lucidity blog

Dedicated Servers

Tuesday 23 June 2009 | Posted by: Guy

A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on inv... more

Shared Hosting

Tuesday 12 May 2009 | Posted by: Guy

Are you considering writing a blog, setting up a personal website, doing some photo sharing or hosting a forum?
Are finances not what they once used to be or do you just wish to trial a new project and not expose yourself to financial risk?
If the answer is yes, you should consider a Shared Hosting platform for your new venture.

Shared Hosting is probably the most common type of web hosting available. It can be UNIX, Linux or Windows based hosting, depending on the operating sys... more

Twitter integration on lucidity.ie

Tuesday 07 April 2009 | Posted by: Dermot

One of the things we wanted for the homepage of our site was twitter integration. I wanted to display the most recent 2 tweets from our twitter page. In this post I will discuss how I did this and how I optimized it in a way that minimized the impact on page response time.

The first step was to get the tweets. Since the site is built with Ruby on Rails, I was able to use the excellent twitter gemmore

Web Accessibility

Thursday 19 March 2009 | Posted by: Niki

Why is Accessibility important for your website?
In recent years as the net has become more engrained in our everyday life the issue of accessibility has become more and more prominent. It is estimated that 6% of the population is visually impaired. Add to that people that are also deaf / hard of hearing and people with cognitive/learning disabilities. That’s a large portion of the populous.

We also need to consider the people that browse t... more

8 Tips For Launching Your Website (Part 2)

Tuesday 03 March 2009 | Posted by: Dermot

Go here for for part 1.

5. Be different
The content and design of your site should emphasize clearly and succinctly to a user what makes you different than your competitors. You need to communicate the organisation's distinct brand and personality.

6. Be the same
While you should certainly innovate when it comes to your message, you should be wary of innovating in how yo... more

What is a VPS, and why it might be the right choice for you?

Thursday 26 February 2009 | Posted by: Shai

Lucidity offers a gamut of hosting services tailored for your needs.

On the lower end, we offer shared hosting. The problem with shared hosting is that you have to share, yuck! Resources are shared between all users, you can't install software on the server because it will affect other users, and you have to share CPU and RAM resources between all clients. Also any issue with other websites hosted on the same server may affect your website as well. Shared hosting is out of the question... more

Why SBS 2008?

Friday 20 February 2009 | Posted by: Emmett

Small Business Server 2008 is the latest incarnation of the Microsoft server offering for SMEs and was released in November 2008. SBS is quite possibly the most compelling software offering ever developed by Microsoft as it combines a Windows Server infrastructure along with Microsoft Exchange and Windows Sharepoint for email and collaboration, for what is essentially a knockdown price. However, the real gem in the offering is the ease in which mobile access to the systems is configured. S... more

SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips - Part 3

Wednesday 18 February 2009 | Posted by: Guy

Are you worthy?: Search Engines place big emphasis on how high your sites link popularity is. Be popular! Be link-worthy. If your content is poor and your site is not of a high quality, who is going to link to you? Very few, all but the desperate will say no. They are ways that you can request thousands of links; it’s not worth it if the site is poor. Worthy sites will be linked to naturally and without having to ask for the link. Feel free to trade l... more

Microsoft Office? I didn’t know it could do that! - Part 2

Monday 16 February 2009 | Posted by: Jim

Part 2: Excel Pivot Tables

One of the biggest issues for most SME’s is having quality business information at their fingertips, total sales, gross margin, units sold, sales commission, daily/weekly/monthly breakdowns etc, etc. Sounds difficult a lot of reports and a lot of hassle! expensive accounting and reporting software? No! Microsoft Excel and pivot tables will do just that. The really great thing about a pivot table is how easy it is to r... more

8 Tips For Launching Your Website (Part 1)

Wednesday 11 February 2009 | Posted by: Dermot

We've helped a lot of people launch websites. We've done many types of sites: property sites, e-commerce sites, sites for services, product sites, brochure sites. Many of these sites were from organisations who had never launched a website before. We've seen what works and what doesn't. If you are planning on starting a new website or re-developing an existing website, you need to do or think about the following: 1. Have a business model
If you own a business, you can... more

SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips - Part 2

Tuesday 10 February 2009 | Posted by: Guy

5. Keywords:
Keyword Research: Research your keyword phrases. You think you know what people will search for you under; you may be surprised to learn that what you think and the reality of the situation are two different worlds. Use tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker or Google's Keyword Tool. Never use general keywords such as "golf" or "computers," as they are not what you... more

SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips - Part 1

Friday 06 February 2009 | Posted by: Guy

1. Domain Names:
Old vs. New Domain Names: If you own a Domain Name and have done so for a while, use it. Try not to purchase a new one unless it’s absolutely necessary. Search Engines will rate older names higher. New Domain Names will take from a few weeks to a few months to achieve “normal” levels of traffic.
Multiple Domains: How diverse is your web site? Coul... more

Microsoft Office? I didn’t know it could do that!

Monday 02 February 2009 | Posted by: Jim

Part 1: Microsoft BCM (Business Contact Manager)
As you are probably aware the Microsoft Office suite offers companies an enormous array of software, which the vast majority use on a daily basis. The reality is that most users only scratch the surface when it comes to the functionality that’s pre bundled in your Outlook, Word, and Excel etc. It is with this is mind that this first blog in Lucidity Technologies Networks section is being written, to ... more