The article is all about the first website ever created on the World Wide Web—you know, that thing that everybody has been using constantly—and how the company that originally made the site is going to put it back up on the internet. To preserve it, like an interactive museum piece.

It blew my mind. The reason it did was simple: it’s been twenty years? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say only twenty years or already twenty years, but twenty years seems like a pretty important milestone. That means I was eight when they created this site, way far back in 1993. I was probably watching Jurassic Park the first time it was in theaters. I then remembered growing up with Apple back when they were Macintosh’s, not Macs, and Windows 95 and AOL were running on almost everybody’s Gateway or Compaq. Way before the whirlwind of eBay, Amazon, and the world as you know it now, that came crashing through your door with unlimited connectivity.

But enough about my wistful youth. The article goes on to explain that twenty years ago, the first website was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Berners-Lee worked for CERN, which is the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. He originally created it to share documents amongst his colleagues around the world, and was little more than text with hyperlinks, the building block of the internet that we use without a moment’s thought today.

Yet the most astounding part was still to follow: CERN gave it away. They gave away the World Wide Web. After developing the idea for a few years, they realized the power of it, and they let it go. They totally signed it off as public domain. It was the world’s treasure to embrace or destroy (which they weren’t liable for), as they describe very vehemently in their release found here.

So, twenty years later, they want to kick-start the first site back into existence, to preserve it for the generations of internet users to come. The project itself states that:

This project aims to preserve some of the digital assets that are associated with the birth of the web.

For a start, we would like to restore the first URL—put back the files that were there at their earliest possible iterations. Then we will look at the first web servers at CERN and see what assets from them we can preserve and share. We will also sift through documentation and try to restore machine names and IP addresses to their original state. Beyond this we want to make http://info.cern.ch —the first web address—a destination that reflects the story of the beginnings of the web for the benefit of future generations.

Dan Noyes, the web manager for CERN’s communication group is quoted in the article as saying, “I want my children to be able to understand the significance of this point in time: the web is already so ubiquitous…that one risks failing to see how fundamentally it has changed.”

I tend to agree with Noyes. I look at my niece and nephew and I realize that they have lived their entire lives in the world of the internet. They have no idea what a world without this great technology would be. That is why I think what CERN is doing is so important for the future of the internet. Something with such humble beginnings, being given to the world, without asking for anything in return? That’s a pretty cool thing, when you think about it.

If you want to read more about the project, please click here.

Photo credit: Screenshot of the original NeXT web browser in 1993 from http://info.cern.ch/

The post CERN: Twenty Years and Counting appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

But how does it work? Who is actually talking to you? Do you need to respond?

Live chat is a extremely useful feature that puts clients and customers in contact with real people at the company. Here at Inverse Paradox, our live chat is managed by our project managers. That means when you use our live chat you will either be talking to Alicia or Sarah Whiteman (That’s me!). We are here to help you and do our best to answer any questions that you may have. Don’t need assistance? Not a problem, you don’t need to respond to the live chat; simply close the chat box and you can navigate through our site on your own. Prefer a phone call? Click on the call me button and you will be connected to our office.

Considering getting live chat for your own site? You should! It is a great feature to have on your site, especially for those of you who have items to sell or have customers who frequently need assistance. This feature can help improve customer satisfaction by addressing customer issues immediately. It can help increase your sales by allowing you to be proactive. Just like in a retail store when an employee asks if you need assistance, you can talk to the customer directly and answer any questions they may have, helping the customer to make up their mind and get you the sale!

Not only is this feature beneficial to your clients and to your company, but it is affordable and easy to install as well. There are many different live chat options available, here at Inverse we use SnapEngage. Once you decide what software you are going to use and purchase the package that works best for you and your company, you will receive a code for your website. Simply send that code to us and one of our trusty programmers will put it on your site. Just like that, you’re ready to start chatting!

The post Get Engaged! appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

Typical Flow:

1. Write code / markup
2. Process SASS
3. Upload new files to server
4. Refresh browser

Ideal Flow:

1. Write code / markup

With a bit of help from our Sublime Text packages (and a healthy dose of configuring) — we can streamline the process to a single step.

