Miskin IT News

New website

Miskin Web Design — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:34:44 +0000

Miskin IT now have a new website with online technical support. Please visit our homepage for details – Miskin IT

Growing concerns for smart phone security.

Miskin Web Design — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:58:04 +0000

There is growing concern for smart phone security and the rise of malicious software downloadable through Apps and websites. Modern smart phones these days hold not only personal contact information but website and email passwords like Facebook and Hotmail.

A recent virus found on Android OS made the phone text premium rate numbers costing the phone owner hundreds of pounds. More worryingly the software and virus was easily transmitted by text message from phone to phone making the receiver more likely to trust and install the software if received from a friend.

Advice for all smart phones would be to only download Apps and software from official markets, be very cautious of apps that want more control over your phone than necessary and do not install apps and software received in text messages even when the source is known.

How do you view .pdf files?

Miskin Web Design — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:47:00 +0000

A .pdf file is a Portable Document Format made by Adobe. There are many ways to view the files but the most common method is using Adobe Reader 9. Adobe Reader 9 is free for download from http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

There are many ways to create or edit .pdf files. One of the more popular methods is to use Open Office 3 and export as a pdf.

Chrome OS: Touch of genius or missing the mark?

Miskin Web Design — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:49:51 +0000

With the Chrome OS release date getting ever nearer we take a quick look at its details and functions. The OS is not like Windows or OSX but specifically designed for cloud computing and online storage with no functions to install local software. Hardware specifications will be strictly controlled by Google and have banned certain elements like hard drives. There’s no doubt there is a market for simple, secure, easy to use laptops and other than the iPad there doesn’t seem to be any worth while solutions at the moment.

Below are some points why we think it may hit or miss the mark:

Hit:

With all software being web based the OS boot times will be considerably quick
Being open sourced linux based it will be easy to tailor to suit specific needs and add extra functionality.
As more and more silver surfers go online there is clearly a glaring hole in the market for easy use, secure systems with simple functionality.
The inclusion of Apps will make the OS even more appealling.

Miss:

Serious computer users will find it’s lack of local storage a complete hinderence.
It will be completely dependant on internet access meaning many users and businesses with poor or unreliable internet will not want one.
Non-compatibilty with Andriod Apps shows a lack of planning.
You’re limited to software that is only on the cloud.
Effeciency of the OS may be based on how near your Cloud server is to your location. Will Google be willing to setup servers in remote countries with slower internet speeds?

There’s no doubt that many customers simply want a easy and secure laptop with simple browsing and email functionality so in many respects Chrome OS will work. But the limitations imposed by Google will mean that any serious computer user is still going to need a laptop or desktop before this. Like the iPad it’s going to be something more of an addition to peoples homes but not a serious option for businesses. These limitations seem to make sense when you realise Google’s aim isn’t to directly compete with exsisting OS like Windows 7. With it being open source Linux though, it will be very interesting to see what customisation will be made to the OS by developers and whether we will eventually be able to use it on laptops as a normal OS. Perhaps this will be the boot up the backside Linux OS needs?

What is interesting is the talk that Chrome can be shipped with other OS giving the user the best of both worlds on one computer. Now that’s an appealing concept.

End of the line for net neutrality.

Miskin Web Design — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:48:33 +0000

The days of the free, open and neutral internet are coming to an end. More and more pressure seems to be building to create a two tier internet for traffic that pays for priority over others. In latest news Google and Verizon have hatched a deal to allow paying websites greater speeds over the net. Google have always maintained that they support net neutrality but it’s likely Google will be one of the biggest factors and perhaps biggest beneficary why a tier system will generate money for companies involved. Search engines base their rankings not only on content but speed, no business will want to see their ranking slip due to low priority traffic hence will pay large sums fo money for the privalege. At the moment website speed is a small factor for ranking but if there’s money to be made you’d pretty much guarantee search engines will include the speed of a website as an important factor. And will the greed stop at a two tier system?

Double clicking data grids in C#

Miskin Web Design — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:04:15 +0000

Sometimes you may want to pass information about the row or cell after double clicking a data grid. This simple code shows how its done when the data grid is using a dataset. When double clicking a cell you need to first setup the event handler. You simply enter this in your constructor or class load method:



//double cell click event. dataGrid1 is the name of your grid

this.dataGrid1.CellContentDoubleClick += new System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellEventHandler(this.dataGrid1_CellContentDoubleClick);

Followed by:

private void dataGrid1_CellContentDoubleClick(object sender, DataGridViewCellEventArgs e)
{
//create a new datarow from the dataset and current row slected from datagrid1
DataRow myDatarow = myDataset.Tables["Customer"].Rows[dataGrid1.CurrentRow.Index];

// fill text box with column 0
textBox1.Text = myDatarow[0].ToString();

//fill text box with selected cell value
textBox2.Text = dataGrid1.CurrentCell.Value.ToString();

//you can send the row to a new form if you change or overload the constructor
NewForm1 newForm = new NewForm1(myDatarow);
}

What is a SSD?

Miskin Web Design — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:41:16 +0000

A SSD is a Solid-state Drive so called because it uses Solid-state memory. A good example is the memory stick you use to transfer files from computer to computer. It is now replacing the traditional Hard Disc Drives that have been popular for nearly 30 years. The benefit of the SSD is that it has no moving parts meaning far quicker response times. When a traditional drives loads and saves it takes time for the drive to start spnning, the arms to move to the correct place and scan over the drive. They are also quieter, cooler, immune to magnets, electric discharge and radiation, more shock resistant and can be smaller in size.
The original disadvantages of the SSD are almost unimportant now as prices mean they are now as affordable as HDD were only 5 years ago and many of the problems with reliability and wear leveling have been addressed. Also the latest PCIe SSD are incredibly fast reading at over 800MB/s compared to traditional HDD at around 80MB/s. Don’t get too excited though as a 250GB PCIe SSD retail at around £4000 presently while a normal SSD will cost at current prices around £2 per GB

To see the power of SSD and how it can be used in a RAID setup for increible performance check out this YouTube vid. In theory this can be done with HDD but it’s not as easy.

