Archive for February 8th, 2010
The Numerous Advantages Of Using PEX Tubing
Monday, February 8th, 2010If you plan on remodeling your home, doing new construction, upgrading your existing plumbing system, or installing a radiant heat floor, you will want to check on the possibility of using PEX tubing for your project. It should not be hard to find. PEX plumbing materials are rapidly replacing other materials like lead, copper, iron, and PVC pipes. This is because it has many advantages over the products traditionally used in plumbing.
It is made from a high-density polymer. This makes it very flexible. This flexibility means that it can be bent around corners without crushing it, and without the need for for a right angle connection. Its ability to bend without needing connectors is what makes it a top choice for radiant heat flooring.
The incredible flexibility of this product has many advantages. It takes far less time and effort to install, which means your project will get done more quickly and cost less than if you used traditional plumbing pipes. It can also be made in a long, continuous roll, much like a hose. This makes it less expensive to produce and ship. The savings will be passed on to the consumer.
There is also an environmental advantage to using this type of tubing. Other types of plumbing require acidic flux and lead solder to make the connections. PEX pipe does not require any flux or solder, so there is no toxic chemicals or lead leached into the water or soil. There is also minimal heat loss with this tubing, which conserves energy.
Another money-saving aspect of PEX plumbing is that it prevents expensive repairs later on. Any time you have to add a connection to a plumbing system, you introduce the possibility of a leak. The cost of repairs to both the plumbing and the secondary damage to floors, walls and the foundation can be huge. The minimal connections required with PEX means lower probability of these problems down the line.
If you plan to use PEX for radiant heat flooring applications, there is something to be aware of. Materials in the flooring can begin to corrode when exposed to oxygen. For this reason there is a special kind of oxygen-barrier PEX that is recommended for use with flooring. Check with your contractor to be sure they are using the correct type.
So for your next construction project, definitely look into the advantages of PEX tubing. Chances are it will be less expensive, both to purchase and install, than rigid pipes. You will also greatly reduce the risk of costly problems later on.
New Year Resolutions Redux: Fix My Credit-Get Fit-More Cash
Monday, February 8th, 2010With several indicators suggesting the beginning of a recovery in the housing market, potential home buyers can still find plenty of selection, low prices and low interest rates. If you’re thinking of buying a home, now might be the right time, but before you contact a real estate agent or apply for a mortgage, your top priority should be checking your credit report to see if your credit is in good shape. Credit, specifically misuse and misunderstanding of credit, spurred the mortgage crisis, many experts agree. The consequences have included tighter standards from lenders and the need for borrowers to better understand fix credit reports. If your credit report shows a FICO score of less than 750 you may have trouble getting a mortgage.
Getting extra cash when you need it has never been easier. Cash advance or payday loan companies approve loans for all types of people regardless of credit. If you need money for an unexpected bill or car repair, it is possible to get the needed cash within a business day with short term payday loans. Cash advance or payday loan companies provide personal loans to people with good and bad credit. Getting approved is simple. Those who apply for a loan must meet certain requirements such as steady employment, a minimum monthly salary that can repay the loan amount, have a checking or savings account, and be at least 18 years old. If you meet these requirements, your loan request will likely be approved.
Maybe the most common New Year resolution is to lose weight and get in shape. For most of us, however, the spirit is strong but the flesh is weak. The diet and fitness plan that was on the table in January is usually gathering dust in the corner by March. One way to jump start your resolution is to get a piece of fitness training equipment like the proform exercise bike and leave it in plain sight in the middle of the lving room until you have used it for two weeks or so. If you do not start using it you will feel more guilty about spending the money and looking at that thing every day then you will about the hassle of actually starting a fitness program. I know it works because it was only after the avalanche of chuckles from my friends and family about that thing in the middle of the room that I put it to work.
The Canon G10 Powershot reviewed
Monday, February 8th, 2010The PowerShot G10 uses a 14.7 megapixels high definition CCD sensor. Although it’s simplistic to say that more pixels equals a better picture, it certainly doesn’t hurt and it offers you a lot more cropping possibility.
The Canon A590IS model is more geared to amateurs whereas, the Powershot G10 is very much a prosumer model. It’s clear from the long list of features.
Featuring a wide angle lens of 28 m.m. and couples that with a 5x zoom. Optical Image Stabilisation helps you to keep the image sharp even when using the long end of the zoom – pretty essential in the event that you can’t hand-hold a camera as steadily as previously. The benefit of the image stabliser is that more of your shots will come out sharp.
