I received a phone call from my client today. He likes the templates and gave me the go-ahead to get started on the project. I still can’t reveal any specifics just yet, but perhaps in the near future.

I already have a shell framework in place. Now to get started on the rest…

My first official paid project is underway! At this time I am not at liberty to give out too many details, but I will update with more info when I am able.

What I can say is that I am very excited about this project an eager to get the ball rolling. I already submitted some template ideas and some page-flow ideas for approval.

So life has been quite difficult these past several months. I have struggled greatly with school simply because I have not had the time to keep up with my assignments and readings for class along with everything else going on in life (most notably work and family). So I decided to take a break from school in order to pursue other interests. In particular a buddy and I are going to start up a business together. I already have work lined up for us. I figure it will be a few months before we approach anything near stable business. I really hope this works out.

So life has been quite difficult these past several months. I have struggled greatly with school simply because I have not had the time to keep up with my assignments and readings for class along with everything else going on in life (most notably work and family). So I decided to take a break from school in order to pursue other interests. In particular a buddy and I are going to start up a business together. I already have work lined up for us. I figure it will be a few months before we approach anything near stable business. I really hope this works out.

GIMP splash screen

A buddy of mine asked me today to make him a plugin for GIMP. I’ve never written a true plugin for anything, but have wanted too. Now is a great opportunity. I need to start reading up on this subject and give it a try.

If you haven’t tried it yet, GIMP is a free program similar to Photoshop. In Ubuntu you can install it easily by running the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install gimp

Alex’s Antidote is currently undergoing some major changes….

During the transition process there will be few or perhaps no new posts.
Most, if not all, of the old content will be removed, hidden, or replaced.

Some changes you can expect to see:
- New theme/layout
– with better navigation
– better look and feel
– better functionality

- New Features
– New Content (purpose and direction)
– User-Specific Options
– And More!

If you would like to be placed on the mailing list to receive newsletter updates by email, please send an email with your request to: alex@alexsantidote.com
Until then… Take care!
…Alex

My how time flies!

An update is in order. I have temporarily postponed the Top Secret Project for the sake of a different project.

As I am enrolled in an on-going degree program in Computer Science, I have a course this semester that has required an extensive amount of time and resources. This course requires that I work with a team of peers to develop a project selected by our professor.

Our project, Project 6, has been a work in progress since January. The latest release is v0.3 and is currently on our test server. There is much work to be done before the final product can be released.

I was new to PHP, MySQL, and AJAX up until I began this project. But now, since this project, I have improved dramatically in my knowledge of these languages.

I may post further updates as time allows.

I am not sure of who the copyright will belong to when this project is all said and done. But if we are able to release it as open source, probably under the GNU/GPL, then I will leave more detailed information at that time.

Status: In Progress

Name: Prepare for Launch

Description: Make necessary preparations to be prepared for official launch of this site. This includes making changes to themes and appearance of the site as well as adding initial content.

Estimated Time to Complete: 2nd week of January, 2008. — Originally I wanted to Launch the site by January 1st, 2008. However, this was unrealistic since I have such a busy schedule and this is just a project and so far does not amount to a paycheck.

Notes: I have a lot to do to get this ready, and I need to have it up and running before Winter semester begins.

Status: Complete!

Name: Installation of Linux

Description: Download and burn the installation CD of Ubuntu Linux and install the operating system on my notebook computer.

Time to Complete: It took about 10 hours to download and burn the disk, and about 30 minutes to install.

Notes: Ubuntu was installed and ran great without any problems! There were problems, however, with Windows! This was not the fault of Ubuntu, but rather mine. More will be explained about this at a later time. If I remember I will post a link to that article here.

Status: Complete!

Name: Initialize Website

Description: Obtain a domain name and web-host and install a blog for communicating updates and other vital information.

Time to Complete: It took about 2 or 3 weeks from the time I finalized my decision to pursue this project.

Notes: This project is called “Top Secret” because I chose early on only to reveal the details of this project to a select group of individuals. More details will be revealed as time progresses.