“Have you ever watched your status bar while you wait for a page to load and wondered why several files seem to be downloaded before you see anything at all on your screen? Eventually the page content displays, and then the images are slotted in. The files that keep you waiting are generally the CSS and Javascript files linked to from the ‘head’ section of the HTML document. Because these files determine how the page will be displayed, rendering is delayed until they are completely downloaded.”

“Apollo is a new cross-platform desktop runtime being developed by Adobe that allows web developers to use web technologies to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications and web applications to the desktop. Why would anyone want to do this? Well, we work with a lot of sales reps who are out in the field and don’t have a reliable internet connection. Building an application that can easily sync with internet content has been tricky to do in the past, but Apollo is promising an API for synchronizing data whenever you are actually online. This could be the actual build once, run anywhere desktop solution that Java never really delivered on.”

“I’ve compiled a small list (or rant) of some very basic and fundamental rules that all webmasters must learn and respect when developing a website that needs to make actual money. This list can also be used by companies looking to hire a web development firm or to evaluate an already deployed website project.”

“In the time it took the closed and secretive XHTML working group to release a new version of this specification which did not fix one of its simplest problems despite that problem being reported multiple times, the open and transparent WHAT working group wrote an entire HTML specification, more detailed than any previous such effort, and fixed the problem in the process.” (Thanks Daring Fireball!)

“Are you sick of signing up for every web 2.0 application that comes out, just to find out whether or not it is actually something you will use? Cut out the middleman and visit DemoMarks for the latest screenshots, tutorials, and reviews on upcoming web technologies. Our walkthroughs will give you a complete head to toe look at a service without ever signing up!”

“There are some things that become so ubiquitous and familiar to us — so seemingly obvious — that we forget that they actually had to be invented. Here’s a case in point — the weblog post’s permalink. I mean — let’s think about it. The problem was that a weblog’s front page is by far its most visited page. This is the page where everyone actually sees your content (or at least it was until the creation of RSS feeds). But it’s not possible for someone to effectively bookmark or link to that particular entry on that page, because shortly it will scroll off the bottom.”

“Good URLs are important. The best URLs are readable, reliable and hackable… There’s one aspect of URL design that is often ignored. Good URLs should be unambiguous. By that, I mean that any logical piece of content should have one and only one definitive URL, with any alternatives acting as a permanent redirect.” (Thanks Gulfstream!)

“Why does it matter which form of encoding we choose? What happens if we choose the ‘wrong’ one? The choice of character encoding affects the range of literal characters we can use in a web page. Regular Latin letters are rarely a problem, but some languages need more letters than others, and some languages need various diacritical marks above or below the letters. Then, of course, some languages don’t use Latin letters at all. If we want proper — as in typographically correct — punctuation and special symbols, the choice of encoding also becomes more critical.”

“On a rainy Wednesday in Redmond, Washington, 14 invited bloggers and industry leaders gathered at building 20 of the Microsoft campus for a full day of discussion regarding Microsoft’s outreach to its communities via the upcoming MIX07 conference. The very interesting and productive meeting was topped off with an hour spent with none other than Bill Gates, during which we had the fantastic opportunity to discuss issues of concern to the industry.”

“Many web designers, myself included, come to the web with a background in the graphic arts. We think in pictures, not in code. When we first begin designing for the web, we’ll use HTML and CSS crudely, as a means to an end—a method of arranging pretty boxes in space—without grasping the true nature of the box itself or what it contains. Altering that strictly visual mentality is the highest hurdle to overcome when a graphic designer first dives into semantics and web standards. For the visual designer, really understanding web standards means you’ll have to change the way you think about design.”

“Your developers have just planned a two week iteration. The next day Sarah continues her work on the completion of an important New Project. And here it comes - Urgent Stuff… If Sarah spends just two hours thinking of her old project, she loses a day of productive work on the new one. One day is 10% of a carefully planned iteration wasted if she spends 2 hours sidetracked.”

“I often surf the web and see blatant design errors that make me shake my head. Without even investigating the security of a site, I know without a doubt that the site will be chock full of vulnerabilities. How can I be so sure? I see programming mistakes that illustrate an utter lack of concern for security. They are ugly mistakes that are far too prevalent. If you have any of the issues mentioned below in your own web application, it’s time to sit down with your developers and have a chat.”

“These are the top 10 things I learned from attending the Future of Web Apps Conference 2006 in San Francisco earlier this month. The summit was hosted by Carson Systems and included speakers like Kevin Rose, Mike Arrington, Mike Davidson, and more. It’s a condensed and aggregated summary of points covered by different speakers throughout the conference that I found most useful.”

“With the FREEWARE version of Toad Data Modeler - database design tool, you can create complex entity-relationship diagrams (ERD) for more than twenty databases. You can visually draw new diagrams and generate SQL scripts based on the ER diagrams automatically. “

“This site was created to unite programmers and designers because rarely is a person good at both programming and designing. PMD helps programmers and designers partner up to make websites and web applications that look and work great. It also lets entrepreneurs and writers find people to work with.”