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.

Related posts:

1. Coming…soon (?)
2. Mc Outsourcing
3. DropSend

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.

Related posts:

1. FlickScreen and Collecting for Creativity
2. Green Hosting
3. McAfee Anti-Phishing filter for Internet Explorer causes onclick events to not fire?

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.

Related posts:

1. Staking my claim
2. LinkedIn.com
3. When Less Isn’t Less

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?

Related posts:

1. The Servant Leader
2. Joel Spolsky’s Design Essays
3. Oops…let’s rethink that URL

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.

Related posts:

1. Yaeger, Treviso & Associates, Inc.
2. Yahoo! Developer Network
3. Atlas from Microsoft

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.

Related posts:

1. (Some) Big News
2. Corporate Challenge
3. Top 10

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…

Related posts:

1. More Horn Tooting
2. Better Forms
3. Corporate Challenge

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.

Related posts:

1. Visual Studio…the best edition
2. ASP-based sitemap creator
3. Email catchall

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.

Related posts:

1. Scope
2. The Future of I.T.
3. The Death of Mac IE

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.

Related posts:

1. Missoula, Montana
2. I’m Not Dead…Yet.
3. Green Hosting