|  The ABYC Communications team has been working for the past year to put a new face on our website. We’re happy to announce that the date for the changeover to the new design is expected to be April 15. The address of the site will remain the same,and ABYC members should be able to sign in to the Members Only section of the website with the same login name and password that they have been used to using. But the look and organization of the site will be new and,we hope,exciting for everyone.
We have explicitly designed the site not only to offer easy access to important information for members,but also to attract and appeal to potential new members. Therefore,we will have a top level of colourful graphics and text that will be directed primarily to those unfamiliar with ABYC. Below this there will be a menu bar that will allow ABYC members to go quickly to the page they want to find. Virtually all of the content of the current site will be imported into the new site without much alteration. At the same time,we have a fair amount of new content that will showcase the wonderful features of our club. When the new site is launched on April 15,there will still be some things that need work. Some of the images you’ll see on the 15th. are placeholders until we’re able to get a photographer to take more appropriate shots –for example,we will need new images of the docks with the boats in the water and of our new,redesigned north entrance when that is completed. We hope soon to have an entirely new collection of images to complement the design. As well,much content remains to be added. We obviously hope to complete the process as soon as possible. The Communications Committee deeply appreciates the hard work of the many people involved in the project,especially Chris Reil,who designed and implemented the new site on contract through his company,ONG Solutions. Lauren Stephens volunteered many hours of design expertise,which has added importantly to the visual appeal of the site. Krista Slack,Kate Driscoll,Carolyn Weckesser,and Keith Robson provided helpful design and content advice along the way,and Cheryl Wright and Cindy Sampson oversaw the long process with wisdom and good cheer as successive VCs Member Services. Thanks also to those members –particularly Jeff Levine and Scott Elliott –who have offered support as the project has progressed.
The above quote was a recent email news release regarding the launch of a new website design. Included in the project was the porting of all existing content and the migration of custom applications without which the site would not function. Automating manufacturing comes with a long list of questions. The question that follows ‘Which CNC machine to buy?’is usually followed by ‘How do get from my drawing to the CNC making parts ?’. Each CNC vendor has a basic solution for that. Type in all the numbers by hand …. or at least try to type them in (correctly). If the ‘program’will never change and will make several million units,then this simple process is cost effective enough. But what about the smaller manufacturer? 2-10 Units a year (of that size and shape). Manually typing in each number for every size is just not practical. If you use a 3D modeling program like SolidWorks then adjusting the size of a ‘Model’is relatively simple. If there was only a way to attach the processing information to the Solidworks Model. That way the processing stretches as my model does. Even better …why not have the processing information attached to each ‘part’change while the ‘Assembly’is adjusted and all the processing of all parts are adjusted as a set. 
Introducing ONGAA CAM,a SolidWorks add-in specifically designed for Homag CNC machines. In this example,a complete cabinet is ‘modeled’in SolidWorks. Once the model is complete,including all components and drilled holes etc. It is time to add the processing.
 Processing information is captured on a part by part basis. First the dimensions of the material then each of the processing steps.If a part appears more than once in the assembly,there is no need to define it twice.’Need to machine both sides of the material?’. ONGAA CAM allows you to ‘flip the part’as you defines the process. No need to write two procedures to machine two sides. 
Each part will then produce a MPR or Macro file which is completely defined and WoodWOP is then used to confirm the process and generate the NC code. ONGAA CAM produces MPRs because WoodWOP and the NC Generator are integral machine safety component. Collision detection and other costly machine ‘move’errors are avoided. As the Homag software is upgraded,the ONGAA CAM process will take advantage of any new safety features available. 
Since all the dimensions come directly from the model,any changes to the model are instantly available as new MPRs at the click of a button. Each assembly will generate a complete set of MPRs,named and numbered for easy management of all date. ONGAA CAM was developed in partnership with manufactures to meet the needs of manufactures. Processes currently supported are: - Vertical Drilling
- Horizontal Drill (in C also)
- Universal Drilling
- Vertical Routing
- Horizontal Routing
- Universal Routing
- ‘Ply’Routing
- Vertical Pocketing
- Horizontal Pocketing
- Vector Pocketing
- Free form (Polygon) Pocketing
- Vertical Sawing
- Universal Sawing
- Graphical Comments
For more information on this product please contact info@ongsolutions.ca I’ve been hacked! What do I do about it? (Or what should I have done before it happened ?) This was the very question we were asked recently after a national TV news station called a company to tell them their site was now selling cheap generic drugs instead of what it was designed to do. There are some very simple steps to ease the pain,frustration and anger. - Make backups or your website. No I mean make your own backups ! Don’t rely on your internet provider,they work towards recovering from failed equipment not anything do with your content. Also remember to keep the backups for longer than you might ever think you would need (I’ll get to that later)
- Check your site regularly. Use a browser to look at your own content.
