South Jersey Graphics Design – Blog

While the title of this post sounds absolutely ridiculous (after all, when Mr. Obama and I speak, we only discuss sports and leisure and never talk shop ), I believe it would have sounded just as ridiculous if it said “The Obama Administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors to Step Down…” – if only one year ago.

Well, this is exactly what has happened this week. The Obama Administration has stepped into the role of General Motors Board of Directors and requested that Rick Wagoner step down as the head honcho of General Motors. This is an unprecedented measure taken during, well, unprecedented times.

We can sit here all day and debate whether this move was the correct thing to do or not. I don’t care whether you are a Liberal, Democrat, Moderate, Republican, Libertarian or hardcore Conservative, one thing we can all agree on is that this sort of intervention by the government was NOT what our founding fathers had in mind.

In fact, the last president to step into a private company and fire a CEO was Vladimir Putin, the ex-president of Russia and a major player to get Russia back to the basics of Communism.

I’m certainly not implying that what President Obama has done is Communistic. What I WILL say, however, is that we, as Americans, should take note of such drastic measures.

Keep in mind that income taxes by the Federal Government were only supposed to be a temporary thing. It was a series of “baby-steps” that got us to the total tax rate that we have today (averaged about 30%). What’s to say that the unprecedented actions by the Federal Government in the past year won’t become Modus Operandi?

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Kevin Uncategorized

I don’t often take the stance of warning my readers of impending virus attacks. First of all, I really don’t think I am the foremost authority to do so and second, it’s a bit off topic for this blog. However, there is a potentially malicious worm (called Conficker) out there that has already infected a couple million computers (they first discovered it this past November) and is set to strengthen it’s defenses exponentially this Wednesday, April 1st (yes, April Fools Day… no, this is not an April Fools joke).

Basically, the Conficker embeds itself on your computer through holes in your security system (thanks Microsoft). If you have been keeping up-to-date on your Microsoft and Security patches (Semantic, McCfee, etc) then you should be fine. But if you got tired of paying those subscription fees for your security system, then you may be at risk.

The worm is already very difficult to remove from your computer as it updates itself by checking some 250 different websites for new orders but as of April 1st, it will begin checking 50,000 websites for new orders essentially making it untraceable.

“Experts” don’t really know what its going to do yet. As of now, its just sitting there. But the potential for it to steel personal credit card information, turn your computer into a slave-bot, or even wiping your harddrive clean always exists.

Please get the most recent patches and security updates for your computer prior to Wednesday by following this link. I don’t want my next blog to be “How to recover from a devestating attack by Conficker”.

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Kevin Uncategorized Conficker, patches, security, viruses, worms

no, thats not my hand... this guy seems to moisturize.

I have a close friend who, for years, preached to me that cell phones were nothing more then leashes. These leashes were held by clients, salesmen, friends, and family and were capable of being jerked at their whim. His philosophy was that he didn’t like the idea of having to jump up, answer the phone, and resolve whatever issue was on the other end of the line just because the person calling felt like you should resolve it then and there.

While I agree with the overall belief that cell phones, and even more so, smart phones, have become tethers to different entities in our lives, I also feel they serve an invaluable purpose of freeing us from our desk, our city, our state, and even our country to pursue travelling and other things that we like to do without feeling like we are ignoring our business.

I had resisted the idea of getting a smart phone for quite some time now (I should clarify that I consider a smart phone of the caliber of LG Envy, iPhone, Blackberry Storm or most other Blackberry devices, and the like).  However, I fell victim to the trend when I had experienced, for the last time, the frustration of not being able to fix some client issues (adjustments to websites, answers to emails, etc) while enjoying a quiet evening at a coffee shop (and, without my laptop). You see, I take pride in the fact that I put my clients first above many other aspects in my life. They put their trust in me to run their online presence so  I take it VERY seriously when  there is a question or concern from one of them. Is this a bit extreme? Sure. But I also feel that I owe much of my company’s success on this level of service.

While it may seem that adding an iPhone to my life is just MORE WORK, it also frees me to be able to take an afternoon to escape to the Poconos for a hike, take a midweek flight to see a friend across country, or even head into Europe on a whim… all without the worry of ignoring my clients. While I agree with my friend, Dave, that being married to a cell phone of any sort is similar to being leashed to the folks on the other end of it, I feel stronger that I am able to live my life like I’d like to live it and throw off the leashes of my desk, my office, and my geographical location.

