Regular Expressions - Regex

Regular Expressions (or Regex for short) is a language that I've been learning a lot about recently. I don't have any useful tidbits for you as of yet, but I do have a couple very nice and useful links that can help you learn about regex:

Phoenix Dev Blog
Extensive Regex Tutorial

(Note: This is the basics for the programming language of htaccss.)

When I have more for you on this subject, I'll put it in the sidebar
-Ashton Sanders

Ashton Sanders - Interview

This is more of a Question and Answer with me, Ashton Sanders. Enjoy.

Q: What caused you to end up working on the Internet?

Ashton Sanders: Computers have always been my forte, and I greatly enjoy working and creating on the Internet. There is no other industry like it, and it will be one that I know I will always be learning new things about. There is no ceiling to how much I can learn and do.

Q: Why did you buy www.AshtonSanders.com?

Ashton Sanders: Ha! I bought www.AshtonSanders.com because I thought it would be a lot of fun to have and create with. I am the only Ashton Sanders who works on the Internet, (from what I could tell from the Google search) and I knew I would never forgive myself if some other Ashton Sanders bought it... or even worse, someone bought it just to spite me.

Q: What do you feel is your greatest strength in regards to Website Design and Development on the Internet?

Ashton Sanders: There are many aspects of the Internet that I am very proficient at: Website Design, PHP programming, ActionScript, Flash Animation, CSS, HTML, XHTML, etc. If I must choose one part of the Internet that I am the most proficient at, I would have to say it is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For the last couple years, I have been under the tutelage of Jere Matlock of www.WordsinaRow.com. He is the greatest SEO resource anyone could ask for, and the things that he has accomplished with his client's websites is truly amazing. With his help, I have begun to create some equally amazing products in the field of Search Engine Optimization. I look forward to all the SEO accomplishments that I will achieve in the near future.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of Website Design and Development?

Ashton Sanders: I love it all! I love taking a blank page, and creating a place that is pleasing to look at, and entertaining to use. I love using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to simplify a website's infrastructure and HTML Coding. I love the accomplishment of programming an elaborate PHP website that does all sorts of fun things. I love putting together an extensive Flash Movie that is entertaining, but most of all I love having fun, and giving my visitors something they can enjoy.

Q: Do you have any company policies that are different from other Website Design Companies?

Ashton Sanders: Yes, definitely! First and foremost, I always answer my cell phone. I am probably the easiest-to-reach web master on the planet. Even if I am behind on a project (not likely), I am not afraid to tell my client. I will never avoid a client for any reason. That brings up another company policy: "If you ever do anything, do it 'In a Flash!'"

Q: Any Closing Thoughts?

Ashton Sanders: The mind can never be full. No matter how much you learn, there will always be space for more. It my personal policy to never stop learning. It doesn't matter if I've never heard about the subject before, I know what everyone has to start somewhere. Why not here and now? I love expand my information on any subject!

-"Never Stop Learning... Ever!"
-Ashton Sanders"

SEO - Table Trick

It has been said that Search Engine Optimization "is not yet a science -- it's still an artform."

I totally agree with that quote. Search Engine Optimization is hundreds of little things that you with your site to make it more search engine friendly. The table trick is one of those SEO things you can do to improve your rankings (however slightly) in the search engines.

Theory

Search Engines don't usually index your entire page. They usually have a KB limit of how much it will index from each page, and it will probably value the information near the top of a page more than it does the information at the bottom.

Unfortunately, it is the style of the internet to have menu/navigation bars on the left side of the screen. Usually this means that the menu/navigation bar shows up in your code before the content of your web page. So the search engines have to sift through a bunch of formating code in your navigation before it gets to the meat of your site.

Here is where the table trick comes in:

Using this code, you will be able to have a left navigation bar that shows up below the content of your code. Here is the code:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr valign="top">
<td><!-- leave this TD empty - it will disappear --></td>
<td rowspan=2>Put the text for the page here. </td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td>Put the Navigation Bar Here</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

That's it! If you want to see a website that is currently using this trick, go to Front Sight.com.

The above quote and this table trick supplied courtesy of Jere Matlock of Words in a Row. Jere is the best SEO resource anyone could ask for. His site is full of useful Search Engine Optimization tactics and ideas. You can also check out his blog: JMblog.

Another fun quote he has on is blog is:

"If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing."
-Kingsley Amis

-Ashton Sanders

Internet Scams

Why do people have to be jerks? Why do people feel it is okay to rip of their neighbors? Why do people have to be so stupid?

Those are some philosophic questions that won't necessarily be answered in this blog post... but I might get around to it. =)

About a week ago, I started working with a new client. (Lets say her name was Jan.) We got together, and talked about pricing and domain names, etc. We found and bought a domain name, but my client decided that it would be best to wait 1 week before we actually would start putting together her website design.

(NOTE: There was nothing on her website. Nothing, Zilch, Nada, ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY NOTHING!)

