24.5.12

New - how do I share folders with other people? - Dropbox

How do I share folders with other people? - Dropbox

Share a folder on Mac OS X

If you haven't already, install the Dropbox desktop application on your computer for seamless Dropbox integration.
  1. Open your Dropbox folder.
  2. Right-click or Control-click on the fPublish Postolder you want to share. A contextual menu will appear.
  3. Select Dropbox > Share This Folder…. This will send you to the sharing page on the Dropbox website

    Select Share This Folder... from the contextual menu
  4. Enter the email addresses of whomever you want to add to your shared folder
  5. Add a personal message if you'd like and click Share Folder

How, When, & Why to reset the PRAM & SMC on your Mac - The Next Web

How, When, & Why to reset the PRAM & SMC on your Mac - The Next Web

Is your Mac acting just…odd? Stuff like drives not appearing, screens not adjusting correctly, Bluetooth problems, AirPort non connecting? Maybe your fan is running non-stop or your battery has said that it is 50% charged…for two days…and your MacBook is plugged in. Yeah, these aren’t problems that simple rebooting often fix. And while doing stuff like fixing permissions can fix some strangeness, this is strangeness on a deeper level. This is hardware strangeness. The good news is that, you’re only a few key presses and reboots away from things (hopefully) being back to normal.

First, before I get into the hows, whys, and wherefores of resetting the SCM and PRAM, remember…while these are generally safe things to do (and the instructions are freely available on Apple’s support section), make sure you have a recent back up and critical stuff is backed up on an external drive or USB key or something.

Also I’d disconnect all drives, speakers, external displays and keyboards before you try this stuff. It’s a good step to make sure nothing interferes with the resetting process.
Now on with the show…

Resetting the PRAM

Since the dawn of Macs we’ve had what is called the PRAM—parameter RAM (you can say it like pee-ram or pram, doesn’t matter)—which stores stuff like this (from Apple support):
  • Status of AppleTalk
  • Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
  • Alarm clock setting
  • Application font
  • Serial printer location
  • Autokey rate
  • Autokey delay
  • Speaker volume
  • Attention (beep) sound
  • Double-click time
  • Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
  • Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
  • Startup disk
  • Menu blink count
  • Monitor depth
  • 32-bit addressing
  • Virtual memory
  • RAM disk
  • Disk cache
Yeah, this is kind of “core” stuff and sometimes strange values get written there or corrupted or something and weirdness ensues. Even back in my beginning tech support days, zapping the PRAM (we were too cool to call it “resetting”) was one of those “okay let’s see if this helps” if the solution to a problem wasn’t obvious. Hey, sometimes it did work. Sometimes the PRAM does get wonky, hence why you need to reset it now and again.

For the record, I don’t just reset my PRAM for kicks and giggles. I think I needed to do it over a year ago…and yes, it did fix the problem.

Here’s how to reset your PRAM:
  1. Shut down your machine. Yes, all the way down, not sleep or logging out.
  2. Press the power button and then press command-option-p-r. You have to make sure you get those keys pressed before the gray screen comes up or it won’t work.
  3. Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
  4. Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.
When you log back in, you’ll probably will have to adjust your mouse speed, time and date/timezone, and a few other things, but otherwise you should be good to go. Back in the day, we would often let the PRAM zap several times (like 2 or 3) to make sure it was clear. Sometimes, in fact, the machine needed that kind of kick in the pants to clear everything out. However, today’s Macs seem to be good to go with a one shot zap, so no worries there.

Resetting the SMC

The companion to the PRAM is the SMC (system management controller) and is only for Intel-based Macs and it stores/manages/controls a lot more interesting things than the PRAM:
Fans
The computer’s fans speed up quickly and remain at high speed.
The computer’s fans run at high speed although the computer is not experiencing heavy usage and is properly ventilated.
Lights
The keyboard backlight appears to behave incorrectly (on Mac computers that have this feature).
The Status Indicator Light (SIL) appears to behave incorrectly (on Mac computers that have an SIL).
Battery indicator lights, if present, appear to behave incorrectly (on portables that use non-removable batteries).
The display backlight doesn’t respond correctly to ambient light changes on Mac computers that have this feature.
Power
The computer doesn’t respond to the power button when pressed.
A portable Mac doesn’t appear to respond properly when you close or open the lid.
The computer sleeps or shuts down unexpectedly.
The battery does not appear to be charging properly.
The MagSafe power adaptor LED doesn’t appear to indicate the correct activity.
System Performance
The computer is running unusually slowly although it is not experiencing abnormally high CPU utilization.
From Apple Support
Although Apple suggests reseting the PRAM first, I’ve found that often reseting the SMC does the magic. Truth be told if I’m resetting one, I usually just go ahead and reset the other as well. Heck, if your Mac is being strange, just give it the full on kick in the pants, don’t go half way.

