tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94481082024-02-07T18:45:07.301-05:00Bynapse Technologies - BlogBuilding a web business and turning a design into a living entity is a quest to make the smart decisions during early stages. Make better use of time building your pages, business and community.
Check out my totally safe store first when looking for a book, a movie DVD or the coolest music album ever. I am including links to great eBooks and a wide range of royalty free pictures, ready for your site.Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-64895765452204731732017-01-15T20:40:00.003-05:002017-01-15T20:42:21.117-05:00Our Blog Has Moved<h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Raleway, serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Some say it was about time…</h3>
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In 2012, the project that started all the way back in 2006 as a thought exercise under the name of Bynapse, has moved on to become Bynapse – an enterprise doing its part in making the world a better, simpler and more intuitive place.</div>
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If you had subcribed to our blog by email or FeedBurner, you don’t have to do a thing, we migrated your subscription.</div>
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If however, you had previously followed us through your bookmarks or a technorati, reddit or digg account, or do not know what any of this means, please enter your email again on our <a href="http://bogdan.bynapse.com/" target="_blank">new website</a> <img alt="🙂" class="emoji" draggable="false" scale="0" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72x72/1f642.png" style="background: none !important; border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; box-sizing: inherit; display: inline !important; height: 1em !important; margin: 0px 0.07em !important; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: -0.1em !important; width: 1em !important;" /></div>
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This website will soon be discontinued altogether, so if you made bookmarks or links to it, please change them to our new website, too. All previous blogposts from the timeFTW site can now be found in the <a href="http://bogdan.bynapse.com/category/blogspot-archive/" target="_blank">Blogspot archive</a>.</div>
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See you on the new site, or if in doubt,<a href="http://bogdan.bynapse.com/contact/" target="_blank"> just get in touch</a>!</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-70032992123031465122013-04-19T12:04:00.001-04:002013-04-19T12:04:12.590-04:00Protecting your ASP.NET Web API using OAuth2 and the Windows Azure Access Control Service<em style="background-color: white; color: #2e2e2e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18.234375px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The world in which we live evolves at a vast speed. Today, many applications on the Internet expose an API which can be consumed by everyone using a web browser or a mobile application on their smartphone or tablet. How would you build your API if you want these apps to be a full-fledged front-end to your service without compromising security? In this article, I’ll dive into that. We’ll be using OAuth2 and the Windows Azure Access Control Service to secure our API yet provide access to all those apps out there.</em><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-76416159486472470082012-10-31T16:44:00.001-04:002012-10-31T16:44:41.856-04:00Background Pattern Designs And Resources For WebsitesPatterns are a useful resource for website design. Filling the background with a full-blown image is no longer a useful solution today as the variety of devices and screen resolutions in the market make it difficult to adapt to them all, although it is true that the latest plugins and scripts offer solutions such as automatic image re-sizing Patterns are similar to those images that are indefinitely repeated either horizontally or vertically. That makes a lot more sense today where usability is concerned, especially in responsive design.<div><br />
</div><div>Following is a comprehensive collection of them for all tastes and desires.</div><div><br />
<a href="http://www.awwwards.com/background-patterns-designs-and-resources-for-websites.html#.UJGNR33NFx8.blogger">Background Pattern Designs And Resources For Websites</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-20803312421415938582012-10-30T11:42:00.002-04:002012-10-30T11:42:27.215-04:00Wireframe and Mockup Tools<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: large;">Just a list.. a nice list.</span></h3>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pencil</strong></div>
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Open source and Free, the Pencil Project is a great tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. It runs as either a Firefox plugin or in a standalone XUL runner. Does not work on Mac currently.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://pencil.evolus.vn/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://pencil.evolus.vn/</a></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">HotGloo</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
The Online Wireframe Application</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.hotgloo.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.hotgloo.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MockingBird</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Is an online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.</div>
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<a href="http://gomockingbird.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://gomockingbird.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Balsamiq Mockups</strong></div>
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Using Balsamiq Mockups feels like you are drawing, but it's digital, so you can tweak and rearrange controls easily, and the end result is much cleaner.</div>
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<a href="http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups</a></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moqups</strong></div>
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Moqups is a nifty HTML5 App used to create wireframes, mockups or UI concepts, prototypes depending on how you like to call them.</div>
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<a href="https://moqups.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://moqups.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ScreenSketcher</strong></div>
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ScreenSketcher is a tool for creating quick mock-ups, or wireframes, of a computer user interface, such as a window, a web page, or anything that can appear on a computer screen.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.codingrobots.com/screensketcher/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.codingrobots.com/screensketcher/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cacoo</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Online Real time collaboration</div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Cacoo can be used free of charge.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://cacoo.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://cacoo.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mockup by Lextech</strong></div>
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Mockup is an iPhone app prototyping tool that makes it incredibly easy to:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1em 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Think through design/usability concepts before you start coding,</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Brainstorm with future and existing customers, and</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Share your ideas and collaborate with the app development community.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://lextech.com/mockup" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://lextech.com/mockup</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mockery</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Mockery enables you to create great UI mockups, quickly and easily.</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1em 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Design great interfaces for the web or desktop.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Review your designs with Windows and Mac themes.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Annotate your mockups with detailed information.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Share your mockups with others.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://getmockery.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://getmockery.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ForeUI</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
