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why is the student loans company so shit

And these are just *some* of the things people have been searching for. It’s good to know there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it!

Every so often I think I should be reading Achewood. Introduced to it at university by two fellow Philosophy geeks, I read the whole back catalogue in three days and logged on every day for two years to read the next installment.

Now, with “better” things to do (a job, a life…), I’ve only got a high resolution, archival quality digital print to remind me how good Achewood is. One of these days I’m going to catch up. Until then, here are a few of my favourite story arcs…

Cartilege Head, in which Ray proves himself a coward who would leave a dying man.

The Great Outdoor Fight, in which Ray upholds a family tradition.

Leon Sumbitches, in which Ray is a toilet seat that smokes a cigar.

And a link to my favourite strip of all time – Ebay, What’s The Best Thing You Got?

It’s pretty cool – my only criticism is that the old maps are quite small and you have to zoom in to see the details. I also wonder if the resolution could be improved since when you zoom in the image is pretty pixellated – maybe this is something the Archive Service will improve. Anyhoo, I’ve been playing around with maps of Aberford and Boston Spa and it’s cool to see how the villages have changed in the last 100 years

Thanks for this go to my mum who is something of a local historian and author (she wrote a history of Aberford School). You can also find her on Twitter (causing trouble no doubt!)

Here’s the PDF:

Download me!

It was the first conference I’d ever been to outside of Leeds – obviously I’d attended/spoken at Think Visibility but London conferences seemed pretty out of reach. I need to say thanks to Patrick for taking me – I know that other companies wouldn’t stump up the attendance fee so it just goes to show how lucky I am to work at Branded3

For a first-timer then, I was pretty impressed by how the whole conference was run. Firstly, the venue was amazing. I’d been to the Expo Centre before when I was at university, but I never realised just how prepared they are for conferences. There’s a huge row of hotels right outside and good transport links to the City. During the day, there’s tea when you need it, food when you need it, and the conference rooms are brilliant with all the high-tech stuff you need. Despite there being hundreds of delegates, I never saw any rubbish around nor heard any grumbling about the lack of tea/food – that’s down to the excellent staff who made the whole thing run smoothly.

What about the talks? Well, they were all run incredibly well. A huge mention has to go to Jon Myers who seemed to be moderating/introducing every single talk I went to. Most of the speakers seemed to be conference pros, including SEOMoz co-founder Gillian Muessig, who gave a particularly assured and interesting talk on turning your ’stuff’ into new products and finding new audiences.

My favourite talk of the two days might come as a surprise to some people – it was actually marked ‘basic’ in the timetable. It was the first talk of the day by Angela Greenwood and Joshna Patel from Red Letter Days. They talked about building a successful affiliate programme from the ground up, from a merchant’s point of view. I knew nothing whatsoever about this side of affiliate marketing so it taught me a lot. It was nice to actually hear from someone like Joshna who works within a company (like myself) and not just the MD.

You can tell just how big a deal a4u is by 3 things. 1) Google send delegates. 2) All the affiliate networks are there. 3) Even though it’s an affiliate conference, the top SEO’s go.

The Web is officially coming of age. The design industry is starting to take web design seriously, and it’s no longer being confined to enthusiasts. Web design is now a lucrative and exciting career path to follow, with lots of opportunity and high potential earning power.

With the Internet developing so rapidly over the past 10 years, those that are just dipping their toes into the industry may well feel that they’ve missed the boat. The truth is, you don’t need to have been there when flashing GIF animations were cool, and the best form of promotion was through a web ring. In fact, in some ways it’s better if you didn’t see these dark days so that your perception of web design isn’t muddied by these frankly horrific things.

