Archive for the ‘general’ Category

Everyone with an email address has experienced some type of email virus alarm or online post warning you to “forward this message to everyone you know” to protect them from dire consequences. It’s time to remind readers to take a trojan virus reality check and get the facts before forwarding any alarm email or message.

In most cases you can determine if the warning being passed on is real or a hoax in a couple of minutes. Otherwise, you could be wasting resources by perpetuating an online chain letter effect, or hurt your reputation for being like Henny Penny (“…the sky is falling”) if it’s a hoax and not real.

Here’s an example of a recent post on Facebook about the koobface virus.

Virus spreading like wildfire on FaceBook! It is a trojan worm called koobface. It will steal your info, invade your system and shut it down! DO NOT open the link Barack Obama Clinton Scandal! If SmartGirl15 requests you, don’t accept it; it is a virus. If somebody on your list adds her then you get the virus too! Please copy and paste to your wall.

There is a virus version of koobface circulating on Facebook (and MySpace), yet slightly different than described in the post. Here’s a link to details on Urban Legends at snopes.com which is always a great place to check out any alarming messages about virus threats.

After documenting details of the real threat, the last paragraph explains the Obama/Clinton and SmartGirl versions were each a variation and hoax of the real virus. The “do not open” advice given in the post is still excellent any time you encounter something suspicious.

Think twice and take that trojan virus reality check by doing a search on Urban Legends before you forward any email warning alert.

A quality web design with seo search engine optimization will help attract backlinks from other websites. Achieve links you earn and deserve naturally and avoid the dangers of being tempted to trade, buy, or sell links. I never accept link exchange requests.

Most emails for link requests go to Dear Webmaster, or something like that and very impersonal. Toss those emails without reading past the greeting. The best links are those links you earn and deserve without any correspondence or request between sites. A site that links to you voluntarily without contacting you or expecting something in return is the ideal backlink.

Two-way links are also called reciprocal links and those are more or less useless for boosting your seo ranking. Three-way link agreements may seem ideal, yet they are not best practice: Site 1 links to site 2 who links to site 3 who links to site 1. It gives the deceptive appearance of independent “votes” for sites worth linking to. The truth is Google supercomputers look for the 3-way link schemes and they get zero value or perhaps a negative penalty if widespread and blatant.

The best links to your site are those you earn and do not ask for, pay for, or solicit in any way. If your business is truly outstanding and a related site links to you (one-way only) then those have seo value when found by Google.

Years ago you could pay to have ranked sites link to you and Google would mistake those paid “votes” as voluntary endorsements and assign very high value for site reputation. The paid link schemes fell apart in 2007 when en masse Google banned those sites to oblivion who were using deceptive seo methods by trading in buying or selling links.

The phrase “add original quality content often” is still the magnet to attract natural links and positive Google search results. Provide an exceptional visitor experience and the backlinks from other sites will come naturally. For web design and seo success the best links are still those links you earn and deserve.

We support Kiva, a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose slogan is “loans that change lives” with a mission to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Imagine the idea of random acts of kindness and helping someone realize the dream of a better life for their family by offering funds in the form of microloan support through Kiva. If you are an active customer for my design services then a portion of your fee for custom cms web design or matching artwork may have already helped a Kiva entrepreneur.

The Kiva community allows a person to invest a nominal amount towards microloans to entrepreneurs mostly in poorer countries who would not otherwise qualify for a traditional loan. You get to choose a specific entrepreneur by trade and geography after reading their bio and history.

As of November 2009, Kiva had facilitated over $100 million in loans in their first 4 years since incorporating in 2005. Understand that lending to the working poor through Kiva involves risk of principal loss, yet you can place as little as $25 towards helping prequalified persons attempting to make a better life for their families.

Kiva does not guarantee repayment. Kiva does not offer any financial return on your loan. However, the principal repayment rate is greater than 98% to date, so helping ease poverty and seeing that success rate is very gratifying. Once repaid you may withdraw the funds from your account, loan it again to another needy person, or donate it all to Kiva.

Note: A 15% donation added at checkout to funds the first time you lend is voluntary and may be declined, yet helps defray Kiva operating costs. You have other Kiva donation options on future microfinance loan purchases from 0-20%, also. The donation portion for USA lenders is tax deductible.

