New beginning

This is my last course of the Web Design and Development before a 6 week work placement to end off the program.

Because of this program, I can say that I am a better programmer. Our teacher taught us the theory and practical applications of object-oriented design that any programmer would benefit from every few years; as a review.

I am quite pleased with the program and with my ability to develop websites and write cleaner, more efficient code.

Thank you Mr Matthew Campbell for teaching us and always answering our questions.


00000011 cheers for binary!

Advanced C#

Another round of C# has been completed. I have found that there is one main lesson that I have learned while taking this program, understanding what the problem is before trying to solve it.
There is much room for interpretation when being asked to create software. Documenting the problem, reaching a solution that the end client is looking for and not introducing new problems is key to ensuring that the software is developed correctly.
As long as you know what the problem is, you can be successful and avoid common pitfalls; take scope creep as an example.

Next week we start Java; I have been waiting for this course for the last 7 months. Full speed ahead!

A cup of java while looking over a script

My imagination is wearing a tad thin, but I try. I just finished the javascript course, and I must say I really enjoyed it. One day  last week everything just clicked and I have been rather enjoying html, css, javascript and ActionScript on a whole new level.

Viva Web De!velopment

Flash... Thunder

If I know my audience, you are all waiting for a clever BoB reference... there it is.

This past weekend, I used Flash to animate an intro to a website. It was fun, like After Effects with more of an http flavour. I also appreciated seeing how dynamic web pages became when we worked with Flash in class; it took pages from nice all the way to slick.

It has taken a while for my brain to get back into the design side of things, when I get into code land sometimes I get lost, thinking of algorithms and other lovely such things like, what is an algorithm? Flash helped to bring me back the creative side of things and I am hoping to find that perfect balance between coding and creativity in the next few weeks.

Bring on the ActionScript. JavaScript, we shall meet soon.

Dream for Websites

We have just completed a two week course in website design using Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a powerful tool and I appreciate how powerful it is but I am happy that we first started looking into website design with Notepad++. Dreamweaver is great but there are a few bugs to work through to get a site working exactly the way you want it to, and that is the reason why Notepad++ has a slight edge in my books. In my mind, it is never a good idea to get comfortable with an application doing most of the work for you; it has the potential to make debugging a site a nightmare.

Off to learn about Flash and Flash actionscript

DATE_ADD(CURR_DATE, INTERVAL 1 YEAR)

This past course, Database Design, has given me a refresher in SQL and was able to get into a scripting mindset. To get to the meat and potatoes of this blog, I must answer what future plans I have for the database that I designed in this course. Within a year from today, I plan to build on the task and client section of my database to allow for time tracking, task management and invoicing. On a side note I also have plans to create a basic database for websites but will figure that out after I start the web design portion of this program.

Happy Easter!

cSharpProject.Dispose()

Today we presented our C# projects in class. It was nice to see the various ways my classmates decided to solve the problems at hand. Each project was impressive and the different approaches allowed me to appreciate and take note of the alternate ways of solving problems.

During the course of the project, I found that I needed to revisit the uml diagrams created when designing the application. Throughout the design process I made adjustments to my classes and to the database design. To ensure I solved the problem according to the project's specifications, I made minor changes after coding and constantly referred to the requirements for the project. In summary, analysing the problem I needed to solve before designing and coding my application, allowed me to deliver a working system within a relatively short period of time while staying in scope.

System Development Life Cycle

We are about to enter our third week of C# and are plugging away at the concept of creating software from start to end. It is nice to see that we are being taught the programming language and the process of documenting each step of the development process hand in hand. I am appreciating what we have learned and looking forward to what we will be learning.

Can you see sharply?

I know, I try to be clever with my words; sometimes it is good and sometimes... not so much. I have been away from object oriented programming for the last 2 years, and I have to tell you it is not pretty. I am wrapping my head around developing within strict guidelines and I am happy about it; about as happy as anyone can be that has spent time swimming in a pool of non object oriented programming after being programmed (clever eh?) to program object orientatedly. I should mention that I also like to make up words, it helps to fuel my creativity.
Anyhoo it has been a week, my mind is almost out of it's bad coding habits.

More to come later....

5 Fantastic Portfolio Sites!

I have looked through quite a few sites over the last week and have found amazing visually stunning sites, and meticulously functional sites. I have made comments on the elements I appreciate the most. Each site is brilliant in it's own right and I was inspired. This was a great way to end the week and usher in my weekend. Catch you on the flip side of this long weekend. Take a look at the sites yourself but try not to blaze me too much in the comment section. Enjoy!

The site below is visually stunning; the site is just gorgeous, the richness of the green and the lighting effects come together brilliantly.  the simplistic layout of the works do not take away or get overshadowed by the background and graphic. Check it out I am sure you will appreciate it.

I really like the site below; plus it is from Canada AND on the East Coast. I love the interactivity on the site as well as the menu. I only wish the home menu item was on the main menu and not the sub-menu (bottom right of the menu).

The site below is my favourite; All of the elements fit together and the flow of the site continuous. I love the  menu, the background, the transitions and the interactivity. 