The instructions for resetting your SMC depend on three things:
  • Does your device have a removable battery?
  • Does your device have a built-in battery?
  • Does your device just run off power from the wall?
If you have a MacBook, MacBook Pro, etc that you can remove the battery from here is what you do:
  1. Shut down the computer (again, full-on off here)
  2. Disconnect the MagSafe plug from the machine
  3. Remove the battery
  4. Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
  5. Put the battery back in and reconnect the MagSafe cord
  6. Turn your machine back on with the power button
For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own, here’s what you do:
  1. Turn off your machine (really, you knew this was coming at step one)
  2. Keep the MagSafe adapter plugged in.
  3. Press at the same time shift-option-control (on the left side of the machine) and the power button
  4. Let go
  5. Turn your machine back on with the power button.
Note that you keep the MagSafe in for MacBooks that have the built-in battery and out for MacBooks where you can pull the battery out.
For Mac Minis, Mac Pros, iMacs, and Xserves (really on a server?):
  1. Shut the machine down
  2. Unplug it from the power
  3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
  4. Plug it back in and turn it on.
That’s it. Really. Lots of steps for something that will take, oh, 10 seconds to do. However resetting the PRAM and SMC are often not only the cure for Mac wonkiness, but also the only solution to problems with AirPort, batteries, and power.

Now, remember…just back up that Mac so when your Mac does start having a bad day you’re not in an absolute panic.

Public links to any folders (new) - Dropbox

Simple, fast sharing - Dropbox

Simple, fast sharing

Now you can make links to files or folders in your Dropbox.

Quickly share your photos, docs, and videos with friends and colleagues — even if they don't have Dropbox!

Large files

Send even your biggest home videos and presentations to anyone, instantly.

Entire folders

Share a whole collection of files at once, right from your desktop — no more zip files.

Lightning fast

Since your stuff is already in Dropbox, you can share it in a snap — no setup required.

How to:

From dropbox.com and on your computer, just select "Get link" for a file or folder in your Dropbox.
On mobile, open the file and press the link icon in the bottom left corner.
www.dropbox.com
Desktop
Mobile

Beautiful online viewing

When you create a link, your photos, videos, and even documents are displayed in a gorgeous full-browser view. Your friends and family can simply follow your links to view photos and instantly watch home videos online. Even your presentations look great without anyone having to download and open them separately.

Dropbox adds link file-sharing | ZDNet

Dropbox adds link file-sharing; Welcome to the Megaupload club | ZDNet

By | April 23, 2012, 12:12pm PDT

Summary: Dropbox has painted a giant target on its back by offering one simple, additional feature to its file-storage service: a link-generating button to enable public file-sharing.
As file storage favourite Dropbox adds the option to turn private files it stores into public, linkable content, it has overnight transformed into a de facto file-sharing service.

The trouble is that nothing seems to differentiates Dropbox from any other file-sharing website, including troubled Megaupload.



Megaupload was shut down for among many things, criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Its executives were arrested and the extradition process began within hours of their detention. The company continues to battle its case despite reports suggesting the prosecution’s legal case is close to collapse.

In a similar set of circumstances, 23-year-old British student Richard O’Dwyer is to be extradited from the United Kingdom to face charges in the United States — though his website and server was in Europe, and the UK previously ruled on a similar case which deemed his activities legal — for hosting a link-sharing website. No copyrighted content was hosted on his site, but mere links pointing to U.S. movies and television shows.

Dropbox chief executive Drew Houston concedes that sharing documents, pictures, and files on the Web to anyone you know — regardless of whether they are in your social network or not — is still “bafflingly, still really difficult.”

All good and well. But what truly separates Megaupload’s or O’Dwyer’s case from Dropbox?

Nothing does. Here’s why.

A user uploads the latest episode of House to their Dropbox account, and enables the link-sharing feature. They then share the link with a few friends and they download it. Or, they submit the link to a link-sharing forum — and there are plenty of them, rest assured — and hundreds or thousands go on to download it.

