Klixo Blogs

Welcome to the Klixo Blog pages, a wealth of tips, tricks and insight into web development, web marketing and general internet related issues. We all blog once a week so be sure to check back on a regular basis, or sign up to our newsletter. You can also subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Have a comment to make? Each blog has a comment form so that you can contribute to our discussions. (Comments are moderated).

Latest Blogs

• Seasons Greetings
• Google Calendars - a free and easy calendar solution for your website
• "Human-Computer Interaction"
• Dynamic drop shadows...
• TiVo in New Zealand?
• Online forms
• Time to get a new toy now -- ASUS EeePC 1000HE Review
• The end of the week, time to update the Blog.
• Keeping your website up to date...
• Sennheiser's brand new top-class headphones are now available
• Merry Christmas and a happy new year...
• Google Maps New Zealand - Street View
• Wow! Let's 'welcome' the lastest MS-Patches
• They're Watching You...
• Google Street View released in New Zealand
• Klixo Web Services Framework
• Extend Your Website with Widgets
• How to be punctual...
• HD Videos are now available on the YouTube
• Aliens freeloading off our wireless? Internet Now Avaliable in Space.
• Microsoft start to sell hard drives online now
• Form2Mail2Story
• Eastern Bay Broadband Survey
• Increase Productivity with Google Desktop
• ACDC - THE WORLD'S FIRST MUSIC VIDEO IN AN EXCEL SPREADSHEET!
• Everyone can be the 'Iron Man' in future!
• A little goes a long way...
• XSLT - Universal Web Template Language in Waiting
• TED.com - Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers
• Converting websites - Dramatic unnoticeable differences
• A future cellpone has been showed in Japan
• How to sell your House on TradeMe
• Summer is around the corner... USB Gadgets to help!
• You can say 'Goodbye' to your iPhone 3G now
• A Corsair Flash Survivor GT can always survive!
• Klixo2 CMS Development Starts
• Google WTK
• Blogs from space
• Richard Parfitt - I want to be number one on Google!
• New SONY Walkman MP3 players are available now
• Will you start to use Google Chrome? I won't!
• Klixo's Online Knowledge Base - Support Articles for the masses
• IE8 is coooooooool aye! BUT, oops...
• Store your Telecom Mobile Photos online
• '18+ Only' mode will be available in IE8?!
• Klixo2 Content Management System
• Handy tools for the Web Developer
• Quantum Theory for Google PageRank
• Google Maps Australia - Street View
• A patch of iPhone 3G is coming!
• Google Maps InfoWindow Not Centering
• Let you know about the video camera
• SEO for Marketers - Part #1
• 2008 Bejing Olympics
• How to stay healthy in the office?
• Cuil Search Engine
• Using CSS to display menu images instead of Javascript
• Blackberry or Nokia E71?
• Environmentally Friendly Data Centres
• How to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Cool Viral Marketing Campaign - The Dark Knight
• Firefox 3 - you will love it!
• I have accidentally responded to a Phishing (Scam) email. What should I do?
• A strategy for better search engine rankings

Seasons greetings from Klixo

Seasons greetings to all of our clients, suppliers and friends. We would like to thank you for your support throughout 2009, this year has been a challenging but rewarding year for us, with the decision to move to a new system for our new websites and also this has been the first year without our founder Daniel Larsen on the team.

Daniel is still on the board of directors and has been travelling the world and spending time with his fiancee Sophia - Congratulations!

We are looking forward to 2010 as we have begun building websites with our new system and so far the results have been excellent! The new services provide a greater range of features allowing us to build more powerful websites for those that need it.

Klixo will be closed for the Christmas Season after Thursday the 24th of December 2009 and we will re-open on Monday the 11th of January 2010.

Klixo Support are on call during the holidays. Phone 07 3072660 and leave a message if you have an urgent issue that is affecting your website and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

We have had an extremely busy year and the team is looking forward to a few well deserved days off! From all of the team, have a fantastic Christmas and New Year and we will see you in 2010.

Kind regards
- The Klixo Team 

posted by Richard Parfitt, 21 Dec 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, developing a fully functioning calendar system has always been deemed as a lot of work, and in most cases this kind of development is out of the budget for the client. We have recently discovered Google Calendars and have been adding them to some of our clients websites as a cheap and easy method of doing this for them. All you need is a Gmail account for your website (if you do not already have one - and also you can forward the email address to your current email address) and from there you can easily set up a public calendar, which you can then embed anywhere on your website.

We have been playing around with Google Calendars and are currently implementing quite a complex version on a site we are developing. Some of the limitations we have found so far are minor but could (most likely will) be modified in future.

• Scaling the calendars down in size causes the calendar events to become unreadable
• Modifying the CSS (i.e. the colours) of the calendars is currently not possible - except the main background colour of the calendar
• Links to more information are not customizable

Overall the Google Calendars are a great solution for small clubs that hold events, or any company for that matter. Once your calendar is made public anyone can subscribe to your calendar which will add it to their personal Google Calendar - so they will also receive event reminders in their inbox. You can also add any other public calendar to your websites calendar - so for example you can add New Zealand public holidays. Another great feature is that you can set up re-occurring events, then go through the calendar and delete the instances of that event that wont happen - for example an event that occurs on a public holiday.

So if you're interested in adding a calendar to your website let us know and we can run you through it. Have you got any cool Google Calendar tricks and tips, or public calendars I can subscribe to? Let us know! This is a cool tool we will be using a bit in the future. Currently the only event on my calendar is "Eat a sandwich day" which occurred this week. Yum.

 

posted by Richard Parfitt, 11 Sep 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, Blogging has taken a back seat over the last two weeks as our priorities have been elsewhere in terms of working. I haven't had a go at using transparent divs to generate a drop shadow effect as mentioned in my previous post (Dynamic drop shadows) but this is still in the back of my mind.

Catch phrase of the week "Human-Computer Interaction" this is something I have been thinking about for while in terms of how people use the internet and browse websites and now I have a phrase to explain it, or at least a good website to find out information to back up some of my thoughts. The website HCI Bibliography : Human-Computer Interaction Resources is full of interesting articles, guidelines and resources (as the title suggests) for designing and building websites to work better inline with human behavior in terms of use with the internet.

For an example the names of pages in a page menu, this is something I came across recently when one of our clients renamed their "About Us" page to "Who we are". I found it very difficult to adjust to the new name and also to find that page in the menu when I first went to the site looking for it. People are used to the basics or "Old words" like "About Us" and in most cases will find the information they want when the page is named as it always has been. This is explained better in the article "Top 10 Information Architecture Mistakes" (Number 10) by Jakob Nielsen on his Alertbox. In saying this though I believe renaming pages something unconventional isn't such a big deal and over time there will be more and more of this, as web users are constantly getting smarter at seeking out the information they require. There are a lot of other good points made in the article written by apparently - "the king of usability" Jakob Nielsen.

What are some things in terms of usability that bug you on the internet?

posted by Richard Parfitt, 15 May 2009 | read 3 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, I found a great article on how to do dynamic drop shadows recently over at A List Apart and I have used this on a website (that is not live just yet), I will add a link once it is. (Update: site is live - Images on the right have dynamic drop shadows - probably wont be that noticeable until they use a portrait image however). This is a great method however there is one down point - when using images that are fully transparent (Alpha Transparency) for the corner images they overlay the main background image causing the corners to appear darker - I haven't found a solution for this yet, and I resorted to non-transparent images for the corners. It is a great solution for images or divs on single color backgrounds.

Article link: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/onionskin/ 

I am going to have a play around with this and try some methods using transparent divs with background colors - in order to create a method without images. The corners probably wont look as good but it will be cooler.

Also check out Klixo on Twitter we are still coming up with ideas as to what to use this for but we have a few. Bye for now...

posted by Richard Parfitt, 24 Apr 2009 | read 2 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, I was supposed to have written this blog entry last week as now this is slightly old news. But "FreeView On Steroids" aka TiVo is coming to New Zealand. TiVo in New Zealand will finally give Sky some competition, and since analogue TV broadcasts will be stitched off some time after 2011 now is the time to prepare for the all-digital TV age. 

But what exactly is TiVo... Well apart from the basics (What I have Learnt from TV) I'm not entirely sure, so I have had a look around on the internet to see if I can answer some of my questions.

Apparently the TiVo device will technically work as a FreeView satellite receiver in New Zealand, so you will be able to receive all of the Free to air channels such as TV One, TV2, TV3, C4, Maori Television, TVNZ6, TVNZ7, TVNZ Sport Extra, Parliament TV, tvCentral, Chinese TV 8, Radio New Zealand National, Radio New Zealand Concert, BASE FM and all new Freeview HD channels. Except with TiVo you will be able to record and store your favourite TV shows, automatically by series, time and it even offers the option of automatically recording shows or movies with your favourite actor or director involved.

In other countries the option to skip advertisements on your recorded programs is available, however in New Zealand this feature will be removed and only an extremely fast "fast forward" will be available, which I believe they have done as they are expecting advertisers to foot a lot of the costs involved with getting started here in New Zealand.

Another function of TiVo is the ability to watch movies on demand via a broadband connection, which sounds awesome but broadband plans in New Zealand aren't that great. Can you imagine streaming a movie watching your 2gig limit disappear. I'm not entirely sure how the broadband side of TiVo works (Might look into this a bit more) but from what I have read so far they do not supply it.

Apparently they are going to be quite expensive to buy initially, but this was the same with FreeView and the cost should come down, personally I have FreeView and I think with TiVo coming this will push more channels onto FreeView so hopefully us FreeViewers will benefit from this! I will keep an eye on this and maybe update in the future...
 

posted by Richard Parfitt, 03 Apr 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, it is not uncommon these days for pretty much every website to have an online form. Online forms are great way for visitors of your website to get in touch with you easily and conveniently. Other benefits of online forms are:

• You can measure how effective the content of your website is,
• If people are sending you a form asking you questions about something that isn't already explained on your website you can update the content to cover it
• If people are making enquiries, you can tell that people are paying attention to your website and you have caught their attention
• You can use the form as a goal to see how people are using your website
• This is mainly for bookings or product enquiries, but by installing Google Analytics and creating a goal or two, you can easily analyze your visitors and use that data to better steer them in the direction of purchasing or enquiring, which they will do through your online form - then you can track how many people are getting to your goals.
• People who are using computers that don't have an email client (e.g. Outloook) don't get annoyed by clicking on old school "mailto" links which open these programs - they can quickly send an email to you without having to leave your website to login to their email account to send it.

Now everything I have said so far is pretty much common knowledge these days, and most people already have an online form, so here are some tips for people who already have online forms on their website:

1. Don't have email addresses for you or anyone in your company in the content of your website, replace any email addresses with links to your contact form. If you have separate divisions of your company such as sales, general enquiries or locations - set up the links with parameters that can tell the form who/where to send it to, or just have the person who receives the emails forward them to the right person.
2. Put the form in a prominent position on the "Contact Us" page so it is displayed as soon as the visitor gets to the page, try to avoid large amounts of content on these pages as if the visitor has come to the page they are already ready to contact you.
• If you do have a lot of content on a form page create an anchor link to the form in the top of the content, this way visitors can skip it if they wish. A good example of this is on the Extreme Boats website. Their boat information page also has a quote form at the bottom, there is a link at the top of the content to send them straight there.
3. If you have a lot of staff changes within your company - or if you believe the person who receives the forms will change often set the email address that the form is sent to as an alias - for example enquiries@example.co.nz. This will mean that every time the receiver changes, the form doesn't have to be modified in any way - only the email alias will need to be moved to the new persons email account.
4. Drive visitors to your form(s) - a nice looking "Contact us now" button can be a great way to do this, you can put these on every page or just in key areas, this will prompt people to enquire after reading the information you have given them. Analyzing your traffic with Google analytics is also a good way to measure this and perfect it.

So have a think about your website and how effective your online form is (or how effective one could be) for you. Also let me know your stories if you have any, about how small changes have made a huge difference to the amount of enquiries you receive.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 20 Mar 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

The Eee PC 1000HE is the latest netbook refresh from ASUS that offers a revamped chicklet style keyboard and the new Intel Atom N280 processor. The exterior and interior look nearly identical to the 1000HA and 901, so if you liked the old style you will love this. The biggest change users will find on this new model is the extended 9.5 hour battery life, thanks to a battery 30% larger and improved power management. Just how well does this new netbook live up to its advertised claims? Read this review to find out.
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

今天为大家送上的是EeePC 1000HE．作为市场上第一款２代上网本，它会给大家带来什么惊喜呢？

先说说购买理由

1. 携带方便
2. 8700毫安的电池
3. 新的cpu+内存组合
4. 价钱合理

先给大家一些基本参数

• Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor
• 160GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive (Seagate 5400.5)
• 1GB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
• 10” WSVGA LED-Backlit 1024 x 600 LCD
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100
• Webcam (1.3 MP)
• Battery: 7.2v 8700mAh 6-cell 63Wh battery
• 802.11b/g/n  and Bluetooth 2.0"

上面加粗的部分是新一代上网本配置变化，这些在上一代算是比较少有的配置，现在应该属于基本配置了。

这次的键盘是一大改进，改成了跟sony一样的键盘风格，而且右边万恶的shift终于改到 up arrow 的左边了（感动ing）。键盘打起来非常舒适，我没有花任何时间去适应就已经习惯了。而且键盘虽然是sony的风格，但是并不像sony的键盘那样软，弹力很强，打起来也很有快感。唯一不足的就是右边的shift键还是偏小了。

Touchpad也改进了不少。两个键的位置往下移了一点，而两边又宽了一点，所以整体来说大了一点。而另外一个改进的地方就是muti touch。Asus终于把一个比较完善的muti touch软件带到了新一代的本本中。

电池方面是采用8700毫安的高容量电池，我BT，wireless全开，电池模式改成auto saving，屏幕70% bright。本本在7小时47分钟后掉到5%电源自动关机了，绝对可以满足那些经常外出的朋友了。温度和噪音方面asus还是一如既往的完美。我基本一天都在腿上使用，但也只是觉得温温而已，声音也很静。

整体来说，asus在这个本子上花了不少功夫。无论是硬件还是软件，都和1000系列有很大的改进。总结成以下几点。

优点

• 有wireless N 和 BT
• 超大容量电池（快8个小时使用时间）
• 第一款使用新cpu和内存的上网本
• muti touch 改进了很多
• 键盘改进了非常多，应该是我现在用过最好的上网本键盘。
• 出厂配的软件都不错，没有垃圾软件
• 机器的开机速度还是不错的
• 小赞一下这台机子的speaker，声音很大，很亮
• 摄像头是我在上网本上看到过最好的，很清晰，颜色也很舒服

缺点

• 外形还是和别的1000一样，有点落伍了
• 还是一个指纹收集器
• 虽然cpu和内存改进了，但没有带来太大的性能提高
• 右边shiftkey太小
• touch pad应该再大一点，这样才能体验muti touch的乐趣
• 如果电池节能选项调成 super preformance（插上电源后）机器会热上许多而且风扇声音也大了许多（但也就跟普通上网本差不多的水平，可以接受）
• 充电时间似乎比较长，我冲了3个小时还没满

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 20 Mar 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, thanks to my great Blog "Keeping your website up to date..." I now have to update this Blog in order to be consistent, which is fine but this week has been particularly busy. And it is now 5.10pm on Friday (Which if you haven't noticed I "always" update this Blog on the Friday). So unfortunately the content of this update is a bit last minute (hence the rambling). I will try and find something better to Blog about next week I promise...  Perhaps I will write about the catch phrase of the week here "Call to action", thanks to Mick G (smart marketing and web strategy). Or perhaps Creating a new email account in Mozilla Thunderbird, which I spent a mourning the week figuring out/supporting a customer, the knowledge base article was deceivingly simple! We got there in the end. Or perhaps I will just ramble on about nothing once again... Perhaps.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 20 Feb 2009 | read 1 comment | comment | link

As we all know keeping the content fresh and up to date on your website is important in order to keep visitors coming back and to continue adding valuable content to your site. As you probably also know this blog has unfortunately been a little neglected during this year. This was mainly due to how busy we have been (seemingly more so on Friday afternoons) and of course we have been on holiday. Any way the drought is over and the weekly blog updates will be beginning again!

