http://www.toniturner.co.uk/flash/recipeforsuccess.htm – I just got a kick out of it.

I like CSS but it seems like it takes so much more time to develop and troubleshoot CSS sites than table based designs. (Okay you CSS people can send all the comments you want but that's my experience.)

Hopefully I can change that for myself with a new framework I found, the 960 Grid System. The website has a more complete overview but basically what the framework aspires to do is codify the layout of sites on a 960 pixel wide grid system with that width split up into 12 or 16 columns of equal width with a gutter between each column. For people like me who tend to think very linearly this is about like drawing on graph paper.  The whole framework minified is about 4k or 5k and saves me from writing a lot of the CSS that I would need write to build the same site. I know this framework isn't for everyone or every site but artistically layout impaired developers like me its a blessing and very effective tool.

@Nokkio (on twitter) has developed a DNN skin and system based on this idea which can be seen...

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I am a developer not a designer! I think most of the people I talk to on a regular basis say this at least once a week. Most developers, okay the ones I hang out with, don't have a lot of artistic ability. I don’t mean they aren't creative, I mean how else can programmers deal with visualizing all the variables and interactions of data, text and logic. What I mean is, hand them Photoshop and you will not get one useable graphic from them much less a straight line.

Knowing this I went looking for tutorials to make myself a better designer. Know I know quite a bit about CSS and something about how it works but trying to develop a skin for DNN with CSS is something of a mystery. Now, with this tutorial http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/, I feel a little better about trying to get going on a design. Still can’t draw a straight line but when I learn how to do that I’ll be able to show it with a better page design.

...

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I am so glad I found the Kansas City Startup Weekend (purely by mistake on Twitter). Excited to go and see what the hype is about but mostly eager to go and get out of the funk I am in. One of my ‘goals’ for this year was to position myself as a freelance coder and consultant. If you are in the consulting business you know how hard it can be to establish a reputation, and I have had some unfortunate and bad breaks. However, I am determined to go and be productive and find or at least be inspired by all the entrepreneurial spirit I already feel online from the event.

You can follow along if you want online, Kansas City Startup Weekend, here are some resources:

Kansas City Startup Weekend Blog Kansas City Startup Weekend Live Video Feed (via UStream.TV) Dan Meltons Vimeo Group...

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Kind of a fun Doctor Who song - listen for the Exterminate! 

Normally I would post aimed at developers and designers here but this issue really comes on both sides of the development world, the developers and the consumers or clients. Most developers and designers will hate this statement but its true and I really believe it, “Anyone can build a website or web application.”

*Okay before the flames start read on!

Well there goes my job right? Wrong! Just because I can do a thing doesn’t mean I should. Change that statement around for any other profession, “Anyone can do surgery or be a doctor.” Again this is a true statement but everyone realizes that to do this takes a lot of time and schooling to be a doctor. Hey, I know I can stitch up a big gash in my leg, I had to do that once, but I know if I went to a doctor not only would it not hurt but very possibly I wouldn’t have the hideous scar. I know all the developers and designers out there have seen sites that are a big scar.

The same applies to building a website, developing applications, or any other...

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The Back Story When building Version 3, well that’s what we call it, of our online safety tracking and compliance software we created a small monster. In the initial stages  of design I added in the ability to send users alerts about events that happen. For example a person in a Kansas grain elevator gets hurt and the incident is added to the recordable incident list and the manager in New York knows about it and can get an investigation going on what happened. Really helps the corporate guys stay on top of things right! After the first iteration of reporting I intended to move this to a purely online alert system with daily overview emails so users didn't get deluged with emails. I tried to change to a full web based system and users revolted! (Yes, users are revolting sometimes but this was users demanding to get more rather than less emails and worse yet it was the users who pay the bills!)

The Problem At the time it was no big deal if an incident happened the alert email got sent to maybe 20 people...

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I never saw this before – funny!

Been working on a new project based on one little tweet (http://twitter.com/Salaro/statuses/1416775586) on Twitter.com from Solaro(http://twitter.com/Salaro). If you build DNN skins or are interested in skins and great designs you might want to follow him he’s good!

 

Anyway in the spirit of Download.com, one of the big successful commercial download sites on the web, I registered and have been working on DNNDownload.com (http://dnndownload.com). The site is built all on, you guessed it, DotNetNuke.  With a few hundred more hours of work and some custom modules hopefully it will be a good place for DNN module builders to share demo modules, skin builders to share free skins, and for site builders to find and evaluate modules without having to hunt down a thousand different sites. Hopefully the site will become big enough to make a difference but of course that will depend on the DNN community. If you want to see a feature, tell me! If you want to see...

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