Devigner

Nope that isn’t a spelling error, neither is it a word that is in the dictionary, yet.

So now…just what is a Devigner? It’s basically used to describe someone that does not only a Developer but also a Designer, hybrids that have knowledge of both spectrums. He’s basically somewhere in between of the devigner-o-meter! (Picture courtesy of Daqing Lee)

Some are basically capable of coding stuff from scratch, whether its C#, VB,  Actionscript, Javascript or any other programming language, they write poems with code and some of them even speak in binaries! From planning the overall user experience of projects, coming up with brilliant designs in Illustrator and Photoshop to slicing and dicing them up into HTML and CSS, thats how devigners tick. They don’t rely much on WYSIWYG interfaces, they’re not challenging enough, devigners rock with manually typing out those line of HTML code and relish having full control of everything from the front-end to the back-end (doubt this happens much in the real world).

Role of Devigners

Developers and designers never speak the same language, as both work on very distinct roles in the creation of applications, the developers deal with the back-end coding and all the awesome business logic and stuff, while the designer does all the front end graphics, animations and the overall user experience of applications. Sometimes, both sides may not have much respect for each other.

The developer might get troubled because the designer doesn’t know how much work it would be to make a textbox with rounded corners that is backward compatible. The designer might not be happy when the developer tells him that due to timing contraints, some of his/her designs (rounded corners?) can’t be implemented as it would take too much time.

It’s in this scenario, where it is recommended to have a devigner, someone that have knowledge in both areas but not to the extent of specializing in both areas, to bridge between two parties. It gets better if the devigner is involved in the planning stages they can provide their insights on dealing with how to bridge the best of both the design and development spectrum.

Devigner? Who?

Now you might question, where do we look for these devigners?

The answer is you, you can be a devigner too. Start spending some time on understanding the other side of the spectrum. If you’re a developer, start learning stuff like on interface design and usability. If you’re a designer, start learning more about programming. Just by knowing a little more, you’ll start to appreciate your brother/sister on the side of the spectrum, and making yourself a step closer into becoming a devigner.

Imagine this, a designer suddenly helps out a developer in coding certain modules, or the developer helping out in touching up certain design elements that are missed out by the designer, both parties will respect each other more, which is plain cool.

The great thing is, you would also know if a developer or designer is telling you that something can’t be done, but have actually lied

Devigner : Developer + Designer

Mark my words, Devigners will soon be a new term in the industry.

Cheers!

Black is the new green

I’m always intrigued at all the novel little ways people are discovering to reduce their energy consumption — and this Black is the New Green movement is yet another example.

It’s a idea started by Mark Ontkush, a tech blogger, who speculated that, because Google is used by so many millions of people every day, that if they alone changed their background color from white to black, it would save the world around 3,000 Megawatt-hours every year. When you compare that with the mere 18,000 Kilowatt-hours the average two-story, three-bedroom home uses over that same time period, the concept starts to become very interesting. What if all website backgrounds were black, instead of white? The numbers would be enormous.

My Convocation

Saturday, 14th June 2008, was my convocation day, and what a day it was indeed!!

When me and my parents reached the College Hall at around 8am, I was greeted by my friends, which told me that I won the Perpetual Cup, which was:

The Perpetual Cup, donated by friends from Campbell University and Ulster University is awarded to the student who upon having completed the requirements for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Science of Campbell University, is selected by the Head and Faculty as the most outstanding student of the Senior Class considering academic achievements, character, integrity and leadership potential.

(Quoted from Convocation Booklet)

To add to that, I also won the Prize for Information Systems, which was 2 awards out of 7 excellence awards! I was so soo happy! And I must say it took quite some effort to stop myself from jumping around like a crazy maniac.

I’m back

Hi everyone, its been months since I last posted anything here. Well, I could say I was having my pro-longed sabbatical, sort of enjoying life without worrying much about anything, after having a hectic and almost non-stop schedule last year.

From today on, I’m gonna start posting some relevant stuff on the RIA space here, with my focus primarily on Silverlight.

