August 24, 2007
Finally Completed Masters Degree
I completed my Masters Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications near the end-of-July. It's been a long 13-class road and I am pumped that I got through it.
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Posted by pgraber at 05:13 PM
July 12, 2007
'Confessions' a Great Thing for Buffalo
My wife introduced me to a fantastic show that's been running on A&E called 'Confessions of a Matchmaker'. I think its the best thing to happen for Buffalo, NY in a long time.
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Posted by pgraber at 07:46 PM
June 29, 2007
A New Credential Obtained
I studied and passed the Certified Association Executive examination. Preparation was very straightforward. I learned some tricks along the way.
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Posted by pgraber at 07:58 PM
April 19, 2007
No Thought to Speak in Table Topics
I was a contestant recently in my public speaking clubs extemporaneous speaking contest. I learned a few trick in speaking with basically no time to gather your thoughts.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:37 PM
March 04, 2007
Parked Domains and SEO: Beware
A client had been using their parked domain as their primary URL. For all intents, this presented no problems. However, after months of difficulty getting traction in Google SERPs, it became very apparent that it was creating problems. The reason: duplicate content.
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Posted by pgraber at 02:20 PM
December 11, 2006
Graber Geneaology
Someone in our family had to do this before it was gone forever. Queried my father about some family history. Rough notes appear below.
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Posted by pgraber at 11:45 AM
November 16, 2006
Gaga Over Google Docs
Gaga Over Google Docs
I think it is so cool that Google Docs & Spreadsheets works with Moveable Type! I have been playing with their new tool and its integration features with various blog software tools. I am writing this within their new tool, then publishing it remotely to my blog.
Nicer Editing Interface
I big plus with GD&S is its editing interface. Since I find myself logged-into Google more and more, I find it convenient to use. Now, if they only would allow you to upload images. CMS become more passe by the day!
A Breeze to Set up
It took me a whole 1.5 minutes to be get this working with my existing blog system. Very, very easy. It works by utilizing RPC.
Features I Just Love
Some Drawbacks
First, a quick look at how its generating is the font styles and the old, deprecated font tag yields its ugle head. Hopefully, more complaint features will be coming in the future. Plus, as I said before, I haven't figured out if there's a way to add photos or upload images. Bummer for now.
Posted by pgraber at 12:08 AM
October 18, 2006
Hevesi: A Good Example of Bad Govt
I've been following a story in New York about its State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi and his embattled fight for his politcal life. He's been fingered for clear wrongdoing and, evidently, a pattern in the way he governs. There's convincing evidence that he needs to go - and soon.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:34 AM
August 17, 2006
Adventures with My Little Jetta
I came to driving a new used-car recently. It's a 1994 VW Jetta that only had 44K miles on it. I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse by Erin. And its been interesting experience to say the least.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:09 PM
July 21, 2006
Telecomputing For Speed, Convenience
My professional position provides me with the ability to remotely log-in to my office computer via the Web. From anywhere in the world I can be in working at my office machine 'virtually', identical to if I was sitting in front of it.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:38 AM
July 12, 2006
Trudeau and The Great Pool Hustle
I awoke this morning with a hacking cough. Somehow, I must of left the television on all night. Anyways, blurry-eyed, I caught of glimpse of the billiard industry's modern-day Peter Pan - IPT Tour Founder Kevin Trudeau. Finally, things started to come together...
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Posted by pgraber at 02:30 PM
July 03, 2006
Mark McBride Ties The Knot
My very first friend growing up, Mr. Mark McBride, got married over the weekend. I went back to Buffalo for the wedding and festivities for a fantastic weekend.
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Posted by pgraber at 10:56 AM
Shooter Returns / Pump Inn Closes
On a recent trip home to Buffalo I ran into Jeff Van Buren at the Hippodrome and he gave me a copy of the most recent edition of Shooter - the billiard publication he acquired from me way back in 94.
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Posted by pgraber at 10:07 AM
June 07, 2006
Erin and Peter Get Married
Erin and I got married on May 20, 2006 at the Blockade Runner Resort in Wrightsville Beach, NC. It was wonderful.
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Posted by pgraber at 05:52 PM
April 14, 2006
Cartier-Bresson Throwback
For those who've never heard of him, Henri Cartier-Bresson has long been considered the 'greatest living photographer'. Although he recently passed away in very old age, he left a breadth of outstanding work in the field. He's was a pioneering photographic artist. His work defined what's today known as photojournalism.
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Posted by pgraber at 01:40 PM
March 29, 2006
Is 1024x768 The New Standard?
One interesting thing I noticed with the recent redesign of CNN.com is their use of more screen real estate. This suggests that a major shift is underway with users and their supported screen resolutions.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:59 PM
March 09, 2006
Rendering Intents Demystified
I have been struggling with color management lately. Seems all of my stuff in coming out too dark, for some reason. I don't believe it is my fault, just part of the process working with a range of vendors and output devices. One aspect of color management, however, is the rendering intent.
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Posted by pgraber at 11:07 AM
February 08, 2006
A Super Win for Steelers in SBXL
Erin was so excited. And to think I appreciated seeing it too. By now everyone knows the Steeler won Super Bowl XL.
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Posted by pgraber at 01:23 PM
January 31, 2006
Simple MySQL Magic with ODBC
A colleague and I were talking recently about a website that used a batch-type program to upload an Access file to the webserver each night. It allowed the organization to provide the latest, most accurate information in near real-time. This discussion got me thinking about more effective ways and what to do with MySQL and the LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP) platform.
