Proprietary software is owned by a company, and usually, the source code is not shared with anyone. If you’re caught sharing this code, you’re usually in big trouble with the company, and fines and/or litigation ensue. On the nice side, since this company owns the software, they have full control over it, it is usually nicely packaged, and its component parts are consistent in style and functionality throughout. Also, they may have organized help/support for the product, and they usually have a physical office that can be seen on Google Maps.

Yet, this also means that the software itself sports a large price tag, meaning those who can afford it are fewer than those who actually need it. This, of course, has lead to mass downloads of cracked versions of proprietaries, and propagation of a lot of people who think that if the price went down a bit, they wouldn’t be forced into downloading it illegally.

Then, there is open source software. Instead of keeping the program’s source code to themselves, the coders actively encourage the sharing of and/or modification of the source code by all who use the product. So, in complete contrast to proprietary software, you’re actually expected to have the source code for the software somewhere on hand, and be in the process of modifying/tweaking it (if you’re a geek).

On the downside, however, there usually is no centralized support/help for the product. Also, there is no money in it, and overhead is managed solely on volunteer basis (unless another means of covering costs is devised). This usually leads to the inclusion of a PayPal donation link somewhere on the production team’s website. The team also can’t make any sort of living off of this business model.

Of course, even if there isn’t a support team, there are orders of magnitude more people seeing and improving the source code, so bugs aren’t really that much of a problem.

Now, there are those who think that everything should be open source, and there are a few who still think that all software should be proprietary. I feel there is something wrong with both of these views… For those who think that everything should be open source:

It is quite nice to get everything for free. I am a strong supporter of free software. But, as I have mentioned above, there is no money in it. I mean that you can’t live off of it. You can’t quit your job at, say, Microsoft, and work full-time on your own basement open-source file sharer. Of course, there is a simple answer to this: you need to generate the income from something else that you do or provide; you can’t be a programmer all the time. That, of course, brings us back to the time-sharing thing. However, another option is clickable ads on websites. The funny thing is, those of us who think free software is the best thing on the planet, also think that ads are the worst thing on the planet. So, it really is about picking the lesser of two evils at this point.

As for those who think that all software should be proprietary, they are simply uninformed.

Thanks for reading.

So how do we do it here? We follow the rules when we have to and we build ourselves to a point where there are fewer calls being made asking people to hire us. After a while the phone just…rings. Amazing to us, it’s a customer, THEY have called US, and they want to give us money! Are we dreaming?

The question is, how does this happen? at what point does our reputation start to take hold and do we find that we are in demand? Apparently here it’s 3 to 5 years. The question is.. if that has to happen in under 2 years in other places… are we stuck to some sort of growth rule or statistic? Or is it just some kind of societal stigma instead? Tech companies start here and inside a couple of years can be making tens of millions. Some of that has to be the fact that when you’ve got more money to start with, it’s a little easier to get the word out.

How do those of us with little more than an iron will and a dream do it? Should it take longer? I think not. Of course, what i think SHOULD be the case isn’t always real anyway… I think that a positive attitude and the willingness to put everything you’ve got into your dream makes a big difference. Sometimes other things can slow that up, but strong support from the ones you love and a persistence that only an entrepreneur could have will get you going. After you have kept that up and you continue to give everything you’ve got to every job, you’ll notice that at some point you reach a tipping point. You’ll never need to stop looking for work, not if you want to grow, but you will notice that the blood sweat and tears you’ve put in up front start to pay off.

Don’t forget, no matter what business you choose to start, that this is a commitment of a long time. and remember corny lines from old movies, even if a few people think you’re a little nuts along the way..

If you build it, they will come.

So what’s important on the World Wide Web now? With well over 30 billion pages online, that’s a lot of competition to have a user remember your website, and even more competition for your website to convince them that you are the best choice for them. There is more focus for stronger copy, decreased load times, and better visual presentation, not to mention SEO.

