Career Portfolio

I created a small portfolio for potential employers to look at. Nothing too fancy - just showcases what I've done and a little about who I am.

www.suddenlysilence.com/bobbyhash

The Education of Freelancing and Staying in the Game

Originally posted Thursday, November 16th, 2006
Updates applied May 20th, 2007 -

Friends always harass me about who my web development and design instructors are. I give them the names of instructors I have taken. Unfortunately what they don’t realize is the concepts that have made me successful were learned outside the classroom.

I must attribute what I have learned to the fact that I started out designing web sites at an early age and was producing for client at the same speed. I was a daily user before I could grasp how web sites worked inside and out. I read various tutorials online. I learned a lot from the days Angelfire.com was a huge free server and WebMonkey was its tutorial counterpart. Years later I own my server and create ways to produce my web sites.

Learning is something you never finish in this industry. To this day I still learn something from every project that I take in. The amount that I know about this industry is far greater than it was when I graduated high school. Heck, what I’ve learned in the past year (thanks to Chris Pund’s talk about Web 2.0 way back in the day) has really amazed me. I also run into various situations where I learn just how little I know about this industry. This is critical as it really showcases where one needs to improve.

LAMP. Web 2.0. AJAX. The User Experience. Hello Divs. Bye Bye Tables. The world in front of us developers is changing ever so rapidly. How does one keep up with the break-neck pace of it all? Online forums, social bookmarking, and web sites geared toward the profession are a tremendous start in terms of help. It also doesn't hurt to have a Barnes & Noble near by either. Just think - go there, grab a cup of coffee, hit up the technology section and read some of the latest books out. It's a cheap and effective way to see what authors are writing about. Think those two previous steps aren't enough? Develop for clients, but do your research on products similar to what you are developing. Take note of the trends.

As of right now, you may wonder what are the emerging technlogies and trends. From my user experience and work as a developer, here is my input on WHAT you should know if you want to be effective in this field of work:

Bare Essentials:

• HTML 4.01
• XHTML
• CSS

Web-Development:

• XHTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• PHP
• ASP, ASP.NET
• C++
• AJAX
  
• JAVA
• PERL
• XML
• MySQL, SQL, Access
• LAMP, WAMP
  

Web-Design

• Standards Compliance & Design
• Validation
  
• User Interface Trends
• Complimentary Colors, the rule of 3
• Simplicity, not Graphic Intense
• Design for lowest medium possible
• Section 508

I know personally I have left out a lot. Just from that list though, it is obvious this field of work spans a wide variety of technologies to meet a specific, common purpose. This field of work isn't going to level off anytime soon. With technology trends and mobility increasing in demand with each day, the thirst to meet those needs will become even more evident.

Thank the Lord for my freelancing abilities - without them I could not up to date, ahead, or let alone in the game itself.

This Sums It All Up

Original Post - Friday, October 20th, 2006 - As unprofessional as this may be, I just thought I needed to post this pie chart I found while scrolling through Flickr today.

Web designers may now rejoice as finally someone has finally put our feelings into a piechart!

An Interactive Session with Dr. Bharath Kadaba

Archive Post posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 am.

Today I was very fortunate to spend time and interact with the Vice President of Media Engineering at Yahoo! - Dr. Bharath Kadaba.

The morning started at 7:30 with a breakfast and interactive question and answer session. Dr. Kadaba highlighted on a few subjects that I felt were very interesting.

• At one point Yahoo! did not feel searches were important. Now they realize they are a vital element to the user’s experience on the world wide web.
  
  
• Yahoo is the leader in the new media revolution because their gameplan is to give the user the most power.
  
  
• AJAX is the cornerstone of the Yahoo! experience. For example with MyYahoo!, you can create your own assorted listing of news sources, sports, audio, and more.
  
  
• More than 50 of Yahoo!’s employees hold Doctorates, which I found very pleasing.
  
  
• The transition for Yahoo! from Web 1.0 to 2.0 is still in the process, but it is increasing daily.

After the breakfast I was able to attend his presentation - “Yahoo! - Leading the New Media Revolution”. The presentation focused primarily on Yahoo!’s approach toward social mediums. A few points that I found interesting were:

• Yahoo! News is the leader in Internet news. That’s right folks, Google, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest are beneath them.
  
  
• For the first time in 450 years, users are contributing to the media.
  
  
• For the first time in 53 years, the 14-under demographic is watching less TV.
  
  
• An innovative push Yahoo! is bringing is through Flickr. Now, as events happen in realtime, photos can be posted to give you an up close and personal account of the event. An example presented was the London bombings that took place awhile back. I find this to be a very innovative approach.
  
  
• Yahoo! is continually working on new programs and services to get the user involved. The recently launched Yahoo! Answers gives users the ability to ask a question. Then, other users of the service can answer the question. If you asked the question, yourself and other viewers can rank the best answers accordingly. Originally Yahoo! Answers was tested overseas before making its debut in the US earlier this year.

At the end of the presentation, Dr. Kadaba presented myself, Chris Pund, and Michael Patton with Certificates of Appreciation from the Governor of Virginia - Tim Kaine. The certificates were to show appreciation for our efforts at the 2006 PBL National Leadership Conference.

All in all this morning has been vividly informative and has added details to my open-stary eyed approach to Web 2.0, the user experience, and where exactly I can fit in with the best of the best on the Internet. Could I see myself working for Yahoo! one day? Honestly, I do. There are some really snazzy approaches Yahoo! is taking and I personally feel that I could bring the user experience to the next level.

I’ll have pics up from this event soon!