Trying Photoshop

So I was kinda engaged in a few projects where I, me, myself need to design the site. Heck. I've only read/studied design principles and some usability stuff for purposes of translating them into HTML/CSS but I haven't designed one from scratch myself.

But yah. I think I'm gonna give it a try as some circumstances demands it right now. So now I've been playing quite a while with photoshop, maybe I'll try out making website templates in PS, or maybe do some wallpaper or stuff like that to get a good feel with photoshop.

Anyways, new thing to learn!

New accessory!

Haha! Got me self a new accessory to wear. New glasses! Yeah. Hehe.

But I'm actually having problems with my new glass. The lens and frame is very different from before and now I'm feeling a bit dizzy if I'm looking down. I'm also having vertigo. ~___~

Doc said though that this is normal. She said that it would take around a week or so. I hope it really is.

* Alec looted a new accessory
* Alec gets +3 vision but now has vertigo effect
* Alec gets a new weakness: going down a flight of stairs

Need opinion for SureScene

Guys I need some opinions for SureScene.

My design for listing events goes something likes this -

 

Normal listing (even when you're not registered) 

It showcases the banners of events. I think it's better this way cause I know how many puts a lot of effort to their banners so it's better to display it than just a simple list. Per date could fit around 5-6 banners of events then it goes down (same like the front page of SureScene).

Now, I did this on the dashboard but my problem is when the events gets a lot it won't fit better than the previous img because of the side panel on the right. See -

Dashboard (where you get updates of event organizers you "follow") 

So you get only around half the space realty of the previous one cause of the side panel.

Now I am trying to redesign the dashboard for this and it came out like this-

Dashboard (where you get updates of event organizers you "follow") 

When you click on banner, it blows up like below 

So now I have kinda fixed it, but it brings me back to a normal listing where the banner is not so visible(well it still displays the banners but in thumbnail and one-click view)...

I also have a few arguments more like cause they are of two different purpose, one is for the normal listing (search/normal view) and the other is for dashboard (where you get updates and stuff). So, What do you guys think I should implement?

Computer Science Advices

Read on first, it's kinda long but you can first read around the few paragraphs of each of his points to get started (I haven't read everything as well).

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html

Don't think of reading it in a one sided way. I almost did. I almost said that I don't need to write and stuff like that while I was reading it. But all of what he said has a point.

Heck. His first point is about "writing"! Writing!? I write yes. Not to brag but I can say I write proper English (not talk though), but I can't convey the things I need to. I can say I was really hit by this one single point, I am having a hard time conveying SureScene's point. Struggling because I can't write wittily to event organizers, or even friends. This I have to improve.

But the rest, I would have to say I really agree with him. And as for giving advices, I would have to say I too have a hard time there. But he has given it a bit of thinking, and with good writing skill (I'm still practicing that).

Though the document is a bit old, advices never do. So I think it's a good read.

A little problem, a little opportunity

So I have my day job on a little problem lately. We're fixing it. It's nothing new. I think I've gotten used to this kinda problems. Yes I really hate it happening, over and over again. I can say it's fun though. Don't think of me as some masochist, I'm not. I just find the ups-and-downs fun. Hehe.

Anyway, I always find something good on a lot of things happening umn... not good. So I got to spend a lot of time now to work on my personal project SureScene. Got some big updates up and a lot of bug fixes like stuff. Well, if you have some comments, suggestion or problems need action immediately, now's the time to bring them up. :)

MongoDB Error

If you happen to pass by this error

[02:33:05] mongodb$ mongo
MongoDB shell version: 1.6.3
connecting to: test
Sat Nov 13 02:33:10 Error: couldn't connect to server 127.0.0.1 (anon):1137
exception: connect failed

Check if your mongo is running by issuing "mongod" command. If you get something like this,

Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 MongoDB starting : pid=294 port=27017 dbpath=/data/db/ 64-bit
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 db version v1.6.3, pdfile version 4.5
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 git version: 278bd2ac2f2efbee556f32c13c1b6803224d1c01
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 sys info: Darwin erh2.10gen.cc 9.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 BOOST_LIB_VERSION=1_40
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 exception in initAndListen std::exception: dbpath (/data/db/) does not exist, terminating
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 dbexit:

Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 shutdown: going to close listening sockets...
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 shutdown: going to flush oplog...
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 shutdown: going to close sockets...
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 shutdown: waiting for fs preallocator...
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 shutdown: closing all files...
Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 closeAllFiles() finished

Sat Nov 13 02:30:41 dbexit: really exiting now

You can see a lot of things to do here but you should probably check on your log file to see some errors while your mongo wouldn't start. When I tailed my logs, I saw a different error stated like so

**************
old lock file: /usr/local/mongodb/data/mongod.lock. probably means unclean shutdown
recommend removing file and running --repair
see: http://dochub.mongodb.org/core/repair for more information
**************

And yes I did came from a crash. So I checked and removed the file and it automatically ran again based on my existing tail on the logs and it was back again.

Hope this helps somebody else as well.

We finished moving

Hi guys. I'm back! Wasn't able to post anything before cause we were planning on moving, our 1 year contract on our place ended and we decided to move to a different place as well. Hehe.
So yah, now were finished moving but the place looks like a storage area for now. Haven't unpacked anything yet, will do it maybe on the weekends.
The place looks nice, a bit smaller than our previous place but I think it's much cooler and it's on tiles, much colder floor, Yeah :]!
And my muscles ache like hell right now. We've been moving stuff from our place downwards (2nd floor), then moving them back up (3rd floor) to the place we moved in. Haha. So me and my friends were like dead tired after moving all our stuff. >_<

Well as for my project surescene, I've done a few updates a while back and I got it back and running again.