Sprites are an excellent way to get pages loading quicker, and if you’re not using them, you should be — and now you have help. And I’m not talking about the elf-like sprites of Harvest Moon. CSS Sprite Generatoris a handy tool that takes the pain out of making sprites for your designs. The number of HTTP requests invoked by a site does more to slow down load times than fewer, larger files do, and sprites reduce HTTP requests by combining images into a single file and using CSS to treat different areas of the file like individual images....

After Andy Edinborough was unable to figure out the source of a serious performance issue affecting a site he was working on when viewed in Internet Explorer 9, he decided to build his own CSS stress tester. CSS Strest Testis a bookmarklet that scrolls through a page, recording the time it takes to do so as it tests over and over again with different classes removed. If you’re experiencing an issue in any given browser, once the test is complete it should be clear where the culprit lies, assuming it is indeed a CSS issue....

TLDR:CTemplar takes email security to its farthest reaches, offering fully-encrypted, fully-secured email correspondence that always protects you and your sensitive information. A hacker cracked the Washington, D.C. Metro Police Department and stole 70,000 emails, including many which led to someserious embarrassment and questionsabout the department. Meanwhile, two years’ worth of emails from several City of Chicago employees were also stolen recently as authorities try todetermine the scope of the informationthat was compromised....

It’s that time again. Time to head to a conference and see what we can see. What do I think that will be? Given recent news about the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, you can bet that there will be a lot of talk. Beyond that, though, here’s what I’m betting on finding: Android Overload It’s an OS that everyone seems to be building handsets around. I can’t imagine that we’ll see much news about upcoming handsets that won’t include theAndroid OS....

Walking around the floor at CTIA, I can’t help but be amazed. While there are some fantastically expensive devices, displays and machines, the economy as a whole has taken a hit around the world and the mobile device community seems to be working with it, rather than fighting against it. Oh sure, there are massive, dual-core devices that tout 3D and more features than you’ll ever use. As long as there are mobile junkies, these devices will continue to exist....