Love, Discussions on web design, css, html5 and more...

Linking to specific point in a YouTube video

Posted by David Smith last month

Have you ever wanted to link to a specific time in a YouTube video? I've discovered a simple clear method.

CSS3 & HTML5 Availability

Posted by Jim Morrison last month

Calling all web designers - we're charting the availability of HTML5 & CSS3 in the wild and would like your help to make the data useful.

Calling all FindMeByIP users!

Posted by Jim Morrison last month

FindMeByIP.com is a free service... so I hope no-one minds a shameless plug to ask some of you to sponsor me in exchange??

Web Designers meet Firefox 3.6

Posted by Jim Morrison earlier this year

We've updated our Browser Support Checklist to include the new, faster Firefox browser.

Announcing the Web Innovation Awards

Posted by Jim Morrison earlier this year

Deep Blue Sky announce the launch of the Web Innovation Awards to find the most exciting idea for the web.

Love at first site - choosing a (web design) partner

Posted by Ben Hawkes earlier this year

Choosing a web partner is a difficult business; get it right and you will forge a relationship that will breed understanding and success. Love your web partner, and they’ll love you right back.

Adobe Fireworks keyboard cursor keys broken

Posted by David Smith last year

Recently I had an issue with Fireworks where all the keyboard keys (nudge, delete...etc) stopped working. Luckily I was able to find this simple fix.

iStylista.com is the ultimate personal shopping experience to be found on the web. Run by a team of professional stylists it has become THE destination for tailored clothing and fashion advice based on the personal style profile inputted by the user themselves – and Deep Blue Sky were asked to build it!

Bryn Melyn Guesthouse

Posted by David Smith last year

Owners of the Bryn Melyn Guest House and ex-Bath residents Heather and David Brown were frustrated that their website failed to portray their property or the beautiful location of Snowdonia in which is was set.

FindMeByIP.com has been updated!

Posted by David Smith last year

Great news! The longer overdue updates to the browser testing service FindMeByIP.com have finally gone live. We now test support for HTML5 Forms, Web Applications and CSS3 Selectors.

Clients from Heaven

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

A word of warning to any client who might speak before they think... ;-)

The 3 golden rules of SEO

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

3 simple rules to making a search-engine success of your website.

Basic principles of effective web copy - a beginners guide

Posted by David Smith last year

Writing good web copy isn't easy and it requires skill to get it right. I've compiled a short list to send to your clients when they need basic advice on writing their own web text.

Top 5 Apps of 2009

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

A quick round-up of 5 great web-applications that have rocked our world in 2009...

Quickly find your clients' IP address and HTML5 and CSS3 browser support

Posted by David Smith last year

FindMeByIP.com updated! Send a URL to your clients to find their IP address and check their browser support for HTML5 and CSS3 features.

Top 10 ways for hotels to embrace social media.

Posted by last year

Guest blogger Hayden Allen-Vercoe discusses social media in the hospitality industry and delivers 10 great tips to help hotels, spas and conference venues embrace social media and engage with their guests.

Google Analytics Custom Variables

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Google have just released some much more powerful customisable tracking for Analytics but sadly it's not available for all....

Backwards compatible Silk Set icons with Fireworks

Posted by David Smith last year

Do you use the Silk icon set? Frustrated with the "blue border" in IE6? PNG fixes getting you down? I'll show you how to avoid both of these using Fireworks to create a "backwards compatible" version of the Silk Set library.

Browser support for CSS3 and HTML5

Posted by David Smith last year

We've tested all the A-grade browsers for their CSS3 and HTML5 support using FindMeByIP.com. The results have been very interesting.

FindMeByIP.com - our latest afternoon project

Posted by David Smith last year

A cute little app that presents your browsers' support for advanced HTML5 and CSS3 features in an easy to read format using Modernizr.

Express your mood with Gravatar + Gmail

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Give more passion to your blog comments and express your true feelings!

5 Reasons why every business needs to embrace social media

Posted by last year

Social media seems to have firmly cemented its position in modern society... If you are not already using Facebook, twitter or perhaps one of the other social networks out there I bet you can name at least three people who are!

The Problem with Opera

Posted by David Smith last year

Opera web browsers have always been some of the most advanced around, often setting the trends and advancing the technology. Despite this I can never find a use for it on a regular basis.

FSB Breakfast at Homeward Park

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

A lovely morning spent with some like minded FSB members at Homeward Park here in Bath

Grayshott Spa, The Park and Fawsley Hall

Posted by David Smith last year

In August 2009 we were asked by the management team of a chain of 3 hotels to complete a re-design of each of their websites. Effective cross-branding, multiple Calls to Action and online marketing support were just a few of objectives of this project we successfully met.

Powabyke

Posted by David Smith last year

Powabyke are the UK’s premier manufacturer of electrics bikes, a market worth £25 million in 2009. They approached us to design and develop a website that supporting their growing brand, provided a great experience for multiple audiences and would be a framework for future development with out the need for a substantial re-build.

Dickies Workwear

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

When Dickies – the legendary workwear brand - decided to re-design and re-launch their flagship catalogue site they asked us to help.

Piping into MySQL as UTF-8

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Want a quick, lazy, command line way to pipe iso-8859-1 ( or any character encoding ) SQL into MySQL as UTF-8? Here's a little four-liner for you!

iStylista 2 is coming!

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

iStylista - the new on-line personal shopping service is set to launch next month and boy are we excited!

Change Dash Stroke in Fireworks CS3

Posted by David Smith last year

I always find the "Dash" stroke to be a little odd in Fireworks. I'll show you how to customise it's appearance with Advanced options.

Prototypify - add Prototype.js to any website dynamically

Posted by David Smith a few weeks ago

We're big fans of the Prototype JavaScript framework. I recently found it very useful to create a bookmark which allows you to dynamically add it to any web page for testing.

