Website creation basics

July 4th, 2009

Tim Berners-Lee published what is considered to be the first website in August 1991. Berners-Lee was the first to combine Internet communication (which had been carrying email and the Usenet for decades) with hypertext (which had also been around for decades, but limited to browsing information stored on a single computer, such as interactive CD-ROM design). Websites are written in a markup language called HTML, and early versions of HTML were very basic, only giving a website’s basic structure (headings and paragraphs), and the ability to link using hypertext. This was new and different from existing forms of communication - users could easily navigate to other pages by following hyperlinks from page to page.

As the Web and web design progressed, the markup language changed to become more complex and flexible, giving the ability to add objects like images and tables to a page. Features like tables, which were originally intended to be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table-based layout is commonly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting and design standards like W3C further changed and enhanced the way the Web is made. As times change, websites are changing the code on the inside and visual design on the outside with ever-evolving programs and utilities.

A web site is a marketing tool but in basis is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page. Multimedia and diseño web is the key for a success website.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.

The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.

The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.

A web site typically consists of text and images. Since a website can be a business, selling and trading on internet is comercio electronico.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet.

Once published, the web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic that the web site receives. This may include submitting the web site to a search engine posicionamiento google, exchanging links with other web sites, creating affiliations with similar web sites, etc.

Multidisciplinary requirements

Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills .

Facts About the Samurai Sword

July 3rd, 2009

The first samurai swords were actually straight bladed, single edged weapons imported from Korea and China which were later replaced with the curved blade variety at the end of the 8th Century. The reason for this transformation was samurai found that a curved sword could be drawn from the scabbard more swiftly and provided a far more effective cutting angle.

The point of a samurai sword is called a Kissaki. This is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge and to hand create a quality one would require an extremely skilful artisan. The value of a sword is determined largely by the quality of the point.

Samurai would use wooden swords (Bokken) for practice for safety reasons as well as for preserving their real swords from unnecessary damage.

The samurai would give names to their swords as they believe in the sword lived their warrior spirit.

There are three main types of samurai sword. 1: Katana: The longest type of sword, over 24inches, generally used for outdoor combat. 2: Wakizashi: Around a third shorter than the Katana at between 12 and 24 inches, this was worn in indoor establishments by samurai for its obvious better maneuverability indoors. 3: Tanto: A small knife used in much the same manner as a Wakizashi.

As part of the samurai sword making process a sword tester took the new blade and cut through the bodies of corpses or condemned criminals. They started by cutting through the small bones of the body and moved up to the large bones. Test results were often recorded on the nakago (the metal piece attaching the sword blade to the handle).

Shogun is the name of the most powerful samurai, and they would wear two samurai swords. A Katana and a Wakizashi. They had a license to dismember anybody who offended them.

Early samurai would fight on horseback, and they’re weaponry in addition to samurai swords was bows and arrows.

Reverse Cellphone Lookup Web Sites Give You The Numbers You Need To Know

July 2nd, 2009

You just cannot contemplate the effect that cell telephones have had on our culture. No matter where we are, the cell phone is with us, connecting us with the world, twenty-four seven. All of this comes at some disadvantages, however. To ensure our security, mobile carriers routinely make cell numbers non-published.

Almost all mobile numbers are non-published today, and that makes it very difficult to track down a number you don’t know. I receive many of these kind of calls each day, and I bet you do, too. Well, if those numbers are not in the phone directory, then how to do find out who the number belongs to? You can utilize a web site called a reverse cell lookup site to locate that number.

How do these sites reverse cell lookup sites work? Actually, they are super-easy and surprisingly accurate, particularly for the low cost that they charge for access. Just pay the low fee, and instantly, you can find out the identity of the mysterious number that is calling you.

How do these reverse cell lookup sites collect the numbers? They use a variety of public and private databases, and have to constantly monitor and update their lists, as cell numbers are constantly changing. It’s surprising how accurate these sites are, given the vast quantity of numbers to monitor. The small price you pay is well worth the information you get from these sites. Try one of these web sites next time you want to learn the owner of a phone number, you will be very happy with your results.

With all of the new, useful web services that exist now, the lack of a good web reverse cellphone lookup was a real problem for searchers who receive unknown or strange phone calls on their mobile phones. Try one of these services and you’ll become more informed about the identity of your callers.

