Ya i had to take a break, don’t ask “iMamoo taking a break?” Did you know a common mistake which people make, is not to take breaks. specially the performance oriented people like me should take breaks when they need. Taking a break is like changing the oil on your car. It is a basic need and your performance will suffer if you decide to just “press on through.” Let’s say you normally operate at 70% to 90% of your potential, but when you get burn out, your capability drops to 20% to 30%. Simply trying to spend more time on the same thing reduced effectiveness, so does it make sense. You will be far better off to take some time off and come back at your normal 70% to 90%. You need breaks on different levels.

(Pottson, when he hear iMamoo say this, realized how much he had missed iMamoo and his talks. He geared up to hear about the W3C level 1 validation for web accessibility)

These guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities.

The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. However, following them will also make Web content more available to all users, whatever user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer, etc.) or constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment, etc.). Following these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines do not discourage content developers from using images, video, etc., but rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide audience.

There are three levels :

1. Level A
2. Level AA
3. Level AAA

Below I have give level A checkpoint. If you implement all the three levels to your web page your site will become more user friendly.

Level A checkpoints :

1. Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via “alt”, “longdesc”, or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.
2. Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
3. Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a document’s text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions).
4. Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets. For example, when an HTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it must still be possible to read the document.
5. Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes.
6. Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing the screen to flicker.
7. Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site’s content.

And if you use images and image maps

1. Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server-side image map.
2. Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

And if you use tables

1. For data tables, identify row and column headers.
2. For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.

And if you use frames

1. Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.

And if you use applets and scripts

1. Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

And if you use multimedia

1. Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.
2. For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

And if all else fails

1. If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page.

PS: iMamoo & Pottson are the two mascots of iPOTT SaiaS

courtesy:http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/checkpoint-list.html

Those of you interested in increasing the reach and visibility of your RSS feeds, you now have a fast, easy and direct way to submit your those feeds to Google itself, While it is hard to say now how and when Google will start leveraging that RSS-based content to augment, expand and diversify its search capabilities.

You can submit your RSS feeds to the Google personalized homepage.

To add your feeds to Google you need to sign up for a personal account. Once you have done this, you can log into your account. To add a feed just click on the add content link in your personalized account page. It will take you to the page where you can add gadgets as well as you can add your RSS to that page just by clicking Add feed or gadget. By clicking the link a small window will appear. You can now type in the URL of your feed and click add.

The new feeds added to your personal Google homepage will appear showing the feed title and by default the 3 most recent items.Currently only the titles of each item are displayed and clicking this takes you directly to the linked page.

At the very least this allows you to make Google aware of your RSS feeds by creating your own personal homepage and adding your own feeds. Perhaps the future will bring and RSS search facility within Google that will be a boon for RSS publishers.

The Google personalized homepage seems to be treating RSS feeds as news headlines rather than the more techie RSS feed look. This would suggest Google may be going for a simple implementation of RSS so as to appeal to the less techie audience who are mostly unaware of RSS.

If this is the direction Google are taking then it would make sense that Google will be adding some sort of news search facility on the personalized homepage to make it easier for users to search for news that they are interested in. At the moment the RSS feed URL has to be entered which is really only useful to those who are familiar with RSS.

courtesy : http://www.newsniche.com/submit-your-rss-feed-to-google.php

WHAT ARE THE WEB SAFE COLORS?

Web safe colors are sets of colors that will not be altered (dithered) when shown on browsers running on a 256-color browser.   These sets of colors are initially selected by Netscape for use on their browsers.

Web safe colors seem to be irrelevant for today’s computers, but back when the web was invented, many people still use graphics card which supports only 256 colors (or less).  In fact, even today, Netscape browsers seems to still have some problems when displaying colors; while Internet Explorer seems to have better color handling.

Of the 256 possible colors, there are 216 that is designated to be web safe colors; they are shown on the table above.   The remaining 32 colors are used by the operating system (such as Windows 95, or MacOS) and are reserved for the color of title bar, desktop, menu bar, etc.

