Theo Chakkapark.
Without Theo, who knows where I’d be. Frustrated and uninspired by having to learn Java at university thanks to C++ being removed from the syllabus after I enrolled, and at a time when Java felt incredibly primitive and like it didn’t really belong as an application on a web page – which the university were advertising it as. Learning the ways of the web was a way forward for me.
I’d learnt HTML at college in my spare time whilst creating both a simple college site for my friends and a Red Dwarf fan site (space background, the usual). Not that I had the Internet, so it could never go live. Some months later I was online and started my own website using the trusty HTML tables I’d learnt all by myself to distribute some crappy games I’d made.
“Why not try using Server Side Includes?” asked Theo. “They’ll let you include common content on every page without having to repeat it in your code.”
I was confused. “But I can use frames, and they are better! Look, I can scroll the sidebar independently of the main site!”
Thank goodness Theo stuck with me. Not only did he convince me Server Side Includes were better than frames, but he gave me an opportunity to run my site on his network, where it eventually became an incredibly popular community with over 10,000 registered users. His introduction to a basic feature of classic ASP led on to me producing a whole community site, with dynamic updates, commenting, membership and skins. Unfortunately, the site got so popular I was made to move to my own server as I was eating bandwidth like it was one of those bags of Haribo which project managers keep leaving on my desk – but my hunger for learning never stopped.
I went on to build an e-commerce site for my dissertation; learn ASP.NET and work on high profile websites such as Barclays and Sainsbury’s. Theo helped me get a step on the ladder by teaching me how to improve on something I was interested in.
Now we are reaching a time where HTML5 and CSS 3 are slowly coming of age in a world which is also rapidly evolving thanks to jQuery. I’m no longer working as a web developer, so I have to learn these skills in my own time or be left behind.
Hence the re-introduction of my blog – a chance for me to share some code, write some tutorials and perhaps fill in the gaps of the life of Andi that you’ve all been pining for since my last post.
At work, I find myself becoming Theo and trying to convince the web developers to start learning HTML5 now. Once HTML5 has arrived, a lot of what we do now will be outdated and developers still using HTML4 will be given the equivalent of HTML emails for the next generation (probably making sites specifically for Internet Explorer 6).
As they say, you snooze you lose. Thanks Theo, wherever you are. I don’t think he realises quite what an impact he made…
Some of us manage to make a living at C++… It doesn’t look as good though
I wasn’t knocking C++, in fact if we’d done that at uni I’d probably coding in it right now.
I was disappointed when I found out we were coding in Java – especially when it was being pushed to us as a web platform.
Nice set up I like it
I’m still around. Found this while bored searching my name on google. Glad to hear you made something out of what was taught to you
Theo was Ranmaguy right? That was seriously 10 years ago. We’re all old.
Andi, you were my Theo. Well.. You and Clubsoft, I bugged the hell out of that guy for code samples. Good luck with the new blog! Use some of your new CSS3 techniques to give this thing a better feel!