Design Your Own Android Apps Without Programming Skills

If you like the idea of creating your own App but don’t have any coding skills, you may be very interested to hear about Google’s new offering. The App Inventor (with the obligatory BETA in the title) is a new tool which allows non-programmers to build fully working applications for Android. Google announced the availability of the App Inventor on its blog earlier this week.

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app’s behavior.

Google has been working on the tool for over a year and it has been tested in schools and colleges. It works by using blocks for everything you can do with an Android phone, such as store information in a database, repeat actions and integrate with services such as Amazon and Twitter. The App Inventor also provides access to a GPS-location sensor, so you can build apps use your current location.

Here’s a sixty second video (with jazzy, xylophone background music) showing how a simple app can be created using the App Inventor.Here’s a sixty second video (with jazzy, xylophone background music) showing how a simple app can be created using the App Inventor.

You can learn more about the App Inventor and see tutorials and sample apps here. If you’re interested you can get an invite here.

So designers, do you think this is a good thing and something you might use? And developers, what do you think? Is this kind of block building setup the future or is it letting the lunatics* take over the asylum? Does a person even need design and development skills to put together a cool and fun app or just imagination?

source: http://blogs.sitepoint.com

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About colors for Designer

Everyday, we always encounter various colors – from the clothes we wear, the things around us, the food we eat, the things we use- everything. If our world doesn’t have this variation of colors, then everything will be so dull and boring. We cannot refute the fact that colors are part of our everyday lives.

Designers and artists of course make use of colors in their projects and are taking into account a lot of things before choosing which hue to use. Colors are said to activate the right brain for emotions. Emotions of a person can be seen depending on what color he/she uses. A project can easily reveal what it is trying to say merely by the choice of colors. Hence, it is very important to get acquainted with colors really well. Here are some things that designers need to know about colors.

1.THE COLOR WHEEL.

When you deal with colors, of course, you have to know the color wheel first. The color wheel serves as a reference for the different colors, the right color mixtures, the proper color harmony and many others. The color wheel shows the three primary colors red blue and yellow. When you combine these primaries, you’ll get the secondary colors orange, purple and green. Then if you combine the secondary colors to its neighboring primary color, you’ll get a tertiary color. There are six tertiary colors: yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, red-purple and red-orange.

2.COLOR SCHEMES.

In working with colors, there are various color schemes that an artist or designer may use.

  >>Achromatic uses black, white and gray.

  >>Monochromatic uses a single color with various values and intensities. Black and white can be used     here to add various tints and shades.

  >>Analogous uses colors that are adjacent to the color wheel. Any three neighboring colors in the color wheel are called analogous. The colors vary slightly from each other and are harmonious.

  >>Complementary uses colors located opposite each other on the color wheel like red and green, yellow and purple, orange and blue. Opposites really attract.

  >>Triadic uses three colors from the color wheel which are equally spaced from each other. The primary colors when used together are considered triadic. Orange, green and violet are triadic colors.

3.EXPERIMENT

Don’t be afraid to experiment with colors. Try using various combinations and you might love the result of your designs. Just make sure that it looks pleasing to the eyes and it conveys the message you want to imply.

4.COLOR INTERACTION.

Consider how colors behave when they get together. There is a great tendency that it will look different when combined with another color. Colors may change in appearance depending on its surrounding.

5.READABILITY IN COMBINING COLORS. 

When you combine colors with type, make sure that the text is still readable. Choose colors that could emphasize and enhance type. Look into the values and saturation of colors. When you use colors whose value is near each other, the text becomes less visible and readable.Try experimenting which color can be best used for your type characters and for your backgrounds.

6.BASIC COLOR THEORIES ON HARMONY.

In making your designs, you would always want it to look pleasing. So we have to consider color harmony. In doing that, we merely have to know three theories according to A Guide to Top Color Combinations in Web Design: Examples of Color Schemes and Color Combinations Within Designs .

