Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Doug Wade, at www.middle-aged-man.com, a good friend of mine, asked in the comments, “How did I do these videos?”
He said he expected an HD video camera and high end, expensive stuff. Nope. Cheap web cam and cheap software. I made this video to illustrate and explain how I make these and, more importantly, how you can too. I actually do use some high end editing software, but I happen to have that from some other projects. You certainly don’t need it.
This one has some cool trickery that I did with the editing software. You actually get TWO videos in one!
Watch THIS video on YouTube.
Watch the video I take while you watch, on YouTube.
Posted in development |
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
I’ve had three clients in the last week have problem with not having control of their web sites.
I get a call from a guy who has no idea about anything technical. He has trouble sending email. He tells me that he had his computer guy, who does technical support on setting up his computers in his office, build him a web site.
First, what person is better qualified to build a web site than the guy who knows how to plug in CAT5 cables and configure NAT IPs? Why not have your auto mechanic cook you dinner or have the chef at the restaurant fix your transmission? OK. I’m done. I feel better now.
He says that if she doesn't pay by next week, he'll take the site down, essentially stealing the site and holding it for ransom.
This guy builds him a web site, controls his domain name registration and then never returns calls or answers email. He wants to make changes, but has no idea how or what to do. The site is on some guy’s server and is essentially stolen from him. He calls me.
The next client has paid to have a site built. The developer says that WordPress is the way to go and she’s sold on WP. (I am too. Great choice!) The developer then gets down to a few days before the site must be up and says “Because of the short time frame, we built it in something else and we can’t build it in WP. You’ll have to spend $200 to buy software to do updates to it now.”
What? He said WP is best and she agrees, then he waits until the last minute and says she owes more money to do something else. Wow. Of course, he’s got the password to her registrar account. He says that if she doesn’t pay by next week, he’ll take the site down, essentially stealing the site and holding it for ransom. She calls me.
The last one is actually a friend of mine that I built a site for a while back. She just got a 501c3 tax thing for her organization, so now she wants to ramp up the efforts on it. She lives a little ways away, so she emails me and asks me if she could have the password or whatever, because they had a meeting and she has an intern now and they want to “work on the web site”.
Well, I’ll be happy to support her any way I can because I believe in her cause, so I ask her what she means by “work on the web site”. She had no idea. She has no idea what it takes to build a web site. What it should look like or what it should contain. Domain name? What’s that? I could essentially steal her web site if I wanted to.
What do all of these people have in common? People could steal their web sites. Why can people steal their web sites? Ignorance. It’s like each of these clients left the front door open on their homes with a sign that said “Come on in and take what you want!”
Each of these clients did not understand or know what it takes to build a site or what the developer was doing or not doing. They just trusted the developer to do the right thing. Usually, that’s what happens, but you should still keep an eye on things and understand what’s going on.
What you need to know so that you don’t lose your web site:
1. The email address for the “administrative contact” on the domain name registration controls who owns the domain name. If it’s not you, then change it now.
2. UserID and password to the domain name registrar’s site controls the information about the domain name. With that information, anyone can steal your domain name. Yes, it’s easier for the developer to figure out the configuration stuff that’s in there, but you need to know what he’s doing. Don’t give it to anyone you don’t trust and change your password after they’re done. Check what they did.
3. Name Servers – In the DNS system, the registrar control what name servers are the authority and the name servers control the actual domain name to IP address relationship. If your domain name registrar calls out my name server, I have control over where that domain name points. I can change it with a few clicks.
The universe looks to the registrar. The registrar points at a name server. The name server points at a web server.
4. Web Host – The site itself is really a bunch of files sitting on a web server or web host somewhere. It’s just a computer, but it responds to requests for web pages. It may interact with a database to create the site. WP does.
You may not get access to the web server itself. There are some security issues with handing out access to the server. You should get a copy of all of the files on the server. If there’s a database, you should have a way to backup the data inside that database.
If you are using WP, then you want a copy of all of the files in the “theme” for your site. You also want a plug in named “wp-db-backup”. You want to set that to email you a copy of all of the tables inside your database every day. With the theme files and the database back up, I can reconstruct your WP web site on any other web server.
Education is your best friend here. You can get ripped off by a dishonest auto mechanic if you don’t know what he’s doing. You can get ripped off by a dishonest doctor if you don’t know what he’s doing. You can get ripped off by a dishonest (or lazy) web developer if you don’t know what he’s doing.
Ask questions. Try hard to understand. Read about stuff. Follow the precautions listed above. Don’t let anyone steal your web site!
Posted in development |
