"Philippine Web Support- web design and tutorials"

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

2011-10-06T01:09:00.001-07:00

Apple founder Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56 Click the link to view 128 photos In memories of Steve Jobs -...

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dead at 56

2011-10-05T19:04:00.001-07:00

Born in San Francisco in 1955, Jobs grew up near Cupertino, Calif. After attending Reed College in Portland for one semester (and auditing classes for free for several more), Jobs took a job at Atari, designing circuit boards. In 1976, Jobs co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak.

The two young men started out with a few thousand dollars in cash and a vision of changing the world. Over the course of the past 35 years, the company and Jobs have gone on to change the world, the personal computing industry, the music and film industries and the mobile industry as we know.

Apple released its first mass-market product, the Apple II in 1976. The Apple II helped ignite what would become known as “the personal computer revolution” and thrust the charismatic Jobs into the spotlight. By the time IBM released its first PC in 1981 and Commodore released the Commodore 64 in 1982, Apple was already hard at work on the product that would cement Apple’s place in computing history, the Macintosh.

Brazenly introduced to the world in 1984 via a Super Bowl ad directed by Ridley Scott, the Macintosh helped set the standard for personal computing paradigms for the next decade.

-------------------------------------------

Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985 over disagreements concerning vision, style and attitude. At the time, Jobs was written off by many in the business and industry press as a flash in the pan. It was Wozniak, not Jobs, they said, that was the real innovator at Apple.

In the decade that followed, Jobs was out of the limelight. Bill Gates became the face of the industry and the tech story of the 1990s was the rise of Microsoft. It was Microsoft, not Apple, that would topple IBM.

After leaving Apple in 1985, Jobs and some of his Apple founded NeXT with a cadre of Apple alumni. NeXT was well-financed and its software and hardware were top notch. Still, the products failed to make an impact on the industry.

Jobs's real success in the first half of the 1990s wasn't in the computer industry, but in the film industry. Pixar, a small animation studio Jobs acquired in 1986, went from obscurity to industry game-changer after the release of 1995's Toy Story. It was Pixar, not Apple -- and not NeXT -- that made Jobs a very rich man.

In late 1996, Jobs approached Apple to discuss his former company acquiring NeXT. Apple needed an operating system, NeXT had one, NeXTSTEP.

Within a few months of rejoining Apple, Jobs took over as interim CEO. It was at this point that the modern Jobs legacy began to take shape.

From 1997 until August 2011, Jobs was Apple's CEO, presiding over what can only be described as the greatest second and third acts in business history. Under his tutelage as CEO, Apple not only returned from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability, but products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad have single-handedly changed the consumer electronics and personal computing landscape.

Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene and his family.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

How To Enable Facebook Timeline now

2011-09-23T02:41:00.001-07:00

This morning Facebook announced Timeline, a crazy (and kind of creepy) omnibus look at everything that has ever happened in your Facebook lifespan. It’s like a story book of your life — or at least the online, documented parts.

Facebook said that Timeline would be on the way for everyone sometime in the coming weeks… which is great and all, for everyone else. You’re the type of person who reads TechCrunch, and are thus likely the type of person who likes their new and shiny things right now.

That’s okay. We can make it happen.

Fortunately, enabling Timeline a bit early isn’t too difficult — but it’s not at all straight forward, either.

You see, Facebook is enabling Timeline early for open graph developers. You, too, can be an open graph developer — even if you’re just looking to dabble.

A few things to note:
- You probably don’t want to do this unless you’re actually a developer. Expect bugs.
- Only you will see your timeline at first (unless you decide otherwise), but it will automatically go public after a few days. My timeline was automatically hard-set to go public on September 29th.
- It seems that if you login into Facebook on another machine, Timeline gets disabled automatically on all of your machines. With that said, it seems you can get back to your timeline (but ONLY after following the steps below) by navigating to http://www.facebook.com/YOURUSERNAMEHERE?sk=timeline
- You’ll need to have a “verified” account for one of the steps, which means you need a credit card or phone number attached to the account.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log into Facebook

2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.

3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)

4. Create a new app (don’t worry — you wont actually be submitting this for anyone else to see/use). Give your shiny new app any display name and namespace you see fit. Read through and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement. This is the step you need to be verified for.

5. Ensure you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page

6. Look for the “Open Graph” header, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.

Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”

7. This should drop you into an action type configuration page. Change a few of the default settings (I changed the past tense of “read” to “redd” — again, only you can see this unless you try and submit your application to the public directory), and click through all three pages of settings

8. Wait 2-3 minutes

9. Go back to your Facebook homescreen. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page

And you’re done! We’ve seen this work quite a few times now, so it should work without a hitch for just about anyone.

fast and furious 5

2011-05-03T03:27:00.003-07:00

Business Cards 24 designs

2011-01-25T01:17:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, business cards are no long in rectangle shape, people are trying to be creative to attract more attention and to give a better impression to other people. Unlike those ordinary business cards, they come in rectangle shape, in this collection, I have found 24 business cards in a shape that you might not even could imagine.

Affordable Business Card Printing Available at PsPrint.com

define:Social Networking

2011-01-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

Mga kahulugan ng Social Networking na nasa Web sa wikang Ingles:

A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking
The interaction between a group of people who share a common interest; Using social contacts to network; Using internet's network groups (such as Facebook and Twitter) to network and communicate between consumers and businesses
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/social_networking
The process of building online communities, often accomplished both through 'groups' and 'friends lists' that allow greater interaction on websites. Find out more about social networking.
webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/web20-glossary_2.htm
is an phenomenon that has recently taken over the web, allowing more connectivity and interaction between web users. Several websites, such as Facebook and MySpace are "virtual communities."
www.meetingtomorrow.com/cms-category/computer-glossary
Social networking-new means of communicating and sharing information between two or more individuals on an online community.
xlsuite.com/dictionary
sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the Internet, whether through their computer or mobile phone. These sites allow people to easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to construct and display an online network of contacts, often called 'friends'. ...
www.schools.sa.gov.au/speced2/a8_publish/modules/publish/content.asp
The practice by which internet users build relationships and bookmark important sites with like minded people.
www.omega2webdesign.com/glossaryofterms.html
A social networking site allows you to identify your contacts and establish a link between you and each of your contacts.
www.searchenginepartner.com/SEO-glossary.html
is the assembly, or coming together of individuals in specific groups or communities. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in schools or in the workplace, it is most popular online. ...
www.socialmediabuyingguide.org/community/glossary.htm
Social networking is linking people to each other in some way. Social networking sites bring people together who people interested in a particular subject.
www.webdesignseo.com/blogging-terms/web-20-terms.php
Social networking websites allow users to be part of a virtual community. The two most popular sites are currently Facebook and MySpace. These websites provide users with simple tools to create a custom profile with text and pictures. ...
glowvirtual.com/faqs/definitions.html
Most services are primarily web-based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on. ...
www.thehatcherblog.com/blog/
Interactive communication in which participants in online communities such as Facebook share thoughts, photos, etc. with members of their own personal networks in a controlled way.
sait-fds.editme.com/Sssss
this is where people develop networks of friends and associates. It forges and creates links between different people. Like social bookmarks (see below) a social network can form a key element of collaborating and networking.
edtechvision.org/

kung mahina ulo mo, google translate mo yan.

Free Icon Set for Web Developers: Coded

2010-12-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

Download the icon set for free

Blog Dictionary

2010-11-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

BLOGGING

Weblog- An online dated diary listing your periodic thoughts on a specific topic, often in reverse chronological order.
Blog – short form for weblog
Blogging - the act of posting on blogs
Blogger - a person who blogs
Blogosphere - The internet blogging community

BLOGGING FORMS

Photoblogging - a blog predominantly using and focusing on photographs and images. Photoblogs are created by photobloggers
Podcasting - a method of distributing multimedia files (audio / videos) online using feeds for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Podcasts are created by podcasters.
Autocasting - is an automated form of podcasting
Blogcasting - the blog and the podcast merged into a single website.
Vlogging - Also called video blogging. Shortened to vlog. Posted by vlogger. A variant on the blogging using video instead of text.
Audioblogging - Also called audioblog, MP3 blog or musicblogs. a variant on the blogging using audio instead of text. Created by audioblogger.
Moblogging - Also called moblogs. A blog posted and maintained via mobile phone. Moblogs are created by mobloggers.

BLOG COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS

Index page – the front page fo the blog
Header - the topmost part of the blog usually listing the blog title.
Footer - the most bottom part of the blog usually listing navigation and copyright statements
Sidebar - One or more columns along one or both sides of most blogs main page
Categories - A collection of topic specific posts
Post, Entry- individual articles that make up a blog
Comments - enabling readers to leave their remarks
Captcha - short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Those word and letter verification images you need to type in to show you are human and not a bot. Helful to block automated spam comments. more
Ping – Short for Packet Internet Grouper. Blog and ping helps to notify other blog tracking tools for updates, changes and trackbacks.
Trackback - A system by which a ping is sent to another blog to notify that their article has been mentioned by you
Pingback - See trackback.
Permalink - A link to a specific article
Tags - labelling / attaching keywords to collect similar posts
Tag cloud – Displaying tags lists or keywords in a blog.
Blogroll - list of links to other blogs in your sidebar. Also see blogrolling.com
Sideblog - A smaller blog usually placed in the sidebar of a blog.
Template - the blog presentation design
BlogThis - a function allows a blogger to blog the entry they a reading
Plugins - Small files that add improved functionality and new features. WordPress plugins can greatly improve your blog usage and interactivity
Dashboard - When you login to your blogging account, it is the first screen with all controls, tools and functions.
Archives – a collection of all your posts on one page. Can be categorized by month etc.
Expandable post summaries – show a small teaser part of the post on the index page that link to the full post. more
Jump – the continuation of a the story on another page to preserve space on index page.
FTP - short for file transfer protocol. Transferring file to and fro from your web host using FTP tools like Filezilla
WEB FEEDS

Web Feed – allows online users to subscribe to websites that change or add content regularly.
RSS - a family of web feed formats used for Web syndication. Short form for Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0), RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0). WordPress generates RSS 2.0
XML - short for eXtensible Markup Language. a general-purpose markup language for syndication formats used on blogs.
RDF - short for Resource Description Framework. A web content syndication format.
Atom - another specific web feed format. Blogger feeds are usually of this type.
OPML – short for Outline Processor Markup Language. It is an XML format for outlines. Easily import and export multiple blog subscriptions between different rss aggregators.
Photofeed- a web feed with image enclosures.
BLOGGING SOFTWARE / CLIENTS

Blogger - a free blogging platform by Google.
Blogspot - free Blogger hosting blog at name.blogspot.com
LiveJournal - free blogging tool by SixApart
Movable Type – paid blogging tool by SixApart
Typepad - paid blogging tool by SixApart
WordPress.org- Free. Easy to Upload, customize and upgrade.
WordPress.com – A WordPress blog hosted free for you.
Radio Userland – another blog publishing software package

TYPES OF BLOGS

Group blog- with multiple contributing bloggers.
Event blog – focussed on an event
Kittyblogger – writing about cats.
Celeblog – focused on a celebrity.
Celebriblog – maintained by a celebrity.
Clog Blog – written in Dutch and/or in Holland.
CEOBlog – run by a chief executive officer.
Plog - a project blog. Also for Amazon.com personalised weblogs
Movlogs - mobile video blogs.
Splog- a spam blog
Tech blog – focused on a technical subject.
Anonoblog – by an anonymous blogger
Linguablog - about linguistics, translation etc.
Metablog – a blog about blogging.
Milblog - a military blog.
Blawg – blogged by lawyer / related to legal stuff
Edu-blog – education oriented blog.
Progblog - A progressive blog.
Shocklog - provokes discussion by posting shocking content
Klog - used by company knowledge workers. by Kloggers
Blogsite - A web site that combines blog feeds from a number of different sources
Dark Blog- A non-public blog
Photocast- a photoblog that automatically updates when new photos are added.
BLOGGING HABITS

Metablogging - writing articles about blogging
Blogstipation - writer’s block for bloggers. Cant think of what to blog about?
Blogathy - I do not want to post today and I do not care about it
Blogopotamus - A long long blog post
Blogorrhea - unusually high output of articles
Bleg - To use one’s blog to beg for assistance etc.
Hitnosis - Refreshing your browser repeatedly to see if your hit counter or comments have increased
GAD - Google Adsense Disorder. Repeatedly checking your adsense earnings. more
Blego - Blog+Ego. Measuring blogger worth
Blog hopping – jumping from one blog to another
Blogroach - A commenter who rudely disagrees with posted content
Blogoholic - addicted to blogging
Blogorific = blogtastic – something which a blogger says is terrific
Blogsit - maintaining a blog while the primary blogger is on leave
Blogvertising - Also called blogvert. Advertising on a blog.
Blurker - a blog reader not posting comments, just lurking around quietly.
Blogathon - update your website every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. Maybe collect sponsorships. more
Blogiversary - your blog birthday
Blog Carnival – Links to other articles covering a specific topic.
Multiblog - running multiple blogs
Blog Tipping – Compliment 3 blogs on day 1 of every month. more
Blogger bash - a blogger party
Commenter - someone who leaves remarks / comments
Reciprocal Links - called link love. You link to my blog, I link to yours. To improve search engine rankings.
Linkbaiting - a habit of writing good content with the sole purpose of getting it linked from multiple sites.
Blogstorm – a large amount of blogosphere activity due to particular controversy. Also called Blog Swarm.
Blogsnob – refusing to respond to blog comments from “not-friends”.
Doppelblogger – plagiarize the content of another blogger. To Doppelblog.
Blogophobia – Fear of blogs and blogging.
Bloggerel – the same opinion posted repeatedly on a blog
BLOGGER TYPES

Problogger - professional blogger
Blognoscenti - especially knowledgable bloggers
Blogebrity - a famous blogger.
Blogerati - the blogosphere intelligentsia.
Commentariat - The community of those leaving comments.
Dooced - lost a job because of blog entries. To Dooce.
Blogther - a fellow blogger.
A-List- the top bloggers who influence the blogosphere.
Blogstar- blogger running a popular blog

OTHER BLOGGING TERMS

Bloggies- Annual blogging awards. more
MSM - Mainstream Media, or old media like newspapers etc.
BSM - Blogstream media. from most heavily trafficked blogs.
Blog Day – 31 August. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting and tell them. more
Blaudience - your blog audience.
Blargon - Also called Blogssary. Blogging slang and glossary. What I am telling you now.
Blogiversary - your blog birthday
Blogiverse – see blogosphere
XFN – short for XHTML Friends Network. Is a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks.
Blogonomics - blogging conference on a Blog Cruise in 2006. more
EFF - short for Electronic Frontier Foundation. A nonprofit group working to protect blogger rights.
Blog of Note – a recommended blog. more
Navbar - a navigation bar usually seen on top of Blogger blogspot hosted blogs. more
Blook - a book created from a blog. more
Hat Tip- acknowledgement of the source that tipped you the news.
Spomments- Spam comments
Blammer- Blog spammer
SOB- acronym for Successful and Outstanding Blogger. From successful-blog.com
Blogiday- you get fed up and take a holiday from blogging
BLOGGING TOOLS & SERVICES

Bloglines, Rojo, Newsgator, Kinja, – are News Aggregators that display content from syndicated Web content from web feed. Can be configured online or downloaded on your desktop. Like . Also called RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators or news readers
Pageflakes, Newsvine – Track multiple feeds on a single page by modules.
Odeo, Podnova – are Podcatchers, a form of aggregator used to automatically download podcasts and can sometimes transfer a portable media player. Like
Feedburner - a professional feed management system
Pingomatic, Pingoat – ping multiple blog tracking services. More
Feedblitz, Zokooda – Email subscriptions and newletter tools.
Technorati – a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere
b5media, 9rules – examples of popular blogging networks. Collection of blogs and bloggers providing great content, with revenue sharing sometimes.
K2, Blix – names of some popular wordpress themes.
Blogexplosion, Blogclicker- popular blog traffic generation / exchange services.
Adsense, Adbrite, CJ, Chitka, Blogads – popular affiliate programs to generate money from your blogs.
Sphere, Icerocket – blog search engines
Live Bookmarks – a firefox web browser feature. Update themselves automatically with the latest content from the Web.
Creative Commons – licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.
CoComment - Tracks your comments across different platforms and follow conversations
WBloggar, Ecto, Qumanna – desktop blog publishing tools
Mint, Mybloglog, Measuremap, Analytics – site traffic tracking tools.
Haloscan- free trackback service
YouTube, Rapidshare- puts video on your blog
Flickr, Imageshack - photo sharing service. Host images on your blog
Del.icio.us, furl, spurl – share social bookmarks.
Blogburst - Syndicating your feed to top publishers.
Bloggeropoly - professional blogger recruiting agency. more
Blogger code – a way to describe different types of bloggers. more
Bloggoggle - Directory of Blogging Professionals
BlogHer - where the women bloggers are. At Blogher.org
BLOG TRAFFIC SURGES

Digged - link posted on digg.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Slashdotted - link posted on slashdot.org driving huge traffic to your blog. more
Instalanche - link posted on instapundit.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Farked – link posted on fark.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Boing Boinged – link posted on boingboing.net driving huge traffic to your blog
MISCELLANEOUS BLOGGING TERMS

