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Monday, 5 December 2011

How to Back Up Your Hard Disk in Windows (Part 1)


A short while ago, a visitor to howtohaven.com asked me how he could backup his computer so that it could restore everything in the event of a catastrophic hard disk failure and he had to buy a new hard disk. This article is the first in a series of tutorials describing some ways in which you can do this in Windows.

Preliminary Matters

  1. You Cannot Simply Copy All Your Files

    In the old days of MSDOS, backing up the system was simple. You formatted your backup disk with with the operating system track using the old MSDOS "format /s" command, and copied everything else onto that disk.
    This is no longer possible in modern multi-tasking operating systems like Windows. Even when you are not doing anything on your computer, Windows may be accessing your hard disk behind your back, changing some files, and locking others, preventing them from being read, modified or deleted. Backing up your hard disk using Windows Explorer or the command prompt may leave you with a backup that is not internally consistent and even missing some crucial files.
  2. Backing Up Your Data Files is Not Enough

    Although your data files are the most crucial part of your backup, if you only save a copy of your data to a backup drive somewhere, if your system crashes, you will have to devote many hours to get your computer up and running the way it was before.
    The problem is that very few people, if any, use a computer with only Windows installed. Very frequently, they will need some sort of office software (wordprocessor), antivirus program, and so on, installed. Unless, of course, all they do is play Solitaire or Minesweeper.
    As long as you have any sort of software installed, buying a new hard disk, reinstalling Windows from your Windows setup disk, reinstalling your software and reconfiguring everything is a very time consuming affair. It's much faster to simply restore everything from a backup and immediately have a system that is ready to use.
  3. Backups are Useful for Software Disasters Too

    Backups are not just useful for hardware disasters, like when you need to replace a failed hard disk. If your system becomes infected with a virus because you inadvertently opened an infected email attachment, or if you installed a program that made the whole computer unusable, you may want to restore your computer to the time before any of these things happened.
    While Windows ME, XP, Vista and Windows 7 come with a facility called System Restore to do such a thing, its restoration abilities are limited, and sometimes inadequate if your system is hopelessly compromised. Restoring your system from a backup, in such a case, is the only way you can be sure that you're getting back your computer's previous clean, working condition.
  4. You Need A Backup Drive

    If you only have one hard disk, you should invest in a USB hard disk that you can plug in and use to store your backups. It's best to dedicate that drive for backups, so that your backup files don't accidentally get deleted, corrupted or infected. That is, plug in the USB drive only when you make a backup or when you have to restore from that backup. Unplug the drive when you are using the computer normally.
    While some of the backup programs allow you to back up to DVD or CD, the process is torturous and unreliable at best. If you have a lot of things installed on your hard disk, you may end up needing hundreds of CDs just to backup your system. Since CD/DVD burning is slow, your backup may take hours to complete, during which you will be stuck in front of the computer swapping disks. And if one of those CDs or DVDs get corrupted, your entire backup set is no longer usable. It's really faster and cheaper to invest in a USB drive.
  5. A Backup is Only Good If It's Recent

    Since backup software can only restore your system to the state it was when you make your backup, it stands to reason that if you make substantial changes to your system, or store new vital files, you should make a new backup of the computer. This is another reason why a dedicated hard disk for backups is important. If your backing up process is excruciatingly tedious, as it will be when backing up to CDs or DVDs, it's unlikely that you will do it frequently enough.
    You cannot predict when a disaster will happen. As such, it's best to refresh your backup every now and then, to keep it up-to-date, so that when you have to restore, you won't lose too much work.

