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When it comes time to start building a website for your client (or yourself), where do you do the build-out? On the client’s server? On your server? What if the client already has a live site, and you need to make major changes/additions but you don’t want to interfere with the site. What do you do? What do you do???

MAMP for Mac users

If you’re a Mac user, you can build the site on your own machine, for you have a built-in Apache web server as part of the Apple operating system. To be perfectly honest, I switched to the Mac world 9 years ago, and haven’t owned a Windows box since, so I have no idea what PC folks have pre-installed, but I do know you can install PWS (Personal Web Server) or IIS.

I choose not to use the built-in in server on my Macbook because it requires some tinkering with to use MySQL, something I use frequently. Instead, I choose to use a free, stand-alone application called MAMP, which is a PHP development environment that includes MySQL. It allows me to build a website on my laptop, so I can test layout and functionality without uploading anything to a live server, or running the risk of screwing up anything on a live site. The video explains it.

MAMP is a Mac-only product, but Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac users can use the equally free alternative application called XAMPP to accomplish the same goal of building and testing sites locally.

Click on the image to view the video. Flash 9 player or higher is required.

I’m very excited about being able to offer hands-on workshops and labs in Seattle. It wouldn’t be possible without the help of the wonderful folks at Q Cafe in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood.

Fostering community has been a focus of mine, both online and offline, since I first started building pieces of the web back in 1997, and I’m happy to be able to team up with Q Cafe, who also focus on building and maintaining community. One of my reasons for partnering with Q Cafe is their commitment to donating 10% of all their cafe sales each month to a local non-profit organization.

All of my hands-on workshops/labs will be held in Q’s conference room, and all coffee (Stumptown), direct trade espresso drinks, teas, pastries, bagels, water, will be provided for full day sessions. If you arrive early enough, you can snag one of the big leather chairs pictured below!

Q Cafe Conference Room

I chose Q Cafe for some practical reasons too:

• Plenty of free parking
• Right on the #15 and #18 bus routes
• Chill, comfortable environment
• Great coffee and tea (those things are important)

I plan to have regular workshops/labs at Q Cafe on a monthly basis in WordPress, Dreamweaver, and more. My video editing labs will resume as well. Jump on my mailing list for the heads-up about all workshops first.

If you’re in the Interbay neighborhood, drop by Q Cafe for a damn good cup of coffee or tea, check out the local artists work on display around the space, or sit back and enjoy some live music. You’ll be glad you did.

This screencast is a brief overview of the CSS box model. The model itself isn’t a very difficult concept, but understanding it is critical to diving into the world of CSS-based layout. Hopefully, this video will paint a clear picture of the box model.

Click on the image to view the video. Flash 9 player or higher is required.

CSS box model

This screencast was a question/request from a participant in a training I recently did in Yakima, WA. The question was how to create a still image with a play button that will start a video’s playback. That image is also known as a poster image. Using Flash and Actionscript 3.0, I’ll walk you through creating a poster image for a Flash video.

Files used in the video can be downloaded here: video poster files (6.11mb)

Click on the image to view the video. Flash 9 player or higher is required.

Creating a Flash video poster image