Capitalism as the social structure was founded in order to support further evolution and development of human race, to support the innovation which was oppressed by the former system. It was brought up by the two industrial revolutions. The technology was obviously the main to blame for the outcoming capitalistic society. The new capitalism was more liberalistic promoting free trade and pushing globalization in order to support further development and growth of technology.
But, it seems like the technology has been pushed so far and so high that the now old capitalism formed to support it starts to act as it's oppressor. The world of software technology is the obvious example of it. The first signs of these events can be recognized far back into 70s and 80s when the software technology's started to emerge.
Now, the capitalism oppresses the further technology growth by oppressing the development of software. How? By making it proprietary, creating monopoly's. To capitalism, everything is property, including software. And that is where the problem is. The software cannot be considered as property, it is more like an information. It is simply too easy to copy it without ANY effort and that is what led to it becoming a commodity which is a reason more why it just cannot be proprietary. If it is considered proprietary and created and used in such manner, we are getting monopolies created, patents issued and other restrictions that do no good to the further development of software technology, but to oppress it.
Look at the capitalistic giant, Microsoft! Imagine that there were no free software movement and open source. Microsoft would be the ultimate monopolist, the whole world would be their empire. In such case, there would be no real progress and innovation because there is no force to drive it.
THAT is the very proof of capitalism being simply too old and incompetent to handle the new technology of today properly, in the information age run by computers and software.
The open source and free software movement are already taking steps further, outgrowing the limitations of the old and incompetent capitalistic system in order to create what may be called a post-capitalism, true liberalistic, society where the technology will be freely developed at the rates the open source software gets developed today.
More to this, open source and free software movement being the major sign is not the only sign of the sickness of capitalism and it's fall.
Simply look at the way things are going at this point in history regarding the major events. When there was a war in Iraq, masses of global and organized people, ordinary people like you and me, used internet to start the organized real time and worldwide demonstrations against the war in Iraq. The same happens with any other major event. There is a global network of people united in their fight for freedom and peace. It shows how the technology of today gives the power to the ordinary people instead of power being in hands of a few big shots. And those people, masses, globally networked masses, ask for one thing: FREEDOM!
Their (our) “enemies” are therefore everyone that anyhow try's to restrict the freedom and impose the control over them.
The entity's that fall into that category include:
* the greatest corporations such as Microsoft and oil companies (imposing monopolies and restrictions in order to control as much as possible)
* political entities such as USA and European Union (imposing wars such as the one in Iraq, pushing restrictions of freedoms to use and develop technology through software patents etc.)
And when we say “enemy”, we don't mean that the corporations, companies and governments as the organizations should be terminated in order for us to have the freedom we deserve nor we in any case mean to fight them with violence acting like terrorists. We should simply raise our voices using the internet and technology in order to change the way these entities function today so that they are no longer the oppressors of freedom, but it's supporters.
These global networked movements, such as open source and free software movement are actually forming a third industrial revolution which may crush capitalism as a social structure and finally bring the power to the majority and support the unrestricted growth of technology.
I am on the right side, are you?
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Cisco CCNA Certification: Five Things To Do DURING The Exam
There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for the CCNA exam. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process -- the time that you're actually taking the test.
I've taken many a certification exam over the years, and helped many others prep for theirs. Here are the five things you must do on exam day to maximize your efforts.
1. Show up on time. Yeah, I know everyone says that. The testing center wants you there 30 minutes early. So why do so many candidates show up late, or in a rush? If you have a morning exam appointment, take the traffic into account. If it's a part of town you don't normally drive in during rush hour, you might be surprised at how much traffic you have to go through. Plan ahead.
2. Use paper, not the pad. Some testing centers have gotten into the habit of handing exam candidates a board that allegedly wipes clean, along with a marker that may or not be fine-pointed. You do NOT want to be writing out charts for binary math questions, or coming up with quick network diagrams, with a dull magic marker. It's also my experience that these boards do not wipe clean well at all, but they smear quite badly.
Ask the testing center employee to give you paper and a pen instead. I haven't had one refuse me yet. Remember, you're the customer. It's your $100 - $300, depending on the exam.
3. Use the headphones. Most candidates in the room with you understand that they should be quiet. Sadly, not all of them do. Smacking gum, mumbling to themselves (loud enough for you to hear, though), and other little noises can really get on your nerves in what is already a pressure situation. In one particular testing center I use, the door to the testing room has one setting: "Slam".
Luckily, that center also has a headset hanging at every testing station. Call ahead to see if yours does. Some centers have them but don't leave them at the testing stations. Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do -- pass the exam.
4. Prepare for the "WHAT??" question. No matter how well-prepared you are, there's going to be one question on any Cisco exam that just stuns you. It might be off-topic, in your opinion; it may be a question that would take 20 of your remaining 25 questions to answer; it might be a question that you don't even know how to begin answering. I have talked with CCNA candidates who got to such a question and were obviously so thrown off that they didn't do well on any of the remaining questions, either.
There is only one thing to do in this situation: shrug it off. Compare yourself to a major-league pitcher. If he gives up a home run, he can't dwell on it; he's got to face another batter. Cornerbacks in football face the same problem; if they give up a long TD pass, they can't spend the next 20 minutes thinking about it. They have to shrug it off and be ready for the next play.
Don't worry about getting a perfect score on the exam. Your concern is passing. If you get a question that seems ridiculous, unsolvable, or out of place, forget about it. It's done. Move on to the next question and nail it.
5. Finish with a flourish. Ten questions from the end of your exam, take a 15-to-30 second break. You can't walk around the testing room, but you can stand and stretch. By this point in the exam, candidates tend to be a little mentally tired. Maybe you're still thinking about the "WHAT??" question. Don't worry about the questions you've already answered -- they're done. Take a deep breath, remember why you're there -- to pass this exam -- and sit back down and nail the last ten questions to the wall.
Before you know it, your passing score appears on the screen!
Now on to the CCNP ! Keep studying !
I've taken many a certification exam over the years, and helped many others prep for theirs. Here are the five things you must do on exam day to maximize your efforts.
1. Show up on time. Yeah, I know everyone says that. The testing center wants you there 30 minutes early. So why do so many candidates show up late, or in a rush? If you have a morning exam appointment, take the traffic into account. If it's a part of town you don't normally drive in during rush hour, you might be surprised at how much traffic you have to go through. Plan ahead.
2. Use paper, not the pad. Some testing centers have gotten into the habit of handing exam candidates a board that allegedly wipes clean, along with a marker that may or not be fine-pointed. You do NOT want to be writing out charts for binary math questions, or coming up with quick network diagrams, with a dull magic marker. It's also my experience that these boards do not wipe clean well at all, but they smear quite badly.
Ask the testing center employee to give you paper and a pen instead. I haven't had one refuse me yet. Remember, you're the customer. It's your $100 - $300, depending on the exam.
3. Use the headphones. Most candidates in the room with you understand that they should be quiet. Sadly, not all of them do. Smacking gum, mumbling to themselves (loud enough for you to hear, though), and other little noises can really get on your nerves in what is already a pressure situation. In one particular testing center I use, the door to the testing room has one setting: "Slam".
Luckily, that center also has a headset hanging at every testing station. Call ahead to see if yours does. Some centers have them but don't leave them at the testing stations. Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do -- pass the exam.
4. Prepare for the "WHAT??" question. No matter how well-prepared you are, there's going to be one question on any Cisco exam that just stuns you. It might be off-topic, in your opinion; it may be a question that would take 20 of your remaining 25 questions to answer; it might be a question that you don't even know how to begin answering. I have talked with CCNA candidates who got to such a question and were obviously so thrown off that they didn't do well on any of the remaining questions, either.
There is only one thing to do in this situation: shrug it off. Compare yourself to a major-league pitcher. If he gives up a home run, he can't dwell on it; he's got to face another batter. Cornerbacks in football face the same problem; if they give up a long TD pass, they can't spend the next 20 minutes thinking about it. They have to shrug it off and be ready for the next play.
Don't worry about getting a perfect score on the exam. Your concern is passing. If you get a question that seems ridiculous, unsolvable, or out of place, forget about it. It's done. Move on to the next question and nail it.
5. Finish with a flourish. Ten questions from the end of your exam, take a 15-to-30 second break. You can't walk around the testing room, but you can stand and stretch. By this point in the exam, candidates tend to be a little mentally tired. Maybe you're still thinking about the "WHAT??" question. Don't worry about the questions you've already answered -- they're done. Take a deep breath, remember why you're there -- to pass this exam -- and sit back down and nail the last ten questions to the wall.
Before you know it, your passing score appears on the screen!
Now on to the CCNP ! Keep studying !
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection – overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind them. Now Great Plains is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. Microsoft CRM is extremely scalable and fits to all the market niches.
It is always good idea to install everything on your own - however Great Plains requires combination of computer networking, some programming, good accounting/distribution/logistics/reporting background - so it is not a surprise that Microsoft Business Solutions requires their customers to have specially assigner Microsoft Great Plains Partner/VAR/Reseller to serve the account.
If you are IT Director/Controller who has the dilemma of proper partner selection – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Local partners - if you are in the remote area - there is often seen the opinion that local partner is the best choice. Consider this however as a contra argument - local partners maybe tiny with one/few consultants and they may not serve you adequately when you have somewhat complex - such as Manufacturing, complex Project Accounting needs, integration with UNIX-based legacy system, etc.
2. Mid-Size partners in Major Business Metros – these companies were classical Great Plains VARS/Resellers with balanced application consulting and technical expertise. Please, consider these points, however: in recent recession most of such partners were bought or merged with big auditing companies and lost their flexibility, plus their consulting fee went up due to the fact of belonging to big conglomerates.
3. Nation-wide partners with local representative offices. This maybe a very good option, if you need kind of reliability and complete expertise - missing parts could be taken from different location with this specialization. However the hourly rates are probably the highest among the first three.
4. One-Project-Manager partner with Offshore consultants – Well - this is very new type of partners - and you potentially can save a lot of money if you are risk taker - hourly rate is usually lower, price of the failure maybe higher.
5. Nation-wide partner with tiny local representation, serving via remote support. We are in this category, so let me tell you couple of good points here. Companies like ours - have to specialize in order to do excellent job in what we claim is our specialization (technology challenging projects with heavy customization needs). Serving via remote support lets us keep reasonably low rates and often go for fixed bids.
Also couple of hints about how do you switch the partner. It is actually more easy than you may think - you just send the new proposed partner the letter in free format saying that you would like to switch to you as my Microsoft Business Solutions partner - and this is it.