Maybe Dropbox gets suspicious, or maybe it blocks the file on upload for infringing copyright. Or it fails to, and like the recent YouTube case in Germany, is forced to shell out for a more stringent filtering system. Either way, Dropbox will all but inevitably end up in court.
Or, someone takes to another file-sharing site to upload copyright infringing files and takes a note of the link. Rinse and repeat a dozen times. They then create a document that contains links to other file-sharing sites. It could then be shared by friends and family, or even to the wider community.

That list alone uploaded to Dropbox would be illegal under U.S. and now UK law, and could lead to extraditions and prosecutions of not only the infringer, but a mass copyright suit in Dropbox’s inbox.

Dropbox is no different from any other file-sharing site. It allows users to upload files, and it allows them to share the files by way of sending others’ links to that file. The file can then be downloaded and redistributed either on Dropbox or elsewhere.

It has no legitimacy, nor does it have legal protection. File-sharing is big business, and Dropbox makes hundreds of millions if not more. It was estimated to generate at least $240 million in 2011 alone, and its revenue comes from premium accounts offering additional storage and enterprise clients.

Granted, it isn’t quite a referral scheme, in which users can upload content — most of it often infringing someone’s copyright, such as television shows, movies and music — and generate revenue based on how many clicks and downloads are made which ultimately draws in traffic for the site. But it makes money from those who upload large files or require vast spaces to store their content.

RapidShare, which for years ran a similar referral scheme, denied this week violating copyright laws, and released a “responsible practices” manifesto for cloud storage companies. RapidShare, along with Dropbox, could kick off infringers off its site, and even report repeat infringers to law enforcement.

But who would use a service that may issue false positives and lead to unfounded allegations and investigations based on a third-party’s suspicion?

Dropbox had for over a year fringed on becoming something more than it was. But the reality is that Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Google Drive could fall to the same fate. SkyDrive offers public linking, and Google Drive is expected to offer a similar feature to which its sister service Google Docs also offers.

What do Microsoft and Google have that Dropbox doesn’t? Money to install heavy-duty, zero-tolerance copyright catching filters, and the money to pay for lawyers when it inevitably blows up in their respective faces.

Or it shows an entirely different picture. If Dropbox, and other file-sharing heavyweights like Microsoft and Google all offer file-sharing capabilities, perhaps its time for the MPAA, RIAA, and the rest of the “copyright cartel” to back down and concede that it cannot repackage the plague that emerged from Pandora’s box.

Update: Dropbox offered this statement after publication:
“Dropbox explicitly prohibits copyright abuse. We’ve put in a place a number of measures to ensure that our sharing feature is not misused. For example, there’s a copyright flag on every page allowing for easy reporting, we place bandwidth limits on downloads, and we prohibit users from creating links to files that have been subject to a DMCA notice. We want to offer an easy way for people to share their life’s work while respecting the rights of others.”

23.5.12

A New Home for Computer Screens: The Face - WSJ.com

A New Home for Computer Screens: The Face - WSJ.com

Employees at eyeglasses designer Michael Pachleitner Group have no reason to consult desktop computers, tablets or old-fashioned paper binders to find items in their 22,000 square-foot warehouse. The information is right in front of their faces.

Alternate Reality

Technology is being developed to project images or other digital information on to the lens of glasses. See one type of device under development.


The Austrian company recently outfitted warehouse workers with a head-mounted device that displays digital information on a clear lens over one of the eyes. The lens gives visual directions through a Wi-Fi connection to the 1.4 million items stored in the vast warehouse. It also confirms they made the right pick, and frees up their hands.

By July, the company's six warehouse pickers will be wearing the device all day, cutting down on picking errors by an estimated 60%, said Chief Financial Officer Neil Lambert. "We were skeptical in the beginning" about the device, which reminded him of military gadgets seen in movies. "It was a nice surprise to see that it works."

 
Augmented reality is no longer just science fiction. A number of companies are developing glasses-like devices that transmit and display digital information onto wearers' field of vision. WSJ's Amir Efrati reports.

The $13,000 device made by Austrian company Knapp AG gives a glimpse at the future of "augmented reality," by using transparent displays to overlay digital images atop a person's view of the physical world.

The rise of Internet-connected smartphones and advances in "heads-up" displays are accelerating the development of all sorts of wearable augmented-reality devices. Such gadgets have long faced skepticism because they were uncomfortable to wear, ugly, and expensive, reserved only for corporations and military agencies.

