FreeTechBooks.com is a website dedicated to programming books, textbooks, and notes. The content is 100% free and 100% legal. There are hundreds of books spread out among seven main categories with many subcategories within each main category. The seven main categories are Computer Science Books, Mathematics Books, Supporting Fields Books, Operating System Books, Programming/Scripting Books, Miscellaneous Books, and General.

You can find the books you are interested in by using the main and subcategories mentioned above, by looking at the most popular books listed on the left hand menu, or by using the search function to locate a book based on keyword(s), author(s), and/or other criteria. The site is updated regularly with news and comments as well as regular additions to the book collection, the most recent being the IT Security Cookbook, which was added on August 16, 2008.

Beyond the books, there is a community that you can register and be a part of. This allows you to post comments to the forum as well as be in contact with the other people that are interested in the same type of information you are. Registration is not necessary, but it is an option.

Be sure to check out the website and get all the free information you can. This is a great free and legal resource that allows us to "view, download and with a very few exceptions, print the books for your own private use at no charge. In fact, you are encouraged to tell others about the books" (FreeTechBooks.com).

PHP Magazine

PHP Magazine is an online magazine in the form of a blog. There are posts that range many different categories, mainly PHP, but others from within their network of sites. There is information from software and book reviews to articles and tutorials.

Ajax Magazine

Ajax Magazine is another online magazine in the form of a blog from the publishers of PHP Magazine. The Ajax version focuses mainly on Ajax technologies and offers news, articles, and reviews to name a few.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one of the best sites on the web (also an online magazine in the form of a blog). They have amazing "round-ups" and posts bringing together the best sites, services, and resources on the web. They focus a lot on web 2.0 technologies and provide great content for both designers and developers.

Design Mag

Design Mag offers news, articles, galleries, interviews and more. The website is in the form of a blog and is updated very frequently. They have great resources and devote a section to freelance information. This is often a common thread between webmasters/designers/developers. They are the home of the 200+ Resources for Freelance Web Designers article.

Website Magazine

Website Magazine offers their magazine both in print and online. However, the only way you can see the online version is if you subscribe to the print version. The good news: it's free! The website has forums, articles, and blogs full of content. The magazine contains a lot of useful information in typical article format, usually offering one focus article with many other shorter articles throughout.

Digital Web Magazine

Digital Web Magazine offers news, articles, reviews, interviews, and tutorials. News is updated daily and main articles are updated on a weekly basis and are well worth the wait. The content is very useful and very thorough. They also report on upcoming events around the world.

SD Times

SD Times reports on content related to programmers and developers. In both a print version and online, SD Times has over 60,000 subscribers. They report on recent news and stories, write columns and opinions, as well as providing a job board and resource center. This publication reads more as a newspaper than a magazine.

Dr. Dobb's Journal

Dr. Dobb's Journal is another publication both in print and online. They offer information from a variety of different programming and development topics. Some topics include databases, open source, security, web development, and specific programming languages like C/C++ and Java. They also have a resource center and a blog full of information as well.

Developer.* Magazine

Developer.* offers articles, blogs, and book reviews for all things development and programming. There articles are broken down by categories ranging from software design and quality to legal issues and techniques. The articles are well written, the information is great, and the information is very thorough.

.Net Magazine

.Net Magazine is both in print and online. They offer articles to help developer, discover, and design. They also have podcasts and forums filled with content. They cover topics ranging from flash to CSS to Facebook.

S5 (Simple Standards-based Slide Show System) is an easy way to create nice looking slide shows that are completely standards compliant. Using XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, S5 allows you to view the normal slideshow as well as a printer friendly version. The transitions are fast and smooth. There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that can be used to navigate through the slides as well. You can check out the full feature list for all the bells and whistles S5 has to offer. Complete with five themes, this slide show package is a great choice. The author has created a primer, a reference, and a FAQ to help you learn and start creating your own slideshows.

There is one warning given about using S5 with Firefox. If you have the AdBlock extension installed, there are known problems with older versions of AdBlock and S5. Be sure you are using the latest AdBlock version and you should be okay. As noted in the comments by Wladimir Palant, the developer of Adblock Plus, this issue is apparently moot.

The overall layout of the slideshow is very clean. It is based on a few <div> tags, and all slides are contained within those. For example, inside the start of the presentation div tag ( <div class="presentation"> ) are slide div tags ( <div class="slide"> ). The layout looks a lot like XML when formatted cleanly. I find the "syntax", if you will, very intuitive; it makes sense and is easy to follow and understand. There is a sample presentation that is nice to help you get started. It is easy to look at and understand. You should be able to quickly gain an understanding for the basics of a slide show. From there, you can add additional formatting and customizations to fit your specific need.

