A Great Blog

2008-05-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last week installed a full featured Project Management Tool, mostly geared towards software development. Since we are now working with such a large team of people all over the world, it became to hard to use e-mail and FTP as our management tools. Internally we were using MS project (too $ and too complicated) Project X (only for internal and simple web use, but REAL good!).

Our developers have also started using Team Foundation management tools, but again this is very specific for just the technical management of the software development cycle.

It is always hard to keep things simple...

Either case. The new tool is more geared towards real cloud type project management with a good focus on management and a lesser focus on the granular details. All written in PHP and using MySQL. This is actually the 3d product we have installed for ourselves that also uses TinyMCE. That cool little app makes editing on the web SOOOO much easier.

Blogger Syncing

2007-02-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

This Blog version has been linked with Blogger. I'm not really sure yet how I will deal with automatic syndication. My old Blog setup had the ability to ping all other blogging services. Now I can e-mail posts to myself as well as use the blogger comment system. It seems to me that this is a bit more polished than using the HaloScan system. We'll have to see how it will work for other users. If you have any experience/preference please let me know!

Webtools for Print Production

2007-01-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

Traditional print production companies are in danger of loosing market share fast. Low margins have for years kept printing companies from attracting hi-tech personnel. Many silkscreen printers have tried to stop digital printing in the past 10 years or relied on outside advice (vendors), to give them direction, often completely missing the boat. To add insult to injury, now the digital process has even become more sophisticated. Companies that adopt a great internet based service model will do well, but again resistance to new technologies and a "nickel and dime" attitude will result in quite a shake up in the printing business in the coming years.

Forum Publishing

2007-01-05T04:27:00.000-08:00

With the "explosive" growth of Myspace, many people have seen the value of launching a "community forum". Some of my clients have now realized that it is much better to run a forum on their own site than to drive all that traffic to other boards across the web. I think that driving traffic from one (public forum) to the other (private) works great.

PunBB and phpBB both look very promising and I have been running both of them for a short while now. Both programs are free, but also are being actively supported and so far I have to say that "straight out of the box" they are easy to install and maintain.

In the next few months I will be looking to customize them and see which one will be easier to reconfigure. In the end I desire complete integration with my websites, mostly from a marketing and design perspective. I will keep you updated!

Photoshop CS3 Beta

2007-01-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

I've been BETA (and ALPHA) tester for many products, and I must say that this one would nearly qualify as a "Gold Master" for me. Running PS3 on both an Macintel and PPC machine, I have not been able to discover much wrong with it. presently I am only firing up the "new version".

The only 2 issues that I have discovered that bugged me personally, was a crash after creating a custom profile for my menus on a secondary screen and frequently it seems that photoshop does not completely "fade to the background" when its not active. The visual effect of PS becoming transparent slowly and completely disappearing is a pleasant touch when switching to another program or the desktop but obviously not essential.

It seems that the program runs just a bit faster (by feel only) on the PPC, but the MacIntel functionality has definitely brought the program to a point where a half-way serious user can now actually use it.

Feeling left in the TECH dust?

2006-12-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

OK, so I started with building circuit-boards an soldering transistors to them to build amps for my friends rock band. Than the IC (we now call "chip") came out and it looked like we could get stuff done faster, cheaper and most of all (in our case) louder.

A few years later, the first computer kits came out, and before I knew it I spent nights trying to figure out how to use spreadsheets to keep track of inventory and usage for a large hotel.

1995 was the year when I started building websites, and today my time is mostly spent on figuring out how to use the internet to increase profitability and efficiency. There are always many ways to achieve the same goal, and the fun for me is to sort out what approach costs the least with the most effect. Combining MySQL, PHP, Flash, Javascript and CSS 2+ is my kind of fun.

Can't wait to see what kind of tools will come out in 2007 to make better working and looking web based utilities. I'm going to spend quite some time on integrating message boards and blogs into websites. My feeling is, that MySpace will morph into YourSpace.... Who wants to have someone else set the rules for communication, and walk away with the money as well? If you can create a better effect on your own site, you would be crazy to hand it over to someone else to mess it up (it seems that social networking sites are competing on how ugly and illegible it can be as well) Its slowly becoming clear to most people that just because you can be someone's "friend" you don't exactly have much going for yourself yet. This is no different than giving your telephone number to someone. All the hype is greatly overrated.

Reminds me of all the statistics related to "hits" on people's websites. A site with 50 new visitors, who don't purchase anything in a month can generate 5000 hits easily and not mean anything at all to anyone except those who like to hear large numbers.

Have a great 2007!

Website development

2006-12-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

It gets harder all the time to get a website up and make money with it. Main reason: a more educated viewer (in my opinion). Going on the web means that anyone can compare in an instance.

Trick No 1: Show that you are huge and offer all kinds of products (make the list as long as possible)
Trick No 2: Try to dazzle people with animation
Trick No 4: Add as many content pages as you can afford
Trick No 5: Put as many impressive names and links on your site as possible
Trick No 6: ....... Whatever you are thinking of next.....

In reality, the bottom line is still that if you do good clean business and gain a great reputation, you would do this if you are on the web or not. And most businesses need as much help with a web marketing approach as they will with an overall marketing strategy. That would include:

Person to person sales
Phone sales
All kinds of "street" marketing efforts and word of mouth referrals!

The "tricks" to building a successful business have not really changed. You can build a fantastic website, but if you are not savvy enough to deliver the goods (think how well organized amazon needs to be..) you will quickly fall apart. A great example is Overnight Prints. who struggled with quality from time to time a little bit, but seem to have managed to maintain their reputation by not offering too much as well as making it right when things go wrong. No need to worry there about page-ranks and visitor stats a whole lot, word of mouth is doing a wonderful job! Their website is clean, focussed and they do what they promise. What a brilliant idea!

To Blog or not to Blog?

2006-12-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

of a web-log that separates it from a traditional website, is the archiving of ongoing entries automatically. Once entries are archived, they can also be searched. MySql (open source and free) has been a driving database force behind the blogging explosion.

Most blog sites/tools do not inherently have the power to integrate website features (simple blogging), and limit their usefulness to mostly content and connectivity (RSS etc). Most smaller websites lack the tools to "archive" articles, and webmasters have strugled to figure out how to integrate blogs.

In the last 6 months new "mash-up" tools have been created that span all these features. Traditional web publishing tools (Adobe/Microsoft) are lagging behind severely in responding to the need for complete integration at this point, and in my opinion have been sleeping behind the wheel. I'm sure they will catch up at some point. For now its pretty unusual to find people who can make this work both ways.

Large corporations (CNET is a good example) have the resources to write code themselves to fix all this and their websites are a combination blog/commerce etc.

So the question is not really if you need a blog, but where and how to position "blog features" in a web presence. Mostly its important to realize that search engines and real people alike would love to see something happening on a website.

You can make your "blog" the front-page of your website because your primary goal is to post news (you are your own newspaper), or you can move it to the back (like I did) because my primary goal is to "support" my efforts with news and information.

The discovery of your personal goals and objectives with your web presence, are the only way to ensure that you are not wasting time and money by jumping headlong into this powerful new form of communication.

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MS Exchange update

2006-11-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is hoping to upgrade exchange users as well as seeing a surge in sales due the launch of "Vista". CNET was reporting today that "Exchange" would have the ability to manage telephony services.

Sounds great, but I seriously wonder why people would want more of what they already dislike (to put it mildly). It makes sense for Microsoft to try to catch up with the advanced elements of Apple's OSX, but to add voice services would seem a huge waste of time and effort. I've been running voice trough my computer for some time now (thank you Parliant !), and when a fax or message is left, it automatically e-mails this to my mailbox of choice, as well as gives me the ability to listen to the messages via a web interface. So far so good. I have to say that it is fantastic to have all of that automated. If that is what Microsoft will offer in its new upgrade, that will be great. From what it sounds like, they want customers be able to dial into the system however, and retrieve messages by phone.... This would mean that you would now have to listen to your own menu and get irritated punching in (or speaking in) the choices, to get to that message you really did not need to hear. Sounds like a retro approach to me. Well, if it took MS 5 years to get it right (we hope) with Vista, maybe there's hope that someone there can figure this out before its real launch!

