Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Happy New Year 2010!

Wishing you a very Prosperous New Year!

Wishing you all the best and success in 2010!

Sofie Estolloso & Company

You probably landed on this page because you searched for “Sofie Estolloso & Company”. I especially wrote this blog entry for your information. I know that you are trying to inquire and verify if I designed the website of a certain fund company.

I actually wrote about it already before. Please read my blog entry, I did not design the website of a certain fund company!, for further information. But during that time, I did not mention the domain name or the name of the company which was supposed to be involved in this so-called investment program money making business.

I thought that this issue was over about less than 3 years ago, months after it was launched and then got exposed when I responded to the several queries of those people who contacted me. Then the real company legally redeemed the domain name from the domain squatter. But it seems like some of the contents of this old website were posted in several internet forum sites.

Since the domain name is now being redirected to the real company, I am mentioning the company name now which has nothing to do with the investment program. The ABB company has nothing to do with the money making business it used to have on the abbfund.com domain. The old content of the website is gone and ABB took the domain legally from the former owner.

In my case, I would like to declare that I have nothing to do with that investment program too. I am not at all connected with that company if there was any. I do not know those people behind that investment program.

With that declaration, I would like to repeat, I did not design the website of the old abbfund.com when it was used for the ABB FUND INVESTMENT PROGRAM – PAY-IT 4 PROFIT SYSTEM scheme to make money.

Well, that’s all, and I hope that this information will clarify everything around this investment program money making business.

Note:
For my other readers, please note that I wrote this blog entry to clarify some things regarding a website of an investment program which I did not design. Thank you for your understanding.

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for SofieHofmann.com

SofieHofman.com has a new look. The new web design was ready about three weeks ago but I waited for the new year to upload the new WordPress theme. The whole site has been redesigned and it is now using WordPress 2.7. It used to be in simple PHP, and only the blog was using WordPress.

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for SofieHofmann.com

The new web design is actually based on the old web design of SofieHofmann.com and the new web design of Sehdi.com. I removed some of the sections but also added a few more sections which you will see once I finished writing the content and uploading the photos that I used to have at the website.

Simply Sofie Original Web Design

SofieHofmann was a sort of an album, and will still be like an album, plus the blog. I know the photo gallery capability of WordPress ever since WordPress 2.5 was introduced. I have tested many photo galleries but did not want too much complications in installing and upgrading the software. I just would like to have a simple photo gallery, and WordPress is the answer to it minus the automatic slide show.

Regarding the sections, I made use of the categories to act like pages to make the other sections more dynamic just like a blog. I wanted to omit the dates at the other sections except at the blog by entering some codes at the .htaccess but I always get an error. With that, I will just have to leave everything just like a blog with the dates on the URL.

I have done using categories to act like pages but dynamic in one of my web designs. Kindly view Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme Website, click the pages, and you will see what I mean. I converted PSAP-PAROLA.org to CMS using WordPress. I am satisfied with that website considering that I did that design when WordPress 2.5 was released.

Regarding the layout, I’m using one layout for this site, a fluid three-column for the whole site, with the main content on the left and the two sidebars on the right. Having a fluid three-column layout is always critical so I made sure that it looks good on different browsers.

The site was tested at Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. As usual I also limited the width so as not to expand the main content if the screen resolution is bigger than 1440×900.

Regarding colors, I finally change the background color of the content from light blue to white, which made the website lighter, cooler and pleasant to look at.

The web design is maybe simple but I am quite happy with it. It remains uncluttered, easy to navigate, and that really matters to me.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Wishing you all a very Prosperous and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Have a fruitful 2008!

I call it simplicity, just neat and tidy

I was tagged by moderately-confused Pinay in Deutschland using my web design blog. As I’ve said in my personal blog (I just did an almost long forgotten tag), I normally don’t like being tagged but I promised her that I will do it.

I will have to warn you though, I’m not really going to do this tag, I will just post the graphic needed to satisfy my dear cheH’s curiousity. 🙂 I suggest you read the instructions at her blog, feel free to view.

Now, all of you know that there’s really nothing at my desktop except for a few icons. I hide the other icons as I always like to see the screen neat and tidy. Some people may call it boring but I don’t really mind, I have no problem with that. For me, it’s what you call simplicity.

I did not design the website of a certain fund company!

THE FACT AND THE TRUTH: I did not design the website of a certain fund company.

For some time now, since December 2006, I have been getting emails through my contact form asking me about a certain fund company. These people were always asking me if I designed the website of that fund company. Until now, I still get these emails even if the website of that fund company is no longer active in the internet.

