tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:13:37 +0000Tools and ToysfreePortlandUsing Your PCnetworkingweb analyticsIT Issueshighly recommended programs and servicesonlinefunmap2008 presidential electioncompany informationlarge file transfermashupmethodologiesonline pollsonline surveyssoftware developmentweb designDrupalOSCONPolitics and SocietySEOYahoobookmarking servicecollaborationgooglemethodologies HTML webmusic downloadsprivacysearchwifiThoughts on a diverse range of areas (though at this point it's highly focused on software and the Internet).http://bwinett.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)Blogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-1332310053487125783Wed, 12 Jun 2019 17:28:00 +00002019-06-12T10:28:18.910-07:00DrupalDrupal's new Layout Builder is without argument an exciting new capability allowing authors more flexibility in building pages. With that said, the addition of this functionality creates a new issue that project managers, architects, and developers need to be aware - something which seems to me will result in more complex content migrations from other CMS's to Drupal, and from Drupal to other http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2019/06/drupal-layout-builder.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-5952832765089556872Wed, 07 Oct 2015 20:06:00 +00002015-10-07T13:06:45.145-07:00Just received an email from the Real Story Group warning followers about the risk of being locked into Acquia's web hosting services.  Here's a link to their web page containing similar content: www.realstorygroup.com/Blog/2908-Be-wary-of-lock-in-with-Acquia Here's the text I'd like to discuss: Today, Acquia offers hosted products for: Search Behavioral personalization Multi-site http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2015/10/acquia-lock-in-risk.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-5579873733112795242Tue, 28 May 2013 17:50:00 +00002013-05-28T10:50:45.113-07:00I frequently get asked by managers for my opinions about Drupal.  Rather than re-draft them every time I get a request, I'm posting some thoughts here. Drupal strengths: It’s open source – anyone can access the code. If you don’t like the way something works, or you want to make an enhancement, you are free to do so. In other words, you aren’t dependent on a commercial vendor to approve http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2013/05/drupal-overview-for-tire-kickers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-4703349456273928531Sun, 20 Mar 2011 05:50:00 +00002011-03-20T00:02:38.001-07:00SEOweb designI've listened to many SEO gurus' presentations on SEO over the years. There's always a lot of discussion about keywords, meta tags, url's, page titles, headings, javascript, etc. And usually the presenter mentions that Google puts more weight on the links to your pages (and the "quality" of the referring site) than on the factors you can control on your site. But after that short statement, http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2011/03/elephant-in-seo-room.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6965785372571821774Mon, 03 May 2010 05:36:00 +00002010-05-02T22:49:41.644-07:00funweb designLately I've received several requests for web site changes that don't make sense, either for our web site visitors or for us. The latest request reminded me of a comic I read a long time ago. It was a great comic, so I spent some time searching for it. I'm sure I'll want to reference it some day, so this post is to make sure I can easily find it again. And you may get a kick out of it.http://http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-web-design-goes-straight-to-hell.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-8457218398421397384Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:32:00 +00002010-03-26T21:37:06.181-07:00I found a helpful trick in Microsoft's Excel help for converting text to numbers in a range of cells. Thought I'd pass it along.Enter any number in a cell.Copy it (Ctl-C).Select the range that you want converted to numbers.Select the menu options Edit, Paste Special.Select "multiply" on the pop-up form.The range you selected should now contain numbers, not text.It's in Microsoft's help, but who http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2010/03/converting-text-to-numbers-in-excel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-567548256908497128Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:45:00 +00002010-03-23T09:39:26.214-07:00There are custom blocks on a site I manage that contain simple English text. We just started a push to add Spanish to the site. So I researched how to make blocks multilingual. The documentation I found mentioned 2 ways to do this: 1) use Drupal's string translation to translate whole blocks into different languages, or 2) create separate blocks for each language and enable them only for the http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/12/drupal-better-way-to-translate-blocks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-8283432701065255282Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:23:00 +00002009-11-11T16:24:11.410-08:00IT Issuesmethodologiessoftware developmentBackground: corporate I.T. talks about wanting to become agile. It has already stopped using the traditional waterfall methodology (requirements, design, development, test, implementation...). High-level requirements are documented. Some development groups document use cases, others document screen shots, data flows...; often the developers simply meet with and email back and forth with customershttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/11/can-this-be-called-agile.