Current Events Archives – Page 5 of 7

24 Sep 2009

Web Site Updates

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:23:07-06:00September 24th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Technology|

Joomla 1.5

Finding quite a few undocumented "features" embedded in Joomla out of the box. For example, the default WYSIWYG editor does not appear to be generating proper HTML and there are a few 500 series errors generated by the admin site. The search engine optimization feature does not work if you are hosting on IIS instead of Apache, you need to acquire an ISAPI filter.

Don't get me wrong, Joomla has some pretty powerful capabilities and because it is open source, the price is right. But, there is a learning curve and work required to get it right if you […]

18 Sep 2009

Two Robins and Some Lessons

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:23:22-06:00September 18th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Earlier today I was watching the birds in our yard. They are starting to gather together in greater numbers as they get ready to start migrating. It was interesting watching them dart through the air and how they interacted.

As I was getting ready for work, I heard a big crash.

I went back to the window to see what was going on and two robins were laying beside the glass on our deck. In their high speed acrobatics, they had missed that fact that it was glass and not a normal opening.

One of the birds eventually got up and was still […]

8 Sep 2009

Fall – Back to Business

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:23:48-06:00September 8th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

We are up on a bit of a hill. Last night we got a surprise frost. So much for the weather forecast.

Yup the nights are getting cooler here in Calgary and that means everyone is getting back to business after a relatively short summer.

There are two main periods of busy business activity here in Calgary: Fall and Winter/Spring. Stampede until Labour Day is a slow period and so is December/January. This year with the doom and gloom economy still lingering, it was especially pronounced.

Federally, the politicians are thumping their chests again. Too bad they consider their job to be mudslinging […]

18 Aug 2009

Continuous Improvement

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:25:11-06:00August 18th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Software Development, Technology|

Web Site Update

Thought about it some more… need to just get things done so new Sunwapta Web Site version one will focus on content and not so much on being an unusual tech site. Just not enough time to do everything.

However, we have a product launch scheduled for September and I will be creating a brand new site for that. That is where I will focus my creative energies.

Convention over Configuration

This evening I went to a Calgary .NET User Group meeting and presentation by James Kovacs (MVP) on "Convention over Configuration". Another passionate presentation by a very talented developer covering a […]

15 Aug 2009

Quick Update on Website – 2

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:24:38-06:00August 15th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

In my last post on this subject I mentioned how fun it would be to do a parody of a normal website. Then I said I didn’t think I had the courage to be taking that kind of risk.

A few people have challenged me to not put out a standard (serious and boring) tech website.

Of course, they are not the ones that would be taking the risk so it is easy to say “Jump!”.

I am thinking that the parody version would not be right for me. Fun, but not really what I am about and certainly not what Sunwapta […]

11 Aug 2009

Quick Update on Website

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:25:33-06:00August 11th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

We have our content management system configured now and our template 90% implemented. I haven't been blogging too much lately mainly because I am busy writing content for our website while simultaneously doing application design for a couple of other web applications.

While writing site content, I was thinking about how much fun it would be to do the entire site as a parody of the normally serious and deathly boring technical corporate website… and oh yeah, throw in some of the standards for differentiation marketing:

"Our developers have been extremely agile for years, long before agile became popular as […]

10 Aug 2009

Dance Through Life

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:25:37-06:00August 10th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Paula Callihoo's new dance studio website is now live.

4 Aug 2009

The Gloves Are Off

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:25:40-06:00August 4th, 2009|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Technology|

I was off reading some blogs today and came across an interesting exchange in the comments section.

It started off on a technical argument, got nasty and then got personal.

When the insults on personal choices of cell phones started flying, I knew the gloves were off.

Yup, your choice of a cell phone says a lot about you.

The Mac, iMac, iPod and iPhone were all initially about going against the herd. Forget the technical arguments for a minute. People are proud that they are not getting what the majority are getting, it says something about you. And Apple? Brilliant at consumer marketing… they […]

31 Jul 2009

Age and Money – A Matter of Perspective

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:25:43-06:00July 31st, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

A business client and friend of mine is turning 50 on Monday.

For humans 50 years is a long time.

But $50 is not much money.

50 years is the same as 18,262.5 days. $18,262.5 is slightly more than what you would make on minimum wage in Alberta in a year of working full-time.

50 years is the same as 438,300 hours. $438,300 is nice.

There are 26,298,000 minutes and 1,577,880,000 seconds in 50 years.

$1.5 billion is a nice big number and few achieve it.

If you earn 1 dollar every second of your life, you can have $1.5 billion in 50 years.

Treat every second of your life as […]

25 Jun 2009

Sunwapta Solutions Turns 9

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:18-06:00June 25th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Our company just turned 9 years old. I spent that day with family and the evening on a plane returning to Calgary after visiting family.

While on the plane I spent a few moments reflecting on where we have been and where we are going as a company.

It has been an incredible personal journey to this point… highs and lows abound in business. We've built some incredible software and technology has changed faster than most would like.

The people have been amazing. My business partners, our staff, our customers and our partners/vendors have all contributed to our success over the years.

Behind the scenes we […]