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Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Safety in the Office Workplace is Important Too!

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Usually, when people talk about workplace safety, you usually think of industrial settings.

You think of machines and equipment that, if you’re not careful, could crush your hand, slice off a finger or possibly kill you.

By comparison, most people think of an office as far less treacherous. And, for those most part, it is. However, safety is not assured and, if you run around with an illusion of safety, you may find yourself hurt or injured by something that could just as easily been avoided.

Since the office environment isn’t completely free of workplace hazards, today’s article (on my other site) covers “Workplace Safety in the Office“.

Your safety is important and you should be aware of potential hazards in your office, whether you work at home or at a business location.

Please check the article out and be safe at work!

Because We All Need to Save Money These Days

Monday, August 16th, 2010

These days, we all need to save money where ever we can.

So, with the relaunch of my website (you know, the one with the forums on it), one of the focuses is going to be on tips for saving money.

Today, we started off the week with an article on saving money on groceries. Author Anne Verville presents several opportunities to save money on your next grocery trip. Please check it out.

In forthcoming weeks, more articles will begin appearing on the site. Not everything will be about saving money. There will also be articles on making money as well. Plus, there are general interest articles, educational articles and interesting stuff, so you don’t want to miss out on what we have coming. I may not write about each of them here, so be sure to visit the site to see all the latest content.

Plus, we can post pictures there. So, that’s always a good thing.

And, no, it won’t be like this blog has become. You’ll read good stuff over there.

Caught in a Catch-22

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

So, the week before last I joined a discussion forum in a niche I’m in.

And I can’t really participate in it.

At first, I had problems finding the rules. I thought the rules might be in the FAQ section, which they weren’t. I could not submit to the Help area because you had to have a minimum of 1 post before you could post in the Help area.

In the meantime, I found the rules.

I sell stuff in that niche so, unless I’m one of their advertisers, I cannot do anything to promote myself. Okay, fine.

The only place I can post is in an introductory area. So, I cannot ask for help without first introducing myself, which would give me my one post which would then allow me to ask for help. However, since I cannot mention what I do, I cannot honestly introduce myself, can I? It feels deceptive to identify myself as a user rather than a seller and saying I sell stuff might be a form of advertising, which I’m not allowed to do. Of course, I could ask in the Help section if it would be okay for me to say I’m a seller without mentioning my website or company name or anything, but I cannot post for help because I don’t have enough posts.

It’s a bit of a catch-22.

So, I found a contact link and requested information there. Asked about advertising prices too. Over a week later and I’ve still not heard back.

Maybe they don’t want any new advertisers.

Westward, Oh, Pioneers!

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

I didn’t get a lot done as far as coding goes yesterday. I did a little bit, mostly in the wee hours of the morning, but I think I was mostly burned out on coding after the day I had on Sunday where things that I thought would be fairly simple turned out not to be.

Again, thanks to all the pioneers. Two of you have already been exploring.

For all those who have been there, or will be going, please be sure to check out the Village Center. In there, I have started a thread entitled “Functionality Status Thread” which is something I should have done before letting anyone in!

In it, I explain the navigation system and what is and is not working. Also, there is a logout button, so that’s explained. Beyond the navigation system, it also details the other things left to do. Assuming, of course, I haven’t forgotten any!

So, once you check in for the first time or again, please check out that thread. You can also post questions or suggestions there.

I cannot wait until I get all the coding done so that I can concentrate on content rather than all the code…

Stagecoach Pass Applications Sent

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Okay, stagecoach pass applications have been sent out, although I referred to them as backstage passes in the eMail…

Anyway, I’ve sent them to (I think) everybody that requested them, except Speedy because I’m not sure if he actually requested one or not. His response was in the form of a question, so I don’t know. So, Speedy, if you want one, just ask… clearly. Don’t confuse me, which is too easy these days.

And one of you has replied already, so I’m going to finish this blog post and then respond…

So, here is where I am at. There are nine things left to do on the To Do list. Three of them are things I needed to get done before letting people in and another is one I wanted to get done before I let people in. Two of the needed ones are halfway done. They are not completely done, but they are done enough that I can let people in. The other one is not critical to have done, but I really wanted to get it done, but I also want people to be able to start exploring the site. So, I can let people in and work on it in the meantime. On the wanted item, it goes along with the last needed item. Hand-in-hand, as it were. So, I’ll work on that as well while people explore.

The other big thing I need to finish is the navigation system. Parts don’t work. But, I can explain to people what parts so they know how to find their way around without it.

So, that is where I am at. I don’t think I’ll work on anymore tonight. The last couple things–that I thought would be easy–ended up taking a lot more time than I thought.

Update and More

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Okay, so July’s traffic numbers are in. And, for the year so far, July is the second worst month of the year in terms of traffic. (It beat February by 7 visitors.) On the plus side, it had more traffic than last July. In fact, it’s traffic was better than each of the five worst months last year. (Last year, July was the third worst month in traffic.)

Anyway, in terms of updates, as you may recall, on Friday early morning, I had 22 out of 318 things done in that second big block to do. As of now, it is 317 things out of 317 things. (Yeah… Either I counted wrong or I missed one somewhere. Gotta recheck later…) That includes the third and fourth parts of that block. All that’s left is some miscellaneous clean-up.

Along the way, I’ve discovered that the “fix” I made on the navigation system isn’t working. It works for the first level, but not past that. Fortunately, that was already counted in my list of things to do, as I wasn’t sure if the navigation system was truly finished until I could test it after the big blocks of stuff were done.

I’ve also found other issues I need to correct, plus took care of others, so, right now, my list of 14 things remaining to do has shrunk to 13 things left to do. It would be 14, but I already fixed one of the new problems that cropped up. Of those, 5 are things I need to do before I can let people in.

With any luck, that’ll be soon.

Yes, It’s Yet Another Update

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Earlier in the week, I mentioned that I was about 15% of the way done with the other big block of stuff to do. (The other being still at 99%, which has not changed from yesterday.)

Well, it’s actually a four-part block as opposed to a two-part block. So, that means that the 15% complete would actually be less. But, don’t worry about that now. As far as the first part of the block goes, it is now 100% done. The second part of the block is also 100% done. The third part is about 7% complete, which is 22 out of 318 items. The fourth part is about the same.

On the total list, the 17 items left to do is now down to 14 items. I scratched off three items from the list earlier in the day. As mentioned before, some of the other items require that I first finish the two big chunks of stuff to do, one of which is 99% complete. So, once I get these two big blocks out of the way, the other items will (hopefully!!!) go faster.

Yet Another Update

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Nothing much but updates here….

Yesterday, I mentioned I was 44% finished with the first block of stuff I needed to do.

As of now, I am 100% finished with that part.

Well, actually, let’s call it 99% complete. About halfway through today, I realized there was something else I should be including. So, that is included on some of what I did today, but I have to go back and add it to the stuff I already did. That’s about 60% of the stuff I did, so I’ll need to go back through those and add it in. But, that shouldn’t take as long as the initial work. Hopefully.

And, my list of things to do has grown to 17 items. Fortunately, some of the new additions won’t be too time consuming to do.

So, that’s where things stand at the moment. Tomorrow, er later today, it’ll be time to tackle some more things.

Right now, it’s time for sleep…

Another Update

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was 20% done with one block of the two big blocks of stuff I need to do.

Well, I didn’t get as far as I had hoped. As of now, I am 44% complete. So, I only managed to knock out another 24% today.

On the other block, I am still only about 15% of the way done because I didn’t touch that at all today.

I really wanted to be further along than what I am. I would do more tonight, but I am tired and my legs are getting sore sitting in this chair, so I’m going to wrap up this post and call it a day.

Meanwhile, my list of things to do has grown from twelve items to fifteen items. Of the three new items, one of them will be a pretty simple thing to implement. Just one bit of code and that’ll be done. The other two aren’t hard but they require rebuilding two databases. Fun.

More Updates

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

You’re probably getting tired of updates, but it’s really all I have to write about these days.

So, yesterday and up until now, I have been working on the two big blocks of stuff I need to do. On the one part, I did maybe 30% of half the work. It’s a two-part effort, so basically I’m 15% done with that. On the other block of stuff, I’m about 20% complete. I did have to code a processing form that helps me do these, so that took a little bit of time to code and test. But, after that, it’s mostly just a lot of plugging in of data. Some bits take longer than others, so those tend to slow things down.

We’ll see how much more I can get done Tuesday night.

I also discovered a database issue I overlooked when I rebuilt the other ones. I neglected to change one that needs to be changed in order to mesh with the changes made in the other databases. Shouldn’t be too big of a deal; just a matter of getting to it.

I hope that I can get things wrapped up relatively soon so that I can start letting the pioneers in.