Issue #66 | Tuesday, August 21st 2012 | 118,969 subscribers | Previous issues
Guten Tag,
In Freiburg, Smashing Media's hometown, the days are getting shorter and the Smashing Conference is just around the corner. The schedule of the speaker talks and workshops is finally set, and while we are not yet hanging up the disco balls, everything is being set in motion to make it an enjoyable and valuable experience for everybody involved. Sadly, it's impossible to have all of our readers join us for this occasion in September, and so we'll make sure to provide you all with as many photos, short movies and interviews as we can!
Image credit: opensourceway.
Should you have missed the opportunity to grab a seat at the conference, you still have the chance to register for one of the workshops. You can still become a sponsor of the event as well. Of course, let us not forget other fantastic community events taking place this fall! We're giving away 2 tickets to the Strata Conference in London. To win one, just send us a tweet telling us why you would like to go using #smstrata.
Yours sincerely,
The Smashing Editorial Team
Table of Contents
01. Underscores: A Starter Theme For WordPress
02. The Four Legalizers For Web Designers
03. Philosophical Concepts Explained
04. Sorting CSS Properties With CSScomb
05. Splitting The Bill Made Easy
06. The Gift Book
07. A Design For A Good Cause
08. Light & Shadow Artworks By Kumi Yamashita
09. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
10. New On Smashing Job Board
11. Recent Articles on Smashing Magazine
1. Underscores: A Starter Theme For WordPress
We've all been there: searching for the perfect boilerplate, a set of base templates or a handy starter-kit for that new project. Starting from the very scratch is often time-consuming and rarely necessary since some tasks, settings or code will be repetitive for every single project. So it's no wonder that each of us has our own set of base templates to take care of browser bugs and speed up the development process. If you find yourself developing WordPress-themes quite often, today you are in for a treat.
Developed by the finest minds in the WordPress development community, Underscores theme — a forked version of the Toolbox theme — focuses on the features that most developers need in everyday projects. The theme has better starter styles, a "just right" amount of lean, well-commented HTML5 templates, a framework for adding your own responsive CSS, a script for adding a toggled drop-down for small screens, five sample CSS layouts, smartly organized CSS and easy-to-rework sample theme options.
Unlike Toolbox, Underscores is not supposed to be used as the parent theme, but was developed specifically to be "turned into" great WordPress themes. If you are looking for an alternative, you might want to consider Bones and Roots which are both WordPres starter kits as well. (vf)
2. The Four Legalizers For Web Designers
One day you buy an iPad, confirm that you've read the hundreds of pages of the "Terms of Service", and the next day you're part of the Apple Human centiPad experiment. No, it's not always as bad as in the South Park episode. However, the lack of transparency found in online services is becoming more and more of an issue. Few people have time or the legal know-how to read every single "Terms of Service" and "Privacy Agreement" they are asked to confirm. ToS;DR and Termsfeed are trying to remedy that.
ToS;DR is a user rights initiative to rate and label website terms and privacy policies, from very good (Class A) to very bad (Class E). The contributors to the project review legal transparency of websites and present the most important legal issues in a concise overview. Termsfeed is an online service that provides a free and easy way to generate the templates for user-friendly "Terms of Service" and "Privacy Policies" for websites.
These two websites follow the example of Docracy and iubenda in providing legal resources to the Web community. This quartet is attempting to make the legal jungle more navigable for users and developers alike. (jc)
3. Philosophical Concepts Explained
Philosophy is a complex theoretical study which doesn't quite make all of its concepts easy to understand. So when it comes to explaining some of the main theories and movements in philosophy, reducing the complexity to the absolute minimal visual representation might be quite a challenge. London-based designer Genís Carreras picked up just that challenge and designed a set of minimalist posters explaining philosophical doctrines like "Hedonism", "Idealism" or "Free Will" using simple shades, basic colors and concise definitions.
The result is a series titled "Philographics" which contains 24 beautifully designed posters, each with a short explanation of the concept that the artwork is supposed to represent. The posters are available in a variety of sizes and formats and can also be purchased online. (ml)
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4. Sorting CSS Properties With CSScomb
How much time do you spend going through style sheets to properly sort and organize CSS properties? If you often have to maintain the code or work with the code of other developers, CSScomb is the perfect tool for you to take care of this time-consuming task.
The tool sorts CSS-properties within the selectors (according to the settings), sorts commented properties as if they are not commented, moves down unknown properties and treats initial formatting of style sheets carefully. It's also able to successfully parse expressions and any construction with @ like @media. You can set the order of the CSS properties yourself.
