Either way, I am doing some research about it and plan to share some of the cool pins I’ve gotten here at the Olympics. One of the most interesting ones is the official Facebook “I’m a fan” pin.

I find it incredible that in the interactive age we live in that people are still sooooooo excited about pins!?

Check it out:

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Official I'm a fan pin

Granville Street Drummer 2010 Olympic Party on Granville

This dude was rocking out on his djembe hand drum. It was crazy cool. He had close to 50 people watching him drum and a butt load of people dancing. Everyone is having a great time on Granville street during the Olympics.

The party seems to start around 8:00pm when the hockey games and victory ceremonies are finishing. By 1:00 am people are drunk as hell and singing the national anthem over and over again.

But how does this relate to technology and the internet you ask? Well as technology becomes cheaper and easier to use it empowers citizens to become the producers of their own content, broadcasting and capturing things they find interesting. You would not have been able to watch this video if I hadn’t had a iPhone and the tools to publish my videos.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Here is a video of an incredible Huluhoop dancer and with a random DJ. The video starts a little slow because it is hard to see the first girl. As it pan to the left you can see a blonde girl starts to dance. She is gorgeous and an incredible dancer. I’m sorry that it ends so short because it truly a pleasure to watch.

Next, the streets are crazy and packed full at night, with thousands of people singing the national anthem. Granville street is congested with people having a great time. Here is a video of the street at 1:00 am after Canada won its first hockey game of the Olympics. This should give you a sense of the scope.

SO GET DOWNTOWN. It will be a blast.

What I discovered, was that even with an instructor I had to learn a lot on my own. If you are interested in learning AS3 I recommend buying this book from Amazon: Actionscript 3.0 Cookbook. The examples are easy to follow and great building blocks to help you build a dynamic and interactive web site.

Here are my Top 5 Online AS3 Resources:

5. Learning ActionScript one-on-one With Doug Winnie

This is a great place to start. The site has a lot of helpful Actionscript 3.0 tutorial videos and if you don’t know much about flash it is a great place to get to know some of the basics.

4. ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference

Adobe offers a really awesome library of components that you can reference. If you start coding and you find you don’t know the name of a function call or of a native variable you can very easily find it here. I just keep this site open in a window while I code.

3. Kirupa.com

Kirupa is a great place to find tutorials on everything from animations in Flash to tutorials for Actionscript 3. I found sometimes the content can be outdated so be careful when learning on this site. Be careful to ensure that what you end up doing is in fact the best, most current way.

2. Google.com

Google is obviously not a resource in itself but the best way to debug an AS3 problem, in my experience, is to enter the exact error string into Google. Usually you will get someone who has had the exact same problem. Especially if you are working from a tutorial. If you can’t find the exact problem then you should be able to at least find something close to offer some hints.

1. gotoandlearn.com with Lee Brimelow

Flash video tutorials, AS3 video tutorials and even a preview of Flash CS5. Lee Brimelow is that man when it comes to teaching Flash. I spent many, many, many, many, many hours, playing and replaying his tutorials. His site is very easy to use and is by far my favourite place to start if I’m looking to try something new. I highly recommend checking out this site if you are at all interested in learning Flash or Actionscript 3.0.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any questions feel free to post a comment and I will respond.

If you live in Vancouver and want learn web design at an web design school in Vancouver, please check out the Interactive Design Program at Capilano University.

Thanks,

Duder (tvTayber)

If you have read my previous post and express the above sentiment, you are in the right place. If you were looking for fish taco recipes please go here: FISH TACOS.

So now that you are sure that you want to be a web ninja you need to learn the structure of the web itself.

*Disclaimer*: This will be very basic and targeted at those who know nothing

The Internet is not literally a series of tubes that connect people the way that some *cough “politicians” have portrayed it. It is in fact a butt load of computers storing information and sharing that information through a network of connections.

The entire Internet has roughly the same amount connections as synapses and connections in the human brain. To learn more about the connections between the Internet and the human brain check out this TED video: 5000 Days of the Internet with Kevin Kelly

If you can wrap your head around that concept you can start to understand how complex the Internet system truly is.

