The "Agro America" Scam and why Inertial Zen Designs won’t be dealing with you if your communications are anything like this

One of the things Web Designers end up dealing with a lot of the time is scam and spam type situations. Inertial Zen Designs has on no less than 10 occasions ended up dealing with variants of a scam called the Agro America Scam.

Now, before I continue let me first state that this is nothing against Agro America and their website, but they seem to be being used as the “example” site for this scam. So let us go over just how the scam itself works.

Taking into accounts variations like who is sending the enquiry and how initial contact is made, the basic concept here is that someone makes contact with a Web Designer and asks if We make Websites and do we take credit cards as payments. Neither of these should set off alarm bells because, as a Web Designer, of course My company makes Websites and does have methods to process Credit Card Payment.

Upon first contact being confirmed, the person making the enquiry will respond with something along the lines of the following

(Screen capture of an actual email sent after this person first made contact via iMessage)

Firstly, word for word, this email has actually been sent to others, as evident by this link here

 https://www.market2all.com/security-tips/spam-scam-phishing-email-kola-nut-gacillia-nut-and-cocoa/

Secondly, you might notice a few red flags here, like for example the requested Website domain they want. In this case running a Whois on the website shows that it’s actually a domain owned by  7-Eleven, which means being able to acquire said domain name is going to be high cost to buy it off the current owners.

Next problem is that this contact person is not THE contact they expect you to work with, as they have referred to a as of yet unnamed 3rd party who will be “providing the images, logos and content” and they expect the Web Designer to do all this for a top end budget of $8,500 which one can presume is supposed to include securing them hosting and the desired domain name.

Now the most recent round of this scam that crossed my communications inbox, “Wilson Tandy” was actually declined by Myself on the ground that for what was asking the budget was lower than what I, as a contracted Web Designer, was willing to do the job for. As you can see, when this amount was not enough to entice Me to take on what I already know was a sketchy project, the user instantly attempted to sweeten the deal by claiming that his numbers was a “reference budget” and then when I declined that, you can see that this person went to accusing that I was being rude towards him 

(Screen captures of iMessage communications with "Wilson Tandy")

As this most recent attempt at this scam has failed, Inertial Zen Designs has implemented a strict policy that we will refuse any, and I do mean ANY client who uses Agro America as their reference site when it comes to a website project. 

Apple's March 2019 Press Event- Bring on the Services

This morning's Apple Event opened with a Movie like trailer, done in the style of the old iPod ads,.

First up: Apple News+

Apple News+, which is folding the texture magazine service into a paid tier of Apple News at a cost of $9.99 per month with Family Sharing included.. Included in this is Magazines, which will bring 300 magazine titles to the end user. Features will include the ability to have specific magazines auto downloaded to your device so you have them available for offline reading.

The News+ tier will include digital subscriptions including the Los Angles Times and the Wall Street Journal. Privacy will be protected because there is no Advertising tracking and recommendations are done via downloading a selection of articles to the device and using an on device algorithm to figure out what to recommend.

Available today including access in Canada.

Up next: Apple Pay: 10 billion transactions surpassed is the target for 2019. 70% acceptance of Apple Pay in the US, and higher in other countries, with more that 40 countries estimated to have the service available.  Transit has now been added to Apple Wallet in 3 cities in the United States.

Apple is now also going into the Credit Card game with Apple Card, a digital credit card that can be used globally and can be accessed via Apple devices. Customer service for Apple Card be accessed by sending a message through the messages app. Apple Card will give specific details as to locations of where transactions are made and will be color coded in a spending tracker feature. 

Reward program is “Daily Cash” which will give the user cash back on a daily basis and added to the Apple Cash Card. Reward rate is 2% everywhere and 3% when purchases are with Apple. Payment schedules can be set to weekly or biweekly and the card has no fees. 

The Credit Card is partnered with Goldman-Sachs and Master card. Transactions are protected using the on-device enclave chip and must be authenticated with either Touch ID or Face ID. 

Apple has even created a physical card for when a person is somewhere that Apple Pay is not available, it’s made out of titanium with laser etching, no card number CVV, expiration date of signature is on the card but can be accessed via the app. Physical card transactions will give the user 1% daily cash back.

Up next: The App Store:

With over half a billion users per week, the largest category on the App Store is Gaming. Over 1 Billion people have downloaded games on the App Store. 

Apple Arcade has been announced as a Mobile, Desktop and Living room subscription service. Over 100 games at launch with a monthly subscription cost not announced, but  included Family Sharing. Games will play across Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV and all games will be playable offline. No ads, no additional purchases for future content. All game tracking data is user opt in

Apple TV:

The TV app is getting a redesign, Movies are now built into for easy access from the TV app. Cable Bundles can now be accessed from the central location of the TV app and will allow users to use their Cable login to pay for what they want in a on demand, ad-free ,offline optional ,family sharing feature called TV Channels that will include HBO, Starz, epic and CBS All Access.

TV update will arrive in May, TV app is also coming to Mac OS and Samsung, LG and Vizio Smart TV’s and Roku and Amazon streaming sticks this fall.

Apple TV+ announced, Steven Spielberg is brought on stage to announce the creation of a series based off the magazine “Amazing Stories”. The Morning Show with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, is next announced as an exclusive to the TV+ service. Other shows include a Jason Mamoa backed show called See where a few million survivors of a devastated earth are all left blind due to a virus,  a new show, produced with Sesame Workshop, called Helpers. Helpers is a preschool aged introduction to coding.

JJ Abrams and Sara Bareilles announce a new series called Little Voice, focusing on an upstart young musician in New York City. Oprah joins the platform with 3 new projects, including a series on depression and one that highlights her love of books through her book club.

TV+ will launch this fall with a subscription price to be announced through the Apple TV app.

MacOS and iOS updates are live today

It's been a while since the last update

Many of you who follow the Inertial Zen Designs blog may have noticed that it has been quite a while since an entry has been made, The reason for that is actually very simple.

