Merry Christmas 2014

I have been quite busy and haven't created a blog entry in a while so I will try to catch up with this one.

Please don't be offended by this title.  I am a Christian and celebrate Christmas with my family and friends.  I hope you are able to celebrate your religion with your family and friends.  This is a special time of year and in keeping with the spirit of the season I wish everyone peace and happiness now and throughout 2015.

Was 2014 a good year for you?   For me and my family yes it was.   No one is sick, no one is in danger of losing their job, and no one is without a warm place to live.  We had a great Thanksgiving with 10 family members sharing the feast prepared by my wonderful wife.  She is most definitely in her element when in the kitchen and derives great joy in preparing such nice meals for the family.  Even the dog enjoys her cooking as she gets some of the left overs and of course the droppings.

The day was very busy with all the company and the carving, my task, and although it was fun it was nice once it was over.  We just dropped and crashed.  But after a good night’s sleep we were back at in on Friday - Black Friday.  I am not sure why they call it Black Friday but we go out of our way to avoid shopping on that day.  I can't say the same for one daughter - she gets exceptionally excited over the idea of 'getting a bargain' - no matter what the cost or the toll it takes on her psyche.

But that day is over and now we are making arrangements for the big Christmas feast.  My wife is planning prime rib and ham for the main course and a slew of sides meant to please everyone’s tastes.  Sorry but all the seats are full.  I hope you also are planning on a joyous celebration.   Here are some Christmas images for you to enjoy.

Winter is a daunting time for all of us.

Travel times go through the roof after every snow fall and we spend hours in the cold removing snow firm our driveways, parking spaces and sidewalks.  For those of you who don't get to enjoy the snow it can be major work to clear it.  Two winters ago we awoke one am to find drifts up to 5 feet deep outside our door.  Of the three doors we have to exit our house only one was able to open.  And by that door we did not have a shovel or any other implement to help with snow removal.


So we donned our cold gear and grabbed a couple of cookie sheet pans and went to work cutting a path from the front door to the drive way and down the drive way to the backyard gate and then to the porch where the snow shovels were stored.  This picture shows what can happen if a window is partially left open in  a blizzard like snowfall.

This took almost two hours and we were frozen.  So we went in warmed up and then began again.  This time we shoveled a path to the garage where the mighty snow blower was waiting.  Only one issue remained - the snow was so deep the blower was almost useless.  So one of us would move the top of the snow next to the path we cut with cookie sheets into the path where the blower could then move it out of the way.  This continued until we finally got a path wide enough to get the car to the street.  We were pooped to say the least.  It took the next three days to move the snow off the entire driveway.

I am so thankful that this kind of snow fall doesn't happen very often but when it does it is a massive deal to get things back to almost normal.  The real normal comes in the April time frame when the snow starts to melt.  So know you know how much fun it can be to live where it snows.

I really want to wish you a happy and safe holiday and winter.  Visit my web site at https://www.jdevtech.com and enjoy more blog entries.  Take care - till next entry.

Is Customer Service Dead?

I recently had the pleasure of shopping at  Walmart and the experience left me wondering how they manage to stay in business.   Understand that this is not the first time I have shopped at Walmart but I hope it will be my last.

We went in looking for a flatware tray and while we didn't find what we were looking for we noticed that they were putting out fresh bananas and selected the best 3 and went to check out.   This store has 24 check out lines and only 2 were staffed.  There were 30+ people waiting to check out and one of the staff closed the checkout line he was in leaving only a single checkout line in operation.

There were 4 self checkout positions and a single attendant overseeing them.  People in them were having difficulty.  One man couldn't figure out how to pay for an avocado, one couldn't get his credit card to work, one was trying to purchase a bottle of wine, and one was busy talking on her phone and wrestling with two kids.

The line wasn't moving.   The attendant had to visit every person at a station.  The poor lady purchasing a bottle of wine - the attendant had to come to her station three times and of course in between the three visits she had to try to assuage the other station.

And the man wanting to purchase a gift card stood there waiting for help for over 5 minutes just to be told he couldn't purchase a gift card at the self-checkout.  Of course there were no signs stating this or any other restrictions on the self-checkout stations.

