A little less than a year ago, the Sherpa and I started thinking.
I know, dangerous stuff. I promise it didn't last long.
But during that brief moment we mused that we were spending a LOT of time driving to Portland to attend PDXCFUG (now known as PDXRIA) group meetings. When I lived in Salem I attended CFUG (Coldfusion user group) meetings off and on. Now that I was back in web development, and for once full time, I enjoyed the meetings for both their informational and social/networking opportunities.
Now, during the summer it's nothing to leave around 3pm and enjoy a leisurely, often sunny drive from Bend to the big city. And to make it worth our while, we spent some time visiting our favorite Portland restaurants... which sometimes made for a very late night drive home.
But winter was on the way. And at times it's bad enough driving over the pass during the shortening daylight hours, let alone in the dead of night.
So we asked that question: "Why isn't there anything like that in Bend?"
Showing posts with label COWPU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COWPU. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 22
Friday, April 20
COWPU!!!
It's almost time for another COWPU meeting...
This month is pretty exciting! My buddy Simeon from Portland is coming to Bend and will be speaking at the meeting. Sim is a certified Kung Fu Code Master... and and all around nice guy. A long-time Coldfusion developer, Adobe Instructor, and "Flex-pert", he has recently branched out and started working with Ruby on Rails. This should be a great learning experience for anyone interested in getting started with RIA's - or even those of us already building RIA's but want to learn more about RoR.
This month we will be meeting at BBC - the front room is reserved so we will have plenty of space for folks to relax, have a pint and a bite to eat, and get their geek on with the group.
Here's all the details. Hope to see you there!
Where: Bend Brewing Company, 1019 NW Brooks St. Bend, OR, 97701 (541)383-1599
When: Thursday, April 26
6:30pm - Networking and discussion
7:00pm - Presentation by Simeon Bateman
This month is pretty exciting! My buddy Simeon from Portland is coming to Bend and will be speaking at the meeting. Sim is a certified Kung Fu Code Master... and and all around nice guy. A long-time Coldfusion developer, Adobe Instructor, and "Flex-pert", he has recently branched out and started working with Ruby on Rails. This should be a great learning experience for anyone interested in getting started with RIA's - or even those of us already building RIA's but want to learn more about RoR.
This month we will be meeting at BBC - the front room is reserved so we will have plenty of space for folks to relax, have a pint and a bite to eat, and get their geek on with the group.
Here's all the details. Hope to see you there!
Where: Bend Brewing Company, 1019 NW Brooks St. Bend, OR, 97701 (541)383-1599
When: Thursday, April 26
6:30pm - Networking and discussion
7:00pm - Presentation by Simeon Bateman
Friday, March 23
COWPU - SEO with Andre Jensen
My notes and scratchings from Andre's great talk on SEO at this month's COWPU meeting. Nothing is in a particular order!
Slides are not currently available; if they are posted then I will link them!
Google's algorithm for indexing and weighting results... complex is an understatement. :)
Meta tags
It is very important to have a block of text links to your main pages somewhere on all pages (i.e. a common footer).
Use words that plainly describe the information contained on the target page, and that you want to have indexed (i.e. "eFile" for tax company).
New version of Google Toolbar has "keyword insight" function - how and where the hints are generated is currently not known.
You can use tools like SEO Elite to determine link popularity; information about inbound links, anchor text, keywords.
The redirect type 301 is preferred by search engines. Any time you set up a redirect use type 301 (including URL misspellings). Always redirect to the same URL.
Google sees the following URL's as completely different pages:
So always link consistently to avoid diluting link popularity. Updated 3/27: more information about this was posted on Matt Cutts' blog today!
Javascript navigation and cookies stop search engine spiders in their tracks.
Duplicate content can create a scoring penalty, so instead of having 2 pages with the same content setup a 301 redirect on one of the pages, that points to the other page with the content.
If using session management screen the client type and don't manage spider sessions.
Put disclaimers and long text in images.
Put javascript and CSS into include files.
Search engines prefer hyphens to underscores (will treat this-is-a-string as 4 words to index, for example).
Create custom 404 pages that contain links to your main sections.
Recommended keyword research tools: Wordtracker & KeywordDiscovery
Mini Google dances occur from time to time - for example at the first of the year it was optimized for tax season.
Slides are not currently available; if they are posted then I will link them!
Google's algorithm for indexing and weighting results... complex is an understatement. :)
Meta tags
- Google does not index keywords and description, but sometimes displays information from the description in search results.
- Yahoo! does index description.
It is very important to have a block of text links to your main pages somewhere on all pages (i.e. a common footer).
Use words that plainly describe the information contained on the target page, and that you want to have indexed (i.e. "eFile" for tax company).
New version of Google Toolbar has "keyword insight" function - how and where the hints are generated is currently not known.
You can use tools like SEO Elite to determine link popularity; information about inbound links, anchor text, keywords.
The redirect type 301 is preferred by search engines. Any time you set up a redirect use type 301 (including URL misspellings). Always redirect to the same URL.
Google sees the following URL's as completely different pages:
- http://www.foo.com
- http://www.foo.com/
- http://www.foo.com/index.html
- http://foo.com
- http://foo.com/
- http://foo.com/index.html
So always link consistently to avoid diluting link popularity. Updated 3/27: more information about this was posted on Matt Cutts' blog today!
Javascript navigation and cookies stop search engine spiders in their tracks.
Duplicate content can create a scoring penalty, so instead of having 2 pages with the same content setup a 301 redirect on one of the pages, that points to the other page with the content.
If using session management screen the client type and don't manage spider sessions.
Put disclaimers and long text in images.
Put javascript and CSS into include files.
Search engines prefer hyphens to underscores (will treat this-is-a-string as 4 words to index, for example).
Create custom 404 pages that contain links to your main sections.
Recommended keyword research tools: Wordtracker & KeywordDiscovery
Mini Google dances occur from time to time - for example at the first of the year it was optimized for tax season.
Friday, March 9
Sold
Thanks to Andre for passing this along...
The article is pretty vague, and doesn't indicate whether GSI's presence in Bend will change. Any thoughts?
Neo@Ogilvy Acquires Global Strategies
The article is pretty vague, and doesn't indicate whether GSI's presence in Bend will change. Any thoughts?
Thursday, February 15
COWPU
Upcoming COWPU info...
Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on February 21, 2007 at 7pm. This month the meeting will be held at Silver Moon. For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on February 21, 2007 at 7pm. This month the meeting will be held at Silver Moon. For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
Wednesday, January 10
COWPU
Some upcoming COWPU events...
Special Event
On January 18, 2007 at 6pm the Portland Adobe User Group will be hosting "Get to know Adobe Flex Builder 2.0" (presented by Simeon Bateman). If you haven't seen Flex yet this is a great new platform for developing RIA's. This presentation will be shared via webcast... so if you don't want to drive please join us to watch as a group here in Bend! For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on January 24, 2007 at 6pm. For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
Special Event
On January 18, 2007 at 6pm the Portland Adobe User Group will be hosting "Get to know Adobe Flex Builder 2.0" (presented by Simeon Bateman). If you haven't seen Flex yet this is a great new platform for developing RIA's. This presentation will be shared via webcast... so if you don't want to drive please join us to watch as a group here in Bend! For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on January 24, 2007 at 6pm. For more information, please visit the COWPU website.
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