Productive Kitchen Gadgets #1: The Microplane

In an earlier article, I touched upon fast cooking tips for increasing productivity in the kitchen. Kitchen gadgets have become increasingly prevalent in this day and age – and we all know how much productivity-types get into their gadgets!

The first kitchen gadget I would like to feature is the microplane.

A microplane is a serrated metal device with a handle. It is similar to something you probably grew up with in the kitchen; a grater. But the microplane is much longer and thinner than a typical grater and is much easier to handle.

A microplane allows the chef to easily grate garlic, ginger, hard cheeses, onions, or even chocolate for a dessert. It is also great for zesting which means grating the skin or outer peel of a citrus fruit such as a lemon, lime, orange, or grapefruit.

Using a microplane prevents you from having to use a knife to chop up the food and also gives you a uniform amount of shaving each time. Once you use one of these versatile gadgets you’ll wonder what you ever did without one.

Friday Photo Critique #45

Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image. It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued!

Quick Ground Rules

  1. Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  2. Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
  3. You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.

Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!

The Photograph

Photo Critique

Photographer: Juan Sebastian Silva

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.

The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site. Interested in submitting your own photo? You can do so here!

Subtle CSS3 Typography that you’d Swear was Made in Photoshop


Thanks to text shadows, outlines, transitions, and even text gradients, we can now create cool typography that you’d swear had to be made with a program like Photoshop. Nope, all CSS3 baby! Let’s take a look in this video quick tip. 

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<title>Subtle Typography</title>

	<style>
	body {
		background: #666;
		padding: 1em;
	}

	h1 {
		position: relative;
		font-size: 200px;
		margin-top: 0;
		font-family: 'Myriad Pro', 'Myriad', helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
		text-shadow: 2px 3px 3px #292929;
		letter-spacing: -7px;
		-webkit-text-stroke: 1px white;

	}

	h1 a {
		text-decoration: none;
		color: #ffffff;
		position: absolute;

		-webkit-mask-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(rgba(0,0,0,1)), color-stop(50%, rgba(0,0,0,0)), to(rgba(0,0,0,1)));
		text-shadow: 0 2px 0 #e9e9e9;
		-webkit-transition: all .3s;
		-moz-transition: all .3s;
		transition: all .3s;
	}

	h1 a:hover {
		color: #185a50;
	}

	h1:after {
		content : 'Hello Readers';
		color: #dbdbdb;
	}

	</style>
</head>
<body>
     <h1> <a href="#">Hello Readers </a> </h1>
</body>
</html>

The HTML5 Boilerplate


The talented Paul Irish and Divya Manian, just yesterday, released what they call the “HTML5 Boilerplate.” The product of years of experience, this is easily the most comprehensive starting template for every new project that I’ve ever seen.

HTML5 Boilerplate

According to Paul, himself:

Why it is Awesome?

  • Cross-browser compatible (IE6, yeah we got that.)
  • HTML5 ready. Use the new tags with certainty.
  • Optimal caching and compression rules for grade-A performance
  • Best practice site configuration defaults
  • Mobile browser optimizations
  • Progressive enhancement graceful degradation … yeah yeah we got that
  • IE specific classes for maximum cross-browser control
  • Handy .no-js and .js classes to style based on capability
  • Want to write unit tests but lazy? A full, hooked up test suite is waiting for you.

Why it is Awesome-er?

  • Javascript profiling…in IE6 and IE7? Sure, no problem.
  • Console.log nerfing so you won’t break anyone by mistake.
  • Never go wrong with your doctype or markup!
  • An optimal print stylesheet, performance optimized
  • iOS, Android, Opera Mobile-adaptable markup and CSS skeleton.
  • IE6 pngfix baked in.
  • .clearfix, .visuallyhidden classes to style things wisely and accessibly.
  • .htaccess file that allows proper use of HTML5 features and faster page load
  • CDN hosted jQuery with local fallback failsafe.
  • Think there’s too much? The HTML5 Boilerplate is delete-key friendly. :)

The HTML5 Boilerplate can be downloaded here.