Two Colors Opposite of Each other on the Color Wheel are harmonious.

Any three Colors Equally Spaced Around the Color Wheel Forming a Triangle are harmonious.

Any Four Colors Forming a Rectangle, Each Opposite of Each other on the Color

7.COLOR TEMPERATURE.

The color wheel also shows color temperature. Color temperature could either be warm or cool. Colors on the red side of the wheel are warm while those on the green side are cool. But color temperature is relative. Red can be warmer or cooler sometimes. The use of color temperature also helps us determine the position of an object. Warm colors are said to make objects appear nearer while cool colors makes an object look farther.

8.COLOR PSYCHOLOGY OR COLOR MEANING.

Every color that we use have its own meaning and would manifest the effect on such designs to those looking at it. It is also important for you to know what the different colors mean. Below are a few adjectives that tells us what each color symbolizes as defined inColor Symbolism,Color and Personality, Gemstone Color & Meaning . You may check the site for you to have a more in depth understanding of color meanings.

Red symbolizes: action, confidence, courage, vitality

Blue symbolizes: youth, spirituality, truth, peace

Yellow symbolizes: wisdom, joy, happiness, intellectual energy

Pink symbolizes: love, beauty

Brown symbolizes: earth, order, convention

Orange symbolizes: vitality with endurance

Gold symbolizes: Wealth, prosperity, wisdom

Green symbolizes: life, nature, fertility, well being

Purple symbolizes: Royalty, magic, mystery

Indigo symbolizes: intuition, meditation, deep contemplation

White symbolizes: Purity, Cleanliness

Black symbolizes: Death, earth, stability

Gray symbolizes: Sorrow, security, maturity

9.CHOOSING COLORS FOR NEGATIVE SPACES.

For negative spaces, we have to use colors that could enhance graphics, text and other elements. Make sure that it doesn’t take over your design. Most of the time, lighter and cooler colors are used for negative spaces but it still depends on the artists. What’s important is the proper use of color combination knowing that colors look different depending on the surroundings.

10.COLOR CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY.

In using colors,it is also imperative for artists and designers to know the different terms used to avoid confusion.Here are color terminologies from Color Theory For Designers, Part 2: Understanding Concepts And Terminology By Cameron Chapman. We have shortened the meanings of the terms but you can find more comprehensive meanings on Chapman’s article..

Also, you may want to read Elements of Design: Value and Color where some Color terms are also defined.

**Hue is color (blue, green, red, etc.).

**Chroma is the purity of a color (a high chroma has no added black, white or gray).

**Saturation refers to how strong or weak a color is (high saturation being strong).

**Value refers to how light or dark a color is (light having a high value).

**Tones are created by adding gray to a color, making it duller than the original.

**Shades are created by adding black to a color, making it darker than the original.

**Tints are created by adding white to a color, making it lighter than the original.

11.COLOR PRIMERS.

Color primers are important things for a graphic designer to know. With this knowledge, you’ll find the right color primer to use in your designs. Here are the color primers as defined by Digital Concepts for Business, Inc.

>>CMYK color is related to print work and describes how the colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are combined. It is a subtractive process unlike how we view color on a computer monitor. So when a designer works on your project and works with a 4 color process they are working with colors that can be represented by % of their individual CMYK components.

>>The RGB color space is capable of producing many more colors than the process (CMYK) color space. The most important thing to get out of this is that colors that are in the CMYK spectrum may not be accurately displayed on a monitor, meaning you may see a difference in the colors between your monitor and what is printed. Before you get a job printed you should always view a realist proof from your printer.

>>Pantone PMS Colors or Spot colors are solid colors that you can specify – mostly used on logos or added to 4 color jobs to bring out a vibrant or color that cannot be produced with a CMYK process. Most logos are designed using 2 colors, the problem is that if you go to print the logo in a 4 color process the color will shift and may not match. If you are printing you brochures or catalogs in 4 colors and you want your logo to match your 2 color business cards you might be in for a surprise.

