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What To Look For In a Cell Phone:

Buying a cell phone nowadays can be a really daunting task because you are expected to choose among hundreds of models, while every day there are more than a few coming out , with all possible pricing plans and specifications. The choice nowadays can be very complicated, however internet can give you a push up, as many users write reviews online, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the various cell phone models available.

What do you look for when reading a cell phone review? First of all you need to figure out what you need the cell phone for. If it is for strictly communicational purposes, so that you can call home and let your family know that you are late, or just keep up with some friends exchanging a few SMS , and occasionally take a picture if you like the surrounding, then it is easy. You need to find some good, easy to navigate device, so you should read what people think of their performances in reception, user-friendliness and convenience, browsing options and maybe the performance and standards of the in-built camera.

If you are a young person looking for more high quality sound and a large memory so that you can store your favorite mp3s, then it is obvious that you should read recommendations and feedbacks on mobile devices that are like modern juke boxes. These kinds of phones exist in abundance, as the mobile phone manufacturers and providers target their market really well, introducing phones for the younger generation which is all into multimedia, messaging and social networks. A good review about those phones should include performance standards of the mp3 players, the Bluetooth and touch connectivity options, the battery life when using the phone, the speed of connection with the World Wide Web and the ability to stay in touch easily with the various social networks – which is possible with many newly introduced phones.

If on the other hand you are a professional with advanced business needs, then the reviews should help you choose among the latest PDAs and palmtop handsets, insisting on their office and business abilities and conveniences, such as the connection to email option, the existence of a good Wi-Fi option, memory capacity etc. Reviews are supposed to be honest and especially if you know a website that hosts the opinions of dependable users, you should always check, because nowadays with a vast variety of cell phones in the market, you cannot possibly keep up to date with latest models and specifications.

Sometimes gamers just have to go back to their roots.  It’s inevitable.  Blazing, next-generation graphics can be a blast to check out, and all the crazy advances in storytelling and immersion have allowed games to penetrate peoples’ lives more than ever before.  Don’t get us wrong, these are all good things for the industry and its many, many fans.

But gamers always get that urge–a tickling–to give their turbocharged video card a break and fire up some titles that have withstood the test of time.  Or better yet, modern reinventions of classic gameplay motifs. Some of these titles can be a blast to play, which is exactly why we’re jumping into the gaming remake scene with this week’s freeware roundup.  If you loved the originals that these games are based on, you’ll find yourself sinking just as much time into these freeware remixes as before.  Don’t worry if you’ve never played some of the genres that these newer titles are based on.  Spend a few minutes downloading these titles, fire up a game or two in your spare time, and see what you think!

Spheres of Chaos

The Details: You are going to throw your guts out five minutes after you fire up this Asteroids wannabe.   That’s not the best way to get you to download this title, we realize.  But the beauty of Spheres of Chaos lies in its complete insanity.  Blow up some rocks–at least, we think they’re rocks–and the shape will explode in a fury of colors, particles, and headache.  Keep it up, and you’ve got a game that’s sure to impress party guests and/or keep your pets wide-eyed with fascination.  Just be sure to take a break every five minutes or so, lest you have to use the emergency bucket sitting next to your tower.

Download it here!

The Ur-Quan Masters

The Details: This is the open-source recreation of Star Control II, a space adventure game that was originally released in 1992 for PCs.  You soar across a huge amount of galactic territory and interact with all sorts of alien races in an effort to find a way to restore Earth back to a happy, non-enslaved state.  There are hundreds of hours of dialogue in this packed title, along with a pretty comprehensive combat system for a game that just got its drivers license a year ago.  While soaring about space, be sure to fire up your modern-day music player of choice and jam to the original music (and awesome remixes) that a bunch of fans have put together.

Download it here!

Project: Starfighter

The Details: In this space shoot-’em-up, you play as a young starfighter named Chris Bainfield who’s attempting to free the galaxy from the clutches of an evil weapons corporation.  The non-linear gameplay allows you to pick missions at your leisure.  Computer-flown wingman accompany you into battle, though depending on how much you upgrade your primary and secondary ship guns, you might not even need their help!  With a variety of mission types packed into this 26-mission, four-star-system title, you’ll be guns a-blazing for quite awhile.

Download it here!

