Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Types of Websites

Websites can be divided into two broad categories—static and interactive. Interactive sites are part of the Web 2.0 community of sites and allow for interactivity between the site owner and site visitors or users. Static sites serve or capture information but do not allow engagement with the audience or users directly. Some websites are informational or produced by enthusiasts or for personal use or entertainment. Many websites do aim to make money using one or more business models, including:

  • Posting interesting content and selling contextual advertising either through direct sales or through an advertising network.
  • E-commerce: products or services are purchased directly through the website
  • Advertising products or services available at a brick-and-mortar business
  • Freemium: basic content is available for free, but premium content requires a payment (e.g., WordPress website, it is an open-source platform to build a blog or website.)
  • Some websites require user registration or subscription to access the content. Examples of subscription websites include many business sites, news websites, academic journal websites, gaming websites, file-sharing websites, message boards, Web-based email, social networking websites, websites providing real-time stock market data, as well as sites providing various other services.

Read more, here.

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Saturday, March 25, 2023

Can you solve the famously difficult green-eyed logic puzzle? - Alex Gen...


One hundred green-eyed logicians have been imprisoned on an island by a mad dictator. Their only hope for freedom lies in the answer to one famously difficult logic puzzle. Can you solve it? Alex Gendler walks us through this green-eyed riddle.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Artrake Studio.

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Sunday, March 19, 2023

Multimedia and Interactive Content

Early websites had only text, and soon after, images. Web browser plug-ins were then used to add audio, video, and interactivity (such as for a rich Web application that mirrors the complexity of a desktop application like a word processor). Examples of such plug-ins are Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, and Java SE. HTML 5 includes provisions for audio and video without plugins. JavaScript is also built into most modern web browsers, and allows for website creators to send code to the web browser that instructs it how to interactively modify page content and communicate with the web server if needed. The browser's internal representation of the content is known as the Document Object Model (DOM).

WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a modern JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics without the use of plug-ins. It allows interactive content such as 3D animations, visualizations and video explainers to presented users in the most intuitive way.

A 2010-era trend in websites called "responsive design" has given the best viewing experience as it provides a device-based layout for users. These websites change their layout according to the device or mobile platform, thus giving a rich user experience.

Read more, here.

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Thursday, March 16, 2023

Why we say “OK”


How a cheesy joke from the 1830s became the most widely spoken word in the world.

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Friday, March 10, 2023

Dynamic Website

A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files). There are a wide range of software systems, such as CGI, Java Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages and ColdFusion (CFML) that are available to generate dynamic Web systems and dynamic sites. Various Web application frameworks and Web template systems are available for general-use programming languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby to make it faster and easier to create complex dynamic websites.

A site can display the current state of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing situation, or provide information in some way personalized to the requirements of the individual user. For example, when the front page of a news site is requested, the code running on the webserver might combine stored HTML fragments with news stories retrieved from a database or another website via RSS to produce a page that includes the latest information. Dynamic sites can be interactive by using HTML forms, storing and reading back browser cookies, or by creating a series of pages that reflect the previous history of clicks. Another example of dynamic content is when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input a search request, e.g. for the keyword Beatles. In response, the content of the Web page will spontaneously change the way it looked before, and will then display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs, and books. Dynamic HTML uses JavaScript code to instruct the Web browser how to interactively modify the page contents. One way to simulate a certain type of dynamic website while avoiding the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis is to periodically automatically regenerate a large series of static pages.

Read more, here.

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Tuesday, March 7, 2023

What it’s like to work in the world’s greatest office


The SC Johnson administrative building was Frank Lloyd Wright’s corporate masterpiece. What does it feel like?

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Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Static Website

A static website is one that has Web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client Web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML); Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly used to create the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also be considered "static" content if it plays automatically or is generally non-interactive. This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors. Similar to handing out a printed brochure to customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent, standard information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner may make updates periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos, and other content and may require basic website design skills and software. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as a classic website, a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a company and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and navigation menus.

Static websites may still use server side includes (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing a common menu bar across many pages. As the site's behavior to the reader is still static, this is not considered a dynamic site.

Read more, here.

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Sunday, February 26, 2023

How Does the Internet Work? - Glad You Asked S1


For most of us, the internet is virtual, made of Instagram posts, emails and YouTube videos. And, access to the vital utility isn’t guaranteed across the world. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram wants to know: What is the internet actually made of? And, how does it work? Answering that question involves discovering how internet cables are laid in the sea, if 5G is really the future, and how balloons in the stratosphere are helping people connect.

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Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, February 20, 2023

History of Websites

While "web site" was the original spelling (sometimes capitalized "Web site", since "Web" is a proper noun when referring to the World Wide Web), this variant has become rarely used, and "website" has become the standard spelling. All major style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook, have reflected this change.

In February 2009, Netcraft, an Internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995, reported that there were 215,675,903 websites with domain names and content on them in 2009, compared to just 19,732 websites in August 1995. After reaching 1 billion websites in September 2014, a milestone confirmed by NetCraft in its October 2014 Web Server Survey and that Internet Live Stats was the first to announce—as attested by this tweet from the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Berners-Lee—the number of websites in the world have subsequently declined, reverting to a level below 1 billion. This is due to the monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites. The number of websites continued growing to over 1 billion by March 2016 and has continued growing since. Netcraft Web Server Survey in January 2020 reported that there are 1,295,973,827 websites and in April 2021 reported that there are 1,212,139,815 sites across 10,939,637 web-facing computers, and 264,469,666 unique domains. An estimated 85 percent of all websites are inactive.

Read more, here.

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Friday, February 17, 2023

What exactly is an algorithm? Algorithms explained | BBC Ideas


What is an algorithm? You may be familiar with the idea in the context of Instagram, YouTube or Facebook, but it can feel like a big, abstract concept. Here’s presenter Jon Stroud with a step-by-step guide to what algorithms actually are, what algorithms do, and how algorithms work.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Background of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1989 by the British CERN computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for anyone, contributing to the immense growth of the Web. Before the introduction of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), other protocols such as File Transfer Protocol and the gopher protocol were used to retrieve individual files from a server. These protocols offer a simple directory structure in which the user navigates and where they choose files to download. Documents were most often presented as plain text files without formatting or were encoded in word processor formats.

Read more, here.

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Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Concepts of Graphics Designing | Duties and Role of a Designer | Theory ...


Do you envision visually appealing commercials when you think of graphic design?Website graphics that catch the eye?stunningly designed magazine spreads?Although these examples undoubtedly fall under the concept of graphic design, the phrase actually covers a wide range of things, including posters, infographics, book covers, product labels, logos, business cards, signage, website layouts, mobile apps, and software interfaces.

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Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, February 2, 2023

What is a Website?

A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce, entertainment or social networking. Hyperlinking between web pages guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page. As of December 2022, the top 5 most visited websites are Google Search, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web. There are also private websites that can only be accessed on a private network, such as a company's internal website for its employees. Users can access websites on a range of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The app used on these devices is called a web browser.

Read more, here.

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Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967


 

Monday, January 30, 2023

The evolution of mobile devices


People now have so many ways to access the Internet. We use computers, smartphones, tablets and now even smartwatches. Mobile marketing is constantly evolving; embrace it and your business will stay well ahead of the curve. In this lesson, you’ll learn:

- how mobile usage has changed in the last four decades
- what features are available on today’s mobile devices
- what the explosive growth of mobile use means for you.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Who is Your Graphic Designer?

A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed, or electronic media, such as brochures and advertising. They are also sometimes responsible for typesetting, illustration, user interfaces. A core responsibility of the designer's job is to present information in a way that is both accessible and memorable.

Read more, here.

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Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Getting on social media


Joining a social network usually starts with opening an account and creating a profile. In this video we’ll explore: 

- the basics of getting started with a social media site
- the difference between business and individual accounts
- the importance of your profile.

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Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Font Alternatives in Web Design

A common hurdle in Web design is the design of mockups that include fonts that are not Web-safe. There are a number of solutions for situations like this. One common solution is to replace the text with a similar Web-safe font or use a series of similar-looking fallback fonts.

Another technique is image replacement. This practice involves overlaying text with an image containing the same text written in the desired font. This is good for aesthetic purposes, but prevents text selection, increases bandwidth use, is bad for search engine optimization, and makes the text inaccessible for users with disabilities.

In the past, Flash-based solutions such as sIFR were used. This is similar to image replacement techniques, though the text is selectable and rendered as a vector. However, this method requires the presence of a proprietary plugin on a client's system.

Another solution is using Javascript to replace the text with VML (for Internet Explorer) or SVG (for all other browsers).

Read more, here.

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Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, January 12, 2023

The right social media sites for you


New social media sites pop up constantly. Here’s an overview of what’s out there and how to figure out which ones might be important to you. We’ll go over:

- different types of networks
- understanding their contexts
- the best ways to get involved.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, January 9, 2023

Friday, January 6, 2023

What's the Deal with Fonts?

Web-safe fonts
Web-safe fonts are fonts likely to be present on a wide range of computer systems, and used by Web content authors to increase the likelihood that content displays in their chosen font. If a visitor to a Web site does not have the specified font, their browser tries to select a similar alternative, based on the author-specified fallback fonts and generic families or it uses font substitution defined in the visitor's operating system.

Microsoft's Core fonts for the Web
Since being released under Microsoft's Core fonts for the Web program, Arial, Georgia, and Verdana have become three de facto fonts of the Web.
Main article: Core fonts for the Web
To ensure that all Web users had a basic set of fonts, Microsoft started the Core fonts for the Web initiative in 1996 (terminated in 2002). Released fonts include Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Comic Sans, Impact, Georgia, Trebuchet, Webdings and Verdana—under an EULA that made them freely distributable but also limited some rights to their use. Their high penetration rate has made them a staple for Web designers. However, most Linux distributions don't include these fonts by default.

CSS2 attempted to increase the tools available to Web developers by adding font synthesis, improved font matching and the ability to download remote fonts.

Some CSS2 font properties were removed from CSS2.1 and later included in CSS3.

Fallback fonts
Main article: Fallback font
The CSS specification allows for multiple fonts to be listed as fallback fonts. In CSS, the font-family property accepts a list of comma-separated font faces to use, like so:

font-family: "Nimbus Sans L", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
The first font specified is the preferred font. If this font is not available, the Web browser attempts to use the next font in the list. If none of the fonts specified are found, the browser displays its default font. This same process also happens on a per-character basis if the browser tries to display a character not present in the specified font.

Generic font families
To give Web designers some control over the appearance of fonts on their Web pages, even when the specified fonts are not available, the CSS specification allows the use of several generic font families. These families are designed to split fonts into several categories based on their general appearance. They are commonly specified as the last in a series of fallback fonts, as a last resort in the event that none of the fonts specified by the author are available. For several years, there were five generic families:[6]

Sans-serif
Fonts that do not have decorative markings, or serifs, on their letters. These fonts are often considered easier to read on screens.

Serif
Fonts that have decorative markings, or serifs, present on their characters. These fonts are traditionally used in printed books.

Monospace
Fonts in which all characters are equally wide.

Cursive
Fonts that resemble cursive writing. These fonts may have a decorative appearance, but they can be difficult to read at small sizes, so they are generally used sparingly.

Fantasy
Fonts that may contain symbols or other decorative properties, but still represent the specified character.
CSS fonts working draft 4 with lesser browser support

System-ui
Default fonts on a given system: the purpose of this option is to allow web content to integrate with the look and feel of the native OS.

ui-serif
Default fonts on a given system in a serif style

ui-sans-serif
Default fonts on a given system in a sans-serif style

ui-monospace
Default fonts on a given system in a monospace style

ui-rounded
Default fonts on a given system in a rounded style

Emoji
Fonts using emoji

Math
Fonts for complex mathematical formula and expressions.

Fangsong (Chinese: 仿宋体)
Chinese typefaces that are between serif Song and cursive Kai forms. This style is often used for government documents.

Read more, here.

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Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Marketing to the locals


The Internet connects businesses and customers worldwide. But if you’re a local business, you’ll want to reach people nearby. Let’s learn a bit about:

- what local means in digital
- how your business can build a local search presence
- and a perfect pair: local marketing and mobiles.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967