Search-This would like to officially welcome Jeremy Ashcraft to the team!

<pearl jam rif> Jeremy spoke in class today… </pearl jam rif>

sorry, had to get my Pearl Jam on…

<pearl jam rif> Ooh, but we unleashed a lion… </pearl jam rif>

No, but really, we did unleash a lion, Jeremy joins the team with a strong website development and administration background.

Hopefully you’ve already read Jeremy’s first two articles: Simple Tips to Help Survive The Digg Effect and The Lazy Programmer - Open Source and You. And his next article will be out tomorrow!

Here’s a bit more about Jeremy:

User Name: MrSpooky

• childhood ambition: to be an astronaut, of course
• fondest memory: my son being born
• favorite music: metal! \m/
• retreat: my front porch with a book
• proudest moment: winning the pole vault at the 1999 Outdoor Big Ten Championships
• biggest challenge: managing my time
• alarm clock: 6:30 AM or my son, whichever comes first
• perfect day: doing absolutely nothing
• first job: bailing hay on a farm in rural Indiana
• indulgence: Taco Bell
• favorite movie: Fight Club
• inspiration: knowing that there is someone out there that is better than me at what I do

Quite often when developers create a website they typically design for the latest version of Firefox and IE. While in general this will cover the majority of the users, there are other browsers you should test the site in to make sure you take into consideration your other users. Unfortunately, with various operating systems and compatibility issues, it’s not always that easy. Hopefully this guide can get you started.

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Ah… the blogs versus website debate, where would we be without it?

The problem is, unlike other “this versus that” issues, this isn’t an apples and oranges debate at all, it is more like a Granny Smith’s versus … some other variety of apple. Um, red apples versus green apples? …

A website can have the attributes of a blog and a blog can do anything a website can. Why? Because they are both websites.

I use WordPress as a content management system; I have also added RSS to a traditional website before. It’s not always easy that way round, but doable.

Blogs do not even have to look like blogs, they can work however you want them to. Many people object to blogs because of “that front page with all the articles on it” or “I don’t like the archive based navigation” yada yada.

People who say “blogs must”, or “blogs can’t” or “blogs always” are probably overwhelmed with information and don’t want you to take their security blanket away.

Blogs can look or work however you want them to. It’s just a content management system and if you choose the right software, for example WordPress, then the only limitation is tweaking time.

If you think this is really about whether you should have a traditional website or a blog, that would be like asking “should my marketing only use one tactic” and my answer will always be a big fat sweaty NO.

I worked in the past with huge companies who only wanted to use one tactic. “Direct marketing will damage our brand”, “we are a premium brand, we don’t do radio *spit*”, “websites? websites? are you MAD, didn’t you know these products ONLY sell via point of sale/sales promotion/sampling/yada”. And yet every single time they allowed us to test an integrated multi-tactic strategy, sales improved.

You have to choose the tactics you believe you can make work and use them in unison.

Use both: use a blog for attraction and stickiness and use a traditional website for conversion.

… or put another way, articles and sales pages …

OK, blogs can have community - how about forums versus blogs?

Again they are both websites, it is possible to hack up a blog so it works like a forum (I wouldn’t, but you can). They are two different types of venue really.

In a blog it is “I think this, what do you think?”, where as in forums it is question/answer. You generally have little control over the direction the conversations take (which is a good thing) in a forum.

So again, why not have both? When you need to control the agenda, you direct the conversation more in blogs. If you want spontaneous conversation go with forums. Think of a forum as friends talking whereas with a blog it can be more like a friendly salesman directing the conversation towards purchase.

Next time someone asks you “blogs versus websites”, just say “no, articles AND sales pages” and tell them Chris told you to say it.

Anyone who has worked with CSS for website design will realize what an art it really is. There’s almost always half-a-dozen different ways to achieve the same result. It’s the skilled CSS artist that will be able to achieve the optimum result with the least amount of code, while also keeping the code well-modularized, easing future maintenance.

This article will teach you the technique of using space separated classes thereby allowing you to be a better CSS artist. To show off this technique we will first style and then swap around four floated columns without breaking a sweat.

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It’s hard to believe that I graduated college nearly two years ago and have been working at an Insurance Company as a programmer since. I would like to tell you that college completely prepared me for a job in the real world, but I would be lying if I did.

During the time I spent searching for a job, being interviewed, and now having been in my job for some time, I have learned some valuable lessons that I’d like to share.

First we’ll look at some suggestions of what you can do while you’re interviewing for a job and then I’ll talk about ways to make you more successful at the job you land. Let’s begin.

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Lately, I have seen a huge hype on Optimizing MySQL Statements, or on a more generalized approach of just optimizing your SQL. I want to reflect on this a bit and tell you that 10 tips will never solve your problem. 10 tips will not even come close to making a difference. 10 tips are not going to help you.

With that said, here are my reflections:

Reflection #1: Buy a Book
Why? It is purely simple, I can give you the best tips in the world and it won’t save your database from crawling if you do not fully understand why I gave the tips to begin with. Nor will it save you if the true cause isn’t entirely your SQL, but your schema as well. Sure there are things to keep in mind, but do us all a favor and buy a book, read it cover to cover, and fully indulge yourself in to how Databases work, especially the one you use for your site.

Reflection #2: Pick the Database for the Job
A professor once told me that there isn’t a single language that can do everything efficiently. Pick the language for the job, do not fit the job into a language. The same can be said about Databases. Pick the right Database for the job, do not try and fit your job into a specific Database just because you like it more.

Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Postgress, and MySQL (MyISAM or INNODB) all have their place. Do the research, figure out under which circumstance each work best, and then pick the one that is suitable for your task. Keep in mind cost and licensing can definitely be deciding factors. If you do not want to shell out the money for Microsoft SQL, then by all means, rule it out and research the others to see what will be more suitable. However, if you want to succeed, cost and licensing should not be major factors in your decision.

Reflection #3: Learn to ask for Help
The major issue with database and SQL design is primarily due to the inexperience of the user. If you are trying to design a database or write a complex SQL statement, by all means ask for help. I can’t tell you how many times I have rewritten the Stored Procedures at my work place because a newer developer wrote them.

There are countless places you can get help, countless forums, and chances are you may think you are designing something entirely revolutionary that has never been done. However, I am willing to bet it has been done and the user who can tell you his pitfalls and experience with doing it, is likely to be moderating a forum. Allow their experience to steer you clear from the same issues. No need to reinvent the wheel.

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When you have tabular data that is arranged in table columns then it is often good for presentation and usability to highlight one column or perhaps give all columns a different colour or style. If you are interested to find out how to achieve this with minimum fuss then read on as this short article will show you how to easily target the columns in your table using CSS.

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