Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
What The Hell Am I Going to Do With 1,000 Paperclips?
Forgot to add this earlier.
I was at Staples picking up ink, paper and other assorted goodies that appeal to the small-business owner and I wanted a pack of paperclips.
Not jumbo paperclips, not pretty coloured paperclips (although I have some of those) - just regular, paperclips. By that I mean the little curvy bits of silvery metal, not the big spring of black metal and two flexible arms (bulldog clip in the UK). The only option was the '10-pack' consisting of 10x packs of 100 clips all held together with impenetrable shrinkwrap.
What on earth am I going to do with 1,000 paperclips? Who uses that many clips? I can understand that a few may go missing, a couple irretrievably bent out of shape to open a locked CD-ROM drawer because you're too lazy to power the thing on, but really - 1,000?
I wouldn't object too much if they were in a nice, small box - but each 100 was packaged in a little container the size of a box of matches, so even if I only use one pack, I've still got to find a home for the other nine boxes.
Do people give them away as presents? Would you want to receive a box of paperclips as a gift?
The mind boggles. Who uses 1,000 paperclips?!?!?! Seriously, think Staples, think...
I was at Staples picking up ink, paper and other assorted goodies that appeal to the small-business owner and I wanted a pack of paperclips.
Not jumbo paperclips, not pretty coloured paperclips (although I have some of those) - just regular, paperclips. By that I mean the little curvy bits of silvery metal, not the big spring of black metal and two flexible arms (bulldog clip in the UK). The only option was the '10-pack' consisting of 10x packs of 100 clips all held together with impenetrable shrinkwrap.
What on earth am I going to do with 1,000 paperclips? Who uses that many clips? I can understand that a few may go missing, a couple irretrievably bent out of shape to open a locked CD-ROM drawer because you're too lazy to power the thing on, but really - 1,000?
I wouldn't object too much if they were in a nice, small box - but each 100 was packaged in a little container the size of a box of matches, so even if I only use one pack, I've still got to find a home for the other nine boxes.
Do people give them away as presents? Would you want to receive a box of paperclips as a gift?
The mind boggles. Who uses 1,000 paperclips?!?!?! Seriously, think Staples, think...
...and fall slams into Calgary
What the hell happened to summer? I want a refund. I know that fall is here because I'm stood in a parking lot Wednesday evening putting decals on a day-cares new buses and it's starting to get damn cold!
I know this because the material isn't as pliable, it's dark half-way through the first bus at 2030 and my fingers are starting to get that dryness that just begs for paper cuts.
Still, can't have everything I guess. My apologies for no posts recently, it's been busy here - so much so that I've just sent out invoices for work performed back in June. I hate doing my accounting - but I'm getting better at it. On the plus side I should have a new tutorial that explains DPI and pixels pretty well along with some more amusing stuff to go in the amusement gallery.
Must go, bed is calling...
I know this because the material isn't as pliable, it's dark half-way through the first bus at 2030 and my fingers are starting to get that dryness that just begs for paper cuts.
Still, can't have everything I guess. My apologies for no posts recently, it's been busy here - so much so that I've just sent out invoices for work performed back in June. I hate doing my accounting - but I'm getting better at it. On the plus side I should have a new tutorial that explains DPI and pixels pretty well along with some more amusing stuff to go in the amusement gallery.
Must go, bed is calling...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
'No Soliciting' Sign Now Available
The aforementioned 'No Soliciting' sign is now available as either a free sticker or as a downloadable PDF. Feel free to distribute as you see fit. I put mine onto corplast and used foam-backed adhesive to mount it to the vinyl siding next to the door-bell of FPDI HQ.
If you've got any suggestions as to free stickers that you think other people might like - send me an email, or post something to this thread.
If you've got any suggestions as to free stickers that you think other people might like - send me an email, or post something to this thread.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Free 'No Soliciting' Sign - Coming Soon
I've just made up a 'No Soliciting' sign to go on the door-bell of my workshop. It's been a constant stream of people all summer wanting money in some way shape or form.
