B10[mg]

The Freshmeat RSS Feed is a nice way to keep up to date with the last software releases. Unfortunately, the feed has suffered from a nasty spam'ish act by Spriteworks Development

This "company" deemed it necessary to post 27 horrible projects within a very short time frame. But fair enough, they apologized Nevertheless, let's look at (and criticize) a few of their "projects".

The first project I'd like to show you is Link-box v1.0 This gem will cost you just $7.95, but is it worth it? Of course not! Here you go, I'll give it to you (note, I have not seen the actual software, so I'm merely making something similar).

Code

<style type="text/css">
div#linkboxdiv {
   width: 175px;
   border: 2px solid #000;
   background-color: #0052AD;
   color: #FFF;
   text-align: center;
   font-weight: bold;
}

ul#linkboxul {
   list-style-image: url(/blog/images/posts/16dot5a.gif);
}

a.linkbox {
   text-decoration: none;
   color: #000;
}

a:hover.linkbox {
   border-top: 1px solid #F00;
   border-bottom: 1px solid #F00;
   color: #F00;
}

</style>

<div id="linkboxdiv">Our Products</div>
<ul id="linkboxul">
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product One</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Two</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Three</a></li>
</ul>
</code></pre>

Result

• Product One
• Product Two
• Product Three

Now that saved you $7.95! It's a shame someone actually dares to charge you for that. This is such a common technique used lately, that it cannot be hard to find something similar for free (like on this blog ;-).

But wait, we forgot to look at the "Features and benefits" of Link-Box v1.0 (please, never let there be a version 1.1, let alone 2.0). Besides the regular crap that you see everywhere (easy install, customizable, yada yada yada), we see this:

• Professional design.
• Attractive display.
• Professional-looking design.

Obviously, there aren't many benefits to this wonder of the web. Why else would you list the looks of it three times? And if that is the biggest selling point, I don't even want to see the code. To me, this looks very 90's GeoCities-ish. Definitely not professional, nor attractive.

Ok, more than enough about Link-Box, let's move on to the next marvel: Arrow-Bar v1.0

This is based on the same principal as Link-Box. Just apply some simple CSS definitions to a unordered list and you're done. Again, the author had to list that the looks were attractive and professional three times, and yet again, it looks very poor and far from professional. Why oh why pay $4.95 (yes, it's somehow cheaper than Link-Box), when you can have a way more professional looking menu created for free (or another 1000 places on the web)?

I will spare you the other projects. They are as simple and expensive as these examples.

So, remember, if you want a professional, attractive and professional-looking design, go get your CSS widgets at spriteworks.com (and pay for things that should be free (as in beer)).