Outer Spice has gotten its second theme approved for sale at ThemeForest.net (after 2 previous attempts). It is a version of the original Wordpress template we already got approved that has been ported to an HTML website template. Listed at an affordable $12, it is called “Caulk” (just like its older Wordpress brother) and it is already getting some buzz at Theme Forest. It is XHTML/CSS compliant, and is completely cross-browser compatible. It makes use of the jQuery library to pull off some nice effects, including featured content rotators and fancy smooth page scrolling.

This is my second edition of T.I.D.B.I.T.S., and you’re probably still asking yourself what they are and why I do them. Here’s the deal: I don’t read very much. I’m probably in the lower 25% of all readers (and consequently the upper 25% of all TV watchers). So you can rest assured that what I do actually spend my valuable time reading is pretty dang good. Using that same logic, the amount you read is somewhat proportional to the quality of things you’ll read, and that explains why you’re reading our blog. Now we come to the reason for T.I.D.B.I.T.S. Since we’re not real good writers ourselves, the least we can do is point you in the direction of good writing and great resources for your development. Today’s tidbit is one of my personal favorites.

Outer Spice is please to present it’s first premium Wordpress theme release: Caulk. It has been uploaded for sale to ThemeForest.net, which is a great site for browsing the most premium site templates there are to buy. It has been listed for $27, and is well worth the price! Here is a description of Caulk:

Let us apologize right up front for the acronym. There is something so appealing about using acronyms, even though most of the time they are inappropriate (see this article’s title (S.T.A.T.)) Anyway… we’re putting a blog in the spotlight today because we feel it is a great resource for fellow web & software developers, and we want you to know about it. Pay no attention to the banners promoting Outer Spice Web Company – we have no idea how they got there. This is a purely objective write-up.

Its no surprise here at Outer Spice Web Company that we’re space fans. Just look at the website, our dumb little quotes, etc. We love keeping up with the Google Lunar X-prize, and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander challenge. It’s a great time to be a space enthusiast the private industry is finally seeing value in space markets. Development and exploration is only going to expand from here on out.

If you’re not using Google Calendar, you should be. If you are using Google Calendar and you are not using Subscriptions, you should be. If you are already using them both, you may skip this post and proceed to the next one. Or you can comment about how awesome they are. Your choice.

Subscriptions are another genius idea from Google. You can add pre-made calendars to your own calendar so you always know what’s going on while viewing your private calendar. For instance, you can now subscribe to your favorite sports team! Take a look in your Google Calendar at the top right toolbar and you will see a link that will take you to subscriptions:

I always love when people send me links to sweet web apps that I can use. Hopefully you do to, because thats what I’m about to do. I hate using the social media hacks’ 10 ten most awesome things ever blog titles. The ranking is usually arbitrary, or worse a linkfest to sponsors, affiliates, etc. I tell you this because I want you all to know how I chose these apps. (Yes, I like you that much) This list is made up of web applications that are free, useful to me, and all of them were shown to me by someone else. Without further wheel spinning, I give you awesome web apps you might not know about.

iTunes 9 just hit “shelves” today and as with all other iTunes major releases it looks like it has some nice new added features. I know there are a lot of iTunes users out there who are tired of updating iTunes once a week, especially since it requires a complete reinstall of the application instead of just an update or patch, involving everything from re-signing the user agreement to having to delete your old iTunes icon from your quicklaunch toolbar and add the new one (when will they fix this?) If you are one of the people I’m talking about and you have been putting off updating iTunes, now is the time to do so.

In working with Wordpress I have noticed a very common trend in the footer of most themes I come across. Almost as common as ending web markup with “</html>” is the practice of tacking on the “Valid XTHML/CSS” clause. Even when the markup is miles away from actually validating. It’s actually a peculiar practice to continue including these clauses in our page footers when A) our pages are not actually validating, and B) no one really cares if our pages validate or not.

Watching the Bears and Packers debacle last night, I was struck by how important the intangible skill of leadership is. You had a pro-bowl quarterback throwing strikes to the wrong team, his receivers giving up on routes or just plain running the wrong ones. Despite all that went wrong in the first half, the Bears were able to move the ball pretty well and were in great position to take control in the second half. Instead of sprinting off the field, rallying and encouraging his new teammates – Jay Cutler moped and scowled as he walked off the field at halftime.

Not surprisingly, the team never found it’s rhythm and ended up loosing. Cutler said after the game -

“It’s still a learning process, We haven’t been together that long in game situations, so we’re still learning. But that is no excuse for what happened out there.”

Wow, that sounds like you’re kind of blaming your entire team for your 4 interceptions. Nice!