Before the week is up, Jan calls to tell me that she received an offer from "Google" to place her site on the top of the search engines for a cheap monthly fee. She had agreed and "Google" faxed her a contract to sign and send back. Luckily for her, she called me. Here is what the contract said:

Terms & Conditions

Guarantees
Your site will be found as promised (on the first page for: real estate agent polson, properties for sale polson, real estate for sale polson, home for sale polson, mls listings polson) within 3-5 business days upon account verification. In the event that you are not found on the first page, we will correct the placement within 2 business days and provide a pro-rated credit to compensate you for the time your site was not found as promised. *Company Name* reserves the right to modify search terms at any time to enhance overall campaign performances.

Credit Card / Checking Authorization
I understand that this contract is for a minimum period of 12 months and that *Company Name* is authorized to debit my credit card or checking account monthly during the term for the price of $119.00. After 12 months, the authorization will continue on a month by month basis, unless the customer noted above sends a cancellation by fax to *Company Name* International at 1-866-***-****.

Cancellation Policy
All fees paid prior to cancellation are non-refundable.

If you wish to discuss your account with a *Company Name* Representative, peease contact *Company Name* at 1-866-***-****. the event of default of this contract (10 days past due), I will be responsible for the full amount of this agreement.

Wow! They can get my site so good that it will appear on the first page? No... It's called Google Adwords, and the price per click for those keywords are like 5 cents! And NOBODY searches those keywords.

If you type in "real estate agent polson" (the first keyword they mentioned) into the Overture Keyword Selector Tool it will tell you that it "doesn't have any suggestions for those keywords." In other words, so few people search that term, it doesn't have statistics on it.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

You pay $120 bucks a month to hire a company to start a Google Adwords campaign at 5 cents a click on keywords that nobody searches...

There is only one word for businesses like that: Assholes.

You are not providing any sort of service; you're just pretending to provide a service. You are a teenage prick who thinks that taking advantage of ignorant people is an honest means of making a living...

-Grow Up
-Ashton Sanders

Longest Blog!

Yes! This blog Signifies my longest blog ever!

(The last one I did was for Camp Cherry Valley, Boy Scout Summer Camp. I got 25 posts before the summer ended, and I had to close the blog.)

This is my 26th blog post. Here's to the future of this blog!

-Cheers
-Ashton Sanders

CSS Zen Garden

What is CSS Zen Garden?

It's a great idea, thats what it is. It's the ultimate Test of a CSS Designer. They have one basic HTML file, that is free to download, but you're not allowed to change it. The only thing you are allowed to change is the css (which is all you need), and people create the coolest designs using only CSS!

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets

HTML is very functional, and you can do a lot with it, but there are two large down sides to it. It's purposes is solely for formatting, and it clogs up your HTML documents with a lot of code. Adding a Cascading Style Sheet to your website not only makes it way easier to format( and change at a later date). It also simplifies to the code like nothing else.

I recently did a Search Engine Optimization on a site called: Clear Lake Guide Service. The previous website used about 100 lines of code for the header... Using CSS, I cut that down to 20 lines of code. It keeps the Search Engines happy, and the website designers happy.

So needless to say, you can do almost anything with CSS!

Now back to CSS Zen Garden:

Zen Garden takes submission from website Designers from all over the world. And every design looks like a completely different website, even thought the XHTML is EXACTLT the same as all of the others! Right now they are getting close to 1000 submissions! If I have a free hour, I'll throw one together as well.

"CSS makes the internet spin a little bit lighter."
-Ashton Sanders

Website Design Thoughts

I just started working on the design process for four different websites. I've done so many website designs, I've started doing some thinking about how to imporove my website design skills.

My favorite website designers are from Rigney Graphics. These guys are truly amazing! They did the website for the Rose Bowl and for my old Boy Scout Council: San Gabriel Valley Council. Both of those sites are just amazing.

The Boy Scout Council's website design is different on almost every page, and is very pleasing to the eye. It's got so many pictures on every page, and is so many pages, I could spend forever clicking though the pages.

Another Website that Rigney Graphics designed is TXL Films. Taron Lexton told Rigney to just make something cool, and they created that! Another amazing piece of work.

I strive to create website layouts like them.
-Ashton Sanders

CSS Difficulties - Centering Images

As most designers know, there is a difference between Internet browsers. Internet Explorer and Firefox displays websites differently. Some differences are hardly noticeable, and others are huge.

From my experience, Firefox follows HTML and CSS rules to the letter while IE only follows most of them. Here is an example I ran into today having to do with Centering Images using CSS:

Using CSS to Center Images:
I have the same image three times. Here is the image:

As you can see it is just a simple 2x26 pixel image. In the following link example, I have this same image centered three different ways.

CSS Image Centering

If you are viewing this in Firefox, those three images will create one perfectly centered, two-pixel wide, vertical line (as it should). But in Internet Explorer, the bottom two images move to the left one pixel.... I would ask Micro, "Why?" But I'm sure I wouldn't get an answer.

Three Cheers for open source!

