It seems a lot of people are having problems getting their one-click yahoo email working. So I am going to try and make the one click yahoo email login a little easier for everyone.

You will have to create a shortcut for your yahoo email. I don’t recommend using Internet Explorer, because it WILL change the link. So use Firefox, Opera, Safari or something else. Right click on the desktop of wherever, but you will have to manually create a shortcut. This method works GREAT for iPhones, Blackberrys and other internet enabled phones.

Create your internet shortcut:

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=ym&.intl=us&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

The USERID and PASSWORD will have to be your user id and password – really. Many times, you will be taken to a screen to enter your password the first time you click this shortcut. Click “log in as different user” and click the shortcut again. This will usually solve the password question and clear out the cookie from your previous session.

If your email isn’t a US yahoo.com email, you might have to change the login server to match the mail server as well as the intl= for example, if you’re using yahoo7 the Australia version, you’ll need to make a few changes to match your country.

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.tries=&.src=ym&.last=&promo=&.intl=au&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

This will work for Australia yahoo emails eg: username@yahoo.com.au  Change the au to whatever your country’s code is de, br, id, etc.. this WILL work for most countries, but a few countries will require your to change the login.yahoo.com as well. This seems to be dependent on if you are using the classic Yahoo mail version or the new mail version. Try different settings for yahoo services and such.

Advanced and optional settings:

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=ym&.intl=us&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

This will take you to yahoo mail. If you wanted to got to My Yahoo instead, use “my” in place of “ym” – there are a lot of others as well…

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.tries=&.src=ym&.last=&promo=&.intl=au&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

Sometimes you’re going to need these in the url and sometimes you won’t. If you’re having problems, removing or adding these setting sometimes helps get you into your account easier or faster. YMMV

And ALWAYS log out when you’re done. If you don’t, the next time you click on the link, you WILL be asked for the password. Logout when you’re done!

ASPDotNetStoreFront SWF Image Viewer Popup

SWF Image Viewer Demo (this is a live site, so if you order something, you will be charged!)

If you are using ASPDotNetStoreFront for your shopping cart, then you know how the popup image viewer looks and to me, it doesn’t look all that great. After working with ASPDNSF for some time, I am finally starting to ‘get it’ and I thought I would share some of my secrets for working with this shopping cart.

You’re going to need a little working knowledge of ASPDNSF to do this, so if you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, contact me and I can set this up for your site. The code provided below does work, but is not as complete as it could be… (I can’t give away all my secrets). If you need help setting this up and would like the complete package (including SWF viewer), I charge a flat rate of $250 to set this up and it comes with everything you’ll need, plus a few extra tweaks you’re not going to find in this guide.

First of all, you’re going to need a SWF for making a gallery page. I used Zoomify Design as it’s inexpensive, simple to use and works very well. Zoomify Design costs $29 and it’s worth every penny to me. I am going to assume you know how to use Zoomify and if you don’t, read the documentation. It’s pretty easy and once you get it set up, it’s easy to make the files for your call to a SWF popup image viewer.

Create a flash directory to store your files on your server. I created my flash folder inside the root of the website, but you can choose almost any location, as long as the folder is readable.

You’re going to need to have a custom product.xml package. You can just copy one of existing product.XML packages for your products. I used product.SimpleProduct.xml.config Be sure and give your XML a new name, I use product.Flash.xml.config

Edit the XML package and look for this line of code in your XML package. It will appear in several place and it’s best to edit them all.

<xsl:value-of select=”aspdnsf:LookupProductImage(ProductID, ImageFilenameOverride, SKU, ‘medium’, 0, $AltText)” disable-output-escaping=”yes” />

Comment out the code so it looks like:

<!–<xsl:value-of select=”aspdnsf:LookupProductImage(ProductID, ImageFilenameOverride, SKU, ‘medium’, 0, $AltText)” disable-output-escaping=”yes” />–>

It’s better to comment it out, in case you make a mistake, it will be easier to fix. Right below the code you just commented out, place this bit of code to call the SWF.

<a href=”flash/{ProductID}/viewer.htm” target=”_blank”><img src=”images/product/medium/{ProductID}.jpg” /><br /> <center>Multi Image Viewer</center></a>

The areas in red are the only changes you will need to make a change to the code to make it work. Change the href path to reflect the location of the folder and the name of the htm file that calls the swf within the product folder. The {ProductID} pulls the dynamic file name for each image so leave that in tact. This code can be modified to suit your needs. Now upload the product.XML file into your XML folder on your webserver.

