Tutorial/How-To »

Few things are more frustrating to a website owner then server downtime that he or she has no control over. Downtime represents lost traffic, frustrated visitors, and possibly lost revenue. How frustrating is it? Just ask me. My former host was less then reliable for some time, yet I was reluctant to move. Why? Fear of the unknown. I had never switched hosts before, and I wasn’t very sure of what I was doing. I doubt I’m the only one who’s had these reservations.

But aside from poor quality hosts, you can also outgrow your host. Whatever the case maybe, switching web hosts can be a daunting thought. Hopefully my experiences can make it a…

Tech News »

I don’t normally like embedded videos. That’s why you’ve never seen one on Simply-Basic before. However, I came across this video that left me quite impressed. The program that the video shows is called “Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation.” It is a physics simulation environment. I believe it’s a demonstration by an MIT professor, but I’m not sure on that point.

Quite an impressive setup! A comment on the YouTube video sums up my thoughts: “a lot of stickmen would die if i had that.. …and i want it lol” -scarrmat

A 2D physics program called Phun is available for free, though it’s just not as cool the guy writing on the screen.

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Announcements, Useful Tools »

The past several weeks I’ve been working on mySupport, a new service that provides free, personal tech support for beginners. I’m proud to announce that after several weeks of internal testing, it’s finally launching into beta mode and is ready to start accepting user registrations.

What’s mySupport?

mySupport is a free ticket-based tech support service that lets users submit “tickets”, or support questions, about any basic technology question he or she may have. mySupport is unique in that it’s not a forum or messaging board, but a ticket-based system that ensures each question gets the personal attention it deserves. Why is this important? mySupport is geared towards beginners. Whether its your mom and dad trying to figure out…

Useful Tools »

A common problem when designing logos or color schemes for a website is getting the colors to match just perfectly. Today, while designing a website for a friend, I came across a tool that I’ve added to my web designing arsenal. It’s called ColorPic.

ColorPic lets you determine the precise color (RGB, hex, and others) of any object that you can see on your screen. The bottom portion of the box, above, is a magnifier so you can get pixel perfect selection. It also lets you store “palettes” of colors so that you can come back to them later. This is a great tool that I’m glad I found. If you need a free color picker,…