Luckily for you the basic structural language of the Internet is rather simple. A 12 year old with no life, an unhealthy attraction to Japanese cartoons and little regard for personal hygiene can master it very quickly. (I know this because I was that boy… no seriously I had an undercut like this dude).

On to the code.

So the basic structure of the a web page is written in a language called HTML, which stands for Hot-Tight-Monkey-Love… just kidding. It stands for Hyper-text-markup-language. So HTML is a not a programming language it is a markup language.

Think of if like writing in Microsoft Word. When you tell MS Word that some text should be bold, a sentence should be indented and that there should be a title to the document, the software does those things for you. With HTML we are going to do the same thing on our own. We are going to tell the web browser how the content in the web page should be structured.

So let us recap a little. When we browse the Internet we use a web browser like Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari or which ever software you prefer (we NEVER use Internet Explorer, go here for information on why IE is bad).

When the web browser loads a web page it reads text with HTML markup around that text. The HTML tells the web browser to show the information in a certain way. It markups the information so that it looks like a web page.

Now that we understand a little bit of what is going on let us look at a little code.

Opening and closing tags:

< This is a tag that opens a piece of  html code.

> this is a tag that closes a piece of html code.

Every < tag must have a > tag or your web page is broken.

Like this:  <html>

The basic structure of every website is something like this:

<html>

<head>

<title>This is the title it will appear in the web browser window at the top </title>

</head>

<body>

<h1> This a heading </h1>

<p> This is a paragraph of text. The <p> tells the browser to display this text as a paragraph. We can set the style of the paragraph text to be larger or smaller, to be a different color and all kinds of other things. But we’ll get into that later. </p>

</body>

</html>

Notice how all of the HTML tags have a corresponding tag with a / in them. This is called the closing tag. Every HTML element needs a closing tag except for a few exceptions.

You can see that the page starts with head information like title <head><title>TITLE</title></head>. Next we close the head information and start with body information, like a heading and a paragraph.

Now you know the basics of HTML.

If this was easy for you to understand you are on your way to being a web designer. But don’t get too excited it just keeps getting more and more confusing and hard from here. I recommend that you now head over to W3 Schools and learn some more HTML.

If you didn’t understand that crap check out this video of kitties:

In this post we feature some of our incredibly talented friends in the Illustration program (IDEA). Here are 3 video’s that the Robot Salmon crew shot and edited last semester. We worked together with 4 of the second year IDEA students from across the hall up at Capilano University. We wanted to profile the student experience… these 3 videos show you a bit of a different angle than you might have seen if you watched my profile of Andrew Young…

If you are wondering what I’m talking about when I say the IDEA program here is a bit of background info for you:

“IDEA is a career-based 3-year diploma program offering instruction in both communication design and applied illustration. This dual curriculum sets IDEA apart from other post-secondary design programs and gives graduates a lifelong edge in the job market.

In this demanding, full-time cohort program, students are given a strong theoretical foundation and learn how to develop and apply concepts, manage complex projects and meet current industry expectations, both creatively and technologically. All instructors are current industry professionals – graphic designers, illustrators or consultants. ” From the Idea Program Website

Duder met with Cara Bain, a kick-ass, super cool girl with tons of style. She is an incredible illustrator with a true talent for capturing the essence of a person and portraying it in her work.

State Side got a chance to hang out with second year IDEA student Gabriel Hall. It seems like Gabriel is one of the few people in the IDEA program that could jump across the hall and hold his own amongst us aspiring web designers….almost….

Big Red had the opportunity to interview Stephanie Larsen for an afternoon to see what she does day to day in the IDEA program and get the low down about how she finds the challenge of translating her fine art skills onto the computer. Keep an eye out for her wicked poster designs around Vancouver.

Watch a Student Experience on Robot Salmon’s You Tube Channel

Interested in what else the Robot Salmon crew and the rest of the other web design students do up in the mountains at Capilano University check it out here!
>> interactivedesignlab.com

“The Vancouver Art Gallery presents CUE: Artists’ Videos, an exhibition of video art displayed on the portico of the Robson Street facade. In transforming its exterior into a freely accessible, open-air exhibition space, the Gallery has created an opportunity for the public to experience contemporary experimental film and video in new ways. More than seventy artists contribute to this exciting international program, reinforcing Vancouver’s prominence as a major centre for contemporary art by bringing the best of the world to Vancouver and presenting the best of Vancouver for the world to see.” From the Vancouver Art Gallery Website

Cue artists’ video Vancouver Art Gallery

I’m not an expert in the field of interactive or video art but the loosening or blending of the interstitial space between where art is curated and how it is displayed is something to behold, enjoy and explore.

