WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl » Web Development

Cloud Computing and Web Design: A Growing Partnership?

webchicklet — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:33:45 +0000

The trend towards cloud computing is currently one of the hottest in the tech world. For individuals, cloud computing offers online storage, document synchronization, and easy collaboration tools. For business, the trend means a move towards platforms that can host much of a company’s electronic data. These platforms further offer advanced security features, managed server configurations, and cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
But what does cloud computing mean for you, the web designer? Or, more to the point, how can cloud computing improve your web design tools? While we are still at the forefront of the cloud revolution, and there’s little doubt that many yet to be developed cloud features will have an impact on web design, there are already a couple ways that the current technology can make your designing process an easier and better one.

First, cloud computing can allow you to design your webpage without needing to rely on programs installed on your computing. Instead of editing photos on your computer in Adobe, and being limited by the capabilities of your hardware and the amount you spend on software, you can now find programs that allow you to do all this online. Programs like Aviary can give web designers many of those tools needed for vector creation and image editing. These cloud-based services will often run faster and cost less than traditional ones, and they can be used from any computer, anywhere. Thus, the web designer can have greater flexibility and capabilities when they turn to the cloud.

Second, there are cloud services that provide web fonts – or online typefaces – for use by designers and developers. Rather than being stuck with the same old options given on a traditional computer, you can now go online and customize a typography that best fits your website. With better typography, a site can look bolder, come across as more unique, and vastly increase its read-ability. Some web designers see no need for this service, but many others have already forgotten what they did before it was available.

There are further options available to web designers, and these can be found with minimal research. But even if cloud computing doesn’t appeal to you right now, it’s not going anywhere and it’s only likely to grow. For web designers, cloud computer will soon become a very important tool – if it is not already.

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I Love My Gaiam Stability Ball Chair

webchicklet — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:31:00 +0000

When you work at a computer desk as much as this Webchicklet does, you’re bound to experience some back pain sooner rather than later. After sitting far too long on a sub par chair, my lovely significant other surprised me with a Gaiam stability ball chair gift for my recent birthday. I was excited when I got it, as I’ve always read and heard about the core building and posture improving benefits of sitting on a stability or fitness ball. I have always had issues with sciatica due to sitting too much, and I can tell you, after one full month, I am big believer in the benefits of a Gaiam stability ball chair!

So what the heck is a Gaiam stability ball chair? Gaiam is the company that markets the chair along with many other health, fitness, and wellness products, and the chair was designed by a chiropractor and sports therapist specializing in rehab and pain relief. The Gaiam chair is really quite simple, it’s a stability ball placed in a cradle frame, with 4 rolling wheels with lockable wheels, just like a regular office chair. But the similarities end there. First off, it’s MUCH lighter than the average office chair, and though it has what appears to be a backrest, it is actually not meant to be used as a back rest. This ergonomic wonder helps improve your spine alignment while sitting, tightens the core muscles for whole-body stability, corrects and improves your posture, and eliminates pain caused from sitting for long periods.

It’s only been a month since I got the Gaiam Balance Ball Chair, and I have yet to experience any pinched nerves (sciatica). I spend an average of 10 hours per day on my chair, and I have found that in addition to the lack of pain, I also feel less tired physically, and mentally, and it’s just plain fun bouncing in the chair occasionally. So if you are having back pain, fatigue, core strength deficiency, or you just want a new cool looking chair, then try a Gaiam stability ball chair on for size. Your back will thank you.

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Transfer a Phpld Link Directory To New Host

webchicklet — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:54:40 +0000

Yesterday, I sold one of my PHP Link Directory script link directories, and in the deal I agreed to transfer the phpld directory and template files to the buyers server. In my mind it seemed like a quick and easy task to transfer an existing PHPLD link directory to a new host. I was right and wrong.

If you do the steps in the correct order it is a quick and easy process. If you do them in the wrong order (like this webchicklet did), well, you better get up and make another pot of coffee. That being said, I figure I’m not the only one doing this kind of thing, so here’s a quick step by step guide on how to transfer ownership of a phpld link directory, including how to export the phpld sql link database, and import it into the new installation on the buyers side.

First off, things started off good as the buyer wanted to host the phpld directory at Hostmonster, the best web hosting service in my opinion, and the one where my phpld link directory was currently hosted. So I was already comfortable with their very easy to use cpanel and file manager.

This assumes you’ve transferred the domain and have the hosting set up for the buyer.

Step 1: Export your current phpld link directory sql database to your computer.

