As a big ASP.NET advocate, I'm loving the recent surge in open source / free ASP.NET applications that are hitting the web - And what's more because Microsoft have given us some great building foundations with the frameworks like the ASP.NET Membership Provider, a lot of these open source programs are very high quality!  More so than some of the paid applications.

I thought it would be a good idea to create an ever growing list of all the open source ASP.NET applications I could find - Obviously I haven't had chance to download or install every application so I can't vouch for them (The only ones I have used I'll mark with a *)

e-Commerce / Online Shopping Carts

1. Dash Commerce - http://dashcommerce.org
2. Dot Shopping Cart - http://www.dotshoppingcart.com/
3. VevoCart - http://www.vevocart.com/
4. e-Shop ASP.NET - http://fkn1337.com/e-shop-aspnet-mysql-script/
5. PressTopia Shop - http://presstopia.com/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=236 More...

I had the challenge recently of creating an A5 flyer that we could use to hand out round local business parks, I say challenge in the fact that anyone in this industry knows how 'touchy' people and businesses can be when approaching them about their website.

Because a lot of small businesses get friends or associates to design and build their website, or they have had a lot of input in the design and functionality - Even with the most innocent suggestions of improving the site to help the business, people tend to jump straight into a defensive mode and trying to have a conversation about improving anything is almost impossible!

So to try and get our name about, my mission was to create a double sided flyer that:

1. Caught peoples eye
2. Instantly let the person know what type of service we are offering
3. Wasn't pushy but got to the point
4. Came across as friendly and warm More...

I have been with PayPal for some time and use PayPal payments pro for a number of website's, recently I needed to speak to someone about my account and spent 45 MINUTES trying to get through their stupid electronic phone system.

So to save anyone else in the UK trying to get through to PayPal here are a couple of numbers and a little tip:

0870 730 1880

0870 730 1881

TIP!!!

Now to actually get through and speak to a HUMAN..  Keep saying MAIN MENU until you get the main menu and then say AGENT this transfers you straight to a PayPal agent!

I know everyone and their uncle does these types of lists, but as I have about 4 zillion bookmarks I thought I would collate them here and maybe the list could be useful to other people.  I find the design part of web design the hardest and takes me the longest (Being an in-training programmer ) so these types of site are great and give me a lot of inspiration and help with colour matching / schemes.

1. http://cssremix.com/
2. http://cssmania.com/
3. http://www.cssheaven.com/
4. http://www.cssbeauty.com/
5. http://bestwebgallery.com/
6. http://screenfluent.com/
7. http://cssprincess.com/
8. http://www.cssclip.com/
9. http://www.csselite.com.ar/
10. http://www.piepmatzel.de/
11. http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
12. http://www.studio7designs.com/
13. http://www.thedesignedtree.com/
14. http://www.professionalontheweb.com/
15. http://freelanceswitch.com/working/34-places-to-get-design-inspiration-online-and-off/
16. http://www.designbyfront.com/portfolio/index.html
17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/splat/sets/981332/
18. http://www.stare-at.com/
19. http://www.n3o.co.uk/portfolio.aspx
    
20. http://www.clearleft.com/portfolio/

Just been reading up about the latest Marvel comic films coming out, so far we have Hulk coming out this weekend and on their way Wolverine & the new Punisher Film.

Here's the posters with trailer links

More...

Well I have finally done it...  I managed to finish the first version of ASPLD and have decided to open it up to the ASP.NET open source scene.  I was going to charge few bucks initially but just decided it would be much better all round if I just let it be open source, in the hope people might submit a few themes and if it becomes fairly popular I'll really give version 2 a lot of time.

This version 1 is pretty scaleable and you can customise it fairly easily, being fairly new to ASP.NET (Been doing it about 12 months) I hope to really make the code more efficient over the next versions as I gain more experience, and maybe even change to MVC once its released.. But we'll see! More...

Adding some new additions to Chair Office today, I have been steadily trying to build the site with a bigger range of chairs and have recently put on a new supplier (Although I haven't managed to get their Office Chairs on yet).

Anyway these new additions are pretty cool - There are a pink junior study chair, blue junior study chair and a extra comfy leather office chair (Pictures below)