I have moved ...

I have moved my personal website and blog over to:

www.sheilafarrell.com

The new site is built using a hosted version of WordPress on a customised template. I plan to incorporate video, tutorials and any useful training tips I discover on the way relating mainly to web design & development, web marketing, e-commerce, e-learning and Adobe software.

Deprecated Features in Dreamweaver CS4

If you have started to use the new Dreamweaver CS4 beta you might notice some features have been removed. It was announced last August that some features would not be supported in future releases due to low usage and continuing costs of support. As mentioned in the Dreamweaver technote the features to be removed:

• ASP.NET server behaviors and recordsets
• JSP server behaviors and recordsets
• Layout Mode
• Flash Elements
• Flash Buttons and Flash Text
• Site Map
• JavaBeans
• ASP.NET server behavior mechanism
• JSP server behavior mechanism
• Web Services Panel
• Timelines

Dreamweaver CS4 Beta Released

Adobe have released their Beta version of Dreamweaver CS4 which you can download the trial version with discussions available at the Dreamweaver Beta Forums. The Beta version will run alongside your Dreamweaver CS3 application.

NOTE FROM ADOBE
The Dreamweaver beta is available in English only to Dreamweaver CS3 users worldwide. It is available to licensed users of Dreamweaver CS3 (full, upgrade, and education) and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard, Web Premium, or Design Premium (full, upgrade, and education). You will need to provide your Dreamweaver CS3, Creative Suite 3 Web Standard, Web Premium, or Design Premium serial number in order to get a Dreamweaver beta serial number, enabling you to activate the Dreamweaver beta and use it beyond the 2-day grace period.

Free Video Podcasts on HTML and CSS

I have created a series of video podcasts on HTML / XHTML and CSS, with the first part of the series covering Introduction to HTML / XHTML.

To get started we have a lesson on Basic HTML Tags.

Enjoy and let me know if there are any other topics you would like to me add to the series

India's Primary Web Connection is through Mobile

There was an interesting article this weekend in the Economic Times entitled "Indians prefer to surf Net on the go" with 31.30 million users who access the internet through their mobile handsets versus 9.27 million internet subscribers.

They typically use "GSM or CDMA—to read and reply to mails, download content and for online transactions, according to latest figures released by telecom regulator Trai".

For more information read the full article entitled "Indians prefer to surf Net on the go".

Support Andy Mitchell and Ben Wood on the Rickshaw Run

Andy Mitchell and his friend Ben Wood are taking part in the charity Rickshaw Run which set off from Calcutta on 24 June with 22 Teams taking place.

All proceeds will go to Mercy Corps Scotland who work amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds.

You can read about Mitch and Ben's adventure on their travel blog at www.unraveltravel.co.uk and also their Rickshaw Run team page The Whippet Boys. All donations can be made at Ben and Mitch's fundraising page.



Good luck Mitch and Ben, I'm looking forward to reading all about your adventure.

iPhone in the news today ...

I saw this post regarding the new iPhone on "Life Gives You Lemons"
... made me smile ...

Mobile subscriber base to pass 3bn in weeks

Following article by Tim Green of Mobile Entertainment

Mobile subscriber base to pass 3bn in weeks

There will be 3 billion mobile subscribers by July 2007, says The Mobile World.

A new survey by the researcher reveals there were 2.84 billion global mobile subscribers at the end of March 2007, and that the current rate of growth will take the total past 3 billion next month.

This represents an increase of more than 135 million on December 2006, and is equivalent to more than 1,000 new customers every minute. Over 250 million new handsets were sold in the quarter.

It’s the third strongest quarter in the industry’s history. The Mobile World now predicts global penetration will hit 50 per cent by the end of the year. Penetration in Europe now exceeds 100 per cent, with 666 million connections.

John Tysoe, principal analyst at The Mobile World, said: “It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion. The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on. By the end of the year, the global mobile base will exceed 3.25bn connections, or over half the world’s population. With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real.”

An Introduction to Screen Magnification Software

Continuing the series, Karo Caran has produced a video entitled "An Introduction to Screen Magnification Software"

Karo Caran takes you on a tour of screen magnification software -- tools used by partially sighted users to enhance their experience of screen-based user interfaces. Karo shows you the basic toolkit and then applies those tools to some typical web sites to give you some perspective on how she uses magnification software while she browses the web.

Video duration is 16:29

Introduction to Screen Readers

Victor Tsaran has produced a video entitled "An Introduction to Screen Readers"

Victor Tsaran is an accessibility engineer at Yahoo! who focuses on developing best practices for the creation of websites that work well with screen readers. In this video, he provides an introduction to some of the things that work well in the world of screen readers and others that fare more poorly.

Video duration is 27:23