Turning the Wheel

How Programmers are Utilizing Smartphone Apps to Build Websites

April 8, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

website (Photo credit: tourist_on_earth)

Advanced computer science degrees are no longer a requirement for building websites. While many people make a living developing websites, with today’s intuitive, user-friendly apps most average smartphone users can actually build websites with nothing more than a smartphone and the right apps. First, programmers choose a host for the website. Most Web hosting providers offer templates for quickly and easily building and customizing your website.

Buying Enough Minutes

Even with the point-and-click apps used to create most owner-operator websites and the maintenance-free nature of most Web hosting, building and maintaining websites is time-consuming. Programmers must invest in an unlimited plan, even if it’s significantly more costly than a plan with a dedicated number of minutes each month. Some apps used for Website development are free and others are paid. Always choose top-rated apps over free ones with lower user ratings. Prepaid cell phone plans can be very helpful in assuring there are no suprises when bill time comes at the end of the month.

Battery Life is Essential

Programmers always prepare for every eventuality by investing in spare batteries. No app works without adequate battery life. If the phone is in use for 8 to 10 hours per day, one spare battery might suffice. If away from a power source for longer periods of time, it pays to have 3 to 4 spare batteries. Programmers often calculate what revenue would be lost if the website was down for a whole day. Most likely, the cost of the extra batteries is far less than the cost of loosing website traffic for a day. Also, programmers must consider the marketing costs it took to drive traffic to the website in the first place. These funds are wasted if the website goes down when those hard-earned hits come knocking.

Buying Enough Bandwidth

Any app is only as good as its ability to connect to the server. Serious programmers invest in the best bandwidth they can get, and make sure the carrier chosen offers good coverage in the areas where most work will take place. There are several ways to determine how well certain places are covered by a specific cell service provider. Programmers look for customer reviews from that area and read blog posts by tech gurus that know a great deal about most anything cell-related in any given region. If these bloggers don’t know, they can likely find someone who does. Apps are available to help users find the best locations for receiving service.

Not all smartphones are the same. What looks great on the native browser of one phone might not look as good on another. A programmer always tests the website on several platforms to assure that the users of one phone get the same quality experience on the website as users of another cell provider. Some apps allow programmers to mimic another smartphone for testing purposes.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

News No Longer Fits to Print

August 3, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

An informed public is supposed to be the core of any democracy. It is the reason why the U.S. Constitution protected newspapers with the First Amendment. The Founding Fathers had no way of foreseeing other forms of media. While the law has evolved overtime to include technology enabled forums, now that the majority of young people receive their news from the Internet the old set of free speech protections might not be enough to maintain an informed public.

For people ages 18 to 29 the Internet is the main source of news, according to a Pew Research Center study. A near super-majority of 65 percent of people younger than 30 used online sources to learn about the news, which represents twice the number from only three years earlier. The young demographic were not alone in seeking out online media for information. The number of adults in the United States using the Internet as their primary source of news sits at 41 percent.

While television remains the chief source of information for older Americans the growing influence of the Internet, especially among young people spell an evaporating market share for older media sources. The figures from the Pew Survey reflect the rise of new social media outlets. Twitter and Facebook news feed have rapidly grown since 2007. Facebook now has more than 500 million users and Twitter has more than 90 million “tweets” daily. However, more tv companies, such as direct.tv are synching their services with the internet. You can download and app to access news channels directly from your smartphone or tablet computer.

Who controls this flow of information? The owner of the printing press once controlled the news. Now the Internet allows nearly anyone to be a publisher, but the issue of net neutrality brings this tradition into question. Do the companies that provide the infrastructure to provide the Internet have the legal right to control the flow of information? Can AT&T prevent negative press from reaching its subscribers?

As the world tunes into the Internet for information in increasingly greater numbers the question of protected speech versus business rights get raised again.

Filed Under: Internet, Programming

Optimizing Web Design For New Techology

July 12, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Image via Wikipedia

While many online business understand how important the overall design of their website is, many fail to recognize the growing reliance on tablet PCs and smartphones. This migration to smaller screens with touchscreen capabilities necessitates a shift in the design structure of websites. Creating a website that optimized for smaller screens will allow most online businesses to take advantage of this growing trend.

Optimizing web designs for the latest technology often requires several components. First,increase white or negative space. This is primarily because today’s smartphones and tablets use touchscreen and increased white space makes it easier for the end-user to navigate a site. Second, tweak graphics and overall design layout for optimum presentation on today’s smaller screens. Third create a site map that allows for stop shopping. In other words, make it easy for customers to find what they want in one step. Users who feel they must navigate through multiple pages to find what they are looking for will quickly X out and try another site. Providing the end-user with a site that is easy to navigate is the goal.

