Narroway Graphics L.L.C. » Articles

Putting a Price on Serendipity

Charles — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:02:00 +0000

There can be difficulties in putting a price on artistic abilities. Sometimes ideas and the final product can come very quickly. While at other times, the creative process can be grueling. From a client’s perspective, determining what they are willing to pay for an artist’s work can be intimidating as well. How do you put a price on artwork without accidentally insulting the artist? The answer lies within your gut. Artwork has a powerful way of subtly communicating, “I’m valuable!” when one sees something they like. Budgets aren’t much of an issue once a client gets something they love.

Performing your own surgery

Charles — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:35:21 +0000

We’ve talked to people who have tried to design their own websites, and end up feeling rather frustrated. Reason being…after throwing a few hundred bucks at some software to create the pages, the site ends up looking like something that’ll give someone seizures. When they tell their friends about their new site, the friend has no choice but to give them the “thumbs up” just out of compassion.

Everyone wants something they can be proud of. A web designer’s goal is to put your business in the best light possible.

Affordable change

Charles — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:09:04 +0000

Website overhauls are normal throughout the web community. The problem is, people have to spend a fortune just to change the look. People then neglect refreshing the website because it becomes overwhelming, and understandably so.

With content management systems, designers only touch the design without messing with all the content you’ve added over time. This essentially means that the look of your site can be redesigned without an expensive website overhaul, giving you an affordable change!

Fumbling with hosting

Charles — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:48:52 +0000

Every new website requires the purchase of hosting. Hosting is simply a computer that hold’s all of your site files, and then provides them when someone visits your site. Hosting companies have annual hosting packages that can be purchased. To those who aren’t to tech-savy, this can be a cumbersome process having to coordinate this with your web developer. This shouldn’t be the experience for those who just simply want a website up and running very quickly.

Narroway’s approach is to provide free hosting for the first year of your website. Our clients are then billed a competitive annual rate for hosting after that initial year.

Where’s my designer?

Charles — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:45:37 +0000

One of the frustrations most of the clients we have inherited over the years have voiced is their accessibility to their designer. Whether you are starting a new project, or updating an existing site, you are held at the mercy of your designer. If your designer is on vacation, busy with other clients, or is just lazy…your site won’t get updated anytime soon. As your frustration builds, correspondence with them can become less, and less. They become difficult to get in contact with because they know there is tension.

The solution to this is to create a site you can update yourself. Most people don’t know such a product even exists. Narroway’s perspective is to provide assistance rather than creating a dependency.

Why should I upgrade my web browser?

Casey — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:09:06 +0000

The short answer. SECURITY.

Running software written in 2001 in 2010 only means one thing. You need to upgrade. The reason behind this are the various exploits hackers have found within these web browsers and Operating Systems, that put your identity at risk. With there experience, they will be able to access your entire computer, obtain your email and passwords, online banking credentials, and various other objects of affection. This information does not apply to web browsers alone, however. The operating system, Windows XP is also a prime target.

Part of the problem is that XP still ships with wildly outdated non-core technologies, many of which are becoming favorite targets of hackers. Key among these are Internet Explorer (IE) 6 and, less obviously, Adobe Flash 6. – Paul Thurrott

So how do you prevent such a thing from happening? Click Read More for some necessary steps in order to keep your computer secure, and safe.

Step 1: MAKE SURE WINDOWS XP, VISTA, and 7 are UP TO DATE

Make sure your operating system is UP TO DATE. As of right now the current version of Windows XP is on Service Pack 3 and has a ton of malicious software removal packs that are helpful in ridding your computer from harmful identity thieving programs. You can update your computer by going to Windows Update.

How to Access Windows Update
Windows XP Users – Click Start > All Programs > Windows Update
Windows Vista & 7 Click Start Orb > All Programs > Windows Update

When you do this you will not get ALL of your updates at first. Even after the major ones you will have to keep coming back and checking until Windows update says that there are no more updates. This may take a long time initially, but after all your updates are installed there will be less and less to obtain. Making this process less painful as time goes on.

“But I have my Automatic updates on, I don’t need to do this”
Yes you do, you may have automatic updates activated, but most of the time they will not install unless you tell them to. So if you have that little “world with the windows logo” in your “start bar” you currently are out of date and nothing has been installed.

Step 2: Check to see which browser version you have

You ALWAYS want to make sure your browser is up to date. Many hackers like to find exploits within the browser to get into your computer. A good way to check which browser version you are using is as follows:

How to Check Your Web Browser Version
Open Internet Explorer > Click Help in the tool bar > Click “About Internet Explorer”

Current Web Browser Versions
Internet Explorer 8
Firefox 3.5.7 – A Narroway Favorite
Safari 4.0
Opera 10.10
Google Chrome 4.0 Beta

Firefox – Getting the Narroway Seal of Approval

As far as the whole Web Browser debate goes, our trophy has to go to Firefox. This browser is Secure, Customizable, Fast, and it also updates automatically, not only this but it is a dream for us web designers to test within. We recommend this browser to anyone that owns a computer. Below is a link to the latest version of the web browser.

Download Firefox Now

The Most Recommended Ad-don for Firefox
Ad Block Plus – Stops pop-ups and removes ALL adds within the browser. Just Subscribe to the EasyList when your browser restarts.
This will prevent you from accidentally clicking on phishing, malware, and spyware websites.