Here's an easy way to backup your web site's files and database (worth thousands of dollars, no doubt) that costs $0 to learn and perform. It only takes seven easy steps.
You don't need to know a lot about how to use Unix or how to use databases like mySQL. The only real tool you need is a telnet client. Also, you need to know a few commands which I'll show you now. (You could even write the commands I'm about to give you on a cheatsheet.)
STEP 1: CONNECT & GET IN THE RIGHT FOLDER
The web host you're trying to back up needs to allow shell access (most do these days).
If you have a Windows computer, download a program called "PuTTY" which you can use to login in your web host's shell. Search for "putty ssh" on Google or get it here: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe
Open up PuTTY and at the top type in your hostname (your web site address without the http or www, just "yourname.com"). Your web host either uses SSH or telnet, first try logging in using SSH and if it won't connect try it using Telnet. Click the "Open" button at the bottom to connect.
When it connects you will be asked for your account's username, and after you enter that, it will ask for your password. If these both take, you'll see a command prompt of sorts. What you have to do is browse to the document root, depending on your host it's usually a folder like "public_html" or "wwwroot".
If the wwwroot or public_html folder has more folders inside of it, in the form of yourdomain.com, don't browse into them yet, just stay in the folder you're in.
Browsing in the Unix command prompt is just like DOS, to view a folder type "dir" or "ls", and to go into a certain folder type "cd foldername". If you messed up you can type "cd .." to move up one level.
STEP 2: BACK-UP THE DATABASE
The first step if you're backing up a site is to dump your mySQL database. To do this obviously you need the mySQL username and password you want to back up. If your mySQL username is "myuser" and the mySQL password is "mypassword", you'd type:
mysqldump -umyuser -pmypassword -A > dump.sql
mysqldump is the program we run to dump the database into a file, then we type "-u" followed by the username (no spaces) and "-p" followed by the password (also no spaces). The uppercase "-A" tells the program we want to dump every database this user has access to. It MUST be an uppercase A.
The ">" afterwards says we want to put this program's output into a file (otherwise it would show up on the screen) and "dump.sql" is the name of the file we're going to dump to.
This may take a while depending on the size of your database. Be patient. Once you have a command prompt again, it's done.
STEP 3: BACK-UP YOUR FILES
Now you can put everything into one big file, which you can easily move over to the new host in one go, instead of one at a time. Unix doesn't let you create Zip files, but you can create a TAR (Tape Archive) which just rolls a bunch of files together without any sort of compression.
To create your TAR archive, type:
tar -cvf dump.tar *
The "-c" tells the program to create a new TAR archive, the "v" following right after says to be verbose, in other words, give us the name of every file that's being added to the archive. "f: means we're saving this to a file, as opposed to showing it on the screen (you'd just see junk).
"dump.tar" is the name of the file we want to save into, and the "*" means we want to put everything into this TAR archive -- files, folders, everything.
You may get some sort of warning about not adding dump.tar to the archive, that's no big deal because we don't want this file to add itself.
Your files are backed up. At this point it's time to move things over to the next host. There's a way we can do this without you having to download the whole thing, and re-upload it.
STEP 4: ARRANGE YOUR FILE FOR PICKUP
Remember how I said when you were in "wwwroot" or "public_html" not to browse into the folder containing a domain name? Well now it's time to move that dump over into one of them so it can be picked up.
If one of your folders is, say, yourdomain.com, type:
mv dump.tar yourdomain.com
This moves "dump.tar" into the folder "yourdomain.com".
STEP 5: MOVE THE NEW FILE OVER
Login to your new host. Browse to its "wwwroot" or "public_html" folder.
Most hosts include a program called "wget" which works sort of like a browser in that you give it a URL to pick-up that it loads. Only this browser also saves the file you want to load.
If your old host was at yourdomain.com, you'd just type:
wget http://www.yourdomain.com/dump.tar
This will load that URL and save it as "dump.tar". You'll probably see some sort of progress indicator as it goes.
STEP 6: DECOMPRESSING THE FILE
Once you have the file, you use that same TAR program to decompress it. Type:
tar -xvf test.tar
The "v" and "f" are still there, but instead of "c" (create) we use "x" (extract). This will unpack each file and let us know which one it's working on.
STEP 7: RESTORING THE MYSQL DATABASE
Before you can put the mySQL dump back into the database, you have to go into this new web host's control panel and create blank databases with the same names as you had before.
You also have to create a mySQL user and make sure that user has access to all those databases you've created.
Once that's done find the dump.sql that was unpacked with all of the other files.
Instead of using the program "mysqldump" to dump the files, we use the program "mysql" which let's us put commands into the database. That's basically what a dump is, a file full of commands that, when run, will recreate the old database exactly.
This time we don't type in the database name right away. To get into mySQL from the command prompt, type:
mysql -umyuser -pmypassword
Where "myuser" and "mypassword" are your mySQL username and password. Once you're in you'll get kind of a weird looking prompt. All you have to do at this point is type:
source dump.sql
This says, open up the file dump.sql, read through it and do whatever it says to do in that file. You will see a bunch of lines telling you a command has been entered (0 Rows Affected, 1 Rows Affected, something like that).
If everything goes smoothly, type "quit" and you will be back in the shell.
You've just moved one site (or a bunch of sites) over from one host to another in about 5 minutes.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
7 Reasons NOT to Take Your Laptop on Holiday!
Heading off on vacation soon?
Then perhaps you're tempted to take your trusty laptop along for the trip.
After all, you bought it for its mobility, and it's nice to stay in touch via email with your family and friends back home.
However, just before you start packing, its pays to consider the downside of traveling with a laptop, particularly if you're planning to go abroad:
1. Weight
A laptop (plus accessories) starts to feel heavy very quickly. And who really needs MORE luggage to carry around?
2. Security risk
To you, it's a laptop computer. To a thief, it's a bag of easy money. (About $1000). And that bag is something you have to guard every second of your vacation.
3. Power supply problems
You'll need a different power adaptor plug for each country you visit. And depending on your laptop power supply cable, you may also need a step-up / step-down voltage transformer.
4. Connection complications
You'll need to find a way of connecting to the Internet. If your laptop is suitably equipped and you can find a local hotspot, you can take advantage of wireless Internet access.
Otherwise you're stuck with dial-up modem access, which means a choice between:
- using your existing ISP's local call number in the country you're visiting (provided your ISP has a local number! AOL and Compuserve generally do.)
- making a long-distance telephone call to your regular dial-up number back home
- signing up with a local ISP (rarely practical in the short-term)
5. Telephone socket trouble
Different countries have different types of telephone socket. If you're planning on connecting via dial-up access, you'll have to bring a suitable telephone adaptor plug.
You'll also need a digital signal tester to test for higher- voltage digital telephones lines. Otherwise you could end up frying your modem and possibly the motherboard too.
6. Extra insurance cover
It's highly unlikely your travel insurance policy extends to laptop computers. You'll therefore need to arrange separate specialist insurance cover, which isn't cheap.
7. You're on holiday!
Do you really want your office with you on vacation? Aren't you supposed to be getting away from it all?
If you're beginning to think that traveling with a laptop computer is a major logistical exercise, then you're right. (Just ask any "road warrior"!)
However, there IS an alternative:
An Internet Cafe.
Almost every city and large town now has several Internet cafes. To locate one when you're abroad, just ask your hotel receptionist or a friendly taxi driver.
You'll also find Internet cafes in airports, railway stations, major hotels, business centers, public libraries, and even onboard cruise ships.
Before you leave on your travels, simply ensure you can access your email via a web browser. (This is known as "webmail". Most ISPs offer this option automatically - just ask them if you're unsure.)
Alternatively, set up a free webmail address (at hotmail.com or yahoo.com) for the duration of your trip and give it to anyone who might need to contact you.
With webmail set up, all you have to worry about is remembering your email login and password. Everything else - hardware, connectivity, security - is somebody else's problem.
To summarize:
Unless you have a very good reason for taking your laptop on holiday, you'd be wise to leave the darn thing at home and use an Internet cafe instead.
And who knows - maybe your laptop could use a vacation from you!
Then perhaps you're tempted to take your trusty laptop along for the trip.
After all, you bought it for its mobility, and it's nice to stay in touch via email with your family and friends back home.
However, just before you start packing, its pays to consider the downside of traveling with a laptop, particularly if you're planning to go abroad:
1. Weight
A laptop (plus accessories) starts to feel heavy very quickly. And who really needs MORE luggage to carry around?
2. Security risk
To you, it's a laptop computer. To a thief, it's a bag of easy money. (About $1000). And that bag is something you have to guard every second of your vacation.
3. Power supply problems
You'll need a different power adaptor plug for each country you visit. And depending on your laptop power supply cable, you may also need a step-up / step-down voltage transformer.
4. Connection complications
You'll need to find a way of connecting to the Internet. If your laptop is suitably equipped and you can find a local hotspot, you can take advantage of wireless Internet access.
Otherwise you're stuck with dial-up modem access, which means a choice between:
- using your existing ISP's local call number in the country you're visiting (provided your ISP has a local number! AOL and Compuserve generally do.)
- making a long-distance telephone call to your regular dial-up number back home
- signing up with a local ISP (rarely practical in the short-term)
5. Telephone socket trouble
Different countries have different types of telephone socket. If you're planning on connecting via dial-up access, you'll have to bring a suitable telephone adaptor plug.
You'll also need a digital signal tester to test for higher- voltage digital telephones lines. Otherwise you could end up frying your modem and possibly the motherboard too.
6. Extra insurance cover
It's highly unlikely your travel insurance policy extends to laptop computers. You'll therefore need to arrange separate specialist insurance cover, which isn't cheap.
7. You're on holiday!
Do you really want your office with you on vacation? Aren't you supposed to be getting away from it all?
If you're beginning to think that traveling with a laptop computer is a major logistical exercise, then you're right. (Just ask any "road warrior"!)
However, there IS an alternative:
An Internet Cafe.
Almost every city and large town now has several Internet cafes. To locate one when you're abroad, just ask your hotel receptionist or a friendly taxi driver.
You'll also find Internet cafes in airports, railway stations, major hotels, business centers, public libraries, and even onboard cruise ships.
