The top/bottom of the numbered buttons look like they have a horizontal crease in them. Perhaps a smoother (or sharper?) gradient transition would look more 'right'. Actually I think it's that I expect the top half to be lighter than the bottom.
Yes! Shoutout to Phong.com. They had a ton of crazy Photoshop and web design tutorials and were pushing the boundaries of design on the web in the early, pre/post-CSS days -- inevitably kicking off my career in web and tech.
Anyone remember using emp.gif (empty.gif) to help align table-based layouts with images?