Google Inc. caused a stir last month when it offered a peek at futuristic-looking headgear that would essentially turn an eyeglass lens into a computer screen. The wraparound glasses, which place a single lens above a person's right eye, display digital information like maps and emails on the glass. People may be able to control the device using their voice or gestures.
Google has tentative plans to sell its Google Glass device to consumers starting sometime next year, said people familiar with the project. A Google spokesman declined to comment.
Meanwhile, smaller companies such as Lumus Ltd., Vuzix Corp., Laster TechnologiesSAS and Recon Instruments Inc. are also hoping to convince skeptical consumers to wear unusual-looking gadgets—from glasses that transmit turn-by-turn directions so people won't have to look away from the road while driving, to displays built into ski helmets that show skiers how fast they are cutting through the snow.

Some computer scientists increasingly envision a world in which people wear glasses-like devices with a built-in camera and use apps that can recognize objects and faces—using technology called "computer vision"—and automatically retrieve information about those objects from the Web or other sources.

For example, an American visiting another country could wear such a device and run a translation app to overlay English on foreign-language billboards, street signs and store fronts in his field of vision.

The closest device to Google Glass that is currently on the market for consumers is Recon Instruments' GPS device that is inserted into specially made goggles worn by skiers and snowboarders. For about $500, the goggles display information such as speed in a small box located below the user's field of view. For around $600, the product can play music and display text messages and caller ID when attached to a phone.

Recon Chief Executive Dan Eisenhardt said the Vancouver company has sold "tens of thousands" of the devices annually since the product launched in 2010. The 65-employee company is profitable, he said, and plans to launch similar products for other action sports such as motorcycling.

At Knapp, the company began working on its warehouse-picking device by buying lenses from 12-year-old Israeli firm Lumus. The lenses, placed in front of an eye, can create the effect of watching images on an 87-inch TV screen from a distance of 10 feet.

Lumus said the U.S. Air Force current uses its technology to show weapons information in the helmets of fighter pilots. The company added it is working with several hardware manufacturers to build consumer devices around its lenses, but declined to comment further.
"We thought this could be a nice additional product, but we didn't expect it to be so important," said Peter Stelzer, a business development executive at Knapp. He adds the company has sold around 100 of the devices since last year.

Meanwhile, Vuzix and Laster Technologies said that next year they plan to launch a pair of regular-looking display glasses for consumers. The devices, which would cost several hundred dollars, would connect to smartphones so that apps could be projected onto lenses. "It will be an eye phone," said Laster CEO Zile Liu.

Until more heads-up displays hit the market, people will have to rely on their smartphones or tablets to mix the real world with digital images, through the view of a device's camera.
A number of mobile apps already incorporate augmented reality features on smartphones. Yelp Inc.'s mobile app, which rates restaurants and other businesses, lets people hold up their phone and see digital markers on the screen that show the location of nearby businesses. Software from Germany-based Metaio GmbH is being used to create tablet apps that flash repair instructions across the screen when the camera is pointed at car engines or computer printers.

Videogames are also fertile territory for augmented reality, with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Vita device and 13th Lab AB's "Ball Invasion" game for the iPad already providing such experiences. The cretators of "Ball Invasion" say the app uses "simultaneous localization and mapping technology" to allow people to shoot bullets at digital spheres that hover next to real-world objects and walls, as seen through the iPad's camera view.

"By 2020, the world will have perfect augmented vision," said Dave Lorenzini, who designs augmented-reality apps and related businesses at consulting firm Augmented Reality Co. "It's like creating the Internet again but inside the real world."

Write to Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com

20.5.12

Transform Your Website Background Into a Slideshow | ChurchMag

Transform Your Website Background Into a Slideshow | ChurchMag



bgstretcher

Yesterday’s post about Backstretch, a jQuery plug-in that dynamically-resizes your background image, got me thinking more about the slideshow options. Backstretch could be easily configured to a slideshow, but lacked some extra creative effects you would want if you implemented the slideshow option.

