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Monday, September 10, 2007
Gambits
Wow, feels like I haven’t posted here in ages. There isn’t a whole lot to report, but I thought I’d post anyway (and respond to some of your comments).
I guess the most significant thing is that recently I have been laying the groundwork to start my own business. In all honesty, there are still a million choices to make. For example, I’d have to decide what structure the business would be (and that would affect tax, record keeping and employment requirements). As part of that I’d have to put together a business plan and start looking at which areas to attack first. It’s a major thing and at this stage it’s still just an idea – but I have taken significant steps to move towards it (I am already a registered business actually – a Sole Trader, but I’d have to look at whether or not to form an actual external company). So we’ll see how that goes. I may very well be coming back here for naming suggestions soon! ~_^
On another note I saw the latest revision of theOtaku.com’s new design recently. Adam is going with a style that is radically different than the one we had originally worked on for “Version Vibrant”. Having said that, the new design will still carry my logo and header imagery.
Our new network designer, Michael, is doing a truly impressive job and the new layout looks quite good. I haven’t seen it in a finalized form yet, but it’s certainly shaping up well. I don’t want to spoil anything for you but I must say, some of the new additions are quite clever (and long overdue). The overall feel is very different than what we have now – it’s more CSS-ish, more blog-like. It’s a style that I prefer for theOtaku and I’m glad someone has had the opportunity to design it. It’s the right direction I think.
I would really love to see a new version of myOtaku (in terms of our blogging system) but I’m not sure if that’s on the cards at this stage.
No further work has been done on the new OtakuBoards for a while, but programming resources are always a problem. So while I’m here: are there any vBulletin/PHP experts out there who’d be interested in helping out?
In truth we really need a dedicated staff member not only to develop this new version with me, but to also act as a full-time technical staff member (for member questions on the boards and for any errors/problems that come up). There is the possibility that, at least for development of a new OB is concerned, the staff member would actually receive payment (via PayPal). So that’s something to consider.
Our existing staff are wonderful but we don’t seem to have anyone on staff who is really highly proficient with vB/PHP – and we need someone who can focus on that area. Desbreko has done a lot of technical work for the site and most of it has been related to style adjustments or plug-ins, etc…that stuff is fine and is part of his role as an Administrator, but it would really be beneficial to have someone to focus on the deeper backend stuff (I’m sure Desbreko would love that too).
So if anyone out there is interested, don’t hesitate to email me or send me a PM (here or on OB).
Other than that there’s not a whole lot to say, so I’ll go straight into the comments.
master hiko: As far as I know, Jasc Software was taken over by Corel and PSP versions after 9 became more about photo editing than actual digital imaging in general. So PSP today is a far more specific product – it isn’t really a direct Photoshop competitor (which is a shame). I would love to see an all-new PSP more than anything – one that maintains the simple, elegant layout of previous PSPs, but which provides more power and formatting options to users. I guess I can dream!
Jon: Oh I’m surprised they even live that long. Five or six months? That’s pretty good for an insect.
SunfallE: Speaking of this, last night was terrible! She was outside (she needed to pee so I’d let her out) and she dived back into the bedroom and jumped onto the bed – while covered in mud!!!
So we had to go and give her a bath immediately, because she was absolutely soaked in the stuff. Yuck! I think she knew she’d inconvenienced us by the look on her face, haha.
Darren: Well, at least you are already working – it sounds like a pretty interesting job actually. It’s nice not to be forced to job hunt. Although if I try to start a business while also working…that will be difficult.
And yes, Twilight Princess really reminds me of a “bigger, better” Ocarina of Time. Very nostalgic.
Sesshomarufan: Yes, precisely. If I liked the Photoshop interface I’d use Photoshop, you know? But I worked with it for a couple of years and never got into it. I just always found it annoying.
PSP is ideal for me, I just wish it had some additional features (especially surrounding formats and vector graphics). Still, if someone prefers Photoshop I’d always recommend it over PSP – after all, I do feel that it is the more powerful of the two.
And I actually quite like InDesign. It’s nicer to use than Photoshop, in my humble opinion.
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