ConradDecker.com is the online playground of, you guessed it, Conrad Decker. He's a small business owner and web developer located in the Jacksonville, FL area.
Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!
I’d also like to send out a BIG thank you to all of those men and women in the U.S. military that put themselves at risk to allow us to be free!! Keep up the awesome work!
I found a link to this amusing article over at CTO::Weblog and got a kick out of it. I’m sure there are a bunch of these floating around…but go see how easy it is to start your own web 2.0 company! Man, I hope it’s really not getting this easy. I’ll be out of a job likety-split.
It makes me wonder though, how many websites actually come to life this way.
I’m sure more then one would care to know. 
On another note, what the heck is all this jazz about “Web 2.0″? I had a client ask me the other day what exactly Web 2.0 means. While I threw out what I thought was a pretty valid answer, it got me wondering if I even knew exactly what was meant by the phrase. I think there’s a common misnomer that a Web 2.0 site has all these new design features that were outlined in the article I mentioned above, and that the site must use AJAX. In general, I think that most Web 2.0 sites probably put these to use…but that’s not what makes them a Web 2.0 site.
So, then is it just some buzzword that tech companies are throwing around to sound important? No, not really…there’s actually some relevance to it. After some research I came across a couple good articles. One specifically by Tim O’Reilly, the author who coined the “Web 2.0″ phrase at a brainstorming session sometime in 2004. Check these out…I think they’re worthwhile reads and may provide a better explanation of what exactly is meant by “Web 2.0″.
Well hello there, and welcome to my blog
My name is Conrad Decker, and I’m a web application developer/small business owner located in the DC Metro area. I currently run my own small business, CDev Technologies, and am in the process of doing everything I can to help it grow.
So what’s up with the blog? Well, I’ve decided to start blogging for a couple of reasons. Despite the fact that blogging has become a popular way to make your mark on the Interweb, as an owner of a small business I find that a lot of my correspondence takes place via written word. Whether it’s standard communication with clients, putting together proposals, or developing content for my website, writing is a prominent aspect of my daily life. To that end, I’ve decided that a great way to improve my writing skills is to do just that…write. In addition, blogging will help me better express my thoughts to others. In my line of work I’m constantly explaining how different technologies work. The better I can do this, the better off I’ll be. I mean, how can I possibly convince a client to spend thousands of dollars (or tens of thousands of dollars if I’m lucky) on work if I can’t even explain what I do?
I’ll likely be posting an array of stuff here including technical posts(yes, I’m a dork by day), things I find amusing, daily happenings, etc. I’ll try to steer clear of my personal life because, well, it’s personal. However, I’m sure you’ll get some good anecdotes from time to time. This blog will supplement my business blog, which you’ll find at http://blog.cdevtechnologies.com in the coming weeks. I plan to spend most of my time updating that blog as it will be my main outlet for everything technology, and small business, related.
Well…again, thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you back here soon.