It is always good idea to install everything on your own - however Great Plains requires combination of computer networking, some programming, good accounting/distribution/logistics/reporting background - so it is not a surprise that Microsoft Business Solutions requires their customers to have specially assigner Microsoft Great Plains Partner/VAR/Reseller to serve the account.
If you are IT Director/Controller who has the dilemma of proper partner selection – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Local partners - if you are in the remote area - there is often seen the opinion that local partner is the best choice. Consider this however as a contra argument - local partners maybe tiny with one/few consultants and they may not serve you adequately when you have somewhat complex - such as Manufacturing, complex Project Accounting needs, integration with UNIX-based legacy system, etc.
2. Mid-Size partners in Major Business Metros – these companies were classical Great Plains VARS/Resellers with balanced application consulting and technical expertise. Please, consider these points, however: in recent recession most of such partners were bought or merged with big auditing companies and lost their flexibility, plus their consulting fee went up due to the fact of belonging to big conglomerates.
3. Nation-wide partners with local representative offices. This maybe a very good option, if you need kind of reliability and complete expertise - missing parts could be taken from different location with this specialization. However the hourly rates are probably the highest among the first three.
4. One-Project-Manager partner with Offshore consultants – Well - this is very new type of partners - and you potentially can save a lot of money if you are risk taker - hourly rate is usually lower, price of the failure maybe higher.
5. Nation-wide partner with tiny local representation, serving via remote support. We are in this category, so let me tell you couple of good points here. Companies like ours - have to specialize in order to do excellent job in what we claim is our specialization (technology challenging projects with heavy customization needs). Serving via remote support lets us keep reasonably low rates and often go for fixed bids.
Also couple of hints about how do you switch the partner. It is actually more easy than you may think - you just send the new proposed partner the letter in free format saying that you would like to switch to you as my Microsoft Business Solutions partner - and this is it.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Why Dedicated Hosting?
If you’re reading this article, you might be interested in getting a dedicated server, or simply learning more about dedicated hosting services.
First of all, please note, that a dedicated server is rather expensive service, and you shouldn’t waste your money if you don’t plan to use it in full measure.
But if you really have a serious website, and want to run a successful business - you cannot do it without a dedicated server.
Of course it’s just mere words, so let’s enumerate the facts!
Freedom and security
Dedicated server will give you a freedom. You will not need to share it with other websites. It will also give you additional 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need.
You’re able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a dedicated server you get on average 50-100 Gb of hard drive, plus about 1,000 Gb of data transfer. You may customize the configuration and choose any CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A dedicated server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You simply CAN NOT run a popular website on a shared hosting. It’s not serious.
Summary
If your website turned into a popular and reliable resource; if you have tons of daily visitors; if you work B2B; if you need additional security and functionality, power and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don’t be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
First of all, please note, that a dedicated server is rather expensive service, and you shouldn’t waste your money if you don’t plan to use it in full measure.
But if you really have a serious website, and want to run a successful business - you cannot do it without a dedicated server.
Of course it’s just mere words, so let’s enumerate the facts!
Freedom and security
Dedicated server will give you a freedom. You will not need to share it with other websites. It will also give you additional 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need.
You’re able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a dedicated server you get on average 50-100 Gb of hard drive, plus about 1,000 Gb of data transfer. You may customize the configuration and choose any CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A dedicated server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You simply CAN NOT run a popular website on a shared hosting. It’s not serious.
Summary
If your website turned into a popular and reliable resource; if you have tons of daily visitors; if you work B2B; if you need additional security and functionality, power and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don’t be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The Other Side Of The Search Gods’ Abracadabra!
Thousands of servers …billions of web pages…. the possibility of individually sifting through the WWW is null. The search engine gods cull the information you need from the Internet...from tracking down an elusive expert for communication to presenting the most unconventional views on the planet. Name it and click it. Beyond all the hype created about the web heavens they rule, let’s attempt to keep the argument balanced. From Google to Voice of the Shuttle (for humanities research) these ubiquitous gods that enrich the net, can be unfair …and do wear pitfalls. And considering the rate at which the Internet continues to grow, the problems of these gods are only exacerbated further.
Primarily, what you need to digest is the fact that search engines fall short of Mandrake’s magic mechanism! They simply don’t create URLs out of thin air but instead send their spiders crawling across those sites that have rendered prayers (and expensive offerings!) to them for consideration. Even when sites like Google claim to have a massive 3 billion web pages in its database, a large portion of the web nation is invisible to these spiders. To think they are simply ignorant of the Invisible Web. This invisible web holds that content, normal search engines can't index because the information on many web sites is in databases that are only searchable within that site. Sites like www.imdb.com - The Internet Movie Database , www.incywincy.com - IncyWincy, the invisible web search engine and www.completeplanet.com - The Complete Planet that cover this area are perhaps the only way you can access content from that portion of the Internet, invisible to the search gods. Here, you don’t perform a direct content search but search for the resources that may access the content. (Meaning - be sure to set aside considerable time for digging.)
None of the search engines indexes everything on the Web (I mean none). Tried research literature on popular search engines? AltaVista to Yahoo, will list thousands of sources on education, human resource development, etc. etc. but mostly from magazines, newspapers, and various organizations' own Web pages, rather than from research journals and dissertations- the main sources of research literature. That’s because most of the journals and dissertations are not yet available publicly on the Web. Thought they’ll get you all that’s hosted on the web? Think again.
The Web is huge and growing exponentially. Simple searches, using a single word or phrase, will often yield thousands of "hits", most of which will be irrelevant. A layman going in for a piece of info to the internet has to deal with a more severe issue - too much information! And if you don’t learn how to control the information overload from these websites, returned by a search result, roll out the red carpet for some frustration. A very common problem results from sites that have a lot of pages with similar content. For e.g., if a discussion thread (in a forum) goes on for a hundred posts there will be a hundred pages all with similar titles, each containing a wee bit of information. Now instead of just one link, all hundred of those darn pages will crop up your search result, crowding out other relevant site.
Regardless of all the sophistication technology has brought in, many well thought-out search phrases produce list after list of irrelevant web pages. The typical search still requires sifting through dirt to find the gold. If you are not specific enough, you may get too many irrelevant hits.
As said, these search engines do not actually search the web directly but their centralized server instead. And unless this database is updated continually to index modified, moved, deleted or renamed documents, you will land yourself amidst broken links and stale copies of web pages. So if they inadequately handle dynamic web pages whose content changes frequently, chances are for the information they reference to quickly go out-of-date. After they wage their never ending war with over-zealous promoters (spamdexers rather), where do they have time to keep their databases current and their search algorithms tuned? No surprise if a perfectly worthwhile site may go unlisted!
Similarly, many of the Web search engines are undergoing rapid development and are not well documented. You will have only an approximate idea of how they are working, and unknown shortcomings may cause them to miss desired information. Not to mention, amongst the first class information, the web also houses false, misleading, deceptive and dressed up information actually produced by charlatans. The Web itself is unstable and tomorrow they may not find you the site they found you today. Well if you could predict them, they would not be god!…would they?! The syntax (word order and punctuation) for various types of complex searches varies some from search engine to search engine, and small errors in the syntax can seriously compromise the search. For instance, try the same phrase search on different search engines and you’ll know what I mean. Novices… read this line - using search engines does involve a learning curve. Many beginning Internet users, because of these disadvantages, become discouraged and frustrated.
Like a journalist put it, “Not showing favoritism to its business clients is certainly a rare virtue in these times.” Search engines have increasingly turned to two significant revenue streams. Paid placement: In addition to the main editorial-driven search results, the search engines display a second — and sometimes third — listing that's usually commercial in nature. The more you pay, the higher you'll appear in the search results. Paid inclusion: An advertiser or content partner pays the search engine to crawl its site and include the results in the main editorial listing. So?…more likely to be in the hit list but then again - no guarantees. Of course those refusing to favor certain devotees are industry leaders like Google that publishes paid listings, but clearly marks them as 'Sponsored Links.'
The possibility of these ‘for-profit’ search gods (which haven't yet made much profit) for taking fees to skew their searches, can’t be ruled out. But as a searcher, the hit list you are provided with by the engine should obviously rank in the order of relevancy and interest. Search command languages can often be complex and confusing and the ranking algorithm is unique to each god based on the number of occurrences of the search phrase in a page, if it appears in the page title, or in a heading, or the URL itself, or the meta tag etc. or on a weighted average of a number of these relevance scores. E.g. Google (www.google.com) uses its patented PageRank TM and ranks the importance of search results by examining the links that lead to a specific site. The more links that lead to a site, the higher the site is ranked. Pop on popularity!
Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek and MSN Search use keyword indexes – fast access to millions of documents. The lack of an index structure and poor accuracy of the size of the WWW, will not make searching any easier. Large number of sites indexed. Keyword searching can be difficult to get right.
In reality, however, the prevalence of a certain keyword is not always in proportion to the relevance of a page. Take this example. A search on sari - the national costume of India –in a popular search engine, returned among it’s top sites, the following links:
* www.scri.sari.ac.uk/ - of the Scottish Crop research Institute
* www.ubudsari.com/ - a health resort in Indonesia
* www.sari-energy.org/ - The South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy Cooperation and Development
Pretty useful sites for someone very much interested in knowing how to drape or the tradition of the sari?! (Well, no prayer goes unanswered…whether you like the answer or not!) By using keywords to determine how each page will be ranked in search results and not simply counting the number of instances of a word on a page, search engines are attempting to make the rankings better by assigning more weight to things like titles, subheadings, and so on.
Now, unless you have a clear idea of what you're looking for, it may be difficult or impossible to use a keyword search, especially if the vocabulary of the subject is unfamiliar. Similarly, the concept based search of Excite (instead of individual words, the words that you enter into a search are grouped and attempted to determine the meaning) is a difficult task and yields inconsistent results.
Besides who reviews or evaluates these sites for quality or authority? They are simply compiled by a computer program. These active search engines rely on computerized retrieval mechanisms called "spiders", "crawlers", or "robots", to visit Web sites, on a regular basis and retrieve relevant keywords to index and store in a searchable database. And from this huge database yields often unmanageable and comprehensive results….results whose relevance is determined by their computers. The irrelevant sites (high percentage of noise, as it’s called), questionable ranking mechanisms and poor quality control may be the result of less human involvement to weed out junk. Thought human intervention would solve all probes….read on.
>From the very first search engine – Yahoo to about.com, Snap.com, Magellan, NetGuide, Go Network, LookSmart, NBCi and Starting Point, all subject directories index and review documents under categories – making them more manageable. Unlike active search engines, these passive or human-selected search engines like don’t roam the web directly and are human controlled, relying on individual submissions. Perhaps the easiest to use in town, but the indexing structure these search engines cover only a small portion of the actual number of WWW sites and thus is certainly not your bet if you intend specific, narrow or complex topics.
