In our experience, those two sentences seem incomplete. We would add a third: “Those whose can’t do or teach, meet.”

Since you are reading this, then you, like us, have much for which to be thankful–for the internet, at the very least, and, most likely, the opportunity to both read and write whatever you want…to live here and now, in relative peace and prosperity…with more of everything than we need (but “can’t live without.” like a cell phone that provides directions, records exercise routines and videos, plays music, converts voice-to-text and vice versa, acts as a wireless hub, etc.)

So, we say, God Bless you, we know that he blessed us–more than we deserve.

We’ve been watching TV today, including the incomparable “Miracle on 34th Street,” which we’ll write about someday–the 1947 original, not the lame remake. However, with all that TV, we have only one question: when is this Black Friday we keep hearing about?

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We don’t think there is any chance that the United States won’t pay its debts; so, we think the probability of anything more serious than a technical default (at any foreseeable time in the future) is nil.

However, given the administration’s policies and prolificacy, the probability of hyper-inflation is nonzero; so, there is a positive probability that Treasury bonds will become worthless; you’ll get paid, but (there’s a small chance) it will be with worthless dollars. In that sense, S&P was correct to downgrade the U.S. government’s credit rating, i.e., we think that risk is greater now than in the past.

This afternoon, we walked past a television and heard former administration official, Larry Summers, complain to the effect that S&P had no credibility because it had made so many ratings errors in the past. This seems to be the first time that anyone in the administration has complained that S&P was too conservative–kind of ironic given that the previous complaint that the rating agencies waited too long to downgrade various mortgage-backed bonds and CDOs. (Wonder if they’re still too slow…)

So, we think U.S. debt is riskier than it was (when there was much less of it). However, relatively, S&P was wrong. Can anyone (seriously) argue that Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom–all AAA–are less risky that the US? Seriously? France?

We could go on, but the best evidence of the USA’s relatively superiority was the increase in prices in Treasuries–the first trading day after the downgrade was announced.

We just wish that the President and Congress would take the Hippocratic Oath–to promise to, First, Do No Harm!

That would absolutely improve the government’s credit rating AND the economy.

P.S. At the first chance, we plan to write about current underestimation of inflation.

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We said, “Sure.” “Lucy, get over here.”

Lucy walked over, and the ump said, “Coach, you may want to stay here, too.”

We weren’t sure what it was about; possibly, she had seen Lucy mutter under her breath (behind the pitcher’s mask) when Lucy disagreed with the call. (Lucy tends to be hard on the ump, hard on us, and hard on herself.)

She started to speak to Lucy, “I know the coach is your dad, and I know that his voice grates on you, and I know that you cringe every time that he says something, but you know, he does know what he’s talking about.” (Ah, sweet, sweet vindication!)

She continued,

“I know you don’t want to hear him, but I am telling you this because I didn’t listen to my dad, either. Starting about when I was twelve, I wanted to do it my way because I thought I knew better.

But, because I didn’t listen, I blew-out my shoulder, and, now, instead of playing D-1 (NCAA Division 1) somewhere, I’m playing D-3 (at a local school).

So, I know it’s hard, but he is telling you the right things to do, and you should listen to him.”

Actually, our most-repeated instructions are quite simple, and apply to many sports and many other activities, like shooting, and primarily involve two commands: “breathe” to be relaxed and in control and “bend your knees” to maintain balance and readiness.

We have to admit, as much as it annoys her to do so, she usually does listen–albeit begrudgingly. Still, we hope the umpire’s kind words have both an immediate and long-lasting effect on the wonderful–though occasionally surly–child.

In that regard, our only regret is that the older princess wasn’t there to hear first-hand from the ump.

Thanks Deana!

Memorial Day ranks as one of the top, American national holidays–along with Independence Day and Thanksgiving. It is clearly the most solemn–or should be the most solemn–of the three as it recognizes the sacrifices that make both Independence and Thanksgiving possible. (Remember that it was Abraham Lincoln who made Thanksgiving a national holiday, which was during that bloodiest of American wars, the Civil War.)

Back in 2008, We started our first Memorial Day post with the following sentence. “Somehow it seems inappropriate to wish one another ‘Happy Memorial Day.’” That’s a thought that had been with us for quite some time, because it seems very disrespectful to those who have given their lives in the service of our country.

