OK, so not all failures are a fantastic experience, but I have always heard that anything that doesn't kill you will make you stronger. No matter if we are talking about the workplace, relationships, or personal endeavors, it is unavoidable that we are going to fall short sometimes. Instead of just forcing a positive mental attitude while feeling embarrassed and frustrated, there is always a real value to trying and failing.

Wisdom
Yeah, you can learn from some previous success, but let’s face it...most wisdom is actually gained from a disaster. That is why you will cringe the next time you see someone do the same thing you have done.

Strength
The only way to get stronger is to challenge yourself and to persevere. When I think of the people in my life that I consider strong and steadfast, I think of the same people that have not chosen the easy path and I admire them the most.

Humility
When you have taken on something that was way over your head, you may have got a little ‘too big for your britches’. This is a great opportunity to rethink what is within your ability and when you need to ask for help. If you are like me, then you probably have to read that last sentence again, again, and again.

Alright, easy to say that stuff right? Well, there is a silver lining to failures that you can reflect on right away.

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative
~Woody Allen

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
~Henry Ford

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure
~Bill Cosby

Most people who do web or print design know this stuff, but just in case you missed the information or forgot it - here are some quick reminders

 

There are two basic color system choices when you are working with color on the computer. CMYK and RGB.

 

CMYK is the acronym for the basic colors (also called process colors or 4 color process) that are involved in printing images in color. C=cyan, M=magenta, Y=yellow and K=black. When a picture is printed on paper the colors are formed by a selection of each of these color dots.

 

If you want to change a color you can go into the color adjusting system and adjust each of these three basic colors separately. If you are designing something to be printed, this is the color system you would choose. If you combine all the colors to the max (excluding black) you get black - but not a clear black.

 

RGB is the system that you use with web design. R=Red, G=Green and B=Blue. Unlike CMYK, if you mix these colors together you get white (like a prism in reverse). Unlike CMYK which is meant to have opaque ink placed on paper, RGB colors are meant to have light shine through them like a stained glass window.

 

Black and White -Black and White is just that, no grey. This is great for ink on paper expressions. Typography treatments. And what you will get is real black on white - not the first 3 colors in CMYK mixed up into a sludgy black-looking color.

 

Grayscale - If you want to convert a color image into "black and white" image you probably want to use grayscale. This gives you not only the black and white but the grays. This is also called desaturating or removing color. You keep the values of the image - the lights and darks - but not the color.

 

Spot color - In the printing world there is Black/White (which usually means grayscale), spot color (a single color that is often used to liven up a black/white piece and 4 or 6 color process. Spot color is a single color used for accent.

 

Duotone - This is a combination of grayscale and spot color. It gives you a sophisticated image which is more interesting than a Black/White image but less common that a 4 color image.  

 

I won't even attempt to go beyond this with colors. Color theory and techniques can take up whole books. But sometimes it helps to review the basics. Just in case some asks "What does CMYK stand for?

 

One of the choices that you have to make when you are building a website is what font and what font sizes to use.

 

About 15 years ago (or about the time that Desktop Publishing became both popular and possible because of new software) some of the worst looking newsletters and websitesto ever have reached the civilized world, were published. The main reason that they were so bad was that people who always wanted to design publications, but never had, now had a chance to go at it. They tried all sorts of unusual looking fonts - tried them bold, in italics, in all the colors of the rainbow, slanted, wrapped around circles.

 

I know this for a fact, because I was one of them.

 

Now when people ask me what is a good font for developing websites, I give them these suggestions.

 

If you want a serif font (serif fonts are the ones where the letters - like T - have little feet on them). Newspapers and most printed work use serif fonts. Look at the New York Times newspaper. That is a good example. It is very readable. The font is Times New Roman. Another serif font is Georgia. This font was developed for website developers who liked the look of serif fonts and it was considered to be a little bit more readable on a computer screen than Times.

 

But most website developers use a san serif font (I think of them as "without feet") for their websites. The two most common are Arial and Helvetica, which are very similar. Several other san serif fonts that have been popular or developed for web use are Verdana, Tahoma and Trebuchet.

 

They all work. The problems you might run into with the last 3 fonts are that every web development program may not have them.

