The life of a web professional is never boring to say the least.  The beauty of it is that when you’re really busy your blog truly suffers.  Well, unless you’re Chris Pund - who I swear holds the secret to being busy and blogging.

What have I been up to?

I’ve spent the last few months investing a lot of my time at my day job on huge overhaul project.  The long hours of research and development are finally paying off as the project itself is nearing the launch date.  Nothing is more sweet than reaching the finish line.  Where am I going from there?  Right back to research and development - looking at user statistics, how they react to change, and to test and develop solutions for later stages of this project.

Realization

In the midst of all of that I’ve come to a few conclusions on my own end of the web professional world.  For many years I did a lot of contract work on the side to pay for school, gas, etc.  As a young teen this really grew throughout the years.  However, as college graduation loomed I really started steering away from my entrepreneurial instincts.

As for continuing work on the side I have decided that I may take on this endeavor with more focus during the 3rd quarter of this year.  Don’t jump to conclusions - I’m not quitting my day job (I’ve got it made folks - Virginia Tech, especially the Office for Research is an IDEAL place anyone should work for).  I’m only looking at a few options to continue my growth as a professional and to give my creative spirit an outlet to flow.

Be on the lookout, there are going to be many great things to come this year!

Although the winter weather is depressing, I do have one high note for today.  Electronic artist BT is releasing a new album today - These Hopeful Machines.  Well known for the trance anthem “Flaming June”, the break-beat influenced “Never Gonna Come Back Down“, and the pop influenced “Simply Being Loved“, BT proves time and time again that electronic music is more than just a niche genre.

You can purchase the new album from ITunes, Amazon.com, and may preview it live at BT’s Myspace.

BT - Suddenly

BT - Rose of Jericho

Slam magazine featured an interview article with legendary Oak Hill Academy basketball coach Steve Smith.  As someone who grew up in Mouth of Wilson, VA, I have literally grew up watching this program.   It’s definitely a read for any basketball fan interested in learning more about what makes the program tick.

• Read the full article at http://www.slamonline.com/online/college-hs/high-school/2009/06/at-the-top-of-the-hill/

Useful concept that reminds me of the undergrad years - or at least the teammates that only copied your code…

View the article - http://blog.obiefernandez.com/content/2009/09/10-reasons-pair-programming-is-not-for-the-masses.html

I’m really starting to wonder about this area.. can’t we go a year without some sort of tragedy such as this?

• Police seek suspects in Virginia Tech students’ deaths (article from the Roanoke Times)

If you’re an energy conservative, you’ll definitely want to check out this project from Virginia Tech which will be entered into the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition.

View more details about the project at www.lumenhaus.com .

This rule has simply made my day, check it out at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/10-web-design-rules-that-you-can-break/ .

For those looking for a captcha solution, I highly recommend you check out reCaptcha.

reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows.

Check it out at www.recaptcha.net.

Always, always double check your links for typos. As developers/designers/content managers we’ve all made the mistake of not checking our links at least once.

A colleague had wondered why a link on the Microsoft support page article “Information about Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008″ was taking him to a suspicious web site.

Reason - Microsoft typo’d the url.

View the article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948465

The link on the page in reference SHOULD be http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd767387.aspx.

Always remember - hackers will use any resource that can be exploited, including typos if the environment permits!

So, I was gonna do a post.. but decided snuggling with the girlfriend was more important.

However for your reading pleasure, here is a link to an article at NeTTuts about building a social network with Joomla!

• Read the article “Build a Social Network Using Joomla!” at NeTTuts