NBC

• Crusoe - October 17, 2008
• Kings - sometime in 2009
• Listener - sometime in 2009
• My Own Worst Enemy - October 13, 2008

ABC

• The Goode Family - November 1, 2008
• Life On Mars - October 9, 2008

The CW

• 90210 - September 2, 2008

CBS

• Eleventh Hour - October 9, 2008
• Mentalist - September 23, 2008

FOX

• Dollhouse - sometime in 2009
• Fringe - September 9, 2008

And there you go. I think that covers all the info one needs on the TV fall schedule. All it is left is to sit and wait for the schedule to kick in.

If you need a short info on the each of those shows be sure to check out my earlier post on the new shows coming our way in fall 2008

photo credit: aikijuanma

Since new TV fall schedule is coming our way it is time for me to do a little research on when will the actual series premiere. If you haven’t had already be sure to check out my earlier post on 2008 Fall Schedule and on the new shows that will start this fall.

Having introduction behind us let’s get down to the good stuff. This article covers the renewed shows schedule. The new shows schedule is in the works.

Check it out and get ready for a solid dose of your favorite TV shows that survived yet another season.

NBC

• 30 Rock - October 30, 2008
• Heroes - September 22, 2008
• Knight Rider - September 24, 2008
• added: The Office - September 25, 2008

ABC

• Boston Legal - September 22, 2008
• Dirty Sexy Money - October 1, 2008
• Eli Stone - October 14, 2008
• Lost - early 2009
• Scrubs - no info yet

The CW

• Supernatural - September 18, 2008
• Smallville - September 18, 2008
• The Reaper - no info yet

CBS

• Criminal Minds - September 24, 2008
• CSI - October 9, 2008
• CSI: Miami - September 22, 2008
• CSI: NY - September 24, 2008
• Numb3rs - October 3, 2008

Fox

• 24 - November 23, 2008
• Bones - September 3, 2008
• House - September 16, 2008
• Prison Break - September 1, 2008
• Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles - September 8, 2008

And that is that. Stay tuned for the second part: new TV shows in the fall schedule 2008. And if you want to be on top of what TV show you are interested in airs on what date and you are a Mac user be sure to head over to Big Bucket and check out this great dashboard widget called TV Forecast

I am taking a week of free time to get away from both work and well, blogging. Hopefully I’ll return well rested with my battereis charged and with lots of ideas for awesome posts.

Until then I’ll hope you’ll stick around and see you all in a week!

photo credit: betoinorge

In general I am happy with current situation. I think GregWolejko.com benefits from this move and I really hope that you, the reader do too. There are few areas that I am really happy with the results and I definitely don’t regret decision that I made.

The way I see it is that there is one thing that seems to be worse than before the move and few that make me really happy. What are they? Well, read on.

Only thing that doesn’t make me smile is the number of visitors. Since I used to be posting every day I grew used to more day to day visitors. Since reducing my posting frequency, number of people coming to my blog daily dropped quite a bit. But it is not all that bad since…

I get the feeling that by putting more time and effort into every post I make I get more valuable visits. Let me explain. Although my number of visitors is dropping average time on site is increasing and also, number of page views is getting better. This is something that I am really happy about since my goal is not to gather as many people I can (although it would be nice) but to interest as many people as I can. I prefer one interested visitor to ten random people just scanning my site for a few seconds. So, I count this as a biggest benefit.

Next thing that actually surprised me is the quality of comments I get. Not that there was something wrong with comments I used to get, but I noticed that now I get longer more thought through comments and that is a good thing. Number of comments this site generates is still increasing and if you combine with the fact that number of viewers dropped it seems that even more people are actually commenting. And I am loving that.

As mentioned before I now have more time to invest in both research and other blog related activities. This improved quality of articles. I can tell that by getting more linkbacks from other blogs (meaning more people are finding my posts useful and worth linking to). I also now have time for doing a bit more networking and this really helped with getting more traffic from other sites.

All in all I find my new blogging schedule to be simply more beneficial. It also reduced the pressure of coming up with a good topic every day. I would definitely recommend rethinking blogging schedule to anyone that has enough generated content on site that doesn’t needs to post everyday.

photo credit: suchitraprints

How do you put value on an pure HTML design? How can you tell if the HTML is good or if it sucks badly?

Those are the questions I was asking myself for some time now. In one of my current projects I do QA of all designs that are thrown at us. So basically I decide whether the code is acceptable, whether it is production grade or whether it should be rewritten.

So how do I can tell that? Well, there are couple things you have to keep an eye on. Let me go into more details and list what decides if the code will sink or swim.

