Aeon Design - My Blog

Slipping away

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:29:02 +1200

Had to leave the house after being couped up as many can relate - the working week so far has been consistently raining however there are signs of easing. Here are a few photos I've taken this afternoon.
Nelsun? ....not today.

How much to charge?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:40:14 +1200

This has been a debate I've 'internalised' - popular term currently, and externalised with a few close friends both in the creative industry and in others. One friend who also now happens to be a client said "Dude, your rates are too low. You could be charging a lot more - well, charge others a lot more."
My response was along the lines of "I'm trying to build a business and an extensive portfolio", but a concern is if I price myself too cheaply will that lessen my worth? And how do you work out what you have to charge to break-even or better yet, get ahead? I'd looked at what larger firms were charging but this was confusing, nothing seemed clear cut. I was privy to a conversation recently where the comment was made that a merchant could make twice as much markup on the same service from their outlet in Marlborough as they could in Nelson. This I don't agree with at all. I understand the basics of supply and demand, but this feels a bit shonky."Oh, you're calling on a Blenheim number, so that'll be..."
Call me old fashioned, but I believe in being upfront about my rates.
Phil (back9design) sent me this link, it's a good tool for working this stuff out. really useful for any freelancers or independent creative types out there.

Computer hardware and software cost a similar price to what my electrician buddies have loaded in their vans and needs updating more frequently than their tools. My camera's worth more than my car and will devalue at a similar rate. All things to consider when costing your time, but the first priority surely must be to grow the business, therefore rates have to be attractive but also sustainable.

Creativity and Self worth

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:02:48 +1200

Here's a little video I've posted before on facebook but it has a message I like to remind myself of and share with anyone who creates anything themselves.

And this next video, again from Derek Sivers, pretty well sums up my intentions for Aeon Design. I bought Dereks book a while back which isn't so much a self-help business book, it just him explaining how it worked for him, you can take what you want from it.

Voice over IP - are we there yet?

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:37:32 +1200

Many of you will by now have used Skype and experienced the lag and dropping out of calls... but hey, its handy for free calling- good for group calls- screen sharing and video is all great when it works. But for voice calls (incoming and outgoing) it's not quite up to the standard you'd want to rely upon for business right? I've gone through a long list of alternatives and trialled many of them fairly thoroughly, hoping to satisfy my interest, which is not paying over priced calls and line rental to Telecom NZ.

Voice over IP (VoIP) has been around for a while now but with mixed results. My current system has been working faultless (touch wood) for 3 months now, and it is significantly cheaper than a 'real' telephone line
and I don't get any calls from pesky telemarketers or worst still, those cons trying to get you to allow access to your computer.

Currently my VoIP line rental costs $11.50 per month, with that I get a local phone number, I get 2000 local minutes (good as unlimited), I also get 200 minutes national/international minutes - so calls around NZ, and much of the western world are effectively free (up to 200 mins which is a fair chunk of nattering). And it comes with all the trimmings, Caller ID, 3 way calling, Voice mail, Caller tunes -endless customisation. In fact, there is so much it can be a little overwhelming if you're not a tech-head.

I'm about to change this up a notch to $34.50 a month, which will give me 1000 national/international mins, 4000 local mins and 100 mobile mins, plus a second line which will be toll free (my 0800 62 6666 is being ported across). The toll free line can draw upon the free calling mins. Yep, to some of you this is probably very dull, but I know some of you are fizzing at the bung reading this!

Who'll benefit most from a setup like this? Anyone working from home for a start, and espcially anyone like myself with naked broadband (internet without a phone line).

If you are a tech-head, even just a quasi tech-head or a part time geek click read more for a complete run down on how to hack your Vodafone (Huawei) router so you can use some of the locked out features, and plug your corded and cordless phones and have them work like they're on a POTS (plain old telephone system)

So if you haven't go the Vodafone "Complete" router the next block of text is a bit redundant, but you could get a Linksys PAP__ (something-a-rather) ATA (analogue telephone adapter) , costs about $85, and check out 2Talk.co.nz for the VoIP service. I won't go into any more detail on the calling plans - best you check that out for yourself on that site, perhaps run with a free account for a bit.

