E-Cigarette (electronic cigarette) – a review

OK so, I know it’s bad.. I have been a heave smoker (a small pack a day) for over 15 years.. I have tried to quit on several occasions, tried the gun, patches, cold turkey, and it hasn’t worked to bad. I think my issue is more psychological than the addition to them (i think of smoking as a way to relax and take a break to think out a problem in my head when I a programming..

My smoking habit comes from my past D.J days working in the bars and clubs in the 90’s and early 2000’s. I would smoke a lot then while spinning the tunes. I would throw on a tune, (12″ mixes back in those days) then i have anywhere from 5-10 min. to wait until it’s time to mix in the next track, so i would often have a beer, light up and enjoy.

Anyways a few weeks ago, a friend of mine had one of those electronic cigarettes (or e-smokes, e-cigarettes) as they are often called. He had been using it for just over a month, and was very happy about it. They claim to be a healthier alternative to smoking, as they have no tar, no carcinogens, or the other 2000+ other bad things related to lighting up a tobacco cigarette.

Anyways, I asked him where to get one, and he passed on a few places they can be found here in Canada. (there are a lot of U.S and over seas places that sell them, but i would  rather buy domestic, as it could be problems with customs).. There are a few places that do sell them here in Canada, although their stock of them is rather limited at times, due to high demand, combined with the fact that they can only be imported right now in small quantities from over seas where they are manufactured.

Anyways so I ended up buying a “starter kit” from a site called http://www.e-cigarettescanada.com. It cost me about 95 bucks with shipping for my electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) kit. I got it about 6 days later via post. The unit i bought is called the “Super Cigarette” and it’s supposed to be one of the newest models on the market. It claims to have advanced atomizer technology and higher quality batteries that last longer (the unit recharges). The kit came with 2 of the “battery” parts, 5 sample “cartridges” , a charger and a manual, all packaged in a nice blue case with a magnetic flap to keep it closed. (a nice touch).

One nice thing was the batteries already had a partial charge in them, so I could try the unit right away. (probably from factory testing of the units). Anyways I gave the instructions a quick read  (gotta love “chinglish” hehehe) screwed in one of the provided cartridges (used one of the high nicotine ones) and gave it a try.

I was actually presently surprised. The taste, although a little “sweeter” did have a “tobacco” taste to it. It did give me a little of the “nicotine burn” like you get like when using the nicotine  gum.. but the medium and low strength ones were not as noticeable for that. The smoke from the unit was thick and very white. It had no real smell to it, just a slight “sweet smell”. I was actually pretty impressed with this unit. (not that I  have had other ones to compare it to mind you). The electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) itself was just a touch longer and thicker then my normal ones, and just a touch heavier, but i got used to that fairly quickly.

My plan is to get some of the medium and light, then non nicotine refills (the refills screw onto the battery part, and are colored brown to look like the filter of a normal cigarette). What i will do is use the medium, then low, then non nicotine versions of the e-cigarettes refills to gradually wean myself from the nicotine (much like i would with the different strengths of a patch).. until eventually I’m using the non nicotine version. Then i can decide if i want to quit all together, or keep using the electronic cigarettes to keep my “psychological” cravings in check.

Anyways as of writing this, i have been using my new electronic cigarette for about 5 days now, and have not had a real smoke in that time, so far im pretty happy… and time will tell how it goes from here. I will post a new update maybe in a month for those who want to know how it’s coming. If anyone is interested in one, I got mine from http://www.e-cigarettescanada.com located in Toronto.

Protecting your WordPress Site from Exploits and Hackers

WordPress itself is fairly secure in it’s more recent versions, but there are still some ways you can “sure” up your WordPress site a little to to help avoid malicious scripts being injected by hackers, admin being hacked and other bad things that could potentially happen.

Today I am going to mentioned a few extra steps you can take to secure your WordPress site a little more.

1) Add a directory password to your wp-admin directory

this is one of the best ways to ensure no hackers gain access to the back end of your WordPress site. Yes it is a little bit of a pain for you or your site admins to have to enter in the login for both the directory and then the WordPress admin login, but this simple step adds an extra layer of security. If your hosting runs Cpanel, it’s very easy to do via Cpanel

http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/cpanel/pass_protected_directories.htm

2) Limit Admin Login Attempts

another step i suggest is to install the Limit Login Attempts plug-in for WordPress. This module sets a limit to the number of times an admin account can be attempted to log in, then blocks access to the person for a period of time. This is a great way to stop brute force attacks to try to get access to your admin for WordPress.

http://devel.kostdoktorn.se/limit-login-attempts

3) Use a word press scanner and security checking plug-ins

There are several WordPress “exploit” and “security” scanners that can scan your site files for malicious code injected by a hacker, as well as give you security reports on your site and how to fix them.

Secure Wordpress: http://bueltge.de/wordpress-login-sicherheit-plugin/652/ is one that i use that i find very helpful in securing the site.

• Little help to secure your WordPress installation: Remove Error information on login page; adds index.html to plugin directory; removes the wp-version, except in admin area.
• removes error-information on login-page
• adds index.php plugin-directory (virtual)
• removes the wp-version, except in admin-area
• removes Really Simple Discovery
• removes Windows Live Writer

TimesToCome Security Plugin: http://herselfswebtools.com/2008/06/wordpress-security-plugin-block-scrapers-hackers-and-more.html – this one helps stop hackers from using injection scripts to hack into your wordpress and put in iframes and other nastys

Make sure to visit the authors blog to update your list of blocked request types etc.

4) BACKUP BACKUP and then BACKUP Again!

make sure to do backups of your site OFTEN (i do mine once a week) so that if disaster does strike, you have a backup you can restore. There are some good plug-in’s to do a file and database backup of your site, but personally I prefer to do it manually (using my hosting control panel to create a zip file of the site and downloading it, and using phpMyAdmin to download the database.

So there you go, a few tips to help make sure your site is secure and you can also recover

Apple’s iPad – revolutionary or dud?

So the wait is over and apple has officially announced the new iPad, apples new “revolutionary” media device. Is it really a revolution in mobile media entertainment, or is it just a big ass glorified ipod touch or iphone?

The idea of this new device is great.. I think their idea was to create an afordable mobile media device to compete with the already saturated net book market for the home consumer. It can play movies, music, browse the web read books, play music and more. But there is one fundamental flaw in the concept for this new device. It’s not a real “computer”, from what I have seen and read, it is nothing more then a  glorified iphone in a larger formatted. Initial looks into this new device, it seems it’s simply a upgraded iphone os.

Granted there will be (im sure) a slew of apple store apps to become available for the iPad, but why didn’t they do it as a real “mac” with a customized version of osx on it so it is more like a real mobile computer? Personally I think this may be more a hardware limitation with the device. How much cooler would it be if this was a full fledged mobile touch screen Mac device. It would certainly appeal more to mainstream mac users, and not just the fanboys and gadget lovers (you know the ones who were the ones lining up over night to buy an iPhone when they were just released).

I myself being a PC user for most of my life recently jumped ship and bought my first Mac system a few months ago (a late 2009 21.5″ upgraded iMac) and i LOVE it.. The os is easy to use, the hardware is sexy, and it “just works” like the slogan goes. Im currently considering getting a netbook for myself as well, and when I Started hearing the rumomors about apple releasing a touch device aimed at the same market, I decided to hold off and see what it had to offer when it was announced. Granted it can play games from the apple store, you can browse the web, get email, will have wifi and 3G, can play music and movies and will retail starting at $499 , it’s just not quite enough compaired to getting a netbook (you can get a decent one for $300-350) which is a full featured pc compuer (or some run linux).