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-5587410196499798083Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:37:00 +00002009-03-15T22:42:01.307-07:00methodologies HTML webYou may already know that I'm impressed by AirSet. I'm using it to publish the web site of Willowbrook Arts Camp, a non-profit daycamp on which I am a board member.Although I am impressed by the service - and I will continue to use it - there are some frustrations. The one I want to discuss in this blog entry is editing the HTML in AirSet pages.AirSet has a WYSIWYG page editor, and most people http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/03/beautifying-html.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-697832800391017168Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:42:00 +00002009-03-12T23:17:05.503-07:00collaborationIT IssuesThere's a lot of buzz about SharePoint in the corporate world. It seems to have come out of nowhere, but I believe SharePoint has hit its stride because it provides a safe answer for IT management when asked about their strategy for web 2.0 in the enterprise. It's a clear continuation of the IT management thought process that's been around since the '70's - what started with the statement: "you http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/03/sharepoint-for-internal-collaboration.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-7618397343211476946Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:05:00 +00002009-02-17T11:05:23.426-08:00networkingIt continues to amaze me - since December, a steady flow of my friends from grade school, high school, and college have been joining Facebook. But before December it was very quiet. I wonder what happened suddenly to make this happen?In any case, the fact is that, at least with my relatively small, skewed sample population, Facebook is exploding. And this jibes with compete.com's most recent http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/02/2009-is-year-of-facebook.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-2226889439188506263Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:06:00 +00002009-02-14T23:28:32.283-08:00Tools and ToysI went to nbc.com to watch a tv episode. One of the options is to download a software application, NBC Direct, that you then use to download episodes and watch them when you want.Well, I downloaded the software and then started reading the license agreement. Here are some key clauses:First, their definition of "content":[The service] manages and delivers video, music, audiovisual and other http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/02/nbc-direct-i-dont-think-so.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-8987771052877119420Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:42:00 +00002009-01-24T10:03:25.599-08:002008 presidential electionJennifer Altman's Businessweek slideshowCNN interactive synthesis of hundreds of photos (using Microsoft Photosynth)GeoEye's satelite picture (note: FireFox fits the picture on your web page - click to zoom in)http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-pictures-of-inauguration.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6133597654346905932Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +00002009-01-06T16:13:51.927-08:00freemapTools and Toysweb analyticsI periodically review web sites. And when I do, I like to be able to see graphical illustrations of their structures. In the past I've created these using aharef. The graphs this site creates are helpful, but there's no interactivity - you can't point to a node and find out what page on the website it represents, you can't click on a node to be taken to the page, etc.Well, I've just found a http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2009/01/webtracer2-for-website-structure.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-1925746640105398799Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:36:00 +00002008-11-05T21:48:42.692-08:00highly recommended programs and servicesSyncplicity is a great service. They provide hosted disk space, access via the web, and a Windows program that automatically synchronizes the versions of the files you select on your computer with the files stored on their servers. In fact, if you have 2 computers (for example one at home and one at work), Syncplicity can synchronize your files between all three places. But wait - there's morehttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/11/syncplicity-leaving-beta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-586195419729084082Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:32:00 +00002008-10-17T22:33:06.383-07:00web analytics[ The article below was originally published on WebMonkey in 1998, but Lycos has moved WebMonkey to a wiki and hasn't moved all of the old articles ;^Note that it assumes that web content is made up of static pages. This is becoming less and less the case as interactivity and personalization is enabled. Industry players, such as the Internet Advertising Bureau, are now focusing on metrics for http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/10/troubles-with-tracking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-3311150207954737139Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:43:00 +00002008-10-09T23:46:53.352-07:00web analytics[The article below was originally published on WebMonkey in 1998, but Lycos has moved WebMonkey to a wiki and hasn't moved all of the old articles ;^(Note that it assumes that web content is made up of static pages. This is becoming less and less the case as interactivity and