Remember that just like your traditional website is not effective on smaller technology, your revamped website won’t work for traditional users. Because of this, savvy entrepreneurs will use mirror sites. Direct users to the website optimized for their particular viewing experience.

All new technology offers online business owners the opportunity to expand. In the case of tablets and smartphones, a little of web design and programming will quickly impact your bottom line.

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: Business, Web design, Website

Learning to Code Websites with PHP

June 22, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Image by freefotouk via Flickr

Behind every dynamic website is a set of codes places there by web developers. The most popular form of computer code and scripting language is known as PHP syntax. PHP allows web developers to place fun, flashy and interactive elements onto a website for users to enjoy.

With the popularity of PHP growing it is important that every web developer know how to use and code a PHP website. Here’s a look at how you can learn how to code websites in PHP.

Learn HTML

Even though PHP is the most popular coding script, you will still need to know how to code and understand HTML. HTML is the baseline for any website and provides the structure for you to place the PHP code. HTML can be learned by taking classes at the local college or by using basic tutorials that can be found on the web.

Learn CSS

Just like HTML you will also need to know how to code and layout pages using CSS or cascading style sheets. CSS is responsible for helping you design pages with different colors, texts and fonts.

Learn the PHP Language

PHP is what you will need to add to your website code in order to make your websites interactive and fun. After you have learned the basics of website design you will need to learn how to code in the PHP language. PHP language can be learned through online tutorials or by attending basic computer programming classes.

By learning how to code in PHP you will be taking your websites to a whole new level by making them fun and interactive.

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: Cascading Style Sheets, HTML, PHP

Make Your Website Stand Out

May 8, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There are basic principles and rules that should be followed when designing a website. However, just because you follow those rules doesn’t mean that your website will be a winner. There are a few additional steps you can take to really make your web design stand out from the crowd.

1. Use a large image as a background. Images can make or break your web design. Large images used as backgrounds can actually be very good for your website. This makes your page visually appealing, which will keep visitors on your page longer. Some simple CSS programming can make this step happen quite easily.

2. Think about the navigation. The way the navigation of a website is designed will not only make the site more user friendly, but it will also help with visual appeal. You may need more than a simple toolbar at the top of the page to enhance navigation. Try adding color, unique fonts, or images to your navigation.

3. Avoid clutter. Designing with a very minimalistic style can help you to stand out from the sea of competitors. Don’t mistake minimalism for lack of substance. In fact, the exact opposite is true. When done effectively, a minimalistic design can achieve balance and provide a very attractive and agreeable website. There’s no need to go overboard with fancy design elements and images.

The next time you need to design a stylish, effective, and useful website, keep these three tips in mind. You might be surprised at how effective these tips will be to your overall design style.

Filed Under: Programming, Web Design Tagged With: Design, Web design, Website

Start up Tips for Your Website

April 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

An Apple MacBook in an aluminium casing.

Image via Wikipedia

Designing a successful website is not as daunting as it sounds. There are some things to keep in mind when designing a website for your business.

Before you even begin to design your website, you need to have a firm idea in mind of what audience you will be targeting. This is called finding your niche market. Also, you may want to find an area of the market that is not already saturated with similar websites. If you are set on an area that is already saturated with competition, make sure your website is something unique and fresh. Otherwise the customer will have just seen it all before.

Once you have developed your target audience for your website, the next things to do is pick a domain name for your website. A domain name is the www entry a person will type into their browser bar to get to your website. A good domain name will be short, concise and unique to your product. It will also be easy to interpret, pronounce, and therefore easy to type into a web browser. If your domain is long, complicated or chaotic, the less chance there is of someone remembering it and visiting your website.

Finally, make sure the web hosting service you have chosen for your website is reliable. There is nothing worse for business than a website that is constantly out of commission because its host is constantly encountering technical problems. If there are problems, make sure the host can fix them quickly.

Starting a website for your business is an important step. Do it right and it will work for you.

Filed Under: Programming Tagged With: Domain name, Web hosting service, Website

Stay Ahead of the Game with Accurate Data

April 20, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There is a trend in business with using technology to grow beyond historic expectations. Forward thinking leaders know the importance of having accurate and relevant information. The decision-makers will strive to be in the forefront of impending or deflating developments to remain successful.

Many companies use a business intelligence service as an implementation tool to receive and manipulate information for better operations. Business intelligence is defined as computer- oriented applications using data warehousing and other collection methods to analyze information. This information is used to evaluate and produce better resolutions.

