The Professionals Point

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Basic Tips for Professional Webpage Designers

Basic Tips for Professional Webpage Designers

Are you a professional webpage designer? or
Are you new to webpage design and going to learn it?

Does not matter!!

Following are some basic tips which each webpage designer must follow. Webpage designing is very easy and interesting. You can learn webpage designing in no time if you take interest in it. You don't have to learn any complex algorithm or diagrams for this. Learning web design online is very easy. There are a lot of websites which will teach you web design from the scratch.

You will have to learn HTML, CSS and Javascript for web design. Flash, Photoshop will be a plus. Today, HTML5 has eliminated the need of Flash. CSS3 has now lot of advanced features which are provided by Photoshop like gradient effects, animations, rounding the corners of images etc.

You can get a lot of web design templates online. There are a lot of free editors available for HTML, CSS and Javascript which will help you in learning web designing.

For now, I have listed some basic points which each web designer must have in mind before designing any webpage.

1. Include Doctype in your webpages

The DOCTYPE defines which version of HTML you are using, and gives important information to your browser so it can render your page faster and more consistently.

The DOCTYPE declaration also allows validating software to check the syntax of your page.

<!DOCTYPE html>

2. Include Title in your webpages

The <title> element is one of the most important HTML elements. Its main function is to describe the content of a web page. It is important to the quality of your web site because it will be visible in search engine lists, the browser's title bar and user's bookmark.

The title should be as short and descriptive as possible.

When a user searches for a web site, most search engines will display the title of your web site in the search result. Make sure the title matches the content the user is looking for. Then it is more likely the user will click on the link to visit your web site.

3. Use Headers in your webpages

The <h1> element is used to describe the main heading of a web page. You can use <h2>, <h3>, <h4> etc to arrange your content in your webpage. This will be great approach for search engine optimization.

4. Follow CSS standards

With CSS, you can store all style information for your web site in one single document. Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the preferred way of separating content from style in quality web pages.

Using CSS will improve the quality of your web site and increases the readability for many different browsers. It will also greatly reduce your web site development costs.

5. Use Web Validators

A validator is a software program that can check your web pages against the web standards.

When using a validator to check HTML, XHTML or CSS documents, the validator returns a list of errors found, according to your chosen standard.

6. Do not use fixed sizes

Never use fixed size values. Always use relative size values.

The most important reason for this advice is that fixed sizes can not be resized by the browser.

Your visitors will have different monitors, different viewing conditions (light), and possible disabilities (poor eyesight).

Setting your default text size to 100% (or medium), your main headers to 140% (or x-large), your sub headers to 120% (or large), as an example, will make it possible for your reader to resize your pages to their best fit.

7. Take care of different date formats

Don't use dates like "04-03-02". This is confusing.

The date above could mean the 2nd of March, 2004. It could also mean the 4th of March, 2002. Or even the 3rd of April, 2002.

The International Standard Organization (ISO) has defined an international format for dates as "yyyy-mm-dd", where yyyy is the year, mm is the month, and dd is the day.

When you use this ISO format, you can expect most visitors to understand your dates.

8. Always take care of font-family, line spacing, letter spacing, color contrasts, foreground and background colors.

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Alcohol and Drug Addiction Programs and Rehab Centers Worldwide

Alcohol and Drug Addiction Programs and Rehab Centers Worldwide

Are you addicted to alcohol and drugs? Do you want to free yourself from this addiction?

If yes, this webpage might help you out.

Human life is full of ups and downs. It is easy to get trapped in alcohol and drug in your low time. You start from very low amount of this poison (alcohol and drugs) to shed away your stress, but you will not realize when you get addicted to these drugs. Once you get addicted to alcohol or drugs, its not easy to leave them.

Alcohol and Drug Addiction Programs

You will come to know here that how you get addicted to the alcohol and drugs and what bad effects these have put on your health and wealth. During your rehab, you will probably receive individual counseling with a trained addictions counselor and you will possibly participate daily in group therapy meetings with others at the facility.

These sessions are designed to begin to teach you the skills that you will need to live life without drugs and alcohol. You will learn how to recognize situations in which you are most likely to drink or use drugs and how to avoid these circumstances if possible. You will learn new coping skills.

Many successful drug and alcohol rehab programs will include members of your family in your treatment program. Research has shown that including family and friends in the educational process significantly improves rehab outcomes. Some programs include family members and friends throughout the entire rehab process, from the initial assessment through continued follow-up aftercare.

In the family meetings, your family members will learn about the dynamics of addiction, learn to identify strengths and resources to help encourage you in your recovery, discuss how they have been affected by your substance abuse and learn how they also can begin to heal their own wounds.

The typical residential drug and alcohol rehab program will last about 28 days, sometimes longer, during which you are in a structured environment where no drugs are alcohol are available. Then what? What happens when you have to leave the relative safety of the facility and go back into the real world?

Successful rehab programs have a strong aftercare program plan designed to meet your individual needs. By now your counselor probably knows you well and will suggest the next steps to take based on where you are on your recovery journey.

Alcohol and Drug Rehab Centers Worldwide

We found some useful information on About.com about alcohol and drug rehab centers. Here is the list of more than 10,000 alcohol and drug rehab centers. Most of them are free. Some rehab centers charge minimum fees which is affordable to all. You don't have to go to any expensive alcohol and drug rehab center as the quality of treatment provided in the above listed free or cheap rehab centers is comparable to the expensive ones.

