Many congratulations to the Django development team!

After over three years of development with a huge number of contributors, the Django Project Team has officially released Django 1.0 for public/production consumption.

For anyone that isn’t in the know, Django is an open-source Python framework for rapid development of web applications.

A website I developed for my wedding in August of 2008. The site uses a guest management system and CMS written in Ruby on Rails that allows guests to RSVP online, get directions from Google Maps, view photos, and sign a virtual guestbook. The site also features an original design featuring our chosen wedding colors.

Visit Krista and Jeff

GeothermalEdmonton came to us looking for a solution to provide Edmonton-area residents with information regarding geothermal heating and join them with potential contractors should they be looking to have a unit installed in their residence. We provided them with with an attractive design and a custom PHP solution to allow users to sign up for this information and receive a complimentary report on geothermal heating.

Visit GeothermalEdmonton

I’m not usually one to post memes on this site, but since it’s been six months to the day since I’ve posted anything here I thought this might be a good way to get the ball rolling again.

Rest assured, this site isn’t dead. I’m working on a redesign and a new content management system in my spare time, which is pretty limited these days.

A List Apart has released the survey results from their first annual Web Design Survey.

There’s a ton of data in the report, but I think it will be very interesting to peruse. It gives a pretty decent look at the skill levels and such in the industry today.

Findings from the ALA Web Design Survey

“We’re known as sticklers for standards, purveyors of good design and creators of beautiful things on the web, but do they know us for being supporters of a great cause?”

Designers & Developers for MDA

A challenge to the web community from Ryan Irelan to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. If you have a few spare dollars, please help out this great cause and donate. If not, please at least link to this page) on Ryan’s site.

Prior to my switch to Simplelog as my blogging platform, I had built up a decent readership at this site. After the switch, a my feed URL changed, so naturally I popped on over to Feedburner and updated my URL. In the following weeks, I noticed that the number of readers of my feed had been almost cut in half. I was pretty sure I hadn’t written anything that would have offended that many people, so I started investigating a little further.

Then it hit me, there were probably a lot of people that were still subscribed to my (very old) feed URL from my Wordpress days that was being redirected toward my Feedburner URL. I just needed to find a way to graceful 301 redirect this URL to Feedburner. Since there was no way to do this (currently) in Simplelog interface, I wrote my own plugin to suit my needs.

A while back Matt Brett posted a message on twitter that he was looking for a simple backup/sync solution for OSX. I dropped him an email with my backup solution and thought to myself that it would be a good idea to post it here as well. Of course, time passed and I still hadn’t gotten around to getting anything written up, until Matt posted an article on his site about the power of twitter, and mentioned my backup script. Since then I’ve had a constant stream of emails flowing into my inbox about my backup script, so finally, here it is.

“Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.”

I’ve got a ton of Joost invites to give away (read unlimited). If you haven’t tried out the service yet and are interested in this new media phenomena, drop a line to joost@from-away.net with a quick note including the email address you’d like the invite sent to.

I just finished taking the First Annual A List Apart Web Design Survey.

The survey took me less than five minutes to complete, and because I offered my name and email address at the end of the survey, I’ve been entered to win a free ticket to An Event Apart event, an Apple 30GB video iPod, an Event Apart jump drive, or an A List Apart T-shirt.

Personally, I’m very curious to see the results of this survey, especially with all of the recent discussion surrounding gender diversity at web conferences, and the industry in general.

So, if you’ve got 5 spare minutes and would like the chance to win some cool prizes, make sure to take the survey.

After following the conversation surrounding the Contact Mailer plugin offered by Harold Emsheimer at the Simplelog Forums, I decided to download and install it on my own site.

I found the plugin easy enough to install and after playing around with it for a bit, I decided to hack it apart a bit and make it even easier to install, and clean up the URL’s the plugin uses.

Seeing Garrett’s post made me realize that I haven’t posted a recent shot of my office since I started working from home either.

I’m fascinated with seeing other people’s workspace as a means to add to or improve my own. So, if you’ve got a recent shot of your own home office link to it in the comments.

See the photos after the jump.

Having recently installed Simplelog on my A Small Orange hosting account, I thought I’d go through the install process here for the benefit of those that might be running into problems getting it set up. I’ll also throw in a few other general tips and tricks for those that may be setting it up on a similar setup.

