Just be a little more patient with your clients
Tim,on the topic of  Browsers, Business, Web Development
02.12.2010   |   0comment

ConfusedLately I have been thinking about all the wonderful clients I have had a chance to work with. Each one has characteristics and qualities that make them unique and fun to work with. However, clients never cease to amaze me with their downright silliness and ignorance.

My favorite conversations with clients are the ones where we discuss browsers and the difference between them. I chuckle every time I hear, “I am using IE6.” I frequently applaud the client who uses Firefox because they have taken the time to educate themselves and while I don’t want to get into the reasons we use the browsers we do, just noticing what browser you use is half the battle. You’ve probably read the post by a Google employee about browsers. If not you can read it here. His post got me thinking about comparing clients to cars.

For those of us in the web industry, we frequently laugh at people who just don’t know how to use the web, but how many people are laughing at us because we don’t know how to do something? You might argue “But we (society) spends so much time online, how can someone not know how to use it?” I would argue the following.

How much time do we spend in our cars? Obviously this number depends on your commute, area, etc., but we spend a substantial amount of time in, caring for, washing, and feeding them that we should probably know more about how they work. How many mechanics laugh at us because we can’t change our own oil or replace our brakes? How many AAA repair men does society employ because society doesn’t know how to change a flat tire?

How much time do we spend in our house, but don’t know how to lay carpet or do any sort of plumbing? How many of us know what kind of carpet we have? What is the brandname of your couch? What kind of pipes do you have? These questions are simple for those who are educated and experts in that industry. Compare that to browsers or websites. How many plumbers laugh at you and I because we have weak pipes? How many painters cringe when they see the paint we have? We might say, “But it works just fine!” True, however, IE7 “works just fine” but how many of us cringe when we hear our clients are using it?

How many times has a client come to you saying their site is broken, only to find out it is a user error? It’s natural to sit back and just laugh, but how many of us have made a user error when we “pushed” instead of “pulled” on the door at a restaurant?

When it comes down to it, we are no different from our clients. We may know more about the web, browsers, computers, etc., but they may know more about neurology, public relations, and even cars. We make the same mistakes, just in a different aspect of life, so please, just be a little more patient with your clients.

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Kaizen in 2010: Stock Cliches, HTML5 Forms, & Web Advertising
Tim,on the topic of  Fun, Web Development
01.05.2010   |   3comment

One of the main focuses of our philosophy at Code Greene centers around the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement known as “kaizen”. The web offers tremendous opportunities to learn from our peers, and sharing articles with each other has really helped us keep our blades sharp. Here are a few of the best articles we’ve read recently, submitted by members of our team:

Luke, Stop Using Stock Photography Clichés

stockI liked this article because I could really relate to the author. I am super sick of stupid stock photography. This type of stock photography has become meaningless to the user. Especially if the user has seen the same photo in other places before. As users, we are so used to seeing two business people shaking hands that we overlook it immediately, without giving it a second thought. Useless.

Mike, A Form of Madness

formForm design is awesomeness, but coding them? Not always the case. Luckily, there’s good news for form coders the world over with HTML5 on the brink of greater support. This article comes from an up-and-coming book all about HTML5. The author introduces some cool new tags and attributes that we can start using right now, including: placeholder text, autofocus fields, spinboxes, sliders, date pickers, and more! Exciting stuff.

Tim, On Web Advertising

adThis is something I have been very curious about lately, so to find this was a refreshing way to start out the week. It was nice to get Chris’s perspective about online advertising and I know he knows about it because all his work uses it.

What have you been reading recently?

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Easton Baseball & Softball
Tim,on the topic of  News, Web Development, WordPress
09.29.2009   |   0comment

We partnered with Omelet to create the new site for Easton Baseball & Softball. Omelet did the design and we built the site. Easton wanted a WordPress site, so that is what we gave them. This theme is extremely custom but at the same time it is really easy to use when adding new products or pages.

Easton Baseball
eastonbaseball

Easton Softball
eastonsoftball1

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Steel Encounters Inc.
Tim,on the topic of  News, Web Development, WordPress
09.25.2009   |   0comment

Steel Encounters came to us wanting to be able to manage their photo galleries in an easy way. Initially they were having an employee upload the images and then write code to insert them into galleries. We suggested they use WordPress with a custom theme to get their site to function they way they wanted and make it easy to do so. All the galleries on this site are managed through the default WordPress gallery function.

Visit Site

Screenshot of Steel Encounters

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How to use FTP
Tim,on the topic of  Tools
04.07.2009   |   4comment

We have had a few clients in the past who want to transfer large files to us. We have told them to use FTP and their response is typically, “huh?” I have written this simple tutorial to help clients tap into our FTP server to get us large files.

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network such as the internet. Simply said, it is a way to transfer files such as large pictures from one computer to another. Pictures are a great example because they are typically large in file size so standard email clients can’t handle them very well and inboxes get full very quickly. This basic tutorial will show you how to set up and FTP from your home or work computer. I am using a Mac, so some of the words or phrases might be different for Windows, but you should be able to figure it out.

Step 1 – Retrieve FTP information from the person you are sending files to. Typically you need the address i.e. ftp.domain.com, a username and password.

Step 2 – Open your FTP Client. If you don’t have one there are many options. If you are using Firefox, you can download an awesome plugin called Fire FTP. I suggest you use Firefox to do all your web browsing anyways for several reasons which won’t be discussed here. You can download Fire FTP by clicking HERE. If you are not using Firefox there is a free desktop based FTP Client called FileZilla. You can download it by clicking HERE.

Step 3 – After you have opened your FTP Client, you need to connect to the FTP Server where you are sending the files.

  • FireZilla – If you are using FileZilla, go to File>Site Manager. A new screen should pop up and there will be a button called “Add New Site” – click it. You will want to change the name from “New Site” to the place you are connecting to. Then you will need to type in the host name which for this example is ftp.domain.com. It will ask for a port which is usually just the number 21. It will then ask you for a login type. You will want to change this from Anonyomus to Normal or Ask for A Password. Then you will enter your username and password. Then choose Connect.
  • FireFTP – If you are using Fire FTP, you should have Firefox open. Go to “Tools” and then choose FireFTP. A new tab will open and you will see in the top left corner, a drop-down menu. Click on it and choose “Create An Account.” A new window will open. Enter the name of the place you are connect for the Account Name. You can leave the category blank. Then enter the host address – ftp.domain.com. Then enter your username and password and press OK. The window will disappear and you should see your site in the drop down menu. Highlight it and press connect.

Step 4 – In FireZilla and FireFTP, after you connect, you should see the FTP server you connected to on the right hand side and your local machine on the left. Find the files you want to transfer from the navigation on the left. Find the folder on the FTP server you want to put them in.

  • FireZilla – You can grab the files you want to transfer and drop them in the right hand box and they should start transferring.
  • FireFTP – There are two arrows in the middle of the screen. One is pointing the left and one is pointing to the right. If you want to transfer files from your machine to the server, press the one pointing to the right. If you ever need to get files from the server, press the one pointing to the left.

Step 5 – Your files should upload to the server and you should be able to see them on the right hand side and you are done. Pretty simple.

Please leave a comment if this post helped, hurt, or hindered your FTP expirence.

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