Vector art inspiration

Do not get carried over by buzz words

Mantras that claim to be build on web design wisdom come up every now and then, and people get flamboyant instantly to try their hands. There is plenty of them as of now which have engaged the fascination of webmasters. These mantras are often mutually contradictory, lack pragmatic perspective, and thrive on one extreme or the other.

To bring home the point, let’s take two of the most prominent magic formulas that have influenced the finer points of web design. One of them is the catchy line “Content is king” and other “Good web design is in the graphics” and they both unfortunately place greater importance to their buzz words than what is critically warranted or optimally desired.

Like other things in life, balancing act between these two pole apart notions is what is called for, while carving a niche in web design.

Is content really the king? No. Not without graphics

The proponent of the adage “Content is king” basically negate the possibility of graphics in the web design. Well, their concerns are understandable. It is pretty true that graphics and animations take a longer while to load, and users might not bother to wait that long. The chances of users being turned off are there, but definitely it is an apprehension blown out of proportions.

This mantra does not think over the possibility of speeding up the download time to a reasonable extent. This mantra is also silent on the fact wherein using graphics and animations can not be done away because the nature of business necessitates it. For example, web site dealing with kids, cartoons, comic strips, games and such interactive sites.

Is Good web design in the graphics? Definitely not. It transcends it

One can not dismiss the significance of color, graphics, animations, sound etc. in a good web design. The obsession of the pundits of this notion with design aspects come to the fore when unwarranted design becomes an issue with the usability of the web site. Web sites can not afford to have the distinction of being an art museum unless it actually is.

If the design of your site happens to be incompatible with the grand design or intent of your business, there is no point flaunting it around.

The graphics or animations on your site must have its informative, contextual and most importantly, business value. It hardly needs mention here that the usability of your site and the profitability of the business you are into can never in inverse proportions. The design pleasantries on your site should not result into the shocking surprises for your business.

Therefore, it will be not in the fitness of thing to assume this catchy phrase to be all-comprehensive and universally pervading. Good web design apart, other web tools and techniques still hold good which can give a new lease of life to your site and your business as well. But you have to give a thought or two on the optimal combination of such web components.

The psychology of time and wait

There could not be a worse thing than visitors turning away from your site due to bothersome download time. It has been found that visitors do not pain themselves in waiting if download time tends to be longer than 10 seconds with 30 KB modem speed. Further, 28.8 kbps being the normal speed most surfers have access to; web pages can not have the luxury of more than 3KB if they are to fall in the category of one second download time.

Therefore, the psychology of wait of the users and the process of graphics download are to be amicably settled with. Here are a few useful findings to help you toward this end.

- If the time on hold happens to be 0.1 second, it gives the users an impression that there is instantaneous connectivity with the system. It is an ideal connectivity status.

- If the time gap happens to be 1.0 second, it nevertheless keeps the users tuned though they do realize the delay in interaction with the system.

- 10 seconds is a critical intervening moment, any longer than this may turn out to be instrumental for users to switch over to another job or site or simply wind up browsing.

Feedback during the delay

When the connectivity with the system comes to a halt, users need to given feedback as to how much time they are on hold. They need to be assured that the system has not crashed, or is not experiencing technical problems especially when waiting period is a little longer. This all adds to a good browsing experience, and in turn helps you keep your visitor tied up with your site.

Commonly in a halt meant for more than 10 second, it is advisable to use percent-done progress indicators. It gives an idea as to how long users have got to wait, and helps them utilize this intervening time on some other important tasks.

On the psychological plane, it is something to look at when nothing is at hand to do, and hence prevents the visitors from wandering around. To serve this purpose well, a graphic progress bar instead of just stating the expected remaining time in numbers is pretty desirable and equally effective.

In operation where it is difficult to dish out the expected waiting period, the use of percent-done progress indicators seems to be out of place. Therefore using some thing like a spinning ball, a busy bee flying over the screen, dots printed on a status line will be quite okay.

This signals the process to be in progress, though it does not provide specifics of its completion. Nonetheless, it takes into account the psychology of wait on the web, and contributes its bit in crating the desired impact.

How to use graphics on your site

- Always make it a point to use original graphics to let the characteristics of the site evolve. If not so, give the credit wherever it is due.

- See to it that graphics and images on your site are in harmony with the intent and content of your site.

- Sustain a right balance between content and graphics on your site. The core emphasis has to be your content adequately complimented by graphics wherever desirable.

- It is advisable to use horizontal and vertical spacing tags between content and graphics.

- Take care of proper spacing between graphics and content. Use compression utilities to reduce the size of your images. Important images on your site ought to be taken care by alt tag codes.

- Use of pre-loaders can have a favorable outcome in the load time of your site. A word of caution here is that it is not compatible with all sorts of browsers.

Some forbidden acts while using graphics

- Animations which do not support the purpose, theme and context of your site should be avoided. It could well be strategic misfit.

- Mammoth and bulky images should preferably find no place on your site.

- Do not clutter your page with plenty of images. If the theme warrants so, resort to thumbnails and link them to full images on a separate page. It also calls for a sound navigation plan.

- Avoid using different formats other *.jpg or *.gif Formatted images. The cardinal rule here is that *.jpg formats are for photos or images that require more than 256 colors, and *.gif for vector type of graphics which don’t
require the use of 256 colors.