First things first, you’ll need to download the latest version of Simplelog from the Simplelog website: or, if you’re feeling adventurous you can download the latest development version from Simplelog SVN: using the username and password 'anonymous’.

Well, after an absense that was entirely too long to be called temporary, From Away is back in full swing. As you can tell from this post, I was a bit disillusioned with the whole web industry and decided that I needed to give myself a bit of a break from maintaining this website and extra-curricular web work in general. But, in light of the events of the last couple of months, I’m back and quite refreshed.

The New Gig

Drew Graham, a wood manufacturing technician from Nova Scotia required a website to showcase his work for potential employers. The site is powered by a customized Wordpress install which allows Drew to easily manage his portfolio, biography, and resume.

Visit Drew Graham - Wood Manufacturing Technician

Alaura Artworks, a local art gallery and art supplies store wanted a website to take advantage of the ability to allow people to view their artists’ artwork online. They also maintain a product listing of a large selection of art supplies ranging from student-grade products to professional.

Visit Alaura Artworks

I’m currently feeling very restless in my position of employment. I say currently, but I’ve had this feeling for quite a few months now. Mind you, I really like the people I work with (and I love developing websites and web apps - but every project in my current job is starting to feel the same), but I have this feeling that there are other, much more exciting projects out there that I’d love to be spending my working hours on.

I’d really love to go back to freelancing which would allow me to manage my own work/hours, and would also give me more time to work on my own projects, of which I only seem to have 3 to 4 hours a week to work on now. A lot of time that I used to spend on my own projects is now being spent on more important things, like actually getting away from my desk and enjoying the summer with Krista and some friends from the Maritimes that have recently relocated to Alberta. That being said, I cannot seem to get ahead of financial roadblocks that would allow me to freelance full time. Monthly bills, wanting to buy a home, doing a bit of travelling (time allowing), and other expenses seem to prevent me from setting aside enough of a security blanket to keep us comfortable while I make the transition to freelance and do a bit of marketing for myself.

I’ve spoken with a number of different companies since the start of the year regarding some new and exciting projects that I’d love to be a part of **, but no one seems to be able to give me any certainty on the duration of employment/contracts outside of two or three months. Two or three months would be great if I knew I’d have something else to move on to for sure at the outset. But, because of the reasons I listed above, I just don’t feel comfortable taking the chance that I could be doing this all over again when the project is completed.

Maybe with this career that I’ve chosen in web development, I just need to quit whining and get used to the idea that nothing in this industry is certain or secure, and unless I switch to a different career (or take a job that is secure, but so boring and stagnant that I can hardly take it), I’m just going to have to suck it up, live with it, and take a few chances, even if it means that things could get tough for us again financially.

I’d love to hear opinions from any of you, or if I’m just being a big wuss about the whole thing, just give me a swift kick in the ass!

** I should note that I’m also somewhat picky about team situations in these new opportunities. I don’t relish working with a large team, because in my experience, large teams often breed politics, which is something I can’t stand. I also find that the fewer cooks in the pot, the better the result. Thus, my considerations so far have been limited to smaller teams of around 5 people. Back

I’m currently feeling very restless in my position of employment. I say currently, but I’ve had this feeling for quite a few months now. Mind you, I really like the people I work with (and I love developing websites and web apps – but every project in my current job is starting to feel the same), but I have this feeling that there are other, much more exciting projects out there that I’d love to be spending my working hours on.

Update: I’ve successfully installed Windows XP on my iMac with no major issues and it runs flawlessly.  I installed Battlefield 2 last night to do a bit of testing with games and was surprised just how well it ran.  I’ll be outlining my experience in a little more detail here this weekend along with a few gaming benchmarks. Wow, this is just what I’ve been waiting for. Being a new owner of an Intel iMac, I have been anxiously watching the dual boot scene until a safe alternative came about.

If you happen to have an Intel based Mac and a copy of Windows XP Professional SP2, make sure to check out Boot Camp Public Beta from Apple.

If you happen to have an Intel based Mac and a copy of Windows XP Professional SP2, make sure to check out Boot Camp Public Beta from Apple.