Subject designations may be arbitrary, confusing or wrong. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Never contains full text of the web they link to - you can only search what you see titles, descriptions, subject categories, etc. Human-labor intensive process limits database currency, size, rate of growth and timeliness. You may have to branch through the categories repeatedly before arriving at the right page. They may be several months behind the times because of the need for human organization. Try looking for some obscure topic….chances for the people that maintain the directory to have excluded those pages. Obviously, machines can blindly count keywords but they can't make common-sense judgement as humans can. But then why does human-edited directories respond with all this junk?!
And here’s about those meta search engines. A comprehensive search on the entire WWW using The Big Hub, Dogpile, Highway61, Internet Sleuth or Savvysearch , covering as many documents as possible may sound as good an idea as a one stop shopping. Meta search engines do not create their own databases. They rely on existing active and passive search engine indexes to retrieve search results. And the very fact that they access multiple keyword indexes reduces their response time. It sure does save your time by searching several search engines at once but at the expense of redundant, unwanted and overwhelming results….much more – important misses. The default search mode differs from search site to search site, so the same search is not always appropriate in different search engine software. The quality and size of the databases vary widely.
Weighted Search Engines like Ask Jeeves and RagingSearch allows the user to type queries in plain English without advanced searching knowledge, again at the expense of inaccurate and undetailed searching. Review or Ranking Sources like Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net), eBlast (eblast.com) and Librarian's Index to the Internet (lii.org). They evaluate website quality from sources they find or accept submissions from but cover a minimal number of sites.
As a webmaster, your site registration with the biggest billboards in Times Square can get you closer to bingo! for the searcher. Those who didn’t even know you existed before are in your living room in New York time!
Your URL registration is a no-brainer, considering the generation of flocking traffic to your site. Certainly a quick and inexpensive method, yet is only a component of the overall marketing strategy that in itself offers no guarantees, no instant results and demands continued effort for the webmaster. Commerce rules the web. Like how a notable Internet caveman put it, “Web publishers also find dealing with search engines to be a frustrating pursuit. Everybody wants their pages to be easy for the world to find, but getting your site listed can be tough. Search sites may take a long time to list your site, may never list it at all, and may drop it after a few months for no reason. If you resubmit often, as it is very tempting to do, you may even be branded a spamdexer and barred from a search site. And as for trying to get a good ranking, forget it! You have to keep up with all the arcane and ever-changing rules of a dozen different search engines, and adjust the keywords on your pages just so...all the while fighting against the very plausible theory that in fact none of this stuff matters, and the search sites assign rankings at random or by whim. “
To make the best use of Web search engines--to find what you need and avoid an avalanche of irrelevant hits-- pick search engines that are well suited to your needs. And lest you’d want to cry “Ye immortal gods! where in the world are we?”, spend a few hours becoming moderately proficient with each. Each works somewhat differently, most importantly in respect to how you broaden or narrow a search.
Finding the appropriate search engine for your particular information need, can be frustrating. To effectively use these search engines, it is important to understand what they are, how they work, and how they differ. For e.g. while using a meta search engine, remember that each engine has its own methods of displaying and ranking results. Remember, search strategies affect the results. If the user is unaware of basic search strategies, results may be spotty.
Quoting Charlie Morris (the former editor of The Web developer’s journal) - “Search engines and directories survive, and indeed flourish, because they're all we've got. If you want to use the wealth of information that is the Web, you've got to be able to find what you want, and search engines and directories are the only way to do that. Getting good search results is a matter of chance. Depending on what you're searching for, you may get a meaty list of good resources, or you may get page after page of irrelevant drivel. By laboriously refining your search, and using several different search engines and directories (and especially by using appropriate specialty directories), you can usually find what you need in the end.”
Search engines are very useful, no doubt. Right from getting a quick view of a topic to finding expert contact info…verily certain issues lie in their lap. Now the very reason we bother about these search engines so much is because they’re all we’ve got! Though there sure is a lot of room for improvement, the hour’s need is to not get caught in the middle of the road. By simply understanding what, how and where to seek, you’d spare yourself the fate of chanting that old Jewish proverb “If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.”
Happy searching!
Primarily, what you need to digest is the fact that search engines fall short of Mandrake’s magic mechanism! They simply don’t create URLs out of thin air but instead send their spiders crawling across those sites that have rendered prayers (and expensive offerings!) to them for consideration. Even when sites like Google claim to have a massive 3 billion web pages in its database, a large portion of the web nation is invisible to these spiders. To think they are simply ignorant of the Invisible Web. This invisible web holds that content, normal search engines can't index because the information on many web sites is in databases that are only searchable within that site. Sites like www.imdb.com - The Internet Movie Database , www.incywincy.com - IncyWincy, the invisible web search engine and www.completeplanet.com - The Complete Planet that cover this area are perhaps the only way you can access content from that portion of the Internet, invisible to the search gods. Here, you don’t perform a direct content search but search for the resources that may access the content. (Meaning - be sure to set aside considerable time for digging.)
None of the search engines indexes everything on the Web (I mean none). Tried research literature on popular search engines? AltaVista to Yahoo, will list thousands of sources on education, human resource development, etc. etc. but mostly from magazines, newspapers, and various organizations' own Web pages, rather than from research journals and dissertations- the main sources of research literature. That’s because most of the journals and dissertations are not yet available publicly on the Web. Thought they’ll get you all that’s hosted on the web? Think again.
The Web is huge and growing exponentially. Simple searches, using a single word or phrase, will often yield thousands of "hits", most of which will be irrelevant. A layman going in for a piece of info to the internet has to deal with a more severe issue - too much information! And if you don’t learn how to control the information overload from these websites, returned by a search result, roll out the red carpet for some frustration. A very common problem results from sites that have a lot of pages with similar content. For e.g., if a discussion thread (in a forum) goes on for a hundred posts there will be a hundred pages all with similar titles, each containing a wee bit of information. Now instead of just one link, all hundred of those darn pages will crop up your search result, crowding out other relevant site.
Regardless of all the sophistication technology has brought in, many well thought-out search phrases produce list after list of irrelevant web pages. The typical search still requires sifting through dirt to find the gold. If you are not specific enough, you may get too many irrelevant hits.
As said, these search engines do not actually search the web directly but their centralized server instead. And unless this database is updated continually to index modified, moved, deleted or renamed documents, you will land yourself amidst broken links and stale copies of web pages. So if they inadequately handle dynamic web pages whose content changes frequently, chances are for the information they reference to quickly go out-of-date. After they wage their never ending war with over-zealous promoters (spamdexers rather), where do they have time to keep their databases current and their search algorithms tuned? No surprise if a perfectly worthwhile site may go unlisted!
Similarly, many of the Web search engines are undergoing rapid development and are not well documented. You will have only an approximate idea of how they are working, and unknown shortcomings may cause them to miss desired information. Not to mention, amongst the first class information, the web also houses false, misleading, deceptive and dressed up information actually produced by charlatans. The Web itself is unstable and tomorrow they may not find you the site they found you today. Well if you could predict them, they would not be god!…would they?! The syntax (word order and punctuation) for various types of complex searches varies some from search engine to search engine, and small errors in the syntax can seriously compromise the search. For instance, try the same phrase search on different search engines and you’ll know what I mean. Novices… read this line - using search engines does involve a learning curve. Many beginning Internet users, because of these disadvantages, become discouraged and frustrated.
Like a journalist put it, “Not showing favoritism to its business clients is certainly a rare virtue in these times.” Search engines have increasingly turned to two significant revenue streams. Paid placement: In addition to the main editorial-driven search results, the search engines display a second — and sometimes third — listing that's usually commercial in nature. The more you pay, the higher you'll appear in the search results. Paid inclusion: An advertiser or content partner pays the search engine to crawl its site and include the results in the main editorial listing. So?…more likely to be in the hit list but then again - no guarantees. Of course those refusing to favor certain devotees are industry leaders like Google that publishes paid listings, but clearly marks them as 'Sponsored Links.'
The possibility of these ‘for-profit’ search gods (which haven't yet made much profit) for taking fees to skew their searches, can’t be ruled out. But as a searcher, the hit list you are provided with by the engine should obviously rank in the order of relevancy and interest. Search command languages can often be complex and confusing and the ranking algorithm is unique to each god based on the number of occurrences of the search phrase in a page, if it appears in the page title, or in a heading, or the URL itself, or the meta tag etc. or on a weighted average of a number of these relevance scores. E.g. Google (www.google.com) uses its patented PageRank TM and ranks the importance of search results by examining the links that lead to a specific site. The more links that lead to a site, the higher the site is ranked. Pop on popularity!
Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek and MSN Search use keyword indexes – fast access to millions of documents. The lack of an index structure and poor accuracy of the size of the WWW, will not make searching any easier. Large number of sites indexed. Keyword searching can be difficult to get right.
In reality, however, the prevalence of a certain keyword is not always in proportion to the relevance of a page. Take this example. A search on sari - the national costume of India –in a popular search engine, returned among it’s top sites, the following links:
* www.scri.sari.ac.uk/ - of the Scottish Crop research Institute
* www.ubudsari.com/ - a health resort in Indonesia
* www.sari-energy.org/ - The South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy Cooperation and Development
Pretty useful sites for someone very much interested in knowing how to drape or the tradition of the sari?! (Well, no prayer goes unanswered…whether you like the answer or not!) By using keywords to determine how each page will be ranked in search results and not simply counting the number of instances of a word on a page, search engines are attempting to make the rankings better by assigning more weight to things like titles, subheadings, and so on.
Now, unless you have a clear idea of what you're looking for, it may be difficult or impossible to use a keyword search, especially if the vocabulary of the subject is unfamiliar. Similarly, the concept based search of Excite (instead of individual words, the words that you enter into a search are grouped and attempted to determine the meaning) is a difficult task and yields inconsistent results.
Besides who reviews or evaluates these sites for quality or authority? They are simply compiled by a computer program. These active search engines rely on computerized retrieval mechanisms called "spiders", "crawlers", or "robots", to visit Web sites, on a regular basis and retrieve relevant keywords to index and store in a searchable database. And from this huge database yields often unmanageable and comprehensive results….results whose relevance is determined by their computers. The irrelevant sites (high percentage of noise, as it’s called), questionable ranking mechanisms and poor quality control may be the result of less human involvement to weed out junk. Thought human intervention would solve all probes….read on.
