Would you buy the cheapest parachute?

Posted on 05/07/2010 by admin

You want to jump out of an perfectly good, working aircraft because someone has told you it’s a fun thing to do. You go to the airfield and you see three businesses who are happy to help you achieve your ambition.

The first business charges $100.

The second buisiness charges $250.

The third business offers to take you up for free.

Which business do you choose? Unfortunately you do not have enough information to decide. The more expensive company may loose 75% of first time jumpers (!) where as the free business may have a 100% success rate – but it could be your their first customer. Who knows!

I read many many posts in forums for people seeking free web hosting. Free is not the criteria anyone should be looking for. If the solution you require happens to be at no cost great, but if the solution you require happens to require some payment – make some investment and have the courage of your convictions.

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WordPress Web Hosting… for Dummies

Posted on 25/06/2010 by admin

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that is often used as a blog publishing application. WordPress is used by over 300 of the 10,000 biggest websites, and is the most popular blog software in use today.

Web host QiQ have recently launched a special WordPress package to help make getting started with WordPress a breeze. By providing an easy install application, you can get WordPress up and running in minutes ready for you to add your content and customise either with your own theme or by choosing from many thousands available.

The QiQ WordPress Package is not only one of the easiest ways to setup a WordPress installation but for a limited time comes with a complimentary copy of “WordPress for Dummies” (usually £15.99) which QiQ will mail to you.

Whether you are a wannabe blogger, seasoned pro migrating your blog to WordPress or looking to do more cool stuff with your existing WordPress blog – WordPress for Dummies is a fun guide for you. WordPress for Dummies is a veritable smorgasbord of WordPress information, ideas, tools, resources, and instruction on everything you need to create and maintain your dream blog.

You can purchase 12 months QiQ WordPress hosting for a single yearly payment of £24.99 online at http://www.qiq.co.uk/qiq3wpuk.php

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The ‘new’ .CO domain

Posted on 20/06/2010 by Peter Harris
A new domain type is currently being released, the “.co” domain. Whilst it is being touted as an abbreviation for company or corporation the domain type is actually the top level domain for the Republic of Colombia.
Whilst it may be appropriate for some businesses to seek this domain type, please remember there are over 200 domain types. So, consider your requirements carefully and only purchase names you actually need.
Usage of the .co domain is similar to the usage of the “.tm” domain. Whilst this signifies Trade Mark to many people, it is actually the domain type for Turkmenistan.
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Web hosting for a small business

Posted on 20/06/2010 by Peter Harris

I found it interesting that someone in a forum was specifically seeking a host that specialises in small business. Initially this made me think how is hosting for a small business different from hosting for a big business? In many respects the end result will be the same – you want reliable hosting. Something that works.

For a small business though, without an IT department you may require a bit more handholding and therefore perhaps a more one on one relationship with the support team can be beneficial. Raising a support ticket and having it answered by countless individuals can be frustrating, particularly for small businesses operators. I would therefore look very closely at how your suppliers support will be managed. Will you be a number or a name?

Yes price will also be an issue for a smaller business – but don’t think cheapest, think best value for money. Also look for an established business rather than the ISP that is flavour of the month. Statistics will prove a very high percentage of businesses fail in the first three years and you do not want your business in limbo through this.

Finally,  consider where your clients are most likely to be based. The USA population is 15 times that of Australia so if they become a target Audience a USA based server may be beneficial.

Peter Harris
QiQ – www.qiq.co.uk | www.qiq.com.au

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Fedora 13 Released

Posted on 28/05/2010 by Vikram Rathore

If you are a newbie to Linux or a Linux pro or someone who wants to experiment but is really not sure about what Linux flavor to choose, we have some good news for you!

The Red Hat sponsored Fedora Desktop Project rolled out its number 13 release, codenamed “Goddard” with improvements aimed at both new and experienced Linux users. Goddard adds a few nifty features to the Linux system like Plug-and-go printer support, open drivers for Intel, ATI, and NVidia hardware, and a crafty new desktop shell to try out.

The new Fedora 13 release comes six months after Fedora 12′s debut and continues to enhance the Linux operating system experience for its users. Fedora 13 includes improved virtualization, along with other developer, desktop and server improvements.

“We have a number of features designed to make Fedora a more pleasant release for everyone that uses it, not just the super hackers among us, but also the people that are just discovering open source for the first time, and everyone in between,” Fedora Project Leader Paul Frields told InternetNews.com. “All the improvements are grouped around making hardware work better for people with a minimum of fuss,” he said.

