Attention webmasters! Does clicking on your site’s thumbnails to load a larger image often slow surfing to a snail’s pace? Perhaps you should get a hold of FancyZoom 1.1, a new Javascript code developed by Panic.com’s Cabel Maxfield Sasser. It allows visitors to magnify the photos on your site without the pain of a separate page load. The new program brings the smoothest zooming animation possible with only two additional lines of HTML code. See it for yourself by downloading the .zip file at Cabel’s site.

Matthew Williamson, the brains behind the Austin-based design house Earph, has just launched his new Earph Exhibition. The artwork, comprised of his diverse web projects, includes Japanese print patterns, a television serving as a gateway between robots and nature, and various plants with an artistic license. Williamson makes it all look good. In case you’re looking for a few pieces for around the apartment, he has put some work up for sale in varying print sizes and even a few signed canvases.

I’ve had a mild obsession over piggy banks lately. Being without a car, I don’t have an unused cigarette tray to throw in my extra change, and my coins usually wind up on the dinner table or stuck to my leg when I get up from the floor. Enter Imaginarium’s Kidult designer toy-inspired coin banks (type in “Kidult” in the “Busca” box). They’re on the cute side, as befits the genre, but I’m drawn to their practicality: round like a fat pig belly to hold a lot of coins, large so there will be a guaranteed payoff at the end, and it looks good on my shelf next to my other toys and porcelain containers. As a successful businessman once told me, you gotta spend money to earn money.

Time is running out to submit your guess for this week’s Big Ticket Tuesday. What does Josh have in his bag? A laptop? A change of clothes? Jars of his own urine? Your guess is as good as mine. And we have some good news. Although only one of you is going to be getting the Timbuk2 by Threadless bag, the two runners up (we did say there were three items in the bag) will get Threadless tees.

[ED NOTE: Yes, threatening Josh on the street and stealing his bag is a disqualification.]

Unless you’re an 18th-century French king, you’ll probably agree with us when we say Louis XV style furniture is stuffy. But if all that turns you off to these pieces is the fabric, you’re in luck. Custom upholsters Atelier de Tapisserie will print images of your puppy — or just one you think is adorable — onto classic leather chairs and ottomans. All you have to do is supply them with the photo, sans drool.

via Pupstyle

New York-based The Walkmen released their latest record this week, a month prior to its originally planned release date. Better still, they released it in DRM-free high-quality MP3s for $5. It isn't exactly a Radiohead or Girl Talk pay-what-you-want strategy, but all the money the record generates goes to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in honor of Luca Vasallo, a seven-month-old patient. The record is great and it's a bargain to help out a good cause. Go here to listen and buy the record.

The more bad news we hear about the economy the more convinced we become of collecting art. Now it’s time to start your investment and Common Art wants to help. They have put together an exhibition of 70 emerging artists specifically chosen to catch the eye of collectors. Thus they titled the show “Start Your Art Collection 2008!” The show includes original works, small sculptures, limited edition prints and every thing else with a maximum of £200. It’s a cheap way to begin or extend your own collection. There is a big kick off private viewing Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. and a lot of the artists in the show will be present. The exhibition is the East side of London in Shoreditch and will be open through the September 21.