The Tools:

• Sublime Text 2 Editor
• Sublime Text 2 Soda Theme
• Sublime Text 2 Packages:
  • Package Control
  • SCSS Syntax
  • FTPSync
  • SublimeOnSaveBuild
  • SASS Build
  • WordPress Syntax
• Live Reload
• IP Boilerplate

Two Dev Modes

When starting a new theme, I usually code the HTML / CSS first (index.html, any other interior.html), then break it down to the individual theme files (header.php, sidebar.php, etc). This creates two different development “modes” — offline front-end design and actual theme coding. This separation isn’t a necessity, only my preferred method.

Front End

This is the fun and exciting part of the project. Everything you need is in the design file, the project is fresh and new, and your spirit has not been weighed down by bug fixes, demanding deadlines, or project re-specification … (yet).

Since we are just addressing the visual design (HTML, CSS, JS) we can do it all from our computer. No webserver, ftp, or internet needed. There are only three basic items we need:

1. The design file (in Photoshop)
2. The file editor (Sublime Text 2) with our IP Boilerplate
3. The browser (Chrome)

The dream obviously would be a three monitor work station (one for each) — but for now that is a bit out of reach. Personally, I find I don’t need much visual room for the editor, so I usually divide among my two monitors this way:

Left Screen: All Photoshop
Right Screen: 75% Browser (wide enough for the full screen design, normally 1140px) / 25% Editor

With SASS and LiveReload properly configured, you will be able to make changes in the HTML and SCSS, save, and instantly see the results.

Theme Coding

Once the initial design is built, it is time to break it down into an actual theme. This can be done all at once, or piece by piece. But once the theme is together and on the server, it is time for the real project to begin. The cycle reviewing and tweaking / adding / fixing starts here. Often you’ll only need the two items here:

1. The browser (Chrome / Firefox)
2. The file editor
3. (Optional) Details / guidelines of fixes or additions (e-mail, to-do manager, etc)

So a 50/50 split will often suffice here.

The idea is to configure FTPSync so that changes made to any theme file (including styles and scripts) will be noticed and uploaded automatically. This saves us from having to compile and manually upload updated files each time (which, if you’re like me, will be many, many times). You can do this with the following config file:


{
// your main connection
"default": {

// address
“host”: “yourhost.com”,

//”port”: 21,

// credentials
“username”: “username”, // or null for anonymous login
“password”: “password”,

// server path to your project (example: /www/)
// start with “/” and then append all the folders you’d need to open to get to your project from topmost folder
“path”: “/public_html/wp-content/themes/ThemeName/”,

// encoding used for filenames and filepaths (“auto” or other charset name)
//
// auto = use UTF-8 if availible (FEAT: UTF8), otherwise use local
//
//”encoding”: “auto”,

// Whether to use secured FTP connection
// ‘true’ is recommended
//”tls”: false,

// set whether the connection will be passive or active
“passive”: true,

// whether to use temporary files for more stable transfer
// has only a very small performance impact when transfering large amounts of files
// ‘true’ is highly recommended
//”use_tempfile”: true,

// true = upload on save, false = upload only manually
“upload_on_save”: true,

// how long until connection closes [seconds], unless closed immediately
//”timeout”: 30,

// regular expression, when matches the file path of the file-to-be-uploaded, it cancels its upload
// recommending using \b in general and /…/ for folders to avoid matching substrings
//”ignore”: “”,

// whether to check ‘last updated’ of the target file on server
//”overwrite_newer_prevention”: true,

// if set to true it will download the file from server on opening, but only if it’s newer than the current file
//”download_on_open”: false,

// delay [seconds] before changed file is uploaded !when using upload_on_save!
// can be used for increase of performance or to allow build scripts to finish
“upload_delay”: 2,

// If the server you’re working with is in a different timezone, you can specify the offset here
// in seconds. For example, if the FTP server is 1 hour ahead of you, use -3600 as the offset to
// make comparisons against the server time take 3600 seconds off of the server time.
//”time_offset”: 2,

// If the server has MFMT extension installed, it will set true last modified value based on local file’s last modified value
//”set_remote_lastmodified”: true,

// chmod value for directories created on remote server by FTPSync
//”default_folder_permissions”: “755″,

// list of lists with pathnames and filenames to folders to be watched for change in between delay (upload_delay)
//
// ** example:
// after_save_watch: [ [ "code/assets/css", "*.css" ], [ "code/assets/", "*.jpg, *.png, *.gif" ] ]
//
// ** Used only in conjunction with upload_on_save and upload_delay **
//
//”after_save_watch”: []
“after_save_watch”: [ ["scss", "*.scss" ], [ "css", "*.css" ] ]

}
}

Note: If you use this directly, be sure to update your host, username, password, and path.