>From the very first search engine – Yahoo to about.com, Snap.com, Magellan, NetGuide, Go Network, LookSmart, NBCi and Starting Point, all subject directories index and review documents under categories – making them more manageable. Unlike active search engines, these passive or human-selected search engines like don’t roam the web directly and are human controlled, relying on individual submissions. Perhaps the easiest to use in town, but the indexing structure these search engines cover only a small portion of the actual number of WWW sites and thus is certainly not your bet if you intend specific, narrow or complex topics.
Subject designations may be arbitrary, confusing or wrong. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Never contains full text of the web they link to - you can only search what you see titles, descriptions, subject categories, etc. Human-labor intensive process limits database currency, size, rate of growth and timeliness. You may have to branch through the categories repeatedly before arriving at the right page. They may be several months behind the times because of the need for human organization. Try looking for some obscure topic….chances for the people that maintain the directory to have excluded those pages. Obviously, machines can blindly count keywords but they can't make common-sense judgement as humans can. But then why does human-edited directories respond with all this junk?!
And here’s about those meta search engines. A comprehensive search on the entire WWW using The Big Hub, Dogpile, Highway61, Internet Sleuth or Savvysearch , covering as many documents as possible may sound as good an idea as a one stop shopping. Meta search engines do not create their own databases. They rely on existing active and passive search engine indexes to retrieve search results. And the very fact that they access multiple keyword indexes reduces their response time. It sure does save your time by searching several search engines at once but at the expense of redundant, unwanted and overwhelming results….much more – important misses. The default search mode differs from search site to search site, so the same search is not always appropriate in different search engine software. The quality and size of the databases vary widely.
Weighted Search Engines like Ask Jeeves and RagingSearch allows the user to type queries in plain English without advanced searching knowledge, again at the expense of inaccurate and undetailed searching. Review or Ranking Sources like Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net), eBlast (eblast.com) and Librarian's Index to the Internet (lii.org). They evaluate website quality from sources they find or accept submissions from but cover a minimal number of sites.
As a webmaster, your site registration with the biggest billboards in Times Square can get you closer to bingo! for the searcher. Those who didn’t even know you existed before are in your living room in New York time!
Your URL registration is a no-brainer, considering the generation of flocking traffic to your site. Certainly a quick and inexpensive method, yet is only a component of the overall marketing strategy that in itself offers no guarantees, no instant results and demands continued effort for the webmaster. Commerce rules the web. Like how a notable Internet caveman put it, “Web publishers also find dealing with search engines to be a frustrating pursuit. Everybody wants their pages to be easy for the world to find, but getting your site listed can be tough. Search sites may take a long time to list your site, may never list it at all, and may drop it after a few months for no reason. If you resubmit often, as it is very tempting to do, you may even be branded a spamdexer and barred from a search site. And as for trying to get a good ranking, forget it! You have to keep up with all the arcane and ever-changing rules of a dozen different search engines, and adjust the keywords on your pages just so...all the while fighting against the very plausible theory that in fact none of this stuff matters, and the search sites assign rankings at random or by whim. “
To make the best use of Web search engines--to find what you need and avoid an avalanche of irrelevant hits-- pick search engines that are well suited to your needs. And lest you’d want to cry “Ye immortal gods! where in the world are we?”, spend a few hours becoming moderately proficient with each. Each works somewhat differently, most importantly in respect to how you broaden or narrow a search.
Finding the appropriate search engine for your particular information need, can be frustrating. To effectively use these search engines, it is important to understand what they are, how they work, and how they differ. For e.g. while using a meta search engine, remember that each engine has its own methods of displaying and ranking results. Remember, search strategies affect the results. If the user is unaware of basic search strategies, results may be spotty.
Quoting Charlie Morris (the former editor of The Web developer’s journal) - “Search engines and directories survive, and indeed flourish, because they're all we've got. If you want to use the wealth of information that is the Web, you've got to be able to find what you want, and search engines and directories are the only way to do that. Getting good search results is a matter of chance. Depending on what you're searching for, you may get a meaty list of good resources, or you may get page after page of irrelevant drivel. By laboriously refining your search, and using several different search engines and directories (and especially by using appropriate specialty directories), you can usually find what you need in the end.”
Search engines are very useful, no doubt. Right from getting a quick view of a topic to finding expert contact info…verily certain issues lie in their lap. Now the very reason we bother about these search engines so much is because they’re all we’ve got! Though there sure is a lot of room for improvement, the hour’s need is to not get caught in the middle of the road. By simply understanding what, how and where to seek, you’d spare yourself the fate of chanting that old Jewish proverb “If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.”
Happy searching!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Liberalization of in-domains?
Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world.
With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.
"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.
"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.
Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.
"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran says.
"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," the IT minister explains.
The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in."
With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.
"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.
"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.
Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.
"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran says.
"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," the IT minister explains.
The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in."
Friday, May 30, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions Products Customization - Overview for Developer
purchased Great Plains Software, then Navision (Denmark based software development company). At this time Great Plains Software already was active ERP applications consolidation player - it already acquired Solomon Software couple of years prior. Then in 2002 Microsoft released Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management system). Also Microsoft decided to attack retail marked and acquired QuickSell (now Microsoft Retail Management System/ Microsoft RMS). At this time Microsoft had robust package to automate business processes for small, midsize and large company and it formed so-called Microsoft Business Solutions (at the earlier stage the official name was Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions - later Great Plains words were dropped) We would like to make brief review of customization options for such products as Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM and Microsoft RMS Technology overview. Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM and Microsoft RMS have similar database platform - Microsoft SQL Server. There are differences in the tables design between three - due to the fact that they were originally developed by three different companies. Great Plains has Great Plains Dexterity core (this is Great Plains Software proprietary c-language based technology and development environment), and as it was primarily targeted to be platform independence - Great Plains has old-fashioned UNIX style of tables names: RM00101 stays for customer master file, GL00100 - account master file, etc. At the same time Microsoft RMS and Microsoft CRM have more natural language based names: Microsoft CRM: Account, Activity, Contact, Lead; Microsoft RMS: Customer, Transaction, Tender, Register - we believe that these structures are self explanatory. Now to the Customization Options: • Great Plains Dexterity - please install Dexterity from CD #2 and take a look at its manuals - this is again legacy and proprietary Great Plains technology. We have described it in this article: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/DexterityCustomizationOptions.htm • Microsoft CRM Customization - this is the whole topic - we would like to reference you to our posting: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/MSCRMCustomizationOptions.htm • Microsoft RMS. Please review this article: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/GPRMSIntegrationOptions.htm Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com
Monday, May 26, 2008
Planning a usable website: A three-step guide
A website is like an information flow, with you as the provider and your site visitors as the receivers of the information. If you don't plan your website with this in mind right from the start, you could find yourself with a brand new website that solves all your immediate needs... but not those of your site visitors.
Clicking away from your website has never been easier for Internet users. There are about 35 million websites competing with yours on the Internet (source: http://www.zooknic.com/Domains/counts.html). Search engine results are becoming better and better and Internet connection speeds faster and faster - finding one of your competitors' websites is now very quick and very easy.
1. Work out your site visitors' immediate needs
Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors. This is the fundamental principle behind usable website design, so let's repeat it one more time: Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors.
OK, now we've got that straight, we come up against a problem: Your goals for the website are probably different to the immediate needs of your site visitors. Oh dear.
Let's illustrate this problem, and its solution, with the example of a web design company's website. Their immediate goal is to get visitors to contact them and ultimately commission them to do some web development work. Their site visitors are probably interested in getting web development work done (if not, why are they on this website?), but it's unlikely that this is their immediate need when they arrive at the website.
The immediate needs of the site visitors' are probably to answer questions like:
* Can I trust them?
* Are they any good at what they do?
* Will they get the job done?
Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest. This is fundamentally important, so one more time: Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest.
In the case of this web design company, they could provide a portfolio, client testimonials etc. Can you think of any other information they should offer?
2. Create an information flow
Now we've worked out what our site visitors' immediate needs are, we need to create an information flow, a path (or paths) that your site visitors will traverse whilst on your website. The path(s) will initially address their concerns and needs and will gradually take them towards completing your goal for them. To create this plan we'll need to:
* Identify the different groups of people who'll use your website
* Work out what you want each of these groups to achieve on your website
* Identify the information you'll need to provide for them to achieve this (and in what order)
* Work out what might put them off achieving this
* Identify the information you'll need to provide to prevent them being put off
>From this, you'll be able to create a list of website pages and a rough idea of how they might flow together. You'll then be able to work out exactly what pages to include on the website and how to group these pages together.
Bear in mind though, some users will need more information than others, so you'll always need to provide them with a choice of continuing on the information flow or jumping off so that they can achieve the goal you've set for them.
Going back to the website of the web design company, an information flow that their site visitors might go on could look something like this:
1. Homepage
2. Portfolio
3. Client testimonials
4. Company background
5. Staff bios
6. Terms & conditions
7. Good web design tips
8. Contact us
The web design company's ultimate goal is for site visitors to contact them and request their services. Wherever users are in this flow, they must be able to easily and immediately jump straight to the contact page at any point.
You've probably already seen this in action on websites. You arrive at the homepage and there are two or three prominent links (often in the form of boxes) telling you some basic information and requesting that you click on them to take you into some other part of the website. You go to that page on the website, read the information and then choose where to go next. And this keeps going on, until you either quit or complete the desired goal of the website.
So, the web design company's homepage might look something like what you see at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/images/plan-usable.gif.
The three boxes in the middle answer some immediate questions that users may have and proactively address their concerns. The contact us button on the top-left can remain in that position on every page, so users always have the opportunity to jump to the contact page.
3. Usability testing
Once the website plan has been created, it's time to test it. This is the most important usability test that needs to be done and the one that will save you the most time and money in the long run. Every £1 invested in making your website easy-to-use returns £10 to £100 (source:http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/23/).
If you don't do any usability testing you may discover that the structure of the website doesn't make sense once the website's up and running. This can and has happened and it leaves you with two choices: redesign the website or make a new website - neither are attractive options.
The most common objections to doing usability testing are:
* It's too expensive!
* It'll take too much time!
* I don't know how to do it!
Wrong, wrong, and wrong! Usability testing, especially at this early stage, is incredibly cheap, quick, informal and easy to do. You just need to show five people the plan/site map of the website and ask them:
* What's the point of this website?
* If you were on this homepage, where you would click? And where after that?
* Is it what you need?
Clicking away from your website has never been easier for Internet users. There are about 35 million websites competing with yours on the Internet (source: http://www.zooknic.com/Domains/counts.html). Search engine results are becoming better and better and Internet connection speeds faster and faster - finding one of your competitors' websites is now very quick and very easy.
1. Work out your site visitors' immediate needs
Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors. This is the fundamental principle behind usable website design, so let's repeat it one more time: Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors.
OK, now we've got that straight, we come up against a problem: Your goals for the website are probably different to the immediate needs of your site visitors. Oh dear.
