Archive for the ‘At Work’ Category

Rip2It Training On The Gold Coast

written on April 6th, 2009 with no comments

I was going to write this post about a week ago, but better late than never I guess. Rip2It held a 3 day training course on the Gold Coast from March 20 to 22 and yours truly was up there to assist with the technical side of Rip2It and provide some one-on-one assistance.

I took my daughter, Alexandra, with me this time and she spent a day visiting relatives in Brisbane, a day shopping and just kind of chilled the rest of the time. We were met at the airport by Sean (Rip2It owner), Pia (Sean’s fiance), Kevin (GotAccess owner) and Renee (Sean’s PA) and then went out to a chinese restaurant for dinner. Pat (Rip2It owner) had been held up by a delayed flight, so we met up with him at the hotel. It was a nice, relaxing beginning to a fairly full on weekend.

During the 3 days it was pretty hectic most of the time with a constant queue of members eager to get their sites online. I felt like I was at the bottom of a rugby scrum at times … but it was all good :) . I think that by the end of the weekend we had made some great progress, particularly with the members who had been struggling a bit with FTP. There were some obvious stumbling blocks, so when I got back home I whipped up a few PDF guides that covered some of the areas that I could see were causing some confusion.

The hotel was great with a nice view of the beach and a balcony (essential for us smokers!!).

All in all it was a productive weekend. Really good to see Pat and Sean again and also to meet the others who I’d only seen in emails :)

Roll Your Own WordPress Themes

written on January 21st, 2009 with no comments

I’ve been watching this software application since it was an early beta. I gave it a try back then and though it had a few bugs, it really looked promising. It looks like they’ve ironed out most of the bugs now and Artisteer is looking like one of those ‘must have’ tools for developers and anyone who has multiple blogs and wants to give them ‘that personal touch’. Check out the demo link on their web site and you’ll get an idea of what this gem of an application can do.

Their website is www.artisteer.com

Back From Sydney

written on September 29th, 2008 with no comments

I got back home yesterday. I had planned on writing a blog post or two while I was up there but unfortunately the ‘wireless broadband’ at the hotel was..well … wireless something, but definitely not broadband. In fact it was slower than dialup and I gave up after a couple of hours.

Still, the hotel itself was fine. A bit light on services but it was cheap so I can’t really complain about that. The bed was comfortable and I had a good night’s sleep both nights that I was there. That’s the main thing!

Most of the members who attended the Rip2It training session left with at least one site up and running. That was one of the main aims … to give those people who were struggling a leg up and get them online. We had a handful with some domain problems which were mostly sorted out on the day or fixed up by me yesterday when I got back.

All in all it was a very positive session and Chris and Jenny Ford provided an excellent presentation and training session.

It's Off To Sydney We Go…

written on September 25th, 2008 with no comments

I’m heading up to Sydney tomorrow to help out with the Rip2It training. It was a real blast last time from the flight up to the flight back. I’m not much of a traveller so sitting in a big piece of metal and air fuel, about 12 kilometres above the earth is a real buzz! I have to admit though, having not flown for around 10 years, and also having watched many episodes of ‘Air Crash Investigation’ over the past 5 years I did wonder whether I would slip into the foetal position once I got on board. Nope! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the flight.

Anyway, I’m going to be the go-to guy for any technical issues or glitches again. I’ve spent a large part of my working life fixing people’s computer problems and it can be a real hair-tearer. Rip2It is a bit different though as most problems are related to ‘documentation-itis’ and are easily fixed. So, rather than ending the day in a frustrated frame of mind I will most likely end the day a little more up-beat having solved most of the problems that present themselves during the course of the day.