We are all hooked onto this social networking phenomenon, especially with Facebook and I guess you are all wondering how some of your friends are posting icons along with their comments.

The answer is easy: they use HTML symbol entities.

Some characters (e.g. the less than and greater than signs) are reserved for HTML markup. In order to display these characters as text, you must enter the HTML entities in the source code.

For example, to display the less than sign (<), you need to enter < (entity name) or < (entity number).

Among the entity list, there are quite a lot of symbol entities that we can use in layout design. For examples: → ♥ • “ ⊕.

Continue reading this post to find more surprises.

The Advantages of Using Entities Rather Than Images

• It loads fast because it is text base.
• Scalable according to font size.
• Easy to change color and sizing.

Apostrophe & Quotation Marks

Most common typography mistakes found on the internet are probably the mis-uses of apostrophe and quotation marks. We often misuse the prime symbol ( ‘ ) as the apostrophe ( ’ ) and the double prime ( " ) as the quotation marks ( “ ” ).

To correct this, you can use the right single quote entity (’) as the apostrophe. Use the left double quote (“) and right double quote (”) for the quotation marks.

Arrows

I particularly find the arrow symbols useful because they can be used as direction arrows or breadcrumb separators.

 

Link Separators

My favourite entities for separating links are bullet • ( • ) and dot operators ⋅ ( ⋅ ).

 

Trademark, Copyright, Degree, and Currency

The other commonly used entities are probably the trademark, copyright, degree, and currency symbols.

Trademark ™ | © Copyright | Registered Trademark ®
Currency: ¢ Cent | £ Pound | ¥ Yen | € Euro

 

Symbols For Web Design

Here some entities that you can perhaps use for design layout:

⊕ ⊗ ∞ ♥

 

Miscellaneous Symbols

Here are some miscellaneous symbols that you will most likely never going to use (but they are cool):

♠ ♣ ♥ ♦

 

So there you have it, all of the HTML symbol entities I can think of and with this post I hope to help people put new and exciting icons across the web.

In order to attract a lot of users to your web application, you can have them use their Facebook account by creating a single sign-on page. With the single sign-on feature added to your web application, there's no need for your users to register on your site. They just need to logon to your web application using their Facebook login details then you can access the user's Facebook account details. The account details that will be provided to you are based on what the Facebook user has authorized to share (e.g. email address, public information such as name, profile picture and list of friends, and profile information such as birthday and age).Before we start, you must first register your web application with Facebook in order to get an app ID. Once you are provided with an app ID, display the Facebook image button by copying this image tag in the body part of your html:

<img id="loginBtn" onclick="FB.login()" style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://s-static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/zB6N8/hash/4li2k73z.gif"/>

After that, copy and paste this code at the end part of the body:

    
    <div id="fb-root"></div>
    <script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"></script>
    <script>
        FB.init({appId: 'your_application_id', status: true,
                   cookie: true, xfbml: true});
                   
        FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
             onStatus(response);
             FB.Event.subscribe('auth.statusChange', onStatus);	
             FB.Event.subscribe ('auth.login', reloadPage);
        });
        
        function onStatus(response) {
             if (response.session) { 
                showAccountInfo();   
            } else {
                showLoginButton();
            }
        }

        function reloadPage(response){
            if (response.session) {
                    window.location.reload();
            } else {
                  showLoginButton();
            }
        }
        
        function showAccountInfo() {
            FB.api(
            {
                method: 'fql.query',
                query: 'SELECT uid,name, pic FROM user WHERE uid='+FB.getSession().uid
            },
                function(response) {
                    var imageLink = '<a id="userImage" target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=' + response[0].uid + '">' + 
                                    '<imgid="userPic" src="' + response[0].pic + '"/></a>';
                    var userLink = '<a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=' + response[0].uid + '">' + response[0].name + '</a>';
                    document.getElementById('account-info').innerHTML = (
                        imageLink + '<div id="userInfo"><span id="userName">' +
                        userLink + '</span>' + ' <img onclick="logout()" style="cursor:pointer;float:right;padding:0pt 25px 0pt  0pt;"' + 
                        'src="https://s-static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z2Y31/hash/cxrz4k7j.gif"/></div>'
                    );
                }
            );
        }
        
        function showLoginButton() {      
            document.getElementById('account-info').innerHTML = (
                '<img id="loginBtn" onclick="FB.login()" style="cursor: pointer;"' +
                'src="https://s-static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/zB6N8/hash/4li2k73z.gif">'
            );
        }
        
        function logout(){
            FB.logout();
            alert('You just logged out!');
            window.location.reload();
        }
    </script>

The FB.init() function initializes the API with your app ID. After initializing the API, we will determine the user's login status by calling the onStatus() function once on page loads. In our case, we are not yet logged in so we are expecting a Facebook image button to be displayed.

