WillPowered Inc.

Software Tools

• EditPad Pro
• Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
• GIMP
• Lighttpd
• MySQL
• Ubuntu

I have tried out all sorts of software for making websites including Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web and Serif WebPlus, but I always end up going back to writing them by hand in EditPad Pro. Its a simple, tabbed, notepad-like program with syntax colouring.

Given the relative ease of getting a free Ubuntu Linux server to develop websites on and how easy it is to use the lightweight webserver Lighttpd, pron. lighty, and MySQL database capabilities, I use these as opposed to Windows-based alternatives.

Whilst I write websites using a variety of resolutions depending on where I am, I design websites to look awesome on resolutions of 1024 by 768 or greater. In my humble opinion, the chance of someone using anything smaller on laptops and desktops is very slim. I am looking forward to developing for mobile browsers and their smaller resolutions in the near future.

I use Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 to satisfy my photo and image manipulation needs. Whilst it is not Adobe Photoshop, it is equally as capable. I can support Photoshop files through GIMP, which is not terrible but is not the most user friendly at its current level of development.

Programming Languages and Standards

• HTML 5
• CSS 3
• PHP
• JavaScript

Writing websites by hand means that its easy to adhere to the latest web standards for HTML and CSS. I am starting to use HTML 5 and CSS 3 even though they are not fully developed as there are a few tricks which are currently supported which makes websites easier to code. Despite being familiar with ASP, I prefer PHP as it is easier to develop with. I also use JavaScript and AJAX to add extra functionality to websites and am starting to use jQuery to get a few neat tricks in my websites.

Hosting and Email

I am also including Google Apps in my work to provide rather reliable email services. I use a Rackspace Cloud Server so that I have a well supported, high quality server to provide my websites. I also use this server to provide reseller hosting.

Where the usual DNS hosting does not meet the requirements, I use free DNS services from afraid.org.