It was three years ago today (Development 19, 2009) that Microsoft unleashed Internet Explorer (IE) 8. According to Microsoft, the priorities for IE 8 were wellbeing, compatibility, ease of use, web development improvements, as well as adhering to CSS specifications and additional web standards.

Three years on, IE 8 is still the second most used web browser version in the world.

Is that impressive or just simply sad? You tell us!

IE 8 still has over 16% market share

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 in this area two and a half years after IE 7 hit computers around the world. That’s half the time it took Microsoft to go from IE 6 to IE 7.

To place that in perspective, Google Chrome was at version 1.0.154 in Development 2009. The current stable release of Chrome is 17.0.963.

But for a three-year ancient browser, IE 8 is really hanging in there. If we look at the latest data, IE 8 is still the second most used web browser version, with 16.29% market share, only behind Chrome 17 with 27.52%.

Additional sources are in line with this, giving IE 8 a 17.53% share of the web browser market.

If we combine browser versions, IE is still number one with nearly 35% market share, followed by Chrome close behind at nearly 30%, and Firefox at around 25%.

Finally, IE 10 will get auto update

IE 10 is by now out in a preview release and is expected in a final version together with Windows 8 shortly this year.

Of course the new browser will bring a slew of news and improvements, but most fascinating is that it appears that IE 10 will get auto update functionality in the style of Google Chrome.

We’ve studied what effect the auto update feature of Chrome and Firefox have had on those browsers, and it’ll be fascinating to see what happens with IE. Did you notice that there is no Chrome 16 or older in the chart above?

In fact, all the additional versions of Chrome are bundles in that “additional” category, each with a market share not more than 1%.

So as we say pleased birthday (and excellent abolition!) to IE 8, we’re keen to say welcome to IE 10, and look forward to the continuing browser wars.

This was a post from the guys at Pingdom, a site monitoring service that makes sure you’re the initially to know when your site is down. Check it out for free.

From:
Pleased birthday IE 8 – you are remarkably tough to kill

Do you have a huge screen TV in your living room? Of course you do! Do you browse the web using that TV? Probably not, but you will sooner or shortly, so why not make your website TV-friendly today?

With sales figures for TVs that can connect to the Internet increasing quick, it’s time to start thinking in this area how your websites will look and work for a name sitting on a couch in front of a 60″ HDTV.

What kind of adjustments to your site’s design and functionality will you have to do? Read on to find out.

Smart TVs are here to stay

Probability are you have just got used to the thought of making smartphone and tablet friendly versions of your websites, and now you’re thinking “do I really have to care in this area TV as well?”

The answer, if you check your website logs is probably a resounding no. We doubt you see much of “SmartHub” in your logs, but we bet that you will see an increase in the coming years, so it may be time to get ahead of the pack and be ready as smart TVs are increasing in popularity and soon, there will be one in nearly every living room.

For the sake of simplicity, in this article, by a smart TV we mean a TV set that can be connected to the Internet and run various apps, and support functionality such as a web browser.

As you would expect, smart TVs are still just a small part of all TV sets sold. In 2009, nearly 1.3 billion households around the world had at least one TV set. That same year, the worldwide TV market was worth $380 billion, with North America gobbling up nearly 40%.

In evaluation, close to 20% of all TV sets sold in 2010 had some form of Internet-connection capability. This translates to expected shipments in 2011 of around 25 million smart TVs. And in just a few years, in 2013, 123 million smart TVs will be sold, according to one prediction.

Any way you look at that, those are huge numbers, and each one of those smart TVs, is another means of accessing your website.

We should of course remember that just because a smart TV can be connected to the Internet, doesn’t mean that it would be in its final setting. Some even claim that as much as 50% of all smart TVs are not connected to the Internet, even though they have the functionality to support it.

Here are our 10 tips for making your website TV-friendly:

Design for a huge screen

Contemporary TVs obviously come in all shapes and sizes, but it’s likely that you have something like a 30”, 40” or even a 60” TV set in your living room. Compare that to the show you use with your computer: if it’s any larger than 30” you’re one lucky ducky. That extra screen real estate will obviously have to be full into account when you design your site for viewing on a TV.

Design for limited pledge

But, despite a TV being pretty large compared to a computer’s show, it doesn’t necessarily have a very high pledge. Full HD is only 1920

Did your jaw drop when you initially saw the iPhone 4, which was rendered completely in CSS and JavaScript code?

According to the website where you can view the iPhone, it was produced with “no metaphors… just 3,395 lines of CSS code and 335 lines of JavaScript code.”

