The seminar will be on Tuesday, April 27 at 7pm, and last approximately 1.5 hours.

The sessions will be hosted in B161 in the Brandel Court.

Topics will cover:

• Basic Web Concepts
• Designs & Complex Visuals
• Scripting & Animation

You can find more information inside this post.

This seminar will consist of three, 30 minute, workshops.
I suggest all participants bring a laptop.

Workshop #1: Basic Web Concepts (7-7:30)

• Where to Begin
  • Services & Basics of Web Domains
  • Software & Tools to Use
• Basic HTML
  • What's in a Web Page
  • Understanding Tags
  • Applying Concepts

Workshop #2: Designs & Complex Visuals (7:30-8)

• Basic Styling
  • Introduction to Styling
  • Understanding & Applying Styles
• Cascading Style Sheets
  • What is CSS
  • CSS & DOM Hierarchy

Workshop #3: Scripting & Animation (8-8:30)

• Basic Scripting
  • Introduction to JavaScript
  • Basic Commands & Syntax
• jQuery & Animation
  • What is jQuery
  • Object Selector (Sizzle)
  • Basic Commands
  • Applying Concepts

Who Am I?

My name is Shawn Khameneh.

I am a self-taught web developer, I have developed a many websites, including a number of free libraries and web scripts.  I primarily code in xHTML, JavaScript, and PHP; but I also have experience with WML, VB.Net, C#.Net, and legacy ASP.

I work full-time for a start-up social networking website based in Chicago, while attending classes part-time at CLC.  I had previously worked on the CLC Web Team as a student worker for a short time and still attempt to involve myself with the CLC Computer Club.

This is all about Guest Posts; one of the most useful social tools for any blogger!  You can easily expand your reach with simple SEO & Blogging tips, my last article missed one of many joys through blogging ‒ everything is community oriented.

I wont lie, keeping an active blog is work, but you can easily lighten the load with the very community that brings your blog to life.

Having a guest blogger provides many great benefits.

• Articles in another perspective.
• Helps the flow of new content.
• Provides a valued reader benefits of their own.
• You still makes the final decision!

Accepting guest posts does not mean you must lower your standards by any means. I actually recommend you publicly declare standards when accepting guest posts.

I would actually recommend considering a few core values.

• Passion ‒ Does the poster care about your blog and their post?
• Originality ‒ Duplicate content is boring and makes you look bad.
• Quality ‒ Legibility doesn't cut it, low quality writing creates a bad read.
• Quantity ‒ Just because it looks good and has valuable content doesn't establish a basis for creating an entire post.
• Relevance ‒ People go to certain sites for a specific reason, keep guest posts relevant to your target audience.

You may ask, “Why would one want to guest post?”  ‒ If you don't recall, I did mention there are many valuable benefits to guest posting on another's blog.

The great benefits of guest posting can make every minute spent worthwhile.

• Recognition ‒ Guest posting increases your recognition as a blogger.  A successful guest post can often outweigh benefits of basic SEO in terms of time and effort.
• Practice ‒ Just going through the process of having your posts criticized by an experienced blogger can improve your own skills.
• Enjoyment ‒ Not everyone needs their own blog, and may love sharing thoughts and knowledge.

This post was inspired by fellow bloggers.
If you support guest posts on your own blog, by all means you are welcome to leave a comment.
(Bragging rights both gratis and welcome)

You're probably thinking "Shawn, what is this all about - you're young - you know all the new trends!?"; that's only half true.  I've been coding websites as long as I can remember, and things have changed drastically.  I've been able to easily snag #1 result on Google and related engines, but that was over 5 years ago.  5 years isn't much to any average Joe, but when it comes to technology it can seem like a lifetime.
- Try to remember when tabled layouts were more than acceptable!

The "New Web" is cluttered with social networks - and this is great - but it can prove very difficult to optimize anything for search engines.  Everything has become what you could call "organic".  It's not longer focused on hits or links, it's focused on content and interest.  Hits and links still play a key role, but the old "link spamming" tactics don't work anymore.

Let me guide you through some key points to help bring your website recognition!

Dont's

Don't Force Traffic

It's all about generating interest, trying to force people to see your website by spamming links just wont work.  You will end up getting a high bounce ratio with numerous pointless hits - it might work temporarily, but it will kill your recognition and followers.

Write posts that you actually enjoy writing, keep in mind you want it to be interesting to others.  People are browsing your blog to find something that interests them.

Don't Be Greedy

It's obvious when a website is trying to generate money from ads; the content often lacks passion, while links and advertisements get in the way of browsing.  Besides, you want more interest in your websites to encourage visitors to return.

