You can learn all aspects of web design and development online and for free, but for really getting to grips with a subject I personally don’t think you can’t beat a book. The photo below is of my mini library built up over 3-4 years, some of the books have seen more use than others, HTML By Example was the first web design book I bought and although much of it is now outdated (and probably not recommended) it did teach me how to build my first ever site. The more recent purchases are on the right and reflect my current interests CSS, usability and SEO.

If I was to recommend 4 of these books they would be -

• Designing with Web Standards (Voices That Matter) - Jeffrey Zeldman
• Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design (Voices That Matter) - Andy Clarke
• Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability - Steve Krug
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day - Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin

I am always on the look out for new web design and development books and would be interested in any recommendations.

I have always been aware of the importance of backing up work but up until recently it was always one of those little jobs that I didn’t quite get round to doing often enough, my setup was a 160 GB Formac external hard drive attached to my old eMac. While I didn’t have any problems with the Formac drive it had a built in fan which made the drive ridiculously noisy, also despite it’s relatively small storage size of 160 GB the drive was physically big - it took up a footprint of just under an A4 piece of paper and was the height of 2 and a half dvd cases laid flat. Because of it’s design it couldn’t really be stood on it’s end which would have saved a lot of desk space.

Having upgraded my iMac to OS X Leopard it made sense to use it’s built in backup application Time Machine, but to get the most out of it I realised I would need a bigger and better external hard drive. I decided early on that I wanted the drive to have more storage space than the iMac’s 500 GB internal hard drive and for speed I wanted a drive with a firewire connection.

Having looked at various models by various manufactures including Lacie, Western Digital and Seagate I choose a 750GB Western Digital My Book, I almost went for the next model up that has 1TB of storage but the 750GB version seemed like better value.

I have been using the My Book for a few weeks now and and it’s worked flawlessly with Time Machine, which runs in the background and is set to backup every hour. Once the drive gets full Time Machine will delete older backups. You can also choose to exclude certain folders from the backup.

The My Book is well built and size wise it’s slightly smaller in height than 4 dvd cases stood on end - it takes up very little desk space. The black plastic casing with rubber edging has a chunky feel and the glowing rings on the front are a nice touch. Most of the time the My Book is quiet, the only noise being occasional hard drive activity.

I would definitely recommend the My Book to OS X Leopard users wanting to use Time Machine, and the drive also works with both Windows XP and Vista.

One of the last things I do when finishing off a new website is to create a favicon.

Favicons (favourite icons) are the little graphics that you see in the address bars of modern browsers, they also appear next to bookmarked websites which can be helpful when trying to find a particular site in a list of others.

Thanks to online favicon makers they are simple to create from existing website logos and graphics.

Though their size 16×16 can be limiting it is surprising how creative some people mange to be, there are some good examples in this favicon gallery.

Here are some more favicon links -

Favicon ideas and inspiration

• Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons
• Favicon from Pics - Gallery
• MpP Favicon Gallery
• Favourite Favicons
• 5 tips for a nice looking favicon

Online favicon makers

• Favicon Generator - create favicons from text
• Favicon Editor
• Dynamic Drive FavIcon Generator
• Favicon Convertor
• Favicon Maker

Mac OS X has never been the best platform for SEO software, and although Bootcamp, Parallels and VMware Fusion have provided a way to use Windows based SEO software on a Mac, I still personally prefer to work in Mac OS X where possible.

Here are some Mac SEO applications I have discovered -

Advanced Web Ranking allows you to check your websites ranking in a wide range of search engines for specified keyword phrases and compare how it’s performing to your competitors. Reports can be saved which is useful to monitor changes over time. Advanced Web Ranking comes in three versions - Standard, Professional and Enterprise, and a fully featured trial can be downloaded for free.

Rank Tracker also allows you to check your websites ranking but in a more limited number of search engines, and it only shows your sites ranking - not your competitors. One notable feature though is the integration of keyword suggestion tools. Rank Tracker can be used for free though if you need to save projects you will need to upgrade to a Professional license.

Google Sitemap Automator - as the name suggests this application automates the process of creating Google site maps, which can then be used to help Google crawl your website more effectively.

iSEO - enter a web address into this handy little widget and it quickly returns various useful information about a site including page rank, alexa ranking, and number of backward links.

I am always on the lookout for more Mac SEO software, please feel free to share links.