If you are looking to design for the web, welcome, and prepare for a bumpy ride…

Chances are you’ve already started reading and doing, which is ultimately the best way to learn. Here are a few invaluable tips that I can happily pass on from my experiences of designing for the web:

• Socialise. Don’t just read books because this is fundamentally one-way. Join Twitter and follow professionals who voice their thoughts and opinions – question it. Attend local networking events for some peer-to-peer geek conversations and you’ll be surprised at how much you pick up.
• Push web standards. So many web designers neglect the importance of valid XHTML/CSS. Read about W3C standards and you will realise that web design is about more than just looking pretty – you need sound technical design also. This is easily achievable as long as you practice it from the off. Don’t slip into using tables for layout and inline CSS styles – do things properly and it will become natural.
• If you have a client – talk to them. The single best way to design successful websites is by getting your clients views on their business/customers. Once understand their model, you can produce a more effective website than doing it blindly.
• Print design is NOT web design. Contrary to what many seem to think, web and print are not the same, and the skills do not necessarily cross-over.
• Drink tea. I’m not joking here – if you are stuck for inspiration, take a 10 minute tea break and when you come back you’ll more than likely have a solution.

I’ve been designing for the web for 10 years and I’ve made plenty of mistakes. The web was a simpler place when I began, with fewer standards and hardly any resources. What I’ve learnt is that you constantly need to be looking forward; be adaptable to change, and you will succeed.

This article was written by Matt Saunders, owner of digital agency Northern Web which specialises in intelligent and responsible web design and marketing solutions.

[Thanks Matt ]

Anyhoo, thanks to my talk at Think Visibility, Piggynap.com has collected a few links with my name in as people link back to my site as part of their write-up. Yesterday I ranked third for Zoe Piper – today:

Who knew – all I had to do to get the top spot was speak at a conference!

Slides designed by the fantastical Floating Frog.

First I want to say hello to everyone I met this weekend – speakers Yoast, Judith Lewis, Fiona Thomson and Rob Manuel – all of whom I’d never met before but are completely awesome/nice and made me feel really welcome as a new speaker.

Also all the attendees I chatted to – I’m missing loads of names and I know I missed a few people at the conference but Dan, Carla, Anthony, Ben, Scott – great to meet you all for the first time. Steven, James, Joanna great to meet you for a second time! Karyn, Elaine & Dave, Al, Simon, Gaj – always a pleasure to see you And of course Dom who made the whole thing possible.

At the last Think Visibility the best thing about the conference for me wasn’t just the talks, but the time given over to chatting before and afterwards. This time as a speaker I got to hang out with all the other speakers, which made the whole experience really different in a good way. Some speakers were obviously conference veterans, and some were first-time speakers just like me.

Without exception though everyone was encouraging and helpful and supportive so I’d like to say thanks to everyone who made me feel a bit more confident about getting up in front of a room full of people

My talk was on ‘How to Win at the Content Network” – so it was aimed at Adwords advertisers who maybe haven’t used the content network before or who wanted a few tips on how to get the most out of it. I was aware that most speakers talk about SEO, or about blogging, and with most of the attendees being quite experienced anyway I wanted to pick a topic that SEO folk or website owners generally don’t know a lot about.

I was pretty nervous all day waiting for my time to talk – being up on a stage was pretty cool and I think I got through it okay! My slides looked good and I got a few nice comments about my talk being useful and having things in it that people could go away and implement themselves

There were a few things I’d do differently:

- Have a microphone. It was a really big room and I know I talk quietly – I tried to talk loud but it’s hard to make sure you talk loud when you’re trying to remember what to say Plus it’s hard on the voice – if I ever present again I’m going to ask for a microphone.

- Have clearer notes. I hand-wrote loads of notes for my talk in a little notebook. By the time I’d started talking though they just went out the window and I know I missed a couple of things out I’d like to have included. I felt like I should keep talking instead of stopping to find where I was in my notes, but I think I wouldn’t be afraid to refer to notes a lot more next time.

- Have a different laptop setup. This is related to the last point – my laptop was hooked up to the big screen, so my presentation slides showed on the big screen behind me. Unfortunately this meant my laptop screen was BLANK so I didn’t know what was coming next. Coupled with a lack of notes I had to turn round a bit to see what was on the screen. Yoast said that KeyNote on Macs lets you see the slide you’re on, your next slide and your notes, so maybe I should use a Mac from now on!

Anyway, I’m really really pleased I did it – I’ve said before it’s way outside my comfort zone but now I know it’s not so bad, and if I ever present again I know how I’d do it better.

Thanks to everyone who came to see my talk – I hope you found it useful and liked the pictures of cats.

I’m about to post my slides up on here….so check back soon!