Houston Web Hosting

What's in a name?

2011-10-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

So I have to ask, What's in a name?

I think it's ironic that a group can take the name "99%" and claim that they represent 99% of the people.

I know that these people's view do not reflect what I was brought up to believe. I take full responsibility for what happens in my life. When I am negative in my bank account it's not because Wall Street took my money. It is because I did not bring in enough money to cover my bills.

I believe that I make my destiny and I make my fortune. This land was founded on the pursuit of happiness, not the guarantee of happiness. I can list out many examples through out my life of hardship (physical, financial, and emotional.)

Each time I face an obstacle it just makes me that much stronger as a human.

I almost cut my right hand off a few years ago. I lost the use of my hand for six months and to this day I still do not have full use of my hand. I did not have health insurance at the time, no excuses I just did not have it.

I thought that nothing could happen to me, I am a healthy young man. I am superman. I learned quickly that accidents happen and I need to change my priorities.

I make my living as a web developer, has anyone ever tried to make a web site one handed? work in Photoshop with your right hand tied behind your back and tell me how easy that is? Let me tell you it's a learning experience.

I did not have insurance, I had a $2,000 E.R. bill, a $5,000 surgeon bill and I still had to go thru rehab to learn to use my right hand again.

Interesting note: I was NEVER TURNED DOWN BY ANYONE BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE.

In fact, just the opposite was my experience. The ER discounted my bill because I paid it that day before I left (they dropped it from 4,000 to 2,000 and called it a quick pay discount).

My hand Surgeon Dr Paulsine also worked me a great deal.

I had to rehab myself, the cost of rehab was $500.00 a visit and they wanted to see me 3 times a week.

I could not afford that. I met with a rehab specialist. She worked out a rehab plan that I could do at my house and that would not cost me anything but I had to be disciplined and put in the time.

For the next year, I worked selling pools and backyard accessories. A far cry from my real profession, but I needed to pay a 1,000 dollar a month child support and make my bills. I knew that this was a temporary fix and that in time I would return to my own business.

Every day I spent hours stretching my freshly connected tendons. I would practice typing as much as I could to help get the use of my fingers back to normal.

In December of that year, I had a 12,000 dollar debt called due. This was debt from my marriage. You see to top the fact that I almost cut my right hand off, I had just went through a divorce. (Tuff times )

My ex-wife and I had agreed in our divorce decree, that we were both responsible for that debt. The debt was in my name and my social. When the bill was not paid they called all of it due and called me to court.

In the end, I owed $11,000 to them and I had to pay it with in 2 weeks or face a lien on my house. Yes, you heard this correctly. I had 2 weeks to cough up 11,000 dollars.

I called my boss at the pool place and begged for an advance on all my pending sales. I told them the situation that I was in and they helped me by forwarding me future commissions. Not giving me the money but forwarding my commissions on pools that were being built.

I asked my ex-wife for help and she went on vacation for two weeks and did not return my calls. No lie when she came back she said she had no money. Yes, she just went to Hawaii with her new husband.

I somehow managed to pay $11,000 to Orchard Bank (Wall Street), my mortgage, and my $1,000 child support that month.

Within 12 months, I had quit the pool business and I was back on my feet and ready to focus on me.

During that Year, my business dwindled down to nothing. I did not pursue my dream during that time in my life because it had to be put on hold. I can say that this turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Since I took a sabbatical for a year, when I came back, I came back! I was more focused than ever to make my business work. I had no customers left at this time, I started writing applications left and right. I developed a to-go ordering system and I fine tuned my E-commerce engine.

I re-branded, re-designed and re-positioned my company, within 6 months, I was making more money than I had made the entire prior year.

During this period in my life I had a choice, I could have blamed the world that I could not work in my profession, I could have given up or I could have asked the government to help me.

I DID NOT! I did not blame the world for my hardships, I stood up and said this is my time to over come an obstacle in my life.

Bottom line is life is not always great, there will be good times and bad times. You will be on top of the world one day and knocked down the next, One day you will be screwed by someone and the next day you will be screwing someone. This is the human struggle that we all go through.

When I see people claiming to be 99% of Americans, I know that their beliefs do not reflect mine.

Wall Street did not make me sign up for a mortgage, Wall Street did not make me spend $11,000 on a credit card, Wall Street did not make me put my hand through a coffee table. These were all my own decisions and actions.

I wanted a credit card
I signed up for it.

I wanted a nice home.
I signed a mortgage

I wanted to get married and have kids,
I got married / then Divorced

I did not have Health Insurance
My choice.

These were all my decisions that I MADE without any influence from Wall Street, why should I blame Wall Street for any of the things I have gone through?

I AM NOT THE 99% and I AM NOT THE 1%

I AM 53%.
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Take To-Go Orders Online!

2009-11-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Over the last few years, I've been approached by several restaurant chains to design an online To-Go ordering system. Each restaurant chain had it's own set of complex problems that needed to be over come to facilitate taking on-line To-Go orders.

These problems included: multiple locations, multiple tax rates, different menus at different locations, Employee access, easy management at both local level and a corporate level. Sadly, the cost of designing a custom solution for these problems were always more than the budget allowed.

Each time I would meet with a Chain and listen to their set of issues I would draw up a project scope and work out a theory on how I would over come these obstacles.

