Well, Google is spearheading a set of social networking APIs called OpenSocial (also here, here, and a screencast here) which will allow the same kind of functionality across a host of different sites — including MySpace, Friendster, Ning, Orkut, etc. — and will make it easier on app developers by letting them write code for an open system instead of a closed, proprietary one.

By teaming with others, Google hopes to create a rival platform that could have broad appeal to developers. A person briefed on the plans said the sites in the alliance had a combined 100 million users, more than double the size of Facebook.

Some doubt if this new platform will work, but I have faith in the power of open systems. Should be interesting to watch how it all plays out at any rate.

WestCiv added to their their free web dev bookmarklet collection with MRI, a little tool to help you test and play with selectors. This should go along well with their other helpful bookmarklet, XRAY, which is used to see the box model for any element on any web page.

And lest not forget the importance of color scheming here.  In one of the cooler ideas I’ve seen in a while, colr.org takes an image you feed it and gives you an interactive click map of the colors it finds.  Neat!

Say Hello to LimeSpot

On the professional side of things, there’s been some launches of note. For one, the hard work of those I’m in the trenches with every day came to fruation as Lime Spot came into being. Wondering what it all is? So are we (kidding!).

For now, it’s little more than another social networking site without as many features, but that’s soon to change and at a fairly fast clip. More importantly for the moment, it is also the new engine under the hood of the LimeWire Music Blog, as you can tell by that stylish new gray bar that tops the site.
Big ups to Dave, Michael, Jorge, Amy, Ryan, and Eric for the fantastic job building this all from scratch. I am truly humbled to be associated with you all.

I can not say this enough!

Speaking of the LimeWire Music Blog…

…it has been sent to the tailors for some changes to its threads. I’m responsible for that little bit (and there’s still much to shine, believe me!). That lovely masthead sketch is by far my favorite aspect, and it’s the first thing I’ve ever created with the aid of my Wacom tablet that I’m proud to put my name on. I fear that might feed my ego to the point where I might actually think I can…draw…or something.

Don’t forget the fun and games!

Now don’t go getting the idea that it’s been all work for me, no sir-ree! I’ve made sure I’ve had my share entertainment. Like catching an Allman Brothers concert at the PNC Bank Arts Center and two separate tapings for the upcoming season of Comedy Central Presents. I’ve even got plans to (finally!) check out Bustle in Your Hedgerow tomorrow night, which will rock me with the time tested sounds of Zepplin being jammed out by four of the most talented musicians from other groups I love.

Adding to the toy chest

And we can’t forget about the toys either. After being without a working iPod for the last few months and dead set against replacing it with one of those video ones until the next product refresh (which now looks like it’ll be on Sept. 5th), I got myself a nice little Shuffle. I love the fact that it’s too light to even be unplugged from the headphones if it accidentally gets knocked off my bag.

It also hooks in nicely to my new set of Roland TD-3SW electronic drums (and by new I mean the ones I bought a month ago and neglected to mention). Yes, I still haven’t given up on the idea that I might one day become tolerable on the damn instrument, but at least now I can practice at 3 in the morning if the mood strikes me and not worry about my neighbors calling the cops on me. Now all I need is to get a few lessons going so I can progress beyond the two or three beats I know.

And this afternoon, I picked up my copy of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I’ve got high hopes for this game, as it’s the first “must buy” for my Wii since the day I picked up the system and “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess“. Shortly after pressing the submit button on this post, you can bet I’ll be logging in my first hours.

Looks like I’m not sleeping much tonight….

As of this afternoon, both of these are now done deals. You can pay a visit to the LimeWire Music Blog now (expect tweaks and a revised logo — the name changed while I was off on the road) and expect to see and read all about my Bonnaroo experience over the next few days at BrooklynVegan, here, and my Flickr account.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some content creating to do….

They close the survey on May 22nd, so if you’re any kind of web professional, I recommend you get yourself over there now and get yourself counted. I’m kind of curious to see the results….

Without overstating it, this update has been years in the making and was a complete team effort. I’m happy to say my fingerprints are among those in there — mostly in the HTML and CSS work, less so in the design than past projects I’ve worked on. I can also say it was one of the damnedest and most infuriating bits of work. Big words of praise to David, Jorge, Arthur, Angel and all those employees past and present who had a part in bringing the site into the modern age of the web.

Really, it’s like the site is being held together with HTML and satanic powers. The fact that we’re currently at code revision 666 is only helping reinforce that assumption on my part…. ^_^

• XHTML Character Entity Reference: A handy reference of all those strange characters — and a nice looking one at that.
• Vertical Centering in CSS: Why the W3 didn’t make vertical centering part of the standard, I’ll never know. Until they do, at least we have this.
• Highlight Microformats with CSS: Shine some light on those little hidden gems in web pages.
• Exploring OpacityStep-by-Step: CSS Opacity in Mozilla,IE, and Opera.
• Optimal width for 1024px resolution?: If you haven’t already, it’s time to start laying out your site designs on a bigger canvas.
• Reflections are the new drop shadows: Also — could they be considered the swooshes of the late ’00′s?
• Adobe’s del.icio.us account: See what the de-facto designer’s toolmakers read.

Yes Virginina, Lime Wire has a blog.

Not too bad for a first stab at ripping apart a WordPress theme and bending it to my will, but there is far more tweaking I can (and will) do in the future. Before that can happen this shiney new skin has to be extended to the Wiki and Forum that are linked up at the top of the page. Expect short little announcements up here when that happens, just like I always do when something I’m proud of launches.

There are some bright people here, and I’m just happy to be among them.

I’m not much for making New Year’s resolutions, but if I were to make some for ’06 I think it would be along the lines of “redesign all my web sites”. They’re either using very slightly modified default templates provided by the software running them or designs that are a few years old. My portfolio is so out of sync it’s not even funny.

Now then, how about we talk about what’s really been going on?

Work over the past few weeks has been quite productive. Two sites I’ve done have gone live in the last seven days in fact: the brand spankin’ new New York City Streets Renaissance and a new face for Lime Brokerage. The latter will probably see more updates sooner than the former. I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels to be delivering on sites again.

Also, after many years of walking past the Angelika theater and staring at the marquees I finally managed to make a visit for a film. Teresa and I checked out The Squid and the Whale, a lovely little tale about casual cursing, divorce, bloody noses, limp handshakes and problems with drinking and sperm. Yes, I’m making it sound much weirder than it actually is, but I liked it. I felt some real visceral reactions from the performances — Jeff Daniels’ actually made me want to reach out and choke his character at times for all his myopic arrogance. If you’ve got 81 minutes and ten bucks, I highly suggest going out to see it.

(Hat tip to bryan Bell)