- Avoid using images which are not properly tagged as they can increase the download time of your site.

How to strike a fine balance between graphics and content

The usability wisdom holds that you can use as many graphics and animations as will not make your site too slow to load. The look of your page can be aesthetically and visually enhanced with a nice mix of graphics and content.

Here are what all you need to know about in this regard.

- Make your page pretty readable by dividing it into separate and short paragraphs with intermittent white space.
You can enhance the readability of your site with the combination of black text and white background.

- Do not forget to view your page in resolutions like 256 colors if you have made up your mind to use colored background.

- You can not resist the idea of using graphics on your site. Right? You can do so; the only thing required is that you take into account the size of your graphics.

- It would be better if you can reduce the number of colors in the graphics, or reduce the size of the image, or number of frames in animations or all of the above.

These little tricks and precautions will undoubtedly help you balance graphics and content, and chances are that you will outsmart the competition and will stay ahead of the pack.

Good Luck!

This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd.

The demise of cells by programmed cell death referred to as apoptosis, a Greek word that means “dropping off” or “falling off” as in leaves from a tree, has been recently a topic of intense interest in biomedical sciences. Apoptosis is a well-defined sequence of morphological changes of cells that shrink and condense and then fragment, releasing small membrane-bound apoptotic bodies, which are phagocytosed by other cells. Importantly, the intracellular constituents are not released into the extracellular milieu where they might have deleterious effects on neighboring cells. On the contrary, cells that die in response to tissue damage or other reasons exhibit very different morphological changes generally called necrosis. The cells that undergo this process swell and burst, releasing their intracellular contents, which can damage surrounding cells and often cause inflammation. Apoptosis refers to a particular morphology in which a chromatin condenses or coalesces to a heterochromatin in one or more masses in the nucleus. It usually settles along still-intact nuclear membrane referred to as margination of the chromatin. One of the essential functions of apoptosis is the elimination of cells in which DNA damages, faulty proliferation or improper adhesion to extracellular matrix that cannot be repaired. In cancer cells, the mechanism of apoptosis induction is broken. Therefore, more and more ideas and hypotheses for selective inducing apoptosis in cancer cells are tested in a growing number of laboratories all over the world. The subject of programmed cell death has been recently discussed in almost 80 000 publications. As it is known, cell apoptosis may be induced by various stress factors (e.g. hypoxia, expression of oncogenes, mutations, DNA damages). On the other hand, apoptosis may be induced via internal or external signals, for instance proteins. Some of such endogenous and exogenous proapoptotic proteins have been found and described. Their genes may be used in modern anticancer therapies.

For example, introducing into cancer cells proapoptotic genes as Bax, Bcl-X5 or E2F-1 significantly increases induction of apoptosis. Some clinical trials concern therapeutic application of a 121-amino acids apoptin originated from chicken anemia virus (CAV). Recent data suggest that apoptosis induced by this protein involves caspases, a family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinases. In vitro results show that apoptin is very active against cancer cells without inducing toxicity to normal cells. This tumor-specific effect may be explained by the nuclear localization of the protein in tumor cells required for its action. Moreover, apoptin is equally active, such as p53-mutant, Bcl-2-overexpressing or BCR-ABL-expressing tumor cells. Other investigations showed that E4orf4 induces apoptosis in cancer cells by linking with 2A (PP2A) phosphatase. Unfortunately, induction of apoptosis by introducing genes encoding proapoptotic proteins has been little known. One possible mechanism is associated with destruction of mitochondrial membranes and, in consequence, disturbing electrons transport, oxidative phosphorylation and ATP synthesis. Finally, the cell dies but the death is slightly different than that during typical apoptosis induced by caspases due to prolonged time of this process. Proapoptotic proteins cannot be directly introduced to cancer cells because there are no specific receptors. They are transported through membranes in complexes by special fusion proteins called ligands.

Other method is introducing them as genes by vectors and this approach has been already successfully applied. Clinical trials are presently underway to test efficiency of new apoptosis-triggering drugs. A large number of adenoviral agents are being constructed, including replication-incompetent and replication-selective oncolytic adenoviruses. One of them is ONYX-015, a replication-competent virus genetically engineered to selectively replicate in and lyse p53-deficient cancer cells. Other agent, INGN 201, was shown to deliver a p53 expression. Preclinical studies in human cell lines and animals with head and neck cancers have shown that the p53 gene is transcribed and translated into p53 protein. Respectively, 5% and 58% of patients receiving three intratumoral injections of INGN 201 in conjunction with radiation therapy for over 6 weeks were shown to have achieved complete and partial responses. Other example may be a gene encoding the proapoptotic Vpr protein that was successfully transferred into cancer cells by the HIV-1 virion. These agents are introduced by intravascular infusion or intratumoral or epitumoral injections. An example of a target therapy against cancer is an intravenous administration of liposomal form of tretinoin (ATRA). Treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with ATRA alone or in combination with chemotherapy results in an almost complete remission rate as high as 85% to 95%.