Open your hosts cpanel and select PHPMyAdmin in the Databases section. Select the database your phpld link directory is using and you’ll see a screen like this (click on photo to enlarge):

Select the Export tab, it’ll default to sql file, and hit go to export and save the file to your computer.

Step 2: Copy all files and directories in your current templates folder

Using FileZilla, or your ftp client of choice, log in to your current host and navigate to the directory your phpld installation resides.

Open the templates directory, and download the entire contents to a new folder on your computer.

Step 3: Create new database on new (buyers) server

Login to your buyers cpanel, or have him/her log into it if they are doing it themselves. Open up MySQL Database Wizard and run through the easy steps of creating a new db name, a new database user/password, and grant all writing permissions. Be sure to write down all these database names and user/passwords, as you’ll need them for the new phpld installation.

Step 4: Import your saved database into new server’s database

Now that you’ve created a new (and empty) phpld database, you’ll need to import the sql database that you saved from your old host.

Open phpMyAdmin in cpanel again (on the buyers/new host), select the database you just created, and select the Import tab on top. Hit the Choose File button, and select the saveddbname.sql file you had exported earlier.

Hit Go, and barring any unforseen problems it should populate the new databse with all the users, links, emails, etc that were stored in the phpld link directory.

Step 5: Download and install new PHPLD script on new server

This one is easy, just upload all the script files/directories and follow the Phpld install instructions from the install.txt file included in the download.

Step 6: Upload your saved template files to the new PHPLD installation

Using FileZilla again, upload the template files to the template directory (overwriting the existing ones if you are using the FREE PHPLD version 2.x). If you are using the paid version of PHPLD (version 4) you can just upload the templates into their own sub directory and then switch templates via phpld admin menu.

And there you have it, the phpld link directory should be up and running, looking exactly as it did on your old host/server, with all the links, featured links, partner links, etc. intact. As usual, if you have any questions let me know in the comments below.

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5 Best Android App Development Books

webchicklet — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:50:37 +0000

With the recent launches of HTC Incredible and the HTC EVO, Android seems set to take over the smartphone operating system world. So developers looking to make some mad money on Android App Developent should be looking to beef up their Android development skills. The best way to learn is by reading, and following tutorials, so I’m going to outline the 5 best selling Android App Development books, guides, and tutorials on Amazon.com. For technical books, if it’s a best seller on Amazon, it’s required reading for you, the developer.

So if you’re looking to cash in on the Android App Marketplace, get shopping and get reading. Or if you have a favorite friend or family member who has an Android device surgically attached to the palm of their hand, one of these books may be the perfect birthday gift.

1. Professional Android 2 Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)~ Reto Meier

This is the number one selling book on Android development, written by An Android authority. It’s an up to date hands on guide on getting the most out of Android 2 development, and provides in depth info that is easy to digest. With this best of breed book you will gain a solid foundation in Android development that will get you creating top Android apps in short order. Like all good android development books, Professional Android 2 Application Development will include lessons in the following need to know topics

Android application components
layouts and Views to produce compelling resolution independent user interfaces
Providers for sharing data
map-based applications and how to use location-based services such as GPS
background Services, Notifications, and Alarms
creating interactive home screen components
Bluetooth, telephony, and networking APIs info
Using camera and sensors including compass and accelerometers

2. Pro Android 2 (Paperback) ~ Sayed Hashimi, Satya Komatineni, Dave MacLean

This is an excellent book, however it may take a while to get it (1 to 3 months currently). I can only assume they utilize a just in time delivery protocal, that waits for an order before cutting the trees, making the paper, and then printing the book, and then finally packing the book onto the pony express and shipping it cross country from Alaska. But seriously, it is a great book well worth the wait.

Pro Android 2 gets you buiding real-world mobile applications using Google’s latest Android SDK in short order(not counting the delivery time). The new edition means it fully covers Android 2, and it offers the rare combination of expert insight and real sample applications that work. I for one can’t learn from reading alone, it’s imperative that I see some working examples.

So, while it takes even longer to get than an HTC Droid Incredible from Verizon, it is an excellent resource for the budding Android developer.

3. Android Wireless Application Development (Paperback)~ Shane Conder, Lauren Darcey

This is a great book that will will get you to the Android marketplace in no time. However, it does not cover Android 2. That being said, I’m sure the author is working on it and it will be updated soon.

It’s got all the ingredients for a quality book: reliable info, sample code, and best practices needed to program, distribute and market popular and useful Android mobile apps. Best of all, the book comes with a CD-ROM containing all of the book’s code samples, as well as some open source tools for Android development.

