april '08
Another University of Western Ontario project: the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children has been launched. Well, sort of. There are some edits still to happen.
I like to deliver a full and finished product. This project, however, pulled together so many resources and so many projects that by the launch date the data was incomplete. But that's OK. The UWO staff have complete control over the content. As updates stream in they can make the edits. Ownership of content. Say it with me.
january '08
I haven't updated in quite a while. This is because I've been busy as well as entirely re-thinking the way that things work around here.
In the meantime...
Mil-Sim-FX has gone up; they make things that go boom but don't hurt anyone. Their products make a lot of noise and 'smoke' to help train military, law enforcement, and security personnel in a realistic environment. Believe me, it's friggin' realistic. You can just look at the front end of the site but unless you have some sort of governmental or military credentials, that's as far as you get. The site rocks, though; it's built with a full content management system that gives them full control over all content, neatly formatted with templates and master styles.
In the spirit of civic duty the Tillsonburg Skating Club web site went up just before the season started. It's a blog format that has static pages overlaid. Pretty cool to build something simple and let the owners take over. We're needing some tweaks because the day-to-day usage is a little bit different than the design.
The Tools for Change site has been handed over to the staff at the University of Western Ontario. They are pretty happy with it and have one project in process and a couple others coming soon.
And, I'm working on two initiatives for Haldimand-Norfolk county that involve lots of access issues. Terminals, print, cell, and whatnot; all from one central data source! Say it with me; 'Convergence'. Used to be a dirty word. Whisper it and it sounds even naughtier.
june 27:
Tools For Change
The Tools for Change site has launched. This is a programme from the The Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women and Children at the University of Western Ontario and represents the first of a series of initiatives.
The site had to comply to accessibility standards so it had to be entirely CSS driven. It's all straight HTML so there aren't any super-fancy things going on. But there didn't really need to be. It's quite elegant. I did this project start-to-finish; site planning, design, execution and support.
march 1:
Moving
Don't freak out, okay? I've moved. Yup, moved; right out of the city.
Not to Mississauga or Oakville, either -- way out of the city. We found a nice little town with a great main-street, astonishing public facilities, terrific schools and a municipal soul. I've moved to Tillsonburg. I know it sounds crazy but think about it; I have clients all over the world. My oldest client that I have been working with for almost six years I have met face-to-face just twice in that time and my second oldest client is four time zones away whom I've never met face-to-face (if you don't count video conferencing). I've been up at 4:00AM to conference call with people in Salzburg and my main server space is in the bottom level of a building in Georgia (is that Russia or the US?).
The point is that there is no reason other than lifestyle to live in a big city like Toronto. A lot of other people with jobs like mine are recognizing the same reality.
nov 23:
Remember those big changes?
Earlier this year I promised some big changes coming up and we're getting close to that magical place where everything is revealed. Stay tuned. There's gonna be a party with balloons!
may 19:
Seven languages? Seven languages!
Seven languages.
Yup, that's right
-- a site in seven languages. With a global company you really need to
have a full spectrum of interpretation. So, what do you do? Well, I separated
content from infrastructure and built an infrastructure that would not
rely on language. Not to get too Geek on you, but it involved removing
the context from content-oriented documents. Anyway, the site was produced
with a minimal footprint and some really stellar language-handling. A core
translation document tells the general navigation what to do and each page
decides what language to display. A nifty session key holds the language
preference without cookies or that kinda junk.
Check it at: NUS Consulting.com
Collaboration with Compass360
may 5:
Did you know that high-schools are fairly aggressively recruiting students?
I didn’t. The Ontario school system is funded based on enrollment
so they kind of have to. So, to that end, did you know that Delhi District
Secondary School rocks? Well, I did this site for
them so that now they do. (Okay, they rocked a bit before, too) Illustrations
by Tyrone McCarthy!
april 2:
I thought that I should share this with you. Check out Woot.com.
It is a sale of one item each day. Usually techie stuff. I've seen $200 video
cameras, input devices a-plenty and 160Gb high-speed hard drives for $50. Always
a great deal, but what really gets me is the writing. Read the write-up for
today and you'll see why this site is on my daily check list.
october 27:
Client Plug: Get yourself on out to Alphabet
City's book launch on Friday
November 11th. Not only will you be witnessing a literary groundswell
but the next two days are filled with artwork and discussion around the
title of this year's Alphabet City theme: SUSPECT. This from AbC: "Artists,
lawyers, novelists, researchers, and activists debate the issues surrounding
the suspect and suspicion." Come on out and rub elbows with lots of famous,
semi-famous and (as yet) unknown people.
september 13:
Client Plug: If you can get out to the Hillebrand Artisans at the Winery
this weekend it would be well worth it. See you there! www.hillebrand.com
september 10:
Client Plug: I just finished compiling the Peller Family Reunion contest
structure (database structure, submission forms et al). Because you aren't
related to me you might win (if you enter, of course). www.peller.com
september 7:
Ever need that feeling of being really small? Here it is. At the beginning of August the MESSENGER spacecraft swooped back by Earth and imaged its home planet.
This from NASA: "The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.
Comprising 358 frames taken over 24 hours, the movie follows Earth through one complete rotation. The spacecraft was 40,761 miles (65,598 kilometers) above South America when the camera started rolling on Aug. 2. It was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth – farther than the Moon’s orbit – when it snapped the last image on Aug. 3."
Download it here.
august 24:
Cold Mountain (a Compass project)
won some sort of award. Again! For Something... er... But really, I don't
care. I'm above all the awards and stuff...
...
so, exactly who gets that Big Golden Pencil? When the Big Night
is over and done with do they give out big golden pencils to everyone on
the project or would Compass have
to set up some sort of shrine?
It's just that I've been so close in the past. Five years of silver or
second or whatnot; I really want the recognition of my peers in the form
of a gold-painted MDF icon. Then I can retire happily, knowing that I took
the title; rejoicing in the free shrimp, sushi and too-loud music.
june 13:
Lush Magazine has launched! There
is just a place holder at the web site, but it's the coolest damn place
holder I've ever done.
june 8:
The Toronto Film Studios site has gotten off the ground.
june 1 :
Baby videos aside, I have been doing a lot of work. Most of it is long-term.
While this might seem counter-intuitive to web work it seems to be the
new normal. The things that I am doing as of late are more integrated
into the physical world; so, I've been held up with New Announcements
because packaging or patents or The Board have been held up with moving
Something from Here to There. It might seem silly, but you really don't
want to promise that you'll have 50,000 units of Whatsit ready to go
when the prototype has just been approved.
may 25:
My boy makes his third movie (well,
you asked... )
may 13:
Further bulletins as events warrant...
april 27:
My boy makes his second movie (don't
ask someone with a new baby 'howzit goin'?)
march 30:
The weekly rant. It may
be incoherent but I rote it.
march 25:
Craig G Noble
gets a new web site. After many complaints and wailing Craig has finally
got round to committing the processor cycles to the job of starting something
that actually refects what he does. There is a lesson here for everyone.
march 18:
Cold Mountain
won a gold at the American Design Awards. This was an exercise in keeping
it simple and a picture being worth a thousand words; John at Compass360
laid down the stills and I took it from there with animation, transitions
and sound. If you like the site and need something in the same ilk; call
him: 416.465.2299: x 22. You'll like him. Ask him about guitars and blues.
march 10:
My boy makes his first movie
(with some help)