Before you leave on your travels, simply ensure you can access your email via a web browser. (This is known as "webmail". Most ISPs offer this option automatically - just ask them if you're unsure.)
Alternatively, set up a free webmail address (at hotmail.com or yahoo.com) for the duration of your trip and give it to anyone who might need to contact you.
With webmail set up, all you have to worry about is remembering your email login and password. Everything else - hardware, connectivity, security - is somebody else's problem.
To summarize:
Unless you have a very good reason for taking your laptop on holiday, you'd be wise to leave the darn thing at home and use an Internet cafe instead.
And who knows - maybe your laptop could use a vacation from you!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Internet Security Basics 101
The explosive growth of the Internet has meant that thousands of people are today experiencing the joys of being online for the first time. With growth there always comes pain. Be it your growing pains as a child or the growth and development of this part of our culture called the Internet.
Firstly we need to quickly explain what the Internet is and where it came from. The Internet is the offspring of a military project called Arpanet. Arpanet was designed to provide reliable communication during global nuclear war. A vast network of interconnected computers was set up all over the world to allow the various branches of US and NATO forces to communicate with each other.
Nuclear war never came (thankfully) and the world was left with a massive network of computers all connected together with nothing to do. Colleges and universities started to use these computers for sharing research internationally. From there it grew and spread outside colleges to local homes and businesses. The World Wide Web was born and its father was a guy called Tim Berners Lee.
When you're connected to the Internet you're sharing a vast network with hundreds of millions of other users. This shared network provides resources that 15 years ago were never thought possible. Unfortunately when something is shared its open to abuse. On the Internet this abuse comes from hackers and virus creators. Their sole intent is to cause chaos and/or harm to your computer system and millions of other computer systems all over the world.
How do you combat this? You need an Internet security system. This might sound complicated but your Internet security system will be quite straigtforward being comprised of just 2 - 3 Internet security products. We'll look at each of these products in more detail now:
AntiVirus Software
The first and most critical element of your Internet security system is antivirus software. If you don't have up-to-date antivirus software on your PC you're asking for trouble. 300 new viruses appear each month and if you're not constantly protecting your system against this threat your computer will become infected with at least one virus - it's only a matter of time.
Antivirus software scans your PC for signatures of a virus. A virus signature is the unique part of that virus. It can be a a file name, how the virus behaves or the size of the virus file itself. Good antivirus software will find viruses that haven't yet infected your PC and eliminate the ones that have.
Antivirus software can only protect your computer from viruses trying to infect it via email, CD-Rom, floppy disk, Word documents or other types of computer files. Antivirus software alone will not keep your computer 100% safe. You also need to use firewall software.
Firewall Software
The use of firewall software by home computer users is a relatively new occurence. All Internet connections are a two way process. Data must be sent and received by your computer. This data is sent through something called ports. These are not physical things rather aspects of the way your computer communicates online.
Firewall software watches these ports to make sure that only safe communication is happening between your computer and other computers online. If it sees something dangerous happening it blocks that port on your computer to make sure your computer stays safe from the person who is trying to hack into your system.
An easier way to understand a firewall would be to picture your computer as an apartment complex. At the front door of this complex there is a security guard. Every person who enters the complex must pass this security guard. If the security guard recognizes the person entering as a resident he allows them to pass without saying anything. If, however, the person entering the complex is unknown to him then he will stop that person and ask for identification. If they have no business being at the apartment complex he escorts them from the building.
If you are not currently using firewall software your computer will get hacked into - that's a guarantee.
PopUp Blocker
You can get a good popup blocker at no cost. An easy way to do this is to install either the Google or Yahoo toolbar. Both of these come with popup blockers built in. Popups are not necessarily dangerous but are a nuisance and using either of these toolbars will make your life that bit easier.
A simple rule for practicing online security is: "If in doubt then don't". If you don't recognize the file, the email address, the website or if your gut feeling says "no" then don't click that button.
Firstly we need to quickly explain what the Internet is and where it came from. The Internet is the offspring of a military project called Arpanet. Arpanet was designed to provide reliable communication during global nuclear war. A vast network of interconnected computers was set up all over the world to allow the various branches of US and NATO forces to communicate with each other.
Nuclear war never came (thankfully) and the world was left with a massive network of computers all connected together with nothing to do. Colleges and universities started to use these computers for sharing research internationally. From there it grew and spread outside colleges to local homes and businesses. The World Wide Web was born and its father was a guy called Tim Berners Lee.
When you're connected to the Internet you're sharing a vast network with hundreds of millions of other users. This shared network provides resources that 15 years ago were never thought possible. Unfortunately when something is shared its open to abuse. On the Internet this abuse comes from hackers and virus creators. Their sole intent is to cause chaos and/or harm to your computer system and millions of other computer systems all over the world.
How do you combat this? You need an Internet security system. This might sound complicated but your Internet security system will be quite straigtforward being comprised of just 2 - 3 Internet security products. We'll look at each of these products in more detail now:
AntiVirus Software
The first and most critical element of your Internet security system is antivirus software. If you don't have up-to-date antivirus software on your PC you're asking for trouble. 300 new viruses appear each month and if you're not constantly protecting your system against this threat your computer will become infected with at least one virus - it's only a matter of time.
Antivirus software scans your PC for signatures of a virus. A virus signature is the unique part of that virus. It can be a a file name, how the virus behaves or the size of the virus file itself. Good antivirus software will find viruses that haven't yet infected your PC and eliminate the ones that have.
Antivirus software can only protect your computer from viruses trying to infect it via email, CD-Rom, floppy disk, Word documents or other types of computer files. Antivirus software alone will not keep your computer 100% safe. You also need to use firewall software.
Firewall Software
The use of firewall software by home computer users is a relatively new occurence. All Internet connections are a two way process. Data must be sent and received by your computer. This data is sent through something called ports. These are not physical things rather aspects of the way your computer communicates online.
Firewall software watches these ports to make sure that only safe communication is happening between your computer and other computers online. If it sees something dangerous happening it blocks that port on your computer to make sure your computer stays safe from the person who is trying to hack into your system.
An easier way to understand a firewall would be to picture your computer as an apartment complex. At the front door of this complex there is a security guard. Every person who enters the complex must pass this security guard. If the security guard recognizes the person entering as a resident he allows them to pass without saying anything. If, however, the person entering the complex is unknown to him then he will stop that person and ask for identification. If they have no business being at the apartment complex he escorts them from the building.
If you are not currently using firewall software your computer will get hacked into - that's a guarantee.
PopUp Blocker
You can get a good popup blocker at no cost. An easy way to do this is to install either the Google or Yahoo toolbar. Both of these come with popup blockers built in. Popups are not necessarily dangerous but are a nuisance and using either of these toolbars will make your life that bit easier.
A simple rule for practicing online security is: "If in doubt then don't". If you don't recognize the file, the email address, the website or if your gut feeling says "no" then don't click that button.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Ten Major Tips to Develop a Multilingual Web Site to Work
If you are living in a country that its native language is something rather than English language, then you may like to develop your website to offer content in the language of your own country.
There are millions of websites on the Internet that are all in English language but there are billions of people on the earth that speak in a different language and are not familiar with English language.
However, most of the Internet users are basically familiar with English language and could use the Internet but there are many subjects that are hard to understand for those people whom their language is not English.
One example is websites related to pharmaceutics. There are tons of very difficult to understand phrases in the content. The other example is educational websites that basically should provide content in the local language not English language.
You may have many clients and business partners that wish to read your sales copy and product information in their own language.
So, having a website that provides the content in a language rather than English language is necessary for you. Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Dutch, France and many other languages are general samples of most used languages on the Internet. For you to start a multilingual website, it is vital to consider some tips before starting to design and develop your websites:
1- The Code Page
The best code page that you should choose for your web pages is Unicode. Unicode is a kind of numeric presentation of characters that is two bytes and so can contain up to 65535 characters to show. Until now, there have been no human being languages in the universe that have had more than these much characters. So, by using Unicode, you are able to show all characters of your language. To represent your web page as a Unicode page, add below line of code in the head part of your page:
2- Tools For Development
For creating web pages in Unicode format, you should have a tool to be able to type in your language. One of the tools that are widely used by web developers is Microsoft Front Page.
If this tool is installed on Windows XP then you have the most powerful set of software to create Unicode documents. FrontPage is a WYSIWYG tool for creating web pages and you can easily choose the language of your web page in options of the page and appropriate HTML tags would be automatically inserted in the code.
3- Nature of the Language
If your language is Right-To-Left like many of Asian and Middle East languages, for example, Arabic, Persian and Hebrew, you should tune your operating system to be able to switch from Left-To-Right to Right-To-Left typing method to be able to type from Right and from Left. If you are a Microsoft Windows user, you can configure your system for multiple languages and keyboards, each of them having different kind of input methods. For example, you can add Farsi as the second language of your Windows and then switch from English to Farsi by pressing a combination of keys and start typing in Farsi. Also switching from RTL to LTR would be possible by another key combination.
4- Navigation and Design Considerations
Some languages force to apply some changes in the design and navigation of your website. For example, if you have a vertical menu bar, you may put it in the left of your pages for English pages and in the right for Arabic pages because Arabic is a RTL language and people are used to start reading pages from right to left. However this is not a rule, but it is better to consider it in designing pages.
Other issue is the entrance page. If your website is in two languages, you may add an entrance page that makes client choose the navigation language of your website. This page could be a very nice graphical page with two options for choosing desired language and then enters the web site in that language. In some cases, you may consider one language as the base and eliminate entrance page. In this case, you assume most of the visitors may use a language that is dominant and they enter automatically the web pages of your web site that are in that language. However, visitors would see a small icon in web pages that lets them switch to the other language.
Other method is to use IP2Country services that can find the country of the visitor from its IP address and by adding some simple dynamic code to your pages, you would be able to switch to the language of the visitor. However, this method is not %100 accurate and you should consider some percent of fault in recognizing the country of the visitor.
5- Font Face Considerations
When you are creating your web pages in a language rather than English, you would be limited in using font faces. There are a few font faces in windows that are installed automatically and can show multilingual characters. If you like your visitors view your pages correct without any need to install fonts, you have to use those minor number of multilingual fonts. One of the best font faces is Tahoma that is somehow easy to read and contains all Unicode characters also is included in Windows.