Anyway, I'll make a PDF version available for download tomorrow, and I'll also make a free sticker version available in the 'Free Decals' area of my website.
Watch this space...
Anyway, I'll make a PDF version available for download tomorrow, and I'll also make a free sticker version available in the 'Free Decals' area of my website.
Watch this space...
Friday, August 31, 2007
The Weirdness Of Webstats
'lo people - thought I'd drop a line to prove that I've not evaporated from the planet.
I've been paying lots of attention recently to the stats collected by the webserver for Floating Point - you can take a look yourself here: www.fpdimages.com/webstats
Specifically, since moving the site away from the 'framed' version to the new swanky layered version the traffic is steadily increasing which I'm particularly glad to see since the move to frames caused traffic to crater.
What always causes complete confusion in my mind is why so many people are downloading the font lists. Within the support area I have two large PDF's that contain samples of all the fonts I currently have to hand. You can't extract the fonts, much less use them for anything, but that doesn't stop the top-downloads each and every month being the two PDF's. Anyone got any ideas why this would be?
Also interesting is that the Mario graphics are getting a lot of serves so I reworked the pricing and ability to purchase more efficiently 'pairs' of the two main products.
As you might have noticed on the mini-log I'm being bombarded from time to time with tons of returned spam. This comes and goes but is more a pain in the bum more than any real inconvenience. I'm convinced though that having an easily clickable email address outweighs the deluge of crap I get each day, so it will stay.
I'm investigating the possibility of being able to produce custom-wrapping paper and am in the midst of sourcing a suitable material. I'd appreciate feedback on this thought as always so either contact me directly or put up a post here. Like with most things Floating Point it'll be pretty flexible so contributions are welcome.
More pics coming to the gallery soon, along with a bunch of reader-submitted amusing signage pics :)
Take care,
I've been paying lots of attention recently to the stats collected by the webserver for Floating Point - you can take a look yourself here: www.fpdimages.com/webstats
Specifically, since moving the site away from the 'framed' version to the new swanky layered version the traffic is steadily increasing which I'm particularly glad to see since the move to frames caused traffic to crater.
What always causes complete confusion in my mind is why so many people are downloading the font lists. Within the support area I have two large PDF's that contain samples of all the fonts I currently have to hand. You can't extract the fonts, much less use them for anything, but that doesn't stop the top-downloads each and every month being the two PDF's. Anyone got any ideas why this would be?
Also interesting is that the Mario graphics are getting a lot of serves so I reworked the pricing and ability to purchase more efficiently 'pairs' of the two main products.
As you might have noticed on the mini-log I'm being bombarded from time to time with tons of returned spam. This comes and goes but is more a pain in the bum more than any real inconvenience. I'm convinced though that having an easily clickable email address outweighs the deluge of crap I get each day, so it will stay.
I'm investigating the possibility of being able to produce custom-wrapping paper and am in the midst of sourcing a suitable material. I'd appreciate feedback on this thought as always so either contact me directly or put up a post here. Like with most things Floating Point it'll be pretty flexible so contributions are welcome.
More pics coming to the gallery soon, along with a bunch of reader-submitted amusing signage pics :)
Take care,
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Love and Hate Through DreamWeaver
All go here. Lots of changes on the website. The pricing pages have been entirely restructured so that it now quizzes you about your project before producing a guide to the costs involved. I'm quite happy with that, but it still needs some fine tuning.
After making a reasonably snap decision, I've put my contact phone number up there. In the past I've held off on that because I didn't want to get bombarded with telephone sales people, but we'll see.
A tutorial on why tiny gif files don't scale up very well has also been written - that came out really well.
Most of this was originally sketched out using Freemind - a wonderful tool for abstract planning and best of all, free.
