Blog

CSS - Considering Layout

Danielle Olson — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:08:49 +0000

Almost every modern website consists of the following pieces:

Header
Navigation
Content
Footer

The content may or may not be broken into columns, but essentially the building blocks are always the same. This is why the people in charge of HTML 5 have created new tags for each of these common elements.

I will now create a sample web page using these basic building blocks and a stylesheet. Feel free to follow along using the text editor of your choice.

You can download my example file here.

Web Development is Software Engineering

Danielle Olson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:43:08 +0000

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I have been hired by Clearwater Paper again this summer to help convert an Access database to an ASP.NET application. It is perhaps the most complicated project I have ever taken on.

The following is an email I wrote after learning that a Web Development student had been turned down for a job for which they were fully qualified. The reason: "The hiring managers are looking for applicants pursuing a 4 year degree in Software Engineering." I feel it is completely unfair to assume that Web Developers are not Software Engineers -- because they are -- and the next part explains why.

CSS - What it is & Why we use it

Danielle Olson — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:02:56 +0000

Once upon a time, designers were very limited when it came to designing web site layouts. HTML alone didn't provide a good way of doing this and out of the turmoil arose two options: tables and frames. For many years these two grim rulers took over the land and there was much pain and suffering.

Then, one fine day, a hero named CSS came to save us all.

Web 2.0 Expo - My Last Time

Danielle Olson — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:14:38 +0000

This is the last time I will attend this conference. I don't mean that to sound negative, but until I become developed enough in the industry to come back and speak to future developers, I don't think I'll be coming back. I'd like to take a few minutes to sum up what this year's conference was about.

CSS - Postponed

Danielle Olson — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:41:00 +0000

My next post about CSS is going to have to be postponed until after the conference. I've been sick this last week and busy finishing school work before I head to San Francisco. Check back here Friday for my thoughts about the Web 2.0 Expo.

Web Design - Tools of the Trade

Danielle Olson — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:12:23 +0000

This post is in preparation for a new series I will be starting on learning web design. Below are the things you'll need and some of the things I recommend for someone getting started. I will post these tutorials on Fridays, so look for the first one April 30th. If you have anything to add or any questions, please comment below or contact me.

Where to start with ASP.NET

Danielle Olson — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:40:56 +0000

So you've decided to learn ASP.NET, but don't know where to start. Welcome to where I was in May 2008. I somehow managed to get a job in Web Development using ASP.NET with absolutely no ASP.NET/C# experience and only an 8 week C++ class under my belt. Fortunately, this was an internship and my employer gave me about a month to get on my feet. Although, this was a stressful way to learn, it actually worked quite well.

If you're looking for an in depth tutorial, please go here. This is a blog operated by my beta-husband (fiance) and he does a really great job of explaining everything. Below is just a list of resources I used while learning ASP.NET.

Walking before I can run...

Danielle Olson — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:49:30 +0000

Ok, so I fell off my bike and spent the last nine months in a coma. I am just now learning to walk again.

Well, not literally, but definitely figuratively.

School has just been so busy that I haven't even had time to work with web stuff this year. Makes a whole lot of sense since I'm a Web Development major, right?

Anyways, I'm going back to the Web 2.0 Expo this May and I'm super excited.

I have also started getting back into .NET because I'm going to be working on a project this summer for a former employer. Future posts I make will more than likely be focused on tips and tricks to learning ASP.NET and Web Design. I feel there aren't enough blogs discussing how to learn these things effectively. However, I will be making a couple posts about the Expo too.

Web 2.0 Expo - Lemme Summup

Danielle Olson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:51:59 +0000

The rest of the Expo went really well.I won't go into detail on any of the particular sessions because I didn't really go to a lot of them.

Thursday, I went to the keynotes, one session, and the live show of Tekzilla Live. This was by far the best part of the Expo for me. I was second in line for the show - my fiance was first - and this guy started asking if anyone in line had a personal site. ME! So, Ryan of Revision3 hooked me up with a new Squarespace account - the one you're viewing now. They had the lead designer redesign my personal site in 30 minutes using the Squarespace editor. I got an awesome redesign, a free Squarespace site, and I'm extremely happy with how it all worked out.

By the way, a huge thanks to Ryan, Tyler - the designer, and Dane - my contact at Squarespace for my account. You guys have been awesome! And for those of you that haven't checked into Squarespace, it's amazing! I know having to pay for a blogging engine might turn people away, but the tools and features you get make it so worth it - especially to a designer. Plus, take the cost of hosting into account - with a company that has decent customer service - and I think you actually come out ahead. My fiance, Lance, was so impressed with it that he started his own account. You can check out his blog at www.lancedice.com.

Web 2.0 Expo - First Impressions

Danielle Olson — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:43:01 +0000

This is a blog post I made last week before this site was set up for me. This is from Wednesday, April 1st.

Today was the first day of sessions for the Web 2.0 Expo. I have to say that it's been an interesting day. This is the first conference I've ever been to and I didn't quite know what to expect. I went into this thing expecting every topic to be directed at web developers - I was wrong. So naturally, I picked all the wrong topics and was feeling very left out. I am just a student in web development and here I was surrounded by business people that were shopping for ways to market their businesses. I was actually starting to wonder why I even came.

As for the sessions I attended, I felt they were very well done for the most part - although they didn't necessarily apply to my interests. The first one I attended: Why Social Media Marketing Fails - and how to fix it was not the best. It covered all the different reasons why it fails, but spent very little time talking about ways to fix it. In fact, one left the session wondering why anyone would rely on social media marketing at all - if it really is that unreliable and the reward is so little. Also, it felt like the speakers were talking to each other instead of to the people attending. However, I really liked their use of Twitter for getting feedback from the listeners.