ForeUI is a handy UI prototyping tool. It can rapidly create static or interactive, skinnable UI prototypes of your website or software. You can use ForeUI to:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1em 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Create mockup for the GUI in your mind and make others understand quickly.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Make working prototype of website or software to collect feedback from potential users.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Perform usability testing before releasing the beta version.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Generate the schematics that can be inserted in the design documents.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.foreui.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.foreui.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Naview by Volkside</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Naview is a navigation preview tool for rapid information architecture prototyping from Volkside.</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1em 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Design and visualise an IA or website navigation structure</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Build prototypes quickly and get a feel for the navigation</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Test your IA with users and iterate on the fly</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Import your IA easily from a spreadsheet</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">No need for coding to simulate real website menu behaviour</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.volkside.com/go/naview/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.volkside.com/go/naview/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">C-Inspector</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
A tool for information architecture testing C–Inspector is a web–based application that helps you to test the information architecture of your website. By analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data collected through the remote test, you can gain insight into the users' mental models and identify possible issues with labelling or grouping</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.c-inspector.com/index.php" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.c-inspector.com/index.php</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">FlairBuilder</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
A cross-platform prototyping tool that helps you create interactive wireframes & prototypes faster, easier and with better results. We put a strong emphase in interactivity as this is the best way to show your clients something closer to the real product.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.flairbuilder.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.flairbuilder.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MockApp</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
What can I use MockApp for?</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1em 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Brainstorm and refine a new app idea</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Show what the app should do so that it’s easy for a developer to code it just right</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Show-off your brilliant app ideas to your boss, potential business partners, investors, etc. (again, way more effective tan finger puppets!)</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://mockapp.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://mockapp.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Creately</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Creately is an easy to use and collaborative diagramming application that runs in your browser. With a powerful and intuitive interface, Creately is great for teams that need to work on designs together</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://creately.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://creately.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MockFlow</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Design, collaborate (in real-time) user interface mockups for your software and websites.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.mockflow.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.mockflow.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pidoco</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
A GUI Design Software for clickable Wireframes. Fast and easy like rapid paper prototyping, but completely web-based and with many more features.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="https://pidoco.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://pidoco.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">JustProto</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
The first tool to create the prototypes of network and desktop applications!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.justproto.com/en/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.justproto.com/en/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">JumpChart</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Start with a strong foundation. Make planning architecture easier with Jumpchart. By creating pages, and subpages you can quickly sketch out the hierarchy of your site.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="https://www.jumpchart.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.jumpchart.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">iPlotz</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
iPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://iplotz.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://iplotz.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ProtoShare</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
Historically, web-based applications haven't been able to match the speed and complexity of desktop apps—until now.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://www.protoshare.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.protoshare.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CogTool</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
CogTool is a general purpose UI prototyping tool with a difference - it automatically evaluates your design with a predictive human performance model (a "cognitive crash dummy").</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://cogtool.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://cogtool.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/</a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-66880103187339956242011-12-08T17:28:00.001-05:002011-12-09T09:09:15.340-05:00Business to the Clouds<p><img style="display: inline; float: right" align="right" src="http://bynapse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MARKETING3-178x164.jpg" /></p> <p>Most likely that you have heard of Software as a Service, the original <em>“as a service”</em> idea, and you are certainly using this type of service on a daily basis either on your smartphone, tablet or by accessing your online bank account. </p> <p>The <em>“as a service” </em>world has expanded dramatically in the last decade and we are looking now at a plethora of services that reside <em>“in the cloud”</em>, whatever the type, location or reliability of the cloud may we be talking about. </p> <p>Here is a top of “as a service” I put together that a business these days should not ignore:</p> <ol> <li><strong>UCAAS</strong> or Unified Communications as a Service. The UCaaS industry is led by email, collaboration, conferencing and telephony. (Skype, WebEx, NetMeeting, CallTower, Cypress ..)</li> <li><strong>BAAS</strong> or Backup as a Service. Basically, backup to the cloud. (Amazon, Windows Azure, Iron Mountain ..)</li> <li><strong>DBAAS</strong> or Database as a Service (Daas). Virtually, all major database platforms are "up in the cloud today. This is a service that cannot be ignored. (Amazon RDS, Windows Azure SQL ..)