What I suspected occurred but after adding some more tests to the line up I was amazed to find plain ol’ javascript (the stuff that jQuery is built on) ran about 40-50X faster in some browsers depending on what browser you were testing in. This really makes me question about how heavily dependent we are all on jquery and other libraries for some tasks.

Here are some pros and cons I could boil it down to.

jQuery Pros

• It is easier to write and you don’t have to know that much to learn how to use it.
• It is consistent across all browsers for the most part.
• After the initial jq script download your js files stay pretty small in weight and in length

jQuery Cons

• heavy library initial file download (I know most gzip it so it compress 20k or so)
• It chugs compared to plain javascript.
• some time work arounds have to be in place and you can become lazy and dependent.
• It’s Well documented and tested.
• the quickest way to type a command isn’t always the fastest speed wise for example http://jsperf.com/jquery-selector-perf-right-to-left/59

javascript in nude Pros

• No middle man so your talking straight to the browser or server.
• A lot quicker then jQuery
• You understand more whats actually going on (as a developer)

javascript in nude Cons

• Lengthy to write and heavy in file size.
• browser support inconsistencies for different parts of js. (end up killing 1 bird with 3 stones type of deal… jQ does this for you)
• Tons of research from many sources.
• super lengthy production time due to buggy-ness of multiple browser support.

That being said you could mix the two but that gets kind of messy. Especially when you are making HUGE scripts or applications. But is it worth the pay off? maybe. User experience wise. Yes! Development Time. Not so much! So really it comes down to your resources..

1. How much time… sometimes money do you have.

2. How knowledgeable or willing to research is/are the developer(s) building your script there are many things that make a script chug not just a library.

3. are you ready for a long term relationship because maintenance is going to be crazy if you go the js nude route.

it’s kind of a hard choice because 1 developer’s preference vs 10,000,000+ users experience can really make a huge impact on the whole product. makes you wonder how fast your heavily dependent js app would run if you went with js in the nude as opposed to your library of choice.

Here are some things I think that keep people coming back for more.

1. They give people what they want. As with any good site serve’n up content google is an all you can eat buffet rich in information. Usually brought to you in this order.

1. I. Relevancy
2. II. Highest Bidder
3. III. Popularity

It’s does get annoying sometimes of all the high bidders in the un-organic results at the very top of the list. But at least google is keeping them relevant and I think people make an exception because of this and don’t mark it against google. A lot of times when a site is popular it ranks higher and sometimes it is because this site may be an authority on the subject you are searching on and more then likely is very useful. But not always the case.

2. It’s so easy. type in whatever you’re thinking (and if you communicate like a normal human being) you will more then likely find what your looking for. “Georgia Weather…” , “how to build a website…” , “Why’s my pee orange?”. No offense to those of you googlely challenged.

3. They are more then a search engine They really do a good job of linking their products seamlessly into their search engine with out negatively affecting what they do best. They become a part of your life with out you realizing. Google maps… gmail… google hosted code… and any other app or service you use that is owned or run by google. I think this goes back to Relevancy providing OPTIONAL side products that are relevant to people.

There’s a lot to learn from google (not that they know it all). Some of the applicable items are:

• Firstly providing something of HIGH relevance to the person while at the same time not letting your high bidders crap up your site.
• Making your products and site so easy to use that people are able feel natural or effortless to access what they came to get from you.
• Providing optional RELEVANT products or services that they don’t feel like they HAVE to be a part of… by not shoving it in their face and telling them they need it… especially when it irrelevant.

A lot of this applies to life to not just building websites. ( ;

So a few weeks ago I saw a similar job board here

I e-mailed the site and asked them how they did it. All they told me was that they were using a plug-in and some custom coding… I already new that!!! lol. So they weren’t giving up their secrets of how to create a free job board.

So my search began. After a couple weeks I was finally able to find a solution at some random site… which I forgot to document I found it here… but that’s o.k. I will still share my secrets with you… (Don’t download their files just instal TDO Mini Forms and then follow the directions.)

The solution required using TDO Mini Forms. This plugin allows you to set up a form that allows any member or non member to create a post depending on the settings you set of course. Once the post is created all you have to do is change the status to published and the post is live.

