Monday, 26 April 2010
Monday, 7 December 2009
Introducing Electric Dreamz
Electric-dreamz is a newish site from templedene, designed for female electrician Julie
The site has a number of useful search engine friendly features and we are currently working on getting it to be more prominent in google.
Julie specialises in working in environments where people might feel more comfortable having a woman in the house as opposed to a man, but she will of course undertake any and all domestic electrical installation work.
check it out Electric Dreamz - Fully Qualified female electrician
The site has a number of useful search engine friendly features and we are currently working on getting it to be more prominent in google.
Julie specialises in working in environments where people might feel more comfortable having a woman in the house as opposed to a man, but she will of course undertake any and all domestic electrical installation work.
check it out Electric Dreamz - Fully Qualified female electrician
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
New business cards
These are the new business cards I have had designed, I am getting them printed soon, any comments on them would be appreciated. PLease remeber there is a blled margin around the card, which is why there seems to be so much space between the edge of the text and the edge of the graphic.
Front
Back
Obviously I think they are fantastic, but please, if you can see anything to make them better before I spend money on getting 500 printed, tell me.
Obviously I think they are fantastic, but please, if you can see anything to make them better before I spend money on getting 500 printed, tell me.
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Are you losing 3 in 10 sales because your site is not cross browser compatible?
Cross browser compatibility - What is it?
The Internet was designed so anyone, using any browser (Internet explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera etc.) should see any web site pretty much the same. The problem is that each browser handles things slightly differently, with the worst culprit generally thought to be IE in all it's incarnations. With a little extra effort, a good web designer can ensure web sites they design work across the board. Unfortunately some designers work to the most popular browser and ignore the rest, with the result being that sites they design work well in IE but fail to display properly (or in some cases, at all) when visited using something different.
Cross browser compatibility - Why is it important
Making sure your web site works with all browsers has always been the best way to go, but is becoming more and more important as IE loses market share to alternatives. As this latest report from Net Applications shows, Internet Explorer now only has about 70% market share.
What you HAVE to ask yourself is, if someone finds your web site using Firefox, Opera or some other browser and it displays badly, or doesn't work properly, will they switch to IE to view it? or simply move on. People use other browsers for many reasons, and most people WILL simply move on to another site and ignore yours.
Putting it bluntly
CAN YOU AFFORD to lose 3 in 10 visitors simply because your site was badly designed?
Naturally, any site designed by TempleDene Web Design is designed to work in every browser, we put that extra effort in to make sure you never lose a visitor, a potential sale, just because your site is badly made.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Firefox ten best add-ons, and how they compare to Opera
This was quite interesting, Info World listed the top 10 (then gave 2 number 1 spots, so this list goes to 11) add-ons for firefox that made it useful. I read the list and thought, wait a minute, most of these add-ons are standard features in my favourite browser, Opera.
Lets quickly run down their list shall we?
If you do any Web development, this add-on is an absolute must. It does everything you thought you needed for HTML and CSS development, and then about a hundred things you didn't realize you needed but suddenly can't do without. Whether it's the ability to enable and disable Java and Java Script on the fly, resize the browser to 800x600 or 1024x768, or automatically fill out a form, it's all in there.
Opera does all this with no need for an add-on, no messy downloads or anything.
Although some Firebug and Web Developer features overlap, the two coexist quite well, and each has its strengths. I really like Firebug's CSS showcasing feature, which makes it absurdly simple to locate the CSS inheritance on any element. The collapsing HTML code viewer is also very handy.
And what's missing can be supplemented and exceeded by Opera add-ons (Yes, shock horror, Opera has supported add-ons for years)
And come on, the ability to edit files on the fly on your server? sounds nice but it breaks all the rules about proper development, keeping your test version seperate from the live site.
This is a simple extension, but one that can really help in a pinch. All it does is change the browser's User Agent to one of several predetermined strings, or one you create yourself. You can mimic Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, or any other user agent you might need -- great for testing browser identification code, or to use Firefox on sites that claim to only work with Internet Explorer.
Opera has had a simple option on the right click menu for this for as long as I remember, but firefox requires an extension?
This is truly a power-user extension. Greasemonkey allows you to write your own code, or draw on hundreds of community scripts (like Book Burro, shown), to modify any Web page. For instance, you could code an overlay for eBay to compare the current price of an item with what you might pay for it at any of a number of online retailers. In the right hands, it can take someone else's idea of how their Web site should work and make it all your own.
But why would you want to go to that sort of effort? if a web page doesn't show you what you want then there will be one somewhere that does. Opera lets you define style sheets to make pages look as you want, which is far more useful for testing what your site looks like in other formats or making that "too small" text bigger etc.
