new year – Page 8 – PDRater – Permanent Disability Calculators

New Look for PDRater.com

By Jay Shergill Posted on October 9, 2008 Posted in Open Source, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Wordpress No Comments Tagged with Blueberry, Business Style, Business Website, Contenders, Dark Colors, Distractions, Forward Layout, Free Themes, Front Page, Glutton For Punishment, kitten it, new year, Occassion, Page Business, Pleasing Color Scheme, Runners, Sidebar, Small Font, Straightforward Layout, Style Front, Wordpress, Wordpress Themes

I’ve already talked about how much I love using WordPress. Its easy to add new abilities to the program by uploading “plugins” into the program. Its also extremely easy to change the entire look of the website by uploading a new “theme.” Its basically as easy as swapping out a new faceplate for your phone.

I’ve already disclosed what a terrible designer I am. Its for this reason I’m looking for a new theme for this website. You know, something that isn’t a step-cousin to ugly. Take a look at the ones I’ve found.

Top Three Contenders

“Aeros”
- Pros: Rounded corners and clean looking layout.
- Cons: I’m not sold on the dark colors or small font in the sidebar showing the menu.
- Aeros, front page
- Aeros, calculator page
“Magicblue”
- Pros: Clean, straight forward layout, not too many distractions.
- Cons: The graphic at the top is okay. I’d probably replace it with something else.
- Magicblue, front page
- Magicblue, calculator page
“Business-Style”
- Pros: This really does look like a business website. Good layout, each section of the sidebar is set apart.
- Cons: Too monochrome and not enough contrast?
- Business-Style, front page
- Business-Style, calculator page

Since you’re here anyhow, you might want to look at the WordPress Themes page. Hundreds of free themes for every occassion. Just in case you’re a glutton for punishment, here’s a few more potential looks for this site.

Top Three Runners-Up

“Blueberry”
- Pros: Simple straight forward layout, pleasing color scheme.
- Cons: Too similar to the current theme?
- Blueberry, front page
- Blueberry, calculator page
“Quickpress”
- Pros: Simple straightforward layout.
- Cons: Too blocky and clunky?
- Quickpress, front page
- Quickpress, calculator page
“Blueshadow”
- Pros: Another straighforward layout.
- Cons: Theme looks a little cluttered and somewhat like a news blog to me.
- Blueshadow, front page
- Blueshadow, calculator page

Let me know what you like and don’t like about them. While I’m no designer, I’m at least capable of chaning parts, combining parts, and putting in new graphics.

“Bonus” Material

These are some of the other themes I briefly considered. Some are just amusing.

ParterProgram – Almost as good as Business-Style
Nostalgia – GREAT menu system (which I may still use) but too monochrome
Extend – A little too flashy for this site
8some – I’m just not a fan of left side menus or the layout
Aspire – Good idea if this were a website in the Victorian era or it ran on steam-power
Kitten – Everyone loves kittens!
YAST – The theme is actually broken to begin with. Not a good sign.
Company Website 001 – Another theme that just looks broken

Debates Post Mortem – Advice for the Candidates

By Jay Shergill Posted on October 6, 2008 Posted in Not Workers Compensation, PDRater No Comments Tagged with Answering The Question, Barak Obama, Couric, Dead Heat, Dvr, Eye Contact, Foreign Policy, Inaccurate Claims, Joe Biden, John Mccain, Last Time, Maverick, new year, Policy Experience, Political Debates, Post Mortem, Presidential Debates, Sage Advice, Sarah Palin, Tomorrow Night, Vice Presidential Debate

I love watching political debates with a DVR. There’s nothing like being able to pause the debate so the candidates can benefit from my sage advice or criticism developed over my many years of political, economic, and foreign policy experience.

That said, I have the following debate advice for the candidates:

Barak Obama
- Stay focused and be concise.
John McCain
- Keep your arguments and comments accurate.
Joe Biden
- Eye contact with the camera.
Sarah Palin
- Never, EVER wink at the camera again if you want to be taken seriously.
- Not answering the question doesn’t make you a maverick, it makes you look uninformed.

Overall, the presidential debate of 9/26 was a dead heat. I don’t think either side won ground that day. It was one of the best presidential debates I have ever seen. Frankly, both McCain and Obama did a great job. The last time I enjoyed a debate as much was Clinton v G.H. Bush.

Historically, the vice presidential debate is hardly ever a deal maker or breaker – and its just as well for both parties. When speaking in interviews off the cuff, Biden can make ridiculous and wildly historically inaccurate claims. On the other hand, the Palin – Couric interviews made it clear that Palin can’t speak off script.

I can’t wait for the next debate tomorrow night!

My Laptop Is Back!!!

By Jay Shergill Posted on October 1, 2008 Posted in Author, Business, Laptop, Marketing, Not Workers Compensation, PDRater, Technobabble No Comments Tagged with Captain Kirk, Cell Phone, Crunch Time, Crystals, Dell, Few Minutes, Friday Afternoon, Fry S Electronics, Fyi, Hard Drive Enclosure, Initial Problem, Laptop Drive, new year, Palin, Paramount, Polarity, Proprietor, Record Time, Wallet, Warp Engines, Warranty

My laptop is back, up and running! I truly cannot explain just how happy I am that I have it back.

As I mentioned earlier, my laptop stopped working on the Sunday night before last. The next day I stopped by a local Fry’s Electronics and picked up a hard drive enclosure for my laptop’s hard drive. This solved my initial problem, being cut off from my data, by allowing me to schlep my laptop’s hard drive with me. Even though I had my data with me, I didn’t have my laptop with me. I constantly felt as if I had lost my wallet or cell phone. A disconcerting feeling, to say the least.

On Friday afternoon I took my laptop to a local repair shop, Paramount Technology, and, after talking with the proprietor for a few minutes, left my laptop with them at about 12:30pm. He estimated they might have it ready on Tuesday; Monday at the earliest.

They called my cell less than three hours later to tell me my laptop was fixed.

Everyone knows how Captain Kirk would ask the impossible of Scotty. Like clockwork, Scotty would bitch and moan about how he could not perform the impossible. And, yet, when crunch time came, the polarity was reversed, dilithium crystals realigned, and they had warp engines back on line.

They did a great job, warranting their work for 90 days, had my laptop repaired in record time, and didn’t scratch my baby. (FYI, Dell offers a whopping 30 day warranty on their work. In the words of Govenor Palin, “Thanks, but no thanks.”)

I don’t care if they were practicing “under promise and over deliver.” Paramount Technology has earned my business and my recommendation.

Best of September 2008

By Jay Shergill Posted on September 30, 2008 Posted in Author, Calculators, EAMS, Laptop, Not Workers Compensation, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources No Comments Tagged with Backpack, Checklists, Document Type, Dow, Dwc Forms, kitten it, Laptop Repair, Martini, new year, Retroactive Benefits, road warrior, Survival Guide, Virtual Real Estate

*PDRater up, the Dow down — PDRater up, the Dow down

September 2008 was a pretty good month for PDRater.com. Yay! ((Original photo courtesy of Daniel Martini. Mad photoshop skillz, all mine!))

Not so good for the economy. Boo! Perhaps this website needs a new, darker, tagline? How about: “When you’ve lost everything else, you’ve still got PDRater.com”

Here’s my favorite posts from this past month.

I had the most fun with the “End of the World” posts from mid-September. If you read nothing else, check out the one labeled, “The End of the World: A To Do List“. That one is worth a look for my mad photoshop skillz alone.

For the more practical minded, the Road Warrior Checklists might be helpful. I think I’ve got at least one more “Road Warrior Checklist” in me. Also, I’ve provided some advice on what to do when your laptop stops working.

Six new calculators this month!

The World Ended on 9/10/2008

Laptop Repair Saga

Road Warrior Checklists

Virtual Real Estate (since the non-virtual kind is dead)

Another Three New EAMS Calculators!

By Jay Shergill Posted on September 29, 2008 Posted in Calculators, EAMS, Laptop, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources No Comments Tagged with Access Forms, Adjudication, Calculator, Code Search, Document Title, Document Type, Dwc Forms, E Mail, kitten it, Last Monday, new year, Number Lookups, Reverse Lookup, Search Engine, Search Engines, Search Function, Title Search

EAMS Logo

As you know, last Monday I brought you two new EAMS calculators / search engines which were basically an improved search engine for the EAMS ADJ number lookups and EAMS office lookups.

The IT guy for my law firm wrote an e-mail to me on Friday suggesting:

Hey, how about a body part search function on your website? That might be useful sometime.

First off, thank you for the suggestion TK! Secondly, I was actually in the process of building such a calculator on Sunday September 21, 2008 when my laptop stopped working. My laptop was fixed on Friday (more tomorrow) and I was able to finish the EAMS body part to body part code search function.

With the EAMS Body Part Codes search engine, you can search for the EAMS code associated with a body part of your choice. And, just in case you receive an Application for Adjudication of Claim or some document referencing the EAMS Body Part Code, you can even do a reverse lookup – searching by the EAMS Body Part Code!

I was so happy to get my laptop back I built a whole new EAMS search engine and a better way to access forms. After having a hell of a time trying to locate the proper document type and document title on Friday I decided to make this my next project.

With the EAMS Document Type and Title search engine, you can search for an EAMS Document Title by the document type or document title itself.

With the new EAMS forms on the DWC forms page, you now have a bewilderingly large number of forms to search through in order to find the one you need. Not only do you have to look through the 136 different forms offered by the page, but the EAMS forms are not easily distinguishable from the non-EAMS forms.

What I’ve done is create an EAMS and DWC forms search engine which scans through the DWC’s lists of forms by the form type, form name, and form number, and generates a list of just the forms which fit your search. On my forms search engine, the EAMS forms will be highlighted so you know its an EAMS form at a glance.

And THAT is how I squandered my weekend.

Tag: new year