October 2009
7 posts
Using somebody else's codebase
Yesterday was a very good day, achieving something I seemed to get tasked with a lot. Optimising somebody else’s rails app. This is never without it’s pitfalls because first and foremost you have to learn the problem by studying the solution in front of you. Most of the time this has one or two nasty bolted on features which throw you in one direction or the other.
That was the...
Developing common sense
First thing to do is issue a NERD ALERT! This article is going to get right down hard into the nitty gritty of the world of a digital agency, be it developer, designer, project manager or business owner this is aimed at you. I’m sure this will relate to other interests and sectors however i’m going to write about what i know.
Nothing winds me up more than feeling i’m not ...
Social engine optimisation
I must mean search engine optimisation, my target audience must be google??
Clearly not, my target audience is interested people, starting with those I know or know about me on twitter and then through word of month. My interested in the search engines finding me is secondary. Depending on your business model you either agree with this or not. If you are the marketer type that likes to sit...
Team motivation
I subscribe quite heavily to the notion that motivation is a state of mind. Today is the most motivated i have felt in a long long time. Changing jobs and starting do a lot of things for myself again really does feel liberating. People often ask “how can I motivate my staff” I think there is a short is quite simple really. Treat them like a puppy.
Puppies need love and rewards,...
Why Yellowpad?
My father ran his own company, designing and creating bespoke kitchens and furniture. He was the vision for the company and the look and feel of the end product was down to him and his direction. Seeing dad sketching out layouts and working out measurements and how things would be put together made me want to borrow a bit of paper and scribble myself.
Dad would always work on cambridge yellow...
Back to basics
When I first started off with my career it was at a small web agency, after this I moved to full service, which I enjoyed a lot and got to see a lot of how the other side (print) seem to work.
After a few years of hovering though I have come to the conclusion that nobody does digital like a digital focused company. Although big companies have the budget to throw 30” cinema displays and...
Everybody has to start somewhere
I think the first post is always the hardest to post, nobody is ever sure how to start so I thought it would be best to give a little background.
My name is Lawrence Curtis and this is my blog! I’m a developer with many strings to his bow, Ruby on Rails, jquery, mootools, blueprint. I tend to work with as many frameworks as I can because it just helps get the job done faster so expect to...