When I read Bill’s article “How much is your blog worth?” today, I thought it was kinda strange that he mentioned that John Chow’s blog is worth $15041.15. A couple of weeks ago I used the calculator on Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog and there was a far greater amount mentioned. So I tried it again today and yes: $1,020,123.78! dnScoop estimates the site to be worth $222,300.

In my case, these are the numbers:

• Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog: $2,258.16
• Pingoat: $120.08
• dnScoop: $30

Gathering information
dnScoop explains that “This value is calculated based on several factors shown above, including: Links, Traffic (Alexa), age of the domain, site category, domain keyword popularity, and overall occurrences of the domain name on the web”.

Pingoat says that their “tool is extending the power of the Technorati API, and the Duck Soup library created by Kailash Nadh”.

Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog uses “Data from Technorati and is inspired by research from Tristan Louis”.

Who to trust
Who should you trust? I don’t know. This might be as confusing to you as it was to me. The huge difference in value makes me wonder if I should just use an average for estimating the real worth of my blog.

There are a couple of writers who think Ubuntu is not consumer ready yet. But I think you should give it a try yourself first and draw your own conclusions.

Option 1: Use the Live trial
You can download an Ubuntu ISO which you can burn to CD. This installation CD can be used to try out Ubuntu without even having to install anything on your computer. Just insert the Installation CD in your CD-ROM drive and restart your computer.

The computer will restart with the Ubuntu operating system, and you can click around and see how things basically work. If you like what you see, you can try the second option.

Option 2: Both XP and Ubuntu in multiboot mode
If you want to do more for testing, like really installing and configuring programs, you will need to install Ubuntu on your hard drive. If you have enough space on your hard drive, or if you have a second hard drive, you can keep your current XP installation and install Ubuntu on a different partition or drive. The Ubuntu installation is very helpful in creating the right partitions.

I strongly advise to also make a FAT32 partition, which can be made accessible for both XP and Ubuntu. This is where you can store your work, so it is available to you, no matter which operating system you are working in at that moment.

This way, while testing Ubuntu, you can always reboot your system to switch to XP to get back to the system you’re used to, in case there are activities of certain urgency. Whenever you want to continue “playing” with Ubuntu, to get the hang of it, you can reboot the system again and select the Ubuntu system from the boot menu.

Once you do get the hang of it, you can decide to go for option 3.

Option 3: Replace XP with Ubuntu
If you are certain that XP has not much more to offer than you can get on an Ubuntu system, you can decide to remove XP from your machine and install Ubuntu instead.

It is very important to make a backup of every important bit of information you have on your current XP system. Make sure you use partition or drive with the FAT32 filesystem, because Linux can not read from NTFS filesystems by default.

Research how to convert from XP programs to Ubuntu, like what to do to import your Outlook information in some open source mail client like Evolution, for instance.

After everything is backed up and you are sure that there is nothing you overlooked, you can reboot your system with the Ubuntu Installation CD in the drive. When the installation starts, you will have the chance to format the partition on which XP was installed, so you can install Ubuntu there. The installation process is fairly simple.

There is also a possibility to install XP within the Ubuntu installation, using VMware. This way you won’t need to restart your machine to use XP. But I recommend to use this only to export information so it can be used in the Ubuntu installation. Using VMware uses a lot of resources, so use the XP installation through VMware only if you need to do something that is not implemented in Ubuntu yet. I also advise to restart your computer and only use VMware, while closing other programs, to minimize the lag.

Then just enjoy the freedom of open source.

Note
This is not an installation manual or tutorial. This article just describes the possibilities available for switching from XP to Ubuntu, while getting to try Ubuntu out first.

Please read “operating system” where I wrote XP. This can be done with most of the available operating systems.

I have been using Microsoft Operating systems for decades and recently decided to switch to Ubuntu. I just had enough of the stuff Microsoft invented to force people to adapt to their monopolized standards, while they are disobeying most of the standards set by the relevant authorities.

Charging people to try out their Office 2007 Beta was the drop that made the bucket overflow. I don’t mind paying for something good, but don’t force me to pay for something, just because you think I need it. That’s when I got rid of XP and installed Ubuntu.

n# offers 7 reasons why you should consider Ubuntu for XP users. To me the most important reason is that I’m not forced to be controlled by a monopolist. But there are some things that people, who are used to work with Microsoft Operating Systems, can find challenging to make the switch.

Command Line
A lot can be done with within Ubuntu. Only, some of the actions may require some commands to be executed at the command line. Even though most programs come with detailed instructions what do do at the command line, it may be a bit challenging for those who are not used to the command line. But if you can find your way around the command line easily, then there is no problem at all.

New programs, new challenges
You can understand that most programs that run under XP won’t run under Linux. Of some of them there are Linux versions made. But others, like Office, need a similar but different program to do the same work under Linux. OpenOffice.org is an open source alternative to Office. Even though a lot works the same, you will still have to get used to working with it.

Unfortunately some software vendors don’t have Linux support yet. I’m thinking of web development software like Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash, Photoshop. There are alternatives for these packages, but the problem is that the combination of features is totally different. Gimp for instance is a nice alternative for Fireworks and Photoshop, but it takes some time to get used to working with it, when you’ve been using Fireworks and PS for years.

Time to adapt
It will take some time and a lot of research to adapt to the new environment. You will constantly be looking for ways to get things running they way you like it, or the we you are used to. And that is an obstacle for many to make the switch. They are getting pissed at Microsoft more and more each day, but they don’t have the time to start trying something new.

Maybe it’s time for the current users of Ubuntu to help spread the Operating system by providing more articles on the implementation and use of Ubuntu. I know there is already a lot written, but this information now has to reach different audiences and communities.

Today I had a good conversation with my friend Rafiek about how I feel about web design. This conversation helped me understand some important things that are happening in my professional life right now.

I recently found that I don’t have as much interest in building websites for others as I used to have. I can get irritated by the thought of having to finish work. I’ve been wondering for a while what the hell is wrong with me. I need to work to make money, but if I don’t like the work I’m doing, I can’t work with pleasure, which will mean that my work will be of lesser quality. Then I spoke to Rafiek.

Looking back to my professional history, I’ve been the best at jobs where I was troubleshooting or solving problems. Research, analyses, testing for review… Those were things I loved to do.

I am very good with PHP and MySQL. I can write any small script by heart. If I put my back into it, I could probably come up with the next best CMS. But instead I love trying out existing CMSes and tweak them, change code around, try out new stuff.

Tonight “Men Youppo” a Haitian guy I met while assisting with the sNews project, asked me for some help. He had trouble creating some picture upload system. Something was not going right but he could not find the problem. It took me less then 15 minutes to study the script and find the problem. Then another problem arose. 5 minutes later that problem was solved.

This is what I am good at. Troubleshooting, problem solving and research. That’s what I should be doing. My next task is to research what possibilities there are to earn some good money with what I seem to love, especially in my country, where the Information era is just starting.

I have always seen web design as some form of art. Imaginations and creations of a designer that are used to produce something very soothing for the eyes. I started second guessing my believes when I read Joshua Porter’s 5 principles to design by.

I personally think that design is partially art. Yes it’s true that design is primarily focused on usability, but the aesthetic value of the design is added through artistic work by the designer. The more artistic insight, the better the site will look. You can teach someone to create a web site, but you cannot teach him to be creative. You can teach someone how to create art, but you can’t teach someone to be artistic and be an artist.

A lot of what he writes is true, when you compare the two with eachother. I think it’s a matter of interpretation.

Most of the time, especially in countries where the Internet is still seen as a luxury instead of a necessity, it is difficult to explain to web design customers how to make the design of a website attractive. Sometimes I get so irritated by those things we as designers hear. Here is an example of some conversations with a customer, mostly things customer ask.

• When someone enters my homepage, I want my logo to come from the left, and make a circular movement before it sits on its place. Then it needs to rotate.
• Can I have an envelope on my homepage that constantly opens and closes, and when someone clicks on it, it should send an email?
• Dude, it just needs to be 2 columns and a header. The menu to the left, and the content to the right. Why does it take a whole week to do this? This should not take more than an hour to do.
• You need to add a line of text that constantly scrolls from left to right across the screen
• I saw a cat running across the screen on a site once. I want that too (this one is most often used by people who don’t want to spend more then $200 on a website).

