Cory Collier

It occurred to me recently, that there’s a bit of variance in what developers use. For many folks not used to writing code, the availability of software to help write software can be a bit overwhelming. For that reason, I’m writing the stuff that makes me tick.

A disclaimer: I primarily use Mac OS X (Leopard). I love using Ubuntu, but it’s not where I get the bulk of my work done. So, here’s my Mac apps:

Coding:

Eclipse PDT. I write primarily in PHP, and there’s just no better app out there for big PHP development. Something to note about Eclipse though, don’t use more than what comes out of the box. Eclipse can be buggy as hell, so don’t add all the plugins you can find to it. Eclipse is for writing code, not for committing SVN updates. Remember that, and you’ll love Eclipse as much as me.
TextMate. After having said all of that, there’s some times when I want a text editor that’s light, and gets the code updated quickly. Eclipse is a memory beast, and if you’re strapped for RAM, you won’t be able to run Photoshop, Illustrator, AND Eclipse at the same time. For that reason, TextMate is awesome.
vim. Finally, the most lean of all editors is vi. I use vim, since it has a few extra things I really appreciate. The learning curve on vim is hell, but once you’re used to it you won’t look back.

Graphics:

Adobe CS 4. I’ve tried all of the substitutes out there. But none of them hold a candle to Adobe’s mismanaged, bloated, overpriced Creative Suite. Photoshop and Illustrator are indispensable tools if you’re doing web graphics (or any other graphics for that matter)

Communication:

Adium. I don’t know of an IM client that comes close to Adium. I can be logged into all of the social networks I use at one time, in one window, and it doesn’t cost me anything to do it. That beats the hell out of anything else out there. Hopefully, there will be some challenges to this in the future. But for now, this Mac-only app is the definitive way to do IM.
TweetDeck. Twitter is definitely mainstream these days. TweetDeck lets me create groups out of the people I follow, see replies to me (public and direct), search terms, and see whats trending on Twitter, all in the same window. That’s pretty awesome too. **NOTE** I’m starting to try out Seesmic, and it’s pretty good too. Both of these apps are built on Adobe’s AIR platform, so everyone can get a taste.
Apple Mail. This might seem a bit obvious, but I wanted to give Apple some credit here. Apple Mail is an awesome mail client that meets almost every need I have, out of the box. I use the WideMail app to give it just the right tweaking I need out of it.

Local Server Software:

MacPorts. I tend to need some esoteric stuff from my LAMP environment, so I use MacPorts as a package manager to customize the variables of my development environment to my liking. With MacPorts its usually a trivial issue to install Memcache, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, etc.. I’ll usually even change the version of rsync and vim using the MacPorts package manager. If you don’t know about MacPorts, you’re definitely missing out.

Miscelaneous:

Quicksilver. Whenever I setup my Mac, Quicksilver is always the very first thing I install. Once you’ve got a mind for using the shortcuts in Quicksilver, you will never ever ever go back to the old school hunt-and-peck way of lanching apps, and performing tasks.
Visor. Another gem from Blacktree: Visor allows the terminal to always be quickly available to me, but also not intrude on the desktop. A lot of times, I don’t even change the default terminal theme (just change the font to Monaco 12pt Anti-Aliased).
Transmission. Transmission is the greatest bit-torrent application around. It’s light and gets to the point. Other apps try to push content and channels. Transmission just downloads the torrents. Awesome.

Here’s my Ignite Orlando presentation. First, the video (recorded for practice), then my slides, and finally the basic text of my talk.

Freelancing in the New Economy from Cory Collier on Vimeo Continue reading »

I’ve been a freelance web developer for a week now. There’s been some ups and downs about it all. I still haven’t gotten any money, but I also haven’t head to deal with rush hour traffic either. I’ve had a few opportunities that look promising, but I’m still trying to be careful about how I spend money, and take work.

