Rounded Corners on IE 6, 7, and 8

As a web developer, I have discovered CSS3. It works wonders but it's fantastic features work great only on the most recent browsers. And I work for a company that still uses IE 7 and IE 8, so I have to cater to that group.
On my latest build of a site, I wanted to add the rounded corners and have it available for IE too. I searched and found CurvyCorners. I tried it but to no avail. I finally moved on after an hour with more searching on Google. I landed on CSS3 PIE and this worked like a charm for me. Just follow the simple instructions on their documentation and getting started page. Before you knew it, I had my universal look and feel that I can use on all my sites.

Essentially, you upload your behavior file (.htc) and refer to it on your class or id. Simple and useful.

.roundedcorners
{
-webkit-border-radius: 15px;
-moz-border-radius: 15px;
-khtml-border-radius:15px;
-o-border-radius: 15px;
border-radius:15px;
behavior: url(js/PIE.htc);
}

This is a web developer resource I will use a handful more times. Hope you like it!

Datepicker and UI Z-Index Trick

I recently had to use JQuery Datepicker with another JQuery component, and found the datepicker disappearing on me behind my images that I was fading in and out. If you need a fix, this one works for me.

$(function () {

            $("#datepicker1").datepicker(
            {
                beforeShow: function () {
                    setTimeout(function () {
                        $(".ui-datepicker").css("z-index", 99);
                    }, 10);
                }
            });
            $("#datepicker2").datepicker();
});

Photoshop Lomo Effect Images

Below is a really great tutorial for Photoshop Lomo Effects. It really delivers rich colors which the lomo photography specializes in. Use your digital camera and try this out on Adobe Photoshop. The tricks were Adjustment Levels, Curves, and the Lab Color Image Mode.

How to Make Photos Look Like Lomo Photography

These are my before and after results:

Panda Research Survey Reviews

Great. So you want to make money doing some surveys? Surveys are one of many ways to make money at home or opportunities to work at home. Well, there are a lot of survey sites out that typically promise big bucks, maybe even $25, $50 or more. Take for instance, Panda Research. This group is a good example of a survey site that promises $1 to $75. However, some surveys actually have no monetary incentive and instead enters you into sweepstakes or drawings.

Here's what I saw with Panda Research. I signed up and received the usual amount of emails to activate, and was emailed "New surveys now available" type notifications. Also, once I logged on to the membership site, I saw a list of surveys to take. Again, just generic call to action lists. Now the fun part. Let's take a survey! This is actually the dangerous part that people miss.

When you take a survey, it usually asks you to evaluate a product and only after evaluation will you receive credit for your honest opinion on the survey. The evaluation product may have underlying terms and conditions that people miss. For example, I saw a survey where I had to evaluate a product or service. I began registered with the new service but there were fees involved after the "trial" period. Not wanting to pay the subscription for a product I was only evaluating, I found myself having wasted a good ten minutes just trying to complete a $2.00 survey. Once I added up my time, the costs and possible missed fees that could be incurred, I came to the conclusion that surveys are probably not the route for "big bucks".

For those considering surveys as a steady income, note that they are labor intensive and you can easily be making below minimum wage. It is not a scam and requires a lot of work, as well as attention to detail. Do not fall prey to the "try this for free" scheme especially if there is a fine print that ultimately means you may be charged $24.95 each month unless cancelled. Even if you think you'll just cancel it tomorrow or two days from now, it's considered fraud to have that intent and two, the cancellation phone number may be bogus.

Modifying the Twitter Feed Widget

For anyone looking to remove the header and footer of the Twitter Feed Widget, CSS is the way to go about it. After getting the code from Twitter to display the content, add the CSS to it.

For example, here is my Twitter Widget:

<script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/2/widget.js"></script>

<script>
new TWTR.Widget({
  version: 2,
  type: 'profile',
  rpp: 1,
  interval: 6000,
  width: 610,
  height: 35,
  theme: {
    shell: {
      background: '#000000',
      color: '#999999'
    },
    tweets: {
      background: '#000000',
      color: '#999999',
      links: '#09dbf1'
    }
  },
  features: {
    scrollbar: false,
    loop: false,
    live: false,
    hashtags: true,
    timestamp: true,
    avatars: false,
    behavior: 'all'
  }
}).render().setUser('twitter-username').start();
</script>

Use the following CSS code to remove the header and footer area:

.twtr-hd, .twtr-ft
{
display: none;
}


Also, you can force it to remove the dotted border and fix or modify the font size, font-family, and alignment.

.twtr-widget .twtr-tweet {
border:none!important;
text-align:right;
font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size:11px;
}

Hope this helps you! I used it to display a single Twitter line feed and until Twitter re-works the widget, this trick does what I need it to.

Revisitors.com Review

I tried Revisitors.com service for less than half a month before I paused the campaign and cancelled the renewal subscription. On their campaign tracker, it said that they had already delivered a total of 20,000 visitors but Google Analytics recorded 2,150. In fine print, Revisitors.com does state that some web analytics services do not record everything, but who does everyone really trust? Google Analytics.

However, taken literally and based on their member web statistics they do deliver on what they promise. 25,000 visits. Whether they are quality hits is a different question as they never went past the homepage. Bounce rate was also ridiculously high at 91.86% with Avg. Time on Site being 39 seconds. Revisitors.com uses referring sites and thus far, I've had 0 conversion to my eCommerce site. If you have the expertise, you may want to just try Google Adwords, Bing or Yahoo Marketing Solutions.

makecashtakingsurveys.biz Review

For anyone looking for a review of makecashtakingsurveys.biz, you have come to the right spot. I looked everywhere online and could only find mixed reviews of the product and an occasional remark that it was a scam. The product promises big money for taking surveys and out of curiosity, I gave it a try.

To become a member, you have to pay $34.95. The trick to getting a discounted rate of $24.95 is by attempting to close the browser, click on the Stay on Page button, and repeat that process a few times until it offers the discounted rate. The process of purchasing the product is not very simple as it throws a dozen other products that can be purchased using a limited time offer and discounted pricing strategy.

After I completed purchasing the product, I logged in only to see even more offers and step-by-step instructions on what to do first. They recommend that new members sign up with third party survey companies like SurveyHead.com and Panda Research as top survey payers. Their compiled list is by no means exceptional or original as any web user can Google paid survey web sites and come to the same group of survey companies. In general, after exploring the different functions given by the membership, I feel that it does not really deliver on what it promises. I don't believe the web site is a scam but I do think your money is better used somewhere else.

Of the survey companies I did try, I would have to say that they work but it is going to take a long time before you see the money that makecashtakingsurveys.biz promises. Qualifying for surveys is another frustration of mine. After spending at least a few minutes on a survey, I would suddenly get a "You do not qualify for this product..." message. Not many survey sites grant partial payments so I found myself simply wasting my time. Again, take your money and your time and put it to better use.