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JVF Consulting believes in social networking and uses it as a tool to receive feedback from our customers. In order for us to share links with our Twitter followers and Facebook fans we use a web service tool called Bit.ly. Bit.ly is URL shortener which reduces the URL length and allows us to track the amount of clicks each link has received in order us to calculate our analytics and conversation rates. As of recently bit.ly has not been displaying the number of clicks in Firefox browsers on Windows computers. Apple computers running Firefox render the page just fine and the amount of clicks are visible.

With Firefox being the choice and default browser for JVF it makes us rather frustrated that bit.ly has not corrected this issue. In the screenshots below you can see the number of clicks is missing for each link. We have tested this several Windows machines running the latest Firefox 3.6 and we get the same results, Bi.ly does not work with Firefox!

We’re going to admit something kind of geeky. JVF really likes favicons. They’re not only fun, but it’s a great way to make a website stand out and give it a creative edge. Favicons allow your visitors to create a visual connection with your site and act as great branding tool. When JVF deploys a custom website, we make sure every aspect is dialed in before we deploy it, that means the addition of a custom favicon.

Favicons are also known as a website icon, shortcut icon, url icon, or bookmark icon. They’re a 16x16 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage. The favicon is displayed in your browser's address bar, bookmarks & favorites list, tabs and even desktop shortcuts to web pages. Below are some of the custom favicons we have created for our customers that we would like to share with you.

• JVF Consulting
• Dream It Events
• Free Gold Watch
• Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association
• Your Dogs Treats
• SwampDonky
• Healthy Hot Girl
• Hey Cheri
•  A Quality Heating & Air
• Imperial Sales Company
• Gianelli's Events
• Francisca Club
• California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance
• Center For Produce Safety
• Brake Stop Auto Services
• Broder Jewelry
• The Brentwood Insider
• Bagwell Construction
• Summers & Sons
• Peter Bruce Wedding Photography
• Jumpness
• Holliday Weddings
• HotSpot Tax Services

The following is a guide for those folks that want to setup a proper development environment for building out a Magneto cart on your local windows box. I’m one of those old school developers that like’s to have a multi-phased approach when it comes to developing, testing and deploying a website. The first step of this process is to get your local windows development box setup to properly run the MySQL Database, the Apache Web server and most importantly trick your machine into believing it’s the actual server that hosts the domain.

Now, we’ve checked online and seen a bunch of places saying that this is not possible and to have Magento working on a Windows box and that you need to install Ubuntu to get this working. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and just adds unneeded complexity. So let’s keep it as simple as possible.

1. Download the XAMPP from Apache Friends: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. We’re currently using XAMPP Version 1.6.6a, however, feel free to use the latest. Which has some differences and some Apache/MySQL extensions turned on default, but it will all work the same.
   1. It’s a very simple install and you can follow the instructions without really changing any of the defaults. However, for the sake of this document, we’ll change the install directory to the use the original settings that XAMPP used to come with and install to:
      1. C:\apachefriends\xampp
2. Once XAMPP is installed, we’ll need to setup our environment to handle multiple site development as well as for properly running Magento. We’re a web development shop, so we find that we need to work on multiple sites as once to properly support our customers.
   1. For the purpose of this document, we’ll be building out a website for CleanEase.
      1. Navigate out to your “C:\apachefriends\xampp\htdocs” directory and create the new “cleanease” folder:
         
3. We’ll then need to make sure that both the Apache & MySQL environments are setup for what Magento needs.
   1. MySQL
      1. We’ll need to edit the configuration files to support the InnoDB transactional storage engine otherwise you’ll get nowhere fast. Navigate out to your local my.cnf file found at: C:\apachefriends\xampp\mysql\bin\my.cnf. Open this up into your text editor of choice and make sure that the InnoDB settings are not commented out. It should looks something like this:
         1. # Comment the following if you are using InnoDB tables
            #skip-innodb
            innodb_data_home_dir = "C:/apachefriends/xampp/mysql/"
            innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend
            innodb_log_group_home_dir = "C:/apachefriends/xampp/mysql/"
            innodb_log_arch_dir = "C:/apachefriends/xampp/mysql/"
            ## You can set .._buffer_pool_size up to 50 - 80 %
            ## of RAM but beware of setting memory usage too high
            innodb_buffer_pool_size = 16M
            innodb_additional_mem_pool_size = 2M
            ## Set .._log_file_size to 25 % of buffer pool size
            innodb_log_file_size = 5M
            innodb_log_buffer_size = 8M
            innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 1
            innodb_lock_wait_timeout = 50
         2. Make sure that the “skip-innodb” line is commented out, but all the other settings can use the defaults that are already specified. Save and close the file.
      2. We usually have MySQL installed as a service, so get into your Services Control Panel and restart it:
         
