Inland Pacific Consulting
VisitUsAt.com (dba Inland Pacific Consulting) is a development and hosting company serving the on-line demands of today's business. You will find us large enough to offer and support the latest technology, yet small enough for you to talk to.
We are here to answer the questions that will enable you to establish your business on the Internet and to collaborate with employees and clients in the easiest and most cost effective manner. If you are considering implementing the latest Microsoft collaboration tools; or simply looking for a new, more reliable hosting solution and collaboration service provider, VisitUsAt.com can help.
If you have any questions regarding collaboration services, web hosting, design or domain name services, please call 1-800-593-0234 toll free.
Category Archives: General
Small Sites for Big Holiday Shopping
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Wooden iPad 2 Cover Can Be Smart, Too
If you’re updating to the iPad 2, this cover might be something you want to consider.
While the iPad 2 isn’t a revolutionary device compared to its predecessor, one special accessory did bring that extra dash of glamour that usually adorns Apple’s product announcements: the magnet-friendly, self-adjusting Smart Cover.Now, the Holland-based company Miniot has revealed a wooden cover that works on the same principle: Magnets help it align with the iPad’s screen, and it rolls up into a a cylinder that can be used to prop up the device for easier typing or for watching a movie.Despite being made of wood, which gives it a high-end look that will appeal to a lot of users (Apple’s Smart Cover is available in polyurethane and leather, with a price of $39 and $69, respectively), the Miniot Cover has quite a reasonable price: €50 or $71.Check out the video of the Miniot Cover in action, and let us know in the comments how you like the idea!...
Posted in General, Mobile
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The Ultimate 20 Usability Tips for Your Website
Usability is ridiculously important to your website. It doesn’t matter how cool your website looks or how amazing your content is if visitors can’t quickly, easily, and enjoyably access and use it. Many of them will eventually just give up and look elsewhere.
So how do you make your website as usable as possible? Well, you’re in luck, because this article features 20 usability tips for your website. Technology will always change, thus changing the usability tips. So make sure you share your own tips and tricks with the rest of us.
1. Structure your website design around update frequency
If you’ll post new content less often, have a more static and feature-focused design. If you’ll post more often, go for a blog-style design.
2. Put the logo in the top-left, menu to the right or below
The reason for these? Accepted conventions – it’s what most web users expect
Place your logo in the top-left, and put the menu either to the right of or below it – and make sure the logo is clickable and takes the visitor back to your home page. The reason for these? Accepted conventions – it’s what most web users expect, so there’s no need to get creative deciding where to place the steering wheel in your car design, so to speak.
3. Have the search in the upper left or right
Include the search bar in the upper left or right (if applicable of course ie. you have enough content to warrant search). Also, include the word “Search” in-form so people know what that type-able bar is for.
4. Make your contact info or form easy to find
Either have the contact info or form as separate page with a dedicated link in the menu or footer, or include the contact info in the sidebar or footer.
Posted in General, Tips, Web Design
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Scheduled Server Maintenance
We will be performing updates and maintenance on servers between Wednesday January 26, 2011 and Friday January 30, 2011. Some websites and some SharePoint sites may be unavailable for short periods during this time frame. We will try to perform the majority of updates that could possible result in any downtime after business hours and on the weekend. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Global spam e-mail levels suddenly fall
The amount of junk e-mail being sent across the globe has seen a dramatic fall in recent months.The volume of spam has dropped steadily since August, but the Christmas period saw a precipitous decline.One security firm detected around 200 billion spam messages being sent each day in August, but just 50 billion in December.While the reasons for the decline are not fully understood, spam watchers warn the lull may not last.Around the Christmas holidays, three of the largest spam producers curtailed their activity, Paul Wood, a senior analyst at Symantec Hosted Services told BBC News.”But its hard to say why,” he added.
Read More via BBC News – Global spam e-mail levels suddenly fall.
50 Great Web Alternatives to Desktop Software
Looking for alternatives to desktop applications? Check out this link. (Also good for devices with smaller or limited hard drive space, like net books.)
http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/50-great-web-alternatives-to-desktop-software/
20 Worst Web Design and Development Trends
Web design trends come and go, some stay around too long and there are a few that probably should have never existed. Many of the trends below could and can still be found on a variety of sites including personal sites, business sites and yes even web designer portfolio sites. Some of the worst trends are graphical ones such as the use of horrible GIF animations, intro pages and under construction graphics. Read more here 20 Worst Web Design and Development Trends.
The Gradual Disappearance Of Flash Websites – Smashing Magazine
Image via Wikipedia
Flash is a proprietary product that sits on top of the browser to extend functionality. While Flash may have provided missing functionality for some time, it brings little value to modern browsers. As more and more designers and developers realize the benefits of Web standards and start using some of the features of HTML5 and CSS3, we’ll see fewer Flash-driven websites.
Read the full article here: The Gradual Disappearance Of Flash Websites – Smashing Magazine.
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2010 The Year of the Scanner
Image via Wikipedia
Well, perhaps I’m a bit behind the times, but I have finally decided to go totally paperless. No more filing cabinets! I’m not sure if the impetus for this decision was that I needed the space or the fact that almost all of my vendors have been pushing hard for me to go paperless. But it makes absolute sense. Bills, Bank Statements, Tax filings (most of these are already filed on line anyway these days), business cards—basically everything that used to go into a file folder will now be filed on my computer and backed up to DVDs. My electronic filing cabinet of choice is going to be Microsoft OneNote, a program I have used for several years and really like. I think the reason I like OneNote as much as I do is that it works a lot like the manual filing system I’ve used for my entire business life, so the transition was easy.
A huge advantage with OneNote is that it has the ability to read and file everything, even graphic images with text; so finding something that might have gotten inadvertently misfiled is a breeze, and a task that would probably be impossible in a manual filing system.
Deciding how/where to file business cards has been an ongoing puzzle for me. Add them to Outlook? my email list? put them in a Rolodex? put them in plastic pages designed to display them and keep them in a notebook? Each had its problems: Business cards for casual contacts in Outlook just made finding the names of current and active contacts difficult; this being compounded now that I have also decided to synchronize everything with my new Droid SmartPhone (another change for 2010). Putting them in the mailing list is a good idea, except that it’s not so easy to access them for anything other than a mass mailing. The Rolodex is just archaic, though I understand there are now ‘virtual’ Rolodex solutions for the computer. Keeping business cards in those plastic pockets that are then stored in a notebook gave me an attractive and colorful scrap-book to browse through, but you could never find a contact number if you needed one.
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Tagged Add new tag, Filing, LinkedIN, Office Procedures, Organizing
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George Carlin on aging!
Enjoy the ride. There is no return ticket. 
George Carlin on aging!
George Carlin’s Views on Aging
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
‘How old are you?’ ‘ I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.
You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m gonna be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before y ou know it, you REACH 50, and your dreams are gone…
But! wait!! ! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50, and make it to 60.
You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that, it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80′s, and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was JUST 92.’