melalouise.net » Cool sites

Link Review: Handy sites for web professionals

pamela — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:29:57 +0000

After a year of studying full-time, I’m finally starting to catch up on what new cool tools and sites there are out there for web designers and developers. Here are a few I’ve come across lately, as well as some interesting articles.

Tools and Services

Mail Chimp: For beautiful, easy email campaigns. Alternative to Campaign Monitor.
File Juicer: As mentioned in a previous post – extracts images and text from almost any file
Flock: Web browsing, social networking, RSS feeds, email, searching – all in one Application
Blogo: Great little Mac App for posting to Wordpress – I’m using it now
Veer Marketplace: Move over iStockphoto – Veer is doing stock photography
Billings 3: I assessed Billings 2 a couple of years ago, for managing timesheets and invoices, and found it wanting. Billings 3, however, impressed me and I’ve been using it without much complaint for the last couple of months (it’s on sale right now, as well).
Survey Monkey: simple online surveys
Browser Shots: Free Cross Platform Browser Testing
Jumpcut: Provides “clipboard buffering” - access to text that you’ve cut or copied, even if you’ve subsequently cut or copied something else.

Articles

11 Absolutely Necessary Web-Based Tools for a Freelance Web Designer by Chromatic
25 Free Mac Apps for freelancers by Design daily news
Stop Developing for Internet Explorer 6 by Robert Nyman
Bring Down IE6 – is it finally time to take IE6 behind the shed and shoot it?
The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter at Webdesigner Depot
30 Useful Web Design Books for 2009 at Webdesigner Depot
Essential Guide to Creating SEO Friendly Website Design by Chromatic

Site launch – Drinkmaven.com

pamela — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 05:25:18 +0000

In cooperation with Khamsouk Souvanlasy of Culture Byte I have been working on a new community website for lovers and makers of cocktails and other mixed drinks.

“DrinkMaven aims to be the largest collection of cocktail recipes online with the best search features to match.Whether you’re a mixologist or just throwing a cocktail party you’ll be happy to find the classics (plus some variations) and a whole keg full of drinks you’ve probably never heard of! Help us grow this collection by registering and rating recipes and adding your own.”
We’re currently launching the site in Beta mode so that we can build the database of drinks and smooth out any problems before we launch it to the world. It’s free to register and you don’t need to register to search for a recipe so feel free to take it for a spin and let us know if you have any feedback!
http://www.drinkmaven.com

Getting Real – 37Signals.com

pamela — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 04:45:18 +0000

The brilliant minds at 37signals.com have launched a book called Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application. It contains the “business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals“. It’s full of great advice, some of it common sense but forgotten often. You can read the book online for free, or purchase it as a PDF download or tree-killing paperback version.

Read it here: gettingreal.37signals.com

A few cool links

pamela — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:22:23 +0000

Yet another social bookmarking / blog site but the best looking one I’ve seen: virb.com.

Convert your written blog entries to a podcast: talkr.com.

Generate slideshow animated GIFs without expensive graphic design software (integrated with flickr): gickr.com.

Enjoy!