Web Safari at Giraffeweb

Tony McDade, Executive Director of GAIHN and Giraffe Web finished updating the GAIHN website with the latest online reservations for the holiday Carriage Rides.  Go to http://www.gaihn.org/reserveaspot.php before all the spots are gone!

If you are having trouble with your menus dropping behind your Flash, you can fix this with the wmode=”transparent” parameter.  The problem is that the average person would not understand how to add this to their Flash if they are updating their website themselves.

In a previous post I touted the great resource at http://www.tools4noobs.com/picasa/ that will convert the RSS feed for an album so that it displays better when embedded in your html pages.  However, I have a flyout menu on the site and it was flying out behind the Flash slideshow.  I was having to manually add the transparent parameter to the embed code which the client will not be able to do easily when they start to update the site.  So I e-mailed Tools 4 Noobs yesterday, and this morning I have a reply where this parameter was added to the generated code.

Thanks Tools 4 Noobs for being so responsive!

Picasa has a great feature if you are helping your clients manage their online photo albums.  Once you open the program, you can click on the upper right of the screen to login in and out of muliple accounts.

In my previous post, I wrote about a few differences between Flickr and Picasa and my reasoning for having to use Picasa over Flickr, which mostly boils down to the the fact that Picasa offers much more storage space and multiple sets, or albums.

The main reason I wanted to use Flickr is because of a slideshow program that will work embedded in your html pages and if you have the photos up at Flickr, you do not need PHP to run this slideshow. One of these clients does not have PHP enabled on their server, so this looked to be the perfect program to use: http://www.flash-gallery.org/.

The premise is that my client could update their photos themselves and they would present themselves in a more ‘professional’ manner on their website.

However, one of my mantras is that you cannot expect much for free, so if you are not willing to pay, you have to settle for what is available. And from what I have seen so far, Flickr and Picasa offers much more for free than you would think!

This week I needed to upload a lot of photos for some client websites with the end result that the clients can update the photo galleries themselves.

I first started with Flickr.  It is easy to set up an account but the monthly limit is 100Mb, and the program does not automatically resize the photos so after uploading one set of photos the client gave me, I was at 50% capacity.  I still had 12 sets to upload.  I uploaded 3 more and was then informed that the ‘free’ account only allows 3 sets.  If you don’t need any more than 100Mb and no more than 3 different sets of photos, then Flickr is for you.  There is no software to download onto your desktop, you just upload.  Then Flickr gives you several options for sharing or you can embed the slideshow into your html page.

When I realized Flickr would not work for these clients, I switched to Picasa.  I had to first set up a Google account for the client.  I then logged in and once I clicked on the Picasa link, it became obvious that I had to download the Picasa software as the upload feature only allows a few photos to be uploaded at a time.  I then ran the automate feature in Photoshop to resize the hundreds of photos, by sets, imported them into the Picasa program, they are easily uploaded to the website.  In addition, the free version allows 1GB of photos and up to 250 sets.

The embed code was a bit screwy, so I found a great tool that changes the embed feature. You can view your album, then click on the rss feed button to the right. Cut and paste this into the appropriate box on the website and it will give you the code you need. http://www.tools4noobs.com/picasa/.

“I have known Judy for several years and enlisted her help to do web development work a number of times. I will tell you that it is a real pleasure to work with Judy. She is smart, committed to excellence and enjoys demystifying the technologies that tend to intimidate many of us. In a world of people who over-promise and under-deliver, Judy is someone who works incredibly hard for each client and gives great value to those seeking brand enhancement on the web.

“Top qualities: Personable, Good Value, High Integrity.”

Brad Majors

Marketing Director for Greenville Technical College [owner of Soch Marketing]

11/04/08

The registrars are having a new wave of spammig schemes that make you think something is wrong with your domain name.  The lastest example targets Network Solutions and goes something like this:

Dear Network Solutions® Customer,

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:20:36 +0530 we received a third party complaint of invalid domain contact information in the Whois database for this domain Whenever we receive a complaint, we are required by ICANN regulations to initiate an investigation as to whether the contact data displaying in the Whois database is valid data or not. If we find that there is invalid or missing data, we contact both the registrant and the account holder and inform them to update the information.

Please note: ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) regulations state that the WHOIS Administrative Contact may initiate and approve domain name registration transfers from your Network Solutions account to other Registrars. If you are not listed as the WHOIS Administrative Contact a transfer can occur without your knowledge if Domain Protect is not enabled for the domain name registrations listed above.

To change the WHOIS Administrative Contact Information for any of your domains, please login to Account Manager:

1. Log in to Account Manager at: https://mail.yourdomainname.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://mail.yourdomainname.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.networksolutions.com.sys78.biz” target=_blank>http://www.networksolutions.com.
2. Click on the “Profile & Accounts” tab in the left navigation menu to be taken to a page listing your account details.
3. Click on “Accounts” and select the account you wish to edit.
4. Click “View/Edit WHOIS Contacts” to make your updates.

If you believe someone requested this change without your consent, please contact Customer Service.

If you would like to order additional services or to update your account, please visit us online.

Thank you for choosing Network Solutions. We are committed to providing you with the solutions, services, and support to help you succeed online.

Sincerely,
Network Solutions® Customer Support

What you need to look at is the ultimate domain name of the url: http://www.networksolutions.com.sys78.biz which means that if you click on the link, it actually goes to the sys79.biz website. This is just one example as there are several others going around out there.

What you need to do is make sure you know where your domain name is registered and keep up with how to log in and check on the expiration dates. If you have a company managing your domain name, like we do at Giraffe Web Development for out clients, then contact your domain manager to double-check on your domain before clicking any links.