My Mini Dell Experience

July 2nd, 2009

That’s the experience with the Inspiron 910 Mini not the mini-experience! Well I am in web development and have been toying with the idea of getting a more portable laptop as my old Dell Inspiron from 2003 is as heavy as a brick. My step dad just bought a top of the range Toshiba Portege at around £1,200, but he’s at that time in life where 1,200 quid is affordable, where as I’m still in financial recovery from my last divorce (yes there was more than one!)! So I happened across the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini on the Dell website whilst looking at specs of normal laptops to use when out and about demonstrating our CMS system to potential clients, wow £299 inc VAT and delivery that is a bargain!

There I was credit card at the ready, wrist twitching, hang on I thought, why am I buying this, do I really need it? No, I don’t NEED it I just HAVE TO HAVE ONE . [Puts credit card away]

The next day I happen to have to work on my step Dads’ ultra lightweight new laptop, wow this is lush, so light, I wish I could afford one.

The next day I had to go to a clients with my laptop, and about put my back out trying to put it in the car passenger foot well whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat, hmm decided I do have a NEED for the new dell Inspiron mini after all! It only weights around 1kg. So as I had a management meeting that afternoon I informed my finance manager I would be ordering one and that was that. So Friday October 3rd I placed the order on the Dell website, and on the 8th I got back from a client meeting at Softcat the Mimecast resellers to find a Dell cardboard box on my desk, I thought it couldn’t possibly be the new mini as the confirmation email I got said it would arrive on or around the 20th October, but sure enough it really had arrived.

Well I was ecstatic and got it out and started setting it up straight away, you know remove McAfee Security Centre and install Avast Anti Virus, that kind of thing. As it has an integrated web cam I also downloaded Windows Live Messenger and had a quick video chat with my girlfriend whilst she was doing her ironing, fantastic!

So I googled ‘mobile broadband suppliers’ and toyed with ordering the USB dongle from Three, as their 5GB monthly allowance is only 15 quid a month so the best looking deal, providing those coverage stories you hear about Three Mobile are not really true!

Anyway, it was soon time to go and get my daughter from school so I thought yeah I’ll take it with me and even though I don’t have the mobile broadband USB Modem yet I can continue configuring it in car park if I’m early. I was early, so I turned it on, it said:

Windows could not start because of an error in the software.
Please report this problem as :
load needed DLLs for kernel.
Please contact your support person to report this problem

As we say in England “Computer says no…”

Ah dear, it was great fun whilst it lasted, then followed a 2 and a half hour telethon with Dell support in India :-) Apparently they were so quick to ship it to me that my service tag isn’t on their system yet. They suggested I called back in 24-48 hours, well I told them exactly what I thought of their suggestion as I’m sure you can image, but to no avail. I did indeed have to call back today and they have agreed to send me a replacement unit as it is within 7 days of delivery.

I hope the replacement arrives as quickly as the original unit did…

So conclusion? Apart from the fact it doesn’t work (a faulty drive in my opinion) and for the life of me I can’t get it to boot from an external drive or USB key (it doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive you know) it feels really solid, looks lovely, and is nice to handle (sounds a bit like the ideal partner to an i-phone 2.0 doesn’t it!).

Like most reviewers have stated , the keys are small (but blackberry users manage and they are larger than those keys) and the right shift key is tiny and means you can’t type an @ in the usual fashion and I wonder how it’s going to cope with all the complicated keyboard stuff I have to do whilst running my cms content management system company when I’m out on the road. The screen is nice though, 3 USB slots, a monitor connector, Ethernet and earphones and mic connectors although it has both speakers and mic internally so you can video conference and both speak and listen through the inbuilt hardware without having to plug anything in.

On the whole, I would recommend it, providing you get one that isn’t broken ! I am also yet to try it with LogMeIn which is my preferred way of dealing with how to access emails, lots of passwords, specialist software and all that kind of thing when you are out and about. Possibly the screen is going to be too small to be able to work with for extended periods of time, but I’ll let you know when the replacement arrives and I have had chance to give it a proper testing, assuming that one doesn’t break on me as soon as I start urm ‘configuring’ it!

