Be Careful of Repetitive Strain Injury
Repetitive Strain Injury can be caused by the repeated use of any tool or equipment or by any motion that involves doing the same action repeatedly. RSI affects various types of persons but this entry will be focused on computer users.
Repetitive Strain Injury Explained
Repetitive Strain Injury is a serious problem among computer users, especially typists, web developers and other computer related professions that involved using a computer for extended periods. RSI affects a user when the tendons, muscles nerves, and other soft tissues in the hand, fingers, wrist elbows and shoulders are strained due to repeated and prolonged use of the keyboard and mouse. The stress of these parts combined with bad posture and improper keyboard and mouse use can be dangerous.
Symptoms of RSI
Stiffness, tingling or soreness of wrists, hands, fingers, and shoulders is a sure sign of RSI as well as hand weakness, cold hands, hypersensitivity and lack of coordination.
Preventing RSI
Repetitive Strain Injury is hard to cure but very simple to prevent. Simple things like taking regular breaks to stretch and massage hands, arms and shoulders, learning to type properly, positioning your desk and chair properly to ensure they are at the proper height, using voice recognition software when possible and sitting upright and keeping a good posture can go a far way to preventing RSI and the pain discomfort that comes with it.
IZEA’s “RealRank” to be Alternative to Google’s “PageRank”
It’s only been a few weeks since the big pagerank branded stick of Google slapped around thousands of websites who were known to or suspected of selling text links on their webpages without using No Follow. A few days however some of the ranks went back to their regular numbers while others stayed hit and this left many website owners puzzled. Over the past few days however the pagerank issue is once again in the air as it seems that many websites are finding not reduced ranks like a few weeks ago but the loss of their pagerank all together. It’s been pointed out that link selling is again the major culprit with special emphasis on blogs who offer sponsored posts or reviews.
Graphical Representation of PageRank
These bloggers are crying foul as many believe that they are fee to do whatever they want with their own websites as long as these paid posts are disclosed and made clear to be what they are.
In comes RealRank
The parent company, IZEA, of one of the biggest paid post firms, PayPerPost, is busy highlighting the flaws in Google’s PageRank rankings while busy developing their own ranking system called RealRank.
The problem with Google PageRank is that it is both self serving and irrelevant to actual traffic and influence. The arbitrary and unpredictable nature of this ranking system has left both bloggers and advertisers longing for accurate statistical data since long before PayPerPost.
Instead the some what monopolistic nature of Google’s ranking and algorithm RealRank proposes a ranking system more up to date and more useful to websites, primarily blogs. This system ranks websites by traffic and inbound links and is expected to be rolled out in a matter of days.
Live Search Webmaster Tools Beta Invitation
We at Caribwebdev.com have been invited to take part in the Live Search Webmaster Tools Beta. So far their have been a few hiccups with the service, but we are now able to access it and will be looking at it’s features over the next few days using caribwebdev.com and other websites in the Heat Ray Media group of websites.
So look out for our first impressions review in a few days.
Extend the Functionality of Flash
Flashloaded.com is a website dedicated to creating and providing cost effective add-ons or components for the Adobe Flash platform. Flash components add new functionality and features to Adobe Flash and helps web developers to add features to their websites with little or no coding or other intensive work necessary. Flashloaded.com is a retailer of various Flash components in many categories such as 3d, sounds and video, menus, navigation, charts and more.
Using ready made components is very advantageous and web developers can save time and money by using a streamlined product from a third party such as Flash Loaded instead of trying to develop the component themselves. Flash Loaded specializes in Flash components so you can rest assured that they are competent in their business and have thousands of satisfied customers.
designersPoll by Flashloaded.com
An example of one of the useful components created by Flash Loaded is 3DPieChart. 3DPieChart helps users to create professional, interactive 3 dimensional charts in little or no time. These charts are perfect for online presentations and projects. Another example of a very useful and easy to use component created by Flash Loaded is designersPoll. This component helps to create simple, clean and stylish web polls to collect feedback from website visitors, it collects and stores data using an XML file instead of a database and prevents multiply votes by a single user by using browser cookies.
These and many more Flash components are available on Flashloaded.com.
Yahoo Search Builder - customizable search engine
Google may be the leader in the search engine market, but Yahoo Search is still a important search industry player and internet powerhouse. Yahoo Search Builder is a powerful, easy to use tool provided by Yahoo which enables anyone (primarily web professionals) to create customizable search engine experience for any website. All that is needed is a yahoo email address and in literally minutes anyone start using Yahoo’s search technology on their own website to search the entire web, within a specified website and much more.
Simple Steps
- Navigate the Yahoo Search Builder homepage
- Log in with your Yahoo id
- Define your search engine by choosing a name and search type
- Design search box by choosing the width, colours and encoding
- Customize and brand your search box with your logo, fix it to match the colours of your website among other options
- Test created search box and add the generated code to your web page.
Graphical Representation of Steps
Create multiple engines for multiple websites and view statistics independently with this very useful tool provided by Yahoo. Please read through the Yahoo Search Builder help files if you have any problems with these steps or ask your questions in a comment.
Technical Terms and Abbreviations Explained – IP Address
The “IP” in IP address stands for Internet Protocol. An Internet Protocol Address is a unique address assigned to computers and other electronic devices connected to a network. The network can vary in size, from a simple home set-up of a computer connected to a printer, a corporate set-up with an internal network connecting various devices or a massive network such as the internet which connects billions of devices to the global network which is known as the World Wide Web.
An IP Address acts a unique identifier or “address” for a device and this allows the various devices connected to a network to communicate by helping them to tell one device different from another. Devices that can be connected to a network and all having their own unique IP Address include, telephones, printers, routers, scanners, computers and various other electronic devices.
Google Chopping Pageranks in Latest PageRank Update
PageRank is a link analysis and measuring algorithm created by the cofounders of Google Inc Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It measures the relative importance of a webpage on the internet by analyzing the links pointing to the specified page and then assigns a number from 0 to 10 to the page with 10 being a very important page and 0 being a not so important page. Google updates these rankings every couple months and many websites, advertising agencies and search engines put great value of the pagerank of websites. Over time however many websites have begun to abuse the algorithm by selling links on their high ranked pages to boost the rank of the buyers page or linking to webpages in a network with the main purpose being to influence a higher pagerank for linked pages.
October 2007 Updates
Before this month’s update, Google’s last update to pagerank scores came in April 2007 and many were speculating that Google would have lived up to it’s word of devaluing the links of offenders in the next update. This speculation became reality when Google began decreasing the ranks of many known link sellers or link farms, especially blogs and mainstream sites like Forbes.com, Engadget.com and the website of the Washington Post.
Coverage in the Blogosphere
Read more at popular technology blog Techcrunch.com and also visit Dailyblogtips.com who are compiling a list of major sites and blogs affected negatively by the pagerank update.
Microsoft’s Live Search Engine Updated
Microsoft Corp has updated their Live Search engine and has focused mainly on improving searches related to entertainment, shopping, local and health.
“With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. “We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time.”
[ Read full Press Release from Microsoft ]
Live Search Homepage
What does this mean for Caribbean Web Developers?
Google is the undisputed king of search right now with Yahoo a distant second and Microsoft third. Microsoft is focusing on improving it’s search engine to prevent further slippage in it’s already small market share as well as to keep up with improvements being made by Yahoo and Google to their search products. This is good news for Caribbean Web Developers, especially those who follow proper web standards and understand the importance of proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google is on top and more than like many of us receive the highest percentage of our search engine traffic from Google, but improvements in other search engines allows us to receive good traffic from all major search engines, not only Google.
W3 Schools – vital resource for Web Professionals
W3school.com is a free online resource for tutorials related to web development, web programming, scripting and other web building topics. The information on w3schools.com is vital to any web developer looking for a free, easily accessible and professionally created resource.
Newcomers or Professionals
No matter what level of web development you are at or how many years you have been professional you will always find this website as a useful tool to acquire new information and skills or to practice or brush up on existing skills. If you are new to web designing or a student your learning experience will be helped by the streamline and step by step format of each lesson, complete with examples, tests and quizzes.
Technical Terms and Abbreviations Explained – RSS
RSS stands for really simple syndication. It allows users who frequently access the internet to get updates from sites they frequent without having to visit the site. The content of RSS Feeds can be can be displayed in software called RSS Readers, these software may be online based or desktop based. Feed readers check feeds that you have subscribed to at regular intervals to see if there is any new information added to the website.
Most popular websites have RSS feeds and if you are a web developer you should ensure that your website supports and displays RSS feeds.
