Archive for May, 2010
May 27th, 2010 | 
Author: Introduction
When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the very many processes involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.
I have a friend who is in the business of web design and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what I wanted to achieve.
I had no idea about the various aspects and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learned about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process and I have asked my friend to supply the technical information for this article.
Stages in the Process
Target Audience
Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my potential audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on?
The objective of the website
Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell products on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for possible customers? Maybe I would want to use it as an online brochure to showcase products. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussion and being supported by advertising on the site.
I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful planning went into the preparation before building a website.
How to be Found on the Web
One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. Generally most users only look at the top ten results so you will also want to promote your website to get on this page for your chosen keywords. By using a keyword research tool you can find the single most popular keyword for your industry.
Your Domain Name
Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have already been registered.
So looking at names with endings such as .net; .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you want.
We weren’t lucky enough to have the keyword in our trading name but the keyword timber treatment in the domain happened once we identified our major products and services, but if you are registering a domain name now try to find one that contains one of your keywords.
When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.
Creating a Site Map
As with any project you must have a plan, the better the plan the better the project turns out. A site map for a web site is part of the plan for the site. The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.
The aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website. For that reason often user name and passwordz are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register.
For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding spam.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site.
Copy
The next stage is preparing the content. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.Having gathered all the previous information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words.For each image you could also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation.
Navigation
Another important aspect when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works.
Website Design
Finally we come to the design of your website. As everyone is different the creation of SEO artworks design visuals can be difficult because people have different tastes.
What one person might like, another person might not like. If you are setting up a website for yourself alone then you will probably have some idea of what you want to see on the site. But if, as so often happens, the website is for a large corporation there will be inputs from many people or departments and you can be sure that they will never all agree!
There are a number of ways to approach website design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for.
The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware – not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style.
If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the preferred graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.
The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before construction of the site begins.
Production
Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be constructed. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has pros and cons. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.
Accessibility and Compliance
The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a Braille web browser.
Website Development
The best way to develop a website is on the web Server where the site is going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide comments throughout the development.
Unforeseen items
There are always some things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web designer prepares and asks the right questions, there will always be a last minute change or addition. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the web site going live.
Going live
The moment of excitement comes when your site finally gets launched and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process. After all the hard work it was great to get our website launched. Who would have thought so much work would have to go into a little old Luxury Hotels in Brighton website.
Reporting and Monitoring
Once your website is up and running, you might like to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.
Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is not reachable. Google Analytics doesn’t yet provide a comparable uptime monitoring service, maybe they just decided it was too much of a headache as it is an intensive service checking a website every 5 minutes to make sure it is still responding and indeed web-stat do promote this difference as one of their unique selling points but it is pretty hard to compete with free. In fact Google Analytics is not quite free, which makes it an even better marketing decision for Google because sometimes it is harder to give things away for free than it is to sell them! Google Analytics is a free service available to Google AdWords advertisers, you don’t actually have to have any AdWords campaigns running but it will cost you a one-time activation fee of £5 (or similar in your local currency) to open your AdWords account, but once you have done that you can go on to use Google Analytics for as many websites as you like.
Marketing
Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your designer about SEO
Conclusion
Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer buff, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article will give readers an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.
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Ordinarilly, more and more latest innovations of age defying treatments are being advertised in the media, catalogues and on numerous websites. Later, upon buying and using, you tend to end up with you attaining simply no positive effects at all, and worst, could result having various skin hassle such as allergies.
Before opting to purchase any brand of various best anti wrinkle cream product, it’s very vital to determine what you are sensitive of. Say you don’t know which ingredients you would be allergic to, you should seek a physician’s help to offer you the information on ways to discover the most effective anti aging cream for your wrinkles.
In choosing the best anti wrinkle cream product, it is also worthwhile for you to verify that all or most of the contents are natural so that its tendency for one to have an allergic effect is minimized or evaded.
The best anti wrinkle cream product contains minerals and components to aid renew the skin’s moisture and firmness. Furthermore, aim for substances particularly peptides, anti-oxidants, zinc, keratin, and vitamins A, C, D and E which are all capable to boost skin combat the wrinkles.
After buying the best anti wrinkle cream product, ensure that you have verified all of the directions if you wish to experience the best probable effects. And likewise, make sure to massage your skin every time you’re applying a wrinkle cream. This is the most ideal way to use the anti wrinkle cream effectively.
Here is an interesting review site which reveals some interest facts your should be aware of before ordering it: Dermajuv Coupon Code.