Choose the item you want to use the SWF multi image viewer. Each product has a unique user ID number and that’s what you’re going to name the folder that contains the SWF viewer and image files. Process the images per the directions for Zoomify and upload the folder into the flash folder on the website. (eg: upload the folder 2345 to the /flash directory on your website.

Go to your edit product page and choose the XML package you created for the item and you’re done. Be sure and check out the new page to make sure it looks the way you want and everything is working. A few lines of code, a little preperation and you’ve turned your vanilla ASPDNSF image viewer into a powerful and dynamic image viewing system that’s going to increase sales and make your customers very happy.

Here is a working example on a live site.

If you would like to have me do this for you and give you the complete package, with everything ready to go, contact me and I will try and get back with you as soon as possible. Please leave a phone number and a good time to contact you.

I have the ’slow’ SSD Acer Aspire One.  It’s the SSD that’s slower and doesn’t have the write speed of the better SSD Aspire One, but I am quite happy with the performance of Kubuntu on my little Aspire One.  I did install the additional 1GB RAM, which is another process all together.  With the slower SSD and 1.5GB of RAM, I have Kubuntu running like a top and I love it!

Known issues: the WiFi led won’t light up after installing Kubuntu.

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.  You want to install Kubuntu on your Aspire One and need a little help?  Well, I’ll help as much as I can, so here it goes…

Estimated Time for Install Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One: 2 Hours

You will need:
Computer with Windows OS (I know)
Min 2GB USB Flash that you can erase all data on.
Kubuntu 8.04.1 ISO (Like Ubuntu, 8.04 will not work on the Aspire One)
Ubuntu8convert2.exe
Cat5 Cable with Internet connection

Creating a bootable USB with Kubuntu Live CD

1. Download the Kubuntu ISO from here http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/download and save it on your hard drive.
2. Download the Ubuntu8convert8.exe from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Ub8convert2.exe  I know, it says Ubuntu, but it works for Kubuntu too.
3. Insert your USB drive into the Windows machine and make note of the drive letter (If the drive letter is higher than K: you’re going to have problems, so change the drive letter if needed to something below K that doesn’t conflict with other drives.
4. Run Ubuntu8convert2.exe you will be prompted to extract the contents. (I extracted to Y:) Be sure you have around 1GB free on the drive you’re going to extract to.  DO NOT EXTRACT TO THE USB!!   A new folder has been created called “Ubuntu8″
5. Copy the Kubuntu ISO into the Ubuntu8 folder.  You can just drag and drop it, but be sure you have enough room on the hard drive to accommodate the size of the ISO.  You should now have the Ubuntu8 folder on your hard drive with the Kubuntu ISO inside the Ubuntu8 folder, there will also be other files inside the Ubuntu8 folder
6. Click on fixu8.bat inside the Ubuntu8 folder (If you’re using Vista or logged in as restricted user, right click and run as administrator).  A command window will open and begin the process of copying the files and preparing the USB to be bootable.   Follow the directions of the prompts!!  You will need your USB drive letter, enter it when prompted.  This process can take a rather long time and seems to get longer with larger USB.  DO NOT STOP THE PROCESS!!

You have now created a bootable USB Live with Kubuntu 8.04.1

Installing Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One

1. Plug the USB into your Acer Aspire One with the power turned OFF and power on the unit.
2. Press “F12″ when the machine starts to pull up the boot menus  F12 allows you to choose which device you will boot.  Choose the USB device
3. Plug in your Acer Aspire One with a Cat5 cable that has internet (this isn’t mandatory and won’t cause a problem, but it will make things easier during install)
4. Choose Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer.  Notice, it says Ubuntu and NOT Kubuntu, that’s OK and no need for alarm.  The install option may work, but it’s not what I used.  Let the machine load. It takes about 4 minutes for me from the USB on the Aspire One to load the Kubuntu OS from the USB Live.
5. Let it load! If you’re using the Aspire One, there will be a prompt saying, you’re using restricted drivers, wait until this prompt pops up and close it.
6. Click the Install icon on the desktop.  You will be prompted to choose your language, then time zone, keyboard layout until you get to “Prepare disk space”
7. Choose “Guided – use entire disk” unless you don’t want to and you know what you’re doing.  You WILL loose everything that’s stored on the hard drive
8. Let it install.  There are a few prompts, like are you sure you want to do this?  If you’re sure, then continue. The install is going to take a while (40 minutes for me) and is a good time for a coffee and donut break.   When the install is complete, you will be prompted.
9. Reboot.  You will want to reboot!

