Simple web design, web development, information technology, & technical communication

Articles and resources for web developers and the average person. Topics include web development, web design, technical writing and communication, and all aspects of information technology.

Welcome to chrisjason.com, a resource center for web developers and non-geeks alike who could use simple explanations to web development, web design, and technical communication topics.

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Fix the Windows XP NVIDIA nv4_disp problem

Monday, January 23rd, 2006 by Chris Jason
Here’s an annoyance that found me today—the sinister “nv4_disp” problem. Hopefully my fix will allow you to bypass any aggravation, unnecessary purchases, technician costs, or therapy.
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Latest Articles

Plasma TVs going away? I hope not

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 by Chris Jason

Are plasma TVs realling dying? A recent article says they are, and Pioneer has already stopped production.

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5 easy ways to increase website traffic

Sunday, December 9th, 2007 by Chris Jason

The most common complaint I’ve heard from website owners is that no one visits their site. They’ve been online for years and still do not get registrations, sales, or even email feedback. While this is a challenge most websites face, the good news is that the reason is very simple– nobody knows their site exists. Here are 5 cheap, easy ways to increase Website traffic and raise awareness of your content, product, or service.

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Web hosting from hell: One key tip to prepare for the worst

Friday, May 25th, 2007 by Chris Jason

One of the things I’m most familiar with on the Web is Web hosting companies– choosing them, working with them, yelling at them, comparing their services… After the last week of what could only be described as “the Web hosting experience from hell,” I’m now well-versed in leaving them too. Consider this article my Public Service Announcement on a bad Web hosting company. If you read until the end, you’ll find out which well-known company wins the award for “most terrible large-scale Web hosting company.” If you don’t, you’ll just get my angry rant. Either way, this should be informative.

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The top 5 dumbest things Web developers do today

Saturday, March 24th, 2007 by Chris Jason

The Web is certainly much different in 2007 than it was in 1997 when I created my first Web site. There were things back then that were really annoying (under construction .gifs, blinking text, and ugly frames)… I certainly contributed to the ugliness. But 2007 has its share of terrible Web practices too. That got me thinking: what bothers me the most about Web pages today? Here’s my top 5 list of the poorest things Web developers are doing in 2007.

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Parse a string using JavaScript

Monday, February 19th, 2007 by Chris Jason

A handy trick for Web Developers in the ability to parse a string to check for a given substring. In plain English, this means checking if a word or part of a word is contained within text. This tutorial demonstrates how to do this using JavaScript.

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Creating a simple, 1-page PHP mail, contact, or feedback form

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 by Chris Jason

With some clever coding, you can bypass the need to submit form data from one page to another and instead manage an entire PHP form application in one file. By posting form data to the same page, complex form maintenance becomes very simple.

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What’s the difference between HTML and XHTML?

Sunday, July 16th, 2006 by Chris Jason

If you’ve mastered HTML, you’re 90% of the way towards using XHTML. They’re actually very much the same thing—tag-based markup languages used to display Web pages. The difference is only seen by the people creating the pages (Web designers, programmers, etc.) and focuses on “forgivability”— HTML allows for some ugly code (mixed case tags like <BoDy>, improperly nested elements, and unclosed tags), while XHTML does not. If you write HTML, it’s probably a good idea to start using XHTML practices anyway. It will take 5 minutes to learn, and it’s just a better way of doing things.

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Using comments in PHP

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 by Chris Jason

If you’ve ever had to work through another programmer’s code to complete a project, you probably understand the importance of commenting code. This quick tutorial shows the 3 different ways to comment your code in PHP.

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Use PHP to strip the last character in a string

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 by Chris Jason

Whether you’re working with a string created from a database query or array, here’s a cool trick to strip the last character (comma) of a comma separated list of values using PHP.

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CSS Link Styles

Sunday, March 5th, 2006 by Chris Jason

One of the easiest, yet most interactive, elements you can add to your Web site is dynamic link text—links that change their appearance once the user puts their cursor over them.

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Fix the Windows XP NVIDIA nv4_disp problem

Monday, January 23rd, 2006 by Chris Jason

Here’s an annoyance that found me today—the sinister “nv4_disp” problem. Hopefully my fix will allow you to bypass any aggravation, unnecessary purchases, technician costs, or therapy.

251 Comments (Talk about it now)

What’s the difference between <span> and <div> tags?

Sunday, January 15th, 2006 by Chris Jason

<span> and <div> tags both allow a Web designer to style text and add other formatting attributes to their Web page. They are not interchangeable tags, though. <div> tags are block-level elements, whereas <span> tags are not. This article explains this, and other differences, between <span> and <div> tags.

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What’s a web hosting company?

Monday, January 9th, 2006 by Chris Jason

If you’re a small business owner or have any plans of bringing your business online, one phrase you’ll need to become familiar with is “Web host.” A Web host is simply a company that allows you to make your website available to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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Horizontally center layout in CSS

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 by Chris Jason

A good way of dealing with users on different screen resolutions is to center your Web design horizontally. This will ensure, regardless of the user’s screen size, that there is an equal amount of space to the left and right of the main design area, producing an overall "fuller" look to your site.

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Prevent files from being indexed with robots.txt

Monday, December 5th, 2005 by Chris Jason

It is common to publish Web pages, images, and other files on your Web site that you do not want everyone to see. By using robots.txt, you can make broad declarations about which files are browsed by robots (and potentially found by users) and which files are hidden (unless you tell someone exactly where they are!).

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