Clearly the “happiness” of the day can be attributed to its marking: (1) the beginning of summer, (2) the near end of the school year, and (3) first three-day weekend with warm weather–at least for those of us in northern locales. There should be happiness for those reasons; that’s undeniable.

However, happiness for memorializing those who died in this country’s service; well, that a bit much. (Kind of like wishing a ‘Happy Good Friday.’)

For awhile we thought the day should be referred to as “Remembrance Day,” which somehow seems more appropriately solemn than “Memorial Day,” but we realize that had the holiday be called “Remembrance Day,” at weekend picnics, folks would likely great each other with “Happy Remembrance Day,” and we would likely be left to argue that “Memorial Day” seems more appropriately solemn…

So, rather than change the name of the holiday that recognizes the ultimate sacrifices of so many thousands, if not millions, for so many hundreds of years we propose the title of this post as a the proper Memorial Day salutation: Have a Good Memorial Day.

We conjecture that none of those who (1) died tragically while savings others–whether those others were fellow combatants or civilians–or (2) died tragically and accidentally or (3) died tragically for other reasons while in the service of this great nation–including those who were lost because of the stupidity of their commanders or their comrades or, possibly, themselves–would object to “Have a Good Memorial Day.” They died so that all of us could have many good days.

In that way, their sacrifices were quite successful–no less tragic–but quite successful because it has been through their ultimate sacrifices that so many hundreds of millions in the U.S.A. and, to lesser extents, billions all over the world have been able to have so many good days of peace, independence, freedom, security and responsibility. Both in absolute numbers–obviously–and relative proportions, throughout the world, more individuals now live freedom than ever before, and that’s almost completely due to the sacrifices made by the men and women of this nature.

So, we’ll do what we usually do on Memorial Day: thank God we live in the United States of America, and thank God for those who have sacrificed their lives, bodies, and well-being so that we have the freedom to live as we do, including the freedom to blog about nonsense on other days of the year. (We did skip Mass this year; we doubt the rookie priest would have a sermon to match the day–he generally doesn’t–and last year, we had to listen to another “junior” priest recommend at Mass that we go to Mass and the cemetery on Memorial Day. Oh boy!)

God, bless those who have died in the service of this nation, and bless all–living or dead–who have served and all who currently serve, especially those young people now in far-away lands. May they and their families have many more good Memorial Days and very happy reunions.

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• Sergeant York; his friend, 'Pusher' Ross; and our Softball Dugout

Shenot Farm is a sustainable family farm in Wexford, PA, which located about 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh. Shenot grows and sells a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including apples; peaches and nectarines; plums; berries; tomatoes and garden vegetables; and its famous sweet corn. The farm’s owners wanted a site worthy of their beautiful produce, and that’s what they got.

The Shenot Family sells that produce, along with homemade fudge, and other staples and gifts in its farm market, and wants to substantially increase its on-line fudge sales, which is quite possible with its new on-line store.

We completely re-designed the site’s graphics, and used our favorite, search-engine optimized, content management system to greatly expand the site with many new pages and an even greater number of photos (as both individual images and in slide shows). Many of those photographs were taken by Rebecca of GreenwoodsandBlueSkies.com, who, as you can see, is very talented.

The site’s header features a panoramic view of the farm, with an informal, script text, where the “o’s” is Shenot and Wexford have been replaced with apples to give the site a whimsical, casual feel.

The background is abstract and striated–featuring the same shades of green that appear in many plant leaves–so it well matches many of the photos and, on its own, evokes flora and fields.

Using our simple, yet very powerful, form processing app allows the owners of Shenot Farm to positively transform the way they interact with customers and employees thereby improving the way they do business and cutting costs and inconveniences.

Substantial marketing benefits will derive from a very sophisticated email-marketing management system that is integrated into the site, and that is especially important to a seasonal business like farming, when it’s helpful to keep customers notified of the latest produce that is fresh-from-the-field and available for sale.

Shenot–a small, family farm–now has an easy-to-manage web site and web capabilities that many large firms do not possess.

If you want a similar, good-looking, economical, yet extremely powerful web site, contact Andy at 412.779.9028 or via our on-line form. We can rapidly design and develop an equally effective site for your firm, organization or farm.

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We’re not going soft on terrorists, but we do wish that Osama bin Laden had not been killed on Sunday, and, instead, had been captured, and, as we’ll explain, reported as dead.

