My web site development principles

  • In short, I strive to build sites right. (more)
  • I embrace modern tech and pepper it with simplicity. (more)
  • Efficient processes and design are paramount. (more)
  • Client relationships deserve good communication. (more)

Web Sites Should Be Simple and Attractive!

I try to develop interesting, thoughtful and useful web sites for the web. My mission is to embrace the finest technology without overcomplicating the web site production process. I work hard to make sure clients understand what I'm doing and how this can benefit their business. My sites are all built on CMS or MVC platforms with common tools for greatest compatibility.

Who are you?

Central 183 Graphic Design was established in 2003 as a graphic design company by Lance Wig. Since then I have embraced web development standards and jumped on the dynamic data train. My designs still retain the uniqueness that we miss from printed material. On the same coin I can apply modern techniques like SEO optimization to a web site design without making it bland.

So What's New?

Lately I've been working on the TTFSSE concept for people who want a simple web presence for a small bill. I'm also working on a SEO report method that builds a report as web site. This makes all references and links live. Making sense of all the jargon becomes a bit easier for clients. Part of the SEO report is a live tracking keyword density analyzer.

Waynesville - Asheville - North Carolina|(828) 333-4164

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What is the best web host?

Good hosts depend on your needs. I love Slicehost because its reliable and powerful. The downside is that it's normally done through a command line so non-developers become frustrated. Control panels can be installed on a Slicehost account though.

GoDaddy is always good hosting for a cheap price. You can also manage all your domains through them, so it's convenient. What you want is a "Virtual Dedicated Server" which is a kind of hosting plan where you can host multiple web sites on the same server. They have one plan for $30 which would be good for your needs. It features a Plesk GUI control panel so you can press buttons to get things done.

There are a bundle more hosts out there. I'll mention some really bad ones, Dreamhost, Aplus.net and Dotster.

The Central 183 Mission

Any business set for the long haul should ask itself, "What's your mission?" At Central 183 Web Design and Development, I strive to keep an efficiently run boat, use proven modern technologies and pass savings on to customers.

The Central 183 site for my current and future clients revolves around the Portfolio and Services sections. However, there is also a smattering of resources for other developers and designers in the ToolBox and Videos sections

I believe strongly in the openness of the web and its ability to develop fantastic innovation.

Resume at a Glance

Resume's are long an boring and my web development and design resume is filled with various gaps, cross-stitching and denim patches. One thing I find with web developers or software developers is that there is a wide amount of skills that you may have. Some are true "Ninjas" with superior hacking abilities. Some are Cowboys who just copy code and paste it all over the place. Others are like a Buick and can generally get the web development job done with common tools. I'm probably a good example of a Buick who aspires to be a Ninja one day. Here are some of the common tools I use:

  • Drupal CMS
  • Joomla CMS
  • Wordpress CMS
  • CakePHP MVC
  • Jquery
  • PHP
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Slicehost
  • Bash
  • OS X
  • MySQL

Things I don't fool with but would like to:

  • Mobile Apps
  • Objective C
  • Apple Script

Current Hot Topics

Added to Trends on 1/7/10

Introducing AZ Containers service in Tucson, AZ

I worked with MGM Communications on a project for AZ Containers. The shipping container company is expanding their operation to Tucson so we built a couple of landing pages to focus specifically on the Tucson portable container market. The useful Conex boxes they sell and rent can also double as a storage container.  You can make the conex boxes into a fridge, a tool shed, an office. You c… (more)

Added to Rants on 12/6/10

Twitter is better at finding more breaking news than Digg, but that's not the point.

I just got through reading a sitepoint article about how Twitter is better at finding breaking news than Digg, but I shrugged all the way through it. I've been having a hard time with Twitter and social networking lately. To me social networks are just another avenue of spam and nonsense. Like many people,  I try to follow my Twitter feed, but soon get fed up with nonsensical comments … (more)

Added to Frequent Questions on 3/6/10

Content Management System

The wikipedia definition of Content Management Systems is fairly in-depth, but as always, I try to put things in my own words.  You'll hear me talk about "CMS" almost constantly because that's what modern web development revolves around. The CMS revolution hit us shortly after the 90's and Bill Clinton faded away. The main idea I like to convey is that a CMS … (more)

Added to Trends on 3/6/10

WNC Webtech Meetup for CMS systems

OS X desktop dialog box I got chance to spend some time at the latest WNC web tech meetup in Asheville, NC. I think a lot of people showed up due to the popular subject matter of Content Management System Comparison. Several local developers went over a CMS system they were familiar with. If you need more background on what a CMS is? Here's my own definition of this heavily used acronym… (more)

Added to Tips on 31/5/10

A useful application of the Canonical Tag for my site.

Aggravating Google indexing duplicates With the massive amount of web pages on the internet one thing is for sure, duplicate pages are not welcome. That's probably why Yahoo, Bing and Google all agreed on guidelines for the new canonical tag. This was a huge boon to web developers. I just got through overhauling my .htaccess file in order to clean up my duplicate or dead-end links but one nagging problem perplexed me. Google… (more)

Added to Tips on 29/5/10

Text Mate Filter Through Command - Used it yet?

OS X desktop dialog box The Fantastic Text editor for web developers, "TextMate" is full of surprises. Each day of use, I find something new. I was busy fixing dead links tonight and wanted a quick way to sort all the 301 redirect lines. That's when I found the powerful "Filter Through Command". If you use the bash command line during web development, this TextMate option will have you… (more)

Added to Trends on 29/5/10

Client Appreciation Day - Adopt a URL and help clean up the web for better SEO.

Adopt a URL day for better SEO My Asheville web development customers have one question that overrides any other question, "How do I improve my site's SEO?." With the awful recession we've gone through it's easy to understand the request. Good SEO translates into increased business. I've written many posts and articles on SEO which usually follow the mantra of "Create insightful and us… (more)

Added to Tutorials on 23/5/10

Get the Green light from W3C when you use code snippets in your blog post.

w3c web development validation Comfort Level: advanced You get into trouble when you preach about high standards and find your own blog doesn't even pass W3C standards! Most of the time, as web developers, we build a site and conform the code to get the "W3C Green Light" before sending off to the client. That usually makes for good medicine, but then once new blog posts arrive to the site, you're green light rating goes… (more)

Added to Tutorials on 23/5/10

More fun with screen shot scripts. Add your own short url domain

Comfort level: Intermediate My Original Post about making your own screen shot script that posts to a web site got a lot of traction so I'll update the tweaks I've made since then. I was using the Bit.ly service, but they all of a sudden made some kind of update which made my scraping efforts fail. This made me a bit ticked off since it was a busy day. I began to search on Google for ways to crea… (more)

Added to Tips on 10/5/10

Wordpress "Earnest link SPAM" on the rise in comments. Adjust "Discussion" settings.

OS X desktop dialog boxInternet users are used to the "Blatant SPAM" that hit the comments section of our WordPress blogs. That stuff is easy to counteract with Akisment WordPress extension. Lately my personal blog has been getting hit with a new type of SPAM. I call it "Earnest SPAM". At first look, this appears to be a real comment. It's usually very earnest with something like, "I really enjoyed your blog." The… (more)

No soup for you!

No Soup For You!You are still using Internet Explorer 6, so you can't have soup—or look at this site. I would really prefer you download Firefox or perhaps Google Chrome. If you're on a Mac, chances are you have Safari already, and that's good too!

If you're on Windows, and you must have a version of Internet Explorer, please go get the latest version of Internet Explorer.

If you want to know why you have to go without lunch today, please visit this link to learn more about Internet Explorer 6 and why web developers are determined to eradicate it.