6- Database Driven Web Sites
If your web site is a database driven and you have forms that clients may fill and be posted to database, there would be lots of very technical issues that you should consider to be able to collect and retrieve data in different languages. This part is beyond the aims of this article.
7- Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major issue for multilingual web sites and you should be aware that not necessarily all major search engines and directories handle multilingual web pages perfectly and your web site may not be listed in many of them. Google is a search engine that indexes multilingual web pages too. However there are some issues and difficulties but it works well enough for your web site to be indexed in your language.
8- Domain Name
No matter in which language is your web site, the domain name of your web site should be in English because at this time, having a domain name in other language is not a very easy thing to have and multilingual domain names are a new issue and is under development. There are some solutions but are not yet set perfectly. So, I suggest you forget those solutions and choose an English name for your web site.
9- Web Server And Hosting
However major web servers, like Microsoft IIS and Apache both support multilingual web pages, but I strongly recommend you to ask the hosting company for this issue and make yourself sure that there wont be problems for your web pages to be served by the hosting company.
10- Name Web Site Files
Never use Unicode characters in the name of your web pages. However your operating system, like Windows, lets your choose the file names in Unicode characters but be %100 sure that theses web pages would have serious difficulties both server side and client side.
In many cases, you won’t be able even to upload your web pages to your host space and client’s browsers also won’t be able to recognize the name of page and would generate error. This is true for name of images, flash files, scripts and other pages. Just use English names.
However I have tried to cover major issues in developing multilingual web sites but this issue is something that needs experience and you should yourself discover many of new issues that are not included in this article.
There are millions of websites on the Internet that are all in English language but there are billions of people on the earth that speak in a different language and are not familiar with English language.
However, most of the Internet users are basically familiar with English language and could use the Internet but there are many subjects that are hard to understand for those people whom their language is not English.
One example is websites related to pharmaceutics. There are tons of very difficult to understand phrases in the content. The other example is educational websites that basically should provide content in the local language not English language.
You may have many clients and business partners that wish to read your sales copy and product information in their own language.
So, having a website that provides the content in a language rather than English language is necessary for you. Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Dutch, France and many other languages are general samples of most used languages on the Internet. For you to start a multilingual website, it is vital to consider some tips before starting to design and develop your websites:
1- The Code Page
The best code page that you should choose for your web pages is Unicode. Unicode is a kind of numeric presentation of characters that is two bytes and so can contain up to 65535 characters to show. Until now, there have been no human being languages in the universe that have had more than these much characters. So, by using Unicode, you are able to show all characters of your language. To represent your web page as a Unicode page, add below line of code in the head part of your page:
2- Tools For Development
For creating web pages in Unicode format, you should have a tool to be able to type in your language. One of the tools that are widely used by web developers is Microsoft Front Page.
If this tool is installed on Windows XP then you have the most powerful set of software to create Unicode documents. FrontPage is a WYSIWYG tool for creating web pages and you can easily choose the language of your web page in options of the page and appropriate HTML tags would be automatically inserted in the code.
3- Nature of the Language
If your language is Right-To-Left like many of Asian and Middle East languages, for example, Arabic, Persian and Hebrew, you should tune your operating system to be able to switch from Left-To-Right to Right-To-Left typing method to be able to type from Right and from Left. If you are a Microsoft Windows user, you can configure your system for multiple languages and keyboards, each of them having different kind of input methods. For example, you can add Farsi as the second language of your Windows and then switch from English to Farsi by pressing a combination of keys and start typing in Farsi. Also switching from RTL to LTR would be possible by another key combination.
4- Navigation and Design Considerations
Some languages force to apply some changes in the design and navigation of your website. For example, if you have a vertical menu bar, you may put it in the left of your pages for English pages and in the right for Arabic pages because Arabic is a RTL language and people are used to start reading pages from right to left. However this is not a rule, but it is better to consider it in designing pages.
Other issue is the entrance page. If your website is in two languages, you may add an entrance page that makes client choose the navigation language of your website. This page could be a very nice graphical page with two options for choosing desired language and then enters the web site in that language. In some cases, you may consider one language as the base and eliminate entrance page. In this case, you assume most of the visitors may use a language that is dominant and they enter automatically the web pages of your web site that are in that language. However, visitors would see a small icon in web pages that lets them switch to the other language.
Other method is to use IP2Country services that can find the country of the visitor from its IP address and by adding some simple dynamic code to your pages, you would be able to switch to the language of the visitor. However, this method is not %100 accurate and you should consider some percent of fault in recognizing the country of the visitor.
5- Font Face Considerations
When you are creating your web pages in a language rather than English, you would be limited in using font faces. There are a few font faces in windows that are installed automatically and can show multilingual characters. If you like your visitors view your pages correct without any need to install fonts, you have to use those minor number of multilingual fonts. One of the best font faces is Tahoma that is somehow easy to read and contains all Unicode characters also is included in Windows.
6- Database Driven Web Sites
If your web site is a database driven and you have forms that clients may fill and be posted to database, there would be lots of very technical issues that you should consider to be able to collect and retrieve data in different languages. This part is beyond the aims of this article.
7- Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major issue for multilingual web sites and you should be aware that not necessarily all major search engines and directories handle multilingual web pages perfectly and your web site may not be listed in many of them. Google is a search engine that indexes multilingual web pages too. However there are some issues and difficulties but it works well enough for your web site to be indexed in your language.
8- Domain Name
No matter in which language is your web site, the domain name of your web site should be in English because at this time, having a domain name in other language is not a very easy thing to have and multilingual domain names are a new issue and is under development. There are some solutions but are not yet set perfectly. So, I suggest you forget those solutions and choose an English name for your web site.
9- Web Server And Hosting
However major web servers, like Microsoft IIS and Apache both support multilingual web pages, but I strongly recommend you to ask the hosting company for this issue and make yourself sure that there wont be problems for your web pages to be served by the hosting company.
10- Name Web Site Files
Never use Unicode characters in the name of your web pages. However your operating system, like Windows, lets your choose the file names in Unicode characters but be %100 sure that theses web pages would have serious difficulties both server side and client side.
In many cases, you won’t be able even to upload your web pages to your host space and client’s browsers also won’t be able to recognize the name of page and would generate error. This is true for name of images, flash files, scripts and other pages. Just use English names.
However I have tried to cover major issues in developing multilingual web sites but this issue is something that needs experience and you should yourself discover many of new issues that are not included in this article.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Five reasons you have to stop your web site
That’s right. Your method, behavior and strategy you are now using to manage your website may be justifiable reasons to stop it as soon as possible.
Right now, there are millions of websites on the Internet, many of them are dead static pages with not or very few visitors. The owner of websites are paying lots of money and effort to make the website up and running and are giving service to visitors. From within these much of website owners, a little of them are earning money from their website or their website is beneficial for their business, most of the others are wasting their time and money.
However if you do not have a web site on the Internet, your business is under a very serious risk to be bypassed by your competitors, but if you are not running your website in a right way, then it would not only be a useless but also a threat to your whole business. If you ask why, just read just five more important reasons that you have to stop your website.
1-Your website is not well designed.
People trust to their eyes more than their other senses. So, if your small website is not well designed, it is crowded, bad colored and improperly written text, so they might think that your real store or your office should also be something like that. Having technical problems like JavaScript error messages, run time errors on loading pages, slow page download, useless graphics and flash animations are also factors that should be considered.
2-Your website is not up-to-date.
If you have put old and obsolete data and content on your website and you do not pay enough time to make it up-to-date, then how visitors could trust on your knowledge. How could you prove you and your team’s knowledge is not obsolete too? There are millions of websites that deliver very new information and are updated daily or even hourly. Visitors would not tolerate with old content. If they reach to useless and out of date information on your web site, then they leave your website to visit your competitors’ web site.
3-You do not reply your e-mails regularly and without delay.
If you do not pay enough attention to your website visitors and their e-mails, then you may have the same manner in your real world business with your customers. Replying e-mail is the simplest routine that you should have put in your daily tasks. You are not expected to reply e-mail immediately. Replying every 24 or even 48 hours is also acceptable. If you delay in response, then your competitors would win in reaching hopeless visitors that have sent you a price quote weeks ago and still are waiting. Even they have not received a simple auto responder to be sure you have received their e-mail.
4-Your website is not optimized for search engines.
So, all your potential clients that search for your services and products would be captured by your competitors who have invested to be on top in search engines. If you are paying a lot of money for your website hosting, design and support, if you make your website content up-to-date and pay time and energy to reply your e-mails, but have not a good ranking in major search engines, then you are losing your money. Being visible in the huge world of Internet is vital for your online business and search engines are very useful for this purpose. However, you should target your audiences in many other promotional methods rather than search engines, like, banner ads, e-zines, e-books, articles, forums and newsletters.
5-Insufficient information and facilities in your website.
If you have not mentioned your complete postal and contact address or you have not included price list of your services and products on your website, then you won’t be able to capture visitor’s interest. No pricing information means no path for decision. Visitors decide on many parameters, price is the most important one. Besides, a very intuitive shopping cart that could be easily managed and online credit card processing with security considerations would be the next thing your visitors would search for on your website. Not having these items, better to stop your website.
There are lots of reasons you could find in articles that having a website is vital for your business. There are also check points that you can follow to make a good website. You can use those check points to run a very successful web site to help your business and who knows, you may some day stop your real world business and just rely on your website, like many other businesses that you can find them just on the Internet. eBay, Amazon and Yahoo!. But if you are deciding to have a successful business online, you have to consider that not having set a strategy for your online business means losing reputation, money, energy and resources both on your online and real business.
This article tried to make you aware that, some day you may reach to a point for a hard decision that is, stopping your website or your very expensive website just because of your incorrect management methods. Hope you never see that day.
Right now, there are millions of websites on the Internet, many of them are dead static pages with not or very few visitors. The owner of websites are paying lots of money and effort to make the website up and running and are giving service to visitors. From within these much of website owners, a little of them are earning money from their website or their website is beneficial for their business, most of the others are wasting their time and money.
However if you do not have a web site on the Internet, your business is under a very serious risk to be bypassed by your competitors, but if you are not running your website in a right way, then it would not only be a useless but also a threat to your whole business. If you ask why, just read just five more important reasons that you have to stop your website.
