Development : Howe Innovative Design

October 21, 2016

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Massive Internet Outage

Whoa.
Twitter.
Amazon.
Spotify.

All down. Following a DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service making access to sites hosted by Dyn a Domain Name System (DNS) provider inaccessible. Including all websites on the Squarespace and Wix.com systems. I’m going to pretend for just a minute that isn’t incredibly gratifying as a web developer. That those crappy do-it-yourself, saturate the airwaves with advertising providers don’t offer secure services… That’s a different blog.

Ok. But what does this mean?

We don’t use Dyn for our DNS (domain names).

No Howe Innovative Design clients are affected or effected by this attack.

It’s mostly East Coast sites that are down.

Deep breaths…

A DDoS attack is exactly what it sounds like. A bot has been programmed by a group of hackers (or possibly an individual, it’s not clear yet) to disrupt the system that indexes sites. A Domain Name System or DNS, takes complex Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) converting them to the domain name. Step One: open a search engine. For example, Google or Bing (we won’t make fun of you for using Bing). Then enter, “Kick ass web marketing, development and photography for cheap” you’ll ideally get “Howe Innovative Design.” Returning results in text: Howe Innovative Design with some meta tag and/or indexed content from the site.

May 5, 2015

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Help!!! Pornographers Hijacked My Website!

Worst case scenario for a business website. If you think a professional web developer is expensive, imagine the cost of a complete rebrand and name change of your business.

Among my favorites Portland restaurants is a white linen table cloth, yet affordable Indian restaurant in the stylish, bustling Northwest Neighborhood on 23^rd Avenue. After several meals at this restaurant, I left two 5 star review on Trip Advisor, Google Reviews, and checked in on Facebook, not a common practice for me.

This was different. This was great food, in an otherwise empty place. I made it a point to sit near the window, visibly reveling in my meal to lure in passers-by.

A month later, I noticed a Grand Opening banner covering the very nice, presumably expensive lit sign on the front of the building. It had a new name on it.

January 4, 2015

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Lessons I’ve Learned: Business Edition

I knew something was wrong when I was excited, neigh elated to have coffee to talk about a leads and referrals group in Vancouver, Washington. You see, I’m a busy business owner that’s in business all day, every day. Doing business, talking business, selling services….

July 18, 2014

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Evil Spam Bot Ruins Analytics

I was checking my Google Analytics numbers. I noticed a very high bounce rate and a ton of visits from seamalt.seamalt.com. I have no idea who that is or why they are visiting my site 38 times a day. I turned to Google for answers. Turns out an evil bot is probing my site and not even buying us dinner.

Seamalt is an Ukranian SEO company with an obnoxious search bot, pinging sites, blowing up analytics and ruining your analytics data to try to drum up customers. It’s spammy, it’s gross, it targets WordPress sites and I want it out of my numbers. You should too. If you want to get rid of Seamalt you have several options. I will be doing this for all of my current and future clients.

To Remove Seamalt:

February 25, 2014

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5 Simple Steps to Create Your Web Marketing Strategy

Create Your Web Marketing Strategy in 5 Simple Steps

There are several questions you should ask when creating and/or updating your website. Answering these 5 questions will allow you to strategize exactly what you want your website to do (it’s functionality) and say (its content).

January 22, 2014

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Olympia – A Techies Trial

I packed a Penske with everything we owned and headed North. Relocating to Olympia, WA from Salt Lake City, Utah.

I noted a severe lack of quality web developers and web marketing in Thurston County. Seriously, it’s dismal. There are exactly 2 firms in town with portfolios worth a damn. Of those, neither perform content driven design or offer any content or substantive marketing services at all.

My ambition and gusto coupled with the proceeds of a house sale propelled me to talk with anyone and everyone in Olympia, Tumwater and Lacey, all adjacent cities, about any and all web related topics. I attended Social Media Club Meetings in Seattle and Portland and several other exciting new gathering emphasizing collectivism in technology.

My excitement grew, as did my newly designed website. At last, my years of experience, all those non-billable hours spent learning, studying, coding and mingling with anti-social webbies- I had arrived.

June 11, 2013

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Woman In Technology-Sausage Fest No More

Overwhelmed with men, yet thoroughly unmanly-technology is the best place for women, mothers, wives and teachers.

One of the many advantages of attending technology conferences as a woman; no lines at the bathroom. There’s more sausage than Oktoberfest in Frankfurt at any given technology event. As a woman, I’ve been snickered at when discussing new code I’m developing or a new framework I’m experimenting with. I comfort myself knowing many of these “men” have loving relationships only with two dimensional women of cyber porn and gaming, although saying so will not make you popular or superior.

June 3, 2013

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Website Trends: Retina Ready. Are You?

Is your website “retina ready?”

If the answers is “No,” or “What is retina ready?” We should talk.

At very least, you should read on.

Retina displays are essentially high definition (HD) on tablets, mobile phones and newer monitors. This means your less than one year old site, looks fuzzy and distorted to a good portion of your visitors. Browsers handle the increased resolution no problem. If your awesome one or two year old site isn’t retina ready, it will look fuzzy or distorted. Not sure what that means? Zoom in and look at your site at 200%. How’s it look, is it pixelated?

February 27, 2013

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Eulogy for the “One & Done”

Web design is dying.

Web development is gasping for air.

The days of one (wo)man shows of websites are gone.
Sure, there’s the *eh hem* “budget conscious” clients that want piecework for a song. Cheap, easy sites, usually in WordPress or Drupal that some intern or staff member can maintain with ease and a weak password. I’ve got these clients. They are some of my favorites.

September 30, 2012

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