After talking to several chains, I did begin to notice that most of the issues that the restaurant chains thought was proprietary to them were actually common problems for most restaurant chains. I then decided to design a solution for the most common problems.

So I began to put together all the project scope documents that I had done over the years.I then put together a project scope that included the most common obstacles.

One of the main issues was how to alert the restaurant of the new order and how to process that order in a timely fashion. To me this is the most important part of the Program and here's the solution and process that I designed.

New Order Is placed by the Customer

An alert is sent via SMS Text and email to the customer alerting them that their order was sent to the restaurant location.

At the same time, an SMS message, Email, alert is sent to location.

A local printer at the location will also print a new order

The Location will then process the order using the Back end website.

A SMS text Message is sent the customer alerting them of the status of the order

This process is tracked in the back end and allows the Restaurant chain to monitor the To-Go production of each location. This includes: What items are sold the most and what locations are selling the most.

The Next issue was how to design a menu system that would allow corporate to control what menu items each location could sell and still allow each location to design their own menu. The solution was a Menu Library.

The Menu Library works as follows:

Administrative users have the ability to upload menu items. This is the details of the actual menu item. The system allows for the Administrative users upload pictures and build combos. Each item has several fields ranging from price to side dishes.

Once the menu item is added to the menu library the Location Manager can then add the item to their location Library. The Location manager has the ability to make the item appear or not at anytime by changing it's status. The Manager also has the ability to set the price of the item (put it on sale). The system allows for the manager to setup Lunch menus, dinner menus and all day menus.

Payments
The next issue was how to get each location paid. To solve this problem we have setup a system that allows each location to have their own payment gateway. Each payment gateway is setup to deposit the money collected directly into the operations account of the Restaurant Location.

Reporting
The reporting for the site is based on the location. Each location has their own reports. This includes transaction reports, item reports, and sale tax report.

Unlimited Locations
The next issue was how to handle multiple location, multiple tax rates and of course users. The system is setup to allow an Administrator to add locations and location users. Each Manager also has the ability to edit their location information.

How much does it cost the Restaurant To take orders?
Nothing!!! Actually using our system creates a new revenue stream for each location. We charge a Convenience fee at the time of each transaction to your customer for the ease and use of placing the order online.This is just Like an ATM would charge for the use of an ATM. This is also the same way that movie theaters and Ticketmaster charges for purchasing on line.

The convenience fee is then split 50 / 50 between NewTechLabs and the Restaurant. So there is no Charge to sign up for the service and the convenience fee becomes a new source of revenue for the location.

If you would like a Demo of the TOGOPORTAL please call 713.269.6413.

Eliza Dushku Design a Myspace Page Contest

2009-07-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I entered a design contest. The contest was to design a myspace profile for the actor Eliza Dushku. Fox provided all the materials and it was the job of the contestants to use the material as they needed.

I designed two different profiles.
1. Simple Sexy Profile: This profile was just a simple white background with a simple image of Eliza Dushku. The profile was one colunm wide and is not your typical Myspace page. The profile run in the Profile 1.0 enviroment.

To view this profile please goto: http://www.myspace.com/elizacontest

2. Flash Action Profile: This profile was more focused on Eliza Dushku's new series Dollhouse. It featured a large banner area and had hot links to the main sections of the Myspace. All and all this is my favorite profile. I even added a Image rotators (via ASP on Myspace, a pretty cool trick I must say)

To view this profile please goto: http://www.myspace.com/scratchProfile

In the end, it would be my simple sexy profile that won!

facebook rant

2009-03-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that Facebook is a Spy ware site. My girlfriend has a facebook account (I do not use facebook as I prefer myspace for my social networking needs). I got her a brand new laptop yesterday, because her other computer is hosed (and it's a little out dated being 4 years old) it was time to migrate her to a laptop and get her into the 21 century.

She installed the basics on the laptop (Adobe master suite and Ms Office) which is all the programs she needs or uses. She then proceeded to goto her FaceBook (she plays all these social games)

within hours of playing her games, her computer was hosed. The IE has a hijacker program and won't go to any URL without erroring out. Even restoring the to a previous date did not fix her issue.

Make a long story short, I ended up restoring her computer back to it's original state and had to start over. This time I'm taking a "snap" shot of the hard drive so when it gets infected again I don't have to redo her WHOLE computer again.

I have been long time protestor of Facebooks for several reasons, now I am Convinced that this site is after your soul! (or at least your browser!)

STAY AWAY FROM FACAEBOOK!

DJ ... My Real Passion

2009-02-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

By day you guys know me as Scott Robertson web developer, however my real passion is not sitting on my laptop banging out websites. My real passion is playing on my turntables and mixing (DJing for a lack of a better term).

You see after 5pm, I usually jump on my turntables and dj for a little while. It's a great stress releif and it allows me to get lost in my own little world. (if only for a few min)

Over the Last few years, I started on making t-shirts for Dj's, DJ Shirts if you will. I've had them available on zazzle for a while now and they sell fairly well.

I wanted to make a fun site to display my work and link to zazzzle to sell these items.

I feel that my http://www.Dj-Shirt.net has accomplished this. It has several small sections.

Men's Ware, Ladies ware and Skateboards.

Check it out and let me know what you think about the New Website!

