Programming Coffee

The company I work for just released a brand spankin new Credit Repair Manual called Improve Your Credit Scores-Improve Your Lifestyle. It’s a complete guide to how to improve your credit scores so that you can save money on large purchases, and afford some of the more luxurious things in life.

I was not a part of the crew who produced this manual, but I have been involved in other aspects of the project, and I can vouch that there is definately some good information in there, especially if you are considering buying a home, a new car, or any other large purchase. And trust me, the information is valid even if you already have good credit scores (I’ve used a lot of the information to boost my credit close to 30 points!). The book, priced at $147, could save you tens of thousands in interest… That’s what I call a solid investment.

So click on the banner above, go buy your manual, and let me know how it works out for you!

So if you haven’t noticed already, I’m pretty much on a hiatus right now to work on other projects. Between my database crashing and losing several month’s of postings, a hectic work schedule, and a complete lack of creativity to write, I’m going to sit back a little and just relax.
Ok, so I won’t be relaxing all that much. I do have big plans for this site, as well as my other site paniris.com, but both of them are in dire need of an overhaul, and I haven’t had the time to do that. Unfortunately for me, I put my projects below other people’s projects. It’s like I spend both my time and creativity on other things, and have nothing left for myself.
So keep checking back in, as I will still be posting here on occasion, and maybe one day I’ll surprise you with a new site, and tons of fresh new content.
And keep your eyes open for my new project: DogPeddle.com - Pet Classifieds

Well, the MacBook Pro was just announced yesterday, and I already know someone who’s pre-ordered one all pimped out. WIll I be shelling out close to $3k for a new MacBook Pro anytime soon? I think not! My household is enjoying the last wave of iBook goodness, and I honestly can’t justify forking out any more money for another computer this year… even if it does allow me to run Windows simultaneously.
However, lets go ahead and get the ball rolling on the MacBook, that way version two will be available when I’m ready to upgrade. Here is what I hope the MacBook will offer:

• 12″ Widescreen Monitor - Everything is going widescreen, jump on the wagon or get left behind
• Longer Battery Life - A longer battery life is ALWAYS appreciated
• Smaller Power Brick - Or none at all?
• Monitor Spanning - The MacBook Pro and Powerbook can do it… and the hardware supports it…
• Windows Support - Whatever has to be done to allow me to run IE for windows… dual-boots wouldn’t be refused, but not preferred
• Black Case - You know it would be sexy… Just look at the iPod Nano

A ton of web2.0 applications were released this year, but what I’m looking for has still yet to come. What is it that I want? I want an ajax-enabled shopping cart. I don’t want it to be a hosted application (unless you can prove to me that a commerce system *should* be handled remotely). I want it to be php/mysql, but if its rails, then make it stupid simple for me to install.

I’m tired of OScommerce knockoffs that are too complex for the average person to setup. I don’t want to be overloaded with a bunch of options I’m never going to use. I want a simple shopping cart that does all of the basics, and does them very very well. I want to be able to customize the look & feel of the shopping cart without messing with anyone elses code. I want the software to *make sense*.

Is that too much to ask? Hey, make it affordable, and I’m willing to pay for it!

I spent last Christmas unemployed, and happy that I had the opportunity to work for a different company. I spent my days at Starbucks, working on small programming projects that have long been forgotten. My original hopes were to go into business with another friend of mine, and start rolling in the fat cash. The glamour of owning my own company, working for myself, and making large wads of money seemed to cloud my judgement. Because my father-in-law has been a small business owner for many years, I sought him out for some advice. He asked me a couple questions he asked me:

1. Why do you trust your future business partner?
2. Are you splitting the risks equally?
3. Will each of you be compensated according to the work you perform?

These were very tough questions for a guy who had just ended his first post-college job. I thought that going into business was a lot easier, and that every party involved would be as dedicated as I was. I was wrong. Going out on your own (even with a business partner) is tough. Instead of having to worry about the livelihood of you and your family, you have to worry about your partners as well.

Inevitably, I decided that there was really no good reason I should trust my future business partner, and I’m glad I made that decision. My business partner didn’t need or want the work like I did, and it almost cost me a good client. I also learned that the risks were not being split equally. My business partner was still employed (and I was not), and my working on a project meant less time looking for a full-time job, whereas his working on a project meant less free time. And lastly, the compensation would not have reflected the amount of work put into the project. I pretty much put websites together… once I have a design. I generally get stuck with all client interaction, all the maintenance, all the marketing, and if we were to be equal business partners, then I would have been putting in 2-3x the work for the same amount of money. Even if I were able to live with that, it still would have caused a bottleneck in the company (me), and we would not have been able to maximize our efficiency.

