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Sunday, 22 November 2009
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HTML5, CSS3, Ban Helvetica, and more... recap of #minnebar
Attended the 2009 MinneBar (un)Conference today, held at Best Buy's World Headquarters - quite an impressive place. The conference is a day long event with several rooms running concurrent sessions on tech, design, business, and general interest topics. You were free to come and go between these sessions as your interest dictated. As far as 'design' goes, I'd have to say the emphasis on most of the sessions offered in that category were focused more on 'development', but since many of us designers do both, at least to some degree, they were still beneficial and I enjoyed them. Here is a sampling of the sessions I attended:
- HTML5 & CSS3 - Mike Bollinger from livefront.com did a great job introducing many of the new API's and Structural tags, and a new doctype coming. Loved this presentation. Didn't have enough time to dig into CSS3 much, but really, stay tuned because COOL stuff coming, ya'll!!!!
- Ban Helvetica - Garrick VanBuren dissected the diagram above in a discussion about not worrying so much about 'web-safe' fonts. Great session!
- Intro to BuddyPress - Toby Cryns demonstrated how BuddyPress - a plug in for MultiUser WordPress - can allow your multi user WP sites to have internal Facebook or Ning-like social networking capabilities. Toby knows his WP!
- Assholes are Killing Your Project - Coming from a strong management background myself, I found this to be Management Skills 101, but helpful for those without that background.
- TopTrends in the Application World - Interesting statistics in this one. I have both iPhone and Droid envy..... *sigh* 1.5 years left on my BB contract.
- Job Search=SUCKS: 12 Tips to Make the Process Less Painful - Great job searching tips for today's market from Paul DeBettignies. The audience seemed pretty engaged - timely topic for many.
- Refresh Twin Cities: A Community of Designers & Developers - This was an intro session basically gathering interest in this cities chapter of Refresh. First meeting is actually Dec 7th (? dang, cant find the date in my notes, will have to look it up). This seems very, very similar to a monthly meeting I've attended for a few years with a group I belong to called TC Web Pros (Twin Cities Web Professionals). They are planning a similar format, with user input on what the areas of interest are, presentations by members and guests, and roundtable discussion time. I'll attend and check it out.
- Drupal - Samir Nassar gave a great presentation. He intended this to be an intro to Drupal, but I still get benefits every time I attend an 'intro to Drupal' session. Yep. Some things I just need to hear more than once apparently. But I felt better about this when I saw some people that are Drupal Gods/Goddesses unabashedly in there also!
- Is that a Hospital in your Pocket? - **Huge sigh** very sad to have missed this session, LOTS of forward movement happening in this area. An incoming phone call kept me from that one.
There were so many more wonderful offerings. Many of them, quite frankly, were way over my head, but perhaps by osmosis I'll absorb little bits here and there... There was great networking, food, beverages, and even beer at the end was provided. I'll be back for the next one, without question!
Also, I was able to say hello and introduce myself to Robert Stevens, founder of GeekSquad. A million years ago, when he had recently started it, I worked for a home/office furnishings company in this city, and used to sell him office furniture. Did he remember me? Of course not, nor did I expect him to. Still he made a point to chat for a moment, and was very gracious and humble, and went out of his way to greet and talk with a lot of the attendees all day and thanked them for coming.Great day!
Monday, 16 November 2009
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Everything needs upgrading eventually~
I watched a video today showing some astounding statistics on how fast social media, technology and communication is changing. I'd recommend for ALL to view it, and pass it along to others who are still insisting that social media is just a bunch of useless babble and a waste of time. Haven't figured out how to embed the video here yet, so this is the link:
A few hours later I found myself wrestling with my sewing machine, which is about 24 years old. It was cool and swoopy at the time when it was new, and I got miles and miles out of it. I sewed clothes for the kids when they were llittle, dresses and clothing for myself for work, and costumes for my daughters entire danceline for the 13 years she danced competitively, and lots and lots of gifts and home items. But tonight I'm just doing the basics. Hemming 5 pairs of slacks for my 96 year old great aunt, and putting new elastic in 2 other pairs. And NONE of them are the same color. So I have to switch thread each time to a new color, and put a new bobbin in. However, this machine is too old to purchase new bobbins for, and I'm down to one. So I have to reload it with a new color each time. Pain in the tush. And the pin that the bobbin sits on has long ago broken off. The light bulbs for the machine are not produced anymore. Instead of lamenting on how flippin old I must be to be in this situation, I'm deciding it's simply time to upgrade the machine. We upgrade our websites, upgrade our software, upgrade our cars, (many upgrade relationships), upgrade our careers, so it stands to reason that the problem is simply the machine being old, not me - I'm just the user =)Now, if I could just find a machine with CSS-esque features, so I dont have to change the thread and settings each and every time. Just program a <div> setting for things like "polyester old woman pants" or "sequin costumes" and <class> settings for "red" or "black" ..... might be asking too much.What will you upgrade in the next year?
Thursday, 12 November 2009
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What is YOUR story? Care to share?
What a cool project this is! Via Twitter, I came across a project-in-the-works by Don Shapiro. He's writing a book called 'Life is a Fork in the Road', and is wondering this:"Ever made a choice by following your inner voice or feelings with surprising results? Share your story and offer comments to help discover more about how our inner wisdom works"The stories he'd like us to share could be about parenting, business, life in general, something big, something small. Anything. Spell check not required. I'm going to give this some thought over the next few days, and share one of my stories there. I encourage you to do the same - contribute and be a part of this wonderful project. Read about the book and author Don Shapiro here:and follow him on twitter @DonShapiro1 -
On Being Thankful...
I met Amy at a Social Media Breakfast event, when we had both just walked into a location neither of us had been to, and discovered that walking in heels across a cobblestone courtyard was less than graceful. I liked her immediately. She's bright and beautiful and happy and just has this contagious effervescence about her that makes your want to know her more and more. She has a natural power of influence and a sense of humility at the same time, and is working toward big things in her life, and for the lives of others.This morning I woke to find a private message from her stating she'd put up a new blog post, and that I was in it. Her post was so much fun to read, and it is inspiring me to be thinking more presently about the people that I am thankful for. I'll be working on my list, and may even get brave enough to post it. I challenge you all to do the same!!!You can read her post from 11/12/09 here:
Monday, 10 August 2009
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CAUTION:
Dangerous Curves Ahead...........
Sometimes the most beautiful destinations require the most perilous journeys.
JustRobyn
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- Name: Robyn
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 9/22/2005
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