TheResourceBlog.com has now been launched and will be updated frequently with lists and resources on Web Design and Web Development related resources such as, Ruby on Rails, jQuery, WordPress, PHP Frameworks, JavaScript Libraries, iOS Frameworks and much more, be sure to check it out and subscribe to the feed.

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All us Mac OS X users know that it can sometimes get confusing and be hard to concentrate when we have a lot of windows open. To prevent this confusion we can use Isolator. With Isolator you can activate it and disable it as you like by click the icon in the menubar or using the shortcut key command + I.

Isolator allows you to concentrate on the frontmost window and you can either blur the other windows in the background or overlay another color.

Isolator is a Mac OS X only application and is free.

You can find more information and download it from here

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Secondbar

If there is one of very few problems about Mac OS X, then a menubar not being visible on a secondary monitor when you connect another display to your Mac is certainly one of those problems.

I recently stumbled across Secondbar while browsing about the internet. It is such a useful tool and I will be using it constantly now that I've found it, just so I don't have to bother pointing over to the primary monitor when using dual displays just to access the menubar.

Let us know!

If you know of any other utilities that make the workflow of a Mac, Windows or Linux machine even better then post a comment to let us know.

If you found this useful then please tweet this and share it with your followers

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So you’ve successfully created a design for your website… the next question is, where to actually host it. It’s often debatable on which is the best among the many web hosting providers around whether free or paid. Well, it’s really pretty simple why – because it usually depends on different factors such as, what type of website you plan on creating and its needs. There are many offers lying around which easily confuse webmasters which one is the best for them and their site. But whether you’re making a personal or business website, uptime and reliability from a web hosting provider is always important.

Doteasy is among the leading web hosting companies that started since 2000. They also provide domain name registration services with over 160,000 domain users already. If you haven’t registered any name yet for your website, this would be the perfect time to do so. This is because Doteasy have a promo right now that lets youregister any domain name like a .com,.net, .org for only $7.95. And aside from that, you already get a free web hosting package with a lot of useful web tools and applications that you could use for your website such as for creating a blog, forum, shopping cart and many more. Their packages are also great with small businesses websites. They also guarantee 99.9% uptime. And what’s even great about their free hosting plan is that they guarantee no ads on your site. Unlike with other free web hosts who put a lot of annoying ads on the free hosting package they provide in exchange for the free service. And if you feel you need more hosting resources for your website, you can just easily upgrade your free hosting account to one of their other packages. You can check out their other hosting plan such as their unlimited web hosting which is only for $9.95 per month. That’s still a really great deal.

If you like to take advantage of their current domain name registration promotion, just use the coupon code 1003BPM to register a domain.

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Here is a recap of the posts from this week.

Build a Twitter-like site with CodeIgniter and jQuery Part 2

5 PHP Frameworks you may not know about

Creating a basic iPad application

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Here is a list of posts from this week if you may have missed anything.

20 Stunning Wallpapers For Your Desktop

10 Awesome jQuery Tutorials You Should Check Out

10 Flash and Actionscript Tutorials for the Beginner

Cheat sheets: jQuery, MooTools, Prototype

Deep Linking with jQuery

Build a Twitter-like site with CodeIgniter and jQuery

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Javascript frameworks like jQuery, MooTools and Prototype are being used by almost all developers in web design and web development, and if you're not using them you should be. Frameworks like these make building complex Javascript functionality into websites a breeze with only a few lines of code.

If you want to start using a framework but are not sure which one is for you then you are probably best starting off with jQuery as it is simple to understand yet powerful. You can also use frameworks together, check out my post here.

In this post you'll find cheat sheets that will be helpful to you as a reference when using one of these frameworks and you can't quite remember a function.

jQuery

MooTools

Prototype

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Everyone likes to have a nice wallpaper for their desktop so I have put a list together of the 20 best looking, simple and stylish wallpapers that I have found.

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I recently got a Google Wave invite and it is awesome. I will probably receive invites to Google Wave soon so if you would like an invite leave your email below using scr.im and I will invite as many commenters as I can.

