09 | abril | 2010 | gabriel catalano

Archivo por días: 9 abril 2010

10 Excellent Applications To Organize Yourself

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

Do you face problems scheduling a get together or remembering your chores? If yes then you are one of the countless people who need a little extra help to better organize themselves.

Over the course of my blogging I have written about various programs and tools that help us improve our schedules and to-do lists. Here is a list of 10 of those programs which I feel all “people like us” can benefit from. Read each entry in the list, use whichever suits you best, and let me know what you think in the comments.

You are welcome if you want to share more free applications that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.

Colorhat

Colorhat lets us create a free account, then add and record times which we take for particular tasks. We can later view our time graphically. This procedure is a great help in self monitoring and helps us better/lessen the time we spend on particular times.

Rootein

Rootein is a great way to create and mantian new routines. We can add a new routine, feed in our progress for the upcoming days, and if we keep up our routine for 21 days in a row, then we are good to go with it and no longer need Rootein to help us out.

OpenProj

OpenProj does not need much of an introduction. Imagine being able to get your hands on Microsoft Project for free; that is precisely what OpenProj aims to be – a free and competent alternative to Microsoft Project which is the industry standard for Projeact Leaders when it comes to managing a project.

Notefly

Sigue leyendo →

UPrinting Website Sponsorship Programs

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

If you have a blog or work with non-profit websites, you need to read this post! UPrinting.com, an online printing company, is now offering two excellent sponsorship programs.

The first program sponsors bloggers with advertising revenue, sponsored giveaways and product reviews. The second program sponsors non-profits, charities and educational organizations with printing services, saving them thousands of dollars a year! Read on to learn how you can get your blog or non-profit website sponsored by UPrinting.com.

Blog Sponsorships

non-profit-printing-sponsor

Finding a blog sponsor is easy with UPrinting.com! Bloggers of all types are welcome to join the program and have the opportunity to promote UPrinting’s services while expanding their own readership. The sponsorship offers bloggers free products to giveaway that are useful for designers, photographers and business people. Custom printed products such as business cards, single poster printing and canvas prints. For bloggers that qualify for BuySellAds banner advertising program, UPrinting works almost exclusively with their sponsored bloggers and provide a steady source of income. In addition, members are given a full support system within UPrinting’s private social network for bloggers and a dedicated sponsorship team to assist with blog promotions. Apply today or share this program with bloggers you admire.

Non-Profit Sponsorships

In a tough economy, non-profit organizations are vulnerable to financial hardship. Everyday operating expenses can be difficult to maintain. For those in need of non-profit printing sponsorship, UPrinting.com offers their UCommunity program. Sigue leyendo →

Springwise | New business ideas from around the world

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

Anyone who spends any time at all online knows how easy it is to waste that time on sites one might call the online equivalent of junk food. ProcrasDonate is a site that hopes to turn that wasted time into something good while also giving users an incentive to waste less in the future.

Users begin by downloading Massachusetts-based ProcrasDonate’s free Firefox add-on and registering with the site, including choosing the charities they’d like to support and the amounts they pledge for each hour they waste. They then select the sites they consider their biggest time-wasters—Facebook and Twitter are both obvious choices, the site notes—and link their Amazon account for payments. There’s also an option to highlight sites that are the opposite of time-wasters through ProcrasDonate’s TimeWellSpent category; in that case, users can choose to reward those site owners for their worthy content.

Either way, users then go about their normal online activities, and ProcrasDonate records the way their time is spent. For each hour they spend on websites marked as time-wasters, a pledge gets recorded for their selected charities; every hour spent on those marked as TimeWellSpent, conversely, means a donation to those sites’ owners. Whenever a pledge reaches a threshold of USD 10, a donation is made directly and in full from the user’s Amazon account. Users can track their cumulative donations via ProcrasDonate’s “my impact” page; they can also request weekly emails with progress updates. A meter bar in the browser add-on, meanwhile, shows how much time has been wasted over the course of the week, gradually turning red when that amount exceeds the user’s set goal.

