In August 2010 I started a full-time PhD in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, working on robotics and craft computing. In my limited free time, I have done some work on few client projects. However, starting in June 2011, I will be funded by the GK-12 program for 2 years. This program does not allow me to take on outside work.
I am available for work between the end of the semester and the beginning of June, roughly the whole month of May 2011. I think I have work lined up for that month, but feel free to contact me if you have a project that fits in that timeframe.
Posted: March 29, 2011
Category: News
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For this website, I undertook a crash course in design. Here are 6 of the sites that I found inspirational:
- Buffalo - I love the strict, 4 equal column layout. It's simple and it's something I can do. I also like the use of the gray text and Tahoma font. I also like that it's a 'tall' design: you have to scroll to see it all.
- This happened... - another four column layout, but this time not as strict in the header.
- Cooper.com - I think this site is really usable. Unfortunately, I don't have enough content to populate that left nav. Another site with gray text. Love the call to action on each page.
- Lesley Flanigan - Since I am branding my site with my name, I wanted to look at a few other 'personal' sites. Note that the wide column is about 3 times as wide as the left nav.
- Cornell Architecture, Art and Planning - I like the use of color.
- Open Frameworks - I like the use of color and gray.
Smashing Magazine has been a good source of inspirational portfolio sites and ways to categorize design
I am designing based on the following decisions:
- 950px wide
- centered layout
- light color scheme
- 4 equal columns
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- navigation left-aligned at top of page
- contact information top right
- no logo
- branded with 'charles dietrich'
Posted: October 17, 2009
Category: News
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Here's my prediction: Google's wave federation protocol will be the new way to edit and publish shared unstructured data on the web. Waves will store data for blogs and documents. Waves will replace many documents now stored in custom content management systems.
I recently developed a career helper (C2C Advantage) where students log in and complete assignments related to career planning. If I were starting the project now instead of six months ago, I would use waves.
Content creators would log into the website and create CMS pages as waves. A robot would publish these pages to the web. For the assignments, which include instructions and resources but are basically rich text, I would create an extension that provides instructions and resources fields, and a robot that publishes the pages.
So far, the system hasn't really needed wave features. But student responses are ideal for waves. Students would log in and view the assignments. They would write their responses in a wave that was shared with their career advisor When they were done, an extension would let them alert the advisor that they were done. The advisor could then go in and write comments. The student or the advisor could share the wave with others: faculty, friends, potential employers, etc.
The system gives everyone a common editing interface that is better than TinyMCE. Also, everyone gets an interface where they can see incoming waves.
Posted: October 17, 2009
Category: News
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