Updates Archives

Communities: Ukraine

We all are part of various communities — clubs, family, neighborhoods and work. Sometimes communities are social, purposeful, or just because there is a commonality — sometimes we help – sometimes we ask for help.

Right now one of our communities, technology experts from Ukraine, is in circumstances I can’t fully fathom but I know we should do what we can to help. I think of all the developers and IT specialists who are unable to work right now as they are protecting their lives — but I also imagine they are wondering what will happen to their job. The other side of this equation is the challenge this must be causing for those companies that are struggling to maintain their work, create new projects and serve their customers.

Here’s how we will help with the goal of helping Ukrainian developers be able to return to their work.

When we agree to take on a job from those in a war torn region, we ask that they return the work back to original techs once they are able to do so. We also be proactive with the technologists pass back the work the moment they are ready. In this way we act as a project caretaker and not a project taker.

If you need assistance whether technologist or client, let us know how we can help during this distressing time. Let me know how we can help: dreambig@dreamwarrior.com

To my technology friends and competitors: please think about jumping in to do the same. Not so that we can gain work but so that we can help our communities displaced by war.

~LaMae

WebP and the Impact on Site Speed

With the permanent introduction of the latest site speed parameters into google’s Search Algorithm (Nov 2021), it is more important than ever to speed up your website.

If you want high quality images while speeding up your website, then you should then care about WebP image format. WebP is a hybrid of the PNG and JPEG features and makes websites lighter and faster.

The advantages of WebP over JPEG and PNG are many. For example, WebP includes a more aggressive and better optimized compression algorithm than JPG and PNG with the goal of minimizing file sizes while still providing acceptable quality. As a result, websites that use WebP will load faster and require less bandwidth. In terms of size, WebP lossless photos are 26% smaller than comparable PNGs.

Lossless WebP supports transparency. Transparency is supported by lossy RGB compression, which often results in 3x smaller file sizes than PNG. Lossless WebP compression utilizes visible image augments in order to exactly reconstruct new pixels. It can also use a local palette, if no interesting match is found.

Lossy (2) WebP compression, like the VP8 video codec’s keyframe compression, encodes an image using predictive coding. The values in adjacent blocks of pixels are used to predict the values in a block, and only the difference is encoded.

The WebP image format is supported by Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and many other tools and software libraries. You may modify WebP files using graphics applications like GIMP, ImageMagick, or Microsoft Paint that natively support the WebP format. There are several online tools we can use to convert our JPGs, PNGs, and other file formats to WebP. There are undoubtedly more to come.

Squoosh – Online image compression and conversion
Online-Convert.com – Online image conversion

WebP offers improved lossless and reduced-quality compression for online images. Web developers and webmasters may use WebP to create smaller, richer pictures that improve the performance of their websites. WebP is good for your site load time and thus good for SEO. You can use WebP to make images that are identical in quality to their JPEG and PNG counterparts, but without the size limitations – resulting in faster loading times for your visitors while maintaining comparable visual quality.

1) Please read our article from January 6th, 2021 regarding Semantic Web (https://thedwgblog.com/what-is-semantic-search-and-what-is-the-context-in-todays-seo/)

2) Lossy vs lossless image compression: Lossy compression permanently removes some of the image data due to compression while lossless doesn’t distort image quality by compressing it, instead it removes non-essential information.

TB We haven’t changed and that is OK

During my annual computer ‘refresh’, I ran across some old content. I smiled when I saw the below – happy to still put customers first. — LaMae
(ok – so our writing style has changed a bit – that’s ok too)

As a leading Los Angeles based web design company with global web development offices, we are committed to maintaining a one on one relationship with you and providing a team you can count on right here at home. We are dedicated to creating an environment of trust that will keep your project moving, on time and on budget.

We understand that along with being one of LA’s top web design companies, comes our responsibility to assure that our design is inextricably balanced with functionality. Whether we are designing an eCommerce site or the latest app, we will make sure our creative team delivers your message with style and ease of use.

