You can now view my personal online portfolio at http://www.allansimpson.com
The site showcases a select group of websites and design work that i have created over
the last few years.

This site always takes a back seat to paid work , currently working on 4 new websites.

It is still a little ways off but progressing quickly. I’m expecting to have the new website a month from now. It is a complete remake from this current site. The focus will be more on the portfolio/business side. But the blog will still be on the homepage.

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Valerie and Natalie are loving their new bounce castle that they got for christmas.

Winter Haven Village Website

Just uploaded my latest website for a retirement community in Pharr, Texas. I was very happy with the way this turned out. The site is using CMS Made Simple for easy updates. The logo for the community was also created by Simpson Design.

Halloween 2008

It’s not very often that an application comes along that is so good that you don’t know how you were able to live without it.  But that is exactly what Dropbox is.

What does it do?
Dropbox will sync all the files in a folder with multiple computers at the same time keeping them securly backed up.  It is also a photo gallery with file sharing capabilities.

Who needs this?
You would use Dropbox if you currently find yourself using a flash drive or cd to get your data to the other computers that you work on.

How do I use it? First download the program, install it. Make your login info. The default shared folder is in your My Documents folder. The default folder name is My Dropbox. Go to another computer do the same thing, only this time choose the option that you already have a login. Now that computer is also linked to your account.  Put some files in your dropbox folder and they will appear on the other computer. Add as many computer as you need.

How much?
Free for 2gb  Currently $9.99 for 50gb

What do I use it for?
I use Dropbox to sync all my design and website files. Even the whole XAMPP folder. Besides keeping the files the same on about 3 computers it also acts as a backup service.

and there’s more?
Yes, if you put your photos in the folder they will be turned into an online photo gallery that you can share with friends and family.  There is a Public folder for sharing files with others without installing dropbox, just right click and you will get a URL for that file.

Another site that I previewed on an earlier post is now online.  Most of the design of this one stayed the same minus the decor around the pattern thumbnails.  I’m kinda starting a trend by finding scrap material and scanning it.  Started doing another site today using the same method.  View the site here> Pam’s Piece by Piece

The Quilters Patch website is now live.

As you can see in the previous post there were a few changes to the design. This site is completley CMS driven.

Quickcam vs Thunderbird

I recently discovered that if you have a Logitech Quickcam installed on Windows XP, you are going to have major problems with the email client Mozilla Thunderbird.  I’ve been a long time user of Thunderbird and think that it’s a great program to use for email.

A few months ago Thunderbird tried to do an auto update and I got this message:

One or more files could not be updated. Please make sure all other applications are closed and that you have permission to modify files, and the restart Thunderbird to try again

If you click ok, it tries again and fails, bringing you back to the same error, over and over and over again.

There is a quick fix out there that will get you past the problem without actually fixing the problem. For this you just have to delete everything in the Mozilla Thunderbird folder:

C:/Documents and Settings/<username>/Local Settings/Application Data/Thunderbird/Mozilla Thunderbird/

This will get you into Thunderbird but you can count on having the same endless loop come up again the next time Thunderbird notices that you need to upgrade, usually the next time you run Thunderbird.

But what happens if you manually download the latest version of Thunderbird from Mozilla and update that way.  Then you will get this error.

error opening file for writing: mozMapi32.dll

Once you get this error you are stuck, because you cannot load Thunderbird or install Thunderbird. Now it is time for the permanent solution.

Uninstall the Logitech Quickcam software.  Once uninstalled you will be able to install Thunderbird without any problems. If you want to keep your Quickcam software installed you can try to shut it down from the taskbar. Still the surest way to fix this is to just uninstall your Quickcam software. After you have completed the Thunderbird upgrade you can then reinstall the Quickcam Software.

Repeat the above process for the next Thunderbird upgrade.

It appears the culprit in this situation is Logitech. The Thunderbird team has been asked to do something about this but can’t.