Zend Framework: Surviving The Deep End

The OpenWeatherMap service provides free weather data and forecast API suitable for any cartographic services like web and smartphones applications. Ideology is inspired by OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia that make information free and available for everybody. OpenWeatherMap provides wide range of weather data such as map with current weather, week forecast, precipitation, wind, clouds, data from weather Stations and many others. Weather data is received from global Meteorological broadcast services and more than 40 000 weather stations.

Chart.js is an easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers. You can visualise your data in 6 different ways. Each of them animated, fully customizable and look great, even on retina displays. Chart.js uses the HTML5 canvas element. It supports all modern browsers, and polyfills provide support for IE7/8.
Chart.js is dependency free, lightweight (4.5k when minified and gzipped) and offers loads of customization options. it is licensed under MIT License.

iconsDB.com currently has 3202 icons in the database that you can customize and download in any color and any size you want ! 3,447,879 icon downloads and counting ! All icons can be used freely in both personal and commercial projects with no attribution required, but always appreciated. All logos and trademarks presented in some icons are copyright of their respective trademark owners

Web 2.0 Free Logo Generator

Wysyłanie za darmo SMSów do każdego operatora w każdym kraju

Every blog or website owner knows the importance of uptime. Downtimes can prove to be totally disastrous for your website’s success. Downtimes occur due to many different reasons such as server problems or high load on server causing high CPU etc. So as a webmaster it is your duty to ensure that the website is up most of the time. Doing this manually is close to impossible, so the wise thing to do would be to use any website monitoring service. A lot of website monitoring services are available out there, but finding the good ones for free is not an easy task. We have a list of Top 10 Awesome Free Website Monitoring Services. They boast all the usual features such as multiple monitoring locations, monitor interval and alert types etc. So check them out and pick the ones that suit your needs the best!

We are getting ready for an explosion of fun, booze, bong, music and barf. Aren’t you as well? If you’re not and are still working on something and putting the final touches on the best New Year’s party flyer, here is us coming to your rescue. We have over a dozen free fireworks designs in vector format for you to use on this special occasion. Just hang in there a little more before you transport your drunk self to the nearest party to reminisce the fuckery of 2011. And next thing you know, you will wake up from your debauchery-induced coma on the first day of 2012 remembering nothing from the night before – which is a good thing. Here’s to a whole bag of happy for the New Year!

High Image Quality

Get the most details and least artifacts from your raw photos thanks to modern and traditional demosaicing algorithms: AMaZE, DCB, fast, AHD, EAHD, HPHD & VNG4.
Advanced color handling from white balance to HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value) curves and color management.
Enhanced exposure and tonality tools: tone and Lab curves, highlights and shadows tools, etc.
Multiple denoising methods: luminance, chrominance, impulse (for salt and pepper noise) noise reduction.
Several tools to enhance details: unsharp mask, RL deconvolution, contrast by detail levels.

Efficiency

Multi-threaded algorithms for high performance (RawTherapee can utilize modern processor features).
Quick thumbnails load lightning fast and are replaced later with live thumbnails
Batch processing: convert all the developed images at once without not loading the processor while you work.
Basic tools immediately at your hands.
Parallel editing of multiple images.
An optional secondary display can be used.

Versatility

Wide variety of supported cameras: almost all DSLRs and even some medium format bodies are supported.
Advanced control over the algorithms with many fine-tuning parameters.
Command line usage besides the normal graphical interface.
Various layouts: multiple tabs, single tab with filmstrip, vertical tab with filmstrip.

Freedom for Free

RawTherapee is free and open source software, meaning you can use it free of charge, wherever you like on whatever hardware you like, as long as you abide by the copyleft GPLv3 license. Download the source code, modify it, feel free to do what comes to mind. We believe in open software.
RT is cross-platform: Linux, Mac, or Windows, be it 32-bit or 64-bit - you pick, we provide.
International: it is available in 25 languages!

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin's raw conversion utility - DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles. For Nikon users UFRaw has the advantage that it can read the camera's tone curves. Even if you don't own a Nikon, you can still apply a Nikon curve to your images.

My guiding concept in the development of UFRaw is to give all the essential (and some non-essential) information and control over the raw conversion, with the hope that one could resolve all the exposure and white balance issues during the raw conversion. The obvious advantage is that one can make full use of the raw data. The provisional advantage is that this way we circumvent the current 8-bit limitation of the Gimp, as UFRaw does all manipulations in 16-bits.