Unfortunately for the first time in a very long time, I think apple may have a dud on their hands, but time will tell. Maybe future models will go more the way of a full function device with OSX on them.

Domain Names – Keyword or Buisness Name?

When you are ready to launch a new web site and are at the stage where you want to pick and purchase a domain name for your web site, most will choose to use a domain name that is their company’s name. Although this is a good practice for building brand recognition, it may not always be the best route to choose for getting traffic to your web site. Unless you have a well established business with a name people know, you may be better off to do some keyword research and use keywords that are both related to your business or web site, as well as often searched on the search engines.

The reason I suggest this is this.. lets take 2 scenarios for a deeper look.
Lets say 2 people are launching simular web sites, their business / web site is geared towards landscaping.
Person A is using his company name “Acme-landscaping.com” (let’s say his company is called Acme Landscaping)
Person B is using the name “Affordable-landscape-toronto.com” (let’s say his company is called John’s Landscaping

Since both these persons are “new” to the web with their web sites, their main goal is more than likely to draw traffic and potential clients to their web site to build sales leads. Person A’s domain name, while it has the term “Landscaping” in their domain name is not as strong when it comes to the search engine’s as person B who has done some keyword research, and has decided to use the keywords “Affordable landscape toronto”, which is a heavily searched term on Google (since he did is research).

A lot of people who are new to online business and search engine optimization and marketing don’t realize that using keywords relative to their site or company’s industry can be a very powerful tool for marketing and bringing in traffic.

Adding a splash page for Joomla

On a Joomla based web site design project I was recently working on for a client, He had asked me to have a “splash page” which has his company logo and a enter link that first shows before the main Joomla site loads up for the visitor.

Normally this would be as simple as making a new html file, and adding a DirectoryIndex line in the .htaccess to have the server load this new spash page as the default page, and then this splash page links to the main site. Easy to do for Joomla right?… Wrong LOL

It seems with how Joomla 1.5x works, the main menu default item “home” if you have Joomla’s SEF turned on, will point the home link simply to “http://www.domainname.com/” (your root url) for the site, and not to a specific link such as index.php. What this meant was after I did the .htaccess change for the DirectoryIndex to be the splash page, when you called the site up, the splash page works, then you go into joomla and then click on the home link on the main menu, it jumps you back to your splash page, and not the main page of your joomla site.

After a little playing around, I found a simple enough solution…

(remember this solution only works with Joomla SEF and .htaccess turned on in the Joomla configuration)

1. Make your splash page as needed, call it whatever you wish (in my case splash.html). Have the link from the splash page goto http://yoursite.com/home.html (make sure you have your home link actually names and aliased as “home” in Joomla so the sef uses this as your home page link).
2. Edit the .htaccess in the root Joomla directory, at the top do your DirectoryIndex line for the new spash (in my case: DirectoryIndex splash.html).
3. Go into your Joomla Admin, edit your main menu, now edit the “Home” item, make sure it’s set as the front page blog style layout (or however you have set up your front page as).
4. Now create a new menu item on the main menu, call it “Dummy” and choose anything you want for the type of link.
5. Now on the menu item list, check the box beside your new dummy item, make it your default menu item.
6. Now edit this dummy item again, and change status to disabled.. (you can only do this via actually editing the menu item, it will not work if you just click on the check mark in the menu item list to disable it).

Now you should be able to use your splash screen and Joomla will behave!

What Type Of A Website For Your Business?

Depending on what kind of business you run, as well as what type of actual web site design you wish to have to represent your business online, you will need to plan out the sections needed for your web site design. Depending on the purpose of your company’s web site, you will need to have sections such as biography or company background, portfolio pages, contact pages, company staff or directory pages, services or products pages and more.. the sheer amount of possibilities for content of your site can be almost as overwhelming as the design process itself.

When I work with a client to plan or map out their web site design strategy, the first step for me is always a simple one… what is the main goal or purpose of the website.. and to break that down, it is simply a question of will the site be meant for providing information to the visitor about the company and it’s products or services, or will the web site design be geared more towards as e-commerce web site design, where the web site will function as an online commerce site to sell products and / or services on the web.

The Informational Web Site

The main goal of an informational web site is basically to act as a digital on-line portfolio for the business. To provide some background information on the company, information on the services or products they sell or provide, and give a means to contact them regarding sales leads and customer support.

An informational web site is usually developed using a CMS (Content Management System) such as Joomla or WordPress, but sometimes the site can be custom coded in flash, html, php, asp or a combination of any of these technologies. Informational web site designs are usually well suited for “trades” type businesses, such as landscapers, business professionals, schools or even clubs, as they generally do not have a tangible product to sell, but rather a service.

A typical informational type web site design may have the following pages and features:

• Home page with a welcome message, brief summary of the services or products or background on the company
• Company Information / About us page that has more details on the history of the company
• Services / Products pages that detail the services or products the company offers it’s customers or clients
• Portfolio page which has  samples of work done for pasty clients
• Testimonials page which would usually show  feedback about the experience past customers had with the business
• Contact Page which allows the visitors / clients / customers to contact the company

The E-Commerce Web Site Design

While the informational web site’s main purpose is to bring in sales leads and inform customers and potential customers about the products and services offered, an E-Commerce web site design’s purpose is to not only provide this information, but also entice the visitor to purchase a product or service, and pay for it online on the web site. Usually e-commerce sites offer tangible goods that are shipped to the customer, but I have had some clients who sell “services” in an e-commerce format as well in the past.

There are many open-source and commercial e-commerce platforms available in the market to choose from, some of the more popular ones are osCommerce, OpenSourceCart, ZenCart and Creloaded. Each has it’s own benefits and pitfalls, feature sets and scalability. Choosing what package to use is often a tricky balance between cost, scalability and features built-in.

Typically an E-Commerce web site design will have the following pages and basic features

• Home page which may provide some welcome information, company information and perhaps sale products or featured products for sale
• Company information page with background information on the company
• A products catalog which has categorized products the visitor can browse
• A shopping cart which allows the customer to add items to a virtual “basket” and then “check out” and pay for them
• Other e-commerce related information pages such as terms and conditions, shipping and ordering information / guidelines

So there is the basic breakdown of the two main types of web site designs for a company. Informational sites are meant as a portal to inform and educate the visitor on the company and it’s services, much like a digital brochure, while an E-Commerce web site design is geared more towards actually selling products online to consumers.

Open Source and Web Site Design

Where the code used to develop your web site comes from, is something that should not be overlooked when you are considering having a web site design created for your company, group or organization. Where the code your web developer or web design company chooses, can actually affect the price you pay for the development of your web site. There are  3 main avenues of code sourcing to consider when planning for your web site design. You can have custom code written for your site, you can go with a 3^rd party company’s proprietary code/software or you can choose to use an open source solution for your web site design and development.

In my personal opinion I think it’s best to always go with an open source solution…

Essential FREE Joomla Extensions

For anyone who has ever used or is considering to use Joomla for a web site, you will quickly realize there are thousands of extensions (plug-in’s that extend the functionality of Joomla). Because I myself often use Joomla for projects for my clients, I have decided to post a list of some of the more useful FREE extensions that I have found myself using often with my Joomla Based Projects…

Display PDF files inside Joomla Content/Article

I was recently working on a Joomla based web site design for a client, and he had requested that the site display PDF files he provided me inside articles for his portfolio pages on his web site.

My first thought was there would be some kind of a plugin/module to extend Joomla to display a PDF file in joomla, but was not able to find any that worked for me. Then I had a brainstorm.

The Benefit Of Having an E-Commerce Web Site

The method of running a company has changed a lot today. Unlike the years past, business owners are now taking any means to brand their company, to promote services to achieve sales and promotions goals. The net is playing a huge part for these owners. How?