You have installed Kubuntu, but you need to ‘fix’ a few things.

1. Plug your Cat5 into your Acer Aspire One.  You’ll need to enable DHCP on your router.  If you don’t know what DHCP is, then you probably have it enabled, so don’t worry.
2. Boot your machine.  The first time is going to take a little longer than normal as you’re going to be prompted for user name, password and such.  Don’t forget your user name and password!
3. Open a terminal window no, this isn’t scary, it’s really quite easy.  Go to “K” which is where “Start” is on windows, then go to utilities and open the terminal.
4. Get ready to do a little typing, but this is going to get your WiFI working, so it’s worth it.Into the terminal type:
   sudo apt-get update
wait for the machine to do its thing.  Then type into terminal
sudo apt-get upgrade

   These will get the latest updates for your new OS

   Now, let’s get those wifi drivers ready!  Into the terminal, one a a time, type in:
   wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
tar xzvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
   We are NOW using the current builds which will change directories, depending on the build.  The above step will show the directory that was created (mine was madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742) this directory WILL change every time a new snapshot is made.  You will see the directory listed in the files extracted in the terminal (This IS easier than it sounds)
   cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742 (This will change when new snapshots are made)
   sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

   Sweet, you’ve just donwloaded the WiFI drivers for your Acer Aspire One, now let’s install them!  Type into the terminal, one line at a time:
   make
sudo make install
sudo -i
echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules

You may or may not need the sudo on the last line before echo.  If you get an error without sudo, then add sudo.  If it still won't work, try kdesu.

   Now, we’re almost done.  Here’s the last line you need to type into the terminal
   exit

Viola!  You are done.  You now have Kubuntu installed on your Acer Aspire One.  I had to reboot to get the WiFI to work, so you might want to do it to.

Optimize and tweak your Kubuntu install

 
There are a lot of setting inside Kubuntu and if you want to have your OS running as fast as possible, you might want to get rid of some of the edsktop efffects and change the OS partition type from ext3 to ext2.

To change the desktop settings and much more in your Kubuntu install, go to “K” in the taskbar and then “Run” type in “kcontrol” and you will be prompted with w huge list of settings for the desktop to help optimize performacne.  I got rid of all the GUI effects and the bouncy cursour (which I hate).

To change the filesystem from ext3 to ext2, which I would recommend, you’re going to need the same bootable USB with kubuntu and follow the directions here.

Reducing SSD wear
Follow the directions in this post in the section about “Reducing SSD Wear” at http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1233#p1233 Ubuntu users seem to report errors using this method, but using Kubuntu, I have had no errors.  But I also can’t ’see’ a difference in performace.

Special Thanks!

 
Special thanks go out to Aubrey, WanderingStar and sbemail over at the Aspireoneuser.com forum.  Without their help, I would not have been able to install the WiFi drivers.
 
 

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

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In the last few years, the ultra portable notebook market has really taken off.  The ultra portable notebooks rest firmly somewhere between a PDA and a full size (full power) notebook we all know and love.  Until very recently, the Ultra portable notebooks have been little more than glorified PDAs with a computing power on par with high end cellphones.   Combined with small screens, low power and micro storage , the ultra portable ’sub notebook’ wasn’t ready for the mainstream and was the realm of the micro Linux tech communities and people who built their own computers.  Thanks to some recent additions to the sub notebook market, the new ultra portables are ready for the masses.

One of the greatest features of these ultra portable notebooks (sub notebooks) is the SSD (Solid State Drive).  Not only are SSDs much lighter than their spinning cousins, SSD drives aren’t prone to failure from shock like standard platter hard drives.  There are no moving parts in a SSD, so those little bumps aren’t going to scratch and damage the solid state drive like the standard hard drive.  Solid state drives also use about 5% of the power of the standard HDD and this means a big boost in battery life. The problem with the SSD is the cost, these things are expensive and because of the limitations, most ultraportables have store capacities as low as 2GB.

The real attraction to the ultra portable notebook market is the ultra portability.  You’ve seen pictures on the net, but until you have one in your hands, you won’t believe how small they really are.  I mean small!  These are smaller than most books and will fit easily into a purse.  How’s that for portability!