- Check your site on Google,Yahoo and Bing.
These steps may sound overly paranoid to sound and just overly obvious to others but here are the reasons for the steps and this post. In late October,after a very embarrassing phone call the company now knew something was very wrong but was also very confused. They themselves updated the web content on an almost daily basis and looked at the site even more often. How could they have missed this? This hack was different from the graffiti that is the most common. This one only affected visitors that came from Google or Yahoo. Direct visitors (type in URL directly) or bookmarked visitors saw what they were supposed to. If you googled and followed the link you were now at a ‘Cheap Drugs’website. The side effect was also that google now listed cheap drugs under their name. Not good. By now,steps 2 and 3 should now be obvious. What some hackers want is your traffic and your good name with it in Google. Since most companies eventually bookmark their own site,they can hide the fact that this is happening for a long time. At least long enough for search engines to index your ‘hacked content’. Keeping many,many revisions of backups became painfully clear when it was discovered that the site had been hacked months ago but the ‘hack’was dormant for at least a month. When the first backups were restored,nothing changed!! Still hacked!! (The hack was backed up too) It eventually took several days of searching and restoring parts of the site to remove it for good. Most ISPs offer tools for customizing backups (database and files) for free. Using these tools at regular intervals will make managing a website easier.  She’s So Savvy (www.shessosavvy.ca) is a commercial website which provides a ‘centralized’deals board for Dining,Fashion and Lifestyle business. In phase 1 of the launch,you can use the site to search for restaurant specials in Toronto by Neighbourhood,Day of the Week and Occasion.
The site also provided article of interest in both the Fashion and Lifestyle sections about subjects from budgeting to hair products. Being a commercial site the business owners needed a way to not just create a website but also define a variety of back office functions for both restaurant subscribers as well as for themselves. ONG Solutions provided the guidance to fully define the required processes, completed the database design / implementation and the finally website build. Additional features provided for the site by ONG Solutions included interactive Google Maps with custom markers and access to online payments via PayPal. 
 
 This project entailed a complete design and build of the website which included a user-friendly CMS for content,the addition of Sponsors (Logos and links) and the management of a photo gallery. Additional services were provided for image manipulation and advertising specific functions like image rotation.
The creation of content was performed solely by the organizers.  This project proved to be a shining example of ‘home work’well done.
When the owner of this women’s fitness program business approached ONG Solutions to build the site (from domain registration to launch) it was clear she knew exactly what she wanted. From example sites,pros and cons for each,email addresses required,images selected and available for use. All the details had been thought out. This site features interactive google maps to show each training location and a PayPal registration/payment page. The result,of this good planning,was an ‘open for business’website in 24 hours!
 
 For small businesses,with 10-50 staff, it can be a daunting task to find that ‘replacement’server which has served the company well for the past 6-8 years but now is on its last legs.
Odds are,no one remembers the process from the last time and besides everything is different now. What to do? The Walter &Duncan Gordon Foundation faced this very problem. ONG Solutions provided consulting services in the areas of requirements gathering,RFP creation/distribution,vendor selection,installation supervision and post installation support. In addition to the server replacement project,ONG Solutions also provided consulting services to solicit proposals for an external ‘End-User Support Services’. Both projects came in on time and on budget.  One of the great things about the sailing community is ifs willingness to support great causes in our community.
The National Yacht Club has organized and hosted a fund-raising event for the past 4 years which supports Perram House,a Palliative Care Residence. As with all events, communication is critical. As webmaster for this site,our responsibilities were to manage content,make updates and even fix interactive components that were no longer compatible with the hosted service software. As with many organizations which hosts the public as well as serves its members needs,the Ashbridge’s Bay Yacht Club needed a convenient system to enter facilities reservations.  Unlike a banquet hall or hotel,the facilities being reserved range from rooms to boats. Each type of reservation had a unique set of rules limiting who and what could be reserved,for how long and how many reservation of that type could be made at any one time.
The reservation systems created allowed ‘registered users’to self-serve some facilities and ‘administrative users’to reserve and manage resources &reservations. | |
