So I came across blog action day from Smashing Magazine. I thought it was an interesting idea – how something so simple as water can create so many issues and problems around the world for people.

In thinking of a topic to write about I wanted to try to choose something that many people may not consider for another alternative for bottled water. The numbers are astounding on the usage of bottled water and the lack of recycling which is sad.

I have recently gotten back into camping and other outdoor activities. In my preparations of buying gear and supplies I discovered a few different water filtration options that may often be overlooked for every day use.

The first filtration system I purchased was the Katadyn Mybottle for around $40.00. It meets EPA guidelines for removal of bacteria and protozoan cyst. It can filter up to 26 gallons of water or about 140 uses of the 24oz bottle before the filter needs to be replaced. You simply fill the bottle up with any water source such as from a stream or even from a tap. As you drink through the sip straw the water is filtered making it safe to drink. If the water source is not the best I suggest pre filtering it with a coffee filter and then treating it by boiling the source for 10 minutes or treating with bleach – 2 drops per quart or 4 drops if really cloudy, wait 30 min and then run the water through your filter. This will not only ensure the safety of the water but also prolong the life of your filter.

I also wanted to try the Berkey Sport Bottle filter so purchased one, they retail for around $30.00. It functions in the same way as the Katadyn though is lighter in weight (the Katadyn is not heavy by any means) making it my choice for my camping pack. I decided to move the Katadyn into my car as a backup if I was ever out and needed clean water I would always have one with me. The Berkey Sport has a longer life with around 160 refills of dirty water and 640 fills of city municipal water making it a good choice for your every day use, easily getting a year’s worth of use out of one filter. The Berkey filters 99.9999% of E-Coli 99.9% of Toxic chemicals 99.9% of Radiologicals 99.9% of Heavy metals and 99.9% of unpleasant tastes, orders, chlorine.

Both filters come with the highest reviews and ratings and are a solid option for filtering your water on the go. There are dozens of YouTube videos in which people post reviews about both products and suggest looking into these if you are considering purchasing one.

These filters are a great solution to not only stop using bottle water but also ensures you have the cleanest water available no matter where you may be wither it be backpacking through the woods or running to a meeting in the city.

wow, it’s been ages since the last blog update. I’ve been busy enjoying my summer and have to say I have had one of the best if not the best summers ever. I was able to travel quite a bit and do some pretty exciting things some of which include – NBA Finals Game, Front Row at a Skynyrd concert, 3 Phish concerts, 3 new MLB Parks (Braves, Brewers, Twins), amazing trips to Atlanta, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine for 2 weeks, and Best Man at my Best Friends wedding. That’s a lot of stuff in a short amount of time! So needless to say those are part of the reasons for lack of updates.

Now that I’m back into “work” mode it feels good and getting involved in some projects. I have started work on a site and calculator ap for an insulation / energy audit company in New Hampshire. I will post about that once the project is completed in the next month or so. Work also continues on GRAFF TOYZ which is going well. We have our next two products designed and just working out packaging and pricing details now.

I also have availabilities for some smaller design and print projects as well so if there is anything you need just let me know!

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a Career Day event for Eagles Landing Middle School in Boca Raton, FL. It was the 5th annual career day for the 8th grade class about to graduate and enter high school next school year. Each student got to select three different careers to hear about so they showed interest in the topic. I was chosen to speak as a Web / Graphic Designer. There was a wide range of professionals from Lawyers, Paramedics, Chefs, Authors, Veterinarians and dozens more.

I was in 8th grade when I started to get into the basics of web design. A friend of mine bought a book on HTML and he taught me some of the basics. I remember making my first website on things that I was into – Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, The Beatles, and things of that nature. I actually still have a copy of the first site believe it or not and like to take a look at it every 2 or 3 years and have a good laugh at how bad it was.

I remember this time frame very well I took them for a trip down memory lane and explained what the internet was like back in 95-96 (many of them weren’t even born yet!). I told them how most people connected to the Internet with AOL 2.5 which came on a floppy disc, that most of them probably have never used a floppy. How it was through a dial-up connection running windows 3.11. When I told them Yahoo was only formed a year before and Google was just a project at Stanford University I could see some of their eyes light up – thinking a world without Google!?! This was several years before iPods, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook and WiFi connections. As I was preparing the presentation and coming up with these little tidbits of information it got me thinking that all of that stuff seems soooooooo long ago when in actuality it’s a very short period of time. Needless to say it made me feel old.

I went on to tell the kids some of the basics of web and graphic design, what an average day is like, the types of programs you use, and the types of people and clients you work with. Some of the kids showed a general interest asking good questions about the job and industry. I was able to present to three different groups on the topic and showed some samples of my work. Following the presentations all of the speakers gathered for a group photo and kind words from the principle and teachers in charge of organizing this as well as receiving some nice gifts.