We just had a small trip in the world of colors and we surely learned a lot. So, if you were so occupied making lots of projects and have forgotten the basics of colors, this may help you refresh your mind about it. We hope that this article could help you in choosing the right color for your designs and whatever art works you are working on. Have a colorful day ahead!

source: http://naldzgraphics.net/

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Yahoo Pipes: The coolest things on web

By James Maguire

Yahoo Pipes is an interactive tool that enables you to combine many data feeds, like RSS, into a single aggregate. Pipes offers an intuitive visual programming field that lets you filter, remix, and mash-up these feeds to your heart’s content.

You can create Pipes for many purposes. Probably the most common is combining all your favorite news feeds, but that’s just the beginning. One user created a feed that sends him all the apartment listings near parks or schools. Another built a Pipe that sends him all eBay listings within a certain price range.

Oddly, Yahoo launched this wonderful service – which was so popular it crashed the servers its first day – without posting a user’s guide. (Pipes is the product of the programmer-geeks, not the business types.) They say the tutorial is on the way.

In the mean time, here’s the quick guide to building your own Pipe. Note: this guide keeps it simple, but don’t be limited. Once you’ve built a basic Pipe, you can mix and remix until you’ve created the ultimate mash-up. Let’s get started.

Choose Your Sources
1) Go to Yahoo Pipes and click on MyPipes. Since you haven’t made one yet, clicking on MyPipes takes you to an editing page to create your first one.

2) The “Editing Pipe” page gives you an intuitive visual interface. This is a where you’ll specify all the feeds you want to use, and combine and filter them as you wish. On the left-side menu bar, under “Sources,” is a box called “Fetch.” Drag this box onto the editing field. You’ll see an URL box: 

3) Enter the URL of the RSS feed you want. (You can find the URL of a site’s RSS feed by clicking on the RSS icon in the URL box at any Web site with a feed.) I get my tech news from Internetnews, so I added its RSS feed first. You can also find feeds using the “Search for Pipes and Feeds” box in the upper right corner. Notice that when you add a feed, the Debugger in the lower right corner is updated.

4) Once you have your first RSS entered, you’ll want to add a few more (most likely several more). The point of Yahoo Pipes is to combine many information sources into one. So pull another Fetch box on to the editing field to add more URLs of RSS feeds. You can also add more URLs by clicking the “+” sign next to URL in the Fetch box. 

5) Drag a Union box onto the editing field. (You’ll find the Union box under the "Operators" category on the left-side tools menu.) Connect the outputs of both your Fetch boxes to the inputs of the Union box by clicking and dragging your mouse from point to point.

Filtering Your Pipe

At this point our Pipe has four feeds, all with a hefty array of daily headlines. That’s a lot of information to wade through every day. So let’s filter our Pipe to limit the data flow down to a manageable level. 

6) To do this, drag a Filter box onto the editing field. (You’ll find the Filter box under the Operators category on the left-side menu bar.) Connect the output of the Union box to the input of the Filter box. Connect the output of the Filter box with the input of the Pipe Output. (Notice that the choices in the “title” drop-down menu on the Filter box update when you make this connection.) 

The Filter box allows you to filter your content in a zillion different ways – click on the “title” and “contains” boxes to see the many possibilities. Let’s say, for the sake of simplicity, you’re not interested in reading articles about outsourcing or wireless. The example in the picture shows how to block any feeds that concern these topics. 

Save Your Pipe

7) Now, click on Save near the top of the editing field, and name your Pipe. On the MyPipes page, you can click Publish to make your Pipe public.

Click on Run this Pipe to see the aggregated feed you’ve created. (Will you really be able to consume this much information? If not, go back and filter out more content.)

Having connected your feeds together into an aggregate, filtered them as you see fit, and hit Save, you’ve built your first Pipe. Congratulations!

