The question is why people do not trust them-self?

It has probably lot do with lizard brain as Seth Godin likes to call it. Trust me if every one of the people who made it far would start asking all these questions them-self they would not even start. Do not question yourself. Just start working on it. You think you cannot be designer because you can’t draw or you think you can’t put things together visually. So what? If you really want, I mean really want, there is nothing which will stop you. You can be great designer! You will learn how to code properly. You will learn how to use grids, typography etc and you can produce amazing web sites without producing any artwork. These knowledge can be learned it only requires your time. So stop thinking about it and start reading about it and practicing.

I am not “the guy”

I am not telling you about all this because I am the best designer out there. Not even close. I am just like you. Guy who decided to learn something and start doing something about it. I have a long way in-front of me, but I am walking, not running but walking. If you are thinking it is too late for your for such a change, trust me it is never too late. I have started to learn web design when I was 31. If you are 40+ you might be thinking “what is he talking about, he is young” and if you are 15+ you are probably thinking “he is quite old to switch the carrier at that age”. It is never too late!

Right conditions? Nah

People also complain that they do not have the right conditions or money. Well, it depends. If you decide to go the way of proper studying in expensive schools you might spend lot of money but hey we have the internet, right? You can get all of the information you need on internet these days and it will cost you almost “0″. You don’t have the conditions to work properly? Listen, I have been living in share houses for past 6 years and none of the rooms I lived had table so I have never used mouse working on my own projects. All what you see on this site and my other personal projects is done without mouse. Trust me if you really want you will get there. You only need to trust yourself and start believing.

The conditions are never right so stop thinking about it and just do it and tell me all about it. I am ready for your stories.

I have already decided to go for cloud computing because it advantages to adjust the resources on the fly as your app grows bigger. If you do not know what cloud computing is let me give you small example. Let’s imagine that you have your application up and running and you get more then thousand active users. The application might get slower because of hardware resources on your server. With cloud computing you can add more RAM or HD in a few minutes. In case you end up with less users in the future and you do not need all those resources you can scale back to your original configuration.

There are couple of big players on the cloud server market. The biggest one are Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Cloud. The Rackspace prices looks really great. I really wanted to go with them but what put me off is the fact they do not provide any pre-build packages for server installations and I could not really find any open source projects as well. On the other hand Amazon EC2 is lot more expensive, I mean if you want to go for the cheapest option, but there is quite a few of pre-build packages which makes your life lot easier if you are not the “server guy” even you still need to be to install and configure it. Talking expensive here might sound funny for companies who used to pay hundreds of pounds for the same type of services before. It will only cost about 20-30 pounds/month for the smallest instance which might be a lot for individuals but it should be just fine for small companies.

Both of these companies has been on the market for a while and they have managed to establish very good name, they are very reliable. They both come with they own versions of file storage services. I already use Amazon S3 services for backing up my Mac as well as all of my databases. There is no cost for moving stuff inside Amazon network – from EC2 to S3 and I am guessing it will be the same for Rackpace.

I have pretty much made my mind. I will be using EC2. They offer an option where you can reserve server for 1 to 3 years. You pay the basic price at the beginning and then you pay monthly costs for running the instance. Specially the fact that I can just grab a package which includes app ache, rails, mysql together with other tools and install it as one made my decision in this case. I have managed to install all I need on my MAC but I want to be sure that all the stuff is properly configured and secure because I am not specialist in that field. I am also considering security audit before launching the application so I am sure that the customer’s data are well protected.

You might not heard of this yet. Why? It is quite simple. If you come up with some solution and you do not have a “big name” it is not easy to promote your product. On the other hand you have probably heard about all the other solutions out there even they might not be as good as this.

Typefront provides nice and simple solution. You can upload your font file to TypeFront, it automatically gets converted into three different file formats for you – OpenType, Extended OpenType (EOT) and Web Open Font Format (WOFF). Including these three formats into your site CSS will ensure that your font is viewable on Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer versions all the way back to 6. This represents over 90% of the current browser market share. You need to specify the domain name for which your font will become available.