If you want your background image to change or implement a dynamically-sized slideshow, bgStretcher II is what you’ll want to try:

bgStretcher II

As the web is viewed on multiple screen sizes and mobile devices, tools like this are awesome.
bgStretcher II is easy to setup and has plenty of creative options:
  • Speed
  • Transition Effects
  • Slide Direction
  • Prev & Next Selectors
  • Anchoring
  • Preload
  • More!
I find it curious you can initialize the plugin for custom DIV use. This would be good if you wanted to draw on bgStretcher II for a slideshow.
Also, with the ability to implement the Prev and Next selectors, you could use bgStretcher II to setup a photography demo reel. Drop in some hi-res images, and the demo reel would dynamically fit fullscreen no matter the size of screen.
There’s a lot of potential and flexibility with some creative bits of code and bgStretcher II.
Check it out!

19.5.12

SEO For RapidWeaver Video Course: Walkthrough Search Engine Optimization Course

SEO For RapidWeaver Video Course: Walkthrough Search Engine Optimization Course

Watch Videos

Watch the Video Tutorials Below

Tip! Stay up to date with new video sections and software: Join our newsletter.

Introduction

  1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how we will apply it to our sites - (2:57)

Planning Strategies

  1. Finding profitable keyword phrases - (5:00)
  2. Choosing a professional domain name - (2:27)

On Page Optimizations

  1. Search engine friendly page names - (2:26)
  2. Making an easy to follow navigation menu - (2:34)
  3. Creating content search engines love - (2:13)
  4. Targeting specific geo-locations for better rankings - (0:58)
  5. Optimizing image file names for universal search - (1:08)
  6. How keywords in links can boost your search engine rankings - (2:32)
  7. Title tags, the most important optimization technique - (2:17)
  8. Adding a captive description - (2:02)
  9. Meta keywords and how to use them - (1:32)
  10. Header tags for additional classification - (3:25)
  11. Alternative text for images - (1:14)
  12. Splash screens and how they hurt your website - (0:32)

Off Page Optimizations

  1. How to properly get listed in search engines with XML sitemaps - (4:11)
  2. Know your website visitors with Analytics - (4:21)
  3. NEW: How your site speed effects your search engine rankings - (2:34)
  4. Popularity contest: How your site popularity affects your rankings - (4:01)
  5. Track your overall success with search engines - (2:32)
  6. Exploring the social web and bookmarking - (2:01)
  7. Get right to the top of Google Places - (1:58)
  8. Get instant visitors with directory listings - (1:02)
  9. Write about your expertise to build your site credibility - (1:16)
  10. Announcing your website to the world with Press Releases - (1:13)
  11. Let users discover your products with Google Product Search - (2:23)

Social Media Marketing

  1. Create A Custom Facebook Fan Page For Your Business - (7:56)

Conclusion

  1. Conclusion - (0:59)

Bonus Videos

  1. The most common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them - (2:39)
  2. Add an Image Map to Your RapidWeaver Site - (1:39)
  3. Add Google Analytics to Your RapidWeaver Website - (1:43)
  4. How to verify your website with Bing - (1:41)

Building Your Own Website: Sandvox, RapidWeaver or Flux? | Mac.AppStorm

Building Your Own Website: Sandvox, RapidWeaver or Flux? | Mac.AppStorm

Building Your Own Website: Sandvox, RapidWeaver or Flux?

Remember iWeb? This former iLife member’s lofty goal was to translate the intimidating task of building a website down to the “drag and drop” simplicity of the Mac experience.

Apple’s brief foray into the world of DIY websites was impressive at first, but aged quickly and was eventually abandoned altogether. Discounting professional developer software like Dreamweaver, this leaves Mac users with three primary options for WYSIWYG website building: Sandvox, Rapidweaver and Flux. Today we’ll take a brief look at each and offer some advice on which you should use.


Sandvox

screenshot

Conceptually, Sandvox is the closest thing to iWeb on the market. The workflow here is very familiar: choose a theme, edit the text, drag in some images and hit the “Publish” button.

Sandvox has plenty of built-in themes and can easily be expanded via third party designs. As a designer, I’m definitely not crazy about the available Sandvox themes, the overall aesthetic quality of the set feels dated, but there are some gems. Non-designers will likely find something fun and simple that’s perfect for their needs.

The professional features here are limited, but very close to what you saw in iWeb. The app definitely isn’t geared towards coders or designers who want to start from scratch, but you can “inject” snippets of HTML, JavaScript or even PHP into the pages on your site.

Who Should Use Sandvox?

Anyone who used and loved iWeb should definitely check out Sandvox. The two apps are close enough that you’ll have very little trouble transitioning from one to the other.

