Confessions Of A Berson Mind

This post will be all about cell phones:

Decided to write a post about my MMS issues with the combination of TMobile, my HTC Touch Pro 2, Windows Phone 6.5.x, and Manila (Sense) 2.5.  For every ROM I’ve installed with these settings, I haven’t been able to send picture messages straight away.  Found a fix at: http://thewingster.com/mmsfixm25.aspx — that works great, but I also make a few alterations to ensure success.  Here’s my tutorial.

1.) Flash a clean custom ROM.
2.) Install the fix found on that link immediately after a soft reset. If you wait until after you’ve opened a few text messages or done some other things, you may run into a permissions problem during the install.  Soft reset, then install.
3.) At this point, your picture messages may already work — mine do not.  The next step I undertake is to go to the Messages tab in Manila, and hit the All Messages softkey.  Next, Menu -> Settings -> Options.  In this window, I flick to the bottom, and change the photo resolution to Original, and choose whatever size I like for the camera (currently XGA).  I do this to ensure my photos won’t be sent in micro.
4.) Click done.
5.) Repeat the Menu -> Settings -> Options step, but this time, hit the menu button in this new window, and select MMS Server.  Make sure the SampleMMSC is selected, and click on it (that’s two steps). Here, I change the “Connect via” option to TMobile MMS.  If yours already says this, congratulations.
5a.) I also set the Send limit to 300KB.  One, because I once read that TMobile doesn’t permit messages larger than that (doubt this), and two, because my mobile data is slow enough as is — I don’t need to spend 4 minutes every time I send a pic.  Click Done, and get back to your home screen.
6.) Last tricky step: click the Start Menu -> and Settings. Then Connections -> Connections. In this window, go to the “Advanced” tab, and hit “Select Networks.”  You should see a dropdown that has Tmobile Data already selected — hit the dropdown and select Tmobile MMS. Then, click Edit. In this window, hit the edit softkey, click Next, and change the Access point name to “wap.voicestream.com” (no quotes).  Click Next and then Finish. Click OK and you should be back at the Network Management screen.  BEFORE you leave here, hit the dropdown again, and RESELECT Tmobile Data.
7.) A soft reset isn’t probably necessary, but not a bad idea.

After all these steps, my MMS works great — I send receive no problems, the pictures send and receive at the proper sizes…these steps work for my phone across a multitude of ROMS, and it’s not that tricky.

Hope this helps.

Within the last few days, a major player has stamped their intentions on the web browser market: Google.  Not only did they enter the Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera fray, but they came to win.

Google Chrome was released early in the month of September and is going to have a major impact on the way we view the web. Skeptical at first, I viewed the Google Chrome Comic Book (no really, it’s actually a comic book) with all of the information on the new browser, and then I took it for a test drive.  I have to admit that I’m awfully impressed.

First of all, Chrome is FAST.  Most browsers hype being quicker than their competitors/predecessors, but Chrome actually delivers.  I have not run any official benchmarking on the software yet, but I believe you’ll notice a difference.  Not only is the browser fast, but it’s also clean.  Not a ton of stuff to distract you from your web trek.

Additionally, the browser just feels intuitive.  It asks you the questions you want to answer in the options panel.  The new tab page is very YouTube esque in suggesting where you might like to go next — a very nice touch.

All of this ignores the hardwork that was actually done under the hood of Chrome.  Completely open-source, Google Chrome manages to please the developing community by making everything available for their “competitors” to use in their own projects.  Competitors is in quotes back there because…if you view the comic book…Google is trying to promote the advancement of web browsing for the betterment of the world, not just to usurp the current leaddog — not something even Mozilla can really say.  They’ve built a custom Javascript engine for this project, V8, and used Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla Firefox to help complete the package.

In the end, the browser is more secure, faster, and intuitive then any other browser I’ve ever used.  This coming from an ardent Mozilla backer.  You should really check it out:

http://www.google.com/chrome

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html

In case you’ve missed it, there is now a Client Roster page located at www.berson3.com/clients.  At this page you can see the entire current list of clients that Berson3 services.  Services include: Original Design, Design Update, Hosting, Search Engine Optimization, Coding (Server work) & Change (text/data modification).  So, please, head on over to that page and check out our work!

