1. The first step is to purchase a shelf that already separates the shelves into sub-shelves. The Ikea Expedit is a perfect choice. Now, it is simple to devote each section of shelf to a different theme/orientation/color/etc.
2. Repeat themes multiple times throughout the entire shelf. For example, have books vertical on a couple of sections, horizontal on others, tilted on at least one, and a combination of these layouts on the rest.
3. Mix other objects with the books for added visual interest.
4. Bookshelf speakers are meant for bookshelves – put on on there.
5. Be sure to place objects on top of the shelf. There is no reason to waste space.

1: slanted books, speaker. 2: vertical books

3: vertical books with accent item. 4: horizontal books with accent item.

5: vertical books. 6: slanted book with large decorative item.

7: vertical books, accent item. 8: vertical books

The final arrangement. Various arrangements add character to the ensemble.

If only all sites looked this good... {4president.us}

There’s a slight chance that rapper Nelly had the Internet in mind when he wrote the song “#1″ earlier in the decade:

What does it take to be number one
Two is not a winner and three nobody remembers, tell me
What does it take to be number one, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh

Was he referring to Web 1.0 (old content-rich HTML sites) as the best, and Web 2.0 (the social web) as lacking? And, to top it all off, did Nelly just say that no one will remember “Web 3.0” (the semantic web)? Probably not, but such a thought reminds us that Web 1.0 was a necessary building block in the grand scheme of the Web.

So, what makes an old site old and how these sites can be re-discovered?: (Adapted from sister-site 404PageFound)

1. A site created between 1994-2001 is ideal (pre-dot-com bubble burst)
2. Site last modified pre-2005, assuming it has a creation date from the mid-1990’s
3. Plain text or an archive of e-mail/newsgroup postings (very old)
4. Contains only HTML, CGI, Perl, or early Java (no PHP or CSS elements)
5. Page source code contains old date for confirmation, or old publishing software/browser citation
6. Utilizes old HTML methods and tags: animation, font-size, tables, frames
7. Clearly optimized for limited bandwidth (low-resolution graphics, simple layout)
8. Site received an Internet award in its prime (”Site of the Day”, etc.)
9. No social media whatsoever (apart from guestbook or bookmark links)
10. Content is written by the author for an audience – no user generated content
11. Can be GeoCities/Angelfire/Tripod/etc.

What does not necessarily make a site Web 1.0:

1. Simplicity
2. Lack of images
3. Post-2004 sites meant to look dated
4. Frames
5. Sites with general poor design

Best Places to Look For Old Websites:

• Used books from 1995-1997
• Old bookmark lists
• Old directory listings
• Web award site archives
• Links from old pages
• Web search for old awards, servers, years, software
• Exploration of moderately old sites for even older internal links

Bonus: Don’t forget to check out the 1996 Presidential Campaign Web Sites!

Greece:

During its occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941-1944, the rate of inflation hit 8.55 x 10^9 percent per month (prices doubled every 28 hours). As a result, the 100 Milliard, or 100 Billion Drachmai note was issued in November 1944. Although this note only displays 2 zeroes, it still contained a hefty denomination.

Yugoslavia:

Yugoslavia’s rate of inflation hit 5 x 10^15 percent inflation between 1 October 1993 and 24 January 1994 (prices doubled every 16 hours). The rate maxed out at 323 million percent per month. A 500 Billion Dinar note was issued in December 1993, and was worth roughly $6 US at the start of the day. By evening, it was only worth an equivalent $3 US.

Zimbabwe:

In 2008, a 100 billion dollar bank note was issued in July. In January 2009, however, a 100 Trillion Dollar note was released, making it the the bank note with the most zeroes (14). Only two weeks later the government dropped 12 zeroes from the curency, making the note worth Z$100. Tricky.

