seyDoggy Web and Graphic Design

Sneak peek #5

2008-04-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

So what the FRIG is the hold up? I am a cow to the paying gigs, that's what! It's sad to say but I rarely get time to continue with this side project. It's good to be busy I guess. It means I am doing my job right.

So this sneak peek is a dead giveaway to what the project actually is (not that there was much wonder anyhow). I have six more pages to get through, more or less, and I am done! Let's cross our fingers for a summer roll out?

Center... float... IE... they don't mix!

2008-04-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

I am about to drop a metric butt-load of geekiness on you right now. I have had a LONG standing issue with certain types of navigation menus that float list items (still block elements) in order to apply graphics and dimension to anchors that are made block level (which is inline by default)... the problem lies in positioning the list itself. Because the list items have been floated the entire list itself wants to float that way and no amount of dickering with the code can convince it otherwise.

What I would really like to do is center that list and for years this has baffled me. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of styles of navigation that can be centered, but this very specific one, one which allows for all sorts of graphical hover states, active states, etc... I have spent trying to solve this puzzle.

Out of nothing more than absolute desperation I thought to try applying inline-block to the <ul>. inline-block, however is so poorly supported that it has made it a nearly useless function of CSS 2.1, so applying it here would have done little more than satisfy my curiosity. And what would you know... it worked... In Safari!

Well I am that much closer but there are two more issues now; Firefox has nothing more that wet dreams about supporting inline-block and IE only supports inline-block on inline elements (which a list is not). The fix for Firefox is not all that tough since they have a proprietary display state, display: -moz-inline-box; that works... sometimes. IE, on the other hand, had me stumped. That's when I found this website who credits the genius of this guy for coming up with a brilliant solution.

I won't get into the full course meal here (you can read that for yourself) but what it came down to for me was this;

overcome IE's has-layout bug which can be done with either height: 1%; or the proprietary zoom: 1; (I had to use the latter since the former defeated the layout I needed in this instance)
Next I needed to tell IE that the block element that I turned into inline-block was actually inline... confusing? Anyhow, not wanting anyone else to see this I have to precede it with a star, like this *display:inline;

so the end result was this:

ul#myList {
 display: -moz-inline-box; /* for Mozilla*/
 display: inline-block; /* for real browsers */
 zoom:1; /* fix for IE has-layout bug */
 *display:inline; /* IE thinks a block is inline */
}

So what does this mean for me? Well I have a few themes out there that will get an update soon to take advantage of my new centering ability and a few that I have been holding off making because of the former limitation. And one theme that is about to be released... :)

Here lies the empty shell of a blog post that once was

2008-03-22T11:38:00.001-07:00

This was the place where I happily showed you a website for a big company that I was contracted to write code for on behalf of another company. One company (which one, I don't know) failed to notify me of any NDA's or otherwise useful contract agreements that may have made light of the fact that I may not promote myself as a "provider" of the bigger of the two companies (for which I feel I did not do).

There are two things at play here:
1. Uh... yes I can. In Canada we live through intolerable copyright laws that do nothing to protect the original author or creator of creative works and instead, protect he/she who commissions that work. However, there is a nifty little piece of the copyright law that covers the moral rights to said works that, under most normal circumstances, entitles the author or creator of said work to be associated with their work if they so choose:

from Kerr and Nadeau; Barristors and Solicitors, Patent and Trademark agents:

"Moral rights are closely related to copyright, and are also protected under Canadian law. These provide the author of a work with the right to the integrity of the work, and the right, where reasonable in the circumstances, to be associated with the work as its author by name or pseudonym, as well as the right to remain anonymous. Moral rights may be waived by the author, but such waiver must be express. It is important to remember that an assignment of copyright does not, in and of itself, waive moral rights."

2. And that brings me to my second point. Never take on work without a written contract. I took down this blog post for the good of the business relationship, but I didn't have to. I didn't have a contract, nor was I informed of inclusion in a contract between company A and company B, that waived any such rights so my own moral rights are still intact.

