A new lightweight electric bicycle : uk

A new lightweight electric bicycle : uk

Website: www.gocycle.com




A new lightweight electric bicycle with eco-iconic looks is firmly targeting would-be bicycle commuters who are put off by the thought of turning up to work in need of a shower.

Gocycle, set to launch this month, was designed by former F1 design engineer Richard Thorpe, using an injection-molded, lightweight magnesium alloy that's stronger than plastic, at a fraction of the price of carbon fiber. The bike’s chain is completely encased—so no grease on trousers—and side-mounted wheels allow a flat to be changed in a matter of minutes. Gocycle also disassembles into a soft bag or white hard case for portability and easy storage in small apartments.

For a bike of its size and weight, Gocycle’s most innovative feature is the micro-sized electric motor in its front wheel hub, which switches on with the push of a button. An in-frame battery pack holds 20 minutes worth of power; more than enough to help cyclists up a hill without breaking into a sweat.

Supporting its drive to get people to switch from four wheels to two, the company offers a Gocyle-to-Work scheme for companies who wish to provide their employees with a healthier and greener commute. One to bring to urban cyclists—and their employers—across the globe? (Related: Full-service bike station for commuting cyclists.) Read more!

How to build any business model with only 10 blocks

How to build any business model with only 10 blocks

These examples can form a great inspiration tool when looking for new business concepts and revenue models .

http://www.boardofinnovation.com/2009/03/19/how-to-build-any-business-model-with-only-10-blocks

These 10 building blocks offer a new way of designing and innovating business models. Although a lot of details can't be covered with this set, it is the power of  using generic building blocks that enables you to visually map models, compare different businesses, and identify underlying trends. When you have questions like 'how to apply the eBay business model in my industry' or 'how to innovate', you can start very practically by taking successful new business models and transfer their general principles into your industry. Specific cases will illustrate what theinnovation is in the business model of new start-ups, how you can make the transfer from one model to another, and which key success factors should be taken into account.

Read more!

11 Useful Open-Source Apps You Should Know About

11 Useful Open-Source Apps You Should Know About

11 Useful Open-Source Apps  You Should Know About

OrangeHRM

Free and open source human resource management software with rich features and easy to use interface. It provides a perfect platform for re-engineering and aligning your HR processes along with the organizational goals.

Magento

Magento is the eCommerce software platform for growth that promises to revolutionize the industry. It's modular architecture and unprecedented flexibility means your business is no longer constrained by your eCommerce platform.

Kaltura

Kaltura is the first open source video platform for online video management, creation, interaction and collaboration. Kaltura enables sites to integrate advanced interactive rich-media functionalities.

Concrete5

Concrete5 is a content management system. Concrete5 is easy for site owners to use, flexible for developers to work with, and runs a wide variety of powerful websites.

Tellmatic

Tellmatic is the newsletter machine that is a PHP based script to send newsletters. Use a generic browser like Seamonkey or Firefox to comfortably manage your addresses, forms and newsletters online.

MindTouch

MindTouch Deki is the most robust and popular enterprise collaboration platform. With MindTouch Deki your enterprise can improve productivity with wiki collaboration, build gorgeous and engaging community portals, create and collaborate around dashboards, dynamic reports and mashups with social enterprise collaboration.

xTuple

PostBooks is a full-featured, fully-integrated accounting, ERP, and CRM system, based on the award winning xTuple ERP Suite. It provides the ultimate in power and flexibility for a range of businesses and industries.

GroupOffice

GroupOffice helps you to take your office online, share projects, calendars, files and e-mail online with co-workers and clients. Easy to use and fully customizable, Group-Office takes online colaboration to the next level.

Inforama

Inforama is an Open Source document automation system. Use it to create document templates which are merged with data at runtime to create professional, high-quality PDF documents.

Support Incident Tracker

Support Incident Tracker (or SiT!) is a Free Software/Open Source (GPL) web based application which uses PHP and MySQL for tracking technical support calls/emails. Manage contacts, sites, technical support contracts and support incidents in one place.

Vmukti

VMukti is leading Asterisk/ Yate enabled web video conferencing application for Web / PSTN. It is world's first open source mashable PBX and meeting platform for home and office having features like multipoint audio/ video, desktop sharing, whiteboard.

Read more!

clip-bucket : video sharing open source script

clip-bucket : video sharing open source script

http://clip-bucket.com/

ClipBucket is a free video sharing which enables you to start your own video sharing website like YouTube. 

