Found.blog Web Design, Development and Internet Marketing in Harrisonburg Virginia

Textmate Version 1.5.10 (1616) Tab Nav Change

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:25:00 GMT

So if any of you recently upgraded your copy of Textmate to Version 1.5.10 (build 1616), there has been one major notable change that probably has you at your wits end (indeed like I was.) The "Next Tab" and "Previous Tab" hotkeys have been modified by the developers at MacroMates as follows:

[CHANGED] Change next/previous file tab key equivalents to shift command [ and ]. This has become the de facto standard.

According to the official macromates blog, a fix has been issues that has you modifying the internal keybindings in the TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/KeyBindings.dict file. I think this is personally way overkill and who knows if you'll have to change it again on the next update. Indeed, the new keybindings are NOT productive and end up hindering utility in open tab switching, but the easiest answer is right in the OS X System Preferences.

Simply open up System Preferences, go to the keyboard menu, and hit the keyboard shortcuts tab. Under application shortcuts simply add two new keybindings; one for Next File Tab and another for Previous File Tab. Add these, open Textmate back up, and boom, back to normal.

Happy Coding!

~Kevin

Google (themselves) releases an SEO starter guide.

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:54:00 GMT

Google recently announced their updated SEO Starter Guide. This is an update from the 2008 release of the same ilk. This should get everybody started out on the basis and good techniques that Google recommends (and doesn't recommend) for site owners and webmasters.

Playing Pinball with Canvas Element

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:51:00 GMT

Good job with the proof of concept microsoft, love the sketchy feel to a classic game.
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Graphics/CanvasPinball/default.html

Google Instant: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:43:00 GMT

By now, you've likely noticed Google's latest tweak: Google Instant. Type in a search term from Google's homepage, and as you type, Google will predict what term you are searching for, and display the appropriate results on the fly. More than results, in fact; the predictive engine also changes ad content on the fly. For users, especially those who are fans of autocomplete on their smartphones (an obvious source of inspiration), this is a huge leap forward in responsiveness and convenience.

As marketers, however, we have some cause for concern. Feel free to play along with the following in a separate tab or window.

Go to Google and start typing the word "hotdog". Notice the ad space along the right hand side - you get all the way to the fourth letter before the Hotmail ad is replaced by something relevant to the search term - in my case, ads for hotdog-related content in print, and used hotdog carts for sale. Savvy marketers will wonder whether Hotmail got credit for an impression in this scenario.

The short answer? No. The long answer? Well...

It starts with this piece, courtesy of Google's official blog post on Instant:

As a result, Google Instant changes the way we think about impressions. With Google Instant, an impression is counted if a user takes an action to choose a query (for example, presses the Enter key or clicks the Search button), clicks a link on the results page, or stops typing for three or more seconds.

Note the words "changes the way we think about impressions". I think a more accurate word than "changes" in this instance is "evolves"; after all, prior to Instant, I would have never seen the Hotmail ad. So, to not credit Hotmail with the impression would be status-quo. What has evolved is the way marketers must now treat impression figures: in addition to the "intentional" impressions that will be reported, one must factor in an unknown quantity of "accidental" impressions. I think any seasoned AdWords marketer could think up one or two ways to game the new system into an "accidental" impression. Sure, you could dismiss these as irrelevant, and most likely, never even seen. But go back to where you were looking, as a user, in that initial search - you most likely glanced around the screen as you typed each letter, waiting for the relevant content to appear. I'm curious to see how Google refines Instant to address what I'm going to call "Incomplete Keywording" - grabbing a keyword that is an incomplete form of a competitor's keyword (like the first half of a compound word) to get some sort of eyeball time. Expensive? Probably, though your mileage may vary. Possible? So far, it seems so.