Let's illustrate this problem, and its solution, with the example of a web design company's website. Their immediate goal is to get visitors to contact them and ultimately commission them to do some web development work. Their site visitors are probably interested in getting web development work done (if not, why are they on this website?), but it's unlikely that this is their immediate need when they arrive at the website.
The immediate needs of the site visitors' are probably to answer questions like:
* Can I trust them?
* Are they any good at what they do?
* Will they get the job done?
Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest. This is fundamentally important, so one more time: Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest.
In the case of this web design company, they could provide a portfolio, client testimonials etc. Can you think of any other information they should offer?
2. Create an information flow
Now we've worked out what our site visitors' immediate needs are, we need to create an information flow, a path (or paths) that your site visitors will traverse whilst on your website. The path(s) will initially address their concerns and needs and will gradually take them towards completing your goal for them. To create this plan we'll need to:
* Identify the different groups of people who'll use your website
* Work out what you want each of these groups to achieve on your website
* Identify the information you'll need to provide for them to achieve this (and in what order)
* Work out what might put them off achieving this
* Identify the information you'll need to provide to prevent them being put off
>From this, you'll be able to create a list of website pages and a rough idea of how they might flow together. You'll then be able to work out exactly what pages to include on the website and how to group these pages together.
Bear in mind though, some users will need more information than others, so you'll always need to provide them with a choice of continuing on the information flow or jumping off so that they can achieve the goal you've set for them.
Going back to the website of the web design company, an information flow that their site visitors might go on could look something like this:
1. Homepage
2. Portfolio
3. Client testimonials
4. Company background
5. Staff bios
6. Terms & conditions
7. Good web design tips
8. Contact us
The web design company's ultimate goal is for site visitors to contact them and request their services. Wherever users are in this flow, they must be able to easily and immediately jump straight to the contact page at any point.
You've probably already seen this in action on websites. You arrive at the homepage and there are two or three prominent links (often in the form of boxes) telling you some basic information and requesting that you click on them to take you into some other part of the website. You go to that page on the website, read the information and then choose where to go next. And this keeps going on, until you either quit or complete the desired goal of the website.
So, the web design company's homepage might look something like what you see at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/images/plan-usable.gif.
The three boxes in the middle answer some immediate questions that users may have and proactively address their concerns. The contact us button on the top-left can remain in that position on every page, so users always have the opportunity to jump to the contact page.
3. Usability testing
Once the website plan has been created, it's time to test it. This is the most important usability test that needs to be done and the one that will save you the most time and money in the long run. Every £1 invested in making your website easy-to-use returns £10 to £100 (source:http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/23/).
If you don't do any usability testing you may discover that the structure of the website doesn't make sense once the website's up and running. This can and has happened and it leaves you with two choices: redesign the website or make a new website - neither are attractive options.
The most common objections to doing usability testing are:
* It's too expensive!
* It'll take too much time!
* I don't know how to do it!
Wrong, wrong, and wrong! Usability testing, especially at this early stage, is incredibly cheap, quick, informal and easy to do. You just need to show five people the plan/site map of the website and ask them:
* What's the point of this website?
* If you were on this homepage, where you would click? And where after that?
* Is it what you need?
Friday, May 23, 2008
Benefits of an accessible website - part 2: The business case
The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone.
Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care?
There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously:
* An accessible website will make you more money
* An accessible website will save you money
There are seven explanations for this:
1. Your website will be easier to manage
An accessible website separates the content (the words and images that we see on the screen) and presentation (the way that these words and images are laid out) of each page. Each web page has an HTML document that contains the words and images for that page (the content), and calls up a CSS document that includes the presentation information - this CSS document is shared by all the pages on the website.
To adjust the layout of your website, you only have to make changes in the CSS file, saving considerable time (and therefore money).
2. Your website will be compatible with new browsing technologies
In the near future, the use of PDAs, mobile phones and in-car browsers will all regularly be used to access the Internet. The people making use of these new technologies are generally high-income individuals. In order to reach this lucrative target, you'll need a website that is accessible to these machines. To test your website, try using it with the Wapalizer (http://www.gelon.net), which shows how your site will look on a mobile phone.
3. Your website will appear higher in the search engines
By making your website more accessible to web users, you're also making it more accessible to search engines. Search engines cannot usually understand images, JavaScript, Flash, audio and video content. By providing alternative content to each of these, all areas of your website will be accessible to search engines, who'll then be able to have a better understanding of its purpose.
The more confident a search engine is of your website's purpose, all other things being equal, the higher it'll place your website in the search rankings.
4. You won't have to incur legal fees
The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) have been exerting pressure on companies and the government to make their websites accessible. Indeed, the DRC has now published their findings from their accessibility investigation of 1000 websites. They've warned firms that they'll face legal action and the threat of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities.
5. The download time of your website will be significantly improved
Accessible websites generally download quicker than websites with poor accessibility. Just 25% of web users in the UK are connected to the Internet via broadband (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf). You can be sure that if your website takes much longer than ten seconds to download then many of your site visitors will be clicking away and you'll lose their custom.
6. The usability of your website will be enhanced
There is a certain amount of overlap between web accessibility and web usability. It's been shown that a usability redesign increases the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% (source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html).
7. You'll gain good publicity
Make your website accessible to everyone and you can tell the world about it.
Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care?
There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously:
* An accessible website will make you more money
* An accessible website will save you money
There are seven explanations for this:
1. Your website will be easier to manage
An accessible website separates the content (the words and images that we see on the screen) and presentation (the way that these words and images are laid out) of each page. Each web page has an HTML document that contains the words and images for that page (the content), and calls up a CSS document that includes the presentation information - this CSS document is shared by all the pages on the website.
To adjust the layout of your website, you only have to make changes in the CSS file, saving considerable time (and therefore money).
2. Your website will be compatible with new browsing technologies
In the near future, the use of PDAs, mobile phones and in-car browsers will all regularly be used to access the Internet. The people making use of these new technologies are generally high-income individuals. In order to reach this lucrative target, you'll need a website that is accessible to these machines. To test your website, try using it with the Wapalizer (http://www.gelon.net), which shows how your site will look on a mobile phone.
3. Your website will appear higher in the search engines
By making your website more accessible to web users, you're also making it more accessible to search engines. Search engines cannot usually understand images, JavaScript, Flash, audio and video content. By providing alternative content to each of these, all areas of your website will be accessible to search engines, who'll then be able to have a better understanding of its purpose.
The more confident a search engine is of your website's purpose, all other things being equal, the higher it'll place your website in the search rankings.
4. You won't have to incur legal fees
The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) have been exerting pressure on companies and the government to make their websites accessible. Indeed, the DRC has now published their findings from their accessibility investigation of 1000 websites. They've warned firms that they'll face legal action and the threat of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities.
5. The download time of your website will be significantly improved
Accessible websites generally download quicker than websites with poor accessibility. Just 25% of web users in the UK are connected to the Internet via broadband (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf). You can be sure that if your website takes much longer than ten seconds to download then many of your site visitors will be clicking away and you'll lose their custom.
6. The usability of your website will be enhanced
There is a certain amount of overlap between web accessibility and web usability. It's been shown that a usability redesign increases the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% (source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html).
7. You'll gain good publicity
Make your website accessible to everyone and you can tell the world about it.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
StarForce Protection Solutions at Games Convention 2004
A famous Russian expert in the field of copy protection and software licensing presents its brand news technologies at Games Convention 2004, Leipzig.
StarForce to introduce its latest software protection and licensing technologies at Games Convention 2004 (Leipzig, 2004, Aug. 19th - 22nd). A new version of famous StarForce protection includes advanced anti-piracy technologies to withstand industrial software piracy as well as casual copying and license agreement violations by end users. StarForce 3.04 features a set of brand new options for license and distribution management and supports both CD/DVD copy protection and innovative PC binding technologies based on the unique serial number activation mechanism.
StarForce license and distribution management mechanism provides software developers and publishers with a tool to define and control expiry date settings of a granted demo or sales license, combine disc-based licenses with product upgrades sold via online shops, protect and control distribution of the product test-, demo-, promotional and pre-release versions. StarForce software protection solutions are known around the world for their ability to withstand industrial software piracy as well as casual copying and license agreement violations by end users.
Having protected more than a million copies of software within the six years of its existence, StarForce has become an expert in the matters of secure software distribution and license management. Company’s specialists are always ready to share their professional advice with business software and game developers looking for a reliable tool to secure their bright ideas and innovational technological approaches from theft and illegal use. All clients, partners and other individuals interested in the latest anti-piracy technologies are welcomed to schedule an appointment with a StarForce representative in Leipzig and can send their requests directly to sales@star-force.com.
StarForce to introduce its latest software protection and licensing technologies at Games Convention 2004 (Leipzig, 2004, Aug. 19th - 22nd). A new version of famous StarForce protection includes advanced anti-piracy technologies to withstand industrial software piracy as well as casual copying and license agreement violations by end users. StarForce 3.04 features a set of brand new options for license and distribution management and supports both CD/DVD copy protection and innovative PC binding technologies based on the unique serial number activation mechanism.
StarForce license and distribution management mechanism provides software developers and publishers with a tool to define and control expiry date settings of a granted demo or sales license, combine disc-based licenses with product upgrades sold via online shops, protect and control distribution of the product test-, demo-, promotional and pre-release versions. StarForce software protection solutions are known around the world for their ability to withstand industrial software piracy as well as casual copying and license agreement violations by end users.
Having protected more than a million copies of software within the six years of its existence, StarForce has become an expert in the matters of secure software distribution and license management. Company’s specialists are always ready to share their professional advice with business software and game developers looking for a reliable tool to secure their bright ideas and innovational technological approaches from theft and illegal use. All clients, partners and other individuals interested in the latest anti-piracy technologies are welcomed to schedule an appointment with a StarForce representative in Leipzig and can send their requests directly to sales@star-force.com.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Free Pre-Registration of sg-domains at Second Level
Cologne,13 August 2004. ICANN accredited registrar Secura announces today, that the company is accepting free pre-registration of sg-domains at second level. (https://www.domainregistry.de/sg-domain.html)
Singapure is the financial centre of the Far East. The registry has decided to introduce sg-domains at second level since 15 September 2004.