If I had pursued my dream then and there, I would have probably failed shortly thereafter. Why? Things just weren’t right. There was no real trust, the risks weren’t equal, and the compensation would not have been worth it. Instead, I was able to find a good job, and learn a whole lot more about web development, standards, direct-response, and I have a good time doing it. I have no doubt that one day I will be able to start my own business, but when I do I will be able to answer those 3 questions, and feel good about it.

Buy Adwords. For a newly registered domain, and a moderate link-building campaign, I watched all of my other rankings climb, but I had no Google rankings. The update came and went, and my PR went up, but still no rankings. I paid for adwords for about a week (and spent $20-$25), and of course my traffic increased. However, once my ad campaign was over, my traffic did not decrease. In fact, it maintained the traffic, and after a week or two, it started increasing gradually. I went to check my rankings in Google, and my site showed up in the top 10 for several of my keywords. Coincidence? Perhaps. Next time I’ll try to test this on a much newer domain.

You have a company, and people still refer to you as a freelancer, “so what” right? Have you stopped to think what sort of implications this could have on your company? Will client referrals hold as much weight if you are referred to as a “freelancer”? Will prospective clients be as inclined to deal with a “freelancer”? Will your current clients treat you with the same level of respect that a “company” would receive?
Freelancers are often considered less professional, and because of that, not worth as much money. So be sure to use your “company” to your benefit, and don’t let the “f” word get you in trouble.

What do you do when trouble hits? A couple days ago I was given the chance to find that out. There was a hard disk failure on the database server where my websites reside. The webhost I’m using was fairly quick to catch the failure (as in several hours… fortunately the failure was in the middle of the night) and started to restore from backups. But oh wait, for some odd reason their backup system repeatedly backed up the data from July 29th. That means, I lost all database data from the 29th on forward. Yeah me! So I’ve been quite busy the past couple evenings getting things migrated off that server.

What are you to do to prevent this sort of disaster from happening to you?

• Redundant Server Backups - Sure, you should probably find a webhost that keeps redundant backups, but I think you should also consider getting some recommendations for a few reputable hosting providers. My hosting provider claimed to have redundant backups, but their reputation was not up to par. Oh, and make sure your backups aren’t stored on the same machine as the data.
• Redundant Personal Backups - Hey, if you want something done right - do it yourself. Your Personal Backups are JUST as important as your Server Backups, as I have recently experienced. I reccommend doing remote database backups, either on your local machine, or on another server.
• Pay Attention - Know the status of your server at all times! If your server goes down, you should know before your clients do. Trust me, your clients would rather hear it from you, than to find out on their own. It lets them know that you are taking care of them.
• Be Prepared - Have a list of your clients (phone and email) handy. Make sure that your emails dont belong to the domains you are hosting… that won’t do you any good. Send your clients an email letting them know what’s going on, and call the clients that have more important sites (money generating sites like commerce stores, etc).
• Have a Backup Ready - If your site depends on a database connection, create a non-database dependant page where you can direct traffic while the database is down. You would rather your site visitors know that a problem is being dealt with, than to have your visitors think that no one knows about the problem.
• Hang in There - It’s not the end of the world. Everyone has problems, its how you prepare for and react to them is what matters.

Check out this flickr account that shows screenshots of Apple’s website over the years. Pretty cool stuff.

The new line of iBooks weren’t quite as grande as I hoped they would be, but hey, a guy can dream right? The new computers are quite nice. They pretty much bundle in a couple of the upgrades you would have normally gone out and bought anyways (extra RAM, bluetooth, larger hard drive.

$999 - 12″ iBook
1.33GHz PowerPC G4 - up from 1.2GHz!
512K L2 cache @1.33GHz
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM) - up from 256MB!
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024×768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive - up from 30GB!
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR - New Feature!
Scrolling Trackpad - New Feature!
Sudden Motion Sensor - New Feature!

And then of course there was the Mac Mini, these computers offered an inexpensive solution to Windows users who were skeptical about entering the “pricey” Apple market (which is not true…). But they Mac Mini really lacked as far as the specs were concerned. Its good to know that Apple felt the same way, and definately made the new line of Mac Minis a real bargain.

$599 - Mac Mini
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
512MB DDR333 SDRAM - up from 256MB!
ATI Radeon 9200
32MB DDR video memory
80GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW)
DVI or VGA video output
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth - New Feature!
Optional 56k Internal Modem