bassbone.com

Edwards Site History

Josh — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:45:07 +0000

The first time I saw the Edwards site many years ago, I was greeted by popups, unorganized content and a beautiful blue sky background. I approached Christan Griego at the 2001 ITF and was hired a few days later to come up with a new site, complete with shopping cart. Earlier this year, Edwards 4.0 was launched. Here’s a visual history of the site.

Version 1.0 (pre 2001)

Version 2.0 (2001)
This was my first design. It launched in October 2001, a day or two before my wedding.

Version 2.1 (2003)
Minor reboot

Version 3.0 (2004)
One of my favorite designs for a long time, which is saying something. I’m usually ready to open Photoshop 15 minutes after I launch a site.

Version 4.0 (2010)
Probably long overdue, this version launched in early 2010.

New Aharoni Method

Josh — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:14:17 +0000

Most bass trombonists are familiar with Eliezer Aharoni’s New Method for the Modern Bass Trombone. It’s a great resource, especially for those wanting to develop a solid low register. Aharoni recently wrote a new method for commercial and jazz (not improv) bass trombone chop development. The Non-Classic Bass Trombone also comes with two demo/play-along CDs. Micha Davis, bass trombonist in the Israel Philharmonic, performs on the discs. The text is 160 pages and sells for $40 at hickeys.com.

Below are video excerpts featuring both Aharoni and Davis.

Funkey Blues
A Weird Ballad
Duet 1
Duet 3
The Mute Shop, Part 1
The Mute Shop, Part 2
The Mute Shop, Part 3

Neglect

Josh — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:43:10 +0000

I spend way too little time on my personal site — I really should make it a priority in 2009.

I’ve had an eventful 2008 (more on that later), which is the main cause for the figurative cob webs and green, moldy cheese on some of these pages (see portfolio).

And I have a 4 year old.

After designing/coding and running around after my boy all day, I figure a 140 character tweet is easier than a blog post. I promise to do better, but feel free to follow me on Twitter just in case I don’t.

Dreamweaver CS3 Bug

Josh — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:24:31 +0000

Long time between posts. I’m either really busy or really dull.

I was working on some templates today when Dreamweaver CS3 alerted me that it had to close. Since it wasn’t the first time DW decided it doesn’t like my floats, I wasn’t too bothered. I restarted DW but it immediately shut down again. I restarted my PC. Same thing. I shut down my PC completely and tried booting it again. Same thing. I hate Vista.

Instead of quitting early and watching the NCAA’s, I did a Google search. I found lots of generic advice telling me to uninstall everything Adobe, clean the registry, etc. I didn’t think the problem was that serious, so I kept reading and found a blurb talking about a weird 8 KB bug (thanks, David Powers). Apparently, if a file is saved at exactly 8,192 bytes, Dreamweaver will take its toys home. So I opened the directory to see what my latest work file size was. It wasn’t 8 KB, but rather exactly 48 KB. (I know, that’s huge. Don’t blame me, blame the design team. It looks great, though.) I’m no math genius, but I do know that 48 is a multiple of 8. So I opened the file in TextPad and added some commented gibberish and saved. With fingers crossed, I opened DW and it didn’t crash.

There you have it. No thirty minute unintall/reinstall. No registry sweep.

I’m doing it wrong…

Josh — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:01:46 +0000

…or so I was told by tech support at Hostway. When a client’s shopping cart (hosted by Hostway) went offline on August 10th, I immediately started a trouble ticket in site admin. It went unanswered for a number of days before I received a follow-up email asking for more info. Another week went by before they told me the issue had been sent upstairs to second level support. Now what you need to realize is that Hostway’s second level support is a very difficult area to penetrate and remaining there is next to impossible. It started when I responded to an email from tech support. Below is the message I submitted this morning using Hostway’s ticket submission tool:

Josh:
I just received this email from you this morning:

Email from Hostway:
Hi there,

We don’t think you understand the request situation.

Our message to you asks you to inquire on a new support ticket when you need to because when you reply to these emails you pull the issue out of advanced technical.

So each time we have sent it up, you have pulled it back down.

Please in the future inquire using Site Control > support > create a new ticket and reference this number, not reply to it.

Hopefully we can solve this for you very soon, thanks, have a good day.

Josh:
This is getting totally ridiculous. If by sending an email to support@hostway.com causes my ticket to be removed from the second-level support system, then the process is seriously flawed. Regardless if that actually happens, I followed your instructions sent to me yesterday to a tee. You didn’t mention anything about opening a new ticket:

Previous Email from Hostway:
We have submitted your message to our second-level support staff for consultation on the matter. We will get back to you as soon as we can with a response.

If you wish to inquire about this issue, please send a NEW email to our support team, and reference the HW number in the subject line.

Josh:
There is NO place to add the HW number to a subject line in your support ticket form. Secondly, you very clearly stated “email.”

I first reported this error on August 10. My clients and I spend close to $4000 a year having Hostway host our sites. We’ve done so for close to six years. I hate to get contentious, but your lack of response coupled with your confusing support system have me very frustrated. My client is losing money and your best effort is to tell me that I’m doing it wrong.

I’m as loyal a customer as any company could want. I badger my friends to shop at Costco, watch DirecTV, and rent movies using Netflix. Hostway used to be on the list.

Richardson Symphony Audition

Josh — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:47:15 +0000

For those talented bass trombonists living in Dallas (and there are many), the Richardson Symphony is having an audition this September 7 and 8. The rep list hasn’t been posted yet, but all other details can be found here.

Happy 4th

Josh — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:17:24 +0000

The rain never came and the new grill worked great. Noah got to stay up late and watched fireworks — he said they looked like rockets. Here’s hoping that everyone else had a great day. It’s just too bad we’re already back at work…

Audio Clips Added

Josh — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:52:35 +0000

I’ve decided to finally start adding some audio clips to my site. If you’re not into bass trombone licks and pedal notes, you probably don’t want to click this link.

it’s not wagner

Josh — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:09:24 +0000

I don’t want this blog to become a YouTube portal, but I couldn’t stop laughing while watching this video.

Google

Josh — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:38:21 +0000

If you’re like me, you like free stuff. Not only free stuff, but free stuff that makes your life easier, better, more interesting, whatever.

One of the free things I use every day is Gmail. It changed my life over two years ago. Every time I’m forced to open a traditional email app now, I feel like I’ve traded in my Xbox 360 for an Atari 2600. Folders? Give me a break. Thirty entries for a single thread? Added clutter in an already cluttered inbox. If you want searchability, threading, the ability to access your email from anywhere, loads of space, virus protection, then ditch Outlook and get Gmail.

Google docs hasn’t had quite the same impact as Gmail, at least not yet. But it’s getting better thanks to a recent update. Web Worker Daily has a great review of this latest offering, highlighting GD’s strengths and offering up some suggestions to make it better. It doesn’t have everything we need — yet — but hey, it’s free.