That New Year Thing
Of course one of my New Year's Resolutions was to not procrastinate. Hence, my New Year's thoughts come out past the middle of January! Ah, well. Resolutions are the things that we work on.
There is a lot to look forward to in 2006. I continue to face the challenge of the SBC Yellow pages neglecting to list me this year. Everything is corrected for 2007, but that doesn't really make the phone ring in 2006. To their credit they did provide some relief for the error. So the word to the wise is to check your Yellow Pages early and be relentless until you are sure it is correct.
In the mean time, I'm seeking other ways to become famous. There are a few things in the works which I'll be able to talk more about in the near future. In the mean time consider signing up with the web site. You'll receive updates and special information about what we're doing as it is available. You'll also get benefits from any cross-promotions that we work out. Registration is free and easy from the home page.
As many of you know, magic is not the only thing in my life. My treasured wife, Donna, and daughter, Catherine constantly show me other things to think about. I also have a considerable background in technology . In fact I'm the author of the "Windows-to-Linux Roadmap" on IBM's developerWorks site. I know that as an entertainer I'm not really supposed to reveal some of my geekier passions, but the fact is that I love entertaining and technology just like I love my family and my work.
I have for some time now been working with open-source software. For me the benefits have been quite simple. They save me money. Currently I pay $0 for my operating system, word processing, graphic and photo editing, web editing and more. My web site is inexpensively run in an open-source environment by BitServe. My content-managed web site is run using free Joomla and MySQL. In other words, my software budget for the year is legally and practically $0.
So what? Local geek makes good. Why should I care? Well, in my New Year's reflection it occurred to me that I'm probably not the only one who could and should benefit from my experience with open-source software in running my business. I don't have any better reason for doing this other than I am frustrated watching people waste money on expensive software and solutions simply because they don't know they have any options.
Now, as I share these things you must understand that I am simply sharing my own experiences. Neither I, nor IBM, nor Walden Magic Productions, nor my cat, nor anyone else bear any responsibility with what you do with this information. You should still do your due diligence and confirm that these options are right for you. You should be careful about using any software with important business information and make sure that you have the right expertise available to safe-guard your data and that you have a plan-B when something goes wrong.
However, I think that for many things you will find that the free graphical editor Gimp will do many things for free that you might consider paying hundreds of dollars for in commercial product. OpenOffice will do what most people demand from a commercial office suite. I could go on and on-- and I will as I develop this material.
Along with all of this we will be continuing to develop our entertainment products and bring you news on that as we grow forward. Don't worry. This is not going to turn into a total geek site. We're still going to have fun!
Happy belated New Year everyone! I hope it will be a prosperous and joyous one.
There is a lot to look forward to in 2006. I continue to face the challenge of the SBC Yellow pages neglecting to list me this year. Everything is corrected for 2007, but that doesn't really make the phone ring in 2006. To their credit they did provide some relief for the error. So the word to the wise is to check your Yellow Pages early and be relentless until you are sure it is correct.
In the mean time, I'm seeking other ways to become famous. There are a few things in the works which I'll be able to talk more about in the near future. In the mean time consider signing up with the web site. You'll receive updates and special information about what we're doing as it is available. You'll also get benefits from any cross-promotions that we work out. Registration is free and easy from the home page.
As many of you know, magic is not the only thing in my life. My treasured wife, Donna, and daughter, Catherine constantly show me other things to think about. I also have a considerable background in technology . In fact I'm the author of the "Windows-to-Linux Roadmap" on IBM's developerWorks site. I know that as an entertainer I'm not really supposed to reveal some of my geekier passions, but the fact is that I love entertaining and technology just like I love my family and my work.
I have for some time now been working with open-source software. For me the benefits have been quite simple. They save me money. Currently I pay $0 for my operating system, word processing, graphic and photo editing, web editing and more. My web site is inexpensively run in an open-source environment by BitServe. My content-managed web site is run using free Joomla and MySQL. In other words, my software budget for the year is legally and practically $0.
So what? Local geek makes good. Why should I care? Well, in my New Year's reflection it occurred to me that I'm probably not the only one who could and should benefit from my experience with open-source software in running my business. I don't have any better reason for doing this other than I am frustrated watching people waste money on expensive software and solutions simply because they don't know they have any options.
Now, as I share these things you must understand that I am simply sharing my own experiences. Neither I, nor IBM, nor Walden Magic Productions, nor my cat, nor anyone else bear any responsibility with what you do with this information. You should still do your due diligence and confirm that these options are right for you. You should be careful about using any software with important business information and make sure that you have the right expertise available to safe-guard your data and that you have a plan-B when something goes wrong.
However, I think that for many things you will find that the free graphical editor Gimp will do many things for free that you might consider paying hundreds of dollars for in commercial product. OpenOffice will do what most people demand from a commercial office suite. I could go on and on-- and I will as I develop this material.
Along with all of this we will be continuing to develop our entertainment products and bring you news on that as we grow forward. Don't worry. This is not going to turn into a total geek site. We're still going to have fun!
Happy belated New Year everyone! I hope it will be a prosperous and joyous one.
posted by Chris Walden at
4:06 PM
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