Naturally, my love/hate relationship with DreamWeaver has been pushed to the limit. A combination of weird-crashes have plagued me all through the revising of these pages, but right now I have no compelling urge to rush out and purchase a replacement. 'Suck it up, Princess' is definitely the phrase there.
A mini-blog has been added to the front page of the website, this keeps a record of what's going on and is immediately visible to visitors.
The plan to gradually personalize the site away from the sterile 'we' and 'us' is coming along nicely, so now there is a wonderful disconnect between some pages describing FPDI as an outfit with at least two people, and others that describe it more accurately, which is of course - just me. Oh, and I added a pic of me on the front page, and there is a 'Simpsonized' version on the 'About FPDI'.
...and lastly, my customized packing tape has arrived. This compliments my unhealthy fascination with tape-guns nicely >:)
After making a reasonably snap decision, I've put my contact phone number up there. In the past I've held off on that because I didn't want to get bombarded with telephone sales people, but we'll see.
A tutorial on why tiny gif files don't scale up very well has also been written - that came out really well.
Most of this was originally sketched out using Freemind - a wonderful tool for abstract planning and best of all, free.
Naturally, my love/hate relationship with DreamWeaver has been pushed to the limit. A combination of weird-crashes have plagued me all through the revising of these pages, but right now I have no compelling urge to rush out and purchase a replacement. 'Suck it up, Princess' is definitely the phrase there.
A mini-blog has been added to the front page of the website, this keeps a record of what's going on and is immediately visible to visitors.
The plan to gradually personalize the site away from the sterile 'we' and 'us' is coming along nicely, so now there is a wonderful disconnect between some pages describing FPDI as an outfit with at least two people, and others that describe it more accurately, which is of course - just me. Oh, and I added a pic of me on the front page, and there is a 'Simpsonized' version on the 'About FPDI'.
...and lastly, my customized packing tape has arrived. This compliments my unhealthy fascination with tape-guns nicely >:)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Down To Earth, And Being People Focused
I've got sick and fed up of pretending to be something I'm not. I'm a sole-proprietor, I don't have a staff. Enormous ego at times sure, but staff? - no. At the same time, I think it's time to 'personalize' Floating Point and to communicate to the population that it's a friendly service that I provide. There are any number of non-descript 'is there anybody home' websites there. I want people to visit Floating Point and feel the enthusiasm for decals oozing from the page, and that there is a warm-bodied person behind it.
So, I'm gradually working through the web-pages, swapping 'us' for 'me', 'we' for 'I' and basically making it very down to earth. I hope that in doing so the 'personal' touch comes through and that people feel more comfortable approaching FPDI out of the blue.
Consequently, I'm gradually removing all the 'mydesign@' and 'info@' vague email addresses that just scream 'bottomless pit'. They'll be replaced with links to my personal box, which of course is 'leighton@fpdimages.com'. I'm sure this will attract spam like there is no tomorrow, but I don't care. I don't like emailing 'info@' - there is no connection to a person, I can't think for the life of me why anyone else would want to either.
Moving on. I've been delighted to provide Janet Parke with numerous samples of my fractal printing service, by her invitation no less. I'm very excited about this as Janet is a recognized leader and skilled teacher in the world of fractal art.
It occured to me that if someone is printing an image that is very precious to them, then they want someone to care. Servers don't care, a typical shopping-cart website is like talking to a brickwall. So I pulled out all the workflow that involved people talking to servers to make their purchase. There is a place for efficientcy - so the online purchasing still exists in most other parts of the store, but I recognize that fractal printing needs something 'different'.
Instead, people are now directed to contact me directly, and I'll do all the legwork for processing and receiving payment of an electronic invoice.
I'm hoping that this will be a much more personal experience for my clients. I'm sure I've alienated those people who do just want to talk to a server and get through as quick as possible, but I think most people want a bit of acknowledgement. That is to say, that someone - not something - is going to make sure it gets done right. The medical world has known about this for centuries - it's called 'bedside manner'.
