Being a web geek I tend to have my fingers in all the bits and bytes that circle the world wide web, Now this is not in anyways bad but it means my time is always pulled into diverse little specs of dust, fluttering from one space into the next!

Now recently I’ve been asked alot about Search Engine Optimization, and how people can improve their own domain listings within Google, Bing, Yahoo and other Search engines without going into the whole symantic drama that is HTML coding.

Being a web developer I thought to myself there is no way to fix a ranking without editing the site! Or is there?… Apprently around 30% of company websites and other small organisations don’t realise that they are infact doing this and they kill off alot of their own rankings due to one little issue that is the www’s!

Still not with me? I’ll run you upto speed on what I’m referring to…
Believe it or not, you can actually ask Google, “How many pages of my website do you have in your memory?”… To do this you need to use the site:url syntax within a Google search, What Google will then do is reply with a list of all your domains pages. Fortunatly if you havn’t been savi and not added this very little fix you will see that Google will have dropped alot of originally decent content and placed it upon the other domain.

Google Search Comparisons

Without www’s

With www’s

Now the above is pretty obvious, I’ve requested all the pages that are in the google listing engine that are registered under the said sites. Obviously these two domains are the same… So why is google indexing them seperately? Thats down to how you have your server/site setup.

Ideally what you want is one domain that is either http://test.com or http://www.test.com and not both.

To fix the issue and gain your search engine rankings quickly you need to tell a visitor to go to either one or the other. Now the question I know you’re going to be asking is, “Which is better, www’s or no www’s?”. Now this is down to personal perference but I personally rather have no www’s, and i’ll explain why.

With the internet progressing with Twitter, Facebook, and other various mobile devices people are using urls more and more day in and day out. Now when you type addresses all day like I do you tent to get bored and annoyed at typing www’s time after time!

Also I actually prefer to go for with the other big reason, I love to use short URLs and www’s are annoying (In my opinion).

The mod_rewrite redirect fix

To impliment this into your site couldn’t be easier! Just FTP onto your webhosting and into the root directory of your hosting files, Usuallly that would be www/ or public_html/ (something like that) create a new file called .htaccess and open it up with your editor.

Paste in the following code.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.dancunningham.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://dancunningham.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]


Now if you have multiple Top Level Domains (TLD’s) then you might want to point them all to the same hosting server / directory. Again thats not a problem we can tell the site to handle these in a similar way. Just add the extra domains into your .htaccess like the below example and the apache server will handle the rest.


RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.dancunningham.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://dancunningham.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cunni.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://dancunningham.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]


I hope that this tutorial makes sense and helps those who are suffering fundamental search engine ranking issues! I only know of these issues as I’ve experienced them for myself. So again im simply passing on some knowledge to help others learn from mine. If anyone has anything they wish to add or comment on then please do so below.

So back in the begining of 2010 we was all hyped about the leak of the iPhone 4 that had been lost at a bar in germany. This lead to some cool new media which made me want the new iPhone even more! That aside apple were massively annoyed that it had been leaked but to be honest it just made their sales and promotion globally only better!

Anyways, I took the decission back in feb 2010 that I would be buying a new iPhone and that I would have it on release day! Afterall my old 3G was getting a bit tatty and looking a little worse for wear but it’s been an amazing little iPhone has my 3G! Its been through the thick and thin, and even has continued to work after water damage!

So here where my options. Im on the UK mobile network “Three.co.uk” and while they are actually one of the best UK 3G carriers, they dont offically support the iPhone.
I’ve been using them for years and years and managed to get my iPhone 3g to work with them with some cool little software settings.

So i was a bit upset when I heard that only O2, Orange, Vodaphone and T-Mobile were going to be getting the iPhone 4. Then in early June 2010, Apple announced that the iPhone 4 was going to be released with Three!

That left me in the middle… Choosing tariffs, arggg…

Tarrifs, Do I stay or do I go?

I Did alot of research with this, and although I dont want to bore you with to much detail, I worked out that a 18 month contract @ around £35 a month would make the phone and contract together a whopping £900 for 18 months. That also means that when the new iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 as it might be called comes out I won’t be able to upgrade as i’ll still have 6months left on my contract.

That aside, I didnt want to be tied down to any contract or any particular carrier, So i bought the iPhone 4 Outright. Its factory unlocked, and for that it was well worth it!

Performance over the 3Gs and living without JailBrake

Well having had the use of all generation of iPhone’s I actually can tell that the iPhone 4 is rather much more quicker than its little sister the 3Gs, When you place the two side by side and start to use them in an identical manor the speed differences are so obvious and second to non that the iPhone 4 is the quicker of the two by at least 2 times. I had this when I compared the iPhone 3g with the iPhone 3Gs.

