A continual crux of developing websites, or at least of developing websites that have user interactivity, is that you always have to input user details to test your applications. It goes with the territory. It has no purpose really, other than to test your applications (but that’s an important purpose, of course). The testing data is therefore not interesting to work with, usually. The same goes with the fake users that end up being put into the system, they are not actual people in most cases.

After having so many users with names along the lines of “asdf Williams”, or street addresses such as “lkjlkj ave. s.”, I figure why not set up a few fake fellows to use during testing. Feel free to use these people for your own testing. I won’t be offended and I won’t feel betrayed if they help you test some forms.

I won’t be giving them email addresses, we all know that it would be stupid to use an email address that you can’t use to receive any messages during testing. And, I also don’t want these fake fellows to be burdened with spam, fake fellows or not.

Enough of the introductions. Here’s the fake lineup of testing lackeys:

Johnathan Walker
9876 Pavement Street, #13
Sometown, GA 44332
P: 555-123-4567

Ralphie McRalphie
432 East West Street, #8743
Wayupthere, TX 54321
P: 987-654-3210

Jeffrey Fancypants
555 Buttercup Way
Imalamo, SD 22551
P: 112-334-5567

Calendelialitus Van Rotheresteradandylittlecar
Van Rotheresteradandylittlecar Family Manor III, Fourth Floor
South Berkenshire of the Great East Gate, West Mountain Union province VII
P: What’s a phone, you say?

That last guy will really put your form through the ringer. If anything, Calendelialitus will remind you that you have to have an automated email response or some kind of on-screen message to let users with user information like his off the hook. If I actually remember to use any of these poor saps during testing I’ll maybe report their usefulness, or lack thereof.

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

[muddy voice] this is a test of the public internet broadcast system[/muddy voice]

this website is currently broadcasting from lukep.emergeproduction.com due to inadvertent “Sorry, we let your domain name registration lapse accidentally” of the lukep.net domain name by unsaid delinquent domain registration company

beeeeeeeeeeeeeep beeeeeep

Someday this website will be back at Lukep.net

I’m not sure if I might need to decide to get a new domain name to plug into this site, be it for a permanent solution or for a hopefully-not-too-much-longer temporary period. For now this address will have to do.

I have recently subscribed to the idea of utilizing small projects to force myself into learning a new technology that I will need to use to a greater extent in the future.

If not too familiar with ASP.net in C# for example, but needing to use it heavily on a project starting in a few months, why not use it for a couple smaller projects just for preparation? Projects get completed, income keeps flowing, and learning and experience building is happening all at the same time.

To take it a step further, it doesn’t hurt to ride out a few technologies that work well, in an attempt to just flat out keep things quick and effiecient. But, in the web development world there is always something new to learn, so I guess it just comes down to a good balance of both approaches.

This is basically just a plug to get more developers/designers to take the Web Design Survey for 2007, presented by A List Apart. Why not? If you’re in the industry, just do it.

More info, and to do it: http://alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey

I ran across these bad boys today. I’ve had similar types of documents in the past to use for reference while developing websites, but these look much more concise and easy to reference. These are cheat sheets for HTML and CSS. One page a piece. Definitely worth a look if you use HTML / CSS a lot.

http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/cheat-sheets/html-cheat-sheet/

I would also suggest browsing around a bit more in that website, there are some other neato cheat sheets available and it’s a fun site in general.

I have reached a point where I really see no reason to not use a favicon on any website that is used for marketing, educational, or pretty much any other purposes. The favicon is now a very easy thing to implement, and because of that it is something that can add a decent graphical impact with minimal effort. Why not add one? I still run into many sites that are very good websites that don’t have favicons. I don’t hold anything against them. I just figure why not?

I would think that there are definitely cases where you don’t need one, but for any site that is there to provide something worthwhile to it’s users or to market anything, there should be a favicon. It will add that little extra bit of branding or visual recognition outside of the main browser display area. It makes your FireFox tab, hidden among others on the users screen, stand out a little more. It makes your bookmark easy to spot.

How to you make one? I like to use Photoshop to do so, but there are some other converters as well.

Here’s a good Photoshop plugin:

• http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/

And here’s a good online favicon creator:

• http://www.rw-designer.com/online_icon_maker.php

There are also tons more favicon creators/makers/editors/converters that can be found out there. All it takes is a quick internet search and you’ll find more options than you need. Probably.

The favicon will be a 16 by 16 pixel graphic. That’s not a lot of graphical real estate to work with, but it’s surprising how clear a thoughtfully designed favicon can look. Once you’ve got your favicon created, simply make sure it is named “favicon.ico” and place it in the root directory of your website.