Hard Disk Image and Backup Programs

The type of software that does a complete backup of your system is often called a hard disk imaging program. This a picturesque way of saying that it captures a snapshot of your hard disk at the time you used it, so that you can restore your system to the exact state it was when you backed it up.
There are many such programs around, both commercial and free. The programs that I've personally used and relied upon are (in no particular order):
  • Acronis True Image. This is a commercial program that is loved and used by many people. It has an easy to use graphical interface that you can use from within Windows. It also allows you to create a bootable recovery CD with an almost identical graphical interface. The recovery CD is used when you want to restore your backup to a new hard disk in the event your existing one crashes, or, if you choose, to make a backup without booting into Windows. This program can back up to hard disks, CDs/DVDs and network drives.
  • Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows. This is another well-known commercial program that allows you to make an image of your hard disk from within Windows. It also creates a bootable recovery disk. The recovery disk runs the DOS version of their program, which allows you to restore your hard disk (as well as backup, if you wish) without booting into Windows. This program can back up to hard disks, DVDs/CDs and network drives. A free trial download can be obtained here.
  • Drive Snapshot. This commercial program works under both Windows and DOS, allowing you to backup a working Windows system from within it. You can also create a recovery disk so that you can run the program from DOS to restore your system (or make a backup as well). However, I prefer making a Windows rescue CD and including Snapshot on it so that I can use the same graphical interface I'm used to under Windows. The program only works with local hard disks. A free trial can be obtained from here. Although the program lacks the bells and whistles of the other commercial programs, it has proven itself to be stable and reliable for me, working on all the systems I've tried it on.
  • Paragon Hard Disk Manager. I recently started using this commercial program after I found that the recovery disks of my old versions of Acronis True Image no longer work on newer computers. I probably should have updated to the latest version of TrueImage but I decided to try something different. The program is very complete (probably the most complete of all the programs mentioned here) and not only allows you to back up and restore your computer, but also to do things like resize your partitions, fix partition problems, wipe a hard disk in preparation for disposal, and so on. It comes with a recovery CD that boots Vista (or, more accurately, WinPE, which is the version of Vista designed to run from CDs) and an almost identical graphical version of the program, so that you can backup, restore or repair your computer directly from the CD itself should you need to.
As mentioned earlier, there are many other free hard disk image and backup programs available. However, since I have not actually tried these on computers in actual use (as opposed to old computers that I install software to play with), it's difficult for me to say much about them, other than the comments I have already made on the Free Hard Disk Image Software page. Having said that, for the sake of those who cannot afford a commercial tool, I will give the procedure for using one of the free backup programs in a later chapter.
Note: if you are using Windows 7 (any version), you already have a built-in disk image program on your system, called "Backup and Restore". It's different from the commercial software mentioned above in at least a couple of ways: you can't really control many aspects of it (including deciding on the destination filenames, using multiple backup hard disks for different backups, etc), and it can be a bit confusing at first if you're accustomed to the flexibility and power of the commercial software. Anyway, if you use this program, be sure to set it to do a complete system image (otherwise it'll just copy your data files), and remember to create a system repair disc (ie, a recovery disk).

The Correct Way to Test a Backup Program

Before you rely on any backup software, be it commercial or free, make sure you test it out on your computer. Unlike many other types of software, backup programs are heavily hardware-dependent. What works on one machine may not work on another.
Testing does not mean simply making a backup of your system. This part of the test usually succeeds. Depending on it as an indicator that the program works on your hardware is not wise. It's the next part that is crucial.
After backing up your system, boot from its recovery disk and restore the backup you just made. After restoring, reboot from that hard disk and see if the system works normally. That is, try out some of your usual operations like opening a document, surfing the Internet, rebooting and shutting down. (Shutting down is important too, because from experience, some problems only show when you try to shut down.)
Of course, the tricky bit about this test is that if the program fails to do a proper restoration, your working system is no longer usable. To avoid this, some people do the "test restore" on a separate empty hard disk which they swap with the real one. But this is probably too laborious (and perhaps also too technically difficult) for most people.
For me, since I have a number of backup programs lying around, for the initial testing of a new backup program, I normally do another backup with a disk image program that has been proven to work in the past. That is, I do two backups, one with the new program and another with a proven one. If the new program fails to restore correctly, I simply restore using my other backup software. Since it's likely that you don't have a fallback program that is known to work, just pick the trial of another commercial tool and use it as well. Hopefully, they will not both fail. Note that when using two different tools, you should not run them at the same time. Do a backup with one tool, and when it is done, quit it, and only then, run the second tool.
If you don't test the restore facility with your backup program, you may find out that it doesn't work on your system only on the day you need it. By then, it's too late.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

How to Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 3 to Create an Integrated XP Setup Disk with SP 3

This tutorial takes you through the steps of integrating the Windows XP Service Pack 3 into the files from an existing Windows XP setup CD. A new setup disk will be created. This disk will have the full XP installation with SP3 already merged into it. Such a slipstreamed CD has a few advantages over installing your current version of XP and then running SP 3 afterwards:
  • Saves Time

    Installing XP slipstreamed with service pack 3 is considerably faster than installing a previous version of XP and then running SP 3 separately.
  • More Secure