Some SEO experts even recommend holding off on ads entirely until you have an active reader base.  As of writing this article, you can see I have done so myself.  The primary purpose of my blog is recognition, why should I have ads when I don't have many readers?

Don't Overdo It

Trying to make your website rank better can also kill it!  Too many links can make navigation cumbersome and in some cases even knock some points off.  Like I said, everything is organic - Search engines want to differentiate between what's fake and real.

If you have a large website that seems to be extremely active with few inbound links and a high bounce ratio, something is obviously going to look fishy to any search engine.

Do's

Be A Part Of It

Don't just make a blog and post random bits and pieces - be a part of the online community.  It may sound odd to some, but go on Twitter and try following successful individuals with similar interests.  Reading their posts and shares can provide you with inspiration and even grab your attention.

If you have an opinion or suggestion, comment back.  Always be courteous and show respect even if you disagree with their article.  You want respect, so please show some in return.

Sharing Is Caring

Share other people's articles you find interesting, they might take even take notice.  The more your fellow bloggers take notice, the more they may feel the need to share some of your articles.

It's all about socializing with others and enjoying yourself reading, writing, and sharing!  Share your passion with others, anything passionately written will have more value to both yourself and others.

Tread Lightly

The small things count.  Try using plugins like commentLuv and Digg Digg, they don't obstruct your blog and they provide means to ease the sharing of your content and share articles your readers have written.

Remember, you want to show other bloggers you're unique and worthy of attention - not superior or above them.  Make it easier for people to share their articles with you and your articles with others.

Final Note

Now I hope you liked my article, I tried to put more heart into it, but I just can't fully explain what I've learned without giving a final note.  Twitter can remind you of Facebook and Wordpress of Xanga, but never underestimate services even professionals enjoy.

I have found numerous articles and amazing content through Twitter alone, I'm currently in a Google group called Worthy Of Attention that is all about sharing attention worthy articles.  I have learned more than I could even imagine about blogging in the past two weeks. 

It seems so simple, yet you can easily lose sight of what's in front of you.

Tired of fight with Adsense when using AJAX?  That's exactly how I've been the last couple days.  For such a widely spread service, it's terrible how bad flexibility for Web applications can be!

Anyways, most reputable programmers wont be relying much on iFrame, so here's an easy solution - just run this function every time you want to update the ads on your page.

I must warn you, DO NOT abuse this, Google can and will ban your account if impressions are being forced.  I can't vouch that Google will even approve of this method, but from reading the ToS it should be acceptable giver the [end] user sent a request to change page content.

var redirects = 0;
function updateAdsense() {
	redirects++;
	var ads = document.getElementsByTagName('iframe');
	var src;
	if(ads && ads.length){
		for (var i = 0; i < ads.length; i++){
			src = ads[i].src.split('&');
			if(redirects > 1)
				src.pop();
			src = src.join('&');
			src = src + '&'+new Date().getTime();
			ads[i].contentWindow.location.replace(src);
		}
	}
}

You can see I use "location.replace", this solves issues with Adsense updates effecting browser navigation. In basic, it makes the back button work correctly.

As you can see this code is rather lazy, I will be providing an update soon.

Update

var redirects = 0;
function updateAdsense() {
	redirects++;
	var ads = document.getElementsByTagName('iframe');
	var src;
	if(ads && ads.length){
		for (var i = 0; i < ads.length && ads[i].id.substr(0,16)=='google_ads_frame'; i++){
			src = ads[i].src;
			if(redirects > 1) {
				src = src.split('&');
				src.pop();
				src = src.join('&');
			}
			src = src + '&'+new Date().getTime();
			ads[i].contentWindow.location.replace(src);
		}
	}
}

I'm quite excited to say I've been cracking down on alot of code these past two days.  I can be quite messy at times, so I created some nice scripts and cron jobs to help me share the latest and greatest of my projects.

You can go ahead and check out my "dev" directory.
http://neotelos.com/dev/

The new directory automatically packages "snapshots" of my current progress every hour for download.  Be sure to check the latest update to my AJAx Framework, major changes are in progress.

Enjoy! 

WDKJD7S9V3X4

Introduction

I've taken quite the effort to put together a thorough guide to getting the most of your network connection.  My goal is to bring everything from hardware mods to software tweaks together into one organized document.

Every tweak and mod has been tested by non other than myself, and while these modifications are generally safe, I take no responsibility for the outcome of one following my guide.  So I wouldn't go flashing DD-WRT onto your router until you actually know the risk you are taking!

