This is an interesting article in response to Adobe releasing alpha AIR for Linux and joining the Linux Foundation. Got an opinion on this? Post your comments below!
Click here for article.
The Central Penn Adobe User Group (CPAUG) is a free, official Adobe User Group for people of all skill levels and professions who use Adobe software in the Central PA region. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds and include print and web designers, developers, photographers and freelancers. Most people are in college or older but we are open to all ages and skill levels.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Stand Alone Internet Explorer 6
If you want a great way to test your designs in IE6, you'll find this very handy!
http://www.stalebrew.com/2008/browsers/
stand-alone-internet-explorer-6/
http://www.stalebrew.com/2008/browsers/
stand-alone-internet-explorer-6/
Adobe Flex Builder Linux Public Alpha
Visit www.adobe.com/go/airlinux for more information.
The alpha version of Adobe Flex Builder3 for Linux software is also available on Adobe Labs today at www.adobe.com/go/flexbuilder
Full press release at:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200803/033108Ado beAIRforLinux.html
The alpha version of Adobe Flex Builder3 for Linux software is also available on Adobe Labs today at www.adobe.com/go/flexbuilder
Full press release at:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Why is Google.com's website black?
"On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/
More about computer energy conservation at:
http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/individuals.html
http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/
More about computer energy conservation at:
http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/individuals.html
Adobe MAX 2008 - Call for Sessions & Speakers
Would you like a certain session at Adobe MAX 2008? Would you like to be a speaker? If so, please sign up at: https://adobemax.dabbledb.com/page/callforsessions/NLXYueHm
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Webby-in-Motion Contest
Webby-in-Motion is a special collaborative contest presented by Adobe and The Webby Awards where they ask motion designers, illustrators, animators and other talented creative minds to design a 20-second category introduction animation/video for The Webby Awards Gala in NYC on June 10, 2008.
Since they know that that sort of thing can often be time-consuming, creatively draining, mind-numbing, frustrating and sometimes even dangerous, they offer the grand-prize winner this sweet foursome:
* VIP trip for two to the star-studded Webby Awards in New York City
* $10,000 cash
* Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
* Prize package from Stash, including an interview on Feed
For more information on how to enter, rules & eligibility and last
year's winners please visit: http://www.webbyawards.com/adobe/
Since they know that that sort of thing can often be time-consuming, creatively draining, mind-numbing, frustrating and sometimes even dangerous, they offer the grand-prize winner this sweet foursome:
* VIP trip for two to the star-studded Webby Awards in New York City
* $10,000 cash
* Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
* Prize package from Stash, including an interview on Feed
For more information on how to enter, rules & eligibility and last
year's winners please visit: http://www.webbyawards.com
Adobe Photoshop Express public beta, a free Rich
Today announced Adobe Photoshop Express public beta, a free Rich Internet Application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects.
During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe's best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience.
Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.
http://www.photoshop.com/express
For the full press release please see:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200803/032708Pho toshopExpress.html
During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe's best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience.
Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.
http://www.photoshop.com
For the full press release please see:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe
SEO Checklist & BreakdownTips from David Lambert
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Checklist & Breakdown
Top 5
1) Keywords in "title" tag
This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what "title" tag shows in search results as your pageis written inside the title. The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning.
2) Keywords in URL
Keywords in URLs help a lot - e.g. - http://domainname.com/seo-services.html, where "SEO services" is the keyword phrase you attempt to rank well for. But if you don't have the keywords in other parts of the document, don't rely on having them in the URL.
3) Keyword density in document text
Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keyword is best, 1-2 for minor. Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.
4) Keywords in anchor text
Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular.
5) Keywords in headings (h1,h2, etc. tags)
One more place where keywords count a lot. But beware that your page has actual text about the particular keyword.
Also crucial for overall effectiveness
6) Keywords in the beginning of a document
Also counts, though not as much as anchor text, title tag or headings. However, have in mind that the beginning of a document does not necessarily mean the first paragraph - for instance if you use tables, the first paragraph of text might be in the second half of the table.