personalization is enabled. Industry players, such as the Internet Advertising Bureau, are now focusing on metrics for http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/10/long-distance-data-tracking-ie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-4254872573957842246Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +00002008-10-03T22:29:37.886-07:00web analytics[The article below was originally published on WebMonkey in 1998, but Lycos has moved WebMonkey to a wiki and hasn't moved all of the old articles ;^(Note that it assumes that web content is made up of static pages. This is becoming less and less the case as interactivity and personalization is enabled. Industry players, such as the Internet Advertising Bureau, are now focusing on metrics for http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/10/tracking-your-web-visitors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6079609539549810253Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:04:00 +00002008-10-01T23:41:24.922-07:00privacyUsing Your PC[I first published this article several years ago. I have updated it with current information]Several years ago I wrote a set of articles for WebMonkey discussing the information a web site can gather about visitors; how to gather, store, and use that information; and limitations of the gathered information. Those articles were geared toward web site owners who wanted to know how their web siteshttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/10/online-privacy-what-do-they-know-about.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-9209229834570894369Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:59:00 +00002008-09-26T23:06:59.466-07:00IT IssuesYesterday I attended the InformationWeek500 Virtual Event. In one presentation, Rob Preston, Editor-in-Chief, discussed survey findings regarding the status of CIO's in their organizations. Predictably, the survey reveals that IT is seen as a cost center rather than a provider of strategic capabilities, and CIO's are regarded less as equal members of the executive team than as managers of utilityhttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/09/it-and-organizational-strategy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-1553880775046243705Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:23:00 +00002008-08-25T22:36:04.936-07:00freehighly recommended programs and servicesTools and ToysUsing Your PCThe University of Washington has published free, open source software you use to track the location of your laptop. It periodically communicates its location (ip address) to a distributed set of servers (OpenDHT). With a Mac OS X laptop, you can also have it periodically capture and send pictures to those servers.When you install the program, you will be provided with a complex, unique http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/08/tracking-location-of-your-laptop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6316379164711874006Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:19:00 +00002008-07-28T21:28:56.405-07:00company informationIt's not often that you hear of a corporation going out of its way to be a good citizen, so I figure when I see one that does, I should publicize it. Office Depot just sent me a rebate check - but not one they owed me. They paid me the rebate I was owed from the manufacturer. Granted I bought the product at Office Depot, but they could easily have just hoped that I'd forget about it. Instead theyhttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/07/office-depot-good-deed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6982486379533187965Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:36:00 +00002008-08-25T22:38:48.764-07:00highly recommended programs and servicesThere are a lot of interesting and compelling programs and services - more than any single person can keep up with. But out of this multitude, there are a limited number that I think everyone should seriously think about using. This is a table of contents to a list of articles about the software programs and services that I highly recommend.Automatic backup of important filesTracking the locationhttp://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/07/highly-recommended-programs-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-4060922870032140430Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:44:00 +00002008-07-27T21:36:05.073-07:00highly recommended programs and servicesFor a while I've been wanting to write a set of articles discussing the programs and services for Windows users that I most highly recommend. There are a lot of interesting and compelling programs and services - more than any single person can keep up with. But out of this multitude, there are a limited number that I think everyone should seriously think about using. So I'm finally getting http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/07/keeping-online-backups-with-syncplicity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032725.post-6023848301646834889Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:45:00 +00002008-07-23T23:05:57.315-07:00mashupOSCONPortlandweb analyticsYahooI've been going to these for several years now, and it's great to see that each conference is better than the last - the sessions are more interesting, and the expo hall has more - and more interesting - vendors.Evan Henshaw-Plath and Kellan Elliott-McCrea gave a very thought-provoking - and entertaining - presentation offering a way to provide subscription updates when RSS becomes untenable. http://bwinett.blogspot.com/2008/07/oscon-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Winett)0