When it comes to high speed Internet, there are two widely available technologies--cable and “xDSL.” Cable is arguably the most prevalent technology. “xDSL” refers to the technology that allows Internet access over telephone lines without interfering with telephone voice communication.

“DSL” stands for “Digital Subscriber Line.” The “x” is placed before the “DSL” because there are many “DSL” protocols--“HDSL,” “SDSL,” and “ADSL” are only three. So, “xDSL” is a more general term for the technology.

In British Columbia, “ADSL” connections are the most used technology—the technology offered by Islandnet.com. “ADSL” stands for “Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line.” “Asymmetrical” refers to the fact that this technology offers different download and upload speeds. Download speeds are much greater than upload speeds.

You thought 5 (Express) and 7 Mbps (Turbo) packages were fast. Now, there's a 25 Mbps (maximum download speed) service for those with an insatiable thirst for speed. Along with the ability to download the biggest Windows service pack in a couple of minutes, you'll be able to upload files amazingly fast as well. Upload speeds with this new service are as fast as 1 Mbps (same as Turbo).

This new service is available for as little as $104.95 / month. Click here to visit our pricing page for more information. Or, call our office at 383-0096.

“PHP” stands for “PHP Hypertext Processor.” We wrote a bit about PHP in an earlier newsletter. Click here to view the PHP newsletter article.

“XSL” stands for “eXtensible Style sheet Language.” XSL is used in conjunction with “XML” and allows people to format XML documents and even convert them into HTML.

XML stands for “eXtensible Markup Language.” XML and HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the basic markup language used to display web pages, are evolutionary branches of an earlier markup language “SGML” (Standard Generalized Markup Language). XML was developed so that data from any source could be understood by anyone, anywhere on the Internet. XML imposes strict but simple syntax guidelines on how documents are structured but it also allows authors to define what structure the document takes.

Because XML has a very strict syntax, it's more easily “parsed” by machines. In other words, it's easy for scripts to strip out the “markup” (XML) and use the information contained in the markup. So, that means even if we don't know how someone has structured a document or what information their document contains, we can still glean the contents from the document so it makes sense to us.

In a nutshell, XML is a portable data storage format used for exchanging data between different systems. XLS is a way to format XML data so that it can be displayed, in much the same way HTML allows raw text to be displayed as a web page. XLS can even be used to convert XML into HTML.

“So, what does PHP XSL mean?”

PHP has native XSL functions that allow web developers and programmers to more easily format and convert XML documents. These native XSL functions are now supported on the Islandnet.com servers.

Click here for a Wikipedia explanation of what XSL is.

Islandnet Picks

eBay Pulse	Overheard in the Office	Things People Said	Many Books
“What's Hot 'n What's Not”—lots of people write about it. But why rely on the diligence (or lack of it) of someone else? Want to know what “the market” thinks is hot or not? Then check out what eBay buyers are looking for. Then again, maybe you won't be so surprised to find out the top eBay Christmas search terms were “PS3,” “Wii,” “Playstation 3,” “X Box 360,” and “TMX Elmo.”	We all do it. We all “space out” once in a while and say something utterly stupid. The thing is—it's really funny when someone else says something stupid. So, you'll probably enjoy this site, seeing as it's all about silly things people say. Know in the end, though, it's all about laughing at ourselves. WARNING: The language and topics used in this site are purportedly taken from real life. Much content is not suitable for everyone.	This isn't really a site so much as a page. But it's a page worth visiting. Here are more "spaced out" quotes for ya. You may have heard one or more of these before though because they're so-o-o-o-o classic. RELAX: This site contains tame language. Some situations or topics represented are "adult" in nature but are not offensive.	Adams, Addison, Aquinus; Dickens, Dickenson, Defoe; Orwell and Ovid; all the way to Zola—they're all here and their books are free. We're talking about authors of course. You can select your preferred download format: PDF, HTML, RTF, iPod Notes, and many more. Read 'em online. Read 'em in your iPod. Read 'em after you've printed 'em. This is a great free site for bookworms.

Islandnet.com Hosted Sites

Salt Spring Coffee	Coffee Crew	Serious Coffee	Village Food Markets—Sooke
“M-m-m-m-m-m-m, coffee!” Almost everyone loves the smell of a good cup of coffee in the morning. This Islandnet.com-hosted website is run by a company that offers locally roasted certified organic (certified is important, as it means the product is guaranteed organic) “Fair Trade” coffee. Their slogan is “Great coffee that makes you feel good inside.”	Again, we say “M-m-m-m-m-m-m, coffee!” You'll find more than coffee here though. You'll find information on coffee, coffee making machines, espresso machines, coffee roasting, coffee houses, restaurants, coffee ethics, and coffee culture. You'll even find tutorials on making the best espresso! So, we're expecting you'll visit this Islandnet.com-hosted website to find out how you can enhance your morning coffee ritual.	More “m-m-m-m-m-m-m!” If you live in the Victoria area and get out at all, you've probably seen a Serious Coffee outlet. We're happy to say Serious Coffee has chosen us to host their website. So, enjoy your “m-m-m-m-m-m-m” at home or enjoy it at one of these Serious Coffee outlets. Visit their website and check things out.	Visit this food market virtually (hosted by Islandnet) before you go and visit them. You'll find weekly specials online, information about ordering their party trays (including drool-inducing photos), and promotions. Oh, if you don't know where they are, you'll find directions on getting their. Oh, and you can buy coffee there—“m-m-m-m-m-m-m!”

We Love Websites!

Websites are our business--hosting them and building them. If you need a website--blog, retail, business-to-business, personal, database-driven, or something else--Islandnet has plenty of website development and programming experience. Call or e-mail us if you'd like anything from graphics to nit-picky programming.

