Reset Stylesheet

/* Don’t forget to set a foreground and background color
   on the ‘html’ or ‘body’ element! */
html, body, div, span,
applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
dd, dl, dt, li, ol, ul,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit;
font-size: 100%;
line-height: 1;
font-family: inherit;
text-align: left;
vertical-align: baseline;
}
a img, :link img, :visited img {
border: 0;
}
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
border-spacing: 0;
}
ol, ul {
list-style: none;
}
q:before, q:after,
blockquote:before, blockquote:after {
content: “”;
}

Refund Please vs. Price Protectr

I found out about Refund Please and Price Protectr earlier this year. So far, Refund Please has been doing a much better job than Price Protectr. Three days after I placed an order for a Canon PowerShot SD900 Titanium 10MP Digital Elph from Amazon.com, Refund Please was the first to send me an e-mail when the price dropped by about $10. Then earlier this morning I received e-mails from both Refund Please and Price Protectr confirming that the price for the camera had dropped again. Furthermore, Refund Please sends you a message with very detailed instructions on how to claim your refund from. Either way, as a result of these services I was able to request a refund from Amazon.com, and as always their customer support has just been great in exceeding service levels provided by other stores.

Free Web Site Monitoring

I just came across a free website monitoring tool called Montastic. If you don’t have the ability to install software such as Big Brother and aren’t satisfied with the other basic online website monitoring services then definitely give Montastic a shot. A quick run down on the feature list:

- Get an email when your site goes down
- Get an email when it goes back up
- Read website status reports via RSS or a Yahoo widget
- Super simple user interface
- No defined limit on the number of websites monitored

Web Based Favicon Creator

HTML-Kit offers an easy way to convert images into a favicon via their free web based favicon creator. I setup the Memeza.com favicon.ico file using the tool and am very impressed with the final result.

Delta.com

Delta has just relaunched their website. This is weird timing since my marketing class recently covered a case study on how to market Delta in light of the various bankruptcy issues the airline has faced. One of the issues we discussed was how the airline could use their website to retain the brand value of Delta while still placing an increased emphasis on convenience of travel reservations, marketing of travel destinations and the SkyMiles customer loyalty programs. I think the new site has adequately addressed these issues. Will things be different in the next quarter?

Design, Develop and Deploy

I just updated my blog to use a cleaner template and attempted to use more CSS for the various templates. The template was originially designed by Douglas Brown and is available as one of the additional templates in Blogger. However, I realized that I could cut down the page size and also optimize the page to treat search engine robots with more respect. I’ll update you once the next Google dance begins.

I’ve also begun reading Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide by Eric Meyer to prepare for version 3.0 of The Zambian.

Dozing Dogs will be releasing version 2.2 later this month which is the Content Management System (CMS) powering The Zambian. Most of the code for the site will soon be moved to Server Intellect primarily because Webhost4Life’s service level has rapidly declined.

Aside from that, recent releases from DevJunkies and Community Server have left me with even more applications to test and integrate with the existing site.

Lots of design, development and deployment going on in my life.

Link: BrowserCam

BrowserCam lets you choose the browsers and operating systems you want to see, and in less than a minute returns screen captures of your webpage.

Link: SlideShowPro

Dynamic customizable photo galleries for Flash MX 2004.