I am not the type to make goals, especially long term ones. I am however a very driven and determined person, who once my mind is set on something, am not easily dissuaded or distracted from seeing that thing a reality. This is one of those times where I have made up my mind and will see it to fruition, call it a “goal� if you want. To elaborate on the ambiguous introduction, I have a cousin stationed with the Air Force in Tokyo Japan for the next three or four years. He has previously been stationed in Okinawa for several years and while there met and married a local woman and they have had a son. Since he has been stationed in Japan for so long the military will most likely station him either in the states or in Europe somewhere after this last stint in Tokyo. Now, there are only a few countries that I want to visit in my lifetime, Japan and Scotland being the top choices. Since I currently have family in Japan it is only logical to want to go there while I know someone in the area. And it seems that my widow of opportunity is gradually closing it also bears to reason that if I truly want to go while I have family there, I should do it quick! This brings me to my “goal�. In the next 3 years I WILL go to Tokyo, Japan to visit my cousin and tour a county that helps inspire much of my profession. I’m not looking forward to the several thousand dollars it will cost to do this and the fourteen hour plane ride to get there. Learning some Japanese won’t be a big deal, that’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while and this trip gives me a good excuse to be serious about it. All that doesn’t matter though… I am on my way to Japan!

Out of all the people that interest me in programming, by far I’ve always been fascinated with the story of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. For all who don’t know, she is considered the first programmer because of her work with Charles Babbage’s analytical machine, which is considered to be the first programmable computer (no, it’s not the calculator or the abacus). The machine itself was an interesting contraption of gears and levers that worked purely on mechanical ability and not electricity as today’s computer. But the most amazing thing about this ‘computer’ is that it could be fed code, simple but real programs, and could actually output a result! And this machine is from the 1800s! For Ada to be able to pioneer the first programs with just this type of machine, it leaves me a bit awestruck. As an interesting side note, the government named their Ada programming language after this very same Ada further proving that occassionally the government does do something right.

A lot of my friends tell me that my job sounds easy (that’s the job of programming if you don’t know who I am), and I happily nod and smile. Because friends just don’t know any better. Sure, anyone can program like anyone can perform open-heart surgery or fight a bear, but like anything, there’s a lot more to it to become a professional at it. In fact, the more-of-it is what keeps a lot of people from programming in the first place. Programming is a blend of art and math, but it also is anal-retentive. A single character will throw off the entire program and you will (yes, you WILL) be racking your head around a single line of code for most of your time working on that program. But that is programming, so what I say to you would-be programmers is to relax and have patience when you program, because it can get nerve-racking.

Please welcome to the World Wide Web DrCroner.com, the official website of Dr. Daniel Croner, DDS. Dr. Croner serves the dental needs of numerous folks throughout Wabash County and Northern Indiana.

The new website, which was created by Visionary Web, offers in-depth information about Dr. Croner’s practice including services, biographical information, and location. Dr. Croner’s website is fully bilingual, serving the needs of both English and Spanish speaking customers.

Check out the new site today! http://www.DrCroner.com

As promised, here is more on CSS techniques and graphic element implementations. To start I would like to explain what “Sliding Doors� are that I mentioned in my last post.
Simply it is a method of using CSS positioning to fake a rollover with one image that has both instances of the button and there by on the rollover it slides the image over to show the other state of the button. This greatly reduces loading time because there is no preloading required and you only have one image that you are working with instead of a separate instance for each button. The drawback is that you cannot use styled fonts. If you want a non-standard font (e.g. serif or sans serif along with the classic Arial, Helvetica, Veranda, Times New Roman, etc.) this is not the way you want to go because this effect is made by changing the a:link, a:visited, and a:hover background-image position.

I am impatiently awaiting a full support for CSS 3. Just some of the nifty things the newest version of CSS can do is rounded corners through the definition of only two numbers you can define an elliptical radii and thereby set the curvature of your container. This will also set the background to a rounded state even it you have your border set to none. Speaking of borders, CSS 3 has a new “wavy� boarder style that applies a wavy line to the boarder. You can also define images to your borders now just to increase the customization that so many designers have been using hacks and other less desirable methods to achieve the aesthetic quality they demand in their work. Unfortunately this presents us the same problem that exists now with the IE (Internet Explorer) browser support of the PNG file format. IE 6 does not support the alpha channel required to correctly display transparent PNG images. IE 7 however does. Because IE 6 does not we still must avoid the PNG and settle for the GIF format because IE 6 is still widely in use. If we were to try to use a PNG image then we would not be able to make a good design for IE 6, so for now we must ignore the advancements made in IE 7. So Until CSS 3 becomes supported by all browsers we will still have to use our workaround methods and hacks to get a display that will work for everyone. Even CSS 2 isn’t fully supported by all the browsers, or it is rendered differently because of the functionality of that particular browsers interpretation of the CSS.