   2. Apache
      1. Configuring the php.ini file
         1. We’ll need to enable a few extensions for Magento to work properly. To do this, open up your php.ini file. The version of XAMPP we use (Version 1.6.6a ) has two php.ini files, however, the one that is really used by the web server is found in the Apache bin directory:
            1. C:\apachefriends\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini
               1. Note: On the newer version of XAMPP, we’ve found that they’ve finally cleaned things up and only have one php.ini file found in C:\apachefriends\xampp\php\php.ini. So please make sure to update this file.
         2. Make sure the following extensions are active. Meaning, that you just need to remove the “;” (semi-colon) character out from in front of it:
            1. extension=php_mcrypt.dll
               extension=php_curl.dll
               extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll
               extension=php_pdo.dll
      2. Configuring the httpd.conf file
         1. You’ll find this file located at:
            1. C:\apachefriends\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf
         2. Enable URL rewrites:
            1. You can do this by remove the “#” hash character in front of the following line:
               1. LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
         3. Change the Document Root to point to the website you wish to work on, in this case, we want to change this to the CleanEase project:
            1. DocumentRoot "C:/apachefriends/xampp/htdocs/cleanease"
            2. IMPORTANT: This is the best way to go about installing a local version of Magento on your box and will allow you to easily deploy this out to your production environment without having to jump through a bunch of extra hoops.
      3. We usually have Apache installed as a service, so get into your Services Control Panel and restart it:
         
4. Next, go out and download Magento, you can find the No Registration download page here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/download/noregister. Make sure to get the “Full Release - stable version” download and don’t mess around with the other ones, I’ve found that they just lead you down the wrong path and take far too long for an install process. For this document, we’re using version 1.3.2.4, which we downloaded on 2/10/2010 and now I see another version 1.4.0.0 as of 2/12/2010. Why do these guys put out so many releases so quickly?
   
5. Once this is downloaded, you’ll want to exact the zip file into the CleanEase folder: C:\apachefriends\xampp\htdocs\cleanease.
   
   
   As you can see from the files in the zip, it will still extract them to a “magento” folder, so we’ll just need to move all of those files one level up:
   
6. Setting up your “hosts” file
   1. This is the most IMPORTANT step throughout all of this process. Without this step, the cookies of the Magento install will not work properly and the database will not properly install when going through the Magento setup.
   2. You can find your local “hosts” file in the following location:
      1. C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
         1. There is no file extension, but you can easily open this in Notepad or any text editor.
   3. Make sure to add the following domain entry to point to your localhost IP address:
      1. 127.0.0.1 www.cleanease.com
      2. It’ll look something like this:
         
   4. Save the file
7. Create an empty database called “cleanease” within your phpMyAdmin instance:
   
8. Now that you’ve done all the setup, it’s now time to hit your local instance via your favorite web browser to start the Magento Installation Wizard. Open up the www.cleanease.com website in your browser, and if you did all the above setup correctly, you’ll see the first part of the Magento installation screen:
   1. 
   2. Feel free to use the default settings for the Localization:
      
   3. Make sure to enter in the “cleanease” database name, check also check the following:
      1. Skip Base URL validation before next step
      2. Use Web Server (Apache) Rewrites
      3. 
   4. This part of the process will take a bit of time as its building out the database and setting up your environment. However, if all works well, it will take to the final step of the wizard to create the administrator user:
      

Once you get through this portion, it will ask you if you want to go visit the frontend or login to the backend. Feel free to login to the backend to start setting things up. A few things to note:

• You can always use a different domain, it would be best to use the one you wish to ultimately install to.
• In addition, you can use any database name or directory name you wish, but just make sure you use ones that are consistent with the domain name so you can easily track them.
• Make sure to edit your httpd.conf file, specifically the DocumentRoot value to the directory you wish to run your other Magento instances.