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Install: LAMP web server and Drupal 7 in Ubuntu

Installing a web server is very easy in Ubuntu (I use ubuntu10.10), just enter a few lines in the terminal: There is no need to install and configure each part of a LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) installation individually. You can also install other programs this way. The downside is that all components are installed automatically, and not reviewed by you. But as long as you only use the web server locally (localhost or 127.0.0.1), and don't open up for access from the Internet, it should be safe.

Installing LAMP web Server

To install a LAMP web server, enter this command in a terminal and enter your password:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

After a while the installation process will prompt you for a password for the MySQL server. Make sure that the CAPS Lock button is not activated! If all goes well, the installation will return to the terminal, and the web server is installed. Test this by going to your browser and enter http://localhost/ in the address bar. If the installation was successful, you will see an "It works!" message.

Update php.ini - allow big files, avoid memory issues

To allow importing large sql dumps through phpmyadmin, and avoiding time outs during demanding requests, it is also necessary to update the php.ini file of the Apache server. To open up the php.ini in gedit, enter this in your terminal:

gksudo gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

...and update the values five places, where it says:

max_execution_time = 120

max_input_time = 90

memory_limit = 96M

post_max_size = 150M

upload_max_filesize = 150M

session.gc_maxlifetime = 14400

Fix Apache Error "Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName"

Open the httpd.conf file:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

The httpd.conf file is blank, so add the following to the file, and then save it:

ServerName localhost

Create a MySQL database

To create a database in the MySQL database, log in to the MySQL shell:

mysql -u root -p

Create a database, for a Drupal installation in this example, type in the MySQL shell:

CREATE DATABASE drupal7;

and leave the shell:

quit

If you typed in the password(in this example, "ROOT") accidentally with caps lock on, this is how you change it to something safer. "root" is NOT recommended as password. From the terminal:

mysqladmin -u root -p'ROOT' password 'yournewpassword'

Install phpmyadmin

You can also create and administer your MySQL databases through phpmyadmin:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Administer your databases at http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

Install and enable mod_rewrite

Install mod_rewrite, to get nice URL's:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Enable mod_rewrite:

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

...and change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All", around line 11:

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All

Restart the Apache web server:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Installing Drupal 7
1. Start nautilus up with this command:

gksudo nautilus

...and navigate to the /var folder, right-click on the www folder, click 'Permissions' and set owner and group to your own user name. This will prevent problems with automatically created folders in the future.

2. Download and extract Drupal 7 from http://drupal.org/. Rename the folder to drupal7 and move it to /var/www/ where the web sites of the Apache web server reside. Result: /var/www/drupal7

3. Create the files folder, like this: /var/www/drupal7/sites/default/files. Right-click the 'files' folder, select 'Properties' -> 'Permissions' and under 'Others', set 'Folder Access' to 'Create and delete files'

4. Make a copy of the default.settings.php file in /var/www/drupal7/sites/default and rename it to settings.php. Right-click settings.php, select 'Properties' -> 'Permissions' and under 'Others', set 'Folder Access' to 'Create and delete files'

NOTE: Add an exception in Firefox, if you have disabled "Accept cookies from sites" and unblock the new site if you have a script blocker activated in your browser.

If all went well, you should now be able to enter http://localhost/drupal7 and install Drupal.

Setting up a virtual host

To set up a virtual host, allowing you to enter just http://drupal7/ in stead of http://localhost/drupal7/:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts

...and add:

127.0.0.1 drupal7

To define where the Apache web server should be looking for the files:

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

...and add:


DocumentRoot /var/www/drupal7
ServerName drupal7


As always, when you change the set up of the Apache server, restart it:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Move apache webroot from /var/www to your /home directory and move MySQL folder

For back up reasons and to have a more "normal" work flow when adding files to your web site, you can move the apache webroot from /var/www to /home/USERNAME/.www -- the .www folder will be hidden until you press Ctrl+H to unhide it:

