Apparently I was standing too close to the back edge of the blogging bandwagon and fell off again, which means it's been a while since my last entry. I've been busy with some exciting projects and a couple of projects I'm so tired of dealing with I'll be excited when they're done... if they're ever done.
I hope to make a couple of posts over the next few days that I wrote but never had a chance to upload during the past few months, including one with pictures from the big snowstorm in March. We had around 21" of snow in most areas of central Ohio. Normally, our largest snowfalls are around 8" to 10" so this storm was very unique and unusual. It's actually odd writing about that right now because as I sit here it's 78 degrees and sunny outside. I'm wearing shorts sitting here in the air conditioning.
I found out today, by way of a paper stuck in my front door frame, that someone has started a blog for Albany Crossing, my neighborhood. This is fantastic because it's hard to figure out what is going on in here at times. We have a homeowners association that I pay regularly but really don't know what they do other than snow removal. We also have a pool and a clubhouse that I know they are supposed to maintain. It'll be interesting to see what other residents have going on and to read their opinions on things involving our neighborhood.
Look for more regular entries all summer long!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Hasseman Marketing Web Services
About six months ago I started a web services business in Coshocton with Kirby Hasseman who owns Hasseman Marketing & Communications. From the beginning, I had a positive attitude about the project (it's close to impossible not to have a positive attitude towards something when you're working with Kirby Hasseman on it, whatever it is) but I still had a few doubts about how well Coshocton would treat me after a few not so good experiences over the years there. I'm happy to say that this business looks like it's on it's way to being a success and my doubts about Coshocton are pretty much gone.
It started off slow as can be expected with any new business but there was more interest from potential clients than I figured so that was a good sign. I had a pretty good feeling that Kirby wouldn't give up on it because he's very persistent and that played a big part in my decision to go through with this new business. His persistence started to pay off in November and our client base and revenues have been booming the past few months. We're to the point now, in January, where we have a few possible projects on the table and a few in the pipeline that we're already working on. I'm really feeling good about things right now.
I should also mention our programming consultant Tony Morris has done a great job working for little short term pay on projects like BuyCoshocton.com and our own HassemanMarketing.com websites. His knowledge of multiple programming languages, "can-do" attitude, and willingness to work on a pay/project basis have been very important to the success of our web services business. Tony is a student at THE Ohio State University in Columbus and is a Dover High School graduate. He and I are partners in my IT Consulting business TM Broadwater Technology Consulting in New Albany and we have worked on many projects together over the years mostly on the web.
Through Hasseman Marketing Web Services, I've been able to meet and work with a few people who are new to Coshocton and some who have been there for years all determined to turn the community around. It's been good to see this perspective as opposed to the negativity and defeatist mentality that exists with a certain segment of the community's population. I'm feeling better about the future of my hometown and I'm also feeling very good about the future of Hasseman Marketing Web Services. Hopefully we can create some tech jobs in the no-so-distant future.
It started off slow as can be expected with any new business but there was more interest from potential clients than I figured so that was a good sign. I had a pretty good feeling that Kirby wouldn't give up on it because he's very persistent and that played a big part in my decision to go through with this new business. His persistence started to pay off in November and our client base and revenues have been booming the past few months. We're to the point now, in January, where we have a few possible projects on the table and a few in the pipeline that we're already working on. I'm really feeling good about things right now.
I should also mention our programming consultant Tony Morris has done a great job working for little short term pay on projects like BuyCoshocton.com and our own HassemanMarketing.com websites. His knowledge of multiple programming languages, "can-do" attitude, and willingness to work on a pay/project basis have been very important to the success of our web services business. Tony is a student at THE Ohio State University in Columbus and is a Dover High School graduate. He and I are partners in my IT Consulting business TM Broadwater Technology Consulting in New Albany and we have worked on many projects together over the years mostly on the web.
Through Hasseman Marketing Web Services, I've been able to meet and work with a few people who are new to Coshocton and some who have been there for years all determined to turn the community around. It's been good to see this perspective as opposed to the negativity and defeatist mentality that exists with a certain segment of the community's population. I'm feeling better about the future of my hometown and I'm also feeling very good about the future of Hasseman Marketing Web Services. Hopefully we can create some tech jobs in the no-so-distant future.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Christmas Decoratoins
I haven't had a chance to post a blog on here in quite a while due to being overwhelmed with business projects. It's very difficult to keep up a blog even when you don't have anything going on. For a while I'm back at it again...
