A few months ago, I started working at Hydra Studio. The experience has certainly been the most challenging in my life. At the same time, it’s arguably one of the more rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. I’ve worked on some amazing stuff at Hydra. I’ve learned a whole lot and met some awesome people. One of those people is Michael Parler.

I was looking for a picture of Mike, and I think this one does him justice : 

To look at Mike, the word ‘professional’ doesn’t immediately come to mind. The cliche rings true however. Mike is easily the most professional person I have ever met. Mike’s attention to detail and ability to create interfaces that are completely seamless is incredible.

You wouldn’t know it to look at his website, but Mike is an awesome designer / developer.

I can’t speak publicly about the projects we’re working on at Hydra. However, I will say that when they’re done, they will realize some of the best UI I’ve ever seen. The credit for that lies heavily with Mike. 

Adding to why Mike is awesome: the most mundane of things don’t bore him. How many times have you worked on a project, and just glossed over some of the mundane details. Yeah, you probably don’t want to admit how many times.

Mike has some serious OCD, and leaves nothing to chance. I’ll admit, sometimes he’s a bit of a pain in the ass. However, for the company, and for the rest of us, his attention to detail is a lifesaver. 

I’ve been meaning to write about some awesome folks in my life lately, and Mike gets to be the first. He’s a really cool guy, and I appreciate what he does a lot.

Part of my transition to independent web developer, is to put on a hat I’ve gotten used to letting someone else take care of. That would be the designer hat.

:/

I’ve done some massive modifications of some of the older sites I’ve built in the past. Those sites, oconnorandtaylor.com, socons.com, and tradeproconstructionservices.com (go ahead and catch your breath), have taken up a substantial part of my life in the last couple weeks.

There’s not much coding going on in those sites. I built them on Drupal, so most of my work revolved around configuring the CMS, and getting everything setup in remote subversion. The task consuming all my time though, is the designing.

When I design a site, especially one that I’m getting paid a nominal fee for, I usually base the design off of some template, or theme to one of the more popular CMS packages. I know Drupal pretty well, so It’s not too much to hack a Wordpress or Joomla theme and make it work for Drupal.

The interesting thing about all of this however, is my keen interest in Flash. It’s funny to me, since I’ve been pretty anti-flash for a while. Actionscript 3 really provides a framework that I can get comfy in. I’ve yet to actually put anything out there that uses some of the more OO type patterns (observer being a quite common implementation). I suspect I will in the coming months though.

Anyways, I’m not a designer, so I’d like any feedback on the sites mentioned above. Some of y’all are pretty good at that kind of thing, and I could use the advice.

Thanks in advance.

Dr. Doom.

Today is Independence day, and I’ve a few things to reflect on today. I’ve officially announced my departure from NFi Studios, thus going independent myself. So, today has a sort of meaning for me, in a personal light, that it hasn’t before.

That’s not to take away from the incredible significance of what July 4th is to everyone else. I suppose it’s easy to forget, or take for granted, the awesome opportunities we have in the United States. The bravery and commitment it must have taken, to violently break from from an oppressive government, is awe-inspiring.

But that’s exactly what is inspiring me to go ‘indie’ …

While I certainly don’t have to resort to war, or worry about death as a consequence of my own ‘liberation’, I do have a mortgage, and all the other associated bills that so many Americans struggle with every day. By leaving a steady job, I leave the security of steady income. The consequences of that, often feel like impending death. I’ve had a hard time sleeping lately. I wake up in the night, with pain in my chest, from the stress of it all.

But with consequence, comes the potential for great reward …

When the US declared it’s independence, and successfully fought to keep it, we opened the door of opportunity to become the most amazing country in modern times, possibly ever. Despite what you might hear on CNN tonight, or what the regulars on Digg like to say about this country, there truly is no better place to live in the world. The reason? Opportunity. There simply is no other government in the world that provides opportunity on a silver platter like this country. It may sound cliche, but if you can dream it, this country won’t stop you from doing it.

So, with my own departure from a stable job, at an up-and-coming startup, I’ve opened the door to a level of opportunities that I simply wouldn’t have otherwise. I don’t know what’s in store for me, but I do know I’ve met some amazing folks, who I hope to work with on projects that will change the world (hopefully).

I’ve no illusions about what this means for me. The rewards that may come my way, aren’t without stupendous amounts of work due to realize them. That’s fine with me. I’ve come from a family of working types, and I’ve done more than mine (and your) fair share of work. The difference between before, and now, is that I’ll be the one deciding how I’ll get it done.

I’ve leaned on a few folks for advice in making the decisions I’ve made lately. You know who you are, and I’ll never be able to repay all of you for all the help you’ve been to me.

The lot of us here at NFi Studios have recently release the 0.1 Beta version of MemberFuse , a Social Network designed and developed specifically for Associations. I’d like to personally thank the team I work with at NFi, especially Sterling Raphael , Lynda Raphael , and Elizabeth Baranik for helping create the opportunities and goals for our development team to accomplish.

MemberFuse, as stated before, is a Social Networking package built on open source software that helps existing Associations provide value for their members outside of the usual, and sometimes outdated methods they currently employ. The goal for any Association is to give it’s member base something tangible and usable. We at NFi have worked exceptionally hard to produce something that is both useful and valuable.

The process to develop MemberFuse has been an amazing learning curve for me. I’ve always stressed concepts of design patterns and convention when speaking with other developers. This is especially crucial in open source software development, where the developer is often left to his / her own devices when it comes to creating applications. However, some of the features necessary for MemberFuse really pushed the limits of what had previously thought possible before.

One of the coolest things I got into with MemberFuse was the integration with Trac and SVN and Eclipse. I’m going to write a tutorial on how to make the most of this pretty soon, so be on the lookout for that. I can say in advance though, that it has made my life in team software development far easier and more manageable than ever before.

Recently my boss, Sterling , wrote up about all of us at NFi on his personal blog. It’s flattering to hear what he has to say. I probably shouldn’t care too much about the accolades that I may, or may not recieve from other people, but I do.

All of us at NFi work very hard to produce product that is above and beyond client expectation. Just the other day I worked from 8 in the morning until midnight. While that’s not an everyday occurence, it happens quite a bit. Sometimes in this business, there’s just far too much to do. So when I hear some appreciation from the boss, I guess I get a little choked up.

I shoud count my blessings. I work in an environment where I can wear just about whatever I want, I can say pretty much whatever is on my mind, and I can listen to Death Metal all day (with headphones, of course).

Sterling is a dedicated entreprenuer who has the insight to know that while teamwork and dedication are critical to success, an uptight or stifling atmosphere is not. There’s a weird balance between fostering creativity, and discouraging a lack of productivity that Sterling does a pretty stand up job at acheiving here.

The guys (and gals) I work with are a really cool bunch of folks. I’ve mentioned Sterling, but Derek, Bender, Elizabeth, Rick, CJ, and now Chris are all friends to me. I routinely heckle Bender and Derek is always teaching me something.

Our office is awesome. It’s in the heart of Downtown Orlando. We have wood floors, and a great view (though the shades are frequently closed to keep the glare to a minimum). We get to meet a lot of really awesome folks because of our location alone.

So, I really like working with these guys at NFi. I can’t think of a better place to be.