I was recently privileged enough to attend the edgeofmyseat.com HTML and CSS training courses, offering me a chance to pick the brains of some of the webs ‘go-to guys’, Drew McLellan and Rachel Andrew.

The courses, comprising of two, 1 day sessions were squarely aimed at building a foundation of understanding which is then put to the test through a series of topical tasks. When I first heard of these through the Boagworld podcast, they immediately sounded perfect. I had often sought after a compact, feature full, session with a trustworthy source that would fill the gaps in my knowledge and either confirm I was heading in the right direction, or set me straight if not.

These couple of days were just what the doctor ordered.

I now feel I can confidently say I know what I’m talking about, having not only a firm grasp of what, but also now why.

Moreover, I am now more than ever convinced that my future lies within the field of web design & development.

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As mentioned in my previous post, Push Forward, I have the opportunity to make some vast improvements to the structure and coding of a new website that my employers are launching. Unfortunately, I’ve been instructed to complete the site as it is first, and worry about this stuff later – mainly due (I think) to the people in charge’s lack of understanding surrounding the advantages of designing and building to web standards.

I have therefore been scouring the Internet for ammunition to backup my argument when the time comes to put my case forward. There are a lot of useful articles out there, but for my purpose, this short presentation from boagworld.com sums it up excellently:

Many thanks to Paul Boag, who encourages everyone to download and use this presentation to spread the word about standards based design & development. Feel free to use this information in whatever way you wish:

• Download this presentation as a powerpoint (3.55mb)
• Download this presentation as a PDF file (1.07mb)
• Download this presentation as a MP3 audio file (22mb)

If you’ve seen a useful article which could be used against the forces of evil, please post a link and share

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So, we are now well into the year 2009.

Unfortunately my aim to finish this and my freelance site over the Christmas holiday period was thwarted by the flu pandemic which seems to of hit the majority of the UK. However, all is not lost! I have now got my freelance site, design-is.co.uk, to a stage where I’m happy enough to push forward and get some stationery printed up and flyers/business cards handed out.

This site (dougbarned.co.uk) is nearing a similar stage – it’s construction is complete, but it’s not quite full of the intended content yet. I’ll be working on this over the coming weeks, hoping to populate the work and miscellaneous sections with wonderful things.

I am also about to get stuck into a new site which has been partially designed, and built, but is stuck in the dark ages of web design with an antiquated table based layout and JavaScript powered roll-overs. I think someone had too strong a liking of Dreamweaver. I hope to remedy the situation.

In the technology arena, the year is already turning out to be an exciting one. Having avidly followed the process of the Macworld 2009, I can honestly say I would love to know what Apple have in the pipeline. I keep up-to-date on the latest rumours on MacRumors.com, but somehow it’s never quite enough. To prove this point, my favourite appearance at Macworld has to be from Axiotron, an Apple Premier Developer. They are responsible for the much sought after ModBook launched last year. This year, they begin shipping their new ModBook Pro. This machine looks to be a thing of dreams – the closest thing to digital paper a designer can get. I can’t wait until Axiotron start trading in the UK.

The ultimate tablet computer

As a closing note to 2009′s opening post, I would like to say how much I am looking forward to the finalization of CSS 3 and in particularly hope for a good implementation of the new multiple columns and text flow features.

Thanks for reading, I intend to be a bit more active with posting from now on.

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