Software Blog  RSS News Feed  What's This? Select a topic from the list below. Topics are ordered by date with the eight most recent at the top. Show All Articles July 19th 2010
iPhone App Development
We are moving on from AJAX applications to the development of iPhone apps (and apps for other smartphone platforms). There are many challenges in making this move, some of which are described here. July 18th 2009
Facebook Security Issues
Facebook has serious problems with its attitude to privacy, so much so that they appear to be in breach of Canadian privacy laws. Any action by the Canadian government will however be limited to just a small part of the wider problem. Facebook has to go much, much further. This article makes some suggestions on how I think they should clean up their act. July 5th 2009
Multi-Language Support
Translations of complete web pages have come a long way from the early days of Babelfish, although they still leave a lot to be desired. But what if you only need to translate individual phrases? Should you construct the phrase in English and then use Google Translate or do we need to do something more sophisticated? November 4th 2007
Working From Home
Working from home is becoming easier and easier as computers, the internet and mobile phones become more sophisticated. Why then don't more people (and more companies) embrace it? July 8th 2007
Using AJAX In Practice
AJAX is a powerful programming tool that is without doubt the future of the internet. However, until the search engine and browser developers catch up with the new reality, there are a few gotcha's you need to be aware of. April 22nd 2007
Web Design Trends
Web pages are moving away from fancy graphics to dynamic interactive sites with added value for users. To develop such pages, web developers need to be able to program in a variety of different languages. If you can't program, there soon won't be a place for you in the web development industry. March 19th 2007
More On Mobile Devices
Mobile devices become smaller and more multi-functional with fewer buttons and bigger, touch sensitive screens. Those of us with limited short range vision should be getting worried by these developments. Perhaps the science of haptics wil be our saviour. February 25th 2007
Censorship On The Internet
Some censorship of the internet is necessary. I fully support the removal of child pornography for example. But insiduous censorship by special interests is slowly creeping over the internet and eroding free speech. These special interests include web site owners who censor forum posts and business owners who deliberately remove competitors ads from public listings. |
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WHY DO A REDESIGN? |
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 The previous Activeminds web site design has just passed its second birthday. It's looking old and tired and because we've been so busy lately is really way out of date. The Activeminds business has moved on from being a straightforward web site design house to being a software developer with particular emphasis on dynamic web enabled applications. Of course, this means building web sites too but no longer will we build purely informational web sites. Not only are they not very interesting to build, they just sit in the long tail of internet dross that get few visitors and generate little or no interest.
When making sales calls on my customers I try and persuade them that they should at least consider having some dynamic features on their web site or some internet enabled business application to improve the way they do business. There is always a good business case for something of this sort even if it's only a rather mundane online shopping application or a basic CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.
Often the first reaction I get when I suggest to a potential client something like an RSS feed for press releases or blog is: "So why don't you have one on your web site then"? Hmm. Good question. We really should practice what we preach and if we can demonstrate some feature direct from our own web site, then this reinforces the sales message.
So, this new web site is intended to be more than just another "me too" web designer site with the usual boring message of better graphics, more interesting text, blah, blah, blah.
Getting everything in place the way I want it is going to take a little time so part of the purpose of this blog is to document progress, highlight the mistakes we make and hopefully show some improvement in the way we do things. The initial release of the site includes the basic stuff of the Activeminds marketing message, portfolios of recent work, this blog (with RSS feed) and a unit conversion tool.
The unit conversion tool isn't working yet so that will be the first piece to get right just as soon as the rest of the site is released.
So. What do you think of what we've achieved so far? Complete rubbish or a new dawn? Feel free to comment on this post in the box below.
Please feel free to comment on what you've just read by adding a note in the box below. Your name will be posted alongside your comment but your e-mail address is only for my records and will not be made public or sold or given to any third party. If you choose not to give an e-mail address, that's fine but your credibility is increased in my eyes if you are prepared to stand by your comments. Please do not be abusive, use strong language or post spam or other junk. Due to persistent abuse by spammers, all comments will be moderated before they are published. Therefore, your comment will not appear immediately. By commenting on this form, you agree to permit Activeminds Software Ltd. to publish your comments on this website. Activeminds Software Ltd. accepts no responsibility for any comments posted on this site. They are solely the view of the commentator.
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