1. Brushed up on my Flex skills
2. Re-united with old friends that I had in Orlando
3. Become more interested in the coding community

With this in mind, some co-workers (Brian & Zack) and we have decided to start our own group in the Brevard County area. We call it RAnDOM (Rich ApplicatioN Developers Of Melbourne) itsRAnDOM.info. We focus on all sorts of RIA related development. From Flex to jQuery and everything that makes a website exciting and functional.

Our first meeting was last month at Goombay's in Satellite Beach. As the first ever RAnDOM meeting, it went surprisingly well. We had 10 participants and we all had lots of fun coding and helping introduce jMaps, jgCharts, jQuery, JSON, CSS, XHTML and Fire Bug to the group. Wow, we covered a lot.

The next meeting will also be at Goombay's on September 18th at 7:00 PM. This month we will be covering the basics of Flex. Anyone interested will gain a lot from this event. I hope to see you there.

I always remember similar arguments in both my science and art classes as a kid. The science teachers told us that the primary colors are red, green, and blue, while the art teachers said that the primaries where red, yellow, and blue. They never really made it clear that the science teachers were talking about spectral colors (light) while the art teachers were talking about pigment colors.

Spectral colors are subtractive. This means that they filter out everything but themselves. If you look at a blue light, you only see the blue hues and no red or green hues. If you blend all primary colors, you see all colors. Hence, white light. This didn't make sense to me until I took photography in high school.

Pigment colors are solid objects. The best example is paint. If you mix yellow paint and blue paint, you get green paint. You are adding one color to another opposed to taking that color away.

Now we get to my major confusion. The Glad® ZipLock™ commercials stated that yellow and blue make green. It's pretty simple. One side of the zipper is yellow and the other side is blue. Once you close the bag, the zipper becomes green. This meant that the bag is sealed properly. This is simple additive color science. But the zipper is translucent. This means that it allows light to travel trough the zipper ends. Making the colors spectral. How do we get green light from a blue light and a secondary yellow light?

Sure it's scary, but it can bee fun too. Follow us in twitter and see why we're the way that we are. Colleen and Sebastian. Don't say we didn't warn you, but we twitter a lot ;)

Today, one of my concepts was highly hailed by a client and I confidently forwarded the praise to my colleague with an "I did good." This was mainly to pick at our regular joke, but as the words came out of my mouth, I was reassured by an instant thought. What is super? In its most elemental state, it's just a shortened version of the word superior. So as I spoke, I was correct. As in all of the design that comes from our studio is always superior and is always top-quality design.

I guess that makes us Super Designers!

• Does the website work with CSS off?
• Does the website work with Javascript disabled?
• Is the website using tables for layout, instead of CSS?
• Is all essential information in the HTML?
• Is there extra code, non-essential information in the HTML?
• Is the site all Flash?
• Is there hidden content?
• Is image replacement being used?

This is a great guideline, but as with everything in life, there's more. You have to take into account that a search engine robot is unable to view all of the snazzy graphics on your website. The best way to optimize your search engine categorization is to create a fully text based website. But that isn't very fun, attractive or marketable.

That is where proper use of CSS and XHTML come into play. The CSS ensures that the website looks good and the XHTML compliance keeps the search engines happy. On top of building a website that is appealing to the masses, we always want our sites to bear the w3.org stamp of approval. Our newest design is no exception. Just proving that even the most unorthodox design is no excuse for not incorporating proper coding standards and practice.

Totally Local has been watching this trend for years. In fact, some consumers we've talked to won't even contact a business if they don't have a website.

Of important note from the research:

Among those who conducted a search for a local business, most didn't convert immediately:

• 35% of respondents saved the business' phone number
• 27% searched a second time
• 23% had bookmarked the service vendor's website
• 5% used a phone book to find the service vendor
• 11% did not contact the vendor a second time

54% of the respondents who'd conducted a local search reported refering that business to a friend by:

• 59% verbally recommending the business
• 38% e-mailing a link
• 3% writing a favorable review on a consumer website

So, it's increasingly important to advertise online! Totally Local can help your business create an effective online marketing plan, complete with search engine optimization strategies, paid placement opportunities in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, and virtual yellow pages placement.

(The information above was taken from an article by Greg Sterling at Search Engine Watch. Read the entire article here.)

But before you purchase a one-way ticket to Utah, remember that with the right mix of marketing and business desire, you can be successful almost anywhere!

Top 10 Large Metros(population 500,000 or more)

1. Raleigh-Cary, NC
2. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA
3. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD
4. Denver-Aurora, CO
5. Salt Lake City, UT
6. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA
7. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
8. Boise City-Nampa, ID
9. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
10. San Diego-Carlsbad San Marcos, CA

Top 5 Medium Metros (population 175,000 to 500,000)

1. Provo-Orem, UT
2. Ogden-Clearfield, UT
3. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
4. Boulder, CO
5. Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, FL

Top 5 Small Metros (population 50,000 to 175,000)

1. St. George, UT
2. Logan, UT-ID
3. Morgantown, WV
4. Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA
5. Winchester, VA-WV