Category Archives: Misc

Pro bono Website Redesign Complete

Misc, , , ,

I have been working with a great nonprofit group in Boston called the Lawyers Clearinghouse on a pro bono basis to redesign their website for the past several months. Along with a friend, Jeff Baker of Partner Alliances, we have redesigned their website and provided them with a way to manage the content using WordPress.

A little about the Lawyers Clearinghouse:

The Lawyers Clearinghouse provides pro bono legal services to nonprofit organizations, groups seeking nonprofit status, and guests of area homeless shelters. We offer lawyers meaningful and rewarding pro bono opportunities. We also provide educational programs for nonprofit organizations and lawyers.

The project consisted of coming up with new creative for the site, creating a custom WordPress theme and carrying over the content from the existing site. From there, the group at the Lawyers Clearinghouse made content updates to get it ready for launch.

Here are a few screen captures of the site we started with:

The original site was very informative but dated. They also required a web designer to make simple content changes for them which made it difficult and time consuming to update the site. The goal of the project was to give the Lawyers Clearinghouse a modern look and provide them with the tools to manage the content themselves.

As a nonprofit, it is difficult to justify costs for web design services. It is equally as difficult to make rapid web changes when you need to work around the schedules of designers who are donating their time. So providing a content management system was key to the success of the project.

Here are a few screen shots of the launched site (live site here):

I want to thank Jeff Baker for his help with this project. The creative (with the exception of the logo) is entirely his work. I also want to thank David Bissett (of Dimension Media) for his custom WordPress theme based off of Jeff’s creative.

Thanks Twitter Friends!

Marketing, Misc, , , ,

People always talk about the power of twitter, it’s ability to effect change (through grassroots fund raising) and mass distribution of info (see California Firefighters) among them. But when I sent out a tweet minutes after my daughter Ella was born I received some quick congratulations from people I have never met face-to-face (but hope to some day).

So Thank You to all who have given congrats and well wishes on what is by far the most exciting time in our lives. And for a quick update, mom and Ella are doing great. We have a pretty good system down so far and have been able to get our sleep in when we can. This is all subject to change from what I have heard 😉

I’m a Dad!!!

Misc, ,

My daughter Ella was born Thursday morning at 5:17 am. She is 6lbs 13oz and 19″ long. She has ten fingers, ten toes and is as cute as can be. I have never been so proud nor held anything so precious in my arms before. It truly is a remarkable feeling. Also, I can’t say it enough how proud I am of my wife.

We are on day 3 at the hospital (Mass General in Boston) and the staff has been incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and kind. We go home this afternoon and that will be an entirely different experience.

Thanks everyone for the support!

Too Quiet Around Here

Misc, , ,

It has been way too quiet at GeoffManning.com lately. My wife and I are getting ready for our first child (any day now) and there are some big changes coming up career wise. So both of those have consumed most of my time lately.

What Else I am Working On:

  1. I am working with a friend at Partner Alliances on a site redesign for a Boston based Nonprofit Legal Assistance organization. The site is in WordPress using a custom theme designed by my friend Jeff Baker (of Partner Alliances) and themed by David Bissett at Dimension Media.
  2. I am helping out a friend launch her photography website. The site is WordPress using the Sharpfolio theme created by WebRevolutionary.
  3. Preparing for baby!!

The Price of Convenience

Misc, Review, ,

How much are you willing to spend to save time? When my wife and I had dinner Friday night we realized we were extremely short on…well, just about everything. So we fired up the old laptop and logged into our Peapod account to pick out some items.

  • Fruit
  • Veggies
  • Cereal
  • Snacks
  • Bottled water
  • Cat food
  • Cat litter

All coming to a grand total of $85 plus a delivery charge of $10. We selected Sunday 9am delivery and the driver was here right on schedule for essentially an 8.5% convenience surcharge (plus a little tip). Well worth the money as opposed to going to the store and selecting the items aisle-by-aisle.

Peapod is a service provided by Stop and Shop  but I am sure there are similar services elsewhere and hopefully in your neck of the woods. What do you think? Is a $10 delivery charge for groceries worth it to you? Especially with the added convenience of a categorized and search based online shopping experience.

Disney World 2008

Misc, , , ,

Last week we spent a few days down in Orlando. My wife had a business meeting Thursday to Saturday so we decided to make a long weekend of it and i tagged along. We only made it into Disney one day even though our hotel was only a stone’s throw from Epcot Center.

Highlights

  • I rode a Segway which was pretty cool, I didn’t want to wait in the long line, but my wife convinced me, and I’m glad she did!
  • Saw a very cool acrobatic act outside China in Epcot Center. One girl was flipping metal bowls (several at a time) onto her head. Oh yeah, while riding on a 7′ Uni-cycle! See the pictures below.
  • Live streamed into Podcamp Toronto and NewBCamp while sipping my morning Coffee on the patio (Thanks to Christopher S Penn, Matthew Ebel and the staff at Ryerson University)

Here are some photos:

 

 

Person Matthew Ebel

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Investigate missed calls with 800notes.com

Misc, Tech,

For the past 2 weeks I have been getting calls from 866-463-3021. When I pick-up there is no one on the other end; if I let it go to voice mail, no message. I put the number into Google and the first result was from 800notes.com.

Apparently 800notes.com allows users to enter in phone numbers to see who is using that number. It derives it’s information from user contributions so the results may not always be accurate. For the number above, there are actually 18 pages (as of this writing) of comments from people who have had this show up in their call log.

So the next time you get a call from an unknown number, look it up in 800notes.com to see where it is coming from. For me, I’ll be wading through all those pages to see who the hell is calling me!