For everyone's convienence, Johnathan's resume can now be found here.

The new calendar for your September viewing pleasure was uploaded last night around 1ish in the AM. Also recently uploaded was the completely rewritten About Us page, with a snazzy photo of yours truly at the top. Local coffee shop Beantree Coffeehouse has recently launched, so be sure to click through their site and stop in for a Big Train Smoothie and Summit sandwich.

In personal news, the holiday weekend has hit me very hard with a nasty cold. Of course I prefer to try and heal myself rather than having a doctor do it, so I'm typing this through concrete-like sinus congestion with a fever chaser. This means that a "real" update will be forthcoming once I've healed up. Cheers.

The new calendar for August is now online and ready to grace electron-powered pixels around the world. The wife enjoyed last month's calendar photo and wondered if I could make a weed look as amazing as her strawberries. I suppose then, that this is a matching bookend image to last month's calendar.

FYI, there are some dead links on the site that I'm currently tracking down. The ones I've found so far have been RetroAttic.com, NinerNut.com, and WashingtonLogHomes.com but they aren't dead because of a URL SNAFU. Turns out they're dead because the site owners have pulled the plug on their Internet presence. Why? Well, I'm not privy to that information; perhaps they're taking a break or trying something new. In any case, feel free to contact me for screenshots & examples of what I've done for said sites or any link that appears to be dead.

For the most part I like to keep business and personal matters seperate, however, there are times when I need to make personal observations about business topics. Such is the case regarding a certain version of server technology -- it's a rather brisk form of fusion -- that has kept popping up in personal and business conversations. Because my opinion on this topic is personal, you can hop over to JohnKiser.com and read my thoughts on this topic.

Happy 231st birthday, America! Today is the first time since I was a kid that I can remember having a scorching Independence Day, and it's spectacular! Go out and have a BBQ, enjoy your favorite cold beverage of choice, play some rock 'n roll, and celebrate independence.

Welcome back everyone. I'd like to extend an invitation to everyone to visit the redesigned Raintree Nursery website. Now, I'll give you fair warning that the site isn't 100% redesigned -- closer to about 75%. The pages that have been redesigned are those that see the heaviest of traffic, like the home page, catalog, pollination charts & customer service to name a few. The shopping cart's product listing, category display, and product details were most "deserving" of a redesign. Most of the site now looks as professional and elegant as our Raintree Nursery Newsletter project.

At first glance one might say that we merely added colors and icons, and a streamlined left navigation. Yes, we did create custom shopping cart icons, created an elegant User Interface, and wrote some wonderful CSS. We even tweaked existing and custom-wrote ColdFusion code to display products and categories more efficiently, we created search functionality for the catalog's nav menu template, and made it easier than ever for customers to find helpful growing info & sale items. But above and beyond all of that... we made it easy for anyone to buy a great plant.

Although their selling season is pretty much over, and it's far too hot for planting bareroot items, I really do encourage you to wander over and take a look around. Who knows, you may even find something to brighten up your pad.

Hopefully you've noticed a couple of improvements to the site over the last couple of days. I've updated the banner logo, given the background a blue tint, and added a form to the Contact Page . The darker logo and blue background should help users focus on the navigation menu and main body's content. Enjoy, and I encourage everyone to give me their thoughts on the improvements.

Ok, just to get it out of the way... Yes, I am excited about Apple's iPhone. Yes it's spiffy that it will hit stores on my birthday. Yes, it's svelte. No, I don't want one. Now we can move on. Tis no secret that I love my Windows PC, but it should be known that I also get excited about the cool stuff Apple does. In fact, I usually sit through every year's WWDC keynote video to see what Steve and his ultra-talented team has come up with. Today I went to Apple's site to view said video and noticed that the UI has been updated just before stumbling upon this image.

Yeah... Safari for Windows... I actually had to read it twice. To say the least, this has got me pretty excited as both a developer and an end user. Now I can test browser support for Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari with the ease of an Alt+Tab. Normally I use the website BrowserShots.org to specify resolution, plug-ins, etc. to give me the best possible peek into how Safari will render my designs under different circumstances. I may post more after viewing the entire WWDC keynote, and will certainly download the Beta3 tonight for review.

It's peculiar to see how people hold fast to their Mac or PC loyalty like fanboys whining over Star Trek vs Star Wars, or PS3 vs 360, or Chevy vs Ford. Really now, both camps use Intel processors, create innovative technology, and overlap so much that there's no real reason for such hostile divisions. Hostile divisions you ask? Yes. Let's not forget this example, this example, or these banners. It just seems very pecuilar that so many designers and developers pontificate the importance of standards-compliant whatever and to have an understanding of different technologies/programs even though many look at other platforms as leper colonies. So can you tell me why that is?

update... Well, I was ready to try the Safari Beta, but found a few articles that'll have me waiting until a stable (re: October when Leopard is released) version is available. From Robert Vamosi's webware article:

Within hours of releasing the beta for Safari 3.0 for Windows, three security researchers independently found holes within the new browser. A blog post on Apple's product statement reads: "Apple's engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one." A vulnerability, a memory corruption error (that could allow an attacker to insert malicious code on a Windows machine) was discovered within three minutes using publicly available fuzzing tools; another generated a total of six bugs--four producing a denial of service (crash), and two capable of executing remote code; found a "0day" vulnerability in Safari within two hours. The flaw exists in how Safari handles URL protocols within Windows, causing a denial of service (crash).