For once and for all, I would like to inform all of you that I did not design the website of ***fund.*** and other websites connected or associated to it. I am not mentioning the website because I really do not want to promote that website at my site and at my blog.

Actually, at first, I just ignored the emails because I knew that I did not design the website. I thought that the emails were just another kind of spams. But I kept getting more and more, so I checked the site, and voila, I saw a name similar to mine, just when I was still single. I checked if there’s really another one who has the same name as mine when I was still not married, but the search results were just my site and the site of that fund company.

Knowing that, I immediately put a notice in my contact form that I did not design the website of that company. I just can’t understand why people kept on writing me even if I already put a notice above the contact form that I did not design the website of the company.

So, today, I again put a note inside the form itself, maybe this time people will finally get it that I did not design the website of the company. I am not at all connected with the company. I don’t know those people behind the company.

A lot of people have written me, I answered some of them and the others who were somewhat like demanding, I just ignored them. I feel like I have no obligation to answer them since I am not at all associated with the company.

I did not report the website but I guess those who have read my notice and those who wrote me that I answered have organized themselves and reported the website. If you try to access the site now, it’s no longer accessible. They tried to transfer, but it’s also gone now.

A few questions though to those who invested with that fund company.

1. Why were you investing in the first place, if you haven’t even met the person who founded the company? The company was just founded November 2007 and you already trusted your money to them.

2. Why were you believing them that you can have 200% ROI or Return on Investment? What a crap! Didn’t you ask any dignified legal financial consultant or a bank for example if it’s possible.

3. Why were you investing if you haven’t even checked if the company is a valid company? The company that they mentioned is not at all the same with the company they tried to copy. You should have checked with the original company if it’s really part of the company at all.

4. Why were you not checking the names they mentioned at the website if they’re valid names before you invested? You checked my name because you saw my name there, that’s fine, if indeed it was me that they were referring to. You assumed that it was me who designed it. The problem was, you kept on writing me even if I already put a notice at the contact form that I did not design the website.

5. Why were you not checking my DESIGNS page before you wrote me? Did you ever see that company among the list of the websites that I designed? No! Not at all! Even if you explore my other sites, you’ll never see that website.

Anyway, once again, I repeat, I did not design the website of that fund company.

Now, that the site is not accessible, people are just assuming that I designed it. Now, they’re asking me what happened to the site of the company. If you are going to ask me what happened to the website of that fund company, my answer is, I don’t know. I repeat, I did not design its website and I am not at all connected with the company, and so, I can’t answer any of your questions. So please, have some consideration, don’t ask me anymore about it.

To conclude this, congatulations to those who put them out of business in the net but one way or the other, they can always transfer from one site to another, from one server to another. Even if they’re not in the internet they can still talk to people. I just hope that the authorities will be able to catch them. They’re destroying people including me. I am trying to earn an honest living and they destroyed my web design business.

PHP, MySQL, HTML, External Hard Disk Drive

I’ve been too busy lately. Few days ago, I revised the PHP codes of my personal site Simply Sofie at SofieHofmann.com. It’s better now and easier to update. I also updated some data.

I didn’t really appreciate PHP before because of MySQL. I just hated the idea that I always have to back-up my database and if ever I forget to do it, and then something happened (i.e. lost database), then I will be left with nothing and have to do it all over again.

I am not a programmer just a simple hobby web designer but if I would like to be more effective, I need to know PHP. So I learned PHP through reading tutorials on the net.

One way or another, I have learn to love PHP and MySQL but I will never forget HTML. If you would like to start designing a website, I will always recommend to start with HTML. Until now, I write my codes using notepad. I still use HTML/XHTML combined with PHP and MySQL.

Since I have to download a lot all the time, considering that I also take a lot of pictures, I’m now running out of space in my hard disk drive. I still have a lot of pending hobby projects and I couldn’t really clean up my computer because I need to back up my data first.

Finally, my husband bought a 300 GB external hard disk drive today. He bought it for me. I was really so happy when I saw it. I can finally transfer my other data and erase some unnecessary files. What a relief!

SwissPinoy.com

This morning, I received an email from Dani Kuettel who created the SwissPinoy.com website. I visited the site and found it very interesting. I checked the domain name and learned that it was registered on April 30, 2006.

According to Dani Kuettel:

I created a web site at www.SwissPinoy.com to improve my technical skills and learn more about Filipinos in Switzerland. The idea behind SwissPinoy.com is simply to list everything about Filipinos in Switzerland and Swiss in the Philippines.

