I will no longer be maintaining this blog but I will be maintaining my blog Pin Tangle which is about textiles and textile practice
September 14, 2008
A few links
Posted by sharonb under Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Blogging, Tutorial | Tags: Blogging, illustrator, Photoshop, Photoshop brushes, textures, Tutorial |Comments Off
Lid of Blogwell has written a very good intro/primer to the basics of HTML in HTML for Bloggers. The topic is tackled from the angle of a novice blogger so I am sure many people will find it useful.
10 Photoshop Techniques You Can’t Work Without has some great productivity tips
As Usual Brusheezy has a number of new free photoshop brushes.
There is also great slate texture pack from High Resolution Textures
The Stroke Panel is a good tutorial for anyone starting out with Adobe Illustrator CS3. Published by a new blogger klethegr8 this tutorial is well explained and illustrated with step by step screenshots. The corners of objects and aligning the stroke are two topics that are particularly well covered. Dont let the teen-ish name of klethegr8 put you off it’s a good blog and well worth exloring further.
September 9, 2008
Today we are introducing the first year students to tricks that make their digital life easier.
The Term Life Hack was popularised by a blog Life Hacker
Wikipedia covers the history of the term life hack but the term has developed to mean productivity tricks, personal organization, and efficient work processes
The advantages of working within a browser.
Carrying work back and forth between the computer labs and home computers leads to multiple copies of files on thumb drives and other storage devices.This is not the case if handled within a browser.
You can also share documents
Google Docs in Plain English produced by Commoncraft.
With Google Docs & Spreadsheets you can store, and edit your work from any web connected computer. The service is free and you don’t require to install any software on your computer
Zoho offers spreadsheets, word processing, presentation tools, planning tools and note taking tools. All are useful for students, free and browser based.
Images
You can store images online using sites like Flickr. Not only can you store your images online but on Flickr you can annotate and discuss your images as well as tag them so that they can be found by other users.
Picasa is a goggle Web app for hosting photos.
RSS Readers
Using an RSS reader is a efficient way to consume web content if you have problems with ‘keeping up’ with new material that is being published RSS can solve the problem.
RSS in Plain English produced by Commoncraft.
Personalised online start pages
A personalised online start page stores links to all the sites you use regularly on one page.
These services usually offer a way to check your web based email, your RSS feed, a search function, a variety of web services like your Del.icio.us account or Flickr account.
September 8, 2008
There are numerous excellent “blogging tips” sites such as Daily blog Tips and Blog well. If you are a beginner there are sites like Blogging Basics 101. Also don’t over look the blog tips that the blog monetizing sites such as Problogger and Performancing.com as these often offer great advice on promoting and developing your blog which you can apply even if you do not want monetize it. There are also blogs about blogging such as Copyblogger, and Lorelle on WordPress and others such as Chris Brogan on using social media.
Blogs for artists, designers and crafters offer tips on selling your art online, such as Art Biz Blog or Art Print Issues and there is is Original Impulse too. For more general information take a look at the new FreshBlogTips
September 5, 2008
Danny Dover of SEOmoz has examined The Internet’s Top Blogs in order to learn from their success. His graphs say much and in looking for recurring themes Danny Dover has produced some interesting a useful research about what successful blog have in common.
Also the spreadsheets are available from the site, so you can pour over them yourself, see patterns and make correlations
September 2, 2008
Photoshop and Illustrator Goodies
Posted by sharonb under Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Tutorial | Tags: illustrator, Photoshop |Comments Off
A new set of free Decorative Floral Brushes by Pixels & IceCream has been released
Paul W has released 25 Grunge brushes for Photoshop over on Brusheezy
Also on Brusheezy is a bunch of Photoshop brushes created by V Wake that include postage stamps, graphs, diagrams and interesting ephemera
Obsidian Dawn has also released a collection of brushes in the star shapes
September 1, 2008
A one minute introduction to Google Reader announced on the commoncraft blog The movie is available on YouTube
Also Google Docs in Plain English explains clearly and simply how to create and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations and why you might find this useful. The movie is available on YouTube
August 28, 2008
Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has written Is Writing Great Content Enough to Build a Successful Blog? This is a timely article I think many of my students will find interesting as they have all been writing thier blog and are now thinking of building readership.
After Mondays class 2 articles students might also find useful to read are Blog Hosting Recommendations – Who Hosts Yours? and Darren’s pointer on Blog Hosting – Which Hosts Top Blogs Use
In fact although ProBlogger is about monetising your blog it is also packed full of useful blogging tips, advice and thought provoking posts about blogging.
August 25, 2008
Some brief points about choosing a web host for my students today .
What should you look for when choosing a web host?
Artists and designer have lightly different needs to regular commercial web hosting solutions.
Free web hosting
There are loads of free web hosts which impose advertising on your website. Either banner advertising or popup adverts raise revenue to cover their costs.
