Interview with Richard McCoy

1.          What is your name/alias?

Rich McCoy

2.           Are you a developer, designer or both?

Hum, I’m a creative I do UI development to, but less & less these days, not out of choice but out of necessity as that’s just the kind of work I’m getting offered more
3.           Tell us a bit about yourself:

Graduated with a Degree in Fine Art back in the mid 90’s started working in multimedia (creating high end clip art, a bit of an oxymoron I know and no wander the company when under), built the companies first website in 96 and have been doing it since sometimes employed but mostly freelance. I live wherever I can and so far I’ve free-lanced from Australia, New Zealand, England & Ireland. I like film, design thinking, music, cooking, philosophy and my kids, don’t like getting bored, cliché’s and the smell of chocolate.
4.           What sparked your interest in the industry?

I was always interested in interaction during my Art Degree and created several interactive pieces with homemade electric guitars and other noise making tools, worked a lot with video and computers and it just seems like a good marriage between creativity, technology and humanity, and I like that.
5.           What’s your typical day?

Far too long, I wake up check my mail from bed on my IPod then get up sort out breakfast for the kids, see them off to school and start work, usually lunch at my desk, finish about 5:30 then back to work again at about 11pm though till 2:30 typical. There are usually 3 – 4 projects worked on in a day and dealing with enquiries.
6.           Who is your idol in the industry and why?

In this industry, na… there are some good folks out there but none that I idolise, I love the cover work of Vaughan Oliver and the 23 Envelope croud, they probably have had more influence on what I do then any one else working in the same field.
7.           What inspires you?

Play, a new challenge, something tricky.
8.           What’s your favourite piece of work?

The next one I do, I don’t tend to look back on what I’ve done, I don’t know why, I have always had that approach, I suppose I enjoy the journey of creativity more than the product, I really don’t know, I do think it helps me move on though and take on the next project with a fresh perspective not always comparing it to a favourite.
9.           How did you come up with your design for your site?

I wanted something that was simple and easy to update, but that contained a more personal hands on raw creativity, I love texture and noise and a large part of the influence for the sites composition is based in old Japanese Zen painting composition and aesthetic but not the details!
10.       What would you say to someone who is beginning to learn about the web?

Learn fast, be adaptable, have fun and stay current.
11.       What is your website address?

My primary address is mccoy.co.uk but I also live at littlehellos.com / themushroomfarmer.com / mccoy.me.uk / mypeppersoul.com and the list goes on and will continue to grow!

My first post this year!

This is my first post of 2010. It’s a bit late but I have been ill for a bit but feeling better. I will hopefully be doing more posts this year. These will include my work, tutorials, snippets of code and what I find on the web. Hopefully this year will be a good one.

To kick off this year I am going to share some WordPress code with you all. This snippet is something I have used recently in a project and I have found very useful. What this does it it gets the Users role but can be used to gather other information as well if tweaked. So what is it.

<?php
function get_current_user_role () {
global $current_user;
get_currentuserinfo();
$user_roles = $current_user->roles;
$user_role = array_shift($user_roles);
return $user_role;
};
?>

Here’s an example for you. I used this to add a link to my menu to show up if I’m on.

<?php
if (get_current_user_role() == "administrator") {
echo "<li><a href='/wp-admin'>Admin</a></li>";
}
?>


Teh.GD Plug-in 0.2

I have now got the plug-in on WordPress. With seconds of it being up I have updated it as I have missed a few things in the readme.txt and needed to change the file path slightly in the main file.

It is working properly and I will soon start some more updates and try to improve it more. If you have any suggestions on what should be included then please comment. I am working on the Teh.GD Plug-in page which will have the information on the plug-in and any instructions. There will also be the link to the WordPress page.

Here is the link to the page.

It will even tell you when you have an update.

Version 0.2

Teh.GD Plug-in

I have been working on a plugin for jQuery that uses the Teh.GD API to shorten URL’s. I have got this to work. So now I have decided to make it a WordPress plug-in. This creates a widget that can them be placed into a area of your theme that allows widgets.

Currently it works by getting a person to put a URL into a text box and then on the submit of a button it puts the shortened URL into another text box. This works fine as you can tell with it being on my sidebar at the top.

The Plug-in

I have posted my plug-in to WordPress so waiting for it to be confirmed and once that is done I will be able to update the plug-in and allow you to automatically update it.

The updates will include an admin section so you can give it more control. Such as the Goggle analytic’s etc. With having these I will also make it use the API key. So you can keep track of your links and also you will be able to make you links that are used public or private.

Interview with Arthur Kay

This is my interview with Arthur Kay.

1.What is your name/alias?

