• Railscasts – 7 Security Tips
  New railscast from this week shows common Rails security flaws and how to avoid them. Important.
• 15 CSS Tricks That Must be Learned
  I wouldn’t call these tricks so much as intermediate CSS techniques that you need to know if you don’t want your designs to look sloppy.
• Create a Funky Parallax Background Effect using jQuery
  Parallax backgrounds are neato, but hard to do right, and certainly can be overdone. This shows how to do it. Use sparingly.
• gsub with a block
  Did you know gsub can take a block? – I knew this (thanks to The Ruby Way), but it’s good to be reminded.
• If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers
  This was making the rounds the last few days. Pretty funny.

Hate it when I think something will only take half an hour and it costs me an evening. And by the way, note to future me, loading javascript and css files dynamically cross browser is HARD.

• Phiculator, the Golden Ratio calculator
  phi, considered the “golden ratio” and often used in architecture, art, etc can be a great way to make your design aesthetically pleasing. This tool helps you calculate the ratio.
• jQuery Tools 1.0.1 released
  A collection of jQuery plugins/tools from the folks that make flowplayer. I’ve used several of these previously and they are top notch. The overlay plugin addition looks really nice.
• Flowplayer 3.1.3 is out
  Speaking of flowplayer, looks like those guys have been busy, and have a new release of it as well. This is my go to flash player these days. Lots of really nice config options.
• SVGWeb Brings SVG Support to Internet Explorer
  Uses flash on IE to replicate and make SVG a viable cross-browser technology.
• Pretty checkboxes with jQuery
  A tutorial showing some pretty spruced up checkboxes.
• New OS, more pane! (Passenger preference pane v1.3)
  New Passenger pref pane for Snow Leopard.

Last month marked the three year anniversary of my purchase of Agile Development with Rails and the canonical “Pickaxe” for Ruby. Wow. Time flies doesn’t it.

• GitSharp
  Git for .NET. Head explodes as my two worlds collide.
• The bar for success in our industry is too low – (37signals)
  These days, “success” is defined as the potential to make a lot of money at some unspecified date (once we figure out the right business model of course). I agree with Jason and think it’s time we get back to listening to Grandpa’s advice – “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!”
• Hey, PAC man. Sup, subdomains !
  Good article on using subdomains (particularly locally) with Rails apps. Also introduces Rack::CustomDomain – rack middleware for switching on custom domains / CNAME support for your customers.
• Ruby on Rails Integration – compass
  Updated documentation + screencast added to show how to integrate compass (my favorite!) and Rails. If you haven’t tried this yet, you need to. Today.
• acts_without_database
  A plugin for using an ActiveRecord model without a backing database.
• A Wealth Of Ruby Loops And Iterators
  A bunch of examples here showing different ways to iterate in Ruby.
• Scott Hanselman’s 2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
  Scott’s annual(?) tools list always has some great finds for a developer’s toolkit (particularly the .NET crowd). Very Windows-centric, but some good stuff here (web apps, etc) with crossover appeal.

Only took me 4 days to get my mac re-situated after upgrading to Snow Leopard. Re-situated may be overstating it, actually.

• app_store
  A Ruby module for fetching information from Apple’s App Store.
• James Edward Gray II — How to become a successful rubyist
  A nice interview with Oklahoma’s very own JEG2.
• jQTouch
  A jQuery plugin for mobile development (iPhone, Android, etc) using HTML5, CSS3, and javascript.
• Tweetie-style paging with pageSlider
  A nice-looking jQuery based slider plugin.
• 7 Stages of new language keyword grief
  Amusing. Although I admit having these feelings more with C# / ASP.NET than I do with open source technologies like Rails. There may be something to that…