We feel fine is an interesting Java Applet utilizing colors, shapes, and motion. It summarizes phrases from blogs on the Web based on emotion keywords, weather, age, sex, etc.
Check out the presentation that its creator, Jonathan Harris made during a TED conference:
Here is a quote from their mission page:
Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”. When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.
At its core, We Feel Fine is an artwork authored by everyone. It will grow and change as we grow and change, reflecting what’s on our blogs, what’s in our hearts, what’s in our minds. We hope it makes the world seem a little smaller, and we hope it helps people see beauty in the everyday ups and downs of life.
SitePoint is offering The Art and Science of CSS as a free PDF download until December 1st, 2008. Check it out at this link: http://twitaway.aws.sitepoint.com/
Using Flash for specific fonts
Rounded corners
Specialized background techniques (very cool)
Using CSS with tables
Lots of really great ideas and lots of example code walking you through everything a step at a time.
While you are at it, register for their Community Crier newsletter. Its short and sweet and often has some great ideas included.
Leverage your knowledge of the Web. Here’s a great opportunity to meet some really interesting people and help non-profits with their web presentation.
Sierra Bravo is a web design group in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and they are putting together their 2nd annual Overnight Website Challenge.
The Challenge: Build ten teams of volunteer web pros to create free websites for ten nonprofits. Last time we dropped the F-word (free free free) we had more takers than we could take. Sierra Bravo fully expects that this kind of loose talk will again open the floodgates for non-profits seeking help and do-gooder types with mad programming chops. So, until there are no more good nonprofits with bad websites, let’s do it again.
Even if you aren’t a professional coder I’m sure the folks at Sierra Bravo would love to have you pouring coffee or making movies.
Be a part of the movement of using the Web to help change the world.
– Thanks Jesse for sending me this link!
Plan to attend? Post your experience as a comment to this blog entry.
I’m using ScreenFlow to create my onscreen videos. This is an amazing program that allows me to capture video and sound and edit using scrolling and panning. Mac only. What is displayed here is only the video portion of the more complete tutorials I offer as part of my online and face2face courses.
The videos shots of my whiteboard talks are taken using a very inexpensive ($150) Aiptek HD1080P pocket-size video. Chad Peterson, one of my students is working on the editing. These resulted from one of my online students asking me to record my entire class. That is very difficult, getting good sound, but I thought I’d try some simple videos that focused on specific concepts to see how enhance the learning activities for each module.
I’d be interested in your comments on how useful these would be to you as a student. Thanks!
Sumo Paint a really fun paint application written in Flex. Its really snappy. This is what web applications should all be like!
When you click on one of the shape tools, look in the upper right corner for the “Shape Trails” checkbox and then start noodling around. Too much fun…
I often talk about my son Micah in my classes because he gives me so many real-life examples that show how the concepts I present in class are put to work out in the real world.
Micah has written an interesting resume building site named GigTide using Adobe Flex. When he first published the site he received emails from several users in Italy and Greece asking him to fix the application so they could use the special characters of their language.
Did he have to re-write the entire application? Nope. All he had to do was change the character encoding to UTF-8 (Read Tim Bray’s article if you’d like to know all the gory details about character encoding.) Now GigTide.com can be used by Americans as well as by people that use a script languages found in other parts of the world.
And, its a good thing too, because when Micah checked his Google Analytic numbers the other day he discovered a nice surge in hits from Thailand. He did a little research and discovered a Thai blogger had written about GigTide and it triggered a surge in interest with the site.
That’s the example. Here’s what I teach in my course:
Keep in mind that when you put a web site up that you have the entire world as your market. Not just your town, or your state, or your country, but the potential of the whole world. (Think on how you can leverage your product/service/site to address more than the people in your own village…)
Use Google Analytics to keep track of what your site(s) are doing
Write your code and design your applications so they are accessible to people around the world
You have to register with Adobe to use the tool, but registration is free.
Look for the “Create” button on the left to open up the palette selector and you can either upload an image or pull one from your Flickr account. I’ve seen similar pages do this, but they took color samples at random from the image. With Kuler you can move the hotspots around to select the key colors that you want to incorporate in your theme. The resulting color swatch shows the hex color values and is great to print out and keep with your client files.
Here is a screen shot showing our Computer Careers logo and part of the resulting color swatches:
By using colors on a consistent basis you improve the professional look and feel of the site and increase the believability of the site.
Special thanks to Michael in my Web Programming classes for showing me this great web development tool.
Turn yourself into a typing hero!
A fast typing speed is essential for everyone working on computers, especially programmers. Here’s a site that one of my students told me about that will allow you to increase your typing speed. http://www.typing-lessons.org.
This is an excellent use of Flash technology, giving you immediate feedback with a voice saying “bad” each time you hit the wrong key.