Dwarf Fortress

The Details: This ASCII-based title, in a genre that should be familiar to fans of Nethack, is misleading in its graphical simplicity.  Behind the relatively uninspiring look rests a treasure trove of content: Dwarf Fortress is easily one of the more complex games you’ll ever play.  So what exactly do you do in this game?  You can either chug through the normal adventure mode or fire up the game’s namesake, Dwarf Fortress mode.  In this, you command a small bastion of dwarves that are tasked with creating a fortress of their very own.  You’re basically building a fully self-sustaining city.  And if you think that sounds like an easy feat to do, well, you’re in for hours of learning… Dwarf Fortress-style.

Download it here!

Armagetron

The Details: Remember Tron?  You know, that awesome Disney sci-fi movie that had people running about the actual mainframe of a computer and playing in a big Light Cycle arena and what-have-you?  While the plot left something to be desired, the Light Cycle scene was pretty neat.  So much so, that independent developers have attempted to recreate the scene as an actual game: Armagetron.  This 3D recreation comes with multiple graphical modes so you can, literally, recreate your big Light Cycle games in the style of Tron. For the less nerdy, you can use the pretty standard graphics across a number of game types, including fortress and capture-the-flag modes.  Wearing your own Tron suit isn’t a necessity to play the game, but it’s encouraged.

Download it here!

Adult Acne

Acne isn’t something that only teenagers go through. Many adults suffer from it all that time and never break free from it into their adult years. Others find that they have been acne free for years and then suddenly they start to experience breakouts. Many adults find that when they start working out more acne can occur. This is due to the sweat getting onto their face. Trying to keep the hair back with a sweat band is a good way to reduce this.

Women are more likely to suffer from adult acne than men. This is due to the way in which their hormones change. For example when they are menstruating and when they are pregnant their bodies have different levels of hormones. Even through menopause it can become an issue. There are women that also get acne due to the use of certain birth control pills. The body will produce more sebum which is responsible for allowing acne breakouts to occur.

Many women find that certain types of make up can trigger adult acne as well. It is believed this occurs due to certain ingredients in them. They end up clogging the pores so that dirty and oil get trapped beneath the skin. Women that fail to remove all their make up each night are also going to experience more adult acne.

Fighting adult acne can prove to be difficult if you aren’t able identify what is triggering it. For women, there may be nothing they can due during certain times of the month to prevent it. Keeping the skin clean though and drinking lots of water can make the acne less severe.

Taking the time to exfoliate the skin is a great way for both men and women to prevent acne. This can be done with at home products or at a day spa. You can also meet with a Dermatologist for a free consultation. They can help you to identify the underlying causes of acne so that you can choose a good treatment option.

Acne can be just as embarrassing for adults as it is for teenagers. You don’t have to continue suffering from it though. If you have acne scars that make you look older, you can take advantage of some great treatments to remove them as well. They will help you to get younger looking skin that is radiant.

Acne Treatment

In order to break free from the chains of acne, you need to find the right treatment for yourself. You can spend a great deal of both time and money trying to find the right product. Taking the time to carefully assess your acne concerns will help you to get on the right track. Don’t buy anything though until you have come to a good conclusion about why you have acne.

If you simply rush out there and buy products because they worked for a friend or you saw a celebrity endorse them you will be disappointed. It is important to understand it can take a minimum of 30 days with any product for you to see an improvement so you want to choose what you will work with carefully.

The severity of your acne is going to be something that determines what you will use to treat it. For mild acne you may just need to make some changes to your diet and to how your wash your face. Switching what you use to clean your face as well as the other items you use on it such as cosmetics can make a huge difference.

If you get an occasional breakout, you should be able to target those areas with over the counter products. You want to use them daily so that you can prevent new acne from occurring. If you have moderate acne that is chronic in nature then you will need to try something more powerful. There are some excellent three step products out there that you can benefit from as well.

If you have severe acne you may need to use prescription medications. There are some severe side effects associated with them though that you need to be ready for. Some of them have been linked to depression and suicide as well so the screening process for them is very in depth. Never take such acne treatments that are prescribed for someone else.

It can be frustrating to try to find the right acne treatment, but don’t give up. There are plenty of options out there and one of them will work for you. Keep track of what you do try and the ingredients found in them. That way you don’t repeat the same experimentation but with a different product name. Allow your doctor and dermatologist to help you with developing your treatment as well.

Labels are fragile: text and pictures have always been closely connected. From the dawn of written language to the era of microcomputers, much of human creation has explored the relationship between the literal and the figurative, the form and the function. Within this is the future site of retro, ASCII art. It’s often used as a catch-all term for “text-based art,” regardless of the actual character set being used.

In this post, we’ll stroll through the past and present of ASCII art, assessing the influence of key pioneers, so that you might feel inspired to go forth and create. I hope you come across both familiar guideposts and unknown territory, and come away enlightened!