What is the lesson? Never chew gum while eating rice; it does nothing for the flavour.

Sneak peek #4 and more

2008-03-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

So the bulk of all of the boring work is done on this project. Now I am getting into the super sexy stuff, the money making stuff... I must say that even the boring stuff looks goooood though.

And also...

So I have another project due out this Tuesday. I can't give any details but it's for a heavy hitting client of PUMP Communications. It should have been a fairly simple one but there were a few hang-ups in the beginning (design by committee sort of hang-ups) and in the end I don't think anyone was taking me seriously when I said the French translation might take up to a week or more (which it did).

Anyhow, with a few days to spare I managed to get the project up and fine tuned ready for release this coming Tuesday. Look for more on it then.

But wait...

Some time ago I worked for a lab in the automative industry and to shorten the story some, they recently needed a website, a place to download some of their docs. So in record time (less than a day) I pumped out this site. I mean it's not ground breaking but it's better than a kick in the ass for a day's worth of coding.

Sneak peek #3

2008-03-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

I just wrote a new php function today that looks at the directory of the current page, extracts each folder name and then parse that information into a functioning breadcrumb trail. It's not as truncated as I would like it to be, but I just can't wrap my head around the problem enough to make the script smaller than it is.

So far everything but the header images on this new project is served up dynamically depending on the page you are on. But the really sexy part of this whole project is the skin! This thing is put together like... WOW! I can't wait to show you more.

Sneak peek #2

2008-03-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

Oh it's coming along so nice. Did I say Easter? Well, yeah, I guess that's probably a realistic goal, but I just feel at times that it could be so much sooner. If it weren't for all these paying gigs getting in the way... hehe.

So I'm stoked about ExpanDrive, have you heard of it?Man, this little app is a gem! I am going to get more in depth on NutMac but I can tell you this much; developing php and mysql on a local machine is all fine and good, but there comes a time when you just have to move it live. ExpanDrive is making continued live development a dream, like it's still local, but with the power of the web server behind it.

Did I say Easter?

Sneak peek #1

2008-02-27T18:31:00.000-08:00

I have an ever so slight break in my schedule where I find I have an hour or two of free time on hand and as the saying goes, idle hands make great websites... er... or something like that.

Anyhow, I have got something completely awesome in the works, a little some-some for me, a little self love. So I thought I would start a little easter egg hunt (since that's probably around the time I'll finish, LOL), and give you a little piece of the puzzle every week or so, depending on what I get done in that time.

So here is the first little nugget for you. It's not much yet, but let me tell it's part of a bigger, cooler whole.

I'm still alive

2008-02-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while hasn’t it? I’ve just come off from making a run of RapidWeaver themes for THEME WEAVER; THEME 007, THEME 008, THEME 009 and THEME 010, all of which I am extremely proud of (but THEME 010 is my favourite). I’ve also been busy updating my own edGy, viEw and 2hadow (not quite ready yet).

So what’s kept me busy in my… erm… off time? I have a few things on the go. Namely RapidWeaved.com which has turned out well. It’s the RapidWeaver showcase site that lets anyone with a RapidWeaver site to show off their stuff. It’s kind of a throwback to the old RapidWeaver showcase that was once on their site but in recent time, have opted to hand select only the very finest examples (in their opinion) to post instead.

And it’s that very project that has really spun the old cogs in my noodle. That site is a database right? Why then am I treating it like a blog when it should be handled by some sort of content management system with a database and some back-end programing to control it all? Well… because I don’t know a lick of SQL and can only struggle through enough PHP to parse a few RSS feeds. So I figured enough is enough, I’ve been wanting to learn some back-end web programming and I have now set off to do it. I am currently making my through the SitePoint book Build You Own Database Driven Website using PHP and MySQL by Kevin Yank. I am riveted. No really, I love this sort of reading.

