As a web developer you need to have at least some rudimentary skills with a image manipulation software such as Photoshop or Fireworks. These are two of the most common image manipulation programs for web developers. They were developed by Adobe and Macromedia respectively until Adobe purchased Macromedia. This aquisition lead to a CS3 Web Development suite where both Photoshop and Fireworks were offered side by side.

As a web developer I have been very fond of the Macromedia projects since I first started using them with the MX edition. My purchase of Macromedia Studio 8 left me with an even greater appreciation of the product that made my life as a web developer bearable. They had enhanced the PSD file editability so now the nested layers that my graphic designer was using show up in the same manner for me as they do for her. 

With renewed appreciation for Fireworks I decided to test out Photoshop. In the past I had found Photoshop difficult to use and that many of the functions that were somewhat simple in Fireworks were hidden or difficult to find in Photoshop. Of course this is to be expected from someone who has cut their teeth on Fireworks. I decided to open a couple of PSD files in Photoshop and and in Fireworks. One of those files was the layout for this website. When I cropped the images using Fireworks and exported them each image was more pixelated than when I exported them with Photoshop. I soon found out that there are some image manipulation effects in Photoshop that seem to port over well to Fireworks and some that do not.

So what is a web developer to do? I suggest you run both applications, legally. If you want to be successful, pay the money for the CS3 Web Suite and use both when necessary. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. I would never recommend a graphic designer to use Fireworks since it is limited in that realm but Photoshop can be cumbersome to work with and at times does not do what you'd expect it do do as a web developer.

Everyone is looking for the next killer app like YouTube or Amazon.com or Ebay or something along those lines where they can make the coolest web application and then sell it to Google or Yahoo for billions of dollars.

I am no exception. I would love to find the killer app that will have millions to billions of users and people just soaking up my content. Unfortunately, the killer app idea can be hard to come by and when you do come by it, you can spend countless hours trying to develop it only to have it fall short of the feature set that makes it killer. There are a couple of essentials to building the killer app in todays society. I intend to highlight a few of them here:

1. The app must be clean - You need a nice and clean design idea. No one likes clunky interfaces and they are not willing to invest the time to learn how to work with your difficult app.
2. The app must be unique - You need to offer something no one else has offered. YouTube providing the ability to post your own video content to the internet was very unique. Building upon someone else's work will usually not launch your app to the "realm of killer".
   
3. The app must have a social component - This can be as simple as rating and commenting to building a community online. Sites like MySpace are prime examples of purely social sites that have grown tremendously. Those sites where the users are allowed to create the content are some of the best around.
4. The app must be versitile - Many people are using devices other than computers to access the internet. The killer app will allow many different venues the opportunity to have access to the site and will cater to each technology.
5. The app must be well programmed - The killer app would be expected to have some bugs on first release. There are continued growing pains with the killer app but it is based on principles such as using SSL, encryption, and protection from SQL Injections. These are a must for the killer app to take the world by storm.

This was by no means intended to be a comprehensive list but was just to illuminate some of the key components to building the killer app. If you think you have the idea for the killer app but don't know how to go about getting it build contact my beautiful web design company and let me help build that killer app. Then perhaps we can do all this just for the fun of it!

In one of my classes at Boise State University we discussed specialization versus having a broad range of knowledge. In ancient Greece it was believed that the person who was well rounded in their knowledge was the best kind of individual. They were esteemed highly and it was desireable to become one that was well versed in all things.

Today our ideas have changed. We believe that specialization in one field is the best way to provide exceptional services. Although we value knowledge in many things we want the person who has studied and worked to become a leader in their field.

I have struggled with this because I want to know everything about everything. In our evolving world it is becoming more and more unlikely that one person can have all knowledge. I have realized this and have decided to allow other people to share their knowledge on Bert's Blog.

The first person I have invited to share their knowledge is Elise Elswood who understands Graphic Design much better than I do. At times you will see her post to Bert's Blog. As I encounter other people I consider as experts in their field of knowledge I will also allow them the ability to share their insights on my blog.

Hopefully this will become a place where a knowledge about everything design/web programming is shared freely.