BTW, Here is the Code for the three above images, so you can tell the different centering techniques that I used:

This one works correctly in both browsers:

<div style="background: url(http://www.websitesinaflash.com/samplepages/wkd/images/button-div.jpg) center no-repeat; height:20px;"> </div>

These two don't work correctly in Internet Explorer:

<div align="center"><img src="http://www.websitesinaflash.com/samplepages/wkd/images/button-div.jpg" alt=""></div>

<div style="text-align:center; margin:0 auto"><img src="http://www.websitesinaflash.com/samplepages/wkd/images/button-div.jpg" alt=""></div>

Enjoy,
Ashton

Switching CSS on the Same Website

As I was doing some CSS research yesterday, I came upon a site that really impressed me. This site was primarily Red. It had a page called "skins". "Skins" usually mean what the website/program look like. For example, Trillian messaging program is always the same program, but you can change the way it looks by getting new skins. Here are a couple skins from their website:



Now this kind of confused be, because a website will always have one look, and you have to actually edit the site to change that, right? Wrong! On this guy's "skins" Page he had three buttons and when you clicked on them, it totally changed what the page looked like!! So of course I learned all I could about it, and here is what I have to share with you.

You can view his site here.

Here is the code:

You need two (or more) different style sheets to use for the same website. You will include it in the header like this:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="asset/stile.css" title="metrostation" media="screen" />
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="asset/cielo.css" title="cielo" />

This is the javascript that needs to be included in the page:

function setActiveStyleSheet(title) {
   var i, a, main;
   for(i=0; (a = document.getElementsByTagName("link")[i]); i++) {
     if(a.getAttribute("rel").indexOf("style") != -1 && a.getAttribute("title")) {
       a.disabled = true;
       if(a.getAttribute("title") == title) a.disabled = false;
     }
   }
}

Then all you need to do is create this simple anchor on your website that will switch themes to that CSS document(You will need to make a different button for each different CSS):

onclick="setActiveStyleSheet('cielo', 1);return false;"

That is freaking the coolest thing, with endless possibilities. Once I have duplicated this on mywebsite, I'll be sure to make a post so you can find it!

-Enjoy,
-Ashton Sanders

The Laptop Arrives

A normal brown cardboard box arrived at my house. Thankfully, it was much more than a normal brown cardboard box, for inside this box was a beautiful and expensive piece of machinery: My HP 17" wide screen laptop computer!

It has arrived!!

Websites in a Flash now has four beautiful computers in it's computer fleet, three of which are laptop computers. I use three of them, and my Executive Assistant uses the fourth.

Here is my ever-expanding Computer Fleet:


Websites in a Flash Fleet Description:

My Brand New HP Laptop (right):
This HP laptop will become my primary processing machine as soon as I get a laptop bag for it, and have some time to transfer over my programs and files. This is the most powerful machine in my fleet.


Stats:
17" Wide Screen
Whole Keypad (including number pad)
1.6 Dual AMD Turion Processors,
1 Gig of Ram
100 Gig Hard Drive
DVD RW Dual Layer LightScribe
Built in Mic/Webcam
256MB Radion Card
Windows XP Media Center

My Desktop (center):
This is a custom built computer that I built for Websites in a Flash. I just got this 19 inch flat-panel monitor. (I usually have it hooked up to my other 19 inch monitor, but I couldn't fit it into the picture.) This computer was built in December of 2004, and it's one smooth, reliable computer. I never have a problem with it, and it never lags when I have 20+ programs open.

Stats:
Dual 19" Monitors
3200+ AMD 64
1 Gig of Ram
128MB Radion Video Card
XP Pro
CD R/W
DVD R/W
Logitech Wireless Keyboard/Mouse MX3200 (547169 Key presses in 30 days)
Logitech Headset


My Old HP Laptop (left):
This computer has never let me down. It's been there for the highs and lows, and I've never had a problem with it. (Don't tell anyone, but it's at least 5 years old.) You can tell from it's stats that it's been a while since it was top of the line, but it's still pulling it's fair share.

Stats:
14 inch screen
2200+ AMD
XP Home
512 Ram
CD R/W DVD R
64 Shared

You may think that I am a big HP guy... but I'm not. It just so happens that the fourth computer I have (also a laptop) is a Compaq. (=] If you didn't know, HP owns Compaq.) But seriously, I was planning on getting a Dell, until I found this screaming deal for a 17 inch HP. I'm one to never pass up a really good deal. =]

"Computers are Life"
-Ashton Sanders

Service Review #2 - Century Tel

If you haven't read my first rant about Century Tel, Click Here to Read it.


Disconnection from Century Tel!

Yes! It's March 20th! It's been exactly 1 year since we first signed up for Century Tel. I signed up for one year of service, and it couldn't have been over quick enough. But now it is. Unfortunately, my account won't just automatically cancel. I have to call them again..... Here is the blow by blow of what happened:

I have two numbers in my phone, and I didn't know which one to call. I called the first one, which happened to be the wrong number. So after three minutes of pressing buttons, the tech support couldn't transfer me. But he did confirm that the other number I had in my cell was the correct one.

