Cre8asite Forums

Ron Carnell: Maximizing The View Window (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:14:59 GMT

QUOTE

I would recommend people look at it. It's such a clean appearance.

Perhaps. I haven't tried it, yet, but I suspect on a 1920 by 1200 screen it might be just a little bit TOO clean.

joedolson: Maximizing The View Window (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:01:41 GMT

Actually, you could set that page to be your home page, and have new tabs automatically open your home page. That would give much the same result.

EGOL: What Possible Help I Can Get? (Running a Business)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:54:53 GMT

It sounds like you need an on-site manager with a high skill level. Perhaps this person could be chief of staff even when you are in town.

bwelford: Maximizing The View Window (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:49:18 GMT

That sounds neat, Ron, but I'm not sure how I would access it from another web page I'm looking at Full Screen. I would have to remember to keep it open in another tab. The tabs usually show but not the toolbars in the normal Full Screen rendering.

Another nice feature of Fast Dial is that the web page takes over the entire screen apart from a scroll bar on the right. There's no other distraction anywhere on the screen. You can also get to any of the first 9 web pages in your Fast Dial screen by typing say 2. That works anywhere. I'm really finding this gives me an entirely different view of browsing. I would recommend people look at it. It's such a clean appearance.

Ron Carnell: Maximizing The View Window (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:33:40 GMT

Uh, Barry, why don't you just put up a web page on one of your sites with all of your favorites? It's just a tab away and you won't have any artificial limits of nine or twelve or fifty. It's a bit more maintenance (if your bookmarks change as regularly as mine do), but it's a LOT more flexible.

iamlost: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:05:21 GMT

QUOTE(surrealillusions)

am i right in thinking that the 'target' attribute is making a comeback in html 5?

You are right

QUOTE

The base element can now have a target attribute as well mainly for consistency with the a element and because it was already widely supported. Also, the target attribute for the a and area elements is no longer deprecated, as it is useful in Web applications, for example in conjunction with iframe.

http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-diff-20080122/

I have to add my 2-cents worth on the subject, however.

Remember that when used other than with regard to frames or iframes you are forcing a behaviour a user/visitor may not appreciate. Browsers include user settings for opening in same window, new window, or tab - using 'target' you are in direct conflict with the user/visitor, which is not beneficial for conversion.

Further, the various ad and script blocking extensions/add-ons may also damage or destroy the effect you are looking to accomplish.

Just because something is do-able or even compliant does not mean that it is best behaviour. Is there a fall-back ability or does the process fail if target does not get implimented?

bwelford: Maximizing The View Window (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:46:01 GMT

This was to have been a thread seeking help. However I seem to have found the solution myself. I thought others might be interested in what I found.

I tend to have a number of toolbars in operation in Firefox but on my 1024 x 768 screen, that severely reduces the useful View Window within which I can see what is of interest. So I go Full Screen using the F11 key. I then lose all toolbars, so I was not sure how to get to any of my Favorites. I did Plurk that question but did not receive any replies.

I was also wondering around the Opera browser, which I am using as my non-work browser. I became aware of the Speed Dial button. This opens a new tab within which you can have a display of nine of your favorites plus a search field by default. So in Opera that solves the problem if you can live with nine favorites.

Lo and behold there is a very similar Add On in Firefox called Fast Dial, which operates very similar to Speed Dial. By default it displays 12 favorites. So now for much of my work, which involves those 12 favorites I can stay with Full Screen. Just open a new tab and there they all are. Woopee!

I imagine Internet Explorer has something similar but I am too busy today to check that out. Can any one suggest how a similar approach might be adopted in IE?

patrick1: What Possible Help I Can Get? (Running a Business)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:44:16 GMT

Hi people, I want to know if there is any kind of service which can get me a record of the work which my subordinates are doing and provide an environment to yield better results in our ongoing cases/projects??? I am out of country on official work and I am unable to make a tele-contact with them

surrealillusions: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:31:24 GMT

thanks for the help..even though it wasn't completely possible..am i right in thinking that the 'target' attribute is making a comeback in html 5? Im sure i read that somewhere...

joedolson: Xml Feed Not Updating (Forum Issues)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:20:01 GMT

Well, I don't really use the main RSS feed - but taking a look at the contents, it sure does look like it's not updating! I'll check on that and see if any of the other tech admins know what's up.

You can always use our forum specific feeds as well.

glyn: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:09:13 GMT

Hi all,

1. Don't ask business to regulate itself, they rarely do it. It needs to come from government

2. Anyone with marketing experience can separate message from substance, and Google stopped impressing me more than 6 years ago. But don't worry, the announcement by ICANN, http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/anno...-26jun08-en.htm, could spell the end of Search Engines anyway. Google's full of travel and tourism spam anyway.

Historians will write up this period making reference to the gold panning days in the wild west.

glyn: File Copy To Multi Locations Program? (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:48:27 GMT

Probably the best way to do this is using a dos batch script.

trevHCS: File Copy To Multi Locations Program? (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:45:13 GMT

Has anyone come across a program (for Windows) that will let me copy multiple files into a lot of different directories on my computer?

For example say I have "file.css" and need to copy this to 50 directories, I could ideally store these directories in the program and then tell it the input file, select the destination directories and have it do the job in one go.

I've looked around and never really found anything. A few did this, but you had to input all the full paths each time which is a bit of a pain.

Cheers
Trev

cvos: Xml Feed Not Updating (Forum Issues)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:14:32 GMT

i have the xml feed in my bookmarks, but it is not updating. am i the only one having this issue?

/rss.xml

cvos: CSS Resource Sites (CSS, Style, and Positioning)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:11:26 GMT

good open source template to begin a site layout

http://code.google.com/p/blueprintcss/

DCrx: First Stab At "intro Spiel" (Writing Copy and Content for the Web)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:49:54 GMT

When employers call companies where you've worked, you'd expect some good responses.

What's the worst that could happen were you to call up and ask for some testimonials from where you worked as an employee? You produced results, or you wouldn't have lasted very long.

You still have the employer mindset. They're clients like everyone else.

Get on the phone, call your former boss, explain your situation and ask. Have them describe how it was working with you to solve a specific problem on a certain project.

The worst they can do is say "you're fired." And, given you don't work there, that's not too hard to take.

Lyle: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:47:51 GMT

Really this is something that Javascript is ideal for.

You can add in the document target by j/script for a specific img class (for example) or ID using getElementbyId and then alter the link properties.

Server-side you'd need to be holding your image details in a database, and have a flag set for the ones you want to open in a new window. However, you still need something browser-side for actually opening it in the new window. But you could pass that from server to browser by using something like

if ($img_flag=="Y") {
echo " id='external_link'";
}

But you'd still need j/script to alter it on the browser...

JohnMu: Tai Chi (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:31:15 GMT

SSL only encrypts the communication between the user and the server. It does not encrypt the data on the server. So if someone were to hack your server, he might (depending on what / how it was hacked) have access to your database.