• Valid HTML - this is a nobrainer: it is an equivalent of a code that compiles. If you don’t have a valid HTML this is your priority.
• Unobtrusive JavaScript - all the scripts should be placed in a separate file(s) and wrote in a clean light manner.
• Proper style handling - this one is quite vast subject. Styles should be also in separate file(s), styles for alternative viewing devices should be provided (mobile, print).
• Reduced additional files - although both CSS and javascript should be in separate files, you shouldn’t create too much of those. Every file is additional request to the server thus loading times get longer. Also, there is a lovely IE6 bug that doesn’t allow you more than 33 CSS files (I think it is 33)
• Semantic Markup - this is also a trait of a quality HMTL. Proper class naming, using right elements to do the job, all this is required  for your code to shine.
• Organized code - this goes to all the javascript coders out there: if you write a code be sure to comment it. Make it readable. Use variable names that mean something. This is very basic stuff but it needs to be said. You need to do this. Otherwise in some time your code won’t be readable to any one (yes, even to you)
• Loading Time - this is also pretty basic stuff but since not everyone has a 6MB Internet connection, in order to view your site users need to be able to download it. Quicker it does so, better user experience you create.
• Cross browser issues - this is fairly basic but has to be said also: If you create a project in HTML, be sure to check it in various browsers. Just to be sure. What browsers? IE6, IE7, Firefox2, Firefox3, Safari, Opera. This should suffice.

Wow, that is a handful. This should be more than enough to get you going. There is only one thing missing from the list, one thing that lets you decide whether the code is OK - it is your own expertise and experience. Bottom line: you need to know your stuff before you will judge someone else’s.

Hopefully this was helpful. But what about you? How do you tell if the HTML sucks or not? How can you grade it as production ready code? Care to share?

photo credit: knitsteel

Last week Oskar asked me a valid question: why I don’t use javascript libraries (jQuery, Prototype, Mootools) and stick with coding in plain JS. I loved this question so much that I have decided to turn it into full blown article.

So I sat in my chair and started thinking. Why am I hand coding most of the javascripts that I produce, that are deployed on production machines? I did some work with jQuerry, I have used Prototype. Haven’t used Mootools as much as I’d like to but at least I know of its brilliance. So why I am not using js frameworks?

Here is why:

Flexibility - by not falling in love with a particular framework I am left with more flexibility when new projects come my way. Due to the nature of my work at Cognifide I often get involved at later project iterations when some javascript is already produced. Knowing the language more than a framework allows me to easily work in both jQuery and Prototype as well as in pure javascript projects.

Developer background - having a history of developing in pure C I must admit: I love to code. I love to produce hand made code. This is mainly why I also love to code in javascript. It is fantastic feeling that js frameworks partially take away from me.

Insight - by writing javascript on my own I know exactly what is behind methods I use. By writing code in a best possible way I also have a point of reference to what mentioned javascript frameworks have to offer.

Accessibility - keeping relatively low size of a page that user need to download we create faster response times enhancing accessibility. And why should I include additional files and kilobytes of code when I need only two maybe three things.

Using right tool for the job - let me stress that I have nothing against popular frameworks and I love to use them whenever needed but the thing is that you don’t always need a whole piece of javascript magic when the site you are making needs to be low on javascript with just a sprinkle of dynamic javascript functionality.

So this is it. Hopefully you can relate to my reasons, maybe even add few of your own. Or do you believe that all this is just lame and every self respecting front end developer should use a framework of his choice?

Either way I am really hoping for some feedback here. What do you say?

All this got me thinking about reasons why new Punisher movie will kick ass and this turned out into a quick list for you.

And here it is:

• Lead actor actually knows what he is doing. Check out this interview with Ray Stevenson and get this: he has actually read all the comics portraying both punisher and the bad guys just to get the big picture.  
• This film will be hardcore. Check out this alternative Punisher: War Zone trailer (longer, more brutal) version and see for yourself.
• Jigsaw. That is it. One of the best villains in the comic book world. Ray describes it best in the interview above.

That’s it. Only thing left to do is to watch the trailer. Enjoy.

I used to blog five times a week but recently I lowered my posting frequency to around 3. Why? Well it is a topic for a whole new blog post but generally I haven’t had time to deliver top quality posts and since top notch quality is my thing I decided to post less.

What I have gained by doing this? Well, a bit more free time that can be spent on writing better content. I have also gained perspective. What sort of a perspective? When blogging five days a week, process of writing and publishing was taking up around 90% of my time set for blogging. Now I can do all sorts of blog maintenance and still have some time to spare.

And here is the juicy part: What you should do while not blogging?