Ajax - acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. creates interactive web applications.
Greasemonkey - a firefox web browser extension that can alter the functionality of any website using specific scripts.
Wiki - a collaborative on-line software that allows readers to add and edit content.
SEO - search engine optimization. To improve your search engine rankings.
Page Rank – Google measures of importance of a page which reflects in its rankings.
CMS – short for Content management system. software used to publish and manage websites.
This post is constantly updated. Help me develop this blogging resource to include all popular blogging terms and create a useful blogging glossary. I repeat that this is NOT a substitute for dictionary meaning or a strict definition of these terms, but a simple layman approach to understanding what they mean. Please feel free to propose a better meaning in the comments.

by quickonlinetips

The Darwinian Evolution of Photoshop [Infographic]

2010-10-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Infographic: The Darwinian Evolution of Photoshop by Tech King

Dreamweaver tutorial 4d ajax demo

2010-08-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Dreamweaver tutorial 4d ajax demo

The First Philippine Web Design Conference

2010-05-22T02:58:00.001-07:00

delivers the latest breaking news and info

It’s finally here.
form function() & .class Web Design Conference is the first and only event in Asia for web designers by web designers. Initiated by the newly-formed Philippine Web Designers Organization, the conference provides a venue for discussion and learning of world-class standards, latest trends, current opportunities and challenges in the web design industry, and other emerging aspects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The event aims to unite over 400 professional and aspiring web designers to actively discuss work-related values and practices, exchange current web standards, compare experiences, and share stories to the next wave of web experts through a lively, interactive exchange of ideas. In the long term, the event aims to uplift the state of Philippines web design.
URL: http://formfunctionclass.com/
Date and time: July 10, 2009 from 8am to 5pm
Venue: Asian Institute of Management, Makati City
Schedule & speakers: (see website)
Sponsors: (see website)

bullet

2010-03-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

free Business Templates philwebsupport

2010-03-11T00:52:00.000-08:00

free Business Templates philwebsupport

2010-03-11T00:49:00.000-08:00

Asadal Business Templates
32 PSD | 4592x4341 | 2.04 GB

more.....

Free domain and Disk Storage Unlimited bluehost

2009-12-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

FEATURES INCLUDED / ALL ACCOUNTS	INCLUDED

	Disk Storage (NOW MORE!)	Unlimited

	*Host UNLIMITED* Domains (WOW!)**

	Free Drag and Drop Site Builder (NEW!)

	Free Domain Name

	Domain Privacy

	Support International Domain Names

	POP3/POP3 Secure Email Support	2,500

	IMAP/Secure IMAP Email Support	2,500

	3 Different Web Based Email Solutions

	Forwarding Email Accounts	Unlimited

	Email Autoresponder	Unlimited

	Gigs of Site Transfer (NOW MORE!)	Unlimited

	Add-on Domains	Unlimited

	Parked Domains	Unlimited

	Subdomains	Unlimited

	Additional FTP Accounts	1,000

	MySQL Databases	100

	PostgreSQL Databases	100

	CGI-BIN

	CGI Library

	Server Side Includes

	Frontpage 2000/2002 Extensions

	Account "Control Panel"

	FTP Access

	Shell Access (SSH)

	Override .htaccess Support

	Anonymous FTP

	Webmail (Browser Based Email)

	Log Files + Site Stats

	Customizable Error Pages

	Web File Manager

	Custom Cronjobs

	Hotlink Protection

	Spam Assassin Protection


	CGI / DATABASES	INCLUDED
	PHP 5

	Perl 5

	Python

	Ruby / Ruby on Rails

	Support For Custom PHP.INI Files

	MySQL 5 Database Server

	PostgreSQL Database Server

	Javascript/ DHTML

	Flash / Shockwave

	FREE WEBSITE PLUG-IN SCRIPTS	INCLUDED

	Message Forum (PHPBB and More)

	Form-mail Scripts

	Social Networking

	Web Blogs / Wordpress / b2evolution

	Mailing Lists

	Image Galleries / Coppermine (More!)

	Poll and Survey Software

	Moodle

	Tikiwiki

	Drupal and Joomla

	Project Management

	Help Center/Support Ticket

	Many, Many Others...

	E-COMMERCE FEATURES	INCLUDED

	SSL Secure Server

	OS Commerce Shopping Cart

	Agora Shopping Cart

	Cube Cart Shopping Cart

	Zen Cart Shopping Cart

	Free Generated Certificate

	Password Protected Directories

	OpenPGP / GPG Encryption

	MULTIMEDIA FEATURES	INCLUDED

	Supports Streaming Video

	Supports Streaming Audio

	Real Audio & Video Support

	Flash Support

	Macromedia Shockwave

	MIDI File Support

	Add Own MIME Types


	WORLD CLASS TECHNOLOGY	INCLUDED

	Quad Processor Performance Servers

	UPS Power Backup

	Diesel Generator Backup Power

	Linux Operating System

	Customized Apache Web Server

	24/7 Network Monitoring

	Courtesy Site Backups

	OC-48 Backbone Connection


	SITE PROMOTION	INCLUDED

	Search Engine Submission	FREE

Z-Index CSS Property: A Comprehensive Look in philwebsupport.com

2009-09-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Most CSS properties are quite simple to deal with. Often, applying a CSS property to an element in your markup will have instant results — as soon as you refresh the page, the value set for the property takes effect, and you see the result immediately. Other CSS properties, however, are a little more complex and will only work under a given set of circumstances.

The z-index property belongs to the latter group. z-index has undoubtedly caused as much confusion and frustration as any other CSS property. Ironically, however, when z-index is fully understood, it is a very easy property to use, and offers an effective method for overcoming many layout challenges.

In this article, we’ll explain exactly what z-index is, how it has been misunderstood, and we’ll discuss some practical uses for it. We’ll also describe some of the browser differences that can occur, particularly in previous versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox. This comprehensive look at z-index should provide developers with an excellent foundation to be able to use this property confidently and effectively.

What is it?

The z-index property determines the stack level of an HTML element. The “stack level” refers to the element’s position on the Z axis (as opposed to the X axis or Y axis). A higher z-index value means the element will be closer to the top of the stacking order. This stacking order runs perpendicular to the display, or viewport.

3-dimensional representation of the Z axis:

In order to clearly demonstrate how z-index works, the image above exaggerates the display of stacked elements in relation to the viewport.

by smashing mag

Ftemi website design 1

2009-08-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Ftemi website design 2

2009-08-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Ftemi website design 3

2009-08-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Joomla tutorial : backup files

2009-08-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is designed to teach you how to create a backup of your Joomla website.

To make a backup of your Joomla application you need to download all your Joomla files to your local computer and to export the database that Joomla uses.

How to download your Joomla files?

To back up the Joomla files to your computer please, use an FTP client to connect to your account. Then navigate to your Joomla application folder and download it to your local computer. Here you can learn more about how to configure and use an FTP client.

How to export/backup your Joomla database?

To export/backup your database please check the how to backup/restore MySQL database tutorial.

Well done! You have successfully created a backup copy of your Joomla system!.

Please, find here more about how to create a backup of your site and restore it.

using xampp will help as a local server and download a joomlapack for security of your files

philwebsupport.com

Photos from toycon. market market

2009-07-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Do you know?

Onepiece created her in the philippines

Photos from toy con. market market

2009-07-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Web Design Interface skin 37 philwebsupport

2009-07-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

philwebsupport

Web Design Interface skin 36

2009-07-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

web design and development skin.10

2009-07-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.philwebsupport.com/galleries.html

cghmcgh

http://www.philwebsupport.com/galleries.html

web design and development skin.9

2009-07-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.philwebsupport.com/galleries.html

Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects

2009-06-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

How many times have you been completely confused at how that ’small’ project turned into such a big one costing double and taking three times the length you estimated? Many of you will say estimating time for web projects accurately is an oxymoron, but by applying a few effective techniques it’s possible to dramatically increase the accuracy of most web project estimates.
1. Why Underestimating Is So Common
There are several reasons, which are freely admitted amongst freelancers and web agencies, as to why web projects are so commonly underestimated - they include:
The technologies required by the project have never been used before
At the time of estimating, there are grey areas or complete unknowns
The client operates in a specialized industry and the solution needs bespoke features that are not familiar to the supplier
Splitting the project down into the detail would require as much as work as the requirements gathering phase that is chargeable

However, there are also some secret reasons why web projects are commonly underestimated:
The client needs an estimate for their project tomorrow or they will go elsewhere
Revenue needs for cash flow now trump the effects of not winning the new work now
No previous project ‘estimated vs. actual’ data analysis has been conducted to draw on
Estimating time for a project is not fun
Despite being true, rarely do we admit these reasons to others or even ourselves! The fact is, when working as a web professional, as a one man band or as part of a small busy web team, the secret reasons are an everyday reality that shouldn’t be hidden away.
By first identifying and admitting why underestimating is so common, can you then set about implementing changes to your estimating process that will reduce the barriers each reason creates and increase your accuracy.
Technologies Not Used Before
There are three approaches you can take when confronted with a brief that requires a technology you have minimal experience with:
Negotiate a paid for functional specification phase as a first step
Consider hiring an expert
Research in your own time and make your best guess
Try to negotiate with the client a mini-project where you are paid to conduct a research and functional planning stage before committing to the whole project. This way you can research the unfamiliar technology and deliver a functional specification to the client.