While there are many ways to transmit and receive files, FTP remains a popular method. There are dozens of FTP applications available, but why bother when this extension embeds just about everything you might need in an FTP client right into Firefox, including support for SFTP, SSL, and TLS?
Who knew? I use a seperate FTP program for a reason, it's safer and more reliable. Opera can do a fair bit of FTP functionality anyway.
If you have Gmail, then you should have Gspace. With all that unused space in your Gmail account, you can use Gspace to store anything and everything right from Firefox. Hey, they gave you the space, might as well use it. Careful, though. If you overdo it, you might get locked out of your Gmail account for 24 hours.
That's all there is to say really.
Even those of us who know what cookies are and what they can do can be somewhat lax about which cookies our browser stores. CookieSafe and the newer, lighter CS Lite make this task much simpler. With a toolbar button, you can quickly allow or deny cookies, and clear them for every site.
All the control over cookies you could want is just a menu click away.
If only I had a dollar for every time I closed a tab by mistake. With Undo Closed Tabs, you can reopen that tab right where it was, no muss, no fuss. Unfortunately, no dollar, either.
Just as Opera was the FIRST browser to use tabbed browsing, the trash can for closed tabs was added quite a few years ago.
Most tech-heads have more than one computer. For instance, I have about 10 systems that I use on a fairly regular basis. If you use Firefox on all your systems, Foxmarks can keep the bookmarks synchronized among all of them.
Admittedly, a fairly new one, but still, this is built in, not added by extension.
This one isn't cross-platform, but for anyone running Windows, IE Tab is a handy tool. IE Tab embeds Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab, allowing you to render sites with IE without leaving Firefox behind.
But there is an extension which enables Opera to open sites in both Firefox AND IE if you really think it's useful, and can't open IE and cut n paste across.
Sage and Firefox are like peanut butter and jelly: They just go together. Whereas Firefox itself can render RSS feeds, Sage makes them manageable and usable.
Still from this article it implies so did firefox but it wasn't that good. Opera's feed reader works fine for me though.
Opera can, without extensions, do 8 from 11 in this list, and the rest it can do with extensions if you need it to.
Lets quickly run down their list shall we?
No. 1: Web Developer
If you do any Web development, this add-on is an absolute must. It does everything you thought you needed for HTML and CSS development, and then about a hundred things you didn't realize you needed but suddenly can't do without. Whether it's the ability to enable and disable Java and Java Script on the fly, resize the browser to 800x600 or 1024x768, or automatically fill out a form, it's all in there.
All features native to Opera
Opera does all this with no need for an add-on, no messy downloads or anything.
No. 1 (part two): Firebug
Although some Firebug and Web Developer features overlap, the two coexist quite well, and each has its strengths. I really like Firebug's CSS showcasing feature, which makes it absurdly simple to locate the CSS inheritance on any element. The collapsing HTML code viewer is also very handy.
Mostly available in Opera, really only useful for hard core web developers
And what's missing can be supplemented and exceeded by Opera add-ons (Yes, shock horror, Opera has supported add-ons for years)
And come on, the ability to edit files on the fly on your server? sounds nice but it breaks all the rules about proper development, keeping your test version seperate from the live site.
No. 2: User Agent Switcher
This is a simple extension, but one that can really help in a pinch. All it does is change the browser's User Agent to one of several predetermined strings, or one you create yourself. You can mimic Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, or any other user agent you might need -- great for testing browser identification code, or to use Firefox on sites that claim to only work with Internet Explorer.
This is an extension?
Opera has had a simple option on the right click menu for this for as long as I remember, but firefox requires an extension?
No. 3: Greasemonkey
This is truly a power-user extension. Greasemonkey allows you to write your own code, or draw on hundreds of community scripts (like Book Burro, shown), to modify any Web page. For instance, you could code an overlay for eBay to compare the current price of an item with what you might pay for it at any of a number of online retailers. In the right hands, it can take someone else's idea of how their Web site should work and make it all your own.
Fairplay, this sounds good and opera can't do it
But why would you want to go to that sort of effort? if a web page doesn't show you what you want then there will be one somewhere that does. Opera lets you define style sheets to make pages look as you want, which is far more useful for testing what your site looks like in other formats or making that "too small" text bigger etc.
No. 4: FireFTP
While there are many ways to transmit and receive files, FTP remains a popular method. There are dozens of FTP applications available, but why bother when this extension embeds just about everything you might need in an FTP client right into Firefox, including support for SFTP, SSL, and TLS?