So thank you again to Debbie Miler and the Eagles Landing Middle School for allowing me to help out.

I have been a loyal Apple customer for years, have owned several computers, iPhones, iPods, personally and for my business, I also have turned numerous people on to your products. However the latest software update for the Apple iPhone absolutely disgusts me. I owned the first generation iPhone and it would charge with my built in iPod stereo connection in my car, I thought this was a great feature. However with the third generation iPhone it would not charge the device for some odd reason, even though it is the same connection. My father also experienced this with his aftermarket car hookup. I understand this is your poor attempt to control the market place and make people buy your over priced accessories. Over time I grew to accept this fact and was a little disappointed by your move to do this.

Before a recent trip to Europe I purchased a Brookstone external battery to extend the life of the mediocre at best iPhone battery during my travels. The product worked great and allowed me to use the iPhone for extended periods of times between charges. Upon my return I kept the battery in my car as an emergency charge since you took away my capabilities to charge my phone via my stereo hookup with the iPhone 3GS. During a recent all day trip I needed to charge my phone, and low and behold I was greeted with a warning screen when I plugged the device in. “This accessory is not made to work with iPhone. Charging is not supported with this accessory”. This is funny because it was supported and worked fine for me before. I had to shut my phone off for extended periods of time to conserve the batter for my trip home in case of an emergency. It is obviously a software update that disabled the charging from other devices as this battery worked fine for weeks, and it works fine on my first generation iPhone. I would like to know why you took away the ability for other devices that once worked to do something as critical as charge the phone? Is it so you can make more money on over priced Apple accessories? I bet it will be hard to sell accessories to the loyal customers you keep screwing over.

I am going to educate as many people about this issue as possible in hopes that you take notice of this and stop doing shady software updates taking away valuable features that people are used to and depend upon. Your once perfect brand is now tarnished severely in my eyes. No longer will I blindly purchase any Apple product just based on your brand. I will do detailed research and consider other alternatives when in the past it was anything Apple.

I would like a response back as to why you disabled the ability for my already purchased accessories which are now worthless and a waste of my money. Also is it is possible to revert this update back to a previous version in which my external battery worked. I know I probably will not receive a response, or some canned response not addressing my problem or how to fix it, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Josh Hughes, former Apple advocate

I’ve been working hard over at AgencyWeb on some internal SEO work for that site as well as Digital Skratch. It’s nice to see the results of this stuff happen so fast. Also have been working on an email campaign for Comcast. Our Local Mojo project is also progressing along nicely and should be ready for a soft launch in a few weeks. Then we have been getting geared up for our next big project, top secret for now but by August we will be ready to launch.

Busy busy busy

I also have some stuff on the Digital Skratch side coming soon. Been working on updates for Lannom and should be creating a blog for them next week. Also some updates to come for Green Garbage.

I’m flying up to Boston on Friday for the weekend, see some friends, go to Phish and then see the Sox. Can’t ask for much more than that!

It has happened to nearly everyone at one point or another; we have lost some or all of our data – whether it be due to a computer crash, virus, losing the only disc, or deleting the only copy. Whatever the case may be, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk and not be put in that position again.

The key to backing up your files is to devise some type of system that works best for you and stick to it. You may choose to do it manually or use an automatic backup program. Whatever your case is, stick with it and do it frequently. Also, name and date your backups. If you have multiple versions, you will be able to tell which version is the most recent.

External Hard Drives
Today external hard drives are so cheap that everyone should have one. They are not only perfect for storing all of those family photos and mp3′s, but the perfect solution for backing up critical files and in most cases ALL of your files. They are also a fast way to backup large files that may be too big for CDs or even DVDs.

CDs & DVDs
Backing up your files on a CD or DVD is also very important. Hard drives can go corrupt, get viruses, and can crash. Once your files are burned on a disc they are relatively safe. Blank discs are so cheap that it should be a part of everyones backup procedure. Discs are also a perfect solution for archiving files that you no longer need on your computer.

Offsite Backup
It is also extremely important to have at least some form of off-site backup. You could have a dozen backups at your home or office, but something could happen to that location such as a fire, theft, or a natural disaster. They will not do you any good if they are all lost. A simple fix is to keep a copy of your files at both your home and office. Or mail CDs or DVDs of your files to a friend or relative in another location. If something were to happen you would at least have that as a “fail safe”. Also, Online Storage is another form of off-site backup.

Online Storage
There are plenty of online options such as Mozy that range in price from free or start at around $5 a month. You may also use your current web hosting as another form of backup. Most hosting plans offer at least 5 gigabytes of hosting space. You could create a folder on there called backup and upload all your files there.