Best case scenario
You give the client confidence, have a much clearer understanding of the work required, re-estimate and are hired for the rest of the project.
Worst case
You have completed foundation learning of a technology you previously didn’t know that you can sell to new clients, you generate revenue and the client has a comprehensive specification they can use in their tender process.
Added bonus
You, and the client, get to find out how you work together, giving both the opportunity to part company before being locked into a lengthy project.
If you’re not able to convince the client to pay for this initial functional planning stage, and can’t find a suitable expert in the technology, but want the work and have confidence in your ability and passion to learn what needs to be learnt, then the best advice is to do some initial research in your own time and just take your best guess!
Estimating Takes Too Long
Thorough web project estimating takes time, but it tends to inherit all the same rules that apply to coding, the more thorough you are, the more accurate you’ll be.
Is it possible you will spend time working out the features required only to learn you haven’t won the work? Will you have given the client a free and detailed breakdown of their project for free? Absolutely, but this is the just nature of sales, some you win, some you lose - don’t get disheartened, try to get feedback from the client on why you didn’t win and use the advice given to refine your next estimation.
Estimate Is Needed Tomorrow
If a client is demanding an estimate tomorrow after briefing you on the project today you should immediately try to assess if the project is right for you by:
Determining if the response rate being demanded by the client, and any previous communication, is a sign of the type of client they will be to work with
Assessing if the potential gain to your business from the project (high profile client or long-term repeat business) is worth the risk of underestimating and going over budget
Trying to confirm a ball park budget range with the client so you can estimate realistically, or politely decline if far too low. The best kind of clients are experienced enough to know this is not someone looking to use up all their hard earned cash but someone looking to provide the best solution they can for the budget
If the results of these quick steps are favorable, be positive and go for it! There will be another chance to decline if you later find out the project is not right for you, and then you may utter the words “Into the garbage chute, flyboy!”

Cash Flow Dilemma
Cash flow is the life blood of any freelancer or small web agency, without they don’t survive.
Occasionally a situation may arise where work will be taken on with the knowledge it may not be profitable. As gut wrenching as this can be, and despite all the comments you will hear how you should never do this, the reality is the bills and wages have to be paid!
When a freelancer or business owner is presented with the choice of committing to a project for a price they know is low, but by taking on the project means they live to fight another month, or risking not taking on the work on in the hope more profitable leads appear - empathise with and respect them.
It is a tough and gutsy decision that only they can make but rest assured they have their bills or your wages at the forefront of their mind when they make it and estimating low for a project isn’t always as naive a decision as it may appear to those not on the frontline.
Estimating Is Not Fun
Ok, so it’s not as sexy as adding that beautiful grunge effect to your design, and it’s not as exciting as tweaking that jQuery plugin to work just the way you want, but estimating time for a web project more accurately is almost certainly more important than both when it comes to sustaining a freelance or small web agency business.
However, while few will disagree as to its importance, many will continually find it difficult to muster up the passion and diligently estimate time for a web project, but why!? Here are more secret reasons:
It’s hard work and takes many outside their comfort zone
Estimating usually has to be completed alongside your plans for your already fully booked week
It forces you to try and predict the future
It makes you largely responsible for the business’s sales success, solution offered, project profitability and growth and survival of your business (scary stuff!)
Web agencies often have the edge here because they will have dedicated salespeople or project managers who are used to the rigors of estimating, but freelancers will generally be more inclined to find the whole process rather boring and just want to get on with the fun stuff.
While we can all no doubt empathise with this, the harsh truth is that, when running a small business or operating as a one man band, one or two badly estimated projects in quick succession can ultimately lead to the demise of both!
So what other techniques can be used to further increase the accuracy of your estimates?
2. Consistent Project Phases And Tasks
As previously mentioned, when being asked to provide an estimate for a project, it is invariably not something anyone has allocated time to do. As a result of this, estimates are often put together quickly and if compared to past estimates it’s not uncommon to see the same project phase or task classified in many different ways, and for similar sized projects the estimates for each to be completely different.

If you win the work you may think “so what?”, and to some extent you would be right, however, the first step in creating more accurate estimates on a long-term basis is to always break down the project phases and tasks in a consistent manner. Web projects can generally be broken down into the following phases:
Research and planning
Solution design
Design
Front-end development
Back-end development
Content entry
Testing
Go-live
By always beginning to compile estimates using a consistent high-level breakdown means you can have a re-usable template eventually and track the time spent on each.
But don’t stop there! Consistently breaking each phase down further will not only increase the accuracy of the estimate, but again, also result in valuable data over time.
3. Getting Granular

Now the project estimate is broken down into high-level phases, it’s time to get more granular and break each phase into tasks. This is where the estimate begins to become more tailored to the specific project, but also includes common tasks that you can add to your estimating template and use again and again. For example:
Research and planning
Requirements gathering
Project planning
Solution design
Sitemap
Wireframes
User workflows
Functional specification
Design
Initial homepage look and feel
Content page
Master content page template
News main page
News item
Front-end development
5x Templates build XHTML/CSS
JavaScript and AJAX
Cross-browser fixes
Back-end development
CMS Setup and configuration
News feature
Contact us form
Content entry
Homepage copy
Addition of 10x News items
Testing
Internal functional testing
Client User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Go-live
Live server setup
301 re-directs from old site URLs to new
The page templates and features specific to the client’s project can be listed at this stage, alongside the tasks required in all web projects.
Once you get into the habit of compiling estimates in this way you will find yourself envisaging the phase and tasks lists during the pre-sales initial communication with the client and this invariably:
Refines your requirements gathering skills to quickly get the information you need in order to put together a thorough estimate
Forces you to think the project through in a step-by-step fashion and minimises the chances of missing a large, or several small, tasks that could end up putting you over budget because you didn’t factor them in
So, you now have a pretty solid phase and task list for the project and all that’s left is to estimate hours for each and send it off to the client right? Maybe, but wait, what exactly does the News feature consist of? Is your interpretation of a News feature the same as the client’s?
Now is the time to investigate and define it, as opposed to after the contracts have been signed.
Getting More Granular
While it’s tempting to estimate hours for the News feature and submit to the client, if possible, try to nail down exactly what the client wants from this feature at the estimating stage, after all, if you look around, you’ll be able to quickly find different variations of the same feature that have a huge differences in terms of size, features and complexity, and thus cost.
Using the News feature as an example, talk to the client and determine what it needs to do so that you can again minimise the chances of missing something in your estimate that could, when added to the other ’small’ missed tasks, amount to a serious budget overrun situation.
You may find out the News feature requirements are:
News feature
Add/edit/delete news item
Upload image
Attach PDF
Auto-archiving
RSS
Excellent, you have now defined the News feature and can confidentially estimate the time you think it will take to implement. But hidden in even the most basic and common of features lay more ’small’ things that if not captured, considered and quoted on, can add to the likelihood of overrun.
For example, the client has specified they need to be able to upload images to news items, but do they need any of the following:
Auto-resize capability?
Auto-thumbnail generation?
Full-screen viewing?
Caption addition facility?
Any of the above News features could add a few hours to the overall project and thus need to be ideally catered for in your estimates - a few missed ‘couple of hours’ tasks and suddenly the project is two days over budget.
Getting granular and mentally trying to build the solution means you are able to identify and address these issues early on, making sure to cater for them in your final estimate.
“A Web Project Manager knows how to design and develop most of the project on his own, even if with poorer results compared to his team. This allows him to estimate projects with good approximation and to understand his team’s problems and difficulties”
Introduction to Web Project Management, Antonio Volpon
Advantages Of Getting Granular, For You And The Client
By getting granular with project phases and tasks for estimates you are also able to tweak them very quickly if you discover the estimate you have submitted is above the client’s maximum budget.
For example, how often have you been told by a client they want to go with you but your quote is ‘just a little too high’ and ‘if you could reduce it by five hours we can business’? Usually this means you have to do one of two things; drop the hours you estimated for the News feature and hope you can explain later down the line how the budget does not allow for image uploads and thumbnail generation etc., or remove the News feature altogether.
But, if you have a granular estimate for the News feature, you can confidentially, and at this crucial expectation setting stage, simply remove a couple of sub-features of News and the News image upload functionality in order to align with the client’s budget.
When communicating this to the client they will clearly see what you are proposing to drop and why and they will still get the News feature they need, but perhaps with a few less nice to haves. Using this approach is usually well received by clients as they have full and transparency on the reasoning behind the changes to your proposal.
This kind of transparency during the sales process will invariably give the client confidence in you because it demonstrates to them you:
Are an expert in your field
Can envisage the project in its entirety
Adopt a diligent and methodical approach and more than likely will continue to work this way on their project
Best of all, if you are successful with your estimate and you are hired you already have the foundations of:
An instant statement of work
A defined project scope
The timings you need to put together an accurate project schedule with milestones
Client expectations settings very early
Demonstrated your thoroughness and understanding of their business and requirements to the client
So what now? Well, now you have won the work, it’s time to start collecting the data that will enable you to create even more accurate estimates in the future.
4. Consistent Time Tracking And Analysis
Before starting the work, you should first replicate all of the phases and tasks, along with their time estimates, into your time tracking tool of choice. Once this is done, you can then begin work and make sure to be disciplined and track everything you do and log it under the right category.

