Whenever you're working with a lot of smaller images you're supposed to combine them into a single one called a sprite. You can get an example of what I'm talking about by looking at Google's sprite, which has most of the little icons you'll come across while searching.

As a developer I'm always creating temporary DNS entries to try out new things. I own several domains that I'm able to work with, and more often than not I just end up adding a subdomain for anything I may need.

You may be wondering what the best way is to develop code on some of these web-only computers that are coming out like the Chromebook. Well, one free solution is CodeRun, which is a feature-packed development environment for C#, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and a few other languages. Here is a list of the main features you'll find in the CodeRun IDE:

Last year we wrote about an image sharing service called Min.us that was unique in the way they made image/photo sharing super simple. If you haven't been following their blog you'll probably be pleased to hear about some of the great features they've been rapidly adding.

Windows only In the past I've had people ask me how they can extract the audio from a video they have on their computer. Most of the time it's because they have a video of a live concert performance (one that's professionally recorded) and they want a way to put it on their iPod without needing to throw the whole video on there.

Do you have suspicions that your ISP may be throttling (a.k.a. traffic shaping) some of your Internet traffic? It's easy to tell if your ISP is blocking something, such as BitTorrent traffic, since nothing will get through, but it is more difficult to tell whether they are just restricting your download/upload speeds. That's where the free Glasnost service comes into play.

It can be a pain sharing files with other people if you don't know whether they will have issues opening a document, or whether they even have the necessary programs installed. For example, lets say you had a Photoshop file that you wanted to show someone.

I've heard of people getting some great deals on hotels around the world thanks to Priceline. The site lets you place a bid for a hotel based on the location, date of travel, number of stars, and a few other factors. The catch is that if you place your bid too low it likely won't be accepted, and you won't be able to place another bid for 24-hours unless you change some of the criteria.

We all use todo lists in different ways, and the great thing about them is that most of the time they can take whatever form we need them to. They can keep track of what needs to be done around the house, or help us remember the things we need to pack for a trip we're about to take.

One of the things I've always enjoyed when using Google is the additional information they will provide you with at the top of your search results. The list includes things like weather info, calculation results, sports scores, and more. All of this means you don't have to turn to another site just to find the answers to these quick questions.

Curious what the performance is like on your site? We previously covered an in-depth website testing tool, but today we've got one that provides less detail but has a much nicer layout. Stella won't break down the performance of all the different elements on your site, and instead checks on the response time, latency, and download time for any site you wish.

When Gmail first came out I was extremely impressed with the interface, but the lack of updating kinda left me wanting more. Then Google rolled out the Gmail Labs back in 2008, which drew me back to the web-based mail client because there were some pretty cool features and capabilities getting added that couldn't be found in a desktop app.

We've posted all kinds of various regular expression builders (RegExr, Rejex, and ReguLazy) to help verify that the regex you're using will match the content it is running against. When you're just learning regular expressions those tools might be a little confusing, and so we thought we should offer up a couple free sites that should help out beginners.

One of my favorite features in Google Calendar is the "quick add" capability which lets you create new events using a more natural language rather than filling out a form.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I've used the free RegExr online regular expression tester in the past, but a comment on that article by Oliver pointed out another regex tester that I enjoy because of its sheer simplicity. The thing I wasn't always fond of with RegExr is that it's Flash-based and didn't work on mobile devices such as my iPad.

I've mentioned before that I'm trying to use Google Voice more, and one thing that I'm shocked Google hasn't done is tightly integrate SMS messages with the Google Talk instant messenger.

I've been using Google Latitude with some friends and family ever since it was released last week for the iPhone. I noticed that it used very little battery on my phone, which made me wonder how frequently it actually sends updates.

Have a movie quote in your head, but can't remember what it's from? Most people turn to Google to find that kind of information, and for the most part you can find the source without too much trouble. What if you wanted to find the exact second the quote appeared in the movie so that you could actually play it back though? For that you might be better off using a site like Subzin.

I regularly follow Amazon Lightning Deals because they can turn up some big savings if you're in the market for what they have to offer. From that point of view they are like Woot.com except that Woot tries to focus on just one deal a day (with the exception of Woot-offs).

I do a lot of my shopping online, and a majority of my purchases come from either Newegg or Amazon due to their competitive pricing and speedy shipping.