On Tuesday, we heard the President’s Spokesman Jay Carney announce that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot. That seemed strange and seemed like a strange detail to release, and we wondered why a highly-trained Seal would kill someone whom he could capture (or tranquilize). One of the White House reporters asked a similar question.

Though we very much doubt it, this is one time when we wish that the United States government were perpetrating a massive hoax on us and everyone else to dupe the remnants of al Quaeda into believing that all of bin Laden’s personal information were forever out-of-reach due to a Seal’s bullet.

We understand how some people wanted his dead ASAP, but we would be willing to defer bin Laden’s trip to Hell for a little while, so that he could undergo a bit of interrogation (and then receive reports of how his network had been destroyed as a consequence of his own words). That would have been hell on earth for OBL and justice for all–even if only a few individuals would ever knew the truth.

So, though extremely unlikely, here’s wishing that bin Laden is spilling his guts–figuratively, not literally, for now–to his American captors in some extremely out-of-the-way locale.

In fact, we think the best way to capture someone like bin Laden, who likely had extremely valuable information, would be to report that he had been killed, and, say, buried at sea and not captured. That’s not a conspiracy theory, per se, but it would be an amazingly brilliant tactic to avoid all of the complications that a publicly-announced capture would entail.

By the way, all things equal, we would prefer someone like bin Laden to be buried on land, rather than at sea, especially if his grave were turned into shrine. A shrine as a gathering point for sympathetic visitors would provide excellent opportunity to tag them–at hotels or transportation hubs, etc–and then track their movements by satellite.

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We were still half-asleep this morning when we switched on the news and saw President Obama talking about high gas prices.

Unfortunately, we can’t find the video on-line, but as we recall, our fearless President was recommending that the best solution to high gas prices was simple–just buy a new fuel-efficient or battery-powered car, because, you know, they “were working with Detroit on battery technology,” or something to that effect.

Many things are possible, so there is a miniscule chance that some day a tank of gasoline will be as expensive new car, but that is not today. So, his statement was devoid of compassion and sense (for that matter) and a recognition of the unemployment rate and flat wages and high–though under-estimated–inflation.

In our mind, he showed a level of obliviousness that was greater than George H. W. Bush’s ignorance of bar-code scanning (at supermarkets) in the early 1990′s for which President Bush was greatly mocked.

So, a few hours today, before the release of his birth certificate, we thought that Mr. Obama may have been born in Europe, rather than Honolulu, and that he may have been a distant relative of the late, headless, Austrian Queen of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette.

Alas, despite our artwork, the comparison between the President and the Queen fails. You see, there is no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever uttered the apocryphal command, “let them eat cake,” but there is at least one video of President Obama recommending new car purchases as a solution to high gas prices.

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The topic of the essay was something like, “the difficulty of communicating through writing versus speaking.”

We replied that we’re sure she provided ample evidence to prove the point, … and she got it, immediately! That’s our girl!

We hope to have her blog, LuvThisHateThat.com, up-and-running in a relatively short period of time.

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2fish.co is a Catholic apologetics site that defends the Faith through reason and copious references to the bible, which is available in its entirety on the site.

It is call “2fish.co” because that domain name was available but mainly because those behind it want to fish for men and women and do a lot with very little–like Jesus with the miracle of the five loaves and two fish.

This isn’t the first apologetics site, but we think it is the best looking. (It’s easy to note the overall theme similarities between 2fish.co and our site, but, hey, both sites are great-looking, and it was free for goodness sake!)

Most pages–excluding the bible pages–have images of classic Christian art on them–many from the 13th – 15th centuries. Click almost any image to see a larger version.

To attract and retain visitors, we’ve tried to make the site, light, attractive and relatively informal–while still maintaining the rigor of numerous citations.

There is still much to do, including linking those citations to the bible passages. If you’re a friend and would like to help, please contact me.

If your firm or organization is looking for a great-looking, easy-to-operate, informative, and search-engine-optimized web site, then contact us or call 412.779.9028.

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Last Tuesday, the Gospel reading in our Magnificat was from Mark, Chapter 12, verses 13 – 17, and involved the well-known admonition to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Nearly verbatim verses appear in Matthew 22: 16 – 22 and Luke 20:20 – 26, except in Luke he doesn’t actually get the coin.)

Every Christian should know the story of the Pharisees and Herodians who try to trick Jesus by asking whether they should pay taxes. He asks “why are you testing me” and then asks for a coin, holds it up, and asks a third question: “whose image is on the coin?”