Php Project

My budget – $30

I need a very good developer to unhide a site that has been completed. The site is done but we need to make it life on the internet so that people can access it, as it is hidden right now.

The index page was renamed and several other pages running customized apps that linked to it were also renamed and some parameters changed while the last developer was working on it in the background. Now we are ready to go live.

The selected developer:
1. unhide it again; such that the site can be accessed directly from the domain name; not having to use a back slash like it is running presently from the current directory
2. ensure all pages and tools are working back normally as it should the way it is right now
3. the developer should ensure that before he starts he tests the pages so that he is sure that everything is working perfectly that way when he is done he will not end up messing it up

I need a very smart developer who can deliver in record time of 1 – 2 days tops.

Thanks

Silverlight Audio Player Customization

I am looking for a customized version of silverlight audio player available at http://slaudioplayer.codeplex.com/
If you want to choose other silverlight audio players, that is also fine.

The customization is primarily to change graphics/design to match my current website.

Ideally you have experience with silverlight projects and some graphics design.

Website Edits

I will like a few edits to my site

HERE IS MY SITE:

http://www.dartsanddoms.com

1) Add in child links to the sidebar (4 links under ‘Other Competitions’) – as per this site http://www.the’xxx’bookpeople.co.uk (remove ‘xxx’)

2) Add In 3 jpgs (generic) to fit into the sidebar use images this size http://www.dartsanddoms.com/spenvalley/sidebar.JPG

3) I require the a template (editing index.html) on current site where PDFs are called through an iframe. I would prefer it not to open with the PDF navigation bars as it does now with IE.

The PDF viewer must be compatible with major browsers specifically IE and FF (all versions)

Please advise any thoughts in the PMB

Fix Crashing Locator Iphone App

I have an locator app that was created by a programmer that keeps crashing. I thought it could of been my phone since he said it was fine on his end. Until apple rejected the app for the same crashing reasons. Here is what apple said.
————————

We’ve completed the review of your application but this version cannot be posted to the App Store because it crashes when the user does not allow current location and select any item from the home page. We have included additional details below to help explain the issue, and hope you’ll consider revising and resubmitting your application.

Using iPhone 3GS and iPod touch running iOS 4.0.2, here is how we found this crash:
1) Start the application on a device
2) When asked to allow current location select do not allow
3) Select any item from the home page and the application crashes

We have attached detailed crash logs to help. If you need information on how to read crash logs, you may want to review the following TechNote: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/technotes/tn2008/tn2151.html

—————–
Please have ratings because I’m not going to give my app to programmers without ratings. Sorry.

Found Footage: Case-mate will freak you out with iPhone case commercials

Case-mate has decided to promote its new iPhone and iPad case-making site (one tip, Case-mate: Don’t create an iPhone case site that requires Flash) with some videos, and rather than put together images of how great the cases work or how good they look, the ad people decided to just jump right into the deep end of the insane pool.

As you can see above, the first concept involves some kind of mystical girl in the mountains who can create objects with her mind, and has six arms, and … well, just watch it for yourself. I already have a case on my iPhone (and it’s not a Case-mate, I just use the iSkin Revo), but honestly, I prefer some crazy ads like this to, say, the FaceTime commercials. I can only take that “Baby, it is so short” commercial so many times.

Case-mate tried to tell us that the second commercial they made wasn’t quite as nuts, but man, it’s even crazier. It’s also kind of not-safe-for-work, too (some mild gore and implied nudity), so I’ll just link to it by name: Living With Steel Wool Hands (How I Lost My Nipple). No, really. Watch if you dare. I don’t know what they’re putting in the water over in the marketing department, but maybe they should splurge for bottled.

TUAWFound Footage: Case-mate will freak you out with iPhone case commercials originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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