All Posts, Events, WordPress
So in just a few days the University of Miami will be hosting WordCamp Miami. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since we sponsored and attended WordCamp Orlando in December of 2012. Now the one in Orlando was our first experience and I can surely tell you it was awesome. There were so many cool people who all loved WordPress. From the designers, to developers, to sponsors, and everyday bloggers. As we approach this conference in Miami, there’s a few things one should expect. These aren’t in order per-say and all have an equal amount of enthusiasm behind them.
Learning in-depth Resources and information about WordPress
I would say one of the main reasons for attending a WordCamp is to gain more knowledge about the platform. It really doesn’t matter your level of use, be it novice or seasoned developer, there are still things to learn. This WordCamp will actually feature three different tracks to follow. Users and Bloggers, Designers Track, and Developers Track. After looking at the schedule I already know we’ll be splitting up so that we can absorb as much as we can then collaborate later to unload. The sessions range from “Top 20 Plugins We Can’t Live Without” to “Amplifying your WordPress CSS with Compass & SASS”. There will also be news about what’s coming down the line with future updates and additions to WordPress that are sure to wet your appetite. This really will be a day to have fully charged devices to take in as many notes and tips as you can before reaching 2% life.
Meeting other developers and designers
For me I look forward to this very much. Designers and developers typically don’t congregate too much, and this event is a great mixer. In Orlando there really was an absence of competition, yet a great sense of comradery. If anything you could easily strike up a conversation about some failed plugin or theme house that we’ve all used and cursed. So we’re looking forward to meeting some other developers from the Miami area and hope to make some new Twitter connections too. We never take the attitude that we know it all, or that we can handle all on our own. One of the greatest things about this open source community is that all of us have the potential to create something awesome and be a contribution to the platform.
Networking with potential clients
A large part of our clientele are actually WordPress users. They sometimes have questions about how things work, but for the most part are great at just creating content while relying on us designers and developers to get their sites to work and operate the way they envision. If you’re looking for more clients, this is a great place to mingle. Your elevator pitch literally can be just “Hi, my name is _________ and I’m a designer or developer….” Chances are you’ll get cut off right there and the conversation will turn to what exactly you’re able to do for said client and begin exchanging cards and email addresses.
Livestream
Not going to be able to make it? Were you late to register and now can’t because the event is sold out? Well you’re in luck, they’ll be streaming onsite for the weekend. That includes the BuddyPress session on Friday the 5th too! So you may not even be in the state of Florida yet still gain knowledge from this event. Oh by the way, this is the first WordCamp Miami to be streaming live! It is totally free and no ticket or purchase is required to view the live stream.
The Atmosphere
After a day of cramming your noggin with knowledge you’ll need to unwind. And no better way then with everyone you just met during your sessions over beer and food after the conference. Share some notes, meet more people, and engage. There is sure to be deals to be made between sessions, notes to be passed during sessions, and pictures from smart phones in full effect all day. Everyone social media feeds should be full of content, shares, likes, and RT’s.
So what are you looking forward to? For those of you that have attended a previous WordCamp elsewhere be sure to comment below and let us know some of your favorite or most memorable experiences.
All Posts, Web Design
Its no secret that most web designers and developers loath Internet Explorer. From IE version 9 back to the still popular IE version 6. I recently had dinner with a bunch of other industry friends of mine and one thing we all could agree on was our feelings of Microsoft’s infamous browser. For those of you who may not understand or know why we feel the way we do about this browser, continue to read on.
- Lack of support – CSS Rounded Edges
- Slow page loading times
- Spacing and Padding issues – Hours can be lost trying to align images
- Security – ActiveX controllers
- CSS Standards – Options that work in most other browsers EXCEPT Internet Explorer
- PNG Support – Limited transparency and ugly shadows that normally wouldn’t show up but in IE
Sure there are a host of more complaints that may never get resolved due to the basis on how with each new version of IE is the same as the last. Just a few user interface (UI) updates to give the wrapping a fresh look. I think in part Microsoft wants to impose their own set of standards for website viewing, and we have very little choice but to code and recode one of the most widely and corporately used browsers in the game.
I’ve found some tools to use to help:
Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Debugbar
DebugBar Development features:
– View HTML DOM Tree
– View original ad interpreted source code
– View tab attributes
– Edit tab attributes
– View HTTP and HTTPS headers
– View page cookies
– Validate html code for main page and frames/iframes
– List all javascript functions
– View javascript function code
– Execute javascript code in the currently loaded page
– Get information about currently loaded page
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides several features for exploring and understanding Web pages. These features enable you to:
- Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
- Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
- Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
- View HTML object class names, ID’s, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
- Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
- Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS web feed links.
- Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
- Immediately resize the browser window to a new resolution.
- Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
- Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align and measure objects on your pages.
- Find the style rules used to set specific style values on an element.
- View the formatted and syntax colored source of HTML and CSS.
.png "SuperPreview")
Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer is a stand-alone visual debugging tool that makes it faster and easier to migrate your sites from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 or 8. With Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer, you can ensure that your Web sites work correctly in Internet Explorer 8 while also maintaining compatibility with earlier versions of Internet Explorer.
Via a small plug-in, this tool offers multiple browser testing live in Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox.
This usually is a hot button for most, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on dealing with IE; good or bad.
****UPDATE**** I wanted to add that this is also a reason why the price for web design or web programming is what it is. Due to the many users of IE, our sites are most likely going to be viewed more by them than Chrome, Firefox, and the others. So we could have a site done but then have another 10+ hours of going back to make each page, each image, each element look “right” in Internet Explorer. Maybe in a sense this is a good thing for us designers because we pass this cost on to our clients. For clients we know how important this is to you and you should know that this isn’t something that can be done with the flip of a switch.
So in just a few days the University of Miami will be hosting WordCamp Miami. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since we sponsored and attended WordCamp Orlando in December of 2012. Now the one in Orlando was our first experience and I can surely tell you it was awesome. There were so many cool people who all loved WordPress. From the designers, to developers, to sponsors, and everyday bloggers. As we approach this conference in Miami, there’s a few things one should expect. These aren’t in order per-say and all have an equal amount of enthusiasm behind them.
