2007 November | flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Archive for November, 2007

Adding Wireless to Your iMac – After The Mac’s USB Wireless Adapter

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

We recently purchased a shiny, new metallic iMac for the home office, replacing our old swivel-neck G4 iMac.

Since I want my daughters, three & five, (their ages, not their names), to feel comfortable on a computer, we decided to put the G4 iMac in the kitchen where they could bang away on it. We also wanted to be able to connect to the Internet. However, we didn’t want to run the cable from the office into the kitchen.

I started doing some research into adding a wireless card in the iMac and saw pricing around $150 and up. However, after doing some research on eBay, I found After The Mac’s USB wireless adapter for just $49.95. What’s extra nice is that it plugs into the iMac’s USB port, meaning I don’t have to open up the iMac to install it.

While it’s not as elegant as an internal card (more wires, more desk space required,) it’s a great solution. I have been really impressed with the ease of setup, the wireless signal I’m getting from it, and of course the price.

If you have a G4 or G5 iMac without wireless capability I strongly recommend you take a look at the Mac USB Wireless Adapter from After the Mac.

Rich Brooks
Doing Your Research for You

Posted in Off Topic | No Comments »

Welcome, Andy!

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Andy_kid
OK, Andy’s been with us for a while…so sue me.

Andy’s been a full fledged crew member here at flyte for a couple of months or more, but we just added him to the flyte crew page. Before that he did some freelance work for us, and once we saw his beautiful code we just knew he’d fit in.

CSS, Joomla, Flash, WordPress, the man seems to do it all. (And watch the girls swoon over his British accent!)

In any case, we’re glad to have him aboard. You can learn more about Andy Woznica on our crew page.

Rich Brooks
Anglophile

Posted in flyte news | 4 Comments »

Not Ready for My Close Up

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

One of my personal highlights of BlogWorld was hanging out with Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of The Blog Squad.

One of my personal lowlights might be this quickie interview they did with me after one-too-many Vegas late nights. You be the judge.

Man, did YouTube have to go with that screen capture?

Rich Brooks
I Need More Coffee Before Interviews

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, flyte news | 6 Comments »

The Wifi Ate My Post

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

I’m here at the BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Yesterday was tremendous; head…too…full.

Unfortunately, the wifi went down as I was posting during the keynote yesterday and I lost my post. In any case, I started taking notes in Word and I’m going to digest them first, then post them up.

There are a number of people doing "live blogging" here, but I just can’t keep up. Look for BlogWorld on Technorati and I’m sure you’ll find up to the micro second info if you need it, you Twitter heads.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Consultant

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing | 4 Comments »

Free Wifi at Manchester Boston Regional Airport

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

I’m sitting at gate 14 at the Manchester airport, waiting for my flight to Las Vegas and the Blogworld and New Media expo. After checking emails on my spanking new iPhone I popped open my laptop and to my surprise Manchester airport offers free wifi! (I guess it’s to be expected in the Live Free or Die state.)

It got me thinking about wifi, and how some establishments offer it and others don’t. When is it a good business decision to offer free wifi to your patrons? I notice some coffee shops give it away for free, others it’s free for people who are actually buying something, and other places make you pay for it.

At Boston’s Logan airport wifi costs $10/day. Since that’s about $8 less than a tuna sandwich at Logan, it’s relatively not a bad deal.

Manchester Boston Regional airport has little incentive to give wifi away for free. After all, the tuna sandwiches here are like $12. It’s not like I can go anywhere else for wifi, and I am not going to change airports to get free wifi.

Maybe it’s to make up for long security lines (which I’ve never experienced at Manchester) or the fact I have to take off my shoes before boarding a plane.

Maybe it’s like heat, or cooling, or a comfy seat, and it’s just something that the good folks here at Manchester feel that should be part of the price of a ticket. (The seats here are really comfortable, and they don’t even have those annoying arm rests between them, so you can sack out if there’s room.)

Maybe it’s to get business bloggers spreading the good word that Manchester airport rocks, and if you’re going to fly into northern New England you might want to make Manchester your arrival point, even if it’s not the closest airport.

In any case, it makes this blogger’s life that much easier. Now, if they could just add more outlets for us laptop jockeys.

Rich Brooks
Travelin’ Man

Posted in Business Philosophy, Off Topic | 4 Comments »

Facebook: Early Impressions

Monday, November 5th, 2007

Logo_facebook
After many repeated invitations, I finally broke down and joined Facebook. For those of you who don’t know, Facebook is a growing, popular social networking Web site.

For those of you who do know, you’re probably wondering why I’m so behind the times. (Sad fact: the first time I heard of email I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. "Why would I bother typing a message to someone when I can just pick up the phone?")

Live and learn.

Social media Web sites like MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn, generally allow users to create profiles online and connect with other users in a bunch of different ways. Sharing photos, videos, links, ratings and more.

It’s interesting to see the ripples you cause just by joining and seeing if your friends are already there. I uploaded my contacts and over 60 of them were already members.

I then asked them to be my friend, which is a lot less pathetic than it sounds. (I hope.)

Now I get updates when my Facebook friends do things, like upload a new photo album or join a new group like Portland, ME or Red Sox Fans. After I invited my friends to be friends, I saw that a number of them noticed other "real world" people they were friends with in my network and became friends themselves.

That’s good eKarma.

Rich Brooks
NKOTB

Posted in Web Marketing | 4 Comments »

My first iPhone Post

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Yes, I broke down and. Bought an ipbone. As you van pro nably tell, I’m not very experienced texting.

Despite what I was told at the at&t store you cannot use wifi for making calls, but you can use it to surf the web, check maps rtje weather and HyouTuvbe

Stupid thumbs.

2 things co nspired 2 get me 2 by this by toy. First is my upcoming trip to Vegas. The 2nd is Hifghrise, a new Crm from 37 signals. Its a wweb app, allowing me to access all our client info from a secure web site. Contact info, directions, emails, files, todos and more.

Well enough of this nonsense. My thumbs are cramping and its nearly 5.

Rich Brooks
iPhhoner

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing | No Comments »

Back Cove Yachts: Maine Built Yachts

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Last week flyte launched a site for Back Cove Yachts, a Maine-based boat building company infused with tradition.

Visitors to the site can get learn more about the different models Back Cove offers, review the specs and performance data, download brochures, view images and even take virtual tours.

Owners of Back Cove yachts can submit photos to be included in the Owner’s Gallery that appears on the site. Future owners–as I like to call them–can check out Dealer Open Houses or find a dealer near them by entering their zip code into the Dealer Finder.

Flyte built a robust backend for Back Cove so that they could provide updated information to their network of dealers and manage parts of the Web site themselves. Dealers have one set of privileges while Back Cove has higher administrative control.

The site features loads of pictures and multimedia for every boat lover, so check it out!

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Site Design

Posted in Web Site Launches | No Comments »