Train reflections: Intern out!

Hello all!  My time at cascade this summer has been a blast, but for better or worse I have moved to a remote mountain village in Western Tottori Prefecture Japan as a Coordinator for International Relations with the JET Program.  The basic rundown of my new digs is that it's my job to promote awareness and understanding among cultures.  This month I've taught the "Hokey Pokey" dance to several pre-schools, and sang "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys as a part of an English lesson in the local middle school haha!

There's a lot I miss about Portland already, and cascade is a major part of that story, so I'd like to share a few closing remarks to that end.  The post was inspired by this article.

Glamourous Lifestyle
Working at cascade was a lot of fun, but defiantly not glamourous!  But you know what?  I was totally cool with that.  For example, one of my many important intern tasks was to fetch water for use in the camper style pluming system inside the train!  Good thing I spent over $100K on my education.  Had to do some serious calculations for that one!  In all seriousness though, we all pitched in on the grunt work, because in a small business, those jobs NEED to get done.  It's either that, or spend resources in a way that won't really help the company grow.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
These all use gas, cost money, and destroy the environment.  One of my favorite parts about cascade was the genuine encouragement to find a way to get to work that didn't require any fossil fuels.  Ben's habit of kayaking to work was always good fodder for jokes with my friends about how we should be put on an episode of Portlandia lol.  I loved riding my bike to work, and even more so, I loved that everyone at the company is on the same page and tries to do the same.  Not every company uses almost 50% of their office space for bike, kayak, wakeboard, and skateboard storage!

Dream Big
One of my main interests while getting my MBA from Willamette University was entrepreneurship, and Fritz is the real deal!  Working with him was truly inspiring and I'm really excited to follow brandlive's future development.  He's got such a clear idea of the purpose and trajectory for the service that he's landed some really major clients in just the first year of operations!  A significant portion of what I did this summer was to get on board about how this service works and who it benefits and provide a sounding board for Fritz.  I also spent several weeks painting a video studio in the storage rail car.

Business = People

It's no small thing that the CEO of the company responded this way to the following question:

Nick:  "So, why do you think cascade has been doing so well for so long?"
Ben:  "We've been REALLY lucky with the people we've hired.  They have been star performers and nearly all of them stick around for a long time."

A lot of companies fall into the trap of forgetting that they only reason products or services exist is because people make them happen and other people find enough value in them to buy them.  Ben's attitude was really refreshing and really shaped the company culture in a positive way.

Mata ne, cascade!

"Mata ne" is a phrase we use in Japanese to avoid saying "goodbye," but rather "until next time."  I finally have internet in my little mountain town, so feel free to drop me a line at nick@cascadewebdev.net!

Blogs for Business: 5 Tips

For whatever business you are in, writing a blog can be beneficial for showing your current and future clients what you are all about and what value you bring to the table. A few of our clients have asked us for advice regarding their company blog, which inspired the following list of 5 tips that can help!

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Tip 1 - Determine who you want to read the blog, then write to them
Every blog needs to keep in mind who it's readers are, but for business, it is even more important to be strategic about who reads it. Is your blog for retaining current customers? Attract new customers? Once you pick that group, keep in mind that you are making the blog to give relevant information to the people whom you CARE about! It's not about you, it's about them.

Tip 2 - Pick a topic and stick with it
Keeping a consistent theme will help readers remember you as a resource for information. If they can rely on your free information to add value in their lives, they will remember you when it comes time to consulting you on whatever paid product or service you provide! The theme could be anything, as long as it has a purpose and meaning to the people you intend to read it.

Tip 3 - Write about something you like
One of our clients recently asked "How can I get my co-workers to contribute to the company blog?" and one answer is to make it fun! If the subject you have picked is entertaining for those writing posts, their enthusiasm will transfer into better and more prolific writing. It's a fine line to walk, but a successful blog both is useful to your readers and satisfying to the writers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelogon/866701286/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Tip 4 - Encourage reader participation
The biggest benefit of having a blog is not to distribute information, but rather the ability to engage readers directly on a given subject. It's essentially a free focus group online. The most obvious way to accomplish this is to respond to them if they comment on your post. You might also pose questions in your posts for readers to answer, or occasionally offering prizes of some sort.