Don't forget for all your web design needs www.NewTechLabs.com
Thanks
Scott Robertson

Deutch & Deutch Fine Jewelry and Watches

2008-12-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

I recently developed a Website for Deutch & DeutchFine Jewelry and Watches.

They have 3 locations, in Houston, Laredo and McAllen.Their website includes over 2000 items of inventory in their Website's database.

Their Brands include : Aaron Basha, Antonini, Barry Kronen, Beverley K, Bixby , Bucceleti , Bulgari, Cartier, Chad Allison , Charles Krypell, Charriol , Davidoff, Fope , Hidalgo , Honora, James Breski, Jordan Scott, Judith Ripka, Jyes International, KC Designs, Konstantino Treasures, Norman Covan,
PE Jay Creations, Rina Limor, Sal Praschnik, Stuller, Trimoro, William Levine

Please visithttp://www.deutschdeutschjewelers.com Houston Fine Jewelrey.

NewTechLabs Hosting Vs Hurricane Ike

2008-09-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've had to defend the cost of web hosting. It always starts with I can get web hosting for $5.95 a month at some other hosting provider. I always state, "Yes, you can get Linux hosting just about anywhere for that price. However My servers are a windows hosting solution and the same service goes for about $99.99 a month at other service providers."

The truth is my $29.99 a month plan is very reasonable when you look at how solid my servers are. My hosting service was put to the test last week when Hurricane Ike came thru the Galveston and Houston Texas. As most of you know my servers are located in the middle of Downtown houston and right in the path of Hurricane Ike. During the hurricane, over 3.5 million people lost power*. NewTechLabs Houston Web Hosting stayed up all thru the hurricane and it's aftermath. NewTechLabs Houston web hosting allowed all of it's Houston users to make changes to their web site and allowed people in Houston (who still had power) to access websites and email.

So when the Houston phone's were down, Our Houston customers were still able to send and receive emails! This allowed people to correspond to their loved ones when they could not get thru Via Phone!

I'm happy to be able to give my customers the ability to communicate to their loved ones in the their time of NEED!

All for under 30 dollars a month for Web Hosting. How much is communicating to your loved ones worth to you?

Thanks to everyone that helps make NewTechLabs one of Houston's best Web hosting Company's. So Thanks to the NewTechLabs partners and technical teams. This includes: Ingrid Fuller with Cityscope Web Hosting and Chris Duke With NewTechLabs Houston Web Hosting Who help make things happen!.

For All your Houston Needs Please Visit NewTechLabs Houston Web hosting.

* Source: Reuters News; http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN13445757._CH_.2400

Wood-Mode Houston

2008-08-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

I recently launched a portal for Houston Wood-Mode Dealers. Wood-mode manufactures Cabinets for your kitchen, Bath room, closets, media centers, and studies.

The wood mode portal features alittle history about Woodmode, Samples of cabinets and showroom locations!

Please visit: www.Wood-ModeHouston.com for more information about the Houston Kitchen Showrooms

Houston Jewelry Store

2008-08-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

I recently launched a new website for a Houston Jewelry Store. The Jewerly Store is Located in Rice Village just off of Kirby.

Please check out the Fine Jewerly Store at www.ShaftelDiamond.com For more details.

Thanks!

diamond buyers

2008-07-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to know what your Diamond is worth ?
I did a site called bonded buyers that is focused on buying diamonds.

They are located in Houston, TX however thru the power of the internet they can buy diamonds from anywhere!

Please check out the Houston Diamond Buyers at http://www.bondedbuyers.com

www.shadowdepot.com - The Shadow Depot

2008-06-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let everyone know about my experience with this website http://www.shadowdepot.com/ (The Shadow Depot) They sell everything that is "shadow". (a Shadow is one of T-mobile's smart phone that runs Windows Mobile 6. For more information check out www.T-mobile.com)

This blog is not about the T-mobile Shadow. It is about the POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE That I personally experienced with the www.shadowdepot.com (The Shadow Depot)

Here's What Happened:

I placed an Order on Saturday May 31, 2008 at 7:44 am Central time with The Shadow Depot's website. (www.ShadowDepot.com)
At 7:45, I Receive a confirmation email from The Shadow Depot's Support Email that says that they have received my order and at the bottom of the email it states:

"If you have any questions regarding your order, please don't hesitate to call our support team at (866) 627-9765 or email support@shadowdepot.com. For the latest status of your order, you can view the order status online. "
At 8:30 AM, I found another item on their (The Shadow Depot) website (a more expensive item) that would do the same thing that my first item would do and a little more.
At 8:33 am I sent an email to the http://www.shadowdepot.com/ support (as directed by their receipt) stating that I would like to change my order. This was again on SATURDAY MORNING!! - before my "order was processed"

Copy of the email below:

I’m sorry I just saw this item
HTC 3-in-1 USB Adapter for T-Mobile Shadow

http://www.shadowdepot.com/htc-3-in-1-usb-adapter/73A75A3571.htm

is there a way to cancel my original order and replace it with this item ? since I know it has not been shipped out?

Thank you in advance for any help!
Scott Robertson
Monday June 2, 2008 8:45 am, I received an email (from The Shadow Depot) stating that my order was processed.
Monday June 2, 2008 at 2:01PM : I receive another email (The Shadow Depot) stating that they could not change my order because it had already been processed. (Two days after I sent the request to change the order)

Here's a Copy of the email:

Hello -

Because your order has already processed, we are unable to add/delete products, change, combine or cancel it. We also cannot change any billing or shipping info either. Orders are processed at the bottom of every hour, between the hours of 9am-5pm EST Mon-Fri.

