Eric J. Gruber

Dusty Deringer, a public speaker about customer service in the healthcare industry and patient satisfaction issues, launched a new web site on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 made by Rumblestrut Studios (me).

Making this web site for Dusty had special meaning for me. Dusty and I grew up together, living just three houses away from each other. In 2004, Dusty decided to take a stab at a seat in the Kansas State Senate, and asked me to create a web site for his political ambitions.

You can probably guess that he didn’t win the election. However, it got me started on a new career. It’s funny how life works.

Check it out: dustyderinger.com

Lawrence Heights Christian Church launched a new design on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007, made by yours truly.

This was a redesign, but the old version was pretty out of date (their words, although I totally agreed). The new design has some great features, such as incorporating use of Google maps for new visitors who need directions and a clean, simple interface.

The logo was created using pictures of a really interesting steeple they have, which has some interesting angles at its base - making for a cool logo.

One highlight is the church is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, so there’s a page featuring some of their history leading up to the big celebration.

Check it out: lawrence-heights.org

There is another …

I entered a contest over at photoshopcandy.com designing a logo for a chef across the pond.

My entry is listed with the others on this page and you can read more about the contest here.

It’s too bad they don’t have public voting set up. At least you can leave comments on the one you like best (yes, even if it’s not mine - I won’t be upset).

Having spent the first five years of my professional career in journalism, I jumped at the chance to help configure a Wordpress blog for an industry insider - who will have to remain anonymous for now - who goes by the name, The Printer’s Devil.

The writing is good. It’s insightful and timely. The blog focuses on small newspapers, something I’m quite familiar with on a very personal level.

Add this to your reads. It’s worth checking out.

theprintersdevil.net

And it makes me sad.

Oh Apple, you and your sexy products and useful functions. How you tease me.

The day the iPhone came out, Amy was gracious enough to be patient with me as we went to the AT&T store to check it out. Thirty minutes later, I let someone else play with it and I went on my merry way.

No, I didn’t get one, and probably won’t anytime soon. It’s not that I don’t have the cash, because I do. I could totally go get one today if I wanted. But doing so would violate a couple of rules I’ve learned to play by with technology and Apple products.

• Rule #1: Early adopters pay the most money and get the least amount of features compared to the patient.
• Rule #2: It always takes Apple at least three tries to get their products working near perfect.

I’d be willing to overlook both of those rules if the price was was lower, but $500 was way too steep for my blood. Sure, Apple sold a crapload of iPhones since the launch, but I’d wager it could have been more - much more - had Apple dropped the price some. But what do I know?

But let me say this, if you get a chance, head to an Apple or AT&T store and check it out. After spending a little bit of time with its amazing interface, I could see the future of computing.

The future of computing lies within a touch-screen interface. I believe we’ll have a mouse and keyboard for some time to come, but massive adoption of touch-screen technology will revolutionize the industry.

I’ll just have to stick with my trusty Razr for now until the prices come down. Truth be told, I’d rather have the iPhone’s features without the phone, but Apple has overlooked iPod fans for so long, I’ve given up hope of seeing that anytime soon. By soon, I mean September, when I’ll likely switch to the Archos 605 for my media and portable Wi-Fi communication needs.

What about you? Did you get the iPhone or did you manage to resist the pull?

It’s been one of those busy and frustrated times.

The good part is I’ve been hard at work at some sites recently, with more on the way. I look forward to showing them off soon once the “all clear” has sounded.

But the frustration comes more from the business side of web site building for pay. Mainly, I’m fighting with my bank right now, who, although it has many wondeful features online, has made my business and personal banking a living hell the last few days.

It’s enough to drive a person mad, or at least to just throw in the towel. But what fun is that? I enjoy the business side of things as much as I enjoy the building side. It’s too bad they just don’t seem to flow smoothly sometimes.

Par for the course, it would seem.

Last week, I purchased Seth Godin’s new (audio) book “The Dip” from Apple’s iTunes Store.

I love audiobooks. I’m always on the go, and I can just pop on one my iPod, put my headphones on and get educated. But there’s some sort of glitch with the iTS version of “The Dip,” and mine won’t play on my iPod - only on my computer.

