Professional Independent Web Development
I’m trying to assemble a list of devices that run FlashLite 3.1. If there’s anyone out there who knows of, (or owns), a device running, or capable of running FlashLite 3.1 please let me know in the comments.
Once a list is compiled, (if there even are any such devices yet), I will publish it.
It is the dawn of the 2009 working year. After spending a few days celebrating the new year, I spent the morning going through my inboxes, answering E-mail, and seeing what some bloggers out there have written over the past few days. In NetNewsWire, I discovered Goldfish, by Greg Storey. Greg suggests that in 2009, a year when many good designers, coders, and everything in between are losing their jobs, those of us who are fortunate enough to have more work than we can handle ourself should spread some of the wealth by hiring or sub-contracting to those who have lost their jobs.
In this new year, it is simply not going to be enough to just meet your bottom line, but to help others who may not be in a position to be so entrepreneurial or carefree.
There in the comments on Greg’s post, there are commenters who are having a rough time and commenters who are still doing well. To those having a rough time, reach out to those who are doing well, it is likely that they will have some work that needs doing.
I have work that needs doing, more than I can comfortably do myself. I do a lot of development in collaboration with designers and occasionally take the lead on various projects. If you are an (X)HTML/CSS, PHP, or Flash developer, give me a shout. If you are a designer, I may need your skills too, so you should also give me a shout. You can use the contact link on this page, (look up), or E-mail me at john at johnbeales dot com.
2009 has the potential to be the worst year ever, but it also has the potential to be the best year ever. Tough times lead to change and opportunity. Seize the opportunity.
I had a link E-mailed to me today: http://wwe5.bchydro.com/2008holiday/ You can play a quick Christmas game, and BC Hydro will donate to the BC Children’s Hospital. It’s fast, fun, and brings some holiday cheer to both you and the residents of the hospital. My brother was in this hospital over Christmas one year and they did a great job bringing Christmas to the hospital. They deserve all the help they can get.
If anyone knows of other similar campaigns online, feel free to link them up in the comments.
Create a social homepage based around bookmarks.
About a year ago I was contracted to build a homepage that used screenshots of websites to link to the sites, had drag & drop to move the sites around, and was easy to use. Marcos Cantoni of Visual Dreams Interactive did the great design work, and I did the coding. Fast forward a year and BonzoBox has come a long way – it is a social website built around the sharing of websites. I am now a partner in the site, (and the CTO), and we are making it even greater!
BonzoBox brought my AJAX skills to a whole new level. It features drag & drop, ajax forms, tagging, dragging items out of flash movies, inbox widgets, and more, with more in the pipe. I also used a Javascript Library for the first time – I chose DOMAssistant because of its light weight and modular structure, and am extremely happy with it.
BonzoBox is currently in public beta and I encourage you to go Sign Up and try it out.
After over two years it is time to say goodbye to the old “Summer Fun” theme.
This new theme has been created in my spare time over the past couple of months. It is designed to highlight what I post. The sidebar, footer, and metadata all fade away unless they’re moused over, there is lots of white space, and with the introduction of ClearType I have updated the fonts to be more like a printed book. The new theme also uses no images!
There will, of course, be some tweaks to be made over the next while as I get some feedback, but for now, enjoy!