Words from Alejandro U. Alvarez
General talk
A place for all random thoughts and ideas that come across my mind and I can’t find the right “category” to put in…
In/Famous Google searches
01364 days
Google has recently made public their listings of the most popular things on the net in 2007, and I've decided to put it up here:
In general:
The terms that were searched suddenly a lot: (Fastest gainers)
News and media:
Most searched-for candidates:
Most searched for rumors (RIP):
RIP (or rumors of)
- anna nicole smith
- travis barker*
- vince mcmahon*
- chris benoit
- fidel castro*
- michael jackson*
- ryan sheckler*
- bob barker*
- criss angel*
- kurt vonnegut
Shows:
Hollywood:
On field
On tour:
On the tube
New tech:
Games consoles
Key players
TV Screens
P2P/Music Sharing
Who/What/Where questions:
Who is...
- who is god
- who is who
- who is lookup
- who is jesus
- who is it
- who is buckethead
- who is calling
- who is keppler
- who is this
- who is satan
What is...
- what is love
- what is autism
- what is rss
- what is lupus
- what is sap
- what is bluetooth
- what is emo
- what is java
- what is hpv
- what is gout
How to...
- how to kiss
- how to draw
- how to knit
- how to hack
- how to dance
- how to crochet
- how to meditate
- how to flirt
- how to levitate
- how to skateboard
In conclusion...
I was totally shocked by some of those what is.. how to.. or Who is questions... 
So apparently people are most interested in learning how to kiss, followed by drawing and just next by knitting! Are those the three most important things someone might want to learn?
Now I looked down and I saw hack... lol, poor geeks trying to learn to hack 
And then you'll see crochet, well I searched to see what was that and it turned out it was something you have to do to knit!
Now just look at who is... They ask who is god to Google! As if the answer was somehow on the Internet!
And well, you can just take your own conclusions out of this... 
Source: Google Zeitgeist 2007
Enjoy your day
If browsers were like…
41365 days
How many times have you seen those great "If browsers were like... boats/women/cars/houses..." articles? I always wanted to make one of those, but I don't know exactly which "technology" to use, so I'll do one that basically says almost everything:
- Firefox:
- If Firefox was a car: It would probably be a BMW or a Porshe, something elegant, with lots of extras to add, fast and secure.
- If Firefox was a woman it would be that great woman you thought it didn't exist, that knows how to do everything and does it perfectly, she's hot, and you finally found her
- If Firefox was a house it would be a complex empty two story house plus a basement with a great core. It would have the option to customize it as wanted, and almost every single person that knew about houses or contruction would own one like yours.
- Opera:
- If Opera was a car: It would be one of those tiny "sport" cars, fast, two seats, almost no room in the trunk for anything else, a very good engine and very slick.
- If Opera was a woman it would be a simple woman, pretty, with not much makeup, wearing normal clothes, you would probably be with her because you don't need/want anything better, although from time to time you always think of going back to your Firefox woman.
- If Opera was a house it would be a small one story house, beautiful, simple, modern, and classic, almost casual.
- Safari:
- If Safari was a car: It would be one of those lovely Minis, or a Smart. Quite nice, stylish although with some "retro" design combined greatly with modern curves. A fast engine, lots of extras and for only a few people.
- If Safari was a woman it would be stunning, hard to find and to get used to, but once you are accustomed to her you'll probably stick with her for a long time. She's stylish, looks like a model, always following fashion in a very discrete way.
- If Safari was a house it would be "modern art" designed. A bit weird at first and only a few people would now how to live in it and enjoy the experience.
- Internet Explorer:
- If IE was a car it would be some sort of common car. A family car, a standard design, for people that don't understand cars it would look great, but inside it it would be a disaster. You would have to go to the garage every month to fix something. It would have a standard engine that at first would look nice, although in reality it wouldn't follow any standards at whatsoever. It wouldn't be a car made to drive on the road, the road would have to be built for the car.
- If IE was a woman it would be your first "love", she'd be quite hot, and easy too. And you would be feeling great until you found out that everyone "used her" and that she "carried" lots of "viruses".
- If IE was a house it would be the first house you bought for yourself, the first time you walk in it would seem great, easy to use, nice. After a while using it some cracks would appear on the walls, and you would find out that there were water leaks, broken pipes, and all sorts of failures, and you'd switch to a better house...
And that'd be basically it. If you are reading my blog using IE I really discourage you to do it again. First get a good browser, like Firefox, and then yea, come read my blog as much as you want.
You'll also notice that the design improves greatly when you switch. It is my way of protesting against IE I'll never fix my CSS to look nice in IE!
And I personally think that this should be done by all serious web developers on their blogs. Come on, we write for proffessionals, and proffessionals don't use IE!
Enjoy,
Open position: Editor
01371 days
by alex
in General talk
After a few months after this blog's first opening to the public it's starting to be hard to keep up posting everyday to maintain the high stats I'm having, so it would be great if anyone was interested in becoming an editor for this blog.
All applicants must be web developers and know about current design trends, css, php, MySQL, JavaScript and preferably AJAX and any modern web technology.
It is not a must-have but it will help a lot if applicants provide a website with their showcase, or a blog they might have at the moment or have had, so I can see writing skills.
At the moment the editors will not receive any payment for the simple reason that this blog does not generate income. Of course if this blog started to advertise seriously, or started an affiliation program that resulted in money earned editors would be paid per post and the payment would go proportional to the stats of the post.