</li> <li><strong>IAAS</strong> or Identity as a Service. Identity and access management, administration, audit and verification for cloud based services (Google, IBM, Windows Passport Services, Verizon Business) </li> <li><strong>SAAS</strong> or Storage as a Service. Also serving the loved and appreciated CDN (content delivery network) and powering BaaS. (Amazon S3, Windows Azure Storage, Google Docs ..)</li> </ol> <p>I am planning to update this list and provide some insight into the ups and downs of using this and that service. I am personally concentrating on two major cloud solutions out there: Amazon and Windows Azure. </p> <p>For the iCloud crowd, you have to appreciate the fact that Apple starts with the user and then figures out the technology part. The experience is great!</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-61307241835309300402010-06-10T12:31:00.001-04:002010-06-11T10:22:35.220-04:00Implicitly Typed or Named Types<p>An <em>Implicitly Typed Local Variable</em>, <strong><em>var</em>,</strong> is “new” and it is subject to restrictions:</p> <ul> <ul> <li>The declarator must include an initializer. </li> <li>The initializer must be an expression. </li> <li>The initializer expression must have a compile-time type which cannot be the null type. </li> <li>The local variable declaration cannot include multiple declarators. </li> <li>The initializer cannot refer to the declared variable itself </li> </ul> </ul> <p>Beyond the obvious use of <strong><em>var</em></strong> with LINQ, you may also clear the code for readability:</p> <blockquote> <p>var d = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, List<SomeClass>>>();</p> </blockquote> <p>The entire debate around using the var is founded on <strong>readability</strong>.</p> <p><em>Another pair of eyes see differently so the code has to self explain.</em> That being said, using the var for just about anything is also an exageration. A method that returns a “hairy” type (like List<string>) would be easier to digest in a var but that would not tell those other pair of eyes anything about the purpose and the intention behind. So you would not know how that specific return was “intended to be used”. Just compare <em>List<string> list = MyMethod()</em>:</p> <ul> <li>var list = MyMethod() </li> <li>IEnumerable<string> list MyMethod() </li> </ul> <p>The second one is actually saying <em>“I am not going to change this, use an index to access list members or modify members.”.</em> It’s quite a lot to say in that few words. But it’s not over because it is also saying <em>“I am going to use this list simply to iterate across it”.</em></p> <p>The intention is what you are giving up if you use var. You are not giving anything up where the usage is obvious through the declaration.</p> <blockquote> <p>var i = 5; <br />var s = "Hello"; <br />var d = 1.0; <br />var numbers = new int[] {1, 2, 3}; <br />var orders = new Dictionary<int,Order>();</p> </blockquote> <p>are equal to</p> <blockquote> <p>int i = 5; <br />string s = "Hello"; <br />double d = 1.0; <br />int[] numbers = new int[] {1, 2, 3}; <br />Dictionary<int,Order> orders = new Dictionary<int,Order>();</p> </blockquote> <p>I' would write a LINQ query like:</p> <blockquote> <p>var rows = from DataRow r in parentRow.GetChildRows(myRelation) <br />           where r.Field<bool>("Flag") <br />           orderby r.Field<int>("SortKey") <br />           select r; </p> </blockquote> <p>But the debate is in the use of var, <strong>not</strong> in Anonymous Types, Object and Collection Initializers and Query Expressions, <strong>but</strong> everywhere in your code, <em>for readability</em>.</p> <p>Here is <a href="http://csharpindepth.com/ViewNote.aspx?NoteID=61" target="_blank">Eric Lippert’s</a> take on it:</p> <blockquote> <p>All code is an abstraction. Is what the code is “really” doing is manipulating data? No. Numbers? Bits? No. Voltages? No. Electrons? Yes, but understanding the code at the level of electrons is a bad idea! The art of coding is figuring out what the right level of abstraction is for the audience.</p> <p>In a high level language there is always this tension between WHAT the code does (semantically) and HOW the code accomplishes it. Maintenance programmers need to understand both the what and the how if they’re going to be successful in making changes. <a href="http://csharpindepth.com/ViewNote.aspx?NoteID=61" target="_blank">read more</a> ..</p></blockquote> <div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-21797606576267033342010-04-09T07:00:00.001-04:002010-04-09T07:00:00.254-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites visited this week: <br />
<br />
<div></div><ul><li><a href="http://www.scriptol.com/getting-started/original-websites.php">Can you run it</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/">Annomalies Unlimited</a></li>
<li><a href="http://asianposes.com/">Asian Poses</a></li>
</ul><br />
This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.<br />
<br />
<div></div>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/">Bynapse.com</a> - the easy web.<br />
<br />
<div></div>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.volontariataunepal.org/">Volunteer to Nepal</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-74788212944103174532010-04-02T07:00:00.013-04:002010-04-02T07:00:02.892-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites visited this week: <br />
<br />
<div> </div><ul><li><a href="http://definr.com/">Definr</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hunch.com/">Hunch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.seussville.com/">Seusville</a></li>
</ul><br />
This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/">Bynapse.com</a> - the easy web.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.termic.ro/">Termic</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-41320053556773933542010-03-31T11:00:00.001-04:002010-03-31T11:00:51.896-04:00PDF and E-book creation<p><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="pdf icon" border="0" alt="pdf icon" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z9-WrL8rIk8/S7NjhZi8TbI/AAAAAAAAITQ/DZ4UFeLWf3g/pdf%20icon%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="48" height="64" />Every now and then, someone tries to edit a PDF file and the old Acrobat and Distiller question pops back. What are the roles of those two and why still use Word to edit? Why is Acrobat still important in e-book creation?</p> <p>First the basics. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008ZGRY/surfinthenetwith">Adobe Acrobat </a>only reads PDF files. It does not create PDF files, nor can it be used to create content of any kind. It allows setting of certain attributes and anchors, such as creating hyperlinks and setting document security settings.</p> <p>Distiller is a print driver that outputs PDF files. It is not a reader, nor an application used to create any content.</p> <p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008ZGRY/surfinthenetwith">Adobe Acrobat</a> (not Acrobat Reader) does not edit files, you create your content in a applications like Word, Photoshop.. then print to Distiller (some applications have a “Save as PDF” functionality like <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f1fc413c-6d89-4f15-991b-63b07ba5f2e5&displaylang=en" target="_blank">Word does in an optional add-on</a>) and save the resulting file as PDF. All word, spreadsheet or image editing or viewing applications should be able to print.</p> <p>You may open the PDF in Acrobat for fine tuning:</p> <p>1) create hyperlinks (see Tools/Locate Web Addresses) <br />2) create title and author (see File/Document Properties) <br />3) set your desired security level (see File/Document Security) <br />4) File SAVE AS whatever.pdf. It is important not to just SAVE but to use SAVE AS because this eliminates unused fonts and makes a smaller PDF.</p> <p>An important decision is to embed fonts in your PDF, or use system fonts. This impacts the size of your PDF but embedding your fonts guarantees that your reader will see the exact page layout you designed. The better system fonts seem to be the small common ones such as <em>Times Roman</em> or <em>Arial</em>. You should know that <strong>embedding fonts is a Distiller option</strong> (Printer/Preferences/Adobe PDF Settings/General Conversion Settings).</p> <p>Currently, High speed internet access is becoming the norm and PDF files are generally small. As I was saying in a previous post, <em>content is King</em>. </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-9077463245400412952010-03-29T10:48:00.001-04:002010-03-29T10:49:26.219-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites visited this week: <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://jquery.com/">JQuery</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.43things.com/">43 Things</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.onesentence.org/">One Sentence</a></li>