In my opinion, the best part of S5 is its small size and simplicity. The author articulates these points, which I have included below.

I like complex, powerful tools. Why should I use a "simple" slide show system?

Actually, the "simple" part refers mostly to the file structure, and also to the fact that you can create a decent slide show system with a few open Web standards. However, it does also express the anticipated simplicity of the slides themselves. Read the full explanation at the S5 FAQ page.

Check out the sample slideshow and give S5 a shot.

CubeStat estimates the value of your website as well as providing some meta and index information in a single report. The estimates are based on a "unique" algorithm that determines what a website's net worth, daily page views, and daily ad revenues are. The report also shows any meta information from the website, rank graphs from Alexa and Compete, as well as PageRank, backlinks, and other index-related information. A lot of the information that is displayed at XinuReturns is integrated into this site.

Based on the net worth estimated for my site, it looks to me like the calculations are pretty easy. After looking at the figures estimated, you can figure out the math with a few simple calculations. The one thing I am unsure of is where the daily page views estimation comes from. I don't know what source that estimate would be based on.

Overall, I like the site and I like the concept, but I'm not sure how accurate the valuations are. I wish there was more information about either how the information is gathered that backs the algorithm or at least a few listings that show how accurate the algorithm is. Currently I have no way of knowing within what percentage of error the estimate calculated stands.

Cuil was released yesterday and has had a great deal of coverage already. Most of the coverage has been about its index size (121 billion) in comparison to Google's (40 billion) as well as its search results in comparison to Google's. So I'm sure most of you, like myself, aren't interested in reading anymore comparisons between Cuil and Google in terms of index size and search results; TechCrunch has a great post if you want to catch up on those findings. I'm here to offer a comparison in layouts. These are a few things I found interesting when checking out Cuil:

• Google at Night - Cuil took the simplicity and elegance of the Google homepage and turned out the lights. The Cuil homepage is very similar to the Google homepage in that it has simply their logo and a search bar with a few other text snippets below. Behind these items lies a pure black canvas. This decision keeps what everyone loves about the Google homepage: it's right to the point design, but they still made it their own.
• May I Suggest? - The Google suggest feature is one that I have come to love. It saves time and helps when looking for the search string that will retrieve the results I am looking for. Cuil not only uses a similar feature in the search bar, it creates one click suggestions in a toolbar directly below the search bar. Cuil has taken a great feature and expanded it. One click recommendations is a pretty cool idea and can be very useful if the recommendations are relevant.
• Columns of Results - One of the more drastic changes to typical search results are the columns of results. When the search results are loaded, they are printed in the color scheme we have all come to expect from a search result, a blue title, a black description, and a green link. Among this commonality, Cuil displays the results in two or three columns (it appears to be three by default). This stands in contrast to the typical 10 rows of results printed by Google and countless other search engines. I believe this is a good idea. We'll have to see how it plays out, but I like the change. I am able to view almost all of the results on one screen. I barely have to scroll. I wish that the results were lined up in a more linear pattern from left to right in order for easier skimming however. I may get used to it quickly though.
• Categories of Information - Cuil has a feature on the top right of the search results page that is an "Explore by Category" box. The categories are intended to be relevant to the keyword(s) searched and then allow you to drill down into other keywords within that category. Once you click on a keyword within a category, that keyword gets added to the end of your string. For instance, searching for "webmasters" will display a category of "Search Engine Optimization." Clicking on the suggested keyword "PageRank" within that category will now make your search be "webmasters PageRank". I believe this is intended to work like a drill down function, where each additional click of a keyword narrows your results to a more fine grained result set. Some of my tests provided relevant results as I drilled down, but others didn't.
• Picture This - By default, Cuil results show a picture next to some of the results. This feature works a lot like the pictures displayed with a Google News item. Of the test keywords I searched, a very large percentage of results had a picture next to it. The relevance of the picture was not as high a percentage however. A lot of the pictures that were displayed didn't have much to do with the result. Some were totally irrelevant, and others were hanging on by a thread. This feature will get better in time and will be a nice change to the all text results. Showing image and text results on the same page could be nice in some cases. For instance if I was looking for a specific model laptop, it would be nice to see the picture next to the result.
• My Preference - The ability to customize the results is very limited. In fact, there are only three options that I can find currently; they are the number of columns to display, whether or not to use suggestions, and a safe search filtering feature. This is most likely because it is still very early in the release. I hope that there are more options in the future for advanced search features and the number of results displayed. Although I like being able to see almost all 10 of the results without scrolling, I would prefer to scroll through 10 screens to see one hundred results, rather than click the next results button ten times. I am guessing I'm not alone in that.

