Last October, Canadians were outraged by the news that the CRTC had decided to allow Bell and other big Internet service providers (ISPs) to impose new fees on independent ISPs – usage-based billing. While nearly half a million petition signatures forced the CRTC to reconsider their decision, the issue is far from off the table...

So what's all the hype about social media? Facebook, Twitter, and the likes? Will tweeting really improve your rank on Google?

Well, according to Matt Cutts, Google is indeed starting to pay more attention to who follows your tweets and who likes your Facebook page. Watch this video:

Well, the word is in... after a 9 month trial we scrapped the 'Live help' feature we had at the bottom of every page. I'm just glad we didn't spend any money on it. In the entire time it was up the feature was used 3 times. Once upon my request  To be fair, I'll have to admit that I wasn't exactly vigilant in keeping the virtual desk 'manned', either...

www.sheatre.com - It's been a long time in the works - but the new site is finally online! We've converted the existing content to use Joomla! CMS, updated, archived, and trained the client on how to keep on top of things themselves. The real challenge with this project was to have the new site resemble the current design as closely as possible...

Yes, yes... we're finally gettin' with the times...

In light of EVERYONE using Facebook now, we have decided to put up our own little page as well. Announcing completed projects, the occasional nudge to get some business.. the usual. Do come check us out at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ontario-Web-Design-GAWD-Productions/170352432995490

Yep, I could get into hacking. Hacking up those who have nothing better to do than to screw with other people's livelihood (pardon my french). Surely, this would fall under justifiable homicide, no? This morning, some low life, useless, pimple faced, basement dwelling social outcast from TURKEY, of all places, managed to hack into one of our servers...

Do you ever have one of THOSE days/weeks/months? I just did. Still do, actually. Where nothing goes right, where every little task is a battle, and where you start doubting your ability and just feel like quitting 

It's interesting, actually. The chicken or the egg question... When everythig goes well and you're on fire, putting in a 14 hour day without blinking - and then find yourself unable to get anything done. Makes you wonder if it is circumstance that dictates your productivity, or did you perhaps just plain run out of steam? Has attitude changed before or after the first set back? Either way, I sure hope I get my groove back real soon...

For all you self-made webmasters out there, dabbling in Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, and the likes... be careful and do your homework before joining any Template Clubs.  I recently made the mistake of being dazzzled and spening $200 US on a developer's license without doing said homework. I was in a rush, it LOOKED really good, and (this should have set off some alarm bells) there were no negative testimonials. Or any testimonials at all, since you had to be a member to access the forum, and that's where their customer comments reside...

Oh, do we have a treat for you... Our next featured Canadian artist(s) will be Guitars Alive Trio (Quartet?)! As soon as they're finished recording the new CD, we'll get a few songs up in our portfolio. Philip, Gary, Paul, and Tom were down here on Manitoulin Island this weekend, playing at  Café in the Woods. My better half was MCing the evening and we had a good visit after. You know, the amount of local talent continues to amaze me...

Ahhh.. there we are... 2010. Hard to believe, this is our 10th year in business. And, as every year, January came in with a bang - work wise. I'm not sure if it has something to do with advertising budgets for the year coming out, or if everyone is just gung-ho after the holidays. Either way, with our current work load there just aren't enough hours in the day...

As most of you will know, I'm not a great fan of Flash. Not for business websites, anyhow. However, many of the sites we build here have a little flash as well - to add visual interest, and that's ok. Tutorials are another great use of Flash. Then there are occasions such as Christmas, where a business may want to send animated greeting cards to clients and associates. I think THIS is where Flash really becomes relevant, even for small businesses...

I've had had this idea for a while now... to have background music for our Web Design Portfolio. Now, there is much royalty free audio out there to use... and I went through a ton of files. Nothing really knocked my socks off. I decided to have a look at CDs laying around here and came across an album by Dave Gunning. I saw him in a small intimate concert a while back - great singer/song writer and all 'round really nice guy...

Geeez. For years I have been a confirmed non-believer in email campaigns. You know.. the mass mail, toot your own horn, waste someone else's time kinda campaigns. I am a very private person, I value my time, and I assume everyone else feels the same way. Fast forward to last week or so...

*sigh* I've been shaking my head for the last 3 weeks at every store in town all dressed up for Christmas. I must be a descendant of Scrooge. Don't get me wrong, I like the part where family comes together, I love the food, the lights, and the excitement of children. Other than that- can't we just skip this whole production? I'm not fond of cold weather, my wallet weeps every year around this time (and for months to come), and then there's the whole debate over whether it is still politically correct to wish someone a Merry Christmas. I just love what Ben Stein wrote on the subject.

Hey - Searching is easy! It's the FINDING that can take some doing. You pass the "sponsored results" without a glance. You ignore the Google ads to the right, as well as any other additional advertisements... Hiding somewhere in the middle, you'll find the results you came for. Or not.

Here are a few tips & tricks to help you with your search:

• This is an oldie but goodie: Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."

I was going through dormant files to follow up on and came across this would-be client. A lady contacted me (referred from one of our clients) about a year ago to finish her website. She had paid for a design firm to do her website but things weren't really moving along and not to her satisfaction. No problem. We can take over. We got in touch with the design firm to change contact information on the domain and get FTP login credentials. That's when the trouble started...

Did you notice? We've added a 'Live Support' gadget to our site. It isn't quite as pretty as I'd like it to be - but then, I'm only using the free version for now.  The idea, of course, is to grab a hold of visitors when you can - to not make them have to pick up the phone or send and email and then wait for a reply. Ahhh - the age of instant gratification...

Well, and here I thought, we had it all covered.

It's funny that the ONLY clients where we've ever ran into issues, were lawyers. Imagine this, if you will. Client contacts us, we go over the what's and how's of their impending project, agree on terms and a price, sign contract, collect the  50% non-refundable deposit, present a first or even first and second draft... and then....

It's been on my to-do list for *errmmm 3 years, or so? GAWD's website needed updating/upgrading SO desperately. Typical case of the carpenter not having any kitchen cupboards at home. However, half way in or so, I remembered why I had put it off in the first place. Wow, what a lot of work...

Do you have some real characters among your clients? We sure do.

We've got the demanding sort (hey Dan!), the mildly neurotic (luv ya, Lori - and those are YOUR words), and of course the forever apologetic type (It's ok Stan, really - we'll go over your email setting one more time)...

Yep, there's always a logical explanation

New client, beautiful site, SEO strategies neatly in place... yet nada on the search engines. Definitely a head scratcher - until I used Google's handy little 'cached' feature. Turns out, I left out a teensy weensy itty bitty piece of javascript code in the header of the document - and Google never looked any further. Ouch! Didn't even see the page title...