I just finished a small project doing some renovations for Work Wheels USA.  Their previous web development company created a content management system (CMS) for them, but Work needed some additional functionality and customization so they contacted me.

The challenge with this type of project is having to go through somebody else’s code to modify it.  At the same time, I have to be able to mimic the current site so that everything flows nicely in terms of code AND in terms of the user interface.  In other words, to a normal website visitor, it can’t look like somebody came in later to do a patch job, and to a programmer looking at the code, things need to be consistent so you don’t need to learn how to read coding styles from two different people.

Lucky for me, the people who previously developed the site for them did a great job with the programming, as their code was very legible and organized.  I even picked up a couple of organizing techniques from them that I’m already using right now at work.

The most noticeable thing I created for Work Wheels USA is a rotating front page slideshow.  These rotating slideshows are super hot these days.  Even though I don’t think they are very good for search engine optimization (SEO), they grab a human’s attention and allows for presenting multiple content in a single area.

The other things I created were just to allow them to swap out certain images and content here and there, things you will probably never notice because for the most part they look the same right now.

This site is programmed in PHP, which isn’t what I work in mostly, but I dabble a little in it, and it’s nice to know how easy it was for me to get acquainted with it and even finish a PHP project in such a timely manner.

My goal in the next few months is to really get my hands dirty with PHP and .NET.  I’ve been holding myself back for far too long programming in classic ASP (10 years!!).  It’s time to start get relevant with today’s popular technologies.

Anyway, this one is done.  Time to start working on a few others I have sitting around waiting for me!  I’m looking forward to the Joomla project I have coming!

Related posts:

1. My latest project is finished
2. My Recent Project
3. Project Completed – Koyoradracing.com

I’ve fixed the blogroll but I’ll have to look at the footer later.

Related posts:

1. Camber issues
2. BBS problems
3. The Story of Motorex

I haven’t used it that much yet, but I have used it on my junky slow laptop that I wouldn’t dare install Photoshop on.  The interface is a lot like Photoshop.  Translation: It’s pretty much a blatant imitation of Photoshop.

For the light weight user who just does stuff for blogging, this is a really good option.  You can resize, crop, optimize for web, use the healing tool, magic wand, change levels, blur, vignette… awesome!

Something I do a lot is take screen captures, so I downloaded this plugin called Pixlr Grabber for my firefox browser that allows me to right click a website and open it directly in the image editor.

Nerdy side note: Something like this is super important to the web centric OS movement.  I really think that one day we’re all going to have web based operating systems like Google Chrome OS, and development of applications like these are essential to making that happen.

Related posts:

1. New Rotors

www.koyoradracing.com

This project had a really tight deadline and I finished everything in 2 months!  Thanks to Koyo and Daniel for keeping on top of deadlines and deliverables!  I am really proud of this one!

Client wanted to be able to showcase their unique position as the only aftermarket OE manufacturer  who also manufacturers aftermarket racing radiators, as well as their involvement with top-tier drivers in the Japanese drift series D1 Grand Prix.  Koyo now has 2 sites on the internet… their OE site (koyorad.com) which is targeted at distributors and other corporate entities and their racing site (koyoradracing.com) which is targeted at the younger sport compact crowd.

They wanted to be able to update their own content, including a blog, informational pages, product lineup and media albums with photos and videos.  I created a content management system so they could update content on their own, an integrated media center for web photos, albums and videos, product information and etc!

Please check out the website and let me know what you think!  All comments/suggestions are appreciated!

Related posts:

1. My Recent Project
2. My latest project is finished
3. Latest project finished: Work Wheels USA

This is the corporate site which showcases their company as an OE manufacturer.  This site features a parts search and a content management system that allows them to update the site by themselves.

Next up is the racing site!  Coming in the next few weeks!

Related posts:

1. Project Completed – Koyoradracing.com
2. Latest project finished: Work Wheels USA
3. My latest project is finished

I actually bought bensonhsu.com and I’m thinking about meshing these two sites together and continuing this blog there.

Also, my RSS feed address might change and that may screw up your feed readers if you’re using it. Please check in next week if you don’t see any updates on here!

Related posts:

1. My New Blog
2. Project Completed – Koyoradracing.com
3. My Recent Project

Just in time for SEMA!

This is the site I’ve been working on for the past 3 months… It has its own content management system, so the client can login and update the news and various sections of the website on their own. They can also update the wheel charts on their own and manage their list of dealers.

Also check out the nifty dealer locator. That took me tons of time – I had to write it myself!!

Here’s a bit of trivia:
Did you know that there is no rhyme or reason for a zipcode being in a certain location? 91792 is NOT guaranteed to be neighbors with 91793… in fact it can be hundreds of miles away.

So how do you find the distance from your zipcode to the nearest dealer? You have to know longitude and latitude coordinates for every zipcode in the United States. Finding that kind of (free) data was really hard… and was only the tip of the iceberg!

Related posts:

1. Latest project finished: Work Wheels USA
2. Awesome gas mileage
3. Project Completed – Koyoradracing.com

I got off my lazy butt and made it work. Google reader is pretty cool actually. Ever use it? Instead of visitng my buddys’ blogs everyday, Google Reader puts all the blogs in one place where it’s easy to read. AND it will let you know whenever there is an update!

Oh yeah, I also programmed the journal to e-mail you if somebody posted a comment under yours.

I am awesomely geeky. Go me!

Related posts:

1. MY Journal
2. My New Blog
3. Comments are Working!

Please check out the new comments feature and leave me some! Let me know that you’re alive and if these comments are working ok. I programmed it 100% by myself and I know, that makes me a nerd, but I don’t know if they even work well.

Thanks!

Related posts:

1. The computer nerd in me strikes again!
2. MY Journal
3. Goodbye Green Machine

Anyway, I’m noticing that I’m becoming a part of this whole blogging community. Funny since I’ve been “blogging” since like 1998? When I first started there wasn’t all this fancy blogging software – you just had to know html and make it look like what blogs look like now – only now, you can add comments and have all kinds of cool little features. After writing this program, I just got a notice from my webhosting company that they are giving us a new feature that will let you put a blog on your site. Nice one – you guys are like 3 years late!

Oh well, I guess I already started this project. I may as well continue with it and add the features like commenting and blog rolls and all that good stuff. I wonder what other cool things I can program into it?

On a side note, thanks to everybody who has linked to my blog. I’ll link you back soon, I promise!

Related posts:

1. My Recent Project
2. The computer nerd in me strikes again!
3. BBS = jacked up