http://www.scottmcdaniel.com Scott McDaniel - Web developer specializing in effective communication Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:31:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mario Lurig one of our recent hires had the idea for a Spore Creature Contest for SurveyGizmo online survey software. Here is the digg story... The only thing I love more right now than the Spore Creature Creator is the chance of getting something for free. SurveyGizmo.com (online survey software tool) ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2008/07/03/win-a-spore-contest/ iPoll a new iPhone application lets you build and share polls or quick questions through your iPhone. Create it from your iPhone or web browser and then send it to friends? You can then monitor a live pie chart of the results. "Where should meet?", "What movie should I see?" ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2007/07/04/ipoll-app-for-iphone-build-and-share-polls-from-your-iphone/ SurveyGizmo is happy to announce that we now have HIPAA and Safe Harbor certifications. These are two forms of personal information protection. HIPAA is a US law regarding health information and Safe Harbor is US Department of Commerce program to help business comply with EU privacy laws. Some of you ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2007/05/22/surveygizmo-meets-hipaa-and-safe-harbor-guidlines/ I just got back from SXSW and had the pleasure of meeting David Cohen of ColoradoStartups and TechStars at one of the evening parties. TechStars provides up to $15,000 in seed funding for your online business idea and help you turn it into something real. Basically ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2007/03/16/techstars-call-for-seed-funding-proposals/ In Hawaii, four sculpting gurus transform produce into tropical sculptures that rise above five feet. Using a variety of fruits and vegetables, the competitors try to carve, peel, and slice their way to a $10,000 prize. In Sweltering Hawaiian heat the real test will be moving the final sculptures, which ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2007/01/10/fantasy-fruit-sculptures-food-network-challenge/ The online survey tool, SurveyGizmo, announced an open API to their tool that allows for real time stats and response data to be accessed. This API had been in use with a WordPress plugin and an Apple dashboard Widget, but now it is available to anyone for their own projects ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2007/01/10/surveygizmo-announces-open-api-access/ SurveyGizmo can now embed surveys in MySpace.com pages! "We couldn’t help but notice all the searches for myspace survey functionality. So here it is — surveys you can embed in MySpace (or other difficult CMS systems)!" Read more about surveys on MySpace http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/28/add-surveys-to-myspacecom/ I got my new Sunnto T6 today and took right out on a run on Mt Sanitas here in Boulder. I was very impressed. The software installed without a hitch and the watch worked flawlessly. Below is a what the graph looked like after I downloaded the data. The so called ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/25/first-time-out-with-suunto-t6-heart-rate-monitor/ I spent the last few days researching heart rate monitors extensively. I narrowed it down to the Suunto T6 and Polar AXN 500. I want to get in shape - yep I've said it before, but I got a big trip on the books next year (more on that in ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/24/suunto-t6-vs-polar-axn-500-heart-rate-monitor-watches/ Run online surveys, polls, contact forms... anything with a web form. Keep track of your stats from the comfort of your Mac OS Dashboard. The SurveyGizmo widget gives you the best of both worlds. Use SurveyGizmo to build custom surveys, but easily glance at your Dashboard throughout the day to ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/19/survey-widget-for-apple-os-x-dashboard/ Do you run surveys? Do you have a Mac? Then monitoring & managing your SurveyGizmo surveys is just one keystroke away thanks to the brand new SurveyGizmo Apple dashboard widget, developed in partnership with wdgty. The SurveyGizmo widget for Mac OS 10.4.3+ allows you to keep up with progress on your ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/19/surveygizmo-widget-released/ We've written a how-to guide on Creating Contact, Support, and Lead Generation forms over at SurveyGizmo today. There is also a tutorial in the wiki for even more on embedding contact forms. The new contact form and lead gen form templates are great for our WordPress survey plugin users. It provides ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/10/13/creating-contact-lead-generation-newsletter-and-support-forms-in-surveygizmo/ We released a Survey WordPress plug over at SurveyGizmo this week.The SurveyGizmo plugin can be used to run surveys, polls, contact forms, lead generation forms, newsletter signups, data collection, etc. Keep track of survey stats from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard. You get all the power of a full featured ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/09/27/surveygizmo-wordpress-plug/ There is a new WordPress Theme competition shaping up at theundersigned.net. And there are prizes on the table - woo hoo! This could be exciting with so much happening in the WordPress theme world with Widgets and Ajax working there way in left and