Once an order has been processed, the credit card has been charged, the UPS shipping label has been created, and the packaging list has been sent to the warehouse staff. In most cases, your order is packaged within 10 minutes of being processed.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we hope that in the majority of cases, our faster processing times work to your advantage.

Please Note that Emails are answered in the order they are received, if you need more prompt service we recommend you call our customer service support team toll free at: (888) 599 8998
Patrick Frank
I of course, email the following:
I understand that .. however, My email was a few minutes after my order on Saturday and before the order was actually processed on Monday at 8:45.

The order was not processed until 2 days after - I sent my email. Plenty of time for you guys to cancel that previous order and plenty of time to call me to tell me to place a new order. Or even email me this information.

This is very poor customer service. Had my order “been” processed before the I sent the email I would say that this is very acceptable. However, The fact that the order was placed. And before the order was shipped (and even 2 days before my order was actually processed) I sent an email as directed by the The Shadow Depot reciept, asking to change my order. I would imagine that this would have been a pretty simple request.

I will not buy anything in the future for my phone from you guys and I will tell everyone I know who has this phone about this experience and the poor customer support.

Very poor customer service.

Thank you for your time,

Scott Robertson
I also call The Shadow Depot's Customer Service Phone Number and I talk to the "The Shadow Depot Customer Support Supervisor" who tells me that I should have called first thing on Monday morning if I wanted to change my order.

I state that the confirmation email clearly says:

"If you have any questions regarding your order, please don't hesitate to call our support team at (866) 627-9765 or email support@shadowdepot.com."

It does not Say just to CALL It states to Email or call!

I WOULD SUGGEST NOT DOING BUSINESS WITH THE SHADOW DEPOT, IT DOES NOT HAVE GOOD CUSTOMER SUPPORT

The "supervisor" then tells me that I can just refuse the delivery and place a new order. I would be charge two times for shipping (since shipping is not refundable) and also during that time My Credit card would have been charged for two items ... and yes I would eventually get refunded for the first item (minus the $5.95 shipping)however, it should have never shipped out in the first place! So for one $15.95 item I would have paid $12.00 in shipping. To me this was not a valid option.

I was also told that he doesn't have time to read each email he gets on Monday before shipping out orders from the weekend. I would think that that before I ship anything on Monday morning, I would look at my "support" email to make sure that there were no emergencies over the weekend with any order.

What is your take? Please comment below!

So before you buy anything from www.shadowdepot.com Please remember my story!

I did buy my new item from another vendor. It was 2 dollars more than what The Shadow Depot was selling the same item for however, it was worth paying to avoid their horrible customer service and for the peice of mind!

June 1

2008-06-01T05:15:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a few weeks since I typed out a blog. I've been busy with two separate clients. Each of these clients had some type of "emergency"

The first client host their website at another service provider. I simply write code and put it on their server. I am not paid to administrate this server as they pay their host for that service. About 2 weeks ago their website was hacked and the hacker comprised the data that was on the server. So this client could not function and their business was dead in the water!

The hacker inserted some malicious code into the database, so when the records were displayed it would make a call to another server and try to execute some Java-script code. Of course, this caused the application to fail as he inserted this code everywhere!

I had to restore the database back to the previous state. This is a Process. I have to restore a back up. Then I have to to see what transaction took place between the last back up and the attack to make sure that no data was lost. The first time I did this process it took me about 4 - 5 hours.

Of course, once I restored the data the site was hacked again with in hours so I had to do it again! All and All I had to restore the data 5 times and in the end I had the process down to about 2 hours!

After, that I recommended that the server be moved behind a firewall! At the time of the hacking the server was on a DMZ with no security what so ever! EVERY PORT WAS OPENED!

I also recommended a a reinstall of the OS to remove any of the hackers programs that might still be installed somewhere on that server!

I had to spend my Saturday restoring that servers data and setting up their application on a new server.

Total Time was 22 hours for everything. Of course, at the same time I have 6 other projects that I am trying to work on as well!

Then, I had another customer who had a bit of a minor emergency. I really can't go into details about this one. So to make a long story short I had to write a "coupon" application and a back end manager to check out the coupon activity.

This took me about 20 more hours to complete.

So with the extra 40 hours of unexpected work I had no time to work on my normal projects. So I've been spending my time catching up on my work load so that I can get everything back to normal. It's been two weeks and I'm still not caught up!

Web hosting Houston

Industrial Computers

2008-05-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Looking for any of the following types of industrial Computers?
• Hazardous Area Computer
• ATEX Computer
• Oilfield Computer / Display
• MWD (Measurement While Drilling) Surface System
• Measurement While Drilling Surface System

• Industrial Computers

Or if your Computers in aviation
• aircraft test equipment
• pitot static system
• rvsm
• pitot static tester
• air data test set

Please check out Laversab for all your hazardous Area Computer needs!

