Hightide Web Resources Articles, News, and Reviews

Read what happens when Google parties: Keeping enemies close at the Google Dance

Google Sitemaps is a simple and fast way for your site to be constantly indexed and updated by Google.

This article will discuss the benefits of implementing this new technology, who should use it, how it works and how to create a Google Sitemap for your web site. More…

by: Jesse S. Somer

‘Bad blogs have got to go, blogging could be really cool if done properly, maybe even with a pinch of love.’

There’s a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don’t entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them ‘good’ blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. So let’s look at the problem like we were children. Children don’t complicate life with miscellaneous information, and when they speak they tell you straight to the point exactly how they feel and think about a subject.

First of all, we should ask the questions,” Why do blogs exist? And what are they here for?” Well, in an ideal world ‘good’ blogs would help people connect, sharing knowledge and feelings about issues in life. As they are journals written by individuals we would hope that they’d be readable and open to comment by all other people, not just a select group of friends. The key is speaking in a way that is understandable by the masses, get rid of acronyms and local slang that only few will comprehend. Keep the sentences grammatically simple and generally short and concise.

Try to write in your blog as often as possible because if people enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas they’ll want to communicate or at least be filled in regularly on ‘your world’. Ask questions, comment on other blogs of similar content, start communities with others you’ve never met, based on your interests. Keep focused; if your blog is about thoughts on war and peace, keep your thoughts on the latest movie and how hungry you are for somewhere else. The idea is to incite intelligent communication so that in time our collective stockpile of knowledge and wisdom will gradually grow like a tree in fertile soil.

I think of most importance is the fact that you want this journal to be ‘good’ reading. Of course we all have ideas about what genres and styles we like, but writing from your heart and soul is imperative for the connection with others that you’re looking for. Share yourself; don’t hide behind walls of fear of ridicule and judgment. In real life relationships trust, respect, intimacy, and unity are all necessary for a bond to form. It’s the same in the ‘virtual’ world; people want to hear from real people-not just one-sided, highly opinionated arguments from egos that don’t want to hear the ‘other side of the coin’.

Now, in my last article I really tore apart most writers out there, and here I’m giving some pretty complex ideas on how to fix the problem of ‘bad’ writing. In my next article I’ll attempt to go back to the simple basics of how to write for beginners. I hope I haven’t come across as too judgmental, I just truly believe the ‘blog world’ could become a real asset to humanity, and at the moment it’s missing the mark.

Ideas about sentence structure, grammar, paragraphing, using a thesaurus (varying terms used so as not to sound repetitive), whether or not your blog is suitable for a personal or professional approach, are all important to creating a simple and enjoyable read for the blogging visitor. If you are a beginner, please check out my next article on the basics.

By Jesse S. Somer

Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver aren’t the only HTML editors on the market. In fact, niche HTML editors from various independent developer offer a number of advantages over the big boys.

SiteSpinner

SiteSpinner is a user-friendly web site development tool that includes many advanced features such as drag-and-drop positioning, built in FTP to publish directly to your web site, an image editor and graphics creation all in one. With SiteSpinner, objects can be placed wherever you want them with your mouse. Not only that, you can place objects so they are always centered, or automatically scale to fit your visitors browser. The Text Editor works like a word processor, allowing you to change font, size and color. Add links and spell-check your work. Add titles and you have a professional page. The drag-and-drop Table Editor lets you quickly organize your information. Text, pictures, or any object can easily be dragged into position, and your table’s properties can be set the way you want them.

Full review posted at
http://www.deprice.com/sitespinner.htm

NoteTab Pro

NoteTab Pro is a leading-edge text editor and HTML coding tool, and an ideal Notepad replacement. Winner of top shareware industry awards since 1998, this elegant application does it all: you can handle multiple large files with a simple tabbed interface, use a spell-checker and thesaurus, format text, use multiple undo, and bookmark documents. You can build templates, use powerful system-wide searches, and do global multi-line replacements.

Full review posted at
http://www.deprice.com/notetabpro.htm

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

The CoffeeCup HTML Editor is 2 Editors in 1. If you know HTML or want to learn more use the powerful and easy Code Editor that has set the standard since 1996. To make pages fast, or without knowing HTML use the drag and drop WYSIWYG Visual Editor. You can also go back and forth between the Code and Visual Editors to create remarkable Websites in a snap. CoffeeCup comes with more than 100 DHTML & Javascripts, a DHTML Menu wizard, 25,000 Graphics and Photos including over 1,000 XP Style Icons and access to over 500 Free Website Templates. It also has Built-in FTP Uploading and easy to use Table, Frame, Font, and Form Designers.

Full review posted at http://www.deprice.com/coffeecuphtmleditor.htm

CodeLock 2.0

Codelock encrypts PHP and any HTML generated by your PHP scripts.
You can password protect your scripts, create an expiry time or unlock key, lock to IP or URL and more. The Encryptor software works with any install of PHP4.x or better. Requires no additional software to be installed (on your server or on your clients server) - Codelock V2 is ISP friendly. Works both on your ‘localhost’ server OR online via HTTP Works on Linux, Windows and FreeBSD operating systems. Requires no changes to the web server (with default PHP installation). Works in PHP safe mode and with globals off (except when encrypting from zip files). Encrypts PHP or HTML files (including HTML or javascript embedded into PHP). Encrypts HTML web pages as an added extra Offers ZLIB compression as part of the encryption. Your PHP pages can be compressed to approximately 1/3 of their file size.

Full review available at
http://www.deprice.com/codelock.htm

By: David D. Deprice