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I have always been a proponent of standards-based web design. Semantic markup is tasty for me and for the search engines. It makes everyone happy. However, clients do like Flash based websites for the ability to control things explicitly. The rub has always been that a great website is Flash is basically invisible to the search engines. I have always argued that non-Flash sites are best. All your content is indexed and searchable, and Flash-based sites are out of luck. Well apparently no more.

I read in Ars Technica today that Flash based sites are good-to-go. Apparently the major search engines can now rip through Flash sites and index the content. Does this mean that more sites will be Flash-based?

Perhaps.

However there is one caveat from the article:

Of course, Google (and eventually Yahoo) won’t be able to index everything embedded within a Flash file—at least not yet. Anything that is image-related, including text that is embedded into images, will be invisible to the search engines for the time being. Google also noted that it can’t execute certain JavaScripts that may be embedded into a Flash file, and that while it indexes content that is contained in a separate HTML or XML file, it won’t be counted as part of the content in the Flash file. These are all issues that are being worked on, however, and are likely to change in the future.

Just how will it index text rendered in an image? Isn’t that what CAPTCHA systems are now? Images of text that you have to type in so that humans can be separated from the bots? Would love to see how that will be done. I don’t see that coming any time soon. But I can be proven wrong too.

Do you think that Flash sites are better than traditional non-flash websites?

There is no denying that the announcement this week at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, or WWDC, about the new iPhone 3G lived up to most everyones expectations. It has a great set of new features, including my want of built-in GPS, and now has the architecture open for developers to start creating some great new and interesting applications for the iPhone. The phone is slimmer and also has larger memory capacity. All of this advancement and the most impressive part of the announcement to me was the price point, $199. That is really incredible.

Last year when the first generation iPhone came out I held back because I figured that the second generation would deliver better features and performance at less cost. This has come to pass so my credentials as a swami have just gone up.

The only question left for me is Will It Blend? Yes, will the new iPhone 3G blend? Like its predecessor the iPhone-you can see what happened below-the new iPhone 3G may blend even better. Hopefully Blendtec will give it a go.

Today is the first day of June and the official end to the month of May. May is a challenging month for me. My birthday is in May and I get another year older (and hopefully wiser). The school year begins its path to winding up for the year—meaning the kids, and my wife, begin to prepare for their summer vacations. I on the other hand do not get 3 months off. (Remember getting 3 months off in the summer—those were the days). And at the end of the month schedules go into the blender for a few weeks.

The end of May also signals the end of spring and the beginning of summer. So it is a period of transition for us all. There are so many things in transition in the world right now: energy issues, political issues, etc.—the list can go on for a while. For me personally, the transition happening is the beginning of summer and the change of schedules for the entire family. There is some vacation time coming up with the family and time by the pool for sure. But it always take a couple of weeks to adjust to the new schedule. There are others but that is by far the one with the most impact on personal life at this time.

What transitions are in motion as you go from May to June? From spring to summer?

I have been reminded this week that I am in the time of my life. A few things brought this on.

1. My wife is away for the week and I am taking care of our 3 boys solo
2. I am spending more time with my kids (which is great!)
3. I am working everyday in and on my business for a bit (not as much as usual for the above reason)
4. I am being present around  my kids and reflecting on that
5. And boys will be boys (and how!)

I was driving with the boys from an appointment this afternoon. As is typical I was getting questions from the older two at random intervals while they were all watching a DVD (Ah yes, modern technology in cars—where was that when I was a kid. All we had was MadLibs). The movie happened to be “Bugs Life“—one of the many genius movies created @ Pixar. The questions were about “Do grasshoppers have wings?” and the like.

The movie happened to be at the end and the Randy Newman song “The Time Of Your Life” was playing in the background as I was driving home. The chorus says. “It’s the time of your life, so live it well.” The mountains were off in the distance with the sun setting. The golden hills were rolling by and it was just one of those moments when you realize “this is it!” This is the time of my life. It was really cool to be that present to it.

Even though I get lost in the moments of ’stress’ and the rat race day-to-day, being present to my kids and their questions and comments, the scenery passing by outside, and then the song was the icing on the cake.

It is the time of your life, so live it well.

I recently celebrated my birthday. Birthday’s are an interesting phenomena. People in and around your life take time out to let you know you are important to them. Whether a small token, or a simple ‘happy birthday,’ the sentiment is sincere and kind. The feeling one feels on the receiving end are nice. However, wouldn’t it be nice to feel that ‘vibe’ every day?

Something has been happening to me lately. My presence in the current moment is increasing. What does this mean? It means that I am not worrying or stressing about “what ifs” in the ‘future’ or ‘past’. I am not getting caught up in an imaginary story that I am creating with thoughts that are just purely fiction. I am being present to what is happening right now. It can, and does, make me feel that ‘vibe.’

I think the more you give, the more you get. Giving out kindness to others comes back to you in forms of kindness. Some people call it karma. I call it being present to life in the moment. All we have is this moment right now. The future is an idea, the past is a memory. Making the most of this moment by being present to it can make your whole life, not just your birthday, a rich and rewarding experience.

Happy Birthday to you!

I received an email today relating to subtle techniques to get more “gas” for you gallon that I found interesting. There appears to be some merit to some of what I read. I post it here merely as a share of information. In the interest of full disclosure I do not work for, nor does anyone I know work for, a petroleum company. Furthermore, I edited the original content of the email I received to the essential information.

I paid $3.85 a gallon today (and that is cheap here in Southern California). If you see a dubious fact below, please let me know and I will make edits as needed.

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Information on Fuel (worth reading)

California is presently paying $3.50 - $4.00+ per gallon. Here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon.

Do it in the morning
Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening—your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

Easy on the trigger
When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becom es vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less for your money.

Is the tank half-full, or half-empty?
One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations every truck that is loaded is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Don’t pump with the big boys
Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up! Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

I just completed reading Seth Godin’s, “The Dip.” An interesting little read that presented mostly things that I already knew in various pieces from a variety of sources. However, it is all distilled into a simple, quick, and easy read.

What I got out of this book was some clarity. I suspected I was in a dip and reading this helped bring that into focus. I am in a dip with my business. My business is in a state of stagnation. That is the best I can describe it. It’s not dieing, but its not growing either. The level of work with my business could be sustained, for what feels like, almost indefinitely. How can that be bad? I have work, I am making money, but I am not happy with how things are. I know there is potential for more. This business has not reached its potential.

After reading “The Dip” I actually contemplated disassembling my business–quitting it. In the book there are many suggestions about quitting, and the process of why to quit something. There is a purpose to quitting. It is to free you up to focuses energy on getting through the dips that matter. Of course part of the process is identifying what matters, but that was easy–at least for me.
There are other outside factors I will not get into, but suffice it to say that the alternative to being an entrepreneur (going back to punching the clock for a paycheck) was seriously considered for a bit. However, in the thinking surrounding this one thing became clear when I read the sentence, “Never quit something with great long term potential just because of the stress of the moment.”

That sentence summed it up for me. There is great potential in owning a business. There is great stress owning a business–stress of the moment. Furthermore, I realized that there are things I have not done or tried with my business. To quit before at least trying would create a great deal of regret later down the road. So now I have a better perspective, a plan for action, someone to motivate me and keep me on track, and a timeframe by which to measure the efforts.

For now I will stick rather than quit.