Thanks to Jason over at FlashDen.net for writing up a little piece about my PORT project. It may be interesting, and very valuable, if we can collaborate on implementing certain components from the FlashDen repository into some PORT projects.

I would just like to respond to this article a little.

PORT will be released with a focus at Actionscript developers as mentioned. Depending on how things go, it may expand to other aspects of web (design, other languages, etc). My goal is to keep this service free for all users. I am not making any money from this project. I feel that the education system for our field needs to start a reform and I have not seen it happening, but one of us has to start it… Simply throwing funds at your problems will not fix them.

The service will require registration. The reason for this is because we may need your email for certain projects that require a “client interaction.” Some projects will have updates half-way through or important notifications. If you hand in work without the changes, it will be marked down. Also, it is important to record that ‘John Doe’ sent in Project A, Project B, etc so we can record your grades and give credit where credit is due. Everyone hates registration so I will make it as simple as possible (including implementation of OpenID). The PORT website will proudly be using and supporting the Silverstripe CMS system. Check it out!

More news to come! Thanks for the support so far.

A lot of designers, especially minimalistic designers, like to use subtleties in their designs. What I mean is using icons or color changes that really blend. Your eye can understand that they are there, but it is hard to really see where they start and end. Designers often use very very light lines to divide things which may make it hard for a programmer to notice. If you are ever working with a real subtle layout, check out this example that may help you target where everything is.

Normal Layout Where are the details?

Layout with Color Burn Ahh.. there it all is..

To achieve this, simply create a layer on top of everything.. Fill it with green.. set the blend mode to “Color Burn”.

You’ll see all those subtle lines, strokes, and gradients show up vividly.