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BBCode Parser Class
» Sat 20th Jun, 2009 @ 1:57pm by DarkReaver13
I've been doing a lot of object-oriented PHP recently, going through my older sites and revamping the code to make it more object-oriented (where it's suitable).
For the past couple of days I've been working on my own BBCode parser class because I have been unable to find a pre-made one which isn't A) over-complicated, massive and therefore slow, B) buggy or C) missing features that I need (or a combination of the above). I looked at around 20 different classes and the majority did not provide methods for converting HTML back into BBCode. The larger, more complicated ones ran very slow when tested and they also tended to try to do more than they were required to (for example stripping out HTML from input and converting special characters; I already have my own class for these things). Additionally, hardly any of them (in fact, none of them) generated XHTML 1.1 valid code, still using tags like <s> and <u> for some unknown reason. They also all used inline styling, which I'm trying to avoid, but I can see why since they don't come with a CSS stylesheet and so can't really use CSS classes.
I also tried the PECL and PEAR BBCode parser extensions, but I thought I could do better and would rather not depend on PHP extensions if possible.
My primary reason for needing a new BBCode parser to begin with was that my old one didn't handle nested tags very well. I simply used the preg_replace function with regular expressions to convert strings back and forth and this worked fine so long as you didn't make things too messy - like putting multiple font tags inside each other, or nesting indent tags. To solve this the new class had to use preg_replace_callback for many of the tags, so that it properly matched opening and closing tags. It works perfectly as far as I can tell and it's very fast compared to some of the other parsers I tried. It even corrects bad XHTML by reordering closing tags if they are improperly nested.
Once it's thoroughly tested and commented I'll probably post it up here in case anyone needs a simple and effective BBCode parsing class.
For the past couple of days I've been working on my own BBCode parser class because I have been unable to find a pre-made one which isn't A) over-complicated, massive and therefore slow, B) buggy or C) missing features that I need (or a combination of the above). I looked at around 20 different classes and the majority did not provide methods for converting HTML back into BBCode. The larger, more complicated ones ran very slow when tested and they also tended to try to do more than they were required to (for example stripping out HTML from input and converting special characters; I already have my own class for these things). Additionally, hardly any of them (in fact, none of them) generated XHTML 1.1 valid code, still using tags like <s> and <u> for some unknown reason. They also all used inline styling, which I'm trying to avoid, but I can see why since they don't come with a CSS stylesheet and so can't really use CSS classes.
I also tried the PECL and PEAR BBCode parser extensions, but I thought I could do better and would rather not depend on PHP extensions if possible.
My primary reason for needing a new BBCode parser to begin with was that my old one didn't handle nested tags very well. I simply used the preg_replace function with regular expressions to convert strings back and forth and this worked fine so long as you didn't make things too messy - like putting multiple font tags inside each other, or nesting indent tags. To solve this the new class had to use preg_replace_callback for many of the tags, so that it properly matched opening and closing tags. It works perfectly as far as I can tell and it's very fast compared to some of the other parsers I tried. It even corrects bad XHTML by reordering closing tags if they are improperly nested.
Once it's thoroughly tested and commented I'll probably post it up here in case anyone needs a simple and effective BBCode parsing class.
Rejoice
» Fri 15th May, 2009 @ 4:12pm by DarkReaver13
Yes, rejoice as I post the first blog entry in almost a year. I actually started writing a new entry a few times but never got round to finishing them and lost what I'd wrote.
I've been working a lot for my business making websites and doing a ton of admin. One of the most impressive feats was developing a custom accountancy system which calculates our wages, gross/net profit, national insurance contributions, VAT, income tax, expenses etc., which is possibly one of the most complicated applications I've made, particularly because of the way taxation is worked out and due to the tax year ending on the 5th of April rather than the 31st of December. My company's website has been tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and it's more or less completely complete now in terms of what we want it to do and how we want it to look. Of course, more functionality can still be added.
