Inspired-Evolution.com

The guilt killed him

Ken Lay of Enron infammy died today of a massive heart attack, most likely brought on by the ton of guilt he had on his shoulders after greed lead him to lie and betray his loyal employees.

He was a leader and a hard worker, but sold his sole to the devil and in the end he knew what he had done was wrong, even though he could never bring himself to a public admission. He kept it all inside and it built up more and more until... wham! His misdeeds came back to haunt him in the form of what would be the grim reaper.

Don't fear the reaper, Ken. After all it was your destiny.

I succeed because I fail

kind of a weird title huh? There was actually a Michael Jordan comercial once based off of that line.

What I mean by that is I learn from my mistakes and often find successes based off of them. Recently Business Week magazine listed companies and individuals to name a time when they failed and what they learned from failure. It so happens that companies often turn huge failures into success by noting what they did wrong in a new product launch as example (new coke anyone?) and not repeat their mistakes but alter them enough in order to be successfull. You have heard of the Wright Brothers correct? You think they were able to fly on the first...second...even third try? Nope they were miserable failures in the beginning, but they didn't give up and learned from their failures, eventually succeeding in flight.

The bottom line is "fall down seven times and get up eight". Don't ever give in or give up, but take your failures as life lessons and learn from them, improve yourself everyday and eventually you will break through with a winning idea, product, design, thought, etc.

Oh, and if anyone says they are perfect, then they are lying.

Apple Logo Inventor

He invented one of the most recognizable logos in corporate history and for my work, I got....nothing. Check it out here .

I think the Nike logo artist didn't receive much either, if anything.

Top 10 reasons to convert to XHTML

I was re-reading "designing with web standards" from Jefferey Zeldman today and came across his top 10 reasons to convert to XHTML. This book was originally written in 2003, but these reasons are just as relevent today and bear repeating.

Top Ten Reasons to Convert to XHTML

1) XHTML is the current markup standard replacing HTML 4.

2) XHTML is designed to work well with other XML based markup

3) XHTML is more consistent than HTML, so it's less likely to cause problems of function and display.

4) XHTML 1.0 is a bridge to future versions of XHTML. Should the XHTML 2 draft specification achieve final recommendation status, it will be easier to adapt to it (if you choose to do so) from XHTML 1.0 than from HTML.

5) Old browsers are as comfortable with XHTML as they are with HTML. There's no advantage to XHTML in this regard, but there is no disadvantage either.

6) New Browsers love XHTML (particularily XHTML 1.0) and many accord it special treatment not granted to pages authored in HTML 4. This makes XHTML more pretictable than HTML in many cases.

7) XHTML works as well in wireless devices, screen readers, and other specialized user agents as it does in traditional desktop browsers, in many casesremoving the need to create specialized wireless markup versions and allowing sites to reach more visitors with less work and at lower cost. We can't be positive about cause and effect, but many HTML sites are saddled with wireless versions, text-only versions, and special print-friendly pages, while most XHTML sites are free of such encumbrances - one document serves all. (In most cases, one document serves all if it's properly styled for multiple media, and that's what CSS is for.)

8) XHTML is part of a family of web standards (also including CSS and the W3C Document Object Model) that let you control the behavior and appearance of web pages across multiple platforms, browsers and devices.

9) Authoring in XHTML can assist you in breaking the habit of writing presentaional markup, and that in turn can help you avoid accessibility problems and inconsistencies of display between manufacturers' desktop browsers. (If you write structural XHTML and place all of your visual flourishes in CSS, where they belong, you'll no longer be overly concerned about differences in the way Netscape and Mocrosoft's browsers treat, say, empty table cells to which widths have been applied.

10) Authoring in XHTML can get you into the habit of testing your work against Markup Validation Services, which in turn can often save testing and debugging time and help you avoid many basic accessibility errors, such as neglecting to inlcude a usable alt attribute to every tag.

Top 5 reasons not to switch to XHTML

1) You get paid by the hour

2) You enjoy creating multiple versions of every page for every conceivable browser or device.

