Ramon Houtsma

Aaaand … We’re done!

Ramon — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:23:22 +0000

Today is a great day… Because we finally finished our interactive movie!

We shot it entirely in first person view, so that it looks like he is in the movie himself!
The movie is about a whole day of decisions, and you will have to accept the consequences of your choices.

I suggest you check it out! You can play it by clicking on the image, or here.

Now let’s get serious…

Ramon — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:31:52 +0000

The Web Technology classes on fridays have stopped, so now our focus will remain fully on the interactive video project! Our video is called DecisionDay!
We didn’t make a lot of progress the last few weeks, so we still have to film everything. But, with the fridays available for project work, we should be able to move along quickly.

What I liked this week is that we are able to use the stuff we did with Visual Communication for our project, because we had to make a poster for our interactive video. I have my result displayed to the right (:

Multi-page site

Ramon — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:03:02 +0000

As a last assignment for Web Technology I had to build a multi-page site with a menu structure and a common style sheet or template. It is nice that we have to do that, because now I will also be using the website I create(d) for my blog and portfolio.

The website I’m building will be hosted at http://ramon.houtsma.net

Worst website contest!

Ramon — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:27:17 +0000

This week there is a worst website contest! To win, you simply have to build the worst. Website. EVER!!! (But with correct HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.)

So my plan was to build a website that is so annoying as possible. That’s why I made a background that changes to random colors every 0.6 seconds, and of course I added a song that will play automatically and can’t be stopped.

I also included a form in which you can make this stop or go slower, but it is virtually impossible to use it, because it is in a vertical marquee that moves a bit fast. All of the items on my website will be flying through each other by the way.
Another nice thing I’m proud of is a button via which you would be able to leave the website, but the button will flee for your mouse and is therefore unclickable! I placed another static button too, but when you try to leave, you will be asked if you really want to leave, but no matter what you answer, you will just be redirected back to my annoying website.

And last but not least, when you load my website, you will be forwarded to the real website, and therefore it is impossible to leave my website by going back one step in your history (by using the back-button of your browser for example), because you’ll just be redirected back!

If you’re still not convinced to stay away and want to visit my website, click here. (Visiting is at your own risk. I cannot be held responsible for the consequences.)

Gathering my portfolio

Ramon — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:51:18 +0000

So today I’ll be writing about my findings and the results of the gathering of my portfolio.
I found out that I don’t really have a lot to show in my portfolio. There are only two items I can come up with:

The first thing I can put in my portfolio is the website I build three years ago. You will find a screenshot of my website to the right of this text, which will redirect you to my website when you click on it, or you can just click on this link: http://ramon.houtsma.net/informatica_site/.
I have written the entire source code manually, and it consists of HTML, CSS and just a little piece of JavaScript to protect my email address from bots.

The other thing I think I can use for my portfolio is my profile paper from high school. Me and my partner did research about how to make a robot react like humans to certain situations. Therefore, we had built a robot (of LEGO Mindstorms) with a light sensor, a sound sensor, a pressure sensor and an ultrasonic sensor.
Then we tried to make it intelligent by programming it in such a way, that it would be able to react to certain situations on its own, and in an human way.
I have uploaded the paper on my server so you can download it from http://ramon.houtsma.net/uploads/profielwerkstuk.pdf.
Unfortunately it is written in Dutch, so if you can’t read Dutch, well, that’s too bad for you

And that’s all for now! But I’m confident that a lot of new items will be added to my portfolio the next couple of years.

My first blog post! – Website review

Ramon — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:05:03 +0000

I never thought I would do this but here I am: writing a blog. ‘Why are you doing it then?’ you might ask. Well, the main reason is to create my own identity on the internet, which is one of the goals of the course “We Create Identity”, one of the courses of my study “Creative Technology”. To achieve that goal, I’ve set up this blog.

As a part of the assignment, I have reviewed an existing website, and I will post the results below:

The website I’m going to review is http://www.ctromp.nl
This website is the website of rowing club Cornelis Tromp, located in Hilversum. I’ve been a very active member of Tromp for the past four years, so that’s why I like to review their website.
I will now give five strong points and five weak points of the website:

Strong points

The website contains a lot of information, everything you’d want to know about the fleet, rowing clothes, events, races, exams, agenda etc.
The news page is always up to date and you can also subscribe so you receive email.
You can sign up for membership online, and in the members section you can also sign up for local competitions.
They have a very clear menu.
The site has a nice look, except for one thing I will mention at the weak points.

Weak points

Some parts of the website al still under contruction, even though it has been online for a long time.
The right bar makes the site look very unprofessional, with its ugly old fashion buttons.
You must have a flash player installed to watch some movies.
They don’t give enough information when you want to order lustrum articles, like when you will be able to pay and when your product will arrive etc.
They don’t have a mobile version of their website.

And that was my review of http://www.ctromp.nl, I hope you enjoyed it! I will keep posting on the blog for the next couple of weeks, so keep checking my blog every now and then.