I filed for unemployment last week. Being a conservative guy, I can’t tell you how humbling a process that was for me. Politics aside, I do have a family to provide for. So, if President Obama is handing out money, I’ll take it until I can get stable cash flow back in the house.

I have a few opportunities though. Pretty quickly after being laid off, I picked up some work from Eric. The initial project has been a bit of a learning curve about each other, but I’m pretty excited to be working with him. He’s a super smart guy who’s been around long enough to spot bullshit in advance. With my penchant for security, that’s a great trait in a partner.

So now I’m able to wake up and go to bed on my own terms. This week was a bit different than most though, since I managed to get my ass over to FOWA Miami. So, on Monday I was scrambling to get my shit together in advance, and drove to Miami that night. Tuesday and Wednesday were a total crap-shoot. I was out of town, working on an odd traveler’s schedule. Anyways, I guess it’s a little early to make assumptions on how the day to day things will change. 

One of the cooler things to happen since I’ve been an independent contractor, was being approached to speak at Ignite Orlando (Thanks Gregg!). The ignite concept has been floated in Orlando for a while now, and I’m glad that Dan’s finally making it a reality. If you don’t know about Ignite, it’s definitely something worth checking out.

As cool as everything is, the one thing that still looms heavy over me now is money. I guess it’s pretty obvious. Melissa and I have no savings and we hold a good amount of debt on credit cards. One slip up, and we’ll be in a whole lot of trouble. I think there’s a lot to be said about living within your means. Lately that’s come to have a lot more meaning than it did before.

My second family at Hydra Studio and I have moved our office. We’ve got our own floor in the Fidelity Federal Bldg off of Court Ave in Downtown Orlando. This ends the roommate style relationship we’ve had with Push for a while. The new place is awesome, even though we’ve got a few things to button up.

We’ve shared space with Push for 18 months now. We love those folks. They’re an amazing bunch of people, who I’m pretty stoked to call friends now. Friendship aside however, it was time we had our own space, to *push* our own identity. Hopefully we’ll all still see each other at Lizzy’s. Our new office _is_ right there anyways …

All of the team spent a hell of a lot of time preparing the new office into something we could call home. When we got the space, it was setup for a construction company. I guess that’s a bit ironic for me, but it plain sucks for everyone else. So, we all worked our asses off to remove carpet, paint, clean, and do a million other things to make the office into something that begins to represent Hydra, the raddest digital agency in the world.

The whole process was a little cliche of the things you’d expect from working your balls off after a full day’s worth of regular work with co-workers. I have a bit more respect for everyone, and I definitely care a smidgeon more about everyone there. I know it sounds like a load of crap, but everyone really gave it their all, and I couldn’t be more proud of what all of us have been able to pull off. 

The move definitely had it’s perils though. I had to dodge insane traffic to pick up equipment I dropped in the middle of 50 during rush hour. We destroyed some walls we had to put back. More than a few nerves were a little frayed from the tremendous amount of work we had to do. 

I know I’m gonna get some shit for this: Regardless, of everyone who stands out in this whole process, Bobby Jones is definitely the man. Bobby is undoubtedly the best employer I’ve ever known. During the entire transition between offices, Bobby probably worked 80 to 100 hours on the new office. He poured himself into making the transition relatively smooth, and keeping the rest of us motivated while we helped realize his vision. The sort of stress he must have been under is impressive. What’s more impressive, is how calm and collected he remained throughout the affair. Ask Rob and Parker how many times Bobby took the late workers out to IHOP at 5:00am to feed the most dedicated of folks. I’ll probably follow up my ‘Folks that mean shit to me’ lineup with Bobby next (even if it does give me a brown nose).

Anyways, a mega-huge thanks to everyone at Hydra for working your asses off doing shit you didn’t know how to do, but did it anyways. I’m honored to call all of you my coworkers, and more honored to call all of you, my friends. I’ve worked with some of the toughest people in the world. I’d trade every one of them for you guys, you’re all the best.

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.