4. Pro Android Games (Paperback) ~ Vladimir Silva

Want to create your own award winning gopher whacking game? Well here’s the best book on the market to get you there quickly. Pro Android Games will teach you how to build cool games from scratch on the latest Android platform. It also shows you how to port other classic freeware/shareware games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D from C using the Java Native Interface (JNI) for Android. This is a hands on guide with plenty of code examples to get you going!

5. Android Programming Tutorials, 2nd Edition (Paperback)~ Mark Lawrence Murphy

This is my kind of book, one with plenty of hands on examples, which along with a pot of coffee, helps keep my eyes from defocusing. From the author: “Android Programming Tutorials is a collection of exercises that will have you build a pair of relatively sophisticated Android applications: a restaurant database and a Twitter client. The goal of the tutorials is to expose you to a wide range of Android capabilities in the context of a larger application, rather than standalone demonstrations like a programming guide might profile. ” When I read that, I immediately clicked add to cart. This is how I learn most easily and quickly. This book is a 5 star guide that every interested Android App Developer should own, and use frequently!

So there you have it, the 5 most important Android Development books you need to have. I listed links to Amazon as they have the best prices in the world on pretty much everything, and most books ship free and fast (except number 2 as already noted). So what are you waiting for? Get on that Android wave while you still can. As usual, be sure to let us know below if you come across any better Android Development books.

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10 Best Iphone App Development Books

webchicklet — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:29:45 +0000

If you want the best iphone app development books, or you have a geeky friend or loved one, then you should probably print a copy of this list. These are the most wished for books on Amazon. What does this mean for you? It means there is probably a book or two on this list that your closest iphone app geek friends would love to open on their next birthday or special event. And your friend will love you for it, as Iphone apps are the hottest trends in the application market today.

Save yourself some time by using this as a shopping list. Your iphone app geek friends will love you for it. I’ve included the star rating in case you’re trying to decide between two book s.

1. Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche 4.5 out 5 stars

Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge, and are you excited by the potential massive riches, after your shiny new iphone app hits the Apple App Store’s Top 25? Then this book is perfect for you as it is a great introduction to Iphone app development. You’ll learn everything you need to know about developing your first cool new iphone and ipod touch app, and how to optimize your code to give the best user experience.

2. More iPhone 3 Development: Tackling iPhone SDK 3 (Beginning) by Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche 5 out of 5 stars

This book carries on where book number one left off and digs deeper into the lastest Apple iphone SDK, and is a logical progression in your learnings. You’ll learn about Core Data, and how to build larger apps, utilize a variety of networking mechanisms (such as Bluetooth), how to embed maps, and how to integrate a users ipod library into your apps! How cool is that??

3. Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Making App Store Apps Without Objective-C or Cocoa by Jonathan Stark 5 out of 5 stars

Here’s a 5 star book that gives great examples of how to create clean, effective web applications for the iPhone or iPod Touch. It does a great job of covering HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery) giving you a quick and easy to understand explanation of how something works, without getting too wordy! This webchicklet hates wordy, so two thumbs up!

4. Programming Interactivity: A Designer’s Guide to Processing, Arduino, and Openframeworks by Joshua Noble 4.5 out of 5 stars

This book will help you make cool stuff. If you’re a budding designer or artist, this book will teach you to work with 2D and 3D graphics, sound, physical interaction, and electronic circuitry. This book is more for the hardware/engineer geek in your life!

5. Head First iPhone Development: A Learner’s Guide to Creating Objective-C Applications for the iPhone by Dan Pilone, Tracey Pilone 4 out of 5 stars

Do you have an idea for the next number one iphone app? Don’t know where to begin? This book will get your first app running very quickly, as you learn to use ethe iphone SDK tools, including IB, Xcode, and Objective C programming. This book covers it all in visually rich format, giving you all the tools to create the next top 25 iphone app..

6. The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK (2nd Ed) by Erica Sadun 5 out of 5 stars

This popular Iphone developers book is an essential resource for the newbie and the more advanced iphone and ipod touch app geek. It has been completely revised and expanded to cover the Iphone 3.0 SDK. It is a very useful book providing a ton of clear and concise examples illustrating important techniques to developing top iphone apps.

7. iPhone SDK Development (The Pragmatic Programmers) by Bill Dudney, Christopher Adamson 4.5 out of 5 stars

This book will help you learn new tools, new API’s (like the geolocation and motion sensing accelerometer, and others), and even a whole new programming language. This book will help you succeed in the leading mobile platform, the Apple Iphone.

8. Cocoa Touch for iPhone OS 3 (Developer Reference) by Jiva DeVoe 3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a good well rounded Iphone app guide that will definitely help you join the iphone app store gold rush, and get you there quickly! Plenty of step by step tutorials and practical tips to get you creating great apps very quickly.

9. iPhone Cool Projects by Gary Bennett and associates 4 out of 5 stars

This projects book is a great resource giving you great hands on experience to help you create blockbuster iphone apps that get noticed. Chock full of excellent illustrations, code, and sample apps, that will get you on track quickly.

10. iPhone User Interface Design Projects by Joachim Bondo

This very popular book gives a ton of practical advice and examples to help you create awesome apps with a eye popping user interface. A great book to learn how to optimize your apps for the small screen size of the mobile markets.

I’m sure you’ll find something in this list that you or your best iphone apps loving geek friends will love. And who gets the credit?….you. Just make sure your friends share some of the riches when they get to the top of the pile on the app store!

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Advantages of PHP

webchicklet — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:14:22 +0000

What Is PHP?

PHP is probably the most popular Web programming language in the world. PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext PreProcessor. The main advantage of PHP is that it can produce dynamic web pages because it can read from and write to a relational database (most often MySQL).

PHP gained a lot of popularity in the beginning of the century, because it offered a way to make boring static websites more interesting. For more than a decade PHP has been the leading Web programming language. Unlike many other popular programming languages, for instance Java, which are object-oriented, PHP is a scripting language.

PHP is open source and similarly to most open source software, it is free for both personal and commercial use. PHP is available for many operating systems but its native operating system is Linux. In that relation you will often hear LAMP development, which is an abbreviation for software development using Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Advantages of PHP

PHP has become the most popular Web programming language not only because it is free. PHP is a full-fledged programming language (unlike HTML for example, which is more of a presentation means) and many complex applications can be written it it.

Another benefit of applications written in PHP is that they are fast and if written properly, they could be pretty secure. There are also tons of ready PHP scripts and functions, which you can customize to your liking and use in your PHP applications.

What Is PHP Hosting?

As the name implies, PHP hosting is a type of a webhosting package aimed at running applications written in PHP. Many of the best web hosting companies offer PHP hosting because there is a lot of demand for it – since PHP is one of the most popular web development languages, quite naturally PHP hosting is also among the most popular types of hosting.

Why Is PHP Web Hosting Cheaper?

When you browse for PHP hosting offers, you will notice that, all equal, PHP hosting offers are cheaper. If you are not familiar with PHP, you might think that PHP Web hosting is cheaper because it is inferior to the other types of webhosting. Well, this certainly isn’t so!

The main reason why PHP hosting is cheaper is that PHP is free. Additionally, PHP is frequently deployed on Linux, which is also (generally) free and it uses MySQL, which is again free. When a webhosting provider can use webhosting technologies for free, this logically leads to lower costs for the web host and as a result – lower hosting fees.

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Webchicklet Now Hosting on HostMonster

webchicklet — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:56:05 +0000

As you may, or more likely not, have noticed, Webchicklet.com is now hosted on HostMonster.com. They frequently provide discounts, coupon codes and sales offers that make them a cheap web host alternative. In fact, their current web hosting special is only $5.95/month! That is certainly fantastic, but not the reason I switched Webchicklet.com to Hostmonster.

Sure, I love to keep my web hosting and domain registration costs down. What savvy Webchicklet doesn’t?

However, what’s most important is what you get for that low price: hosting options that are standard, not premium( keep shelling out more money) addons (Unlike some BIG “father figure” type hosting companies that will remain nameless), the customer service quality that you receive day in and day out (especially those days when you’ve messed something up and need it fixed asap! not that I would mess anything up), the network uptime, and last but not least, ease of setup.

Hostmonster has been providing web hosting services to businesses and personal sites, since 1996, so you know they are in it for the long haul.

HostMonster Hosting Services

The HostMonster list of included services is absolutely incredible. For one low fee, you get:

UNLIMITED Hosting Space – that’s awesome!
UNLIMITED Site Bandwidth – Especially good if your running a lot of video traffic.
Host UNLIMITED Domains – This is a great feature and it’s only $10 to register each additional domain AND Privacy is included in that price.
Unlimited Pop/Imap Email Accounts
Full cPanel admin full of useful tools, including wordpress installation with a click of the mouse!
SSH Access (Secure Shell)
SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MYSQL
Front Page Extensions
Free Domain Forever
Free Site Builder with templates
Free Domain Name or Domain Transfer
Instant Setup – Use Site Right Away!
Free Site Promotion
Free 1 Click Installer For Over 50 Scripts
$25 Free Yahoo Ad Credits
$50 Free Google Adwords Credits

HostMonster Customer Service:

I can tell you from first hand experience, HostMonster.com provides the most amazing customer service, either by phone, email, Help Center Knowledgebase, or my personal favorite; LiveChat. We’ve all had that nightmare live chat customer service experience with some company on the internet. If your experiences have been anything like mine, it probably wasn’t the most helpful customer service experience. The first time I needed help with something a few months ago, I noticed Hostmonster Live Chat and I was slightly dubious, but willing to give it a try. I almost fell off my chair when the rep answered after about 10 seconds! He proceed to wow me with his full understanding of my problem and his rapid solving of the problem (which, for the first time ever, was my own doing!). I’ve used it a couple time since and both times the response time and problem solving abilities of the rep was first rate.

But most times I’ve needed help I didn’t even have to talk to to one of their reps, as, in addition to their excellent customer service, HostMonster also has a very useful and easy to use help center knowledgebase with which you can quickly keyword search your problem and find an easy to understand, step by step solution to your problem. This level of customer service really is the big reason for me hosting alot of my sites at Hostmonster.com, and why I chose to move Webchicklet.com.

But let me just say, there is nothing at all wrong with the level of service that Webchicklet.com received from Hostgator.com, and they will continue to be used by me some of my sites, especially since they are a green hosting service.

HostMonster Network Reliability

HostMonster states on their site that they guarantee 99.9% network uptime. Of course they do, every hosting company does! But the difference, at least in my experience, is that HostMonster really does have 99.9% uptime. In fact, in the 8 months I’ve been using them, I’ve never been made aware of, or noticed, any downtime! That of course doesn’t mean there haven’t been outages, but the important thing is no long outages or frequent short outages = happy Webchicklet.

HostMonster Rocks

So in a nutshell, I switched Webchicklet.com to HostMonster.com because they rock! Oh, and because they are affordable, dependable, easy to use, and a total pleasure to deal with. If you are looking for a new, or additional (never hurts to spread your sites around) web hosting company, I strongly recommend that you check them out. If you already have web hosting with another company, Hostmonster makes it easy to transfer, and will even provide full support with the transfer. With the current HostMonster.com sale, you can pay as little as $5.95 per month, down from their already low $6.95 per month.

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MonitorHackdFiles Script Update: New Features

webchicklet — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:42:00 +0000

A month ago, I released a free script to help fight against site hackers called MonitorHackdFiles. Today, I’m releasing a new version that has a few requested features added. This is strictly a new feature release, so you don’t have to upgrade if you don’t want to.

New features added:

Ability to create an option admin area so that you can easily edit the options at a later date.
Ability to change the name of a file if you wish (the default name has already been changed in this release, but users can opt to change it again, just to obfuscate the script’s intent).
A version check was added so users could be alerted if I release new versions in the future.

In addition, the readme.txt file was edited to reflect the new features as well as clarify some older points.

You can download the new version here.

To Upgrade:

Follow the normal installation procedure as outlined in the readme file included, overwriting the existing files.

For more information about the script, see the original post.

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What Powers That Site

webchicklet — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:29:03 +0000

Ever wondered what technology a particular web site uses? Wished you knew what powered a particular site? Is it using a CMS? If so, which one? Does it use a particular programming language?

If you need to know what powers any particular web site, there are a few things you can do to try to figure it out.

First, scroll down to the bottom of the home page and check for a “Powered by” link. Ok, that’s obvious, but it’s also the easiest step, so I’d be remiss to not mention it.
If that doesn’t clear things up, right-click on the page and View Source. Scan through the source code to find any clues, perhaps in the HTML comments, as to what may be running the site.
Still don’t know? Ok the next step is to try using a couple of online tools that might have the answers for you. BuiltWith and Wappalyzer both do a good job of giving you at least some information about what might be powering a site. Neither will likely give you every application being used on the site, but both will probably give you at least one or two apps being used.

Anyone know of any other good methods of determining what is powering a site?

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Online Generator Tools To Make All Kinds Of Stuff

webchicklet — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:19:35 +0000

This list of generators is not intended to be comprehensive – there are TONS of online generator tools out there that help us do almost anything for the web-world. But the generators in this lislt are ones I’ve used and bookmarked in the past, and since some of them are probably not very well known, I thought it would be fun to share them with all of you.

Generators For Fun or Entertainment

Generators For Web Design & Development

Miscellaneous Generators For Geeks

Social Networking Tool Generators

Sure, each one of these probably has 20 competitors – you probably know some that may be better or cooler than the ones I’ve listed. But each of these will make someone’s day easier or more fun, and that’s my goal.

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