From Keyvan Nayyari and Janko to Mads Kristensen and now to me comes a challenge to tell how I got into programming...

How old were you when you started programming?

I think I was around 14 or 15.

How did you get started in programming?

My friend and I made text adventure games.

What was your first language?

It was some form of BASIC.

What was the first real program you wrote?

By "text adventure game", I really mean lame spaghetti-coded ASCII choose your own adventure "games." My friend had most of the funny ideas and I did most of the programming. He's now in a crazy band in Austin, TX called Natchet Taylor, and I work at a seminary!

What languages have you used since?

ASP, PHP, C#, ActionScript, SQL, X/HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and all the rest...

What was your first professional programming gig?

When I graduated from college, I took a job as a youth pastor. I needed extra cash, so I got a job as as ASP programmer for http://www.texags.com/. At that point, all I had really done was build a personal webpage in college (with animated flaming gifs!), so I just learned everything on the job. It was great fun. In those days, I'd write everything for IE, and then fix it for Netscape. Funny how things change.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

Totally. There's always good work, and it really frees me up to be anywhere. I've made it through an entire masters degree since I could work whenever and wherever, and still be involved with friends and in ministry.

What is the one thing you would tell new developers?

I'll cheat and go with two:

1. Always, always, always have a signed contract with everything spelled out in detail and a 25-50% payment before writing a single line of code.
2. Release as much code as you can (to a blog or whatever). If your code is worth publishing, it means you probably did a good job, and would be something you won't hate to go back and modify later.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?

I would have to say programming online education stuff with foreign language support. I have no idea what any of it says, but it's really fun to develop stuff that is used in a home in Dallas, a tent in the deserts of Iraq, in the Packers lockerroom, and in an underground church in China - and all of it not just to make a buck, but to make a difference in the world. That's rock-star coding.

Okay, I'm passing this on to Nathan Smith, Chris Merritt, and John Saddington. Have fun guys.

Just a little genetics (my college major) humor written in C# 3.0 syntax (with overloaded operators and an implicitely typed local var) to announce that we're going to be parents later this fall! Check out the sweet spin moves below. I'm calling all-star running back...

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“Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalm 127:3

There is a huge need for upside down text on the web. With everyone "going mobile," developers cannot simply rely on users having their screens oriented the same way all the time. I went through all of the possible options for creating upside down text and finally came up with a totally unobtrusive, Unicode enabled, completely web-changing piece of code (which is mostly from someone else and using this and this).

Options for Upside Down Text

1. Images - The most obvious option for upside down text is to open up Photoshop, enter some text, and use Rotate Canvas.
   Pros: easy to do.
   Cons: must be done for every piece of text. Not every OS/browser in the world can display images. This is just unacceptable.
   
   
2. sIFR - I know it's a little 2005 of me to say it, but a great use of Flash is to replace text and rotate it around.
   Pros: works for any HTML text element.
   Cons: requires Flash which has even less support than images. Also, requires extra coding.
   
   
3. Canvas - one day it might be possible to do more with text drawing on a canvas tag, but right now its not
   Pros: none, for now.
   Cons: doesn't exist.
   
   
4. JavaScript - Everyone knows JavaScript can do anything. See my experiments in 3D and color and this guy's port of Mario. Using this great script its possible to simulate upside down characters using Unicode equivalents.
   Pros: is awesome.
   Cons: nothing at all.

Usage &Implementation

Just give your HTML element a class called "upsidedowntext" and add the script in the header and you have pure greatness:

<script type="text/javascript" src="upsidedown.js"></script>

<div class="upsidedowntext">I can be read in any orientation</div>
<div>I can be read in any orientation</div>

<div class="upsidedowntext">This is Tom Cruise taking your picture</div>
<div>This is a boring Russian Mig</div>

Result:

Demo and Download

• Upside down text in action

Note: this post was intended to be an light-hearted (late) April's fools poke at all the random stuff developers are doing with JavaScript, sometimes in the name of a standard or idea that really isn't really needed. Also, I think upside down text is funny.

Today, we decided to take a break from web development and do something truly important: a taste test. Tim, Adam, Brian, and I wanted to see if we could identify Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero in a blind test. We each had three cups that another team member had setup. We tasted each drink and tried to match the drink with the cup and also mark our favorite. Tim is the narrator and then the participants from left to right are: John (me), Adam, Tim, and Brian.

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Results: Adam, Brian, and I all correctly identified the three flavors of Coke. Adam and I choose Coke Zero as the best, while Brian favored Coke Classic. The most interesting result was that Tim thought Coke Zero was Coke Classic and he also thought it was the best tasting. So, Coke Zero is our big winner.

Please post your workplace challenge!