03.04.08

Micro-blogging For Businesses

Earlier today I wrote an article for the MetaSpring blog called ‘5 Ways Your Business Can Embrace Micro-blogging’.

In it, I discuss the micro-blogging trend and a few different ways that businesses can take advantage of it. Check it out and let us know how you’ve seen micro-blogging used in the business world.

03.01.08

I've Finally Converted!...sort of

Well… after several months of not being able to blog due to random Typo errors, I’ve finally made a transition to Mephisto CMS. It was a surprisingly smooth conversion once I found the proper combination of script hacks. There are still a few problems though, unfortunately. Mainly, that pagination seems to have “disappearred” with the newest release – so please, enjoy my most recent 15 entries until I can make this damn plugin work.

On to the update… It’s been about 5 1/2 months since my last post, I was freelancing then – but now I’ve got a real job – Project Manager at MetaSpring, a marketing, design and development startup studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And awesomely enough, I primarily get to work with Rails! We just launched our redesigned website and blog so please check them out and leave a comment!

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04.24.07

SaveNetRadio.org

Recent government action has dramatically increased (300-1200%) the fees internet radio companies must pay to play the music you enjoy.

This means that sites like Pandora and Last.fm, as well as many other online radio stations, could be shut down due to bankruptcy.

You can help, let your voice be heard. Visit SaveNetRadio.org to see how you can help prevent the death of online radio.

04.04.07

Robert Dempsey & Craig Ambrose - RoR Gurus Interviewed

About a month ago I conducted a couple informational interviews for my Job Search Strategies class.

The first interview was with Robert Dempsey, Project Director of Atlantic Dominion Solutions a Ruby on Rails website and application development firm, and Founder and Director of Rails For All a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Ruby on Rails to developers and businesses.

My interview with Robert is available in the Interviews section at Rails for All.

The second interview was with Craig Ambrose, a freelance agile web developer specializing in Ruby on Rails. In November, Craig began producing his Freelancing On Rails podcasts which have been a great insight into the world of freelance web development (something I’d like to try full time down the road).

Read on to view my interview with Craig…

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03.30.07

JulieMarie.net - Overdue Launch Announcement

Well, I’m really not sure why I didn’t do this a month ago, or why it took me this long to think of it, but my new portfolio site is up at JulieMarie.net.

I built the site with Radiant, a simple, Ruby on Rails based content management system and designed the layout myself.

Check it out! Let me know what you think :)

Jewls

03.21.07

Twitter: My More Regularly Updated Mini-Blog

Well, since I don’t really have a lot of time to write more than one blog post per month, I figured I’d link you all to my Twitter page where I have the chance to post once or twice a day.

You can find me at twitter.com/jewlofthelotus. Add me if you’re a Twitter-er (?), too. :)

I don’t tweet too often and I don’t necessarily tweet about what I am doing. But if I have something meaningful to say in less than 140 characters, I’ll tweet about it.

And so I give in to this Twitter thing.

Jewls

02.20.07

Post-grad ideas (and the story of my college career)

Post-graduate plans are something that I’ve been thinking about rather frequently since the beginning of the new year. To really see where I’m coming from, I guess I should tell you how I got to where I am now…

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02.01.07

ExpressiveConnections.com - Alpha Launch

Check it out, kids: ExpressiveConnections.com has finally been announced.

Expressive Connections is a network for creative professionals – aimed at aspiring and accomplished writers and artists who are looking to begin or advance in a career utilizing their talent.

The site is in a sort of alpha-mode right now. We think it’s got a pretty solid start, though – which is why we’re inviting you to take a look around, create an account and let us know what you think – if you’d use it, or what features you’d like to see added, etc. It’s still got some kinks and we’re still working things out here and there. But we’ve got big plans.

The site started out as a class project for my Interactive Media class. If you’ve read my blog at all, then you have probably heard me speak of it vaguely – referring to it as my first real RoR, HTML, and CSS application. You may have also noticed that I keep referring to “us” and “we,” by that I mean myself and AJ Gorczyca – we are the “team.” Well, once again we find ourselves in the same course – this time it’s TC448 – Scripting Web 2.0. And if you read my very last post, then you would know that this class entails Ruby on Rails, MySQL, and Apache, and other things of the “Web 2.0” nature. Pretty f-ing awesome, basically. Well just like the last course we took together, this one has a group project – that is to develop a web site utilizing the ideas and languages learned in class. Since Expressive Connections already fit into these project requirements, we decided to ask the professor, Kurt Demaagd, if we could continue building onto the project rather than start again from scratch. He agreed and so you can expect to see a lot of new features and changes. Here’s what we’re aiming for:

• On-site private messaging
• Member endorsements and letters of recommendation
• Ability to watch favorite users, see who other users are watching, and see who is watching you
• User-submitted audio and video content for portfolios

It would just be wrong if a network for creative professionals left out musicians, producers, actors, directors, and everyone in between. So, we’re not going to leave you out.

This is where we stand and these are our plans for the next semester. I think you’ll see some exciting changes along the way. And, hopefully you’ll help us, too – by checking it out, creating a profile, or spreading the word around to others who may be interested.

