For those of you who are fans of science, especially space, I’ve created a T-Shirt commemorating the successful touchdown of the Curiosity Mars Rover. I hosted a touchdown party at my place this year and it was a really exciting event to watch unfold. Granted I’m a space geek so I’m biased. So if space is love Mars, robots and T-shirts this one is for you.

Follow Your Curiosity T-Shirt – RedBubble

Code Snippet

To begin simply copy and paste the code below into the footer of your website.

Note: You’ll need to remove the space in the line “< ?php". My code format plugin is misbehaving.

<span>
&copy;
< ?php
    ini_set('date.timezone', 'America/Chicago');
    $startYear = 2010;
    $thisYear = date('Y');
    if ($startYear == $thisYear) {
        echo $startYear;
    }
    else {
        echo "{$startYear}-{$thisYear}";
    }
?>
Website Design, Development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by
<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com" class="_blank">Your Domain Name</a>
</span>

Customize the Code for Your Site

To customize the code for your site there are a couple items you’ll need to change:

1. First off you’ll need to change the value for the $startYear to the current year. For example: If you were building out a site in 2011 the line would read $startYear = 2011; (Be sure you include the ; mark at the end of the line or the script will break)
2. The next thing to change is the timezone. Using this link: (Valid American Timezones) find the appropriate timezone for your client. In the code example I provided above my client was located in Dallas, Texas so I used the timezone ‘America/Chicago’. (Chicago and Dallas are both on Central Time)

The most important thing to change is the $startYear. Changing the timezone isn’t as important since all of our clients are located in North America anyhow. Worst case scenario the script will update the copyright date for the site a couple hours early or late (depending on where the client is located) come New Years.

Your .htaccess File

(Only necessary for static sites)

When a web page is accessed, the server checks the extension to know how to handle the page. Generally speaking if it sees a .htm or .html file, it sends it right to the browser because it doesn’t have anything to process on the server. If it sees a .php extension (or .shtml, or .asp, etc), it knows that it needs to execute the appropriate code before passing it along to the browser.

Because page for static sites end in .htm or .html we need to take one final step to be sure the php code is processed and the copyright date displayed as intended. In dreamweaver, or the text editor of your choice, create a new blank file. Paste the following line of code into the file you just created:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

Save this file with the name .htaccess

If for whatever reason a .htaccess file already exists then simply add this line of code at the tail end of the existing .htaccess file.

Note: This will create a hidden text file. You may need to adjust your settings for your operating system, text editor and FTP program in order to see the file once it is created. I’ve included some brief guides for Windows XP, Dreamweaver, & Filezilla below:

Hidden Files in Dreamweaver

1. On the “Files” tab (the tab where the files and folders are displayed for your site) there is a little button that looks like a bullet list.
2. Click this button and select the menu option View -> Show Hidden Files

Hidden Files in Windows Explorer (XP)

1. Select the menu option Tools -> Folder Options
2. When the Folder Options Window is displayed select the “View” tab.
3. Scroll through the Advanced Settings until you find the option to “Show Hidden Files and Folders” Check this and hit Apply.

Hidden Files in Filezilla

1. Select the menu option Server -> Force Showing Hidden Files

Note: Be sure to upload the .htaccess file with the rest of your site and you should be good to go. If you have any problems implementing this please let me know by leaving a comment and I’ll be happy to help.

Anyhow, I do apologize for not having any updates to share over the last few months. Truth be told I would have loved to post in my blog here but time wouldn’t allow for it. With the coming of 2010 I will put forth an effort to post more often even if the updates are short and sweet. I appreciate each and every one of you taking the time to visit my site and the last thing I want to do is neglect you for it. Please allow me a moment to fill you in on what you’ve missed since last October.

2009 Wrap-Up

• I snagged a killer illustration job from Bob Hazlett over at One Half Amazing. You see, Bob had this genius idea to take his existing resume and transform it into a comic book and after I showed him just how BAM! POW! SHAZZAM! awesome I was he was sold! Have a look at the finished product.
• In addition to using the artwork I created to make a comic book style resume Bob also went the extra mile to create his own iPhone App (also featuring my illustrations). I don’t know about the rest of you but I think this is totally rad. Check it out! (Note: You’ll need iTunes installed to open this link)
• In late November I started a new full-time job as a Web Designer for a company out in Golden Colorado. Upon my arrival on my first day of work I found that my training manual for this position featured He-Man & The Masters of the Universe. Needless to say I was thoroughly amused!
• In December I snagged a couple web design projects of my own and a couple of illustrations to boot! Things are going to get fairly busy around here very soon!
• Last but not least I finally decided on a writer for my upcoming webcomic. MissDoomCookie and I will be working diligently over the next four months in hopes of having our creative collaboration ready for the public by April 1st 2010! .

