I.Viddy » Website Design

Another Hack Repaired

Mister Viddy — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:13:09 +0000

This being a WordPress site I found an instance of the dirty old ”eval(base64_decode” code-injection sitting on the 404.php page of a theme I had downloaded a while back. With the help of the Moai Away Team and many hours of frustration I have once again cleaned and secured the site.

Day 113: Graphic Design

Mister Viddy — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:53:52 +0000

Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image and typography.

Designers think about visual forms and how they are put together to convey meaning. These forms are a kind of visual language. Points, lines, planes, volumes, spaces, areas, textures and colors, as well as how they are used to create symmetry, proportion and rhythm, are basic aspects of the designer’s visual vocabulary.

Designers create solutions to design problems. A part of every solution includes communicating how to get the job done technically: how to get the poster printed or how to create the mechanicals for the package design. The designer must learn to clearly express and transmit ideas and instructions as well as to receive and evaluate feedback. To this end, the student learns to specify technical instructions; to write objectives, briefs and reports; to present ideas verbally, graphically and with audiovisual support; and to listen carefully.

(The previous information was courtesy of AIGA, the professional association for design)

Day 106: Website Maintenance and SEO

Mister Viddy — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:47:37 +0000

How exciting was today? It all depends. I spent the majority of the day going over this website and updating my keywords and page content as well as working on my page titles. It was so thrilling being able to look for and remove duplicate content and to fix broken and outdated links. Search engine optimization is fun. I am close to losing the vision in both eyes and after having gone through dozens of pages and posts, it is time to step away from the website and go back to the real world for a while.

Day 96: More of The Stupid

Mister Viddy — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:06:02 +0000

Day 96 of the post a day saga revisits the stupid. And who or what is the stupid? The stupid may be you or it may be someone you know. The stupid does not limit itself to any particular race, creed or culture. The stupid is all around us. It is like a retarded version of The Force. The stupid my friends, is something I encounter on a daily basis. Monday through Friday between the hours of 9am and 6pm I am bombarded by the stupid. It never fails to amaze me but just when I think I have spoken to the dumbest person on the planet, the next one calls in. Now to be fair, not every encounter of the day results in the stupid. I have had the pleasure of meeting and helping some of the nicest people in the world but that is about as rare as winning the lottery. Please, I wasn’t born yesterday and I can assure you the problems you are experiencing are most likely caused by you and not by our systems. Not to brag, but how is it that I have successfully set up dozens of my own emails accounts in Outlook and on various cell phones and have never once experienced failure but yet you complain that you have never gotten your email to work? Fuck me, I apologize for being so cynical but I’m not buying your story. The cause of the problem is this, You Are Stupid! OMG, did I just say that? Yes, you are a stupid motherfucker.

Okay, so now that I have that out of my system let me comment on another thing. Building a website is not easy. Or should I say that building even a remotely decent looking website is not easy. I’m sorry if the pretty advertisement told you how easy it would be to design a great looking website in an hour. You were lied to. Maybe you should have thought about this, you have trouble tying your own shoes so what made you think you could build a website. Our tools are not broken, you are. Another thing is this, the reason why you can’t find yourself on the search engines is because your website is shit. You can’t write a legible sentence much less a complete paragraph of relevant information and this is why Google has you sitting on page 5,295 of whatever keywords you typed in. And this is my fault how? Oh right, because you say it is. Alrighty, I’ll take responsibility for your failures. After all, I am the master of the universe.

Hey, hope you enjoy it. It is best served hot!

Day 94: Crash of the Titans

Mister Viddy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:36:17 +0000

I was turned on to another good site offering skills and tutorials for making the websites look spectre. I advise that you give them a peek, I think you’ll find something of interest.

SOHTANAKA

Cool, no?

Day 73 (Google and SEO)

Mister Viddy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:31:30 +0000

Well I dinged myself when I should have known better. Google does not like the fact that I have been use the phrase “A Post A Day” in each of my recent post a day posts. As I said, this little slip should have been apparent to me but I chose visuals over good SEO practices. So for now I am dropping the words “A Post A Day” from my post titles to see if that appeases the SEO gods. In general it has been interesting to see how the content of each post has helped rank the pages within the Google search engine.