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Change DocumentRoot /var/www to DocumentRoot /home/USERNAME/.www

If you have set up a virtual host:

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

...and change to: DocumentRoot /home/USERNAME/.www
From http://gullele.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/changing-default-apache-webroot-in-ubuntu/

Likewise, to move MySQL from /var/lib/mysql to /home/USERNAME/.mysql follow this guide: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=897354
 

Install Drush

With Drush you can install modules and update Drupal from the command-line: http://drupal.org/project/drush

wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drush-6.x-3.3.tar.gz
tar xvzf drush-6.x-3.3.tar.gz
sudo chmod 555 drush/drush
sudo chown -R root:root drush
sudo mv drush /usr/local/
sudo ln -s /usr/local/drush/drush /usr/local/bin/drush
sudo drush dl drush_make

If you get an "exec: 53: php: not found" error after running the last line ("sudo drush dl drush_make") you might have to install the PHP command line interface, with

sudo apt-get install php5-cli

Great work !! If there is any problem then do post the problems below. I will try to answer your problem.

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Drupal 7: Basic Theming with Zen and CSS

This screencast gives an introduction to creating a subtheme of Zen and modifying it with CSS.


Thanks to linwclark for the video.     

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Drupal's "easy button" for better keyword research

Auther:  Colin Alsheimer

Keyword research, one of the most essential facts of good search engine optimization can also be one of the easiest tasks to do wrong. Here are five ways you can improve the effectiveness of your keyword research. Then, I'll show you Drupal's "easy button" for better keyword research.

1. Analyze your content for keyword ideas

One of the primary objectives for the search engines is to serve the most relevant content for a particular users query. Search engines determine what web content is about through a variety of factors (this is what we spend time optimizing in SEO), some of these factors include your meta page titles, keyword usage within your page copy, and backlinks to your website. So it would make sense that you would want to begin your keyword research by first figuring out what keywords and concepts are already prevalent on your webpage.

You can do this in two ways. You could go through your content by hand, and pick out what you believe to be the most relevant or most used keywords on the page. Or, you can put it in the hands of web software that can make this analysis for you. In Drupal, both the Alchemy module and Scribe SEO module can help you with this analysis. Alternatively, you can try the Scribe SEO module demo, and input your own content to analyze.

Once you find your keyword ideas, plug them into a keyword research tool like Wordtracker to get more related keywords.

2. Start broad

When you're first starting keyword research, you always want to begin with broad (root) keywords, then work your way to long tail variations. For example, if your website is an e-commerce retailer for custom bicycle seats, you may want to start your keyword research with phrases like "bike", "bicycle", or "bike seats".

3. Use long tail modifiers

As you do your keyword research, you'll start to see variations of your primary (root) keyword pop up. For example, your search for the phrase "bicycle" might return results for "used bicycle for sale" or "buy bicycles online". "Used", "for sale", "buy", and "online" would all be considered modifier keywords, and the entire phrase (used bicycle for sale) is what we would consider a long tail keyword. A long tail keyword by itself provides less traffic then your root keywords (bicycle), but in aggregate, there are many more relevant long tail searches then there are for your root keywords. Long tail keywords tend to bring more qualified traffic, convert at higher rates, and are less competitive.

4. Look at your competitors for inspiration

Use your competitors as a guide for your keyword research efforts. Look at their meta page title tags, headers, and page copy to see what they may be trying to optimize for. Sometimes this can even lead to inspiration for a new niche market to go after.

5. Look for uncompetitive niches

One of the biggest mistakes people make in keyword research is assuming it's about finding the words with the most possible searches. Really, good keyword research is about finding those keywords that not only get a large volume of searches, but are also uncompetitive, and deliver qualified traffic. I frequently tell clients that I'd rather they get 500 qualified visitors per month who convert, then 5,000 who don't.

6. Localize your keywords where possible

One of the easiest ways to long tail your target keywords is to add local modifiers to them. For example, instead of optimizing just for the phrase "website design company", we can add the "Dallas" to the phrase, making "website design company dallas", and be optimized for local searches as well.