I love the animated graphic on the bottom of this site (pictured below) as well as the presentation of the work done by this developer.

I included the site below because of the transitions to the other parts of the page. The page is automatically scrolled to the right, instead of the traditional top to bottom, to show different content and the effect is very cool. I did suffer a bit of slight vertigo when I viewed this site, so be forewarned.

Media Post

Soon I will be posting a few links of web developers portfolio's that I appreciate. It is great, dare I say more than interesting, to see what people have created and how they share their talent with the world. I am looking forward to emersing myself in the world of design and taking a peek into the vast interpretations web developers have to offter. 

Below is the first video I have ever produced. It will be interesting to see how my work will change over the coming year.

Afterwards

I submitted my project today using Adobe Premiere Pro, which was inspired by all of the rock star web developers out there. While I have enjoyed working with Premiere Pro, I have come to find that my favourite piece of Adobe software to date is After Effects. I still have a ways to go with After Effects but am looking forward to tweeking my animated logo until I get it just right.

I appreciate Photoshop more than I ever have, and will say that I am partial to working with Photoshop and After Effects combined.. if this was a perfect world my favourite software to date would be called PhotoEffects, or AfterShop or AfterPhoto or EffectShop; I could go on but I don't think anyone is still reading.

To all, please have a tolerable week.

Reflections of a client

This past week I played the role of a client, as well as a developer for a client. My designer had the worst luck on the face of this planet. The USB gods decided that they wanted to rear their ugly 'What, you took the usb stick out before it was finished being written to' heads. Needles to say after facing this huge setback, my designer picked up the pieces and delivered a nice Logo. I loved the arrow elements that he created for me. This was a great learning experience on both sides. I learned a few things that I have added to my arsenal; my arsenal of greatness as I like to call it.

I was so close to having a post without a semi-colon. Well, as they like to say, maybe next time. Btw, does anyone know who they are?

Looking back

Looking back on the past few weeks, I would have to say I have learned quite a bit. However if you look even deeper than that you will find that I am obsessed with semi-colons; yes, you read that right, semi-colons. Peruse through the blogs I have posted and you may see that I have a sickness; a semi-colon sickness.

Enjoy the weekend!

To code or not to code; that is the question.

After Effects; Love it. The fit brilliant.

But as for the meat of this blog (you may have noticed that I love food), I have to answer the question of whether I will focus on graphic design or coding.

I am a coding closet case. I am in my element when I code yet I find myself strangely pulled towards the graphic design aspect of web development. Don't get me wrong coding and I are best friends. Coding has kept me warm at night and helped me when I was down, even though it was most likely coding that got me down, coding is my best friend. I don't like to portray myself as a cheater. I am a loyal friend, really I am, but graphic design *sigh* I am thinking that graphic design may become a close friend of mine.

We are now tackling 'Project Management' as I like to call it. I like to make up names for things so this is what I am sticking with for our current course. Next week is Premier Pro and I am looking forward to it. A couple of weeks ago if you asked me what I was looking forward to, I would have said Java... we shall see what the future holds for my best friend status. I guess all I have to say is that I want to be friends with graphic design; close friends. Coding, I am very sorry but we will see each other again in the near future.

Fine dining

The first course of this program is done and I am satisfied with no need for dessert. I enjoyed the course; more so because it sparked creativity in me that was long dormant and it allowed me to discover how artistry and computers can come together.
I am looking forward to all of the courses in the program and I must say I am impressed with the ease with which the course material was handled and delivered.


 Cheers!

Getting it just right

I have to say that I am really enjoying my course thus far and I have to share why. While creating my blog yesterday I decided to make the description of my blog be, 'the world of web design and development through these eyes'. I mulled over the description thinking that having a reference to my take on web development without any graphical representation seemed flat. After discussing with Mr Edward Blokland, aka IT Director Extraordinaire, I decided to put a graphic on my blog title. Ed suggested that I use an old photo I have with me wearing green contacts. So I opened the photo in Photoshop and then realised that I had dark circles around my eyes and that the white around my irises had a pink tint to it. Well the thing about that is our lesson that day included retouching a face in a photo to get rid of the dark make up smudges around the eyes and .. wait for it .. remove some redness in the white of the eyes... hmm, happy accident; I think not. The world coming together in a cosmic symphony of pure awesomeness, maybe but I think it had more to do with me having eyes on the brain from my morning class.

I was able to apply what I learned that day in class on the blog I was asked to create, and I think it turned out brilliantly on so many levels.

Cheers to a good first week.

First Blog Entry

I am taking a web design and web development course at Conestoga College's Waterloo campus. Conestoga's Waterloo campus has a substantial presence in the IT world of Colleges and even Universities. I am quite fortunate to have found this course as it is the embodiment of everything I need for my career; let alone the fact that it has two things that I love. Graphic design (Art) and development; sweeeeeeeet. I had to choose between taking graphic design at Sheridan or Computer Programmer/Analyst at Conestoga in 2001. Unfortunately my art portfolio was lacking..aka not completed, so programming it was. I have to say that I am quite pleased with the situation I have found myself in.

I am looking forward to learning action script (flash) and Java.

More to come soon...