LYKC

What's the job description? If it's a back end developer role for any reputable employer, they will most probably want you to demonstrate your programming skills. It could be in the form of an exam type question where they would pose a scenario and you'd explain how you'd go about solving the problem. They're not necessarily looking for an exact answer but the steps in which you would take in order to breakdown and solve the problem. For example, Dev interviewees at my workplace are asked how they'd go about writing a program to calculate bowling scores. Literally could be anything. Just make sure you are confident and comfortable with explaining your code. Good luck!

Picnic and pedal boat in Hyde Park? London eye, south bank and Aquarium trip (maybe do a Banksy trail)? Walk from Regents park to Camden market via little Italy? Watch a musical then head to the 360 degree bar at the top of Centerpoint? Go to the o2 for a film and check out the riverside pubs? Greenwich park and museums?

http://wordpress.org/

mmm, pizza with cheesecake. Good call! I'd like to add the chocolate bomb I had at Ruby Tuesday in HK as dessert! Gorgeous chocolate cake with melted dark chocolate inside, with a side of vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries and berry sauce. That was divine! Any more foodies or last meal requests?

Here's a feed for the company I currently work for... big expansion plans, so there are going to be a lot of full time positions available, mostly for Java and Flash people http://mindcandy.com/category/recruitment/feed/

And in response to the OP, GIMP is a free image manipulation software. It can do a lot of what Photoshop can, but I personally hated it, probably because I'm so used to Photoshop shortcuts and functionality. It's probably perfect for absolute beginners who have never used Photoshop before though?

Depends if you do both design and markup? In a team it's usually the graphic designer who produces a PSD, from which the front end developer would turn it into a fully functional website, according to the design. And IMO it's easier/quicker to manipulate a PSD as opposed to an online prototype.

Agile is a web development methodology process. We use it where I work. Basically the scrummaster assigns enough work for a sprint (we use 10 days), all tasks (stories) are split between the team and given a number of points. Then every morning, the team would meet up in a scrum and talk about how many points are left fro each story, anything blocking them from finishing the task and other issues. The goal is to have visibility across the team, have an achievable tangible deliverable goal at the end of each sprint and overall improve productivity. It's definitely one of the more popular methodolgies for today's modern dev team.

The triple cooked chips were the best I've ever had, boiled, shallow fried, then deep fried apparently. But yes, it was rather expensive. If you like your food though, then it is sooo worth it! An experience I'll never forget. I'm already trying to find an excuse to go back again! The buffet at Bellagio, Las Vegas is also another contender for me, mmm Kingy, but if you could eat absolutely anything you wanted in the entire world, what would it be?

Page speed affects search engine rankings, so in order to improve page speed, this nifty tool is excellent http://pagespeed.googlelabs.com/

As per the title, what would be your last meal? I only ask because last night I went to the most amazing steak restaurant EVER! Hawksmoor in Covent Garden London. The steak was melt in the mouth tender and each one of the triple cooked chips were so lovingly crafted and crispy. I smiled, laughed and cried through each bite and got so high eating it, I actually left with a nose bleed! Definitely a contender for my last meal, methinks! Yours?

I'm a fulltime front end web developer, and similarly to you, I freelance when I'm interested in side projects. It's a good compromise as you get the stability of a fulltime job and the chance to work on other interesting projects, not to mention a supplementary income stream

I'd recommend anyone to go uni. A fantastic adventure and learning experience aside, I think it gives you more options, opens more doors and gives you time to really nail what it is you have a passion for and want to do as a career. If you choose to concentrate on just a web design portfolio however, you're kinda pigeon-holed into this line of work, and if you ever decide it's not working out, it might be tougher to change fields. Most grad jobs for large companies will ask for a degree, but I'm guessing some small design studios are more interested in portfolios. Depends on what you want. Don't know yet ? Go to uni and find out!

iStockphoto has a massive selection of photos in general

Semantics are nice and everything and I agree with your initial point, as my own job title is a front end web developer, but I feel from a client's point of view, if they need a website, they're more likely to search for a web designer as opposed to a web developer. More focus on the client and less focus on labels and semantics I feel. As for your other point, I think a good freelancer should have an indepth knowledge of what is possible, and key contacts either in design, frontend or backend i.e. outsourcing skillsets. Clients love a can-do attitude and are only interested in solutions. Turning down a job wont solve their problem. I think the fastest way to learn is to get a better idea of what is possible, then throw yourself in the deep end otherwise you might forever be rejecting potential projects!

