Who knows how I found it, but I came across sumome.com‘s free website tools the other day.
It’s a great collection of website tools (analytics, newsletter signups, contact forms etc.) that’s completely free. There are some extras that cost money, but you can get value without paying.
After a couple days:
I’ve never used a heat map before, so this is probably quite obvious. Anyway, some instant insights that I am going to test in the coming weeks:
This is how Ecquire caught my attention ~2 years ago. A couple weeks after joining, I got to meet the team at Nerds on Vacation in Tofino, BC.
Still not used to being on the east coast but I am starting to appreciate the more subtle beauty.
Veganism is not the end-all answer to a better world. Leo Babauta is claiming that is is. To me, Leo is still reacting. He is presenting Veganism as the only answer to numerous injustices. And yet, closing his eyes to other perspectives.
My partner and I have been scouring British Columbia, checking out potential properties to purchase. While the truth of BC’s high cost of land may have hit hard, the excuse to venture into previously looked-over corners of this truly beautiful province has been a thrill.
Awhile back, I lived atop Burnaby Mountain. Often, I would take the 135 bus in and out of downtown Vancouver. One of these times, returning from downtown, I happened to sit next to a fellow who wished to share a story.
James Somers asks if coders are worth it. Well, I’d like to answer that.
I may have missed the point of the article, but he seems to be drawing attention to web developers making good money while working for web startups, which aren’t serious business. Serious, in the sense that the problems being solved aren’t grand or meaningful enough.
Last year, I spent 8 months living and working out of a 5th Wheeler. I did this with my partner, on a public farm, in the city of Vancouver. What were we thinking?!
I’ve been out of the freelance game since I joined Ecquire back in May. And, I feel I need to reflect on those years freelancing and see if I learned anything.
John Lius, a documentary film-maker and ecologist, has dedicated his life spreading the knowledge and successes of rehabilitating large-scale, damaged ecosystems.
Anna Bronnes recently published on Ecosalon a link-bait article—with good intentions—that unfortunately fell a bit flat.
I entirely agree with the intention:
In the modern age, if you are able to comfortably put food on the table, it is inexcusable to not think about what you are eating.
But, the article lacks significant information to help those wishing to become more informed about the food system. It also, subtly, suggests devaluing what “Organic” labels actually represent.
Running Jasmine tests against a webpage? Forget headless-browser testing. Why not inject your tests right into the actual web page?
I spent 10 days this July, in the breathtaking town of Tofino, surfing and writing code as part of Nerds on Vacation.
It was an entirely positive experience, filled with practical lessons for startups, people who work from laptops, and remote teams. My teammate Tal wrote about The Nerds on Vacation Effect, which basically describes the huge boost in productivity, even when surfing almost every day.
Responsive Web Design has gained in usage and ease of use. But one, rather large, missing piece is responsive images.
A jQuery plugin that replaces a textarea with multiple text inputs, automatically appending a new input when the last is filled with content.
Inspired by Dustin Curtis’ Svbtle and the subsequent open-source project Obtvse, I took a shot at simplifying the blogging interface.
Google App Engine provided a slew of learning, and allowed me to rapidly build my side-projects. But, it’s time to move on.
The implementation and advocacy of responsive web
design is increasing, and possibly fully manifested in the web design
community. Are you taking part?
Omtask is an omnibox task manager for people that want to finish tasks, not organize them.
When I was working in a team of about ~15 at an
Advertising Agency, we were commonly trying to perfect how we all
interacted with each other.
A few weeks ago I posted about possible drawbacks of being a self-taught web developer and I got some really good feedback.
The two main problems I illustrated were: How to your asses your own ability and properly convey it and after assessing your ability how to properly determine the next step of progression. I now think both problems are futile. I’m self-taught because I didn’t agree with the requirements and structure of schools and assessments are inherently part of schooling—So, why am I trying to assess myself?
I had yet to notice any drawbacks of working in a field where I have either taught myself what I need to know or learned through work experience. Until now.
Since I missed the chance to see one of my all-time favourite
people live, in Vancouver, I had an all-too-good reason to visit Seattle for the first time.
Grinderman, the newest project of Nick Cave and most of the Bad Seeds, is finishing up their North American tour. It seems the show in Vancouver sold out too fast for me and, without hesitation, caused me to buy tickets to the Seattle show. Incredibly excited to see Nick Cave in the flesh—I just can’t help but enjoy almost everything he produces—I was also excited to visit Seattle for the first time. Which is a strange thing as I have, thanks mostly in part by my Dad, seen more American soil than Canadian.
I don’t subscribe to any sort of minimalist way of life. But, that word seems to have a meaning that I can often attest to my life. The funny thing about words and their meaning is that they aren’t consistent across all means.
While remaining rather minimal, Task Thing has a new
feature—more specifically a helpful piece of data is now
displayed on completed tasks.
I really like the Posterous approach to publishing online—I often write my ideas down in Gmail. So I decided to enable posting by email on my blog.
The most difficult part of installing Google App Engine on Windows is the SSL module. But I’ve decided to compile a very simple guide for the whole process.
WordPress 3 is out: And it makes developing feature rich, user maintainable websites possible with the just the core.
I have recently jumped back into the freelance world. And I need ways to stay productive.
Fading in elements incrementally in order of the dom tree is cool, but so is fading in elements in random order.
I have relaunched my website and launched my blog as a separate website. Here’s how and why.
Chris Allen is a Vancouver based freelance Graphic Designer and Art Director, an Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design graduate and has strong roots in the Skateboarding industry.
Check out this interview I conducted with him to find out more!