Note however the klixo.co.nz website itself hasn't been neglected as we have been adding more Clients to our "Our Clients" Page and we have also set up a handy "Tools" page for you all to use due to the popular response to my previous blog post  "Handy Tools for the web developer" (0 comments)!  

For more information about keeping your website up to date see here: "Benefits of Content Management for your Website and your Business" and here: "A strategy for better search engine rankings for New Zealand small business websites".

See you next week!

posted by Richard Parfitt, 13 Feb 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Sennheiser's latest entry into the world of uber premium headphones comes to us in the form of the stunning HD 800. New features include a completely new type of transducer and ear cup design. Throw in top quality build materials and all of a sudden you are staring at the $1400 price tag going!
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

森海塞尔（Sennheiser）发布新旗舰耳机HD800

德国耳机巨头、世界四大HIFI耳机生产商森海塞尔(Sennheiser)在本次CES展会上发布了它的新一代HIFI级旗舰耳机：HD800。(看上去比HD650和HD600酷多了!)

富有现代感的外型切割工艺，乍看上去颇似索尼SA5000的设计，与德国品牌老成保守的风格大相径庭，虽然说内在美比外在美更重要，但是内外兼修不是更吸引人么?

森海塞尔在这副耳机的制作上进行了大幅创新，驱动系统的新技术运用减少了低频失真，耳机外壳表面涂上一层特氟纶绝缘材料，奢华的织物涂层耳垫使得佩戴更为舒适，耳线采用双边后接入式设计，保证良好音质的同时也更方便佩戴。作为HIFI发烧友的你，是不是已经蠢蠢欲动地想把上一代旗舰HD650打入冷宫了呢? 好吧，那么请你先准备好1399.95美金来迎接新欢吧!

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 16 Jan 2009 | 0 comments | comment | link

Merry Christmas every body. Time to pull out the ol' Christmas Tree again, thank you to all the blog readers and thank you for your comments - We will begin blogging again in the New Year so there's something for you to look forward to when your back from your holidays.

You can track Santa's movements here, or read about how Santa exploits the space-time continuum which of course makes it quite hard to track his movements! I was going to put up a link for you to send your wish list to Santa as well... but I will refrain from that as you would enter your email address and end up with Spam for Christmas - my advice is to do it using snail mail.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Be safe and have fun.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 19 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, if you didn't know already Google has released the Street View of New Zealand - Pick your sight you'd like to see in New Zealand and drag your little yellow man there... That is exactly how I started my blog post three months and twenty five days ago for the release of the Australia Google Maps Street View. I said then that I couldn't wait till they do New Zealand and now they have. Now this is still a fascinating time waster (can't think of any practical reasons for using this yet), but I have already seen most of New Zealand anyway so it really isn't that great after all of the anticipation. How ever there are some fun things to do:

1. Look up all of the houses you have lived in in the past (this could take days for some.) See below for where Klixo Started.
2. Find your Favourite view (Send me your favourite view of your town in the comments, I would like that). Like this view from the Ohope Lookout
3. Try and find your self - I'm nowhere to be seen (they haven't done all the streets in Whakatane yet - next time!). A blogger on Stuff.co.nz has found himself
4. Or Hunt for people doing funny things. See StreetViewFun.com for some examples

Let me know if you find anything else (or practical things) to do with this. Bye for now.

View Larger Map

Update: See Daniels blog for practical uses!

posted by Richard Parfitt, 05 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

The lastest 'MS-Patches' are on their way now. Microsoft will publish these patches next week in order to fix eight serious bugs found in Windows, IE, Office and other MS-family's products earlier this year. It's remarkable that six out of eight bugs are under high risk level.
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

微软下周将发布8个安全补丁，其中有6个是严重等级的安全补丁，修复Windows、IE浏览器、Office和其它产品中的安全漏洞。

微软本周四在对下周二将发布的安全补丁提供了一个提前通知。微软称，它下周发布的8个安全补丁中有2个将修故Windows的安全漏洞，2个修复Office的安全漏洞，另外4个修复IE浏览器、SharePoint、Windows媒体播放器以及Visual Basic和Visual Studio等软件中的安全漏洞。

微软为Windows的发布的两个安全补丁中有一个代号为“Windows 1”的安全补丁是修复已经曝光了8个月的安全漏洞。微软今年4月首次承认了这个安全漏洞。nCircle网络安全公司安全运营经理Andrew Storms说，黑客自从今年10月以来一直在利用这个安全漏洞。

微软原来曾说这个问题是“设计瑕疵”，不是安全漏洞。然而，微软在今年10月中旬证实，黑客正在积极地利用这个没有修复的安全漏洞。

安全研究人员指出，微软将在下周二发布的代号为“Windows 2”的补丁将修复比较新的Vista和Server 2008中的安全漏洞。老版本的Windows 2000、XP或者2003等操作系统不受这个安全漏洞的影响。

关于其它的补丁，安全研究人员称，SharePoint的补丁也许是最有趣的。我们很少看到这种问题。这个漏洞很有趣是因为它在服务器方面。

Storms说，修复Office漏洞的两个补丁是修复Word和Excel软件中的漏洞。这两个补丁可能是修复文件格式的瑕疵，因为这两个补丁不仅适用于Windows版本的Office，而且还适用于Mac版本的Office。

如果微软下周二发布了所有的8个安全补丁，微软今年发布的安全补丁的总数将达到77个，高于2007年的69个，接近2006年的78个，不过，远远低于2000年的100个。

微软将在美国东部时间下周二下午1点发布12月份的安全补丁。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 05 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

They're Watching You...

What do you think can be determined about you from browsing the web? That you have an interest in poker and live in New Zealand perhaps? This can be ascertained by a single click of the mouse. And the latest software that analyses your online behaviour can apparently determine a huge amount about you. A recent article in New Scientist suggests that the company Acxiom have lifestyle information on 200 million US citizens. If you're on a site that's geared up for it, they can track everything you do in a browser, how long you spend on a page and what you buy using JavaScript. Then you have companies like Phorm who use 'deep packet inspection' technologies that essentially allow them to see everything you look at and to analyse it as they wish. Wikipedia defines deep packet inspection as 'enabling advanced security functions as well as internet data mining, eavesdropping, and censorship'.

There are two sides to this - firstly why is my privacy being invaded? Personally, I don't have a problem with it but I'm sure there are plenty reasons that I haven't considered as to why this should be illegal. The American's are totally against it but in the UK Phorm is running their software on British Telecom's internet infrastructure. The biggest reason that I should be worried about this is that both companies have gone out of their way to remove any trace of them working together presumably in an attempt to keep the British public in the dark. If there's nothing sinister, then why cover it up?

The other side of the coin is that this is good for the businesses and their customers, us. I hate advertising - the BBC's ad-free television and radio is as far as I'm concerned the best in the world significantly because they have no advertising. But you're not going to get away without advertising any more - Google have seen to that and made AdWords an extremely profitable business for themselves and their customers by targetting adverts to the search terms we send to their search engine. It's good for us to - if I'm looking for a drum kit then it's great to see 10 adverts from companies that have gone out of their way (and to a cost to them) letting me know they have something appropriate to look at. If it's not appropriate then the company will just end up out of pocket because they won't make any money out of it which keeps the adverts highly targetted. Google have taken this further by allowing websites to display AdWords that can be similarly targetted, usually based on whatever the website is about.

So this is the next step in that process; target ads specifically to you, wherever you go on the web. Have you seen Minority Report? Targetted advertising based on knowing your identity, what you buy, your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle and so on. And this is the kind of information that is becoming increasingly known by the likes of Phorm, Google and BT. So don't be surprised when in a couple of years time you're browsing a website when an advert pops up saying 'I know you ordered your wife Pip some flowers for her birthday on Friday, but remember last year? She told all her friends about that pear tree you bought her and she wants to put a plum tree next to it - click here to get it delivered to home Friday'. Expect it sooner in the UK.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 05 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Google Street view released in New Zealand

The release of Google Street View marks a new milestone for web applications. The web-app, which allows a Google Maps user to view virtual street scapes as if they were actually walking down the street, is probably the most complicated software application attempted on the net to date, performing feats that were previously only available in very high-end GIS software packages.

Street view combines Adobe Flash and the Google Maps API to display the panoramic views and works very well on my 3 year old laptop with a broadband connection.

The commercial benefits of Street View are already being demonstrated by Trade Me Property, where you can look up and down the street of a listed property as well as at pictures of the house itself.

If you have a Street View that you would like to display on your website, give us a call. As you can see below, showing a street view on your website is as easy as pasting into the Klixo Story Editor.

 

View Larger Map

posted by Daniel Larsen, 05 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo Web Services Framework

The past couple of weeks I've been developing the Klixo Web Services Framework (KWSF). This is a project that fits somewhere in between our current Klixo content management system (KCMS) and our next version. We've been working away at providing web services to KCMS for a few months now with the ultimate aim of allowing all of the current ability of the KCMS interface to be effected using web services (plus a few more too).
So what does the KWSF do? At this stage it is very simple but a very useful tool in developing an alternative front-end to the KCMS. The basic concept is quite simple; if you're using the KWSF you're creating/reading/updating and deleting new data. On the web this is a <form>. So, what you want to do is take that form data and either create, read, update or delete data from the database. The first thing the system does is convert the from post/get data into an appropriate XML document as specified by the web service. If you use the Klixo naming conventions this is a single call to the KWSF but of course you can manipulate any of the elements of the XML request as required (as long as they are consistent with the web service you wish to call). Then you need to make the call to the appropriate webservice with the request you've just generated; again a single call.
Of course, you can make as many calls as you like and the KWSF simple accumulates the responses in a single document. When you've finished you can access the document and extract information or manipulate it as required. But most of the time you'll be wanting to simply convert all that XML you've acquired into an (X)HTML document which again is a single call. This is just the beginning but it's already proving very useful and significantly reducing development time - we're starting to use it on our own KCMS front-end and it makes life easy.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 28 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Extend your website with Widgets

We are so busy at Klixo all of the time that we rarely have time to talk about some of the great projects that we work on on a regular basis. One thing that we are getting really good at is extending the functionality of websites with great add-ins, APIs and widgets like Google Maps, Vianet and YouTube.

This is mostly due to having an awesome content management system, based on the worldwide standard XML language, which can be extended to work with any other system in the world that also supports XML.

Add Google Maps to your Site

Google Maps is a wonderful application that allows you to put your business or any other point of interest on the map. You can add a Google Map to your website easily by using the Story Editor in Klixo; have a look at one of our favourite sites Orange Motor Co for a good example of this.

Google Maps can be integrated to great effect when you start adding geographical information to your stories in Klixo. That's a bit of a mouthful but all it really involves is adding Longitude and Latitude information. See how "geocoding" has enabled some really great local mapping on Whakatane.info.

Vianet Accommodation Availability Calendars

We have been working with Vianet for a couple of years now and I really like their straight-forward approach to the accommodation availability and booking problem. Signing up with Vianet is free, and once you have done so you can easily add a fully featured booking and availability calendar to your website, once again by pasting some code into the Klixo Story Editor.

For more advanced uses of Vianet's system, have a look at this page on New Zealand Tramping Tracks, a great example of Vianet & Google Maps working together.

Whakatane's official information centre, Whakatane.com have also made it really easy for visitors to locate and book accommodation online using Google Maps and Vianet. Have a look at this Ohope accommodation guide as an example.

Whakatane.info have also added value to their business listings by combining Google Maps & Vianet, as demonstrated beautifully by the Pacific Coast Motor Lodge listing.

Finally, my personal favourite would have to be the official Opotiki Information Centre website, OpotikiNZ.com which combines great content, driving directions and availability calendars for the full visitor experience - see the Opotiki to Waihau Bay travel guide to see what I mean! In my opinion this is rich content at its best.

Add YouTube Video to your site

Finally a quick nod to YouTube who have made it so easy for websites to add video to their site and share it with the world. See how a Whakatane tourism business have used YouTube to demonstrate their dolphin swimming trips and get new customers on the Whales & Dolphin Watch Website. The beauty of this is that your video also shows up in searches on the YouTube website.

So if you are interested in extending your website with some great new functionality talk to Klixo, we are the Google Maps, Vianet and YouTube integration experts!

posted by Daniel Larsen, 28 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, to be perfectly honest this is not an area of my expertise (I'm working on it) - so I will refer you to a great article on WikiHow! The first step: "Acknowledge that you are a person who is having a hard time being punctual."