In general, your database is not hosted directly in public part of your website, so they wouldn't be able to download the database file directly. However, with access to your server's code (eg with PHP), they could upload a copy of phpMyAdmin and use that to "backup" your database.

So if you have private data on your server, you really need to make sure that it's locked down and maintained appropriately. Actually, you should do that anyway whenever you put up a website

John

fisicx: Tai Chi (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:09:13 GMT

Thanks John,

Confirms what I thought. The apache article is excellent.

If permission is granted to allow the use of a DB to store members data I'm going to reccommend that we purchase an SSL, use encrypted passwords and restrict access to the DB so that each member only sees the bit they are responsible for.

One more question, if we use an SSL and someone hacks into the sever, I assume that they would be able to move/copy/delete the DB but not be able read the data.

saschaeh: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:46:17 GMT

yhea its a jungle out there but i guess power is a slippery thing. Wonder if we see google loss dominance in our life time.

JohnMu: Tai Chi (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:03:40 GMT

Hi Graham

You might want to read up on Authentication, Authorization, and Access Control with Apache (I assume? IIS is a bit different, but the principles still apply).

In general, what you want to do is:

Authenticate: Make sure whoever is logging in is actually who they say they are (think user/password)

Authorize: Make sure that the person authenticated is allowed to have access (and determine the kind of access allowed).

The other step you mentioned is secure communications of the data. Since you're applying access control to the data, it makes sense to make sure that it's securely communicated (so nobody else can read it and so that nobody else can modify it while it's being communicated). SSL (via https) is a good & easy way of doing that (it certifies the server & encrypts the communication).

To use SSL, you'd generally want to get a certificate (this certifies that the server is actually the server the user is trying to use), though you can do it without one to get started (in that case, it'll still be encrypted but the user will generally have to confirm that it's ok to access this server). I got my SSL certificates from Comodo / InstantSSL (inexpensive and fast). I'm not 100% sure, but I think in order to use them you'll have to make sure that the site is on a dedicated IP.

Good luck!
John

PS I wouldn't wait to look at the legal issues in the end -- it's much easier to design the system with them in mind from the start than to start over later on.

fisicx: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:03:49 GMT

QUOTE

...the alternatives will start to flourish.

Didn't seem to work with MS. Despite the emergence of Linux and other OS the windows machine rolls on. Even the courts didn't seem to be able to much to change things.

I don't particularly like google, but for millions of 'customers' they do exactly as required - provide a list of websites in response to a search enquiry. And those millions of customers have installed the google toolbar with no idea on what it's reporting back. It's the same set of uses that blindly accept all the cookies, never question the security of downloads and probably have no idea how to clean out their cache.

BB is watching - thouble is there is more than one BB!

US and UK rival China for government surveillance

fisicx: Tai Chi (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:39:57 GMT

Ok so the topic isn't actually about tai chi but it's about how the society keeps it's records.

Background

The Tai Chi society of GB currently uses a series of forms which are sent off each month. These forms record attendance and subscription payments. The website is on a shared server and has a login for authorised members to update various records (like dates and times of classes).

The Problem

The Society wants to keep personal records on the server so that the membership secretaries don't jhave to sent a form in each month. The information held will be my name, address, DOB and possibly telephone and email. They propose that this DB can be accessed using a username and password. The current login is hackable in about 2 seconds (3 letter username 5 letter password).

The question

I want to offer some security advice but need to get my facts striaght. As I see it there are a number of options:

1. Simple login to a DB - (not secure not encrypted, not a good option).
2. Encrypt the data (and then what?).
3. Set up a secure server with SSL certificate (is this https?).
4. Use a VPN (way too complex)

There may be other methods but my knowledge of data security is a little hazy so any advice would be welcome.

Note: Data Protection is a seperate issue that is also being questioned - none of the members have given permission gfor their data to be held in this way.

PROMOTION: If you are stressed, have chronic problems or just enjoy socializing, do Tai Chi. It's cheap as chips and gets you fit without sweating like a pig.

Ta Very Much

Graham

RisaBB: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:33:06 GMT

Hi Eric,

You need to say what your site is about on the home page and not have a long article about astrology.

I'd make that top horizontal bar thinner and change the color and make the font smaller, and most importantly, get rid of that seedy looking guy on the top right of the page. He's scary looking, it's a terrible photo, and it looks like he's on drugs with his eyes half closed.

Risa

_jc: First Stab At "intro Spiel" (Writing Copy and Content for the Web)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:10:50 GMT

Not much to add, but...

QUOTE

Her skills and experience in multimedia areas such as 2D and 3D computer animation, print, audio and video editing, interactive programming, etc., allow her to provide customers with a wide range of options.

Seems a good place to use bullet points for easier reading/scanning. Text could be a little sparser - you know the drill, delete every word that isn't really pulling a load and any wishy-washy words or phrases.

And as DCrx sez above - these are unsubstantiated claims (even though true). Some ways to add credibility (to "prove" them, might be):

*Testimonials (in your case text from letters of recommendation?)
*Use quantitative text (e.g. "...a wide range of customers..." becomes ..."over 40 corporate customers...", or some other quantitative text)
*Show examples - I see you're doing that.
*Show the logos of companies you worked for?

HTH

Mari C: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:39:30 GMT

QUOTE

If the site mentions 'extra-marital' wouldn't that tend to 'type cast' the site, as it were, for example that it may discourage singles and deprive me of an important segment?

I definitely think you run the risk of appearing seedy or appealing to the type of people who don't think twice about cheating on their partner & therefore discouraging those looking for a serious relationship. I might wonder if I had wandered onto a Swinger Site masquerading as a regular dating site if I saw that as a menu item !!! Also when I see the chemistry.com TV ad that promises 5 free matches, I'm think 'blimey, they can't be that good if you are going to get 5 free ones, how many do you need & will have to pay for ?!' not quite the same thing but it is a very emotional topic & a tough arena to compete in & maybe working on your target demographic could help to focus a little better.

I am pretty traditional re issues of fidelity & don't really approve of 'extra-marital activities' but try not to judge others (apart from my hubby who would be judged VERY harshly !!!!) so if you have no qualms & think it might be a niche worth persuing I would build a completely seperate site (if you do, the business side of me would be desperately curious to know which did better as, being a little cynical, I believe there is always more money in 'less morally regulated' businesses)

Site looks clean but a bit empty as already mentioned but if you are saving that space for ads I understand but would still fill the ad area with something, quotes, photos etc until you launch an ad program & agree about moving the profiles to the left. I didn't see anything about a privacy policy re selling on email addresses etc which I would expect in the FAQ's

Good luck with the development

Mari

jazzylee77: Redirecting Urls That Contain Stop Words (Web Site Programming)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:20:31 GMT

I use a couple scripts to pull relevant youtube videos. Unfortunately any undesirable keyword can be inserted in the right spot of the url, or clicked in the vids tags. For one site this has resulted in adsense being pulled since ads could be displayed on pages showing vids for the tag "sex."

