music

OSdata.com

Web Development

Summary: Web site content creation.

OSdata.com is used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the world

Find out how to get similar high web traffic and search engine placement.

further reading: books on web development

    “Though it may be hard to believe today, the explosive growth of Internet commerce caught nearly everyone by surprise. (Even many ventrue capitalists were slow to recognize the importance of Tim Berners-Lee’s landmark invention, the World Wide Web.) But a decade after the first Web pages appeared, and five years after the early e-commerce sites got rolling, a few principles are becoming clear. Most importantly, technology matters. You’ve got to have a fast, efficient Website that delivers what customers need in a matter of a few seconds. (If it takes longer than about eight seconds for a Web page to load, chances are that twitchy surfers will click away without waiting to see those fancy graphics.) Behind the scenes you need the right database structure and analytical tools to support e-commerce activities, along with the ability to handle customer inquiries interactively in the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week world of the Web. Protecting the site is essential too; hackers can deface or hold a site hostage, and computer viruses can ricochet through millions of machines in a matter of hours.^m3

    “It’s also crucial to match the technology to the business goals of the company. The days are long past when all you needed to crank out a Website was a couple of programmers who had a bit of HTML know-how and the stamina for late-night bouts fueled by pizza and double lattés. “If you seriously want to get into the game today, it’s a $3 million to $5 million investment,” says consultant Tim Cuny, principal at Lante Corp. in Chicago. “The ante has gone up because it’s not just about putting up a site. It’s answering the question ‘How am I going to run my business?’ ”^m3

    “Indeed, the Internet is altering the rules on how companies manage their sales, service, and distribution operations. It is providing new opportunities for businesses of all stripes to reach new customers, as well as forge closer ties with existing customers and business partners. By turning to the Internet, businesses can speed communications with both customers and suppliers, reduce paperwork, lessen cycle time, and automate buying and selling systems. —Fortune Technology Guide^m3

    For heavy-traffic Websites, a dedicated server is a must.” —Fortune Technology Guide^m3

recommended system

After numerous requests for specific recommendations, OSdata.com now includes a recommended system for web design. These recommendations are partly opinion. These recommendations assume that you are working professionally in the field and are much more expensive than typical home or business systems. These recommendations are based on personal experience in the content creation field.

Each system (both hardware and software) will need to be repeated for each person on staff (except as noted). It is illegal to buy one copy of software and then install it on multiple machines. Some programs check the network for this kind of cheating. If you are caught violating copyright law, the fines and penalties could bankrupt you, so it really isn’t worth it to try to cheat to save a few bucks.

We are working on providing a second source.

Price listings are for courtesy purposes only and may be changed by the referenced businesses at any time without notice.

hardware

computer: The most commonly used operating system for professional web design work is Macintosh OS 9. Mac OS 9 has built in capabilities for the support of content creation (including such technologies as ColorSync for accurate colors, QuickTime for digital video and sound, and sophisticated font capabilities for both PostScript and TrueType fonts) and is the operating system with the largest library of professional content creation software. The G4 800MHz DP (dual processor - equal to approximately one 3 GHz Pentium) is currently Apple’s fastest computer. You will want to purchase additional RAM (at least 512 MB total RAM, up to 1.5 GB of RAM, depending on your budget). You may want to swap out the ATA drive for a more expensive, but faster internal SCSI drive. Adding Apple’s optional UltraSCSI PCI card will save headaches when connecting up UltraSCSI external devices (there are other SCSI cards available, but this is the most compatible).

Apple PowerMac G4 800MHz DP; PowerMac G4 800MHz Dual Processor, 256K L2 cache and 2 MB backside L3 cache, 133MHz system bus supporting more than 1-GBps data throughput, 256 MB PC133 SDRAM (slots for 1.5GB SDRAM), 80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/66 hard drive, Zip drive, combination DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive (with DVD-Video, writes DVD-R at 2x, reads DVD at 4x, writes CD-R at 8x, writes CD-RW at 4x, reads CD at 24x), three 3.5-inch hard drive expansion bays (ATA or SCSI), NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics card with 64MB of SDRAM with TwinView in a dedicated AGP 4X slot and 133 MHz system bus (supporting two monitors, each at 1920-by-1200-pixel resolution at 32 bits per pixel, millions of colors), Apple Display Connector (ADC) and 15-pin mini D-Sub VGA connector, 4 full-length PCI slots (64 bit, 33 MHz) with throughput up to 215 MBps and one AGP 4X slot (with graphcis card installed), built in Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet connector, RJ-45), Built-in 56K V.90 modem card, stereo audio out (mysteriously missing audio in?!?!), headphone jack, two 400-Mbps Firewire ports (15W total power), 2 USB ports (12Mbps each), both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X preinstalled; $3,495

monitor: You will need a monitor that is color accurate. The most color accurate monitor in the world is the Radius PressView XL 21" Display, $2,899.00. According to Radius: “When color reproduction is critical, for pre-press, digital photography, graphic design, media authoring, medical or scientific imaging, only the PressView XL has the accuracy, resolution and features you need.” Although not essential immediately, you will eventually want a second monitor (one for your tools and one for your work). You will need a second video card (a second Rage 128 Pro video card will run about $150). Any large monitor will do (your color critical work will be on the primary monitor, the second monitor will hold your tools).

keyboard and mouse: The keyboard and mouse that Apple ships with their PowerMacs are complete jokes. Neither are usable. You need to immediately replace them with a USB keyboard and mouse. Choice of replacements depends in large part on personal preference. Make sure that you get an extended keyboard and that it is one with a Macintosh “start button”. An ergonomic keyboard will be easier on your wrists, but will take some getting used to. You can get a one button, two button, or three button mouse, with or without a scroll bar wheel — again, a matter of personal preference. You might even choose a trackball or trackpad.

Adesso Tru-Form USB Keyboard for Macintosh (Ice); 79.95

Macally USB iSweet; single button mouse with changeable color “jackets”; $24.95

Macally USB iSweetNet; two button mouse with scroll wheel and changeable color “jackets”; $29.95

iBall; Macally; USB 2 button trackball; $39.95

graphics tablet: Drawing with a mouse is the equivalent of drawing with a bar of soap. Not particularly effective. Which means that you want a pressure sensitive drawing tablet. A larger drawing surface is useful if you are doing architectual or engineering drawing, a smaller drawing surface is useful if you are doing more artistic work. Your preferred drawing size will depend on your own personal drawing style (6"x8" is probably as small as most of you will want to go). Wacom makes the best art tablets.

12"x18" drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Mac, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (1,024 level); 2540 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 4D mouse (5 button and scroll wheel); $759.95

12"x12" drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Mac, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (1,024 level); 2540 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 4D mouse (5 button and scroll wheel); $519.95

9"x12" drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Mac, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (1,024 level); 2540 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 4D mouse (5 button and scroll wheel); $469.95

6"x8" drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Mac, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (1,024 level); 2540 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 2D three button mouse; $349.95

4"x5" bronze drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Macintosh, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (512 level); 1015 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 2D three button mouse; $99.95

4"x5" steel blue drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Macintosh, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (512 level); 1015 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 2D three button mouse; $99.95

4"x5" ruby drawing tablet; Wacom; USB (Mac OS 8 or later, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP) or serial (Macintosh, Windows 95 or later, Solaris, Irix, or Linux); pressure sensitive (512 level); 1015 lpi resolution; Intuos2 Grip Pen and 2D three button mouse; $99.95

printer: You will want at least one printer. There are a lot of factors that can go into the decision of which printer is best for you. PostScript is essential for pre-press work and useful for general text and line art printing. Color is essential for creating proofs or “comps” of color work, but color printing is more expensive per copy than black and white printing (and if you do a lot of black and white printing, you could use up color cartridges while using little of the more expensive color inks). The pixels per inch (sometimes called “dpi”) also affects overall quality. Printer speed and ruggedness come into play if you need to do a lot of printing. Sometimes it makes sense to have more than one printer, each designed for different uses.

For web work, your two main needs are going to be printing out black and white forms, reports, invoices, and such and occassional color printing to show a customer an idea (although a CD-R with a small sample web site probably serves this purpose better).

If your web staff is large or is part of a larger staff, you may want to consider the printer recommendations for print media.

humor

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won’t bother you for weeks.” —Rodger Donaldson

“Anyone who slaps a ‘this page is best viewed with Browser X’ label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.” —Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996

OSdata.com is used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the world

Read details here.

A web site on dozens of operating systems simply can’t be maintained by one person. This is a cooperative effort. If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please e-mail Milo. If you have any extra copies of docs, manuals, or other materials that can assist in accuracy and completeness, please send them to Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, USA, 92781.

Click here for our privacy policy.