Link: How to Be Punctual

posted by Richard Parfitt, 28 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

From last Monday, the YouTube starts to provide HD videos (1280x720) on their website. However, not everyone like it...
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

国外媒体今天撰文称，YouTube周一推出了宽屏高清播放服务。这意味着用户将以1280x720的分辨率播放视频，而此前，最高分辨率仅为480x360。不过，这一做法遭到了不少用户的批评。

对于这种变化，YouTube用户不是欢呼雀跃，而是怨声载道，一位名为“Shane 1163”的用户称：“我很讨厌现在这个样子，最好能给我们一个‘取消’选项。”

而用户“Marcor5000”称：“两边的黑条让人分心，但比这两道黑条更令人厌恶的是，这好比是在4:3的电视上观看16:9的节目。YouTube应该让我们选择播放比例。”

YouTube反驳

在YouTube博客网站上，有57名用户对此发表了意见，大部分都持批评态度。对此，YouTube在一份声明中称：“推出新的宽屏播放器旨在保持页面整洁，提供更强大的观看体验，而且新播放器能很好地支持4:3的视频文件。”

但很多用户认为，YouTube此举是出于商业目的。用户“Shane 1163”认为：“YouTube希望自己变得更专业，从而赢得更多的好莱坞合同。”最近，YouTube与米高梅、狮门影业和CBS签署了视频合作协议，为YouTube提供全长高清电影服务铺平了道路。

当然，并非所有用户都持反对态度，用户“Nataliana1234”称：“此次升级太完美了，我已经迫不及待了。”

此前，YouTube也曾对网站技术规范进行过升级。从今年3月开始，用户就可以以2倍于原始分辨率的质量观看部分视频。此外，除了Flash 格式，YouTube还采用了苹果的h.264格式编码，这意味着YouTube视频同时支持iPhone、iPod Touch和Apple TV等设备。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 28 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, Google Inc and NASA have recently developed an internet connection that will make it possible deep space internet to be available millions of kilometers into space! The internet has always reached shuttles in orbit and has allowed Astronauts to update their MySpace profiles and buy items of trademe... Not really, but it has been used for sending data and communications within orbit of our planet. Now it is possible for internet connections to be used for satellites and rovers in the outer reaches of space. Using a new method to get around the implications and barriers such as solar flares, the harsh radiation in space, or the obstacle created when a spacecraft swings behind a planet the internet connection uses a "store-and-forward method" to store the data and send it when the signal is available. Having deep space internet available will allow several missions in space - orbiters and spacecraft on the Moon or Mars for example - to communicate with each other and work as a team, instead of NASA having to schedule contacts with their spacecraft and pass messages between the vehicles. This new method should also bring many new uses here on Earth as most new space technology does. I can imagine the Google Analytics report now - Visitor Location: North America 10%, New Zealand 40%, Mars 5%, Argentina 25%, Germany 5%, The Moon 25%!

References:

• 'Interplanetary Internet' possible, thanks to NASA, Google' - Canada.com
• Pushing the Internet Into Space - Wired.com

 

posted by Richard Parfitt, 21 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

It seems that Microsoft not only focuses on selling their software but also on making money from their online store selling hard drives now.
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

微软在美推网上商店销售软硬件产品

据国外媒体报道，微软周四面向美国用户悄然推出了新的网络商店，该商店可以让当地用户在网上购买软硬件产品。

微软已经在英国、德国和韩国推出了类似网络商店。微软高级程序经理车文·周(Trevin Chow)在博客中称：“通过新的网路商店，美国用户可以直接购买到微软提供的多种软硬件产品。”此前，网民可以在Windows Marketplace上购买或者下载微软软件，但Xbox等硬件产品只能到第三方零售商的网站上购买，现在微软也开始在网络商店中自行销售这些产品。

车文·周表示，只要是在微软支持期内(一般为5年)的软件，用户也可以在网络商店中重新下载曾购买过的软件产品，并将下载的产品刻录成光盘保存。微软也将为用户保存产品密钥，以备用户重新安装软件时使用。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 14 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Form2Mail2Story

What happens when a customer wants to contact you via your website? Many websites have a simple link using mailto:contact@website.com as the href. will utilise a form that posts the fields of the form to the appropriate recipient. At Klixo, we use a system called Form2Mail which posts an email but also stores all the data in our database. Furthermore, this system is backed by an anti-spam system that uses the fantastic Re-Captcha system to prevent form spam.
The Form2Mail system is pretty useful in many respects.  The first benefit is that, should the email get 'lost', our customers always have a record of the request. 
What happens if you want to send sensitive information? Well, because Klixo's content management system is based upon XML technologies (I hope we extend its use and develop an XRX-based system over the next year) we simply change the XSL file to inform the recipient that sensitive information has been submitted to their site together with a secure link at which to read that information on our website. Very handy!
Form2Mail2Story takes the whole thing a little further. The same process occurs but we modify the XSL such that when they view the Form2Mail at our website an extra button allows them to convert the mail into a story. In Klixo, a story is a small bit of content that can be added anywhere on the website. To add a bit of content on your website you simply create a story and put it where it's needed (we have a variety of means to do this).
How is this useful you may ask? Well, we've just started developing a new website for the Koanga Institute. They want a FAQ page that their customers can add questions to should they not find the answer. We are implementing Form2Mail2Story on the FAQ page.
Say the customer looks at the list of FAQs (all stories on the FAQ page) and doesn't find what they're looking for. Lower down the page a form allows them to pose their own question. They receive an email with the question. They decide whether or not it warrants a response that should go on the website. If it doesn't they simply reply to the email.  If it does, they click the link to turn the question into a FAQ. The Klixo story editor opens up with all the pertinent information and they simply write the answer to the question and press the save button. The page is automatically republished (our content management system publishes static pages where appropriate to improve speed of delivery (which boosts search engine rankings) and reliance upon the database) and the FAQ is updated. Simple, easy, efficient. Love it.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 14 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Eastern Bay Broadband Survey

The Eastern Bay Chamber of Commerce has launched an online survey to find out the needs of people in business and at home for Broadband services.

The survey came about after discussions with Environment Bay of Plenty Miles McConway and Chamber of Commerce President Gerard Casey on how the Chamber could support the Baybroadband application to improve capability and accessibility to broadband services in the Bay of Plenty.

A similar survey was completed in the Waikato and 800 people responded in seven days. The Eastern Bay Chamber of Commerce survey is available on line at this address: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7iOfKQFEjZ_2bUfrbkwbndvQ_3d_3d

 

posted by Daniel Larsen, 12 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Increase Productivity with Google Desktop

Recently the Klixo team downloaded Xobni, a great email analytics tool that gives you interesting stats on your email usage. The Xobni buzz has been and gone now, but the feature that endured for me was the search function. You can literally search every email you have ever sent or received in seconds, and that is very valuable to workplace productivity.

Many people file every email they receive in a collection of folders, categorised in a way that make sense to them. This is a natural, very human way of sorting large amounts of information (in this case, emails) but is not great for productivity. It is actually a more productive if you just file all of your emails in one of three folders (the trusted trio) and rely on a good search engine to find emails when you need to.

So after using Xobni for a while I was interested in finding a lightweight tool that could search all of my email, but without the bloat of the other cool features which were nice to have once in a while, but that I could live without. I also have a pretty old and slow laptop, and I don't have much RAM. Xobni often consumed more than 32MB which is a lot to spare on my poor old HP/Compaq nx6120.

So I installed and tested the latest version of Google Desktop, which is a "desktop" search engine; it searches the files and emails on your own PC. When Google Desktop first came out it was a bit of a dog in my opinion because it used so much resources (RAM & CPU) that I couldn't run it without it slowing down my PC. I was pleasantly surprised now (a few years later) to download version 5.8, which is a much slimmer offering, and I read that the developers at Google have put great effort into this version to keep it lightweight.

One trick to reducing RAM is to not activate the "Sidebar with gadgets" that allows you to run Google Gadgets in a sidebar (like Vista). It is an awesome feature, but resource hungry.

On my laptop GoogleDesktop.exe usually runs at about 8MB, which I can handle, and only consumes more RAM when it is doing something really important, like indexing or sorting results.

As well as indexing all important emails, Google Desktop also indexes most other documents on your PC, but not code files (by default) so you will have to install a plug-in for that. Once installed, you just tap the CTRL key twice at any time to popup a search box. Once you get in to the habit you will find your self double-tapping CTRL to open files, instead of using Windows Explorer, it is that quick.

Just a word of warning for first time installers, indexing your email and files can take many hours (mine indexed over two nights) so you may have a long wait until you can start reaping the benefits.

So in summary, if you use your PC for work, get a good desktop search engine so that you don't have to spend time trawling through email folders and windows explorer. There are some tricks to getting it working smoothly, so I have listed my suggestions below.

If you have any more tips, comment this!

Setup hints

• Don't run the Sidebar with gadgets (set "Display Mode" to None)
• If you are a developer, install Larry's Any Text File Indexer plugin so that your code files are indexed

 

posted by Daniel Larsen, 07 Nov 2008 | read 2 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, I am in no way an ACDC fan at all - in fact I'm quite the opposite, but... this is neat - they have converted one of their videos off their new album Black Ice (I had to look that up) into text character images for example ---%--<@ thats a rose. Any way you can download it from their website or watch it on YouTube. This is not really work related but it is titled "ACDC ROCK THE OFFICE" and it is kind of nerdy...  And it is a brilliant form of Viral marketing that will appeal to a younger generation. See the original video and compare it (I haven't watched the original) That is all... Wait!

       ,.              .s.                        .s.              .s.
     ,d$$$$b.        ,d$$$b.                 ,s$$$$$$$$s.        ,d$$$b.
   ,d$$$$$$$$b.   ,d$$$$$$$$b.      ssssss 4$$$$$$$$$$$$$b.   ,d$$$$$$$$b.
  $$$$$$`$$$$$$$ d$$$$$`$$$$$$b    d$$$$$'   $$$$$$`$$$$$$$b $$$$$$`$$$$$$b
  $$$$$$  $$$$$$ $$$$$$  "$$P"    $$$$$P     $$$$$$  "$$$$$$ $$$$$$  "$$P"
  $$$$$$  $$$$$$ $$$$$$          $$$$$P      $$$$$$   $$$$$$ $$$$$$
  $$$$$$ee$$$$$$ $$$$$$         $$$$$$$$$$"  $$$$$$   $$$$$$ $$$$$$
  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$        d$$$$$$$$'    $$$$$$   $$$$$$ $$$$$$
  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$  .s.      d$$$P      $$$$$$   $$$$$$ $$$$$$  .s.
  $$$$$$  $$$$$$ $$$$$$bd$$$$b.  d$$P'       $$$$$$.s$$$$$$$ $$$$$$bd$$$$b.
 ,d$$$$$bd$$$$$b."$$$$$$$$$$$P" d$$'       zd$$$$$$$$$$$$$"  "$$$$$$$$$$$P"
 "$$$$$$""$$$$$P"  "$$$$$$$$"  ;$'          "$$$$$$$$$$P"      "$$$$$$$$"
  "S$S"   "S$S"       "S$S"    '               """"""""           "S$S"

posted by Richard Parfitt, 31 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

People who wants to become an 'Iron Man' is not a dream any more - just wear a special clothes, you will be 10 times stronger than before!
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

现实版钢铁侠:日发明“大力服”穿上力量增10倍

核心提示：日本一家公司研制出的“大力服”是世界首款全功能机械外甲，能使穿戴者四肢力量瞬间增加十倍。“大力服”将在近期投放市场，帮助老年人和四肢残疾者增强活动能力。“大力服”技术还有望在工业和军事领域发挥更广泛用途。

日本一家公司研制出的“大力服”是世界首款全功能机械外甲，能使穿戴者四肢力量瞬间增加十倍。“大力服”将在近期投放市场，帮助老年人和四肢残疾者增强活动能力。

整套装置仅重7公斤

这款“大力服”名为“混合辅助四肢”系统，由日本Cyberdyne公司研制。“大力服”借助电池电力运转，整套装置重约7公斤。人脑通过神经系统发出运动指令时，衣服上的内置传感器因与人体接触，能接收到微弱的皮肤电流。这些传感器与计算机相连，计算机通过解译传感器发出的信号，指导捆绑在人体四肢上的机械支架运动。

“大力服”研发负责人三阶勇纪

大力服

穿上“大力服”后，穿戴者可以轻松举起30公斤的物体

Cyberdyne公司打算近期将“大力服”投放市场，每年向公众出租500套，月租金拟定为1300英镑左右。同时，公司还有意与日本国内其他公司以及海外其他公司合作，分享“大力服”技术。

“大力服”力量可调节

“大力服”最初设计理念为康复工具，能使穿戴者四肢力量增强十倍，并帮助行动不便的老年人和四肢残疾者增强活动能力。两年前，一名登山运动员背负一名四肢残疾者爬上高4164米的瑞士不莱特峰，这名登山运动员当时穿的正是“大力服”。“大力服”还可根据穿戴者四肢先天力量进行调节，以确保先天活动能力各异的人得到大小不同的动力协助。

英国《泰晤士报》20日援引研发负责人三阶勇纪的话报道：“‘大力服’的研制刚刚起步。我们的研制不仅仅是从片面的时尚观念出发，它凝结了众多研究人员的观点，包括用户。”

展望 未来战士或穿“大力服”

“大力服”研发负责人三阶勇纪介绍说，“大力服”技术还有望在工业和军事领域发挥更广泛用途。

事实上，三阶勇纪并不是唯一试图利用科技手段增强人体运动能力的人。美国防卫设备承包商雷神公司旗下的萨尔科斯公司目前正在美国军队中试验铝制外甲，意在增强士兵的身体力量和忍耐力。

美国卡内基-梅隆大学教授汉斯·莫拉韦茨早在20世纪60年代初便投身机械研究。他说，“大力服”技术意味着人们能在避免高风险情况下，直接利用机器传达人体感知。

美国发明家雷·库兹韦尔则预言，展望未来，人脑发出的信息最终会转化为数据传入计算机。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 24 Oct 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Kia Ora. Do you have a website? Is there something you have been meaning to change or do to it that you just haven't got the time to do? Or do you have a great idea for the site but your not sure how to go about turning it into a reality? If you answered yes to those questions then I believe you need to do something about it! Its amazing what a little attention to your website can achieve! Simple things like changing the welcome message on the home page or the extreme full revamp of your website can do wonders for your traffic and your online presence. 