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Posted by pgraber at 02:12 PM
January 28, 2006
Ensuring AOL Email Delivery with -F
AOL recently made an adjustment to their email delivery system with new policies that are resulting in email from PHP scripts being blocked. This effects Apache virtual servers that use generic users when sending mail (nobody@, username@, root@, apache@, etc.) and thankfully, only requires a simple fix : the use of -F.
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Posted by pgraber at 11:24 AM
January 25, 2006
Instant Car Sale w/Craigs List
I was selling my car recently. So I decided to post it on Craig's List to generate some interest. I had near instantaneous success.
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Posted by pgraber at 01:15 PM
January 11, 2006
Lessons from the (M) $$ Homepage
I had been following the marketing concept known as 'The Million Dollar Homepage'. Basically a kid in the UK created a page in which he sold pixels for a $1 apiece and made $1M in four months.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:54 PM
January 01, 2006
Home in Buffalo for The Holidays
In what's becoming an annual ritual, I spent a nearly a week with family in Buffalo. I arrived on the 26th and stayed to the New Year.
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Posted by pgraber at 05:42 PM
December 18, 2005
Retail Changes on Elmwood Avenue
It's always nice to keep track of what's happening on chic Elmwood Avenue - the birthplace of Grabers. Seem's like there's plenty of new faces and some changes in veteran shops.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:54 AM
December 16, 2005
Effects of Google Jagger Distilled
Google completed its latest algorithmic update in early fall, 2005. This has several implications to the practice of search optimization
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Posted by pgraber at 09:36 AM
December 15, 2005
Got Installed as CCT President
For the remainder of this year and through 2006, I am serving as President of my Toastmasters club. Our group has just over 30 members and meets once weekly in Raleigh.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:47 AM
Fighting Google's Aging Delay
When you tell people that there is a well-known indexing delay of between 6-9 months on Google, some look at you like you're pulling one over on them.
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Posted by pgraber at 08:42 AM
November 25, 2005
Failsafe Way To Great Digital Photos
Since I've been known to cut as many financial corners as possible, I've been looking for ways to save some cash and improve the quality of my digital photos. Some resources I've located online are helping me do this at a great price.
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Posted by pgraber at 02:43 PM
November 22, 2005
Holistic Search Optimization
There is a growing and emerging disclipline on the web that integrates SEO activities into the overall enterprise. Mulitdiscipline. Think of it as holistic SEO.
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Posted by pgraber at 10:22 AM
November 16, 2005
Landscape for PDF Web Pubs
More and more I come across web magazines and newsletters that are leveraging the power of Acrobat PDF to lower distribution and production costs and provide easy over-the-web viewability. But like many designers, my design 'thinking' has been stuck in portrait mode, when landscape may be a better option for today's web..
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Posted by pgraber at 10:08 PM
November 15, 2005
Double vs Single Quotes in PHP
I picked up this little tid-bit online that helps explain something that has escaped me for awhile about PHP.
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Posted by pgraber at 03:42 PM
36 Hours in Mechanicsburg, PA
Erin's grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday recently. We made a quick jaunt up to Mechanicsburg, PA with her parents and the Bartimacs to help throw her a party.
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Posted by pgraber at 12:48 PM
October 31, 2005
Nicole & Travis: A Buffalo Wedding
I went home this past weekend for a family wedding. My niece Nicole - daughter of my brother Vince and sister-inlaw Michelle - got married and held a reception at Brookfield Country Club. It was a great time. Here's how the weekend went...
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Posted by pgraber at 09:44 AM
October 26, 2005
RGB Color Spaces and CMYK
Anyone printing in four color (CMYK) needs to know what RGB color space is best to work in. Sometimes software defaults are wrong. Two spaces in particular - sRGB and Adobe RGB(1998) - give very different results.
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Posted by pgraber at 01:59 PM
October 23, 2005
PDF: Slick for web presentations
While working on a media plan recently, I came acroos the advertising rate card of InformationWeek, a leading IT weekly news magazine. Their online rate card is an excellent example of PDF in action.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:22 PM
October 22, 2005
The nitty gritty of graphics files
The folks at Raleigh's largest advertising agency have produced a superb and clearly witten piece on files, formats and key concepts in computer graphics. So good I'm linking to it.
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Posted by pgraber at 09:47 AM
October 16, 2005
SEO: Whalen's Ten Tips Revisited
In her monthly e-newsletter, Jill Whalen of High Rankings always points out some excellent techniques regarding search engine marketing and optimization. She's a 'white knght seo' you can trust. Recenty she revisited her famous 'Ten Tips to The Top'.
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Posted by pgraber at 11:04 AM
Fun with the 'Way Back Machine'
I hit the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine recently to capture some images of the past. This brought back some cool memories.
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Posted by pgraber at 10:03 AM
August 22, 2005
Web Logs as Search Hooks
A review of my server logs recently pointed to a very interesting fact relative to the business case of weblogs - search optimization and traffic building.
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Posted by pgraber at 04:26 PM
July 17, 2005
An Adventure to Europe
I took a trip to Europe that saw me visit Amsterdam, Holland, Berlin, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a whirl-wind trip that I wrote a little bit about along the way.
In the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, this is the story. Please don't pass judgement on its elements.
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Posted by pgraber at 03:43 PM
July 12, 2005
Townhome's Got A Renter
I have been extremely fortunate to find a great tenant for my townhome. The lease was signed at end the beginning of July and move-in is expected anytime.
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Posted by pgraber at 03:07 PM
June 26, 2005
The Engagement: Thelma's Treat
On June 25th - at about midnight - I asked Erin to marry me. I did it on our trip up north to Pittsburgh.
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Posted by pgraber at 03:04 PM