Michael Richard Murphy

I’m pleased to announce that Radiant Skin Clinic, a client of mine, is now a certified green site!

Over the last few weeks we had been experiencing a lot of performance problems with our old host. The situation didn’t seem to be improving and after a few days of truly abysmal loading times, we decided it was time to move to a new host. I’ve always heard great things about Dreamhost so we went with them. With 500GB (increasing weekly) of storage and 5TB (increasing weekly) of bandwidth, their pricing and plans can’t be beat. It’s an added bonus however that Dreamhost purchases Renewable Energy Credits to offset the carbon emissions generated by their business activities.

While I wouldn’t recommend selecting any service provider based solely on whether they’re carbon neutral or not, so far Dreamhost service and the features have been impressive. Clicking on the “green site” badge above will take you to a Dreamhost page with more details on other steps they’re taking to minimize the effects of their business activities.

I’m pleased to announce the release of the NEW Yaeger, Treviso & Associates, Inc. website! It was great to work with Jon and Chuck on redesigning their existing website. They’re excited about the idea of clients being able to upload Quickbooks and other financial files directly to them. And because tax season is so busy, they’re always on the lookout for additional talent. Prospective employees can upload resumes as well.

It’s been a while since I’ve written here.

I always say it’s because I’ve been busy. And it’s true. In the last month, I’ve moved this site to a different host and started everything but the content from scratch. Oh yeah, I also moved cross country.

Aside from the move, the important stuff is that I’m no longer with CUNet. I’m currently freelancing and looking for something web development/design related that really interests and inspires me. If you think you have the thing, please check out my portfolio site for examples of my work and contact information.

I summed up the latest changes to this site in another post so I won’t go into it again now. The newest of the new though is the LinkedIn icon that appears at the top of the middle column. I’ve always gotten good traffic and leads from my LinkedIn profile. Now that I’m left to my own devices for employment, I’m going to try to better leverage LinkedIn. Afterall, there’s a wealth of good information there about me. It acts as a resume of sorts, outlining my work experience. Even better, it contains loads of endorsements and recommendations from my coworkers and clients.

I just finished Hackers & Painters Big Ideas From The Computer Age by Paul Graham. For those of you not familar, Graham was the co-founder of Viaweb, the web’s first online e-commerce store generator. Graham and Robert Morris sold Viaweb to Yahoo! in 1998. Hackers & Painters is a collection of Graham’s essays on topics ranging from the education system to the ideal programming language.

I like Graham’s essays because although his topics are wide in scope, he breaks it down in a manner that lets you know he’s really spent a lot of time thinking about it. Now I’m no Paul Graham but I think I spend an almost painful amount of time thinking about a variety of different things. It’s almost relaxing to read the thoughts of someone who thinks more than I do.

I’m not sure if it’s because this topic came at the end of the book so it’s freshest or because this is a big topic lately at work but there’s a paragraph or two that’s been stuck in my head since I read it. It’s in the essay titled Revenge of the Nerds under the Recipe heading. It’s about “best practices” and “standards”.

Graham suggests that managers push for the adoption of best practices and standard technology because they’re safe choices. Any company can fail at any given time. Graham proposes that failure of projects that use best practices aren’t viewed as failures of management but rather as failures of technology and the industry that chose it (at least as far as those managers are concerned).

Don’t get me wrong, I think standards are a good thing. I try to construct all my sites using and validating against W3C standards. In the 1800s, it was nice to know that railroad tracks constructed in the West using a certain gauge would match up with those constructed starting in the East using the same guage. It’s also nice for those building skyscrapers to know that a steel beam will support the same weight whether it’s purchased from Metal X or Y Steel. I also think usability standards are also important. Web users have come to expect certain behaviors from certain web controls and it doesn’t help anyone to deviate from them.

On the other hand, I think Graham’s point is that innovation doesn’t come from safe choices or doing what everyone else does. This is where small companies excel. Maybe nobody told them things aren’t done a certain way or maybe they have nothing to lose. Graham quotes Erann Gat as saying that “what industry best practice actually gets you is not the best, but merely the average”. I don’t think any company can afford to be average. What do you think?

