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November 15, 2004
Weblog design FINALLY altered
Now, I must premise this by saying that I hope this is the tip of the iceberg...
I finally got a chance to screw around with the look of my blog and at the very least, it doesn't make people's eye spontaneously bleed at first glance... I'd like to add some web-service driven Flash to the site which I think would be a very fun little facet to the site, but that definately isn't in the cards right now. I'm hoping that this blog will eventually be picked up by the Google spiders and will allow me some exposure for some projects that are moving forward, most notably my book.
I've continued to work on Google-izing some additional sites and I intend to spend at least the rest of the year flushing out some projects that never were given the chance to reach their potential. The project which I'd like to spend the most time on (sans book project) is my senior thesis project on data-driven layout-adaptive websites (definately need to work on a better explanation of that). While I think this would be a much more enjoyable project to do in Flash, I'm not sure how smart it would be to move in that direction since the project was really intended to prove that contemporary static websites could be fluid, user-centric systems. We'll see.
Posted by PJ at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2004
More Google hilarity
Not even sure if 'hilarity' is a word. If not, then it should be.
Since a lot of my work on the new CyArk website has been to both tighten up the HTML/CSS and improve the writing throughtout the site mostly to aid in Google searches, I find it very comical that the chronicles of my progress ranks higher than the progress itself.
Right now a Google search for 'CyArk' has my personal DeviantArt page where I talk a little about my current progress in my journal. That's just pure irony...
I'm assuming that eventually the CyArk site will take over the #1 ranking, especially after the latest version is uploaded. Still, my escapade with Google has been interesting. On another note, my blog STILL doesn't show up when I Google my name. That pisses me off a tad as well...
Posted by PJ at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2004
CyArk site almost done.
Man, what a difference. I took a look at the old CyArk design (which never really had a chance to reach its full potential due to other deadlines and priorities) and now after seeing the latest version of the CyArk site which is about to go live, you can't even compare the two. The new version takes much more advantage of all the original ideas set in the first version of the site. Pretty much every aspect was completed to the 'barely good enough' stage. Now, everything just seems so much tighter. I also just noticed that our Google rankings shot up the roof which has just about everything to do with the design modifications.
Very promising... With a little luck, everything should be online in a week or two.
Posted by PJ at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2004
Dancing with Google
Google is definately the lead in this dance. I have had mixed results with my attempts to get a higher Google ranking and I'm hoping that this is just a case of impatience on my part. Still, this has been a great learning experience and I'm coming to learn how important it will be to link up all the projects I've worked on as well as getting outside links from other folks. Man, I hate that side of the business...
Sigh.... This sucks.
Posted by PJ at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2004
More XML/Flash work
I've had some time at work to really fix up some of the Flash projects I had been working on for the last couple weeks. They aren't too specially visually, but they're doing some really cool things behind the scenes. At this point, I have three separate XML files for different tasks of the site. I'm hoping that I can consolidate all three XML files into one which would be absolutely great.
By next week, the site will have some major additions and fixes including flash-driven streaming video (which was an absolute piece of cake). Cheers Macromedia. :)
On other subjects, the book is actually making progress (much to my surprise). Leah brought up the fact that it would be cool to have the book done by Christmas and that idea sort of stuck in my head... So, without saying, I've been working like a madman on it to try to get it done by then.
Posted by PJ at 04:52 AM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2004
New domain = somerandomdude.net
Finally got my new domain name (somerandomdude.net). Eventually, after I finish my book, I'm going to concentrate on getting that site developed...
May be a while.
Posted by PJ at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
More CyArk work
I've been working on the CyArk site (www.cyark.org) to be a solid, standards-compliant site which also uses some interesting tools for both asthetic appearance and functionality. The latest design of the CyArk site is a hybrid of php/xml/css static pages with embedded flash pulling data from xml. I have to admit, maintaining and editting the site is a snap and further additions to push the data-driven aspect of the site will make it even better. It's no Picasso, don't get me wrong, but I'm really happy with what the site attempts to do both on the front end and in the back end.
Please take a look at www.cyark.org and give me your thoughts if you could.
Posted by PJ at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)