It’s been a while since my last post, in fact it’s been almost an entire year but… Now I’m back with a new design and I’m ready to start posting again.

It’s funny, in the past I was never able to design a site for myself, that I was happy with [read more]. I designed this site in a few hours on a weekend in the fall of 2009. I was immediately surprised with how satisfied I was with it. My favorite part were the brain fish. Now it’s the last day of January in 2010 and I’m finally live with the new design, give me a break I’m busy!

This blog is an experiment. Originally my personal blog was located at http://jesserfriedman.com/ and I wrote only about the technical aspects of my work. I thought I would run several blogs covering everything from my personal life to specific niche topics like wordpress development. I’ve realized that spreading myself thin and working on several things at once will not reap nearly as many results as dedicating myself to one project. Which is where Brain to Blog was born. The idea came from a conversation with @lookadoo about the idea of being able to produce blog posts directly from my brain. It’d be a really cool technology but it got me thinking that I should see if people would even read that.

Brain to Blog is going to be about anything I want it to be about. There is no specific industry, niche or theme to these posts. It’s going to be easy to come up with ideas of things to write about because I’m not limiting my topics.

We’ll see how this works, hence the word “experiment” in the title.

Let me know your thoughts, I wanna hear what you think about the design and the idea of writing on everything/anything.

How do you have time for it all?

This is a question I tend to get a lot and it’s because I appear to stretch myself very thin. I work full time for Neal Advertising which results in 40+ hours on average per week; I am a professor at Johnson & Wales which includes teaching, grading, running clubs, counseling students and meetings. I co-own a freelance web development firm called Seed Seven. I’m in the process of developing a blogging community called WFABI and I run this website. Not to mention conferences, rss feeds, magazine articles, twitter and other social sites. These jobs and responsibilities don’t even include my personal life.

At home I’m a Dad, a husband, a homeowner, a handyman and dog walker. My son is 10 months old and he is fantastic but he’s also a lot of work. So how do I get it all done?

Well first off I don’t get a lot of sleep. As I write this I see the time is getting closer and closer to midnight. I’m probably going to hit the sack around 2 am tonight. As much as I like to avoid working late I still do it because I enjoy it. The web industry is very unique and I think that web professionals are a special breed. We continue to strive to improve our selves in an ever changing industry. The technologies change more frequently then in the medical industry. As a web professional slowing down leaves you at risk of being left behind.

The second piece of the puzzle is setting priorities. My priorities dictate exactly what I’ll accomplish on a daily, weekly and annual basis. It’s very important to take the time to sit down and evaluate everything you need and want to accomplish and then literally list them in order of importance. By doing this I’m able to logically and accurately decide on what to do and how long to spend on it. The highest item on that list is being a father and husband. I tend to my families needs first after that is my full time job at Neal Adv and so on down the list. This may sound extremely anal but I even add tv, and video games to the list. It really helps me make the choice between going back to work or playing Star Wars Unleashed on the Wii.

As a web professional I have to find the time to continually improve my skills, contribute to the community and learn from other professionals. At the same time I have to make time for my family and private life. It’s very hard to do it but setting priorities is a great way to accomplish that goal.

How do you find time to accomplish all of your goals?

Does Adobe release versions of their software too often?

It’s hard to answer this question and in some cases it may not even seem worth a post. My concern is the extremely high cost of software and the inability for freelancers and small firms to stay up to date. It may just be “Darwinism” at work where the stronger design/ad firms will prosper because they have the client base to fund the best computers and software but where does this leave the little guy?

Adobe CS4 is rumored to release in October which is just around the corner and only 18 months after CS3 was released in April 2007.  The cost of a the web suite will be over $2,000 and in most cases that’s more then the computer it’ll be running on.  This means that everytime a small firm wants to add an employee not only are they paying for salary and benefits but they have to pay close to $5,000 if not more just to get them started.  This can make it very hard for a small company to expand and grow not to mention an aspiring designer.

I am a Professor at Johnson & Wales University and one of the biggest problems my students face is the inibility to work on their projects from their dorm or home.  They can’t afford the cost of a Creative Suite along with tuition and other expenses.  This leaves them with two options, one they only work in the school lab or two they download an illegal version.  Student copies are available but at about half the cost but Adobe doesn’t allow you to publish the work.  We all know that an aspiring designer or developer needs to spend every waking minute perfecting their talent.  As it is I’m up to about 2am most nights working on deisgns, writing code or improving my techniques.  The second option of downloading an illegal version is done much more frequently then I would like to think.  I absolutely do not endorse the downloading of illegal copies of Adobe Software but some of these students are left with no choice.

There is a balance that can’t be reached between the rising costs of Adobe Software and the increased downloading of illegal copies.  Adobe will continue to increase the cost of their software to counter the loss of sales through distribution of illegal software and downloads will continue to increase because individuals are not able to afford the rising cost of Adobe Software.

On top of the current problems Adobe may be releasing versions of their software too frequently.  Adobe may be intentially leaving features out for future versions and increased sales.  Most firms and web/design professionals will want to purchase the latest version of Adobe to ensure their ability to stay “on top” of new technology.  I think Adobe should spend more time perfecting their security features to prevent further downloading of illegal copies and offer some free feature updates.  Loyal customers who have spent thousands of dollars on Adobe software definitely deserve some free upgrades to their software and shouldn’t have to continue to spend a great deal of money every 18 months.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment can be seen on youtube and is being advertised on several sites across the internet.  Microsoft essentially puts people in a room and asks them how they feel about vista (even though they have never tried it) and then shows them a new OS called Mojave.  Every one of the subjects had nothing but negative things to say about Vista, again, their feelings are generated by colleagues, friends and families experiences not their own. Soon the new OS, Mojave is unveiled to glowing testimonials.  Every one seems to be genuinely excited to try Mojave and if you can’t see where this is going, they love it.  Here’s the kicker Mojave is Vista just re-branded with a new name and logo. I think advertising this experiment is a great way for Microsoft to make attempts to reverse people’s feelings about Vista.  By people I mean anyone who won’t buy it because they think it’s terrible but haven’t even tried it yet.

Aside from my feelings on Vista (I can’t stand it and it’s been nothing but trouble for me). I do believe that this is a great marketing strategy.  Microsoft has acknowledged a poor following of Vista and found a great way to try and change people’s minds.  They made a very bold move by marketing a piece that discusses the negative connotations of Vista. I really believe it took “guts” for Microsoft to stand up admit that Vista has a poor following.  Branding “See For Yourself, Decide For Yourself”, hits the nail right on the head.  The only chance that Microsoft has to try and gain a better following is to convince people who haven’t purchased it to do so and the only way that is going to happen is for those people to ignore every bad thing they’ve heard about Vista.  In the end no matter how good your marketing strategies are if you are selling a product that people don’t like, don’t want, or that doesn’t work the end result will inevitably be failure.