WebMastersLoom

From the earliest times, human cultures have striven to define beauty. A study of nature, architecture, and art reveals that a common principle - that of pleasant proportion is an universal characteristic that contributes to defining beauty. The proportion that is pleasing to the eye is the Golden Section, or simply the ratio of one relationship to another, or 1 to 0.618.

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by Steven Vaughan-Nichols

As you may know, Google is close to making a deal with Dell in which the search giant will get to preinstall its software package on Dell PCs. What you may not know is that Google may be spending a billion dollars over three years for the privilege.

For cash-rich Google, it’s a cheap price to pay to cut Microsoft off at the knees by getting pride of place on about 33 percent on all new U.S. desktops.

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Interested in gaming, there are sites that let you play for no cost. All you need to have is Macromedia’s Free Flash Player. Whew! According to Computer Gaming World, there are 80 gazillion free Flash games sites in the cyber world.

Popular sites are

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If you are looking for a content management system to manage your digital assets, I would advise you consider the following baseline functionality in your package.

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There are a lot of applications and software that most printing companies use even for those who print at home. This software makes designing and editing easier and faster. One of those applications is the Microsoft Publisher which is widely used by computer users. This makes it easy to customize, create and come up with effective design in postcards, brochures, flyers and even design in websites.

Microsoft Publisher provides you with the right tools you need for editing and layout designs. This helps you to come up with the most elegant style in designs that will surely help you go the extra mile in designs. You can even do it at home yourself. You just need dedication and concentration and you are on your first step. If you do not know how to use Microsoft Publisher, that is not really a problem. You can learn it by all means.

Learning Microsoft Publisher will not eat up all your time since this program has already some ready to use choices ad ready application since you can make use of the publication wizard which guides you all through out the design process.

Most printing companies have engaged in using Microsoft Publisher because of its easiness and comfort in using it. Errors and inconveniencies are less encountered and mistakes are prevented. Microsoft Publisher has been an advantage even though there are a lot of programs that arise in the technology. Having just the basic skills can be enhanced to come up with good designs. You really don?t need to be a professional in order to use it.

Not only can you use it in your printed materials. You can also use it in designing and updating your web pages. Microsoft Publisher is so helpful in all applications. That is no wonder that most printing companies have relied upon its use.

Brochures and catalogs are the perfect printing application that it covers. If you notice one of your brochures having an elegant feel and stand, definitely it could have been used with Microsoft Publisher.

So to have a new experience in printing and newest strategy in your designs, you should not think twice to choose Microsoft Publisher. No matter if you are a beginner or not, you are sure that what turns out in your printing is absolutely perfect.

For more related articles, you may visit http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

Did you know that the most powerful software and web applications are all free? Yes that’s right, just about every commercial software or web application you know of is most likely available as a free Open Source project/clone.

“Why haven’t I heard of this Open Source stuff???” There is good reason for not seeing advertising for open source software in ppc search engines, if you had a free product, you would not be likely to pay for top advertising spots, or even worry about your search engine placement. Open Source projects rely on word of mouth and the fact that it’s free, well you all know that ‘FREE’ is the most viral form of advertising. Also, the open source community is a tight group of developers and programmers who often exchange links, so if you don’t know the right places to look, you can spend days and weeks searching out the top open source applications.

Don’t worry though, this article has a list of the top open source applications, as well as links to the top open source search engines.

“But I always thought you had to be a techno-geek to install or use these applications?” This is the way it used to be just a few years ago, but times have rapidly changed in the Open Source world, and the focus is now on more userfriendly, step by step installations and control panels, so you don’t need to know much of anything to get these apps up and running.

Now, the only downfall of an Open Source application compared to a Commercial application… NO DIRECT SUPPORT. However, as in all web based communities, there are hundreds of thousands of people using these applications, and there are always community support forums where you can get help from veteran users. Community Support can often be ten times better than the commercial support a Commercial company may offer.

“So how do I find these Open Source Applications?” Luckily for you, I have been working in this field for several years now, and would like to save you the time of searching to find the best places to look.