Other proapoptotic anticancer therapeutics is Genasense developed by the Genta Company. Genasense is a phosphothioate oligonucleotide consisting of 18 modified DNA bases. First, the single-stranded DNA molecule must be incorporated into a cancer cell and then target the mRNA by having a complementary sequence to it. This drug inhibits the production of a protein known as Bcl-2 that is widely expressed in many types of cancer. This up-regulation of Bcl-2 blocks the release of cytochrome C from the mitochondria thereby preventing apoptosis. Furthermore, Bcl-2 appears to be a major contributor to both inherent and acquired resistance to current anticancer treatments. By inhibiting production of Bcl-2, Genasense enables the cancer cells to be killed by apoptosis when treated with current state of the art therapy. Interesting apoptosis-inducing drug is Velcade jointly developed by NCI and Millenium Pharmaceuticals. Activity of Velcade is mainly associated with reversible inhibition of the proteasome and building up many proteins including BAX. In the normal cells, the BAX protein induces apoptosis by blocking the activity of Bcl-2. When BAX level increases, BAX inhibition of Bcl-2 also increases and the cells undergo apoptosis. Non-clinical studies have demonstrated that cancer cells are more sensitive to the effects of the proteasome inhibition than normal cells.

Selected references

Adachi, S.L.L., Carson, D.A., Nakahata, T., 2004. Apoptosis induced by molecular targeting therapy in hematological malignancies. Acta Haematologica 111, 107 -123.

Ferreira, C.G., Epping, M., Kruyt. F.A.E., Giaccone, G., 2002. Apoptosis: Target of Cancer Therapy. Clinical Cancer Research 8, 2024-2034.

Ghobrial, I.M., Witzig, T.E., Adjei, A.A., 2005. Targeting Apoptosis Pathways in Cancer Therapy. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 55, 178-194.

Hengartner, M.O., 2000. The biochemistry of apoptosis. Nature 407, 770-776.

Lowe, S.W., Lin, A.W., 2000. Apoptosis in cancer. Carcinogenesis 21, 485-495.

Tamm, I., Dorken, B., Hartmann G., 2001. Antisense therapy in oncology: new hope for an old idea? Lancet 358, 489-197.

Tamm, I., Schriever, F., Dorken, B., 2001. Apoptosis: implications of basic research for clinical oncology. Lancet Oncology 2, 33-42.

With so many graphic designers, website designers and logo designers competing in the field, it is more important than ever to specialise in a particular area and be top rather than covering all bases and mastering none. Here’s how to find your own graphic design niche.

Stick with a style and run with it

So many young designers coming out of the art colleges today have a style taken wholesale out of the fashion mags and club flyers. Granted there’s nothing wrong with selected pilfering of ideas but to steal complete styles and typefaces means everything you see looking pretty similar. The more long sighted designers would do well to develop a style of there own and make this into a recognisable trait. Trying to ape the latest trend in clubland is going to see your designs rapidly losing favour once some bohemian brown hatter decides the current vogue for vector graphics and fonts on a 45 degree angle is yesterdays news.

Pick a particular industry and specialise

There are whole swathes of industry that are in dire need of a makeover, the building industry for example is populated by design illeterate seventies throwbacks, who couldn’t recognise a good logo if it jumped off the page and took a bite out of their backsides. An entrepreneurial young designer could clean up by proffessing to be the building industry design specialists. Bare in mind builders like big fat typefaces in keeping with their big fat bellys.

Use an existing project as a springboard to greater things

So, you were approached by the Cumbrian Choral society to produce a flyer for their Christmas bazaar. It was a satisfactory if not exactly stimulating project. And that was the end of that. Or was it…hold on, how many other church based societys are out there looking for a similar flyer to advertise their own family fun days or church roof whip rounds? Could this be a deep furrow of design work ahead…who knows?

Local Jobs for local people

Britain is a hot bed of talent, many of it arriving from overseas, increasingly from the relaxed borders of the former Soviet Bloc countries. But I’ll bet a dollar to a pound that the average little Englander would rather eat nails than go to a foreigner to place a design job. Providing you’ve been established for at least a couple of years in your locality there’s no reason why you cannot stress the locally organically reared nature of your graphic design business e.g. Golden Plum Design – Serving the good local people of Midsommer Norton and Westfield since 2001. Whether the locals are inbred or not, and it would be beneficial if they were, the reassurance of a ‘local’ business to the area will keep them happy, while they munch on their cornish pasties.

Hopefully, that’s given budding graphic designers some incentive to go out there and carve a hole for yourselves. Remember it’s better to be big fish in small ponds than little fish in big ponds, or is it the other way around…whatever.

Losing data is the worst thing that can happen to someone who is too attached to computers. It is not a question on “how attached” a person is, it is a question on how much a person earns out of his data. In other words, for beginner computer users, losing files is like losing common documents, but for developers, it means losing source files. Source files are projects developed with the use of certain complex application. Losing them is close to losing a career!

Data recovery is the solution to lost files. Data do not just disappear in one click but some of them are stored and could be recovered. The means of data recovery depends on the diagnostic and troubleshooting on how the functioning of the computer started.

It is not easy to determine problems in the computer for a novice, but for experts, events with PC sounds, speed change, temperature and booting problems are just some signs and symptoms of a lingering problems which could lead to data loss. Corrupt files occur when there is direct disturbance changing the data properties. When a project file can’t be opened, it is possibly corrupt. Latest softwares have the capability to recover files in one execution.

Simple documents have high potential possibility of destruction. Complex applications involving vectors with larger project files, when corrupted, have the least chance of recovery. Examples of which are computer aided design applications, graphic arts editor, video editors and programming applications.

What are the kinds of flaws that trigger data loss?

Physical Defect Of Peripherals – hard disk damages show signs of file corruption before affecting the raw data. Upon knowing the sign of hard disk failure, it is important to make back-ups to avoid losing current and past data. Accidents and unavoidable circumstances can also cause peripheral damages in a PC, which can lead to data loss.

Overheating of the CPU can lead to chain reaction and shut of the computer. Constant crashing without proper shutting down procedure is one of the harshest of data destroyer. Usually the current file being worked on before the big crash happened is the one rendered useless afterwards.

Virus Attack – computer intruders will not give computers any benefit. Virus is always created to destroy data. By installing an effective anti-virus, this problem can be avoided or can be resolved easier than not having one. Careless downloading of any freebies in the Internet is harmful. It is important to understand how adwares can harm your local file in just one click. Virus propagators in the net are using advertising tools to gain access remotely to any private data.

On the onset of viral attack, do not do anything in the computer or leave it on any further. The more it is left functioning, the more the virus will spread and destroy the system. If you suspect your PC has been attacked, give it an instant cold boot. Do not use it unless the purpose is data recovery and diagnostics.

Accidental Format – A person could be too drunk booting the PC and accidentally executing the format command! Formatting is the greatest mortal sin one can execute to a disk rich with important data. It is the last resort when a disk has too many garbage needing a good overhaul. Formatting a disk is erasing the entire disk for good. Some good utilities have means to UNFORMAT and regain back the lost data in a formatted hard disk.

In the spring of 2003, I spent three weeks in the city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, located in Southern India. Each morning, walking before the heat of the day, I was amazed to see intricate knot work patterns drawn out free hand with flour in front of the driveways and gates of homes. These artistic scrolls, I was told by an Indian friend, were offerings to local gods, and were part of a tradition that stretched back into the ancient past.

I have seen knot patterns in my travels throughout many parts of the world. In Islamic countries where iconography is prohibited, the mosques are heavily decorated with knot-like patterns. Stone-carved knot work motifs can be found on ruins from the Americas to the Hindu iconography of Bali, Indonesia. In Tibet, the “eternal knot” is a common symbol representing the endless cycles of existence.

The knot work most familiar in the West is from Celtic iconography. Though the Celts, before the Roman Empire, were spread throughout much of Western Europe, we’re most familiar with their designs remaining today in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. On the moors, surrounded by winding rock walls and ancient neolithic bridges, this knot work carved in stone transcends time. We know from the writings of the Romans that the Celts believed strongly in the sacredness of place. Similar to the beliefs of many in South India today, the land anchored a particular god or goddess that was meant to be honored, though we do not know whether the knot work designs were made as offerings.

The broad spectrum of knot work designs found in many cultures suggests that the motif is both universal and rooted in ancient mystery. From the most general perspective, knot work iconography can be viewed as a metaphor for our own unique tapestry of experience. On a macrocosmic level, the knots express metaphorically that life on earth is deeply interconnected, as illustrated in the Spider Women’s web or the Great Hoop of Life in Native American stories. As one Native woman told me, if you move a pebble on top of a mountain, you can change the course of a mighty river. This is also expressed slightly differently in the Biblical aphorism, “We reap what we sow,” which is similar to the Eastern understanding of karma. Even physics today speaks of a “unified field.”

Yet it is also true that individual elements of knots hold specific meaning from the perspective of sacred geometry. Look around you at different geometric forms. Why is the earth, our eyes, the trunks of trees circular instead of square? How does the circle function in the world verses the triangle and what does that mean in terms of knot work that uses circular patterns? Here are a few hints to help you with these blueprints.

We speak of a circle of friends and live in circular cycles, such as the day and the season. Native cultures throughout the world hold ceremonies in protective circles. A knot work pattern with circles or variations of circles certainly has some important keys to relationships and community.

A square knot motif concerns structure and stability, which is why buildings use the shape of a square foundation. Numerology has always played a part in ancient cultures and there are many books on the subject. The number five, for example, represents the four directions and the center point, or the five senses.

We also often see knot work shaped like an oval, which is the shape of an egg. The oval has something to do with generative creativity and birth. Planets circle the sun in an oval. And if you squeeze an oval together you get the lemniscates, the symbol for infinity which is very prevalent in knot work motifs.

Many knot work motifs also deal with vectors that travel in a certain direction. If you look at the shape of an arrow, it’s easy to understand why a triangle might connote movement.

Another common motif is the knot work depicting a trinity. In the Celtic tradition, many deities had three forms. The Mother Goddess was understood to the maiden, mother and crone. The universe was viewed as heaven, earth and otherworld. We are born, we live and we die. Certainly the trinity knot also illustrates the One being dividing off into the masculine and feminine, or the mother and son- a mystical truth contemplated in many sacred traditions.

The cross is also a symbol rich in meaning. From a simple point of view, two lines crossing symbolizing a connection or meeting which can be a point of creativity. Some mystics speak of the horizontal axis representing the earthly plain, while the vertical axis points toward the heavens.

While the above guide for understanding knot work is not necessarily based on any scholarly or anthropological text on the meaning of knots, it does provide a starting point that is based on a universal perspective. Most knot work designs are going to have some variation of these shapes. Spending time contemplating the motif may yield some insight.