Of course many of you will do this by default as it allows you to:
Know how long you have to complete each phase
View how long you have for each task and sub-task
Reporting on how long everything actually took
But the real value of keeping a consistent set of high-level phases, from estimate through to time tracking, is that after a few projects you can begin toanalyse the data and start to identify averages and trends that you can use to refine your next web project estimate.
Analyse Estimated vs. Actual Time
This is where the real magic happens! By breaking down and tracking your time for multiple projects into consistent phases and tasks, you will have valid comparable data to analyse, for example, after five projects, once you average out the numbers, you may well discover the following:
Research and planning took around 5% of the total project time to complete
Solution design: 5%
Design: 25%
Front-end development: 15%
Back-end development: 30%
Content entry: 8%
Testing: 10%
Go-live: 2%
The more projects completed that use a consistent estimating and time tracking structure, the more real your averages will become.

With this valuable information you can then set about increasing the accuracy of your next estimate by being able to, assuming you can get a budget range from the client:
Immediately allocate the estimated hours you need for each phase
Determine the best solution you can offer the client for their budget
It even allows you to accommodate the client that ‘needs an estimate tomorrow’ when you don’t have time to break it down in detail.
Conclusion

How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content philwebsupport

2009-05-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

Philippine web support

Branding experts hit the nail on the head when they say that a winning brand conveys why you are your prospects’ only solution. If you can’t achieve that, you should at least convey why you are your prospects’ best solution. Of course, the same logic applies to your clients. So make a compelling claim about your business, product or service, and back it up.

Are you the biggest or most popular provider of your type of product? Do you provide the widest selection of services? Do you leverage strategic partnerships? Create patented technology? Offer convenient locations? Or are you young and small, able to churn out customized solutions swiftly, unlike your much larger and slower competitors?

Branding
Image credit: Emily Berezin

Define your strengths and leverage them. Purposefully written Web copy that effectively tells your prospects why they should buy from you or your client can make a world of difference on the sales front. In fact, if done right, it can actually disqualify the competition.

Here’s an example. A client in the medical X-ray field had Web copy that contained vague statements such as, “We’re dedicated to providing you with the highest level of professional service possible.” That’s not a hook. Any business can state that on its website, and most do. Some basic research revealed that the client is the only business in the region that owns and operates the most advanced medical equipment in the industry. As a result, it could provide the most accurate X-rays on the same business day. No competitor in its market could make the same claim.

That simple fact differentiated our client and became a large part of its selling proposition. That’s conveying real value.

You Are What You Write

Through words, we form a personality, set a tone and create expectations – for better or for worse. When communicating in person, you have the luxury of giving and receiving verbal feedback and expressing yourself with body language and facial gestures, all in real time. Your prospects can peer into your eyes to help them decide whether to trust you and accept what you’re telling them.

However, when potential clients visit your website, they don’t have the same opportunity to size you up. Your online visitors can’t look you in the eye, so they look to your messages to help them decide whether to trust your brand, your business and you.

Hence, the words you use on your website should project the personality of your products, services and business. Your Web copy must form and foster a clear verbal identity, reflecting who you are and who you strive to be. It signifies what you stand for and promise to deliver.

Speak your audience's language
Speak your audience’s language. Your Web writing should put forth a “voice” that resonates with your intended audience. Macinhome connects with Mac enthusiasts by featuring Apple-influenced Web copy, including everything from smart, snappy comments to ending headlines with periods.

Consider the following copy from three auto manufacturers’ websites. Mercedes, in the first excerpt, positions itself as the ultimate luxury vehicle:

“Enjoy bold, spirited styling with an air of sleek confidence. A distinctive radiator grille nose hints at the power that lies beneath the hood. The highly characteristic tail, with dual tailpipes will put a look of awe on the faces of all those you leave in the dust. The SLK-Class is the ultimate combination of classic sporty personality and effortless poise and assurance.”

BMW boasts performance:

“Do bear in mind that 0-100 km/h in 5 seconds limits your chances of actually spotting the BMW M Coupe on the road. For that you can thank a 330 hp in-line six engineered to peak at an astounding 7,900 rpm. Raw power is unleashed precisely through a short-throw, 6-speed manual and is kept in-check by massive compound, cross-drilled brakes.”

Volvo tries to make its name synonymous with safety:

“Preventative safety features like Dynamic Stability and Traction Control (DSTC) help you, the driver, avoid accidents by evading them. And nothing is safer for you than no accident at all. So every Volvo is equipped with a variety of innovative preventative safety features, many of which are, of course, uniquely Volvo, developed by Volvo safety engineers over years of research, design and testing, both in the laboratory and the real world.”

Each individual message builds on its respective brand to create distinctiveness and value, in a bid to engage the targeted audience. And the words that Mercedes, BMW and Volvo choose have a direct impact on each of their bottom lines.
What Does Your Brand Stand For?

Your Web copy needs to define who you are and what you sell and cater to your target market’s specific needs. Moreover, your Web copy requires a distinct and consistent voice that expresses the value of the relationship you’re seeking, accompanied by assurance. Only then can it forge a truly emotional connection with prospective and established customers alike.

Speak your audience's language
Bring a little bit of “you” into your website. While many businesses post employee photos on websites, why not quote employees in your Web content? By doing so, MarketingAnd not only brings a human element into its website, but effectively positions its staff as industry experts.

To build your brand with words, your Web copy needs to take into account:

* Existing perceptions of your products, services and company,
* The actual position you occupy now on these fronts.

Recognize the gap between these two points and how they compare to where you want to be. The difference needs to be made up through your communications, from your policies to your product packaging to your Web copy.

Following are some key elements to help you foster a relationship between your brand and your customers:

Word association
What are your core strengths? What do you promise customers? Invest time to determine what you’re good at, thus focusing on your strengths. Your words in turn establish a relationship with customers by laying out your benefits, whether functional, emotional or self-expressive.

Image
Your words can sway consumers into associating certain attributes with your brand. This can shift how they see you in relation to the competitors in your marketplace, potentially even altering who you compete with. Some ingenuity can set you apart from the others to the point that your competition appears bland.

Character
Your Web copy should take into account where you come from, who you are and what you stand for. This is your guiding light. Be authentic. One step beyond your character could tarnish your integrity.

Culture
Your website content should reflect the values that give life to your business. While you don’t need to list your core values, your Web copy should draw on this framework. Ensure that it resonates with the values in and around your business.

Personality
Your Web copy needs to bring to light your business’ human characteristics, including everything from age to class to personality traits. Get creative with delivery. For instance, many businesses post employee photos on their websites. But why not actually quote employees in your Web content? It’s a great way to put a human face to your company and promote your staff as industry experts.

Spirit
Does your Web copy represent the emotional elements and values of your business? Demonstrate authenticity and commitment to creating a spirit that’s not only engaging but contagious.

So how can you differentiate your offerings? What’s different about your approach? Perhaps you can leverage:

* Selection
* Experience
* Knowledge
* Credentials
* Expediency
* Style
* Technology
* Geography
* Alliances
* Resources
* Tools
* Customer service
* Or one of many other factors

There’s no value in everyone knowing you if they don’t know what you stand for and what you can do for them. Plus, the more reasons you give people to choose your brand, the less price becomes a factor in their purchasing decision.

Use words that clearly demonstrate how a prospective customer’s world will be made easier, more lucrative, healthier, happier and so on, with you in the picture. This overall message can then be continually reinforced not just on your website, but also in print materials, advertising, trade show presentations, press releases and so on.

Never forget that words, like design, are the foundation of communication. They help us express, understand and learn. They are invaluable to influencing your visitors’ decision-making process and loyalty.

Choose your words wisely. Failing to do so could result in a brand that’s problematic, rather than a means to a solution.