I've been trying my hand at some PHP frameworks including CakePHP, CodeIgniter and Zend, however I'm still largely unconvinced. After years of hand-coding everything myself, enabling me to ensure applications are as simple and streamlined as possible, frameworks seem to add a lot of unecessary bulk. I'm probably going to continue experimenting with CodeIgniter because it's the most lightweight of them all, but I'm still hesitant due to it's use of older PHP for backwards compatibility with PHP4; for example using mysql rather than the improved mysqli. I've also been working with ActionScript 3.0 some more after a long break, and I've developed a very nice photo gallery system using completely object-oriented AS3.0. In general I've been moving to a more object-oriented approach with my programming - something I've somewhat avoided for a long time because I'd got a good system for working procedurally.
I've taken up playing the Viola and bought myself a Stentor harlequin:
That's right, purple and black. The viola is about 50% more expensive than the violin but I much prefer the richer sound of the viola.
I've been working a lot for my business making websites and doing a ton of admin. One of the most impressive feats was developing a custom accountancy system which calculates our wages, gross/net profit, national insurance contributions, VAT, income tax, expenses etc., which is possibly one of the most complicated applications I've made, particularly because of the way taxation is worked out and due to the tax year ending on the 5th of April rather than the 31st of December. My company's website has been tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and it's more or less completely complete now in terms of what we want it to do and how we want it to look. Of course, more functionality can still be added.
I've been trying my hand at some PHP frameworks including CakePHP, CodeIgniter and Zend, however I'm still largely unconvinced. After years of hand-coding everything myself, enabling me to ensure applications are as simple and streamlined as possible, frameworks seem to add a lot of unecessary bulk. I'm probably going to continue experimenting with CodeIgniter because it's the most lightweight of them all, but I'm still hesitant due to it's use of older PHP for backwards compatibility with PHP4; for example using mysql rather than the improved mysqli. I've also been working with ActionScript 3.0 some more after a long break, and I've developed a very nice photo gallery system using completely object-oriented AS3.0. In general I've been moving to a more object-oriented approach with my programming - something I've somewhat avoided for a long time because I'd got a good system for working procedurally.
I've taken up playing the Viola and bought myself a Stentor harlequin:
That's right, purple and black. The viola is about 50% more expensive than the violin but I much prefer the richer sound of the viola.
[DkR] Movie 2008
» Tue 27th May, 2008 @ 7:24am by DarkReaver13The high quality version is available to anyone who wants it; just leave a comment.
Anarcho-Capitalism: An Objectivist's Critique
» Sun 20th Apr, 2008 @ 4:48pm by DarkReaver13
This is my first video for YouTube which is political/philosophical in nature:
The political goal of both Objectivists and anarcho-capitalists is: To ban violence/coercion/the initiation of force in human relationships. The two disagree on what the best political system is to achieve this goal. Objectivism proposes the need for a government to monopolise the use of retaliatory force. Anarcho-capitalists see this monopoly as itself being an initiation of force. It's not.
A monopoly on retaliatory force is required because the non-initiation of force is not optional or debatable; it is the very principle which both systems claim to be aiming to uphold. Allowing competition is effectively saying that the non-aggression principle is optional, as it allows private agencies to decide which laws and principles they want to follow, regardless of whether they are correct.
The point of an Objectivist government is to eliminate this subjectivity; not because those in a government are somehow "more objective" than private individuals, but simply because there can be only one objective law. Multiple competing agencies will necessarily conflict, since if they were in complete agreement there would be, in principle, no need for there to be multiple agencies to begin with.
The only remaining issue is therefore efficiency and/or quality. Individuals will want to fund the most effective law enforcement agency or the most efficient law courts. Well, that isn't incompatible with an Objectivist system, as long as these agencies adhere to the same principles - the same laws (those that are based on the non-initiation of force principle). The non-aggression principle is not optional, and should not be treated as such by leaving it up to private individuals to decide whether they want to enforce it, or their own non-objective values and beliefs. The non-aggression principle must be enforced regardless of the opinions of any given individual. Coercion cannot be stopped by allowing those who use it to make up their own minds as to whether they want to continue using it or not... Those of us who know what constitutes the initiation of force, and why it is evil, need to work to eliminate it.
