Description

The technical services team at Immense Networks is looking for another member.

Successful candidates should enjoy a fast-paced, young-minded environment; have enthusiasm for technical elegance and should also know Microsoft Windows Server like the back of his/her hand.

Accuracy and attention to detail are the two most important performance indicators you will be based on.

Responsibilities

• Provide excellent and accurate customer service
• Proactive monitoring of customer equipment and services
• Installing, maintaining, and updating of Windows Servers
• Documentation generation for both clients and internal use
• Following service tickets and tasks to completion
• Occasionally responding to off-hour emergencies

Below are required to apply

• Excellent troubleshooting skills
• Experience with implementing and maintaining Active Directory, Group Policy and Group Policy Preferences
• Experience with DNS management AND troubleshooting: A, MX, CNAME, SPF
• Experience with implementing and troubleshooting a Microsoft Exchange environment
• Familiar with backup methodologies and solutions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Enthusiasm and an interest in all things technology
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, performance oriented work environment
• Microsoft certification within the first 120 days of employment (training materials and lab environment supplied)

Knowledge in the following are not required, but highly desired

• Microsoft certifications or related technical degree/certifications strongly preferred
• Experience with Cisco IOS-based and ASA equipment

Benefits

• Health insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid vacation
• Company-sponsored monthly excursions
• Coffee, energy drinks, and snacks supplied

How to apply

• Résumé
• Cover Letter
• Explanation of how to deploy a network share to workstations via Windows 2008 R2

Apply now

Hiring Windows Server Administrator with experience (in Baton Rouge) is a post by Immense Networks

Description

The development team at Immense Networks is looking for another member.

Successful candidates should enjoy a fast-paced, young-minded environment; have enthusiasm for technical elegance and should also know PHP.

Below are required to apply

• Experience of object oriented programming / modular programming
• Understanding of MVC design patterns and frameworks (preferably Symfony)
• Experience with a Javascript framework (preferably jQuery)
• Proficient on Linux
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Enthusiasm and an interest in all things technology
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, agile programming environment
• Computer Science or related technical degree strongly preferred

Knowledge in the following are not required, but highly desired

• E-commerce platform experience (specifically Magento)
• GIT Version Control System
• Python/Django
• Objective-C / iOS

Benefits

• Health insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid vacation
• Company-sponsored monthly excursions
• Coffee, energy drinks, and snacks supplied

Apply now

Hiring PHP developer with Symfony experience (in Baton Rouge) is a post by Immense Networks

Inclusion Requirements

Immense Networks met the following requirements for inclusion in the LSU 100:

• Has been in business for five years or more
• Has had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more for the last calendar year
• A former LSU student owns at least 50 percent of the company or is a CEO, president or managing partner
• Operates in a manner consistent with the mission of LSU and LSU SEI

We are very proud of our team and look forward to continue providing excellent service to our clients.

For a list of all honorees, visit the official website at http://www.lsu100.com/2012-honorees/

Immense Networks ranks #2 in LSU One Hundred for 2012 is a post by Immense Networks

Just add the following line to your cycle function, replacing 4 with the total number of slides:

startingSlide: Math.floor(Math.random()*4),

How to randomize initial image with jquery-cycle plugin is a post by Immense Networks

Office Furniture World has offered wholesale furniture to the Baton Rouge area for over 20 years.

Now, customers can browse their inventory online via their new website - http://www.ofwbr.com.

Office Furniture World website goes live is a post by Immense Networks

Download Per Page Sidebar Blocks plugin for WordPress

This plugin is being submitted to the WordPress repository. For now, you can download it here: Download Per Page Sidebar Blocks v1.0

The plugin is now available in the WordPress repository: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/per-page-sidebar-blocks/

Background and goals of this plugin

Part of offering WordPress as a CMS to my clients involves giving them as much control over the future of their website as possible. One pitfall I experience is offering per-page sidebar customization.

Sidebar templates and conditionals

I find myself creating several sidebar-name.php templates and using conditionals to display them where I want. Functions like is_page(), is_tree(), is_ancestor(), is_single(), etc. let me plan ahead for which sidebars should show on which pages. However, these functions do not truly allow customizing sidebar output for pages created in the future outside the scope of my preemptive conditionals.

