Urbano's Blog
Words from Alejandro U. Alvarez
Creating original website backgrounds
Dec 30th
This tutorial is all about creating beautiful backgrounds for website with a modern/stylish look, have you ever wondered how those curved shapes were created? Here is a preview of one I created for this tutorial:
Fyre sample image
The image is only 300x300px, I didn't want to make anything huge, since it was only a test. The program we will be using will work both under Linux and Windows (No support for Mac users yet), it is called Fyre.
So if you are using Windows, scroll down until you see the tab "07 February 2005 - 0.9 released" and there you'll find both a Windows installer and a Windows zip. I prefer the installer, it runs a bit faster, but it is up to you.
If you are using Linux, before you download it and compile it yourself go to Synaptic and get it from there. It is available at least in Ubuntu (Which is the one I am using right now), if you can't find it in the repositories then download the latest release from their website and compile it. It comes with handy instructions on the configuration, so it shouldn't be hard. (If you have no clue on how to compile/install linux programs use Google, although I'll tell you a fast version: If there is a file called Makefile go to the Terminal, browse to the folder where the files are (First you have to extract them from the .tar.bz or whatever filetype it is, and type >> make all, or >> make. It depends on the program)
Now that Fyre is intalled open it and you'll see a main window to the right with a preview, and to the left a column full of options. For our website, select a bigger width and height. 1000x1000 will do most times. Now play with the controls, center the result, adjust the zoom to fit exactly the canvas WITHOUT touching the corners, and then save it. I've had some issues saving some images, so I sometimes simply print the screen and then cut out the image with Gimp...
Now that you have it place it in the website's folder and simply set it as background. If you don't know how to use this CSS code:
body{ background:url('fyre_image.png') no-repeat top left; }
The top left can be changed to top center, top right... or bottom corners, although I think that top alignment is much better.
Hope this helped you 
Contact forms for your blog:
Nov 23rd
You have a blog and want traffic don't you? Well of course, since that is what makes us blog in the first place! The readers might like to read our stuff, and many times they want to talk to us, and contact forms are really good at that
What I mean is that it is no breaking news that contact forms are actually used, either by potential customers, readers that want to share/correct us or simply by someone who dropped by and wants to say "Hey, nice design".
Whatever the reason is, it is always good to have a contact form, and when I wanted to setup mine I looked for WordPress plugins to do it for me (I'm a bit lazy in that sense) and found some interesting stuff.
First of all we have cForms which if I had to explain it to someone that knew nothing about this I would simply say, "if you install cForms for your contact form is like wanting to buy a computer simply to browse the web and buying a gaming computer that is the closest thing to a supercomputer one could find". I mean by this that cForms is too much for the average blogger, it has too many things, the first time I saw it I just though "Can I just have a contact form please?", although I ended up liking it.
So if you just want a contact form, good and simple, there are many good plugins out there that do the job perfectly,
Contact Form ][:
Which, as they say, "[it] is a WordPress plugin, that offers a simple drop-in contact form in any new/existing post/page". It is a nice plugin although you will never get any support from the author, so be careful on this one.
Contact Form Plugin:
This plugin changes a bit how the contact forms work, instead of entering a tag withing the content of a page/post, you publish it, and then you paste the URL into the configuration page, a bit weird yes, but in the end it is just as simple.
There are of course many other options available, although this are the most varied ones. What is your favorite?
How to Boost PC Performance
Nov 23rd
To boost PC performance is the primary aim of all PC users. No one can deny the fact that PC failure happen all the time especially during those moments when you least expected it. There is no particular person who can escape from the trouble given by a deteriorating PC, indeed, no matter how expensive your model is and how amazing the programs installed are, you will have to face this problem some other time in your life.
You can of course try to follow all the care and maintenance tips listed on your manual, but this is not a fool proof way to escape the trouble. But you need not to worry since you can always follow steps that could somehow boost PC performance. Read on.
One of the most sensible steps to do is to perform regular registry clean-up using a registry cleaner. All kinds of operating system would make use of the registry as a centralized database where all of the hardware and software will be stored. This is the main reason why the registry continuously grows every time data are accessed, removed, or added which will eventually get damaged through time. Registry may augment the data access time for each computer, slow the process, and worst, makes the PC unbootable.
You can as well clean up and defrag the hard drive in order to boost PC performance. It is a common knowledge for every PC owner that the hard disk never fails to get clogged by different unnecessary files, programs, and cookies. To solve the problem, it is vital that you make use of Disk Cleanup utility which is already seen on the system tools of your Windows XP and Vista. Moreover, it is also advisable that you defrag regularly through the use of the Disk Defragmenter.
And despite the fact that visual effects are one basis in determining a good computer, they will merely consume too much space hence leading again to poor PC performance. Moreover, they devour too much of system resources hence PC slow down is expected. In view of this, no matter how much you wish to see them on your screen, it will mean a lot if you simply limit their use.
