Premium Doesn’t Always Mean Supported

David — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:12:37 +0000

One of the reasons that is often touted for purchasing premium themes and plugins is the support, but you shouldn’t automatically assume that will be the case. One of the biggest market places out there for “paid” aka premium plugins and themes are the Evanto sites including CodeCanyon and ThemeForest. Here’s the fine print from Evanto

Whilst we do encourage authors to provide support for their products, they are under no obligation to do so, and this is entirely their choice. This is part of the reason why files on the marketplace are so cheap. Because of this we provide you with live, working examples that you can examine prior to purchase, you are also encouraged to ask questions before you buy the file. Even though not all authors provide Support, Envato requires that all items on our Marketplaces work 100% as described.

Whatever the market place, if you’re expecting support be sure to identify where it states that you will or will not receive support, what is supported and how it is supported.

Association Websites

David — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:21:40 +0000

We love associations and building Websites for associations. Here are a few links to some of the association Websites we’ve built.

Northwest District Association in Oregon

Association for Professional Acupuncture in PA

Northwest Cranial Association

Montavilla East Tabor Business Association

Should We Lie to Potential Clients?

David — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:27:31 +0000

A few months ago we were asked to put in a an RFP (request for proposal) for a potential client’s project. We were bidding with about a dozen other companies for a new Web site for a city’s association of business associations. The RFP included a realistic budget and an unrealistic timeline. Having done work on plenty of sites where, including other associations, where there are multiple decision makers we knew the site would never get done by their stated deadline. In particular they had left exactly one week from the first presentation of the site’s draft to launch. More generally it always takes a good amount of time to get group feedback distill it down and put it back out in a presentable format.

When Web developers take on a job we are more than programmers or designers we are also consultants. When we put on our consultant hat it’s our responsibility, or at least we feel it is to educate. In the case of the RFP in question, we took that responsibility seriously and addressed our concern in writing. We explained that the site couldn’t come to fruition by their deadline and promised to work with them on a realistic deadline. The first question when we were interviewed for the project was, “Why would you apply for a project that has a deadline and which you clearly state you can not meet?” All we could do at that point was to continue to educate. The answer was simple, no matter what any other company told them, no one could meet the deadline because the process was flawed. The fact that they had, had to postpone interviews by two weeks made us all the more confident in our assessment, but it would have been true either way.

We can’t say for certain that our answer to that question and our unwillingness to pretend like something unrealistic could be made into a reality was the reason we didn’t get the project, but it had something to do with it. Today the launch is several weeks past due, it was to coordinate with a big event, and all that exists for public view is a placeholder page on the new site redirecting visitors back to the original site.

We regret not getting the project, we really do, but should Web developers lie, even by omission, to potential clients to get projects? We don’t think so. What clients should expect is solid consultation and a realistic outlook based on the expertise of developers and our industry suffers when this isn’t provided.

WP e-Commerce Security Upgrade December 2011

David — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:11:32 +0000

On December 7th WP e-Commerce 3.8.7.3 was released as mandatory security release. We have requested more information about what went into the hardening, but we’re pleased that WP e-Commerce is working on this issue. If you need help with your upgrade please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you need help with your upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our upgrade process includes backing up theme and plugin files, backing up your database and installing the new version. While more costly we will happily back your files and database up on a development server, run the upgrade, test that all is working and then re-install on your site.

How SSL Certificates Work with Browsers and Mobile Devices

David — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:04:37 +0000

It’s the browsers that check ssl certs and they include in their software recognition of ssl cert providers. So let’s say a new ssl cert provider comes into existence an older browser, say FireFox 2.5, is not going to have built in recognition of that provider they won’t have the “root” certificate embedded so it won’t recognize it. This doesn’t mean that the new company won’t be providing 128 or 256 bit encryption just that the old browser doesn’t recognize it. If the browser includes the root cert for the new company in it’s next update of the browser it would look like the browser was broken under the old version but working fine in the new. This is where the problem aslo comes in for cell phones. Old cell phone browsers included fewer root certs for ssl providers. On new mobile devices it really isn’t much of an issue.

SSL Certs: High Assurance Versus Low Assurance Certificates

David — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:04:25 +0000

A low assurance cert validates only that the the ssl cert has been applied to the domain it was assigned to and not some other domain. The process is quick, relatively inexpensive and still provides 256 bit encryption. High assurance requires you to also submit documents proving that the company is a legitimate business entity. At the end of the day the encryption is the same. And, if you think about it you’re probably more savvy than 90% of the internet users out there and it meant nothing to you before this, so it means nothing to most people, although the fact that it is https and not broken does have a meaning to many people.

Canceling Bluehost Hosting

David — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:03:04 +0000

Unfortunately if you’ve made the mistake of signing up with BlueHost, Inc. they’re going to force you to go to extraordinary measures to get out of your hosting.

Yep, you read that correctly in order for bluehost to let you move your hosting and, probably most important to BlueHost Inc., stop them from charging your credit card you’re going to have to fill out a three page form, have it notarized, scan and email it to their legal department!!! If you’re not in the Web development industry you may not realize that this is an extraordinary measure, but we know of no other host who does this.

While this is probably very effective at keeping people from leaving their hosting in our minds it is tantamount to holding your Web site hostage. For this reason we do not recommend BlueHost for hosting your website.

Want to move your site and stop BlueHost Inc, from billing you fill out this form https://www.bluehost.com/media/user/general/_bh/Change_of_Ownership_form.pdf, get it notarized and send it to their legal department. Then take back control of what is rightfully yours.

икони

WP Ecommerce and UPS Prices

David — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 04:23:29 +0000

Recently we were asked a question we’ve heard before. How is weight being calculated for UPS Ground rates in WP e-Commerce? The pricing for this mode of shipping is too low compared to the UPS site. Is it a bug?

If you’re seeing inaccurate UPS prices on your shopping cart page they likely are not due to a bug. There are a fewt factors that go in to the price UPS charges. Is it being delivered to a commercial address or a home address? Is it using UPS packaging or the sender’s packaging? Which UPS service is being chosen?

If you’re comparing your site’s quotes to quotes from the UPS site https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc/request are you choosing “quick cost” calculating or “detailed calculating”? Quick cost calculating on the UPS site doesn’t take into account all the various factors that are involved in the final shipping cost as where the shipping calculator on your site does.

You have to not only compare apples to apples here, but you’ve also got to compare your pink lady to your pink lady variety and not to golden delicious.

Идея за подарък

Transfering Domains Away From Yahoo!

David — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:57:15 +0000

Three cheers for Yahoo! When it comes to transferring domains no registrar wants to see you go, but some of them make it downright hard to transfer your domain away from the service. They hide, or at least make it hard to find the instructions on where to find your authorization code, a critical piece of information needed for the transfer. This is not true with Yahoo! They clearly lay out the instructions in a full page “How do I Transfer My Domain to a New Registrar.”

икони на светци

Trying out a new social media marketing tool

David — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:01:45 +0000

We’ll see how this goes, but may be perfect for some of our clients.

Православни икони