St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

With methodology that’s typical of both Microsoft and the GOP, these two spent millions making and promoting this huge web application that proports to be just what the people want, ( a “virtual town hall meeting”) which doesn’t work and isn’t what it says it is…

For the record I am NOT a Democrat nor a Republican and I am, like most Americans NOT happy with either party.  This story is not about politics, but instead about what happens when you don’t plan, test and launch a web application successfully.  further this article will speak a little about honesty in marketing.  Any comments that try to say that I’m saying these thing because I don’t agree with the politics of the web site will not be published, as will any comments that rant about one political viewpoint or party.  We welcome all comments that focus on the marketing or technical aspects of this web application.

First we’ll address the “doesn’t work” part, then after the fold we’ll address the part where it isn’t what it says it is.

On the first day I heard of it, I went to check it out. It displayed nothing but a blank screen. I checked the source code, there was the complete source code for a blank html page. Well stuff happens I guess. So I checked back a few hours later, same thing. So I tried in the wee hours of the morning, same thing.  I don’t know how they think this is okay, but if this was my web application, it would have been ready for the massive amount of traffic on launch day, it would have been thoroughly tested before release and any errors that somehow made it through this process would have been fixed promptly.  If not, my efforts would be considered and absolute failure. Given the GOP and Microsoft have access to so many more resources than me, these failures are completely unacceptable.

Now it’s three days later and I go there and, lo and behold, we get a front page. But that’s all. All the pages linked to on this page, return the famous asp.net error screen (which some say is a huge security hole in asp.net web applications). See screen shot above.
There is a video on the front page. It does work. Sadly it’s hosted by youtube and has all Google’s tracking systems intact. Really? The GOP can’t afford to and Microsoft doesn’t have the know how to host it’s own video? They really think it’s okay to give up all that info on it’s users just to avoid hosting their own video?  BTW, youtube.com is owned by Google which is Microsoft’s #1 competitor.  I’d have to say that using youtube to host this particular video on this particular web site and Epic Fail, wouldn’t you?
The video goes on and on about how they want the public’s input on policy. The info the founder (Kevin McCarthy) released to the press used the phrase “virtual town hall meeting”. The site couldn’t be anything further from that. But it is designed to make it look like one.
Here’s some of the differences between a town hall meeting and this web application:
Read the rest of this entry »

Not exactly the way I’d do it but he introduces many important topics. This video also demonstrates how to use the Dreamweaver CS3 interface to create CSS rules.

Sadly he was wrong about the “Page Properties” they only apply to the page that’s open, not “every page that we create from now on” so odd that he got such a basic piece of info wrong . . . We try to actually put these CSS style rules that he’s creating in a separate ” style sheet (a text file, written with proper css syntax and uses the .css extension). Once this is done you can go to every page you have or create anew and tell the page to use the style sheet.

On a professional scale we use “Dynamic Web Templates” to force pages to use certian style sheets and accept changes made to a master template. Because there’s so much more to a web site than it’s CSS.

This video helps explain what a firewall is. (By request)

A two way firewall is absolutely necessary.

Zonelabs has the best on in the business and it’s free.

Obama just took the initiative to ask the general public to submit questions to him online, others members of the general public will read the questions and rate them. The President will ask some of the most popular and well rated.
This article resume’s after the video:

This online interaction between President and Citizens is a lot like the traditional means. I don’t why the guy in the interview seems obsessed with marijuana, but he has the point all wrong, in fact he’s proving my point.
Read the rest of this entry »

Over in Europe they seem to care a little more about encouraging competition than they do here in the states. Even though the courts have ruled Microsoft has an illegal monopoly, the justice department dropped all legal action against them shortly after G. W. Bush took office.

The EU on the other hand saw one of their cases through to the end. At issue in this article is Microsoft’s illegal bundling of Internet Explorer 8 with all versions of Windows. This is unfair not because they are giving something away for free, but because they not made it possible for OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) or computer owners to remove Internet Explorer. Plus other action designed to reduce or eliminate competitors. Like buying Netscape Navigator and then selling it to AOL on the condition that they never release a new version of it again and discontinue use and support of it after a period of time. Another trick they would do is to refuse to sell or sell at an inflated price Windows to OEM’s that installed a different browser before they sold it to a customer. Nice guys whuh?

A couple years ago the EU order Microsoft to (amongst other things they also haven’t complied with) to stop shipping Windows with IE included. Instead of doing it, they just paid millions upon millions in fines. Once the adoption of Vista slowed to the point where it looks like there won’t be a significant amount of sales, they complied, sort of.

Now Enter Windows 7, the next version of Windows. It is required legally to not have IE included it. Yet it does. Microsoft is now trying to say they are complying by having a check box buried deep in their control panel that lets you “Turn off”" the dreaded IE8 (which purposely displays web pages that are written specifically for IE8 improperly, and yes if you write it for IE8 it won’t work right in any other browser, most of the time). If you find this cleverly hidden check box (it will surely be moved and relabeled right before the official launch). You must re-boot the computer twice. After all that it still doesn’t remove IE! It’s still there, perhaps even running (that’s unknown at this point), just the .exe is gone.

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