Q2C – Web Services, Software & Hardware – Code – FAQ – Terminology – Library
FAQ Knowledge-base
What is front end development?
Making websites look appealing, for one. It is not usually the design of, but rather the compilation of what you see on any given website. Front end developers are usually given graphic designs of a website, and are tasked to make the design into a website, while matching the design as closely as possible.
Front end development plays a big part in search engine optimization, website performance, and accessibility.
What is back end development?
When you shop online or book a flight, you are interacting with the front end of the website, but information that needs to be stored, processed, etc. is handled by the back end. Back end development consists mainly of a server, an application, and a database. An application is therefore developed to handle and pass information.
Back end technologies include languages like PHP, Python, C#, VB, Java, etc.
What exactly is UX (user experience)?
User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. Some elements include performance, speed, navigation, bounce rate, content and return visitors.
Domain Name FAQ
What is a domain?
A domain name, a series of textual characters that identifies a specific IP address, uniquely identifies a website on the Internet. Domain names locate businesses, organizations, or other entities on the Internet. Domain names are easy to remember, easy to type alternatives to obscure URL’s that you receive with free website hosting services. Presently, many hosting companies offer free domain names with their packages. Using a domain name allows you to receive more visitors, less bounced emails, and the chance to make a lasting impression on the Web.
It is more like an address (1234 ABC street) for an infinitely expandable house (so you can just keep adding suite and/or apt numbers.
Do I need a domain name to have a website?
It is not necessary to have a domain name for a website, but it is recommended. Whether you are creating a personal website or a business website, having a domain name allows your site to be more easily accessible and remembered.
What is a domain registration?
A domain registration is a ‘right to use’ for a given domain. Usually registrations cost money, and are sold by the year.
What is a domain registrant?
A organization that has purchased a domain registration.
What is a domain registrar?
A organization that sells domain registrations. Usually registrars have a contract with a registry, and often are certified by an organization. Some Registrars use resellers, so it may be hard to know who the registrar is. Some registry’s sell direct, so the registrar and the registry may be the same organization.
What is a domain registry?
A single organization that co-ordinates the domain registrations for a given top level domain (e.g. .com, .ca, or .info).
How is a domain registered?
Generally, the organization that wants to register a domain ( which might be an individual), contacts a registrar or visits a registrar’s website, requests a particular domain name, provides some contact information, provides some other information (which may include a chosen password, and/or DNS servers, and usually payment information like a credit card number).
The Registrar then sends the appropriate information/request to the registry to complete the registration.
What is a WHOIS record?
For most domains, much of the contact information provided during the registration process is put into a public whois record.
(The .com domains are one extreme, with full info for the registrant, plus admin, technical, and billing contacts. At the other extreme is .co.uk which provides registrant name, the name of the registrar and the DNS servers.)
What are the domain contacts?
They are the people you contact if you have questions about the domain or trouble accessing it.
Just as importantly, the admin contact is the authority allowed to make changes to the domain, and the billing contact (if there is one) is where the domain expiration messages go to.
What is a DNS server?
DNS servers are what actually makes a domain name work. By work I mean that they convert a text label to the information like IP addresses that the Internet is based on. (See ‘What is a domain name’ and ‘Information about Domain Names‘.)
This is not to say that they handle e-mail, or serve web pages. Instead they direct web surfers and e-mail messages to the correct computers.
Can you register 63 character domain names?
Yes, we can register domains longer than the old 26 (?) character limit. Domain names can now be up to 63 characters long including the “.com”.
What is my NIC handle?
This is an old-school question . NIC handles were used by network solutions to make it easier to keep contact information up to date.
Expiration / What is “Redemption Period”?
NOTE: The following text is ONLY intended as a guide. Please renew your domains BEFORE they expire!
Domain registrations last for a limited amount of time measured in years. Registrations can (obviously) be renewed to add extra years to their duration. The notable limit is that no registration is allowed to be valid for more than 10 years into the future (which means that you can register a domain for 10 years, but can not renew it for 10 years unless it has actually expired).
