On the heels of a major Social Crowd plugin update last week we have a new release to increase the capabilities of this remarkable little plugin.

One of the most frequently requested networks for addition to Social Crowd, was the Linked In Business Social Network. And after reviewing copious amounts of documentation we found an easy way to add support for that network.

So that’s about it folks, you can now show off the number of Connections that you have made with the Linked In Network right on your WordPress homepage or sidebar. But we should note that the nature of this addition (like the Google+ integration) is in a BETA state, and should perform for you, but if you have any problems please feel free to Contact Us and let us know so we can address the issue.

When I say Lightbox the word may conjour up many different images in your mind, possibly a white highly lit background to photograph objects on, perhaps even a literal box with a light in it like those pictured to the left (Gus Modern Lightbox), or as in the context of this post, a website feature that brings the chosen content front and center before the user.

Lightboxes are all the rage, and most web designers find some use for them on their websites so that they can make effective usage of available pixels, get clients to interact more effectively, or just plain make their site pop with some engaging effects. Whatever your usage may be, lightboxes are definitely a ubiquitous part of the Web 2.0 experience.

With that in mind there are also a myriad of different options out there, and it can be very difficult to find the right one that works just right for your situation. I have been very grateful for the hard work that was put in over at planetozh.com for their creation of the very useful Lightbox Clones Matrix, but unfortunately that resource has not kept up with all the changes that have happened in the Lightbox world, so I have taken it upon myself to find and review many of the Lightboxes that have been updated or newly released since the publishing of that great matrix.

So with that let’s get to it, so in no specific order, other then the order that I add them let’s take a look at the top 49+ Lightbox Clones and what makes them tick.

Top 10 jQuery Lightbox Clones

Top 10 MooTools Lightbox Clones

Top 10 Prototype Lightbox Clones

Top 10 Lightboxes that use their own Javascript Effects Library

Top 9 YUI (Yahoo) Lightbox Clones

You’ve been there before, working hard on a project, opening lots of different windows for different applications, and pretty soon you cannot see what you are working on for all the other windows that are hanging around.

With Spirited Away you can avoid getting distracted by focusing on the application that you are currently using, and it alone. How does this litte app get this amazing feat done you ask?

Spirited Away pays attention to the apps that you are using, and the ones that you are not. After a predetermined amount of time (user defined, 60 seconds by default) an idle app is hidden from view. You can also select specific apps that you would like to be exempted from this “hiding” behavior by clicking the ghost icon in the menu bar. So don’t get carried away with yourself, stay focused and productive with Spirited Away.

Spirited Away Homepage

Download Spirited Away

What exactly is the Browser Blocker Plugin you ask? In simple terms it is what it’s name states, it’s a plugin for wordpress that allows the site owner to determine specific versions of various web browsers that they would like to bar from accessing their website.

Why would someone want to ban users from coming to their website and partaking of their web goodness? With so many different browser versions traipsing around the interwebs at large, there are bound to be certain browsers that simply do not have what it takes to properly display many of the new capabilities that have been afforded by the release of HTML5 and CSS3. So rather than having to spend many extra man hours attempting to gain compliance with those inferior web browsers, now you can just ban them altogether and give your would be visitor a helpful nudge in the direction of some web browser upgrades.

So go check it out The Browser Blocker WordPress Plugin

Gradients are used virtually everywhere to improve the overal look and feel of most designs and applications. But up until recently these great graphical niceties on the web always had to be represented by a small or large graphic file, which depending on the skill of the designer/developer could add significant bloat to a website.

On to the scene enters CSS3 with many new features that (when properly utilized by compliant web browsers)  make the seemingly simple websites come alive. One of my favorite new features is the CSS Gradient. Now rather than adding bloat to a site with multiple graphics to improve the sites look and feel, now that can all be taken care of with just a few lines of CSS rules.

Now this new advancement in site design as powerful as it is, can be cumbersome, especially if the gradient is technically advanced with multiple stops and color changes. The raw development of the right CSS rule could take a significant amount of time, but no longer.

Thanks to Alex Sirota (iosart), web developers around the world now have free access to an amazing tool that significantly increases your CSS3 productivity. The Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator provides a easy to use (and fairly familiar interface for Photoshop Users) that not only allows you to create new gradients, but you can also save previous favorite presets, import gradient code from CSS, and import an image with a gradient on it.

I have used this tool a ton, and highly recommend it to any developers that are going to work with CSS3 Gradients in any way.

Head On Over To:

The Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator

Depending on the age of your mac there are two different ways to accomplish this:

Leopard and Above (OSX 10.5 and higher) :

dscacheutil – flushcache

Tiger and Below (OSX 10.4 and lower) :

lookupd -flushcache

With either command your DNS cache is completely cleared so that your next DNS query will be forced to be requested from your upstream DNS provider.

I hope this helps someone out there to save some time, effort, and energy,as it did for me.

Originally read at:

Hongkiat.com: Hongkiat – How to Clear DNS Cache In Mac OSX Leopard

When I first started to use it, I only accessed the basic layer of usefulness, and used it as a backend for my blog. But it has proven itself to be robust enough to be easily used as a CMS for individuals and Small/Medium Businesses that want an interactive website but don’t have the time/budget to get something completely custom created for them.

On the other side of the spectrum, as a developer WordPress can also make my job much easier by giving me a framework that already handles all of the basics for a website, and then provides me with the hooks necessary to extend the basic platform and provide specific functionality for my clients.

Along with that extensibility wordpress has a large plugin database where others share their custom creations for anything from publishing a podcast to keeping your visitors up with your tweets. Many of these plugins provide the functionality that my clients are looking for with only a few minor changes to match the clients specifications.

Additionally the power to hook into the wordpress backend and pull out relevent information can help you produce or utilize some existing themes that will make your wordpress install become and amazing dynamic website, not merely a blog.

All that being said, WordPress has become a staple in most of my website development projects. and can greatly enhance your development process, if you are willing to let it.

Check it out

Css Message Boxes

Elements of Design

People every day find themselves without the ability to easily produce that documentation, and may not get their assets replaced by their insurance company, because they cannot prove the exact assets that they owned.

Treasurebox is built to provide a safe secure online storage location for that documentation, very accessible, and easy to use. The MooTools framework and extentions to it are used extensively to increase the usability of the product.

The initial release is currently in public beta. I would love any readers to sign up (No Credit Card or billing information required) and leave some comments here about your thoughts.

Treasurebox
Twenty Cent Productions, LLC