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Don’t Get Tangled Up in the Web

I’m co-presenting a free seminar, Don’t Get Tangled Up in the Web, at the Small Business Administration on Market Street in San Francisco Thursday night.

Another SF web designer and I are going to go through the common questions that new clients come to us with. The blurb says we’re talking about: “how to develop and maintain your business’ home on the Internet. Why should you be on the Internet? How do you get there cost effectively? A non-technical discussion facilitated by two industry professionals give you the answers and tell you how to avoid common problems and pitfalls.”

It should be a good chance for people to feel more comfortable about what they want from their business’ web site. And, it’s free!

But, I might use the SBA site as an example of what not to do for your own site. They make it really difficult to link directly to the seminars. When you go to the SBA site, find the calendar of classes, and find the one you want, you cannot then copy the URL of the page you’re looking at and share that link with your friends. The calendar link is http://web.sba.gov/calendar/public/index.cfm?rc=0912 and that address doesn’t change in your browser when you look at an individual class.

So, if you share the address of the page you think you’re viewing, your friends will be taken to the generic calendar page. They’ll have to find your seminar on the calendar, and there are a hundred other events competing for their attention.

The direct link to the seminar information is for the page at http://web.sba.gov/calendar/public/dsp_viewevent.cfm?&EventCntr=135416&EventRptCntr=198516&OP=MAIN&GRP=0&YR=2010&MN=6&DY=17. Whew!

You only see the true page location if you right-click on the link on the SBA calendar page and copy the link location to your computer.

This is a pretty good example of getting tangled up in the web! The SBA isn’t making it easy for its clients to get and share information on its site.

Something we can talk more about Thursday, so come on down!

By |2010-06-14T08:54:52-07:00June 14th, 2010|Web Design|0 Comments

Dear Dell 2005: Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

When Ryan O’Neal’s girlfriend is dying tragically and tear-jerkingly in 1970’s Love Story, Ryan holds himself together by vigorously cleaning their apartment.

My 5-year old desktop is suffering from random Blue Screens of Death crashes, Outlook pop-up window slowness, and general flakiness that is taking up increasing amounts of my producive time as I experiment with various work-arounds.

I am now manually copying my mail files and key data at least once a day (in addition to my automatic remote backups.) Several times a week I run various disk diagnostics or program repairs as I get different bright ideas about What Could Be Wrong. I have worked myself into a whirl of energy as I try to save the beloved Dell from the silicon reaper.

Ryan O’Neal has nothing on me.  I have vacuumed the air intake filters, reseated all cables, and watched the Task Manager for symptoms as if it were an ER room’s vital sign monitor.

I talked to friends who are professional tech support for small businesses, and they laughed at my story.  “A 2005 computer?” they snorted.

They acted just like I would have if one of my clients came to me with their story a flaky five-year-old PC.  They told me I am in denial.   Polishing the plastic and reloading a program or two (or even the entire operating system) isn’t going to make the computer whole.

I know they are right.  But, it’s hard for me to stop bargaining, promising that if the computer gods will allow my system to live I will defrag the hard drives weekly.  That I’ll always do an orderly shutdown when I stop work for the evening.

I don’t remember the details of Love Story anymore.  She dies, but I don’t have an image of how Ryan got through it or even if he did.  For my part, I feel sleazy.  I am already dating, trolling Dell and other computer sites for ideas on a replacement.

I know it’s quick, but I know that my 2005 Dell would want me to be happy.

By |2010-05-10T14:23:23-07:00May 10th, 2010|Computers and Hardware|0 Comments

Put Your Business on the Map… and Other Tips from the Queeks

A group of local techy geeks have been meeting for lunch and swapping stories for a year or so. As we talked about client tragedies, we recognized that many of the dilemmas our customers face could be easily avoided with a bit of insight.

Thus was born the Queeks blog.

We’re committed to contributing regularly to the blog, in addition to what we write on our own web sites and social media spots.

Check out the two Queeks tips from Ozdachs:

  1. Put Your Business on the Map
  2. Don’t Publicize Like It’s 1999

We’re Back Here, too!
I’ve just finished a tour of jury duty that started in November. I was able to continue working for clients by extending the days and working weekends.

But, something had to go. So, there have been no blog postings or Dangerous Common Sense newsletters since I started on the jury.

They’re starting up again!

By |2010-03-05T16:41:42-08:00March 5th, 2010|Professional Services, Tips and Resources|0 Comments
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