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Blogs » Archive for July, 2006
The absolute importance of failure
A recent post to a blog entry asked about failure and what to do if you have never failed.
I have to confess that I am one of the biggest failures you will ever meet. And that’s a good thing from my point of view.
4 out of 5 businesses or ideas I have fail. (But 1 out of 5 do great; and I’ve learned how to test ideas at low cost).
I’ve failed trying to climb the corporate ladder — at at least four decent-sized companies. And I’ve failed as an employee in a variety of smaller ventures. I’ve been laid off once and fired another time. (But these failures have given me the confidence and desire to go out on my own).
I’ve failed in working with 2 out of 3 business partners. (But the 1 that has worked out has been fabulous!)
One out of 4 clients don’t continue to work with me. (But 3 out of 4 are intensely loyal!)
The vast majority of people who see me speak, read my articles and blogs, receive a direct mail letter, or see an online ad for my programs don’t respond. (But I learn from this and keep testing and improving to increase response).
Get …
Enterprise Library Tips & Tricks
Tips and tricks for building and using the Microsoft Enterprise Library.
Jul 6, 2006 News Wire
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Linux and Web Development Intro
A web developer makes the switch to Linux and chronicles the experience.
(tags: opensource) -
Wufoo Launches!
Wufoo is a tool that allows anyone to build an online form using a slick in-browser interface, and then publish it. The site collects all submitted responses and gives you the tools to browse those results, including export to Excel.
(tags: html design) -
ASP.NET 2 + url rewriting considered harmful in some cases
An awesome new feature of Google Sitemaps shows off the errors encountered by Google when indexing your site. In particular, this has revealed a potentially serious SEO drawback of rewriting URLs in ASP.NET 2.
(tags: asp.net google search) -
Anthem.NET
Newly updated to version 1.4.0, this AJAX library for ASP.NET blends in with the server-side control model that ASP.NET developers are already experienced with (view state, events, etc.).
(tags: asp.net ajax opensource) -
CJD seeks FOL
Robert Hanson, who is heading up the effort to build an open source widget library for Google Web Toolkit (GWT) complains about the legalities of “giving away” software for “free”.
(tags: opensource) -
SSH tricks
Do you secretly wish you understood SSH …
Jul 5, 2006 News Wire
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Pearl Crescent Page Saver
Firefox extension that uses the browser’s canvas support (not Java, as other solutions do) to capture an image of the visible area or full area of a page.
(tags: firefox) -
Examining Google’s Error Code
A rare error message from Google gives a glimpse behind the scenes at the algorithms that go into the search engine.
(tags: google search) -
JavaOne 2006 Technical Sessions
The technical sessions from JavaOne 2006 are now available online for free viewing. Each session offers streaming audio from the presentation along with synchronized slides. Sadly, no live video of the demos.
(tags: java) -
Google’s a Verb in the Oxford English Dictionary
As of June 15th, the Oxford English Dictionary considers “to Google” a verb.
(tags: google) -
MySQL gets cosy with Microsoft
MySQL has joined the Visual Sudio Industry Partner (VSIP) program. Developers can look forward to better integration of MySQL with Visual Studio.
(tags: mysql .net) -
Open Laszlo DHTML Milestone
Free Flex competitor Open Laszlo’s first release of its multiple runtime architecture, designed to allow Laszlo apps to render to DHTML as well as Flash. It doesn’t seem very functional as yet, however.
(tags: flex
Be honest — do you have the intensity required to be self-employed?
A colleague of mine had an interesting experience recently.
She is a stay-at-home mom with an online business. With all of her responsibilities, she was devoting maybe a day a week to her business. But she thought she was doing what it took to run a business. In fact, she loved to boast about her business and how exciting it all was. She spent more time playing tennis than on her business.
Her goal has been to get the business up to $250,000 in revenues, and it isn’t even close.
Well, recently, she got some tough coaching about the fact that there is a difference between wanting to have a successful business and actually doing what it takes to have a successful business. In her case, she has a great foundation to build her business, but need to find a way to put in the time. Her competitors are working full time or more on their businesses, so for her to have her business do well, she needs to do the same.
As it happens, she applied for and recently won a contest recently with a major company. The company is giving her business publicity, a free redesign of her website, and some consulting.
Now, …
Jul 4, 2006 News Wire
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Json.NET - Simplifying .NET < -> JavaScript communication
A useful, new library for producing JSON-encoded data from ASP.NET and other .NET applications.
(tags: asp.net .net javascript ajax) -
SQL Injection
This video demonstrates how easy it is to hack into a site when input validation is only performed on the client side (with JavaScript). In fact, just switching off JavaScript is enough in this case.
(tags: javascript security)
How to know which ideas to pursue
A Sitepoint reader emailed me with an interesting question. He comes up with all sorts of great ideas and wants to know how to figure out which to pursue.
It’s an important question since we have limited time and money.
Here’s some advice:
1. If the idea is really good, you can find an angel to invest in it. By asking an angel for help, you vette your idea to see if it really is good and also build leverage to do more ideas.
2. Or, you can find sponsors to pay for the idea in exchange for advertising. Some book publishers write compilations by various experts and charge those experts up front for the books to be produced. The experts write a chapter of the book. So the publisher puts out no money, gets a great book, and the experts are happy because they get to be in a book. With a website, I know a company that gets sponsors before launching a site — at a charter rate of course.
3. There are only two types of ideas: Good ones and bad ones. The smartest businesspeople sort their ideas into those piles. Then, for the good ones, figure out which one can …
Aaah, the wonders of a clean desk
It is the little things that count.
I’m a slob when it comes to my office. Today, after two months of accumulated bills and documents, I cleaned my desk. Now it is clean, and the difference is remarkable.
Today was one of my most productive days. Plus, it felt serene.
Clean you desk! It might not get you more clients, but it will sure help you do better work for the clients you have.
Some say that success is all about taking care of the little things. Cleaning your desk is one of those. They don’t teach it at the business schools, and it may appear to be a stupid and trite piece of advice — but it sure worked for me today.
Jul 3, 2006 News Wire
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Did you assume aural style sheets were little more than a pleasant fiction? It turns out that several client programs do support them (Emacspeak, Fonix SpeakThis, and Opera among them). This article explains the basics.
(tags: css accessibility) -
SIMILE Timeline
A nice DHTML timeline control, with a few caveats. I found it a bit challenging to use without detailed instructions. Current implementation requires timeline data come from an XML source, but the API would allow for more accessible options.
(tags: javascript ajax xml) -
Digging Alexa - how the geek demographic doubled overnight
Jason Striegel comes up with a very convincing explanation for the huge spike in the ratings of technology sites on Alexa in April 2006. It turns out the catalyst was Digg overtaking Slashdot’s Alexa ranking.
(tags: search) -
Mr. Firefox looks to the future
Blake Ross, the co-creator of Firefox, talks about where Firefox is at as it approaches 2.0, what effect IE7 will have on the browser space, and a secret start-up he is working on with Joe Hewitt (of recent FireBug fame).
(tags: firefox) -
Current issues with Microformats
Emil Stenström points out some of the …
Uniting Microsoft Technologies with ColdFusion
I attended CFUnited on Friday. While the conference is orientated to ColdFusion, there was a strong Microsoft presence there. Some highlights include a very interesting session on integrating Atlas client-side script with ColdFusion and an in-depth introduction to IIS7.
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