Now this is a big Walmart and I know there was other staff that could have helped out but they were busy standing around at a kiosk chatting with each other.  Obviously this is more important than 'Customer Service'.

To be fair I need to say that shopping at a rural Walmart is very different than at a urban Walmart.  This tends to speak loudly about the 'quality' of the staff that are attracted to work at Walmart and the level of competence of local management at urban locations.  And this also points to the failure of the education system to install in their urban students any sense of 'customer service'.  Instead urban students are 'brain washed' with all of the 'me, me, me' pablum that is passing for 'education' in todays' schools.

What ever happened to 'Putting someone else before yourself' and I don't want to even talk about 'self-sacrifice'.  There are some that get it and they go beyond the expected to shine brightly in an otherwise dark world.  They deserve all of the praise and accolades they receive.

But when I go to a store to purchase product with my hard earned money I expect to be treated politely and courteously.  Is this asking too much?  Why can't the worlds largest retailer staff checkout lanes to adequately provide a quick checkout process?   This happens at grocery stores many times every day.

I can't say that I won't go back to Walmart but I can say that I will try to get what ever I need elsewhere as much as possible.  I hope you too will join me in trying to go elsewhere as much as possible.

We eventually found exactly what we wanted at 'Bed Bath and Beyond' so now this adventure has come to a successful conclusion. Yea!

Thanks!

Where has the time gone!

I just heard a weather report stating that this winter should be much less harsh than last year and I hope it works out that way.  The cooler weather has made me aware of just how un-ready I am for another Chicago style winter.   I will be very happy if it turns out that it is a bit warmer than last year but either way I will survive (no pun intended).   My body is having trouble adjusting to the cooler weather and it isn't really cold yet.   If we get a warmer winter it will most likely mean more snow.  I guess we just can't win.  Of course those in the south don't have to worry about all of this winter stuff.

But there are positives about winter and one that really comes to mind is hockey.  Of all the winter sports hockey is at the top of my list for one very important reason - at my age it is a spectator sport that I can enjoy indoors (Am I spoiled or what?).  Some members of my family really like hockey indoors or out and it is a blast to go to the games with them.  I really look forward to watching the younger one while watching the local professional games between bytes of their snack foods.
So we will bear down (Chicago term) and take the winter as it comes be it mild or harsh after all what other choice do we have.   And yes even though it is just mid-October we are thinking about winter.
On the home front my bride is continuing to recover from her 2nd hip replacement of the same hip.  This time she is not feeling the internal movement like after the first surgery.   The surgeon used a different configuration of components that lock in place and put in a retaining ring to keep everything in place.  Then it was screwed into the hip socket as an additional safety measure.
Being a caring and thoughtful husband I have been teasing her about being 'screwed'.  I just couldn't pass on this one.  She has a great sense of humor and took it like a champ.  Her initial reply was 'Damn, and I missed it!'.  What a woman.
I hope you and your family are safe and warm this fall.  May you have a joyful Halloween season.   BOO!

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Life can change your world in a heartbeat!

For many of us the daily routine continues without even a thought about all we have and enjoy on a daily basis.  My world changed suddenly and it will be a couple of months till things are 'back to normal'.   First the background -

I like many of you are trying to launch a small web design business and it takes a lot of my spare time to create refinements on my site and maintaining the few sites I enjoy managing.  In many ways I run on automatic taking care of my job, my wife and my small business.

We enjoy a RV in a recreation facility in Sublette, IL.   The facility is named Woodhaven Lakes and is about a two hour drive from home.  We enjoy the rustic feel of the grounds and treasure our time spent in the old oaks and pines on the grounds.   Because we both work full time we have to schedule vacations to try to get the most time on site as possible.  The major holidays we like to work around are Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor day.    We had made plans to spend a full 5 days there over the labor day weekend and my wife was truly excited about the adventure.

In June she had a hip replacement operation and has been having feeling like the new hip was moving and with this came significant pain.  It had been feeling better and we had great hopes that she was out of the woods.   We were leaving on a Wednesday evening and taking Thursday, Friday, and the following Tuesday as vacation days.  The plan was to leave Wednesday after work and return on Tuesday afternoon.

