Bandwidth Test!

I figured I’d give the ‘ole bandwidth a try to see what kind of “phat” speeds my new mac pro server is Bandwidth Speedgetting. I’m both estatic and irrate at the same time! Is that even possible? My download speeds have been doubled over the last month which is nice, but my uploads speeds remain the same as they were three years ago. Seriously, is it that hard to increase my upload speed to at least 1mbps Geesh. I wonder what kind of bandwidth speeds the business packages are getting.  599kb/s is pretty lame if you ask me, espically in a world with personal pictures/video’s being sent from pc to pc via email, and IM clients. Talk about a giant ripoff.

Hardest Thing About Webdesign.

It is not have to get business. It is not having to create designs. It is not having to code the sites. It by far has to be keeping the customers happy. It seems, from my experience, that the most difficult customers to appease is those who pay the least. By no means am I saying that I do not value their business, I Do, but they do seem to make it difficult to maintain any profit margins at all. The price quotes I give out are directly proportional to the amount of work I do, while that sounds like an obvious statement, many people don’t realize that $200.00-500.00 will get you a basic html site, the typical small business site if you will. Now at that price I don’t mind creating basic sites that have the typical, about us, contact us, information type websites (I honestly believe that this are the most effective for most small businesses). But some how once the quote gets accepted, and the contract signed and the customer pays 60% of the final cost upfront the troubles seem to begin. Out of nowhere they get delusions of grandeur, and the site exponentially multiplies into a ginormous living organism that eats and breathes development time. Suddenly they want features such as customer databases, and e-commerce type sections, multiple revisions, and other more “complicated” features. Can I do these things? You bet ya! What about at the cost of $200-500.00? Not so much! Suddenly amongst all of these additional features my profit margins shrinks to well below minimum wage standards. That is a problem, I have bills that need to be paid both inside and outside of the business.

I am a firm believer that in order to be successful in any business employees and employers need to realize that the products they produce are second to customer service. Clients have to leave the experience happy. So now we have come full circle. To what point do you sacrafice your earnings to keep your customers happy? At what point can a company tell a consumer that the job in which they have been employed is going to cost more than they orginally budgeted? I would love to get some of your insights. Hopefully you can help me solve this conundrum.

Update: Comments are unlocked so you can all comment away without having to log in!

Bye-Bye .tk

I’ve decided to finally shell out some cash and get a legit url for my blog. You can view it at apex81.com… please update your bookmarks! I got sick of seeing the ads at the top of the page. So, if you want to get rid of them just visit the new url!

Thanks!

New Music!

Clap your handsItunes was kind enough to let me know that there is a couple of upcoming albums I need to check out. “Clap your hands and say yeah” have a new album you can find it here! And!!! There is a new “modest mouse” album coming out soon! You can order it pre-release from itunes here! as well as get a nice “sample” of their latest single “Dashboard”. I’ll let you know what I think of these albums once I manage to get my hands on them. Oh yeah! On a side note those links I just provided you are for the itunes store. So hopefully you have itunes!  If not you should really think of picking it up! It’s not only an excellent music player, but it’s also a great way to get some free music as well as find some new and exciting bands you might not have known about previously.  Never underestimate the power of the “Just for you” section, as well as the “Listeners Also Bought” Sections.  Sometimes I’m flabergasted by the fact that I haven’t heard of some of their recommendations.    Pretty Amazing Stuff!

New URL! New Start!

Everything has been purged. We’re starting new. Sometimes it is nice to start completely fresh! Everything is starting anew! Servers have a fresh install of OS X server… my laptop has a fresh install of OS X 10.4.8… My itunes library is starting from scratch. It’s kinda nice. I figured that I’m going to be going as long as I can without getting nostalgic for old music. So far i’ve ripped the new shins album, it’s pretty amazing, as well as “The Sunlandic Twins” by “Of Montreal” which was released in 2005. Two pretty damn good albums if you ask me. It’s a nice change.

Finally, please bare with my as I rebuild this site. I’m going to try to put some time into reworking the site completely, so if your links are not listed to the right… they will be soon.

What I am Reading

PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library)
Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

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Flickr Stream

What do Thongs, Models, and iPhoto Libraries have in common?Elite CompanySpeaking of Accosted!