Web 101 - Your First Web Site?

Hey guys. here's a guide to your web options, what you need and some background info. In summary, to put up a web site now is easy.
* Start by registering a domain name
* Point this to a web server
* Install and operate (free) web authoring software that allows you to update the web site.
This will get ya a starting point. If you are interested, follow the detailed steps below.

1. Domain name
The domain name is the name of the web site so a domain name is essential and options are limited to finding a provider on the Internet that can do this for you. I use XXXXXXXX.com since they are cheap so I looked up YYYYYYYY.com, it sounds like the logical choice but someone got there first!

Second choice is ZZZZZZZZZ.co.nz and its still available. Since my provider in the States can't serve up a ".co.nz" name I went to www.1stdomains.co.nz who have pricing here (http://www.1stdomains.co.nz/info/services_pricing.php). This service costs $NZ25 in the first year and $NZ35 each year after that, not a bad deal.

You can register and sign up on that web site as they have a secure credit card facility. This only provides the web address so we need to store all the content somewhere and point this domain name at all the content...on to part two...

2. Web hosting
Web hosting is where the files that define the web site are stored. Options range from doing it yourself to getting a provider to do this for you as above. To get started you can simply point your domain name at my web server since it will be a small site to start with. This server currently hosts two web sites so one more is no biggie. This has the advantage of being quick to configure and, for you guys, free, there's no additional cost to me other than a very slight increase in bandwidth usage but I'm not expecting enough traffic to affect my bill :-)

As you get familiar with how things work you can easily transfer your site within seconds if you choose to host it somewhere else.
* You get total control of all web site content
* You keep a backup of the web site on your own computers.
* I can show you how to do all this...its as easy as creating a Word or Excel document...almost!

Pricing for commercial web hosting services varies widely depending on the service reliability and features that you want so I won't quote here but an estimate is in the range on $20/month upwards.

3. Layout
Layout is the design of the web site. This is the bit you may need help with initially. By this I mean the menus and text type and size and colour. Once you have agreed on a "look and feel" of the web site, most of the pages with look very similar. This allows the author to post new content using a template (making it easier) however, someone has to design it first otherwise it is going to look less than professional.
Doing this yourself requires that you learn some aspects of web design, sounds bad, but is not that bad really!

4. Authoring
What I mean by authoring is the act of adding, changing or deleting content from the web site, including all the pictures and words and stuff.
The easiest way of posting new content is by using software that correctly saves documents in HTML (web format) so they can be posted to your web site and viewed by anyone with a browser. You can also get someone to do this for you but I reckon you guys can do it if you have a good layout.

5. Content
OK what content should I have. In summary, your web site should include the following:

a. name
b. address
c. how to get there
d. contact details, phone, email, fax, carrier pigeon etc
e. commercial description of your business, why are you here, what do you do
f. achievements, what have you done, testimonials like "These guys are cooler than South Island icebergs - Richard Lewis"

However it should also:

a. be easy to use (easier said than done on some web sites)
b. make sense
c. be professional
d. be capable of being found on more than one search engine (can show ya how)
e. attract the type of people (OK, customers) that you want
f. if possible be informative so people with return to your site, if it static people will not come back, boring!

I could go on but now I'm being boring but these are all simply common sense. If you have flair, your web site should look cool, if not, get someone that does :-)

In the air tonight

Without giving too much away, this dude has a case for asking the track designers to have another think about their implementation.

Funny Cars, Funny Race

Whoa, check this out! Amazing race where both cars have no traction, crazy sideways driving and maybe the slowest side by side funny car race in quite some time.

The Luckiest Man Ever!

This is so bizarre, this bloke is asked to reenact how he won a car by buying a lottery ticket. The ticket he buys is, er...just watch it.

Stupid or Not Stupid? That is the question.

Couldn't resist this one. "Is U.S. President Bush stupid?" is the question. You may be able to answer that without seeing this video but the fact that this question is being asked at all should tell you something, right?

HOWTO tips hacks and tweaks for hot rods

My first port of call for advice on how to do something clever in cyberspace is not google since social bookmarking has a lot to offer in terms of new cool stuff. However for the hot rodding community, these avenues have not fed me much in the way of cool hot rod information...someone please correct me on this if you can.

Anyway, obviously there is a wealth of information out there about hacking your hot rod. I guess geeks might compare this to case modding your car...not me though.

If you simply need advice on adjusting the valve clearances or ignition timing or how to replace points with an electronic ignition then this advice is but a google-click away. While the information provided is usually very good, there are always the odd case where things are explained, well, wrong! Limit the advice you take to information from trusted sites. Typically these are sites that are either manufacturer-based i.e. commercial and well-known brands, no, really, or web sites that have a rating system attached to the advice they dispense. This advice tends to be more conservative but ultimately safer than Joe User - Engine Expert: Advice Column Site, just my personal experience.

NASA font called Nasal :-)

Ever know a completely useless fact but have no one to tell? The title of this post is all that is. NASA used a font that was highly identifiable but no one knew it was called Nasal surely!

Anyway that wasn't going to be the point of this post, I had time to check out the NASA web site and am constantly amazed at the footage stored there. From the home page you can watch NASA TV or monitor past, current or future misssions.

Fascinating! OK, I hear ya "what a geek", alright, alright...I'll post an article about dirty old V8s with like, old school carburettors, points ignition and no computers and stuff...soon.

Google Saved My Life Tonight Sugar Bear

Ignore the lame play on words naming this item, I want to sing the praises of the much praised google for allowing me to not only blog this blog but also email (that can play MP3s natively by the way) but also provides single-sign-on to web services that allow me to add up stuff as well as write stuff to share my resume, add things to my shared diary, analyse my web site and don't forget watching funniest non-home videos online.

And it's free (up to a point).
And its platform independant (up to a point).
And its language independant (up to a point).

What is the point? This "free" (as in beer) does not sit well with the, now, old school, IT business model. Things are getting very interesting! I love technology when it delivers these sorts of benefits. Of course, older readers will understand the significant failure of Microsoft Passport to catch the internet-single-sign-on wave as people out in user-land simply didn't trust them. Google are considered quite differently in this regard so we can only wait and see if this will turn out differently for google.

Font Smoothie

I'm amazed how many people using Windows XP still have not heard of font smoothing for LCD displays. If you have a discerning eye and are running Windows XP on an LCD monitor, you will want to tune your Cleartype.

While you are there you should also make sure your monitor is calibrated. I noticed a massive improvement with Windoze after I tweaked the color settings on my monitor. Since every manufacturer does this differently, have a look at the setup guide for your screen, you might be pleasantly surprised.

UTF-8 WTF?

This won't mean much unless you are messing around with a web site and wonder why things don't validate against the W3C XHTML standards properly.

This is how I got UTF-8 HTTP headers working with Apache2 on Novell SUSE SLES9. UTF-8 is important. How do I know I have it right?

It's like...totally cosmic

If you are at all interested in the wonders of the universe or have read Bill Bryson and are looking for more detail, check out:

http://cosmicvariance.com/

as these dudes blog about things that have more than 4-dimensions, have never been seen and cannot be measured but are proven to exist!

Mission Control, we have lift-off

Just had five minutes to relaunch my blog and here it is! Too bad there's nothing to see here...yet.