Walkthrough:

Initial Setup:

1. Install Sublime Text 2 (optionally with the Soda Theme)
2. Install package control
3. With package control, install: SCSS, FTPSync, SublimeOnSaveBuild
4. Follow these steps to configure Ruby and SASS Build
5. Configure SublimeOnSaveBuild in Sublime Text 2 by going to Preferences > Package Settings > SublimeOnSaveBuild > Settings — User and use the SublimeOnSaveBuild configuration below
6. Configure SASS Build in Sublime Text 2 by going to Preferences > Browse Packages > SASS Build and editing both SASS – Compressed.sublime-build and SASS.sublime-build to match SASS Build configuration below
7. Install LiveReload and the Chrome Extension

Per Project:

1. Create a new instance of the IP Boilerplate and add it to SublimeText2 as a new project (drag the folder onto a fresh window)
2. (Optionally) proceed with Dev Mode One: Front End by adding the project directory to LiveReload, loading the index.html into chrome, and enabling LiveReload
3. Install WordPress on the server, and add the theme (through FileZilla or any other file manager)
4. Configure FTPSync by right-clicking the folder in the ST2 sidebar, and choosing FTPSync > Setup FTPSync in this folder. This will create an ftpsync.settings config file. Use a configuration like the one above, which is set to automatically upload on save, and upload newly compiled .css files as needed. If you copy and paste it, you’ll only need to change the host, username, password, and path.
5. Continue on with the project, adding or modifying theme files as needed.

SublimeSaveOnBuild Configuration

{
"filename_filter": "\\.(sass|less|scss)$",
"build_on_save": 1,
"cmd": ["sass --watch scss:css"]
}


SASS Build Configuration

{

“cmd”: ["sass", "--update", "$file:${file_path}/../css/${file_base_name}.css", "--stop-on-error", "--no-cache", "&", "sass", "--update", "${file_path}/global.scss:${file_path}/../css/global.css", "--stop-on-error", "--no-cache"],
“selector”: “source.sass, source.scss”,
“line_regex”: “Line ([0-9]+):”,

“osx”:
{
“path”: “/usr/local/bin:$PATH”
},

“windows”:
{
“shell”: “true”
}

}

The post John’s Windows WordPress Theme Development Workflow (now with SASS!) appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

This security breach allows for remote command execution of PHP commands through the comment section of WordPress websites, allowing anyone to execute code on your server. This leaves sensitive information, like payload, vulnerable.

If you are unsure whether you have this plugin or not, or whether it’s been updated already, sign into the back end of your WordPress website and go to the Plugins section. If you have either plugin, it should be listed here. If you have not updated it to the latest version, it will say there is a newer version available in bold letters under that listing, and give you the option of either looking at the update details or updating it from there. Click on “update now” and it will take you to another page and automatically start updating.

Another way to update either plugin (assuming you already know you have one) is to visit the links below to go to the Plugin Directory for WordPress and download the latest version by pressing that orange button on the upper right-hand side.

WP Super Cache Update to 1.3.x or higher

W3 Total Cache Update to 9.2.9 or higher

If you have any difficulties with this process, contact us and we’ll do what we can to assist you.

Be safe out there.

The post WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache Plugin Security Vulnerability appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

But let’s start with, “What does responsive mean?” Responsive design is when your website scales and repositions to adapt to the size of the screen that it’s being displayed on. Want to know more about responsive design? Read this article.

“Graceful degradation” was the term used to explain how designers are accustomed to designing. Responsive design used to be viewed as an upgrade to your full screen site. Designers would then go back to a site and optimize it for mobile view.

Now that responsive is no longer viewed as an upgrade but more of a necessity, “progressive enhancement” is the phrase that Jim used to describe how sites should be designed now. This is the opposite of graceful degradation. Progressive enhancement is when you start designing from mobile and work your way up to the full screen. This gives the designer the opportunity to start with the smallest version of the site and move up to the largest. This ensures that the most important information will appear on the site from a mobile view all the way up to the full screen view.

I think that progressive enhancement is a good way of looking at responsive design, but it’s not the only way. Modular design is common for designing responsive sites. You can think about all of the information as puzzle pieces, and then arrange all of the pieces and how it would function best for each device that the audience could view it on. Modular design doesn’t always mean that you start from mobile and work your way up, but rather, make all of the pieces able to function for each device.

