Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Well i am back, yip that i am. well it has been an interesting weekend for sure... 2 funerals, an open house  and a dedication. and i still managed to put 26 hours of coding into the ride4life site which should be up soon. a little hard work and its done looking quite sexy if i dont say so myself. ill post the web address so you all can go and see it. web development is really quite a huge and wonderful thing. you literally can climb into your brain and look for your an idea and make it a reality. i am studying the art of webdesign to get on the ball with what is happening out there, and there is a lot you can find. let me give you some really cool things i found recently. i like the functionality of JavaScript, no matter how static or dynamic you can do some really funky stuff with javascript and jQuery and the libraries you get.

Recently i have been looking for a way to give sites personality, and there are many ways of doing this, the big ones for me are your initial layout, then colours, your font and navigation and people that dip there fingers into these things can really make some thing from nothing. and lookign for these things can get expensive. these are some tool that have really helped... and guess what they are free!!

Fonts
1. Googles web fonts - i have really become a Google fan boy over the years! 10/10
2. font meme - this cool for designing really awesome logos - you will get a PNG image with transparent background so you can fit this where ever you would like.

Colours and Patters
1. Subtle Patterns - these guys deserve a round! well done adding a trexture to bits of your site with out to much flash can be tough these are really good for adding that little something.
2. Stripemania - this place you can make some pretty funky strips that can add a explosion of color to bits of your site.
3. ColRD - is a great chrome app that you can down load, it will help you find good matching colors and it can generate great gradients that you can run cross-browser.

Great JS plugins and tools
1. jQuery ui - is awsome full of the "basic site" essentials and it has a themeroller so you can match it to your spec.
2. jQuery Cycle Plugin - this plugin is great for making custom floating banners and adverts. give some motion to that ocean.
3. jQuery Joyride - this is a great way to help people navigate around your site while learning about the cool features you have.
4. Spin.js - this is a great way to tell your customers that your helping them.. and they will get lost in its glowy spinnyness....

Cool CSS3 stuff!! - really cool by the way -- sorry IE Guys your not cool enough
1. rounded corners - how can you not have rounded corners people might bang a knee!
2. shadows - for that 3d effect things can almost jump out at you
3. glow - is this radio active??
4. hover effects - have clients at your feet, eating out of your hand!
5. more have effects - more hand feeding what is this a petting zoo?

if you are a beginner this will help you become inspired and help you make beautiful interesting sites. there has been  a 660% increase in internet use since 2008 till today. thats from an average of 5times a day till 33 times a day!! insaine... right well, whats gonna make you any different from them.. next time ill show you some cool stuff i have made recently and how it can help



Friday, 15 June 2012

Well hello world! my name is Rob and i am adventuring life, living it sounds too wrote and well boring. there is a lot to who i am and how i got into this situation, but like many movies this adventure will start in the middle, right now! are you ready? boooom! welcome to the present where i am a programmer in Johannesburg South Africa, at the current age of 23. Being at the precipice of life is quite exciting and its opening your eyes, primary school your biggest decision was what am i going to do this afternoon, highschool was what am i doing this weekend... right now i am what will happen in the next 50 years. growing older just means gaining perspective. and the wider that perspective the more fun life can be! well i am at work i am designing a website for a charity ride called Ride4life. and what lead me here by happen stance?? i was looking for a API so that i can incorporate a bogging widget to there site.  < -- honest truth. did i find one.... nope. but thats ohk past Rob had to deal with that, and future Rob is a little frustrated. present Rob is cool, and happy that there is something happening. lets see one of the purposes i think of this site will be to explain my decision in being a programmer and the ups and downs and funny bits in between. i have really just started and your coming on a ride. we can learn things together and thats the best part. before i go here is a high five!