sometimes, i hate using merriam-webster.com or dictionary.com just to look up a word. both have too much noisy content on a page, especially when dictionary.com gives you the annoying pop-up ads every time you visit their site.

http://ninjawords.com gives it to ya straight.

some helpful tutorials.

The Rise of Contextual User Interfaces by Alex Iskold

I found myself usually uptight over lots of things, if nothing really gone right as planned. I hate to admit it, but I used to plan a week ahead… by the hour. And it drove me nuts, knowing that I couldn’t just “chill out”. So, I started reading some of Zen Habits’ articles and “The Power of Now” for some guidance. So far, I’m not pulling out my own hair, anymore!

I wasn’t too sure which category I would have posted this, but … I do consider it as “design” challenge.

12 Practical Steps for Learning to go with the Flow

The best use of Pogo’s graphical chops is in the history viewer, which lets you smoothly scroll backward and forward through snapshots of your visited Web pages. You can fly through your bookmarks and the “collections” they are categorized in. So far so good? Hmmm, we’ll see. Personally, I find it to be a bit too hodgepodge with all that 3D carousel FX, though, I do dig how you can save/bookmark a site and latch it to the bottom of the screen.

And I thought I was stoked about the Fly Pen (by Leap Frog), until my friend showed me this one. You can record your notes and upload to your computer. While you’re taking notes in class or meetings, you can replay the speeches back to the exact time you wrote down your notes. Their demo videos explain it better.

A free web app that allows us to create our own fonts and/or download other people’s fonts. Owned by one of the most popular font shop, named Fontshop. One of the downfalls with this is that they provide limited shapes for you to use. But I mean, if you really wanna go all out on this font thing, then you can just use Font Creator Pro. Fontstruct is a quick-n-dirty version of it.

Cheggit.

In case you missed the latest, and more greaterest, issue of the FINEfriends email newsletter, you can view it online by clicking here. Be sure to sign up under “befriend” to receive future installments.

In learning a new medium, enthusiasm and open-mindedness trump nearly everything. A print designer who expects to succeed online, or even expects to master the skillset, has to be one who eagerly devours information about the medium, who peeks at the source code of Web pages that fascinate her, who spends her after-work hours experimenting with self-directed projects. This person needs to be motivated by the medium’s possibility, and not solely by the fear of losing a job in print.

Link >

I just stumbled across this calligrapher’s website. Her work is beautiful, so she’s good to know about if the opportunity ever arises.
Link