Here at Pica Design we are always looking to innovate and help other businesses meet their marketing goals. We truly believe all successful businesses should have a strong web presence in order to meet these goals. The cornerstone of a web presence obviously begins with a strong website which successfully communicates the business to their audience. Most large companies can easily afford such a presence, but what are small businesses to do without breaking the bank?

Here at Pica we have found a middle-ground; branded WordPress themes. These themes let us reuse the common website framing used for most websites; similar to a house foundation, then style the exterior with client branding and colors. We also have modularized several common website components like a calendar, sideshows, image galleries, and blogs so clients can pick and choose the tools their website will need. Once a client chooses a template layout which matches their business model; we customize the template with the client branding and color scheme. We then bundle hosting / domain support and SEO into these packages.

So far we’ve had great success using these themes to create The Belfast Maskers website and the BJ’s Automotive website.

Contact us to learn how these pre-packaged themes can help your business! 207-338-1470 | web@picadesign.com

We are very excited about Google’s recent choice to phase out support for older web browsers. As web developers we pride ourselves in following modern coding standards set forth by the W3C. In order for developers to make sites look and work as desired in these older browsers we have to write in several coding ‘hacks’. They are ugly and force us to not always follow the W3C standards. Google’s role in this evolution for web development is quite critical. As industry leaders, their stance in forward thinking makes the world a better place… Thanks Google! At Pica Design we have already phased out IE6 support, and greatly encourage web users to keep their web browsers upgraded. It’s free, keeps you secure, and makes sites look as their designers planned for you to see them. – Team Pica

“In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.”  – The Google App Team

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Ever wonder exactly how fast your internet is? Why the 120 gigabyte hard drive you bought is only 111 gigabytes according to your computer? I’ve encountered a lot of confusion explaining these concepts to clients over the years. This mainly stems from the confusion about bits and bytes, two units that measure data. While many people use the two terms interchangeably, they are not the same thing.

Techy Russian Dolls (Image Credit: LaughingSquid.com)

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Hey, my name is Zak and I’m a summer intern here at Pica Design. While reading a blog today, I saw a rumor that Google Voice is supposedly opening to the public soon, and I decided to write this blog post to elucidate this great service for our readers. While many of you may not know what Google Voice is, I urge everyone with a Google Account (and who doesn’t have one, these days) to pick up their own number.

Google Voice was originally called Grand Central, a company founded in 2005 which Google bought in 2007 for 97 million. Even years ago it was a promising business opportunity, and it remains a great service.

But what does Google Voice actually do? Well, it’s essentially a new phone number that allows a number of features that most phone services don’t offer.

The Google Voice Inbox (Credit: Google)

First, it offers a unified number that you’ll never lose when you move, get a new cell phone, or change phone service. This number can ring any other number of phones that you own, for example, when somebody calls my Google Voice number, both my cell phone and my home phone ring, which means I almost never miss a call.

Google Voice also features a robust voicemail system. When somebody leaves a voicemail on your Google Voice account, it notifies you via text message and even email, transcribing the voicemail into text and delivering it to your inbox.

Finally, there are a host of other features  Google Voice offers. You can send and receive text messages for free online, screen calls, set different voicemail greetings to different contacts and groups, and more.

Google Voice is free, and a great service. I have been using it since 2008 and its unification makes life easier, which everybody deserves. I urge everyone to pick up a number and at least try it out.

Within the last three weeks we’ve been noticing a show-stopping trend. We’ve found more than one local area site plagued by this notice:

The problem is usually a piece of javascript that a hacker has added to the site. It can easily be removed as long as you can find the infected files and remove the necessary code. We’re trying to figure out if this is a local occurence, or something that’s more widespread. We’d love to hear from you if you have any idea as to the source of the attacks, or encounter other sites that have been attacked. And as always, keep your passwords tough to guess, and close to the chest!

Browser Blunders
Have you ever seen a website and wondered why it looks so…odd? If a site has not been tested and programmed to work with your Internet browser (and version), it can look positively wacky. We now test a site’s functionality in various browsers, in various versions, including Mac and PC variations, before a site goes live.

D!d U Kn0w?
Creating a great password is your first line of defense against a hacker. What’s a great password? One with upper and lower case letters, a number or two, and maybe an exclamation point! Make a password tough to guess (but memorable for you), and you’ll be one step closer to hacker-proof.