It’s so easy to win and completely free to enter. Here’s how:

1.) Click Here to Retweet this post (5 entries)
“RT @royaltutorial I Just Entered to Win a Free Apple 8GB iPod Nano http://bit.ly/8al56B”
2.) Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
3.) Become a RoyalTutorial Fan on Facebook (3 entries)
3.) Join SponsoredTweets for Free (20 entries)

Greatly improve your chances of winning with an additional 20 entries by joining Sponsored Tweets. It’s free to join and you can start earning money every time you send out a sponsored tweet. RoyalTutorial has been a proud user of Sponsored Tweets for months now and has even wrote up a post “How to Make Money with Twitter“, using Sponsored Tweets.

The contest starts today and a winner will be selected on December 31, 2009.

Good luck!

THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED. CONGRATS TO @CrystalCry , WHO WAS THE RANDOMLY SELECTED WINNER.

We have all seen simple, or “minimalistic” web layouts whn we visit a variety of different sites. These are sites that use simple 2-3 column layouts that contain simple navigation, text, and leave the rest for white space. These websites are usually trying to stress the information that is contained within the website, rather than the website itself. Some designs are only subtlely minimalistic, and some are utterly simplistic. Deciding not only when, but how to use simplistic designs and white space is something that not everybody is in tune with, and that is often the cause of many websites using these effects inappropriately, making for a poor user experience.

After seeing hundreds instances where people were using white space and simplistic designs poorly, and sites that should be using these things not using them at all, we decided it would be a good idea to put together some good resources and tutorials on the subject. There are some very talented web designers and graphic artists out there that obviously have a good grasp and understanding of the concepts, and they are more than willing to share this valuable information with the rest of the internet.

Below are a collection of tutorials that will introduce you to the world of minimalism and white space, and teach you how to use these concepts in practice! Some of the information in the articles overlap a little bit, but each article gives good different examples to help illustrate different methods, so they’re all worth going through. Use these tutorials to increase your website’s usability and readability, and to avoid making costly mistakes when you do so.

The Importance of Simplicity

• The Complexity of SimplicityLuke Wroblewski talks about why simple solutions are often more complex than “complex” solutions.
• The Laws of SimplicityThe principles and rules of “Simplicity”
• Wikipedia: SimplicityExplanation of simplicity
• Keep it simpleWhy is a minimalistic approach important? A short but very good article that goes through the advantages and disadvantages of exciting vs simple design.
• Keep it simple, stupid!Discusses the importance of simplicity in regards to the human brain and how it works.
• Simplicity: The Cobbles of the Designer’s PathWhen to use simplistic design and when not to use it.
• Simplicity Is Highly OverratedA criticism of simplistic and minimalistic designs
  and how they have led to decreased performance in products.
• The Beauty of SimplicityHow did Google utilize simplicity to launch itself into the forefront of the web industry?

The Proper use of White Space (a.k.a. Negative Space)

• Page Layout and Design for Digital ScrapbookingThe Importance of white space in digital scrapbooking.
• Psychology Studies on Human InteractionStudies in psychology that confirm white space improves perception of information by 20%
• The Importance of White space for LegibilityAnalysis and comparison of 4 different white space layouts and shows results regarding the influence of white space in many forms of design.
• The value of white spaceThe theory of white space.
• Typography and White spaceHow to guarantee an optimal legibility with CSS
• Under The Loupe #1: White SpaceAll about white space and its use.
• ALA: WhitespaceAn intro into the use of white space (Mark Boulton)
• Design PsychologyThe psychology behind using white space in web design
• Developing the InvisibleLuke Wroblewski discusses the appropriate times to use white space, and why it is very significant.
• Give me my web spaceReduce complexity and improve readability. That is what Molly Horzschlag will help you accomplish.
• Negative Space TutorialAnother tutorial on efficient use of white space.
• On White Space in Graphic DesignAnalysis of all the different fields, areas, and niches where negative space is a big deal, such as graphic design.

Minimalism and White Space in Practice:

• Global White Space ResetProper use of white space in your CSS web layouts and more
• The Best Minimalist WordPress ThemesA superb collection of wordpress themes which are designed to improve on simplicity, clarity, and readability

So what is it that you can do?

