Dunkirk has a new mailing address. Effective immediately, post mail and packages can be sent to:

Dunkirk Systems, LLC
17 E. Monroe St., Suite 120
Chicago, IL 60603-5608 US

Our phone number remains the same, as does our Web site and email addresses.

You may be wondering why the immediate change. As many entrepreneurial companies do, Dunkirk has had its mailing address at a UPS Store. This has worked very well for us for over 3 years. But after a change in management, service went downhill at an accelerated rate that it effected the level of business at the store, and we just got informed it is shutting down next week! Fortunately we had an option, and have a new mailing address at a different UPS Store, one with a different franchisee and one that comes on high recommendation from customers.

Now it’s back to changing our address everywhere…

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I heard form the folks over at Connect and Conserve which is run by Adobe and the U.S. Green Building Council. If you sign up for a free trial of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, which is their Web-based collaboration service, $25 goes to a local school to help it go green. If you sign up for it through The Hot Iron, and as I am in Chicago, it will help a Chicago school.

I’ve used Connect Pro before, as well as its predecessor Macromedia Breeze. It has a robust yet easy to use interface, and I would consider it one of the best services in its class. So give Connect Pro a try, and by greening a Chicago school it will mean I pay less taxes. Right?

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The next likemind will be Friday, September 18, 2009 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more information on likemind, you can read this great article on likemind from the New York Times.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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As it comes up in conversation many times as to what my process (or dare I say, methodology?) is for writing blog posts on The Hot Iron, I thought it in itself would make a great post. Whether I am working with clients of Dunkirk Systems, LLC for whom we have developed blogs or having a conversation with colleagues, there is a method to the madness.

First Comes Inspiration

Ah, the true magic of blog posts. Ideas usually come to me when I am not at my desk, so I am usually leaving some paper or digital note for myself. These range from something I am passionate about writing to fleeting thoughts that could become something worth writing. Those that don’t get written up right away get added to my idea list, and on occasion I go to it for inspiration.

Pen to Paper

You read that correctly – pen… paper. Call me old school, call me low tech, but I find the best way to write is literally to write. Well, in my case print in my poor penmanship. I don’t write all of my posts out long hand (for example, likemind announcements). And I make no apologies for this, especially after reading James Whatley does the same, and he is much more “wired” than I, not to mention younger than me too.

Type, Post, Promote

Once written, I type up the post in Word, spell and grammar check it, then manually mark up with HTML tags including images and a footer message (see below). As I have been coding HTML since 1993, it works best for me.

At this point I log into ExpressionEngine, the power behind The Hot Iron, and preview and submit my post. I also tag it to categories and set a date and time, especially when I write blog posts ahead of time.

From there, Feedburner, FriendFeed and Facebook do their thing to promote my post. I will also manually tweet on it depending on the topic, as well as submit to social bookmarking sites.

So Far, So Good

And there you have it. This process has worked well for me over the past 2.5 years plus, and now through 500 blog posts!

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All good things come to an end, and so does the use of my Palm Treo 680 unlocked device. Since making the switch to Nokia about a year ago, I have decided to put the Treo 680 up for sale on eBay, along with a slew of accessories, as you can see below.

Along with the device itself, which is in good order but has some wear, there are a large number of cables and chargers, plus a spare battery. If you’re looking for an unlocked device, this could be yours.

The auction closes next Monday and the bidding begins at a penny!

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