    If your computer is always connected to the network or the Internet, and you do not have Service Pack 3 integrated, it is vulnerable to any malware that targets pre-SP3 XP. Although the window of opportunity for a successful attack of your system is small (the time needed to apply SP 3 and reboot), some people prefer not to take the chance.
  • Uses Less Disk Space

    If you install XP first and then install SP

HTML Tutorial - Learn to Design a Website using HTML

  1. Tutorials for both free and commercial visual web editors can be found on the following pages:
    1. Dreamweaver CS5 Tutorial — Dreamweaver is a well-known commercial web editor. If you are using an older version of Dreamweaver, please see the appropriate versions of the tutorial instead, such as the Dreamweaver CS4 Tutorial or the Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial.
    2. KompoZer Tutorial — KompoZer is a free web editor.
    3. I have tutorials for other less known web editors as well. The list of tutorials for these different editors can be found on the Tutorials for WYSIWYG Web Editors page. This includes the NetObjects Fusion 11 Tutorial (a commercial web editor) and the Nvu Tutorial (an old version of KompoZer).
  2. This guide omits certain important steps

    Since this is an HTML tutorial, it omits some of the non-HTML-related steps that are required for creating a website, like getting your own domain name, getting a web host, etc. I recommend that you read How to Make / Create Your Own Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide for more information on these steps. In fact, if you don't already have a domain name or a web host, or if you don't even know what these things mean, I suggest that you read that guide first. The HTML tutorial you're reading assumes that you already know those terms.
  3. HTML is not enough

    HTML in and of itself will not let you do things that web designers typically want to do on their website, like create 2 or more columns on your websites, use different fonts, change colours (or "colors" if you use a different variant of English), or do certain other visual design work to make your web page look nice. Things that govern the appearance of your website are handled by a separate technology called CSS. Please read What is HTML? What is CSS? What are JavaScript, PHP and Perl? Do I Need to Learn Them to Create a Website? for an explanation of what this is, and how it relates to HTML.
    That is to say, after completing the HTML portion of this tutorial series, we will move on to the CSS tutorial, so that you can complete your website. Don't worry. This HTML tutorial will seamlessly lead into the CSS tutorial, since both sections of the tutorials were written to work with each other.
    If this sounds daunting, you may want to consider creating your first website using one of the visual web editors mentioned above. Those editors automatically create the HTML and CSS code for you, so that you don't have to bother with such things. Then, after you finish your website that way, if you still want to learn HTML, feel free to return to this guide.

Get a Proper Text Editor

The first thing you need is to get a proper text editor. Let me start by ruling out certain things, so that there's no misunderstanding about what I mean when I say "proper text editor".
  • Do NOT use Notepad

    I know that when I mentioned "text editor", some people probably thought, "no problem, my computer uses Windows, which comes with Notepad".
    Let me say this bluntly: Notepad is NOT a proper text editor. If you are going to be working on your website by coding directly in HTML, you really need a fully functional editor. Notepad cannot handle certain characters and character combinations that you may encounter along the road. As such, in certain circumstances, it may corrupt your file without your realising it. Oh, don't get me wrong. It'll work fine most of the time, but at some point along the road, if your file happens to have one or more of those characters it doesn't handle, it will bite you. And you won't even know it happened, since there is no warning or error message accompanying the file corruption. In addition, Notepad cannot handle large files, in which case it may transparently invoke a different program, Wordpad, to do the job. And Wordpad will definitely corrupt your web page.
    Bear in mind that even the Microsoft developers do not regard (nor do they recommend) Notepad as a viable editor for normal text editing work. The editor was created for the casual computer user to view things like Windows log files and things like that. That's why it does things like transparently invoking a different program for huge files. Since it's primarily for viewing files, it doesn't matter whether Notepad or Wordpad does the work. But for the webmaster, it matters a great deal.
    Even if you are striving for an ascetic life of hardship and severity, Notepad isn't the way. It may be acceptable for someone dabbling with the occasional text file (and even then it's debatable), but it's not the correct tool for someone who wants to work directly with HTML on a regular basis.
  • Do NOT Use a Word Processor

    Do not use word processors to hand code HTML files. Word processors insert hidden (and invisible) code into your files which are not part of HTML.
    By word processors, I mean any program that allows you to underline text, make text bold, put text in italics, create tables, etc. This includes Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org, and all the stuff listed in the Free Word Processors and Office Suites page. It also includes Wordpad, which comes with Windows. Yes, Wordpad is a rudimentary word processor. Do not use it for this purpose.
    Remember: the type of text editors I'm talking about do not allow you to do things like underline words, put text in bold, etc. They behave just like Notepad (without the problems the latter has). If your program has these types of features, it's not a text editor but a full blown word processor.
  • There are many free and commercial text editors arounds