Nude women never fail: Ken Knowlton’s mosaics

There’s an old joke that if you want to advance technology, introduce pornography. From smutty BBS GIFs to the erotic HD streams being broadcast in glorious 1080p, the softer side of this issue is that age-old question, “Is it porn or is it art?” I don’t think computer graphics pioneer Ken Knowlton intended to titillate when his colleague, Leon Harmon, called upon centuries of Renaissance masters and coaxed Knowlton into converting a photo of a nude model into this famous forerunner of ASCII art:

Photo from Ken Knowlton

While composed of “small electronic symbols for transistors, resistors and such” and not from the ASCII set (one reason why the term is a misnomer), it’s a clear link to the ASCII pr0n that would eventually circulate in colleges. Nothing grabs attention like the female form, and as Knowlton himself expressed:

We did make similar pictures — of a gargoyle, of seagulls, of people sitting at computers — which have appeared here and there. But it was our Nude who would dolphin again and again into public view in dozens of books and magazines.

No matter how sophisticated we get, we simply can’t escape our primal urges. As indicated, Knowlton wasn’t a one-trick pony; he went on to accomplish many variations on this mosaic theme, from cars to crossword puzzles, including Braille art made into Helen Keller’s visage (if only she had been able to see it!), turning painted keyboards into Bert Herzog’s steely gaze and, in more recent years, turning the typography of playing cards into magician Lennart Green. All this, like much great art, stemmed from a successful experiment that would set the tone for years to come.

On a somewhat less risqué note…

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Chuck Close’s mosaic of Philip Glass

As we’re seeing, the recurring theme of turning many individual elements (with details finer than mere pointillism) into grand canvases carries a heavy weight in early ASCII art history. No jaunt into this craft’s past would be complete without revisiting this iconic square-by-square composition of minimalist master Philip Glass:

Photo by A.M. Kuchling

Look closely and you’ll notice it’s composed of “proto-pixels,” pseudo-squares of varying grayscale values that, when put together and you step back, form a recognizable face. This is also the same base technique used in many ANSI creations (keep reading!). Like Glass’ music, tiny units (or cells) are elongated into elaborate patterns. In this respect, the portrait serves as a fitting parallel to the sound of the man it represents.

Close went on to further trendify this image by redoing it in several iterations, such as a watercolor, and later a t-shirt for The Gap. CHI5 Shenzhou would bring an unofficial glowing version into virtual world Second Life, where its bond with quasi-modern ANSI art is solidified:

For you naughty aestheticologists who just can’t get your mind off of naked women, Close also worked on Kate Moss. But he didn’t pixelate her.

“A Computer Era Masterpiece”: Digital Mona Lisa

One more mosaic, I promise, then we’ll speed up several decades. This one is so significant, it must be mentioned on principle! New art sometimes finds its direction by emulating the old, then putting a twist on it.

So let me ask you: what’s the most famous piece of art in the world? Many would call out da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. In 1964, H. Philip Peterson “utilized a CDC 3200 computer and a ‘flying-spot’ scanner to create a digital transposition/representation”:

Photo from Digital Mona Lisa

How long did it take? A far cry from today’s real-time rendering, this particular reinterpretation took 14 hours and, as you can see if you look closely, is made of numbers. While this arguably didn’t take much imagination, the endurance required would pave the way for more creative developments by showing what this system was capable of. (You may recall a somewhat similar story involving scanners and Lenna.) Information on H. Philip Peterson is scant; unlike Chuck Close and Ken Knowlton, he doesn’t appear to have gone on to a prolific art career.

On a relevant tangent, Mona Lisa is also among the most parodied works of art. Sure, by now you’ve seen flat characters being formed into cohesive pictures, but what about an assembly of 3D objects? Suitably, if computer parts are the order of the day, this Mona “Motherboards” Lisa from ASUS’ HQ takes the prize:

Photo by Sifter

It must’ve taken some pretty obsessed people to make that!

Beam me up: Star Trek ASCII art

Obsessions are a funny thing. And when they’re a healthy thing, I call them gladdictions (glad + addictions). ASCII art is pretty geeky, and so is Star Trek. When you put the two together, you get computer nerdom of astronomical proportions, and as a result, much progress is made.