Tip 5 - Tell everyone about your blog
Blogs work a lot better when they have readers. You'll have more motivation to write and readers will have more people to interact with. Getting to this point is the hard part. You have to put the link TO YOUR BLOG on every bit of promotional material you have. Tell people about it, Tweet it, post on Facebook, comment on other blogs, and/or whatever brings more traffic to your blog.

cascade's New Project Manager

After a vigorous hiring process, cascade is welcoming Chris Hammond aboard as our newest project manager!  Along with fellow project manager Kyle Bridges, they will be the Batman and Robin, the peanut butter and jelly, the Corona and lime, or whatever other great combination you can come up with to describe their dynamic dual punishment of pending projects!!

In an interview to determine the origins and psyche of this newest force at cascade, Chris has the following to say:

Last movie you saw in the theater - The opening night showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I’m not what you’d call a Harry fanatic, but I can’t resist a good story coupled with pop culture frenzy. 

Dream aspirations as a kid - I used to participate in lots of theatre as a kid, so becoming a performer was appealing. I started to become interested in politics as I grew older, and public service was and still is something that inspires me. 

If you could be any superhero, who and why - Batman is pretty cool. He has all the material wealth you could want, but has experienced firsthand what it’s like to be hungry. He relies only on his physical abilities and tech know-how, plus he gets to fight some crazy villains that challenge him both physically and mentally. 

Free trip to anywhere in the world, where and why - I’d love the chance to bum around Kauai for a while, geologically the oldest of the Hawaiian islands and full of unparalleled beauty. 

Ever been in a fight, if so who started it - My twin brother and I have had some epic battles over the years, and I think we’re probably 50/50 as far as starting them. He’s the best person to fight with, though, because the fights are over about as quick as they start and things instantly return to normal, often to the dismay of witnesses. 

Favorite restaurant in Portland - The late Doner Kabob, creator of the delicious sandwich that tasted “like a gyro, only better”... I hope it returns. 

Biggest fear - Neglecting to let those I care for know it.

Nickname you had growing up - When my brother and I were about three years old, someone asked our names and we replied, “Jeff and Bonk”. I was Jeff. He was Bonk. I still don’t know where we came up with that... 

What attracted you to working at Cascade - I appreciated the edge, vision and simplicity of the company. Cascade prides itself on creating long-lasting relationships with its clients, which was appealing to me. These guys work hard and have vibrant lives on and off the train.   

Career goals - I’d like to get into public service someday. I also intend to be a change agent that helps small businesses, particularly in the Northwest, thrive.

How to Sign In to Multiple Google Accounts, Simultaneously

Google has been making a lot of changes lately, and change is hard. We love Google for the most part, but with new improvements come new headaches! One issue brought by the new changes that has been frustrating for us is juggling personal and business accounts. Previously, you could have multiple Google Accounts open in the same browser, however now (after accepting new terms and conditions) it is harder to use multiple Google Accounts simultaneously. Given Google's responsiveness to user feedback, I'm assuming this account consolidation is still in BETA (at least I'm hoping this is true).

We came across a good how-to-guide to fix this problem, (See Reverse Symmetry) and wanted to share it with you in our own adaptation in 5 simple steps!

Step 1 - Click on your account name in the top, right hand corner. Select "Account Settings."

Step 2 - Go to "Security," and check status of "Multiple sign-in" field. If "Off", click edit.

Step 3 - On the following screen (below) select "On" and check all boxes below. Save.

You'll notice that Google currently only allows for multiple sign in for a handful of their products. Therefore, you will still encounter some difficulties when attempting to access several Google Products (i.e. Blogger, Adwords, Analytics) that you control via different accounts. Hopefully, they will add multiple sign in to the full suite of products soon.

Step 4 - Complete steps 1-3 for all necessary accounts.

Step 5 - Now, when you want to open another Google Account: click on your account name again, then "Switch Account". You should see a drop down with your multiple accounts. Select the name of the additional account to switch from one to the other OR right click the additional account you'd like to open and select "Open in New Tab" in your browser prompt.

That should do it! According to Reverse Symmetry, Google is now completing this process for you whenever you make a second account, but should you need to do it manually, this guide should cover you! Happy tab toggling! Hopefully, Google will soon improve this process...keep hope alive.

Page meltdown? Follow these 4 steps!

The dreaded email subject: “Page Not Working.”  This is a perfect time to call up your web developer, but to get the most help as fast as possible, be prepared to give them as much information about the problem as you can!