</ul><div>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</div><div></div><div>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/">Bynapse.com</a> - the easy web.</div><div></div><div>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.smartbyte.ro/joomla/">Smartbyte</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-42652941911978604872010-03-26T16:12:00.008-04:002010-03-29T10:39:43.871-04:00Web application security<p><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" title="msgConfirmation" border="0" alt="msgConfirmation" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z9-WrL8rIk8/S60VGOEPqYI/AAAAAAAAITE/WsPxmNZnmDM/msgConfirmation%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="48" height="64" />It's a real possibility that the web server is locked down and secured. <p></p><p>Web application hacking requires the attacker to understand application logic. </p><p>A website may be ripped entirely and stored locally. While this does not give out the code behind, it shows how input is passed, what types of error messages are returned, and the types of input that various fields will accept.</p><p>Here is a list of vulnerabilities and possible attacks to add to your list. Also check this list that Microsoft put out:</p><p><u><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998372.aspx#pagpractices0001_indexofpractices">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998372.aspx#pagpractices0001_indexofpractices</a></u></p><p><a name="iddle2524"></a><a name="ch08lev2sec5"></a><b>Check out this article: <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998375.aspx">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998375.aspx</a><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998375.aspx"></a></b></p><p><b></b></p><p><b>Hidden Fields</b></p><p><b></b></p><p><a name="iddle2488"></a><a name="iddle4754"></a><a name="iddle1152"></a>Hidden fields used for obscuring values are poor coding. The theory is that if end users cannot see it, it is safe from tampering. Many sites use these hidden value fields to store the price of the product that is passed to the web application. An example pulled from a website is shown here:</p><p><a name="PLID0"></a></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="name" VALUE="Mens Ring"></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="price" VALUE="$345.50"></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="sh" VALUE="1"></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="return" VALUE="http://www.vulnerable_site.com/cgi-bin/cart.pl?db=stuff.dat&category=&search=Mens-Rings&method=&begin=&display=&price=&merchant="></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="add2" VALUE="1"></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="img"</p><p>VALUE="http://www.vulnerable_site.com/images/c-14kring.jpg"></p><p>Here is an example tampering with a poorly written shopping cart:<a name="d0e55095"></a><a name="d0e55094"></a><a name="d0e55093"></a><a name="d0e55092"></a><a name="d0e55091"></a></p><p><a name="ch08pro04"></a>1. </p><p>Save the page locally and open the source code.</p><p>2. </p><p>Modify the amount and save the page. As an example, change $345.50 to $5.99:</p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="name" VALUE="Mens Ring"></p><p><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="price" VALUE="$5.99"></p><p>3. </p><p>Refresh the local HTML page and then click Add to Cart. If successful, you'll be presented with a checkout page that reflects the new hacked value of $5.99.</p><p>This is an extreme example for illustration purposes that an application should never rely on the <a name="iddle1379"></a>web browser to set the values for sensitive data. Even without changing the price, an attacker might just try to feed large amounts of data into the field to see how the application responds. Values from hidden fields, check boxes, select lists, and HTTP headers might be manipulated by malicious users and used to make web applications misbehave if the designer did not build in proper validation. </p><p>If you think that there is a shortage of sites with these types of vulnerabilities, think again. A quick Google search for type=hidden name=price returns hundreds of hits.<a name="d0e55130"></a></p><p><a name="ch08lev3sec3"></a><b>Cookies</b></p><p>Cookies have a legitimate purpose. <a name="iddle1674"></a>Security by obscurity is never a good idea. Cookies used with forms authentication or other remember me functionality might hold <a name="iddle3177"></a>passwords or usernames<a name="d0e55685"></a> and cookies can be viewed with cookie viewers. Example:</p><p>Set-Cookie: UID= bWlrZTptaWtlc3Bhc3N3b3JkDQoNCg; expires=Fri, 06-Jan-2010</p><p>The UID value appears to contain random letters, but more than that is there. If you run it through a Base64 decoder, you end up with mike:mikespassword. It's never good practice to store sensitive information, encrypted, in a cookie, a hash should be preferred.</p><p><a name="ch08lev3sec4"></a><a name="ch08lev2sec8"></a><b></b></p><p><b>Cross-Site Scripting</b></p><p><a name="iddle1673"></a><a name="iddle1154"></a></p><p>Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a computer security exploit that occurs when a <a name="iddle1153"></a>web <a name="iddle4705"></a><a name="iddle1325"></a>application is used to gather data from a victim<a name="d0e55831"></a><a name="d0e55830"></a><a name="d0e55829"></a>. Here is an example of a possible entry in a text field:</p><p><A HREF="http://example.com/comment.aspx?mycomment=<SCRIPT> malicious code</SCRIPT>"><img src="cid:image003.gif@01CACB5C.6D30B9A0" width="14" height="9" />Click here</A></p><p>XSS can be prevented by HtmlEncoding displayed data and the input from a form is validated. Prevention also requires that the users remain leery of embedded links.</p><p><a name="ch08lev2sec9"></a><b>Interception, Inspection, Modification</b></p><p><b></b></p><p><a name="iddle4695"></a><a name="iddle4731"></a><a name="iddle1547"></a><a name="iddle1024"></a><a name="iddle4693"></a><a name="iddle1149"></a>A web proxy allows interception, inspection, and modification the raw contents of the traffic, as explained in the following:</p><ul><li>Intercept Allows you to see under the hood and watch the <a name="iddle1150"></a>traffic move back and forth between the client and the server.</li><li>Inspect Allows you to enumerate how applications work and see the mechanisms they use.</li><li>Modify Allows you to modify the data in an attempt to see how the application will respond; for instance, injection attacks.</li></ul><p>These tools make it possible to perform <b>SQL injection, cookies subversion, buffer overflows</b>, and other types of attacks.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-62327293612353450592009-04-23T11:12:00.009-04:002010-03-29T10:39:43.871-04:00ActiveX modal dialogs are pushed behind Internet Explorer's browser window<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV15CHwHJDRqgBiugRxA9HMiGT_flSMctm6tcF5z9obay3YhJv-MT1B2uLXx5r53jfq2x91AYO-HApMZhsz2eiHsnENfLJvQZ86WaFT0WV35mMcBsjvuCQ4hnrfZ-nA7Ik7Ni_kA/s1600-h/Info.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 64px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 64px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328258465034001314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV15CHwHJDRqgBiugRxA9HMiGT_flSMctm6tcF5z9obay3YhJv-MT1B2uLXx5r53jfq2x91AYO-HApMZhsz2eiHsnENfLJvQZ86WaFT0WV35mMcBsjvuCQ4hnrfZ-nA7Ik7Ni_kA/s320/Info.png" /></a>It has been long since my last article but I must tell you, I have been spending my time doing some beautiful programming lately and, while I was away, Microsoft decided to put another browser out in the world.<br /><br />For most programmers that have an ActiveX window embedded in a web page, showing a modal dialog from an ActiveX control in internet Explorer 7 was a challenge and <a href="http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/iewebdevelopment/thread/28577831-78d2-4557-bdd4-ab3535065286">here </a>is but one of the hot discussions we had about the topic.