Before this year ends in 3 weeks, here are some updates and what’s coming next for this blog and other stuff.
More frequent posts
While I love exploring a lot of different stuff on the web, it has been true that I haven’t posted that much on my blog. Since I’m near finishing my undergraduate studies, I’ll have a lot more time to blog and post new stuff. Most of the this year’s posts were focused on business and startup development, thus it gets rather dull when there is no different topic to read. That’s why starting from this month, there will be posts on how-to, resources for web development, system administration, software reviews etc.
This was actually the main idea when the blog started with new design but since the idea got scrapped, due to not having enough people to fill out the editor position, I’ve turned my focus on writing about business related topics from time to time. To be honest, there won’t be massive amount of posts that you would see on other blogs, but it will be varied as much as possible.
I’ve chosen to use the current theme after lot of thinking and trying out different themes. To be honest, the number of usable free theme is pretty small and some of them are unusable for the current version. While it is possible to adapt them, it takes more time than to build new theme from scratch. I’m a fan of Medium design, which is the reason for using current and previous theme since they mostly resemble it, and are great for single author. Having empty space on blog is just plain bad, and it kills reading immersion. In future, I may build new theme from scratch or use the framework to make it easier, but for now the current theme will stay.
Posts are also published on Medium and you can find them from the following link: https://medium.com/@Zeusoft/
Ubuntu Budgie
I’m also happy to say that I’ve joined the Ubuntu Budgie team as a web developer this year. Ubuntu Budgie is Ubuntu based distro using Budgie Desktop Environment as default instead of Unity. Budgie DE is part of Solus OS, developed by guys from Solus Project. If you are using Ubuntu, the chance is you haven’t heard about it. One of the reasons is that the Ubuntu Budgie name itself is actually quite new. It marks the official status of distro, being recognized as official spin this November. Other reason is that the distro is still pretty new itself starting from 15.04 release under the name Budgie Remix. 17.04 will be first release under Ubuntu Budgie Name. You can download it from http://ubuntubudgie.org
One of the interesting things behind Ubuntu Budgie site is that it doesn’t use WordPress. The previous website for Budgie-Remix was using WordPress.com as platform. Current website has been built using PageKit CMS, which gives you a lot of flexibility to build your website. Based on Symfony, UIKit, Vue.js, it offers something modern that is easy to learn but hard to master. Feel free to check out new website and try Ubuntu Budgie at the same time. There aren’t many themes or extensions for it at this moment, but as more and more people find about it, I’m sure it will be one day a worthy competitor to WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Who knows, I may even move my blog on it, once they develop WordPress importer.
Funfact: PageKit is developed by guys from YooTheme’s that develop themes for WordPress and Joomla.
Startup Project(s)
While there isn’t anything happening at the moment, I always say that interesting stuff happen in the meantime. One of the projects that I’m looking into is about helping development of co-working space located in municipality of Novi Beograd. Beside being the place where I live, it is also one of the most populated municipalities in Serbia and Balkan region. It is also host for a lot of IT companies, like Microsoft Development Center, Nordeus etc. However, as cool as it sounds, it is also a little sad that it doesn’t have its co-working space.
Yes, it’s possible to rent co-working space, but community co-working spaces are much better places to work and foster IT development. That’s why, I’m supporting the initiative started by one local building development company. It will be awesome if the public officials agree to co-sponsor it since that will allow faster development and more space for startup companies and creative individuals to work in.
I’m planning to organize few meetups next year about startup development. As you already know, I’m still Ambassador for StartupBlink, as well being the ambassador of IdeaHunt. IdeaHunt is awesome project that allows you to share you ideas, and ask others to help you shape them into something from where you can go onto next phase. There is also SwapIdeas which was launched last week. The main difference is that IdeaHunt is mostly used for product focused ideas, while SwapIdeas is also used for business plans, development, leads etc.
Other
I’m currently looking into launching project focused on Tech and Gaming. My main goal is to find the way to bridge the simplicity of use and discussion to offer something new. I’m still trying to figure what features to add and how to make it interesting for both users and developers.
The project will probably be available next year at some point for testing and then use.