    Some of you are probably thinking at this point that I've ruled out just about everything on your computer system. Don't worry. Text editors are a dime a dozen on the Internet. In fact, you don't even need a dime. There are zillions of free text editors around. (And zillions of commercial ones too, for that matter. Programmers seem to love creating text editors.)
    A list of free text editors can be found on the following pages:
    1. Free HTML Editors and WYSIWYG Web Editors — although this page lists both text editors as well as WYSIWYG web editors, remember that you're just looking for a text editor, so you can ignore the WYSIWYG web editors section of that page. (In case you're wondering, the HTML editors listed on the page are just text editors. They can be used to type HTML code, programming code or any other types of plain text.)
    2. If you can't find anything you like on that page, you can also look at the Free Programmer's Editors page. Don't be deceived by the grandiose title of the page. "Programmer's editors" are just plain text editors. In fact, my decision whether to list a text editor on the HTML editors page or the programmers' editors page is very often arbitrary. If you happen to use a particular text editor to write HTML code, you will end up calling it an HTML editor. If you happen to use the same thing to write programming code, you'll call it a programmer's editor. But they're all just pla

Thursday, 1 December 2011

How to Make Money from Home Online


Do you ever wish you could make money from home? Want to know if you can really earn a real living working from your house? The truth is- yes, you could make a lot of money from the comfort of your home. But where do you start? How do you tell a “money making scheme” from a real true opportunity? Should you buy any information on the subject? Keep reading to find out….

In these next series of articles, I would like to briefly discuss some of the best ways to make money online, as well as some great tips on starting that home-based business you have always wanted!

If you are interested in making money from home for whatever reason (maybe you are a stay at home mom, entrepreneur that hates to work for other people/companies, looking for extra spending money, etc.) then you must weed through the millions of “get rich quick” schemes to find something that you enjoy doing. Finding something you are passionate about (or at least interested in) is a great starting point.

But wait… maybe you are saying “I don’t know what I want to do with my life, or “what is my purpose?” Well that’s fine, because by the time you have read the information I am going to give in the next few pages, you will have found out the secret to finding your purpose & fulfilling your dreams in your lifetime.

But before you get swept up in any “I make $100,000/month” stories, just remember these 2 key facts about making money from home:

1) You will usually get out of it what you put into it (you reap what you sow).

2) Everything requires some work. The key is finding something you like doing (or at least can tolerate on a daily basis). This way, if feels a lot less like work & you will begin to develop a passion for doing whatever it is you do. The more you enjoy what you do, the more successful you will likely become.
Now, lets start slowly here with a short list of the most talked about ways you can make money online from home.


Best Ways to Make Money from Home

1) Buy & Resell Tangible Products- This method involves buying products at a low price (typically from wholesale companies), and reselling them online for a profit. This can be a great way to make the big bucks. To do this, you will usually need to start a business, obtain a resale certificate, & locate products for resale from suppliers. Then you simply sell the products for a profit on either an online site (such as eBay, Amazon, etc.) or develop your own website & market it.

Pros:

* Potential to make a lot of money
* Can be very exciting/rewarding
* Can be easily managed by one perso

How to Increase Your Adsense Click Through Rate (CTR)


If you are using the Google Adsense program to monetize your website, then you should constantly be working to improve your earnings.

One simple way you can boost your earnings & make more money with Adsense, is to improve your click through rate (CTR).
How to Improve Your Click Through Rate & Make More Money with Adsense

To improve you click-through-rate, you should experiment to see the options that work best for your website. Always remember that if something works great for one website, it does not mean it will work great for another website.

Keep on & keep on trying new things, & seeing which particular thing works best.
Here are 5 tips that can help improve your Adense CTR, Which Will Likely Increase Your Income/Earnings

1. Read the Adsense tutorials & success stories. They can help quite a bit & give you some insight into things successful website owners have done.

2. Look at Google’s heat map. This shows the placements where ads get the most clicks. Generally, the top & center large square is the top performer.

3. Blend your site, blend your ads. Then, if that doesn’t work, try some opposite colors. Use similar font size, colors, and font style’s that Google uses.