Oh, and if you’re curious about how those logos are place on the page, I used the Phark Revisited method described by Dave Shea here at his mezzoblue web site.  This style of logo placement is critical to meet Accessibility guidelines so that at least those with Screen Readers do not miss out on valuable page data.

Sometimes, it’s not how difficult something is, it’s how difficult it is to find time to accomplish it.

Found some time to log in a couple hours reworking my wordpress blog, and presto…now it looks like it belongs.

Hope you enjoy it!

Just a small window into the future:

The two biggest initiatives in the forecast for Berson deal with Security with our online forms, and the “green-ness” of our PCs.  This is only a bump in the blog form, but there will be plenty of information to come forth soon.

As promised, this file has been updated with the answers from today.   Hope you enjoy!

1. Email.  Our company needs it, and our needs are going to consistently change.  What should we do?

Simple answer: get a Berson Hosting Package.  If you’re in it for the web site, then your email will tag along.  If you’re only in it for the email, then a web site space will tag along.  You can’t lose!  Also, for the hosting fee, Berson3 actually administers your email…meaning that if you need to add new addresses, or change passwords, or whatever…you just call us and we take care of it.
2. What does some of the stuff you do cost?  I mean, really.  Enough with the hype, what are the numbers?

Two numbers: 55 per quarter for hosting, 198 per page on the web site.  Extremely fair and aggressive pricing.
3. My sites’s old and outdated.  What options do I have?

Go for the facelift!  By simply changing the layout and appearance of your site, you’ll regain your customer’s interest and also your own.  Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than making a completely different site from scratch.
4. Ok, so if you’re so great and can fix my site, what do I need to get to you so that you can actually change it?

FTP info: Username & Password.  That’s it.  Really.
5. How often should I update my site?

As often as possible!  Constantly generate new information or content…it keeps your customers interested, which means they’ll keep coming back and keep thinking about your company.
6. Chicken or the egg?  Or rather, which is more important – advertising and getting the people to the site , or the content they see when/if they get there?

Quality retains customers…flashy advertising gets them there.  If you want your business to last, focus on content..otherwise, you’ll have “flash-in-the-pan” success…and then fizzle quickly.
Thanks for reading/listening today!

You know, if my feet weren’t so friggin big, I swear I’d hobble along with at least one foot in my mouth at all times.

Here’s the thing about padding: Yes, it’s the tool of the devil.  Yes, I still believe that.  But now, I have to admit, that there is a time and place where it is completely appropriate and using margins only will not cut it.  *slap*

For the latest Rev of www.berson3.com, I chose a simple, news-esque site layout that’s clean and very nice to maintain.  It’s more Web 2.0 than previous designs…but still not that watered-down.  I’ve learned now that establishing CSS for FF 2.0 first is not the smartest thing to do…seeing as how the majority of users will be using Internet Explorer.  So, I bite the bullet, and I code with my eye on IE7.  Apparently, that’s still not the smartest thing to do.  I created my design, completely confident that it looked sparkling in IE7, it must look great in FF2, right?  Nope.  As it turns out, when it comes to backgrounds of container divs, if you don’t set heights, widths,  and the sort of those container divs…then the truly web standards compliant browser will assume you don’t want the container div to overlap to areas you actually do want it to.

Example: look at the homepage for berson3.com.  At the top, you will notice a thin strip of grey background in IE7…but in FF2, it’s black (if I haven’t fixed the CSS file yet, maybe I’ll post some pics).  Why?  Well, the grey area is actually a div called “all” and the masthead is called “titlebar”.  I created titlebar with a margin-top of 10px, while giving the all (the top element on the page) a margin-top of 0.  IE7 says, ok, start “all” at pixel 0, and start titlebar at pixel 10.  FF2 says, start titlebar at pixel 10, yes, but since there is no content in “all” before the “titlebar”, it actually starts the div down at pixel 10 with “titlebar”.  Ugh.

Padding was the solution.  By setting the margin-top of both divs to 0, and then giving the the “all” div a padding of 10px 0, it bumped the “all” div to the top where it should be, and the titlebar down 10px.  Live and learn I suppose.  I will continue to avoid padding as much as possible, but now, even I have to admit…it has a purpose and right to be in the CSS Spec.