Jun 202009 Tagged with , , , — 0 Responses

calmer week ahead

These past couple of weeks i’ve been extremely busy working on several paid jobs. This week, things should finally be getting ‘back to normal’.

DSC_0142_2
Creative Commons License photo credit: moritzmekel

I’ve loads of work to do myself… too much to mention in a single blog post. I do enjoy getting paid to build websites though – i take for granted my own skills and i have to if i’m to constantly improve but it’s nice to know people are willing to pay for my services and go away happy with what they’ve got :smile:

Anyway, next week i’ll be working on redeveloping / improving some of my own sites (this one included) & i’ll also be developing one site which i haven’t mentioned yet.

I’m due to meet a partner next Saturday in Dublin too so that’ll be fun… it’s always interesting to talk about projects face to face and get some ideas flowing.

So it should be a pretty calm week but that can change. I’ve had one or two people express an interest in getting work done and i’m finding that as soon as i create one site, two more seem to come along – i suppose it’s a good thing because i’m being recommended or people just like what they see.

Right now i’m just enjoying myself and enjoying being off from college. Work rate is good, quality of work is good… i’m learning constantly and making some cash on the side, plus raising money for charity, adding to my portfolio etc… it’s gonna be one mad, but very productive summer ahead for me!!

Jun 192009 Tagged with , , — 5 Responses

Graphics Tablet Arrived

The graphics tablet i ordered at 2am on Wednesday arrived today :mrgreen: I didn’t think it would, because it was sent out yesterday (Thursday), so it means it arrived in les than 24 hours which is a great service from elara.ie & their couriers.

Here’s a few pics;

bamboo6

bamboo2

bamboo

I’ve only played with it for about an hour but i’m already getting used to it. Here’s an example of what it can do….

mouse -v- tablet

Signature 1 was done with my mouse.

Signature 2, with the bamboo tablet & pen.

Same size brush, same settings – nothing was changed. You can see the depth / pressure / realism in no.2 – it’s just like a pen signature whereas you’d know the top signature was either done by a 3 year old with a marker or else done using a mouse :mrgreen:

Jun 182009 Tagged with , , — 2 Responses

Friendfeed + Feedburner = win

I’m just after noticing my feedburner subscription count has double from the last time i checked (which was yesterday!). It now stands at 283 subscribers… my feedburner graph confirms the numbers have doubled over 24 hours…

feedcount

The reason for the massive increase? From what i gather feedburner now supports / accepts friendfeed subscriptions so because i’m fairly active there (i have 172 subscribers), i’m guessing they’ve been added to my ‘regular’ rss subscribers.

Friendfeed is basiclaly a catch-all solution. Kinda like my lifestream on this blog. It gathers all the stuff i’m doing online and churns it out in real time. It can be very handy, just like twitter, if you’re trying to follow the latest trends and breaking news, or you just want to see what your online pals are doing…

feedread

Anyway, it’s great to see that feedburner count rise. It’s been hovering around the 130 mark for about 6 months now! As a blogger, stats like these are like a ‘pay day’ or ‘pat on the back day’ – it’s a reward for hard work and loyal service to the blogging world :mrgreen:

Jun 172009 Tagged with , , , — 9 Responses

graphics tablet ordered

As a reward for my hard work of late, i’ve ordered myself a wacom bamboo graphics tablet.

Wacom Bamboo NTE-450 Light On Cherry Wood
Creative Commons License photo credit: Iwan Gabovitch

Apparently, these are the best in the business (for starting out) and my particular model comes highly recommended from just about every review site and any user reviews i’ve read…

I could have opted for the cheaper, smaller bamboo one but after reading reviews i decided my money would be better spent on the regular bamboo. It has set me back €68.04 in total (including delivery) and that’s through elara.ie which were the cheapest i could find. I probably won’t get it this week (unless it’s sent out tomorrow and arrives Friday which is unlikely!) but i should have it early next week.

I’ve always wanted one and now that i’m really getting stuck in to design and photoshop in particular, the time is right. Although i have a glass mousepad and razor sharp logitech laser mouse, there are things it just can’t do when it comes to fine detail and precision.

I’ve always been pretty handy with pencil and paper art offline (in school), so you can expect plenty of custom made icons and designs coming soon ;-)

Jun 162009 Tagged with , , — 4 Responses

my first server on irish soil

I’ve just bought a shared hosting account with Blacknight which means it’s the first time i’ll have ever hosted any of my sites in ireland :mrgreen:

lego st patricks day 2009
Creative Commons License photo credit: jonathanb1989

Although (on paper), hosts in the US give better bang for the buck, the likes of Blacknight have made great progress over the past few years. Prices are now very competitive and support of course is unrivalled when it’s local – hopefully i wont need to use it!

Why did i chose Blacknight? I like what they do on twitter, i like their site, i like their prices…. most importantly i think they’re the most respected host here (in ireland) especially when it comes to small / shared hosting packages. It was a toss up between digiweb & blacknight and although digiweb were slightly cheaper, i don’t like the way they don’t have a twitter account and their blog is rarely updated and not even mentioned on their homepage – i like to see updates and interaction with customers.

The reason i’ve bought an Irish hosting package is because i now own and host several irish websites, targetting irish users only… some have .ie’s and others (like theleavingcert.com) are aimed specifically at an irish audience. SEO & speed also came in to it.

I won’t be moving this blog anytime soon, but i will eventually (probably) buy a VPS package and shove all of my sites on to it… possibly even a dedicated server when / if i need it. With several big projects on the way and a seemingly endless flow of new partnerships, i will at some stage need to think bigger & better.

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