So my process went something like this.

• Install WordPress 3.0
• Instal TDO Mini Forms
• Modify 2010 (the wp theme) loop.php, functions.php and other tweaks
• Style it in CSS

I was up and running. Check it out here SportsTrainingJobs.com.

Capabilities:

• Non-Member Users can posts jobs.
• Jobs are seperated into categories
• Search function targets only job posts

1. It is easy to learn. WordPress is like learning to ride a bike, you can learn the basics and start off with training wheels and also learn how to do some cool tricks as you become more familiar with it’s capabilities. There is a wide spectrum when it comes to the capabilities of web users. Some people are afraid to touch a keyboard… some people are afraid to let others do things for them. WordPress is great for both! Because of it’s popularity there are a countless number of tutorials and resources that teach people how to use their WordPress blog / cms. If it is support you want, have no fear… there is plenty of it.

2. You can maintain it yourself. Have you ever wanted to make a lot of changes to your copy and you had to call your web guy… every other day. Well guess what? Not any more! you can maintain your own site with ease; not to mention you don’t have to pay the web guys for correcting your typos any more either, or to add a new page. WordPress empowers you to be more independent you can be as independent as you feel comfortable being with wordpress. You can upgrade, install plugins (enhancements for your website), and manage your content all on your own! WordPress has made this easier for you to do.

3. It’s Very Flexible. If you just want a blog, a website with a blog, or even a website without a blog… wordpress is a great choice. Also from a developing standpoint it is a lot more efficient and effective for achieving these goals. You can even incorporate some e-commerce features utilizing plugins that will help you sell your products. You can do just about anything you want.

4. Free plug-ins (enhancements) galore. There are thousands of 100% free plug-ins that allow you to do many things some of which are: easily displaying YouTube and videos, creating payment buttons for PayPal, a booking calendar, rotating testimonies in the sidebar, receive mail from forms filled out on your website, SEO ehancements, run polls, social networking tools / facebook / twitter… The list goes on and on. Best of all they are easy to integrate!
See all the WordPress plug-ins here

5. Its SEO Friendly. Who has a website that doesn’t want to get found? It is important for people to find your website! WordPress is extremely Search Engine Friendly there are a ton of features and plug-ins that you can utilize to help people find your website via the search engines. You can easily customize meta tags and title tags with out having to delve into the code. You can customize your urls / permalinks to include your key words. I worked for an SEO firm for a little while and we used wordpress for all of our sites. When I asked the owner why we used wordpress he said, “WordPress has always stomped the search engines… always has… always will”

WordPress is great I have been using it for over 2 years and it continues to get better! I encourage anyone interested in creating a website to use WordPress. If you are interested in a custom wordpress website please feel free to contact me.

I decided to remake my website yesterday and it took about all day after testing and debugging. I didn’t even have a concept I just changed the background and kept making changes until it look right. No planning, no compositions, just going with it. I really like the results and I feel it is more alive than my previous skin. I’m glad I stuck with my current layout because it took forever to code this site and I am really please how the make over went.

I don’t think this would qualify really as a redesign because I feel like you change the layout and recode a lot in a redesign. This is why I think it qualifies as a makeover because it is the same site/layout just with a different look.

Here is a how the previous site looked. I had a to dig around for a picture I should have just taken one before I started making changes but I guess I didn’t know I was going to do the redesign until about half way through lol.

(Click to Enlarge)

3. Ease of Use – It needs to be easy to use and to integrate into your website. (I have left websites because it looked sketchy on their e-commerce. Generally if your site stinks and so does your e-commerce solution I don’t buy from you plain and simple may sound mean but I can afford to take the risk.)

4. Protection – What happens when there are faulty charges or orders, or somone rips you off… Will there be reimbursement etc? (check out how they handle these things)

5. Security – How does the e-commerce company claim to protect / encrypt transactions and your sensitive information. Can they prove it?