We talked to the creator of this very impressive project, Vasiliy Zubach, to find out more in this area him, and learn how he really made all the thousands of line of code work.

Q&A with Vasiliy

Pingdom: Tell us a bit in this area yourself.

Vasiliy: My name is Vasiliy Zubach, or TjRus, for small. I’m a web developer (mostly front-end) from Ukraine, effective at MacPaw. I was born in the small village of Vorokomle and grew up there with only one goal – to go to a house with fantastic opportunities. When I had just turned 13 years ancient, I started that journey by entering the Kiev Physics and Mathematics Lyceum. My main goal was to study to be able to get a excellent job. But that all changed at university, really during my second course, when I found a excellent job and became much less interested in studying. Though, I did end my master’s degree in in rank wellbeing in 2011.

Vasiliy “TjRus” Zubach

Pingdom: How did you get started with web development?

Vasiliy: When I was searching for my initially job I was just looking for vacancies and compared them with what I could do, what skills I had, and what I was interested in. It was very clear my main interest was web development. After studying HTML and CSS for in this area a month, I managed to get offered a job. So in Development of 2008 I started my front-end developer career and I’ve not questioned this even once since then.

Pingdom: How did you come up with the thought of making the iPhone 4 in CSS3?

Vasily: One day at my current job a coworker showed me some cool icons made entirely in CSS3. If you know anything in this area CSS, you would have been amazed just as I was, so when I saw that, I just said to myself “I can do that too and I can make it even better!” But I couldn’t just do the same thing, that didn’t make any senses. So I chose to go further. I chose to make a whole iPhone with icons and everything in CSS3. That was a real challenge, and as far as I knew, no one had done it before me.

Pingdom: How did you build it?

Vasiliy: I have some experience in making an interactive iPhone from before. In this area six months ago, we launched an iPhone wallpaper sharing service (ensoul.me). For this service I’ve by now developed an iPhone, so to speak, but with metaphors. But that meant that the main algorithm and how pieces of code would have to interact were in my head. From that I just started writing code. In fact, the thought was so strongly stuck in my head that I even thought in this area it every day, going back and forth to work. At work there were too many additional fascinating things to do, so the iPhone became something I did with my spare time.

Pingdom: How many hours, in total, did the project take?

Vasiliy: All in all it took in this area 35 hours. I worked on it for a period of time, in this area 1-2 hours every day after work and on weekends. That may not signal like a lot, and perhaps it isn’t, but my previous experience helped me know what needed to be done. That saved time, I reckon. It was all clear in my mind, and I did not have to redo anything once I had started. So that was the start of success.

Pingdom: What equipment (software and hardware) did you use?

Vasiliy: I worked with my personal notebook, an Apple MacBook Pro with 2.4 GHz Core i7 processor and 8 GB RAM. I’ve really tried my CSS3 creation on iPad and iPhone as well, and they run, but way too slow. In terms of software I use Espresso for HTML and CSS3 coding, and Coda for writing scripts. At one point I tried to use Adobe DreamWeaver, but it didn’t work very well with the FTP account I was using.

Pingdom: What was the most hard thing in this project?

Vasiliy: The most hard part was making the icons. Some icons are simple, with few lines of code, like Calendar and Clarification. Many others were very hard, like App Store, because of the huge amount of gradients and rotations. Though, when I had finished it all, I realized there were really no hard parts. I just had to learn a few more things, and all that I can now use in future projects. Drawing every part of the iPhone is simple. Now I can even paint pictures with CSS3! Just kidding.

Zoom in on the iPhone 4 and it reveals some of its incredible details.

Pingdom: Can you tell us if you have any future plans to build something else using the same or similar techniques?

Vasiliy: I don’t reckon that it would be excellent to tell you all my secrets but I can just say that in the  near future I will be revealing something just as cool as the iPhone. Also, an off shoot of the iPhone in CCS3 will be used in another project, to demonstrate an application that I’m effective on.

Pingdom: So you’re leaving us with a cliffhanger, that’s not very nice of you. But let’s go on. If a name else is considering starting a similar project, what advice or suggestions would you have for them?

Vasiliy: If you have any thoughts for things you want to make or apply, do not place them in the future. Just do it! If an thought appeared in your head, it’s worthy of implementing. Not all may become a full project, but you will learn something from each and every one. Often when I’ve had an thought I tell a name in this area it, they reckon I’m just kidding with them. Then I do something with it, like write a piece of code to try it out, and show the same person the result. Often they don’t believe me, saying that they didn’t reckon it was possible. Every thought should have a chance to come alive. Just do it!