Page-specific blocks of content in the sidebar

Per Page Sidebar Blocks lets you, the theme developer, create several sidebar templates using WordPress’ naming convention sidebar-name.php. (detailed in WordPress’ codex)

Automatically finds your sidebar templates

PPSB will scan the current theme’s root directory for all your sidebar templates and let you decide which ones get displayed on each individual page by simply checking a box on that page’s Edit area.

*Please note, this plugin will not search a child theme’s parent directory for sidebar-name.php files. These files must reside directly within the currently-active theme’s root directory.

Control the display order

Sidebar block control would not be complete without the ability to specify a display order.

Drag and drop

Just drag and drop each item into place on the PPSB Settings page (under the Settings menu), and see your changes reflected on the frontend. Changes are saved immediately via ajax, so no save button is necessary.

Sitewide display order

Your specified display order is sitewide, not page-specific. I currently have no plans of offering page-specific display orders.

Integrate into your theme

Integration is very simple. Put the following code into your sidebar.php file. This line checks if the plugin is activated, then shows enabled sidebars (if a box is checked) on the page being viewed.


<?php if( function_exists( 'ppsb_show_sidebars' ) ) echo ppsb_show_sidebars(); ?>


Obviously, you will have to use < ?php get_sidebar() ?> in your page templates (page.php, index.php, etc.) which require sidebar output.

Why is this sidebar plugin different?

There are other solutions that offer sidebar content control per page, but PPSB approaches the problem differently.

I don’t like widgets

Widgets don’t offer the level of consistent control that I need in the markup, and they open the door for my client to unintentionally “break” their website at some point. Client control is great, but too much control can introduce problems.

Custom sidebar building blocks

Instead of simply letting you select a full sidebar for a page (which you could certainly setup using this plugin), I go a step further and let you create different blocks of content. Let’s say your client has a list of Company Partner’s logos, and they want to list them on the About and Services pages. Rather than create a specific sidebar for each of those pages, create a sidebar-partners.php block and just enable it on every page it’s needed; use sidebar templates as building blocks to customize sidebar content as needed.

Just another tool

This solution is not ideal for every situation. For instance, your client may be confused if you have a 1 column page template, and they overlook that sidebars are not meant to be displayed on such pages. It may also become tedious to rebuild the sidebar for every page, whereas conditionals would automate this process. Then again, you could mandate certain blocks with conditionals and let your client control the others.

Hopefully, though, it’s niche of functionality will be suitable for some projects.

How does it work?

For those that are interested, you will notice the sidebar values are reiterated in the Custom Fields box; the checkboxes assign a yes or no value, but with a much more intuitive interface for your clients. The visibility of each sidebar template is stored in the wp_postmeta table of the database, and WordPress offers nice functions – get_post_meta() and update_post_meta() – to pull it all together.

Future goals of this plugin

• Set certain sidebar blocks to be visible by default on all pages
• Set certain sidebar blocks to be hidden from the Edit Page’s checkbox list

Known issues

• PPSB visibility (the checkboxes on each page) is forgotten after the first time you save a new page. You have to check the sidebar blocks again AFTER saving, then save the page again.

Per Page Sidebar Blocks plugin for WordPress is a post by Immense Networks

New company sign on Coursey Blvd. is a post by Immense Networks

After much research, I can only assume this special price issue not working properly is a bug in Magento. The only accepted solution was to visit the admin page System > Configuration and Reindex the Data for Product Prices. Fine, but I can’t tell my client to log into his admin every morning and clear his indices.

Create cron jobs

Instead, I created some cron jobs to clear the indices and cache storage every night at midnight.

Reindex all Magento indices

Create one cron using the following command:

php /home/path/to/magento/shell/indexer.php reindexall

Clear all cache

To clear all Magento cache, we will need to create a script file that deletes everything in /var/cache/.

1. Create a file called clearcache.sh in the directory one level above public_html (so it’s not publicly accessible)
2. Put the following lines into that file:

    #!/bin/bash rm -rf /home/path/to/magento/public_html/var/cache/*

3. Edit the path to your Magento installation and /var/cache/ directory as necessary.
4. Create the cron job using the following command:

bash -s < /home/path/to/clearcache.sh

Magento special price still showing after expiration is a post by Immense Networks

I recently came across Peacemaker, an app by Futuremark, that tests your internet browser for javascript performance. The image above shows my results after running it in Chrome, Firefox, and IE9. I should also note that I had 4 other tabs going in Chrome during the test, including Slacker Radio, but it didn’t seem to phase it. Was a bit surprised by the Firefox score…

What versions am I running?