Where ten years ago you just needed to worry about putting up a simple informative website, these days you need to stand out, you need to have visuals that grab the users’ attention without turning them off. You need to interact with them and provide them with new and useful information (which Is just one of the reasons blog use has exploded), you need strong copy to keep them interested as well as to come up in search engines, and you need to have it all load “Right Now!”, or as close as you can get to it.

Web Design in 2009 has seen a shift into newer, more modern, informative, and intuitive styles, not just visually, but all around. Designing around the popular CMS systems out there such as Wordpress and Joomla has been a great deal of fun for me.  It has really taught me a lot, and has given me an opportunity to move into new realms of design, one with fewer limitations, and the ability to create stunning and practical websites, blogs, and more.

With so many people on the net, a website serves as so much more than just a source of information, but as a “sales tool” for the global or local market. It helps promote your business whether you are hard at work or finally getting some rest and sleeping, your website is working for you. So make sure that it’s working hard, and doing the job right.

Those first two are pretty big it’s true, but i find what I really like are the little things. enough ink, not worrying if there’s enough cash in the account to buy gas, or knowing that you’ve got some working funds for jobs in progress. I’ve heard from various clients the little victories and the defeats they’ve had as their business grows, changes, and slows down. The one thing that’s consistent and I urge you all to keep in mind:

Starting a business is an act many people cannot do. The fact that you have is your first victory. For each ink cartridge, each overdue bill finally paid and each day that passes, you have won yet again. When you feel down, and you ask yourself ‘Why?”.. look back on your victories, look now upon the person in the mirror, grown and better than the person before.

Each little step is a step of success, of blazing a trail. It’s tough, but through all the hard work, you have the first chance at freedom.

My next question is: How many of your believe the media reports on things and then we, as a consumer base, react to it and create the situation they talk about. Think about it… last summer they said fuel prices would go up to over $1.40 per litre. What happened? Everyone ran out to buy fuel, drove up demand and guess what?! Fuel went up to over $1.40 per litre. It happens all the time. Right now the media says we are in a recession, or ‘economic downturn’. It’s interesting, considering we’re so busy I’m hiring. I have a long list of people I deal with daily that say they’ve never been so busy. Real estate is still good, income is good and though unemployment is a bit higher than recent past, it’s still way below where it has been in the last few years.

So what happens when you hear all this talk about ‘economic downturn’? You get worried, you stop buying, you save more, spend less. And suddenly the market goes stale and voila! economic hardship, delivered on a platter to you because you created it. I’m not saying go out and spend like a maniac, but I believe it’s important to think about things rather than just believe some report on the radio or news. It’s true there are places that are suffering, but we do nobody any service by stopping our purchases or stopping our living. If Anything, we make the situation worse. We are lucky to live in an area that is a little insulated from some of the more hard hit areas. Why not use that to our advantage and help stimulate the economy. Others may not be able to right now but we can.

Think for yourself and support a business in your community today.

Somewhere in there though, I think I got a little TOO wrapped up in work. It’s March and I have yet to move the snowboard from the wall. What I’ve learned this time is that it’s really easy to find reasons to work a little harder, stay a little longer and to tell yourself that it’s ‘just this once’.

Be really aware of your time. When you have a business, you need to keep track of hours spent on jobs, track staff to be sure they are efficient and particularly now when there’s a little uncertainty in the market, it’s important to be aware. The thing is, if you can do that for your business, shouldn’t you be able to do it for yourself too?

We often drag our family and friends into our passions, and thankfully, most are supportive. Without them, we would be in poor shape I think. Just remember to set aside a little time, on a regular basis, to see friends, sit with a loved one or scratch a pet’s ear. You might be surprised to learn how much it does not just for them, but for yourself too.

In other words, I’ve discovered the joys of database programming. I’m speaking, of course, of the famous MySQL flavour of databases (since we’re on a Linux-variant server - long live GPL and the geek). Strangely enough, I haven’t been exposed to the server-side of website design for the longest time (stranger still, I had done Perl in college).

Yes, I have finally made the transition into the world of dynamic web sites. I believe I can finally call myself a web wizard!

