Working with jquery at work.

posted - 04.Jun.2010

I've been playing with javascript on and off since entering college back in the day and it's been fun, but working jquery into actual work projects makes my day. I've got basic programming behind me and can create my own code, but "why reinvent the wheel" comes and goes around the office so much that I can hear it every time I think about hand-coding a simple slider or toggle/accordian feature. The code already exists and it very likely works better than what I might pull together within my time constraints.

Now if, like me, you have to work with an additional js library active on each site, such as prototype, you'll have to remember to use a "no-conflict" fix for the shared "$" character. This thing can cause problems if you don't do it, so just make sure you're only running jquery or run them both but use the "no-conflict" fix to keep your plugins plugged in and working. I missed this the first week I was trying to implement simple banner rotations, as I've done on other sites, but not on any of my at-work ones.

Libraries don't like to share the "$." Once you're around that, jquery is just awesomely simple and the available plugins are very versatile and well ranged. If you want something in particular to happen on your site, the chances are good that jquery can help you do it.

Okay, now I gotta get back to stocking eight different step carousels with product/links for a new client. Later.

I think I like Gundam, a lot.

posted - 19.MAY.2010

For those of you who don't know Gundam, it all started with Mobile Suit Gundam back in 1979. Now I didn't watch this until about ten years later, but between that, Voltron, TMNT, Transformers and Gatchaman, I was a happy kid. Gundam, however, continued with new series as I grew and soon became fully integrated with my brain matter (the Universal Century stuff anyway). I'm all eyes and ears whenever news of a new U.C. timeline Gundam project is announced, aired, brought to a gaming console, mentioned in passing by a complete stranger that wasn't even talking to me.

So what does this have to do with me possibly liking Gundam too much? No, I don't have sheets and matching pajamas with robots on them. I did, however, come very close to making this website look like a Gundam-esque interface. I was all over it getting the panels to look all isometric and colored in the style of one of the little dudes hanging out under my monitor. The edges and lines were all 180, 90 or 45 degrees and the thing was looking really neat at the time, but I was working on this thing pretty late at night after a long day of work. Needless to say, I was way off my mark and should have spent that night getting my Federation vs. Zeon game on.

Fortunately for myself and the benefit of a site free of heavy theme association, my wife pointed it out to me and corrected my delirious and anime deprived brain's design trajectory before it went any further. Thus we arrived at the current layout which is much more open to non-gundam content being posted.

As consolation for my thwarted Gundam fixation we have begun watching Mobile Suit Gundam UC, aka Gundam Unicorn, and have just ordered the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam by Robot Damashii. After also having watched the first episode my wife has agreed to get the NT-D version as well. I'll post up the Unicorn when it gets here.

I started the new site and you can't read this ... yet!

posted - 01.MAY.2010

Why can't you read this yet? It's because I'm posting it before I'm even ready to go live with the update yet and this post is an attempt to keep me on top of this new version's content being updated more often than the last version. Basically I'm going to try and keep this thing up-to-date and this is the mechanism that will help me to do that.

So, I've finally gotten around to playing with my own website! Work cannot keep me completely preoccupied for all my waking hours, despite how hard it tries! Sure, it's been over two years since anything has changed on it, but damnit all, I'm stoked to be able to work on it again! I'm bascally hiting the refresh button with the new layout and the logo revision. This thing is supposed to be fun and from now on I'm getting my hosting fee's worth from it.

Watch and be amazed as I start to toss up all sorts of junk on here about work, for-fun projects, and anything else the webmaster (me) thinks could use a shout about. I promise to keep it all somewhat interesting right after this first test of the posting method for my "news" section.

Okay, that's it for now. I've got to change gears and finish this thing so you can actually waste time reading this.