KevinM1

The design itself is very solid, although I'd add something to the bottom to separate your nature scenes from the bottom of the browser window. Things are looking a bit top heavy right now. That said, holy hell, you need to optimize your images in a bad way. There's no reason for your right hand images to be over 400,000kb. What you should do is cut them up into individual images of the same size, play with how high you want the image quality to be when you save them, so you can find the minimum file size needed to have them look right, and leave the captions as text written in your HTML. Also, be sure to double check your spelling and grammar. Remember, you're trying to sell your services to professionals. You can't write your site like you would write an email to a friend. Examples: misspelled the word 'incorporate' on your portfolio page, ending sentences with two or three periods (e.g., "Some text...more text!"). Finally, don't use wishy-washy language. Your marketing page informs me that Search Engine Positioning is important, and you can help me with it, but you're not sure how well you can help me, and provide no explanation on how you'll actually attempt to help me, outside of vague talk about meta tag keywords. Convince me that you can improve my search position. Like I said, a very solid, promising start. You just need to iron out the rough edges that mar the experience.

Try something along the lines of: if (!empty($_POST['exposure']) && is_array($_POST['exposure'])) { // run foreach } else { // error } The empty part of the conditional checks to see if $_POST['exposure'] actually contains a value. The is_array portion checks to see if the value is an array you can loop over.

It's telling you that $_POST['exposure'] is not an array, which means foreach() cannot work on it. You need to check if it's null.

Perl is a niche language. I wouldn't bother with it unless you're really aiming to use it. If you learn Ruby, be sure to learn it with the Rails framework. If you want to cover all your bases, look into Java and C#/ASP.NET.

So, wouldn't the user supplied data be stored in the db before you attempted to show it all on the screen anyway? I'm not sensing any logic behind your design decision. You're trying to force a really bad design to work. You'd be much better off doing the data manipulation on the back end than to continue down this path. JavaScript is best used as a UI scripting language. It shouldn't be doing the heavy lifting of sorting your data.

I was just about to ask that myself. For one, 100 people is a lot of people cluttering up your timeline. And, second, if those people aren't people you find you like, you'll have to manually un-follow them. It just doesn't seem like a very useful feature.

You really, really need to clarify what you have and what you're trying to do. So: 1. List your arrays. Do it in a clear, concise manner. You refer to a match array, segment array, and some sort of master array, but all I can see is a segmentTitle array and matchwriterID array. Are these what you're referring to? 2. What are you trying to sort them on? I really can't help but think you're going about this in the absolute worst way. You should really be shaping your data on the back end, either in the database itself or in PHP. You really only need JavaScript if you're trying to show the data sorted according to different criteria without a page refresh, and even then the bulk of the work would still be done on the back end.

I don't follow you... I though this was a Directory Permissions issue... Debbie chmod is a *nix (linux, Unix) command for changing file and directory permissions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod I know that, but that doesn't answer my original question... Why is my include not working? Is this a Directory Permission issue? A File Permission issue? Both a Directory and File Permission issue? Something else? Debbie It could be anything. Do you have shell access to your environment, or a FTP program which can modify permissions? Running ls -l in the shell, or taking a look at the permissions in a FTP program should tell you if you have a permissions issue.

I don't follow you... I though this was a Directory Permissions issue... Debbie chmod is a *nix (linux, Unix) command for changing file and directory permissions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

Yes, you can make a good living with C#. That said, C# isn't used often for generic application programming. Like I said earlier, it's used for things like ASP.NET web development, Silverlight/WPF development, which includes Windows Phone 7 apps, and XBox Live Indie Games with the XNA studio. Full-fledged desktop apps are still generally written in C or C++. The real question is what kind of programming do you want to do?

