XeroTech

As you guys know, one of the world’s largest software developer, Microsoft has launched it’s new operating system — Windows 7. After Windows 7’s predecessor — Vista, has failed to succeed in the market, Microsoft had been working hard to improve Vista. Before this, Windows 7 (BETA version) was once released to public. The purpose was to improve Windows 7 in fear of Vista, which couldn’t perform stably as Microsoft’s developer had hoped for. Microsoft developers concentrated mostly on graphical effects on Vista. Although there were few improvements since Windows XP, such as speech recognition, Vista was still a nightmare to Microsoft. Microsoft had released Windows 7 BETA to receive feedback from it’s customers so hopefully that Windows 7 wouldn’t end up like Vista.

I’ve been using Windows 7 Ultimate (BETA version) for months now. Yes, Windows 7 is definitely better than Windows Vista. Windows 7 has improved alot compared to Vista. Windows 7 is more light-weightcompared to Vista so it could fit on laptops or netbooks. About the graphical appearance of Windows 7, it’s identical with Windows Vista, it’s like a repack of Windows Vista. To reimburse the users of Windows Vista, Microsoft has also offered upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. The eligibility period runs from June 26, 2009 through January 31, 2010, so be quick! For more information about the upgrade, please visit here.

In my last article, I’ve said about Adobe Photoshop. Now, I shall continue this guide in this second, and also the last part of this guide.

After you have mastered Adobe Photoshop, you should be able to create nice web pages with just HTML and CSS skills. But you know, that’s not enough. Using HTML and only CSS, you get a problem. So, I suggest you learning PHP once you’ve mastered Adobe Photoshop. Here’s an example why you should choose learning PHP.

Example:

Almost all websites in Internet have a common thing, a navigation bar. Its function is to  let visitors surf throughout the website. You should be able to find “How to make a dynamic menu” tutorials from the Internet. I think all the dynamic menus in the tutorial should be in HTML and CSS form. So, you’ve copied the menu source and pasted it in your web page. It is a navigation bar to guide your visitors throughout your website. So now, your web page becomes more user-friendly. Now, you’ve added the navigation bar’s code into all of your web pages so your site’s visitors get to navigate easily from all web pages. After adding the navigation bar’s code to every single web page, so you thought you’ve done a great job. So now, you need to add another page to your navigation bar. And don’t tell me you are going to add the new link only to your index page. Yes! You gotta paste that link in all of the web pages back. It will be troublesome!

As you have seen the matter above, PHP can solve the matter above.

PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications.

Source: Wikipedia

So, PHP is usually used for server-side scripting language. PHP will definitely benefits you. Learning it should be a wise choice. Here are some online tutorials you can refer to.

1. W3Schools
2. Tizag.com

Other than these, you can also refer PHP.net. It has every single information you need to know about PHP. Good luck on your PHP!

There are still more codes like Javascript that you have to learn. But, mastering HTML, CSS, Adobe Photoshop and PHP should be enough for a basic website designer. If you are looking into how to create a website like Dragon Interactive, you really should go for a course for professional website designing. This is all I can help you, wish you good luck!

So ,you want to become a design a website? HTML, PHP, Javascript, MySQL, CSS…. There’s too much code and it has cracked your brain? Too many codes for you to choose for but you don’t know which are essential for you?

Then, I will guide you on your way to become a great website designer….

First, let’s start with the basics. Website are basically made up from different web pages. The basics of all web pages are HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language). Yes, HTML is the utmost important code that you will, must and have to learn! It’s the code that actually made this WWW (World Wide Web) up. You can say Internet exists today thanks to HTML. Without HTML, you wouldn’t be here reading this article and even touching your computer. So, the first code for you to learn is HTML. I will recommend you some online tutorials which I learned my HTML codes. Here are some HTML online tutorials which you can refer to:

1. W3Schools
2. Tizag.com

These are some highly recommended online HTML tutorials. Wish you good luck on your HTML.

Now, you’ve learned the basics. It’s now you move one step forward. In my opinion, the next code to will be CSS (Cascading Style Sheet).

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the colors, fonts, and layout. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for tableless web design). CSS can also allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on Braille-based, tactile devices. While the author of a document typically links that document to a CSS stylesheet, readers can use a different stylesheet, perhaps one on their own computer, to override the one the author has specified.

CSS specifies a priority scheme to determine which style rules apply if more than one rule matches against a particular element. In this so-called cascade, priorities or weights are calculated and assigned to rules, so that the results are predictable.

Source: Wikipedia

As you have seen, CSS is commonly used to describe the presentation of web pages. Learning CSS can make your web page looks better with just declaring the style of the specified division. Learning CSS is the next thing you would really like to learn. You can learn your CSS codes at W3Schools. They provide a variety of samples for you and all the tutorials are simple and easy for you to understand. It is a recommended site for all.

