Just thought I'd wrap up a few useful websites I've stumbled upon in the last few weeks - maybe they'll be of use to you too! Most are web design related, but some are a bit more general:

10 CSS tricks you may not know
You may know some, but you probably won't know them all!

Pixelpost: Photo-blogging service
I saw an impressive site (here) that uses this free service

Video Enhancement with photo stills
The demo is impressive - worth a try!

Orange Tape Studios: Web Design
I liked the clean design of this site

Taking page title from nested (i)frame
The second post shows how to import titles from (i)frames

Advanced Google search operators
A list of all the ways you can search Google

Wiki: The world's most southern
A list of all the most southerly things in the world!

I'm a fully paid up member of the Cloud Appreciation Society (oh yes) and as such, have an interest in cloud formations - especially ones that look awesome :)

One of my favourite clouds (it's maybe a bit populist) is the Mammatus cloud, which effectively occurs when a low sun lights up the bottom of a curved cumilonimbus. They look great but good examples rarely occur in the UK (you'd have to go the USA for that) - so to see a photo of a Mammatus cloud in St. Albans a couple of days ago was a great sight. The photo is below - I'm not sure who took this shot but it is now appearing on the BBC so I'll presume they have copyright over it [click to enlarge]:


© BBC 2008

Google Groups - Mammatus on Tuesday
BBC News: Clouds that look like breasts
The Cloud Appreciation Society

Another photo update, this time just a couple of interesting shots I found from the internet.

First up, a couple of photos from National Geographic showing the collapse of Wall Arch in Utah. When you visit these natural features, you're aware they could collapse at any time, but let's hope no one was under this as it tumbled!


© National Geographic 2008


The next photo was one I found on Richard Wanderman's Photography Site, although I can't really remember how I stumbled across it! It's a great shot, showing the edge of farming land in New Mexico - a stark contrast I've not seen documented so well before [click to enlarge]:


© Richard Wanderman Photography 2008

A client recently came to me with a project to make a set of offline-only webpages that could be taken around the country on a memory stick, taking a service to people with no internet connection. This wouldn't have been too difficult except that they wanted a form-based service that would run offline without the need to install any software.

In other words, I had to create a form system that was processed without using a cgi-bin / perl scripts. The logical solution was using Javascript to handle the form data.

Below is a basic example of this system, passing one variable across two webpages. In this case, the data is preceeded by a '?' in the URL string. Start by putting the following code in the page you are passing the data to:

 <FORM NAME="form">
  <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="pass" SIZE="35">
 </FORM>

Then, simply add this javascript code where you want the variable printed into the docuement. In this case, I've put the data inside a result tag:

 <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
  var locate = window.location
  document.form.pass.value = locate
  var text = document.form.pass.value
  function delineate(str){
  theleft = str.indexOf("?") + 1;
  return(str.substring(theleft));
  }
  document.write("<result>"
  +delineate(text) +"</result>");
 </SCRIPT>

And there you have it. In this simple example, you pass the data after a '?'. Say your data is "56.887" and the page you are passing it to is called "results.html", then link it to "results.html?56.887" to send the data. Of course, this technique can be expanded considerably to send more than one form field, but thought it best to explain it simply!

You may have already heard about Garfield Minus Garfield as I saw it described earlier today as an "internet phenomenon" - However, it was new to me so I thought it was worth a post!

The premise is simple - remove Garfield from the original Garfield comic strips and create a new comic about one man's insanity....it really works rather well :)

I've put together a sample of 4 strips below, but there are loads more on the official site (link below)



Garfield Minus Garfield - Official Site

Channel 4 has made its own Olympic Medals Table, with varying options on ordering the results based on population, GDP, Human Rights and a combination of all 3. Each year similar tables are created and they can be slightly spurious, but always fun to look at. I suppose population and GDP are relatively sound systems (good quality data) but I'd be a little bit doubtful of the human rights table (especially as the USA are top and the data is from the USA!).

Here are a few of the tables, as of 18/08/08:


Olympic Medal Table - Ordered by Population



Olympic Medal Table - Ordered by GDP



Olympic Medal Table - "Tables of Tables"

The data has been gathered from a variety of soruces - feel free to make your own judgement on its validity:

"The population estimates are taken from the CIA World Factbook. GDP figures are from the World Bank. Human rights scores are deriveed from the US Freedom House Organisation, which rates countries for their political rights and civil libertites, ranging from 1, for most free, to 7, for least free."

Channel 4 - Interactive Olympics Medal Table.

I recently stumbled upon a few of photos I'd been meaning to post a while ago. The first three are different shots of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències - a stunning building in Valencia. The last photo is a brilliant photo of an altostratus cloud, not that I've seen one like that before! [The first photo can be clicked on to enlarge.]