I think we've all felt that way one time or another. A few things to consider: Everyone started as a newbie. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, everyone. The best and brightest in the industry started from zero and worked their way up to the top. Even the certifiable geniuses have had moments where something did not make sense, or when they felt it was impossible to complete a certain project. There is a lot of information to learn. That's why the people who hone their skills get paid the big bucks. Just about anyone can look up a tutorial, write a few slapdash lines of code in a text editor, and call it a day. Doing it right takes time and effort to learn, and the process can be slow and arduous. If you're serious about web development as a career, you're never going to stop learning. New languages come out every decade or so. New techniques come out all the time. Browsers add more capabilities. The HTML and CSS specifications change. No one knows it all, and no one ever will know it all. Your goal shouldn't be to become awesome in all things, but awesome in the parts of development you like while at least having an understanding of the broader picture and how it all fits together. Becoming a developer can be a humbling experience. I dare say that it should be. The good developers understand that there's always something they can do in order to improve. Being open to that idea, and understanding that gaining skill is a process, will take you far. Certainly much farther than believing there's some ultimate peak and nothing beyond it.

Correct. The first example is VB, the second is C#. This is a link to the official documentation for the latest version of the language: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/67ef8sbd.aspx That said, MSDN documentation is kind of crappy, so your best bet is a book. The best I've found is C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: http://www.amazon.com/C-4-0-Nutshell-Definitive-Reference/dp/0596800959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305307685&sr=8-1 The book is the entire C# language and the core .NET libraries. For more specific things (like, say, web development with ASP.NET MVC) you'll need additional resources. Part of the appeal of the .NET framework is that it's very modular. You have the core libraries, which pretty much everyone needs to use for basic things, and then specific libraries based on what you actually want to do. The downside to that modularity is complexity. It can be daunting to learn exactly what you need to include and how to use it properly in your project. I'm not sure what you'd need to focus on for GUI creation. If your friend makes GUI's, simply use the namespaces he uses. That's another benefit of .NET - all of the languages have access to the same libraries, and, even better, all of the languages are first compiled to an intermediate language before being compiled to an executable. So, if set up properly, you could have VB, C#, and even F# (Microsoft's functional language) all within your project at the same time. In order to compile your code, you'll need one of the Visual Studio IDE's. Thankfully, Microsoft has a free, somewhat nerfed version: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/ Beyond that, just do the usual - hang out on the MSDN forums and Stack Overflow. You'll see a lot of code, and you'll be able to get answers to your specific questions.

Function can exist with graphical fidelity. Again, you're a designer. Graphics come with the territory, and since this is the site to market yourself, you'll need to show what you can do. Here's a link to 69 beautiful portfolio sites: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/24/69-sexy-portfolio-designs-to-inspire-you/ Some are too busy for my tastes, but there are more than a few that are simple, understated, but still have a touch of something interesting to draw the user in. They're both nice to look at and very usable. Use them as inspiration.

The .NET languages and C++ aim to do different things, so a direct comparison isn't really applicable, or even necessary. Also, a language being constantly refined isn't necessarily an indication of anything. ANSI C hasn't been touched in forever, but I doubt you'll hear anyone say it's a bad or incomplete language. Finally the word 'powerful' is really meaningless when it comes to things like this. Programming has never been an exercise in power, but in capability. It's always about "Can I do X with this language? If so, how easy will it be to do X?" Since .NET is a managed platform, it's actually less capable with some things, most notably where dynamic memory comes into play. Pointers exist, but are turned off by default, and it requires some coaxing in order to get them to work correctly. If you're going to look at a .NET language, look at C#. VB doesn't have the support your friend suggests. It's kept up-to-date mostly because of coders who jumped on board during the old VB 6 days, and the schools that keep churning out entry level programmers (thank you, India). C# is what Microsoft has hitched its wagon to. It's the default back end language for ASP.NET, Silverlight/WPF (which includes Windows Phone 7 apps), and XNA games. It also has a syntax you'll be more comfortable with as it's a C-style language, like PHP. VB's syntax is utterly horrible. What would you rather write and read: sub HelloWorld(ByVal name As String, ByRef count As Integer) Console.WriteLine("Hello" & name & "!") count += 1 end sub Dim helloCount As Integer = 0 Dim name As String = "Bob" HelloWorld(name, helloCount) Or: void HelloWorld(String name, ref int count) { Console.WriteLine("Hello" + name + "!"); count++; } int helloCount = 0; String name = "Bob"; HelloWorld(name, ref helloCount);

Right now it all rings hollow. You assert you make amazing sites, yet your portfolio consists of variations of a singular site. You claim you use Photoshop, yet there are no graphical elements to speak of. Do you have any finished sites or layouts that aren't simply different drafts of your home site? Different iterations of the same site isn't really enticing to potential clients. I understand it's a chicken and egg scenario, but you really need to show more, even if its simply a bunch of hypothetical templates. I'm also not saying this to insult you. It's just that you seem to be promising a level of skill you may not actually be at presently. Being honest with clients - potential or actual - is something I strongly believe in. Marketing language is fine, but don't assert something if it isn't true. Freelancing is largely about reputation. Don't damage yours out of the gate. The site itself is solid but spartan. If you're focusing on design, you really need some sort of graphic presence, even if its just a logo or icon. Look at Smashing Magazine for some inspiration.