The following list is also available at http://www.webdesignhq.com/portal/ as well as many other links/resources dealing with the Open Source Community.

The mother of all open source application search engines is SourceForge.net where most if not all of the top projects are located:

http://www.sourceforge.net

Here is a list of the top Open Source Web Applications:

CMS - Portals

• Drupal - http://www.drupal.org/
• eNvolution - http://www.envolution.com/
• eZ Publish - http://ez.no/
• ezContents - http://www.ezcontents.org/
• Geeklog - http://www.geeklog.net/
• Mambo - http://www.mamboserver.com/
• MD-Pro - http://www.maxdev.com/
• myPHPNuke - http://www.myphpnuke.com/
• PHP-Nuke - http://www.phpnuke.org/
• phpWebSite - http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/
• Postnuke - http://www.postnuke.com/
• Typo3 - http://typo3.com/
• Xaraya - http://www.xaraya.com/
• XOOPS - http://www.xoops.org/

CMS - Blogs

• b2evolution - http://b2evolution.net/
• bBlog - http://www.bblog.com/
• BLOG:CMS - http://blogcms.com/
• Nucleus CMS - http://nucleuscms.org/
• pLog - http://www.plogworld.org/
• pMachine Free - http://www.pmachine.com/
• Serendipity - http://www.s9y.org/
• Textpattern - http://www.textpattern.com/
• WordPress - http://wordpress.org/

CMS - e-Commerce

• MyMarket - http://mymarket.sourceforge.net/
• osc2nuke - http://www.osc2nuke.org/
• osCommerce - http://www.oscommerce.com/
• Zen Cart - http://www.zen-cart.com/

CMS - Groupware

• dotProject - http://www.dotproject.net/
• eGroupWare - http://www.egroupware.org/
• MoreGroupware - http://www.moregroupware.org/
• phpCollab - http://www.php-collab.com/
• PHProjekt - http://www.phprojekt.com/

CMS - Forums

• openBB - http://www.openbb.com/
• Phorum - http://phorum.org/
• phpBB - http://www.phpbb.com/
• PunBB - http://www.punbb.org/
• W-Agora - http://www.w-agora.net/
• XMB - http://www.xmbforum.com/

CMS - e-Learning

• ATutor - http://www.atutor.ca/
• Claroline - http://www.claroline.net/
• Moodle - http://moodle.org/
• Segue - http://segue.middlebury.edu/index.php?&action=site&site=segue
• Site@School - http://siteatschool.sourceforge.net/

CMS - Photo Albums

• Coppermine - http://coppermine.sourceforge.net/
• Gallery - http://gallery.sourceforge.net/

CMS - KnowledgeBase

• Owl - http://owl.sourceforge.net/

CMS - Customer Support

• SugarSales CRM - http://www.sugarcrm.com/

As you can see, there are many choices so the thing to do next is a bit of research by taking a look through a few and finding one that suits your exact needs. There is really no wrong choice, it’s all a matter of preferences and the features that you are looking for.

Happy Open Sourcing!

Copyright 2004 by Jared Alberghini - http://www.WebDesignHQ.com

Custom Hooks is another powerful and most demanding feature provided by TierDeveloper. Custom Hooks work like database triggers. It could be your own business logic that you can activate before or after performing some database action(s). PreHooks and PostHooks are two ways, provided by TierDeveloper, through which you can embed your own logic in the generated code. Pre hook methods are called before the database access is performed whereas post hook methods are called after the database operations are performed.

Custom hooks can be specified wherever database access is performed. It includes standard operations, query methods, bulk operations and custom operations. User can generate skeleton code for custom hooks of the selected methods or he/she can use his/her own hooks class.

For your convenience and better understanding I have listed sample code here which shows how TierDeveloper embed custom hooks in the generated code. It is pretty self-explanatory.

public void UpdateCustomerInfo(Customers objInfo)
{
try
{
... ... .... .......
... ... .... .......

