We had the opportunity recently to collaborate with the fine folks at HCC Life Insurance Company on a website redesign.

Before

After

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So it’s that time again… time to switch around our computers. I’ve decided to move to an iMac, having fallen in love with the look of the new aluminum and glass models. So I put in a custom order with Apple last week for one with a slightly faster processor and better video card. It’s replacing a Mac Pro, so it has a lot to live up to!

Today it arrived, and we unboxed it with the usual excitement. Unfortunately, there was an issue. A couple pieces of dust or dirt had somehow landed between the display and the glass. If you haven’t seen these iMacs yet, this bears some explanation. Instead of just the usual screen sunk back from the computer frame, Apple has added a piece of glass across most of the front of the unit. It’s striking, very attractive and it gets great color. However, there’s simply no way to remove that glass to get those specks of dirt out of there.

Being a designer, I can assure you this would drive me slowly insane. It had to be fixed.

So I called Apple, who suggested I send the computer back. This would mean waiting most of two weeks for a fix, something I’m a little under-excited about since I just got the thing! So I went up to MacForce to see if they would help. I had to try. Maybe they could just take off the glass in their shop, and get it back to me in a few days.

Unfortunately, they informed me that this isn’t something Apple would reimburse them for. However, after some back-room debate, they decided to do the fix for free, and to put me in the front of their queue. Which means I’ll get it back in less than two days - much better than two weeks! Being a little confused, I asked why they would offer to do this. Why would they eat the cost of this hour-and-a-half repair?

Apparently, they’re just nice people.

Thanks, MacForce!

I don’t love to talk “politics” on our blog, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.

This being the “political season,” and a time of record gas prices, there sure has been a lot of talk about what to do about it. Both Clinton and McCain mentioned waiving taxes for a period of time, but this obviously isn’t a permanent solution. I also spoke with some family members over the weekend, one of whom was convinced that the “solution” to our situation was to drill for more oil in Alaska.

Of course, we’ve then trashed Alaska, and only forestalled the inevitable. We’ll again need more oil.

Here at Needmore, we try to do our part, we really do. We purchased a Prius for our company car, and its 45+ MPG has been quite nice. When President Bush took office on January 20, 2001, the national average gas price was $1.46 per gallon. (Nice work, “oil man!") Therefore, driving our Prius rather than our Volvo effectively brings our per-gallon gas price back to 2001, since it gets at least triple the mileage. Good, but not great.

We also try to ride our bicycles to work whenever we can, which uses no gas at all, so that’s a win! But if the weather is too hot, or if we’re already worn out, it’s a bit hard to bike five miles uphill after a long day at work. So we only do that perhaps two times a week. So what would be something fun, like a bicycle, but easier to climb hills in, and more gas-efficient than driving our Prius?

That’s right, we got us some scooters! They’re not that much, they get about 100 MPG, and the sure are fun to ride. If you’re in Portland, we do recommend Columbia Scooters. Nice folks there. And we had an amazing Memorial Day Weekend. Oh they are so much fun to ride.

Finally, let me quote something I saw on gallup.com today. “Surging gas prices have Americans favoring the imposition of price controls on gasoline by a 53% to 45% margin, even as 79% oppose the gas rationing that such an action would necessitate.”

Hey, let’s think this one through, America. I’m no economist, but I sure think price controls are the wrong answer. I don’t know what the right answer is… A scooter, maybe?

Well, I finally broke down and decided to attend RailsConf 2008 next week. I’m kind of excited! I’ve never missed one yet, and it’s only a mile from our office so there’s really no excuse for me not to go. And they are offering Yoga to start your day this year. Nice.

If you’re going to be in town and would like to meet up with Kandace or myself, even just to say hello, let us know. We always enjoy meeting new people, and we’re often in need of assistance on our Rails projects!

I have fallen in love with my new MacBook Air. However, my search for a suitable laptop bag has been elusive. I have three primary focus points in this search and have yet to find a bag that meets all three criteria. The search is on for a MacBook Air bag that is (a) made using green/sustainable production techniques (including not being made of leather), (b) fashionable (which is of course subjective), and (c) designed to fit my MacBook Air precisely.

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Much has been made about Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, about ten years ago now, and how he turned the company around. Basically, a big part of his strategy for getting Apple back on track was drastically reducing the number and variety of computers they sold. While I am quite familiar with the story, I’ve never seen it illustrated as well as in the Timeline of Macintosh models on Wikipedia.

Here is a smaller version for reference:

You can see when the shakeup happens - in mid-1998. Apple starts the year off with no less than 14 models, and ends with just five. The simpler product line made things easier for shoppers and, more importantly, saved Apple serious money because of lower production costs.

Seth Godin’s piece Why word of mouth doesn’t happen raises compelling points about why good products don’t often get talked about. He notes that “If you like us, tell your friends,” might feel like a fine start, but it’s certainly not going to get you there. Instead, he suggests that What will change the game is actually changing the game. As a business with a 0 marketing budget, we’ve thought long and hard about what makes a business remarkable and what experiences are compelling enough that people are willing to talk about them.

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...and we're back!

We had a fabulous time in France. Let me tell you. That is a wonderful place, and we certainly returned filled with inspiration. And food. Kind of addicted to the three to four hour dinners there.

Still, we were tremendously inspired by the art in Paris. We were able to visit the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée de l'Orangerie, and of course, the Louvre, which besides having the distinction of having parts of some movie filmed there, is really quite an amazing museum.

But I'm glad to be back. Like a pencil freshly sharpened, I always return from these trips ready to create new things!

Today we arrive in Arles, a sleepy French town where Van Gogh dicovered inspiration… and lost an ear.

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We have a checklist here at Needmore that we work through before launching a website. We’ve been using it for quite some time. But times change, and we’re revising our list. Read on to see what we work with these days…

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