Cybergangs? Scams? Oh the horror!
With that out of the way I must bring to queation why this is just now making the news?
I’m pretty sure plenty of users have seen this scenario one tooooooo many times.
Read the full article “Scareware’s pitches for fake security show up in odd places” at USA Today’s website
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-09-cybergangs-scareware-hackers_N.htm
I’m late to catch this post from Paul Annett of Clearleft, but I highly recommend checking out his presentation regarding easter eggs and the small visual ‘magic’ tricks web designers can add to a project.
View the post and presentation at http://paulannett.co.uk/sxsw09
Just thought I’d pass this awesome offer along to those that read the blog.
SitePoint is offering a deal to get 5 of their books in PDF format for only $29.99.
The beauty of it is that the proceeds are going to be donated to the victims of the Australian bushfires.
I’ve read a few of the books and some are hit or miss. I definitely recommend:
Check it out, its for a good cause!
February 3rd goes unrecognized to many as a significant day. However, for those that lived during the initial birth of the rock ‘n roll era, the date February 3rd, 1959 will live on forever as the day that tragedy took away three stars of the industry. The three were all pioneers of their time. Those three were one Buddy Holly, seventeen-year-old Ritchie Valens, and disc jockey J.P. Richardson - commonly known as “The Big Bopper”. Holly, arguably the most popular of the group, is cited as a major influence to many stars of the music industry including the Beatles (their name is a shout-out to Holly’s Crickets), Bob Dylan, Weezer, and many upon many more.
While on “The Winter Dance Party” tour, each of the artists played various mid-western venues. The tour had been challenging for all those on board due to the heating system failure on the bus and the treacherous winter weather that accompanied it. Along the tour’s stop in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2nd, Holly had chartered a plane to avoid having to ride the bus to the next show. Richardson would later join the ride. Valens, as fate would have it, later won a coin toss to take the final seat on the small charter plane.
Unfortunately for the three bright stars of the rock ‘n roll era, weather and pilot inexperience would lead to doom. The plane was later found on February 3rd demolished in a corn field just outside of Clear Lake.
Don McLean later referred to it as “The Day the Music Died” in his song American Pie.
As one reads many articles written today commemorating the event, a sudden vibe of ‘this wasn’t the day the music died’ comes to mind. However, I beg to question: What if they had lived to continue their growth and influence? Holly was less than 3 years into his career, as Valens was just taking off and at least under a year into his career.
Sometimes genius is better preserved through tragedy. Then again, tragedy inspires those remaining to live up to the influence.
More Information:
One of my goals for 2009 is to launch at least 2 fan-related web sites. One that I launched in 2007, MichaelJackson1Stop.com, never really got the attention it deserved. It was a project I launched during my crucial last semester of college with a full-time 90 hour week work schedule (sounds fun right?).
The original idea was for a site that brought together various RSS feeds to produce a single web site that fans could go to to reach the various news/content/media related to Michael Jackson. However, I only found time to put up a simple Michael Jackson discography, biography, and limited links.
I have now uploaded a new layout and content to the site, which was very bare beforehand. New features include:
Check it out at www.michaeljackson1stop.com.
It is very safe to say that the modern work industry is not only fast-paced but also an easy place to find yourself distracted. Below are five helpful tips that help me throughout the week.
Don’t Take On Too Much At Once
This is something we’re all guilty of. We want to jump out, show we can take on a heavy workload and get the job done. What we don’t realize is that after time it takes a threatening toll on our health, focus, and ability to perform. Pay close attention to the amount of time you have and the amount of time it will take to complete the tasks you take on. Remember - sleep and time outside the office dictate how stressed you get in the long run!
When Stumped, Dont’ Google Solutions First
What? We live in a digital age and I’m not recommending to hit Google first? That’s correct! Yes - there are a ton of message boards out there you can find through Google that have probably come across the same issue that you’re having. Sadly though, by going this route first you put yourself into dangerous area for procrastination.
If you’re stumped, try walking away from the situation for five minutes or so to catch your thoughts. Then, once back in the office, try drawing out your project and how you think it should work. Trace your steps and go into more detail on the task at hand. Weirdly enough, this has usually helped me find areas that I may overlook to being caught up in finishing a project.
Coordinate
Sometime’s it is tough to build a routine in the IT industry. If you can, try to implement certain elements of your day into a set schedule. Maintenancing your e-mail early in the morning, reviewing your calendar for tomorrow’s activities in the late afternoon, finishing projects in the early morning can all be effective ways to combat procrastination and loss of time. Try tackling projects early on in the day while you are the most awake and energetic. Finish your day off with the least important activities or the ones that require the least amount of energy.
Read Up!
It’s rather nice to keep up with all of the news in your related field. Although it may not relate to your company at large, a lot of what happens in the industry can either help or disrupt you in the long run. Keep up-to-date with whats going on. As cliche as it sounds, knowledge truly is power.
Retouch Your Skills
In this industry, it is impossible to use your entire skillset in one single day or week. I’ve found that retouching certain skills, techniques, or software can maintain your knowledge of the respective area. Who knows, you may even learn more about it than you knew before.
As you can see, these are 5 random points of advice. The IT industry is truly growing and with that comes with responsibilities that will only grow in time. Keep your mind healthy, knowledgeable, and free to think and you will find much more comfort in your abilities and career.
