This is directed to all the people and companies that still incorporate way too much flash into their websites. Come on people, what is this, 1998? I’m thankful that the majority of you have stopped creating websites entirely in flash, but the ads and banners need to go too. In the age of broadband loading times don’t really mean anything any more. They do to me. No, not because I’m on dial-up, I’m not, but because I often connect to my home computer via remote desktop. This is where I do most of my blogging, my reading of feeds, etc. So, when you place flash ads that constantly move and require the screen to refresh it freezes the screen while RD tries to catch up and send the data to me. That’s not the only reason flash bothers me. It’s used too often when it really doesn’t need to be (kind of like what is happening with AJAX now). Just because you use flash in your ad does not mean I’m going to purchase your product. Oooh.. One of your programmers knows how to make flash which might have been cool 9-10 years ago but is now plain annoying. Let me buy your product. No thanks. In fact, I’m more likely not going to buy from you because of your flash ad. So, webmasters, bloggers, people with half a brain. Get rid of flash already! (Flash video/audio players not included. Those actually are useful).
If you are reading this via the feed, you might want to hop on over to the site and check out the new theme. I thought it was time for something that was a bit more simple, yet eye-catching. I think this theme works well. It’s very simple, minimal image usage, yet at the same time it’s very elegant and professional looking. I have been modifying it a little, adding the recent comments plugin to the sidebar, as well as a link to the feeds. I’ve also changed the way the theme handled the title of the site and page/post. The other way seemed a bit backwards to me putting the page name/post name before the site name, e.g. About Me-piece of shep instead of piece of shep- About Me. Also, the sidebar is not widgetized yet. I was thinking of widgetizing it but I think that would just spell trouble because I’ll just continue to add more and more stuff to the sidebar and the goal here is for simplicity. I think I may keep this theme for a while.
If you’ve used the contact form to try and get in touch with me over the past couple weeks, I’ve probably not gotten the email. There is something weird going on with the php mail () command and emails generated by the contact form (or WP) aren’t getting sent out. So if you tried to contact me or need to contact me you can always email me at mike at mikeschepker.com Hopefully this will be solved soon.
EDIT: Everything seems to be working fine now. If you contact me and I don’t respond, let me know, but all emails from the comment form and contact form should be working now.
I’ve been using Gmail for domains for quite a while and have been very happy. I was excited when they added Google Calendar and other features to the Application Suite. It just keeps getting better. If you are using their apps for domains you now have a bunch of new features including:
The start page
If your administrator has activated this service, you now have a central place to find important information, preview and access your inbox and calendar, and search the web. Your administrator sets up the initial layout and content for this page, but you’re able to customize it as you can with the Google Personalized Homepage.
Domain registration
Before you had to buy your own domain, now you can purchase it through Google. The process is easy; just choose your custom domain name, and pay with Google Checkout. Registration costs $10 per year including private domain registration to help you avoid spam. Your new domain will be pre-configured to work with Google Apps for Your Domain.
Custom URLs for your domain’s Google-powered apps
Now you can set up simple URLs for your domain’s Google services. For example, your users can access their email accounts at a URL like mail.your-domain.com. Log in to the control panel to edit the links for your services.
Other new features include support for new languages and support for multiple domains. Go sign up your domain now at Google Apps for Domains