1. First of all, Could you lead us through a brief history of your life? Where you live, what you do?...

Sure! My name is Ben Debnam, I have been a freelance web designer for a few years now, my company is Goo Creative (http://www.goocreative.co.uk). I live in Kent, England and absolutely love what I am fortunate enough to do every day! For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in creative topics, whether its anything design related, animation, music or building weird random stuff. However, my journey started whilst at Disney World and I was peering through the glass on the Animation Tour at what was MGM Studios, now Hollywood Studios. I'll explain how in the next question..

2. How did you get started out on the web and what inspired you to get into coding?

I had always loved animation since a very young age (like, 20 years ago!), and when I found out about this thing called Macromedia Flash 3 I wanted to create my own short movies. I found that when I had finished, I wanted to publish my movies to the web, which got me started with Frontpage Express and a trial of Dreamweaver 3. I discovered putting my thoughts on the web in a way of visually communicating ideas was something really interesting to me. As time went on and I had my first couple of flash jobs I was becoming more interested in the html side of things and less in the Flash. I have to say, I did enjoy the design side more than the coding side and still do to this day but I found people wanted to pay me for building them websites. This at the time was strange as it was a geeky hobby of mine, could I actually make a living out of something I enjoyed?

3. What languages do you code and which one do you think is more 1. powerful, 2. simple and 3. you enjoy more?

Well I'm primarily a designer and a front end developer, which I think is something all web designers should be nowadays. I code in XHTML, CSS, some PHP and some jQuery. I also use Expression Engine as my CMS of choice. I think CSS and jQuery are incredibly powerful. jQuery I feel is still finding its feet. There are a lot of people doing some really great stuff with it but I have a feeling there is more to come! I love the simplicity of XHTML, CSS and Expression Engine. Everything neatly fits together, if you do something stupid then you'll get stupid results (most of my IE CSS problems are where I've tried to cut corners or have been sloppy). EE has stolen my heart when it comes to doing something more than your few page static site. I'm so grateful for it's flexibility and I thoroughly enjoy working with it. My clients seem to love it too, http://www.shearsgreenjuniorschool.co.uk and soon to get an update http://www.hygienesolutions.co.uk.

4. What sites you use for inspiration and do you recommend any to our readers?

I have just over 300 site feeds in my RSS Reader, most of which I use for inspiration. I currently like the tuts+ network nettuts aetuts psdtuts etc. They have some great articles. Smashing Magazine is another great one, and have some of my work featured in there a couple of times (thanks guys!). I always find Apple's site a great source for web gui, and keeping things simple! Other inspirational sites are just where ever I land that I like and then take a peek through their source code. Other sites worth checking out (design) would be ffffound and of course amazingcoders (Cha-Ching!)

5. Do you have any other hobbies? If so what are they and why do you enjoy them?

I've been a pianist since a very young age, my piano has been my life long friend. I'm also a very keen photographer! My other hobby is collecting Pixar Toys & other designer Vinyl Figures and have a couple of shelves full of Vinyls (it gets expensive!)

6. Do you run a PC, or a Mac, why?

Mac. For me, its a no brainer. The Mac has always suited me perfectly, I love the experience, the Apple Stores are fantastic places to be when I visit, plus I love their design. However like my friend Dan Philibin, I use VMWare with Windows XP for Cross Browser testing.

7. What software couldn’t you live without and could you name 3 reasons?

OSX, iTunes and Photoshop. OS X because it is the nicest OS out there. I love the way it just works, looks beautiful and has really crazy awesome features. iTunes because I wouldnt be able to concentrate if it wasn't for my 600GB iTunes library. Photoshop because it is where I spend most of my daily hours!

8. What’s the program you use to code in? What is so good about it?

Coda - everything in one place, superbly built app - and the guys at Coda are seriously talented folks! I used to love the code view with built in FTP that Dreamweaver had. Coda just removed the bits I didnt need, and made it really really great to use.

9. When you first started out, how did you promote yourself? If at all?

Friends of family and friends of friends. I promoted myself with a credit on each site I built. I used to talk to businesses and places I used to regularly visit and offer them a website. It was a great way to get started as you could pick and choose the work you wanted.