Here are some suggestions of small changes you can make to your website that can generate more traffic:

• Update the content frequently - A good idea if you are a specialist in your field is to set up a "Blog" or "News" page that you can add articles to, this way people that are interested in your field will keep coming back to your website. This is also a good way to promote products or services your business offers and provide information about them. A good example of this is the Pascoe Barton Ltd. who update their articles section weekly with sound financial advice. Also review the content on your website monthly or weekly to make sure that is up to date and does a good job of promoting your business and your products.
• Email Newsletters - Setting up an email newsletter for your website can be used to promote any special offers you may have or to send out information to your clients, it will also let your users know that your website does contain valuable information and that it is updated frequently and worth checking out again.
• Competitions - Think of a good idea for a competition and promote it on your website and in any other advertising material. Make sure you collect relevant information off your entrants that you can use to further mould your website to meet their needs. You can also use an email newsletter to announce the winners, this will bring users back to your website everytime you draw the competition.
• Include your domain name in all of your promotional material - More and more people use the internet these days as a method for getting more information about a company and their products. If they like your advertisement or offer they can follow this up by going to your website and making an enquiry.

A little investment of time and in some cases money on your website in the right places will go a long way. If your interested in any of the suggestions above, or if you have some ideas of your own (Billboard on the moon perhaps?*) please do get in touch with us to discuss them further, we can let you know what is involved and the best way to go about getting it done.

*Klixo Limited do not offer billboards on the moon as a product at this stage.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 24 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

XSLT – Universal Web Template Language in Waiting

Earlier this year Anup Shah of OneNought.com wrote a brilliant blog titled “Why Use XSLT in Server Side Web Frameworks For Output Generation?” This is a great question and in this week’s blog I would like to add to the comments that Anup has made on this subject.

It’s time for framework developers to start taking the problem of HTML templates seriously. I don’t believe that back-end developers place enough importance or time and effort on HTML templates. In some frameworks they appear to be an afterthought, and are often just mash-ups of the developer’s language of choice and HTML.

A good HTML template language should be an open standard

I cannot think of any other template language that is a W3C standard apart from XSLT. What I love most about open standards is that they bring developers together. HTML is an open standard, and for reasons that I go into further below, any HTML template language should be as well.

A good HTML template language should be platform / language / framework agnostic

Platforms, languages and frameworks require an emotional investment by their users. “We love platform X because it is so easy to use” and so on. The aim of an HTML (web) developer is to write code oblivious of platforms, languages and frameworks. Back-end programmers must choose platforms and frameworks based on what is going to be the best solution for the problem at hand. But HTML developers should be able to tag along with that decision without having to re-skill or even consider the choice at all.

A good HTML template language should be portable

“What happens if your company goes under?”

“What happens if for one reason or another we decide we don’t want to use your company anymore?”

“What happens if our business outgrows Framework X and we need to use Framework Y?”

IT managers ask these sorts of questions all the time. If your framework uses a proprietary template language it means that when the client decides to upgrade their site, they are going to have to throw away work that they have paid for. This is not acceptable to most IT managers once they are made aware of these consequences.

A good HTML template language should work just like HTML

Notice that I have not said “should be easy to use”. Many programmers complain that XSLT is difficult to use. That may be true, but simple XSLT it is no more difficult to use than XHTML, and web developers have mastered that language and enjoy it. Furthermore, XHTML and XSLT both come from the same parent: XML. A simple XSLT template is semantically the same the XHTML it produces which makes it easy for web developers to learn.

XHTML and XSLT often have to be coded by hand to be optimised for the web and to acheive web standards compliance. Attempts at WYSIWYG editors have been a disaster and I cannot see a solution to this any time soon. Personally I enjoy coding HTML and XSLT by hand and find that method faster and more productive than using a WYSIWYG editor and cleaning up the code that it produces.

A good HTML template language should be extensible

I mean truly extensible. This term is thrown around a lot by CMS frameworks, but most proprietary template languages will run out of options for extensibility sooner or later.  What I dislike about proprietary, non-standard template languages is that it is like a developer woke up one morning and thought, “you know what? I think I’ll write a template language.”

What I love about XML/XSLT is that for decades now, the best brains in the world have collaborated, designed, debated, and approved a truly brilliant standard. It is extensible and therefore extremely versatile.

We use XSLT for emails (plaintext and html), generating CSVs, JavaScript and PDFs. I have used XSLT to transform XML into a proprietary label printer language for printing shoebox labels in a warehouse. And the beauty of XSLT is that it is intelligent enough to choose its own output type based on parameters passed to it, i.e. you can support multiple output types in the same template. This functionality is built-in to XSLT.

Summary

We have been using XSLT as the template language for the Klixo CMS for almost 5 years now and find it to be powerful, extensible and versatile. I train developers in XSLT without any problems; they have all grown to love it. Like most languages you can start with a very simple implementation that will get you by for most jobs, before digging deeper to explore the real power of the language.

We are currently working on an upgrade to our CMS software that will change the underlying data model quite drastically. Upgrading customers to the new model is not a problem because we can translate from the old schema to new using, you guessed it, XSLT. This means we don’t have to force our customers down a costly upgrade path to take advantage of new technology.

While we do provide template development in-house, our clients have the option of outsourcing template development to a third party because we are using an open-standard. This is a unique selling point for our software that wins us sales over our competitors, not because we have a proprietary system that is perceived to be better than others, but ironically because we are embracing open standards that our competitors do not.

In a way it would be easier and better in the long run if our competitors were using XSLT, because it would give our customers more options and make it less expensive for them to switch providers, based on the need of their organization at the time. At the end of the day, what is best for our customers is best for us!

• Read Anup Shah's article "Why Use XSLT in Server Side Web Frameworks For Output Generation?"

posted by Daniel Larsen, 18 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, I discovered a website that I believe is worth sharing - TED: Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers. This website is a database of all of the talks from the annual TED conference, which basically brings together the worlds greatest thinkers and doers and encourages them to give the talk of their lives in around 18 minutes. As TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design your more than likely to find an eye opening or inspiring talk on any topic your interested in.

The sites navigation takes a little bit of getting used to but you will find it easier to find what you are looking for the more you use it. The talks can be viewed by watching the streaming video, or you can download them in a range of formats (mp3, mp4 for example), the videos are the best format to watch as with the audio you miss out on all of the diagrams and images referenced by the speaker. One feature of the sites navigation that I particularly like is the "Order Talks By" in the menu, you can order the talks by most discussed, most jaw-dropping, most persuasive, most courageous, most ingenious, most fascinating, most inspiring, most beautiful and most funniest depending on your mood.

This site is defiantly worth looking at (if you have broadband that is), find a theme your interested in and go from there. One of my favorites is Malcolm Gladwell's "What we can learn from spaghetti sauce" which looks at the nature of choice and happiness and marketing to meet these needs.

So now that you know, let me know your favorite videos from this site. Enjoy.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 17 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

I recently converted a website for a client from the all to common - "my friends aunties son built my website" over to a Klixo template based website. The overall goal was to keep the look of the site the same as it was already quite professional but not consistent and improve the loading times and the SEO for the site. After completing the project the client said to me "It looks exactly the same?..." Which on the surface and to the untrained eye it did, but in no way was the new version of the site anything like the old site. For example:

• The overall loading time (56k) had been brought down from 41.99 seconds to 8.51 seconds (according to WebsiteOptimisation.com)
• The menus had been converted from images with rollovers to text based CSS menus
• All of the images on the website had been optimized for the web
• The text had been formatted consistently - using heading tags in order e.g. Heading 1 > Paragraph > Heading 2 > Paragraph
• Alt tags had been added to all of the images on the website, logos header images and all of the images in the content
• The design features were made consistent throughout the website e.g. background images on all pages instead of some.
• Title tags had been added to all of the menu links - describing the page the link is going to.
• Keyword and Description META tags had been added to the Head and filled with content
• All of the HTML markup is now compliant with W3C standards - tested using http://validator.w3.org/ 
• All of the tables used for formatting had been removed and in place a mixture of divs and CSS was used. This helps bring the size of the HTML file down dramatically.
• Klixo's custom PHP image resizer had been installed on the site for thumbnails - making it easier for the client to update and add content.
• We installed the Klixo Website Manager in order for the client to be able to update and edit their website easily.

After explaining some of this to the client they seemed satisfied that we had actually done some work for them, and off they went with a website that will definitely help their business in the future. But completely unwise about the amount of work that was actually done to get it to that level.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 10 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

If you reckon the iPhone 3G or the Google Android means "cool", sorry, you are wrong - a 'future cellphone' has been developed by a Japanese company and showed to the public. It can be seperated into two parts. You can use one part to make a phone call and, in the same time, write an email with another half. Can you believe it or not? If you can't, let me show you something!
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

日本推出屏幕与键盘分离的“未来型手机”

正在千叶市幕张国际会展中心举行的“CEATEC JAPAN 2008”上展示了各款最新数码家电和先进信息技术。其中一款屏幕与键盘分离，无需按键即可操作的“未来型手机”样机吸引了参观者的目光。

虽然这款机型何时能够投放市场还是未知数，但各手机公司希望借提供新的使用方法吸引新顾客，而非仅扩充手机的已有性能。

NTT　DOCOMO推出的“分离手机”外观类似普通翻盖手机，实则用磁石吸附了屏幕与键盘，两部分可轻易分离。

该机可将键盘部分放在耳边通话的同时，手握屏幕部分收发邮件。还可将屏幕放在桌上，用键盘作为遥控器欣赏音乐、动画等。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 10 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

How to sell your House on TradeMe

This week's blog comes from special guest blogger, and Klixo copywriter, Kaye Blaker. Kaye successfully marketed and sold her house on TradeMe.co.nz with no agents fees or a big marketing budget. Here is her advice:

1. Take as many good photos as Trade Me will allow. Include every room and your favourite bits of the garden and the view if there is one.
2. Make sure your house looks gorgeous ie bed made with matching stuff, flowers in strategic places, benches uncluttered. Remember this is their first 'walk - through'
3. Describe it like you LOVE it and don't want to leave.
4. Write a good description and follow up with a bullet point summary of best features.
5. Include what is in the vicinity - parks, schools, shops, etc.
6. Think about the small things that are important to you when looking for a house and assume other buyers want that too, eg bus stops outside the gate.
7. Answer every enquiry asap and treat them all like you really want them to be the buyers.

And here is the copy from her successful ad to give you some ideas:

Got a copywriting question for Kaye? Post a comment

posted by Daniel Larsen, 06 Oct 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora. That's right summer is just around the corner, and we all know what that means... Its going to be HOT! Yes toasty hot summer days are awesome, however sitting at a desk in an office doesn't have the same cooling effect as lazing in a pool, in a lake or splashing around at the beach. So I have done a bit of research for todays blog on some of the cool/geeky USB devices that are available to help get you through the upcoming hot days! So here is a rundown of some of my favorites, also if you would like to use this as my Christmas wish list that's fine by me.

1.2.3.
4.5.

1. The USB Beverage Cup cooler and Warmer - Keep you favorite beverage warm (for winter) or cold all the time with this USB Beverage Cup Cooler and Warmer! This would be perfect for keeping my 1.5 litre water bottle of Kiwi Blue cool.  
2. The ever stylish USB Coke fridge - this ones an old favourite
3. Of course there had to be a USB Fan - there are so many to choose from but the Plant Fan here is my favourite looking one!
4. The USB Seat Cooler - This is seriously something I want! It takes in air from the surrounding area via an intake valve and provides a constant stream of air to cool your backside
5. This is by far the best one - an Air Conditioned shirt! If you have a USB Seat Cooler your going to need an USB powered Air conditioned shirt! These look awesome and would be perfect for work in the summer. You can also get Ties with fans in them to match!

And last but not least I thought I'd add the USB Apple Air Purifier - This high-performance badboy immediately & silently draws the polluted air in then disperses the negative ions evenly back into the air... Perfect for cleaning up those smells that accompany hot feat and sweaty summer workers! 

Most of these are available on www.usbgeek.com. Thats all for now, have a look around and let me know if you find any other awesome gadgets for the summer!

posted by Richard Parfitt, 26 Sep 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Many people are still wondering if they need to pay more than a thousand NZ dollars to get a flash iPhone 3G, here is a good news for these people (but may be the bad news for those people who has already got an iPhone or iPhone 3G  ^_^ ) -- Google Android is coming! You can forget about the iPhone 3G now! 
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

Google手机的真机演示视频终于曝光，从曝光的视频我们能发现，Google确实给我们带来了很大的惊喜。速度很快、堪比iPhone 3G的全新酷炫的操作方式、内置Google服务强大、更是支持Google街景服务。

屏幕解锁方式：特别

这台Google手机的屏幕解锁方式很特别，屏幕上有三排共9个触点，需要从第一排左起第三个开始逆时针滑动，最后到达中间的那个触点完成解锁的过程，进入到主菜单。

相比iPhone 3G手机的屏幕解锁方式，Google手机的酷炫程度丝毫不逊色。

触控方式：前卫

进入到主菜单之后，用户可以通过手指上下左右的移动获得不同的界面/功能。从屏幕顶部往下移，就能拉出一个提醒的界面（这与Palm手机的长按中间的确定键实现的功能一样），可以查询当日日程提醒、未读短信、未接电话等等提醒的功能。这个界面从下至上移动，则可缓缓收起这个提醒的界面。

内置众多Google功能

这台Google手机对Google自家服务的支持，自然能用完美来描述，包括搜索、Gmail、地图等服务都出现在菜单当中，非常强大。

更令人欣慰的是，连Google的街景服务都内置到了手机当中，并且启动的速度非常快，除了依靠手指在屏幕上移动来实现屏幕显示方向和角度变化之外，用户还可以一个正前方向，就手拿手机平移的时候，街景会随着手机的移动跟着移动。

上网功能

这台Google手机向我们展示了有别于iPhone 3G的浏览网页的全新方式，更是把拖移的操控方式发挥得更加绝妙，可以用手指双击屏幕缩小浏览的内容，然后长按某一区域即是放大，当然也可拖移那个长按屏幕后出现的框，放大所要浏览的板块。

游戏功能

Google手机内置了Pac-Man经典游戏，Pac-Man被广泛认为是上世纪80年代街机游戏里最经典的一个，游戏的主人公黄色小精灵的形象甚至被作为一种流行文化。

  

 

HTC G1配置参数:

• 一键进入Google搜索、地图、Gmail、Youtube视频、日历和GTalk
• 附送Gmail帐户，以及电子邮件流量（仅限签约购买）
• 操作系统：Google Android
• 处理器：528MHz
• 内置GPS全球定位系统
• 摄像头：310万像素，没有视频摄录功能
• 蓝牙：内置，不支持A2DP立体声
• Wi-Fi：内置
• 尺寸：4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63英寸
• 重量：5.6盎司
• 屏幕：480 × 320像素分辨率，65K色触摸式屏幕
• 电池：5小时连续通话时间，130小时怠机时间
• 储存卡：可扩充到8GB microSD

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 26 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Do you have a flash key? If yes, are you always worried about accidently breaking it? Now you can take it easy - just buy a Corsair Flash Survivor GT! 
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

打不死的蟑螂U盘 - Corsair Flash Survivor GT

一般的U盘大多可以自由落体一下还安然存活，但如果是泡在两米多深的水里30分钟呢？或在沸水里煮10分钟？拿铁锤猛敲？这种非常规的使用方式就真的只有 “专家”才能应付的了了。Corsair的这款Corsair Flash Survivor GT从名字就能看得出来它的主要功能就是“存活”，而航空级铝制的外壳和橡皮垫圈就是它的最佳保障。

沸水煮、锤子砸、高空掉落全都不在话下!