<br /><br />But.. hey, Microsoft did it again and now they're not just multithreading it away.. they're creating a process for each tab you open. We'll not discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of this idea, but your modal dialogs will pop up behind the browser window one more time, and they will stay there !<br /><br />Here is how the people who know IE say you should go about determining which IE tabs goes to which Iexplore.exe process when using Internet Explorer 8 :<br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/askie/archive/2009/03/20/how-to-i-determine-which-ie-tabs-go-to-which-iexplore-exe-process-when-using-internet-explorer-8.aspx">http://blogs.msdn.com/askie/archive/2009/03/20/how-to-i-determine-which-ie-tabs-go-to-which-iexplore-exe-process-when-using-internet-explorer-8.aspx</a><br /><br />Now that sheds some light but how do show modal .. in my code ?<br /><br />Here is an example of my solution for a bunch of ActiveXes I have developed in Delphi an I needed to make compatible with IE8 :<br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="color:#330099;"><strong>function</strong> FormShowModal(aForm: TCustomForm): TModalResult;<br /></span><span style="color:#330099;"><strong>begin<br />try</strong><br />EnableProcessWindows(<span style="color:#660000;">MainHandle</span>, False);<br />SetWindowPos(aForm.Handle, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE or SWP_NOMOVE or SWP_NOSIZE);<br />Result := aForm.ShowModal ;<br /><strong>finally</strong><br />EnableProcessWindows(<span style="color:#660000;">MainHandle</span>, True);<br /></span><strong><span style="color:#330099;">end;<br />end;</span></strong></span><span style="color:#330099;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="color:#330099;"><strong>procedure</strong> EnableProcessWindows(aHandle : HWND; disableWindow : Boolean);<br /><strong>var</strong><br />aParentHandle : HWND;<br /><strong>begin</strong><br />aParentHandle := GetParent(aHandle);<br /><strong>while</strong> (NULL <> aParentHandle) <strong>and</strong> (aParentHandle <> 0) <strong>do</strong><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="color:#330099;"><strong>begin<br /></strong>EnableWindow(aParentHandle, disableWindow);<br />aParentHandle := GetParent(aParentHandle);<br /></span></span><strong><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#330099;">end ;<br />end;</span></strong><br /><br />Where the <span style="color:#660000;">MainHandle</span> is the handle of the main form of your application. For an ActiveX, this is the ActiveForm's handle. I let you decide the best way to retrieve or pass that around.<br /><strong><span style="font-family:Courier New;"></span></strong><br />I must tell you that the same solution works beautifully on IE7 and even inside a standalone executable so.. feel free to translate it into any other programming language you are using and go ahead and sell for IE8 too.<br /><br />Now why did I do the <span style="font-family:courier new;"><strong>SetWindowPos</strong></span> call ? Well if you click on the taskbar buttons, you will find that the dialog may still go behind the browser window and come back on top but I believe this is totally acceptable.<br /><br />Write a comment if you found any other solution to this.<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-23829912905597282692008-09-15T11:16:00.005-04:002008-09-15T11:37:44.615-04:00Virtual real estate, a high-valued asset<p>The market is hungry for good readable and easily remembered domain names. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/badulescub/SM58JCMwwkI/AAAAAAAAGdU/yiqUHyDvbXI/s1600-h/Couch%5B15%5D.png"><img height="53" alt="Couch" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/badulescub/SM58MfnBvwI/AAAAAAAAGdY/xx9V5BCpK0A/Couch_thumb%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="126" align="right" /></a>For six months I have been searching to build on the right name and I found the market takes domain names as premium real estate. Many believe that buying the domain now is an unnecessary investment and wait until they develop the site (or product) and are ready to sail the cyber-wave.</p><p>According to Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of <a href="http://www.dnjournal.com/" target="_blank">Domain Name Journal</a>, there is a handful of people (between 1000 and 2000 individuals, most of them remaining anonymous to avoid competition) that make a living out of domain names but these are people spending six figures to snap up domains left and right and build an empire on domains. </p><p>I'm writing for the rest of us but if you're bitten by the domaining bug, I suggest waiting for Page Howe's <em>Domain Name Investing: How to Make Money in Internet Real Estate<strong>. </strong></em>If that is your business, there is a community out there for you. </p><p>I was mostly looking to get the right domain name for my idea. I already had <em>bynapse.com,</em> a domain that gave me much joy to own but, as most of us, <strong>I had a name for my idea</strong> and found that people out there are looking for someone else's good idea. You may hear that ideas are cheap and abundant .. <strong>not when it comes to domain names</strong> ! </p><p>I recently had a customer for which I've built a simple site for a good cause. He's trying to convince people to <a href="http://www.volunteertonepal.org/" target="_blank">volunteer to help a school in Nepal</a>. So we're chatting about the idea and he's searching at night for domain names and finds the name he always had in mind is available. </p><p>A few days later he contacts me so we can start setting things up just to find that the domain has been registered, is parked and offered for sale. Here is a nice article about some less ethical practices on <a href="http://www.domainnamenews.com/featured/domain-registrar-network-solutions-front-running-on-whois-searches/1359" target="_blank">DomainName News</a> and if this isn't something a domainer usually does, its one more thing you have to consider when shopping.</p><p>In the end, he had his way and found both the English and French version of the new domain names I helped him to come up with, but this time, he searched and bought them right away and the site came up pretty fast afterwards. Check it out at <a href="http://www.volunteertonepal.org/" target="_blank">VolunteerToNepal.org</a>.</p><p>As a note, all searches leave a trace and there are always people on the lookout for a nice idea. Well, in this business, ideas don't come cheap and may end up as consistent checks to bring to the bank.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-50423710465258580202008-02-12T13:31:00.001-05:002014-03-20T10:16:14.610-04:00Checkout solutions for your E-commerce<a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="_blank"><img align="right" alt="Padlock" src="http://lh4.google.com/badulescub/R7Hl5y2nkEI/AAAAAAAADPY/UqGuZoZ45Mg/Padlock7" height="127" width="127" /></a> <br />
Charge that credit card, get paid and have your e-commerce web site up and running at a decent cost so it can support itself and bring some green. The idea behind an e-shop is to have the conversion from visitor to buyer done fast and in the most secure way so that it happens over and over again.<br />
There are literally thousands of solutions out there for building or hosting your e-commerce. Many of those solutions are free or come with your hosting subscription. If you are a programmer or can get a hold of such an individual you can download and customize code and have your own solution in very little time. It all ends up in the checkout process and here is where all the lines in the water lie.<br />
Having a simple low-cost solution that provides state-of-the-art security and service <em>is not impossible</em> by any stretch of the imagination and many of the most respectable companies out there offer easy to set-up solutions for decent fees. <br />
The things that make me think twice when I look for a service, though, is the <strong>nickel-and-dimes</strong> type of deal. And when you're dealing with credit cards and other type of payments, reading the fine-print is a <em>prerequisite</em>. And in that fine-print (that often stretches over several pages) you may find that the service provider can <em>change the contract</em> at <em>any time</em>, for <em>any reason.</em><br />
<em>Do not build your e-commerce around a checkout solution before you make sure you can use it.</em> I've heard a few disappointed voices in Canada that enthusiastically built their web sites to use <a href="http://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.html" target="_blank">Google Checkout</a> or certain versions of <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_merchant-outside" target="_blank">PayPal</a> just to find that they're not available in Canada .. yet. It's not obvious information since the focus on those sites (<em>as it should be on yours</em>) is <strong><em>conversion</em></strong>.<br />
What payments would you need to Accept or Manage, and don't be afraid to think ahead:<br />
<ul>
<li>Credit Cards, Debit, Email Invoices, PayPal (when selling single or multiple items)</li>
<li>Recurring payments (like a monthly fee.. subscription)</li>
<li>Promotions (eg. 15 $ first 3 months and 99.99 $ after) </li>
<li>Shipping and handling</li>
<li>Bonus points and point partnerships (eg. Travel miles, Bank percentage rebates...)</li>
<li>TAXES</li>
<li>Contributions (donations)</li>
<li>Gift certificates and Coupons</li>
</ul>
Major sites like <a href="http://astore.amazon.ca/bogadiandandb-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a> have their own secure systems to store credit card numbers and shipping addresses, but this article is for the rest of us who need <strong>security</strong> and <strong>fraud protection</strong> while selling to buyers who are shy of leaving the credit card number all over the place. EBags' Peter Cobb said that “retail is about overcoming objections” as the point here is to enable that transaction and <em>get the money</em>. Big players spend big to lure customers their way. <a href="http://googlecheckout.blogspot.com/2006/11/free-processing-for-holidays.html" target="_blank">Google offered a fee waiver</a> through the end of the year in their move to take some market off PayPal' hands. <strong>But</strong> we are not talking from the customer's perspective here, as much as it is a crucial factor in completing the sale and it should not be overlooked, are we? <br />
In the end, if we need to spend hundreds of dollars to integrate some system and pay ridiculous fees on each sale, it's going to kill your infant business before it can build you the income you're doing it for.<br />
So here is a list of the most interesting and capable players I stumbled upon (I urge you to comment on it and add to this list)<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.html" target="_blank">Google Checkout</a> - offers a decent platform for decent fees and comes backed by Google's name. It's not available everywhere though.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_merchant-outside" target="_blank">PayPal</a> - much more widely spread and used but I feel the fees are a bit to the upper side of the ladder. I simply don't like paying "one-time installation fees" I guess. Still, a solid and reputable name in the business.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sc_fe_c_1_3435361_1/104-9066604-5529567?ie=UTF8&node=342430011&no=3435361" target="_blank">Amazon FPS</a> - Flexible Payments Service is "designed from the ground up specifically for developers"... Or you can simply create a <a href="https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/choosewidget" target="_blank">PayNow Widget</a> and ... Amazon takes care of the rest.</li>
</ul>
There are others like Payjunction, Card Payment Solutions, Wells Fargo, <a href="http://www.versapay.com/products_services/" target="_blank">VersaPlay</a>, <a href="http://www.collectivepos.com/?_kk=merchant%20account&_kt=481dff36-2647-41c8-9048-b9e67ee0b9fa" target="_blank">CollectivePos</a>, <a href="http://driveit.clickspace.com/message/1029809/2" target="_blank">DriveIt</a> and all have a twist that make them attractive for a certain market or the other. Personally I look at the reliability of the company and I simply hate two-hundred pages contracts you can't keep track of. <br />
From my point of view, those services should empower my business not suck it dry when the "exceptional case you find on page two of the fine-print" happens.<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-233480031206554902008-02-06T12:04:00.000-05:002008-02-06T12:55:53.339-05:00AJAX makes business sense<a href="http://www.bynapse.com"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163922252594048274" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyYNDmVSaCUKoGjzW6jG69JIWGA60g8h16Dce_T_EfUgc3Z_dPwmA4R5OLcbTy8DNyN72pEiZe1VHUas3HN7o4m9IRZ0FLLzD_k5L758jcAHxmUXCVpzjZ_DQjsRZDZB5mcq_Xw/s320/refresh.jpg" border="0" /></a>I recently had to answer to the: “<em>Should we go with AJAX</em>” question and, for a developer, the answer to this question is not obvious. There are many benefits in using AJAX, both from the user or programmer’s perspective but this particular question is <strong>not technical</strong>. AJAX is <strong>not a programming language</strong> but a <strong>technique</strong> and this calls to a cost management conversation as well as the determination of ROI.<br /><br /><div><div><div><div>According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX" target="blank">Wikipedia</a>, AJAX is <em>“shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications. The intent is to make Web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the Web page's interactivity, speed, and usability."</em> </div><div><br />AJAX improves both performance and user experience (and often and desirably makes use of <em>Service Oriented Architecture</em>), makes a programmer life easier as it facilitates the development of <strong>wikis</strong> and the creation of dashboard applications which allows the user to become involved in building the final (tailored) user interface experience. The user actually controls an important part of the look and feel of the final product as well as determines the most important features (from those available) and arranges them to provide the most business value possible. </div><div><br />There are voices like John Crupi’s that say: “<a href="http://java.sys-con.com/read/276358.htm" target="blank">AJAX + SOA: The Next Killer App</a>” and it is the direction on which Microsoft itself is moving. It is important as AJAX leads the “<a href="http://bynapse.blogspot.com/2007/06/web-20-websites-for-rookies.html" target="blank">Web 2.0</a>” revolution and brings desktop-like experiences inside the web browser.<br />To come back to the question that triggered this article, the Open Ajax Alliance website provides a great article on when <a href="http://www.openajax.org/whitepapers/When%20Does%20Ajax%20Make%20Business%20Sense.html" target="blank">AJAX Makes Business Sense</a>. It’s a must-read as it provides the whitepaper to bring before the non-technical manager. As of why, a programmer can only say: “Let’s do it with AJAX”.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Exciting times folks, and the internet can only get closer to simplicity as web pages become richer and cleaner, but switching or even starting with AJAX involves thorough and honest internal evaluation and cost management.<br /><br /></div><div><em>Next Generation Applications</em> have to be a part of this productivity improvement brought forth by those techniques as this platform-independent runtime technology is well-suited for next-generation SOA applications. What makes an answer to the above question, even though there is so much to say, is that AJAX enables a rich user experience with enhanced productivity at the cost of changing your optics and grasping the concept. I believe that those costs should be lower and development time should be reduced while the result is a rich user experience in a server-based application deployment that obviously provides lower maintenance costs as it replaces the desktop application. </div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-10482140513651004262008-01-03T14:11:00.000-05:002008-02-06T12:32:25.060-05:00Monetizing unused domains<a href="http://lh5.google.com/badulescub/RrnLWdly4YI/AAAAAAAABkI/TBcQwu7voGk/s144/images.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://lh5.google.com/badulescub/RrnLWdly4YI/AAAAAAAABkI/TBcQwu7voGk/s144/images.jpg" border="0" target="blank" /></a>Park your domains and make a buck while you think about it? Unless you are in this business, domain monetizing is not going to put a meal on the table, but monetizing is possible and makes enough to make owning the parked domain worth while.<br /><br />I wrote previously about <a href="http://bynapse.blogspot.com/2007/05/domain-parking-and-related-terms.html" target="blank">domain parking</a> and <a href="http://bynapse.blogspot.com/2007/05/domain-tasting.html" target="blank">domain tasting</a> and it’s paying for my unused domains, but can you really make a buck out of your existing domain names that just display the “Under construction” text and maybe a cute animated icon of a guy building … and building ?