Well, from the looks of it, Sunday’s about to start or probably already has for the most part. What’s really going is that I decided to act upon some advice from a local gentleman PR guy, Michael Nus, about producing content for blogs.

“Got 30 mins?”

The answer intrigued me. 30 minutes? Seriously?! That’s it? Yeah, I was shocked, but at the same time, I saw where it was coming from. Consistency will help get those “perfect blog posts” out. Agonizing about them before hand does probably not so much as expected. So I got myself together and started to get back on the wagon. Surprisingly, bringing back 365 blogging vet Casey Palmer on to task. With all the hecticness going about, why would I need to be doing this? Let’s see how this works out.

Last Week on kevinvs.html:

• Adobe Proto Test Drive Or The Day I got Shouted Out By Adobe
• Make Code Make Sense

And of course, if you were lucky to get into our Social Media Week Toronto Origin of #devTO Story talk that does NOT start with this one time at bandcamp: kudos to you. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Bring questions.

2011, like any year, had the whole “get whatever we’d love to do happenin’” mantra. Businesses, startups, podcasts, blogs – stuff like that. As does any year past the ’99. At #devTO, we took that one seriously for the 2011th year.

… and it DIDN’T DIE!

http://www.devto.ca/2012/01/devto-a-year-later/ << you knew we had to pull that out. Even though #devTO technically had a bit of work done between a few members in 2010, 2011 was our official start. #devTO bro Chris Jones takes on the task of reviewing the year that produced our monthly event. We couldn’t have agreed more with the success and talks thus far – both dev and non-dev of course.

A bit of terminology here:

• dev: The folks who procure code on a regular basis.
• non-dev: The folks who do not. We still love you!

Going forward, we’ll just be better keeping the same structures intact. I was glad that there was a take-away from the sessions(or sprints). Whether it’s an idea for a web business, or a contact that you found hard to meet. There was always a possibility for a meetup at #devTO. Also, with the Toronto interactive scene, there is a possibility that the talks will cover it. That being said: anyone into Android robotics?

For anyone who’s still on the “Mondays aren’t good for me” rants: there will be a major alternative. For any other inquiries, check the website(devTO).

Jiminey Christmas! It’s 2012 already! I’m surprised at the way the year went! I’ve had several great moments and … fell off the blog a while back. I attempted to get back in the game many a times, but either it was work, scheduling, game releases, or probably something of great importance. Still, I had a fantastic year and probably it was the most consistent year that I have had in the field despite falling through the cracks of a buyout. Some of the best moments come to mind as I write this:

• I was able to attend a few developer related events of great importance to the Toronto scene and one of them wasFlash In The Can 2011. The FITC 2011 was a highlight since there was a urge to attend this since 2004. Some of the work was very inspiring. Even though Flash is beginning to see an exit in the rich content realm, it was still good to see some of the Creative talents near and far. I was even privileged to meet my favorite Humber alumni artist at FITC. Adobe Edge was able to get its’ 15 seconds of fame. Edge, bluntly put, is a JQuery animation tool that resembled other Adobe products. The tool gave flash designers a way to animate in exports without knowing much about JQuery or at all. With the talks, demos, and meeting other like-minded folks of various disciplines. ( Tales From A First Time Caller Series)
  
  A souvenir from a design shop in Japan that demonstrated their wares at the Cool Shit hour of the event. Augumented Reality stuff.
• #devTO finally gets released and we pull off 8 sessions - #devTO being #developerTO’s longer and less-memorable name.We’re hoping to explain that out further in February’s Social Media Week Toronto session.We even have a cool logo to boot!
  
• I got to throw down with Dashboard, Bureau, TAXI Canada, and Big Time Design And Communications on some hi-res projects – some of them, such as House Of Innovation(TAXI), Speak Your Mind(Dashboard), and Anthem(Bureau),  are seeing the light of day already. I played a role in the UI development for these sites and even quality assurance – either big or small. A bit challenging, but still, it was an honour with work with them. I learned alot about myself through my experience with them. The sites, themselves, are beautiful in their own light. The designers really know how to deal with the user demographic here.
• I had my first brush with mobile application development AND LIVED -  a first for me, and a realm that I need to explore more. I remembered when I acquired my first Pocket PC and attempted to get one of my sites on there. The tenacity is back. The Hack For A Cause and a few projects can attest to my lack of knowledge in this area. At the current moment, I am sporting 2 Android devices( Motorola Xoom – (Gingerbread) and the LG Optimus 2X(Froyo)) with a micro-HDMI cable(TROUBLE – YES!). I do have a Apple iPod Touch Gen. 2 with iOS 3(or so I think)  and am aiming to make more mobile friendly sites apps. Native didn’t seem to be much of a hassle after I began playing with the XML and luckily, I have an Eclipse Build all the more ready to get myself into jumping in.
• I learned that I lacked what I needed to get to where I’d like to go – realizing that my functionality is still something I needed to finesse. Outside of a basic need, I had other concerns with myself. Not just as a constructor of web, but also as a person. A kung-fu instructor paraphrased this one thing: how you do one thing is how you do everything. Whether it be a punch or a punctuation mark. Case and point – my blog. I stated that I’d be more consistent with my posting, but I have failed at generating good content. Thanks to some well-received nudges, I have decided to stick with my plans of constant blogging. More code related posts would do.

With that all out the way: my only resolution( that I’ll ACTUALLY SHARE) is consistency enough to be more thorough. Hopefully, I’ll top next year.

Until then, let’s see what we can do.