Inertial Zen Designs is a one person company, with a focus on creating Responsive Website Design. As this is the case, creating new content for this blog has been a bit of a challenge because many of the potential clients who would seek out services from Inertial Zen Designs might not be interested in the ins and outs of the back end of Web Design, to paraphrase from a tag line of Apple's, they simply want their website to Just Work.

Now, there is nothing at all wrong with this mind set, in fact as a Web Designer, I can fully understand. After all, not everyone who buys a new car wants to know how the car was put together or the tools used in the process, they simply want a car that will do what they desire it to do, and that is getting them to their goal.

Website design is much the same way, I can go into the details of how I get your image placed where you want it placed, but the important element is that it is in fact placed. Same goes for content, links and all the other aspects of a Website. So long as it looks like the client expects it to look and does what they need it to do and users are interacting with it once they know it exists, that is all that matters.

So, with that being the case, I am actually turning to you, My loyal followers and any new visitors who stumble upon this blog, for feed back. What would you like to see covered in future blog posts?

Please let Me know in the comments section of where ever you happen to come across this posting, and thank you in advance for  your feedback

Sincerely,

David Peters
Owner and Web Technologist, Inertial Zen Designs

Social Media Tip: Why You should never tag a friend in the comments of a News Report on Facebook.

We’ve all seen them cross our feeds from time to time, especially if you follow News Stations, The post with a headline like

“4 Arrested in Police Raid”

And sure enough, the next thing you are likely to find in the comments section is someone, let’s call them Joe Smith, making a comment like this


Joe Smith:  Jane Doe is this the event you saw?

Seems like a fairly simple enquiry about something that you were discussing with a friend, but actually, without thinking about it Joe Smith may very well have put Jane Doe in danger.  Here’s why.

Police activities are rarely a one and done situation, as after the fact there is always the chance of bail or associates to those who were involved being factored in. In the case of Jane Doe, Joe Smith just commented a tagged link to her profile on a PUBLIC PAGE!

This means that parties involved who may be looking to quiet witnesses now have a Name, a Face and quite possibly a physical address to track Jane down at.

Fortunately for all of Us, Facebook has a way that you can enquire about these type of posts with friends without going through the act of a public tagging that can put a friend at risk.

On every post, the Share option gives a user the chance to do the following choices

1. Share Now (Friends)
2. Share
3. Send as Message
4. Share on a friend’s timeline
5. Share to a Page

The key to Joe keeping Jane safe in this situation is to use option 3 “Send as Message”

By sending the post as a Message, Joe can enquire to Jane if this is indeed the event that was experienced WITHOUT the public tagging of Jane in a post that anyone with computer access can read. 
So, the next time you find yourself wondering if your friend was talking about having seen an event that just got posted on that News page, Do them a favour and message it, the lives you might be saving are both your own and theirs.

Oct 2017 Update from the Inertial Zen Designs Office

With this post, Inertial Zen Designs is starting something new, a Newsletter like monthly post to tell you what has been happening around the office.

Firstly, you may have noticed that the Inertial Zen Designs Website  was out of commission for about a week's time. This was due to an issue on Our server host's end. The Site is back up and working. 

In the next while, you will also notice that the Website has added a small bit of on screen advertising. Inertial Zen Designs has decided to partner with Google's Adsense platform in hopes of reducing some of the costs associated with running the Website and, hopefully be able to serve the end user ads that are relevant to their visit without running into issues with questionable content being served via a non trustworthy Advertising platform.  Information in opting out of Google's Adsense tracking can be found on the privacy policy page of the Website.

If you happen to follow Inertial Zen Designs on Facebook you might have noticed that We recently shared up the following two photos

These images represent the advertisement for Inertial Zen Designs's Artisan Portfolio Package. The Artisan Package includes up to 5 pages of Web Design that will allow local talent to showcase their creations at a reasonably priced $360.00 tax included fee.

These packages are great for the home based Artist, Upstart Musician, Aspiring Actor and any other types of creative types wishing for an inexpensive showcase of their talents online.

Speaking of Artists and showcasing their talents, I will be checking out the UNBC hosted Artisans of the North Fair this weekend and will have business cards and promotional postcards with information about the Artisans Package with Me. I am looking forward to discussing options with the local talent in the area.

Well, that's it for this update. Don't forget you can follow Inertial Zen Designs on Facebook , and Twitter or check out the Website at inertialzendesigns.com


See you all Next Month right here

David Peters
Certified Web Technologist and Owner Inertial Zen Designs

Steps to help filter out “Fake News”

This blog post is a bit different than the normal posts here. In this one I have taken the time to point out some of the ways We, as end users, can help to filter out Fake News and Hoaxes in the Social Media World We all live in. No specific sites in the examples have been linked to in order to all you the reader to make up your own mind.

The TL:DR for those who just feel they don't have time to read this entire post is simple Think before you post.

Step 1: STOP RELYING ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER AS SOURCES

Facebook and Twitter are wonderful ways to keep up to date on activities and events in your social circle, but when it comes to being a source of News the “What’s Trending” section is not without it’s issues.

Both Facebook and Twitter’s Trending topics are simply a ranking of data tracked in the stream. It’s an indication of what the masses are discussing.  There in lies the problem, with the speed that a Fake News story or hoax can be introduced into the stream and shared through invoking an emotional reaction, a story can become the most talked about topic on the globe and never actually happened.

Step 2: REALIZE THAT THE BEST LIES ARE BASED IN TRUTH

One of the key elements to a good lie is that, in most cases, it has to be believed to be effective. In many a situation, this means that there needs to be elements of truth involved. 

Lacking a believable basis means a story falls apart, and the more players involved in the story the larger the chance is that details wont always add up. In the caee of Fake News and Hoaxes, checking for this starts right at the headline of the piece by asking yourself the simple question of 

“Is this something that could believably happen? Remember you can’t even spell Believe without the word lie, see it’s right there in the middle beLIEve

Step 3: USE THE 5W’s BEFORE SHARING

We should all remember these from our school current event studies, the 5 W’s known as Who,What,When,Where and Why, which were used to help us employ critical thought. 