So what happens when a registration expires? The domains “quit working” the day after they expire. Technically, the DNS servers are no longer listed in the .com/net/org zone file. This means that e-mail, web, and any other services with the domain quit working on the Internet. The wholesaler may point the domain at website of their own which reminds visitors that the domain is expired, and displays advertisements. This continues up to about 40 days after the registration has expired. The domain owner can renew the registration at any time up to this point (and the domain will fairly quickly go back to normal service).
At 40 days, the domain gets deleted. At this point the domain goes into a state known as “Redemption Period”. This state provides a “last chance” to get the domain registration back. The registry charges a significant chunk of $$ for getting a domain back from “redemption period”, normally the cost is $80. The Redemption period lasts for 30 days. If the domain is not redeemed, it goes into a “pending delete” state for 7 days, and is released for re-registration at the end of that.
This ICANN document describes some of the rational leading up to the creation of the Redemption Period: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/redemption-proposal-14feb02.htm
Terminology
BIN – Buy It Now. Traditionally used to quickly put an end to an auction before it starts. This allows a buyer to bypass an auction process by accepting the “Buy It Now” price (usually a lot higher than opening bids are).
C’s and V’s – C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. People will use these for specific letter-based domains. For example – CVCV would be a consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel domain.
C – C also stands for “character”. Used to describe any alphanumeric character. For example, a CCC domain is a domain with 3 alphanumeric characters in it – each C can be a letter or a number. Mainly used to generalize a series of domains.
ccTLD – Country Coded Top Level Domain. These are TLDs assigned to based out of countries. They are traditionally based on the country’s native, or most common, language. Some examples are .us (United States), .de (Germany (Deutschland)), .au (Australia).
Cybersquatting – is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
.com (commercial) – is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internet’s Domain Name System. It was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs, the other five being .edu, .gov, .mil, .net and .org) established in January 1985, and has grown to be the largest TLD in use.
Domain Name – is an identification label to define a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).
Domain hack – is an unconventional domain name that combines domain levels, especially the top-level domain (TLD), to spell out the full “name” or title of the domain, making a kind of pun.
Domainers – People who buy and sell domain names are known as domainers.
Domain name transfer – A Domain name transfer is the process of changing the designated registrar of a domain name
Domain slamming – is a form of scam in which an internet service provider (ISP) or domain name registrar attempts to trick customers of different companies into switching from their existing ISP/registrar to the scamming ISP/registrar, under the pretense that the customer is simply renewing their subscription to their old ISP/registrar.
DNS – The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet.
DNS – Domain Name Server. This is a service that tells browsers where to look for your domain. It is traditionally stored with the registry or registrar.
DD – DynaDot – a popular registrar.
DN – Domain Name. The main reason why you’re on this forum.
DNF – Domain Name Forum. If you don’t know this one then why are you here?
DNF$ – DNForum.com fake money. Used to purchase decorations to names, upgraded memberships, or sometimes even used to pay for products and/or services.
Domain appraisal – is an estimate about the potential sales price of a particular Internet domain name. Domain name appraisals are highly speculative. It is an estimate and an opinion, and can considerably vary depending upon the considered elements of the name and its extension. Traffic to and revenue from a web is not relevant to a domain, but to the web content. It is a common mistake to take web traffic and revenue into calculation of a domain.
FWD – Forward. This is used to forward all traffic from one domain to another. If people type in the forwarding domain name, it will redirect them to the other name.
G – Usually stands for Google (also regerred to “The G”, “Big G” etc..). Google is the most commonly used search engine. They also offer pay-per-click advertisements though their AdSense program.
GD – GoDaddy. One of the most popular registrars. GoDaddy offers domain registrations, email services, hosting, and parking pages.
gTLD – A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use on the Internet.
