Aaron Russell

If XP is going to remain your primary OS and Ubuntu just for geeking around in Linux, then you probably don't need to do a 50-50 split. It depends which you anticipate using most but Windows has some big apps. I'd be tempted to do 120gb windows / 50gb ubuntu?

Id say about half of my work comes from other designers/agencies who do the creatives and pass the build or the techy bits on to me. Similarly, some projects go outside the scope of what I can cope with so occasionally I pass bits of my projects onto other freelancers.

If anyone is interesting in Ruby on Rails I highly recommend Simply Rails 2 by Patrick Lenz. The book is aimed at complete beginners so at times it can feel a bit simple. Learning Ruby itself will not be difficult for someone who has experience with any other OOP language, but learning Rails --especially if you have no experience with frameworks-- can take a bit of wrapping your head round. Therefore this book is a great place to start.

I daren't wade into one of these debates... but s0d it, I'm going to anyway I completely disagree with everyone who say's a PC is better value for money just because it is cheaper. Sure, you can't argue with the prices, but the term "value for money" is purely subjective. In my opinion a mac provides a much better user experience. I won't get into the debate as to why I believe that - but I do. I love switching it on, I love using the apps, the machine fills me with joy. So, I pay a premium for that - I know I pay a premium for that - and this is why: I sit in front of my computer for 10+ hours every single day. I have to enjoy using the machine otherwise I wouldn't enjoy doing what I do for a living. I acknowledge I can do ALL the things I do on my Mac on a PC, but I wouldn't enjoy it as much. So in my opinion (and it is purely subjective) a Mac is much better value for money.

If you use: position: absolute; left: 1045px; CSS is basically telling the left-hand side of you sidebar to always be positioned 1045px from the left edge of the screen. So if your screen is less than 1045px your sidebar will disappear off the screen. Positioning things 'absolutely' is generally a bit dodgy and you shouldn't really use it for general layout solutions. A better solution is to position your sidebar 'relatively' and to float it to the right. Do a google for "CSS floating" and see if you can suss it out.

I'll be buying it - probably in November or December as I have a few other things to pay for first. I do agree that the initial outlay is horrendously expensive. However, if you make money out of building websites and designing things, then once you are an existing customer the upgrade path is significantly less expensive. And really, software is pretty much the only costs my business incurs so £600 every 18 months or so is acceptable to keep me in with the latest and greatest software.

I've never needed to spend a penny on advertising, although I am planning a little experiment with AdWords in the coming months. What I would say is there's absolutely no point throwing a few hundred quid at AdWords without also building a highly optimised landing page/site. You need to treat paid traffic specially - it will be a complete waste of money just checking paid traffic at your homepage. Anyway, Will - the best thing I would recommend is to start a blog. Write articles that position yourself as an 'expert' in your field, network with other designers and developers and just start building relations. I'd say over 50% of my work comes from my network who refer work or ask me to help them. If you put enough effort into getting out there and being part of the community, you will find work has a tendency to find you, rather than the other way round. Good luck.

LOL - I've been waiting for those fridges for years! To answer the question I agree that desktop computers will become nothing more than internet gateways. Every-day computer users (not professionals who need hard-core apps) will only need to use 'in-the-cloud' applications. As bandwidth ever increases so will the ability to enjoy massively multimedia experiences online. Eventually media companies will pump all their services (phone, TV, etc) down the Internet - meaning no TV arial, no Sky dish - just an internet connection (once they've figured out a way to put fibre into every home cost effectively).

There is a thin and blurry line between 'inspired by' and 'stolen from'... and that is miles away from the line! Couldn't be more blatant - even down to the pencil image. Jeez! Sadly it's limited what you can do, other than sending an email to the hosts. Here's a quote from a recent .Net magazine, by Paul Boag:

I've said this before on this forum and got into quite a protracted debate with someone who didn't believe me, but I'll say it again: It is my understanding that if your TLD is a .co.uk (or any kind of .uk) then it doesn't matter if your webhost is based in the UK, the US or Timbucto, because Google knows from your TLD that your site is relevant to a UK audience. I believe it also states this in the Google Webmaster guidelines if you dig around. However, if your TLD is non-geographic (such as .com) then it DOES matter where your physical host is, as Google will use the location of your host to score your geographic relevancy.

In agencies quite often the creative roles and technical roles are split - so creatives just do the photoshop side of things and make things look pretty - and the techies just do the HTML build and any back end development needed. So you can certainly get by in the industry just being a photoshop person. Personally though, I think it's good practice to have a good understanding of what is involved with the HTML build side of things - so even if your job does involve purely working with photoshop, at least you can provide creative ideas knowing what the developer has to do to build it. Learning HTML and CSS really is not rocket science - you don't need to be a computer nerd to crack it. Yeah, and tables are kinda out these days

They baulked at £300 for a CMS, but you were happy doing a design for £80? [ ... does maths in head] Personally I think pricing is a deeply private and personal matter - I would never reveal my pricing on a forum. You need to base you pricing on your own experiences, your own personal living costs, and your own ambitions. Ultimately you need to base your pricing on what you consider YOU are worth, not what other people do or don't charge.

Interesting discussion. I've had a client screw me this week and do a runner. Had him sign my contract and fax it back to me. But he's based in the US, im in the UK, which makes any agreement kind of worthless anyway. If he was in this country I could take him to the small claims court and it's relatively easy to pursue. However being in another continent makes it more difficult. So going back to the OPs question - I don't think the contract matters that much when doing business with overseas clients. Whether it's a signed paper contract or a agreements in emails, are you ever going to be able to stand up and use it in a court anyway? I think what is more important is taking a large payment up front (50%) and having had in-depth conversations with the client over the phone and through email, and be absolutely confident in who you're dealing with. If there is any doubt whatsoever, walk away from the job.

I think building your own CMS is a good thing and you shouldn't be put off from it. Ultimately, what penguin says is true - but I'm sure you aknowledge that your first stab at building a CMS will produce something that is a bit ropey and not quite ready for commercial use. On the flip side though, you will learn tonnes as you build it. You will make mistakes and hpefully learn from them - so next time you build somthing like this you might be ready to use it with your clients. Go on do it! Also, I don't think you have to consider it such a mammoth task. Building your own CMS you can make as simple or as complex as you like. And I think there's a lot to be said for creating a very simple but solid CMS.

Cheers guys - this is just what I needed