december 97
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------ClubRiada
The Riada Software Newsletter
Issue 2, December 1997
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INTRODUCTION - from Riada founder, Daniel Adair.
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Welcome to our second issue of ClubRiada. We'd very much like to thank all of you for your overwhelming and positive response to our newsletter. As usual the weeks preceding the festive season have been hectic, but in between the merry celebrating we've put together another action packed issue!
In this issue we have news of our latest Java based web tool, RiadaForm, that enables you to incorporate professional looking email based web forms without needing to be a Java or CGI expert, details of the new customer support area on our web site (designed using our own product, RiadaForm) which will make it even easier for you to communicate with our support team and even faster for them to get their solution back to you, and we take a look at what's currently stirring up the software industry with the latest Java developments at Sun Microsystems and Microsoft's browser struggles with the US courts.
Based on the response we've had so far from customers, we believe RiadaForm will be just as successful as our existing products, which in the past month, have been awarded many prestigious accolades from internet sites such as "Cool Tool of the Day", ZDNet and download.com.
We congratulate the winners of last month's competition for their outstanding use of Riada products, and to show you who else is using Riada products and how, we've listed the URLs submitted to RiadaGallery.
On behalf of all the staff at Riada, I wish you a joyous Christmas and a very happy, healthy and prosperous year to come. May 1998 bring you everything you wish for :-)
Daniel Adair,
Founder, Riada Software.
NEWS
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RiadaForm Released November 28, 1997
RiadaForm is a Java based web tool that makes implementing feedback forms fast and simple without any tricky and tedious CGI and Java coding, ideal for newcomers to the internet and experienced web site developers alike.
RiadaForm has many features, such as simple validation of fields, an email response/receipt to the visitor of the form, as well as incorporating all the traditional fields that HTML has, such as check boxes, radio buttons, drop down lists, and text areas to name a few.
If you have ever wanted to create a web form on your site, be it a feedback form or even a survey form, then RiadaForm is the answer to your problem.
For more information about RiadaForm, and for an online example, see http://www.riada.com/form.html.
New Customer Support Area On Riada Web Page
In keeping with the excellent reputation the customer support team at Riada has earned amongst the internet community, our friendly and helpful staff have found another way to help do a better job for you.
Written using RiadaForm, the easy to follow customer support form located in the support section on Riada's web page has been designed to further improve support for users of Riada products by streamlining the way in which problems are communicated to Riada's support staff and ensuring all relevant details about the product being used and the problem, are not inadvertently omitted by customers. (Tip: Whilst our support staff respond promptly, FAQ sheets are available for each product for an even faster reply!).
ISO Agrees To Consider Java
The International Standards Organization's decision to allow Sun Microsystems to submit its Java programming language for consideration as a standard, was very well received by the software industry this month.
Although the effect ISO standardization may have on Java is debatable, since programming languages like C++ have become entrenched within the software industry without ISO recognition, many believe the benefits could be vast. Apart from benefits to the software industry, new markets may open up revolutionizing, for instance, how our home appliances behave - we may find Java giving us PC type TV sets and 'intelligent' refrigerators, with the ultimate winners being consumers and jobs.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer Woes
The US Justice Department was successful recently in having a preliminary injunction brought against Microsoft to prevent it from forcing computer manufacturers to distribute MS Internet Explorer with their computers, as a condition of licensing MS Windows 95 operating system. The Justice Department believes this Microsoft policy is a violation of a 1995 agreement made by the company with the US Government, to end what many at the time saw as anti-competitive practices by Microsoft.
Whether or not this action will have any profound effect on Microsoft's business practices remains to be seen, although the near future is expected to keep part of the software giant busy attempting to comply with the District Court's order to make Windows 95 work without Internet Explorer.
Riada Products Are Big Hits With Internet Review Sites!
RiadaHeadline received 4 stars from the editor at ZDnet. The great review on their site highlighted the fact that "Novice Web authors will find RiadaHeadline a simple solution to adding advanced features to their page". See the full review by clicking on the ZDNet award image on the RiadaHeadline page at http://www.riada.com/headline.html.
