Symbiotic Design™ news carries the latest studio, company and web site information, updates and public press releases.

March 25, 2003:

I just put up an online resume on the site in case anyone has any concerns over my qualifications or credentials. The resume is based on the template we had been planning on using for the web site next. If we ever have the time to finish the update that I had started last summer, I may get around to getting it online. But for now, you can have a glimpse at it. This is a page meant for IE6/N6/Moz1 browsers running on an advanced platform (XP/OSX/Linux) with a high resolution (at least 1024x768). Even if I could get the site up-to-date, anyone with a browser under less than the above conditions would have been sent to an alternate page. However, the resume does not have an alternate page. Enjoy.

I have also started a new project called the font-Journal™. The only link you will find to this hidden little site at Symbiotic Design™ is on the resume page because it's still under development. But it does need to be there since it too, is a project.

Time for Pizza. Take Care!

Thank you
-dp

Index

March 1, 2003:

We have been so busy as of late that I haven't had the time to finish the web site update we were in the middle of when Maria's Violin and Viola Lessons web site was going up. I haven't been able to decorate the home page for the Holidays or even update the news. The AAHMreg.org web site has been live since the day before the deadline, which was on February 1st, 2003.

The American Association for the History of Medicine needed a web site simply to process registrations online for their AAHM Boston 2003 conference as their servers at the Harvard Medical School were not permitted to host an e-Commerce site. The governing body for the AAHM Boston 2003 conference is the AAHM LAC 2003 and after their initial queries contracted Symbiotic Design™ to design, develop and host the web site as well as design their logos for them. We were happy to help them out, though because of delays Symbiotic Design™ had to start late on an already rushed project. We registered the Domain and designed an online registration form as required with a tiny support web site at AAHMreg.org for them. Because of the extremely rushed time frame, Symbiotic Design brought in JND Technologies to handle the php development work and interfacing with Skipjack (who we highly recomend as a secure and protected credit card payment transaction gateway, by the way).

Symbiotic Design™ is also designing the logos for the AAHM Boston 2003 which has been approved, the masters delivered, and then I found out that the Boston skyline had dramatically changed in the past year and I will be sending them an updated version this weekend at no charge. I was just grateful that I caught the error before anyone else did and before it went to the printers.

In an effort to stay more up to date, and eventually to incorporate a client accessible and editable scheduler, I have also added a calendar to the web site. I hope to be updating this more frequently than the news, now. This will come quite handy in the future.

In the past few months we have not only upgraded our web hosting servers capabilities to include the option of ColdFusion support ($5.00 per month), but JSP support ($5.00 per month), as well. We've also increased the storage capacity of our Standard and Professional hosting accounts and renamed our UltraPro hosting account to the Developer plan. Remember that ASP ($5.00 per month), JSP and ColdFusion can not be activated on the same account simultaneously. However, if you need a little Java along with your option of ASP or ColdFusion, you can always activate the free Java Servlets from your control panel.

Although it hasn't been setup just yet, all Symbiotic Design web hosting clientele (past, present and future) will receive Webmaster Tools version 2 free with their hosting services to aid them in setting up their site. This is a great tool as it includes some important features such as converting email addresses to JavaScript code that spam email address harvesting spiders (which constantly comb the web) shouldn't recognize. Symbiotic Design clientele will get an email notifying them how to download this application as soon as it's available.

On that note, we've also added SpamVault to our client's control panels to help keep unwanted spam email and even viruses out of your mailbox. You can set it up to delete mail according to the rules you set (much like setting up filters in Outlook, Netscape or Mozilla) as well as any virus/attachment. Or you may chose to send them to a holding file for later examination before deletion. If you chose to delete files, be careful with the rules you choose because once it's gone, it's gone for good. Also be careful if you chose to save the spam and virus attachments to the holding file because email, especially spam, can build up rather quickly.

To avoid getting junk email, be sure to use the Webmaster Tools program I'll be giving away to encode your email addresses to avoid spam harvesting. Also don't give out your email address online. Use the catch-all feature of your Symbiotic Design™ Web Hosting account by using the site name as your email user name. I.E.: At ThunderbirdComputers.com you would give them the address ThunderbirdComputers.com@YourDomain.com (where you replace "YourDomain.com" with your actual Domain Name.

