Netiquette - Learning the Rules of the Internet

The art of faceless communication is something that is not taught in any pre-work educational setting I am aware of.  Neither of my colleges taught such classes and while they hinted at proper "netiquette" techniques, they were minimal references at best.  What is the "Netiquette" I'm speaking of?  It is proper electronic communication techniques whose intent is more than assisting people poor English skills called "Grammar Abusers" to clearly articulate their messages.  It means to keep individuals connected to the "Faces" of the faceless.  The point being: the "Golden Rule"standards still apply even to the internet.

In Virginia Shea's book titled "Netiquette", she digs deep into the importance of proper faceless communication. The principals this manual discusses, albeit a bit dated, still stands true. And there are even classes one can take online.  Albion.com offers an online overview using the materials from Shea's book.  Here is an excerpt from Albion.com's Netiquette:

"Would you say it to the person's face?

Writer and Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki tells a story about getting email from some fellow he's never met. Online, this fellow tells Guy that he's a bad writer with nothing interesting to say.
Unbelievably rude? Yes, but unfortunately, it happens all the time in cyberspace.

Maybe it's the awesome power of being able to send mail directly to a well-known writer like Guy. Maybe it's the fact that you can't see his face crumple in misery as he reads your cruel words. Whatever the reason, it's incredibly common.

Guy proposes a useful test for anything you're about to post or mail: Ask yourself, "Would I say this to the person's face?" If the answer is no, rewrite and reread. Repeat the process till you feel sure that you'd feel as comfortable saying these words to the live person as you do sending them through cyberspace.

Of course, it's possible that you'd feel great about saying something extremely rude to the person's face. In that case, Netiquette can't help you. Go get a copy of Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior."

What I found to be most excellent while reviewing this book were the not-so-subtle references to the absence of body language and our ability to slide into "Stealth Trolling" mode given the anonymity the internet affords us. 

It's true, the internet is a vast chasm of unknown people from around the world, all of whom have very little idea who you are and could, in most cases, care less.  That being said, Netiquette is as lost to electronic communication as good penmanship is to handwriting.  It would behoove anyone to take a moment to brush up on their internet-manners to keep from having unwanted business faux pas.

The Future of the WWW, HTML5 and CSS3

In a recent article from Tech Republic, written by Justin James, he asks the following:

"The trend toward using Web technologies for application development, even outside of the Web browser, is here to stay. The recent revelation that Windows 8 will have provisions for writing apps using the HTML5 technologies merely cements this shift in the development world. So the question is: How are you going to deal with it?"

How am I going to deal with it?  I don't know how other web developers keep up with new technologies with intense learning curves but for me it means forking over some hard earned cash to get the low-down from places like www.lynda.com and the local colleges.

And lets not forget CSS3, another advance that once browsers begin sweeping support will overtake another facet of the industry.  When combined, the HTML5/CSS3 have the same industry wide "awe" inspiring effect as XHTML/CSS did when it first came out.

While both HTML5 and CSS3 are not standards yet, they soon will be so to keep pace with new technologies, get your dunce cap on and get in a classroom soon!  I already am.

Tired of Google+ in every blog? Enjoy free Joomla! tutorials instead.

If you like to eat (and I certainly do) here is an off-topic freeby for you. Check this video tutorial out on how to create a slideshow with your articles in Joomla. It is cool and works, albeit there is a bit of a learning curve (or so I found it to be).

Joomla! Free Slider SL1 Tutorial

By learning curve, I mean the documentation for this FREE tutorial isn't the greatest but with a little coding background you can implement this extension. Your clients will enjoy the results (and so will you).

Is Google lord of the world wide web?

Consider the recent turn of events regarding Google's latest mass judgement towards users, shutting off ALL of your Google accounts because of their "real name" policy. Pseudo-names are not allowed, therefore, Google will freeze all of your Google assets, not just Google+.

According to many, this feels like an invasion of privacy. Many want some form of anonymity when it comes to the internet and their privacy. They feel Pseudo-names are a form of protection from identity theft.

The flip side of this is that maybe...just maybe Google is trying to prevent the very thing that these people are angry about, identity theft, amongst many other troubles that plague our internet experiences every day. Dissidents, individuals who want to politically take a stand but do not want the negative (or positive) ramifications that come with speaking up to be personally attached to who they really are especially sensitive to this issue as it leaves them prone.

Say for instance, TROLLS, you know, those losers on the internet whose sole purpose is to talk smack in any public setting because the have "anonymity" living behind their pseudo-name.

Google has frozen thousands of accounts under this "real name" stance, an not just your Google+ account is frozen. It includes everything Google has control over. So, for many of us webmasters who rely on the scores of Google tools out there, fear has taken on a new name. It's called "Lord Google" and if the pesants do not play nice with the court, Lord Google will banish your existence until such time as you comply with his wishes.