The most impactful thing that Jim said was that you have to understand that you don’t know what device the audience will view your site on and you can’t optimize your site for every device, but you can make sure that it looks clean and is efficient for the user by utilizing responsive design.

The post More on Responsive Design appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

So, in the spirit of sharing, since I no longer have digital copies of most of these sites, I decided to snap off a few select pics of some poor print-outs with the iPhone so that you can check out some of the earliest work of IP from 2002-2004, when I was still an independent and freelance designer just leaving high school and entering college. Amazingly, some of the work would still hold up today, nearly 10 years later!

Neshaminy.com

Being involved in the Electronic Arts program at Neshaminy, I had the opportunity to redesign the high school’s website. At the time it was all Flash with lots of moving parts.

The Playwickian

The school newspaper needed a new website to bring their publication online. Again, I was approached to help expand the school’s online presence. At the time, the school’s newspaper website was better than many of the local newspapers.

Warminster Basketball Association

I knew nothing about basketball and I still don’t. But I was approached by a gentleman who recognized my talents and asked if I would help out this tiny organization in giving them an online site. This was one of my first commercial sites.

Meal And A Movie

The same gentleman that had me produce the basketball site hooked me up with movie critic, Bill Wine and a local chef, Ed McTague to create a site that would promote getting a nice gourmet meal delivered at home with a movie and bottle of wine. Think of it as a fancy, high-end Netflix before Netflix was around. The concept ultimately never took off but it was a great experience. I can’t believe it’s still on the internet.

American Overhead Door & Dock

For another early commercial project, I was hired to produce a new site for American Overhead Door & Dock. It was my high school sweetheart’s uncle who owned the business so naturally, who better was he going to use? Even today, the site has many of the same aesthetic styles the same as when the site went up in 2004.

Inverse Paradox

Although there were a few prior iterations of the IP site, this was one from the 2003-2004 era that spent a good amount of time on the web. My buddy, Mike Begley (now a graphic designer for the Philadelphia Flyers) and I created this site so that we could show off our work and try to build a business. Ultimately, in college, I took a break prior to getting deep into a serious freelance and professional career, and before approaching the idea of starting a true agency with Melissa.

So, that’s just a small selection of the early work. Perhaps in the near future, I’ll share some 2004-2007 which includes some of Melissa’s early work and our early collaborations before starting this company that grew into our twelve person team.

The post Inverse Paradox – The Early Years – 2002-2004 appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

What does a local mom & pop bakery and an international auto parts manufacturer have in common? Not much at all really, unless you subscribe to Igor Soshkin’s one-size-fits-all sales pitch in favor of his proprietary eCommerce software. If you skip past the author’s scathing attacks on his direct competition, you’ll find the real target here is Magento, and rightfully so. Magento does power 12% of the top eCommerce sites in the world, as the author admits. But if you have the right perspective as a business owner, the argument used against the open-source giant falls apart.

First, let’s look at Michael, the owner of a company who needs to upgrade his eCommerce system but only had the budget for a $6 a month shared web server. One thing every brick and mortar business understands is location, location, location. So let’s translate Michael’s hosting problem into reality, you could say he has the budget for the back corner of a consignment shop in a bad part of town. Not too many Fortune 500 companies made their start this way, to my knowledge. The sales pitch continues that Michael had to upgrade his hosting because the consignment shop was in a bad part of town and (DDOS) attacks were a regular occurrence. But since Michael was so invested in the consignment shop at $6 a month, he felt the need to hire a local “consultant” for $5,000 to help him decide whether or not to stay, at which point he found a nice cheap $300 per month office in a strip mall a few blocks away. He then hired a budget contractor for $10,000 to remodel the space to fit his needs which took 6 months to complete. Yikes! After the first week of being open for business, Michael decided to have the utility company come in and update their lines which caused a fire due to improperly installed fixtures, a fault of the original contractor, which destroyed the new store. He then spent another $4,000 to have the same contractors come in and redesign the store.  Well, another month goes by and Michael noticed some issues: scuffed paint, loose fixtures, chipped corners, dented panels, dirty windows. So naturally, Michael calls the same contractors and their solution was a complete renovation of the store. Sounds expensive! People like Michael do in fact exist, as do the budget contractors who lack quality and efficiency, but those businesses don’t last very long. I could continue to take you down Michael’s rabbit hole of despair and misfortune, but I think by now you get the point.