right. I've been meaning to update my ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/07/12/new-wordpress-theme-competition-at-theundersignedcom/ I left my position as Internet Director at MarketingSherpa a little over a week ago. I had a rewarding time there and had a chance to be a part of a huge variety of projects. I worked with some great people and made a little stab at bringing web standards ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/07/12/leaving-sherpa-starting-something-new/ I found the the Create your own Visited Countries map on my friend Derek's blog, AskDerekScrugs. I liked the idea and thought I'd give it a try. I've been to 28 countries and went in thinking 'hey that's not to shabby,' but then I ran the map and WOW - ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/07/11/where-have-you-been/ There is a new WordPress Theme competition shaping up at theundersigned.net. And there are prises on the table - woo hoo! This could be exciting with so much happening in the WordPress theme world with Widgets and Ajax working there way in left and right. I've been meaning to update my ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/07/11/new-wordpress-theme-competition-at-theundersignedcom-2/ SurveyGizmo is running a contest to give away a free ipod when someone signs up for a free account this month - no credit card needed or anything like that. This is by far the best online survey application I have ever seen. It blows the doors off SurveyMonkey and it ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/05/13/win-an-ipod-shuffle-try-a-web-20-app/ MarketingSherpa’s looking for a full time web designer/developer to join our Internet team. We are a profitable and award-winning online publisher devoted to improving, testing, and improving yet again our Web sites and email newsletters. We are only considering candidates located near Boulder, Colorado who are willing (and experienced at) working ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/01/12/job-opening-web-designer-needed-in-boulder-co-or-warren-ri/ I got an invite to Newsvine's public beta a couple days ago and I jumped at the chance to check it out. It's been on the radar for a while. Newsvine.com is sort of like AP News + Digg + del.icio.us + blogging + chatting + kitchen sink. If you ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/01/09/mike-davidsons-newsvine-beta-is-pretty-cool/ I have been wanting to add some sort of WordPress Asides plugin to my blog for a while now. "Asides" are links with or maybe without short descriptions to things I found interesting on the net. They don't warrant a whole blog post, but serve as a list to things ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2006/01/08/wordpress-asides-through-my-diggs-and-my-delicious/ Just trust me this will totally make your day. I've never felt the need to pass something on so fast in my life. http://www.microsoft.com/korea/events/ready2005/vs_song.asp And go figure, it's Microsoft... better see it before Bill does. http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/12/18/frickin-hysterical/ I've taken a position at the excellent marketing research publisher MarketingSherpa. My position as Internet Director basically means I'm responsible for - 3 websites with several thousand pages of content an eCommerce system (shopping cart) web analytics, traffic, sales tracking create a new homegrown integrated system to manage content, sales, customers, contacts, ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/12/13/whats-new-whats-not-lets-start-with-the-job/ There have been lots of articles written about Quicksilver and about navigation shortcuts for iTunes, but none I found gave me what I wanted. If you need help getting sold on or getting started with this great open-source app (read free)  try Quicksilver Changes Everything, Quicksilver: Moving Around and Training,  ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/09/13/itunes-keyboard-shortcuts-with-quicksilver/ Toi and I went on her first backpacking trip over Labor Day weekend. We hiked up to Twin Crater Lakes in the Rawah Wilderness of Northern Colorado near Cameron Pass. We hiked in perfect summer weather. It was was warm and all the Aspens were green. In just 3 days ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/09/08/rawah-backpacking/ The picture is from my new camera phone of the last project I'm doing for ClickData.com. I start at MarketingSherpa.com this Thursday. I'm very excited about the new job. A year ago I wrote down what a perfect job would be for me and this has every item right down the ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/08/10/last-project/ I've got a new host that I'm really happy about. If you can read this then the DNS transfer has gone through. BlueHost has been great so far, and I'm so glad to be rid of eHostingBiz! Yuck! Viva la BlueHost! http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/07/11/papas-gotta-brand-new-host/ Apple announced today they settled a class action law suit brought by disgruntled Ipod owners with failing batteries. I'll bet there are a lot of people hearing this news report that have been considering an MP3 player purchase. Are they going to run to the Apple Store ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/06/03/a-scar-on-apple/ Just wanted to say thanks to the CSS Reboot guys Benjamin Adam & Matthew Pennell for all their hard work on that project. I was really honored to be one of Matthew's seven Reboot