4. Try the switch. If you have regular readers (or subscribers), they may get a case of “ad blindness.” In this situation, you may want to try to change the positions and/or colors of the ads on a regular basis. This way it will grab their attention.

5. Copy ideas. I don’t mean steal other people’s ideas here, but if they are doing something that looks interesting with their ads, try it! Just as long as it is in accordance with Google’s policy, there is no harm in trying it out for yourself. Sometimes, you may find a site that is doing something that never occurred to you before.

If you try these quick 5 tips, you will probably notice an increase in you CTR. Good luck & best wishes!

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

How to Make Easy Money with Credit Card Loans


It seems that almost everyone has a credit card these days, right? They are so much easier to use than cash or checks. But what many people don’t realize is that using your credit card loans can even be used to MAKE MONEY!

First, let’s start with the basics, and then get into the more complex. This article is a bit lengthy, so sit back and relax. Also, let me add a disclaimer that you should always follow all applicable laws and credit card loan agreements, and I have no idea if any of this would affect something like your credit rating. But nevertheless, here it goes:
How to Make Money by Using a Credit Card (Loan)

If you use your credit card, you could actually make money. I am sure you are probably familiar with how a credit card works. Companies charge interest and other various fees in exchange for the flexibility to have a loan at any time. But if you know a couple of tricks, using your card can help you to make some money on purchases. Here is how:
Make Money From Credit Cards by Joining Programs to Earn Points, Cash Back, and Rewards

This is a simple one, but many people don’t realize that most reputable credit card companies will offer a rewards, cash back, or points program. So making money in this way is pretty simple. All you have to do is join (or sign up) for the credit card companies rewards program. Many programs will offer $1 for every $1 you spend, or 5% cash back, etc. There are many different programs, but the point is that you can earn money (or points that you can use to redeem money or gift cards).

So in this deal, you simply use your card to buy the stuff you need to buy each month (groceries, gas, entertainment, etc.). Then, you will be earning points, cash, or rewards that you can redeem. BAM- easy money. However, the thing you want to watch out for is getting trapped by high interest rates or fees. Instead, apply for a credit card program with a good grace period before the interest starts to apply. For example, if your card has a 30 day grace period, you can use your card, and then pay the balance in full as soon as you receive your bill. Easy money! Just don’t keep a balance or get hit with late fees if you want to make sure you make money and don’t lose money.
Make Money From Credit Cards by Utilizing the Interest Free Loan Offers

One of the sneakiest ways of making money with credit card loan programs is by taking advantage of the “Zero Percent (0%) Introductory Interest Rate.” You have to be careful with these and read the fine print, but if you are able to get approved for one of these with a high credit limit, it is almost as

PayPal Credit Card |Should You Get a PayPal Credit Card?


PayPal is an online payment company that has been in business since December 1998. As the leading online payment company, PayPal currently offers a PayPal credit card. The company currently has nearly 98 million active registered accounts.

PayPal operates in 190 markets using 25 currencies. There are localized websites in 21 of the 190 markets. The services offered by PayPal allow customers to send and receive payments from other individuals without exchanging or exposing financial information. You can also check account balances and add or remove bank accounts as desired.
Is it worth investing

I Lost My Credit Card, It May Be Stolen, Help! What to Do If You Lose Your Credit Card


It happens to everyone: you can easily misplace your wallet, leave your credit card at a restaurant, and more. So what should you do if you lose your credit card, or suspect your credit card was stolen? Here are some tips to help you ensure your credit card account stays safe and reduce your credit card fraud risk:
Call the credit card company immediately. You can find their number on an old credit card statement (or online through their website). You need to let them know the situation immediately. They can then block your account, deactivate the old card, and mail you a new card with a totally new account number.
Monitor your bill for any suspicious charges that may show up. If any do, call your credit card company (and possibly the company that charged your card) and file a fraud report if necessary.
If anyone steals and/or uses your credit card fraudulently, it would be a good idea to let the credit card company know, and in addition, file a police report with the local authorities.
NEVER write a pin or account password on your credit card at any time.