In fact, let us use an example to try to break down how the 5W’s can be used. The other day, I got this message via Facebook from a family member

Hi I'm mark The Director of facebook 

Hello everyone, it seems that all the warnings were real, facebook use will cost money

If you send this string to 18 different from your list, your icon will be blue and it will be free for you.

If you do not believe me tomorrow at 6 pm that facebook will be closed and to open it you will have to pay, this is all by law.

This message is to inform all our users, that our servers have recently been very congested, so we are asking for your help to solve this problem. We require that our active users forward this message to each of the people in your contact list in order to confirm our active facebook users if you do not send this message to all your facebook contacts then your account will remain inactive with the consequence of Lose all your cont the transmission of this message. Your SmartPhone will be updated within the next 24 hours, will have a new design and a new color for the chat. Dear Facebook users, we are going to do an update for facebook from 23:00 p.m. until 05:00 a.m. on this day. If you do not send this to all your contacts the update will be canceled and you will not have the possibility to chat with your facebook messages

Will go to pay rate unless you are a frequent user. If you have at least 10 contacts

 Send this sms and the logo will turn red to indicate that you are a user

Confirmed ... We finish it for free Tomorrow they start to collect the messages for facebook at 0.37 cents Forward this message to more than 9 people of your contacts and it will be free of life for you to watch and it will turn green the ball of above do it and you will see

This looks pretty scary at first even though on close inspection it looks like two different messages have been mashed together (notice half way along where after it mentioned the change in color for your chat windows it goes into "Dear Facebook Users..." as it has people wondering if they could end up paying for Facebook unless they do a specific action, but lets apply the 5W’s to this

Who? This message appears to be from mark The Director of facebook. Ok, We’re supposed to assume that is meaning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg right? so that brings us to 

What? Forward this message (how, via Facebook Messenger or SMS?, both are instructed) to 18 people. and we are all supposed to do this, 

When? By 6pm on an unspecified date, and We are supposed to do this

Where? On our Smart phones  

Why? Because if We Don’t Facebook’s iconic blue icon will turn red and We get charged for using Facebook, If We don’t We’ll be locked out of Facebook.

Now, lets apply some critical thought to this, Firstly Mark is too busy overseeing a company with almost half the world as users, plus the fact is He has been off touring the United States with his family when not in the office. Secondly, this can be debunked with asking yourself one question. Do you really think a Multibillion Dollar company would try a ploy of “free for you if you spam your friends, pay if you don’t”?

Step 4: FIND YOUR TRUSTED SOURCES AND DEBUNKING SITES

Trying to work one’s way through Fake News is always going to be a challenge, The 5W’s listed in Step 3 can help, but so can finding credible, unbiased news sources. Which sources are, of course, going to be affected by one’s own personal beliefs and viewpoint, so I won’t make suggestions on which ones you should pick specifically, but using the sources that the News Stations use, like Reuters or the Associated Press are good areas to start.

When it comes to making choices on specific sources, check the ownership, an example of this would be the Washington Post. Owned by Jeff Bezos, Founder and owner of Amazon, an article on the success of an Amazon event could very well have the potential to have a spin on it due to the common factor of the company’s owners. (Disclaimer: I am not saying this is the case, simply using this as an example for educational purposes)

It’s also very handy to keep a collection of debunking sites around to check stories against, but make sure your selected sites are not simply quoting other debunking sites and they do their own investigating. After all, site like Snopes saying something is debunked is not the same as if  Hoax-Slayer said it was debunked just because Snopes said it was. (once again, example used for education purposes only here)

Step 5: THE ABOUT SECTION IS YOUR FRIEND

Pretty much any Website in this modern times has an about section that tells you a bit about those behind the Website. This is important as there are Websites that do News Satire, stories which are clearly written to entertain rather than inform.

A good Satire site will make this clearly known. Some will place a pop up on the site, a banner or other means of letting the user know. With a little detective work on your part this information is usually pretty easy to locate.

Step 6: BE AWARE OF CLONED SITES BY KNOWING YOUR TRUSTED SOURCES

Web Design template setups, like Wordpress, have made the job of cloning a reliable source’s Website easier than ever, all any party has to do is copy a few images, locate the theme and launch a domain and they can have an exact clone of CNN’s look (or to be fair any other Site) right down to a address that looks right.  

This can make knowing the source is a reliable one fairly hard to do, unless one is ready to again do some detective work. The World Wide Web is an extensive catalog of data, and as such is held in a library of indexed links known as Domain Name Servers, or DNS.  What this means is that, as an end user, We have tools to check on a Website. Through a simple google search phrase, WHOIS, coupled with the address of a Website, users can locate where the servers for the site are located, how long the site has been online and, unless a site owner has paid to keep it hidden, who owns the Domain address.

So, since we used CNN before, lets keep with that example. If you ended up on what appeared to be a CNN Website, but the address didn’t seem right and the story didn’t pass the 5W’s, what should you do? That is easy. Take the address up to the inclusion of a Website extension (typically a dot com) and run it through a Whois search. You never know when you will find that the article is actually on a bogus site owned by Boris in Moscow.

This has been, by far, one of the longer blog posts I have written for the Inertial Zen Designs Blog, but I hope it can help you come up with some of your own techniques and ways to help curb hoaxes and Fake News. Thank you for reading.

Dave, inertialzendesigns.com

What Augmented Reality could mean for Website Design.

Imagine you are sitting in your living room looking at a online shopping site. As you are looking around you notice a brand new painting that you would think might look perfect over your electric fireplace. But wait! is that a $1500 price tag on that print?

Suddenly, you start doubting yourself, sure you love the painting, but what if you only love it on the website? Your thumb hovers over that buy it now button as you look back and forth at your wall and your cart. Suddenly the light bulb moment goes off!

YOUR DEVICE HAS AUGMENTED REALITY!

So, you go back to the listing to see if it has support for this, and It Does! Tapping the button, you give the page temporary access to your camera and point your device at the space where you were thinking of hanging the painting.

Thankfully, the site had the fore though to have done a 3D scan of the painting, complete with the frame, and the augmented reality protocols can even tell you the exact distance you need to stand away from the wall to see it placed at a 1 :1 viewing ratio.

