Random bits

Side projects are a fun way to develop technical expertise outside of work time. This page highlights a select few examples of personal projects that I have been exploring outside of my regular work projects.

Site development and evolution sample

HoneyBees.ca combines content, web standards, a WordPress blog, Facebook, Flash, Twitter and community involvement. It is a not-for-profit, philanthropic site dedicated to promoting honey bees. It is a space where I can bee creative and support an important cause.

visit http://www.honeybees.ca

Version 1.0, 2002 – 2005: HoneyBees.ca launched from very humble beginnings.

  screen shot of honeybees.ca main page circa 2002   screen shot of honeybees.ca main postcards circa 2002

Version 2.0, 2005 – 2014: The second version of the website featured an accessible inferface while utilizing Flash components throughout. The site was designed with fallbacks to enable the graceful degradation of components so the site would work for most devices and browsers, even those without Flash, JavaScript and/or CSS. HoneyBees.ca joined Facebook in 2009 and Twitter in 2011.

  screen shot of honeybees.ca main page circa 2005-2010   screen shot of honeybees.ca bulletins page circa 2005-2010   screen shot of honeybees.ca virtual tours page circa 2005-2010

Version 3.0, 2014 – today: The third version of the site launched in May 2014 as a single page web app. All Flash content was replaced with HTML5. The site is responsive and adjusts to fit various browser resolutions. It is also touch-sensitive for mobile/touch-screen access.

  desktop screen shot of the main page circa 2014   widescreen-shot of the bulletins page circa 2014   desktop screen shot of the virtual tours page circa 2014   desktop screen shot of the bee bulletins blog page circa 2014   mobile phone screen shot of the main page circa 2014   mobile phone screen shot of the products page circa 2014   mobile phone screen shot of the about us page circa 2014   tablet screen shot of the blog page circa 2014   tablet screen shot of the products page circa 2014

Memory Game sample

While walking my daughter to dance class one morning, she told me that she wanted to take photos of her stuffed animal toys and make a card game. I told her about a Memory Game card set that my father had given to me when I was a child. We discussed further and resolved to make Memory Game for her iPad Mini.

Returning home after dance, I set her up with a camera and tripod. She took photos of her "stuffies" and I went to the computer to research. I found a pure JavaScript game at CallMeNick.com available for us to use under the open source MIT license. We spent the next few hours optimizing photos and updating content, styling and playing the game. Here is the result:

play the game

  screen shot of momory game start screen where the user selects the game difficulty   screen shot of momory game with 6 by 3 tiles   screen shot of momory game with 8 by 4 tiles

Sentient Records

Sentient Records is the result of me experimenting with AngularJS, JSON data files, and HTML5 audio. I use the site at home as an intranet jukebox for my music collection. For obvious copyright reasons, this online version does not have audio linked or the media player enabled.

search Sentient Records

Sentient Records app with audio player

WDFA Radio

WDFA Radio is a live streaming Internet show that I helped to launch and co-produced with my partner Ian "Sleepy Freeman" Moore. WDFA Radio features Toronto's finest House, Hip Hop, and Drum and Bass/Jungle DJ's. WDFA now streams four or more shows monthly: a Sunday show featuring artists curated by Sleepy Freeman; a Tuesday show (MiCasa Radio) that is hosted by our resident DJ's, Mi Casa Records bosses, Cyruss Sanchez and André Williams; and the more recently the "Junction Social" hosted by East of Brimley and Baller, Drop the Beat with Gene King, and The Waxploitation Show with King Curtiss Winston.

WDFA typically streams out from the legendary Toronto Junction Control Room, but also casts live events on location from various Toronto clubs. I scoured CodePen.io for HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS sketches to use for event page backgrounds and digital flyers. We used Open Broadcast Studio to live stream via ChewTV, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, and WDFA Radio.