10 xhtml errors in website validator

2009-04-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

That said, here are some of the top 10 xhtml errors by philwebsupport:

1. The use of a raw amperstand in a link query string. The w3c validator reports this as “cannot generate system identifier for general entity” because you’ve tried to create a new entity &xxxxxxx and not an encoded & amp ; in the string. Replace all & with & in urls.
2. The forgotten alt tag. The w3c validator reports this as “required attribute “alt” not specified,” which means that for every img tag you have, you must have an attribute alt=”something”. So, what you need to do is change to .
3. Missing end tags. The w3c validator reports this as “end tag for “img” omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified” for your particular tag–what it means is that you used a singleton tag, that is, a tag that stands by itself and doesn’t have an inherent end tag, so you must use the xml style / delimiter to signify that the tag ends itself. So, instead of you would write .
4. Incorrect nesting of lists. Please do not place lists inside a paragraph tag. The w3c reports this error as “document type does not allow element “ul” here; missing one of “object”, “applet”, “map”, “iframe”, “button”, “ins”, “del” start-tag.”
5. Incorrect nesting of tags. Think of tags as a stack–as you add new tags to your text, you close the most immediate one first, or you’ll get errors like this: “end tag for “strong” omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified” and “end tag for element “strong” which is not open.” Instead, change to
6. Oh, the horrors of flash. Did you know it’s really hard to embed flash properly? Luckily, the problem has been solved by people: www.alistapart.com/articles/flashsatay/ who basically took the Macromedia output and stripped it down. Sad, though, that they didn’t build up from the spec…
7. Where’s the doctype? Again, ALA to the rescue with an informative article on document typing: www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/. If your site doesn’t have a doctype, it’s not a well-formed html document!
8. Javascript events are lowercase. How many times have you followed standard coding conventions and written your onclick handler as an onClick handler? Probably too many to tell. Just make it lowercase, and that “there is no attribute “onClick”” will go away!
9. Using propietary CSS extensions. Even if you’re tempted to use the word-wrap property on a blockquote or a right float, don’t. The microsoft or Mozilla-only CSS extensions aren’t good down the road when you want to upgrade your site technology.
10. Some things need a type, javascript for example. If you forget the type=”text/javascript” from your script declaration, or the type=”text/css” from your stylesheet, it won’t validate, for obvious reasons.

philwebsupport helps your website simple and validated

Wrath of the Lich King Guide

2009-04-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

Watch more videos of WoW

philwebsupport -15 Essential Checks before Launching Your Website:

2009-04-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

15 Essential Checks before Launching Your Website:
1. Favicon - A favicon brands the tab or window in which your website is open in the user’s browser. It is also saved with the bookmark so that users can easily identify pages from your website.

2. Titles and Meta Data - Your page title is the most important element for SEO and is also important so that users know what’s on the page. Make sure it changes on every page and relates to that page’s content.
3. Cross-Browser Checks - check it in IE and see that everything is broken. It’s important that your website works across browsers. It doesn’t have to be pixel perfect, but everything should work, and the user shouldn’t see any problems. The most popular browsers to check are Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Chrome, Opera and the iPhone.

4. Read again - Read everything. Even if you’ve already read it, read it again. Get someone else to read it. There’s always something you’ll pick up on and have to change. See if you can reduce the amount of text by keeping it specific. Break up large text blocks into shorter paragraphs. Add clear headings throughout, and use lists so that users can scan easily. Don’t forget about dynamic text too, such as alert boxes.

5. Links - Don’t just assume all your links work. Click on them. You may often forget to add “http://” to links to external websites. Make sure your logo links to the home page, a common convention.
Also, think about how your links work. Is it obvious to new users that they are links? They should stand out from the other text on the page. Don’t underline text that isn’t a link because it will confuse users. And what happens to visited links?
6. Functionality Check - Test everything thoroughly. If you have a contact form, test it and copy yourself so that you can see what comes through. Get others to test your website, and not just family and friends but the website’s target market. Sit back and watch how a user uses the website. It’s amazing what you’ll pick up on when others use your website differently than how you assume they’d use it. Common things to check for are contact forms, search functions, shopping baskets and log-in areas.
7. Graceful Degradation - Your website should work with JavaScript turned off. Users often have JavaScript turned off for security, so you should be prepared for this. You can easily turn off JavaScript in Firefox. Test your forms to make sure they still perform server-side validation checks, and test any cool AJAX stuff you have going on.
8. Validation - You should aim for a 100% valid website. That said, it isn’t the end of the world if your website doesn’t validate, but it’s important to know the reasons why it doesn’t so that you can fix any nasty errors. Common gotchas include no “alt” tags, no closing tags and using “&” instead of “&” for ampersands.

• W3C validator

9. RSS Link - If your website has a blog or newsreel, you should have an RSS feed that users can subscribe to. Users should be able to easily find your RSS feed: the common convention is to put a small RSS icon in the browser’s address bar.

10. Analytics - Installing some sort of analytics tool is important for measuring statistics to see how your website performs and how successful your conversion rates are. Track daily unique hits, monthly page views and browser statistics, all useful data to start tracking from day 1. Google Analytics is a free favorite among website owners. Others to consider are Clicky, Kissmetrics (still in closed beta yet), Mint and StatCounter.
11. Sitemap - Adding a sitemap.xml file to your root directory allows the major search engines to easily index your website. The file points crawlers to all the pages on your website. XML-Sitemaps automatically creates a sitemap.xml file for you. After creating the file, upload it to your root directory so that its location is www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml.
If you use WordPress, install the Google XML Sitemaps plug-in, which automatically updates the sitemap when you write new posts. Also, add your website and sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. This tells Google that you have a sitemap, and the service provides useful statistics on how and when your website was last indexed.

12. Defensive Design - The most commonly overlooked defensive design element is the 404 page. If a user requests a page that doesn’t exist, your 404 page is displayed. This may happen for a variety of reasons, including another website linking to a page that doesn’t exist. Get your users back on track by providing a useful 404 page that directs them to the home page or suggests other pages they may be interested in.

13. Optimize - You’ll want to configure your website for optimal performance. You should do this on an ongoing basis after launch, but you can take a few simple steps before launch, too. Reducing HTTP requests, using CSS sprites wherever possible, optimizing images for the Web, compressing JavaScript and CSS files and so on can all help load your pages more quickly and use less server resources.

Besides, depending on the publishing engine that you are using, you may need to consider taking more specific measures – for instance, if you are using WordPress, you may need to consider useful caching techniques to speed up the performance.

14. Back Up - If your website runs off a database, you need a back-up strategy. Or else, the day will come when you regret not having one. If you use WordPress, install Wordpress Database Backup, which you can set up to automatically email you backups.

15. Print Style Sheet - If a user wants to print a page from your website, chances are she or he wants only the main content and not the navigation or extra design elements. That’s why it is a good idea to create a print-specific style sheet. Also, certain CSS elements, such as floats, don’t come out well when printed.
To point to a special CSS style sheet that computers automatically use when users print a page, simply include the following code between your tags.

source in philwebsupport

pusada mock up web 2.0

2009-03-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

web design and development skin.35

2009-03-10T17:59:00.000-07:00

web design and development skin.34

2009-03-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

web design and development skin.33

2009-02-27T02:36:00.000-08:00

web design and development skin.31

2009-02-27T01:55:00.001-08:00

web design and development skin.30

2009-02-27T01:19:00.000-08:00

web site design and development

web design and development skin.32

2009-02-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin20

2009-02-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

sample mockup for conveyancing

2009-02-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

mock up design philwebsupport 1

2009-02-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

mock up design philwebsupport

2009-02-06T02:19:00.000-08:00

web design and development skin for aspdotnetstorefront skin_2

2009-01-19T03:09:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin20

2009-01-15T02:47:00.000-08:00

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

2009-01-06T01:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin19

2008-12-23T00:23:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin18

2008-12-16T03:31:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin15

2008-12-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Paradise Philippines~Philweb Support

Paradise Philippines

JOC Marketing

Paradise Philippines~Offshore Outsourcing

Paradise Philippines~Philweb

Paradise Philippines~JOC

Paradise Philippines~Outsourcing

Paradise Philippines~Philweb

Paradise Philippines~MIT-MC

Paradise Philippines~Adventure Racing

Paradise Philippines~Trek Gear

Breaking news World

Lifestyle and leisure

Travel Advisory

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin16

2008-12-05T03:41:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin14

2008-12-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev. skin12

2008-12-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

philwebsupport-webdesign and dev.

2008-12-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

skin 13

2008-12-02T02:31:00.000-08:00

skin13

Autocad~triangular shelves

2008-09-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

this is my sample work in autocad. a sample triangular shelves in our office

thanks google

2008-09-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

this photo is taken inside banco de oro. I always deposit a $100 monthly because of google ads. thanks google

Microsoft taking a sip of Midori

2008-09-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, Microsoft is pursuing a different type of operating system, which goes by the name of Midori. And, no, it's not the next version of Windows.

The Midori subject has gotten a great deal of attention in recent days, with the fires only fanned by the fact that Microsoft has refused to say anything about Midori beyond confirming that it is an "incubation project" within the company. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley noted its existence in her Microsoft 2.0 book, while more recently SDTimes posted a bunch of details on Midori based on internal documents.