• Well, quite a bit, really but more specifically the following things:
  If you have a Google Voice phone number, than you might be able to get free VOIP out of it. You can find more information about this with a step-by-step guide available here.
• Turn your old computer into a central storage server, or a back-up storage device. The plus side to this is that you can even program this to automatically make a backup of certain information on another computer and have it downloaded and stored on your Linux server. Here’s a resource specifically for this task located here.
• Install one of the above Linux installations and let your kids play with it as a learning experience. Remember, Linux has become just as easy to use as windows in recent days, so it’s fairly simple to setup and use. This simple installation should at least make available the following features:
  • Word processing ( Open Office )
  • Browse the Internet ( Mozilla Firefox )
  • Chat/E-mail ( Thunderbird )

Why Linux?

This question is simple to answer: Linux has much lower system requirements. As a matter of fact, the requirements for Linux installation are so low that even computers from 10 years ago can run it at favorable speeds. Some of the Linux distributions, their system requirements and a link to their download is listed below.

Note: The download links are embedded in the Title of the Linux Distribution.

• Ubuntu
  • 300MHz x86 processor or equivalent
  • 64MB of RAM
  • At least 4GB of disk space
  • Video Graphics Array (VGA) graphics card capable of 640 x 480 resolution
  • CD-ROM drive or network adapter
  • Official Installation Requirement

• Puppy Linux
  
  • Intel Pentium 166MMX processor
  • 128MB of RAM
  • 20x CD-ROM drive
  • Official Installation Requirements

• Damn Small Linux (DSL)
  • Intel® Pentium® 200MHz processor
  • 64MB of RAM
  • 8x CD-ROM drive
  • Video card capable of 16-bit color
  • 1.44MB floppy disk drive (for boot floppy, if needed)
  • Scroll wheel mouse
  • Official Installation Requirement

• Fedora 11
  • Pentium 400MHz processor or equivalent
  • 192MB of RAM
  • At least 9GB of disk space
  • CD-ROM drive
  • Official Installation Requirements

• Zenwalk
  • Intel Pentium III processor or equivalent
  • 128MB of RAM
  • At least 2GB of disk space
  • Official Installation Requirements

Additional Resources:

• A linux resource with a latitude of articles: http://www.linux.org/

I’m sure many of you have seen fake Twitter accounts that will auto follow anyone, and blasting out affiliate links all day trying to make a quick buck. Usually, these are all automated account and contribute to the trash on Twitter. Now there is a better and legitimate solution, and it’s called Sponsored Tweets!

Sponsored Tweets is exactly what the name says, you get paid for sending out “tweets” from your account. Best of all, you get the final say on what goes out, and there is full disclosure that the link is sponsored. You can see an actual “sponsored tweet” below.

Here are five quick reasons why Sponsored Tweets is legitimate and works:
1.) You personally Approve all Tweets before they go out.
2.) Sponsored Tweets is allowed and Approved by Twitter
3.) Payment are made directly to your paypal account.
4.) Full disclosure shows your tweet is an advertisement.
5.) BIG name celebrities are already using Sponsored Tweets.

How it Works
The concept behind Sponsored Tweets is really simple. All you need is a Twitter account to get started. Sponsored Tweets is a whitelisted and approved Twitter application and uses your Twitter credentials to create an account.

Celebrities Already Using Sponsored Tweets
Some of the largest Twitter accounts are from big name celebrities. Kim Kardashian already has over 2 million followers, and is a user of Sponsored Tweets. You will also find the well known celebrities below using Sponsored Tweets as well.

RoyalTutorial.com and a couple of our other partner sites are already signed up with Sponsored Tweets and have made a few hundred dollars so far. It’s a completely new concept and free to join. I highly recommend you take a look at it, no matter the size of your Twitter following.

Click here to Join Sponsored Tweets!

Here are the prizes up for grabs!

Prize: Wacom Intuous4 Small Pen Tablet – Retail: $229.00
Provided by ClickBooth.

Prize: Pixelmator Software – Retail: $59.95
Provided by Pixelmator.

Prize: Flip Digital Camera – Retail: $149.95
Provided by MarketLeverage.

Prize: WooTheme Membership – Retail: $70.00
Provided by WooThemes.

Prize: ThemeWars Membership – Retail: $147 + $20/month
Provided by ThemeWars.

Prize: RoyalTutorial.com T-Shirt – Retail: $9.95

Three ways to enter… Three ways to win! Winners will be selected weekly from entries through Twitter (retweet), Blogging (post article and link) and Commenting (one comment entry per person). Enter all three ways to increase your odds of winning.

Here’s how:
1.) TWITTER: Simply RETWEET this POST by clicking here, or the RETWEET button at the top or bottom of the post!

