Google search results are great, but you don’t always want to read them on the google search results page. It would be nice to able to get an RSS feed from your favourite searches, perhaps emailed to you on a daily basis or perhaps used as a feed in your website. Continue reading
web
all things relating to the web
Sucuri SiteCheck – Free Website Malware Scanner
If you run a WordPress website and want a quick and FREE scan to see if you have picked up any malware, pop over to sucuri.
These guys specialise in malware scanning and cleaning services for all websites. They also have some interesting articles in their blog – for example “how to create a website backup strategy” – which is a good read for anyone.
When your site is attacked, Google may notice and then your site will be effectively taken off-line until you have fixed and submitted to Google that it is fixed, they will check the site again and report back. This can all take some time – so it’s far better to have some sort of security already setup to ensure that your site is nice and secure!
Other WordPress tools to use:
Anti-Malware and Brute-Force Security by ELI. Provides a free plugin that will scan your installation for malware and identify potential threats. FREE Registration to automatically download the latest definitions and signatures.
Wordfence Security. A very popular (over 1900 5*’s at last count) plugin. You can also see ‘real time’ traffic on your website with this plugin.
Rename WP-LOGIN.php. This is a very lightweight plugin that will intercept and stop people accessing your login page (standard login page from wordpress). It’s non-destructive, which means that you can uninstall the plugin and everything will be back to how it was – lightweight as well – only 6k in size, so will have a minimal impact on your website.
Other Articles worth Reading:
Elegant Themes article about what to do after being attacked by malware.
Elegant Themes article about security with your WordPress website.
Keeping wordpress secure, from the guys at wpmudev – always a wonderful read… and http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/keeping-wordpress-secure-the-ultimate-guide/
Typography and the Web
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Typography is not merely the process of arranging font on a page. It is a living creature; it feels joy in an exclamation point, takes deep sighs at periods, grabs consciousness with each bold strike and begs for understanding in the space between every italic. It has in tricate rhythm and harmony, staccato para graphs and legato headers that blend into a melody of enlightened web de sign. Typography is an art as much as it is an essential de sign process, and it is one that is best understood by focusing on the contrast between textual elements in a given design.
KompoZer – Easy Web Authoring – FREE
KompoZer – Easy web authoring
Easy Web Authoring!
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.
Key features of Kompozer:
- WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor.
- Integrated file management via FTP. Simply login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages on the fly, directly from your site.
- Reliable HTML code creation that will work with all of today’s most popular browsers.
- Jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs.
- Tabbed editing to make working on multiple pages a snap.
- Powerful support for forms, tables, and templates.
- The easiest-to-use, most powerful Web Authoring System available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users.
This great HTML editor is often used in conjunction with GIMP (THE opensource free graphics editor) to produce some great websites. If you are lucky enough to have a subscription to Lynda.Com (video tutorials) then you can watch a great tutorial on how to create a great website using pure .CSS by just using opensource tools (namely Kompozer and GIMP)
Mobile Website Development
Mobile Website Development
Do you know how to create a mobile website? Or more importantly, do you know what a mobile website is? Domus Dish has covered this topic quite a bit, but in case you’ve missed it, a mobile website is what smart phone users see when looking at your webpage from their phones. There are many differences between mobile and traditional websites, which is why your website may not work for many smart phone users.
Making Websites Mobile Friendly
Making Websites Mobile Friendly
Making website more mobile friendly – Google article on how to make your website more friendly for those people browsing using a mobile phone. This article from Google looks at both SmartPhones and traditional mobile phones (using WAP, etc.). It then talks about how Googlebot-Mobile trawls your website and the user-agent strings that help it ascertain the information required for mobile phones. The format used being:
[Phone name(s)] (compatible; Googlebot-Mobile/2.1;
+http://www.google.com/bot.html)
The article then goes on to talk about:
*/ Websites with only Desktop Experience Content
*/ Websites with Dedicated Mobile Content
15 Web Services we rely on everyday
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15 Web Services We Rely On Every Day – an interesting article blog about 15 key web services used everyday.
The list includes:
Zendesk, GetSatisfaction, SendGrid, MailChimp (my favourite mail manager for newsletters, etc.), Apigee, String, ExpressionEngine, Chartbeat, Mint, PivotalTracker, SalesForce, RightSignature, GotoMeeting, Xero, DropBox, Office Glico.These are amongst the best cloud based services out there and I recommend most of them. I may be blogging about individual ones over the next few weeks…
