The one step that virtually every potential client has taken before they contact me about a new project is registering their domain name. I can understand the feeling of wanting to grab that name as soon as you have the idea for a new project. I have a few domain names for “some day” projects in reserve myself. But some registration companies are easier to work with than others, so the choice you make in registering can have an impact on the cost and flexibility of your project. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been fanatical about backups, based on the mantra that in the computer age, one should never have to do the same work twice. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I achieved a goal that’s been simmering on the back burner for a while: getting started with iPhone app development. Apple calls each of its new products “revolutionary,” but the iPhone platform (which also includes the iPod touch and the upcoming iPad) actually is, because it creates new ways to interact with the device. Beyond moving a mouse or clicking a button, the iPhone responds to movement, multi-touch and even puffs of air directed at the microphone. Read the rest of this entry »

The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is a year and a half old, but I keep running into it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

The premise is that because we now have instant access to a wealth of reference information online, we’re losing our ability to read long passages, concentrate and think. I disagree; here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a pretty detail-oriented guy, but the number of times I’ve sent an email message without the attachment I referred to is unnerving. A while ago I had the idea that if my email program could scan for the word “attachment,” and an attachment wasn’t present, it could show an alert before letting me send the message to confirm whether I meant to include one. Read the rest of this entry »