Entries from August 2006 ↓

Heres a handy tip that has saved me hours of to-ing and fro-ing.

When you’re putting together a website from content supplied (content not home page) do it all in one page using H1 tags (or whatever you feel is appropriate) to separate the capsules of content (pages) create all the navigation inline, stack the content on top of each other and create all the forms to create ONE VERY LONG PAGE.

Whilst you’re doing this, split out all the chunks of data related to sections (i.e. navigation) and add them in as include files, again stacked on top of each other, create all of the javascript and input all of the design, then once you’re happy, simply break it down into its constituant pages.

You’ll find it helps retain consistency of the design throughout the site, helps uniformalise and minimise the css.

When you get some amendments (this could be months later) again open your content template, make the changes and split out the new sections… You’ll find it makes creating and amending websites really simple!

You may or may not know that Google recently released its online version of MS Word called Writely to run along side its recent launch of Google Spreadsheet. At first glance it looks impressive with all the standard features you’d expect… but one thing has simply blown me out of the water, yes, I am THAT impressed!

You can authorise other Writely users to edit your document in real time, with up to 50 people editing at one…. just gob-smackingly WOW!

So instead of sending MS Word documents too and fro, you can now all log in together and edit the same document… you won’t even have to call to discuss your changes, simply write your intentions on screen.

Oh and as a Yorkshire Man, I can fully appreciate that once again, Google have released this software for free.

…oh and theres a whole host of other features that i’ve yet to get my teeth into…

Theres been a lot of talk, mainly in the USA, about Net Neutrality. For those of you who dont know what I’m on about I will explain.

The big ISP’s which we all use to access the Internet, want to have the right to divert our surfing to sites that they are affiliated with. For business this means that if a widget company affiliates its self with an ISP then all traffic about widgets will be directed to their website to the deficit of all other widget companies.

Needless to say, its a massive issue, one that hasn’t really been raised in the UK. If it becomes a reality in the USA then UK ISP’s, many of which are owned by American Companies, will surely follow suit.

For a fun overview of the USA’s Net Neutrality issue visit www.wearetheweb.org

It not only explains more and gives links to other Net Neutrality sites, but also features many of the popular Internet Celebrities… worth a giggle anyhoo!

Everyone likes it when you get something for nothing. Well AOL (man I cant believe it I’m actually praising AOL for something) is giving away a free anti virus software backed by well known software provider Kaspersky.

It is said to update its self every hour which means that the chances of you obtaining a new virus and it not being found until you next do a thorough scan have been massively reduced (see my other post about buying the illusion of security).

Download it from the AOL website

UPDATE!

This free anti virus software solution has been independently rated as being one of the best in the market see tech.cybernetnews.com

I was recently asked to create a web design quote template for Nemark, a Doncaster based web design and development company specialising in SME web design. Part of this brief was to create a diagram charting the processes involved in an a-typical web design, with the hope that it will allow Nemark to lock clients into this process and avoid the drip feeing of content and the massive delays and repetition usually involved in reviewing an almost complete website.

I’m quite pleased with it as a piece of communication and thought it was worth sharing.

Web Design Process

Do you use such a process, does it differ greatly from the one I created and if so, and what are the major reasons for the differences between this process document and your own?

Here are 10 top tips to reduce spam in your email in-box.

1. Delete/turn off your catch-all

   Catch-all’s are generic mail boxes that collect all email not being sent to a named account. The up-side of catch-alls is that if someone spells an email address correctly then you still have a chance to access the message. The down side is that automated mailers send emails to randomuser@yourdomain.com. So by removing your catch-all email account you will stop a majority of junk messages.

2. Make sure that you dont publish personal email addresses on your website.

   Automated systems ‘trawl’ websites looking for email addresses, adding them to lists without your permission. If you do want to publish a personal email address disguise it using javascript or as an image (these will be inaccessible and stop some disabled viewers from emailing you), or even better, replace the email address with a contact form allowing you to pre-qualify enquiries by asking detailed questions or giving a choice of specific variables.

3. Set up a generic email address for use on forums, registration pages and other situations where you know that you may be opening yourself up to receiving spam email.

   We use sam@ (that’s spam@ without the p) and all emails from such sites are collected centrally where they can be reviewed and acted upon e.g. To validate your registration etc.

4. Don’t use single names i.e. fred@ for your email address.

   Again, these addresses can be guessed and within a few minutes a flood of spam begins to arrive. Instead opt for firstname.surname@. An added benefit is that it makes sure your contacts really know who you are.

5. Don’t use sales@ support@ or any other guessable addresses for the same reason as above.

   Instead come up with your own codes for online contact forms etc. As they’re being accessed through a form and don’t need to be entered manually – you can really go wild with these.

6. Register a dedicated email domain.

   It may be a bit extreme, but if spam becomes so unmanageable, it may be worthwhile registering a completely different address to email from. This could be name@emailcompanyname.com.

7. Use an email program with integrated spam filtering.

   Outlook (not express) has limited in-built spam filtering. A better option would be to use Mozilla’s free email program Thunderbird, which automatically tags possible spam for you. A great feature of Thunderbird is you can set the default view to show all messages marked as not-spam, which dramatically reduces the amount of clutter and enables you to toggle between spammy and non spammy views.

8. Ask your host what spam filtering packages they offer.

   With our Fasthosts accounts, the email server can* automatically catch and label potential spam as spam. It doesn’t stop the messages from being delivered, but by setting up message rules, you can easily drop these out of the main view, into a folder, for later review.

   * Extra charges apply.

9. Subscribe to a mailing preference service.

   There are a number of mailing preference services out there that operate as closed email networks. In order to send a message to a member of these systems, you have to register on the website and provide proof that you are who you say you are. As someone who wants to send a simple message, this can be pretty hard going, with lots of forms to fill in; but as a recipient, you know that all messages being delivered are from authentic sources.

10. Don’t send bulk emails using TO or CC.

    If you’re sending the latest Friday Funny, or a quick promotional offer to friends and/or colleagues, don’t use TO or CC. These types of email have tendancy to be passed on to persons unknown, the result is that everyone you’ve listed as an original recipient could be easily added to a list by an unscrupulous individual. What makes this worse is that not only are the original recipients easily visible, but also the subsequent chain(s) of people.

Announced on Radio 1 today was the ‘launch’ of MTV’s new MySpace rival, MTV Flux ( you can view my Flux page at mtv.co.uk/user/trooperbill )

First impressions are not good. The graphics look 1/2 done with buttons and text graphics badly aliased, the forms are all over the shop, and look completely cobbled together.

The site doesn’t give you the ability to easily find friends, instead you’ve to search by username (how am i supposed to know someone randoms username?) and the ‘latest people’ section looks like its static, unfinished and contains the name of the development team… altogether a really bad effort that looks rushed.

I’m particulaly passionate about this because we’re working on a social networking site for a client, and we’re sweating blood and tears to get things exactly spot on.

ah well…

UPDATE!
It appears that one of the main reasons for MTV setting up this service is that, as per their T&C’s, MTV can re-distribute any content uploaded into this system. This means they can play YOUR music tracks, Your Video and pretty much anything else you upload to this system on their TV chanels for free, without paying royalties.