coding

I recently jumped ship on a project that seemed destined to hit the rocky shores of missed deadlines and then sink in the swirling eddies of communication breakdown. I wasn't on board for long - about a week and a half really - but during that time I spent far too many days trying to obtain critical information about the project's code structure and database from the engineers who had developed it.

As a software artist who is focused on 'bridging the gap between end users and engineers' I have always found it necessary and worthwhile to explore the 'materials' that I work with. In doing so I can better control the emotional impact of an application on the user: the more I know about how the technology ticks, the more I can coax an application into being a pleasurable experience for a user.

The motto and the objective of The User Advocate Group is to:

"Bridge the Gap Between End Users and Engineers"

A couple of weeks ago I alluded to my journey of discovery into server side web programming as being like an expedition over perilous, rocky terrain. Certainly the learning curve has been steep in places but I really enjoy the view from the top - when the answers to previously daunting questions can be finally seen with alleviating clarity.

Suddenly summer is over. Whoops! I forgot to go to the beach!

Time flies when you're growing a new business and this summer I chose to spend a lot of my time building a data driven web site from the ground up. I've done lots of desktop software development but I've never really gotten into web technology that deeply before. So of course that meant many long hours glued to my computer and reading lots of very thick technical books.

My friend Matt just returned from a trip to a beach of sorts. He and his wife hiked for three days along the rugged coast of the Bay of Fundy.

For a few weeks now my left brain has been absorbed in the details of implementing a client's web site. Being wedded to a tight deadline and having already done all the loose, creative design stuff, I'm now focused almost exclusively on solving the challenges of writing computer code in what is still a new territory for me. It's a great way to get to know the nitty-gritty details of how to build a modern, 'AJAX driven' web application.

I've temporarily suspended my humanity.

In case anyone has noticed that I've been rather uncommunicative lately (i.e. I haven't blogged for almost two weeks) it's because I've gone away. To Geekland.

My Girlfriend has certainly noticed. She's basically given up on me. Once in a while, through the haze of variables and conditional statements that fill my inner eye, I notice that she's in my office.

"How long have you been home?" I'll say.