The Drupal Easy Button!

As promised, here's the easy button for keyword research in your Drupal website. Our Keyword Research module will help you easily perform keyword research right within the page you're trying to optimize. Be sure to combine it with the other modules found in the content analysis suite to unlock the true power of the keyword research module. 

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CSS and Joomla

What is CSS?

If you know HTML and CSS, you have a huge advantage when trying to customize your website. Most extensions are fine the way they look when you install them. However, if you want the look of your website to be consistent, you often need to do some CSS tweaking. So if you don't know any CSS, you'd better start learning now. This post is not about learning you the specific techniques of CSS. Rather it is written to give you an overview on how CSS is used in Joomla.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Cascading Style Sheets:

"Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts.

The bold part of this excerpt from Wikipedia is the most important thing to know about CSS, in my opinion: Separation of content (HTML) and visual presentation (CSS). By using CSS, we can use one, centrally located file with all the styles. Keeping the styling separate from our Joomla articles. That way, site-wide style changes are easy to do. Just imagine if you did article specific styling in each and every article on your site. It would be a nightmare to do style changes - in the case of a redesign or template change.

Joomla CSS and templates

I'm always amused when I read a tweet saying something like: 'Joomla doesn't support IE!'. Or: 'Joomla is not search engine optimized'. Of course it is! But the template might not be. It all comes down to how the template HTML is built and how the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) codes are implemented. 

Most of the time, the template CSS files are found in the /templates/TEMPLATENAME/css/ folder.

Some templates use only one CSS file (called template.css, mostly), others have several. For optimal page performance, you should keep the number of CSS files to a minimum. This reduces the number of server requests necessary to show the page. You may sometimes see that the template uses a main CSS file which imports all of the other files by the following syntax (example):

@import url('reset.css');

@import url('joomla.css');

@import url('typography.css');

@import url('modules.css');

@import url('custom.css');

CSS Best Practices

Let's say you have installed a template from YooTheme. You could go bananas and change all of the CSS files wildly. Probably won't be a terrible thing to do either, as you can download the original files again if you screw something up.

However, there is a better way. When you want to override CSS in a template, use a separate stylesheet. YooTheme has actually implemented this structure in their templates already. They have included a blank CSS file called custom.css which is loaded after all other CSS files. This is where I keep all of my style changes.

If I want to upgrade my template, I can just copy this custom.css file, upgrade my template to the latest version and upload the custom.css file again. All set!

Don't repeat styles if you don't need to

When styling elements with CSS it's important to be specific. And to keep your stylesheet lean. What I mean is you don't need to repeat styling just because you want to restyle an element. Let's say, for instance, that you have the following style for the H1 tag in your main CSS file (template.css or similar):

h1 {

font-size:24px;

color:#d7d7d7;

margin-bottom:1em;

text-transform:uppercase;

}

The normal styling for H tags are bold. Maybe you want to add the styling to make the header tag use the normal and not the bold style of the font. And, at the same time you don't want to have uppercase letters in the H1. Of course, you could do it like this, adding the following code to your custom.css:

h1 {

font-size:24px;

color:#d7d7d7;

margin-bottom:1em;

text-transform:none;

font-weight:normal;

} 

This works, but it's not good code. You repeat all of the styling even though you just want to alter one style and add another. This is a better way:

h1 {

text-transform:none;

font-weight:normal;

} 

In this case, you only add the styles that are different from the original. The other styles are left untouched.

Use Firebug to Test Your CSS

One of the tools I use to test my CSS is called Firebug. It's an add-on to Firefox which gives you a lot of information about the CSS and HTML structure of a web page. When you have Firebug installed, you can right-click on an element and choose 'Inspect element'. The Firebug window will open at the bottom of the screen. Now, you can see the HTML structure (left) and the CSS (right).