Other Alternatives
Most web-based email accounts offer a large amount of storage space that could be used to backup files. Either upload your files there, if that is an option, or simply email yourself an attachment and you have another copy of it online. There is a great service called yousendit that allows you to email large attachments. It only stores them online for 7 days, but it is a good way to send a large file from the office to your home to then backup later.

Battery backup systems for your desktop computer are a must have in case of a power outage. They will keep your computer running for several minutes giving you time to save and shut down your computer. No more losing files due to power outages.

Man it has been a long time since I updated this blog. I have been busy this summer. I helped to form a new web marketing company – AgencyWeb – so that has been taking most of my time. We have offices in Pompano Beach right on the water at a Marina. I have also been doing some traveling, I went to Arizona for a week for my friends wedding and then to Maine for 2 weeks to visit friends and family. So between setting up the new office and traveling I have neglected this blog.

We have also started to work some with the Alt Space Art Gallery in Coconut Walk down in the Grove. If you are in the area you should check out their gallery for some pretty cool original paintings, and limited edition apparel. So if you purchase anything from those talented artists you will probably get some Digital Skratch buttons and stickers in your bag!

I would also like to pay my respects for those who lost their lives on the September 11th attacks.

If you have a Mac and want to keep your calendar organized and synced up with co-workers and friends it’s simple with iCal, Spanning Sync and Google.

First use iCal as your main scheduling program. Create different calendars for your needs – Work, Business etc. and select the colors of our choice to represent each calendar.

Next log in to your Google account, click on “Calendars“. On the left side of the page you will see a monthly calendar and beneath that you will see what current calendars you have. Click on “Add” > “Create New Calendar“. Name your calendar the same name as one of your iCal names (for example – Personal). You will see other settings such as time-zone and sharing options. Click “Create Calendar“. The new calendar you just created will show up on the left side of the page, to make things easy to manage click the down arrow and change the color to the same as your iCal.

Now you will need a piece of software called Spanning Sync to “sync” between iCal and Google. Spanning Sync costs $25 for 1 year or $65 for a life time copy. Once the program is installed the icon will appear in the Menu Bar. Simply click on it and select “Open Spanning Sync Preferences” (you can also access this via system preferences).

1 – Enter your Google username and password.

4 – Press “Sync Now” and your schedule is now on your iCal and on Google!

If you wish to share your calender you can do it one of two ways through Google or through iCal.

Google – If the people you want to share it with use Google Calendar click on “Settings” > “Calendars” and then select “Share this calendar“. You will then enter the persons Google mail, select which settings you want them to see and then click “Add Person” then “Save”

iCal – If the people you want to share your calendar with use iCal all they have to do is subscribe to your calendar. In Google Calendar click on “Settings” > “Calendar” and then click the name of the calendar you want to share.

Scroll to the bottom of the page where it says “Private Address“. Click on “ICAL” and a pop up will display a link, copy this link and give it to those who wish to subscribe to your calendar. To subscribe in iCal click on “Calendar” > “Subscribe” and paste in the link. Edit the name and color and any other settings.

Now you can add an entry to you iCal, and Spanning Sync will automatically sync it with Google Calendar so you can access it anytime or share it with friends and co-workers. Also download the Google Notifier for your Menu Bar to stay up with current emails and events.

As a designer it is important to have lots of tools at your disposal – stock photos, fonts, brushes, backgrounds, vector sets etc. Over time it’s easy to start to accumulate extra files you don’t really need and use. So I think it’s important once in awhile to go through your design tools and clean out files that you never use. You will save time in the long run as Photoshop and other programs will load faster and you will spend less time having to search through a million brushes, fonts and photos.

If you want to delete old brushes out of Photoshop I learned a cool trick. First open up the brushes window where you select the different brushes. You can right click, delete brush and then have to select ok, or on the Mac you can hit the alt / option key and then the cursor turns into a pair of scissors, and then simply click on the brush you want to delete and it’s gone. It saves a few seconds, but if you had to clean out 100’s of old or duplicate brushes it will save time. Once you have them cleaned out remember to save and back up your clean brush set. Click on the sideways arrow on the brushes screen and then select “Save Brushes…”

Fox Marks is a great plug-in for Fire Fox to help manage your favorites. Once you sync your favorites you can then access them online, or if the plug-in is installed you can sync it again and load them on a second computer.

Just remember to back up your files on a regular basis, and go through once in awhile and clean up and delete old files you never use.

Digital Skratch has set up a blog! We will try to update this with useful content, information, links and anything design / art / marketing related. We have also started to publish articles on design related topics which we will post here as well. In the mean time you can check out our main site at www.digitalskratch.com, thanks – Josh