Much like Pledgehammer—which turns resolution set-backs into charitable donations—ProcrasDonate’s win-win-win potential is what makes it especially compelling. Consumers waste less time; good sites get supported; and charities get helped along the way. Where else could consumers’ ongoing challenges be turned around for good…? (Related: Wrist device rewards kids for exercising — Learning site motivates kids with real rewards — Appealing to gravanity of smokers who plan to quit.)

Website: www.procrasdonate.com
Contact: support@procrasdonate.com

Spotted by: Margarita Barry

Longtime Springwise readers may recall T-Post, the Swedish company we wrote about back in 2006 for its news-based t-shirt subscription service. T-Post is still going strong, and we couldn’t resist mentioning one of its latest issues: an augmented reality t-shirt that lets wearers play a virtual game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Focusing on the topic of higher education, T-Post’s Issue No. 51 was designed by 23-year-old Marc Stromberg to reflect the increasing incorporation of games and other recreational activities into mainstream education. With technical help from creative collective Moment 77, Stromberg’s t-shirt design features images of real rocks, paper and scissors. The cool part? When wearing the t-shirt, T-post subscribers can stand in front of a webcam for the ability to play a virtual game of Rock-Paper-Scissors with a computer-generated arm that appears to be coming out of the shirt. A video demonstrates the virtual game in action. Though the t-shirt is no longer available, a printable version of the image is available on T-post’s site.

We’ve now seen augmented reality in a range of apps focused on everything from music festivals to architectural tourism to virtual makeovers, but this is the first time we’ve seen it used in clothing. How could *your* tech-savvy brand use AR to forge some new OFF=ON connections? (Related: T-shirt comes with free music downloads.)

Website: www.t-post.se/rockpaperscissors
Contact: info@t-post.se

Spotted by: Jenny Lau

We’ve seen a few different efforts to document the world through auto-snapping cameras—including both Yahoo’s photo-based marketing campaign and Vicon’s life-caching device—but recently we came across one that adds video to the picture, so to speak. DailyRoads Voyager is a free application for Android-powered mobile phones that enables continuous video recording from moving vehicles.

DailyRoads Voyager is intended to serve as what’s essentially a video black box for cars, recording everything but allowing users to keep only what they’re really interested in. Whether it’s an encounter with unusual wildlife in the road or the sequence of events leading to an accident, the application works in the background to timestamp, geotag and save all videos on the SD card; as space fills up, it automatically deletes the oldest ones unless they’ve been tagged for longer-term storage. DailyRoads Voyager can also take still photos at user-selectable intervals; whichever format is used, it can upload all recorded material in accordance with the user’s preset specifications. The accumulated files can then be easily managed, played back and grouped in selections.

For now, Romanian DailyRoads is still beta-testing the Voyager application. Integration with YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and others is coming soon, the company says. App-dev entrepreneurs: who will build the first interface for seamless accident reporting…? And insurance companies: how about partnering with them? (Related: iPhone app helps State Farm users submit a claim.)

Website: www.dailyroads.com/voyager/
Contact: www.dailyroads.com/contact.php

There’s something appealing about a fixed price of $5. Washington state’s Ferry Farm Stand tapped into that appeal with its grab-and-go bags of produce, and now Israel-based Fiverr is expanding the concept into the world of services.

Similar in many ways to both Mechanical Turk and ShortTask, Fiverr lets anyone sell a service of virtually any type for $5. Those “gigs,” as they’re called, of which there are more than 20,000 already listed on the site, span the spectrum in focus and practicality. Many are much like what one might find on ShortTask—writing positive product reviews on a website, for example—but others venture into much less pragmatic territory, such as furnishing “7 hours, 53 minutes of vacuum cleaner sounds.” Categories on the site include “Fun & Bizarre” and “Silly Stuff” along with the more staid classics such as “Graphics” and “Social Marketing.” For each task sold, the seller receives $4; Fiverr keeps the rest. Both buyers and sellers remain anonymous, while a feedback system enables participant ratings.