Now the fun begins! You can start experimenting with the CSS directly in Firebug. Want to change the margin of an element? The background color? Remove the border? Every tweak you would like is available to play with, and the result is instantly shown in the browser. Of course, if you refresh the page the changes are lost. When you're happy with your changes, copy the CSS into your custom CSS file and upload to your server.

Take a look at my previous post about top 10 Free joomla extensions every Joomla user should have.

Take some time to learn CSS

I believe every Joomla user / web site developer should learn some CSS and know HTML by heart. It makes it so much easier to modify your templates and to achieve what you (and your client?) wants.

It's not like learning PHP. I hardly know more than a handful things about PHP. HTML and CSS, however, are like second nature to me. That's because I've invested time into learning and practicing the use of these skills. This is especially true for CSS.

Easy to get started with CSS and Joomla

The easiest way of starting to learn CSS is to look at your existing template.css. Look at the structure of it and try changing some of the styles. Do a backup of the file first.

You could try and change the header tags first. Want the H2 tag to be smaller? You got it :) And now it's a site-wide change, valid for all instances of the H2 tag. Other tags to change are the a (link) tag, the p (for instance adjusting the line spacing) and the UL and LI tags (bullet list). 

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OpenGL: Some paragraphs

From Wikipedia Defn:
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library)is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL was developed by Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in 1992[3] and is widely used in CAD, virtual reality, scientific visualization, information visualization, and flight simulation. It is also used in video games, where it competes with Direct3D on Microsoft Windows platforms (see OpenGL vs. Direct3D). OpenGL is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

Most Widely Adopted Graphics Standard

OpenGL is the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications. Since its introduction in 1992, OpenGL has become the industry's most widely used and supported 2D and 3D graphics application programming interface (API), bringing thousands of applications to a wide variety of computer platforms. OpenGL fosters innovation and speeds application development by incorporating a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and other powerful visualization functions. Developers can leverage the power of OpenGL across all popular desktop and workstation platforms, ensuring wide application deployment.

High Visual Quality and Performance

Any visual computing application requiring maximum performance-from 3D animation to CAD to visual simulation-can exploit high-quality, high-performance OpenGL capabilities. These capabilities allow developers in diverse markets such as broadcasting, CAD/CAM/CAE, entertainment, medical imaging, and virtual reality to produce and display incredibly compelling 2D and 3D graphics.

Developer-Driven Advantages

• Industry standard
  An independent consortium, the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, guides the OpenGL specification. With broad industry support, OpenGL is the only truly open, vendor-neutral, multiplatform graphics standard.
• Stable
  OpenGL implementations have been available for more than seven years on a wide variety of platforms. Additions to the specification are well controlled, and proposed updates are announced in time for developers to adopt changes. Backward compatibility requirements ensure that existing applications do not become obsolete.
• Reliable and portable
  All OpenGL applications produce consistent visual display results on any OpenGL API-compliant hardware, regardless of operating system or windowing system.
• Evolving
  Because of its thorough and forward-looking design, OpenGL allows new hardware innovations to be accessible through the API via the OpenGL extension mechanism. In this way, innovations appear in the API in a timely fashion, letting application developers and hardware vendors incorporate new features into their normal product release cycles.
• Scalable
  OpenGL API-based applications can run on systems ranging from consumer electronics to PCs, workstations, and supercomputers. As a result, applications can scale to any class of machine that the developer chooses to target.
• Easy to use
  OpenGL is well structured with an intuitive design and logical commands. Efficient OpenGL routines typically result in applications with fewer lines of code than those that make up programs generated using other graphics libraries or packages. In addition, OpenGL drivers encapsulate information about the underlying hardware, freeing the application developer from having to design for specific hardware features.
• Well-documented
  Numerous books have been published about OpenGL, and a great deal of sample code is readily available, making information about OpenGL inexpensive and easy to obtain.

The OpenGL Visualization Programming Pipeline

OpenGL operates on image data as well as geometric primitives.