I came home on Wednesday and as I walked into the rear door of the house I was greeted by bags packed and things all ready to load into the car so we could leave.  I started walking to the front of the house and heard my wife calling my name.  I turned the corner into the kitchen and there she was on the floor, crying in great pain.   I let here know I was there and called the paramedics.   They arrived in less than 5 minutes.

She was lying on her face and they needed to get her turned over and onto a backboard for transfer to a gurney.  A brief examination led to the determination that her new hip was fully dislocated.  She was screaming in great pain as they wrapped a sheet around her hips to try to keep from causing more discomfort.  Slowly and with more screaming they managed to get her on the backboard.  They gave her a minor pain reliever through her nostrils and told her that this should help.    The right hip was dislocated and the ankle was under her left calf.   They briefly tried to straighten the leg but she screamed in pain so they left it where it was.

Next came the task of securing her to the backboard to keep her from sliding off as they carried her through the kitchen door, down the two steps to the driveway and onto the gurney.   They got her to the waiting ambulance, started and IV and gave her a more powerful pain reliever.  After she was stable they took off to the hospital.  Needles to say, our weekend plans were drastically and suddenly changed.

My prayer for you is that you are blessed with good health and a great life partner.   Be happy and enjoy the time you have with loved ones before life rocks your world.

The Web Refinements Continue ...

As my journey continues I felt it was time to continue this series of articles with its second installment.

One of the main areas of difficulty for many is to understand how Joomla! generates URLs and how to modify the various settings to achieve what you want for URL's on your site.  This article will concentrate on Joomla 3 but most of it will also apply to earlier versions.

First lets set some basic understandings:

1. Articles have their own URL (e.g., article title linkable set to 'yes').
2. Menu items that link to articles have their own URL, which also points to the article. (So I never have enabled menu items directly to an article.)

So you have two different ways to get to the same content and two different URLs as well.  This duplicate URL situation is not the best approach especially when you consider the SEO ramifications of multiple URLs.   Here are some suggestions on how to manage your site's URLs.  I use categories as active menu targets and then with 'clickable' titles the user can go to any article from within the category listings.  This helps eliminate a big source of duplicate URLs on your Joomla site.  There is one exception to this rule - a 'Hidden Menu'.  A hidden Menu is a menu that has no associated module so it is never displayed on your site.

Start by creating a new menu but do not assign it a module so it is never an active menu in the sense that it is never displayed and no user can select a menu item.  You can name it whatever you want but I typically name it - 'Hidden Menu'.  Because it doesn't have a module assigned this menu will never be displayed on your site but it will be used by Joomla in the generation of URLs.   This menu name is very self-descriptive of the purpose of this menu.

Next create a menu item for every article on your site or at least every article that you want to access directly (articles where the title is linkable).  When creating these menu entries pay special attention to the menu item Alias.  Joomla will use the Alias as the page URL for the specific article assuming that Search Friendly URLs is set to Yes on the Global Configuration page.   This should become a normal part of article creation and will remove the need to create the menu items in mass at some future date.

With these changes in place instead of getting a page URL of 'http://www.domain.com/articles/politics/6-politics/4-myarticle.html' you can get a page URL like 'http://www.domain.com/myarticle' when the article is displayed directly from within the category listing by setting the hidden menu item Alias to 'myarticle'.  Remember Alias's must be globally unique throughout you entire site so this can take some forethought on larger sites.  Then with the resultant page title set to 'SiteName - My Article' you have a very nice and consistent presentation of URLs.

Next is the page title that displays in the tab for the page.  In most cases you will want to modify this by setting the page title in the menu item - Page Display screen - to be what you want to be displayed as the page title.  You are limited to 65 characters which should be more than enough but remember if you are allowing the inclusion of your site name ( 'Include Site Name in Page Titles' ) this will also be counted as characters.

Although you can have the site name included automatically in your page titles, I have found that setting page titles manually gives very finite control of what is actually displayed and eliminates any confusion for future development.

For items on displayable menu's Joomla will use the menu item title as the URL and you can set the browser page title to what you want to be displayed when a specific menu item is selected. So there you have it - Articles and Menu's - two ways to display content and how to control the URLs and the page titles.

