Author: Joe

Categories
Development

NCMPR – Cutting Edge Web Presentation Notes

Thanks to all of you who attended my Cutting Edge Web roundtable discussion. Wow, there were some really great questions, and I learned much from many of you as well.

Below I’ll try and provide more information regarding some of the topics that were brought up:

CMS

ok, there was a lot of questions and feedback regarding using and choosing a CMS (Content Management System) during both sessions. A CMS is a huge investment, both time and financially, and not a decision that should be taken lightly.

A great point that was brought up and one that I cannot stress enough is that multiple parties should always be involved when choosing a CMS. The content managers, the folks in IT who will be installing and deploying it, and any other parties. It’s important that the content managers are comfortable using the CMS, so always test drive it thoroughly before committing. Many have demo accounts that you can login to, or if possible install one locally and kick it’s tires.

I also feel that it’s very important that the CMS can easily be expanded by a developer. Even if you don’t have a developer on staff today, you want a system that can be expanded should the need arise. Don’t be tied to propriety software and await new features to become available when the manufacturer gets around to it. Rarely do these companies roll out new features at a pace that will keep up with your needs.

There are some great open source CMS systems out today that are very stable and ready for production use. Setup and maintenance, will require a developer(s) on staff however. These two are my favorites:

Flickr

The use of flickr was also a very popular topic. I love flickr and $24.95 a year for unlimited storage is one of the best deals you’ll find anywhere. It’s a great resource to share photos, both for internal and external needs.

The flickr uploadr tool is a free tool that makes uploading large amounts of photos a breeze. Download this, it’s simple and does the job.

Be sure to tag your photos, for easy sorting. Tagging really makes navigating through thousands of photos a breeze rather than a tedious chore.

There’s also a free flickr badge that you can easily create and then paste into your website. This is pretty cool and a very easy way to incorporate your flickr photostream with a website. There’s also an amazing API available too.

Easy Widget Generation

I mentioned some easy and free widget generators to incorporate popular web services into your existing site.

Meta Tag and Search Engine Ranking

Google does not use the Meta keyword tag in ranking. It’s still good practice to use meta keywords on your site, however don’t go crazy in hopes of increasing search engine ranking with it.

Google Webmaster Tools provides a great list of guidelines to follow for accurate search results.

Flip Video Camcorder

The Flip Video Camcorder(s) are a really affordable way to capture, edit and share web quality video. They’re tiny, transfer video to your computer via a built in USB jack, have built in editing software (I prefer iMovie) and shoot very good video for their low price ($150-230).

Please let me know if there’s anything other questions or if you have something more to share!

Categories
Development

YQL flickr.photos.search nest query

I wanted to use YQL to build a query to grab photos on an account with certain tags that I could then render on a page. The flickr.photos.search just gets you the photo’s id and not all the other goodness that is required to make the image display.

So I built a nested query in YQL to get the job done.

select farm, id, secret, server, title
from flickr.photos.info
where photo_id in (select id from flickr.photos.search where user_id='<your_user_id>' and tags='soccer,men')

So in one call it’s gets the id of the photos that meet your initial query:

select id from flickr.photos.search where user_id='<your_user_id>' and tags='soccer,men'

It then takes the id’s from that query and grabs the photo.info that you need, all in one call! Very cool stuff.

Go to the YQL Console and play around.

Categories
Books

Handcrafted CSS

Just finished up reading Handcrafted CSS by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte. I’ve read two of Dan’s previous books, and thought that they were great. So I was looking forward to reading this very much.

More so than in his previous books, this one really pushes the envelop of CSS and urges the act of rewarding browsers that support the latest CSS features. This is a stance that I’ve always agreed with, but can be hard to get a client to follow. Not all parts of a site have to look the same across all browsers.

My  favorite sections were regarding rounded corners with border-radius and flexible color with RGBA. His examples really sold me that it is now a good time to begin implementing these features for browsers that take advantage of them.

An extremely well written book, that’s also designed very well too. Highly recommended for anyone looking to push CSS boundaries, and pick up a few tricks along the way.

Categories
Adventure Development

Hack Day NYC morning

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Was up till 6:30 AM coding last night (morning). I was beginning to speak in crazy talk due to the last of sleep, so I figured it’d be best to call it a night and try to wake up early to finish our hack up. Oh, a very solid back end developer who just started up his own company is partnering with me on this hack.