Well, that was quite a long post, and I need to turn in for the night. Keep your eyes on the website as it gradually 'humanizes' it way through another small set of changes. Send me your suggestions if you have any - as always...
So, I'm gradually working through the web-pages, swapping 'us' for 'me', 'we' for 'I' and basically making it very down to earth. I hope that in doing so the 'personal' touch comes through and that people feel more comfortable approaching FPDI out of the blue.
Consequently, I'm gradually removing all the 'mydesign@' and 'info@' vague email addresses that just scream 'bottomless pit'. They'll be replaced with links to my personal box, which of course is 'leighton@fpdimages.com'. I'm sure this will attract spam like there is no tomorrow, but I don't care. I don't like emailing 'info@' - there is no connection to a person, I can't think for the life of me why anyone else would want to either.
Moving on. I've been delighted to provide Janet Parke with numerous samples of my fractal printing service, by her invitation no less. I'm very excited about this as Janet is a recognized leader and skilled teacher in the world of fractal art.
It occured to me that if someone is printing an image that is very precious to them, then they want someone to care. Servers don't care, a typical shopping-cart website is like talking to a brickwall. So I pulled out all the workflow that involved people talking to servers to make their purchase. There is a place for efficientcy - so the online purchasing still exists in most other parts of the store, but I recognize that fractal printing needs something 'different'.
Instead, people are now directed to contact me directly, and I'll do all the legwork for processing and receiving payment of an electronic invoice.
I'm hoping that this will be a much more personal experience for my clients. I'm sure I've alienated those people who do just want to talk to a server and get through as quick as possible, but I think most people want a bit of acknowledgement. That is to say, that someone - not something - is going to make sure it gets done right. The medical world has known about this for centuries - it's called 'bedside manner'.
Well, that was quite a long post, and I need to turn in for the night. Keep your eyes on the website as it gradually 'humanizes' it way through another small set of changes. Send me your suggestions if you have any - as always...
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Seriously Awesome Portable Darwin Sticker Pack Launched
I don't think I've been this excited about a product since I launched the tension sheets.
Anyway, Portable Darwin Sticker packs are now available on my website, here.
Anyway, Portable Darwin Sticker packs are now available on my website, here.
Each pack ($10 Canadian, free shipping) has twelve pages and concists of 12 4" 'Darwin Has A Posse' decals and 36 0.4" 'Posse' decals. They're business card sized so they fit conveniently into wallets and purses for stickering opportunities. Or, if you prefer, you can use the supplied fetching cable-tie and strap them to backpacks, bags and other 'stuff'.
Very, very groovy.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Seriously Cool Darwin Product - Coming Soon (And Back From Vacation)
After a weeks worth of camping in British Columbia I'm back from the 80% humidity and raring to go - at least for the next 48 hours at least.
I worked my way through Seth's 'The Purple Cow' for the second time and made notes, so that all gave way to lots of exciting new things for the upcoming six months of Floating Point fun and entertainment. I made a start on 'The Big Moo', but didn't finish that up before the rain set in. BTW - Palm 700p's - not waterproof. They do not like being in a pair of shorts that's soaked by a downpour. However, you can remedy the situation with 1 hours worth of low-heat hairdrying action.
I digress.
The biggest thing is that I have a seriously cool idea for a new Darwin product, which I've been prototyping like a man posessed for the last few hours. Once I've got it 100%, I'll put up a post, link to the store and start assembling a newsletter announcement.
More, probably tomorrow - along with photos...
I worked my way through Seth's 'The Purple Cow' for the second time and made notes, so that all gave way to lots of exciting new things for the upcoming six months of Floating Point fun and entertainment. I made a start on 'The Big Moo', but didn't finish that up before the rain set in. BTW - Palm 700p's - not waterproof. They do not like being in a pair of shorts that's soaked by a downpour. However, you can remedy the situation with 1 hours worth of low-heat hairdrying action.