Try #2: I call the second number. After another three minutes of hitting buttons, I get to another tech support guy who can't help me.... But this one can transfer me. So I get transfered and wait a bit. I get a lady who asks for all of my information again. I tell her I'm canceling my account, and she has me wait I've been on hold for 10 minutes. Finally she gets me disconnected.

And it looks like... I could have canceled my account a couple months ago... But that's the special thing about Century Tel, everyone you talk to has a different idea of how it works.

Now I just cross my fingers and hope that I don't have to ever talk to them again...
-Ashton Sanders

Tutorial - Flash ActionScript - Advanced Path

Yesterday, I learned how to do two advanced things with paths in Flash ActionScript.

For an introduction, I'm creating a flash animation that will calculate a loan. What many people don't know about loans is that someone can choose to decrease the rate on their loan in exchange for increased closing costs. I'm making a Flash Animation that will allow you to do that. It will also allow you to select different types of loans, (which will change your interest rate, and closing costs).

In this Flash Animation, I had an ActionScript function that was called from many different movies, and I need to use a lot of variables to make sure it reacted differently to every request.

Here are the things I learned:

Creating Variables From Paths

My ActionScript Function call was simple.

On (rollover) {
  function(this);
}

Then all I needed to to was take the path to "this" and break it up into variables so that my Flash ActionScript will be able to do different things for each request. This seemed simple enough, I thought I could use the ActionScript Function split(.) to break apart the path into 4 different variables and thus allow me to do different things for each request. Unfortunately, what is returned by "this" is not a string so you can't split it... or do anything else that would work on a string. But you can do this:

function(path){
  path2 = path._parent._parent._name;
  path3 = path._parent._name;
  path4 = path._name;
}

And that will give you the name of every Flash Movie Clip in your path in the form of a string! That is a very useful Flash Action Script technique, but it lead me to the next problem:


Using Variables in Paths:

Lets say that within your Flash Animation you have movieClipB inside of movieClipA. You also have a variable in movieClipB called "num";

The ActionScript path to reach var num from the root is:

_root.movieClipA.movieClipB.num

But what if you need to use a variable in a path. (This could occur if you have multiple movies all using the same function.)I thought this would work.. but it doesn't:

path1 = "movieClipA";
_root.path1.movieClipB.num;

But the above ActionScript does NOT work. However this does work:

movieroot = "_root";
path1 = "movieClipA";
movieroot[path1].movieClipB.num;

That is how you use variables in a path!

Psychiatrists Diagnosing Normal Children...

To begin this post, I have a questions:
1) Why doesn't everyone know about this?

In my searching the web today, I found this article:

Leading Psychiatrist Admits Normal Children Are Diagnosed With Mental Disorders
Statement Adds to Controversy over Drugs Prescribed for Questionable Psychiatric Diagnoses

With increasing international concern about the large number of children labeled with so-called psychiatric disorders and prescribed mind-altering drugs, even the pioneer of psychiatry’s billing bible and “godfather of ADHD," Dr. Robert Spitzer, has now admitted that normal children are being labeled. Spitzer, a Columbia University psychiatrist, told BBC2 that children experiencing perfectly normal signs of being happy and sad are being labeled as mentally ill. While admitting this, he stopped short of informing BBC viewers that there is no scientific evidence that any of the millions of children so diagnosed have any physical abnormality that justifies the diagnosis. Nor that because of this, psychiatrists cannot agree on who is sick and who is well. Yet despite this fallible "science," worldwide sales of psychotropic drugs prescribed to treat "mental disorders," including stimulants antipsychotics and antidepressants, now exceed $80 billion annually.

Read the rest of the article

It's a shame...
-Ashton Sanders

Tutorial - Flash ActionScript - Path

Animating with Flash is great! It's the most fun you can have while making a website. But a flash animation doesn't become interactive without ActionScript.

ActionScript Allows you to send orders to many different sections of your flash animation. Any Flash Animation can have hundreds of different movie clips graphics and buttons. A Flash Movie Clip, Flash graphic or Flash button can be within other Flash Movie Clips or graphics. This Can create a very complicated system of Flash Graphics, Movie Clips and Buttons.

If you look at it like a folder system, it becomes easier to understand. Lets Say movieClipA and movieClipB are inside movieClipC (And those are their names respectively.) This is what the hierarchy would look like:

• movieClipC
  
  • movieClipA
  • movieClipB

To send an order to movieClipB (like to stop) this would be your command:

_root.movieClipC.movieClipB.stop();

What is this "_root." thing?
This first section is where you are starting the command at. "_root." tells the command to go to the very first level of your flash movie. To compare this to a Windows machine, this is like telling your computer to go all the way back to "C:\". Then we have the name of the first movie (movieClipC), and then the name of the second movie (movieClipB). Then Finally we have the command to stop (stop();).

More to come soon,
-Ashton Sanders

.htaccess 301 Redirect: Moved Permanently

I've already discussed how to create a 301 permanent redirect using PHP that allows you to forward one page to another. But what if you you have an entire site to redirect? What if you've changed domain names? There has got to be a better way to redirect your site besides, adding a php 301 redirect to every page. Well there is! It's called .htaccess.