1-Your website is not well designed.
People trust to their eyes more than their other senses. So, if your small website is not well designed, it is crowded, bad colored and improperly written text, so they might think that your real store or your office should also be something like that. Having technical problems like JavaScript error messages, run time errors on loading pages, slow page download, useless graphics and flash animations are also factors that should be considered.
2-Your website is not up-to-date.
If you have put old and obsolete data and content on your website and you do not pay enough time to make it up-to-date, then how visitors could trust on your knowledge. How could you prove you and your team’s knowledge is not obsolete too? There are millions of websites that deliver very new information and are updated daily or even hourly. Visitors would not tolerate with old content. If they reach to useless and out of date information on your web site, then they leave your website to visit your competitors’ web site.
3-You do not reply your e-mails regularly and without delay.
If you do not pay enough attention to your website visitors and their e-mails, then you may have the same manner in your real world business with your customers. Replying e-mail is the simplest routine that you should have put in your daily tasks. You are not expected to reply e-mail immediately. Replying every 24 or even 48 hours is also acceptable. If you delay in response, then your competitors would win in reaching hopeless visitors that have sent you a price quote weeks ago and still are waiting. Even they have not received a simple auto responder to be sure you have received their e-mail.
4-Your website is not optimized for search engines.
So, all your potential clients that search for your services and products would be captured by your competitors who have invested to be on top in search engines. If you are paying a lot of money for your website hosting, design and support, if you make your website content up-to-date and pay time and energy to reply your e-mails, but have not a good ranking in major search engines, then you are losing your money. Being visible in the huge world of Internet is vital for your online business and search engines are very useful for this purpose. However, you should target your audiences in many other promotional methods rather than search engines, like, banner ads, e-zines, e-books, articles, forums and newsletters.
5-Insufficient information and facilities in your website.
If you have not mentioned your complete postal and contact address or you have not included price list of your services and products on your website, then you won’t be able to capture visitor’s interest. No pricing information means no path for decision. Visitors decide on many parameters, price is the most important one. Besides, a very intuitive shopping cart that could be easily managed and online credit card processing with security considerations would be the next thing your visitors would search for on your website. Not having these items, better to stop your website.
There are lots of reasons you could find in articles that having a website is vital for your business. There are also check points that you can follow to make a good website. You can use those check points to run a very successful web site to help your business and who knows, you may some day stop your real world business and just rely on your website, like many other businesses that you can find them just on the Internet. eBay, Amazon and Yahoo!. But if you are deciding to have a successful business online, you have to consider that not having set a strategy for your online business means losing reputation, money, energy and resources both on your online and real business.
This article tried to make you aware that, some day you may reach to a point for a hard decision that is, stopping your website or your very expensive website just because of your incorrect management methods. Hope you never see that day.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
10 Tips to =SPEED= up your PC
1.Let your PC boot up completely before opening any applications.
2.Refresh the desktop after closing any application. This will remove any unused files from the RAM.
3.Do not set very large file size images as your wallpaper. Do not keep a wallpaper at all if your PC is low on RAM (less than 64 MB).
4.Do not clutter your Desktop with a lot of shortcuts. Each shortcut on the desktop uses up to 500 bytes of RAM
5.Empty the recycle bin regularly. The files are not really deleted from your hard drive until you empty the recycle bin.
6.Delete the temporary internet files regularly.
7.Defragment your hard drive once every two months. This will free up a lot of space on your hard drive and rearrange the files so that your applications run faster.
8.Always make two partitions in your hard drive. Install all large Softwares (like PSP, Photoshop, 3DS Max etc) in the second partition. Windows uses all the available empty space in C drive as virtual memory when your Computer RAM is full. Keep the C Drive as empty as possible.
9.When installing new Softwares disable the option of having a tray icon. The tray icons use up available RAM, and also slow down the booting of your PC. Also disable the option of starting the application automatically when the PC boots. You can disable these options later on also from the Tools or preferences menu in your application.
10. Protect your PC from dust. Dust causes the CPU cooling fan to jam and slow down thereby gradually heating your CPU and affecting the processing speed. Use compressed air to blow out any dust from the CPU. Never use vacuum.
RAM IS THE WORKING AREA (DESKTOP) OF THE CPU, KEEP IT AS EMPTY AND UNCLUTTERED AS POSSIBLE!
2.Refresh the desktop after closing any application. This will remove any unused files from the RAM.
3.Do not set very large file size images as your wallpaper. Do not keep a wallpaper at all if your PC is low on RAM (less than 64 MB).
4.Do not clutter your Desktop with a lot of shortcuts. Each shortcut on the desktop uses up to 500 bytes of RAM
5.Empty the recycle bin regularly. The files are not really deleted from your hard drive until you empty the recycle bin.
6.Delete the temporary internet files regularly.
7.Defragment your hard drive once every two months. This will free up a lot of space on your hard drive and rearrange the files so that your applications run faster.
8.Always make two partitions in your hard drive. Install all large Softwares (like PSP, Photoshop, 3DS Max etc) in the second partition. Windows uses all the available empty space in C drive as virtual memory when your Computer RAM is full. Keep the C Drive as empty as possible.
9.When installing new Softwares disable the option of having a tray icon. The tray icons use up available RAM, and also slow down the booting of your PC. Also disable the option of starting the application automatically when the PC boots. You can disable these options later on also from the Tools or preferences menu in your application.
10. Protect your PC from dust. Dust causes the CPU cooling fan to jam and slow down thereby gradually heating your CPU and affecting the processing speed. Use compressed air to blow out any dust from the CPU. Never use vacuum.
RAM IS THE WORKING AREA (DESKTOP) OF THE CPU, KEEP IT AS EMPTY AND UNCLUTTERED AS POSSIBLE!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Office
The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach you how to use Open Office, but rather to show you a quick and dirty way to create presentations and tutorials that can be exported as a Macromedai Flash file.
What is Open Office? It is a free, open source, cross platform office suite that has a lot of the same features as popular commercial suites.
Being that it's cross platform means it can be compiled for just about anything, Windows, Linux / Unix, Mac, etc..
Using Open Office Presentation -
Basically, if you've ever used Microsoft Powerpoint, you've pretty much used Presentation. It's a slide show (or presentation) creator that lets you create any style slide show you want.
You can have text, graphics, charts, etc... or any combination
It does not take much to figure out Presentation. You can add text or picture boxes, add designs, add tables and pretty much anything you can think of.
After you have created the presentation, here's where you convert it to Flash:
You simply go in to the 'file' menu and select 'Export'.
A 'save as' dialog box will come up where you can choose the file name, location and the format you want.
From the pull down box you will see the 'Macromedia Flash (SWF)' option, that's the one you want.
Select the format, pick your location, name the file and press the Save button.
That's it.. you now have a Macromedia Flash version of your presentation that you can include on your website.
Why whould you want this?
Macromedia Flash is pretty much a standard for multimedia on the web, as a result there is a plug-in for almost every browser and most people already have this plug-in.
This gives you the chance to put Flash content on your site without having to play for the Macromedia Suite.
What is Open Office? It is a free, open source, cross platform office suite that has a lot of the same features as popular commercial suites.
Being that it's cross platform means it can be compiled for just about anything, Windows, Linux / Unix, Mac, etc..
Using Open Office Presentation -
Basically, if you've ever used Microsoft Powerpoint, you've pretty much used Presentation. It's a slide show (or presentation) creator that lets you create any style slide show you want.
You can have text, graphics, charts, etc... or any combination
It does not take much to figure out Presentation. You can add text or picture boxes, add designs, add tables and pretty much anything you can think of.
After you have created the presentation, here's where you convert it to Flash:
You simply go in to the 'file' menu and select 'Export'.
A 'save as' dialog box will come up where you can choose the file name, location and the format you want.
From the pull down box you will see the 'Macromedia Flash (SWF)' option, that's the one you want.
Select the format, pick your location, name the file and press the Save button.
That's it.. you now have a Macromedia Flash version of your presentation that you can include on your website.
Why whould you want this?
Macromedia Flash is pretty much a standard for multimedia on the web, as a result there is a plug-in for almost every browser and most people already have this plug-in.
This gives you the chance to put Flash content on your site without having to play for the Macromedia Suite.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Blogging Can Be A Collective Experience That Turns Faceless Strangers Into Close Friends.
I’ve been searching the Internet for blogging sites for a fair while now and recently I came across a whole blogging community, which has grabbed my interest greatly. It’s called Joe User and it’s a site that many bloggers all around the globe are partaking in. It is very well organized into categories such as Best Articles, Newest blog entries, Top blogging sites, New sites and Most hit-on bloggers. The blogs range from very personal life introspection to serious analysis of current affairs in the media.
The aspect that has appealed to me the most is the very personal type of blogging community. Many people are talking about their feelings and issues about life with people that technically they have never met face to face. However, the type of camaraderie I’ve ‘witnessed’ as a bystander has truly amazed me. These people talk to each other as though they are extremely close friends, and the strange thing is I think this is the reality.
When one person has something important happen to them in their life, up to 100 or more comments will arrive under their blog entry with advice and information as well as emotional support from their blogging friends. Of course there are some differences in opinion, but the general perspective seems to be one of a positive approach to humanity. People are really spilling out their souls to each other, and then accepting criticism as well as discussing possible solutions to problems. I just find this to be truly inspirational, a human community or ‘tribe’ that has formed simply because of the Internet’s existence.
These people must spend a lot of time communicating with each other. Some are writing new entries everyday, as well as articles and conversations. The conversations usually happen in the ‘comments’ section where one can see that these people often stay up into the late hours of the morning, blogging to each other back and forth. The amount of love shared by these arbitrary acquaintances is astounding. One could perceive the whole experience as a form of therapy but I think it is much more than that. I believe this is a sign of a revolution. The coming of the New Human Tribe has begun.
If random bloggers can evolve into a community of people who trust, respect, and are intimate and united with each other this says a lot for the human condition. People are tired of the segregated, separatist reality of countries, cultures, races and religions. These group blogging sites, or collective on-line journals as I now like to think of them, are symbolic of the future connectedness of all of humanity. It may take a hundred years, or a thousand, or maybe only fifty, but it definitely looks like there’s hope yet for the warring, greedy humans. One day we all may be ‘one’ again in our minds as well as our physical forms.
