WebDev3000 » No License http://www.webdev3000.com web design, freebies and more Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:07:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Lubith http://www.webdev3000.com/lubith/ http://www.webdev3000.com/lubith/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:30:02 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=966 Can you believe that some people pay up to 100 bucks or more to some self-titled “designers” who don’t work at least 20 minutes to “create” a WordPress theme? I didn’t do such a thing, but one buddy of mine did it a few times – in the end, it’s not a fool the one asking, but the one paying, especially since we’re only talking about starting with some theme already available and changing it here and there, not building one from scratch! Well, today I’ll give everyone something to think about – Lubith can do a lot for free… so if you’re planning to pay for a WordPress theme, at least be sure you’ll get an original one, not just a painted old crow, all right? ;)

No need for any other introduction – Lubith is a Web-based WordPress theme editor that, unfortunately, only seems to work with Firefox and Chrome, but it surely gets the job done! By using it, you’ll save a lot of time and money, since it requires no coding, it’s completely free and sports an intuitive interface. Even more, if “intuitive” is not easy for you, there’s also a tutorials section on the official page, available right here. For now, it’s only one there, but we’ll surely have more in the future, I have no doubt about it…

Other than the above, I should add that, in case you’re feelin’ lost, the support forum will surely help you – it’s not really crowded there as I write this, but most issues reported get answers pretty soon and, in the end, that’s what really matters – to learn how to master Lubith as soon as possible, so maybe you can create some WordPress themes for others in need and ready to pay for it, right? Good luck with that and anything else you may have in mind!

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/lubith/feed/ 0 resizeMyBrowser http://www.webdev3000.com/resizemybrowser/ http://www.webdev3000.com/resizemybrowser/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:45:37 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=963 For a lot of Web developers and designers, keeping things as short and simple as possible is not something to choose – it’s something you follow as faithfully as possible, or else… wasting your time can have really nasty consequences, going as far as leaving you without any work to do. After all, who wants to work with a person/company needing more time than all the others to get the same job done? Well, today we’re not going to talk about any impressive script or IDE that can help you spare some of that precious time, since I think that easy to use, straightforward Web-based tools like resizeMyBrowser can also have a serious impact in the long run…

… so let’s make a short story even shorter: created by Chen Luo, resizeMyBrowser is nothing more but a browser resizing application that works best with best on Safari, Firefox and IE, unfortunately still encountering some issues on Opera and Chrome. Basically, it does the following things: allows you to set to set the browser size by both Inner window and Outer window, displays the current size values in real time when manually resizing the browser, it even lets you create your own presets, all inside a clean layout. Excellent!

As I write this, resizeMyBrowser is free and I have no doubt that it will continue to remain this way. Current version is 1.0.9, released back on the 23rd of February and, if you ask me, all I wish to see until Christmas is support for Opera and Chrome or – why not? – even some extensions for this browser to get the resizing job properly done. That’s all, folks! ;)

]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/resizemybrowser/feed/ 0 Css-sprit.es http://www.webdev3000.com/css-sprit-es/ http://www.webdev3000.com/css-sprit-es/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:45:23 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=959 While an experienced developer can get started with CSS and go above average level in less than an hour, I think that code generators should be used as often as possible, I decided to take a closer look at another Web-based CSS tool. After a few minutes spent searching for something interesting enough, I ended up facing today’s subject – ladies and gentlemen, here’s Css-sprit.es!

Before anything else, Css-sprit.es is a great domain name, if you ask me. Other than that, I think I should add that this is a Web-based CSS sprites generator that can be freely used by anyone and packs a bunch of interesting features, including CSS-based rollover effects with a few different presets available. The sprite image to upload can be in the JPG, GIF or PNG format, while output is CSS or SASS.


“Carefully handcrafted by Nicolas Crovatti” and powered by jQuery and Pixastic, Css-sprit.es is still in Beta status, but seems like a pretty useful, good looking and reliable Web-based tool, so why not take it for a spin? Since “Beta” also means “possibly buggy” and I must confess I didn’t manage to spot any bugs, could you drop a comment below with any compatibility/functional bugs that you encountered, if any? Thank you in advance!

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/css-sprit-es/feed/ 0 TailWords http://www.webdev3000.com/tailwords/ http://www.webdev3000.com/tailwords/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:22:53 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=906 As I am sure most SEO professionals (or amateurs, no discrimination needed) are aware, virtually all tools that can handle keyword research the right way don’t come for free. On the other hand, it may be possible to check popularity and various other stats of simple keywords with tools like Google Trends, but when it comes to long tail keywords, things may get different – like “expensive,” you know… Fortunately, a buddy of mine told me about TailWords two days ago, so I decided to share this priceless piece of info with you.

