A new study contradicts some commonly held beliefs about people who use dial-up internet service.  We’ve long been assuming that they didn’t have access to broadband service–that they lived in too rural an area to be able to trade up.

Seems that idea is wrong.

The survey shows that only 14% are “stuck with dial-up” because they can’t get a faster service where they live.  35% say they stay on dial-up because of prices–they can’t afford broadband.

Perhaps the most surprising number?  The 19% of dial-up users who say nothing you do or say could convince them to give it up for something else.

That’s staggering to me.  They’re tech-savvy enough to want to be on the internet, but old-fashioned enough to stubbornly cling to 2 minute page loads even if that same page could load in 2 seconds if they swapped up to broadband?!?!  Weird.

How many of you still have dial-up?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

J. David Wicker is a Nashville-based attorney, focusing on criminal defense and domestic law. Mr. Wicker wanted a website that would highlight his experience and his passion for the law.

From the website:

David Wicker is committed to fighting for you and protecting your rights and interests. Mr. Wicker is equally committed to providing client-centered service. The majority of his clients come to him through referrals from past and current clients, friends, and associates because of his dedication to his clients and his determination to provide superior representation to the residents of Tennessee.

We found Mr. Wicker to be a particularly easy client to work with.  We also enjoyed creating a unique look and feel (for us) that incorporated his likeness into an understated, yet classy design.

We hope you’ll check out his site when you have the time at JDavidWicker.com.

There’s a growing number of web users who turn to Mozilla’s Firefox browser for their surfing needs.  Each year, Firefox gains little bits of market share on Internet Explorer (Microsoft’s King of Browsers).

There are four of us here in the Keystone office that are total Firefox disciples (and three more who, sadly, insist on sticking with IE).  Firefox has built its niche on being a faster, more secure browsing experience–oh, and they invented the whole “tabbed browsing” thing that IE and Safari and everyone else has since copied.

Well, last week saw the release of Firefox 3, the newest release, and I’m pretty pleased to tell you that it’s the best Firefox yet.  There are, according to Mozilla, over 15,000 improvements in this new version.  Many of the things you’ll notice are aesthetic:  the back button is a bit bigger, the tabs scroll and animate during browsing in a very slick manner, etc.  There’s also a new address bar that Firefox calls the Awesome Bar.  It’s supposedly better at predicting what you’re trying to type so you can get to your preferred destination even more quickly.  And, as usual, there have been some security updates that make Firefox’s already safe experience even safer.

But here’s the real reason you should go download and install Firefox 3:  It is fast!  Lightning fast.  Noticeably faster than Firefox 2, and light years faster than IE.  For me… that alone was reason to upgrade.

So if you’re a Firefox user, but you either hadn’t heard there was a new version, or you were holding out until it was verified as a quality version… wait no more.  Head over to Mozilla’s site and grab a copy of Firefox 3 for yourself today. You won’t regret it.

Looks like we can add screen savers to the list of things we have and use that are completely unnecessary (like butlers or… your appendix).

See, just a few years back, the average computer screen used phosphors, which might suffer from “burn-in”, where images left on screen for too long would burn into the screen forever.   That’s why screen savers like the flying star field or the flying toasters were invented (why were early screen saver designers obsessed with flying things?)

But today’s flat-screen LCD monitors are made with completely different materials and “burn-in” is officially no longer a concern.

Yet people still use screen savers as though their life (or the life of their computer) depended on it.  This guy suggests that if you simply turn your monitor off when it’s not in use, instead of using a screen saver, you’ll save energy.  If everyone in your company does it… that energy savings might actually show up on the bottom line (depending on how many people work for you).

Even if you’re not concerned about saving energy, you can still deactivate your screen saver.  It’s not saving anything, preventing anything, or protecting anything.  It’s just… there.

Golf PROVISION is a very interesting company that focuses on creating unique, relationship-based marketing opportunities related to golfing.

According to their website, they offer a variety of services:

Golf-Centered Relationship Marketing

Events Coordination & Management

Golf Therapy – Academies & Group Clinics

Dinner & Motivational Speaking Engagements

Outreach & Networking Ministries

Specialty Merchandise

Trade Show Appearances

Our favorite part of this business is the relationships we form with our many clients, and the folks at Golf PROVISION were definitely a great group to work with.

We hope you’ll check out their new website at GolfProVision.com.

The Communion Company is a provider of communion and other worship-related supplies based out of Gallatin, TN.

They wanted to upgrade their existing site, giving it a classy feel, while also adding shopping cart capabilities.  The folks at The Communion Company have been a pleasure to work with throughout this process, and we feel confident we’ve given them a website that will take care of the e-commerce stuff without compromising on their pursuit of an elegant showcase for their fantastic products.