My next post will be a quick introduction to ".htaccess".

If you only want to redirect from one page on your site to another, this is the .htaccess code to use:

redirect 301 /oldfolder/oldfile.htm http://www.websitesinaflash.com/new.htm

There are three parts to this redirect (make sure you put 1 space in between each element):

1) "redirect 301": This declares that you are doing a redirect, and that the code is 301: Permanent Redirect.

2) "/oldfolder/oldfile.htm": This declares the page you want to redirect from.

3) "http://www.websitesinaflash.com/new.htm": This is where you want the page to redirect them to.

This is useful when you have renamed pages, and want to make sure google knows where your new pages are, and also any visitors that would be directed to that old page will automatically be directed to the new page.

But what about directing an entire folder or site to another folder or site?
You'll have to wait for next post. =]

Enjoy
Ashton

Good Blogs and Sites

I thought I would share with you some of the blogs that I read for humor and education:

• Jere Matlock's Blog - SEO Master
• Desi's Two Cents
• IAS Freedom Medal Winners
• Ignatius Piazza and Front Sight Blog
  

Websites I use for business:

• Websites in a Flash.com (Of Course!)
• Ashton Sanders
• Phoenix Development

-That should tie you over,
-Ashton Sanders

Ode to a Laptop

I bought my fourth computer today.

Those first two words there are quite an accomplishment by themselves. I am one of the thriftiest guys you'll ever meet. I never buy soda or fries or chips when I eat out because they don't have a large enough quench-to-cost ratio. Jack-in-the-box Jumbo Jacks (back when they were $1) used to carry a great quench-to-cost ration. I could drop three whole dollars and fill up.

Those last two words are also quite an an accomplishment, like any growing boy, I never could really get full. Even after growing up and not exercising as much, I still am a bottomless pit.

That was a very random tangent... but back to the laptop.

Growing up, my father knew how to put old school computers together, so I always had a started learning young. My brother, Geoffrey Sanders, and I put three computers together (straight from parts that we bought from the Los Angeles Computer Fair), and they all are still in use and fully operational! I'm very proud of that. Come to think of it, the computer I'm typing on was first put together three years ago 2004, and it's still the fastest computer that I own! I have two laptops; 1 HP Pavilion and one Compaq Presario.

Probably three or four years ago, a good friend of mine got a SWEET HP laptop for C++ Programming, and I fell in love with it. It was a 17 inch wide screen laptop, and it was so wide, that it has the number pad on it!!! That is one of those luxuries that you just about never see on a laptop.

And for you computer nerds reading this, here are the specs:

1.6Ghz AMD Turion 64 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50
1Gig ram (up to 2 gigs)
128 MB shared video card by Nvidia
100GB hard Drive (5400)
LightScribe 8x DVD +-RW Double Layer
17" Widescreen (1440x9900, which is also the same pixel depth as my 19" Desktop Monitor
10/100 Ethernet LAn + Wireless b/g
Web Cam and Mic
A million input/outputs includeing 4 USB and a firewire
XP Media Cente

All of that costs $777! Thank goodness for wholesalers! I can't believe that price. I was about to get a Dell laptop that they were having a huge sale on for $700, and that had a 15.4 inch display!

I totally can't wait for it to arrive. (I'm going to have three computers on my desk, and four monitors/displays. HA!)

Nothing like living it up in the digital world!
-Ashton Sanders

Google Webmaster Tools

Yet another reason why Google is awesome: Webmaster Tools.

Webmaster tools is the greatest tool for anyone wanting to get their sites up in the search engines. Search Engine Optimizers who don't know about this tool, aren't really search engine optimizers.

You prove to them that you own your website in one of two ways: 1) uploading an .html document to the server with a certain name like Google2903ncvd90nk30.html or 2) add a meta tag to your home page with a similar random name. After that, Google will get you all the information that they have about your site!

The program will tell you all of the crawl errors that the Google bot has while crawling your site! So if your site has gone through a couple redesigns or upgrades, I guarantee there are pages that used to exist that Google can't find. And everyone of those pages create a 404 error for the Google bot - which, by the way, is not good. But you'll never know unless you get this tool and find out!

Its got endless tools like that. It has a robot.txt analysis page that will tell you if you have any problems with your robot.txt.

It will tell you how your pages are ranked by Google. It will tell you like 50% of your pages have medium page rank and the other 50% has low page rank. It will also tell you how many links you have directed to your website, and where they are coming from.

Google Webtools also has a place for you to submit your website's site maps! (Get gsite crawler to create your sitemaps... It makes it as easy as pie.)

And I barely scratched the surface on all of the different tools available to you through webmaster tools.

Check it out
-Ashton Sanders

Rascal Flatts Vs. Garth Brooks

Disclaimer: I am a huge country music fan, and I love both of these artists. I have bough all of the CD's from both of them and I recommend both.

