Treat your hardware right: off or on? August 31, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentWhen it comes to computer hardware there is one enduring debate. Do you leave your computer running when not in use, or to power it off when you are done. Here is a brief explanation of both sides of the coin.
Treat your computer right: leave the hardware on?
The rationale behind leaving you computer hardware running constantly is based in a sound concept. The idea is that the your computer is exposed to its most stress during the power up sequence. The belief is that powering your computer sends surges through its components adding an extreme amount of stress and its better to just leave it running. This is true, turning on your computer does stress it.
Treat your computer right: turn the hardware off?
The idea that you should power-down your computer hardware lies in the issue of heat. As your computer runs, the internal (more…)
Top 5 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid #5: Not Being User Friendly August 24, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentIn the final installment of our guide to avoiding common web deign mistakes we address the issue of usability. When it comes to designing a site, the software used can quickly spiral out of control. The mantra has been look at your website from the perspective of a user, and here we cover a range of things to avoid.
Web Design Usability Mistakes
Think about what drives you crazy when you visit a website. Some things, such as slow download times can be limitations of your computer
hardware. Sometimes that can’t be helped. But other things can. The goal is to use web design basics to make the web page as easy to navigate as possible.
Top Five Web Design Mistakes to Avoid #4: Ignoring SEO Techniques August 20, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentThe next installment of our Top Five Web Design Mistakes to Avoid is an often over looked subject. Search Engine Optimization are techniques to increase your web sites page rank. You could have the coolest web design showing off the latest software, but without SEO tricks, your website will never get found.
Web Design Mistake-Ignoring SEO Techniques.
Here’s the basics of Search Engine Optimization strategy. Programs like Google, Yahoo and Bing use a complicated arrangement of software to constantly comb the whole internet and categorize its findings. As a basic illustration, imagine you have two different web pages each with one hundred words of texts about computer software. But one contains the actual word software once while the other contains it twice. When you do a search for ’software’, the search engines will give you the second page first as it is more relevant.
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5 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid #3: Dead Spaces August 18, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentIn our previous posts, we discussed some simple ways to make sure your web design is effective. When making website, the latest software and cutting edge hardware are useless unless you follow some web design basics. Here is tip number 3 to help you make your web designs as effective as possible.
Web Design Killer: Open Space
Remember to look at your web design from the visitor’s point of view. Consider the amount of competition on the internet, sure, your web design needs to stick out. But if I am searching the internet for computer hardware and I arrive at your page, you are lucky. However, if I click on your ‘new hardware offers’ button and come to a page saying coming soon, then your luck just ran out. Nothing says unprofessional and unprepared like wide open dead space on your website.
5 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid #2: What do you do? August 17, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentIn the previous post I identified one important thing to avoid when designing a Web site. Here in part two, we talk about how to use another simple web design approach to make a great home page for your business website.
Ambiguous Web Designs
In the excitement constructing their business website, people often are eager to get right in. If the already have all their hardware, they begin by finding the coolest design template, download the newest software and get carried away. In the end, everything looks perfect; the color scheme is great, the image is slick and all the contact details are there. The problem is, they are moving too fast and, again, are not looking at the website from the eye of the consumer.
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5 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid #1: Too Much is Too Much August 16, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentWeb design is a really fun realm. The sky is the limit. With easy access to cheap hardware and free software, as well as the availability of fast and cheap internet connections, web design is truly open to anyone. However, all of these things do not a web designer make. We all make mistakes, I know I do. So here is the first of five common mistakes to avoid when designing your website.
Web Design Mistake #1: Too much is too much
Some experts probably wont agree, but what I consider to be a major web design turn off is a website that is too just busy. This can take a variety of forms.
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Upcoming Adobe Flash Web Design Summit August 4, 2010
Posted by martin in : News , add a commentOn August 25th and 26th software giant Saltmarch Media will host its second annual Adobe Flash Platform Summit in Bangalore India. The weekend focuses on Adobe Flash software and will be divided into two days: Develop day and Design Day.
Each day of the summit will include keynote speakers representing the best and brightest in the computer field as well as over 40 workshop sessions focusing on web design, web development as well as the newest developments in computer hardware and software.
Software Piracy: More than just some Hackers August 2, 2010
Posted by admin in : General , add a commentThe Evils of Software Piracy – A growing Issue
Consider the fact that most software costs far more than the computer hardware it is designed to run on, it comes as no surprise that black-market software piracy is big business. When looking at the numbers, we have clearly gone beyond the realm of mixed tapes.
Lets be honest, many of us at some time or another have burned a CD or watched a Hollywood movie on our laptop at home. While we may or may not chose to recognize that that might be some form of software piracy, we know that it is not as serious as the issue can get.
According to Cnet news, software piracy was responsible for an industry wide loss of 34 billion USD (that’s nine zeros!) worldwide in 2005. But wait, there’s more. Not to be outdone, Deutsche Welle, ran an article claiming losses due to pirated software reached 50 billion in 2009. You don’t have to hold a Master’s in Business Administration to know that this is a serious loss which cant be ignored. In order to combat this problem some companies have resorted to using more advanced verification methods with varying degrees of success. Companies that use cloud computing are well placed to deal with this threat as the software can be constantly verified. Companies like Panda's antivirus scanning software is an example of this, and it would be interesting to see if products like this are plagued by piracy in the same manner.
Five Free Tools for Web Developers August 1, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentWebsite development can be a challenge in many ways, including to your wallet. After spending all your cash on the best computer hardware design you are left with precious few dollars (pounds, euros, pesos, or yen) to spend on the top of the line web development software. Have no fear, here are five free tools to make a web developer’s life easier. 
#1: Browser Shots
Browser Shots is a unique little application that allows you to preview your site through a variety of web browsers. Sure your website looks great in Firefox where you developed it, but not everyone who visits your website uses Firefox. With Browser Shots’ software you can see what your hard work looks like to visitors using any number of browsers from Chrome to Kazehakase.
Mouseless Mouse: The new Computer Hardware that Doesn’t Exist July 30, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , add a commentA Mouseless-mouse?
Wireless, optical mouses arrived in the 1980s but didn’t hit the market until the end of the 1990s. Now designers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new mouse component that doesn’t exist.
MIT develops new mouse without the mouse
One of the oldest bits of computer hardware, the mouse, was developed in the 1960s under a secret US government project. A decade later we got the roller-ball mouse. Wireless, optical mouses arrived in the 1980s but didn’t hit the market until the end of the 1990s. Now designers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new mouse that doesn’t have a mouse.
Mouseless-mouse: New components for your computer
Known as the Mouseless Program, the technology uses an arrangement of lasers and cameras to track the user’s hand movements in lieu of a mouse. The interface is nearly the same only minus the actual mouse. Cupping your hand, as you would when holding a mouse, triggers the computer’s componentsand then the computer begins tracking the user’s hand movements. To perform a right or left click simply tap your finger on the surface you are working on. Pinching with your thumb and forefinger allows you to drag items while a scooping motion with your four fingers results in a scrolling action.