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Category: Web site creation and modification

This will be a how to do this and that for web site creators.

Apology

Apology

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I apologize for not updating this blog beginning December 2017 and lasting until February 2018.  I had a series of swimming pool problems:

  • Main pool motor lost its high speed winding’s.  I had to order and replace the motor.
  • The pool suction line was partly blocked.  It took 3 days to clean out.
  • The pool had to be completely drained (about every 7 years) because the water was too contaminated to accept new chemistry.
  • Pool filter needed to be cleaned.
  • Pool putty had to be applied to pool cracks which appeared above the water line.

I do all, my own, pool repairs and maintenance.

Then I had a long-lasting cold.

I hope I can now pay more attention to this blog.

Chrome Browser Does Not Show My Amazon Advertisements

Chrome Browser Does Not Show My Amazon Advertisements

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Chrome Browser Does Not Show My Amazon Advertisements

 

I noticed that when I viewed my web site using Chrome, the advertisements along the left side widget area did not show correctly.

 

Image shows a sad face instead of the Amazon advertisement.
Instead of Amazon advertisement showing properly, this image appeared.

I went into my Chrome extensions and turned off each one until I found the culprit.  It was Privacy Badger.

Once I turned Privacy Badger Chrome extension off, my Amazon advertisements would show.

 

Apology

Apology

(August 2016 to December 2016)

Note:  I wish to apologize to the readers of this blog.  Score Card has not been able to contribute any updated posts due to a very bad situation at home.  We had a series of pin hole leaks in our cooper pipes.  We had to have our ceilings scraped to remove asbestos popcorn prior to the house being re-piped.  We must have had close to 20 holes in our ceilings and walls.  I then had to finish off the ceilings of 4 room and a hallway, prime with wall board primer paint, texture coat the ceilings and then paint the walls and ceilings.  One room has to be taped, mud applied, primed, electrical lights installed, painted.  This web site is not as important as getting our furniture out of the living room and into the other rooms of the house.   I apologize again for when you visit this web site and it offers nothing new for you to read.    I hope you come back again, probably the end of August (2016)

Keep Web Site Login Information Ready and Secure.

Keep Web Site Login Information Ready and Secure.

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I was drawn into helping a hair salon owner regain control of her web site.  She had lost control of a prior site because she handed over the whole process to a person and then had some falling out.  She was paying for the web site name registration and hosting fees but utterly failed to understand the importance of keeping the account information in her records.  She lost the prior web site name because she could not communicate with the domain registration and hosting company.  She had to start over and find another domain  name and register it.  I was called in to help her break into her second web site. She was about to lose control if it too.  Thankfully, the person who set up her second web site chose HostGator.  They are somewhat difficult to reach because the wait time on the phone to talk to someone can be quite long.  But, once you are on the phone with one of their technical support persons, they can provide all the necessary information you need.  My guess is, it took me less than ten minutes of technical support’s time on the phone to regain ownership of this women’s web site.  Their technical support person was perfect in their conduct of helping their client.

I have two points to make in writing this post. The first is I wish to commend HostGator for providing very good support for their host services and their support for WordPress software.  My second point is to tell you, the reader, that if you intend to start up a web site PLEASE follow the following suggestions listed below.

Record accurately the following information:

  • Domain name registration company name and web site address.
  • Domain name registration company billing information.  (This is very important to keep track of because it proves to the company that you own the web site domain name.  Do not delete the past two or more year’s e-mails from this company.)
  • Domain name registration company land line phone.
  • Domain name registration company login user name.
  • Domain name registration company login password.
  • Domain name registration company e-mail address if this has been activated.  (My sister has a web site registered domain name and she knows that the company includes, as part of their name registration package, an e-mail service.  She uses this web site domain name to get ONLY a personal e-mail account.  If you enter the domain name for her web site you will see this:

“Welcome to namecheap.com. This domain was recently registered at namecheap.com. The domain owner may currently be creating a great site for this domain. Please check back later!”