Now that we’ve got this process down, we can finally use proven development techniques to get our websites looking exactly the way our clients want on our local boxes before we move them to production.

Enjoy!

With the increasing variety of farming management software available to you, how do you decide which system best fits your farming operation? The SureHarvest whitepaper provides a sample request for information as guidance for evaluating which farming data management system will be most relevant to your needs.

SureHarvest provides a full set of solutions for growers and agrifood companies pursuing sustainability strategies through farming management software, sustainability management software, sustainability consulting services and third-party sustainability certification throughout the agrifood supply chain. To evaluate and determine which farming management software system is right for your business, complete the form located on the SureHarvest download page. Once completed you will be prompted to download the SureHarvest whitepaper. This whitepaper is a comprehensive tool for designing a request for information to submit to vendors that will give you a way to evaluate which products will best serve your needs for farming data management and decision-analysis.

Since 1999, SureHarvest has helped growers farming a total of over 300,000 acres to improve profitability by increasing efficiencies, enhancing product quality and practicing environmental stewardship. While many farmers keep good records of their farming activities, SureHarvest provides a workflow process to improve efficiencies and decision-analysis reports to measure if farming practices are yielding intended results and achieving economic sustainability.

First off, the shadowbox.js library is an amazing tool in our arsenal. It’s pretty light weight and adds a really nice touch when displaying images. After reading up on the different usage and options that it supports, I found out that it can easily support any content by utilizing the iframe player built into the runtime. If you want to pop open a nice window to a link, you can use a version of the function below. All this will do is open a 640x480 window with the given URL passed into the function.

  function OpeniFrameURL(url) {
    Shadowbox.open({
      content: url,
      player:  "iframe",
      height:  480,
      width:   640
    });
  }

Now, one thing I noticed by using this approach was that there was a lag while showing the content after the shadowbox window opened up. I had just built a carousel video player for our JVF homepage and wanted the videos to pop open quickly and start playing fast. So it was bugging me that I could hit the flash player webpage links directly and they would play within 2-3 seconds, however, each time I loaded that same URL into shadowbox it would take 8-10 seconds.

I tinkered around with the “options” a bit, even turned off all animation and it would still take the same 8-10 seconds to load. I decided to jump into the JavaScript to see how I could speed things up. With shadowbox, they have this hook to make a nice transition into the player, however, it requires setting the URL to the iFrame after the object is loaded. This was ultimately the root of the lag issue.

The file that you’ll need to find is shadowbox-iframe.js and is found in the players directory within the shadowbox library. The first thing you’ll notice is that the file has been reduced by removing all the white space, which makes it quick to load, but annoying to maintain. Do a quick search for the beginning of the “src attribute upfront:

src="'+this.obj.content+'"

Now, to ensure that we don’t double load the content, cause a flicker and introduce more lag, let’s make sure to remove the original call on onLoad event. To solve this, look for the following text “b.location.href=this.obj.content” and comment it out:

/*b.location.href=this.obj.content*/

This fix was able to cut our load time in half! Give it a try and see if this helps speed up your own dynamic content. Enjoy!

CCSW-Certified is short for Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, a certification program that provides third-party verification of a winery or vineyard’s adherence to a "process of continuous improvement" in the adoption and implementation of sustainable winegrowing practices.

CCSW-Certified wineries and vineyards must:

    * Evaluate the sustainability of their operations on a scale of 1 to 4 in 227 criteria included in the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices Self-Assessment Workbook annually
    * Meet a set of 58 prerequisites among the 227 Code criteria to be eligible for the program
    * Verify the accuracy of their scores and practices through a third-party auditor
    * Identify key areas in which they can improve the sustainability of their practices
    * Create and implement annual action plans to accomplish these improvements

Seventeen companies have received certification for some or all of their vineyard and winery operations after participating in a pilot program to test the certification requirements and offer feedback. The below links show the companies that are Certified Participants and each link provides details on which part of the operation was certified. For more information on how to become a Certified Participant please see the Certification Guidebook or contact info@sustainablewinegrowing.org.

Please download the Certification Guidebook for full details about the certification program including the certification requirements, pre-requisites, process to obtain certification, guidelines for communicating certification, and other information by visiting this link Certification Guidebook.

