This Monday, December 19th, I will be conducting a training session for the Palmetto Technology Hub on the essentials of website development.
No matter if you are doing your own web design or overseeing the production of that work; no matter if you are using WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuk or a hand coded site, there are certain best practices that should be followed to get the best results possible. In this training we will cover things such as page flow, hot positions, usability, and accessibility. What we discuss will impact both your search engine results and customer satisfaction. Additionally, what we will be going over can be used for any platform with any web tools.
For more information on this training session, please check out the Palmetto Technology Hub’s event calendar.
Tags: development, dnn, DotNetNuke, drupal, seo, website, WordPress
On Tuesday, December the 13th, I will be speaking at the Charleston WordPress User Group meeting. This is part one of a two part session entitled, “Securing WordPress”.
Since WordPress enjoys the position of being one of the most widely used web platforms, it is also one of the most attacked. From installation to operation there are fairly easy, and must-do steps to make sure your site is as secure as possible.
In this two part session, I will cover everything from file permissions and user accounts to script injection and backup procedures to protect your blog from hacking or downtime. The first part of the session will be delivered at this user group meetup, and the second part will be delivered at the February meeting.
For more information, please check out the website of the Charleston WordPress User Group.
The slides from the presentations are posted on SlideShare.
Tags: Charleston, installation, Security, user group, usergroup, WordPress
The tech-gift I am being asked most often about this Christmas is not the iPad or other tablets, but ereaders. 
And the Kindle in particular. Amazingly, the one I recommend for the majority of the folks is the least expensive. It has the cleanest interface, a fantastic display, is rugged, and extremely affordable. Combine all of that with being able to easily check out books from most libraries on it and it is hard to beat!
What about the other versions of the Kindle? Well, the experiences people are having with the touch-screen models are less than favorable, and most folks don’t need the cost and complexity of the Fire. And lets face it, as a present the Fire is a little on the pricey side. The Fire is a great device – for movie watching, web surfing, email checking and game playing, but it really isn’t as good of a real book reader as the lower priced e-ink display Kindles.
And what about the Nook ereaders from Barnes & Noble? Well, they are mechanically great devices. Absolutely no doubt there. But, where the Kindle beats them is the Amazon store. Now I love Barnes & Noble and wish them all the best, however they just don’t seem to have the depth of Amazon. I looked up four or five books I was interested on both Amazon and B&N. While Amazon had every one, B&N didn’t. If i had a Nook I would just be out of luck. And I can tell you from hard fought experience that it is much easier to check out library books onto the Kindle than on to the Nook. So for product availability and ease of use, the Nook fall to the Kindle.
And remember that you can try the Kindle out in all kinds of places like Office Depot and Best Buy. But you won’t find a better price than from Amazon directly, and it will come already registered to your account. And if you are giving it as a gift it is easy to transfer that registration to someone else. Yup, I think this is going to be a Kindle Christmas!
Tags: Book, ereader, Kindle, nook, tablet
