Southwest Florida (SWFL) Blog

swfl has shared: Free Seminar with Osteopathic Physician « SWFL Media Blog

2010-12-09T13:01:00.001-05:00


Free Seminar with Osteopathic Physician « SWFL Media Blog Source: servingsouthwestflorida.com Where: Gulf Coast Medical Center, 13681 Doctors Way Fort Myers, FL 33912, Event Description: "Free Seminar on the anterior approach to hip replacement 5:30-6:30 p.m. Gulf Coast Medical Center Community Room...For reservations, call 239-368-8277 ext. 2302" [Source: http://www.bone-fix.com/surgeons/curcione.php] Tags: events, ⌀ hip replacement, ⌀ physicians, ⌀ seminars,

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More Buzz from Southwest Florida

2010-11-17T16:22:00.001-05:00

So far, so good.

But, will the preview image go through...?

Link to this post:
http://www.google.com/buzz/109034724723816306493/imPMqpYb3t9/Every-33-years-the-Earth-encounters-a-dense-knot
1:10 pm Southwest Florida: "Every 33 years, the Earth encounters a dense knot of material most recently in 2002 to create dazzling displays of shooting stars."

Buzz from Southwest Florida to Posterous

2010-11-17T16:14:00.001-05:00

Is it easy to share Google Buzz updates with Posterous?

Let's find out...

Link to this post:
http://goo.gl/oW3pL

11:29 am Southwest Florida: When: Thu Nov 18, 2010 5:30pm to Thu Nov 18, 2010 7pm EST
Where: Pampered Pet Health Center, 1851 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte, FL 33948
Event Description:
Join us for another night of social/networking fun with people who love pets. We will have pet crafts, laser therapy demonstrations, behavior/training demonstration, refreshments and fun for you and your dog! Our raffles proceeds will benefit EARS - Englewood Animal Rescue & Sanctuary. We raffled off over $800 worth of items last month. Admission is FREE!

Biggest Country Music Concert this Summer in Fort Myers, FL

2010-08-07T11:20:00.001-04:00

Country Fest 2010!

Join us for the Biggest Country Music Concert this Summer!

Starring Lee County Native and Country Music Idol Robert Stowell

And Guest Star MCA Recording Artist Jennifer Majors
Brought to you by Florida's Favorite Restaurant Alli-Gators Grill & Bar of Fort Myers.

Saturday, August 7, 2010 [calendar]
8:00pm - 11:00pm

Alli-Gators Neighborhood Grill & Bar [map]
4451 Veronica Shoemaker Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33916
Admission Cost: Free!

Please Call ... for more concert and vendor information!
www.alligatorsrestaurant.com

Smart to Care About Hurricanes in Southwest Florida

2010-04-28T13:05:00.002-04:00

Once a month, during hurricane season, Storm Smart Industries selects a nominee to receive a whole house of free hurricane protection. In order to nominate yourself, a family member, friend or neighbor, simply send an email to Wecare {at} StormSmart.com nominating a person based on need, circumstance, or merit. The only requirement is the nominee must be the owner of the home being protected. Our selection team will review all nominations and will select a winner each month. We will also post your story on-line and take a community vote as well!

via Storm Smart Industries on Twitter

An example of a safety-related product one hopes will never be needed, installed by a company serving SWFL ...

Open Auditions for Musicians Make for a "Strange Arrangement" in SW Florida

2010-04-19T23:19:00.002-04:00

Strange Arrangement™

Southwest Florida – The search is on! Are you a musician who wants to take your career to the next level? Strange Arrangement™ is in search of the missing pieces to the strange puzzle. Strange Arrangement™ is an all original band that really knows how to bring the house down. It is highly recommended that you come and check us out at one of our upcoming performances. Not only can we bring the house down on stage, but we bring the love back and give it to our local community.

