The first month of 2009 has already come and gone, which means it's time to take a look back and reflect on the best of the month. Today, we will review the 25 most excellent tutorials, articles, and scripts of January 2009.
Panoramic Photoviewer in Javascript
First up we have an excellent article on Gaya Design that uses the Prototype Javascript library to create a custom panoramic photo viewer.
Current Web Design Trends for 2009
Smashing Magazine, the online web design and development magazine, delivers again with this article. SM reviews the latest trends and techniques being used by developers and designers today.
10 Usability Tips for Webdesigners
This roundup of tips on Web Designer Depot was posted days before January 09, but after reading the article I am sure you will forgive me. Have a look at ten excellent tips for designers and developers.
10 Steps to Protect the Admin Area in Wordpress
Sergej Müller and Alex Frison delivered a fantastic article for any Wordpress lovers, focusing on Wordpress security and protecting the admin panel.
120 Excellent Examples of CSS Horizontal Menus
If you've ever been looking for some inspiration for a navigation menu on your site, you might consider visiting this tutorial reviewing 120 excellent and creative. horizontal menus.
PHP Remote Kill Switch
OK, now this one is a lot more fun than practical, and I'm sure fellow developers will find this amusing. Bill D’Alessandro creates a 'remote kill switch' written with php that allows you to disable a script/website you have written. Not that you would ever use it...
37 More Shocking jQuery Plugins
I am not completely sure 'shocking' is the corrective adjective to use in this scenario, but this article by Noupe does certainly contain an awesome collection of jQuery plugins.
PNG-8 Alpha Transparency
Fellow ThemeForest member, Brenelz, recorded a very interesting screencast demonstrating how to use fireworks and the PNG-8 format to achieve transparency in any browser without a hack or fix.
Reddit Style Voting with PHP, MySQL, and jQuery
"If you are a regular at Reddit, you must have noticed the way people vote there. You can either vote up or vote down. Pretty interesting, huh? This tutorial will show you how to create such a voting system with jQuery, PHP and MySQL." Enough said.
Learning OOP in PHP ASAP!
Object Oriented Programming is a programming practice that confuses many, especially those newer to programming. João Gradim stepped up for the NETTUTS community and delivered an easy to understand OOP tutorial.
How to Create Your Own Twitter Widget
Recently on NETTUTS, we had a popular article demonstrating 10 awesome ways to integrate twitter into your website. Following the tutorial below, we can now create our own twitter widget from scratch!
jQuery and AJAX fun: Implementing a Paging Listbox
This one is for all you ASP.net developers. Learn how to create a paging listbox (such as one for a shopping cart) with jQuery/AJAX and ASP.net.
9Lessons: Javascript Form Handling
With all of the Javascript libraries available, sometimes we forget that plain ol' Javascript is all that is required to validate some basic forms. On top of that, it's a nice excuse to brush up on your Javascript knowledge and skills.
The Sad Tragedy of Micro-Optimization Theatre
A fantastic read by Jeff Atwood of CodingHorror, Jeff warns about how useless micro-optimization can be and how it can damage productivity.
10 Useful Web Application Interface Techniques
One of the most important features of any web app today is the user interface and how easy it is for the user to navigate. If you're looking for some tips and direction in this field, check out this tutorial written by Dmitry Fadeyev.
100 Sources of Design Inspiration
A very nice design oriented article, Designm.ag rounds up a gigantic list of design inspiration, sure to inspire you on your next project or application.
Building Your First Simple CMS
Many articles often focus on working with a CMS, but there are few that put emphasis on building your own. Jason Lengstorf sits in for CSS-tricks and shows us how to create a very simple CMS with php and MySQL.
How to Display Feed Count for Google FeedProxy
One of the highest selling authors on ThemeForest, Kailoon, walks us through how to use php to display your feed count for Google FeedProxy. Simple and Practical.
Using White Space Effectively in Web Design
The brand new WebDesignTuts.com came out with a bang when it published this gem. Learn some of the best techniques and practices for using white space effectively.
10 Ways to Track Site Traffic, Popularity, and Statistics
For those looking to further analyze their website statistics look no further than this post by 1stWebDesigner. The article goes over 10 great tools and scripts one can use to analyze their traffic and site statistics.
Use jQuery to Enhance your Wordpress Comment Form
In this tutorial by Trevor Davis, we are shown how to utilize the power of jQuery to improve our Wordpress comment form and the way in which it interacts with the user.
Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Techniques
One would be wise to follow the programming advice given by Jeff Atwood. In this article on CodingHorror, Jeff reviews the 25 most dangerous programming techniques and how to avoid them.
