http://blog.looseends.net Ruminations of a remote professional on technology, entrepreneurism, family life Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:15:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption="Mulch pile"][/caption]When the seasons hint that they will soon be changing, as in late July, some women want to get new outfits, shoes or handbags. I like to look at sale catalogs but end up throwing down my hard-earned cash for things like a new garden shovel and wheel barrow, or ... http://blog.looseends.net/life-of-the-virtual-assistant/tools-not-of-your-trade/ In economically uncertain times, your business can prosper as long as you perceive this challenge as the opportunity it really is. Though you may stumble, your solution lies in devising a strategy, just like you did when you wrote your original business plan. (You did that, right?!) Let's ... http://blog.looseends.net/business-strategiesperspectives/finding-opportunity-in-uncertainty/ Another update. Another (temporary) crash. I don't know my way around version 2.6 yet as I just installed it. In fact, I was just getting used to 2.51 and then saw it was time to update again. I used the WordPress Automatic Update plugin and crashed my site. Then, did it manually ... http://blog.looseends.net/blogging/oops-here-we-go-again-another-wordpress-update/ In response to Lorelle on WordPress's weekly blogging challenge, I am considering the changes computer software has wrought in my life. I can still recall hearing the name Microsoft sometime in the early 80's, and wondering just what that even referred to?! At that time, the computer I had at my disposal ... http://blog.looseends.net/webtech/does-software-run-your-computer-or-your-life/ We've just put in a makeshift water containment system. My husband, usually very thrifty, "spends" the water as soon as we collect it. That is, he dumps it on a part of the yard that he doesn't think is getting enough water, even though we're in our summer rainy season ... http://blog.looseends.net/life-of-the-virtual-assistant/saving-water/ After help from numerous resources online (scroll to the bottom of Busted by Google to see some of the sites that helped me track down my hacked files), and combing through jillions (it feels like) files, I find this morning that my google search engine results are restored to ... http://blog.looseends.net/blogging/google-status-restored-the-wordpress-hack-aftermath/ Recovering from hacks Sigh. I love Google. I have had great luck over the years with DIY SEO and have always found Google's resources to be extremely helpful. Inexplicably, I seem to be in trouble with Google and have spent about 48 hours trying to figure out the issue, if there is ... http://blog.looseends.net/blogging/busted-by-google/ Taryn Merrick, a colleague and web designer (whose work I admire a lot) and I have been discussing the trend of taking an old web site, built with an html editor, say, and converting it into a WordPress site, which can function as a combination static site and blog. She and ... http://blog.looseends.net/blogging/converting-from-static-site-to-wordpress-blog/ I like the simplicity of being an owner/operator of my business. This week, though, I was listening when the universe pointed out to me that my accounting system might need some fine tuning. Or, I might need to turn it over to someone else. First, I misplaced an entire stack of client ... http://blog.looseends.net/life-of-the-virtual-assistant/you-cant-be-expert-at-everything/ This is a Mac office and in it, I often open Word files from clients who are PC users. No problem. Between a handy little utility file called icWord and keeping a version of Microsoft Office for Mac on my secondary computer, I rarely encounter issues. Till today. A client sent me ... http://blog.looseends.net/webtech/macs/opening-word-docs-with-docxcpgz-file-extension/