SquarePlanIT Blog

New Look

Cameron — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:48:44 +0000

We’ve been working hard to finish the latest version of our website, and it’s finally here! We pushed the new site live today, and with a little luck, it’ll be completely bug-free! We’ve extensively tested various browser/OS configurations and based on our tests, we’ve got a solid site.

This is our third website (and second complete overhaul) since we opened up shop in 2009. We started out with an “ok” website in August 2009 and launched a total re-design in June 2010. Now, just a little over a year later, we’ve refined our web presence once again, and it’s certainly for the better.

We threw out our old “Services” page and instead decided to go with two general headings: “Web Design” and “Graphic Design”. We’ve added direct links from those new sections to corresponding portfolio entries. We also chose to highlight services such as Web Hosting and Consultation directly on our homepage, rather than at the bottom of a generic “Services” page. Our next priority is to re-design the blog to match our new website layout.

We’re now offering Instructional Technology consultation as well, focusing on K-12 and Higher Ed. We’re very excited about this and we’ll be releasing more information soon! Don’t forget to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

SquarePlanIT Turns 2!

Cameron — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:00:43 +0000

As of yesterday we’ve officially been in business for two years! I still can’t believe just how much we’ve grown in two short years. Our application to form a Limited Liability Company in the state of Louisiana was granted on August 7, 2009. All we had was a name and some great ideas. Sure, we dreamed big, and two years later, I can safely say that we’ve achieved many of those dreams and aspirations. Our first year was good, maybe even great, considering our only advertisement was “word of mouth”. Enter 2010. We continued to grow and pick up new clients. There’s no feeling quite like sealing a deal with a new client, and 2010 didn’t disappoint us. We launched our shiny new website in July 2010 in order to be more competitive in our market. We’ve continued to grow exponentially this year, and still our only advertisement is “word of mouth”, which I believe is the best kind. Some of our best clients have been referred to us from other satisfied clients. I can only imagine what 2012 will have in store! We’re currently putting the finishing touches on a complete overhaul of our website, in hopes of making it more aesthetically pleasing, informative, and easier to navigate, so stay tuned!

SSH via Terminal from Lion to Snow Leopard

Cameron — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:15:04 +0000

Here’s a quick “fix” for a bug I came across yesterday when attempting to remotely control a Snow Leopard Server with SSH via Terminal from OS X Lion. By default, Lion’s terminal emulation is declared as “xterm-256color”, while Snow Leopard only supports “xterm-color”. You can imagine my surprise when I first connected via SSH into one of my Snow Leopard Servers from my iMac running Apple’s shiny new OS X Lion and got this message: “Error opening terminal: xterm-256color”. It turns out that there’s a relatively simple fix, it’s just extremely annoying that it happens in the first place. Simply open up Terminal preferences, then navigate to the “Advanced” tab and change “declare terminal as” to “xterm-color”. See the attached “incorrect” and “correct” screenshots.

Incorrect Settings:

Correct Settings:

New Website: theSpring

Cameron — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:30:26 +0000

We’ve been working very closely with theSpring, a church in Franklin, Tennessee, to develop their online presence. They’re a relatively new church in the area, but that hasn’t stopped them from growing exponentially in a very short amount of time. They wanted a modern website with a “clean” look and feel. Simplicity and easy navigation were their main concerns. They also wanted to have the ability to blog and accept donations online. We’re integrating secure online giving directly on their website, which will give users the opportunity to donate without ever having to visit a third-party site. Each transaction is encrypted and 100% secure between the user’s computer and our servers. Check them out at thespring.cc!

Logo Design: NewRockIT, LLC

Cameron — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:02:25 +0000

We recently developed a completely new brand identity for NewRockIT, LLC in West Monroe, LA. NewRockIT has been in business for several years, but they never really had a strong brand or identity that set them apart from everyone else. We’re happy to say that we developed this new logo to be used in all of their official communication, including their website and all printed materials.

