iWeb and web forms, HOWTO

I use iWeb for both my personal website, and my company website (for the time being). Last night I decided that I wanted to add one of those forms to my site, you know the ones where you put your name and email and then a message and click send. But I could not figure out how to do this in iWeb, a couple of good forum posts led me to Wufoo.com where you can create your free forms and copy the code. Note that when using this with iWeb you need to click the Web Widgets button and then select HTML widget, and insert the code there. Once you have done this your form is ready to go. Another note is that Wufoo does not automatically notify you of new forms submitted, but you can turn on the option in the settings on Wufoo.com page. Enjoy!

Review: iWeb ‘08

I purchased the iLife ‘08 suite and have been very happy with it so far. I don’t use the iMovie application so the changes to that probably will not affect me, but most likely make the app easier for me to use. I have yet to really dive into iDvd, but it probably has not change too much. The one program I have gotten to know well though is iWeb.

I have been using iWeb since it first came out, I have always liked the shear simplicity of it. The program allows you to create high quality websites that look sharp, without having to spend much time. To put that statement to the test I installed iLife ‘08 during my lunch break and I completely remade my personal website from ground up all in a matter of an hour. Now it was not as full featured as the old site with all the pictures but it still turned out very well.

iPhone is IE 4…No way, get a clue!

Yesterday I saw a story come across Google Reader from Wired.com which basically was comparing the iPhone to Internet Explorer 4 and how it is a terrible terrible thing. Now this article made me finally unsubscribe to the Wired news feed. I simply do not agree with it, and am tired of Wired’s poor stories and nay sayer attitude about everything, if I wanted that I would watch Cable news.

Here is how the article starts:

Facebook, Netvibes and Meebo all launched new iPhone-optimized versions of their sites this week, and all three of them are very nice. But wasn’t one of the promises of the iPhone that it offered “a real web browser?” If that’s so, why all the iPhone-optimized sites? And why are these sites being optimized for the iPhone specifically and not just “mobile optimized?”

Well let’s see here Scott, the iPhone does indeed have a real web browser, there is no question about that. So why even bother asking it? Go out a try the device before you slam it. Then why all the optimized sites you ask, especially being that they are iPhone optimized and not just mobile?

Review: iWork ‘08

I have been trying to get rid of MS Office from my Mac sense I started using a Mac. The problem always was that there was never another set of programs compelling enough to do this. I bought iWork ‘06 in hopes that it would do that, but the lack of a spreadsheet app left me searching. Up until this release I had been using Pages, Tables, and Writeroom for my word-processing, and spreadsheets.

To save the suspense iWork ‘08 completes the bill for me, and really is all that I need. Probably not all that everybody needs but, it is perfect for me. You have most likely read all the reviews and seen all the features. Since you now know where I am coming from when it comes to these types of applications, and my main thought of the software I would like to share with you just some highlights of what I like and dislike.

.Mac Update – Finally

I have withheld on posting about the Apple event that happened on Tuesday, due to the sheer amount of coverage already. But I have been a critical subscriber to .Mac for a while, so while all the updates were awesome this one made me happy.

Many people are saying that it is to little to late, I disagree. It was, I agree, to late, but not to little. 10gb for $100 a month, not to mention allowing your iApps to work properly, domain hosting, 100gb data transfer. Come on!

That is sweet.

I will be switching my website b3nbrooks.com over to .Mac for hosting and have started the process (though it is not running yet, I don’t have iLife 08 yet). And I am excited about the possibilities with the web gallery feature.

How I use Basecamp: Property Management

I am a heavy user of 37signals products, and make no excuses for that. They have in no way paid me to write/post this.

I have been using Basecamp for 4+ months now with my Property Management company. We have created each building that we manage as a separate project in the software so that we can track all sorts of things. We currently have 12 active buildings that we are managing with Basecamp, another 2 projects that we manage with Basecamp for Real Estate Development, and 2 more buildings that are now archived that we had managed with Basecamp. There are 3 people in our small company, plus one independent contractor (facilities maintenance) that all work with Basecamp.

Here is how we use the program itself.

Pages Avery Templates

As I mentioned at the begining of the month I am no longer going to use MS office products, instead using Pages / Tables / Keynote. So far so good! These are way better and faster to use on my Mac. I will post an update later.

But till then a little helpful hint for you. In MS Word you can easily create templates for Avery products such as label sheets. In Pages not so much.

Enter Worldlabel.com, specifically this page. Where you can download templates to a ton of Avery products in either .doc files or .pdf files, which if you open the doc file in Pages and save it as a template, bingo problem solved.

Aperture and Blackbox Watermarks

If you are an Aperture users, and you have tried to apply a transparent watermark to your image, only to find out that it gets exported as a blackbox, pull your hair out no longer. I had been having this trouble for some time, and most of the posts that I could find seem to think that people don’t know how to make transparent PSD files, or tiff’s, or that it is hit and miss whether your Mac will work or not.

Well the solution seems to be even easier than that, maybe, it has to do with the colorsync profile that your Mac is using. Mine for instance was using a custom color profile, that was made by a Pantone Huey (color correcting device). Perhaps you just picked something different that you liked? Well if you are getting the black boxes then close Aperture, switch to Adobe RGB 1998 and re-open and export in Aperture. Viola! That should get rid of the blackbox issues.

Aperture and Blackbox Watermarks

If you are an Aperture users, and you have tried to apply a transparent watermark to your image, only to find out that it gets exported as a blackbox, pull your hair out no longer. I had been having this trouble for some time, and most of the posts that I could find seem to think that people don’t know how to make transparent PSD files, or tiff’s, or that it is hit and miss whether your Mac will work or not.

Well the solution seems to be even easier than that, maybe, it has to do with the colorsync profile that your Mac is using. Mine for instance was using a custom color profile, that was made by a Pantone Huey (color correcting device). Perhaps you just picked something different that you liked? Well if you are getting the black boxes then close Aperture, switch to Adobe RGB 1998 and re-open and export in Aperture. Viola! That should get rid of the blackbox issues.

Vista Ulimate on Macbook Pro

I have had Vista Ultimate running on my Mac Pro for quite some time now, and have had it running in Parallels on my Macbook Pro, along with XP SP2 for the same amount of time. The other day I got a bug that I wanted to be able to play video games on my Macbook Pro (only reason for windows on my Mac Pro). So I decided that I would use Vista, and leave XP with Parallels since that is the one I use for most Windows only tasks (faster than Vista in Parallels). After I installed it I ran into a few problems, and some successes that I felt I should share to help others out (or atleast try to).

Here is a rundown of issues:

Parallels Vista Bootcamp Support
Power Management / Heat Issues
Wireless Mighty Mouse
Re-installation / activation