I am pleased to announce the debut of BVEMusic.com.

BVEMusic.com is the website of Brendan Van Epps, a jazz saxophonist from Syracuse, New York. This website supports the release of Brendan’s new CD, When She Dances. The site also allows Brendan to communicate appearance dates to his audience. BVEMusic.com interfaces with Brendan’s existing Paypal account, providing fans with a simple convenient way to purchase When She Dances.

Please join me in congratulating Brendan on his new website, BVEMusic.com, and wishing him much success in the future.

Not that long ago, I mentioned that Citigroup’s NAIT was interested in the recognition program I wrote for The Student Loan Corporation.

Well, this past Friday, I presented a portion of the program to a representative of that project team and he was impressed. He’ll be presenting his findings to the team this week so we’ll have to see where it goes from there.

To see my little web app go from the several hundred employee Student Loan Corporation to adoption by Citigroup, the world’s largest financial institution, might blow my mind.

On a side note, the shirts I designed for the 2006 Corporate Challenge were apparently a big hit although I was a little disappointed. To reduce the printing costs and because of possibly foul weather, they decided to print in a single color on not white. I guess I can’t blame them for being frugal but I was not a big fan of the turquoise color that was chosen. Ugh.

I’ve threatened to reveal big news here many times in the past and lately has been no exception. So here is some of the latest…

1. I’m working on three new web sites for clients. The URLs will be revealed here when they’re complete but I’m pretty excited about them.

2. The biggest news however is that the employee recognition program I’ve been writing for The Student Loan Corporation will be reviewed by North American Information Technology for possible use within all of Citigroup. NAIT has really gotten serious about standardizing technology across Citigroup’s multiple businesses.

   One of the ways they’d do this is by rolling out certain applications to the entire business. Since my recognition application already meets a lot of their requirments and is well liked by The Student Loan Corporation employees, I’ve been told it will be considered. It’s really going to be pushed up since it’s great visibility for the technology department at SLC but also great visibility for me. I never imagined I’ve been writing an application for the world’s largest financial institution. It would be nice if it works out that way. Stay tuned…

Speaking of real products from real companies…I’ve been using DropSend a lot lately.

DropSend is a nifty web app from Carson Systems that solves the problem of transferring files too large for email from one computer or person to another. Want to transfer some files from work to home or vice versa but don’t have a thumb drive handy? DropSend. Want to get a comp to a client but the file size would blow out their email server? DropSend.

DropSend lets you upload files to their server either for storage or for sending to another person. Pricing for this service varies depending on a couple factors including frequency of use or desired storage size. Up to 5 sends/month and 250MB of storage is free. FREE!

They also offer business plans up to 250GB of storage, unlimited sends, 100 or more users, and file encryption. The business plan is also brandable so a hosting or other technology services company can offer it to their clients as a value-add.

I got a call yesterday from a good friend and former coworker of mine.

A year or so ago he sat next to the CIO of well known company on a flight back here from the West Coast. They talked, he impressed this gentleman, and they stayed in touch.

He called to tell me that he was offered one of their coveted project management internship positions this summer (he has one semester left). He also wanted to thank me for my support all these years and the opportunities he had while working for me to get the experience necessary to get this internship.

Clark, I wish I could take credit for your success but that’s all you. I just let you do what you’re good at. You’re one of the most motivated, hardest working people I know and I’d work with you on any project, any time.

Congratulations, you deserve it.

I read recently in the New York Times that Mc Donald’s has moved some of their drive-up window order taking to centralized call centers in an effort to improve service and cut costs.

While you probably won’t might not be ordering Big Macs from customer service reps in New Delhi or the Philippines anytime soon, orders from some customers in Hawaii, Oregon, Maryland (and others places I’ve forgotten) are traveling as far as California before being routed back to computers inside the local restaurants. The article says this new process is designed to speed up order taking and fulfillment. Hmmmm.

