As much as I've been impressed by Google Suggest (how it works by Chris Justus), Google Maps (how it works by Joel Webber) seeing Lemming in DHTML (via Dare Obasanjo) made me smile more.
I remember playing Lemmings and discussing how to get past different levels at school on paper the next day, often with David Bodycombe (who designed some of the games for the Crystal Maze and also produces the Metro puzzle section) - sadly we didn't have all these solutions at the time.
Whilst most people have been getting all excited about Asynchronous JavaScript with XmlHttpRequest (or AJAX, I still cringe at the name). Adam Bosworth points out why it works now people have faster machines and broadband access, we used XmlHttpRequest quite a few years ago on intranet applications for web-based message boards and chat.
Maybe next time instead of hand coding javascript I'll try using.Ajax.NET from ASP.NET.
Over on Graphic Designs USA they have an interesting feature on logo design trends this year. They compare groups of similar logos from various different companies.
When looking for some website design inspiration there are a number of great sites I like to visit, for example TemplateMonster and CoolHomePages. Some of the templates available on these sites look totally professional and amazing; the difficult part tends to be following a great homepage design with the lower level content pages.
If you are after some photos for a site then GettyImages, Corbis, the free Stock.xchng, or even a search Google Images are good places to start; although don't forget to check the copyright and usage terms.
Next if you need to "fake" text for the layout, then Lorem Ipsum can generate you a few words to a few paragraphs of dummy text. But I'd agree with Jason Fried from 37signals on using real content when finalising designs with business sponsors.