My name is Arthur Kay, and I advertise my freelance services as “aKa Web Design”. I’m involved with a number of web development forums under a variety of aliases.

2.Are you a developer, designer, or both?

I am much more of a developer than a designer, but I often have to wear both hats. I do a great deal of JavaScript development in conjunction with PHP or .NET, depending on the project.

3.Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m pretty much an average 27 year old American guy – I like watching football, snowboarding in the winter and drinking beer. I studied Music in college, focusing on classical guitar – but my CD collection features everything from Pink Floyd to Nirvana. I currently live near Chicago, IL with my family.

Professionally, I’ve been involved in web development for more than 10 years. I’m currently working with ASP.NET MVC and ExtJS to build some really cool web applications.

4.Who is your idol in the industry and why?

I don’t know if I can say that I have one specific idol in the web development world, but there’s a few people who I really respect. Glenn Lipka does a great job analyzing the User Experience. Douglas Crockford has amazing ideas in the JavaScript world. Matt Cutts has a gazillion tips regarding SEO. That list goes on and on.

5.What sparked your interest in the industry?

I started building webpages when I was in high school on GeoCities – before it was bought by Yahoo. At the time I think I just wanted to be a part of a larger community, but I wasn’t satisfied with programming HTML through a WYSIWYG editor. I eventually went to school and learned things like C++ and Java, but I missed developing things for that larger world-wide audience. As a result, I taught myself PHP and .NET and began working on web-based applications.

6.What inspires you?

There’s a lot of things that inspire me. I read a lot of blogs and stay involved in many web development forums, so I’m always finding new ideas to solve problems for my clients. Often times I’ll see a website with some cool feature and I’ll try to find a way to extend that solution to solve a new problem. The learning process never stops.

7.What would you say to someone who is beginning to learn about the web?

My advice would be to not get overwhelmed. Start by solving the problem you need to address and then figure out what you liked about that project. Then search the internet for blogs related to that topic and start playing with code.

With so many different languages and frameworks available, a developer can’t possibly learn them all. You’ll find things you’re good at and things you’re not so good at.

8.What is your website address?

You can find my website and blog at http://www.akawebdesign.com

Interview with James Brooks

This is my interview with James Brooks.

1. What is your name/alias?

James Brooks/jbrooksuk

2. Are you a Developer, a Designer or both?

Definitely a developer. I’m not creative enough in an artistic format.

3. Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m an 18 year old student. I started coding when I was 7 year old.

4. What got you started in web?

Honestly, sheer boredom. There was nothing for me to do where I lived at the time.

5. Who is your idol in the web world?

I don’t really have an idol. I don’t want to be like someone, because I have my own techniques and ways of doing things.

6. What inspires you?

The drive of my ambition; to help people use the internet in a simple, fast and organized way.

7. What would you say to a newbie who is starting out in the world of web?

Quit now, I want my job! Haha, no, I’d say good luck. It’s a tough industry, you really have to be very good at what you do.

Blank WordPress Themes Ready For 2.7

Thanks to annalinnea.net you can now download some blank WordPress themes to use to make your own.

Visit the original post here.

Download Them.

My Top 10 Tutorial Sites For Web

I have produced a list of the top ten sites that I believe are great for learning about making websites. These are sites that I use myself and think others should.

W3Schools

jTutorials

Tizag

psd tuts+

net tuts+

psdvibe

Developer Tutorials

Smashing Magazine

HV Designs

Tripwire Magazine

jQuery Update

jQuery has updated again and if you want to learn more about the updates then check out what James wrote on jTutorials.

Click here.

CO2-neutral website – climate friendly use of the internet

The use of the internet today is estimated to cause more carbon emissions than airfreight! This is due to the high energy consumption from servers behind websites and computers, monitors etc. at visitors.

When electricity is consumed, carbon (CO2) is emitted. This is because the production of electricity is partly based on fossil fuels, for instance coal.

A voluntary Danish climate initiative, “CO2neutralwebsite.com” has mapped these emissions and made a CO2 neutralization program that enables participating companies to go carbon neutral with their website. The result is climate friendly surfing for the users of the website – and the company gets a good profile.

The CO2 neutralization is done by carbon offsetting. The initiative buys certified, European CO2-allowances and these are then cleared at the state institutions in EU. The result of these actions is fewer CO2-allowances, which directly reduces the allowed emissions for the companies under the EU allowance-system thereby forcing them to cut down on their emissions. This process of offsetting is independently audited by Deloitte. We also invest in the building of new renewable energy projects to further support the environment.

The initiative is partly owned by the Danish state.

Please find further information regarding the CO2 initiative at the official website.

Both large and small companies from many different countries participate in the initiative. In total more than 700 companies have joined.