Journal Entries
Aug 19, 2009
What’s a guild?
I’m not a gamer. I had a Sega Genesis system way back and I got so sucked into it that I have since avoided almost all type of video games. I waste enough time staring into space. I cannot afford to lose anymore.
That said, I love gaming culture. Some of the most creative projects and individuals on the web have grown out of it. This is my most recent discovery. And by discovery I mean, “three years late to the party.”
Aug 17, 2009
Aug 14, 2009
A Trailmap project overhaul.
I’ve just started work on a new project to revamp an old project which may become my thesis project.
I’m going to visualize data for a ski resort over the course of a season. The idea is that you’ll be able to see not just the present conditions but also those that have preceded it. What’s the point of that? Well, I’m not sure yet. It’s helpful in the short term for skiers deciding on which mountion to spend their money on. Five days of rain preceding a sunny day tells you more about the conditions then a daily snow report. But as far as a greater reason; a reason that will justify so much effort on one project; I haven’t got anything beyond, “because I want to.” With any luck I’ll be able to thesis-level justify it after the fact.
Here’s the basic plan: collect mountain data daily into a database. Use a data driven interface to display anything from most recent conditions to opening day’s conditions. I’m aiming for October 15th as the go-live date.
I’ll be posting my progress as I proceded.
Wish me luck! …and say a little prayer as I’m blindly walking into a couple of areas I know next to nothing about. ‘Cause why the hell not?
Apr 8, 2009
How’s 2 out of 10?
One of my co-workers pointed me to this post on Tech Republic about 10 skills that developers will need in the next 5 years.
Now I have never considered myself a developer. My background is in art. The tech side of my career was something of an afterthought. I figured that a good painter would know how to mix paint and a good designer would be pretty handy with an x-acto knife, french curves and a ruler. So why shouldn’t I know a little more about my chosen medium.
Ten years later, the tech side of my career had arguably become the majority. That’s not a complaint. I do love working with code. But I always feel like I’m working my way through a foreign land with half a map.
I take the Tech Republic list with a grain of salt. While I have one foot in the development world, my other one is firmly planted in visual design. But it does bother me somewhat that I can only check off maybe two of those ten. I don’t think I’ll ever really need Java, but it might be the other half of my missing map.
Aug 14, 2009
A Trailmap project overhaul.
I’ve just started work on a new project to revamp an old project which may become my thesis project.
I’m going to visualize data for a ski resort over the course of a season. The idea is that you’ll be able to see not just the present conditions but also those that have preceded it. [...]
Apr 8, 2009
How’s 2 out of 10?
One of my co-workers pointed me to this post on Tech Republic about 10 skills that developers will need in the next 5 years.
Now I have never considered myself a developer. My background is in art. The tech side of my career was something of an afterthought. I figured that a good painter would [...]