One more example to play along with - go do a search for "hate crimes legislation". Notice that the screen goes white after it figures out you're not looking for the band Hatebreed? Google Instant will not autocomplete for some terms (2600.com has gone so far as to compile a "Google Instant Blacklist"; I won't link it from here as the content is clearly going to include some unpleasantness, but you can find it easily enough). In this case, it's not autocompleting the word "hate", even though I'm looking up a perfectly legitimate topic. Of course, hitting enter brings up the normal search results, but a blank white screen could fool some users into thinking they've returned zero results, and it does cut down on potential screen time for advertisers on this keyword (in this case, nonprofit anti-Hate Crime advocacy groups).

So, as I said at the top, there is some cause for concern here, but it really depends on how users adopt this new feature. If they keep their eyes up top, then impression numbers as reported can be entirely trusted. If, however, users are looking at the changing content and react to something that comes up before autocomplete figures out their original intent, then we have a whole new - and unmeasured - impression dynamic to deal with.

Of course, this could all go away, if users en masse decide to follow this tutorial instead.

We're Giving Away an iPad. True Story™.

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:21:00 GMT

You know you want one.

Stop by our booth at the Rockingham County Fair (Aug 16 - 22) and you could win one. Awesome huh?

RTW, FTW! (real time web, for the win)

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:36:00 GMT

I took a gander this morning through some web analytics for the companies that we help out with marketing and began noticing some trends. Long ago, we built a custom real-time email tracking solution for a marketing agency based in Detroit, and I began to think about real-time analytics again, so I went on the hunt for the current players.

I came across this article: http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1843-services-that-provide-realtime-analytics/

I went over to Woopra (http://www.woopra.com/) and signed up for their service. What an awesome product all around. A desktop app that lets you connect to your website in real time to watch traffic patterns and pageviews in real time is quite a boon. Now obviously most businesses don't have the gaul to sit in front of their computer all day watching traffic, but there are some who's web traffic is crucial to their business. The possibilities are immense for SEO and SEM campaigns, testing and tweaking in real time and watching the effects of incoming visitors.

I highly recommend you check them out.

Last Call! 500 color business cards for $25

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:20:00 GMT

Our neighbors at Color Solutions www.mycolorsolutions.com have been having a great deal on color business cards this month of July. Get 500 business cards, full color on one-side, for as low as $25. If you come over to Found, we'll even do up a custom design for you at a third of the price we normally charge for this, $50 (compared to $150). This deal only lasts until the end of July so get here or call us before Friday morning.

Attracting the Right Customers

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:03:00 GMT

Many of us got into business by being good at the service that we provide to our customers, whether they are consumers or other business owners. But we have all learned that to sustain a growing business, we must become marketers and salesmen as a primary function of what we do everyday, not just service/product providers anymore.

One great resource for B2B leads is The List which will help you target and identify decision makers in the organizations that you want to do business with. Identifying and targeting the right kinds of clients and pitching to them is a skill that we do not all have naturally, but I believe it is possible to develop.

RVM: Up and Running

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:19:00 GMT

For those of you who have not started using rvm but are itching to get into some development using Ruby 1.9.1 or Rails 3 while still maintaining your legacy applications, what are you waiting for??? rvm is a GREAT solution developed by Wayne Seguin to manage multiple environments while still retaining the functionality of your native environment allowing you to seamlessly transition between them. I highly recommend you give it a shot, if you like it, great, if not, it removes itself with the 'implode' command and you never have to touch it again.

