Category Archives: Websites

3 Reasons why CSS frameworks are awesome

I’ve posted about Bootstrap sometime before but have I told you that it’s not just Bootstrap? There are a bunch more and it’s really great that these have been made because it has made coding more faster than ever.

Gone are the days we’d like to code from scratch (sure, that’s great too but when you’re in a hurry – it isn’t advisable!) And here are more reasons why usage of CSS frameworks would make your life happier.

1. Some also have included jquery libraries and effects – In Bootstrap you can already have a set of javascript and jquery to use for menus, navigations or pop-ups. You can also customize them as you like.

2. You’ll code 50% faster especially once you’ve got the hang of it – classes and ids of different sizes are already prepared for you, all you’d need to do then is to add your classes or div ids with your own styles, you can always overwrite the existing ones as well.

3.  Most CSS frameworks are responsive – Everyday, there’s a new smartphone gadget owner – more are depending on their mobile phones for browsing websites which makes it a must to have a responsive website, so if you don’t want to spend too much time on working hard to create a responsive template, css frameworks make that easier for you with a bit of tweaks you might know :)

There are many more reasons to love css frameworks but always remember that when you know and use these css frameworks, you shouldn’t forget about the fundamentals of html and css you know because in the end they are still the most important!

Review: Zyma Hosting

It’s a new year, so it’s time for a new review for my trusted hosting companies and yep you read it right – I’m doing one today for Zyma Hosting. For the record, they’re one of the hosting companies I’ve been with for about 2 years or more (but on different hosting accounts)

Zyma Hosting

Zyma Hosting

About the company

Zyma.com launched in 2010 is quickly becoming the No.1 choice for web hosting services on the internet. Our multi-award winning web hosting package offers the most attractive and comprehensive features for one the best prices on the internet.

Okay, I copied that – truthfully but I dug up my emails and saw that I first had my hosting account from Zyma Hosting way back January 2011. So meaning to say, I’ve been with them 2 years indeed. It was that time that I was very problematic with one of my hosts. I can’t remember where but I’ve probably read about them somewhere Web Hosting Talk then I signed up after hours of research in the said forum (or I maybe confused where I heard about them) but needless to say – would you believe after my purchase I also won a hosting account with their contest! (Giving me a couple of accounts! That was on different servers)

I was hosting back then a minor website, then after some time I decided to host a few major websites. Some time my second year, there were a once or a couple of downtime with their server. I was pretty nervous because they weren’t updating us, but later found out they were working hard on bringing up our websites. Fortunately I had back-ups so I had to move away some of my sites from there – but wait, there’s more!

Ever since that said down time, I must say they’ve improved because honestly - Zyma Hosting is one of the most stable host I’ve been with. And I guess I trusted my hunch the first time I signed up with them. If you would observe, they have a very professional website layout. It’s not just what you see from the home page as well because they also have a customized client area which makes handling accounts seamlessly.

Then come again, I won another hosting account with another of their contest, I also signed up another hosting account for a shop I was supposed to build up. I kept track of my websites using Uptime Robot and among all my sites under Zyma Hosting were always up about 95-100%.

And now, my accounts are to expire this May but I’m thinking of renewing or getting a new account because what I like about Zyma Hosting is the stability or uptime. But here, I decided to make a rating for most of the important points!

Customer Service

Their customer service is superb, whenever I have a question it gets a decent answers and they answer within 24 hours. However, if you are pretty impatient you’ll probably get nowhere. I liked their live chat! I remember asking them a few questions and it was answered right away. So, I give their customer service 8/10 (just had to minus a bit because of the mishap from before, but all is  good now!)

Uptime Stability

I wish I could give it a 10/10, but I’ll have to give a 9/10. There’s no such thing  as 100% uptime after all and all websites can go down from time to time. But based on my experience with them I think there were only a couple of downtimes and that’s for my 2 years with them. Imagine that!

