A discussion on Open Source vs. Closed Source

Much has been written about free software, open source software and commercial software. If however the discussion on as to which is the best option seems to be endless.

However in 2010 with the output. Net 4.0 on March 22 brought back another round to access the code open source vs. closed .

But most of all it is not only the technological aspect, what about the form of marketing? .... The reality is that if you are unable to sell your products, they will not be used by the consumer.

My experience in the United States (country 100% commercial and capitalist) the general consumer is not attracted if the software is open or closed, but the benefits you have and the security or guarantee to be Offer.

Many times when the product is free to play with the double-edged sword commercial means, "If it is free is not worth buying"

On the other hand many industries prefer to buy a product with a warranty of 12 months instead of a free product with no guarantees and support charges and without being able to bring this court for damages.

Free software brings the best yet form and work efficiency, communications and teamwork is equivalent to many professionals on a project, "two heads are better than one"

In my opinion not everything that is accessible to say it is okay!, the software have ability to be easily reproduced does not mean it should be accepted, in a discussion with a colleague explained to me that the software should be free and we use formulas created by others and we will reuse without redesign.

But we are not the only profession that takes existing formulas, this means that chemical engineers, civil engineers, accountants, etc, should give their work for free? since they also use formulas in your area that are already existing??

As the computers and technology continue to race towards the future, it hurts me to hear that other professions do not have this dilemma as we have.

Luis G Perez
Chief Technical Officer
Neuralnet

Steps and Goal of a web designer to make a successful website

GOAL OF A WEB DESIGNER

The goal of most web designers is to create an attractive, easily accessible and functional website that will convince the visitor to stay and interact. Creating such a website requires good graphic design, easy and intuitive site navigation and logical site layout. After all, we don’t want our visitors to be lost the first time they come in.

Visitors are impatient and studies show that most people will click away if a web page takes longer than 10 seconds to load. So is always good to optimize your photos and other graphic files to have as small a size as possible without sacrificing picture quality. There are a couple of different files formats that you as a web designer can play with, look for options and play with them.

Background color for your website is extremely important, as we all know, colors are just wavelengths of light. Using a nice and calm color will assure you that your visitors won’t be blinking their eyes and eventually leave your site because of the background color you used. So paying attention to the colors and contrasts you use is something that requires a moment of pause to think.

Site navigation should be simple and intuitive. Studies have shown if a visitor cannot access the information they want within three clicks, they will leave the site. This is called the 3-click rule. Every area of your website should be reachable within three clicks from anywhere else on the site. If you use anything other than simple text links, make sure to test your navigation in all the major browsers.

Screen resolution is a major part in web designing, having so many possible resolutions out there, makes us stop and think for a second how do you want everyone to see your website, will it be stretched against all resolution? or will it be centered? or maybe it will be left aligned?. These are question you need to ask yourself or to your clients, and if it is centered or even left aligned, make sure you use the smallest resolution that people use today, so you don't run into the problem that while it might look amazing in a resolution that you might use (for example 1920 x 1080), it might look horrible and completely wrong in someone else small resolution (for example 1024 x 768).

Another important aspect in designing a good website is the compatibility with all the browsers, Today people have the freedom of choosing one browser that they like to use, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, etc. Having so many different browsers just makes our task as Web Designers more difficult, because we want our website to look identical in all browsers, but we know that's not the case, so a good practice is to preview your website in all of these and study the differences they all have with each other, in order to create a solution for that problem.

In Summary a good Web Design is a combination of common sense and good planning. Your site should be attractive and easy to use but more importantly you should think about who really is going to be using and seeing your website ‘The People’, having them in mind as you make progress will assure you that your website is going to be a success.

Alex Perez
Web Design Director
Neuralnet