Highlights. Other mentions and kind words for my design entry came from ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/05/31/css-reboot-recap-my-picks-thanks-for-traffic/ I finally got the pictures of Corn Camp 2005 up. Corn Camp is an annual backcountry skiing party in the Colorado San Juan Mountains that I have been doing with friends for years now. We had about 30 people this year (and about 20 "corn flakes" that didn't show!). This is ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/05/26/34/ This is part one of a multi-part article on manipulating Definition Lists with CSS and some WordPress Link tricks (don’t ask how many parts yet, we’ll see when I run out of ideas). Even if you don’t use WordPress this article still explores a creative method of rendering Definition Lists ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/05/09/manipulating-definition-lists-for-fun-and-profit/ I am proud to be participating in both the May 1st Reboot and CSS Reboot. On May 1st this site will be relaunched with a new Web Standards tooting, mojo working, new fandangled, steroid taking redesign. The May 1st Reboot has been going for 5 years ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/04/29/please-reboot/ So I've only been meaning to do this for 26 months now, but finally I have published just some of the 1,477 photos (after weeding) I took in 2002/2003 while doing an around the world trip. I did publish journals and some photos as I traveled at my ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2005/04/25/around-the-world-trip-photos/ It's official folks Toi is the proud holder of a United States fiancee visa! This was our last hurdle and we are good to go. We had a mega hour wait in line with couple hundred other visa seekers at the Bangkok US Embassy and then a 10 minute long meeting ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/11/04/its-in-the-bag/ Since we'll be home soon I am trying to get a jump on a few things. If you have a line on any of the following please get in touch with us. A small apartment (or house) in the greater Boulder area for around $600 An all-wheel drive car, like ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/10/18/hit-the-ground-running/ Things seem more real everyday. Our plans are like a snowball rolling downhill gaining mass and momentum with every revolution. It's a steaming freight train of plans, time tables, expectations, obligations, ramifications, with a few prognostications thrown in for good measure. I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know ... Tell ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/10/18/momentum/ Finally we have some dates! We should be back in the U.S. by November 16th or so, and we can't wait to catch up with everyone. Our wedding will be held over three days, December 3rd-5th. We are having it at a mountain get-away in Estes Park, Colorado. We want our ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/10/17/the-wedding/ Our Thai Buddhist ceremony is set for 9 AM October 23rd. This means I'll be "married" of a sort, in exactly 4 days 12 hours and 15 minutes as of this writing. But will I feel married until the western ceremony in November? Well that remains to be seen. Toi ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/10/16/thai-style/ I am very frustrated with governments this week, and I'm not so sure we wouldn't be better off without them. Here is a run down. http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/18/anarchy-has-certain-appeal/ View the design - 100% CSS wholesome goodness! UPDATE: If accessibility is important to you (why would you be reading this if it isn't) you might like to take a look at this other post of mine The Most Accessible and Useable Survey Tool. Thx. I was honored to have my ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/14/design-featured-at-css-zen-garden/ Some great movies I have seen over the last month that I'd recommend: Spartan, Secondhand Lions, Big Fish, The Magdalene Sisters. http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/10/you-could-worse-than-spend-2-hours-with-these/ Impeccable timing. After 6 months of chef's school for Toi I am doubting that is a profession I want my wife to be in. I just read "Cutting It Fine" the British analogue to "Kitchen Confidential" A great and fascinating book and it makes me want to read Kitchen Confidential, ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/10/a-chefs-life/ So here is the down-low on the wedding and Toi's immigration. We have passed through 3 of the 4 steps for the Fiancee Visa. All the stacks of paper work are done - I-129F, DS-156, 156k, 157, 169, Police background check, Medical report, yada, yada, yada. We are just waiting ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/10/wedding-and-visa-update/ Howdy Everybody, I finally got around to getting my own blog up (short for weblog if you didn't know). I'm going to post on whatever comes to mind about work or my life. Stay tuned if you're interested. And please post comments that's what it's here for. For my technophobe friends ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/10/welcome-to-my-new-blog/ For those of you coming your presence is our greatest present, but I am told by my nuptial advisors that a wedding registry is a prerequisite. PLEASE don't feel obligated. We'd love a hug and your company more than anything. a few ideas if you need some... REI - registry # GR157216 ... http://www.scottmcdaniel.com/2004/09/01/wedding-registry/