Frequently Asked Questions
What's this about then?
opinios is the personal web space of one guy, Matt, originally from Adelaide, now residing in Melbourne, Australia.
Ok, Matt, what do you do?
Well, a bunch of stuff. I completed a computer engineering degree in Adelaide, and then moved to Melbourne to work as a software developer for three years. I also studied Japanese at school, so when I needed a break from working in IT, I moved to Tokyo in October 2001 to teach English in Japanese junior high schools. This was an exciting and challenging move, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a change.
One summer I designed a few web pages for my employer in Japan, and consequently became a bit obsessed with the whole web design thing, especially standards-based design. I have been immersing myself in graphic design, CSS, PHP ever since. I work as a technical editor for SitePoint, where I work with authors to help create books for web developers. The web is the perfect industry for me as it requires a combination of both technical and creative skills, and in my current role I also get to apply some of the educational aspects which I enjoyed so much when teaching.
My lovely wife and I were married in Palm Cove in May 2005. There are even photos of the glorious day.
I am also working on a big web side-project that involves a searchable database of Japanese Kanji characters, mnemonics for remembering them, and cartoons that supplement them. That one's pretty ambitious, so it's a ways off.
What do you write about?
I used to write about anything and everything. Before this site evolved into a blog, it was more of an online arts magazine, with a semi-regular publishing schedule and multiple contributors. It was kinda fun but became too much work chasing people to submit their stuff on time. These days I pretty much focus on web design and web development. It feels good to finally have a focus, so I think I'll stick with that. Although I also like drawing cartoons and taking photos, so they often end up on here too.
So tell me some of the geeky, gory details.
Glad to. opinios is hosted by the wonderful folks at TextDrive, who I can't recommend enough. Seriously, after plenty of up and down experiences with a string of hosting companies, TextDrive are like a delicious lung full of mountain air. They've got my back and answer my dumb questions and are doing amazing things for the open source community at the same time as keeping things ticking 24/7. Once upon a time I used to power everything with blosxom, a clever little Perl script written by Rael Dornfest, but have been running on Movable Type for quite a while now.
The HTML templates and CSS files were all hand-coded in a nifty little editor called jEdit, and validate to xhtml and css web standards. Or at least, they did once upon a time.
The graphics on the front page are real objects that I scanned in: the crumpled piece of paper that I drew on and the strip that you tear off from a registered mail envelope, which I then tinkered with in Photoshop. The doodles are shapes that I tend to draw when on the phone - flying angels, different shaped circles and cross-hatching.
The design is looking a bit stale these days. Isn't it time for a change?
Yes.
Can I steal any of the pictures here to use on my own site?
No, sorry. If you don't have access to a digital camera or a scanner, maybe try an online image archive like istockphoto.com. The collection of images there is really quite comprehensive and certainly superior to anything you'll find here.
How about the CSS files?
I spent ages getting them right, too. Try one of the layouts from glish.com instead, there are a few standard designs there that are free for the taking. There are also plenty of other resources on the web for learning CSS. Browse through some of the links on Dave Shea's CSS Resources page to see some of the better ones, or try one of the tutorials at w3schools.com.
Where does the name come from?
The word "opinios" is not strictly Greek or Latin, it is derived from the Latin opinio, meaning opinion or idea. The name reflects the site's original goal of being a creative portal where anyone could have a voice.
Where do I go for info about your baby?
The little tacker has a site of its own.