Gmail New Message Shortcut

Posted by Jim Morrison a few weeks ago

Create a Quick Launch or Start Menu shortcut for creating a new message in Gmail... without having to open Gmail itself...

Gate54 is back!

Posted by Jim Morrison a few weeks ago

Our online hotel, tour and travel portal - Gate54 - is back.

Converting RGB to CMYK in Illustrator

Posted by David Smith this morning

I often find the need to convert RGB files to CMYK (and visa versa) in Adobe Illustrator. The trouble is I always forget how to do it! Therefore I've drawn up a simple 3 step process to help.

Envato style light and shadow text effect using Fireworks

Posted by David Smith earlier this week

In this tutorial I'll show you how to utilize light and shadow to create a subtle, yet effective text effect with Adobe Fireworks.

Styling the File Input with CSS and Javascript

Posted by David Smith earlier this week

Files inputs spoil nice form design as no browser allows you to style them directly with CSS. Fortunately however, Shaun Inman has devised an easy solution involving backgrounds, opacity and a tiny bit of Javascript.

Multiple File Upload

Posted by Jim Morrison last week

Oh, I got quite excited to see that Gmail now allows multiple upload of files - in one dialog.... but no, not without a little trick.

The difference between PNG24 and PNG32

Posted by David Smith last week

If you've ever used Adobe Fireworks then you'll know it's image optimiser lists "PNG32" as an image type. But what is this and why does Photoshop not provide it as an option?

Free Function Icon Set

Posted by David Smith last month

I'm always on the look out for high quality icon sets to use in my designs. I recently came across the Free Function Set by Liam McKay and it's brilliant.

8/10 for iStylista

Posted by Jim Morrison last month

iStylista.com - the personal on-line fashion site has recently been rewarded 8/10 for SEO, usability and functionality.

Stop drop down rendering underneath positioned elements in IE7

Posted by David Smith last month

It seems that Internet Explorers' incorrect implementation of z-index means drop downs will appear underneath positioned (absolute, relative) elements. I'll show you a simple fix!

BathCamp evening meetup #1 - Paul Boag and Ryan Carson

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

It's the first BathCamp evening meetup...an informal gathering of interesting people talking about interesting things...

Google Talk Labs Edition

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Want the GTalk Labs Edition interface without all the bugs? A quick Chrome solution for you...

Traditional Boundaries

Posted by David Smith last year

DeepBlueSky is proud to launch an estate and woodland management website for Surrey based business 'Traditional Boundaries'.

Chrome Shortcuts

Posted by David Smith last year

Chrome has some really cute shortcuts to make surfing the net a little cuter and slicker... here's a little table for you....

Synchronising windows time

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Windows won't allow you to synchronise your windows time? It's very annoying but I've found this life saving little fix which allows you to sync your windows time again.

Some things to listen to...

Posted by Jim Morrison last year

Some podcast recommendations - in case there weren't enough on the web already!

PHP Optimization

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Invalid library (maybe not a PHP library) 'apd.so'

Simple slide show for prototype & scriptaculous

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

A little slide show object for any of you that use prototype and scriptaculous.

Windows Explorer New Folder shortcut and button

Posted by David Smith years ago

If you've ever wished MS Windows Explorer had a shortcut for Create New Folder then look no further. I have found the perfect solution.

Google Optimization Guide

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

A guide to optimizing your website for Google from the horse's mouth. Some great tips for website search engine optimisation in general.

Extracting font information from PDF files

Posted by David Smith years ago

Has a client ever sent you a PDF and you needed to know what typeface they used on the heading? I show you how to find out!

PR Award Winner 2008

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Cheddarometer has won silver at the CIPR Pride Awards 2008... woo hoo!

Online Invoicing

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

A great way to save time and effort with your day-to-day invoicing...

Therapy Network

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

DeepBlueSky is very proud to launch a new home for Therapists and Medical Professionals on the web - Therapy Network.

Google Analytics Goal Conversion

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Making Google Analytics Goal Conversion figures more meaningful! A bookmarklet to convert conversion percentages to actual values.

A Solid Foundation

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Welcome to our new range of small business web site packages.

Spirit 5.3 Released

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Fast just got faster! We are very proud to announce the release of Spirit 5.3.

Google Docs Button

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

We've upgraded our Google Docs Toolbar Button to work properly with Google Account Authentication.

Adding line breaks to mailto links

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Ever wanted to format mailto emails with line breaks or other formatting rules? We explain how.

The perfect cheese sandwich

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

Following the success of cheddarvision.tv, Isotope have helped West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers in the quest for the perfect cheese sandwich with cheddarometer.com.

Tracking offline sales with Google Analytics

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

How do you leverage GA's great E-Commerce tools when your website isn't the final point of sale? Here's a simple solution to make sure your enquiry lead sales aren't missed!

SQL Rollback

Posted by Jim Morrison years ago

I thought I should provide an example of our little MyISAM transaction / rollback engine.. so here it is.

PNG fix and Google Maps

Posted by David Smith a few weeks ago

Problem with PNG for IE and Google Maps (GMap's) API.

Debt Collection Solutions

Posted by Jim Morrison a few weeks ago

Isotope celebrate the launch of the new Debt Collection Solutions website.

Definitive IE PNG Fix

Posted by David Smith last month

Finally! The ultimate Internet Explorer fix for displaying Alpha Transparent PNG images

MyISAM Transactions

Posted by Jim Morrison last month

Who says you can't have transaction support in MyISAM... with a little bit of hair-brained coding anything's possible. Presenting full rollback & commit, multiple concurrent transactions and no need to change storage engines for almost any well written PHP + MySQL application.