In fact, Sandvox’s marketing heavily targets iWeb users. The website welcomes “iWeb graduates” and even has a guide for iWeb switchers.

RapidWeaver

screenshot

Occasionally, it seems as if a third-party developer understands the true “Mac experience” better than even Apple. RapidWeaver is not a slightly different version of what iWeb was but rather everything that iWeb should’ve been. It’s simply a beautiful program that is a joy to use whether you know anything about building websites or not.

To build a site in RapidWeaver, you add one page at a time, each of which conforms to one of eleven page types (blog, photo album, etc.) and the overall visual theme you choose. The interface is customized for each page type and the controls are simple enough for anyone to use.

The professional features here are pretty extensive. Overall, the design of your site is definitely driven by the chosen template, but you can customize code fairly easily and really bend the site to your will if you need that kind of flexibility. It really helps that the auto-generated code is actually human readable and conforms to web standards.

Extensions

The killer feature of RapidWeaver is definitely its expandability. The RapidWeaver Add Ons Library is not only full of gorgeously designed themes, but also some amazing plugins like that really stretch what’s possible. For instance, the Blocks plugin brings full-on freeform page layout to RapidWeaver and is a must-have for anyone who wants true control over their design. 

Who Should Use RapidWeaver?

RapidWeaver is an app for a wide range of users. If you don’t know anything about building a site and aren’t crazy about the idea of going to school to learn web development, RapidWeaver will help you create a great site with little effort.

Also, if you’re a designer who knows his/her way around an HTML document but aren’t really the code-from-scratch type, RapidWeaver with the addition of a few powerful plugins could really help you convert your designs to basic but functional websites.

Basically, if you’re a newbie, RapidWeaver welcomes you with open arms and a user-friendly workflow and if you know enough to need some advanced features, they’re ready and waiting for you to dive in.

Flux

screenshot

Flux is by far the furthest app from iWeb in the bunch. In fact, it’s so different that it’s hard to group with the two apps above.

iWeb, Sandvox and RapidWeaver are all primarily aimed at making website creation available to the masses. They’re tools that allow everyone to get a taste of web design without necessarily becoming professionals. Flux on the other hand, really is a professional web design tool.

It has much of the charm that you get from a RapidWeaver-like WYSISYG, only it gives you complete freedom to design and code your own site. There are some templates available, but the strength of the app is that it isn’t in any way template-dependent.

In fact, you can import existing web projects that you’ve coded by hand right into Flux and then shuffle objects, add styles or create dynamic objects with easy-to-use tools. Think of it as an awesome visual front-end to your code.

Who Should Use Flux?

Flux has a little bit of a learning curve and will make the most sense to those that are at least partly familiar with how CSS works. If you’re a graphic designer who is either intimidated by or bored with the process of coding entire sites by hand, you should absolutely give Flux a shot.

I personally code sites by hand and generally avoid WYSIWYGs like the plague. That being said, I love Flux. It’s a really innovative concept and once I took the time to really learn how to use it properly I was surprised at how much you could accomplish with a really simple workflow.

Obviously, none of these options are going to replace traditional text-based IDEs for hardcore coders. If you fall into this category, check out Coda or Espresso instead. 

Conclusion

To sum up, there are three primary applications in the realm of Mac-centric WYSIWYG website building apps: Sandvox, RapidWeaver and Flux.

Sandvox is probably the most iWeb-like tool on the market. Users that were sad to see iWeb go should definitely take a look at Sandvox. RapidWeaver is like a really slick iWeb upgrade. It’s more attractive, more powerful and more amazing in just about every way. It’s easy enough for complete beginners to pick up and powerful enough that users who are slightly familiar with web development will find the features that they need, especially given the wealth of plugins that are available.

Finally, Flux is the most advanced and most flexible option, affording you complete template independence. If you don’t know a thing about web development, stay away from Flux. If however, you’re looking for the best non-Dreamweaver WYSIWYG around for the Mac, give Flux a download.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of these three apps. Where do you fall on the web developer spectrum and which app do you think is best suited for your needs?

15.5.12

How to Embed a YouTube Video in an Apple Mail message

LemLink » How to Embed a YouTube Video in an Apple Mail message
When you need to tell someone about your YouTube creation, you can send a link – but it is cool to have the video ‘embedded’ in your email. The message will then display the ‘poster image’ of your video, and allow the recipient to just to click ‘play’.

