Learn Flex 3
This was a goal for last year but didn’t seem to pan out. Now that AIR and Flex are getting a lot of momentum it is a good time to go ahead and start learning them. I have some great ideas for AIR apps and need to get to learning flex. I won a Flex 3 getting started book at the Nashville ColdFusion User Group Christmas Party so that has got me started over the vacation.

Learn Action Script 3
This kind of goes hand in hand with the Flex 3 but I really want to get a grasp on AS3 so my Flex apps can be really dynamic. I picked up one of the Action Script 3 Classroom in a Book at the Christmas party so I will be using that

Learn how to create WordPress Templates
Wordpress is such an awesome publishing platform that I want to really dive in to the templating and create custom templates.

Blog More
I posted almost 122 posts this year which is pretty good given that I haven’t blogged much the last part of the year. My goal is 150 this year so we shall see what we have. I also picked up a free copy of Blogo courtesy of BrainJuice so that will hopefully inspire me.

So what are your tech New Year resolutions?

Today Freshbooks.com did a post called “37Signals, Call Me” which was basically a web 2.0 version of the east coast/west coast throwdown. Essentially they responded saying that one of the best things about their customer service is that they DO answer the phone during the day.

I can see both of their points. They are both small companies, 37Signals having about 10 total employees at last count and Freshbooks.com at about 18. Manpower is always a problem and having someone that has to spend 10 minutes on the phone with someone taking care of an issue that could have been squashed in about a 2 minute email can be inefficient.

In my experience I have found that customers love to talk to you and it can put a nice personal spin on your company and allow customers to have an affinity to your products. I know that when my boss called Freshbooks our 1 time we had to that he was very impressed with the customer service and was an immediate sold customer.

In my side business I would love to offer daytime phone support but since there is only one of my it is virtually impossible. I have to do the email thing because I may not get to the tickets until 8 or 9 at night or on the weekends when most people are not in the office. I do have an 800 number but it is going to force you to leave a message which gets emailed to the support ticketing system.

In the end it is best to offer as much online help as possible so that if someone is calling they need specific help and it will keep those issues to a minimum.

So are you a small business and do you offer phone support to “smaller” customers?

Installing filters to block access to Web sites and e-mail services could backfire, the study says.

A new study attempts to shatter perceptions that these Web surfers are just slackers trying to avoid work.

In fact, it turns out everyone does it, from senior managers to entry-level employees — and researchers figure that means management attempts to clamp down on Internet use may be missing the mark.

Many legitimate reasons may be at play, speculates R. Kelly Garrett, one of the study’s authors and a communications professor at Ohio State University.

For instance, people may use the Web at work to help balance job and life responsibilities; with the personal matters taken care of from work, they can focus on the task at hand.

[ more ]

Well they decided to go to the HOW design conference and do a trade show booth. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a fancy booth they did the one thing that most people wouldn’t think you would have at a design conference… an art project!

Check it out here

Now we know!

Can you spy Blakeley?

Techcrunch

Hmm, Seems like web 2.0′s “Gem” of a framework may not be all that the zealots what you to think it is.

[Via TechnologyThree]

So my question is “What does scrum look like you to?” How do you do it? What do you use? Are you all in an office or do you have remote workers that you have to deal with.

Comment below…

I wrote this as a comment but I thought i would post it here:

I am 29 with a wife and 3 kids and do web development and work at home. I started out as a 20 year old that would work for hours on end and I have been able to refine my process.

Really what this boils down to is 2 things.

1. Family people tend to be older and more mature. Kids do something to you and your maturity level skyrockets (usually). I always say that a guy is never ready to have kids and will never be ready until he HAS kids.

2. This is exactly what the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is talking about. The idea of if you have something ELSE you HAVE to get done then you will work more diligently and more focused to get it done.

Thoughts?