I digress.
The biggest thing is that I have a seriously cool idea for a new Darwin product, which I've been prototyping like a man posessed for the last few hours. Once I've got it 100%, I'll put up a post, link to the store and start assembling a newsletter announcement.
More, probably tomorrow - along with photos...
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Darwin Disclaimer Stickers - Coming Soon!
Attention 'Darwin has a Posse' fans! The full set of Colin's 'Schoolbook Disclaimer Stickers' will soon be available from Floating Point.
The decals (as featured here: http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/evoops.htm) should be available in decal form over the next couple of days from Floating Points site - here:
http://www.fpdimages.com/html/StoreEvolutionSmallDecals.htm
Later!
The decals (as featured here: http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/evoops.htm) should be available in decal form over the next couple of days from Floating Points site - here:
http://www.fpdimages.com/html/StoreEvolutionSmallDecals.htm
Later!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Website Revamped - ish
After a couple of days of effort I've reworked most of the pages on our website to take advantage of 'layers'. That is to say, the days of having the bizzare effects of 'frames' plaguing URL references - are no more!
All URLS are directly accessible and in the process some of the more complex pages have been entirely reworked away from stupidly tricky tables. All in all, a step in the right direction. This should be the last rework of the site for a loooong time, or at least - I really hope so - I hate website editing.
By the way, this was no mean feat - believe it or not there are almost 60 pages that make up the FPDI website - so, stop by and if you spot a problem please let me know!
Thanks!
All URLS are directly accessible and in the process some of the more complex pages have been entirely reworked away from stupidly tricky tables. All in all, a step in the right direction. This should be the last rework of the site for a loooong time, or at least - I really hope so - I hate website editing.
By the way, this was no mean feat - believe it or not there are almost 60 pages that make up the FPDI website - so, stop by and if you spot a problem please let me know!
Thanks!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Back on the tape-gun fettish
Hey :) Glad you could join us.
Exciting things afoot at Floating Point - we've just ordered our first batch of CUSTOM Floating Point 2" packing tape. Yes - we've hit the big time now! All shipments will have our name and fetching logo all over the tape. Wow-wee! Custom tape to load into our tape-gun - it doesn't get much better than that.
We've also ordered a whole whack of letter-size card mailers to satisfy the demand for the free 'Decal The World' fall-out, which is rather nifty.
The Darwin sticker project took a bit of a lift when I met IN PERSON Jay Ingram from Discovery's 'Daily Planet' - I sent him a whole bundle of stuff that may or may not one day grace the screens of the TV - here's hoping.
I think that's just about it for this post... Later...
Exciting things afoot at Floating Point - we've just ordered our first batch of CUSTOM Floating Point 2" packing tape. Yes - we've hit the big time now! All shipments will have our name and fetching logo all over the tape. Wow-wee! Custom tape to load into our tape-gun - it doesn't get much better than that.
We've also ordered a whole whack of letter-size card mailers to satisfy the demand for the free 'Decal The World' fall-out, which is rather nifty.
The Darwin sticker project took a bit of a lift when I met IN PERSON Jay Ingram from Discovery's 'Daily Planet' - I sent him a whole bundle of stuff that may or may not one day grace the screens of the TV - here's hoping.
I think that's just about it for this post... Later...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Help - Please!
Hi there,
I'm about half-way through Seth Godins' 'Small is the New Big'. To summarize, he advocates going in the opposite direction to the way that your competition works, or at least - doing things differently. Now, while I don't think he means that literally and that Floating Point should suddenly start making everything from glue and macaroni, what I think he's getting at is that Floating Point should at least go about reinventing the way that signage shops work.
So - I'm throwing this open to suggestions. To get the ball rolling - Floating Point has instigated the 'Free Decals For The World' - which I mentioned in the last post. If you've not read that one, what it basically means is that I'll print and ship to you - absolutely free - a set of graphics of your own design. If you like them, and want to buy more you can - but there isn't any obligation. I have yet to hear of any other signage shop doing that.