After playing around for a while, I was leaving the old iPhone at home even though I do need a few of my jailbroken cydia applications. Now while my iPhone 4 is not yet jailbroken, I dont fee the need as much as I thought I would to require a Jailbroken iPhone.

Now I know that there isn’t a long wait now for the iPhone 4 jailbreak to be released the apps in which I do require like MyWi and Auto Silent will soon be available on my iPhone 4, I can only honestly say I’ve not overly missed my Jailbrake!

Overall Conclusion

Im well in pressed with the iPhone 4, and I know that its the best thing I’ve bought in a long while. Even with all the reception issues, Which may I add havn’t been that bad with the carrier “Three.co.uk” While other who use the same phone on O2 are having somewhat differnt results.

I’ve not had a call drop out, or anyone not able to hear me via the normal phone call method. Skype has has its issues but thats due to bad wifi and bandwidth issues, but that aside The phone itself is twice if not 3 times better than my old iPhone! Im truely impressed!

Update

I’ve recently installed MyWi on iOS4 and My3G and I’m really truely impressed! I’ve now turned my iPhone into a Wifi access point and can now also use Facetime over 3. Although FaceTime wasn’t designed to work over 3G I’ve not had any more or less issues than I do at work or home with using the wifi access point.

So it would seem that no one else has even posted this online, So i thought i’d create a quick Youtube “How to” style fix video. The iPhone will show a “No Sim Installed” Message like this

The Youtube how to…

I’ve thrown together a small video here for you to watch. Or play using the embedded youtube player below.

Update

This has actually turned out be to quite a popular video, Alot of people email me and comment on youtube thanking me for posting it, So If you have any questions then please feel free to leave a comment.

Are your SSL web pages plagued by the browser warning “This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?”

This is a common error that occurs when some element on a secure web page (one that is loaded with https:// in the address bar) is not being loaded from a secure source. This usually occurs with images, frames, iframes, Flash, and JavaScripts. There are a few ways to fix it:
1. Change all URLs to https

Just open up the offending web page and search for http://. Change the references on all images, iframes, Flash, and Javascripts to https://. For example.

<img src="https://www.domain.com/image.gif" alt="" />

This may not work if you are loading an image from another site that does not have SSL set up. Also, with this method you’ll be loading SSL images even when the client is loading from a non-secure page. This will add extra processing load on the server and client. This is definitely not recommended for a high volume site.
2. Change all links to // or make them relative

Rather than changing all the links to https://, change them to just //

<img src="//www.domain.com/image.gif" alt="" />

Alternatively, if the images or scripts are located on the same domain, you can access them relatively, rather than absolutely:

<img src="image.gif" alt="" />

Using this method, the browser will know that it must load the image securely if the web page is being loaded securely but it will also load the image normally if the page is not being accessed securely. The image will still need to be available on the other server securely. This is likely the best method of getting rid of the pesky “Do you want to display the nonsecure items?” warnings.
3. Change the browser settings

It is best to change the code of the page that is giving the error, but if you don’t have access to change the code, you can always tell your personal web browser not to display that message. To do so follow these steps for Internet Explorer:

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options.
2. Select the “Security” Tab and then click on the “Custom Level” button.
3. Scroll down until you see the option: “Display mixed content”. Select “Enable”.
4. Click Ok. Then you will get a “Security Warning” pop-up. Click Yes.

One common reason that this warning shows up is using normal Google Analytics code on a secure page. It is a simple fix to enable Google Analytics on a page using SSL.

If you use the unsecure Google Analytics code on one of your secure web pages your web browser will warn that there is some page content that is not secure. This problem can be easily solved by slightly changing the code used to load Google Analytics.

Instead of:
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
Use:
<script src="https://ssl.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>

If you still get the "page contains secure and nonsecure items" after changing that code you should check for other page elements that are using http instead of https.

Google’s information about using SSL with Google Analytics is also available.

Update: Google has now updated the Google Analytics code to use ga.js instead of the urchin.js file. In the process, they have implemented code that will automatically detect whether http or https needs to be used. The new code will also enable new features so it is recommended that you upgrade. This will solve the SSL problem so you won’t need to worry about the solution above. The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Here’s how and why I installed what some would say is pointless, But I feel is a must. I’ve been using my Macbook for a while and dont get me wrong its great but I’ve not used Mac OS since 2001… Thats 9 years ago! Needless to say I’ve been trying to get to grips with Mac OSx but as much as i try to get along with OSx I can’t seem to work fast enough, and what would take me an hour worth of web development to do in Windows would take me 2 hours or more to pull off inside OSx.