GUI – Graphical User Interface. Something that allows a user to interface with a computer in a graphical environment. While MS-DOS is a UI, Windows XP is a GUI.
ICANN – is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, United States, ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. government by other organizations, notably the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
IDN – An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains one or more non-ASCII characters. Such domain names could contain letters with diacritics, as required by many non-English languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese or Hindi.ccTLD – country code top-level domains
L’s and N’s – L’s stand for letters, N’s stand for numbers. When people want to talk about a class of domains, or shorter domains, they’ll use L’s and N’s. for example – if someone is talking about an LLL.com they are talking about .com domains that only have 3 letters.
MS – Microsoft (also known as M$). A software company who has given us programs like Microsoft Windows, MS DOS, and Microsoft Office. They also provide server and networking based OS’s (Windows NT, Exchange Server, etc..).
OS – Operating System. The system that allows a UI (or GUI) for a computer. Most commonly used is MS Windows but people also use Macintosh’s OS, Linux, and a few others.
PM – Private Message. A message sent to people and only the sender and receiver(s) can see it.
PP – Pay Pal – a common method of payment. This allows people to send money electronically to other people. No escrow is used with this service – once you hit send the other person has the money.
PPC – Pay Per Click. It’s simple – someone clicks on an ad, you get paid. This advertisement style is commonly used with parking companies (Sedo, Parked) and ad-feed programs like AdSense.
Reg Fee – Registration Fee. The amount of money it costs to register and / or renew a domain. Typically ranges from $4 – $1000 but can vary due to the registrar, the TLD / ccTLD being registered or renewed, and discount codes. Also used in the appraisal forums to state that the domain has little to no value.
Registrar-Lock – is a status code that can be set on an Internet domain name by the sponsoring registrar of the domain name.
Reverse domain hijacking – The term reverse domain hijacking refers to the practice of acquiring domain names from owners by accusing them of violating trademarks with the domain name, and demanding that the domain be transferred.
SEO – Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.
Single-letter second-level domains – are domain names in which the second-level domain consists of only one letter, such as x.org. Such domains are rare, due to the fact that on December 1, 1993, The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority explicitly reserved all single-letter and single-digit second-level domain names in the top-level domains .com, .net, and .org. This was done in case the registries for these domains became overloaded. In December 2005, ICANN considered auctioning off their domains.
SLD – In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in wikipedia.org, Wikipedia is the second-level domain of the .org TLD.
TLD – Top level domain. Some examples include .com, .net, .org. This dictates which registry your domain goes though and can play a lot on domain values.
TLDs – A top-level domain or domain name (TLD) is the highest level of domain names in the root zone of the Domain Name System of the Internet.
Type-in traffic – is a term describing visitors landing at a web site by entering a keyword or phrase (with no spaces or a hyphen in place of a space) in the web browser’s address bar.
URLs – In computing, a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) consists of a string of characters used to identify or name a resource on the Internet.
UI – User Interface. Something that allows a human to interface with a computer. Operating systems and programs are all examples of UI’s.
WHOIS – is a query/response protocol which is widely used for querying an official database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet.
WIPO – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 “to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world”.
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get. A common acronym for program to create documents and web pages. Little programming is needed and allows you to drag and drop what you need to where. Traditionally WYSIWYG editors are very easy to use but can be cumbersome on a browser.
1. User unknown
What it usually means: Incorrect address in the username portion of the address.
What to do: Make sure you have correctly specified portion of the address before the “@”
2. Host unknown
What it usually means: Incorrect address in the domain or top-domain portions of the address.
What to do: Make sure you have correctly specified portion of the address after the “@”
3. Network unreachable
What it usually means: Gateway limitations or problems with the network backbone.
What to do: Recheck e-mail address, retry at another time.
4. Connection timed out
What it usually means: Software problem communicating with the destination mail server.
What to do: Check connection to SuperNet, verify e-mail configuration.
5. Connection refused
What it usually means: Problem with the destination mail server.