Source

Here is what you should give to your developer:

Step 1 – The exact error message.  Try not to leave anything out!

Step 2 – The day and time the error message occurred

Step 3 – Information on what the user was doing right before the issue and when

Step 4 – Any system information from the user (browser, operating system, etc.)

With these 4 steps, your developer will be able to help identify and solve the issue much more quickly!

For the last step, it can be hard to know exactly what information is necessary and where to find it.  Recently, I discovered an online tool that can help a lot in this regard called supportdetails.com.  It gives all the system information a developer would need to know quickly and in one place!  The best way to give this information to your developer is to create an email detailing steps 1-3, then download the supportdetails.com information by clicking on “Export PDF,” and include it as an attachment in your email.

Hope this helps!

Entering the Mobile Sector with Sokol Blosser and Aeries Development

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the mobile web market has exploded in annual triple digit growth to become a multi-billion dollar industry with increasing smartphone and tablet options for consumers. Some sources even say that now 1 in 5 Internet users do NOT access the web with a "traditional" computer.

cascade has officially jumped into mobile web development and has slick new mobile site for Aeries Development and optimized form for Sokol Blosser!

Sokol Blosser was in need of a "cool" way for users to sign-up for their e-newsletter when handling Sokol Blosser's new iPads in the tasting room or at an event. When building the mobile form, we made several aesthetic changes (i.e. larger fonts and fields, field title overlays) and accounted for the variety of formatting differences between mobile devices, and the orientation of the devices (i.e. whether you're holding the device horizontally or vertically).

Aeries Development required an entirely new website fully optimized for mobile devices. If you view their site on your computer and then on your mobile device, the visual differences are slight. This is because the largest pain point of viewing their previous, non-optimized site on a mobile device was the time it took for the pages to load. Since the majority of their work is visually displayed, this was a large issue. By altering the way images and content were rendered, we vastly decreased loading time and provided a more efficient user experience. Other adjustments were also made to improve navigation both on the home and internal pages.

Here are a few items to consider when optimizing your site for mobile devices:

1. How should navigation be altered? - The vast majority of mobile devices' navigation is driven by touch. Therefore, your main navigation and buttons used throughout the site must be adjusted for fingers (accounting for skinny and fat figures should definitely be a consideration...no joke). Here few examples of issues you might want to look for: buttons/links that are too close to one another, buttons/links that are too small to pinpoint with your finger, and if buttons/links can be easily identified as such.
   
2. Screen size - Websites are normally designed to account for anywhere between 640 and 1280+ pixels. Mobile devices are obviously much, much smaller. Therefore, more often then not you'll need to reconsider the way your website navigation and page content is displayed (i.e. most websites switch from horizontal to vertical navigation during optimization). This can also include "cutting the fat" or removing some non-essential main navigation items and content since your "real estate" on a mobile screen is limited.
   
3. Loading time - Although mobile loading speeds have improved over the past few years, the load speed for bringing up a non-optimized site is leagues behind that of a traditional computer. There are however many ways to get around this snag. Some easier than others. This is usually determined on a case-by-case scenario.
   
4. Flash - Steve Jobs, why are you so stubborn?
   

Please contact us if you're interested in learning more about mobile optimization and/or want to explore this opportunity with your current site.

Three New Websites by cascade

Here at cascade, we've had some pretty interesting clients recently: an ancient order of monks, insiders in the precious stones market, and a winery that encourages drinking by the light of the full moon. We dig it.

Trappist Abbey Book Bindery is owned and managed by Trappist monks, whose traditions have been past down for over 900 years. In a cloistered environment, this small abbey provides the utmost care and detail in their work. To visit their site, click here.

cascade has helped this traditional business by better connecting them with their modern clients through developing an online order system using evergreen CMS. This new system allows the Book Bindery to track each order to completion directly on their evergreen menu.

Dolce prides itself on providing customers with exclusive jewels, handcrafted into wearable works of art. With a team of top quality designers and an owner who has access to the world’s finest gemstones, Dolce provides unparalleled exclusivity in jewelry production.

Along with web designer Whalen Louis, cascade provided Dolce with a website that could deliver a high level of design while including powerful features such as artist management, online storefront, and product management. Click on the picture above about to learn more.

Ardiri Winery and Vineyards offers customers a delectable selection of wines grown in the Willamette and Napa Valleys, which are served at their beautiful tasting room in Washington County Oregon. Wine purchase and information on events rental is available from their evergreen powered website.

