ILoveJackDaniels is a net handle, or 'nick'. As it happens, it's my nick, and is what I have been known as since around February 2001. At least, it was near then. It was one of those moments when, after a few months of trying to think of a nick I could use online that I'd remember and that was reasonably unique, a moment of inspiration caught and beat me. My drink of choice is Jack Daniels.In September of 2003, I finally got around to registering this domain name and putting together this site. This incarnation, the 5th so far, went live in June 2006.
The site itself was, for a time, built in XHTML 1.1, and is now back to HTML 4 (for a million reasons), using CSS to specify fonts, layout - the aesthetics. Personally, I much prefer using CSS in web design than old-fashioned table-based design. The speed with which I finished the recent redesign helped hit home just how much a difference the seperation of style and content can make. It also made me realise that I need to improve my directory and url structure, add a pagination system for long articles, and how important it is to write XHTML with meaning in mind, not to fit your current design.
Using CSS this much in a site has, for me, been an eye-opener. I've learned a lot about accessibility (making this site accessible is an ongoing challenge), and about browser technologies. I've learned that I'm going to have to wait several years before I can do the things I'd like to do with this site, because Microsoft find it too grating to support standards properly (one day, I may put together an example page for Opera, Mozilla etc users, to see how this site could have looked).
At the heart of the site is bBlog (for now), an open source blogging system which has been heavily modified to manage the articles on here. Modifications include better URL rewriting, to allow the sections and articles to be properly navigable, article descriptions, search functionality, page titles, translation links and much much more. If any users of bBlog would like information on any of these or other modifications, feel free to get in touch.
To make life a touch easier, each page of the site is, believe it or not, printer friendly (note: It was when I wrote this ... not now. I need to fix the printer style sheet). A second style sheet is attached to each page, and will only be used when a page is printed. This style sheets hides the menus you see and the advertising. It changes the font to a better print font (serif fonts are better for print, sans-serif for the web, or so they say) and adds URLs of links after them so they are still at least useful, and adds decent margins. So don't be afraid to print anything out, ok?
In case you were wondering who the person behind the scenes is - I am Dave Child, a web developer from the south of the UK. I've been involved with web design since 1993 or so, when I set up my very first hobby site. I spent a few years working for myself before spending a year working for Fresh Egg in Worthing as a web developer, before moving to Juno Records in London, where I had the pleasure of redeveloping their very popular site.
In December 2004, I moved on to Propellernet, where I worked as the head of development and then an internet marketing consultant. In July of 2006, I moved to SNC Direct, a sports nutrition company, to manage and develop their stable of sites.
When I have a choice in the matter, I develop using PHP, but am quite happy with ASP and .NET, and have worked with most databases, including MySQL and SQL Server. I've been working with HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS and JavaScript since the early 1990s. I also like taking and editing photos, and I should think at some point I'll subject the WWW to a few of my attempts at graphic creation and editing.
When not working, I try and spend as much time as I can outside away from computers. I've been with Mrs Dave (pictured right) since April 2000, and we got married on 22nd April 2006. I enjoy snowboarding and skiing, but don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like and would consider myself an enthusiastic if incompetent amateur photographer. I also, from time to time, play squash (not as often as I should).I hope you enjoy the site and find it useful. Please do feel free to email me if you have any problems, suggestions or comments. If you like what you find here or find it useful, you can always say thanks by buying me something from my wish list.
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ILoveJackDaniels.com is the online playground of
When they do it, all that carefull study you have spent ages sweating blood and tears over learning, will be thrown out the window and rendered fairly useless.