Before moving on, let’s make one thing clear to those who may not be into long tail keyword research – according to the article on keyword research I found on Wikipedia, “The long tail in keyword research is basically an expansion of a core, generic, high volume keyword phrase to include numerous combinations and permutations of the keywords and their associated or relevant phrases.” To make it even easier to understand, let me say just this – if you can’t compete on “Android software,” you may have a clear shot on “Android software for Chinese tablets” or “free Android apps for HTC Diamond.” That should make everything clear, I hope.

Now, let’s take a closer look at TailWords: I will start by saying that this tool is far from perfect, since it delivered no results when I searched for popular keywords like “Android” or “Microsoft,” but it proved pretty helpful in providing information based on keywords like “news” or “windows.” That’s pretty strange, if you ask me, despite the fact that “Microsoft” seems to be less popular than “Windows,” according to Google Trends…

… but since this is only a suggestion that you should take TailWords for a spin and nothing more, let me just add the things you’ll get after typing in a certain keyword in this Web-based tool: Searches, Results, Results (Phrase), Results (Title), Adwords Price, Adwords Volume, KEI, KEI (Phrase), KEI (Title), Domains, LT Length, LT Volume, LT Searches. More than basic search, you can also use advanced filters and, if any of the results you get seems like something new, you can always check the help page. That’s all, folks – now you can go and make success happen online! ;)

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/tailwords/feed/ 0 Patternify http://www.webdev3000.com/patternify/ http://www.webdev3000.com/patternify/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:45:12 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=904 Weather has been really sad lately – a lot of rain, cold as in late November/early December… all without following any logical pattern. Well… weather may go on a strange path, but as far as pattern generators go, Patternify scores quite a few points in my book, despite the fact we’re not talking about a perfect product. After all, we’re not trying to find perfection here – we simply look for things worth checking out that may prove useful to some of you and, at least if you ask me, Patternify is one of them.

What’s so special about Patternify, after all? Nothing really special, but it’s clearly one Web-based tool I had some fun discovering and taking for a spin – this free to use application allows you to easily design stripe patterns that can be exported as PNG files. More than just designing a pattern from scratch, you can also choose one of the existing 15 patterns, grouped into three categories – Old School, Color and Misc. Even more, you can also grab the generated base64 CSS code instead of the PNG file mentioned above. At last, Patternify provides a unique link for each pattern, so you can easily share your work with others – not that it’s really hard to draw something that’s as large as 10X10 pixels maximum… ;)

In case you’re still wondering about the licensing part… there’s no license to be scared of, just a free service that can be used to generate freely usable patterns – nothing more, nothing less! Oh, yeah… speaking about compatibility… I guess there’s no surprise that Patternify works with all major browsers – at least that’s what I can tell you. If you have some problems with Patternify on a specific software/hardware combination, please drop a comment below to let everyone know about it, all right? That’s all, folks!

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/patternify/feed/ 1 Google Sets http://www.webdev3000.com/google-sets/ http://www.webdev3000.com/google-sets/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:46:33 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=893 So this SEO expert walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish bar, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor… but in case that doesn’t sound funny enough, think about another one (I just came up with it a few minutes ago, didn’t find it anywhere on the Internet): “A group of SEO experts goes to the Zoo. After a while, they all run like hell. – What happened? – They saw a Panda!” Now… what’s the connection between these and Google Sets? Keywords, that’s the answer, keywords!

Usually described as a Web-based service that “Generates a list of items when users enter a few examples,” Google Sets is very easy to use, but can surely help you find some keywords related to the ones you enter, and since I know everyone runs out of ideas every once in a while… why not take it for a spin? To give you another short quote, they say that “For example, entering “Green, Purple, Red” emits the list “Green, Purple, Red, Blue, Black, White, Yellow, Orange, Brown.” and, in case that’s not enough, there’s no need to look anywhere else but a few pixels below – that screenshots should give you a clear idea, don’t you think?

As it happens with most Google Labs products, Google Sets is a free service, so there shouldn’t be anything to stop you from taking it for a quick run, unless you’re already using some uber-awesome SEO tool that can also get this job of generating similar keywords done. In that case, I must ask you for some help: please enlighten us and share the name of that tool with the rest of the world, will you? Thanks in advance! ;)

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/google-sets/feed/ 0 CSSWARP http://www.webdev3000.com/csswarp/ http://www.webdev3000.com/csswarp/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:53:34 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=878 To be honest, I think the time for warped text has passed, but if you’re into some retro-style Web design, then I am sure you’ll find CSSWARP to be pretty useful – after all, we’re talking about a Web-based application that can generate HTML5 code, so it’s not retro to the bone, actually… ;)

According to its official page, CSSWARP is a CSS3 text to path generator that’s more than just another tool – this one “is a proof of concept” that allows you to “create Illustrator like “warped” text (text following an irregular path) with pure CSS and HTML.” Using CSSWARP is really straightforward, but some things need to be said – for example, this Web-based tool can also use local fonts, next to any font you may want to pick from the Google Font Directory.