The aspect that has appealed to me the most is the very personal type of blogging community. Many people are talking about their feelings and issues about life with people that technically they have never met face to face. However, the type of camaraderie I’ve ‘witnessed’ as a bystander has truly amazed me. These people talk to each other as though they are extremely close friends, and the strange thing is I think this is the reality.
When one person has something important happen to them in their life, up to 100 or more comments will arrive under their blog entry with advice and information as well as emotional support from their blogging friends. Of course there are some differences in opinion, but the general perspective seems to be one of a positive approach to humanity. People are really spilling out their souls to each other, and then accepting criticism as well as discussing possible solutions to problems. I just find this to be truly inspirational, a human community or ‘tribe’ that has formed simply because of the Internet’s existence.
These people must spend a lot of time communicating with each other. Some are writing new entries everyday, as well as articles and conversations. The conversations usually happen in the ‘comments’ section where one can see that these people often stay up into the late hours of the morning, blogging to each other back and forth. The amount of love shared by these arbitrary acquaintances is astounding. One could perceive the whole experience as a form of therapy but I think it is much more than that. I believe this is a sign of a revolution. The coming of the New Human Tribe has begun.
If random bloggers can evolve into a community of people who trust, respect, and are intimate and united with each other this says a lot for the human condition. People are tired of the segregated, separatist reality of countries, cultures, races and religions. These group blogging sites, or collective on-line journals as I now like to think of them, are symbolic of the future connectedness of all of humanity. It may take a hundred years, or a thousand, or maybe only fifty, but it definitely looks like there’s hope yet for the warring, greedy humans. One day we all may be ‘one’ again in our minds as well as our physical forms.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Getting Started In Information Technology Computer Consulting
One of the best things about being in the Information Technology industry is consulting. For purposes of this article I'm using the term consulting in reference to side jobs or moonlighting work. While full time Computer Consultants can also benefit from the tips in this article, I'm really writing at the IT Employee who works a full-time IT job and then takes extra jobs for extra money on the side.
So your working your regular job and you want to earn more working for yourself. Here's a few ideas to get started. First realize that its now almost impossible to function these days without a computer in your home. In fact many homes now have 2-3 PC's and eventually they are going to break or will need to be hooked together.
Word of Mouth Is King
To start, get yourself some business cards that explain your services. DO NOT LIST YOUR RATE I made this rookie mistake and was tied to my lowball rate once I was more established. So start by spreading the word at work. Hopefully your employer is tolerant of this. To know the limits simply ask someone in HR if the company has a policy regarding work outside of the job. If not you may be able to post a notice in the lunchroom or company classified ad board. However if this is not an option just spread the word among co-workers you trust. Word of mouth is always the best way to bring in new business. Everyone knows someone with a broken computer and you just need to get people talking. Once you get an opportunity, provide more service than the customer expects. Remember these initial jobs are seeds so even if you don't make a profit, the goodwill you earn will keep you working down the road.
The golden ring in doing this is to find someone who will recommend you to a small or medium size business that does not have its own IT staff.
Why Businesses? Because its steady work and businesses know that time is money. Businesses tend to pay on-time, they don't keep junk on their systems, and if a job runs over the amount of time you expect they are generally willing to keep the clock running so long as their systems are fixed. Home clients on the other hand tie the money for the job with the price of the PC. This works against us as PC's become cheaper. Businesses assign a monetary value to their time and data so these are easier clients to work with. They also view hiring you as just another cost of business and will not hesitate to let any employee call you in after you gain their trust.
Advertising
I've tried advertising in newspapers and never found it to pay off. One of the best things I've done besides word of mouth is to use my neighborhood. I put a flyer in each newspaper box advertising my services. The target here is the person who works out of a home office. This is another attempt to secure a client whose time is money. From here apply the same principle of outperforming their expectations. Let them know you appreciate referrals and provide them with plenty of extra business cards. I once was hired to separate two businesses during a purchase. While one half was my client I made sure the other business owner knew the level of my service and went out of my way to ensure his systems worked as well or better once I left. Of course I taped my card to each of his servers. A better way than walking your neighborhood is to obtain a list of the addresses in your neighborhood and visit http://www.usps.com and start a mailing campaign. Select the postcard mailing option and simply upload your flyer, send them your list of addresses and enter your credit card number. I've found that I can canvass a 300 house neighborhood for about $40.00 - $50.00 much cheaper and more targeted then my other attempts. The reason you want to use a postcard is two fold. 1) It's cheaper 2) Its easy to hang on to. When I used 8 1/2 x 11 paper flyers I only could reach those with an immediate computer problem. Everyone else simply tossed the ad. The idea it to get them to keep your card for later so offer an incentive to this. Give them $10.00 off their first job or offer a free consultation. You want them calling you not the other guy.
Billing
Ok here's my take on billing and getting paid. Judgment is the key. When you bill a business be sure to add to your invoice that payment is due upon receipt. Does this mean you'll get paid immediately? Nope but if you leave it out businesses will assume a Net 30 approach and pay you 30 days after receipt and that's no good. So put the payment due upon receipt and see what happens. I give them 30 days anyway before sending a second invoice with a clear notice that this is a PAST DUE invoice. Most times this clears things up. Now I should add that I do have some customers that are inconsistent about how long it takes to get paid but they do pay and furthermore I LIKE working for them. Maybe they are the type that doesn't watch over my shoulder or gives me the key to the place or lets me take stuff home to work on. My point is you be the judge where the hassle is worth the delay if this occurs. Most important spell out your terms on the invoice and send reminders every 30 days. Now home users are different, you should expect them to pay on the spot or very soon after. Just as the local PC shop expects them to pay before getting their stuff back you should too. Judgment comes into play here as well. Some will ask you to stop by for one thing and then keep you longer than expected. DO NOT bring a prepared invoice based on what you believe the charge will be. It's always better to tell them the cost and then e-mail them the invoice after you've been paid.
Tax Tips
If your serious about an on-going consulting business take the time to set yourself up properly. This will pay dividends in increased revenue and tax savings. Assign a room in your house as your home office. This will let you deduct any costs related to that office from your earnings as a consultant. There is no law your business has to make a profit so as long as you document the expenses you deduct you can do so even if the expenses exceed your earnings. The benefit here is that you get some tax savings from your regular paycheck from the loss of your business. Hopefully your business gets going and earns a profit but until this is the case you may as well do what you can to save money. A few examples of things you can deduct are the insurance, utilities, and internet costs proportional to the % of square feet your office consumes. I've even heard that technically you can deduct dog related expenses if you can prove the dog also guards the home office. I don't recommend stretching anything however.
Sales Tax
Get yourself established as a business in your state so you can charge sales tax. I know this sounds crazy but if your going to sell your time, why not sell the parts and mark them up 10% so you make more money. I used to require my clients to purchase items and then call me to install them. Now I just make sure I trust they'll pay and order the items myself. This lets me increase revenue and as long as you keep track of what you charged you simply pay the sales tax at the end of the year, couldn't be easier.
So your working your regular job and you want to earn more working for yourself. Here's a few ideas to get started. First realize that its now almost impossible to function these days without a computer in your home. In fact many homes now have 2-3 PC's and eventually they are going to break or will need to be hooked together.
Word of Mouth Is King
To start, get yourself some business cards that explain your services. DO NOT LIST YOUR RATE I made this rookie mistake and was tied to my lowball rate once I was more established. So start by spreading the word at work. Hopefully your employer is tolerant of this. To know the limits simply ask someone in HR if the company has a policy regarding work outside of the job. If not you may be able to post a notice in the lunchroom or company classified ad board. However if this is not an option just spread the word among co-workers you trust. Word of mouth is always the best way to bring in new business. Everyone knows someone with a broken computer and you just need to get people talking. Once you get an opportunity, provide more service than the customer expects. Remember these initial jobs are seeds so even if you don't make a profit, the goodwill you earn will keep you working down the road.
The golden ring in doing this is to find someone who will recommend you to a small or medium size business that does not have its own IT staff.
Why Businesses? Because its steady work and businesses know that time is money. Businesses tend to pay on-time, they don't keep junk on their systems, and if a job runs over the amount of time you expect they are generally willing to keep the clock running so long as their systems are fixed. Home clients on the other hand tie the money for the job with the price of the PC. This works against us as PC's become cheaper. Businesses assign a monetary value to their time and data so these are easier clients to work with. They also view hiring you as just another cost of business and will not hesitate to let any employee call you in after you gain their trust.
Advertising
I've tried advertising in newspapers and never found it to pay off. One of the best things I've done besides word of mouth is to use my neighborhood. I put a flyer in each newspaper box advertising my services. The target here is the person who works out of a home office. This is another attempt to secure a client whose time is money. From here apply the same principle of outperforming their expectations. Let them know you appreciate referrals and provide them with plenty of extra business cards. I once was hired to separate two businesses during a purchase. While one half was my client I made sure the other business owner knew the level of my service and went out of my way to ensure his systems worked as well or better once I left. Of course I taped my card to each of his servers. A better way than walking your neighborhood is to obtain a list of the addresses in your neighborhood and visit http://www.usps.com and start a mailing campaign. Select the postcard mailing option and simply upload your flyer, send them your list of addresses and enter your credit card number. I've found that I can canvass a 300 house neighborhood for about $40.00 - $50.00 much cheaper and more targeted then my other attempts. The reason you want to use a postcard is two fold. 1) It's cheaper 2) Its easy to hang on to. When I used 8 1/2 x 11 paper flyers I only could reach those with an immediate computer problem. Everyone else simply tossed the ad. The idea it to get them to keep your card for later so offer an incentive to this. Give them $10.00 off their first job or offer a free consultation. You want them calling you not the other guy.
