Over the past week I have been designing and building a blog that will utilise a variety of WordPress plugins, some of which I have no previous experience with. The benefit of using WordPress as a blogging platform is the sheer number of plugin’s available; however it can be difficult with the information available to ensure you are installing the best plugin for the task. By viewing what is available on other websites you are able to assume what is achievable, but short of emailing the website owner you have no way of knowing exactly what plugin they are using.
Continue reading “Plug it in, Plug it in” »

At work I have elected to stick with Firefox 2 as Firefox 3 is still rather new. This morning the browser auto-updated to version 2.0.0.15 and since then websites have started appearing without images. On a number of websites I have visited HTML embedded images (as opposed to CSS Images) have not been loading when refreshing the page, but they do appear when entering a URL in the address bar and when using Ctrl + F5.

As a web developer this is a rather annoying browser bug. Have Mozilla taken the decision to destabilise Firefox 2 in order to push people to download the more stable Firefox 3? I hope this isn’t the case as these aren’t the dirty tactics I’d associate with Mozilla and the Firefox team.

Today I have been surprised to find my website, or more specifically my favicon highlighted in Smashing Magazines 7th Favicon Episode. This is where the guys at Smashing Magazine list some of the newest examples of ‘beautiful favicons’ (their words not mine). It’s incredibly rewarding to have your work recognised in such a way, especially as in this instance I have not actively sought inclusion as with a number of CSS gallery websites my website has featured on.

I must admit I put little work into the favicon itself as it was a natural progression from what I had designed as my website logo. When creating the favicon it was only tweaked slightly so that the icon would appear on a range of background colours including white.

So you’ve got a new client, designed them a site they like, and started to build it and then the client disappears. Your contact is always out of the office and emails just seem to get lost in the ether. When the client does reappear they’re suddenly unsure about the website and are ready to call off the project.
Continue reading “What to do when a client cancels” »

Since downloading Firefox 3 I have been without the Firebug add-on and it’s been like having a limb cut off. I may be exaggerating a little but as an integrated development tool for Firefox it is one of the most invaluable tools I use, as integral to my working day as Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

I had assumed that no update was available as Firefox 3 would not automatically update to a newer version on install or even when asked to search for updates. However today I decided to have a look through the add-ons on the Mozilla website and was able to find an up-to-date version that would install. Why Firefox couldn’t automatically find the update is a mystery to me.

For anyone in a similar predicament click here to install the Firefox 3 version of Firebug

Although I blogged about Firefox 3’s imminent arrival only a few days ago, I must admit I had forgotten that today would be launch day. My reminder was a BBC News article about their attempt to break the record for most downloads in one day. When visiting the site I found that I was too early and that the launch was actually at 18:00 GMT, this would be perfect as I could download the browser at home without any impact to my normal working day.

Downloading the browser was not so easy because as you’d imagine the Mozilla website buckled under the amount of traffic all responding to a rather exact download time. It wasn’t until 19:17 that I eventually managed to download the new browser with the download figure at 578,345,066.
Continue reading “Firefox 3 has arrived” »

A couple of days ago I mentioned I would be submitting this website to a few popular CSS Galleries. So far only one site We Love Wordpress has approved the website and as expected this has caused a spike of traffic of over 800% of normal traffic on the first day.
Continue reading “Increasing Website Traffic - Update” »

It seems after 34 months the time has come for Firefox 3 to be released. Hopefully this should solve many of the issues users have been experiencing with the recent Firefox 2 updates.

The benefit of Firefox as a developer is that the auto install of updates keeps everyone using the browser on the same version, hopefully the move from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 will happen the same way.

Read more about the release here

Now I have completed the final tweaks on the website it is time to try and increase the incoming traffic. As part of the website build I integrated a blog to help increase traffic by providing fresh content on a regular basis. I currently write on average two posts per week; however this alone is not enough to increase traffic in the short term. To help achieve an increase in traffic over a short time period I have to look into alternate methods of traffic generation.

At present the website receives a minimal number of visitors, this means more traditional and simple methods of promotion should result in a beneficial increase in overall traffic. To start with I have chosen is to submit the website to a number of CSS Galleries, the links that these sites provide should provide quality traffic and also assist in increasing the websites ranking in the search engines. I have chosen this method as my website suits the criteria set by these galleries and I feel it is of high enough quality to be approved.
Continue reading “Increasing Website Traffic” »

I’ve never really been an Apple fanboy but the new Apple announcements are usually rather interesting as they lead the way in portable electronics with both the iPod and iPhone. Today has come the turn of the iPhone 3G and from first impressions it appears Apple may very well take over the mobile handset market.
Continue reading “iPhone 3G is coming” »