Now in beta, Fiverr gives cash-minded sellsumers and minipreneurs a quick, standardized way to sell their skills, both practical and otherwise. One to emulate on a localized or niche basis… or to test out in *your* next big thing? (Related: Computer tasks for workers in the developing world — Bidding system for domestic outsourcing.)

Website: www.fiverr.com
Contact: www.fiverr.com/feedback

Spotted by: Bryce Hufnal

Upscale food trucks have been popping up all over the place for some time now, selling everything from wood-fired pizzas to Korean tacos to gourmet desserts. Now, make way for the double-decker bus, which entered the picture last month complete with a rooftop restaurant.

Aiming to go well beyond the taco truck that’s so ubiquitous on the streets of LA, local entrepreneurs Travis Schmidt and Jason Freeman began with a vintage double-decker, and then spent six months adding a full kitchen downstairs and open-air seating on top. Now, what might well be America’s first “bustaurant” is officially called World Fare, a mobile restaurant that serves up a variety of high-end dishes from around the world. One favourite, for example, is the Bunny Chow, an originally South African street worker food that features a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with chicken curry, coconut milk, chick peas, cashews and cilantro. Also notable are World Fare’s house-made “drinks in a bag,” including strawberry basil lemonade. Like several of the recent contenders we’ve seen, World Fare keeps its fans updated via Twitter; weekly schedules are also posted online.

As economic conditions declined in recent years, street vendors and low-cost curbside cuisine ascended; now, as prosperity begins to improve once again–albeit slowly–it makes perfect sense to see the mobile dining experience get upgraded once again. Foodie entrepreneurs around the world: time to hit the well-heeled streets with a double-decker bus of your very own? (Related: Foodie podcast highlights curbside cuisine — Coffee chariot caffeinates Copenhagen.)

Website: www.worldfare.com
Contact: travis@worldfare.com

Spotted by: Jim Stewart

http://springwise.com/

Twittering Grows in China (but not on Twitter)

Asiadigitalmap.com 9 abril 2010

by Thomas Crampton

Twitter remains blocked in China, but that has not stopped Twitter-like activity.

Similar to other foreign Web 2.0 services that the government keeps out, China’s vibrant web sector has created domestic alternatives.

This graph from CIC Data shows that almost 40% of the online buzz they found around the Toyota recall on the day that Toyota president Akio Toyoda spoke in China about the issue came from Sina’s micro-blog.

Note that this is a measure of volume, not impact. Sigue leyendo →

Como hacer que tu perfil de Facebook no aparezca en los buscadores | dolcebita

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

por Marcos Esperón el 8 Abril del 2010 a las 16:00 pm | Leído 52 veces.

Con el paso del tiempo Facebook se ha ido convirtiendo en la red social por excelencia y actualmente ya cuenta con más de 380 millones de usuarios. Todos tenemos nuestro perfil creado para compartir nuestras fotos, videos y comentarios con nuestros amigos.

Es posible que queramos tener nuestro perfil público en Facebook para que otros usuarios de la red social te puedan localizar y agregar como contacto, pero por defecto esto también conlleva que buscadores como Google, Bing o Yahoo! indexen nuestro perfil y aparezca nuestra información en la página de resultados.

Desde las opciones de privacidad de Facebook tenemos la opción para desactivar esta característica.

Lo primero que tenemos que hacer iniciar sesión enFacebook y en la esquina superior derecha acceder a la opción “Cuenta -> Configuración de privacidad”

En el menú de configuración de privacidad haz clic en la opción “Buscar”:

Finalmente en la pantalla siguiente verás dos opciones: la primera te permite especificar quién puede ver tu perfil dentro de la red social de Facebook (todo el mundo, amigos de tus amigos o solo tus amigos). La segunda opción es la casilla encargada de permitir que tu perfil sea visto desde los búscadores web:

Si desactivamos esta casilla tendremos protegido nuestro perfil público de los buscadores como Google, Bing o Yahoo! El proceso para que no se muestre el perfil en los resultados puede tardar hasta un mes en activarse.

http://www.dolcebita.com/2010/04/como-hacer-que-tu-perfil-de-facebook-no-aparezca-en-los-buscadores/

Brandlife / Latest News

Brandlife.es 9 abril 2010

Mini apela a la espontaneidad

Mini Canadá ha lanzado una campaña de TV, llamada ‘Be mini’, en la que presenta los beneficios de sus coches, como el ahorro de combustible o la estabilidad, mediante situaciones espontáneas que los usuarios viven en los vehículos.