The result, you find that the painting is PERFECT  for your room, and you order it. A few weeks later, as you host that cocktail party, your purchase, and how it accents the entire decor of the room is the topic of the night.

All thanks to fact that at the core of things, that Website had the knowledge and fore thought to have their catalog of items scanned for Augmented Reality and coded to allow the user to preview their purchase in the very environment they intend to enjoy it in before they even buy it.

Maybe Web Designers are asking the wrong opening question

Definition: Emotion

A State of Feeling (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emotion)

Such a simple enough definition, but in reality, a major part of how We interact with people, places and things. It is this interaction, that I believe may be the missing factor between a Website being good or being great.

The Internet is full of article after article suggesting how Websites can keep their audience's attentions. Aspects are looked at ranging from color selection to content layout to load time on a page, and while suggestions are constantly made for shaving those fractions of a second off the overall time it takes for a user to reach the destination what questions are asked when the user quickly navigates away from things?

Articles, like this one from Crazy Egg  have dubbed the quick departure of a user from a Website as the "59 Second Rule" and the reasons they give as to why include

-The User does not get the Website they expected

-The User does not know what to do

-The User suspects the Website is not being genuine

These, and the other reasons listed in the linked article, make sense, but they all comes down to how the User feels.  Let's translate each of the above statements to feelings

-The User does not get the Website they expected Feeling: Disappointed 

-The User does not know what to do Feeling: Confusion

-The User suspect the Website is not being genuine Feeling: Mistrust

And the same can be said for each of the remaining issues the example article presents.

So, how does one go about trying to minimize these type of reactions to their company's Website? Traditionally, a Web Designer is provided the content, colors, font, layout and the other Design aspects are selected, and if proper testing is done feedback lets the client know how easy the Website is to navigate prior to being launched.

But, perhaps it is time to take a different approach to designing a Website. Maybe the first question your Web Designer should be asking you shouldn't be addressing the budget, launch dates, or physical design elements. Perhaps the first question that should be asked is the simplest to ask, but not always the easiest to answer.

Perhaps it's time Web designers start asking

"What do you want the User to feel when they use your Website?

Inertial Zen Designs always looks forward to reading your comments. We invite you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus . Also, please visit our Website at inertialzendesigns.com 

Why VR is not catching on -One Designer’s Opinion

Lately, if you follow the social media feeds of many of the Tech News sites, there has been a rash of stories about how industry is having a tough go at getting people to adopt to Virtual Reality as a platform.  Articles, like this one from Android Headlines  , refer to VR as a dichotomy of the Tech industry that struggles somewhat in gaining massive levels of adoption. It goes on to suggest that one of the major barriers is that consumers have to “try before they buy” in order to understand VR.

My personal feeling on why VR is not getting the expected adoption goes into a lot more than just the try before you buy argument, and I thought I would take a moment to go into why I believe VR is not catching on.

Firstly, I am not going to fully dispute that “Try Before You Buy” is not a factor, because it totally is. Users need to know that they personally have a use case for a platform and they want to make sure that they can comfortably use said platform before they invest in it.

Investing in it, that right there is the true underlying detail that I believe is actually causing the resistance to VR adoption. If you look at the industry and the trends in computing, you will notice that people are shifting from Desktop and Laptop computers to more Tablets and Smartphones for their day to day computing use.  In fact a Marketingland.com article () dated April 3 2016 states that 65 percent of digital media time is being represented by Mobile platforms.

People are moving away from the desktop platform.

This fact brings us to the cost of adoption, lets use one of the top VR platforms to look at this in more detail, the Oculus Rift.  If a consumer is looking at the full Rift experience they are looking at having to purchase both the Rift and Touch controllers, a cost of $798 USD according to the Oculus Website.  But wait there is also the fact that a user requires a PC with the following specs minimal

• Video Card NVIDIA GTX 960 / AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater
• CPU Intel i3-6100 / AMD FX4350 or greater
• Memory 8GB+ RAM
• Video Output Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
• USB Ports 1x USB 3.0 port, plus 2x USB 2.0 ports
• OS Windows 8 or newer

Researching one of the “Recommended” PC’s, the ASUS G11CD a consumer is looking at an entry price of $2,299 USD according to Intel’s website. This brings a end user’s up front investment to $3,097 USD in order to be VR ready BEFORE TAXES!

“But David”, I hear you saying about now, “I’m hearing lots of good about the idea of using your Smartphone with a VR Headset to get the VR Experience”, and to that I have to say, you’re right, you have, however there are some issues there too.

When getting into VR using Smartphones, the upfront cost of a headset can be minimal, with many Google Cardboard headsets coming in around $12-$30 at entry level, and even the Samsung / Oculus partnership Gear VR headset is a reasonable priced $99 USD.

However, here’s Where additional problems come in.

First, what if you are using a Smartphone that is not compatible with these options? the Gear VR is only going to be of interest to owners of, or those willing to move to the following Compatible Samsung devices. S7, S7 edge, Note5, S6 edge+, S6, S6 edge.

If you are using Android devices that are not on the Samsung list, your luck is a bit better as you do have the option of Google’s Daydream VR headset, but what if you happen to be on iOS and don’t wish to change to an Android device simply to use Virtual Reality?

Well in that case you are pretty much short on luck. You see iOS, since it does not have protocols in it’s operating system to support a “Mouse Pointer” means that you are left with little choices.

One of the best ones I have personally found is the inexpensive Mattel product The ViewMaster (a review on it can be found here ) , which is fully compatible with all apps that support Google’s Cardboard standard, but at the time I write this, there is little information available on if it will work with Google’s Daydream VR platform.

As a Web Designer, I do believe that Virtual Reality has a strong potential to change how end users interact with the World Wide Web, but as the original cast of Saturday Night Live used to be billed, it’s just not ready for Prime Time yet, and In My opinion won’t be until a cross platform, cost friendly option can be agreed upon and deployed.