You need an extension for FTP?
Who knew? I use a seperate FTP program for a reason, it's safer and more reliable. Opera can do a fair bit of FTP functionality anyway.
No. 5: Gspace
If you have Gmail, then you should have Gspace. With all that unused space in your Gmail account, you can use Gspace to store anything and everything right from Firefox. Hey, they gave you the space, might as well use it. Careful, though. If you overdo it, you might get locked out of your Gmail account for 24 hours.
I would never rely on GMAIL for backup
That's all there is to say really.
No. 6: CookieSafe/CS Lite
Even those of us who know what cookies are and what they can do can be somewhat lax about which cookies our browser stores. CookieSafe and the newer, lighter CS Lite make this task much simpler. With a toolbar button, you can quickly allow or deny cookies, and clear them for every site.
Native feature to Opera
All the control over cookies you could want is just a menu click away.
No. 7: Undo Closed Tabs Button
If only I had a dollar for every time I closed a tab by mistake. With Undo Closed Tabs, you can reopen that tab right where it was, no muss, no fuss. Unfortunately, no dollar, either.
Again Opera has done this for years
Just as Opera was the FIRST browser to use tabbed browsing, the trash can for closed tabs was added quite a few years ago.
No. 8: Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
Most tech-heads have more than one computer. For instance, I have about 10 systems that I use on a fairly regular basis. If you use Firefox on all your systems, Foxmarks can keep the bookmarks synchronized among all of them.
Native feature of Opera
Admittedly, a fairly new one, but still, this is built in, not added by extension.
No. 9: IE Tab
This one isn't cross-platform, but for anyone running Windows, IE Tab is a handy tool. IE Tab embeds Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab, allowing you to render sites with IE without leaving Firefox behind.
Opera doesn't do this
But there is an extension which enables Opera to open sites in both Firefox AND IE if you really think it's useful, and can't open IE and cut n paste across.
No. 10: Sage
Sage and Firefox are like peanut butter and jelly: They just go together. Whereas Firefox itself can render RSS feeds, Sage makes them manageable and usable.
Opera has had an RSS feed reader built in for ages
Still from this article it implies so did firefox but it wasn't that good. Opera's feed reader works fine for me though.
Conclusions
Opera can, without extensions, do 8 from 11 in this list, and the rest it can do with extensions if you need it to.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
TDC Blog Module update
New to the TDC CMS is the ability to have comments on your blog posts.
For someone to comment they have to register with your site first, this should cut down on spam comments.
If I find there is a demand for anonymous comments without registration I will probably implement this, but for the time being, if you want this upgrade, please let me know.
Other news
I have added a new tag [PAGECOUNT]
All it does is pull the page count stats already gathered and displays it, so for example this blog entry, which is mirrored on the templedene site, displays how many times it has been read.
Future upgrades
Next on the list is a statistics generator, something along the lines of statcounter but actually built into your site so you do not have to rely on a third party company. As they say in the movies.
Watch This Space
For someone to comment they have to register with your site first, this should cut down on spam comments.
If I find there is a demand for anonymous comments without registration I will probably implement this, but for the time being, if you want this upgrade, please let me know.
Other news
I have added a new tag [PAGECOUNT]
All it does is pull the page count stats already gathered and displays it, so for example this blog entry, which is mirrored on the templedene site, displays how many times it has been read.
Future upgrades
Next on the list is a statistics generator, something along the lines of statcounter but actually built into your site so you do not have to rely on a third party company. As they say in the movies.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Spam Proofing
TempleDene CMS has always been fairly impervious to spam. All email addresses are concealed from public view so they cannot be harvested by spammers. Email to site members is conducted through contact forms.
The guest book and mail form also had a number of measures to detect if someone posting was human or a bot.
However the measures in place were only catching maybe 80% of spam posts and messages.
After several days of new coding and new techniques (which if I revealed them here would give the game away and possibly allow spam to get back through) I am now confident I am catching 99.9% of spam attempts to both the guest book and the mail form.
These changes are currently under test and will be rolled out to all clients as soon as I am confident they are working correctly.
These links will give you more information about my easy to use content management system and the full feature list
The guest book and mail form also had a number of measures to detect if someone posting was human or a bot.
However the measures in place were only catching maybe 80% of spam posts and messages.
After several days of new coding and new techniques (which if I revealed them here would give the game away and possibly allow spam to get back through) I am now confident I am catching 99.9% of spam attempts to both the guest book and the mail form.
These changes are currently under test and will be rolled out to all clients as soon as I am confident they are working correctly.
These links will give you more information about my easy to use content management system and the full feature list
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