Use Cognitive Science to Help You Learn - Over the years cognitive scientists have discovered some important techniques that help you learn more effectively with less work. As athletes know, people have brain memory as well as muscle memory. You put these muscle memories to work each time you do a typing exercise such as this.
To make your practice more effective, type no more than 10 minutes every morning when you first get up. But, during those 10 minutes really focus on what you are doing. Limit your input to your fingers and the screen. (No music, kids, TV, videos, instant messaging, or emails.) Just you and the typing.
Then, right before you go to bed, do another concentrated 10 minute practice. Your brain will continue to process as you sleep. Then, when you wake up in the morning and start typing again, you will be sending a clear message to your brain, “Hey, this is important! Pay attention.” The reinforcement will continue to increase as you do this every morning and every night, day in and day out.
Earlier I posted a link to TuxType which is a free typing game you can download and play to increase your skills.
CopyBlogger has an interesting article, The Deceptively Simple Steps to
Persuasive Writing That Works by Sonia Simone that compares illustrates how useful it is to use subheads in your web copy: it is like adding steps to your page, helping the reader “walk” through the copy one step at a time.
This works for web pages and reports and will make your written communications much more readable and inviting.
And, if subheads are like steps, than graphic images are like light posts and neon signs along the way, catching the readers eye and giving context to the text.
Just scroll down this page and imagine if I listed all of these articles without subheads or graphics. Just one solid block of text screams “too much work!” to the user and I doubt if even you would have stayed on this site very long!
As domain names become more scarce you might want to think about saving your own. Many people use their own name. Right now this may seem like a vanity thing, but it could be a valuable professional asset in the future.
Think of 5-10 domain names that you would like to own, then do a search to see if they are available. You’ll be surprised to find out how many are already taken. You can use Network Solutions or Quality Host Online Domains to see if the name is taken. (Virtually every hosting service allows you to check domain names.) You can register your domain name for around $15/year.
Once you have a domain name you will need to get a hosting service if you want to have a presence on the Web. I use Quality Host Online , they offer hosting service for $18/year ($1.50/month). Some hosting services offer free domain registration, but their monthly rates are much higher.
Be smart and get the license to your own domain name now while you still can. Most likely it will become a valuable asset in the years ahead.
A student recently sent me an email asking some valuable career questions. Here is a summary of her questions as well as my responses:
I am having a hard time distinguishing the differences between:
-Web Designer
-Web Master
-Web Programmer and
-Web Developer
A web designer normally does the layout, color, font, graphic stuff of a web site.
A web programmer or web developer writes the code that makes a web page happen. For example, a designer might design how a form is laid out and then give this idea (often as a PhotoShop or Illustrator file) to the programmer. The programmer than writes the code to make the form work when the user clicks on the submit button: saving data to a table, sending information as an email, creating and displaying a web page telling the user that something happened. (The web designer will probably dictate what that user-feedback web page will look like).
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used by web designers and PHP or ASP.NET (languages that run on a web server) are used by web programmers.
Based on these descriptions you can see that often a person can be both a web designer and web programmer. However, with larger web sites and organizations these two areas become more distinct and have people with different skills doing the particular jobs. Designers are usually more artistic and programmers are generally more technical and detail oriented. A designer’s work is seen and most often a programmers work is “behind the curtain”.
A Web Master is more of a job description. Most web masters design and programming the web site or manage the designers and programmers that do the work. Who ever is in charge of the web site is normally considered the web master.
Skill sets for web designers include PhotoShop, DreamWeaver, InDesign, and Illustrator. Also a good sense of layout and design, psychology, and a strong understanding of human interfaces are important.
Skill sets for web programmers include PHP, ASP.NET, XML, Java, XHTML/CSS, Flex, DreamWeaver, Eclipse and/or Visual Studio, Linux. Understanding programming logic, database design, programming frameworks like WordPress and/or Drupal, and client/server relationships are all important skill areas.
Whenever I look into getting an actual degree in this field, basically all I can find is a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, which seems to be more technically focused on the hard-core computer science than I am necessarily interested in. However, I would like to be as marketable as possible, so I would be willing to work toward such a degree if necessary.
For computer degrees there are general two main types. An Computer Systems (CS) degree focuses more on theory and how to design operating systems. How a computer work, how a chip parses through language statements, and how data can be stored as a structure. Some courses normally include things such as Finite Automata theory, Compiler design, and Computer architecture.
An Information System (IS) or Information Technology (IT) degree normally deals with more practical uses such as computer support, programming, and using operating systems (instead of writing them).
CS degrees generally require higher math skills such as calculus more math than an IS or IT degree.