Of course, this is just My opinion on the topic, Have your say and leave your comments below

Thanks for Reading, Dave - Inertial Zen Designs

Some suggested solutions to the battle of Ads vs Ad Blockers

On Tuesday August 9th 2016, Facebook announced that they have flipped a switch which is designed to get ads displayed even if a user has employed ad blocking technology in their browsers.

In an article by the  New York Times , Facebook representatives was quoted as saying

ad blockers were “certainly bad for the publications who are robbed of half of the value exchange between users and publishers.”

From a publisher standpoint, the issue of lost revenue is a very valid one as the writers who compose for these sites are not to be expected to work for free and there is cost associated with hosting a Website.

The argument that Ad Blocking technology is a bad thing is very much valid, but then again so is the argument as to why users have turned to Ad Blocking software.  Those arguments include, but are not limited to the following items

• Website Advertising slows down a site's load time
• Auto playing Video advertising is annoying 
• Many Advertising platforms have become conduits for Malware 
• Advertising is not relevant to the user even though it's considered "targeted"

So lets take a look at each of these and the possible solutions that could be put in place to address them.

First, Website Advertising slowing down a Site's load time. this is very much an issue. The issue, however is not only the speed of how fast a Site loads, but where it loads from. When a Website loads, it puts out calls to other servers in many cases due to content being hosted on a remote location. Remote location calls means that the Website has to pull information in from multiple sources and thus uses more data to request info and leads to a slow down on delivery.

The answer to this, at least on Websites where the infrastructure is in place so a company host on their own servers is to create a in house Advertising department. Advertising is hosted on the same server as the Website instead of being called on from else where.

In analog terms, think of it like this. Would you read a magazine that goes "Oh, hold on a second, I need to run to the newsstand on 4th avenue for that Ad even though your magazine is physically located on 24th avenue" ?

Next on the list of arguments is that Auto playing Video advertising is annoying. And it is! How many of us have been hit with a blasting full video ad for something not even related to the actual Website we have gone to?  I'd be willing to bet that there is not a one of us who hasn't.  Web Publishers have actually been on the ball in this aspect as many websites have taken to loading the video muted or suspended until clicked on.  

Malware! This is a big one, but actually it can be handled for larger companies with the same solution as Website load time. Hire an in house marketing department which works hand in hand with your in house Social Media and Information Technologies departments to ensure that Advertising being served up to customers is free of potential Malware.

And finally, relevant adverting. Lets face it, We've all been there, We search for product on a retail site or go to a travel site etc looking for information and then for days/weeks/months that little cookie deposited by the Website reports back to the Advertising engine on multiple Websites and our search ends up following us around the Web in a annoyingly pestering manor of "Hey buy Me"

After seeing the same ad on 10 or more Websites a day, the end user gets annoyed and activates their blocking software. Was the ad targeted to the user based on something they were seeking out? yes, but here's the problem

SMART PLATFORM DUMB ADVERTISING

Let that sink in for a second. We are on a platform that is smart enough to know We went to Amazon and searched out, maybe even purchased, a widget. After that though the dumb advertising kicks in. Advertising served up after the search is not complimentary to the original search, instead it is simply "oh hey you searched this once so here's a reminder that it's out there"

Online advertising needs to be overhauled with an algorithm that works along the line of this

Customer A searches Item 1

|

Does Customer A Purchase?

|

YES-----------------------NO

|                                    |

serve up complementary products         serve up ad for searched item

Of course the problem with deploying this algorithm is that it gets affected by the issue of consumer privacy.  So long as the information the advertising is using to target ads is the cookie that says Customer A searched Google for Item 1 advertising platforms can not offer up complementary products to a potential purchase without knowing that said purchase has been made.

In other words Amazon (or any other company) would have to understand that their ads for complementary products could only show on Websites where the user is logged in using their site ID and it would have to be disclosed to the user that their purchase history is being shared with the advertising platform.

So, there you have it readers, from My viewpoint the arms race between ads and ad blocking technology has actual ways to potentially evolve into something welcome for all parties involved, but the key is things need to evolve and that is going to take time for the companies serving ads to build enough trust with end users so that the end user feels safe and ok with the advertising they see.

Use cases for Virtual Reality on the Web

Unless you have been living under a rock the past year or so, you likely have heard of Virtual Reality based projects ranging from Oculus Rift to Sony's Playstation VR to Google's Cardboard offering and Microsoft's holoLens Augmented Reality system.

Most of these offerings have been showcased around Video Gaming, but in the last few Months Google has actually started to present the idea of embedding 360 degree images and videos into websites so that they can be viewed with or without the use of a dedicated headset.

How this is done can be explained through a dedicated white paper on how to embed and deploy this technology, but as a Web Designer I believe the more fascinating aspect of this emerging element of Web Design is how it can be deployed to better Inertial Zen Designs' clients interaction with their consumer base.

Two interesting ideas instantly come to mind, showcasing a company's actual place of business location wise or products being offered in one's place of business.

The first, showcasing one's business location, can be easily compared to a person using a service like Google Earth's Street View to see the inside of a business from a first person point of view. 

 Since the image used is basically a panoramic 360 degree capture of the place of business, it's even possible to brand this image with a company's brand or logo, effectively turning the logo as a center point and a Website's header image in one photo.

Perhaps the more exciting use case for a business is the ability to use VR View as a tool that showcases their in store product. Imagine if your customer was able to see an item in your online store and think 

"Oh I like that, but what would it look at from all angles? If I could see it from all angles I most likely would buy it"

Well, with VR View, that question is no longer one that has to go unanswered, as now they can tap on the image, slide their phone, with VR supported browser technology, into a dedicated VR helmet and they get a fully immersive 360 degree view of the item AND the ability to click one touch screen button to add the item to their online cart for checkout.

Google's VR View protocols are in their their early stages, with most articles having been released around the end of March 2016, but this new addition to the World Wide Web promises to show some very unique potential for the future of presenting information on the Internet.

A preview of how Google's VR View protocols work can be checked out at Google's Blog

How to detect Faux News posts

This morning, as I was going over the Facebook stream with My morning coffee I ran into a friend sharing up the following:


This screen capture shows what should be a fairly believable story about a car crash that was caused by the new game Pokemon Go. A short bit of research quickly returned results that show this article actually comes from a Faux News site called Cartel Press.  As these stories are becoming more and more the normal, thought it was time to actually write a bit of a guide to detecting and verifying the stories that come across our Social Media feeds.

