The Easy AJAX Loader!
Ok so I promised myself I would make some extra time throughout 2010 to write a few more posts than I have been and get the word out there on some of the great technologies and resources available. With that being said, I am just going to write a brief post today as I am currently in the middle of a few projects and really am just slightly procrastinating right now. But enough with the excuses, on to the real meaning behind this.
With AJAX being a common staple in web development these days, I see a fair amount of people struggling with how to do this effectively such that the user understands something is happening and doesn’t repeat their actions multiple times over in an impatient fit. So how is it that you can show the user that your website is actually processing the data since AJAX won’t force a page refresh like a normal post procedure? Enter the era of AJAX loader images. 
I’m sure you have all seen these before in the form of a status bar image with moving lines, or the spinning circle images. Technically speaking these images are just animated GIFs that repeat over and over again and do not actually have any real dependency on the work that is being done. Meaning, the image is not an indicator of how close the process is to being complete, but rather just something the user can stare at while waiting for the process to complete.
If any of you have ever taken the time to make one of these animated GIFs on your own then chances are you know what a drag it is and would prefer not to ever do it again. The good news is, you DON’T have to. The wonderful little website called ajaxload.info developed quite an impressive web based system which allows you to make your own AJAX loaders directly from their website and download them instantly. With over 30 different icons to choose from and the ability to set the foreground and background colors to any hex value you can dream of (including the option for a transparent background) you will have a hard time ignoring how much time and effort this site will save you.
I’m not really one to just expect you to take my word for it, and much rather you go explore for yourself. So now that I have pointed you in the right direction, go take a look and enjoy!
If I need to host eight websites (all mine), should I go for VPS hosting or a reseller hosting account? Which of the two options is better, cheaper, etc.? Currently, I have them hosted with two different shared hosting accounts, but would like to bring them together and cut costs, if possible.
It all depends on how you will be using your eight different websites. If they are mostly just informational sites, then there is no reason why you cannot have them hosted all on the same shared hosting account. So long as your traffic and overall bandwidth usage does not get to the point where your shared hosting account is being throttled you can easily cut your costs down to anywhere from $6 to $10 a month in total to host all eight sites. GoDaddy offers multiple domain hosting with their premium packages, and BlueHost offers the same capability with their intense, one-size-fits-all, package which works wonderfully and is a bit more feature-rich than the GoDaddy packages. If you are afraid however that your bandwidth usage will be high enough that your sites will suffer from a throttled server, or need more customized control over the features on your server to support sites such as file shares or user-uploaded photo galleries, etc… then you may wish to look into the VPS solutions available from companies like GoDaddy or HostGator.