Maybe after a visitor has clicked in a few pages you could accost them with the 'can we help you' type of chat popup, altho some people get freaked out by those too. We should engage the customer at their pace and convenience. If a visitor (prospect) requests (via email or web form) info, or certainly if they've ordered something, that's your cue to send some follow up questions.. how'd we do, what didn't you find, etc.

For business owners looking to use a survey as a 'virtual salesperson', I'd suggest having a more direct question, like Need Help? If yes, direct them to your search engine, show them your most popular products/services and or direct them to your FAQs, but anything other than a Survey.

Some may argue that they garner some insight from the few that fill out the form, but not at the expense of other users that you turn away with this tactic. Still want to keep your survey? Then please add a link to it somewhere prominently on your website, as those are hard to find when I actually do want to fill one out.

1. Innovative
2. Useful
3. Aesthetic
4. Self-explanatory
5. Unobtrusive
6. Honest
7. Durable
8. Thorough
9. Environmentally-friendly
10. As little design as possible

Getting started isn't immediately intuitive with the multiple windows, so here are some steps I put together for one of my guys today:

1. You need to setup the connection to the SVN server in the 'repositories' window:
- name: whatever you want to reference it as
- path: https://www.yourdomain.com
- username
- password

After that's entered, you can double click on its listing above the edit fields. It should then try to connect and display the most recent log messages. That's the first step to getting going.

2. Create the folder on your machine where you want the files to live. Go back to the svnX window that has the logs, below the log listings it should show "root" in the first column, Click on that and "trunk" should appear and begin to load its subfolders. With "trunk" selected, click svn checkout at the top and choose the folder you created. You can click show output to see the files getting added.

3. Then, in the svnX Working Copies window, create a new item. The 'name' should match what you used in #1 above for the connection name and the path should be the folder that you created, just the root, not the 'trunk'.

4. After you've added the working copy, double click its listing in the copies window. A new window should launch. Click Update to pull down the latest. Click Show output to see what changes if any were pulled down.

5. So every time you start a new session, you just need to fire up that last window to 'get latest'. Hit refresh to see any changes you've made.. click 'update' on the side to post your changes to svn and 'add' for any new files that aren't in svn.

Certificate Errors
You may get certificate errors when trying to connect for the first time, you'll need to subvert it by using the terminal

Hosted Subversion
I recently ran across Beanstalk, a hosted version of Subversion. I haven't tried it out,but it is supposed to integrate with Basecamp, another online application we use.

As a 3rd party, it is a bit difficult to obtain this information from an ISP if you don't have certain bits of information to identify yourself. Here are some steps that we had to go through to finally gain access:

1. Have the ISP send the login information to the email on record with the account. In this case, the person was no longer with the firm and their email was no longer active. However since email is something that we have control over, we will recreate that email address again so we can receive the account login instructions.

2. If the email on record is for someone with an email in a domain not in your control, then you have other steps. The ISP will probably ask you for the last 4-digits of the credit card used for payments as well as the name on the card. Our luck, this client didn't have this either.

3. Lastly, the ISP will require you to send them a fax with your information and requested changes on your company letterhead. Unless they verify the incoming fax number, this obviously can be pretty easily faked, IMHO.

If you don't have the login information for your website hosting service, you really should make sure you have it in your possession. If your web guy/gal is reluctant to give it to you now, it won't be any easier/better down the road when you really need it.

For a page to be secure, it needs to begin with HTTPS, which also puts the friendly padlock icon in the bottom of your browser, telling folks that everything's kosher.

You have to be a little comfortable with setting up websites and dealing with ISPs and whatnot to install your own SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. Otherwise, ask your webguy or gal to make sure you have one setup (and test it out to make sure your checkout is HTTPS and you get the padlock icon w/o any error messages!). It'll cost you about $60/yr to maintain a certificate from a place like RapidSSL.

If you're using a site like Yahoo stores, they include SSL with their package, so you should be cool with them. Same goes if you're using PayPal

No worries, I'll just go online and check my prior order status, they'll have the size AND style that I previously bought, making my repeat purchase even simpler. Nope, sorry, gap.com only keeps your order history for 14 days?

Amazon keeps it for years. Comon' guys.

"During the painting of the shell, a rod was inserted straight through the car allowing the shell to be spun round as it was painted.

The speedometer was originally put in the middle of the dashboard, cleverly covering the hole where the pole went."

From A Design Classic by James Dyson.

Why complicate the simple alarm clock? You don't want the alarm on the weekend? Turn it off. But if you really need this, it already exists.

I'd post a link to the product detail on Emerson's site, unfortunately their entire site is in Flash so you can't directly link to anything.

Graphic design guru Paula Scher worked with HP to allow you to create your own identity templates via her template collections website.

Not bad for small businesses getting started that need something clean. The Building a Brand Identity video is nice too. There's more Paula for your pleasure this month over at Monocle as well.

From a post over on Dave Farber's list

"Nobody forced anyone to buy an iPhone. The hype was immense, and only a little of the hype actually came from Apple. The buyers weren't buying a phone, they were buying status and the envy of others. Every buyer got the opportunity to show off their new toy, brag. The iPhone provided a high quality narcissistic supply. Now that the price has been sullied and the status is gone you can hear the sound of egos deflating as that brief bubble of exclusivity popped. The dealer cut the price of their junk."

via Bigpicture

Take notes kids, here's a good business model for you. Provide an unchecked forum to let people anonymously post potentially (or purposely) slanderous comments about you or your business. When people call you to have it removed, even if they have proof to the contrary, claim 1st amendment rights and offer up your services on a monthly retainer to "clean up" their reputation you allowed to be marred to begin with.

If this wasn't bad enough, now another website has entered the ring. Repsavior.com to the rescue! They've gone to the trouble of scraping and databasing the complaints on ripoffreport.com . So if you missed your company's name getting bashed on ripoffreport, you may find a copy of it on repsavior.com with a message to contact them about getting their help to get the posting removed from ripoffreport (and presumably their own site).

The irony is, by reposting the ripoffreport content on their website, they're only perpetuating the problem. We went to the trouble of trying to push down the ripoffreport content by posting our own content, and it succeed for awhile until repsavior.com (and complaintrepair.com, et al) showed up.

Companies such as the QED Media Group are utilizing websites like these for lead generation for their own SEO (search engine optimization) and reputation repair services. When speaking with their head guy, Mr. Russo, he had no intention of trying to help.

If you are having similar problems and have a website of your own you can use a little web know-how and fight back against these guys. If you have any questions or suggestions, please add them to the comments and I'll try to give out some pointers that could help your situation.

Yes, but CEO pay is 364 times more than their workers, so this could have been be a lot bigger.

Sociology Professor Susan Eisenhandler muses,

"Do you actually need to have that amount of space to live a good life? There are homeless people. There are impoverished people. There are serious social concerns, and we're not addressing that."

Eh, "we're not addressing that"? So along with your building permits, you need to run your house plans by your local Sociologist. Apparently she missed Mr. Chase's good deed last year, when he donated 66 miles of fiber optic cable located on utility poles around West Hartford giving residents and government buildings high-speed and wireless internet access.