7) Keywords in tags
Spiders don't read images but they do read their textual descriptions in the tag, so if you have images on your page, fill in the tag with some keywords about them.
Important to be aware of
8) Keywords in metatags
Less and less important, especially for Google. Yahoo! and MSN still rely on them, so if you are optimizing for Yahoo! or MSN, fill these tagsproperly. In any case, filling these tags properly will not hurt, so do it.
9) Keyword proximity
Keyword proximity measures how close in the text the keywords are. It is best if they are immediately one after the other (e.g. "dog food"), with no other words between them. For instance, if you have "dog" in the first paragraph and "food" in the third paragraph, this also counts but not as much as having the phrase "dog food" without any other words in between. Keyword proximity is applicable for keyword phrases that consist of 2 or more words.
10) Keyword phrases
In addition to keywords, you can optimize for keyword phrases that consist of several words - e.g. "SEO services". It is best when the keyword phrases you optimize for are popular ones, so you can get a lot of exact matches of the search string but sometimes it makes sense to optimize for 2 or 3 separate keywords ("SEO" and "services") than for one phrase that might occasionally get an exact match.
11) Secondary keywords
Optimizing for secondary keywords can be a golden mine because when everybody else is optimizing for the most popular keywords, there will be less competition (and probably more hits) for pages that are optimized for the minor words. For instance, "real estate new jersey" might have thousand times less hits than "real estate" only but if you are operating in New Jersey, you will get less but considerably better targeted traffic.
12) Keyword stemming
For English this is not so much of a factor because words that stem from the same root (e.g. dog, dogs, doggy, etc.) are considered related and if you have "dog" on your page, you will get hits for "dogs" and "doggy" as well, but for other languages keywords stemming could be an issue because different words that stem from the same root are considered as not related and you might need to optimize for all of them.
13) Synonyms
Optimizing for synonyms of the target keywords, in addition to the main keywords. This is good for sites in English, for which search engines are smart enough to use synonyms as well, when ranking sites but for many other languages synonyms are not taken into account, when calculating rankings and relevancy.
These tips were provided by David Lambert. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Top 5
1) Keywords in "title" tag
This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what "title" tag shows in search results as your pageis written inside the title. The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning.
2) Keywords in URL
Keywords in URLs help a lot - e.g. - http://domainname.com/seo-services.html, where "SEO services" is the keyword phrase you attempt to rank well for. But if you don't have the keywords in other parts of the document, don't rely on having them in the URL.
3) Keyword density in document text
Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keyword is best, 1-2 for minor. Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.
4) Keywords in anchor text
Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular.
5) Keywords in headings (h1,h2, etc. tags)
One more place where keywords count a lot. But beware that your page has actual text about the particular keyword.
Also crucial for overall effectiveness
6) Keywords in the beginning of a document
Also counts, though not as much as anchor text, title tag or headings. However, have in mind that the beginning of a document does not necessarily mean the first paragraph - for instance if you use tables, the first paragraph of text might be in the second half of the table.
7) Keywords in
Spiders don't read images but they do read their textual descriptions in the
Important to be aware of
8) Keywords in metatags
Less and less important, especially for Google. Yahoo! and MSN still rely on them, so if you are optimizing for Yahoo! or MSN, fill these tagsproperly. In any case, filling these tags properly will not hurt, so do it.
9) Keyword proximity
Keyword proximity measures how close in the text the keywords are. It is best if they are immediately one after the other (e.g. "dog food"), with no other words between them. For instance, if you have "dog" in the first paragraph and "food" in the third paragraph, this also counts but not as much as having the phrase "dog food" without any other words in between. Keyword proximity is applicable for keyword phrases that consist of 2 or more words.
10) Keyword phrases
In addition to keywords, you can optimize for keyword phrases that consist of several words - e.g. "SEO services". It is best when the keyword phrases you optimize for are popular ones, so you can get a lot of exact matches of the search string but sometimes it makes sense to optimize for 2 or 3 separate keywords ("SEO" and "services") than for one phrase that might occasionally get an exact match.
11) Secondary keywords
Optimizing for secondary keywords can be a golden mine because when everybody else is optimizing for the most popular keywords, there will be less competition (and probably more hits) for pages that are optimized for the minor words. For instance, "real estate new jersey" might have thousand times less hits than "real estate" only but if you are operating in New Jersey, you will get less but considerably better targeted traffic.
12) Keyword stemming
For English this is not so much of a factor because words that stem from the same root (e.g. dog, dogs, doggy, etc.) are considered related and if you have "dog" on your page, you will get hits for "dogs" and "doggy" as well, but for other languages keywords stemming could be an issue because different words that stem from the same root are considered as not related and you might need to optimize for all of them.
13) Synonyms
Optimizing for synonyms of the target keywords, in addition to the main keywords. This is good for sites in English, for which search engines are smart enough to use synonyms as well, when ranking sites but for many other languages synonyms are not taken into account, when calculating rankings and relevancy.
These tips were provided by David Lambert. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Meeting Recap - March - Topics: Photoshop, SEO
Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting last night. An extra big thanks to our presenters, Joseph Sites and David Lambert.
Here's a quick recap of some of the things we discussed:
Photoshop Tips & Tricks
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Tips from David Lambert:
http://cenpennaug.blogspot.com/2008/03/seo-checklist-breakdowntips-from-david.html
- Screen Readers let you view your website as a machine sees it. Thanks to Sean at Pixelwit for sharing these links:
http://www.willmaster.com/library/tools/What_Search_Engine_Spiders_See.php?dlperry
http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/se-spider.html
http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php
http://www.rankquest.com/tools/Lynx-View.php
Snippets:
- Favicon Generator. A favicon (short for "favorites icon" and also known as a page icon), is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage that is displayed in the browser address bar next to a site's URL.There are a bunch available if you do a search. Here's a couple to get you started:
http://www.favicongenerator.com/
http://www.favicon.cc/
- Webpages that Suck. Learn what to do from seeing what not to do.
- What the Font? Font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly find the closest matches in their database.
Here's a quick recap of some of the things we discussed:
Photoshop Tips & Tricks
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Tips from David Lambert:
http://cenpennaug.blogspot.com/2008/03/seo-checklist-breakdowntips-from-david.html
- Screen Readers let you view your website as a machine sees it. Thanks to Sean at Pixelwit for sharing these links:
http://www.willmaster.com
http://www.linkvendor.com/seo
http://www.webconfs.com/search
http://www.rankquest.com/tools
Snippets:
- Favicon Generator. A favicon (short for "favorites icon" and also known as a page icon), is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage that is displayed in the browser address bar next to a site's URL.There are a bunch available if you do a search. Here's a couple to get you started:
http://www.favicongenerator.com/
http://www.favicon.cc/
- Webpages that Suck. Learn what to do from seeing what not to do.
- What the Font? Font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly find the closest matches in their database.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
MAX 2008 North America Announced
MAX 2008/2009 will be held in San Francisco, California, Milan, Italy and Tokyo, Japan. MAX is an experience unlike any other, an opportunity to connect with thousands of designers, developers, partners, executives and Adobe staff for education, inspiration, and community. Mark your calendar. You will not want to miss the opportunity to participate.
MAX 2008 North America
San Francisco, California
November 16 - 19, 2008
Adobe Max details. Join their mailing list for updates.
MAX 2008 North America
San Francisco, California
November 16 - 19, 2008
Adobe Max details. Join their mailing list for updates.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Adobe Online Developer Week: March 24 - March 28, 2008
Adobe provides end-to-end web development tool suites and solutions. Join Adobe to see what the buzz is all about in this one week long event with 20 sessions covering AIR, Flex, Flash, Mobile, ColdFusion and Dreamweaver technologies.
