CRWC | Blog

It has now been a little over a week since Microsoft released its newest operating system, Windows Vista.  What does that really mean for the rest of the world? Well if you are looking for a new computer, the general consensus is that you should just wait.
What does the operating system do that Windows XP did not?  That list is shorter than the list of things it did better.  Microsoft set the bar pretty high when the released XP but the mistakes that they made still have not been corrected.  When XP was released the computers it was being installed on were just not fast enough to take advantage of the gains that it presented.  This seems to be the case again for Vista.  Microsoft has programmed this new OS, around the idea of Moore’s Law, where every 18 months the power of computing doubles.  If you are in the market for a new computer it is a better idea to hold off and wait for technology to catch up.  It works great if you are willing to invest the amount of money to get the newest technology.

If Microsoft’s goals were to regain the lost market share that Apple has gained, that it certainly will not do.  The operating systems are too similar and therefore there is no reason for the Mac users to switch.  Sure it is cool to be able to have more 3D capabilities.  But the cost is still outrages.  It is interesting to consider that Apple releases one OS, whether you are a Pro or a student, Microsoft is still of the opinion the the home user does not need to have all of the latest gadgets, and if they do want them, almost $600 will be the price they pay.

As the FCC continues to stress the conversion of all broadcasters to 16:9 High Definition programming, consumers are setting sales records as HDTVs fly out stores. Many people do their homework and microanalysis their choices, others pick the prettiest TV they see in Circuit City or BestBuy. Regardless, most neglect the fact that these “televisions” are not only televisions—they are multi-purpose monitors!

The inevitable integration of these amazing new devices into our homes presents unique opportunities for users to easily utilize technologies most have never dreamed of! However, they must realize this potential before they purchase their new MONITOR.

Almost every new HD monitor can be connected to your computer as well as your cable box, DVD player, gaming systems, and other devices. It is imperative to consider what you might want to do in the future before you slide the plastic and sign the receipt.

Cabling: With the new televisions, many people are shocked that they have to pay hundreds of dollars for cables. Folks are use to the olden days where speaker wire and co-ax hooked up everything. If you want to maximize the picture and audio quality of any monitor you must buy the best cables available. Bill Ferris, a television salesman at Circuit City in Boca Raton Florida, often tells me that people who refuse to buy the expensive cables are often returning their TV within the week. It just won’t look good!

Connections: Ok, so you’re refigured your budget for the television taking into consideration the cost of cables. Now find the TV you like and spin it around. With this new technology certain types of connections have emerged for the consumer market. Some of these include HDMI, fiber optics, VGA, and component video (different from the familiar red white and yellow composite cables!). Knowing which connection is best for each device you are using is important.

Using the new HD television as a computer monitor: First, check your computer’s graphics card. Look and see if there are multiple VGA outputs or a mixture of HDMI and VGA outputs. If you have two outputs you can use your traditional monitor and your new HD monitor at the same time (duel monitors) or you can switch between them. This is handy if one person wants to watch TV and one person wants to use the computer. If there is only one VGA or HDMI connection then you must consider using the HDTV as your only monitor or replacing your computer’s graphics card with a duel output card. To get the best picture from your computer you will want to connect the graphics card to the TV directly with a HDMI cable. If an HDMI slot is not available on at least one piece of equipment (DVD players and your cable box should get priority for HDMI connections) make sure a VGA slot is available on the television. HDMI to VGA adapters are available at most stores if you need to convert. Do not run the connection through other equipment such as VCR’s and audio receivers—your video signal will look its best with simply one cable between the graphics card and the television itself. The rule is to keep connections and cables as short and direct as possible.

Computer audio: Check out your sound card. Take notes of all the pretty colors and look for a fiber optic output. If you have digital outputs or 5.1 outputs then you’re in good shape, but use the fiber if you have the connections. Once again, don’t run your audio through your TV; go directly to your audio receiver for the best sound. Keep in mind that your YouTube videos and downloaded music isn’t going to be sending you a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal. The best you can hope for is 5 channel audio plus your subwoofer.

Connecting your cable service with your television: Before buying your TV consult with your cable or satellite provider and talk about what connections are available on their HD equipment. They’ll probably need to replace your cable box with a new HD box (possibly with tivo like capabilities)—this will most definitely raise your monthly bill. Ideally, the equipment should have HDMI video outputs and fiber optic audio outputs. At minimum the box should have Component (not composite!) connections. Component cables can handle both audio and video, but if you have to use component for your video try to leave the two audio cables unplugged and use fiber optic to run your sound. Make sure all of these connections match up with what inputs are available on the TV you want. Note: I have personally had bad luck with the cable company’s component video cables. Spend the extra money and get Monster brand cables at the store.