So what about Objective-C then? You might recall that I wanted to give Chris a hand in the whole RapidWeaver plugin market and I did read the book, Programming in Objective-C, but then I saw the support involved through Chris’s eyes. Honestly, it’s not the sort of thing that a guy with a full fledged theme store like mine should get into. Don’t get me wrong, I want to some day. And Chris has definitely shown my that it’s a worth while endeavor, but it’s the sort of thing where I would have to sell my theme store before I got knee deep into plugins. I am not ready for that.

Who knows though, if all goes well with the PHP and MySQL, there are certainly a lot of things I could see making for RapidWeaver that have been missing for some time.

Running web apps closer to home

2008-01-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

What do these seven little sexy icons have to do with each other? I made each and every one of them. I have a new obsession called "turning your web apps in native apps" made possible by Fluid, a nifty little app by my fav developer, Todd Ditchendorf (who also makes BlogMate and is my hero because of it, as well as iZoom, to name a few).

So I won't get into too much detail about it but Fluid basically takes your favorite web services and makes a native app out of them. I countless reasons for wanting to do this which I am sure you'll see me get into on nutMac.com.

New frontiers

2007-12-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

What a busy, trying time! With many projects on the go, logo's, banners, themes (and more themes), showcase sites, tutorials, photography gigs to wrap up before Christmas... It's no wonder the holidays never feel restful to me.

So why then would I go and do something as crazy as learning Obective-C programming at such a time? I guess I am just a little crazy that way. That and because Chris has taken up making plugins and wants me to join him in our continual quest to take over the world together.

I have to admit I have wanted to make RapidWeaver plugins for quite some time and this was the fire that needed lighting under my proverbial behind. Will I actually make any plugins and how soon? I can't/won't make any promises. It's a little far beyond any limit I have stretched my self to in the past and I do have a theme store (or two) to support.

So here it to the new year and all that it may (or may not) bring!

The cats out

2007-12-07T05:20:00.000-08:00

Well the project I had alluded to in the last post is starting to see the light with it's first public peek-a-boo. The site, RapidWeaved.com, is a showcase project for RapidWeaver users by RapidWeaver users. It's kind of a backyard sandbox, if you will, instead of the elitist, high-brow playgrounds that other showcase sites seem to be. The premise is that no-one gets rejected so long as the contest is G-rated and the site is built with RapidWeaver.

It's not a new site or project by any means, I actually took over the domain and concept from Gary Byrd who found it was getting unwieldy. And indeed it was. I had a few ideas how to better manage this kind of data and put a plan into action. Only time will tell if I really know what I am doing or just talking through my butt. My intent is to make it an attractive site with attractive content but also make it as pain free as possible to update. We'll see about that I guess.

There are a few other finer details that will come to light later as well. But first things first. Oh, and by the way, if you are a RapidWeaver user and have a site built using RapidWeaver, feel free to submit it to RapidWeaved.com.

Showcase site project is back in the mix

2007-12-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

A while back I had taken over a particular showcase site (I'll keep that quite at the moment) and was charged to take it to the next level. Well real paying jobs kept getting in the way, support kept getting in the way, life kept getting in the way... So I've recently had pause to look into this project again and was surprised at just how close I was to completing this site the first time around.

So with that said, I am amping up to get this thing done early in the new year. I'll keep you posted.

Unobtrusive is great but what about unencumbered?

2007-11-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

So in the last few years javascript libraries and snippets have popped up like spring flowers gasping for light. One will round corners for you, one will make an image pop out at you, one will make a box spring open, one will make a drawer slide, and so on... All of these libraries, it seems, have their struggles and inadequacies much the same way a CSS/XHTML developer does; browser behaving badly. Where it gets infinitely more complicated with the javascript is that some libraries and snippets will inadvertently interact with one another from time to time, and that's where a whole bag of ugly gets thrown upon the table.

What makes this worse? The fact that we can now just throw these bits of javascript sweetness in our html projects without the foggiest notion of how it works and how to fix it should the need arise. And since these are all open source projects, don't expect great support, or any at all, for that matter.

And so this is the muddy water I currently stand in, waiting to sort out a scripting issue on a product while I tell my client base that we are doing everything we can.