--- So all said, have fun and enjoy my guide!

Part 1 - Router Firmware & DNSMasq

First off, to make things easier, if you are using a router I recommend installing custom software for it if available.  I will be referring to DD-WRT in this guide time to time, you can check if you router is supported.  If your router is supported, I recommend to install DD-WRT.

With DD-WRT installed, we can enabled a DNSMasq.  The DNSMasq allows the router to cache DNS resolves, which can speed up various activity by avoiding repeated resoves.  To enable the DNSMasq open your router's configuration by going to 192.168.1.1 and open the Setup page and scroll down to Network Address Server Settings (DHCP), here you want to enable Use DNSMasq for DNS to enable DNS caching.

Now that DNSMasq is selected for use, we want to enable the service for it, find the DNSMasq settings in the Services tab and Enable DNSMasq & Local DNS.  I also recommend using DNSMasq as a DHCP server for better memory management in DD-WRT, but is completely optional.

Part 2 - Alternative DNS Servers

Whether or not you are using a router, you can take advantage of alternate DNS servers, we will be using OpenDNS for this guide.  Your internet provider happens to provide DNS servers, but those [of course] can be quite heavily used and slow down initial connections to anything using a domain name.  For this guide I will be instructing how to do such for your router.  While it can be done directly on your computer, running it through your router makes things much easier.

To get started we need to get the current DNS servers you are using from you internet provider, we can later merger these with the alternative servers for best connection stability.  Open up the networks connections list by holding the Windows Key and R, type ncpa.cpl in the run box and press Enter.

Mac Users: Open Application -> Utilities -> Terminal, and type "cat /etc/resolv.conf", write down the first two numbers including decimals.  These are your ISP's provided DNS

You should now see a list of your network connections, we now want to select your active connection.  If you are running wireless it may be titled Wireless Network Connection, if you are wired it should be Local Area Connection.  Open up your connection and open "Details...", in this list you will see a number of network settings.  Search the list for the [IPv4] DNS Server, write down the first address listed if you have more than one.  The address you wrote down is the primary DNS server for your internet provider.

Mac Users: Go to" System Preferences" and select "Network", and select your connection.  Click "Advanced" (if available) and select the "DNS" tab.  For the information below, you will need to add each DNS to the list.

Once we have our DNS server, we want to set our router to use a specific list of DNS servers, with OpenDNS as default and our original DNS as secondary.  We now want to go to the configuration page for our router.  If you are using DD-WRT the address should be 192.168.1.1, else you can find the administration settings for your router here (pdf).

We want to find the DNS servers list, by default they may list as 0.0.0.0, we want to change the DNS as follows:
Static DNS 1: 208.67.222.222 <- OpenDNS Server 1
Static DNS 2: # Original DNS # <- Your Internet Provider's DNS
Static DNS 3: 208.67.220.220 <- OpenDNS Server 2

Part 3 - TCP/IP Tweaks

Tweaking your TCP/IP connections settings within both your machine is an age-old method to get more power.  Windows [Vista/7] tries to tweak your settings automatically, but it's not always optimal.

First TCP/IP tweak is to remove QoS [and optionally other TCP/IP services] on your machine.  I don't recommend removing QoS if you like to do heavy network usage while using VoIP or similar streaming services, but for the latter this can give you full bandwidth power.  To disable/remove QoS, open the networks connections list by holding the Windows Key and R, type ncpa.cpl in the run box and press Enter.  Now select your active connection.  If you are running wireless it may be titled Wireless Network Connection, if you are wired it should be Local Area Connection.  Now click Properties, select QoS Packet Scheduler, and click Uninstall.  If you are quite picky and do not use local networks for filesharing or printer sharing, you can also uninstall all services with the exception of  TCP/IP[v4].   Please note that Client for Microsoft Networks is used for Windows Update, and TCP/IPv6 may provide enhancements in the future, but for 99.9% of the population has no effect at the current time.

Now that the QoS protocol is removed, we want to disable associated services.  To do this open the services manager by holding the Windows Key and R, type services.msc in the run box and press Enter.  Find QoS RSVP or Quality Window Audio Video Experience and set the Startup type to Manual.  You can disable these services, but manual does what we need and can cause less conflicts with any software that rely on these services.

After QoS is completely disabled, you may want to use TCP/IP Optimizer (XP) or Registry Patch (Vista/XP) to tweak your connection settings.  Instructions and information for both these files at SpeedGuide.net.

