I never knew this: people find it funny to put up internet spoofs around April Fools Day. At my house, it is common — no required — that one of my children put a rubber band on the sink sprayer so that when one turns on the kitchen faucet to get a drink or wash ones hands before preparing food, you instead get a face full of water. I forget every single year and use that faucet, sometimes twice believe it or not. Of course the one year I did realize ahead of time, I feigned not to and used it anyway. But on the internet?

This tale is funny, a bathroom equipped with browsing hardware. Now well I don’ t think that such a great idea … who would want the keyboard next, how about these twists on it:
a. around here all urinals now have advertisements called “johnny ads” posted over them on a subscription basis. Why not make johnny ads display on lcd screens and that way you can vary the display and update on the fly. I don’t think that such a piss pour idea (that was a pun for those who missed it); and
b. at the movies or concert, stream the movie or content to the restroom so that you don’t have to hold it for fear of not understanding the rest of the show because you missed the critical two minutes. There is nothing more crappy than having to go at the best part of the movie!

Apparently people actually make lists of the best April Fools Day Spoofs on the net.

With almost a 50% share of all net searches, people are googling it rapidly. Why? Because they get good results I presume. I sure do.

In one of the most disjointed rambling pieces I have read in a while, author David Donnelly aparently criticizes Google for playing the game of politics in Washington. It is hard to figure out exactly what is going on from his piece.

Assuming he is unbiased and giving objective facts (well I guess those two could exist one separate from the other … so assuming objective facts at least), one wonders if his statements are true, Google employees gave predominantly democratic (read minority) in Federal campaign contributions. Is it any wonder than that they are having trouble advancing their net neutrality campaign then? At least it sounds like they now recognize their mistake. Always side with the more powerful … even packs of dogs recognize that. Google is smarter than the average dog so they’ll get it handled.

Godaddy has decided to move all of its 4.5 million parked domains to a Microsoft Windows server platform. The move from Linux is supposedly to maximize assets and permit rapid deployment of new technologies.

Said the quotes in the Microsoft Press Release:

“Our business is based on providing the best possible service at the lowest possible price. This strategy requires us to maximize all of our resources, particularly our technology assets,” said Warren Adelman, GoDaddy.com president and COO. “It was clear from all of the testing we’ve conducted that Microsoft provides an efficient and scalable operating platform, while also providing the performance needed to handle our extraordinary growth.”

I am sure they spent some time trying to figure out what is best for them. But I really wonder what the politics were behind this move as I have never seen anything slicker about Windows server hosting over Linux, and I have definately not seen any example where it is a less expensive deployment.

In looking through the list of top fifteen world skylines according to one person, I have to say I really liked Toronto and Sydney the best. Now keep in mind that other than Dallas and New York, I don’t think I have been to any of these places, so I am totally using the pictures provided there. What I liked about those two cities is that they showed a symetry with the largest buildings grouped in one space, and then a phased out (or down) step to the non-highrise district.

Sau Paulo and New York looked simply — well — a mess. There is no organization. It appears you can put up a building anywhere and just create a jumble.

Anywhere you turn in life you must be vigilant to guard against people seeking to take advantage of you. Sales of big ticket items, such as automobiles on the internet are very suceptable to scammers because the payoff from a successful scam is of sufficient size to make it worth your while.

The other night my son asked me why vehicle pictures on ebay had the license plates masked. I do not know the real answer, but I would guess it is because it is an unneccessary bit of personal information that could lead to identity theft.

The rules are still the same …
1. anything too good to be true is too good to be true ….
and when you decide not this time it is not,
2. go back to rule number one!

Big news from our friend and business associate Reese!

Several years ago we met this bright and talented young designer from Canada in our html fix it live chat. The night I met her I troubleshot and fixed a minor mySQL issue necessary to allow proper function of a blog run on the WordPress platform. Over the years our relationship has grown and we have collaborated with her on a number of projects. Often we provide back-end php scripts, css coding, database modifications and other services to her as an aid to her providing the top notch design services to clients that she is now know for.

This designer was most recently working at em two Web Studios. She had developed a nice niche working on Expression Engine driven content managed sites, among other areas of specialty. As her business has grown and changed, she decided it was time to launch a new site to display her business better and give her more control as she seeks to serve her customer’s on-line business needs.

So welcome Design by Reese to the web design world.

May we also comment that we like your sliding door mouseovers on your new site. We have found that working with her has driven us towards deeper design (shadows, small nuances, etc.) that has more depth to the image being viewed. In turn, we have often found an ability to encourage her to drive her sites to be more efficient and utilize images in ways that, while preserving that wonderful depth, are not too resource intensive. It has — to our way of thinking — been a wonderful mix of work and growth for both of us. So good luck with Design by Reese!