Onto the next project

As we end our interview with Vasiliy, he’s by now on his way to the next project. He won’t tell us what it is, as you could read in the interview, but we’re sure it’ll be something really exciting. Vasiliy has though said that he’ll let us in on some of the cool things he’s effective on as soon as possible.

Are you effective on something cool and exciting for the web, the Internet, or just tech in general? We would be interested in featuring you here on Royal Pingdom.

To get in touch with us, you can leave a comment not more than or find us on Chirrup, Facebook, and Google+.

This was a post from the guys at Pingdom, a site monitoring service that makes sure you’re the initially to know when your site is down. Check it out for free.

From:
Inside the mind of the guy who rendered iPhone 4 with only CSS3 code (interview)

Pingdom’s movable Podcast is a weekly show in this area Internet, web, and mobile stuff. In this show we covered the following topics:

Start 0:10

• Welcome
• Pleased new year

Start 21:00

• The mobile web in numbers
• Symbian is still top mobile OS
• Apple’s App Store generates 6x the revenue of Android Market in the US

Start 41:35

• Ice Cream Sandwich & General Android post-ICS? End of Disintegration?
• Unmodified Holo theme now a requirement for diplomacy with Android Market access
• RIM PlayBook Now Available for $199 in the US
• iPhone 4 drawn entirely with CSS
• iPhone 4S coming to China and 21 more countries this Friday
• Samsung Galaxy 3GS?

Start 60:10

• Predictions in this area mobile, web, and Internet technologies in the year ahead.

In this area the show

The show is hosted by Magnus Nystedt at Pingdom and Saleh Esmaeili, User Experience Designer at dots & lines in UAE, currently effective on Carbon for Windows Phone and Android.

Join us

We are always looking for fascinating guests. If you want to join us, get in touch.

Listen to the show

You can download the MP3 file.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (pending).

Or you can use the player not more than:

This was a post from the guys at Pingdom, a site monitoring service that makes sure you’re the initially to know when your site is down. Check it out for free.

From:
Pingdom movable podcast #1

Do you have an itch when it comes to how your web browser works? Perhaps there’s some functionality you want from the browser that it doesn’t support, or it does something in a particular way that drives you nuts.

Probability are there is an extension to remedy that situation.

We have gone over most of the extensions available for Apple’s Safari web browser and come up with recommendations for 15 extensions that we reckon you should try.

You find all the extensions in Apple’s Safari Extension Gallery. We can’t link to each individual extension, unfortunately, because the way Apple has built the site, so you have to go to the gallery and click your way to the extension you want.

Firebug Lite

The must-have extension for anyone doing web development and design is now available for Safari. FireBug sits as a button in the toolbar and with one click it opens up a panel at the bottom of the Safari dialogue box. In that panel, you can inspect the page’s HTML and CSS code, any script that is running, and the DOM.

MLB

If you are a baseball fan, this is the extension for you. It sits as a toolbar at the top of your Safari page, which displays the latest scores from sports meeting in progress as well as recently completed sports meeting.

BuiltWith

This is another one for the developers and anyone feeling the need to find out how a site is place together. On the page you want to investigate, just click the BuiltWith button in the toolbar and it will show you a small dialogue box with in rank in this area what technologies that site is running on.

GCalNoScroll

Are you tired of Google Calendar scrolling all over the house when you access it with Safari? Then get GCalNoScroll and see scrolling no more. If you work with Google Calendar a lot, this will save your sanity.

Stop/Top off toolbar button

If you don’t like clicking the stop/top off function in the address bar, this will give you a proper button in the toolbar instead.

ClickToFlash

ClickToFlash can preclude Safari from automatically launching plugins for media playback, like Adobe Flash. Instead of the Flash movie you get a placeholder you can click on if you want to load that particular content. ClickToFlash can also replace Flash with HTML5 alternatives in many places.

JavaScript Blacklist

You may be able to protect your privacy a bit better and minimize redirect hell if you preclude some JavaScripts from loading. This plugin gives you the ability to check scripts from loading from certain domains. You can add and edit the list of domains in the plugin’s settings.

Tasty Safari

If you’re a Tasty user, click the button in the toolbar and you can save the URL to your account: simple peasy.

EverNote

EverNote is our favorite digital shoebox service. With this plugin you’re just a right-click away from capturing a full web page, URL, a selection of text, or a picture, all going straight into your EverNote account.

Validator

As many excellent extensions, Validator is a one-trick pony. Just browse to the page you want to check and click the button in the toolbar. Validator then feeds the URL to the W3C’s XHTML and CSS validator, which parses the code, and displays any errors and warnings it finds.

