Thoughts

  • November 26, 2010

    Great Tech Gifts 2010

    This is something I’ve wanted to become more consistent with, as I usually post these lists sporadically and at poor times. I figure Black Friday is a good day to settle on this type of post, since it is the official start of Holiday Shopping.

    Amazon Kindle: This is number one on my list of recommendations. E-Readers have been around for a few years now and I think the Kindle has proven king. It’s a great way to read books (it’s a lot like reading a real book), it’s easy on the eyes, and with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, you can keep your books with you and synced at all times. Plus, they are also offering a very affordable Wifi Only version. I truly love mine, which I got last Christmas. ($189 for 3G + Wifi, $139 for Wifi only)

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  • November 9, 2010

    Small Business Websites

    Yesterday I read a very interesting article in the USA Today about the 7 Deadly Sins of Website Creation. The article (actually entitled, ‘What should a small business’ website do?’) talks about just how important a good website is for a small business. After reading it, I couldn’t agree more. A while back the local paper published a story about how the writer was able to set-up a sufficient website for a local business completely free of charge using wordpress.com, and I was pretty appalled at the article. I knew it clearly wasn’t written by a professional web developer, just a hobbyist. In any case, I took this article to my students to see what they thought about it and to get their thoughts on websites in general.

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  • November 3, 2010

    My Review on the iPad

    A couple of weeks ago I picked up the 16GB 3G iPad as sort of a birthday gift from me to me. It’s something I’ve been contemplating for a while and finally pulled the trigged. I promised quite a few people a review on the device now that I own it and while I didn’t do rigorous testing, I used it in the most common testing environments- my house, other offices, the train, meetings, and using it for travel instead of my laptop. You can see my thoughts after the jump.

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  • October 20, 2010

    15 Video Games that Will Stick with You

    Got this from a Facebook Meme, then felt it would be a good blog post.

    The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen video games you’ve played that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.”

    Here we go!

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  • September 13, 2010

    Live on YouTube

    For today and tomorrow only, YouTube will be testing live broadcasting with 4 of their partners. The most interesting part about this test is the ability for live comments, which lets users interact directly with the broadcaster.

    I think this will be a very interesting test, I think it will do well, and I think coupled with Google TV, it will change the way live TV is done. Check it out!

  • July 6, 2010

    The Transition from Student to Full Time Freelancer

    I started freelancing all the way back in 2002, when my church came to me looking for a website (which at the time I didn’t actually do- talk about divine intervention!). I was a junior in high school, I used Frontpage, and GMail had yet to grace me with it’s presence. I had always wanted to run a business and this seemed like a really good opportunity, so I went with it; I freelanced all through high school and college. It was at the end of my senior year in 2007 that I realized I wanted to keep doing it and went to grad school to learn more about my trade, and better prepare myself for freelancing in the real world. That however, turned out to be harder than I thought. I got my Masters Degree in May of 2009 and wasn’t quite prepared for the roll of full time freelancer. I stuck with it though, and am still freelancing full time. With college and high school graduation season coming to an end, I wanted to offer some advice for the student freelancers out there who want to take the post-grad full time plunge.

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  • July 1, 2010

    My Thoughts on Hulu Plus

    When it came out some time last year that Hulu was going to start charging for their service, people were up in arms about it. I decided to wait it out to see how they would do it, stating that if they kept their then free service and charged for value added stuff, it wouldn’t be at all bad. Well, Hulu Plus was announced a few days ago and they did just that.

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  • June 24, 2010

    5 Books I’ve Found Helpful as a Freelance Web Developer

    I do what I consider a good amount of reading (especially since I got my Kindle) and while I do read some fiction, I read mostly non-fiction on business, web development, or politics. I love reading stories of how companies got started and how to deal with certain aspects of business. Several books I’ve read have given me great perspective and advice I can use as a freelancer, and I’d like to share 5 of those books today.

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