Today my wife and I started putting up our Christmas decorations. We have two small trees on each side of the front door that have colored over-sized lights on them now. We still have a long ways to go as far as decorating is concerned. It started to rain and was cold so we didn't do anything else outside and the entire inside is still left to do. We have new furniture this year along with a new layout so we are going to have to completely re-think our decorations. Whenever we get more of it done I'll post some pictures in a future blog entry.
Today my wife and I started putting up our Christmas decorations. We have two small trees on each side of the front door that have colored over-sized lights on them now. We still have a long ways to go as far as decorating is concerned. It started to rain and was cold so we didn't do anything else outside and the entire inside is still left to do. We have new furniture this year along with a new layout so we are going to have to completely re-think our decorations. Whenever we get more of it done I'll post some pictures in a future blog entry.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
It's Been A While
It's been a few weeks since my last post due in part to a case of Internet burnout. Now I'm recovered and back at it again. My new regional magazine East Central Ohio Magazine comes out in October so I've been looking for sales help. I have an interview with a guy this coming week who has a lot of experience so I'm hoping it works out. Surprisingly I haven't had much interest...this is surprising because I'm advertising these jobs in my hometown where unemployment is very high.
I've decided in the past week to do most of the sales myself. The October issue will have an Autumn/Halloween theme and will include stories about local job losses and what officials are doing to turn things around as well as supplement on November election candidates. I'll be sending out the first issue free of charge to anyone who requests it along with all of the area libraries. I'm pretty excited about this project and hope people are receptive to it. It will give them another option for local information and I think that is much needed.
I've decided in the past week to do most of the sales myself. The October issue will have an Autumn/Halloween theme and will include stories about local job losses and what officials are doing to turn things around as well as supplement on November election candidates. I'll be sending out the first issue free of charge to anyone who requests it along with all of the area libraries. I'm pretty excited about this project and hope people are receptive to it. It will give them another option for local information and I think that is much needed.
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Stress of IT
I just had a project installing a network for an organization over in Westerville that contained both a wireless and hard-wired component. They have a small but growing non-profit organization that works to bring jobs into Ohio and to promote one of Ohio's only growing manufacturing segment, so I wanted to do a good job on their IT project because I think what they're doing is great.
After being in IT for almost 11 years now (wow...that's hard to believe) I know better than to think everything is going to go smoothly on any project. Even very knowledgeable and experienced people sometimes find themselves beating their heads against brick walls thanks to computers and software. This project over in Westerville has one rather large issue that continues to drive me nuts even as I'm writing this. Here's the situation...
I do all of the technical purchasing for this company and bought all of the PC workstations, peripherals, printers, switches/routers, and general infrastructure. For this project I purchased a 2.4 GhZ Linksys wireless router with VPN capabilities. It took me a day or two but I have their wireless network up and running along with surprisingly fast DSL broadband (business class/always on via SBC/AT&T). My problem is the server I purchased from DELL. It's the PowerEdge 2900 and to save money we set up a Windows XP based network in the office and that is where the problem comes in. DELL, being the pain in the ass they are, doesn't support Windows XP (my theory on this is that they don't support it because it only allows them a small profit margin when resold). The only server operating systems they support are the $5,000+ server/multi-client license network systems that we don't need in an office with less than 10 people that is on a very limited, grant funded budget.
To install Windows XP I had to do some research online then download all of the hardware drivers for the server's hard disks then install them from a floppy (I hadn't used a floppy prior to this week in may be six months). So far so good this morning...the XP install seems to be taking. I'm sitting here at their office waiting for it to go through each setup step. I've been two weeks working on this project and all but two days of those two weeks was spent working on this server issue.
Lesson learned....Don't buy a DELL server for a small office network! Just buy a powerful PC and set it up to act as a server...it will be easier and will work just as well for less than 20 people. Big servers are for big organizations (or people who have money to waste on powerful network operating systems with lots of unnecessary "bells and whistles").