A web color is usually specified as a 6-digits hexadecimal number.  The 6-digits represents the Red Green Blue value of the color, commonly referred as the RGB values.  Even though there are 6 digits on each number, these six digits are actually three separate pairs of numbers, specifically:
The first two digits are the Red (R) value of the color.
The next two digits are the Green (G) value of the color.
The last two digits are the Blue (B) value of the color.
You might attempt to interpret all six digits as a whole, but that will be meaningless.   Instead, you should always break up the six digits into RGB values like this RRGGBB.  So if the hex value is FF6699, then RR=FF, GG=66, BB=99.

HOW TO DETERMINE IF A COLOR IS WEB SAFE

This is actually quite easy.  All you need to do is to break up the RRGGBB values into the RGB components, and make sure each component are multiples of 33 (hexadecimal).  So, to be web safe, the RR, GG, and BB values must be one of these numbers:

Hexadecimal:      00  33  66  99  CC FF

So, for example: 0033CC is web safe (because RR=00 which is a multiple of 33; GG=33, which is a multiple of 33; and BB=99, which is also a multiple of 33)

If you use web safe colors, The quality of your design ideas will improve and your Web page will look the same on monitors that can display 256 colors or more, on both Macintosh and PC computers.

no matter which computer monitor or which browser is used to open the web site. Any system capable of displaying an 8 bit color system will be able to display a site.

For more examples regarding Logos & other templates you can check with www.ipott.info.

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

courtesy:http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/websafecolor/index.html

If you’re a template designer or happen to redesign your blog on your own, you must want to know how it looks in other browsers than the one you’re using.

It’s easy enough to open up the few browsers you have installed in your computer and test your newly designed blog in it. But to know for sure that it works ok in all the browsers out there is next to impossible. Just to test in 2 different version of browsers, IE6 and IE7, are tough enough – as I’ve faced with previously.

What is this?

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers.
It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl.
When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue.
A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser.
Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

browsershots.org

Browsershots.org is an online free service that takes the URL of the blog to be tested and opens it up in all the different browsers on their machines. Screenshots, or snapshots, of the blog page in each one of the browsers are then taken and uploaded back within a a few minutes into the main page for your viewing pleasure/displeasure. From there, you can immediately see which browser works or not, and zoom in to a full page ( top to bottom of page) to see the details.

How does Browsershots.org work?

The service is very simple to use. The user visits http://Browsershots.org and enter their website’s URL. Browsershots will then take screen-shots of the page using the selected web browsers. Within a few minutes the screen-shots are posted at http://browsershots.org// for viewing.

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

Last week myself and pottson had discussion about the use xhtml valiadtion. It was nice and it will be usefull to everyone whoever doing website design. So I have given below what it is and how to do that.

what is xhtml :

The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax.
XHTML is in many ways similar to HTML, but is designed to work with the new eXtensible Markup Language, or XML, that will soon serve as the core language for designing all sorts of new Web applications, in which XHTML will be only one of many “languages.” But, XHTML is designed to work with these other language, so that different documents, in different languages, can be easily mixed together.

Importance of XHTML validation :

XHTML validation ensures that a site is indexed quickly by search engines; it also greatly improves the chances of a website achieving high rank on search engines. More webmasters than ever have started converting their websites into XHTHML-compatible sites.

Get Quality Score from Search Engines by getting your site Validated!

XHTML validation is one of the most vital aspects of search engine optimisation. Unfortunately most search engine optimisation firms ignore the importance of XHTML validation in search engine optimisation.

xhtml validation :

An XHTML document is validated against a Document Type Definition (DTD).
Before an XHTML file can be validated, a correct DTD must be added as the first line of the file.
The Strict DTD includes elements and attributes that have not been deprecated or do not appear in framesets:

The Transitional DTD includes everything in the strict DTD plus deprecated elements and attributes:

The Frameset DTD includes everything in the transitional DTD plus frames as well:

“XHTML Validation can make your site Search Engine Friendly!”