Just as some of the aforementioned pre-ASCII art debuted in the 1960s, so did the classic Trek series. There are many repositories of Star Trek ASCII art that take the familiar characters on your keyboard and shape them into familiar faces, like William Shatner’s, and various starship classes. Among my favorites is Joshua Bell’s Star Trek ASCII Art Archive (disclosure: Josh is a colleague of mine at Linden Lab), which is a meticulously classified collection and even hilariously warns the uninitiated:

Please stop sending me email complaining that the images are made out of little dashes. It’s an art form, albeit a strange one.

Also worth looking at, if you like a refreshingly clean, long-scrolling page, is the self-proclaimed Largest Compendium of Star Trek ASCII Art. Picard’s head at the end is somewhat misshapen and resembles a Tenctonese more than a human, but I can’t really complain.

The point of all this? Advancing art skills by practicing it on the zealot magnet that is Star Trek will lead to these images being uploaded and propagated via BBSes — including as downloadable files and email signatures — and thus promote awareness of ASCII art.

As a consequence, newer generations are exposed to the art, and the art flourishes beyond the artscene. In time, select pieces will even become cultural phenomena. And as text graduates to pictures, pictures graduate to…

ASCII art on the move: Full-motion videos

Simon Janson’s Star Wars ASCIIMATION has proudly made the rounds. It is, essentially, Star Wars as a text-art movie. And thanks to Jeremy, aka bullfrog117 on YouTube, there’s even an earlier version with sound:

Meticulously assembled frame by frame with dialog subtitles, it’s far from complete but is a laudable effort that has spanned over a decade. Simon started it in July 1997 and, as of this writing, last updated it in April 2008. It even has a nice little surprise at the end, if you’re into Rick Astley. Or is it… Rick ASCII?

This “ASCIIroll” points to the increasing automation of ASCII effects, which usually involve down-sampling still or motion pictures into a set of values that correspond to various characters. Logically, sparser-looking characters like “.” would be lighter values, whereas busy, noisy ones like “@” and “&” would be darker values. Some purists decry this as cheating; others see it as the best way to create effects that can’t otherwise be produced.

Other movies, like Pixar’s The Incredibles, have been ASCIImated via automatic means. (Although leaving the letterbox in doesn’t make much sense.) Tools like VLC’s own “Color ASCII art video” output module (found in Preferences > Video) make it possible to ASCIIize any movie clip with minimal effort. While it may not be art, it is a fun party trick and good for at least a few laughs.

These laughs just skim the surface of the most exciting possibilities. So let’s dive deep, really deep now.

ASCII demoscene: Not just for show

In a demoscene, the demo is essentially a showreel, a multimedia portfolio of a tight team’s skills presented with pop! I have high admiration for the demoscene’s ethos of resourcefulness: where else can you find so much creativity packed in such a compact space?

This is even truer when you look further to demos that carry a stompin’ soundtrack while being efficiently economized in text mode. Trauma’s “The Turing Machines Didn’t Care” (more info) is a beautiful recent example, mixing stylized type with delicious flavors of transition effects, fluidly evolving geometric patterns through an ever-shifting gauntlet of color. Accompanied by Crystal Method-worthy beats and snarling synth lines, it’s hard not to rock out to the ragged forms before you.

Another perennial fave is the briefly titled “BB,” which, should be noted, can run entirely in DOS. At first, it’s hard to imagine such dynamism emerging from such a staid OS — the electronic soundtrack does help — but keep an open mind and enjoy:

Entirely in monochrome, the amount of variance is staggering. From a Space Invaders-like blip to zooming fractals to flame simulation to text entry that conjures cyberpunk terminal hacking, it’s a breathtaking show. While watching it in its original non-YouTubed format gives the most authentic experience, it can also be a deterrent to the casual visitor, so I’m thankful that DiimitR shared this with us.

For more awesomeness, see:

• Text Mode Demo Contest XI
• Text Mode Demo Compo Retrospective
• Interview with guru Jari Komppa

Emoticon evolution: The Japanese new wave

Emoticons have come a long way, from simple “:)” smilies to fully featured expressions riding atop articulated characters made out of, well, characters. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more TV shows like Train Man, which highlight the life of a geek in a non-disgraceful manner. In addition to the exposure it gave otaku, Train Man has some pretty wild scenes involving these evolved emoticons. Project Densha has translated scenes that are helpful, and there’s no substitute for watching one of the scenes for yourself:

Nothing like Electric Light Orchestra’s “Twilight” accompanying a young chap gazing at ASCII art while he has an emotional outburst, eh?

The story that inspired Train Man was, like so many other modern yarns, originally unspooled on Japanese uber-BBS 2channel.