这就是这款U盘的庐山真面目

评测者本来就预期这只不怎么小的U盘会很耐打，但最后的结果仍然是吓了他们一跳！特别是在沸水里煮的那部份，因为10/10的满分可以说是实至名归。虽然它大概没办法像另一只U盘一样能抗核爆，但用130美元买一只什么日常状况都难不倒的U盘，还是很划算的啦！

 

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo2 CMS Development Starts

I wrote about the redevelopment of the Klixo content management system a few weeks ago, and we've already made a start. It isn't quite K2 (Klixo Content Management System V2) as the web services are still using the current Klixo database. The database shall be redesigned to more easily incorporate many of the features we want to add and simultaneously make the developments we've already added to Klixo1 more generic. However, these web services have been written in .NET using Visual Studio and C# with a good framework already developed for the database and generic web services that we shall use in K2.

Currently, the Klixo CMS has a single interface which our clients access to change or update their website. The new API provides services that can be consumed by our clients' applications. For some of our customers, the standard Klixo interface won't be optimal for data input. For example, one of our customers, Tramping Tracks provides a website that has comprehensive information on walks throughout New Zealand. Because of the extensive information they provide for each page we determined it would be significantly faster to write a custom interface for them. As a consequence, the Klixo API arose.

This API adds another string to Klixo's bow because it allows for as much customisation as required. Of course the current system is dynamic, responding appropriately as the website demands, but in highly complex content entry such as this, there are significant gains to be made. A further benefit to our customers is that they can outsource the interface development if they so desire. Another benefit is that with a custom interface the content may be updated automatically. Imagine a company (such as I was talking to the other day) that sells books and gets many more books each week. If the book data can be extracted in any way, this API and a custom interface would allow all their books to be automatically updated on their website.

posted by Klixo Support, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) in the Klixo CMS

I've been looking into the Google Web Toolkit for use on the Klixo website as well as our customers' websites recently to determine if it will benefit us. There are many problems with implementing cross-browser support at all levels - HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the main components of a web page that are browser dependant and this is of course a major discussion topic for web developers. This particular post is concerned with the JavaScript (or ECMAScript) aspects, particularly of the Klixo CMS front-end. The Klixo content management system is based on XML retrieval and XSL transforms to publish web pages and in that respect is (quite astonishingly to me) still, pretty unique.
We have used the fabulous open-source code available on SourceForge.net called Sarissa for several years and it has proven very useful. The developers state that 'Sarissa is an ECMAScript library acting as a cross-browser wrapper for native XML APIs'. It's been around for many years and is the essence of AJAX. This has enabled us to provide an enhanced editor for our customers' as you would expect of any application that really needs AJAX. But from my initial dips into the GWT I have found that they have completely surpassed this and built an all-encompassing development platform for *all* cross-browser JavaScript.
Because it's a Google app and we know they'll stay around and support it, I think we'll embrace it. The next time someone produces a major browser release that changes things (have there been any this year? er....IE8, Fx3, Chrome) we'll simply recompile our code to support the new browsers without all the effort of looking into exactly what has changed. Thank you very much Google.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

This week I haven't really come up with any good ideas for a Blog... So it's 5.10 and there is still nothing on my page! Hmm what to write about? Well I have decided to write about other peoples blogs - as I cannot find anything interesting to write about this week I suggest you go elsewhere for your fix - do come back though! Here are some interesting Blogs I enjoy reading:

• The NASA blogs - I've always been interested in space and this site will give you a unique insight to the people involved with going there. Everything from Blogs of upcoming missions to live events
• NASA Edge is an interesting one
• Commander Peggy Whitson's Space Station Journals - from the international space station are an interesting read
• Robot News - Pretty nerdy but always an interesting read.
• The Klixo Blogs - I had to include this one really - cause you probably have found this blog just by searching for it in Google, your probably not aware that my fellow colleagues also write interesting blogs.

That's all for now - next week I will try to write about something better and more work related. Bye.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, as you may already know my name is Richard Parfitt - why am I telling you now? Well it has recently come to my attention that when "Richard Parfitt" is searched for on Google.com - when not searching "pages from New Zealand" (I have already dominated that area) - I am ranking around the third result mark for this blog! Which is awesome, but it's not first... Which is something I have always wanted to achieve haha. So yeah basically this blog is a blatant attempt at making me NUMBER 1 in Google. I have already out ranked my relative "Rick Parfitt" the singer and the rhythm guitarist from the English rock band Status Quo. Now all I have to do is beat this new guy on the scene, some "artist" of music Richard Parfitt, his link is only to his Amazon.co.uk listing for his album "Highlights in Slow Motion" which I would be interested in listening to - once I have beaten him!

So if you know of any ways that will help me please leave a comment, some things I would like to know are:

• Is including links to your competition a bad thing? 
• Will that help them more than me? 
• Will having the sentence "This blog is a blatant attempt at making me NUMBER 1 in Google." affect my ranking?
• Have I missed any SEO tricks that could help?

If you can answer any or all of those questions, please leave a comment. Oh and please include the name Richard Parfitt or Richard Parfitt related keywords in your comments!

posted by Richard Parfitt, 12 Sep 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

iPod is the hottest MP3 player at the moment, but if you would like to try something fresh, have a look of these new SONY Walkman MP3 players!
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

根据国外媒体的报道，索尼公司近日公布了Walkman S、E和B三大系列新MP3播放器，这些产品在IFA大会上进行了展示。

根据介绍，S系列属于高端产品，支持多种格式，包括在线现载和个人收集，提供的内容转换软件可简化非DRM音乐的拖拽，支持在线视频、歌曲下载至MP3播放器上。可支持WMV（DRM）格式。S系列也是索尼首款采用SensMe Channels功能的产品。

S系列播放器还具别飞行中噪音消除技术，无论是在高空飞行还是在家中使用，S系列播放器均可减弱背景噪音并提升整体的收听体验。S系列厚度仅为7.5mm，这也让它成Walkman机中最薄的一款。采用了2英寸QVGA液晶屏。

E系列结合了高质量视频和音频播放器功能，和S系列一样，E系列产品同样支持多种格式。B系列是入门级产品，通过USB接口便可进行数据传输，带有FM和语音录音功能。

S系列播放器电池进行音乐播放时的续航能力为40小时，视频播放为10小时，E系列为45小时，视频播放为8小时，B系列为16小时。

E系列和S系列播放器支持开放平台，可支持网上音乐和视频内容下载，支持Windows Media Audio (WMA)、AAC、PCM、MP3、JPEG、WMV DRM、AVC (H.264/AVC)等格式。

S系列

S系列包括NWZ-S736F和NWZ-S738F两个型号。NWZ-S736F播放器外容量为4GB，售价为150美元；NWZ-S738F播放器容量为8GB，售价为180美元。

E系列

E系列包括NWZ-E436F和NWZ-E438F两个型号。NWZ-E436F播放器的外观有黑色、红色、粉色和蓝色四种，最高容量为4GB，售价100美元。

NWZ-E438F播放器外观有黑色、红色、风色三种，最高容量为8GB，售价140美元。

B系列

B系列包括NWZ-B133F和NWZ-B135F两个型号， NWZ-B133F播放器外观有黑色、红色、蓝色三种，容量为1GB，售价45美元。

NWZ-B135F播放器外观有红色、黑色和粉色三种，容量为2GB，售价为60美元。

 

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 12 Sep 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Chrome!!! A new browser, new design, new technology!!! It's from Google!!! Sounds cool aye? But I won't use it in this stage. Why? Ok, let's have a look of this new toy!
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

先说个它的让人哭笑不得的bug：

在Google浏览器地址栏输入冒号+百分号！结果...它崩溃了

言归正传... 

主要几点： 

系统资源占用大。这个跟我的网页浏览习惯有关，看新闻或者论坛的时候，我喜欢一次性打开十几个或者几十个标签，然后慢慢看。Chrome就不行了，一个标签一个进程，几十个标签就占用狂多的系统资源。这个功能号称是能解决一个tab崩溃不影响别的tab，可是，我的Chrome崩溃的时候，还是整体全部崩溃。 

而它被吹捧的优点无非就是简洁清爽的界面，这个一点技术含量都没有。还有就是所谓的快，那得看跟什么比，跟IE比快有什么本事，跟没有插件的FF或者 Opera比，一点都不快甚至还慢，这个已经被他们自己的测试证明了，而且现在大部分网页的速度瓶颈并不在浏览器上，而是在网络端口上。 

你说他出来能撬走哪个浏览器的用户群吧？FFX的用户用惯了那些插件，Opera的用户习惯了那些贴心的功能，绝大部分IE用户估计都不知道Chrome这个东西，就算知道，听说他不能上网络银行这些只支持IE浏览器的网站，也不会转投，还不如用强大外壳IE内核的Maxthon。

拿什么拯救你，我的Google Chrome？算了，还是继续用我的FireFox 3 和 Maxthon 2.0 吧！

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 05 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, today I am going to be blogging about our online knowledge base, if you are a client of ours you will probably already be aware of this area of the Klixo Website - if not you should be!

We have an extensive online knowledge base for our clients that covers everything from "Problems with logging in?" to "I have accidentally responded to a Phishing (Scam) email. What should I do? ". So if you are a user of our take a look around these pages - you may just find what you have been wanting to do on your site for ages, but just didn't know where to start - or get some great ideas for new content on your website, like "How to embed a YouTube Video in your Story".

Here are some of the most commonly used articles and ones I recommend to all Klixo users as good reading:

• How to upload Images & other files
  It's good practice to upload well optimized images to your website as it helps with loading times and the appearance of you site to. Plus you can make you stories way more awesome with interesting images!
• How to link to a PDF
  This is quite a common thing users want to do as PDFs are becoming more popular method of displaying large flyers etc.
• How to read your web statistics
  This is handy for understanding the complexity of the beast called Web Statistics!

So there you have it - take a look around and if you can't find what you are looking for let us know and we will add it, as we are constantly updating this area of Klixo. If you get stuck with any of the articles don't forget the "How to get help" article! Bye for now.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 05 Sep 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Well, IE 8 beta 2 is available now. Have you tried it yet? Looks cool aye! BUT... it seems that the new IE has been in a trouble already...
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

IE8 Beta 2周三才发布，周四即遭投诉

据国外媒体报道，微软周三发布了功能完备的升级版IE8 Beta 2。

微软称，IE8 Beta 2的新特性是加强了隐私保护，并提高了使用舒适性及安全性。微软3月份发布了IE8 Beta 1，但目的只是向网络开发者展示这一最新IE版本，Beta 2则旨在向更多用户进行展示。

微软没有透露将于何时正式推出IE8，也并未对会有多少用户下载Beta 2作出预测。微软2006年10月正式推出了IE7，该公司一直承诺对IE进行更多常规升级。IE目前市场份额约为75%，但其领先地位正受到Mozilla火狐浏览器的冲击。

Beta 2具有火狐3浏览器的一些特性，如具有记忆功能的“智能”地址栏，可以引导用户进入以前访问过的网址。此外，IE8还提供了名为“InPrivate Browsing”的新功能（即所谓的“色情浏览模式”），作用是当用户关闭浏览窗口后，IE不会存储任何Cookie、密码、网页地址、搜索查询、Internet临时文件或数据；另一安全性新功能则允许用户阻止试图追踪及整合用户在线活动的第三方内容。

微软还升级了此前宣布过的一些功能，如“Activities”，该功能允许用户无需离开原始站点，即可将在某一网页上找到的信息(如地址等)与在线服务(如电子地图等)互联。

不幸的是，另据国外媒体报道，微软发布IE 8 Beta 2测试版仅一天时间，已引发了不少用户的投诉。测试版软件出现问题本不足为奇，但有些问题却是由于微软当前产品而引起。

微软周三承认，Windows XP SP3用户安装IE 8 Beta 2之后，将无法降级到IE 7，除非用户首先卸载XP SP3。对于32位和64位Windows系统而言，安装和卸载IE 8 Beta 2的步骤也不尽相同。例如，对于Windows Vista用户而言，必须先安装SP1后才能安装IE 8 Beta 2。

此外，IE 8 Beta 2与当前的Windows Live Meeting 2007也不兼容，无论是Web版，还是客户端版本。另外还有用户抱怨，通过IE 8 Beta 2无法访问Netflix公司的流媒体服务“Watch Now”。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 29 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Store your Telecom Mobile Photos online

Do you have a Telecom Mobile that has a camera? If so you may be able to upload your photos online! The first thing you will need to do is check your mobile phone to see if it has an upload option for your images, if it does you should be able to do this! Then you will need to create a Telecom User Login - once you've done this you will be able to access your online gallery here. You will be able to view all your uploaded photos in the gallery! I know a few people who have the same phone as me and they don't use this feature - it's FREE and its a great way to keep your phones memory free for more photos and also you can download your photos and back them up on your computer!

