Michael Barton

There comes a time when you’re working with someone, or talking to a friend or family member on the phone, and something comes up and they want to send you a file. Now this isn’t just any old file, it’s a large file. A file that will be annoying to send via the inbox, and a file that may crash your instant messenger window.

Droopy to your rescue! Droopy is a mini Web server whose sole purpose is to let other people send files to your computer. People spend a lot of money on these types of things. Why? There’s a free one out there for you, and its name is Droopy :)

Of course, the downside is you’re going to need to know a little bit about computers to install it. Be happy, I’ll help you out for a small investment on your part. We can work out the details, talk to me: 801-787-3237, or use my contact form.

You may find and download Droopy by using the following button:

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I came across an article about the best jobs in America. Systems Engineer won it; keep in mind that Systems Engineers are not System Administrators.

The following image shows the list. Be sure to click on the image for the full image.

I just came across a good article on sitepoint.com about How To Handle Client Support Requests Virtually. It has a few good points and links to other articles from sitepoint.com that you should skim also. The article talked about using screen shot tools to show what you’re talking about, it listed some meeting tools to help facilitate collaboration, and it told you how to remote into your client’s computer.

Internet Explorer 8 was released March 19, 2009 and what an exciting browser it was supposed to be. It was going to be faster, allow you to browse privately, it was going to be be XHTML compliant, and it was going to be more secure. All those fun things, right? Sadly, IE8 was faster, had a private mode, it was XHMTL compliant, and more secure than the older IE browsers.

The Problem

You must be wondering what the problem is right? Well, there wasn’t really a problem with the browser. There was a problem with your code, wasn’t there? You coded around IE6 & IE7 bugs. You made your site look lovely in those 2 browsers, and now that IE8 is out, your site looks broken again, doesn’t it?

What are you supposed to do about it?

The Solution(s)

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If you’re into jQuery, then you need to bookmark this site. It’s amazing! Not only do you get links to some of the great jQuery plugins out there, you also get links to some amazing articles/tutorials on jQuery. Try it out and let me know if you need help with anything.

I came across this article about The Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer. It’s a great article. I’m just not a fan of the name because the tips in the article can be used for a Web Developer, Programmer, Small Business & any type of product. Just to name a few. I think it’s weird that so many good blogs out there are geared for Web Designers and not everyone else. How unfortunate.

Regardless, it’s a great article and I hope you take down notes. The key thing you should take a way from this is “branding” because it has a powerful affect on people. If you’re branded in a good way, like Honda for instance. Honda is known for quality, right? Among other things. Now, if you were branded as “quality” then people would pay more for your service even though there are cheaper services. Like non-America for instance. Non-American labor is known for being cheaper than American labor. However, I feel strongly about this – America is the best damn country in the world – and I am so proud to be an American. Take that one to heart. My point being. America is so branded in my heart and in my soul that I will never outsource as long as I can help it. Of course I can’t guarantee any of my clients will feel the same way I do, but I try my hardest to push (& force!) my belief about America being the greatest onto other people.

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There comes a time in your life when you need to admit you’re not perfect. You may be the best damn web developer in the world (me), and you may know your stuff like the curves on a pretty woman. But you don’t always remember everything you need to know – all the time – and you know it!

The people at Smashing Magazine were kind enough to remind us that we’re not perfect, and that even though we are the best at what we do – we still need some help at times.

That’s why I’m proud to share with you the 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionaires from Smashing Magazine.

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This is a little tip taken from the book Vista Performance and Tuning Guide.

They say to put your computer to Sleep instead of hibernating or turning it off each time you want to shut down your computer. I can confirm this – it works wonderfully. Back before I knew anything about computers (and when computers took a year to boot) I would turn my computer completely off. Stupid, I know. But some people actually still do this. I used to always complain because it took so long to get back into the computer. Well, then I grew up and started to use the nifty “hibernate” feature. This worked wonderfully for several years. Of course, Sleep was available at the time, but the word “hibernate” sounded so much cooler. Needless to say (even though I’m saying it), I chose to “hibernate.”

Time passed by and I bought a Vista. Now, I was scared to buy Vista. I’ve heard so many bad things about it. Mostly from gossip which has been proved wrong. I actually like Vista. I’d say go buy Vista, but Windows 7 is out, so go get Windows 7.

The moral of the story, use Sleep on Vista because “hibernate” and shut-downs are too slow.