With a newly remodeled tasting room, cascade and Topaz Design provided the online re-branding necessary to drive traffic to their improved location. Using evergreen, updating photos of the new facility, managing orders, and scheduling events have been made easy. Visit our portfolio to see for yourself!

cascade Adds a New Team Member

Last week we added a new member to the cascade team. Nick Woolsey is joining us this summer as an intern before heading to Japan to work abroad. Nick just received his MBA from Willamette University and has extensive experience working/studying overseas, specifically in Japan. I ran Nick through the gauntlet of rookie questions, and here is what he had to say:


First job - Swamper at Polehn Farms. Not for the faint of heart. I worked in a cherry orchard riding around in a tractor, picking up 25lb buckets of cherries, and pouring those cherries into bins. 104 degree heat, 10-12 hours a day, those buckets get heavy pretty fast!

Last movie you saw in the theater - Sadly...Hangover 2. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Dream aspirations as a kid - I wanted to be a geologist!

If you could be any superhero, who and why - Man, I am going to have to geek out...Goku from Dragonball Z. He can teleport to anywhere in the universe, fly, harness the power of the universe in a huge bomb, and his power level is OVER 9000!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI)

Free trip to anywhere in the world, where and why - Absolutely Mongolia! My college roommate was from Mongolia, and it sounds awesome! Not a very hospitable place in terms of climate, but it has a very rich culture. I taught myself to throat sing too!

Ever been in a fight, if so, who started it - Well, through middle school I'd be in schoolyard fights all the time. It was all mostly for fun though, we were all into WWF at the time. Oh man, we would imitate all the moves from Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, the Undertaker, D-Generation X. Probably a bad idea hahahaha.

Favorite restaurant in Portland - Al-Amir, the oldest Lebanese restaurant in Portland. Went there for the first time last week for my Moroccan friend's birthday. Big family style meal with all sorts of delectable dishes. It was LEGIT.

Biggest fear - Mosquitoes. Hate those bugs. My uncle took me to Yosemite National Park when I was like 6, forgot the bug spray, and there were so many mosquitoes that I couldn't breathe with out filling my nose and mouth with them. Yea. Hate mosquitoes.

Nickname you had growing up - Nickelodeon. The theme song was "Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick, Nickelodeon," so I heard that quite a few times hahaha.

What attracted you to working at cascade - I'm interested in starting my own new venture using streaming video technology, so learning from Fritz and Ben about how they have developed brandlive was a big plus.

Career goals - I'd like to get into social entrepreneurship. Either starting my own venture, or working with a company that is able to take a social idea and scale it from community based to a model that is effective globally.

Coming soon, Cascade Train shirts

What do you think. Let's not be shy, these are rad! Now we just need to get them printed and you have to come see us on the train to get one.

cascade Welcomes Ike to the Family

Last weekend, the Brumder family added a new member to their household, and the cascade team! Mom and, new baby boy, Ike William Denk Brumder are both healthy and doing well. Congrats to Fritz, Molly, and Solari on the new addition to their family and ours.



Mom and the new baby boy Ike William Denk Brumder are both healthy and doing well. Congrats to Fritz, Molly, and Solari.

Down Time

There are certain words, or combinations of them, that can cause any web development team to cringe. "Server" and "Crash" are, ideally, to be separated at all times and uttered in the same labored breath as rarely as possible.

A server going down usually translates into justifiably unhappy clients, an over-stressed web team, a very long night for all of thee above, and, in many cases, a loss of confidence internally and externally.

Unfortunately, the scenario of a tech team pounding away at keyboards in the middle of the night, slightly resembling character geek stereotypes from a TV drama (I’m picturing Chloe from 24), is not rare enough. Despite the efforts of the best technical minds our there, it happens. Taxes will be collected, we will all grow old (even with the best plastic surgeon), and your site will go down. The real trick is expedient recovery and, in the worst case, restoration of data on a new server. For some companies, the website is an extension or tool of marketing. For others, its a hub of vital business logic and process. For cascade, we fall under each category and treat them accordingly.