<br /><br />The revenue generated by having unused domain parked with a domain parking provider may be disappointing as there is virtually no traffic coming in unless your domain name is really good and... If it is, you may get an offer for it quite soon. Again, if you’re not in this business, that offer story might be a once in a lifetime event. Do not forget that parking the domain with a provider has its rules:<br /><br />· You cannot advertise or link to it.<br />· The content is predefined; you may only edit keywords that may bring up ads from your competition on your domain. Sometimes you may choose color palette or a display template.<br /><br />There are trustworthy services out there that monetize your domain, like Sedo, Google AdSense for Domains and even some more costlier but more customizable services like WhyPark.<br />No matter how you look at it, a parked domain is not an active website so paying for it and putting too much time into it is not my cup of tea. But park my existing domain for free, and let it pay the expenses on its own, while I figure it all out, is.<br /><br />Act on buying the domain though, since it might not be available by the time you have your website ready so parking is a good tool if you have a domain name that you would like to reserve, but do not intend to use immediately.<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-11115829152671750142007-12-14T11:06:00.000-05:002008-02-06T12:32:25.060-05:00Let them go<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCPVMjGgq7YtfnS85RPE0Mz68dfRtSi1YT_CyGP9brG-Q8ycIBwUL10eCg84mmfQ9pr8_OLdQ_iIRdgd65y-l2W2c7UG_NOnXlmAUB1o1zRsV5YwhEef1gW0cm7usMKttt0Fs5w/s1600-h/santa.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143868188838384194" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCPVMjGgq7YtfnS85RPE0Mz68dfRtSi1YT_CyGP9brG-Q8ycIBwUL10eCg84mmfQ9pr8_OLdQ_iIRdgd65y-l2W2c7UG_NOnXlmAUB1o1zRsV5YwhEef1gW0cm7usMKttt0Fs5w/s320/santa.jpg" border="0" /></a> First of all I have to apologise for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">not</span> writing here for awhile, I was and still am very busy writing code, something <em>else </em>I love to do besides writing my blog. I will be back in here shortly and let you know where my roads take me.<br /><div><br /><strong>This is about ideas and talking about them</strong> or letting other people <strong>steal them</strong>. I was cooking some business ideas wondering if I should talk about them and if I do, would people go <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ahead</span> and make money with my idea and forget about me. I know that question <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">lingers</span> around in lots of bright heads. One answer I got during a Microsoft' "Ignite your career"entrepreneurial session got me puzzled for awhile but, as much as it <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">doesn't</span> make sense, it holds some truth.</div><br /><div>I forget who answered : "Ideas are cheap, it's what you do with them. Talk to as many people as you can, your idea will only get stronger". Yes and no and if you ask me.. I say don't follow this advice to the core !</div><br /><div></div><div>Ideas are indeed cheap, as much as you're in love with yours, one hundred other guys have the same idea. That only means you should love it more. Talk to as many people about it... no.<br /><br />Only share the idea at one stage, then calm down and do it, build it and here is the gold in that advice : "it's what you do with it". <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Follow</span> through and don't worry about people stealing the idea, grow it, build it and stop talking when you start doing, then start <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">talking</span> again but now you've got a product. </div><br /><div></div><div>An incoherent and incomplete idea is easy to take apart and ridicule, and that can tap into your enthusiasm and never recover. I know people that are talking <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">a lot</span> about others ideas and theirs as well, but they all get cold after a short while and never get anything out of that. The idea has to grow, be thorn <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">apart</span> and brought back together like Led Zeppelin or Genesis just did. Then you can talk about it with close friends and it stands the test. </div><br /><div></div><div>Don't talk your idea out of you, people will go ahead and do something with it, obviously, and that's a compliment to you if they do. Talk some and do some more.. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-28464230556885639872007-11-17T10:15:00.000-05:002007-11-17T10:19:24.137-05:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.infinityangermanagement.com/" target="blank">Infinity Anger Management</a></li><li><a href="http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/website.php?id=create_my_own_website_yahoo" target="blank">Tip Top Website</a></li><li><a href="http://www.firesiteflash.com/" target="blank">Fire Site Flash</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.time-booking.com//" target="blank">TimeBooking</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-85957369271443213372007-11-10T10:22:00.001-05:002007-11-10T10:22:22.089-05:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://mingle2.com/" target="blank">Mingle Too</a></li><li><a href="http://www.imbee.com/" target="blank">IMBEE</a></li><li><a href="http://www.consumating.com/" target="blank">Consumating</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.aloeliving.com//" target="blank">Aloe Living</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-81445926073788347522007-11-01T22:44:00.000-04:002007-11-10T10:25:11.476-05:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="www.peertrainer.com " target="blank">Peer Trainer</a></li><li><a href="www.medstory.com" target="blank">MedStory</a></li><li><a href="www.medstory.com" target="blank">Med Story</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.time-booking.com//" target="blank">TimeBooking</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-75393080787544620532007-10-19T17:21:00.001-04:002007-10-19T17:21:43.515-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.startupbusinessschool.com/" target="blank">Startup Business School</a></li><li><a href="http://home.altenergystore.com/" target="blank">Alternative Energy Store</a></li><li><a href="http://tonyyoo.com/protolize//" target="blank">Tony Yoo's Protolize</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.aloeliving.com//" target="blank">Aloe Living</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-78368080051753436732007-10-16T08:29:00.000-04:002007-10-16T10:50:58.125-04:00Buying the right stock photo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bynapse.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizacmkU6JeCiuzvhGs4CHhOKXfafI2NDyVQgQJ-Q4o7mXWrVxja5jQZIPJ0AolT6f9XF5JKzRDqwz7I30e66GHkdSmMszoalGzEoKXzjMwK01ZmMe-UI4JVE7ZS8cpDyJ3SaQAxg/s320/Bynapse+Logo.png" alt="Bynapse Technologies" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121913028415877602" border="0" /></a>Your site is ready for a face-lift and you’re looking for the right images to use. You’re also looking to print something consistent with your web site so your image looks solid and established. Here is where a stock-photography site comes in handy. But there are thousands out there …<br /><br />There are differences in the quality of the pictures, prices, photo licensing between those sites and you can buy photos for web-only use, print, multimedia, personal .. Read the license agreements carefully before buying, especially if it’s a model picture (a human face is visible). You save if you get a subscription for the time required to build your site (if you are buying a large number of pictures) otherwise, sites like <a href="http://us.fotolia.com/partner/200453949" target="blank">Fotolia</a> are perfect for one-picture downloads.<br /><br />The best way to look at photos is if they’re <span style="font-weight: bold;">royalty free</span> as you may usually use them in prints, web sites, multimedia presentations, for business communication, decoration and even personal use (you may print your photo wallpaper). Most sites provide this type of licence with subtle flavours to it so make sure you read the license agreement before you put up that huge banner on Champs-Elysées.