What is a blog and how can it help my company?

Miskin Web Design — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:14:36 +0000

A blog or web log is a website that hold views, updates, news and events by an individual or more. It usually can be easily edited and updated without the need to be able to know PHP or other internet code. You are reading a blog at this moment.

How can a blog help your company?

The obvious answer is that it updates your customers about your product or the market allowing customers to subscribe to your news feeds and get up to the minute information. Blogs may benefit certain types of business more especially fashion, technical or news businesses. What isn’t obvious to most companies though are the benefits you’ll recieve in search engines. To obtain to good search engine ranking you must have keyword content and a website that regulary updates. Blogs are by far the most cost effective way of updating your website with topics relevant to your business.

Rich Brooks has some excellent tips on blogging and how it can help your business here.

If you would like to enquire about setting up a blog for your business speak to Miskin Web Design about your needs. Setting up a simple blog website for your company is cheaper than you think.

Website design in Wales

Miskin Web Design — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:28:02 +0000

Are you looking for Website Design or IT support in Wales? Miskin IT can offer a complete package including SEO work, E-Commerce and Online Database Configuration to small businesses in these areas:

Cardiff
Barry
Penarth
Pontyclun
Miskin
Talbot Green
Llantrisant
Tonyrefail
Treorchy
Tony Pandy
Porth
Pontypridd
Cowbridge
Bridgend
Caerphilly
Newport
Rhondda
Cwmbran
Pontypool
Bargoed
Blackwood
Aberdare
Merthyr Tydfil
Porthcawl
Neath
Swansea

Please view our Website Design pages for more details.

PHP Basics: Functions.

Miskin Web Design — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:40:45 +0000

Functions are a fundamental part of programming and often called methods or routines. There are two types of function: one that returns a value and one that simply executes and returns nothing. You generally can add a function anywhere in your PHP code and they are global so you can put them in include files to keep your code tidy. Take this simple example:

function printHello()

{

echo ‘Hello Word’;

}

printHello();

In this example the function is read into memory. It is only called when the program/server runs the printHello(); line then it will jump to the start of the function run the code inside and jump back to the printHello() line once it hits the close bracket. You could have put printHello() above the function and it still would have worked. How can functions help? This example is probably a waste of time to write but what if we wanted to print a list of names from a database every time a page loaded. Do we add the many lines of code manually to every page or do we create one global function and use a simple call like printNames()?

Functions come into their own when they return a value.

$c = 12;

//calls addThis function
$add = addThis(3,7);

// prints 10 on screen
echo $add;

function addThis($a,$b)
{
$total = $a + $b;
return $total;
}
?>

You will notice that this function has $a and $b between brackets. These are called parameters and the $a and $b now take the values you sent the function when you called it (3 and 7). The function adds them up and sends the $total back. This value is stored in the variable $add.

Please note that all variables in a function are local and functions by default cannot see variables outside the function and vice versa. This function would not be able to see $c variable and once the function ends all the local variables within it are effectively destroyed ($a, $b, $total).
To allow a function to see a variable outside its scope you must tell it to by using the global keyword.

$c = 12;
$total = 4;

//calls addThis function
$add = addThis(3,7);

// prints 22 on screen
echo $add;

function addThis($a,$b)
{
global $c;
$total = $a + $b + $c;
return $total;
}
?>

I’ve added $total variable outside the function. This variable would not be effected in any way by the $total variable in the function as they are in different scopes. It would still remain as 4.

PHP has many built in functions that return values and one of the main ones you’ll use is the date() function. The date function has many formats and it can return different values depending on what you put in. Unfortunately you cannot overload a function in PHP but in true polymorphism style there are different ways to achieve the same results. If you don’t know what overloading is, it doesn’t matter too much.
With the date() function we can see the true power of the function:
(examples taken from php.net)

// set the default timezone to use. Available since PHP 5.1
date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’);

// Prints something like: Monday
echo date(“l”);

// Prints something like: Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM
echo date(‘l jS \of F Y h:i:s A’);

// Prints: July 1, 2000 is on a Saturday
echo “July 1, 2000 is on a ” . date(“l”, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));

/* use the constants in the format parameter */
// prints something like: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:12:46 UTC
echo date(DATE_RFC822);

// prints something like: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
echo date(DATE_ATOM, mktime(0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 2000));
?>

// Assuming today is March 10th, 2001, 5:16:18 pm, and that we are in the
// Mountain Standard Time (MST) Time Zone

$today = date(“F j, Y, g:i a”); // March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm
$today = date(“m.d.y”); // 03.10.01
$today = date(“j, n, Y”); // 10, 3, 2001
$today = date(“Ymd”); // 20010310
$today = date(‘h-i-s, j-m-y, it is w Day’); // 05-16-18, 10-03-01, 1631 1618 6 Satpm01
$today = date(‘\i\t \i\s \t\h\e jS \d\a\y.’); // it is the 10th day.
$today = date(“D M j G:i:s T Y”); // Sat Mar 10 17:16:18 MST 2001
$today = date(‘H:m:s \m \i\s\ \m\o\n\t\h’); // 17:03:18 m is month
$today = date(“H:i:s”); // 17:16:18
?>