Are You Textually Active? What Your Texting Means

Some form of texting has been around for the last twenty years. However, it has become much more widespread in the past five to ten years. In fact, users sent an amazing 14 billion texts each month back in 2000; however, that number became over 10 times more by 2010 with a surprising 188 billion texts per month. Obviously, texting has caught on as one of the best ways to keep in touch with family and friends.

However, there are some trade-offs to this awesome phenomenon. Sadly, people are unable to communicate true emotions via text messages. Body language and tone of voice are two major pieces of communication that cannot be conveyed via a simple SMS message. Some people are even worried that relationships can suffer when only text messaging or a majority of text messaging is used for communication.

On the other hand, there are definite benefits to SMS. Many people feel more comfortable conveying awkward messages or difficult information via text messaging than in person or over the phone. With almost 70% of those studied believing that they would have a difficult time staying in contact with others without text messaging, this once-unfamiliar technology has become widespread and much beloved.

This infographic was produced by Scratch Wireless.

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The History of Hacking Culture

Hacking culture is changing and developing all the time. The modern world is full of flaws to discover and secret places to explore. It makes sense that people are fascinated with the subject, but how has it progressed over time?

In 1975 the “Robin Hood and Friar Tuck” programs were installed on Xerox machines by Motorola staff which meant every time the program was deleted, it would re-appear after the computer rebooted.  This virus was the first of its kind and paved the way for a long line of internet virus hacks that we see today.
As for today, hacking culture has matured and more recently the ‘free online school’ hack believed that ‘information wants to be free’ and so this saw a rise in code literacy and naturally made people even more aware of computer security, which can only be beneficial.

What will happen in the future? Will the elite hackers go underground and start working for the government? Who knows! Either way it’s clear that hacking will always have security perks. If there weren’t people to uncover pitfalls, we wouldn’t be making online security tighter.

By James Duval, business and technology editor at GKBCInc.

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Things You should Remember when Redesigning Your Website

Things change. Businesses change, directions change, audiences, trends and attitudes change. As the face of your business or service, your website is the window through which your clients experience you, and as such, if it doesn’t adequately reflect what you or your clients are after, then you’re out of the loop. This is true if you’re looking to design your fledgling website, or if you’re looking to update and re-haul your existing site. The list of tips below should help website owners – new and old – know what to look for when giving their online presence a facelift.

Purpose
First, what’s the purpose of your website? Why is it out there in the first place? Find the essentials, and convey them in a clear mission statement. If your website is clogged with meandering information and distracting tangential stuff, there’s no way your clients will be able to easily figure out where you want them to go. If your purpose isn’t easily noticeable, it’s assumable that you don’t know your own purpose. And if it’s overused, it seems weak and unconvincing. But with clearly designed, easily navigable website design that brings out your purpose clearly, simply and concisely, you’ll be onto a winner. In combination with consistent, well chosen color themes and font choices, your site will present purposeful content and clearly understood images.

Audience
Know who your target audience is, and speak to them on the same level. Don’t dilute your site with self-promotional flattery – write from the point of view of your audience. Why should they take the time to devote their attention to you? What’s in it for them? And to make it a lot easier, don’t saturate your writing with overly technical, ridiculously complex jargon and babble. Speak simply.

Know your competition
Take the time to do your research; look around at your competitors’ websites, and take notes on what you like and don’t like. Explore their sites as if you were a potential client, and your pointers will direct you well.

Copywriting and SEO
Copy is super important, and so is choosing the right kind of writing for your site. As mentioned before, you ought to view all the copy on your website as an invaluable resource to state your mission and ideology. However, there’s a fine balance between over- and under-saturated, and you should be careful with how to work it into your website. Search Engine Organization (SEO) is also important – good SEO will keep you high up on related searches and increase your traffic, and it’s important to stay updated.