Hosting on a free site downgrades your site and your work.
Amount of web space
Does the package you are looking at have enough space for your needs? Can you expand your site? So think of that now.
How big is your site? What space do you need?
Check and see if there are there upgrade packages are available.
File type and size limitations
Also make sure there is no maximum size on the files you upload. I have also seen hosts in the past restrict the file types you can upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. This is obviously no good if you have used flash, want to load music files and video. Cross them off your list if restrictions like this apply as they are not providing a true hosting service.
Data Transfer Traffic/Bandwidth allotment
Data transfer (sometimes referred to as “traffic” or “bandwidth”) is the amount of bytes transferred from your site to visitors when they browse your site. Look at your bandwidth allotment. 2-3 GB traffic allowance per month is usually adequate for new site just starting out.
Don’t believe web hosts that advertises “unlimited bandwidth” usually the bandwidth allotment is hidden in the fine print and if your site uses a lot of it, you will suddenly receive a bill for having “exceeded” the “unlimited bandwidth”. (Not nice when its not in the budget)
Reliability and speed of access
You need a host that will house your site on reliable servers as a site that is frequently down will lose visitors. Slow access is equally frustrating. It is false economy to make a decision based on price alone. Cheap hosting often comes at the expense of server reliability and performance. Not only should the web host be reliable and fast, it should guarantee its uptime (the time when it is functional). Look for a minimum uptime of 99% or 99.5%.
Backup
Look for a host who can provide a regular, daily back up of your data
Good hosts will have back up systems in place to guard against network or power failure. The last thing you want is to lose your data or to have your web-site go down for a long period. Find out if they have more than one connection to the internet, in case one of their connections goes down.
Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding
Email addresses at your own domain, like artistname@yourdomain.com, is something most people want. Does the host provide this? Can you set an email address to automatically reply to the sender with a preset message should you be away (called an autoresponder)? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address? Can you access it via a web browser if need be?
A Control Panel
A control panel will allow you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself such as setting up an autoresponder. Smaller hosting firms often require that you contact their support staff to this type of task. A control panel allows you to do it yourself as the need arises.
Technical support
Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), all year around? Just because a host advertises 24/7 support does not necessarily mean is is so. Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, in their local time. See how long they take to respond.
FTP, PHP, MySQL Perl CGI-BIN access, SSL, .htaccess
Some hosts do not allow you to install PHP or CGI scripts without their approval. Since this means you have to wait around for them to do it this is not good service.
PHP and MySQL: WordPress which is run by using PHP and MySQL.
“.htaccess” is needed if you are to customise your error pages or to protect your site against bandwidth theft and hotlinking, etc
You will need FTP access if the hosting providers only allow you to design your page with their online builder rule them out.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption: You will definitely need SSL if you plan to have a shopping cart
Subdomains and virtual hosting
This is for those who are thinking of selling web space or having multiple domains or subdomains hosted on one account. This could be an advantage to a group of artists who want a common site with individual sites and domains for each artist like a virtual artists co-operative. Look to see if the host can provide this, and how much extra that they charge as you never know what direction your creative life may take you in.
Server
Initially you will be looking for a shared server not a dedicated hosting service.
Domain name
Usually you can register your domain name with your webhost. You can always move it afterwards if you shift web hosts. Choosing a domain name is tricky too. Domain name tools is a round up of tutorials and tools on the subject
Price
Look at the Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans. My advice is that to begin with pay monthly until you are sure of their reliability. When you have found a host that you are happy with take advantage of the discounted annual plans.
Set up costs
There are plenty of good hosting companies that have no set up costs. Don’t be taken in by those that do.
Money Back Guarantee
Many providers offer a 30-Day money back guarantee so that you can try their service risk free. Look for this option so you don’t get stuck with a service that doesn’t suit your needs.
Do Some Research
Check out reviews of various sites like the CNET Most popular hosts
Top rated: best hosting top 10 and while on the site you might like read Web Hosting Tips For Beginners
The Web Hosting Show has done a piece on Secret Taboo Topics in the Web Hosting
Jonathan Bailey has written and excellent article about some of the issues to consider in 10 Rules for Finding Good Domain Hosting
Blogflux has published a good Webhosting FAQ
Vistainter.com publishes a huge number of hosting company reviews
August 20, 2008
Three articles of interest
Posted by sharonb under Tips, Typography, Webdesign | Tags: copyright, CSS, hosting, plagerism, Typography |1 Comment
Plagiarism Today has published an interesting CCS technique to counter or at least frustrate anyone who is scraping your site. Check out the article Using CSS to Thwart Content Theft.
Jonathan Bailey of the Blog Herald has written and excellent article about some of the issues to consider when looking of a host in 10 Rules for Finding Good Domain Hosting
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz have listed their Top Ten Web Typography Sins
