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Showing posts from March, 2007

Why Steph Avoids Instant Messengers

A lot of truth gets revealed here on my blog. Now y'all know why I favor drinks in person over IM. Thank you, New York Times. Think you can juggle the phone, e-mail, instant messages and work? New research shows the limits of multitasking. What does this mean for all those web 2.0 'community' products that rely on messengers?

BEWARE Work on the Web? Get Spammed!

The really sad thing is, I suspect I've been 'sold out' by a sub contractor I worked with last Fall. This person was found through a freelancing (outsourcing) website called rentacoder.com. It was my project manager's idea to use rentacoder.com, not mine. I suspect this sub contractor posted my gmail email address to a message board where con artists look for personal info. Thanks. I get some very sophisticated spam, such as this email I just received: - - - Bernard Lee show details Mar 24 (23 hours ago) Dear Stephanie I am Bernard Lee, a legal practitioner.Please be patient and absorb the contents of this email which I believe is a message that will be beneficial to the both of us. I am the legal representative to Late Julius Sawchenko.who herein after shall be referred to as my late client.He died in March 2006 as a result of heart condition. Basically,my aim of writing you is to assist me secure the funds left behind by my client before it is confiscated or decla

Design Inspiration

Check out this completely inspiring presentation by Shigeru Miyamota regarding game design and the new Nintendo Wii console. There's some lessons here for all kinds of designers and developers. I especially like how Miyamoto talks about designing games with the goal of eliciting joy from people, and ways he tries to achieve joydom. There are a couple thinly veiled barbs at Sony. Excellent presentation! GDC 2007: Nintendo Keynote Video Wii Media (Posted: Mar 8, 2007) Miyamoto discusses his vision of future game development.

How to Get a Website on a Low Budget

Being a web designer I think I get asked this question almost every single day, "How can I get a website...on a low budget?" Hopefully this blog will answer this question for people. The Easy Part Starting a website is easy, you need to do these things: 1. Register a domain name. Go out and buy "www.mywebsitename.com" I like using godaddy.com . 2. Get web hosting. You have alot of choices here . Knowing what you're going to publish, first, will help you decide. 3. Publish your content, text and photos. Literally all you have to do is put files into your web hosting. The Hard Part The hard part is not publishing content to the net, the hard part is what to publish? And how to publish it? As a rule, know what you're publishing, FIRST . Get your idea for your website sketched out in a notebook, Word Doc, PowerPoint, or even a napkin. Yes napkins count as work. Planning is the Key I believe my job as a designer is essentially helping businesses figure o

Alternative Offices

I was telling folks about Ritual Roasters over a year ago. Its not a coffee house, it's an alternative workspace! It feels good to be validated by the SF Chronicle, check it out: WHERE NEO-NOMADS' IDEAS PERCOLATE New 'bedouins' transform a laptop, cell phone and coffeehouse into their office There are just some huge limitations to working from home. I like going to cafes because I get bored with working on my kitchen table in my tiny apartment. I cant even bring clients here it's just that lame. Besides, the coffee at Ritual is fantastic. I've actually observed users at Ritual Roasters. OK I worked on mail.aol.com and I did a little guerrilla style research in some cafes (just glancing over some shoulders). I observed allot of email and messaging. I have also witnessed (and been party to) a few client reviews and meetings there at Ritual Roasters. I wish there more Ritual-like cafes would spring up all over the place. What is YOUR favorite 'alternative works