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Building your own website can be easy or complicated depending on which route you want to take. You can either make the website yourself or have somebody else do it for you.

Having somebody else design and develop the website for you would be the more logical choice if you don’t have the experience in web design. But if you want to get your hands dirty and learn something new along the way you might consider building the website by yourself.

If you decide to build the site yourself, you will need a graphics editor, a WYSIWYG HTML editor for more straightforward editing or a text editor if you only want to do some hardcore coding, a webhost where you upload your files and host your site and a lot of time to tinker with your website.

If you want to cut down on development time, you might want to consider using website templates.
Templates are for people who don’t want to spend big money on designers and don’t have a lot of time to spend designing their own Web site. Templates are for people who just want to select a great design, drop their content and text in and be done with it.

You can grab some free website templates all over the net. But if you are looking for high quality website templates you mind need to shell out a couple of dollars.

There are a lot of websites selling templates online. One of the few offering high quality website templates is Dreamtemplate.com. They currently have a subscription promo where they offer over 300 free templates and access to thousands for just $59.95 and the subscription is valid for one whole year! If you compute the price per template… it would turn out to be 6 U$ cents per template. That definitely is a great deal if you ask me.

Here are some reason to choose Dreamtemplate.com:

• Build as many sites as you want
• The freedom to use your templates for personal or corporate sites
• Lifetime access to your design
• Unlimited use of your template(s)
• Unique Design Concepts
• High Quality Graphics
• Photoshop PSD Files Included in Zips
• Optimized Images.

And that is not all. You also get access to over 50+ Brochure, PDF & InDesign Templates, 1000+ Royalty Free Stock Web Icons/Vectors and 160+ Joomla, WordPress Themes & oSCommerce Skins! How is that for a great deal?

In this day and age of technology and the internet it is but common sense that if your business is not in the internet it simply shows that you are not in business. Having your business accessible in the internet can simply begin with setting up a website.

But nowadays just about anybody can make their own websites. So you will need to set your self apart from the rest especially if your competitors also have an online presence. As such there is not better way than having an innovatively designed website that is functional, accessible, engaging and informative.

One of the many companies that can do all that for you is PrimeView. They are a 12 year old Arizona website design company that has worked with startups to fortune 500 clients, such as Nissan, National Car Rental and University of Phoenix.

PrimeView focuses on building compelling and innovative websites that convert viewers to customers.

PrimeView does that by integrating website design with Search Engine Marketing to create highly successful websites that rank well for their business key words such as “Arizona SEO”.

You can find more information about PrimeView by going to Google and search for “Arizona web site design”. Do check out their cool before and after gallery to see some of their work.

Gombos Atila, 28 years old who has been in the art and advertising industry for more than eight years now, runs the new Stylish blog which is basically a programming design blog that also tackles webdesign, money and life. Together with his team of seasoned writers they share their insights in the world of art, culture and design.

The group has categorized their posts into Finance, Personal, Programming, Technology, Tools and Video.

You can find some invaluable tech tips and tricks from the blog such as knowing the things to check before calling your dedicated support professional, get to know more about capacity planning, how to properly setup and control user accounts, and even get some first hand info on what goes on in the spyware community.

At the time of this writing, there are currently 36 posts on the site but the numbers should continually increase easily in the days to come. The site is powered by wordpress and the pages load quickly. The site is also easy to navigate and the content is easy to read. I’d say it is pretty much a user friendly site.

The stylish blog has been online just this January of 2008 but it is already notable that the blog already has a Google Page Rank of 5! Wow! The stylish blog is definitely in the right track.

Drop by stylishwebdesign.us and check out what they have to say about web design, money and life.

You’re invited to a Google webinar

Google’s Universal Search for High Tech Companies

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
1:00PM EST / 10:00AM PST

Why is it that you can find the “number of steps in the Statue of Liberty” in under a second, and yet, you have to waste so much time finding that specific product requirement document?

