My Hypermedia History

Here’s a brief history of how I became what I am today.

The Early Years

  • Stumbled upon some WYSIWYG app on a CD from Bug magazine back in high-school days.
  • FrontPage sucks.
  • Learning the way websites work almost just as fun as Age of Empires or even Need for Speed.
  • Wrapping one table around another to produce a one pixel border.
  • Made my first website in Dreamweaver.
  • Read about this thing called CSS in summer of 1998. Thought it was rubbish.
  • Started taking more interest in web design.
  • Dreamt of being online non-stop and not using dial-up.
  • Got into a Web Design learning course. Did not learn much but got the confirmation I was heading in the right direction.
  • Dumped Paint Shop Pro, fell in love with Photoshop.
  • I don’t like you much, Flash.

The “I do not need a Mac” Years

  • Switched from Dreamweaver to Notepad. Foolish enough to hand-code over 120 pages of pure HTML in Notepad on my first major job, with no color-coding and no templating system. Did learn a lot from it, though.
  • Read Jeffrey Zeldman’s From Table Hacks to CSS Layout: A Web Designer’s Journey in 2001. Eyes opened.
  • Switched to Programmers Notepad.
  • Created Yesterdayishere in 2004. Designed it in just a few days and built the site while learning WordPress. Bought Yesterdayishere.com in February of 2005.
  • Blogging is cool.
  • Finally realized I wanted to make websites for a living.
  • Got listed in CSS galleries like CSS Beauty, CSS Vault, etc. Crazy traffic.
  • Shortstat addiction.
  • Daily RFP’s.
  • Won the award for the best Croatian personal website, called Rudjer. Look Ma, I’m in today’s papers!1
  • Job offers. Several job interviews, but decided to continue working from home. Freelancing kicks ass.

The “Mac is my Best Friend” years

  • Client: want to design an iPhone app? Me: never saw an iPhone app, don’t own an iPhone. Client: let’s get you one. Me: alright.
  • iPhone is awesome.
  • Designed several iPhone apps.
  • Finally switched to a Mac in 2008. Why I hadn’t done so sooner, I really don’t know. Kids, get one. It made me a better designer. Best investment I’ve ever made.
  • iMac is awesome.
  • Siniša: do you know a website that lists the do’s and don’ts in web design? Me: no. A site like that would be useful. Siniša: let’s make one. Me: alright. Created Web Do’s & Don’ts in early 2009. Crazy traffic.
  • Got an iPad. You’re guessing this: iPad is awesome. Designing a few iPad apps.
  • Love for work still as strong as ever.
  • Responsive design is the best thing evah!1

September twelfth

On this day:

  • 1977: Steve Bantu Biko, anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, dies in police custody
  • 2003: Johnny Cash, country legend, dies
  • 1959: The Soviet Union launch the Lunik II rocket at the moon
  • 2001: USA declare war on terror after 9/11
  • 1940: The Lascaux cave paintings discovered in France
  • 1981: Bojan Janjanin, web enthusiast, is born

Crooked morals

This story took place some time ago, and I’m not bringing it up to get back at anyone. I even doubt the people involved will be reading this. I merely thought it’d make an interesting read for you, so here is a short version of the whole mess.

A couple of years back, I won an award for a site of mine. Nothing extraordinary, but something I took pride in nevertheless.

The reward should’ve been delivered to me, but right after the contest ended, there were some problems amongst the organizers and a delay occurred. I was reasonable and put no pressure on anyone and decided to let them take care of the problems and wait for my reward. After all, had I gotten into similar problems, I’d not want anyone breathing behind by back.

I decided not to even bother anyone with phone calls then — e-mails are much nicer. So, from time to time, I sent an e-mail to the person in charge of the whole thing. Sometimes, he didn’t reply to an e-mail, but that was OK. I didn’t even get mad or anything when he claimed he didn’t receive the previous mail I sent. Although, you gotta admit it’s highly unlikely, that an IT professional, a person that communicates via e-mail non-stop doesn’t receive an e-mail. There was no bounce. Maybe the e-mail was lost somewhere between here and there. I realized his excuse was not a valid one, but that was OK. I was in no rush. Continue reading