Here another list from me this time it’s all about feeds which I have added to my Google Reader to read whenever I am free. Actually now I am addicted to Google Reader and these feeds. This list is bit long and it’s containing around 78 valid feeds.

Here I have sorted out the list in alphabetical order. This will contain feeds about Web Standards, Accessibility, Usability, User Experience, Web 2.0, Personal Blogs, Technical and Technology, Design Resources and some great online journals regarding web and it’s new trends. This is very helpful for me to keep my self updated on time.

If anyone know any good feed that I have missed here, feel free to add it via a comment.

• .net Top Stories – Feed
• 24 ways – Feed
• 31Three – Journal – Feed
• 456 Berea Street – Feed
• A List Apart – Feed
• Accessify: latest news – Feed
• Adactio – Feed
• Airbag Industries – Feed
• Ajaxian – Feed
• Andy Budd::Blogography – Feed
• Andy Rutledge : Design View – Feed
• Authentic Boredom – Feed
• Bartelme Design | Journal – Feed
• Boxes and Arrows – Feed
• Brand Spanking New – Feed
• Brusheezy.com – Feed
• Brushfind – Feed
• CollyLogic – Feed
• CSS Beauty News Feed – Feed
• CSS Drive News – Feed
• CSS Globe Members News – Feed
• CSS Help Pile – Feed
• Damn Cool Pics – Feed
• Dave Shea’s mezzoblue – Feed
• del.icio.us hotlist – Feed
• design.Principles – Feed
• Devlounge – Feed
• Digital Web: What’s New – Feed
• Download Squad – Feed
• Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles – Feed
• fadtastic – a multi-author web design trends journal – Feed
• Freelance Switch – Feed
• Fresh Designs on Vecteezy.com! – Feed
• Glenn Wolsey – Feed
• hicksdesign – journal – Feed
• Hiveminds Magazine – for web publishers and community builders – Feed
• If..Else Log – Feed
• Interllectual.com – Feed
• Jason Santa Maria | Articles – Feed
• JeffCroft.com Journal – Feed
• Jeffrey Veen – Feed
• Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report – Feed
• Joshuaink – Feed
• kartooner.com – Feed
• KuraFire Network – Everything! – Feed
• Left Brain/Right Brain – Feed
• Lifehack – Feed
• Lifehacker – Feed
• markboulton.co.uk | Journal – Feed
• Mashable! – Feed
• maxdesign.com.au – Feed
• Mike Davidson – Feed
• Modern Life – Feed
• molly.com – Feed
• N.Design Studio – Feed
• Planet I18n – Feed
• Read/WriteWeb – Feed
• SilentBits – Feed
• SimpleBits – Feed
• Small Business Hub – Feed
• Smashing Magazine – Feed
• Snook.ca – Feed
• Solution Watch – Feed
• Stopdesign – Feed
• Stylegala | news – Feed
• Stylegala | public news – Feed
• Subtraction – Feed
• TechCrunch – Feed
• Techmeme – Feed
• The Web Standards Project – Feed
• tomatic.com – Feed
• Tutorial Blog – Feed
• userstyles.org – Feed
• UX Magazine – Feed
• UXmatters – Feed
• Veerle’s blog: Approved – Feed
• Veerle’s blog: full articles – Feed
• Vitamin – Feed
• Web 2.0 Explorer – Feed
• WorkHappy.net: killer resources for entrepreneurs – Feed

Hey Sri Lankans, here I’m going to do a small survey about Web Standards awareness among Sri Lankans. Poll will be closing on 13th September, 2007. So pass this all people you know. This will help all for us who working on web projects in Sri Lankan community.

If anyone want to know what are Web Standards, go and read my Web Standards Round Up.

Here I’m going to list down very useful articles regarding web standards. From introduction to implementation, from web browsers to web accessibility. These articles were very helpful for me, so I hope for all you people who have heard about Web Standards and want to learn more about it, people who haven’t even heard about Web Standards and also Web Standards geeks who have miss some articles can find here.

If anyone think I have miss something here, please let me know then I can add it too.

• What are web standards and why should I use them?
• An Introduction To Web Standards
• The benefits of Web Standards to your visitors, your clients and you!
• An Introduction to Web Standards Part 1
• An Introduction to Web Standards Part 2
• Developing With Web Standards
• A Web Standards Approach
• Design Rant
• Whatever for?
• Why tables for layout is stupid
• Web Standards For Business
• The Business Benefits of Web Standards
• The business case for Web standards-based development

Let’s make a better web for you and for me

I have done the Sinhala version of the WaSP Café. Thanks Anandawardhana for proof reading, Steph and Glenda to update it on the live site.

English version;

What is a WaSP Café?

A WaSP Café is a face-to-face, “meet-space” event organised by one or more WaSP members, or professionals who are affiliated directly with the WaSP as part of a taskforce or an extended group. The aim of this event is to allow attendees to share ideas about how to implement best Web practices for real sites, for discussing and exchanging tips about techniques to solve real problems. The format for a WaSP Café is open to the discretion of the organiser(s); they can decide what is the best fit for the community they work in. Organiser(s) must feed learnings back to the WaSP for further discussion, either directly or via their taskforce/group lead. Every WaSP Café event must also be accompanied by an informal but public report (e.g. a Buzz or a blog post elsewhere) of findings, discussions and learnings shared.

http://www.webstandards.org/action/ilg/wasp-cafe/

Sinhala version;

WaSP Café යනු කුමක්ද?

