Tools of the Trade

In my family, I'm the unpaid, plainclothes version of the Geek Squad. If there's a problem with something electronic (which, these days, is everything), my phone rings with a vengeance.

One of the better-known facts about me is that I lived in pre-Katrina New Orleans for a while, attending Tulane University for my undergraduate education. Ten years later, I still have very fond memories of the city, despite clearly remembering how eager I was to pack up and move away.

It's an unfortunate, yet undeniable, fact that college tuition costs have been steadily increasing. Especially in today's economic landscape, colleges and universities, much like other businesses, are going to face even more obstacles with recruiting and retaining interest in their offerings due to those rising costs and the tightening of wallets.

I recently was asked by a client to provide some ammunition for selling Drupal to his management team. I found plenty info using my friend Google, but ultimately had to spend an hour or so organizing it into a concise list of bullet points that I thought addressed the broad spectrum of benefits that Drupal can provide.  I thought I'd share with others who may need something similar at some point.

Radio was supposed to kill print. Television was supposed to kill radio. The Internet was supposed to kill television and all other media. Last I checked, none of that has happened. Instead, radio is hanging on, TV is going high-def, and print—well, print is killing itself.

I recently attended a workshop series called UX Intensive, hosted by Adaptive Path.

I've always been a big fan of Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County, the comic strip that introduced Opus the Penguin and taught us that 12-year-olds could find humor in subtle political satire. One of my favorite quotes from the strip, uttered by Opus himself, was "You can lead a yak to water, but you can't teach an old dog how to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke."

I wasn't at work last week, I'm sure you all noticed. Instead I spent the week in Austin, attending a four-day workshop series called UX Intensive, hosted by Adaptive Path.

There's no single thing more important in my day-to-day activities than communication. In fact, I've come to realize the majority of my day is often spent communicating in a variety of ways—with clients, with my team members, or with myself—to ensure the goals of a project are being met.

"Brand yourself and toot your own horn," says the Donald Trump doll. The Donald makes a good point, as usual. Every business should have a strong brand that stands out among the competition.  

A good logo is the foundation of any brand. Any effort to brand or re-brand a business should start with a good logo—one that is unique, easy to identify, and representative of the company for which it stands.