I’ve Been Working On The Website

On the Internet spelling counts. This, unfortunately, becomes my problem

Helaine and I continue tweaking the new website–coming soon to an Internet near you.

Last night Gary Choronzy of ConnecticutWebsites.com, who often comments here, spent an hour and a half on the phone with me. He gave me some tips and advice. We even spent some time remotely looking at the site together (by virtue of LogMeIn.com which allowed me to ‘drive’ his computer from my computer).

My conversation with Gary started on a ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ moment. When I said our website’s name, Gary entered it incorrectly into his browser! In fact the majority of those I’ve told haven’t been able to do it on the first try!

On the Internet spelling counts.

This, unfortunately, becomes my problem. My job is to make the site impervious to bad spellers. We registered a similar but easier name earlier today. The old one works too since it points to the same files. Later I’ll create a file which rewrites any requests for the old name to the new name.

That’s a Google accommodation. They don’t like seeing the same content in two places.

Much of the new site is built on free open source software components. The quality of FOSS varies greatly. The plugin which allows users to enter content is a prime example. It does the job but it’s totally obtuse in how it does it.

We are at the punch list stage now. Most of the site is operational, though still populated with bogus entries made of gibberish text. Hopefully it will be mostly done tomorrow and I’ll begin to lean on you to help me get it started.

The site will open in stages. First I need to get enough content onboard to make it look legit. Then I can begin promoting it to build traffic. Promoting it without this soft friends-and-family opening would be a mistake.

I apologize for being so cryptic about the name and scope of the site. Hopefully the URL and one sentence will explain it all.

This has become our obsession.

The Magic Is Her Music

I’ve been using Logmein.com’s free product to command her desktop from here. Part of the difference between it and the pay version is the free version’s inability to drag and drop files. Luckily Logmein has another product, Hamachi, which does just that!

With Stef’s new laptop in place it’s time to move some data from her old machine to the new one. Before everything went south I backed up her photos, docs and music. Now I’m moving them back.

Of course Stef and I are separated by a sizable distance, but we’ve got our PCs connected via the Internet with a little software help. I’ve been using Logmein.com’s free product to command her desktop from here. Part of the difference between it and the pay version is the free version’s inability to drag and drop files. Luckily Logmein has another product, Hamachi, which does just that!

I’ve got two pipes open to Stef’s machine. The first is watching her desktop. The second is moving the files. I’ll probably close the desktop snooping since it’s taking significant bandwidth. That will optimize the file transfer.

So how long does it take to transfer a 21 year old’s music collection? Don’t ask! OK, ask.

I am in the midst of transferring a little over 9 Gb. That’s two DVD’s worth. It will take 22 hours, if we have this speed during the day–unlikely. In other words, this will finish as Stef wakes on Wednesday.

Judging’s Not For Me

Right now, I would like to take a nap. My whole body is bloated. I wish I had some Alka Seltzer

I did a live shot on-the-air this evening. That’s become more of a rarity as my boss strives to separate ‘Fun Geoff’ from ‘Weather Geoff’.

PIC-0088This was the annual “Taste of the Nation,” which benefits the Connecticut Food Bank and other charitable endeavors. It all took place at the Omni Hotel at Yale, in Downtown New Haven.

The live hits were fun, for a variety of reasons. First, I enjoy having the opportunity to play around a little while on-camera. Second, I tried to solve a techno challenge and succeeded.

Until now, there was no way to control my weather equipment from the field. I’d cue the director, who would cue the floor manager, who would push my weather graphics button. Often, there was missed communication, which took me out of sync with what was on the screen.

This evening, I brought in a laptop, connected using the venue’s wireless Internet cloud, and used logmein.com to bring my weather computer’s screen and controls to the laptop in the field. Though it won’t show me the actual high-res graphic I’m displaying on the air, every other part of the system’s back end was there.

This was a huge burden off my shoulders. It worked perfectly.

PIC-0090After the news, I assumed my second job of the evening – judging the food. I had been volunteered for the job. Who knew how difficult judging is?

I’m not talking about the qualitative judgement. That’s not the tough part of judging. The tough part is the shear quantity of restaurants and food. I had to sample some of everything!

Right now, I would like to take a nap. My whole body is bloated. I wish I had some Alka Seltzer.

I guess I’m the wrong guy to recommend for Iron Chef.