http://jobs.sevnthsin.com

• Organizing Wordcamp Twin Cities 2009
• Converting rocking HTML Designs into rocking WordPress Templates
• WordPress Overview for Beginners
• WordPress as a CMS

Details:

Ideal Candidates Have:

• Expert knowledge of hand-coded HTML (XHTML and DHTML inclusive), CSS and JavaScript based on web standards and best practices for code optimization, accessibility and SEO.
• Strong experience developing, testing, implementing, production ready sites in multiple markup languages.
• Proven problem solving / solution architecture experience: Displays the ability to determine the best approach to solve a problem, not necessarily always the quickest, easiest or the cheapest, but the solution that best positions Best Buy for success for the future in any project.
• Proven ability to determine the best approach/coding language/methods based on project needs as well as budgetary efficiency.
• Proven ability to speak to groups and evangelize solutions or concepts and explain them in business terms including the ability to review existing or 3rd party code and deliver feedback.
• Willingness to diversify knowledge in a small team of web developers by a continuous teaching and learning cycle between the members.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 5 years of experience or an Associate degree with 8 years of experience
• 5 years of advanced HTML, CSS, and JavaScript hand-coding and troubleshooting skills
• 4 years of web development experience on large, complex websites
• 3 years of one or a combination of ASP/JSP/PHP or similar web coding experience and troubleshooting skills
• Previous experience working across business lines presenting and creating web solutions

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated consultative experience

To apply
Click here: http://tinyurl.com/2g66vz

Ideal Candidates have:

• Expert knowledge of hand-coded HTML (XHTML and DHTML inclusive), CSS and JavaScript based on web standards and best practices for code optimization, accessibility and SEO.
• Ability to quickly troubleshoot HTML / CSS / ASP / JSP / PHP / JavaScript / Web Browser / Network Issues / DNS / etc. related problems.
• Proven ability to speak to groups and evangelize solutions or concepts and explain them in business terms including the ability to review existing or 3rd party code and deliver feedback.
• Willingness to diversify knowledge in a small team of web developers by a continuous teaching and learning cycle between members.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree with 5+ years of experience or an Associate degree with 8+ years of experience.
• 5+ years: Advanced HTML, CSS, and JavaScript hand-coding and troubleshooting skills.
• 4+ years of web development experience on large, complex websites.
• 3+ years: ASP/JSP/PHP or similar web coding experience and troubleshooting skills.
• 2+ years: Demonstrated consultative experience architecting, proposing, and collaborating with business teams on web initiatives and applications.

Note: Candidates dependent upon WYSIWYG applications to complete their work will not be considered.

To see a full description and apply for this position, please see the job post on CareerBuilder.

If you still can’t decide if you want to go, there might be a few passes available for walk up pricing, but that’s $100 more.

This is going to be the best flash conference that Minneapolis has ever hosted and I’m excited to be going next week. I’m sure a few of you are too.

If you managed to miss this somehow:

http://www.adobe.com/creativelicense/

Go ahead and Preorder today, but I don’t think they’ve made any promises about when it will actually arrive yet. I’d hope it will show up before Flashbelt.

They have gone as far as telling me my plan to upgrade a copy of Flash 5 that I bought off a guy for $40 on Craigslist and planned to upgrade to Flash CS3 will not work.

Personally I’m most intrigued by a new flash feature that attempts to make the designer to developer workflow easier by allowing us to export tweened animation in Flash as Actionscript code…

Currently I have no site of of my own. I used to host JakeFreeberg.com off a machine at home, but that’s just a bad solution. It allowed me to play with WordPress and MovableType installs and learn a few things, I really need to put some cash down and get myself a real web host.

I’m posting here in with the hope that someone here will recommend the perfect hosting solution for my needs, which I will list below:

• It need to be affordable (None of what I plan to do with it will generate any revenue, but I am willing to sign up for a 2 year term and pay upfront if it’s a really good deal)
• I’d like to start a new WordPress Blog at Jakefreeberg.com
• I’d like to do a Drupal install with the hopes of building a site for a friend of mine who’s running for chair of an organization.
• Both of the above require PHP and MySQL databases.
• I’ve already purchased a .mn domain name for that campaign and need name server hosting to point that domain at the Drupal install.
• I’ll most likely end up hosting other domains in the future and I’d like to have the ability to host many domains within this same account.
• Knowledgeable, friendly telephone-based technical support is important
• Easy to use Tools that allow me to manage file permissions, email, domains, etc.
• I will probably end up hosting some video and audio which will require a lot of server space.

