The Acuras Blogger: January 2009 Archive

The First Windows Review Ever

The following is an article that appeared in the December 1983 issue of Byte magazine. When I first created this site there was very little information about early versions of Windows on the web and no references to this article. It was almost as if there was some conspiracy to hide the truth about the age of Windows.

read more | digg story

Ultra versatile slider for websites

This tutorial illustrates a simple step-by-step way to implement an ultra versatile slider with horizontal scrolling and animated effects using MooTools. This is a basic proposal you can improve how you prefer. I included a link to the source code you can customize and reuse quickly in your web projects.

read more | digg story

Dell Comments on Apple's Green Commitment, TUAW Translates

Dell executive Bob Pearson decided to comment on Apple's "green" ad campaign. It was hard to understand. We were confused. Fortunately, The Unofficial Apple Weblog was nice enough to translate.

read more | digg story

Web Development Project Estimator

The Web Development Project Estimator is a simple tool that allows web designers and site developers to quickly and thoroughly estimate the time and materials required for a proposed web project.

read more | digg story

Selecting an Open Source Content Management System (CMS)

There are a huge number of Content Management Systems (CMS) out there. The benefit of using a ready-made CMS is that it will probably be a fairly advanced system that will more than likely cater for all of your needs. The beauty of many Content Management Systems is that they are also distributed as Open Source (OS) which means that their source code is freely available to view and edit.

Downloading and installing a web-based CMS can enable you to offer advanced networking tools for a vast amount of users. CMS solutions are suitable for almost any application imaginable. Open Source Content Management Systems allow for unlimited flexibilty as new functionality can be added whenever circumstances necessitate it.

This short article outlines a few of the CMS solutions available and what they are geared towards.

Joomla (Mambo)

According to the Joomla website, "Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable."

Joomla! is a product delivered by Open Source Matters (OSM), the same team that developed the Mambo CMS. The OSM team took the final stable version of Mambo (4.5.2.3), polished off some rough edges and named it Joomla! 1.0. This newly renamed CMS was released in September 2005.

OSCommerce

OSCommerce is powered by PHP and MySQL and is an Open Source based online shop / e-commerce solution. It features a wealth of online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.

There are plenty of add-ons available (over 3500) which means you will not have to look far in order to find the exact functionality you require. OSCommerce has proved ideal for thousands of store owners. Seems like a pretty safe bet if you're wanting to open up an online store with minimum hassle.

Typo3

TYPO3 is a small to midsize enterprise-class Content Management Framework offering out-of-the-box operation with a complete set of standard modules and a high-performance architecture accomodating almost any kind of application. TYPO3 is written in PHP and is powered by a MySQL core database but TYPO3 also offers support for other databases such as Oracle and MSSQL.

TYPO3 is suitable for authors, administrators, content managers, web developers and agencies...

Some other Content Management Systems are listed below:

PHP-Nuke
TikiWiki
Drupal
Moodle

Computer Networking Jargon Buster Article

Check out this jargon busting networking article I found on http://bloodycomputer.blogspot.com. Useful for newbies. Clears up what the following terms mean...

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
IP Address
DHCP
URL (Universal Resource Locator)
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
Domain name
DNS (Domain Name Server)

Enjoy...

Windows 7 Anti-Virus Software

This time around, more anti-virus products will be available on day 1 for the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

From ZDNet:

Despite the fact that security programs are often some of the toughest code to make work with a new operating system, Windows 7 already has several companies ready with products aimed at keeping it safe from attackers.
By comparison, only one antivirus firm--McAfee--had its security software commercially ready by the time Microsoft launched Vista for businesses in November 2006.
That said, it stands to reason, given that Microsoft was making far more dramatic changes to the operating system's underlying architecture in Vista than it is in Windows 7.
This time around, it is AVG, Kaspersky, and Symantec that have products that are being touted from Microsoft's site. McAfee said it will have support by the time Windows 7 launches

BlogUpp - Blog Link Exchange & Promotion

Just found this interesting link exchange site for blogs: http://www.blogupp.com/

Seems like a pretty good concept. No registration required either which is great!

Learning PHP / MySQL the easy way

Found this book on Amazon: Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL.

Looks pretty useful. A review reads as follows:

Before I read this book I knew very little about PHP and MySQL. I had dabbled a little in ASP many years ago but foremost I'm a designer so coding isn't always second nature to me. I started reading this book on the train to work and again on the way back; after 2 hours reading I had the confidence to try to build my own basic content management system!
At just over 250 pages the book is rather on the small side compared to a lot of the other books on the topic, but it really does contain all the essentials. It also encourages you to think for yourself and it really helped me understand how simple PHP and MySQL really is.
This book is very much aimed at the beginner who hasn't dabbled before so I doubt it's of much use to established PHPers, but to newcomers to the field I can't recommend this book enough.

Check it out below...

Cheap Domain Name Registration

Wanted to share a great domain name registration company (that's NOT 123-reg.co.uk!). Check out Heart Internet for cheap domain name registration as well as GREAT customer support...

