November Movers & Shakers Report
How's it going Visitor? Smashing we hope!
This month we’d like to express our la-la-love for the open source solution called glFusion. glFusion is a CMS (Content Management System) that provides a web based solution for content publishing, event management, polling and user forums among other things. Fully customizable, glFusion enables us here at Tech Lizard Web Design & IT to quickly provide robust solutions for our clients without spending hours and hours custom coding answers to our clients’ needs. Some of our clients long for dynamic visitor provided content, and in those cases glFusion is our solution of choice. We find our joy in providing stable, user friendly solutions that have been customized (by us) for each and every client. To be fair it is important to mention that glFusion improves upon an already robust solution known as GeekLog. glFusion takes GeekLog a step further by providing web based configuration of the many features of GeekLog, saving time in modifying configuration files. glFusion also includes, by default, the most popular user contributed add-ins used by GeekLog sites. We’re proud to be a supporter of both the GeekLog and glFusion projects, and we appreciate the community surrounding these solutions. In our opinion, there are no finer people than those who work to advance web technology for little pay or notoriety. We’re comfortable among people who are pursuing their passion, for passion is what drives us! A Correction: In our last newsletter we incorrectly stated that MailChimp could be used for free. This is only partially true, as MailChimp offers 600 free credits for the purpose of test driving the system. This enables an account holder time to try before they buy, by sending 600 emails that include the MailChimp logo for free. After the 600 credit trial is over, the account holder will need to purchase additional credits, which as we’ve already stated, are very reasonably priced.
Clearing the air
Based on responses from the last newsletter we have the following things to clear up: #1 The Competition: We were asked if we thought it wise to reveal the tools we employ toward providing solutions for our clients. The concern was for “teaching” our competition how to do what we do. Our answer is this: Knowing the tools we use is not enough to hinder our progress. We have a formula in place that focuses entirely on providing cost effective solutions for the web based needs of our clients. If our competitors wish to adopt the methods we’ve tested and stand by, that’s a compliment! The truth is that we work under a desire that is hard for our competitors to mimic and that is pure passion for client satisfaction. Your smiles are more important than our dollars. Suck on THAT, competition! We’re fully aware of the fact that there are others doing, or striving to do what we do. There’s enough work for all of us, really, there is. We’d rather be honest about the work we do than attempt to collect trade secrets. #2 Criticisms: OK, so here it is in pixels: We’re not very hung up on collecting compliments. We LOVE encouragement, welcome criticisms, critiques and the like, in fact, many times we ASK for them from our friends and professional contacts. It’s a checks and balances measure really. Quite regularly the work we do is enthusiastically accepted by the people paying for the work, but we’re perfectionists at heart, we seek the input of others to assess our work and contribute to our success by adding their comments. We know that we don’t know it all so and your comments are always welcome, solicited or unsolicited. Please don’t assume that your contributions aren’t valued. If you recommended a change and you don't see it happening, it's not that it was ignored, but rather vetoed by a client. Never, ever in all of what we’ll do, do we want to insult our friends or make their opinions seem insignificant. This is true for client projects, our marketing efforts and our very own website. Please continue to send your opinions and they will ALWAYS be considered, please don’t be insulted if we don’t respond. We’re very busy. Now that that’s all cleared up... Announcing the Little Muskego Lake Association
www.littlemuskegolake.orgIn September we offered a preview of a website that we had in progress. We continued working to meet the official go live of the site on October 22 nd , when the site would be revealed to the Little Muskego Lake Association (LMLA) members during a meeting and social event. We met the deadline with no problem. The important thing to us was the thing we learned as a result of this project. Some may know that there was a bit of anxiety surrounding the request for Michele to present the site to a group. We’re geeks and public speaking is not high on our list of known capabilities. We’re proud to report that the event went without a hitch, Michele didn’t faint, and the work was not only accepted by the crowd, but a number of ideas came forward for enhancing the offerings of the site. It was a real confidence building experience and we thank the fine people of the Little Muskego Lake Association for their kindness and overwhelming acceptance. We learned that when the work is good and you approach your pride in it with humility, public speaking is not that scary. The Rest of IT
We’re awaiting client feedback on a site that we started in mid-October and we’re helping a friend with redesigning a small site for her business. Things are a little slow for us in web design at the moment, but we’re using the time to improve business processes and to prepare ourselves for the busy holiday season. We’re currently involved in a number of IT projects continuing work on a QuickBooks implementation and preparing a PC that will serve as multimedia source for displaying web content on a HDTV. High Jinx in the Tech Lizard office
The Polish Sausage Bobble has been, found? Michele doesn’t know exactly what happened but one day the Polish bobblehead was among his peers. Aaron claims that it was there all along but Michele has photographic evidence that it was not. No worries, we’re just happy to have him right where he should be and we look forward to the 2009 Brewers season where we hope to complete the collection with the Italian Sausage and Brat bobbleheads.
In early November we added a Wacom Bamboo Fun digital tablet to the arsenal of tools available to provide unique designs to our clients. There has been a bit of a learning curve but we look forward to wowing you with our drawing talent! There are some things that a mouse cannot do and we’re ready to show you. That's a wrap!
We can't thank you enough for your support of Tech Lizard Web Design and IT. When John Lennon said "I get by with a little help from my friends", he couldn't have imagined how true those words would be to us. Enjoy the upcoming holidays, spend some quality time with those you love, take time to appreciate the beauty and kindness of the season and know that your encouragement is among the things we're thankful for. Yours, Michele Gilhouse Crazed by passion for creativity |
