I have gone through some of the Olympic blogs and websites and came up with a list of 10 awesome Beijing 2008 Olympics Blogs, Just have a look and let me know your valuable feedback on the collection and if I miss any good blog which pertains to the Olympics Blog, please do send in, so that I can include the same the list below:

1. The New York Times - Olympics 2008 (http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/ ):

What can say about this site, I think you guys might know more than me about this site since this is one of the good and awesome site ever, since the updates will be in seconds might be in milli seconds. Wow! this really awesome enough site to visit and to know more about the Olympics 2008 results in a single shot.

2. bbc.co.uk (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/ )

Check your favorite sports personality here and check your favorite sports men / women has WON respective medals or not. Check out the results in the list provided (continuously updated). Here in this site you can check with the interactive Beijing Map, even you can download some of your favorite desktop screen savers and even you can check with the latest and best photos which are taken by the team.

3. mattinbeijing.spaces.live.com (http://mattinbeijing.spaces.live.com/ )

Matt in Beijing , MSN’s man at the 2008 Beijing Olympics is covering all the events which are taking place at Beijing. Here in this blog, towards right he has provided images slide show which is awesome enough, you can view most of the best scene here from his blog.

4. Los Angeles Times (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog )

Check in the live coverage of all the sports here, like Archery | Badminton | Baseball | Basketball | Beach Volleyball | Boxing | Canoeing Cycling | Diving | Equestrian | Fencing | Field Hockey | Gymnastics | Judo | Kayaking Rowing | Shooting | Soccer | Softball | Swimming | Table Tennis | Taekwondo | Tennis Track & Field | Triathlon | Volleyball | Water Polo | Weightlifting | Wrestling

5. Webcastr (http://2008-olympics.webcastr.com/ )

Webcastr which is well know as "The Best of Internet TV" here you can view your best videos ever and be the first person to watch the events which are taking place in Beijing 2008 Olympics. There are more than 100 videos posted. Its worth watching the same.

6. Deadspin (http://deadspin.com/olympics/ )

7. The Washington Post (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/ )

8. http://beijingolympicsblog.wordpress.com/

9. http://www.2008beijingolimpics.com/

10. http://www.beijingolympicsfan.com/

If you see this layout, the sections are rendered in rounded corners as Nifty Cubes are famous for Rounded Corners without images.

Basically the one which I have developed is a static website using some simple concepts of AJAX, this will depicts the concepts of AJAX and those who are new to AJAX can learn some simple concepts of AJAX. In this article, if you are interested can download the code and can learn some tips.

You can download the entire code here - download , and if you want to see live preview - here is the link to visit - SimpleAJAXWebsite

Steps to develop simple AJAX Website:

1. After downloading, just open index.html page in to your favorite html editors, once you have done that, if you can see some styles has been used in that page like below screen shot, those are related to Nifty Cubes (This has been used for Rounded Corners). And below <styles> some JavaScript stuff is used for Rounded Corners.

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/niftycube.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload=function(){
Nifty("div#content,div#nav","same-height");
}
</script>

2. After the above script, you can see a <script> tag in which we are calling one external JavaScript file (ajax.js )

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/ajax.js" language="JavaScript"></script>

3. After the above <script> tag, actual body content starts here, where in which you can see some tags and unordered lists used in the respective content code.

4. If you watch carefully,  for menu we are using <ul> unordered lists like below

<ul>
<li onClick="activeLink('home.html')"><a href="javascript:void(0);" id="home">Home</a></li>
<li onClick="activeLink('about.html')"><a href="javascript:void(0);" id="about">About</a></li>
<li onClick="activeLink('downloads.html')"><a href="javascript:void(0);" id="downloads">Download</a></li>
<li onClick="activeLink('webresources.html')"><a href="javascript:void(0);" id="webresources">Web Resources</a></li>
<li onClick="activeLink('techvideobytes.html')"><a href="javascript:void(0);" id="techvideobytes">Tech Video Bytes</a></li>
</ul>

For each link we are calling one JavaScript function like “activeLink()”, when user clicks on the respective links provided this link loads the respective page in the container provided. That is, here container is the “pagecontent”. Search for “pagecontent” in the respective file you can see this is as a div “Id”.