Read the Fine Print
There are virtually hundreds of web hosting packages on the internet that you can possibly selectF from. However, make sure that you scrutinize the fine print because there might be some limitations that might surprise you especially when it comes to data transfers, bandwidth usage and other purported unlimited features that comes with your web hosting services.

Plan ahead - web hosting packages
Build your website with growth in mind – you want it to grow, right? You should add in enough space for extra pages to be added later. And to make your site constantly fresh and relevant, schedule maintenance and content. This will make launching new promotional or marketing campaigns that much more easy.

Website design really is a deal breaker – take the time to do it right.

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Chat Wisely: Softros LAN Messenger

Whether you run a small web design agency or a large-scale enterprise, corporate network security should be one of your major concerns. Establishing bulletproof security isn’t a one-time action, but an ongoing commitment that encompasses various activity aspects, one of which is communication. You’ll be surprised to learn that your most sensitive information can be easily stolen by hackers due to the vulnerabilities of public messengers. All your best-laid antiviral measures might be for naught if you use a ‘not-so-safe’ piece of software. So, which messenger does your company use? Are you sure it is secure enough?

LAN Messengers

Computers belonging to a single network (Local Area Network or Wide Area Network) can effectively interact with each other (exchange messages and files, chat, send notifications etc.) in real time even if the network has no Internet connection. This was made possible thanks to LAN messengers that work as stand-alone client applications which don’t depend on any central servers (there is no need to set up those for LAN messengers). LAN messengers have proven successful for intra-office communication due to their enterprise-level security measures, ease-of-use and functional flexibility. Join me reviewing Softros LAN messenger, one of the highly rated IM tools to explore the benefits of this type of software.

Softros LAN Messenger

LAN messenger by Softros Inc. is one of the major players in the market. It has bought the heart and trust of many business owners for a wide range of handy features:

• Ease of use. Softros LAN messenger works out-of-the-box and requires minimum user intervention. It can be easily configured by non-tech-savvy users.
• Full Windows support (XP, Vista, 7-8). Works seamlessly on large and small TCP/IP networks.
• Secure LAN messaging. All messages are protected by the AES encryption algorithm minimizing eavesdropping and leaks. You get full control over who and when accesses the messenger.

• Requires no Internet connection. Softros helps you save the bandwidth, as well as prevent external attacks and keep your employees from chatting with friends and families.
• Private and group channels. File transmission.
• Sound alarms for incoming messages.
• User grouping: you can recreate the structure of your firm through grouping users by departments and teams, for instance Devs, Sales Department, QA etc.
• User rights management. You can selectively assign different rights and thus restrict certain functions of the messenger for normal users.
• Message logging. All correspondence is archived and can be looked through anytime.

• Easy importing/exporting. If needed, you can export your LAN settings to a file and then use them on any other PC on the network.
• Multi language interface. Included languages: Spanish, French, German, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Danish and more.
• Affordable pricing: $10.95 per copy. Quantity discounts are available.

It is better to see once than to hear about it a thousand times, so you may want to try the application yourself free of charge through downloading a free trial version.

The core advantage this piece of software is security. You should never skimp on it. When it comes to business, enterprise-level software isn’t a whim, it’s a necessity.

Featured images: Both Images are owned by the Author.

Robert is a passionate blogger. He's the owner of http://yourtechlib.com/, a website covering various technology topics. Feel free to contact Robert via his social accounts anytime.

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New Choices for Domain Names for Your Website

In the spring of 2014 a vast range of new domain name extensions are going to open up, with industry specific extensions becoming available after the dot, such as .photography, .london and .wedding.

It's likely that in time what's after the dot could become as important as what's before the dot and it allows for the whole of your domain name to have meaning.  Some of the most popular domain extensions that will be available are:

• .photography
• .london
• .web
• .services
• .ltd
• .blog
• .hotels
• .football
• .wedding
• .training
• .media
• .holiday

The Business Week article - New Domain Names are in the Works has more information on the latest domain names.