Step 1: GOOGLE THE STORY!

If the topic of a suspected Faux News article is in fact actual news, the chances are Google will have it in their News section, and with multiple sources available. CNN, MSNBC and other news wires should also be reporting on the topic.

 However, since not all sources these days actually verify and vet their articles before sharing them, this is not a 100% one and done solution, which brings us to the next step

Step 2: GOOGLE THE WEBSITE!

In the case of our above link, We know that Cartel Press is the Website which posted up this article, but what do We know about this Website? Again, Google becomes your friend. Here is the Google Results for Cartel Press


The first thing you will notice is that Google lists this site as a “News” source, but that is not actually Google’s fault as this happens more from the back end coding of the Website and how it tells Search Engines to catalog their site. Next look at the “articles” being returned for this site.

The top one is the afore mentioned “Pokemon Go: Major Highway Accident After man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu!” story, following up on that is the article about a Pokemon Go playing Teen being stabbed and mugged for their device and then an article about claiming that login issues with Pokemon Go are the work of ISIS.

But take a look at that 4th listing under News. Specifically the Website and categories listed, It’s the old faithful source of debunking Fake News, snopes and an article that debunks the story about a Teen being stabbed.

It should also be noted that Cartel Press is actually owned by another faux news site, huzlers.com. Huzlers claims in the footer of their own website the following



So, now We have at least one case of this site going with Faux News, but lets not just leave things at this point.

Notice how the original article has a picture of this reported Highway Accident? This brings us to step 3.

Step 3: REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH ANY IMAGES IN THE ARTICLE

One of the best tools (and browser plugins) I have found for this is a site called tineye.com . Tineye allows a user to either upload an image or if they have the plugin in their browser right click and perform a reverse engine search.  As you can see by the image below, when the picture of the crash from the Pokemon Go article is reverse searched, We discover a few things


1. The combo of the Crash photo and the Pokemon Go Logo return 121 Results

2. Sorting by earliest crawl dates (the date the image first is picked up by search engines) We see that the photo of the crash actually dates back to March 2nd 2014. Meaning this image of a crash that “Just happened” is in fact over 2 years old at the time of the publication of the Pokemon Go article

3. It would appear that the first posting of this image actually is credited to the Washington Times a news paper located no less than 383 Miles away from where the story reports the crash having happened

and

4. by clicking through on the Getty images link We discover this



 this crash from 2014 actually happened on Interstate 25 in Denver Colorado with there being one fatality and 20 injuries thankfully.

Step 5: LOOK THE ARTICLE OVER FOR ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN RESEARCH

The article We have been using for the purpose of this post closes out with a line that reads

“The hashtag #dontpokemongoanddrive has since started trending on social media.”

but has it really been trending? A the time of writing this blog shows 52 instances of it on Twitter and 3 public post instances of it on Facebook, which calls into question the validity of it being a “trending hashtag”


So, there you have it people a short guide on how to Validate and Vet “News” stories online before sharing them up.

Welcoming a NEW Business (and Website) to the World

Inertial Zen Designs would like to take the time to introduce a new business (and Website!) to the Prince George BC area.

FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions 

FT Reach for the sky Behaviour Interventions was founded in June of 2016 by UNBC Alumni Florence Tsok, BSc.  Psychology with a focus for working with Children who are ranked on the Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD] to build their practiced generalization of skills  in their natural environment.

Florence brings a strong attention to detail to her professional development of programs designed to assist children with autism. She holds a powerful belief that families should be included in the development of programs and attends conferences whenever possible to better focus the programs that FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions offers to the public.

Throughout the development of her Website, Florence was very involved with the project and was very professional, making working with her very much a pleasure.

FT Reach for the Sky Behaviour Interventions can be found on the World Wide Web at ftreachforthesky.com , on Facebook at Facebook.com/ftreachforthesky and on twitter at twitter.com/_reachforthesky

Inertial Zen Designs would like to take this time to Thank Florence for choosing Us to design her Website and wish her all the best in the future.

If you would like more information about Inertial Zen Designs, you may find us at inertialzendeisgns.com or www.facebook.com/InertialZenDesigns/

Online payment options for small business

The pending Strike / Lockout (depending on which side you ask) of Canada Post could very well be a signal to small business that it is time to reconsider just how they actually handle invoicing and payment collection for their companies, and the answer is in Technology.

In an article posted on CBC's Website Small business owner Frank Baizik was quoted as saying

“"We send invoices and we receive cheques by mail,"

The fact is, this practice is no longer the only option for businesses like Mr. Baizik’s.

Modern times have brought users to a world where online transactions are easier than ever to set up and deploy through services like Square Payments, Braintree, Interac, Stripe  and Paypal.  Many of these services have their own API protocols so that it they can be integrated into an existing Website with ease and some of the services have very reasonable, if any, fees involved.

the benefits of including payment services, like the ones listed above, include the fact that a small business can actually cut out the postal service all together when it comes to invoicing and collecting payments from customers. In this article, I thought I would take a bit of time to go over some of the options available to merchants.

Interac: interact.ca

In Canada, Interac is a major player in the payment industry. They are associated with all the Major Banks and run the infrastructure on the back end of the Debit Card Market. Through the use of features like Interac’s e-Transfer service, transfers are handled through linked email addresses and once notification of a e-Transfer is acted upon the funds are in the account of the receiver almost instantly. Fees per transaction may apply through the bank processing the transfers.

Stripe stripe.com/ca

Stripe, offers the ability to implement into one’s Website payment options, however this does come with a confirmed fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Transfers are not as instant as with Interac’s service as Stripe’s website states that they do transfers on a 7-day rolling basis, and disputes, such as chargebacks, incur a fee of $15 fee unless the dispute is resolved in your favour in which case the fee is fully refunded.