The features of this tool are not hidden, so everything’s revealed at first sight – customizable text, curve style and font type, instant warped HTML generation, browser-specific CSS rules (IE9, Opera, Firefox and WebKit available), while compatibility of this tool shouldn’t raise any concerns – CSSWARP works with all modern browsers… as long as we’re not talking about some modern text mode browser, of course! ;)

Ouch, forgot about this – in case you didn’t manage to take a look at CSSWARP yet and you’re wondering about its price, I have some good news for you – this tool is free to use for everyone, at least at this time!

]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/csswarp/feed/ 0 PHP Text to Image http://www.webdev3000.com/php-text-to-image/ http://www.webdev3000.com/php-text-to-image/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:28:00 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=846 Why would you convert text to image? Well, the first thing that comes into my mind when I hear this is “to avoid spam,” since it’s almost impossible to automatically gather email addresses displayed as images, while those that get displayed as plain text information will soon land into the spammers’ list of vitims. Today, the time has come for a quick look at PHP Text to Image, an image handling class that does exactly what its name says…

… or, as the official mumbo-jumbo says – “This script is a means to convert a string of text into an image. This has some simple uses such as displaying text such as email address that cannot be programmatically found. This can help to reduce the possibility of your email address being picked up by web crawlers and used for junk mail.”

PHP Text to Image is freely available, but only seems to work with Latin characters. The most unfortunate part of it all is that this script doesn’t seem to be maintained properly, and a lot of problems gathered in time, for example the fact that you get a really ugly image, with aliased fonts, not to mention the fact that similar solutions offer more flexibility. On the other hand, the PHP code is available on the page I mentioned above, so you can improve PHP Text to Image by yourself, if you got the time and skills required. After all, that’s why I bothered to mention this piece of code here, so… good luck, folks – you will probably need it… ;)

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]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/php-text-to-image/feed/ 0 BustAName http://www.webdev3000.com/bustaname/ http://www.webdev3000.com/bustaname/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:35:41 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=829 Friday night sounds really bad to me now. The reason? I feel really drained of ideas, despite the fact there are plenty of things rolling around inside my head, most of them related to the stuff I write about. Well, I guess it may be the fact that I had a week full of things that had nothing in common with my work, but… let’s leave that aside and bust a name, shall we?

If the name doesn’t ring any bells in your head, let me tell you that BustAName is a Web-based service that can help you easily find some good domain names by combining a set of keywords you enter, looking for combinations and giving you the free ones found. What some people would appreciate is the possibility to also look for premium domains, but I think that some domains are simply overrated – for example, I searched for Software-Reviews.com some time ago, and that domain was valued at over 2000 bucks. In the end, content is king, trust me!

On the other hand, having a good name for a decent price is also a smart choice, so BustAName is simply awesome – for example, you can check availability of a certain domain on-the-fly, simply by typing a word into the Quick Domain Check field – no captchas to fill, no time to waste – awesome!

At last, if you really want a human mind to forge the domain name you’d kill for, then PickyDomains may be a better idea, although it may also require more time and even some money to be invested. Well, nothing’s free, after all… maybe except some weekends, so enjoy the one that begins as I write this, will you? Good luck! :)

]]> http://www.webdev3000.com/bustaname/feed/ 0 Google APIs & Developer Products http://www.webdev3000.com/google-apis-developer-products/ http://www.webdev3000.com/google-apis-developer-products/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:21:47 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.webdev3000.com/?p=798 Impressive, that’s the keyword today. No, it has nothing to do with SEO, it’s just the fact that I came across something really impressive, namely the entire collection of Google APIs & Developer Products available to the public right as I write this, at the end of January, 2011.

What’s so special about it? Nothing really special, only the fact that I am sure most of you didn’t ever think about how many excellent products Google has on the market, starting with Android and going all the way to V8, its open source JavaScript engine. If the screenshot above is not enough, here’s what you should do: go to the page I mentioned above and point your mouse at one of the categories displayed on that page, namely Mobile, Search, Gadgets, Data APIs, Social, Misc, Ads, Geo, Tools and Chrome.

When it comes to Search, for example, you may find the Google Book Search APIs to be a pretty interesting effort, not to mention Google’s Patent Search API, but this is only a small part. To get a better view of the whole picture, just go here and take your time – there’s nothing better than enjoying these Google treasures one at a time. Hey, who knows, maybe next time when you refresh the page, there’s something new on it already! ;)

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