The ideal candidate is between 20 & 35, male or female, has a love and passion for creating original music and is not committed to any other gigs at this time. We have a jam sessions weekly with all band members so you must be available to participate. We are currently seeking two drummers, a lead female vocalist and a horn section. If you can hang with funk, jazz, rock, reggae, hip-hop and other genres of music, then you may be the missing piece of pie we are in search of. .

Open auditions are being scheduled now, so what are you waiting for? Contact Jae and please include an email with your name, age, contact number, a brief background description, the instrument you play and any video links you may have of your performances. We look forward to seeing you on stage!

Upcoming Strange Performances:

Friday, May 7th @ 10:00pm - Relay for Life - Centennial Park - Downtown Fort Myers

Saturday, May 8th @ 8:00pm - Miceli's - 3930 Pine Island Rd - Matlatcha, Fl 33993

Saturday, May 15th @ 10:00pm - Leaping Lizards - 1719 Cape Coral Parkway East

Saturday, May 22nd @ 9:00pm - Hustlers - 2138 Santa Barbara Blvd Cape Coral, Fl 33991

Come & get Strange with us!

via Jae Rae (Judith Rae) on Facebook

[See also: SWFL Events Calendar]

Pay It Forward Event to Support Abuse Counseling and Treatment of Lee County

2010-04-16T12:25:00.002-04:00

WHO: MOM’s Prosperity Network of Southwest Florida and Abuse Counseling and Treatment

WHAT: Pay It Forward Event to Support Abuse Counseling and Treatment of Lee County

WHERE: 9101 College Parkway, Fort Myers, FL 33919

WHEN: May 6, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

HOW: via Trish to Southwest Florida on Facebook

Notes: "The Nirvana Restaurant is an elegant establishment with full bar, outdoor patio dining, function/celebration room, live entertainment and banquet facility."

John Entwistle Foundation End of Season Fundraiser

2010-03-24T07:46:00.001-04:00

WHO: Nirvana Restaurant and Classic Rock 94.5

WHAT: The Classic Rock Cares End of Season Jam to benefit The John Entwistle Foundation

WHERE: 9101 College Parkway, Fort Myers, FL 33919

WHEN: Saturday, April 17, 2010

HOW: See Nirvana Martini Bar on Facebook for more info

via Nirvana Martini Bar [Facebook Events]

Notes: "The Nirvana Restaurant is an elegant establishment with full bar, outdoor patio dining, function/celebration room, live entertainment and banquet facility."

Business After Hours at Nirvana in Fort Myers

2010-03-17T19:12:00.001-04:00

WHO: The Hispanic Chamber and American Business Networking

WHAT: Business After Hours - Fort Myers

WHERE: Nirvana Restaurant at 9101 College Pkwy, Fort Myers, FL 33919

WHEN: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 ~ 5:30pm to 8:00pm

HOW: "The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the American Business Networking invite you to join them at their monthly event. Don't miss this fun event and a great opportunity to make new contacts!"

via The Hispanic Chamber of Southwest Florida newsletter

Notes: "Our organization is SW Florida's finest. We do not require that you belong to any particular affiliation or possess any previous memberships to join our organization."

British American Social Club March 2010 Social

2010-03-17T11:26:00.002-04:00

WHO: British Amercian Social Club of Southwest Florida

WHAT: Bowl For Britain - March 2010 Social

WHERE: Friendship Lanes Bowling Alley Lounge

WHEN: Friday March 19th, 2010 (7:00–10:00 p.m.)

HOW: All are encouraged to participate, but everyone is invited to attend the social and cheer on the teams at no additional cost over general admission.

via British Amercian Club of Southwest Florida newsletter

Notes: "The British American Club of Southwest Florida, founded in 1970, is a social club open to people of any nationality. Are you an ex-pat looking to meet new friends? Just moved to the area and longing for a taste of home? Married to a Brit? Fancy a nice pint? Just want to go out and have a good time with some really great folks?"

