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What is Website Conversion? [+5 Ways to Improve Conversions]

When you’re trying to grow your business online, you must monitor vital metrics to ensure your business is growing. One important metric is your website’s conversions. Conversions help you determine if you’re driving success with your digital marketing campaigns. So, what is website conversion? How can you improve your website conversion rate? Keep reading to […]

The post What is Website Conversion? [+5 Ways to Improve Conversions] appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Top 6 Company Website Design Templates

Are you looking to build a new site for your business? If so, company website design templates can help you create the website you want. With so many templates available, how do you determine which one is best for your business? On this page, we’ll provide you with the top six company website design templates, […]

The post Top 6 Company Website Design Templates appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Website Statistics for 2020: 10 Critical Stats to Know for Web Design

Are you looking to start 2020 with a fresh web design for your business? If so, you must know what you need to do in 2020 to have a website that drives success for your business. With website statistics for 2020, you can see what to do and what to avoid, which will help you […]

The post Website Statistics for 2020: 10 Critical Stats to Know for Web Design appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Need a Website? 6 Reasons to Have a Website for Your Business

Did you know that over 70% of people will research a company on the web before deciding to buy or visit, yet 46% of small businesses in the U.S. don’t have a website? If you don’t have a site, people can’t research your company and determine if you’re a good fit for their needs. If […]

The post Need a Website? 6 Reasons to Have a Website for Your Business appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Website Redesign Process: Your Website Redesign Strategy in 5 Steps

Your website is your virtual business card and it often provides the first impression of your business to future customers — making it one of the most important aspects of your company. But if your website still has cobwebs from the 2000s, it’s time to put together a website redesign process. A website redesign process […]

The post Website Redesign Process: Your Website Redesign Strategy in 5 Steps appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Psychology of Color [Infographic]

Perhaps no choice is as vital to marketing as color. Whether you are selecting the color for a product or for your email marketing campaign, color has a tremendous impact on all of us. Subconsciously, we associate different colors with different things. This infographic examines the psychology of color and looks at some common associations […]

The post Psychology of Color [Infographic] appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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5 Magnificent Examples of Websites That Convert Visitors into Customers

Need some inspiration to build a high converting website? Websites that convert persuade visitors to become customers. These websites drive more revenue, so if you want to increase your site’s revenue, use these examples of websites that convert as inspiration! We’ll go over what makes for the best converting websites and five examples of websites […]

The post 5 Magnificent Examples of Websites That Convert Visitors into Customers appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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How Fast Should My Website Be? [+7 Tips for Speeding Up Your Site]

Did you know that for every second faster your website loads, you increase conversions by 7%? A fast loading website leads to longer dwell sessions, improved engagement, and increased conversions. When people can access information fast, they’re more likely to stay on your page. So now you’re probably wondering, “How fast should my website be?” […]

The post How Fast Should My Website Be? [+7 Tips for Speeding Up Your Site] appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Printed Solar Cells Hold Promise for Unlit Rural Areas

By Sci Dev Net Advances in printed solar cell technology promise clean renewable energy, opening possibilities for 1.3 billion people still without electric power in developing countries. The technology, which only requires the use of existing industrial-size printers, can produce … Continue reading




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Community Solar: The Utility of the Future

By Timothy Schoechle Courtesy of Solar Today A Colorado community is developing a community-based clean energy economy. Boulder, Colorado, sits at the foot of the Rocky Mountains a half-hour drive northwest of Denver. It is a city, but still small … Continue reading




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New Report Details Path to 100% Renewables by 2050

By Jon Queally Common Dreams Greenpeace says world leaders must not let the fossil fuel industry stand in the way of the necessary—and attainable—transition to a clean and safe energy future With scientists and experts from around the world telling … Continue reading




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How Biofuels Can Cool Our Climate and Strengthen Our Ecosystems

By Evan H. DeLucia Courtesy of EOS Critics of biofuels like ethanol argue they are an unsustainable use of land. But with careful management, next-generation grass-based biofuels can net climate savings and improve their ecosystems. As the world seeks strategies … Continue reading




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Experimental Biomass Harvest a Step Toward Sustainable, Biofuels-Powered Future

By Jeff Mulhollem Penn State News The first harvest of 34 acres of fast-growing shrub willow from a Penn State demonstration field this winter is a milestone in developing a sustainable biomass supply for renewable energy and bio-based economic development, … Continue reading