With Google’s universal search for business, you can find all information within your company instantly through a single search box, increasing the productivity of all your employees.

Key benefits of universal search:

• All content, one search box - Search file shares, databases, intranets, content management systems, and real-time business data
• Increase pace of innovation - Save precious time for your engineers, so they can innovate faster
• Manage global collaboration - Securely share information across remote offices or even with partners and suppliers globally

Attend the webinar and get:

• Free whitepaper entitled “Universal Search in High Tech Organizations”

Attend this webinar and hear:

• Business uses of search within high tech companies
• Overview of universal search
• Customer case studies
• Live Q&A session answering all your technical questions

Register for the Google webinar.

VTC and FileMaker invite you to avail of their promotional offer to get FREE 30 days unlimited access to all IT trainings available in the VTC library.

A regular VTC subscription will set you back around US$30 a month, or US$250 for a year. But you can get avail of a whole month of free access simply by entering the promo code “fmfr33trial” (case sensitive without the quotes).

http://www.vtc.com/promos/filemaker/signup.php

Enjoy!

Matt just posted a sneak peak on how WP 2.5 looks like.

If you are brave enough, you could download a copy of the Release Candidate  1 version of WordPress 2.5.

The Philippine SQL Server Users Group (PHISSUG) will be holding their first chat for this year:

Forget SQL, Meet ORM

Date:   June 7 2007, 08:00GMT
Target Audience: SQL Developers

Abstract: If you have been writing SQL via stored procedures all your life, this new approach could cost you your decades old investment. Are you ready to throw away your SPs and embrace ORM?

The chat will be based on threaded discussion format on the PHISSUG forum.

Join the chat at:

http://phissug.org/cs/forums/thread/1275.aspx

Alpha Five Version 8 is a Rapid Application Development tool that drastically cuts development time for your web database projects.

Deliver projects faster than you thought possible. Add the features you thought you wouldn’t have time for.

The key is the point-and-click component builders and security framework that automatically write code for you. Also includes the powerful Xbasic programming language and full featured report writer. Works with any SQL backend database. Applications can be transported across different backends thanks to Portable SQL.

Alpha Five is the winner of CRN Best Database Development Tool, PC Magazine Editors’ Choice, and ZDNet “Perfect 10″ rating.

Download a Fully Licensed Copy of Alpha Five v8 for FREE! (limited time only)

You shouldn’t miss out on this amazing deal if you are a developer for the Microsoft platform or an administrator/engineer managing Microsoft-based systems.

Price indicated covers for the shipping charges only and it already covers for international shipping! This definitely is the next best thing to getting it for FREE

MSDN Magazine 2006 Archive on DVD

2000-2006 content archive — including all articles plus source code — all on one DVD for the price shipping & handling to any destination, worldwide!
PRICE: $9.95

TechNet Magazine 2006 Archive on CD

All 2005-2006 content, starting with the Premiere Issue, all on one CD, all for the price of shipping & handling alone!
PRICE: $9.95

Launch 2005 DVD: Best of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005

Extensive multi-media collection including exclusive webcasts, updated articles and source code, links to the most useful online information, plus never-before-published John Robbins’ Team System article. Price includes worldwide delivery.
PRICE: $19.95

You have to hurry though as this offer expires July 31, 2007.

Microsoft Philippines’ TechFest 2006 is devoted to the two flagship products about to be launched early next year. Take another look at key features of the upcoming Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System and have a glimpse of the new Exchange Server 2007, Office Sharepoint Portal Server 2007, Office Groove 2007, and a sneak peek at the upcoming Windows Server codename “Longhorn”.

The event will also tackle infrastructure security and explore the world of Windows Mobile and how it efficiently collaborates with Exchange Server, 2007 Office, and Windows Vista.