For maximum flexibility, you only need to register for the individual sessions you choose to attend, but as many as you wish. The sessions begin at the introductory level and move gradually into intermediate level during the week. Don’t miss this Adobe event exclusively for developers!
http://adobe.com/go/2008_developer_week
For maximum flexibility, you only need to register for the individual sessions you choose to attend, but as many as you wish. The sessions begin at the introductory level and move gradually into intermediate level during the week. Don’t miss this Adobe event exclusively for developers!
http://adobe.com/go/2008_developer_week
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Cheat Sheets
ILoveJackDaniels.com has some great printable "cheat sheets". Ranging from cheat sheets of MySQL, PHP, HTML, CSS to World of Warcraft, you're sure to find something helpful.
Thanks to Tim for introducing me to this site.
Thanks to Tim for introducing me to this site.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Help Adobe plan the future of Flex or ColdFusion
Adobe is asking users of Flex or ColdFusion to take the following survey. Adobe wants to learn from a wide range of developers how they use the products today and what they would like to see in the future. The survey will take only a few minutes to complete and the responses will be invaluable.
In appreciation of your time, Adobe is offering one chance to win $500 and five chances to win $100. The prize drawing is open to legal citizens of the United States ages 18 yrs and older.
Click on the following link to initiate the survey:
http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/adobe/ado08002?list=3
Responses by March 21, 2008 will be greatly appreciated.
Note that this survey is being hosted by Decipher Inc, a survey company who is helping Adobe collect the data. Your responses will remain completely confidential - they will be combined with responses from others who complete this survey and the results will be reported only in aggregate form to Adobe.
Thank you for sharing your opinions,
The Adobe Global Market Research Team & the Flex and ColdFusion product teams.
------------------------------------------------------------------
* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. ANSWERS TO SURVEY QUESTIONS WILL NOT INFLUENCE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF OFFICIAL RULES AT: http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/adobe/ado08002/terms.html
In appreciation of your time, Adobe is offering one chance to win $500 and five chances to win $100. The prize drawing is open to legal citizens of the United States ages 18 yrs and older.
Click on the following link to initiate the survey:
http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/adobe/ado08002?list=3
Responses by March 21, 2008 will be greatly appreciated.
Note that this survey is being hosted by Decipher Inc, a survey company who is helping Adobe collect the data. Your responses will remain completely confidential - they will be combined with responses from others who complete this survey and the results will be reported only in aggregate form to Adobe.
Thank you for sharing your opinions,
The Adobe Global Market Research Team & the Flex and ColdFusion product teams.
------------------------------------------------------------------
* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. ANSWERS TO SURVEY QUESTIONS WILL NOT INFLUENCE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF OFFICIAL RULES AT: http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/adobe/ado08002/terms.html
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Adobe® Flex™ Builder 3 Pro for Education
Adobe® Flex™ Builder 3 Pro for Education.
Adobe Flex Builder 3 Pro is available for free to all education customers. This includes all students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions. More information about Flex is available at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/
Proof of Eligibility:
To receive the product, you must upload a valid proof of eligibility to get the serial numbers to activate the product. Valid proofs of eligibility are:
1. a student ID showing current enrollment,
2. a Faculty ID showing current employment
3. an employee ID showing current employment, or
4. a letter on an educational institution letterhead stating that you are either a current student, a current faculty member or a current employee of the institution.
Terms and conditions:
The education version is only available to education customers and is not meant for distribution to institutions, organizations or people outside the authorized educational institution. For additional information on eligibility, please refer to the FAQ.
http://www.flexregistration.com/
Adobe Flex Builder 3 Pro is available for free to all education customers. This includes all students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions. More information about Flex is available at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/
Proof of Eligibility:
To receive the product, you must upload a valid proof of eligibility to get the serial numbers to activate the product. Valid proofs of eligibility are:
1. a student ID showing current enrollment,
2. a Faculty ID showing current employment
3. an employee ID showing current employment, or
4. a letter on an educational institution letterhead stating that you are either a current student, a current faculty member or a current employee of the institution.
Terms and conditions:
The education version is only available to education customers and is not meant for distribution to institutions, organizations or people outside the authorized educational institution. For additional information on eligibility, please refer to the FAQ.
http://www.flexregistration.com/
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