One principle needs only one agency to uphold it.
The political goal of both Objectivists and anarcho-capitalists is: To ban violence/coercion/the initiation of force in human relationships. The two disagree on what the best political system is to achieve this goal. Objectivism proposes the need for a government to monopolise the use of retaliatory force. Anarcho-capitalists see this monopoly as itself being an initiation of force. It's not.
A monopoly on retaliatory force is required because the non-initiation of force is not optional or debatable; it is the very principle which both systems claim to be aiming to uphold. Allowing competition is effectively saying that the non-aggression principle is optional, as it allows private agencies to decide which laws and principles they want to follow, regardless of whether they are correct.
The point of an Objectivist government is to eliminate this subjectivity; not because those in a government are somehow "more objective" than private individuals, but simply because there can be only one objective law. Multiple competing agencies will necessarily conflict, since if they were in complete agreement there would be, in principle, no need for there to be multiple agencies to begin with.
The only remaining issue is therefore efficiency and/or quality. Individuals will want to fund the most effective law enforcement agency or the most efficient law courts. Well, that isn't incompatible with an Objectivist system, as long as these agencies adhere to the same principles - the same laws (those that are based on the non-initiation of force principle). The non-aggression principle is not optional, and should not be treated as such by leaving it up to private individuals to decide whether they want to enforce it, or their own non-objective values and beliefs. The non-aggression principle must be enforced regardless of the opinions of any given individual. Coercion cannot be stopped by allowing those who use it to make up their own minds as to whether they want to continue using it or not... Those of us who know what constitutes the initiation of force, and why it is evil, need to work to eliminate it.
One principle needs only one agency to uphold it.
Free Tibet?
» Sat 12th Apr, 2008 @ 12:27pm by DarkReaver13
Recently there has been a lot of news coverage surrounding the riots in China, where thugs supporting the campaign for Tibet's independence have been going around damaging private property and attacking completely innocent people. They have been doing this in protest against "human rights violations" commited by the Chinese communists since they took control of Tibet in the 1950s, and have seen much support from the West.
Now, before I begin to look like a supporter of the Chinese communists, I will say I am absolutely not. As an Objectivist and firm believer in the moral righteousness of laissez-faire capitalism, I hate communism and socialism in all its forms. My reasons for siding with the Chinese in this case in fact stems from my political ideas.
Prior to the Chinese occupation, Tibet was a slave society. Conditions for the majority of the population were abysmal as most lived in utter poverty, working for the ruling Lama class often without any pay whatsoever. Gruesome torture methods such as the breaking off of limbs and the gouging out of eyes were common punishments for anyone who stepped out of line, and young girls were routinely raped by their landlords. The Chinese occupation ended this despicable system - but of course the Chinese at the time were not much better, what with the "great leap forward" implemented by Mao which caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people. In any case, conditions since the 1950s have improved, and human rights are arguably superior to those which existed prior to the occupation.
I am annoyed by the way in which the meaning of "freedom" has been distorted to mean mere political separation/independence. Nobody seems to care what system will be implemented if Tibet gains independence, just as long as they are no longer part of China. So what if the dictatorial barbarism of the exiled Tibetan government is put back in power, they'll be "free" right? Well, no. The ignorance of Westerners supporting the "Free Tibet" cause is infuriating, and is nothing more than a fashionable fad rather than a well considered belief. The Western media seems to have made great efforts to demonise the Chinese government as being the oppressor, and has outright lied on numerous occassions such as the BBC claiming that the Chinese government censors any shred of "bad news" such as the protesters trying to hinder the progress of the Olympic torch; when this is not the case.
On the other side of the coin there is a strong sense of nationalism coming from Chinese people, who are fervently opposing the protests saying that "Tibet belongs to China". This is simply another example of a mindset which incorrectly values nations and flags over real political freedom or other real virtues.
It really is the case of the lesser of two evils here. Partial slavery is preferable to total slavery.