ClipBucket is the fastest growing video sharing script, with good  flexibility and functionality. 

Our main target is to provide user with the most fast, secured and easy to use script.

Demo  

Tutorials for setup 

Read more!

ProFolio : http://rajeev.carthworks.com

ProFolio : http://rajeev.carthworks.com

http://rajeev.carthworks.com

Database driven simple Portfolio site

Read more!

Meet FluxBB

Meet FluxBB

FluxBB  is a free open source forum application designed to be fast, light and user friendly. Version 1.3 of FluxBB, currently under development, adds a powerful extension system enabling you to create the forum that you really need.

Demo :http://fluxbb.org/forums/

Read more!

JobberBase

JobberBase

JobberBase  is a new open source PHP/MySQL script using which you can set up a job site (thereby acting as a bridge between the job givers and job seekers).

http://www.jobberbase.com/

What's cool:

1. Simple to use, Nice to look at.
2. RSS Feeds
3. Site-widget to show jobs on other sites.

What's not cool:

1. The web site of the script states 'Post jobs without an account' as a feature, when infact I see it a lack, thereof. Letting anonymous post jobs is akin to welcoming spam (reaching the approver's inbox). Only registered users should be able to post jobs and, if possible, after making a payment via paypal or CC.
2. There's no admin panel. So presently it's not possible to manage the jobs posted or do things like changing the site title or manage the default categories through GUI like you would expect to do in any PHP script.
3. No theme choices.

Requirements:

• PHP 5+
• MySQL 4.1+
• Apache module mod_rewrite should be enabled

Conclusion:

jobberBase is a decent and simple script to get you started with a job site. While it might not have the bells and whistles of a full fledged job portal that you are used to (monster.com, dice.com), it's a step in the right direction for an open source job script. If the developer(s) continue adding features, it will be a big hit.

Read more!

9lessons.blogspot.com : Unique Tutorials

9lessons.blogspot.com : Unique Tutorials

http://www.jobberbase.com/demo/ http://www.chris-wallace.com/ http://9lessons.blogspot.com/ http://www.chris-wallace.com/2009/02/12/a-simple-guide-to-becoming-a-web-designer/#more-467


And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

Smarty, a PHP templating system (http://www.smarty.net/)

Smarty, a PHP templating system (http://www.smarty.net/)

How to separate programmers' code (PHP) from designers' code (HTML), or better phrased, how to separate the content from presentation. Smarty, a PHP templating system, was born to solve this problem.

The basic functionality of a templating system is introducing a way of separating presentation from content with very little interaction between programmers and designers.

With Smarty, the PHP syntax doesn't contain print. Instead, the programmer passes these arrays to
the designer by assigning them to Smarty templates. Then it's the designer's job to make them look
good in the web page without worrying about the PHP code. This is one big benefit about using
Smarty, and we will learn in this book how this is done.

The Smartness of Smarty
Smarty allows designers and programmers to interoperate more effectively and not worry about
each other's work. The designer builds the templates for the web page layout and extracts the data
from the PHP files that the programmer has created. The programmer passes data to the templates
without having to generate HTML code. This way, everyone is happy and more efficient because
they all do the job they are good at.

Let's think about an e-commerce site that sells laptop computers. The manufacturer's name, the
model number, characteristics, and price are content elements that will be stored in a database and
displayed to the visitor.

Smarty makes the job of the designer as well as the programmer very easy. The key tasks
performed by them can be listed as follows.

The Programmer's tasks:
•  Extract database elements with a simple query on the database.

•  Validate and manipulate the data by performing business logic on it.
 
•  If needed, change the data access methods and the business logic without interfering
with the designer's work. For example, the whole system could migrate from
MySQL to PostgreSQL without the designer making a single change.

The Designer's tasks:

•  Create HTML designs without affecting or jeopardizing the programmers PHP code.
The designer only needs to be concerned with placing the content elements that the
programmer has agreed to provide.

•  Make changes to the design without consulting or interfering with the
programmer's work.

•  Stop worrying  about technical changes to the site breaking the way that the site
appears to viewers.


Read more!

Beginner's Checklist for Learning SEO

Beginner's Checklist for Learning SEO

The following is a compilation of the most useful checklists I have completed in order to learn SEO.
My intent is that this list can be used by people who are inexperienced in SEO but want to learn more

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-beginners-checklist-for-learning-seo

Warm Regards,
Karthikeyan.T


Read more!