• Social network - after my article on making site’s prototypes was made popular on digg.com two things happened: I got tons of traffic and I started appreciate digg community having the inside of what are the benefits of getting dugg. Since then I spent more time networking on social sites (StumbleUpon is next on the list) to promote my content and let me tell you I see enormous results  from doing it.
• Visit other bloggers - another thing with having more time is that I can finally go past my RSS reader and actually go the sites I read every day and comment on the posts that have caught my attention. Increase in traffic on my site as a result of this strategy is yet to be seen but seeing this in action on Kacper’s site keeps me in optimistic.
• Catch up with mail - similar thing to the above. Besides commenting on sites I plan to launch direct campaign to promote myself to specific bloggers wishing for some link-love.
• Tinker with your blog - add a little changes to your blog. Maybe another widget? Maybe work on how your posts are displayed? For me top priorities are “Me2.0” page where you will be able to find me on various social networks and “Best Posts” page where I will hand pick my best content for you to see.
• Redesign your blog - this is a big one. Think if maybe it is a good time to redesign your blog? Add a little spark? Rebrand yourself? I know that GregWolejko.com needs new design and as soon as I will finish my secret project I am working on right now, my focus will be completely directed to making GregWolejko.com shine.
• Plan - time to set up milestones. No goal is a real goal until it is measurable. It is time to set up a milestone goals for me and focus on reaching them. In my case this will be connected to getting more RSS subscribers and getting more other blogs linking back to me. But that’s only the beginning.
• Have fun - this will be easy. Have fun. Relax. Get some time to rest and recharge your blogging batteries.

As you can see by getting more spare time I also got more focus points. One can argue if this is a god thing but I know it is. Hopefully soon both you and me will see benefits of my new blogging strategy.

I also hope that my list here helped you a little with setting your own blogging goals…

…or maybe you have other ideas? Something that I’ve missed here? Care to share? I am definitely interested in your opinion.

As fun as it may be you need to be careful when doing it as there are some possible pitfalls. What are those? Well, there are few:

• no easy way to test if element has an event assigned
• risk of overwriting handlers
• different browsers means different ways to actually get the job done (here is looking at you IE)

This is why it is always helpful to have this following piece of code for unobtrusive and cross browser adding and removing events. Code was originally written few years ago by the one and only John Resig but it is still awesomely cool and easy to use.

So without further hesitation, here are two important methods: addEvent and removeEvent.

addEvent (obj, type, fn)

Parameters:

• obj - element that event will be registered to
• type - type of the event
• fn - function that will be launched upon the event

Code:
function addEvent(obj, type, fn){
if (obj.attachEvent) {
obj['e' + type + fn] = fn;
obj[type + fn] = function(){
obj['e' + type + fn](window.event);
}
obj.attachEvent(’on’ + type, obj[type + fn]);
}
else
obj.addEventListener(type, fn, false);
}

removeEvent (obj, type, fn)

Parameters:

• obj - element that event will be registered to
• type - type of the event
• fn - function that will be launched upon the event

Code:

function removeEvent(obj, type, fn){
if (obj.detachEvent) {
obj.detachEvent(’on’ + type, obj[type + fn]);
obj[type + fn] = null;
}
else
obj.removeEventListener(type, fn, false);
}


Usage:

addEvent(document.getElementById('my_elem'),'click',foo);

And that is pretty much it. Just copy and paste it to your project and have fun with it.

Lifestreaming is a quite an interesting concept. It is loosely connected to the whole web3.0 slash semantic web thing as it is all about aggregating information and data that one publishes on different social sites in one place (application) for others to be able to view your complete online activity.

With all those interesting social sites that pretty much are a part of our lives the idea seems quite cool. I mean I would love the be able to group all my photos from flickr.com, my music from last.fm, twitts from twitter, posts from GregWolejko.com and maybe then I would even start using stuff like brightkite.com or use more frequently web apps like scrnshots.com or flickchart.com.

So why I haven’t been doing this? Or better yet, how can one do this right now?

Well there is one major player right now: FriendFeed and I don’t use it. Why? Hard to say. Basically it is not pretty and it is in fact a whole another social-y site you need to register to.

I was happily living in a world where I won’t be able to actually do a lifestreaming but then all has changed. Enter Sweetcron. A work in progres application (piece of opensource code) by Yongfook that will solve all my problems right there.

Sweetcron will be installable on your own servers (so it will for example be under gregwolejko.com domain) but will aggregate web activity from all over Teh Internet. Sounds pretty sweet. Only problem is that it is not out yet.

Only thing that you can do right now with Sweetcron is sign up for the newsletter to be notified when the product will be launched or see it as a live preview on Youngfook’s site.

Sweetcron is to be 100% free and fully customisable two things I am a sucker for. This will make stuff so much easier as it will be possible to seamlessly integrate it with your current web setup.

While I resisted the whole idea of a lifestreaming in the past now it seems that I will love Sweetcron. It seems that it will fulfill all my aggregating needs. Hopefully it will live up to the hype.

And what about you? Are you on board with the whole lifestreaming concept? Are you doing it? What do you use? Care to share?