MacSanta features software from 5 different Mac developers each day, offered at a 20% discount to you.

And today only, you can receive a 20% discount off the price of ColorSchemer Studio by using the coupon code MACSANTA07 when you purchase through our Online Store. But act fast – this coupon expires today!

And make sure to check back with MacSanta each day to see what new deals he’ll have for you tomorrow!

While people are gearing up for October with all kinds of breast cancer events and fundraisers, there’s another growing group of people spreading the word across the internet.

Pink for October is a campaign that started last year, in 2006 with a small group of web designers who wanted to design their web sites with a pink theme in order to bring awareness to the cause.

“Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.”
~ Official Pink for October site

That small group quickly grew into more than 1500 people, including many non-designers. This year they’re hoping to see many more people joining in. If you have a website and you have creative control over it, consider “going pink” and posting a note about the Pink for October campaign.

Aside from just redecorating, participants can also share stories and help raise funds to support breast cancer research.

Some help for non-designers

If you’re not a web designer but would like to “go pink” with the rest of them, don’t worry. There are plenty of web templates out there with pink themes. If you’re a Wordpress user, try the Wordpress Theme Viewer and search for pink.

I’ve also developed a couple for you myself, which you can find on my downloads page. I haven’t been able to find any quality templates outside of Wordpress, but in many cases if you contact the designer of the theme they may give you permission to convert it to another platform if you give them credit for the design. You may also have some luck with the Wikipedia entry. There are some other types of templates listed there.

Pink Inspiration

For those who want to design your own web site, here are a few color schemes for inspiration:

You may also do a search in the Gallery for “pink“, or even “pink for october“, and if you create a theme yourself, why don’t you add the “pink for october” tag so others can find it.

Posted by guest blogger Natalie Jost. Natalie is a web designer and a lover of all things color. You can read her blog at standardsforlife.com.

If your drink is too hot, the normally-brown lid will turn bright red to warn you that you’re about to burn your mouth. And if it isn’t sealed properly on the top of cup, the lid shows spots of brown to indicate it’s loose.

McDonalds could have used this product a few years ago when they lost a lawsuit for $2.9 million (later reduced to $640,000) to a woman who burned herself and filed suit because her coffee was too hot. And I could have used this last week when I burned the roof of my mouth and couldn’t taste anything for 2 days.

Perhaps taking a cue from Apple and the various colors they offer on many of their products, Dell has gone a step further and created a new tool to help you find the accessories that match your favorite color and style.

Just select your favorite color from the swatches listed on the page, and then the tool will highlight all of the categories that contain products available in your color.

Looking for some green headphones to match your new green iPod Shuffle? No problem. Wishing you had a pink mouse to go with your favorite pink t-shirt? Wish no more. Searching for a brown carrying case to hold your brown Zune? Well, you’re probably not (since I’ve never actually seen a Zune on the streets), but Dell makes it easy to find those too.

I’m glad to see that companies are beginning to realize that color is not a “one-size-fits-all” component of the product, but rather an opportunity to let customers personalize and develop a connection with their products.

Do you own a product that’s offered in multiple colors (iPod, laptop, etc)? What color is it? Why did you pick that color?

And for those who are a little confused, “FF0000″ is the HTML hex code for the color red…

If you’re not familiar with COLOURLovers, it’s a great community of people that share, rate and discuss colors and palettes (you can even download color palettes from their site directly to Color Schemer Studio!). It’s also a very small community compared to their competition for the award. They’re up against Flickr, Del.icio.us, Threadless, and Yahoo! Answers. All big-time companies with big-time recognition…

So let’s help to put the little guy on the map!

Here’s how you can help:

• Cast your vote:

  Visit pv.webbyawards.com and register to vote. The registration box is on the right.

  Once you’re registered, click the websites category box towards the bottom left and then find the Community under the Connections tab.

• Update: Flickr has won.

So if you’ve already made the switch to Windows Vista, or if you’re planning to upgrade sometime soon, you can grab the latest release of Color Schemer Studio here:

http://www.colorschemer.com/download.php

Just install this latest release on top of your existing installation and you should be all set.

Visit MacSanta to check out all of the participating companies (including Color Schemer), and then use the discount code “MACSANTA” to save 20% on your purchase through any of their online stores.

But act fast, this discount is only valid through December 25!

So if you’re using Firefox, head over to http://library.uncc.edu/programs/firefox/colorschemer.html to install the Color Schemer Gallery search plugin with a single click. The full source code is available, too.

Now finding the right color scheme is as easy as searching Google. Great work Brad!