There are several comments about Safari's vulnerabilities, but this one takes the cake: "Start counting 1 for Safari, 1,000,000 for IE. Give it a break, is one day old." I'm going to choose my words carefully here... Bollocks. Comments like that are made by the same people who religiously flame IE for the smallest of flaws. Be fair people: It is inexcuseable that Apple allowed such an important release to have gargantuan security holes. Beta or not.

After working on the icon for my last post, I felt rather inspired to do a T-shirt version. When I create stuff for myself, or without guidelines, I tend to meander here and there with my design elements. It really is the digital equivilant of using pencil & eraser in my sketchbook. It's always fascinated me how my mind will take one idea and then take it in new directions and tangets, often without a real "connection" between point a & b.

Well, for example, the icon started as just the flag, but I sat there looking at it and thought it was really lacking. My mind wandered to the Iwo Jima flag raising, maybe put stars or a flag in the background? Olive drab overlay on the GI's and a grey flag, maybe blue stars... nope. Crank up the black-white balance to "Frank Miller", and a muted red & blue flag, and give it some wear & tear. Then it occured to me today that I've seen this image several times before. When I bought Rob Zombie's The Sinister Urge in 2001, it came with a poster that looks pretty close to this in my office.

Now the marketing blurb: For stylish weekend comfort anytime, guys will want to live in our Fitted T. Made of ultra-fine, combed ring-spun cotton, that gets softer with each washing. Lightweight for summer comfort or winter layering. Grab attention with this vintage fit that loves to hug skin. (Size up for a looser fit). Only $20.

There's also a new June calendar in the Goodies page. This time it's a macro shot I took of a flowering cherry tree back in April... yes, there were some sunny days in April.

However you're spending your Memorial Day weekend, we hope that you do so safely. For those planning on staying in, StartFusion Design will be open all day Monday May 28th. As usual, you can contact us via email.

There's an all new design at our Cafepress shop, the first of which is the StartFusion Ladies' "Beautiful" T-Shirt. Every girl is beautiful, especially in this top. The perfect way to treat yourself, or the beauty in your life.Get into sporty, stylin' casual comfort with our Women's Cap Sleeve Raglan. Looks great on the go or just hangin' out. Made of 100% combed ring-spun cotton that gets even softer with each washing. Contrast color cap sleeves and collar come in black, brown and red. Only $20 each.

How's everyone been? I made some updates to StartFusion on Friday, but since I only just mentioned it now... it means the update is "late." No sense in sweating the small things.

As the title indicates, I've updated some sections of StartFusion. The Portfolio Page will now feature samples I am most proud of. Whether they be hand-drawn or new sites, my favorites will be on display, with a "flashback portfolio" planned in the summer. The Client List now has its own page, and I've removed the "Click For Sample" buttons for the time being.

Lastly, the first May Calendar is now in the Goodies Page. Download it now to give your desktop some class. Speaking of class, I've thought of a few more things that would entice visitors back here now and then. Check back in a week or so to see what I've been thinking of.

Social Networking is all the craze, and I've added my two cents. You can now check us out on Windows Live Spaces, and MySpace. For now both spaces will mirror the news that you can find here, but in time, they'll feature special content unique to each space. For example, our Live Space has a Soapbox video of Johnathan's trip to Australia.

As odd as it sounds, I've never visited MySpace or Live Spaces prior to creating spaces for StartFusion. Windows Live Spaces was much easier to create and customize than MySpace. Of course Microsoft has more money to throw at it, but everything was planned out in a more organic way -- for both novice and savvy web surfers. Templates, AJAX dag-and-drop, visitor tools, and integration with Gadgets/Soapbox/albums... all wonderful features that build upon the basic MySpace formula. But MySpace has far better name recognition and a gigantic user-base of Social Networkers. Either way, the user wins.

There's a new April calendar in the Goodies Page, that you can download for free. May's first calendar will be uploaded next Friday, so be sure to stop by. Another update worth mentioning is that I've updated Van Cleve Ford's weekly advertisement. If you're in the market for a new or pre-owned vehicle, I personally recommend the great folks at Van Cleve Ford.

Welcome to the relaunch, everyone! I'm very excited that StartFusion is back up and running with an all new design and renewed enthusiasm. A reminder for everyone who signed up for a relaunch invitation: you have 90 days to redeem your invitations! We appreciate your patience and future business.

So, what took so long? Select one of the following:

One... I'm very critical of my own work, so things were rather nitpicky with layout and graphics... and I changed the design twice. Original rough idea one, and idea two. And yes, I already have plans for those layouts.

Two... There was some client work that had to be done. Yes, I put personal projects on hold for my clients. Call me old fashioned.

Three... Spent some much-needed time with my amazing wife, I've taken some time off, worked on some home improvement projects, and watched our puppy (Suki) grow up.

To everyone unfamiliar with StartFusion Design or Johnathan Kiser, I encourage you to skim through our About Page. Unfortunately, those type of pages either come off sounding pretentious or too politically correct. Oh well, huh? In any case, take a look around, mind the wet pixels & enjoy the new site smell. After browsing our site some of you may be thinking "This looks kinda incomplete" ... and you'd be correct (our breadth of work, mind you). Sections of the site aren't 100% complete because we'd love to have as many people as possible come revisit us to explore a bit more and see our new additions.

Again, thanks for being great clients and patient visitors.