Editor's Roundup
This month SitePoint has conjured up a full bag of Halloween treats. Win
a prize, dress up your SitePoint signature, and learn how to tame the
everyday monsters that disrupt your life and your business.
We're putting October into perspective with a bit of Halloween photo
fun, as well as some fun forum photos, stories, and a full-featured
cartoon!
Take a challenge, lend a hand, and keep your October in high
spirits.
Let's fly!
 You could win one of
the following prizes: - A brand new iPhone GS3
- A
Nintendo Wii
- An Intuos 4 Wacom Tablet
Or would you
like to give $1,000 to charity instead? All you have to do is answer
our
5 minute SitePoint reader survey. Click here to check out the
details,
or do the survey now
Summary
Around the Town
Events
Melbourne SitePointers Meetup!
If you're in Melbourne, and you'd like to meet SitePoint forum pals,
readers, Twitter friends, and Facebook fans, there's a treat in store for
you. Come along to the Melbourne SitePointers meetup next Tuesday, 20th
October! You'll find
all the details in News and Announcements.
Big Treat -- No Tricks!
Tell us what improvements and changes you'd like to see at SitePoint and
we'll give you the chance to win one of four fang-tastic treats: a
Wacom Intuos4 tablet for the designer, a new Nintendo Wii for the gamer,
or the iPhone 3GS to keep you well connected all of the time. That's
three. Did I say four? If you're the SitePointer who has everything, we'll
treat your favorite charity to a gift of US$1,000.00. The survey deadline
is October 19. For all the details, read Rachel Wilson's post on the SitePoint
HQ Reader Survey.
In the Pink
In
News and Announcements, Molona reminds us that October is Breast
Cancer Awareness Month. Many of our members have taken advantage of
SitePoint's new Pink for October emoticon. If you've yet to already, you
can show your support by easily adding the pink ribbon to your signature.
Those handy with Photoshop can add the ribbon to their avatar by
downloading it from SitePoint's
emoticon page.
Blogs
When too many deadlines fail to let you R.I.P., take some tips from
Alyssa Gregory. In Stop
Over-scheduling! How to Take Back Your Time, Alyssa proposes a remedy
for those of us who are over-stressed because of over-booking. In Zoom
Zoom Zoom: The Better Way to Multi-task, Alyssa suggests how learning
to zoom puts you in better control of your time. Whether you've
over-extended your schedule or just fail to see eye to eye with a client,
Alyssa shows you how to make the cut on a client-provider relationship
quick, clean, and painless in How
to Cut Ties Without Burning Bridges.
Jennifer Farley helps us to decorate for Halloween as she explores
22 Halloween PhotoShop Brushes, Vectors, and Fonts. Jennifer also
begins a new design series this month. Starting with an overview of The
Primary Design Elements, in the coming weeks Jennifer will cover line,
type, shape, and texture.
Alex Walker tames another CSS table monster in his blog post, Interesting
CSS Quirks: Border Spacing.
A monstrous dilemma that web developers often face is designing web
sites that are accessible in different browser versions. In recent blog
posts, Craig Buckler discussed Progressive
Enhancement. In a new series, Craig introduces us to Progressive
Enhancement techniques in HTML,
CSS,
and JavaScript.
Pathfinders
Although only visible to other logged-in members, your SitePoint
signature is an excellent referral tool. Each SitePoint member is allowed
four lines of text, with up to 65 characters in each line. This means that
you can link to your blog(s) and social media profiles, as well as to one
or more web sites.
Signatures are banned from forum posts. To create a signature, click
Edit Signature either in SitePoint's Quick Links
or in your Control Panel sidebar under Settings and Options.
To keep our posts focused on forum discussions, there are also a few
rules about formatting your signature. For instance, your signature must
be left-aligned, and font-size 3 or smaller. And, although it's against
the rules to upload a logo or image to your signature, you can add an
emoticon and use BBCode to display your signature in your favorite
color(s).
The complete guidelines for SitePoint signatures are in the Member
Signatures link in our FAQs.
Simply Brilliant
Our new Member of the Month (MOTM) is Kailash Badu. Kailash is
an experienced web developer with over four years experience in PHP,
MySQL, JavaScript, and Object Oriented Programming. When away from his
computer, he enjoys traveling, reading, and watching war movies. Keep an
eye peeled to News and
Announcements and stop by his interview thread to congratulate Kailash
on his award.