Lastly, there’s an essential reason why the knot work is so prevalent, and that is beauty. I will never forget Jaisalmer, an ancient town in the desert of Rajasthan. This ancient city, where caravans used to stop and trade, is made from sandstone. Many of the buildings are carved with intricate knot work patterns. Strangers walked up to me and said, “How do you like our beautiful city?” I could see clearly how art is life-giving and the need for beauty is something fundamental. In the middle of the desert, the beautiful knot work in golden stone brings joy to the heart.

There are billions of different Web pages floating around the Internet, and unless you have the ability to trawl Google and memorise the URL of every page of every site, there’s no way you’d survive out there without a little help.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wander round the Web feeling our way like a zombie in a maze. Navigation forms the basis of any Web site, and always has done. Despite the fact that it is a necessity of Web design, it has become something of an afterthought for many designers, as they concentrate on trying to get clever with content.

Navigation remains the single most essential aspect of site construction, and the wonders of modern technology mean you can guide your visitors around your site in a range of innovative ways to make their online experiences all the richer and more rewarding.

What’s the point of navigation?

For the benefit of anyone arriving on the planet in the last few minutes, the base principle of site navigation is to help your visitors find their way around your Web site, providing links to all its pages. Common sense reasons that it is imperative that your site is easy to navigate or your guests will soon leave the party for pastures new.

The home page of a web site is where visitors form their impressions about the entire design, and its importance far outweighs that of the other pages that make up the site. The same theory applies to the site’s navigation mechanism, ie if you manage to convince new visitors to make the step from your home page to one of your sub pages, the chances of them wanting to peruse the other delights on your site increase no end.

Proper site navigation should give the visitor a sense of ‘place’ within the site. it should help you maintain consistency throughout the site, even establishing something of a brand. It’s important that anyone delving through your site knows how to get back to where they started, otherwise they’re likely to flee in frustration.

Your navigation system should also encourage the user to explore other areas of the site by suggesting pages of related interest, and challenge their minds by pointing them towards more obscure links elsewhere online that will interest them. Ultimately, your top priority when designing site navigation is to ensure that the user doesn’t have to work hard to find everything you’re offering.

Traditional navigation

Back in the old days, navigating the Web was a completely different experience from the one you’ll see today. We all know that developments in Web design software have made it easy to create prettier pages with flashy graphics and stylish content, but site navigation has also evolved considerably.

In the late Nineties, when the Web was just beginning to take shape, the core device for site navigation was the trusty textual link, and a blue underlined piece of text was your ticket to a world of information. once clicked, the text link would turn purple (or sometimes red) to indicate that this was one corner of the Web that you’d already explored, and this became something that even newcomers to the Net could get their head around right from the off. Of course, these conventions still apply today, albeit in a slightly more ‘glam’ format.

A few years ago, the closest you’d have got to a graphical interface on a site would be a series of boxed text links across the top of the page of running down the side. Occasionally these would be accompanied by hideous animated G11’s or clipart that vaguely represented the part of the site a link pointed to (‘borne’ would be a house, contact us’ a phone, ‘buy’ would be a stack of coins, etc).

Just because these navigation systems seem a little primitive from this side of the Millennium, it doesn’t mean

they weren’t effective, and they are still used in some form these days. The Site Map, for instance, was one of the first devices to appear, and still represents probably the quickest way to find your way around large Web sites. On the whole though, exploring a collection of pages in 2003 is a much richer experience than it was seven years ago. The emergence of modern WYSIWYG design applications and advancements in graphic manipulation technology have meant that Web developers can get more imaginative with their navigation bars in order to truly achieve usability.

Navigation musts

If you mosey along to any Web site worth its salt and look carefully at how it was put together, you’ll notice that all the big sites follow the same navigation methods a tidy nav bar for effect with a bandwidth friendly set of textual links somewhere on the page. However creative you think you are, or however much you want to hurl saliva in the face of convention, there’s no use trying to fight against these methods. They work and they always will work, and users are unlikely to stick around if they don’t get what they’re expecting.

Textual links, or embedded links, are the most basic form of navigation and represent a clear, instant method of accessing pages within a site. These are generally arranged in the form of a series of underlined words across the top of a page or a list running down the side.

Another key device in the quest for an easy ride online is ‘breadcrumb’ navigation. By using trails of HTML links, you can show the route from the home page to the current page, helping the visitor to move up and down the menu tree more effectively, especially on large, page heavy sites.

In order to give the user the richest, most diverse surfing experience, it’s wise to slap in as many related links, within reason, as you can unearth. The key here is to avoid simply using the obvious links, and to add pointers to more obscure, off the wall sites that are likely to titillate your readers, adding greater value to your site in the process.

It’s also important that you position your navigation links in a place where the user will expect them to be, and where they won’t intrude into the content of your site. Many Web designers favour the placement of links along the top of a Web page, plus down the left or right hand side, and at the bottom of each page for good measure. Basically, you need to make sure that your visitors are never more than a scroll wheel rotation away from the next page. Make sure you stick to colour conventions too blue is generally recognised as the norm for a text link, with purple or red used to indicate a page that’s already been accessed by the browser.

New methods

While these traditional navigation principles should still be foremost in your mind when designing pages, there are a number of trendy new devices kicking around town that are also worth thinking about.

Let’s first consider image maps, a navigational tool that has the potential to be something quite special, but which invariably turns into a confusing mess. The key to achieving a workable image map is to choose your picture carefully. Make sure it’s something that lends itself to being logically sliced up and split into parts, rather than a generic piece of art with no determinable boundaries within it. if you can afford to do so, buy the image in from a picture agency before slicing it up in Image Ready (or a cheaper alternative such as Paint Shop Pro) and exporting it to your Web editor to apply the rollovers.

If pictures aren’t your bag, or if you’re keen to avoid bandwidth heavy navigation, you may want to think about exploring the DHTML route or even applying JavaScript pop up menus. While these have been around a few years now, they’re still called upon by pro designers as a means of adding dynamic navigation. Adding DHTML menus is far easier today than it ever was, and there’s plenty of software around that will do the job for you without you having to lift a brain cell.

However, when it comes down to designing sites ‘in the Twenty first Century, you won’t find many better tools for the job than Flash. Macromedia’s cherished vector graphics application houses all the functionality you need to produce slick, easy to follow, fast loading navigation. The program allows you to create virtually any type of dynamic navigation system you can think of, from stylish icons and Flash buttons to pop up and pull down menus. Flash is also great for generating actions and animation within a navigation bar in order to engage the user and promote interactivity.

Ironically, relying too heavily on these swanky new navigation methods can lead to your site becoming overwhelming to a visitor, and a jamboree of weird and wonderful menus is no use to anyone. If you are intending to use devices such as Flash or JavaScript menus, always make sure this isn’t your sole form of navigation, and that there are text links for those without the right plug in. As accessibility is what we should all be striving for these days, you should always be sure to include ALT tags on any images you include in your navigation to cater for anyone using a screen reader and make sure you create a text only version as well.

If you really want to know if your site is truly useable, the best idea is to unleash it on a group of friends and get them to try and navigate it. Come up with a list of things that a user might want to do on the site, then observe your guinea pigs as they try and access the information. You’ll soon learn that it pays to keep things simple and not to try anything too elaborate when designing navigation. That’s not to say you can’t be original, and with advancements in creative applications such as Flash, navigating Web pages can only get more enjoyable.

There are billions of different Web pages floating around the Internet, and unless you have the ability to trawl Google and memorise the URL of every page of every site, there’s no way you’d survive out there without a little help.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wander round the Web feeling our way like a zombie in a maze. Navigation forms the basis of any Web site, and always has done. Despite the fact that it is a necessity of Web design, it has become something of an afterthought for many designers, as they concentrate on trying to get clever with content.

Navigation remains the single most essential aspect of site construction, and the wonders of modern technology mean you can guide your visitors around your site in a range of innovative ways to make their online experiences all the richer and more rewarding.

What’s the point of navigation?

For the benefit of anyone arriving on the planet in the last few minutes, the base principle of site navigation is to help your visitors find their way around your Web site, providing links to all its pages. Common sense reasons that it is imperative that your site is easy to navigate or your guests will soon leave the party for pastures new.

The home page of a web site is where visitors form their impressions about the entire design, and its importance far outweighs that of the other pages that make up the site. The same theory applies to the site’s navigation mechanism, ie if you manage to convince new visitors to make the step from your home page to one of your sub pages, the chances of them wanting to peruse the other delights on your site increase no end.

Proper site navigation should give the visitor a sense of ‘place’ within the site. it should help you maintain consistency throughout the site, even establishing something of a brand. It’s important that anyone delving through your site knows how to get back to where they started, otherwise they’re likely to flee in frustration.

Your navigation system should also encourage the user to explore other areas of the site by suggesting pages of related interest, and challenge their minds by pointing them towards more obscure links elsewhere online that will interest them. Ultimately, your top priority when designing site navigation is to ensure that the user doesn’t have to work hard to find everything you’re offering.

Traditional navigation

Back in the old days, navigating the Web was a completely different experience from the one you’ll see today. We all know that developments in Web design software have made it easy to create prettier pages with flashy graphics and stylish content, but site navigation has also evolved considerably.

In the late Nineties, when the Web was just beginning to take shape, the core device for site navigation was the trusty textual link, and a blue underlined piece of text was your ticket to a world of information. once clicked, the text link would turn purple (or sometimes red) to indicate that this was one corner of the Web that you’d already explored, and this became something that even newcomers to the Net could get their head around right from the off. Of course, these conventions still apply today, albeit in a slightly more ‘glam’ format.

A few years ago, the closest you’d have got to a graphical interface on a site would be a series of boxed text links across the top of the page of running down the side. Occasionally these would be accompanied by hideous animated G11’s or clipart that vaguely represented the part of the site a link pointed to (‘borne’ would be a house, contact us’ a phone, ‘buy’ would be a stack of coins, etc).

Just because these navigation systems seem a little primitive from this side of the Millennium, it doesn’t mean

they weren’t effective, and they are still used in some form these days. The Site Map, for instance, was one of the first devices to appear, and still represents probably the quickest way to find your way around large Web sites. On the whole though, exploring a collection of pages in 2003 is a much richer experience than it was seven years ago. The emergence of modern WYSIWYG design applications and advancements in graphic manipulation technology have meant that Web developers can get more imaginative with their navigation bars in order to truly achieve usability.

Navigation musts

If you mosey along to any Web site worth its salt and look carefully at how it was put together, you’ll notice that all the big sites follow the same navigation methods a tidy nav bar for effect with a bandwidth friendly set of textual links somewhere on the page. However creative you think you are, or however much you want to hurl saliva in the face of convention, there’s no use trying to fight against these methods. They work and they always will work, and users are unlikely to stick around if they don’t get what they’re expecting.

Textual links, or embedded links, are the most basic form of navigation and represent a clear, instant method of accessing pages within a site. These are generally arranged in the form of a series of underlined words across the top of a page or a list running down the side.

Another key device in the quest for an easy ride online is ‘breadcrumb’ navigation. By using trails of HTML links, you can show the route from the home page to the current page, helping the visitor to move up and down the menu tree more effectively, especially on large, page heavy sites.

In order to give the user the richest, most diverse surfing experience, it’s wise to slap in as many related links, within reason, as you can unearth. The key here is to avoid simply using the obvious links, and to add pointers to more obscure, off the wall sites that are likely to titillate your readers, adding greater value to your site in the process.

It’s also important that you position your navigation links in a place where the user will expect them to be, and where they won’t intrude into the content of your site. Many Web designers favour the placement of links along the top of a Web page, plus down the left or right hand side, and at the bottom of each page for good measure. Basically, you need to make sure that your visitors are never more than a scroll wheel rotation away from the next page. Make sure you stick to colour conventions too blue is generally recognised as the norm for a text link, with purple or red used to indicate a page that’s already been accessed by the browser.

New methods

While these traditional navigation principles should still be foremost in your mind when designing pages, there are a number of trendy new devices kicking around town that are also worth thinking about.

Let’s first consider image maps, a navigational tool that has the potential to be something quite special, but which invariably turns into a confusing mess. The key to achieving a workable image map is to choose your picture carefully. Make sure it’s something that lends itself to being logically sliced up and split into parts, rather than a generic piece of art with no determinable boundaries within it. if you can afford to do so, buy the image in from a picture agency before slicing it up in Image Ready (or a cheaper alternative such as Paint Shop Pro) and exporting it to your Web editor to apply the rollovers.

If pictures aren’t your bag, or if you’re keen to avoid bandwidth heavy navigation, you may want to think about exploring the DHTML route or even applying JavaScript pop up menus. While these have been around a few years now, they’re still called upon by pro designers as a means of adding dynamic navigation. Adding DHTML menus is far easier today than it ever was, and there’s plenty of software around that will do the job for you without you having to lift a brain cell.

However, when it comes down to designing sites ‘in the Twenty first Century, you won’t find many better tools for the job than Flash. Macromedia’s cherished vector graphics application houses all the functionality you need to produce slick, easy to follow, fast loading navigation. The program allows you to create virtually any type of dynamic navigation system you can think of, from stylish icons and Flash buttons to pop up and pull down menus. Flash is also great for generating actions and animation within a navigation bar in order to engage the user and promote interactivity.

Ironically, relying too heavily on these swanky new navigation methods can lead to your site becoming overwhelming to a visitor, and a jamboree of weird and wonderful menus is no use to anyone. If you are intending to use devices such as Flash or JavaScript menus, always make sure this isn’t your sole form of navigation, and that there are text links for those without the right plug in. As accessibility is what we should all be striving for these days, you should always be sure to include ALT tags on any images you include in your navigation to cater for anyone using a screen reader and make sure you create a text only version as well.

If you really want to know if your site is truly useable, the best idea is to unleash it on a group of friends and get them to try and navigate it. Come up with a list of things that a user might want to do on the site, then observe your guinea pigs as they try and access the information. You’ll soon learn that it pays to keep things simple and not to try anything too elaborate when designing navigation. That’s not to say you can’t be original, and with advancements in creative applications such as Flash, navigating Web pages can only get more enjoyable.

Every logo has a story to tell about its company or organization and its products and services. So it is always advisable to choose your logo wisely because this logo symbolizes the name and brand of your organization. Some popular logos that are identified solely by their symbols are Yahoo’s “Y!” the Nike “Swoosh” and the Google. The attributes of the logo, i.e. its color, shape and design are very important aimed to communicate the image of the company to its customers.

Logo designing is considered to be an important aspect of graphic designing and is an art in itself. Logo-designing firms are specialized in this job and several meetings with these firms help the logo designers to develop an appropriate logo, which symbolizes the true spirit of the company. These logo-designing firms offer a variety of designing options such as vector designs or 3D designs that will help you to choose the best possible logo for your organization.

To ensure that your logo stands the test of time you need to look for the following in your logo:

- Your logo should be unique and different from any other logos of your industry or different industry.

- Your logo should be consistent in any media. The logo should hold its color, shape and design across a variety of media.

- Easily recognizable amongst thousands of other logos.

- Your logo should explicitly represent the vision of your organization.

Creation of a brand and corporate identity involves a lot of hard work. Thus a logo works in two ways: not only does it earn profit when you make a sale, but also assists in brand promotion when the customer uses it and tell others to buy it. This is the power of a strong logo. Thus, a well-designed logo is the most valuable thing for a company that can help them to reach new heights.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 software offers you new advanced Compositing and Quick Selection tools. It has a streamlined interface and comes with powerful editing tools and workflow enhancements. The software is available in two editions – the Adobe Photoshop CS3 the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended.