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Solar Surges: Renewable Energy Jobs Topped 8 Million in 2015

By Andrea Germanos Common Dreams On the heels of clean fuel milestones in Germany and Portugal , a new report finds that the renewable energy industry employed over 8.1 million people worldwide in 2015. According to the International Renewable Energy … Continue reading




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Closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant

By Lauren McCauley Common Dreams In landmark agreement, California’s last remaining nuclear plant will be replaced by greenhouse-gas-free energy sources A plan to shutter the last remaining nuclear power plant in California and replace it with renewable energy is being … Continue reading




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Future Bioeconomy Supported by More Than One Billion Tons of Biomass Potential

By The Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Within 25 years, the United States could produce enough biomass to support a bioeconomy, including renewable aquatic and terrestrial biomass resources that could be used for energy and to develop products … Continue reading




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Energy Department Reports Show Strong Growth of U.S. Wind Power

By Energy.Gov Annual reports analyzing the wind energy industry released today by the Energy Department show continued rapid growth in wind power installations in 2015, demonstrating market resilience and underscoring the vitality of the U.S. wind energy market on a … Continue reading




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Study Links Texas Earthquakes to Wastewater Injection

By Joel Bahr Berkeley News A new study co-authored by UC Berkeley professor Michael Manga confirms that earthquakes in America’s oil country — including a 4.8 magnitude quake that rocked Texas in 2012 — are being triggered by significant injections … Continue reading




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I Took a COBOL Course and I Liked It

COBOL is in the news again. Millions of people are filing unemployment claims nearly all at once, and the systems to process them are failing. Why? They need to scale to unprecedented levels — they’re written in COBOL, and… we don’t have enough COBOL programmers.

Here’s a look at the increase in searches for “COBOL programmers”:




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Build a Real-Time Phone Conversation Analytics

What Is Real-Time Conversation Analytics?

In contrast to post-call conversation analytics, which provides insights after the fact, real-time call conversation analytics can point them out at present times.

In this blog, I will walk through the essential steps to build a web app that can analyze call conversations in real-time to assist an agent. Once we’re finished, we’ll have an app which will:




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A Different Approach to Coding With React Hooks

React Hooks, introduced in React 16.8, present us with a fundamentally new approach to coding. Some may think of them as a replacement for lifecycles or classes, however, that would be wrong. Like trying to translate a word from another language, sometimes you’re facing a completely new entity, which seems identical on the surface but is very different semantically and can’t be treated as equivalent. 

React not only changed the approach from OOP to Functional. The method of rendering has changed in principle. React is now fully built on functions instead of classes. And this has to be understood on a conceptual level. 




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Design Patterns Demystified - Template Design Pattern

Welcome to the Design Patterns Demystified (DPD) series, in this edition we are going to discuss Template Design Pattern. So let us understand the why, how, what, and where of Template Design Pattern.

The Why

Let us understand first, why we need this pattern with the help of an example. Let's you are building a reusable library which is orchestrating the operation of buying an item on an e-commerce platformNow, irrespective of what you are buying, you will follow the same sequence of steps like building your cart, adding an address, filling in payment details, and then finishing the payment. The details in these steps will vary based on what you are buying, how much you are buying, the delivery address, and the preferred mode of payment, but the complete orchestration of steps remains the same.



  • design patterns for beginners
  • design patterns uncovered
  • design patterns in java
  • template design pattern


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I Built a VS Code Extension: Ngrok for VS Code

Over the Easter weekend, a four day weekend characterized by lockdowns all over the world, I decided to use the extra time I had at home to start a new project and learn a new skill. By the end of the weekend, I was proud to release my first VSCode extension: ngrok for VSCode.

What’s That Now?

ngrok is a command-line tool built by Alan Shreve that you can use to expose your localhost server with a publicly available URL. It’s great for sharing access to an application running on your own machine, testing web applications on mobile devices, or testing webhook integrations. For example, I’m a big fan of using ngrok to test my webhooks when I am working with Twilio applications.




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Xamarin Native vs. Xamarin.Forms: How to Choose

As Android and iOS continue to dominate the mobile market, businesses need to develop applications that meet the diverse requirements of each operating system. Launching native mobile applications for Apple App Store and Google Play Store is going to be a long and expensive process. Not every business has adequate time and funds for developing native mobile applications. That is why cross-platform app frameworks have been rising to popularity.

