Web Design Blog http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:48:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Congratulations to Roadify, Winner of the NYC BigApps Award http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/congratulations-to-roadify-winner-of-the-nyc-bigapps-award/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/congratulations-to-roadify-winner-of-the-nyc-bigapps-award/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:48:07 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=226

Congratulations to Roadify, Winner of the NYC BigApps Award. Northstar helped Roadify with website design. With Roadify, people on the road GIVE and GET updates that help make traveling in Brooklyn easier. Roadify helps you find parking, hop on the bus, catch a train and more, by giving you easy access to real-time information from other commuters and transit data sources (like the MTA, NY Dept. of Transportation, Google Transit, etc.). We think of Roadify as the first comprehensive “social transportation” company, combining social networking with a wealth of published transit information.

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/congratulations-to-roadify-winner-of-the-nyc-bigapps-award/feed/ 2 Enterprise Distribution Website for iOS and Android Apps http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/enterprise-distribution-website-for-ios-and-android-apps/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/enterprise-distribution-website-for-ios-and-android-apps/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 17:14:09 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=213 Enterprise Distribution Website for iOS and Android Apps

We are happy to announce the launch of our Enterprise Distribution Website for iOS and Android Apps for OliverMcMillan. This is a great system designed and programmed to sharing internal Apps amongst OM employees, saving time and energy and opening up the possibility of OM utilizing and managing a plethora of Apps on multitudes of devices.

Click here to see more Mobile Development Projects from Northstar

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/enterprise-distribution-website-for-ios-and-android-apps/feed/ 0 Free Photographer’s Portfolio Website Layout Setup! http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-photographers-portfolio-website-layout-setup/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-photographers-portfolio-website-layout-setup/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 17:40:37 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=204 Free Photographer's Portfolio Website Layout Setup!

If you are going to build your portfolio website for your photography business, please contact me if you wish to use this layout for free! In order for you to use this for free you will have to sign up for 1 year of website hosting. Thanks!

Today’s offer is a simple, neat and tidy place to promote your photos – that’s a Free Photographer’s Portfolio Website Template with an image slider in the front page and a jQuery gallery that displays the images from the portfolio.

Contact us for more information and a demo! Ask about other FREE website layouts.

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-photographers-portfolio-website-layout-setup/feed/ 0 Free Business Website Layout! http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-business-website-layout/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-business-website-layout/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 19:17:39 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=199 Free Business Website Layout

If you are going to build your website for your business, please contact me if you wish to use this layout for free! In order for you to use this for free you will have to sign up for 1 year of website hosting. Thanks!

This ready-made solution is presented as single page template that will certainly amaze the visitors of your project with user-friendly and handy navigation, that’s one of the most popular web design trends lately. Template’s well-done stylish layout is one more advantage of this theme that attracts attention and makes your website noticeable among others.

Contact us for more information and a demo! Ask about other FREE website layouts.

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/free-business-website-layout/feed/ 0 Graphic Designer’s Best Friend: GuideGuide http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/graphic-designers-best-friend-guideguide/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/graphic-designers-best-friend-guideguide/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 01:33:24 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=190 Photoshop Plugin: A Graphic Designer's Best Friend

This is one of the coolest photoshop plugins that I have used, GuideGuide. Every graphic designer can benefit form this plugin.

You can download it here: http://www.cameronmcefee.com/guideguide/

To install unzip the file and copy the “guideguide” to your computer. Your platform will dictate where.

Windows: \Program Files\Adobe Photoshop \Plug-Ins\Panels\
Mac: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop /Plug-Ins/Panels/

Thanks to Cameron McEfee

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/graphic-designers-best-friend-guideguide/feed/ 0 Useful Javascript: Detect and Indicate Credit Card Type http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/useful-javascript-detect-and-indicate-credit-card-type/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/useful-javascript-detect-and-indicate-credit-card-type/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:45:36 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=133 JavaScript: Credit Card Type Detection

I added this useful bit of JavaScript code to an ecommerce project (www.vintagecellars.com) to detect the type of Credit Card someone is entering on a website. enjoy!

This JavaScript needs to be added to the <head> of the document:

<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
function SelectCC(ccnum) {
var first = ccnum.charAt(0);
var second = ccnum.charAt(1);
var third = ccnum.charAt(2);
var fourth = ccnum.charAt(3);
if (first == "4") {
//Visa
document.getElementById("mastercard").src="/images/mastercard-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("amex").src="/images/amex-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("discover").src="/images/discover-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("visa").src="/images/visa-card.png";
document.getElementById("cctype").value="1";
}
else if ( (first == "3") && ((second == "4") || (second == "7")) ) {
//American Express
document.getElementById("mastercard").src="/images/mastercard-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("visa").src="/images/visa-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("discover").src="/images/discover-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("amex").src="/images/amex-card.png";
document.getElementById("cctype").value="3";
}
else if ( (first == "5") ) {
//Mastercard
document.getElementById("amex").src="/images/amex-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("visa").src="/images/visa-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("discover").src="/images/discover-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("mastercard").src="/images/mastercard-card.png";
document.getElementById("cctype").value="2";
}
else if ( (first == "6") && (second == "0") && (third == "1") && (fourth == "1") ) {
//Discover
document.getElementById("amex").src="/images/amex-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("visa").src="/images/visa-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("mastercard").src="/images/mastercard-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("discover").src="/images/discover-card.png";
document.getElementById("cctype").value="4";
}
else {
document.getElementById("amex").src="/images/amex-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("visa").src="/images/visa-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("mastercard").src="/images/mastercard-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("discover").src="/images/discover-card-bw.png";
document.getElementById("cctype").value="";
}
}
// ]]></script>