Now, before I begin to look like a supporter of the Chinese communists, I will say I am absolutely not. As an Objectivist and firm believer in the moral righteousness of laissez-faire capitalism, I hate communism and socialism in all its forms. My reasons for siding with the Chinese in this case in fact stems from my political ideas.
Prior to the Chinese occupation, Tibet was a slave society. Conditions for the majority of the population were abysmal as most lived in utter poverty, working for the ruling Lama class often without any pay whatsoever. Gruesome torture methods such as the breaking off of limbs and the gouging out of eyes were common punishments for anyone who stepped out of line, and young girls were routinely raped by their landlords. The Chinese occupation ended this despicable system - but of course the Chinese at the time were not much better, what with the "great leap forward" implemented by Mao which caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people. In any case, conditions since the 1950s have improved, and human rights are arguably superior to those which existed prior to the occupation.
I am annoyed by the way in which the meaning of "freedom" has been distorted to mean mere political separation/independence. Nobody seems to care what system will be implemented if Tibet gains independence, just as long as they are no longer part of China. So what if the dictatorial barbarism of the exiled Tibetan government is put back in power, they'll be "free" right? Well, no. The ignorance of Westerners supporting the "Free Tibet" cause is infuriating, and is nothing more than a fashionable fad rather than a well considered belief. The Western media seems to have made great efforts to demonise the Chinese government as being the oppressor, and has outright lied on numerous occassions such as the BBC claiming that the Chinese government censors any shred of "bad news" such as the protesters trying to hinder the progress of the Olympic torch; when this is not the case.
On the other side of the coin there is a strong sense of nationalism coming from Chinese people, who are fervently opposing the protests saying that "Tibet belongs to China". This is simply another example of a mindset which incorrectly values nations and flags over real political freedom or other real virtues.
It really is the case of the lesser of two evils here. Partial slavery is preferable to total slavery.
VenomFangX
» Sat 12th Apr, 2008 @ 11:43am by DarkReaver13
VenomFangX is a fairly well known vlogger on YouTube, and has probably already received far more attention than he deserves, but I feel the need to have my say on this bafflingly arrogant and downright laughable imbecile.
The above video almost makes it look as if VenomFang thinks he is the messiah or something - particularly how he calls those on the list he made "lesser people". VenomFang has made numerous videos arguing from his extreme Christian perspective, with ridiculous propositions such as the Earth being only 6000 years old, and evolution being a creation of Satan. He takes the Bible as a literal historical account, regardless of the fact that it contradicts itself countless times and advocates heinous acts such as murdering non-believers and disobedient children. VenomFang even believes the story of Noah's Ark is a historically accurate account. He takes Christianity so far that he is verging on a parody of the religion.
Such is his arrogance and self-righteousness that he does not allow any comments or video responses on his channel without his approval (i.e. he only allows comments and responses which agree with him). He explains this in the above video - claiming that he "knows" the Bible is true and that Jesus will return and all non-believers will go to hell - and therefore he's not interested in anyone who says it's not true. He claims he is "closed-minded in the truth". What an absolute joke.
Maybe writing this will only fuel the fire, so to speak, by giving him more publicity than he deserves, but the sheer stupidity of this guy has forced me to make a comment.
The above video almost makes it look as if VenomFang thinks he is the messiah or something - particularly how he calls those on the list he made "lesser people". VenomFang has made numerous videos arguing from his extreme Christian perspective, with ridiculous propositions such as the Earth being only 6000 years old, and evolution being a creation of Satan. He takes the Bible as a literal historical account, regardless of the fact that it contradicts itself countless times and advocates heinous acts such as murdering non-believers and disobedient children. VenomFang even believes the story of Noah's Ark is a historically accurate account. He takes Christianity so far that he is verging on a parody of the religion.
Such is his arrogance and self-righteousness that he does not allow any comments or video responses on his channel without his approval (i.e. he only allows comments and responses which agree with him). He explains this in the above video - claiming that he "knows" the Bible is true and that Jesus will return and all non-believers will go to hell - and therefore he's not interested in anyone who says it's not true. He claims he is "closed-minded in the truth". What an absolute joke.