Billing
Ok here's my take on billing and getting paid. Judgment is the key. When you bill a business be sure to add to your invoice that payment is due upon receipt. Does this mean you'll get paid immediately? Nope but if you leave it out businesses will assume a Net 30 approach and pay you 30 days after receipt and that's no good. So put the payment due upon receipt and see what happens. I give them 30 days anyway before sending a second invoice with a clear notice that this is a PAST DUE invoice. Most times this clears things up. Now I should add that I do have some customers that are inconsistent about how long it takes to get paid but they do pay and furthermore I LIKE working for them. Maybe they are the type that doesn't watch over my shoulder or gives me the key to the place or lets me take stuff home to work on. My point is you be the judge where the hassle is worth the delay if this occurs. Most important spell out your terms on the invoice and send reminders every 30 days. Now home users are different, you should expect them to pay on the spot or very soon after. Just as the local PC shop expects them to pay before getting their stuff back you should too. Judgment comes into play here as well. Some will ask you to stop by for one thing and then keep you longer than expected. DO NOT bring a prepared invoice based on what you believe the charge will be. It's always better to tell them the cost and then e-mail them the invoice after you've been paid.
Tax Tips
If your serious about an on-going consulting business take the time to set yourself up properly. This will pay dividends in increased revenue and tax savings. Assign a room in your house as your home office. This will let you deduct any costs related to that office from your earnings as a consultant. There is no law your business has to make a profit so as long as you document the expenses you deduct you can do so even if the expenses exceed your earnings. The benefit here is that you get some tax savings from your regular paycheck from the loss of your business. Hopefully your business gets going and earns a profit but until this is the case you may as well do what you can to save money. A few examples of things you can deduct are the insurance, utilities, and internet costs proportional to the % of square feet your office consumes. I've even heard that technically you can deduct dog related expenses if you can prove the dog also guards the home office. I don't recommend stretching anything however.
Sales Tax
Get yourself established as a business in your state so you can charge sales tax. I know this sounds crazy but if your going to sell your time, why not sell the parts and mark them up 10% so you make more money. I used to require my clients to purchase items and then call me to install them. Now I just make sure I trust they'll pay and order the items myself. This lets me increase revenue and as long as you keep track of what you charged you simply pay the sales tax at the end of the year, couldn't be easier.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Email Management
If you utilize a computer at home or work it is likely that you use email. Email is an electronic message that is sent from one computer to another following a specific protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP). As email's popularity has grown so too have the inherent problems with email.
In order to send email you must have the exact spelling of the email address. If there are any typographical errors in the recipient's email address then an unintended recipient could receive the email message. When creating an email address avoid characters that cause confusion, like the number 1 (one) and the letter l (el), computer fonts often cause those two characters to have similar appearances. Try to create an email address that cannot easily be misspelled.
As email has become a popular communication medium the email address should not be too long or complicated, but easily said in a phone message. Choose an email address that is easy for others to remember, as a pen is not always handy.
Unfortunately spam, unsolicited email has become common place, though many countries are taking action to make spamming illegal, these measures will unlikely have any short term effect on your email inbox. Many email clients that are used to read and respond to email messages, include basic filtering options that will sort your email messages into folders, based on rules that you define. Email messages can typically be stored and filtered by sender, subject and contents. There are also a number of 3rd party tools available for limiting the amount of spam received. Spam filters typically use different filtering technologies. When evaluating whether a spam solution fits your needs consider sorting filtered email into a specific mailbox for review prior to deletion. This will prevent any important messages from being unintentionally deleted.
As with almost anything, the best defense is a good offense. It is best not to post your email address in public forums, where spammers can harvest it. If you have a website consider typing out the email address: 'name at domain.com', without using the "@" symbol, as this will prevent the address from being abused by email harvesting bots. Another alternative is to provide a contact form rather than an email address.
Resources: Email Clients - http://www.messaging-software.net/e-mail-client-software.htm
Spam Filters - http://www.email-software.org/spam-filter-software.htm
About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net
This article was posted on May 26, 2004
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In order to send email you must have the exact spelling of the email address. If there are any typographical errors in the recipient's email address then an unintended recipient could receive the email message. When creating an email address avoid characters that cause confusion, like the number 1 (one) and the letter l (el), computer fonts often cause those two characters to have similar appearances. Try to create an email address that cannot easily be misspelled.
As email has become a popular communication medium the email address should not be too long or complicated, but easily said in a phone message. Choose an email address that is easy for others to remember, as a pen is not always handy.
Unfortunately spam, unsolicited email has become common place, though many countries are taking action to make spamming illegal, these measures will unlikely have any short term effect on your email inbox. Many email clients that are used to read and respond to email messages, include basic filtering options that will sort your email messages into folders, based on rules that you define. Email messages can typically be stored and filtered by sender, subject and contents. There are also a number of 3rd party tools available for limiting the amount of spam received. Spam filters typically use different filtering technologies. When evaluating whether a spam solution fits your needs consider sorting filtered email into a specific mailbox for review prior to deletion. This will prevent any important messages from being unintentionally deleted.
As with almost anything, the best defense is a good offense. It is best not to post your email address in public forums, where spammers can harvest it. If you have a website consider typing out the email address: 'name at domain.com', without using the "@" symbol, as this will prevent the address from being abused by email harvesting bots. Another alternative is to provide a contact form rather than an email address.
Resources: Email Clients - http://www.messaging-software.net/e-mail-client-software.htm
Spam Filters - http://www.email-software.org/spam-filter-software.htm
About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net
This article was posted on May 26, 2004
Read More Articles from the "Computers and Internet" Category:
Are Cookies Evil? What Service Do Cookies Perform In A Web Browser?
by Fred Black
Getting free traffic to your website - Promote your site for free
by Ali Papila
10 Major Reasons To Switch To Linux
by Max Rubin
Book Printing Through the Millennium
by Paul Hood
Guidelines for Printing Great Photos at Home
by Kelly Paal
The Great Opportunity For VoIP Resellers
by Mark Woodcock
How Google Page Rank Works
by James Mahony
Malware, Spyware and Virus’s All Things Developed To Harm Your PC
by Paul Cottam
Advanced Uses For Myspace
by David Riewe
French Translation: Easy with Software
by Karen Force
Monday, August 6, 2007
Printing and Marketing Lead to New Career
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Printed Promotion Products For Direct Sales Reps and Online Teamwork
Work at home mom of three, Michele Barber of www.ChelesTreasures.com, has been making printed promotional products for direct sales representatives since April of 2002. Chele’s Treasures offers affordable alternatives to corporate printing prices and graphical restrictions. All Michele’s designs are original and created on her computer, so direct sales consultants don’t have to worry about copyright infringements or any other disruptions to their marketing efforts.
Labels, business cards, postcards and stationery from Chele’s Treasures offer a polished business presentation for consultants for any business whether home grown or direct sales oriented. When asked which direct sales companies Michele did most of her work for, she answered, “I will print for any direct sales company. The company categories listed on my web site are those that I've done the most repeat business for. I originally started with the beauty companies because I had personal experience with them. Word of mouth referrals from beauty consultants were responsible for my success with direct sales consultants from other companies.”
Word of mouth is certainly living proof that Michele Barber’s work brings repeat business again and again. Given the large distance that much of Michele’s printing work travels once it arrives home with an advertiser, and the virtual local effects of having an internet based business, word of mouth has allowed her client base to grow nationally from coast to coast.
Chele has seen her highest printing demands fluctuate seasonally and is sometimes surprised by the products her customers most desire to see specialty printed. Candy wrappers, treat bags, recipe cards, and business cards roll in and out of favor. But the item she sells the most to both business and non-commercial customers is personalized note pads. “Everyone loves to add their own personality to their notes and personalized note pads allow them to do just that.”
While much of Michele’s client base is work at home moms, Michele herself is a work at home mom raising three children. The decision to work from home was ultimately made when as a newly single parent, Michele’s third child arrived with severe acid reflux and eczema. Many sleepless nights, trips to doctor’s offices, specialist hospitals and the demands required by two other children made it clear in Michele’s mind that corporate America wouldn’t have a place for her and her special time constraints. Working at home allows her to make a living without giving up parenting as her number one priority. Michele concedes that this isn’t always easy. “The most challenging part is being in charge of EVERYTHING! I am essentially the employer, employee and daycare provider lumped into one little person.” But she has risen to, and mastered, the challenge.
Michele admits that she and ChelesTreasures.com couldn’t have completely undergone the task alone. “I've been blessed with the right people in my life at the right time and supportive family members. My mother and grandmother have also been extremely instrumental in helping with the children to meet deadlines, special projects and in giving me the much needed "me" time that becomes so rare as a WAHM.”
Michele does not feel the need to march to the beat of the same drummer as her corporate America counterparts. She measures success in a manner that really matters. Says Michele, “The important thing to remember is that I have been blessed with these lovely gifts to juggle and as long as all needs are being met for each, then I'm succeeding. The old saying stands true, ‘You can do everything right with the wrong attitude and fail to succeed, but you can do everything wrong with the right attitude and succeed.’"
Not only has Michele’s business blossomed, but her personal life has as well. On March 17th, she received a marriage proposal from Donald Neisler of www.Donalds-Hobby.com whom she’d met online in a local internet forum.
Donald also owns a local retail store and serves as the secretary and treasurer of the Paris R/C Association. His online customers find him via internet search engines, local advertising, sponsored pilots, and word of mouth from popular radio control forums and sites.
With their common interests in the internet and their goals, Michele and Donald began helping one another with their respective businesses. The relationship developed into something much more as did each of their businesses as a result of their working together. Donald’s certifications as a Microsoft Systems Engineer and Cisco Network Professional has aided in the growth of Michele’s business, including customizing and simplifying her ordering process. Michele has streamlined many aspects of Donald’s Hobby Center including newsletters, advertising, shipping, and customer follow up services. The teamwork has proven beneficial for both businesses.
Donald and Michele each bring a work at home parent aura to their businesses and to the internet community as a whole. Together, Donald and Michele will continue to serve their respective internet clients and serve future internet populations with their joint venture, Neisler Hosting. The internet has truly become a place to work and play for this high-tech couple!
Busy and well rounded, Michele totally exemplifies the self-employed home executive. Many people think that a work at home mom washes clothes, cooks and cleans all day, then squeezes in a little work time on the side. Michele is just the opposite, as are most WAHMs. We balance the demands of our homes and our families with the demands of our work. Perhaps we work a few unconventional hours or conduct business on a cell phone from mom’s taxi service, but we make up a growing part of the American business population. Chele’s Treasures has provided the marketing and community support to make it possible for many others.
