Team Viewer - Go Team! Go!

This little baby saved my life a about a dozen times today. Having remote access to another computer is a handy thing. Like when your offices are being repainted and you are working from home on your laptop but all of your files are at the office on your Mac Mini and there are just too many of them to reasonably copy the whole lot of them onto any kind of device to take with you -- that kind of handy.

But as anyone who as ever had to deal with this dilema knows - sometimes using a remote desktop or VPN client can be a nightmare! There can be issues trying to connect (or stay connected in most cases), getting around firewalls, and about a billion other things that slowly eat up your time and patience. Let's not forget that some of these clients can be a bit costly as well.

Enter Team Viewer, a remote desktop client that a friend turned me on too last week. It is super handy, super easy to use, and super free (for non-commercial users)! Win, win and WIN! By using an access ID and passcode, you can connect to any machine that is running Team Viewer. The only catch is that you need to make sure that it is running on the computer that you want to remote into. So there is a bit of forethought on your part to anticipate whether or not you will need it in advanced.

This awesome tool has a variety of uses, from enabling you to work from home, doing remote tech support for clients, or logging into your mom's computer to help her setup her iPod. If you love it and want to run it at your office, you can pay a one-time fee for a lifetime license which isn't a terrible deal.

So kudos to you Team Viewer! I will gladly spread the word about your awesomeness. And thanks for saving my ass today. =)

Litums? You don't even know us!

If you haven't seen or heard of litmus then you are missing out! Designed for Email Newsletters, it is a super nifty online app that shows you a screenshot of how your email will appear in every major email client! What is even BETTER is that you can add pages to your litmus account as well and see a screenshot of your page in every major browser (and version)!

How handy is that!? No longer will you need to login to a billion-and-a-half different email clients or open 20 browsers to check for cross-browser compatibility. And for you MAC users...this means no more having to run VMWare, Parallels or any other virtual PC client in order to test the dreaded IE! Hallelujah!!

Can you put a price tag on convenience like that? Yes you can, and it starts at $49 a month. Not terribly cheap if you are flying solo, but for a company...expense that shit. It is a valuable tool that will save your designers and developers many curse words and hours of testing agony. =)

Think Different - Inspiring Apple Ad

Apple has always been a leader in innovation. They have been reinventing the way that we interact with our world since the beginning of the digital age. They have some of the best, niftiest, and prettiest products on the market with the slickest, most intuitive user interfaces I have ever seen. In everything from their ad campaigns down to their packaging, they succeed at being innovative and functional in every aspect.

How do they do it? By being crazy.

*Originally from an Apple ad that ran in the late 90's

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in a square hole, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who'll do it.

Whether you like Apple or not, and even if it is a bit cliché, you can't deny that it is inspiring. =)

On Nurturing Creativity

What better to stare off a design focused blog than a little talk on creativity. Creativity is what makes a designer a designer, but let's face it, the Great Idea Bucket runs dry for all of us sometimes.

Being a designer can be a demanding, frustrating, passionate, and fun role. Elizabeth Gilbert, renowned author of best selling novel Eat Pray Love shares some of her thoughts on how to nurture our creative spark.

TED Talks: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity »

Also, a good friend of mine just gave me this book and I am VERY excited to read it. =)

Enjoy.

Welcome to the Bird's Nest

Hi kids,

This blog is to serve the purpose of the Blue Sparrow Designs Blog, at least until the nest gets rebuilt and the blog is incorporated there. But until then, why waste all this lovely blogging potential!

A bit about meself...

Hello. My name is Heidi Claunch and I am a Web Designer and Developer.

I am a graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix with a degree in Multimedia and Web Design and have been working in the industry for 5+ years and have been a computer and web geek for long before that. I love design for the online industry and I enjoy geeking out about the latest trends, styles, and technologies available. And it is here that I can share some of those fun facts with you, lucky reader.

Connect with me
If you are interested in my work, have a tasty web tidbit to share, or just want to chat, please connect with me on any of the networks below! I'd love to share a cup of coffee (digital or otherwise) with you. =)

Website: BlueSparrowDesigns.com
Twitter: @bluesparrowweb
Facebook Page: Blue Sparrow Designs