Part of the rule that gives priority to register 2nd level names of ?.sg? is the ownership of an existing 3rd level name (.com.sg / net.sg / org.sg / edu.sg / per.sg). The cut off date for 3rd level name to be entitled to the priority to register 2nd level names is 6 September 2004 before 5 pm. Therefore all 3rd level name had to be registered before this period to enjoy the priority in this category.You can influence the chance to get a second level sg-domain by registering now a third level domain. (Please note that there are other priority before this category which will be explained in details under item 3.3)
3. SUNRISE PERIOD
3.1 During the Sunrise Period all individuals and entities are eligible to apply for any second-level domain name. Applicants will be required to submit a declaration form (form to be published soon) together with supporting documents, if any, indicating their status (i.e. trademark holders, Unregistered well-known trademark Holder, government bodies, existing registrants or new applicants). This form has to be submitted to +49 221 2571213 via fax.
The sunrise period is 1 ½ months for the application of second-level domain names under the top level domain of .sg. Applications for second-level domain names during the Sunrise Period will not be processed on a first-come-firstserved basis but will be processed subject to the requirements and procedures set out in the following guidelines.
3.2 Where there are two or more applicants for the same second-level domain name the priority for allocation will be determined at the end of the Sunrise Period in the following order:
1. Holders of registered trademarks. Holders of word marks which are registered with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
2. Unregistered Trademarks, which belong to Holders of well known trademark holders
3. Government Organisations that have a current Registrant Agreement with SGNIC in relation to a current third level domain name registered under the ?gov.sg? category and is identical to the second level domain name that they want to register. For example, in the case of holder of ABC.gov.sg, the second level domain name it wants to register would be ABC.sg.
4. Applicants that have a current Registrant Agreement with SGNIC in relation to a current third level domain name registered under the ?com/org/net/edu/per.sg? categories and is identical to the second-level domain name that is under application (i.e. existing 3rd level registrants). For example, in the case of holder of XYZ.com.sg, the second-level domain name it wants to register would be XYZ.sg. The third-level ?.sg? domain name with SGNIC must be registered before 5:00pm on 6 Sept 2004. The name applied under the 2nd level must be exactly the same as the one under the 3rd level and the organization name and/or first name, last name (for the case of .per.sg) must be an exact match of the one provided by the 3rd level domain name. In addition, the domain must be in ?Active? status. Submission for domains in ?Expired? or ?Deleted? status will not be considered for application.
3.3 Where there are two or more applicants for the same second-level domain name within each of the Group, a bidding will be conducted to allocate these second-level domain names.
3.4 All individuals and entities are eligible to apply for second level ?.sg? domain name. Foreign-based registrants have to appoint a local administrative contact or register through their local office.Secura is providing automatically the local administrative contact.
4.1 The restrictions on the types of domain names to be registered are the same as the 3rd level domain names specifically:
1. Names, which contain certain words such as ?Temasek?, ?Singapore?, ?Singapura? and its variation, ?Singapore Government? or ?President? or any other words that can mislead people to think there is link to the Government; Names, which contains ?SGNIC?, ?NIC? and its variations; Names, which are obscene, scandalous, indecent or contrary to law, or morality (e.g. ?sex? or any connotations with sex or any sex-related activities);
2. Names, which are geographical names or names of countries (e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, etc.);
3. Abbreviated names (either on their own or in combination with other characters) of existing generic top-level domain name (gTLDs) (i.e. .com, .org, .net, edu, .gov, .per, .aero, .coop, .biz, .info, .museum, .name and .pro) and any other gTLDs created or to be created by ICANN in the future; Names, such as ?www?, ?http?, ?https? or ?http-www?; Names, which are similar or identical to domain names registered under other domain name space and which SGNIC deems undesirable; and Names, which consist of all numerals.
5.1 ALLOCATION RESULTS
SGNIC does not guarantee that all applicants will get a second-level domain name based on their current corresponding identical third level domain name registered with SGNIC even if the applicants apply correctly and on time. This is either because another applicant with a higher priority may have also applied for the same secondlevel domain name or the second-level domain name applied for has been reserved by SGNIC not to be available to the general public.
6. OBJECTION PERIOD
6.1 An objection period of [14 calendar days] is provided for the public to raise objections
6.2 A person raising an objection to an allocation result shall provide evidence that the second-level domain name allocated by SGNIC during the Sunrise Period did not comply with the Guidelines.
6.3 All disputes in relation to second-level domain names (except disputes arising from the allocation results announced during the Sunrise Period) will be dealt with in accordance with the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, Rules and Supplemental Rules (?Dispute Resolution Policy?) referred to in the Registrant Agreement regardless of when the second-level domain name was registered. All applicants shall not commence any court proceedings or administrative proceedings under the Dispute Resolution Policy during the objection period or if the person had filed an objection with SGNIC.
7. GENERAL LAUNCH
Applications from public on first-come-first-served basis will commenced on 3 Jan 2005. The pre-registation at https://www.domainregistry.de/sg-domain.html starts on 14 August 2004.
Singapure is the financial centre of the Far East. The registry has decided to introduce sg-domains at second level since 15 September 2004.
Part of the rule that gives priority to register 2nd level names of ?.sg? is the ownership of an existing 3rd level name (.com.sg / net.sg / org.sg / edu.sg / per.sg). The cut off date for 3rd level name to be entitled to the priority to register 2nd level names is 6 September 2004 before 5 pm. Therefore all 3rd level name had to be registered before this period to enjoy the priority in this category.You can influence the chance to get a second level sg-domain by registering now a third level domain. (Please note that there are other priority before this category which will be explained in details under item 3.3)
3. SUNRISE PERIOD
3.1 During the Sunrise Period all individuals and entities are eligible to apply for any second-level domain name. Applicants will be required to submit a declaration form (form to be published soon) together with supporting documents, if any, indicating their status (i.e. trademark holders, Unregistered well-known trademark Holder, government bodies, existing registrants or new applicants). This form has to be submitted to +49 221 2571213 via fax.
The sunrise period is 1 ½ months for the application of second-level domain names under the top level domain of .sg. Applications for second-level domain names during the Sunrise Period will not be processed on a first-come-firstserved basis but will be processed subject to the requirements and procedures set out in the following guidelines.
3.2 Where there are two or more applicants for the same second-level domain name the priority for allocation will be determined at the end of the Sunrise Period in the following order:
1. Holders of registered trademarks. Holders of word marks which are registered with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
2. Unregistered Trademarks, which belong to Holders of well known trademark holders
3. Government Organisations that have a current Registrant Agreement with SGNIC in relation to a current third level domain name registered under the ?gov.sg? category and is identical to the second level domain name that they want to register. For example, in the case of holder of ABC.gov.sg, the second level domain name it wants to register would be ABC.sg.
4. Applicants that have a current Registrant Agreement with SGNIC in relation to a current third level domain name registered under the ?com/org/net/edu/per.sg? categories and is identical to the second-level domain name that is under application (i.e. existing 3rd level registrants). For example, in the case of holder of XYZ.com.sg, the second-level domain name it wants to register would be XYZ.sg. The third-level ?.sg? domain name with SGNIC must be registered before 5:00pm on 6 Sept 2004. The name applied under the 2nd level must be exactly the same as the one under the 3rd level and the organization name and/or first name, last name (for the case of .per.sg) must be an exact match of the one provided by the 3rd level domain name. In addition, the domain must be in ?Active? status. Submission for domains in ?Expired? or ?Deleted? status will not be considered for application.
3.3 Where there are two or more applicants for the same second-level domain name within each of the Group, a bidding will be conducted to allocate these second-level domain names.
3.4 All individuals and entities are eligible to apply for second level ?.sg? domain name. Foreign-based registrants have to appoint a local administrative contact or register through their local office.Secura is providing automatically the local administrative contact.
4.1 The restrictions on the types of domain names to be registered are the same as the 3rd level domain names specifically:
1. Names, which contain certain words such as ?Temasek?, ?Singapore?, ?Singapura? and its variation, ?Singapore Government? or ?President? or any other words that can mislead people to think there is link to the Government; Names, which contains ?SGNIC?, ?NIC? and its variations; Names, which are obscene, scandalous, indecent or contrary to law, or morality (e.g. ?sex? or any connotations with sex or any sex-related activities);
2. Names, which are geographical names or names of countries (e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, etc.);
3. Abbreviated names (either on their own or in combination with other characters) of existing generic top-level domain name (gTLDs) (i.e. .com, .org, .net, edu, .gov, .per, .aero, .coop, .biz, .info, .museum, .name and .pro) and any other gTLDs created or to be created by ICANN in the future; Names, such as ?www?, ?http?, ?https? or ?http-www?; Names, which are similar or identical to domain names registered under other domain name space and which SGNIC deems undesirable; and Names, which consist of all numerals.
5.1 ALLOCATION RESULTS
SGNIC does not guarantee that all applicants will get a second-level domain name based on their current corresponding identical third level domain name registered with SGNIC even if the applicants apply correctly and on time. This is either because another applicant with a higher priority may have also applied for the same secondlevel domain name or the second-level domain name applied for has been reserved by SGNIC not to be available to the general public.
6. OBJECTION PERIOD
6.1 An objection period of [14 calendar days] is provided for the public to raise objections
6.2 A person raising an objection to an allocation result shall provide evidence that the second-level domain name allocated by SGNIC during the Sunrise Period did not comply with the Guidelines.
6.3 All disputes in relation to second-level domain names (except disputes arising from the allocation results announced during the Sunrise Period) will be dealt with in accordance with the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, Rules and Supplemental Rules (?Dispute Resolution Policy?) referred to in the Registrant Agreement regardless of when the second-level domain name was registered. All applicants shall not commence any court proceedings or administrative proceedings under the Dispute Resolution Policy during the objection period or if the person had filed an objection with SGNIC.
7. GENERAL LAUNCH
Applications from public on first-come-first-served basis will commenced on 3 Jan 2005. The pre-registation at https://www.domainregistry.de/sg-domain.html starts on 14 August 2004.
Friday, May 16, 2008
My Emails Are Not Being Delivered. Black Lists and White Lists Explained.
Over 40% of all emails within your marketing campaign are not being delivered. You may not even be aware of this, as many ISPs will not send back a bounce message. In fact if you are sending messages to AOL customers, AOL is now blocking over 80% of the messages that come into their servers.
One of the main reasons that this is occurring is that your IP or Domain may be Black Listed. All major ISP's and many corporate email systems now check against Black Lists and will refuse to deliver any emails that come from an IP that is Black Listed.
But what exactly is a Black List?
DNS black lists are lists of domains and IP's that are known to originate Spam. Many anti-spam software programs used by corporations and ISP's use these lists to control Spam by refusing any email that originates from one of these domains or IPs.
Unfortunately there are many instances of false positives as there are few checks and often little objectivity when listing a particular IP. In order for a black list to know that a domain is sending Spam, the offence must be reported . It may take only one report via a web form for you to be listed.
