mashby | The personal blog of Michael Ashby

April 17, 2006

I’m One Lucky Guy

Lucky 4 Leaf Clover Last Thursday, Holly and I woke up to find that we had no hot water. I figured that it was nothing more than the pilot light on the water heater that needed to be re-lit. Unfortunately, as I went into the garage to light it, I discovered water flowing out the top of the water heater, all over the garage floor and down the driveway into the street. This was just the beginning to a very long few days.

That day I had several client site visits to make, not to mention proposals and other deliverables due. I slammed as many of them as I could before leaving that morning, saving time by not taking a shower. I simply threw on a baseball cap and figured I’d explain my dishevelment to my clients when I saw them. I made quick work of my client visits and at the last one, I asked my client if he knew of a good plumber. Since my client runs a property management company, I figured if anyone knew of a good plumber, he would. Recommendation in hand, I was out the door and on the phone.

The person I called came highly recommended and after a quick conversation, he told me that what I would need is a new water heater. 45 minutes after my first call, someone was there at the house to take a look and see what the problem was. The problem was simple – I needed a new water heater. 2 hours and $850 dollars later and I had a new gas water heater installed and heating away. I was absolutely stunned at how fast they got it done and was quite pleased with myself for how smart I was in choosing them. 😛

April 12, 2006

Noel Grover Tonight On Computer Outlook

Computer Outlook Radio Show with John Iasiuolo

Update: The show is not tonight, it’s NEXT Wednesday, the 19th. Doh!

Tonight I’ll be co-hosting the Computer Outlook Radio Show for their monthly “Palm Lifestyles” show. Our guest will be Noel Grover, President of VoiceIt Technologies. The show airs live at 7pm CST/CDT on AM radio stations around the US.

If you’re like me and don’t live in an area where the show is broadcast, you can listen live via the Internet at this link. Simply choose your preferred stream and you should be good to go. If you miss the live broadcast, there will be a podcast available in a few days and I’ll make a new post when it becomes available.

April 11, 2006

Still Getting A Kick Out Of It

Moleskine Reporter Pocket featured on Hustle

I’ve created, managed and published a lot of web sites in my day, but I still get a kick out of seeing someting I’ve submitted appear on someone else’s site.

For example, I’m a big fan of the BBC television series “Hustle” and I was watching the lastest episode last Friday night. One of the characters, Danny Blue (Marc Warren), was pretending to be a journalist for the con that they were working. Throughout the episode he’s seen sporting a Moleskine Reporter Pocket edition. In fact, the journal was featured so much that in one scene you can even make out the embossing on the back!

April 10, 2006

Migrating To A Master Inbox

I’ve been a fan of IMAP e-mail for several years now. I can’t laud the benefits enough of having a centrally accessible e-mail server that I can manage from any number of computers, or devices. Alas, as nice as IMAP is, it’s not the panacea to all my e-mail woes. There are still issues that I deal with each and every day.

I still find myself under a daily deluge of mail and it’s a constant battle to keep my head above water. So it was with great eagerness that I read the series Inbox Zero over at 43 folders. The series had a ton of tips and I’m still digesting everything to see what fits me the best, but one idea seems to be taking shape – I have too many inboxes.

April 8, 2006

Note To Family & Friends: We’re OK

Based on reports from people I’ve talked to, Nashville has been all over the news regarding the deadly tornados that ripped through Middle Tennessee yesterday. I’m happy to report that we’re fine and sustained no damage in yesterday’s storm. Although we did get plenty of wind, rain and M&M sized hail, the worst of the storm was to the north of us. We were very lucky and VERY thankful that we dodged this bullet. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affect by this horrible storm.

April 7, 2006

NPUG April Meeting Cancelled

Given the tornado damage today, it looks as if we have no choice but to cancel this month’s meeting. It’s hard to say what condition the Goodlettsville Branch Library is in, but given the extent of the damage in Goodlettsville and Gallatin, it doesn’t look good.

So we’ll be pushing the April topic to our May meeting. We’ll be back at our regular meeting space at the Edmondson Pike Branch Library on the 13^th of May.

I hope that all of our members are safe and our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in Middle Tennessee affected by the devastation.

April 7, 2006

NPUG April Meeting – WiFi 101

NPUG Logo This month, the regular NPUG Monthly Meeting is going “On The Road.” This month’s meeting is being held at the Goodlettsville Branch Library, in Goodlettsville, TN. [Google Map] Will that be a bit of a drive for most of our members? Sure, but it’ll be a welcome relief for our members that live north of Nashville and drive down south for every other meeting. We have quite a few that drive 30+ minutes to attend each meeting, so for once in the 7+ years we’ve been having meeting, they’ll have the shortest drive. 🙂

April 6, 2006

John Mese On “CSI” Tonight

John F**kin' Mese Be sure to tune your televisions to CBS this evening to watch “CSI“. My good buddy, John Mese will be appearing as Gordon Wallace in tonight’s episode Spellbound. I’ve seen a few previews for the show and you can clearly, albeit quickly, see John being interrogated. I don’t know if this means he’s playing the “bad guy” or not, but he’s sure to get plenty of face time, which is fantastic.

John’s been having a great run over the past year or so. He was on “Law and Order” in the episode Acid, which then lead to a role on “Bones” in The Superhero In The Alley. Before all that, he was on “Medium” in the episode Suspicions And Certainties, which was a brilliant role. It was very dark but VERY funny.

April 5, 2006

Recommendations For Windows HTML Editors

An open toolbox Being a web producer, I often run into situations where a client wants me to recommend a tool that they can use to edit their web site. If they are a Windows user, the most common software that they have on hand is Microsoft’s FrontPage, but I have to say that this is one of the worst HTML editors you can use. I do everything I can to try and talk the client out of using it and when I’m successful, then they ask me what I recommend instead. That’s a tough question to answer, but here’s a few recommendations you might find helpful.

What’s Wrong With FrontPage?
The reason web professionals loathe FrontPage is because the software sucks. There’s no easy way to say it – it just sucks. FrontPage is notorious for polluting your pages with extreme amounts of additional code. Code that isn’t needed nor functional. You pages may work in Internet Explorer, but more often than not, your pages wont look right, or even work in other browsers.

The biggest gripe though is that after a web professional has spent hours creating your site, FrontPage will redesign your pages/site completely un-doing all the work that’s been done. If you’ve hired someone to create a web site for you, the last thing you want to do is destroy all the work that you just paid for.

April 4, 2006

My Take On Metrics For Blogs

A ruler I had a client ask me recently about what metrics existed for blogs. I hadn’t really thought about that topic as it relates to weblogs before, so I had to do a bit of research on the subject. As a former Director of Marketing and a confirmed chart junkie, the idea intrigued me considerably. After digging into though, I quickly came to the conclusion that metrics and blogs don’t mix well.

Creating metrics for a blog is a really tough problem. In fact, I haven’t found anyone that has found a clear cut solution regardless of what side of the fence you happen to be on. Fence? Yes, there are two sides to this issue. Some feel that trying to measure the success of a blog can’t be done and that it’s futile to attempt to do so. The other side believe that without metrics, there can be no real understanding of a blog’s success. As the weblog “scale|free” put it, “I think measurement is essential, otherwise all you’ve got is a warm fuzzy story that may actually be completely incorrect.”