Category: Uncategorized

I’ve been evaluating alternate accounting packages for our firm for much of this year (we currently run QuickBooks Pro on a PC — we’re a Mac-based business, but QB for Mac just doesn’t seem to cut the mustard), since, as a user experience consultant and user interface designer, I can’t stand actually *using* QB.
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Paul Jarvis (of twothirty fame) and I have been discussing an idea over the last few days, centered around this concept: many designers (especially those who, like us, believe in and evangelize web standards for our projects, and care about building user-friendly interfaces) bemoan the absence of a CMS that meets the following requirements:

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I was reminded today of the kind of nonsense that made my mother search out alternatives to the public school system here in the U.S.. My younger brother, Alex, was educated at home for the entire equivalent of the K-12 public system, while I only had to endure one year in “Pre-1st”, an experimental grade (at that time) intended for kindergarten-aged students who were more advanced than the standard program was intended for. The rest of my standard education was managed by my dear mum, and chatting with her today she mentioned one of the typical run-ins she had with a school official during my “Pre-1st” days.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not always using the best software for monitoring stats for web sites (and by stats I mean anything from hits to referrers to user patterns, and everything in between and on each side), including personal projects such as this site, and commercial projects for clients. I’ve tried built-in log-analysis offerings from various hosts (e.g. Webalizer), as well as free scripts such as Shaun Inman’s ShortStat and Dean Allen’s Refer (usually combinations of more than one such application and/or script), some of which provide useful information, but I’m not entirely convinced that I’ve found the correct collection of tools to evaluate and monitor (and allow clients to do likewise) web site statistics.
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There are times when living in the tropical paradise/hurricane target range that is South Florida can be quite nice, and today I’m basking in one of those times.

I’m writing this as I sit on the front porch, in very comfortable 86 degree not-too-humid weather. A soft breeze is blowing through the trees, and I have just enough shade to keep the sun out of my eyes and easily view my LCD screen. This is the perfect distraction-free environment for writing, which is my task this afternoon.
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