RiadaHeadline also received a fantastic review from the folks at download.com who declared that RiadaHeadline looks like your typical Java-based headline scroller, but it's much more". RiadaHeadline was given a popular rating on Download.com, being featured on the Internet page of their site, and was awarded editor's "pick". Visit the Java section under "Internet" on the "download.com" site at http://www.download.com.
The people at ZDNet also liked RiadaBillboard and the editor awarded it 5 stars, saying "RiadaBillboard is an easy-to-use Java-based tool that lets you create billboards for your web page with a minimum of fuss". See the review for yourself by clicking the ZDNet award image on the RiadaBillboard page at http://www.riada.com/billboard.html.
RiadaLock received a "Cool Tool of the Day" award from "Cool Tool of the Day", who described it as having "all the hallmarks of the stuff we like. It's small -- under 750K. It's easy -- everything's done with Wizard-like dialog boxes. And it does it's job well, providing a quickie front door security block for the pages you want to protect". Check out the rest of the article at http://www.cooltool.com/previous/111097.html.
COMPETITION
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Winners of Gold awards each receive a free registered copy of any current Riada software title of their choice, and a link to their site and a congratulatory note is also published on the *FRONT PAGE OF THE RIADA WEB SITE*. All winners receive either Gold, Silver or Bronze trophy images to display on their Riada enabled web site, plus the web sites of Silver and Bronze winners are highlighted in the ClubRiada section on the Riada web site. Submissions for both Hints and RiadaGallery are eligible and are assessed in terms of originality, usefulness and style.
After much late night deliberation and bribery (just kidding) we are proud to announce that the Gold award winner of the inaugural Riada competition is - Neill Orr from Computronix! Neil won the first prize for his RiadaGallery submission using RiadaVivo. Place the mouse cursor on the Computronix photograph and watch the photo closely for the company President! Visit their site at http://www.computronix.com/Corporatef.htm.
For the Silver and Bronze winners, see their RiadaGallery submissions below.
RIADAGALLERY
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A page of links of RiadaGallery submissions will be maintained under the Info section of the Riada web page along with an archive of back issues of ClubRiada. This month's RiadaGallery submissions include:
Silver trophy winner - The Pop Music Chart Archives (PMCA) have cleverly integrated RiadaHeadline into their web site to display notable birthdays and anniversaries associated with the music industry. Check it out at http://charter.simplenet.com.
Bronze trophy winner - FFL Gameday - The Official Publication of the Franchise Football League. This is a great site. Nice and easy on the eye. Simple, yet effective use of RiadaCartel - http://www.nickelranch.com/football/index.htm {click on FFL News!}
The guys at http://www.mt-maunganui.co.nz use RiadaHeadline as a snazzy site navigation tool.
Another use of RiadaVivo (from Computronix again!) that also had us laughing, was a photo of Neill Orr where his hair disappears when the mouse cursor is placed over the image! See him lose it at http://www.computronix.com/posse.htm.
http://www.hypnoshows.com - this site uses RiadaHeadline for displaying news and events. Be dazzled! Be amazed ...Be hypnotized!
HINTS
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RiadaHeadline 1.03
We have had numerous suggestions from people using RiadaHeadline as a site navigation tool so we thought we'd combine them into one overall hint!
A RiadaHeadline project is embedded in the index.html page of the web site (either by blending it in with a background color the same as the page background and no border, or whatever combination you prefer). The RiadaHeadline project contains a short description of the content of each page on the web site with a link to each page represented by the words "Click here for this page".
RiadaBillboard 1.0
This interesting hint recommended using RiadaBillboard as a "front door" to your web site by placing the RiadaBillboard project on the front page, with an image representing the site along with an image containing the text "Click here to enter". Then, using the fade effect (or you could use any one of the 26 transitions!), switch between the two images allowing the visitor to click the image containing the message to enter the site.
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Don't forget to submit your Riada enabled web site to RiadaGallery or Hints for next month's ClubRiada issue by emailing mailto:club@riada.com. Or if you have any suggestions for current/new products, email us at mailto:feedback@riada.com.
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