It inspired me to think of new ways of displaying and curating my own art and design. For example, how would interactive information projected on wall change the way it was interacted with. The space is large and seen by more people then just the user interacting with it. Will the user explore information they are interested in? Or will they consider how many other people might be able to see the information they are accessing and try to interpret that information? What if was displayed on a roof?

Well that is my two cents on the user experience of open space information systems.

Thinking about hiring a new web designer or developer but want to take a test drive first?

Consider yourself a mentor looking for a new apprentice?

Here is your chance to do all of those things.

Help students at one of Vancouver’s best web design schools learn the trade and advance their careers.

To see some of the great work we do check out the Interactive Design Lab.

From March 8th to May 14th (6 weeks) students from Capilano University’s well regarded Interactive Design Program are available for practicums. This is an unpaid position where companies are expected to help the grads learn and develop their skills.
http://www.capilanou.ca/programs/interactive-design/contact.html
For more information contact Cathy Cole or Brent Calvert at:
Tel: 604.984.1727
E-mail: info@id.capilanou.ca

Thank you for your interest!

Tayber Voyer
p.s. I’m one of the students (pick me!!!).

The site was in dire need of a new design and Max Stockholder, Tayber Voyer, Kristof Lenart and Brennan Baker took on the challenge.

Here is what the site looked like before:

Presentation House Old Website

There were some huge usability issues, links didn’t work, there were no calls to action and the branding was weak.

The team worked hard to come up with a new branding strategy and create a compelling user experience. The site was built using Wordpress, a popular blogging engine that is known for being easy to use. Staff are now able to update the site themselves and they are extremely happy.

Here is a screen shot of the new site:

New Presentation House website

Check out the site here:Presentation House Theatre

If you know nothing about it here is the YouTube link to the unveiling:

Apple Unveils the iPad – New York Post

What I want to talk about is the price. The most important thing about the Apple iPad is its price point, because it rivals the price of netbooks and brings the intuitive experience of the Mac OS into the homes of everyone.

Here is the pricing from Live from the Apple ‘latest creation’ event from engadget.com

Pricing for iPad

Why is that price important? Because it’s competitive. PCs make non geeks feel stupid. They get viruses and they have a huge, gross learning curve. Apple has been making intuitive easy to use computers for years. The MacBook is beautiful machine and most importantly it is a pleasure to use. The only problem before now was the price.

Now for $500 you can get a Mac OS based home computer that has an intuitive and beautiful experience.

If you’ve never used and Apple computer, what you will discover when you do, is that Apple has created tools to make your tasks easy and to make your work flow more productive. They have built INTO their products a little bit of extra just for the user (the user is you by the way). I am a geek and am willing to pay a lot of money for that experience.

The Apple iPad tablet is not designed for me. It was not created for geeks and designers. It was designed and built to make the digital tasks of everyday people enjoyable.

Let’s say you work at a job where you interact with a computer on a very basic level. You haven’t bought a new computer in a couple of years. The last time you bought PC. It was a good deal (and you couldn’t shell out the cash for a weird Mac). You used it for checking you email, reading the news, playing a game or two and watching the occasional movie or YouTube clips. You browsed the internet to pay bills and do online banking. Most of the power of that PC is wasted on you.

Now you need a new computer and here is this thing that does the 8 or 9 tasks you want to do for $500 to $1000… and it makes you feel good while doing it.

Maybe you were even thinking about buying a net book for $300 or $400 dollars. But wait. All of the features of a MacBook that you need for around $500 (remember the average person is not looking to run CS5, they want to check their e-mail, read the news and order movie tickets)?

See my point? The price point is THE most important feature of the Apple Tablet. It isn’t for the MacBook fan boy it is for mass consumption. It is about creating a new paradigm of experience for the everyday user.

If you disagree with me leave a comment.

Or read this article by someone who does: Why the iPad Changes Everything