A Celebration of Fine Wines and Great Food in Fort Myers, FL

2010-03-16T15:20:00.001-04:00

WHO: The Boys and Girls Clubs of Lee County

WHAT: 4th Annual “It’s Twilight Time” Event

WHERE: The Historic Riverfront District Along 1st Street and the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center

WHEN: Sunday, March 28, 2010 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM

HOW: Guests will enjoy an elegant but casual evening under the stars, featuring three key elements – great selections of fine wines, delicious food and lively musical entertainment. A variety of fine wines from around the world and decadent desserts will compliment menu selections from a number of Southwest Florida’s most popular restaurants and chefs.

via KISSyourWeb.com on Twitter

Notes: "You're invited to participate in this gourmet event under the stars, sampling a great selection of delicious food and decadent deserts, as you taste the many fine wines and exotic cocktails provided by the areas most distinguished chefs, and select wine and beverage distributors."

Posted via web from Southwest Florida Blog

Ribbon Cutting for Naples Only Green Conscious Certified Salon

2010-03-15T17:41:00.001-04:00

WHO: Andrea's Organic Hair Studio

WHAT: Ribbon Cutting

WHERE: 6714 Lone Oak Blvd., Naples, FL 34135

WHEN: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 ~ 5:00pm to 7:00pm

HOW: Great food!! Great networking!! Teaching clients new ways to incorporate healthier choices into their daily routines. We strive to research and offer you best, the safest and highest quality in products that is available.

via The Hispanic Chamber of Southwest Florida newsletter

Notes: "A range of natural and organic hair and skin treatments, Whole health guidance and nutrition coaching with lots of books to borrow, Ammonia free color, Luxurious shampoo and soothing scalp massage with every cut! Hair and skin care: Only the best organic brands that have been research like all the products we carry."

Posted via web from Southwest Florida Business Networking

When Computers Talk Back

2009-05-14T07:31:00.000-04:00

Dr. Nichols: What did you have in mind?
Leonard McCoy: Perhaps the professor can use your computer?
Montgomery Scott: Computer. Computer. Ah. [McCoy hands him a mouse and he speaks over it] Hello, computer.
Dr. Nichols: Just use the keyboard.
Montgomery Scott: The keyboard. How quaint.

[Source: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Wikiquote]

Computer: Hello and Welcome!

In Star Trek IV, Scotty tried to access a (modern) PC as he would 'Computer' in his time. He expected the PC to respond to his greeting. And rightly so... had he initiated the same vocalized command back aboard his starship, the ship's 'Computer' would have immediately returned an audible response.

With the availability of speech recognition software (in our time), Scotty would be able to speak to today's computers. However, the question remains as to how today's computers would interpret and subsequently respond to his verbal commands. Keep in mind the humor found in Scotty's misconstruction of the situation and the answer is obvious:

It depends on the computer's ability to receive and successfully process a command request based on what was actually said/input.

To this end, there are software companies that now teach computers how to interact with people. The technology is driven by the highly sought after benefits of increased sales through guided (browser) search tools and lower operating costs in terms of end-user technical support. The following subsections list examples of 'live agent chat', 'virtual spokesperson' and 'video sales person' web applications.

It Buggles the Mind

Localization, Motherf*@%#r. Do You Speak It?

2009-04-02T19:39:00.000-04:00

Brett: What?
Jules: What country are you from?
Brett: What? What? Wh - ?
Jules: "What" ain't no country I've ever heard of. They speak English in What?
Brett: What?
Jules: English, motherfucker, do you speak it?
Brett: Yes! Yes!
Jules: Then you know what I'm sayin'!
Brett: Yes!

[Source: Pulp Fiction (1994) - Memorable quotes]

The World Wide Web

Dave Chaffey estimates that "two-thirds of internet surfers (amounting to about 900 million people) search in languages other than English." In his article, Mr. Chaffey notes popular search engines (other than Google) used by peoples around the world.