Hungary (29 zeroes!):

The most severe known incident of inflation was in Hungary after the end of World War II, peaking at 4.19 × 10¹⁶ percent per month (prices doubled every 15 hours). In order to keep up with the inflation rate, the government issued the 100 Million B-Pengo note in 1946. (A larger denomination note was created but never issued). A B-Pengo is equal to one billion pengo, but in European terms a billion is equal to one-thousand milliard, or one trillion in American terms. Therefore, the 100 Million B-Pengo is essentially equal to 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quintillion) Pengo. It was worth about U.S. $0.20 in 1946. Eventually, 29 zeroes were dropped when the Forint was adopted in mid-1946.

A homemade Christmas ornament {betterbudgeting.com}

Some offer quick and economically sound menus. Others give budgeting advice and help you save your hard-earned money. Add a slew of articles, e-books, tips, guides, blogs, newsletters and you have a variety of useful tools for your everyday life. (Coupon sites are useful too, but are in a category of their own).

Apart from Twitter, these frugality-promoting sites are the hottest thing of 2009. They are fun to read and serve the common good much more than entertainment sites. There is no better feeling than spending quality time with the family after getting your life under control. Be sure to check out at least a few of the following sites. They are quite helpful (and hundreds of thousands of visitors per month can’t be wrong!):

• TipHero: Inexpensive ways to live via user-submitted tips. Focus on food and home.
• Living on a Dime: Articles meant to help you save money and stay organized. Plenty of e-books, for a small fee.
• Miserly Moms: What the title says – helping moms save money so they can spend more time with their families.
• Budget Stretcher: Printable forms to structure your bills and expenses.
• The Simple Dollar: A blog specializing in the simplification of personal finance.
• Menus4Moms: Healthy dinner menus and grocery tips for moms (and dads too, I suppose).
• Get Rich Slowly: A slightly more involved personal finance blog. Very insightful.
• The Dollar Stretcher: Saving you time and money since 1996. Articles from solar power to slow cooker recipes.
• Hillbilly Housewife: Low-cost home cooking from scratch so you can have some financial breathing room.
• Living a Better Life: Monthly e-zine that helps your family stick to a budget.

Enjoy and best of luck harnessing the power of the tips!

Avoid this type of situation {deviantart}

Fear of Friday the 13th. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, 17 to 21 million Americans may have this phobia. The result is nearly a billion dollars in lost productivity because these people stay home or alter their routines. A Dutch study actually found that (at least in the Netherlands) there are fewer traffic accidents on Fridays the 13th. A British study, however, found no deviation from any other day of the year.

The final verdict: Friday has traditionally been an unlucky day for centuries, but the significance of Friday the 13th is slowly diminishing across Western culture.

At least one banker experiencing the depression of the early 1930’s cites similar crises of 1893 and 1907 to calm his nerves. He knew that his worries would soon fade. Since then, however, Americans have found the wonder of credit and abused it to no end. (Debtors Anonymous first came to Beverly Hills in 1987.) Here is a look back at some excerpts and quotes originating from Beverly Hills during past times of economic downturn.

Monday, May 5, 1980, “At Bijan: $180 Shirts, No Recession Fears; At Bijan: $180 Shirts, No Recession Fears,” Pamela G. Hollie, Special to The New York Times:

Bijan Pakzad is a maverick. At a time when an estimated 35 percent of the $7 billion men’s wear industry faces a very difficult year, as the economy weakens and many men’s stores may close their doors, Mr. Pakzad has …

{Source}

Sunday, November 15, 1992, “Beverly Hills,” Carolyn Talbot Hoagland, East Lansing, Mich., NY Times:

To the Editor: The Beverly Hills Hotel was not always the glamorous spot that David Masello described in “Life Atop the Hills of Beverly” (Aug. 23).

In 1933 the Beverly Hills Hotel proper was closed. This was the Depression. Vacant, the large rambling hotel resembled a haunted house. Perhaps the tennis courts were kept up. I don’t remember a pool, at least not one filled with water. The grounds, however, were always beautiful. The management did rent its bungalows and maintained a staff to provide maid service.

{Source}

Wednesday, November 25, 1987, “Beverly Hills Listed As a Distressed Area,” AP:

This glamorous city whose boulevards are lined with luxury shops is down in the dumps over a Federal rating that defines it as economically distressed.

This glamorous city whose boulevards are lined with luxury shops is down in the dumps over a Federal rating that defines it as economically distressed.

