This morning I added a new tool to the site. You can check the Google Page Rank of up to 5 web sites right from here. It's fast and easy. Try it out and then let me know if you like it.

I seem to get my web site development projects from companies and organizations that weren’t happy with their old web guru. In each case, their web site was only a year old. They were appreciative of the effort of the previous supplier and blamed themselves for the site not being what they expected. Each one wanted the new site to be user friendly enough to allow their staff to make simple changes to the content. In a couple of cases, they hired huge development companies and spent tons of money before they realized that there was a lack of communications. If you have a web site you are not happy with or are about to have your first site developed, read on. I think I can help you avoid some of the common problems.

During the past 6 months, I have been asked by some small businesses to fix a few web sites that were developed by “High Tech Gurus”. In a couple of cases, fix meant start from the beginning and do it right. Now I’m not a programmer. I don’t even pretend to be one. But programmers shouldn’t pretend to be web designers either.

I’m starting a new section about the electronic part of our offices, the computer. In it I’ll talk about chips, software, and all the related equipment. From time to time I’ll discuss the companies that are building any of them. Office tech has become the single crucial component for every business. Big businesses, medium sized businesses and even home offices all use computers. And, the size of their difficulties have nothing to do with their business size.

With the departure of Walmart’s top 2 marketing communications officers, we’re all filled with questions. Does this signify a desire for Walmart to get back to serving their regular customers? Or, were these 2 executives just not able to upscale Walmart while not alienating their base? It reminds me of the old days with Sears. You may remember that Sears once owned the regular folk market. Montgomery Ward, and many others tried to unseat them, but Sears unseated themselves.

When I lived back in the city I got a DSL connection as soon as it became available. Suddenly I could send and receive large files in minutes instead of almost an hour for some files. Internet telephony was a novelty. A few years ago, I moved to a rural area. Since I work at home and have to send huge files to my customers, I needed a high speed connection. The only option was a cable internet connection. Wow, it was a lot faster than DSL. But I had a plain old telephone service. My wife and daughter maintained their connections with their friends back home on the phone. The first phone bill included almost $200 in long distance charges.