San Francisco, CA January 25, 2010  - Fairfield-based rapper Lil Jazz just released his latest solo album CD recording titled Gemini Files: East Side Story under the record labels Maddlock Records & Cashflow420 Records. With features from legendary rappers such as Birdman of Cash Money Records, Skip Dog of E.Z.S.D., Q-Ball of the Street Playaz, Mac Lo, Pizzo, No Face Phantom, Cool V, Jum Dog, Jay Dub, Jevon, Cali Black, Tony Tone, Hemi and Lil Dre, this album is destined to become a Bay Area rap classic.

Gemini Files: East Side Story is an 18 track album with no skits or instrumentals. Photo Doctor Graphics created the album artwork that sets album apart from the rest. With production by K-Lou for K-Lou Productions, T-Roy for It Don't Stop Productions from Ballers Ona Mission (B.O.M.) and Tony Tone, the beats on this album is slappin front to back!

"Lil Jazz’s skills on the on the mic are unrivaled. The cream always rises to the top." said Garrett Blanton President of Cashflow420 Records. The history behind this Bay Area rap legend runs deep. "We just gonna keep going and going with this rap shit. There ain't no stoppin us now!" said Lil Jazz President and C.E.O. of Maddlock Records.

The track list for Lil Jazz Gemini Files: East Side Story is: 01. Slow Down Produced by: B.C. 02. Give It Up Featuring: Q-Ball, Mac Lo Produced by: Money Moe. 03. Hold Up Produced by: T-Roy. 04. U Don't Wanna (Fuck Wit Nasty) Produced by: K-Lou. 05. Thoroughbred Produced by: K-Lou Featuring: Birdman of Cash Money Records. 06. I Used To Have Love For Her Featuring: Jevon. 07. I'm Tha Shit Produced by: K-Lou. 08. Game Check Produced by: K-Lou. 09. Get Your Fetti On Produced by: K-Lou. 10. You're My Lady Featuring: Tony Tone Produced by: Tony Tone. 11. What I Do For A Livin' Produced by: T-Roy. 12. Club Joint Featuring: Mac Lo, Pizzo, Q-Ball Produced by: K-Lou 13. It Will Neva Happen Featuring: Jevon Produced by: Tony Tone. 14. Feel The Tension Produced by: K-Lou. 15. Turf Deals Featuring: Cali Black Produced by: Cali Black. 16 Lucky Charmz Featuring: Skip Dog Produced by: T-Roy. 17. Rezidentz Ov Da Flatz (Fairfield, CA) Featuring: Pizzo, No Face Phantom, Young J, Hemi, Mac Lo, Cool V, Lil Dre, J-Dubb, Jum Dog Produced by: T-Roy. 18. From Da 4 (What Chu No About A Savage) Produced by: T-Roy.

Under the Cashflow420 Records umbrella promotion of Lil Jazz Gemini Files: East Side Story is already underway with the launch official Lil Jazz website located at www.liljazz.com. Cashflow420 is taking the necessary steps to ensure Lil Jazz’s success in the music industry by retaining the San Francisco Bay Area leader for custom website design and content management systems, JVF Consulting, LLC. Powered by JVF, and monitored by Cashflow420 Records, the Lil Jazz website features the album artwork by Photo Doctor Graphics and a contact form for questions, comments, or booking.

About Lil Jazz:
Lil Jazz is known throughout the flatlands (Fairfield, CA) for his classic solo album released in 1996 titled Game4usuckaz on Body Bag Records and the most sought after Fairfield unreleased album never to hit stores titled Madd Currency featuring Skip Dog of E.Z.S.D. Lil Jazz has also been featured several other classic albums but is most known for his lyrical skills on the Chuck Nutt album titled Give It Up and Skip Dog’s solo album titled 1st The Money Then The Power. Lil Jazz always sticks to the script with his flows while keeping that Bay Area mobb style sound!

Contact:
Garrett Blanton, President
Cashflow420 Records
415-606-4420
http://www.cashflow420.com
###

Imperial Sales Co. is your complete source for automotive, heavy-duty, industrial and agricultural lubricants, chemicals, greases and precharged antifreezes.

San Francisco, CA January 20, 2010 – Jason Franco, President of JVF Consulting, LLC announced the launch of the Imperial Sales Company custom website redesign. With their new polished look, the website is much sleeker giving a professional appeal that highlights their quality products. Imperial Sales Co. brings a fresh new feeling to their complete line of automotive, industrial, and agricultural lubricants and greases with the redesign by JVF Consulting.
 