Although the city’s residents take home an average of $38,000 a year, among the highest in California, the Federal Goverment says Beverly Hills is qualified to apply for $56 million a year in business development grants for small cities suffering ”physical and economic distress.”

”This has got to be the all-time example that there is something wrong with the method they use to determine eligible cities,” said Ronald Lindsey, assistant redevelopment director for Maywood, where the average resident makes about 60 percent less than a Beverly Hills resident.

{Source}

February 10, 2009, “Recession Etiquette,” Laura M. Holson, NY Times:

ON a recent Monday night, Christine Peters, a producer of “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” tucked into a corner booth in the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel with a fellow producer and an actress. They chattered about a possible film for an hour or so before Ms. Peters excused herself to go to the ladies’ room. When she returned, she noticed a thin leather case sitting on the table, with the check inside.

“Did anybody get this?” she asked. Both women stared blankly, first at her, then the check. “We didn’t see it,” one finally said. When neither offered to pay the tab, nearly $100, Ms. Peters did what she has found herself doing more and more these days: she fished out her wallet and paid the check herself.

“They were polite,” she said. “But neither wanted to pay. It’s like you almost want to put them out of their misery.”

It used to be a common sight from Sparks to Spago — the boisterous scrum as diners wielding corporate cards dove for the lunch bill, crying “I’ll get it!” But since the economic downturn, the delicate social rituals of the bull market era, when executives tried to outdo one another in expense-account one-upmanship, have been upended.

Instead of dessert, many meals are ending with a cold, hard calculation of who is worth paying for and who isn’t. Often, the answers cause discomfort on both sides of the table.

{Source}

Transparent - much like WordPress

It takes some intuition and skill to successfully set up a new site. Fortunately, Internet pioneers have already discovered and addressed nearly every issue out there. WordPress support is especially detailed. Here are the useful modifications that I recently implemented:

1. Create new header images:  WordPress › Support » (kubrick) How do I change the ‘header image and color’ default size?
2. Allow rotating headers:  rotate wordpress header – Google Search
3. Make the entire image clickable:  Designing Headers « WordPress Codex
4. Add extra sidebar:  Widgets-enabled Three Columns Kubrick Theme | Felix Ker’s blog
5. Adjust width of columns:  i.ndustrio.us » How To: Widen Your Kubrick Wordpress Theme
6. Re-adjust header and footer
7. Create icon:  Adding image to URL title bar « WordPress.com Forums
8. Alter title tag:  Optimizing the Syntax in the WordPress Title Tag | Ardamis
9. Update text layout of sidebars:  Removing the WordPress sidebar bullets | Lancelhoff.com
10. Move post info to top of post:  The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress Date and Time | ThemeLib
11. Configure ads for each type of page
12. Set up new Wordpress:  Hosting WordPress « WordPress Codex
13. Change host’s limit on file size upload:  I love WordPress, or how to modify the php.ini file for uploads over 2MB on Bluehost at bavatuesdays
14. Import old posts
15. Remove blog text name from header:  WordPress Theme Park » Blog Archive » How to properly hide the title of your blog?
16. Disable custom fields:  WordPress › Support » [Plugin: WP-PostRatings] How to remove custom fields?
17. Alter the properties of the RSS plug-in
18. Add page translation ability:  Wordpress Global Translator Plugin | Nothing2Hide
19. Modify the search box:  WordPress Search Form without Search Button · Dagon Design
20. Add and tweak a variety of other plugins
21. Configure links and their images
22. Add stat counter
23. Convert old wordpress.com video codes and find a new video plugin:  WordPress › Wordpress Video Plugin « WordPress Plugins
24. Trial and error with PHP and CSS
25. Submit sitemap to Google:  Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress
26. Refresh page over and over
27. Fix image caption problem:  Image Caption not appearing in Wordpress? | Calvin’s Hub
28. Colors:  Developing a Colour Scheme « WordPress Codex
29. Screwed up script while posting:  Unresponsive Wordpress New Post Script | tech tip, Wordpress | Craig Childs

…and the list goes on