Ultra Portable : The New Beginning

In the uber competitive laptop market, Asus came in under the radar not too long ago with the Asus EEE PC 700 series.  A small ’sub notebook’, the Asus EEE PC was fitted with with a diminutive  7″ screen, miniature keyboard and the power to match.  It was a really cool mini laptop, but with a 900mhz CPU, 512MB RAM and a 2GB SDD, the Asus EEE PC just doesn’t have the horsepower that consumers need in a laptop, even if the laptop is tiny.

Asus EEE PC 900 Series

Now this is what I’m talking about, 8.9″ LCD finally made viewing the ultra portable laptops a little easier.  Storage increased from a ridiculous 2GB to an acceptable 12GB model.  But what I was really missing from the EEE PC series was the Intel Atom processors.  The Asus EEE PC still didn’t have enough ‘umph’ to make it much more than a PDA and could not handle the pressure of mainstream computing needs.  The Asus EEE PC 900 series still used the 900mhz processors.  With the lack of CPU, the Asus 900 series was still little more than a internet device and not really functional for speedy application use.  And even though the screen got bigger, the Asus EEE PC 900 series still had a tiny keyboard that’s hard to use.

Acer Aspire One

Finally, something better! The Acer Aspire One picked up where Asus left off.  Using the best features of the EEE PC, Acer’s Aspire One starts with the 8.9″ screen, which at 1024 width, is wide enough for all websites and allows enough screen to do some real work.  And that’s about where the similarities end to the Asus EEE PC.  Asus fell behind with the 900mhz processor, but Acer jumped in the market with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU in the base model of the Acer Apire One.  This is HUGE!  You can actually run graphics programs with large files and not have a crash.  Another area where Acer must have been listening to the Asus crowd is the keyboard.  Asus users had been complaining about the tiny keyboards since the 700 and the 900 had the same keyboard size – ugh!  One of the features many users of the Aspire One like the most, seems to be the bigger keyboard.  Rather than the tiny keyboard of the EEE PC, the Aspire One’s keyboard is a 95% keyboard.  That means, the keys are more like a real keyboard and you can ‘touch type’ a lot easier.

Asus EEE PC vs. Acer Aspire One

CPU:  Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900 by a mile!
Acer Aspire 1 = 1.6GHz Intel Atom
Asus EEE PC 900 =  900mhz

Screen: Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900, but it was close.  The Crystal Brite screen on the Aspire One made Acer the winner:
Acer Aspire 8.9″ with Crystal Brite
Asus 8.9″

Storeage*: Asus EEE PC 900 beats the Acer Aspire One, but only in the SSD models
Acer Aspire One 8GB SSD
Asus EEE PC 12GB

Additional Storeage: Acer Aspire One beats the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One: 3 USB and 2 SDHC slots
Asus EEE PC 900: 2 USB 1 SD slot

Looks: The Acer Aspire One looks and feels better than the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One : Solid feel and nice looking.
Asus EEE PC 900: If it didn’t show fingerprints so bad, it would have been a tie.

Layout:  Acer Aspire owns Asus EEE PC 900
This one isn’t really fair.  The Acer Aspire one is 24mm wider than the Asus EEE PC 900.  While that’s only about the width of my thumb, Acer made the most of it by using a larger keyboard layout which make typing much easier.  Also, the Acer Aspire has the additional USB and SDHC slots and that’s something you don’t want to under estimate with the small SSD in these.

Overall, I choose the Acer Aspire One.  It has more power, bigger keyboard, more storage options and a great desin.  After you get yours, be sure and check around the forums for all the tweaks, mods and accesories that are going to make the Acer Aspire One the next ultrportable to beat in 2009!

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

High gas prices got you down?  Take advantage of high gas prices and shop online.  With gas hitting record highs, the economy slowing down and everyone pinching pennies, it’s time to position your online store to take advantage of high gas prices.

Save Money: Shop Online

If you don’t think $4 a gallon gas is hurting your customers, think again.  But rather than looking at high gas prices as a negative, it’s time to make some lemon aide!  Shopping online can actually save your customers a lot of money, so use it!  Even when you figure in the cost of shipping, it’s probably cheaper for your customers to shop online than it is for them to drive to your store.  And if you offer free shipping, it’s easier than ever to shop online!

Save Energy : Shop Online

You may be thinking this rather obvious approach is easily seen by your customers, but it’s never a bad idea to state the obvious.  I remember seeing “Vegetarian Bread” at the grocery store the other day.  Only one bread maker was marked as vegetarian, but I bet there were more than a few breads on the isle that were suitable for vegetarians, however only one brand used this marketing approach, which seemed to work as their space was almost empty.  Saving energy is a selling point, so use it!

When the mailman delivers your customer’s package, they didn’t drive all that way to deliver one package.  The truck is loaded with items that are going to other houses.  This is energy efficient product ‘car pooling’.  It saves energy, natural resources and if your mail truck is like the one that delivers to my house, it’s also ‘green’.

The Online Store

Yes, the online store is not only saving money, energy and the planet, it’s a way to keep your store open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  And with an online store, you’re not serving just your local customers, you’ll be serving customers all over the globe!  As energy prices get higher, more and more people are shopping online to save moeny and time.

eCommerce : Online Store

If you don’t already have an online store, it’s time to get one.  Most online stores pay for themselves within a few months and can really add a great source of revenue to your business.  And if you don’t have time to manage your online store, we can manage your site for you. Give us a call or fill out the contact form and we can get you started with online sales and jump start your business for much less than you think.

Craigslist Backlinks

One of the greatest features craigslist has for the up and coming website is Craigslist HTML policy.  Being able to create clickable links to your site is an often underused feature of Craigslist.  To often, people fail to recognize the power Craigslist gives while posting.  It’s easy to create links, as long as you have a little HTML knowledge.  Craigslist is huge and search engines scour the pages of craigslist on a regular basis, so here’s a quick way to create some good backlinks on Craigslist.

Craislist No Follow Linking

Ok, there are going to be a lot of people pointing out that Craigslist uses no-follow links and therefore, the links aren’t as good as regular links.  And this is true, a no-follow link doesn’t have the same ‘ummph’ as a regular link, but don’t let that deter you.  Craigslist links are still quite valuable and beneficial, even if they are no-follow links.

Link with Purpose

If you’re going to put a link on Craigslist, make it work for you.  Anyone can put a link to their website, but it’s the words within the link where people are missing the target.  For example, if I link to dawhoo.com that’s great for people who are looking for my site, but I would rather have my site linked to a phrase that’s not my site name, like learn the secrets of Craigslist SEO. You can see the difference and so can search engines.  It’s better to have your site associated with a phrase than it is your site’s name, unless you site is very popular, in which case, you’re wasting your time reading this post.

Gaining Visitors and Rank

While the links you’re going to get from Craigslist are not going to count as much as organic follow links, you will get partial credit from search engines as well as getting visitors.  It’s a win / win situation!  Just remember, link the keyword and not your site’s name and you’ll get more visitors and a higher search engine rank.

When you finally choose to have a website, the first thing you think about is the domain name. Everyone does this. But before you rush into a frenzy to grab the next million dollar domain, take the time to make the right hosting choices. There are a million and one hosting companies online and while it would be nice toi say they’re all good, it just isn’t true. Some hosting companies are worthless and will hurt your web presence. Choose the wrong host and you could be losing visitors and customers. Get the right host and you can set your site on cruise control.

Host Reliability – Up Time

Number 1 question should be how much downtime does a host have. Believe me, when your site is down because of the hosting company, you will not like it. I’ve tried hosting companies where my site was down 4 days in a row and that is HUGE! Most major hosting companies today have excellent up-time, but make sure you’re using a major hosting company – one of the big boys. I now use two different hosting companies for my clients and both have exceptional uptime.

All in One and One for All

Whoever you choose to host your website, buy your domain with them too. The few dollars you may save today are not going to be worth the hassle when it comes time to renew. Trust me on this, a user name and password you use once a year or less is pretty easy to forget. It’s not a lot of fun even trying to remember the password you haven’t used in a year and now you can’t even remember your first pet’s name. Integrate your hosting company and your domain hosting, even if it does cost a few dollars more. has good rates and a really easy to work with domain managing system.

It’s tough to beat GoDaddy.com for inexpensive hosting and domain registration. If you are looking to host a simple website and that’s it, GoDaddy.com is probably your best choice

Linux or Windows

Unlike operating systems, Linux dominates the world of web hosting. If your website is going to be some simple HTML and not a lot of fancy-shmansy gadgets, it doesn’t really matter which web host platform you choose. But when you need internet hosting for your web application, it matters. Internet hosting for web applications are usually platform specific and something you need to know. I prefer Linux web hosting servers, but I have to say, I am very impressed with the new Windows web servers. I really boils down to preference or what your web application requires.

Additional Web Host Features

Storage and bandwidth are always a big concern for websites. Right now, GoDaddy.com has web host plan with 300GB of storage and and 3,000 GB of bandwidth transfer for $4.29 a month. Do you have any idea what that kind of storage and bandwidth cost 10 years ago – sheesh! 3,000 GB of transfer is huge and at that price, it’s just a fantastic bargain. Another excellent value is BlueHost
web hosting. This company offers unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth for less than $10 a month.

Bottom Line Web Hosting

As far as I am concerned, there are only 2 web hosting companies I use: BlueHost.com and GoDaddy.com Almost every other hosting company I have used has either suffered from too much down time, had horrible customer support and/or had reliability issues. After being online for over 13 years and even running my own hosting company, I’ve seen companies come and go and GoDaddy and BlueHost are the best at what they do.

Enjoy

BlueHost Web Hosting – $6.95/mo!

After first discovering Magento a few weeks ago, I was really looking forward to spending some time exploring this shopping cart. When I finally had enough time to really look into the cart, I was excited by what I saw. Very clean layouts and a nice user interface, I couldn’t wait to get down and dirty.

Magento PABP PCI-DSS Compliant?

While searching for PCI-DSS shopping carts, I ran across Magento eCommerce shopping cart. What really got my attention was open source. I love open source software. And an open source shopping cart with PCI-DSS compliance – I nearly fainted. But alas, Magento is NOT PCI-DSS compliant. But I read a thread at their forum that Magento was pursuing PCI-DSS compliance testing. Maybe they would be compliant in the future – I hope. But at this time, the lack of PCI-DSS compliance is a major obstacle Magento needs to overcome to big a big player in the ecommerce shopping cart future.

Installing Magento

Magento’s documentation could use some work. Installation instructions do not come with the download and the directions for installing Magento on their website are not accurate or complete. It took me a while to get Magento to install. I had to download a patch that was several months old, which I felt should have been included in the install. But maybe they’re busy with PCI-DSS compliance testing, so I gave them some slack. You’re going to have to wade through the forum to get complete directions for installing and that is a bit of a pain. I have to CHMOD a lot of files and folders to get the cart to install and then I had to do more CHMOD to get the administrator backend to function, a problem that many others seemed to have from reading the forum. Many of the CHMODs were not in the install directions and had to be discovered by searching the forums for people who had similar problems with installing Magento. Overall, the install is fairly easy, but if you’re not comfortable with creating SQL databases and changing file permissions, get someone to install it for you.

Search Engine Optimization

Magento is ready to go for SEO. The cart makes SEO as simple as any cart I’ve used and that’s a major plus. You have complete control over the product URLs and that’s amazing. And it’s not an file edit, you can change the URL in Magento’s administrator access panels. One of my current favorite shopping carts, which costs over $1295 has nothing on Magento’s SEO abilities. Dare I say, Magento has ‘the best’ SEO capability of any shopping cart I have ever used. Yes, I dare say it. With Magento, SEO is both easy and powerful. Magento has the easiest and most powerful SEO control in the administrator panel of any shopping cart I have ever used. And remember, this is ‘out of the box’ no customization needed. Brilliant SEO Magento.

Features and Style

Well, I have to say, it sure looks like Magento did a great job on designing a default storefront. Of course, it’s basic, but it’s not ugly and that’s a major step up from any open source shopping cart I’ve used. Magento gets extra credit and a gold star for default buttons and colors that are stylish, easy to read and made finding the next step to purchase easy. I was really impressed, they spent some time building a piece of software that was appealing to the customer and they did a fantastic job. On the backend, the administrator side, the layout and design are fairly intuitive and thanks to JS, you have everything at your finger tips… so to speak. The template system is promoted by Magento as being easy to use, but I haven’t tested it yet as most shopping carts are customizable as long as you understand the system.

Adding Attributes and Options in Magento

I couldn’t seem to figure out how to add attributes, and three days after starting this review of Magento, I still don’t know how to add products and attributes. It’s really bery confusing and I even watched the demo videos. Yes, Magento has instructional videos! To be fair, I haven’t had a lot of time to play with the cart, but after several hours, I can’t get products to have size and color options – grrrrr!!!  Maybe once I figure it out, I will feel differently.

Magento – Give Us Security !

One of the biggest reasons I’ve stopped playing with Magento is what I consider a SERIOUS SECURITY FLAW! I tried processing a few test orders, just to see how it went and I noticed, in the admin back end, you don’t have the customer’s IP available. I’ve never used a shopping cart that did not include the IP of the customer. I won’t process an order with a bad IP. Getting orders to a address in the US and find out the IP is from Ghana… Why Magento does not include the customer’s IP baffles me. I think it would be fairly easy to add IP to the orders and read in the forum that adding the IP was being looked into, but the thread was a year old and obviously, the issue hadn’t been addressed.

Magento – More to Come

I’m not finished with my review for Magento, but I have to figure out how to add attributes before I can continue with a complete review.  So far, Magento looks really good, but fails miserably is some areas. However, despite the IP problem and the attribute issue with Magento, I can’t wait to explore this shopping cart more. The wealth of features and abilities may make the shortcomings worth the hurdles.

Magento Shopping Cart Review Part 2 Coming Very Soon!

Honestly, I have never really known exactly what web 2.0 was. I’ve seen some great definitions and a few flashy pages, but when it comes to an OED definition, for what web 2.0 actually “is”… you would think a politician wrote it.

Web 2.0 – Where Do We Go From Here?

OK, I do actually have an idea about what web 2.0 is or was. Think rounded corners, gradient colors, simple backgrounds and Ajax functions. Web 2.0 was supposed to be interactive and give the end user more benefits and choices. Web 2.0 also marked the great leap in bandwidth. The average user went from a 56kbps connection to a 1mbps. This had a huge impact on both users and the way the internet is seen. But Web 2.0 has fallen short on many of it’s promises and totally ignored the newest medium of the internet.

Web 2.0 – A Story of Conflicting Technology

Another great feature of the web 2.0 was user interfaces. Ajax is changing the way users interact with the web. This is both a positive and a negative in my opinion. While the use of javascript has increased, the percentage of users who are using javascript have decreased – interesting.  While web developers were churning out the latest smooth flowing Ajax applications,  technology, in the form of the Firefox browser, gave users the freedom to choose to use javascript or not.  So, while Web 2.0 was using more and more javascript, users were not as likely to be able to use these new pages. That’s quite a conundrum.  Many web pages that required javascript fell into the trap of thinking their content would be good enough to catch users with graphics and interaction. Many web sites saw a drop in visitors. Not only was javascript required to use the pages, navigation became clumsy and non-linear.  Users were lost in navigation and struggled to find content. This wasn’t supposed to be the result of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 also saw the first real web enabled mobile devices. Users were able to connect to the internet using their cell phones, but cell phones have very limited viewing areas, slower downloads and a very limited screen size. Many websites had rebuilt their websites to be “user friendly”, but what about cell phone browsers? Many phone browsers couldn’t handle the increased width of pages or the Ajax functions. Instead, cell phone users were left with slow loadings, difficult to navigate and error pages. Was this what Web 2.0 was supposed to be?

Flash content saw a dramatic rise with Web 2.0  Any SEO person will tell you, Flash and search engine optimization do not play well together. Search engines can not see the content and Flash and that’s really a shame. Flash is an excellent methods for delivering information to users in a fixed medium. But often, Flash websites have missed the point of using Flash. Flash should be used sparingly, not as a website platform. Sure, big names can get away with using only Flash, but they have built brand recognition. The little guys have suffered from over using Flash content and found their sites suffering the wrath of Google SERP.

Web 3.0 or 2.0 SP1 – Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Before we start thinking about Web 3.0, we should really look long and hard at what Web 2.0 failed to deliver: a predictable, cross platform  user experience. Web 2.0 focused on features rather than usability and uniform performance across browsers. Where Web 1.0 was HTML and a little javascript, Web 2.0 relied heavily upon javascript, Ajax, Active-X plugins and highly specialized applications. Web 2.0 focused on technology rather than users. Have you ever clicked the back button in your browser when navigating Ajax pages – uggh!

Getting Ready for Web 3.0

Before web designers and programmers begin to think about Web 3.0, they must learn from the mistakes of Web 2.0  Web pages need to work for all browsers, operating systems and screens. Cell phones are an important market that must be addressed. Cell phone users need to be able to view your web pages and they need to be easy to navigate. Don’t rely on javascript. Content is king and so many of the Ajax pages render nothing, confusing results or even worse, a page telling you to turn on cookies and javascript.

