OK, to start: No, I haven’t quit blogging; I’ve just been preoccupying myself with a project that is very consuming. I have been designing the newest version of my website. I say the site itself because I’m not simply making a theme, slapping it on and continuing. I am redesigning the site in design, content, and purpose. The new version will continue to run on Wordpress under a theme called MonsterGrid (i’m not very original with names, and I am basing it off the 960 grid system.)

The new theme is more content based with 3 loops set on the main page. The first holds 5 blog posts from all categories, except for 2. Those two have their own loops later down the page where they show their most recent post. One is for the MonsterLab category, which is basically projects, themes, etc. The other is Design Pick where I feature a site design with a little review I wrote on it.

The In-Progress Version can be found at michael-springer.net/demo . Feel free to comment on it here, and keep in mind I’m still finishing it so its not all how I have it planned out at the moment.

It is important when designing something, anything to have a rough sketch. Something to base your idea off of. Trying to make something from a thought alone can be difficult because your mind can change easily. Draw a rough sketch onto a piece of paper, anything that you can physically see and say: Thats what I want it to look like.

I also forgot to mention, I am also planning a complete redesign of the web site to suit, well, me. It is time I make a website that shows off what I can really do. I have been doing some thinking to break into a new era. I am going to work on a new version of the site (yes I realize I just published this version.) The current version is called “Take a Nerd Moment”, which is how long this web site’s design has lasted in Internet time, a moment. The next step I am taking to launch Mike v18 is to create my greatest design yet. I am going to really show off my photoshop and web design skills. Proper typography and cross browser compatibility will be key. I am going to use the 960 Grid System, along with some others to help it turn out just right. And I will also be sure to idiot internet explorer proof my design.

Wow, today has sure been productive.

When I create something, the first design isn’t usually the last as is the case with most designers. For instance a book cover I made had four initial concepts, one was picked. I took that one, scraped the graphics and redesigned it from the ground up on that base. Another example is my website: It has gone through roughly 12 different designs under 3 different names in the last 4 years. Why? Yes I am picky. It was probably because I always looked to improve my work. And mostly because I build off of random thoughts and whims.

I think now is time to redesign myself, I can never decide on the content of my website because I well do everything in an attempt to be the best at anything. I’ve been an artist, illustrator, designer, techie, blogger, clothing maker, copywriter, gamer, game addict, over achiever, wanabe *insert thing here*, newbie, a corporation, failure, freelancer, inventor, innovator, game designer, programmer, comic artist, comedian, logical thinker, random thinker, & not thinking at all. And I always keep trying to express all this into my websites in the last 4 years. I am currently running on Mike v18, I think it is time to make it the best yet. I am going to go to college and become a whole new entity.

I am currently working on perfecting Mike version 18 into being something better than saying “My name is Michael and I am a *thing*”; I am working on getting to this simply “I am Michael Springer.” Less is more, no more titles and gimmicks, just me. And I think it makes things a lot less hectic.

Probably one of the most important tools to a web designer is the ability to access the web itself. And the most important part of the internet connection is its speed and how long you can stay connected. If any of you out there are old enough to remember what it was like to run on dial-up: ONLY one computer at a time, and no phone calls on that same line can come through and sometimes you would loose your connection after so long because your “phone call” went over so many hours. You not only paid for your ISP but also the minutes used while online to your phone company. It was an odd system that somehow worked for the majority of the Internet’s Life. If you didn’t want dial-up, you could opt out for satellite..which of course also cost you an arm and a leg for a service that works; that is until someone knocks down your satellite, hits it and misaligns it, etc.

So then we move a little down the road to what is considerably more recent (only cause we got it 4 years ago in my house), a Broadband connection. Now this came in two distinct flavors: DSL and Cable. DSL ran over your phone line like dial-up, however it used “filters” to allow you to make calls on the same line. Speeds were faster than your dial-up service, and you could leave it on 24/7 without fear of a massive phone bill because you were not tying up your phone line. And then we have the Cable connection which obviously runs over a coaxial cable connection to a modem stationed somewhere near your computer. The connection is fast, can’t possibly tie up your cable connection, and your bill simply is added to your current cable bill.

Well we have had the Broadband cable provided to use from our cable company for about 4 years and it works fine, for one computer. The reason I bring this up is because we run 5 computers in my home, and we all want to be online (me more than others) at the same time, but not on the same computer. Solutions? We had figured to utilize WiFi and run a Wireless router from the Modem to the Router, and back to the Main PC. This worked fine when most of the computers were within range and I was still running my notebook. However that failed after my notebook fried and I converted to a desktop. Our network configuration looked something like this:

Point E is the place where the Router is positioned, Point A is my room. As it passes through all those walls the signal becomes weaker and weaker and weaker. Solutions for a WiFi problem on a very small budget? Move modem and router to Point A…but has same effect to the opposite points.. Get an access point? Too costly. And due to much, well, stubbornness we kept it in the configuration as seen above. That is until recently when the signal seemed to kill the Main computer’s connection as well, somehow. So we came up with a solution that works extremely well: The modem and router can run together without a computer, so we set them at Point C at a more centralized location giving everyone WiFi signal, and everyone is happy.

So the moral of this post for Wireless Networking? Don’t build it as you go, sit down and set up a plan to layout how the signal will flow by taking into account obstacles such as furniture, walls, and other computers.