When they reply “Caesar’s,” he responds with his famous admonition to give it to Caesar but give to God what is God’s.

All three Gospel writers close the episode by mentioning that his questioners were utterly amazed at him, and Matthew mentions that they left.

That made us wonder: what did Jesus then do with the coin given to him?

He had three choices. He could have:

1. Gave it back,
2. Pocketed it, or
3. Gave it to a bystander–possibly a poor or widowed one.

We’re trying to determine which would have annoyed his questioners the most and which would have left the greatest impression on the crowd?

As we wrote last year, we think Jesus had a sense-of-humor; so, if He gave it back, we could imagine it was via a magic trick, e.g., He makes the coin disappear and then pulls it from behind a Pharisee’s ear. It’s likely that would have annoyed his questioners and amazed them and caused them to leave (when the rest of the crowd laughed). In our mind, the same guy that cleared the temple of the money-changers would have been quite capable of embarrassing a few Pharisees, as He did on other occasions, e.g., “listen to them but don’t be like them.”

We wonder what would have happened if he had pocketed the coin? Would he have thanked the Pharisee for his donation? Would the Pharisee have asked for his coin to be returned? Would Jesus have said, “But you gave it to me?” Would He have said, “I’ll give it to Caesar for you?” Regardless of how the situation played out, we could imagine the ruffled Pharisees again being annoyed and amazed by His actions, thereby causing them to leave and the crowd to laugh.

Lastly, we can easily imagine Jesus thanking the Pharisee and giving the coin to a less fortunate member of the crowd, possibly with a cheeky, “let them give it to Caesar.” We suspect that giving it to the poor would have annoyed and amazed the Pharisees the most.

TesTex, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based company that manufactures state-of-the-art products for the non-destructive testing (NDT) of various materials and structures, like ferrous and nonferrous tubes and pipelines and storage tanks.

TesTex also uses its (own) products to provide NDT (inspection) services to firms, organizations, and government agencies throughout the world. In fact, it has offices on four continents; so, our web-page translation feature, which translates content into over 40 languages on-the-fly, is an incredibly useful and inexpensive way to reach diverse international audiences.

Like all of the sites that Spero Consulting has designed, TesTex-NDT.com is clean, good-looking, well-organized and search-engine optimized: a perfect showcase for prospects and customers. In fact, customers can now interact on the site’s user forum. Contact TesTex for more information.

If you are a technology-based company in Western Pennsylvania, or anywhere in the U.S., shouldn’t your state-of-the-art products be showcased on a state-of-the-art, yet surprisingly affordable web site? There’s a reason we call it Grownup Web Design™.

To learn more about our development services visit our web design page or dedicated web design site or contact us on-line or at 412.779.9028.

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We provide corporate training and executive coaching nationally, and college and personal tutoring locally. Often a manager, employee, or individual needs an expert to explain something, and that’s where we can help. Subjects include:

• Accounting (managerial, cost and financial)
• Finance and its subfields, e.g., valuation, NPV calculations, etc.
• Risk management, including risk-neutral valuation
• Economics, especially information economics, incentives and agency theory
• Math (simple and advanced), including probability & statistics and quantitative methods
• Optimal decision-making
• Information systems and web design

On a retained basis, we are also available to answer telephone, email, or form-submitted questions.

If you attend CMU, Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris, LaRoche or other schools in Western Pennsylvania, and you are need a college tutor, we can help. For personal or small (study) group training and tutoring, we prefer to meet in the North Hills, especially in Wexford or Cranberry.

Visit this page to learn more about our training and tutoring services.

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We once had a professorial colleague who believed that trust–within a society or nation–is necessary for its economic success.

He would often cite Dutch expeditions, traders and colonies, and claimed that trust permitted the Dutch to have more global influence and wealth compared to other, larger, but less trusting (and trustworthy) nations and peoples.

We’re not sure about the reasons for the Dutch success in centuries past, but we do think that he has a point.

Without the confidence and trust that an outfitted ship would return from a voyage, it would have been silly and wasteful to fund such a project. It’s not just that the something could go wrong–no wind, too much wind, unfriendly natives, etc–but the ocean-going adventurers could strike-it-rich and decide not to return with your goods and spices.

The same goes for just about any type of investment and loan–in fact, almost every transactions. Of course, in many cases, such trust is a by-product of the rule-of-law, and the corresponding lack of corruption, cronyism, and arbitrariness–all which would otherwise increase the likelihood of being cheated.