It is my feeling in today’s market that employers just want folks that know how to design and code. You already have a bachelor’s degree so a programming diploma from SCC is more than enough credentials, especially with a good portfolio like you are working on. That experience is the valuable piece. I know of several people that are doing well after having completed the Web Programming Certificate although the Programming Degree will give you a better overall coverage in the industry. From an employer’s point-of-view it isn’t so much what degree you have. Instead they want to be certain that you have excellent problem solving skills (you do), excellent communication skills (you do), and a good basic knowledge of design and programming (you do).
This is a full color text with lots of graphics. I picked up some great tips with just a quick run-through. I especially like the exercises the author shows on using the Pen tool using the Bezier Handles which can be a little tricky for new-comers.
If you want to explore PhotoShop this is a great place to start.
There’s a new web site, Animoto, that builds animated videos automatically from your photos and music. Here’s a sample version of some shots from my Mexico trip:
You can make a short video for free or a longer video for $3. Use your own music or choose from the music on the Animoto site. You can email the results or embed them in a web page like I did here.
One idea is to make the video and then record a voice over and replace the music track with your voice over. You can also include images with words to get titles and key ideas across to the user.
Every semester I get frustrated emails from students containing the phrase, “I just spent ____ hours on this and couldn’t figure it out.” Here’s a short excerpt that I usually include with my reply:
I can sure understand how frustrating it is to do something without success for so many hours. But, next time something like this happens, and after the first half hour, stop and ask for help, do something different, or find another resource. It depends on the problem but, normally if you are spending more than a half hour trying to solve a problem than your problem-solving skills need some work.
Here’s a checklist that will help you build up your problem-solving skills and hopefully speed your way to solutions:
Stay focused. Don’t try to multi-task. Behavioral scientistists have proven that trying to do multiple things at once makes all of the tasks suffer.
Simplify the problem. Web page not changing? Try typing in some odd letters (XYZ) in the middle of the page to see if they display. If they don’t you might have been spending the last hour typing in one file and looking at another!
Keep track of what you have tried. Write it down so you aren’t repeating the same thing over and over and over. Be organized and consistent on how you look for a solution. Don’t just shotgun things over and over and over.
After each failure try something different. If one combination doesn’t work think of something different to do. (Use number keys instead of number pad, check caps lock, type out the password in a simple editor to see the results…)
Google is your friend Do a web search with the error message or a short phrase so you can see if others have had a similar problem.
Think about the problem differently. Maybe what is broken is something completely separate from what you are focused on! Think of what else might be causing the problem.
Go do something else or take a short nap After a set period of time, stop what you are doing and do something else. I usually give myself 1/2 hour to an hour depending on the problem.) Go take a shower, or sit down with a cup of tea, coffee, or pop and sit quietly, go take a 15 minute nap. Let other alternative solutions come to mind and then jot them down. Don’t force them, they will run away like minnows in a clear pool. Set a time limit for this activity. You should have 3 or 4 alternative things to do in 15 minutes of sitting quietly.
No, playing video games does not count here. That just focuses you on other problems that may be more interesting (at the moment) to solve.
Imagine what the solution or success looks like. If you don’t believe something will work, it probably won’t.
Photo from iStockPhoto.com. I tell my Java students that this is what the Java compiler looks like :-)
One of my students sent me a link to an excellent article on things to be aware of when purchasing a web hosting server package. Here are some highlights from Jason Faulkner’s article:
Be cautious on paying for your own dedicated server
Be skeptical of the claim “Our Data Center Is Top Notch”
Cisco router and firewall (I have a Linksys - a division of Cisco - home router with a built in firewall).
100 mb backbone (all my equipment and NICs are 100 mb capable), but you would probably see gigabit backbone instead.
Backup power supply (pick any consumer level battery backup).
Climate controlled environment (we have heating and air conditioning).
[insert a stock photo of row of server racks here which I paid $20 for the rights to use.]
Granted this is a very absurd example, but you get the idea of how easy it is to stretch the truth.
Avoid The “Free” Domain Registration With Hosting Package
If there is nothing else you take from this article, remember this: Never let your hosting provider register your domain name for you as part of a hosting deal. Often times you can purchase a hosting package which includes free domain name registration and renewal as long as you remain a customer. While this may seem appealing, it is the worst thing you can do because your hosting provider, not you, owns the domain. This may not sound like a big deal, but as soon as you want to move hosting providers, guess who controls your domain? Not you. Worse yet, there is absolutely nothing you can do to get control over your domain unless the current owner (the hosting provider) transfers it to you.