 

Another thing to think about is that what you put down on your website may look different when it shows up at the end of the internet on a different computer. Depending on what browser you use, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Foxfire, there are some things you might not see or may just plain look different.

 

My suggestion is to go with something simple and easy to read. Unless you are a designer, stick with keeping your body copy at about 10 pts or larger. And your copy headers at 12 points. You can get a bit fancier with your main headers - larger font size, colors, things like that - because there are fewer of them and they are meant to be a bit decorative.

 

Websites are a means of communication. If you can't read them on the other end, no matter how good or interesting they look, they aren't doing the job. So skip the "all caps" sentences. No alternating colors - green on this line, yellow on the next, red on the third line, etc. Make your sentences short. A long sentence in pale green or chartreuse can be almost impossible to read. Take a look at corporate websites. They may use little teeny print and fancy stuff like that - but the main copy that they write is usually in black or dark gray. They don't get paid if nobody reads their stuff.

 

 

 

At TeamBWS we have been working on some new websites and I am more than amused by the differences in what is considered a good site.

 

According to designers on the internet, the "in" thing is Web 2.0 using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and free floating, unboundedtext. The idea, as I understand it, is to give a website a more flowing design and fewer boxes on the screen that can't be moved without extensive programming. None of those old fashion "pill" buttons. No crass visual overload with flashing icons competing for attention. Screens are less crowded; easier to read. They have a more sophisticated look.

 

So we put together several sophisticated, edgy, graphic oriented websites. Most of our clients are in the computer business so we figured they would know what the newest look is for websites.

 

Wrong. The sites they like are the ones built about 5 years ago. I tried to figure out where we had gone wrong. So I looked on the internet to find out what the "best" websites looked like and then a found a site called "Your Website Sucks". They had check lists of what not to do and I matched what my boss wanted with the things on the list. He pretty much wanted everything that the "Sucks" website said was wrong or passé.

 

I figure if we build a website that is exactly what is on the Your Website Sucks list, we will build the perfect website for our clients.

 

I haven't quite figured why this is. The best I can do is look back at 15 years of working with websites and see the different trends. There was a time you had to have a splash page, preferably with music, starting your website. Now that is considered a website design crime. Animated gifs were new and cute. Does anyone even remember how to do those? Gaudy, rotating logos were very cutting edge. Preferably with a light glinting off the edge as the logo turned.

 

What it boils down to is that websites follow fads and technology just as much as any other means of communication. The clean, graphic look of one website bores the people who want lots of buttons and action. The button people are considered to be in very bad taste by the graphic people.

 

The only thing that we can agree on is that the site needs to work. You have to be able to find what you want. No dead ends. No confusing loops. No e-commerce sites where you bomb out when you try to check out. So we are back to programming metallic looking buttons and somber, gritty cy-fi colors. Ce la vie.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a nice Website. Why do I need to advertise?

There are 36 million websites out there, as of last week. It is like an enormous telephone book. You can be in the telephone book but so are a lot of other people and they all want to be the one you call.

Most of us have read the articles on Search Engine Optimization and are perhaps doing a Pay-for-Click program to get your website noticed, but don't ignore traditional marketing. It may be the way to get your website known.

Everything you give to people should have your website on it - and what you are selling. Or information about your organization.

• Business cards
• Postcards or flyers telling about your business
• Advertisements in magazines (even in the telephone book)

Then people go to your website. Each time they click, Google pays attention. The more people that click, the higher up on their Page Rank your website will go. You don't want to be on page 67 of Google in your category.

When your customers do get to your website they find there is MORE information for them or they can buy products. Maybe it is just plain interesting. They mark it as a Favorite on their website and come back.

Now you have an audience.

We have recently added a new Ajax attributes module to our e-commerce suite. This makes adding attributes and "configurations" so much easier. You can save "configurations" as templates and use them on multiple products.

In sales, it seems that the really great salespeople are the ones that have the easiest time talking to people. I used to wonder how it came so easy to some people and why others struggled with it. Here are a few tips that helped me improve my people skills.

1.0 Look forward to speaking to people.
Many people are unknowingly anxious to speak to new people. Fear of embarrassing yourself can create a negative response and cause you to 'tighten up' making your conversation start out sounding forced. This will certainly put people off right away before they get a chance to know you a little. Relax and keep reading this article.