That last bit is quite extreme but truly for some it may seem this to be a horrible invasion into their private internet life.

For me, I tend to ride the middle on this issue. My Google accounts are safe because I'm me online as well as in real life, for better or for worse. And I hate trolls...I abhor the ridiculous wastes of internet space these spineless people take up. And I also wonder, how many of us walk into a party or the mall and start introducing ourselves as "Sam the Slayer" or "BabyKillerZeb". Just saying is all.

Mac OSX Lion - Can we get better battery life...yet?

The long awaited (at least for me) release of Apple's OSX Lion met with much ado earlier this week. And at $29.00, who could ever be upset? They've opted out of CD's and have a download only from iTunes which gave many a worry but fear not! Their download speed is incredible...it took only 7 minutes to download the upgrade on a home RoadRunner account.

Installation is only a wiff as well, about 14 minutes and I was upgraded. Easy-peesy people, something I've never experienced with Windows in nearly 20 years of using their products. Yes, I'm that old, but never mind that.

On to the pressing issues. The installation was interesting, there wasn't really any notification of where I was in the process. Only a little lion icon on my doc that didn't show any percent of installation information. So, I simply went and made myself a cup of tea and waited patiently.

The most important thing for me was battery life. I own a Macbook, nothing too fancy as it's about 4 years old and when I upgraded to Snow Leopard 2 years ago, I was sadly disappointed. I was reduced from around 8 hours of battery life to a poultry 1.5 hours! Devastated was more like it, I used it daily and was reduced to being tethered to an outlet in nearly every situation. Grrrrr. And with each update, nothing changed. I combed hours of blogs and forums looking for a solution only to find I wasn't the only one with this problem but no solution was in sight.

So when I found out about Lion, I held a small beacon of hope...would they fix this obvious bug?

Drumroll please.....YES! I am back up to nearly 8 hours of battery life(unless I'm playing with videos or watching a DVD, then it's down to about 3.5-4 hrs which is what it was before).

So YIPEE! Old reliable is back and we are happy campers once again.

Just a Few Google+ Tips

Week 3 of Google+ is coming to an end an what have I learned so far.  I like it.  A lot.  Here are a few things I've gleaned thus far:

"Will you just shut up!"  Ever respond to a post on Facebook and receive hundreds of responses in your email from people don't know?  I have and it sucks.  Use the drop down icon on the post and choose "MUTE" to stop receiving annoying updates to posts that are out of control. 

"Know your circles!" Before you pick your circles for a post, remember who's in them.  Share wisely, grasshopper!

"You've been tagged!"  To tag someone in a post using Google+, simply use the + symbol and their name. The intelligent auto-fill will take over and offer you a bunch of suggestions from your circles.

"What a large audience you have, Grandma!"  Share your posts via email to your Gmail account using the check box next to the share icon.  Remember...know your audience too!

"Stop bugging me!" Disable email notifications is easy with Google+  To turn off select email notifications, go to the Google+ settings page. To get there, select the gear icon in the top right of your Google+ page, then choosing "Google+ settings."

"It's oh so easy!"  Drag and drop, YIPEE!  Wanna post a photo or video?  Simply drag and drop it from your desktop to Google+ Share box and viola, you have new content!

"None of your business, if you please!"  Tired of showing the world who is in your circles?  Simply turn this off by clicking "Edit Profile", then hover over your Circles information. To edit it, click the gray globe icon. Now choose whether or not you want others to see who you have in your Circles and who has put you in their Circle.

Will it replace Facebook?  I don't know but because of it ease of use I have no doubt it will give them a run for their money.

Google+ and SEO, a marriage made in heaven?

Search engine giant Google's newest entry into the webverse is Google+.  Nothing new, the universe is abuzz over its implications.  But how will it be for small businesses?  A recent blog post by PC World's Llie Mitaru tackles this subject and raises a few questions too.

Brand Pages:  Facebook has business pages, will Google+ have brand pages?  It is unclear from their publicity whether they have chosen to include these but I will risk a solid "YES" they will.  There is absolutely no reason for them not to and literally millions of reason why they should.  Millions as in, millions of businesses who would jump on the band wagon to use this mode of free advertising.  So I ask, why speculate, you know they're going to do it.  Now it's just, how and to what benefit can we utilize this to our SEO advantage?

SEO and Google+:  This is really a marriage made in web-heaven.  The largest search engine in the world spawns a social media exchange that includes such items as SPARKS and 1+, both items are caught by the giant in results driven searches, providing individualized content to search-ees.  Search Engine Giant + Social Media (the contents of which are fed into Google)  = SEO boosts for businesses, entrepreneurs, corporations and individuals alike.

After using Google+ for the past couple of weeks, I can honestly say that I will be looking for Brand Pages to become available very soon. I am also using SPARKS and 1+ to drive clients SEO, are you?

