Lewis Studios

Do you use the weather widget in OS X? Have you turned on the display of the low temperatures? Do you find the font color for the lows nearly impossible to read against the purple background? Then this is for you.

Warning: this story describes how to modify the CSS file for the weather widget. This requires modifying system file permissions. It may be overwritten by subsequent updates from Apple and you need to be very careful not to make changes to the wrong files. In other words, proceed at your own risk.

When it comes to marketing strategy it is important to consider your business, especially when it comes to online advertising and social media. Let's consider two of my neighbors' businesses.

I have two neighbors that have small businesses and need to do marketing. One is a plumber covering a few towns in the area and the other is a gadget maker selling his products online worldwide. Neither is a large business.

I've begun a new series of Business Video Basics videos. First one is up on YouTube now and is about making custom Final Cut Pro X titles in Motion 5. Sometimes you just don't want to be like everyone else that is using the built-in FCP X titles. Other times you need something more specific to your project. I show you how to make a simple title that flies the title in along a curve while pushing some autumn leaves into the frame and letting them flutter down and off the bottom of the screen. The idea isn't to build an award winning title.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you probably know that most of my work is small scale and happens in very safe, controlled environments. No elaborate sets or complex rigging. I recently did a shoot in a restaurant which required mic stands extended over a group of about 12 people along with a few tripods, a light on a stand and a backdrop on a support system with two stands. $25 and some pre-planning helped me keep my risk a lot lower for the shoot.

I recently purchased a Cowboy Studios backdrop support kit from Amazon.com. The kit arrived with a broken knob on one of the adjustment screws. It looked like it was damaged in shipment but it is hard to say for sure. Amazon's customer service has always impressed me but I had a shoot coming up and didn't want to have to exchange the whole kit so I contacted Cowboy Studios directly. They agreed to send me just the broken part so I could fix it myself.

Lately Premiere Pro has been crashing on me. A lot. I don't know if it is OS X Mountain Lion, something about my particular machine, something about the very long projects I've been editing or something about Premiere Pro but it has gotten to be much more than an annoyance. Before I spend the money to go to CS 6 and see if it works better I thought I'd give Final Cut Pro X another chance.

A well known digital storage (SD cards, CF cards, USB flash drives, etc.) recently ran a contest on Facebook that had several problems which offer several lessons for all of us.

I've heard a lot of marketers tell me they want to be more "strategic" and yet I have seen a lot of marketers all too happy to leave the financial math to the finance department and operations. Most marketers are college educated and had to take at least basic accounting courses. It's worth recalling some of those basics now and to make sure you're applying marketing with an eye towards where it is most needed and where it will do the most good. And if you're duties include product or product line management you'l want to know which products make sense and which are a drag on profits.

A discussion with an elearning course client reminded me that "What's in it for me?", from the learner's perspective (therefore, What's in it for them? or WIIFT, from the trainer's perspective) is a really important concept in training as well as in marketing. You may recall I wrote a while back about the prescription for inbound marketing being to wrap your head around the audience's perspective. In that article I was focused on shifting from "me-out" to "you-in" thinking.

I had the privilege of touring the newly renovated Merrimack Repertory Theatre last week and being interviewed by the Lowell Sun to comment on the results. The new seats, lobby, box office and more turned out great and are tastefully integrated into the historic building and hall.

I'm about 2/3's into this video but it is also worth hearing Artistic Director Charles Tower talk about the changes and his vision for the project.