You may be listed maliciously through one complaint of a client, or that of a competitor. Many Black Lists, as well, will list not only the IP that is suspected as spamming, but will list any IPs in that range of addresses. If someone using the same Internet provider as you is accused of spamming and is placed on a Black List, you may be listed as well.
DNS blacklists are usually maintained by anti-spam organizations or by individuals.
What are some of the most popular Black Lists that ISPs are using?
Some of these include:
* MAPS - http://www.mail-abuse.com/
* Spam Cop - http://www.spamcop.net/
* SpamHaus - http://www.spamhaus.org/
* SPEWS.org - http://www.spews.org/
* ORDB.org - Open Relay Database - http://www.ordb.org/
How do I know if I am on a Black List?
Unfortunately, you really can't be 100% sure if you have been black listed. You may be on someone's black list and not even know it. There are, however, ways to check most of the lists.
One way is to check your server log when sending your campaigns. You will often see an email bounce notice indicating that the message has bounced because you are on a particular black list.
Many of the major black lists also allow you to enter your IP into a form on their site. These checks will tell you whether you appear, or not, on their list.
A useful tool, is the Black List Monitor. http://www.blacklistmonitor.com - It automatically checks your IP against most of the major Black Lists and tells you which ones you are listed on. It also gives you help in getting removed. All your IPs are constantly monitored for any changes, listings, or delistings.
But what is a White List and how can this help?
Many corporations and ISPs will create a white list. This is a list of trusted IP addresses that they feel confident will not send spam to their customers. If your IP is listed on a particular white list then your email messages will be delivered to the destination email address. It is important for reputable marketers to work with the major ISP's such as AOL to ensure that you are on their white list. For most, it can be a lengthy process, but well worth your efforts.
Other third-party email certification programs now exist. Bonded sender www.bondedsender.com is one such agency. By joining Bonded Sender, senders improve deliverability rates and differentiate their brand. Senders go through a formal application process, adhere to email standards and post a bond against potential complaints. Major ISPs such as MSN/Hotmail now check against Bond Sender's white list and allow these email to pass.
Knowing if you are on a black list, getting removed if you are and getting established on white lists is critical if you are email marketing. The more messages delivered equals more sales!
One of the main reasons that this is occurring is that your IP or Domain may be Black Listed. All major ISP's and many corporate email systems now check against Black Lists and will refuse to deliver any emails that come from an IP that is Black Listed.
But what exactly is a Black List?
DNS black lists are lists of domains and IP's that are known to originate Spam. Many anti-spam software programs used by corporations and ISP's use these lists to control Spam by refusing any email that originates from one of these domains or IPs.
Unfortunately there are many instances of false positives as there are few checks and often little objectivity when listing a particular IP. In order for a black list to know that a domain is sending Spam, the offence must be reported . It may take only one report via a web form for you to be listed.
You may be listed maliciously through one complaint of a client, or that of a competitor. Many Black Lists, as well, will list not only the IP that is suspected as spamming, but will list any IPs in that range of addresses. If someone using the same Internet provider as you is accused of spamming and is placed on a Black List, you may be listed as well.
DNS blacklists are usually maintained by anti-spam organizations or by individuals.
What are some of the most popular Black Lists that ISPs are using?
Some of these include:
* MAPS - http://www.mail-abuse.com/
* Spam Cop - http://www.spamcop.net/
* SpamHaus - http://www.spamhaus.org/
* SPEWS.org - http://www.spews.org/
* ORDB.org - Open Relay Database - http://www.ordb.org/
How do I know if I am on a Black List?
Unfortunately, you really can't be 100% sure if you have been black listed. You may be on someone's black list and not even know it. There are, however, ways to check most of the lists.
One way is to check your server log when sending your campaigns. You will often see an email bounce notice indicating that the message has bounced because you are on a particular black list.
Many of the major black lists also allow you to enter your IP into a form on their site. These checks will tell you whether you appear, or not, on their list.
A useful tool, is the Black List Monitor. http://www.blacklistmonitor.com - It automatically checks your IP against most of the major Black Lists and tells you which ones you are listed on. It also gives you help in getting removed. All your IPs are constantly monitored for any changes, listings, or delistings.
But what is a White List and how can this help?
Many corporations and ISPs will create a white list. This is a list of trusted IP addresses that they feel confident will not send spam to their customers. If your IP is listed on a particular white list then your email messages will be delivered to the destination email address. It is important for reputable marketers to work with the major ISP's such as AOL to ensure that you are on their white list. For most, it can be a lengthy process, but well worth your efforts.
Other third-party email certification programs now exist. Bonded sender www.bondedsender.com is one such agency. By joining Bonded Sender, senders improve deliverability rates and differentiate their brand. Senders go through a formal application process, adhere to email standards and post a bond against potential complaints. Major ISPs such as MSN/Hotmail now check against Bond Sender's white list and allow these email to pass.
Knowing if you are on a black list, getting removed if you are and getting established on white lists is critical if you are email marketing. The more messages delivered equals more sales!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
5 Tips To Create A Kick-Butt Mini-Course That Pulls In Thousands of Rabid Subscribers... in a Flash!
One of the fastest ways to develop, build, and grow your own list of subscribers is to develop a "mini" course with an incredibly compelling promise.
I have personally used "mini" courses to build lists of several thousand subscribers in as little as a week.
A "mini" course is simply a series of e-mail's where you teach people a specific skill, set of skills, or reveal other information they really want to know.
In the process of providing this focused, valuable information, you prove to your subscribers that you are THE expert in a particular area - and, you also encourage people to pay you to get even BETTER information from ebooks and information products you've either written or recommend.
An example of a "mini" course offer I've used with great success is the free mini course at www.7dayebook.com that appears in the exit pop up window when you leave the site. The promise of this "mini" course is strong and compelling. Here's what it says...
FREE eBook Mini-Course
"How to Write and Profit from your own eBook...
while you're still young enough to enjoy it!"
All the registration page asks for is first name and email address... and this mini-course has generated thousands of subscribers!
So here's the basic formula in a nutshell: Strong promise+ low risk+ high perceived reward= Subscribers
Now, if you'd like to build your own list of rabid subscribers, here are 5 sure-fire tips for creating a mini- course that truly kicks butt!
Tip #1 - The Promise
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, target an audience with a specific need and then make them the biggest possible promise you can deliver on.
People are pressed for time and rarely see as much value in something they get for free as opposed to something they pay a lot of money for.
Add to this the fact that the Internet gets more and more crowded everyday and you can see that the best offers are the ones that grab people's attention by making a benefit- driven promise they can't resist.
Even though you offer your mini-course for free, you still must SELL people on WHY they should pay you with their time and attention.
Example: If you want to do a mini-course on real estate investing, look for the biggest and best promise you can make for people.
Let's look at these various promises for identical mini- course content:
Good: How to make a fortune in foreclosures.
Better: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure within 2 weeks.
Best: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure property in your area within 2 weeks - using none of your own money!
** The promise you make has everything to do with whether or not people sign up. IMPORTANT: After they sign up, make sure you deliver on the promise.
Tip #2 - Don't reinvent the wheel
Look for existing content - your own or other people's - you can adapt directly or indirectly into the mini-course.
Hey, I understand you're busy... I'm busy too!
Why would you want to spend 2 days coming up with all the content for your mini-course if you already have past information you can adapt!?
If you don't have any existing material, then find someone else who has written an article and use that for part of your mini-course - with their permission of course.
You'd be surprised at all the pieces of the puzzle that are out there independently which you could combine into a great mini-course without nearly the mountain of effort you might expect.
Tip #3 - Give yourself lots of chances to make money
One way to build more value into your mini-course and make sure people hang onto your messages instead of deleting them is to put lots of quality links into your mini-course.
This allows people to get additional information on specific aspects of the mini-course.
Some of those links can be to free resources, others to resources where you earn an affiliate commission, and still others to your own products and services.
The more links you have that actually contribute to your students learning the subject of your mini-course and fulfilling the promise you made to get them to sign up, the better your chances of them clicking those links.
If you create lessons people save for future reference because they have great links in them, you'll make more money!
For an example look no further than your "in-box"! Almost everybody has email messages they've saved from other people because they contain links to sites you want to use now or access in the future.
Tip #4 - Build anticipation for the next message
If you're going to take the time to put together the mini- course, wouldn't it be great of the majority of people who subscribed actually read your messages!?
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, you've got to rise ABOVE the noise of all the other email messages people receive every single day.
One way to do this is to always end each lesson with a small "ad" or excitement builder for the next message. You do this by really playing up a big benefit they'll receive as a result of reading the next message you promise to send them.
Here's an example:
"The next and final installment in this mini-course will give you five tips for how to get 10,000 visitors to your website without spending a dime on pay-per-click traffic! So stay tuned for the next lesson in 2 days..."
It's a simple, yet very powerful way to build anticipation for the next message into EVERY message you send.
This simple step helps make them look forward to the next message so it gets read... not trashed!
Tip #5 - Tell them what they don't know!
If you're using the mini-course to promote a product that covers a much "bigger picture" of the topic as a whole, constantly remind people that the mini-course is just a "tiny piece" of the whole product.
Remind them of what else they need to know and tell them if they buy the product then they'll get this benefit, and that benefit, and even more specific information.
Remember, you didn't publish this mini-course to practice your typing skills! You are in this to make money, to get subscribers, and to make sales!
Once you deliver quality content that gives people a real taste of what's in store when they actually purchase, then it's time to close the sale... you deserve it!
I have personally used "mini" courses to build lists of several thousand subscribers in as little as a week.
A "mini" course is simply a series of e-mail's where you teach people a specific skill, set of skills, or reveal other information they really want to know.
In the process of providing this focused, valuable information, you prove to your subscribers that you are THE expert in a particular area - and, you also encourage people to pay you to get even BETTER information from ebooks and information products you've either written or recommend.
An example of a "mini" course offer I've used with great success is the free mini course at www.7dayebook.com that appears in the exit pop up window when you leave the site. The promise of this "mini" course is strong and compelling. Here's what it says...
FREE eBook Mini-Course
"How to Write and Profit from your own eBook...
while you're still young enough to enjoy it!"
All the registration page asks for is first name and email address... and this mini-course has generated thousands of subscribers!
So here's the basic formula in a nutshell: Strong promise+ low risk+ high perceived reward= Subscribers
Now, if you'd like to build your own list of rabid subscribers, here are 5 sure-fire tips for creating a mini- course that truly kicks butt!
Tip #1 - The Promise
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, target an audience with a specific need and then make them the biggest possible promise you can deliver on.
People are pressed for time and rarely see as much value in something they get for free as opposed to something they pay a lot of money for.
Add to this the fact that the Internet gets more and more crowded everyday and you can see that the best offers are the ones that grab people's attention by making a benefit- driven promise they can't resist.
