Archive for February, 2010

Announcing the TranslateThis Button for WordPress

February 25th, 2010

Announcing the TranslateThis Button for WordPress

I just released a new WordPress plugin to leverage the TranslateThis Button, a Javascript translation widget that uses the Google Language API. This plugin provides an easy interface for customizing the options in the TranslateThis Button. The widget can be either be displayed anywhere in your theme with a template tag, or be included as part of the widgetized sidebar.

The plugin provides a variety of settings that can be accessed in the WordPress admin section:

  • Control the languages in the dropdown and the text of the various UI elements.
  • Enable Google Analytics tracking for translation events.
  • Use new button imagery, or disable images altogether, opting for text-only links.
  • Confine the translation to the post/comments, or translate the entire page.
  • Disable the cookie, or allow the plugin to translate all the pages on your site automatically.
  • And more…

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Posted in wordpress | 2 Comments

These Icons Look Like Crap – Poopy Social Media Icons

February 16th, 2010

These Icons Look Like Crap – Poopy Social Media Icons

Social media often seems like a load of crap, so I’m releasing these Poopy Social Icons: 36 different icons in 3 crappy sizes: 48×48, 64×64, 128×128.

Feel free to use the Poopy Social Media Icons on any site personal or commercial. No attribution is necessary but please link back to this post or retweet it if you like using these. Thanks!

Download the Poopy Social Media Icons

The Poopy Social Icon set covers 34 different social media outlets with an extra icon option for both Twitter and Digg. If I missed any, please let me know.

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Posted in web design | 5 Comments

Get Around Email Address Privacy Issues in Google Buzz (Sort of)

February 15th, 2010

Get Around Email Address Privacy Issues in Google Buzz (Sort of)

Last week marked the release of Buzz, Google’s new competitor for Facebook and Twitter.

Initially Buzz inherited a lot of the privacy issues of G-Chat by automatically adding everyone in your Google contacts. The problem with Google contacts is that even people you email casually end up in this list. Fortunately, this privacy issue has been mostly addressed, and Buzz now makes you confirm anyone before adding them.

However another privacy issue remains, which is that Google Buzz profile URLs line up with Gmail addresses. So if a Google profile exists at the URL http://www.google.com/profiles/rickymartin, you can bet there is a corresponding email account rickymartin@gmail.com. (Sorry Ricky is still ‘living la vida loca’ and hasn’t set up his Buzz account yet)

And there are additional issues with linking Google profile URLs with Gmail addresses, as this Buzz post from Danny Sullivan explains.

Getting Around … Read more…

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Posted in social media

10 Javascript Performance Boosting Tips from Nicholas Zakas

February 10th, 2010

10 Javascript Performance Boosting Tips from Nicholas Zakas

Nicholas Zakas is a Javascript guru and principle front-end engineer for the Yahoo! homepage. Zakas just announced his new book High Performance JavaScript, which you should order today.

Zakas is pretty much the man when it comes to Javascript performance, and in June he gave a Google Tech Talk entitled Speed Up Your Javascript.

While Javascript optimization is by no means black-and-white, here’s a list of 10 tips from Nicholas’ talk that will help you write Javascript that really flies.

1. Define local variables

When a variable is referenced, Javascript hunts it down by looping through the different members of the scope chain. This scope chain is the set of variables available within the current scope, and across all major browsers it has at least two items: a set of local variables and a set of global variables.

Simply put, the deeper the engine has to dig into this … Read more…

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Posted in 10 Javascript Performance Tips, javascript | 21 Comments

CSS Rounded Corners In All Browsers (With No Images)

February 4th, 2010

CSS Rounded Corners In All Browsers (With No Images)

In the past two years, increased browser support has transformed CSS3 from a fringe activity for Safari geeks to a viable option for enterprise level websites.

While cross-browser support is often too weak for CSS3 to hold up a site’s main design, front-end developers commonly look to CSS3 solutions for progressive enhancement in their sites. For instance, a developer might add a drop-shadow in Firefox, Safari and Chrome using -moz-box-shadow and -webkit-box-shadow, and then be comfortable with this design enhancement falling off for IE users.

But wouldn’t it be great if IE users could see the better version of the page? Fortunately there are cross-browser hacks for the more common CSS3 attributes. These hacks not only allow CSS3 attributes to work in all browsers, but in turn allow designers and developers to use CSS3 in the central styling of their sites.

In this article we’ll walk through getting rounded … Read more…

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Posted in CSS | 211 Comments