Speaking of Domain Names, Symbiotic Design™ now offers TWO Domain Name web stores...

1) SymbioticDesign.US is the address to remember to get to the Symbiotic Design™ Domain Name Registration and Services storefront which offers ridiculous prices on .com, .net, .org, .us, .biz, .ws, and .info Domains. Great prices, free Domain parking, free Domain fowarding, free management services, and we even take cash! So far, we're our own best customer, the prices are so good.

2) WebsiteDomains.US is the address to remember to get to Symbiotic Design's Website Domains online Domain Name store. While this store doesn't offer nearly the discount that our name branded one does, the pricing is quite reasonable and offers some great tools. What is great for us at this Domain store is that it offers the .cc, .co.uk and Chinese Top Level Domains allowing our international corporate clientele to further their presense and protect their identity on a more global scale. Plus we offer a great little co-merchant program so that you can set up a highly configurable Domain store of your own! This web store is actually my wife's, and knowing that women do so well in the world of business, I am very optimistic for her.

As for my family, Max is a computer genius at 28 months old and even counts to 13 (regularly). He is musically inclined and extremely visual as well. Maria is getting very busy with her violin and viola teaching and even taught a master's class in music education at Augustana College last Thursday. She taught a student that had never touched the violin how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" as a demonstration. And my mother is recovering nicely from outpatient laser surgery on her eye and is now enjoying much more color than she has been used to.

I know I'm forgetting something, but I have so much to do... gotta get back to work. Take Care!

Thank you
-dp

Index

September 20, 2002:

Double Announcement:
Introducing a New Web Site by Symbiotic Design™: Maria's Violin and Viola Lessons
Via FREE Advanced Linux Server Hosting with NO Required Third Party Banner Advertising

My wife's web site, Maria's Violin and Viola Lessons, went live today. This site showcases Maria's talent and experience as a professional violin teacher and lists her upcoming performance dates. Several cosmetic enhancements are planned in the next few days that were not ready when the site went live. Still, it is a complete web site and we will be adding to it in the future. Maria and I invite you to check this new web site out. Please feel free to also send us a critique on the site. It loads and displays well in Netscape Communicator 4.79, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and Mozilla 1.0. Maria is genuinely pleased with the site. In fact, she is so pleased that I am not getting any constructive feedback from her. Instead, she only comments on how beautiful it is. So although I am quite happy to have another satisfied client, I would welcome critiques and suggestions.

We are using the Domain Name address of MariasViolin.com for the site now as many of the Domain Names we wanted were taken or were harder to remember. We may acquire another Domain or two that will point to this site in the future (such as MariasViola.com), but we are quite comfortable with our choice and this Domain Name will always point to her web server.

It may surprise you to find that my wife's site is not hosted on our own SymbioticDesign.com server. The Symbiotic Design™ Red Hat Linux servers are all high speed servers with the very fastest connections available sitting directly on top of the Qwest, GC and AT&T highspeed backbones and backed with other redundant network T1 connections to other major networks (including Sprint & UUENet). Our systems are kept up-to-date and secure using the latest technology available, while our hosting plans offer the most bang for the buck anywhere (including optional ColdFusion technology support, available now, which will be announced this weekend with some other improvements).

Still, our highspeed servers are meant for web sites that require true horsepower and absolute reliability such as multimedia, eCommerce, database, application server and corporate web sites where information service is critical. Since the expenses for Maria's small web site was the main concern, and because Symbiotic Design™ has absolutely no reservations about designing a site no matter what server it utilizes, we are trying out a new server offering FREE 20MB advanced hosting accounts without any banner advertising.

Yes, you did read that correctly, FREE advanced server hosting without banner ads. All that is required is that you use their $24.95 Domain Name registration or transfer system. Not bad at all considering you will have to register a Domain Name anyway for a professional web site. Add that they support 5 POP email accounts, majordomo, CGI, PHP, ASP, MySQL, FTP, SSH, SSL, Mivia and offer unlimited bandwidth with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, then you can see that these are full featured Linux accounts.

I would not suggest this is an option for everyone, though. You get what you pay for and this server does require a little expertise in Linux, as there isn't really any easy-to-use control panel like the one we offer. And a small 20MB plan doesn't offer much space. I delete a 10MB email account setup for spam from sign-up's and mandatory opt-in's once a month. Spam is why you won't find a MariasViolin.com email address for her on the site.