I'm thinking of trying a modrewrite solution that would redirect urls containing anything from a bad words list, but I'm not too sure where to start.

bwelford: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:17:20 GMT

Wow. Big Brother is Watching You. It's beginning to look like 1984 all over again.

EGOL: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:40:27 GMT

Have you seen the Ad Planner? http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017517.html

Looks like some very detailed traffic stats are going out to big advertisers. If you have big traffic this should help you make more money - or at least let other people know even more about your traffic.

kulpreet_singh: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:10:41 GMT

Barry, as soon as I started to read the thread I agreed with you, and I have brought up this issue on Cre8asite in the past, but many people were also against this, because customers have free will to accept or deny service from a service provider. However, my rationale has always been that at some point, when a service provider becomes a verb!!, and its services become a staple of modern culture, there should be a watchdog in place in order to prevent the influence of the monopolistic competitor from grossly misusing its power, and in almost all cases this actually benefits the company overall because the general public has a better experience dealing with them and will do even more business with them.

saschaeh: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:58:36 GMT

there will always be the powerful open source movement. If Google tried to turn on us, whatever that implies, the alternatives will start to flourish.

saschaeh: Google Web Search Is Super Fast For Blogs (Blogs, RSS and Syndication)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:42:47 GMT

Yes i too have been indexed 2 hours within posting. I couldnt believe it.

After the ohh ahhh feeling i thought about how fast i could get unindexed as well.

RayWrites: First Stab At "intro Spiel" (Writing Copy and Content for the Web)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:52:42 GMT

Hi Stormcat,

A good rule of thumb is to answer the following questions: Who, What, Where, Why and maybe How.

You have almost 10 years experience and have worked for atleast one Fortune 500 company - Coca Cola. These are strengths that should be played upon.

Also, it is always good to have a What's In It For Me (W.I.I.F.M.) statement - a visitor to your website should have an expectation of your unique offierng and what makes you different; be it custom web design, css design, etc.

Hope This Helps

Ray

surrealillusions: New Security Warning In Ff (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:18:49 GMT

ah ok..glad you found the problem

surrealillusions: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:17:43 GMT

hm..ok..thanks..is there anyway of specifying one particular link on a page rather than all of them? As you cant add an id or class on that base tag..

Is there a server side solution to this? I'm thinking not...

RisaBB: New Security Warning In Ff (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:13:35 GMT

Thanks. I have the problem figured out but not solved.

My site was hacked last week, and, among other issues, John Mueller of Google told me that for incorrect URL's my site returned a 200 (OK) code in the header instead of a 404 (Page not found) error.

I had a module added to my X-Cart shopping cart by Magnetic One to create static URLs last year, but their programming included something to create this 200 code instead of 404.

I contacted them to fix this, and something that they did this morning is creating this error. I found this out from X-cart, who I originally thought was somehow involved in the problem and they said, "Actually this module causes the issue and alters all the links to be absolute like "http://"

So, my mystery is solved. Now I just need Magnetic One to fix the problem.

Thanks!

Risa

rashid: Google Web Search Is Super Fast For Blogs (Blogs, RSS and Syndication)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:45:45 GMT

Its true for the bloggers who post quite frequently since Google crawler loves the sites which are regularly updated.

EricFerrer: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:34:24 GMT

It's difficult to find a behemoth with morals.

As bwelford has quipped, we are in the Google World now. It is churning out pages of history that will be studied by our great-grandchildren, in hushed silence and probably awe. Also as you have so appropriately quoted in another thread 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. I can see G getting there, slowly but steadily.

QUOTE

I'm just concerned. Concerned about, what will happen if Google changes their mind from 'openness' and 'transparency' to 'closed' and 'authoritative'. Yes, Google will probably lose it's edge but. . . what if your life is on Google. . . Do you lose your life? (Something to ponder)

Pardon me for my cynicism, but I will be amazed, Flying Monkeys, if what you are apprehensive about, doesn't become reality soon. It is already happening in many ways, although we may have not noticed it. The 'mob effect' is already happening and we are deep under its spell, fellow denizens of the dungeon -- more so than we are probably willing to admit! Brain-washed into beliefs and trained into strange rituals just to keep up with the burgeoning cult.

I use the term 'mob effect' to describe any scenario where a group of people, an organization, a company, a government or a nation become so inundated and overwhelmed in their own power that they get transformed into cold, unemotional wheels of a machine. They can no longer see the thin line dividing truth and lies, good and evil -- they only see power, more and more of the intoxicating thing. Most of the time, this 'affliction' is also highly contagious, blinding and sucking in spectators and sometimes even bystanders into it's mad whirling vortex of power.

This maybe somewhat a dramatic depiction but it is not far from the truth of what this g-effect really is. I have yet to be impressed by the humility of a powerful organization.

Wit: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:11:19 GMT

in the head section of your pages?

http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_base.asp

Not really meant for xhtml strict pages, but works fine

surrealillusions: New Security Warning In Ff (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:02:21 GMT

Hmm..maybe its how x-cart sends the information to where ever its going?

Perhaps FF thinks the certificate is not setup correctly...i've come across an issue where if a sites certificate is out of date, then FF3 wont connect to the site at all. So maybe its something to do with that?

hope that helps...

surrealillusions: Opening New Window..but.. (Web Site Design)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:59:25 GMT

Quick question really...

Is there any way to open a new window without using the target attribute or javascript?

If so..how?

EricFerrer: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:37:32 GMT

You are absolutely right, a substantial percentage of the membership of such sites are already in committed relationships -- but I did not think of them as a separate demoragraphic -- or rather didn't think it appropriate to target them specifically. Do you think it's important that I target a niche? If the site mentions 'extra-marital' wouldn't that tend to 'type cast' the site, as it were, for example that it may discourage singles and deprive me of an important segment? I would like to get some feedback on this, if possible.

How do I target particular countries? Can I do that without spending lots of money on advertising?

EGOL: Requst For Reivew And Tips On The Website (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:59:58 GMT

We do not submit to directory websites or participate in link exchange. We don't think that google values them very much. We think that a more valuable use of our time is to create another page of content.

prateekdayal: Requst For Reivew And Tips On The Website (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:27:16 GMT

Thanks EGOL. I am hoping the embedding will improve backlinks over time. As I read on the forum getting listed in directories etc is not all that useful. Do you also feel so?

RisaBB: New Security Warning In Ff (Computer Maintenance and Security)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:18:58 GMT

Hello,

After having my e-commerce site online for over a year, I got this message today when processing a customer's order in Firefox:

Security Warning
Although this page is encrypted, the information you have entered is to be sent over an unencrypted connection and could easily be read by a third party. Are you sure you want to continue sending this information?

Every step of my 3-step checkout process is on a secure server with https in the URL. I haven't added any new graphics or functionality.

This happens when going from Step 2 to Step 3.