There are some important features which are still missing in UFRaw:

Sharpening.
Embed EXIF data - UFRaw can save the EXIF data to JPEG output for a few supported formats. These formats include Canon (CRW, CR2), Nikon (NEF), Pentax (PEF), Samsung (PEF), Sony (SR2, ARW), Fuji (RAF) and Adobe's DNG. For information on how to save EXIF data for other formats you should use ExifTool by Phil Harvey as is explained here.

UFRaw was originally based on Dave Coffin's plug-in and Pawel Jochym's plug-in with live preview. Joseph Heled's RougePhoto is another Gimp plug-in with some interesting features.

UFRaw is licensed under the GNU General Public License. This means that it is free both as in free speech and as in free beer.

You are welcome to participate in UFRaw's Open Discussion Forum, browse and update the wiki page, file bug reports, or request new features (you should read UFRaw's MANIFEST before requesting new features). If you want to know when the next version of UFRaw will be released, you should subscribe to the ufraw-announce mailing list (very low volume). Release annoncements are also made at FreshMeat. And if you wish to experiment with UFRaw's latest source you can check it out from the CVS.

UFRaw is covered in Klaus Gölker's book GIMP 2 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software (or in the German version Fotobearbeitung und Bildgestaltung mit dem GIMP 2).

French speakers might want to check out the book Développer ses fichiers RAW by Volker Gilbert. The book has a chapter on the different raw processing software and UFRaw gets its own section.

There is also a French version of UFRaw's user manual here.

Spanish speakers might be interested in this UFRaw tutorial in Spanish, a tutorial on getting better results from Ufraw and Gimp or this comperhensive book.

For Chinese speaker there is also a user guide.

I would like to thank all the UFRaw users that contributed to its development by sending patches, finding bugs and making insightful suggestions. Special thanks go to Vlado Potisk for many valuable suggestions, Shawn Freeman for adding support for Nikon curves and the curve editor and Niels Kristian for active participation in the development. Thanks also go to all the translators.

Christmas will soon be here and there are lots of cards, invitations, gift tags, photos, and more to prepare beforehand. To help you get ready we have gathered together a great collection of fun holiday fonts to help turn those ordinary looking holiday items into extraordinary looking ones.

I saw you liked the previous 3d article, the one with 3d Furniture Models so I thought you would also like one with 3D people and animals featuring various figures from business man or women to warriors, aliens or superheroes.

It’s a collection of almost 80 free 3D models from which you can download and use the model you need. Please read their licenses before using.

I like this handwriting typography a lot cause it is used in a lot of places and looks good thanks to the multitude of fonts you can choose from. It’s not Comic Sans, it’s a good looking style that can be integrated in websites, posters, typography experiments and a lot more type of projects.

Handwritten or handwriting fonts, however you want to call them, attract the visitor’s attention thanks to the fact that the user identifies his writing (with a certain similarity, of course) with the one he sees on the website. The most obvious application for these I believe is using it in kids projects in an attempt to approach them with a calligraphy font or one that looks drawn instead of the mechanical looking ones that we, adults, face every day.

In this article you’ll find 70 examples of free handwritten and script fonts from which you’ll surely choose one to use. Bookmark the article cause you never know when a client comes up with a project and demands the use of a good handwritten font.

Most designers on a tight budget can get an uncontrolled rapid heartbeat by considering what an investment in a Photoshop license will do to their economy. While it is difficult to argue against Photoshop being the top pick for nearly any photo manipulation, non vector design job etc. there are actually some pretty OK alternatives you can use without spending a single dollar. Question is of course which alternative to use and to help you out I have collected a set of Open Source Photoshop Alternatives you need to be aware of. One of the serious disadvantages you face when not using Photoshop is that you can’t learn and self study using the huge number of excellent free tutorials you can find for Photoshop online. Depending on what alternative you pick there may be some tutorials available, but it will never really match Photoshop. Another thing to be aware of is file formats. Adobe PSD, the Photoshop file type is almost an industry standard for exchanging layered designs e.g. in the web design niche. In GIMP, one of the tools covered below it is possible to save layered files to PSD in stead of the GIMP native format XCF which is useful. Make sure you consider stuff like this when you evaluate your free Open Source Photoshop Alternatives.

Google Web Fonts lets you browse all the fonts available via the Google Web Fonts API. All fonts in the directory are available for use on your website under an open source license and are served by Google servers.

Flowplayer is an Open Source (GPL 3) video player for the web. Use it to embed video streams into your web pages. Built for site owners, developers, hobbyists, businesses, and serious programmers.

Creating a Flash video player from scratch takes some time, especially if you are not that good at it. The easier solution is to download a flash video player that has been made by an experimented developer. Surely, it will cost you something but quality has its price and most of the free Flash video players aren’t as good as these that you have right here.