Rants on technology, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and UI Design by Adam Fortuna
So, i’d been wanting to try something with XMLHTTPRequest for a while, finally had a good idea for it. I was originally wanting to make an active livejournal search engine that would go through the rss feed from a journal. Sounded easy enough, but I didn’t realize you can’t use javascript or iframes on livejournal. Ah well, one idea nullified.
Instead I had to make it completely separate from LJ (and only for my LJ), but go check it out. 
Why am I still up? I don’t have any homework pressing me to do so, no projects that are driving me into throwing off my sleep schedule — and yet here I am. Over the past weekend I’ve been reading a ton of random articles, and I suppose that’s what’s keeping me up. This includes a few chapters from Designing Without Tables Using CSS, SQL Performance Tuning, loads of articles on Sitepoint, WHT dedicated server forum, FB4 stuff, Services_Amazon.php, Movable Type, John Stone Fitness and more I can’t remember off the top of my head. Aside from browsing those topics I can’t say I’ve actually done anything. All that insipiration to program from reading and none of it making its way into code. I have decided to finally develop Bemani.org though. Look for it in a few months. I’ve hit a few stumbling blocks so far; but I’m hoping to actually make use of a few new ideas on something not too incredibly complicated. The annoying part is that it’ll need a higher MySQL version than my current host (or most) offer, so I’m developing it locally for now. At least it’s easier not having to upload a script every few seconds to test it. Id like to have a dedicated server by the time it’s released (Dec. 9, 2004) so it won’t be a problem. Why December 9? On that date 7 years ago DDR was released! Or at least I hope so, or I’m out of luck and my database is already inaccurate.
I’m seriously thinking about getting that Designing Without Tables using CSS book. They only offer a few chapters for free from it; but it was the best written look into CSS (for what I’d actually be using it for) I’ve seen so far. Most don’t even identify from of the topics like psuedo class/elements selector or parent-child selectors. I’d never even heard of adjacent or attribute selectors. o.0 Making a major css/xhtml strict site is a goal of mine. Originally the Coop site was Xhtml transtional, but as they needed things done faster and faster I couldn’t keep up with the learning curve to keep the page looking right with tabless and using only CSS. Now it’s lacking little things here or there — even in the template.
On a side note I feel sorry for the new film student who took over the admissions process this year. ;p Looking back at how bad my code/design was he’s going to have to do massive amounts of work to change it. He has never used php before and he’s never taken a programming class so.. uhh.. good luck?
This last week has gone by entirely too fast. Coding, going out, Micheal Moore, HK movies, classes and massive amounts of work. Last week hit me hard too — 38 hours in a week most my HW was due. There’s no longer any doubt though. The time i spend working out is inverse related to the time spent coding. There’s just no way around it. If someone finds a hack for this relationship, please let me know.
So what’ve I been doing…
Things I’d like to do…
Eh, anyways; as someone i talked to today mention I should be trying out the things I want to do while i’m still ‘young’. While I don’t feel any older than I was yesterday (or last year for that matter), with graduation around the corner I guess it makes me think about it a little more. I’ll see if I can try a few new things before I say my farewells to college life in December.