Web Hosting Houston

Houston Web Design

Search Engine Optmization Client

2008-05-02T15:30:00.001-07:00

On monday I took over a website's SEO (search engine Optimization) This client sell replacement windows in Houston TX. So I targeted the following for him
Houston Windows

Windows Houston

Houston Replacement Windows

Replacement Windows Houston

Houston Window

Check out his site at http://www.renwd.com

Today is friday and he's already on the first page for houston replacement windows
http://www.google.com/search?q=houston+replacement+windows&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1 and it's only been 5 days since I took over!

Search Engine Optmization Process

2008-04-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was asked "How do you get my web site on the first page of search engine results?" I told them that Search Engine Optimization is a process. It's not simply putting meta tags on your website and magically you will be on the first page of results.

The process I use is pretty simple.

Step 1: Select Keywords - This step is pretty simple. I start by going to Google's Keyword Suggestion tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and typing in a generic keyword. Once I get the results, I will select my keywords based on which keywords have the highest search volume. I usually do not like to target any more than 5 keyword phrases per page. Yes, you can target more if you like however, the more keyword phrases the more content you will have to develop.

Step 2 - Content Optimization - This step is actually two part. First, copy writing. This is the process of making the copy on my website filled with the keyword phrases that I selected in step 1. (I suggest that you target your keywords and write the content before you start creating any web pages.)

Content is the most important element on your website search engine success! Your website should also be at least 5 pages deep. The more pages of content the better! I also like keeping my copy on each page to about 100 - 150 words per page.

Next, I will then create my html with the following html tags: Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Description. While there are more tags that add to the SEO equation these are the only ones that really put any time into. Each of these html tags are also filled with the keywords that I selected in step 1.

The next part that is very important is the H1 tag. This is the main header tag. This should be at the top of the page directly after the body tag and should also include all the keywords I'm targeting. I then usually make my menu navigation using h2 tags with a href links to the sub-pages and the text that contains keyword phrases for those sub pages.

Step 3: Link Building - This is when I go and find other website to link to the website that I'm targeting. This is probably the most crucial factors to have a successful search engine campaign. DO NOT JUST GO OUT AND SIGN UP FOR THESE 'LINK BUILDER'

This is also very important USE YOUR KEYWORDS IN YOUR LINKS. When you exchange links with people, it is important that the links to your website also include the keywords that you selected in step 1. For example if you are targeting 'widgets' then your link should have 'widgets' in the text of the A tag. so the code would look like widgets

Step 4: Check Ranking - Once Step 2 is completed you can then start watching the results! I use GOOGLE'S webmaster tools to monitor my website performance. If you are not familiar with Google's Webmaster tools I suggest that you visit : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ From this website you can see if there are ANY ISSUES with your website. This includes errors in your html tags and if there are any pages missing.

Google's webmaster tools also allows you to view what keyword phrases your website has been displayed. So if someone searched 'widgets' and my website was displayed in the results I will know! If someone then clicks on my website it will tell me what keywords people clicked to get to my website!

There are a lot of good tools at Google's Webmasters Tool so if you've never looked at it I HIGHLY SUGGEST LOOKING IN TO IT!

Next is Statistics! I use GOOGLE ANALYTICS to track all my website Activity. This includes how people came to my site. Using this tool, I can tell you how many people found my website from the Search engines. What keyword phrases they clicked to get to my website.

If your website sells something, Google Analytics will even track how much each keyword phrase has sold. For instance it can tell me that 5 people who searched for 'widgets' purchased X number of products for a total of $xx.xx. This is great for measuring the ROII (return on internet investment as I call it... I know it should be ROI)

Now that's it! That is the big secret process on how to come up on the Search engines!

Web Marketing Houston

Christian Toys

2008-04-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Last year, I developed a website called Alphabet Alley - Christian Toys. They are a Houston based Christian Toy Manufacturer.

They create wooden christian Toys, christian games and magnetic Christian Toys

For more information check them out at www.Alphabetalley.com

and as always don't for get to check out Houston web design and hosting project

The Great Media Center Experiment

2008-04-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

I upgraded my Home Theater!! I've been experimenting with Microsoft's Media Center for about two years now. The last Media Center Computer was a P4 2.0 with 2 gigs of Ram. While this Machine runs and functions, at times it is slow to respond.

I setup a new computer as my new Media Center in my home theater. The specs are as follows:

Intel Dou Core 1.8 gigahertz

2 Gigs of RAM

WinTV-HVR-1600 Video Capture Card (Media Center Kit - includes Remote and IR blaster)

SIIG SoundWave Optical 5.1 - Sound Card

Diamond Stealth ATI X1550PRO PCIE 512 MB Video Card

Microsoft Vista Home Premium Version

1 Terrabyte of storage - USB

I strongly suggest that if you are going to setup a Media Center PC use these as your min requirments. This machine runs Media Center flawlessly.

I moved the previous Media Center Computer to the "Kid's TV Room". The kid's Media Center has everything! I setup their tv shows to record in "My Recorded TV". I setup the "DVD Library" with all their Kid's movies. I also uploaded their favorite music and a few gigs of pictures. This allows them to watch slide shows of them themselves while listening to their favorite song!

I shared the "Recorded TV Folder","DVD Library Folder", "My Pictures Folder" and "My Music Folder". I did the same to the new Media Center.

I setup my Laptop's Media Center and I added those shared Directories to my "Library Folder". This allows me to view the "Recorded TV", "DVD Library", and "My Music" from those computers via my Laptop or any other computer in the house.