Photo by hawkexpress

2channel has emoticons like you wouldn’t believe, in part because their extended character set — actually Shift JIS — contains characters that are apparently well suited to be shaped into cute little cats and radical soy sauce mascot Kikkoman. As Lisa Katayama described in a lucid pictorial on Wired:

The Soy Sauce Warrior started as a simple ASCII image on a 2channel thread. But as more and more posters chipped in, he quickly developed into a fully fleshed-out character with an elaborate backstory. Kikkoman hails from Soybean planet. His friends Sugarman and Saltman help him battle the Sauce Brothers and Ketchup Man, and they employ powerful fighting moves like the Kikko-punch and the Kikko-beam.

The past is present: ANSI scrolls on

While ASCII art is a catch-all term, as I mentioned earlier, ANSI art is a special case, not just because it has extended characters, but precisely because its escape sequences allow for dithered blocks of varying shades. These can approximate graphics much easier, and it’s a close kin of pixel art, which we previously celebrated in Smashing Magazine.

Photo by Joe Smooth

ANSI art found a foothold in many BBSes, because it was easy both to add colorful vibrance and to transmit across dial-up modems in an age before widespread broadband. As a type of digital graffiti, ANSI art often has an organic, grungy appearance, with type simulating fantasy flourishes. Accompanying imagery often includes fierce dragons, surreal landscapes and — you guessed it! — naked women.

ANSI art is impressive not just because it continues to go strong, but specifically because improved display technology, like flat-panel LCD and plasma screens, allow us to enjoy it in ways that weren’t originally envisioned. As nostalgic as an amber CRT hooked up to a genuine IBM PC is, it doesn’t hold a candle to today’s massive monitors. Here’s a great example from Geek Entertainment Television, where ANSI art is decked out on widescreens like the cinematic posters they’ve always dreamed of being:

ASCII art isn’t for everyone and never will be. By virtue of its humble beginnings and subsequent growth, it demands an understanding of the dedicated culture in which it was born and recognition that while it originated with primitive technology, novel innovations are helping to expand it into unforeseen regions.

By viewing these electronic masterworks, I hope you’ll be inspired to create new pieces to populate your own canon.

Do you have fave ASCII art? Share it with us in the comments!

About the author

Torley Wong amplifies your awesome with the useful and fun. He also has an irrepressible passion for discovering the connections between seemingly unrelated things, and unfolding how they were invented. Enjoy his personality at Torley Lives.

(al)

We continue to deliver fresh high-quality freebies to our readers, and we continue to pursue the diversity of subjects that we like to cover on Smashing Magazine. Since the beginning of the year, each icon set has been dedicated to a specific theme or topic that could be useful in your next project. Today, we are releasing two free high-quality icon sets.

Flavours Icon Set

Oliver Twardowski, a graphic designer from Bonn, Germany, has put in a lot of time and effort to release this handy icon set especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. His set, aimed to help designers in their Web and user interface designs, contains 177 icons in a resolution of 48×48 pixels. The files are available for in the PNG and PSD sources, so you can modify the files as you wish.

As usual, the set is available as a free download and can be used for any purposes without any restrictions whatsoever. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sub-licensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

• Download the set (Zip, 2.0 Mb)
• Download the PSD sources (.psd, Zip, 5.9 Mb)

Behind the scenes

As usual, here are some insights from the designer himself:

In November 2008 I designed and released my first icon set, Sketch’d up!. This set was 100% vector-based and contained over 100 icons. After finishing it, I knew exactly what was the next task on my list. I wanted to create a pixel-based set of icons for websites and Web applications. For the size of the icons, I choose 48×48px, because for me this is the perfect size to fit on a website.

I never thought that it would be such a hard task to create an icon based on pixels that says what it has to say. Pixel by pixel, every single icon of “Flavour” was created over the weeks.

I am personally pretty satisfied with what came of it in the end. And I do really hope that you like it, too! Would be a pleasure to hear and see where you used it. Just drop me a line at icons [at] addictedtocoffee [dot] de. And who knows, maybe there’s a Part 2 of the “Flavour icon set” already in my head…

All the best from Bonn, Germany,
Oliver Twardowski

Thank you, Oliver, for your great work! We hope the second part of the set comes soon!

Cute Tweeters Icon Set

This set was designed by the talented Mirjami Manninen, an illustrator from Finland who released the beautiful RSS feed set Feed Me Animals on Smashing Magazine last year. This new set contains eight transparent PNG icons for Twitter, available in resolutions of 128×128 pixels, 256×256 and 512×512. The sources are in EPS files (for CS4 and CS3), PSD files and AI files (for CS4).

