There are different levels of expertise when it comes to the Google Search.

The E-creeper. This is the uber- advanced Googler who can find your X-girlfriends Wedding Photos and tell you the current street address of your third grade teacher. They usually are savvy enough to know how to track the IPs of those who come to their myspace account, so dare not to outsmart them. While this sounds like a sketchy MO, its good to know an E-creeper in desperate situations. Never date one, they have the possibility of making your life sheer hell.

Advanced Searcher. Track down a photo? Find that campaign mentioned in a blog? No problem for this smart search engine explorer. Finding relevant information is what this person excels at… using quotation marks and search engine commands when seeking answers. They have a solid awareness of how the web works and often can take control of their own destiny by using search engine optimization on their personal web ventures.

Basic Finder. These people are thinking big and getting big unfiltered results. Like using an atomic weapon to solve a rat problem, you are going to find what you searched for but hit everything else in the process. Most people fit here, using google as a tool, but really having no idea the magnitude of power they can leverage from its enormous capabilities.

You can Google that? These people are completely oblivious to the fact that a search engine can provide many of the answers to life’s mysteries. Sure they use the internet, but they would never consider leveraging its power. The ignorant and lazy often fall into this category, not realizing they can get the answers all on their own. It frightens the crap out of me how many people I encounter who are on this level.

So why does it matter what category you fit in. You may not even know what you don’t know, and that is exceptionally dangerous. As a designer, developer, internet professional, or human being it is your duty to become involved in the world of interactive media. There sits this fantastically wide ocean of pure knowledge. It is littered with static, garbage, and porn, but when you are capable of diving in and pulling out that gem of information you will become that much smarter than you were before. Search engines are your guide. Get to know your guide on a more personal level and they will show you where all the locals hang out. The Locals always know where the best Fish tacos are. And what is a successful trip to the sea of knowledge without some good-ass fish tacos?

TechTags Plugin [ Google Searching | Search Engine | E-Creep | E-Creeping ]

Reworking a website is never my favorite task. Its always more fun to start a site from scratch writing the HTML super clean. A few times I have been given the task to rework other’s sites. If you write any HTML you will know that everyone has their own style. This usually causes me to curse out-loud and blame ridiculous habits on those who are no longer working at the company. I am one of those coders who talks out her code verbally asking aloud “why are you not floating left… float LEFT!”. When it is someone else’s code I usually say something along the lines of” what the hell was #&!@ thinking when he wrote all of this inline CSS?!”.

Today I am reworking one of my sites that is about 2 years old. It is one of the first sites I ever coded quasi-on-my-own. After a bit of procrastination and fear of what may lie beneath, I peaked under the hood to find mountains of <br> tags. Gasping in horror… “how could i have written this?!”. Looking away in denial I thought to myself “maybe i can just not touch it, no one would notice”. While wrestling with these disturbing feelings the truth percolated through my conscience. It was too late,the image of excessive tags had been burnt into my brain. The embarrassment of ill kept code began to eat me up. Something must be done.

While I don’t mind the revisions, it is the embarrassment of having written it in the first place that hits me hardest. After beginning the process of rebuilding, I started to think about it. It could be worse. These could be tables or non breaking spaces. This code that I am wading through could be horrible given the circumstances. I was designing exclusively for print only a few months prior.

There is a more hideous scenario: Two years after writing the erroneous code I could see nothing wrong with it, making no progress at all. Back then my attitude was like “sweet i know CSS, I can make a website”. Now that attitude is ridiculous and I have learned to stay mindful of what I don’t know. This goes along with a theory I have had for some time. If a potential employer asks you to rate your Photoshop knowledge on a scale of 1-10, and you say 10… he/she will know you are full of yourself. Not even the most badass designers will admit to saying they are Grand Masters of Photoshop. If you do say 10 and the employer is ok with it, then it is someone you don’t want to work for because they have no understanding of the industry.

Whether it be Photoshop, web development, businesses, or design if you think you know it all you are selling yourself short. I hope to continue to be desperate and hungry for web knowledge. The threat of falling behind is looming over us all. In an industry that moves so fast it is often discouraging to keep up. A run on the treadmill may knock the wind out of me but I hope a little bit of HTML never does.

TechTags Plugin [ HTML | CSS | BY | Web Development | Code Habits ]

Pat Benatar was full of crap when she said “Love is a Battlefield”. What that song should have been called is “Corporate America is a Battlefield”. Being a creative in Corporate America is a struggle. It has its ups and downs. While there are so many perks, there are so many cubicle walls you see that you want to just hit your head up against in frustration. The ultimate symbol of my frustration that explodes from Corporate America is PowerPoint. Why such an ass-backwards application has infested windowless offices and gray cubicles the world over, I will never understand.

The word PowerPoint is synonymous with other words that strike a sincere sense of danger in my brain. Similar to an alarm going off, or someone screaming “fire” or “Comic Sans“… it all scares the hell out of me. It is not even the idea that PowerPoint is so often associated with bad design. Even though it is, I am well aware that a good designer can use any tool to crank out a tasty piece of eye candy. It is the fact that i think it was put on this earth just to make people’s lives harder. And like watching a pack of lemurs go over a cliff, if you are pitching me on something no matter how awesome your presentation is, you have a hard time thinking outside the box.

I managed in college to dodge the PowerPoint curse. My coworkers don’t believe me.. it does seem near impossible to get a Virginia State College education without it. I always managed some JPEGs, a quicktime video on the web or a bag full of crazy antics to distract my professors from the fact that I refused to use the devil application. If my presentation wasn’t eye popping enough to make you think about what I was saying without the slides, I deserved the lower grade. I managed to pull it off.

But now I am in Corporate America with Bill Gates’ spawn looking me square in the eye. All of these well dressed lemurs begging, pushing me and prodding me over the edge. What is there really for me to do but fall gracefully off the edge while adjusting a few disheveled suite ties on my way down.

I look to David Byrne for inspiration. His ironic twist on the use of PowerPoint as an artistic medium, molding shapes and gradients originally in a satirical effort to poke fun. Holding his fist in the air shouting “we will overcome” refusing to let such an awkward application get him down. Laughing in the face of conformity.

While I respect Byrne’s enthusiasm I still think his work in PowerPoint is pretty freaking hideous. And thats what it really comes down to for me… design. While the application is a tool, it makes it less friendly to create good design; it takes a lot of work. PowerPoint directly contributes to bad design overwhelming the planet and boring presentations plaguing powerless audiences. Don’t rely on PowerPoint as your ordinary presentational crutch. Stand out, Stand up, and give a meaningful presentation. If what you have to say isn’t interesting enough for you to convey without PowerPoint’s catchy clipart and transitions, you may need to rethink what you have to say.

TechTags Plugin [ PowerPoint | Design | Presentation Software | David Byrne | PowerPoint Art ]