There are an array of things to look out for concerning safety with your’s and other’s money on the web. Recently I ordered a product and the company double charged me for it, I find out it is their e-commerce solution and it seems to be a pretty popular situation and they are a pretty popular e-commerce company both with big companies but also with complaints about charges that are questionable. (It’s called DigitalRiver.com if you were wondering). Working as a web designer I want to know who your e-commerce solution is and if they are reliable… because you CAN get charged now a-days for just typing your cc info before you push any buttons some companies start processing ASAP and seem to give you a way to stop in the process but really they have already determined to charge you even if you cancel.

My point being I have been receiving much business from an audience that I wasn’t necessarily targeting for an array of reasons. A main one being I didn’t feel like I could compete with the local businesses search engine wise, Google mainly, so I didn’t think anybody would be able to find me. Well they did find me but not the way I thought.

There are some freelance companies that I use to bid on projects through and people tend to search on those databases and then contact me directly and they live with in a 20 mile radius. There is a lot of local business. I am trying to make my site more findable to local companies in Marietta Georgia or in Metro Atlanta area so that I might get more local business seeing that I have been getting a lot of it lately.

One thing to take away would be. market locally, and globally… Remember David and Goliath, it’s not about your competition it’s who you trust.

5 things you can do today to make your site a little bit more findable
(You could probably knock this out in a day or two)
1. Write your content then go back through and make sure you included key words in the content and headings that you know people would search for that are relevant. (just sprinkle them through out don’t pour them on… you can get penalized)
2. Use Key words and relevant text in the ‘title’ tag of the page, in your meta data ‘key words’ and ‘description’, and in your markup your ‘title’ and ‘alt’ attributes.
3. Create a Google XML Sitemap and submit it to google through webmaster tools… and Verify your website while your at it.
4. Submit your site to Yellow pages type sites, directories
5. Submit your site to other search engines mainly yahoo and msn.

There are a lot more in depth things you could do but at least you now have your foot in the door and are more findable. ]]> http://www.tdesignonline.com/working-globaly/feed 0 http://www.tdesignonline.com/buddypress http://www.tdesignonline.com/buddypress#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:10:59 +0000 richard http://www.tdesignonline.com/?p=921

WordPress has come out with buddypress it’s basically facebook. I recently interviewed with a company that was interested in creating an application like this for their clients. I hope they pick this up instead of trying to create their own app. I’m excited because clients are always wanting to create facebook like solutions and now I can help them create those with buddypress.

In order to use buddypress you must first install a version of wordpress MU. This is not your regular wordpress and you will probably need to download it and upload it manually (it’s not in your fantastico deluxe for those of you who install through your host) Here is a link to the wordpress MU… and here is the link to buddypress… have fun!

I am installing it soon and going to give it a test run and hopefully will be able to start offering it to my clients.

Her site is based off of wordpress so all the content is stored in a database on her host. Well I was visiting the site just to take a peak at it some more and I saw in big black letters: “Data Base Error…”. I have seen it before and it wasn’t a big deal the host was just having a problem and later on during the day the site was able to connect to the database the content was viewable.

I thought I would take a look on her host and check out the databases and see if I could fix it just in case something accidentally got broken or just to get a better idea of why this was happening and maybe I could fix it quickly. Soon enough I spotted exactly why it was happening because there were no databases! The ones we had stored 20+ pages of content in were mysteriously gone. Whether she accidentally deleted them some how, the host crashed, or it got hacked (which is very unlikely) it was all gone.

So my message to any one using a content management system or any application that draws from a database. You need to back it up regulary whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly depending on how often it is updated. Updating wordpress only take several minute depending on how much content you have.

To back up your content in wordpress 2.6 – in the admin panel go to manage then export.
To back up your content in wordpress 2.7 – go to tools then export.

If you want to see it in action go here:
URL: www.tdesignonline.com/clickheat/
user: guest
password: myguest

So why see what your users are doing? Do you want to make the most out of their visit and make your content as accessible as possible? Then you will make it easy to find… by eliminating wasted space and or items or links that no one is even using. ie. My lighter box button at the top of my sidebar is moving to the bottom… why? no clicks. It’s not something that is usable at the moment maybe on another page or for someone who already knows about it otherwise it is wasting a valuable screen position.