Now you must be asking why the title of the article says “legally”? Well, you might need to check the font licenses. You would not be able to specify the font in your css and host it on your shared server because anyone be able to have an access to that font which violates the license. (in most cases)

API for font producers

TypeFront provides API which allows font producers to sell individual fonts to specific domains rather then selling whole type families to individual users. I can see here big business opportunity for font producers to start playing major part in domain based business.

What do you think?

I opened my favorite editor (Coda but considering TextMate) and start thinking “How will I start?”.

I have some idea how the Model/View/Controller works. I know I need to create some tests for my MVC. I know I need to create migrations instead of using sql to manipulate the database and I also know that gems will do more the half of the work for me.

I am pretty confident I could somehow build the app but that is not what I want. I want to build it properly from the start. Rails work-flow kind of force you to build the app. the right way but there is a lot to learn if you want to build it really good way. I guess it is quite a lot to ask from someone who never touched the ruby code before but I am always hard on myself and want to things the best possible way.

The point where I straggle is the documentation. Every possible source of information I found on the web expects more then beginner level of knowledge. Perhaps it just feels to me that way because my knowledge is not yet on that level. The other problem is the speed that this frameworks grows and develops. You can find tutorials where they show you how to do things certain way but if it is more then year old that the advice might not be up to date. I guess it can’t be really wrong but there might be better ways of doing things.

I know I have to learn it the hard way which means try and fail. I put myself into the “rails mode” so I could make progress as fast as possible. I read book on the way to/from work, listen to podcast at work while I design when I come hope I watch screencasts and try to code.

I can see the benefits of the language and I love it! I just wish there was more sources of information for people who are just starting with Rails.

Despite of my complains, I was able to produce all of this in the first day. I setup basic layout, user authentication with all required views, pre-launch page where people can enter their email addresses which goes to database and confirmation email is sent to them. I can switch between pre-launch mode which affects the home page and all the routing. Most of this was done by using different gems. I only used few lines of code here. So that was the first day. They I have decided to create some tests. I spent 3 days studying, trying different gems and scenarios but still did not get it properly. I understand I need to test my models/views/controllers and also understand that there are different way doings things. There is the standard rails testing platform than there is rspec, cucumber. There are “features” which are basically dummy data which could be used for testing and then there are “factories” which works similar way but without the need of saving data to database. There are different types of testing = functional, unit and integration testing and this is the part I did not get yet. How should these 3 types be tested, where the test should be stored, what exactly should be tested and so on. As you can see there is lot to it and it requires couple of plugins. I also sometimes struggle with configuration of plugins.

So as you can see I am on the right track but it is not an easy journey. I will keep on going and let you guys know how it goes.

I am hoping my hosting company can run Rails without difficulties so I should be able to deploy fist part of my app with prelaunch page pretty soon.

I get this message quite a lot. “I like your design but your bed grammar just spoils it”. I know the person is right. What can I do about it?

There are so many of us out there trying to be web entrepreneurs. Thinking about business ideas and learning various web languages so we could actually execute. The competition is huge. So here comes the point. I am trying hard, very hard. I mean, I am trying hard to learn all the possible web languages which can get me where I want to get but I am not trying hard to learn English. Why? Simply because there is not that much time and it is not where my passion is. English is my second language and despite the fact that it is one of the easiest languages it is still hard to learn it properly. I am curios how much does my language devalue the message I am trying to present?

It must be quite difficult for English or American people when they came to a site which does not use proper language. The incorrect grammar must destruct the user and the overly feelings is probably not the same as it would be if the grammar was right.

I can’t test this on myself in Slovak language because we have almost no foreign people living in Slovakia and not even blogging (or writing) in Slovak language.

Just to stay positive at the end. I can see from my analytics data that people come to visit my blog from the whole world so English is for them second language as well. I guess it is not such a big problem for them, but maybe I am wrong. Their English might be lot better so they might not enjoy it.

Solution

I am working on my first commercial web application right now and I am seriously considering to hire copy-righter to get the messages out in a correct way.

