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Starting mid next week I'll be out of a job and what could be my last paycheck from *insert company name here*. I don't wanna go into details, all I can say is: it was a learning experience for me... more than usual. From here on out I'll be considering several options for my income; hopefully something good pops up. It's a good thing I was able to get a 19" wide screen LCD last week to keep me busy and somewhat content on how the way things ended... hoooo!

On other things am starting a new project, it'll be a flash based website code named Kislap. It will serve as a refresher on my flash skills... if I have any. I may also be doing a small website for a friend, so am kinda interested on how that will turn out.

One of the main reasons I wanna do some work on flash is to wet my feet again in flash so to speak and see for myself; If flash is all that... on a developers point of view; and perhaps there is more to my last post: Flash vs Scripting.

Lack of better things to do I decided to update my guestbook by adding a simple feature which indicates from what country the poster is from. Inspired by an online tracking site I used to maintain, I researched a way to do it in a much easier and quicker fashion.

First up, I get an ip range list which is offered for free by some sites, I get mine from MaxMind. They update this list once a month for the free version. After downloading, I enter them into a sql table for faster querying; then with a few lines of code I get the information I need... hooray!. The trick is to convert the ip address you have to a proper address. Once you have that value you can compare it to your table to return the appropreate country, like so:

That's basically the gist of the script, maybe some error trapping would be nice. IIf you don't have access to a sql database you can alway manually look it up on the csv files or something, which would be slower.

I justacquired a new toy, a Samsung SyncMaster 940BW, a 19 inch wide screen LCD monitor with DVI, 4ms response time and an average contrast ratio of 500:1. The best thing about this baby is it only costed roughly $200, which is relatively cheap when compared to other brands with similar features.

The only gripe I have with it is its max resolution is only 1440x900. Personally I can't read stuff passed that resolution on a 19" monitor, but it would be great if I could push it a bit further when watching DVD's.

It only gives me yet one more reason to stay home, I have a good set of speakers, a decent CPU and now an even bigger LCD. I'll be looking into adding a bit more memory sometime in the future for more multi-tasking goodness.

EDIT: to my previous post on content where i though I didn't pass the screening for the Philippine Web Awards. Luckily I did ^^ hooray for me!

I've been checking out the competition especially in my category and to no surprise most of them are flash based designs. I do like flash, the first flash site I saw was in the first ever Philippine Web Awards which I joined, and also motivated me to learn flash. Flash 4 was just coming out of its shell back then and it opened alot of doors in terms of presentation and design capabilities. But now a days web standards have grown leaps and bounds which makes it possible to do stuff you normally can't do without flash.

Personally I would like to see more developers do without flash and push the current scripting standards to their limits. Not because I am an anti-flash guy, but to just push the standards to the next level and let the browser manufacturers know that there are such things as standards, and that goes double for Microsoft. I already know flash can do great things, just look at 2advanced, Big Spaceship, and other foreign development firms. It's starting to become a cliche, I wanna see more sites like GMail or the new Yahoo Mail site which push the boundaries of the current scripting languages out there and at the same time introduce more technologies in the process.

Functionality and accessibility should be above aesthetics. I don't wanna debate the use of flash, rather to see what can be done with or without it. I use it on my current design for subtle effects but don't hinder the entire concept should there be no flash plug-in.

The title says it all. First I updated the about section and uploaded it, which i forgot on my initial setup of the site; and I am content with the outcome of my previous endeavor.

I've been planning to join the Philippine Web Awards the past few years and I finally nominated my site this year. Unfortunately it seems I didn't make the cut since the list of nominees is on their website already (and I'm not in it). There could be a glimmer of hope, that they aren't finished with the screening process; But either way I am cool even though I don't get to participate... sour-graping aside.

I also fixed several bugs on the site which I found recently. from here on out I guess I'll be focusing on content, like more sensible posts on my journal, more stuff on my portfolio and such.

Unfortunately for me, I thought my pulled muscle on my right thigh near the groin area had healed. So I insisted on working out yesterday after a week of rehabilitation and not doing my usual weight training routines. Only to find myself waking up so early in the morning punching the wall behind my bed in pain. Now I can barely move much less walk, nor can I put preasure on my right leg.

Fortunately I found something good came out of it, I now have a legitamate reason to not report to work and continue my home-based gig for a bit longer... I also get to use the air conditioner without having a guilty conscience on the electric bill 'cause I can't sit infront of the fan to cool down since I was just massaged (hilot).

Lastly I also get my girlfriend to go to the bank for me and attend to some paper work. So a big thanks goes to her, I also wanna thank my officemate AD for dropping some forms by the house yesterday. I guess getting injured/sick does have its perks. :)

I am pleased to unvail the latest phase of my online diggs also known as Project: Left i. Inspired by a minimalistic and simple approach to things; with a sprinkle of javascript and a dash of flash to taste. Needless to say this is more of a snack rather than a full-cource meal so to speak; but on the note I say just get what you can finish. Not utilizing the entire page is the core concept of the design, focusing on the little content I have to present and emphassizing on it.

Bottom line, I am happy with the final result; acknowledgement from other people would be nice but is the least of my concern. This is still a work in progress, so untill the next version I come up with.

Sadly am pulling the plug on the over-flaw project. it was almost done but due to some personal reason i decided to quit. With regards to my plans of joining the Philippine Web Awards I may be pulling out too; more likely than not.

This has been a very unproductive past few weeks for me, though i will be pushing on. Nothing much to say, so untill i post new updates....