If you use applications with peer-to-peer filesharing or cloud networks, you may also want to patch tcpip.sys to allow most simultaneous pending connections.  Microsoft began limiting network connections in all consumer operating systems since XP Service Pack 1 to help limit the spread of viruses.  Doing such to your system does not make you more vulnerable to viruses, just allows you to start more internet connections simultaneously.

Mac Users:
Just run this code below to tweak protocol window settings and MTU.
To run, start Terminal and type sudo (login as root user).

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.sendspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.udp.recvspace=65535
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=1
ifconfig en0 mtu 1500
ifconfig en1 mtu 1500

More tweaks to come!

I've decided to put together a guide of Firefox plugins to bring you're boring browser to this:

Remove Statusbar

This may sound crazy, but we're not removing information from the statusbar, we just want to combine features to maximize screen space.

For this we want to install a handy little plugin called Fission.
By default it just shows the page loading status in the URL bar, but if you go into the plugin settings you can also show the active link status and connection status.

After installation go to the Firefox view settings and deselect the status bar and you're all set!

Add More Search Options

Fastestfox comes quite in handy.  It can convert text URLs into links, show a search bubble when text is selected, and add extra options to search pages.

I recommend installing this plugin for a more refined experience, but prefer to turn off the "Endless Pages" feature as it can create issues with many websites.

Remove the Menu Bar & Bookmarks Toolbar

This process can be quite cumbersome, but the results are superb!  First we want to install a nifty plugin called TinyMenu, this allows us to merge the Menu bar into one tiny button.  I personally like to go into plugin options and use the image rather than the text "Menu", but this is entirely up to you.

Once we have TinyMenu installed we can merge the Menu Bar and Navigation Bar, to do this the plugin author offers an easy guide here.

Remove the Titlebar

This goes to extreme!  Ever notice how Safari blends in the titlebar, well we can take it a step farther with Hide Caption Titlebar Plus.

This plugin allows you to merge the toolbars and the titlebar when fullscreen, quite the space saver!

Hope you all enjoyed this guide I put together!

Initial Impressions
A very well designed mouse that's great for productivity, yet has a few minor setbacks.  I've never been a fan of spending more than $20 on a mouse, but this was definitely a great buy.  I find the automated switching scroll (free scroll to click scroll) to be very intuitive.  The ergonomics also make this mouse quite comfortable.

Pros

• Very comfortable design
• Relatively portable,  despite being designed as a desktop mouse
• "MicroGear" scrolling mechanism
• Auto free scroll based on scroll speed
• Rechargeable

Cons

• The receiver is a bit large for notebooks, but still has a small enough footprint to carry around.  (should have included the, smaller, unifying receiver)
• With extensive use (and not turning the device off), the battery lasts about a week for me.
• Thumb wheel does not scroll.  This was one of the first things that annoyed me upon use, it's not a major setback but I don't find navigating through windows to be as intuitive without an actual scroll wheel.
• Laser is towards the right side of the mouse.  This personally does not bother me, but if you like to lift and reposition your mouse this can be cumbersome.
• You cannot center click when auto free scroll in enabled, this is obviously software related...but drives me absolutely nuts!
• No changeable battery...it's completely integrated, poor design in many aspects. (both business and consumers alike)
• Picky about some surfaces but still much better than most optical mice.

That's about it for a general review, but of course there are so many more things to consider.  Overall this is a great mouse, one of the best I can find in the current market; I just wish it would have been slightly more refined.
The Logitech Performance MX was released after I purchased this mouse, which seems to have addressed some issues I have had with this product.

Best described...the best mouse I found on the market at the time of purchase, but far from perfect.  Be sure to check out the Logitech Performance MX too, a newer model.

I've got the 2nd release of my AJAx Framework with a working navigation demo.  It offers great stability and much predefined functionality, such as an automated queuing system.  The latest and greatest feature of all is the built-in legacy support, you can completely disable JavaScript and PHP will attempt to accommodate.

I strongly encourage developers to examine the source.
You might be surprised with what you see!

Demo - Download - Documentation - Website

I've been really looking towards investing in a Panasonic GH1 Digital SLR camera.  It's definitely a step up from the Canon Rebel t1i, D7, and D5 MKII, having amazing video capability.  You can shoot standard 1080p video at 24fps or 720p video at 60fps, the quality is astounding!

Considering this camera is nearly half the price of similar models, and the stock lens kit is such high quality...this is quite a camera!

Here are some links to check:
http://photofocus.com/2009/09/12/panasonic-gh1-mini-review-my-new-favorite-video-camera/
http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/08/red-one-vs-canon-5d-mark-ii-vs-panasonic-gh1-video.html