Actually, after learning CSS, I would really like you to stop in coding temporarily. You can already make some resplendent web pages by just using HTML and CSS. Of course, HTML and CSS aren’t all you have to learn. You have more yet to learn. You just have to stop coding temporarily. Now, let’s see… What actually makes a website so interesting? The coding of a website? I wouldn’t say that a coding of a web page is so essential and that will make a website interesting… I will let you see some examples why some websites attract you while others not… Visit these sites:

1. Dragon Interactive
2. ClearLeft

Dragon Interactive would be nicer in my opinion. The stunning graphical effects have attracted you… Did it? I bet most of you want to make something like that… But, as you can see they are professionals… You would really have to take a course on website designing for those kind of sites… But anyway, back to the topic. Do you know what actually attracted you? I will tell you. It’s those nicely designed images. Without images, a website would be really dull. You will need a photo designing software to make something like those images in Dragon Interactive. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most common software available for advanced image designing or photo editing. As I have posted really long ago, you can visit the ‘Downloads’ section to download Adobe Photoshop CS4. It’s completely free. As I have said, Adobe Photoshop is an advanced image designing software. It would be a really complex software to use. You can try using Google to search for Photoshop’s tutorials.

And remember, Google is your friend. If you cannot understand something, Google it!

This is it, for part 1. I will continue the second part of this guide.

Continue Part 2.

Google, one of the most popular search engines on the Internet. Anyone who has used computer and the Internet should have heard about Google.

Without search engines, the Internet would be like a whole lump of unorganized information. Search engines have organized everything and have been leading people to the information they are searching for. And, with Google being, I think the 1st and the best search engine in the world has done a great job in organizing every single websites and web pages, searching for the greatest, accurate and most popular content or information on the Internet. Google has been providing many free services to public like Google Maps, Blogger, Adsense, Adwords, Gmail and even YouTube.

As you can see, Google Inc’s service has been used by almost every single person in the world. Famous websites like YouTube, Gmail, Blogger and of course the most famous search engine Google, are all Google Inc’s property. It’s obvious that we can come to a conclusion. Without Google on the Internet, Internet would be like nothing to me. Imagine if one day, all Google Inc’s service have disappeared and there is no more Gmail, YouTube, Blogger or even Google, can you live without it? Well, maybe some of you might say yes. Without YouTube, you can select other sites like Myspace or Veoh. Without Blogger, you can find another blog hosting provider like Wordpress.Without Gmail, you can use Hotmail or even Yahoo Mail. But, without Google, you can’t live without it! Google performs approximately 85% of searches made throughout the World Wide Web. And have you noticed how important Google is? You really can’t depend on other search engines with over-loaded index pages like Yahoo! or AOL.

Besides that, Google has influenced everybody too. The word “google” has become a verb. Nowadays, if you want to find more information about something, most people would tell you to “google” for it. The verb “google” means to perform a search throughout the Internet using Google search engine.

Google is improving day by day, and first, it’s the popular web browser – Google Chrome. Google Chrome has successfully attracted almost 30 million frequent users just in nine months. It’s minimal, simple and clean design was one of the main factor for it’s success. Google wanted to make everything to be faster, performs better and more lightweighted. But Google Chrome’s success isn’t going to stop Google from developing new service and products. If you have read this Google Introduces Google Chrome Operating System post, you would know that Google is now developing a new operating system, named Google Chrome Operating System. It’s objective is also to have the minimal design and more lightweight compared to the famous operating system, Windows. And once again Google is going to compete against Microsoft. The main reason why Google chose to aim for the market of netbooks is because PC are monopolised by Microsoft. Netbooks would be famous within years due to it’s small, light and portable features. Using Microsoft’s operating systems would be a heavy burden to netbooks and so, Google aimed for the market of netbooks with it’s simplicity and lightweight operating system.

Google has come in almost all parts of our lives in the World Wide Web. In the future, Google would be the Internet and the Internet would be Google. With Google competing against others in almost every single service in the Internet, it would be difficult for us to live without Google.

Lately, Google, the well-known search engine company has introduced Google Chrome OS (Operating System). It has been nine months after releasing Google Chrome web browser, 30 million users are now using it regularly. Google Chrome was designed for people who live on the web – searching information, staying in touch with friends, online shopping, catching up with the latest news or just surfing around the net aimlessly. Google claimed operating systems that web browsers run on today were designed in an era where there was no web and they announced a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year, Google will open-source its code and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Google has already started talking to partners about the project, and they’ll soon be working with the open source community.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. Google is designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get users onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface should be minimal as it should be fast and lightweight compared to Windows Vista. Google is going back to the basics and completely redesign the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and they are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using users’ favorite web technologies. These applications will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.

Google heard a lot from their users and the message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time, Internet users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

Source: Google Blog

Fraps, it’s a well-known program for capturing videos or screenshots during playing a game. The video and sound qualities are good. Fraps can also show your FPS (Frames Per Second) during gameplay.