Simplifies Software Development, Speeds Time-to-Market
OpenGL routines simplify the development of graphics software—from rendering a simple geometric point, line, or filled polygon to the creation of the most complex lighted and texture-mapped NURBS curved surface. OpenGL gives software developers access to geometric and image primitives, display lists, modeling transformations, lighting and texturing, anti-aliasing, blending, and many other features.

Every conforming OpenGL implementation includes the full complement of OpenGL functions. The well-specified OpenGL standard has language bindings for C, C++, Fortran, Ada, and Java. All licensed OpenGL implementations come from a single specification and language binding document and are required to pass a set of conformance tests. Applications utilizing OpenGL functions are easily portable across a wide array of platforms for maximized programmer productivity and shorter time-to-market.

All elements of the OpenGL state—even the contents of the texture memory and the frame buffer—can be obtained by an OpenGL application. OpenGL also supports visualization applications with 2D images treated as types of primitives that can be manipulated just like 3D geometric objects. As shown in the OpenGL visualization programming pipeline diagram above, images and vertices defining geometric primitives are passed through the OpenGL pipeline to the frame buffer.

Available Everywhere
Supported on all UNIX® workstations, and shipped standard with every Windows 95/98/2000/NT and MacOS PC, no other graphics API operates on a wider range of hardware platforms and software environments. OpenGL runs on every major operating system including Mac OS, OS/2, UNIX, Windows 95/98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Linux, OPENStep, and BeOS; it also works with every major windowing system, including Win32, MacOS, Presentation Manager, and X-Window System. OpenGL is callable from Ada, C, C++, Fortran, Python, Perl and Java and offers complete independence from network protocols and topologies.

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10 tips for a professional logo design

Designing logos is just like any other type of design work, to be professional you’ll need to pay attention to details. Even a great idea can be ruined by not thinking about simple things, the following tips will help you to keep your concepts safe.

1.Work with vectors
This probably sounds obvious to most designers out there, but it isn’t to everybody so I repeat it as often as I can to avoid receiving those damn jpeg logos. Vector formats are the ones that will allow the most variations for your logo.
2.Don’t use more than 2 fonts
There is many nice fonts out there and we would all love to use as many as we can. Unfortunately using too many fonts will most of the time result in a loss of coherence. Using two different fonts can be good to create a contrast, catching the eye.
3.Keep it readable
If people can’t read your logo, it’s useless to have one. This sounds like dumb advice again, but it’s easy to get caught in creating letters or distorting a font until it becomes unreadable. Always stay aware of that when working on your logo.
4.Test sizes
Your logo should resize well at any size, whether it’s huge on a truck or tiny on a badge.
5.Adapt it for dark backgrounds
So you’ve got a wonderful looking dark logo, but now your client want to get it on his black car. It’s usually not too hard to adapt it, but you’ll look more professional if you already got that case figured out.
6.Make sure it works well in black and white
I have a very simple technique for that: I work every logo in black and white before adding any colour. This way choices are made judging by the shapes and you are not distracted by anything else. It makes it much easier to know that your logo will work well in shades of grey afterwards.
7.Don’t include photos in your logo
Well… this one goes along with the first tip. First, photos are not vectors. Photos also don’t scale, have no branding value and are hard to adapt for any use.
8.Look at it upside-down
This is a tip I got from my teachers in graphic design school, looking at your logo (or any printed design really) will get the meaning out of the way and give you a new look at the design’s balance and white spaces. Try it!
9.Don’t follow trends
It’s often hard to escape trends, especially if you’re passionated and love to look at inspiring logos on design sites. Your logo has to work on the long run, so try to avoid the web 1.0 swoosh or the web 2.0 reflection.
10.Get specific feedback
Asking people’s opinion is worthless if you don’t know what informations you want to get, so when getting feedback, try asking specific questions (eg. does your logo expresses the industry of the company?).

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