Last week Gizmodo posted about the evils of Beta. Not the Greek letter itself, but premature software (and hardware) that is in its Beta form before official release. Surely you’ve seen sites that have the word “Beta” somewhere in the logo. Heck, the word seems to go hand-and-hand with all those “Web 2.0″ sites out there!

Personally, I don’t see what all the fuss is about Beta being evil. I say there’s nothing better than trial by fire, especially when the user is aware that it’s in a “testing” form. What I think the real problem is—and the point the writer is trying to make—is when companies release careless Beta. Pushing something when it’s not even ready to be tested. That is just being silly and irresponsible.

This all reminds me of a web app I designed for a client’s intranet over the spring and summer. The app had 3 phases, 1 of which we got through before they started actually using the app in business. To encourage testing, I placed the word “Beta” in the header… but then the client flipped out thinking I sold him inferior software. Of course I didn’t, but I guess some people don’t understand that things must be tested in real world environments. I mean, I worked really hard to cover every situation I could think of, but there’s no guarantee I will make it flawless. In fact, the odds are very much against me not making a mistake. I ended up taking the word Beta out to appease him.

Those of you that follow me on Twitter may have read that I had a job interview for a FT web developer position. It was offered to me, but I ended up not taking it for various reasons: security and compensation being the 2 biggest. That, and I wasn’t sure if life as a .Net code monkey was really for me. Yes, I enjoy development—mostly in PHP though—but I think I enjoy the XHTML and CSS aspect of sites more for the tech-meets-artist in me. Anyway…

Today Josh Catone over at sitepoint.com posted 10 Essential Tips For Landing Your Next Job, which I found timely and relevant. Especially considering the current state of the job market. He made some great points you should consider before applying to a job… like not using the same cover letter for every job. My wife taught me this one a few years back. I do keep a cover letter template which contains the “guts” of my letter. However, I usually rewrite the first and last paragraphs for every job I apply to.

Some other ones in his list I try and follow are blogging (which I’m getting better at these days), Networking Offline (I ALWAYS have business cards with me, and it pays off), and Don’t Stop Learning (I enroll in online classes constantly).

President-elect Obama and I have something very much in common: we are both obsessed with our BlackBerries. Unfortunately, come January 20th, Mr. Obama will more than likely have to give up his precious, and it probably won’t be easy. Personally, I know I would have a hard time in his situation, and I just run a modest web design shop.

And apparently, his wife hates his BlackBerry habits too.

This past summer, news cameras recorded him [Barack] checking his BlackBerry while watching his daughter’s soccer game, only to have Michelle Obama slap at his hands, prompting him to return the device to its holster.

This part made me laugh, sorta… because similarly, my wife lectures me on my BlackBerry habits and gives me dirty looks when I place the device on the coffee table—within arm’s reach—while watching TV together. I’m probably real close to getting slapped myself.

I have trouble disconnecting, and can finally admit that. It does, however, make it easy when it comes to managing my business. I just need to work on separating my work-life from my private-life. It’s tough.

And yes, I’ve been salivating over those BlackBerry Storm commercials too. Makes me wish my contract was up. True words of an addict, I guess.

That’s the clever tag-line I came up with (and my wife approved of) for my latest web app project, Lil’ Text. At the moment it’s a typical URL-shortener, which takes a long URL like this:

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/09/photoshop-gets-real-best-ad-ever/

and makes it this:

http://liltext.com/6

The advantages are numerous, but people mostly use URL-shorteners for microblogging, SMS, and email.

Of course, I don’t want to just create something that exists on hundreds of sites. I have a plan to eventually take it to the next level… which I will reveal at a later date (don’t want anyone creating it before I do, obviously).

Over this past weekend though, I made some more progress by implementing bookmarklets for both Twitter and Plurk. I want to take this a step further (probably some time this week) and give users the ability to “customize” these bookmarklets to their own liking, which could really drive people to use the site a bit more, I’m hoping.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about this project, and will keep you—my loyal readers—updated with my progress!

After many months of BlackBerry ownership, I finally got around to installing the software onto my computer, running a backup, and adding more applications.

I started by downloading some free games, but quickly removed most of them due to strange quirks. Actually, the only one I kept was Pac Man. They were free, so I wasn’t too upset. Though having Space Invaders at my fingertips got me all sorts of excited.

Anyway, one of the most interesting installations I found while scouring the web was a theme that made my BlackBerry look like an iPhone. Much better than the default themes they give you with the phone, plus this one is also FREE (though they do ask for donations)! Check it out here!