Miles’ Blog » Personal

In recent news, I was honoured to be asked by the team behind SitePoint.com, the third most popular eBusiness site in the world, to join their star studded blogger lineup, to blog under the topic of Web Pro Business.

My first two posts, one posted last week, titled The Business of Building Web Sites and today’s latest post, Do you have the right personality for running your own business? are being well received, and I would love it if you wandered over there to have a read.

Please let me know what you think - and I promise to post more often here as well!

Image: Screengrab, SitePoint.com

Really, has it been nearly a month since I last posted? If you’re anything like me, you hate to see blog posts where people apologise for being recalcitrant in keeping their blog up to date.

I have an excuse! Well, not really. I’ve been in Bali you see, for 15 days of blissful family time, with my children and wife and no email or phone. A week in Sanur, a week in Ubud, and a day in Kuta to remind us why the beaten track is the better track.

We practised our Bahasa (Tidak Bagus Bahasa!), we took many photos (3,000+) and we ate and drank our way through every meal. I’ve come back with a beard, Meredith came back with a tan and the kids came back with a cultural experience, fond memories and plenty of DVDs.

Where’s your favourite holiday destination? It need not be overseas, or even that far from home, but what makes you a relaxed soul?

I’ll be back as soon as reality kicks in.

Photo: Statue, Puri Saraswati, Ubud, Bali.

I am honoured to have been invited back this year again to do a talk to final year multimedia students at Edith Cowan University, entitled ‘Getting started in the Web Industry‘. Thanks to Joe Luca who invited me along, and the students who took some of their afternoon out to hear me discuss ways to get a job in the Perth web industry.

I’m sure most of the students have heard the old talks about presentation and networking one hundred times before, but I’m hoping hearing it from an industry perspective, instead of just a lecturer, might mean that it drives the knowledge further to them. That, and the fact I managed to put images of robots, nudity, graffiti and lolcat speak all in one 22 slide presentation, should do the trick.

I’ve uploaded the slides to slideshare.net. You can see them over here. In a first (for me at least) these slides and this post were not only prepared, but uploaded prior to the presentation, and basically ‘went live’ whilst I was still speaking, thanks to the scheduling feature in Wordpress.

Links for website mentioned in presentation;

• http://www.port80.asn.au
• http://www.webindustry.com.au
• http://www.bamwantsyou.com
• http://www.milesburke.com.au
• http://www.bam.com.au
• http://www.webindustry.asn.au

Photo’s used, other than mine (from Flickr, with CC licence);

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/denis_fox/1112069912/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jepoirrier/349613923/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/eifion/171413582/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/lachlanhunt/254088928/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/genewolf/147722350/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/praatafrikaans/315196853/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/muchadoaboutnothing/440872101/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/drachmann/327122302/

Image: screengrab of Keynote presentation.

They say a change is as good as a holiday. So I’m kicking into relaxation mode as I announce that this blog has up and moved over to its new location, at www.milesburke.com.au/blog/

I would encourage you to please update any links you have, and update your feed reader, etc. Apologies for the transition, however I assure you I won’t be moving again for a long time. There is currently a domain redirect in place, but I would imagine I shall retire it one day.

Next step is upgrading Wordpress and tweaking the theme. I’m thinking I’ll just take baby steps to reach this goal.

Image: Stained glass window, Sydney NSW.

As many of you may know, my wife Meredith, is not only a prolific blogger and fantastic mother, she also designs jewellery and sells it both in Perth galleries as well as online via Etsy.

Recently, she started going under the moniker of her new label, Captain Oh Captain, and combined her fascination in old sea tales of yesteryear and her joy of creating necklaces and other jewellery.

So this post is a thinly disguised excuse to promote her great work, and link to her site as well as throw a big mention to MOO and their great MOO Minicards (as shown above).

Embrace great design - go forth and buy some great Australian jewellery and then some nifty Moo Minicards!

Image: MOO Minicards for Captain Oh Captain.