WaSP Café යනු සෘජු සාකච්ඡා පැවැත්වෙන රැස්වීම්ය. මේවා WaSP සාමාජිකයෙක් හෝ සාමාජිකයන්, WaSP හා සම්බන්ධ කණ්ඩායමක හෝ සමූහයක වෘත්තිකයන් විසින් සංවිධානය කරනු ලබයි. මෙහි ප්‍රධානතම පරමාර්ථය වන්නේ වෙබ් හා සම්බන්ධ හොඳම හා සුදුසුම ක්‍රියාකාරකම් වෙබ් පිටු ණිර්මානකරණය හා සංස්කරණය සඳහා යොදාගන්නා ක්‍රම පිළිබඳව සාකච්ඡා කිරීම, එවැනි අවස්ථාවලදී පැන නගින ගැටළු නිරාකරණය කරගැනීම පිළිබඳව අදහස් හා ක්‍රමවේදයන් හුවමාරු කරගැනීමය. මෙම WaSP Café හි අන්තර්ගතය එහි සංවිධායකවරුන්ගේ තීරණය පරිදි සිදුවන අතර, ඔවුන්ට තමන් ක්‍රියාත්මකවන සමාජයට සරිලන අයුරින් එය සකස් කරගත හැක. සංවිධායකවරුන් මෙහිදී උකහා ගන්නා කරුණු වැඩිදුර සාකච්ඡා කිරීම සඳහා, සෘජුව හෝ ඔවුන්ගේ කණ්ඩායම හරහා WaSP යට යොමුකළ යුතුය. සියළුම WaSP Café සාකච්ඡා අනියම් මට්ටමන් පවතුනත් එහිදී ලබාගත් තොරතුරු, සාකච්ඡා කළ කරුණු හා බෙදාගත් දැනුම පිළිබඳ පොදු වාර්තාවක් තබාගත යුතුය (e.g. a Buzz or a blog post elsewhere).

http://www.webstandards.org/action/ilg/wasp-cafe/#si

Some more links

• The Web Standards Project
• International Liaison Group
• ILG Objectives
• ILG Members
• WaSP Café

PS: You must have Sinhala Unicode installed on your computer to read it. Download Sinhala Unicode from Characters and Fonts for Sri Lanka Website.

What is CSS?

Styles sheets define HOW HTML elements are to be displayed. Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in your Web, just by editing one single CSS document!

CSS is a breakthrough in Web design because it allows developers to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. As a Web developer you can define a style for each HTML element and apply it to as many Web pages as you want. To make a global change, simply change the style, and all elements in the Web are updated automatically.

[Introduction to CSS]

Why Optimize?

Well for two reasons mainly. It helps you get smaller CSS file sizes and better written code. The way the optimizer works actually lets you decide how much compression you want. From super compressed (virtually unreadable and editable by a human being) to visually pleasing. I prefer the standard setting because it gives you a little of both.

Another cool feature is that it helps you with shorthand coding. I am by no means an expert at CSS. I do not have all the shorthand methods memorized (yet!). For those of you using Dreamweaver, like myself, you’ll find that it likes to use longhand code. By this I mean putting each separate rule on its own line. This can get tedious copying and pasting it make a small change. A lot of that stuff can get consolidated into one line, like backgrounds and borders.

So your main reasons for wanting to optimize are to make sure your CSS files are clean. There is a certain art form in clean and concise code. And I’m not even a programmer and I can see that. I’m an artist, so this tool really helps speed things up.

[Why Optimize?]

CSS Optimization Tips

CSS Shorthand
Shorthand properties can be used to set several properties at once, in a single declaration, instead of using a separate declaration for each individual property. As you’ll see, this can save a lot of space in your CSS file.

• Efficient CSS with shorthand properties
• CSS Shorthand Guide
• CSS shorthand properties

CSS Optimizing/Formatting/Compressing Online Tools

• flumpCakes CSS Optimizer
• CSSOptimizer
• CSS Formatter and Optimizer (based on CSSTidy 1.3dev)
• Un-Compress CSS
• CleanCSS
• 123css
• Icey CSS Compressor
• CSS Superdouche
• Format CSS
• CSS Tweak
• CSSTidy
• Pretty Printer
• Tabifier

FullCodePress is a series of web competitions – the brainchild of the people at Webstock and WIPA. In essence it’s a geek Olympics!

The concept is simple. Web teams take each other on, at the same location, to build a complete website in 24 hours. No excuse, no extensions, no budget overruns.

The first event will be held in Australia on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 August 2007 between Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 there will be a worldwide challenge for any interested countries – to be held in Wellington New Zealand. We’ll also be facilitating and encouraging competitions within individual countries.

Check out the FullCodePress website »

Here i’m going to list some useful browser specific CSS selectors, known as browser specific hacks;

IE 6 and below: * html {}

IE 7 and below: *:first-child+html {} * html {}

IE 7 only : *:first-child+html {}

IE 7 and modern browsers only: html>body {}

Modern browsers but NOT IE7: html>/**/body {}

Opera 9 and below: html:first-child {}

Safari: html[xmlns*=""] body:last-child {}

Check this tutoaial to learn how to use CSS selectors »

W3C’s Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group has put a FAQ page on Semantic Web.

Check the W3C Semantic Web FAQ here »

There is also a wiki page where new or current questions, and the answers thereof, can be discussed.

Without registering in the FAE website you can evaluate the functional accessibility of a single web page. For registered users it can evaluate an entire website (two to three levels deep), Generate a Sitewide Report that identifies problem pages, Save reports in an account-specific Archived Reports list.

Checkout the FAE »

A good article explaining the browser Quirks Mode by Jukka “Yucca” Korpela.

Read the article »