The long road is getting shorter

2007-11-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

You ever get to the end of a project and just let out a sigh of relief? I just finished one of those. It was the kind where there were variables that would go one way, but then needed to come back to another. I shopping cart was required, but it had to be easy to use, but then it had to be expandable for the future. One choice broke one aspect, another choice would break something else. Tax calculations, shipping calculations, inventory calculations... You see, I am a digital download guy and exempt from all those bothers. But on this project I had build a store for tangible goods in a state that doesn't take tax lightly.

Anyhow, this job is complete with the exception of a few tweaks here and there. I'll let you know when you can see it.

I shall not follow the heard

2007-11-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

I can't begin to describe my frustration! Once single javascript library is throwing a monkey wrench into my entire process! The venerable MooTools, who I have no use for, but many services I use do, is not a team player it seems when it comes to rounding corners in javascript. They don't believe rounding corners is the job of unobtrusive javascript and instead think that bags full of poor markup, redundant, empty tags, place holders and css should be our only method of rounding a corner in a layout....

So WCAG says we ought not use tables for layouts if we can avoid it..."Tables should be used to mark up truly tabular information ("data tables")." So by that guideline one can only assume that using <b> tags (which is for bolding or adding strength to type) for layout would be equally offensive. I have now tried every javascript library and snippet I can get my hands on to round corners and not a single one will work with MooTools and a Lightbox window. Arghhhh!

Sorry, I just had to vent.

I must be famous

2007-10-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

So what does it say about ones perceived popularity when there is a squatter on your domain name. That's right, at long last I decided it was time that I register adammerrifield.com (thought about for years) and when I tried I was turned down with the message, "ADAMMERRIFIELD.COM is already taken."

Oh poop! I am sure it's simply a coincidence, but I can't help but think that someone has taken to squatting on any domain I might be interested acquiring. I won't go into which ones, but they are all closely associated to me or my company. What for? Oh well. I will just go and register a WAY cooler name (lets see if the squatters can read my mind).

Elbow deep in php search engines

2007-10-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with a php search engine (since so many people request a good site search) and did quite a bit of mucking around to find a simple way to do things that might make for a good RapidWeaver snippet entry or a RapidWeaver tutorial... Well... a tutorial I might eventually have. A snippet? Not so likely.

If there is anything I learned from the last snippet I released it's that not everybody is code savvy and not everybody enjoys digging in to html and php. While I really don't mind supporting 50-60 responses in a thread for a free bit of code, I must honestly say I can't afford the time right now.

Fear not though, when I have a moment I will sit down and write the definitive tutorial to have a completely integrated and seamless (not to mention built in) backend searching solution for RapidWeaver based sites. It will be advanced but if you are not afraid to get your hands elbow deep in code than I think you will find it well worth your while. To get an idea of what I have been working on, go over to seyDesign and try the little search box in the sidebar.

Stay tuned...

micro-blog micro-fatigue

2007-10-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Staying tuned in is becoming increasingly tiresome as of late. Anyone who tries to keep up socially in the tubes knows what I am talking about; there's Pownce and Twitter and Jaiku and Facebook and flickr and MySpace and 9rules and VIRB° and Tumblr and Bebo... did I miss any? Guys like me try to get our foot in each of these just so we can have some background knowledge on what's going on with these and other upcoming sites and services. We are generally accompanied by the same cast and crew in each location as we tend find these sites and tell our friends and colleagues about them and then we engage in the same conversations... "What are we doing here?"

I have sort of been pulling back a bit from these sites lately and really focusing more on the ones I believe in more than the ones all my "friends" are on. I have left Twitter (more or less), and become more proactive on Jaiku (much faster and more flexible). I share more of personal life on Facebook rather than trying to promote my business through that channel. But most importantly, I am back to putting content on places where it will benefit ME most... Back on MY sites, that I make, that I host, that belong to me. I don't need a service to allow me to micro-blog... I am a web designer... I know how to do it myself.

