Just the other day, I was trying to update the contact information for the project I am currently working on, but instead I got a lesson on how NOT to handle form errors and customer information.

The form asked for the usual contact information. Things like name, address, email, phone number and credit card information. The form intself did not tell me what fields were “required” so I completed the form in its entirety. Clicked the submit button, waited a couple of seconds and suprise!

The information you entered is not correct. Please try again.

Not a big deal since I expected the vendor to give me a way to go back so that I would know what information was not entered properly. Having developed several forms in the past, I have learned to provide the user as much information as possible as early as possible. The error message did not tell me where I had made a mistake so I went back to the form and tried again. Every time I would see the same error, regardless of what I had changed.

This was a mess and I was just trying to update our contact information. Guess what happened when I tried to pay the company to renew the domain name? I will leave that for another time but rest assure that it was not a pretty scene either.

Mother nature sent us a beautiful weekend and we made the most of it. Friday night, Sarah and I met up a friend of us for some sushi and a beverage. It was a good start to a great weekend. Saturday, I woke up feeling not so well and with a sore throat some I stayed home most of the day, watching life go by from the window. I was doing some work on the project I have going on and got plenty of rest to make sure I don’t get sick.
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Jimmy y Yudith,

Les deseamos todo lo mejor en esta nueva etapa en Peru. Un fuerte abrazo y esperamos tener noticias de uds. cuanto tengan la oportunidad. Que por cierto todavia estamos esperando fotos de Lucianita y ese video del re-encuentro con el flaco.

For christmas I got a small tripod from Sarah and it has worked like a charm, however there are certain ocasions where it would be hard to find a surface to place the tripod. Today, I found the ClamperPod while surfing looking for something else.

Now you can carry a “tripod” with you all the time without lugging cumbersome gear around. Made of heavy-duty die cast aluminum alloy, the ClamperPod mini tripod is strong enough to hold even the heaviest cameras, but weighs only 2 ounces.

Not much bigger than a business card, it fits into pocket, purse, camera bag, backpack or briefcase with room to spare. Attaches to any still or video camera with a standard 1/4×20 tripod socket.

And if you’re a professional photographer, or just have lots of gear… slave flash, strobe, diffuser and reflector, or any other accessory that has a tripod socket, a few of these are a lot easier to handle than a bunch of tripods and light stands

update: It appears the weather will colaborate this time around. We’ll take the partly-cloudy forecast over anything else.

Arizona is thought to be one of the dryest and hotest states in the southwestern United States, yet it seems like whenever we are getting ready to host friends or family, a series of storms decide to come through town.

We moved to Scottsdale in December of 2002, around this time last year we thought we were ready to receive friends and family to come visit. By ready, I mean that we only had to make 1 u-turn regardless of where we were going. So, Sarah’s sister came to spend a few days with us. The weather turned horrible just the day before she was supposed to arrive. A few weeks later, Sarah’s mom and younger sister came to visit just to experience the rainy and cold Arizona desert.
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