Most states and even some cities and counties offer outpatient and inpatient alcohol and drug treatment facilities that are completely tax supported and charge no fees. These programs can range from short-term detoxification centers, long-term residential treatment facilities to individual outpatient counseling at local clinics.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Online Degrees: Online College / University Classes and Courses

Online Degrees: Online College / University Classes and Courses

You have heard a lot about online colleges and universities. As the internet is expanding, the trend of online colleges and universities is also increasing. A lot of colleges and universities have now come online to provide you best quality education. You don't have to go to college now to earn your degree, but colleges are coming now to your doorstep to provide you online degrees.

These online degree colleges provide you online classes and courses same as provided in the traditional colleges. Online degrees earned from online colleges carry equal importance as the degrees earned from traditional colleges. So we can say that online degrees are boon for those students who are far away from their colleges. Online degrees are also beneficial for those persons who are working and cannot attend regular classes. You can enroll yourself for any of the online courses provided by these online degree colleges and start your classes. But before enrolling yourself with any online college or university, please check the accredition of that college / university. There are a lot of best online degree colleges like:

1. Kalpan University
2. DeVry University
3. Berkeley University of California
4. Harvard University
5. Stanford University
6. University of Phoenix
7. Capella University
8. University of Washington
9. The University of Liverpool
10. Keiser University
11. Everest University Online
12. Walder University
13. Yale University

You can opt for any online course provided by these online degree universities. Mainly following online degrees are provided by online degree colleges:

Online Associate Degree
Online Bachelor Degree
Online Master Degree
Online Doctorate Degree
Online MBA Degrees
Online Engineering Degrees

You will feel same discipline in online classes as of traditional classes like:

1. You will have to mark your attenedance in each and every class.
2. You can ask questions online from your professors.
3. You can talk and get to know about all your classmates.
4. You will be provided detailed syllabus, course structure online.
5. You will have to submit the assignments regularly.
6. You will be provided with lectures and study notes.
7. You will have your exams online.

So, if I conclude, one should not hesitate to join online college / university if s/he wants to study further and have no time to join traditional school.

Monday, 7 January 2013

How to maintain healthy relationships with your boss in your job?

How to maintain healthy relationships with your boss in your job?

If you want a happy work culture and job satisfaction, you have to work smart and maintain a healthy relationship with your boss. To get the boss to notice that you are beyond a number on the employee payroll list requires effort. Here are a few ways to make sure you stand in your supervisor’s line of vision.

1) Show Team Spirit

A team member will get noticed by the boss if he or she lends a helping hand to others. However, this should only be done when your work is complete.

2) Speak up at Meetings

Not many people come up with out-of-the-box suggestions during meetings since they are wary of the reaction, so innovative ideas will always get noticed.

3) Complete the Loop

A senior should always be kept in the loop of the work done by the employee. A mail marking a copy to the boss is a practice one can adopt, even if an assignment is beyond key result areas.

4) Make Boss Look Good

One should always make sure the boss looks good in front of his seniors. If there are presentations that your boss has to show his seniors, then make them error-free and discuss with your boss before meeting for any change.

5) Reach Out for More

Popping into the boss’ cabin and seeing if he or she needs help with a project will project you into the limelight. An employee who takes out time to discuss other company-related projects and future prospects of tasks, shows he or she wants to be a decision-maker.

Sunday, 6 January 2013

How to Read Bytes in Socket Programming using Indy Client in Delphi XE2?

How to Read Bytes in Socket Programming using Indy Client in Delphi XE2?

Following is the delphi program which uses indy clients to read individual bytes from server in socket programming in delphi. I have created three delphi functions to connect, read bytes and then disconnect from server. Lets discuss them one by one.

Connect to Server using Indy Client: Use Indy Client to connect with server. Provide port number, IP address of the server to which you are going to connect. Have a look at very simple delphi program to connect to server in socket programming using delphi indy client.

procedure TForm1.ConnectToServer;
begin
try
    if IdTCPClient1.Connected then
      exit
    else
    begin
      IdTCPClient1.Port := 1234 //Port number
      IdTCPClient1.Host := '123.123.123.123'; //IP address of the server
      IdTCPClient1.Connect;
      if IdTCPClient1.Connected then ShowMessage('Connected to Server');
    end;
except
    on E : Exception do
    begin
      ShowMessage('Connection Error: ' + E.Message);
      exit;
    end;
end;
end;

Read Bytes from Server using Indy Client: After getting connected to server, time to read bytes which have been placed by the server on the specific port. First of all check if the buffer is empty or not by using InputBufferIsEmpty function. If buffer is empty then check for data on source. I have passed 1000 as a parameter to the function CheckForDataOnSource so that client waits for 1 second to read data from port. I am assuming that server is writing 256 bytes of data on the port. I will use ReadBytes delphi function to read 256 bytes of data and store it into the TBytes Array. "True" argument denotes that each bytes read should get appended. Then I will go through the loop to show all the bytes read into the memo field.

procedure TForm1.ReadBytes;
var
Buffer : TBytes;
i : integer;
begin
try
    if IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.InputBufferIsEmpty then
    begin
      if IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.CheckForDataOnSource(1000) then
      begin
         IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.ReadBytes(Buffer,256,true);
         Memo1.Clear;
         for i := 0 to 255 do
          Memo1.Lines.Add(IntToStr(buffer[i]));
      else
        IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.InputBuffer.Clear;
    end
    else
      IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.InputBuffer.Clear;
except
    on E : Exception do
    begin
      ShowMessage('Connection Error: ' + E.Message);
      exit;
    end;
end;
end;

Disconnect from Server using Indy Client: After reading all the individual bytes, time to disconnect from the server and clear the input buffer.

function TForm1.DisconnectFromServer;
begin
try
    IdTCPClient1.Disconnect;
    IdTCPClient1.IOHandler.InputBuffer.Clear;
except
    on E : Exception do
    begin
      ShowMessage('Connection Error: ' + E.Message);
      exit;
    end;
end;
end;