Staff member, Raena has a new job: SitePoint's first Community Manager.
As well as heading SitePoint Forums staff, Raena keeps our Facebook and Twitter accounts up to
date.
Filling the shoes of departing Team Leader AutisticCuckoo was a
daunting task, but DaveMaxwell has stepped forward and taken the
reins of one of SitePoint's largest and busiest forum sections, the Design
Team. Dave has been a member of SitePoint since 1999. Whatever his shoe
size, we know he'll measure up to the challenge.
If you've heard the rush of wings at SitePoint this month, you'd be
forgiven for thinking it's Dracula. It's the HAWK. She's back in
full feather and sporting a dark blue staff badge as SitePoint's new
customer service rep.
SpikeZ is spreading his wings, too. Most of us know that some
kind of impish creatures live inside our computers; well, SpikeZ
has captured them on video. Two years in the making, his cartoon,
Kunzel and Poot ... Ever Wondered Who Lives Inside Your Computer
is simply brilliant! See it now on YouTube or take a
look at their very own web
site. But beware! They're watching YOU!
Shout-out
Shout-out for Improvement
Last month we asked for your ideas
on self-improvement:
-
Nick admitted that it's time to set goals that are more
realistic and replace his ideas for instant success with "slow and
steady wins the race."
-
Jimmy85 is working on better time management and smarter
prioritizing of tasks.
-
AlexDawson wants to improve his web site.
-
Arkinstall had a long list of self-improvement projects that
included playing the guitar and piano, writing C++, and reducing his
Rubik's cube solving time.
-
Kohoutek is just trying to develop a consistent sleep
pattern.
-
Raffles is also working on "early to bed and early to
rise" which could make him "healthy, wealthy, and wise." He
also posted a great T-shirt with an imprint that could easily become my
motto: Procrastinators -- Leaders of Tomorrow!
What Gives You the Shivers?
This month we invite you to send us a chill for Halloween. Tell us, What gives
you the shivers?
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Apps in a Snap
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create engaging applications, and consistently deliver highly interactive
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SitePoint Social
Connect with like-minded members in SitePoint Social Groups. Our newest
groups are:
Take the Challenge
Photo Challenge
What's your October outlook? Show off your photographic skills in our
monthly Photo Challenge.
Armchaircritic really kicked off this month's challenge with a
fantastic shot of ... well, stop by and take a look at all the amazing
shots of October
Perspectives.
Content Challenge
Somebody Has to Say It
Last month we started a new challenge thread at SitePoint for content
writers. Thanks to Kikykuang, Molona,
Rhysboy84, Bluedreamer, RachWilson,
Jantheman, Mattymcg, Kohoute,
AlexDawson, DaveMaxwell, Cpace1983,
Annran, and Thachi, we ended up with an amusing tale
that has little to do with the title. But ... it's our story and we're
sticking to it! Here's how it started:
Upstairs is the last word as my first word Mody?
"It is a beautiful rainbow"
James looked surprised. "A beautiful rainbow? Where? You can
barely see it."
"Get your eyes checked!" Dorothy snapped back,
"It's clearly there in the sky. Oh, I do wonder if there's a pot of
gold at the end of it!"
And then, before their gazing eyes, the rainbow shimmered into
life as the distant clouds darkened ...
Visit the September
Content Challenge to read the rest of the story and while you're in
the neighborhood, stop in at the October Content Challenge and collaborate
with us on a new story, "Just
When I Thought It Was Safe!"
Lend a Hand
Whether you're planning to improve your web site or just willing to help
other forum members improve theirs, SitePoint's Reviews and Critiques Forum
is the place to visit. Please stop by and lend a hand in these threads:
Web Site Reviews
Content Reviews
Hello There
Be sure to stop by Introductions to welcome our newest members to the
SitePoint community. We've selected a few recent introductions to help you
become acquainted.
-
DCKirba
is a copywriter/photographer who's very interested in learning some good
web design skills.
-
Tprinty
has started a consulting firm and is looking to network with other coders.
-
Marty
Chambers is a "16-year-old newbie" who hopes SitePoint
will help him travel down the long road of learning.
-
Feders is a
programmer who is new to PHP and says he probably has more questions than
answers.
-
Gameswala
from India is a web developer with 29 years experience.
That's it for this month. Thanks for reading and until next month, I'll
see you at SitePoint Forums!
Linda Jenkinson
crier@sitepoint.com
Editor,
SitePoint Community Crier
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