The follow instructions are how to setup the Vodafone Complete (Huawei HG-556) router for 2talk SIP accounts. On the rear of the modem you'll find two ports covered by black bungs - pop those out and you can whack in any old normal telephone - corded or cordless. These instruction were grabbed from a GeekZone forum., and I've made minor changes.

1. Login using the vodafone admin details
user:admin
pass:VF-NZhg556

2. Goto Voice->SIP->SIP Server
SIP Server (dropdown) = Primary Server
SIP Proxy Server Address = 2talk.co.nz
SIP Proxy Server Port = 5060
SIP Registrar Server Address = 2talk.co.nz
SIP Registrar Server Port = 5060
SIP Service Domain = 2talk.co.nz

Click "Save" (do not click Save/Reboot)

3. Goto Voice->SIP->SIP User
SIP Account = SIP 1
Enable Flag = Enable
DO NOT TICK "Active SIP Account"
SIP ID = your 2talk phone number
User Name = your 2talk phone number
Password = you guessed it, your 2talk password
Leave all other settings as is

Click "Save" (do not click Save/Reboot)

Now, it may autocorrect and put vodafone.co.nz on the end (mine did), just re-type and save again.

4. Leave web admin open, then Telnet to your routerTo telnet use a telnet client - I used PuTTY Portable, it doesn't require installation and is lean and mean.
user:admin
pass:VF-NZhg556

Type this into the prompt:

voice set all enable (then enter)
save (then enter)

This part sets that "Active" checkbox in the webadmin that refuses to tick

5. Comitting your changes
Now go back to your web admin and click save/reboot.

6. Check your changes
You can check your changes by telneting back in and typing:
voice show (then enter)

you may need to increase your command prompt/terminal line length and buffer to get a readable output, scroll up to ************Voice Infomation*********** section, it should look something like this:

************Voice Infomation***********
Current Calls   : 0
Current bNeedWirteFlash   : 0
Current Event   : 0

No.        : 0
ID         : YOUR PHONE NUMBER
User Name : YOUR PHONE NUMBER
Password   : ********
Server index:0
Server name: 2talk.co.nz
Server IP : 202.180.76.166
Register Domain : 2talk.co.nz
Register Status : Registered
POTS Status     : IDLE
No RTP INFO ......

That's it, enjoy your new SIP feature enabled router.
Let me know if this helped you.

New Camera Equipment

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:15:32 +1200

Camera bags do a very nice job of swallowing up money! But being a little frugal in this department really only helps you research, and re-research until you're positive you know the out-lay is worth it. I've coveted the the Olympus E series DSLRs for a few years now, mainly because of one lens - the 12-60mm 2.8-4.0 SWD. This is a very useful and extremely high quality lens, and now I have one! Its a 'four thirds' lens so that equates to a 24mm - 120mm range in the 35mm format (that means really quite wide angle, wider than most 'standard zoom' lens, and greater magnification at the other end). It's also a much brighter lens than any in its class, capturing more light which again makes for more use in different situations - low light, short depth of field... this is the lens that helped me decide to run with Olympus over Canon, Nikon or Sony. This lens coupled with the Olympus E-3 or newer E-5 claims the fastest auto focus available. I've used the equivalents of Canon and Nikon and I reckon their claim is good. But the feature I'm liking the most is the strong weather sealing my E-3 and 12-60mm has - rain? who cares when you can do this :

Pretty lame music and did anyone notice that the rock this guy used to stabilise was kind of a poor choice?

New website - almost

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:19:41 +1200

Well, it's almost there. a couple more pages to fill out - they're hiding at the moment, social media (custom facebook pages etc.) and Email media (graphical email newsletters/flyer etc.) but ecpect to see them soon. I thought I'd have better fix up my own site after helping Phil at Back9Design get his looking great and operational. Also the Inner Beauty site is now live.
New business cards arrived today and match the theme of this new site. So, a soft roll out of this site for now... a lot more photos to dig up especially the foodie photos.