Blast from the Past
Saturday, March 29th, 2008 | Apple, Macbook Pro, MySQL, OS X, Programming, Time Machine, Web Development | No Comments
Apple’s Time Machine proves its worth yet again. I deleted my MySQL root user today (I know, total amateur hour) and I was scrambling to figure out how to get it back.
I googled and searched everywhere and couldn’t find a single solution. I couldn’t just reinstall MAMP because I had a client’s database on there that I couldn’t afford to lose.
Then it hit me… TIME MACHINE! I could just restore to yesterday at 4:30 (my last known working copy) and everything would be all set.
In 2 clicks and 3 minutes, I was back in business!
Apple’s iChat Wins for Usability (at least halfway)
Friday, January 11th, 2008 | Apple, Computers, Macbook Pro, OS X, Usability, iChat | No Comments
When trying to send a folder to a buddy who uses the PC AIM client, I got this msg from iChat in the chat window:
Your buddy cannot receive transfers of directories (folders). You could create and send a zip archive of the directory before sharing, or share each file in the directory individually.
This is very nice! Simple easy explanation for what went wrong and how to resolve it. Now go all the way and give a prompt to create and send the zip file for me!
“Would you like us to zip this folder and send it now?” [Yes] [No]
Cheap Web Companies are Ruining the Web
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 | Clients, Computers, Design, Feedback, Improving Code, Life, Programming, Ranting, Usability, Venting, Web Development, Websites | 1 Comment
This is completely opinion and I didn’t do any research but I’m probably right in most cases. This is really me venting because I’ve been having more than enough run-ins with external companies who under-price our clients for “services” such as consulting or even developing systems that they can’t afford for us to do. › Continue reading
DotNetNuke and Search Usability
Sunday, November 18th, 2007 | DotNetNuke, Improving Code, Programming, Search Engines, Search Modules, Search Results, Usability, Web Development, Websites | No Comments
DotNetNuke recently added what they call a “feature” to their implementation of a search bar: the ability to search the web or search your web site.
This poses a couple problems:
- It can confuse users with unnecessary options
- It’s pretty meaningless.
CFD Smile Goes Live!
Monday, November 12th, 2007 | CSS, Clients, Code, Custom Development, Design, Portfolio, Portfolio - Freelance, Programming, Projects, SEO, Semantic XHTML, Skinning, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff, XHTML | No Comments
Well, my first side project has finally gone live! After months of hard work, I now unveil www.cfdsmile.com to you. We wanted to bring out the services right up front for best emphasis, and lots of heavy stock photo usage for high impact.
We also worked with a professional web content writer to make the content more effective and search-engine optimized. This, coupled with semantic HTML, CSS, and google web master tools, will help this site rank high in keywords for Texas Dental Services.
So, please visit the site if you get a chance, and enjoy!
Online Chat Support: Provide a Phone Number as well
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 | Customer Support, Online Chat, Usability, Web Development, Websites | No Comments
I’ve been working on a project for a client this week, trying to get their hosting account set up, and I have experienced a myriad of usability issues with their system. › Continue reading
Three Scripts I wrote for DotNetNuke Skins
Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | DotNetNuke, Open Source, Programming, Usability, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff, asp.net, vb.net | 2 Comments
I’ve been in email communication with the new Skinning Team Lead at DotNetNuke. I’m really interested in joining the DotNetNuke skinning team. I bring a pretty unique contribution to the scene, and I’d like to share it in the most appropriate outlet. So I’m talking to Timo to see if I can be useful on his team.
Until then, I’m going to share some scripts I wrote for DotNetNuke skins, which I also sent Timo in email.
Logan Can Stay… pretty well.
Friday, September 7th, 2007 | Dog Training, Life, Logan, Obedience, Personal News, Puppy Training | 2 Comments
/!\Warning/!\: boring life story ahead. No web advice here. Move on if you don’t care about cute wonderful dogs … you heartless robot.
I’ve been working (not consistently, because I work too hard to save energy at home) on Logan’s listening abilities and comprehension. Mostly with ’stay’. It’s been working out quite well.
So here’s been my method:
› Continue reading
Driving Directions and the Web: A waste of time and space
Friday, August 10th, 2007 | Usability, Web Development, Websites, directins, directions, driving, google maps, mapquest, routes | No Comments
I’ve been doing a lot of content integration in the past couple years and I’ve noticed that almost every one of our clients loves to type out lengthy pages to give people directions to their location.
Login Usability: Am I in or out?
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 | CSS, Code, Design, Feedback, Improving Code, Javascript, Programming, Usability, Web Development, Websites | No Comments
UPDATE: After making this post, and refreshing the parallels forums page, I was presented with “Welcome, Joseph Sak” instead of a login prompt. So maybe I got it wrong, or they did, but this post still stands!
The Parallels Forums recently got some redesign and information restructure, which all looks good and is organized quite well. But they’ve missed a couple really easy issues with their login functionality.