I’m pleased to announce that this year I’′ll be designing the shirt worn by the local Citigroup companies in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. This includes local offices of The Student Loan Corporation, Citibank, and Solomon Smith Barney (my apologies if I forgot any group). Check back for an unveiling of the design after final approval by the powers that be.

As part of a promotion, I was enrolled in something called a Card Protector Benefit after signing up for a new credit card. The idea is that a percentage of your monthly balance is paid back into a fund like an insurance policy in case you’re ever in a situation where you can’t pay your monthly bill.

I try not to use my card too often and I don’t anticipate losing my job so I wasn’t totally excited about this program. But people get busy and several months went by before I called to cancel it. Naturally the woman on the phone tried to convince me not to leave the program by informing me of its other benefits. It turns out that they pay out for more than just job loss. They pay out for other life changing events such as purchasing a new home, having a child, graduating from college, things like that.

Having purchased a home a little while ago, she convinced me to stick it out at least until I received what I had coming to me for that event. Turns out that’s two months of bill payment (courtesy of the card company) and a refund of those two months of the program fee.

I didn’t intend to give it too much more thought until I had received those benefits (and it was time to cancel again) but for some reason I’ve been thinking about it this morning.

This whole concept is genius for many reasons. Like insurance, the company bets that not everyone they collect from will use the benefits so they make money. They still win when you collect because you’re providing them with valuable personal data that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

For instance, I collected my benefit because I purchased a new home. Since most people don’t purchase homes on credit cards, whether I rent or own would be information they wouldn’t know unless they asked. I’m voluntarily providing them with this information. It just so happens that this credit card company also provides many other services such as mortgages, student loans, auto financing, etc. Now that they know I own a home, how long do you think it will take before I’m bombarded by marketing material asking me to consider refinancing or describing home equity products?

I find this person’s writing and insight so spot on that I would consider going to work for them immediately if:

1. I lived in Silicon Valley
2. I knew who this person was
3. I knew where this person worked

Numbers 2 and 3 are relatively easily solved with a little detective work but it’s just not worth it considering number 1. So for now I think I’ll simply continue to enjoy his writing.

Visit the link above to soak in some ideas on how decisions are made and ideas created. I find I work much the same way. Maybe that’s why I enjoy his articles so much.

Note: This is a rough, rough draft written over two or three days at well past midnight. The topic is something that comes up quite a bit and that I have a lot to say about. This is an explosion of some of those things. It’s somewhat (dis)organized in some places. In the interest of time (and mostly so I can move on to something else), I’m publishing this as is. There are some gems in here if you have the time. If not, the takeaway is right in the title. You don’t need to read any further than that. On with the show…

This is something I’ve talked about in the past, both here and in person to clients. It was a topic in Sitepoint’s March Newsletter and the basis for some recent converstions I’ve had as well.

Content is king!

I think for people with little knowledge of the Internet outside of recreational use, comprehension of this concept comes in stages or unfortunately, not at all.

1. Let’s assume you have a business. I don’t care if you work for yourself selling homemade pot holders or if you’re the CEO of a 500 employee manufacturing company. At some point somebody has probably told you that you need a web site and that this web site would answer all your (business-related) prayers. At this stage, that’s not only believable but you can’t wait to get that site online and watch the $$$ come rolling in.
2. The site is online, you put your feet up on your desk, and…nothing happens. The big letdown. No bags, piles, or stacks of money. You think you know firsthand why the tech bubble burst and the e-Toys stock you bought to send Johnny to college now won’t even pay for a week of his day care. I digress.
3. Your web site really let you down. But you have money and time invested in it so you’re not entirely ready to give up. Good news! You get an email one day claiming to be able to get you umpteen-million visitors. XYZ Company will get you registered on a million search engines, they’ll get you setup with a pay-per-click campaign, and they have tons of SEO tricks that will land you the #1 spot on Google. Cool. You’re on cloud 9 again.
4. You’re paying hundreds a month in pay-per-click and ongoing SEO fees but you’re not getting any more orders or phone calls or walk-ins or whatever you’d like your site to accomplish for you. ‘The web is just hype’, you think.