From there, there has been plenty of speculation about what Midori is and isn't.
Microsoft's Eric Rudder

Eric Rudder, Microsoft's executive vice president for technical strategy, is heading up the Midori effort.
(Credit: Microsoft)

Here's what I've been able to confirm:

Midori is related to Singularity, a research project that dates back to 2003 and is basically a look at how one might architect an operating system from the ground up, given what we know now about computing and where things are headed in terms of parallelism and cloud computing. Longtime Microsoft engineer Eric Rudder is the one leading up the Midori effort.

Whereas Singularity was a research effort firmly confined to a small team of researchers inside Microsoft's in-house labs, Midori is an effort to see if there is something commercially viable that could come out of it, though it could be years off and come in pieces if it comes at all.

The one public mention I found to Midori was within a research paper on a bug-finding program called Chess. On one PowerPoint slide, it mentions a list of "current Chess applications" of which one bullet point is "Singularity/Midori (OS in managed code)."

That syncs with the SDTimes report, which talks about Midori as an OS for the age in which computing resources can be either local or in the Internet cloud and in which processing tasks can be split among multiple processors and multiple machines.

It's worth noting that Microsoft often has incubation projects that seek to explore whether an all-new approach to a product might be justified. That said, up to this point, every update to Office and Windows has been some type of incremental improvement, not a ground-up rewrite.

Back in 2000, the company had an effort called NetDocs that many thought might replace Office with an online productivity suite. Eight years--and at least three Office versions later--people are still wondering when we will see such a product from Redmond.

That suggests to me that the arrival of Midori or some similar approach as a Windows successor is something that is a long way off, if it ever happens.

Microsoft has struggled to change even single subsystems of the Windows operating system, such as the file system. Microsoft has had both Cairo and WinFS projects, ultimately opting instead to stick with trying to build on top of what is already there.

The fact, though, that Microsoft is thinking about new ways it might do an operating system should not come as a surprise. I'd be surprised if they weren't exploring that idea.

What will be more interesting is if Microsoft actually does release something all-new. With its much smaller and mostly consumer base, Apple has shown several times a willingness to sacrifice compatibility in order to take the Mac in a new direction--most notably the shifts from 68000 processors to PowerPC, from OS 9 to OS X and from PowerPC to Intel chips. Microsoft, though, with its huge base of business and consumer users, has long favored compatibility over new capabilities and approaches.

The question is how long this approach can continue. I (and others) have been asking for some time whether Windows hasn't gotten too difficult to update. Take Longhorn/Vista. After a few years of work, Microsoft decided the major architectural changes it was planning were too drastic. It went back to the drawing board, but even the more modest changes it made with Vista have come under attack.

I wonder if, in this day and age, it wouldn't be possible for Microsoft to emulate all of Windows, while moving forward with a more modern software approach, sort of like Apple did with the "classic" mode in OS X. I have no idea if that's anywhere in the cards or not.

But if anyone wants to share some more Midori--I'm up for another round.

Google misses profit expectation, stock plunges

2008-07-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Faith in Google's financial strength, restored somewhat last quarter, turned out to be fragile as the company reported earnings Thursday that fell short of analyst expectations.

Google's net income rose 35 percent to $1.25 billion for its second quarter, the search giant said. Excluding various items, it reported earnings of $4.63 per share, short of the $4.74 expected on average by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Google revenue continued its upward trajectory in the second quarter, but not to the satisfaction of Wall Street. (Click image to see larger version.)

(Credit: Google)

In after-hours trading, the stock had dropped as much as $60, or more than 11 percent, according to CNBC. However, the stock recovered somewhat, down $46.31, or 9 percent, to $478.13.

dont miss:

The company's revenue increased 39 percent to $5.37 billion. Excluding $1.47 billion in commissions called traffic acquisition costs, the revenue was $3.88 billion.Revenue excluding commissions was $3.7 billion during the first quarter of 2008.

Analysts had expected revenue, excluding commissions, of $3.9 billion.

"Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's Web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement. "As we continue to focus on innovating in our core business of search, ads, and apps, we also look forward to enhancing the experience of our users and expanding the reach of our advertisers and partners with new technologies and formats, particularly as our integration of DoubleClick gains momentum and creates new opportunities in display advertising and elsewhere."

Advertising overall has suffered from the current economic slowdown in the United States, but Google trounced pessimistic expectations for its first quarter and said it saw no evidence of trouble.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company gets most of its money from ads appearing next to search results. Google dominates the search-ad market with 77 percent share of revenue by one estimate released Thursday.

by : http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993463-9html

Flexible Layouts: Challenge For The Future

2008-06-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

This article is a guest post written by Dirk Jesse, the developer of YAML (Yet Another Multicolumn Layout), an (X)HTML&CSS framework which explains his motivation for YAML in the last paragraph of the article. This article is supposed to initiate the discussion about the need for more flexible layouts in modern web design and explain why flexible designs are still important — even despite the Full Page Zoom-functionality implemented in most modern browsers.

The new generation of web browsers — Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 and Internet Explorer 7 — provides a feature which seems to save a lot of work for web-developers in the future, namely the Full Page Zoom. Instead of allowing users to increase and decrease the font size on a given web-site, browsers now enable users to literally scale the rendered layout including visuals and background images. The whole design layout is scaled proportionally according to some adjusted zoom-factor, with all the elements of a page’s layout expanding equally. Consequently, every fixed, pixel-based layout becomes “scalable”; the content area always remains within the layout box it is supposed to be in and there is no chance of producing overlapping boxes as we’ve seen in the previous generations of web-browsers.

However, is the new zoom-technique indeed so advanced that we don’t need flexible layouts any longer? Just as this question is extensively discussed in the blogosphere, it is extensively answered with “yes”. And there is a good reason behind it. The coding of a fixed layout is much easier and, when used properly, produces exactly the results a designer is willing to achieve. With fixed layouts, designers can ensure the exact positioning of each pixel (a dream of many graphics designers comes true!) and the user can adjust the size of the layout with a scaling zoom on demand. No wonder that it’s tempting to motivate the switch to fixed layouts. However, as professionals, we need to consider how reasonable it is from the professional point of view.

In the following let’s discuss why we strongly believe that this paradigm won’t lead web design to more user-friendly and accessible web-sites, why flexible layouts still remain important today and why they will become even more important in the future.

Where Full Page Zoom doesn’t help at all

The main difference between fixed (px-based) and flexible (%-based) layouts is the simple fact that flexible layouts can better adapt to user’s viewing preferences. With flexible solutions, the width of the layout depends on the viewport of the browser and can perfectly fill the viewing space without any manual adjustments from the user’s side. Fixed layouts can’t do that. Full page zoom, when applied to fixed layouts, enables users to manually adjust the design after it has already been rendered.

Another important aspect which is worth keeping in mind: Internet Explorer 6, probably the nightmare of every web-developer out there, has a market share of almost 40% — and it doesn’t support zoom at all.

According to w3schools.com, the larger and wider screen resolutions (larger than 1024×768px) will become a standard in the future.

More problematic is the overwhelming confidence of developers that the individual decision-making is better for users from the accessibility point of view. When applied to fixed layouts the web-developer delivers a clear message:

Dear users, your browser can zoom my fixed layout - so please help yourself if you want or need to!

From designer’s perspective with this argument it is tempting to switch to a more comfortable (fixed) design solution at expense of accessibility. Why should a user adapt his viewing preferences to a web-site? Shouldn’t a web-site rather adapt itself to the viewing preferences of its users? If you think about it for a second, you have the same situation as in a cloth store where you are offered cloth only in some very specific size. If the size doesn’t fit to you, it’s your problem, not store’s owner. And if you want to you can take a needle, some fabric and create the cloth of its own choice for free. That is not user-friendly.

Even more crucial is the simple fact that full page zoom isn’t really feasible in practice. Let’s assume that the designers has a fixed layouts with the width of 960px. To zoom it using a 150% scale factor and still browse the page without horizontal scroll bar, users need to have at least the screen resolution of 1440px and a browser opened in the full-screen-mode. Is it really a path for the Web to take in the years to come? As Nancib states, “problem is that sometimes the font on a page is friggin’ tiny without zooming it in, but zooming the page (with the images) doesn’t just make it more readable.”

Web developers often tend to argue that flexible layouts are too complex and with full page zoom every fixed layout is becoming scalable anyway. That’s right, scalable, but not flexible. Why should a browser correct the mistakes a developer or designer has done when creating a site layout?

Flexible layouts are hard to control? That’s not true!

Whenever designers argue against flexible layouts they tend to use the following argument:

In flexible layouts the text flows in the width when expanding the browser window, making the content hard to read. This text flow is hard to control.