Although we knew Lindsay was leaving us to return to The University of Victoria in January, her departure kinda “snuck” up on us with the busy holidays providing distraction. As a result, we came to work in January, only to be shocked when she didn't arrive for work.

We're sorry to see you go Lindsay and we wish you all the best with your studies at UVic!

Stephen will be helping you sort out your Internet-related tech issues. Stephen comes to us with a good background of technology experience, great communication skills, and lots of patience.

All you need to do to get in touch with Stephen is call our tech support line (383-0096), e-mail tech support at support@islandnet.com, use our Helpdesk system to ask a question in our forums, or use our Helpdesk chat system to ask a question via your keyboard (the link is in the top, left-hand corner of the page).

Okay, so one more, this time a Forum, I found this forum at random on http://www.opensourcecms.com, its called “vanilla.”

1. Download the “vanilla” installation archive from http://www.getvanilla.com and extract it, I use winzip, seems to work well for .tar.gz which allot of CMSs seem to be compressed in. Put the files in a folder on your computer, I put them in a folder on the desktop for ease of use, be sure when you extract the content that the directory structure is intact.

2. Using FTP upload the files to your account, a quick way to upload the files to your account if you have Internet Explorer 6 is to put ftp://username@islandnet.com in the address bar and click go, this will prompted you for the password and you will see the files and folders in your account, locate the www folder and drag and drop the content of the folder where vanilla is located into www.

3. Once the file are uploaded go to http://www.islandnet.com/~username/ and you should see the Vanilla welcome page and a link saying “Click here to install a completely brand new version of Vanilla,” click it.

4. Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 1 of 3) talks about setting permissions on folders, I would suggest in a separate browser window, log into the http://helpdesk.islandnet.com/ site and go into File Manager, click on the folder description www and you will see all the vanilla files and folders. In the ACTION columns in File Manager you will see a blue icon with RWX and a pencil.

Find the conf folder and click the RWX Action Icon on the same row, you will see it comes up with the file permissions and stats that “The current permissions on this directory are: rwxr-xr-x (0755)” in the white box that says Octal to the left of it enter 0777 and click save permissions.

Directories on Islandnet.com default to 0755 permissions so you don't have to do anything to the other file names it shows in (Step 1 of 3).

Click Check Permissions and move onto next step.

5. Now is a good time to setup the database and username for the blog to use, to do this go to http://helpdesk.islandnet.com and log into the account that you uploaded the files to, if its a child account you need to log into the parent account to create the database or have the parent grant the child account access to create the database.

Once logged in hover the mouse over My Account and click on the “MySQL Databases” link, create a username and password by entering them in and then clicking the Update User list button them create a database by entering a name for the database and clicking "Update Database Button" If you use the default settings it should put the database on sql3.islandnet.com

6. Going back to the Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 2 of 3) we are ready to fill in the information regarding the database name and username created in step 5 above and then move on to step 3.

7. Vanilla Installation Wizard (Step 3 of 3) Is the forum admin setup, the username and password you will use to administer the domain, the name of the forum etc, all quite simple so I won't go over it here except for the cookie info, if you have a (sub)domain pointed to the forum this is important information.

The cookie domain is where you want cookies assigned to for Vanilla. Typically the cookie domain will be something like “www.yourdomain.com.” Cookies can be further defined to a particular path on your website using the "Cookie Path" setting. (TIP: If you want your Vanilla cookies to apply to all subdomains of your domain, use ".yourdomain.com" as the cookie domain).

8. At the end of the setup your told, Vanilla Installation Wizard (Complete)

That's it! Vanilla is set up and ready to go. Click Go sign-in and have some fun.

To see the installation of Vanilla I created in writing this How To go see:

http://www.islandnet.com/~vanillatest/

It seems very slick and easy to use. I quite like it. See my installation at http://www.islandnet.com/~vanillatest/

I hope to do some more of these How To's, if you have a suggestion for step-by-step setup of a CMS or other How To you would like me to try and write email me and I will try time permitting. I try to write them so that a intermediate user can implement it without too much of a problem so if you think I need to tech it up or simplify it further let me know too.

I mentioned opensourcecms.com, another good site to search for free and commercial CMS's and other code it http://www.hotscripts.com/.

Test Your HTML for Validity

If you've ever felt a bit uneasy about committing an “Illegal Operation” while using Windows, maybe you'll be a bit uneasy about testing the “validity” of your HTML code. No worries, though. You're not going to Guantanamo if your HTML isn't valid.

Testing your HTML is a good tool for finding errors in your HTML that may cause display problems or that may cause problems if you need your page to render well for text-based browsers or other accessibility tools used by handicapped site visitors.

You can test the validity of your pages at the following w3c.org URL:

http://validator.w3.org/

Tweak Your Web Stats - Internal Referrers

People who use Webalizer for their web stats program are getting a pretty good deal. The program is free and it's pretty comprehensive and displays data in an easy-to-understand format.

One of the stats sections for Webalizer is "Referrers." By default, people will likely see lots of URLs related to their own website and few, if any, external referrers (i.e. other sites that link to their website). Knowing which pages link internally to their own site may not be all that useful.

If you need this bit of info changed, ask us. We can remove internal referrers so that only external links that refer to your website show up in this section. E-mail us at support@islandnet.com if you would like this change made.

Legal Stuff

The information displayed in this newsletter and any previous or subsequent newsletters is for information purposes only. Islandnet.com, AMT Solutions Group, Inc. and related companies are not responsible for any losses or damages resulting from the use of information in the newsletter. While the information contained in this newsletter is believed accurate, readers must verify information for themselves. Sites we link to do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of AMT Solutions Group, Inc.