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Christopher is a fun loving twenty something from the sunny-ish island of the UK, often spotted with his trusty MacBook engaging in the sport that is Website development.

Okay, okay, you got me. The UK isn’t even that sunny. Born, raised and currently residing in Bristol I work as a Web Developer for a small Web Development company, Centation. I’m a PHP programmer, but love to dabble in front-end development; I’m a standards evangelist adhering to W3C recommendations where possible (“Hello, Internet Explorer”).

This site exists primarily to permit expressing myself—and yes, to possibly interest others about Web development. I demonstrate some useful classes, talk about new and upcoming applications and general tidbits of Web-goodness. I may also rant about some things from time-to-time, so please forgive me. This site is constructed using a combination of WordPress, a dash of Javascript along with the obvious HTML and CSS.

What floats my boat?

Music, movies, reading, running, Apple and “developing” all float my boat. The best band in the world is Jimmy Eat World, bar none. I’m almost shamed to say I do in fact keep an IMDb record of all the movies I watch, feel free to check out my public vote history. Over the years I have become a somewhat of a fan of Apple. Their products are well thought out and really suit my style of development. Sitting down for hours on end isn’t too healthy, which is why for the past couple of years I have begun running. Rather surprisingly I now rather enjoy it.

Follow me on Twitter for more of this kind of stuff. And maybe a smidgen of satirical humour.

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Me, working for your team

Are you interested in having my expertise with you whilst developing your super-cool Web project?
Send me an email to get the ball rolling →

 

  • Carry You Home
    James Blunt

  • Same Mistake
    James Blunt

  • Carry You Home
    James Blunt

  • Same Mistake
    James Blunt

From the journal

From the deep

Obligatory links

Create simple UML diagrams on-the-fly

yUML is an online tool for creating and publishing simple UML diagrams. It’s makes it really easy for you to: Embed UML diagrams in blogs, emails and wikis, Post UML diagrams in forums and blog comments, Use directly within your web based bug tracking tool and Copy and paste UML diagrams into MS Word documents and Powerpoint presentations.

Javascript Tidy

One thing I often need to do is to tidy javascript from it’s packed state. Often to fix the developers bugs, add new features or to modify it slightly. I give you, the Javascript Tidy, a tool I couldn’t live without.

jQuery Slider plugin (Safari style)

A pretty awesome slider. Haven’t tried it out yet but the new version seems pretty easy to skin, so you can style it however-the-hell you want (note: click the ‘jQuery Slider update’ link).

MySQL Format Date

MySQL Format Date helps you format your dates using the MySQL DATE_FORMAT function. Just select a common date format and then change it to your suit your needs. The MySQL DATE_FORMAT code will be generated at the bottom of the page which you can then copy into your query.

The future of wireframes?

I have a love hate relationship with wireframes. In the last 10 years they’ve been a part of every web project I’ve worked on. There have been times when I can’t imagine how we would have solved a particular problem without them. Yet there are also times when I’ve been completely exasperated at the amount of time and energy they’ve consumed, seemingly to very little reward.

So you need a typeface?

A pretty humorous look into how you could choose your typeface for your next project.

New global visual language for BBC

We decided to embark on an ambitious project, called Global Visual Language 2.0, with the aim of unifying the visual and interaction design of bbc.co.uk and the mobile website.

jQuery plugin: Nivo Slider

A really cool image slider than has some unique transitional effects without using Flash.

MooTools plugin: DatePicker

jQuery has the best functioning plugins. MooTools has the best looking plugins. Whenever I want to add in a datepicker I always find this and think: “Oooh. Pretty. Do want.”. Then realise it’s MooTools only. Real shame.

jQuery plugin: Sparklines

I know, I know. This plugin has been around for, what seems like, years. But I thought I would give it a little bit of a spotlight. And yes, so I can easily find it again.

jQuery plugin: asmSelect

asmSelect is a jQuery plugin providing progressive enhancement to select multiple form elements. It provides a simpler alternative with several advantages. This new version includes several bug fixes and enhancements.

How coupon codes can lead to lost revenue

In this post we’ll be looking at how coupon codes (used synonymously here with promo and discount codes) can cause retailers to lose revenue. I’ll share some (hopefully) interesting trends that I’m seeing with a client I work with, and hopefully start a discussion with how to turn lost revenue into gained revenue.

A good browser should be able to reproduce itself

This is an interesting project which aimes to completely reproduce the visual aspect of Safari in pure HTML+CSS with zero images. There are a few caveats at the moment, such as no refresh button, but they say they are working on it. Once again this really shows the power that HTML5 and CSS3 brings to the Web.

jQuery plugin: gameQuery

gameQuery is a jQuery plug-in to help make javascript game development easier by adding some simple game-related classes. It’s still in an early stage of development and may change a lot in future versions.

CSS/Javascript Word Clock

A lit­tle ex­per­i­ment I built: a word clock using CSS3 trans­forms and a lit­tle Javascript to run the ac­tu­al clock. Use­ful? Maybe not. Fun? Def­i­nite­ly.

CSS Border Radius Web Page

It’s one of those things that makes you think “Doh! I should have made that agaes ago”. A simple Web page that allows you to simply get the CSS for the exact border radius you want.

The main thing is not to install Flash

A security expert who has won the Pwn2Own contest for 2 years running said, basically, that Flash is insecure. Well, we all knew that which is why we add Flashblock and the like. Right?

Pure CSS3 Bokeh effect

One of the best apps made using CSS3, that’s for sure. A few more options would be nice, such as changing colours of the circles and being able to place them manually.

EZ-CSS: An easy to use, lightweight, CSS framework

It is light (1kb), flexible, browser-friendly and easy to use! ez-css is a different kind of CSS framework. Authors are not bound to a “grid”. Plus, columns and gutters can be of any width.

jQuery plugin: Quicksand

I love Mac apps, especially for their attention to detail. CoreAnimation makes it so easy to create useful and eye-pleasing effects. Quicksand aims at providing a similar experience for users on the web.