Got to keep up with the web. Here is a collection of pages I've bookmarked.
Do not listen to your usersA bold statement, but blindly believing that individual users know both what they want and how to get it will often land you in trouble
The Calcutta Cup in 3DIf you are not able to be there, then the BBC have the answer for you - watch the game in 3D! A trial run of interesting technology
BBC.co.uk goes web 2.0The BBC site has had a real make over with this update - which is good work. It is however, a poor example of progressive enhancement - switch off Javascript and all the JS only controls are still there - they just do nothing
ECMAScript 4 edges closerImplementations of the next generation JavaScript engines are being worked on for Gecko and Webkit (Opera are probably at it as well). Exciting stuff
Navigation MenusNavigation is the corner stone of most web-sites, with the success of the site depending on how easy and enjoyable people find the navigation to use. This is a great collection of navigation examples
New job boardLooking for a bit of freelance work, or perhaps a full time position? Smashing Magazine have just opened up the Smashing Jobs board
80-20 FreelancingThe 80-20 rule is easily applied to a lot of circumstances, and this article takes a nice look at using it for a freelancer
CSSOM View ModuleThe CSS3 working group have just added the CSSOM module, which defines a standardised API for inspecting the sizes and positions of rendered boxes (thing offsetWidth etc). Interesting
Opera DragonflyContinuing with tease season, Opera is next up. What is Opera Dragonfly - looks like we will have to wait until SxSW to find out
Adobe AIR is outIf you want to make online applications work offline, AIR is the way to go. Outstanding run time environment, with all the benefits of JavaScript, CSS, Flex, Flash (etc) rolled into one
Beautiful typographyThe importance of type to get your message across simply cannot be understated - and this is a fantastic collection of type focused posters showing the skills of the designers
Timers in JavascriptInteresting introduction to JS timers, although nothing particularly new if you normally work with single threads
Netscape is put to bedThe last ever upgrade (9.0.0.6) to the venerable browser has just been released, but it will, of course, live on as Gecko for a long time to come
SXSW highlightsLooks like SXSW is shaping up to be another cracking conference if you are fortunate enough to be going this year
IE8 user agentNo big surprise here - but the IE team have released the user agent that will be used for IE8. The good news is that we get a beta in the first half of this year
What is graphic design?Veerle has been running a poster competition, and the results are in. Some excellent work on display
YUI A-grade chart updateThe YUI graded support table is an excellent resource when planing your own support grades - this brings it bang up-to-date
Getting the family/work balanceThis one sounds like it should be easy (where are your priorities) but is often exceptionally difficult - good tips here. Always see what is going on around you
CSS techniquesA long list of tips, techniques and tools from Smashing Magazine. Add Conditional-CSS into your armoury now as well!
YUI goes 2.5.0This is a big release to YUI, which is now overflowing wih features. YUI is a very versatile library, which tools for almost anything
Going it aloneStarting your own business is the dream of many. Mark Boulton has words of advice
Credit card paymentsIt goes without saying that you really must be careful with money when freelancing - get a contract, get payment as you go
How useful are CSS3 selectorsJust because they are not used much (yet) does not make them useless. As browser support for CSS3 grows we will be relying on these like any of the other selectors
Node position in documentUsing the DOM compare functions looks like a useful tool to have in the armoury, particularly if you are working on generated code
ALA 253 is publishedAll about the version targeting meta tag that will be in IE8 this time. Two great articles with different view points, but either way, it looks like we are going to have to live with it
Follow up formulaFollowing up is fundamental to good business practice (value added), and these are some good tips to doing it correctly
Stunning desktop picturesSmashing Magazine have a gallery of fantastic desktop pictures - excellent if you are looking for a little inspiration, or just want a desktop change
Winning contentUsable content is all very well - but you need content which actually meets business goals, for example selling products...
Firefox 3 beta 3 releasedThe Firefox team are stepping up to the plate in the browser race with this release, featuring the Gecko 1.9 engine - very nice
Webkit adds Selectors APIWebkit now allows you to use the W3C Selectors API to use CSS like syntax to address elements in Javascript
XPath in JavascriptAfter the consideration that browsers need to move on from the DOM API, it looks like several Javascript libraries are starting to use XPath when available
Better compressionThe YUI team have a great post up about giving their excellent YUI compressor a helping hand to reduce your code footprint even further
Where the heck is my focus?Given how much we rely on the mouse for web navigation, many web-sites do an appallingly bad job of drawing the attention of a user to where they are and where they should be heading
Cross-Window MessagingReally like the sound of this - the Firefox 3 crew have implemented the cross-origin message posting API. Cross-domain and cross-window messaging here we come
Hammering the W3C for DTDsThe W3C have just issued a request to software developers to stop abusing the DTDs that they host. Use some common sense and general good manners when coding!
A call for DOM to be deprecatedThis is an interesting article which basically says that DOM APIs to XML are too clunky and a new (or alternative) approach is needed
The perfect online portfolioLooking for clients or a new job - it is certainly worth your time getting your portfolio up to scratch. Here is an excellent article on how to do just that
Step forward in holographyThe BBC are reporting about a group from the University of Tucson, AZ, who have developed a technique to record holographic images in minutes
Safari 3.1 beta 1Apple have just released a new beta of Safari which includes a lot of the cutting edge features of the Webkit nightly builds, including a considerable amount of HTML 5 support and CSS Animation (...)
Business card inspirationBusiness cards can count for a lot, particularly in a first contact situation - some very nice designs here
Word processing done the Flash wayBuzzword is a slick new (beta of course) word processor from Adobe. They could have broken a few more of the desktop UI constraints and the loading times are nothing short of appalling - but still very cool
CSS 3 selectors and OperaThe selectors in CSS are able to described some quite complex display/behvaiour (it is a fuzzy line) controls, and the Opera team are tail blazing with support for CSS 3 selectors
Display technologiesSmashing magazine takes a look at the display systems we could be developing for in future
Break through in flock swarmingNot directly UI related (yet) but swarm intelligence is a fascinating subject with a bright future in countless applications
Microsoft makes an offer for Yahoo!If this goes through, it will seriously shake up the online world. Yahoo! have been doing some great things recently - long may that continue