The automatic printing and experimental GNOME Shell are great additions. And the new open 3D drivers give a huge relief to anyone who ever had to download NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers for a Linux system. The hardware was recognized and utilized but the operating system did not have real control over it. Setting up things like dual monitors is a true headache with proprietary drivers, so the more natively supported video hardware available for Linux, the better its chances at becoming a really usable workspace.

The new Fedora 13 release comes as Red Hat is ramping up its development effort for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL). While Fedora benefits from contributions made by Red Hat staffers, Frields doesn’t think that the Fedora Project has been starved for resources as a result of RHEL 6 development.

“We get a lot of support from Red Hat as a sponsor and from Red Hat engineers because they really look at Fedora as being an intrinsic part of their jobs,” Frields said. “Making things work well in Fedora makes things better for Red Hat in the future versions of RHEL.”

Fedora 13 is a free download, and should work on most Intel and PowerPC-based systems. Read the release notes for an overview of the new stuff.

Looks like I will have to change my Macbook to a triple boot system now!

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Google Chrome 5 Is Now Stable

Posted on 27/05/2010 by Vikram Rathore

Recently, we had reported about the latest beta addition to the Google Chrome line. However, If you had been waiting for a stable Google Chrome 5 release before trying it out, today’s your lucky day: The Google Chrome 5 has been cleared for the stable channel and Google has announced the stable versions of its latest Chrome 5 browser for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

As reported earlier, the Chrome 5 includes a 30 to 35 per cent performance boost in JavaScript!

The Mac version has been upgraded to provide syncing between browsers that was already available for the Windows version of Chrome. The official Google Chrome’s blog states that Google was busy zapping the bugs and factoring in new features to get the Mac and Linux versions catch up with the Windows version.

Chrome 5 gets the ability to also sync browser preferences. It also includes the colorful theme choices, home page, content settings, a giant library of great extensions, a working bookmark manager and synchronizer, and even the nice-to-haves like an easily accessible full-screen mode (a common complaint among Mac users running the earlier betas and dev builds).

The stable release has the ability to run chrome extensions run in incognito mode, providing even more protection from prying eyes. This will be implemented via the enhanced Extensions Manager in Chrome 5.

There is a lot more support for HTML5 standards. Google has already implemented some of the best features of HTML 5. Google Chrome 5 beta introduces file drag-and-drop capabilities and Geo-location. Chrome 5 Beta also introduces Web sockets to make it easier and faster for Web applications to communicate with their host servers. Flash gets its due love as the Chrome 5 integrates the Adobe Flash Player right into itself. So you no longer have to worry about updating or downloading the latest version of Flash. Just open up Chrome beta 5 and start watching online videos from your favorite media site.

With all the new functionality that has been implemented, you must be raring to take the Google Chrome out for a spin. Download it right HERE. And if you want to keep up with the beta channel, just re-install the Google Chrome from this page.

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Zukerberg Called His Users “Dumb F&^s” !!

Posted on 26/05/2010 by Vikram Rathore

Off late, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been facing a barrage of scrutiny and criticism about their offhand attitude toward user privacy.

An early instant messenger exchange Mark had with a college friend won’t help put these concerns to rest. In a sensational new release, Mark Zuckerberg, has called his first few thousand users “dumb fucks” for trusting him with their data, published IM transcripts show.

Facebook hasn’t disputed the authenticity of the transcript.

The IM exchange goes like this:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don’t know why.

Zuck: They “trust me”

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

Ouch!!!

Now, to be fair, “Zuck” may have been joking. It is completely plausible. But humor tells you a lot. We believe that the small exchange does reveal that Facebook has had an aggressive attitude toward privacy since infancy. It is hard to believe that a 19-year-old Harvard student had no grasp whatsoever of the trust and privacy issues. This appears to reflect Mark Zuckerberg’s own views of privacy, which seem to be that people shouldn’t care about it as much as they do.  -  Not a good spot to be in Zuck!

To its credit, Facebook is the pack leader in social networking and is bound to face a lot of heat for a lot of things it does. Facebook has often modified itself based on user feedback. Facebook’s database is highly regarded among online marketers and agencies because of its very unique characteristics. Unlike most of the web 2.0 related data diarrhea, Facebook’s data is completely authenticated against a real person, and these people generally tend to be over 35 and middle class – the ideal demographic for selling high value goods and services. So, the marketeers do not have to sift through the web 2.0 septic tank to find that elusive nugget of useful information. Also, the fact that Facebook’s users are sticking to it unlike other passing social networking fads, makes the data stash even more sought after.

Facts such as above do give Facebook an incentive to be more intrusive and actually sell the data for huge sums of money. But, what we are really worried about us that, the company’s attitude toward privacy, as reflected in Mark’s early emails and IMs, and the frequent changes to the privacy policy, has been consistently aggressive: Do something first, then see how people react.

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