Brad Bice - professional portfolio, projects and examples

2010 NBA Playoffs bracket and Playoffs results are live!

Brad — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:45:26 +0000

Get the latest 2010 NBA Playoffs bracket, with NBA Playoffs results and scores and NBA Playoffs schedule now at NBAPlayoffsBracket.com!

Now in its 7th year, the NBA Playoffs bracket is once again live with updated game schedules, results and scores! Follow your favorite team as they run the gauntlet that is the playoffs schedule!

If you have any suggestions or comments please be sure to leave them at the link provided on the bracket page.

I am again cooperating with Breathingfire.com on this project.

NBA Playoffs bracket now easier to access

Brad — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:26:23 +0000

One of my favorite projects to work on each year is the NBA Playoffs bracket for Breathingfire.com. It updates automatically as the games are completed in the regular season to show the developing playoff picture.

And during the actual playoffs it is updated with scores and links to game recaps.

Now the folks at Breathingfire.com have made it easier than ever to access. Just go to NBAPlayoffsbracket.com and you will be taken directly to the latest bracket! this is much easier than having to remember or bookmark a lengthy URL.

You can also access their experimental NFL Playoffs bracket that I am working on at NFLPlayoffsbracket.com.

Check them out!

Communicating With Web Standards

Brad — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:30:51 +0000

The social web has allowed us to interact with each other in new ways, but so much of our browsing experience is robotic, impersonal, and just plain dull. The web should be about communication, the fervent exchange of information in a highly efficient and organized manner.

FurnitureShed

Brad — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:31:23 +0000

This e-commerce, outdoor furniture store was designed in 2004. A clean and easy to use design was needed to facilitate customer browsing and ordering. The website was built with valid transitional XHTML markup and CSS 2.1.

The navigation bar utilized CSS 2.1 techniques for it’s cascading menu features. For browsers that did not support CSS 2.1 at the time, these features were virtualized with Javascript.

The link is to an archived version of the website. Original site Coldfusion programming and logo design by S. Johnson. An individual product page can also be seen.

Internet Explorer 6 compatibility

Brad — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:46:31 +0000

There is a growing campaign in the web development community calling for the death of version 6 of the Internet Explorer browser by Microsoft. Introduced in 2001, it had ruled the market share of browser usage for years until the coming of Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer 7.

I did a quick Google search for the term “ie6″ and found a startling six “death to ie6″ websites on just the first two pages of results. These include:

And one likely parody, SaveIE6.

One of the main reasons for the IE6 hate is its lack of support for web standards such as full CSS 2.1 compliance and PNG alpha transparency. Another is its many security issues which come with being the top browser for approximately 5 years. While no browser available supports every standard, even IE7 at least supports a larger contingent of CSS 2.1 selectors, PNG alpha transparency and is a little better on security.

While it may seem easier to point visitors to new browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera, Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari or even Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, it is important to note that some people either can not or will not upgrade. Many business computers still run IE6, and will do so for years to come. So what is the solution for web developers who want to escape having to “fix” their websites for IE6?

Andy Clarke, a member of the Web Standards Project and a former invited expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group, provided a solution that I find appealing. Since the content of a website is most important, make sure that content is viewable and accessible to users of IE6 by providing them with an IE6-only CSS stylesheet. This renders the page in a very readable and organized yet generic design while separating the main design for others using more current and advanced browsers.

This is done by inserting IE conditional comments into the portion of your website’s HTML, like so:

The stylesheet code is available on Google Code for anyone to use for free. I am using it on this website as a mere 10% of my visitors are currently browsing with IE6. It is important that designers and developers view their logs and stats to determine what browsers to support. I will usually adapt my design for IE6 (or any other browser) if more than 30% of my visitors are using it.

As Jeffrey Zeldman said when referring to Clarke’s method, “no solution, however elegant, will work for every situation.” But work like this will allow for an easier transition as the world upgrades.

Typekit will change the web

Brad — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:44:21 +0000

Looking forward to using Typekit, a new technology that easily allows for @font-face use in websites.

A grand re-opening

Brad — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:50:51 +0000

Thank you for stopping by my newly designed website. Over the past few months I have been slowly piecing together what would become my new home on the web, and it has been a fun and challenging project. I am still cleaning up around the edges (for example, the contact forms are not working in IE7, my web and project works need explanations added, and I need to write some print styles for all the pages.)

I am using WordPress as my content managment system, and what you see here is an entirely original and hand-coded theme created from the ground up. It utilizes XHTML Strict 1.0 and CSS 2.1 for structure and design, respectively. I am also making use of jQuery and various WordPress plugins for different levels of behavior and functionality.

On the Work page, you will find my professional portfolio. Here are examples of my work, and various writings and projects I have completed over the past few years. Please feel free to view and comment on them. I encourage constructive crticism!

My résumé is available for those interested in my background. For a more complete version however, please contact me via the information on my contact page.

On some pages I have also included my latest Twitter updates, as well as some interesting links. I encourage you all to follow me via Twitter, and I will do the same!

Again, thank you for visiting. You can subscribe to my RSS feed to receive updates as they happen, and Twitter will receive notifications as well.

PHP/MySQL gameshow

Brad — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:12:07 +0000

This is a custom project developed for a history professor at Grand Valley State University.

The professor needed a game show-type of interactive panel that he could use to quiz his class with. After choosing a class, question and contestant, a question will appear with the answer hidden. The student can answer the question out loud, and the “host” can highlight the answer on the page to see if they are right.

Near the bottom are sound effects that can be used as timers, and also as right and wrong indicators.

Near-future changes

Brad — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:41:35 +0000

This website will soon become my online portfolio, housing my resume, past projects and a showcase of my website work.

It will also sport an original design by me and not this default WordPress theme.

I am looking at an April 1st, 2009 Grand (re-)Opening.

Update 5/20: The changes are made, and the website is now live!

Internet as a public sphere

Brad — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:31:25 +0000

A class project for my Communications Capstone Public Sphere class at Grand Valley State University.

The assignment was to use research an emerging technology and determine whether or not it is a part of or a form of the public sphere.

This page takes a term that is input by the user, and displays results of a search for that term from Twitter, Google and Technorati blog search. In theory, these three popular sources will give a glimpse at the general discourse of that term on the internet.