Category Archives: Random

Running a small business has forced me to learn a variety of other skills, including accounting, sales, and marketing. If I’ve learned anything since starting my freelance web design business it’s that the key to success (i.e. making money) lies in managing your time wisely, and I’ve found a bunch of free software applications that help me stay productive.

I thought I would take a break from my busy schedule to share some of the software tools that help me manage my business. Note-to-self: they’re all free! Continue reading →

It’s no secret that computer nerds often have strong musical skills… which is odd given that music is processed by the human brain’s right hemisphere, while math/logic are processed in the left hemisphere.

I have found that a good song puts me into a focused groove – like something just clicks inside my brain and the code writes itself. Complicated concepts unwind into simple solutions as if I can suddenly think in multiple dimensions.

The caveat, of course, is that a song isn’t long enough to maintain productivity like this. An hour (give or take) is ideal to generate some solid code, so finding an entire album (with no crappy songs) is almost priceless. Here are 10 that I suggest you try. Continue reading →

2009 has been a landmark year for my blog. According to Google Analytics, I’ve increased my daily pageviews by more than 1000% since January… growth which I hope I can maintain over the next 12 months.

How did I manage to increase my popularity that much in just a year? Continue reading →