I know CS4 has improved the CSS features in DW quite a bit, but here are some CSS extensions that help work with CSS in DW.

Smashing Magazine has a nice list of UI ideas.  Most of these are the same as graphic design principles, but this demonstrates ways to use these principles on the web.

In my perusing I came across these awesome links of great web design and tutorials.  They are listed on chawlk’s blog, but come from outlaw design. Tons of inspiration!

Robot 250 is Pittsburgh’s summer art and technology extravaganza.  I’ve been volunteering with this show, and there are some really great works.

Searchme Visual Search – Beta – rev. 2.0.1.

Definitely the BEST UI I’ve seen yet for search!  Great use of Flash.

RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS – Google Code.

Awesome! Entirely digital.

Golan Levin’s work is amazing. He is a true inventor! His work is in a show this Friday in Pittsburgh. Here is the press release.

Double-Taker (Snout)” and “Fruit Machine”: Friday evening July 18 at the PCA

Premieres of new artworks and performances by Golan Levin / Hilary Harp + Suzie Silver

This Friday evening, 7pm – 11pm at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (6300 5th Avenue)

Double-Taker (Snout)
Golan Levin’s new interactive robotic work “Double Taker (Snout)” will premiere this Friday at 7pm at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, in association with the Pittsburgh Biennial and Robot250, and will be exhibited there through early August. This large, outdoor interactive installation deals in a whimsical manner with the themes of human eye contact, gestural choreography, subjecthood, and autonomous surveillance. Double-Taker (Snout) consists of an eight-foot tall, repurposed industrial robot arm, covered in a flexible reinforced-fabric costume. This animated arm, which resembles an inchworm or elephant’s trunk, is controlled by a real-time vision-based computer system. Double-Taker (Snout) orients itself towards passers-by, tracking them and appearing to follow their movements. The goal of the sculpture is to perform convincing “double-takes” at its visitors, in which it appears to be continually surprised by the presence of its own viewers — communicating, without words, that there is something uniquely surprising about each of us.
More information at http://www.flong.com/projects/snout/.

Levin’s 7pm opening at the PCA will be followed by a robot-themed performance at 9pm by Hilary Harp and Suzie Silver:

“AV Lodge Presents: Fruit Machine”
Hilary Harp and Suzie Silver invite you to an evening-length media performance combining video, sound, sculpture and live actions in a series of humorous and erotic tableau. A parade of characters includes a life-sized toy robot, a phalloi phaerie, and an androgynous bagpipe player. Paying homage to the celebratory Vaudevillian variety theater performance art of the 1980s, Fruit Machine uses strategies of camp aesthetics to challenge hetero-normative assumptions. The overall performance is more mutant musical or concert than play, placing a similar emphasis on sound and image. Among the costumes and props are wireless devices, which control video and sound in custom computer programs created in Max/MSP/Jitter and Processing. Special guest appearances by School of Art Professor Lowry Burgess, School of Art alumni Drew Pavelchack, Ben Rod, Ben Bigelow, Spencer Longo, and current student, Jack Meade .
“Fruit Machine” was a name given to a Canadian device designed during the Cold War to ferret out homosexuals from the civil service and the military. The subjects were made to view pornography, and the device measured the pupils of the eyes, perspiration, and pulse for a supposed erotic response. The word “fruit” in the title refers to both a quirky, eccentric or queer individual and to the fecund, sex organs of plants. “Machine” references the rather technical engineering of the lurid and antic images.

This month I am not going to highlight a single artist – but a group of people doing reeeaaaallly neat things with pd (pure data). This is an open source application that can stream live feeds from various sensors and crate some amazing interactions. If you have seen the latest VJ’s in action – you’ll love this. There is a PD conference going on in Montreal this month and should be loads of fun. Here is the link and you’ll find enough crazy art to blow your socks off and maybe send you screaming to the show!

Also a note to hightlight STUDIOXX. They are participating in PD conference, but the best thing is they are an awesome woman’s digital media center – need more of these!

There are many options for on-line image display – but few that are as easy to set up and look cool. A List Apart has a tutorial on Suckerfish Lightbox that works for me.

Pretty neat, huh?

I’ve been learning Ruby on Rails this summer – and I’m LOVING it. Find out what all the hype is about, you wont regret it. Rails is much easier for us right-brained creative types. Sitepoint has a great tutorial if you are interested.

• Rails Tutorial