If you don’t think usability is important maybe you should reconsider… God thought it important to make your body usable and the environment that you live in able to be manipulated and usable by you! It wasn’t by accident nor millions of years of evolution that your fingers are able to grasp around objects and your Brain is more powerful than any computer know to man. God made stuff we could use and if we love others like wise, we should make things that benefit and are usable too.
(created in His image) ( :

• Functionality:
• + Fading Transition
• + Screen Navigation (Next, Previous, Close, or the Actual Image)
• + Key Board Navigation (Left & Right Arrow, Space, Esc.)
• + Loop Through Images (after last image goes back to first image vice versa)
• + Insert Onscreen text descriptions below the image via link title attribute text
• + Insert title of the image via thumbnail alt attribute.
• + Customizable
• + NEW OPTIMIZED VERSION – brought to you by Frédéric MADSEN

I started searching for a light weight light box script that did not rely on a script library or frame work in order to help it function. I was not able to find one at the time that did not rely on a library… So I made my own. I have an economy host that does not support gzip so any large scripts I use my users will have to download them which can cause multiple seconds of page display delay.

The idea was obviously derived from light box2 and it works essentially the same way in all modern browsers ie6, ie7, ie8, safari, chrome, and firefox.  When JavaScript is off it degrades gracefully in that the photo is still accessible the experience just isn’t enhanced.

The Light weight File Sizes
8 kb – lighterbox.js
3.2kb – load.gif
0.9kb – lighterbox.css
0.3kb – overlay.png
0.2kb – prev.gif
0.2kb – next.gif
0.2kb – close.gif

It’s around 14kb – total!

The orignal “light box 2″ with scripts alone is 190kb…ouch. Remember your users are downloading multiples scripts on your server and every kb here and there adds up and people start leaving your site/content because your site is the one with the loading bar always half full. lol one script isn’t that big a deal but several scripts add up. Then there’s g-zip that’s another story.

Here is an example of How Lighter Box2 works.

below you will see the script along with several examples of how you can pick and choose to include or not include titles and descriptions.

Text works too…

1. The first thing you will do is download LighterBox2 Original and take the folder you extract from the zip file and drop it in the root directory where the files your users will be browsing are (where your index.html file is or index.php whatever you are using).

Also Try out the NEW even MORE OPTIMIZED version LighterBox2 brought to by Frédéric MADSEN (Succesfully tested on Chrome 5/6, Firefox 3, IE 7/8/9, Opera 10 and Safari 4/5)

* 4 files instead of 7 (-40%)
* 6.03Ko instead of 12.3Ko (-50%)
* JavaScript file less than 100 lines, 94 lines instead of 195 (-50%)

Also feel free to check out his other links w3c.html5.free.fr and My Tool Tip JS

2. Next you will insert a link to the Style Sheet right before the closing head tag like this


<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="lighterbox2/lighterbox2.css" /> </head>



3. then you will insert a link to the script right before the closing body tag like this. (It doesn’t have to be exactly before the body tag just make sure it is below the content where you are using the script or else it will not work.)


<script type="text/javascript" src="lighterbox2/lighterbox2.js" ></script> </body>



4. Lastly you will insert the “rel” attribute with a value of “lighterbox” on the anchor tags that you want to use lighterbox2 on and fill the “title” attribute with your descriptions that are linking to your larger image files like this, and for your thumbnails use the alt attribute of the thumbnail to store the title of the image.


<a href="images/bigPicture.jpg" title="Short description here" rel="lighterbox" >

<img src="images/thumbnailPicture.jpg" border="0" alt="us" />

</a>



YAY…Test it out!

If you find and bugs that I haven’t caught please let me know.

Blessings,
Richard Lee

You can also download
LIGHTER BOX 2!
NEW Both onscreen and keyboard navigation for galleries. Descriptions (AS MUCH AS YOU WANT) that will be displayed to the viewer… check it out.

I started searching for a light weight light box script that did not rely on a script library or frame work in order to help it function. I was not able to find one at the time that did not rely on a library… So I made my own. I have an economy host that does not support gzip so any large scripts I use my users will have to download them which can cause multiple seconds of page display delay.