Whether we are designing and launching a new website or app, our Los Angeles team of web developers, marketing hot shots, and analytic gurus will arm you with an integrated marketing strategy that will achieve your goals.

Whether we are designing an app to interpret whole-genome sequence data and identify disease-related mutations, programming an image recognition platform, or connect a plethora of social media platforms in a single application, our team of technology mavericks is working 24-7 to bring innovation and functionality to everything we do.

While the “rules” keep on changing, you don’t need to worry about that, we will stay on top of them for you, making sure your website is found by people who are relevant to your business and likely to use your services.

If there is not a software out there that can meet the needs of our client, we create it. We have programmed and customized software specifically for the unique requirements of many of our customers.

Long before World Wide Web, software development has been an integral part of our business. We created software for devices ranging from etching equipment, to movie data management. Please take a look at one our best wares – ARTdynamix for a glimpse of what is possible.

Mother of Invention

If there has ever been a necessity, it was 2020.

We all have lots of stories, ours includes knee surgeries, burglary and our need to quickly help our clients with some technologies they never thought they would need, but had become their new paradigm.

Technology brought us many great things in 2020. And it was more than medical-related items – although medical technologists made so many things possible.

Looking closer to our own work, zoom expanded capacity and improved its security quickly. Desktop and web streaming technologies, and services bloomed and became a life saver. Over ten months ago, we did an article LinkedIn about an interesting read on a new technology that was saving live symphonic music. The article referred to Dan Tepfer and Michael Dessen who had worked with a decade-old open-source software – JackTrip – which due to necessity was coming to its own.

To quote NPR, “[…] when it comes to playing music online with any kind of rhythmic integrity, latency quickly becomes a total dealbreaker […] The solution: an open-source software called JackTrip, developed by Stanford University researchers Chris Chafe and Juan-Pablo Cáceres over a decade ago, that can transfer high quality audio data across the Internet at low enough latencies, within a geographic radius, to mimic someone playing music roughly 30 feet away […]”

Full circle I just read a series of new articles about the JackTrip Foundation which was helping singers and musicians collaborate online. The little engine that could has proven mighty and is going strong.

This was only one of the many stories of technological accomplishments in face of the dreaded 2020. During the same period, we worked with Clients and friends to bring quality live performance to the public: from simplicity of using DaCast, to the more complex Kaltura, to Isadora or OBS with zoom, and for many others using OBS with Youtube or Vimeo and even a couple of other very esoteric combinations that proved themselves.

And while we helping clients with their web streaming, we had to jump on the bandwagon and build up and expand on the technology behind our systems. Stay tuned for the next release of ARTdynamix™ which will knock your socks off.

-LaMae

Breaking up or Together Forever?

I (LaMae) have probably advised you on vendors, set-ups or other miscellaneous curiosities. I’m always happy to chat and advocate for you.

One of the things we talk about most often is how to determine vendors and whether to use a vendor with packaged services or purchase the services individually. My answer still remains -keep them separate. But when you consider how to make that decision, think about control, integration, and cost. I’ll offer some examples that may help.

Credit Card Processing: As you know, you will need a Merchant Account, a Gateway, Bank Account, and a form/cart/shopping tool. You have the option to use an integrated service such as Stripe and quickly add your bank account and that can work great. Or you can put things together on your own, work a bit more upfront and pay less over time. I have selected our gateway provider and merchant processor separately and then linked them together. Why? So if one doesn’t work out, I can quickly find a replacement to connect in and I have not lost a minute. If I purchase everything together, I feel a bit at the other’s mercy. If an all-in processor turns out not to work as expected, you have to start all over.

Domains: Always own and keep access to your own domain — end of the story. (I’ve spent hours and hours helping folks untangle domain ownership)

So with these examples in mind, here are my general guidelines

Make sure control is key — you should own what is yours and have an understanding of what an exit path may be.
How much work is it to change…both from figuring it out and the actual changes needed.
Read reviews
Ask an expert

And for the cost decision — that will probably become clear when you review the above items. Technology is becoming more flexible, interchangeable, and cost-effective.

Compare apples to apples and do your homework.