My checkout steps are:

Step 1: collect billing and shipping info
Step 2: choose payment method and enter coupon codes
Step 3: enter cc info

I spoke to my web hosting company who thinks this has to do with how X-Cart is handling the information. I don't think so. Nothing has changed in my cart.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Risa

swainzy: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:13:31 GMT

That's funny Barry. You mean it's their world and we're welcome to it?

xenswim1: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:46:42 GMT

I cannot agree more with the opinions already expressed. Define your demographic then find out what they want. Building a website does not mean automatic hits and members. Your site must cause a mild rush to those who are using it.

An example:
Taking the bull by the horns, It took me exactly 30 minutes to establish that a site for married men and women who want some sort of extramarital affair may work. From all intents this should cater for 30% of the known married world.

Better still if you targeted those countries where extra marital affairs are a big No No such as Arab countries or countries with and enforced strict moral belief you would get a huge following.

lee.n3o: Icann: Unlimited Domain Names? (Cre8tive Tomorrow)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:46:15 GMT

QUOTE

I'd personally prefer they spent more time on making sure that ownership issues are handled better.

Ahmen to that....

JohnMu: Icann: Unlimited Domain Names? (Cre8tive Tomorrow)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:37:54 GMT

I think they've been discussing this for such a long time now .... and I personally still think it's a bad idea.

What's to stop someone from registering and using yourbank.corn (.CORN) ? There's so much room for confusion and we still have approximately unlimited domain names left with the current scheme.

I'd personally prefer they spent more time on making sure that ownership issues are handled better.

John

dazzlindonna: Icann: Unlimited Domain Names? (Cre8tive Tomorrow)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:31:02 GMT

It's definitely got its pros and cons...however, I read somewhere this morning that these new options would require hefty registration fees (like $1000+).

bwelford: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:46:20 GMT

Don't worry, Flying Monkeys. If you've visited Disney World, you know what a great time you and your kids can have. You're now living in Google World. Enjoy.

Flying Monkeys: Hold On Google, Stop The Bus (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:20:57 GMT

So, I've been browsing the web and learning more about Google. Maybe you all know this information that I'm about to share with you. But honestly after learning all of this in a short amount of time, makes me feel creeped out.

Okay, so Google has consumed like 5 large companies (Not to mention many small companies). When I read about Double Click, I wasn't bothered by Double Click but then I learned DC had an SEO/SEM area called Performics. Google owns an world leader in SEO.

Blogging is a way of life for many people. They have acquired FeedBurner an analytic for blogs.

Some SEO's want to know the latest trends and fads, well Google Trends is their for you.

Yahoo working with Google to increase ad revenue.....

Google launching web based Microsoft products (a lighter version).

Becoming a leader in e-mail.

Then, to top it off. I watched this video. (Anyone who cares about marketing should take the time to watch it; it's 4 mins)

The video above shows how GOOGLE (hmm) is being MORE EFFECTIVE on video ads, integrating it with the T.V. ' 9 to 1' is what the video stated.

Now, I know Google is struggling to find a good model to generate more revenue with YouTube but they are advancing.

Okay. Now this might not seem like much but their is more.

Android. Or 'the g phone'. I call it the iPhone meets facebook. iPhone because it's a mobile device but meets facebook because it's an open platform for developers.

I was going to blog about this, but I decided to share this with you guys. If you want to compile a list or something, and improve upon this. Go for it.

I'm just concerned. Concerned about, what will happen if Google changes their mind from 'openness' and 'transparency' to 'closed' and 'authoritative'. Yes, Google will probably lose it's edge but. . . what if your life is on Google. . . Do you lose your life? (Something to ponder)

bwelford: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:13:45 GMT

Perhaps I need to emphasize that my suggestion that Google have an ombudsman was something that I felt would be good for Google. This would be a person (supported by a department) funded by Google but of sufficient moral stature that they were independent of Google. Clearly they could not handle every case of inequity. However even if they only handled the 10 percent of most deserving cases that would be just incredible.

Google does have this supposed motto of Do No Evil. This ombudsman arrangement tries to put some reality into that process.

In some ways it's amusing how successful entrepreneurs operate. You have someone like Bill Gates amassing a huge fortune with Microsoft, using whatever methods he feels appropriate. A number of governments in different countries have at times tried to limit Microsoft's behavior. He is presumably guided by his lawyers as to how close he will sail to whatever might not be deemed illegal.

Once he has wealth greater than many small countries, he then sets up a charitable foundation to do good works with all this wealth. The Google founders are now at the stage where they are following a similar path. I am suggesting that if they allowed some of this motivation to apply in how they run their businesses, they might make even more money.

In some ways it's linked to the whole subject of corporate governance. It's good to see that, with the increased transparency in an Internet world, better corporate behaviour is being encouraged.

eKstreme: 403 Error (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:53:45 GMT

It's a very common reply from the Googs when your IP address does a lot of advanced queries like intitle: and link:.

Get use to it... or use a proxy.

EGOL: Icann: Unlimited Domain Names? (Cre8tive Tomorrow)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:46:53 GMT

A CNN article explains how ICANN is voting on a proposal that will allow an almost unlimited number of new domains.

I have mixed feelings about this. I want to have better options for new domain names, however, I feel that their proposal will devalue the names that have been registered in the past. I also think that it will lead to confusion.

The problem in my opinion is that too many domains are registered and not put to use. I would rather see the annual cost of registration jacked up..... or, give every person one free domain and then charge a lot of money per year for subsequent domains.

If a person wants to own widgets.com, or whatever, they should be willing to pay the cost... and just like addresses in downtown New York City some are too expensive to buy.

I am sitting on about 100 domains so the impact of my own proposal would cause me to make some decisions.

Flying Monkeys: 403 Error (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:28:31 GMT

[attachmentid=818]

Am I some evil virus or is this common?

fisicx: Listing Problem In Msn.co.uk (MSN Search)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:26:47 GMT

dot com address and a dedicated server in the USA means that anyone performing a UK only search won't find you.

And yes, msn.com and msn.co.uk will give different results the same way google.co.uk will provide different results to google.co.in.

And in any case, the site feels like you have taken a standard block of text and inserted the word london and uk. You might not have done but that's how it reads along with the spammy titles: 'Web design London, London website design, web design UK, London'.

In other words what incentive is there for the SE to list you in preference to any other London based outsourcing web designer?

hm9: How To Pass A Value From A Form To A Second Page In Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:07:28 GMT

Thanks guys. I opted for the approach suggested by SunPost as it is simple to implement with my asp.net page

thanks

EGOL: Requst For Reivew And Tips On The Website (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:35:36 GMT

Hello Prateek, Welcome!

1) URL Scheme... I would try to keep the URLs as simple as possible and organize them in a logical way. From an SEO standpoint the organization of the URLs is less important than how they are linked to from your site's navigation or on-page links. More important pages should be in your persistent navigation across the site, secondary pages should be linked to frequently and from all subpages, etc.

