February 23 Development Techniques galin
People always assume I use Dreamweaver when they hear I do Web Development. I always say “sure” because I don’t want to confuse them. Honestly, I haven’t used licensed software to do web coding for a while. I can accomplish everything I need with a text editor and web browser. This is because of the developer tools built into web browsers.
My go to browser is Google Chrome because the tool is pre-installed on the browser. Also, I believe Google is good at making things useful (crossing my fingers Google bots see this and help my SEO as a consequence). To do styling of a page, I simply right-click on a page element and tell Google Chrome to inspect the element. You can also do this on Firefox with the extension Firebug installed as well.
Once you do this, you will notice that it opens up a sub-panel below the webpage you are on in your site browser. On the right you will see the section for styling. You can alter the styling and watch it change dynamically on the page. If you know nothing about CSS, try doing something basic like adding a style rule of “background-color: red;” to your element. You should see the elements background color turn red.
This was an important find on my way to becoming comfortable with developing. I suggest this as a method for laying out a page because it keeps you in a “coding frame of mind”, which doesn’t ever hurt with web development.
February 21 Development Techniques galin
I love the Mac OSX. Hot corners for organizing work flow makes me think the developers of it must of done research on the normal human brain. When I am working on something on my Mac and want to go check out something I was working on a couple hours ago, I just throw my mouse into the top-right corner. I was amazed the first time I started using this (was a Windows person up until recently).
That being said, I still think Windows and Microsoft wins when it comes to text-editors. This is because of Notepad++. Notepad++ accomplishes what a couple programs accomplish for me on a Mac. Its that great with its list of features.
One example is the FTP window. You can FTP to any server directly from Notepad++. Once you set up an FTP location, just choose a file, edit it and then save. When it saves it automatically uploads directly back to the server and overwrites the old file. This is a remarkable find for a web developer (who actually codes).
Because of Notepad++, I usually work with two computers at all times. One my laptop with Notepad++ open and one my Mac where I do most of my research and work, just not code editing for the most part.
I hope this blog post gets some notice and convinces someone who loves Mac to develop the equivalent to Notepad++. Or for someone to show me the equivalent.
February 18 Customer Website Tips galin
Do you want to let people comment on your blog but are too afraid of being overwhelmed with spam? Spam is out there and out there like crazy on blog sites.
One of my personal projects involves a random youtube video site. We post each video through the blog posting, on exactly the same screen on WordPress that I am writing this right now. We get some comments sometimes that make me laugh. Here is an example.
Example Spam – “I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently. I am quite sure I’ll learn many new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!”
My thoughts – (We don’t write articles spammer.. this is just a YouTube video you are commenting on but thanks for the words of encouragement! I’d love to post your comment so it gives you a link back! Wait…)
Well lucky for you, if you want to give people the freedom to comment on what you write, there is Akismet. Akismet is a plugin built for wordpress that automatically deletes spam for you. It involves having a library of “spam comments” that it knows to flag and remove for you.
Setting up Akismet is simple. It is already available to activate in your “Plugins” menu on your WordPress admin screen. Once activated it will ask you for an Akismet key. To do this, simple go to the Akismet Website and sign up for Akismet.
February 15 Random Tech/Web Area galin
I am weird. I like fixing peoples computers. My method is relatively simple, and I like doing it because it is something I can multitask while working on other tasks. All I normally do is restore/clean install these very messed up computers with a fresh copy of Windows XP. As long as you have the XP activation code on the computer, it is a simple task.
Take this old IBM Thinkpad for example. This computer was slow beyond the point of use. The only question I ever need to ask is “Do you have a disc copy or activation key for all the paid software you use?”. Usually this is just Microsoft Office.
Here are the steps I took to fix this computer once I had permission to wipe it the harddrive clean.
Steps to Fixing a Virus-Heavy Personal Computer
- Backed up all the personal files on the persons computer. In this scenario it was just her documents folder.
- Used my XP Pro install disc to erase the whole harddrive and then reinstall XP on the harddrive. This can take a couple hours but can be left alone while running the install. Perfect for me since I can go make some soup or work on a website!
- Once installed, I activated the software using the activation key on the computer. This is usually located on the back somewhere and is labeled with something like “Windows XP Activation Key”.
- Downloaded all the necessary device drivers the computer lost in the process of the install on the internet. Usually this is the video card, audio card, wireless card and ethernet card. Google searches find these drivers. For this computer I used this website.
- Copied all the files I backed up before back onto the computer.
And Voila! New computer with all your old files still on it!
February 14 Development Techniques galin
My route towards web development is very unusual. I received two Bachelors of Science in Math and Economics at the University of Michigan. I took one computer programming class for my Actuarial Math degree in C++. That and a basic intro to javascript class through my old company are the only formal trainings I have had. Today, I feel comfortable researching and building whatever a customer may want. Why is that?
The internet is why. When I first started at my old job, they needed extra hands to do some HTML/CSS work. I didn’t have enough work to do, so I said to myself “Why not”. A co-worker there showed me a website, w3schools.com. If you want to learn computer languages, go there. Read through a tutorial. Read through it again. Then read through it again. The tutorial I would start with is the CSS and HTML stuff.
I still use this website as a reference point for how to code things I want to code. It has most of the syntax stuff you would ever want in the languages of PHP, Javascript, and HTML/CSS.
I do think my analytical degree background and my extremely analytical brain are other reasons why I am so efficient and comfortable with web development. If you think you have a similar mindset and want to get involved in an excellent industry, read that site and feel free to email me questions at galin@gpmwebsolutions.com.