Overall I like Cuil. I think it has some great potential and could be very useful. I like some of the new layout changes, and I hope that the results and relevancy can improve rapidly so I can continue using it productively.

Opera has recently released its Web Standards Curriculum. With support already from the Yahoo! Developer Network, the Web Standards Project, and many universities, the current curriculum offers 23 articles with 30 more promised by September. There are articles that cover the topics of standards introduction, design concepts, and HTML. The 30 articles yet to be released are likely to cover topics like CSS and JavaScript.

The release of this curriculum is important to many groups of people, webmasters being one group. As webmasters, we know that standards are very important. The more standards we can and do adhere to, the better chance our website has of being displayed correctly within the many different browsers available. Even if you adhere to the standards, there will always be problems and issues that arise, but following the standards is still important. As Opera explains:

The beauty of the Web is that it creates a uniform, international development platform. Using Web Standards means your sites will be quicker to code and maintain, more compact, and accessible to web users regardless of their browsing platform and (dis)ability. (Opera)

The Web Standards Curriculum is part of Opera Education. Ultimately these education programs are meant to spread the usage of their browser; I believe they have chosen a great way to do it. Not only are the spreading the word about the browser, but they are helping the community as well. As the Opera browser usage increases, so will knowledge and understanding of web technologies and standards. I was very pleased to read about the release of the Web Standards Curriculum; I hope that there will be more to come.

Social Marker brings all of your link submissions together. What great potential this website has. This site could save a lot of time for people who like to participate in both the social networking and social bookmarking aspect of web 2.0. Social Marker allows you to submit your post or link to any or all of the 47 websites they have integrated with. The interface is very easy to use. I have listed below some of the features that Social Marker boasts.

• Free Service - What a great price! You can submit your links through this tool absolutely free.
• Browser Compatibilities - Although they recommend using firefox, the service is compatible with all major web browsers.
• Bookmarklet - They have designed a simple bookmarklet that you can drag and drop into your bookmarks' toolbar. The bookmarklet automatically fills in the URL and the title of the page. All you have to do is select the text you want used as the description. Once you have highlighted some text, just click the bookmarklet and it loads the Social Marker web page with the submission forms pre-filled.
• 47 Site Submissions - The service is compatible with 47 of the biggest social bookmarking services available like Digg, Slashdot, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Del.icio.us to name a few.
• WordPress Plugin - They have developed a wordpress plugin that enables you to add their service links to your posts to help spread the word about your posts directly from your blog.
• Javascript Button - For those of you who don't use wordpress, you can use their pure javascript version of the wordpress plugin that enables you to post the link on any page on any site with just a couple lines of javascript.
• Easy Interface - Their interface for submitting your link to all the different sites is very easy and intuitive. They have designed a form that automatically fills in most of the fields and harnesses drag & drop capabilities for the rest.

This website is definitely worth watching. There is a lot of potential for it. They are also looking for developers to help them continue in the development of the service. You can visit the website at www.socialmarker.com for more details.

Caveat: You have to have an account for each website you are attempting to submit to.

LightWindow is a JavaScript framework based on Prototype and Scriptaculous. If you aren't familiar with these two amazing resources, it is definitely worth your time to become familiar with them. They are two of the most useful resources available for Web 2.0 developing. LightWindow takes the combination of those two frameworks and adds some really cool things to it. The reason I decided to use LightWindow the first time was to embed media easily into my website. I needed to show some videos and wanted a better way to do it than just embedding it into the page (I hadn't designed a good spot on the page for a video). LightWindow was not only able to meet the needs of the video I wanted to show, it ended up meeting needs I didn't even have at the time. Here is a listing of all the great features that LightWindow boasts.