La campaña, obra de la agencia Taxi 2, se compone de tres spots.

Lee el resto de la entrada »

La invasión de los PIXELS, la calidad asegura la viralidad

By Acuam Interactive

Ayer era el vídeo de moda entre los ‘early viewers’ de la red. Hoy el corto ‘Pixels’, creado por Patrick Jean, es un exitoso viral en toda regla.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.

Esperemos que disfrutéis como lo hemos hecho nosotros, como auténticos enanos, de esta impresionante obra creativa que nos ha recordado a una mezcla entre ‘Cazafantasmas’ y ‘Independence Day’ a lo 8bits. Alucinante.

Un txoko en el centro de Madrid

En el País Vasco son muy populares los txokos, lugares donde se reúnen grupos de amigos para cocinar y comer juntos, y a partir de ahora puede que también se hagan conocidos en Madrid tras la apertura en El Corte Inglés de Goya de El Txoko de Martín, un establecimiento fruto del acuerdo firmado por los grandes almacenes y el cocinero vasco Martín Berasategui.

Se trata del primer restaurante que El Corte Inglés incorpora bajo el sello de un cocinero y que define en un comunicado como “un nuevo concepto de restauración rápida de calidad que combina nueva cocina con productos tradicionales de la gastronomía vasca”.

Lee el resto de la entrada »

El nuevo Citroën DS3 en un vídeo impreso

Citroën ha presentado al público francés su nuevo DS3 con una acción de vídeo in print en la revista ‘Les Echos’. La compañía automovilística insertó en esta publicación una página doble dotada de una mini pantalla LCD y cinco botones con los que los lectores podían ver varios vídeos del coche.

Les Echos : Citroën Vidéo In Print 16/9

Citroën incluyó esta acción en 10.000 ejemplares de ‘Les Echos’, como con anterioridad hicieron CBS y Pepsi en la revista ‘Entertainment Weekly’ y Renault en la publicación portuguesa ‘Sábado’.

8-04-2010 0

Arte efímero en un loft de Absolut

Absolut ha elegido Nueva York como destino para su nueva acción de promoción del arte, bautizada como Thirty Days NY. Bueno, en concreto, ha seleccionado un loft en el centro de esta ciudad que, durante 30 días, acogerá diversos actos relacionados con el arte, la cultura y el ocio.

Ubicado en la calle Franklin 70, el piso será la sede de representaciones semanales, exposiciones, proyecciones, actuaciones, simposios y muestras de artistas contemporáneos, músicos, escritores y cineastas de todo el mundo.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

Rexona convoca un concurso de diseño para reivindicar el color negro

Estudiantes de diseño de moda que estén cursando el último curso de la carrera son los destinatarios de la primera convocatoria del Concurso Rexona Dress in Black para Jóvenes Diseñadores que la marca de desodorante organiza con la colaboración de ACME (Asociación Creadores de Moda de España) y el presidente de la misma, Modesto Lomba.

Para participar, los concursantes deben diseñar un vestido de noche negro e incluir una descripción del mismo, explicando en qué se han inspirado y proponiendo materiales y tejidos con los que realizaría la pieza. Con la iniciativa, Rexona pretende potenciar el color negro en la moda española y, de paso, promocionar su gama de desodorantes anti-manchas Rexona Crystal.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

7-04-2010 0

Project Natal, a prueba en Madrid

En un piso de la Gran Vía madrileña un grupo reducido de personas tuvo la oportunidad de probar Project Natal, el dispositivo con el que Microsoft España pretende marcar un antes y un después en el mercado de los videojuegos y del entretenimiento en general, según afirmó durante el evento María Garaña, presidenta de la división ibérica de la compañía.