I think this is an all too common scenario. It’s not necessarily that the web developer or SEO company is no good. It’s just that they didn’t take the time to truly understand what the goal was and what is required to meet it. There’s the old saying, ‘when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. Some developers just develop.

Simply having a web site is a good start but not necessarily enough. If I never put any work into this site and had only one page, it would contain information about my background, skills, experience, and a way to contact me. That little bit of information would work for me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It would be like giving everyone I see my business card, only it contains way more (useful) information.

That’s the minimum it accomplishes. I don’t do pay-per-click or search engine optimization. I’m not interested in it. Honestly, I don’t really believe in it. Please don’t misunderstand me. I believe that paying the highest amount for specific search terms will get a site listed the highest for that those search terms. I also believe that optimizing your web site for a specific search term will get you listed higher for that search term. What I don’t believe in is the benefit of it.

Ok, I should probably clarify that. If you’re not explicitly selling something, I don’t believe that pay-per-click is beneficial. ‘Everybody is selling something’, you say. You’re right, this site pitchs me. I said explicitly, meaning, you’re selling…a widget for $25. If you’re a straight up e-commerce company competing with other companies that have the same service/product/etc. and the only difference is who gets to the consumer first, then have at it. Pay-per-click is your best friend. Buy your way to the top, it’s worth it.

If you’re doing anything else (which encompasses a lot), then I just don’t think it’s a productive use of time or money. Let’s use a familiar example: this site. I can pay hundreds (or more) dollars each month to get this site to the top of Google for web design. If you click through and are greeted by a message that says something like, “This site best viewed with Internet Explorer 4”, or terrible MIDI music, or references to clearly outdated technologies, it’s not going to inspire a lot of confidence and it won’t be long before you’re back at Google resuming your search and my hard-earned money is wasted.

My point is that high rankings don’t mean anything if your site doesn’t appeal to your target market and satiate some desire of theirs. Whether it is to purchase something or obtain some piece of information or whatever. When I search for something on Google and I click through on a result, I give that site an assessment in about 15 seconds. If it’s not readily apparent that it will meet my needs, I hit the back button.

I prefer organic results. That means that my site appears naturally for the search terms that it most closely relates to. In my mind this kills two birds with one stone.

1. I don’t pay for listings but my site still appears. Albeit for fewer, more specific search terms but it’s more relevant to the user. This should make that person happy. Making the user happy is very important.
2. I’ve taken the time to provide quality information so my site because useful. A utility. A tool. People come back, instead of this being a hiccup in their search for what they really want.

You can use pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimization tricks (both legit and illegit) to get traffic to your site and/or make it more appealing to search engines but ultimately, search engines don’t buy your product or service or visit your office or any of those things. So why would you design specifically for them? That’s like manufacturing a product for one audience but marketing to another.

There is not substitute for useful, relevant, current content. Just in case you didn’t get that. There is no substitute for useful, relevant, current content.

Great site, lotsa’ good info but what happened to the “dailies”? From Feb 23 to March 1 is hardly every day. Give us more!!

That’s a comment recently left here by a visitor. It’s true that I’m averaging a post about once a week lately.

It seems like suddenly I’ve become insanely busy. My recent recognition means more and more people at work work (my day job) are asking me to participate on their projects. I think there may be a queue (sorry, but I love that word).

I’ve also started picking up more freelance work. Most recently working for a musician in Syracuse on a site for his CD release party. I hope to complete that in the next few weeks or so. I also have a number of other projects in mind and various stages of completion. Stay tuned!

Lastly, I keep writing that I want to learn C#. Every few months I talk about it. Unfortunately I still haven’t managed to get past half way through the first chapter of the book I bought.

It’s even more unfortunate because for some reason I now get a phone call or email about every other day from somebody looking for a .NET developer. That tells me that learning C# will pay off like crazy (learning for the sake of learning aside) but I just can’t seem to find the time to focus on it. There’s just too much opportunity for paying work.

The point of all this is: I know I’ve been slacking on posts lately. It’s not because I’ve gotten lazy. Keep coming back and I’ll keep writing. Okay, nevermind, I’ll keep writing regardless.