What is also cool ... Is that my 1 Media Center Remote Control can control both my Home Theater and my Kid's Room TV and devices! This one Media Center Remote controls : DVD Player, Volume, Satalite Dish, music player and everything in one spot on both systems!

This is the FUTURE of Home Theaters.

New Web Site: www.equilibriumcentre.com

2008-04-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today we launched a new website www.equilibriumcentre.com It's a small point of presence website.

Be sure to check it out!
Thanks

Web site Design in Houston

Custom vs Canned E-Commerce Web Site Solutions

2008-03-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

I received a call yesterday from a prospect that was trying to find a host for a PHP canned E-commerce solution. The prospect explained to me that he needed direct access to my kernal and he needed Root access to my server. I then informed him, that the only way I could make that happen is for him to have his own Standlone server and it would be $150.00 a month for the dedicated server. He then quickly told me that it should only be $5.95 a month.

Of course, this person did not realize that his requirements would not allow him to be on a "virtual" server with other customers. Since his "requirements" is root access, I seriously doubt that anyone will share acccess to him when there are other customers on that box.

After explaining the issues, he soon agreed that he would need his own server. I then asked "what are you trying to host?" He then explained that it was a Canned e-commerce package. That he's been trying to deploy for months. His web designer just can't get it to work.

I then said, You know for around $4500, I could write him a custom e-commerce solution and he could be up in selling in 3 weeks. Of course, he tells me that's more money than he wants to spend for a e-commerce website.

I then asked him, how long has his web designer been working on this project, he states around 3 months and the project still is not complete. I then find out that this guys sells web design to customers. I asked him how much he bills his web designer for. He states $50 an hour (pretty cheap in comparison)

So I then added up the hours of work that his web designer hasn't been able to bill out because he's been wasting time on this. 3 months x 40 hours a week = 516 hours x 50 an hour, he's lost 25,000 just in the last three months.

So a minimal $4,500 is alot cheaper than going the route he's trying to go. I also informed him that the following year his cost would only be the web hosting which would only be $350 for the entire year.

So For all you people that don't think that you can afford a custom E-commerce website, please reconsider the true cost of these "Canned e-commerce"

Custom E-commerce solutions hosted by Houston's web Hosting Company

Web Design and search engines...

2008-03-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

Sometime last week, a client asked me why he wasn't coming up in the search engines under the words "wheel alignment houston". I politely told him this is because you have not targetted these search phrases in your website that I did 5 years ago.

At the time, I designed the website his focus was on Colission repair houston (which he was number 1 on Google since the first day he was indexed!!)

So I explained what SEO (search engine optimization) was and the fees associated with it. He quickly said le's do it! I of course, described the process that I go thru to SEO any site.

I quickly rewrote his copy to target his new keywords! I just looked at google since I noticed that the google bot hit it the other day! HOW ABOUT THIS FOR RESULTS..
In less than 1 week, he is now #5 when you search from wheel alignment houston!

Check out more Web Marketing View web design houston and web hosting Company!

New Web Design Project - AMP Employee Benefits

2008-03-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

Today, I started a new Web site project - AMP! Employee Benefits!

This is a crunch wesite and has to be completed with in 1 week! there is about 20 pages to create and Content Management System to allow them to update their NEW WEBSITE!!

Client has delivered all the content, so it should go pretty smoothly! I will update this blog as the site progresses!

Design: http://www.amp-benefits.com and remember for All your Houston Web Design neeeds contact Houston Web Hosting Company - NewTechLabs!

New Web Design Project - BondedBuyers.com

2008-03-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

I start on a new project today. Bonded Buyers. The actual Web Design was done by Carlos H.
Here's a link to the proofing area
bondedbuyers.com Buy sell Jewelry
This is only the proofing area. SO please excuse the mess while it's underconstruction!

For more click "Information on web design by Houston's web company"

web design

2008-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Web Design. What is Web design? Simply put it's the design process of creating a web page. What is this process?

Good Web Design, usually starts on paper. I prefer to gather all of my content before I begin any website. If all the content is not available, I will usually draw on a piece of paper a basic site map. Using the site map will help me set up what type of menu system I will use.

Once I know all of the menu items for a web site the next phase is the actual design of the website. I usually will ask the client for a few examples of some sites that they like. This is not so I can copy a website however, to see what elements the sites have in common. What type of menu (horizonal or verticle) system that the client seems to favor. This also helps me to see how the customer prefers for text to be handled... Justified, not justified, large, small fonts. It's truly amazing the things that you can pick up by viewing these websites! I will then go thru the client's competitors websites and see how they are handling things!

Once I have a good grasp on what the customer likes, I open up photoshop and I work up usually 3 looks. This is a process. I will usually spend about 4 - 6 hours on the layout of a website. Let's face it this is one of the most crutial phase for a successful website.

Once I have 3 looks that I like I send them to the client to get their feedback. Generally speaking, most clients will pick one of these three and we will tinker with the basica look until we are all satisfied with the Layout!

Once the client has signed off, I will then cut the "layout" up into html elements. (images to be used in the actual HTML Coding of the project) Once all the peices have been "cut", I will then open up notepad (yes, I said notepad) and I will then begin typing out code!

The end result is a highly graphic web page design that both myself and my client can be proud of!!!!