He also makes a case against direct translation in favor of translating 'from scratch' to better reach a target audience through content localization.

What is Localization?

Language localization, according to Wikipedia, is "the second phase of a larger process (Internationalisation) of product translation and cultural adaptation (for specific countries, regions, groups) to account for differences in distinct markets."

In other words, it is not enough to have one's website content readable in another language through translation alone. In order to be effective internationally, content must take cultural nuances into consideration, as well.

For example, it is one thing for an international reader to understand the words contained within a web document (take the title of this blog post, for instance.) It would be better, however, if the reader (locals included) had actually seen the movie that is being referenced. Without this level of cultural awareness and/or connectivity, this post could very well leave a reader in a "WTF?" state (in their respective lexicon, of course.)

In this article, a comparison of three(3) sites is drawn that highlights the first step in localization: translation. Sites one and two make use of the Google translate tool. The third site appears to be translated by hand.

Land-Merchants.com

ServingSouthwestFlorida.net

Efektim.com

The second step that involves cultural adaptation is outside the scope of this review. Please comment below with your real world examples of failures to connect culturally.

Land-Merchants.com

The Land-Merchant.com site has a translation widget (highlighted in yellow) on its main page. After selecting a national flag or choosing a language from the pull-down menu, the page is reloaded in a Google frame where the textual content is automatically translated. The process is speedy and convenient. The tool even operates on the text links located in the left and top-right navigational panes.

However, when the links are clicked, they lead to the (original) referenced page in English.

ServingSouthwestFlorida.net

Like the Land-Merchant.com website, ServingSouthwestFlorida.net makes use of the Google translate tool (in yellow, lower-right). The tool has been incorporated into a WordPress plugin that allows for the automatic translation of posts and comments. Again, after choosing a language, the site opens in a Google frame (top) where text (including links and tags) are translated. The header image (top-left) is not affected.

The Global Translator plugin also creates links that lead to pages that continue to translate without actually leaving the Google frame. However, portions of the site that rely on existing PHP and JavaScript elements breakdown during translation. Site search queries result in English output. The FeedJit widget and the tabbed menu are noticeably incorrect and omitted, respectively.

Efektim.com

The Efektim.com site redirects to the English ('en' subdirectory) version of itself. It can be safely assumed that Czech, German and Russian browsers are redirected accordingly. Regardless, each of the four language versions that the site supports can be viewed by clicking on a flag link (in yellow, top-right).

The translations within the site are consistent and extend through to individual property listings. More importantly, words in all of its supported languages have been indexed by Google.

So ... WTF Now?

Both Land-Merchant.com and ServingSouthwestFlorida.net are working examples of how easy it is to add the Google translate tool to an existing website. There are certain limitations, but offering visitors a quick way to view your content in their preferred language(s) is becoming an increasingly important option.

Efektim.com represents a localized website ideal. If you are fortunate enough to be fluent in more than one language and/or have associates who are, converting your local site into a localized one is a no-brainer.

Thinking Outside the Inbox

2009-03-22T12:07:00.000-04:00

What is RSS?

RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works ... in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") ... Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)]

One can find RSS feeds on any number of popular news sites like BBC.co.uk, CNN.com, MSNBC.com and Yahoo.com. Clicking an 'RSS' link allows one to subscribe (freely) to a news feed or stream via web browser, email program, news feed reader and/or website like Facebook.

RSS technology has been around since 1997. It comes standard in many open-source content management systems (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, et al.) There are, fortunately, tools available online that can create RSS feeds for almost any web page -- in minutes.

Inside and Out

Like email newsletters, RSS feeds can be sent to email programs like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. However, RSS feeds can also be streamed directly into web browsers as bookmarked links (favorites) without installing additional software.

It is also worth noting that there are several, online RSS readers that offer highly useful, subscription management tools that allow you to easily add and remove news feeds without having to opt in/out; as is the case with most mailing list systems.

