Archives for Category / Charles/TWP

• Call Me Regent (or What’s In A Name?)

  Next week, I am going to move this site to Linux server.

  Not a hard process – its just a little more complex in my case since it will involve domain(s) names, file transfers, and dealing with Linux/Window server (well if you dealt with both you know what I mean). But since I am here and I made an important decisions two weeks ago, I might as well talk about it.

  The “it” being…what’s up with the name “Charles”?

  The Wilson Project/Site Versions

  The name Charles refers to Charles Darwin, whose bicentennial was in 2009, the same year the project started in March. It also added some inspiration because of the introduction of new ideas and concepts that slowly gestated and altered during the course of the project.

  But the best thing about working on these projects is that it is sort of like my own research lab. It is where I get to try out new ideas before doing in the real world.

  One part research scientist, one part Olympic athlete.

  As for this version, I decided two weeks ago to name this version “Regent” because of its transitory nature. Unlike “H3”, it was never meant to be a final version and was always going to be more of a functional placeholder for the upcoming Charles.

  And there it is.

• Mental Steeplechase / Hurdle IA

  

  After a some thought and some revisions, I decided that the homepage will take on the blog lister template. This caused the following changes in the primary navigation:

  1. Changed primary navigation with addition of “Home” link
  2. Changed “Information” with “About”
  3. Replacement of “Blog” (main blog page) with “Blog Links” (gray section below containing Blogroll, Archives, and Meta)
  4. Switched order of “Social Media” and “Blog Links”

  An additional change was the addition of the site byline to the header.

  As of today, this was the final substantial change to the look and feel of the Charles site. After almost a year and three concepts, Charles has its look and now I can move forward toward Charles’ completion in 1/1/2011.

  Next steps:

  1. Complete HTML5 code templates
  2. Move TWP site from Windows to Linux server
  3. Start initial steps/planning for CMS configuration

• Mental Steeplechase / Hurdle I

  First screenshots of Delta TWP “Charles” site (with the exception of the homepage)

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• Back from Vacation

  

  Re-entered the country on Memorial Day, after some relaxing (and wet) days in Vancouver, Canada.

  Before falling back into the daily schedule, I took some concrete steps in completing Charles by building out of the first templates. A few more steps will be taken this month, leading to end of Project Charles by January 1st, 2011 (upcoming blog entry).

  Besides Charles, there will be more changes during the later half of this year.

  Later.

• News On The Homefront

  

  NYC IxDA Redux

  A big belated “Thank You” to IxDA New York for Interaction 10 Redux (3/6). It was nice to meet all the people who attended and to see all of the presentations that I missed at Savannah.  Would come back for another event hosted by the group if my schedule allow it.

  Of course, that means I have to start paying attention to the home IxDA branch as well.

  More Opera

  Ironically enough, after NYC IxDA Redux, I went back to New York for my scheduled vacation for Met’s performance of The Nose. This weekend, went back to The Met for Lulu, the Alban Berg opera composed a few years after The Nose. Same decade, different moods but both are considered some of the most avant-garde works of their time. This was the last performance for me this season. Already planning for attending two performances next season in 2011 — John Adam’s Nixon in China and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck.

  Futura

  If you have not noticed, the font has changed in this site. After the font change last year, I decided to re-evalute my choice and changed to the first choice of Futura. I like Super Grotesk and it was choosen because of its closeness to Futura. However, there were just some things that I felt were not right (weight, letter styles) for me. It was nagging me in the back of my mind for a few months. So I decided to go back to the first choice of Futura.

  I am still on the look out for any other Futura-like fonts but the right choice has been made right now.

  Recent Blog Entry for CDG

  Last week, finally completed a book review of Morville/Callender ‘s Search Pattern for CDG and posted on the blog. Interesting read and really changed my ideas about search engines and how search result can be displayed for easier use.

  I mentioned on Twitter (5/4) that this would be my blog for CDG for the next couple of months as I will be spending writing for this blog. A consquenence will be some important announcements about The Wilson Project and Project Charles, as well as some important blog entries.

• Charles is One Year(s) Old

  

  Actually, he’s a few weeks older, but who cares.

  I knew that it had been awhile until I started writing again in the Moleskin notebook I carry around. I wish I could say more but there was some much happening outside of the project that nothing was really done for about six months. Thankful, work has started again. In this case, I took a different tack and worked around what I do best: building and programming. So far, by using prototyping (IxD idea) to try out some of the ideas in the initial plans, I made some progress and new changes that should be an improvement down the road.

  A shout out to Todd Zaki Warfel for some much need inspiration.

  There is still a lot of work to think about and more concepts to play around with. I’m even examining a few ideas from almost five years ago because of one change that needed to be made for better functionality, which some refresher in PHP programming (long time…).

  As for the new design, that is still on hold. Finally asked another designer but he is busy as well (and just like me, can’t complain). But with the change in plans, that will wait until all the concepts have been played out.

  So basically, more work, changing ideas, better direction – which leads to a more upbeat tone about the project.

  BTW – Why the name Charles? I’ll tell all the worth while secrets when this is finally over, hopefully before 2011.

• UI or UN? The Life of a Front-End Developer…The Lecture???

  No. Really.

  Basically, it originally started as an idea for me to do something close to work but outside the office.  However, there are a number of ideas that need fleshing out. Not just about work (dealing with bad HTML code) but also about ideas about Charles, TWP, front-end developement, and IxD.

  And linguistics.

  More news to come.