I updated each browser immediately before the test to their latest versions:

• Chrome v16.0.912.63
• Firefox v8.0.1
• Internet Explorer v9.0.8112.1642

Test your web browser for javascript performance is a post by Immense Networks

What software to use?

No need to over-complicate things by learning some new fancy software. You can use Microsoft Word, Wordpad, Open Office, or any familiar text editor. I prefer Microsoft Word because it helps markup my content into something search engines and browsers can understand. If you don’t know HTML, this is the route for you. More on this later.

Keep your content focused

Writing focused content takes discipline. Whether it’s a how-to article or a movie review, remember the core purpose of the content and stay on topic. The more your content supports the overall topic of your article, the better your chances of ranking higher in search results for that topic.

Search engines have a job to do

Search engines are designed to list pages that are the most relevant to a user’s search query. Straying too far from your main topic will make your page less relevant to one specific thing. For instance, if you’re writing about the life expectancy of 6 cell lithium batteries, don’t tell me about your 8th grade science experiment where you powered a light bulb for 42 minutes with a potato. Though interesting, it’s irrelevant to the core goal of the page and your search results rank may suffer.

Start with a list of keywords

The simplest way to spark your creative mind is to make a list of words and phrases that describe your topic. Think of things that someone would type into a search engine to find this exact article. Use this list to create an outline, including sections or subtopics, that supports your overall topic.

Don’t go overboard with your keywords. You want to purposely include them in your sentences (for search engines), but keyword stuffing is penalized. In general, write about your topic as if you’re speaking to an actual person (because you are), and let the keywords naturally fall where they may; don’t play buzzword bingo in your content.

Get to the point

If you write about something using 60 words, but you can say the same thing more directly in 40 words, then do it in 30. Keep your sentences short and simple, and avoid using fluff. Remember, you are not trying to meet a minimum word count. You are trying to provide meaningful information as clearly as possible.

Break content into sections

It can be overwhelming to visit a page full of paragraph blocks. Break a large article into sections using headings and bulleted lists to make it more easily digestible.

HTML headings, briefly explained

Anyone who maintains information on a website must understand how to use headings properly. Headings not only organize content for your readers, they also help search engines understand hierarchy. Give search engines what they want to increasing your rank in search results.

Headings are numbered in order of importance like Heading 1 (most important, usually the title), Heading 2 (less important), Heading 3, and so on. Imagine you want to write an article that briefly describes some Popular Computer Laptops.

1. The Heading 1 will be the title of the article: Popular Computer Laptops.
2. We want to organize specific laptops into sections for each brand. These will be Heading 2.
3. Each brand will have specific laptops listed there. These will be Heading 3.

How to create these headings

The method for making your headings will vary by application, but most systems have a visual WYSIWYG editor. The editor in WordPress is very intuitive, which is one of the reasons we use it, but the best solution for you may be Microsoft Word. I made a special style set to help assign these headings, bullets, links, etc. in Word. Then, most editors will give you a Paste from Word option, which automatically codes the content for you.

Horizontal rules

The horizontal rule has been around for a long time , and its usage is equally beneficial then as it is today. I use them to break content on a page into sections, which helps you better-focus on one topic at a time.

Use meaningful images

Images are a great way to explain yourself in a different medium, and they break up large amounts of text. The right image could summarize the text of several paragraphs, which is a powerful way to quickly convey your message.

But you should never rely solely on imagery to explain yourself. For starters, search engines can’t index images as well as text. More importantly, not everyone can see. Screen readers scan the text on a page to relay that content to your visually impaired readers.

Final thoughts

People learn in different ways. Some like to read, some scan for images, some only read headings, etc. Your goal should be to appeal to as many learning styles as possible while keeping your content simple and focused. Search engines pick up on keyword stuffing, so write genuinely as if you’re speaking to a real person, and the rest should take care of itself.

How to write user-friendly website content, optimized for search engines is a post by Immense Networks