I’m not really sure what it could be used for, but for some reason stuff like this is just really cool; released on the ColourLovers blog, the colour picker was a spin-off of COPASO. I checked out the widget, and it is a pretty slick, pretty clean online colour picker. I’m sure it could come in handy for creating custom themes for users, but I would be curious to see how else it could be used. However, the real project, COPASO, is pretty intense.

COPASO is an advanced colour palette tool that helps you create the perfect colour schemes and themes. With a scratch pad to save colours you’re working with, a photo tool to extract colours and an advanced colour picker and colour theory wheel to give you tons of inspiration.

Could be a great little tool for designers to take advantage of, but if it’s too much, try their basic colour palette tool. 

I’ve recently started writing posts for the TechVibes blog, and my last two posts were reviews on sites from the Portland Start-up Index: UrbanDrinks.com and myOpenID.com. While both sites were quite clean and easy-to-use, I stumbled across a couple aspects of their web design that left me wanting. One of my comments about UrbanDrinks.com was while the design wasn’t the best, they had really gotten the site design right, and it’s easier to update/upgrade a site when you don’t have to do a complete re-write. The one page I stumbled upon that made me cringe and giggle at the same time was here. On myOpenID, I signed out of my account and went to ‘https://www.myopenid.com/signout’ and was met with this page:

I probably shouldn’t be talking, as I know that pages on this site are in need of some TLC, but c’est la vie!

I recently read an article on Computerworld that talked about the possibility of the Internet going down (and discussed it briefly). Not a simple outage, but a major loss of access effecting a significant audience caused by a malicious attacker, terrorist, or act of God. The Business Roundtable, a Washington-based public policy advocacy group comprised of CEOs of large U.S. companies, has suggested that in the next 10 years there is a 10% - 20% chance that a significant outage will occur. Are you prepared?

A recent survey suggests that most businesses are not prepared for an 8-day (or more) outage; in a 2007 survey of IT professionals, 60% indicated that their business continuity plans are limited to 7-days or less. Ignoring outages that can be attributed to individuals or groups, like malicious code or terrorist efforts, in recent years we’ve seen events like Hurricane Katrina and a major power outage that covered a great portion of Eastern North America.

Until recently, I was guilty of being less than prepared for my blog going down - just look at the difficulties I experienced in the last month! It’s much easier for me to be prepared than most companies, and I would consider myself to be more savy in the area than most, too. Statistics show that companies unable to quickly manoever and adapt in the face of a disaster (I believe the statistic suggests within a 1 to 2-week period) are likely to be out of business within a 1 to 2-year period. Statistics also show that 29% of organizations now have pandemic recovery measures in place. Put another way, 7 out of 10 companies are not prepared and would likely be out of business if faced with a disaster. Which statistic is your company going to be?

I won’t suggest that it was an easy battle, but at the same time, I will have to admit, had I accepted defeat earlier and simply tried to upgrade to the newest version of Wordpress, it would have solved many hours of frustration. Over the Christmas holidays, it was easier to ignore the fact that the blog had a minor problem in how it was displaying posts, but having gone over a month now without a post (instead dedicating that time to troubleshooting what actually went wrong, uploading back-ups of the site, slamming my head on the desk, etc.), it was time to accept defeat and go for the last ditch effort.

With my articles now showing up here, on SuperbHosting.net’s blog, and TechVibes’ blog, I will try and ensure that there is limited overlap between the three sources while maintaining my commitment to being a valuable information resource on the topic of Internet technologies and trends.

The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle. The statement, from a New York times article titled Google gets ready to rumble with Microsoft, isn’t something that should be new to anyone. While Google is the golden-boy of the 2000’s, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is familiar with the software giant, having worked for Sun Microsystems and Novell, and knows that it is anything but clear sailing for Google. With a strong core business built on their search engine and online advertising, Google is free to experiment with a varied set of offerings, but the ultimate success of Google may hinge on their ability to turn these offerings into revenues:

COUNTLESS decisions by corporate technology managers, office workers, university students and rank-and-file computer users of all kinds will ultimately determine Google’s success. How easy and inexpensive will it be to do e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and team projects on Web software? Will high-speed network connections soon become as ubiquitous and reliable as Google seems to assume? Will companies, universities and individuals trust Google to hold corporate and personal information safely?