What to do: Contact administrator of the destination mail server.
Hardware
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is currently a cost effective solution for connecting low speed devices such as a mouse and a keyboard to a computer. With a maximum data transport rate of 12 Mb/sec, it is less suitable for multimedia data such as digital video and audio. Wizard expects both USB and IEEE 1394 to coexist in future computers.
Async mode is similar to many of the existing data transport protocols used today. In its simplest form, data is transmitted and the sender waits for an acknowledgment from the receiver that the data was received properly or not. If the data was received properly, the next data is sent and the process continues. If the data was received improperly or this acknowledgment was never returned, an error has occurred and the sender must either resend the original data or initiate some error recovery process. In actual practice, the sender transmit multiple data and uses a queuing process to keep track of corresponding acknowledgments. Async mode therefore transports data whenever the acknowledgment process is satisfied. Since this timing can not be predicted, the data transport timing is somewhat random; thus its name, asynchronous – non-uniform.
Isoch mode implies uniform in time. A sending device knows it needs to transport a specific number of bits per second (i.e., bandwidth). The sending device first negotiates with the other devices on the bus for this bandwidth. Once granted, that bandwidth belongs to the sending device and no other device can contend for it. The sending device now transmits a packet of data at uniform time intervals filling up its bandwidth allotment. This process is extremely efficient as no bus time is wasted waiting for acknowledgments or contesting requests from other devices for bus time. The receipt of Isoch data is thus guaranteed allowing the receiving device to use the data immediately with minimum buffering – just-in-time data. Isoch mode is really what makes 1394 technology so great!
Async mode is often used for command and control signals (e.g., turn the camera on, go to maximum zoom) as well as communicating with legacy devices that already use this data transport mode. Isoch mode is often used to transport the actual data especially when there is a lot of data to be transported.
We work on digital medias (html5, css3, JS…) and as long time geeks, always trying a lot of new stuff!
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services.
We always start by researching as much as we possibly can.
In its most basic form, research informs you about:
competitors
your client’s industry
audience
goals
relevant design styles
and so on.
Quality of code
Website designers may consider it to be good practice to conform to standards. This is usually done via a description specifying what the element is doing. Failure to conform to standards may not make a website unusable or error prone, but standards can relate to the correct layout of pages for readability as well making sure coded elements are closed appropriately. This includes errors in code, more organized layout for code, and making sure IDs and classes are identified properly. Poorly-coded pages are sometimes colloquially called tag soup. Validating via W3C can only be done when a correct DOCTYPE declaration is made, which is used to highlight errors in code. The system identifies the errors and areas that do not conform to web design standards. This information can then be corrected by the user.
Legible – The code (the code itself, not comments) should clearly state the intent. If the reader can’t make sense of the code, than all other efforts are doomed to frustration if not outright failure.
Testable – The code should be organized in a way that facilitates unit testing. That supports all subsequent efforts (refactoring for modification, correction of defects, revision due to changed specs, etc.)
Flexible – Dependencies, both on other code in the code base and arbitrary implementation choices, should be minimized. Hard-coded assumptions about data size, concrete classes or data structures, etc. make the code more brittle, and therefore harder to reuse or adapt.
Compliant – The code should comply with its requirements, functional and otherwise. (I don’t state this as “correct” because the discussion about whether the requirements themselves were the “right” requirements is about the process or the environment, not about the code.)
Economical – The code should make reasonable use of system resources: memory, CPU, etc. (I don’t state this as “efficient” because that word is too often misused, by limiting it to a single aspect, such as speed. Economy is simply about return on investment, and requires thought about all the resources being invested and all the measures of return.)