Visit their website to learn more about helping people help themselves with microloan support through Kiva. While there, visit my microloan lender page to see profiles of entrepreneurs I helped.

The computer hard drive storage capacity setup on my pc 3 years ago seemed like a forever solution until just recently. Imagine the shock of seeing a computer alert warning that open capacity on the 250Gb hard drive storage was dangerously low at 4%.

Rather than buy a new pc my solution was the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb External Hard Drive from Western Digital. The photo here shows the new My Book Essential 1Tb hard drive on my desk next to the pc tower. You can buy alternate capacity of 500Gb or 2Tb, also.

Once installed, mouse over the WD icon in the taskbar and it indicates storage used as a percentage plus a temperature indicator with “ok”.

The photo shown has the box (left) and actual external drive (right). My Book is an appropriate name. At approximately 7″ tall with air vents on 3 sides the add-on is shaped like a small thick book.

The backup system chosen 3 years ago was a Western Digital 250Gb external hard drive at $150 plus separate backup software for $100 for $250 total. The new WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb external hard drive has 4x the storage for $99 (July 2010), plus includes excellent backup software that installs automatically. Thus total cost for bigger and better was cut more than half.

In 2007 I never imagined filling up a 250Gb hard drive. By the time I need a 2Tb drive I’ll be overdue for a new pc. The plug and play setup and installation of the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb was surprisingly fast and simple.

I was mildly disappointed that the software does not mirror my folder structure but splits storage into folders by file type: system, pictures, other, music, movies, mail, and documents. I archive and sometimes delete by entire project folder not by individual files, so I went to the WD forum for archive advice.

One solution from the WD community forum is keep two copies of the file you would delete or archive with one as the “original” and one on the “backup” drive so you have them stored in different locations. I’ve decided to store 50Gb of the original files on the retired WD 250Gb drive. There are already backups on the new external drive, so now I can safely remove them from my computer to free up storage space.

Overall I’m pleased with the great value and ease of use of the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN. In particular I was very impressed with the software, the speed of the initial backup, and the automated real time backup function. The automation instead of manual backups means my 2007 post Surviving the Inevitable Hard Drive Crash warning about regular backups is now even easier with an external hard drive upgrade.

The rule for acceptable domain names allows letters, numbers, hyphens, and periods only. For corporations and especially attorneys who include the & symbol in their name, the ampersand you use on your letterhead must be written out as “and” if you want that in your domain name. Ampersand is not allowed in domain names.

The ampersand is a reserved character in html used in code for displaying special characters and symbols. While it may not be used in a domain name, it can be displayed as text on a web page. Most people type each instance of ampersand as a single character located above the number 7 on your keyboard which is pressed while holding the shift key.

To properly display the ampersand in web page text it cannot be typed as a single character. The code to indicate the single symbol to mean the word “and” is &. Otherwise, browsers encounter just the symbol & in the html code without the extra 4 characters and it signals a special character follows immediately.

To get the & to display properly in that last paragraph of this post I actually had to type & and post in html mode. Each time just & is used in the html it is a code error per W3C, so enter it properly where it is allowed and remember the “and symbol” is not allowed in domain names.

Bonus Tip: Protect your brand when choosing a domain name. Here’s a tip if your company name includes the ampersand & symbol and you decide to use the company name but leave out the word “and” in your domain name. My advice is using the one you like yet get both, as well.

To illustrate, AT&T originally chose just the ATT.com domain, and so a squatter grabbed ATandT.com likely thinking it was a gold mine. Follow this link to read the details and the ruling in the AT&T complaint filed 8 years ago. They prevailed. It took less than 90 days. Following atandt.com automatically forwards to att.com.

Squatters typically inflate the price to transfer a domain for less than the legal cost of arbitration. They’re hoping you do not have the inclination, budget, or attorneys on staff to fight. So while it’s true ampersand is not allowed in domain names, you may still want to register the company name using the word “and” to avoid potential headaches later.

The challenge of the day was learning new php and mysql related terms involving a web design upgrade, and then finding a timestamp date and time code converter. The research began without knowing the right words to describe what was needed! It’s time to share the solution for novice designers facing the same mystery.