3) The little man in your head told you not to.

4) You're quitting the web business.

5) You don't know the rules of XHTML.

If you need more reasons to switch to XHTML please contact me .

How to killer buzz for a bad movie

The producers of a movie coming out this August are brilliant marketers. The movie is probably one you have heard of if you visit blogs or surf the internet much. I am referring of course to Snakes on a Plane, which is creating a buzz on-line through blogs, and then the news wires such as CNN pick up on this buzz creating even more buzz. All because the producers were savvy enough to give the movie a dumb name and leak out what the even dummer plot is (snakes are let loose on a plane). The movie sounds so bad, I just have to go see it to see how bad it will be.

I have three predictions about this movie based on what I know.

1. It will be one of the worst movies of the year
2. The movie will clean up at the box office
3. Everyone involved with the movie will be laughing all the way to the bank

who knows maybe this type of brilliant marketing strategy will be taught all across business schools this Fall?

Most innovative companies

Business week magazine just posted their list of the world's 25 most innovative companies and to no ones's surprise Apple is number one followed by Google at number 2 and 3M at number 3.

Apple consistently inroduces new products with a sleek innovative design, that transform the whole world. Who can remember life before ipods?...who wants to??

Google of course is a staple of everone's internet experience and is coming out with new and innovative products everyday such as Google Earth and Google Maps.

3M would make the top of my list just for their Post-it notes, but offer many other innovative products as well.

One of the key ingredients to a companies success is to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation and put a lot of time and thought into R&D and of course to listen to the needs of your customers!

PHP is taking over the web world

In the past year, I have really dedicated myslef to learning PHP. I am glad I have now since PHP is getting more and more popular each and every month. PHP now ranks Fourth in terms of programming popularity.

Why is PHP so popular? Well it's open source (free), pretty easy to learn and there are numerous books, and online tutorials where you can learn. Also, you can do some really neat stuff with PHP and it integrates well with the popular MySQL database.

I'm number two!

I just found out that when you type in Bruce Gilbert webdesign in google, my site comes in second behind the web site for The website of Bruce Boxleitner and Melissa Gilbert.

Those, bastards! They are stealing all of my thunder. I have been defeated, by "half pint". Oh well, I will prevail in the end!

You know you are a redneck when...

1 You let your 14-year-old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids.
2. The Blue Book value of your truck goes up and down depending on how much gas is in it.
3. You've been married three times and still have the same in-laws.
4. You think a woman who is "out of your league" bowls on a different night.
5. You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
6. Someone in your family died right after saying, "Hey, guys, watch this!"
7. You think Dom Perignon is a Mafia leader.
8. Your wife's hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan.
9. Your junior prom offered day care.
10. You think the last words of the "Star-Spangled Banner" are "Gentlemen, start your engines."
11. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels.
12. The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse.
13. You have to go outside to get something from the fridge.
14. One of your kids was born on a pool table.
15. You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.
16. You can't get married to your sweetheart because there's a law against it.
17. You think "loading the dishwasher" means getting your wife drunk.

It's all good!

I have been reading several books recently by motivational author and speaker Jon Gordon. One story he writes about in his 10 minute energy solution book is about a sucessfull businessman who's motto was "It's all good!". That's not to say that this guy didn't have bad luck or pitfalls. He has a lot of adversity in his life (as we all do). When he did face adversity or experience some bad luck, he would take on the mantra "It's all good", because in his mind, even bad experiences were good because they always lead to positive outcomes. He believed that everything happened for a reason and what didn't kill him made him stronger.



I have recently experienced some bad luck and adversity. To get through these troublesome times I have adopted the "It's all good" philosophy myself. There is no bad, because everything DOES happen for a reason and there is a silver lining in even the darkest clouds. Having a positive attitude is not always easy, but it is very important in how effective you are in jobs, with friends, spouse etc.



The next time I am asked how I am doing, my reponse will be "It's all good!"