Patty Ho Design | Web Interactive Designer

I finally got some chance to come back to do some reading and surfing before my work haunts me.

70+ Practical Cheat Sheets For Web Designers And Developers

Didn’t I just post 20 practical cheat sheets from web resources depot a while ago? Now there’s 70 cheat sheets! Frickn’ sweet!

5 cm. fir tree removed from patient’s lung

K, this is totally random, gross and unbelievable. Watch what you breath in while walking under the trees.

Wanna track how many users had visited your site using mobile?

There are an increasing number of users using mobile surfing internet these days. Percentmobile.com definately will help provide you a stat of how many people had visited your site using a mobile device. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet but will soon

Ok, am I the only one who knows that Standford University is giving out free lesson of iPhone Application Programming through iTune?

Here’s wired’s article a week ago.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/04/apple-stanford.html

You can download free video clips and slides from iTune.
Here’s how you get to it.
1. Open your iTune.
2. Go to iTunes Store (on your left hand side in case you don’t know..)
3. Go to iTunes U (it should be in the box on the top left hand side that says “iTunes Store”)
4. Go to “Top Downloads”, it should be the first item that says “1. Introduction to Mac OSX and Cocoa Touch..”
5. once you get to the page. just download both Video clips and PDFs. the new one comes out every single week.

Here’s another link on Apple.com about iPhone Developer University Program.

Good luck!

Wall-E and Watchmen meshup…who would thought of it?

I just love the fact that somone blends both trailer together so well. nice job.

Using sitemap as your footer

Awesome show and tell from Web Designer’s Wall. Nick raise a good point using sitemap in the footer. Cut down the clicks, engage interactivity, saves time and enhance page design are all good reasons to design for responsiveness.

20+ cheat sheets for designers

Nothing better than cutting down my production time! Sweet!

5 tips for increasing Google Adsense earning

Interesting, I came across this link when I was checking out Smashing Magazine’s post on 100% Google AdSense tips and tools. I just started playing with Google AdSense late last year. Therefore there are still alot of things about AdSense that I need to learn.  I only implemented AdSense on my AlexandPatty.com blog. Those tips definately helped me optimize my ads for sure.

30 Essential UI Controls

I actually came across this posting last month. I even sent out this link to everyone in my team (not sure if they read it.) It’s actually quite interesting how those controls are actually around us in most of the applications, softwares or even web pages.

12 Standard UI Screen Patterns

Another wonderful posting about the principles of screen patterns for RIA applications. It’s quite interesting the patterns are actually around us all the time. Even the sites that I worked on everyday (thestar.com, yourhome.ca, parentcentral.ca..etc) They all incorporate some sort of the patterns.

15 Common Component Patterns

When I see this post, I send this to my manager (whom’s working on building us a wonderful project management tool). It has a large list of the component behaviors that we see today. This is a must-read if you are building some sort of productivity tools or applications.

10 Min Power Point Mock prototyping

No matter how much I dislike Power Point, I just can’t avoid it. It’s on everyone’s machine! It’s on your manager’s machine, and it’s on all your client’s machine too! I had built Flash presentation back in the day that I should have just built it under Power Point instead. Why? because it’s just easier to update through Powerpoint instead of Flash. This Powerpoint prototyping Youtube video shows you the trick all under 10 min, it’s freaking awesome.

12 points to include in your design contract

Awesome post from Freelance Switch. In the past I have never really provide any written contract with the client. I usually use Email as proof of contract. (That’s why I still have client owe me money!) This post is definately big boost for my business side for sure.
http://freelanceswitch.com/clients/what-should-be-included-in-a-design-contract/

How Capital Cost Allowance(CCA) Works

This post is targeted for rental properties, but it also works for freelance business as well. I don’t really do my own taxes, but I know my furniture are under CCA schedules. lol
http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/how-capital-cost-allowance-works-cca.htm

I guess I should start keep track of all the interesting articles and links I read everyday..

• Twitter is Everywhere!
  

  I haven’t get myself back on track with twitter, and here’s already a list of 99 twitter tools and applications! Holy cow!
  http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/17/99-essential-twitter-tools-and-applications/

• Jquery Image Switch

  Interesting jquery script effect, I guess it would be awesome for showing portfolio pieces?
  http://www.hieu.co.uk/ImageSwitch/

• Fluid Grids

  Excellent Article on building flexible and fluid websites
  http://alistapart.com/articles/fluidgrids

• Object-Oriented CSS

  Excellent slideshow about working with CSS in object oriented manner. This definately solves a lot of problem with all our corporate sites. There’s no such thing as one central code library that everyone follows.
  http://wiki.github.com/stubbornella/oocss

• Free leather texture from BitBox

  I kept a habit collect and organize my design resources. Do you?
  http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-texture-tuesday-leather/

• It’s a great time to buy house!

  I do agree that right now it’s an awesome time to start investing and also get a place if you don’t have one yet.
  http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/it%E2%80%99s-a-great-time-to-buy-your-first-house.htm

Finally after one year signing up Twitter, got bored after 2 second using it, and now I am coming back to use it.

Why? because now it will link my blog entry to twitter to provide update on the fly. Sweet! I hate updating my status/news in many different location.

This all thanks to Twitterfeed.com. Yay!

Wow, time fly by and here we are in 2009!!

I was amazed how much stuff I did last year for my life and my work.

1. Double the freelance income compare to 2007
2. Launched Alexandpatty.com, Got married and move to a new condo
3. Traveled to Taiwan, Thailand and Bahamas
4. Acquired PADI open water diving certificate.

So what’s my goal this year?

1. Continue to grow my freelance income. It might be tough this year due to economy downturn. However, it’s a perfect timing for developing products and software. I have partner up with a developer and a marketing dude to roll out some product hopefully by summer this year.
2. Increasing my networth. Personal finance is important especially during this tough times. I am now no longer paying rent and now owns condo with two incomes. Next thing is to plan budget everything including food to car to travel…etc. Get on the habit to save every single receipt, you will be surprised to see what you spend by the end of the year.
3. Organize, Collect and Bookmark. In order to do my job faster and easier, I always kept a good disk hard drive space for all my design resources. They range from photoshop brushes, patterns, fonts to codes like CSS template, Javascript codes..etc. I will continue to collect and organize my assets. Using http://delicious.com/ to bookmark anything that are interesting. Using Google Reader to keep all my RSS feeds to keep myself updated.
4. Do something different other than work.
   • Travel and expand your horizon. Travel is always the biggest thing of my life because I just like to see what else is there other than where i live. Times are tight doesn’t mean I should stop traveling. This just means I will stay in a hostel now instead of hotel. Travel is still doable these days.
   • Eating Healthy and Boost up activity level – I am going to try to cut down the intake of meat and simple carb. Eat more variety of vegetable and fruits. They add color to the plate and also make my family feel better. Also, by adding exercise to the daily routine to keep up the metabolism, it makes you more productive when you work.
   • Home improvement makes me feel like I am part of my home. I have been renting all my life and never bother to decorate any rented space because i know I won’t be there forever. Now I own the new condo, everything I do to it increases the value of the condo and makes me feel like I am part of my home!

When was the last time you see large families of Canadian Geese in City of Toronto?? I was quite surprised to see them while walking down the street to a store.

I have been using zipcar for a while,.. and then till I saw this car. I can’t stop laughing.

It’s sponsored by Eye weekly and then it’s CAD 6.50/hr including insurance and gas (vs. normally CAD 10.50/hr rate)

I would say it’s a pretty awesome deal except you are a driving advertisement for Eye weekly.