Insert Image HTML Tag Using src and alt Attribute

HTML provides an Image tag to create more attractive web pages. In HTML you can use <img> tag to display the images in your web page. But to display the images you must have your own collection to host them along with your whole website. You can also use royalty free images from other online sources. Yahoo Flickr also provides royalty free images having Creative Common’s (CC) License that can be published in your personal pages. HTML image <img> tag accepts the URL of the image using its src attribute to display the image on HTML web page. Alt attribute of image tag <img> allows you o display the information about image in a tooltip when user points the mouse over image. Old HTML markup style allows using the <img> tag without its closing IMG tag but W3C HTML markup validation rules for future XHTML recommends to use the closing tag of HTML image <img /> tag.

Here is an example
src: src attribute of <img> tag is the main attribute that take the path or location of the image that is to be displayed. You can pass the online image using http:// domain name /directory (if any)/image name with its proper extension e.g.: ".jpg",".gif",".png". If image is hosted on your server then you can use the following method to set the insert image html tag using src and alt attribute of image tag:

Best iphone Apps For Internet Marketers


If you’re into internet marketing or run any kind of online business you’ve probably already got a smart phone and have started using it to help manage your online operations.

Your iphone can be used for so much more than just checking your email or browsing the net.

Below are some the best iphone apps I have personally used to help with my internet marketing.

1) CB Stats



This great little app allows to check on your clickbank account and check your daily sales just as if were logged in at the clickbank website. Just enter your clickbank details for the first time setup and choose a pin to keep the app secure. Then open the app and enter your pin to reveal your clickbank sales securely over any network. You can also add a additional 4 clickbank accounts and keep a check on them all without muliple logins and passwords.



2) JumiMouse



JumiMouse is one of several tools provided in a complete package called the JumiOne app, the JumiMouse app allows you to completely control everything on your pc from your iphone; how freaking cool!

Connecting and linking to your pc is pretty straight forward, a small program runs on your pc that waits for a connection (password protected) from your iphone. The phone scans your local network and connects to the computer you want to control.

You slide your finger across the iphone screen to control the mouse pointer on your pc and everything is d

How To Get Your Website On Facebook

Hiya,
Many people have asked the question “how do I get my website on facebook” and I stupidly thought that everyone knew how to do this.
This short guide will show you how easy it is.
1) Open up your favorite web browser and goto www.facebook.com
2) Login to your facebook account, if you don’t already have a facebook account create one.
3) Once logged in scroll down to the very bottom of the page, and click advertising
4) From the main advertising area select pages at the top
5) Select create a page
6) Select the type or business you would like to promote
7) Choose a name, note this name shows up in the google ranking.
You can customise your page now, simply fill in the blank boxes, add pictures and explain what it is that you do.

Hope this helps

How to Create a Search Engine Friendly Website

  1. Add Text to Your Images, Flash and Videos

    The first thing you should note about search engines is that their software can only read text. When I say text, I don't mean text that you embed in an image or text that you place inside a Flash file or those that appear in a video. I mean text like the text you see everywhere on thesitewizard.com's articles - plain, unadulterated, ordinary text.
    While it's true that some search engines have the rudimentary ability to scan a Flash file, you cannot assume that this ability is sophisticated enough to obtain all the information you want them to have. In fact, I suspect that only Google can do this, and even then only to extract straightforward links embedded in the file. And certainly no search engine I know can view an image file or video and determine the text that it contains.
    This is not to say that you cannot create a photo-album site, Flash game site or a video site that ranks in the search engine results page. You can still place your pictures, Flash, videos on your site. However, you should write content for each of these non-text elements to describe them.
    For example, you should describe each picture in the "alt" text for the image. For those who don't know what I'm saying, images are put into a web page using HTML code like the following:
    <img src="name-of-image.jpg" alt="Picture of a search engine ready website">
    Notice the "alt" part in the example HTML code above. Here, I described the image as a picture of a search engine ready website. You should of course replace that text with a brief description of what your image really shows. While search engines cannot actually see your picture, they can read your "alt" text and will include that in their index for your web page.
    Likewise, for sites with video files or Flash file, you should include additional text on that web page describing what your video shows or what the Flash file does.
    To put it another way, when designing your website, make your website more accessible for blind and

Commands:


1. Accessibility Controls - access.cpl
2. Accessibility Wizard - accwiz
3. Add Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl
4. Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl
5. Administrative Tools - control admintools
6. Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl
7. Bluetooth Transfer Wizard - fsquirt
8. Calculator - calc
9. Certificate Manager - certmgr.msc
10. Character Map - charmap
11. Check Disk Utility - chkdsk
12. Clipboard Viewer - clipbrd
13. Command Prompt - cmd
14. Component Services - dcomcnfg
15. Computer Management - compmgmt.msc
16. Control Panel - control
17. Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl
18. DDE Shares - ddeshare
19. Device Manager - devmgmt.msc
20. Direct X Troubleshooter - dxdiag
21. Disk Cleanup Utility - cleanmgr
22. Disk Defragment - dfrg.msc
23. Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc
24. Disk Partition Manager - diskpart
25. Display Properties - control desktop
26. Display Properties - desk.cpl
27. Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility - drwtsn32
28. Driver Verifier Utility - verifier
29. Event Viewer

How to Add a Feedback Form to Your Website with Dreamweaver CS5

A feedback form, also called a contact form, allows your visitors to send you a message from a web-based form. The message will be delivered to you via ordinary email. In this final chapter of the Dreamweaver CS5 Tutorial, you will add a feedback form to your website, thereby completing it.

As with the other chapters of this Dreamweaver tutorial series, this article assumes that you have completed the earlier chapters, and thus makes references to concepts and techniques taught there. If you are not an experienced user of Dreamweaver CS5, you may want to begin with chapter 1. In fact, if you are new to web design, it's best to start at the real beginning, with the guide How to Make / Create Your Own Website.
Goal of This Chapter

By the end of this chapter, you will have added a feedback form to your website. In fact, you will also have completed your website, and have a fully functional multi-page website. In addition, you will have learnt most of the commonly-used skills needed to create and maintain a website using Dreamweaver CS5, and be able to create other websites any time you want.
Before You Begin

You will find it much easier to understand this chapter if you have some experience using a feedback form as an ordinary user. As such, please go to Feedback Form Demo Site and use the form. Don't worry: the form on that site is just a demo, so you can test it to your heart's content without spamming anyone. The messages sent go into a black hole.

Even if you're a seasoned user of web forms, please go to that site and use the form there at least once. That way, I can refer to elements of that form in this tutorial without wondering whether you kno

Monday, 28 November 2011

Should I Learn HTML or Just Use a WYSIWYG Web Editor? Pros and Cons of Using a Visual Web Editor vs Learning HTML

Preliminary Matters

If you're not entirely sure what HTML is, please read Whatis HTML? What is CSS? What are JavaScript, PHP and Perl? before continuing. In fact, even if you think you know what HTML is, it may still be a good idea to at least glance at that article. From experience, I find that many webmasters-to-be only think they know what HTML is, but have actually misunderstood it. Don't worry. That ar

What is HTML?


When you write a normal document using a word processor like Microsoft Word/Office, your text is saved in a file with a special format. It is not simply saved as the string of words you typed since the document needs to preserve things like the font you chose, the size of the text, which words are in bold, which italics, and so on. The special format includes not only your words, but all these extra information so that the next time Word opens your document, it can display the document with the exact appearance you created earlier.
In the same way, web pages are simply strings of words put in a special format that web browsers are able to display. While the format of Word documents is simply called "Word format" (or "doc format"), loosely speaking, one might say that web pages are formatted using "HTML". Take the paragraph of text in the box below for example:
This is an example paragraph to illustrate what HTML is, for the purpose of explaining common terms like HTML, JavaScript and PHP.
If you were to peek into the raw code for the above words, you will see the following:
This is an example paragraph to illustrate what HTML is, for the purpose of <a href="http://www.thesitewizard.com/html-tutorial/what-is-html.shtml">explaining common terms like HTML, JavaScript and PHP</a>.
Notice that it is more or less like the text given earlier, except that there is additional information embedded. For example, the portion that says <a href="http://www.thesitewizard.com/html-tutorial/what-is-html.shtml"> (which I placed in a different font above to make it easier to spot) tells the web browser that what follows, until </a> is reached, is to be regarded as a link pointing at the web address http://www.thesitewizard.com/html-tutorial/what-is-html.shtml
When the web browser sees this information, it makes the words "explaining common terms like... [etc]" appear as the blue underlined text that represents a clickable link. The rest of the text is just displayed as-is.

Sunday, 27 November 2011

How to Make Money From Your Website

Now that you've created a website, how do you make money from it? There are at least two ways in which sites can make money:
  1. Advertising Revenue
  2. Selling Goods and Services
I shall deal with the second case, "Selling goods and services", in another article. In this article, I will address the issue of how your site can actually make money from advertising.