I'm hoping that the Floating Point fans out there will have some ideas for me, or at least suggestions on what you want a signage shop to be. What will help? What is important? What can I do to turn Floating Point into something considerably more 'remarkable'?
Thanks in advance...
I'm about half-way through Seth Godins' 'Small is the New Big'. To summarize, he advocates going in the opposite direction to the way that your competition works, or at least - doing things differently. Now, while I don't think he means that literally and that Floating Point should suddenly start making everything from glue and macaroni, what I think he's getting at is that Floating Point should at least go about reinventing the way that signage shops work.
So - I'm throwing this open to suggestions. To get the ball rolling - Floating Point has instigated the 'Free Decals For The World' - which I mentioned in the last post. If you've not read that one, what it basically means is that I'll print and ship to you - absolutely free - a set of graphics of your own design. If you like them, and want to buy more you can - but there isn't any obligation. I have yet to hear of any other signage shop doing that.
I'm hoping that the Floating Point fans out there will have some ideas for me, or at least suggestions on what you want a signage shop to be. What will help? What is important? What can I do to turn Floating Point into something considerably more 'remarkable'?
Thanks in advance...
Monday, May 21, 2007
Free Decals For The World!
Seriously cool news. I've just updated the website to now offer up free decals from Floating Point. I've dropped a handful of templates to get the ball rolling, but basically all you need to do is design your decal, send it to us and we'll print and ship it for free!
That is really all there is too it. No catches - have at it people! Can't wait to see what you come up with...
That is really all there is too it. No catches - have at it people! Can't wait to see what you come up with...
Sunday, May 13, 2007
FPDI In Sponsorship Excitement!
OK, so that headline might be a little over the top, but FPDI has sponsored it's first 'thing'. The 'thing' in question was a junior hockey tournament held here in Calgary. So, we kitted them out with banners, and name badges, and door signs and everything and it looked great. Thanks to Neal and Janice @ Professional Sign Supply who donated the material.
Once I get the pics off the camera I'll upload them to the gallery.
The great decal give-away hasn't gone entirely to the dogs, it's just a case of getting around to it - so still stay tuned for that.
Lastly, Floating Point has moved it's mailing list provider to 'Constant Contact' because it appears that bCentral is being knocked on the head by Microsoft.
Oh, and our laminator has broken down. Right now it's in lots of little pieces, but thanks to the nice people at Daige a new 'bit' is on the way.
S'all I've got right now, take care, people...
Once I get the pics off the camera I'll upload them to the gallery.
The great decal give-away hasn't gone entirely to the dogs, it's just a case of getting around to it - so still stay tuned for that.
Lastly, Floating Point has moved it's mailing list provider to 'Constant Contact' because it appears that bCentral is being knocked on the head by Microsoft.
Oh, and our laminator has broken down. Right now it's in lots of little pieces, but thanks to the nice people at Daige a new 'bit' is on the way.
S'all I've got right now, take care, people...
Monday, April 23, 2007
New Pricing, New Pics, New FTP Instructions! Aye aye aye
Well, it's been a full on exciting weekend full of the joys of spring. Here's some of the wonderous delights now awaiting at FPDI...
Probably the biggest thing is that I've finally got around to updating all the 'Pricing' webpages with the new, well, pricing. In a nutshell I've abolished all of the $65 set-up fees as well as introducing 'Print by the square inch' for artwork printing. This makes the math a bit easier to do.
Secondly, the gallery has been updated with some more new cool projects - most of them in the fractal area but also a couple in the banner section too.
Thirdly, I've finally made up some 'official' instructions on how to use our FTP site for image upload. This is pretty exciting for me since up until this point I've been sounding like a broken record each time I've needed to send the information to someone in an email. These instructions can now be downloaded from the 'Support' section of our website.