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Kevin Uncategorized business, communications, iphone

When I first started this company, I wanted a domain name like SouthJerseyWebsites.com. However, I was beat to the bunch by someone that had a bit more foresight then I. This is a constant struggle of finding the “right” domain name for your new or existing business. It seems that most everything that you can think of is already taken.

Well, this is may be true but I have good news for you. Many of the names that you may be looking for (or have looked for in the past) may be available again this year. You see, back in the late 90s, and 1999 in particular, wanna-be entrepreneurs were buying up domain names left and right. They weren’t just buying them for one, two, or three years, they were buying them for the maximum amount of time, 10 years.

Fastforward to 2009. Many of these domain names who are owned by defunct dot-bombers, businesses who never went forward with their ideas, or Joe-schmo who wanted to start an online-chicken-naming-system will this year become available again. So, if you became distraught that ChickenNamingOnline.com was already taken, this may be your lucky year. In the meantime, head to our domain checking tool to see if the domain name you wanted is available or not.

Also, in just a few days, as our clients, you will be able to register and manage these domains automatically with us.  Stay tuned for this very exciting new service!!!

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Kevin Uncategorized domain, domain name registration, lookup, name, registration, renewals

If you don’t already know, I was educated as a Mechanical Engineer. It wasn’t until a few years after getting my degree did I decide that computers and online development really is what interested me. As such, I have engineering written all over me. I am constantly ridiculed by my wife that if someone asks me what time time is, I “tell them how to make a watch.” Well, I take that as a compliment because this is what I do best and this is what helps make the world go round.

Well, you also may know that I love dogs. I have a very sweet old guy named Bear who I have had since I was in college (he is now 10 years old). I ran across this video below titled “when engineers have pets” and loved it. You may not get as much of a kick out of it that I did but hell, I’m a dorky engineer so this stuff appeals to me .

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Kevin Uncategorized dogs, engineers

We are pleased to announce the launch of our most recent web design project, Haddonfield United Methodist Church.

The church approached South Jersey Graphics Design with a complex project which involved a total redesign of their old site (shown below). The church also wanted the ability to have members of their staff adjust the content of the pages. As a result, South Jersey Graphics Design implimented a custom editting system allowing 5 members of their staff to manage their individual portions of their website.

Additional features of their site include audio and video podcasting of their sermons and other noted events, a full event management system, and a news and announcement system. Feel free to visit their new site and have a look around.

The old version of Haddonfield United Methodist Church

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At any given time, I have about 50 tasks that I need to complete (this includes the honey-do list, web design work, the never-ending remodel of our house, etc). Its almost a frustrating process to cross off one thing, only to have five more added. While it may be frustrating, it is most certainly necessary in this busy day and age.

About 4 years ago, I had a hatch-ling company that kept me quite busy. Additionally, I was actively involved in the planning of our wedding. It was with the 43rd email from my wife of tasks to accomplish this week for the wedding (to be fair, I sent about 60 emails to her as well… it was a give and take thing), and 60th email from my clients about various changes/additions/deletions for their web projects that I realized that I had a built in to-do list  right here in my email box.

I have been an avid user of Gmail for a number of years now and use it to handle ALL of my email addresses (I have at least a half dozen for my businesses and personal use). It really is quite handy  and if you’d like me to help you set your domain up to be used on Gmail’s system (see Google Apps for Business), I’m happy to oblige (all the features of Gmail used exclusively under your domain name… for FREE). Anyway, I digress… The point is I had a built in to-do list right in my email box that I didn’t have to write down on a piece of ratty papery, carry around and leave in the wrong pocket, etc etc. It was right there in my inbox and every email that came in of stuff to do was kept on my home screen in plain sight until I completed the task. Once the task was completed, I archived the email in a folder or just in Gmail’s archive system for future reference. If you have something that needs to get done that was not emailed to you, simply write an email to yourself and use the subject line as the to do item. It is THAT simple.

I use Gmail as an example but most decent email programs can be used in this same manner. Simply leave it on your home inbox and when it is complete, file it away.

Now, to be honest, I am looking at my email to-do list right now and there is an item from April 2008 from my wife that I have yet to complete. This trick won’t actually complete your tasks for you (I have yet to find a robot to complete my tasks), but it will help you stay more organized in the process. Are there better and more sophisticated ways out there? Of course. However, this has to be one of the simplest adjustments to your daily routine as you are already using email.

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Kevin Uncategorized email, gmail, tasks, to do