2) I append one of my domains on most pages of the site. For the title tag you have about 60 characters. If I can fit my domain on I do it. If it will make the title more than 60 characters I do not.

3) If you have pages without links they will probably not be included in the search engines. I would be sure to have at least one link into every page, a few links into more important pages and many links into the most important pages. Also, all of the links should be spiderable.

After you have done basic on-page optimization, the best way to increase your search engine rankings is to get more links from other websites and be sure that you have good linkage within the site.

Andrew.Williams: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:13:26 GMT

That is the reason you think? I haven't been promoting it at all as it has been doing fine and google has been indexing it fine until a few weeks ago. I thought I'll let my links grow naturally, maybe rather naive of me huh.

venu.akkala: Listing Problem In Msn.co.uk (MSN Search)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:09:05 GMT

Hi friends,

i have face different problem in MSN.

i have optimized one website i.e vinsystech.com. My all keywords are also top in below 4 pages in MSN.com

My problem is same keywords are not showing in MSN.co.uk

here i am giving some of keywords

1. London website designers
2. Web designers in London
3. London web design
4. London website development
5. Software consultants in London

Is there any problem between MSN.com and MSN.co.uk?

please check and let me know the problem please.....

because this client in London. he is using msn.co.uk
:confused:

Thanks
venu

john98: Such Url Creates A Problem In Submission ? (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:45:42 GMT

Hi Guys,

I am person of SEO Field in a IT firm.
Right now i am working for a Domain which creates problem in Reciprocal Submission Coz of url.
URL is like: http://www.abc.abc.com/

When i am submitting my this link as a URL, It shows me error For "Invalid URL".
They are not accepting "www.store.manelysolutions".

Coz of this error, i have to stop my link submission & its a very heavy loss for me.
So please can any one bring me out of this problem...? What should i do now, change the URL or any other suggestions?

please point me in the right direction..

Thanks,
john
Webmaster@perceptinsystem.com

fisicx: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:33:24 GMT

Good points. But it highlighted a important destinction: as the owner of a website I am a supplier but as a user of google's services I am a customer.

This is the point I was trying to highlight. In my supplier role I build a websites that meets google's requirements. Google on their part may decide to index and rank my site. They have however no obligation to do so. In my customer role I can use their free services. If I don't like the results I can go elsewhere. Maybe google aren't customer centric - but where does it say thay have to be so. It's up to the board of Directors to decide how they treat their customers.

As a subset of their customers you may not be satisfied with their service, but the millions who do use google every day are very satisfied.

As a supplier you might be very dissatisifed with their service but where does it say google are obliged to change their business plan to suit you.

So Barry, how would an ombudsman regulate how google treats its suppliers? Do we extend the ombudsmans scope to all search engines, directories, lists and any other site that links to other sites? What happens if I put a link on my site that incorrectly describes your site? What do you do if I list the top 10 suppliers of elephants in Canada and miss you out? The only difference is that google generates it's list automatically and I do mine manually. If you are going to regulate one then you need to regulate everybody who provides an index.

Not trying to defend google - just pointing out that I am both a supplier to google and a customer of their services. For many, the two are mutually exclusive.

prateekdayal: Requst For Reivew And Tips On The Website (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:35:37 GMT

Hi

I am a new member here though I have been reading the forum topics for last one week or so. I have to accept that the discussions here have been an eye opener for me. The place is a gold mine of knowledge. I am hoping I can learn enough here to eventually participate in discussions

I run an online music community, http://muziboo.com and the site has been around for a year now. Muziboo is a platform for people who create/record their music, upload it and get feedback. We have been able to get a great culture going there, in terms of participation and feedback but the real problem is traffic.

For the last few months, the growth in organic traffic has been very small. In general I get very little organic traffic. I have some backlinks (through blog widgets, reviews etc) and have done basic onpage SEO (mostly correct if I go by whats written in this forum). I also have a sitemap though now I think that can be improved a lot. Our page rank initially was 5 and then it went to 1 and again came back to 4 recently (all this over last 8 months or so)

I am currently in the middle of a redesign so I can incorporate the changes that you mention easily. I am specifically looking for advice on

1. What kind of url scheme works best for SEO. Does hierarchy matter. For example should I try to have a hierarchy like muziboo.com/music/song-title/id and muziboo.com/member/login and muziboo.com/member/music/login than something more random. I hope I am able to explain clearly

2. Is it a bad idea to append Muziboo.com in title of all pages ?

3. Is it important for all pages to be accessible from somewhere or a sitemap can take care of this. I would have 10s of thousands of urls and its generally though to make them all accessible without making the site clumsy.

If you think I should be reading some specific threads, please let me know. I am really looking forward to your advice as I think it can help me do a good job in redesigning the site.

Thanks again!

Regards
Prateek Dayal
Co-Founder Muziboo.com (and also lone coder)

dimid: Hosting & Seo (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:28:48 GMT

the web hosting will reflect on your seo only in the case if it not available /down/ time to time or it is to slower and you pages can't be crawled normally.

dimid: Duplicated Content Is A Myth! (Search Engine Optimization)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:26:39 GMT

i must agreed,
in real situation it is not possible to avoid "dublicate content" in the case for dynamic sites, still more for blog or product sites. One article cane be found in the main pages, then and the aopropriate category, then on page number 12 and etc.
This is not our problem this should be the problem of search engines, because the real world wants to have this example below.

lee.n3o: How To Pass A Value From A Form To A Second Page In Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:23:46 GMT

Very simple... Just use a button control and add the following

PostBackUrl="~/MyPageNameToSendTheInfoTo.aspx" />

Now on the page you want to use to process everything, you can get ALL the stuff from the previous page using something like this

if (Page.PreviousPage != null)
{
TextBox SourceTextBox = (TextBox)Page.PreviousPage.FindControl("TextBox1");
if (SourceTextBox != null)
{
Label1.Text = SourceTextBox.Text;
}
}

This is in C# .. If you want it in ASP.NET VB you can use these great converters

http://labs.developerfusion.co.uk/convert/csharp-to-vb.aspx

http://converter.telerik.com

A.N.Onym: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:06:22 GMT

Why not try Amazon Storage Service?

Or find some hosting, promising "Unlimited bandwidth" and milk them dry (and move to Amazon ).

Respree: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:52:21 GMT

You don't have to be specific, but I'm curious what type of site do you have that is chewing up that kind of bandwidth and growing that quickly?

A.N.Onym: Rss Readers (Blogs, RSS and Syndication)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:46:30 GMT

Michael, I love Opera feed reader, except it can't categorize feeds for me. And while I can live with that, when tracking 50 feeds, tracking 300, 500 or 1k feeds becomes a problem, if I only want to see updates for a particular category.

Maybe I should check widgets and maybe even create my own feed reader for Opera, but I don't have the budget at the moment.

Thanks for a reminder, though.

