FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
GENERAL QUESTIONS
TECHNICAL PROGRAMMING QUESTIONS
TECHNICAL SOFTWARE QUESTIONS
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. We don't understand this techie stuff, do you speak English?
Yes, you'll be pleased to know we do speak English, and strive to explain everything to our clients in plain English rather than advanced Geekspeak. Confusing clients is a bad thing in our book. We prefer straightforward talking.
2. So how much experience do you really have?
All the CyberThinc technical team have been using the web since 1993, and developing websites since 1994. We'd say that that pretty much places us amongst the most experienced around when it comes to web knowledge. The team all have Internet experience dating back to the 1980's too, and some of the team have online video experience dating from 1996. Put it this way, unlike so many website creators today, we didn't just pick up a "Blag it as a website creator in a week" book, or get a web editing package and call ourselves experts. If we have expertise in any discipline, it is because we have been doing this a long time, have a lot of experience, we write the code ourselves, from the ground up, and we have an intimate knowledge of what we are doing.
3. Are you really ex rocket scientists?
Yes, some of the team are, and some still indulge in rocket science on a part time basis. Note, we're talking real flames and smoke, big whoosh rocket science here, not city whiz kids who are described as rocket scientists, but frequently, don't have to know the pointy end from the hot, flamey end of a rocket. We've done deep space missions (
well, out as far as Mars, anyway), now we do websites and consultancy. Believe us, it's safer.
4. Why aren't there many pretty pictures on this website?
Because this website was written for functionality, not for pretty pictures - we do have a few pictures though. This website is designed to download fast, and provide relevant content to visitors, fast. No hanging about, it's not good for you, it's not good for us.
There are some websites where pretty pictures are appropriate, but this website was written as a content rich website, with useful technical information. As such, there has not been a need for much in the way of pretty pictures. If anything, for a website such as this one, they would detract from the content.
5. Why do you have links to other websites? I thought links on a company website are unprofessional.
Really? Actually, this myth has been around for a long while now, and was probably started by someone who has never read a website log file. Reciprocal links are like networking in the real, physical world. Links are an excellent way to drive traffic to a website, and if you want people to see a website, then you need traffic to come to the website.
6. Why aren't there prices on the CyberThinc website?
Because each client is unique, and as such, we consider each project on a case-by-case basis. We can provide guideline figures. Contact us with your requirements.
TECHNICAL PROGRAMMING QUESTIONS
7. Why isn't there any Flash on this website?
Because, in this instance, there is no need. Adding extraneous features, or esoteric technologies for the sake of it, or to show off, would not improve your download experience. In fact, you'd be more likely to go elsewhere, and that would be a bad thing (well for us, anyway).
Also, from a search engine point of view, Flash is inpenetrable. From an online marketing / web traffic volume point of view, this is disasterous, since it means that it adversely effects search engine rankings, and consequently will hinder a website, rather than help a website.
We read our web log files, and maintain our client's web log files (some of whom, have requested Flash), so we get to see how many people actually go elsewhere when confronted with Flash. We do use Flash sometimes - and deployed properly, it can be amazingly useful. We believe there is a big place for technologies such as Flash, it is just that it needs to be used intelligently rather than for Flash's sake. Enormous Flash movies on front pages of websites, is not, in our view, intelligent.
8. Why isn't there any Javascript on this website?
Actually, the JavaScript on this website is there, and is mainly in the form of JavaScript libraries. As with the previous question, we have not used JavaScript extensively, because there is no need. We used to have quite a bit of Javascript on this website, but for what this website is about (conveying information), it didn't really add to the visitor experience. Consequently, we felt that removing Javascript, replacing it with similar functionality using Cascading Style Sheets, & reducing page size to reduce download time was more beneficial to our visitors. We do still use JavaScript on some of our client's websites, most notably where they want a rich Web 2.0 style experience, with technologies such as AJAX, but like with Flash, it depends on the application and the relevance.
9. Why are the pages so narrow?
Because we like them like that! Actually, there are other practical reasons too. Because of the information section on the CyberThinc website, the website has often been viewed "in the field" on laptops and notebook PCs. Because mobile computing tends to mean smaller screen displays (800 x 600 and 640 x 480), we decided to standardise on a web page that would not dynamically scale a page to look all squashed up, or need to be horizontally scrolled to see all the information, whilst still looking reasonable. Making the page fit comfortably on an 800 pixel wide screen meant it would fit on the smaller screen whilst still looking effective on a larger screen.
10. Why the emphasis on the Perl programming language in the information section?
Just circumstances mainly. Much of the work we have done on websites has been written in either Perl or php with MySQL and Oracle as the database backends, and Apache as the webserver, so it made sense to provide some information on at least one of the programming /scripting languages used. If we had written most of our code in the C programming language, then we would, no doubt, have had more information on C.
11. So which programming language would you recommend for writing web applications?
We wouldn't recommend any programming language without knowing the purpose of an application. It is a bit of a "
how long is a piece of string?" question. Every application is different, and needs to be considered on its merits.
TECHNICAL SOFTWARE QUESTIONS
12. Do you recommend any Web Browsers?
Mozilla Firefox, also just known as Firefox, is the CyberThinc web browser of choice. It is fast, reliable, and allows web browsing without the annoying popups that web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer are plagued by. CyberThinc have been using the Firefox web browser back through its previous incarnations of the Firebird web browser and the Phoenix web browser. It has made remarkable progress in terms of stability, security and speed, and is also far more standards compliant than web browsers such as Internet Explorer. We also make considerable use of the Opera Web Browser too. Opera has suffered from being the underdog to some extent, due to the large amount of publicity attained by other web browsers, but it is still an exceptionally good web browser.
13. Do you recommend any operating systems?
The CyberThinc team tend to use the Linux Operating System most of the time (
for website development, programming, engineering and testing, email, project management, graphics creation, office tasks), with video and music production generally carried out using Microsoft's Windows XP Operating System or Apple OS X.
The reasons for this are numerous;
Firstly, Linux is generally a far more secure operating system, so when other companies computer systems are crashing under the effect of computer viruses and computer worms, as well as spyware or malware, CyberThinc tends to remain mercifully unaffected. This is not only important for us maintaining our business, but also for peace of mind for our clients.
Secondly, Linux is generally a far more reliable and robust operating system, meaning that computer crashes are generally rare occurrences. Again, this is a major plus factor for us when we are busy trying to meet deadlines - we need to be confident that our systems will remain stable and reliable.
Thirdly, costs and licencing. Linux is an Open Source Operating System and is available for free download, and a large amount of the software that runs on Linux is also Open Source and is also available for free download, this means we are not subject to licencing problems or costs, so we can pass on our savings direct to our customers.
If we didn't have the option of using Linux for day to day operations, our next option would be to use Apple's OS X.
14. Do you recommend any Web Servers?
CyberThinc use the Apache Web Server running on Linux. CyberThinc have traditionally used Apache, and intend to continue using Apache. Apache is the most widely used web server in the world, is very reliable and robust, and as a consequence, we believe it makes good business sense to use Apache. We do also have experience of other web servers such as Microsoft's IIS, but we prefer and recommend the Apache web server.
15. What computer hardware do you use?
Everything apart from the kitchen sink (
although if we had time to network the kitchen sink, we'd probably use that too). CyberThinc have Intel based PC's running Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95 as well as Apple Macs and Sun Workstations, and an ARM based Gumstix embedded Linux development computer the size of a stick of chewing gum!
We also have a whole range of mobile hardware for testing as well, ranging from Psions through Palms, Windows CE to Symbian based Smartphones. To summarise, we've got a very capable test and development environment.