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PHP Junkyard
Sometimes we want to reinvent the wheel. If you’re a “coder,” meaning that you write code and enjoy writing code, couldn’t see yourself doing anything but writing code, then you might like to start from scratch every time you want to implement something new on your website. Creating a clean program from nothing is very…
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Web Site Optimization
If you are surfing the Internet using DSL or a cable connection, you may forget the days of dial-up connections. Did you ever surf the internet using a 24K modem? 12K? There are still plenty of users surfing the web with 56K modems, although the numbers are dropping. A recent PEW report from May 2006…
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WOMMA Ethics Tool: Clear Guidelines for Companies Working with Bloggers
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) today released for public comment a draft of the WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines, which gives marketers a 10-item checklist with which to make sure they are always appropriate and ethical when communicating with bloggers. WOMMA is asking for feedback and revision from the blogging community and…
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eNews Park Forest: the Cutting Edge
When considering blog topics, I don’t always think first of my own projects. eNews Park Forest, however, seems to be really taking off. The concept for eNews Park Forest is simple. I wanted to develop an online magazine for the citizens of Park Forest. During the three years I served as trustee in Park Forest,…
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Internet Explorer 7 – Yet Another Hole
IE7 is not ready for prime time and you should not install it as your primary browser. Yet another hold was discovered by Secunia: A weakness has been discovered in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct phishing attacks. Phishing, according to Dictionary.com, is: A method of identity theft carried out…
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Locking Directories The Easy Way
Found a great tool today to facilitate creating locked directories or “Members Only” areas in a domain. Locked-Area.com features some excellent tools for helping webmasters create password-accessible directories without having to create and edit .htaccess and .htpasswd files by hand. Basically, with a bit of tweaking and minor styling, the system can be set up…
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IE7 Not Ready for Its Close-up
Internet Explorer 7 lost me completely today. I received a note on a Yahoo email list that my blog site “breaks” in IE7 when the user expands the text size one click, CTRL-+. It’s true. Here’s the result: Notice the text overflow onto the background, and the expanded size of the images. Essentially, Microsoft blew…
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Text Size and the Flexible Layout
Fixed-width layout is very popular in design. The optimal fixed-width is a matter of discussion. There are plenty of people who still view the Internet through 800×600 pixel resolution. So, a website set to 800 pixels wide is still the safest bet. Fixed-height layout is another question, and potentially dangerous for design. While the overwhelming…
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Free Stock Photos
Sometimes when putting together a web page, we have a need for photographs and little budget. Professional photography is always preferred. If at all possible, a professional photograph of the owners of a company will look far better for a web page than a photograph taken by an amateur. I may know how to use…
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Choosing Your Colors Carefully
In designing websites, we want to make sure to remember the basics. I wrote about fonts last week. Today, let’s consider color. While I’ve mentioned color before when talking about accessibility and color-blindness, this is all about color. Some colors look really bad together. So, when you’re planning a website, where do you start? How…