This gives you a wealth of extra choice in deciding what you want to name your website and it's likely that these extensions will be become important for SEO (appearing high with search engines) too.

Given that there's more choice in what to call your website, how do you go about deciding on your domain name?  The infographic gives some suggestions that are important to consider when deciding what to name it, both from a user-friendliness perspective and from an SEO perspective, whether you're looking to launch your website locally, nationally or internationally.

The "New choices for domain names for your website" infographic was designed by Allison Carmichael at Indigoextra Ltd, a creative multilingual web design and SEO company.  Allison has 2 boys and created the infographic to compare naming a new baby with choosing the name of your website.  It wouldn't surprise me if people put as much thought into both!

Allison lives in Montpellier, South France and is a film fanatic of all genres (although there's only a few French films she likes) and is home educating her two boys.  For work, Allison is the Art Director of Indigoextra Ltd and runs the graphic design team.

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Best Products to Buy from Apple in 2014

The year 2014 is going to be an year of much enthusiasm and it is going to deliver some amazing products from the giant tech company Apple. Apple has decided to create some extraordinarily effective and great products for this year as per the CEO Tim Cook. The most highlighted and awaited products for the year 2014 from apple. These products are anticipated to really rock the tech market.

iPhone 6

The next iphone from apple is expected to come with larger screen size that can come between 4.7 to about 5.7 inches. According to the information received it is said that the product is going to get released in two varying sizes for attracting users with different needs. The new iphone is going to be larger than the previous version released by the company. The ipad 5 cases will be available along with the product in the market so that you can keep your gadget free from any kind of problems. This larger iPhone is going to make use of A8 chip which is much faster and available at 20 nanometer. The display is also expected to come in curved shape. The gadget is expected to be in market by September or in the month of October.

iPad Pro

Along with larger iPhone, apple is expected to release larger iPad along with the tablet lineup that it has. This is going to be something really bigger and much efficient compared to iPad mini and iPadAir.TheiPad Pro is expected to have a display which is about 12.9 inches in size and is almost similar to the size of MacBook Air which is about 13.3 inches. The pixel density that you are going to acquire from the display is going to be much higher and it is almost near to the ultra high definitions. It is not yet clearly known about the features that you can expect from this amazing product but the whole tech world is awaiting the release of the product.

iWatch

The rumors and the news related with the iWatch was a great buzz among the tech savvies. The product is expected to get released by the year 2014. The smart watch that is going to get released can work as an accessory along with the iPad and iPhone. This watch can provide accessibility to iOs functions. The biometric functions are also included in this watch. The screen that is available with the watch is expected to be of sapphire glass which is ultra durable. The accessory is expected to go well along with iPad mini cases too.

Apple Television

The upgrades to Apple TV is going to be a reality this year and that is what most of the owners of the apple TV are waiting anxiously. The company is expected to release some new kind of set top box or are expected to put new features into Apple TV through which this particular product can become a fully blown TV that is suitable for all the users.

Author Bio:
Subramaniam is the author has been writing number of articles on different subject.He wrote more articles relating to Android phones.

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Infographic : The Worst Films of 2013

Producers and actors embark on movie projects with the best intentions. The screenwriting will be snappy and memorable. The costumes will be accurate for the time period. The script will grab viewers’ attention, not letting it go until after the final credits roll.

Yet some movies just flop. The reasons for their failure range all across the spectrum. Let’s mourn these movies:

1. The Lone Ranger. Johnny Depp blames film critics for this movie’s failure. No matter why it flopped, it only took in $89 million in box office sales.
2. Second is R.I.P.D. This movie did even worse, with box office sales of only $34 million.
3. Third is After Earth. This film starred Will Smith and his son, Jaden. A rare flop for Smith, this movie only took in $34 million in box office sales.
4. This one is a surprise. Elysium, a follow up to District 9, failed. Its premise was good, but taking on income equality and immigration in a two-hour movie is a huge undertaking.
5. The Training Farm is a New York based instruction center where instructors train creative professionals on the latest media software.

