Jourik.com | Freelancer in Website development & SEO

New webshop shines a light | LED verlichting

• Project: LED·je·wel·nl
• Type: Web shop for LED products
• Address: http://www.ledjewel.nl
• Assignment: design & implementation
• Techniques: PHP & MySql based on a PrestaShop platform

LED·je·wel.nl is a new webshop which focusses on LED light, LED gadgets and LED accessories. I’ve used the PrestaShop platform for this, modifying it for its special needs. Every shop has its own demands, but PrestaShop generally satisfies most wishes. The object oriented PHP and MySql platform offers a fast solution for some solid marketing. It is in my strong belief that LED technology will be a major lighting provider in homes and public life within 15 years.

The Wings of Society

• Project: The Wings of Society
• Type: Supporting website and document library
• Address: http://www.thewingsofsociety.eu
• Assignment: design & implementation
• Techniques: ASP.NET / C#, MySql

The Educational Materials Project The Wings of Society provides schools with a new method for the subject of Technology. It consists of books that contain basic material, a website with flexible and easily adaptable material, and support activities.

This month I’ve released this website for Technicles, an organization which develops educational programs for technology students, aimed at ages of 12 – 15 years. The website’s main purpose is to act as a resource library, containing e-books, task sheets, glossaries and more. Each type of user (students, visitors and teachers) have access to different library sections to provide a custom tailored single point of access to every resource this methodology provides.

Woord van de dag: new and refreshed

• Project: Woord van de dag
• Type: Daily web log about the Dutch language
• Address: http://www.woordvandedag.nl
• Assignment: design & implementation
• Techniques: ASP.NET / C#, MySql

Woord van de dag (Word of the day) is a weblog-like website about the Dutch language. Everyday, a new exciting word is selected and visitors can vote for it, have discussions and view interesting statistics. A team of dedicated writers share their thoughts on language in general in the regular editorials.

Since the website has over 1500 unique visitors each day, it was time to give it a make-over to make it a bit more brighter, happier. It has to be a feel-good website for a happy start of the day. So brighter colors of blue and white were used, bigger fonts, more spacing and more images. And that all while reducing the actual page size for bandwidth purposes.

The new website has been constructed entirely in a custom made platform in C# (.NET) with a MySql database. Custom functionalities contain:

• Paypment provider implementations (iDeal / Mollie)
• Automated jury-driven word selection procedures
• Twitter.com integration
• iGoogle modules

Always wanted to be that funny man at the office with the instant rimshot ready for action after a colleague’s bad joke?

Yeah I’m one of them, I admit  But hey, I don’t see problems, I see challenges! And with every challenge comes a solution.

So here I present my newest product: HotKeyz! Just bind the CTRL-ALT-Numpad keys to any sound (wav, mp3) you wish and there ya go! Key combinations available from any application, anywhere in Windows.

The only prerequisite is .NET 2.0 of course, but for you fancy Vista users that shouldn’t be a problem!

HotKeyz 1.0

Ok, I was raised as a Dutch Reformed.. Not the black suit black socks black shoes kind, but still.. Alas, I started thinking for myself, and discovered that there is a lot out there that can be explained by just common sense. That’s why I’d like to preach the word of my religion: causual determinism.

Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent
events and conditions together with the laws of nature. (source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

This means that every situation could theoretically be predicted, since it is the natural result of the previous situation. Everything in the universe is made out of atoms and particles, which apply predictable forces to other particles. This applies to everything, even the process of thinking. So if you think something, it’s not entirely free will.. it’s just the logical result of the atoms in your head moving in the direction they should move. So even if you think you’ve made a decision, it’s really the only logical outcome of the thinking process.. So does that make your decision truly a decision? Makes you wonder eh?

Of course, the theory that everything can be predicted will always be theoretical. You’d have to know the state of all atoms in the entire universe on a single moment to calculate the next state. And that raises three impossibilities:
a) We will never have the calculating power to do so

b) As we are investigating the situation of everything, we are influencing everything at the same time
c) We could never determine what ‘the next tick’ is, since it’s the amount of time so close to 0, that we could never calculate it.

It seemed so simple; there is no god, just nature. Just as long as you don’t philosophise too much about it..

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/

Internet Explorer 6 has always been the ugly duckling of web design. Not only due to its sometimes somewhat strange rendering, but the lack of native transparent PNG has been a very annoying shortcoming for developers as well. Transparent PNG’s provide the opportunity to really spice up your website graphically. IE6 lacks this support however, resulting in ugly grey backgrounds.

Twinhelix’ IE PNG Fix provides a good work-around for this problem by using the already existing filter technology in IE. You’d ask yourself why Microsoft didn’t implement this technique natively in their browser. This small javascript file adds behavior to certain user defined HTML tags, replacing the PNG image by a transparent version of the image.

Anyone who has used this fix has probably encountered another problem: hyperlinks or mouseovers don’t work if they’re defined within the fixed element – if it’s positioned either absolute or relative. This really is a problem with popups, dropdown menus and other dynamic elements.

What the filter basically does, is adding a transparent image on top of the original div. If the base div is positioned relative or absolute, it is automatically indexed on top of its content. Manually altering the z-index of the inner content doesn’t make much of a difference; often it isn’t what you want either.

A good workaround for this behavior is as follows:

• Add a wrapper element (div) around the base element (with the png as a background image)
• Apply the positioning styles to the wrapper element (position, left and top)
• Position the base element as “static”. Since it will start at the same position as its parent element, it’ll keep in place.
• Leave the background image on the base element.

Since the PNG background image is now applied to a statically positioned element, it isn’t affected by any z-index and inner content will behave as normal!

Rainbow Sheep / Regenboogschaap - Wool, felt and hobby products

• Project: Rainbow Sheep (UK), Regenboogschaap (NL)
• Type: Web shop
• Address: http://www.regenboogschaap.nl, http://www.rainbowsheep.eu
• Assignment: concept, design, implementation, search engine optimalisation
• Techniques: PHP, MySQL on a PrestaShop platform

Rainbow Sheep (Regenboogschaap, NL) is a web store for wool, felt, accessories, and related articles. Its primary target is the Dutch and Belgian market, with side aims for the pan-european market (with the .eu domain).

In this a ongoing partnership, I will provide a continuing level of support for both technical problems and marketing improvements.