Printed Promotion Products For Direct Sales Reps and Online Teamwork
Work at home mom of three, Michele Barber of www.ChelesTreasures.com, has been making printed promotional products for direct sales representatives since April of 2002. Chele’s Treasures offers affordable alternatives to corporate printing prices and graphical restrictions. All Michele’s designs are original and created on her computer, so direct sales consultants don’t have to worry about copyright infringements or any other disruptions to their marketing efforts.
Labels, business cards, postcards and stationery from Chele’s Treasures offer a polished business presentation for consultants for any business whether home grown or direct sales oriented. When asked which direct sales companies Michele did most of her work for, she answered, “I will print for any direct sales company. The company categories listed on my web site are those that I've done the most repeat business for. I originally started with the beauty companies because I had personal experience with them. Word of mouth referrals from beauty consultants were responsible for my success with direct sales consultants from other companies.”
Word of mouth is certainly living proof that Michele Barber’s work brings repeat business again and again. Given the large distance that much of Michele’s printing work travels once it arrives home with an advertiser, and the virtual local effects of having an internet based business, word of mouth has allowed her client base to grow nationally from coast to coast.
Chele has seen her highest printing demands fluctuate seasonally and is sometimes surprised by the products her customers most desire to see specialty printed. Candy wrappers, treat bags, recipe cards, and business cards roll in and out of favor. But the item she sells the most to both business and non-commercial customers is personalized note pads. “Everyone loves to add their own personality to their notes and personalized note pads allow them to do just that.”
While much of Michele’s client base is work at home moms, Michele herself is a work at home mom raising three children. The decision to work from home was ultimately made when as a newly single parent, Michele’s third child arrived with severe acid reflux and eczema. Many sleepless nights, trips to doctor’s offices, specialist hospitals and the demands required by two other children made it clear in Michele’s mind that corporate America wouldn’t have a place for her and her special time constraints. Working at home allows her to make a living without giving up parenting as her number one priority. Michele concedes that this isn’t always easy. “The most challenging part is being in charge of EVERYTHING! I am essentially the employer, employee and daycare provider lumped into one little person.” But she has risen to, and mastered, the challenge.
Michele admits that she and ChelesTreasures.com couldn’t have completely undergone the task alone. “I've been blessed with the right people in my life at the right time and supportive family members. My mother and grandmother have also been extremely instrumental in helping with the children to meet deadlines, special projects and in giving me the much needed "me" time that becomes so rare as a WAHM.”
Michele does not feel the need to march to the beat of the same drummer as her corporate America counterparts. She measures success in a manner that really matters. Says Michele, “The important thing to remember is that I have been blessed with these lovely gifts to juggle and as long as all needs are being met for each, then I'm succeeding. The old saying stands true, ‘You can do everything right with the wrong attitude and fail to succeed, but you can do everything wrong with the right attitude and succeed.’"
Not only has Michele’s business blossomed, but her personal life has as well. On March 17th, she received a marriage proposal from Donald Neisler of www.Donalds-Hobby.com whom she’d met online in a local internet forum.
Donald also owns a local retail store and serves as the secretary and treasurer of the Paris R/C Association. His online customers find him via internet search engines, local advertising, sponsored pilots, and word of mouth from popular radio control forums and sites.
With their common interests in the internet and their goals, Michele and Donald began helping one another with their respective businesses. The relationship developed into something much more as did each of their businesses as a result of their working together. Donald’s certifications as a Microsoft Systems Engineer and Cisco Network Professional has aided in the growth of Michele’s business, including customizing and simplifying her ordering process. Michele has streamlined many aspects of Donald’s Hobby Center including newsletters, advertising, shipping, and customer follow up services. The teamwork has proven beneficial for both businesses.
Donald and Michele each bring a work at home parent aura to their businesses and to the internet community as a whole. Together, Donald and Michele will continue to serve their respective internet clients and serve future internet populations with their joint venture, Neisler Hosting. The internet has truly become a place to work and play for this high-tech couple!
Busy and well rounded, Michele totally exemplifies the self-employed home executive. Many people think that a work at home mom washes clothes, cooks and cleans all day, then squeezes in a little work time on the side. Michele is just the opposite, as are most WAHMs. We balance the demands of our homes and our families with the demands of our work. Perhaps we work a few unconventional hours or conduct business on a cell phone from mom’s taxi service, but we make up a growing part of the American business population. Chele’s Treasures has provided the marketing and community support to make it possible for many others.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Tech-writers – A Necessary Evil
Tech-writers – A Necessary Evil
by: Glenn Murray
New to tech-writing, or thinking about starting? The key to success is recognising that tech-writers are a necessary evil.
Tech-writers are necessary because someone has to write the user doco. The programmers and managers sure as hell don’t want to. This is actually part of the reason that you’re evil, too. In my experience, most programmers and managers think that they could write the manuals if they wanted to… they just don’t want to. They might not write all “flowery” like the tech-writers, but what they write is correct.
Unfortunately, that’s quite often all that’s important to programmers and managers.
There is a feeling within the software environment that accuracy = quality. Audience analysis, doco readability, consistency, usability, active and passive voice, commas in a list of three or more items… All of these things are relatively unimportant to everyone but the tech-writer. Oh… and the user.
In a world where accuracy is all important, a lot goes over the head of the dummy. I don’t know if it’s intellectual snobbery, but programmers and managers seem to think that if they understand it, so should the user. It doesn’t matter whether or not they do… they SHOULD! Stupid users! Maybe it’s the geek’s ultimate revenge…
Your document can be 100% accurate, but if the audience can’t read it, you’ve wasted your time.
So why doesn’t anyone acknowledge this? They do! That’s the weird part. In theory, everyone agrees with you, it’s just in practice that you find yourself out in the cold. I don’t know why this happens. Maybe it’s because most of these guys have never done tech-writing.
So tech-writers spend too long worrying about unimportant things. And they bother programmers and managers with unimportant things. But they’re necessary things. Otherwise why would you be employed. Maybe the absence of simple logic short circuits their brains. Who knows?
What we can get out of this is that there’s a feeling that tech-writers waste time, and as a result, they’re pretty much at the bottom of the heap in the software world. I think a good analogy is the way some rich see the poor. Dirty little creatures… if only we could do without them…
But there is an up-side. I don’t want you thinking it’s all bad.
Being at the bottom of the heap has its advantages. You can go unnoticed for years if you want. If you haven’t seen the movie, Office Space, you should hire it. There’s a little ferrety bloke in that who was “let go” years ago. Problem is, no one ever told him, and because of a glitch in payroll he still got paid. No one ever noticed.
Being a tech-writer’s a bit like that.
When I was managing doco teams, my favourite saying was “All we have to do is manage their expectations and our commitments”. Because programmers and managers resign themselves to the fact that they don’t know what’s going on in the doco team, there’s sometimes a temptation to slacken off. Don’t give in to this temptation!!! If you ever get caught, doing it, it’ll be like the boy who cried wolf – they’ll never believe your estimates again!
The other risk is that you’ll lose your sense of urgency. And that’s a big part of what makes a good worker. You should be very strict about managing your commitments. This requires discipline, because sometimes it seems you’re the only one that cares, but you have to do it.
One thing you should be aware of though, is that your average tech-writer in software spends only about 50% of his or her time writing. The rest of your time is spent planning, problem solving, fixing your computer, researching, interviewing the programmers, writing work pracs…
I always found it was a good balance, though.
It was when I started managing teams that the bottom really fell out. Then the percentage dropped to about 10-20%. There were times when I’d go months without writing any help at all. That can be very frustrating, especially if you don’t particularly like managing.
Now managing tech-writers in software is an interesting thing. As with most technology management positions, you kinda fall into it, because you’re the most senior/experienced person in the company. Unfortunately, that doesn’t qualify you to be a manager. Software companies are renowned for dumping people into management roles without any real training or support.
I don’t really have any advice for you here. If it’s gonna happen, it’ll happen. Just be aware of it, and know that if you fall into a management role, it’s gonna be difficult. (That’s not to say that it can’t be rewarding though…)
The ironic thing is that the most difficult aspect of it is that your staff are screaming at you to change the system. “The programmers don’t answer our questions!” “None of my work has been reviewed for the last 2 months!” “The project manager just told me to forget about quality!”
Unfortunately, the inexperienced tech-writer is often naïve enough to think they can change the system. Once you become a manager, you know you can’t. Hold on a minute… Maybe apathy is what qualifies you to be a manager… Hmmmm.
In any case, my advice is not to push too hard. You’ll make life hard for your manager, and give yourself a bad reputation. Recognise you’re a necessary evil, and work within those constraints.
Tech-writing can be a lot of fun. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s not creative. Trying to think of a way to describe what goes in the Name field without just saying “Enter the name” is a real mind-boggler!
About The Author
Glenn Murray heads advertising copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.
This article was posted on May 26, 2004
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by Paul Hood
Guidelines for Printing Great Photos at Home
by Kelly Paal
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by Mark Woodcock
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French Translation: Easy with Software
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<< Back to "Computers And Internet" Index
by: Glenn Murray
New to tech-writing, or thinking about starting? The key to success is recognising that tech-writers are a necessary evil.
Tech-writers are necessary because someone has to write the user doco. The programmers and managers sure as hell don’t want to. This is actually part of the reason that you’re evil, too. In my experience, most programmers and managers think that they could write the manuals if they wanted to… they just don’t want to. They might not write all “flowery” like the tech-writers, but what they write is correct.
Unfortunately, that’s quite often all that’s important to programmers and managers.
There is a feeling within the software environment that accuracy = quality. Audience analysis, doco readability, consistency, usability, active and passive voice, commas in a list of three or more items… All of these things are relatively unimportant to everyone but the tech-writer. Oh… and the user.
In a world where accuracy is all important, a lot goes over the head of the dummy. I don’t know if it’s intellectual snobbery, but programmers and managers seem to think that if they understand it, so should the user. It doesn’t matter whether or not they do… they SHOULD! Stupid users! Maybe it’s the geek’s ultimate revenge…
Your document can be 100% accurate, but if the audience can’t read it, you’ve wasted your time.
So why doesn’t anyone acknowledge this? They do! That’s the weird part. In theory, everyone agrees with you, it’s just in practice that you find yourself out in the cold. I don’t know why this happens. Maybe it’s because most of these guys have never done tech-writing.