New Website: Delta Ridge Duck Guides

Cameron — Tue, 24 May 2011 01:46:14 +0000

We recently completed the implementation of a Drupal-based website for Delta Ridge Duck Guides. Delta Ridge Duck Guides provides professionally guided duck and goose hunting tours in Northeast Louisiana. They came to us with a design in mind which we implemented according to their specifications. Because this website is built on the Drupal content management system, they are able to upload their own images, make text edits, and manage the site with ease. On top of building their new website, we also designed business cards, brochures, and other printed promotional materials for them. Be sure to check out their new site and find them on Facebook for more information!

Faster Web Hosting

Cameron — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:41:37 +0000

We recently performed hardware and software upgrades that will enable us to serve websites much faster and more efficiently. In addition to purchasing a new web/database server, we also moved our hardware to a new datacenter with ultra-fast internet connectivity. With multiple independent fiber channels, we now offer network redundancy and system-uptime like never before. What does this mean for you? If we’re hosting your website, you’ll notice that it loads significantly faster and will be capable of sustaining more concurrent visitors. To put this in perspective, the tests we’ve run show a 66% decrease in website load time!

HTTP Compression Using mod_deflate

Cameron — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:15:42 +0000

I ran across an interesting topic the other day while using YSlow to test page performance on a couple of my websites. HTTP compression is something I’ve never worried about, but because it was a factor in the overall “grade” of my website performance, I decided to research it a bit. Interestingly enough, the theoretical savings show an average of 60% – 75% smaller file size. There are also slight speed gains as well, so if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, it’s worth looking into implementing compression on your web server.

If you’re running a website on Apache, chances are high that you’ve already got the capability to compress HTTP connections using either mod_gzip or mod_deflate (mod_gzip is used in Apache 1.x while mod_deflate is used in Apache 2.x). While one of these modules is probably already installed (and maybe even enabled), it’s probably not configured in your Apache config file.

We use Apple web servers running Apache 2.x to host our sites, so mod_deflate came with our Apache installations. While it was already included (and enabled) in Apache, it wasn’t actually configured in the httpd.conf file. We added a quick entry that enabled it for all sites. See the short step-by-step below:

Open httpd.conf (/etc/apache2/httpd.conf)
Copy and paste the following text to the bottom of the file:
##
#Enable mod_deflate to compress html, css, xml, javascript, and text

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
DeflateCompressionLevel 9

##
Restart Apache

Of course, if you’re still running Apache 1.x, simply replace mod_deflate with mod_gzip. That’s it!

Want to see if a site is using compression techniques? Visit http://www.whatsmyip.org/http_compression

Weekend Project

Cameron — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:26:47 +0000

I love quick projects, and this past weekend I took the opportunity to create a simple personal webpage. Sure, I’ve owned the domain name CameronBrister.com for quite some time, but I’ve never really done anything with it. Then I got an idea: create a simple place to aggregate data from Twitter, Instagram, my blog, etc into a one-page digest of “what I’m doing”. All of the content is dynamic, so it’s never stale or stagnant, and it’s easy to see what I’m up to. I’m still tweaking it a bit, but it’s done for the most part. I know everyone will be flocking to this new web space and wondering “whatever did we do without this site?”. No, really though, it was just a quick weekend project that I’m rather proud of, so go check it out.

It’s March Already?

Cameron — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:23:18 +0000

Wow, I just can’t believe that we’ve already seen two months of 2011 come and go. It’s been a great year for us so far, and it’s sure to get even better. Not long ago (July 2009 to be exact) SquarePlanIT was a mere idea. Our first year in business (August – December) was good. Our second year was better, and we’ve already exceded expectations for 2011. We’ve been busy working with new clients and broadening our client base tremendously. So far, we’ve developed and launched a new website for Astro Industries, and we’re currently working with theSpring Church and Petroleum Automation Consultants to develop their online presences. There are a couple of other deals in the works, and we’ll write more about those when they’re solidified. Needless to say, we’re busy! We’re hoping the stars align just right so we can launch theSpring.cc within a couple of weeks. Of course we’ll tweet/Facebook/blog about it!

Until next time!