Now I don’t want to sell the Mac as I love the look and build quality, and in all honesty I will still use OSx for the iPhone Development that I’m doing. So I decided to install XP via Boot Camp.

Now after using xp for a while I decided it was way to old, and grabbed Windows 7 from my Desktop PC. I’ve now installed this upon the MacBook and it run faster than than my PC which is spec’d the same as my Macbook!

Just incase Windows 7 doesnt run fast upon your Macbook it might be due to my MacBook Spec not being the standard run of the mill entry level. I have a 2.4Ghz, 4Gig of 800Mhz Ram and a 250Gig Harddrive inside my Macbook and this might help with the performance of Windows 7.

So this what I did to install 64 Bit Windows 7 even though Boot Camp told me 64bit wasn’t supported for the Macbook.

1. Load up Snow Leopard (Or Leopard if thats your OS)
2. Run Boot Camp (Im running verison 3.1)
3. Follow the wizard and insert your 64bit Windows 7 CD.
4. Macbook restarts, and will boot up the CD, (Press any key to boot from CD/DVD….)
5. Install Windows upon the Boot Camp Partition that you made in the previous wizard.
6. Follow the Windows 7 installer, (should take about an hour to install Windows)
7. Boot into Windows and setup the Wifi etc, Disable Windows updates as Im not positive that these will work correctly upon a MacBook. (I wanted to play it safe)
8. Once installed you need to install the MacBook drivers, although most things will already work. This is the step that will initally give you an issue. The MacBook wasnt supposed to run a 64Bit Windows OS and this means you cant install the software easily. So we have to do the following.
9. Insert the Snow Leopard (Or Leopard) DVD, and explore the DVD to the run the following installer.
(CDRom Drive):\Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple\BootCamp64.msi
10. Follow the instsller, and it should ask you to restart after.

That should be it and all should run fine. Unless your sound isnt working, (Apple have a cool way of telling if your sound isn’t working, Look down the whole of the Headphone Jack if you see a red light, then you have a sound issue), If this is the case, follow the next few steps.

1. Navigate to the Apple DVD again, and run (CDRom Drive):\Boot Camp\Drivers\RealTekSetup.exe
2. Now once installed you need to restart, and you should now have working sound, If you don’t have sound or you got an error upon insrall you you need to do the following.

1. Right click the (CDRom Drive):\Boot Camp\Drivers\RealTekSetup.exe and select “Troubleshoot compatability”
2. Click “Troubleshoot Program” and wait for it to detect the issues.
3. Select “this program worked on an earlier version of Windows, but won’t install or display correctly now” (Top option)
4. Select Windows Vista or Windows XP (I chose Vista, Not SP1 or SP2, just “Vista”)
5. Now wait for it to finish “resolving issues”, the installer will start. This time it will won’t fail!

Once this is done, the Macbook will need another restart, After that you won’t have a red light in the headphone jack port and you will successfully have sound!

I hope this helps user also having issues with Macbooks and Windows.

Edit: If you want to know how to Print Screen but for obivous reason cant find the PrintScr Button on your macbook laptop then try this: Shift + Fn + F11
This will copy the screen to click board for use in Photoshop or Paint etc.

I’m a big lover of underground music, and I’m an even bigger lover of live music, so when the two are seen hand in hand and the whole thing is spiced up with a little comedy I’m instantly hooked!

Now there is a young man that I’ve seen this guy a few times now online in various different places, He goes by the name Beardyman!

He’s released a video online and it’s an hour long but its by far one of the best beat box, live comedy acts I’ve ever seen! Have a look for yourself, if in the beginning it looks odd, stick with it. I’m positive you will love this guy.

Let me know what you think of this mad manic of a character otherwise known as Beardyman and leave me a comment with your opinion.

Well after yesturdays hype towards the new apple ipad, or islate as it was originally going to be called. (A previous patent just hours before the keynote was raised in a meetings meaning the iSlate had to be rebranded as the iPad!)

I found this video back from 2006 only hours after the offical iPad Keynote which made me laugh! Good work apple!
Im sure if you had made the iPad from this video you’d have reached a massive market!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsfIMWaflcc

Well as the world of the internet evolves so does the code to run it. Yep thats right, looks like Google have implemented the first major we site to support HTML5. YouTube has just revealed that it is rolling out a new video player that supports HTLM5, one that can be accessed via YouTube’s TestTube idea incubator.