• Media - You are able to load various types of media, including YouTube videos, Flash videos (SWF), QuickTime videos, and Flash Paper PDFs. There is support for all and every media type; that's pretty hard to beat.
• External Websites - You are able to load an external source as well as an internal source. This creates a type of pop-up window, but it is much cooler!
• Images - You are able to load images from internal or external sources. You can also load image galleries for viewing multiple images in a nicely laid-out design.
• Forms - You are able to load and use forms within the LightWindow. Full functionality is provided with easy to follow instructions for setup.
• Pages - You are able to load various page types, including fluid, fixed, and specific dimensions.
• Inline Content - You are also able to load basic content from a container. (The author calls this one a "gimme.")
• Themes - You can create your own theme for colors, styles, and animations. This is not easy to accomplish however. The author has not released any tutorials or help files for this, but says that it is possible.
• On the Fly - You can create and instantiate a window on the fly without needing to create it first when the page loads.
• Parameters - You can use various parameters to customize your window. Some examples are title, author, and caption.

This is one of the easiest frameworks to learn and to use. At the cost of free, I don't think there is a better choice out there that boasts all the features, ease of use, and quality of LightWindow.

You can visit the LightWindow website and download your copy of the framework (v2.0). If you like what Kevin has done, be sure to donate and show your appreciation!

I ran across a new website, W3Counter, that offers free tracking of your website stats. It has the look and feel of Google Analytics. I was registered, set up, and ready to add the tracking code in only a few minutes. This site has some definite potential.

The Good:

• Real Time Stats - The website offers you free real time tracking of your website. You can have up-to-the-second information about what is happening on your website.
• Attractive Interface - The website offers a nice and easy to follow? interface to allow you to easily find and view your data. It is easily navigated and easy to follow the flow of drill-down information.
• Attractive Information - The website offers nicely designed graphs, charts, and reports to help you turn data into useful information. It is easy to know what your are looking at and understand what is being presented. There is not much of a learning curve.
• Online Now - The website offers a nice feature that shows you who is currently visiting your website.
• Live Map - The website offers a live map to show where the people that are viewing your site are located at the moment they are viewing your site (Paid version). The visitor locations are mapped on a Google Map.
• WordPress Plugin - The website offers a free plugin for WordPress integration. The plugin adds an overview to the dashboard and lets you get an idea of where you stand at any given time. This works very well and is easy to install and set up.

The Bad:

• No Free Lunch - The saying "there is no such thing as a free lunch" applies here. Although the website offers free tracking, there is a cap of 5,000 page views per day before needing to upgrade to a pro account for $9.95/month. 5,000 page views per day is a small number. This would be alright for websites starting out, but wouldn't last very long once a reputation is established and quality content is driving traffic.
• Visual Presence - The free version requires a visual counter or link on your page and will show up wherever you place the tracking code. Again this can be removed for $9.95/month.
• Website Limit - The free version only allows you to track 1 website per account. Again, this is probably alright for some, but not feasible for many webmasters that maintain multiple websites.
• No Exports - There is no way to export the data as a PDF, CSV, XML, or any file for that matter. The paid version offers an RSS feed, as well as email updates regarding your stats.

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 Beta. This release is meant mostly for developers and designers, so that they can test the new browser. "Internet Explorer 8 will take the web experience beyond the page. Internet Explorer 8 introduces a new way to seamlessly experience the best of the web whether you are a web developer writing to standards or a user discovering a new online service" (Microsoft.com). Here are some new features and improvements worth noting.

• WebSlices - WebSlices are similar to live bookmarks in FireFox. They provide a way to get updated content without visiting the website a bunch of times a day. Unlike the RSS text version of FireFox's live bookmarks, IE8's WebSlices allow for parts of a web page to be updated (It looks like a website, not like an RSS feed). There are WebSlices available from eBay and StumbleUpon already.
• Activities - Activities enable you to access other services from within a webpage, such as submitting to Digg, looking up information, or mapping an address. The Activities icon? is loaded in a context menu similar to a right click menu in windows.
• Layout Engine - IE8 has a new layout engine with many improvements for how a page is loaded and rendered. As always, this upgrade can cause problems with websites that were developed for IE7. Microsoft took this into account, however, and allows for a webpage to tell IE8 to render the page as IE7.
• CSS 2.1 Compliant - IE8 will eventually be fully CSS 2.1 compliant. They are continuing to work with developers and designers to work out bugs in the Beta, but will have it fixed in the final release.
• Improvements - IE8 has had an overhaul and now has improvements in HTML rendering, namespace support, and platform performance. These improvements will help IE8 run better as a whole.
• Developer Tools - IE8 now has developer tools built into the application. They provide most of the functionality of the web developer FireFox extension.
• Improved Security - IE8 has also been given more security features to protect you as you browse. There are 3 main exploits that are protected against in IE8: they are social engineering, web server, and browser-based exploits.

You can download you copy of IE8 here. Please comment below and let us know what you think of the IE8 Beta.