So tech-writers spend too long worrying about unimportant things. And they bother programmers and managers with unimportant things. But they’re necessary things. Otherwise why would you be employed. Maybe the absence of simple logic short circuits their brains. Who knows?
What we can get out of this is that there’s a feeling that tech-writers waste time, and as a result, they’re pretty much at the bottom of the heap in the software world. I think a good analogy is the way some rich see the poor. Dirty little creatures… if only we could do without them…
But there is an up-side. I don’t want you thinking it’s all bad.
Being at the bottom of the heap has its advantages. You can go unnoticed for years if you want. If you haven’t seen the movie, Office Space, you should hire it. There’s a little ferrety bloke in that who was “let go” years ago. Problem is, no one ever told him, and because of a glitch in payroll he still got paid. No one ever noticed.
Being a tech-writer’s a bit like that.
When I was managing doco teams, my favourite saying was “All we have to do is manage their expectations and our commitments”. Because programmers and managers resign themselves to the fact that they don’t know what’s going on in the doco team, there’s sometimes a temptation to slacken off. Don’t give in to this temptation!!! If you ever get caught, doing it, it’ll be like the boy who cried wolf – they’ll never believe your estimates again!
The other risk is that you’ll lose your sense of urgency. And that’s a big part of what makes a good worker. You should be very strict about managing your commitments. This requires discipline, because sometimes it seems you’re the only one that cares, but you have to do it.
One thing you should be aware of though, is that your average tech-writer in software spends only about 50% of his or her time writing. The rest of your time is spent planning, problem solving, fixing your computer, researching, interviewing the programmers, writing work pracs…
I always found it was a good balance, though.
It was when I started managing teams that the bottom really fell out. Then the percentage dropped to about 10-20%. There were times when I’d go months without writing any help at all. That can be very frustrating, especially if you don’t particularly like managing.
Now managing tech-writers in software is an interesting thing. As with most technology management positions, you kinda fall into it, because you’re the most senior/experienced person in the company. Unfortunately, that doesn’t qualify you to be a manager. Software companies are renowned for dumping people into management roles without any real training or support.
I don’t really have any advice for you here. If it’s gonna happen, it’ll happen. Just be aware of it, and know that if you fall into a management role, it’s gonna be difficult. (That’s not to say that it can’t be rewarding though…)
The ironic thing is that the most difficult aspect of it is that your staff are screaming at you to change the system. “The programmers don’t answer our questions!” “None of my work has been reviewed for the last 2 months!” “The project manager just told me to forget about quality!”
Unfortunately, the inexperienced tech-writer is often naïve enough to think they can change the system. Once you become a manager, you know you can’t. Hold on a minute… Maybe apathy is what qualifies you to be a manager… Hmmmm.
In any case, my advice is not to push too hard. You’ll make life hard for your manager, and give yourself a bad reputation. Recognise you’re a necessary evil, and work within those constraints.
Tech-writing can be a lot of fun. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s not creative. Trying to think of a way to describe what goes in the Name field without just saying “Enter the name” is a real mind-boggler!
About The Author
Glenn Murray heads advertising copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.
This article was posted on May 26, 2004
Read More Articles from the "Computers and Internet" Category:
Are Cookies Evil? What Service Do Cookies Perform In A Web Browser?
by Fred Black
Getting free traffic to your website - Promote your site for free
by Ali Papila
10 Major Reasons To Switch To Linux
by Max Rubin
Book Printing Through the Millennium
by Paul Hood
Guidelines for Printing Great Photos at Home
by Kelly Paal
The Great Opportunity For VoIP Resellers
by Mark Woodcock
How Google Page Rank Works
by James Mahony
Malware, Spyware and Virus’s All Things Developed To Harm Your PC
by Paul Cottam
Advanced Uses For Myspace
by David Riewe
French Translation: Easy with Software
by Karen Force
<< Back to "Computers And Internet" Index
Friday, August 3, 2007
10 Tips for Tech-Writers
Tech-writing is a tricky business. It’s not a very high profile industry, so there’s not much support around. Follow these 10 quick tips, and you’ll be well on your way to a satisfying tech-writing career.
1) Follow a sensible career path…
* STEP 1: Start in a team
* STEP 2: Stay only just long enough
* STEP 3: Manage yourself
* STEP 4: Manage a team
* STEP 5: Go contracting (depends on the market)
2) Knowledge is your lifeblood – learn the politics of your company. Know who knows what. Find someone who consistently gives you timely, reliable, technically accurate answers, and get their name tattooed on your shoulder! Every company has at least one. And they may not be in the project manager/product manager/customer/programmer roles. They are generally the people who’ve used the product in the real world, and dealt with real world customers.
3) Communicate WITH, not AT. Tech-writers don’t have enough power to get away with communicating at.
4) Track stuff (take spreadsheet printout and write it up on the board).
5) Develop good product and domain knowledge – The more you can figure out for yourself, the better off you’ll be (and the more respect you’ll get from the techies).
6) Find out who your users are, what they are trying to do, what they are having trouble doing, and how they want to be helped. Then provide this assistance. Help the user do what they are trying to do. Don’t just tell them what the product can do… a help system is only helpful if it addresses the users’ needs.
7) Treat everyone as a customer. Then manage their expectations and your commitments. Always ensure they know what you’re doing. Tell them when you’ll be finished. And pull out all stops to meet your deadline.
8) Provide a surrogate user testing mechanism for the development team – providing usability feedback.
9) Work as hard as required to get good quality doco finished on time and to budget – this is how you’ll get the satisfaction out of work that you need.
10) Have fun with it.
Don’t become jaded and cynical by the high-tech, harsh, uncaring IT world. Use your smarts, and make the most of the resources provided. Most importantly of all, make work satisfaction your number 1 goal. It’s the best way to stay happy and get ahead.
1) Follow a sensible career path…
* STEP 1: Start in a team
* STEP 2: Stay only just long enough
* STEP 3: Manage yourself
* STEP 4: Manage a team
* STEP 5: Go contracting (depends on the market)
2) Knowledge is your lifeblood – learn the politics of your company. Know who knows what. Find someone who consistently gives you timely, reliable, technically accurate answers, and get their name tattooed on your shoulder! Every company has at least one. And they may not be in the project manager/product manager/customer/programmer roles. They are generally the people who’ve used the product in the real world, and dealt with real world customers.
3) Communicate WITH, not AT. Tech-writers don’t have enough power to get away with communicating at.
4) Track stuff (take spreadsheet printout and write it up on the board).
5) Develop good product and domain knowledge – The more you can figure out for yourself, the better off you’ll be (and the more respect you’ll get from the techies).
6) Find out who your users are, what they are trying to do, what they are having trouble doing, and how they want to be helped. Then provide this assistance. Help the user do what they are trying to do. Don’t just tell them what the product can do… a help system is only helpful if it addresses the users’ needs.
7) Treat everyone as a customer. Then manage their expectations and your commitments. Always ensure they know what you’re doing. Tell them when you’ll be finished. And pull out all stops to meet your deadline.
8) Provide a surrogate user testing mechanism for the development team – providing usability feedback.
9) Work as hard as required to get good quality doco finished on time and to budget – this is how you’ll get the satisfaction out of work that you need.
10) Have fun with it.
Don’t become jaded and cynical by the high-tech, harsh, uncaring IT world. Use your smarts, and make the most of the resources provided. Most importantly of all, make work satisfaction your number 1 goal. It’s the best way to stay happy and get ahead.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Online Anywhere? The Truth About Centrino… by: Glenn Murray Is the futuristic world of connecting to the Internet from anywhere already upon us, or
Is the futuristic world of connecting to the Internet from anywhere already upon us, or is Centrino little more than a great Intel marketing campaign?
The name “Centrino” is Intel lingo meaning your notebook possesses 3 specific qualities: It’s a Pentium-M, of the Intel 855 chipset family, and it has a Wi-Fi module.
Simple! If you’re a geek…
To the rest of us, “Centrino” means you can connect to the Internet without wires. But there’s a catch… you can only do this from designated hotspots. Centrino also means slimmer, lighter notebooks with longer battery life (4, 5, even up to 6 hrs!!!). That’s roughly an hour longer than top non-Centrino notebooks. In fact, it’s argued that the longer battery life is the really big advancement – the wireless hotspot technology has been around for years.
Intel designed the new Pentium M processor from scratch just for notebooks. In geek-speak, it delivers better performance at a lower clock speed and draws less power. In plain English, that means it’s better!!! That’s not to say it’ll be faster than the latest big laptops and desktops… It’s the combination of slim and speedy that’s unique about Centrino.
Ultimately, like any new technology, Centrino and its hotspots will probably take a while to catch on. I suspect that if you buy one now, rather than spending hours online in the local park, you’ll spend hours looking for hotspots, and even more hours regretting your early purchase as the latest and greatest technologies keep rolling out!
Whatever the case, one thing is for certain… notebook sales-people now have one more family of options to bamboozle us with!
The name “Centrino” is Intel lingo meaning your notebook possesses 3 specific qualities: It’s a Pentium-M, of the Intel 855 chipset family, and it has a Wi-Fi module.
Simple! If you’re a geek…
To the rest of us, “Centrino” means you can connect to the Internet without wires. But there’s a catch… you can only do this from designated hotspots. Centrino also means slimmer, lighter notebooks with longer battery life (4, 5, even up to 6 hrs!!!). That’s roughly an hour longer than top non-Centrino notebooks. In fact, it’s argued that the longer battery life is the really big advancement – the wireless hotspot technology has been around for years.
Intel designed the new Pentium M processor from scratch just for notebooks. In geek-speak, it delivers better performance at a lower clock speed and draws less power. In plain English, that means it’s better!!! That’s not to say it’ll be faster than the latest big laptops and desktops… It’s the combination of slim and speedy that’s unique about Centrino.
Ultimately, like any new technology, Centrino and its hotspots will probably take a while to catch on. I suspect that if you buy one now, rather than spending hours online in the local park, you’ll spend hours looking for hotspots, and even more hours regretting your early purchase as the latest and greatest technologies keep rolling out!
Whatever the case, one thing is for certain… notebook sales-people now have one more family of options to bamboozle us with!
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