We’ve just completed an upgrade for some of our client’s accounts, moving them to a bigger and faster server. It didn’t go quite as planned (and one or two sleepless nights later) all has been fixed.

Something that I wanted to share with everyone though is a recent site that we’ve launched with the Leukaemia Foundation and it’s called Team Revive.  It’s a network for young adults with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related blood disorders (family and friends included) to share stories and talk. If that’s relevant to you then please join in and help make it a success.

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This has to be my current favourite icon set. It’s just beautiful, and it’s such a shame that it’s not available in vector form (just 48×48 PNGs). Follow the jump to see the whole pack. (more…)

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I’ll quickly go through what I think about it…

In short, it’s a really awesome system. It is fast, intuitive and it does its job very well. I have to congratulate the people behind it for making a really nice application which, though not yet totally polished or feature-complete, is already indispensable.

After install you can find a drop box sitting in your ‘My Documents’ folder. This is your portal to your online sync and storage system. Anything that you chuck into it is very elegantly sent to the Dropbox site and to any colleagues or friends who you have opted to share the data with.

The web interface is pretty good. I really, really like the ability to recall past revisions of a document. Did someone go and delete or mess up your content? No worries, Dropbox has a copy stored away online for you to revert to.

Right now the service is still in beta, but you get 10 invites to give away upon account approval.

So go request your own invite and hopefully yours will arrive a bit quicker than mine. I didn’t think that the reality could live up to the demo I watched ages ago, but it does a fantastic job of doing everything it said it does.

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For time management check out: http://www.johnwu.com/ora

And this little app http://toki-woki.net/p/Shrink-O-Matic/ is a lightweight (but very useful) image resizing tool.

Anyone else found some other nice apps I should try out?

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 Every now and then I find something that is absolutely awesome. My latest find that I’m already very attached to is RocketDock.

The team of two who made this deserve a huge congratulations and lots of money. Go and download and if you like it as much as I do make sure you support them in some way!

RocketDock is really lightweight, fast and very customisable. I would definitely check out the available skins and add-ons (I downloaded the Vista skin pack shown in the screenshot).

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I intentionally do not include many links here - it’s not a scatter-bomb approach, definitely quality over quantity.

ThickBox is one of those tools you take for granted. It just works. And it works well. I know countless projects I have worked on could use this little work horse - the only downside is the (obvious) dependency on javascript.
Check out ThickBox

Vector Magic (out of Stanford Uni) might not be a service you use very often, but whenever you find yourself in need of some vectorised images it should be your first point of call. The team that put this together seem to have spent a lot of time making it work pretty much perfectly. I was very skeptical when I first tried it, but have since become a convert.
Go visit Vector Magic

Another useful little javascript tool is this validation pack. Live Validation turns boring and hideously user-unfriendly web forms and turns them into an (almost) enjoyable experience for the end user. I use it, and recommend it.

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 It’s been months now and I still haven’t received an emailing inviting me to join in the beta test for Dropbox - http://getdropbox.com/ .

I’m getting desperate now ;-).

If you are not familiar with Dropbox and what it does then you’ll want to check out their screencast on their website. It’s a very well designed online storage/sharing system that integrates with your desktop much more intuitively than current alternatives.

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These icons and icon packs are some of the best free icon sets that I have found. I suggest checking out each site and downloading to your heart’s content.

  
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Whatever your need is, there is a nice and easy way to pull it off, and that is with the following code:

<?php
$random = (rand(1,2)); // 50-50, picks a random number between 1 and 2.
echo “normal text” . ($random==1 ? “show 50% of time” : “other output” ) . “continue normal text”; //condensed if statement
?>

Obviously it might be easier to use regular if/elseif/else statements to control a wider range of random events.

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Most of the interesting work is with the integration of the SMS classes and all the tracking stuff there. There is a lot of code spent on user-verification and it’s still not ideal. Drupal’s registration system doesn’t seem suited to do you ‘Accept our Terms of Service/Accept our Terms and Conditions?’ style options.

Being built on Drupal 6.1, there are not a lot of modules available to plug directly in to the site. The ones I am relying most heavily on (and recommend to anyone developing a community site) include:

• Friends module
• Advanced Forum
• LoginToboggan
• Avatar Selection
• User Points

I am however having real issues with Google’s Site Authentication feature for AdSense. Ideally it would be great if the Googlebot could crawl user-only pages, and then be able to serve up some decent content-specific ads (and not something with horribly low eCPMs). I haven’t managed to get it working yet as the Googlebot doesn’t seem to handle the session well, if at all.

Another problem I faced today was with someone trying to create accounts en masse and use that to send heaps of free SMSes. Currently a rather poor hack is patching up that particular problem ;-). 

Moral of the story: Drupal is a fantastically versatile CMS.

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Thanks to everyone for participating - I certainly think that this may become a nice freebie to give away every now and then.

A special mention also goes to the virus must be stopped.

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I am aiming to get some free time to post some more things here - I have plenty of ideas for a change - but that free time is elusive ;-).

In the meantime remember to post a comment on our advertising give away. Not long now before I pick a winner of a 125×125 ad spot on the blog here.

Hope everyone has a great Easter and enjoys a break.

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1. Lists are not a cure-all. Motivation needs to come from within yourself
Don’t worry, the irony is not lost on me. ‘Top 10′ lists litter magazines and blogs. People like them because they are presented with information in a quick and easy-to-access structure. I certainly think that there is a place for the bullet-point list, but when it comes to being productive and constructive with your time usage they seem to offer little more than a short-term burst of hope and motivation. People feel like they have achieved something by reading a good list. No, you have not.