It’s not just me. Hundreds of people have written to let Godin know about the problem. And now, a week later, it’s still not resolved.

Godin posted about the persistent problem today on his blog, and had this today …

“If the head of the iTunes store focused on this problem for ten seconds, it would go away.”

Oh man, talk about hitting the nail on the head. Someone from Apple could easily look at what is going on and realize what needed to be done to resolve it. Instead, when you write Apple (as I did), you’ll be told to check this documentation and that documentation, and if all that doesn’t work, you might need to call Apple (for a fee).

This isn’t typical of Apple, but as much as I talk about how great they are, I surely have to fault them when they screw up.

I will say that for those who purchased the book and have the same problem, I found a workaround.

• Burn the audiobook to multiple CDs in iTunes (you’ll need two of them)
• Import those tracks into iTunes
• Open those tracks into an audio editor of your choice (like Quicktime Pro)
• Do some splicing and merge all the tracks into one
• Convert the one track to the audio format of your choice in iTunes and put on your iPod

That solution worked great for me, plus, I ended up removing the silly DRM by making an mp3 of the book. It’s too bad someone at Apple didn’t think of it.

Oh, how this makes my heart cringe.

I was checking out the web sites of banks in town to see who had another option for the small business owner (me) since I’m completely unhappy with Commerce Bank at the moment. (That’s really another story that I won’t get into, but let’s say this: I’ve had a business account with them for two weeks and now I’m shopping around for other options.)

So I come across the web site of People’s Bank, and I poke around. After a few minutes, I get discouraged and decide to leave, mainly because I can’t figure out from its web site if they provide debit cards with their checking accounts. I’m sure they do, but it’s not on their web site, so how do I know for sure?

Before leaving, I decide to take the online survey they link to from their site, and fill out the information. Essentially, I just say that the web site could use some help. I hit submit, and I get an error message written in geekese. (See above picture).

Well, that’s not helpful for anyone at all, is it?

Ways to fix:
1. Test your forms when you put them online to make sure they work.
2. If you do have an error page, make it show something useful, such as the e-mail of the webmaster so you can make he/she aware of the problem.

It’s sadly ironic that the survey, which could be used to help improve the web site, doesn’t work and sends the visitor to a cryptic error message that would surely prompt an unsurly remark in an online survey about the web site.

When Metal ruled the world, it was customary for fans and band geeks to know absolutely everything about their favorite bands.

For example, in the movie Rock Star, Chris ‘Izzy’ Cole (Mark Wahlberg) launched into a diatribe about how the costumes worn by a rival cover band didn’t match the real-life attire of Steel Dragon, the subject of both Cole and the band’s facsimile. Cole manages to point out every little detail of what the cover band got wrong, which escalates to an all-out brawl.

I mention this, because yesterday I was reading Your About Page Is a Robot as I work to create, tweak, hone and refine the web site for my web design company, Rumblestrut Studios. When I was a young metalhead, I would buy a new, um, tape, then dig through the liner notes reading everything. The lyrics? Oh, they were OK, but I was mostly interested in what gear the bands used.

My how things have changed. I don’t even care about the liner notes as much as getting the music, and even that I’d prefer if I could just download everything (providing it’s DRM-free, of course).  However, I like knowing the stuff only a fan would know. But in the web world, it doesn’t seem to be this way. Granted, my favorite web site, Digg, has a nifty page telling visitors what kind of operating system they use, what server  Digg is running on, and what programming languages Digg is built on, but that’s only when the site is down for maintenance. You can’t find that info on the site any other way.

And in the web design world, none of the rock stars of the industry such as SimpleBits (Dan Cederholm), mezzoblue (Dave Shea), Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer clue their fans in on this information. Me, I’d be all over it. Tell me what computer your using. Tell me your favorite application. Let me know what powers/empowers you. And please, don’t make me search your blog for that information.

As for me, I think I’ll do just that. I’ve got some bigger things to work on first, such as a design that totally rocks your face off. But it’s definitely on the list of things to add.

Whatever I come up with, I guarentee it won’t be as bad as this.