In an announcement earlier today, the Google (Google)-owned online video service stated that an HTML5-compatible player was the #1 request of its users. HTML5 is the upcoming new standard for the markup language behind most web pages, one that supports video, audio, drag-and-drop, canvas drawing, and many other new features and APIs.

Since HTML5 supports video embeds, YouTube has rolled out a version of its player that runs just on it. No browser plugins (e.g. Flash) are required to watch videos that support HTML5.

There are limitations, though. It doesn’t work with videos that have advertising, captions, or annotations. It also only works with HTML5-compatible browsers, meaning Chrome or Safari or Chrome Frame for IE if you so choose not to use a third party browser due to its looks/navigational differences.

You can take a look at a demo of the new HTML5 player here. As you can probably tell, it could use some more work, but YouTube promises to improve the interface over time.

We think this is a step in the right direction. While we don’t think Google should just switch over to HTML5 (Flash just allows for more functionality), we do think user should have the option. This is great to see a big website moving up in the support for new browsers and newly impressed code. I hope this means that someday the guys over at http://www.w3.org do make a HTML string that denied the use of Internet Explorer 6 though! *kneels & prays*

Source: mashable.com

I’ve recently been coding alot in PHP and MySQL lately and some fellow designers and developers asked what framework I have been working with. Now when this question was asked I put my hands in the air and said, “Frame work? What frame work!” They all seemed to be amused by my honesty which is cool but they said you’re seriously making things hard for yourself!

How apprently a framework is supposed to make you code things correctly into various libs and use them consistantly throught the backend code. The only issue with that is, most of the bespoke content that I write requires unique libs that are only referenced once, this makes the whole point of using a framework silly as I’m not actually saving anytime at all by doing this.

I did look into various frameworks though, and i have found that the following ones are really quite good, and depending on your knowledge and speed in picking up various code languages, you might want to have a dabble with some of these for yourself!

Frame Works
Code Igniter: http://codeigniter.com
Description: CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. If you’re a developer who lives in the real world of shared hosting accounts and clients with deadlines, and if you’re tired of ponderously large and thoroughly undocumented frameworks

Cake PHP: http://cakephp.org
Description: CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying applications. Using commonly known design patterns like MVC and ORM within the convention over configuration paradigm, CakePHP reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.

Zend: http://framework.zend.com
Description: To provide a lightweight, loosely-coupled component library simplified to provide 4/5s of the functionality everyone needs and that lets you customize the other 20% to meet your specific business needs. By focusing on the most commonly needed functionality, we retain the simplified spirit of PHP programming, dramatically lower the learning curve, and your training costs – so developers get up-to-speed quickly.

ash.MVC: http://www.ash-mvc.org
Description: The basic approach of this framework is to adopt a middle-path approach between faster development cycle, and a robust and scalable application. Moreover, the schemes proposed in the framework stick to the line of simplicity all along.

WASP: http://wasp.sourceforge.net/content/
Description: WASP is a powerful web application framework built on PHP 5. WASP strives to allow web developers to make great applications with more fun and less code, but in the familiar playground of PHP.

All the above prooved to work well at doing very similar tasks, but each has there own way of doing it. If you like the community based type of projects then i suggest Code Igniter/Cake PHP/Zend is the path you’d need to take, but at the end of the day a frame work is a personal choice, so it is really each to their own. Me personally? well, Im just going to be dabbling in a bit of everything, usually coding bespoke code means I have to be able to appoach it from various sides. Im still unsure which path I’m wanting to take with MVC! *shrugs*

So, Lately i’ve been keeping myself to myself doing my own thing, you know how it is… but then again not everyone is in the same frame of mind as me. I work to much, yep i admit that… I work late all the time and Im forever learning new things that will either save me money or follow a “get rich quick” scheme.

This I openly admit has nothing to do with that either! So I set out looking into VoIP one night after reading that I could make calls world wide without actually spending alot of money, which im sure apeals to most people. After reading for a good few hours, I already had multiple accounts with various voip websites all of which where offering different services, but mainly they consisted of the same basic needs.

After a few hours I had 3 Land Line PTSN numbers directed via VOIP to my PC and I could make calls to any UK landlines for free. After now finding out how to setup a PBX server and have all the PSTN calls forward to that server and I can now recieve calls from my old phone line to anywhere in the world, and if I really want to be cool I can call them back from my home landline, even if im on my jollies anywhere in the world! Technology, You’ve got’a love it!