Back to the usual more geeky note, last night I loaded up Coda, which was on this Mac when I got it (2nd hand). I’ve fallen in love with Textmate but for a change I went for Coda, and I think I might have to be in love with them both. Out of personal preference I think I prefer Textmate for development (PHP/JS) but Coda was simply superb for HTML/CSS (and infact some jQuery as well). Coupled with the brillioant Zen-Coding and jQuery for Coda add-ons, Coda is one of the best set ups I’ve ever had. It’s comparable to absolutely nothing on Windows, and that’s why I love Macs. Better applications on a better OS

After my long lack of posting on this blog I’m detirmined now, especially since my exams are all over, to redesign this. I’ve never done a blog on Wordpress and used my own theme, so this is the key aim for me. It’s going be slow, but I’ve a good grasp of PHP and of wordpress so by following a couple of tutorials on the internet I should be able to do it pretty comfortably. I’ve often deliberated on trying to release some free Wordpress themes and it’s another skill I can add to my skillset to show off to potential clients.

One site I have designed recently is my own, www.jackfranklin.co.uk. I did this a different way to anyway I’ve ever done a site before. I loaded up Coda & Firefox and went from there. I went with a no graphics approach, played with some CSS3 and generally just made it up as I went along. The result is a bit like marmite, I think you either love it or you hate it, but personally I’m a fan so it will be staying for a while. Although the old version was one of my favourites as well, so I might drop back to that. Who knows *shrug*. One thing I noticed, I registered that domain in May 2007 and that new design is the 13th iteration. That’s 13 iterations in what, 32 months? One new design every 2.5 months or so. I’m sure they should last longer.

In other news I’ve passed my driving theory test, which you will have seen if you take to following me via Twitter. Delighted with that, especially as it costs £31 per take, so I didn’t want to have to do it more than once, and I didn’t. Did loads of revision.

Back to the usual more geeky note, last night I loaded up Coda, which was on this Mac when I got it (2nd hand). I’ve fallen in love with Textmate but for a change I went for Coda, and I think I might have to be in love with them both. Out of personal preference I think I prefer Textmate for development (PHP/JS) but Coda was simply superb for HTML/CSS (and infact some jQuery as well). Coupled with the brillioant Zen-Coding and jQuery for Coda add-ons, Coda is one of the best set ups I’ve ever had. It’s comparable to absolutely nothing on Windows, and that’s why I love Macs. Better applications on a better OS

I apologise if this has been a bit of a ramble, but I’ve got some cracking stuff lined up:

Coda vs Textmate

Something on jQuery 1.4

A brand new secret project I’m working on with @samblease

Another side project I started work on 2 months ago but then left it due to exams.

And loads more.

Goals for 2010:

• Post at least once a week on this blog.
• Get my own design going on here – which will mean learning how to integrate Wordpress.
• Launch a new project I’ve been working on with a friend and make some money from it.
• Pass my Driving Test (should have this done pretty soon).
• Post at least once per fortnight on TheWebSqueeze.com.
• Have a post posted on Nettuts.com.
• Get featured on an online web publication.
• Get the grades needed to go to Bath Uni to study Computer Science.
• Attend at least 4 Bar Camps.
• Attend at least 3 conferences.
• Redesign my personal site.
• Learn Expression Engine.
• Learn CodeIgniter extensively and release one plugin for it.
• Do enough freelancing to bring in £100 pw.
• Extend my Twitter following to 1500.
• Read at least 10 web books.
• Get up to Level 70 on Call of Duty MW2.
• Launch one personal side project.

That’s a pretty extensive list! If I can make £100 pw, which is going to be tough, that’s going to be some nice extra money, University costs around £9k pa on average and although my student loan will cover most of that, some extra money for books and stuff…ok beer…will be handy.

Each month I’ll be doing aims for the next month as well, so expect a post soon about February aims, and I’ll also be reviewing this list each month.

If you follow me on Twitter (@Jack_Franklin) you will know I have recently (about 4 weeks ago) switched from Vista to Mac, so a lot of my posts will no doubt include Mac related stuff. I’m a bit of a fan boy.

Besides that…expect some coding goodness, round-up posts, articles, stressy rants, hints, tips, everything you could ever dream for from a blog!

You can add me on Skype (jack_franklin) or grab me on Twitter (@Jack_Franklin) if you want to say hello or ask me any questions…I’m a friendly guy usually…as long as someone has not stolen my Polos

I also do tutorials for other publications around the net so when I do, I’ll be sure to post links here for you to check them out.

Thanks for reading!