By now you might have heard the widely-covered story of Judge Kozinski's web site scandal.

To summarize, a well-regarded judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was found, in the midst of presiding over an obscenity trial, to have posted obscene materials on his personal web site. The resulting conflict of interest forced him to declare a mistrial and he is now under investigation by a panel of federal judges.

Whoops.

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear this story is, "What an idiot! How could such a smart guy could do something so dumb?", Then you might start searching for his site, or perhaps you just move on to the sports page and get on with your life.

But if you have your own web site you should probably pay attention to this story and ask yourself, "How can I avoid this type of shame and humiliation?"

The easy answer is, "Don't post anything that you don't want the whole world to see." This is a surefire solution but it doesn't help you when you want to post confidential materials for review or testing purposes.

So let's look at a what Judge Kozinski should have done to cover his arse...

Why Doesn't The Printer Like My Word Document?

It's not just some sort of geeky "I hate Microsoft" thing, I swear. Microsoft Office Suite products simply aren't made for producing high-quality print work and translation problems that often occur when Microsoft files are opened by non-Microsoft applications.

Printers are specialists

Printers have it tough. What used to be a venerated, highly specialized profession has now been reduced to a personal computing command executed at the touch of a button... or has it?

Well, yes and no. Sure, you can hit the "Print" icon on your computer and obtain very good results. Nice looking full-color documents and photos can be produced at home or office with inkjet and laser printers. Even photocopy machines can churn out clean batches of flyers and handouts.

But when you send a document to a printer for printing, you engage in a centuries-old process that has its own set of protocols and its own jargon. Professional printers do not (usually) just open your file in their computer and hit "Print". If you want your glossy brochure, your commemorative booklet, your poster or your t-shirt to look the way you envisioned, someone needs to communicate with the printer and make an effort to speak his/her language.

Take your site to the TOP – 3 basic steps for starting a blog

As I discussed in a prior article, posting a blog can add a lot of value to your site. "That's great," you might think, "But where do I start? How can I set up a blog when I barely even know how to use my computer? Even if I knew what to write, how can I find the time?"

These are legitimate questions. Fortunately, I've outlined a simple process to get you off of the fence and into the blogosphere. I call it "TOP" – Transcribe, Organize and Publish.

Number One: TRANSCRIBE

Even if you don't know how to type you can get started on this first step. You have a lot of thoughts and stories floating around your brain that relate to your business or organization. Get these thoughts out of your brain on onto paper (or a computer screen or even a typewriter; the point is to start writing!).