I had two projects yesterday that involved modifications to existing interfaces I use on WiredPages. Both interfaces, Java Servlets.

If I were posting a job on Freelancer or some other freelance work site-- the job descriptions would have been something like this:

Need someone with experience using the Federal Reserve PR API to isolate and correct a problem with a Java servlet that has suddenly gone into disrepair.

An interface that provides interactive data-- at times leaves too much white space on the page-- depending on the amount of data available at any given time. At other times the interface crowds the page. I do not want scroll bars used to correct the over crowding and I do not want JQuery nor AJAX accordion utilities in that they do not work for all of my browsers. I need an attractive graphic that is in keeping with the page's current content, that is rendered when the number of table rows is not greater than a certain number. The Java Servlet that provides the data will also have to be modified.

Around 9:00 a.m. yesterday morning-- when I found the problem with the Federal Reserve PR API interface-- I corrected it by putting a PHP interface in place to make the call. I also had to update the Java Servlet that was making the call. This also entailed making sure my service API-KEY was working. Yes. No problem there.

Around 3:00 pm yesterday afternoon-- I decided I was tired of all of the white space my interface was leaving on the page-- so I started playing around with grapchics icons. A couple of years earlier I had played with an AJax solution-- however it did not work on all browsers, so I found four sports graphics files- manipulated the color and size-- erased some of the white space and combined them all into one graphic file. I then made sure the new "png" file worked with older browsers-- [sometimes older IE browsers do not handle "png" files nicely. They have to be saved in a particular format.]-- I then updated the Java Servlet that renders the data to show the new graphic if too much white space is showing and tested it.

Here is the result for the white space problem:

If I had gone to a Web Development/Design firm to have them fix these problems, I would have needed no less than $250.00. I would have also needed someone with Java J2EE experience, graphic designers and PHP know-how.

I do things like this all the time. I keep looking for ways to explain-- you are making a mistake. I am here alone and I do all of this work.

When I used to use Microsoft Publisher to create my web sites-- this between 1998 through 2004-- I used ImageComposer and Publisher's built in graphics capabilities a lot to create my graphics. In 2003 or 2004 I got my first Mac. I stopped using ImageComposer all the time-- because I was no longer using a Windows system as often.

Recently, when I finished writing the Amazon Product Advertising API interface and wanted to submit my company to Amazon's list of solutions providers-- I decided my Company logo needed work. So I used ImageComposer to find a solution. At the same time-- I decided to start writing my personal blog-- using Thingamablog-- however not on the Macbook --where the Business blog is maintained-- but on my netbook. I am now, once again using a Windows system that has ImageComposer installed and you will probably notice more graphics being created from this tool.

Above examples of graphics I created-- Tuesday evening.

I continue to try and find ways to explain to the technology illiterate I have too many skills to be in the situation I am in -- and this looks bad [very bad] for Washington. You don't believe me? Ask a design/development firm -- with Java/Graphics and PHP how much for the work I did yesterday to existing tools? And I am not even including the technical writing capability to discuss the issues in a manner that does not waste time for all parties involved.

FBI/DOJ-- I said no. I mean no.