5. Now just open “ajax.js ” file, and search for the function activeLink(linkId) , here “linkId ” is the parameter we are passing to this function. This will holds the respective page file name like activeLink(’about.html’) , here we are passing about.html as a parameter to the function activeLink. From there we are passing this parameter to another function named “loadPage() ”.

function activeLink(linkId)
{
loadPage(linkId, 'pagecontent', '<p><img src=\"images/loading.gif\" /> Content is loading, Please Wait...</p>', '<p>Error in Loading page <img src=\"images/error_caution.png\" /></p>');
}

6. loadPage() has got more parameters like pageURL , divElementId , loadingMessage , pageErrorMessage .

loadPage(pageUrl, divElementId, loadinglMessage, pageErrorMessage)

Description of  the above parameters are depicted below:

pageURL – this is the parameter where in which we are passing the respective page URL that is respective filename, here we are passing respective file names as “home.html”, “about.html”, “downloads.html”, “webresources.html”, “techvideobytes.html”.

divElementId – here we are giving the container id, that is when user clicks on the respective links the respective page will be called into that container.

loadingMessage – this parameter is used for showing the user a message while loading the page.

pageErrorMessage – this parameter is used when there is error in loading a respective page .

7. In loadPage() function we are creating respective HTTP request objects for different browsers.

8. Once the request is success then we are calling one function named “responsefromServer() ” where in which we are sending two parameters one is “divElementId” and the other is “pageErrorMessage”.

9. Once the request is success, it will load the page into the respective container using open function with get method.

var req;
function loadPage(pageUrl, divElementId, loadinglMessage, pageErrorMessage) {
document.getElementById(divElementId).innerHTML = loadinglMessage;
try {
req = new XMLHttpRequest(); /* e.g. Firefox */
} catch(e) {
try {
req = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");  /* some versions IE */
} catch (e) {
try {
req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");  /* some versions IE */
} catch (E) {
req = false;
}
}
}
req.onreadystatechange = function() {responsefromServer(divElementId, pageErrorMessage);};
req.open("GET",pageUrl,true);
req.send(null);
}function responsefromServer(divElementId, pageErrorMessage) {
var output = '';
if(req.readyState == 4) {
if(req.status == 200) {
output = req.responseText;
document.getElementById(divElementId).innerHTML = output;
} else {
document.getElementById(divElementId).innerHTML = pageErrorMessage+"\n"+output;
}
}
}

If you want to know more information regarding the concepts of AJAX, and need to know more about the HTTP request objects then need to visit this page once - Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications , this is a very powerful page where you can learn the actual concept of AJAX and at the bottom of the page you can see some Question and Answers section, where you can get most of the Answers for your questions.

Hope the above steps help us a lot in developing robust web applications using AJAX.

Download and Live Preview:
You can download the entire code here - download , and if you want to see live preview - here is the link to visit - SimpleAJAXWebsite

You may like to read this:

1. Snippet Code for Simple Ajax Tabs with cool CSS Styles

2. Using XMLHttpRequest, reading XML data (Adobe AIR Application)

If you see, TechVideoBytes is completely a technology based website, which depicts the ease of highlighting video tutorials on various software tools and various programming languages. You can learn tools online without paying anything, yes! its absolutely free bucks. Just select your favorite keyword and on a click you can view the respective video playing on the other page, and on the page we are consolidating all the relative videos in respect to your keyword selected, if you would like know more about the TechVideoBytes just crawl into the website – TechVideoBytes .

About the contest:
Here in this contest there are nine $10,000 first place winners, and the 20 $500 second place winners which are determined by the 5 categories of TopCoder Community Favorite. If you guys want to know more about this contest just jump into TopCoder

In the first place winners we stand in 4th place, and the categories includes Usage – 90, Innovation – 80, API – 80, AOL – 62, TC Rank – 94 and coming to over all Weighted Score is – 81.2

We are glad to bags this prize gift, and will strive hard to come up with other innovative web applications in coming future.