Below are a few reasons to consider how access to the right data will better businesses.

Pattern Revelations – A regulation system can easily identify the fluctuations that are part of successful commerce. Data is more useful when it can be used as notification of trending good or bad patterns. This volume of intelligence will help in setting goals and noting progress.
Track Success – A well-constructed intelligence program should include the use of applications for running queries, providing statistic references and predicting future outcomes. These systems of information can be used to construct goals that reach to overall achievements.
Corporate management – The facts are organized in a way to help staff meet expectations. A plan is constructed with tactics to ensure completion, and then adjustments are made depending on the findings from business intelligence services. The outcome is motivation for employees to boost customer approval.

The above are a few reasons that obtaining relevant information can help businesses to succeed to the next level. Business intelligence is the new staple for forward-thinking enterprises.

Filed Under: Programming Tagged With: Business intelligence, Data warehouse, Knowledge Management

Popular Computer Programming Languages

April 13, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Image by israelavila via Flickr

A computer programming language is an artificial scripting language designed to express specific computations that are to be read by a machine such as a computer. They can be used to control a machine or express an algorithm.

Programme language popularity is based on how many new applications use it, how many existing applications use the language, how many developers use the language, and the number of jobs available that use the language. Popular computer programming languages include java, C++, PHP and perl.

Java is a general purpose, object-oriented programming language. It uses a similar syntax to C++, but is much simpler. It has very few implementation dependencies.

C++ is a general purpose statically typed, free-form programming language. It is more complicated than Java and is considered an intermediate computer programming language. It is used mainly for systems software, device drivers, and entertainment software.

PHP is a general purpose scripting language designed to enhance the functionality of websites. PHP is embedded into the HTML of a website to enable this functionality. The PHP software is free and is in use on over 20 million websites.

Perl is a general purpose, high level, dynamic programming language. It was developed specifically as a unix language script, however is now popular across operating platforms. Perl provides powerful text processing capabilities and is often used in conjunction with CGI scripting languages.

Although these are some of the most popular computer programming languages available, there are hundreds of more out there to suit needs and requirements of various computer projects. Technology is constantly evolving, so there will probably be more available in the future.

Filed Under: Programming Tagged With: HTML, PHP, Programming language

Online Surveys Made Easy

April 13, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

We all know how important online surveys can be, especially in the world of web design. Customer surveys can provide clues about which parts of the website are working well and which parts aren’t so easy to use. They can also provide valuable feedback about the company and business itself. Surveys are also a fantastic way to track your company’s improvement or mistakes. However, did you know how easy it’s become to implement a survey on your site?

In the past, designing an online customer survey was only a job for top web designers, who had to code everything themselves. Nowadays, survey software does all the hard work for you. This software makes it painless to write, design, and implement a survey right onto your page. It also makes changing your survey content a breeze.

How to Install Survey Software

Most survey software will provide users with some HTML coding. All a user has to do is copy the HTML coding and paste it into the

section of your site. Preview your page to see how the survey looks. Next, you can tweak the coding to make sure it fits your site’s design, size, and layout in the best way possible. Feel free to play around with the coding until you’re satisfied with how it looks. You may want to change the size of the survey or try it on different sides of your site.

Online survey programming has come a long way since it was first invented. Don’t be afraid to harness this new survey software technology on your company webpage.

Filed Under: Internet, Software Tagged With: Market Research, Marketing, Paid survey

Learning computer programming

April 8, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Computer programming is an in demand subject. With the whole of the world becoming dependent on the various programmes and programming languages the demand for the professional in the programme development is huge.

Most of the business functions are highly dependent on the various web based programmes. The software and the databases used by the big research firms are developed with the help of the computer programming skills. Learn-Computer-Programming

There are lot of resources available on the web that can help one to understand and then master the skills of the programming. One can learn the different programming skills from the various available tutorials on the internet. There are different platforms of the programming and software development like the HTML, PHP, Dot Net and many more. Each programming language has a different use and requires different skills for learning them. The different kinds of computer programming can be learnt from the basics with the help of the tutorials. The internet has a wide variety of resources available which can help a person who is interested to learn the various skills in programming at their own convenience. Learning from the internet provides with the wide information and a lot of tricks and tips to the learner. The programming languages are of different types and thus are the courses different for each of them; the first step for any person who is interested to learn the programming language on their own is to understand what they want to learn. After deciding that one has to collect the appropriate information on it and then study about it from the reliable sources.

Filed Under: Programming Tagged With: Learning, Programming, Programming language