Websites and web development articles.
I’m happy to announce the launch of our new website: https://silvercomputer.net
To better understand the improvements featured on our new site, we should first take a moment to discuss some of the failings of the old website: http://silverleafcs.com
Continue reading “New Year, New Website: SILVERCOMPUTER.NET”
By now, chances are you’ve probably heard about the massive cyber attack against a major U.S. internet company that occurred on Friday, October 21, 2016.
The DDoS attack brought down large parts of the web and was one of the biggest on record. Now many people are now asking: who was responsible?
Continue reading “DDoS Attacks: Securing Your Connected Home and IoT Devices”
In 2010, soon after I started Silverleaf, one of the first things I did was get business cards. After choosing a design, finding a printer, and deciding on how many I could afford, I anxiously placed my order. The day my new cards arrived, I ripped open the box…
Instantly, I hated all 500 cards. The free template design I chose looked low-quality and cheap, and having a personal e-mail address on the card seemed really unprofessional.
I needed a new design, and a separate business email address. However, there were problems: the domain name I purchased was WAY too long, and I didn’t know how to create a new email address @mynewdomain.com
Oh, and I didn’t know anything about creating a website.
As I began researching website design, it soon became clear that creating a website was not going to be easy. The more I learned about domains, host servers, CSS, FTP, and HTML, the more I lamented, “FML”.
First, I looked into using web design software. The software promised to make website design easy: position some buttons, images, and menus, and viola: a professional-looking site, complete without the need to learn any code!
In reality, what I ended up with was a strange-looking, mis-aligned template page that I couldn’t fix, because I hadn’t learned any code.
I had a vision of what I wanted my website design to look like, but I just couldn’t make it look right. As a do-it-yourself-er, I would normally have the patience to continue learning on my own, but at this point I was spent. I needed help.
Next, I decided to look for a web design professional that could make my vision a reality, and not overcharge me for a basic design. After all, why should I spend a lot of time trying to do it myself, when I could pay someone to do it for me, quickly and correctly?
Finding someone to do a professional website design turned out to be much harder than I’d imagined, however. I asked family and friends for referrals, and out of about SIX website designers I contacted, only ONE responded to my request.
Even worse, the designer that did respond quoted me a high price and long wait time, for creating a website that I felt had an extremely basic design, and shouldn’t take that long to make.
After my discouraging experience hiring a web designer, once again the do-it-yourself attitude in me kicked in. I decided that if I wanted a website, I was going to have to learn web design myself.
Fast-forward two years later, and www.silverleafcs.com is complete. I’ve even completed a few other sites as well. I honestly can’t say how many hours I’ve spent learning HTML and CSS, staring at line after line of code, and creating a website that I think finally looks perfect.
I don’t recommend that anybody assume my crazy “do-it-yourself” mindset, at least not when it comes to a technically and creatively complex project like website design. In fact, I’ve partnered with a team of web design professionals for exactly this reason: website design isn’t easy.
So, if you’re thinking about creating a website, please, save two years of your life and check out the Silverleaf web design page for a free quote instead.
