sermad.com - Latest Comments

Re: Digital Pioneers

sermad — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 19:42:10 -0000

Yes of course Patric is the wife of Robert. I don't think I ever proof read my post properly. Thanks for reminding me to change that.

Re: Digital Pioneers

Gayle Westrate — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 16:33:25 -0000

For the record, the spelling of Patric is correct and she's actually a woman (strong character, brilliant mind, unfailingly gracious), and the wife of Robert Holzman.

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

anjali28 — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 05:04:11 -0000

Nope, not really. (I just came upon this Disqus thread when I signed into Disqus and realised I never saw it before!). I dropped out of the Codecademy thing of course - it turned out to be non-intuitive for someone like me, and just too much effort. Ah well.

Re: Learn to Code – 2.4 Damien Hirst Spot Paintings – Random

Robert M Wildling — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:41:01 -0000

Thank you very much for your quick response and your offer to present a tutorials on how to manipulate array objects within a canvas! i am very much looking forward to it!

Just to share my thoughts with you: having peeked into proceesingJS a little further already, i know that there is the function draw(), which enables all the fancy animations.
The reason for thinking about arrays is that it might be less CPU intense to set up the ellipses in the setup function and collect them in an array to eventually animate them in the draw-section by looping through the array. Because jumping through all those for-loops and nested for-loops and setting them up again and again up to 60 times per second might become to processor intensive.

I do have a Flash history, but didn't work with it since 6, 7 years. And I haven't looked into canvas yet, but I guess the principles remain pretty much the same. On the other hand, of course, I am not really sure if looping though an array is really less CPU-intense ...

Well, I hope you will share your insights with us!!! I really do!

Thanks again and have a nice day!
Greetings from Vienna, Austria.

Re: Learn to Code – 2.4 Damien Hirst Spot Paintings – Random

sermad — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:55:53 -0000

Hi Robert,

Thanks for trying out the tutorials and for also commenting.

I certainly did plan on creating a tutorial for arrays and possibly even objects. These are pretty advance topics to a beginner so they might come a little later after some other things.

But for you I will create a jsFiddle soon showing how to place objects in an array so you can reference them easily.

Re: Learn to Code – 2.4 Damien Hirst Spot Paintings – Random

Robert M Wildling — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:50:54 -0000

Thank you so much for these insightful tutorials! - I was wondering if there is any possibility to talk to any of those ellipsis again later, like to an object. I added an spotArray.push("ellipse_"+x+y); to identify them - but I really don't know, if all the added spots are actually really objects that can be manipulated later on, again. Can you please help me to gain anymore insight into this problem? Thanks in advance!

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

Em Wu — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 05:11:35 -0000

Hah.

I just recently learned about the term, and was immediately pulled into the hype. As a advertising student with love for both creative and digital strategy, I dont have a problem with the term as much as I do with its ambiguity. I think there is confusion over the term, as both you and Igor pointed out. When you google "Creative Technologist", barely anything useful comes up, except a slideshare you did from a while back (which I read, loved, and got me to take interest in you).

I do think that ad majors should be required to take more classes in computer science and digital strategy, but it seems like our curriculum can never keep up with the ever evolving field of advertising. Learning more about digital platforms, knowing how to code and prototyping, are things I'm trying to now learn on my own now that I'm about to finish up my degree.

I'm really thankful for your posts on learning how to code and sites like codeacademy. I'm even considering enrolling in some online classes and if you had any suggestions that would be awesome!

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

philmang — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:08:32 -0000

Couldn't agree more. When I was coding all the time I found that I never fully processed code theories until I had to use them for something. So much so that later in my coding life (and today when I find myself coding something for myself or a prototype) I generally researched while working.
I guess I have the advantage of architecture and the like is something I think about even on projects I'm not coding, but the model of learning and building to fit the idea is definitely still the key part.

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

pokervixen — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:16:02 -0000

I took a Ruby class last month as it was touted to be the "programming language for non programmers" I've always been that intermediary between end users and programmers and thought this would help me from both sides. The moving parts factor is definitely huge but understanding format was a building block that was important. Still not sure that programming is something I'd like to get involved in further though because what it expects you to 'just know' seems awfully presumptive and overwhelming.

Re: Game your game

The_SwedishFish — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:04:05 -0000

Interesting post. I think that in this case it comes down to non-competing goals of the game designer versus the game player. The goal of the player is obviously to win the money but in this case the goal of the designer is not to keep the player from winning, it is to promote a particular product or service.

I've developed a few site and social media based contest and promotions. I would definitely agree I've seen people try to "game" each one. It still bothers me a bit but not as much as it used to. The challenge now, I think, is to try and develop a system where "gaming" the system still in some way helps to further the promotion or product.

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

Jakerayson — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:14:51 -0000

I'm a web designer & front end developer - javascript really is pretty mandatory for contract work, hence learning jquery.

Good luck with the tutorials

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

sermad — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:05:49 -0000

This is great info. Like you said, I'm going to try to break down an exercise into learning one major concept. This will be a little tricky as there is so much to learn first.

