http://www.communitymx.com/blog/?cat=5 Community MX Member Blog admin@communitymx.com en-us I'm very excited to announce that my latest video training title is now available on lynda.com!Recorded earlier this summer, the 4.5 hour course discusses and walks you through wireframing, storyboarding, interactive HTML prototyping, in a far more in-depth manner than my Essential Training title is able to. I also introduce you to creating Flex skins, exporting MXML and exporting FXG.I had a lot of fun putting this course together and I think it will be a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about using Fireworks for prototyping web and other interactive projects such as AIR applications.Here's a quick run down of the main lesson topics:Rapid Prototyping Options in FireworksWireframingStoryboardingMulti-page MockupsAdding InteractivityCreating AIR PrototypesCreating Flex MockupsGoing Further with HTML PrototypingIf you're interested in how to maximize Fireworks' potential as your mockup tool of choice, I hope you check out this course.... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=952 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=952 Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:17:36 GMT Well, MAX San Francisco has come and gone. What an experience; 5000+ geeks attending a single event!Seriously, it was a great event and I had the opportunity to meet and mingle with many new people. There were also a few networking opportunities as well. Both my Fireworks Mock Up labs were full, and I saw several other very interesting sessions and labs. I for one, was very impressed by the number of Fireworks sessions that were available. Yep, the secret is out! :-) On my return, I was informed by a very happy publisher that 28 copies of my book sold in the MAX Store during the event, which made me very happy as well.I know I promised pics much earlier, but I've just gotten around to getting them online. So if you want to see a few shots from the event and a few from the aquariums at the California Academy of Sciences, head on over to my flickr site.Enjoy! ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=935 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=935 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:45:03 GMT Well day 1 has come to a close (for me, anyway) and it was quite a whirlwind!  The keynote session this morning was pretty cool. There's some pretty amazing stuff happening with AIR, FLEX and Flash in terms of development projects from companies like Disney Interactive and the New York Times Company.I thought MAX was big last year; the attendance this year is even higher! I'm told there are over 5000 people attending the event. I ran my first Fireworks Mock Up lab this morning and it went over very well. I'm very happy to not ethat both labs are at capacity (50 people per lab). It is so awesome to see this kind of interest in Fireworks!It's been a blast hanging with friends; Danilo Celic, Joe Lowery, Alan Musselman and Aaron Beall, Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis and may others. I haven't seen some of these people for months (or longer) so it's nice to get a chance to talk face to face. This evening, Alan and I tooled around a bit in his car, taking a few night shots of the Bay Bridge and just enjoying the local scenery. I'll post some photos soon on Flickr and update you when they're online. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=933 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=933 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:19:52 GMT There is a bill which passed in the US congress which is H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. I'd contacted my congressman about the bill and my concerns over the bill. I've received a reply which I would like to pass on here: Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on this important issue. In January 2006, the U.S. Copyright Office issued their Report on Orphan Works. Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or impossible to identify and/or locate. The goal of the report was to elicit public comment and evaluate the extent of real or perceived problems that content users encounter in their efforts to use these works. Orphan works are perceived to be inaccessible because of the risk of infringement liability that a user might incur if and when a copyright owner subsequently appears. Consequently, many works that are, in fact, abandoned by owners are withheld from public view and circulation because of uncertainty about the owner and the risk of liability. In response to the report's findings and conclusions, legislation was introduced to address the problem. Rep. Howard B... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=921 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=921 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:41:37 GMT TODCon will be here very soon. Yep, I'm counting the days. OK that's not the secret.It'll be great to hook up with some CMX friends and regular TODCon attendees and speakers. Well, that's no secret either.I've written the last three CMXtraneous blog posts! That's more of a shock than a surprise, though. I'm pretty stoked about the Fireworks public beta. The Fireworks engineering team has done a phenominal job. It's to the point now where I don't like going back to CS3. Yeah, not really a secret there either, the way I've been blabbing all week long about it.The secret is my second TODCon session. It will be a live demo of the new features in the Fireworks Public beta! We'll look at some of the cool features you've read about in my recent articles as well as Kim Cavanaugh's piece on the Path panel. Based on what you've read and heard this week, I hope you pull up a chair for my session. Alan Musselman from Adobe will also be presenting a session on Fireworks. He'll no doubt have some very awesome and cool stuff to share as well.I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll be the guy with the loud shirt and - new this year - a limp (sprained my ankle and pulled a tendon a co... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=918 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=918 Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:29:01 GMT In less than one month, geeks will gather in Sunny Florida to catch some rays, share some laughs and learn a whole whack of geek stuff. Yep, TODCon is coming. I can't say enough positive things about this event. It's certainly opened up opportunities for me in my business, and the size of the event means you've got a great chance of hanging with your favorite authors or speakers, or making new connections to help you in your business.There are some pretty interesting topics on the agenda as well (and I'm sure there will be a few surprises.) I'll be doing two sessions on Fireworks (Ok, that's no surprise).The Wyndham Resort is a very nice place to spend a few days as well. You walk into the grounds area and forget how close you are to the hustle and bustle of Orlando.So if you're in the mood for a break, and want to justify it as a business expense, TODCon may be just right for you. You get it all, sun, fun, education and networking in a nice little package. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=916 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=916 Fri, 16 May 2008 20:00:18 GMT <soapbox> Just a little update to Ray's article today. After receiving many negative comments on his blog, emails from CMX and a not-so-subtle email from me, my article has finally been removed from the offending blogger's site.Thank you to the CMX subscribers - and partners - who helped in this matter by posting comments on the blogger's site. You guys are great! In an email response from the blogger, he stated, "...i had already your name in the end of this article..."Yet again, this individual completely missed the point. Attribution is  not a replacement for permission. Copying is not a form of flattery. And hey, if you've ever seen my loud shirt collection, you'd know I wasn't that much into flattery, anyway. Why the score of 2 - 0, you ask? Well, at the same time I found this blog site, I also discovered a commercial software site which had not only republished another of my articles, but had edited the article in such a way that it seemed I was endorsing the product. One email to them and the article came down. Ironically, at THAT point they asked how much it would cost to reproduce the article.Fat chance. </soapbox> ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=913 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=913 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:20:11 GMT Some months ago, I wrote about my interest in a new audio book category, the podcast novel. These novels are similar to those movie serials of old (Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger), radio serials of not so old (The Shadow, Green Hornet) and TV mini-series of today. Their popularity has grown and many of the authors have earned a certain amount of fame (if not fortune) by writing and narrating their own books in serial form.Some of these podcast novel authors are now going from cyberspace to the printed page! Yep, they're signing book deals for the novels they used to narrate for free. I think this is pretty cool.Scott Sigler's sci-fi (and ultra violent) podcast novels can be subscribed to for free on iTunes, but he now has a book deal for the print release of his novel, Infected, coming out in April.Seth Harwood's film noire private detective podcast novel, Jack Wakes Up is also now in print.J.C. Hutchins, author of the Seventh Son Trilogy will see the first of the trilogy, Descent, hit the printed page this summer.What I love about all this is how things got started; online, free, serialized but complete, versions of the books. These authors, and others, I am sure (I'm a sci-fi geek... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=906 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=906 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:43:57 GMT Ok, I'm in Kansas and I thought we're pretty good with online business tech stuff - I have to file, monthly, on my income, etc. I can do this online which is quick, convenient and saved me a stamp and a check (EFT payment). Now, I'm no fan of taxes, but it is the law and not paying is more painful than paying, so I've been faithful to make the payments every month before the due date (errr.... on the due date) and get the yearly required paperwork in too. Each transaction has a confirmation ID and each monthly form is stored, electronically, on their site. I can see that I've paid for the entire 2007 year, have everything filed, etc... However, today I get a call from the Kansas Department of Revenue - I wasn't there, so I call back when I get in. It is a long distance call and they are only open from 9am to 5pm. I have voip service, so I dial away. I'm put on hold. (insert elevator music here with brief interruptions telling me how important my call is to them...) Mike answers the phone, I chat a little letting him know why I'm calling, give the case number and wait. He asks some questions to make sure I'm the right guy (you know, that hard to get information, like the... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=905 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=905 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:22:55 GMT Well, it continues to happen and I'm not surprised. This time an open source company, mySQL, is bought by another company, SUN. I am curious, given the open source product development, as to the profits. See, a long time ago I heard a proprietary software developer laugh at the open source movement, something like "Someone is going to make a lot of money off of that and it won't be the contributors". Well it seems those words came to pass. The owners of mySQL are raking in a fortune while those who made it happen (the little people) got to participate. Compound that with companies, like facebook, which use open source tools, like mySQL and who sell parts of their company for millions - you've just got to wonder - how can I get a staff of people working for an open source project I own for free so that I can sell the company, who owns the main copyright of the open source project, years later for millions? To the point of the purchase, I do wonder what this will hold for mySQL? What will SUN do with the project? Will it become like Red Hat's distro for Linux - all for profit entries with the source files for the distro off somewhere else? Will the pre-install licensing chan... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=896 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=896 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:49:12 GMT As reported in the CMX Newsletter, an article about the IRS tax code delves in to the Section 179 deduction for office equipment. Reviewing the article, I found it to be a little simplistic and, perhaps, only accurate should you find yourself in the highest tax bracket - and a s-corp like you should be :). It also works for sole props and partnerships, but those are BAD business setups anyway. C-corps don't get the same complete benefits as an s-corp (due to pass through profiting), but they still benefit. The basics of it is the government, in their infinite wisdom, decided that computers have a FIVE YEAR business life... FIVE YEARS (I had to repeat that because it is so ridiculous - the average machine from five years ago used 256 Megs of RAM, had under 100 gigs of HD space, was the first releases of the Althon XP or Pentium 4 series processors and ran windows 98, 2000 or the brand new XP (or NT, I suppose - we've had therapy to block out all references to WinME). The Mac's where still using Mac Classic 9.2 and OS X was released as OS 10.1). Personally, I upgrade every other year or about 18 months at the shortest. So I have a series of mothballed PCs that, if I sell or d... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=888 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=888 Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:44:53 GMT If you have read my most recent article, Tools for Designers: del.icio.us and Flickr', I made mention of starting a CMX Blog piece for anyone interested in sharing their design and inspiration tools,resourceful solutions for their business, and for self-organizational purposes. Please leave a comment on this post to share your thoughts. I look forward to seeing what you're up to and if I can get new ideas and be inspired by your ideas. Happy blogging!... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=887 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=887 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:34:47 GMT Seems Comcast thinks that they can interfere with your web usage on their network.  Apparently, if you have Comcast, you no longer are paying to use the bandwidth as you want - Comcast has determined various applications and services just aren't allowed.  Things like peer-to-peer file sharing, other VOIP providers, Lotus email and FTP.So, if you have Comcast and you've been noticing things not working right, it isn't your computer - nor your browser (for once!) - it is your ISP meddling in what you are allowed to do.  Most likely they have a government mandated monopoly where you're at too, so you can't move to an ISP interested in just giving you service.  If you have Comcast, make sure you let them know you do not appreciate their business practice and, if you can, leave.Comcast violates net neutrality with this move and if those with Comcast don't make it an expensive business decision, other ISPs may feel emboldened to do the same.  If they are taking an inch and not stopped, they will eventually make sure the only Internet service we get will be through their mutual business partners... ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=880 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=880 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:20:01 GMT PHP.net announced (a while back) that PHP 4 is at end of life and will end all support by the end of the year (2007). If you are still using PHP v4 and haven't considered an upgrade, now would be a good time to do so. PHP 5 has been out for years and it is stable and solid. Many applications are being written to take advantage of the new features in PHP 5. They are promising security updates until 2008-08-08 on a case-by-case basis, but after that, it is all done. From a security standpoint, you have to upgrade before that as exploits beyond that point will not be fixed leaving your website and contents vulnerable to malicious attacks. Good luck and start now so you can migrate safely before you are forced to because of security reasons.... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=879 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=879 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:52:10 GMT This past Sunday, I peered into a world of the unknown, often unseen and clearly alien! Where was I? I was speaking at a conference for small boutique owners learning about web design and development. It all started out when I exited my plane in Raleigh, North Carolina and made it to ground transportation for the shuttle to my hotel. Sparing no expense, we were staying at the Day's Inn at RDU. I saw the shuttle coming in fast heading for a lady with her bags a few dozen yards ahead of me. Not wanting to miss the shuttle, I quickly hurried to catch the shuttle before it whisked away with the lady and her bags. However, half way through hustling, I realized this was no ordinary lady. She was brightly colored, well matched and properly accessorized (watching What-Not-To-Wear has paid off!) with at least four bags, one of which was about half her size ? I could go to a fast walk and she would still be getting situated. By the time I'd gotten to the shuttle, she had just finished chatting with the driver, who only managed to get one piece of luggage loaded. I plopped my bag down and climbed in. Suspecting she was here for the conference, she chatted for 10 minutes during the trip (th... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=871 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=871 Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:15:42 GMT TODCON 2007 RULED! Ok, this was the best TODCon ever (exceptions listed below) and here are my top reasons: It was the largest so far! Great speaker line up with many new speakers Good deal of regulars attended and I always love seeing the regulars Adobe was there in force! (and they are a really great bunch of people, took time to speak to everyone they could and accepted everyone's suggestions and opinions to make the products better). Ken - wow, managed to handle questions very diplomatically and with great patience (and yes, we want everything) Randy - was sent to speak to the extension developers, which was me and Tom Muck - we had excellent conversations with some good dialog, really appreciated your time! Christian - yes, Spry's code base is too big and, yes, I know you'll work on that :-) I enjoyed the conversations with you a lot and appreciate the time you spent talking with me (and the ideas you gave me for products I could make!) Sharon - congrats on the promotion to manager! And thanks for the discussions on the product and helping us realize the daunting task of quality Adobe faces each cycle. Greg - thanks for the dinner! And for bringing Steph in on ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=861 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=861 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:13:17 GMT A web buddy has just hipped me to This. See that item down in the left corner? Safari now has a shiny new version number, and it works on the PC too. So old Stevie has entered the PC Browser Wars, eh? That should stir the pot a bit. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=859 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=859 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:46:46 GMT It's coming. In two short days, TODCon will be here once again. And I can't wait. Bright lights, big city, geeks . . . what more could someone ask for?And the line up looks great. Some very cool topics will be covered. No doubt much fun will be had in the city that never sleeps.If you're attending for the first time, you're in for a treat. If you're a veteran (like me and many others) it will be great to hook up with all of you again. If ya can't make it this year, save them nickels and book your spot for next year. It's a great networking and learning experience for everyone. Not to mention the most fun a geek ever had.I'm holding two sessions this year, one about Fireworks integration with Bridge and Photoshop and the other on working with the new pages and sub layers features in FW.It's been fantastic to see what Adobe has done as they bring all the products into the Adobe family. New life (and I believe new respect) has been breathed into Fireworks. As the sole true web graphics program in the Adobe line, I'm seeing lots of new users coing on board. Many are skeptical, but once they see how fast they can work in Fireworks without having to switch applications, I think they'll b... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=857 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=857 Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:43:44 GMT I was lucky enough to score a ticket to Flash in the Can Toronto, which opened this past Sunday and continues through till tomorrow. I haven't attended this event in years but was glad I made it down there this time.I hooked up with Tom Green off and on over the day on Sunday and then we were off to dinner with Betsy Weber and other good people from TechSmith for dinner that evening. Techsmith is the wonderful company which has brought us great programs such as SnagIt for screen capturing (and more) and Camtasia for screen recording. Tom was non-stop entertainment, let me tell you, as he narrated in gut-splitting humor some of his travel adventures. He really needs his own cable show.One seminar I attended was of particular interest. Led by Kevin Airgid, the session was titled Relationships + Skills = Money. With a moniker like that, it was no wonder the room was full.And Kevin delivered, too; for 60 minutes, he spoke and answered questions about how to be successful as a freelance web designer. It was a very enlightening seminar, and I was more than a little proud of myself to note that when it comes to billing and building client relationships, his approach is similar to min... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=839 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=839 Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:54:22 GMT It's coming! Our 2000th article. What a milestone that is for us here at Community MX. And we couldn't have done it without you! Our loyal readership. To say "thanks" we're giving away something special tomorrow. Be sure to check out Community MX on Tuesday, February 20, to find out what the surprise is. Members ... you rock! Thanks for supporting Community MX and helping to make us the resource for Adobe/Macromedia and web information. Visitors ... check us out! Tomorrow's surprise is a sample of the quality information we publish each and every day. The trial subscription is free!... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=824 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=824 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:51:21 GMT A recent thread in the CMX forums about the frustrations of dealing with clients who don't understand how the web development estimating and planning process work has prompted me to share a recent experience.I got a referral for a prospective job from a past client. He told me that this new prospective client had a very disorganized yet successful business. That was my first warning sign; disorganized business usually means they'll be disorganized when it comes to the web site too. In my experience, they'll probably not have any goals in mind or concrete ideas of what their web site should do for their users and their business.Nevertheless, I tried calling them and they didn't call me back for weeks. Second warning sign. They finally called me back. I told the woman we needed to set a meeting to go over requirements, which she agreed to, but wanted to do it over the phone. I don't really consider this a warning sign (phone meetings are fine, save some gas), and agreed to a day and time. I spent a considerable amount of time prepping for the meeting. However, the day and time of our meeting came and went without a call from the woman. Third warning sign. I called her shortly after... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=820 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=820 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:27:56 GMT I have a problem with Yahoo!. Had I not been verbally attacked by a man in a neighboring city, I wouldn't even realize this interesting issue existed. And though it benefits my clients, it really bugs me personally. The back story in a nutshell is -- I have a client in the moving industry. A man in the same industry an hour away was having a fit that our search returns on Yahoo! were coming up at #2. (Nice for my client of course.) This competitor was sure I was cloaking or doing something illegal to get my client to that level (well actually, he accused me of putting text into the meta tags. But anyone that knows anything about SEO knows how far that would get me. And if he could read code he'd know that there are no meta tags on this site. There never have been.) When I looked at the search return he was complaining about, it read more like an ad than text on my client's website. Odd. So I looked at the page. Then I looked at various pages on the site. I also looked all through the way back machine archives. That text has never been on the page Yahoo! is linking to (or the site). Hmmmmm... A mystery. It took, me a couple days to figure out (and some sleuthing from some brillian... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=719 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=719 Tue, 11 Jul 2006 02:57:33 GMT You would have thought no one ever saw someone eat 3 lbs. of crabs before... Hey folks... I've been back from TODCON almost a full day now (got back into Washington DC at 7:00pm last night). So I thought I'd give you a brief synopsis of my trip and what I did, what I thought and what I experienced the last couple of days at TODCON. Thursday (leaving for Orlando): My one big purchase for this trip was a Washington Nationals baseball jersey. I promised myself I wouldn't purchase any Nationals merchandise until Major League Baseball got their proverbial act together and named an owner and, since they did that two days before I had to leave, I was good to go with my capitalistic morals still intact. Got to the hotel a few hours earlier then everyone else, so I got my room and walked around the lobby where I ran into Ray and Danielle Mickey. So, we helped Ray set up the registration table with all the books, t-shirts and name tags for all the TODCON attendees. For the t-shirts, I PROMISE I'll put the t-shirt design up on my web site today or tomorrow (I swear!). While Danielle and I were organizing the name tags, I grabbed Tom Green's name tag and re-inserted the generi... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=705 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=705 Mon, 22 May 2006 16:03:36 GMT In just a few short weeks, I'll be in sunny Orlando, speaking at TODCon and hanging with some good friends. I hope to meet and make new ones, and have a blast as well.If you've never been to TODCon, let me tell you it's a great experience. Great networking opportunity, a one of a kind chance to speak with some of your favorite authors (books and CMX) and learn a ton from them and the other attendees. I have been to each TODCon since the first one and I've never regretted it. I hope to see you there as well. If you can't make it though, make sure to check out CMXtraneous as I am sure some of us will be posting the going's on, whetting your appetite for next year.... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=694 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=694 Thu, 04 May 2006 00:50:25 GMT Yes, it's finally happened. Someone thought I was worthy enough to be interviewed. That person is Dan Smith. Dan and I got to know each other from being members in Webweavers - a Google Group e-mail list for everything related to web designing (and ruled with an iron maiden thumb by our very own Stef! LOL!). Anyway, Dan hosts and creates audio interviews on his blog. He thought it would be interesting to let people know what I sound like and had the crazy notion others might be interested in hearing what my thoughts were on the wide variety of topics we discussed. It took a while to get all the logistics worked out, but you can finally hear our interview today. The interview consists of a wide range of topics such as how I got into web design, information about the two books I helped write with Tom Green, the 'Bots autistic benefit book I participated in (and wrote a blog about not too long ago) as well as some of my thoughts about web comic strips - including CMX Suite! - and a whole bunch of other stuff! So if you're interested in hearing what I sound like, now your curiosity can be appeased. :-) - Chris ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=669 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=669 Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:51:18 GMT I don't know how many of you know Paul Dell, a Birmingham lad from the UK living in Spain. He runs and owns dellwebsites, and Dell the computer giant aren't very happy that he should dare to use his own name and are suing the ass off him as we speak. If you can spare a dollar or whatever your currency is to help Paul you can do it here and get a very nice template design into the bargain. Paul needs all our support, let's see if we can't rally round him and give him the support he desperately needs.I, for one, have bought my last of anything from Dell. Read about it at the register ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=665 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=665 Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:30:47 GMT This is another one of those David and Goliath stories that always aggravate me. Another case of the big giant shoving around the little guy who has a smaller sword and shield in the hopes he'll just give up. For those that aren't familiar, this story is about Paul Dell who lives in Spain. He's a web designer who, in 2001 purchased the domain name www.dellwebsites.com. Novel idea naming your business after yourself and what you do -- I doubt anyone's ever done it before. About a year later, Dell came knocking. "Hey, give us your domain name. It might confuse people." Huh? If I'm looking for a new computer, I'm sure not looking for a website -- nor the other way around. Paul said no. Dell went away -- for a while. Then, about a year ago, they came back. "You're still using the same name." Ummm, yes, I sure am. It's my name. It's what I do. "Give it to us." Ummmm -- no? (You can read the story from Jan 2005 at The Register.) And again he didn't hear for a while. Now Dell is back in a BIG way. Not only asking for the domain name but suing Paul for hundreds of thousands of Euro for all this loss they've incurred by him continuing to run his web design bu... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=664 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=664 Thu, 16 Feb 2006 15:24:01 GMT I found this to be rather odd. I have a realtor client that is finally, after I advised it over two years ago, ready to try using Google Adwords. My recommendation would have put him ahead of his competitors instead of playing catch up -- but better late than never -- I guess. Strangely, the same day I was hooking him up with the company I recommended he use, Page Zero Media, he got a call from a sales rep at Google offering to, "Help him take his business to the next level." Huh? Call me naive, but I had no idea Google was in the habit of contacting people directly. Thus, doubting the call, I asked my client to let me check it out more thoroughly. Of course you know what I did -- I googled the guy. ;) Sure enough, he was in the Google listings (in the Sponsored Links, no less) with a link to a page about him. He's an industry expert in real estate and local. OK, so he's real. There's even a picture. But my goodness, does this bother anyone besides me? I mean, Google is a search engine (and of course lately, lots of other things) -- but I think of it as having more to do with algorithms and engineering than sales. Thus, we have a whole culture of consultants and agencies that cr... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=607 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=607 Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:49:59 GMT Many of you are probably way ahead of me in this social networking phenomenon. I stay extremely busy, so I've stayed on the periphery with no time to really look into it -- till now. Last week, my friend Molly Holzschlag, made a blog post and mentioned LinkedIn. With some of my recent duties completed, I decided to accept an invitation I recieved back in July from Laura Carlson (I told you I was slow). I thought a little networking for new and trusted subcontractors, or possibly some new CSS Chef jobs as a subcontractor, might be in order. I signed up and began inviting some friends and co-workers. A woman who does some copywriting for my clients joined LinkedIn on my recommendation. In turn, she got a web developer from Atlanta, whom she also works with, to sign up as well. Right -- this is how it works -- I'm learning. I viewed her profile, including her network. I was startled to see an extremely familiar name -- Milt Webb -- a blast from the past in an unexpected place. It was a name I hadn't seen in over 15 years, and certainly not in the city where I last had contact with him. Sure -- there could be more than one -- but it's not a common name. Back story -- Long ago, in ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=595 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=595 Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:30:23 GMT How many fellow mac heads have been frustrated at the difficulty sending HTML email using your mail program? That has been one of the most frustrating issues for me. When I send my invoices, which are created in DW (using a template), I have to open them in a browser and save them as a PDF, then attach to the email. There are other times I would like to send a nice pretty HTML email, but I only have cursory formatting available in Entourage. Michael Jones, a friend from my rather chatty WebWeavers list, just pointed me to a MacWorld article that contains the answer. You can get the details there, but Rob Buckley created a free Send Complex HTML with Inline Files 2004 that was about as easy to install and use as anything I've done yet. It's a matter of putting the Applescript into your Entourage Script Menu Items folder and then showing the email the path to your HTML file. Voila! Lovely formatted HTML email from OS X! What more could you want? Thanks Rob!... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=562 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=562 Sun, 31 Jul 2005 01:11:10 GMT