Regular malware scan is also needed. Malware programs like Trojans, adware, spyware, viruses, malicious software and worms can in fact slow down the performance of your PC. Worst, these programs would as well add malicious files that create system errors that can lead to extreme damage on your PC.
Lastly, take caution in installing application on your system since these can add up to the load when your system starts up. The worst thing about them is that some of these would continue to run in the background even if you are not in need of them. Hence, for you to hinder this possible slow-down, simply disable those unnecessary programs from loading when the system is starting up.
These simple steps are a sure way to boost PC performance, never fail to do these on your PC.
Benefits of knowing about your Windows Registry
Nov 23rd
The Central Processing Unit which is commonly known as CPU is basically as we all know as the brain of the computer. It controls every action the computer does, just like us humans too. And that one thing that controls and manages operations on the computer is called the Windows Registry. It consists of a database that configures all the information of the installed hardware settings registration data and file associations on the computer.
By track a computer’s registry, all the added, removed and accessed entries will appear in the computer’s monitor in just little time. The Windows registry is located physically at the hard drive in 2 or more files like the system.dat which has the hardware and the computer registry files and the user.dat which has the user-specific information. For help in running the registry, click the “Regedit†which is a command specified from Start button and run. The Windows Explorer that structured like a tree can be seen there. It has 5 root keys, and are shown in all caps like this: HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU), HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM), HKEY_USERS (HKU), HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR), and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC). All the root keys have different sub keys and sub-sub keys numbers with them. It also has different type of data.
The registry was first implemented with Windows 95, which makes it a replacement for the INI files that stores the configuration settings in the latter time. Windows Registry gives benefits like making the recovering setting and tracking changes much easier. Truthfully, it exists because it implements basic features and issues. The first is it makes separation of “machine†setting from “user†setting. It makes support for different settings for different users. Your network configuration may have settings that makes compatible to the gadget, like a color scheme or the size of the font. This one may be simple but it was intricate than you may think.
If your Windows version is one that can make each user log in at once, then you can take advantage or benefit from it using the Terminal Services on your Windows Server. And then shared software has its own categorized place that makes sharing of software components easy to provide a good function of its sharing ability. Another thing is it has a roaming support; it’s not very visible to users, it just need to be placed properly as it does give good effects that’s provided in the computer. According to many who had experience with this, they said that it’s not easy to set it up, so if you are unsure of it don’t make a move unless an expert made a decision for it. And the last is the registry level security which supports the entire Windows security model. It’s what you see in your computer that there’s individualized folders separated or categorized and can only be accessed with a password by the specific user. To take advantages of the more benefits of the Windows registry, a novice must ask guidance with a professional that can helpful to you or have a registry tool.
The future of the web
Nov 22nd
I like to think from time to time of the future of the web. Being a web developer/designer myself, and working on every-day basis many times I just sit back and try to see where all this is going.
We can all surely appreciate the evolution of the last years, first with an increase in the use of server side scripting like php, and lots of "interactive" sites being born, and probably the era of the forums, with that "mechanic", heavy-graphic designs that where everywhere.
And I am guessing people simply got bored of all that, after all, as perfect as a design might be, it will always grow old, new trends have to appear. So that heavy graphics trend, evolved into a minimalistic, "zen" trend that is what we now call either Web 2.0 or clean design, depending on the style.
I have to say that many trends have appeared, a very important one undoubtedly is the grunge, eroded style, the one this very blog has right now! Textures and colors in opposition to the clean "crisp" and rounded style of 2.0
There is surely one more aspect of this new era, AJAX and implicitly JavaScript. I remember back in the day when JavaScript was that annoying thing that resized the window, opened popus and on the worst sites put things like "snow" or "rain" on the website... Nowadays JavaScript is becoming thankfully a great resource for simplifying user interaction with the server, which is always good, but the question I pose is "What is going to happen after?"
Let's see, in the design field, I think that there are two main ways for evolution, the clean and rounded feel, with lot's of opacity blends, you know, more on today's line.
On the other hand there is the side of high contrast sites, dark styles with beautiful lighting effects, impressive use of background-color -> font-color, sharp palettes for nice designs, textures of course!
Lots of textures everywhere, they create that unique feeling of rough and at the same time greatly designed structures. Although it has the problem that with today's browser's support for PNG transparencies it is quite hard to do good overlays that can adapt to the screen and move without it being too obvious. That is where today we use big solid borders, that also look good when used wisely.
On the programming field I am sure that a more "module" oriented programming will be used, something more "plug&play" for php specially, like PEAR but more widely used.
As of client-side scripting there is not much room for new stuff, after all we only have JavaScript and there is not much more we can do with it... Probably a complete reliance on AJAX for our applications, nice easing animations, and that sort of things, but nothing too revolutionary.
I don't expect Flash to ever come back, it had its glory but the complete wrong use it was given made it completely hated. However Flash is a great and quite powerfull tool when mastered.
But well, that is my point of view of course,
What do you think the future of web development is?