It was last spring when I downloaded one of the ‘Platform Preview’ releases of MS Internet Explorer 10 and started playing with it. It seemed to have really caught up with other browsers like FireFox and Chrome. I loaded up many of the newer sites I have built or were working on and they seemed [...]
When Less Costs More in Web Development
I was talking with one of our developers the other day about a client’s site and their desire to provide a certain set of features to their site visitors. This particular task is challenging because we need to provide several features that allow the visitor to interact with the site in several ways, but how do we [...]
The Official Beer of FatLab Web Support – Fat Dog
What does beer have to do with Web support? Not much really, but as a fan of microbrews I had to pick this 6 pack up from Stoudts Brewery. Any one to name a product after a slightly over fed black lab is considered ‘good people’ in my book. Despite the fact my business partner [...]
Worldwide Attack on WordPress and Simular Sites
Apparently there is a surge in malicious attacks against WordPress and simular platforms (I have seen Joomla sited as well) in the form of a brute force login attempt. I have been working with two hosts this week on a related issue, Rackspace and GoDaddy. The immediate issue we recognized was that WordPress users could not register new [...]
Long Distance Relationships in Web Maintenance
Another example of horrible client service in Web maintenance to pile onto yesterday’s post: This time I was speaking to someone about a rebuild project that they sent overseas, in simple terms the outsourced team was to rebuild a form. They did rebuild it but then told the client that to make the form actually save [...]
Web Support: What Bad Client Service Looks Like
I spoke to a client of mine late last week who works with another firm on a site I do not manage. We had recently updated their site with some third party ad code and they had asked the same of this other firm. Not too tough, huh? This firm did as they were told, [...]
Addressing WordPress Security Concerns
A client recently contacted me regarding some WordPress specific security concerns that stemmed from a recently read article at entrepreneur.com titled ‘3 Hidden Security Risks for WordPress Users‘. The 3 concerns are 1. WordPress is susceptible to attacks and URL hacking 2. Free WordPress themes frequently contain security exploits 3. WordPress’s default login process can be [...]
How to Migrate a WordPress Site Without FTP or MySQL Access
So a while back I was faced with a situation whereby I was working with a new client. They had decided stop working with their current Web services provider for a number of reasons. However the provider was not being very helpful in the transition. They repeatedly failed to provide accurate access information or a file and database dump. The [...]
Need to update Drupal 5 on your website? Step 1: make a backup!
Listen to your tech-savvy grandma. Or perhaps Ben Franklin is more convincing: “an ounce of prevention….” You could also be boring and just listen to your web maintenance team, and take the time to create a backup – it could save you a huge headache. Here at FatLab, we’ve heard about (and lived) too many [...]
What is SEO (Ready vs. Optimized, vs. Strategy)?
NOTE: We do not currently offer SEO services, though know a few great folks who do. We often hear from clients that they want ‘SEO’ for their Website and sometimes it even comes as a complaint in that their developer promised them SEO and yet the site is not ranking well. It is clear that [...]