Let me know how you get on with this and if you have any questions.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 29 Aug 2008 | read 2 comments | comment | link

IE 8 beta 2 will be available by the end of Augest. So, what can you do with the latest version of IE? It seems that the IE 8 will be much powerful in privacy control, some new devices will be appeared as well.
(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

IE8即将推出 传言将具备色情网站专用浏览模式

IE8 beta2的倒计时开始了。因为微软给消费者承诺的是在8月进行此次测试，算一算，只剩下9天，8月就结束了。

当然，微软不可能一口气把所有功能都放出来。但是据Istartedsomething的Long Zheng称，IE8可能会包含一个叫做‘私人浏览’的模式，当然你可以简单的将其当作‘色情网站专用模式’。

这个模式Mozilla也有，但是从Firefox3开始它们就放弃了这项技术，而Safari从2005年开始就拥有这个功能了。

私人浏览模式允许用户在浏览某类网站时，自动清除所有痕迹，包括浏览历史、cookie、以及任何你输入的信息。

而微软的官方发言人也称，IE8在个人隐私控制方面将全面加强。

其实这项功能也是目前很多优化软件所具备的功能，看来微软还是会满足用户的呼声的。

 

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 22 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo2 Content Management System

My business partner Daniel Larsen developed our current content management system many years ago and it has proven to be highly successful. Over the years more and more useful features have been added and we can do pretty much everything we want with the system. However, there comes a time in every software's development cycle when it is rewritten and this is what Daniel and I have decided upon as our next project. As we all know, programming languages, application development tools, management tools and so on are always changing; each of these areas is modified, improved, superceded and replaced by every company out there. The web arena covers a plethora of languages, for us this has to now encompassed html (and xhtml), javascript, php, asp (and asp.net), xml, xsl and visual basic. Probably a couple I've missed too.

So why do we want to do this? Firstly, for the reasons stated above - tools and languages are superceded. The latest are easier and quicker to develop with, have improved capabilites, are more powerful and are faster. Secondly, with years of experience in content managment, search engine optimisation and website reporting and with the latest tools from other companies in these areas we can improve our effectiveness yet further. This doesn't mean that your website will look and better, run any faster or have better stats; it just means it's easier for us to make this happen for you.

What will this mean for our customers? Well, they will still be getting the same high standards of support they always have (we won the Triple-A award for exceptional customer service). They will still get our core team of experienced developers maintaining their sites. They will still get a simple to use content management system at their disposal 24/7. But here's a sneak preview of just a couple of the features we shall be implementing:

• Search engine optimisation built into the system - you won't be able to avoid it
• Complete automated management of all the files on your server
• Managed access to different areas of the content management system

Not enough? Well I'll probably write a few more things about the system as the design phase gets underway - and you probably don't know all the features we currently support anyway...

• Automated subscription system
• Email publications
• Form2mail so you never lose a customer's request from your website
• RSS feeds - both incoming and outgoing
• Did I mention fully automated shops with stock levels?
• Automated page updates for new or expiring news

If you're really interested in our system start browsing from our home page or flick us a message, you won't be disappointed.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 22 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, during my working day I come across a range of little jobs that can be annoying/time consuming to do and over time we (by we I mean my co-workers mostly) find handy websites that can do these for us much more efficiently in this article I'm going to share some of these with you. These tools are mainly for webs developers but I will include some here that can be used by your average web user. I will also include some sites that are just plain old handy tools when working with clients during support.

Developer Tools:

• Web Page Analyzer (WebSiteOptimization.com) - Optimize the loading times for your website using this tool, the results will tell you what you need to optimize in terms of objects on the page and their size. If you can get all greens then Congratulations!
• FavIcon Generator  (Dynamic Drive) - Creating FavIcons used to be such a pain! Thanks to this handy site it is now a breeze!
• Lorem Ipsum - Lorem what now? Lorem Ipsum is basically text you can use to place on a page as test content which looks nicer than "this is test content testing test test test content this is test content testing test test test content this is test content testing test test test content this is test content testing test test test content". This site will generate nicer looking test content for you.
• Klixo Geocoder - Need to pick out a Longitude and Latitude for your location to use on a Google map? This handy tool by Klixo will help! Just type in your address then drag the Icon to your exact location.
• Convert em,px,pt and % in css (Worldtechies) - I had been looking for a tool to do this for a long time, we get some CSS designs that come to us using px or points and it can be a challenge getting these right using ems or %. This is the closest tool I have found for converting these but like it says "...it’s a good starting point." and in some cases doesn't apply.

Support / Other Tools:

• TinyURL.com - This site is one of my favourites, if you need to send a real long URL to someone via email visit this site first and create a TinyURL - this will stop your URL from being broken onto another line and will also stop the receiver from wondering why you have sent them a broken link...
• Secure Password Generator (PC Tools) - Generate secure passwords easily, just insert your parameters you would like to use for your secure passwords then click generate passwords
• IP Chicken - need to know a users IP address? Get them to visit this website and the will be able to tell you
• Java Test - This is a tool that was developed by us and is used to determine if a user has Javascript enabled in their browser or not.

I may add to this article as I find/become aware of more handy tools (can you do that with a blog?) and of course if you use or know of a handy tool that you think we might like / NEED post a comment and let us know!

posted by Richard Parfitt, 22 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Quantum Theory for Google PageRank

Physicists in Italy led by Nicola Perra have now determined that 'the Google PageRank can be expressed in terms of a wave function obeying a Schroedinger-like equation.' Isn't that great? Well you might think so if your business, job or hobby involves search engine optimisation because the ultimate result of this is that once a pagerank has been determined, recalculating it based on changes to links coming in to your pages and site will be significantly faster. What this infers is that Google will be able to update your site's page rankings more quickly than it currently does.

Schröedinger's equation is central to quantum physics and describes how the quantum state of a system changes over time. Very simply, you put your particles into the equation and you can see what's going to happen to the particles over time. Perra's team swapped particles with pages and their interactions with incoming and outgoing page links. They then derive the pagerank. Because the equation is all about how it changes over time the equation can be tweaked by adding or removing linked pages to get the new pagerank. Well that's how I understand it anyway. 

 

posted by Dan Wonacott, 18 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, if you didn't know already Google has released the Street View of Australia - Pick your sight you'd like to see in Australia and drag your little yellow man there - any streets that are outlined in blue have the capability of being roamed almost virtually. This is of course hours of fun if you have the time and the broadband to spare! Privacy issues aside its quite a lot of fun seeing how much you can actually spot - from seeing right into peoples lounges to gazing at sandy and busy beach vistas.

The whole country is basically done! I can't wait till they do New Zealand!

Have fun.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 15 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

 iPhone 3G is good, isn't it? My answer is "no". You just need to do a simple research on Google, and you will know how many bugs the iPhone got. The good news is, Apple's engineers are trying to make a patch to fix a high severity bug - iPhone 3G's offline problem.

(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

国外媒体报道，据知情人士透露，苹果正在开发一款补丁，试图修复3G版iPhone手机经常掉线问题。

该知情人士称，补丁程序有望在未来几周内发布，用户可以登陆iTunes在线音乐商店下载。对此消息，苹果发言人拒绝发表评论。

而AT&T发言人迈克尔·科(Michael Coe)表示，与其它手机一样，iPhone信号强弱取决于用户距离基站的距离，以及周围是否有建筑物等障碍。但迈克尔并未透露iPhone掉线现象是否比其它手机更频繁。

业内分析师肯·杜拉尼(Ken Dulaney)称：“现在不是讨论有没有缺陷的时候，而是要尽快解决问题。如果苹果尽早解决问题，用户也不会过多计较。”

最近不断有用户投诉称，3G版iPhone经常出现掉线和服务中断等问题。据知情人士称，苹果认为该问题源自英飞凌提供的芯片。市场调查公司Gartner在拆机后发现，iPhone基带处理器是由英飞凌定制的，而基带处理器正是负责处理手机和网络之间的通信。

杜拉尼认为，苹果没有采用标准的基带处理器，而是采用经过定制的英飞凌基带，可能就是掉线的主要原因。对此猜测，英飞凌尚未发表评论。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 15 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Google Maps InfoWindow Not Centering

We were recently investigating a request from EatOut (one of our clients who's website lists restaurants around New Zealand) who wished to allow users of the website to get directions to the restaurant. Given that we were using Google Maps to provide the location this was a fairly straightforward job given the API, knowledge base and documentation available on the web. Having completed the development and testing and EatOut had reviewed the work we were ready to put the site live. Then we noticed a bug whereby the map centres on the pin whereas the API states (or at least used to) that it centres on the InfoWindow (and indeed did during development testing).

After much research I couldn't find another Google Map with InfoWindows on the web which worked correctly. It transpires that it is a Google bug that was presumably introduced after v2.119 was released.  The solution is therefore actually simple and I simply needed to change the page to use version 2.118 as follows:

http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2.118&key=<mykey>

The issue now is, are Google going to fix it or have they simply changed the way it works? I would not have questioned this but note that on the Google Maps API page which has an InfoWindow they actually offset the centre of the map such that the InfoWindow is fully visible. Maybe they've just changed this page while they fix the bug.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 08 Aug 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Many people own a vedio camera, but if you only know how to shot a piece of video by simply pushing a record button, maybe this article can help you to learn lots of basic knowledge about the video camera.

(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

摄像机技术参数详细解释

CMOS
中文译为"互补金属氧化物半导体"(Comple-mentary Metal-Oxicle-Semiconductor)

何谓摄影机CCD像素？
所谓CCD简单的说就是摄影机的灵魂之窗，而CCD本身样子长的像一块IC chip，chip的上方有许多的感光微细元件，感光元件的多寡则直接影响摄影机画质的好坏，而其上的感光元件则称之为“画素”。

何谓3CCD？
一般的摄影机只有一个CCD，而3CCD则有3个CCD chip，并且R、G、B（红、绿、蓝）3原色分别由3个chip来处理，因此它的色彩饱和度及解析度会比一般单CCD摄影机高很多。如果你有留意过业务等级的摄影机，你会发现，清一色皆为3CCD机种。

何谓摄像机的防震功能（Steady Shot）？
“ 防震”！！不是说机器不怕摔，而是於手持拍摄时可以增加影片的稳定性。目前防震可以分为两种系统，一为光学防震、另一为数位防震。光学防震是以镜片浮动的原理产生稳定的效果，画质相当好，几乎与原来不用防震时的画质一样，但是防震的效果不明显。另外数位防震为将影片放大，取中间部份的影相成为主影像，其馀周边的影像则为防震产生时的运动空间，因为影像被放大，所以画质变差，但是防震效果较好。

广角镜（Wide Angle）
又叫短焦镜头。广角镜因焦距非常短，所以投射到底片上的景物就变小了扩阔镜头拍摄角度，除可拍摄更多景物，更能在狭窄的环境下拍摄出宽阔角度的影像。

曝光量(Exposure)
曝光量是图像构成最原始的关键因素，它主要由光圈(Aperture)以及快门(Shutter)两方面决定。

景深
在摄取图像时，调节摄像机镜头，使距离摄像机一定距离的景物清晰成像的过程，叫做对焦（聚焦），那个景物所在的点，称为对焦点，因为"清晰"并不是一种绝对的概念，所以，对焦点前（靠近摄像机）、后一定距离内的景物的成像都可以是清晰的，这个前后范围的总和，就叫做景深，意思是只要在这个范围之内的景物，都能清楚地拍摄到。景深的大小，首先与镜头焦距有关，焦距长的镜头，景深小，焦距短的镜头景深大。其次，景深与光圈有关，光圈越小（数值越大，例如f16的光圈比f11的光圈小），景深就越大；光圈越大（数值越小，例如f2.8的光圈大于f5.6）景深就越小。其次，前景深小于后后景深，也就是说，精确对焦之后，对焦点前面只有很短一点距离内的景物能清晰成像，而对焦点后面很长一段距离内的景物，都是清晰的。

CCD
Charge Coupled Device电荷耦合器件：电荷耦合器件是一种新型半导体器件，中文译为"电子耦合组件"，它就像传统摄像机的底片一样，是感应光线的电路装置，你可以将它想象成一颗颗微小的感应粒子，铺满在光学镜头后方，当光线与图像从镜头透过、投射到CCD表面时，CCD就会产生电流，将感应到的内容转换成数码资料储存起来。CCD像素数目越多、单一像素尺寸越大，收集到的图像就会越清晰。

光学变焦
是依靠光学镜头结构来实现变焦，变焦方式与摄像机差不多，就是通过摄像头的镜片移动来放大与缩小需要拍摄的景物，光学变焦倍数越大，能拍摄的景物就越远。如今的数码摄像机的光学变焦倍数大多在6倍－10倍之间，也有一些拥有30倍的光学变焦效果。

数字变焦（Digital Zoom）
实际上是画面的电子放大，把原来CCD影像感应器上的一部份像素使用"插值"处理手段做放大,将CCD影像感应器上的像素用插值算法将画面放大到整个画面。通过数码变焦，拍摄的景物放大了，但它的清晰度会有一定程度的下降，有点像VCD或DVD中的ZOOM功能,所以数码变焦并没有太大的实际意义。目前数码变焦一般在2、8、10倍左右。

焦距(Focus)
即焦距长度。如"f=8-24mm，38-115mm(35mm equivalent)"，就是指这台摄像机的焦距长度为8-24mm，同时对角线的视角换算后相当于传统35mm摄像机的38-115mm焦长。一般而言，35mm摄像机的标准镜头焦长约是28-70mm，因此如果焦长高于70mm就代表支持望远效果，若是低于28mm就表示有广角拍摄能力。 "可对焦范围"则是焦长的延伸，通常分为一般拍摄距离与近拍距离，摄像机的一般拍摄距离通常都标示为"从某公分到无限远"，而进阶级设计的产品则往往还会提供近距离拍摄功能(Macro)，以弥补一般拍摄模式下无法对焦的问题。有些摄像机就非常强调具有支持1公分近拍的神奇能力，适合用来拍摄精细的物体。