We could frame this issue in information economic terms and/or legal terms, but the central issue is whether mechanisms are in place to ensure that others will live up to their side of the bargain. Of course, there are always human parasites who prey on the trusting, but wealth is created when both (well-intentioned) parties are convinced that their transactions or exchanges will be consummated according to the contract or arrangement.

In many ways, that’s one of the beautiful aspects of the Web and modern technology. It increases transparency and permits long-distance transactions among strangers, and that is both utility and wealth-maximizing (for those not willing to take much of a chance).

Case in point: recently, we sold a “tag-a-long” on-line to someone from North Carolina. What’s a tag-a-long?

A tag-a-long is a marvelous invention that turns a regular bicycle into a “bicycle” built-for-two. Actually, it’s turns a bicycle into a tricycle by adding a third, in-line wheel. It’s designed for small children, around the ages of four – eight, and it hitches on the back of an adult’s bike.

We thoroughly enjoyed our years with it as its a great way for children to stay with adults on a bike ride–they’re forced to–and they can learn to shift and pedal on roads that no responsible parent would allow them to cycle by themselves.

It has been sitting unused in the garage for a few years now, so we decided to sell it.

Shortly after listing it on-line, we received an email from someone in North Carolina, who wanted us to ship it. They suggested to do so through a local bike store, which was a great idea. We emailed the name of the closest shop, and within a few hours of our first contact, the tag-a-long was at the store and the money had been transferred to our bank account.

Given that the store had an on-line reputation to be concerned with, the buyer trusted the store to fulfill its obligation. So, we took it to the store, the buyer called the store’s telephone and received confirmation that the tag-a-long had been delivered by us, and they sent a payment to us before we had arrived home.

We suspect that UPS stores, etc., could play a similar, middle-man role and could charge a reasonable fee for the service, and all three parties–buyer, seller, and middle-man could benefit. (Perhaps some do already.)

We think it’s a great example of why this is the best time, ever, to be alive.

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With only a few mild days that broke-up two months of snow cover, Wexford reminds us nothing if not the winter scenes of Yuriatin. (Fortunately, no White Russians, Red Russians, cannon fire, or rats.)

This weekend’s local forecast calls for single-digit temperatures, wind chills below zero, and more snow. All winter, it has been “more snow,” and when it’s not snowing, the wind is blowing what’s on the ground back into the driveway. Much of the rest of the country seems to have it as bad or worse than us, especially the South and East.

So, we wonder: where is the global warming that we have been promised?

Since Thanksgiving, the temperature has been above freezing for only a few days, and it has been colder than any similar period that we can remember: that includes (1) delivering newspapers at the most frigid hour of 6:00 AM through many winters during the mini “ice-age” of the 1970s and (2) five winters in Minneapolis.

So, we ask: may we have a little global warming, please?

During these past two months, the poor Basenjis have only been walked a handful of times, which is fine with them. Given the cold, the snow, and the salt on the roads, they keep a very low profile this time of year, and seem to be in a mini-hibernation. They don’t even bother to bother us to feed them–because they seem to rue the forced, after-meal trip outdoors. Who can blame them?

During the same two months, it’s been sunny for about a week. Except for rare days like today, the sky has three day-time colors: gray, slate, and dark gray. During the return side of a recent mid-afternoon trip to the city, we began scanning the horizon for a dark tower with a hovering large, omnipresent eye above it. We were convinced that we had been transported to Mordor. Alas, we were still near Pittsburgh.

So, while the evidence of global warming is scant–and seemingly non-existent in the ‘burgh–don’t consider us a denier, just an anticipator. A little global warming, please.

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Today we celebrate God becoming man: logos–the word–reason–incarnate.

Throughout much of the world–the Christian, nominally Christian, and (many) non-Christian parts–more than 2,000 years after the birth of Christ, Christmas is the most important event of each year. (Denote time as A.D. or try to secularize it as C.E. for “Common Era,” regardless, everyone knows what it means, and it denotes the years since Christ’s birth.)

Many bemoan the commercialism of the season, and it certainly seems crass (and un-Christian) at times, but directly and indirectly, the Christmas celebration and related commerce have lifted billions out of poverty as they spend their workdays and years making Christmas presents or decorations or foods or libations for someone celebrating Christmas.

