It worked, until Eskom started their 'load shedding' scheduling.  Which meant, when Gallo Manor was in a state of darkness, so too was our servers.

But, I have been told by the 'hosting' provider that, normally their generators would kick in and handle the 'lack of power', but this time, in one of those 1 in three billion chances their 'UPS' (uninterrupted power supply) did not synchronise with the generator.

We are more happy, that we were informed of what the problem was, and we are relaying it to yo.

It turns out I had to update the wordpress application to get to work.  The problem did not make sense because in my testing environment everything worked fine.

Alas, another reason why wordpress has to be put to rest, not because it's a bad application, but because I do not know what exactly is going on in the source code.  I could study it, but then again it is quicker to write my own blogging software and get it to work exactly how I want it work, hence the phrase

Custom made and not custom fitted.

Now, I have to get the passwords for each blog so I can update them.

Oh, the movement is almost complete, we are waiting on the .co.za register to update things.

Till then. 

change is good. 

If that be true, then it is good.  We have started the movement to another server.  Almost all projects and domains have been moved onto the new server.

During the course of this weekend, the 'permanent' movement will be completed, we hope on Monday morning.  There are minor things that are irritating, but it is never a good idea to 'name names'.

Alas, I have also spotted that all the 'gusto-projects' blogs are not pinging Osiris, I am not sure why, but I wait, after the move has been completed, it should adjust itself accordingly.

The server acquired is located right here in South Africa, Johannesburg.  I am hoping the focus on South Africa will benefit us, speed wise anyway, the reason was to focus the 'ideas/projects' on the 'niche market', which is South African.

Because the server is local, it also means, bandwidth costs are going up, but what can one do about an idea that people find to be good.

Ah, I shall update you on the other side of the week.

1ove 

I have in the past month, tried to fix, what I can, but it appears, my knowledge is limited.  This has then presented itself with a need for something more drastic to be done.

So, during the course of this month, we will be moving to another hosting provider with the aim, that we might just be able to 'grow', eventually.

More information will become availabe, as the movements begin.

I understand you do (web) design? I/we need a design for our business.  Can give us a quotation and/or do a little mock up for us?

What do you do?  I will confess in the past (like 5 years ago), I'd do it, and I had done exactly what they need.  Where did it get me, well in most cases, I get a response that goes something like this:

Oh, I/we apologise for not getting back to you, but we are currently looking at other people/companies that are doing us some mock-ups.  As soon as we have evaluated them, we will get back to you.

I'll be honest, it seems reasonable, I mean yeah, I client should evaluate what options and who to get services from, no doubt.

But, proverbial, design is not a 'can of baked beans', it's a professional service.  The design process might generate some results at the end of it, but before that, it's intelligence.

Let me explain, when you find out you have throbbing headache that you can't shake off with a panado or grandpa, you decide to go to a doctor.  Do you then ask the doctor to give a mock-diagnosis and ask other three doctors to do the same and you will decide which diagnosis you want?

That is exactly my point.  In the same manner as you decide to choose a doctor, that decision is based on the fact that the doctor is qualified to be a doctor, the same principle applies to design, as a client you need to decide if the person/company you are asking to provide you with design services is qualified to do that.

How do you know, well their portfolio will tell you, more often than not, it is the design firms (or person) philosophy/style/approach that will inform you.  Then once you have decided, you then have to pay that person to do 'mock-ups'.

I believe if you pay them, you will get an answer to your problem, because good design solves problems, well we hope, it should in most cases.

Alas, this has lead me to agree with think, on going against free pitching, because free pitching devalues the design profession and as designer I am sure you are aware that the minute you produce some mock-up, you have already done the job, which means you are doing something for free, which is not good business.

Yesterday, I came about the phrase, 'the craft'.  I think a lot of times nobody wants to spend time and craft their skills, probably because it takes forever for somebody to learn and master a given skill.

When this is applied to web, nobody wants to spend that extra two hours or days in deciding what is the best way to design a site.  The design is pushed aside for the technology.

I am constantly told that 'content is king', I can agree with that, but design, is the queen.  A chess game ends when the king is captured, but, the queen offers you so much protect and weaponry to attack the opposing player.

The best way to see the value of design, is to use the 'Apple Ipod' analogy.  An ipod is nothing but an mp3 player (function).  There are gang loads of mp3 players out there, and most of them are priced at a fraction of the cost of an ipod, but none of them sold over 100 million units (only the Sony Playstation 2 achieved that).

What do you think made it such a wanted, or rather desired electronic consumer good?  The design (form) is perfect.  Sure there are some attributes to business process methodology and the likes that could have influenced the sales, but the person that decides to buy an ipod is not thinking about 'Steve Jobs'. 

I believe everything must be designed, and I mean everything.  I think it goes to the heart of our humanity, we are drawn to things that look a particular way.

Unless the last 20 years of my life were imagined, we humans take a liking into things that look good, that are well presented, that appeal to us, that are beautiful.

Now then that begs the question, why is it then when it comes to web companies and/or organisations are 'happy' with just any ordinary site as long they have a URL?

The question, in terms of a business site, that should be asked is, how do you want the world (wide web) to percieve your business, because regardless of the powerfull technology you deploy, people see your site before they can digest your content. 

Now this, I like.  I like very much.  This truly represent what I want grow(n). to be percieved.

Word. 

So, I am redesigning it, again, in my mind, I will only get into it probably on Friday.

I want something, natural.