Once the user clicks the Facebook image button, a pop-up window will be displayed prompting the user to login to the web site through Facebook. On the first login of the user to the web site, an authorization dialog will appear requesting the user for permission to access his/her account details.

auth.login callback is called once the user logs in to the site. In our script, we reload the page once the user is logged in to our site. Since the user login status has changed, auth.statusChange is called. Now that the user is logged in to our site, the Facebook user's name, profile picture and a Facebook logout image button will be displayed.

Now, how we can access the user's Facebook account details' Once the user is logged in to our website, his/her account info are stored in a signed cookie named fbs_appID. So if you're website's app ID is 141094192572697, user's Facebook account info is stored in fbs_141094192572697 cookie. We will use server-side coding in order to fetch data from the cookie. Here is a sample PHP script:

 $value) {
    if ($key != 'sig') {
      $payload .= $key . '=' . $value;
    }
    }
    if (md5($payload . $application_secret) != $args['sig']) {
    return null;
    }
    return $args;
}

public function getUserInfo($cookie)
{
    $user = array();
    $user['fb_uid'] = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->id;
    $first_name = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->first_name;
    $last_name = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->last_name;
    $name = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->name;
    $user_link = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->link;
    $email = json_decode(file_get_contents(
            'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
            $cookie['access_token']))->email;        
    return $user;
}

?>

In the sample PHP script above, we are able fetch the user's Facebook ID, firstname, lastname, name, user's URL and email address.

Google has made Google Voice available as a button on Gmail! This means that without downloading a desktop application, you can make VOIP calls.

Better still, you can make calls to the USA and Canada for free for the remainder of 2010! 

Skype better watch out... Google Voice looks a serious competitor!

See CNET video below...

I need a powerful VoIP program because I need to talk to different people around the world at the same time. Ventrilo can accommodate many people in one server.

Gamers  often use Ventrilo to communicate with other players on the same team of a multiplayer game because it uses minimal CPU resources.

Also, communicating by voice - as opposed to chat - gives a competitive advantage by allowing players to keep their hands on the mouse and keyboard, and communicate quicker than typing messages to one another.

In a fast phase game in which you don't have time to type to your keyboard, voice communication is a must and Ventrilo is my choice.

Those who know me would attest that I would have been following the 2010 Federal Election very closely regardless of what was topical on the policy front. I am a political tragic and a lover of the much-criticised 24 hour news cycle - and my wife is the authority to affirm that fact.

However, regardless of the result this weekend, all of us in the internet industry have to be delighted that for five weeks, our world and our concerns were shared with the masses.

Fibre, wireless, megabits, open internet, filters, etcetera became part of the vernacular of politicians who don't even know how to turn on a computer, let alone Tweet or use Facebook.

 

Due to the broadband debate, more Australians now know that parts of the world have connection speeds up to 100 times faster than we do here downunder.

 

Most also understand that this is due to fibre-optic cabling; something no commercial enterprise has decided to build in Australia due to our small population and the unlikelihood that they will ever make a buck from a $43 billion outlay.

 

Most Australians also now know that an internet filter designed to censor offensive content from the internet (such as child paedophilia and how to join Al Qaeda) sounds nice, but is unlikely to work and could be abused by a group of legislators sooner or later.

 

If it did miraculously work and wasn't abused, the geek community that rules the online world will not stand for any censorship on the 'open internet'.

I have written a BLOG on my personal website haigkayserian.com.au, with my summation of these two topics - National Broadband Network (NBN) and the Internet Filter - which served the internet industry brilliantly by raising internet to the very top of the policy pile, ahead of Health, the Economy, Industrial Relations, Immigration and Climate change...

Please click here to read the blog.

'The best page in the universe' is actually a good read if you want to relax after a stressful of your day. Although the blog is not regularly updated with new content, the old entries cover enough humour that you'll feel good after reading them. All in all, a blog page that's not supposed to be taken seriously, but generally is a great source for genuine laughs.

Maddox released a book called "The Alphabet of Manliness", covering from A-Z the true meaning of being what he calls a "real man". Again, not to be taken seriously, but a good read nonetheless.

I've read the book and I must say it's typically Maddox with some solid laughs along the way.

If you want to read a really funny and angry blog, then go to Maddox's site.

And "If you don't agree with me then you're wrong".

• Wireless devices are everywhere these days, thus it is visible that mobile web access is a trend that is growing fast and will continue to grow.
• According to research, web visitors using a mobile device increased 34 percent year-over-year.
• Facebook, a very popular social networking website with OVER 500 million active users, announced its redesign of mobile websites m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com because of its growing mobile user-base, which has hit 100 million total active users (in other words, around 25% of total user base - see http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/10/facebook-mobile-stats/).
• And new study reported by Mashable shows the mobile web will rule by 2015 (see http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/).

Now for some opinion...

One thing the internet has taught businesses is to move with the trends. If you sit and wait for everyone to come around before you start working on something is reckless, and usually too late to take advantage.

Building a MOBILE WEBSITE for your business, which is a small version of your actual website designed for smaller mobile screens with slower internet connections, is essential to ensuring and improving your mobile web presence! 

At KAYWEB, we have already built dozens of mobile websites and are authorities in this field.