Ron Carnell: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:38:20 GMT

Bandwidth is essentially a commodity item (which is not to say it's necessarily all the same). With any decent host, going over your allotted bandwidth simply means you have to start paying extra. The extra for bandwidth overage can vary drastically between companies, but fifty cents a gig is probably pretty close to what you should expect.

Find a company you like. Bandwidth can be negotiated.

Not incidentally, three TB is equivalent to 3,000 GB and is a LOT of bandwidth. More, in my opinion, than any single server could ever use and almost definitely more than a site on a shared server could use. Long before you exceed what you have you'll have to be moving to a dedicated server first and a load balancing set of servers after that. Bandwidth will be the least of your technical challenges.

projectphp: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:37:40 GMT

QUOTE

Reading the thread at it seems to me that most of the complaints come from those whose business depends on google doing the right thing.

??? I don't get what that means?

QUOTE

Google customer service is excellent - they deliver accurate results within seconds of me performing a search.

Ever tried to get a listing that somneone else submitted back on Google local? Complain about said listing?

What about the peeps that use Gapps? They get good customer service?

I think your post fisicx is limitted by scope. There are LOTS of Google customers, and generalised statements are going to hit an innaccurate average, where different areas with different complaints are glossed over by oither areas where there is great service.

An Ombudsman is, IMHO, a completely wasted level of beauracracy, however I think that the concept that customer service is just search related is false.

The biggest issue is how poorly thopught out Google is as a whole. I think Google do a great job in a very limitted context for a specific subset of Internet Users, with various blogs etc, but with each new product they launch, customer service has been poor, precisely because they are so algorithm-centric, and not customer service centric.

QUOTE

Most people would consider that a pretty good deal.

And *I* personally do, in a great many cases. However, many good deals turn sour. If I offer you X for les than anyone else can sell it, put them out of business, what then? A good deal is not permanent, any more than a bad deal is.

Worse still, the bad deal is not only not immediate, but a consequence of a very, very, very good deal. That is the iussue here, and why we have monoply protection.

But that is, IMHO, a cop out, and public accoutability, as Barry suggested through raising a voice, is important. If people realise the consequences of one comapny, no matter how well intentioned, holding all the freely offerred data, and some possible scenarios of said data access, then if we end up in an Orwellian world, at least we went there knowingly!

I expect nothing from Google except that they do what is in their best interests. The question is: what is in all of our best interests? I can't answer that, but am extremely sceptical of any world in which many sides are not presented, and where a simple, impermanent and specific perspective is presented.

I loved http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/, but I also am optimisitic it will not happen

projectphp: Rss Readers (Blogs, RSS and Syndication)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:19:20 GMT

Opera has a wicdked one built in, Yura.

EGOL: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:40:26 GMT

Go with an outstanding company and they would love to help you solve this problem.... if this is a possibility then don't go with a cheap company because you will swamp them if this happens.

sunpost: How To Pass A Value From A Form To A Second Page In Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:26:25 GMT

textbox.Text is being assigned to querystring parameter value. You can try changing the name of the querystring to parameter:

CODE

Request.QueryString("parameter")

Consider the following if you want to pass a parameter called firstname...

On the form page with a TextBox called firstname:

CODE

Response.Redirect("confirmation.aspx?firstname=" & Server.UrlEncode(firstname.Text))

On the confirmation.aspx page you can obtain the querystring parameter firstname:

CODE

Request.QueryString("firstname")

bwelford: Does Google Need An Ombudsman? (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:13:46 GMT

If you think that it's only their customers as you defined them, fisicx, who matter, then your analysis is correct.

However for their own corporate good, I think Google should not only be thinking about its customers but should think about all of its stakeholders. That I believe is the responsibility of a board of directors for example. It is not just the shareholders who count. Unless all stakeholders feel some satisfaction with the way things go, there may be problems at some time or other.

So if we enlarge the circle to include all stakeholders, who gets included? I think it is important that Google includes its suppliers in that stakeholder circle. By suppliers, I would include all those website owners who allow Google to have the right to display information about their websites including snippets. It's really for its suppliers that I believe Google needs an ombudsman.

EricFerrer: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:05:37 GMT

Yes, it definitely has! As you have suggested, I think I should do some study (some soul-searching too) and make some precise decisions on how to increase the look and feel of the site. For the life of me I cannot explain why I have left all that valuable space ridiculously blank along the left margin -- of course, the profiles should be on the left side!

The SEO part is also a big challenge and I need to figure out what I am going to do toward that.

Thank you very much for the detailed observations and your time.

_jc: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:45:12 GMT

Starting with the home page:

Looks clean and professional. And I like the color scheme. It doesn't feel scary, like a place I wouldn't want to give personal info.

Where I see problems:

1. Where AM I?
I can see immediately that I'm at "figwire", but what's a "figwire"???
You need to get people oriented right away, especially those who didn't happen to come from your AdWords (or other) ad copy. Visitors might start off confused here, wondering what this page is and if they are in the right place.
'
2. No UVP (Unique Value Proposition). You don't tell people what they can do on your site.

3. No UVP. You don't tell people what benefits they can get by using your site. Your UVP must answer the question "Why should I use YOUR site?" If it's NOT unique (is just like other similar sites), then what's the point of building it? If it IS unique, tell the visitor that and why it's better for them.

4. Space. The top navigation and figwire bar take up a LOT of valuable vertical real estate. I'd make them both shorter or combine them into one. The figwire bar doesn't have to have the "Home" indicator stacked over the "figwire" name - that contributes to the bloated (IMHO) height.

The comments from users are squeezed into these tiny boxes on the right, while there is this huge empty space on the left. Why is that?

You could use most of that empty space to allow the users boxes to be much larger and more readable. Also, people read from left to right, so the user boxes ought to be on the left and the empty space on the right, shouldn't they?

5. Images. More images would be great. Your visitors are "people people" right? They will respond positively if there are more pictures of people - the people they can interact with on your site.

If it depends on how many have submitted photos, maybe you need to do something to encourage more photos or simplify the upload process (which I have not looked at).

The images could be bigger too - again a place to use some of that excess space.

6. Borders. The light colors of the "people boxes" backgrounds are nice, but don't contrast well with the white background. A 1 pixel border around them would look better. But I'd advise against borders or boxes elsewhere - you really don't want to interrupt the eye-path or setup "islands" of content that visitors have to stop and choose between. Right now it's very clean and coherent in that regard.

I think your site has a lot of potential (if it is unique - I don't know much about this market) and it's well worth your putting in more time.

Like you said, effort alone is not enough, it has to be the RIGHT effort. I'm new here myself, but have already found you can learn a great deal here. So, before you dive into making changes, maybe some time off for a study here and elsewhere of landing page optimization would be best? Maybe buy some books too.

Hope I have time for more later and that this has been helpful...

Flying Monkeys: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:29:56 GMT

QUOTE

my bandwidth started out at 3Gb per month, and is now up nearer 6Gb per month, going up 40Gb per week.

That is quite the growth.

EGOL and eKstreme thanks for those hosting providers.