Url for validate your site :

After clicking the check button if you get an error in your page, you will see an error message of “Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Strict!” in red color, else you will get a message lke “This document was successfully checked as HTML 4.01 Strict!” in green color. Along with error message they will give suggestion, like actual syntax for the error – you can easily rectify these errors.

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

Most of the people want to popularise their site. but they forget the website standard and they might not be aware of drawbacks. Having a website with international standard is one way to popularise the organization.

What is w3c?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the Internet. Complying with W3C standards is voluntary, but failing to do so can result in serious penalties from the major Search Engines.

What is Validation?

Validation is a process of checking your documents against a formal Standard, such as those published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for HTML and XML-derived Web document types, or by the WapForum for WML, etc. It serves a similar purpose to spell checking and proofreading for grammar and syntax, but is much more precise and reliable than any of those processes because it is dealing with precisely-specified machine languages, not with nebulously-defined human natural language.

It is important to note that validation has a very precise meaning. Unfortunately the issue is confused by the fact that some products falsely claim to “validate”, whilst in fact applying an arbitrary selection of tests that are not derived from any standard. Such tools may be genuinely useful, but should be used alongside true validation, not in place of it.

Why Validate?

Well, firstly there is the very practical issue that non-valid pages are (by definition) relying on error-correction by a browser. This error correction can and does vary radically across different browsers and versions, so that many authors who unwittingly relied on the quirks of Netscape 1.1 suddenly found their pages appeared totally blank in Netscape 2.0. Whilst Internet Explorer initially set out to be bug-compatible with Netscape, it too has moved towards standards compliance in later releases. Other browsers differ further.

How do I use this service?

Most probably, you will want to use the online Markup Validation service. The simple way to use this service to validate a Web page is to paste its address into the text area on the validator’s home page, and press the “Check” button.

Url for validate your website :

http://validator.w3.org/

After clicking the check button if you get an error in your page, you will see an error message of “Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Strict!” in red color, else you will get a message lke “This document was successfully checked as HTML 4.01 Strict!” in green color. Along with error message they will give suggestion, like actual syntax for the error – you can easily rectify these errors.

check the below url which has been already validated with w3c validator with zero error.

http://www.ipott.com/jsp/newsLetter.jsp
http://www.ipott.info/
http://www.ipott.in/

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

If you are among one of those who is interested to popularise the site or want to publish frequently updated contents such as blogs and news or want to significantly increase website traffic, RSS is one of the best way to do.It can be accessed anywhere. It’s updated in real-time. It is 100% deliverable.

what is RSS ?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s an easy way for you to keep up with news and information that’s important to you, and helps you avoid the conventional methods of browsing or searching for information on websites. Now the content you want can be delivered directly to you without cluttering your inbox with e-mail messages. This content is called a “feed.”

What problem does RSS solve?

Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and can get overwhelming, and are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily, and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.

If you can learn HTML, you can easily learn how to build your own RSS 2.0 feeds. I’ll take you through the steps to creating an RSS feed from scratch.

Step 1: XML Declaration

Since RSS 2.0 must validate as XML, the first line in your rss feed must be the XML declaration.

The encoding is optional but recommended. If your using something other than UTF-8 be sure to change the above line.

Note: If you are using CFML and have whitespace due to the Application.cfm file you can reset the output buffer using <cfcontent reset=”true”>

Step 2: RSS Channel

In this step we need to open up the rss tag, and the channel tag, all of your feed content goes inside these tags.

Step 3: RSS Feed Information

Next you place information about your RSS feed such as the title of it, the description, and a link to the the site.

Step 4: RSS Items

Next we enumerate over each RSS item, each item has a title, link, and description, publication date, and guid.

Make sure you escape any characters that might cause your XML to invalidate, these characters include <, >, & – I like to enclose any content that may contain HTML inside a CDATA section.

Note: In CFML you can use the XmlFormat function to escape special characters in XML.

