Although the winter weather is depressing, I do have one high note for today.  Electronic artist BT is releasing a new album today - These Hopeful Machines.  Well known for the trance anthem “Flaming June”, the break-beat influenced “Never Gonna Come Back Down“, and the pop influenced “Simply Being Loved“, BT proves time and time again that electronic music is more than just a niche genre.

You can purchase the new album from ITunes, Amazon.com, and may preview it live at BT’s Myspace.

BT - Suddenly

BT - Rose of Jericho

Slam magazine featured an interview article with legendary Oak Hill Academy basketball coach Steve Smith.  As someone who grew up in Mouth of Wilson, VA, I have literally grew up watching this program.   It’s definitely a read for any basketball fan interested in learning more about what makes the program tick.

• Read the full article at http://www.slamonline.com/online/college-hs/high-school/2009/06/at-the-top-of-the-hill/

Useful concept that reminds me of the undergrad years - or at least the teammates that only copied your code…

View the article - http://blog.obiefernandez.com/content/2009/09/10-reasons-pair-programming-is-not-for-the-masses.html

I’m really starting to wonder about this area.. can’t we go a year without some sort of tragedy such as this?

• Police seek suspects in Virginia Tech students’ deaths (article from the Roanoke Times)

If you’re an energy conservative, you’ll definitely want to check out this project from Virginia Tech which will be entered into the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition.

View more details about the project at www.lumenhaus.com .

This rule has simply made my day, check it out at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/10-web-design-rules-that-you-can-break/ .

For those looking for a captcha solution, I highly recommend you check out reCaptcha.

reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows.

Check it out at www.recaptcha.net.

Always, always double check your links for typos. As developers/designers/content managers we’ve all made the mistake of not checking our links at least once.

A colleague had wondered why a link on the Microsoft support page article “Information about Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008″ was taking him to a suspicious web site.

Reason - Microsoft typo’d the url.

View the article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948465

The link on the page in reference SHOULD be http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd767387.aspx.

Always remember - hackers will use any resource that can be exploited, including typos if the environment permits!

So, I was gonna do a post.. but decided snuggling with the girlfriend was more important.

However for your reading pleasure, here is a link to an article at NeTTuts about building a social network with Joomla!

• Read the article “Build a Social Network Using Joomla!” at NeTTuts

Is it possible to be so focused in application design that you can absolutely lose your artistic touch with web design?
Lately I feel as though what comes natural isn’t anymore.  Am I too focused with usability rather than a combination of usability, clean and inspiring design?

Am I under stress?  I know its natural to have a dry spell.. but for this long?