The Increasing Popularity of Brick Oven Pizza Franchises

July 1st, 2009

So you want to own your own business and become an professional entrepreneur.  Your opportunity may come in the ownership of a commercial franchise.  In what areas are you most skilled?  Life experiences and knowledge or past work experience in any business can sometimes help you in deciding what you would like to trade for the rest of your life.  Brick Oven Pizza Franchises, Papa John’s, Papa Murphy’s or Pizza Hut are just a few commercial businesses selling franchises to people trying to own their own business. If you have some spare money to invest and have good credit, they can put you in business very quickly. Consider the various possibilities available online before you decide to make your final choice.

An example of franchise to cite is, Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza franchises have recently been catching and    developing all over the U.S.  They are famous for their fresh dough and ingredients.  They also carefully teach all of their employees and offer support and experience in setting up their franchises. Papa Murphy’s Take & Bake is another fresh and exciting approach to business franchises. The most positive element about Papa Murphy’s business is the fact that it is all entirely take-out so you might be able to save a lot by not needing as big a building in order to operate your business.  Their headquarters are in Vancouver, WA but they also have expanding franchises all over. 

There are lots of other businesses that are selling franchises.  Brick Oven Pizza Franchise is only one, others include car wash, vending and janitorial services, for instance. Also, if you have computer skills, either using or repairing them can sometimes serve as an opportunity to purchase a franchise. Car wash and detailing of automobiles is another great means to get your business started.  Professional people don’t always have sufficient time to get their cars cleaned, so a bright individual with drive and ambition might be able to see and determine some viable possibilities. For example, they can plan to go to their place of business and clean their cars right in the parking lot or take it to their specific place of business while the people are at work.  There are many franchises available for this kind of situation which can help you to get started.

Vending machines might not sound like a very exciting business but it can also be very    profitable. Have you ever asked yourself how all the machines on the interstate, or in factories or even in certain shops and schools get filled up? Well, most of the time, the business is handled out of a persons car, van or truck. The product is first kept in storage sheds until required and the overhead is usually very small.  What ever you opt to do; either Brick Oven Pizza franchise or some other business, the opportunities are all available and out there just waiting for you to invest.

Applying For a Business Loan

July 1st, 2009

Business loans or commercial loans are designed for a wide range of small, medium and startup business needs including the buying, refinance or growth of a business. Business loans are similar to a commercial mortgage in that funds can be borrowed over an extended period of time, usually a maximum of 25 years, and are secured on the property being bought.

A business loan can be secured against many types of freehold or long leasehold buildings, such as factories, shops, bars, care homes, hotels, restaurants, offices, industrial units, apartment blocks and more. A business loan can even be secured against a residential property. The lending criteria is very similar to that of a commercial mortgage except that the general maximum that can be borrowed is 60% of the assessed Market Value. However, a few lenders will advance up to 75% depending upon the proposal and the security offered. Interest rates on the loan are variable and depend upon the status of the borrower and the length of the loan.

These percentages are known as the Loan-to-Value ratio, or LTV. The lower the LTV, the lower the risk is to the lender. The higher the LTV, the greater the risk to the lender and it is usually the case that a higher interest rate would be levied. Lenders will not generally advance above 75% LTV to try to ensure that there would be sufficient security in the event of a forced sale, often via an auction when it is expected that property will sell at a lower rate of up to 25% below the usual market value.

Seattle WA Photographer

June 30th, 2009

It’s not easy finding someone to create images for you or your family when there are so many potential options. On your search for a seattle wa photographer you might want to consider some of the following factors… Does their work seem professional? Have they shot the type of images that you desire? Do they have their own studio or are they talented in finding venues that stimulate the imagination and bring out the qualities you would most like to show to your viewers?

Because there are so many people out there that call themselves “photographers” it can be extremely overwhelming figuring out who is the best for the job… Generally it is a good idea to obtain personal recommendations from friends and family members if possible and always make sure to have a nice long phone conversation with the service provider before committing to them. The same rules would apply if you were to search for a seattle real estate agent or a plastic surgeon to make sure you don’t receive awful plastic surgery! It’s a good idea to feel the photographer out and make sure they have a passion for their job… In addition try to see if they are specialized and lean towards a professional that has a large portfolio of work that you would like to imitate.