光圈(Aperture)
光圈的功能就如同我们人类眼睛的虹蟆，主要用来调整数码摄像机的进光量，一般以f/2、F2、1：2来表示，举例来说：f/2表示光圈的大小为镜头直径的1/2 ，而f/8 则表示光圈为镜头直径的1/8而已，所以较小的f值表示较大的光圈，一般镜头上的标示会以数码摄像机的最大光圈值表示，变焦镜头若有显示2个f值，则表示此摄像机最大及最小的光圈。光圈除了可控制光线的明暗外，对于图像的景深也是会有影响。景深是影响拍摄主体与背景之间清晰程度的关键，也可以说是图像的锐利度，大光圈时拍摄出来的图像锐利度较小，小光圈拍摄则较大。从数码上而言，光圈数值越小表示光圈越大，也代表透光的孔径大、透光量大，不论要拍摄快速移动的物体或在昏暗的空间拍摄，都很方便。而且光圈也决定了画面的景深(锐利度)，如果是设定为大光圈，那么画面中除了主题清晰，其它景物都会呈现模糊、柔美的感觉。时下多数数码摄像机的光圈值最大都在2.8左右。

快门(Shutter)
是镜头前阻挡光线进来的装置，一般而言快门的时间范围越大越好。秒数低适合拍运动中的物体，某款摄像机就强调快门最快能到1/16000秒，可轻松抓住急速移动的目标。不过当你要拍的是夜晚的车水马龙，快门时间就要拉长，常见照片中丝绢般的水流效果也要用慢速快门才能拍出来。至于单眼摄像机常见的B快门功能，虽然可由你自由决定曝光时间的长短，拍摄弹性更高，不过目前大多数的消费性数码摄像机都还不能支持，最多提供如2秒、8 秒、16秒等较慢速度的默认值。

白平衡(White Balance)
物体颜色会因投射光线颜色产生改变，在不同光线的场合下拍摄出的照片会有不同的色温。例如以钨丝灯(电灯泡)照明的环境拍出的照片可能偏黄，一般来说，CCD没有办法像人眼一样会自动修正光线的改变。所以通过白平衡的修正，它会按目前画像中图像特质，立即调整整个图像红绿蓝三色的强度，以修正外部光线所造成的误差。有些摄像机除了设计自动白平衡或特定色温白平衡功能外，也提供手动白平衡调整。

CCVE Closed Circuit Video Equipment 闭路视频设备

CCTV Closed Circuit Television闭路电视

VTR Video Tape Recorder磁带式录像机

DVR 硬盘录像机

IDVR 嵌入式硬盘像机

ELC Electronic Light Control，自动光圈控制

AES 自动电子快门

BLC
Black Light Compensation不可见光补偿、逆光补偿

W/B
White Balance白平衡

ALC
Automatic Light Control自动光补偿、自动辉光校正、背光补偿、逆光补偿

S/NRatio
Signal-to-Noise Ratio信号杂讯比

LCD
Liqudified Crystal Display液晶显示器

DSP
Digital Signal Processing数字信号处理

VDA
Video Distruibuting Amplifier视频分配放大器

AGC
Automatic Gain Control自动增益控制

何谓VHS/VHS-C？
所谓的VHS即为俗称的“大带”，使用12mm带宽的录影带。VHS-C为VHS的缩小带，片长只有30分及40分两种，但是EP慢速录影可达90分及 120分，可以使用转换匣使VHS-C变成VHS标准大带，於一般VHS录放影机即可播放。因为是12mm带宽的录影带，也有人称之为V12。

何谓S-VHS/S-VHS-C？
S-VHS/S-VHS-C与VHS/VHS-C同为使用12mm带宽的录影带，但是水平解像度为400条。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 08 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

SEO for Marketers - Part #1

Search Engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing go hand in hand and I am getting more and more requests from people in Marketing roles for advice on SEO. The skills required to optimise a website for Search Engines are all marketing related skills. Despite popular belief, very few technical skills are required, and there are certainly no "secrets" to how Google ranks pages, the formula that Google uses is obvious and published on its own help pages (I have written about this before).

SEO in the real world

OK, we are going to write some web page copy about a footwear product called "Ugg Boot", a sheepskin boot famous in New Zealand and Australia for being incredibly comfortable and unfashionable at the same time. Recently the Ugg Boot has experienced a revival as "must have" teen brands like Billabong and Roxy have added trendy Ugg Boot products to their range.

So this presents an opportunity because as demand for ugg boots increases, customers are looking for opportunities to purchase the boots below retail price. My imaginary client is a sheepskin tannery who has manufactured high quality Ugg Boots for years and wants to feature this product on their website to generate enquiries that they will forward to the customer's nearest retailer.

I have been asked to write the copy for a web page promoting Ugg Boots. This is the process I take.

SEO As You Write

The real problem with SEO is that it is time consuming, especially if your are performing the work retrospectively. If you want to save time optimising your copy, do it as you write it.

• If you are marketing a service, the process is the same just a bit more difficult. For the purpose of this article I will use the term "product" for both services & products.

You will need: A Google Adwords Account, basic knowledge of how to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, a printer, a highlighter and a pen.

Step 1. Find the real root keyword for your product

Sum up your product in one short key phrase (1 or two words). Here are some examples:

• Ugg Boots = "Ugg Boots"
• Shopping Mall = "Retail Property"
• Seafood Wholesaler = "Seafood"
• Whakatane Backpackers = "Whakatane Accommodation"

Next, test your key phrase in the Keyword Tool. What this shows you is the keyword phrases that people are actually searching for (as opposed to what you think they are searching for). "Whakatane Backpackers" is a great example. A quick check in the Keyword tool reveals that there are exactly 0 searches for the term "Whakatane Backpackers" every month, wheras 880 searches every month for "Whakatane Accommodation". So the root keyword phrase for this product is "Whakatane Accommodation".

Using this tool allows you to evaluate keywords based on pure facts, as opposed to the emotion of gut feelings or instinct. As boring as pure data analysis may be to marketing creative types like you, it really is the secret to getting results on search engines, which are clinical, emotionless robots making decisions based purely on cold hard data.

Re-run the Keyword tool now on your root key phrase.

Step 2. Get the results into a Spreadsheet

OK, you should now have a list of key phrases, ordered by Average Monthly Searches (Descending) for your chosen country. Google will divide the results up into multiple sections. Now export each section as CSV (for Excel), and combine in to one Excel spreadsheet.

Next, sort all of the keyword phrases by average monthly searches descending. Now you will have a long list of potential key phrase candidates. Save a copy of this spreadsheet as a master.

• Here is what mine looks like. (XLS, 35KB)

Step 3. Ruthlessly narrow the list down to 20 keywords.

Starting with the first key phrase, work your way through the top key phrases evaluating for relevancy to your task at hand. If not relevant, delete that row and move on to the next one. This often means deleting really popular "broad" matches, which can be painful, so be ruthless!

Example. In my list, the first keyword phrase is "shoes", which while popular, is way too broad for my product and is saturated by competitors as well. So I have deleted it. I have also deleted "boot", "boots" and "footwear".

Delete any keyword phrases that you don't actually sell. As tempting as it is to try and attract anyone looking for anything remotely related to Ugg Boots to your website, it is a waste of time as customers will just leave your site in disgust after they have discovered that you don't actually sell what you are talking about on your website, and never come back. So, as much I would love my client to satisfy the glaring hole in the market for "crochet uggs" (12,100 searches in New Zealand per month and no advertisers!), my client does not make or sell them, so it is off the list.

Next, combine the phrases that obviously should be together. For example, in my list, women's uggs (#1) is really the same term as womens uggs (#20), so I will combine them at number one.

OK, now we have a list of 20 relevant keywords to use for the task at hand, writing search engine optimised copy for Ugg Boots. Print the list and get your highlighter ready.

• Here is what mine looks like now. (XLS, 33KB)

Next week, in part 2 of this Blog we start writing!

posted by Daniel Larsen, 08 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are exactly one week away! I believe the internet is going to play a much larger part in the Olympics for the first time, from being able to watch the Olympics greatest moments / greatest blunders on YouTube! Also TVNZ (since I don't have a TV are doing on demand coverage so you can catch up what you missed out on while you were at work! Or catch up on what you missed out on the night before because you had to go to bed early for work!

Oh and check out this nice slideshow of the venues by Reuters - Olympics venues here

So yes the Olympics! It's going to be great. See you.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 01 Aug 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Do you usually spend more than 4 hours per day on your computer? If yes, you should really take care of yourself. The following methods can significantly reduce the risk of getting illness from radialisation.

(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

****几招有效防电脑辐射****

第一招：在电脑旁放上几盆仙人掌，它可以有效地吸收辐射。

第二招：还对于生活紧张而忙碌的人群来说，抵御电脑辐射最简单的办法就是在每天上午喝2至3杯的绿茶，吃一个橘子。茶叶中含有丰富的维生素Ａ原，它被人体吸收后，能迅速转化为维生素Ａ。维生素Ａ不但能合成视紫红质，还能使眼睛在暗光下看东西更清楚，因此，绿茶不但能消除电脑辐射的危害，还能保护和提高视力。如果不习惯喝绿茶，菊花茶同样也能起着抵抗电脑辐射和调节身体功能的作用,螺旋藻、沙棘油也具有抗辐射的作用.

第三招：上网前先做好护肤隔离，如使用珍珠膜，可以有效防止污染环境的侵害和辐射;其次电脑使用后，脸上会吸附不少电磁辐射的颗粒，要及时用清水洗脸，这样将使所受辐射减轻70％以上！

第四招：操作电脑时最好在显示屏上安一块电脑专用滤色板以减轻辐射的危害，室内不要放置闲杂金属物品，以免形成电磁波的再次发射。使用电脑时，要调整好屏幕的亮度，一般来说，屏幕亮度越大，电磁辐射越强，反之越小。不过，也不能调得太暗，以免因亮度太小而影响效果，且易造成眼睛疲劳。

第五招：应尽可能购买新款的电脑，一般不要使用旧电脑，旧电脑的辐射一般较厉害，在同距离、同类机型的条件下，一般是新电脑的1－2倍。

第六招：电脑摆放位置很重要。尽量别让屏幕的背面朝着有人的地方，因为电脑辐射最强的是背面，其次为左右两侧，屏幕的正面反而辐射最弱。以能看清楚字为准，至少也要50厘米到75厘米的距离，这样可以减少电磁辐射的伤害。

第七招：注意室内通风：科学研究证实，电脑的荧屏能产生一种叫溴化二苯并呋喃的致癌物质。所以，放置电脑的房间最好能安装换气扇，倘若没有，上网时尤其要注意通风。

第八招：注意酌情多吃一些胡萝卜、豆芽、西红柿、瘦肉、动物肝等富含维生素A、C和蛋白质的食物，经常喝些绿茶等等。

第九招：经常在电脑前工作的人常会觉得眼睛干涩疼痛，所以，在电脑桌上放几支香蕉很有必要，香蕉中的钾可帮助人体排出多余的盐分，让身体达到钾钠平衡，缓解眼睛的不适症状。此外，香蕉中含有大量的β胡萝卜素，当人体缺乏这种物质时，眼睛就会变得疼痛、干涩、眼珠无光、失水少神，多吃香蕉不仅可减轻这些症状，还可在一定程度上缓解眼睛疲劳，避免眼睛过早衰老.

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 01 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Even though Cuil doesn't know that it is, (at least not on its primary search results for 'cuil.com' of a few days after their launch (which incidentally has the most incomprehendable presentation of any search I've ever done on google (the results of which I won't copy here in case of litigation (but I'm sure you can find it on google in the archives)))), I have experienced some excellent results on searches.

The first few search results were appalling and the pages they linked to were covered in ads and I almost gave up any thoughts of home right there. But I'd read an article in the New Scientist and I expected more journalistic integrity so I persevered. The following day I tried again.

I was investigating a google maps API bug that didn't centre an infowindow, (javascript mods between versions caused this pop-up window which should be centred in the map to be too high and mostly chopped off at the top (we rigorously test our code and discovered the issue after deployment testing)) and this cool search engine showed me semantic alternatives for my search terms. This led me straight to the solution (still half an hour of unbilled time to implement the solution start to finish) of changing the javascript to include the last version that presented info windows correctly, v2.118.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 31 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, a while ago now when I was revamping one of our clients websites I pulled off a trick that I thought was pretty neat! This trick was showing images for each menu object when the page link was hovered over by using CSS - whereas usually I would have had to have used Javascript to display the image, I can sometimes get away with putting the image in a background image of the menu objects A tag and showing it on the on the hover which is a nicer option. But in this case I couldn't. 

It is fairly basic CSS really but I still thought it was neat. So here's what I did:

By embedding the image in the A tag you can then control that image object in the same manner as you would a link using CSS i.e. link, visited, hover and active. So there for you can on the links hover display the image. So I have made the A link the parent object of the image so when the A links status changes from link to hover I can also change the Images status from display: none to display: inline - You can use inline or block here - I have used inline here so the image sits next to the link. Now I have gotten my image showing up on the hover I can then position the image where I would like it. You can use position: relative - or position: absolute for this and by using the top and left classes you can position the image. I have put in the height and width in the Images class to define the images space when its loading. When using a relatively positioned image you can use the margin-bottom to cancel out the space that the image is relative to, by putting in the height as a negative this will happen. See the example below for how this works.

<!-- EXAMPLE -->

Hover over this

<!-- HTML EXAMPLE -->
<a href="http://klixo.co.nz/blogs/richard.html" title="Richard's Blog">
   Hover over this
  <img src="/pics/rpblog_css_example.gif" alt="Menu Hover Example" class="menu"/>
</a>

<!-- CSS EXAMPLE-->
a:link.menu img, a:link.menu img
{
  display: none;
} 
a:hover.menu img, a:active.menu img
{
  display: inline;
}
img.menu
{
 border: none;
 position: relative;
 top: 25px;
 left: 20px;
 height: 25px
 width: 40px;
 margin-bottom: -25px;
}

This is my first time trying to Blog something technical and hopefully I will improve, feel free to submit your comments on "correct terms" for objects etc etc!... bye for now.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 25 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Do you want to get a smart mobile? Blackberry is possibly the most popular one, but wait, Nokia's E71 is coming!