I just went to my first live concert, and I went to see Rascal Flatts in Washington. I got to stand right in front of the stage!!! (See Rascal Flatts Concert!) The next day, I start watching the Garth Brooks Live DVD (one from 1995 or sometime very long ago), and being the analytical guy I am, I started analyzing all the differences. Here's what I came up with:

1. How they perform:

***** Garth Brooks is really there performing and giving all he's got to make his performance entertaining. He's always running around and acting out the songs that he sings. He got down on his knees multiple times. After the third song, he was sweating up a storm.

*     Rascal Flatts doesn't even compare. I think one guy ran once the entire show. Gary kept taking breaks and going backstage, leaving his other band members to perform. He acted link he was sick. (maybe he was...) Overall, there wasn't a lot of excitement from the band members in comparison.

2. Why They Perform:

***** Garth Brooks is on stage to entertain his guests. Everyone in the audience paid good money to come and see him, and hes going to give them their money's worth. Hes always very exciting to watch, cause you never know what hes going to do next.

**    Rascal Flatts seemed to be performing, because the had to. They barely ever look at any particular fans, or give it their all. They were fun to watch, but not when compared to Garth.

3. Stage Presence:

***** Garth Brooks has very good stage presence. Also his entire band had very good stage presence. They were comfortable on stage, and because of that, we're very entertaining to watch.

****  Rascal Flatts had great stage presence. The three of them were very comfortable on stage, but they did have one young kid for a guitarist who had no stage presence. I don't know how he got on the stage, but he never smiled, and they had him do a guitar solo, and he looked awkward as nuts. He was a good musician though.

4. Talking during the Concert:

***** Garth Brooks almost never talked, and when he did, he said what he had to say as fast as possible. After one song, he said like two sentences in 10 seconds and then said: "You didn't wait all this time to hear me talk, lets get back to the music."

**    Each member of Rascal Flatts had like 3 minute soliloquies....

Environment

***** Garth Brooks (10 years ago) Had the stage surrounded by fire, rain, thunder and Lightning in the show I watched. Very entertaining. And on the encore, he was lifted up into the air and flew around the football stadium on wires!

***** Rascal Flatts had some amazing affects! Besides making a globe out of digital screens around them and having parts of their music videos playing while they sang, they had a stage that fanned out into the audience, which was a cool idea. And the coolest thing they did was they all got on one part of their stage, and then they were lifted up into the air and moved to the other end of the arena. They were set down, they played a couple songs, and then came back. It was awesome!

Overall:

Garth wins. =]

-Enjoy
-Ashton Sanders

About Ashton Sanders

Who is Ashton Sanders? I realize that many of you have no idea who I am, so I thought I would do a quick post about my past.

I was born in Los Angeles, and joined cub scouts when my younger brother got into tiger cubs. We were both the goody-two-shoes of the school. When I finished 6th Grade, I went to Delphi Academy of Los Angeles.

I've always loved sports. I was on the soccer team my four high school years and was the captain of the Soccer Team the year we became undefeated League Champions; a school record to say the least. I got the League Most Valuable Player Award and the Team Spirit Award.

I also became very interested in computers (a computer nerd). We had a LAN Party every break, and I built a couple of my own computers. (I'm currently typing on one that I built two years ago, and it still running strong.) I love working on the computer, and am very good at it. I've picked up on a lot of tricks and shortcuts over the years, and consider myself a computer nerd in every aspect. I started working on websites with my brother at the age of 16, under the name Websites in a Flash.

I stayed in the Boy Scout of America Program since I joined in 3rd Grade. I got my Eagle Scout at the age of 17 and spent three summers working at Camp Cherry Valley, a Boy Scout camp on Catalina Island. They were the best summers of my life: teaching kids how to grow up and become a productive, helpful member of society, and having a blast doing it. I was the Head Commissioner for my last year there.

After my second year at Camp Cherry Valley, I moved to Montana with my fiance, and bought my first house at the age of 20. My website business has been growing and expanding since I graduated. I've been fortunate enough to work with some amazing website design and Search Engine Optimization professionals. I'm very proud of my website company, and have some very big plans for my website. (I'll be posting my website updates as they are completed.)

I think that summarizes it pretty well.
-Ashton Sanders

Rascal Flatts Concert!

My fiance and I went to see Rascal Flatts in Concert in Spokane Washington for our two-year Anniversary. Jason Aldean Opened.

It's a three hour drive to get there.

Unfortunately, we were like 8 rows from the top of the colusium. =( We were sitting next two these two girls from Coeur D’Alene. We were talking when they saw two of their friends walking on the ground floor. (I have no idea how they saw them... they were specks.) We followed the specks as they moved towards the stage.

The closer they got to the stage, the more hyped those two girls got. "What are they doing?" "How'd they get down there?" "Where are they going?"

The two specks just kep walking. They walked around the side of the stage, into a small hole between the stage "board walks."

