Month: March 2008

I Like Digsby

Kevin HallDesign, Software, Web Design

Digsby has opened its doors to the public and while there is clearly work to be done I’m pretty impressed with the software. Digby is a desktop application that puts all your instant messaging, email, and social network updates in one spot. The interface is nice, with some basic themes you can choose form. I like the simple system notifications as well. The IM one is really cools since you can respond from the notification bubble. They also offer a nice embeddable chat widget you can add to websites. I’ve the one below to our Contact page. It took me about 5 minutes to customize and add to the site. I love that it lets a visitor instantly interact with […]

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Eat Your Books (And Read Your Vegetables)

Kevin HallBusiness, Design

My best friend Tom has enlisted us to help promote his new musical endeavor. MrSeley.com is now online promoting his music that kids really like. There are free ringtones via Myxer and you can hear 3 songs off the upcoming album Eat Your Books (And Read Your Vegetables). Tom is a really talented musician and writes songs for kids without veering into the moronic songs and huge bowties realm. Design wise we stuck with a more sophisticated and understated color palette that suits his style. You can sign up for the email list and he’ll let you know when the album is released and when he plays concerts you can attend.

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Internet Filters Continue to be Stupid

Kevin HallDesign, Software, Web Design

I got an email today from a teacher friend of mine telling me that the Mandy & Pandy website was blocked by the internet filter at his school. They apparently thought that the nice site selling children’s books to teach kids Chinese contained sexual content – the official categorization from the Websense Enterprise filter was “Sex”. Now, having built the site I’m pretty confident that is a pretty wildly inaccurate categorization of the site. In fact, I don’t see how anyone who looked at the site or even spidered the content of the site could find anything even slightly sexual on it. It’s about a little girl and talking Panda who do such things as walk in the park and […]

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I would vote for Brian Schweitzer

Kevin HallPolitics

[via BoingBoing] STEP 1: Listen to the interview. Seriously, it’s awesome. STEP 2: Read my comments on the interview. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer did an interview on NPR in which he talks about the Real ID program. This is an unfunded mandate from the federal government from the same bright minds that set up the TSA. I love how this guy talks. Stright to the point and no dancing around just how stupid the federal government has been in the last few years with regard to security. I love when the interviewer throws out the ol’ 9/11 pitch and he knocks it out of the park by pointing out that most of the hijackers would have been able to get […]

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Preaching Outside the Choir

Kevin HallAsides, Ethics, Web Standards

Preaching to the choir is easy, they are already on your side and ready to sing your praises. Preaching to people who disagree with you is much harder. Sometimes you need to take a different approach than the one that convinced you. You need to look at how the person you are talking to approaches decisions and the framework they have for passing judgment on the world around them (that judge not stuff is overblown and frequently misinterpreted, a person sans judgment is a helpless, mindless waste, unable to choose what to eat for breakfast). Each of us uses a framework of heuristics and a moral and ethical code to pass judgment on the ideas we encounter all day long. […]

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