There are a multitude of reasons why women lose their hair. Some experience loss when they are young, others with the passage of time and when approaching, or going through, menopause they can discover the scary clumps of hair in the shower. Aggressive cancer treatments also cause hair to fall out and other reasons range from hereditary hair loss, hormone imbalances, thyroid disorders and pregnancy to harsh hair dyes, bleaches and nutrition. It is heartening to know that there are many hair growth products on the market but confusing to know which ones are the best hair growth products for women.
Testosterone is present in both men and women, and it has been found responsible for hair loss in many situations due to depletion of the hair follicles. After menopause, estrogen levels in women rise, which leads to the production of testosterone. This explains why so many women experience hair loss after menopause. This is precisely why a DHT Blocker is so useful.
Among one of the best hair growth products for women available is Revivogen™, which uses what is known as a Transmerol Follicular Delivery System™ (TFDS) which delivers its active components to the hair follicle. TFDS™ employs liposomes and natural oil derivatives which sink deep into the scalp to the hair follicle where it nurtures the follicle thus aiding hair regrowth.
Another choice in the best hair growth products for women jungle is Nanogen. This is a formulation of keratin, laser cut into miniscule fibers, nanofibers, which are dyed, coated and enhance the retention of an electrostatic charge. It is then packed into containers which stimulate static charging whenever shaken. It is used by simply shaking the container over the thinning hair area releasing thousands of microscopic hair fibers which increase the volume of the thinning hair by intertwining and branching out the existing hair.
This may appear to be an instant fix for female pattern baldness. The affected areas will be filled out with hair immediately, but understand that this is by no means a permanent solution. This product is typically used when waiting for other products to take effect, so don’t rely on it!
Women will also be glad to know that there are products like Provillus that work from the inside out. It is loaded with nutrients and vitamins that will greatly help in strengthening the hair follicles.
Provillus™ contains Magnesium, Biotin and Vitamin B6 – already beneficial in the immune system, skin, nail growth, digestion and healthy red blood cells departments. Provillus™ uses a blend of botanicals for nourishing skin, hair and nails. Horsetail, a herb used in ancient Rome and Greece and much praised by both North American Indian and Asian Indian cultures for its rejuvenatory properties is a key ingredient in this hair regrowth product.
You will also find Monoxidil with in Proviullus, and it is an FDA approved ingredient that revitalizes hair. Proviullus is packed with ingredients that will help with hair loss, and if that hasn’t convinced you, then you might be swayed by the two month free supply and the six month money back guarantee. Ready to take back your life? Take Provillus.
Please keep in mind that you should always consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.
Mutual funds are among the most significant investing tools available. Nonetheless, selecting the right mutual funds isn’t an effortless job because they vary in a lot of various attributes, such as asset size, turnover rate and fees structure, etc. These things could impact fund returns. It’s thus crucial to interpret the relation between fund performance and these attributes.
Mutual fund performance could be calculated over a number of distinguishable time frames. The investor views a prospective mutual fund’s history of earnings as a road map to what may take place tomorrow. Prior to investing in any portfolio a future investor must study the portfolio’s investment targets and policies, fees, expenses, and risks.
Over the last thirty years it has been determined that there’s no dependable way to know if recent higher-ranking managers will succeed again in the future. This is why you may see the disclaimer “past performance is no guarantee of future results” appear in each mutual fund ad and prospectus.
Financial experts establish numerous grounds why previous performance is no warranty of future outcomes. The just about oftentimes mentioned is that any spectacular track record delivered by a money director is the consequence of the market favoring his specific investing manner. One logical implication of this is that any such performance is completely unpredictable because such unspoiled luck may or may not continue. As market payoffs are related to risk factors (not to directors), there’s no rationality to anticipate that one manager will execute better than some other.
The performance yields cited by funds constitute past performance and don’t ensure future results. The investment payoff and primary value of an investment in the mutual funds will fluctuate over time. So when shares are redeemed, they could be worth more or less than their initial cost.
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So you want to get your online business up and running but there’s one little problem – you need a website! For any business, big or small, a professional website is important if you want to attract potential clients or customers and create a solid foundation for continued success. But many people have no idea how to go about the process. Luckily, it’s actually quite easy to get a functional, well designed and user-friendly website online in a reasonable amount of time. And depending on your particular situation and budget, there are several options available to make your business goals a reality.
Spending a lot of money right at the beginning of your venture may seem a little risky, but compared to other business endeavors the cost – and risk – are minimal. And the amount of money you have the potential to make after your site goes live will far outweigh the amount of money initially invested in its construction. Also, if you expect a professional job, hiring a professional is the best way to attain that objective.
If you don’t have the money to spend on a good web designer or feel it’s unnecessary for your purposes, there’s no reason why you can’t create the website yourself. And this option applies to everyone – even if you know nothing about HTML or web design. Of course, if you do know a little bit of HTML – or are willing to put your nose to the grindstone and scour the Internet and your local library to learn HTML – you can certainly build a website from scratch. But nowadays there are other ways to make your own business website without struggling with HTML or a costly designer.
The final option is to use an online website builder to do the job. This type of program holds your hand every step of the way so that you can build a website without knowing anything about computer languages or design techniques. Even if you use a WYSIWYG editor it is possible to get lost along the way, and as mentioned above, templates do require editing after you make the purchase. A website builder is the only option that essentially automates the entire process. You might not be able to customize every aspect of the site, as templates are usually part of the procedure, but adding content, pictures, charts and tables to the site is made entirely hassle-free.
As you can see, there are many different ways to build a website from the ground up. In the end, choose the option you think will lead you down the path toward online success and you’ll be happy with the results.
A lot of people own timeshares. These people invest their money on timeshares since they will be able to visit various vacation rentals, and take their family and close friends along. If you do not own timeshares and you would like to rescue some money, you should buy a timeshare. You will earn a lot by getting them since their owners sell them at a lesser price compared to the amount that you will spend should you go to the vacation resort directly. Since summer season is coming, you should get as many as timeshares as you may and bring your family members to a brand new resort.
As for those that have timeshares and want to earn revenue, selling a timeshare is what they should do. In case you have one, then you should promote it by posting it on the web. Individuals market their timeshares by the World Wide Web simply because there are more individuals who check the web for the items that they like. You should not limit yourself by selling them to family and friends only. Your marketplace is surely so much bigger should you post it on the internet.
You must not misuse time. Thus, go and take benefit of the timeshare which you have. You’ll be able to sell it at any price which you wish and wait for someone to buy it. If you are a buyer, you must try to search for them on the web because it’s where you will see lots of them. It is possible to choose any that you like for there is a wide array of them.
If you are a Canadian homebuyer or home owner – at any stage in your mortgages life – then it feel s like everybody wants a piece of you. This fact should not surprise you considering that almost every home has a mortgage .
Mortgages always big business. Everybody wants a piece of the pie. They will temp you with low rates, or tease you with special promotions. How can you eliminate the hype? What you want is a sensible mortgage that is going to make long term financial sense. You would expect it would not be a lot to ask for, but where can you turn to get accurate advice. The banks say they have the answer, while the mortgage broker will for sure tell you otherwise. Trying to be a smart mortgage buyer can sometimes be overwhelming.
Here is the most important tip: Find yourself a Mortgage Planner. Not just a broker or a mortgage rep from a bank. Why would you want a Ethical Mortgage Planner ? Because in an industry with huge range of expertise the mortgage planner is the one person with the most experience and they can help you pick to fit your big financial picture.
In the 1970 mortgage brokers were primarily considered the last resort financing. Over time they took on more of a educational role so that customers could find the best rates. They also began to provide information in the market place on how to become mortgage free faster or providing help arranging client’s debt to focus on the creation of wealth.
Kelleway Mortgage Architects is a mortgage planner that provides expert advice on all matters related to mortgages. They maintain the highest professional standards while ensuring the strictest ethical standards. Kelleway Mortgage Architects do not focus only on the lending rates , but they also consider such factors critical to mortgages like repayment options, market trends and always ensuring that they do not conflict with long term goals
Q: Can you train cats?
A: Yes, training a cat is not as tough as many owners take for granted it is. Cats probably are not as amenable to training as Spot or Champ are but they can be trained. Food rewards offered as positive reinforcement is assuredly the primary route to train a cat.
Q: Why and how do kitties make a purring sound?
A: Adult kitties purr because they are happy and contented and to play on the emotions of humans — Can you resist a purring cat? Kittens purr in response to their mother cat’s purr to help bond them. It is mostly assumed that the purring is a vibration of the vocal chords as air is pushed though it. It is also believed that purring is a voluntary action.
Q: What makes a number of folks are allergic to cats?
A: Cat allergies are caused by the proteins in cat dander coming from the cat’s saliva. The dander dries and becomes airborne. People with cat allergies have a reaction because their immune system is trying to combat the alien protein and creates histamines.
Q: How do you stop undesirable cat behavior such as biting?
A: The best way to curtail undesirable cat behavior is the same way the mother cat controls an errant kitten. This is by scuffing the cat. You firmly but gently grasp the cat by the scruff of the neck and hold it down until it calms down. You should do this at the time of the bad behavior.
Q: How do you litter train a cat?
A: You really shouldn’t need to do any training for a cat to make use of a litter pan, but if your adult cat has started to avoid the litter box you need to find out why. The cat may have a urinary tract infection in which case you need to go to the vet. If it is just too dirty you need to keep it cleaner. If you have started using litter you may have to change back or sprinkle a little catnip in the litter to attract the cat to the new litter.
Q: How do you keep cats off counters?
A: This is one of the most asked about cat behavior issues and can be a tough one. Cats like elevated places and they may find food or food smells on counters and tables. It is best to keep the surfaces clean and to use something like foil or double sided tape to keep cats off the tables.
Having been amongst the first to purchase the Dell 910 Mini I wanted to share my experience with others that might be thinking about acquiring this item or one of the other sub-notebook or ‘netbooks’ as they have become known. I manage a web design agency and I’ve been considering the idea of acquiring myself a more lightweight laptop as my old Dell Inspiron from 2003 is as heavy as a brick.
Shortly after having retired the old Dell to my girlfriends house (I couldn’t face lugging it back and forwards any longer so it just lives there now, I might well do the same with myself one of these days soon!) it stopped charging and wouldn’t run from the mains, so eventually when I gave it to my tech to repair he found out that it was one of the known faulty models, the 5150 which developed a problem with the motherboard overheating after prolonged use, this I found out about 2 years after they stopped replacing them as part of a class action lawsuit, shame I’m two years too late to get it replaced for free!
Ah well what’s 150 quid for a factory refurbished Motherboard off ebay, compared with years of loyal service in spite of being dropped a couple of times, spat on repeatedly, eaten over and all manner of other not recommended usage styles! I even used to have it hooked up to my TV via the onboard S-VHS port and watch films on it, so it has seen some action, oh yes!
However, this was all inspired by my step dad who just took delivery of top of the range Toshiba Portege at around £1,200, but he’s at that time in life where 1,200 quid is affordable, where as I’m still in financial recovery from my last divorce (yes there was more than one!)! So I stumbled across the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini on the Dell website whilst looking at specs of notebooks for a customer, and there it was £299 inc VAT and delivery. What a bargain I thought! (If you are reading this three years after I wrote it and they are now giving them away free on the front of Corn Flake packets then I will be even more gutted, or maybe I’ll just get one for all the family!)
Anyway there I was flexible friend at the ready, wrist twitching ready to make a purchase, but wait a minute I thought, why am I buying this, do I really need it? No, I don’t NEED it I just WANT ONE ! So then some sensibility came over me and I put my credit card away, feeling all smug with myself at having managed to resist an impulse purchase!
However, the following day my step Father needs me to investigate his new machine because he can’t get the printer to work and can’t get it to see the other machines on our network(this job for me, comes with the territory! ) So I have to genuinely work on this ultra lightweight Toshiba, wow I’m amazed at how small it is, especially when compared with my old Dell 5150! I wish I could afford one of these I thought! I noticed he didn’t have my prescribed security software set up though. To have internet security experts use Avast Anti Virus and Spybot Search& Destroy, which as well as being zero cost, are just fantastic software programs.
The next day I had to go to a customers and as it was first thing in the morning I went straight from my girlfriends house and took the old 5150 with me (which gives me a great excuse to call in on my way back and drop it off, coincidentally around about lunchtime when there might be the chance of a ham, cheese and salad sandwich on the go! ) So anyway, I about put my back out trying to put this incredibly heavy laptop in the car passenger foot well whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat! One of those ‘put your back out’ manoeuvres. So having experienced the new lightweight machines first hand, and realised I do have a genuine requirement for the new Dell Inspiron mini after all, weighing in at around 1kg, you know I planned to get that credit card out again as soon as possible!
So as I had a management meeting that afternoon I informed my Finance Manager I would be ordering one and that was that. It was Friday October 3rd when I placed the order on the Dell website, and on the 8th I got back from a customer meeting to find a tiny cardboard box on my desk with the Dell log on the side, I thought that it couldn’t possibly be the new mini as the confirmation email I got said it would be delivered on or around the 20th October, but sure enough it really had arrived! Just a 5 day turn around, wow!
