I'd also really like some pictures of the finished product.

That's actually very useful for me though. Especially if a site has a lot of tests, or I'm running tests for a multitude of clients. It means I have to babysit the tests less frequently.

I really recommend the book, it's a great read.

  1. The atomic bomb
  2. Jet aircraft
  3. The digital computer
  4. Modern rocketry

  1. The internet
  2. The space program
  3. The interstate highway system

Probably the biggest peacetime innovation since the end of the Cold War has been the sequencing of the human genome. But arguably that was also a computer science innovation, as it revolved around better assembly algorithms and required no test pilots, clinical trials, or atomic bomb detonations.

The first freeway network was in Germany before WW2.

Before the internet gained popularity, about everyone with more than one computer tried to connect them together. There were quite a proliferation of networks before the internet subsumed them all (after all, even the term "inter" net was derived from connecting disparate networks together, not computers). There was BIX, FidoNet, Compuserve, Prodigy, MCINet, just to name a few off the top of my head. Some students at Caltech in the 70's built their own ad-hoc network when I was there.

While the other networks have all been forgotten today, to suggest that without the ARPAnet networks wouldn't have happened is without foundation.

Germany didn't just say "hey, first ever flight by a jet aircraft! let's celebrate by, I dunno, invading Poland in four days' time!"

Neither the US, British, nor German governments wanted anything to do with funding jet research until they saw flying jet airplanes.

Jet aircraft are a poor example of foresighted government research.

Taking your points in turn:

1. August 1939 in Nazi Germany wasn't exactly peacetime :) They were already planning to invade Poland. I believe it's pretty well established that aircraft development slowed between the wars but really got underway again with WW2 and then the Korean War.

http://www.ww2pacific.com/jethist.html

2. The Autobahn was arguably a peacetime development (though very useful for war), but it's inarguable that the US Interstate Highway System was developed for defense purposes.

3. Would computer networking have happened in some fashion? Probably, but DARPA saw it as a national security issue and cut through various kinds of red tape. Fiber could be laid across huge swaths of the country without environmental impact statements or FCC involvement. It's hard to say what would have happened without sponsorship from one part of the government.

2. Both the German autobahn system and the US interstates were partially justified by military use, and both were done in peacetime.

3. Computer networking did happen independently from the ARPAnet, and it did cover the entire country, both with dedicated lines and piggybacking over the phone lines. All the networks I mentioned were national (and even international) in reach. Everyone with more than one computer wanted to connect them together.

In America during WW2, the government told Lockheed to halt their dev work on jet engines and concentrate on piston engines. Flying jet aircraft (from GB and Germany) again changed their mind.

First of all, there is no way to know what would have happened if there was no war. Some of those things might have been invented anyway. Maybe other more important things would have been invented.

Also, if you look at non-war years they too are full of innovation. The period just before WW1 brought us the light bulb, the telegraph, the phone, skyscrapers, the type writer, etc. etc. I mean, it was over a slightly longer period of time, but I don't think it would be outrageous to argue that the rate of innovation was just as high as during WW2.

A working telegraph over 8 miles was invented in 1816.

typewriter 1829

telephone 1876

light bulb 1879

skyscrapers ~1890ish... but preceeded by buildings with similar number of stories from Roman times!

Yes, you're quite right. A hundred years (two thousand, if you include Roman precedent) does indeed hold more innovation than four.

And if you characterise ~98 years ('period just before WWI' with examples, 1816-1914) as 'slightly longer than WW2', which came in at 6 years (5 in earnest, 4 if you're American), perhaps you should pursue a career in archaeology, paleontology, or politics...

Work on jet engine began long before WW2 (and it failed to accelerate during WW2).

So did the work on nuclear fission (if it wasn't for top scientists incl. Einstein convincing US President to fund it, there wouldn't be Manhattan Project at all. German scientists fortunately failed to persuade Nazis even though they were much closer to nuclear device.)

Picking a color scheme. What colors work well together? Why do they work well together? How do I find good color schemes? Is there a formula or something?

White space. How much should I have? I normally just operate in increments of 5px until I think something looks good. "Looks good" ends up being smaller than other sites when I actually compare though.

Font choices and colors. I always just use arial for body text and I'm fine with that. My headers always look very bland though. What fonts compliment what? Should my headers be darker or lighter than my body text?

Gradients and box shadows. I know they can look nice and I know some people do it well, but whenever I add this kind of stuff to my graphics I think it looks corny.

Those are some things I find frustrating when designing.

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

http://www.colourlovers.com/

Poking around Color Scheme Designer should also answer your question "is there a formula?" -- the answer is yes, there is (bad taste notwithstanding).

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory and this old comment of mine: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2130084

EDIT: this page, linked from the Wikipedia article, is also quite informative: http://www.worqx.com/color/

Why is Helvetica better than Comic Sans? There must be a reason other than "obviously, it looks better". Don't hesitate to show me the math, and the formulas. I got a machine with me. It can calculate pretty good.

I really like Futura or Baskerville for headers, and I think you should pick a bright, contrasting color against the body copy.

Gradients and Box shadows do look really cheesy with just CSS. The trick is that you should always add a little noise, somewhere between 1 or 2 percent, to your gradients or shadows so you can make them look more textured instead of just flat colors. There's a filter called "Film Grain" which I think is much better than "noise", but it's usually an external plugin. You're gonna have to hit photoshop for that, because I don't know if there is a noise/grain css effect.

I think in your case, feedback and validation from peers will be essential. However you'll have a leg up on the rest of us. Designing for accessibility is a challenge you already understand better than I do.

As for writing copy, there are definitely people more qualified to advise you than me!

    function becho($value, $key = NULL)
    {
        echo '<br /><span style="background: #FFFFFF; color: #000000;">' . (NULL != $key ? $key . ' = ' : '') . $value . '</span>';
    }

    function s($num)
    {
         return $num == 1 ? '' : 's';
    }

    echo 'Showing ' . $results . ' result' . s($results) . '.';

    function echo_r($x){
        echo '<pre>';
        print_r($x);
        echo '</pre>';
    }