yah.. a few, not too many, that you can consume in bite sized portions.

Permalink Redirect - This plugin ensures that pages and entries are
always accessed via the permalink. Otherwise, a 301 redirect will
be issued. By Scott Yang.
http://fucoder.com/code/permalink-redirect/

Optimal Title - Mirrors the function of wp_title() exactly, but
moves the position of the ’separator’ to after the title rather
than before. By Aaron Schaefer.
http://elasticdog.com/2004/09/optimal-title/

Google XML Sitemap - For using when you submit your blog to Google for crawling.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

WP-Sitemap for us humans
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/sitemap-generator-plugin-for-wordpress/

I have nothing to add at this point. This is a great great “take assessment” and “be forewarned” post for independent / freelance creative / web professionals.

Via the incomparable Chris Brogan, who also mentions this “or not” blog post.

How about nothing?

I just spotted - or should I say, viewed - a new resource whose pricing structure starts at free. (Other price blocks are, as of this writing: $6.95/mo.(US), $13.95/mo, and Enterprise. Fees are month-to-month with option for a big price break for a 2 year commitment).

The product is VYEW, and having watched their demo videos, I’m just getting ready to sign up for a free account. I like the apparent simplicity of the process: no software to install, uses modern browsers. Also, there’s screenshot sharing and annotation, but no thick-bandwidth video or audio.

Ed: I might be wrong on that. Here are the tech specs, including “special features”.

If all is as they promise, they do compare favorably to other communication tools like WebEx, MS LiveMeeting, GoToMeeting and Adobe Connect.

Have you tried Vyew? First-hand comparisons in the comments would be welcome.

Another in the series of limited eidtion WDG t-shirts/sweatshirts/dog shirts/mugs/swag!

http://www.cafepress.com/WDGLimited

“i design i code i am women designers group.com”

On sale until July 25th!

Design View / Andy Rutledge - The Employable Web Designer

Note also that nowhere in this list do the words “Photoshop,” “Illustrator,” “Dreamweaver,” or “Fireworks” appear. As I and others have observed plenty of times before, tools do not make a designer. Anyone can learn to use Fireworks or Dreamweaver in an hour or less, but nobody can be a competent Web designer unless they possess a foundation in the things listed above. Choose your own tools and learn to use them, but don’t let the tools define your abilities; tools won’t create a place for you in the profession.

If there is one thing that I can stress to new designers, it is the point above. Tools do not make you a web designer. Owning a copy of Dreamweaver and having all of P7’s extensions do not make you a designer. And I will add in that designations do not make you a designer. I’ve seen some piss-poor designers boast that they are “this designation” or “that designation”. Their portfolios literally looked as if they had never read a single book or even article on what good design is all about, nor had any instruction at all on basic design principles. Yeah there are good “(insert your ego designation of choice)” designers, I just have seen far more really horrible wankers.

One thing that new designers also need to understand, and it is brought out in Andy’s post, especially if they go solo, is all the business aspects of being a designer. it will bite you unless you understand that you are not just going to be designing web sites. You are going to be going out and talking to people, selling yourself, and then delivering the product as well. And following up after the sale. Things that successful businesses do every day. It will be most of your time suck. And then you also have to be the bill collector. That is a part of the job that really sucks. You have to be everyone in the big company, all rolled into one. Try being remarkable at all of that.

What other advice can you add that is not covered by Andy’s post?

JoelStarnes: pageMash

can come in handy with my own new web site

The Art of Nonconformity » A Brief Guide to World Domination

I read this last night as my nightly reading of printed stuff on dead treee. It resonates deeply with me. I’d ask you to read it. Print it out and read it. Then use the PDF for the links. But read it. Seriously. Then pass it around. Blog about it. buzz it.

19 Free Picasa Flash and HTML templates to showcase your photo

looks good. Nice to have bookmarked here for list members

We all make goals, mostly in our head. Do many of you actually write your goal down on paper? Make a commitment to it? Do you succeed in getting to your goal? A few tips here to help you achieve your goals that I have found to work.

1. Have sets of goals. The biggies, the middles, and the day to day goals.
2. WRITE THEM DOWN! Even the day to day ones. It makes them more “real” and gives you a quick review internally of them. It also commits you to achieving them, a bit more. But not really.
3. Share them with others. Yeah, that is commitment. If you share the goal with someone else, you are more likely to work harder to get to the goal. To save face, to prove to them you can do it, to show them up, to share the attainment with them for a greater good. Whatever the reason, do it. Especially the importnat ones.
4. Take a bit of time to look at the goal, and come up with mini-goals to get you on the way. Take a weekend retreat to be with yourself. Or an evening where you do nothing but look at the goal.
5. Come up with practical, do-able steps to attain each mini-goal. Time limit? yeah you can, but that sometimes leads to stress and stress in a bad way. Unless achieving the goal needs to be done within a time limit. Then press on! As you go along the path of getting to the big goal, you can check off each step, each mini-goal. Do it on paper too! You’ll get a sense of accomplishment that while others may not understand, you will, and it will help you get to the next step. Often we humans need these little “tricks” to keep going.
6. When you get to the goal, celebrate. Do something for yourself, but do it in a way that it does not degrade the accomplishment. No going out and getting shit-faced. Nah… I will often take a day off to go somewhere special, a movie, a store that is a drive away (these days it has to be a BIG goal to drive more than 20 miles for me), but I also share the benefits of my goal-attainment by dropping another $25 into Kiva. Or Heifer International.

There. So, what goal are you writing down today? Post it here. Then post it on your blog. Make a little sign and stick it to your computer monitor.

Do.It.

Firefox 3: Tweak Firefox to Display Richer Colors

Heard about this from Chris Pirillo, but he did not explain how to do it.  Lifehacker does the job.