Web Maintenance

Spent this afternoon reworking a web page. Pointed out two important lessons, or at least reinforced something I already knew.

1. Your local PC back-up copy of the web site may not reflect your actual web site content.
2. Files transferred to a new laptop may not contain all the versions of the web site.

These become important considerations when you're 1100 miles from home and can't fire up the old laptop.

The site has evolved over the last 6 years. Some changes were experimental, but some were important at the moment. Then, having solved the project at hand, that section was left alone. You sometimes forget which files were the active versions. That's the case at hand. My "new laptop" version has files from 2004 but I made some additions in 2006.

What initiated this effort was the work about a month ago when I installed Google Analytics. I checked it yesterday and found that most search referrals are for "Brainstorming Examples" and the common entry is page PiqueroHome-181.The text on PH-181 is a little longer than I'd like. And, Brainstorming is only one example of many of the sample maps on the page.

I decided to rewrite the page and make sure the Brainstorming example was within the initial view. That's when I realized I didn't have the "master" of the current page.

Got it done. So if you're interested, here's the new page.

Opportunity Knocks

Got a call from Houston. Possible class this Summer. Still in the very preliminary stages but she didn’t seem put-off by my answers as far as cost & time. Her principal currently uses Version 6, has upgraded to 7. There’s been some promotional offers of late that has him interested in getting the staff trained.

For the most part, I’m more economic if you have more than 5 people you want trained. One person’t travel and living for a hotel stay is cheaper than 5. And the 5 don’t have to take time out to travel.

In a way I charge for my travel time, just like my prep time is built into the rates for a class. Other than copies of some material, I have very little additional expense to Piquero when I teach another class. And I now have a laptop that runs Ver 7. The old one was just that, too old.

I’ve “commuted” to Houston before, in a previous life. Taught classes in Dallas too. It’s a long ride, but if you pick the right time it isn’t too bad. It’s the drive home, at 5pm, that’s the killer.

Load and Download

Well, 95% success with the new laptop. Got most of the software I want loaded and activated. My only failure seems to be my accounting program. The reboot didn’t behave properly. It may have been my fault for removing the CD before powering down. It launches the "splash" but doesn’t come up.

As it stands I have the Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, and Power Point), the Lotus apps (Word Pro, 123, and Freelance), and Microsoft’s Visio. MS Office was preloaded. I also installed Mind Manager Ver 7 and Paint Shop Pro 8.1.

I installed the PeoplePC dial-up program. The laptop has a wireless antenna built in, so I can use hot spots like the Round Rock library for higher speed access. Used the high speed access to download the Firefox Browser and the Adobe Reader.

Now the challenge is to migrate the needed files. I had always separated my engagements into subdirectories under a “Client” directory. That means duplication of files but an easy structure to migrate. And Jump Drives make the task easy.

Hardware Upgrade

Got the new laptop in the mail yesterday. Now starts the task of getting the settings and the software loaded. Part of the trick is remembering where the software is.

I normally use an analog connection. As soon as I established that connection, the web browsing got real slow. The anti-virus software is smart enough to start an automatic update. After 17 meg (at 45 kbps) I disconnected.

Today I'm at the library, which has a free hot spot. The live update was a total of 45 meg. A lot quicker through the wireless network. But, it forces a system reboot to take effect. Got to finish this post.