Can I ask why you've jumped into learning jQuery? Have you got something you need to do or are you just trying to expand your knowledge?

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

sermad — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:02:56 -0000

Nice one A. Did you have any programming experience before?

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

Jakerayson — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:59:25 -0000

I've been trying to learn jQuery with the Head First book, but I find the exercises too long and discursive. Succint and one major thing to remember from each exercise would be better IMHO. I've heard good things about the JavaScript Enlightenment books - less chummy but possibly a little more memorable? So looking forward to your tutorials :)

Re: Learning to program isn’t the hard part

anjali28 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:23:32 -0000

Excellent. I'm one of the non-coders going through the Codecademy lessons and while I really like them for at least taking me through the paces, I do feel the lack of task-based work.

Re: Game your game

cfdisqus — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:46:10 -0000

"If you are going to make a game with a brilliant prize – people will ‘game’ your system." I've often thought about this principle as regards the monetization/commercialisation of social media. What do you get with a better Klout score and what would you do to score higher for instance?

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

sermad — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:18:47 -0000

Hi Guys,

Thanks for taking the time to read the article.

I do agree it is all semantics but I've seen way too many flash developers change their job titles to creative technologist who haven't shown any tangible creative outputs. I've seen less non-coders who are creative techs so I thought Igor just pushed his concept of what a creative tech too far into this 'must be an amazing coder' camp. I really don't buy this.

I look at those schools like the RCA and the concepts coming out and they are mindblowing. Great ideas coupled with people who've made those ideas. That's my own take on what a creative tech is. More of a fusion of art and technology.

But anyway. We could debate this forever.

I'm off to make something. :)

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

canofpopcom — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:13:52 -0000

Completely agree with the points raised and with Noah's comments.

In my short time in Advertising i've been a "Flash Developer", "Designer", "Digital Creative", "Creative Developer" & "Technical Manager" all of which have intersected at multiple points.

I agree that Sermad does have a point the job title - "Creative Technologist" does seem to be one that clients & management seem to be at least attempting to understand.

I personally feel that this ambiguous title will soon disappear as learning CODE become's more accessible and part of the modern advertising curriculum.

I'm of the mindset that the "Creative Technologist" of today is simply the model Advertising Creative of Tomorrow.

A vision of the future where building a prototype will be a kin to doing a scamp / demo reel / or mood board.

For now i'm planning to keep my self assigned - "Creative Misfit" title for a little while longer.

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

Tim — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:19:17 -0000

When I mention great Creative Technologists to my more 'traditional' peers, they automatically shut off - confusing the titles with 'Innovation Directors', 'Technology/ Social Ninjas' etc...you know - the people who sit around and retweet each other and blog all day and consider themselves idea starters/ thought leaders/ conversation facilitators...and all that bullshit.

Basically the only thing they have ever created are those titles.

I also think some very smart people are unfortunately stuck with those titles and so those titles need to go. Your title should reflect pretty much what you actually deliver.

I've worked with some great Creative Technologists. Simply, they're coders/techs who can build stuff, and who can concept. It makes them 'creatives.' Not unlike designers who can concept (makes them art directors) and writers who can concept (makes them copywriters.). Point is - they all have a real, actionable production skill coupled with strategic and conceptual abilities.

I agree with Noah. The problem is indeed semantics, and I think it's especially confusing to people who come from that more 'traditional' background, including clients. For awhile there were indeed an influx of these 'charlatans' floating around it seems. Some of which must've somehow made their way to Noah's jury panel.

Maybe they retweeted themselves there.

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

Jon Andrews — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:13:19 -0000

Hey Buddy, nice post. Finally somebody talking some sense on this topic :)

Have fun across the pond!

Re: Why We’re Hiring Creative Technologists

Noah Brier — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:55:04 -0000

All good and fair points here, and I think a large part of the conversation is semantic.

With that said, I've seen a few things recently, like some awards judging, where a panel of creative technologists was made up of mostly people who had never written a line of code. I interpreted Igor's post to be speaking to that mindset before it gets worse ... Just my interpretation.

Re: spotify.fm

Jer White — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:36:10 -0000

Hi, I gave this a little write-up at:

http://pansentient.com/2011...

Cheers!

Re: spotify.fm

mikaelbr — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:41:11 -0000

Hi,

I'm the author of metatune (the Spotify Metadata API wrapper). I'm glad to see that you're using my wrapper, and I'd just like to say - if you find any bugs or quirks, just let me know.

I'm also on GitHub.

Re: spotify.fm

sermad — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:43:20 -0000

Hey Jonty - It's funny because I asked around before doing my mashup if they had seen anything similar and nothing came up.

Great work for getting there first.

My version is centered more on what your friends are listening to - I really hope spotify have the ability to open this up inside their application.

Hopefully say hello at hackspace sometime.

Re: spotify.fm

Jonty Wareing — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:38:50 -0000

I built this at musichackday SF last year! http://overhere.me - Maybe I should have advertised it more...