We had a crawl to all the websites which are listed in the prize winning list, we have many favorites websites which we liked the most is  MapOfVideo , SVid , VideoBuzz the network of Wittysparks , VideoSearchBot . MapOfVideo has also got good features in the application which provided has got many other options by clicking on the respective spot and stands in 1st Position, SVid it has got featured all the categories in all aspects, which is awesome enough to see and stands in 2nd place, VideoBuzz has bagged in 14th position in the contest. This site has got good look and feel providing all the respective top videos, featured videos and upcoming videos related to Hollywood, Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood and more. VideoSearchBot is an AIM bot for video search based on Truveo Video Search API. Just type the query and he will give you the video list with integrated links, which stands in 3rd position in $500 prize winner.

Finally! Kudos to all people who won prize gifts from Truveo.

Name of the application is Tech Video Bytes, and can be viewed at this location http://www.developersnippets.com/techvideobytes

Just click on the above link, this will take you to the awesome application where in which you have a liberty to search your favorite video and learn from the same at a single click.

Do you want to learn programming languages quickly and efficiently with out attending any private institutions by paying lot of bucks? By this application you can learn your favorite programming languages through Videos. And want to be familiar with designing tools like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Adobe Aftereffects, 3D Studio Max, Maya and many more through this Video Search Application.

Do you want to listen to what experts says about the latest technologies and want to be in touch with latest technologies, yeah here is the right place to come in and search for your favorite video on particular seminar.

Best features ever to search your favorite video online:

• Towards your left, we have placed a column for Categories, where in you can view many categories that we have listed as of now we have listed only few that we like most and useful for the developers and users. Just click on your favorite respective link, this will take you to the best filtered videos related to that link.For Example: If you click one Photoshop link in the left pane provided, it will show Photoshop related Video links with respective images in the center pane that is in the results pane. With Video Links and Images, description about the video is also provided. Just click on the respective video link you like, this will take you to the Video Page with your favorite video. In that way you can view the favorite video online without paying any bucks it’s all free!Below “All Categories ” lists we have provided Related Channels and Related Tags , these sections will be automatically updated depending on your search results.Related Channels: This will show respective video channels
  Related Tags: This will show up respective tags for your easy search.
• Below the Header in the input box provided, enter your search criteria like for example, Enter Photoshop and click on the “Search Videos ” button. This will filter all the search criteria and will displays all the respective results (that is Video Links, Respective Video Images and Descriptive text about the video).
• Center Pane, This will depicts the search results. Above the search results, you can find your respective search criteria as a heading like if you enter “Photoshop ” in the input box provided then it will display as “Photoshop ” and below that number of the results found.
• In a page we are showing only 15 video links, and if you want to navigate to the other results we have provided pagination functionality for your better navigation purposes.
• Towards your right that is in the third column, we have placed “Featured Videos”, right now in the top we have displayed only Adobe related products and below that we have placed many featured videos this will be updated once in a week.In the featured video’s section, we have displayed the respective title of the Featured Video, below that respective image of the video and beside to that respective description and after that respective Category, Channel, Related Tags.
• If you go to the video page (By clicking on the respective video links provided / the links which are filtered from the search criteria), the Video page will the respective video, as of now we have in the left pane we are listing all the respective Categories and will be adding other categories in upcoming days. And towards your right that right pane, under Featured Videos section, we have placed “Related Videos ” depending on your search and below that respective Related Categories , Related Tags , and Related Channels depending on your search criteria will be automatically changes depending on your search criteria.

Above are the respective features which we have implemented as of now, we will be coming up with new features and new functionalities in the near future.

Place your Video for Free: If you want to place your video, we are glad to accept that but with one condition! Your video should be related to Technology, we mean related to Information Technology, which should be helpful to the end users. And even we promise that if the video is really helpful we will showcase that in the front page of Developer Snippets and as well in the Tech Video Bytes page. In this way you can promote your valuable website through our site.