Domain Name Whois Lookup Tool

Check out the new Acuras Hosting website which not only offers a wide range of web hosting and email solutions, but has a handy WHOIS domain name lookup tool.

Check it out...

Dell XPS M1530 Details

A sleek and powerful multimedia machine expertly balancing performance, design and unprecedented functionality.

The Intel Core 2 Duo is optimised for processor intensive multimedia and applications, driving your PC and digital entertainment experience further and faster than ever before.

Crystal-Clear Viewing
See your digital content how it was meant to be seen. The XPS M1530 boasts a Hi-def display with 800 lines of resolution (surpassing the 720-line Hi-def standard) for supreme viewing. Plus, an HDMI output allows you to easily connect to an external Hi-def display for sharp, gorgeous image and sound transfer.

Simple, Secure, Unique
With Dell's optional Biometric Fingerprint Reader, you can opt out of passwords and use your fingerprint to log into your system. The fingerprint reader also offers extra security to help protect sensitive documents and information.

Dell to focus on luxury laptops and back PC production

On the topic of Dell, from the telegraph.co.uk website:

The struggling US company, which announced plans to axe 1,900 Irish jobs last week, launched its foray into the high-end market, where it will compete with Apple's popular MacBook Air at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The ultra-thin polished aluminum 13" screen Adamo - Latin for to fall in love with - laptop will go on sale worldwide at some point in the first-half of this year. Dell refused to state how much the new model will cost but it is expected to retail for about the same as Apple's $1,800 (£1,180) MacBook Air.

The Company said: "Adamo will be the new luxury franchise in the Dell brand line-up". It said consumer demand has shifted away from cheap and cheerful products to high-specification models. Ed Boyd, Dell's vice-president of consumer experience design, said the "death of the utilitarian PC has occurred."

Dell said now was the right time for the company to enter the luxury market despite collapsing consumer demand for electronics. Brent Wampler, Dell's director of global product marketing, said: "Consumers now want high performance laptops that can be tailored more personally to them."

Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said: "For years, Dell has been known for low-cost designs and being able to offer efficient delivery. With this laptop, Dell is looking to make a [design] statement."

The company also launched a new 10 inch netbook, mini laptop, to join its 9-inch and 12-inch models. Netbooks are the fastest-growing part of the PC market.

You can read more here.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Laptop / Netbook

I quite like the look of the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Laptop... Probably prefer it to the Sony I mentioned in my previous post. But I’ve been brought up on Dell machines so I guess I’m biased...

Anyone else got any favourite new Netbooks / Laptops?

Sony P Series Lifestyle PC

Much like Apple, Sony likes to keep its Vaio products aimed at mid-to-high-end buyers and generally eschews the budget end of the market (although there are actually a handful of sub-$600 Vaios we've reviewed fairly favorably).

When it comes to Netbooks, it's no different; Sony's entry into the very hot minilaptop category shares a lot with Netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 or Asus Eee PC, but clearly goes out of its way to avoid being lumped in with them.

The P-series Lifestyle PC is one of the smallest laptops we've seen; it is almost similar to a UMPC, but with a traditional clamshell laptop design. The widescreen 8-inch 1600x768 display and tiny keyboard make for a form factor that has roughly the same footprint as a standard white business envelope, and is less than 1-inch thick, weighing 1.4 pounds.

To fit a reasonably full-featured PC into a chassis this small, some sacrifices had to be made, and we're worried the lack of a standard touch pad (instead there's a ThinkPad-like pointing stick), will keep this new system from being as useful as it could be. It does, however, include a 3G mobile broadband antenna, 802.11n Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, with mobile broadband service provided by Verizon.

Dell Settlement

Came across this post by John Cook on January 12, 2009 which can be found here: http://www.techflash.com/Dude_you_may_be_getting_a_settlment_check_from_Dell37449004.html

You gotta love the lead of this press release from Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna this morning.

"Dude, you might have a Dell settlement check coming!" As part of an agreement with 34 states, McKenna today announced that Dell will pay $1.5 million in restitution to consumers who experienced problems with rebate offers, repair policies, technical support issues and other financing promotions.

Consumers had complained that they received higher interest rates than promised, while others said they didn't receive warranty service on their Dell computers. Others never received rebates.

Dell doesn't admit any wrongdoing in the matter, but as part of the settlement it must change a number of its warranty, rebate and marketing practices.

“It’s time for a reboot of Dell’s customer service system,” McKenna said in the release. “Our agreement requires disclosures to prevent future communication breakdowns and ensures that customers who are owed money are promptly paid.” Washington state is set to get about $200,000 of the funds.

If you believe you are owed a refund, more information can be found in the press release.

Being a Dell customer this caught my eye...

My Delicious Links

In case you're interested, access a random assortment of bookmarks as I add them here: http://delicious.com/acuras

Interestingly enough, I just noticed that delicous has dropped the old del.icio.us branding and rebranded as delicious.com.

Found this article announcing the fact:

http://domainnamewire.com/2008/08/01/delicious-rebrands-as-deliciouscom-a-lesson-for-entrepreneurs/

... and this blog post from delicious...

http://blog.delicious.com/blog/2008/07/oh-happy-day.html