Here is a nice little *FREE* pack of high resolution textile images. Consisting of:

Tissue

Polyester Mesh

Flannel

Cardboard

Burlap

Download: Texture Pack 2

Enjoy! Please show off your work here by posting a link of how you are using them.

Subject: Compensation for heartache
To: Microsoft
From: Pete Peterson

Hi Microsoft,

My name is Pete, and I have been doing work on the web for about 10 years now. Although I do not blame you (Microsoft) for the active use of Internet Explorer across the inter webs, you did however produce this atrocious piece of software. The versions have been steadily getting better, but, there is this thing called the a “standard” for web delivered information which would be great if you could find time to read them and apply them to how Internet Explorer renders web pages.

Here is a web address (also called a URL) for reference: http://www.w3.org/standards/

As I mentioned before, I don’t blame you (Microsoft) for the hundreds of thousands of people who still use your archaic browser (specifically IE 6), but since it was you that produced it, I feel I should be compensated for the countless hours spent in hacking html, css, javascript to get your browser to display the way it should. Not to mention all the aspirin, ibuprofen, coffee, Valum, whiskey that I have had to consume in order to endure having to work with this shoddy piece of ether that has been the bane of my existence since I decided on this career path.

I believe that $5000.00 is fair. Please enclose a check payable to Peter Peterson. No hard feelings.

Regards,

Pete

————————————–
My customer support id for this message is 1135554260
please feel free to follow along.

[EDIT]

I recieved a response from Microsoft regarding my gripe:

For replacement media or hardware please contact the Microsoft Order Desk by calling (800) 360-7561. Their hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

Please note this is an unmonitored alias. If you have further questions for customer service please contact us by Email: https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1208&ws=orderautoreply

Thank you,
Microsoft Customer Service

I guess they aren’t going to pay me.

If you could add some sort of interesting-ness to a common problem, does that make it an oportunity? Absolutely! When someone accidentally hits a page that doesn’t exist on your site, the standard 404 page doesn’t do much, if if you entice the poor misguided traveler, they might stick around and see what you have to offer.

Enter the fun world of custom 404 pages, here is mine. I have included the source code at the bottom of this post including the original flash file I used to create this. Feel free to use it, change it, distribute it as you see fit.

I stumbled on to this one last week and thought it was very clever and briliantly designed: bluedaniel.com/404.shtml. It turns out the whole site is interesting. I spent quite some time there looking at the trailers, etc.

So I did a search and Smashing Magazine has a whole article on some cool designs, use it as inspiration.

I’ve included jquery, and jquery flash plugin. If you end up altering the flash file, make a backup of the html file as publishing will overwrite it. I prefer using jquery so I usually just export the swf.

Most of it is pretty explanitory, you may change some of the defaults simply by changing the javascript in the 404.html file:

Javascript

flashvars : {
   outlink:"http://blog.inspirefocus.com",
   max_stars: 60
}

max_stars sets the total stars to generate (careful too many will bog your system/browser down)
max_bg_stars sets the maximum number of stars in the background
link_label sets the text to display as the link to where
outlink points to.

Here is an example:
Javascript

$(document).ready(function(){
   $("#flash").flash({
       src: '/path/to/your/404.swf',
       scale: 'exactfit',
       width: '100%',
       height: '100%',
       flashvars : {
	  outlink:"http://somelinktosendpeopleto.com",
	  max_stars: 60,
          max_bg_stars: 700,
          link_label: "I want to go to there!"
       }
   });
});

Have fun with it, and send me a link to what you create, or if you simply reuse mine. Remember, don’t forget your towel!

Update: I just found another post to 70 creative 404 pages: here.

Attachments: 404page.zip

Mozilla labs has been working on some very interesting stuff lately. Here is another one that looks very promising; Bespin, a web-based text editor and developer tools. The idea is simple but the potential is huge. If you can maintain your projects server based and collaborate with others without the need of specialized synchronizing software, well, that would be sweet.

Imagine a web based text editor that is extensible and customizeable as firefox it self. TextMate + Vim + SVN all in one package. I for one am excited about this little gem.

Introducing Bespin from Dion Almaer on Vimeo.

I played around with it, and while it still lacks a lot of the finer points that might make this an extremely useful tool, it is impressive none the less. I can’t wait to learn more about it.