en-us Web design, standards Copyright 2000-2009 Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns. All rights reserved. Shirley Kaiser 2008-06-10T13:04:54-07:00 720 daily 2 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://brainstormsandraves.com/xml/brainstorms88.gif 88 31 http://brainstormsandraves.com/ An almost daily weblog about the web, design, development, standards, typography, music, and anything else. By Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns and WebsiteTips.com. Since my previous free blog icons giveaway has been so popular, I decided to create more - this time 30 free icons in a monochrome, silvery metal color scheme. Like before these small pixel icons include: 15 16x16 icons and 15 matching 10x10 icons. Download them all or by each size via the ZIP files within today's post. (467 words, 9 links, 1 image) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/06/10/blogicons/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/06/10/blogicons/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-06-10T13:04:54-07:00 Looking for free blog icons or website icons? I created 30 free icons for anyone needing small pixel icons: 15 16x16 icons and 15 matching 10x10 icons. Download them all or by each size via the ZIP files within today's post. (447 words, 8 links, 1 image) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/04/10/blogicons/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/04/10/blogicons/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-04-10T14:19:48-07:00 Looking for free Illustrator brushes or symbols? I created 9 free Adobe Illustrator symbols and brushes for anyone who needs rounded triangles or alert symbols, warning symbols. These free brushes and symbols are all fully editable within Adobe Illustrator, so you can change the colors, sizes, and customize them as needed. In addition, I've included resources to many more Illustrator brushes, symbols, tutorials, and resources. (566 words, 12 links, 2 images) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/04/05/illustratorbrushes/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/04/05/illustratorbrushes/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-04-05T16:50:28-07:00 In my previous post I stated that I had 'no current plans' to divulge the person behind my copyright infringement example. Although this person removed the content, images, and HTML that he took without permission from my websitetips.com site (only after I took drastic measures), he continues to add new content to his weblog that is copyrighted from other websites. Today's post is a follow-up to my previous post, Respecting Copyrights Online. (1200 words, 22 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/03/12/copyright2/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/03/12/copyright2/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-03-12T12:04:09-07:00 Despite how much I see this, I'm still amazed at the volume of people taking copyrighted content, images, and other works online to use at their own sites, to pass off as their own, to earn income with AdSense or other ad programs, to even sell to their own clients, and whatever else. Like many others, I have also had my copyrighted work taken by others. So, how do you know if something is OK or not to use at your own website? And what can you do about people infringing on your copyrighted materials? Today's post goes into copyright infringement and includes helpful resources for more information. (1263 words, 8 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/03/03/copyright/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/03/03/copyright/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-03-03T19:38:33-07:00 I have a couple of old computers to donate or take to a recycling facility, but first I want to remove the hard drives and destroy them. Researching the current best approaches to destroy old hard drives led me to some downright scary stories of identity theft or potential identity theft from consumers just following requirements for hard drive warranties or computer store repair policies. I thought I'd share a sampling of stories and recommendations on how to safely physically destroy those old hard drives. In addition, I'm including some humorous, light-hearted, and creative approaches to destroying those old hard drives. (2029 words, 28 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/01/01/harddrives/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2008/01/01/harddrives/ Shirley Kaiser 2008-01-01T21:36:51-07:00 Fascinating reading to be had about the upcoming IE8 via a new interview of Bill Gates by Molly Holzschlag: Conversation with Bill Gates about IE8 and Microsoft Transparency. Not long after the interview, the official IE Blog also announced the upcoming Internet Explorer 8. Check out the complete post that covers that interview, the IE Blog's announcement, an earlier interview with Chris Wilson (IE's platform architect), other information about the upcoming IE8, and IE's current CSS support. Also included are links to lots more resources. (907 words, 26 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/12/06/ie8/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/12/06/ie8/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-12-06T08:31:24-07:00 Tuesday, October 9th, Google announced the availability of Google AdSense ads within YouTube videos. Perhaps this is one of the things in mind when Google purchased YouTube last year. Today's post covers Google's announcements about Google AdSense for Video, online advertising trends, a video demo of Google AdSense for Video, and links to more on Google AdSense, YouTube, and Google AdSense for Video. (706 words, 15 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/10/10/adsensevideo/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/10/10/adsensevideo/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-10-10T10:44:00-07:00 Wondering whether or not to upgrade to the new Adobe Photoshop CS3? Wondering which version of Photoshop CS3 (Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended) might be best for your particular needs? Considering whether or not to buy Photoshop CS3 for the first time? Curious about what the experts are writing about the new Photoshop CS3? Below are some well done reviews by top-notch experts who go into detail about the new features, improvements, and the pros and cons of Adobe's new Photoshop CS3. (1078 words, 49 links, 19 images) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/05/16/photoshopcs3/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/05/16/photoshopcs3/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-05-16T18:35:38-07:00 I've received numerous inquiries about how I created the entry post calendar icon look for Brainstorms and Raves. So today's post shares the basics of the CSS and the two tiny background images I created to achieve the calendar icon look. (1308 words, 2 links, 12 images) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/22/csscalendar/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/22/csscalendar/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-02-22T08:24:29-07:00 Do you ever wonder what goes into brainstorming sessions and creative ideas from some of the top names in the Web design field? You'll find that and much more with blog posts earlier this week by three creators of the latest redesign of Happy Cog's website - Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Daniel Mall. (328 words, 13 links, 1 image) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/10/happycog/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/10/happycog/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-02-10T10:34:15-07:00 I've been watching my browser stats the past few months to see how quickly Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) use grows and how Firefox and other browsers are doing, too. For anyone curious about seeing trends for various sites, I created the charts below to share three of my sites' browser trends from September, 2005 through January, 2007. I also tossed in a short summary of the browser trends - you might be surprised! (574 words, 9 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/09/ie7/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/02/09/ie7/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-02-09T17:35:57-07:00 Andy King has a new article out on a fabulous color tool that automates the enhancement of color harmonies for photos or images. Automatic Color Harmony Tools first explains a bit about color harmonies and color psychology, and even snails' involvement in creating purple dye. Andy then describes how the color harmonization process works and provides several image examples along with the math calculations behind creating the best harmonic scheme. He goes on to describe how this automated tool preserves the original colors, the spacial coherency, and density of hues while automatically harmonizing the colors -- all without user intervention. The before and after samples give an idea of the results. Amazing. (260 words, 5 links, 1 image) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/01/16/colorharmonies/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2007/01/16/colorharmonies/ Shirley Kaiser 2007-01-16T12:25:37-07:00 The BrowserCam pool via fundable.org that I belong to is up for its annual renewal. It has a few openings for subscribers this time around. This subscription is for the BC-Complete plan, and the cost is US $26 for the 12-month subscription via fundable.org (information below). US $499.95 is the cost otherwise, so this is a fantastic value! (261 words, 5 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2006/12/18/browsercam/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2006/12/18/browsercam/ Shirley Kaiser 2006-12-18T20:13:44-07:00 There are lots of great new and recent articles, tutorials, and tips about Web accessibility. Today's post includes links to articles and tutorials on Web accessibility in general, accessible forms, accessible style switching, including my own site's style switching, accessibility and the blind and low vision users, helpful accessibility tools for Web developers, and more. (1412 words, 42 links) http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2006/10/12/accessibility/ http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2006/10/12/accessibility/ Shirley Kaiser 2006-10-12T15:29:40-07:00