Technology
Friends Don’t Let Friends Mismanage Projects
Project plans lay out a defined series of steps to accomplish a goal. Most software development methodologies produce an undesirable goal—failure. A 60% failure rate is not just dumb luck, it is the natural consequence of the methodology. To change the outcome, we must change our methodology! I’ve witnessed failed projects which did not achieve [...]
Adapt or Die
The rise of Internet technology has forced IT to adopt new methods that inherently combat the issues leading to failed projects. Delivering web systems rapidly to a geographically dispersed customer base is requiring dramatic changes to the way software is constructed and managed. Today’s new economic structure is characterized by compressed business cycles. Companies are [...]
The Alternative Webmaster Glossary
There are a number of SEO and SEM related glossaries on the Internet, but this is the first one I’ve seen that is humorous. If you need to learn the difference between 404 errors and Latent Semantic Analysis, this is one place you can learn it and still have fun: Bot: The term bot is [...]
Failed Projects Need Agility
“I don’t get it,” the project manager complained. We were debriefing after a project launch debacle, and tensions were running high. “We had our best people on the project. We authorized overtime. We even had outside consultants review our systems before we put the system into production. And now this!” My boss was referring to [...]
301 vs. 302 Redirects
When you move content from one location to another on a web site, there are a number of methods to redirect requests for the old URL to the new page location. For SEO purposes, a technique known as a 301 redirect is the correct way to set up redirects. A 301 redirect is the web [...]
Stopping Image Spam
Spam message volumes have doubled over the past 12 months; situation is worsened by the recent emergence of image spam. The BorderWare Security Network has reported that image spam currently accounts for at least 35% of the overall spam volumes and this trend is on the rise. BorderWare data indicates that there are more than [...]
Preventing Pages from Being Indexed
In addition to configuring the robots.txt file in the web server root directory, you can within the page specify pages which should NOT be indexed (put this within ‘s): meta name=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW” This can be helpful if you have a non-relevant page that ranks well and throws users off. For example, a disclaimer page [...]
Color Palette Generator
Designing a web site and need a color scheme? Try the Color Palette Generator. Simply provide a link to where your photograph is hosted, and press a button. This tool extracts the “dull” and “vibrant” colors from your photo with corresponding color palatte colors, ready to use for web page design. Use it at: Color [...]
Mount Box.net on your Desktop
This article shows how to connect to Box.net via the Mac Finder, giving you desktop access to a free, mountable 1 Gig online storage account. In a nutshell: 1) Get a box.net account. 2) In the Mac Finder select the GO menu then choose Connect to Server (Or Command-K). 3) Put in the address: https://www.box.net/dav [...]
Top 10 Ubuntu apps and tweaks
This article lists must-have desktop apps for Ubuntu such as amaroK (sync to your iPod), CheckGmail, Automatix, Gnome Deskbar Applet, & VLC. Of notable interest is Beagle: Beagle is the Spotlight/Google Desktop search app for Linux. However, think more Spotlight than Google Desktop (which is a good thing, because Google Desktop can suck at times). [...]
