activeCollab is an impressive open source clone of Basecamp. As you can see from the screenshot, it looks remarkably like Basecamp, even down to the navigation being nearly identical.

This application has a great deal of potential. I’m a huge fan of Basecamp - whilst activeCollab is clearly missing some of Basecamp’s headline features (most notably Writeboards), the fact that it’s free and installable on a third-party server is a real boon. As it’s open source we’re sure to see a host of user-generated add-ons and improvements integrated in the near future.

The release of activeCollab is sure to encourage (force?) 37signals to innovate further to maintain their user base.

Opera Software have released Opera 9. The update includes a number of new features including:

• Integrated BitTorrent downloader.
• Preview the contents of a tab by hovering the mouse pointer over its title. (I often have a dozen or more tabs open so this feature really appeals to me).
• Apple-inspired downloadable widgets.
• New content blocker — “Block content” option is available from the page context menu.

Opera is quite some way behind Firefox and Internet Explorer in the popularity stakes, but it’s good to see another software developer offering an alternative browser.

The author of the CSS3 preview page, Joost de Valk, has launched CSS3.info, a site dedicated to information about CSS3.

For more information on CSS3, check out:

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work 

David Greiner has written an interesting article on HTML email for Vitamin.

As a co-founder of Campaign Monitor, there’s little doubt that David knows a thing or two about HTML email. The article contains invaluable information on email clients, image usage and general advice on message content and structure. (Note the lack of discussion on multipart email - Campaign Monitor appear to strongly favour HTML-only messages, which are a big no-no in my book). However, I’m not convinced by his suggestion that CSS is a viable option when creating HTML emails. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a real advocate of standards and accessibility, but the same rules don’t apply to HTML email.

Tables are the lowest common denominator - they’ll work pretty much anywhere. CSS HTML emails are sure to be the answer in the future, when consumers and businesses alike have migrated to newer email clients, but for the time being, use tables if you want your email to email campaign to be a success.

Xyle Scope is a CSS debugging tool which allows real-time editing of style sheet information on both local and remote websites. It’s currently OSX only unfortunately, but if you do have a Mac it’s an absolute must:

http://www.culturedcode.com/xyle/