Step 5: Close Channel and RSS tags.

Step 6: Validate your feed

Validate your feed using FeedValidator.org.

Other things to take note of

* Content Type – See my post on content types for RSS feeds
* Encoding – You should include the encoding in your Content-Type HTTP header, and in the XML declaration.
* Styling – If you want to make your RSS feed look a little nicer you can CSS stylesheet for your RSS feed.
* Categories – It’s a good idea to include category tags in your RSS feeds as well, these go inside the item tag. You can give an item multiple categories by adding a tag for each one.

Here’s a sample RSS file which can be used as a template for your first feed:

You can check few RSS Feeds on iPOTT.

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

A Logo is the powerful image representation of your company, concept or about your organization. It creates an impression which is unforgettable, also an identity among your competitors.

A professional logo should be a positive depiction of any representation it stands for. It forms a Brand identity within ocean of concepts. Before designing a Logo, knowing the appropriate type of Logo which suits for your application will help you to achieve a stronger solution.

Logos are categorized of mainly 5 types.

1)Wordmark / Textual Logos

These types of Logos are popular because it features a typographical representation of the brand’s message or its name.

2)Lettermarks / Conceptual Logos

A Lettermark is similar to Wordmark, which uses abbreviated forms of any text.

3)Graphical Logos

In these type which uses an abstract symbol to represent the ideas or products.

4)Symbol / Artistic Logos

These forms of Logos are symbol with elegant appearance. It can be an artistic symbol with which says indepth meanings about your ideas.

5)Abstract Logos

Abstract logos can be symbols or drawings with text or without text which conveys the brand message. Recently we found 3D formation of these types which mainly used by the designing companies.

Each of these categories has its own design challenges & its own characteristics. Choosing the appropriate type of Logo will show off your product & service in a competitive way. For more examples regarding Logos & other templates you can check with www.ipott.info.

I will be happy to receive your comments.
contact me for any help at imamoo(at)ipott(dot)com

The enthu with which we started did not last long. The competition was not ‘fair’ enough for us to stay. We were at the 60th place and were sure will move up but reverse happened. It was more luck than professionally conducted.

1)The site was not ready for the traffic and was down greater part of the time and this reduced the voting opportunity.

2)No equal opportunity was available for the competing companies. The SMS system clogged and ’sent sad replies’ like ’server busy’, ‘can’t recognize your format’ etc. Again votes are lost.

3)The experts were not available to comment till few days back and when they commented…

4)The newly introduced mail validation system works, not works and then not works…

When we raised our concern we got very good response and we were told that all the problems will surely be addressed by the 2009 Hottest Startup. We knew we were in the wrong place. We withdrew. We were at 115.

iPOTT is the first of its kind, web based information center for software developed across the world for the Indian Market. We are the destination for both individuals and companies looking for software or software information. With India moving into “IT does Matter” world we find there is a gap in availability and accessibility of information. iPOTT is born to bridge this gap between need and availability of Software & Software Information.. more

Why is iPOTT Hot?

1. The concept of iPOTT is refreshing and is in line with the need of the hour. Software from $1 to $1,000,000 is available on the site.

2. The vision of iPOTT to be the largest source of software and software information & our value sets which is guiding us through.

3. The objective to outperform ourselves in being best in software search. We will be introducing search based on interest / hobbies and profession shortly.

4. The ever enthusiastic team calling themselves iPOTTisans find the workplace creative, with a lot enjoyment & fun, full of opportunities and helps multi dimensional growth.

We are now competing for the top 30 position. But our ultimate aim is to be in the top 5 TATA NEN hottest startups awards 2008. Please extend your support and encouragement ,for us, by casting your vote. You can vote by sending SMS ‘HOT402’ to 56767.

Alternatively please visit http://www.hotteststartups.in and cast your vote. We would be more thrilled to receive your comments online. Also, can we request you to take a minute to forward this mail to anyone who will be willing to vote for us.

Thanks in advance
Team iPOTT