What's wrong with JavaScript? Nothing at all! I personally love the language. However, by most estimates, approximately 7 percent of site visitors have it disabled and on those browsers JavaScript menus do not work. Some browsers even install with JavaScript disabled as the default option; that's because of abuse by cyber criminals. You're not subject to that vulnerability if you use my JavaScript on your site; you know where to find me. However, you are very much at risk if you exchange links with other sites giving them the opportunity to pipe in malicious code.

In addition to the small percentile which have JavaScript completely disabled, there is an even smaller group which uses security plugins in their browser to selectively enable scripting options specifically by website. I personally take this approach; it's a good thing to do.

There is nothing wrong with Microsoft's coding platforms; I've personally invested a lot of money in them. There are a couple of things you should know if you take these approaches. First, generally speaking, these coding solutions will only run with complete reliability on a Windows Server host with Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Server) serving up the website. There is a product called Chilisoft which parses ASP and delivers server side content written in Visual Basic. In addition to ASP, there are Linux counterparts to serve up .NET; my position is that it always leads to problems when you mix too many technologies. I have no experience with Chilisoft which runs on Linux hosts, but I know that historically there have always been problems with products which emulate Microsoft platforms.

The second problem is that when you host on a Microsoft server, it's going to cost more in monthly fees. Remember that the hosting costs are recurring fees. It is true that in recent years the cost difference between a Linux server running Apache web server and a Windows server running IIS has narrowed, but there is still a higher cost to host on a Windows server. If you're wondering about platform reliability, most companies selling web usage statistical analysis services are agreed that approximately 80% of the websites in the world are hosted on Linux boxes running Apache web server. Part of the reason for this lopsided figure is that not every nations citizens have the resources to pay Microsoft licensing and purchase the rather expensive development environments, let alone run Windows servers on the world wide web.

I can give you anything you want technically speaking with the tools I have now; databases, flawless navigation, error and warning free code and standards compliant xhtml & CSS. If you insist on the admittedly gorgeous eye candy of some of these solutions you will have to pay the licensing fees. You might consider paying for a graphical package such as those available from Pollyanna graphics or similar sites which have designer packages containing everything you need from buttons for your menu, background images, page header & footer images etc. in a variety of themes. Note that I have no affiliation with Pollyanna Graphics.

Any web site I design starts with every page 100% W3C verified; zero errors and warnings on XML and XHTML and CSS style sheets. Believe me, 100% compliance on every page is rare even for large companies with big budgets. In a perfect world you would keep this standard enforced when you begin to make your own changes; in reality you will probably bend the rules a little. If you start with 100% compliance, it makes it easier to weld in your favorite old content. If something goes wrong you know exactly what it is.

My work paradigm is to get it right and keep it right to avoid unnecessary future maintenance. What this strategy will mean to you is that your customers can do several operating system and/or browser upgrades with no degradation of content delivery on your site; that makes us both look good.

I start by coding websites to 100% W3C compliance with zero warnings or errors. After that is achieved I test on Linux, Solaris, OpenSolaris using Apache2 web server and all available active browsers. Then I test on a Windows server using Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) again using all actively developed browsers including FireFox, Opera, Safari (only available for Mac/Windows), Konqueror, MSIE 7.x/8.x, Flock, AOL Browser, Google Chrome (Windows only at this time but I am on the waiting list for the Linux version).

I no longer do extensive testing with Netscape, Mozilla classic or any other browser officially not being actively developed. I'm still testing SeaMonkey at this time though their dependencies are falling behind the curve; this means if they don't advance soon, I'll have to stop testing because the older libraries they require sometimes run afoul of absolutely necessary software which requires the newer libraries. Running multiple versions of base libraries is maintenance intensive.

Here is the fine print. Contact me with any other questions

• For ALL Sites, basic pricing does NOT include:
  • Domain Registration Fees: Average cost about $12.00 per year
  • Monthly Hosting Cost: Economy Hosting is about $4 monthly
  • Photography services; I'm not a photographer or graphics designer
    • I will take a few digital photos for you & touch up as follows
      • remove redeye from any digital images you have
      • Attempt to lighten shadows or shade bright areas
      • common formats including .jpg, .png, .gif etc. included
      • Scaled Vector Graphics images are $100 extra
    • We need to agree on the number of photos involved
  • Web site advertising or promotion. I don't do this
    • Effective advertising is a science in itself
    • Be careful of the scam advertising artists; they abound
    Click to see a few advertising cautions
  • Excess bandwidth usage: Godaddy's Economy Hosting includes 300 GB Transfer
  • Excess disk space: Economy Hosting includes 10 GB; usually sufficient for site & data
  • Excess Email Accounts: Most hosting includes 100 Email Accounts; buy more if you need them.
  • More databases than you can probably keep up with.
    • 10 MySQL Databases are included with Godaddy's Economy hosting
    • If you actually need more than that, call me and we can work up a team.

Affordable plans for everyone - and you can pay it out