MailFinal.png
Apple Mail does not normally allow you to compose an HTML mail message, but there is a workaround that allows you to embed a YouTube Video in an Apple Mail message.
Addendum December 2011.

Dave’s comment below describes a much easier method to embed a video than the work around ‘Method Two’.

I would recommend you try Method One first. Consider Method Two deprecated.

Method One (Dave’s Method)

In Safari, Open the page for the you tube video that you want to embed.
Place your cursor just above the left hand top corner of the video and click and drag it to just below the bottom right hand corner.

Select copy.

Open a new mail message, and paste into the body.

No problems.

Method Two (Original Workaround – Now deprecated)

Thanks to bytes.com for providing a lead on this.

Addendum March 2011 – Recent changes to Apple Mail and YouTube have made this process far more difficult than it should be. It still works, and the extra steps are now noted in this updated version of the post. However, you may wonder if it is now worth all the effort.

Step One

Go to YouTube, locate the video you want to embed, and copy the text in the ‘Embed’ section on the top right of the page, as in this screenshot.
NB You now also have to select the checkbox ‘Use old embed code’, as below

Step Two

Open the application TextEdit, create a New Document (File>New), and paste in the text you have copied from YouTube.
It will look something like this
1
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/heoO_5MvZ0w&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/heoO_5MvZ0w&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Step Three

Change the format of this document using Format>Make Plain Text
TextEdit.png

Step Four

Save this document as message.html

Step Five

Open the newly saved document in Safari, by navigating to message.html using File > Open File…. (or Command-O)
Safari2.png

Step Six

In Safari, select File > Mail Contents of this Page, or Command-I.
This will magically create a new message in Mail containing the embedded video.
Mail.png

Step Six – Save the message as Stationary

Addendum – Since Mail 4.2 and you need these somewhat awkward extra steps
-  Select ‘Save as Stationary’ from the file menu.
- Quit that message and open a new message.
-  Hit the ‘Show Stationary’ button and select the stationary you have just saved from the Custom menu


Step Seven – Edit and Send

Edit the message in Mail as you normally would, and then send it on its way
MailFinal.png

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Firefox 13 Gets a Triple Shot of Speed Through Mozilla's 'Project Snappy' | PCWorld Business Center

Firefox 13 Gets a Triple Shot of Speed Through Mozilla's 'Project Snappy' | PCWorld Business Center

Firefox 13 Gets a Triple Shot of Speed Through Mozilla's 'Project Snappy'

When Mozilla launched the beta version of Firefox 13 late last month, it was already clear that faster speeds were on the way, thanks to the fact that the SPDY protocol had been enabled by default.
firefoxNow it looks as though even more speed is in the works for the popular browser, thanks to an effort called “Project Snappy,” which Mozilla kicked off late last year.

“Back in the fall of 2011, we took a targeted look at Firefox responsiveness issues,” wrote Firefox Engineering Program Manager Lawrence Mandel in a blog post on Friday. “We identified a number of short term projects that together could achieve significant responsiveness improvements in day-to-day Firefox usage.”

Some of the first improvements from the project began to surface in Firefox 11, but it's Firefox 13 in which they're really beginning to be felt, Mandel said.

Specifically, Firefox 13 will deliver speed improvements thanks to tweaks in three key areas, he explained.

1. Tabs on Demand

This is actually a feature that Mozilla mentioned explicitly when it launched the Firefox 13 beta, but Mandel last week offered further explanation.

“In Firefox 12, all tabs are loaded on startup,” he wrote. “For windows with many tabs this may cause a delay before you can interact with Firefox, as each tab must load its content.”

Now, aiming to reduce startup time for Firefox windows with many tabs, the browser loads only the active tab, deferring the loading of the others until they are selected.

“This results in Firefox starting faster as tabs-on-demand reduces processing requirements, network usage, and memory consumption,” Mandel said.

2. A Better Cycle Collector

Another change appearing in Firefox 13 is an improved mechanism for reducing Firefox's memory usage.

“As you interact with the browser and Web content, memory is allocated as needed,” Mandel explained. “The Firefox cycle collector works to automatically free some of this memory when it is no longer needed.”

Starting with Firefox 13, the cycle collector is more efficient and spends less time examining memory that's still in use, he said, with the result that there are fewer pauses during browsing.