Basic Site Map
1. Discovery
- Research
- Concept
- Define
2. Execution
- Iterate
- Code
- Prototype
- Design
3. Quality Assurance
- Validate
- Test
- Launch
- Principles
1. Form and function are better together.
2. Strive for clarity over complexity.
3. Think carefully but move quickly.
4. Constructive conflict makes an idea better.
5. Challenge intuition before you trust it.
6. The difficult decision is often the right one.
Acronyms, Terms, and Definitions of WWW
What is the World Wide Web? Is there a difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? To find answers to these questions and more, we recommend that you start off with the document Introducing the World Wide Web.
- WWW – World Wide Web
- The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a large-scale networked hypertext information system started at CERN in Switzerland, based on the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Often the terms World Wide Web and the Internet are used interchangeably.
They do not, however, mean the same thing.
- HTML – HyperText Markup Language HTML
- is the markup language used to create documents used by the World Wide Web. Web browsers allow users to view html documents in (hopefully) consistent form.
- SGML – Structured General Markup Language
- is a data encoding that allows the information in documents to be shared — either by other document publishing systems or by applications for electronic delivery, configuration management, database management, inventory control, etc.
- A URL – Uniform Resource Locator
- represents the location of the a WWW resource. A URL may point to an HTML file, a GIF image, an MPEG movie, an AU sound file, etc.
- httpd server (web server)
- allows you to create and provide documents to the world, including executing programs based on forms interaction with the user (for example, using the Common Gateway Interface (CGI)).
- Perl – Practical Extraction and Report Language
- has become an extremely popular language for writing CGI programs, due to its suitability for manipulating text, files, and processes. Also, see The Perl Programming Language.
other terms
- browser
- a World Wide Web client–that is, a software package that lets you to look around the World Wide Web
- CERN
- particle physics institute located in Geneva, Switzerland and originators of the World Wide Web
- client
- a computer running client software that connects to server machines running server software; the client makes requests to a server for documents and is responsible for displaying the information. NCSA Mosaic is an example of client software.
- document
- unit of information sent from servers to clients; a document may contain plain or formatted text, inlined graphics, sound, other multimedia data, or hyperlinks to other documents; often also referred to as a file
- external viewer
- a software program that a client calls upon to view file formats it does not support internally
- HTML
- HyperText Markup Language, the collection of styles used to define the various components of a hypertext document
- HTTP
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the protocol used by Web servers
- hyperlink
- a word or graphic in a document with some form of highlighting that links to another document; also called an anchor
- hypermedia
- online information with text, images, audio, and animation associated in a nonlinear web of associations
- inlined image
- a graphic image that is displayed along with text in a document window
- tables
- Internet
- an international computer network connecting universities, research institutions, government agencies, and businesses
- NCSA Mosaic
- Web client developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications; available on X Window System, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows platforms
- server
- a computer running server software that provides information upon request to computers running client software
- tags
- formatting codes used in HTML (e.g., <H1> </H1>, <P>)
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator, server and path information used in an HTML-coded source file to locate another document
Domain Relocation FAQ “I already have a domain name… how can I move it seamlessly to your system – without any downtime?” Moving a domain is a relatively simple process – it just takes a little longer than a new registration. Here are the steps: When you order your account specify that this is a relocation, not a new registration.
We will submit a Domain Registration Agreement Modification Request on your behalf to InterNIC and replace your current DNS Server information with our DNS server info, listed below.
You will need to reply to their request for confirmation FROM THE EMAIL ADDRESS LISTED ON YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRATION IN THE INTERNIC RECORDS. Reply to their request for confirmation with a “Yes” in the correct space – be careful to follow their directions exactly. Also, be sure to have html email turned off when you send the modification template back to Internic – they can’t interpret html email – it MUST be plain ASCII text.
Begin uploading your files to your new account here on our servers, and have your site ready prior to the propagation of your Internic changes.
“What are the addresses for your name servers?”
ns1.rapid-host.net
208.230.48.55
ns2.rapid-host.net
208.230.49.78
“How long does a domain modification request take? ”
Domain name modification requests are taking anywhere from 1-2 weeks.
“Are there any extra charges involved?”
InterNIC doesn’t charge for relocations.