Installing RVM: Multiple Ruby Versions and Gemsets in Snow Leopard and Linux Distros:

You can install rvm on top of previous ruby versions that you have locally on your system without affecting the normal usability and nature of your system environment. Installing RVM as a gem is NOT recommended. Use the following command to install from the git repo and run the installation script:

	curl -O http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/releases/rvm-install-head
	ruby rvm-install-head

It should result in this output:

remote: Counting objects: 2427, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1177/1177), done. remote: Total 2427 (delta 1458), reused 1697 (delta 797) Receiving objects: 100% (2427/2427), 566.77 KiB, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (1458/1458), done. grep: /Users/kevin/.zsh*: No such file or directory RVM: shell scripts which allow management of multiple ruby interpreters and environments. RTFM: http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/ HELP: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=rvm (#rvm on irc.freenode.net) * Installing rvm to /Users/kevin/.rvm/ Notes for Darwin ( Mac OS X ) * For Snow Leopard be sure to have XCode Tools Version 3.2.1 (1613) or later (there were bugs with the dvd release version). * You should download the latest XCode tools from developer.apple.com. This is necessary since the dvd install for Snow Leopard has bugs. * If you intend on installing MacRuby you must install LLVM first. * If you intend on installing JRuby you must install the JDK. * If you intend on installing IronRuby you must install Mono (version 2.6 or greater is recommended). khopkins218, Thank you for using rvm. I hope that it makes your work easier and more enjoyable. If you have any questions, issues and/or ideas for improvement please hop in #rvm on irc.freenode.net and let me know. My irc nickname is 'wayneeseguin' and I hang out from ~09:00-17:00EST and again from ~21:00EST-~00:00EST. If I do not respond right away, please hang around after asking your question, I will respond as soon as I am back. Be sure to get head often as rvm development happens fast, you can do this by typing 'rvm update --head'. wâ¦¿â€¿â¦¿t! ~ Wayne You must now finish the install manually:

1) Place the folowing line at the end of your shell's loading files (.bashrc or .bash_profile for bash and .zshrc for zsh), after all path/variable settings: [[ -s $HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm ]] && source $HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm Please note that this must only occur once - so, you only need to add it the first time you install rvm.

2) Ensure that there is no 'return' from inside the .bashrc file. (otherwise rvm will be prevented from working properly). This means that if you see '[ -z ] && return' then you must change this line to:

if [[ ! -z ]] ; then ... original content that was below the && return line ... fi # be sure to close the if. Be absolutely *sure* to REMOVE the '&& return'. If you wish to DRY up your config you can 'source ~/.bashrc' at the bottom of your .bash_profile. placing all non-interactive items in the .bashrc, including the 'source' line above

3) Then CLOSE THIS SHELL and open a new one in order to use rvm.

Installation of RVM to /Users/kevin/.rvm/ is complete.

If you refer to the notes from installation, you can see that you need to edit your path and add the line:

  [[ -s $HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm ]] && source $HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm.

If your profile is cleaned out like mine is, just stick it at the bottom and source your profile. Running the command rvm -v should result in output similar to this:

  whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm -v
  rvm 0.1.40 by Wayne E. Seguin (wayneeseguin@gmail.com) 
[http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/]

If it doesn't, try closing your shell and reopening it and check your profile to make sure you added the file in the correct space.

Once RVM is installed and properly recognized, you can run ruby -v and see your system level ruby installation. To see the ruby environments that you have loaded into rvm, you can run rvm list but at this point it should come up with nothing unless you've previously installed an rvm environment. I use two main ruby environments, 1.8.7 and 1.9.1 but you can load up 1.8.6, 1.9.2 and several others depending on what Wayne has in the rvm repo. To load up my two environments, I simply “rvm install 1.8.7-p299; rvm install 1.9.1-p378” and walked away for about 10 minutes. The shell output looked like this:

