opportunity__cost

BookBook is a one-of-a-kind, hardback leather case designed exclusively for MacBook and MacBook Pro. Available in Classic Black or Vibrant Red, BookBook brings three levels of security to your prized Mac. First, the hardback cover and spine provide solid protection from the rigors of the road. Second, the vintage book design disguises MacBook for superior security. And third, the stylish case protects you from being like everyone else because BookBook is totally original, just like you.

Awesome.

I've just finished this book. Well, my impression is mixed. This is a solid product from the reputable resource, however, I didn't find much for myself in it. It was a worthwhile reading though.

It's sold exclusively by the Smashing Magazine, and I had a chance to get it with 20% discount and free shipping my pre-ordering. It's a little bit on expensive side now ($29.90 plus shipping costs), but the print is great. (However, because of the format, I wasn't feeling comfortable reading it -- to tight and small.)

If you're in the Web business, and, especially, designing stuff, make sure to take a look at it.

Amazon Associates Bookmarklet

A bookmarklet to convert any Amazon product page into a page 'tagged' with your Amazon Associates ID

Amazon Associates Bookmarklet v1.1

To use this bookmarklet, follow these steps:

1. Drag the above link to your browser's toolbar.
2. Edit the JavaScript to reflect your Amazon Associates ID (i.e., change "justinblanton-20" to your ID).
3. Click the bookmarklet while you are on any Amazon product page.
4. Wait for the page to refresh and then, depending on your intended use, either do nothing or copy/paste the URI that's now in the address bar.

I've tested this only on Firefox and Safari, but it should work with most any web browser.

*Disclaimer*: I love Amazon. And I have Amazon Associates account that gives me a chance to send people to Amazon thru my referral links and get paid. I usually generate about 10 bucks in 6 months, so this is more like fun rather than a business. :)

Anyways, after getting tired of Firefox slowness on my Mac laptop and moving to Safari, I found that I missing the Amazon Affiliates plugin more than I thought I would. Even after Amazon has added a site bar on the top of the page, it still needs too much of clicks and keystrokes.

So I thought that I would do a quick bookmarklet to make a proper affiliates link for Amazon pages. However, Googling first, I found this link and it was working fine.

With one little issue - the link was still too long. Well, it's much shorter than what Amazon gives to me, but still long. So I tweaked the Javascript code a little bit to make it produce a better links:

Was:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0015T963C/iwhite-20/ref=nosim/

Now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=iwhite-20

You can probably do well without URL shortener now.

Here is the code:

javascript:aid='iwhite-20';asin='';if(document.getElementById('ASIN')){asin=document.getElementById('ASIN').value;document.location='http://www.amazon.com/dp/'+asin+'/\?tag='+aid}else{alert('I\'m%20sorry,%20but%20an%20ASIN%20can\'t%20be%20found.%20Please%20make%20sure%20you\'re%20on%20an%20individual%20product%20page.')}

Sorry if it doesn't read well - I don't know all the tricks of Posterous' bookmarklet, yet, too. :) Enjoy.

The book has 300 pages in all, full of practical and useful knowledge for designers and Web developers. It contains 10 chapters and is printed in full color. The book is a paperback and is 8.27 × 5.5 inches (21 × 14 cm).

The book is available exclusively from Smashing Magazine and nowhere else. This first and only Smashing Book looks at Web design rules of thumb, color theory, usability guidelines, user interface design, best coding and optimization practices, as well as typography, marketing, branding and exclusive insights from top designers across the globe.

It was written by Jacob Gube (SixRevisions), Dmitry Fadeev (UsabilityPost), Chris Spooner (Spoongraphics), Darius A Monsef IV (COLOURlovers.com), Alessandro Cattaneo (with co-editing by Jon Tan), Steven Snell (VandelayDesign), David Leggett (UXBooth), Andrew Maier (UXBooth), Kayla Knight (regular writer on SM), Yves Peters (Typographica.org), René Schmidt (system administrator of our servers) and the Smashing Magazine editorial team, Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz.

While I can hardly wait for my copy of The Smashing Book to arrive, I was unpleasantly surprised that the shipping time is 30-40 days. Damn. I'd never call this *free shipping* if I'd knew. But I'm hoping for the best and that the book is worth it.