Wiz Bang!

Editor's NOTE: This is a moldie oldie that I pulled from a text dump archive. None of the links will work anymore (or 99% won't) - but the names and companies have NOT changed.

One word: COOL! That sums up my experience at the 2nd annual Claris Solutions Conference.

For those of you living in a cave (or those of you who don't click on banners on our site), the conference was held at the Fairmont Hotel in beautiful downtown San Jose, California - right across the street from the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference.

Unlike Apple's love-fest, attendance was actually UP from last year, and the general feeling I got from the people who attended was one of excitement, innovation, and high energy!

Not only was the content great, so was the food, information, presenters, and the overall experience. There were many different sessions going on (unfortunately, only a few were given more than once) everything from running a consulting business, advanced FileMaker scripting, supporting your solutions, to sessions on future versions of FileMaker (under non disclosure, of course - watch this space).

Yours truly participated in 4 sessions, including the Tips and Tricks Panel, Database Version Control, Integration with MYOB and QuickBooks (with MYOB GURU Ron Finnigan), and the AppleScript session (with co-hosts Chris Moyer and his sidekick Bob) - not to mention the numerous sessions that I ATTENDED. This was, of course, on TOP of the great many hours spent in various establishments that serve liquid refreshments (read: bars). WHEW!

The thing that was such a pleasant surprise is that people were psyched to talk to and actually HELP anyone and everyone who wanted to listen. I mean at breakfast, lunch, dinner, between sessions, in bars, lobbies, elevators, everyone was talking about tips, techniques, strategies, business practices, new products, alliances, the Web - everything you can imagine. All with the intent of learning as well as teaching. No petty competition. No back-stabbing. Cooperation. Nice!

My hat's off to Jeff Gagne, Delfina Daves, Susan Munne, Eric Frasier (and the many, many behind-the-scenes folks at Claris), Donna Wotton (and her crew at Unconventional Promotions) - you guys did a very good job.

If you weren't able to make it this year - start saving your pennies for next year - it's well worth the time and money!

Click Where?

Editor's NOTE: This is a moldie oldie that I pulled from a text dump archive. None of the links will work anymore (or 99% won't) - but the names and companies have NOT changed.

First of all, let me apologize for the length of time that has elapsed since the last Bob's World column. We've been very busy creating some neato FileMaker based Web Sites for Claris and others.

Now, on with the festivities...

Apparently, litigation is as much a part of business world as marketing and sales. This is a true story - TicketMaster is SUING Microsoft for putting a link to their site on Microsoft's site.

No, really, I'm not kidding!

It seems that Microsoft is "..infringing on TicketMaster's intellectual property..." by linking directly to certain pages WITHIN the site - and not the "main" page.

Yes, I'm serious!

Now, how stupid is this? I'm just as jealous of Bill Gate's billions as the next guy - but taking someone to court for a LINK? Um... no.

Here's another one - again 100% true: It seems that some HUGE companies (Turner Broadcasting, Warner Brothers, ZD Net, and others) are suing a company for showing linked articles within a FRAME on their site. Now, they don't object to the LINK, they just object to the content being in a FRAME rather than having the user JUMP to the site.

What the hell's up with that? I'll tell you - bucks, BIG bucks. You see - some of the ad tracking software has a hard time telling where you're coming from if you access a banner from within a frame - but NOT if you click it on the "real" site.

Less "click through" means less MONEY advertisers are willing to pay, which means less MONEY in the corporate pockets of media giants (poor babies!). It's true, money makes the business world "go 'round", and without the support of you, our customers, this site wouldn't exist either. But, come on!

Litigation only leads to two things - lawyers getting rich, and new rules and regulations that restrict the free spirit of the Web.

Isn't the whole premise of the Web (and links to other sites) - to provide more information for folks who take the time and effort to visit your site? Aren't we (as webmasters) providing a service by providing links to other sites that have a common thread? Do you really ENJOY search engines with 10,000 entries and 40+ screens of unless garbage?

I, for one, will continue to link to other sites - with or without their prior "permission." If you find your link on our Other Sites page, and would like your link removed - please just speak up... I'll be happy to remove it. But for godsake - don't SUE US!