It’s a work in progress and we want you all to help us in building the most exciting site we can, so any feedback you give would be greatly appreciated.

Jewls

12.25.06

It's Official, I <3 RoR (& Merry Christmas, too!)

Sigh. Wow. I’ve just successfully created a Ruby on Rails forum for the site that you’ve all been eagerly awaiting (don’t worry, it’ll be public soon – just a few more weeks!). It’s pretty simple thus far. I spent the last two days just working on basic functionality. Nothing fancy…yet. ;)

This forum is the first major RoR feature that I’ve done almost entirely on my own. It’s my baby. And, I can’t believe it only took me two days – yeah Rails!

Having no programming experience behind me, learning Ruby on Rails started out as quite the challenge. However, this experience has definitely turned me into a lover of the language. I often have trouble stopping myself from working into the night.

So thanks to Adam for inspiring me to give Rails a try! :)

Oh yeah, one last thing… Happy Holidays!

Jewls

11.09.06

IDM #5 Blogs For Learning

Well, we’ve made it to Week 12/16 of the Fall semester here at MSU. And that means, that the fifth and final IDM is due in my Interactive Media I course.

This weeks featured site is Blogs For Learning, an instructional blog for students and teachers that provides, “information and resources about the technical and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom.”

Blogs For Learning is the brainchild of two of my MSU professors: first, Dr. Ethan Watrall, my Interactive Media I instructor, and second, Dr. Nicole Ellison, the instructor of my “Social, Cultural and Psychological Implications of Computer-Mediated Communication,” course.

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11.01.06

Comedy Central is BACK on YouTube!!

Just as we thought we’d actually have to tune in live to Comedy Central to see our favorite shows (ie. The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Southpark), Comedy Central and YouTube are now in talks to keep the copyrighted videos on the site. A lot of CC clips have been reposted so go celebrate with a healthy dose of political satire.

Cheers, Jewls

10.24.06

Just A Few Semi-Random Things

Here’s a few things that I think are worth mentioning but don’t necessarily need their own posts.

First, you know ads are going to reach the News Feed of Facebook users any-day now, when you see flyers all over your campus asking students to join the Crest WhiteStrips Facebook group.

Here’s a link to a picture of the ad: Smile State

I read an interesting article on Web accessibility today. I’ve been running into the topic fairly often recently (as to be expected for web designers of any skill level), and I haven’t really been confident in what the concept really entails. This article helped point me in the right direction, though. One commenter said it best: “Make something accessible and you’re making it easier for everyone, not just ‘disabled’ people.”

The website for Interactive Media I is coming along nicely. Rails is still pretty frustrating for me, but I think I’m picking it up little by little. No designs have been implemented yet, though – it’s becoming critical that we work on that. Adam and I were playing around with the CSS layout yesterday and applied a three column fluid layout with both 100% height and width. It works and it looks good – however it won’t support faux columns and therefore, more than likely, will not work with the type of design that we’re aiming at. So we may have to look at some alternate options.

Well that’s all I’ve got for ya.

Jewls

10.24.06

IDM #4 RUSTBOY

You should have seen this one coming - it's the fourth of five IDM(Inspiration Design Model) posts for my "Interactive Media I":http://class.cas.msu.edu/tc346/ course! This week on the class chopping block: "Rustboy":http://www.rustboy.com/, a Flash site for the Brian Taylor short film project.

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10.17.06

My First Rails (+ HTML & CSS) App: Coming Soon!

So for the last week and a half, I've been building a Rails application for my HTML course - Interactive Media I. The "Final Project":http://class.cas.msu.edu/tc346/?page_id=3 for my class is to create a "significant" website by manually coding HTML and CSS, in a small group. Well, we are definitely shooting for "significant." I'm not going to spoil the surprise - but I'll tell you it's Web 2.0ish, and our professor was really excited about the idea. I'm coding (with much help from "the b/f":http://threadbox.net) a lot of Rails for this, and at first it was extremely frustrating. But, I'm starting to get the hang of things and we're making a lot of progress. My teammate, AJ (a computer sciences major), is struggling to get MySQL functioning on his XP system - but once that's up, he is going to try and help out with it as well. At the moment, I'd say a good portion of the back-end is good to go. Now, we need to begin focusing on and implementing the actual design of the site. So, it's time for all of us to do some Photoshop explorations. We're all pretty excited about the site and I think it will turn out pretty well for my first Rails/HTML/CSS project. Stay tuned for the launch, which should be around early December. Jewls

10.08.06

IDM #3 Jason Santa Maria

Here it is, the third of five IDM(Inspiration Design Model) posts for my "Interactive Media I":http://class.cas.msu.edu/tc346/ class. This weeks website is "Jason Santa Maria":http://www.jasonsantamaria.com, a personal weblog/portfolio for a graphic designer in Philly. UPDATE: Jason has "commented":http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/archive/2006/10/10/class_critique.php on the collection of critiques by our class and I urge you all to read his response. He's obviously a very intelligent and humble designer and I'm grateful to have had his feedback.

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