Things that I don’t care as much about:

• Bandwidth (I probably won’t be getting that many hits)
• Microsoft Server Software (I’ll avoid ASP and .Net)
• Email accounts (most people have a half dozen already, but forwarding would be nice)
• E-Commerce (If I sold anything I’d probably send people through Paypal or something)

So that’s about it.

I’m wondering who people have used, and what they’ve like and disliked about the services.

All help will be appreciated.

We’re forming a new group in the twin cities that is focusing on Flash and Flex programming topics. This group is in no way trying to take over the FlashMN group, but should be seen as a compliment to an already great Flash group. The new group is dedicated to programmers and programming topics and takes on a study group approach as opposed to the lecture style of the FlashMN meetings. The Flash Platform now includes a wide variety of designers and developers and I feel that the two flash groups are better equipped to meet the needs of both types of Flash professionals. If you’re interested in this new group, please check out our web site (www.mnswf.com) and sign up on the mailing list. Our kickoff meeting is Dec 5th and will be held at Target headquarters. (Ham in the Fridge has sponsored food and beverage.) RSVP is required due to security restrictions. To RSVP, please send an email to
info@mnswf.com, subject line: “MN.SWF RSVP – 2006-12-05 – first name, last name.”

Thanks,
Danny

All that said, there are times whether it either actually makes sense to use fly-out navigation, or, more likely, the ‘committee’ insists that you do. Some day, I’ll get around to writing that long winded article on why fly-out navigation is not a good idea so you can use it as ammo, but, until then, I thought I’d at least offer some options that are decent if one must use fly-out navigation.

When our own organization began requesting that we at least consider fly-out navigation, I began my search for a script that would work. There are literally dozens of options out there. most are bad. Real bad. Out of all the ones I’ve seen, these are the ones that have made the cut. All of these systems use javascript + CSS to style and manipulate a fully accessible, semantic set of UL lists in a very usable manner:

• UDM4 (Ultimate Drop Down Menu) | $75 per site (less when purchasing bulk licenses)

  This is perhaps the most robust out of all the menu scripts I’ve seen. This a highly versatile menu that is about as accessible as one can make a fly-out navigation system. It offers a variety of means of navigating via the keyboard using both tab keys and arrow keys. The arrow-key navigation being a unique feature I have yet to see in any other script. In terms of visual style, that can all be controlled through a nifty (if a bit obtuse) javascript configuration file that will dynamically write out the the CSS for you. It can also accomodate nearly any screen size, fully adjusting the pop-ups to fit the screen at any point. The only cons to this menu is that it is a tad pricy (priced per site) and the code is a bit heavy.

• Project Seven’s Pop Menu Magic | $90 unlimited sites (Dreamweaver Plugin)

  Project Seven has long offered a variety of great Dreamweaver plugins and templates. Their Pop Menu Magic is a fairly decent fly-out navigation script/plugin. It’s not quite as accessible as UDM’s (namely in keyboard navigating) but is still an excellent product all-around. They’ve written an article on accessiblity and fly-out navigation that, while I don’t agree 100% with, is still an excellent read.

• TwinHelix’s FreeStyle Menus | Donationware(!)

  Angus has written and impressive fly-out navigation script. In terms of usability and accessibility, it’s on-par with Project Seven’s offerings, albeit not wrapped in a nice Dreamweaver extension.

• Scubaduba’s Very Compatible DHTML Menu ASP.NET User Control | Free(!)

  This is the newest entry into my list of menus that have made the cut. This isn’t quite as nice as the others in the usability department. It’s missing the one critical feature that I find really makes a fly-out navigation menu usable: a time delay between mouse out and mouse over. This is critical in vertical menus where a person will often want to drag their mouse from a main link diagonally to the sub-menu while crossing over another top-level menu. The above 3 menus add a delay, so one can safely do that. This menu, like many, many others does not, so it can be frustrating to use. All that said, this is about as user-friendly and accessible one can get with a pre-built asp.net control. Alas, asp.net is notoriusly weak in the accessibility department if one uses the built in controls, so this is a very nice option to see.

I hope these options help if you are ever given the task of implementing a fly-out navigation system. If anyone knows of any other options that are both usable and accessible, please let me know!

A recent discussion on the Webdesign-l list brought this up and the debate ensued as to whether or not it was a good idea. To me, it’s just annoying, so I thought I’d go and fix it.

In the past, I’d write a quick Greasemonkey script. Alas, Greasemonkey is having some growing pains. The current version just isn’t working. So, for now, here’s a bookmarklet for anyone that wants to use it. Just drag it to your toolbar and whenever you are reading an article at ALAP, just click on it to have the content fit your browser. (note that I only tested this in Firefox).

ALAP Liquid <– drag to your bookmarks bar