info: Installing Ruby from source to: /Users/kevin/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p299
info: Downloading ruby-1.8.7-p299, this may take a while depending on your connection...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 4753k  100 4753k    0     0   146k      0  0:00:32  0:00:32 --:--:--  150k
info: Extracting ruby-1.8.7-p299 ...
info: Configuring ruby-1.8.7-p299, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...
info: Compiling ruby-1.8.7-p299, this may take a while, depending on your cpu(s)...
info: Installing ruby-1.8.7-p299
info: Installation of ruby-1.8.7-p299 is complete.
info: Installing rubygems dedicated to ruby-1.8.7-p299...
info: Retrieving rubygems-1.3.7
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  284k  100  284k    0     0   180k      0  0:00:01  0:00:01 --:--:--  275k
info: Extracting rubygems-1.3.7 ...
info: Installing rubygems for /Users/kevin/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p299/bin/ruby
info: Installation of rubygems ruby-1.8.7-p299 completed successfully.
info: adjusting shebangs for ruby-1.8.7-p299 (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake).
info: Importing initial gems...
info: Installing Ruby from source to: /Users/kevin/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.1-p378
info: Downloading ruby-1.9.1-p378, this may take a while depending on your connection...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 8862k  100 8862k    0     0  91416      0  0:01:39  0:01:39 --:--:--   97k
info: Extracting ruby-1.9.1-p378 ...
info: Configuring ruby-1.9.1-p378, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...
info: Compiling ruby-1.9.1-p378, this may take a while, depending on your cpu(s)...
info: Installing ruby-1.9.1-p378
info: Installation of ruby-1.9.1-p378 is complete.
info: Updating rubygems for /Users/kevin/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378@global
info: Updating rubygems for /Users/kevin/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.1-p378
info: adjusting shebangs for ruby-1.9.1-p378 (gem irb erb ri rdoc testrb rake).
info: Importing initial gems...

At this point, we should have two working ruby environments. These can be double checked by running rvm list to see what is available in your rvm files.

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm list

rvm rubies

   ruby-1.8.7-p299 [ x86_64 ]
=> ruby-1.9.1-p378 [ x86_64 ]
   ruby-1.9.2-preview3 [ x86_64 ]

As you can see, i also installed 1.9.2 for kicks which you can do by following the above directions. From a usage standpoint, all three of my installs have rubygems version 1.3.7 which is okay for installing rails3. If you want to verify your environments simply run this:

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.8.7
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2010-06-23 patchlevel 299) [i686-darwin10.3.0]
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.9.1
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i386-darwin10.3.0]
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.9.2
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2dev (2010-05-31 revision 28117) [x86_64-darwin10.3.0]
whitey-found:rvm kevin$

This is how you change your environments. RVM also has another awesome feature called GemSets. This basically sets up a separate GEM_HOME for each different ruby environment but also within environments. If you want to use 1.8.7 as your base and install Rails 2.2.2, 2.3.5, and 3.0.0.beta4, typically you would have to do some serious finagling with your gems to keep them up to date. With RVM, all this mess is taken care of.

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm gemset create rails2.2.2

info: Gemset 'rails2.2.2' created.
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm gemset create rails2.3.5

info: Gemset 'rails2.3.5' created.
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm gemset create rails3.0.0.beta4

info: Gemset 'rails3.0.0.beta4' created.
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.8.7@rails3.0.0.beta4

Here I have created my three environments, all ontop of 1.8.7 and can maintain totally separate gem repositories in them.

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm gemset list

info: gemsets : for ruby-1.8.7-p299 (found in /Users/kevin/.rvm/gems/)
global
rails2.2.2
rails2.3.5
rails3.0.0.beta4

As you can see here, I have my separate gemsets in addition to a 'global' gemset. If I mainly use gems that are compatible with 2.2.2 and 2.3.5, I can have them installed in global and not have to maintain individual copies in the other two gemsets. The Rails3.0.0.beta4 bundle will still be separate (bundler ftw).