To send in your respective videos, just draft a mail with all your details and video link (or) video which should be less than 10MB.

Just add “Video :<< Video Title>> | <<Video Duration>> | <<Small Description about the Video>> ” to mail SUBJECT line and sending in to vivekananda_ind@yahoo.com , by looking at the subject line. May have a chance to delete your mail if you have not mentioned the subject line properly as depicted above.

Here is a request from our Team; please let us know your valuable feedback about this application, and help us in growing. If you guys want to add more functionalities to the application, please do inform us and write into us at vivekananda_ind@yahoo.com

Link to the Site: http://www.developersnippets.com/techvideobytes

And it has also got awesome feature like to select your respective style of your graph like, Bar Graph, Line Graph, Points, 3D Bar View.

Vertical Bar Charts

13styles is all about css menus . The menus are list based, very light-weight, easy to implement, and cross-browser compliant. Some of the css menus are free and some require you to purchase rights to use them. We also provide daily inspiration in the form of a css menu gallery .

This site has got ‘n’ number of CSS Menus which are free and is easy to download since they are in KB’s. I would like to recommend to follow W3C Standards to built like wise menus, if you are good in CSS and if you have a capability to develop light weight and are cross-browser compliant menus, then they are ready to pay you $50 for it. This is the time to grab the same right? then what are you waiting for just develop a CSS menu and earn $50 online.

I liked Slate CSS Menu very much, its really awesome enough. Link for CSS Menus - http://www.13styles.com/category/css-menus/ and link for Slate CSS Menu is http://www.13styles.com/css-menus/slate/

The article reads like this - Scalable CSS buttons Using PNG and Background Colors

In the above article from DAVID, he has explained the things clearly, the buttons has got

• Full scalability in all directions
• The use of one single png image for the button without overlapping
• The possibility to change background colors behind the image (also on hover)
• Super-clean HTML markup
• Unobtrusive javascript for altering the DOM
• Pure CSS for styling
• Possibility to style anchors as well as form buttons
• Full degradability for browsers without images or javscript

If you would like to see the demo of the same, here is the link for the same - Scalable CSS Buttons

This is awesome right, I thought to share this with you! enjoy!

These 7 Categories includes about content, server, cookie, css, javascript, images, mobile. And in each category it includes some lists, to understand these tricks in brief they made it very simpler.

Some of the best practices includes like: Need to reduce the number of DOM elements, No 404 Pages, Split components Across Domains, Preload components, Avoid CSS Expressions, Putting Style Sheets on the top, putting all JavaScript and Respective Scripts at the Bottom, Make JavaScript and CSS External… etc.,

If you want to know more information on this, then need to visit this link . From this link I gone though one awesome website that is alistapart.com , I think most of the people might know about this is very good site to learn all the respective tricks to develop good and standard compliance web pages.

I would like to recommend to have a look and even if possible just go through it througly to get used of it since this will help us a lot in the long way run in speeding up your web site.

Hope this article may help us in all our aspects.

In this collection you can view all set of cool glossy buttons, badges, bars, arrows, icons, symbols, miscellaneous shapes, stars and many more at one place. It has got bunch of free vector glass buttons and bars which can be used for your webpage or blog, since they are in vector format, they can be easily manipulated and scaled to fit your layout without having to worry about pixellation.

Below are some of the links which I have taken from bittbox.com

1. 72 Free Vector Glass Buttons and Bars
2. Free Vector Badges - Glass
3. Illustrator Tutorial: How to make a Vector Glass Button
4. Free Vector Glass Bar Set - Diagonal Striped
5. Free Vector Buttons and Icons - Metal and Glass
   
6. Free High-Gloss Graphite Buttons
7. Free Photoshop Buttons: White Glass
8. Free Glass Number Icons

RSS Feeds: If you want to subscribe to this site here is the link for the same - http://www.bittbox.com/feed/ and be update to date.

Rock up the Web World!!!