The idea was obviously derived from light box and it works essentially the same way in all modern browsers ie6, ie7, ie8, safari, chrome, and firefox.. When JavaScript is off it degrades gracefully in that the photo is still accessible the experience just isn’t enhanced.

The Light weight File Sizes
4.4kb – lighterbox.js
2.4kb – loader3.gif
0.5kb – lighterbox.css
0.1kb – closebutton2.gif
0.3kb – overlay.png
7.7kb – total!

The orignal “ligh box” with script and all its friends are 16kb. So what? You wont say so what when your users are downloading multiples scripts on your server and every kb here and there adds up and people start leaving your site/content because your site is the one with the loading bar always half full. lol one script isn’t that big a deal but several scripts add up. Then there’s g-zip that’s another story. (with gzip compression on lighter box is like 1.093kb)

Here is an example of How Lighter Box works.
Text works too…

1. The first thing you will do is download the files and take the files from the folder you extract and drop them in the root directory. (not the folder but the files in the folder)

2. then you will insert a link to the script right before the closing body tag like this. (It doesn’t have to be exactly before the body tag just make sure it is below the content where you are using the script or else it will not work.)


<script type="text/javascript" src="lighterbox.js" ></script>

</body>



3. Next you will insert a link to the Style Sheet right before the head tag like this


<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="lighterbox.css" />

</head>



4. Lastly you will insert the “rel” attribute with a value of “lighterbox” on the anchor tags that are linking to your larger image files.


<a href="images/us.jpg" rel="lighterbox" >

<img src="images/ust.jpg" border="0" alt="us" />

</a>



YAY…Test it out!

If you find and bugs that I haven’t caught let me know please let me know.

If for some reason you can’t get it working, download these files and there is a test page in there and you can see how it is set up.

Blessings,
Richard Lee

This solution involves 3 simple chords in order to make your regular tv an internet tv! I have a mac book and if you have a pc I’m sure you can find a similar solution. Apple has a mini-dvi to dvi adapter (or vga if you wanna go that route.) and If you want to use your HD I reccomend getting the dvi to HDMI adapter which they might sell at your local electronics/apple store as well what will be helpful too is an headphone to audio solution for your surround sound or tv if you don’t already have this equipment. (so that is 3 chords for a full functional internet tv solution) which was $40-$50 total. If you really wanna get fancy you can purchase a wireless mouse and or wireless keyboard. this beats the apple tv which is running for around $230 not including tax and shipping.

The benefits of this solution are.

• Surf the web using your tv as a monitor.
• watch movies from netflix (try it out for a 2 week trial and see how you like it 8.99 a month unlimited movies you can stream)
• watch episodes of your favorite shows (you don’t have to buy them on itunes they stream!.. visit your favorite tv stations website ie. abc.com)
• but if you did buy them on itunes you can watch your podcasts and itunes stuff as well.
• if you are a designer possibly designing on there I’m not sure about the aspect ratio though and dimension distortion.
• play online games.
• record things from your tv laptop if you have a digital video recorder hooked up.
• share with others and not be huddled up on the corner of your couch with your lap top.
• it’s cheaper and more beneficial than buying an apple tv.

check it out it might be a better solution than even getting cable or sattellite you might be able to cancel that stuff. You might have to sacrifice a little bit of quality but who’s counting pixels anyway and has HD really affected your tv experience if your honest I think you will say “No, I get into the action just as much with a lower quality movie file than with the HD.” After the “…but it’s so cool wears off” I think you’d rather have the money in your pocket or at least give it to a better cause than overpriced media or an apple tv. Unless you have money to flush? I highly reccomend this easy, quick, and cheap digital tv solution. (If your hardware is different than what I’ve listed above you can surely find what you need on the web to make a home audio/video solution for your laptop or desktop computer at an affordable price.)

