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Relaxation


11 Feb

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Posted in Random, Rants, School | 2 Comments »

Tonight I did something I haven’t done in a long time.  The netbook, Macbook, and even the cell phone were turned off.  This is pretty rare for me, and it was amazing to curl up and watch a movie in the dark, with it being quiet, and no worries in the world to deal with.  Sadly it was short-lived, and the real world stresses and requirements come flying back very quickly.

I think I am going to start taking at least a few hours a week to unplug from the matrix.  I am so easily reached and check so many sites and subscriptions all the time,  some time for my self can’t be a bad thing can it?  School has challenges this term and they make the aspect of getting my degree and a job in the industry even more amazing sounding.

It does help knowing that I am not alone in the world going though this mixture.  The past few days I’ve been chatting with some classmates and it’s just a fun experience to look back and look forward and wonder where we will be in a few years.  Who will be apart of the next googles, or Godaddys?  Only time will tell.

GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle and Branding


08 Feb

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Posted in Rants, Raves, School | No Comments »

Tonights ranting is on: Trademark and branding

Over my winter session of classes, my professor introduced us to a website. It was more so to show us how social media and random websites can have such a larger following then even our local papers.  We compared our Stevens Point Journal, to GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com

Alexa's Reach of Google*4 and UWSP

As you can see, GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle has a higher daily reach then even UWSP, and even a lot more than the Stevens Point Journal.

GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle’s idea was quite simple.  It was 4 iframes on the page each pointing to Google.  You could resize the windows; point them to other sites and a few other pretty cool tasks.  I made a comment to Professor Krause, about wondering how long it would take before Google complained about the use of their trademark.  The site clearly didn’t alter content or gain anything from the users, however because of the domain name, it does violate Google’s trademark claims. We were not sure how long it would be, but figured Google would likely find it soon enough.

Today during class, I went to GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle to do some side-by-side searching, to find a note from the site’s author saying the site was going to be taken down because of a take down notice that they received from Google.

I am going to miss the site, because it did come to be pretty useful.  Trademarks and branding are important to a person and company.  From Google’s side, if they don’t protect their trademark, they risk losing it.

It brings me to a new point as well.  I’ve gone by the nickname Freekie for most of my “Online” life.  I’ve moved away from it slightly, using CoreyRants.com instead of my old Freekie.net.  Mostly because the projects I’ve started on freekie.net have never worked, and Corey Rants seems to be more about what I blog about. Rants, raves and other stuff that happens in my life.    I’m thinking of possibly switching my twitter nickname from Freekie to Corey Rants.  It would create a single online presence, but haven’t decided what I want to do just yet.

I’ll keep you all updated as I progress on the Twitter handle.

Feel free to stop over to GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com and write the author a few well wishes.

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Edit

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Professor Krause also wrote about this, check out his take on the topic.

Time Management


26 Jan

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Posted in Rambles, School | 3 Comments »

After having the majority of my classes for the first time this term, its become clear that I will be very busy and busy might be an understatement.  I’ll be working on client projects and getting some good experience. From the sounds of it, I’ll be spending more time in our classes’ computer lab, which will come in handy to be in a constant place, bust still a lot of work.

What I am asking from you is if anyone has some good time management ideas or tips that have worked for them in the past?   I plan on trying to keep my calendar updated with projects and work times so keep that part square, but it still is possible that things can slip through the cracks. Perhaps something like a to-do list or something.

What do you all do for time and project tracking? Also anyone have any good blackberry or smart phone applications?

I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it looks nice, just need to figure out what to do in this real world.

Anyways, its time for me to hit the hay and get some much needed sleep.

Professors Teaching Styles and the use of Technology


25 Jan

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Posted in Rants, School | 1 Comment »

So I know that I am spoiled, and come from a very tech savvy environment, where anything and everything that can be done on a computer is.  Also note that I started playing with computers at the age of 3.  I also know that everyone learns and uses technology differently.

For example in my WDMD 346 class, we were reviewing a clients website, and trying to come up with suggestions, and design ideas when its clear that the client either has no idea about web standards, or how to use a computer what so ever.  The challenge here, is finding the right way to describe things specifically, but also in a way that common people can understand.  I believe that this is one of the harder challenges that anyone in the IT or Digital Media field has to deal with.  I will post updates as this progresses throughout the term.  I also will have two more clients for my WDMD 480 class.  It will be a long road to the finish, but the end is in sight and I’m looking forward to getting out.

Now, another example is my Business Law II professor.  He has a few things going for him. He came out and said that his life experience doesn’t make him a good teacher, and that he is a bit rusty in the topic of teaching.  What it seems as though he is short in the area of organization.  He went from one topic to another and back and forth over and over.  My head was spinning just going over the syllabus.  I mean OUCH, how hard is it to just read over it with us?

I do need to figure out, where people have learned to use the Google or Bing search bar as the place to type the URL in.  Watching him try to navigate around even Bing was annoying and frustrating.  I do give him credit, he did figure out the projector easily, and considering that he is actually a lawyer, is quite impressive.

On top of my awesome technologically damaging day, we did have a small fire in my hall today.  Standing outside and waiting for the SPFD to give us an all clear was frustrating.  Not to mention going to class not ready cause I didn’t have the right backpack with me. Ended up getting my old one and a binder out of my car so I had something. General idea, always bring your coat outside for a fire. I ended up giving my coat to a girl who looked like she was freezing.

This ends day one of the new term.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Final Project


19 Jan

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Posted in Rambles, School | 2 Comments »

Finding motivation for my final project this term has been slightly frustrating.  I hope to  give a link to my finished project shortly (It is Due Thursday afterall).

Building  a site with a CMS System takes time, and a lot of planning.  My advice for anyone that is looking to build/ or transition to a CMS site, is to plan your content.  If you are not able to have the content ready ahead of time, at least come up with a plan of navigation and structure for how you want to order them.  It makes life easier.

Perhaps one of the better ways to organize content ahead of time, would be to use a program like Visio.  Visio allows you to make different prototypes of things, from websites, to network drawings, to even a good outline program.

Its going to be a few long nights and work ahead to get the project done.  But, once its done, getting more content down the road will be the ongoing project.

Also, plan that everything you want to do, will take a lot longer and will not go as easily as you expect. Because you might end up distracted, maybe by clocks, Thanks Professor Krause, or even just finding the right plugin.

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Corey's Rants

A Web Developer's rants, raves and randomness.