The type of gear used can also be important so figure out if they typically shoot with film or digital and inquire as to how they distribute prints/cd’s… Do you have to pay for each print or are they willing to burn you a cd and let you obtain your own prints after the shoot? Are they going to charge on an hourly basis or per concept/look or do they have some other sort of fee system and schedule? Some people are willing to trade in order to enhance their portfolios so you might luck out…

Sharing Views

Questech Sandgate and Dorset Collection

June 30th, 2009

Leading backsplash tile supplier My Tile Backsplash is pleased to announce the addition of both the Sandgate and Dorset Collection from Questech to there vast selection of backsplash material.

The Sandgate and Dorset Collection offers an array of decorative accents in both a natural stone and a metal look. Each Series has three different categories within each of the Sandgate and Dorset lines.

Questech Metals - Questech invented a breakthrough technology, a process for casting beautiful metal objects at a fraction of the weight and cost of solid metals. This discovery led to the launch of the industry’s first mass produced metal tiles, creating an important new category in the tile and home improvement markets. The difference between the two series of Sandgate and Dorset Collections is the style offerings between them. The colors that are offered are the same, just different designs between the two series.

Questech Cast Stone - Questech broke the mold again, with their revolutionary product of the cast stone series. These decorative pieces have a resemblance of natural stone with the look of travertine and marble. The product offering in this category is phenomenal. The selection includes everything from a 2″ x 2″ to a large 16″ x 24″ mural. Again, the color offering between the Sandgate and the Dorset collection are the same, just the different designs associated with each series.

Questech Natural Stone - This includes a factory-sealed tumbled marble collection offered in both Castle Wheat and Casa Emperador. Tumbled marble tiles have better wear properties, warmer feels, softer appearance and a matte finish. Tumbled Marble with Q-Seal provides a built-in anti-bacterial protection. Ultra-Fresh inhibits the growth of stain and odor causing mold and mildew. It is factory applied and will not lose its effectiveness over time. The added anti-bacterial protection makes the tiles ideal for showers, tub surrounds and kitchen backsplashes. They will never be the worry of having to reseal the tiles or worry about special stone cleaners.

As with all the products from Questech, each and every one of the products is sealed with their Q-Seal. The fear of sealing or water-damaged products does not exist with the Questech product line.

Designing A Web Site For A Set Screen Resolution is Outdated

June 30th, 2009

Introduction

A web site development company should always determine what size screen resolution to build each new website at.

I was reading somewhere recently that apparently these days the only answer to that question should be ‘all of them’ and ‘none of them’. What this basically means is that new websites should be built to accommodate all different screen sizes these days, particularly with the increased popularity of hand help web browsers, smart phones, net books and the like. Of course there is also the other end of the spectrum in the new huge wide screen flat screen monitors. I recently treated myself to a 24 inch Asus which does 1920×1080 which is big enough to get two web browser windows on screen side by side, but if you make one of them full size, the majority or websites look, well, just plain silly!

What exactly is screen resolution then?

If you are not familiar with screen resolution, the simple answer is that it is the size of your screen. However, this can be quite misleading because it is actually the number of pixels that make up the display area on the screen of your monitor. Still not clear? Well let’s look at some examples to help clarify exactly what screen resolution is.

Currently what would appear to be the most common screen resolution is 1024×768 (accounting for 62% of my website visitors). This is a screen that is 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. What is a pixel? A Pixel, derived from the phrase Picture Element, is basically one of the thousands of tiny dots that make up your display screen. However, this does not necessarily determine the physical size of your monitor (14 inch, 15 inch, 19 inch etc) because most monitors are capable of displaying the screen in different screen resolutions. It is fairly accurate to say that if you want to run your monitor at a high screen resolution then you will need a large monitor, the larger the monitor the greater the resolution it can display at (assuming your graphics processor can support a high resolution).

All getting a bit technical? Put simply the higher the screen resolution the more things you can fit on your screen before they have to go onto the next line, or before you have to scroll down or scroll right.

What’s this got to do with Web Site Design?

When creating the graphics for a new website design, traditionally the experienced graphic designer would be working to a specific resolution in order to make sure that the design fits in your browser window without having to scroll right. (Thankfully most website owners don’t demand you make their pages so that you don’t have to scroll down anymore!)

A popular screen resolution to design for is 1024×768 but when viewed at a larger screen size such as 1280×960 will have unused portions of screen so a skilled ecommerce web design company will take this into account and provide one of several solutions.