(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

E71是诺基亚即将在纽西兰上市的一款智能手机。和诺基亚其他系列最大的不同，E71为全键盘输入，当然如果用过黑莓系列的朋友应该对此类手机并不陌生。

先来看图比较一下：

黑莓8310

E71

先说说E71的优点：

1 得益于不断改良的输入法设计，以及堪比黑莓的键盘手感，用其发短信和发邮件在网络有保证的前提下是很方便的。

2 标配1500mah 电池，与黑莓系列类似，最长待机十几天，按上班族平均使用频率来讲，4天的待机时间。

3 机身厚度10mm，甚至比黑莓更纤薄。

4 支持3.5G的网络，wifi，很好很强大。

再说说它不尽如人意的地方：

1 屏幕比很多智能手机相比小了一点，但对于这种全键盘手机，还是可以接受的，再说屏幕太大，耗电也大。

2 顶部的开关机按钮为硬塑料，材质一般。

3 整体设计并没有特别突出的地方，只能用中规中矩来形容。

3 与黑莓相比，售价高了不是一星半点，即使是最新款的黑莓bold估计也到不了这个价格（至少要便宜200纽币），而且此价格不包含服务费用，所以性价比一般。

总结：

如果不在钱上面计较太多，诺基亚E71还是绝对值得试一试的，毕竟可以体验到比黑莓更先进的功能，追求时尚且有钱的朋友可以第一时间买来尝尝鲜。

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 25 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Environmentally Friendly Data Centres

Klixo being a web service company and me being a bit eco-minded, I figured why not start my blog with something about web hosting? I've read quite a bit in New Scientist over the past year about how data centres are able to improve their energy efficiency through a whole raft of technologies and software. 

A report from UK-based Global Action Plan, puts carbon dioxide emissions from information and communications technology at 2 per cent of global emissions, on the same level as that of the aviation industry, so it's something that I am really concerned about. One particular article from New Scientist talked about many companies that are tackling this problem. It stated that IBM are investing $1 billion USD into a project called 'Big Green' which aims to double their computing capacity without increasing power consumption.

But my favourite article was by IBM Switzerland. The idea is to add microfluidic pipes over the processors in the data centre which connect up to a heat exchanger. This is used to heat nearby homes. They reckon that 75% of the energy used in the data centre can be reclaimed and a medium-sized data centre consuming 1MW of energy could heat 70 homes.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 25 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

How to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

The Keyword Tool is used to estimate the amount of searches for a given keyword in a month. It can also be used to recommend relevant Adwords keywords for your webpages. Follow the instructions below to login to Google Adwords and access this tool.

Create a Google Adwords Account

If you don't already have one, get a Google Adwords Account.

1. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/Login
2. Click "Start now >>"
3. Choose "Standard Edition" and click Continue
4. Follow the instructions in the sign-up wizard

Google will take you through the process of creating a new Google AdWords advertising camapign - Don't worry, this camapign will not be activated or visible to the public unless you enter your payment details (which you don't have to do now).

Log in to Google Adwords

If you have a Google AdWords account, or have just created one, log in now.

• https://adwords.google.com/select/Login

Load the Keyword Tool

1. Click on the "Campaign Management" tab
2. Click Tools
3. Click "Keyword Tool"

Running the Keyword Tool

If this is your first time using this tool, follow these guidelines:

Tailor results to New Zealand

If your target market is New Zealand, instruct Google to only show you search data for New Zealand.

1. Where it says "Results are tailored to English, United States", click Edit
2. Select "New Zealand" in the list of Countries

Enter a root Keyword

To begin with, choose the simplest, commonest, one or two word term that sums up your business, here are some examples:

• For a Podiatrist, enter "Podiatry"
• For a Helicopter Training course, enter "Helicopter Training"
• For a Wholesale Seafood company, enter "Seafood"

Analyse the Data

1. Click "Get keyword ideas" and wait a few seconds for Google to generate a report
2. When the results load, click on the "Approx Avg Search Volume" column. This will display the search terms in order, from most searched to least searched.

• The numbers in the Volume columns indicate approximately how many searches there were for the key phrases in the selected Country.

posted by Daniel Larsen, 23 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Kia Ora, as I was browsing the internet the other day trying to track down the official website for the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" for some work related reason, I got to the IMDb listing for the movie and found the Official sites page and found there was a couple there. I had found the official site I was after but of course I was intrigued by the other links available as I am looking forward to seeing this movie! So the first link I clicked on was the "Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham" not entirely knowing what i was going to find. What I did find was what appeared to be the official website for an organisation related to the movie that had been hacked by The Joker and his cronies! The page had been mashed into what looked like a young child let loose on the front page of the Beacon (local newspaper) - with jokes and rearranged sentences to make funny mad libs and smiling faces drawn on all the people. After checking a few of the other links I found the same thing. The pages are just single images mostly, some have links that go to other information about the movie, competitions and trailers etc, as it is all of course just a big advertising campaign, but none the less a very creative and entertaining one! Here are some of my favourites:

• gothampolice.com - Gotham Police website
• ccfabg.org - Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham
• gpdmcu.com - Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit
• ibelieveinharveydent.com - I Believe in Harvey Dent
• rossisdelicatessen.com - Rossi's Delicatessen
• wearetheanswer.org - We Are The Answer - A Safer Gothem Farts with you...

The list goes on and on you can find them all on the www.whysoserious.com website which appears to be The Jokers home page by clicking on phone numbers in the address book there.

Enjoy!
R.

posted by Richard Parfitt, 18 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Hi everyone, welcome to my Blog!

Are you still using IE Browser, whatever the version 5, 6 or 7? Come on, it's the time to try something really fresh! I highly recommend you to use the Firefox 3 and some bloody uesful and powerful add-ons!

(Try to understand the following part? Use Google Translate)

火狐现在已经出到3.0版了，说实话，以前不觉得火狐有多好用，所以一直在用遨游浏览器，不过自从用了火狐3，嘿，腰不酸了，背不疼了，腿也不抽筋了。。。（老板：让你写博客呢，那么多废话！不想要工资了！我：囧）

好了，废话少说——翠花儿，上火狐！（点击这里从官方下载火狐浏览器3.0.1英文版）

大概7.8MB左右，下载完毕后双击运行，按照提示安装即可。

装好了？打开浏览器看看，怎么样？有没有一种被“雷”到的感觉？呵呵，跟以前的版本感觉很不一样吧？想让你的火狐变得更好更强大么？再看看下面这些插件：

• Adblock Plus: 完美拦截各式广告，网络人气极高的一款插件。
• British English Dictionary: 在你填写网上表格的时候会自动提示你拼写错误。对自己英语能力及其自信者请无视此插件。
• Easy DragToGo: 用过遨游浏览器的人都应该熟悉这个功能，及其的方便实用，不管打开链接还是搜索关键字，只要用鼠标拖住然后随便往旁边一拽，一切搞定！
• Firebug: 啥也不说了，超级实用的一款网络开发工具，专业人士都喜欢，呵呵。
• Flagfox 和 Show IP: 这两个插件都是用来查询网页IP地址和DNS等信息的，放在一起用功能很好很强大，一般人我不告诉他！
• Modify Headers: 为网络开发人士准备的一款小插件，正确设置后可以做很多事情，比如可以用IP地址直接访问网站。
• Undo Closed Tabs Button: 看名字就知道做什么用的了，专门为懒人设计 :-)
• Web Developer: 提供很多实用工具，可以在网页上做实时修改，功能强大，网络开发人员必备。

基本上就这些了，全部都是吐血推荐，赶快去试试吧！

 

 

posted by Kenny D Zhang, 18 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

I have accidentally responded to a Phishing (Scam) email. What should I do?

Phishing or Scam emails come in many forms, but most are cleverly disguised to get you to part with a username and password. These scams are becoming so clever now that it is almost impossible for all but a highly trained professional to distinguish between a scam and the real thing. So if think you may have been sucked in by one of these scams, here is what you should do.

• Change the password of the system that the scammer was posing as immediately (See choosing random passwords below)
• If you use the same or similar password for any of your internet banking accounts:
  • Change the password immediately
  • Monitor your statements for unusual or unauthorised transactions
  • Notify your Bank of any breach or unauthorised activity
• If you use the same or similar password for any other website or system, change the password immediately and report any unauthorised activity
• Make sure your email hosting account server has a good anti-spam system installed. Klixo's email accounts have an excellent Anti-spam system.
• Update your browser to the latest version and ensure that it includes an anti-phishing system. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 3 both have this functionality built in.
• Finally, review your personal password policy (more on this below)

How to avoid Phishing Scams in the first place

• Read these tips from Hubris.net
• Make sure your email hosting account server has a good anti-spam system installed. Klixo's email accounts have an excellent Anti-spam system.
• Update your browser to the latest version and ensure that it includes an anti-phishing system. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 3 both have this functionality built in.

Creating a Personal Password policy

Everyone should have a personal password policy that determines how you choose passwords and which passwords you use for which systems/websites. Here are some practical (but not fool-proof) tips:

• When you are setting or choosing a password, consider the risk involved in using the system. Ask yourself, if someone was able to break in using my username and password, what would the possible ramifications be? Risk can be measured by how much money you could potentially lose, or it can be measured in other ways, such as how embarrassing it could be for example. Some examples of risk evaluations could be:
  • Internet Banking - High Risk
  • Flickr Account - Low Risk
  • My Space Account - Low Risk
  • Laptop Login - High Risk
  • Company Intranet - Medium or High Risk
• Some security experts recommend that you choose a different password for every website/system that you log in to, but this is not always practical. Another (riskier) alternative is to choose a password for each risk profile. For example a low risk password, a medium risk password, and a high risk password.
• Choose a random password, a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols that will never be found in a dictionary of any kind. Use a random password generator to get a more secure password.

More reading

• Phishing / Identity Theft - Hubris Communications
• Secure Passwords Keep You Safer - Schneier on Security
• Real World Passwords - Schneier on Security (warning, contains profanity)

 

posted by Daniel Larsen, 09 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

A strategy for better search engine rankings for New Zealand small business websites

By Daniel Larsen, Manager, Klixo Website Management.

Introduction

This article focuses on improving the search engine ranking for your website and is specifically written for New Zealand based small business websites. This article does not include specific strategies for increasing the number of visitors to your site, but in most cases a better search engine ranking will increase the overall visitor traffic to your site.

How websites are ranked

Most website owners will type their business name into Google and see how close their website comes to the top of the list as an indication of their search engine ranking. But unfortunately this is not accurate because your customers may not always search for your exact business name, in fact they may often search for the type of business you are in or a product that you provide. For example, visitors who come to “www.larryscarparts.co.nz” may not have searched for “Larry’s Car Parts”. They may have searched for “cheap oil filter”. The two search terms are not relative – Larry’s website will rank differently in each search.

Klixo uses the Google PageRank to measure how websites are ranked in the eyes of the world’s most important Search Engine, Google. The Google PageRank is measured on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being the lowest ranking and 10 being the highest. If you download and configure the Google Toolbar you can view the PageRank for your website as well as other websites.

If your website has a good Google PageRank, it will rank well in search results for relevant keywords every time. So any search engine optimisation strategy must make a better PageRank the priority. So here comes the obvious question…

What is the secret to getting a good Google PageRank?

The answer is… there is no secret. There are only two guaranteed ways to get a better PageRank and here they are, quoted straight from the Google Webmaster Guidelines:

1. “Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content”
2. “Have other relevant sites link to yours”

A useful, information-rich site

Content is king. If your website has lots of interesting and up-to-date content that is relevant to your business then your site is halfway to earning a good PageRank. The Klixo Website Manager allows you to log in and update your website anytime you like. This means you can update your site as soon as you have new information available.

Have other relevant sites link to yours

Now you must get other websites to link to yours, and this is crucial, you will not get a Google PageRank higher than 0 if no other website on the web will link to yours.

But a word of caution, it is not the quantity of websites that link to yours that Google considers, it is the quality. To impact on your PageRank any website that links to yours must be relevant to your business. A link from a website is particularly valuable if it has a higher PageRank than yours. So the best strategy is to seek out your suppliers, customers and peers and ask them to link to your site. You may offer to reciprocate with a link to their site.

For any new Klixo Website, the first link to the new site is from http://klixo.co.nz/ which is has a PageRank of 4 (at the time of writing this article), so that is a good start.

Web Business Directories are also excellent for providing quality, high ranking links to your website. Every new Klixo Website is automatically submitted to these free New Zealand web directories:

www.nzsearch.co.nz (PageRank = 6)
www.directorynz.co.nz (PageRank = 5)

I also highly recommend investing in a listing in these high profile NZ directories:

www.yellowpages.co.nz
If you have a business telephone line with Telecom then you will already have a listing on www.yellowpages.co.nz. You can enhance the listing with a link to your website for about $38 + GST per month. This is good value* as the Yellow Pages website has a Google PageRank of 7 (at the time of writing), so a link from www.yellowpages.co.nz to your website is good kudos in the eyes of Google and the other popular search engines.

I have been impressed with the work that Yellow Pages have put into their website over recent months, they have really cottoned on to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and have built keyword rich entry pages to attract even more visitors to their directory. Plus, just yesterday I noticed that every single listing has a zoom-able map with driving and walking directions to your business – very cool!

When you apply for the listing make sure you include some keywords in the description text for your listing. Have a look at Klixo’s listing for an example.

If you do not have a business line with Telecom you can still just call Yellow Pages to arrange the advertising. If you are a home-based business, make sure you register for the Home Business programme; it’s free, you still pay residential line rental, plus you get cheaper daytime calls and a free Yellow Pages listing.

www.ubd.co.nz
UBD are another online business directory, currently on a PageRank of 6. Their pricing and service is similar to Yellow Pages and they provide all sorts of options for how you want your listing to appear. At around $38 + GST per month, the basic listing with a link to your website is a good investment*. Once again, make sure you include your most important keywords in the description.

* Keep in mind that I recommend these products for their value as quality web links only. Don’t expect to start getting a lot of sales enquiries just because you are listed in the Yellow Pages or UBD.

Summary

An easy to use, content rich website that is recommended (by way of a link) by other content rich websites will always rank well in Google and the other major search engines. Klixo websites have the added advantage of belonging to a network of websites that are already have a good PageRank. Plus our Klixo Website Manager makes it easy for you to create new content for your website at any time.

Appendix: the major popular search engines

• Google: http://www.google.com/
• Yahoo! Search: http://search.yahoo.com/
• MSN Search: http://search.msn.com/

 

posted by Daniel Larsen, 03 Jan 2007 | 0 comments | comment | link