Be Aware of “Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage”
Less Than $5 Per Month Hosting: As the adage goes… you always get what you pay for. Putting it bluntly, if you are paying $3 per month for hosting, you are only going to get $3 worth. My only exception to this article is my own experience with QualityHostOnline.com. I pay around $3/month for my hosting and have excellent results for over five years now. They don’t offer telephone support, but they are very quick to respond to any of my email requests and questions. But, with this one exception that I know from my own experience, I agree with this statement
Beware of the claim ” 99.99% Up-Time Guarantee”
If you do the math, 99.99% up-time means the server is only unavailable 4 minutes and 22 seconds per month (53 minutes an entire year).
Don’t trust the offer of “100% Free Hosting”
bandwidth is not free. Make sure you read the fine print in any agreement claiming this as most likely there are ads embedded somewhere in your site, or the hosting package is so limited that it is virtually worthless.
The best time to look for a job is while you are still employed Just ask anyone that has been unemployed for awhile.
To that end its always good to keep your resume up to date and this new service offers a great way to do that. You get a choice of resume designs, created by a top-notch designer as well as tools that allow you to track who is looking at your resume.
The interface is excellent. The site takes you through a step-by-step process in filling out your resume and offers excellent advice and tips include positive action words and spell checking. (How many great applicants have I ignored because of the typos on their resume? Far too many!)
Currently there is a 7-day free trial period and then a subscription fee but this business model may be changing with a multiple-tiered service. Hopefully a basic resume and one design will be free with the multiple resumes, cover letters, and tracking tools being available for a small subscription.
Google Alerts is a great tool to help you keep the pulse on specific topics being published to the Web.
Set up alerts for any topic you are interested in:
sports team
products or trademarks
your domain name (who else is referring to it?)
favorite topics or business names
people, famous or otherwise
The service is free and whenever Google sees a phrase that matches your Alert it will send you an email with links to that page.
Here is an example: I work with Drupal, an open-source content managment system. By setting up an alert for “Drupal” I can find out about all the latest reference to this program including potential security holes someone has discovered, tutorials, and new books.
After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed, British scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the UK newspapers read: “British archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scots.”
One week later “The Nordic Klub,” a Minot, North Dakota newsletter, reported the following: “After digging as deep as 30 meters in corn fields near Velva, Ole Johnson, a self-taught archeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Ole has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, North Dakota had already gone wireless.”
TechSmith has released Jing, a great screen/video capture tool that runs on both Macintosh and Windows. It has a great interface that is snappy and very intuitive. Just hover your mouse over the "sun" icon located in the corner of your screen and capture any screen shot or video to save on your computer or put out on their server. Right now the price is free although that may change in the future.
This is a great tool for those quick demonstration videos you want to include on your pages or just to get a screen shot of an error message to help solve a problem via email. Check out their own demonstration video.
When I tried out my first video capture it automatically picked up the sound from my computers mic; no preferences to set or settings to fiddle around with. It just did it. Did I mention what a great user interface Jing has! ;-)
Leo Baubuta on the FreeLanceSwitch blog writes about the 10 Essential Habits for FreeLancers:
One of the things about being a freelance worker is that it is so free.
This can be a tremendously liberating thing — but it can also be intimidating, and confusing, and difficult. Without someone forcing you to work, why should you? It’s much easier to find distractions instead. And if everything’s up to you, that also means you’re responsible for everything — from start to finish. And that can be tough, especially when you’re just starting out.
The key, I’ve found, is to develop certain habits that will keep you not only disciplined but successful. Simple habits, to be sure, but ones that can go a long way towards taking you from a broke freelancer to a happy and productive one.
You don’t have to be a free-lancer to make these habits useful. Entreprenuers and students can use these as a guideline to become the person you want to be, to accomplish what you want to accomplish.
Here they are in summary with some of my own notes:
Market yourself. Marketing is about connecting what people need with what you have. Advertising is part of marketing, and so is good customer relationships (word of mouth advertising and viral advertising).
Be persistent. It is commonly said that a person needs to hear/see/experience the connection or message at least 7 times.
Be professional.
Set and meet deadlines.
Find focus. Concentrate on your current task or project, and eliminate distractions so that you can focus on this one task. Get everything else out of the way, and really focus. I use the David Allen’s principles outlined in his book Getting Things Done (GTD) and use Chandler and iGTD on my computers to help me focus, focus, focus.
Find time. Or, I think of it as "make the time"
Awesome quality. When you’re done with an assignment, go over it again, and look for mistakes, and ways you can improve. Sometimes you just need time to let a project "simmer" until it is ready for that professional garnish.
Follow up. This is how you build relationships.
Billing. This is another aspect of being professional. Be timely and consistent.
Building a rep.Your reputation is your best asset. In all areas of our lives.
Explore what you are passionate about. Build a business using the power of the Web. Read these articles to find out tips and tricks on doing this successfully.
Have something to add? We are always interested in your ideas.
TechSmith has released 
Leo Baubuta on the FreeLanceSwitch blog writes about the