Cloud Construct is proud to have just recently launched the Bolstr website, which is the first website designed and developed on our platform to fully utilize some of the latest and greatest web development tricks and techniques under the hood of HTML5 and CSS3.

We were able to design and develop the Bolstr web presence with a non-standard font, by way of specialty font rendering. This allowed us to break from the mold of “browser-friendly” fonts and employ a little bit of creativity. Instead of having an image represent specialty fonts, the font file is a part of the website solution and downloaded to the user’s machine.  The web browser will render this font across the website where specified. This method is efficient because you’re downloading one font file which renders throughout, as opposed to a previous solution that consists of downloading multiple images for every text instance. This also allows for the content to be scalable and quite easy to edit.

Other newly implemented techniques all collectively make development much more efficient and are edging us closer to full CSS-based development. Some used throughout Bolstr include rounded corners, which replace image-based methods with CSS border radius properties. The background gradient is completed by way of CSS linear gradients. Drop shadows are present now with the box-shadow property. These are the more preval ent CSS3 features that while fun to use, still cause some discrepancies in older browsers. In order to overcome this, Cloud Construct has developed alternate styles that ensure graceful degradation in supporting these new features.

If you're a developer like me, you're a big fan of Firebug. It's a quick/light/easy debugging savior. I've just recently come across a similar tool that works in addition to Firebug as an Add-On extension. It's called Pixel Perfect and it allows you to upload and overlay a design composition to a web page to check pixel for pixel exactly your progress in development. You can toggle the comp visibility, making the Firebug experience that much more useful. This is great solution that keeps you on track and ensures you deliver your clients the exact design they are expecting. Check it out!...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7943/

Maybe it’s not the same rocking that the Black Eyed Peas are talking about, but I’d like to think I rock out my own corner of the internet. And it is my job, actually. I nerd it up all day long, developing websites of all shapes and sizes, continually discovering the ever expanding World Wide Web. There’s no way around it; the internet is where I park it for most of my days. So what would make more sense than having everything I need available in that very spot I’m always at? The answer (for me) is nothing. I find it brilliantly efficient having everything I need securely at my fingertips via widely available high-speed connectivity. But what exactly do I keep behind the internet looking glass? Well, technically speaking…everything.

Financials. I’m a big fan of banking online. I can pay any and every bill through my bank’s online interface. Also, I take the paperless route, eliminating bulky statements in the mail, which in turn eliminates the question of where to store all that printed material. Through other institutions online, I can also keep track of retirement account historical data and fully current investment details. There are also sites out there that help maintain a budget by securely feeding in your bank account information, like Mint.com.

Now let me transition to another beautiful online solution. I love music. It provides a soundtrack to life, constantly keeping me intrigued and entertained.  My collection at home is enough to fill a few large external hard drives, but none of that can stand alone on one computer, and quite frankly it’s becoming a hassle to backup. I’m a delinquent iPod user, still listening to playlists from a few years ago due to the fact I can’t be bothered to sift through my massive music library. I'm a little bit behind the internet ball on this one, but I'm newly fascinated with Grooveshark.com. This is your solution to that dusty stack of MP3's hogging most of your hard drive. Grooveshark is an online streaming music library where you can search for any song you want to hear and then add it to your very own virtual library. You can play music on the fly. You can even create playlists and share them with friends. The best part?...It's all for free! My music selections are saved and available to me just as I left them, from anywhere I log in. A music menu I don’t have to worry about backing up, losing, or growing old.

So consider turning to the web for some innovative task solutions. Keep your eyes searching for ways to make your everyday routines cleaner, easier, and more efficient. And nobody dislikes efficiency.