The Future of Internet Technologies-HTML5, jQuery...

Web life isn't as futuristic as it may seem, or is it.   At what seems like the speed of light, technology grows old and is placed on the back burner; sometimes as fast as 6 months after it's inception.  And somewhere in all these bites of chaos are the latest core advances in web technology, hurtling developers into a learning frenzy to stay ahead of the curve.   Here is a list (as compiled by Tech Republic) that outlines the newest version of web technology standards:

• HTML5: While HTML5 may not be a fully finalized standard yet, it is not changing very much at this stage. Right now, it is usable and has a decent amount of implementation in browsers. You should start learning it now.
• CSS: If you are not already familiar with CSS, now is a good time to learn it. Browser support keeps improving, and Internet Explorer 6 is now a small enough portion of the market that many developers feel safe in ignoring it.
• Web services: Every major server-side development language has a framework or set of libraries for easily producing Web services, such as Windows Communication Foundation(WCF) in .NET. It should not take much learning to understand the basics. You will want to especially learn how to produce JSON output, which is quickly becoming the lingua franca of Web applications. Also make sure that you understand RESTful Web services. While they may be more work to consume than SOAP services are in a modern development environment, they are much more universally accessible.
• JavaScript: The new application development paradigms require a lot more JavaScript knowledge than it takes for traditional ASP.NET or similar development requires.
• jQuery: jQuery has become the client-side development framework to use; it seemingly can do it all. With an extensive set of plugins, if there is a client UI trick you need to try, there is a good chance that jQuery can do it for you.

The writing was on the walls for CSS nearly 10 years ago, it has been a core staple of the web diet for developers  who create cutting edge appeal in their websites.  Flash has clearly been replaced by jQuery, and it is easy to understand why with the lack of security issues that plague Flash, jQuery is robust, dynamic and a safer choice.

As a web developer, "continuing education credits" are critical.  Where we don't receive any industry credits for keeping up with the whole of technology standards as they roll forward, we certainly do receive the benefits of stronger and more dynamic web development projects that aid in ease of deployment and long-term maintenance.

Google+, Fun or Fail?

Today I was able to take a dry run through Google+, the newest social media service to enter the webworld. In 18 minutes, I set up a full profile, added 42 friends to 5 circles, added nearly 100 photos to 4 albums, connected my Picasa account and set up the easiest security system for any social media I've ever tried.  Considering I opted not to try out Google Buzz, I missed the terrible-twos Google had with Google+'s younger sibling. 

Was it fun?  Yeah, I mean, it was super easy and setting up the video camera was a piece of cake.  Will it be fun?  My assumption is yes, it is super easy to navigate, 100% easier than Facebook to set up and use so I will definitely be using it.

Will it ever replace the social giant Facebook?  That remains to be seen but so far I really enjoy how easy it is to navigate, add friends to my circles and especially control the security options.

Kudos to Google for a great product!

Tech-Educational RSS Feeds - Tech Republic

As a long time fan of Tech Republic, I wanted to make a quick post that gave a direct link to their RSS feeds.  I subscribe to many of these feeds and can tell you from personal experience, this group has its thumb on the pulse of technology and can even explain how to properly implement/use it.  I highly recommend their insight and enjoy reading their many blogs as the points of view vary greatly between employees.   If you subscribe to techno-RSS feeds, check these out and it i likely you will be as impressed as I am.

Tech Republic's RSS Feeds

SEO Explained, The Comic Book Way

For those of us who are comic book junkies, you will get a real kick out of Red Evolution's "SEO Man" comic strip. In true comic book fashion, SEO Man explains the why's and wherefores of SEO in a most colorful way. I am totally entertained...where can I get a subscription!

SEO Explained, Our Super Hero SEO Man Gives You The Low Down on SEO

"Cursive vs Typing" When does technology not advance society?

This is an age old dilemma, do we work ourselves out of jobs by being overly efficient?  As is the case with the "cursive writing being replaced with typing class" debate.  

There are two sides of the debate, actually, there are three, those who say "No, cursive is a thing of the past, as is handwriting in general.  Everything is typed and is clearer to read because of it."  Its a bold move that follows technology and shows the world how advanced the United States as become.

Then there are those who believe the ability to sign your name is sort of a critical thing.  I suppose you could learn to print a signature but really....is that your "signature" or is it just more sloppy printing?  Also, writing in cursive is faster...albeit not as legible.  And what of reading historical documentation with its wide looping letters?  Would you be able to read an older persons hand written note?

And then there are those who don't care either way.  Take my neighbor for example, his kids are all being raised on computers and he could care less if they can write in cursive.  I believe his family is the reason for the "all you can text" cell phone plans.    

Where do I stand on this debate?  I tend to think as long as a child can adequately sign their name, legibility print and type accurately that maybe cursive could be reserved for a calligraphy class later in life.