Dan Benjamin recently blogged about his decision to venture into full time podcasting. We love to hear about anyone branching out and trying new things so we wish him all the best with his venture.

Two of his new shows solo shows are The Pipeline and The Conversation:

• The Pipeline, an interview show talking with designers, developers, writers, and entrepreneurs. Episode one featured Jeffrey Zeldman and upcoming shows will include Kottke, Storey, Vaynerchuk, Coudal, Mann, Siracusa, and many more.
• The Conversation, a live-streamed talk show featuring topical discussions, reviews, special guests, news with Christina Warren from Mashable, and, your calls, all live.

For his second episode of The Pipeline Dan interviewed our own Ryan Carson and discussed how he works, his inspiration, how he’s built such a strong personal brand, the Carsonified 4-day work week and unique offices, and more. You can check out the episode online: http://5by5.tv/pipeline/2.

We always try to bring you links to new and interesting content, let us know what you think in the comments.

Interpol – Rest My Chemistry Video by Aaron Koblin

Free Applications for Creating Visuals with Computational Code

Processing

Processing is a popular and powerful application for generating visuals using programming. It’s free and open source and uses Java as its coding language. It’s been used in professional, educational, and scientific environments and is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It can also be used for web by embedding as Java applets or through the use of Processing.js, which uses JavaScript to draw shapes and manipulate images using the HTML5 Canvas element. Processing is also available for Java-based mobiles (Mobile Processing).

• Open Processing
  Share your sketches online.
• Useful Processing Applet Source Codes
  A collection of free Java applet source codes.
• Processing with Eclipse
  If you are an avid Java programmer and have been using Eclipse for your daily routine this would be best way to use Processing, making your workspace comfortable and familiar. Another benefit that Eclipse adds is that you can harness the power of the latest Java IDE.

Foundation of Broken Hearts

Foundation of Broken Hearts

Wireframing allows you to visually illustrate layout of fundamental elements in the user interface. It also acts as a way to communicate with clients and other stakeholders (content creators, designers, developers, etc). Furthermore, wireframing enables you to consider changes, user paths, and new requirements.

Wireframing is not one of those ritual that you can perform without thinking. You have to exactly identify your objectives and stay focused during the process. You can use wireframing to assist you in any or all of the following processes:

• Planning & Analysis
• Communication With Client and/or Team
• Documentation

Proper use of image compression can make a huge difference in the appearance and size of your website image files. But compression is an often-misunderstood topic, partly because there’s a real lack of understanding on what the different types of compression are good for. If you don’t understand which type of compression to use for different types of images, you’ll likely end up with one of two results: either images that don’t look as good as they could, or image file sizes that are way larger than they need to be.

Below is everything you need to know about image compression in relation to web design. We’ve covered the differences between lossless and “lossy” compression, the different file types and the compression techniques they use, and guidelines for which file formats work best for different kinds of images.

1) You have moved your site to a new domain name. For users and search engines, the preferred way to permanently redirect traffic is:

Correct answer: a) 301 redirect

Explanation: A 301 redirect is preferred because it tells search engines, "Ok, this is the new domain I want you to show to users from now on," as opposed to something like a 302 redirect, which tells search engines, "Hey, this is only a temporary redirect--so, uh, I might change the URL soon, okay?" In addition to implementing a 301 redirect, the Change of Address feature in Webmaster Tools can help Google find your new site.

2) Your server is going to be moved and unavailable for a day. What should you do?

Correct answer: c) Return "Network Unavailable (503)" with a helpful message to all requests

Explanation: Maybe not as commonly known to webmasters, but very useful if your site is down! This tells crawlers to come back later, rather than crawling and indexing your "Down for maintenance" pages when you respond with 200 rather than 503. Check out the Help Center to learn more about HTTP status codes.

Grungy Abstract Bokeh Textures (3)

The Urban Landscape Lab

Shared by JohnH
In case you're wondering I usually pick my personal favorite one or two from these mega posts.

In today’s marketplace, every company needs an effective website. Of course, the purposes and needs of each company’s site will be unique, but every company should have a site that presents a professional image to visitors. That image should also be an accurate representation of the company and should work with other branding efforts to present consistent messages to customers. In this post we’ll feature 40 well-designed corporate websites.

Blackberry