To achieve your goals (or perhaps to even garner the will power to document them) you do require some level of will power. It is very easy to delay and procrastinate, far too easy. You have to be frank and honest to yourself, and force yourself into starting productive and worthwhile habits. It can be a difficult process but it’s worth it if you can stick it out and force yourself to focus and really work on a regular basis.

2. Reddit/Digg/StumbleUpon are not going to help you stay on track
Yes they are interesting sources of news and other tidbits. They are also nearly guaranteed to distract you. I would also add instant messaging to the list here. Everyone (myself included) attempts to convince themselves that IM is a necessary application and that it simply must always be on. This isn’t true, and we all know it, even when you use it for ‘work’. An hour or two without distractions is worth four or five otherwise.

If you’re reading this and nodding your head then, to take the Nike approach, just do it. Close all the sites that you’re visiting and start whatever tasks may be pressing. Once you are finished that you can go and reward yourself by wasting time with whatever you want to.

3. Work can be your passion, but it can still get boring
You might have decided to start working for yourself, or you might have found your dream job - congratulations - but that doesn’t mean that you are going to stay happy and motivated. The truth is that even interesting jobs have menial tasks that you would rather not have to do. My best piece of advice is to handle these as they come up. Don’t allow a big backlog of tasks to appear. Whether you work for yourself, someone else or if you’re still studying, try to stay on top of your work on a weekly basis. If you allow things to get out of control you will only want to avoid it more. It’s about forcing yourself to do the unpleasant stuff now, so that you don’t need to constantly feel guilty about it.

4. Short term goals complement long term objectives
Have a dream. Whether it be financial, academic, sports related, relationship orientated or just some other personal goal. I think life is more interesting when you have some sort of direction or aim. But your overarching dream is not going to make you complete your daily tasks with much motivation. You therefore should also have some short term objectives or goals that correspond to your passion. The trick is to see how working now will pay off later for you.

5. Lists generally need to be nice round numbers
Life isn’t all nice and uniform. Some things might not apply to you, some things might not work for you. As long as you try though, as best you can, then you should be able to do whatever you want.

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Everyone is probably familiar with this WordPress plugin, so I won’t dive into details. If you have a WP blog yourself and want to show some… no, I’ll refrain from intentional puns. Click here if you want to find out more or download the plugin.

I hope you all benefit from getting some small increase in exposure.

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So what do you need to do to get in on the promotion? Do you have to:
a) write a blog post?
b) subscribe to the RSS?
or c) none of the above?

Well c) is effectively correct. Just let us know that you’re interested by posting a comment on this post with your blog’s/site’s URL and you’ll be considered. Of course all other bribes are welcome ;-).

I’m not sure how long we’ll keep the competition open, so try and get in quick. I think a week or two is a good window here. Once it closes we may be offering ad slots for a fee or may run our own network advertising instead.

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ShoeMoney did a video post about monetizing blogs. He’s rather critical of AdSense (has a fair few points too) but he did offer one piece of advice which I had been meaning to put in place for a while, and that is to use a redirection script to send people off to affiliate links as opposed to direct-linking them. So I went away and built a custom one for GO Blog.com.au, and thought I would share the code with everyone.

(more…)

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WapDesign is another branch of Glass Obelisk’s web development services dedicated to the development of WAPsites. WapDesign provides businesses with the ability to capitalise on the furthering innovation in the areas of mobile technology and putting their clients a step a head of the competition. A WAPsite is the perfect tool to complement a business’s existing website and extend their reach beyond the realms of mainstream advertising.  

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BrisbaneSMS has been put together as a branch of the Glass Obelisk group dedicated to specialising in business SMS solutions. BrisbaneSMS  provides  services such as managed SMS advertising & marketing campaigns ,SMS competitions and custom built SMS systems. Their bulk SMS prices are arguably some the cheapest in Australia with SMS costs as low as 6 cents each.

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Like clothing, like architecture and like fish, websites go out of fashion.  MSU’s Internet 96′ provides us with the opportunity to delve into the past and explore our web design ancestory and gives us the chance to see (and perhaps cringe at) the designs of yester year. The great difference between web design and fashion? In web design, there’s no going back. At least let’s hope so.

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It is hoped that together with Labour’s Education Revolution, the much needed solution to Australia’s broadband woes will provide the platform to build and expand Australian Business.  The National Broadband Network will connect 98 percent of Australians to highspeed broadband at speeds up to 40 times faster than most current connections with a minimum of 12 megabits per second.  With my primative 2MB connection, I personally can’t wait!
(Source alp.org.au )

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 I find that, like with many things in life, the simple approach is always the easiest and usually the most effective.   Forgive me if I can’t, but I will attempt to approach my posts in the same light, and try and help those of us who don’t regard themselves as being too savvy when it comes to the wonderful world of online business.  

If you have any suggestions or want to know more about what we cover in our blogs please give us a buzz.

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Every day, more and more Australians continue to turn towards online buying and selling in order to find a bargain or even make a quick buck. In mid to late 2007 Hitwise (www.hitwise.com.au) compiled the 10 most popular websites for Aussie shoppers. The table covers the dominators, the movers and the shakers in Australian shopping from June to September 2007.

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$3.29 BILLION AU
That’s how much Aussies spent online over the September November quarter leading up to the all important Christmas spending free-for all.

$56 BILLION AU
Estimated Australian and NZ ecommerce revenues in 2007. Experts from NETT magazine predict this could continue to grow 25% every year up until 2010!
F.Y.I. $230 BILLION US
In US dollars, this is how much the US is predicted to spend online in 2008- this time predicted to grow 25% every quarter! (source Forrester Research)

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