Lo que diferencia a Project Natal del resto de dispositivos de videoconsolas es que permite jugar sin mandos gracias a que agrupa en el mismo aparato una cámara de video en 3D, un sensor de profundidad, un micrófono multidireccional y un procesador que administra el software.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

A la hora de cuidarse, mejor productos de marca

En los últimos meses ha ido ganando cuota de mercado hasta el punto de que, a día de hoy, la marca de la distribución está presente en el 32% de las ocasiones en el hogar. Pero la cosa cambia cuando hablamos de salud: los consumidores españoles se decantan por las enseñas del fabricante, dejando a las marcas blancas con una cuota de mercado de apenas un 21,5% en las elecciones de compra de alimentos motivadas por este factor.

Según el informe ‘Usos y motivaciones de consumo día a día en casa’, de Kantar Wordlpanel, la salud fue la motivación de consumo que más creció durante el pasado año, estando presente en una de cada cinco elecciones de compra de alimentos. En opinión de Nuria Moreno, Worldpanel Usage Manager de Kantar Worldpanel, “la importancia de la salud la convierte en vía de diferenciación y crecimiento para las marcas de este sector, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que se trata de una motivación impulsada principalmente por las marcas de fabricante”.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

6-04-2010 0

Nissan y su publicidad por control remoto

Nissan ha presentado en Canadá su nuevo modelo Sentra SE-R en un spot protagonizado por un coche teledirigido hecho a imagen y semejanza del vehículo real.

En el anuncio, obra de TBWA de Toronto, el minimodelo de la compañía japonesa adelanta sin problemas a otros coches, e incluso consigue despistar a un helicóptero que lo persigue, una aventura que ha atraído a más de 100.000 usuarios de YouTube en tres días.

Lee el resto de la entrada »

6-04-2010 2

Amor Raruno o cómo encontrar pareja en Twitter

De un tiempo a esta parte, el equipo de SrBurns venía percibiendo que muchos de los usuarios de su fan page de Facebook estaban solteros. Algunos, incluso, deseosos de acabar con su soltería, incluían una descripción de ellos mismos.

La productora interactiva crossmedia no se lo pensó dos veces y se puso manos a la obra para ayudar a todos ellos a encontrar su media naranja. El resultado es Amor Raruno, una herramienta de búsqueda de pareja en Twitter.

Lee el resto de la entrada »

http://www.brandlife.es/blog/

Internet es el último servicio que darían de baja los argentinos

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

El acceso a Internet es el servicio menos impactado por la crisis entre los argentinos, según un estudio de Synovate, lo que demuestra el inmenso potencial que la web tiene para las marcas.

Según un estudio realizado por Synovate, Internet es el servicio que más resguardan los argentinos ante la crisis. Este dato refuerza la increíble potencialidad comercial de la web para los anunciantes, además de la segmentación de audiencias o la posibilidad de utilizar métricas para evaluar cada campaña. “Las categorías más resistentes al impacto de la crisis fueron los alimentos básicos, medicamentos, combustible y servicios de comunicación. Internet es el ítem más resguardado. El primer paso del recorte fueron los consumos de entretenimiento fuera del hogar, es así que cuatro de cada diez consumidores eligen pasar más tiempo en sus hogares, lo que redunda en una mayor navegación”, explicó Daniel Finder, director ejecutivo de Synovate. Este relevamiento tiene en consecuencia un impacto ineludible para la planificación de inversión en la web. “La inversión publicitaria online en 2009 creció, estimativamente, un 31,4% respecto a 2008. Los usuarios muestran una fidelidad al medio sin precedentes. ¿Qué más puede desear un anunciante que donde está invirtiendo su presupuesto tenga un público tan comprometido?”, enfatiza David Castiglioni, gerente general de la División de Servicios Online de Microsoft para Hispanoamérica.