Limitations and Features of Account

As usual of hosting companies, you are given a cPanel to use with ease and so much more. Their cPanel also has many features and premium softwares compared to others so it’s a thumbs up for me especially when I tried to use Cloudflare! So, that’s thumbs up! My concern with their service however is that add-on for websites is a bit limited. At current, they only let you have 3 add-on domains. But you know, this is also a precaution because some users tend to use up too much of what they have causing abuse to the server. I totally understand this, there’s no such thing as unlimited in this world and limited is better because it gives you better performance. I know this as a hosting reseller myself :)

Another of my concern is with the usage of nameservers. From a friend, I heard her account got suspended because she was not using the nameservers as Zyma Hosting had given. They have this strict rule that you need to use given nameservers for your domain. Now, I don’t know why that is really but there are some people who like using their personal nameservers too so that may conflict if you’re one of those and if you’re hosting your domain on a different server while hosting others with your account with them. Needless to say, it really isn’t much of a deal. Overall, I’ll give them another  8/10 for this.

Pricing

Pricing for the first year of a shared hosting account is 4.95 GBP or 8 USD or so.For the uptime they have, I really wouldn’t complain for that and for the features you can get with an account with them. However, on the second year I feel it’s a bit pricey. I always end up signing up for a new account whenever I’m having second thoughts with renewing with them – which usually happens every time I win a hosting account (which I hope I can do again maybe)

Website Interface/Website Management

I add this to let you know how unique their website is made. They have a customized client area as well as a ticket area which isn’t your typical WHMCS. Not really sure what they use but it’s one of the reasons I find them appealing, even their live chat service. And they also have a friendly live chat representative and website interface. 9/10 is my rating for this!

Payment Modes

You can pay with Paypal, the most convenient and also other payment gateways which is really hassle-free. So that’s 10/10!

 

Up to this point, whenever someone asks me of a good shared hosting company I always mention Zyma. It’s only a shame I never got to tell them to add up my email to get referrals (I probably have made about 4-5 friends sign up but I don’t tell them to put my email) that could have been months of extension with great Zyma Hosting :)

Zyma Hosting also throws fun contests via their twitter which can even win you hosting accounts! I’ve won twice now so there’s no doubt how interactive they are as well with their customers. Their twitter account even tweet tips for web development and web design which I usually read as well.

 

Overall, to me their uptime is great and you’ll be hassle free. Just remember to make your own back-ups anyway since that’s still important whether your host is awesome like Zyma or something else! I hope this helps!

Using Google Drive with Mac

Cloud Services are sprouting from here and there – which one will you choose? They’re definitely helpful in accessing files and getting storage space. One of the services you might want to try is Google Drive by Google!

Google Drive lets you have free 5 gigabytes of space. It might sound too small for some but it’s definitely hefty for someone who just needs some space for documents, and some use it for accessing files in different computers.

It is available for download in Mac and Windows. You can also access it anytime through your favourite browser. All you need is a Gmail account as usual. It is simply just another awesome Google services!

If you opt to not connect your Google Drive account to your Mac though, you can always disconnect it through clicking its icon on the task bar, clicking on Preferences afterwards and there you go!

Disconnecting Google Drive from Mac

Disconnecting Google Drive from Mac

I decided to share that because I tried to change my Google Drive account connected. It’s simply useful especially to those people who transfer to different computers and might need their files. You can always upgrade if you need more space and there’s Dropbox too and Box!

New Photobucket and more

I don’t know if you’re aware but I wasn’t very much. Today though I found out that I was chosen to try out the beta of the new Photobucket interface.

New Photobucket and More

New Photobucket and More

It seems more slick and everyone loves “new looks” after all. However after a bit of going around I decided to switch back to the old version because for one, I can’t seem to find the “Upload from URL” feature plus copying direct links takes a click or two (which is really a hassle if you’d compare it with the old one.) I hope they could improve on that though. What can you say about the new Photobucket so far? Have you tried it already?

Twitter was down for a moment.

July 27, 201112:58-12:59 am – Twitter was down for a few minutes eh? Not my first time to see it but it’s been awhile since their recent downtime. I guess this shows that no websites can truly be up 24/7, 100%. Downtime is normal after all. Just awhile ago, even this site’s main host also had some rough time. But we’re back up.

Seeing that it’s so rare for such even I made sure I get a print screen of how twitter looks like midst its downtime.

 

Twitter is down 12:58 am to 12:59 am (Philippine time) July 27, 2012

Twitter is down 12:58 am to 12:59 am (Philippine time) July 27, 2012