To view some examples of my website design check out my website at

Houston Web Design

Filter Spam

2008-02-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Today I set up a spam filter for a client. This seems to be a popular Hosting add-on. I use to setup spam filters for people in my own Email System. However, I quickly realized that I did not want to be in charge of what email messages get delivered.

Let's back up. Once upon a time I hosted a lawyer. One day I get a call from my hosting client, asking me why one of his "important" papers never made it to him. My first response was: "What was the subject?"

To my surprise his answer was: "viagra lawsuit"

I said, you have a rule that says if the word viagra appears in the subject then delete.

So needless to say from that point forward I never wanted to filter anyone's email! So for the last few years I've given my email customers the ability to "filter" their own mail however I'm not going to be the one that manages the filter!

Ok Fast forwad, I setup postini for a customer. This product was very easy to integrate and seems to work like a champ.

So I have to give the thumbs up to this product!

Web design houston

Web hosting houston

Web Hosting - the basics

2008-02-20T12:32:00.000-08:00

Today I was asked, " What exactly is web hosting?" this made me wonder ... Do people really know what "Web hosting" is and how does it work?

Web hosting includes several things.
1. DNS (zone records)
2. Website hosting
3. Email Hosting

So let's go thru what each of these things are.
1. DNS - Domain Name Service. This means that these is a "name service" running on a server somewhere that translates IP address to a name: example www.NewTechLabs.com = 66.151.76.26. There are several "flavors" of DNS serivces available out there. The standard is BIND, however microsoft has there own "dns" service called MSDNS.

Both of these service basically do the same thing and the only real difference is where the information is stored however , you can configure Micorsoft to run just like BIND.

2. Web site hosting. This is simply where your files reside. Basically all website are just files that are accessed via a "web service"

3. Email hosting. This is where your email lives. This is where you "pop" your email. The two most used Protocols used in email is POP service and SMTP service.

I could type for hours on these services and thepros and conns of each however, this is not a technical document.

So a quick wrap up! Web hosting is simply giving your files a place that other people can access. web hosting includes EMAIL, web and DNS

If you need Web hosting in houston or web design in houston please visit Houston Web Hosting @ www.NewTechLabs.com

Vista Media Center

2008-02-17T05:33:00.000-08:00

Over the last 6 months, I've been playing with Vista "Media Center". Vista Media center is Microsoft's home theater / media solution. Media Center offers a wide range of media solutions for the home theater. This includes: My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, MY DVDs and My Recorded TV.

So I started this experiment with XP media Center last year. I ran this "Solution" for about 1 month! Sadly, the computer I was using was not powerful enough to be used as a media Center.

Fast forward to my current solution:
intel P4 2.4 gigahertz Processor.
2 Gigs of RAM
802.11n wireless Network card (for faster network transfers - Streaming Videos)
1 500 Gig Western Digital Hard Drive
1 External 500 Gig Hard Drive
1 External 750 Gig Hard Drive
1 Windows Media Cetner Kit from Hauge pauge PVR 150.
1 ATI 128 meg Video Card (DVI output)

The Setup went very smooth. I installed Vista with no issues at all! Everything was up and running with in 2 hours. I hooked up my satelite receiver to my PVR via the S-VIDEO connection. To my surprise, everything worked like magic. I then moved my existing data from my several sources: laptops, desktops and other removeable sources that I have collected over the years. I move all my pictures, my movies, and my music.

Once setup, I quickly went and explored all the options that are available inside media center! First thing I checked out was My pictures. I had moved all my pictures (about 3 gigs) to "My Pictures directory". Media center organzied everything for me! By folders or by date taken... it's awesome! I love this feature. A majority of my pictures are of my kids. Since they are now accessable via my "TV", I find myself playing the slide show and sitting in front of the TV all the time. My kids also seem to like this feature.

Next I checked out "My DVDs". To my surprise, I couldn't see any of my DVDs!! I had over 100 gigs of movies. Where were all of my DVDs? I quickly noticed that I could see my DVD player but nothing else. Surely, Microsoft would have made media center have the ability to veiw all my stored DVDs.

I went and did some research and found out that "My DVDs" are not setup by default and I have to go to the registry and make a change to "Activate" "my DVDs". This is bad! I think the next version of Media Center that this should be setup by default!

Now for my review, My DVDs is a great feature. It organizes all my DVDs very nicely. However, in order to make it work correctly, you have to go thru a process. You have to save the DVD files to a hard drive and create an XML file for each movie.

I have made a routine while "encoding" my DVDs and it seems to work for me. I open DVD Shrink and encode the disc. While this is recording I go to www.DVDXML.com and search their online database of DVDXMLs and save the file into the directory. the entire process takes about 30 mins. Oh another cool thing. Any movies that I have "recorded" are also available in the My Movies Section.

I spend about 80% of my time watching movies, so this section is very important for me! There is also a "plug in" that allows you to automate this process. I have not used it, so I can not comment on it. Check it out, go google "my movies" and you can try it out for yourself.

Next thing to check out was "My recorded TV". This was to be my main "tivo" system for my household. I was very excited about this feature. I must say it's a great setup.

Very easy to use and very visual! Only draw back, I only had 1 video capture card and 1 satelite receiver. To make it function like my Tivo, I need to get a 2nd capture card and a 2 satelite reciever. (currently, this is not in my budget) So as a result, I can only watch 1 thing. So if I want to record "Show A" and watch "Show B" I can not.

