MacMegasite

What’s the best way to stay on top of an active Twitter account? David Alison thinks he’s found the answer with TweetDeck. Read his full article here.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire - November 17, 2008) - Following a successful beta trial, Zenbe today announced general availability of its unique Web-based email client. Zenbe helps users manage many aspects of their online world from a single service, organizing their inboxes with intuitive views within an elegant interface.
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Lorelle warns about a malicious fake WordPress site that looks like the real one, but isn’t. There is no WordPress 2.6.4. The latest version is 2.6.3. If you “upgraded” to “2.6.4″, then you have installed a fake trojan version (more details here and here). If you’ve “upgraded” to 2.6.4, delete your wp-admin and wp-includes folders and replace them with fresh copies from wordpress.org. More detailed instructions for cleaning up are available here.

I’ve had a few questions about how I converted this site to WordPress. For anyone who’s interested, my database conversion script can be seen here. I based it on scripts by D’arcy Norman and others.
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CaricatureIcons.com has announced the availability of a new online portrait/caricature service. You send your photo, they draw you. It’s pretty simple, and very fun.

You can use the Caricature like avatar in your Blog, AIM, MySpace, FaceBook, Business Card, Twitter, Desktop, t-shirts or use it as a logo.

The Caricature are delivered in EPS Vector-based file, Macintosh Icons, PC icon formats (ICO), PNG files and also an 300 DPI JPEG.

CaricatureIcons.com Custom Caricature Icon Service is available today for just $29 USD.

Oslo, Norway - July 8, 2008 - Opera today launched a sweeping education initiative aimed at supporting and enhancing Web standards education and training in secondary schools, colleges, universities and businesses worldwide. The first planned step in this initiative is the Opera Web Standards Curriculum, a complete curriculum of learning material to provide a thorough understanding of client-side Web design and development from the ground up. These materials are available completely free under a Creative Commons license from [URL]http://www.opera.com/wsc/[/URL]

Aimed at both educational institutions and Web developers, these materials cover CSS, HTML, and background concepts thoroughly, provide good instruction on Web design theory (including typography, color, and information architecture), and deliver enough introductory information about JavaScript for the reader to be able to work with JavaScript when it is encountered, including debugging and writing simple scripts.

So far 23 articles have been published, with more than 50 planned in total. Authors contributing to this project include well-known Web developers such as Christian Heilmann and Mark Norman “Norm” Francis of Yahoo!, Peter-Paul Koch of quirksmode.org, Jonathan Lane, Linda Goin, Paul Haine, Roger Johansson of 456bereastreet, and Jen Hanen.

“Industry best practice demands standards-based Web development, but there’s very little foundation-level information available for students,” said Ben Buchanan, a prominent Web developer and speaker. “The average beginner tutorial is out of date and most standards-based articles are beyond beginner level. Opera’s new curriculum aims to fill that gap, with a set of articles showing how to build standards-compliant Web sites from the ground up.”

The Opera Web Standards Curriculum is also an ideal training course for businesses who want to promote good coding practices as well as enjoy the bandwidth savings, easier maintenance and enhanced innovation Web standards provide.

“As one of the world’s premier Web technology companies, Yahoo! prides itself on following best practices and building the Web the right way to enable us to become the starting point on the Internet for our consumers,” said Sophie Major, Manager, Yahoo! Developer Network International. “Therefore Yahoo! insists its employees be competent in their knowledge of Web standards. The Opera Web Standards Curriculum delivers exactly the spread of knowledge Yahoo! would expect a front-end developer to know.”

[B]Educators and universities stand in support of the initiative:[/B]

“Web development and design are ever evolving professions. Anyone teaching these subjects must ask themselves if they are equipping their students with best practices or burdening them with impractical methodologies, said Glenda Sims, Senior Systems Analyst, TeamWeb - Information Technology Services University of Texas. “The Opera Web Standards Curriculum, developed by top industry professionals, is an excellent rubric for educators to review, affirm and enhance their current instruction. Indeed, all of us in this field can benefit from this resource and use it as a catalyst to further the W3C vision of ‘Web for Everyone. Web on Everything.’”

“The School of Computing, University of Dundee gives its full support to the Web standards curriculum from Opera. This will be an invaluable resource for the teaching of Web standards at all levels and will fill an important gap in the available resources about this important subject,” said Andrew Cobley, Lecturer in Internet Programming, Dundee University. “Opera’s choice of industry leaders for preparing course material emphasizes the importance of the material. This course will help students to learn the right way to implement Web design and will increase their understanding of the importance of Web standards for creating valid Web resources. University-level students will find the wealth of material in the course allows them to brush up on current knowledge, find new ways of doing old tasks and discover new technologies for implementing Web design. Dundee University intends to use material from the course in our undergraduate teaching to emphasize the right, modern way of doing Web design.”

“Opera has always fought to bring Web standards to a global audience,” said Håkon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera. “The new Web Standards Curriculum will reach many Web developers who are new to Web standards, arming them with the tools and information they need to deploy Web standards easily and efficiently. I’m proud that Opera can play an even greater role in spreading Web standards to developers all over the globe.”

[B]Get Involved[/B]

Our developer community, [URL]http://dev.opera.com/[/URL] , is a central hub to learn about Web standards, advanced Web development techniques and connect with developers worldwide. The Opera Web Standards Curriculum needs your support to help prepare the next generation of Web developers. If you would like to develop new articles or translate existing content to reach a global audience, we welcome your input. Visit [URL]http://dev.opera.com/[/URL] and [URL]http://www.opera.com/wsc[/URL] to learn more.

[B]Opera Education[/B]

Opera’s Web Standards Curriculum is part of Opera Education, a comprehensive initiative to promote Web standards and choice on the Web as a force for good. Opera Education encompasses university tours, lectures and materials for system administrators, students and educators at institutions of higher learning worldwide. Visit [URL]http://www.opera.com/education/[/URL] to learn more.

