I just starting playing with GotVoice, a service that will allow you to integrate voicemail with tools like e-mail and Instant Messaging (IM). In my case, I’m having voice mail left on my cellphone with Verizon delivered to my e-mail inbox as a link. So far it’s working flawlessly. I’ll update with details of my experience with it as I try out the service in-depth.

Visit the Got Voice Website

I spent seven wonderful years designing websites for Somerset Design Group, a design consultancy that grew out of the IT department of Somerset Fine Art. In general we would be working on a many as a dozen sites at any given time, with an assembly-line approach of moving the project from concept to design to implementation and production. There was a constantly-moving flow of interesting projects and if a project wasn’t very interesting, well you were only stuck with it for a limited time. On the other hand, the come and go could make you feel like a surrogate mother. The projects you liked were only with you for a limited time as well, and when your part was finished, you had to hand them off to someone else to raise. I believe effective website design is a cycle of feedback and revision that allows the site to evolve to better serve its purpose and embrace new needs not even thought about when the site was commissioned. Too often, I saw good websites whither on the vine - instead of evolving, they remained the same for months or even years, becoming more stale and antiquated by the day.

Moving In-House

So at the beginning of the year, when an opportunity came up for me to move to EIS Office Solutions, a 2-year old, rapidly growing office supply company looking to establish itself on the web, it was an opportunity to stay with a project long-term and see what I could do with that evolutionary process. The move is something like a lawyer from being a partner at a law firm becoming a general counsel at a company.

I’m proud to announce that the first iteration has launched at www.eisoffice.net. EIS Office Solutions specializes in providing compatible ink and toner at tremendous savings to companies like HISD, Wells Fargo, Lowe’s, Cola-Cola, Kolache Factory, and Steve & Barrys University Sportswear to name a few at an average of 35% less than OfficeMax, Office Depot and Staples. We’ve also added 30,000 Office Supply products and am in the process of adding more technology products.

Yesterday Adobe Software released a major upgrade to its Creative Suite, including Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Acrobat 8.0 Professional, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, InDesign CS3, After Effects CS3, Premiere Pro CS3, Soundbooth CS3, and Encore CS3. It’s exciting whenever Adobe releases new software package, but since Adobe and Macromedia have merged, it’s the single source for software most interactive professionals use on a daily basis. Most of my day is spent shuffling between the browser, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, so anything that makes that a more seamless, productive and creative experience is welcome. Prices & features below:

Adobe: Launch Event Webcast, Creative License Promo

It’s expected to ship April 30, 2007.

Think Secret: Adobe Creative Suite 3 pricing revealed

Lawyers, as a profession, seem made to blog. The Houston Chronicle notes a growing trend in judges who blog, featuring State District Judge Susan Criss, in Galveston County, who posts As the Island Floats and State District Judge Gil Jones.

Houston Chronicle: They share court humor, serious questions: Judges break into blogs

Released in 2004, Google Book Search has surmounted legal and technical obstacles to move from fanciful idea to breathtaking reality. It currently has over 10,000 public domain works indexed and scans more than 3,000 books a day.

Tech oracle and book entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly recounts an impressive story on how Google Books is having real, present effects on how academics are conducting research - How Google Books is Changing Academic History.