Design Rip Brouhaha

Airbag - Scab. It's easy to be intellectual about this debate but when you are anal about designs and when one gets "borrowed" or I like the line "used for inspiration" It hurts and right in the pocketbook too.

How To Quickie: Notepad Log File - PaulStamatiou.com

Create a log in file in notepad by adding .LOG (and yes it must be capitalized.) No thinking required. Apparently F5 will do the same in Notepad.

Firewalling.com - Offering step-by-step setup of firewalls and routers to help protect your network.

Firewalling.com - Offering step-by-step setup of firewalls and routers to help protect your network.

So I step up to the plate. After turning up a ton of viruses in the first 48 hours on Shaw. I'm slowly putting some blocks in place on the router. I can't believe it. I have indeed led a sheltered life. I wasn't sure what I needed or wanted to block. This site explained very simply the needs and it is done.

Seth's Blog: Where are the tweakers?

Seth's Blog: Where are the tweakers? I have seldom read anything that resonates so strongly with what I love to do. Tweaking a site till it looks gorgeous - the little bits and pieces that make a site "perfect" It does appear to me that there are lots of little tweaks that make a site work. The focus on conversion is critical. Though my personal focus has been on making sites work. Simplifying, validating, and implementing the work of others from usability is what I do.

Travelling and wifi networks

US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST05-003 -- Securing Wireless Networks What an incredible little article on the joys of wifi. As I travel more and use a wide variety of networks for all the stuff that I do I have come across more of these little gems. It is the little stuff that makes a difference. A little tip that I came across - for example - if your webmail provider offers a secure connection for viewing mail in your browser use it. That little step provides email encrytion automatically. For those of you using my hosting services - when you log in and see the choices for email - down below you will see an option to make it secure. Do it.

Thoughts churning

As I sit and wait for a client I have a number of lingering thoughts and as my eyes crossed the Blogger symbol I realized it had been awhile.

Focus for a website. Absolutely critical. So many of my small business clients don't have tons of money and so the fact that they really can't afford to be off target really doesn't capture them or me. A large part of what I need to do is keep them on track. That isn't to say that ther isn't an iterative process that they are involved in. Will we get it right the first time? Almost certainly not. the trick is to keep the development fast and the mockups rough then as the concept gets clearer we can focus it.

I suppose that there is some sense in which my own site reflects that lack of focus. I have spent hours poring over CSS and yet my site doesn't reflect that knowledge. It doesn't link to it. It doesn't show it in the code... (well maybe here and there but not overall.)

So what needs to happen?

My own site review?

I've known for awhile that I need to put SpamAssasin in place for most of my clients yet I haven't done it yet.

Update my client portfolio. Talk about some of my other activities? YMCA teaching. Course for PIT on Websites for Professionals. And then there is the whole blogging thing itself.