Hmm. What if these still aren't enough (10TB of Bandwidth per month)? Is their a way I could get multiple servers, to host the site?
(Trying to prepare for something bigger. )

hm9: How To Pass A Value From A Form To A Second Page In Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:54:50 GMT

Hi

I have a form and want to pass a value from the form to another page in asp.net

I tired using redirect from the first page and pass the value typed on a text box field using the redirect method below:

response.redirect ("confirmation.aspx?parameter=" & textbox.Text &"")

on the second page, i am using the requestquerystring to obtain the value typed in in the frist page.

Response.write(Request.QueryString("firstname.Text"))

this is not returning anyhting. not about the syntax or why its not working.

can you please advise?

thanks

eKstreme: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:17:36 GMT

QUOTE(iamlost @ Jun 25 2008, 05:14 PM) [snapback]271381[/snapback]

* a bacterial based information storage system suffering severe data loss due to massive die-off events.
Might I suggest that you bill eKstreme Bio-Solutions for neglecting to feed his beasties?

Support bacteria - it's the only culture some people have!!!

EGOL: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:56:33 GMT

QUOTE

There are no backlinks to the site.

There is the solution.... get more links. You will not rank for anything without links. Without links your site will fall out of Google completely.

EricFerrer: Http://www.figwire.com (Website Hospital)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:39:01 GMT

How can I increase the number of hits to this site?

http://www.figwire.com

This is a free dating site and obviously I have not been doing a good job in terms of trying to promote it. I have spent countless hours doing various things but they don`t seem to have been the right things.

The site is about 3 months old and is getting only around 30 views per day as per google analytics. But I have only 100 members and 60 of them thought it worthwhile to create profiles. I have some spare time during the summer which I want to dedicate toward this site, with some effective changes, if there are any.

Initially I wanted to make this a paying site where members pay to create and view profiles. Later on, I found the idea of a free site even more attractive, where I will try to get some return through advertising -- that will be much later down the road, though. Right now, I just want to increase relevant traffic.

My objective is to make this a popular haunt for people looking for relationships. To provide all the means to do so free of charge and with a high success rate.

I know my design sucks, but am at a loss trying to think of something objectively.

The article on the home page is selected at random from a collection. Not sure whether this has a detrimental effect on SEO.

The profiles on the home page are selected at random from the database.

If any of you have any suggestions of how I can increase `word of mouth`, I`d be happy to know.

Any ideas on increasing the traffic are most welcome -- the more candid the better! I am craving for anything at all at this point -- so go ahead and be brutal, if need be, I want this site to make a difference.

Thank you

Andrew.Williams: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:11:30 GMT

Yes they are spidarable, I mean google has been indexing them fine, once I removed the sitemap, it stooped indexing about half the site. While yahoo has been indexing it incompletely always, msn isn't indexing it at all, never has. The site is about 6 months old now.

I changed one of the links, so webmaster tools tells me that there is a broken link. There isn't I just changed the link, do you think that might be a reason?

There are no backlinks to the site. By that I guess you mean other sites linking to it right? There are only two sites linking to it, one is adbrite in its bit where it says adviretise on my site, another is apparently a within site search engine which links to a page google is not indexing.

There is no between site duplication, maybe except for quotes. There might be within site duplication. In the homepage I mention two of the articles with a bit from the text maybe 40 or 50 word, I am not sure of course might be 30 words.

ANd in the footer, I repeat the footer in every page which has maybe about 10 words in it. Would that be considered within site duplication?

It was indexing it fine, it started indexing only half the site only once I took the sitemap off, I have added the site map and taken it off before though. Maybe it is only because it found that broken link?

Another person has come to my site today, but this time from another country not the UK. I search google with the exact terms and nothing shows up.

Is it puzzling or am I just being a drama queen (cough ) king (cough)

_jc: Msie 6 'background-attachment: Fixed' Fix? (CSS, Style, and Positioning)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:46:40 GMT

Thanks iamlost - great stuff!

I did a search, but missed these.

After thinking about my design and seeing the complications with patching "background-attachment: fixed" in MSIE, when used on a div - I instead figured out a way for my design to work using the background image on the body, instead of a div in CSS.

For those who haven't run into this problem, the use of a fixed background image, rather than a scrolling one, on the body element is not broken in MSIE - it's only broken when used on a block element. So, by using it on the body, I make "an end run around the problem" and save complication.

Even as a newbie here, I'm getting tremendous value for this forum

iamlost: Msie 6 'background-attachment: Fixed' Fix? (CSS, Style, and Positioning)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:17:15 GMT

If you haven't read these articles by Georg - both CSS and IE-expressions possible solutions:

position: fixed in IE/win

CSS based 'position: fixed' in IE/win

_jc: Msie 6 'background-attachment: Fixed' Fix? (CSS, Style, and Positioning)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:38:52 GMT

I've run into that non-functioning "background-attachment: fixed" in MSIE 6, when applied to a div.

Didn't find much with a Google search. Downloaded a JavaScript fix (from Andrew Clover). It works, but is very "jerky" in my tests, so I can't use that.

Ideas anyone?

Thanks All

_jc: Landing Page Emotion (Writing Copy and Content for the Web)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:21:34 GMT

Excellent points DCrx.

Damasio's book(s) are a good read - lots of interesting stuff. I have "The Feeling of What Happens", Antonio R. Damasio, Harcourt Brace 1999.

Isn't it great how marketing ties together so many interesting aspects of our world? Read somewhere that one of the characteristics of excellent marketers and copy writers is that they are interested in everything.

I imagine a search on "limbic system", "the unconscious mind" or the like would show how much less the rational mind is "in control" than most people think.

Also, the hypnotic aspect of repetitive advertising and propaganda (and the functioning of hypnosis itself) shows success in communicating directly to the unconscious - in spite of the message often being irrational. Stage hypnotists often have people doing silly, irrational things for entertainment. And I agree with some marketers that most people are in a light hypnotic trance (e. g. not really paying attention and somewhat suggestible) most of the time.

An interesting book on this premise is Joe Vitale's 'Buying Trances', John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

Even commodities decisions are not always rational. For example, when my car needs gas, I don't turn in at the first gas station I come to. I wait until I'm near my favorite local station, or if far from home, I choose the brand of station I'm used to. If forced by circumstances to go to another brand, I fell a slight anxiety or "strangeness" about that.

@ fisicx: Always good to question assumptions, I believe. When I read your post, I thought "'And the evidence is?...' Now there's a good question".

Odd - I'm not getting emails on this thread - even though it says I am.

FP_Guy: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:49:17 GMT

Another thing to throw into the factor, which is why SEO is changing to SEM in my opinion, is the Google Toolbar affecting rankings.

My brother typed in his company's name into Google and it wasn't in number one, but it was in my end. I asked him if he had the Google toolbar installed and he said yes. After he uninstalled the toolbar it popped up to number one for him as well.

Ricky Marshall: Keyword Software (Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Listings)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:49:02 GMT

There are several tools out in the market to help you and there are two key differences.

