Category Archives: Personal

My Hypermedia History

Published on June 3rd, 2010

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

Published on September 12th, 2007

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

Published on April 11th, 2007

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 →