Direct download link for Fraps will be available here. Crack is included.

Please read the Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Disclaimer before downloading. Thank you.

This tutorial shall teach you how to create a server in your computer. Please follow the simple step-by-step guide in order to have your server to work perfectly.

Creating a server in your computer is very easy. The program we are going to use is Apache in XAMPP. This is an open source software and it is widely use in the world. This program is designated for those who is developing a website. Of course you don’t want visitors to see an under development websites full of bugs and errors right? This program allows you to test all your HTML, PHP, CSS or even Javascripts. So, let’s move on to the installation.

First, visit here and select the operating system for your computer. Next, download the XAMPP installer. Download only the “Installer” to avoid any other unnecessary settings.

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By clicking on the “Installer” link, you should be directed to the SourceForge download page and the download progress should start. After downloading XAMPP, double click on the installer to install.

First, select your language.

After that, select OK. Now, a full screen installer shall appear on your screen. Select “Next”.

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And now, select your installation directory. The default would be “C:\xampp”. Usually, I wouldn’t change the default settings, fearing that I might screw up the whole instaalation. So, I shall continue with the default settings. Select “Next” after you’re done selecting the installation directory.

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After clicking “Next”, the installer shall provide few options for you. Here, remember to tick “Install Apache as service” and “Install MySQL” as service. As for the “Install Filezilla as service”, it’s your choice. Filezilla is to set up a file sharing server on your computer.

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After selecting the services, click “Install”. Now, the installation should now be under progress.

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When the progress bar reaches the end, a Command Prompt window should appear for a few seconds.

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After the Command Prompt disappears, click “Finish”.

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The installation still hasn’t completed yet. Few Command Prompts shall appear to install and start the service you have chosen just now.

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After all Command Prompts disappeared, there should be one dialogue box should appear and say “Congratulations! The installation was successful! Start the XAMPP Control Panel now?”. This means that you have successfully installed a server in your computer. Select “Yes” to start the XAMPP Control Panel.

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Now, you should see both services running. That means your server is now currently running!

Now, type in “192.168.1.1″ or “localhost” into your URL bar in your web browser . You should see this webpage.

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Now you have your own server running in your computer!

I shall write another article to show you how to use XAMPP. Hope you enjoyed this tutotial.

At last, Apple has finally released it’s web browser – Safari 4. They claimed Safari 4 as the fastest web browser in the world. But, is Safari 4 really the fastest browser in the world?

So, let’s start with the installation of Safari 4.

Nothing wrong… Next…

Agree… Next…

Choosing the directory to install the files… Nothing wrong… Next…

Installation is under progress…

At last, installation finished. The installation is quite simple as it is all pressing “Next”, “Next” and “Next”. All you need to configure is the installing directory and the option to install Bonjour.

After pressing the finish button, Safari 4 launched. The launching speed is fast and that’s what all Internet users hope to see. Of course, the launching speed depends on the speed of the computer too. My initial impression for this web browser was… “Wow! That’s what I call stylish!”

Safari 4 gave me a really great impression on it’s elegant, clean and stylish look. Everything looked nice and fresh. There are quite an amount of websites pre-loaded after installation. Popular websites like Youtube, Facebook, Google, Yahoo are all pre-loaded in this web browser in “Top Sites”. You don’t need to visit the designated site and bookmark it like what you did if you’re using Firefox or any other web browsers. But, this “Top Sites” feature is one of the features in Safari 4 I didn’t like. Those pre-loaded websites are simply too many… I think they should reduce the amounts of those websites. I’m getting headache watching all those sites and with some I’ve never come across before….

Click the photo to enlarge.

Fortunately, Safari 4 allows you to customize it. It’s not like Google Chrome, facing difficulties just to customize something and sometimes it doesn’t even provide customization on some features. For example, Google Chrome doesn’t have the options to not to remember history of the websites visited. Although it provides “Incognito Window”, I still didn’t like it.

Although the features customization in Safari 4 doesn’t provide you like what Firefox provided, typing “about:config” and change almost everything… The features customization for Safari 4 is still acceptable. But, I found Safari 4 not that user-friendly… Especially bookmarking your favourite website. When you want to bookmark a site, this really annoying pop-up occurs, asking where you want to keep it. This thing really annoys me. I’m used to Firefox, just bookmark a website and just store it. I don’t want to go through those categorizing bookmarks process.

Click the photo to enlarge.

Other than this, everything seems fine. Now, the most important part of all web browsers — Speed. In this modern era, everybody wants everything to be fast and effective. You don’t really hope to see people using Internet Explorer 8 and wait ages for the page to load right? Speaking frankly, the speed is quite fast for Safari. The speed it launches, loading scripts, images, flash applications, everything seems to be acceptable.

Now, it’s the end of this review. Hope you enjoyed it.

To download Apple Safari 4, please click here.