Square squareup.com/ca

Square has been around since May of 2010, and was created by the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Much like Stripe, Square offers the ability to set up payments via ones Website, but offers much more. Square’s services include Payments through both online and point of sale, including the use of the Square reader which turns your iOS or Android mobile device into a payment terminal. Square also allows businesses to invoice clients online and even offers a online mobile marketplace for businesses. Invoices are sent via email and are free to send.

If your client pays via the invoice online there is a 2.75% fee incurred and funds are in your business account in one to two business days. Invoices can be generated directly from the Square app on one’s phone and emailed directly to customers.

Paypal paypal.com
Long associated as the payment method for Ebay purchases, Paypal is one of the older companies in online payment options. For businesses they have 3 tiers of payment processing options ranging from $0 /month to $35/month and a 2.9% + $0.30/transaction fee. Much like Square, they do offer the ability to produce invoices from one’s account that can be emailed to clients.

Braintree braintreepayments.com

Braintree Payments, is a subsidiary of Paypal, and much like Square and Stripe can be integrated into an existing website or app to allow for payments directly from customers. Pricing for Braintree states that the Merchant gets fee-free processing up to their first $50 thousand dollars in transactions and then there is a 2.9% + $0.30 fee / transaction

Braintree states that they work with all payment formats, including Credit/Debit cards, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Venmo payments.

Overall there are many options for handling the payments for a small business that do not rely on Canada Posts services. I hope this gives you a few options to consider that in the long term may well speed up and streamline the process of accepting payments.

Standards, when does a Designer stick to them or ignore them?

Pop quiz, You go to McDonald's and order up a Big Mac, what do you expect to find in the box alongside your fries and drink? I'm guessing you answer was something along the lines of the old Ad jingle

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, Lettus, cheese, pickles, onions on a seseme seed bun"

This has come to be expected because McDonald's has a standard of what the Big Mac is, and the end consumer has come to expect that standard when they order.

Web Designers, like McDonald's with their Big Mac, also have standards We are supposed to use when preparing Our products for the Customers. Those Standards are known as programming languages and is why, no matter the Website, using the code 

<img src="file.ext" alt="description" hight="pixels" width="pixels"> 

will result in your brower displaying a specific image exactly how it was told to display it on any device.

Any device and Standards is where the comparison to McDonald's much beloved hamburger starts to fall apart in Web Design though. You see, Web Design does indeed have a organization that is tasked to overseeing Web Standards.  That organization is the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C for short.

The W3C oversees standards for Web Design, in all forms from Websites to the Web of Devices ( which is commonly being referred to as the Internet of things, or IoT), and they do their job well except for one problem. 

Thanks to the efforts of companies like Google and Microsoft's Bing, coupled with the ever progressing changes to Mobile Computing, the Standards are not progressing at the same speed as technology does.

This, actually creates a very unique problem for Designers as on the one hand, practices of Good Design should dictate that Our final products are meeting the code requirements of these W3C overseen standards while at the same time result in lower rankings on search engines or even incompabable display of content on different browers.

In other words think of dealing with Web Standards and evolving technology like this

Imagine you have walked into McDonald's, ordered that Big Mac, got to your table and upon opening the box found a Whopper.

Customers,Tips on How to secure the services of a Web Designer

We Web Designers get it, your project is important to you as are the reasons behind your desired project, but there are times when we Web Designers have to decline projects.

Earlier today, Inertial Zen Designs received an email from a potential client, nothing unusual for a Design Company to get. Only this email was but one line of text

Hello,how are you doing today?

No signature, nothing else. Well of course, to ensure that this is an actual potential client, and in the name of what's best for business, a polite response was sent with some probing questions.  Those questions included the following:

What type of Website are you looking to have designed?

How many pages are you needing this Website to be comprised of?

When is your desired Go Live date?

And 

would you be so kind as to let Me know how you discovered Inertial Zen Designs

Of course signed with 

Regards,

David Peters, Owner Inertial Zen Designs

the result of these probing questions was an INSTANT response which a 8 point list of what the person was wanting. That list, to sum up was a request to clone another Website's layout, placing it on a desired domain (which I might state was discovered to be already registered by a third party as the person sending this email stated that they did not already have a domain), in a less than 60 day time frame and expecting all of this for a budget of less than $10,000.

Now, readers, you may have noticed a unique request in My probing questions listed above, that being asking the emailer if they would be so kind as to let Me know how they came to discover Inertial Zen Designs.  This is what is known as a Turing Test, and was added to see if this potential client was actually reading the email, a failing that was proven when the "client" asked that I get back in touch with him with 3 pieces of information including

And will like to know if you are the owner ??

The fact is We Web Designers love to hear from New Clients. Part of what makes our jobs exciting is the ability to work with people and bring their ideas to life. Web Design, however, is a very complex career. We have values and standards, and can be very selective in the projects We take on, and like any Professional We expect to be treated with respect for the skill set that we have. 

Website projects, especially ones with multiple Webpages to them, can run into the hundreds of thousands, in fact the Municipal Government of the City My offices are based out of just awarded a $130,000 CAD contract to a firm for a Redesign of the City's Website.

Web Design Companies are more than happy to help you envision your project and take it from your Mind to screens that can reach potential customers find Your products and services, but for that to happen there needs to be a team effort, and that means Respect being given from both sides.

Please, for the benefit of securing your future Web Designer have the following handy when you contact us:

1. Contact Information

    We Designers love to know who we are going to be working with.

2. Summary of desired project

    Details help us envision your project.

3. Make sure that the domain you desire is available 

   Logos, Headers, Content and Search Engine Optimization all end up being tied and referencing your domain name in many ways. if your domain name is not available it can back up a project causing additional costs and the missing of your Go Live date.

4. Have your content and media ready for Us.

  Without content and media, your customers have NOTHING to read, also much like having your domain name secured, it limits the delays and saves your budget having these details ready

5.Evaluate your Budget and Time Frame / Go Live Date

 Web Design projects, like the one mentioned above, are usually billed by the hour with most Designers charging between $45 to $60 an hour minimum. 