To make a long story short, for $20/each we joined the Rascal Flatts Fan Club, and got to go into the "Dog Pound." Where we stood right infront of the stage, with walkways all around us, so almost no matter where the band members went, we were right next to them. It was great! The bands also did a very good job.

*Picture Coming soon*

Oh yea, and another small note, this was the first concert I've ever been to. What a computer nerd I am.

-Good times
-Ashton Sanders

Email Whitelisting at AOL

BlackList: If your website (or IP) address is on an email provider's (like AOL) blacklist, that provider will automatically block any email coming from your IP Address.

WhiteList: You guessed it... the exact opposite of being blacklisted. That provider has recognized you as a legitimate company, and allows your mail to go through to their email clients.

Feedback Loop: When you get feedback from an email provider when your email has been marked as spam by that provider's customers.


Problem: Email newsletters are not getting opened or, seen.
I had to get a clients IP address whitelisted on the major email providers. Unfortunately, when I got to AOL, too many subscribers had recently marked his newsletters as spam, so my request had been denied. What I did manage to do is get a "Feedback Loop" initiated.

AOL Feedback Loop
A Feedback Loop is very simple: Whenever an AOL member marks your newsletter as spam, scomp@aol.net sends you an email with a copy of the email that was marked as spam. This will allow you to remove the complainers from your subscriber base.

Note: The email you receive has the headers removed, so you will have to customize your email newsletters so that you can tell who you sent the newsletter to from the body of the newsletter. This is simply done by propagating information to the bottom of every email newsletter before you send it out.

Here is an Example of a footer:

This email was sent to:
*****@****.com at 1:32:56AM.

Then when you receive the complaint, you will be able to see that when you send emails to *****@****.com, they will get marked as spam. And now you can remove them.

Why don't people use the unsubscribe link?

I can tell you why I don't use the unsubscribe link on what I think is spam: Some email spammers would prefer to send out spam to random email addresses to see if they will respond. And that unsubscribe link could just send a "I use the email address, spam me!" to the email spammers, and then it's all over.

How to Get an AOL Feedback Loop Started:

Go to http://www.postmaster.aol.com/fbl/fblinfo.html and read up on how the Feedback loop works. Then fill out and submit the Feedback Loop Request Form.

That should get you started on the road to being whitelisted at AOL!

-Good Luck
-Ashton Sanders

Web Hosting for Websites

This is always an interesting topic because there are at least a million web hosts out there. If you do a search on Google for "web hosting," it brings up 208,000,000 sites. (Granted, not all of those sites do web hosting, but that is a lot of sites.) In this mess of web hosting sites, it's actually very easy to end up with an expensive provider who provides less than others. Here are some web hosting providers that I've had a lot of success with:

GoDaddy: These guys have a very comprehensive website, and they are always updating it. Their website makes it very easy to do just about anything to your site. You won't have to call tech support ever, as long as you know how to use a FAQ. Everything is there, and if you do have to call tech support, they will quickly handle your problem. They are also very cheap: Web hosting $4/month and domains $10/year. I have used Godaddy for a very long time, and have not had any major problem with them.

1and1.com: I was just introduced to this company, and they seem to have the sweetest deal on the internet. Their web hosting program allows you to host many (25 for the beginner) websites on the same hosting account. Which is amazing if you are a web designer and you have a lot of websites. To top it off that beginner account is only $3/month!! Domains are also the cheapest I've seen at $6/year.

It really seems too good to be true. And if it is, I'll update this post very soon.

-Until then,
-Ashton Sanders

Click for an Updated Service Review on 1and1.com

Cheating the Search Engines?

On the topic of Search Engine Optimization, there are many ways to "Cheat" the Search engines. (Most of these ways are very detectable and you will get penalized for it today, but it was a "good idea" back in the day.)

White Text on White Background: This will alow you put lots of heavy keyword content on your page without having to bother your visitors with them.

Hard to find links: This is where you link a space " " or a couple letters and force it to not underline. This way you can direct the search engines to a content heavy page without showing your visitors.

All of these "cheats" will get your site penalized on the Search Engines. This is Google's first "Quality guidelines - basic principles":

• Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."

(Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/...)

But what about link farms?

A link farm is a system or program that links thousands of sites to your website. Since number of links to your site is one of the main things that Google and other search engines look for, It probably isnt' a bad idea.

But note, if you get 10,000 links from sites that all have pagerank of 0, your website's going to have the page rank of 0. So you have to be careful about which program you choose.

I would recommend Link Farms for today, but keep an eye on your page rank, and if it disappears one day, it may because google devised a way to detect link farms.

-Enjoy,
-Ashton Sanders

Movie Review: The Protector

Synopsis: Asian kid grows up with his father raising elephants. Elephants get stolen. Asian kid kills a lot of bad guys in computer game format. Asian kid gets one elephant back, because the other was killed and skeletonized. But that's okay because the elephant bones helped to beat the final bosses.

Pros: This Asian kid is really good at beating up bad guys. Very unique bad guys; like the "extremely large guy," "The Cool Punk" and "The Crooked Cop." The unique bad guys use very innovative weapons; like iridescent light bulbs and large dirt clods that look like statues.