2.) BLOG ABOUT IT: Write a Blog Post about this Contest, and link to this post page.

3.) COMMENT TO THIS POST: Leave a comment on this post about the prize you would like to win and why.

Winners will be selected and posted on a weekly basis, and posted on this page. Winners from the first and third weeks of the contest, will be selected from Twitter entries. Weeks two and four will be through comments left on this post. All contest winners will randomly be selected by random.org. This contest promotion is open to all US/CANADA residents, and runs from August 12, 2009 through September 16, 2009.

Prize drawings will be selected on the following dates:

ALL WINNERS HAVE BEEN CONTACTED!

Good luck!

1. Jumping into projects without a proper plan
   
   • Intended Purpose – This is a mission statement, but specifically for your project. Short, sweet, and to the point. You don’t have to write an essay here, but a few lines describing what the purpose of this project is would be great. This is good for your potential investors, and your end-users to look at. It will also help keep you focused on what you wanted to achieve from the very beginning.
   • Features list – A features list is just going to be a specific list of features that you want to have in your projects.
   • An Outline – This will contain pseudo-code for your project. Think your code, written in plain English. Instead of writing functions, you write what the function is going to do and how you will be implementing it. This really helps when you’re going through the logical part of your coding. You can really clear a lot of things up here before you even have a single syntax of coding down. You can also use a flowchart to have an outline for your code, or do both.
   • A Project Summary – Make a quick summary of your pseudo-code. Yes, it seems a little redundant, but you don’t need to refer to that for every little thing, it’s more for when you’re actually programming. This part is also helpful if you’re trying to present your project to someone who may be providing funding; they have little interest in the logic of your code, but they sure want to know what the project is all about and how it will be unique.
   • This is a must for any business endeavor but even more so for programming because without this, you will be stumbling the whole way through your project if not just straight-up stuck in places. A proper Plan will include at the very least the following elements:
2. Not commenting your code
   • This is very common amongst beginning programmers who think that it’s pointless to add commenting to their code since they will be the only ones to touch the code. Well, I have news for you: 6 months from now, you will have NO idea what you were thinking at the time you wrote a particular piece of code and it may seem completely pointless without a brief comment above it explaining why it’s there. It’s always good to have long-term relationship with your code, even when you don’t think you will be updating it that often.
   • A lot of us who don’t learn programming through college education but rather from personal research forget that there are certain etiquettes taught when you go to colleges and commenting your code is at the top of the list. I remember when I took my first computer programming class, and my teacher was really anal about the formatting of the code and the commenting; even more than what the code did at the time. I didn’t quite understand the purpose at that time because the projects we did were so small in length that it seemed pointless, but boy did it make sense when I started doing my own projects that were a little lengthier.
   • For one thing, it will save you hours of trying to figure out why you implemented the code in a particular place, and for another it’s just proper coding etiquette. Any programmer who has in the industry for a few years will tell you that it is not only recommended to comment your code, but a must if you want to stick around in this industry.
3. Not formatting your code cleanly
   • Formatting your code in a readable and clean manner is just as important as commenting it. After all, what’s the point in commenting your code if everything is just a mess to read? You can make your life a lot easier by using a few indentations, and adding a few line-breaks between your functions. Comments, will even complement this because they will make it even easier to differentiate between functions when you put at least two line-breaks between the functions.
4. Not maintaining an update log for your project
   • Very often when you download, or install software on your computer, there’s a text file that comes with it and it tells you what changes have been made from the previous version. Well, it’s a good practice to do the same with your own projects because it will let you identify problems quickly and narrow down your search as to what time-frame of your code you need to look at in order to fix the problem. This follows similar logic to the commenting of code we talked about earlier, except this applies to version changes rather than specific lines of code.
5. Releasing the project without proper beta testing
   • Whenever we complete our projects, we are very anxious to release it to the users and sometimes a little too anxious because we release it commercially without proper beta testing. This can ruin your reputation as a programmer. You don’t want people to find all sorts of problems with your project AFTER a commercial release. You can do a few simple things to avoid this and keep your reputation intact.
   1. Find a diverse group of users to test your project – Seems logical, right? You’d be surprised how many people don’t do this and think just because they themselves have tested the projected from different platforms, it’s enough.
   2. Don’t limit your beta period to a set number of days. Good things take time, and if you spend the right amount of time here, it will save you a lot more time and resources when your project goes live. Set your time periods more like 2-4 weeks rather than exactly 18 days. 2-4 weeks, as an example, will let you test for at least 2 weeks, but extend another 2 weeks if you feel it’s necessary to get better testing done that way. It’s good to have that kind of flexibility.

