Be Good Not Bad : Web Design :: Brian Warren : Denver, Colorado

Housing Works

by Brian Warren on 16 October, 20089 Comments

Housing Works Homepage

Every now and then a project comes along that just makes me so glad to be doing the things I do. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my work. I even look forward to jumping out of bed and starting my day. But sometimes a project is just truly exceptional. Recently, I had the honor of working on just such a project with the brilliant folks at Happy Cog.

From Housing Works’ about page:

Housing Works is committed to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness. We believe that all people have the right to a rich and empowering life. Since 1990, we have provided the highest quality services for homeless men, women, and children living with HIV and AIDS in New York City and beyond.

That’s a powerful cause, and it’s awesome to get to interact with and ultimately help those who are carrying it out. They are an awe-inspiring group of people.

With the excellent art direction of Daniel Mall, front-end development by yours truly, and Expression Engine development …

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Mix Tape #3

by Brian Warren on 06 August, 20089 Comments

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Sure, it’s been awhile, but one might say I’ve had my hands full. I got the itch to put together another set for you guys, so I hope you enjoy this one.

I make no promises that I’ll do this with any regularity. That way, every time I make one you’ll just be so excited and thankful that it’s there. Something like that.

Brian’s Mix Tape #3 [34.8mb / aac]

I listed all the tracks below, along with links to where you can get them. Please buy the music, unless it’s already free. Except where indicated, I linked to the albums at the Amazon MP3 store.

  1. MGMT - Time to Pretend
  2. Magnetic Fields - I Need a New Heart
  3. Sigur Rós - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
  4. Nico - These Days
  5. Stereolab - Long Life Love (This one’s off a 3 disc set, if you’re looking for this one track, check #6 on disc 3)
  6. The Submarines - Peace and Hate
  7. The Books - take time


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The Survey for People Who Make Websites

by Brian Warren on 31 July, 2008

My mates at A List Apart are conducting a survey for people who make websites. If you are a designer, developer, information architect, project manager, writer, editor, marketer, or in any way/shape/form involved in making websites, go now and spend five-to-ten minutes and take the survey. Last year nearly 33,000 people took the survey and loads of really important information came out of it. For 2008, A List Apart gave the survey a good overhaul, tweaking/fixing/improving lots of things, especially for us freelancers out there.

A List Apart: The Survey for People Who Make Websites This is an important time for this industry, as large companies are considering that maybe the website isn’t just an extension of the IT department, and maybe I can stop just checking “Other” for what industry I’m in when I’m filling out pretty much any form online. Data collected from The Survey goes a long way toward showing the world what’s going on behind the scenes of this internet people are so excited about.

Expression Engine Plugin: Admin Comments

by Brian Warren on 28 July, 20083 Comments

I wrote an Expression Engine plugin to give some administrative ability on the front-end of the site for both members and super-users of a website.

I first wrote this plugin for Animal Internet, a website that we built earlier this year.

The Admin Comments plugin gives users the ability to delete their own comments on a site, super-users the ability to delete anybody’s comment, and also a super-user can choose to close comments instead of deleting them.

View the documentation and download the plugin on the Admin Comments Plugin Page.

It’s pretty handy. I’m using it on this site now. It even gets a cooler if you add in some javascript to make the experience a bit more fluid. I didn’t incorporate that into the released version of the plugin as the javascript is fairly specific to my needs and website, but I’ll include a little video here so you can see what the possibilities are.



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Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible

by Brian Warren on 24 July, 20080 Comments

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I had no idea what I was in for when Anna sent me a link to the site for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. The name alone is fantastic, and then I’m greeted by a glorious graphic of Neil Patrick Harris donned in evil villain garb. Who could resist digging further?

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is the creation of Joss Whedon. It’s a 45-minute film he co-wrote and directed starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Whedon basically got a bunch of his friends to pitch in, and, without the aid of studios or major (even minor) funding, made a movie and put it up on the internet. It was free for about five days, and now it’s available on iTunes for a mere $3.99.

It’s a fantastic, funny story, and also happens to be a musical (I kid you not). You can tell it’s not heavily-funded, but honestly, more money would have just added a bit of polish. The brilliance, talent and entertainment is all there. It’s a great example of how much can be …

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Beating the Heat and the Gas Prices with My Scooter

by Brian Warren on 25 June, 20080 Comments

My Scooter, with odometer reading 1263.3

It’s been just about a year since I bought my scooter. As you can see, I have gotten some decent use out of it, traveling over 1200 miles. I’ve had lots of fun driving all over the Denver metro area and finding the scooter to be even more useful than I anticipated. It’s nimble, fun, and exactly what I need for day-to-day driving. I think everyone should have one.

Here are a few stats for a year of riding (thanks to the geniuses at My Mile Marker):

  • Total Miles: 1263.3
  • Avg Miles Per Gallon: 93.9
  • Total Spent On Gas: $39.35
  • Projected Costs for next year: $42.75 (ouch!)

I’ll post again next year with the results. I have a hunch the numbers will be higher since I’ve, again, moved my office out of my house. It’s the perfect commuting vehicle. I just toss my lunch, MacBook Air, and house keys into the little compartment in the back, don my helmet, and ride off to work. You can’t beat it!

To quote Ferris Bueller (who was referring …

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Fifty Thousand Shirts - a campaign of Hope for China

by Brian Warren on 22 May, 2008

My buddy Steve from Clear is organizing a campaign to raise some money to help in the huge devastation left by the earthquake in China. Buy a shirt and help out a little!

Why ExpressionEngine Should Be Your Next CMS

by Brian Warren on 22 May, 2008

Mr. Irelan waxes on about how rad Expression Engine is. I keep meaning to write a post like this, explaining just why I keep using it for pretty much every client site I do. The only problem is I’m too busy building Expression Engine sites to write about it.

Muxtape With Coverflow using Fluid

by Brian Warren on 18 April, 2008

This is lots of fun. Muxtape you already know about, and Fluid is an application for making self-contained applications out of webpages. As you’ll see in this little video, it does that and a whole lot more. It’s a fantastic app to have in your arsenal, and a great tool for listening to Muxtape.

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Housing Works

CSS, XHTML, JavaScript Development

Housing Works

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