Dale's Blog

As most of my friends and clients know, I have been looking for ‘permanent, full-time’ employment for quite some time. One of the the things I have noticed regarding ‘qualifications’ for a Web Manager is that large corporations want their new web designer/producer to only have experience in the ‘corporate’ world.   In other words, it does not seem to be important that the Web Manager have knowledge of ‘who’ will be visiting the web site, just that he/she have corporate experience.   Now…. if your web site is ONLY for corporate personnel, I can definitely see the benefit of having a Web Designer who has specialized in the corporate office, BUT if you have site visitors and clients from many walks of life, it might be beneficial to have a Web Manager who could relate to them – not just corporate. However, for some reason, I was told by an employment agency that IF you are not ‘in’ the corporate world, your skills as a Web Manager with a varied background and knowledge, superb client relations, and intuitive marketing skills are of no value…… I kid you not …..

A couple of days ago a client contacted me concerned about whether or not the e-commerce part of his web site was working properly.  So we decided that I would buy one of his products (www.burkesgunoil.com) to make sure his shopping cart was working correctly. Seeing as I often shop on-line, looking at the cart as a ‘shopper’ is easy or me.   For 10 years I have been using Mal’s E-commerce free shopping cart which can be modified to suit the vendor and hooked up to PayPal, etc.  Naturally, I test all shopping carts that I install, but rarely take it to the final purchase at PayPal.  This time I did.  It was as smooth as silk.  I believe ‘flawless’ is the word I’m looking for.  I was so impressed.  Shipping costs were added, tax was added, notification e-mails sent – everything was perfection.

So I wanted to say thank you to Mal’s E-commerce – you make me look good!!

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Saturday, July 2, (yesterday) I ventured into Bancroft, Ontario, for lunch and to do a little shopping.  It is now the summer season and the town was crowded with tourists and of course, cottagers picking up last minute items for their Saturday night at the lake – lots and lots of traffic.

Although I know the Americans are always joking about how polite Canadians are and to be quite honest, I have always found both Canadians and Americans to be equally polite –  however, yesterday was indeed an eye-opener.  At first I wasn’t quite sure what was going on and then I noticed all kinds of ‘civility’ by drivers in cars, trucks…. you name it.  And at least 4 times I was allowed to either turn left, right… whatever… by a ‘polite’ driver.  At that point I realized why comedians had so much fun with jokes about ‘polite Canadians’ – that much politeness was unexpected.  BUT if I was surprised, I can only imagine the utter amazement of visitors from cities known for rudeness and how they would react!!!  After a chuckle or two I decided that it was quite alright to be polite and I very much like the fact that I witnessed such good manners…. very classy.

The next time I hear a joke about Canadian ‘politeness’, I will most definitely laugh but I will also remember how that courtesy made my shopping trip so much easier and enjoyable….

For the past several years I have made an effort to drop by the Bancroft Home Show.  Generally it is hot and not the best experience but I go to ‘drum’ up business if possible.  This year I had two clients exhibiting and decided to show my support by attending on Saturday.  When I arrived, one of my clients in log home restoration was missing his staff  -  they were on a project and so I decided to help out.  Been a while since I did a trade show – it was actually very enjoyable.

The event is now managed by Linda and Art Work.  Apart from the quality and varied exhibitors this year, every so often a young lady would walk by and hand us a new bottle of cold water – how nice!  And needed…  a very good idea.

Near the end of the day, 3 tickets were handed to each exhibitor with an invitation join everyone in the beer tent for food and refreshments.  It was lovely – and the food was absolutely wonderful and plentiful.  From the comments heard around the table, many of the exhibitors had done shows in other cities (including Toronto) and no other show treated them as well as the group in Bancroft.  It seems it is very rare that exhibitors receive anything but an invoice.  So Bancroft – I thought you should know –  you did good….

Today I found a wonderful position listed with a department of the Canadian Federal Government.  It read as if it were made for me.  I was totally qualified – had all the skills, even the ‘nice to haves’  - perfect!  And then I noticed the ‘bilingual imperative’  letters.  I immediately clicked through to the page that described what those letters meant.  Well….. my dream job ended before it could begin.  In order to be considered for that good well-paid  job, I would need to be able to write, read and speak both French and English.  Here is what I found on-line about language in Canada:

According to the census 2006 – 67.1% and 21.5% of Canadians, respectively. English and French.
In 2006, just under 20.6 million Canadians, representing 66% of the population, spoke English at home. English is the major language everywhere in Canada except Quebec, and most Canadians (85%) can speak English. In Quebec, English is the preferred language of only 10.5% of the population, but 46% of Quebeckers can speak English. Only 3.6% of Canada’s English-speaking population resides in Quebec—mostly in Montreal. 89% of Anglophones in Canada cannot speak French

Unfortunately, I am one of the majority.  Yup….  89%!!!!  It occurred to me today that Canada must be one of the few countries on earth where a person in the majority cannot work for their own government.  But what amazes me even more – no one seems to strongly object to this.  Why am I writing this?  Because I really wanted that job!

I usually try to include information or news relative to either work or looking for work, but this shocked me.  And, of course, I try to stay clear of politics… but….I have a feeling that this is not good for what I do or what I would like to do…. it would be nice to be wrong this time.