This infographic is provided by TheTrainingFarm.

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How to Validate Email in JavaScript with Regular Expression

We have seen many Regular Expression tutorials in VB.NET and C-sharp, this is our first JavaScript tutorial on Regular Expressions. So today we’ll see how to validate an email address that's being entered to a textbox. We have a textbox and a button, when you enter something into the textbox and click on the “validate”  button it’ll tell if It’s an email address or not(being noob GRRR!).

Add our JavaScript first(make sure you add it to the head) :
<script type="text/javascript"> function inputemailcheck(emailaddress){ //Down below we have the Regular Expressions into a Variable var regex = /^([a-zA-Z0-9_\.\-])+\@(([a-zA-Z0-9\-])+\.)+([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4})+$/; //Now this where the email is being checked with an if condition if(regex.test(emailaddress)){ return "That is indeed a Email Address"; }else{ return "It is not a Email Address"; } } </script>
Next add the input box and the validate button :
<input type="text" id="emailaddress"> <button onclick="alert(inputemailcheck(document.getElementById('emailaddress').value))">Validate</button>

That’s all. You can use this for some kind of subscription button or register/login forms. I hope this little snippet is helpful for you.

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Does Online Advertising Really Work?

Does online advertising really work? Yes it does.

A lot of people still doubt whether online advertising really works and whether it is of any benefit to their business. Some still opt for old school methods placing adverts in the yellow pages or by relying on word of mouth. Although beneficial to some degree, it's not as effective or cost effective as advertising online. Besides with the growth of the internet and the worlds heavy dependence on it, it makes sense to be where everyone is searching for their solutions.

Unfortunately for the people who have yet to venture down this path, with this current economy where word of mouth and the yellow pages just aren’t enough, they are being forced (positively) to consider alternatives.

Why doesn't it work?

Of course there are people who have tried online advertising and concluded it doesn’t work. This is probably due to a lack of knowledge and expertise when it comes to online advertising. To get the best from your advertising it takes a trained professional to manage your account, although the idea sounds costly, it would save you a lot of money in the long run.

Where to advertise?

Of course advertising will not work if you are advertising in the wrong place. There are a vast amount of platforms to advertise through but the for runner is Google. It makes sense when millions of people take to google daily looking for products, solutions and businesses. Google operates on two networks, the search network (where people are looking for your product or service by googling keyword terms) and the display network (ads and banners that appear on websites, related to your business). There are clearly obvious differences. Firstly, the search network is full of people actively searching for what your business offers, whether that be a solution to a problem or a particular product. the display network is considered interruption marketing because you are displaying ads to people on other websites who may not be interested in your products or service at all. The hope is you grab their attention and they decide you have something to potentially offer.

Be specific

Advertising will also not work if you are general. On the search network (keyword based) if you are not specific enough with your keywords, likely-hood is you will pay a lot of money for traffic (clicks) which may be of no value to you at all. For example, advertising that you sell cheese by using the keyword cheese is far too general. However advertising that you sell Stilton cheese is more specific. The more specific you can be the more reliable your traffic will be and you increase your chances of qualifying leads more often. On the display network aim for high volume traffic websites again will only be detrimental. Advertising that you sell cheese on a garden furniture website is probably not going to benefit your business, rather choose food related websites or recipe blogs.

With that said, if your product is considered an impulse buy, you can do very well from advertising in irrelevant places but there is no guarantee.

The solution and answer is pretty simple. Online advertising does work, if, you advertise in the right place and in the right manner. According to Sound Solutions Internet online advertising can help increase your revenue 10 fold. Investing into the right market place can be very benefical for your business.

Mike Lewis - I'm a retail business owner who uses Google Ad words. I have had a lot of success and would highly recommend it.

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