April 7, 2010
Robin Nixon has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s (his first computer was a Tandy TRS 80 Model 1 with a massive 4KB of RAM!). During this time he has written in excess of 500 articles for many of the U.K.’s top computer magazines.
Robin started his computing career in the Cheshire homes for disabled people, where he was responsible for setting up computer rooms in a number of residential homes, and for evaluating and tailoring hardware and software so that disabled people could use the new technology – sometimes by means of only a single switch operated by mouth or finger.
After writing articles for computer magazines about his work with disabled people, he eventually worked full time for one of the country’s main IT magazine publishers, where he held several roles including editorial, promotions, and cover disc editing.
With the dawn of the Internet in the 1990s, Robin branched out into developing websites. One of these presented the world’s first radio station licensed by the music copyright holders, and was featured in several news reports on TV and radio networks in the United Kingdom. In order to enable people to continue to surf while listening, Robin also developed the first known pop-up windows.
Robin lives on the southeast coast of England with his wife Julie, a trained nurse, and five children, where he also finds time to foster three disabled children, as well as working full time from home as a technical author.
Robin has contributed an article to “The Daily Tip” section on “IT World,” and Plug-In PHP is one of the featured books on the company’s web site. For a look at the article, please click HERE.
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Posted by mheasiacomputing
April 5, 2010

Web Design:
A Beginner’s Guide
Author: Willard, Wendy
ISBN-13: 978-0-07-170134-1
ISBN-10: 0071701346
©2010 | 2nd Edition | 496 pages , Softcover
Pub Date: May 2010
Price: US$ 29.99
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An easy-to-use guide to the latest web design tools and techniques
Fully updated to cover new and emerging web design technologies and trends, this new edition teaches the fundamental skills and concepts of web design through tutorials, hands-on exercises, and integrated projects. The book is filled with tips for designing web pages from concept to completion. Expert advice from industry professionals take you beyond the “how to” and into the “why” of common web design practices.
Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide, Second Edition features:
- Step-by-step details on how to create a successful design mockup, take it apart, and begin coding
- Tutorials in web design using HTML and CSS, the two most widely used and supported coding methods on the web
- Techniques for integrating multimedia such as audio, video, and animation
- Best practices for ensuring that sites are standards-compliant and will display correctly in all major browsers
- Instructions on how to test and deploy completed designs
Learn essential web design skills:
1. Planning
2. Beginning the Design Process
3. Preparing for Production
4. Producing the Design
5. Getting Started with the Code
6. Styling Content
7. Positioning Content
8. Integrating Dynamic Content
9. Editing Blog Templates
10. Testing and Deployment; Publishing Content
11. Advertising Your Site
12. Maintaining Your Site
About the Author
Wendy Willard (Bel Air, MD), is an accomplished professional with over 13 years of experience in all aspects of design, including publication design, print design, and web design. She is the author of the best-selling McGraw-Hill book HTML: A Beginner’s Guide (now in its fourth edition), and has written additional books and articles on the topics of Photoshop, web design, and the Mac O/S.
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Highlights, Programming & Web Development | Tagged: advertising, animation, answers, attractive, audio, beginner, blog, Blogger, book, cascading style sheets, coding, colors, content, CSS, deployment, design, designing, dynamic, editing, feeds, flash, fonts, formulating, functional, graphics, guide, how to, HTML, integrating, links, maintaining, Multimedia, pages, planning, positioning, preparing, process, producing, production, publishing, RSS, site, small business website, styling, techniques, templates, testing, tips, tools, usability, video, web, Web Design, website design, Wendy Willard, WordPress, XHTML |
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Posted by mheasiacomputing
March 8, 2010

Plug-In PHP: 100 Power Solutions
Authors: Nixon, Robin
ISBN-13: 978-0-07-166659-6
ISBN-10: 0071666591
©2010 | 1st Edition | 384 pages , Softcover
Pub Date: March 2010
Price: US$ 39.99
100 PHP power solutions in one handy guide
This practical resource contains 100 ready-to-run PHP plug-ins you can use to create dynamic Web content. The book begins by showing you how to install, configure, and use a powerful web development environment. Then, each chapter in Plug-In PHP offers complete, working examples for specific end results you can achieve right away. In this time-saving tool, all of the code is extensively documented along with tips for adapting it for your own requirements.
Get ready-made PHP plug-ins for:
- Text processing
- Image handling
- Content management
- Forms and user input
- Internet integration
- Chat and messaging
- MySQL, sessions, and cookies
- APIs, RSS, and XML
- JavaScript and Ajax
- Geo-location
- Spelling and language translation
- And much more
Download all of the book’s plug-ins at www.pluginphp.com
About the Author
Robin Nixon (UK) is a developer and freelance technical writer who has published more than 500 articles in magazines such as PC Plus, PCW, Web User, .net, PC Advisor, and PC Answers. He is the author of 3 computing books, including the upcoming Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript (O’Reilly).
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Highlights | Tagged: arrays, associative, authentication, boards, building, bulletin, chat, content, CSS, development, diverse, forms, handling, HTML, image, incorporating, input, integrating, internet, javascript, language, management, messaging, MySQL, nixon, object, open-source, oriented, pages, perl, PHP, plug-ins, processing, robin Nixon, scripting, security, services, solution, text, user, web |
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Posted by mheasiacomputing