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Ruby on Rails is a framework for Ruby that has became increasingly popular over the last few years. The difference between a framework and a language is a language is used for compiling code whereas a framework is built on top of a language to allow for a more rapid development process.

Ruby on Rails uses the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern to keep code clean and organized. CakePHP is a great framework for PHP that replicates how Ruby on Rails works, the only difference being is it uses PHP and not Ruby so the code looks a lot different although some of the functions are named the same.

When learning a new language it is always best to give it your full attention for at least a week or two, because you will probably end up back where you started and not learning much more than you already knew. When using a language, frameworks, API's, etc, it is also recommended to refer to the documentation from time to time so that if you run into a bug it is more stress-free to solve.

If you are running Mac OS X then both Ruby and Rails are pre-installed. Windows and Linux users will have to download them.

Ruby on Rails Examples and Tutorials

Due to the popularity that Rails has gained lately there are a huge amount of new Ruby on Rails examples and tutorials floating around the internet.

The Rails Guides

The Rails guide provides a lot of detailed information about how the framework works and how to get the most out of it. There are discussions from different database types as well as ActiveRecord and how to create forms on the fly with minimal effort.

This guide will teach you all the basics that you need to know about the framework and describe exactly how the MVC pattern works. ActiveRecord is a class that is used within Rails so that you only have to write certain commands and they will work with all the databases that Rails supports, this will save you a lot of time if you ever switch database in the future because you will not need to alter anything. You can find out more about ActiveRecord on RailsGuide here.

Nettuts

Nettuts has to be one of the best blogs available for writing tutorials on just about anything web related. From CodeIgniter to Ruby on Rails: A Conversion is a great article for developers that have experience with CodeIgniter and would love to give Ruby on Rails a try.

The author of the article, Dan Harper creates a shout box using CodeIgniter and then an almost identical version with Ruby on Rails. This is a really good article for understanding how Ruby on Rails functions.

If for any reason you need to build a forum from scratch using Rails and need some help, then you can with Building a Forum From Scratch with Ruby on Rails.

If you just need to build a user authentication system using Rails, nettuts also have a great tutorial for beginners: Getting Started With Restful Authentication in Rails

Railscasts

Railscasts is a great podcast that any Rails developer should watch. The podcast is recorded by Ryan Bates, a Rails developer with good experience of the framework.

There is a new podcast posted almost every week with new and interesting techniques. Even the most advanced Rails developers are sure to learn a thing or two from this podcast with the wide range of areas that are covered.

A great tutorial that has been posted on Railscast lately that will be helpful to all beginners is Pagination with Ajax. With this tutorial you will learn how to include the jQuery javascript library inside of a rails webpage. You then learn how to use the will_paginate plugin for rails and because you are using jQuery as well the page will not refresh and results will appear almost instantly.

Feed Parsing

RSS feeds have became an increasingly popular format on the internet over the last few years, and if you are going to create a web 2.0 site of any kind then you will most likely want to be dealing with RSS feeds to allow readers to keep up to date. In this Railscast tutorial, Ryan uses the Feedzirra rails plugin to parse feeds and then output the data retrieved.

Official Rails website

On the official website of Rails there are a lot of links to screencasts that show you how to create a blog in 15 minutes.

The blog isn't anything to the standards of WordPress but it is still functional and impressive for 15 minutes work. You will also find links to other screencasts that record Ruby on Rails examples and tutorials.

Good-tutorials

Good-tutorials now has a section on their website for Ruby on Rails tutorials. The tutorials vary from beginner to expert. If you have written a tutorial on Ruby on Rails this is a great way to drive traffic to your website.

Most of the Rails tutorials posted on websites will be submitted here so you will find a lot of useful articles and they are ordered into sub categories as well so that you can find exactly what tutorial you are looking for. If you sign up for an account on Good-tutorials you can also save your favourites if you want to remember them for later viewing.

Discussion

What websites have you found helpful on your way to learning Ruby on Rails? Let us know in the comments below.

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