Wide text flow is definitely not a nice thing to offer your visitors. However, text flow doesn’t need to flow in the width when the browser window is expanded. To achieve attractive flexible designs one can use the properties min-width and max-width. Of course, Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t support both of them — just as it implements both hasLayout-model and the Float-model incorrectly. However, this is not the reason to not use floats for your design layouts, right?

To simulate max-width and min-width you can use various workarounds (JS Expressions); and to simulate min-width you can even use a pure CSS-solution. But what happens if the user’s browser doesn’t support JavaScript? Well, in this case a flexible Layout without max-width doesn’t necessarily destroy the layout, although the text flow may be too wide. But this is what the Progressive Enhancement is all about, so this is not that problematic.

How to find an ideal width for a flexible layout?

Let’s consider how wide the layout should be for an optimal flexible layout:

Layout width: use width:auto or any %-value to make sure that the layout makes use of the available width of the browser windows automatically.
Minimal width: use some px-value (e.g. 760px). This lower bound should be used for all pixel-based layouts, so the content remains readable when displayed in the minimal screen resolution.
Maximal width: use an em-value (e.g. 90em). Thus the text flow doesn’t grow in width in an uncontrollable fashion, but remains constant for various screen resolutions. Side effect: the maximal width is scaled according to the font-size of the browser.

Also keep in mind that we, designers, don’t really have the design layout (whether fixed or flexible) under control as the presentation of our layouts depends on the browser, font size adjustments, operating system, alternative user-stylesheets etc.

The Holy Photoshop Mockup

The most frequent argument used to motivate the fixed layout solution is the fact that customers are confident that a perfect Photoshop mockup would look best when displayed 1:1 in user’s browser. Indeed, it is hard to explain to the customers that flexible solution, although looking differently in different context, has some advantages. After all, if the design doesn’t look as expected on senior project manager’s wide screen laptop, then this is not something the customer would agree on.

However, following customer’s decisions blindly you neglect your professional responsibility to develop accessible, user-friendly web-sites. It’s your duty to complement your customer’s wishes, compromise and seek for the best possible solution for users and not for the senior manager. A quick argument that a user-friendly solution which doesn’t look best at some specific configuration would bring more satisfied customers and consequently more money in a long run usually suffices.

Vivabit.com: transparency, patterns and background images can lead to impressive and flexible results.

The end-result layout isn’t supposed to be used as a nice screenshot for one single portfolio. It has to serve users’ needs and enable them to get to the content of the site as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Take your time and go through some of the layouts presented in numerous CSS-showcases. In way too many cases the attractive pixel-based design breaks down completely when the browser window is resized or the content is scaled. A Photoshop Mockup isn’t necessarily easy to convert into a flexible design layout, however it is definitely worth consideration. Transparency, patterns and background images can lead to impressive and flexible results.

In most cases we design web-sites not to present some design, but to let the design help users to achieve some objectives such as finding the information they are looking for. Graphics-heavy flexible layouts are not easy to achieve and require planning, patience and confidence that the results are worth it. However, these efforts improve user experience and make the design medium-independent.

Mobile Browsers – Why flexible is better

Mobile Web layouts as well as its small and big problems are a topic which is worth a single discussion. Just one year ago my old mobile phone could access the Internet, however it was extremely hard to browse web-pages, read them and navigate. With the improved user interface of iPhone it has completely changed. Mobile web-browsers (e.g. Opera Mini or Safari on the iPhone) have dramatically improved over the last two years — at the moment it is almost natural that they render web-pages without any considerable display errors.

My iPhone has no problem displaying flexible layouts in the landscape format or portrait format; in fact it automatically adjusts them to the best format which fills the whole iPhone window. At the same time I often experience problems when loading fixed layouts — from time to time they need to be zoomed in to fill in the whole browser window.

What holds for mobile devices holds also for printing devices. Ironically, nobody really argues about the advantages that flexible layouts for print layouts manage to deliver. Flexible design allows to use portrait / landscape - formats for optimal printing.

The decision for flexible layouts against fixed layouts doesn’t only improve the accessibility on Desktop-PCs, but also creates robust and flexible medium-independent layouts which can be easily adapted to any output devices. After all, with flexible rules (relative measure units, minimal margin and padding, alignment etc.) instead of fixed rules (px) rendering engines can better consider the properties of the used media.

The future, the unexplored land

As mentioned above, the mobile Web is becoming more and more important. Are we now going to optimize layouts for 640×480 or 800×600? The screen resolutions are increasing, the prices for high-resolution displays are decreasing. At the same time the physical resolution of devices as well as the spatial printing resolution (dpi). Consequently, the absolute size of one pixel decreases. No wonder that pixel-based definitions are becoming less expressive.

The gap between low-resolution displays and high-resolution displays hasn’t bridged over the last 10 years. On the contrary: the gap has increased dramatically. Web-sites are viewed in hundreds of possible screen resolutions while each user may have his own preference for the viewport of his browser. This consideration alone explains how important flexible design layouts are today and how important they will be in the future. Consequently, fixed layouts won’t make the cut in the future as designers will need to consider more and more different devices to optimize the design for. What we need in web design to come to grips with all this variety are dominating relative measurement units.

Flexible Layouts with YAML

YAML (”Yet Another Multicolumn Layout”) is an (X)HTML/CSS-framework which was developed especially to meet the requirements of flexible and user-friendly design layouts. Since June 2007 YAML is available in English and provide an extensive documentation. Most CSS-Frameworks like Blueprint CSS or YUI Grids offer designers a predefined system of CSS-classes to create grid-based layouts visually. To create a layout designer needs to create a HTML-structure of the site and to assign CSS-classes to containers. The rest is automatically taken care of.

YAML takes a different route. The Framework supports the development of grid-based layouts as well as the development of the grid system - with the emphasis on flexible layouts. If a designer wants to create a grid-based layout he can use the basic skeleton with three columns, header and footer. Each element can be removed or adjusted to user’s needs. The actual design, the positioning of the columns, is done using CSS-definitions (and not HTML-structure as it is done in other CSS-frameworks). The benefit for designers: with YAML one has better options for defining his own system of classes, using any measurement units and getting clean code.

Based on the HTML-structure of YAML, the framework includes layout presets which already prevent IE-bugs; thus the framework makes it easier for designers to create a layout which works in both modern and older browsers. Layout examples provide an overview of what is possible with YAML and may deliver some ideas for your future layouts. Apart from that, YAML offers a set of flexible grid-components which you can use to create columns within columns and thus design a more complex but flexible Grid-layouts.

YAML Example: a demonstration of YAML’s flexible grids.

Consider the example above. BluePrint CSS has a demo-page which displays a layout created with Blueprint CSS. And this is the result of the very same template created using the flexible grid-elements of YAML. The scaling works even in IE 5.5, including min-width and max-width.

Apart from layout design, YAML also delivers style sheets for print layouts, as well as components for horizontal and vertical navigation. YAML definitely requires some time to climb the learning curve: the tool offers a variety of functions and user-friendly flexible layouts are definitely not easy to build.

The concept of YAML is, however, well documented in the online- and PDF-documentation and my provide beginners and professional with a good introduction to the framework. For practical purposes you can also use YAML-Builder, a handy tool for visual development of YAML-based CSS layouts which allows you to put the containers of the layout visually together via drag-n-drop. The valid HTML- and CSS-code is generated automatically on the fly.

Smoke tutorial

2008-05-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Creating Smoke in Photoshop!

In this tutorial, I will show you one of the ways I make smoke in Photoshop.

Step 1. Create a document with a black background. On a new layer, draw something similar to what you see here using a soft edged brush. Make sure at all times throughout this tutorial, that the smoke layers are not merged with the black background layer.

Step 2. Duplicate the layer and Gaussian blur it. I used a setting of 23. Then merge the two layers.

Step 3. Duplicate the newly merged layer. alt/click the layer to select it, then go to select/ modify/ contract. I choose 10 pixels. Then invert the selection, and delete. It should now leave a thinner version of what you had on the other layer. Then lower the opacity of the layer behind it.

Step 4. Merge layers. Then duplicate the layer again, and resize it, and move it to somewhere else in the smoke. I moved mine to the top and center, and then flipped it.

Step 5. I then used the liquify filter on both layers, slightly tweaking both layers to give it more of a smoke effect. Now merge the layer.

Step 6. Now duplicate the freshly merged layers once again. I then went to filters/distort/wave. Use the default settings. Then lower the opacity of the filtered layer. Merge both layers.

Step 7. Now duplicate the layer and go to control T, and make the smoke thinner and taller. Merge the layers.

Step 8. I ran it through filter/liquify again. I tweaked it a little more to give it more of a smoky feel.

Step 9. Create a new layer and set it to overly. With whatever color you would like, start to give the smoke some color. I used a reddish color.

Step 10. I repeated step 9, and added some blue to the smoke.

And there you have it. Smoke in Photoshop.