Websites:

• Shaffer Benefit – informational site to promote a benefit helping a family reduce medical expenses
• Edge Soccer Academy (in progress)
• Wisty Events – client site: event planning
• ThisweekLive.com – primary work website: Thisweek Newspapers
• REV Real – Girls Dakota REV Soccer Club – daughter’s soccer team site
• St. Joseph School (Rosemount) Girls and Boys Soccer 2010 – kid’s school soccer teams site

(more…)

Wow, it has been awhile since I’ve last posted. The quick story is that I’ve been busy between redesigning our work website, kept running with my kids’ activities, and maintaining about eight other websites as well. I still have many photos (i.e. thousands) to go through and post as well.

I’d like to share something that I’ve learned these past few months. First of all, if you are using a free WordPress theme you’ll want to make sure you got it from a legitimate site. In doing research for a new design for work, I came across a “free” theme called ‘Coffee Break.’ As it turns out, it was posted on a site that I then found out didn’t have the authority to post it. ‘Coffee Break‘ is a cool theme from Woo Themes and much to my chagrin is not free. (more…)

There is a security flaw in WordPress 2.8.3 which allows the admin password to be reset via a browser GET request. This will temporarily lock out admins from their site. It is a flaw in the password reset function of wp-login.php. It can only reset the admin account and cannot be used to break into the system. In other words, an inconvenience, not a threat.

To temporarily fix this until it is patched by the WP developers change line 190 in wp-login.php from:

if ( empty( $key ) )

to:

if ( empty( $key ) || is_array( $key ) )

A good write-up of the situation can be found here at H-Online.com. If you find yourself already locked out of your system, there is a script available from codex.wordpress.org: Using the Emergency Password Reset Script

Let’s stay safe out there…

FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE —FREE

I keep finding new sites with tons of fabulous freebies thanks to everyone on Twitter. Below is the beginnings of a list of those I find myself going to over and over. The folks who offer these put out unique, quality products. I’ll be adding more as I have time. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

• Vector4Free — Vector art
• Vecteezy — Vector art
• Colorburned — Vector art, Illustrator brushes, patterns and more
• Brusheezy — Photoshop brushes
• Colorburned — Photoshop brushes
• Bittbox — Hi-res Photoshop watercolor brushes
• Fresh eMedia — Photoshop brushes and more
• Flasheezy — Flash files, templates and more
• Fresheezy — WordPress templates and more
• WebAir Blog — 100+ WordPress templates
• Colorburned — Tutorials
• Fontfabric — ‘VAL’ font (this is a fun font to have in your arsenal)
• Bittbox — Stylized fonts
• Woork — “10 Delicious Free Fonts with commercial-use license”
• Bittbox — Textures

Read an interesting article on Bloomberg.com (via @melfi) entitled “Morgan Stanley Intern Says Teens Don’t Twitter, Prefer Events.”

While I understand the premise, my guess is that teens haven’t found how Twitter can actually fuel the instant gratification they seem to crave as well as the freebies they want. Maybe they haven’t discovered that many of their music idols Tweet regularly and many times include links to content that they may not get otherwise. For example, Eminem (@eminem) did a whole promotion of his new album on Twitter. And here is one post from him from June 2, 2009 about freebie tickets to a show:

“I left 40 passes for tonight’s DJ Hero show at Undftd. on LaBrea in LA. First come, first serve. Cop some kicks while you are there. GO!”

Sure, sometimes it is an assistant posting and not the celebrity, but people pick up on those pretty quick.

Also, with Twitter being so mobile and almost a subset of the texting world, it would seem a natural fit for teens to receive and send micro-bursts of info. Plus, as companies get savvy about addressing contests geared toward teens like they have been with other segments – can you say “squarespace iPhone giveaway?” – I’m sure teens will swarm to Twitter. I see Twitter as being a teen marketing nirvana in the not-so-distant future.

It will most likely be a matter of time before the teen set gets bored with Facebook and makes the jump to Twitter. As I always say, Twitter is Facebook for the ADHD crowd. Then again, I’m a bit out of the teen years so what do I know?!