People, if there is one thing that you have to remember is that it is crucial for you to always provide good, relevant content on your sites. Keywords alone are not going to do it for you. If you aren’t a natural writer then look online for tutorials that help teach you how to write content. It is not as difficult as you think and only requires a little bit of work and dedication on your part.

To help get your started I am going to direct you to the following sites which will help you understand search engine optimization and web content writing:

Website Content Writing Tips

Search Engine Optimization

Enjoy!

Day 70: A Post A Day (Website Layout Is Changing?)

Mister Viddy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:12:47 +0000

Aye, if and when I get off of my lazy ass I am planning on a slight change to the layout of I.Viddy. Nothing major as I really dig this current theme and do not have the time to do a complete redesign of the site. Or maybe I’ll just sit down at the table above, have several drinks and then procrastinate. It’s still a few months away from summer so I’m entitled.

Day 59: A Post A Day (All About Facebook)

Mister Viddy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:28:27 +0000

So this morning I finally got it. I had been hearing the moans and groans coming from people regarding the new Facebook redesign. Today it was my turn to experience the new look of Facebook and just like so many others, I do not like it. I get it, somebody over at Facebook decided that it was time to freshen things up but I just don’t get it. This new look does not really inspire me and it certainly does not make Facebook any easier for me to use.

And then I found myself running and running and I didn’t know why I was running and I was too frightened to look over my shoulder to see if I was being chased so I just kept on running and running. I must have been running for miles because eventually I came to a cliff that was overlooking the ocean. And on the edge of the cliff was this old wooden shack and there was smoke rising from the chimney. So I had to turn around and keep running and running. After a short while I then found myself standing in line at Costco and I couldn’t figure out how I ended up in this line. It was a long line and everyone in front of me was using coupons so I panicked but I didn’t start running again. This time I decided to order a quad espresso from Starbucks and then I came home and wrote this post.

Looking back on this, I can’t even be certain that I was actually running. It may have all taken place inside of my head but I’m kind of tired right now so I don’t want to dwell on the past.

Day 23: A Post A Day (Website Building Tips For Dummy Heads)

Mister Viddy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:54:16 +0000

Wait, somebody told you that building a website was easy? And you fell for it? Now that the damage is done and you have come to the realization that you have gotten in way over your head let me give you a few tips that will help you learn the basics of website design.

Ok, I was kidding. You are hosed. That burning feeling, it’s the stupid. If you’re in luck then you can cancel your web hosting account and get your money back. If not, then you are really fucked. Seriously. You must have known that it was too good to be true. How can designing a website be easy when you don’t even know what HTML stands for. I hate to break it to you but the only way you are going to have a decent looking website is to pay someone to design it for you. Reality bites.

Let’s be real. Before you even consider trying to build your own website maybe you should start with something easy like learning the difference between the address bar and the search bar in your browser. And that is another thing. Do you even know what a browser is? Exactly. I cannot stress this enough, you DO NOT WANT TO DESIGN YOUR OWN WEBSITE! It will only bring you misery. And, by some stroke of pure luck, you do manage to put together a few, very poorly designed web pages the next thing you will experience is the agonizing reality that you’ll never turn up in any of the search engines. Listen to me folks, I am an expert. You do not want this much misery in your life.

If I can persuade even one person to not design their own website then I feel that I have helped make one life better.

Internet Explorer (all versions) Sucks Ass

Mister Viddy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:40:13 +0000

The image above shows you why all versions of Internet Explorer suck ass. Internet Explorer is such a dumb and buggy browser that it cannot interpret the CSS behind this WordPress theme. If you view my site in Firefox, Chrome or Safari then you would see that the contents below the sidebar headings should be displayed in a gray box that should align directly below the heading graphic. But the screenshot I have shown you is from this same site viewed in Internet Explorer 8. There is an obvious difference. And this issue is not just with Internet Explorer 8 but will most versions of Internet Explorer. It is a real pain in the ass for anyone who designs websites. And because Internet Explorer is the dominant browser we all take it in the ass.

I could tweek the layout of this theme and try to correct for it but I rarely view anything in Internet Explorer and the rest of the world can just deal with it. Luckily this little imperfection with my sidebar is not as bad as some pages I have designed in the past and I’m not that motivated at the moment to try and correct for it. It would just be nice if Microsoft would do a better job with the browser that they force down peoples throats.