I'd ditch your 'Job Statistics' block entirely. It provides too much information about your experience, and you really don't want potential clients questioning the two jobs that weren't finished on time and the one job that wasn't finished at all. Your focus should be on advertising yourself, which means highlighting the positive. Focus on your portfolio, and highlight anything you feel was particularly challenging, within reason (it should be a real technical issue which gave you problems, not a generic "I learned how to do X with this project"). I'd also remove your age, even from an 'About Me' page. The only people who would care about your age would be those people biased against people in your age group. Again, the focus should be on your skills and qualifications. Let that do the talking for you. Age has no bearing on your work ethic, ability, or desire. You should have an example of your work on your home page. Ideally, you'd have a random example, which would change on page load, or rotating examples. This will entice potential clients immediately, as well as add a desperately needed splash of color without forcing you to redo your layout.

...<blink></blink> is an HTML tag. Try the following code and look for yourself: <!doctype html> <html lang="en-us"> <head> <title>Blink test</title> </head> <body> <blink>This text is blinking</blink> </body> </html>

Use the <blink></blink> tag? Also: ugh. Blinking text is so 1997.

Nope. There's an actual Zip module which has the zip_open function you're trying to use: http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.zip.php That said, there may be an equivalent in Zlib: http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.zlib.php

Make an entirely new file called info.php. Place this code within it: <?php phpinfo(); ?> And tell me if you see a listing for the Zip module. EDIT: You'll see this info in your browser if you navigate to info.php

This is something of a loaded question, as developers often start wearing many different hats but tend to specialize as they continue and are hired for certain roles, or when they become freelancers who can hire others to do the tasks in the areas they're not quite as strong in. Generally speaking, the list which will cover your bases is: 1. HTML and CSS. These are the technologies which bring sites to the screen. You don't need to necessarily need to be a design guru, but you should know how to display things. Otherwise, what's the point? 2. Server side language and database. These technologies make websites dynamic. Since you're coming here, to PHP Freaks, the defaults would be PHP and MySQL. 3. JavaScript. JS is exploding in popularity and use right now, and will only become more necessary as HTML 5 is adopted. If you want to be a professional developer, you'll need to learn JavaScript. With those three main categories, there are a bunch of complimentary skills you should work toward: Understanding how the web, itself, works. The difference between server side and client side langauges, the difference between GET and POST, how HTTP requests work, how HTTP header redirects work, what HTTP status codes actually mean, etc. Understanding web design. Layout, typography, navigation, image/graphic manipulation and creation, useability, accessibility. Programming methodologies and best practices. Object-oriented programming, Separation of Concerns, DRY, the MVC pattern, tiered/layered applications, etc. JavaScript techniques. Unobtrusive JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery and/or other frameworks. It may seem like a lot to learn, but since these technologies all interact with one another the overall picture isn't hard to grasp with some experience.

If you want to search for/play with something like that for shits and giggles, that's cool. But professional websites are hardly ever 'turned off' for maintenance. Maintenance and updating is done on a local development machine, then uploaded when ready. That's the standard/norm. To that end, I'm not sure of what you want, exactly, outside of simple HTTP authentication. That, I believe, can be done in a .htaccess file. A simple Google search for ".htaccess authentication" or something similar should yield results.

Amazingly, PHP Coding Help is not the place to ask JavaScript questions. Mind blown. This topic has been moved to JavaScript Help. http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=332796.0

Wait, they're actually using XML with Ajax? Ugh. JSON for the win.

I think I'm missing something here. Why would you need to turn off a static website for maintenance? Simply develop on your local machine and push the update to the live server when its ready.