<br /><br />Determine how many pictures you need before you buy to decide between a bundle and a unit price.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are you ready to use them?</span> You can only use one image for a certain number of prints (a fair number provided in the license agreement) and you can not resell photos or templates using those photos. You may play with photoshop and alter an image, without gaining the copyright to it though but this is what I call wasted money, meaning that if you buy something, it should be what you need and should not require further alteration (that is not true for dresses, they always require alteration, believe me, I learn from watching … ).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">What does royalty-free mean for the buyer?</span> Most stock sites provide that type of license. It’s important to determine the right license you need and royalty-free gives you unlimited use of a photo in any media, you pay for the image only once and use it as many times as you need. This is the most permissive license ad you should look for that as your business may grow and you should save printing more copies of your materials. Right-managed photos need a special setup and environment to live in as well as a more refined targeting of the audience and are usually more expensive and may include brand names (models, companies, trademarks) .<br /><br />No matter what license you acquired, <span style="font-style: italic;">you can not resell the photo</span> you bought. If you buy a template from <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse</a> (my web templates shop) you may use it, you even get stock photos and logos or clipart for free, <span style="font-style: italic;">but it’s the same story</span>... <span style="font-style: italic;">You cannot claim copyright to the images</span> and you<span style="font-style: italic;"> can not resell them</span>. Nor you can resell the template containing the images.<br /><br />Now there is such a case where <span style="font-weight: bold;">you buy the rights for an image</span> (for the right price, of course) but you can become <span style="font-weight: bold;">the owner</span> and the photographer loses the right to use or sell the photo ever again. <a href="http://us.fotolia.com/partner/200453949" target="blank">Fotolia</a> is an example of a stock agency that sells image rights. It’s all about finding the right image for your needs and buying the setup, the environment and the colors that put you up in front and keeps you there.<br />Apple is an example of a company that does everything beautiful and stylish and look at it grow. Vista looks sleek and design gets better all the time.<br /><br />Web 2.0 is all about using the right colors, images and message and if you have designs you want to discuss or you just want people to see, post them here and <span style="font-style: italic;">let’s talk</span>.<p><span style=""></span><span style="font-size:10;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-74970533479335113582007-10-12T16:23:00.000-04:002007-10-19T17:17:44.696-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://mufon.com/" target="blank">Mufon.com</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nbc.com/Bionic_Woman/" target="blank">Bionic Woman</a></li><li><a href="http://www.scifiuniverse.net/" target="blank">Sci Fi Universe</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.pogocheats.net//" target="blank">Pogo Cheats</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-76588207303593780522007-10-04T10:27:00.000-04:002007-10-04T10:32:35.830-04:00Little search box<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB32QGHTGAAnPezRCc1pUobioY8qdFBY_bFCvldIxOYSPHO-_9Cx73qIbzfmEUp9kgZZKkp-Qb8oPCTdcN1fY9-LMwGcZka5w_sVh-sfD0PWckqS_gOzmdEpsuQHfwXX7lVZR7xA/s1600-h/BoxOpen.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB32QGHTGAAnPezRCc1pUobioY8qdFBY_bFCvldIxOYSPHO-_9Cx73qIbzfmEUp9kgZZKkp-Qb8oPCTdcN1fY9-LMwGcZka5w_sVh-sfD0PWckqS_gOzmdEpsuQHfwXX7lVZR7xA/s320/BoxOpen.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5117489246460735954" border="0" /></a>The neat search box at the top of that sleek looking Web 2.0 style site you just visited looks good? Well, you can have it too, tailored to your desires.<br /><br />The ability to <span style="font-weight: bold;">perform an easy and efficient search</span> seems to be the main ingredient and the greatest achievement nowadays and Web 2.0 style sites are all including it. Tailoring search results and harvesting a powerful search engine’s capabilities to extract relevant information and present fast results is a requirement all main search engines respond to.<br /><br />Of course you’re not keen to see your competition on the results or in the ads displayed on the result pages (that happens if you’re not running a blog, like me, in which case I welcome all pertinent info to show up). You may not want to see any ads at all in the results (that comes for a cost, no matter if you use msn, Yahoo or Google to power your search). Display the ads and you get a free way to monetize the searches initiated from your site. Needless to say that you can restrict the search results to your web site or web presence (suite of web sites) or, you may just favor them in the results … sneaky<br /><br />Here are a few links to such pages providing easy access to custom (to you) search engines. Just follow their instruction to get what you are looking for and know that you can modify the appearance and fully integrate at a later time, <span style="font-weight: bold;">you don’t need to start Google size</span>.<br /><br />• Live Search Box - <a href="http://search.live.com/siteowner">http://search.live.com/siteowner</a> (this is Microsoft’s answer, really easy to follow guides, a bit slow for my taste). Nathan Buggia has a blog entry covering the basics, read it <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2006/10/31/add-search-to-your-site-with-the-live-search-box.aspx">here</a>.<br />• Google Coop - <a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse">http://www.google.com/coop/cse</a> (this one is Google’s solution, so easy and fast but for business use it costs $. I really like free stuff)<br />• Yahoo Search Builder - <a href="http://builder.search.yahoo.com/">http://builder.search.yahoo.com</a> (Yahoo, good, personalizable search results and powerful search analysis tools. Not as customizable or friendly as the previous two)<br />• Crafty Search - <a href="http://www.gonecountrygraphics.com/craftysearchbox.html">http://www.gonecountrygraphics.com/craftysearchbox.html</a> (sooo easy, straightforward, unreal, sooo limited results though, I’ve put this here because it’s so easy to integrate though)<br />• Ixquick Search - <a href="http://us.ixquick.com/eng/link_instructions.html">http://us.ixquick.com/eng/link_instructions.html</a> (easy to integrare and customize, real results coming back)<br />• Pico Search - <a href="http://www.picosearch.com/">http://www.picosearch.com/</a> (easy enough, I’m not yet convinced about the accuracy of the results, to be discussed)<br /><br />Know that all search engines <span style="font-style: italic;">provide the results as XML</span> as well, free or for a fee, so you can go all the way and have the results display in your own page, simply by consuming the XML dataset returned. Now you don’t need to know what XML is unless you’re a developer and you should better start reading up on it now.<br /><br />Next week we shall talk about stock photos: who’s cheapest, why buy and how to do it or why not start selling too.<div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9448108.post-64044186700765727102007-09-28T10:53:00.000-04:002007-10-19T17:17:44.696-04:00LinX BoXThis Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.hideapod.com/" target="blank">HideAPod.com</a></li><li><a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/" target="blank">I Started Something</a></li><li><a href="http://www.marieevejanvier.com/" target="blank">Marie-Eve Janvier</a></li></ol><p>This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.</p><p>And don't forget my web templates shop at <a href="http://www.bynapse.com/" target="blank">Bynapse.com - the easy web</a>.</p><p>Reciprocal link of the week : <a href="http://www.woodwireless.com/" target="blank">Wood Wireless</a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© 2006 - 2010 Bogdan Badulescu</div>Arrakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03313697453216521188noreply@blogger.com0