Create a Multi-Layout Portfolio with WordPress

WordPress, as a content management system, is often used for creating portfolio websites. With the evolution of user interface design and functionalities, a new trend has emerged: displaying portfolio items in different layouts. This tutorial details the process of creating a dedicated portfolio section in WordPress’ backend, and using jQuery and CSS3 to display the portfolio in a classy manner — via Nettuts+

Apple takes control of iCloud.com domain

Apple today took administrative control of the iCloud.com domain less than a week before CEO Steve Jobs is to unveil his company’s new cloud-based service.

According to WHOIS searches Wednesday, Apple is now listed as the owner of the iCloud.com domain. As late as Tuesday, the domain was still registered to Swedish firm Xcerion, which had used the URL for its online file-storage service — via redwolf.newsvine.com

DNS Filtering Bill Riles Tech Experts, Hacktivists

A bill moving through the US Senate that would grant the government greater power to shutter Web sites that host copyright-infringing content is under fire from security researchers, who say the legislation raises serious technical and security concerns. Meanwhile, hacktivists protested by attacking the Web site of the industry group that most actively supports the proposal

Stop Typekit Fonts From Slowing Down Your Site

Typekit is one of the easiest ways to get fancy fonts working on your website. Just sign up for an account, pick a font and paste a few lines of code into your pages. TypeKit takes care of the rest, ensuring that your fonts load and there’s no unsightly flash of unstyled content (FOUT) or other problems.

There is, however, one possible problem with the default way of embedding Typekit fonts. If the TypeKit code fails to load, it can slow down the rest of your site. Typekit avoids FOUT by pausing your page load for a fraction of a second, but if the Typekit script never finishes loading, that fraction of a second can turn into many seconds. While Typekit has excellent uptime, let’s face it, outages happen, and we understand if you don’t want to hang your own site’s fate on another — via Webmonkey

Robots teach themselves to talk the talk

They’re not discussing the latest celebrity gossip or passing on stock tips just yet, but Australian robots have begun talking to each other – and in a language of their own devising.

The two Lingodroids, developed by the University of Queensland, have picked up their hared vocabulary for places, distances and directions — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Burning Question: Why Do We Still Have Region Codes for DVDs?

While vacationing in France, you find a DVD of Ishtar. Score! (It’s never been released on DVD in the US). But when you get home, you discover that you’ve purchased a Region 2 disc, which, in your Region 1 player, is as useful as a coaster. This raises two questions: Why do you want to watch Ishtar? And why do we still have region codes?

The answers: taste and money, respectively. Though there’s no accounting for the former, those codes may soon be gone — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google’s Wallet won’t open for Australia

Google Wallet is currently in a field test in the US only, a spokesperson from Google Australia said. We don’t have specific dates to announce today but will keep you posted as we make progress.

Now sure, we know this is only a trial, but as we’ve previously noted several times, Google’s continual US focus — and the fact that some of the products and services which it launches never end up coming to Australia, where the search giant has a large presence — has started to grate a bit. And as we’ve been discussing this week, Australia is a very enthusiastic early adopter of both smartphones with nice NFC chips, as well as the Mastercard PayPass system which Google is using for Wallet — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Scientists set new download speed record

Scientists have set a new data speed record using just a single laser to transmit the equivalent of 700 DVDs in one second.

They say their discovery will not only help to fulfil the world’s burgeoning high-capacity bandwidth needs of cloud computing and 3D high definition TV, but provide an environmentally-friendly way of transmitting data over long distances — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Glyphs

Draw shapes, modify spacing, adjust kerning, compare font weights and glyph variations all in the same view mode. See your letterforms as live text before exporting the font — via Glyphs

US enables Chinese hacking of Google

Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn’t that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated — we knew that already — it’s that the US government inadvertently aided the hackers.

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access — via redwolf.newsvine.com

ChronoPay Fueling Mac Scareware Scams

Some of the recent scams that used bogus security alerts in a bid to frighten Mac users into purchasing worthless security software appear to have been the brainchild of ChronoPay, Russia’s largest online payment processor and something of a pioneer in the rogue anti-virus business.

Since the beginning of May, security firms have been warning Apple users to be aware of new scareware threats like MacDefender and Mac Security. The attacks began on May 2, spreading through poisoned Google Image Search results. Initially, these attacks required users to provide their passwords to install the rogue programs, but recent variants do not, according to Mac security vendor Intego — via redwolf.newsvine.com