WHEN: December 5, 2006
TIME: 8:30am - 5:00pm
VENUE: Rizal Ballroom, The Makati Shangri-La

To register, please log into our Events Registration System, MS EVENTS at:
http://msevents.ph/Event.aspx?EventID=8C8D780823E1B6E
If you do not have an MS EVENTS account, you can easily create one on the site itself.

More details about the event:

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DigitalFilipino.com’s Philippine Software Process Improvement Network (http://www.cmmiphilippines.com) will be having its 1st annual Lessons Learned in Software Process Improvement (SPI) Forum this

November 17, 2006
1:15 pm to 5:00 pm
Microsoft Philippines
16th floor, 6750
Ayala Avenue, Makati City
(beside Makati Shangri-la Hotel)

Our sincerest thanks to Microsoft Philippines for supporting this event.

This gathering is exclusive to PH-SPIN individual and corporate members only and are requested to confirm attendance for food count purposes. DigitalFilipino.com Club members are welcome to attend as well.

Agenda shall be as follows:

• 12:00 - 1:15 registration
• 1:15 - 1:30 Welcome to PH-SPIN
• 1:30 - 2:00 Lessons learned in SPI using the Microsoft Solutions Framework (Microsoft Philippines)
• 2:00 - 2:30 Lessons learned in Process Documentation: Business Process Management perspective (Carlo Doran, Core Synergy Inc.)
• 2:30 - 3:00 Lessons learned in Software Requirements Management and Development (Olive Garcia, Isuzu Alabang)
• 3:00 - 3:30 Lessons learned in Software Project Management (Jan Pabellon, Ecommsite)
  3:30 - 4:00 Lessons learned in Software Coding and Integration (Rodney Jao, Lane Systems)
• 4:00 - 4:30 Lessons learned in Software Quality Assurance
• 4:30 - 5:00 Lessons learned in Software Metrics

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as a member prior to November 17 and confirm attendance for food count purposes.

Microsoft Philippines offers another MSDN Connection member only event for you. This Thursday, they will be discussing the Visual Studio Team System. Here you’ll learn how take advantage of this system in making collaboration in a team project as headache free as possible.

As a bonus, they will also have a security session, as part of their campaign to make developers put priority into security.

Slots are limited so please register as soon as you are sure you will be able to go. 

About Visual Studio Team System and Agile Development

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Yes you’ve got that right! You can be a Microsoft Certified Professional for free!

The guys over at Microsoft Philippines have launched yet another great certification promo for all the techies out there but this time they focused more on the developers.

Microsoft Philippines through their MSDN Connection program will be raffling off a total of 56 Microsoft exam vouchers this March. 14 Vouchers will be raffled off every draw date for four draw dates.

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Following Microsoft’s recent initiative in releasing SQL Server 2005 Express, a free version of their SQL Server 2005 Server Family, Oracle also releases their first free version which they call Oracle 10g XE short for Express Edition. Just like Micorosoft SQL Server Express, Oracle’s 10g XE is free to develop, free to deploy and free to distribute.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base. It is a great fit for developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, database, html, and open-source applications.

With Oracle Database XE, you can:

• Gain practical, resume-building experience working with the world’s number one database
• Get easy access to the Oracle Database on your machine for course work
• Share your work with your colleagues, instructors, and classmates

Once you have installed Oracle Database XE, learn the latest tips, tricks, and techniques by registering for the free Oracle Database XE Discussion Forum, hosted by Oracle Database master Tom Kyte.

Grab a copy of Oracle 10g XE

This month, SQL Server Standard magazine takes an in-depth look at T-SQL in SQL Server 2005 with two examinations of the CLR architecture in 2005 and why this is a good enhancement. Also examined is the OUTPUT clause and how it aids in auditing, larger data type support, NULLS, and the performance of the PIVOT operator.
SQL Server Standard is a technical journal for the SQLServerCentral.com and PASS communities.

This is the March/April 2006 Issue containing 36 pages.

Grab a free copy of SQL Server Standard March/April 2006 Issue [PDF]