THE LANDSCAPE IS CHANGING, ARE YOU READY?

Written by Miguel Fiol


Continued from page 1

Services, not products - Withrepparttar emergence of Application Service Providers or ASP's andrepparttar 133597 downfall ofrepparttar 133598 e-tailer, it is becoming increasingly clear thatrepparttar 133599 Internet will primarily provide services and applications in three areas: information, entertainment and communications.

Despite its flaws,repparttar 133600 Internet still serves asrepparttar 133601 best way to find and collect information on any topic. Currently, this isrepparttar 133602 primary use ofrepparttar 133603 Web, but for entertainment, we still rent videos or turn onrepparttar 133604 TV, for communications, we still pick uprepparttar 133605 phone.

In communications,repparttar 133606 growth of VoIP, v-commerce and wireless Internet technologies will ultimately pull us into usingrepparttar 133607 Internet as our primary source of communication. For entertainment,repparttar 133608 Internet already offers gaming, streaming video and downloadable audio, but these suffer from slow download times and Internet, application or browser bugs. Yet, higher bandwidth and broadband will ultimately make them as smooth and quick as a broadcast signal. Further, withrepparttar 133609 merger of AOL and Time-Warner along withrepparttar 133610 proliferation of cable modems and set top boxes,repparttar 133611 Internet will consume a greater chunk ofrepparttar 133612 entertainment pie. On demand movies, games, music, even Internet "television" shows will rival networks, video stores, satellite TV, merchandise, etc.

Simply understandingrepparttar 133613 emerging trends in technology can be a competitive advantage. But building that knowledge and further applying it to your strategy, website or company can help you adjust, position and succed inrepparttar 133614 changing, chaotic landscape.

Miguel Fiol is the founder of F&A, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN. F&A, Inc. is an "idea factory" or consulting firm which specializes in the development and servicing of ideas.


Introduction To Web Technologies

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

JavaScript - This is a scripting language which is interpreted and executed byrepparttar browser. It is very useful for getting tasks done onrepparttar 133596 client, such as moving pictures aroundrepparttar 133597 screen, creating very dynamic navigation systems and even games. JavaScript is generally preferable on internet sites because it is supported on more browsers than VBScript, which isrepparttar 133598 chief competitor.

Office - The Microsoft Office suite includes a number of tools, including Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint. Each of these tools hasrepparttar 133599 ability to save in HTML format and has special commands forrepparttar 133600 internet. This is especially useful, for example, if you work in an office where people are trained in Excel and you don't want to retrain them to create web pages. Onrepparttar 133601 other hand, if you are creating internet web sites (as opposed to intranet sites) you probably would be better off using web specific products to edit your web pages.

Perl - A great scripting language which makes use ofrepparttar 133602 CGI standard to allow work to be done onrepparttar 133603 web server. PERL is very easy to learn (as programming languages go) and straightforward to use. It is most useful for guestbooks, email forms and other similar, simply tasks. PERL's primary disadvantage isrepparttar 133604 overhead onrepparttar 133605 server is very high, as one process is created each time a routine is called, andrepparttar 133606 language is interpreted, which meansrepparttar 133607 code is recompiled each time it is run. For complex tasks, a server-side scripting language such as PHP or ASP is much preferred.

PHP - This language is, like ASP, used to get work done onrepparttar 133608 server. PHP is similar in concept to ASP and can be used in similar circumstances. PHP is very efficient, allows access to databases using products such as MySQL, and can be used to create very dynamic web pages.

SSI - If your site is hosted on a typical Apache server, then you probably can use something called Server Side Includes. This is a way to getrepparttar 133609 web server to perform tasks before displaying a web page. One ofrepparttar 133610 most common uses us to, well, include common text. This is great when you have, for example, a navigation system which is common to all of your pages. You can make one change in an SSI file and thus change your entire web site.

SSI is very common but has really been superceded by languages such as PHP. The overhead of SSI onrepparttar 133611 server is high as each page is scanned for SSI directives before passing it torepparttar 133612 browser.

VBScript - Visual Basic Scripting was Microsoft's answer to JavaScript. VBScript is a good tool for any site which is intended to be only displayed byrepparttar 133613 Internet Explorer browser. In my opinion, VBScript should never be used on a web site - JavaScript is preferable due to a wider acceptance among browsers.



Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


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