Maybe writing this will only fuel the fire, so to speak, by giving him more publicity than he deserves, but the sheer stupidity of this guy has forced me to make a comment.
Nonsense
» Sat 5th Apr, 2008 @ 12:56pm by DarkReaver13
Unfortunately I haven't been keeping this blogging lark up recently, simply because I've been too busy with my business work, and my university work (which is now piled up higher than some kind of tower, like the Eiffel Tower, or maybe like the Colossus of Rhodes). Construction of my company website was completed a few weeks ago, and we've been doing some other work since then which has gone really well; and for university I basically have my final project and 3 hefty essays to do before graduation in July. I've put [DkR] on hold for a while until all this work is out of the way. Anyway, this blog will kinda just be a mish-mash of random thoughts which have accumulated in my brain and which I deem worth mentioning, even though they will probably be totally uninteresting to nearly everyone who might read them.
LaCie finally sent me the replacement power supply for my 1TB external hard-drive which I bought 3 months ago, so I'm now happy with a spacious 1580GB of hard-disk real-estate. I also got myself a couple of GB more RAM and a new keyboard, so my PC is nice and spruced up.
The trademark certificates for Swarm finally came through so we are now the proud owners of the name Swarm and the logo which is nice. Now we shall start scanning the Internet for people to yell at who might be using the name unknowingly.
I've also grown a beard, though I think I mentioned that in a previous blog entry. I really like it. Here's a nice semi-distorted picture of myself which shows it off quite nicely:
As you can see my hair kinda covers my eyes making it difficult to see, and you're probably wondering how I'm typing this. Well, I won't give my secrets away that easily, sorry.
My Mandarin is progressing very slowly. I'm not really focused on it much at the moment because of all the work, but 我会说一点普通话, 虽然它是困难的.
LaCie finally sent me the replacement power supply for my 1TB external hard-drive which I bought 3 months ago, so I'm now happy with a spacious 1580GB of hard-disk real-estate. I also got myself a couple of GB more RAM and a new keyboard, so my PC is nice and spruced up.
The trademark certificates for Swarm finally came through so we are now the proud owners of the name Swarm and the logo which is nice. Now we shall start scanning the Internet for people to yell at who might be using the name unknowingly.
I've also grown a beard, though I think I mentioned that in a previous blog entry. I really like it. Here's a nice semi-distorted picture of myself which shows it off quite nicely:
As you can see my hair kinda covers my eyes making it difficult to see, and you're probably wondering how I'm typing this. Well, I won't give my secrets away that easily, sorry.
My Mandarin is progressing very slowly. I'm not really focused on it much at the moment because of all the work, but 我会说一点普通话, 虽然它是困难的.
Dribbles of Dribble
» Sat 2nd Feb, 2008 @ 11:10pm by DarkReaver13
Now then, now then. Well, second week back went fairly rapidly.. My bro drove me over to Leeds last Sunday on his way to gym and I went to Mat's place for some high class entertainment. We did some work on our various projects, played some games, and had a generally pleasant evening. Had a seminar on Monday which was alright; doing about web-accessibility issues. Afterwards we grabbed some food from an Indian - Mat bought some crazy-ass Indian desserts which were spherical and sugary. We had another game of bowling and I got flippin' 3 strikes in a row!! Did a load more work and gaming in the evening, and also watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords, which is a damn funny sit-com from the U.S., featuring 2 New Zealanders who have moved to New York (I posted a thing about it on the forums). We didn't get to sleep 'til the early hours (again (I see a pattern emerging)).
On Tuesday we went back to mine, and Mat brought his brand new PC (which is almost identical to mine) because we were supposed to have an SGL match that evening (ended up having just an IRC match instead). I introduced Mat to Civilization IV which we played for a ridiculous amount of time (until like 4 in the morning - and proceeded to play some TF2 until 5 after that).. but it kicks ass, I forgot how addictive that game was. On Wednesday I can't actually remember much of what happened, but I remember burning a pizza after leaving it in the oven for like an hour and a half. Pah! On Thursday we had a seminar in the morning which was kinda dull, discussing the information society and such. After that me and Mat went to lunch with Jasmine, Qing and Leah which was great. I had some char siu buns which I haven't had in ages - I could live on them I reckon. We also had a ton of other stuff, and it was all delish. We went around town for a while after that. I got the train home that evening and haven't been seen since. Well maybe I have.