Audio receivers: Buy a surround sound system. HD is about audio and video…not just picture quality. Most built in speakers sound awful and won’t give you a good HD experience. Bill at Circuit City also tells me that people who use their on-board speakers are often returning their TVs. To avoid bad sound get an audio receiver (with good input connections!!) and a nice set of 5.1 speakers. Your receiver should have fiber optic inputs and component audio inputs. It’s best to buy the sound system and TV at the same time—that way you’ll get all the right cables and connections figured out before you leave the store.

Gamers: Xbox360 users can hook up their machine to HDTV’s with component video cables—do it if you have space on your TV’s connections. PS3 users actually have the luxury of using HDMI—try to leave space for this connection when you diagram how you will hook up your TV. If you’re playing online with an old TV get ready for a beating from the users who are playing on 50” LCD’s and projection monitors.

Projection televisions: ask about a protection plan and the cost of new projection light bulbs. Replacing the bulb can cost hundreds of dollars and many times protection plans will cover the cost of one new bulb—often this is very cost effective in the long run. A good idea is to break the bulb before the protection plan runs out so that you can take advantage of the brand new bulb. Check the terms and conditions of your plan to see if this is legal.

Confused? Ask the people in the store. Stop being paranoid and thinking they’re trying to rip you off too! Ask questions, get them to write stuff down about connections and then leave the store to do some more research if you want. If they’re being too technical ask them to dumb it down for you. You’ll never see this salesman again so who cares if he knows you can’t distinguish a DVD from a VHS tape. It’s his job to clarify this technology for you! Most stores including BB and CC do not have commission systems so you won’t hurt the salesman’s feelings by walking away to do more research. Also, consider professional installations. This can save you gobs of time and usually ensures the best picture and sound. Tell the installers you want HDMI connections wherever possible and fiber optic sound wherever possible. Ask them to diagram the entire system with the type of cables and connections they have used. This will help you if something becomes unconnected or you just want to show off to your geeky friends. Pro installs also saves you the hassle of trying to figure out how to wall mount your monitor if that is something you want to do. Keep in mind that wall mounts will run you a couple hundred bucks too!

As I sit here typing on my 32” Polaroid LCD with my 17” Dell LCD displaying the internet radio station I’m listening to, I am grateful that I thought of all of this before rushing into a purchase. Using laptops and library computers is not as impressive with their tiny 17” screens.

-Andy Short
February 1, 2007
Andy Short can be reached at webmaster@netra.org

Making your websites as user-friendly as possible has obvious advantages. It provides clarity of message, which is the ultimate goal for designers.

A great tip to simply the message is taking the time to develop “hyperlink helpers”. By creating pictorial representations, your audience will know exactly what they are clicking. This takes plain text help (such as “requires Adobe Reader”) to the next level, informing users with simple icons.

Curious? There are two wonderful articles written by the ever-helpful CSS Guy about how to do just this. He includes examples, sample files, and practical uses for this (links at the end of article). The first describes icons for file types (Word docs, Reader docs), and the other talks about using favicons.
Remember folks, the less your audience has to guess, the more valuable you are as a designer.

j.t.

Ask the CSS Guy: Showing Hyperlink Clues with CSS
Ask the CSS Guy: Hyperlink Cues with Favicons

I was watching the movie “Pay it forward” the other day and one of the most striking features that I liked in the movie is that it reinforced the concept of Networking.

As a Web Site Designer, you would like maximum number of people to visit your Website or use the online tool that you have developed. Since a Tree Hierarchical structure is the only mechanism that guarantees an exponential increase a mechanism can be thought off which would engulf as many people as possible all across the world.

There is already a very good tool known as “Stumble Upon” which was been developed as an add-on to Firefox, which utilizes this concept. When installed it becomes an integral part of your Firefox browser. Unlike Google, which has no control over the quality of the Websites returned in the search result, “Stumble Upon” assures that it returns the highest rated Websites under a particular category that is liked by maximum number of people. A good quality website has a higher chance of circulation as compared to degraded websites. Therefore, there would be lesser chance of quality Websites being a victim of lower ranked Google search due to increasing number of new Websites uploaded every minute.

This concept can be utilized further to develop a Design Pattern, which would have such a quality control mechanism as an ancillary portion of any Web Based Application. Anyone adopting to that design pattern would be given an assurance of being a part of the process which would assure the Web Designers Webpage being at least seen by a group of random people at random locations. As more people start liking the website, the better the rating of the webpage will become. As the ratings increase, the Web Presence of that website would also increase. The higher the Web Presence of the website, the greater the number of hits that website will receive. The best part of this pattern is that it is based on a Win-Win situation where both the developer as well as the people who seek quality control benefit.