As a designer you can run into a lot of conflicts. What do I think looks the best? What do they think looks the best? I understand this but will they be able to comprehend? These are all valuable questions that designers face. For that, I am going into 3 common areas in which most designers either take sink or swim!
1) Assuming the User Understands
I don’t have the statistical research, but this is one of the biggest problems designers face today. As developers and designers we tend to take our own knowledge of what we understand for granted. Do all users know this type of link goes here? Is it common knowledge a house means that you will go to the index or home page?
Take into deep consideration how much your design speaks to the user. It is a safe route to break down navigation as simple as possible, add visulizations and tool-tips where needed, and to place objects where users can easily see them.
All and all - your design should tell the user what to do. That tends to eliminate the confusion.
2) Small Text Sucks. Period!
One of the biggest issues I have with design is small text. It could be the fact that I’m very close to being legally blind. Just think about it. Your site or application is used by the 17-50 year-old range. Will all of your users have the same eye sight? Will they even look at your site on the same screen resolution? This was especially an issue during the Dot Com days as Verdana with font-size 10px being the forerunner. Now, bigger text is in with the whole Web 2.0 movement.
Of course - your users could probably utilize the zoom feature in their browser. How convenient is that though? Remember folks - this is all about the user experience!
3) Your Browser Isn’t The Only One Bud
I really didn’t think it was such a problem ,but there are many designers that don’t think to test their applications in various browsers. This site is included! There are some subtle differences between all browsers that can hamper the user experience. It may seem like the tiniest fragment but trust me - it will hurt a lot more than you imagine.
Test, Test, Test! That’s the only way you can assure that your site is your site no matter the environment.
And we close…..
Those are three elements that can be overlooked, assumed, or can even lack the proper attention. Remember - every element put into your web site/ applicaiton interface dictate how your users will effectively use it. Your users can use it proudly. Yet again, they can move on to the next search result due to frustration.
Definitely my days in college were much different than my days now at work. I have a few classes this fall, but those days will be different than my days in recent years. Let’s take a look and compare.
College Mornings
Nothing beat being 18 and not having anything to do other than going to class. In college, most classes started at 10am for me, rarely before 9am. Granted, my first college class was a Cisco Networking course that started at 7:30am. This was back when I definitely wasn’t a morning person! Back to the subject - while I was at community college, this meant crawling out of bed, driving a mile down the road and going to class. At Radford University it was even more convienent - just roll out of bed 3 mins before class and run. After class was finished I’d hit the Bonnie for breakfast or go back to my dorm to take an enjoyable (and probably well needed) nap.
Work Mornings
I wake up typically around 6:15am, shower and try to be out the door by 7:15am or 6:45am. This gives me plenty of time to drive, depending on the location I am leaving from (Radford Home or my Parent’s Home). I begin my workday around 8am. By noon, I’ve already completed an abundance of data entry, updated forms, and have taken care of various IT related issues.
College Day
Days in college were fun. I’d go to my classes for the day, have lunch with a friend or two, then I’d find something to get into. Sometimes it meant going to the library, but most of the time it meant chillin with one of my fraternity bros.
Work Day
Work isn’t college. A lot of my time is spent keeping on top of things, taking care of conference calls, keeping documentation, entering data, and more. There’s not a lot of time to waste! Interact with very many different people and I must always keep my composure.
College Night
College nights are why we all go to college. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING beat going out with my friends to a college party and living it up. The amount of people you could meet, the spontaneous energy around it all, and the memories that you’d still talk about for weeks (and years I’ve found) all made it worthwhile. Going to bed was NEVER before 3am.
Work Night
I’m never up past 11pm and wore out by 9:30pm. I usually reflect on the day, look forward to the weekend, and overall relax as much as possible. Hangouts are are during the week.
Compare and Contrast
Work and College are a like. There’s a lot of work to do and I have to work with a lot of people to get the job done. They differ tremendously in terms of seriousness though. College is very carefree whereas work is not. You have to be on top of your game due to the competitiveness. College has competition too, but it isn’t the type of competition you see when earning money is involved.
I recommend to those of you in college to enjoy every second of it that you can. To my fellow coworkers in the real world - I hope you made many memories while in school. It’ll definitely make icebreakers with the coworkers a lot more interesting!
Sometimes work gets boring. Then there are days that break the mold.
Today at work we had an Employee Appreciation day to - you guessed right - show appreciation to our employees.
We brought in a dunking booth and allowed employees to buy throws. Why would we charge them to throw on THEIR appreciation day? The reason - to raise money for charity. I must say it was a fun experience, even yours truly was dunked a few times.
I hope to see more events like this in the near future. It’s an effective tool for improving internal company relations and takes away the norm of sitting in the office!
The quote unquote “real world” is a great instructor in terms of free-time. It has really taught me in some time about how much free time I have had in college and that I never really utilized it. For example, I thought I was almost too busy because I was not only a full-time student, but I was also in a business fraternity, business organization, held part-time jobs, and more.
The beauty of college is that everything is spread out. If you can figure out ways to patch those hours in between your active hours you can really become productive in various ways. Below I have included five suggestions that I have found helpful over the past two years:
