Stationery Icon Set

This is a useful set of 22 vector icons (256 by 256 pixels). It contains book, brush, crayon, clip, color pencils, document, eraser, pad, palette, post-it note, scale and scissors, as well as the Fireworks source file. In particular, you may want to use the set in corporate designs and on blogs for various purposes. The set was designed by Deziner Folio and is released in conjunction with Smashing Magazine as a gift to our readers and the design community.

• Large preview
• Download the set (.zip, 2.8 MB, including Fireworks source file)
• Release post on Deziner Folio

Soccer Icon Set

We are aware it’s winter out there right now, but it’s always good to prepare for summer early, right? This set was designed with the owners of sport-related websites in mind. If you are a fan or have designed a soccer-related website, these icons may come in handy. The set contains 8 icons in resolutions ranging from 32×32 to 512×512 pixels. It was designed by the design agency Artua especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

• Large preview
• Download the set (.zip, 2.8 MB, including Fireworks source file)

Motivation behind the design

Here are some insights from the designers of the theme:

Soccer is the thing that inspired us to create this icon set. Being the most popular game in the world, it can also be a great source of inspiration!

These icons are meant to be used on the desktops of soccer fans, but even if you don’t like soccer or don’t know what a penalty kick is, but you like the shapes and colors, feel free to download them!

We also have a small request for you all who like to download icons from Smashing Magazine: please tell us which theme for the next free icon set you would like the most!

Thank you, guys!

Atlantic WordPress Theme

Atlantic WordPress theme was designed by the design agency Farktory from Turkey. It has two fixed-width columns and is cross-browser consistent and SEO-ready. The theme uses sIFR for headlines and includes a built-in Twitter application, gravatar support and Flickr RSS support.

Download the theme for free!

The theme is released under the GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.

• Full preview (1.1 MB)
• Download the theme (.zip, 0.4 MB)

Motivation behind the design

Here are some insights from the designer himself:

The Web has changed. Blogs have to change, too, in order to keep abreast of the times. The first way to achieve this renewal is by modifying our themes. But it’s hard to find a harmonized theme for both blogger and reader.

On our crew, everybody has a blog, and we know the difficulties of this stuff. So we researched for a very long time before revising our themes. We were fortunate to be able to search, experiment, try new and old themes and also see all the comments about themes throughout Smashing Magazine. Then we asked a question of some bloggers: “What do you need in your blogs?” Based on their answers, we made a list of necessities. From this list, one of our interface designers, Ali, designed this dream-like theme and played PES while designing it. (We were certain that the theme would be all green, but he surprised us!) Our front-end developer, Çağatay, converted the artwork to CSS, HTML and PHP. Our interface designer, Murat, tested the theme. I only gave it a name: Atlantic!

Why Atlantic? Because the theme reminds me oceans: their color, happiness and power. As I said, we all have blogs and use WordPress. Like everyone else, we use social media tools (social networks, sharing platforms, micro-blogs, etc.). If blogs are a reflection of our personalities, then they have to include our social media contents. So we attached Flickr and Twitter gadgets to our theme.

Also, we didn’t forget the classic WordPress functions.

We didn’t want to release our theme on any other website than our lovely Smashing Magazine. We are so thankful to Vitaly. He has always supported us. God bless you, man!

Hope you all like the Atlantic theme.

Gülnur, from Farktory, Istanbul, Turkey.

And thanks again, guys!

Which freebies did you like? What would you like to see released next? Please let us know in the comments to this post.

(al)

Lime flavoured theme with two columns.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Download | Preview

With the CubePoints WordPress plugin you can, CubePoints allows you to choose a certain amount of points for each comment posted by a certain commentator. You can offer premium content, allow readers to purchase merchandise or maybe even an advertisement for your blog with a certain amount of points.

When they post a comment the points set in the administration panel is added to that person’s comment account and if their comment is deleted, it automatically removes the points. You, as the administrator can even alter the points quickly and easily from administration!

If you want to display how many points a commentator has accumulated in the sidebar, you can use this code:

<?php cp_displayPoints(); ?>

You can download and install this plugin from the WordPress Directory.  It was just added on December 26th.

