Introducing HTML5 Game Development Book Review

My daughter and I have been developing HTML5 Games as a hobby using our own JavaScript Game Framework that we've built over time. Although the framework was fun to build at first, we are more interested in developing games as opposed to the framework. Over the past couple of months we've been looking around for various JavaScript Game Engines and came acrossed Impact. Impact looks pretty nice, but we didn't want to drop $100 on a framework before knowing more about it. When O'Reilly provided a free copy of Introducing HTML5 Game Development as part of their Blogger Review Program, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the Impact JavaScript Game Engine that is covered in the book.

Twitter Bootstrap

If you are looking for a free HTML template for your website or web application, check out Twitter Bootstrap. Twitter Bootstrap is a website template incorporating HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to provide a responsive web design that looks good on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.

Kendo UI HTML5 and CSS3 Framework from Telerik

Telerik just released their new Kendo UI framework for developing rich web applications based on HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery. I realize a lot of jQuery plugins and component suites exist that provide similar functionality, but I am pretty excited about diving into the various UI widgets, including AutoComplete, Calendar, CondoBox, DatePicker, Grid, Menu, Slider, TabStrip, TimePicker, and various other cool widgets that support HTML5 and CSS3. Kendo UI also includes a DataViz Chart Gallery, native Mobile support, as well as a cool online Theme Builder to customize the widgets. Tomorrow Telerik has a couple of webinars introducing Kendo UI and discussing how to build a To Do List using the framework.

Orchard and SchemaBuilder AlterTable and AlterColumn

I took a few minutes to update an Orchard Module I use on DavidHayden.me to display various thoughts on my blog. In the Migration.cs file I wanted to change the size of the Note Column from 500 characters to 2000 characters, because I wanted to add HTML to the Note Field for links, etc. I could have made it unlimited, but I didn't want the notes to become like blog posts so I thought 2000 was a fair number to display a thought and include some basic HTML. If you are familiar with altering a table column in Orchard CMS, you know this takes you into the Migration.cs file of the module and the joys of using SchemaBuilder to alter the table and column.

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2nd Edition by Dino Esposito

I picked up a copy of Programming Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2nd Edition by Dino Esposito as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. I have been developing ASP.NET MVC Web Applications and Websites for years and even taught ASP.NET MVC at the Tampa ASP.NET MVC Developer Group and Sarasota Web Developer Groups, but it has been awhile since I have read a book on the subject. You can find a lot of the my ASP.NET MVC Tutorials on one of my older blogs as well as a list of ASP.NET MVC books I read quite some time ago, so it is safe to say I know my way around ASP.NET MVC pretty well.

Head First HTML5 Programming Book Review

I hadn't read a Head First Series Book until Head First jQuery. I absolutely loved the content, but I thought the use of images and visual learning tools was a bit much for me. Still, I thought Head First jQuery was excellent so I jumped at the chance to read another Head First Book, Head First HTML5 Programming. And I am glad I did, because Head First HTML5 is an excellent book for learning JavaScript and HTML5!

Change the World

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs

Head First jQuery Book Review

If you are truly a beginner at web design and development using jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, etc. and very much a visual learner, I think you will be impressed by Head First jQuery. It truly does start from scratch and assumes little to no knowledge. It's perfect for those completely new to web design and development and those that learn best visually with lots of images, repetition, and playful games.