I feel honored that my personal blog, Simply Sofie – Heart and Wisdom + Smiles and Laughters at SofieHofmann.com is listed at the main page of the site through blog feed. As of today, it is listed at the main page together with X-Pat Files – Online Chronicles of a Filipino Expat in Switzerland, and Carissa )i( – Que viva la locura! Step into my organized chaos.

He wrote because he discovered that I have another blog, my web design blog, this Sehdi.com Blog, where once in a while, I write about some technical topics on the net. He asked me if someday, I could provide him the rss feed merging all my blogs into one feed. He thought that my technical blog would give readers a nice different view of Pinoys in Switzerland. Unfortunately, I have no intention to do that at the moment although it’s one of my plans, I just couldn’t do it right now nor next month. I still have some pending hobby projects.

SwissPinoy.com is still quite new but it is really such a good project. It’s a sort of a directory about Filipinos in Switzerland as well as Swiss in the Philippines. It will serve as a means for others to know more about the Filipinos in Switzerland.

Yahoo! Messenger Update

This is an update. I uninstalled the new version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice just to find out, if what I really wrote last night about Yahoo! Messenger, XHTML, PHP, WordPress, YM, Yahoo! 360, was accurate, having no option not to include the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services during the installation.

I found out that you actually have the option not to include the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services during the installation. I just overlooked it. You can actually choose between “Typical Install” and “Custom Install”.

If you accept the “Typical Install”, Yahoo! Messenger with Voice is not the only one which will be installed but it will also install the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services and you don’t really know what you’re going to have. Well, I saw it and it’s not really bad but I prefer not to have the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services. I also have some apprehension, I don’t know what other softwares have been installed when I used the “Typical Install”. Just a thought!

If you don’t want to use the “Typical Install” you can use “Custom Install” where you are given the option what to install especially if you don’t want the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services.

What if you did what I did, used the “Typical Install”? Then, you just uninstall the Yahoo! Toolbar, the links are in my previous entry. But after I uninstalled the Yahoo! Toolbar, I opted to uninstall the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice for the reason that I already stated above.

If you want to uninstall the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, well, the process is just like the one on how to uninstall Yahoo! Toolbar, Option 2, by going to the Control Panel.

Instead of writing how to do it, I’d rather give you the links at the Yahoo! Messenger Help.

Uninstalling Yahoo! Messenger

Uninstalling Yahoo! Messenger from Windows

Well, that’s all and again, good luck!

XHTML, PHP, WordPress, YM, Yahoo! 360

Today, I changed the codes of my web design site, Sehdi.com – Sofie Estolloso Hofmann Designs International, from XHTML to PHP. I enhanced the index page with rotating images of my web designs with URL links and added the Latest Blog Posts, and so if you are regularly visiting my site, you will know right away if I updated my blog. I redirected the HTML pages to PHP pages using .htaccess. Then, I upgraded my sehdi.com blog from WordPress 1.5 to WordPress 2.0.3. Everything seems to be working fine.

That’s what good about WordPress, it’s not difficult to understand so you can configure it easily.

Yesterday, I revised the PHP codes of the donation pages of Green Cross Switzerland. I just need the translation of the German version to English, French and Italian languages, then everything will be in place and Green Cross Switzerland will finally be able to receive donations online through its site.

On other matters, Yahoo improved its Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.

According to Yahoo! 360 Team:

Yahoo! Messenger & Yahoo! 360° Working Together

The new version of Yahoo! Messenger has a great new feature called “plug-ins.”

Plug-ins are free, mini-applications that can be easily added to Yahoo! Messenger with Voice so that Messenger becomes more personal and interactive for you.

There’s a Yahoo! 360° plug-in on Messenger that lets you do some pretty cool stuff. You can read updates from your friends, see if you have new blog comments, and even write a blast or a blog entry – all from within Yahoo! Messenger.

Last night, I downloaded and installed the new beta version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (BETA) (8.0.0.505) with MyYahoo Module (7.5.0.1).

The new version is ok except for the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Browser Services which are no longer optional if you want to install it or not. But you can uninstall the Yahoo! Toolbar if you don’t like it at all. (Updated on June 22, 2006 at 11:49 pm regarding the phrase that I just erased, see my next blog entry)

How do you uninstall it? It’s easy, just locate the “Edit” button, which appears like a pencil, click it and you will see “Uninstall” almost at the bottom. Just click it and the Yahoo! Toolbar is gone.

For more information, read the following at the Yahoo! Toolbar Help.

How do I remove Yahoo! Toolbar for Internet Explorer?

How do I remove Yahoo! Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox?

If you decide to install the new version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice but don’t want the Yahoo! Toolbar, you just uninstall the toolbar after installing the new YM beta version.

That’s all and good luck!