So, for everyone who notices the grudging purchases, the feelings of obligation–rather than seemingly purer motives–or selfish behavior, like fellow shoppers cutting in line or stealing parking spaces, we say “lighten up.”

In those cases, the ends (of giving) do not justify the means (of bad behavior), but it is important to note that the intent is there: trying to make someone else feel better, and that has to count for something when we net the benefits of the season.

So, for those who remain spiritually poor and cranky, including the sanctimonious, we say: dear Scrooge or Scroogette, note all the good done both directly (and indirectly) in the celebration of Christmas and in the name of Christ. (Ah, perhaps that goodwill to men is what is truly bothering you!)

To everyone, we wish you a Merry Christmas and personal peace in the new year.

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All of our sites include extensive information about visitors from the site manager’s dashboard or control panel, e.g., search results, IP addresses, page sequences, etc.

For ranking information, we go to Alexa.com, which considers the number of unique visitors and the average number of pages viewed per visitor over the past three months. We don’t know Alexa’s exact formula, but somehow they tally the total number of pages visited (over the three months) and rank sites accordingly.

For small and mid-sized sites, there can be quite a bit of variability in rankings. In fact, they can jump up or down like a teenage girl’s mood. However, with everything else equal, one can increase the number of visitors with the right web publishing platform and by following our admonition to “publish, publish, publish.”

By “increase” above, we mean in a first-order, stochastic dominance sense, i.e., probabilistically. That increase occurs for two reasons:

1. The more that you publish, the more there is to read and index and search upon.
2. Also, as we understand it, when ranking sites and determining placement is a results page, search engines place emphasis on freshness, and that creates a momentum effect; the more you publish, the higher your rankings tend to be.

Back on September 9, we launched the revamped Rampart-Hydro‘s web site, where everything changed, except the name. For several years, Rampart had a large web site with many (html) pages, images, and embedded videos. It was a static html site, but much, much more than a stark, “yellow page ad.” (Those placeholder sites do little to assist or inform visitors, err potential customers, clients or patients.)

We modernized the site’s look by reorganizing content, streamlining navigation, minimizing jargon, and by extensively using slide shows to highlight locations and work processes.

On December 9, we checked Rampart’s Alexa ranking to see the change in its three months ranking. You can see the screenshot above. (Click on it to see a larger image.) With a switch to our search-engine-optimized web publishing system and with web marketing and content management advice, we were able to increase Rampart Hydro’s web traffic by 2600%. That’s right, in three months, on average, their traffic was twenty-six, that’s 26, times greater than it was prior to the re-launch.

Because there are many variables outside of our control, we don’t make guarantees about traffics increases. However, if your firm or organization has a middling or low or non-existent Alexa ranking, our web publishing platform and consulting and marketing services can substantially increase traffic. Contact us or call 412.779.9028 to learn more.

What do you have to gain besides visitors, prospects, and future customers?

There is an opportunity cost to doing nothing! You can read about such problems in: Ignoring Opportunity Costs & other Performance Measurement Mistakes.

By the way, if your site doesn’t have an Alexa ranking, then it has almost no traffic and is ranked somewhere below 25 million (or so) of the world’s 250 million (or so) web site.

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For a modest annual fee, students can list their athletic accomplishments, academic achievements, other relevant personal information, upcoming game or event schedule, and up to nine photos and three YouTube videos.

Each profile, including the photos and videos, can be updated as frequently as desired on a secure, easy-to-use form.

Unlike many other sites that target high school athletes, college coaches need not register with the site to search the database or read or print student profiles. That provides a few benefits that increase the likelihood of winning a scholarship:

1. by improving convenience vis-a-vis those other sites, it directly increases the likelihood of their use and each student’s exposure, and
2. because all entered information is available, searchable, and indexable (by the search engines), that publicity increases the likelihood of a high search-result rankings for searches performed outside of the site, and that  increases the likelihood of being discovered.

That later point is worth repeating: all information is available to the public and every word in every profile is indexed and searchable. (If you’re going to advertise yourself on the web, you might as well do it the right way!)

(Update: here is very early testimonial that was forwarded to us. “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on a job well done with regard to your website! It is very organized and easy to navigate! It includes everything a coach would need to know immediately and conveniently. As you must already know through visiting other sites, that the biggest stumbling block I have found has been the extreme lack of ease with regard to site navigation.”)