Related posts:

1. Increase Comments with the Show Top Commentators WordPress Plugin
2. Eliminate Annoying Keywords in Comments with the Keyword Luv Plugin
3. Announce Your Comment Policy with Comment License WordPress Plugin
4. Improve Comment Recognition with the MyAvatars WordPress Plugin

Stationery Icon Set

This is a useful set of 22 vector icons (256 by 256 pixels). It contains book, brush, crayon, clip, color pencils, document, eraser, pad, palette, post-it note, scale and scissors, as well as the Fireworks source file. In particular, you may want to use the set in corporate designs and on blogs for various purposes. The set was designed by Deziner Folio and is released in conjunction with Smashing Magazine as a gift to our readers and the design community.

• Large preview
• Download the set (.zip, 2.8 MB, including Fireworks source file)
• Release post on Deziner Folio

Soccer Icon Set

We are aware it’s winter out there right now, but it’s always good to prepare for summer early, right? This set was designed with the owners of sport-related websites in mind. If you are a fan or have designed a soccer-related website, these icons may come in handy. The set contains 8 icons in resolutions ranging from 32×32 to 512×512 pixels. It was designed by the design agency Artua especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

• Large preview
• Download the set (.zip, 2.8 MB, including Fireworks source file)

Motivation behind the design

Here are some insights from the designers of the theme:

Soccer is the thing that inspired us to create this icon set. Being the most popular game in the world, it can also be a great source of inspiration!

These icons are meant to be used on the desktops of soccer fans, but even if you don’t like soccer or don’t know what a penalty kick is, but you like the shapes and colors, feel free to download them!

We also have a small request for you all who like to download icons from Smashing Magazine: please tell us which theme for the next free icon set you would like the most!

Thank you, guys!

Atlantic WordPress Theme

Atlantic WordPress theme was designed by the design agency Farktory from Turkey. It has two fixed-width columns and is cross-browser consistent and SEO-ready. The theme uses sIFR for headlines and includes a built-in Twitter application, gravatar support and Flickr RSS support.

Download the theme for free!

The theme is released under the GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.

• Full preview (1.1 MB)
• Download the theme (.zip, 0.4 MB)

Motivation behind the design

Here are some insights from the designer himself:

The Web has changed. Blogs have to change, too, in order to keep abreast of the times. The first way to achieve this renewal is by modifying our themes. But it’s hard to find a harmonized theme for both blogger and reader.

On our crew, everybody has a blog, and we know the difficulties of this stuff. So we researched for a very long time before revising our themes. We were fortunate to be able to search, experiment, try new and old themes and also see all the comments about themes throughout Smashing Magazine. Then we asked a question of some bloggers: “What do you need in your blogs?” Based on their answers, we made a list of necessities. From this list, one of our interface designers, Ali, designed this dream-like theme and played PES while designing it. (We were certain that the theme would be all green, but he surprised us!) Our front-end developer, Çağatay, converted the artwork to CSS, HTML and PHP. Our interface designer, Murat, tested the theme. I only gave it a name: Atlantic!

Why Atlantic? Because the theme reminds me oceans: their color, happiness and power. As I said, we all have blogs and use WordPress. Like everyone else, we use social media tools (social networks, sharing platforms, micro-blogs, etc.). If blogs are a reflection of our personalities, then they have to include our social media contents. So we attached Flickr and Twitter gadgets to our theme.

Also, we didn’t forget the classic WordPress functions.

We didn’t want to release our theme on any other website than our lovely Smashing Magazine. We are so thankful to Vitaly. He has always supported us. God bless you, man!

Hope you all like the Atlantic theme.

Gülnur, from Farktory, Istanbul, Turkey.

And thanks again, guys!

Which freebies did you like? What would you like to see released next? Please let us know in the comments to this post.

(al)

Introduction to Amazone aStore

aStore is a new Amazon product for Amazon Associates that gives affiliates the ability to create a professional online store in just several minutes and without the need for knowledge or skills of advanced HTML programming. Best of all, Amazon aStore not only can be linked directly from your website, it also can be embedded within and integrated into your website or blog. So you can start your online business selling Amazon or its partners products and earn affiliate referral commissions without even letting your visitors leaving your website.

You can integrate this feature with your wordpress blog as well!!

Get more details:

www[dot]astore.amazon[dot]com

Lime flavoured theme with two columns.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Download | Preview

After Christmas, we made a momentous purchase for our five year old: A new Webkinz Penguin she’s named “Sparkle,” which has provided her with the virtual keys to experience the online world of Webkinz along with her older brother and sister. It is amazing to watch our kids teach each other different things about these virtual worlds. They are acquiring more than motor skills: There is a LOT of reading and problem solving going on, not to mention personal finance management as they decide how to use or save the virtual fortunes they are amassing in these online worlds.