http://www.infobrand.com.ar/notas/13318-Internet-es-el-%C3%BAltimo-servicio-que-dar%C3%ADan-de-baja-los-argentinos

iPhone OS Finally Gets Multitasking After 3 Years

Online Media Gazette 9 abril 2010

Cat’s out of the bag, time for rumours to cease, Steve Jobs introduced the highly anticipated iPhone 4.0 OS at Apple’s event today. There are more than a 100 new features for the next iteration of the next generation of the iPhone system but the media event focused on the seven features that are of particular importance.

Though most of the new features will be welcomed by all, not every single one of it has little to no practical use for business professionals. In the mix, Apple reveals that the new OS will spot a 5x digital zoom for camera, the ability to rotate photos and a feature that’s already available on the iPad; a customizable home and lock screen wallpaper.

However, the above are just bonuses. The critical updates include multitasking, iBooks and iAd.

Multitasking Sigue leyendo →

As China Ages, Marketers Must Take Note

Online Media Gazette 9 abril 2010 Comentarios: 2

Image via Wikipedia

Earlier in the day I went through the current statistics and demographics for China through 3 different infographics. This is a build-up to this article for marketers who wish to expand into the Chinese economy. A recent Nielsen report states that, marketers must evaluate their portfolios carefully prior to expanding in China.

From what we can see, there are a couple of brands, targeted to different demographic groups, or those that work well other less-developed nations may struggle in China. This could be due to their one-child policy and other core changes in the Chinese society.

One-Child Policy

Since the institution of the above policy in 1979, there has been a reduction of births by over 250 million. Population growth in China has been falling every year from 3% in the 1960s to an estimated fall below 0.5% per year by 2017. The United Nations predicted that China will stop growing entirely by the year 2032. On top of that, by around 2028, India will surpass China in population and become the world’s largest economy.

Sigue leyendo →

3 Valuable Infographics For Marketers In China

General, Online Media Gazette 9 abril 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

As of 2008, there are about 1.4 billion people in China; that’s about one in five persons living on the face of the Earth. In Shanghai alone, there are more than 17 million people – that’s more than those that live in the U.S. cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago combined. On top of being the most populous country in the world, they also boast the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan with a normal GDP of US$4.91 trillion in 2009.

From the looks of it, their global dominance is inevitable if not for a few problems that are still unresolved. For example, their environment is seriously polluted which in turn threatens their food production. On top of that, social unrest is the toughest problem that’s still unresolved; 400% income gap between urban Chinese and those residing in the countryside anyone?

Here are 3 infographics showing the different aspects of China for potential marketers that wish to expand or start their business there.

The Numbers Behind China

Sigue leyendo →

Time to market, ¿cómo llegar primero al mercado?

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

“El que pega primero, pega dos veces”, reza el dicho popular. Y, en el mundo de la empresa, esto se conoce como time to market. Así, ¿cómo mejorar los tiempos de respuesta para llegar al mercado antes que la competencia?

Por Marcela Seggiaro

“Todos los viernes, 10% de descuento con tarjeta de crédito”, “15% de ahorro y 20 cuotas para los clientes del banco X”.

En medio de la crisis, muchas empresas salieron a ofrecer promociones para seducir a un consumidor deprimido. Pero, ¿qué ocurre cuando todos hacen lo mismo?

Como en las guerras de precios o de publicidad, la atracción por el mejor descuento se convirtió en una variable más en la cabeza del consumidor racional, que se informa y se traslada para buscar la diferencia.

En este marco, las ofertas especiales ya no son garantía de atraer clientes. La competencia está haciendo lo mismo. En última instancia, esto deriva en un círculo de promociones más agresivas y descuentos más elevados que erosionan los márgenes.