[B]About Opera Software ASA[/B]

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at [URL]http://www.opera.com[/URL]

Apple’s 10.5.3 release reportedly included an update that allows people to sync the Address Book with Google Contacts. David Alison writes that even though it doesn’t work on most Macs that’s a good thing.

Brainjuice announced today that Blogo 1.1, the latest version of its weblog editor for Mac OS X, is now available to the public for download. Blogo makes posting easy even for users with no knowledge of HTML, and now includes support for the WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, TypePad, MovableType, and typo weblog systems. In addition to Drupal, the application has also added Twitter to its growing list of supported services.

Version 1.1 adds new features in addition to fixes for many outstanding issues. Highlights include:

[B]New formatting options:[/B]

Text can now be formatted as quotes and lists, and can be aligned or justified.

[B]Twitter support:[/B]

Users can now post status updates and send direct messages from Blogo, as well as view friends’ and friends-of-friends’ status updates. Blogo can even be configured to send a new status update whenever a new article is published.

[B]Drupal support:[/B]

Blogo now supports Drupal, a popular content management system and the third most popular blog system after WordPress and Blogger. (ed. note: Drupal is the software that runs this site)

[B]Improved interface:[/B]

The interface has undergone a complete revision, with a more streamlined look as well as a new black theme.

[B]Custom thumbnail cropping:[/B]

Image thumbnails can now be cropped independently of the full-size image, giving the user a finer level of control over the post layout.

[B]Expanded support for more file formats:[/B]

Blogo now accepts most raw image formats in addition to PDF, PSD, EPS, JPEG, GIF and PNG.

[B]Integration with NetNewsWire and Safari:[/B]

Blogo responds to the “Post to Weblog” command in news readers, and comes with a bookmarklet which can be added to Safari to send the current web page to Blogo.

[B]Growl notifications: [/B]

Growl is now used for all user notifications.

[B]Minimum Requirements:[/B]
[list]
[*] Mac OS X Version 10.4 Tiger or later
[*] Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
[*] 46.9 MB Hard Drive space
[*] Internet connection
[/list]
[B]Pricing and Availability:[/B]

Blogo can be downloaded as a 21-day unlimited trial or purchased for $25 USD from the Brainjuice site.

[B]Links:[/B]
[list]
[*] Brainjuice
[*] Blogo
[*] Direct Download Link
[*] Purchase Link
[/list]

Brainjuice is a software house founded in 2007 and based in Wynnewood, PA. It launched Blogo, its first product, in December of 2007.

Flashforward2008 opens the nomination process for the 18th Flashforward Film Festival. The festival, now in its ninth year, celebrates the most innovative and compelling projects created with Adobe® Flash™. Nominations Open for submissions to the Flashforward Film Festival, taking place August 20-22, 2008 in San Francisco, with 10 Realigned and Refreshed Categories for all Work Created with Adobe® Flash™.

The wide ranging film festival’s new category line up has been arranged to reflect the changes and growth in Flash use and applications. The ten new categories are: application, cartoon/story/narrative, code, experimental/art, game, motion graphics, navigation/experience, sound, typography, and video. These new categories recognize innovators who push the limits of Flash, alone or in combination with other programs and platforms.

The Flashforward Film Festival charges no entry fees and allows work to be submitted by peers as well as the admiring public. To learn more about the rules and the nomination process, which closes end of day June 15, 2008 see their website.

Winners will be announced at the Flashforward Film Festival awards ceremony which takes place August 21, 2008 at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco during Flashforward2008. Finalists in each category, chosen by a panel of industry professional judges, are showcased during the ceremony. The ten winners are awarded the famous Big Rubber Arrow.

“Celebrating and recognizing work created by your peers - work that’s inspiring, work that pushes the limits, and work that makes you say ‘I wish I’d done that’ is what sets the bar for the industry,” said Beau Ambur, CEO Metaliq and Flashforward Conference. “This level of quality, the unique and inspiring ideas, and the implementation of highly evolved technical skills pushes Flash to its’ limits.”

To view the groundbreaking work created by past Flashforward Film Festival winners visit their website.

All work created predominately in Adobe Flash and available on the web to any visitor is eligible for the Flashforward Film Festival. Work can be nominated in any and all categories for which it qualifies including multiple submissions of the same work in differing categories. To nominate Flash work you admire, visit www.flashforwardconference.com/nominate. Flashforward Film Festival nominations will be accepted until the end of the day June 15, 2008. For additional Flashforward Film Festival information, please contact: festival@flashforwardconference.com

[B]Flashforward Sponsors:[/B]
Flashforward2008 San Francisco is supported by Metaliq.

[B]Links[/B]
[list]
[*] Nominate a Project Today
[*] Festival Guidelines
[*] Flashforward
[*] Past Flashforward Film Festival Winners
[*] Sponsors
[/list]

Flashforward is the longest-running and largest Adobe(R) Flash(TM) user conference in the world. Flashforward2008 San Francisco, entering its ninth year, is a three-day event filled with sessions led by the world’s leading Flash professionals, offering education, best practices, and inspirational case studies in Flash, Flex, ActionScript, and Apollo. Flashforward2008 San Francisco, developed and produced by Beau Ambur, in cooperation with the team at Metaliq, includes the international Flashforward Film Festival and Awards ceremony and a Flash-related industry Expo Hall and community center with opportunities for the entire Flash community to network and share knowledge. August 20-22, 2008 Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco.

Fast Icon has released CreatureCutes, which contains 12 freeware icons of funny creatures.
This icon collection is available for download for Mac OS X, Windows Vista as well as a handy PNG files for Linux, web or blogs in the FastIcon Website.