The unusual project of the month award goes to an aircraft decal. I'll put pics up when it's completed, but it's a 2' rendering of 'Scamp' from 'Lady and the Tramp' (Disney) and will be eventually mounted on the underside of the wing on a Cessna 152. Very cool, traced from a teeny gif.
That's about all the news for the moment, other than if you've signed up for our newsletter, the service will now be coming to you from ConstantContact since Microsoft is retiring their bCentral product.
Later people...
Probably the biggest thing is that I've finally got around to updating all the 'Pricing' webpages with the new, well, pricing. In a nutshell I've abolished all of the $65 set-up fees as well as introducing 'Print by the square inch' for artwork printing. This makes the math a bit easier to do.
Secondly, the gallery has been updated with some more new cool projects - most of them in the fractal area but also a couple in the banner section too.
Thirdly, I've finally made up some 'official' instructions on how to use our FTP site for image upload. This is pretty exciting for me since up until this point I've been sounding like a broken record each time I've needed to send the information to someone in an email. These instructions can now be downloaded from the 'Support' section of our website.
The unusual project of the month award goes to an aircraft decal. I'll put pics up when it's completed, but it's a 2' rendering of 'Scamp' from 'Lady and the Tramp' (Disney) and will be eventually mounted on the underside of the wing on a Cessna 152. Very cool, traced from a teeny gif.
That's about all the news for the moment, other than if you've signed up for our newsletter, the service will now be coming to you from ConstantContact since Microsoft is retiring their bCentral product.
Later people...
Thursday, April 19, 2007
No News Is Good News
Not much to report here, other than the excitement of now being able to do my own shipping on Canada Posts' website. It's truly wonderous.
At ease, people...
At ease, people...
Sunday, April 08, 2007
New Gallery Bits and Bobs
It's been a while since I updated the gallery, so I've cleaned up some of the photos I've taken, along with photos sent in very kindly by clients and now they're in the respective areas of 'The Gallery'. Queue theme from 'Vision On'. Don't worry if you don't get that little joke. ;)
This weeks monumental discovery was that I can now address, pay for and label all my outgoing work thanks to Canada Posts online Business Centre. It's great. The rates still seem almost random, but at least now I don't have to stand in line-ups at the Post Office.
That's about it for this little update, later..
This weeks monumental discovery was that I can now address, pay for and label all my outgoing work thanks to Canada Posts online Business Centre. It's great. The rates still seem almost random, but at least now I don't have to stand in line-ups at the Post Office.
That's about it for this little update, later..
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Small Business Ownership - Losing Ones Marbles
Today I found myself lusting after the 'deluxe' tape-gun in my local Staples. I think I've finally lost my mind. The fumes from the ink in the plotter have finally caught up to me. My life, as I know it has suddenly taken a very sad and tragic downturn.
Please, a moments silence for my dignity...
Please, a moments silence for my dignity...
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Calgary Nintendo DS Meetup.Com Event Launched!
So, I decided that Calgary need a Meetup.com event for Nintendo DS enthusiasts like myself. I've already got some Mario stickers on my site that I produced originally for my neice and nephew - so I guess it was only a matter of time before something larger took off.
The problem of where to host so that everyone in Calgary could get to it was solved when I hit on the idea of hosting it on the C-Train, so that's what I've decided to do. On April 10th (if anyone shows up) we'll meet on the C-Train @ Dalhousie and game all the way down to the last south stop - Somerset. Then, we'll game all the way back to Dalhousie which I figure should take about 90 mins. The theory being that we might pick up people as we go along. On Monday I have to start letting the media know about this, but it's late and I need to get some sleep.
Anyway, you can read all about it here. Please let people know!
The problem of where to host so that everyone in Calgary could get to it was solved when I hit on the idea of hosting it on the C-Train, so that's what I've decided to do. On April 10th (if anyone shows up) we'll meet on the C-Train @ Dalhousie and game all the way down to the last south stop - Somerset. Then, we'll game all the way back to Dalhousie which I figure should take about 90 mins. The theory being that we might pick up people as we go along. On Monday I have to start letting the media know about this, but it's late and I need to get some sleep.