Again, the set is available as a free download and can be used for any purpose without any restrictions whatsoever. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sub-licensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

• Large preview (JPG, 0.4 Mb)
• Download the set (.zip, 2.2 Mb)
• Download the sources (PSD, AI, EPS, .zip, 13,1 Mb)

Behind the scenes

As usual, here are some insights from the designer herself:

I am an illustrator from Finland. While drawing for one design competition that was about Twitter, I started to really like this little bird, and decided to create a whole set for Smashing Magazine’s readers. I am very excited of the mesh tool in illustrator, andIi want to encourage all designers to try it. I have found it very helpful in my icon design. Greetings to all Smashing Magazine readers!

Mirjami Manninen

Thanks, Miriam, we really appreciate your efforts!

Suggestions for particular icon sets?

What icons would you like to be released on Smashing Magazine next? What are you looking for? And, more importantly, what kind of icons shouldn’t we release anymore? We appreciate your input in the comments to this post!

(al)

How To Design A Colorful Sitemap With CSS And jQuery?

by Chris Coyier:

Content-heavy websites with a deep navigational structure can benefit from sitemaps. A sitemap contains links to every important page on a website, often visually organized in a hierarchy. They generally should not have opening and closing mechanisms to display the hierarchy. If you are forcing someone to click five times to drill down to what they are looking for, that is “navigation,” not a sitemap, and isn’t very helpful. Having every link visible at once is ideal for people searching the page for what they are looking for. Admittedly, though, visually browsing a large and deep sitemap can become confusing quickly.

In this demo article, we will build a visually interesting sitemap that makes the hierarchy clearer through the use of color.

View Demo | Download Files

Semantic HTML Markup

The perfect HTML structure for a sitemap is the unordered list (<ul>) element. Each list represents one layer of the hierarchy. We can nest lists inside of other lists to build downward and complete the sitemap hierarchy.

We will use a typical university as an example. University websites are often monstrosities of content, with pages ranging from information about the campus and admissions to sports to academic work to alumni foundations. Let’s take a look at some clean unordered-list markup.

 <ul>
  <li>
    <a href="#">Visiting Campus</a>
    <ul>
      <li>
        <a href="#">Tours</a>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="#">Undergraduate</a></li>
          <li>
            <a href="#">Walking</a>
            <ul>
              <li><a href="#">Guided</a></li>
              <li><a href="#">Unguided</a></li>
            </ul> <!-- END Walking -->
          </li>
          <li><a href="#">Group</a></li>
          <li><a href="#">Field Trips</a></li>
        </ul> <!-- END Tours -->
      </li>
      <li><a href="#">Campus Map</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Events Calendar</a></li>
      <li>
        <a href="#">Athletics</a>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="#">Football</a></li>
          <li><a href="#">Baseball</a></li>
          <li><a href="#">Soccer</a></li>
          <li><a href="#">Volleyball</a></li>
        </ul> <!-- END Athletics -->
      </li>
      <li><a href="#">Arts</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Science</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Hospital</a></li>
    </ul> <!-- END Visiting Campus -->
  </li>
  <li><a href="#">Admissions</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Student Life</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Academics</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">International</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Research</a></li>
</ul>

This markup, all by itself and completely unstyled, serves as a completely useable sitemap.

Styling with CSS

Some very simple CSS will have this boring ol’ list spiffed up in no time. Indenting each child list, just as the browser does by default, makes good sense for establishing a hierarchy. We’ll keep that idea but house each list in its own box. We’ll shade the background of the boxes in shades of gray, from darkest gray at the “base” of the page (or highest level in the hierarchy) to lightest gray at the “top” (or lowest level in the hierarchy).

ul                { padding: 8px 25px; list-style: none;
                    background: #282828; }
ul ul             { background: #393939; }
ul ul ul          { background: #4b4b4b; }
ul ul ul ul       { background: #5a5a5a; }

Of course, we have already performed a basic CSS reset, set up some basic typography and applied some background images for extra spiffiness. You can view the complete CSS if you want to see it in its entirety. Here is what we have so far:

Bonus CSS for WebKit Browsers

Our effect is starting to look like boxes stacked on boxes. For a bit of progressive enhancement, we can build on this look with the CSS3 box-shadow property. Currently, only WebKit browsers support this feature with a proprietary extension, but it works! To create this effect, add this CSS:

ul { -webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 5px black; }

Hey! Why do those inner lists look faded out like that? Don’t worry, that doesn’t have anything to do with the drop shadow. We are going to be working with that in our next step!

