IdeaStar: The Flipside. Please enjoy a taste of our off-beat humor and observations about life in particular as we chronicle the events, adventures and good deeds of IdeaStar in this blog. IdeaStar is a full-service Web development firm in Cleveland and while we do some very serious work for our customers we also have a lighter side (that's what keeps us going).

Friday, October 27, 2006

We feel the earth, move, under our feet....

Our resident Search Engine Marketing Specialist Susanne Svette made an interesting discovery the other day.

If you go to Ask.com and search on earthquakes, Ask presents you with current earthquake activity data. You can then click on the link "Area Earthquake Activity" and it takes you to a map that shows where in the world earthquakes occurred.

We're happy to report no earthquakes under IdeaStar Inc. in Cleveland today. But the aerial views of recent quakes in the Rat Islands of Alaska and off the coast of Peru are fascinating.

Ask also indexes recent earthquakes, earthquake history, earthquake facts, earthquake maps, earthquake causes, world famous earthquakes, 10 facts on earthquakes, and more. You could easily become an earthquake expert at Ask.

Having a resident search engine specialist can come in very handy.

Copyright 2006 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

F4101 is Driving Down the Road....

Senior Web Developer Lee Chen has seen a lot of the United States since coming here from China 11 years ago. He lived in Montana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio. "From mountains to coasts, from north to south, I really enjoy the people, the land, and the culture," Lee says.

He joined IdeaStar about four months ago. "After company President Jim Fisher showed me pictures he took while traveling in China, and introduced me to his son who is learning to speak Chinese, I decided IdeaStar might be a fun place to work." Lee concentrates on developing Web-database interactive applications for clients with .NET technology. The most challenging issue he finds is meeting different client requirements.

Lee holds two masters degrees: One in computer science from a state university in Pennsylvania , and another in education technology from a university in China.

Although Lee generally immerses himself in programming, he still finds time for amusement. For instance, much of his work is for IdeaStar client TCP Inc., which has a JD Edwards application. Much of the data base uses numeric names, such as F0101 stored address data or F4101 stored item master data. "One morning when I was working on a project for TCP, I saw a car with the license plate F4101. I almost yelled out 'Hey! That's my table!'"

When he isn't working for IdeaStar, Lee likes to spend time with his family. His wife is one of two Senior Web Application Developers at Cleveland State University, and his son is a straight-A student at Solon High School.

We are happy to have Lee working at IdeaStar, and wonder what other interesting license plates he has seen lately.

Copyright 2006 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.