Anyway, you can read all about it here. Please let people know!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Congratulations to the Glenlake PeeWee 4 Hawks!!!
We're dead pleased that the Glenlake PeeWee 4 Hawks are now the Division 5 Champions, Minor Hockey Week Finalist, Division Points Leader, Jingle Bell Classic Tournament Winners!! Congratulations to all of you! Their goaltender, Julian Bentivegna is also up for the Mike Vernon Goaltender Award, which we can only conclude is good.
We do their banners and decal work - incase you were wondering, since the rest of this blog is entirely void of sport related material :)
Again, congrats to the team and support crew!
We do their banners and decal work - incase you were wondering, since the rest of this blog is entirely void of sport related material :)
Again, congrats to the team and support crew!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Ooooh, Toys...
Time for an update. all go here - we've bought a huuuuuuge trimmer for slicing wide sheets of 'stuff' and we've now also got a sweet grommet press. Ok, so it's not massively exciting but big news for us.
Other news is that the UltraFractal roundrobin has now finished so we're now in the process of printing off the resultant images as the sponsorship we contributed.
Right now the plotter is flat out in 'trade show' season - so that's great.
Lots of other ideas here and we're still trying to get our free decal give-away sorted out. Oh yeah, and stay tuned for news on revised and simpler pricing.
Later, people... :)
Other news is that the UltraFractal roundrobin has now finished so we're now in the process of printing off the resultant images as the sponsorship we contributed.
Right now the plotter is flat out in 'trade show' season - so that's great.
Lots of other ideas here and we're still trying to get our free decal give-away sorted out. Oh yeah, and stay tuned for news on revised and simpler pricing.
Later, people... :)
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Almost There With Free Stuff!
Well, it's been a bit of work, but the plans for the Give-Away are finally coming together.
Coincidentally, I've been able to tie this together with a massive overhaul of how custom high-resolution printing is priced, so I'll be announcing those via the newsletter - which, if you've not already signed up is located here:
http://www.fpdimages.com/html/NewsletterFramed.htm
Our hosting people have been hard at work preparing and 'Upload' area for us, so we're now able to accept files dropped directly onto our server. This will remove the need for us to be so reliant on YouSendIt who insist on fluctuating between requiring registration and not - which is most irritating for our clients.
Anyway, I must get back to FreeMind to finish off putting all my thoughts down before I forget.
Later, people...
Coincidentally, I've been able to tie this together with a massive overhaul of how custom high-resolution printing is priced, so I'll be announcing those via the newsletter - which, if you've not already signed up is located here:
http://www.fpdimages.com/html/NewsletterFramed.htm
Our hosting people have been hard at work preparing and 'Upload' area for us, so we're now able to accept files dropped directly onto our server. This will remove the need for us to be so reliant on YouSendIt who insist on fluctuating between requiring registration and not - which is most irritating for our clients.
Anyway, I must get back to FreeMind to finish off putting all my thoughts down before I forget.
Later, people...
Monday, February 26, 2007
Ultrafractal Sponsorship
FPDI is pleased to announce that we're sponsoring the community fractal project that's currently taking place on the ultrafractal mailing list. Each contributor will receive a high res. print of the final fractal, mailed to them free of charge.
Free stuff coming up!
It's always been a goal to make the FPDI newsletter a vehicle to give away stuff to the dedicated fanbase. So far this hasn't exactly happened but things are in the works - might have some news by the end of the week...
Back at it
Ok - so, I have a swanky new Palm Treo phone which is working wonders for me. In theory I should now be able to update this blog more often because now I can do it while sat on the bus!
So - almost new years resolution - update blog more... better late than never...
So - almost new years resolution - update blog more... better late than never...
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