Ahora bien, ¿cómo competir en este escenario? Sigue leyendo →

Oddee.com / Latest News

Sin categoría 9 abril 2010

12 Wackiest Scholarships that Actually Exist
On Today 4/9/2010 under Misc

Can’t afford college and have no traditional skills to win a scholarship? Don’t give up, baking an apple pie or being left-handed can pay your way into campus. Read more »

10 Most Bizarre Legal Defenses
On Yesterday 4/8/2010 under Misc – 42,054 views

A woman using PMS as an argument for minor daily troubles is ok, but how about using premenstrual syndrome as an excuse to commit murder? Meet this and other nine crazy legal defenses said in Court. Read more »

http://www.oddee.com/

You’re Failing as a Web Developer — and Here’s Why

Ideas + lo que se me cruza... 9 abril 2010

There is endless content available in the world of web design blogging telling us how to do things right, and how to succeed at our chosen profession.

That’s obviously a good thing, and it will certainly continue that way. But once in a while we need reminders on the things we do (or fail to do) that are negative.

That is, things that can have a detrimental impact on our progress as designers and developers — despite that these things may be temporarily helping us pay the bills and keep us afloat financially.

We all need to analyze our situation and assess whether or not we’re forming healthy design and coding habits, and whether those habits could be providing short-term gains that are not conducive to long-term success.

So, take this information with a grain of salt (because I know some of it is highly debatable) and consider whether or not you personally are doing anything that could prevent you from having a job in five years.//

www.newtekwebhosting.com/earnrevenue.aspx

You Have No Intention of Ever Turning Down a Client

This is definitely one of those symptoms that not everyone understands at first. Some might even view it as a good thing. After all, every client you do work for puts money in your pocket, gives you more experience, and increases the size of your portfolio. But not every client project turns out that way.

I’ve worked on projects that I don’t want anyone to know about, because the client did what they wanted design-wise, and my advice on usability and best practices was mostly ignored.

Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of choosing our clients like some really big agencies do. But we have to at least be able to understand for ourselves what type of client we might be averse to working with. There may be circumstances where we simply can’t afford to turn a client down, so that’s understandable. That’s why this section addresses our motivations more than our actions (note the word “intention” in the sub-heading).

If we are able to identify some characteristics in clients or projects that we find undesirable, then it’s likely we’re making some progress as developers, and we’re not so much concerned about making money but are primarily focused on making the web a better place.

You’re the Proverbial “Jack of All Trades”

This is certainly one of the highly-debatable points I alluded to earlier. But consider this scenario: You’re a web developer who does it all: You can create a logo in Illustrator, design a website mockup in Photoshop, are able to work with a slew of back-end frameworks, can program in multiple back-end languages, can code valid XHTML and CSS, can create raw JavaScript, have learned to play around with 3 or 4 JavaScript libraries, can do copy writing, content strategy, IA, UX, and even dabble in SEO and SEM.

Jack of all Trades
Are you trying to do too many things as a web designer, and as a result failing to excel at any one of them?

How realistic is it that you’ll be able to keep up to date and be on the cutting edge of all of those different technologies, concepts, and languages? It’s not realistic at all, so it’s best to pick a few areas that you can keep up with and focus on, and if a particular client requires other services beyond your focus, well, that brings us to the next item on this list.

You Don’t Do Any Networking

One great way to ensure you’re staying on the cutting edge and keeping up with standards and best practices is through networking, both online and in person.

Of course, some of us might be limited when it comes to personal networking, whether because of our location or some other factors. But we can all network and build relationships with quality developers online. Just keeping up with the blogs of some of the top developers in the world and joining in constructive discussions in the comments can help in this regard.

Successful networking can have a significant impact on your success as a web professional

Another fantastic way to make contacts and keep up with recent happenings in the community is to attend any events or conferences in your area. Many of these events are put on by some of the biggest names in the web design industry, and the information shared is always up to date and often ahead of the game. Sigue leyendo →

Jeff Veen Talks Future of Typekit

General 9 abril 2010

By Chrissie Brodigan

A fan of irony, an odd news item grabbed my attention, “The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay is swapping Arial for Century Gothic for their email system. It is believed that students will save ink when they print their emails.