Dalton McGuinty

• Here is what our Premier has done for Ontario in the past seven years.
• Remember…..he had a no tax increase election message/campaign.
• He has increased all the licensing fees from your car to your boat including fishing and hunting.
• He introduced the health care premium (not called a tax) and some couples pay as much as $1,500.00 a year. He doubled the price of most lottery tickets. (Not called a tax).
• He has put an ECO tax on many containers such as paint cans and window washer fluid and most people still don’t realize it until they see the bill – he kept that one real quiet.
• He put a disposal tax on all electronics.
• He put the disposal tax back on tires.
• And now he has passed the HST tax – the largest tax on the province ever and the only other tax in Ontario that ever came close to this in the past was the health care premium. He passed this bill even though 76% of the people in Ontario were against it.
• This HST will provide the Province with an additional THREE BILLION dollars a year.
• Soon we will all have our S.M.A.R.T. meters that we will have to pay rent on and will end up doing our laundry in the middle of the night. We are also going to pay big time for air conditioning from now on because when we need it the most it will be in the prime time of usage.
• Let us not forget the E-health scandal with 1.2 billion dollars wasted and paid out to friends and relatives. What was Mr. McGuinty’s answer to this? Well, if the people of Ontario don’t like it, they can show it in the next election. Nice attitude. This after he fired the CEO and then gave her a severance package of $300,000 – not bad for only being on the job for seven months.
• And what about the SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS windmill power plant contract that he awarded to KOREA? One would think there was some place in Canada or North America that could have built these.
• He also closed the emergency rooms in Port Colbourne and Fort Erie because there is not enough money. There has been two deaths since then because by the time they got to St. Catharine’s it was too late.
• But he then awards a hospital in Toronto three million dollars – of course, that was in the riding where there just happens to be a by-election to replace George Smitherman!
• He has taken the richest most prosperous province in Canada down to one of the poorest and has created a deficit of TWENTY SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS and he still has a year and a half to go.
• And don’t forget his nice little salary increase of $40,000.00 a year – millions of people in the province don’t earn even half of that.
• Have we forgotten all the MPP’S who also got a 14% increase? And now that they’ve had their increases he comes out with a new budget to freeze all provincial employees wages for two years – a bit late don’t you think.
• He increased the hydro tax by 10% in April of 2010.
• He has increased the tax on liquor and wine by 10% in May of 2010.
• But, Mr. McGuinty will retire with his nice comfortable pension and all his benefits paid.
• I hope this gets passed around the province of Ontario and everybody remembers the way we got screwed by Mr. McGuinty and the Liberal party and – remember – not one Liberal MPP had enough guts to vote against any of the above.

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be a ‘free-lance’ web designer or run your own web design business, here is how one designer describes it…..

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Just had to add this to my blog so I wouldn’t loose it – toooooo funny.

And yes, I can relate….. why just today, come to think of it ………

Well… I am still ‘testing’ hosting companies and am down to comparing two – InMotion Hosting and Blue Host.  Each has their own good points, great pricing and great support.

For instance, with InMotion Hosting, I am just getting used to their ‘open communication’.  It seems there was a slight ‘burp’ in my affiliate account.  I had no idea. Guess I should check these things once in a while.  Anyway, one of their very nice staff caught the discrepancy and e-mailed me to let me know that it had been corrected…… who knew???  Naturally they supplied a toll free number for me to contact them if I had any questions – which I did and I did.  I was connected to a lovely young lady who was most helpful – all was in good shape, they just wanted to keep me informed.  How about that!!!

I realize most companies spout off about how they are into ‘communicating’ with clients, etc., but it is still a little strange when one actually does ! (LOL)  And, to be fair, BlueHost is another very ‘open’ company. In fact, each time you call them for support (another toll free), they ask that you ‘rate the call’ when you are finished with their support person. Yep….you stay on the line and rate their tech support…. interesting.

This may or may not be of interest to those visiting my blog, but if you are having problems with your web site hosting company and not getting the attention or open communication you feel you should, you might want to check out these two hosting companies.

Choose either one – both offer really low prices when you consider what you get in return

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For some reason, for the past 2 weeks, my browser (FireFox) has been crashing regularly.  Things came to a head last week when I was trying to do some research and it kept closing on me every 5 minutes.  That is just not acceptable.  Sooo……. when hunting for something new.  I used to use I.E. until it got ‘improved’  - need I say more…. Changed to FireFox and was absolutely delighted until now.  It seems like everyday someone complains to me about FireFox crashing.  And, of course, you don’t want me to get started on what I think about ‘Bing’.

The solution ended up being Google Chrome.  It downloaded nicely and quickly.  It loaded fast and has a very clean look.  I love my tabs and I want a few of them available when I open up the program each day.  Google Chrome seems to accommodate my needs without hours of configuration.  So far, so good.  If you are having problems with IE or FireFox, you might want to give Chrome a try – can’t hurt.

Decided to add this link to my blog so I would always be able to take another look at  this page when a client asks me to do something so incredibly dumb that it makes the client in this little saga look smart…. like today…

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell