Socrates Theme is a recently launched program that allows the user to create unstoppable popups. The 2.0 Beta version debuted on June 7, 2010. The program has a generator that enables the user to make hundreds of innovative header designs in a snap.

Socrates Theme includes customizable themes that are easy to implement. It allows the user to utilize popups for the utmost effectiveness. The user can create the popups, control their onset and launch them at will. Affiliate Links are embedded right into the popups. The popups are backlit as they slowly vanish. The program has a generator that enables the user to make hundreds of innovative header designs in a snap. Socrates Theme includes customizable themes that are easy to implement.

This software is great to use on niche sites as well as affiliate sites. The user-friendly system permits custom styling and color choices, so the user can tailor wordpress topics and if changes are needed, the user can go back later and alter pages at will, and it looks like a completely different theme. Users can create content swiftly and the pages load quickly.

This is an efficient software program that works in all major browsers. It uses random ads and includes custom navigation bars, and a social media function that lets you select from multiple background options. The built-in generator allows you to create hundreds of niche header designs, with custom styling, and integration of affiliate programs. It works with wordpress plugins and advanced SEO. There are a number of sidebars, video tutorials, and many built-in templates, customized and user-ready. The sales page template has a squeeze page. A countdown begins when a person goes to your website and it continues if they leave and come back. When the countdown ends, the program redirects them to your new sales page.

Another neat thing about this system is that it “translates” text and features into HTML. The Secret Option Script masquerades as a moveable email box that follows the viewers as they read the sales pitch. The Auto Squeeze Box self-destructs in a time frame that you set yourself. This restricts viewer time and provides a sense of restraint that and provokes an illusion of urgency for or the viewers to hurry and enter their email address. When a guest begins to exit, you can get their attention by launching “Exit Pops.” A new window opens with a “click or cancel” function and a voice says ‘Wait-before you go…” It is very effective, and so unexpected and innovative that it is not at all annoying.

Socrates Theme has infinite possibilities and is a simplistic but powerful answer to user needs. You own the software, so there are no monthly costs, and an easy-to-use manual comes with the program.

]]> http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/socrates-theme.html/feed 1 http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/lost-videos-after-sdhc-card-corruption.html http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/lost-videos-after-sdhc-card-corruption.html#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:44:11 +0000 awi http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/?p=24 Are you not able to access videos from a corrupt SDHC card? Don’t fret. The inaccessible videos from a corrupt SDHC card can be easily recovered. Corruption is a common problem with these cards which can creep in anytime due to various reasons including interruption in read/write process, virus attack or file system damage. To resolve such issues one has no option but to format an SDHC card. If your wondering how to recover lost videos in the process, then the answer lies in an efficient video recovery software.

Formatting followed by recovery

Going for a recovery utility is a step in right direction. After you have formatted your SDHC card, it becomes quite essential for you to perform video recovery immediately. If you keep procrastinating the recovery process for any reason, chances are that you may end up ruining the prospects of successful recovery of videos.

When a video is deleted from an SDHC card, do remember it just vanishes from our sight and is not lost forever. An SDHC card just marks the space as available to be used by another file and the content of the deleted or lost file remains intact. However, the possibility of recovering videos becomes dim when the content of the deleted or lost file gets overwritten.

Data recovery possible in all scenarios

Recovery utilities are designed to recover videos from an SDHC card and other types of memory cards in almost all data loss situations which includes accidental data deletion, unintentional or intentional formatting, virus attacks, corruption of the storage media etc. Therefore, being comprehensive in nature, they offer an all-in-one solution to your data recovery needs in case of video loss.

Selecting a good software

You may come across various video recovery software during your hunt for an appropriate solution. But it is advisable you go for a tool after analyzing its features and comparing it with other products. The best way to judge a particular software is by downloading its demo version which would provide you with a glimpse of your lost videos. For your convenient, you can look into the following attributes and then go ahead with the recovery process:

• Read-only and easy-to-use utility

• Simple and interactive graphical user interface

• Recovers all video formats

Stellar Phoenix Video Recovery is a well-acclaimed software which recovers lost, deleted or formatted videos from a range of memory cards including SDHC, SD, MMC etc. The video recovery tool is available in two separate versions for both Windows and Mac users.