Cons: The movie wasn't long enough.

Plot Twists Include:
The Cool Kid's gang is full of acrobatic lightbulb swinging who are good at street sports.
Crooked Cop is on the same team as the evil woman.
The elephant is dead.

But Seriously: Don't watch it for the story line. Very entertaining if you like fight scenes and some amazing acrobatics. Good movie for a dumb date or very very late at night.

-Good Times,
-Ashton Sanders

Internet Explorer CSS Tip

Beginners Note: The main purpose of CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is to add color and life to a website. The main use for HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, on the Internet is to create the format or layout of your website. (Note: It is quite possible to create two identical websites, one in only HTML, and one with almost no HTML formatting and lots of CSS.)

Many Search Engine Optimizers will tell you that the more CSS you use the better. The reason for this is simple: If you created a web page only in HTML, a search engine would have to index 300 lines of code (lets say), while on the other hand, if the same website was formatted with lots of CSS, you would only have 50-100 lines of HTML for the search engine to index. So the search engine would index almost only textual information, and very little code. And in theory, the search engine will think that you are a much more important resource for it to index.

As any Website designer will tell you, Internet browsers can react very differently to the same piece of CSS code. And since a vast majority of the public use Internet Explorer, it's very important for your website to look good in that browser. Unfortunately, this browser doesn't listen to CSS directions as rigidly as FireFox, the next most popular Internet browser. (Internet Explorer Vs. FireFox)

Now for the Internet Explorer CSS Tip:

Lets say you have this piece of CSS code:

.text {
padding-top: 5px;
}

And this is your HTML:

<div>Welcome to the HTML Class</div>
<div class="text">Today we will be learning about HTML</div>

And for some reason the freaking Interent Explorer won't listen to your css. No matter what, it just refuses to add padding in between the two <div>s. There are many things you can try to get it to work. You can change it to "margin" or change the distance to 70px. Nothing happens. Believe me... one of the most frusturating things in the world... second only to stupid people... maybe.

Well behold there is something else you can try: be more specific when you define your selector (.text). Try this:

div.text {
padding-top: 5px;
}

I've found that Internet Explorer takes much more kindly when you are more specific with your CSS defining.

Another CSS Note I thought I'd throw in as a bonus:

I realized that almost none of the CSS tutors on the Internet tell you about this extremely useful CSS syntax that can help you to be more specific. Lets take this example. You have a 100 page site with lots of pictures that you want to validate. Unfortunately, a couple of your pictures don't have an "alt" tag (which will create an error in almost all HTML validators). The solution is use this CSS code:

img[alt] {
border: 5px solid #FF0000;
}

This code will put a 5px red border around ever image that has an alt. This will make it easy for you to scan through your site and easily view images that are and are not properly formatted.

This is how it works: After the HTML tag (selector) and inside the brackets [ ] put any atribute for that HTML tag. You can also put the attibute and that atributes variable. Like this:

img[alt="Websites in a Flash"] {
border: 2px solid #FF0000;
}

With that code, any image that has the alternate text of "Websites in a Flash" will have a 2px red border around it.

-Enjoy
-Ashton Sanders

FireFox Vs. Internet Explorer

Which one would you choose?
It's almost 100% unanimous accross the Computer Nerd and Internet Geek world: Firfox is the best. But What does the rest of the world think? Internet Explorer comes installed on every Windows Machine, and by far most computers are windows machines.

As of September 6th, 2006, Internet Explorer owns 83% of the market share (Down .5% from 83.5% in July) while Firfox Gained .5% to 11.8. So Firefox is very slowly gaining momentum.

Other browsers posted slight gains in August, including Apple's own Safari (+.03 percent to 3.21) and Opera +.05 percent to 0.64).

(Source: Inews.com.au)

Whats the difference?

There are many differences, but the most important one to me is the extensions. An extension is a program that is added onto your Firefox. These extensions could be anything as simple as "When you double click you go to your home page" or as complex as a whole toolbar full of internet and website editing tools.

Firefox is an open source browser, and it allows programers to create extensions for Firefox. It displays all of the extensions on the Firefox Website.

Here are some of my favorite Extensions:

Web Developer by Chris Pederick
This Toolbar is a must-have for any web developer or Computer programmer. It does everything from validating the webpage you are on to Revealing passwords that Firefox remembered but you forgot. My favorite part about this tool bar is "Outline Current Elements." This tool will tell you all about the organization and what is happening on your website.
For Example, if you want a picture to align right, but for some reason there is huge space between the picture and the right side of the screen, simply hit this tool and put your mouse over the space and it will tell you what part of your code is creating that space. It may highlight your image. In which case, you have a Margin for your image that you didn't remember making. Or there may be another object in the way. This toolbar takes the guess and check out of it.


Firebug by Joe Hewitt
This is a Great Tool for validating a page. It will tell you in the bottom right of your Firefox how many error/warnings a page has. You don't have to press any extra buttons or anything.


Check out Tomorrow's post for more cool extensions.