Be sure to go to the Global Configuration page and set 'Include Site Name in Page Titles' to 'No' or your site name will also be included in the page titles.  Also you should turn on SEF URLs by setting 'Search Friendly URLs' to 'Yes'.   If your site is hosted on an Apache web server you need to rename the 'htaccess.txt' file to '.htaccess' and then turn on 'Use URL Rewriting' by setting it to 'Yes'.  If you have difficulty with this contact your hosting provider and they can assist you in getting this file renamed and Apache Rewriting working properly.  With these changes you should be in good shape and in control of your site's URLs.  If your site host balks at setting up URL Rewriting - move as fast as you can to another host.

There's more to discuss but I will leave that till next time.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions.

CMS Pitfalls - Into SEO we go

This blog is a copy of a recent entry from my personal site blog CMS Pitfalls - Part 1

It seems that the use of a CMS product like Joomla! is touted as a quick easy way to get a web site up and running.  And indeed it is a fast simple method of creating a web site.  But for the un-initiated the road to a web site is fraught with unexpected and often times unwanted developments that degrade the overall process and yield unexpected results.

One of the main goals of any site is to have it rate positively on Google search result pages (SERP) but this is no simple achievement.   It takes some for-thought, patience, and knowledge to get to the front of Google SERP's.  So I thought I would discuss some theory about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that can shed some light on the process.   And there is the key word - Process.  Using SEO techniques is best described as a 'Process' of optimizing your site to meet the desires of the search engines on the web.

The Process

There are three key factors in the SEO process - Trust in Age, Trust in authority, Trust in content.   To go into detail in each of these areas is way beyond the scope of this article but they are all equally important and needed to be mentioned.  Briefly stated a new URL will not rate as high as an 'aged' URL.   This is why sometimes it makes sense to buy and existing URL if the content of that site is similar to the content of your site.
Trust in authority is built over time as the search engines see you contributing to the web via social media, blog pages, videos, and other content on higher ranked sites.  So it takes time to do this and it takes time to build web authority.

Trust in content is build when the search pages see content that is related to your site name.  It makes no sense to have a site titled 'Roller Rink Equipment' that contains articles about the snow geese flight paths or other non-related content.  So the site needs to be focused on the main topic or name. The naming of a site, the browser page titles, and article titles are all important factors leading to higher rankings.

There are the big three - Trust in Age, Trust in authority, Trust in content -  much like the 'Deathly Hallows' from the Harry Potter series.  It takes all three to make one invinvible.  And it is not a do once and it is over.   The process's all build on one another and it requires dedication and effort over time to accomplish these goals.
I hope you found this interesting and thanks for reading.  Come back often to My Personal Site Blog.  My personal Site Blog

For a Web Developer the Learning Never Stops!

This blog is a copy of a recent entry from my personal site blog Learning Never Stops

A Journey into the SEO world has begun.......

As I move forward one thing is more prominent than others and that is that learning never stops.   The rules of web site building and Search Engine Optimization are continuing to evolve in the effort to produce a continually improving level of relevancy of search results.   For a long time the buzz was keywords and the tools that allow analysis of just how effective those keywords were in driving traffic to a site.  The words are still important but the results and tracking has become a level of magnitude more difficult.

Google is the most widely used tool to evaluate the effectiveness of keyword search campaigns but now that they are encrypting all search traffic they have managed to obscure the tracking of individual keywords.  It requires special tactics to gain the knowledge of just which keywords are effective and which ones need to be improved.   If a specific web page is pointed to a single or small group of keywords then you can get the stats on the URL that calls that page and thereby get a glimpse at the effectiveness of a specific keyword or phrase.  There may be other ways but this is yet to be discovered by me.   If you have some better insight please comment on this blog entry.

Add to this the localization that Google also places on search engine result pages (SERP) and the analysis gets even more difficult.  However, in Google's defense their goal is to provide you with the most relevant and useful results possible.  The formula they use is constantly being revised and what works today may not work tomorrow. 

I also discovered that in Sitemap submission to Google the 'SEF' URL will not work as expected and you need to submit the 'non-SEF' URL to get Google to properly recognize and index your site.   This is just one more little tidbit of knowledge that is worth passing on to those interested geeks in the web world.  Many of you may already know this but I am sure that there are struggling developers out there that can find this helpful.

Till next time....
Bill S.
http://www.jdevtech.com