I was totally surprised that my sister had the knowledge to do this.  All her e-mail gets sent to her web site name except the web site does not exist, only the domain name and the cost is incredibly cheap.

I do not recommend GoDaddy for web site name registration because they are bloat, full of extra paid options that most people do not need.  Most important for me is when I did my research, they had a less than impressive reputation for caving in to any legal query into who owns a particular web site.   I use NameCheap to register my web sites.  Their prices seem cheaper than GoDaddy.  Their web site is less attractive and a bit clunky to use than GoDaddy.

Here is your second important list to write down some place secure:

  • Web site host company name and web site address.
  • Web site host company billing information. (This information is important to prove you own the web site.  Keep all e-mails from the host company.)
  • Web site host company billing land line phone number.
  • Web site host company C-Panel web site address.  (C-Panel is your host control panel in graphical user information (GUI) form and damned important for you to control).
  •  Web site host company C-Panel login user name. (VERY IMPORTANT)
  • Web site host company C-Panel login password.  (VERY IMPORTANT)
  • There are a whole long list of further information that your web site host company should send you by e-mail such as exact server address, FTP information and other information that may be specific to your web site.  At the very least, know exactly how to gain access to your web site C-Panel.

After you have a web site name registered and then pay for hosting fees, typically for a year, you then have to decide what software to put up into your rented host computer hard drive.  If you are starting out, this being your first time putting up a web site, I strongly recommend that you consider WordPress.  I do not recommend that you host at WordPress but rather use a good host company and use their C-Panel to load the software.  There are other packages that you can install from your C-Panel but WordPress, for me is pretty easy to use and has a lot of features.  Take the time to research which software package might be the best fit for what your intentions are.  Once you do the installation of the web site software, you can easily remove that software if you do not like it and switch over to another.  You can even install two or more software systems into the same web site but in different sub directories.  I have done this.  I typically put WordPress into its own sub directory for text content.  I can do a web site redirect to anyone who goes to the root directory  which will result in them being sent to the WordPress sub directory.  WordPress can show photographs but if I think I need a more robust photo gallery I put up another software package into a different sub directory and provide a link to it from the WP.  The point I wish to make is when you install WordPress or any other software, they almost always include their own login.  Treat this login with respect and care and do not share this information with anyone you do not trust.  Write down the following information and keep it safe:

  • Software package login user name. (VERY IMPORTANT)
  • Software package login password.  (VERY IMPORTANT)
  • Software package information such as the sub directory it is located in.

Once you have installed your main web site software that makes your web site look the way it does to your customers you can then add optional software packages that augment and enhance the operation of the main software.  Each of these sub software installations may include their own logins.  Make darn sure you write this information down.

  • Sub package login user name.  (IMPORTANT)
  • Software package login password. (IMPORTANT)

You can some times add social networking links and these too need to be added to your web site document and recording.

You have a number of options for recording the above information.  I strongly suggest that, at the very least, you copy from e-mail sent to you by any company the vital information and then paste each item into some text document.  The reason for this is I have had to deal with some people who write down on a pad of paper some of this information and they totally fail to understand the importance of upper case, lower case, spaces, special characters, punctuation.  In other words they screw up the login process.  By doing the copy past method you remove the possibility for these humane errors will occur.

If you are a Macintosh computer user, consider using Keychain to hold this information because it is secure and comes with each computer you buy.

There are a lot of password safe software that you can buy.  I currently use MSecure but I am not totally happy with it.

Once you have devised a reliable, easy to call up document with all the above information:

  • DO NOT LOOSE IT!
  • KEEP IS SAFE!
  • DO NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE unless they have a damned good reason to know.  If you hire a web developer to create your web site, make darn sure you take charge of all the information listed above.

I mentioned before that I do like HostGator.  I do recommend them for beginners using WordPress.  What I do not like is that I can easily take over a web site if I get into the C-Panel.  I would start out with HostGator and if you wish to gain slightly better security a few years later, look around carefully for another good host company.  I am currently with LinkSky.  Their C-Panel will not allow you to easily gain control of the web site which is even more reason to document well all the login information associated with your web site.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Weeks after I wrote the above blog piece, The Wall Street Journal did an article entitled Thieves Steal Company Web Addresses.  The article does not take the same view that you need to keep safe your web site information but instead warns web site owners that there are criminals out there who can some times take your web site domain name away from you.