The CS3 version is aimed for professional and amateur photographers. It can be of great help to graphic and web designers. The CS3 Extended version is meant for film, video and multimedia professionals. It can be of great help to graphic & web designers, medical & manufacturing professionals, architects, engineers and scientific researchers.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 software is loaded with several useful features like Smart Objects, Spot-Healing Brush, Red-Eye Reduction Tool, InDesign, Illustrator, ImageReady and AfterEffects. The software is available in six separate suites viz. Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Standard Production, Premium and Mater Collection. You need an Intel Pentium 4 processor, a DVD-Rom Drive and 1024 x 768 pixel monitor resolution to run the software.

The Illustrator CS3 is a vector graphics editor that allows you to create sharp-edged artistic illustrations like cartoons, clip-arts and complex geometric patterns. It provides you a complete colour exploration environment. Its Live Colour dialogue box allows you to dynamically apply colours to selected objects. The Control Panel automatically displays the options that are most appropriate for your current selection. This feature makes it easier for you to find the tools that you need for the task at hand. It eliminates the need to open a full panel of tools and reduces your workspace cluster. It also makes you more efficient as you need not dig deep into menus to find what you need.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 software is available on a DVD format and requires 1.5 GB of disk space for installation. The software features a streamlined interface and Camera Raw enhancements. It has unparalleled editing powers that include live filters, powerful cloning & healing tools and precise colour correction. The software comes with improved Photo merge technology. It allows you to edit your 3D content. You can then incorporate those changes into your 2D compositions as well. The Adobe Photoshop CS3 also comes in a Student Edition. You need to submit a proof that you are a student to get the Student Edition at lower rates. You cannot use the Student Edition for commercial purposes.

GAO Embedded Rolls Out Upgrades for VP28B+ and VP38B+ Universal Programmer – VP280 and VP380

Toronto, ON, Jan. 2008 –GAO Embedded Inc. is introducing upgrades to its VP28B+ and VP38B+ Universal Programmers. The newly developed models, VP280 and VP380, support more than 6000 and 8000 devices respectively – up to 2000 more devices than before. The new VP280 and VP380 models are capable of handling different devices such as various Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), flash microcontrollers, serial and parallel memory. They are also designed for IC testing, including TTL 74 series, CMOS Logic IC, DRAM and SRAM memory devices.

These programmers include a 48-pin ZIF socket & support 8-pin to 48-pin DIP package device. With an adapter, they are able to support from 6 pin to 208 pin device packages like PLCC, SOIC, TSOP, PSOP, BGA, and QFP. VP280 and VP380 provide IC card socket and parallel or USB ports that are dependent on the programmer. In addition, the systems can be updated through software. GAO’s USB Universal Programmer series support from 4000+ to 22000+ devices to meet your different needs for device programming or IC testing. Please visit www.gaoembedded.com for the lists of supporting devices for our universal programmers to find the one that best matches the chip you want and the adapter you need.

VP280 and VP380 Features:

• Dimensions: 140×172×30mm

• Weight: 300g

• 48 Pin ZIF socket with universal pin-drivers

• Supports more than 8000 devices (VP380)

• Supports more than 6000 devices (VP280)

• Interfaces with any laptop, PC, PS/2 or compatibles through USB port

• Accepts standard file format: JEDEC, INTEL (Extended) HEX, Motorola S record

• Manages 16 and 32-bit word split (Set Programming)

• Supports most compiler in JEDEC format including ABEL, CUPL, PALASM, TANGO PLD, OrCAD PLD, PLD Designer and ISDATA

• Features Test Vector capability and multi-array fuse map editor

• Test TTL/CMOS logic ICs and Dynamic/Static Random Access Memory devices

• Optimum programming for each individual device

• Automatically Identifies the manufacturer and type of E(E)PROMs, Auto identifies TTL/CMOS logic IC

• Device insertion and poor-pin-contact check

• Supports 1.5V low voltage devices

• External adapter not required for most devices

• Universal DIP, PLCC, QFP, TSOP, PSOP, SOIC, SSOP, SDIP adapters

• Auto-run mode starts programming automatically upon detection of chip insertion

• Superior programming speed, programs 89C55 in less than 8 seconds

• Supports Windows2000/NT/9x/ME/XP

About GAO Embedded Inc.

GAO Embedded Inc., a member of GAO Group, is a leading provider of embedded development tools that serve the needs of electronic professionals internationally. For further information, please visit http://www.GAOEmbedded.com

GAO Group is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. GAO Group has marketing, sales, customer support, manufacturing and R & D facilities in various countries, with most of its staff located in Canada, USA, Europe and China.

The first Member Company, GAO Research Inc., was founded on June 2, 1992 and it quickly established its reputation as an R & D power house in the embedded industry. GAO Group has continually grown and has become a conglomerate of fast growing companies with an enormous international customer base and an extensive network of VARs, distributors, resellers, and strategic partners in diversified industries worldwide.

With the aim of providing unparalleled services to its enormous customer base spread out over the world, GAO Group has developed and deployed state of the art technologies among all its facilities to support such functions as e-commerce, inventory management, CRM, project management, and supply chain management.