Friday, uh, that was yesterday.. What the hell did I do yesterday? If somebody knows please tell me. All I remember is work in the evening.. and then a looong night of Civ IV with Mat and James. Today I've mainly been working on my various website projects and I've been at work. Nowt special really, but I've gone through my entire site making sure it's all XHTML 1.1 valid, and I've also fixed the RSS feed. Will probably have to get some uni work done tomorrow - I've got to press on with my final project so I've actually got something substantial to show Steve at my next meeting with him.. and I've also got some stuff to do for Monday. Mleeeh! The week has been pretty busy overall, I glossed over it a bit.. Including the fact that I'm now learning Mandarin Chinese, partially because me and Mat are plotting a trip to Shanghai sometime for business related thingies. Would be sweeeet to go there to work for a while.
On Tuesday we went back to mine, and Mat brought his brand new PC (which is almost identical to mine) because we were supposed to have an SGL match that evening (ended up having just an IRC match instead). I introduced Mat to Civilization IV which we played for a ridiculous amount of time (until like 4 in the morning - and proceeded to play some TF2 until 5 after that).. but it kicks ass, I forgot how addictive that game was. On Wednesday I can't actually remember much of what happened, but I remember burning a pizza after leaving it in the oven for like an hour and a half. Pah! On Thursday we had a seminar in the morning which was kinda dull, discussing the information society and such. After that me and Mat went to lunch with Jasmine, Qing and Leah which was great. I had some char siu buns which I haven't had in ages - I could live on them I reckon. We also had a ton of other stuff, and it was all delish. We went around town for a while after that. I got the train home that evening and haven't been seen since. Well maybe I have.
Friday, uh, that was yesterday.. What the hell did I do yesterday? If somebody knows please tell me. All I remember is work in the evening.. and then a looong night of Civ IV with Mat and James. Today I've mainly been working on my various website projects and I've been at work. Nowt special really, but I've gone through my entire site making sure it's all XHTML 1.1 valid, and I've also fixed the RSS feed. Will probably have to get some uni work done tomorrow - I've got to press on with my final project so I've actually got something substantial to show Steve at my next meeting with him.. and I've also got some stuff to do for Monday. Mleeeh! The week has been pretty busy overall, I glossed over it a bit.. Including the fact that I'm now learning Mandarin Chinese, partially because me and Mat are plotting a trip to Shanghai sometime for business related thingies. Would be sweeeet to go there to work for a while.
First Week Back
» Sat 26th Jan, 2008 @ 1:49am by DarkReaver13
A busy week it has been! My first week back at university has been pretty crammed actually. I've been over at Mat's and vice-versa, and we've progressed in various fields. I beat him quite impressively at bowling but he beat me at a game of golf (I also came last in a golf game with Mat, Chris and James).. I've never been good at golf though.. We've both been working on our websites a lot, often working into the early hours, and we have come up with some ambitious plans for Swarm involving branching out into entertainment media. For example, we have ideas to make comically re-dubbed videos and spoof infomercials. We're also hoping to establish a network of connected sites; more on this when we've thought about it more.
This site is pretty much complete now that I've finished improving the back-end system (mainly with use of Javascript which I haven't really used much in the past). I've also been trying my hand at Actionscript 3.0 (the latest content panel is now AS 3.0), and as bafflingly frustrating as it is to migrate to, I'm beginning to get the hang of it. Next I'm going to look into Ajax, which is basically a technique of DHTML/Javascript whereby you can update web-pages in real-time via the database a la Facebook.
Mat and I produced a song on Wednesday which is actually pretty impressive. We plan to do some rapping on it at a later date and then produce some more songs, meaning that I've now got 2 music projects on the go. I'm also going to try to get back in touch with Scissor Hands and Sime Gezus from New York to see if they want to collaborate on some tracks again.