To use your rails3 gemset and install the newfangled beta4 simply run:

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.8.7@rails3.0.0.beta4
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ gem install rails --pre
Successfully installed activesupport-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed builder-2.1.2
Successfully installed i18n-0.4.1
Successfully installed activemodel-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed rack-1.1.0
Successfully installed rack-test-0.5.4
Successfully installed rack-mount-0.6.6
Successfully installed tzinfo-0.3.22
Successfully installed abstract-1.0.0
Successfully installed erubis-2.6.5
Successfully installed actionpack-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed arel-0.4.0
Successfully installed activerecord-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed activeresource-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed mime-types-1.16
Successfully installed polyglot-0.3.1
Successfully installed treetop-1.4.8
Successfully installed mail-2.2.5
Successfully installed actionmailer-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed thor-0.13.6
Successfully installed railties-3.0.0.beta4
Successfully installed bundler-0.9.26
Successfully installed rails-3.0.0.beta4
23 gems installed

I've cut out the rdoc and ri output, you can run gem install rails --pre --no-ri --no-rdoc to install without them if you wish.

Now I can run and see what my rails version is.

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rails -v
Rails 3.0.0.beta4
whitey-found:rvm kevin$

Now to set up my other environments, I use this basic command structure:

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rvm 1.8.7@rails2.3.5
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ gem install rails -v=2.3.5 --no-ri --no-rdoc
Successfully installed activesupport-2.3.5
Successfully installed activerecord-2.3.5
Successfully installed rack-1.0.1
Successfully installed actionpack-2.3.5
Successfully installed actionmailer-2.3.5
Successfully installed activeresource-2.3.5
Successfully installed rails-2.3.5
7 gems installed

whitey-found:rvm kevin$ rails -v
Rails 2.3.5
whitey-found:rvm kevin$ gem list

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.5)
actionpack (2.3.5)
activerecord (2.3.5)
activeresource (2.3.5)
activesupport (2.3.5)
rack (1.0.1)
rails (2.3.5)
rake (0.8.7)
rdoc (2.5.8)
whitey-found:rvm kevin$

You can follow this same structure with Rails 2.2.2 and any other environments you may decide you need. For more detailed questions and answers as to the capabilities of RVM please make sure to visit:
http://rvm.beginrescueend.com

Many thanks to Wayne Seguin for this awesome contribution to the community. If RVM makes your coding more pleasant, please consider making a contribution to his project.

Adobe's Business Catalyst for Designers and non-programmers

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:33:00 GMT

There are some new Adobe videos over on their site about the utility of the Business Catalyst solution. Here is a link http://tv.adobe.com/show/introducing-business-catalyst/

Business Catalyst makes a Javascript web invaders game

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:11:00 GMT

http://businesscatalyst.com/webinvaders/game.html?promoid=?promoid=GYNAG

Check it out

Sony reinvents the consumer Handycam with its NEX-VG10

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:02:00 GMT

Using the sensor from their DSLR Alpha series, sony invents a consumer-level camcorder with interchangable lens capability. Take a look below.

This will be a game-changer for consumers and hobbyists when the price starts to drop into the thousand-dollar range (currently priced around $2000USD). Canon should have been the first at this game, and I look forward to seeing some competition in the space.

Welcome Joel West

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:39:00 GMT

We would like to welcome a new team member to our company. Joel West has served for the past 5 years as the lead web designer and print designer at MLC Advertising in Harrisonburg, VA; he now comes to Found to serve as Creative Director bringing his awesome photoshop skills and visual eye to all that we do here. We are excited to have him work with our current and future clients. Visit the Found Team Page to learn more about Joel.

Just double-checking

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:40:00 GMT

Drank too much coffee this morning, had lunch at Clementine's and wanting to make sure the feeds are interfacing with Facebook correctly.

Our Blogs can now update our Facebook and Twitter pages

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:48:00 GMT

Blogging is a useful tool to drive web traffic, but getting your content onto your own site is just the beginning. We can now integrate your website's blog RSS feed to enable your readers to see it in their favorite feed reader, in their email application, and now also on their twitter page and Facebook profiles. Allowing your website to publish content to Twitter and Facebook saves us all time and money we would rather spend on something else, rather than another channel you just have to set aside time for.

We are interested in hearing from you what kind of social networking sites you would want to integrate with, and how we can make your live easier by providing the tools to manage all these different mediums of advertising.