Anything that minimizes tedium by even one iota is exciting to a programmer like myself (I’m a little obsessed). Especially when you can make one page display in 20 different ways, as opposed to making 20 separate pages. Now that I have tasted this power, I will never (or at least begrudgingly) relinquish it.

Okay, okay - to put a long story short - I made this small auction site that, before I came along, contained about 150 pages. Now it contains 8. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Cheers.

I’ve been running this business for over 3 years now, and for those of you who also own a business, you know that means countless days that were longer than 8 hours. It’s just a fact of doing what we do. Long days, little pay and sometimes wondering what the heck we’re doing. The funny thing is that we get up each day, and we keep at it. We smile, we dream and we know that we’re doing what we love. Family and friends have looked at us in concern, and the brave ones have even suggested we work too hard and that we should take a break. Little do they know that for most of us, we work like this because it’s a passion, a need to do something for ourselves and to make a difference; either for us, our families or the people we serve.

So when I took my first real vacation just a couple of weeks ago, it was a complete surprise to me how quickly I forgot what day it was, what jobs we were working on and who was most in need of some attention. I can’t remember the last time that I didn’t have a fairly accurate inventory in my head of what needed to be done when, how much time was left, and who owed me money.

I found myself walking the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I was confident in knowing that when I came back, my office would still be there, things would still be getting done, and that life would move on. Of course I knew that when I got back, there would be some catch up, but I allowed to moment to overcome me and to just experience what was happening around me.

This is where I learned a secret about life. I’ve always tried to get that work/life balance thing under control and I haven’t been THAT bad at it either, but there’s a difference between taking a bit of time off for your body and taking a bit of time for your mind. I’m not saying you need to travel halfway around the world, but I highly recommend that you find a place, a way, a something or other that lets your mind drift away to a place that isn’t work, no matter how much you love what you do. Even if you don’t come back relaxed or refreshed, you will come back with a change in perspective and that will lead to good things.

Find time for yourself, it’s the best way to help others.

One of those peculiar discrepancies is the margin and padding of the paragraph and header tags. In IE there is no difference between using margin and padding for the spacing between paragraphs (and in Firefox, for the most part, there isn’t a difference there either). However, the interesting thing happens when the div containing the paragraph or header has a background. Firefox makes margins tear large holes in the background, forming unsightly gaps in the website layout that shouldn’t otherwise be there. That was the most interesting bug so far, since Firefox doesn’t usually have such issues. The only fix for this problem was to set margins to nothing, and use padding instead.

Also, you might know about the infamous line break bug in IE… Where IE reads the file’s line feed and carriage returns and uses them to make gaps in certain places on web pages (which is quite odd since all browsers are supposed to ignore whitespace altogether – the only thing they’re supposed to do with it is make single space between words in the content of the page). If you’ve used tables with cells that contain images, you’ll know what I mean (actually, you’ll only see this happen if the closing table data tag is on another line than its content).

I find it quite interesting to have found a bug in Firefox, as I’m sure most geeks know that Firefox is supposed to be standards compliant. And I’m calling it a bug because a margin isn’t supposed to mess up the background of its container div. Because if that was part of the standard, I would say it’s really weird.

I’m finished my rant (many of you may be exhaling in relief at this very moment). Thank you for your time. You may continue your regularly scheduled day.

This of course leaving me wondering “well, why didn’t I think of that??” The answer is simple enough really. Nobody really has the same perspective on things as someone else. Everyone has had a life that’s a little different and hence different people can think different things about the same topic. So where’s the real lesson in this? Is it in knowing that some people are just smarter? or is it in realizing that though you can be smart yourself, the smartest thing you can do is be willing to listen to someone elses words? It’s really not that tough, though as small business owners we often find ourselves thinking we can always do it easier and cheaper ourselves.

Why is this the case? We’ve all done it.. and at the very beginning it’s simply because we don’t have the money or the contacts to have someone else do it. What we need to watch for is when we reach the point where our time is worth more doing what we are good at than floundering away at something we aren’t. When was the last time you took a bit of a look at the different things that make your business run and see if maybe you could actually SAVE money by having someone else do something you either don’t do very well or something you realy don’t like. Maybe it’s time you should.