10. What was the first coding job you ever got?

Coding up a site for a local sheet metal firm. This was about 9 years ago and not online anymore.

11. Finally, Where can we find you on the web, Be that you're twitter, portfolio or other?

You can find me at my portfolio, Goo Creative or at my twitter.

1. Compress your images.

When using the "Save for Web" tool in Photoshop, you can compress our images in order to lower the file sizes. Now normally that's enough for anyone, but if you want the ultimate efficiency, a site named Smush.It makes your images ultra tiny without taking any quality with it.

2. Move script tags to the bottom

Content here...
<script type="text/javascript" src="someScript.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="anotherScript.js"></script>
</body>

Moving the scripts down to the bottom of the page means that your form, content and images can all load before you start adding in the fancy effects or implementations. This is especially useful if for instance you're using a twitter badge to give your site you're twitter updates, but twitter is down. Having the code at the bottom of the page, means that all of your content can load first, rather than twitter timing out, then your content loading (making the page load very slow)

3. Link your scripts from Google

Not too long ago, Google began hosting scripts such as jQuery. There is one main upside to this:

Caching: Let's imagine that one user visits 10 sites that all link to Google's CDN, the user would only download jQuery once. this is because a browser can tell if a file is modified or not and can choose to load it, or in this case, not have to.

Compress your CSS and JS

Compressing your CSS and JS files can make that tiny bit of difference and can speed your website up quite a bit. Here are some tools to get started.

Javascript Compression Services

• Javascript Compressor
• JS Compressor

CSS Compression Services

• CSS Optimiser
• CSS Compressor
• Clean CSS

4. While creating, learn keyboard shortcuts

Now this may sound straightforward, but I know personally how frustrating it is to have to go three of four menus to get to a very simple function, only to realise when you've got there, there is a keyboard shortcut for it. Learn them. If a function doesn't have a keyboard shortcut, and you have a Mac, you can create you're own by going to Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences. Now I don't know if this is possible in Windows, but if it is, please do leave a comment so I can add it into the article, (I hate to leave out people because of their OS.) After creating a keyboard shortcut, make sure you actually use it. Time after time, I've created them and completely forget that I have. When you go to the menu item again, make sure you use the keyboard shortcut and think about it every time you do. Eventually it'll become second nature and you'll be flying through the menus with ease.

5. Finally, don't use tables. 

Let me first explain what a table is for. A table is for laying out tabular data, not a while site. If you want a table of content, use tables. (pretty obvious) If you want a whole site layout, use CSS and Div tags. There are many reasons, but one relates to speed, Nested Tables load more slowly. The most common way to create fancy layouts with tables is to "nest" tables. This means that one (or more) table is placed inside another. The more tables that are nested, the longer it will take for the Web browser to render the Web page. In Internet Explorer, this results in images and text bouncing around on the screen until they figure out where to place them. And in Netscape 4, the page won't display at all.

First of all, Could you lead us through a brief history of your life? Where you live, what you do?

Well, I’m a 25 year old gal from Northern Ireland. I grew up with a love of art and drawing, along with a real interest in technology. In fact I remember spending hours on MacPaint on my dad's original Macintosh in the late 80's.

I went to university and studied for a degree in Multimedia Design, which covered a wide variety of interactive design and technologies. I graduated nearly four years ago and shortly after started work as a graphic designer for a local company. Concentrating so much on print work made me miss working on web projects, so after a year I started to freelance in my spare time and build up both my contacts and portfolio. I now freelance though I still have a contract with the print company which fits into my freelancing schedule, as I enjoy working within both the web and print industries.

How did you get started out on the web and what inspired you to get into coding?

My web design knowledge before University was close to zero, I I actually remember spending a lot of time learning HTML in my first few weeks! At university we were exposed to so many technologies in the first two years (like javascript/asp/php etc) that were all so new to me, it really ignited my passion for building websites and learning new languages.

What languages do you code and which one do you think is more 1. powerful, 2. simple and 3. you enjoy more?

I am a front end developer so my main languages are; (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery and splashes of PHP.

Most Powerful: CSS drives the look and feel of a site so personally I feel its extremely powerful. With the new features in the upcoming CSS3 specification, such as advanced selectors, multiple background images, opacity, drop shadows etc its going to allow even more creative use of CSS.

Simple: (X)HTML - Its the foundation of any website and HTML was the first language I learnt. Its like an old friend now

Favourite - Im a web standards geek so it has to be CSS. I never tire of working and experimenting with it.

What sites you use for inspiration and do you recommend any to our readers?

A quick rundown of my personal favourites would be:

For sound programming advice and a great source of tech commentary I recommend Coding Horror at: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog

NetTuts is an excellent resource: http://nettuts.com, with some great tutorials, tips and screencasts, its a must bookmark.

For CSS its tough to find a better place to learn new techniques than http://css-tricks.com by Chris Coyier and CSS Play by Stu Nicholl's: http://www.cssplay.co.uk

For inspiration im finding Photography and in particular Flickr groups more and more inspiring. Especially those on typography and grids such as: http://www.flickr.com/groups/thegridsystem/pool/

Elsewhere sites like Web Designer Wall:
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/, Smashing Magazine: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ and Noupe: http://www.noupe.com/ are all great for keeping up to date on trends and finding inspiration.

Do you have any other hobbies? if so what are they and why do you enjoy them?

Yes I like to step away from my mac now and again My main interests centre around art, music, movies and photography. Although im very partial to some serious Mario Kart action on the wii

Do you run a PC, or a Mac, why?

Well I was always a PC gal. However two years ago I tired of my clunky and ever slowing PC and bought a 20' iMac which then turned into a love affair with apple

It has made work much more enjoyable and productive and when your running your own business those two things cannot be underestimated. Although I still have my PC to perform additional browser testing.

What software couldn’t you live without and could you name 3 reasons?

Adobe Photoshop CS4, reasons being:

1. Photoshop has been my image editor of choice for as long as I can remember, so familiarity and ease with it has to be the number one reason.
2. With CS4 the new photo editing workflow, printing options and the kick-ass Content-Aware scale, together with its fantastic 'standard' features and tools make it for me the most powerful image application.
3. I may be a geek in saying this but I actually enjoy firing up Photoshop and going from a blank canvas to fully fledged design, its the tool I use most and even after years of using it I am constantly learning new ways to improve my process and methods.

What’s the program you use to code in? What is so good about it?

Coda - As it integrates everything that I need; namely a code editor, css editor, preview pane, SSH Terminal, website management and an FTP client. The interface is not only beautiful but very clear and easy to use. I could live without it but I wouldnt want to ;-p

When you first started out, how did you promote yourself? If at all?

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had to do very little marketing. I submitted my portfolio site to the main CSS galleries when I released it in March 2007 which sent a lot of traffic to the site which in turn lead to enquiries and from this I started to develop an international client base (mainly USA).

I built on this by becoming involved in the web community by reading and commenting on blogs within my niche and tried to develop my brand within the community. I now attend networking events and conferences such as Barcamp, FOWA, Bizcamp etc and have been interviewed on several sites and podcasts.

Next on the agenda is to dedicate some time to building a blog and writing on a regular basis (about time I know!)

What was the first coding job you ever got?

It was for a local business and was a simple 3 page brochure site. Although the first website I built was in my first year at uni and was completely made in tables with a blue background and white text, its pretty hard to forget!

Finally, Where can we find you on the web, Be that your twitter, portfolio or other?

Portfolio: http://www.postscript5.co.uk
Twitter: @gracesmith
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gracesmith
Stumbleupon: http://postscript5.stumbleupon.com/
Delicious: http://delicious.com/postscript5
Lifestream: http://www.gracesmith.co.uk

What is your favourite interview so far? Who's do you prefer? (A designers or a coders?) Leave your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to sound off your answer!

WordPress CSS Header - Install Clip

/*
Theme Name:
Theme URI:
Description:
Version:
Author:
Author URI:
Tags:
*/

Apple Touch Shortcut - Install Clip

< link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple_touch_icon.png" />

PHP Include - Install Clip

include('<<**SelectionInsertionPlaceholder**>>.php');

Clearing div - Install Clip

.clearing {clear:both; height:0; overflow:hidden; margin:-1px 0 0 0;}

W3C page validator - Install Clip

<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=<<**SelectionInsertionPlaceholder**>>" title="Validate this website">(x)html</a>

That was just a few clips - there are loads on the actual website. I hope you find this post useful because I sure did. I absolutely love web tools like these. Oh and thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments and feedback and tell me what you think

First of all, Could you lead us through a brief history of your life? Where you live, what you do?

Sure. I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1984 (That makes me 24 years old). I've lived in Louisiana my whole life. I graduated from Louisiana State University in May 2007 with a BFA in Graphic Design. It was then I began working for Gatorworks Web Design in Baton Rouge. I started out there as a strictly designer. But since then, my responsibilities have grown to include not only design, but all aspects of front-end development as well.

How did you get started out on the web and what inspired you to get into coding?

When I was a kid (around 11 or 12), web design was really young. In fact, from what I understand, the first website was published only a few years before then. But I had always been really interested in art (thus my decision to study design). And around that age, I began to take an increasingly larger interest in computers as well. My interest in computers led to my inevitable obsession with the Internet. So, one day my dad bought me an HTML book to learn how to make my own webpages. And the rest is history.

What languages do you code and which one do you think is more 1. powerful, 2. simple and 3. you enjoy more?

I code in (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery), ActionScript, and I'm just beginning to get going with some more PHP. 

Which one is most powerful? Hmm... that's a difficult question. Obviously PHP is super-powerful, but to me, CSS gives you the biggest bang for your buck. Just a few small changes in CSS can completely reface an entire website.

Simple? jQuery. "Write less, do more" is their motto and this amazing little JavaScript library definitely lives up to its promise.

My favorite? Currently, it's PHP. I started learning about PHP so I could develop themes for WordPress. And now that I'm learning more and more, I'm really starting to have some fun with it.

What sites you use for inspiration and do you recommend any to our readers?

For design inspiration, some of my mainstays are Design Meltdown, Fuel Your Creativity and Abduzeedo. For dev tips/tricks, I always turn to CSS-Tricks, Sharebrain, Smashing Magazine and NETTUTS.

Do you have any other hobbies? if so what are they and why do you enjoy them?

Of course I do! No one can live their whole life buried in code! When it's time to unwind, I like to shoot a few dudes on Xbox Live, watch movies, play guitar, and I really love to cook.

Do you run a PC, or a Mac, why?

I'm a Mac. I switched about 6 years ago and haven't looked back. I love the smoothness of the interface and the overall aesthetic of the applications. Since I bought my first Mac, I've always felt more productive. And that reason alone is enough to keep me on one. Oh! And the apps... 

What software couldn’t you live without and could you name 3 reasons?

TextMate (from Macromates) is running on my computer at all times. The absolute best text editor I have ever used, and its user community continue to make it even better all the time.  TextMate's numerous bundles, intuitive tab-triggers, and ever-growing usefulness make it my number one most indispensable tool. Of course, I also need to mention Transmit (from Panic) because it's certainly the greatest FTP client I've ever come across and I couldn't live with out it, either.

When you first started out, how did you promote yourself? If at all?

I actually just recently started promoting myself. Although I can certainly now see the importance of self-promotion, it was something I never seemed to make time to focus on before now. I definitely wish I would've started when I was younger. You really gotta put yourself out there if you ever want people to notice you.

What was the first coding job you ever got?

Some of the first coding jobs I ever got were tiny ActionScript projects I picked up in college. I found a great client through a site called Rent-A-Coder, and that was really where I first starting making actual money for doing the stuff I had been doing for fun all that time. Lucky for me, I still get paid for having fun.

Finally, Where can we find you on the web, Be that your twitter, portfolio or other?

My personal blog is located at http://upsidestudio.com and you can follow me on Twitter via @davidlink. Thanks!