Do you ever feel uncomfortable giving your email address to websites who require it for their services? I know I certainly do. The last thing I want is to open my inbox to discover that it’s filled with tons of spam! Well, thanks to the folks over at spambox.us, we no longer have to worry about our email addresses being added to spam lists.

Spambox.us offers a free service where you can create a temporary email address that will forward all incoming mail to your usual email address. No more worrying about your email address being given out to spam lists!

We create for you a temporary e-mail address that will expire in the time you chose, all the mails directed to this e-mail will be transparently forwarded to your real e-mail.
For example, you need to register on a forum that requires e-mail verification, so you generate a spambox e-mail with an expiry of one hour. The generated e-mail will expire in an hour, way enough for the Forum to send you the verification code.

I’m aware that this type of service has been around for a while, but I’ve personally tested this one out on a few different occasions, am very happy with it, and highly recommend it.

I came across something that I didn’t even realize I totally needed until now!

I hadn’t really given much thought to, “Holy cow! What if there’s a fire or flood? My poor computer!” prior to seeing this product…

The world’s first and only fire resistant and waterproof hard drive. Direct USB connectivity to a laptop or desktop computer. Enables backup of critical data in the event of crash, computer failure and fire and water-related disasters. Encased hard drive provides protection from dust and dirt.

A $339.99 investment is a pretty small price to pay for the security of knowing that your computer and the information in it are safe!

- Source -

Ever thought about diving into Adobe Flash to tap into its powerful capabilities, or have you played around a little when you had no choice because a client needed something? If either of these sound familiar or you simply want to do some fun things with Flash, then you should check out Cartoon Smart!

About three years ago, I was working with a company that had several things in Flash which needed some work and fast. They insisted that I work over their Flash banner on the front of their corporate site which is normally no biggie. At that time, they told me they would cover the training if I had anything in mind. Well, with an offer like that I couldn’t help but take them up on it! I don’t know about you, but I am an information junkie, and I always like to stay on top of anything I’m working with whenever possible.

This led me to do a comprehensive search for all things Flash training. After a lot of digging I came across Cartoon Smart and had to try out the free lessons first to see if it could help me get more comfortable with Flash. I ran through the training and had some fun doing it and knew I wanted to get more. I ordered pretty much everything that Justin of CartoonSmart.com offered and dug right in. I learned a lot with each course, and still have to go through some on a DVD. As soon as I have the time to breathe I’m going to rip through them all again as they’re pretty fun.

Give cartoonsmart.com a look - you might like what you see or at least benefit from their free downloads.

On May 12th of this year the United States Postal Service has planned an expected postage increase with their consistently rising postage price. This very annoying change is one of the things that grinds my gears.

The rates are expected to change as follows:

Earlier today, I came across a blog entry that made my jaw drop! For those of you who are Designers, color enthusiasts, or simply like unique items, this might be for you! What am I referring to?  These awesome Pantone Inspired Products!  Being the Graphic Designer and nerd that I am, I immediately fell in love with all of them!

One example (my favorite) of said products would be the tea and/or coffee mug seen here:

Needless to say, my shopping list just grew much larger!

Written By: Karen

The other day I was researching Web Design ideas and different color schemes. I came across a site that I just have to share with you! I am in love with it! The site is called COLOURlovers – Color & Design Community For Creative Inspiration. I’ve only been a member for a few days, myself, but I have already gotten a lot of use out of the place.

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color
trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for
ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification -
a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit
news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

COLOURlovers gets two big thumbs up from me…a Graphic Designer!
Written By: Karen

A few years ago I came across a wonderful website that I have been using as an ongoing resource for website icons. I had spent a few hours here and there looking for quality icons consistently for years that wouldn’t empty my wallet. After many different let downs with search after search on Google, Yahoo and MSN, I came across an excellent icon site that I have been a member of ever since. The name of this site is iconbuffet.com.

At iconbuffet.com they offer a free account to their service named free delivery. This is hands down one of my favorite graphical resources on the net. Once signed up for this cost free icon account you receive fairly regular free icon delivery notifications via email (normally 1-2 times per month). Upon receiving the email you click on the link provided to accept your free delivery from the IconBuffet Chef iconmaster. You then login after arriving at the site and click on the accept delivery link to add the set to your account where you can download them.

IconBuffet also allows you to trade with other members of the free service. There are tons of icons available, and even after a few years with the service I do not have all of the sets created. Maybe you should join and help me collect them all! If you’re curious how they make money when they’re giving away these high quality icons then let me fill you in. They offer for purchase only sets as well of course! These are some pretty desirable Stock Icons that sell for a varying range of prices. There is also the occasional deal on there for sale, such as their Icon Starter Collection sets that they have offered at times for as low as $5.

Overall this site is well worth a good long look and your time signing up for a free delivery account; That is if you’re looking to build your quality icon collection.

Make sure to tell me what you thought of the site on your way back through!

SitePoint.com just announced their latest competition. Write the best online article about Adobe Flex or AIR submitted over the next 4 weeks for SitePoint.com, and you could win one of two copies of Adobe CS3 Web Premium (donated by Adobe). Adobe CS3 Web Premium retails for $1599USD and is filled with essential software for any web designer.

Want to hear more? Go to sitepoint.com now to find out more.

Being a fresh site just starting out means we can use all of the quality content we can get our hands on. We are currently seeking quality article contributers. Are you talented in running a web site, building one, marketing one, or anything related to the industry? If you are a talented professional that would like to share with the Internet, then we would love to talk with you.

If you would like to volunteer your experience, then please contact us at: volunteer [at] recognizedgenius.com

Adobe recently released their first major update for ColdFusion Server version 8.

The ColdFusion Update (8.0.1) added 64-bit support for almost every platform, includes improvements with AJAX functions, CFPDF, and CFIMAGE. They have also updated several software libraries (Yahoo, ExtJS and FCKEditor) there is also over 100 bug fixes. If you would like to read about the exciting changes/updates you can read the CF 8 Update 8.0.1 release notes (PDF) and FAQs.

If you use and administrate ColdFusion Server 8 then you should go grab this update now.