In this way, video game designers who are developing for the Nintendo Wii platform must think of creative ways to overcome this lack of processing power. Just as with any other art form, artists who work in the video game design field are incredibly varied in their personalities and their respective approaches. This also speaks volumes for the artistic expression of the studios that develop these games.

Cartoon-Style Visuals

Shown above are screenshots taken from Mario Kart Wii, We Ski, and Sonic Unleashed, all games for the Nintendo Wii. For these games, the design approach was to simplify the graphics and not to worry too much about offering realistic graphics. In the case of Mario Kart Wii, no one will mistake Wario for a real person or Yoshi for a “real” dinosaur.

By taking this approach, developers are able to reduce the number and complexity of textures required, thus best utilizing the processing prowess of the Wii. Similarly, We Ski and Sonic Unleashed offer simplified characters with fewer textures and fewer polygons. The same can be said, though to a lesser degree, for the background images and other in-game objects.

Cel-Shaded Graphics

An alternative approach that arguably provides even greater artistic expression is the use of cel-shaded graphics. This is a technique that effectively places two-dimensional objects and characters in a three-dimensional space. However, none of the actual graphics are actually in three-dimensions. In this way, many people have come to refer to this cel-shaded style as offering a 2.5D experience.

Naturally, this technique significantly reduces the amount of processing needed on the part of the video game console, since it does not require nearly as much 3D processing, texture mapping, or number of polygons. While the visual style may not be quite as appealing in a racing game like GT Pro Series, it works very well for games like No More Heroes and Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution. This is because the cel-shaded look gives a similar appearance as comic books, manga, and anime.

The style was slightly altered and even further simplified in Mad World, reducing the color palette to just black, white, and red. This gave the game a look that was very reminiscent of Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novel series.

Toned-Down Realism

What about when the video game design team calls for more realistic graphics and visuals that are truer to what they would look like in the real world? The Nintendo Wii has not yet been able to produce the intense visuals and complex mapping that we’d find in a game like Resistance: Fall of Man. As such, all attempts thus far have required the significant reduction in the complexity of the graphics.

As a result, many of the Wii games that take this approach only offer graphics that are perhaps comparable to the PlayStation 2. In the screenshot of Medal of Honor 2 above, you can see that the visuals are not very crisp and the in-game objects lack complex texture mapping. Similarly, the lighting effects in The Conduit are not as robust as they would have been on a more powerful system.

Can the Wii overcome its relative lack of processing power? Absolutely. It just takes a creative eye and some clever game design.

What is Ajax?

Ajax stands for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”. The asynchronous part is probably the most important here. It means that users get access to data from the database without having to wait for a whole new page to load with it. Data is retrieved as a user interacts with the website almost instantly and presented to the user with much less hassle. What Ajax does is combine the front-end functionality of JavaScript, and mixes it with the power of a back-end programming language such as PHP to make good web applications, rather than just simple web-pages.

What are its benefits? Some problems?

Since Ajax is not tethered to any one particular programming language, it can be used with ASP.Net or PHP all the same. The only part here that is really important is the JavaScript and XML front-end. The backend programming language can be practically anything that the server is setup for.Some of the problems associated with Ajax include the lack of support in some of the older browsers and OS’s. It can also be a bit of a pain to get JavaScript/XML/and your backend programming languages to all play together nicely.

Why do we need Ajax?

The internet has gone through many changes since just the early 2000’s. We’ve gone from a simple html pages to a pages that incorporate html/css/php/JavaScript, and a whole other latitude of aspects to bring together a much richer, much more content filled experience to the users. Ajax serves the purpose of facilitating the richness of content and the interaction of the content with users. As the internet has grown, it has increasingly become less about the code, and more about the content and so to adapt to this, concepts like Ajax are becoming commonplace for programmers.

What are some examples?

Some of the more popular examples are the live stream of data on Facebook that displays all the user information on the main user pages, as well as the way updates are shown to the user if someone interacts with their profile. Ever wonder how Google can pops-up with suggestions as you’re typing in the search box? Yep, that’s a feature courtesy of Ajax too.

Additional Resources:

• Microsoft’s section on Ajax frame-work: http://www.asp.net/ajax/
• Frame-works for Ajax use in PHP: http://ajaxpatterns.org/PHP_Ajax_Frameworks
• You can also learn how to make use of Ajax on your own website through here: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_ajax_intro.asp