Rotten Tomatoes

If you find time to mind movies then Rotten Tomatoes is the house to check out what others reckon of the movie you plot to mind. With this extension you get a toolbar with a dedicated Rotten Tomatoes search box and some of the latest news from the site.

Ghostery

Want to keep at least some sense of privacy when browsing the web? If so, install Ghostery, which helps you check scripts, metaphors and iframes on sites you browse to.

Google Toolbar

No, it’s not an official Google product but it might as well be. You get a new toolbar with one-click access to most of Google’s services. If you live in Google, get this extension.

OmniBar

With this extension installed you can search from the address bar. Just type in what you want to search for and hit enter. This means you don’t have to specifically click in the search box anymore.

Add to Amazon Wish List

It may be too late to populate your Amazon.com wish list for the coming holidays but it’s never too late to wish for things, right? If you see something you want on a web page, click the Add to Amazon Wish List button in the toolbar, type in some more info, and it’s saved to your wish list.

Selection desires to grow

So there you have 15 of our suggestions for Safari extensions you should try. For Safari, there’s not as much to choose from as there is for Firefox and Chrome, but we hope that Apple will keep adding to the selection.

If none of the 15 extensions we picked out can help you with that particular web browser itch you have, probability are there is another one that can do the trick.

To paraphrase a well-known expression, there’s an extension for that.

This was a post from the guys at Pingdom, a site monitoring service that makes sure you’re the initially to know when your site is down. Check it out for free.

From:
15 fantastic Safari extensions: from blocking ads to hacking web code

After you have made your blog, you have to select a excellent theme/template to dapper up your blog. A excellent blog template should attract the reader’s attention and get across the topics which are covered in the blog. If you have sufficient knowledge on HTML and CSS, you can make a personalized theme. But if you lack this knowledge, you will have to look for a excellent blog template to match your desires.

The downside of using ready-made templates is that they look very dull. Templates help by providing a standard set-up for you to follow and they stop you from drifting off topic. Templates also enable smooth transition between articles.

Why You Should Use Blog Templates:

1. Ready-made templates give a polished appearance to your work and save you quite a lot of time.
2. Blog templates give readers a simple way to interact with the writer.
3. The turn-around time is very quick.

Free vs. Paid Templates:

There are some limits to using free templates i.e. pre-designed templates ready for use. While they are free, simple to use and often very lovely to look at, there is always the chance the design is being used by additional bloggers. Advertisements pop up on free templates and also increase the chance of being exposed to spyware and hackers.

You can take advantage of boundless customization and more features with paid templates. They are less prone to being hacked.

Compensation of Paid Blog Templates:

1. Unique design serving to your distinct desires
2. Online support is available
3. Protection hostile to hackers and malicious code
4. Modification of copyright links
5. Extensive range of features can be used.

Paid blog templates are the best option for users who are honest in this area blogging. It is beneficial in the long term and also saves you a lot of problems in the future.

]]> http://asterhost.info/blog-templates-%e2%80%93-free-vs-paid-templates/feed/ 0 http://asterhost.info/new-public-report-from-pingdom-enters-beta/ http://asterhost.info/new-public-report-from-pingdom-enters-beta/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:59:53 +0000 SeoLink http://asterhost.info/new-public-report-from-pingdom-enters-beta/

Starting today all Pingdom users can try out our new and improved public report pages, seen here not more than. These reports, also known as status pages, let you make some or all of your Pingdom monitoring results public, promoting transparency toward your users.

Since the public reports are hosted by Pingdom, they will be available even when your own website is down. They are very handy as automatically updated public status pages for web services and hosting companies, to name one example.

You can look closer at any individual check to get plenty of more in rank and graphs.

And there’s really more than what we showed you here above.

As you can see, these new public reports are much more visual than the ancient ones. You may be pleased to learn that none of the charts use any Flash. It’s all HTML, CSS and Javascript, so the public reports work everywhere, counting on the iPad and iPhone.

Features at a glance

• Uptime and response time charts.
• Response time map.
• Daily and monthly overviews.
• Customizable history (how far back in time the reports go).
• Customizable design (colors, logo).

How to try it out

To try out the new public reports, just go to the public reports section in the Pingdom control panel and the in rank you need is right there. They’re by now active for all Pingdom users, both free and paid.

For those of you who are interested, even if you don’t have a Pingdom account, here’s a link to a sample report you can play around with: http://stats.pingdom.com/2o5z286xb2wl

The ancient public reports will still be effective as usual during this transition period, but will be phased out when the beta is complete. We will let our users know in excellent time before this happens.