Adding the Color Effects with jQuery

We are going to use the jQuery JavaScript library to really make this sample sitemap sing. Remember, the goal is to keep the hierarchy defined through use of color. The idea here is, when the mouse cursor hovers over a list, that list will brighten up a bit and fade to a unique color. When the mouse cursor is removed, the list will return to its original color.

For example, our “outer” list will fade to a purple color when the mouse hovers over it. This is a distinctive effect and allows your eye to follow the purple border and see all the other list items that are a part of that list, despite it being broken up by sub-lists.

We will be animating both the color and opacity of the list. jQuery can animate opacity out of the box, but animating color requires use of the jQuery color plug-in. For the sake of speed, let’s load jQuery from Google, and then link to our own JavaScript file where we’ll be writing our code:

<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    google.load("jquery", "1.2.6");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.color.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/sitemap.js"></script>

Now we can dig into our own sitemap.js file. The first order of business is to execute our code only when the DOM is ready for it. Then we will set the opacity level of each of our lists to 50%.

$(function(){

   $("ul").css("opacity", "0.5");

   // Do fading stuff

});

Avoiding Repetitious Code, Building a Plug-In

Each of our lists will get the same “fading” effect, but each will be just slightly different in that it will fade to a different color. To avoid a bunch of unnecessary and unwieldy repetitive code, let’s abstract the fading effect into a simple plug-in we’ll call “doFade.”

Now we can call that plug-in function on each “layer” of the list and pass the color with a parameter.

$(function(){

   $("ul").css("opacity", "0.5");

   $("ul").doFade({ fadeColor: "#362b40" });
   $("ul ul").doFade({ fadeColor: "#354668" });
   $("ul ul ul").doFade({ fadeColor: "#304531" });
   $("ul ul ul ul").doFade({ fadeColor: "#72352d" });

});

Let’s take a look at the entire function and discuss its functionality a bit.

jQuery.fn.doFade = function(settings) {

    // if no paramaters supplied...
   settings = jQuery.extend({
      fadeColor: "black",
      duration: 200,
      fadeOn: 0.95,
      fadeOff: 0.5
   }, settings);

    var duration = settings.duration;
    var fadeOff = settings.fadeOff;
    var fadeOn = settings.fadeOn;
    var fadeColor = settings.fadeColor;

    $(this).hover(function(){
     $(this)
         .stop()
         .data("origColor", $(this).css("background-color"))
         .animate({
             opacity: fadeOn,
             backgroundColor: fadeColor
         }, duration)
   }, function() {
     $(this)
         .stop()
         .animate({
             opacity: fadeOff,
             backgroundColor: $(this).data("origColor")
         }, duration)
   });

};

The function accepts parameters passed to it that it reads as “settings.” The first thing we do is set defaults for those settings, in case the function is called when they are not supplied. This is exactly the case of our code, because we will provide the “fadeColor” but not the duration or fadeOff or fadeOn values.

• fadeColor: the background color that the element will fade to.
• duration: how long the animation takes to complete, 1000 = 1 second.
• fadeOn: opacity percentage when element is hovered on, 0.95 = 95%.
• fadeOff: opacity percentage when element is not hovered on, 0.5 = 50%.

Then we set up the hover function, which binds itself to the element that we called the function on. Hover is actually two functions. The first runs when the mouse hovers over the element, and the second is a callback function when element is no longer being hovered on, essentially a mouseout.

We do three things in the first function. First we .stop(), which ensures any animation being run on the element is stopped. This prevents animations from queuing if the element is hovered on and off quickly, which looks awkward. Then we use jQuery’s brilliant .data() function to store the original color of the element. Remember, each of our lists has its own unique shade of gray; so to avoid hard-coding nonsense, we’ll just auto-detect this color with the .css() function and save it to a variable we’ll call “origColor.” Then we animate both the opacity and the background color to the settings.

In the callback, we’ll again .stop() the animation. Then, all we need to do is animate it back to the original color (which we have stored) and revert to the “off” opacity value.

So there you have it, Martin!

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Enterprise business applications still outnumber all other open-source projects, according to a survey of 380 Linux developers by market research firm Evans Data Corporation.  But open-source is on the move away from traditional enterprise infrastructures and into the Cloud–the concept of data being stored “on the Internet” without a single entity or specific server to call home.  Google’s App Engine takes top billing as a Cloud provider, with 28 percent of Cloud-ready developers opting to use this service versus 15 percent for Amazon’s Elastic Compute.