CustomersHooks hooks = new CustomersHooks();
status = hooks.PreUpdateCustomerInfo((System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection)getConnection(), objInfo);

if (status != CustomersHooks.SUCCESS_CONTINUE)
{
SetStatus(status == CustomersHooks.FAIL_NONCONTINUE ? EStatus.eFail : EStatus.eSuccess);
ReleaseCommand();
return;
}

AddCmdParameter("@CompanyName", TDevFramework.EDataType.eVarchar, objInfo.CompanyName, TDevFramework.EParamDirection.eInput, objInfo.IsNull("CompanyName"));
... ... .... .......
... ... .... .......
... ... .... .......

ExecuteNonQuery();

status = hooks.PostUpdateCustomerInfo((System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection)getConnection(), objInfo);

if (status != CustomersHooks.SUCCESS_CONTINUE)
{
... ... .... .......
... ... .... .......
return;
}

SetStatus(EStatus.eSuccess);
ReleaseCommand();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
... ... .... .......
... ... .... .......
throw e;
}
}

public class CustomersHooks
{
public const int SUCCESS_CONTINUE = 0;
public const int SUCCESS_NONCONTINUE = 1;
public const int FAIL_NONCONTINUE = 2;

public int PreUpdateCustomerInfo( System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection Conn, Customers objInfo)
{
//.. .. .. . .. ..
// . .. .. .. .. Put your own code here
return SUCCESS_CONTINUE;
}

public int PostUpdateCustomerInfo( System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection Conn, Customers objInfo)
{
	// .. .. .. .. . .. .. ..
	//	.. ..	 .. .. put your own code here.
return SUCCESS_CONTINUE;
}
}

Several people have asked me about logo branding with an image that appears in a users address bar. While I personally removed the Favorite Icon from most of my hosts (In the process of creating a more presentable graphic), it is an important factor for establishing a branding for your Website. There are primarily two benefits achieved with using a favicon.

The most prominent benefit is when a user bookmarks a page within the Website, the Favorite Icon will appear next to the bookmark. This provides a professional and unique appearance within the users computer that will make a supporting website standout from the cluster of links on his or her computer.

Another benefit is the appearance of the icon within a users address bar. This adds to charisma of a Website. Once again, the user should have a memorable visit from a professional and unique browsing experience. The address bar icon rarely changes from Website to Website. Because of this, a small logo will definitely be noticeable to users of a Website.

What is Favicon?

A favorites icon (favicon) is a simple 16×16 or 32×32 pixel image, using 16 colors, that is named favicon.ico and uploaded into a websites root directory. The image will automatically appear within bookmarks on a computer. Additionally, a simple call tag can be added to pages within a Website to make the same image appear within a Browser’s address bar.

How to use Favicon on a Website

Understand that some browsers will not support the image. However, this will not effect the browsing experience of users that can not support the favicon.ico image. Additionally, certain hosting services may not allow the use of a favorites icon, although this is fairly rare. It is commonly believed that browsers older than ie5 will not support the image in the address bar.

Simply open an image editor and create a 16 color 16×16 or 32×32 image. It is recommended that colors similar to the Sites theme are used, for obvious reasons. When a suitable image is decided upon, save the file as favicon.ico. Open the preferred ftp software used and upload the file to the root directory of the Website.

Once a unique image is created and residing within the root directory of the Website, add this simple tag head the head tags of pages the icon should appear:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”url to /favicon.ico” type=”image/x-icon” />.

The icon can reside in any directory and be called upon with this tag. In contrast, for the icon to appear as the site logo within a users favorites, it must reside in the root directory.

I Uploaded the Icon, It’s Not Working

Nearly 100% of the times this is done, the icon will not appear right away. Clear the Browsers memory, and refresh the page in question. It may take three or for refreshes for the image to appear, if certain elements of the Webpage are stored within the temporary internet files on a computer.

If the icon still fails to appear, double check the location, name, size, and the tag being included within the pages.

I’ll see your logo in my address bar

Are you in a busy office and need to get web design jobs with complex text effects done immediately? Want to speed up your productivity but avoid working until Saturday afternoons breaking up text and hand tweening? Then, SWiSH, the new standalone tool that creates great font effects and more by David Mitchie, presented during the Flash Forward 2000 conference, is for you!.