70 Minimalist Typography Techniques
Typography is one of the many things in web design that is extremely under appreciated. Take a look at 70 awesome and minimal typography techniques. Or at least check out the pure text Darth Vader.
A Variety of Accordion Effects
No matter your Javascript library of choice, the 'accordion effect' has become quite a popular one. It's easy to see why, accordion effects save valuable space and provide a pleasant effect as well. The las tutorial on our list today reviews some excellent accordion effects for your inspiration.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Jamie February 4th
Nice round up
( )First ?
Crypta February 4th
Still awake, I will read this today, after sleep
( )Matt February 4th
Great stuff, thanks!
( )Ethan February 4th
Excellent list!
( )kevinsturf February 4th
amazing post, some very useful sites there.
( )M.A.Yoosuf February 4th
Ultimate stuff Drew, continue same as good and great jobs like this, it will be helpfull for beginers like me
( )Lamin February 4th
Great list. Thnx for the post.
( )iDevelopThings February 4th
Great collection
)
( )Brenelz February 4th
Great list Drew!!! Like that you included my post – thanks!
( )insic February 4th
awesome list of useful tutorials
( )Srinivas Tamada February 4th
Thanks a lot Drew Douglass for include my article
( )Goph3r February 4th
Some really great stuff!
( )Mark Sanborn February 4th
Nice list!
( )macias February 5th
have to read today…
( )Gaya February 5th
Thank you for giving me a spot in the list!
( )Lyndi February 5th
Great list. That ‘Learning OOP in PHP ASAP’ is an awesome tutorial.
( )nivas February 5th
great listing…keep it up
( )Chriscandy February 5th
Nice list. Will use the weekend to explore these articles
( )Timothy February 5th
Glad to see some JavaScript references outside of jQuery. There is way too much focus on jQuery. No script deserves 90% of the attention. Because no script can be (100%) better than another. It’s all about preferences.
Oh, and the PHP Remote Kill Switch is a great idea. I was always wondering about that. And actually could have used it once or twice.
( )Michael Thompson February 5th
Please for the love of god start linking your external article images to their respective sites, instead of just a “Visit Article” link under each description.
( )Gökay Karadaban February 5th
Nice list!
( )Bill DAlessandro February 5th
Thanks for including my PHP Killswitch Tutorial – you visitors have spurred some great debate in the article’s comments
- Bill
( )Özgür IŞIK / oztecnic February 5th
Thanx
( )Saurabh Shah February 5th
awesome list … u always rocks man ….
( )georg February 5th
Great – as usual!
( )dave rupert February 5th
great list. however, whoever wrote “120 Excellent Examples of CSS Horizontal Menus” is ruining their web experience by not having antialiased text.
if($you_MUST_use_windows) { require ‘ClearType.exe’; } else { getenv(’MACINTOSH’); }
( )Harry February 5th
Great list.
( )I would love to see great tutorial list.
Michael Martin February 5th
Thanks for the link!
( )Mich February 5th
neat!
( )Maicon February 5th
Very good colection! Thank you.
( )TJ February 5th
Sweet list!
( )Nate February 5th
Truly a helpful list.
( )Ariyo February 5th
Good stuff.
( )iPad February 5th
Great recopilation, I didn’t knew the PNG-8 trick!! It really works… =)
( )Play Bionic Commando February 6th
Great articles, especially the wordpress one
( )Webdesigner Depot February 6th
Thanks for the link! We’re glad you enjoyed the article.
( )iDevelopThings February 6th
great post!
( )fat heads February 7th
Great stuff, thanks
( )Thanjeys February 7th
Thats nice one
( )trendbender February 7th
thx, great list
( )Mohamed February 7th
Very good search !
( )Aloke Pillai February 7th
A nice monthly roundup as usual!
( )myows February 8th
this is great – I’ve bookmarked this page for future use !
( )gizmobuddy February 9th
Excellent and useful info.
Have put your link on my site.
AffiliateGlue
( )Drew Douglass February 11th
Hey guys, glad to see most of you enjoyed the article, thanks for the kind words!
( )Tony Xia February 15th
Sweet post, thanks
( )Mike March 6th
Hey, I’m waiting for Feb. roundup.. where have u been
( )cris March 10th
good stuff thx
( )Edward November 15th
I really like the idea of a website kill switch. I realise the ethical implications, but have been bitten too many times by non-payment to worry any more.
I have posted my own (simpler) approach at http://ajaxkillswitch.com
Thanks for the roundup, even if I did take a while to get to it! (searching through my old delicious.com bookmarks)
( )