Do you have experience with it? What is your thought about it?

So I guess the question is – Would I recommend the services to my friends?

Absolutely. Not because I have got it free but because their customer service! WP Webhost has excellent customer service. During the past year I have been in contact with them in sever occasions. I did not really have any problems with their services. I usually asked them for help when I did not know how certain things work or how I need to setup some stuff. The answer came always very quickly and the people I had a honor to talk to were very polite and nice. It kind of surprise you in this world when people are nice to you. They advices were always very skilled and useful. They helped me a lot in past year.

Would there be something I would like to have in the future?

Yes there are certain things they do not support at the moment but it is definitely not a big deal for all the Wordpress boogers who host with them. I would be very happy if they would start supporting Git. It would be excellent if I could deploy my code straight from my Git repository using Capistrano. I can see in C-panel that they have support for Ruby on Rails so I guess this is just a matter of time.

I have to thank to WP Webhost for providing me with free services but even more for providing the best customer service I have ever experienced. Wish them success in their future.

I have been thinking for quite some time what would be the best way to store useful coding information. I have tried Google documents some mac applications but It wasn’t really working for me. I wanted to have these snippets available anytime, categorized by programming language. I was even thinking I could write simple application for this but at the end I have decided to use Wordpress. I have made decision based on the fact that I have been working with Wordpress engines for couple of years and specially because there are plugins which will make this simple to implement.

Ahhhh the url – Code & config.

I have not managed to achieve all goals I setup up last year but I am feeling pretty good about all the stuff I managed to achieve. Here is the list for this year.

• Build a Ruby on Rails web application
• Write lot more posts on lewro.com
• Learn more about web servers and web services
• Travel more + take lot more pictures with my Canon SLR
• Drink lot more water
• Practice yoga more often
• Trynew types of food
• Help others more

Many people ask me where do I find to do all the stuff I do

I guess the answer is in the simplicity of life I am living. I managed to get rid of the TV out of my life couple of years ago. Trust me it was not easy. I used to watch TV for hours every single day. This was the biggest time waster in my life. Once I realized that I fixed it. But I do understand that there is not that much time in our life. We go to work every day and when we get home we are tired. But even doing little means we are moving. That is my whole trick. I can’t work every day for hours after I came back from my job but I can do at least something. It does not matter when. One day I wake up early and spend an hour working on my projects, next day I spent 2 hours after work and I do not get up early afterwords. The only question is. Do you really want to do it? Do you have the passion? If the answer is yes, then you will find time.

Once you realize you actually do not need all these hours and hours to achieve your goals then you are on the good truck. There are many examples where few hours of work a week end up being successful result. 37signals could be the one in the tech word but the same can be achieved in personal life. Getting fit “cost” you only 3-4 hours a week. Who does not have that much time. Everyone does!

So let me wrap up. I have no magic formula I just forced myself not be lazy and I do have to do it over and over again. I do want to achieve more.

What are your new year’s resolutions?

Design

I am not in the state where I am able to produce site in a 911 Porsche quality which means that my designs still gets kinda old after some time. Why the comparison with 911? Because designer of that quality can produce product which looks excellent after years and years in production. The other aspect is that we all learn. We learn how to use Photoshop better, how to code our CSS, HTML, PHP cleaner and mainly we learn that jQuery is fun to use. I always to try to put all the knowledge I managed to get during the last year into a new version of my site. I hope I went the right direction this time and you like it.

The structure

The structure of the site went through major rework. Firstly I could see from google analytics that people are most interested in my work, the about section and after that the blog articles. So that is why the new site’s focus is on my work. The header presents my Photoshop skills and the portfolio section has now more space with the case studies and also the home page section People were not interested that much in my books collection or photographs. I must be honest I have not updated the book section properly for a long time and the photos section had only a few photos so the user’s interest in those other pages makes completely sense.