Readers politely posted that this is yet another reason to switch to “Garamond” and debate ensued, and then this guy sketched popular fonts on a wall and measured the ink left in the pen!

Web fonts, cheeky controversy, and constant innovation abound online and offline! Candidly speaking, web fonts, became a hell of a lot more interesting over the past year with Typekit’s release. In fact, Typekit has proven itself a web design game-changer both in business and in rendered page.

Matt Hamm ~ Web designer & illustrator - Guildford, Surrey, UK_1270568610608

Matt Hamm recently upgraded to Typekit on his site www.matthamm.com. Discovered via @dribbble on Matt’s page

Typekit, a product and business eco-system that blew by the bureaucracy of type vendors agreeing on universal licensing and browsers deciding on what fonts to support, and rapidly and forever changed web design in both beautiful and controversial ways.

We’re well beyond the hype of Typekit’s rollout, the web is full of love letters, lessons, and licensing debates, so I caught up with Jeff Veen (Co-founder of Small Batch Inc, the company behind Typekit) to take inventory of some Typekit’s greatest effects:

Licensing
Web standards
Web font design
Individual challenge of web designers to learn more about type
The Typekit ecosystem & API

Licensing? Subscribing to a Constant Soundtrack

A day before I was scheduled to speak with Jeff, Jeffery Zeldman published a great post about Typekit, “My Love Hate Relationship With Typekit” (Dammit.) Of licensing, he writes:

“I have mixed feelings about their product because I’d rather buy a web-licensed font than rent it …. But a one-time font purchase as a line item in a design budget is easier to explain and sell to a client than an ongoing rental charge.”

@Zeldman does a great job exploring issues of licensing v. owning, and I’d rather encourage you to read his words than attempt to resummarize his succinct poetry in my prose. I did, however, bring @Zeldman’s timely post up with Jeff, who explained that he believes Typekit’s model isn’t about a “rent v. buy” proposition.

Typekit, like Spotify, and many other service businesses living in the cloud, is a professional hosted service. Instead of a constant soundtrack of music and lyrics, users have a constant stream of licensed fonts.

As for the issues around explaining an ongoing licensing fee, Jeff admits that he and the Typekit team are continuing to work on ways to help designers do a better job of explaining this proposition.

“Fonts, like stock photography, hosting services, among others, are now part of the subscription service assets that are expected to be packaged as a part of a web build.”

myles-grant-2

Tiny Speck’s Myles Grant (non-designer friendly example!) www.mylesgrant.com. Discovered via @dribbble on Myle’s page

Skirting Web Standards or Towing the Line?

Standards are ingrained in design and design philosophy, it’s understandable then to question how a product that requires a paid subscription might not fully compliment a designer who seeks to practice standards compliant design. Jeff explains:

“Typekit uses 100% standards compliant markup, style, and script. We’ve built a service that sits along side web standards, helping designers and developers focus on creative solutions rather than workarounds and hacks, no matter how bullet-proof they are.”

“It’s a similar solution to how many people use jQuery hosted on Google’s servers now. Everyone who includes the link in their page automatically has the latest stable version, properly minified and gzipped, served from data centers around the world.”

What Has Changed in Web Font Design? Sigue leyendo →

Crazy Tip For Overcoming Writer’s Block

...and a bit of everything! 9 abril 2010

Even with all the time I spend helping bloggers, there is one problem that has always stumped me: writer’s block.

I have the ability to pump out posts pretty quickly and it obviously comes in handy for me. However, many others that I work with get completely stumped when it comes to actually writing for their blog.

What do I write about? Will people care? Is it any good?

writersblock Sigue leyendo →

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Archivo por días: 9 abril 2010

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By Acuam Interactive

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You Have No Intention of Ever Turning Down a Client

You’re the Proverbial “Jack of All Trades”

You Don’t Do Any Networking

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Licensing? Subscribing to a Constant Soundtrack

Skirting Web Standards or Towing the Line?

What Has Changed in Web Font Design? Sigue leyendo →

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