The parser treats text according to a developer's way of sorting code, rather than as a blind robot parsing CSS. The tool is available online but also as a plugin for Sublime Text 2, Textmate, Coda & Coda2, Espresso 2, Notepad++ and Vim, among others. (ml)
5. Splitting The Bill Made Easy
You probably experience this every month: sharing the bill with your friends can lead to awkward situations,especially if someone forgets to keep the list of expenses up to date. The Australian designer Sean Ockert seems to know this problem and developed an online tool that might help you turn this awkwardness into an amusing venture.
With 13Bills, you can give your bill a name, e.g. "Electricity and Heating". You would then insert the costs, date and names of your roomies — as many as you wish. After all details are inserted, you simply send out an e-mail that speaks for itself. Now let's hope your friends pay their part before you have to send them a reminder. (tts)
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6. The Gift Book
"Thank you, dear! It's a beautiful tie!" you tell your wife/daughter/son, sighing inwardly. They appear every year for Father's/Mother's Day and birthdays — the gifts nobody wants. And gift-giving is hard... or is it? Wantful may be the solution.
The idea is ingenious. Instead of offering one ill-suited present, you can put together a beautiful 16-piece catalog of items and offer it to the joyous recipient. You can send your friend a gift book or send him the selection of gifts via email. They will then pick the gift they prefer and have it sent to them. You pay your amount and the service takes care of the rest. No more returning (or sometimes even worse) keeping unwanted gifts.
You can connect the service with your Facebook account and check whose birthday or other important events are coming up. You may provide some information about what kind of gift you are creating, what relationship you have with this person, how much money you'd like to spend and answer a few questions about his/her preferences — and the service will do its best to find great products to add to your gift choices. All gift selections are stored and can be accessed for a later occasion. (jc)
7. A Design For A Good Cause
There are thousands of charities across the globe covering every imaginable category. One problem many of those charities face is awareness of their organization, funding and little commitment from their followers. One of them had a successful idea to put an end to those problems. Sevenly creates 52 charity product campaigns per year to support a new cause each week.
The organization presents a new and unique design for every supported cause which is printed on a set of products currently including t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags in different shapes and colors. The clever thing about it: The designs are exclusively available for exactly seven days, which makes the products limited and unique. The used materials are fair-trade and for every product sold, $7 are given to the supported charity. (ml)
8. Light & Shadow Artworks By Kumi Yamashita
What can you do with a single piece of paper and a light source? Most people would answer this question with "write a note". Designers would probably say "sketch a drawing". Any other ideas? The Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita sculpts light and shadow using paper and other materials (such as carved wood, aluminum with cut-outs, and styrene).
The results of her creative artistic work are very impressive — conversation, mother with child, profiles, lovers, and clouds are just some of the themes from her collection Light & Shadow artworks. Ordinary objects can also be very inspiring — all you need is a new perspective to encounter their hidden beauty and to be creative. (tts)
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9. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
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Email Newsletters Worth Subscribing To
Staying on top of the most recent developments in your craft takes time, especially when you have to scan websites daily for articles and news worthy of your attention. We have selected here newsletters that deserve your attention. Just check your email inbox every couple of days to find a condensed and readily accessible selection of tidbits from a given website.
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Picking A Mobile Support Strategy For Your Website
As website owners define the level of support they aim to provide, a scale of support for mobile devices emerges. Picking where on the scale your website should sit can be quite tricky; each level of support is not without its pros and cons. Let's take a look at some of the more common approaches.
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Invoice Like A Pro: Examples and Best Practices
Your invoice should be prim and proper, so that you can get paid by your clients efficiently. While invoicing is not a fun task, it's a necessary one: by keeping clients informed of your expectations, you will get paid punctually and reinforce your professionalism.
10. New On Smashing Job Board
Here are the job openings published recently at our very own Smashing Job Board:
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UI/UX Contractor Needed Immediately! at Rewards Network (Chicago, IL Must work onsite)
For over 25 years, Rewards Network has led the charge in the fast-paced foodservice marketing industry, connecting passionate diners with incredible restaurants from coast to coast. Today, with digital marketing at the core of their companywide strategy, they're able to deliver what the customers want. They are seeking a passionate and creative individual for the position of Information Architect/UX Designer as part of their Creative Services team.
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Senior Frontend Developer (m/w) at Virtual Identity AG (Freiburg or Munich, Germany)
You have several years of experience in Front End Web development? You are an experienced technical project manager? Work in one of the two nicest cities in Germany, Freiburg or Munich. Applicants must be prepared to learn German.
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UI Developer/Front End Developer at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, Hertfordshire)
Ocado Technology are currently looking for a UI Developer. As part of the User Interface (UI) Development team, you'll deliver world class user interface solutions across both web and mobile. The successful UI Developer will have experience in a UI Development role, strong written and verbal communication skills, among more specialized skills.
11. Recent Articles on Smashing Magazine