If you are interested address all the information you consider important to alejandro@urbanoalvarez.es, so I can review them. I'll try to review and answer to all applicants as soon as possible, which luckily will be in one or two days.
Thank you,
Alex
Easiest gmail filtering technique
21371 days
As most of you probably know Gmail is full of features that most people don't know.
One of this almost secret features is your email name formation. For Gmail, there are some characters that are not considered as additional information, so for example urbano.alvarez@gmail.com would be the same as urbanoalvarez@gmail.com (None of those email addresses are mine)
Another trick like that one is adding words at the end with a plus sign. For example urbanoalvarez+client1@gmail.com This way all emails sent to that addressed are received normally in urbanoalvarez@gmail.com
Taking this a set further we could create a folder in our inbox that I'll label "Client 1" for the example, and setup a filter that will send all emails addressed to "urbanoalvarez+client1@gmail.com" to the folder "Client 1"!
This way you can give separate email addresses over the Internet and have your email automatically sorted into folders.
You could even create a filter to send all emails addressed at "urbanoalvarez+trash@gmail.com" to the trash, and give that email when you are forced to signup in websites you know you'll never return...
There are tons of uses for this technique, and they'll save you a lot of time for sure
Best Photoshop brushes for web designers
141374 days
Here is a (huge) compilation of the best free Photoshop brushes out there. They are the ones I use, and the ones it took me a very long time to find over the web.
I've selected the best of them, and along with a preview and a description, I've made a zip file that contains the whole compilation.
For all brushes hosted at brushes.500ml.org you'll have to navigate to the brushes, since they don't allow direct linking...
If you enjoy this set of brushes consider blogging about it
- Download the zip file with all of them - 25,7Mb (Megaupload link)
Take into account that this is a huge list of brushes, and it takes a long time to download. Also, the mirrors might only be available for a limited time, so if you find them to be broken please notify me
And here is the list (Alphabetically ordered)
Art nouveau
This beautiful set features 8 brushes with patterns and designs following art nouveau techniques and style.
Visit the brush homepage
Botanical flowers
This is a very nice set of brushes, specially for "natural" websites or just as footer decoration.
Visit the brush homepage
Bugs and Angels
This is indeed a very strange combination of brushes to put in a set, but both of them are very beautiful and make a good "innovative" design element.
Visit the brush homepage
Elegance
One of the best web design brush sets I have ever found. This provides you with some very elegant lines and circles. Worth checking out
(I couln't find the author's website, so if you want the set, download the pack)
Feathers
Strange brush set, filled with feathers, but it makes a beautiful texture I guess.
Visit the brush home page (Scroll down a bit, by Sheishido)
Floral swirl
A very beautiful brush set, largely used in modern web designs (And in this blog's design too)
Visit the brush homepage
Foliage
Another brush set of plant elements. This time it is packed with tree branches, leaves, bushes... Great for some "wild life" designs:
I couldn't find this brush homepage 
Fractals
A nice set of fractal images, these are great to put in backgrounds for scientific websites or pics...
I didn't find the original brush set website, but here at getbrushes.com you can find tons of fractal brushes.
Frames
This are good sets (I've put here two sets of frames) to enclose your images in.
I don't remember where I found them, but just search for frame brush sets and you'll find a lot more.
Garden of Decay
One of the most beautiful sets here, nice textures and images. It comes with some handwritten text too.
You can find it here, along with a lot more brushes by Annika
Good & Evil
A nice set, featuring some trees, skies, and other textures. Great for image edition, and adding header decoration too.
Brush set website (And also in Annika's website)
Grunge flowers
Probably the best brush set exposed here. I used it a lot for my backgrounds in this blog's design.
Grunge texture
A set of textures to use in "rough" designs probably
Hair
I really don't know where or why you would use this, but it is a good set of high quality "hairs"
Illusionist
Very strange set of cut & inversed faces. I really don't know how to describe this set. It is very cool though, so check it out.
By Annika Von Holdt
Paint
This is a very useful brush set, it is also the one I used for the header background, those paint strokes. It has both strokes and splatters...
Patterns
Some patterns for backgrounds or buttons, or whatever you want them for.
Splatter
Another set similar to the paint set, but this time focused on Paint splatters. If you want to add splatters to your designs, this is your set!
Valentine
A very romantic set, with hearts, roses, hand-written text... You'll love it
Victorian people
This is probably a very strange brush set you might think you'll never have to use, but once you have it, you'll use it. Guaranteed. It features full-body pictures of Victorian people.
Important notes & download
Please do not hotlink the images nor the zip file with the compilation, instead link to this article please.
I couldn't find most of the brush sets websites because over the years I have renamed most brush set names, so if you are the owner or creator of them and I have not placed a link to you please comment it below.
Also, if you think a link was misplaced do comment.
Download the compilation
Here you can download all of the brushes before. They come in a zip file, ready to send to photoshop.
- Download compilation (Megaupload link)
You don't know how to import them in photoshop?
Simply go to the install location of photoshop (Normally in C:\Program files\Adobe\Photoshop). Open it up and search for a folder called "Prestablished settings", once there go to "Brushes" and paste the content of the zip file.
If you had Photoshop already opened you'll have to close it and re-open it to use your new brushes.
Enjoy