So what’s new with SWiSH? This tool enables you to create buttons and banners in the program itself. You can even create a .SWF for importing into Flash for fast font effects. The “more” emphasis earlier is what’s coming up in the future of this product. Mitchie is hoping to release an update of its first version in May that will allow the use of images. These plans for added functionality will give users more creativity in designing banners and navigation systems.

There are also future plans being expressed by Mitchie to support many of the features in Flash today – this includes scripting, movie clips, audio, vector images and rollover buttons. Right now, with the first version, you can use its maximum number of text effects to the hilt. It will also speed up work productivity. With SWiSH, you can say good bye to all afternoon of breaking text up, making key frames and hand tweening – plenty of hard work but is not anywhere near our idea of creativity.

Use it by controlling all the various attributes of each letter and click preview. After installing this software, in less than five minutes, you can produce real content for your sites. There may be arguments about how all the effects just look alike but remember that there are “industry standard” and “professional level” considerations on these things, just like in television and print. Using SWiSH allows you to produce your sites with that level of standard and expertise.

Currently, SWiSH doesn’t work in Mac but they are looking into creating a version suitable with the Mac. Right now, it works on Windows 95+/NT/2000 only. Still, you can create the files on a PC and use the .SWFs produced on the Mac, which means that you could create standard clips for your files and use them in your libraries. Other system requirements include Pentium 100 or better, 32Mb of RAM, 256 color display or better. It does not require Flash to be installed, too.

Acquiring and using SWiSH is easy enough. You just go to the site and download its trial version. Until you get a key, it will scramble text when you export to SWF. Currently, SWiSH has a US $30 price tag, with free minor updates. Major updates would be around US $10 – a big difference in the price of Flash at US $275. Need we say more? Try SWiSH and see for yourself! -30-

With digital cameras becoming a hit not only to professional photographers, it is understandable that creations of digital image files are also increasing. It is actually the magic of being able to manipulate your photos – edit and organize them and make certain special effects that digital image files become interesting and essential. In order to keep in line with the best and easiest ways of editing, organizing and storing digital photos, latest software application programs for digital photo enhancements are being introduced.

Here, we give you an overview of the features of some of the newest tools to maximize your digital image editing efforts:

1. Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 – this latest offering of Adobe offers enhanced features not only for editing your digital photos but also helps you in organizing your files. Ten new features makes it an all-in-one home photo solution: 1)could perfect, transform, organize and share your digital photos; 2) ability to brush away flaws on your photo; 3) can create dynamic slideshows; 4) can send themed photo e-mail; 5) you can enjoy flexible print options;6) you could get high quality images with camera raw and 16-bit support; 7) you’re given the chance to pick your best shot from among many; photos for safekeeping can be archived; 9) gives you the full color range, and; 10) have intuitive capability to instantly fix common flaws.

Can’t wait to get your hands on this new software? You may expect its shipping on November. It costs $99.99 and can be ordered from the Adobe Site!

2. Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite 10 – this offering by Microsoft debuted last month, with expanded set of tools to satisfy your passion for digital photography. This includes all new features found in Digital Image Pro and more and Digital Image Library for those dead– set in a digital photography career0.

Several innovative features are: 1) by cataloging photos in Digital Image Library guarantee you quick storing and retrieving of photos; 2) with Photo Story 2.0, you could create videos using your photos, with all the audio-visual effects; 3) as you view your photos, flags allow you to designate the next-steps to do with your photos; 4) on-click Auto Fixes help you adjust color, exposure and more; 5) complex editing problems can be handled easily with Color and Exposure toolsets; 6) Panoramic Stitching lets you piece together multiple horizontal and vertical photos; 7) allows precise adjustments over five curves; you can remove unwanted noise in your pictures; 9) with Fix Red Eye Tool to remove red eye from photos; 9) can delete unwanted things in the background of your photo by the Smart Erase tool.

Good news! It’s available on the market already and costs $129.

If the two tools given above doesn’t satisfy you enough, you could still have other reliable tools for your Photo Editing. You may try Jac’s Paint Shop Pro 9 and Apple’s iPhoto for other needed features to help you with your Digital Images. -30-