We managed to make use of several API’s in building our hack:

  • YQL
    • social.profile
    • craigslist.search
  • Social
    • Social Directory
  • Geo
    • Maps

Based upon the Yahoo! profile of the logged in user, it searches Craigslist sleezy personal ads in the city of NY (and wow there’s some very interesting ones) and displays them on a map for the user along with more information regarding the compatible person. It uses keywords in the logged in users profile to search for a personal with something(s) in common. It makes use of several API’s in a fairly easy to navigate interface.

I have to say that Yahoo! puts on an incredible experience. Everything is completely first class, and I can’t believe that none of the developers here had to pay a cent for all the luxuries that they have shown us. A very classy company, and thanks for the amazing hospitality.

Foosball tables, fast wi-fi, electrical outlets everywhere, and a constant stream of food and beverage are going on. Also Rock Band Beatles on a big screen isn’t too bad either when you need a break from coding. Though after the hours I’ve been here, I must admit I currently despise every song they’re ever recorded.

Also, I haven’t met a bad developer here either. Everyone while competitive, is extremely anxious to help solve a problem when someone finds themselves stuck. It’s really an amazing experience and thus far I’m very glad I was able to attend. Plus they gave out awesome stickers and a very cool t-shirt too.

Later today hacks will be presented and judged, with prizes handed out. So, I gotta finish this thing up really soon.

Categories
Adventure Development

Open Hack Day NYC

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So far Open Hack Day has more than lived up to the hype. Met some really cool people so far. It’s fun to talk about all the different web technologies with them and hearing what languages and tools they work with on a daily basis.

The keynote by Clay Shirky was really good. He mostly went over how the web has changed how information is now being shared.

I went to the YAP session. Which was a pretty solid into to writing YAP applications.

Next session was YQL. Which was so packed that people had to sit on the floor! The guy sitting next to me was a pretty strange breather, which is always annoying. Plus he coughed while drinking a soda, which meant that I was kindly sprayed with some soda on the left side of my body. Very gross.

Lunch was awesome. I made a new friend all the way from Japan. A very interesting guy. The carrot cake stole the show in my opinion. Extremely good stuff.

Now I’m off to some more sessions, while trying to form a solid hack team for later tonight.

Categories
Adventure

Quest to NYC

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I arrived in NYC for Open Hack Day today. I didn’t feel like driving into Manhattan and paying gazillion dollars to park a car that I wouldn’t be able to use, so public transportation was my mission. NGM and Geoff both highly recommended some cool trains to take into town. I know I’m a little bit crazy, but I felt like going old school and taking a bus in from AC. Like I’m on a class trip!

The ride wasn’t all that bad really. There was a really cool old guy sitting next to me. I was hoping he’d share war stories about fighting Nazi’s to save the world. Sadly he just slept the whole ride up. Oh and he did smell too. Wow, riding the bus was so awesome, not for everyone though but a very interesting experience nonetheless. I will have to try the train next time to compare the 2.

Once I arrived at Port Authority (or something like that) I um kinda got lost finding my room. But after walking around a whole lot, finally found it and I think it’s pretty nice and fancy inside. I don’t get out much so it could be a dump, but I’ll share photos once I get or find a usb cable for my camera.

There’s so many people walking around here. All the girls seem to wear super tight black pants and it seems like the guys spend too much on their hair, weird. Oh some high school girls called me a “hottie” and I might still be bright red from it.

I went to Reckefeller Center and checked out Nintendo World. It’s really awesome inside, I’d of freaked out to of been there when I was growing up. I was so bummed that they didn’t have the Tanooki Suit Mario t-shirt in my size or any size close to my size for that matter.

Toys R Us is right by where I’m staying, and it’s massive inside! 3 stories, with a ferris wheel and some amazing lego sculptures. I kinda wanted to be a lego sculpture as a child, so I do have a very fine appreciation for such craftsmanship.

I ate lunch at some deli and had some cheesecake too. Seemed very New Yorky a thing to do. I think I might eat at this cool looking BBQ place across the street for dinner. Then try to find a usb cable so I can share some of the photos I’ve been taking throughout the day.

Gotta register for Open Hack Day now and figure out what sessions I want to attend and see if I can form a team to work with to enter the hack competition with.