So I’m like a kid in a sweet shop thinking “best day ever” (See Heroes Season 3), I was ecstatic and carefully unpacked it, tossing instructions and disks to one side, “read those later” I thought. I got it out and started setting it up straight away, you know remove Tiscali Free Trial and all the other junk software these things come with these days.
As it has an integrated web cam I also downloaded Windows Live Messenger and had a quick video call with my girlfriend whilst she was doing her house work, superb! What a great bit of kit!So next I Googled ‘mobile broadband suppliers’ and toyed with ordering the USB dongle from Three, as their 5GB monthly allowance is only 15 quid a month so the best looking deal, providing those coverage stories you hear about Three Mobile are not really the case! (Update: Yes the coverage is lousy in all the areas I want to use it, even at my desk I have to connect the dongle to a USB cable and hang it from my roof to get 1 bar signal strength, ridiculous buy another brand!) Current suggestion is for an O2 dongle as they have good coverage and a good backbone speed.
Anyway, it was soon time to go and pick up my daughter from school so I thought yeah I’ll take it with me and even though I don’t have the mobile broadband USB Modem yet I can continue setting it up in car park if I’m early. I was early, so I turned it on, it said:
Windows could not start because of an error in the software.
Please report this problem as :
load needed DLLs for kernel.
Please contact your support person to report this problem
As we say in England from the popular Catherine Tate sketch “Computer says no…”
Ah dear, it was great fun whilst it lasted, all of about 2 and a half minutes!Then followed a two and a half hour telethon with Dell support in India 
Apparently they were so quick to ship it to me that my service tag isn’t on their system yet. Service Tag? What does that have to do with it not booting up?
I couldn’t understand why they simply refused to send me a replacement until they could look the service tag up! I was so annoyed with them, you could maybe understand if it was something complicated, for example server virtualization but it’s just brand new Dell 910 mini laptop which won’t boot up, ridiculous!)
They suggested I called back in 24-48 hours, well I told them exactly what I thought of their suggestion as I’m sure you can image, but to no avail. I did indeed have to call back today and they have agreed to send me a replacement unit as it is within 7 days of delivery.
I hope the replacement arrives as promptly as the original unit did…
So conclusion? Apart from the fact it doesn’t work (a faulty drive in my opinion) and for the life of me I can’t get it to boot from an external drive or USB key (it doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive you know) it feels really solid, looks lovely, and is nice to handle (sounds a bit like the ideal companion to an i-phone 2.0 doesn’t it!).
Like most reviewers have experienced, the keys are small (but blackberry users manage and they are larger than those keys) and the right shift key is tiny and means you can’t type an @ in the usual fashion. But the screen is nice, 3 USB slots, a monitor connector, Ethernet and earphones and mic connectors although it has both speakers and mic internally so you can video conference without having to plug anything in.
On the whole, I would recommend it, providing you get one that works ! I am also yet to try it with LogMeIn which is my preferred way of dealing with how to access emails, lots of passwords, specialist software and all that kind of thing when you are out and about. Possibly the screen is going to be too small to be able to work with for extended periods of time, but I’ll let you know when the replacement arrives and I have had chance to give it a proper testing, assuming that one doesn’t break on me as soon as I start urm ‘configuring’ it!
Further Update: So I have had the Dell Mini for about erm, wow nearly a year now! It would never work with LogMeIn over the 3 dongle. To be fair Three were very helpful, until we took the dongle out and used it in another one of my computers and were able to connect on LogMeIn without any problems, at this point they referred me to Dell, at which point I lost interest!
It is all to do with one of the browser settings, not remembering itself when you select the check box and hit OK. I can’t remember which one it was now, and maybe ie 8 will have fixed the problem or it might work on Mozilla browser instead, I just never got round to trying to sort it out again and tend to use the Mini more now to read the news in bed with my cup of tea in the morning.
It is too fiddly to use for really extended periods but it is great for checking your email when you’re out and about, or for a quick impulse surf when you’re watching tv and you want to remind yourself what other films that actor or actress was in for example!I’ve yet to connect it to one of my external lcd monitors but I guess it would work just as well as any other pc then.
It’s a great little machine though and also works quite well down the pub, because I can actually fit it in the pocket of my big coat, and that is proper cool, except it doesn’t like beer puddles much so I tend to avoid taking it most of the time, unless I know I’m going to need to log on, but then the pub has got a sexy new Mac which is already covered in beer so I prefer to use that (any excuse to get behind the bar really!)What is so magical about being able to go behind the bar at your local anyway? I suspect if I actually worked there it would soon wear off!
In summary though it has not had any hardware problems since the initial replacement was received. On the whole I have found that Dell kit tends to be pretty reliable anyway, especially when you are dealing with the more business based items whereas this is obviously more consumer focussed. With a Dell if they are going to go wrong they will usually do so within the first six months of use and generally after that they will keep going until recommended service intervals such as changing the disks after a couple of years and that kind of thing, assuming you continue to use them in the same fashion throughout their life spans.
It should be pointed out though that these mini Dell laptops/netbooks, call them what you will, do not having a regular hard disk drive inside them. A normal hard drive has a disk inside it that physically spins round and a ‘head’ which moves backwards and forwards over the sectors quite like the relationship between the stylus and the tracks on an old fashion vinyl record(which being 40 next year I do remember from my childhood)!
The storage within the Dell mini, and other netbooks too I should image, are solid state, that is to say they are rather like USB flash drives or memory keys. In fact I think from a picture I saw they look more like RAM memory chips all joined together than a single physical device. The advantage of using solid state memory over traditional hard drives is that they use less power, they are not as heavy and they are quieter. Much quieter. If you’re like me you will have noticed how computers have got a lot noisier over the last 10 years, as they have got more powerful.
My netbook is blissfully quiet in comparison to any of my other computers, desktops or laptops. Although if you are auditorily hyper-sensitive to sound like I am then you can notice a very slight hum or whine when you request a program that requires it to access the hard drive. Most people probably won’t notice this but if you are familiar with the faint hum from your mobile phone charger or other devices of that ilk that transform power from one state to another then you might know what I am talking about. It certainly isn’t a problem though, although the power adapter for the machine itself does make some odd noises if you listen to it closely.
My favourite aspect of this machine is that in some it elicits the same response as having a small puppy or kitten out and about with you, especially down the pub where if you get it out to a bunch of girls you can hear the ooh and ahhh’s of girls who think something is cute! That is priceless!
Inside the solid state, the titanium alloys would be arranged in either hexagonal close-packed (alpha) or body-centered cubic (beta) framework. Pure titanium undergoes an allotropic transformation from hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alpha titanium to body-centered cubic (BCC) beta titanium as its heat is raised through 882 C (1620 F). The melting stage of pure titanium is 1668 C (3034 F) and titanium parts. Aluminum could be the most broadly utilized alloying aspect in titanium-based alloys. It’s the only common metal that raises the beta transus temperature and have absolutely big solubilities in each the alpha and beta stages.
Elements such as aluminum, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, gallium, germanium, lanthanum, and cerium stabilize the alpha phase to greater temperature and so are thus often called alpha stabilizers.
In common, transition metals and noble metals (i.e., metals which, like titanium, have unfilled or just-filled d-electron bands) are usually stabilizers of the beta stage to reduced temperatures and so are therefore often called beta stabilizers.
Beta stabilizers are usually subdivided into two groups: beta-isomorphous (e.g. vanadium, niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and rhenium) and beta-eutectoid (e.g., copper, silver, gold, palladium, indium, lead, bismuth, chromium, tungsten, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, uranium, hydrogen, and silicon).
Vanadium, molybdenum, and niobium have been one of the most frequently applied beta-isomorphous developing things in titanium-based alloys. These components, when added in adequate concentrations, can stabilize the beta phase to room heat. Tantalum and rhenium, which can be also beta-isomorphous developing things, have been rarely utilized, mainly due to their higher densities.
Chromium, iron, and silicon will most certainly be the only beta-eutectoid forming aspects which are normally applied in many titanium-based alloys and titanium.
Zirconium, hafnium, and tin type a group of alloying aspects known as neutral additions. These 3 things are usually occasionally classified as beta stabilizers, because they depress the beta transus temperatures (albeit only slightly) within their particular binary stage diagrams with titanium. Zirconium and hafnium really are isomorphous with titanium and exhibit the identical beta to alpha allotropic phase transformations. Those two elements have complete solubilities from the alpha and beta stages of titanium. Tin can be a beta-eutectoid forming component and its effect on the beta transus temperature is negligible for all useful requirements.