I will also be creating a page containing all the sites and blogs that anyone interested in RIA should really subscribe to, along with some great post I that I feel are worth saving. If I have the time, I will also be placing some tidbit tutorials for beginners on picking up Silverlight.

So…stay tuned

Tech.Ed SEA 2007

This coming September, Microsoft will be having its premier & largest annual conference in the South East Asia region, Tech.Ed SEA 2007, at 10-13 September at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

Why should you attend?

Those attending would be able to learn about the new Microsoft products and technologies, not from just any instructor, but experts and specialists in the industry, some of them even from Redmond, and even some which helped built the products and technologies. Which means you can fire questions at them without thinking twice, neat! (On second thought, do think twice)

Not only will you be able to learn, you would also get to know more people in the industry, share your knowledge, get to know more on what’s happening in the ever-changing world of technology.

Who should go?

The conference is mainly targeted at IT professionals and developers, not only to get them exposed and aware of the new products and technologies available, but to better equip them with the priceless knowledge on how, when, and what technologies or products should be used as their business solution, better improving both themselves, and their organizations.

But this time around, developers that like design, or designers that have technical knowledge, should also take part in this conference! Why? Continue on to find out more!

Pownce, send stuff to your friends

 

 

Well, i’ve just found out about this cool new site from TechCruch, Pownce, which allows the sharing of stuff like messages, files, links, and events amongst people online, pretty similar to twitter (or more like a direct competitor). Some further description of what you can do with Pownce:

You might send an event out to a dozen of your friends letting them know you’re hosting a party this Friday. They could easily get the event details you entered, respond with questions or comments and then quickly rsvp.

Say you had a great photo you wanted to share with all of your friends. Just add the file and all of your friends will get it right away. They’ll be able to reply and tell you if it’s cool. You could even post songs you recorded in your home studio to share with your friends.

(Taken from Pownce.com)

It’s currently in closed alpha, so you would have to enter your email at Pownce.com and wait for the next round of invites if you’re interested to join alpha testing.

There are not two, but three things that interest me the most about Pownce, which are…

iPhone, it can do wonders

The iPhone can indeed do wonders, check out this ”advertisement” that I got from Youtube, enjoy

Well, its gonna be released soon, very soon….and the great thing is that it has opened a new job opportunity! Say hello to waiters, I mean “iPhone waiters”, whose sole responsiblity is to queue up for up to 60 hours, get the person an iPhone, and get paid….this is just sick! 

Vista SP1 coming soon….thanks to Google?

 

(Taken from shuzak.com)

Just saw this interesting bit from the PC World newsletters, and in fact it’s pretty interesting news, where Microsoft was not the one announcing their SP1, but from the U.S. Department of Justice, mainly because of accusations of monopolization (ahem..ahem, isn’t that what they are heading towards?) of not only the operating system market, but further branching out to other markets, threatening other  (Face the facts people, this is the real world!) Well, do expect its release around the end of this year. (Hopefully they’ll include a more customizable UAC, which currently doesn’t allow me to open Visual Studio with Expression Blend!)

Positive thinking

 

When dealing with the ups and downs in life, it has always been all about how one thinks, sees things, whether from the brighter side, or not.

So all in all, when one is faced with troubles, that others couldn’t really help solve, the most usual advice would be “Don’t worry, everything will turn out alright”, or something similar to that. It does help to have someone to talk to, with advice to listen to, but there are times when one should really calm down, and think that even if you get all the advice from everyone around the world, and if you still feel down and do not know how to solve your problem, know that thinking positively may very well be the first step in solving almost anything.

Whether a lot, or just a little, it helps, just to think positively. Think from the brighter side of things. When being let down, think about the lesson learnt from being let down, and start off again from there. Yes it may be hard, especially when one has high hopes, as the “saying” goes, the higher the hopes, the greater the fall. Thus, try to be calm, and collected in handling everything. Whether you got it or not, whether you lost or not, etc, always think positively. When being let down, never give up, think positively, and work harder instead.

To wrap things up, this is a pretty nice and meaningful quote:

“When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.”

(Quote taken from Thinkexist.com)

PS: Even so, I myself ain’t that positive either! HAHA! What about you?