My first host was Freehostia (.com) this Host is great if all you are doing is hosting a plane (x)html site with out data base access (this is the host I had MySQL problems with). This was my first real host and the reason I chose it is because it was free hosting with ZERO ADS which is extremely rare and I recommended for any small site. If you are trying to do something bigger and have a more interactive site I recommended trying another host.
Price/plan: Free plan no ads

…Blue host, didn’t have any problems, good load times (for now) easy set up easy use. The only problem is you are locked into long-term plans and they do offer a 30day full refund if you don’t like it within the first 30days. The reason I left them is because I was sharing a server with 250 – 400 people they told me, and they said I was sharing 8gbs of ram with that many people so that meant worst case scenario I was only getting 20mbs of ram for multiples sites. I wanted something more dedicated. The only problem with economy hosts is they tend to oversell and it causes your site(s) to go s..l..o..w…. again great if you are hosting 1-5 simple (x)html sites or even dynamic sites with low traffic.
Price/plan: $160 2yrs plan (6.95 a month trick)

…Liquid Web, This host looks very realiable and probably is and I tried to used their virtual dedicated servers stuff and it was too much hassle. They have a great website and their very own servers and have various internet providers connected to them ensuring your accessibility through out the world. I highly recommend them IF you know what you are doing and have time to set everything up (It will take some time…) there lowest VDS was 60 a month so I thought I would try it out. I did and it wasn’t for me like I said too much extra stuff to do that I wasn’t ready for, they are lacking tutorials to use the service so it is definitely for the more experienced. I didn’t get a chance to try their regular hosting plan but I would still consider it.
Price/plan: $60/month virtual dedicate server

…Host Gator, again another economy host that I am currently with that I haven’t had any problems with other then my clients in Jamaica not being able to view add-on domains that I used for their website which really concerns me, so I might switch again later (tired of this host quest). They offer a ton of space like all economy hosts and make big promises as all econ hosts do. they are like bluehost above.

…Godaddy, Some of my clients are set up with godaddy and I like there reliablity it seems pretty fast. The user interface is confusing but you get used to it. This is a likely candidate for a future host for me after I see how it works out for my clients. They have a pretty good reputation and are big enough to make changes if needed. Also if you are hosting domain names with them then it is even easier to use. my clients are on there economy plans but one of my clients is switching to their virtual dedicated server plan and I will be the setting that up. (crazy)

…Christian webhost(.com) This is the web host I use for my church and they are extremely reliable and I haven’t had any problems with them. they are not as much an economy host because they are a little more pricey but you get what you pay for with them. A Great host for reliable hosting.

None of these hosts are perfect, every hosts has there problems if you look up negative reviews for any host you will find them… and the reviews do help you stay hesitant before clicking the pay button.  I asked around, searched the web,  It is seriously a hunt trying to find a good web host. Make sure you find a host with the least problems and visit many different sites when researching a host. Some things to keep in mind when looking for a host.

• pray about it… no really, pray about.
• High price does not equal high quality.
• Boasting of features a ton of space and a ton of bandwidth does not equal a good host either (your sharing that space with 200-500 people in most cases).
• Don’t get locked into a long term plan pay monthly.
• Know what you need and estimate growth.
• Make sure there’s a money back guarantee if they are a good host then they can gaurantee themselves.
• Do your research.

When I used the software I had to install apples x-11 user from the startup disc that came with my mac and also I had to install something called wine.  After I finally got it up and running I was viewing my pages through ie6 and picking out the bugs.  Then it started crashing and it wasn’t working and I had to close the app and restart.  I didn’t ever really get ie7 working properly but it was better then switching back and forth from the mac and pc constantly.  When using a trick I learn is, don’t minimize the ie6 browser just drag it off the screen and hit refresh later to much action causes it to crash/freeze up.  I reccomend it for quick tests and the desperate who don’t have access to pc’s.

Creating the blog was very easy and set up was a breeze, it wouldn’t take one of your web buddies but a couple of minutes to set one up for you and you can find a domain and hosting together for $10-30 dollars a year some where, depending on your needs. The site you are looking at now was a template that I downloaded for free out of their huge library of WP temps. I highly recommend using WP for anyone interested in starting a blog. If you would like some info or help about setting one up feel free to contact me. RichardAndrewLee (at) yahoo (dot) com I’m around… and I’ll give a little bit of my time for you : )