 

Overview of some web technology I use.

Overview of some web technology I use.

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I will attempt to outline some of the devices, and methods that are used to construct my web sites, of which there are four. Also I have included some recommendations, some training aids. Please keep in mind that I am a Macintosh person. “If you want to get it done, do it on a Mac”. Thus, the advice below will refer to Macintosh solutions.

Sites: There are five sites I am involved in as follows:

Site 1: This blog site you are currently viewing is probably the least expensive to run and operate. It requires no special software. I do not use Dreamweaver. The interface software is only a web browser and WordPress. WordPress comes free and is installed on the web host company server. I access this software from my home machine using any web browser. Well that is not exactly true. Safari falls apart for WordPress. Firefox is my browser of choice when connecting to WordPress because the WordPress menu shows up properly when using Firefox.

Site 2: This next site is a community group site that I am encouraged to begin to input stories into. The site creator had to back away from being involved for personal reasons. This is most unusual in that I did not create this web site but I have to step in and start to use it. I had to download the whole site into my laptop and then dissect it to figure out how it worked. This is very time consuming but instructional.

Site 3: This web site is unpublished. It has been in beta testing for close to one year. I am paying for the site name registration and web hosting all this time but have not made it public yet. It will be a cascading style sheet type web site.

Software used:
Web site construction is performed using Dreamweaver CS3. This program is very professional. Actually, I think it is awesome. It has a difficult learning curve associated with it but the payoff is worth it. Another very popular web site creation program is Microsoft’s Frontpage, which has a reputation of putting up messy html code. If your intent is to become more proficient at being a web master, do not choose Frontpage. If all you want to do is put up a quick web site, then Frontpage might work for you. Go Live by Adobe has a good reputation.

Tip: if anyone in your family goes to school, look into the possibility of obtaining an educational discount price. Some college bookstores do sell educational priced software at significant savings.

A neat little utility I use from time to time is Free Ruler. I use this to measure how many pixels to make a particular image or format text fields while measuring a web page. This is a free utility.
The Apple software comes with a utility that I seem to use a lot. It is called Grab and can be found in the “Utilities” folder. Any image that appears on my computer screen can be cut up and used with this program.

The photo blog software is part of the typical web-hosting package that comes “free” with the hosting subscription. Fantastico De Luxe found in the web site administrator’s control panel (C-Panel) offers a large number of open source programs. The photo blog uses two packages and one utility.

WordPress was chosen for the blog because it is free, easy to use and has a lot of features and very well thought out software package.

YAPB (Yet Another Photo Blog) is a WordPress plug in which improves the WordPress experience by making a lot of the difficult chores, simple. It too is free.

JView is not a C-Panel program but a free Internet utility offering, which I use to look at each photo image in a large format so I can write a good description for each image. I have Adobe Bridge and Aperture software programs but they utterly fall apart for this simple task. This utility is also free.

Hardware Used:

The computer is a Macintosh laptop, 2.5 GHz Intel Dual Core 2 Duo with 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM and running version 10.5.4 software.

I use a Microsoft laptop mouse model 1054. It is ok for text and graphics but totally unacceptable for gaming.  I use the Microsoft mouse when out of my office.  For gaming and in office work, I use Logitech G9 Laser.

I have a couple of finger drives. My favorite is a 2-gig unit that lights up, made by Sandisk.

I have an external hard drive made by Siig, model FW800 + USB 2.0 HDD kit. The drive offers both Firewire (800 & 400) ports along with USB. An 800 Firewire port is only needed for video editing. This drive is used to back up my laptop using TimeMachine.

Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station with Gigabit Ethernet is expensive but gives us added features such as flawless wireless, wireless hard drive storage (added this ourselves), and wireless printer capability (we added to the USB connector).

Cable TV, (Time Warner) Internet cable box interfaces with the above-mentioned Apple Airport Extreme Base Station. We had the AT&T two wire which was pretty bad, dropped connections frequently. A modem connection is ok if you are just starting at becoming involved in web development. If you do use a modem for web site connection to your host, bring your favorite newspaper or magazine or even a novel, as your upload times will be significant.

Web Hosting Service:

LinkSky was chosen as the web host after quite a bit of research. I searched for web host companies using the words “web host recommendations” and “best web host companies”. I soon found some web sites made recommendations that actual users found to be deficient. I suspected that some form of payment might be part of the equation for some companies getting good reviews from some popular web sites. I got lucky when one of the troop parents recommended his web hosting company, LinkSky. I went on to the Internet and did a reputation search. What I found out was that no one made any claim that LinkSky performed poorly. I had found a winner. I have been with LinkSky for a couple of years. I now have four sites with that company and they have not caused me any difficulty. When I have a problem, I get a quick and complete satisfactory response. The company is based in Northern California but I have been told that the Unix servers are in Texas. In case of a huge California earthquake the web site data should be safe. If there were any huge catastrophe in Texas, my laptop would be the backup.

If you are new to web site design let me offer you as much encouragement as possible. Web site design is a quite a large ocean of knowledge. Do not let its vastness dissuade you. It is very easy to build and put up a simple web site. The more you learn, the better and more professional the results. Please realize that there are good practices that you should search out to make a more pleasing site. Books and magazines are out there to make you aware of these practices. If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford the expense to buy a lot of books and magazines, use the Internet to learn.

Tip: Go to iTunes and peruse the free pod casts available. There are some pretty good video tutorials that take you step by step through using software.

Recommended Training:

Dreamweaver training an excellent start is to take a class at a junior college or an extension class at a local university. This is how I started to learn web design. A friend and I took the class and we each had our web sites blow up a couple of times caused by us not understanding how to make links work properly. By the end of the class we were humbled quite a bit and realized that this type of work was not going to be all that easy.

Dreamweaver CS3, The Missing Manual, Pogue Press O’Reilly, © 2007, by David Sawyer McFarland is intimidating in cost ($44.99), size (995 pages), and content. I have quite a large selection of Dreamweaver “how to” books so I think I do have some credentials for rating these types of books. I am not endorsing The Missing Manual series right now, just this particular book. It is an excellent book on the subject, in my humble opinion. It does an admirable job of explaining cascading style sheets, which is a difficult part of web design to understand.

A very recent “book” has come out called Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 with Garrick Chow. It is Peachpit Press video training book associated with lynda.com. The cost lists for $49.99 but I found that Borders Book Store had a 30% discount on all computer books. It requires that you use a computer to view the html lessons that are on a CD and have QuickTime loaded as an application so you can view the movies. What is neat about this “book” is it serves as your private classroom trainer, like being in college with a perfect teacher. The explanations are well laid out, dialog and screen presentation is always on target. When I discovered this “book” I thought only a few chapters would be interesting but I started at the beginning and went through each lesson in order. I was amazed at how much I had missed while self-teaching myself using books. I am really impressed with this video training method.

Tip: The disk for Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 is mildly protected so you are required to insert the disk to view the lessons. I prefer not to work off a CD. I chose to make a disk image copy using a program called Toast into my computer so I could see all the files, even the hidden ones and copy them to a folder. I then dragged the file “dreamweavercs3.html” to my desktop or application dock so I could readily find it and launch the training. In this way, I could eject the disk and view the training using only the computer.

Formatting tools missing from Firefox.

Formatting tools missing from Firefox.

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I was notified at the begriming of June, 2007 that Firefox offered an upgrade.   I completed the upgrade and then decided upon including some free accessory software packages to enhance the browser.   I noticed that when I went into use WordPress, my formatting tools were missing. I finally decided upon looking at the accessories that I had installed.   Right away I chose to look at NoScript.   I went into the preferences and decided to add my web site to the Whitelist.   Once I did that it just took a few seconds and my formatting tools appeared.