Then you need the credit card types indicated on the page in images:

<div>Card Type:
<img id="visa" src="/images/visa-card.png" alt="" />
<img id="mastercard" src="/images/mastercard-card.png" alt="" />
<img id="amex" src="/images/amex-card.png" alt="" />
<img id="discover" src="/images/discover-card.png" alt="" /></div>

You will need to upload Credit Card Type image files, full color and black and white versions, to an “/images/” directory.

Lastly, you will need the input field with the user action code assigned:

<input id="ccnum" onkeyup="SelectCC(this.value)" name="ccnum" />

You can see this script in action on www.vintagecellars.com.

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/useful-javascript-detect-and-indicate-credit-card-type/feed/ 1 Website Optimization + Server Optimization = Profits Soar! http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-optimization-server-optimization-profits-soar/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-optimization-server-optimization-profits-soar/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:58:46 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=119 Oscommerce Sales Graph Profits go Ballistic

Oscommerce Sales Graph of client profits going through the roof.

One of my clients was on television. They did not bother to tell me this. Before being on TV, they were receiving an average of 3000 visitors per month and they were doing fine on a shared hosting account with about several other clients. A few more details on this client are that they were running on 6 year old code and they had not invested in any upgrades since the website was originally designed. That being the case, the code and the server was not optimized to handle the tsunami of traffic (100 times) that they had coming down the pipe. This was made evident by the website going offline as soon as they went on air. They called me and I dropped everything to jump on the problem right away.

I started making adjustments to the server to try and get it back online, but everything i tried to do was in vain and the server went offline within a few seconds of reboots. I, immediately, started setting up a new server that i could move them to and they would not share with anyone else. A couple minutes later i had the client off the shared server with the shared server fully operational again, and a couple hours later, moved the client to their own server where they were fully operational and no longer in a shared environment. The server was optimized and they were back in business. The server they were running on was a UNIX machine running Apache. There were many optimizations we set on the server, however one very important setting that made a big difference was the “KeepAlive” Timeout. We set that from 1600 seconds down to 300 seconds. This made a big difference in the server performance along with the other server optimizations.

On another front, I attacked was the software side of things. I setup some standard .htaccess code to optimize file handling along with other issues to improve the User Experience and then began to march through the code on the website looking for ways to improve the code. I changed a majority of the code form Table based inline HTML to all Web 2.0 DIV based HTML/CSS. This made a significant difference in this heavy database driven e-commerce website and furthered the website optimization necessary to maximize the profits for the client.

After all was said and done, the client was back online and doing business the same day at a minimum cost and as fast as possible. This month they are expected to gross over $70K after having $300 monthly averages in the past. Needless to say the Champagne is out and they are celebrating!

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-optimization-server-optimization-profits-soar/feed/ 0 Launched:KSK Breast Cancer Center of Irvine http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/ksk-breast-cancer-center-of-irvine/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/ksk-breast-cancer-center-of-irvine/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 13:44:58 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=91 KSK Breast Cancer Center of Irvine

KSK Breast Cancer Center of Irvine

KSK Medical, a growing Cancer Center, based in Irvine, California, needed an over haul to their existing website.  Northstar delivered a new layout that gives the user a sense of calm and comfort during tough times while at the same time sharing important medical information.

Click here to see the KSK Breast Cancer Center of Irvine Website

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/ksk-breast-cancer-center-of-irvine/feed/ 0 Northstar Welcome Video http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/northstar-welcome-video/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/northstar-welcome-video/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:07:20 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=83
Check out our Welcome Video we produced to show of our Video Production and Post Production capabilities. Enjoy!

]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/northstar-welcome-video/feed/ 0 Website Security: Keep Your Passwords Strong! http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-security-keep-your-passwords-strong/ http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-security-keep-your-passwords-strong/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:49:04 +0000 admin http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/?p=66 Do you portect your password?

Do you portect your password?

CNN aired a story on keeping your passwords secure.  This is very important to your personal and business security.

Why Are Strong Passwords Important?

Strong Passwords are important to protect your private information. There are many ways that hackers and others try to guess passwords. There are software programs that are used to guess passwords and until they find the right one. Do what you can to protect yourself and use a Strong Password.

What is a Strong Password?

A Strong Passwords is a random string of letters, numbers and special characters, usually consisting of 12-14 characters in length. You should NEVER use passwords that are based on your background like birthdays, where you are from, mother or father’s name, or even any words in the dictionary.

Where Should I Use Strong Password?

You should use Strong Passwords for any system accessible from the internet that has personal information that you want to protect. Some examples of those programs might be Email Accounts, Website FTP Accounts, User Accounts on E-commerce Websites, Instant Messaging Account, Social Netowrking Website Accounts.
]]> http://www.northstarwebdesign.com/web-design-blog/website-security-keep-your-passwords-strong/feed/ 2