Now what about the "extras"? These are all great, Sports is the best. You can track players, scores, watch games and get up to date information at a touch of a button! Just awesome! Great for the fantasy football player or any other sports person.

Over all I loved VISTA MEDIA CENTER!

web design Houston

Houston web hosting

E-commerce...

2008-02-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

So my major project this week was integrating Authorize.net newest product Called CIM. While reading thru the PDF this product really looks like it has potential. My client wanted to setup a e-commerce solution that would allow their customer's to select from the credit card the user previously used or add another one. The customer also wanted to have al lthe Credit card information stored remotely at Authorize.net location.

Authorize.net documentation was great and left no real question as to what I can do. I quickly started writing my customer's e-commerce solution. Once finished, I went to test it and my first attempt went thru without a hich! Awesome looks like we're ready to go!

I then try my visa bank card, only to find out it's declined!!! What?? This is my own bank card so I know there's money in the account, what's the problem? I call up my bank and they inform me that they do not allow .01 transactions and they will always decline these transactions!!! So normally the response is well we'll just authorzie for a $1.00 instead of $.01. Here's the kicker!! On the CIM this is hard coded during the payment profile setup phase to authorize that this is a valid credit card!...

Needless to say I had to write a work around. Which I did get done however, it added about 3 to 4 extra hours to the project i wasn't expecting!

Oh well... Other than that.. I actaully enjoyed working with the new CIM API.

Web Hosting Houston

Web Design Houston

What would you do?

2008-02-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Today was an interesting day, I had a client that I recently took over hosting of their site. The customer had left their Previous host for lack of response to technical issues and poor search engine placement results.

I took over hosting of this website in November 1. Up until this point my new customer's web site was not coming up in any Search engine. The previous Host, was charging them $400 a month for SEO services.

I moved their site. However, they did want search engine placement because they thought that they already had this service.

About a month into my hosting this site, the previous host contacted the client stating that my new client moved their hosting and because of that they had dropped out of the search engines and they are losing money...

Here's a copy of the email that he sent to my new client...I did change the names. In this version old company is called (previous Hosting company) and my new client is referref to as abc inc.

MIND YOU I HAVE NOT AT THIS TIME STARTED ANY SEO SERVICES, SIMPLY MOVED ABC inc.'s WEB SITE FILES FROM ONE HOST TO A NEW ONE!

-----Beginning of excerpt from previous company's email on 12/06/07 --------

Dear All,

Your search engine rankings have all but disappeared!

This is due to a couple of factors:

1) The links (1000s) your site had from our other clients pages
to your web site have been removed because you left our services.
Google, Yahoo and other search engines use the number of links to your site as a major factor in determining rank.

(2) The new company does not appear to know anything about search engine marketing, and made some changes that have adversely effected your rankings. Keep in mind that there are only a couple of good Internet Marketing companies in Houston, and your new provider is not one of them.

Our understanding was that (abc inc.) relied almost exclusively on Search Engines listings to bring new business, and based on the disappearance of those listings, we can only assume that (abc inc) will suffer a great loss that will threaten the future of (abc inc.).

From conversations with (abc inc.) we learned that the reason for leaving (Previous hosting company)'s services was due to problems with email delivery, which could easily have been worked out if the problem was communicated to us.

We can and are still willing to help (abc inc.), so if interested contact us, but keep in mind that it will take 60 to 90 days to reverse the changes.

In the event that you do not want to use (Previous hosting company)'s services, we would strongly encourage you to use one of our competitors that is good at Internet Marketing, because the company you are with now is not capable of giving you the results you were used to with (Previous hosting company).

Thank You,
OWNER OF PREVIOUS HOSTING COMPANY

---------end of email -----------------------------------------------------------------

Now let's take this letter apart....

1. 1000s of links...If they have 1000s of clients that were linking back to abc inc's website ... why is it if you look on google for "link: http://www.previoushostingcompany.com/" there are only 111 sites that link back to them...

This is not 1000(s) of links from other Previous Hosting Company's clients. I find it hard to believe that they would have given (abc inc.) more back links than the they the company would have... Seeing how these were all the previous hosting company's clients so their name is on all the web sites they create? hmmmm seems fishy...

This also sounds like a link farm to me and I do believe that google frowns upon this as well. Please refer to Google's SEO page @ http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

2. At the time this letter was written I had not changed any of the website pages at all, so the work he was putting down was his own!!!

Now let's see what the previous hosting / SEO COMPANY HAD DONE TO ABC INC's WEBSITE!

The Previous hosting company had made my new customers web site in frames and had stuffed all the keywords in the No frames portion of the web site. (which as most people know that this is not a valid SEO technique - if it was EVERYONE would just put a lot of keywords in the NO FRAME section )

Please again refer to Google's SEO page @ http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

The funny thing is the previous hosting company had used this same strategy on their own web site.

Needless to say you can not find the previous hosting company on ANY SEARCH STRING that they are targeting... Say for instance "houston web hosting" (hey look who's at the top of the page it's me!! - which mind you my website has been on the top of these search strings since 2005. )http://www.google.com/search?q=houston+web+hosting&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

I'm debating on wether or not I should sue the "previous hosting company" for libel for the comments he makes about my ability to do SEO and my professional reputation? What do you think?

Please post your comments below!
Web Hosting Houston

Web Design Houston