It won’t hurt to be ready for the change!

Take your phone and view KAYWEB’s mobile website at m.kayweb.com.au.

Using our example from my previous blog, open console and run the following command:

[happy@mars ~] vim .ssh/config

Hit 'i' and type in the following:

Host jup
User happy
HostName jupiter

Hit esc button then type ':x" to save.

You can now just type:

[happy@mars ~] ssh jup

SSH command will read your config file and match up 'jup' from the Host in your config and use the User and Hostname to connect to another computer.

This is very useful, especially if you have many servers that you manage and have different usernames and parameters when connecting.

You can set all possible parameters for ssh in the config file instead of typing them one by one.

Examples are Port if the other computer uses a port other than 22, ForwardX11 to display GUI on your local computer, Protocol to force ssh protocol version, Tunnel for tunneling and many others. Type "man ssh_config" in your console to get more in depth information about possible parameters.

Today, the IT world is swamped with applications and programs, and the internet is everywhere.

Applications, be they standalone desktop applications or web applications, can now interface with web services over standard network protocols, which raises a question: Which type is better?

The answer is there is no clear answer, but we may be approaching one. Read on...

Standalone (or desktop) apps traditionally performed a lot faster and had far more User Interface (UI) capabilities than web apps.

They are natively supported by the underlying operating system, which makes them dependent of the platform they run upon. The industry calls these Rich client apps.

Web apps were traditionally limited to the out-of-the-box UI capabilities, but they could and can be run without any specific requirements from users' operating systems. The industry calls these Thin client apps.

During recent years, a lot of initiatives have surfaces to somehow bridge the capability gap between Rich and Thin client applications. Some have been more successful than others.

There's specifically one that grabs attention - the EXT JavaScript library, which amazingly transforms the web experience into rich experience.

Now... having web apps covering wider and wider IT areas than ever before, will standalone apps become history someday?

I think so...

Anyone from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe can access your page, which means you need to design with the world in mind. Of course, you can’t please everyone. But you can design your website so it’s easy to adapt for other languages, other cultures. By thinking global from the start, the act of localising your website later on becomes a whole lot easier.

Content Is King

Visitors won’t keep coming back to you website for a nice layout and appealing colour scheme alone. The old adage that ‘content is king’ shouldn’t be forgotten amongst all the bells and whistles of an aesthetically pleasing design.

Having a website in English means that around a quarter of the Earth’s population can read your website (and the vast majority of them will have English only as  a second language). So if you’re serious about making international inroads online, the time will probably come when you need to start thinking about converting your content for the global masses.

The world has many different writing systems and scripts, with the likes of Arabic, Greek, Russians and Chinese having quite distinct characters in their respective alphabets. With that mind, the need to use Unicode is imperative if you’re planning to develop your website for other markets.

Unicode is a standard numeric representation of characters that can currently be used for over 90 scripts, and has a repertoire of over 100,000 characters. More specifically, UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode that most programmers will be familiar with.

It is the best option when creating websites for international markets, as it allows you to use characters from countless writing systems. All the standard web design applications facilitate Unicode documents, allowing you to choose the language of your pages and insert appropriate HTML tags within the code.

Colour Mix-up

The colour scheme is a key consideration on any website – in fact it may be one of the first things many web designers think about.

But whilst colour preference is subjective and you can’t please everyone, colours also have cultural significance and it’s perhaps worth thinking about this before settling on a scheme.

For example, black denotes ‘death’ in many western cultures, but not so in eastern cultures, where white is the signifying colour for this. Similarly, red represents ‘danger’ or ‘passion’ in North America and Western Europe, but it can mean ‘purity’ in India. Furthermore, Orange is often used to represent autumn (fall) or Halloween in many regions around the world, but in Northern Ireland, it holds religious connotations for Protestants.

This doesn’t mean you should build a different website for each of your target markets, it just means it pays to be wary of culture and colour.

Graphics & Imagery

This depends on how you would like your website to look. A liberally-clothed lady on a website isn’t all that offensive to western audiences, but it may be a major letdown if you’re targeting more conservative cultures. So you may want to reconsider having such imagery on your website.

The same applies to any potentially divisive graphics, whether it relates to gender, religion, age…anything.

But there is a more practical consideration to be made when thinking about your graphics. Believe it or not, there are still many countries across the world without high-speed internet access, which means fancy Flash animations or other bandwidth-sapping graphics may preclude millions of potential visitors from accessing your pages. To circumvent this, one option is to have a simple HTML version for those on slower connections, and another version for those lucky enough to have superfast web access on tap.

Design & Layout

It’s not the end of the world if you have to develop separate templates to cater for other languages, but it will save you a little hassle if your navigation bar is in the same place across all your websites. A horizontal navigation bar will go some way towards aiding this consistency process.

These are just the very basics of creating a cross-cultural website.

The key point to remember when designing a website is that it is for international audiences and adopting a global mindset from the outset will stand you in good stead.

Happy designing and good luck!