Most of Michael’s problems would have been solved before they were even problems if he had taken the time to do some research. Reading through this scenario in the email, one gets the idea that he hardly researched any of his decision before making them, only finding issues with them once they were already done. Additionally, the advice and customization he received from the people he hired was often incomplete and poorly executed, probably because it came from people with little experience or expertise.

The post In defense of Magento appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

Responsive design is a way to make a single site that works across an array of devices, including desktops, tablets, laptops and smartphones; providing a smooth, visually appealing format for all sizes of screens. Have you ever gone to a website on your phone and had to zoom in and scroll around constantly in order to see anything? Responsive design is a smart way to deal with this issue without having to create a whole new website just for mobile devices.

For example, try visiting our website on your tablet or phone. You’ll notice that you don’t have that awful scrolling back and forth when trying to read a few lines of text. Everything is clean and easily legible. Even the pictures are sized proportionally. And you aren’t yelling at your phone when you accidentally press a link when trying to scroll or zoom. That’s always a plus.

Another way to visualize this feature is here. Notice how the layout changes slightly between the different screens? You can also use this tool on other websites. Here is ours. To try yours out, go to http://www.finecitizens.com/defineresponsive/#/WWW.YOURSITE.COM

Here are a few other sites out there incorporating responsive design:

• http://www.bostonglobe.com/
• http://boingboing.net/
• http://aneventapart.com/
• http://disney.com/

Websites made employing the idea of responsive design must be designed and coded to respond to screen size from the beginning. This is because it’s designed on a fluid grid, meaning that instead of working with a fixed size, the elements are sized base on percentages or ems. This allows the site to ‘respond’ to the size of the screen it is being displayed on and change itself accordingly. This means all the designer’s hard work doesn’t go to waste as soon as someone tries to visit the site on their iPhone.

With so much web traffic coming from mobile devices, many websites are losing customers and readers who are frustrated by designs that are difficult to navigate from phones or tablets. This can mean the difference between a visitor finding the information they need on the way to a brick-and-mortar store, and choosing to go somewhere else because they got fed up with all the scrolling and zooming. Even if these are people who would normally be visiting your site on a desktop, there’s a good chance that they’re going to need to visit while out and about… or when they’re too lazy to get up off the couch and walk to a computer.

The post What Is Responsive Design? appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

DDoS?
Or a distributed denial-of-service attack is essentially an attack that renders your network resource unavailable to the intended user—making your website’s connection to the host inaccessible or slow.

What Is This Attack?
According to Ars Technica, “Security analysts have detected an ongoing attack that uses a huge number of computers from across the Internet to commandeer servers that run the WordPress blogging application.
The unknown people behind the highly distributed attack are using more than 90,000 IP addresses to brute-force crack administrative credentials of vulnerable WordPress systems, researchers from at least three Web hosting services reported. At least one company warned that the attackers may be in the process of building a ‘botnet’ of infected computers that’s vastly stronger and more destructive than those available today. That’s because the servers have bandwidth connections that are typically tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times faster than botnets made of infected machines in homes and small businesses.”

What Can You Do?
Make sure you are adhering to the WordPress security requirements for both your log-in information as well as your password. Also, if you see any suspicious activity on your site, get in touch with us.

Questions? Concerns? We’re here to help. Contact us today if you have any questions. Or read the article mentioned above, here.

The post DDoS Attacks appeared first on Inverse Paradox.

Coupled with our move was the growth we have experienced in the last year. Along with the new space, you may see some newer faces and we are happy to introduce Ryan Tulino, our Magento Developer; Sarah Coale, Designer & Office Manager; Josh Hannan, Web Developer, Hanna Ricca, Design Intern and Emma Jones, Writing Intern.

And yes, our site has also had a little facelift. As we have continued growing a team, so have the skills we all individually bring to the table and our new site is a reflection of that. While we still specialize in WordPress websites, we have also delved deep into the world of Magento (sit tight, a new blog post about the Imagine eCommerce Conference in Vegas we’re attending is just around the corner!), and also responsive design.

The last year has helped to establish us further as a premier web and graphic design agency and as always, we continue to be dedicated to our craft and our client’s success.

Take a look around at the new site, meet the team, learn more about our new services and get in touch with us if you have any questions!

The post New Faces, New Digs, New Site, Same Dedication! appeared first on Inverse Paradox.