Some CSS 3 properties are supported by some browsers, but not all. Transparency is one such property. One of the main focuses of CSS 3 was better text / font control for the designers that have wanted to implement some more typographical elements into their web designs. These text / font properties are almost all fully supported, but some workarounds are required still.

To take a look at the new CSS 3 properties for backgrounds and borders follow this link. http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-background/
To view a tutorial for the “Sliding Door� technique follow this link. http://www.expertsrt.com/tutorials/Cd/CSSrollovers.shtml

I’m now in going into my third week of learning about Linux (I’m running the current version of Ubuntu) and it’s turned out to be much more fun and much less intimidating than I thought it would be. Part of the fun, I admit, comes from a nostalgic feeling for computing as it was twenty-plus years ago (then I was working mainly with a Commodore 64, sometimes I got some time on an Apple, and rarely an IBM PC or PCjr. Probably the biggest challenge so far has been for me to relearn to trust my operating system. Windows likes to ask you (second guess you?) if you’re sure you want to do something; Linux assumes you know what you’re doing and simply does it with absolutely no fanfare or words of caution. For a beginner, my attitude is that I certainly do NOT know what I’m doing and so I sometimes wish Linux would second guess me once in a while. I’m looking forward to regaining that old feeling of proficiency and GUI-independence. For some reason, (this may sound weird) working with Linux and C feels more like working with another person and not simply a “dumb machine.” The constant mistakes and learning from mistakes makes using Linux and C more like a human relationship where Windows is much more like using a microwave.

Visionary is working on a ton of new projects. I am really excited to get them done and get them up in our portfolio. We are doing a lot of different kind of work from cutom shopping carts, FLASH development, custom database programming, etc. The Visionary team is excited by the variety and complexity of the projects that we are currently doing. Stay tuned for some great new sites from:

Knox Fertilizer

AACTION

Wabash Chamber of Commerce

Wabash County Non-Profit Alliance

Manchester Community Schools

School Bus Central

Dr. Croner

GetSomeNuts (no really they sells nuts and bolts)

Duffy Electric and Automation

Beau Mitchell Construction

The Hoopside with Coach Boyd

The Tech Doctor (one of our favorite vendors)

and many more.

Look for our updated portfolio soon! And a new site and new logo! Same great service and attention to detail though!

It’s been a late night – we’ve had a lot of them lately and we are loving it!

In 2007 we want to give back to the community that has provided us with generous support over the last ten years. So for the duration of 2007 we are offering a 10% discount on any new website project started for a member of the Wabash County Chamber of Commerce. While there are many chamber members due for a new site or a first site, we are also hoping to use this discount to recruit new members as in some cases the discount will more than make up for the cost of membership.

If you are a chamber member, contact us today to get started on your new website project.

The term ‘bug’ used to describe a software error, glitch, or other type of time-consuming, mind-numbing item has its roots in Harvard’s ol’ Mark II system, where in 1945, a moth was found stuck dead between two of its relay points. Even though the moth’s predicament has been used in software, I have always seen this as a hardware problem. After all, the hardware was what really failed. But it is still a fine phrase to use, especially since over the years I’ve heard other programmers utter less complimentary alternatives to describe their own bugs.

That’s right. On average, I’d say that most programming languages consist of only 30 or so (probably even less) of actual useable keywords. As well, most programming languages use roughly similar syntaxes, making it incredibly easy to learn an entire “new” language in a day or two. So really, why are there SO many. Answer is complicated, but it’s my belief that it all narrows down to a single feature: functionality. Each language has been designed with a purpose in mind, and it is this purpose that drives the development of the libraries upon libraries of its functions. So I suggest to all you would-be programmers, to study the syntax of the language briefly and the functions available within the language more. That’s where you can delve into the true power of any language.