Tech.It.2.Me->{By.Anton.Perez}

Important points to consider:

1. Make it fit your budget

2. Will they just train you or will they train AND certify you?

3. Are they accredited … if so RUN AWAY!

4. What about the course content?

Read more here [via sixsigmaonline.org].

Googling “web design price” returns so many price variations it would drive anyone — especially a newbie freelance web designer/developer — up the wall.  It’s not funny.  You’ll see prices like “$299 for a 4-6 page website,” $350 a homepage & $75/page,” etc.

This is cheap, but usually they’re also ugly because these websites use already-made, boilerplate templates, which, in the end, makes the website just like the 50,000 others already out there.

Designing and developing a website takes a lot of time and effort, especially if the person working on it has his/her reputation on the line.  Being a believer of “you get what you pay for,” I believe this also applies to web design/development.  You can either buy a Toyota Corolla (cheap and like everbody else’s car) or get a Ferrari (expensive but unique).

A passionate and good designer/developer would employ the following (at the least):

• Best practices
• Standards-compliance
• Use optimal CSS/XHTML structure and adaptation
• Compose professional-looking graphics
• Create a clean, unique, and striking feel of the website
• Be so detail-oriented as to having OCD (e.g. looks at pixel spacing)

I’m writing this blog not to preach or rant, but to share my experience and explain why I charge $1,500 and up to design/develop a website.  I’ll say it again, it comes down to “you get what you pay for.”  Heck, I put in a lot of time and effort, not to mention the time I’m losing from spending time with my family, to create that quality website.

With 4 steps, you can read PDF files on your iPod. To do so:

1. Open the PDF document in Adobe Reader and save it as a text file.
2. Upload the text file to either eBookhood.com (my first choice) or iPod Notes Packager to convert it to Notes format, then download the converted file (i.e., zip format).
3. Plugin your iPod and make sure Enable Disk Use is enabled in iTunes.
4. Extract the zip file and place it in the Notes folder.

Viola! Simply navigate to Extras > Notes on your iPod. The whole book will be automatically linked for iPod reading.

This should get you started on reading more.

Here’s an excellent article on Reader’s Digest’s website chronicling 24 ways to improve your vision; thus, preventing computer eye strain.

Here’s an interesting article that Bill Gates wrote for the BBC News web site, that talks about the skills one needs to succeed in any career.