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Welcome to NY Computer Forensic Services!

inkworks — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:38:03 +0000

Our latest Web site debuted recently: New York Computer Forensic Services. We’ll have more on this later. This week, Kelley is recuperating from an injury to her right arm, so she’s avoiding graphics work as much as possible.

The Written Word – aka Transcription Work

inkworks — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:12:06 +0000

A client presented us with an unusual request last week: a number of .MP3 files (constituting just shy of 3 hours of audio) that they needed transcribed. To complicate matters, some of the recordings were of marginal quality and the topics frequently ranged into very technical matters. Further complicating things, it was Friday and they needed this by Monday morning.

Well, transcription work isn’t something we usually do but we cheerfully jumped in. With our ancient transcription skills and our hardware that was not really suited for this task, we started on Friday night and turned over the deliverables on Monday morning. Which means, the client was able to bring their project in on time. Versatility and a can-do attitude, that’s us. We know what being team players is all about.

The Business of Buying and Selling Houses

inkworks — Sat, 13 May 2006 01:25:27 +0000

The on-site realtor work came through, so far there are two branches of a national chain that we contract with – one in Tampa and the other in Saint Petersburg. Between them, they have interests in all of Hillsborough, all of Pinellas and a good part of Pasco counties. The work is fun but the commute is long, we are negotiating doing some of this as a telecommute. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: mold, asbestos, and lead are the three most-tested-for evironmental toxins in homes. If you are in an older home or a damp/humid climate, you might want to think about getting your home tested.

Paying the Piper: the annual debt management exercise

inkworks — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 19:35:47 +0000

Today is the day. This year, all IRS tax forms and payments (where applicable) must be postmarked by the 17th. Why is it the 17th instead of the 15th? Because the 15th fell on a Saturday so it rolls over to the next business day. In some parts of the country (the New England region primarily), the 17th is a holiday so tax day will be on the 18th, there.

Our I’s are dotted and our T’s crossed, our tax forms were dropped off at the Post Office with proper postage affixed. Like millions of other Americans, we hope that next year, Congress really does simplify the tax code.

Real Estate: The Ultimate Investment?

inkworks — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:35:38 +0000

We’ve been doing some on-site work for a few realtors in the area. Buying and selling real estate as a line of work did not have much interest before but even we recognize that if you know what you are doing, and you are lucky, you can increase your net worth more quickly in real estate than just about anywhere else (except possibly Wall Street). On the plus side, it isn’t as easy to lose everything as can and does frequently happen on Wall Street. We’ll post random thoughts on real estate as they occur, it really is a fascinating line of work.

Hold at 150% designed pressure for how long?

inkworks — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:20:20 +0000

If there is anything about the freelance trade that is universally true, it probably involves pressure and time in some way. That’s why we were very interested in an offer to edit and typeset a text book on pressure vessels. For those who haven’t heard of such a thing, a pressure vessel can be anything from an accumulator in a hydraulics system to a compressed air tank to a steam boiler. They all contain a fluid under pressure. Some systems can operate at very high pressures so there is an extra emphasis on finding and correcting errors. Errors can result in equipment beiing overpressurized: the result is an increased risk of failure which could possibly killing someone.

With a 20-page sample in hand, we worked up a proposal and sent it off. It brought back the good old days for Reese when he wrote repair procedures and personally performed repairs on steam boilers and other pressure vessels when he was in the US Navy. That experience gave him the practical and technical proficiency needed for a highly technical textbook like this one.

Should America have a national tree?

inkworks — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:00:34 +0000

Otok Ben-Hvar thinks so. Formerly known as Ben Garcia, Ben is one of those wonderful people who gives of himself freely. For several years he traveled to Red Square in Moscow so he could play Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. He’s ridden a riding lawnmower across the United States. There is more. The Saint Petersburg Times wrote a very nice piece about him that goes into many of the details. It provides a good introduction to him and who he is.

So what did Ben want or need from us? We had the same question. He has a very thick 3-ring notebook with pictures of a particular Maple tree, grown from a seed in soil collected from all 50 states.

The pictures show the tree in front of our nation’s state capitol buildings, there is a letter from the governor of each state, and Ben’s notes he took on the road. Ben detailed his travels and troubles (going through Customs is always an adventure) as well as the National Arbor Day Foundation and its efforts to get an Oak tree declared the nation’s national tree instead.

Ben’s goal? Get his Maple tree planted in the White House lawn and then turn his 3-ring binder into a book so the whole nation can enjoy it. More on that as it develops.

Selling sales letters by the seashore

inkworks — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 22:22:09 +0000

If you study public relations and marketing, you’ll quickly learn that a lot of people recommend the use of direct sales letters. Direct sales letters have a distinctive look and feel — and for good reason. They work. Years of research has show that sales letters, absolutely chock full of information, highlighting, underlines, strategically bolded key words — all of it works. It really does work.

Yes, we know: you’ll tell us it doesn’t work on you. Are you sure? Really sure? Never mind. We’ll take your word for it. At any rate, our latest project involves the development of direct sales letter sites for a client right here in our little Greek fishing village on the Gulf coast.

As time permits, we’ll walk you through the development of these sites and show you how we used CSS to speed up the production process. CSS makes it possible to quickly produce several sites based on one template. There’s quite a bit of up front investment in the skeletal template and in creating a variety of styles from which to choose. However, once you get that out of the way, it’s just a matter of changing a line or two of code and you can change the look of one section of a site. Change several lines (instead of hundreds) and you can transform the same basic structure pretty quickly. To see what we mean, visit the CSS Zen Garden.

Two steps forward, three steps back

inkworks — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 22:07:21 +0000

We worked on these a few weeks ago, but only now had time to get some thumbnails up. These are the concept roughs we created for a book about how to combine traditional and alternative health care approaches. The authors had a plethora of ideas with which to work and a large audience of supporters and fellow-travelers who’ve taken a great interest in the writing of the book. Now, they’re in the last stages and those same fans are taking great interest in the cover design.

This makes for an interesting process, to say the least. Consequently, there were an extremely wide variety of requests for cover concepts: Everything from a three-legged stool, to an iconographic representation of what I called the “power of three,” to butterflies, to winding roads and mountain vistas, and even the very conventional “color block” approach.

As you move through these samples, you can see how design can completely change the way you receive a book. They always say, “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

Yet, it’s unavoidable. We do judge books by their covers.

Give us some time. We’ll try to get a design brief up. This one is going to take some time since there were so many design briefs!

Finally, the last one! There’s more, but it’s too much for this space. Enjoy!

Something old, something new

inkworks — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:37:14 +0000

The Culture Lab Collective has resurrected their resource site, renaming it Culture Lab. The site got a juicy new update in the bargain: a light, retro look with a little techno/lab/science edge to it.

While we were in the concept rough stage, we kept calling it “Frosty Goodness.” It reminds you of a summertime ice cream truck, otherwise known as the “dingy man” in our neighborhood.