[dba-Tech] Question(s) about web-site design and development

[Jim Lawrence]

It should be noted that the website linked is not a Wordpress site. The original site was taken down after all the prose and pictures had been gathered and used because there was a potential of it getting hacked. (some bright young lad did manage to hack the built-in email service but fortunately, it was caught and fixed.)

It should also be noted that the WP, along with all the other CRM pre-structured websites, at least five years ago, had a flaw that made them easily hackable via the SQL Injection hack. Since then the code on most of these packages, Drupal, Joomla, DNN, etc, etc has been updated so such an easy hack is not longer possible. (Instead of ten minutes to hack in, it now takes twenty minutes. ;-) ...if you want to fix this, fix it at the DB end, use only SPs, where possible and vet every external code request. ) 

Aside: Most reputable hosting sites have each individual website enclosed in a KVM, Xen and other hypervisors type products, on the servers so none of the other clients can get impacted. Most people have used VMWare and Virtualbox but these applications are too fat to be economically run on a server with more than ten people. As for the history of these type products...the first implementation was in the 70's and used on VAXs and IBM mainframes, which became UNIX and then Linux and finally around ten years ago Microsoft took a version of Open Suse Linux and made a Hyper-V server specifically designed for Windows Applications so I think everyone now has those capabilities. Note: Containers (around 2000) are just the latest variations to KVM and there will be a Microsoft version as soon as Satya Nadella gets his way (with the help of Canonical and Redhat).

Sorry for rambling but I had just finished doing some in-depth reading and casual coding with these products. I plan to be fully up to speed in about ten years. ;-)

Jim   

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocky Smolin" <rockysmolin at bchacc.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 3:24:27 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Question(s) about web-site design and development

Classy looking site.  Proving it takes more than tech talent to make a nice
site.  In fact, that's probably less important than to have an eye for
design.

r

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-Tech [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Jim Lawrence
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 2:29 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Question(s) about web-site design and development

If my wife (the epitome of a non-technical person), with a little help, can
put together a Wordpress website, that allowed her to gather all the
material, from all over the world, for her first book then anyone can use
WP. (http://mirandalawrence.com/indexbook.html)

As for animation two Open Source animation products are available for
personal use. RenderMan, from Pixar and Blender, designed by a non-profit
company out of Europe. Knowing how to use the products is just the
start...as reaching a professional level will take years. Some of the best
artists in the world work for the entertainment business. My daughter has
been working on a relatively small series, for Pixar called Dinotrux (kids
shows) for the last couple of years and now she is personally responsible
for two or three of the characters...very hard work.

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Fuller" gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 8:17:43 AM
Subject: [dba-Tech] Question(s) about web-site design and development

As Homer Simpson once said, "There are no stupid questions, only stupid
people."

I confess I know next to nothing about either discipline mentioned in the
subject, but I've been wondering about the design of numerous sites
(ArsTechnica, NYRB, NYTimes, there's a long list) whose basic mode of
presentation is analogous to the design of a newspaper: top-of-the-fold
headline(s), a paragraph beneath each, and a link that takes you to the rest
of the story.

It's obvious they use a template of some sort. In some cases, the
story-boxes are always the same size, and in other cases the size varies.
Either way, I'm guessing there are tools to do this (WordPress seems
popular), but what's the actual process? Do you start off with an entire
article, snip the first paragraph and paste it into the Front Page? But then
how do you add the link at the bottom of the story lead? Or maybe it's the
other way around?

Given the rapidity of change in such sites, I have to imagine that various
tools are available with which to control the flow of a story from lead to
body. I can't believe that people have to do this by hand, but also can't
imagine how these tools might work.

(Not that it's relevant to my immediate question, other than to illustrate
my ignorance in many branches of computing, but I haven't the faintest clue
how the software behind LucasFilm etc. works: more specifically, how do they
make the images of Sigourney Weaver in Avatar?  I can't even imagine how to
use such software, let alone how to write it.)

--
Arthur
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