Choosing cross-platform mobile app development services enables organizations to add their presence to both Android and iOS markets. Xamarin, recently acquired by Microsoft, is one of the best frameworks for cross-platform mobile app development. Rich features, agility, and cost-effectiveness make it an ideal choice for building cross-platform apps.




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The Complete Tutorial on the Top 5 Ways to Query Your Relational Database in JavaScript - Part 2

Welcome back! In the first part of this series, we looked at a very "low-level" way to interact with a relational database by sending it raw SQL strings and retrieving the results. We created a very simple Express application that we can use as an example and deployed it on Heroku with a Postgres database.

In this part, we're going to examine a few libraries which build on top of that foundation, adding layers of abstraction that let you read and manipulate database data in a more "JavaScript-like" way.




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Go Visitor Pattern

Summary

One feature that Go does not offer that is really useful in visitor patterns is overriding methods. The basic idea is to write a concrete class that contains all the VisitX methods with empty implementations, and a subclass can choose to only override the methods it cares about, ignoring the rest.

We'll see an example of how to implement this pattern in idiomatic Go code.




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Destination Heroku

[In the second part of his series, a Zone Leader begins the process of using Heroku for the very first time. In this article, he walks through the new account process, then performs the necessary setup of a database and RESTful API for use with the application built for a family member.]

In the "Moving Away From AWS and Onto Heroku" article, I provided an introduction of the application I wanted to migrate from Amazon's popular AWS solution to Heroku. While AWS is certainly meeting the needs of my customer (my mother-in-law), I am hoping for a solution that allows my limited time to be focused on providing business solutions instead of getting up to speed with DevOps processes.




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Let's Discuss Memoization, or Should I Say Memoisation

“In computing, memoization or memoisation is an optimization technique used primarily to speed up computer programs by storing the results of expensive function calls and returning the cached result when the same inputs occur again” — Wikipedia article on memoization

I've written a two part article in Memoization in JavaScript. The first part explains the concept with basic implementation in JavaScript code. It details a way to apply the technique on function calls. It is generic to handle most JavaScript functions.




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Syncing Local Alexa Skills JSON Files With Alexa Developer Console Settings

In the Alexa Skills for Node.JS ASK SDK development world, the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) Command-Line Interface (CLI) is one of the most overlooked tools.

Boosting Developer Productivity

With proper use, one could really increase productivity when developing Alexa Skills. This is especially so if you are creating many Alexa Skills, either because you are in the learning process or you are just managing multiple Alexa Skills projects for yourself or your clients.




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.NET Development Tools for Smart Development in 2020

.NET is indeed an important application development platform, as it's secure, robust, and quite easy to learn and implement. Developers are widely using the .NET framework to build web applications and even modernize legacy programming based applications into .NET-based ones. .NET developers also use many third-party tools to carry out development. These tools have proven to provide the best support for development.

Here are some of the top useful tools being used by many.NET development teams, .NET developers, individual .NET programmers, etc.




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Beginners Guide to CSS Flexbox With Examples

Flexbox is not a single property; it's a complete module that comes with a number of features. In this article, we will look at a complete guide for CSS Flexbox.

Before going into detail, I just want to answer why we should use flexbox layout instead of a traditional way of doing layout webpage using display properties, float properties, positional properties




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What’s New With Node? Interview With Bethany Griggs, Node.js Technical Steering Committee

Node.js 14 is available now. We wanted to get more context and details about the state of Node, and why developers should care about Node.js 14. We talked with Bethany Griggs, Node.js Technical Steering Committee member and Open-source Engineer at IBM, to find out more. 

Bethany has been a Node Core Collaborator for over two years. She contributes to the open-source Node.js runtime and is a member of the Node.js Release Working Group where she is involved with auditing commits for the long-term support (LTS) release lines and the creation of releases. 




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Using Heroku for Static Web Content

In the "Moving Away From AWS and Onto Heroku" article, I provided an introduction of the application I wanted to migrate from Amazon's popular AWS solution to Heroku.  Subsequently, the "Destination Heroku" article illustrated the establishment of a new Heroku account and focused on introducing a Java API (written in Spring Boot) connecting to a ClearDB instance within this new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) ecosystem.  My primary goal is to find a solution that allows my limited time to be focused on providing business solutions instead of getting up to speed with DevOps processes.