Making Money From Advertising

If you look at many websites, you will probably notice that there are banner advertisements displayed on most pages. If you are a newcomer to the scene, you might think that you must either be a company or that your site must be famous before you can get advertisers, just as it is the case in hardcopy publications.
In reality, anyone with a website can get advertisers. While it is true that if your site is well-known, you may get companies contactin

Free Antivirus Software, Free Online Virus Scan

The free antivirus programs listed on this page allow you to detect computer viruses, remove or repair infected files, prevent infection, detect and remove email viruses, etc. There are also free online virus scanning services available for those who prefer (or need to) scan for virus that way.
Note that a number of the free antivirus software listed have limited support for scanning spyware and other types of non-virus malware that their commercial equivalents provide. If you are looking for commercial antivirus software, one that comes highly recommended by security-conscious people is the Avira Antivir Premium (which is very light on resources and consistently has a very high detection rate). Also popular among many computer users is Norton Antivirus, which also has a Mac OS X version.
If your system is already infected, you may also want to take a look at the Free Antivirus Rescue CDs and DVDs page.
Incidentally, you should not install more than one antivirus or antimalware product on your computer. Even if the software does not complain and all seems fine, there may be underlying conflicts that cause one or more of the software to miss viruses and other malware. That is to say, you may end up with a system that is less secure and more unstable than if you were simply running a single product.

Free Antivirus Rescue CDs and DVDs

This page lists free antivirus rescue CDs and DVDs, that you can boot to and scan your existing system for viruses, spyware and other malware. They are useful if your system has become hopelessly riddled with such malware so that you cannot install an antivirus or anti-spyware tool anymore, or that it interferes with the antivirus software's ability to clean the system. In such a case, the best recourse is to boot from a rescue CD so that your antivirus software is running on a clean system. From that clean system, it will be able to detect and remove viruses without interference from the infection.
The rescue CDs/DVDs listed here are usually provided in the form of an ISO file. This is basically an image of a CD or DVD that contains an operating system like a cut-down version of one of the "Live CD" versions of Linux along with the antivirus software itself. You can't do much when you boot to that system, except to scan for viruses and malware. To use the ISO file, you will need to burn the file to a CD or DVD with a CD and DVD writing software. The ISO has to be written as a "disk image" (the exact words used depends on the software you use), and not as a data file. For example, in Nero Burning ROM, select the option "Burn Image" from the "Recorder" menu. Once this is done, put it in your computer drive and boot from it. (You may have to set your computer to boot from the CD from the BIOS setup screen first.)
Note that the rescue CDs are designed for you to recover from an infected system. They are not designed to protect you from infection. For that, you will need a decent antivirus program. If you can't afford a commercial antivirus program, you can find some free ones on the Free Antivirus Software and Free Online Virus Scans page.
Incidentally, there's no point downloading a rescue CD today in anticipation that you may get infected in the future. Viruses change and "mutate" rapidly. Your rescue CD will be outdated by the time you need it, and won't contain the virus definitions you need to combat your infection. It's best to just bookmark this page and download the CD only when you actually need it. Otherwise you'll just be wasting time (the files are very large).

Free Data Recovery, File and Partition Recovery, Undelete and Unformat Software

Have you ever deleted a file, deleted a partition or formatted a disk only to realize that it was a crucial mistake? The data recovery utilities on this page allow you to undelete erased files, recover or restore a deleted partition, restore deleted pictures from your CF card, SD card, MMC, Memory Stick or USB drives, and so on. Some of the tools below can even reconstruct portions of a deleted file (namely, the file header) that have been destroyed or overwritten by some other file.
Note that undeleting a file is an "iffy" business at best, since modern operating systems tend to access the hard disk behind your back while you use it, possibly overwriting portions of hard disk that contain your deleted files, making it impossible for you to unerase them. If you know that you have deleted a file by accident, you should immediately stop using that computer. Use a different computer to download the tools below. If possible, detach the hard disk (if it's a hard disk we're talking about) from the computer and attach it as a secondary drive in another computer and perform the recovery from that computer.
The best file undelete tool / data recovery utility is a regularly backed-up system. If you back up your data at regular intervals, your ability to recover your data improves tremendously. If you do not back up your system regularly, you should check out the Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities page for tools that you can use.
If your data is very precious, you might also want to consider recovering it using a commercial tool like Handy Recovery, a utility that has garnered favourable reviews in many circles. The all-in-one Swiss army knife of system optimization and maintenance, Tune-Up Utilities, can also restore deleted or damaged files (among other things).

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