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HOT: estimator.astuteo.com

If, like me, maths was never your strong point, and if, also like me, you have to produce several proposals a week for a variety of digital projects, then this lovely little website from Astuteo will serve you well. Described by the studio that made it as "a simple tool that allows web designers and site developers to quickly and thoroughly estimate the time and materials required for a proposed web project", the genius is in the simple but flexible user interface, that allows you not only to set a default rate amount and edit task names, but also to add your own, and calculate the hours and rates associated with them automatically. A very useful and easy to use estimation tool indeed.

NOT: crowdspring.com
By now I am sure that some, if not all of you, have read something about the furor surrounding Crowdspring and other similar "spec work" contest sites. For those that haven't, CrowdSpring is a design contest website, where people submit (mainly) logo designs in the hope of winning a prize. Unfortunately, I don't have enough room here to even begin questioning the validity, or not, of spec work (which I abhor), or if this kind of thing undervalues design (which it does), but there is a reason why businesses that care about their brand shouldn't be using a design that some "grandma in Tennessee with a bunch of free time and Adobe Illustrator" cooked up. I have a hammer and some wood, anyone need a house built?