6 Reasons Why Designers Should Code

6 Reasons Why Designers Should Code

6 Reasons Why Designers Should Code

I know, I know…none of us creative types want anything to do with
coding past the very basic HTML/CSS we need to know to get our designs
to the developers.
Doing development is something for those programming grunts, those
code jockeys, those geeks.
Why should we enter the trenches of development when it's so nice up
here with the Photoshop brushes, afternoon tea, and MacPros? 

Because
you'll be a better designer for it.
Skeptical? Read on and discover 6 reasons why designers should code…

6 Reasons Why Designers Should Code.<br /><br />
I know, I know…none of us creative types want anything to do with
coding past the very basic HTML/CSS we need to know to get our designs
to the developers.
Doing development is something for those programming grunts, those
code jockeys, those geeks.
Why should we enter the trenches of development when it's so nice up
here with the Photoshop brushes, afternoon tea, and MacPros? 

Because
you'll be a better designer for it.
Skeptical? Read on and discover 6 reasons why designers should code…

1. Better XHTML
I've worked with and known many designers who knew only the bare
minimum needed to get their designs out of Photoshop and into a web
format. Oftentimes they would make use of a software program or plugin
like SiteGrinder. While these programs keep getting better and better
at making compliant code, they still don't match the human-produced
variety.
Knowing how to write your own standards-compliant XHTML will make you
a valuable addition to any web team (emphasis on the
standards-compliant part). With all the fuss about PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby,
and many other languages, people tend to forget that everything ends
up being HTML in the end, because that's what your browser has to have
in order to render a page. The more you know about the medium you work
in, the better you work in that medium.<br /><br />
2. Better SEO
And while we're talking about standards-compliant code, we should
mention SEO. This is a big buzzword, though not quite as much as it
has been in the past. However, what this means is that SEO is becoming
a much more commonplace idea of what a website should strive for,
instead of just an added special feature for big business sites.<br
/><br />
If you can learn to write your own code, you're much closer to being
able to list "SEO Compliant Designs" on your sheet of available
services. That means you can charge more, and it's another badge on
your hat.<br /><br />
3. Better Accessibility
Better code and better SEO = better accessibility. Part of of the job
of any designer is to present information in a clear and coherent
manner, and on the web that means not solely in a visual manner. A
shoddily-coded website can be a nightmare to navigate if you're blind,
or even if you're using a mobile device.
Learning the ins and outs of developing code for accessibility not
only allows you have that knowledge as part of your production
skillset, but it will also help you to better understand the
considerations you should take when designing for accessibility.
Accessibility is a mandate for all government websites, nearly all
education sites, and businesses are starting to see the value in it as
well. The more people you can reach via your site, the more chance you
have of accomplishing your goal, whatever it may be. And that has to
be reflected in any successful design.<br /><br />
4. Better Left Side
Being a right-brained creative is great, but giving your left side a
workout can spur on creativity of a different nature. The motto at the
bottom of the WordPress website is "Code Is Poetry", and this is
because translating a written language to something that can be
visually seen is truly an art form.
Learning to write your own code opens up whole new avenues of
expression. Developing your technical and analytical abilities can
improve your information design, developing wireframes, and create a
pathway to work with interaction design. And who knows, it may even
improve your math skills!<br /><br />
5. Better Communication
It's easy to get lost in the techno-jargon used by developers, simply
because you may not have been exposed to the type of things they are
discussing. Digging in and working with code yourself will allow you
to become familiar with the terminology that is used when conversing
about the construction of a site.
Being able to speak the lingo will help when you need to communicate
with a developer or project manager about how a design should be
implemented.<br /><br />
6. Better Design
You can only do so much knowing the fundamentals of design.
Typography, color theory, composition, etc. are all fantastic and
extremely important skills to know (and know well)…but eventually if
you want to excel in your creativity, you must learn the tools of the
trade. Painters learn about canvas types, paint compositions, and
bristle qualities. Web design is no exception. Learn to code: you'll
be better for it. Read more!

25 Places to Find Awesome Stock Photos : Free and Cheap!

25 Places to Find Awesome Stock Photos : Free and Cheap!

 http://tutorialblog.org/25-places-to-find-awesome-stock-photos-—-free-and-cheap/

Whether you're designing an artistic website or searching for images to post on your blog, sites that carry not only free but awesome stock photos may very well come in handy. Utilizing the correct set of photos for any project is key, especially if you're designing an ad for a client, you should always put in your best effort as well as the best images you can find fit for the job.