Quick Recap

As a TL;DR (too long; didn't read) to the original article, I built an Angular client and a Java API for the small business owned by my mother-in-law.  After a year of running the application on Elastic Beanstalk and S3, I wanted to see if there was a better solution that would allow me to focus more on writing features and enhancements and not have to worry about learning, understanding, and executing DevOps-like aspects inherent within the AWS ecosystem.




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Use Of Ngx-Bootstrap Typehead In Angular 8

Introduction

Ngx-Bootstrap has released a package of open-source tools which are native Angular directives for Bootstrap 3 and 4. It contains all core components powered by Angular. In this article, we will learn about the Typehead component which is a cool feature of Ngx-bootstrap.

What Is Typeahead?

Typeahead — Also known as autocomplete or autosuggest is a language prediction tool that many search interfaces use to provide suggestions for users as they type in a textbox. This is a method for searching and filtering through text. It is also sometimes known as autocomplete, incremental search, search-as-you-type, and inline search.




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Getting Started With Angular Reactive Form Validation

Handling user input with forms is the cornerstone of many common applications.

Applications use forms to enable users to log in, to update a profile, to enter sensitive information, and to perform many other data-entry tasks




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All About Lambda Functions in C++ (From C++11 to C++17)

Lambda functions are quite an intuitive concept of Modern C++ introduced in C++11, so there are already tons of articles on lambda function tutorials over the internet. But still, there are some untold things (like IIFE, types of lambda, etc.) left, which nobody talks about. Therefore, here I am to not only show you lambda function in C++, but we'll also cover how it works internally and other aspects of Lambda.

The title of this article is a bit misleading. Because lambda doesn't always synthesize to function pointer. It's an expression (precisely unique closure). But I have kept it that way for simplicity. So from now on, I will use lambda function and expression interchangeably.







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Day Clock ( vue.js )

See the Code - See it Full Page - See Details

Do you sometimes get lost in what day it is today? This Day Clock shows the progress of the current day and for the week. Click the center clock knot to toggle display. Double click the letter D to activate the debug mode. Also available at github.com/kunukn/dayclock

This Pen uses: HTML, CSS, Vue, and Vue




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Gradients

See the Code - See it Full Page - See Details

Playing with non -intersecting circles and gradients. Sometimes gives an impression of relief. When clicking, mouse horizontal position chooses hue and vertical position chooses with or without nested circles.

This Pen uses: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and




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CSS Only, Content Overflow Shadows

See the Code - See it Full Page - See Details

Horizontal and Vertical scrolling with faded out content. **Please note:** I have not cross browser tested this, however this method leverages `background-attachment: local`, currently usable in everything except Android Browser & Opera Mini according to <a href="https://caniuse.com/#feat=background-attachment" target="_blank">caniuse.com</a>, meaning there is great support across devices and many Android devices use Google Chrome for Android rather than the OS browser. **Additional note:** There is a bug when previewing this pen on mobile, due to loading the example within an `iframe`. The shadow rgba values are read as a non transparent, this does not happen when previewing locally not in an iframe :-)

This Pen uses: HTML, SCSS, JavaScript, and





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Google meets Portfolio

See the Code - See it Full Page - See Details

After seeing the amazing [pen](https://codepen.io/oliviale/full/GRpvNBa) from [@Olivia Ng](https://codepen.io/oliviale/pen/GRpvNBa) this is my attempt on the google meets interface. You can "send me" messages in the chat tab. Warning: You won't actually be sending me any messages.

This Pen uses: Pug, SCSS, JavaScript, and




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Elantris

PRINCE Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity. What a way to start a novel. As a reader, I don’t think about the first words of a book when…




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2019-2020 network TV schedule

It’s that time of the year again. A new TV season is upon us. With some shows beginning to air this week, I thought it best to post my “to watch” schedule for the fall. Unlike last year, I…




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(Probably) No NaNoWriMo This Year

I’ve been getting the itch again. For the better part of this year, I’ve been looking forward to tackling National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) once again this November. I’ve been running over plot scenarios in my head…




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2020 goals

With a relatively successful 2019, I am hitting the ground running into 2020. This is the first year in a long time where I feel like I am at a good starting point. One of the big realizations from the past year…




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Writing a WordPress book. Again.

TL;DR: Brad Williams, John James Jacoby, and I will be publishing the 2nd edition of Professional WordPress Plugin Development this year. It is hard to believe, but it has been nine years since I was approached by Brad Williams…