Brian McCulloh

Outer Spice Web Company

Brian — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:28:43 +0000

I have just founded a web development company with a former coworker called Outer Spice Web Company. We do custom websites and web applications, Wordpress customization and integration, and PHP/MySql-based solutions. Here is a screenshot of the front page:

We have several clients on board and we look forward to performing top-quality services for years to come. Our website is a custom design by me, and it’s supposed to give the feeling of “vintage space” if you will. You have to see it for yourself to get the feel. We are extremely excited about this new venture. Follow us on Twitter!

I will be doing most of my development blogging on the Outer Spice Blog from now on. You should subscribe to our blog! I will still make updates here, but not nearly as frequently.

Market On Morris

Brian — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:27:25 +0000

Market On Morris is a companion site to WIDC and part of the same overall project. It is an informational site for a local farmers’ market, and the website is owned and operated by WIDC, the neighborhood organization that runs the farmers’ market. I wanted to go with a very simple design that would invoke a fresh, clean, outdoorsy feeling to match the idea of an outdoor summer farmers’ market. I decided to go with some blues and oranges to give the feeling of the Sun shining on a summer day. Big typeface, extended line heights, large headings, and lots of padding and white space give the site a very simple feel. This is the second iteration of the website. The first version was done by a web design studio which did not fulfill the needs of the Market On Morris. Needless to say, the contract with that studio was canceled and I was commissioned to do a full redesign of the website. The client is very happy with the result, as all of my clients have been in the past. I’m beginning to notice a trend here…

WIDC

Brian — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:43:05 +0000

WIDC is the web presence of the West Indianapolis Development Corporation, a neighborhood organization in Indianapolis. The site needed to be young, hip, and portray the feeling of a modern, up-and-coming, urban neighborhood. I used a color scheme and created a design from scratch based off of it that I thought represented this idea. The site was to be very minimalistic without a lot of bells and whistles. Visitors are encouraged to physically walk into the WIDC building or call them as opposed to anonymously filling out a contact form. This website is built on the Wordpress framework and WIDC is able to administrate the content of the pages without knowing any code.

Gmail Autopilot™ – April Fools

Brian — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:48:35 +0000

My favorite part: “Conclusion: Terminate Relationship.”

This is a great commentary on the way we communicate with each other online. That little slider graph on the right side says it all. Lots of typos and emoticons, no capitalization or brevity. Who wants to have to hit the shift key every time there’s supposed to be a capital letter? Actually that’s a serious question. I never use capitalization in off-the-cuff emails, chat, or texts. It’s a total waste of time. I figure I’ve probably saved over an hour just in the last six months by not using capital letters.

IE 8.1: Eagle Eyes

Brian — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:41:48 +0000

This summer Microsoft is set to release Internet Explorer 8.1, codenamed “Eagle Eyes”. You can read about some of the notable features in this article from Smashing Magazine. The feature that most impressed me was the ability to support Firefox extensions. I can’t wait to install Web Developer with IE8.1 so I can use the same tools as when I’m testing in Firefox 3.

The thing that makes me sad is that at my company we’re still mostly using IE6. IE6!!! That means when I develop web applications I have to make them compatible with Firefox, IE6, IE7, and now IE8, which all render websites differently. IE8.1 says it has the ability to render websites in different compatibility modes, but I’ve tried this feature before and it doesn’t work. Well, I should point out that it does work for 90% of the markup, but the 10% of the markup that it doesn’t render correctly is always inevitably the 10% of the markup that ends up being the culprit. Let’s just say I’ll believe the compatibility mode feature when I see it. And even then, I’ll probably actually open up the other browsers and check just to be sure.

Microsoft: thank you for attempting to make a fast, compatible browser. I will never forgive you for IE6, but thank you anyway.

*UPDATE:* I guess this was an April Fools joke. I did think the server-side code decompiler was weird – I sort of glossed over that section. Anyway, way to fool me the day before April 1st, Smashing Magazine. Smashing Magazine – 1, Brianmcculloh.com – 0.

True North Landscaping

Brian — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:34:52 +0000

I recently finished an informational/marketing “brochure” website for a landscaping company built on the Wordpress framework. The design is completely original and developed solely by me, and it was created as a Wordpress theme and ported to the framework. Multiple custom PHP forms were created inside the Wordpress installation for contacting the business, and several add-ons were used, such as Featured Content Gallery and NextGEN Photo Gallery. This design is actually version 3 of the website, replacing versions 1 & 2 which I previously did for this client several years back.

RTM Consultants

Brian — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:42:49 +0000

External website, Document Management System, Content Management System, and Wiki. RTM Consultants is a client-based website for a consulting firm who had an existing website and needed something that A) looked and felt more modern, B) was controlled by a content management system for fast & easy updating, C) contained an administrator document management system, and D) allowed clients to login and access their project documents. I was able to provide RTM with a scalable solution that met and exceeded these main objectives. The biggest task was rebuilding the database structure and importing 5 years worth of existing document data while providing a seamless transition for client accounts. This design is actually version 2 of the website, replacing version 1 which I did for this client several years back.

Wordpress 2.7

Brian — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:28:07 +0000

I have been putting off this upgrade for a while, but I was forced to do it when my hosting account got suspended and I realized I needed to optimize and upgrade my Wordpress databases. I believe Wordpress has some trouble indexing really old posts, and someone apparently tried to access a post that was over a year old, giving me a CPU error. At least that’s what my hosting support told me.

Anyway, take a look at this screenshot of the new dashboard. It’s beautiful. You can write posts directly on the dashboard. I like how it puts your drafts right in front of you to remind you to actually finish them. Look at that. Apparently I was going to post about the Large Hadron Collider a while back. I wonder what in the world I possibly had to say?

Circle City Pedicabs

Brian — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:50:42 +0000

Indy Pedicabs is an informational/marketing “brochure” website for a small pedicab company located in Indianapolis, IN. This project had a tight budget, and I was able to provide a modern, clean, trendy website for this hip, downtown business. Wordpress on the back-end, a modified version of the Ashford template on the front-end, and lots of customization, including the Wordpress Contact Form plug-in and the NextGEN Photo Gallery. The client is able to login to a control panel and update the calendar of events.

Gmail Introduces Themes

Brian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:50:07 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I logged onto my Gmail account and discovered that a whole new world of themes awaited me. A few years ago iGoogle did the same thing, and some of the themes available for Gmail are reminiscent of iGoogle themes (Tea House for instance).

Go to Settings >> Themes to sample all the different Gmail themes. My personal favorite is Terminal: