I wanted to thank you all of my clients for a wonderful 2010. I look forward to being ultra creative with you in 2011. You are all amazing and I can’t wait to succeed together.

Thank you for being so awesome and please take some time to unplug and hug those around you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Look forward to flushing a lot of stuff out in 2011.

Quick overview:

TimeTime (start to finish): approx. 15hrs.

Apps I useFireworks (a must), Coda, WordPress (of course), pick axe, and a large rock.

HardwareHosted by HostGator (love.. use coupon code THANKSFLUSH to save some dough), designed and built using a Mac and an Atari 2600.

FrameworkThis site utilized the amazing Genesis framework by my friends over at StudioPress.

ThemeCustom-made. I always build/tweak my own. I have a series of functions that I wrote that I can’t live without.

TypographyOut with the old standard web-fonts, I am now fully utilizing Meta for headlines and subs, powered by Typekit, with some CSS love to make it look just the way I wanted it.

Bring in some colorIf you remember the old version (or if you don’t), it looked like this and was featured on numerous sites for it’s light on dark and simple color scheme.

All new scheme in this version baby. Although, still pretty monochromatic. That’s how I roll.

New workI updated and got rid of a ton of outdated work. Still more to come but doing screenshots, descriptions (currently pathetic), etc. is a huge time suck. Check back..I’ve got a ton to add.

CopyI like humor and wit, but I don’t claim to be a good writer. Hopefully you enjoy it, and let me know if you find errors.

That’s it really, a new look to a site that has been around for a number of years. Just new features, a new look, and much better organization to allow me to (hopefully) update this sucker much faster.

Thanks for visiting.

Sign up for my newsletter, follow me, visit again, let’s work together, lather, rinse, repeat.

Although it does exactly what a laptop or net book does, it is so not that. Its much better, more fun, lighter, and easier to handle.

So now, I am able to blog and write in bed on this when my kids and my wife aren’t using it. Remarkable on how far we have come.

Grace was born at 9:09 pm and weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz.

She is absolutely beautiful and perfect and we are truly blessed.

So, I need to ask you, my faithful visitors…what would you like to see more of?

• Posts?
• Tips / tutorials?
• Rants?
• New look?

Let me know and I’ll make it happen.

Given to me as a gift the summer before my Senior year of college, Foster, named after the Australian beer, changed my life.

Because of my him I met girls when I was single, made friends when I was lonely, made me laugh when I was down, and most importantly, he helped me meet my wife. Although I think the hidden biscuits in her pocket helped seal that deal. Smart move.

A few interesting stats about our relationship:

• He lived 13 happy years, which is 91 in human years
• We lived in 9 different places in 3 different states together
• He had 2 ACL replacement surgeries
• He loved my wife more than anyone else in the world from day one
• He loved to fetch, but never understood the concept of drop
• He was 127lbs at his heaviest weight
• We took a road trip to Maine together when he was 1, he sat on my lap
• He ran away about 30 times, but always ended up coming back
• He loved kids, especially mine
• He loved food, especially mine
• He shed like a fiend and farted even worse
• Ocean City and the Adirondacks were his favorite vacation spots
• He loved his best friend, Reno, and will be with him again

For his last night I took him on a long walk and for one last swim. He used all his strength to look beyond his pain and did his best impression of a healthy, active puppy. He jumped right into the water and started swimming until it got dark.

Fostie’s last swim (no audio)
[flashvideo file=/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Video-83.flv /]

We stopped at Wendy’s on the way home and I got him a supersized #1. Together we ate one last meal together. It was perfect.

[flashvideo file=/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/2009-07-02-01-09-48.flv /]

So today I had to say my final goodbye. I hate goodbyes.

Thanks for the everything buddy. You made my life so much better. I’ll never forget you. You were the best dog ever.

Enjoy dog heaven Fost.

The result?

Flush Business Cards

Using their Business Cards product (Note: I hate the minis, but I don’t love the odd Business Card size that much either) , I created unique backs that utilize my logo. Alone, they make an interesting graphic element, together they form like Vultron to create my logo.

Let me know what you think. Eventually I will really print out a mass of these and I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, but for now, Moo rocked.

Every medium has its own set of issues and constraints, however, both traditional print and tv all conform to a set, well-defined set of specifications.

Print has defined sizes, DPI requirements, etc. TV has format (4:3 or 16:9) and frame-rates, etc. The difference however, is that the medium doesn’t change based on what TV you use. The same show will scale to a widescreen and vice-versa. Once you follow the best practices, you can practically guarantee the end viewing experience the user will have.

The web is different.

The exactly same coded page may render very differently on Internet Explorer 6 as it does in a more-standards compliant Firefox 3. Designers have to keep this in mind and developers have bald spots on their head dealing with various hacks, separate stylesheets, and work-arounds.

Test. Test. Test. Test. Repeat.

The only way to solve this is to do the following.

• Figure out your lowest common target browser based on past analytics
• Set up a testing suite or implement web-based tools
• Test and Test often.
• Launch with confidence realizing you can’t please 100% all the time

Luckily, there are a bunch of solutions that you can utilize to help you test across multiple browsers, platforms, and configurations.

Here’s some recommendations:

Multiple Machines

The cost of entry for computers is pretty low, it’s easy to have multiple systems in place. If you use a Mac, buy a cheap PC laptop. If you use a PC (sorry), then get yourself a Mac Mini. Whatever you choose, that’s fine, but get the other as well. Keep it simple and just install the major browsers on each platform and you have a quick and easy testing environment.

The major browsers to test against are:

• Microsoft IE 8
• Microsoft IE 7
• Microsoft IE 6
• Mozilla Firefox 2
• Mozilla Firefox 3
• Apple Safari 3
• Google Chrome 1
• Opera

Multiple versions of most of the browsers above can be installed on the same machine, except for Internet Explorer. IE is so integrated into the OS, it’s difficult to install both IE6 and IE7 on the same box.

If you are stuck using one box, there are a few solid options.

Dual Boot / Virtual Machines

It is possible and easy to run multiple OS’s on a single machine.

Virtual Box
www.virtualbox.org

VMWare Fusion
www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

VMWare Workstation
www.vmware.com/products/ws/

Bootcamp
www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html

Parallels
www.parallels.com/

Web-based Solutions

If you don’t want to get another machine or install a dual-boot scenario, there are plenty of web-based solutions.

Browsershots
browsershots.org

BrowserCam
http://www.browsercam.com

Crossbrowser Testing
www.crossbrowsertesting.com

Litmus
www.litmusapp.com/

Xenocode
www.xenocode.com/browsers/

Browser Plug-ins

IETester
my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

ieTab
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

The amount of options out there are numerous, but one thing remains the same. Testing is an important and necessary evil that comes with the territory.

Got any other recommendations, please share them.