I freelanced in HK for nearly a year, awesome place! I'd advise you to target the large companies or western minded clientelle. The local market is heavily saturated with fresh grads who are willing to work for next to nothing. IMO This means that the quality is a lot less also, but in HK's market, cost is everything. However larger companies see high cost as high status or high quality, therefore the budgets are higher! Rinse them! I know of people who got told to double their quote as they were too cheap! I had the best time over there, great food, great social life. The most important thing is to have fun and learn loads. It's pretty different over there. If you have any specific questions, just ask

Tough crowd, not very easily impressed Even though it's been around for years, I feel we're only just scratching the surface of what Javascript and Jquery can do! Has anyone else got any similar links? I love this kind of experimental work

The programmer doesn't need to be on your payroll! Find the project, take a deposit from the client, do the design and then outsource your programming work to a freelance programmer. Pay him a deposit using some of the deposit you secured from your client. Once the client pays up, then you both get paid. Easy!

All the more reason to live your life to the fullest. No point in worrying about things we have no control over. We do have control over ourselves however... Quote from Ghandi "live each day as if it was your last, learn as if you were to live forever" **ck 2012!

All that body text moving around on rollover is quite jarring, it kinda gave me motion sickness, very hard on the eyes. And the menu. There's no indication of which top level menu has sublevel menus. How about adding something like a >> to show that there are sublevels, and then having them dropdown upon rollover. Increase the delay upon rollover and upon rollout

Just thought I'd share some links which I thought were really cool! The possibilities once we think outside of the box eh? Mental URL game! http://www.probablyinteractive.com/url-hunter Asteroids DOM elements blasting game http://erkie.github.com/ HTML5 Katamari DOM destroyer! http://kathack.com/

I started off with the 9-5, then I freelanced on the side to boost my portfolio, then I went fulltime freelance, now I'm doing both again Difference now is that I'm being more selective of projects. Working a 9-5 can take it out of you, but if you manage your time well enough, it is more than possible to juggle a few freelance projects on the side. Best of both worlds I guess. The sociability and stability of a 9-5, the ability to say no to crappy want-it-all-for-less clients and the freedom to work on interesting projects. Freelancing tip. Unless you're absolutely amazing or have a vast existing network, it's not about being the best web designer, it's all about being the best salesman!

Jack of all trades, master of none? Or would you rather specialise in your field? I agree with Faik, find yourself another programmer. Good coders out there are a dime a dozen, and they'll be flocking to work together with a good designer. Design and development are 2 separate disciplines, and I personally feel that there's so much to learn in both that you are better off concentrating on design alone and staying on top of your design game. My advice is to stick to design, screen for a talented coder and work out a mutually beneficial collaboration method. This way, the standard of work will stay high and you will be able to commission a higher rate. And you wont even need to touch a line of code

Hi all, Working on a pretty niche project, and was after some advice and recommendations I'm looking for a shopping cart for digital assets (images, videos, marketing stuff etc). Members only, but once inside, users can download anything for free. Functionality like a shopping cart where they can add and remove items, and then download in bulk Bit of a specialist one, I know, but anybody have any ideas?

1. XHTML/CSS/Standards 2. JavaScript/JQuery 3. PHP/mySQL 4. CMS (Wordpress/EE/Joomla) 5. Ecommerce (Magento/Opencart/Oscommerce) 6. Flash/ActionScript Graphic Design, SEO and Internet Marketing in between If you are proficient in all of these, you'd be able to take on most projects I feel