In September of 2010, JPMorgan Chase, the second largest bank in the world’s largest economy, with an IT budget and staff that would rival some small nations, suffered a complete outage that lasted not for an hour, not for half a day, but for THREE DAYS! For three long days, customers were unable to log-in, transfer money, make payments, or even check their balance. In January of 2009, then popular blogging platform JournalSpace actually ceased operation. Not only could they not get the site up; they literally could not retrieve any data. For an unknown number of users, six years of witty family reenactments and how-to posts were instantly gone. (Could you imagine the uprising of Mom bloggers if this happened today? Horrifying.) After weeks of failed attempts at data recovery (reportedly costing the company more money than they had made the prior year), users were informed that the site would cease operation.

Cascade has been fortunate enough to have impressive collective up-time, but we don't take this for granted. When we have had problems, we've generally been able to isolate the issue (i.e. a site going down does not mean you don't get email) and bring things back up in a comparatively expedient manner. The fact that we backup early and often is what allows us to sleep at night. When we do encounter an issue, our first priority is to do whatever it takes to get things back up and running. Our second priority is to evaluate exactly what went wrong and how we can prevent recurrence. In the event that prevention is not possible, how can we minimize the risk or at the very least improve recovery time? This is the silver lining for us as a smart web company. Having an outage is a huge problem but what we learn from it almost always makes us more stable in the long run.

After hosting our clients web sites for almost a decade, we have a robust set of protocols for prevention and recovery but will never call it “good enough”. Regardless of whether you are hosting with cascade web//development or anyone else, realize that the most important questions are, not whether your site will go down (it will), but how fast it will come back up and are the proper backups in place to ensure it will come back up at all.

How to Post on a Facebook Page as Yourself

In addition to the list of features I outlined in Pros and Cons of Facebook's Page Updates, Facebook has added another feature to the new Pages area.

As a Page admin, you previously could not post, comment, etc. on the Page you admin AND have that message appear from your personal account. Messages were always posted as the Page alias.

Not anymore...

Facebook now allows you to toggle between posting as the Page and posting as yourself on a Page you admin. To post as yourself:

1. Visit the Page you admin
2. Click the "Edit Page" button in the top right
3. Find "Your Settings" in the sub-navigation in the left column (its the first option)
   
4. Uncheck the "Posting Preferences" box

When you want to switch back to posting as the Page, just complete steps 1-3 and recheck the "Posting Preferences" box.

Its easy to do but a confusing topic to put into words so hopefully this all makes sense! If not, feel free to post any questions on cascade's Facebook page.

Pros & Cons of Facebook's Page Updates

Today, Facebook announced their recent slew of design changes and addition of new features. These recent updates definitely have their Pros and Cons, but one new feature will have a HUGE impact on how businesses are able to communicate within Facebook:

• New Pages Design - Most users already migrated to the new Profile layout since its introduction back in December. Facebook is now offering this "new" design to Page admins.
  

• Pro: More design flexibility, especially with the new image bar.
  
• Con: Page Tabs aren't as noticeable in the left column as they were above the Wall. You're out-of-luck if you're not a fan of the new layout--ALL old profiles/pages will be converted by March 1, 2011

• Post Filter - Page admins can choose between sorting Wall posts by the default view or "Everyone", which sorts posts in an order Facebook deems as most relevant.

• Pro & Con: I'm indifferent on this one. Need more time to see if this holds any value.

• "Use Facebook as Page" - This is a early Christmas present for Page admins (or maybe I'm just revealing my Facebook geekiness). This feature allows page admins to use Facebook under their Page's alias. Now admins can post, comment, share, etc. as their Page rather than using their personal profile. This feature can be accessed in the Account drop down (top right corner) by selecting "Use Facebook as Page".

• Pro: Directly reach out to brands, sales leads, customers, business partners, etc. without using your personal profile. You can also manage your notification settings so you don't receive an email every time someone interacts with your Page.
• Con: When you switch to a Page alias, your Wall, notifications (in navigation bar), friends, likes, comments, etc. change to those associated with the Page rather than your personal account.

• Tab Apps and Iframes - Custom tabs and apps for Pages can be built using iframes instead of FBML. This comes to no surprise as Facebook has been increasing the usage of iframes and slowly killing the FBML platform (which Facebook will deprecate on March, 11 2011).

• Pro: Tab Names lengths are not under as strict of limitations with the new Page layout.
• Con: FBML fans will have to make the switch to iframes. (Not necessarily a bad thing)

All-in-all I'm a big fan of the recent updates. Much thanks to insidefacebook.com for making the announcement.