This means that project can take around 2,167 to 2,889 man hours (around 54 to 72 weeks) For a project in the $10,000 range, you can expect a Website to take around 167 to 223 man hours (or 4 to 5 weeks ) to be designed

Keeping all this in mind up front will give you, the client, better chances of securing a Web Designer while allowing We, the Designers, the best chances of bringing your vision to life.

INERTIALZENDESIGNS.COM IS DOWN, WORKING ON FIX

Oh, the headaches of owning a small business. Sometime yesterday, there appears to have been an issue with the Website for Inertial Zen Designs.

Here's what I know, Domain Registering Company GoDaddy is indeed having issues, and it appears that instead of pointing to where the site should be, it is pointing somewhere else. What this means is that if customers go to the Website they will find it DOWN.

At this point, I do not have a timeline for when things will be back up and running, but am looking into things and hopefully will be back online soon. Thank you all for your patience in this matter, and rest assured, even though the Domain is not currently resolving, the Website can still be accessed through the temporary address of

http://izd.bugs3.com/index.html

International rulings and social media

Social Media, since the early days of services like Myspace and Yahoo 360, through to the modern sites like Facebook, Linked in and Google Plus have all worked using a basic common theory.

The site works better with more contacts 


To make this concept work a simple premise was put into action. Users were able to upload their contact lists to servers for a cross check of their friends. If your friend was already on the service a button is offered to let you request a friendship, however if they were not, then you could invite them to join.

A decision in Germany ( Article ) has now put this very concept at risk as a Judge has upheld two prior decisions that found Facebook's Friend Finder feature illegal on the grounds that sending a invite to join is unsolicited electronic communications (or as it is more commonly known as, Spam).

Now, at first though, one might be wondering just why a ruling in Germany is of any concern to a user of Social Media in Canada. This is a honest and fair question to be wondering, the answer, however is going to most likely surprise you as it comes down to one law currently in place in Canada

C.A.S.L.

CASL (info ) stands for the Canadian Anti Spam Law, which came into service in July of 2014, and actually holds people accountable with fines for reported unsolicited electronic communications. the fines are tired so that if the average consumer or privately owned business is reported to the CRTC and can not prove implied or express consent has been given up to $1,000,000.00 is issued. If the communication is from a Corporation the amount goes up to potentially $10,000,000.00 per violation.

As the ever evolving nature of the Internet continues to change, so to will laws like CASL, and decisions like the one made in Germany are going to be looked at as road maps into how these type of services are handled in relation to the future of User Privacy on a Global scale.

Tips to vetting and varifying fake Social Media Posts

Social Media can be a great and wonderful way to get information out to Friends and Family quickly, unfortunately it also is a place with plenty of false and misleading messages. Messages that have been posted with the intent of getting a message across, that is if they are posted with good intent. 

The problem with a lot of these messages is that many are shared with inaccurate information, and some are even flat out lies being released into the wild in order tug on heart strings, and in the process evoke a response based off of either fear or a sense of social responsibility  that leads to them being shared.

Today I thought it might be helpful to write up a post with some tips on ways one can validate posts before sharing.

1. CHECK THE SOURCE

Every post out there has a source and be it that story on the negative aspects of a product, or that click bate style headline that reads something along the lines of 

“this mother poured milk into a sock, why she did it will amaze you” 

One thing will be in common, it will have a source. 

So, how does one check the source? Well the odds are if the post is on one of your Social Media sites, they have a page or profile that you can track back to.  Heading back to the origin page will allow you to get some insight into who is posting and as such will allow you to ask questions like

“Why does this page want to post this?”

“Is the history of their posts consistent?”

“What do they benefit from the topic of the post?”

2. SEARCH THE TITLE

Every modern Web Browser has the ability to use the mouse, trackpad or finger in order to highlight text. Use this feature to your advantage and run the title or topic of a post through Google or Bing.  Searching titles or topics will let you find any news articles or blog posts that support or debunk the topic.  Failing to have an actual topic can bring us to  the next point

3. SNOPES, HOAX-SLAYER AND THAT’S NONSENSE

If one can’t find a specific title for a post, the next best thing is to scan a post for any of the following

1. A date

2. A company

3. A City

4. A Celebrity 

basically any person place or thing which you can then place in the search window at Snopes.com hoax-slayer.com or thatsnonsense.com, all sites which do a wonderful job of curating details on social media hoaxes

and 

4. REVERSE SEARCH THE PHOTO

If you happen to be using Google’s Chrome browser this is as easy as right clicking on a image and selecting search Google for this image. However if you are looking for an even deeper search, as in the case of those Bill Gates “Share and get Money” images, you can either install a plug in called Tin Eye or go to Tineye.com and point it’s search to the address of the image.

Using Tin Eye’s search will not only tell you where else the photo is, but allow you to sort results by biggest change, oldest posting and other features.

Of course, the most important thing when you come across a story that has been proven as fake is to let others know. Never hesitate to share a short note with links that support it being such.

While some may get mad at you because they feel stupid for it being pointed out that they shared a fake story, the majority of users in My experience, is that most are glad you did.

iOS Data Saving should not stop with turning off Wi-Fi Assist

With the release of iOS 9 many articles have been written about turning off Wi-fi Assist, and they all are relative when it comes to helping save you’re Cellular Data usage. 

For a quick refresher on this part of thing, the instructions on turning off Wi-fi Assist is as simple as 

settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist and make sure the toggle is not green, as seen in this image

However, while you, the user, are in the Cellular menu, this might be a good time to also do a full audit of just what does use Cellular Data on an app by app basis

As you can see in this image below, A number of your Apps all have the available option to use your data or turn it off so that it only connects when on Wi-Fi, with each App having it’s own toggle switch. 

This allows one to see not only which apps are using Data, but if you have an app that you know you do not use when out of the house or office you can turn off Data while keeping the option to reactivate Data when needed. A good example of this from the image being the Chromecast app.

As the Chromecast App is used to control one’s Chromecast device on their home Wi-Fi network, it really serves no purpose having Cellular Data information turned on.

So, go ahead, take a moment to audit your Data permissions on your iOS device and I think you will find some savings to your Data usage.