A HattersWorkshop Blog – Technology, The Web, and Everything
Getting into Java... I'm starting to make my first Java applications with the aim of being able to program cell phone API and other handheld technologies. I see this as a huge market in years to come and can wait to get my...
Teaching Intro to Flash at Tunxis Again Looks like I'll be teaching at Tunxis again this semester. Can't wait to get started again as I have a lot of fun the last time we did this. The class is going to be restructured slightly to showcase the...
The difference between classic and motion tweens in... Here it is: If you're used to doing things "the cs3 way" then you can continue to do so with the classic tween tool. It works the same way as you remember, using key frames as normal, but you cannot...
PHP: If (equal to AND not equal) - eliminate form spam... Just learned a great function of PHP thats already made my forms a lot better. A while back I wrote an article about eliminating form spam without captchas by using css to hide a text input box for bots...
Drop Downs, Fly Outs, and Accordion Site Navigation: This last week I was in a meeting discussing a client site. It was a typical business meeting that was going into overtime on a Friday afternoon, and then things turned for the worst... someone suggested...
Nov
23
2009
Category : Typography
A really cool collection of mostly typographic posters. You can download the 11×17″ pdfs for free and the idea is that you would then post them in highly visible places. (Suggest legal places, or get the owners permission otherwise they tend to come down disappointingly fast for the cost of printing.)
My favorite from the gallery:
More found at:
http://www.powertotheposter.org/gallery.php
Jun
12
2009
I had my first in person meeting with a new client yesterday, The Autism Society of Connecticut. This is the first project I’m using the gray screen development process for and I LOVE it. The process is much more straight forward and we covered in detail almost all the pages in the site objectively. Because I had the whole site mocked up we could see potential problems that would otherwise not have been evident and we were able to completely rework the navigation from the way it was in this first round of revisions.
We’ll see how it works in the next round and make more revisions on it I’m sure, but this was awesome in a first meeting. I’ll build out the backend as a gray screen using developer notes instead of actual database functionality.
NewFangled, hats off to you for bringing this technology to my eyes. You broke the industry. If you dont know who these people are, click the link and check out Process >> Prototyping. You wont be disappointed.
Jun
07
2009
Category : Advertising, Art & Design, Technology
In their infinity profit seeking wisdom, the owners of Myspace (should be called TheirSpace) have opened the floodgates to CPC advertising which can target based on location, age, interests, or gender. Its a matter of time now before a stampede of companies throw their ads on Myspace and make the site one more step worse than it already is.
Contunue Reading
May
08
2009
Category : Coding and Database, SmartPhone, Technology
Ever wanted to create a program for you iphone but didn’t want to write it in C+?
With this new framework you can develop programs for smart phones and their kin using native hardware features (screen shake or tilting for instance) with nothing but HTML and JS. This is currently a free and open source project under the MIT licensed and should hopefully stay that way.
5 Years ago you could sound really cool by talking about flash. 2 years ago you got to sound cool developing flash programs that worked on the odd Nokia phone. (deploying these programs in any sort of a meaningful way was a whole norther task all together, but being able to do it at all was step 1.)
I think the next milestone is looming overhead: learn JQuery or MooTools well enough that you make flash developer’s jealous and deploy your program in a way that actually works. SWEET!
Apr
11
2009
More than 3 years after the chain closed all their doors they are back open again. About 30 stores have reopened with the theme of “retail-2.0″. Modeled after the every so successful website mash ups in the 2.0 revolution CompUSA and their parent company (owner of TigerDirect) seem to think that if they connect every computer to the net and let their customers do their independent research in store, people might be more informed and because they linger for a longer period of time looking at reviews they just might buy more too.
This has never been tried before. Kudos to CompUSA for trying something new in the old world of retail. Rather than dealing with some pimpled 14 year old at Best-Buy who trys to hustle me a service plan before checking inventory (one of their favorite tricks) I can see the inventory of the story Im in from any screen in the store. This is really handy and I hope it manifests into sales for the “new” company.
Apr
09
2009
Category : Around The Office, Around West Hartford, Cool Web Programs
This is a neat concept. You enter a location and it displays a list of blogs that are published in that area. You can also cue the blogs into a single feed and get all the selected posts from a given area.
I can see this as having a professional use for journalists, politically minded people, law enforcement, marketing/PR peopl, and anyone who wants to keep tabs on the pulse of a geographic community. The main drawback being that some people simply wont post their blog because they enjoy the curtain of privacy the internet provides.
On the otherhand, if I was going on vacation in Tokyo and wanted to find some really cool clubs, I could do a survey of blogs in Tokyo and see what the people are saying without ever going there. As an added plus, Id avoid the “top 10″ clubs in the city and hopefully find a comfy dive within walking distance of my hotel.
Apr
07
2009
Just discovered a new tutorial site while doing research for my class tonight. Layers Magazine is chuck full of animation tips and great videos about flash. Great articles and I gotta say I really enjoyed the guys teaching style and overall tone.
This tutorial is on using CS4 Kinematics tools. Here I was thinking flash was almost dead and then CS4 comes out to change everything… fantastic work Adobe. The ease of this changes everything.
http://www.layersmagazine.com/flash-cs4-animating-puppets.html
Flash CS4’s new inverse kinematics tools allow users to create and arrange symbols in a collection called an Armature. These armatures contain bones that have relationships with other elements which can be animated. Users can create and control their won dancing puppet.
Apr
02
2009
Category : Wordpress
I’ve looked over a slew of Wordpress 2.7 cheat sheets in the last few days while working on some of my recent projects. In my research I’ve found a pair of cheatsheets that are just great. Have a look and let me know what you think or suggest a better one. Thanks for stopping by.
The Best Wordpress 2.7 Cheat Sheet is put out by http://www.dbswebsite.com contains a long flowing list of terms and statements than WP 2.7 uses. Best of all it expands and gives you a ton of extra info about the function you are calling, known paramaters, and possible pitfalls.
This cheat sheet is highly recommended if you are a seasoned veteran of WP or are just getting started.
And Yes, it’s native English. (But Kudos to that German guy who apparently wrote half the WP cheat sheets on the internet.)
Best Basic Intro to Making Widgets – Lonewolf-Online
Its not nearly as complicated as it seems at first. The guide walks you through it and explains whats happening, which I liked as a first timer. I’ll definitely be tinkering with this more in the near future.
