OK, you can ASK questions too but that’s no fun. I’m there to help out to the best of my ability. One thing that really bothers me when visiting the site is the misuse of the English language and the way users present their dilemmas. It’s also funny and sad how incredibly stupid some people sound. I’ve collected a few gems, most of them come from the ‘Computers & Internet’ section;

1. Hows come my internet screen isn’t the same?
2. Is there new email account be create in you tube or g mail is enough for you tube?
3. Where do I place the disc to install my printer?
4. What’s wrong with my guitar size?
5. What is the difference between mega pixels and optical zoom?
6. Can anyone name an natural disaster which have occurred which caused data to be destroyed?
7. Whay delivery report on mobile phones actually dose?
8. Is it illegal to post Depeche Mode music on youtube? My video was unjustly deleted.?

Wonderful. Imagine being a teacher in the States seeing stuff like this day in and day out. I can’t imagine what it must be like. To the brave teachers of America, my thoughts will be with you — always.

Anyway. I signed up on the 4:th of November and I’ve answered 156 questions, seven of them was voted ‘Best answer’. I have 527 points and I’m currently at Level 2, hunting that coveted Level 3 (stats updated right after I took the screen shot — cmd+shift+3 on the mac). Some questions are so stupid that I only answer ‘Yes’ or ‘Get the one on the left’ but good questions get the deluxe treatment with useful info and the occasional link. I will return to this endeavor in the near future, posting info about my advancement up the ranks. Do you have a question? Go ahead, make my day – please!

Oh, I’m Swedish by the way — English is not my first language. I just feel bad when Americans slaughter their own language the way they do on — well, everywhere. Laterz!!!!!!!!!!!!

Link:
Yahoo! Answers

I needed a quick and easy fix. I found one, it’s called Shades. It’s free. From the delevopers site;

Shades is a FREE utility for controlling the brightness of your screen. It runs in the background providing always-available fine-grained control over the brightness of your display via a slick Mac-like interface.

Shades installs into the System Preferences window and it’s very easy to use. If you run into any trouble/questions there’s a useful FAQ.

The other app is Menu Eclipse (no direct link, find it under ‘Software’), it goes nicely together with Shades. From the developers site;

Save your constant menu pixels from getting burned into your screen!
Gain better focus on your work & play, and away from the menu bar!

Its single purpose is to dim the top menu bar in Leopard. The effect is pleasant when watching a movie but I’ve found I use it all the time at about 40% ‘strength’. When you hover over the menu bar the effect goes away. Nice. Oh, and did I mention it’s free? It is.

“During my 10 years experience in Graphic Design I find that silhouettes is one of the most useful tool in any design work! It is easy to mix and modify for any needs. I saw a lot of silhouettes on different sites and blogs all over Internet but most of them are commercial, it sucks. So I decide to create a place for collecting and free sharing all possible silhouettes, shapes, signs and icons. I’m going to share tons of vector silhouettes I created during my long life time as a designer.”

All Silhouettes are compatible with: Adobe Illustrator 8+, Photoshop, Corel Draw and Freehand. Visit All Silhouettes and check them out!

The theme I’m (currently) using is pretty simple and basic when it comes to design and colors. This fact gives me the luxury of not having to care all that much about tweaking it into something that reflects my taste. I’ve gone through hundreds of WordPress themes over the years, changing colors of the links, post titles, headers and backgrounds over and over until I got a look I was happy with.

The above screen shot is from COLOURlovers, a top notch site when it comes to finding beautiful color schemes and palettes. I’ve used it a lot in my search for perfection, it’s user driven and actually more of a color community filled with creative people. Another handy site is the mighty Kuler. Adobe is behind this fantastic resource and you can sign up for free to save your palettes for later use. Kuler is also integrated in Adobes latest Creative Suite (CS4).

Those two are my personal favorites. Whatever happened to the huge list you ask? Well, 41 sites – is that huge enough? Check it out here: The Ultimate List Of Online Color Tools For Web Developers. Web Design Booth did the dirty work. Do you have a site that you keep returning to in search of color? Please let us know in the comments!

Oops, I almost forgot; you can go all crazy with your designs online but what about visitors suffering from Colorblindness? If all of your links and menus look just like regular text to someone who’s colorblind your site is not very user friendly. Colorblind Web Page Filter is a great tool where you can load your own site and view it through the eyes of a colorblind user. Usability people, usability!

This pic (and about a million others) is part of a license known as Creative Commons. That means I can use it without feeling bad compared to all those times I’ve ‘stolen’ a picture from a Google Images search. Sorry about that. There’s all kinds of media published under Creative Commons; video, audio, photos, music and so on. If you need media that’s free to use I’m going to point you in the direction of this list made by Mashable.

26 places filled with free media – imagine that.