Let us know what you reckon!

We want to get your feedback on the new public reports. Please email your thoughts to beta at pingdom dot com with the subject line “Public reports.”

There are many more Pingdom features in the pipeline for 2011 (and beyond). This is going to be a fantastic year for us and for our users, and we thank you for being part of this journey.

From:
New public report from Pingdom enters beta

Billing systems for e-commerce and online business sites are some of the most vital software within the system. They must accurately charge customers, utilizing different methods, for products in a secure manner. With so many billing products available, it can be hard to know which is best for your business desires. WHCMS is one billing solution that should be considered by all online merchants.

WHCMS is an “all-in one client management, billing and support solution for online businesses.” One nice advantage available directly from their website is a free trial. WHCMS gives you a fully functional 15 day trial to experience everything their software has to offer. There are many vital features available for WHCMS counting:

• Billing
• Products
• Automation
• Ease of use
• Transactions
• Support

The primary purpose of this software is too securely and properly bill online customers. WHCMS software provides billing in multiple currencies with tax support. Also, there are recurring invoice options, ticket support billing and the ability to grant estimates to customers.

The product features grant areas for free offers, custom fields, promotional items and welcome emails. Also, the system can be customized for one time and recurring items. Since this is an advanced billing system, many functions are automated such as, refunds, fraud checks, product management and payment processing.

Additionally, the entire system is simple to use with a simple interface, instant complex, dexterous support channels and is quick loading. From a transactional standpoint, there are over 50 supported payment gateways complete with statistical exposure and transaction logs.

As previously mentioned, the support system within the software is industry-leading. For any issues the title-holder has access to an integrated ticketing system, networking issue tools, updates and downloads, announcements and a knowledge database. All of these support tools are vital to the success of any billing software.

All of these features are fully customizable to the desires of your business. Additionally, the software comes with fully editable client and administrative templates, language files, order forms and CSS styling to fit you business.

Billing is one of the most vital functions of an ecommerce website. Therefore, it must be robust, secure and effective at processing the transaction. WHCMS has many functions, all customizable to fit the desires of your business. Utilizing this advanced billing software will greatly improve your online business website and give the customer an overall better experience.

Content management systems have become an integral part of a webmaster’s daily duties, simplifying the process of managing and operating a website within a centralized user-friendly interface. Before content management systems website owners had to have training in HTML, PHP and CSS in order to make, organize and upload web pages manually.

Opportunely, with the advent of CMS like WordPress and Drupal, webmasters can now make and manage stunning websites with small or no web development experience. The two aforementioned content management systems are the best in the industry, but which is the crowd favorite?

WordPress

In terms of popularity, WordPress is leaps and bounds above all competitors. Originally designed as a blogging platform, WordPress has grown into an extremely useful content management system over the past few years. The strong point of WordPress is the abundance of plugins that have been designed by independent developers. Literally every aspect of site creation, organization and search engine optimization can be dealt with using WordPress plugins. These plugins are basically additions to the CMS, which enhance the functionality of the user interface.

With hundreds of WordPress plugins available, and new ones being produced each day, it is simple to see why WordPress is easily the crowd favorite. Many public find it hard to find the right plugins to simplify a specific task. Opportunely there is a large WordPress community that can offer advice on which plugins to use and how to use the WordPress content management system properly.

Drupal

Drupal is a unique advanced content management system that gives the user complete control over the development of a site. Unlike additional CMS which utilize WYSIWYG editors and simplified interfaces, Drupal is made specifically for web developers. In fact, it is said that Drupal is really more of a development platform than a simple CMS. Even though Drupal is not very user-friendly, it is exact for professional web developers that need full control over scripting and advanced site design. One of the strong points of Drupal is the massive user community full of professional web developers that are constantly sharing advice and tips on how to use Drupal. When used correctly, Drupal can make the best websites on the internet, and due to its advanced capabilities there are very few limitations.

Conclusion

Both content management systems have their own pros and cons, though WordPress is generally seen as being the best choice for novice webmaster. More advanced web developers should consider Drupal, as it offers freedom and control not seen in any additional CMS. Many webmasters use both Drupal and WordPress, depending upon their desires for a particular website. The limitations of both content management systems depend entirely upon the user’s experience and resources. With the right plugins WordPress can beat just in this area any CMS in existence. Though, when utilized by the right developer Drupal can make sites that WordPress cannot even manage! Ultimately, the choice is left to the webmaster, their experience level, and their desires.