People want a lot of animation on their sites. Animation, like splash screens and all kind of movement, is very nice when someone visits your site for the first time. But after a couple of visits it gets irritating and boring. And that drives people away.

Keep your design simple. And you hire a web designer, because he knows what he is doing. So let them do their job of coming up with the design that’s great for your company and that keeps visitors coming to your site.

Even though I learned most of what I know from the Internet, I personally still enjoy using a real book as guide. We got lazy, I think, because it’s a lot easier to keep sitting behind the keyboard and to read something.

I use ebooks to see if the hard copy will be worth buying. I have to admit that I download some ripped ebooks, just to see what it holds. But if I find valuable information in this ebook, I buy the hard copy.

Somewhere on my computer I have a copy of Bulletproof Web Design, by Dan Cederholm (aff). That was one of the books that helped me a lot with creating XHTML/CSS website that look the same in any browser, even in IE6. I bought the hard copy. I keep it close by for situations when I need to look up something , because it takes more effort and time to look for the book on my hard drive, open it in Acrobat Reader, then scroll through it to find what I’m looking for. Once I’ve read the hard copy I know exactly where the information, that I’m looking for, is. So it’s easier to just pick up the book and find the right section.

The question of whether to use an ebook or a hard copy is a personal one. It’s up to you to decide which one is better for you. But it’s very important for a web designer to have reference somewhere close by.

Can you do without your computer for 24 hours? Will you survive?

Shutdown day is a website that will run an experiment to see how many people around the world can spend a day, 24 hours, without turning on their computer. They declared Saturday, March 24 2007 the International Shutdown Day, according to Rose DesRochers.

Can you really turn off your computer for 24 hours?? I’ll try it, and hope to live to tell about it.

I promised myself I would keep the number of sites I review in this blog to a minimum. I only want to review sites that are of some meaning to me. And one of those sites is John Chow’s blog. It’s meaning to me? It has a lot of visitors, so that is a place I would want a link to my blog to be at.

I already reviewed his site on my other blog, but I also need a link somewhere on his blog to this site! And I know he will give me one if I review him again!

The more I read through John’s blog, the more I realize that most of his good articles are deeper in the archives. Good in the sense that they helped new bloggers to find their way. Now it seems as if making money has taken over, which totally is not a bad idea. But to the new blogger who might hear from John Chow, and read some of the many very good articles, might get disappointed in the more recent posts.

To be honest, I think that a lot of people keep visiting John Chow Dot Com because that’s one way to get exposed. There are so many others doing the same, that you are bound to meet some folks and to attract some of that traffic back to your own site when your picture is shown in his MyBlogLog widget or when you comment enough that your name is shown in the Top Commentators list. But that’s just what I think.

The best way to use John Chow’s blog for exposure, is to get your blog reviewed by him. For only $250 he will give your site a review with all necessary criticism. Unfortunately, I am not in the position at the moment to pay that kind of money. I can only hope for a miracle. And one such miracle would be that John would agree to review my blog and let me make it up to him over the following… say, 6 months? If not, I’ll just have to wait until I found my position!

Yes, we are still talking web design here. And no, that’s not what HTML stands for.

Previously I summarized what was needed to have a website online. In that article I promised to talk about HTML and I try very hard to keep all my promises.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. An HTML document is a text document with commands for a web browser, used in tags, to display a website properly. It simply tells the browser what to display, where, what it should look like, and what page to open next if there was a link clicked.

HTML is plain text. So the website you visit is actually just some plain text, that could have been written in Notepad or some similar program. Do you want to see what an HTML file looks like? Right click right here and select “View page source” or some similar phrase, depending on your browser. A second window will pop up and its contents will be the HTML that produces my blog. So if you would copy that HTML into another text file, give it a name, making sure it ended with .html and placed it on a web server somewhere, you might see this page of my blog.

Does it look scary to you? Well, it isn’t. Once you understand that p creates paragraphs, a creates hyperlinks, strong bolds the text, br creates a line break, img displays an image, etc, you might start to understand the way the site is build up. Go ahead, check the source and try to see if where the <p> tags are, there really are paragraphs.

Imagine what you can do then when you understand a lot more HTML tags.