“The Imperial product line is becoming more streamlined and efficient with their new custom design.", says Jason Franco president of JVF Consulting, LLC. With a central California manufacturing facility and four strategically located warehouses, Imperial Sales Company is able to provide timely service for the West Coast lubricants market.

Imperial products meet the latest trends and developments in automotive and agricultural lubricants and grease technology. With a refreshing approach to future development and innovation, the Imperial brand is a statement of modern efficiency and performance. Designed for excellent stability, water resistance, load carrying ability, rust and oxidation resistance their complete line will meet or exceed your expectations.

Imperial Sales Company mission is to provide quality products at competitive prices with excellent customer service. Their full line of products is available in bulk, totes, drums, kegs, and pails. For more information visit the Imperial Sales Co. website at www.imperialsalesco.com.

About Imperial Sales Company:
Founded in 1998, Imperial Sales Company takes pride in being a true independent supplier to independent marketers serving the West Coast lubricants market. Exceeding our customers’ expectations is how Imperial Sales Company has grown to become one of the premier suppliers of private label (house brand) lubricants on the West Coast. We are dedicated to providing a complete product offering at competitive pricing in this very dynamic business. We are members of CIOMA and PPC; we participate in the POC and WPMA conferences annually. Our motto is, "Success is in the Details!" We go above and beyond to make certain our customers are provided with the finest customer service and quality of products.

Contact:
Jeff Melendez
Imperial Sales Co.
(800) 720-7949
http://www.imperialsalesco.com

Since 1979 George Family Enterprises NorCal has served California by providing quality acoustical and decorative wall and ceiling systems. Working in earthquake prone areas such as California require us to stay up with the latest in safety and building codes. Staying up to date with all codes ensures that every ceiling grid they work on will never sway laterally during an earthquake. Older buildings with installations that are not up to current safety and building codes can lead to partial or total collapse of the ceiling grid during a severe tremor. If your current ceiling needs repair due to an earthquake or natural disaster then contact GFENC immediately!

George Family Enterprises NorCal is a licensed installer of Whisper Wall Acoustical & Tackable Fabric Wrapped Wall and Ceiling Panels. We are also a licensed installer of Newmat, a thermal vinyl stretched ceiling and wall system. GFENC employs some of the finest and most competent Union Carpenters and Lathers on the West Coast who specialize in the installation of Decorative and Ornamental Ceilings; Upholstered and Panelized Fabric Walls & Ceilings; Luminous Ceilings; Wood Ceiling & Wall Systems in addition to standard Acoustical Ceilings. George Family NorCal’s staff are seasoned professionals for all types of acoustical ceiling repair and are prepared to give you a competitive quote.

GFE NC’s team of highly skilled estimators and project managers can offer assistance with both product consultations and budget pricing to facilitate you in your selection of ceiling systems. They offer competitive pricing and can fulfill all your needs in every aspects of Acoustical Ceiling and Wall Systems. GFE’s installers strive to bring your project in under budget, on-time and accident free.

For more information about George Family Enterprises NorCal, and to view their online portfolio, visit their website at www.gfeinc.com.

As professional website designers we are always conforming to the latest techniques in SEO (search engine optimization) in order to be successful in the SERP’s (search engine result page’s). We found that our new customers are now doing their history before choosing a web design firm to make sure their final product will perform correctly in all search engines. The term used mostly by our new customers is “keyword meta tags”. They want to make sure we include these meta tags, in hopes their website will increase in the SERP’s. They then pass us a huge list to embed into their website header. At JVF Consulting we do include keyword meta tags to all of our custom websites, but we really hate to break the news, Google does not use keyword meta tags!

Next time you’re reading an article on SEO and it tries to convince you to optimize the keyword meta tags to your website remember this. Googlebot does not even bother to index or interpret those keyword meta tags, but rather extract the keywords from the content of your website. When Matt Cutts the famous Google SEO software engineer was asked, “Does Google ever use the keyword meta tags in its web search ranking?” His response was, “In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has the ability to match meta tags, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that’s an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at the present time.”

If you still do not believe us, here is a Google Webmaster video explaining it all. This is not breaking news by any means, but there are still people out there who are putting too much thought and effort into their meta tags.