After 6 years of being with iPower.com, I’ve had it with them! Granted they may have been a cheap alternative for myself, as well as clients, it just isn’t working out! After recommending them to my last client, I have spent well over 25 hours in the past 5 months on the phone and on Chat to have simple procedures updated for two separate domains. Inconsistent policies, backwards service, and an apparent upgrade to their servers has been anything but flawless. The migration of accounts has been pushed over the course of several weeks and it seems like customers are dropping off like flies - that includes myself!

Granted, iPower is CHEAP. I recommend them perhaps in a situation where you are setting up an account on their new server, walking away and never expecting to maintain the site or interact with their customer service. For those signed up before October 2007, I feel for you. Already I’ve had clients complain about all the migration alerts and password/policy changes constantly bombarding their email accounts.

The solution? After some research I moved over to Media Temple and their grid-server hosting plan. Not only am I thoroughly enjoying their very friendly admin Web 2.0 interface (far cry from iPower’s archaic layout design), I finally moved my Blogger.com account over to Wordpress (one-click install on Media Temple). I’m hoping that the relationship continues to prove beneficial for myself and future clients.

Viva la Media Temple!!!

It was only a matter of time! With all the classic horror films slowly being redone to suit a younger audience, only a few have retained the gritty, frightening, blood-stained qualities of their predecessors. I’m not too sure what to make of the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake but can only be hopeful that the writing and character development stay true to Wes Craven’s original. Granted a few great sequels have spawned from the series but the stories soon became unimaginative and corny.

Crossing my fingers that the collaboration between New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes is a smart move. Since the resurgence of the horror genre, this could be the right move to open up a whole new series of stories if done correctly. After NOES pt. 5 I only imagined in what ways the original Nightmare could be retold. Only question is: Who will play the next Nancy Thompson? Better be someone just as talented as Heather Langenkamp - not just some popular Hollywood twit! A Natalie Portman type would play a good girl-next-door. Only time will tell….

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Adobe products have come a long way!

It’s that time of year again! Luckily I will be attending SXSW Interactive again this year after a great trip (and learning experience) last year. It was an overwhelming trip trying to catch all the break-out sessions that applied to me while trying to enjoy some of the nightlife as well. Austin is a great place with tons to do for such a condensed downtown, especially during SXSW! This time I have backup - a coworker from work will be joining in order to soak up more knowledge to bring back to Tampa. Since last year seemed rushed, I have made arrangements to stay a bit passed the Interactive portion of SXSW to catch some music, relax with family in Austin, and enjoy more of downtown.

We will be staying in the Omni - Downtown Austin for the first half of the trip. Then may have friends join and either see what else is available downtown or stay at a family member’s lakehouse on Lake Travis. Hopefully there will be some nice warm sunshine by the time we get there!

Although the campaign will not officially start until after the holidays, the news release of the Unexpected Faces, Unexpected Places last week was covered by several newspapers and local television stations.To view the article, Click here »

Just got back from Simi Valley, CA where I attended Bruce Clay’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) training. Even though I started learning basic organic SEO back in 2001, a LOT has changed in the past few years. The focus has always been to design websites following good search engine practices and code markup without the SEO tricks that others try to implement with short-term results. Over time, Google and other top search engines have developed complex algorithms that weed out the faulty content and spam.

There are a ton of new rule sets and conventions to implement which follow current SEO standards so needless to say I’ll be quite busy over the next few months!. Separate from design, my favorite quote in building a “least imperfect” spider-friendly site from Bruce Clay was “not to to build a flying pig website which you push off a cliff and hope will fly but rather re-engineer your website into an eagle that will soar”.

For full wall art murals, go check out The Rasterbator » Amazing full length murals created from simple .jpg images up to 20 meters in size! Simply size and crop your image and then have it “rasterbated” into a printable multi-page .pdf.Click here for finished product from image used above »

If you haven’t already, drop by ALA to take their Web Design Survey. As a freelance designer, I always feel like I’m living in my own protected bubble and it’ll be interesting to see the results once all data has been compiled. Survey will be up through May 22nd.

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Planning on attending the SXSW Interactive conference this year in Austin March 9th-13th! Excited to be going after missing all the great speakers last year. I don’t have itinerary yet but am 90% sure I will reserve my spot downtown by the end of the month as well as organizing all other travel logistics. Also submitted my latest project (www.projectorpeople.com to their web awards so crossing my fingers:)

If you are a developer and plan on going to Austin for the conference, drop me a line!

Opening of Lights on Tampa…chilly night but it was worth it to have such a nice visual extravaganza for the new year!

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