Check out their site at CommunionCompany.com.

Did you know that the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce hands out a Business of the Year award?  It’s annual–duh–and we’ve just learned that Keystone Business Solutions is this year’s winner.

We’re pretty blown away by it, and very proud.  We do a lot to try and offer our clients and our community the very best in our products and services, and it’s rewarding to feel like that’s something the Chamber can see.

Thanks to all the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce members–you guys all help to make Hendersonville such a great place to live.  We’re honored to receive this Business of the Year award and will do our best not to brag too much next time we see you.

In all seriousness… thank you.

Do you remember the security X-ray screeners in the movie Total Recall, where the passengers filed through a corridor and on the outside… security personnel could see their skeletons as they passed through?

Those are now a reality… sort of.

The TSA has begun deploying security screening devices which can see through a person’s clothing, exposing any metal, explosives, plastics, or ceramics that might be hidden underneath.

Ten US Airports are getting the machines, with a total of 30 screeners planned across the country by the end of 2008.

The controversy, of course, is that in addition to any guns or other contraband, these machines also apparently show off the passenger’s naked body.  The ACLU thinks that’s unacceptable:

“People have no idea how graphic the images are,” Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.

Okay, is there anything the ACLU finds acceptable?  Isn’t it their mission to abhor and challenge pretty much everything?

But seriously, they have a point here.  How many of you, by show of hands, want the TSA screeners to see you naked?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Oh, but they won’t know who you are:

While it allows the security screeners — looking at the images in a separate room — to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.

Right.  Because they can’t see my face as I’m walking into the machine.  Somehow I don’t see the fact that the faces are blurred making Americans feel better about being so exposed.

The images are also not stored in any way, but are erased once the passenger is cleared through the checkpoint.  So that’s good, at least.

Look, not to be graphic or anything, but I really don’t care if the TSA wants to see me naked.  I’m all for doing whatever it takes to help make the skies safer.  And I’m no Adonis–it’s their loss, really, if they have to put me in one of these things.

But millions of Americans are going to cry foul.

Thankfully, the TSA is saying that travelers have some options:

Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines.  “The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down,” she told AFP.

Sweet.  So if I don’t want strangers to see me naked I can choose to let strangers put their hands all over me.  Excellent choice.  I believe that’s what’s called a Catch-22.

Anyway, now that the TSA is blogging, you can head over there and leave them some feedback on this new development.

The Disney Vault is something I loathe and admire all at once. They release movies to DVD (or, in the old days, VHS) for only a limited window, and then put the title back into the “vault” for another 10 years. It creates a nice marketing buzz and cranks up the demand for their beloved films.

It’s a genius idea, from a business perspective–and not too many studios have the cache to pull it off.

But as a consumer, it’s mind-numbingly awful. You have to wait years for certain titles to become available. I honestly think it’s counter productive at this point. In today’s on-demand world, I think they’d make more money if I could buy Bambi whenever I darn well pleased.

(Don’t even get me started on this business about Disney DVD’s ALWAYS costing $20, no matter what… no matter where… no matter the title. That is about as annoying as anything.)

So the announcement today that Disney will start streaming their films online for free caused a bit of cautiousness in me (understandably so). Because I figure there would have to be some major catch to this deal.

And guess what… there is.

First, not all Disney movies will be streamed. Only the films they are showing each week this summer on ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney series will be streaming online for free–and only for the week following their airing on television.

So, it’s basically the streaming-online version of the Disney Vault.

That being said, if you have kids, and haven’t bought Finding Nemo for them yet (what are you waiting for?), you can watch it online with them for free through Friday.

While I can see some upside to this for the consumer, it’s very small. Fact is… if you’ve got high-speed internet and a hearty enough computer to handle quality video streaming, you can probably afford to own the Disney titles your kids love–and you probably already do.

Oh well. At least they’re trying something. Here’s a sampling of some of the other movies to come this summer, from the article:

“Monsters, Inc.,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen,” “Princess Diaries 2,” “Freaky Friday” and “Peter Pan” also will be available on the site this summer.

So there you go. If you want to watch any of those movies online for free, with your family or something… check out the article. Or you can just borrow my Finding Nemo DVD.

The many Chambers of Commerce in the Sumner County area decided to work together in a big way, and part of that mission was to design a launch-pad website through which one could access the site of any of the individual municipal chambers.

We have worked with most of the Sumner-area chambers before on websites and other projects (we’re members of several as well) and have always found each to be a pleasure to work with.  As this was basically just a one-page portal to the individual Chamber sites, we tried to evoke some things visually that would speak to this wonderful Sumner County area we all love.

Check out the new site at SumnerCountyChambers.org.