It was developed using CiUI a UI library for iPhone Web Apps developed by Vladimir Olexa at CNN.

The app integrates with the main browser swim log at www.myswimlog.com so swimmers can register there but still use their swim logs while on the move - and we all know how much travel is involved in the swimming world!

Swimmers can access the iPhone app at this url: iPhone Swim Log

The site contains questions and answers spread across the various categories of question that are asked on the exam. You can use the site to:

• test your php knowledge
• test if you are ready for the exam
• prepare for the exam
• have fun!

More questions will be added over time so make sure to check it out.

The site is developed by humans and not robots so you should find the questions interesting and stimulating.

Write an article using the Problem-Agitate-Solution formaula and distribute it to quality Article Directories and Blogs.

When someone reads the article they will be keen to visit you website to see what solution you have to offer to their problem.

Why am I writing this post - because I have produced an automated web application that drafts PAS articles for you. You can see it here: Hungry Visitors

The app drafts an article for you based on a few simple inputs. You can refresh (auto rewrite)  the draft as well…

Fedback Welcome…

A quick win is to use an writing template to produce your blog posts. Article writing templates save you time by providing a structure for you to work with when writing your article/blog post. There are many templates that you can choose form. These include:

• The X Most Common Mistakes
• The Top X Tips
• The X Shortcuts To…
• X Reasons Why ..,

Let’s look at one of these in some more detail.

The Shortcuts Template

Our brains are hard-wired to find shortcuts to any task. It’s part of our survival instinct. So any article that mentions shortcuts in an area we are interested in is likely to grab our attention. If you know your subject very well then you are well placed to advise on the shortcuts in that niche, be it oil painting, car spraying or web design. It shows that you know your stuff and can help others.
Lets look at a few examples of headlines for a “shortcuts” article:

• 7 Freestyle Shortcuts For Club Swimmers
• The 5 Little Know Shortcuts To Photoshop Mastery
• The Number 1 Shortcut To Great Looking Websites

Now that we have seen a few sample titles, what does our template actually look like?

The Shortcuts Template

Start your article by naming what area you are going to focus on. Then explain why it can be hard, tricky or a problem to carry out the needed tasks. This sets up the article so that your shortcuts can come to the rescue. Then lists out your chosen number of shortcuts one by one:

Your First Shortcut

Description of your first shortcut.

Your Second Shortcut

Description of your second shortcut.

Your Third Shortcut

Description of your third shortcut.

and so on …

Then for each shortcut ( and under the shortcut title ) you explain exactly what the shortcut is - easy really! Finish off your blog post with a quick summary and your days work is done…time for a tea or coffee So you can see that by using an article writing template like this you will be able to write great blog posts easily.

If you really pressed or in a hurray you can even rewrite articles that you feel you can add value to as well!

Mistake 1: Using An Automatic Article Spinner

The problem with many automatic article or content spinners is that they try to create articles automatically but they are just not intelligent enough and the results usually read poorly and you content will be seen as spam by visitors to your site.

Solution 1:

You need to use a more intelligent article spinner. One that taps into the most powerful computer on the planet - your brain. You have to guide the software to make the right decisions. There are article spinners that allow you to do that. You actively provide the paragraph, sentence or word variations. That way you produce valuable value added content with a spin!

Mistake 2: Using Markov Chains

Markov Chains are a mathematical notion that chooses word order based on probability - the probability that one word follows another. These are typically used to create huge spam sites using text generated from a database of articles or novels, but the resulting text is only good for a laugh! It reads terrible and you should only try it for fun.

Solution 2:

Don’t use Markov Chains unless you are out to have a bit of fun with words.

Mistake 3: Using Automatic Synonym Replacement

This is where common synonyms of a word are automatically replaced in an article or blog post. Sometimes the resulting sentences make sense, but most times they don’t. When you try to read an entire article generated by synonym replacement you will see that the text is stilted and nonsensical in many places. A complete waste of the readers time and effort.

Solution 3:

Don’t use automatic synonym replacement, again use your brain and a script or program that helps you to choose the synonyms rathar than have a machine make a bad guess on your behalf.

This article has provided an overview of the 3 most common mistakes in Content Generation. For each mistake a solution has been provided that will help in your efforts to create great content for your articles, blog or website.
If you are keen to find a way to create quality content fast and easy then you really should click here!

The scope of the application needs to be as clear as posisble and I have found that an excellent technique for defining the scope is the Context Diagram. An example context diagram for the mySwimLog application is shown below:

My first introduction to context diagrams was in 1987 when I learned about Structured Systems Analysis and Design from the books of Tom Demarco and Ed Yourden. Since then I have not found a better technique for determining and representing the scope of a system or application. It also amazes me that the Context Diagram is not a standard diagram in most modern software development processes. Anyway, enough philosophy lets look at the components of a typical Context Diagram.

At the center of the diagram we have the application we are interested in. in this case we use a rounded rectangle to represent it, but any shape is fine The other applications or users of the applications are represented by rectangles.The interactions between the users/applications/systems and our central application are represented by arrows.

The context diagram can be produced in a meeting, workshop and is usually refined over the course of a few meetings. The key is to identify all other systems that the application interacts with and the interfaces between them.

One other useful technique that can be used when developing the context diagram is CAI. This stands for Consider All Interactions. I got this idea from the work of Edward De Bono who has developed many thinking practical techniques. The idea here is to make sure to consider all interactions between the application and its users and any other systems. So the question to ask yourself when developing the context diagram for your application is: “Have I considered all interactions my application has?”

In our case we are interested in a context diagram of our application or system. In older days the approach was to discuss logical components of a system - so for example you would not call a screen a screen or a report a report. The basis for this was the idea that you first focus on the what and then you can look at options for the how later. However in practice for most projects and in my experience this just wastes time. If a screen is what is required then call it a screen, there is no point in calling it a user interface componet or even worse a “data flow to the users!” -  and yes someone did mention this in a workshop once. I think it was a joke, but you never know

There are only a few pages to start with but more will be added each day!

The Application Architecture outlines the structure of the application and the technologies used in creating the application. In the case of mySwimLog the architecture is outlined in the following diagram:

The mySwimLog appliction is in essence an online database so a web application framework that supports a data driven approach is appropriate. For this reason the key technology used to develop the application is the Qcubed PHP Framework which is an enhancement to Qcodo (used at NASA and other large organisations). The architecture is of the Model View Controller type or MVC.

The framework consists of two main components: the Code Generator and Qforms. While the framework was designed to support the complexities of large projects, it is an incredibly lightweight framework which can be utilized by small and large web applications alike.

By making this decision up front, time, money and effort is saved by the project as all work can be guided by the choice of application architecture.

From a specific technology perspective:

• the database will be MySQL
• the Object Relational Model will be Qcubed(php)
• the controllers will be Qcubed(php)
• the views will be Qcubed(php)

In terms of the presentation of the application CSS will be used.

So the generated web pages will be created by Qcubed and will contain content generated via php and styling achieved via CSS.

First up is Google News

URL is news.google.com

To see if you are mentioned use the following type of query. Just click on the link example to see the results and then look up at the URL of the resulting page to see how it is structured. in this case we are looking for news on this site: Cogentos

Lets Now Look At Yahoo News

Click on the link to see what the Yahoo page looks like and then have a look at the URL that is used: Cogentos

To use these queries on your own site just replace my site name with your site name.