The LCD display is a 3.0-inch Pure Color LCD II screen. That makes it much easier to line up your shots – you won’t need to squint anymore to see what’s on the screen. If you’ve never used a large LCD screen digital camera before then you’ll be astonished at just how much easier it makes life. The Canon Powershot offers a really beautiful display.
Canon have also added their DIGIC 4 image processor. The DIGIC 4 offers faster operation and enhanced image quality – something everyone will enjoy.
Don’t forget that a camera is going to need some food and a camera that has extremely high resolution is going to need a lot of memory card to store its images. You can find a selection of cheap memory cards at places like http://www.digitalcamerafood.co.uk
That’s where cards like the sandisk 8gb sdhc secure digital card or the Transcend 8gb SDHC memory card are so useful. An 8gb card will store a useful number of hi-res images and allow you to keep shooting for longer.
The Canon Powershot G10 is a stunning example of engineering and design.
You can safely say that it will be a more practical and a better alternative to an SLR. Although it’s not the smallest digital ‘compact’ on the market, it’s probably one of, if not the best specified and ergonomically designed cameras currently available.
How To Avoid Having A Nervous Breakdown Building Your New Website!
Monday, February 8th, 2010Introduction
When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the very many processes involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.
I have a friend who is in the business of web design and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what I wanted to achieve.
I had no idea about the various aspects and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learned about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process and I have asked my friend to supply the technical information for this article.
Stages in the Process
Target Audience
Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my target audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on?
The objective of the website
Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell products on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for possible customers? Maybe I would want to use it as an online brochure to showcase products. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussion and being supported by advertising on the site.
I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful planning went into the preparation before building a website.
How to be Found on the Web
One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. Generally most users only look at the top ten results so you will also want to promote your website to get on this page for your chosen keywords. By using a keyword research tool you can find the single most popular keyword for your industry.
Your Domain Name
Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have already been registered.
So looking at names with endings such as .net; .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you are after.
We were fortunate with the tanking domain because we had good advice about registering it quickly and we managed to get one with the word tanking in it, which also happens to form a massive part of our business.When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.
Creating a Site Map
As with any project you must have a plan, the better the plan the better the project turns out. A site map for a web site is part of the plan for the site. The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.
The aim is to make the site as simple to use as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website. For that reason often user name and passwordz are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register.
For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding junk email.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided on before starting on the construction of the site.
Copy
The next stage is preparing the copy. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.Having gathered all the previous information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words.For each image you should also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation.
Navigation
Another important aspect when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works.
Website Design
Finally we come to the design of your website. According to my guaranteed SEO contact the design stage is the most difficult because everyone has different tastes.
What one person might like, another person might not like. If you are setting up a website for yourself alone then you will probably have some idea of what you want to see on the site. But if, as so often happens, the website is for a large corporation there will be inputs from many people or departments and you can be sure that they will never all agree!
There are a number of ways to approach web design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for.
The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware – not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style.
If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the selected graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.
The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before construction of the site begins.
Production
Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be built. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has pros and cons. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.
Accessibility and Compliance
The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a Braille web browser.
Website Development
The best way to develop a website is on the web Server where the site is going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide comments throughout the development.
Unforeseen items
There are always some things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the website designer prepares and asks the right questions, there will always be a last minute change or addition. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the website going live.
Launching Your New Website
The moment of excitement comes when your site finally goes live and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process. Having put in many hours rewriting the texts for our novelty aprons website I was thrilled when the site eventually went live.
Reporting and Monitoring
Once your website is up and running, you might like to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.
Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is offline. Google Analytics doesn’t yet provide a comparable uptime monitoring service, maybe they just decided it was too much of a headache as it is an intensive service checking a website every 5 minutes to make sure it is still responding and indeed web-stat do promote this difference as one of their unique selling points but it is pretty hard to compete with free. In fact Google Analytics is not quite free, which makes it an even better marketing decision for Google because sometimes it is harder to give things away for free than it is to sell them! Google Analytics is a free service available to Google AdWords advertisers, you don’t actually have to have any AdWords campaigns running but it will cost you a one-time activation fee of £5 (or similar in your local currency) to open your AdWords account, but once you have done that you can go on to use Google Analytics for as many websites as you like.
Marketing
Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your developer about SEO
Conclusion
Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer buff, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article will give readers an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.