3. A Faster 'First Paint'

Finally, as part of Project Snappy, Mozilla developers also identified several unoptimized routines in the code that executes before “first paint,” or the first appearance of the Firefox interface on the user's screen. With Firefox 13, file calls, audio sessions, drag and drop, and overall IO are all among the routines that have now been optimized for faster performance.
Several other areas of Firefox 13 have been improved as well, Mandel noted, including IO contention, font enumeration, and livemark overhead. Future changes will touch on memory usage, shutdown time, network cache and connections, menus, and graphics, he said.
Bottom line? Starting with Firefox 13--the final version of which is due on June 5--users of the free and open source browser should notice a faster experience.

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14.5.12

rapidweaver ref - menu center-submenus-html5

menu.com/center-submenus-rapidweaver-html5

Overview

CSS3 is changing how we build websites. Even though many of us are still reluctant to start using CSS3 due to the lack of support in some browsers, there are those out there that are moving forward and doing some amazing stuff with its cool new features. No longer will we have to rely on so much JavaScript and images to create nice looking website elements such as buttons and menu navigations.
You can build a cool rounded navigation menu, with no images and no Javascript, and effectively make use of the new CSS3 properties border-radius and animation. This menu works perfectly well with Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari. The dropdown also works on non-CSS3 compitable browsers such as IE7+, but the rounded corners and shadow will not be rendered. CSS3 transitions could one day replace all the fancy jQuery animation tricks people use.

Menu Features

  •  No Javascript is required
    Works in browsers with disabled Javascript or if a browser has no Javascript support at all.
  •  Cool CSS3 properties
    Multi-level dropdown menu is created using CSS3 rounded corners (CSS3 border-radius), CSS3 shadow (box-shadow and css3 text-shadow).
    Opacity, backround and font colors, linear gradient and radial CSS3 gradient are also supported.
    CSS3 only effect for dropdown appearance, Fade,Slide, etc.
  •  Mega Menu with Multicolumn Submenus
    Create Mega Menu with multicolumn submenus. Specify the number of rows you want to have.
  •  SEO friendly
    Search engines and text-only browsers friendly.
  •  100% CSS-driven designs
    The menu is based on HTML list of links (UL/LI structure) and CSS only. No additional non-css params are used.
  •  Small size
    Immediate loading of the menu. Doesn't use additional files.
  •  Browser support
    Supports all modern browsers (in IE6 top-level items are accessible only).
  •  Supported Devices
    Supports all modern devices (iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone).
  •  GUI interface
    Visual design user interface allows you to create your menus without the need for complex hand coding. Use the preview window to view your menu design while you are developing and customizing.

Rapidweaver ref - TSOOJ | What about loading speed and image file ...

TSOOJ | What about loading speed and image file ...

Support Center

What about loading speed and image file size?

Last Updated: Mar 30, 2012 01:50PM CEST
To achieve fast loading pages and normal image transistions, it is best to optimize your images before uploading to your website or adding them into the RapidWeaver 5 Resources.

You can achieve this using your favorite image editor and choose "Save for Web & Devices". Set the DPI value at 72 and use a maximum height/width amount of 1200 pixels. Of course it's best to test your full screen Slideshow on multiple devices and try to lower the maximum amount of the heigth/width when possible. Try to strive for a file size that is below 200kb, keep you image file size small and your website visitors happy.

When you don’t have Photoshop or another image editor you can resize your images online for the web, for example with www.webresizer.com.

13.5.12

OC METRO – Irvine-based BlueCava partners with European ID security provider

OC METRO – Irvine-based BlueCava partners with European ID security provider

r

The deal with 192business expands the Irvine-based firm’s fraud prevention products.

BY AMANDA EDENPublished: September 24, 2010 11:17 AM
BlueCava, the credit bureau for devices, has inked a deal with 192business, the largest provider of ID and age verification services in Europe, that effectively expands the Irvine-based firm’s suite of fraud prevention products.

The companies’ combined services provide a powerful defense for massive multiplayer online games, social networks, online gambling sites, dating sites and e-commerce companies. The system will accurately and quickly detect, block and ban users who attempt to engage in fraudulent transactions.

“We were impressed by the 192business global Fraud-ID database, its verification technology and industry expertise in helping businesses implement identity verification,” said David Norris, CEO of BlueCava. “Now that 192business customers have access to both historical and real-time information on the device associated with a suspected fraudulent transaction, they’ve got one of the most powerful fraud-detection systems in the market.”

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Irvine-based WebVisible and IFX Online join forces



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