Deva Foundation

www.deva.org

I started off with this freely available WP theme. Then my client found a nice stock image of clouds on iStockPhoto.com that I converted into an ephemeral background. Finally, I popped in a new header graphic, improved the font styling (and IE compatibility) and integrated  iContact for email newsletter signups and and PayPal for ecommerce.

Ta-da! Deva Foundation’s brand new site was completed in less than 20 hours, from concept to completion.

Maria Benitez

www.MariaBenitez.com

This website for the legendary Santa Fe flamenco dancer Maria Benitez was completed in even less time by taking advantage of the excellent — and freely available –  “Yoghourt” WordPress theme.

Add these lines to the top of your .htaccess file:

# Override GoDaddy defaults which can inhibit URL rewriting
Options -MultiViews
rewriteEngine On

# Rewrite URLs so we don’t fragment our rankings beetween xyz.com and www.xyz.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

E-620 noise reduction / gradation test

I figure I’m not the only person out there with this quandary, especially as the E620 risks being a little noisy, and using SAT can make that noise really jump out at you… But then again, you get photos that are so usable right out of the camera. So I’ve published a webpage  that makes it easy to compare how a couple of shots look different when taken with and without NR and SAT. You be the judge!

http://cantonbecker.com/olympus-e620-noise-and-gradation

CSS Zen Garden

Sometimes a tricky process during a website design or redesign project is to figure out what kind of a general look and feel the client wants for the new site. Asking a client to “just go find some sites you like and send me the links” is a bit like asking “just go find some stars in the sky you like and point them out to me.”

Introducing an old favorite of mine: CSS Zen Garden. It’s great when a client can visit this site and send back links to two or three designs that feel right for the project we’re working on together. The CSS Zen Garden is also a superb place to demonstrate how form and content can be separated from one another. A properly built website will have the ability to change form at a later date with a minimum penalty, i.e. having to rebuild content.

www.gci-sf.com

GCI is a succesful San Francisco based commercial contracting / construction management firm.

Click to see the whole newsletter

Here’s an example of a really super email newsletter. Even if you’re not a Yogi, it should be clear that this newsletter offers real value to its readers.

Here’s what makes it so great:

• It’s not too long: You don’t have to set aside a special time in the day to read the whole thing. It’s distraction friendly.
• The marketing ‘call-to-action‘ — the teaching schedule — is nicely separated out in the sidebar and highly visible, and it doesn’t overwhelm the newsletter with self-promotional material.
• The introduction is personal and friendly and is relevant to the intended audience.
• The cooking recipe at the bottom gives the newsletter real value. This is giving something away for free, and it’s a great incentive to keep visitors subscribed to the newsletter.
• The overall layout is easy on the eyes, and has a good balance of text to images.

Here’s how this type of study works:

1. Figure out what different messages or images you think might help to sell your product
2. Produce a prototype (fake) website that simulates purchasing that product, with variations for each message or image you want to test
3. Send users to test out each variant of the website
4. Conduct statistical analysis of users’ browsing behaviors to figure out which variation produced the best results

I interest myself in how the structure of our site will influence our behavior … As the website design develops, so does my clarity. It’s obvious to me that “site review and evaluation” will be an opportunity for us to reflect on our goals … I mean that the site is, for me, kind of like a biofeedback device that informs me about myself and helps me develop my goals. At least that’s how it feels at this stage in the process.

This is a great reflection on how the actual process of making a website helps to make more concrete the actual project or work that the website is supposed to communicate. This kind of thinking caused a seismic shift in the philosophy of webdesign and web programming a couple of years ago. It’s called “agile design” and I think it’s fascinating.

The basic idea behind agile design is that you minimize the amount of forethought and planning on paper, and instead take advantage of technologies that let you easily update the website once someone has actually clicked through the Real Thing.

Before agile development we said to our clients: “Get it right on paper, or else we’ll bill you astronomical fees for change-orders.” Now we say: “Let’s just get the basic sketch online, play with it, and then keep tweaking things until it feels right.”

This is one of the reasons I build a lot of sites for my clients using WordPress. It means that we can change our minds about lots of things — even the fundamental look and feel — without having to build everything over again from scratch.

www.BeingWithDying.org

“The professional Training Program in Contemplative End-of-Life Care has long been dedicated to fostering a revolution in care of the dying. This unique program provides clinicians with essential tools for taking care of dying people with skill and compassion, as well as sustaining resilience and dedication as they serve others.”

It’s been years since I’ve played around in the 90-bpm breaks range. Having that extra time/space between the beats makes it possible to play with wicked bass sounds and long cymbals - things that are hard to squeeze into my usual 140-175bpm range. This is also the first song I’ve mastered using Logic’s built-in multiband compressor and adaptive limiter (instead of an off-the-shelf mastering tool like Yamaha’s finalizer or T-racks.) I think the Logic plugins preserved a lot of the crispness and space that would have been muddied up by the other harder-edged mastering tools. What you hear below is the final (13th) mix of this song. 

Listen: