iparty.co.za Launched!

I'm proud to announce the new website for iParty. They are suppliers of party novelties, accessories and services.

The website has a nice clean layout with fun colours to convey the party theme.

The Home, About Us, Blog and Services pages are maintained by the website owners themselves.

On the Home page visitors are introduced to the company. The latest products are displayed with links to the right, as well as the latest blog posts.

The Products page displays a list of product categories with images. When the visitor selects one, he is shown subcategories for that page. After selecting a subcategory all of the products for that category is displayed.

The Contact Us page displays their regular contact information, with an online contact form, allowing visitors to inquire about products.

On the Locate Us page an interactive map is displayed, together with a Google Street View of the iParty Warehouse from the outside.

The Blog page shows the latest blog post written by iParty staff.

iParty is proud of their new Ayoba Designs website, and it will surely attract new customers to their website.

Visit: www.iparty.co.za
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How To Upload a Database to a Virtual Hosting Server

How To Upload a Database to a Virtual Hosting Server? Its easy!

But I'm jotting this down to avoid having to figure it out again in the future!

For the record, I'm using www.winhost.co.za as my hosting company which gives me a PLESK interface, developing in ASP.net with C#, and using a Microsoft SQL Server database. The process should be similar on other hosting provider systems.

Alright, lets get our hands dirty:

1. Create your database in Visual Studio. Don't use the generic name (aspnet.mdf) for the membership database, because when you have a virtual hosting option each database on the server must be unique. Chances are another website using the same host as you already used the generic name.
2. After creating your database in filling it with your content, upload it via FTP to your App_Data folder (the DB's MDF and log file)
3. Now log in to your PLESK panel and create a MS SQL Server database there, too.
4. For your new database in PLESK, create a new username and password. Write down these details.
5. Now, contact your hosting provider to ask them to extract your database. Give them the location of the the database (App_Data\YourDataBase.mdf). Do this as soon as possible, because your ISP support team may be a bit slow for you!
6. When they let you know they're done, you can almost relax!
7. In the meanwhile, go to PLESK again and configure your ASP.net settings to replace the connection string. I use this:
   
   Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=MYDATABASE;User Id=THEUSERNAME;Password=THEPASSWORD;
   
   All the CAPITOL words must be replaced with your details. Replace MYDATABASE with your database name (without its extension, .mdf). The user ID an Password are those create in PLESK at step 4
   

Now test your website to see if the database is working! It should!
Having trouble? Too bad! But take note of a few things that might help you:

1. After your service provider restored your uploaded database, access it from PLESK to see if all the tables that should be there, are indeed online
2. Always check that the hosting company supports the database version you use
3. In PLESK, be sure to create the same database type that you have on your project (for instance, MS SQL Server and not MySQL)
4. Careful not to upload your web.config file, which contains the wrong connectionstring after you replaced the connection string in PLESK. Uploading the new web.config file will replace your connection string in PLESK, and your web application won't be able to connect to your database

Hope this helps you!

How to Write an Effective 'About Us' page

Your 'About Us' page matters. It matters to the visitors who come to your web site to find out more about you, your services or your products. So it is vital to have a proper About Us page.
Imagine a face-to-face meeting with a prospective client. You meet, introduce yourself, say a little about what you offer, how long you've been in business, mention your unique selling proposition (USP) and upon leaving hand out your business card.

1. Presentation
First impressions count. You wouldn't dress scruffily for a business meeting so the same applies here. A cluttered about us page will do you no favours and it looks tacky. People don't like too much going on in a website, so don't fill every area with a different image or piece of text. Instead, go for a clean, professional look.

2. Introduction
Here you get to say who you are, introduce yourself, your team, your company. You may want to include photos of yourself and/or your team. Keep the content in this section short and to the point. Web surfers can only read so much on a website and you don't want to bore them or send them away with large chunks of text.

3. What you offer
Time to shine. Make your content informative, crisp and clear. Showcase your skills if you are a designer. How about making it visually interesting by presenting your skills in bullet point format or highlighting your USP in another colour.

4. What you stand for
What are your aims? Write your mission statement here. If you have a code of ethics, put it in here.

5. Company History
How long have you been in business? Do you have any awards, statements of recognition, great testimonials that you could put in here? Building credibility and trust in your business is key.

6. Contact details
It is good business etiquette to give out a business card at a meeting. So make sure your contact details are visible on the page. You want to make it easy for your prospective client to contact you. It could be you've impressed him/her and now they want to buy your product. Having an address shows you are in a real place in a real location and that you exist! This creates trust and credibility in you as a company and the client feels safe to do business with you.

Remember to keep it short, though. People visiting your website do not want to feel like they're reading a novel. In fact, if you put too much information on your website, visitors will just scan through most of it anyways.

Ayoba Designs: Web Design in Bloemfontein

Why are we shifting our boundaries - closer?!

This blog is not about anything specific and posts vary greatly in topics. This post might be one of those that don't fit into the majority of posts here - but I still reckon its worth blogging it!

Have you noticed how we as Christians are always replanting out boundaries of acceptable or unacceptable behaviour, making our turf smaller and our morals more lenient?

When one celebrity oversteps our boundaries we may react swiftly and cause a big fuss, usually using media. But after a while we forget about the incident and become comfortable with the action in question. 

We’ve just taken our boundaries and moved it a little closer to us, making what was previously unacceptable something we can just overlook now. The road is now paved for the next influential person to do the same wrong deed – this time without any commotion following from our side.

Take for instance the blasphemy and explicit sex scenes dished up in box-office movies. Why do these movies become the top-sellers even though it goes against the world’s largest religion? How did it come to a point where we are “okay” with it? How was the first blasphemous movie received? Has no one made protest against it?

The producers of the recent movie The King’s Speech had to negotiate with the agencies to be rated suitable for younger viewers after the agencies decided that the F-word was used too many times in the movie. The swear word is used in only one scene where it is repeated during a speech training session. However, the name “Jesus Christ” is used elsewhere in the movie as a swear word – why did no one protest against this? Is using God's name in vain more acceptable than saying the F-word?

Or take South-African rapper Jack Parow who swears excessively and makes questionable statements in his lyrics – a few people were shocked at his explicit lyrics, but soon afterwards bands like Die Antwoord also gained popularity and caused almost no fuss in the Afrikaans-speaking community – have we already moved our boundaries for Jack Parow, making similar phenomenon acceptable?

Other things which some Christians have decided to accept: gay marriages, evolution, unmarried couples living together, alcohol abuse, the “all roads lead to heaven” teaching, racism and many more.

We as Christians are a loyal priesthood, a chosen generation, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, anointed ones, Christ-like ambassadors for the Father, more than conquerors, commissioned to disciple to the ends of the earth, a mighty force, the head and not the tail, able to do good works and mighty exploits for God, appointed to be a light to the world – we are a force to be reckoned with.

Yet we are always shifting our boundaries, making our grounds smaller until we have nothing left to stand on. Then we’ll realize we’ve become identical to the rest of the world – a Godless nation.

Remember: though we are in the world, we are not from the world.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove what the perfect will of God is. (Romans 12:2)

Mark Shuttleworth Brings Broadband to Cape kids

If pupils in the Western Cape are connected to their peers and experts around the world, they have the ability to lead in their fields of choice, says IT billionaire Mark Shuttleworth.

Shuttleworth has offered broadband access to every school in the Western Cape through a new undersea cable.

He said he had an agreement in principle with state-owned enterprise Infraco to acquire a share of the bandwidth on the West Africa Cable System (Wacs) linking South Africa with the UK.

On the back of that agreement he had proposed an arrangement with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

"Essentially, it would allow the WCED to buy internet access wholesale in a very large global market," he said.

The proposal depended on the ability of the department to create a network connecting schools to one another and to the international cable.

The department would also have to acquire internet access in London.

Shuttleworth said the broadband would not be free, as suggested by Education MEC Donald Grant.

"Nevertheless, I'm delighted that the proposal has been well received and am confident that the end goal is achievable."

He praised InfracoҒs support and the commitment of the WCED.

MWEB Now offering Unlimited Hosting

Mweb today announced it is now offering uncapped and unlimited website hosting for only R19.00 per month, or free for one year if you are a MWEB DSL subscriber

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When talking about hosting, uncapped and unlimited means that no additional costs will be incurred regardless of how many visitors your site has.

This uncapped offering is cheap in comparison to similar packages, as those on offer by www.hostingunlimited.co.za.

MWEB explains that uncapped hosting will “allow South Africans to put their business on the map with all the essential features in a secured shared hosting space”.

However, it is important to note a few things about these unlimited hosting packages:

1. Shared Hosting: Usually these service providers cram a lot of clients on the same server, meaning your website shares resources with other websites. This could potentially lead to poor performance. And no one likes to use a slow website.

2. Limit email addresses: The MWEB offering only offers 1 email address, which for most companies is not enough. You can, however, pay R20 extra per additional email address. Unfortunately, the total of all your email accounts may not exceed 100mb. Which is very little.

3. Linux hosting: While MWEB's website is still unclear on the specifics of their unlimited hosting package, these usually are Linux machines, which means websites coded in Microsoft's ASP.net will not be supported. Your website will have to be coded in something like PHP rather

4. No control panel: Mweb said on its Facebook page that users will not have some sort of Control Panel to configure their hosting. This means you have to contact their support team if you want to make any configurations

On the plus side, you do get a free .co.za domain name (your website's address). And your website will be hosted locally (i.e. not overseas), meaning it should theoretically be faster than similar servers hosted internationally. This also means users with local-only internet traffic can use your website.
But, for businesses serious about their web presence, I would rather recommend paying up to R60 per month and get a decent, limited hosting service. Usually these limited services provide traffic and disk space way above what your business' website will require, anyways. Plus you get more (usually unlimited amount of) email addresses, a control panel for proper configuration, and a faster performing website.