Many of the designers I've come across like to download most of their images from 2-3 of the largest sites containing stock photos, however as creative artists I believe we should play the mix and match game that allows us to choose from wide variety of stock images instead of the same "old" set of photos we may be fond of.

Giving a project that requires stock images your best should include photos that are not only sharp, but clear as well. Here we'll have the pleasure to visit a few awesome (25 to be exact) sites that'll provide all the needed images to fuel any project, job, or site requiring stock photos.

Read more!

9 Top CSS Essential Skills That Every Web designer Should Learn

9 Top CSS Essential Skills That Every Web designer Should Learn

Link is :http://www.acomment.net/9-top-css-essential-skills-that-every-web-designer-should-learn/299 

This post is dedicated to elementary & intermediate CSS learners. If you're going to learn CSS from scratch, you've probably seen a lot of techniques, tricks & tutorials so far. In this post I've written my own approach to the most essential CSS skills that every web designer should learn. I really love the articles below and liked to share them with you. Hope you enjoy it!

Read more!

Designing for Wordpress: Video

Designing for Wordpress: Video

We have WordPress installed, now let’s really get our hands dirty and start getting WordPress to do what we want it to do. We start by poking around the backend activating some plugins, changing some settings and creating posts/pages.

Then we take a look at the Photoshop design and note some of the important aspects. Layout, color palette and font choices are all important things to consider as well as the overall feel. WordPress sites don’t need to scream “Blog!” unless you want them to. Then we take a look at the modular nature of a WordPress theme and start altering the markup of the files and writing CSS.

In part three, we will continue touching up the design, adding details and content. We may get to the finishing touches of adding the “extra-content” stuff like the Twitter feed, or that might be a part four.

http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/26-designing-for-wordpress-part-two/


http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/27-designing-for-wordpress-part-three/


We have WordPress installed, now let’s really get our hands dirty and start getting WordPress to do what we want it to do. We start by poking around the backend activating some plugins, changing some settings and creating posts/pages. Then we take a look at the Photoshop design and note some of the important aspects. Layout, color palette and font choices are all important things to consider as well as the overall feel. WordPress sites don’t need to scream “Blog!” unless you want them to. Then we take a look at the modular nature of a WordPress theme and start altering the markup of the files and writing CSS. In part three, we will continue touching up the design, adding details and content. We may get to the finishing touches of adding the “extra-content” stuff like the Twitter feed, or that might be a part four.

http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/26-designing-for-wordpress-part-two/

Read more!

Getting Started with Magento Ecommerce!

Getting Started with Magento Ecommerce!

http://www.mikesmullin.com/development/learning-to-design-and-code-for-magento-themes/

I suggest Magento has a “ton” of better features than OScommerce or ZenCart.

Magento is for making highly customizable, large (or small) scale eCommerce sites.

I’m incredibly glad someone is beginning to explain this well! Please, more Magento!



Magento is the next generation of eCommerce! It is incredibly well architectured, fully flexible, scalable, and fun to work with. If you've ever thought about creating an online shop, Magento is your choice! Today we are going to install it locally with XAMPP Lite and review the essentials.



Magento is the next generation of eCommerce! It is incredibly well architectured, fully flexible, scalable, and fun to work with. If you've ever thought about creating an online shop, Magento is your choice! Today we are going to install it locally with XAMPP Lite and review the essentials.
Read more!

Grayscreen Prototypes: The Secret Sauce

Grayscreen Prototypes: The Secret Sauce

Effective web development

This is especially true in web development. Sitemaps and wireframes more often create illusions of communication than resolve them. That's because they cannot demonstrate subtle aspects of a site's content, structure, and functionality, which can only be understood through the experience of clicking.


Grayscreen Prototyping video by Newfangled Web Factory

In contrast, grayscreen prototypes do effectively communicate a site's content, structure, and functionality before design and development begin. Building a thorough and detailed prototype is the key to a successful website development project.



Effective web development

This is especially true in web development. Sitemaps and wireframes more often create illusions of communication than resolve them. That's because they cannot demonstrate subtle aspects of a site's content, structure, and functionality, which can only be understood through the experience of clicking.

In contrast, grayscreen prototypes do effectively communicate a site's content, structure, and functionality before design and development begin. Building a thorough and detailed prototype is the key to a successful website development project.
Read more!