Wordpress

You might wonder if the site still uses Wordpress as it does not really look like stadard Wordpress sites anymore. Yes it does and what more it uses Wordpress lot better way. Previously I was only using Wordpress for blog section, the other pages have been hand-coded. The current version uses “wordpress pages” for the portfolio section. Where I have created structure (you might get that from urls) where the tree starts with portfolio page which has daughters pages customers & private they have daughters pages sites & identity. That means that my portfolio pages sits and the end of this tree structure and they are also parent pages for cases study page. That helps me to display the list of portfolio pages with links to their case studies and I can also display list of other case studies inside the case study page. Basically it gives me lots of flexibility.

So I use Wordress with quite a few plugins but in same cases I could not find the plugin which would provide the result I needed so I have just hand-coded the php functions to get what I wanted. This was actually one of the main reasons I went to php courses last year so I could tweak my site which every way.

jQuery

I have used jQuery during the last year a lot in a various projects and it is really fun to work with. On this site I use jQuery exclusively but you might be surprise I do not use any jQuery plugins. You might ask why? Because in many cases the plugins are trying to deal with all possible scenarios which might happen but I know exactly what is going on on my site and using different plugins for different effects would just created additional http requests. I am guessing not every one has discovered all the javascript spice I am using in here. So let me summarize where I used js. The obvious parts is the main header and the portfolio tabs and nav on the home page. Then there is the fadeIn/Out on the articles. Clicking on the “topics” button will bring you another js content. Once you are on the article page itself you might have noticed the layout switcher comments. This also work the same way by clicking on the arrow bellow the individual comment but what more it brings the comment you clicked on into focus. Then we have a quite innovative up & down arrows in the article box itself which scrolls the article so you can read the whole content. (Some work still needs to be done in this section as it allows you to scroll even where there is no more content.) Another function brings the focus on form once you press add comment. There is also function which take cares of changing bg colours during the onclick events and form validation. Another innovative thing I have implemented here and I have not seen it anywhere else is the photo and video section in the sidebar. The same effect could be achieved uses Wordpress custom field functionality but I am doing it different way because I would have to go through all blog posts and change every single one. Once the page loads I grab all the images and video with jQuery then clone them and insert them into the sidebar, afterwords I remove the original elements from DOM.

Portfolio section has again a layout switcher and also the content switcher which I have not finished yet, you can see it is grayed out. At the end the archive is using the same fadein/fadout function which is used on the home page. As you can see there is quite a lot of javascript so it would not be great if I use plugins for all of these.

CSS

If you sould check the source code of my CSS file you would see that I have changed my roles and I now do CSS in a single row for singe element where it also reflects the page structure. I only used one CSS file as this is very small site and there is not need to generate more http requests. There is also another CSS for IE7 which just a very few lines. There is no CSS for IE6 as I do not have that type of visitors, thanks god.

CSS sprite

Another quite innovative thing I used on this site is CSS sprite. You might be asking what is innovative about CSS sprites when people were using them for years. But have a look at the screen-shot and you will get the idea. There is lots of talk online how sprites are useful but not that many sites are using them. I use them in quite extreme way where almost everything is part of one huge sprite. This is the way yahoo or google is doing it. As you probably know having a sprite like this means only one http request and also the clicking on any other page the images has already been cashed so they are not loading from scratch but more importantly the reduction of size is massive. If I had these images separately they would be probably 3 times the size of the sprite.

Yslow and optimization

All these changes I have made had very good effect on the loading speed and the way the site is optimized. It has all A grads from Yahoo Yslow except the Gzip which I am not able to change as it is the problem which needs to be fixed on the server side. To be honest I was quite surprise that the Yslow was not complaining about the size of the home page as those 5 huge images in the header just make the page quite big. I guess these days the site which is bellow 1MB is fine. I was trying to compress the images lot more but the result was not great and I have even tried to load them with Ajax after the page loaded but I had some issues with it but I guess that could be solution for the future.

Thank you

As you can see there are few thing which still needs to be fixed but I am really happy with the way the site come out. Thank you all for nice tweet messages, for nice comments on social site and also big thank you to all these CSS galleries out there who are promoting the site to new users. Thank you, thank you, thank you.