2.0 Use an icebreaker.
If you know who you are meeting, use the internet or some basic knowledge of the person or company to 'break the ice' and begin the conversation with something that is easy for you to talk about and begin establishing some rapport. Try bringing up something obvious and ask about it, ask about their company, something he or she is wearing, or something from a previous conversation. This shows that you have an interest in them and enjoy their conversation. Most people are flattered that someone may notice or remember something and are happy to talk about themselves. (Be appropriate, it would be weird if you were telling me I have pretty eyes or something.)

3.0 Don't run on too long.
Breaking the ice is important, but don't go on forever. You don't want to be rude and just make all small talk. In some parts of the world, it is customary to make small talk for at least 30 minutes before talking business, but in the USA, keep it down to around 5 minutes. Especially if you only have 20-30 minutes for a meeting.

4.0 Plan what you are going to say.
This seems obvious, but I have made the mistake of not preparing enough for a visit and found myself stumbling at times. Now, I at least write down on a piece of paper 5-10 things that I would like to talk about. This keeps me thinking of what to say next and I don't embarrass myself. I also feel more confident because I know what I am going to say next.

5.0 Ask good questions.
Remember that if you are selling something, you need to qualify, qualify, and qualify. Even if you have sold 1,000 widgets to the same type of business, this is probably the first time this client has heard a presentation on your product or service. For example, if you product has the ability to 'enhance customer service', make sure to ask if customer service is important to their business. Then find out what they are currently doing to enhance it already. Then when you explain your feature, it has more value to them and your presentation makes a stronger impact. Also, you may find that feature has no value and you saved yourself from talking about things that aren't relevant.

6.0 Practice talking to people.
I know this sounds stilly, but I mean exactly what I said. I found myself passing up on a dozens of opportunities per week to practice my icebreaking and conversation skills as I did my normal daily routine. Next time you go to the gas station, grocery store, or small business talk to the clerk or someone else waiting in line. When you see the neighbor, don't just wave and shout "Hi" from your yard, go over and make a quick conversation. These are low pressure opportunities to get better at talking to people and your practice will show in your sales. You will become a better 'people person' and conversation will come more naturally.

Over the weekend I (finally) figured out how to set up dual monitors on my Radion 9200 Dual head Vid Card... it was actually very easy once I followed the right instructions. Basically all you have to do is modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and add a few lines to the video card device section. That';s it ... Before that I tried a half dozen other methods ... including installing open source and private drivers... for this you don't have to do a thing except edit one file.. here is the link

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1773710

This should work for basically any ATI card, if you have nVidia sorry but there are a few methods to try on this link as well

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

So, here is the senario... you have an online store, you want to use google analytics to track visits/conversions etc... so you add the urchin tracker code like they say to. Now when you go to checkout or go under any ssl encrypted page the sight throws an error saying there are secure and non-secureitems....

The default code they give is

< script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

The problem here is that it's including urchin from a non-secure source, I found some javascript at this guys blog ... http://boagworld.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1324
which will allow us to detect SSL encryption and pull in the urchin from the proper source, so use this instead.

< script type="text/javascript">
document.write( '<scr'+'ipt type="text/javascript" src="' );
if( document.location.toString().indexOf( 'https://' ) != -1 ) {
document.write( 'https://ssl' );
} else {
document.write( 'http://www' );
}
document.write( '.google-analytics.com/urchin.js"><\/scr'+'ipt>' );
</script>

Obviously I took the opening bracket off the script tag... but you get the picture

We have recently added several new features to our ecommerce package

• Added Cross sell feature. Started with xsell contribution from oscommerce.com which allows you to add "recommended" products to single products in your store. I added a few custom features to this to make usingit a bit easier, like the ability to add recommended products to all the products in a specific category. And when you add a recommended product to your cart you do not leave the original products page. I also tweaked the caching function a bit (should be a little faster)
• Added a condition column to all products in the database. This is something a lot of people in the hardware re-seller industry have been asking for. so now you can have 2 products of the same model or part number but have different conditions IE.. a new and a used version. this also works with easypopulate as well.
• Did some re-branding in the admin area (finally) now our logo is shown in the header :)
• Cleaned up the dynamic meta tag generation a bit.