My son explained to me yesterday why he would never consider running Webkinz as a separate webapp with a program like Prism– he always has other webpages open (as tabs) when he’s playing Webkinz, where he gets tips and tricks for what to buy in the store, what to play, etc. When I asked him how he found those websites to use, the tone of his answer when he said “Google” communicated something like, “Geez Dad, what planet do you live on?”

This evening we had an important teachable moment involving Webkinz, which highlights multiple things– including the importance of parents having regular discussions with children about what they are doing online. While my 11 year old son was away from his laptop, but still logged into Webkinz, my 8 year old daughter used his account and sent herself a 50% discount coupon for the Webkinz store from his account. She hadn’t obtained permission to do this, and she knew it was wrong. This led to several discussions tonight, apologies, and a consequence that she can’t use the computer at home for the next two days.

Things that happen in the virtual, online world DO matter just as things we do in the real, face-to-face world matter. Perceptions shape reality. I explained to my daughter that her act of going into her brother’s Webkinz account and sending herself that coupon without permission was just like him going into her room and eating a box of chocolates that she received for Christmas, without permission. It was stealing, taking something that did not belong to her without permission, and it was wrong.

Sarah was testing the boundaries of what she could do online and get away with, and testing boundaries is a very natural thing for kids to do. Overall I think our discussions about this were very constructive. She actually wrote my son a note and tried to give him a large part of her Christmas money that she’d received as compensation for this “Webkinz wrong,” so this situation provided a good opportunity to also discuss forgiveness and grace. Lots of good discussions about ethics.

During 2006-2008 when I worked for AT&T as a state education advocate and presented frequently on the topics of Internet safety and safe digital social networking, I was often amazed how conversations with students about Webkinz could tie directly into important lessons about password security and digital citizenship. In a large group of elementary students, typically there would be at least one student who had lost control of his/her Webkinz password and had all their Webkinz possessions sold as a result by a malicious Webkinz account thief. When I invited students to share their stories about Webkinz thefts, it was amazing to see how RIVETED other students were in listening to these tales. These were not “pretend” or “just virtual” experiences that had happened to the child’s Webkinz account: These were REAL experiences that were VERY traumatic and led to some important lessons learned.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have opportunities to interact with others and amass virtual possessions in online worlds like Club Penguin or Webkinz. While kids as well as adults can certainly waste a lot of time online playing games as well as consuming media in various forms, I think there is much more comparative value to my children participating in interactive, online environments like these rather than simply watching television passively. The advent of more streaming video shared on websites means passive TV watching CAN and does happen frequently when kids are online, but I’d say they spend at least 90% of their time online interactively DOING things rather than just “watching.”

I saw tonight that Nick Jr has launched a new commercial enterprise, MyNoggin, which is subscription-based and encourages kids to remain active/engaged on the website by earning virtual marbles and exchanging them for furniture and toys to put in their own virtual rooms. Sounds a lot like Webkinz and Club Penguin. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the pattern and recipe here.

It’s amazing to compare the level of self-directed learning and engaging online learning opportunities available to my children here in our home, to the traditional, textbook and worksheet-based classroom learning experiences to which they’ll return tomorrow at school. Strange ironies of our 21st century existence.

Home:
- Everyone has a laptop they can use
- Everyone has access to filtered but very open high speed WiFi Internet access
- Everyone has access to an iPod, iPod Touch or my iPhone to watch movies, play games, or access other web applications

School:
- No one has a laptop (even the teachers don’t)
- No WiFi Internet is available for anyone to use
- iPods and iPhones are banned

My son was shaking his head tonight as he said several times, “I can’t believe tomorrow is school.” Yep. Back to school. Get out that paper and pencil. It’s going to be time for another spelling test.

photo credit: elginwx

Technorati Tags:
webkinz, clubpenguin, ethics, school, home, internet, learning

That said, what are your goals for the New Year?

That said, what are your goals for the New Year?

Many people ask me to create the light version of Cellar Heat blogger template. And your wish comes true. I’ve finished the Cellar Heat Light blogger template. Please post any bugs related to the live demo of Cellar Heat Light blogger template as comments here.

Cellar Heat Light Blogger Template

Cellar Heat Light Blogger Template

Live Demo

Cellar Heat Light Gallery Blogger Template

Cellar Heat Light Gallery Blogger Template

Live Demo

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