So the next time you're computer is driving you crazy....keep in mind that even after 11 years of working with computers almost daily I run into fiasco's that drive me crazy also. Things change so quickly it's a battle keeping up on all of the new practices and standards of every company.
Tom
After being in IT for almost 11 years now (wow...that's hard to believe) I know better than to think everything is going to go smoothly on any project. Even very knowledgeable and experienced people sometimes find themselves beating their heads against brick walls thanks to computers and software. This project over in Westerville has one rather large issue that continues to drive me nuts even as I'm writing this. Here's the situation...
I do all of the technical purchasing for this company and bought all of the PC workstations, peripherals, printers, switches/routers, and general infrastructure. For this project I purchased a 2.4 GhZ Linksys wireless router with VPN capabilities. It took me a day or two but I have their wireless network up and running along with surprisingly fast DSL broadband (business class/always on via SBC/AT&T). My problem is the server I purchased from DELL. It's the PowerEdge 2900 and to save money we set up a Windows XP based network in the office and that is where the problem comes in. DELL, being the pain in the ass they are, doesn't support Windows XP (my theory on this is that they don't support it because it only allows them a small profit margin when resold). The only server operating systems they support are the $5,000+ server/multi-client license network systems that we don't need in an office with less than 10 people that is on a very limited, grant funded budget.
To install Windows XP I had to do some research online then download all of the hardware drivers for the server's hard disks then install them from a floppy (I hadn't used a floppy prior to this week in may be six months). So far so good this morning...the XP install seems to be taking. I'm sitting here at their office waiting for it to go through each setup step. I've been two weeks working on this project and all but two days of those two weeks was spent working on this server issue.
Lesson learned....Don't buy a DELL server for a small office network! Just buy a powerful PC and set it up to act as a server...it will be easier and will work just as well for less than 20 people. Big servers are for big organizations (or people who have money to waste on powerful network operating systems with lots of unnecessary "bells and whistles").
So the next time you're computer is driving you crazy....keep in mind that even after 11 years of working with computers almost daily I run into fiasco's that drive me crazy also. Things change so quickly it's a battle keeping up on all of the new practices and standards of every company.
Tom
Thursday, May 17, 2007
New Albany
Yet again the powers that be in Coshocton have prevented me from getting involved there so I'm giving up on that. I'm going to do what I do best and just try to make things more entertaining for people who are there through my websites.
Now I'm going to focus most of my civic efforts towards New Albany. I'm going to have to work my way in though because there is a lot of active talent in this area already. Should be fun and won't require nearly the commuting expense anything in Coshocton would have. I might join a zoning committee first....we're anti-Wal-Mart in this area!
Tom
Now I'm going to focus most of my civic efforts towards New Albany. I'm going to have to work my way in though because there is a lot of active talent in this area already. Should be fun and won't require nearly the commuting expense anything in Coshocton would have. I might join a zoning committee first....we're anti-Wal-Mart in this area!
Tom
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Business Indecesion 2007
Anymore it seems like I get an itch to change my business every year and this year's time has arrived. I'm dropping fundraising and several other services I offered and I'm moving into website development full-time focusing on municipal and community related sites. Fundraising became too time consuming for a one man operation to handle while still bringing in sufficient revenues. I also didn't like doing it because groups were constantly having to back out of deals when funding fell through resulting in significant amounts of lost revenue.
Now, I'm doing something I like that has been making money for me the past two years. I'm also doing band websites and managing myspace pages for people in addition to my website work with communities. If you know anyone with a small organization in need of website help send them to me. I use open-source software and would rank myself at nearly expert level with most open source Content Management Systems.
Lastly, good news. I got an interview for the Director of Regional Planning job in Coshocton County but don't think I landed it. I'm just happy they took the time to interview me. It's on step further than I've ever made it in the past around there.
Tom
Now, I'm doing something I like that has been making money for me the past two years. I'm also doing band websites and managing myspace pages for people in addition to my website work with communities. If you know anyone with a small organization in need of website help send them to me. I use open-source software and would rank myself at nearly expert level with most open source Content Management Systems.
Lastly, good news. I got an interview for the Director of Regional Planning job in Coshocton County but don't think I landed it. I'm just happy they took the time to interview me. It's on step further than I've ever made it in the past around there.
Tom
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