jtnt://life/unedited

So-called life hacks are starting to smack of the insipid Hints from Heloise. And this excerpt from a “Finding-your-car hacks” post on LifeHacker is up there on the list of most obvious things ever put into print:

Once you start paying attention to where you parked, it soon becomes an easier-to-remember habit.

#1 finding-your-car hack? Remembering where you parked it.

I predict, nay, I hope for a backlash against all these life hacking sites. I don’t know how one would stage a backlash against a slew of web sites, but I hope some enterprising person figures this out and employs these tactics on these bandwidth-wasting, time-sucking (GTD?) sites.

Go up to try out Basecamp for the first time, and it goes down for maintenance five minutes into getting going.

At 11pm EDT. When do they think people work? During the day?

Web apps like Basecamp should never go offline. And if they do, it should be in the middle of the night (say, 4am, since I have to think most of their users are in North America).

I feel a bit guilty about my previous post on Dreamhost, and feel that at the very least some more information and clarification is in order.

Dreamhost is rightfully held up as one of the best and most responsive hosts in the industry. Not just out there to make a buck but to provide top-notch service to their customers. They see the value in good hosting and the importance of it to their customers, many of whom rely on them to run their own businesses.

Let me also add that Dreamhost does offer a variety of great and unique services, such as its easy to use list management system, which I wish I had known about before I wrote my own for my company.

They are also to be recognized for thier involvement in civic causes.

My only real gripe about them (since pretty much everything else about them has been positive) is that their control panel is not as easy to use as some others I’ve come across.

So, I apologize to Dreamhost for dragging your name through the mud unnecessarily.

I am convinced that the reason why so many bloggers are so gung-ho about Dreamhost Web Hosting is because they have a fairly lucrative referral deal going. Because, in reality, their control panel is an eyesore, and worse, is often confusing. Most of all their concept of users is so varied and confusing, I’m still not sure what my passwords are for the various different users they make you create for each thing (admin, mail, ftp…).

All that said, everyone should use Dreamhost, because I’ll make a bunch of money if you do.

I don’t understand it when places offer minuscule discounts on multi-year subscsription purchages. Here are some examples:

Flickr: 1 year = $24.95. 2 years = $47.99. Savings = $1.91 or $0.96/year. Woohoo!

Network Solutions: 1 year = $34.99. 2 years = $29.99. Savings = $5 or $2.50/year. I’m rich.

I would guess that the same principles that say pricing something at $34.99 instead of $35.00 will generate more sales are at work here. Some people aren’t really looking at the actual savings. But still, how does the prospect of saving less than a dollar a year provide an incentive for me to basically double my out-of-pocket expenses right now?

If people are still falling for these Jedi-marketing tricks, I wouldn’t be too quick to jump on the bandwagon that the internet is making smarter consumers.

While “researching” another post, I noticed that Network Solutions has redesigned their site using fancy, table-less, web standards-loving HTML (4.01) and CSS.

Update: Too quick a glance on Sunday morning. So, basically, NS just redesigned. I guess I was too hopeful that a company so central to the web for so many years would embrace the latest in standards-based, table-less coding practices that I saw a bunch of DIV tags and jumped the gun. Sosumi.

Let me also take this opportunity to say that the actual redesign - the look - is really bad. After working at a graphic design and marketing agency for over 7 years has taught me anything, I’d say that this redesign effort started over a year ago when that gradient-laden look was in. And can someone point me to the Art Director who approved and the Junior Designer who implemented the shading on the yellow buttons that are all over the place on this site? Hideous and unreadable, they are.

I will give them props, though, for simplifying the interface on their home page and drastically reducing the number of options presented to the user. A lone bright spot.

My employer, Erickson Barnett, has completed the IA and design of a site for a local do-good company called Social Impact. For various reasons we now need to find a developer to complete the build out. Below is the project description and contact info for the opportunity.

Social Impact, an international consulting firm working to promote social and economic development in developing countries, is seeking a web developer to support development of its new website. Social Impact is based in Reston, VA. To read more about us, our existing (old) site is at http://www.socialimpact.com

We are at the stage where we have the information architecture and design/layout for the site and we need help building the site out. We are looking for a highly capable and highly motivated developer. This person would need to be familiar with standards-based XHTML and CSS (table-less layout), and have experience building sites which validate to W3C standards. URLs of example sites which employ these practices are highly preferred.

We could consider a small lump sum contract/stipend, payable upon project completion. I think we’re looking at about 2-3 weeks of programming work.

Please send your CV to Rolf Sartorius at rsartorius@socialimpact.com to inquire about this opportunity.