Vertexmode.net

I’d like to prefix this with an apology to Peakflowdesigns.com. I wrote a rather scathing article about them (which is now gone) and was probably unfounded. I assumed they were censoring me and I got upset and wrote about it instead of following up with them. Turns out they were having some technological problems and lost their database and had to use a backup which didn’t have my comment in it. Matt I apologize for that.

Anyways here is the article about font resizing with css, inspired by a comment I left.

I’ve only just now learned about the importance of this topic (it relates almost solely to accessibility) and as such haven’t had a chance to integrate it into any of my projects. I imagine I’ll be spending my time trying to figure out how to create layouts that use em’s rather then pixels (hopefully not too much to wrap my head around) from here on out.

The reason it’s so difficult is the fact that everyone’s font size can be different (which is what em is. 1em = default font size) so if I made a 1em box in the page, it could render differently depending on what machine the user is on. Some browsers have their own default, some use the operating system default, and some users will manually change their default.

Anyways, further into the rabbit hole I go.

Look, a birthday card!

Goin to see this guy tonight in Louisville, and I’m pretty stoked about it. Couldn’t wait for FPK to post the podcast of this so I put it up myself.  Sadly I missed the first song setting up my recording software. Enjoy.

Well I was hoping last time when I posted to have been a lot further along on my projects but it seems I’ve been overly busy the past 2 months. Lets see… where to start.

• I started grad school for my M.B.A. at University of Louisville
• I bought a house that needs quite a bit of work
• I have finally made a serious effort at learning the guitar
• I’ve taken on 2 freelance projects that have taken up some of my time
• Other general time wasters such as: large amounts of drinking and watching lots of tv
• I’m also trying to work out as much as possible (very difficult it seems)

I have gotten some work done however. All the forms in my project site that create database entries are done, however, I still have to write all the display pages and all the edit pages. Once that’s done it’s just on to marketing. Initially I was just going to create this project for Louisville use only as a way to learn php. I’ve since decided to expand my horizions and make it function nationally, and hopefully even turn a tiny (and I do mean tiny) profit. I’ve also brought back the tutorials from the old site, but they’re all in the archives so you probably won’t find them on the front page or in rss.

I do intend on updating the SEO and marketing article as I’ve learned a lot more since I’ve written that article.

Well I’ve done it again. Welcome to vertexmode version 3.0. Hopefully I’ll start posting some stuff here as I’ve been working on a lot of projects lately. I’m gearing up to launch rottenidiot.com a concert/music site and a web marketing blog. Those three will all be professional while this site will continue it’s casual tone.

Anyways content will again become regular.

Well there isn’t much to report. I’ve been working on a flash game with pre-rendered 3d art for work. Dairy Queen is one of our sponsors, which helps pay to make the virtual Danger Run. Other then that I’m going to Lafayette again this weekend to celebrate a birthday, and to just visit all my friends. Also almost forgot, I’m starting work on my M.B.A., but I won’t be finishing that for several years, ha. Hopefully I can find time to do some more work to this site, as I’d like to make it database driven so I don’t have to fool with the archives. I also have several freelance jobs lined up, so I feel like I’m starting to get swamped.

New design now, standards compliant, much smaller in filesize, and looks better in my opinion. It’s based completely on css2 for layout, which is good because table layout is hideous. In this post I’ve included a step by step walkthrough of the process I used to create santashotline.com’s page layout. It was the second design version and really benefitted from an attempt at understanding the customer’s needs/wants and evoking those through art and text.

Here are the steps I took to design santashotline.com

Well, the busy season is finally over. I got a job in September and failed to report it here as I’ve been working overtime since then, and it’s kept me extremely busy. Least of which included several issues with my cars; yes that was plural. However, things are going much more smoothly now, and I even have time to play games and go to the gym without struggling to fit everything in.

Now that a lot of my work is complete here are some examples of my work santshotline.com (all work done by myself, except the characters) holidaylighting.com santasjukebox.com santaproof.com greetingsfromsanta.com lettersfromstanclaus.com (all artwork was done by someone else, I just turned it into a html page, and did all the custom coding)

We also have two other sites that I’ve just been doing upkeep on santasornamentshop.com and santas-depot.com We’re doing complete redesigns on both, of which santa’s ornament shop is going to be my complete creation minus the shopping cart software.

I just bought an xbox 360 ($400 yikes!) and am thoroughly enjoying it, as my computer is currently broken. It seems I’m having the worst luck with anything mechanical this year, hopefully that will change next year. Also this new year, I’ll be moving out again in march, so look to have some parties if you live in the louisville area. I plan on renting a house with some friends so there won’t be any worry about the neighbors. That’s about all for now, have a happy new year!

Lanparty for Thanksgiving weekend.

Ok gang, time to upgrade this season. We’re gonna try and run a gigabit ethernet network this time around, so you’ll need some new hardware. You’ll need a new cable, perferably Cat 6, but cat 5e will work (just not as fast). You can buy these at Tigerdirect.com or newegg.com for 3-5 dollars depending. Next you’ll need a new card if yours isn’t rated at 10/100/1000. Check your card manual, or your mobo manual if your card is onboard. Both (onboard and pci) will run at relatively the same speed, but you may notice some speed increases with the pci card linked below, as it seems to have extremely low processor overhead. If you’re blessed to have pci express slots check either of the two links below(it’s the fastest).

I’m planning on ordering quite a bit of stuff, so if you want to save on shipping email me (or call 812-736-1313) with your order and I’ll bring it to the party. You will owe me for the product, and I’ll cover the shipping. Just get the order to me by Nov 16th, so I can test the equipment to make sure it all works.

Pci Express Card 1 – $32.99

Pci Express Card 2 – $39.99

Pci Card 1 (I wouldn’t reccomend any others based on it’s reviews/price) – $12.99

This article pretty much explains why you’d rather have pci express over pci. Just remember that onboard cards are attached pci devices, so they share the pci bus speed.

My lease was up in lafayette so I moved back home to southeren indiana while continuing my job search. I’ve added another user as well, and will be linking to his site in the hosted area as soon as he puts up his site.

I’ve added a link to the webmail I’m providing to my users, in addition I added a link to the user portal for them as well. I think I may have a breakthough on the job search… stay tuned for more info.