Today I would like to share a website maintained by a fellow member at the Digital Point forums, thaslayer, at www.thaslayer.com. As the post title suggests, he is a commendable graphics and web designer and I found that his designs are very appealing. The website itself has been designed very well, with subtle shades used to make for easy reading and to direct the reader’s attention to the various sections on the website easily.

At the time of writing there are 4 great themes offered for free download under the Free Themes section, namely Missile, Styleicious, Chameleon and Loveblog. Each theme is accompanied by a full feature list, a live demo site and of course the download link. Among these, Loveblog is my personal favorite, mainly due to the clean lines and easy to read layout.

The Portfolio section is where the author shows off his ability in creating designs for various platforms including Wordpress, PHP Link Directory, Forums and General Websites. Just taking a peek at the cleverly made Wordpress design previews you can tell that thaslayer is indeed capable of churning out an entire range of designs and themes suited to the needs his clients.

So the next time you are in need of a custom designed Wordpress site or other web design, head over to thaslayer’s website and check out what he has to offer. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

For over a decade now Flash has greatly empowered the content we interact with on the Web. Initially Flash was designed to create animations and eventually evolved to becoming a fully interactive platform. The bulk of video content on the Internet including YouTube and other video servers is all based on Flash, a format known as FLV or Flash Video. Oringinally developed by Macromedia, the Flash platform now belongs to Adobe, after it bought over the former’s business.

The slick animation ability, coupled with object-oriented programmability of the Flash platform has made it very appropriate for developing interactive games on the Internet. There are many commercial and free games available on the Internet, with genres ranging from Puzzles to Arcade and Board games.

Arcade Temple is an excellent site which hosts thousands of quality interactive Flash games across various genres. Users are free to browse and play any game on the site, with the option to download the game to their desktop as well. Users can also opt to register as members of the site for free which comes with several benefits including being able to participate in the monthly $100 prize competitions.

So the next time you have some free time on your hands, head over to Arcade Temple and immerse yourself in a world of online interactivity. 

A fellow Digital Point forum member recently offered me the opportunity of testing out the traffic boosting services he offers at Megatraffix, and I am so impressed by the service that I have to share this with you. Essentially, the service promises you worldwide or targeted unique, real traffic to your website.

There are several plans which you can choose, which differ in the number of visits delivered to your website as well as the source of the traffic. Naturally, the higher the amount of visits and the uniqueness of the location, the higher the plan is going to cost. That said, its worth mentioning that the plans are affordably priced, starting with only $7 for 5000 unique visitors.

What is even more interesting is that you are provided with a control panel from which you can track the number of visitors which have been sent to your website. Also, you can ‘throttle’ the maximum number of visitors the service sends to your site on any given day. This allows you to maximise the traffic you buy over a longer period of time.

So if you want to boost your web traffic, Google PR rating or Alexa ranking, head over to Megatraffix and you can literraly sit back and watch your visitor counter grow.

 Screenshots Archive is an innovative service website maintained by Jan Polzer. Essentially, it is a repository of screenshots of various softwares running on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Haiku and other OSes.

At the time of writing there are over 1500 screenshots of various screens in an entire range of applications, from utilities to productivity applications to blogging software. A distinguishing factor is the strict quality standards set on the website to maintain the quality of the screenshots offered. Anyone can upload screenshots of a particular software, as long as they are saved in the lossless PNG format, which is quickly becoming the standard for the web and print.

To assist users in locating a particular screenshot of an application, the images are presented in easy to navigate categories based on the operating systems on which the applications run. Once you click on any of these categories, you are presented with a list of application categories for which screenshots are available. Next to each category is a number representing the total number of screenshots in that category, along with the last update date.

Users are free to use any of these screenshots in their websites and applications, which makes Screenshots Archive a great resource for webmasters and application developers alike. Another interesting use of these screenshots is that they can serve the purpose of a quick evaluation as to the functionality and overall look and feel of an application before the user downloads or buys it. This in itself is a good reason to bookmark and return to this site often.

There is also an interesting category called Fun which lists various funny and amusing application screenshots. For example, there is one screenshot which shows an error message informing the user of a successful removal of an application. There is also a random image feature which is excellent for discovering long-forgotten applications.

So the next time you need application screenshots for your website application or video tutorial, just head over to Screenshots Archive.

Do you come across websites and forums which require you to register before you can view the content on them? Certain forums require you to register and login before you can view posts.

In their registration form, they usually require you to key in your email address to which a verification email is sent before you can login. This is a surefire method to increase the amount of junk email you receive in your inbox everyday. One solution is to use a throwaway email address (such as mailinator.com), but if you are in a hurry and need to access the site quickly (or to quickly download something) but do not have the time nor patience to register, all you have to do is visit www.bugmenot.com.

BugMeNot is essentially a database of pre-registered username and passwords for many websites on the Internet. Since it is driven by the users themselves, there is a very high chance that the login you require is already available on the website. Better still, there is a voting system which automatically promotes logins which work so that you spend less time trying out logins which have either expired or have been banned. Naturally, if a login works (or does not work) for you, its best to go back to BugMeNot and vote for that particular login. After all, the content on this website is by the users for the users.

BugMeNot has also released a throw-away email service which allows you to quickly check any email address @bugmenot.com. This is very similar to mailinator.com and other throw-away email addresses work, and makes it easy to obtain all of these features from one site.

So the next time you are faced with a registration page which is holding you back from the content you need to access, head over to www.bugmenot.com for the solution.

Worth1000.com is undoubtedly one of the best image editing contest websites on the Internet today. It attracts a large pool of extremely talented image editing professionals, a majority of whom use Adobe Photoshop to create their masterpieces. This is the reason why such contests are often known as Photoshop contests.

At any given time, there are several contests running in parallel, and anyone with the right skill and passion is able to participate and showcase their talents. The contests themsevles are based on very creative themes which makes it interesting for both contestants and viewers, besides making the entries easier to judge since they are evaluated on common criteria, as illustrated in the Photoshopped image of the Petronas Twin Towers on the left.

To maintain the quality of the website, entries of substandard quality are removed by the moderators, as are clichéd entries containing over-used content.

Registered users of Worth1000.com can vote for entries on a scale of 1-10. To prevent abuse and to reward members who take time to vote fairly, a weighted average system called Karma is used. According to the Karma voting system, the more frequently and fairly a member rates entries in contests, the more their vote counts. For example, if a member has a Karma score of 100, and rates an image 8, it is counted as if 100 members rated the image an 8/10. A new user starts with a Karma score of 1, and can go all the way up to a score of 175. Jurors have a Karma score of 500, which is how they can have a significant impact on the outcome of each contest.

To be fair to beginners, certain contests are run separately for Beginners and Advanced members. This helps level the playing field as well as encourage new talent on the website itself. Some of the popular contests are also run several times, especially if they attract very creative and well-received entries. For example the UFO Sightings contest was run for the 10th time on the 21st of January 2008.

Some of the more seasoned pros on Worth1000.com often engage in Head to Head contests which involve a closed group of members ranging from 2 to 8 participating in a particular contest. The stakes of winning a Head to Head contest can range from public acknowledgement in the Worth1000.com forums, or changing the signature of the loser to something embarassing for a specified period of time.

To witness the very best in image editing skills and ability, head over to www.worth1000.com.