Web 2.0 – The Aftermath

Faster connections, more users and less compatibility seems to be the big result of the Web 2.0 movement. I love all the new functions that javascript allows, but Ajax has been over utilized for many users and new mediums. Cellphones, PDAs and small form factor computers are becoming more and more popular. Screen resolutions have gotten bigger and smaller at the same time. Website that cater to the widescreen LCD and the cellphone screen while maintaining a site that still works without javascript are the real winners from Web 2.0

Web 3.0 – Back to the Basics

The good thing about all the problems that occurred with Web 2.0 is they’re all fixable using Web 1.0 methods.  .htaccess can be used to redirect screen resolutions to the proper pages. CSS is a very effective method to achieve most of the goals people are now using Ajax to make (with a few notable exceptions).  Many times, web sites are using Ajax when CSS would accomplish the same goals have a greater compatability across browsers and still render in cell phones and browsers without javascript enabled.  Web 3.0 needs to be about usability and content and not about new features, Flash and landing pages. With a few simple changes to , Web 3.0 could be the next greatest internet revolution and the users will be the ones seeing the benefits.

You’ll be hearing more and more about PABP and VISA compliance. It’s not something you can afford to ignore any more. Visa developed the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) to help vendors create secure payment applications that help merchants limit compromises, prevent the bad practices of storing sensitive cardholder data and support compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Wow, that’s a mouth full. What PABP basically means, is Visa wants to decrease fraud while increasing customer and vendor security. If you are a new website and seeking a vendor to process your orders.

Here’s the basic PABP time line and list of compliances

• The terminal has no connections to any of the merchant’s systems or networks
• The terminal connects to the acquirer or processor
• The terminal vendor provides secure remote access, updates, maintenance and troubleshooting
• The following are never stored post authorization: the full contents from the magnetic stripe (that is on the back of a card, in a chip, or elsewhere), CVV, CVV2, PIN or encrypted PIN block

Is your online cart PABP compliant? As of January 1, 2008, any shopping cart that does not meet phase 1 of Visa’s PABP compliance faces fins and charges of $25,000 per month.

January 1, 2008, you can not use an application that has a known vulnerability. That seems logical enough, but do you know how many shopping carts that eliminates? You don’t want to get stuck on this one. Not only will Visa stop allowing you to take their cards (yes they will) but you can receive an HUGE fine and be held liable for any information that is breached because of the shopping cart you use. Visa is serious and you should be too. After January 1, 2008, all new customers seeking to accept visa payments MUST be using PABP compliant software and applications.

July 1, 2008, straight from VISA, “VNPs and agents must only certify new payment applications to their platforms that are PABP-compliant”. Seems a lot like what happens after January 1, 2008, but this is more for application development. VisaNet and it’s agents won’t accept new software that hasn’t been PROVEN to be PABP compliant. Proven is the key word there and to prove your application is PABP compliant is going to cost you around… $30,000, yes, that’s $30,000 for PABP compliance testing.

October 1, 2008, Level 3 and 4 merchants must be PCI DSS compliant or use PABP-compliant applications. This is the big one for PABP compliance, after this date, you better make sure your applications are PCI or PABP compliant. Those who aren’t, we be fined and no longer be able to accept credit cards baring the Visa logo. This is HUGE.

October 1, 2009, the real pain begins. Visa doesn’t actually process all the orders themself, they use VPNs to process the cards for them. This is the day Visa tells its VPNs to stop allowing and decertify clients who are using vulnerable applications for processing credit card information. Decertify is the keyword here. That means, if your application isn’t PABP certified by then, Visa is going to no longer allow you to process their cards.

July 1, 2010, being PCI compliant will no longer cut it, you now need to be using a PABP shopping cart – period. If you don’t have a PABP certified shopping cart by then, Visa could drop you as a merchant at any time.

PABP is serious business that WILL affect your business. If you’re looking to get an online shopping cart, be sure and choose one that is already PABP certified and PCI compliant. This will ensure you business will stay online and you won’t have to change everything in a few months.

PABP Certified Shopping Carts

ASPDotNetStoreFront my favorite PABP compliant shopping cart
Incartia – never used it but it is PABP compliant
DMDStudios – Custom carts reported to be PABP compliant
Magento – Open Source and seeking PABP compliance, I can’t wait to play with this one!

I’m sure there are others and I will edit the list if needed, but at this time, these are the major players for PABP compliance. Don’t start your online business stuck behind the 8-ball, make sure you’re getting a shopping cart that your company will be able to use in the future without fear of being shut down by Visa.