If you are serious about having your website well ranked with search engines, I will suggest using these cheap hosting packages to host a blog (i.e. Wordpress) and posting there regularly with links back to your business' actual website. This will increase your real business website's traffic significantly.

Until more users have used Mweb's new hosting plan, we won't know the quality of service. But 'till then, stick with what you know!

Ayoba Designs: Bloemfontein Web Design

FNB No longer supporting Internet Explorer 6

First National Bank said that their online services will soon no longer support Microsoft's ageing Internet Explorer 6 web browser

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By 20 March 2011 First National Bank (FNB) customers will no longer be able to access online banking, online sales as well as the fnb.co.za website via Internet Explorer 6, the bank said in a statement today.

“Access will be blocked via this browser as it offers outdated security features and is no longer widely used for internet access. The browser applications can be updated via a link on our homepage (www.fnb.co.za) at no charge,” said Lee-Anne van Zyl, CEO of FNB Online.

According to StatCounter.com IE6 enjoyed an 8.21% share of browser usage in February 2011 and has experienced declining usage since 2008.

FNB urged customers using Internet Explorer 6 to update their web browser as soon as possible.

This comes after Microsoft launched a campaign to encourage users to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6, saying “friends don't let friends use IE6.”

As a final warning, FNB emphasised that it will NOT send emails to its customers regarding Internet Explorer updates.

They would also never ask for your login details or your account details, FNB said.

You can find the most recent version of Internet Explorer right now

Original Article: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/18975-FNB-stop-support-for-IE6.html

Ayoba Desings: Bloemfontein Web Design

Effective Prayer

How much time do you put into prayer each day? Prayer is a powerful tool, but it is neglected by most Christians. It unleashes God’s supernatural power in our lives. Let’s see what the Bible teaches about effective prayer.

We should ask in faith, with no doubting, because he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Don’t let such a person think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:6-8).

Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change) and become like little children (humble, simply faithful and trusting), you can never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mathew 18:3-4) Here Jesus is talking to His disciples. When He says repent, it means we (who are already Christians) must change our mindsets to become more humble and full of faith, trusting Him like a child does. Then we can enter the kingdom of heaven, which is a peaceful, successful and joyful life here on earth.

“And I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Father may be glorified and celebrated through the Son. Yes, I will grant whatever you shall ask in My Name” (John 14:13-14)

This is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: We are sure that if we ask anything according to His will, He listens to and hears us. (1 John 5:14-15)

The Bible teaches us many things that are clearly God’s will for us. We know we can ask for those things boldly without being concerned whether or not they are in God’s will. This includes things like health, prosperity, spiritual gifts, salvation of others, power over sin and an effective ministry.

However, when dealing with daily situations where we are unsure of God’s will, we should pray for His will to be made known.

When learning to pray God’s will, it is important to consider His timing. We can pray for something inside God’s will, but it will only physically manifest in His perfect timing.

Remember, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen” (Hebrews 11:1). If you have the Word of God to back up your requests, stand in faith until you see results. But remember, real faith leads us to enter the rest of God, so waiting on Him should not be a frustrating experience.

I encourage you to start praying for specific things in your life. Let your prayers be specific and fervent, full of faith and trust in God.

Remember, God only has three answers to prayer:
1. Yes
2. Just wait a bit
3. I’ve got something better in mind


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This has been posted on the Facebook group Christian Relationships Rule!

Pug Puppy at Pool - Funny Bob

This is our Pug puppy. I was filming how he plays with a ball much bigger than itself! Then I uploaded it to Youtube! It was an instant hit!

I even got offers from companies who want to buy the video!

Ayoba Designs: Bloemfontein Web Design

Its with great pride that I announce Ayoba Designs won a second SA Web Award for the design for Carters Rest Guesthouse in Kimberley.

From SA Web Awards:

Introduction to SA Web Awards

SA Web Awards was launched in 2003 and quickly became South Africa's top website review site. Our aim has always been to recognise South Africa's top web design talent.

How SA Web Awards works

Our website review program is unique and it ensures that our website awards carry weight and recognition in the industry.

Websites that are submitted to SA Web Awards are evaluated by at least 3 website judges. Each judge reviews the website and gives it a score in each of these four categories: content, layout, functionality and overall appeal.

The combined score from all the judges determines whether the website wins an SA Web Award. There are 3 levels of award: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

SA Web Awards relies on a peer review system whereby South African webmasters and designers submit their websites for review and also participate in reviewing websites submitted by other webmasters and designers. Therefore, to submit your website you need to either review another website or purchase a review credit.

Ayoba Designs is very proud about this achievement and aims to maintain this standard in all web sites.

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