Website Design Books

[webgal]

jmeng- You first need to narrow down what it is you want to learn. I use dreamweaver and perhaps finding a certified dreamweaver instructor in your area would be a great place to start. You could also buy the program and then buy tutorials. There is 30-day free trial. Don't let it overwhelm you. There are some tutorials that come with the program. The fork in the road is the html/designers and the programmers.

I started with Dreamweaver and I love it. I have branched out to other platforms but I don't write programming code. But I can darn well paste it like a pro. So much has been written, you simply need to know how to work with it.

Another route to consider is to download drupal or some other CMS and simply experiment with it. In other words, get a programmed site and change the .css to make it look like yours.

Why don't you start by telling us what you want to do. Build a site? What kind of site? Then we can suggest tools. Some people want to sit down and read a book. And there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to have some idea of your goals in order to give better advice.

A friend of mine has written an ebook that shows you the ropes in a step-by-step way. How to open a host account etc., explains what a cPanel. Lots of photos. Let me know if you'd like the link to that. I'm not sure if it would be "too beginner" or not.

[pentupentropy]

If anyone needs help with CMS (Content Management Systems), give me a shout. I'm pretty pro at phpnuke, postnuke, Mambo, Joomla, LDU/Sedito, Drupal (fair to middlin with Drupal in the category of spanning one community across multiple sites for web 2.0 stuff) and some others. I'd help you for free but that always turns into a pain in the arse. I'll do it in my spare time though for $20.00 hour. I know you can pay someone a lot less and get work done by overseas people, and if you'd like to, that's fine. If you'd like to see my resume I think you'll agree that my price is more than fair =)

[pentupentropy]

If anyone has an actual project they'd like worded on my rates are $45/hour if the project is 10 hours or more, $60/hour it's less. That seems backwards to some people so let me clarify. There are things that need to be done in all jobs that are a fixed amount of time which means if I charge less for a shorter project I could lose money. It's happened. Kinda like a carpenter. He always needs his tools loaded, unloaded and cleaned, etc.

I've never actually advertised myself on here, so I figure it's about time I did... here's my resume:

Relevant Experience:



Operating Systems:

* Solaris – installation, maintenance, support
* Windows NT – Installation, maintenance, support
* Linux (Most Versions) – Installation, kernel tweaking, high availability and fault tolerant network/server builds. Security and end user support.
* Novell (3.11 – 5.x) Installation and administrative support, user maintenance



Servers/Clients and Software:

* Domain Name Services – Linux, Unix, NT – Installation, maintenance, troubleshooting.
* Web Servers – Installation and configuration for high load networks, maintenance. Expert level with apache for *NIX (version 1.x). Configuration and installation of secure server using apache + ssl for secure sites and intranets. Also familiar with iPlanet, IIS, Netscape and Netscape+.
* FTP/P2P – Installation and configuration of most ftp servers including secure ftp, all on *NIX (Microsoft FTP by default is UNIX/BSD).
* Client Software – installation and maintenance/troubleshooting for most business clients including MS Works, MS Office, Sun Star Office, Corel Office Suite, some exp setting up LOTUS servers.
* Backups – Legato Networker installation, server and client configuration and DLT Maintenance for file systems beyond 1TB on any timed schedule. Troubleshooting through GUI or command line.
* E-mail – SMTP, IMAP, POP3 installations and maintenance with most mail servers and clients including Netscape, Exchange, qmail (servers) and clients such as outlook ol/express, Eudora, Netscape Mail, putty, pine and mutt.





Hardware:

* Server builds and maintenance: Built and maintained servers from Dell, Sun, Compaq (DL’s) and many others, including servers with SCSI RAID, GB NIC’s multiple networking setups and with many different types of configurations, including web servers, streaming media servers, ftp, mail and Linux firewall servers.
* PC builds for end users for most everything.
* Setup and installation of Cisco switches, routers and hubs for initial network installation.
* Setup and configuration of printers on Windows and Novell 5 networks as well as some unix.



Relevant Work Experience:



3. Globix Corporation (NY, NY) – Systems Administrator/Managed Services
1. 3MU Networks (Livingston Manor, NY) – Owner, Developer

98-00 Dataware Computer Products (White Lake, NY) – Systems Admin, Programmer

98-98 World Wide Media Group (NY, NY) – End User/Client PC Tech Support



Other:

Great deal of personal experience constructing websites using graphical applications such as adobe and JASC applications. All HTML and PHP was hand-coded. Helped develop the original OpenNap network and port the server to RedHat Linux and OpenBSD as well as work out user limitation bug with Linux. Also familiar with MySQL and PostGresSQL database creation, installation and maintenance.