But it's still a great deal if you can live within the constraints of the space provided, and Maria's little web site is tiny, anyway. There will be many web sites such as this with the same requirements (or lack thereof).

If you require such a hosting service and you are interested, check out MariasViolin.com to see how well her hosted web pages load in your geographic area (worldwide), I think you will be pleasantly surprised. If you are still game, you will need an affiliate ID number to sign up. Please use mine, affiliate ID #: 0098. Copy that number and then head over to MaxipointServers.net. If after checking the service out you feel it will meet your needs, paste my ID # into the registration form. And remember that we will design and develop a web site no matter who's server it's on.

Thank you
-dp

Index

July 8, 2002:

My sanity has returned. Maria and my son, Maximilian, arrived at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on June 28, 2002. We drove for another 3 hours to reach our home in Sioux Falls, SD. Everyone is still trying to recuperate from jet lag, currently, but coping well and happy that we are all, finally, back together again. We give absolutely no thanks to the INS who lied to us and misdirected us at every single possible opportunity, and even lost our paperwork in the process. The INS seperated my family illegally and kept us apart for a year and a half without cause or reason.

We do thank Senator Daschle's office and his staff for all of their help, Maria's U.S. permanent visa petition would have been buried and lost in a pile of paperwork that no one would have ever taken any action on, ever.

I am personally and completely thrilled to have Maria and Max back with me. If I had the power to sue the INS for the illegalities that occured and the undue suffering and anguish they had caused me and my family, I would. As a division of the U.S. Justice Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service showed absolutely no such measurement of justice at all, and in fact treated us very unjustly. However, since I do not have the resources, I simply hope to start and enjoy my family life again after this rude and undeserving INS directed illegal seperation.

Maria is a very special person and a source of great pride. She teaches music theory, the violin, and the viola to the youth (ages 4-15). She and her talented student, Stas, each brought home the Polish National Youth Award for Violin Playing Excellence to thier small town of Olešnica, Poland, this past semester. This is quite an honor and acheivement and I am very proud of her and her student for doing so well.

Maria has been teaching children at the Music School in Olešnica, Poland for 12 years and will continue to pursue this line of work through the private sector here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

My son, Maximilian, is now almost 21 months and nearly 3 feet tall. We hope that he will become an important part of the business in time, however, he has a great deal of time to play and just be a kid.

My family is a source of great pride, comfort and well being. My wife and son are great inspirations for me. Maria also offers me great understanding and calms me down just by being close to me. I love them both dearly. I am a very happy man, once again.

Thank you
-dp

Index

March 3, 2002:

We regret that because of lack of demand for our HDTV video production and videography services, we no longer are offering this service. We still offer complete nonlinear digital HDTV editing and post production services, but our access to the HDTV specific cameras and equipment necessary to produce high quality broadcast commercial and feature HDTV format video has been severed due to the lack of interest for this service in our area. We do continue to offer the high degree of quality and service you have received in the past with our analog NTSC and digital SDTV video production services and videography, as well as nonlinear editing and post production.

The web site will be updated to reflect that we no longer offer HDTV video production in the near future. We hope this policy will change when demand for this extraordinary marketing and communication medium surfaces in our area.

Thank you
-dp

Index

February 16, 2002:

It's been a wild month. I have had a few sneers at the web site lately. As I have explained previously, I work on this web site publicly because it can be a learning experience for anyone with an imagination and a desire to learn. Yes, I know the buttons menu has been in bad shape since the CyberGallery has opened. I know there are three unfinished articles I have to address. I'm making no excuses. But this web site will soon take a dramatic turn from the outwardly conservative business face that it has shown for the past 10 months. We are gearing up for this now, and it's quite a bit of work. Plus, it's going to happen much sooner than I want it to, so some will be able to laugh even harder at what I am up to. But even though I love what I do and I make good money doing it when I have the work, this web site is not just a living thing, but is and always has been a teaching tool. For that very reason this site will always look incomplete. For another reason, I work on this site in my spare time, which I don't ever seem to have as much of as I thought I would.

With that note, please welcome Joshua Schuttloffel. Josh will be interning with us starting on February 19, 2002. He is a highly motivated Lennox High School honor role student with a passion for creativity. He will be filling in some the grunt design work that I have left behind as I get busy with scripts, programming, promotion chores and search engines. Josh will be finishing the web site update to version 2.1, as he has the time.

