http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk Latest blog posts and updates from front-end web developer Richard Stephenson en-gb Copyright: (C) Richard Stephenson 2007-09. I’ve been playing around with some CSS3 and jQuery and come up with this little image gallery app thing. I’ll get around to writing about it and packaging it up for download soon. It also needs a name… http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/css3_and_jquery_image_gallery_experiment Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:48:41 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/css3_and_jquery_image_gallery_experiment I managed to make it home to the family farm a couple of weekends ago and took the opportunity to go for a photography walk with my Dad. We managed to get some really nice shots of the farm and village. This picture is of the fields surrounding our pond where I spent many wet days chasing frogs and tadpoles as a child. I have posted most of my decent ones to my flickr account. http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/winter_in_goodmanham Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:57:32 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/winter_in_goodmanham Well we are starting a whole new decade and lots of things have been happening in my life since I last posted I thought it was about time I got around to telling you all about what's been going on. So what has been happening? The big things first I have left AWA, moved to Manchester and returned to the world of freelancing. I'm currently working for a large agency in Manchester on a website for a well known kitchen company. Why? Well I'd always said to myself that I would only stay in Leeds for 2 years. 4 years later I was really ready for a change and a new challenge. And some of the small things I've recoded this website in HTML5 and jQuery. I've been using jQuery for all my JS development for the past few years now so it was about time I re-factored some of the legacy code around here. I've also taken the opportunity to try some HTML5 development. I still don't know if it's a good idea and I certainly wouldn't use it for a client website just yet. Little brother Jimmy has still not found a wife. Neither have I. My youngest cousin Phil has just turned 21. That makes me feel old. I've started going to the Northern Digitals meetups in Manchester and have bumped into many old faces and met lots of great new web people too. Now I'm freelancing again I wanted a better way of keeping track of my business finances. A bit of searching led me to the brilliant FreeAgentCentral. It's really made things easy. I'll write a full post/review sometime soon. Also I'm back in training and once I've got my body back into shape I shall be testing myself by doing something mad like the Sahara Race. And what's next? Lots more freelancing :) I'll be available for more work from the end of January. Writing more stuff for my blog - don't think I can do 52 but will try do one a month at least. I'm in the process of implementing some alternative CSS styles for this site, and a neat little JS switcher to swap between them. Kind of pointless but fun none-the-less. I'll also be adding comments functionality to the blog so you can leave me your thoughts and abuse. And a couple of side projects that I've been planning for a while should see the light of day before too long. One promoting Manor Farm Cottages and another top secret email marketing related 'thing'. http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/first_post_of_the_decade Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:18:04 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/first_post_of_the_decade My little brother James 'Jimmy/Jim' Stephenson (pictured playing with his favourite toy) has been single for quite a while. So when the opportunity arose to enlist the help of the telly box to find himself a wife he jumped at the chance. I'm not sure he really knew what he was getting into. But we did get to meet the lovely Mrs Louise Redknapp so it wasn't all bad. Most of the filming took place over easter this year and we have been waiting for a long time to see the finished programme. Jim's episode of Farmer Wants a Wife is on Five at 9pm Wednesday 30th October. The show will be available to watch on Demand Five afterwards. I really hope they don't show the bit's I filmed for the show but maybe next year they can film 'Front-end developer wants a wife'. http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/farmer_wants_a_wife Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:27:47 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/farmer_wants_a_wife When I designed the current version of this site I always had it in my mind that one day in the dim and distant future I would enhance the design with some CSS3. I wasn’t thinking about anything too radical - rounded corners, and some shadows on my fonts and boxes would do. Well after reading an excellent article on Smashing Magazine by Inayaili de Leon appropriately enough titled Take Your Design To The Next Level With CSS3 I decided to do just that. Bear in mind that many browsers, especially ones beginning with IE, still do not support these enhancements. http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/enhancing_your_designs_with_css3 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:26:01 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/enhancing_your_designs_with_css3 http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/chocolate_finger_people Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:03:00 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/chocolate_finger_people Update: Finally got around to uploading a set to Flickr - Bull fighting in Seville. http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/bull_fighting_in_seville Tue, 26 May 2009 21:44:59 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/bull_fighting_in_seville My family has a long history. Very long apparently. Some of it has been captured on film. The BBC broadcast a short piece with my Uncle Robert on InsideOut on the 5th November 2008. Film is available here (starts around 20:30s) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fd1n9/Inside_Out_Yorkshire_and_Lincolnshire_05112008/ http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/uncle_robert_on_bbc_inside_out_programme_via_iplayer Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:43:01 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/uncle_robert_on_bbc_inside_out_programme_via_iplayer http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/sydney_marathon Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:51:00 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/sydney_marathon EllisLab have annouced that EE 2.0 won't be released for a while. Obviously I'm a bit disappointed, but not surprised in the least. I had a feeling that they were just trying to drum up interest with premature announcements and presentations at SXSW. They have come nowhere near reaching their anticipated launch this summer. I wish they had been a bit more up front with thier plans as I can imagine that many people will have put off upgrading or moving sites to EE while waiting for the new version to come around. I wonder how this delay announcement will go down with the developer community which is usually so loyal? http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/no_surprises_expressionengine_20_has_been_delayed Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:59:00 GMT http://www.donkeymagic.co.uk/entry/no_surprises_expressionengine_20_has_been_delayed