This kind of mechanism would help combat the trash content in the Web that is circulated now a days and would also make the users Web experience more informative and more relevant.

In the web business world there are two primary sources of revenue. That which is stemmed from returning client purchases and the income generated from the purchases of a new customer. It is important to maintain a balance between these two aspects so that there is not an overdependence on one revenue driver and also to prevent the company from becoming creatively stagnant.

How do web companies market? Well, with it known that companies have two sources of revenue, it is important to then structure two types of marketing plans— one that encourages past customers to purchase again and one that attracts new clients. There are a variety of means that allow you to reach clients in your target markets but only some of them are effective.

New Client Generation:

Word-of-mouth. Starting with the most basic, “word-of-mouth marketing” is by far the most effective means of marketing as well as being the least expensive. This tactic is however, hard to implement/enforce and harder to track. A solid, constantly expanding client base driven by current customer recommendations is the best and should always be pursued.

Search Engine Optimization. Efficiently reaching your potential clients by making it easy to be found when someone searches for your product (in effect, having clients come to you) is always helpful. However, the client will not just come to you even if you are the first listed site on Google. The phrase, “if you build it they will come” is more of a dream than reality. While it is important for a site to be easy to find on the web it is more important to make your site something that needs to be found on the web.

This plays a bit into the business concept. Some markets are more easily adaptable to the web world while others are not. It is important to analyze that.

Ad words or paid web marketing. To start let it be known that this is perhaps the most expensive form of marketing and potentially the most cut throat. It is amazing how quickly the money disappears when you are paying someone on a pay per click basis. Competition amps up as companies spend hours typing in keywords for competitors in their market and then click and click away to cost their competition thousands of dollars on erroneous clicks. While companies are getting better at monitoring and targeting their clicks it is very tough and has a high risk or a low return on investment.

Repeat customers:

Start a mailing list. There are a million different ways to start up and manage mailing lists. These are powerful tools that can inform your clients about what is going on and it is an easy way to organize your data.

Constantly change. This is one of the hardest aspects of the web world. People hate going to websites and seeing the same thing over and over again. Keep it interesting, keep it current; this will also help with your search engine rank position!

The Best Way?

Truth be told, the best way to market on the web is to look at marketing as a process and when making a significant marketing effort do not focus primarily on any single means. Exchange links, make sure your site is search engine friendly, ask your clients for referrals, constantly update your content, keep your company alive and flowing. There is no overnight secret to the web.

Don’t expect results the same month as your marketing push. The web, despite its vast size is a slow moving machine when it comes to dealing with your company. It takes time and effort, and often a good deal of frustration. Despite this, press on.

The internet is a crazy place.

You can find anything on the web if you look long enough. But who actually wants to look “long enough”? Getting people to visit your site is only half the battle. You have to keep them interested long enough to get across your message.

Some Tips for Web Writing:

● Use about half the normal word count used in regular writing. Reading on the computer is about 25% slower than reading on paper, and strains the eyes, so web users typically try to cut down the number of words they read.

● Increase scanability by

- using lists

- highlighting keywords

- shortening paragraphs

- providing informative sub-headings

● Use the inverted pyramid paragraph style: start with the conclusion, follow with the strongest supporting details, and end with the background.

● Use objective language. Studies show that promotional language distracts and annoys web users. Making a website more informational increases credibility and allows people to find the facts they need faster.

● Create clear tag-lines. Let people know exactly what your site or business does within the first 10 seconds of reaching your website.

● Use common words, and avoid inventing new phrases to describe your services. Maybe you can make it to the top of the search engine results page for “home sanitation specialists,” but that’s not going to do you any good if everyone is searching for “maids.”

Avoid empty statements that don’t give a clear picture of what you’re offering, or sound like a sales pitch. The main objective of your site should be to help web users figure out if your service is for them. If it isn’t, you won’t be able to convince them with hype. If it is, the faster you can demonstrate that, the more they’ll appreciate it and be inclined to buy from you.

Overall, make your website about your customer, not about you. The more user-driven the site is, the more it will appeal to busy web surfers by seeming helpful and credible. Get the customer to trust you by actually serving their needs, rather than of pushing your own. Don’t make the same mistake as most online advertisers, who project the message “we want you to buy our product or service,” instead of “you want to buy our product or service, and here’s why it can help you.”