More importantly, RSS feeds are dynamic. Emails are not. This means that changes to information presented by an RSS feed are nearly instantaneous. Whereas, changes to an emailed newsletter would require resending a revised copy for every revision made.

Adapting to RSS

The results of a recent, study with regard to the availability of RSS feeds for eight local, Southwest Florida business networking groups are shown below. The group pages that were analyzed:

Business Owners of Southwest Florida

BNN Times & Business Builders Network

Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral Members

New Free Leads (NFL)

J Brooks & Associates, Inc.

Serving Southwest Florida

Show Me The Networking

WIRE Networking

In the study, a web page was chosen from each of the groups' websites. The web page was then processed with the Ponyfish RSS Feed Builder Tool.

The resulting, generated RSS feeds were then analyzed for properly functioning links and relevant link descriptions (titles).

Page Sample	Native RSS?	Titles OK?	Links OK?	Page Rank
bluechipbizsolutions.net/ display-fstar.asp?featured=go	no	n/a	n/a	n/a
bnntimes.com/pages/Articles	no	no	yes	1
capecoralflcoc.weblinkconnect.com/ CWT/External/WCPages/WCDirectory/ Directory.aspx?CategoryID=420 &Title=COMPUTER &AdKeyword=COMPUTER	yes/no	yes	no	4
fortmyersnfl.com	yes	yes	yes	2
jbrooksai.com/services.html	no	yes	yes	1
servingsouthwestflorida.net/work	yes	yes	yes	n/a
showmethenetworking.com	no	no	yes	1
wireswfl.com/directory.html	no	n/a	n/a	n/a

'Native RSS' indicates whether or not an RSS source was found within the listed website.

A title refers to the descriptive text that is clicked in order to follow a link.

Links should point to a page that corresponds to its title.

'Page Rank' is a numerical rating system that Google uses to classify web pages. Ten (10) is the highest rank. Higher ranking pages are more likely to appear before lower ranking pages in search results. This value is subject to change.

BluechipBizSolutions.net and WIRESWFL.com could not be processed by Ponyfish. The sites were, however, fully operational at test time.

The links in the RSS feeds for BNNTimes.com and ShowMeTheNetworking.com were correct, but the titles were not.

CapeCoralChamber.com has an RSS feed for its event calendar, but not its business directory.

FortMyersNFL.com and ServingSouthwestFlorida.net both have RSS feeds available on their main pages. Ponyfish RSS Feed Builder was able to correctly identify this feature.

For a site without native RSS, the JBrooksAI.com sample produced the best RSS feed in terms of accurate titles and links. Most, if not all of its web pages are static and written in HTML.

Map Sees What You Are Posting (About)

2009-03-21T11:08:00.000-04:00

"The fastest, easiest way to add Google Maps to any website"
[excerpt from site]

What Is It?

MapMyPage is a javascript program that can identify street, city and country (mailing) addresses on your web page(s).

You can read more about the included features below. Or, you can see it in action. To open the map, click the globe icon on resulting page.

What Does It Do?

Almost immediately after installing a little, globe icon link is placed next to the address contained within your web page automatically. When clicked, a Google Maps box/window (centered on the referenced location) appears within the page itself.

Check out the screenshots below to see a few of the map views and features that become available to your website visitors.

Click the square button to maximize the box window. Click the 'x' to close.

Once an informational balloon is closed, you can drag and zoom the map.

You can zoom from 'Satellite' view to 'Street View' by using the menu buttons at the top of the map window.

Entering a search term or locale in the search box will produce matches directly on the map.

You can even view user submitted, on location photos by checking 'Photos' under the 'More' button.

How Do I Install It?

Visit the project page.

Copy and paste the script (code) between the <head> and </head> tags of the web pages you want map links (little globe icons) to appear.

Use the <div class="maps_off"> tag to disable automatic mapping on any portion of a web page.