Web Publishing Tools / Carousel

2006-11-26T04:35:00.000-08:00

The accordion effect on the opening page of this site is an implementation of "moofx" developed by Your Head software. The plugins developed by this company are specifically written to create special effects quickly and easily for websites published with RapidWeaver. (a Mac only, CSS driven web publishing tool). Implementing special effects by building flash pages is always an option, however the time and effort it takes can often be cost prohibitive for many clients.

I am always looking for cool effects and better ways to do things. One area where many web developers are struggling with is to be able to create a smooth slideshow presentation without building a flash site from scratch or using a flash solution that is complex to maintain. It looks like Carousel the latest plugin by YourHead, is hitting the spot.

Professional Coaching

2006-11-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

Companies now often come to the realization that they need outside support to coach managers. Its not enough to expect that someone with the proper credentials and references will just magically be able to get along with everyone and that managers have enough self-knowledge to guide their own carreer path. It seems that especially in the technology field, these realities have often been overlooked. Just having the "right product" or the latest patent applied for does not guarantee a competitive edge any more either. Consumers are increasingly sensitive to style, feel and service. If managers are not able to integrate this into the corporate environment, a company can not reasonably expect to offer a product that will succeed. Personal Coaches and Team Coaches, are people who look at the dynamics and feelings as well as a persons self-knowledge. My experience is that the team with the most positive dynamic, and clearest vision (including their ability to realize personal limitations) is the winner. They produce innovative new products and services and do not get tied up by personality conflicts and misguided objectives.

One of the people who really makes a dent in this area is "The Wilderness Coach" Steve Brand. ( http://www.thewildernesscoach.com ) Creating a professional personality profile, and taking managers out of their "natural" environment for 1, 3 or 7 days, has proven to radically impact their effectiveness.

Search Engines

2006-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Getting ranked high by the search engines is difficult to achieve. Of-course monitoring your sites is the most important part in that equation. Many web-designers don't have time or even lack the knowledge they need to achieve good rankings. A few years ago it was all about making sites look more professional and easier to navigate. Today there are so many competing factors, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to be "top dog".

Personally, I have to remind myself that the framework we should be working in is based on truth and honesty. When search engines rank their pages, they want to make sure that the information they are indexing is real and not some ploy to get ranked high by manipulation. Its tempting to create shortcuts, extra pages and links that are only placed to fool the search engines. That is very different from genuinely creating content and links that enhance the site for customers as well as the search engines to be able to understand and rank your business.

Having seen and analyzed virtually any technique out there, the best way to get ranked high, is to work on all levels to promote a site and to analyze and understand your keywords, links and content as if it was your own business. Writing technically correct content is easier than perceptively correct content. Creating quality links means that real thought has to be given to what that means. Often times this will have to include input from sales, marketing and upper management. The philosophy, direction and style of a company are just as valid as the literal message being conveyed. One more thing.... nothing will ruin a ranking faster than lack of updates and changes!

Springfield Jacksonville

2006-11-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

I love old world style living. Having lived in Amsterdam Holland, Paris France and last but not least the "Back Bay" area of Boston, I totally see the value of style and healthy (pedestrian friendly) environments. Being able to have a sense of connection with the neighborhood is fantastic. Recently I worked on a website for a developer who is restoring and enhancing an old shoe assembly plant in the Jacksonville / Springfield area (just north from down-town). It was not originally planned, but after looking at the "before" pictures I decided that visitors to the website should be able to get an idea of what the space could look like after it was built (to suit). So here is the result: www.springfieldartscenter/vision. A flash animation, showing the process from empty space "morphing" into a usable, commercial loft space. Honestly, once finished, I now want to create more animation for it to show people walking in and "painting" the walls or hanging the art. Maybe the next time (you have a project for me?).

CSS2.0 and beyond

2006-11-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

http://macrabbit.com has done it again. Just when I got used to cranking out CSS with this awesome tool, It improved by leaps and bounds again. Really. there is no better way to create CSS. The problems (slight) that I had with the previous version have completely been resolved. Extracting, modifying etc. Piece of cake.

PS. For some odd reason I always coded line by line, but I just started selecting multiple attributes/lines at the same time and it works REALLY well. If you are looking for a way to create or modify CSS, you will not find a better product! (I'm not getting paid for this, but it would be egotistic to keep this to myself.