As if my uni work isn't going to keep me busy enough, I also have some work to do for a company called New World Trading which specialises in cutting edge technology. I shall be designing their website over the next couple of days which will be a nice addition to both my portfolio and that of Swarm.
Last but not least, [DkR] has somehow managed to get into the SGL TF2 Champions League. We'll be playing some of the best clans in Europe over the next few weeks. Should be interesting to say the least..!
P.S. Beard coming along nicely.
This site is pretty much complete now that I've finished improving the back-end system (mainly with use of Javascript which I haven't really used much in the past). I've also been trying my hand at Actionscript 3.0 (the latest content panel is now AS 3.0), and as bafflingly frustrating as it is to migrate to, I'm beginning to get the hang of it. Next I'm going to look into Ajax, which is basically a technique of DHTML/Javascript whereby you can update web-pages in real-time via the database a la Facebook.
Mat and I produced a song on Wednesday which is actually pretty impressive. We plan to do some rapping on it at a later date and then produce some more songs, meaning that I've now got 2 music projects on the go. I'm also going to try to get back in touch with Scissor Hands and Sime Gezus from New York to see if they want to collaborate on some tracks again.
As if my uni work isn't going to keep me busy enough, I also have some work to do for a company called New World Trading which specialises in cutting edge technology. I shall be designing their website over the next couple of days which will be a nice addition to both my portfolio and that of Swarm.
Last but not least, [DkR] has somehow managed to get into the SGL TF2 Champions League. We'll be playing some of the best clans in Europe over the next few weeks. Should be interesting to say the least..!
P.S. Beard coming along nicely.
New Site
» Mon 21st Jan, 2008 @ 11:55pm by DarkReaver13
Woop! I've more or less completed the new site design. There are a few kinks which need smoothing out, mainly to do with the back-end, but other than that I'm dead chuffed with how it's turned out. It's a fairly similar layout to the previous design, except I've gone back to the classic light on dark which has been the mainstay of the site for every design prior to the last one. I've done away with the Flash navigation simply because it's not really advisable to use Flash for such an vital element of the site. I will probably play around with the banner once everything else is finished though, because I was fond of the clouds and lightning effects on the previous banner. I think this design is much neater because the spacing is much more uniform. The drop shadows I used before were a nightmare to make consistent, even though they did look quite nice.
I've heavily revamped the music section too. It is a bit more like a Soundclick type thing now, with each song having its own information box. The songs are now arranged by album, with the unsorted tracks at the bottom. I've uploaded every track from The Nightmare Project and Return to the Land of Lost Soulz, and plan to upload all of Deeper & Darker too. I have never put such a complete collection up before, so I hope some people get some value out of those. The accompanying lyrics text files will be gradually finished too.
Aside from all this webbidge I am planning various new things for myself to fill my copious amounts of free time. I plan to start shooting again once I find a suitable club to join, and also learn Mandarin Chinese, something I've been interested in doing for a while now. I've also been cycling quite a lot, and intend to keep that up to increase my extremely poor fitness levels. Then I've got my TF2 clan to maintain, a lot of uni work to be getting on with, and my business to run, so I'm pretty sorted!
I've heavily revamped the music section too. It is a bit more like a Soundclick type thing now, with each song having its own information box. The songs are now arranged by album, with the unsorted tracks at the bottom. I've uploaded every track from The Nightmare Project and Return to the Land of Lost Soulz, and plan to upload all of Deeper & Darker too. I have never put such a complete collection up before, so I hope some people get some value out of those. The accompanying lyrics text files will be gradually finished too.
Aside from all this webbidge I am planning various new things for myself to fill my copious amounts of free time. I plan to start shooting again once I find a suitable club to join, and also learn Mandarin Chinese, something I've been interested in doing for a while now. I've also been cycling quite a lot, and intend to keep that up to increase my extremely poor fitness levels. Then I've got my TF2 clan to maintain, a lot of uni work to be getting on with, and my business to run, so I'm pretty sorted!