"The Right Tools" article has become much more immense than I have realized. I'm starting to think that I am in the process of writing a novel. And I am not referring to a 100 page e-zine printout with big type. Part of the reason that the right tools article is becoming so monstrous is because the rules to web site development have changed so radically in the past two years. And in order to implement new features old issues still have to be addressed. Enter our secret weapon. We now have on our staff one of the best search engine experts in the industry. And this professional is going to remain a secret for as long as I can hold out. Only our clientele will come to know this expert.

Nevertheless, I am getting the lesson of my life, both from our tutor and on my own. Luckily, our resident web site promoter and SEO consistently produces pages that rank within the first 2 pages of listings and has many #1 and #2 listings.

Anyway, I am not abandoning either of the other two articles I have yet to finish, either. "UNIX 101" is nearly done, it is just a little rough around the edges and requires some additional information to meet the needs of new Linux Apache webmasters For this reason I will try to get back to it soon. However, I started the article "Framing Thumbnails and Images" as a tutorial to show different approaches to simple design techniques and styles and never finished it. As soon as I decide that I need a break, I'll be finishing up with this as soon as I can.

Currently, Symbiotic Design™ has no outside work, which will give us a chance to get caught up with our own internal creative duties. However, this is a blow to the budget for myself and our freelance artists and developers. Hopefully, this situation will improve soon.

Internal projects we are currently involved in include:

Thank you for your understanding, I am certain no one cares about what I am up to, but I like to be clear, nevertheless.
-dp

Index

January 16, 2002:

Due to studio technical difficulties and because of government red tape, the dpArt CD release has again been postponed. We will not venture to guess when this major project will be released. As of now it is a planned 2 CD set and will be available on 4 different platforms. This has become necessary in order to more efficiently support each platform natively by offering file formats in the native platform without experiencing extreme data redundancy. We are also considering making it a DVD. The dpArt CD-ROM volume 1 is be available on Windows, Mac and BSD/Linux/Unix platforms.

The technical difficulties were simply that both of our main design computers crashed and we had technical difficulties recovering for a month and a half straight. The Macintosh lost a hard drive and the Windows machine was upgraded to 2000, then to XP, then back to 2000 because of instability problems in the XP operating system. These difficulties have been addressed, although we intend to replace the Macintosh as soon as possible. All CD-ROM development is currently being done on a Windows 2000 machine which has dramatically slowed development because of platform software incompatibilities due to lack of multiplatform tools. These technical problems have also slowed development of the web site. The development of our cubed™ OLED holographic display system and 3D pixels technology has ceased for now. Custom servers and high performance computer systems are still available tailored to your lust for power.

The United States Immigration & Naturalization Service, a Division of the U.S. Justice Department, has finally sent my wife's paperwork to Warsaw and my wife, Mucka ("Mooshka"), is awaiting notification. This immigration is pure bull and I am impatiently awaiting the return of my legal wife (real name, Maria) and son (Max) who is a US citizen. Unfortunately, they have been gone well over a year since the INS had falsely directed my wife to return "not one day late." This whole episode has made me feel very betrayed by my government since the paperwork to get this straightened out had been started a year and a half ago. The horrific tragedy of September 11, 2001 may have slowed this process, but we have been misled and misinformed by the INS at every single turn and without the help of Senator Daschle's office our paperwork would not have ever seen the light of day. Maria and Max were supposed to home in the U.S.A. in late summer of 2001, at the latest.

Obviously, this has caused a great deal of stress in our lives and complicated everything. We regret that we cannot give a new release date for the CD-ROM, but until things get back to normal I have put this project on hold indefinitely. All customers who have purchased the dpArt CD-ROM have been refunded in full and will get an announcement via email and the U.S.P.S. when this product is near ready and will soon be available. We will not make any release date announcements until it's release is imminent. There will be a notice here in the news section when this project is taken off of the back burner.

Currently, all work is focused on our creative design, web site design and web hosting business. The CyberGallery has a small selection of desktop backgrounds available and we have much more to add. We are still in the midst of finishing our web site update to version 2.1, as this interface had not been distributed throughout the web site completely. However, updating the CyberGallery has continued at a steady pace.

Thank you
-dp

Index

December 25, 2001: