Archive for November, 2008
How can I watch CNN live feed videos on Opera Browser?
Saturday, November 29th, 2008Web Design Articles - Practical Web Designing Basics:
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Anantait asked:
The following are the key aspects which would help you practically craft a web design that would deliver results in terms of your audience visibility
Part 1: The Unavoidables
Definition of a good Web site: A site that delivers quality and eshaustive information for its target audience and does so with elegance and style.
The rule of “Keep it Simple, Sober” is tried and tested, but it’s not a be-all end-all of Web design. Gamers, for example, expect a busy page with a lot of sophisticated graphics, flash effects, and the like. The usual understated page with the off-white background and the typical menu of links sedately trundling down the left side of the display leaves this audience cold; obviously the people who designed this Website aren’t on their wavelength — these guys like plenty of whizz-bang in the pages they visit.
On the other hand, when a middle aged lady goes on the Web to hunt down some nice crockery for kitchen, she isn’t going to want jazzy Flash effects, purple-on-black color styles, and a raft of animated graphics doing gymnastics in front of her rheumy old eyes. She’s been known to take a stick to the monitor to make it all stop. Corporate users expect something that might not necessarily be “buttoned-down,” but certainly something solid and professional that reflects positively on their business and compares well with the competition. Personal home pages want an emphasis on the personal — the site should reflect the interests and personality of the owner.
Attract Your Audience – Visually
The key here is to know who is going to be using your page, and to design with their needs and desires in mind. The KISS rule generally holds good in most cases. If you don’t need something — a frame, an animated graphic, a Flash animation, a fancy DHTML effect, don’t use it. After all you don’t want an uninteresting page full of unbroken blocks of text with a dull color scheme and dreary graphics won’t attract anyone’s attention. Use everything moderately. Keep your audience in mind and design your site accordingly.
Every image that moves or blinks draws your visitors’ attention to itself. Be sure that it doesn’t distract them from your message. Whatever your site’s reason for being, you want to portray an image that conveys what your site is all about as well as the feelings you want to implant in your audience. It’s no coincidence that most financial sites use design and graphical tactics to give a feeling of safety and stability. No matter what the stock market does, this site won’t have its feathers ruffled. In contrast, the ultra-hyper site design of the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network sites appeal to their sugared-up audience of pre-teens and teenagers; you can’t overstimulate that crowd. A site selling luxurious designer ware isn’t going to use the same design scheme as a site selling automobile spares! One will go for a colourful shades in the design, while the other will use a rough-and tough looking design scheme.
A good Web designer will be able to design all four sites, and others as well. Don’t forget, if you’re designing a Website for a corporation or business, that they very likely have trademarks, logos, color themes, and other elements that will need to be included in your design scheme. Colour speaks volumes about your company even before the surfer reads your content of the web site.
Appealing to Multiple Audiences
If you’re trying to design a page that will appeal to both the middle aged ones and their hyperactive, TV& Gamestation addicted grandsons and granddaughters, then you’re going to have to make some compromises that could possibly alienate both audiences. You may want to consider refining your site to appeal to a narrower audience, or you may even choose to mount separate pages with different design approach for different audiences. In this case, you might do well to produce an introductory, or “doorway,” page with links to the “whizz-bang” and the “sedate” pages — the content might essentially be the same, but the design style would be dramatically different.
Connections Options
And don’t forget what your audience uses to access your site. Not everyone has a broadband or T1 connection; most of the world still limps along with slow dial-up connections, or must flounder around the Net through a maze of network connections. These folks appreciate your limiting your usage of big, slow-loading graphics, or at the least, providing thumbnails that automatically load and allow them to click for a bigger (and slower-loading) display. Remember, .JPG graphics are generally bigger than either .GIFs or .PNGs (Flash animations, surprisingly enough, load fairly quickly considering their complexity, but they can slow down a page, particularly one accessed over a dial-up connection). Complex table structures can take a while to load, too, especially if they’re loaded with graphics. Slow servers cause slow downloads; if your provider can’t get your site up to speed, switch to someone who can.
Design for the World Wide Web is the smart balancing act between the graphic “wow” and the real-time “now.”
“Elegance” is a favorite term to describe good, clean Web design, but what it actually means is up to the interpretation of the designer and the site user. It actuallu should mean using a decent design, with well-chosen colors and graphical choices that don’t stress the eye, but instead induce the visitor to relax and enjoy the content. It’s the difference between being wooed over a candlelight dinner and being juggled in the overloaded elevator!
What type of HTML Should You Choose?
Every Web page conforms to a version of HTML (or XHTML, or even XML, though we’re not going into those here), and is determined by the DOCTYPE (document type) code. The line:
at the top of your page (above the initial tag) covers your bases in most cases. It supports many of the elements of the latest version of HTML, 4.01 Strict, supports style sheets for the most part, but also supports most deprecated or no longer current HTML elements, frames, link targets, and other attributes not allowed in by-the book HTML 4.01. This document type also keeps older browsers such as Netscape 4.x in the game. If you’re designing to the latest HTML standards and/or using sophisticated style sheets, then this doctype:
“http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”>
should be used, but be aware that a lot of older browsers won’t display your page properly. Neither can you use frames unless you use the “frameset” version of this doctype. Note, too, that the “transitional” DOCTYPE I cite doesn’t include the URL of a DTD, or document type declaration. This is because using URLs in a DOCTYPE element sends some browsers, including IE into Strict mode, defeating the purpose of the “transitional” DOCTYPE.
Of course, you could just slide bare-cheeked on the ice and use no doctype in your pages at all (just use the tag), but that’s not a good solution. That leaves the individual’s browser to choose how to display the page, and while most browsers will cope just fine with the situation, some will ***. Besides, you need to get into the habit of using a DOCTYPE element. If you don’t know a DOCTYPE from a typewriter, use the “transitional” doctype at the beginning of this section. If you know about the various doctypes, or if you’re coding in XHTML, then make your own choice. The decision to use the “transitional” doctype is safe and conservative, but it’s certainly not an up-to-date choice. If you want to ensure that your Web page is ready for modern browsing and will be compliant with current and upcoming Web standards, you’ll need to learn about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), HTML 4.01, and XHTML.
Note: You can visit the W3C Validator to check your document for compliance with W3C standards, or use Dave Raggett’s acclaimed HTML Tidy program, now an open-source project.
Browser Compatibility
During the initial days when the web was still a tabu among the users the novice Web developers designed the pages with Netscape for Windows in mind; as that was by far the most popular browser in use, designing the site for Netscape/PC users was “good enough” to satisfy the majority of users, and never mind the rest. Nowadays the same lot of designers make their pages for Windows and Internet Explorer, for the same reasons. This is where they lack in approach.
Millions of Windows users still employ Netscape (or the open-source Mozilla). Many others use Opera. Some AOL users are still trundling along with their out-of-date AOL browsers, and some hard-core folks still swear by Lynx, the text-only browser (there’s also the surprisingly large contingent of users who keep graphics switched off and read only text). Then, there’s WebTV to be reckoned with. And there are differences between the Mac browsers and the Windows browsers of the same name, not to mention the Mac browsers Cyberdog, OmniWeb, Chimera, iCab, and others. There are the browsers for Linux such as Konqueror, Opera for Linux, Mozilla for Linux, and others. According to the Browser Archive at Evolt, there are well over 100 browsers out there being used by someone and many of them are obsolete now. Why should the Web designer care? Because your page won’t display the same from one browser to the next. The more plugged-in designer uses one method or another, either client-side or server-side, to detect what browser his/her visitor is using, and “tailors” the code they send to that particular browser. But if you don’t want or can’t do something so slick, what can you do to meet the needs of your various visitors with their options of browsers?
Basically, the best thing to do is to be aware of the HTML tags and other features and protocols that one browser will support and others won’t, and avoid them whenever possible: the infamous “marquee” and “blink” tags come to mind, as do iFrames, layers, JavaScript, style sheets, plug-ins, DHTML, and others. Some of these, such as “blink” tags and layers, are long out-of-date; others such as DHTML and JavaScript are quite current. If you do use something that is browser-specific, choose a function that isn’t critical to your visitors’ ability to view your site: an example is the neat color schemes for the horizontal and vertical scrollbars that IE provides for. Netscape users will just get the plain-Jane grey bars, but it doesn’t hurt them to not have the colored scrollbars — it doesn’t affect the way your site presents its message and handles its content.
Page Features compatibility Across Browsers?
There are plenty of page features that will cause problems for one browser or another. Forms come quickly to mind, as do text size and display size. The way you code a link can be a problem: for example, the following link will work in most versions of IE, because the browser will process the code, but most versions of Netscape will report it as a broken link:
Go Here
Why? Because of the white space between “go” and “here.” IE will deal with it, but Netscape won’t. If you want it to work in Netscape or anything else, you have to write it as such:
Go Here
If it’s your file, go one better by renaming the file GOHERE.HTML and avoiding the whole issue.
Another example is the site that looks good in IE, Netscape/Mozilla, and even Konqueror, except that the fonts render badly in the latter. Konqueror users should be able to fix the problem on their end easily enough by clicking “Zoom In” on their browser. Your response can be to rework your page to look as good in Konqueror as in the Windows/Mac browsers, or you can let the Konqueror users handle it themselves. If you’re working on a broad-based audience of mostly Mac and Windows users, your best bet might be to let well enough alone and let the Konqueror users handle it for themselves. If you have a large component of Linux users, you might want to fix the problem so that Konqueror users don’t have to deal with the issue. It’s your call, and your audience.
As Compatible as Possible
Browser incompatibility is a huge issue, and one that’s being grappled with at all levels of the Internet. Meanwhile, you can cope by becoming aware of the plethora of HTML tags that work in one browser but don’t work in another. You can decide whether or not to use extensions, plug-ins such as ActiveX, JavaScript, and even style sheets, which don’t work well in older browsers (and can be iffy in some current browsers) but are essential in modern HTML coding. You can decide whether or not to use more up-to-date graphics such as .PNGs, which will one day become a Web standard but for now don’t work in older browsers.
Quick and dirty fix: make sure your page looks good in Internet Explorer, Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6/Mozilla, and Opera — that means downloading these browsers to your machine and testing your site in them (find the older Netscape browsers available for download at the Netscape Archive). Use features such as style sheets, JavaScript, and DHTML sparingly; if you use these features for critical elements of your page such as a navigational scheme, provide your less up-to-date visitors with a more technologically conservative alternative. Don’t use browser-specific code and expect your visitors without that particular browser to just “get over it,” and don’t skirt the issue with a craven “Works best in *** browser” label. Try to address the needs of every member of your audience, and be aware that you can’t create a site that works wonders for everyone everywhere!
Constance
The following are the key aspects which would help you practically craft a web design that would deliver results in terms of your audience visibility
Part 1: The Unavoidables
Definition of a good Web site: A site that delivers quality and eshaustive information for its target audience and does so with elegance and style.
The rule of “Keep it Simple, Sober” is tried and tested, but it’s not a be-all end-all of Web design. Gamers, for example, expect a busy page with a lot of sophisticated graphics, flash effects, and the like. The usual understated page with the off-white background and the typical menu of links sedately trundling down the left side of the display leaves this audience cold; obviously the people who designed this Website aren’t on their wavelength — these guys like plenty of whizz-bang in the pages they visit.
On the other hand, when a middle aged lady goes on the Web to hunt down some nice crockery for kitchen, she isn’t going to want jazzy Flash effects, purple-on-black color styles, and a raft of animated graphics doing gymnastics in front of her rheumy old eyes. She’s been known to take a stick to the monitor to make it all stop. Corporate users expect something that might not necessarily be “buttoned-down,” but certainly something solid and professional that reflects positively on their business and compares well with the competition. Personal home pages want an emphasis on the personal — the site should reflect the interests and personality of the owner.
Attract Your Audience – Visually
The key here is to know who is going to be using your page, and to design with their needs and desires in mind. The KISS rule generally holds good in most cases. If you don’t need something — a frame, an animated graphic, a Flash animation, a fancy DHTML effect, don’t use it. After all you don’t want an uninteresting page full of unbroken blocks of text with a dull color scheme and dreary graphics won’t attract anyone’s attention. Use everything moderately. Keep your audience in mind and design your site accordingly.
Every image that moves or blinks draws your visitors’ attention to itself. Be sure that it doesn’t distract them from your message. Whatever your site’s reason for being, you want to portray an image that conveys what your site is all about as well as the feelings you want to implant in your audience. It’s no coincidence that most financial sites use design and graphical tactics to give a feeling of safety and stability. No matter what the stock market does, this site won’t have its feathers ruffled. In contrast, the ultra-hyper site design of the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network sites appeal to their sugared-up audience of pre-teens and teenagers; you can’t overstimulate that crowd. A site selling luxurious designer ware isn’t going to use the same design scheme as a site selling automobile spares! One will go for a colourful shades in the design, while the other will use a rough-and tough looking design scheme.
A good Web designer will be able to design all four sites, and others as well. Don’t forget, if you’re designing a Website for a corporation or business, that they very likely have trademarks, logos, color themes, and other elements that will need to be included in your design scheme. Colour speaks volumes about your company even before the surfer reads your content of the web site.
Appealing to Multiple Audiences
If you’re trying to design a page that will appeal to both the middle aged ones and their hyperactive, TV& Gamestation addicted grandsons and granddaughters, then you’re going to have to make some compromises that could possibly alienate both audiences. You may want to consider refining your site to appeal to a narrower audience, or you may even choose to mount separate pages with different design approach for different audiences. In this case, you might do well to produce an introductory, or “doorway,” page with links to the “whizz-bang” and the “sedate” pages — the content might essentially be the same, but the design style would be dramatically different.
Connections Options
And don’t forget what your audience uses to access your site. Not everyone has a broadband or T1 connection; most of the world still limps along with slow dial-up connections, or must flounder around the Net through a maze of network connections. These folks appreciate your limiting your usage of big, slow-loading graphics, or at the least, providing thumbnails that automatically load and allow them to click for a bigger (and slower-loading) display. Remember, .JPG graphics are generally bigger than either .GIFs or .PNGs (Flash animations, surprisingly enough, load fairly quickly considering their complexity, but they can slow down a page, particularly one accessed over a dial-up connection). Complex table structures can take a while to load, too, especially if they’re loaded with graphics. Slow servers cause slow downloads; if your provider can’t get your site up to speed, switch to someone who can.
Design for the World Wide Web is the smart balancing act between the graphic “wow” and the real-time “now.”
“Elegance” is a favorite term to describe good, clean Web design, but what it actually means is up to the interpretation of the designer and the site user. It actuallu should mean using a decent design, with well-chosen colors and graphical choices that don’t stress the eye, but instead induce the visitor to relax and enjoy the content. It’s the difference between being wooed over a candlelight dinner and being juggled in the overloaded elevator!
What type of HTML Should You Choose?
Every Web page conforms to a version of HTML (or XHTML, or even XML, though we’re not going into those here), and is determined by the DOCTYPE (document type) code. The line:
at the top of your page (above the initial tag) covers your bases in most cases. It supports many of the elements of the latest version of HTML, 4.01 Strict, supports style sheets for the most part, but also supports most deprecated or no longer current HTML elements, frames, link targets, and other attributes not allowed in by-the book HTML 4.01. This document type also keeps older browsers such as Netscape 4.x in the game. If you’re designing to the latest HTML standards and/or using sophisticated style sheets, then this doctype:
“http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”>
should be used, but be aware that a lot of older browsers won’t display your page properly. Neither can you use frames unless you use the “frameset” version of this doctype. Note, too, that the “transitional” DOCTYPE I cite doesn’t include the URL of a DTD, or document type declaration. This is because using URLs in a DOCTYPE element sends some browsers, including IE into Strict mode, defeating the purpose of the “transitional” DOCTYPE.
Of course, you could just slide bare-cheeked on the ice and use no doctype in your pages at all (just use the tag), but that’s not a good solution. That leaves the individual’s browser to choose how to display the page, and while most browsers will cope just fine with the situation, some will ***. Besides, you need to get into the habit of using a DOCTYPE element. If you don’t know a DOCTYPE from a typewriter, use the “transitional” doctype at the beginning of this section. If you know about the various doctypes, or if you’re coding in XHTML, then make your own choice. The decision to use the “transitional” doctype is safe and conservative, but it’s certainly not an up-to-date choice. If you want to ensure that your Web page is ready for modern browsing and will be compliant with current and upcoming Web standards, you’ll need to learn about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), HTML 4.01, and XHTML.
Note: You can visit the W3C Validator to check your document for compliance with W3C standards, or use Dave Raggett’s acclaimed HTML Tidy program, now an open-source project.
Browser Compatibility
During the initial days when the web was still a tabu among the users the novice Web developers designed the pages with Netscape for Windows in mind; as that was by far the most popular browser in use, designing the site for Netscape/PC users was “good enough” to satisfy the majority of users, and never mind the rest. Nowadays the same lot of designers make their pages for Windows and Internet Explorer, for the same reasons. This is where they lack in approach.
Millions of Windows users still employ Netscape (or the open-source Mozilla). Many others use Opera. Some AOL users are still trundling along with their out-of-date AOL browsers, and some hard-core folks still swear by Lynx, the text-only browser (there’s also the surprisingly large contingent of users who keep graphics switched off and read only text). Then, there’s WebTV to be reckoned with. And there are differences between the Mac browsers and the Windows browsers of the same name, not to mention the Mac browsers Cyberdog, OmniWeb, Chimera, iCab, and others. There are the browsers for Linux such as Konqueror, Opera for Linux, Mozilla for Linux, and others. According to the Browser Archive at Evolt, there are well over 100 browsers out there being used by someone and many of them are obsolete now. Why should the Web designer care? Because your page won’t display the same from one browser to the next. The more plugged-in designer uses one method or another, either client-side or server-side, to detect what browser his/her visitor is using, and “tailors” the code they send to that particular browser. But if you don’t want or can’t do something so slick, what can you do to meet the needs of your various visitors with their options of browsers?
Basically, the best thing to do is to be aware of the HTML tags and other features and protocols that one browser will support and others won’t, and avoid them whenever possible: the infamous “marquee” and “blink” tags come to mind, as do iFrames, layers, JavaScript, style sheets, plug-ins, DHTML, and others. Some of these, such as “blink” tags and layers, are long out-of-date; others such as DHTML and JavaScript are quite current. If you do use something that is browser-specific, choose a function that isn’t critical to your visitors’ ability to view your site: an example is the neat color schemes for the horizontal and vertical scrollbars that IE provides for. Netscape users will just get the plain-Jane grey bars, but it doesn’t hurt them to not have the colored scrollbars — it doesn’t affect the way your site presents its message and handles its content.
Page Features compatibility Across Browsers?
There are plenty of page features that will cause problems for one browser or another. Forms come quickly to mind, as do text size and display size. The way you code a link can be a problem: for example, the following link will work in most versions of IE, because the browser will process the code, but most versions of Netscape will report it as a broken link:
Go Here
Why? Because of the white space between “go” and “here.” IE will deal with it, but Netscape won’t. If you want it to work in Netscape or anything else, you have to write it as such:
Go Here
If it’s your file, go one better by renaming the file GOHERE.HTML and avoiding the whole issue.
Another example is the site that looks good in IE, Netscape/Mozilla, and even Konqueror, except that the fonts render badly in the latter. Konqueror users should be able to fix the problem on their end easily enough by clicking “Zoom In” on their browser. Your response can be to rework your page to look as good in Konqueror as in the Windows/Mac browsers, or you can let the Konqueror users handle it themselves. If you’re working on a broad-based audience of mostly Mac and Windows users, your best bet might be to let well enough alone and let the Konqueror users handle it for themselves. If you have a large component of Linux users, you might want to fix the problem so that Konqueror users don’t have to deal with the issue. It’s your call, and your audience.
As Compatible as Possible
Browser incompatibility is a huge issue, and one that’s being grappled with at all levels of the Internet. Meanwhile, you can cope by becoming aware of the plethora of HTML tags that work in one browser but don’t work in another. You can decide whether or not to use extensions, plug-ins such as ActiveX, JavaScript, and even style sheets, which don’t work well in older browsers (and can be iffy in some current browsers) but are essential in modern HTML coding. You can decide whether or not to use more up-to-date graphics such as .PNGs, which will one day become a Web standard but for now don’t work in older browsers.
Quick and dirty fix: make sure your page looks good in Internet Explorer, Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6/Mozilla, and Opera — that means downloading these browsers to your machine and testing your site in them (find the older Netscape browsers available for download at the Netscape Archive). Use features such as style sheets, JavaScript, and DHTML sparingly; if you use these features for critical elements of your page such as a navigational scheme, provide your less up-to-date visitors with a more technologically conservative alternative. Don’t use browser-specific code and expect your visitors without that particular browser to just “get over it,” and don’t skirt the issue with a craven “Works best in *** browser” label. Try to address the needs of every member of your audience, and be aware that you can’t create a site that works wonders for everyone everywhere!
Constance
does the nintendo wii opera browser keep webpage history?
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Paul N asked:
i think my kid might be going onto sites he’s not supposed to but i want to be sure. how do i know?
Yolanda
i think my kid might be going onto sites he’s not supposed to but i want to be sure. how do i know?
Yolanda
Unlocked Gsm Phone Sony Ericsson P1
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
prabakar asked:
Sony Ericsson introduced new cell phone Sony Ericsson P1. This cell phone gives you the ability to handle your corporate or personal emails, contacts and calendar wherever you are. The Sony Ericsson P1 lets you read and edit documents on the move, whether Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel. It also ships with a desk stand and USB cable in-box, making it straightforward to synchronise with your PC. Both UMTS and integrated WLAN provide for high-speed Web browsing and data downloads, plus email at a rate and performance you enjoy from your office desktop. The Sony Ericsson P1 is also VoIP enabled for making calls over the internet. Surfing the Web is intuitive thanks to the Opera Web Browser that displays pages in horizontal, wide screen aspect.
The large, touch screen QVGA display can be seen and used even in bright environments due to the Transflective Display. The 3.2 megapixel camera takes great shots to store or share via Picture Blogging and is also a useful tool for work purposes. It does away with the need to collect stacks of business cards when travelling. Just take a close-up shot of a business card and the card scanner transfers the contact details directly into the phonebook. As well as a business tool, the Sony Ericsson P1 also serves as an advanced multimedia companion. Its music and video player mean that you can take your favourite tunes and video clips with you on the 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) provided.
Catch the latest news via the on-board FM Radio or stream mobile TV direct to the large screen. Whichever you choose to do, with the P1 you are never short of options. The Sony Ericsson P1 is a Tri-Band GPRS 900/1800/1900 and UMTS 2100 handset with Wi-Fi 802.11b. It will be available in selected markets from Q3 2007. One of the characteristics of this new handset is the dual function keyboard, including a full alphanumeric Sony Ericsson has announced the 5th generation P-series smart phone, based on Symbian v9.1 with the UIQ 3.0 interface. The Sony Ericsson P1 supports a wide range of push email solutions and Web browsing applications, plus connectivity via 3G (UMTS/WCDMA) and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi).
One of the characteristics of this new handset is the dual function keyboard, including a full alphanumeric QWERTY keyboard combined with one hand phone usability. The system offers the choice of text input method including handwriting and word completion. The Sony Ericsson P1 comes with Opera Web Browser pre-installed and ready to use, and serves as a multimedia companion including a music and video player and built-in FM radio. This new device measures 106 x 55 x 17 mm and weighs only 124 grams. The battery can deliver up to ten hours talk time on GSM networks and three hours and 30 minutes on UMTS networks. keyboard combined with one hand phone usability. The system offers the choice of text input method including handwriting and word completion. Please purchase on online www.luckywirelessusa.com
Earl
Sony Ericsson introduced new cell phone Sony Ericsson P1. This cell phone gives you the ability to handle your corporate or personal emails, contacts and calendar wherever you are. The Sony Ericsson P1 lets you read and edit documents on the move, whether Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel. It also ships with a desk stand and USB cable in-box, making it straightforward to synchronise with your PC. Both UMTS and integrated WLAN provide for high-speed Web browsing and data downloads, plus email at a rate and performance you enjoy from your office desktop. The Sony Ericsson P1 is also VoIP enabled for making calls over the internet. Surfing the Web is intuitive thanks to the Opera Web Browser that displays pages in horizontal, wide screen aspect.
The large, touch screen QVGA display can be seen and used even in bright environments due to the Transflective Display. The 3.2 megapixel camera takes great shots to store or share via Picture Blogging and is also a useful tool for work purposes. It does away with the need to collect stacks of business cards when travelling. Just take a close-up shot of a business card and the card scanner transfers the contact details directly into the phonebook. As well as a business tool, the Sony Ericsson P1 also serves as an advanced multimedia companion. Its music and video player mean that you can take your favourite tunes and video clips with you on the 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) provided.
Catch the latest news via the on-board FM Radio or stream mobile TV direct to the large screen. Whichever you choose to do, with the P1 you are never short of options. The Sony Ericsson P1 is a Tri-Band GPRS 900/1800/1900 and UMTS 2100 handset with Wi-Fi 802.11b. It will be available in selected markets from Q3 2007. One of the characteristics of this new handset is the dual function keyboard, including a full alphanumeric Sony Ericsson has announced the 5th generation P-series smart phone, based on Symbian v9.1 with the UIQ 3.0 interface. The Sony Ericsson P1 supports a wide range of push email solutions and Web browsing applications, plus connectivity via 3G (UMTS/WCDMA) and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi).
One of the characteristics of this new handset is the dual function keyboard, including a full alphanumeric QWERTY keyboard combined with one hand phone usability. The system offers the choice of text input method including handwriting and word completion. The Sony Ericsson P1 comes with Opera Web Browser pre-installed and ready to use, and serves as a multimedia companion including a music and video player and built-in FM radio. This new device measures 106 x 55 x 17 mm and weighs only 124 grams. The battery can deliver up to ten hours talk time on GSM networks and three hours and 30 minutes on UMTS networks. keyboard combined with one hand phone usability. The system offers the choice of text input method including handwriting and word completion. Please purchase on online www.luckywirelessusa.com
Earl
How do you change Opera to your default browser when opening MSN mail?
Friday, November 21st, 2008
a garfish asked:
Most of the ways to change your default browser I have found online only apply to Opera earlier then 9.0. Any tips for after that?
Most of the ways to change your default browser I have found online only apply to Opera earlier then 9.0. Any tips for after that?
I just want to be able to click on the mail button and view my mail automatically in Opera, not Internet Explorer. My IE is extremely slow on this computer.
Vanessa
Around what price range will the Opera web browser for the Nintendo Ds be?
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
donaldblake2007 asked:
Does anyone know the price range for the Opera web browser for Nintendo DS? Is anyone for sure yet?
Louis
Does anyone know the price range for the Opera web browser for Nintendo DS? Is anyone for sure yet?
Louis
How to Beat Internet Explorer When it Comes to Css, and Stop Its Regime of Terror
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Peter Taylour asked:
I am guessing an article on this subject has been posted prior to this one, I should hope a few have! However I hope this will provide a refreshing angle on the subject and branch to some other interesting bits of stuff.
I am sure that anyone who has taken even only a few steps into web development has come across the gigantic force that is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Even for the most experienced coders, the most popular browser of this age has always been a prominent foot across the path of our websites technological progression and the possibilities of which the internet is yet to yield. Maybe not crushing ideas, but certainly making it a lot harder to bring these ideas from paper to browser.
However, although IE, wielding its scathing weapon the Microsoft corp. and therefore for-fronting the battle as the windows default has dominated the market; we have weapons which allow us the fight back! I think I’ll cut the metaphors here and get back to business… Well, how can we fight back? And more importantly, what can be done to keep our designs looking slick in the interim… Yeah before the proper browsers take over!
I’ll start with the fighting back. Personally my favourite method would be to utilize a conditional comment and tell people what they should be doing! Something like this…
Sorry in advanced that all the code used in the article has had to be altered so that articlesbase wouldn’t filter it out
If you pretend that there is an open triangle bracket infront of each bit then you’re okay! eg h1> /h1>
!–[if IE]>
h1>strong>Internet Explorer is Sh**e! Get a proper browser like a>Firefox/a> before I come round and make you!!!/strong>/h1>
![endif]–>
Realistically I wouldn’t try this method though, probably not the most tactful way when it gets down to it. You could however place a banner showing your support of these less buggy browsers such as firefox. This websites great for this promoting firefox business, very nice banners right here: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates/homepage
Conditionals are pretty clever little buggers though, for general use they can become quite useful. And you’re not just limited to !–[if IE]>. The comments understand other operators as well; you’ve got the NOT operator which is an ‘!’. So “if not IE” would be !—-[if !IE]>. In addition to this there are “greater than” = ‘gt’, “greater than or equal to” = ‘gte’, “less then” = ‘lt’ and “less than or equal to” = ‘lte’. These can be used when referring to browser versions, so !—-[if lte IE 5.0]> could be used to warn users about a feature unavailable to them when browsing your site with IE version 5.0 and below.
But we are not here to help out the Internet explorer users; we’re here to convert them! Doing your bit locally can make all the difference. If you are round at a friends and he/she happens to log on to the internet using IE (boooooo), make it your concern that the very first thing that is done is the downloading of firefox (sorry Opera etc I’m a bit biased to the mighty fox.) Of course if the loging on to the internet part does not occur in the general flow of things it must also be your concern to make sure it does!… “Umm, you mind if I check the train times?” Okay I’m getting a bit carried away here, although very important to the advancement of the human race, you need not devote your life to spreading firefox.
The great progression in the internet and its uses over the last few years has meant that the look and the feel of a site has come under a lot more scrutiny, especially with ever rising amounts of traffic as more and more people connect to the internet. Complicated uses of graphics and CSS mean that when it come to interpretation by different browsers, everything can go wrong. The Browser that is renowned for taking perfect code and screwing with the end results is of course Internet explorer. It is so tempting just to say ***** it and ignore the IE users and their browser, but with over 58% still using a version of IE this really isn’t plausible solution.
So okay we’ve got to fix the problem. Where to start?
Well firstly it is a must to make sure your code is valid. Just from an incorrectly written Doctype or wrongly phrased line of css can through internet explorer into all sorts of funny modes where anything can happen. Make sure you get a green light here http://validator.w3.org/ and here http://htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/ .
Good stuff, that’s one step in the right direction if anything. Now if the problem still exists, what now?
Most of IE’s rendering blips are caused by bugs, which can be worked around with quick alterations or what are called hacks. Chances are your problem has been experienced by people before you and a fix has been fabricated already.
So what’s going wrong? I will list a few of the most common bugs, some which I myself have experienced and a link to some relevant articles explaining in depth the fixes.
• My borders have gone crazy! – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/border-chaos.html
• Margins doubled, pushing my content down and generally mucking stuff up – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/doubled-margin.html
• Contents there one minute gone the next, the peekaboo bug – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/peekaboo.html
You may have noticed that all those fixes above are at one website. Basically “Big John” and co of Position is Everything .net have done a fantastic job among some other geniuses out there, so why don’t I just give you guys a link to his site, the chances are you’ll be able to find a fix there… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html
You’ve now with a bit of time and effort (it ***** doesn’t it, and it really is unnecessary effort!) probably been able to fixed up your site. But what if something still purists, what can you do!? Well here is what I do…
Firstly if you know something which could be causing the inconsistencies in your site when rendered by different browsers, try just experimenting with this particular element of the code. Say the content part of your page is being pushed below your side navigation and you recon that IE is playing with your margin values but it’s not the double margin bug. Just adjusting the values of margins can bring results. This is a good time to introduce an excellent piece of free software called CssVista. If you know css well it can also be an excellent tool when in depth analysing your code when looking for problems. Check it out here http://litmusapp.com/cssvista/
If you can still find no joy using this experimentation method I’m afraid the best hope is now to do what I really find annoying especially since if browser bugs didn’t exist it probably wouldn’t be necessary. We’re going to have to start again. Now don’t panic we’re not going to redesign your site from scratch, we’re going to make a mock up page of your current design, testing for rendering problems all the way.
Okay, well your average website nowadays is divs inside divs inside divs. So first step is to create you’re outermost div and in your css give it all the position you want and a background-color so that you can see it. Now add the divs that are contained with-in this one and do the same thing, giving them all nice bright colours so you know exactly where they are. Now test it like crazy, anything going wrong so far? Basically keep going like this, until something starts to look weird, then think why it doing this? What have I just done to make it go weird? Google and other free recourses can be come very useful now. Yahoo answers is fantastic for everything so it is always worth a try at http://answers.yahoo.com.
That’s about it really; Give that a try and well, good luck!
So, we’ve had a quick look at how to rid the world of Internet Explorer and how to get by in the time being. I’m not a fan of Microsoft attempt at an internet browser but not really in the league of this guy http://toastytech.com/evil/index.html .
Basically guys have fun and make sure you’re not supporting the IE domination by using it!
Pete Taylour is co-owner of the fast growing ebook site http://www.liquidebooks.com the only place to go for your cheap and free ebooks. With strong interests in a huge amount of different music styles Pete and friend are soon to embark on some crazy mix submission site for upcoming DJs across the globe, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that and make sure you check out Liquid Ebooks at http://www.liquidebooks.com
Gordon
I am guessing an article on this subject has been posted prior to this one, I should hope a few have! However I hope this will provide a refreshing angle on the subject and branch to some other interesting bits of stuff.
I am sure that anyone who has taken even only a few steps into web development has come across the gigantic force that is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Even for the most experienced coders, the most popular browser of this age has always been a prominent foot across the path of our websites technological progression and the possibilities of which the internet is yet to yield. Maybe not crushing ideas, but certainly making it a lot harder to bring these ideas from paper to browser.
However, although IE, wielding its scathing weapon the Microsoft corp. and therefore for-fronting the battle as the windows default has dominated the market; we have weapons which allow us the fight back! I think I’ll cut the metaphors here and get back to business… Well, how can we fight back? And more importantly, what can be done to keep our designs looking slick in the interim… Yeah before the proper browsers take over!
I’ll start with the fighting back. Personally my favourite method would be to utilize a conditional comment and tell people what they should be doing! Something like this…
Sorry in advanced that all the code used in the article has had to be altered so that articlesbase wouldn’t filter it out
If you pretend that there is an open triangle bracket infront of each bit then you’re okay! eg h1> /h1>!–[if IE]>
h1>strong>Internet Explorer is Sh**e! Get a proper browser like a>Firefox/a> before I come round and make you!!!/strong>/h1>
![endif]–>
Realistically I wouldn’t try this method though, probably not the most tactful way when it gets down to it. You could however place a banner showing your support of these less buggy browsers such as firefox. This websites great for this promoting firefox business, very nice banners right here: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates/homepage
Conditionals are pretty clever little buggers though, for general use they can become quite useful. And you’re not just limited to !–[if IE]>. The comments understand other operators as well; you’ve got the NOT operator which is an ‘!’. So “if not IE” would be !—-[if !IE]>. In addition to this there are “greater than” = ‘gt’, “greater than or equal to” = ‘gte’, “less then” = ‘lt’ and “less than or equal to” = ‘lte’. These can be used when referring to browser versions, so !—-[if lte IE 5.0]> could be used to warn users about a feature unavailable to them when browsing your site with IE version 5.0 and below.
But we are not here to help out the Internet explorer users; we’re here to convert them! Doing your bit locally can make all the difference. If you are round at a friends and he/she happens to log on to the internet using IE (boooooo), make it your concern that the very first thing that is done is the downloading of firefox (sorry Opera etc I’m a bit biased to the mighty fox.) Of course if the loging on to the internet part does not occur in the general flow of things it must also be your concern to make sure it does!… “Umm, you mind if I check the train times?” Okay I’m getting a bit carried away here, although very important to the advancement of the human race, you need not devote your life to spreading firefox.
The great progression in the internet and its uses over the last few years has meant that the look and the feel of a site has come under a lot more scrutiny, especially with ever rising amounts of traffic as more and more people connect to the internet. Complicated uses of graphics and CSS mean that when it come to interpretation by different browsers, everything can go wrong. The Browser that is renowned for taking perfect code and screwing with the end results is of course Internet explorer. It is so tempting just to say ***** it and ignore the IE users and their browser, but with over 58% still using a version of IE this really isn’t plausible solution.
So okay we’ve got to fix the problem. Where to start?
Well firstly it is a must to make sure your code is valid. Just from an incorrectly written Doctype or wrongly phrased line of css can through internet explorer into all sorts of funny modes where anything can happen. Make sure you get a green light here http://validator.w3.org/ and here http://htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/ .
Good stuff, that’s one step in the right direction if anything. Now if the problem still exists, what now?
Most of IE’s rendering blips are caused by bugs, which can be worked around with quick alterations or what are called hacks. Chances are your problem has been experienced by people before you and a fix has been fabricated already.
So what’s going wrong? I will list a few of the most common bugs, some which I myself have experienced and a link to some relevant articles explaining in depth the fixes.
• My borders have gone crazy! – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/border-chaos.html
• Margins doubled, pushing my content down and generally mucking stuff up – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/doubled-margin.html
• Contents there one minute gone the next, the peekaboo bug – fix… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/peekaboo.html
You may have noticed that all those fixes above are at one website. Basically “Big John” and co of Position is Everything .net have done a fantastic job among some other geniuses out there, so why don’t I just give you guys a link to his site, the chances are you’ll be able to find a fix there… http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html
You’ve now with a bit of time and effort (it ***** doesn’t it, and it really is unnecessary effort!) probably been able to fixed up your site. But what if something still purists, what can you do!? Well here is what I do…
Firstly if you know something which could be causing the inconsistencies in your site when rendered by different browsers, try just experimenting with this particular element of the code. Say the content part of your page is being pushed below your side navigation and you recon that IE is playing with your margin values but it’s not the double margin bug. Just adjusting the values of margins can bring results. This is a good time to introduce an excellent piece of free software called CssVista. If you know css well it can also be an excellent tool when in depth analysing your code when looking for problems. Check it out here http://litmusapp.com/cssvista/
If you can still find no joy using this experimentation method I’m afraid the best hope is now to do what I really find annoying especially since if browser bugs didn’t exist it probably wouldn’t be necessary. We’re going to have to start again. Now don’t panic we’re not going to redesign your site from scratch, we’re going to make a mock up page of your current design, testing for rendering problems all the way.
Okay, well your average website nowadays is divs inside divs inside divs. So first step is to create you’re outermost div and in your css give it all the position you want and a background-color so that you can see it. Now add the divs that are contained with-in this one and do the same thing, giving them all nice bright colours so you know exactly where they are. Now test it like crazy, anything going wrong so far? Basically keep going like this, until something starts to look weird, then think why it doing this? What have I just done to make it go weird? Google and other free recourses can be come very useful now. Yahoo answers is fantastic for everything so it is always worth a try at http://answers.yahoo.com.
That’s about it really; Give that a try and well, good luck!
So, we’ve had a quick look at how to rid the world of Internet Explorer and how to get by in the time being. I’m not a fan of Microsoft attempt at an internet browser but not really in the league of this guy http://toastytech.com/evil/index.html .
Basically guys have fun and make sure you’re not supporting the IE domination by using it!
Pete Taylour is co-owner of the fast growing ebook site http://www.liquidebooks.com the only place to go for your cheap and free ebooks. With strong interests in a huge amount of different music styles Pete and friend are soon to embark on some crazy mix submission site for upcoming DJs across the globe, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that and make sure you check out Liquid Ebooks at http://www.liquidebooks.com
Gordon
The Abc of Ssl: Super Duper Encrypted Security in an Age of Internet Commerce
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
live2support asked:
Price for Progress
You have most probably viewed a digital SSL certificate in action by visiting sites where an “s” appears in the http:// of an address bar. The “s” stands for “secure” and indicates that data being exchanged by the web site and your Internet browser has been coded or encrypted. Additional proof of a secure web connection is provided through the appearance of a little padlock at the bottom of the browser. Internet Explorer 7 provides the added advantage of confirming a secure status through a color-coded address bar .
In case you have wondered how all this is articulated, wonder no more because we are here to tell you how.
Simple Definition
The abbreviation “SSL” stands for “secure socket layer” which is one of the many ways to code, scramble or encrypt online data. This form and level of encryption is achieved through the use of complex algorithms. Today, the standard level of encryption used when transmitting sensitive data over the Internet is called 256 bit SSL encryption. This form of digital data protection ensures that communication between a web site and your browser is first scrambled and coded at the point of departure and then subsequently decoded when it arrives at its chosen destination. In other words, even if the data is intercepted by a malicious software application or by a live individual, the data is not compromised in any way, shape or form.
SSL Certificate Wish List
Like everything technical, SSL certificates come in various strengths and combinations. Which SSL certificate is best for you depends largely on the type of e-commerce company you operate, your transaction volume and the level of browser access you wish to provide to your customers. Your SSL certificate vendor is in a position to perform a needs assessment on your site and recommend the right digital SSL certificate for you.
Standard SSL Certificate
For starters, there is the simple, garden variety vanilla SSL certificate which provides protection only to a single domain also known as FDQN or Fully Qualified Domain name. The most popular versions of web browsers currently in use such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari are fully compatible with this certificate. This SSL certificate is incompatible with sub-domains. If you have more than one sub-domain which you need to secure, you have a better option available which we will explore in a moment.
SGC SSL Certificate
The second category of digital SSL certificates is called the SGC certificate. SGC stands for server gated cryptography and essentially allows you or your online customers to use old 40 bit legacy browsers to step up to 128 or 256 bit capacity and thus provide an added layer of security. This SSL certificate costs much more than the starter SSL certificate described above and may not be worth the extra expense.
EV SSL Certificate
EV SSL certificates provide an unprecedented level of security and protection through confirmed identity assurance. Until the advent of this certificate, your customers had no visible indication on the browser to confirm that you were a legitimate and a verified enterprise. EV SSL certificates work in tandem with all popular browsers and indicate through a symbol of trust, a green address bar or even a clearly spelled out message, that your corporate identity has been verified by the SSL certificate authority. This process of verification is implemented by asking you to submit corporate documentation such as licenses, articles of incorporation, bank statements, phone bills and other forms of verifiable evidence. Internet Explorer 7 currently provides the maximum amount of information to site visitors about the nature of this SSL protection. The address bar in Internet Explorer 7 has been programmed to change colors to reflect the security level of the connection. The address bar turns green when the SSL encryption is fully in place. Additionally, this browser also displays the name of the SSL certificate provider as well as the name of the certifying authority. Since these attributes are available only in EV SSL certificates in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7, investing in this class of SSL certificates is worth a serious consideration. If you happen to be an established Internet commerce company and have the funds to invest in this class of SSL certificates, this might be the right protection package for you and your customers.
Wildcard SSL Certificate
A wildcard digital SSL certificate is ideal for you if you have a need to secure a primary domain and a host of sub-domains through data encryption. Under normal circumstances, SSL certificates tend to secure only a single primary domain or a sub-domain. For instance, if you had one primary domain such as http://mybook.com and two sub-domains such as http://library.mybook.com and http://research.mybook.com, you would have to invest in three separate SSL certificates. A single wildcard SSL certificate, on the other hand, can protect not only the primary domain but an unlimited number of sub-domains. This results in significant cost savings for those who need this level and quality of protection.
SSL Certificate Bottom Line
Digital SSL certificates can start from as low as $70 and can go all the way up to several thousand dollars depending on the class and strength of certificates you require. SSL certificates have a dated validity and usually expire in one year. To save money, it is best to purchase certificates with multiple year validity and shop around carefully during renewal time. The price for an SSL certificate typically includes the cost of customer support, trouble shooting and a warranty to cover losses arising out of protection failure in rare instances.
To Buy or not to Buy
Everyone knows that the Internet has created new avenues and opportunities for e-commerce. Unfortunately, this unbridled growth has also stirred up the criminal element. Until now Internet commerce companies did not have a viable solution to this rather serious problem, but now we do in the form of potent digital SSL technology which guarantees unparalleled cyber protection to one and all. More information about SSL with Purpose can be found at http://ssl.live2support.com
Tom
Price for Progress
You have most probably viewed a digital SSL certificate in action by visiting sites where an “s” appears in the http:// of an address bar. The “s” stands for “secure” and indicates that data being exchanged by the web site and your Internet browser has been coded or encrypted. Additional proof of a secure web connection is provided through the appearance of a little padlock at the bottom of the browser. Internet Explorer 7 provides the added advantage of confirming a secure status through a color-coded address bar .
In case you have wondered how all this is articulated, wonder no more because we are here to tell you how.
Simple Definition
The abbreviation “SSL” stands for “secure socket layer” which is one of the many ways to code, scramble or encrypt online data. This form and level of encryption is achieved through the use of complex algorithms. Today, the standard level of encryption used when transmitting sensitive data over the Internet is called 256 bit SSL encryption. This form of digital data protection ensures that communication between a web site and your browser is first scrambled and coded at the point of departure and then subsequently decoded when it arrives at its chosen destination. In other words, even if the data is intercepted by a malicious software application or by a live individual, the data is not compromised in any way, shape or form.
SSL Certificate Wish List
Like everything technical, SSL certificates come in various strengths and combinations. Which SSL certificate is best for you depends largely on the type of e-commerce company you operate, your transaction volume and the level of browser access you wish to provide to your customers. Your SSL certificate vendor is in a position to perform a needs assessment on your site and recommend the right digital SSL certificate for you.
Standard SSL Certificate
For starters, there is the simple, garden variety vanilla SSL certificate which provides protection only to a single domain also known as FDQN or Fully Qualified Domain name. The most popular versions of web browsers currently in use such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari are fully compatible with this certificate. This SSL certificate is incompatible with sub-domains. If you have more than one sub-domain which you need to secure, you have a better option available which we will explore in a moment.
SGC SSL Certificate
The second category of digital SSL certificates is called the SGC certificate. SGC stands for server gated cryptography and essentially allows you or your online customers to use old 40 bit legacy browsers to step up to 128 or 256 bit capacity and thus provide an added layer of security. This SSL certificate costs much more than the starter SSL certificate described above and may not be worth the extra expense.
EV SSL Certificate
EV SSL certificates provide an unprecedented level of security and protection through confirmed identity assurance. Until the advent of this certificate, your customers had no visible indication on the browser to confirm that you were a legitimate and a verified enterprise. EV SSL certificates work in tandem with all popular browsers and indicate through a symbol of trust, a green address bar or even a clearly spelled out message, that your corporate identity has been verified by the SSL certificate authority. This process of verification is implemented by asking you to submit corporate documentation such as licenses, articles of incorporation, bank statements, phone bills and other forms of verifiable evidence. Internet Explorer 7 currently provides the maximum amount of information to site visitors about the nature of this SSL protection. The address bar in Internet Explorer 7 has been programmed to change colors to reflect the security level of the connection. The address bar turns green when the SSL encryption is fully in place. Additionally, this browser also displays the name of the SSL certificate provider as well as the name of the certifying authority. Since these attributes are available only in EV SSL certificates in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7, investing in this class of SSL certificates is worth a serious consideration. If you happen to be an established Internet commerce company and have the funds to invest in this class of SSL certificates, this might be the right protection package for you and your customers.
Wildcard SSL Certificate
A wildcard digital SSL certificate is ideal for you if you have a need to secure a primary domain and a host of sub-domains through data encryption. Under normal circumstances, SSL certificates tend to secure only a single primary domain or a sub-domain. For instance, if you had one primary domain such as http://mybook.com and two sub-domains such as http://library.mybook.com and http://research.mybook.com, you would have to invest in three separate SSL certificates. A single wildcard SSL certificate, on the other hand, can protect not only the primary domain but an unlimited number of sub-domains. This results in significant cost savings for those who need this level and quality of protection.
SSL Certificate Bottom Line
Digital SSL certificates can start from as low as $70 and can go all the way up to several thousand dollars depending on the class and strength of certificates you require. SSL certificates have a dated validity and usually expire in one year. To save money, it is best to purchase certificates with multiple year validity and shop around carefully during renewal time. The price for an SSL certificate typically includes the cost of customer support, trouble shooting and a warranty to cover losses arising out of protection failure in rare instances.
To Buy or not to Buy
Everyone knows that the Internet has created new avenues and opportunities for e-commerce. Unfortunately, this unbridled growth has also stirred up the criminal element. Until now Internet commerce companies did not have a viable solution to this rather serious problem, but now we do in the form of potent digital SSL technology which guarantees unparalleled cyber protection to one and all. More information about SSL with Purpose can be found at http://ssl.live2support.com
Tom
Does the Opera Web Browser have a IE Tab?
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Sonny M asked:
My homepage can only be viewed through Internet Explorer b/c of encryption, that was until Firefox came out with IE Tab. I just read this http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html
it claims Opera is the fastest and secure browser, but does it have an add on or software that will let me see Internet Explorer pages?
Also how much ram does Opera use?
Jessica
My homepage can only be viewed through Internet Explorer b/c of encryption, that was until Firefox came out with IE Tab. I just read this http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html
it claims Opera is the fastest and secure browser, but does it have an add on or software that will let me see Internet Explorer pages?
Also how much ram does Opera use?
Jessica
Creating Your Own Web Page Is Easy - A Tutorial (Part 2)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
Efren A. asked:
Now, Let’s continue with Part 2. We will discuss the following here: Creating tables and Using CSS boxes as webpage layout.
Here’s how:
Creating tables
Tables are very useful in the presentation of data. The following are the html tags to be used to create a basic table:
Single-column table:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″>
trtdrow 1 data/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. That’s the table on the web. Referring to the above html codes, width refers to the width of the whole table (you may also use pixel here like “800″), border is the outside line or outline of the table, cellspacing is the space between the cells, cells are the area where the data are located, cellpadding is the space between border and cells. You may change the values of these table attributes or properties based on your preference or requirement.
Though the above table html codes are still working, http://W3C.org requires the table properties or attributes be defined in the style sheets or CSS. Using CSS, the above table properties could be presented as follows:
Within style tags in the head:
.type1 {
width: 400px;
padding: 4px;
margin: 2px;
}
.border {
border: 1px solid #000;
}
Then, within the body tags:
table class=”type1 border”
trtdrow 1 data/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data/td/tr
/table
Looking at the codes, “type1″ is preceded by dot (.), meaning it is a class selector. For the next type of table properties or attributes, you may label it as type2, then type3 and so on or with other names you prefer. “border” is also a class selector and “border: 1px solid #000″ is the thickness (1px), border type (solid) and color (#00f) of the border. There are more discussions of CSS in “Creating CSS boxes as web page layout” and in “Using CSS in styling your web pages”
If you want to try the above, then type the codes within the style and body tags as noted, save it and refresh your browser. It must be the same as the first one.
Now, let’s make a 2-column or multi-column table:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtdrow 1 data 1/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 1/td
tdrow 2 data 2/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. That’s the 2-column table on the web. To add a column, just insert td/td after /td. 1 td/td is one column, 1 tr/tr is one row and 1 table/table is one table.
Now, lets make a table with 1 main heading and 3 subheadings:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtd colspan=”3″Main Heading/td/tr
trtdSubheading 1/td
tdSubheading 2/td
tdSubheading 3/td/tr
trtdrow 1 data 1/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td
tdrow 1 data 3/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 1/td
tdrow 2 data 2/td
tdrow 2 data 3/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. See? Yes, just use colspan to merge the columns. To merge 2 columns, use colspan=”2″ and for 3 columns, use colspan=”3″ and so on.
If you want to merge rows, use rowspan instead of colspan. See this example:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtd rowspan=”2″merge row data/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 2/td/tr
/table
Now, type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. Now, you see that 2 rows in your first column were merged.
Try creating your own table using different values to familiarize yourself in manipulating tables.
Creating CSS boxes for web page layout
Before, tables are being used as layout of a web page. So, the header, right bars, left bars, main content areas and footer are inside of a table. This slows down the loading of the page as the browser will have to complete first the table before it will display the content. Your visitor may have already left before your page could be displayed. If you prefer to use table as your layout, you have to avoid using big tables. You better use small tables to allow the browser display your page little by little but faster.
Though table could still be used, W3C requires CSS boxes to be used for layout instead of tables due to the issue of accessibility. CSS boxes load faster than tables. These could be controlled within the style sheets that could be within the head tags or in separate CSS file. The most critical part in css boxes is the positioning. So, I’ll explain to you the positioning properties of these boxes, based on my experience:
position: absolute - You have to define the x-axis and y-axis as point of reference of the corner of the box. x-axis is either left or right and y-axis is either top or bottom. You have to define also the width or the left and right margin or padding of the box. The box is not affected by the preceding or subsequent boxes. Likewise, the boxes preceding or following the boxes that are positioned as absolute are also not affected.
float: left or right - You need to fix the width. You also need to select if left or right. The box will lean on the side you selected. It will lean on the box preceding it if there is enough space for it. This is affected by the other boxes except for the absolutely positioned boxes.
no position or position: static or fixed - This follows the normal flow. This is also affected by the other boxes except for the absolutely positioned ones. You need to define the width or the left and right margin.
Now, see the illustration below that will create 5 boxes, namely: headerbox, leftbox, centerbox, rightbox and footerbox. These are liquid boxes, which automatically adjust in width when the display window size of the computer is changed:
style type=”text/css”
body {
text-align: center;
margin: 1px;
}
#headerbox {
width: 100%;
height: 15%;
background-color: #9cf;
border: 1px solid #00f;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
#rightbox {
float: right;
width: 20%;
margin-top: 5px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#leftbox {
float: left;
margin-top: 5px;
width: 20%;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#centerbox {
width: 99%;
margin-top: 5px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#footerbox {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
height: 15%;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-top: 5px;
background-color: #9cf;
border: 1px solid #00f;
}
/style
/head
body
div id=”headerbox”HEADERBOX content area/div
div id=”leftbox”LEFTBOX content area/div
div id=”rightbox”RIGHTBOX content area/div
div id=”centerbox”CENTERBOX content area/div
div id=”footerbox”FOOTERBOX content area/div
/body
First, you type the above html codes to you mywebpage.html within the head, style and body tags as noted in the above. Then, save it and refresh your browser or open the file with your browser. Are you seeing the headerbox on the top, the leftbox, rightbox and centerbox in the middle and footerbox at the bottom? Try to change the width of your browser window. See? The width of the boxes are also adjusting and that is excellent as your page will auto-adjust depending on the browser window size of your visitors! That is because I used %s in defining the width of boxes.
Now, let me explain the above codes for creating boxes as your layout.
headerbox - preceded with #, meaning it is an id selector and could be used only once per page; float: left means the box will lean on the left if fit; width: 100% means the box is 100% of the browser window and that is the reason why it is liquid; height: 15% means the box is 15% of the browser window; text-align: center is the alignment of the objects or characters inside the box; background-color: #9cf is the color of the space within the box; border: 1px solid #00f is same as discussed in Creating Tables.
rightbox - same explanations in the above except for the float: right which means the box will lean on the right and margin-top: 5px is the distance from the bottom line of the box above (headerbox).
leftbox - same explanations in the above.
centerbox - same explanations in the above except that it has no position defined, meaning it will follow the normal. It will fit itself based on the available space. This will be its 100% or full size. More than this limit will distort the box alignment.
footerbox - same explanations in the above except for the vertical-align: middle, which means that the objects or characters inside the box will be vertically-aligned in the middle.
Try changing the values of the values of the css boxes above, then save. Refresh your browser and familiarize yourself with the effect of each change. Please note, however that there may be minor differences if the above css boxes are displayed with browsers other than internet explorer like firefox and opera.
Continue with Part 3.
Eddie
Now, Let’s continue with Part 2. We will discuss the following here: Creating tables and Using CSS boxes as webpage layout.
Here’s how:
Creating tables
Tables are very useful in the presentation of data. The following are the html tags to be used to create a basic table:
Single-column table:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″>
trtdrow 1 data/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. That’s the table on the web. Referring to the above html codes, width refers to the width of the whole table (you may also use pixel here like “800″), border is the outside line or outline of the table, cellspacing is the space between the cells, cells are the area where the data are located, cellpadding is the space between border and cells. You may change the values of these table attributes or properties based on your preference or requirement.
Though the above table html codes are still working, http://W3C.org requires the table properties or attributes be defined in the style sheets or CSS. Using CSS, the above table properties could be presented as follows:
Within style tags in the head:
.type1 {
width: 400px;
padding: 4px;
margin: 2px;
}
.border {
border: 1px solid #000;
}
Then, within the body tags:
table class=”type1 border”
trtdrow 1 data/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data/td/tr
/table
Looking at the codes, “type1″ is preceded by dot (.), meaning it is a class selector. For the next type of table properties or attributes, you may label it as type2, then type3 and so on or with other names you prefer. “border” is also a class selector and “border: 1px solid #000″ is the thickness (1px), border type (solid) and color (#00f) of the border. There are more discussions of CSS in “Creating CSS boxes as web page layout” and in “Using CSS in styling your web pages”
If you want to try the above, then type the codes within the style and body tags as noted, save it and refresh your browser. It must be the same as the first one.
Now, let’s make a 2-column or multi-column table:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtdrow 1 data 1/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 1/td
tdrow 2 data 2/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. That’s the 2-column table on the web. To add a column, just insert td/td after /td. 1 td/td is one column, 1 tr/tr is one row and 1 table/table is one table.
Now, lets make a table with 1 main heading and 3 subheadings:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtd colspan=”3″Main Heading/td/tr
trtdSubheading 1/td
tdSubheading 2/td
tdSubheading 3/td/tr
trtdrow 1 data 1/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td
tdrow 1 data 3/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 1/td
tdrow 2 data 2/td
tdrow 2 data 3/td/tr
/table
Type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. See? Yes, just use colspan to merge the columns. To merge 2 columns, use colspan=”2″ and for 3 columns, use colspan=”3″ and so on.
If you want to merge rows, use rowspan instead of colspan. See this example:
table width=”400″ border=”1″ cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”4″
trtd rowspan=”2″merge row data/td
tdrow 1 data 2/td/tr
trtdrow 2 data 2/td/tr
/table
Now, type the above in your mywebpage.html within the body tags, save and refresh your browser. Now, you see that 2 rows in your first column were merged.
Try creating your own table using different values to familiarize yourself in manipulating tables.
Creating CSS boxes for web page layout
Before, tables are being used as layout of a web page. So, the header, right bars, left bars, main content areas and footer are inside of a table. This slows down the loading of the page as the browser will have to complete first the table before it will display the content. Your visitor may have already left before your page could be displayed. If you prefer to use table as your layout, you have to avoid using big tables. You better use small tables to allow the browser display your page little by little but faster.
Though table could still be used, W3C requires CSS boxes to be used for layout instead of tables due to the issue of accessibility. CSS boxes load faster than tables. These could be controlled within the style sheets that could be within the head tags or in separate CSS file. The most critical part in css boxes is the positioning. So, I’ll explain to you the positioning properties of these boxes, based on my experience:
position: absolute - You have to define the x-axis and y-axis as point of reference of the corner of the box. x-axis is either left or right and y-axis is either top or bottom. You have to define also the width or the left and right margin or padding of the box. The box is not affected by the preceding or subsequent boxes. Likewise, the boxes preceding or following the boxes that are positioned as absolute are also not affected.
float: left or right - You need to fix the width. You also need to select if left or right. The box will lean on the side you selected. It will lean on the box preceding it if there is enough space for it. This is affected by the other boxes except for the absolutely positioned boxes.
no position or position: static or fixed - This follows the normal flow. This is also affected by the other boxes except for the absolutely positioned ones. You need to define the width or the left and right margin.
Now, see the illustration below that will create 5 boxes, namely: headerbox, leftbox, centerbox, rightbox and footerbox. These are liquid boxes, which automatically adjust in width when the display window size of the computer is changed:
style type=”text/css”
body {
text-align: center;
margin: 1px;
}
#headerbox {
width: 100%;
height: 15%;
background-color: #9cf;
border: 1px solid #00f;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
#rightbox {
float: right;
width: 20%;
margin-top: 5px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#leftbox {
float: left;
margin-top: 5px;
width: 20%;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#centerbox {
width: 99%;
margin-top: 5px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #cff;
border: 1px solid #00f;
height: 100%;
}
#footerbox {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
height: 15%;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-top: 5px;
background-color: #9cf;
border: 1px solid #00f;
}
/style
/head
body
div id=”headerbox”HEADERBOX content area/div
div id=”leftbox”LEFTBOX content area/div
div id=”rightbox”RIGHTBOX content area/div
div id=”centerbox”CENTERBOX content area/div
div id=”footerbox”FOOTERBOX content area/div
/body
First, you type the above html codes to you mywebpage.html within the head, style and body tags as noted in the above. Then, save it and refresh your browser or open the file with your browser. Are you seeing the headerbox on the top, the leftbox, rightbox and centerbox in the middle and footerbox at the bottom? Try to change the width of your browser window. See? The width of the boxes are also adjusting and that is excellent as your page will auto-adjust depending on the browser window size of your visitors! That is because I used %s in defining the width of boxes.
Now, let me explain the above codes for creating boxes as your layout.
headerbox - preceded with #, meaning it is an id selector and could be used only once per page; float: left means the box will lean on the left if fit; width: 100% means the box is 100% of the browser window and that is the reason why it is liquid; height: 15% means the box is 15% of the browser window; text-align: center is the alignment of the objects or characters inside the box; background-color: #9cf is the color of the space within the box; border: 1px solid #00f is same as discussed in Creating Tables.
rightbox - same explanations in the above except for the float: right which means the box will lean on the right and margin-top: 5px is the distance from the bottom line of the box above (headerbox).
leftbox - same explanations in the above.
centerbox - same explanations in the above except that it has no position defined, meaning it will follow the normal. It will fit itself based on the available space. This will be its 100% or full size. More than this limit will distort the box alignment.
footerbox - same explanations in the above except for the vertical-align: middle, which means that the objects or characters inside the box will be vertically-aligned in the middle.
Try changing the values of the values of the css boxes above, then save. Refresh your browser and familiarize yourself with the effect of each change. Please note, however that there may be minor differences if the above css boxes are displayed with browsers other than internet explorer like firefox and opera.
Continue with Part 3.
Eddie