Graphic design includes design of logos and print design. These can include advertisements, magazines, newspaper layouts, newspaper advertisements, billboards, corporate identity logos, brochures, books, CD labels & booklets, movie posters etc. The graphic design designers are expected to have knowledge about color theory, typefaces and how to make any image look attractive. The profession of graphic designing is an old one and has existed for centuries whereas web designing is a 20th century phenomenon. It made its presence in early nineties with the emergence of internet.  It was a new medium for most graphic design designers. It included parts of graphics designing process but most of these web site design projects would necessitate the knowledge of certain web based languages like HTML (scripting language used for building a web page), XML, CSS, etc.

Off late the differences between web designers and graphic designers have been reducing. Just like a movie, website designing is not all about having special effects and amazing visuals. A good story or content is a must for its success.  This balance between content and esthetics is important. As the World Wide Web is evolving & moving towards web 2.0, graphic designers too have updated their technical knowledge to stamp their presence and are reducing the gap that technology had created between them and the web designers. They are not shying away from undertaking web site design projects and are erasing the thin line of difference in mindset, knowledge & skill set that had existed earlier.

The telecom industry is constantly evolving, and in order to stay competitive in the growing, ever-changing market, companies have to be equally flexible in authorizing changes. Cross Telecom has recently undergone some big changes recently that move it ahead as the telecom industry continually evolves. Cross Telecom, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, is ahead of the curve with some recent changes they have made to their company.

Cross is moving into the international realm of telecom through a partnership with London-based Worldstone to deliver communication solutions and Telephony infrastructure globally. This addition means that Cross can better serve customers from an international perspective with seamless collaboration, integration, and service in every major country throughout the world. 

“The alliance between Cross and Worldstone helps ensure multinational companies have a consistent Avaya experience in every country. This partnership brings together two of Avaya’s Platinum-certified channel partners and delivers a compelling Avaya story,” said Carol Giles Neslund, Vice President, North America Channels for Avaya.

“Cross is excited to continue to expand our portfolio globally, and bring our unique value proposition to the marketplace”, said John Delozier, Executive Vice President, Cross Telecom.  ”The ability to adequately address the global marketplace is becoming increasingly important within our industry. Companies that do not have these types of capabilities will not last. We are confident that we have aligned ourselves with the best of the best.”

Worldstone International Sales Director Peter Hanson endorsed the strategic importance of the partnership by adding, “Worldstone is delighted to be joining forces with Cross Telecom to enable the delivery of best in class global solutions to Cross Telecom’s international customer base.”

Cross Telecom has also entered into an alliance with Chanhassen, Minnesota -based Datalink. This alliance will integrate Cross’ Network Solutions practice with Datalink’s industry-leading data center and storage solution capabilities.

As a Cisco Certified partner, Datalink’s network solutions will be combined with Cross’ advanced business communication solutions, to provide co-delivery of industry unique, end-to-end solution offerings. These offerings will utilize the experience and leadership in communication, server, storage and networking technologies of both partners.

As Vice President of Customer Services, Wade Hoffman held responsibility for the network solutions practice at Cross. He now takes his team to Datalink, where they will continue their leadership role in converged network solutions for communication solutions, as well as Datalink’s data center and storage infrastructure offerings.

“Now Cross has an alliance with a close partner that provides customers with a single source and point of contact for complex application and systems needs,” said Hoffman. “Those solutions, such as messaging, voice recording or work-force management, drive large demand for data storage, servers and networking technologies. With this alliance, Cross can now address customer needs regarding better server and storage strategies, new virtualization technologies and networking those elements together. It represents true data center convergence.”

Cross is an Avaya Premier, National Platinum Business Partner and Avaya Business Partner of the Year award winner. By providing a complete portfolio of Voice, Data, IP Telephony, Wireless, CrossNet Maintenance and Support, Professional Services and Cross University, Cross has defined itself as a complete end-to-end integrator of converged technologies nationwide. Having one of the largest and most experienced technical teams within the industry, Cross delivers businesstransforming communications solutions that will create a distinct competitive advantage for our customers. For award winning customer service on Avaya telecommunication products, contact Cross Telecom to meet your needs.

]]> http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/cross-telecom-announces-partnerships-with-datalink-and-worldstone.html/feed 0 http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/learn-about-the-3-principles-of-image-optimization.html http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/learn-about-the-3-principles-of-image-optimization.html#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:47:11 +0000 awi http://www.welcomecenteraustin.org/?p=18

image-optimization

Are you losing visitors to your web site due to slow page load times? Is your site being penalized because the images on your site are too large? Are you able to capture your visitor’s attention in the first 10-15 seconds that they are on your site?

All of these problems can be caused by an improperly optimized web page. In other words, the page loads too slowly and your visitor leaves before you have had a chance to hook them.

Optimizing a page for quick load times can be broken down into 3 broad categories: the basic coding of the page, scripts that are used on the page, and images. Of these three, images that are too large can have the most significant impact on load times and therefore have the greatest potential for improved page loading times if properly optimized.

A brief primer on image types

There are many image formats in common use on web sites, the three most popular being GIF, JPEG, and to a lesser extent Flash content. We will be limiting our discussion to GIF and JPEG images, with a specific focus on still images.

Each of these image formats has their strengths and weaknesses. GIF or Graphics Interchange Format was developed by CompuServe before the Internet boom as a way to share images on the CompuServe service. Due to limitations with screen resolutions and color depths at the time, GIF images were limited to showing up to 256 colors, more colors were imitated by Dithering, a process of fooling the eye into seeing one color by using 2 or more sets of color dots spaced too closely for the eye to distinguish separately.

Imagine a chessboard with black and white squares. When viewed closely we can distinctly see the individual squares, but if we back off far enough we will no longer be able to discern the individual squares and instead we will see one large grey square, the black and white squares merging together in our eyes to form one solid color. This is the concept behind dithering.

The JPEG file format on the other hand is a newer format that can handle millions of colors easily. The initial drawback to JPEG images is that they do contain many more colors, and each color requires some coding for display, making the file size larger.

Speeding up image load times

The main idea behind making an image load faster is to make the file size smaller. This can be accomplished in two ways, you can either make the dimensions of the image smaller, or decrease the amount of coding that is required to display the image.

The easiest way to reduce an images file size is to reduce the image’s physical dimensions. In other words, the smaller the image, the smaller the files size. Imagine an image that is square 80 pixels by 80 pixels. The number of pixels contained in the image is 80×80 or 6400 individual pixels. If we reduce the image size by one half to 40 pixels by 40 pixels we then have 40×40 or 1600 pixels. So reducing the image size in half reduces the file size to one fourth of the original.

This is our First Principle of image file reduction: Use the smallest image dimensions that will work with your layout. And likewise the fewer images on the page, the fewer image pixels, therefore the smaller the page size.

Since GIF and JPEG image formats use different methods of saving image information, they tend to be better at showing some types of images and worse at showing others.

GIF images, since they are limited to 256 colors per image, are better at displaying images with large solid blocks of color and images with very small physical dimensions. The GIF format will produce smaller file sizes than JPEG for these types of images.

JPEG images are better at showing gradients or subtle changes from one color to another. Therefore JPEGs reproduce photographs very well, or any other image with gradations. The JPEG format will produce smaller file sizes for these types of images than the GIF format will.

This is our Second Principle: Choose the correct image format for the image you are using. Most web pages will contain a combination of GIF and JPEG images.

Decreasing the coding is called image compression. Both GIF and JPEG images can be compressed but the process is different. In GIF images we try to limit the number of colors, in a JPEG image we use software algorithms to remove redundant information from the file.

Whenever we compress a file we will lose some image quality. We have to reach a balance between a small file size and acceptable image quality.

This is our Third Principle: Find the least acceptable level of image quality. Most images can handle some compression with very little quality loss, and all images can stand more image quality loss and still be acceptable. Your job is to decide how much quality loss you can accept. In other words, the lower the quality, the smaller the file size.

GIF images can usually be reduced from 256 colors to 128 colors or less, the fewer colors used the smaller the file size. JPEG images can almost always be reduced to a quality setting of 80% and frequently can be reduced down to as little as 15-30%. So when you use a higher compression level (smaller number) the file size will be reduced. Experiment with the image, try smaller and smaller settings until you find the smallest setting that still displays an acceptable quality.

The fastest loading page will have no images and the slowest loading page will be completely filled with full resolution images. If you work towards controlling your images using the principles outlined above you will have a very lean web page that will load quickly and be viewed favorably by the search engines.