One set relies heavily on the technology of keyword aggregators. In other words they use computer algorithms to generate additional keyword strings. These tend to be the one-time box solutions and a crap shoot.

The other relies on actual keyword searches for your selected terms. These tend to be subscription services with better quality - yet varying degrees of it.

If you're gonna go the way of the keyword aggregators, I recommend giving Google's Keyword Tools and Microsoft adCenter tools before you buy another box that's going to sit on your shelf.

If you're gonna go the way of the subscription service. Try a couple of them out using their free trials to see which results best suit you. Personally, me...I like [link removed].

iamlost: Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:38:01 GMT

QUOTE(lee.n3o)

Oh man thats going to open up a can of worms

The big geeky ones like PHP, the skinny wriggly ones with fangs like ASP.NET

Personally, I use PHP and other free open source applications. The biggest reason initially was the free - having to pay for upgrades/licences when there was a viable - cheap - alternative seemed foolish.

I am NOT saying that Lee is foolish. I was speaking about myself, who am often a fool.

* If you will be taking ASP.NET in uni by all means learn it now - nice grades are not foolish.

* If, after grad, you will likely be working for a large corporation, odds are it will be using MSFT products, so learning ASP.NET is necessary for employment - getting a paycheque is not foolish.

* If you have a preference for MSFT products (they do offer a wide range) then learn ASP.NET and be like Lee - a nice guy with a bad habit.

Fundamentally it comes down to preference, requirements, and whether you are developing on Apache or MSFT Server.

And whether you are prone to chair throwing tantrums...

lee.n3o: Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:16:12 GMT

Oh man thats going to open up a can of worms ... lol

I just prefer .NET to php as I found it easier to learn with all the new videos and documentation thats come out, also you can use the new Visual Web Developer 2008 which is just amazing.

I also knew a bit of ASP VBScript so it was a natural progression, but another great thing about .NET is you can make something for you website and with minimal changes you can use it as a desktop application.

Nowadays it just comes down to preference really... php still has a lot of open source applications you can use, but ASP.NET is fast catching up and they are very well built.

EGOL: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:16:08 GMT

A few quick comments....

Rankings change in Google frequently.

If you are logged into a google service you might be getting personalized search ranks, if you are logged out or on an other browser window you might get normal google results (which vary depending upon data center and over time).

Pages not being indexed.... are your links to them spiderable? do you have a puny number of backlinks? are they duplicate content either on your own site or from another site?

iamlost: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:14:48 GMT

An typing input error for byte growth being unlikely I hypothesise either:
* a quantum computing data loss anomoly due to spontaneous blackhole creation.
Might I suggest, Lyle, that you immediately correct this problem before the earth is engulfed?

* a bacterial based information storage system suffering severe data loss due to massive die-off events.
Might I suggest that you bill eKstreme Bio-Solutions for neglecting to feed his beasties?

FP_Guy: I Am Completely Puzzled (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:55:47 GMT

It may be that Google is testing out a new algorithm. I've noticed that whenever Google does that there is a shifting of rankings. One day it will be at #1 then the next day at #15. If it goes back to #1 again in the next few days then I know that they are testing out a new algorithm.

Keep tabs on your position to see if they are exact position changes. You can go to www.googlerankings.com to check your position of a keyword phrase up to one thousand.

eKstreme: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:44:43 GMT

QUOTE(Lyle @ Jun 25 2008, 04:28 PM) [snapback]271376[/snapback]

my bandwidth started out at 3Gb per month, and is now up nearer 6Gb per month, going up 40Gb per week.

????

Lyle: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:28:04 GMT

I'm using Dreamhost, and have been doing for about a year.

So far they've been pretty impressive - at the time they offered 2 years hosting of unlimited domains/subdomains/databases for $99, with a storage and bandwidth cap that expands weekly, regardless of whether it's being fully used or not.

If I've had queries, they've come back pretty much straight away, and given the right answers in a way that's understandable.

I'd also second the recommendation for 34sp, but as pointed out, their bandwidth stuff won't go to anywhere near the amount you're looking for. Dreamhost's will - my bandwidth started out at 3Tb per month, and is now up nearer 6Tb per month, going up 40Gb per week.

[Edit : Amended 3 & 6Gb to 3&6Tb - the quantum earthshock is now avoided]

eKstreme: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:22:21 GMT

Steer clear of Joyent and Mosso. I was with 34sp a few years ago. They had excellent tech support and their hosting was top-notch but they were expensive.

I'm currently testing out Slicehost and it seems to be good.

Fire-EnigmaX: Asp.net (Web Site Programming)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:04:28 GMT

Thanks Guys,

I will have a read and see what I can learn.

I am not even sure why to use ASP.NET over PHP but I need to learn for uni shortly anyway so thought it better to get a start before. What are the advantages over PHP for you guys?

Thanks again.

EGOL: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:42:02 GMT

I have a dedicated and several shared accounts at pair.com. Great service, reliable, very satisfied.

fisicx: Google Crawling Absolute Paths? (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:32:52 GMT

Ta very much. So simple really - I shall get onto it tonight

Flying Monkeys: Seo And Website Redesign (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:15:52 GMT

QUOTE

SEO is a five minute job

I'm willing to get shot with you to EGOL.

I totally agree with your statement in context.

QUOTE

A lot of my friends who are SEOs would shoot me for this.... but... compared to content creation, SEO is a five minute job. Kickass SEO on halfass content is the recipe for failure.

Viral Content and Linkbait, is the difficult part of SEO; unless your some sly genius who can create this stuff without any research. More power to anyone who can do that.

**Welcome ClickMagnet. You joined the right place to learn about SEO.

cre8pc: Hosting - Large Bandwidth Demands (Site Planning and Preparation)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:15:23 GMT

I can't answer your questions specifically but can say that I followed the recommendation by moderator, Joe Dolson, to switch my blog to icdsoft and I've been amazed at this host!

I'm putting a new site there, and using Drupal. Everytime I have a question or need help, including a recent weirdness where everyone could see my blog except me, their customer service responded to my emails IMMEDIATELY and with details and an attitude that showed patience and concern for me.

Highly recommended if you want a host that's responsive and ready to assist you with anything you may need.

JohnMu: Google Crawling Absolute Paths? (Google)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:15:00 GMT

O/T :-)

Sure we like custom 404 pages, but it's best if the URL returns 404 directly instead of being (301/302) redirected there. In Apache it's easy to get this wrong: if you specify the full URL for the 404 handler in your .htaccess file, it will actually redirect to that page. If that page is a static HTML page, it will likely return a code 200. On the other hand, if you specify a relative page, Apache will generally serve the 404 page instead of the missing URL, automatically setting the result code to 404.

If you have to redirect, I'm fairly certain that a 301 redirect would be the best kind of redirect, since it tells the crawlers that the old URL has changed and is no longer valid -- but even with a redirect, the final page should return result code 404.

Hope it helps!
John