On my To-Do list for 1^st quarter 2006:

• A redesign of www.letsgomurphys.com
• michaelrichardmurphy.com the domain that aliases to this will be spun off on its own

After the redesign and spin-off, this domain will still feature my writing (a skill which I’ll forever be working on) and information about me but it will probably be of a more personal nature. michaelrichardmurphy.com will focus more on my career, portfolio, and writing of a more professional nature.

I have something pretty cool in mind for the professional domain but it requires learning a new skill so be patient and stay tuned.

As soon as I saw this posting on The Web Standard’s Project web site, I forgot what it was I went there for.

I know plenty of people who will be glad to hear Microsoft’s announcement that Internet Explorer for Macintosh is dead! Microsoft will end security and performance updates for IE/Mac effective December 31^st and they even recommend Safari as a replacement. Happy New Year!

While IE/Mac was actually one of the first browsers to at least partially support standards, it had become the bane of my existance in my old position. Perhaps it was more the expectation by the powers that be that every layout look exactly the same in all browsers than IE’s CSS issues but I really have come to *hate* IE/Mac.

Naturally people will still have to support IE/Mac depending on their audience, especially since it will still be available for download at MS’s site until the end of January 2006 but the sooner it disappears, the happier I’ll be.

IE is dead. Long live Firefox.

Laurie Sullivan from TechWeb says in the latest InformationWeek that a recent patent application filed by TiVo suggests that they plan on allowing the units to take advantage of RFID technology. With companies from all sorts of industries talking about inserting RFID chips into all sorts of products, TiVo could pick up on these in a household and customize media content on an individual basis.

Remember the RFID-equipped gallon of 2% you brought home last week? TiVo says it’s within a day of expiring. Get ready to see some very specific ads. Got Milk?

I’ve learned two things already in my new position.

1. Only a sucker shows up for a meeting on time.

   Maybe it’s that all the clocks in the building seem to be set for different times but inevitably, if I show up for a meeting at the time it’s supposed to start, I’m alone in the conference room.

2. Ridiculous is the new smart.

   Here’s a department objective from one of our corporate intranet sites:

   Organize our initiatives to better secure our systems, our data, and our processes to create more commonality and reduce unnecessary complexity in our infrastructure and our business applications and processes, leading to enhanced risk management.

   Holy run-on sentence Batman! Never mind our infrastructure, why don’t we start by reducing unnecessary complexity in our sentences? It sounds to me like somebody is trying to say that simplicity and modularity (or re-usability if that’s a word) lead to better security and less risk. How can we encourage that if we can’t even communicate it effectively?

   At some point people became more concerned with sounding intelligent than actually being understood. I suspect that anybody who heard that objective and didn’t quite understand it (lots of people in that room I’m sure) kept their mouths shut for fear of being thought stupid. Little did they know that the people to the left and right of them were most likely facing the same fear.

   To help you in the battlefields or corporate boardrooms, I present to you The Corporate Bullshit Generator courtesy of Office Diversions: The Productivity Reduction Discovery Center.

   Good luck out there.

I had an interesting conversation with a coworker at Citigroup this week. He’s been successfully consulting for close to 18 years now and loving it. By successfully, I mean consistently working. I’m not really certain how we started talking about it but he had some great insight on staying employable and advancing when it’s your job to go from job to job. He broke it down like this: Scope.

Scope is defined as the breadth or opportunity to function. Scope keeps you employable. Having a diverse skillset gives an individual a much more vast range of opportunities and projects to choose from. Becoming an expert in a field or technology is great but ultimately limiting. Narrow but deep technical skills decrease marketability by limiting a person’s opportunities. There are opportunities but few companies have a need for very specific skills and they’re usually limited to specific projects. Once that project is wrapped up, it’s on to the next thing. It might be a week or it might be a year but once it’s done it’s done.

Always take the project doing something or working with some technology with which you have no experience; even if it’s less money. Learning a new skill will pay you back, with dividends. Diversify and be able to tackle anything.