So what transpired to make me come to this realization? Time management and the fact that I am trying to find time in my schedule to start a podcast (for what I can't say at this moment) and in the shuffling around of my schedule I realized that I commit WAY too much time that really aren't serving the company as well as I had hoped.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still sign up for all of these new services, etc... I have to... it's part of my job. I just won't set my hooks in so deep... I'll just hire an intern for that! :)

New theme, more articles and a wedding

2007-10-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy...

I have had my hand dipped in a great number of projects over the last few months, and indeed the last few weeks have been intense. There are a two sites to be release in the coming weeks which I am quite excited about. Neither of which I really had much say in the actual design of, but was the keystone when it came to turning the concepts into functional websites. I'll keep you posted about those.

New theme...

Something else which has been all consuming is is the release of THEME 007 from THEME WEAVER, a very nice new RapidWeaver theme. As I am sure some of you know, I am heavily involved in everything that THEME WEAVER puts out and THEME 007 is no exception to that rule. I was more or less left to my own devices when it came to that one and I couldn't be happier with the results. I even went so far as to offer a discount for it on my own RapidWeaver theme site.

Get faster, get better...

I recently wrote and extensive article on nutMac.com about looking and learning your way to better productivity and sped up workflow on the mac. It's a good read if you make your living on a mac.

Recent wedding...

A recent wedding has left me with a ton of new material to write for Merrifield Photography so keep your eye out there for more photography related reading material. The results of this wedding have actually got me rethinking my position on never doing weddings again (which I say every time). I might just get back into again. I certainly get asked enough.

Realmac Software and MacUpdate special

2007-10-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Realmac Software has a special going with MacUpdate to get RapidWeaver 3.6 for just $24.95. Don't miss out on the special offer.

I can't leave well enough alone

2007-09-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Some people are willing to settle with the technology that is handed to them... but not me. I have to break it apart and understand why it works. This has been true with this whole RW Updates project. It started with a RapidWeaver Snippet, then a multi-feed website, then Authors were posted, with links to their site... Keep in mind that I am using php to automate this whole process.

So what was next? RSS Feed for the artificially generated Daily Digest "blog"? I had never really spent a lot of time in an XML file but knew it was a simple enough syntax structure but could I hack some php into that and build an effective (not to mention functioning) RSS Feed?

I was able to find one other guy who had attempted the same but the platform from which he was starting and where I intended to be was so grossly different that I feared I would have waisted too much time trying to "port" my code into his xml layout. So I cracked open an xml file that RapidWeaver generated and just started to apply php in the way I think I would have liked to see it work.

With a bit fussing and farting around I managed to get something near to what I actually want. In the end I ended up using two commands from that other guy. I liked the way he limited the number of items but I think I am going to go back to the aging technique I was using.

Is this still a work in progress? You bet it is. And I am loving every minute of it.

Blogger Widget

2007-09-27T05:41:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Gary of RapidWeaver Themes turned me on to this nice little mac widget for posting to blogger. I am all about making things closer at hand therefore making things more productive for me so this little widget (though sadly lacking in some of my favorite editing functions) is right up my alley.

Thanks for the tip Gary.

RW Update: A new RapidWeaver resource

2007-09-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

It was best said on seyDesign in this article, but I just wanted to tell you a bit about the site on the technical side. It is based heavily on the "Show Recent Posts" snippet that we had recently released and in fact, that snippet is a direct result of our work on RW Updates. Granted the code on RW Updates takes that a little further so that we could pull in multiple feeds, sort them by date, truncate them, reveal the posting source, etc... but the real meat of it all is still in there.

Productivity comes down to searching

2007-09-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

In my experience, how fast you work is directly linked to how fast you can find things. Finding things fast is key feature on macs with built in services like spotlight and is amplified by apps like Quicksilver but too many people neglect the simplest aspects of these tools. A new article on nutMac reminds us that spotlight commenting is an invaluable feature of OS X 10.4.

The secret is nearly out

2007-09-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

We have a secret project nearing completion and final release. Well actually we have a lot of those, but this one is for us and a few friends (not often we get to stuff for our own enjoyment). Stay tuned, well let you know as soon as this little project launches.