How does the move work from a business perspective?  Hosting an application in the Cloud allows a developer to cut costs in a dramatic fashion.  Using an internal infrastructure to host an application brings forth high hardware, personnel, and service costs. The external nature of Cloud reduces these, but the caveat is that it’s difficult to port an already existing application over to a Cloud platform. These applications are often redesigned from the ground-up to fit the Cloud’s scalable architecture.

But where are open-source developers bringing in the cash?  According to Evans Data, more open-source applications are being downloaded through online portals like SourceForge than any other distribution mechanism.  That’s not where a significant chunk of the money is coming from, however.  Mobile application stores account make up a large amount of success for developers: 10 percent of wireless projects distributed in this fashion pull in more than $10,000 in revenue, and 70 percent of all projects distributed via mobile application stores make some amount of money.  This is a sharp contrast to open-source applications that are pitched as direct sales to end users.  Of these, only 6 percent of applications make more than $10,000 in revenue. And nearly three-fourths of all applications make no money at all.  Check out the complete stats:

And here’s a breakdown of how open-source programs are organized by genre:

Some other interesting notes from the survey include the fact that 52 percent of all open-source developers use Linux in a virtualized environment.  Almost half of all serious bugs in an open-source project are discovered and fixed within a timeframe of eight business hours.  Only 13.7 percent of these problems take more than 5 business days to fix–We suppose there’s some room for catastrophe even in the open-source world.

Acne Scars

When you are tempted to mess with the acne on your face, you need to remember that it can result in scarring afterwards. That will hopefully help you to keep your hands off of it. However, it may be too late if you already have some acne scars in place. Even so, you don’t have to continue living with it. If you have deeply embedded acne you may not have any power over stopping such scars from occurring.

Acne scars can make a person look much older than they really are. The skin around the areas will also be rougher than it should be. As a result of that it can prove to be more difficult to wash the area thoroughly. Yet you don’t have to choose to accept those acne scars on your face. You can take advantage of the technology we have out there today and get better looking skin.

It is a good idea to meet with a couple of different Dermatologists about your acne scars. Look for those that will offer you a no obligation consultation. They will let you know what your treatment options are as well as discuss the cost. There are very few insurance companies out there that will pay for such treatment though. While some of the options can be very expensive, most locations will work out reasonable payment plans with you.

If you have very mild acne scars you may be able to treat them with some type of prescription cream that you use daily. Collagen injections are very common as well and can be done in the office of the dermatologist. This process results in the skin filling in the areas. You will need to have follow up sessions every three to six months though in order to keep the scarring from showing again.

Many Dermatologists offer dermabrasion as it is cost effective and gets great results. This works by gently removing the top layers of the skin. A local anesthetic is used to help prevent the individual from feeling pain during this process. Laser treatments are less painful and more effective but they are also more expensive. Depending on the severity of the acne scars these types of treatments will need to be performed again at regular intervals.

If you are looking for a permanent solution to acne scars then consider surgery. This is generally an option reserved for severe cases though. This can be a painful process done in sections too depending on what needs to take place. Skin from other parts of the body may be needed to place on the face known as a skin graft.

Acne Medication

Not all acne medication out there is the same and it is important to realize that. You don’t want to be taken for a ride either as many of them don’t work like they are advertised. They can get away with such claims though as they make it clear that not everyone will respond to the product the same way. In order to increase your chances of being successful with acne medication you need to do your homework.

Identify which type of skin you happen to have and then use a medication that is right for it. Your skin may be dry, oily, or a combination of both. Pay attention to the ingredients that are in acne medication. If you don’t recognize them take the time to look them up online.

Some individuals assume that if they buy the most expensive acne medicine on the market they will have success. However, many of them are overpriced for that very reason. They known consumers are going to pay more for something that has a perceived value. Those that have celebrities endorsing them also have huge overhead expenses to cover, and they will pass it on to the consumers.

Look for those that offer a money back guarantee as well. That way if the acne medicine doesn’t work for you the money won’t be lost. You will find that not all of these manufacturers stand behind what they sell either. Leave those ones alone though and go with the ones that really do believe in what they are offering.

Not everyone is able to get results from over the counter acne medications though. They must turn to prescription products offered from their doctor or dermatologist. Don’t rush into this option though as such treatments can be very harsh on your body. They are also very expensive to pay for. Not all doctors will provide them either unless all other options for curing the acne have been explored.

Take the time to read online reviews about the experiences people have had with various acne treatments. While their story may not reflect what you will get, look for consistent themes. Try those that seem to have plenty of positive things about them. Avoid those that seem to have too many negative reviews about them.