Archive for Web and Database Development
Toolbox Post: WhichLoadsFaster.com
Posted by: | CommentsMost of my posts are probably ‘toolbox posts’ as it turns out. Ever wondered which of two sites load the fastest? A site called Which Loads Faster can help you win bets, or at least get a handle on what is going on when two web sites load in the browser. Use the site to perform a test between two sites in the splash screen when you first hit the site, or select your own matchups. Have fun learning!
Mobile User Experience (UX) topics
Posted by: | CommentsThis well laid-out writeup of mobile web experience delivery came through a LinkedIn discussion today. I enjoyed reading it, because it mentioned the Responsive Web Design concept, which I can’t seem to get enough of. The following methods are detailed, and pros and cons for each delivery method are listed:
- Standard Website
- Responsive Web Design
- Mobile Website
- Mobile Application (mobile apps)
Enjoy!
Real-time analytics application
Posted by: | CommentsWow – how time flies. I’ve gone too long without posting!
New Relic appears to be an interesting performance and app monitoring package with a modern interface and great tools. I came across it the other day looking for some other web analytics information. A free trial is available, so I may give it a run and write about it here.
Until next time…!
Taxonomy and Information Architecture
Posted by: | CommentsI’m still keeping lists of useful sites as I learn about information architecture (IA) concepts, taxonomy, user experience (UX) and knowledge management. The Taxonomy Guide at the University of Toronto in Canada contains many useful links and resources on these topics.
The University of Minnesota, Duluth is not to be outdone by UToronto – there are dozens of links to IA materials at their site. This site digs deep into IA methods such as card sorting, content inventory methods, prototyping and wireframing.
Here’s another site chock full of IA links.
Something for everyone…
There is definitely a site out there for everyone. This site is all about site indexes and there is even a special index group (SIG) dedicated to building a site index for any site.
Picking up again on the taxonomy topic, I found that Heather Hedden has written and spoken extensively about taxonomies, indexing and search. Her site contains links to numerous whitepapers, articles and presentations.
There’s even a Taxonomy Bootcamp (gasp!) in D.C. this November. It is co-located with some other related events such as the Knowledge Management World conference, the SharePoint Symposium and the Enterprise Search Summit.
Before getting too deep into a new information architecture, it may be time to chill out and take a content inventory.
What’s running that site?
Posted by: | CommentsIt isn’t pefect, but the Scritch CMS detector tool is very useful when you need to know what CMS is running on a certain website. If you need to know where the site is hosted and what https server responds for the site, Netcraft is excellent. Need to know what web analytics is in place for a particular site? The Vendor Discovery Tool at Web Analytics Demystified can help.
Easy Web Site Analyzer
Posted by: | CommentsI read about WooRank just today and I like it. Of course a paid offering exists, but the free offering covers a lot of ground when you need a quick read when evaluating a new website. It quickly summarizes traffic, search engine ranking, SEO qualities, server and other info to get you started quickly. If you need some background history on a site or domain, supplement the WooRank data with info from Netcraft.com.
SQL Server tips and techniques
Posted by: | CommentsThis post could become a living being all by itself…. SQL Server has seemingly endless possibilities.
I had a need to determine the size of all the tables in a certain database, and this post floated to the top.
CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CONVERT(MONEY, CPRICE)) AS PRICE was all it took…
Posted by: | CommentsBig time DBAs, don’t laugh! But honestly, couldn’t it have been easier to format a numeric value as an amount with decimals? Maybe it will help others trying to format dollar amounts which are stored like 1234.1861 in SQL Server to look like 1234.19, for example. So deceivingly simple…
Here is how I searched BigG and found little:
TSQL display dollar amount
TSQL format dollar amount
TSQL format currency no dollar sign
Just pop this around the field name you need to format and you’re in business!
CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CONVERT(MONEY, fieldname)) AS PRICE
Cheers!