When designing at a fixed resolution you can deal with larger display settings by either aligning the site to the left and having a huge great big gap to the right, or you can centre align the website in the available space and then the extra screen resolution will be on either side of the content area.

However, the sensible, modern day approach is to make the site flexible to allow for all screen resolutions by creating ‘fluid’ content that will flow to fit the available page space irrespective of what size screen resolution it is viewed at.

Also, because of the increased competitiveness of the web the challenge for a website owner is how to engage your viewers and get them to stay on your website for as long as possible and show them as much content as possible. One way to help with this is to make full use of all of the available space. Two great big blank areas either side of a tiny web page is simply just a waste of space. Imagine if you picked up a newspaper or magazine and only half of the front page had got any content on it, the editor would get the sack for sure! So by creating fluid web pages, web site owners can take advantage of larger publishing spaces available on bigger screen users, whilst optimising content for display on smaller screens too.

Another advantage with big screen displays is the ability to use the new area for re-publishing. Re-publishing is a way to put content from another area of your site onto a different page, thereby bringing it forward for the viewer. An example of this that we did on one site we created was to insert an alphabetical list of names of the products available on the website below the left hand menu on pages that were very long.

All pages tend to be different lengths, as determined by the content on the page, so we used a clever widget to create this list of product names and squirt it in the gap until it ran out of space. This was great for SEO too as it gave a direct link to specific product pages based on their product names without having to crawl through category pages first, also website users would often see something in the list they wanted and click straight through to the page and buy the item.

Ultimately this has evolved into what would now be thought of as a web 2.0 ‘tag cloud’ a list of tags that are usually user generated, to indicate and link directly to a specific content group or item. Using a tag cloud is a great way to fill fluid spaces on larger screens that you can fill with what are effectively links to other parts of the website.

How do you do fluid content?

Fluid content is quite simple to create, the majority will be words of course, which are naturally fluid so on a small resolution screen you might get 5-10 words to a row, on a larger screen you can get 20-30 words or more. However the challenge comes with images, and particularly website graphics. A photograph, whilst it can be made smaller and larger offline, it can’t be automatically resized by the web browser at the time of viewing (not taking into account the Zoom function in Internet Explorer).

The HTML code that makes up your web pages is again designed to allow fluidity by fitting content into the available page area, so some pointers that can be employed to make content fluid include not using tables in the code (which are depreciated these days now anyway), not setting specific screen width in pixels, use 100% instead. By fading images into blocks of colour in the website graphics, you can create a stretchable element that will scale to fit all window sizes. Use little boxes to put stuff in, these can then flow around the screen as required without having to be in any particular place, they also help to draw the eye to special offers, discounts, newsletter sign ups etc, and can of course be styled by your graphic designer with curves and shadows and gradients to look great.

Conclusion

The majority of Loughborough web design companies now accept that fluid content is the future of website development as it makes your website compatible with the smallest to the largest display types, increases selling and marketing opportunities by providing new publishing space, maximises the amount of available page space for displaying your website content and above all it stops your site looking odd on huge great big screens which, as the prices come down, are becoming more and more popular these days.

 

Massage Therapy Career

June 30th, 2009

Considering a career in massage therapy? Most massage practitioners are long term practitioners althought the profession will not suit all personality types. There is a big difference between the various modalities and there is an extremely big difference between working as a private practitioner and working in a hotel setting. Deep tissue massage for example takes considerably more physical strength than Swedish massage.

Massage therapy careers can be rewarding - not just financially speaking, but on a more personal level. The satisfaction of making another person feel well, or better about themselves is very rewarding. Unfortunately, many institutional employers will take advantage of this and pay what many would consider to be under the value of the therapist.

The best paying gigs seem to be the least rewarding emotionally. But that should not put you off from choosing a career as a massage therapist. It is possible to earn a healthy income in massage, but as a private individual it will take time to build a client base, whereas a spa has a ready made client list.

Whether you choose to learn traditional Eastern types or some of the more modern energetic based modalities will depend on your ultimate goals. In many countries and US states, the training requirements are quite stringent to be able to be licensed, but this is not always necessary to be able to practice as a body worker.

The most rewarding aspect of being a massage therapist is the knowledge that you have helped another individual in their journey through life.

 

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