That said I’ll close this long overdue post with an image of one of the characters I recently designed for the project. This is merely a first draft and subject to change but here he is nonetheless.

Archibald Blacktusk (of the Derbyshire Blacktusks)

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the way this image is coming together. I’ll be submitting this progress report to the real Mr. Lazzaro this evening to see if there are any glaring issues he would like to address before I move forward and begin applying color. As of the other day I had his wife’s seal of approval so hopefully that will remain intact after their review!

Looking forward I now have two new web projects to begin brainstorming for in the coming weeks. The first is for a wedding, while the second is for a rather “hush hush” game related community website. We’re still bottom of the 1st inning here so anything goes at this point but hopefully both of these projects will pan out nicely and I’ll have a couple of completed web projects to add to my web design gallery in the very near future.

Last but not least, I made a series of updates yesterday for my visitors using Internet Explorer. Things should look slightly less wonky now and you should actually have the ability to send me messages via the contact form now. So hey, while we’re on that topic why not pop over and drop me a message now. Alternatively you can leave me a comment right here! I’d love to hear from my viewers! In the meantime, have a pleasant weekend wherever you may be. I’ll see you monday.

When asked how he wanted to be portrayed in this image Chris was unsure. He and I share the gene responsible for an insatiable thirst for knowledge which can make it hard to commit to one archetype. People with this gene are rarely satisfied with knowing how to do one type of job or skill and instead constantly find themselves in the student role as they continue to learn and grow. Chris, however, has been fortunate enough to be gifted with a natural affinity for teaching as well. I can vouch for this having taken his Introduction to VB.NET 2005 course at Drury University back in 2005. He is a skilled craftsman, master programmer, and analytical problem solver coupled with a light-hearted inner gamer, outdoorsman, husband, and good friend. With that in mind, I decided to take on his online avatar request with broad sweeping strokes by focusing most of my energy on finding a pose that communicated the core of who he is while using a few simple props to illustrate the individual parts of the whole person. Some of these props are already visible: The laptop computer, the stack of books, the crude circle on top of the books which will eventually become an apple (the fruit of knowledge). With more detail I’ll be able to hint at other aspects of his character as well. Perhaps a logo on the lid of his laptop, or his t-shirt for one of his favorite online games? Maybe I’ll add the key-chord for his sea-doo on top of the books as well and a wedding ring will most certainly be needed.

Well there you have it friends, my first art project update here on the new site. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. As a side note to any IE users viewing the site: I am aware that there are a few CSS issues with IE currently. I will strive to have these fixed this week. Thank you for your patience!

I’d like to take a moment to give a few shout outs to those who’ve helped make this site a reality. First and foremost I have to thank the man upstairs for giving me this passionate gift. Secondly, I want to thank my lovely wife Vanessa for her infinite patience and unyielding support. Thirdly, I want to thank my good friend Daniel Freitag, the quintessential German. You’re so unbelievably concise & practical. I truly appreciate you saying “Jay, what are you waiting for? Stop talking about it and just do it already.” Fourthly, I want to thank Jason Peters and all my former coworkers from hairyLemon for their wonderful critiques & criticisms. You guys really helped me shape this beast into something I’m proud of. I also want to thank my parents for letting me know I can do anything if I put my mind to it and my grandfather for being the first outspoken fan of my art.

Last but not least I want to thank each of you reading this. Thank you for taking an interest in something I love! Cheers! Lets get this show on the road!

Looking around the site you may notice a few powered by Wordpress blurbs here and there. While I’m not one to put all my eggs into one basket I gotta tell ya, I’m really digging this CMS so far. Back in New Zealand while I was working for hairyLemon (yes that is the actual company name) we used Joomla! for a lot of our client web sites and another lesser known (and lesser liked) CMS that I won’t bother to name here. All in all Joomla! is pretty awesome if you ask me. It may have taken a little getting used to when I first peered under the hood and I admit to having my fair share of frustrations with it but overall I give Joomla! a gold star. I’m still working with Joomla! now that I’m stateside again and plan to continue doing so for some time.

Wordpress however has been phenomenally easier to setup, integrate, and customize from the starting line. I love how simple the administration area is compared to Joomla! and how easy it has been for me to find help online anytime I’ve had one of those “I wonder how you do that” moments. Now I’m not about to start a debate on Joomla! vs Wordpress here. As I said above, I’m still a Joomla! fan. I merely think for this specific site, and for some of the sites I plan on building in the coming months Wordpress will ultimately be a better fit. With time I’m sure both content management systems with find their respectable places in my heart as well as my project list. Until then, welcome to CopperBot Media. I’m extremely pleased that you’ve decided to join me for this creative ride!