8 Ways to Sunday

A year-old, but still-commented-on, post at Delta Tango Bravo (Best Obtuse Blog Tagline Ever) got me in the mood for this one.

I’ve seen a lot of good band names, and I’ve made up several of my own just for fun. By far the best actual band name I’ve ever run across, however, belongs to Honest Bob & the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives. I’ve never heard their stuff, though a review of their first album dubs it “‘nerd rock’… in the same class as They Might Be Giants or Weird Al, although sans accordion.” Sounds like something I might like.

Those with an abiding interest in good band names should also check out Todd Gehman’s excellent list.

On a slightly different topic, the award for best self-description on a band poster goes to OPhil for “Hillbilly Glam Ska.”

On a completely different topic, DTB has a nice gallery of well-done favicons — those little icons that appear in your address bar when you browse some web sites.

Boy, am I random with this post or what?

For the past week or so, I’ve been noodling around on a redesign of 8 Ways to Sunday as a way to get my bearings in Macromedia Studio MX 2004. I’ve only done about 15% of the work, if that, but I’m getting an increasingly solid idea of what I’d like to accomplish: (more…)

I’ve been wondering how to do this with the “Navigate” section of my sidebar for some time now. After all, it’s pointless to have a navigational link back to the page you’re already on. Snook.ca has the .js file to make it easy for you.

Because the masthead of each page on my blog also links back to the home page, I had to make a small change to the CSS to keep it looking consistent when this script stripped it of its link. Other than that, a very simple update to make.

Now, if I can only figure out how do do this with PHP I’ll really have something. I’m not dissing Jonathan Snook’s JS solution here, I’d just rather do without the “blip” effect you see as the script does its thing after pageload.

I’ve been thinking of moonlighting as a web designer/developer to bring in some extra cash and provide a creative outlet. In searching around the web for good info on the current state of the business, I ran across some links that others who’ve made this jump or are considering it might find useful:

• “Getting the Budget Out of a Client,” from Signal vs. Noise. A funny — and probably very effective — tip for dealing with those clients who won’t tell you how much they want to spend on a site. (found via Photo Matt)
• Goto Guides — Discovered through Zeldman’s The Daily Report, these downloadable guides offer tips, tools, and forms for project management, usability testing, budgets, workflow, and more. These guides and other, similar information have since been consolidated into the book Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works, by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler.
• If you need to explain the concepts behind CMSs and data-driven web sites to a customer, you might try basing your explanation on this one from the MySQL Developer Zone. I found this through the “Services” page of Burgin Design, whose Keith Burgin authors the excellent What a Butthole: the world through the eyes of a thinking conservative. Yes, it actually lives up to the title.
• Have a client that wants an online store but doesn’t have a big budget? Consider Zen Cart — a free, featureful, and secure shopping cart program written in PHP. Also discovered through Burgin Design
• Aparently, “value pricing” has taken over from per-hour pricing as the favored pricing paradigm in this business. I understand the logic behind this, but I’m not sure how it would go over with clients coming from a freelancer.
• More fresh content = more search engine hits. This bit of common-sense SEO brought to you by Search Engine Optimization Forum, which seems to contain less voodoo and bullshit than your usual SEO discussion site or weblog.
• Keith Robinson of Asterisk has some good advice on handling creative conflicts with clients. In other words, what do you do when your client wants to make the site horribly ugly? I found Keith’s article by following a link in a comment posted on ArcLog — a decent resource in its own right.
• Don’t design on spec — Zeldman tells you why.
• “How to Make Friends and Influence Art Directors” — good advice on getting started in the design field, from Mark Davidson. (added 12/21/2004)

That’s it for now. I’m still deciding whether this is something I want to pursue as more than a hobby. I definitely feel that I have more to learn before I can work for hire, so I guess I have some time to make that decision.

I know I have at least one reader who’s a web designer. Chris, care to share any advice of your own?

Matt’s message to WordPress users, in case you haven’t signed up for updates:

Howdy folks,

WordPress version 1.2.2 contains some nifty bug fixes and security updates, which you can read all about here:

http://wordpress.org/development/2004/12/one-point-two-two/

If you’re into that sort of thing, you can get the latest release for *only free-ninety-nine* from the usual spot:

http://wordpress.org/download/

I hope this note finds you in good health and enjoying the holidays. Have some eggnog for me! If comment spam is spoiling your relaxation time, check out this post and the linked goodies:

http://wordpress.org/development/2004/12/fight-spam/

P.S. This message is going out to almost ten thousand people, that blows my mind.