For those concerned with privacy issues, note that only a handful of the nearly 150 possible input areas are required fields. Anything else, or everything else, is optional; so, each student and family can decide which details and accomplishments to publicize and which ones to keep private. It’s worth mentioning, however, that it is difficult to successfully market oneself on the web without divulging personal performance-related details.

The site also provides ancillary services like photo and video editing and production.

The site as a whole is a very creative use of inexpensive and readily-available components for our favorite, search-engine-optimized content management system–if we do say so ourselves.

With almost no programming–just a few tweaks of the code here and there–we have developed a state-of-the-art, easily-managed, directory-based system that can be managed and updated by us or others. There isn’t much that is proprietary here–other than the clever combination of mostly-free or inexpensive components.

On that dimension, we’re always amazed by job postings for web sites that over-emphasize programming or coding skills. We think: why would anyone want us to write brand-new, customized (or should we say idiosyncratic) code when it’s likely that someone else has already written and made available–usually for free–something that is very similar. Vertical integration should be as dead in web design and development as it is in most other industries.

If you need a directory-based site or any other type of search-engine-optimized site or web-based management information system, contact us or give us a call at 412.779.9028. You’ll be amazed at what we can do for you and your customers, clients, patients, students, prospects, or readers.

At Spero Consulting, we give “intelligent design” a whole new meaning.

Related posts:

• Paying to Play in High School
• Abject Silliness
• Hey! They′re Talking About Us!
• The Government Will Save Us! Not!
• Congratulations Redeye!

Or, consider the seemingly little for which others in less fortunate parts of the world–deranged and starving North Korea, malaria-ridden Africa, earthquake-ravaged Haiti, take your pick–thank God as they currently face conditions no better than the Pilgrims faced–if not substantially worse. Whether those conditions result from natural disasters or from far more insidious and evil man-made disasters or regimes or plans, it does not matter.

Or, consider the (still relatively rare) freedom to publicly give thanks to God for all that we have, regardless if that “all” seems to be “a lot” or “a little,” or whether that thanks is given orally, with ink and paper, or electronically.

And, realize that if you are able to read our simple blog on your computer or your phone, you have it better than almost everyone who has preceded you, and better than billions and billions of others in the world today. (Heck, forgot computers and cell phones and blogs and consider the benefits of other relatively recent inventions like indoor plumbing and toilet paper, which–on second thought–aren’t much different than most blog software and text messages.)

And, realize further that almost all of the inventions or conveniences that you now enjoy and depend upon originated from investigations to: (1) know more about the Creator through science, (2) to improve the lives of others (while, admittedly, often simultaneously trying to improve ones own well-being) through technology, or (3) via the deliciously ironic, God-works-in-mysterious-ways phenomena of non-believers trying to use His creation to disprove his existence (to the benefit of their fellow creatures).¹

And, regardless of your predicament today–and no one’s life is problem-free–realize that you live in the best of times, and thank God for that.

Lastly, if you are our age or younger and were born in the USA or a handful of other countries, then it is nearly impossible to truly appreciate your good fortune and blessings to be born and live in these times of plentiful food; shelter; education;  healthcare; mobility; opportunity; religious and personal freedom; and safety. So, thank God for that, too. As we smell the turkey and watch the girls toil (mostly joyfully) in the kitchen, that’s what we are trying to do.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Related posts:

• Happy New Year, 2010!
• Thanksgiving is Over, but We're Still Grateful To Be in the USA!
• Happy Fourth of July!
• Have a Good Memorial Day, 2011
• Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

One of our XPS laptops was lost at a Dell repair facility. It took awhile, including several conversations with support and service reps spread throughout the eastern hemisphere, but in the end, Dell came through with a nice replacement.

For a few weeks they claimed that it was being repaired and then for a few they claimed they hadn’t received it. During that time, we joked that Dell was the John Kerry of PC makers; they fixed it before they didn’t receive it–kind of like voting for it before voting against it–but we have to drop it.

Instead, we simply say “thanks” for stepping up and righting a wrong with a refurbished XPS 1400 that replaces the MIA XPS 1330. The 1400 is much nicer!

We own a lot of Dells and recommend them to our clients, and based upon this experience, we’ll continue to recommend and buy them. Now, if they’d only do something about those dorky Streak commercials with the kid in the raincoat.

Related posts:

• Seinfeld, a Youthful 54
• Happy Father’s Day, 2010
• Computer Problems
• If You Thought Counterfeiting Was a Problem Before…
• If ‘If’s and ‘But’s Were Candy and Nuts…