Searching the date and time code 1190073600 plus php or mysql, and then words like translate or convert, did not explain how that timestamp code translates to midnight on September 18, 2007. Knowing how to create similar dates and specific times in a proper 10 digit code was a variable necessary for importing updates to a searchable database being considered in a web design project.

Don’t even try to find a date or time in that code. 1190073600 is more cryptic than the 07 meaning 2007. The code 0000000000 translates to midnight on Thursday, January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (GMT). That timestamp is the unix epoch, or reference date for unix based servers, and time is calculated in seconds from that “zero” time and date. Therefore, the mystery time code definition of 1190073600 is that moment in time 1,190,073,600 seconds after the unix epoch.

Noontime today when converted to a unix timestamp would be human readable as Thursday, November 5th 2009, 12:00:00 (GMT) and translates to 1257422400 as the unix timestamp. Without an understanding of how that 10 digit date and time code was created, it took persistent and stubborn research before finding this online timestamp (date and time) code converter.

With the solution and clearer terminology in hand, Google “standard time to unix online tool” and the first tool in search results today was this standard time and unix timestamp converter which converts the code or datetime either way. The linked 4webhelp.net version interface and display was nice, yet others in the top 10 results were adequate online tools, also.

Will I be disappointed if I can integrate and update the database without needing that date and time code converter? No. The solution was fun to research and will hopefully help others as curious or stubborn as me.

Besides offering custom web design services, I create custom matching graphic artwork for print, as well. Over the weekend an incoming email with a time sensitive marketing offer for a “printing special” was poorly handled, and the mistake is a good reminder of how automated email messges can affect credibility.

In an email received dated 14 February at 7:53pm a weekend printing promotion that began at 5:00pm on 12 February was announced with an expiration at midnight on the 14th. Where was the email for two days before arriving 50 hours after the start time? Obviously the automated mailing broadcast date and time were improperly set.

Learn from the mistakes of others. For a business that depends on automated email campaigns be certain that time sensitive marketing offers are sent early enough for recipients to react. Besides annoying the prospect, your reputation and credibility as a professional source for your product or service could be at stake.

During a web design site upgrade discussion recently, a client pointed out that more than 50% of their competition is closing shop or moving to a home based operation to cut costs. Asked how they manage to survive, they stated they have the experience and longevity, and here’s a bonus small business owner finances tip.

A creative source for small business credit card factoring advances is FastUpFront.com who bases loan repayment on daily sales, not on fixed monthly payment amounts. The advantage is more working capital to cover costs during lean months, and they specialize in helping small business owners with poor credit or zero collateral.

My situation as a home-based sole proprietor is more flexible in a slow economy, yet brick and mortar small business owners need all the help they can get during an economic downturn. The release of lower cost web design options in CMS is intended to help ease small business owner finance concerns, also.

Some time ago a client for a custom web design asked my assistance in doing research for submitting a USA trademark application for their small business. While my real business is custom web design, the customer felt I could find key information about trademarks easily, and save them the time.

Here’s what I found. If considering a trademark for your small business to protect your web design or other rights, visit the US Trademark FAQs website to discover more about this interesting topic. Learn the difference between trademark, service mark, certification mark, and collective mark.

The process of applying for a trademark can be costly, and certainly takes time with up to a year of waiting during the approval cycle. Small business owners are welcome to contact me for web design projects or related online research.

This site includes a directory of royalty free photo websites for small business owners to use for web design or printed marketing material. Royalty free photographs of people require special consideration. Royalty free does not mean free to use without limitations even when offered for commercial production of websites, print, or multimedia.

Creative works are intellectual property, and if a photographer posts photos on a royalty free website, it does not imply transfer of ownership if you download from their gallery. There are sites who charge a one time fee for use in one application, others who charge recurring royalty fees, and then those in my directory that are truly royalty free. If a photo includes people, each person’s rights cannot be overlooked.

Anything royalty free has restrictions for use, including those without any fee. Always look for and read the license to avoid any legal copyright issues, and be cautious about using pictures from sites without any license information. They may have accumulated photographs without caring about copyright. Sale or redistribution of royalty free photos whether singles or collections is illegal.

It is your duty as a small business owner to stay within the law when downloading content for fair use. A photo that includes real and identifiable persons is especially tricky, and should never be used without that person’s consent including a written model release.