Even though you offer your mini-course for free, you still must SELL people on WHY they should pay you with their time and attention.
Example: If you want to do a mini-course on real estate investing, look for the biggest and best promise you can make for people.
Let's look at these various promises for identical mini- course content:
Good: How to make a fortune in foreclosures.
Better: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure within 2 weeks.
Best: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure property in your area within 2 weeks - using none of your own money!
** The promise you make has everything to do with whether or not people sign up. IMPORTANT: After they sign up, make sure you deliver on the promise.
Tip #2 - Don't reinvent the wheel
Look for existing content - your own or other people's - you can adapt directly or indirectly into the mini-course.
Hey, I understand you're busy... I'm busy too!
Why would you want to spend 2 days coming up with all the content for your mini-course if you already have past information you can adapt!?
If you don't have any existing material, then find someone else who has written an article and use that for part of your mini-course - with their permission of course.
You'd be surprised at all the pieces of the puzzle that are out there independently which you could combine into a great mini-course without nearly the mountain of effort you might expect.
Tip #3 - Give yourself lots of chances to make money
One way to build more value into your mini-course and make sure people hang onto your messages instead of deleting them is to put lots of quality links into your mini-course.
This allows people to get additional information on specific aspects of the mini-course.
Some of those links can be to free resources, others to resources where you earn an affiliate commission, and still others to your own products and services.
The more links you have that actually contribute to your students learning the subject of your mini-course and fulfilling the promise you made to get them to sign up, the better your chances of them clicking those links.
If you create lessons people save for future reference because they have great links in them, you'll make more money!
For an example look no further than your "in-box"! Almost everybody has email messages they've saved from other people because they contain links to sites you want to use now or access in the future.
Tip #4 - Build anticipation for the next message
If you're going to take the time to put together the mini- course, wouldn't it be great of the majority of people who subscribed actually read your messages!?
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, you've got to rise ABOVE the noise of all the other email messages people receive every single day.
One way to do this is to always end each lesson with a small "ad" or excitement builder for the next message. You do this by really playing up a big benefit they'll receive as a result of reading the next message you promise to send them.
Here's an example:
"The next and final installment in this mini-course will give you five tips for how to get 10,000 visitors to your website without spending a dime on pay-per-click traffic! So stay tuned for the next lesson in 2 days..."
It's a simple, yet very powerful way to build anticipation for the next message into EVERY message you send.
This simple step helps make them look forward to the next message so it gets read... not trashed!
Tip #5 - Tell them what they don't know!
If you're using the mini-course to promote a product that covers a much "bigger picture" of the topic as a whole, constantly remind people that the mini-course is just a "tiny piece" of the whole product.
Remind them of what else they need to know and tell them if they buy the product then they'll get this benefit, and that benefit, and even more specific information.
Remember, you didn't publish this mini-course to practice your typing skills! You are in this to make money, to get subscribers, and to make sales!
Once you deliver quality content that gives people a real taste of what's in store when they actually purchase, then it's time to close the sale... you deserve it!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
7 Years At The Keyboard
Ok, for those of you still waiting, the Internet won't go away.
Hang up the hopes that it represents a passing fad sharing the fate of the Beanie or the Pet Rock.
With legitimate high-tech stocks finally in the market, regular people doing "real" business online, and consumer acceptance to the point of purchasing movie tickets and homeowners insurance over the Internet, the Web is here to stay.
However, many people still get that glassy-eyed, far away dreamer look on their faces when they think of the riches awaiting them on just the other side of their own dot-com.
Well, whether your business represents a laptop on a TV tray in the basement, or a mega-corporation with offices all over the world, my last 7 years in the Wild West online has revealed a few "truths" which should last from here until the end of computers.
** There is no get-rich-quick! **
I guess it's in man's nature to desire instant wealth.
Since the dawn of history, people threw common sense to the wind and went off in search of "buried treasure." Unfortunately, instead of discovering riches, most just ended up buried under a load of debt, misery and despair themselves.
In the late 1990's we saw the modern day equivalent of a gold rush with high-tech stocks, dot-com companies, and investors who threw common sense to the wind.
Well, we all know the result.
** The "Secret" to online business success! **
Would you like to know the real secret to making money online that will govern the Internet for all eternity?
Here you go: Spend less than you make.
That's right! Simple math creates millionaires on the Internet!
Regardless of the market, size of your enterprise, or the nature of the product or service you sell, the people who make money online spend less than they make in revenue.
The companies that make money are the ones who let someone with basic math skills run the advertising department!
** People don't buy refrigerators online! **
That's right, most people don't buy refrigerators online, but to look at the way some companies operate, you'd swear they did.
Here's how people use the Web to buy a refrigerator (or any other major purchase): they go online, research different models and prices, look for a local store, go to the store, and buy one.
Companies that use the web to make money (instead of wasting it by the bucket-load) understand the difference between closing the sale online and providing information that leads to making the sale at a physical location.
** The quick and the dead! **
People who buy online have little or no patience.
They go online to get information NOW, or to place an order NOW, or to get their questions answered NOW!
The online world is a "right NOW" world, where wait times get measured in seconds and people get mighty testy if their needs don't get met immediately.
Speed, not size, determines the victor in e-commerce because the businesses that meet people's immediate expectations as quickly as possible (if not faster) ultimately win.
Hang up the hopes that it represents a passing fad sharing the fate of the Beanie or the Pet Rock.
With legitimate high-tech stocks finally in the market, regular people doing "real" business online, and consumer acceptance to the point of purchasing movie tickets and homeowners insurance over the Internet, the Web is here to stay.
However, many people still get that glassy-eyed, far away dreamer look on their faces when they think of the riches awaiting them on just the other side of their own dot-com.
Well, whether your business represents a laptop on a TV tray in the basement, or a mega-corporation with offices all over the world, my last 7 years in the Wild West online has revealed a few "truths" which should last from here until the end of computers.
** There is no get-rich-quick! **
I guess it's in man's nature to desire instant wealth.
Since the dawn of history, people threw common sense to the wind and went off in search of "buried treasure." Unfortunately, instead of discovering riches, most just ended up buried under a load of debt, misery and despair themselves.
In the late 1990's we saw the modern day equivalent of a gold rush with high-tech stocks, dot-com companies, and investors who threw common sense to the wind.
Well, we all know the result.
** The "Secret" to online business success! **
Would you like to know the real secret to making money online that will govern the Internet for all eternity?
Here you go: Spend less than you make.
That's right! Simple math creates millionaires on the Internet!
Regardless of the market, size of your enterprise, or the nature of the product or service you sell, the people who make money online spend less than they make in revenue.
The companies that make money are the ones who let someone with basic math skills run the advertising department!
** People don't buy refrigerators online! **
That's right, most people don't buy refrigerators online, but to look at the way some companies operate, you'd swear they did.
Here's how people use the Web to buy a refrigerator (or any other major purchase): they go online, research different models and prices, look for a local store, go to the store, and buy one.
Companies that use the web to make money (instead of wasting it by the bucket-load) understand the difference between closing the sale online and providing information that leads to making the sale at a physical location.
** The quick and the dead! **
People who buy online have little or no patience.
They go online to get information NOW, or to place an order NOW, or to get their questions answered NOW!
The online world is a "right NOW" world, where wait times get measured in seconds and people get mighty testy if their needs don't get met immediately.
Speed, not size, determines the victor in e-commerce because the businesses that meet people's immediate expectations as quickly as possible (if not faster) ultimately win.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Microsoft Great Plains on Ctree or Pervasive SQL – what to do – tips for IT manager
As you probably know, when Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software – the whole strategy for Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise line was changed. Initial GPS strategy was to maintain DB platform independence – via it’s C-written engine Dexterity, based on the believe that C programming language is platform independent. So – Great Plains was running on MS SQL Server, Ctree (Faircom – if you remember 1995-96 Macintosh era), Pervasive SQL (Btrieve). Microsoft obviously had no plan to keep this multiplatform capability and Great Plains was optimized to MS SQL Server and with the introduction of MSDE – the need to keep entry level Dynamics on Ctree/Btrieve disappeared.
Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later renamed to Microsoft Business Solutions was sending multiple signals to Dynamics customers to migrate to SQL Server, later on to upgrade to Great Plains Standard on MSDE. Recently it promoted all the clients who own Great Plains on Ctree/Pervasive – so now they technically own so called Great Plains Standard. All they need to do is pay for Migration (around k$3 + consulting fee to whoever your MBS VAR is).
Unfortunately MBS did several rough turns in the process of this migration from ctree/Pervasive to SQL/MSDE.
Until early 2004 you could see support expiration date for Great Plains 7.5 on Ctree/Pervasive was July, 31, 2005. In about April, 2004 – Microsoft roughly changed it to December 31, 2004. This actually exposed all the clients with regulation-related modules (such as US Payroll – where you rather do not risk with printing W2s without support) to serious problems
Clients who migrated to Great Plains standard are now in the feeling that they paid for something that is free now. See above – all the low price GP clientele now technically owns GP Standard
Ctree/Pervasive clients with high volume of employees count in GP Payroll/HR now have to cut it to 500 employees due to the cap for GP Standard. You can imagine frustration, especially due to the fact that a lot of mid-size and big companies were running very cheap Dynamics on Ctree for just Payroll/W2 filing. This was a very nice alternative to products like Abra HR – not any more.
What to do. Well, if you plan to stay with GP – the only alternative is to migrate to MSDE. Contact your MBS VAR (or call us directly: 1-866-528-0577). You will be given Migration Tool quote – then install MSDE and Great Plains with exactly the same accounts structure that you have on Pervasive/Ctree. Tune Migration Tool, select all the tables in all the modules, click the button and wait a few hour – and you are in the SQL World!
Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later renamed to Microsoft Business Solutions was sending multiple signals to Dynamics customers to migrate to SQL Server, later on to upgrade to Great Plains Standard on MSDE. Recently it promoted all the clients who own Great Plains on Ctree/Pervasive – so now they technically own so called Great Plains Standard. All they need to do is pay for Migration (around k$3 + consulting fee to whoever your MBS VAR is).
Unfortunately MBS did several rough turns in the process of this migration from ctree/Pervasive to SQL/MSDE.
Until early 2004 you could see support expiration date for Great Plains 7.5 on Ctree/Pervasive was July, 31, 2005. In about April, 2004 – Microsoft roughly changed it to December 31, 2004. This actually exposed all the clients with regulation-related modules (such as US Payroll – where you rather do not risk with printing W2s without support) to serious problems
Clients who migrated to Great Plains standard are now in the feeling that they paid for something that is free now. See above – all the low price GP clientele now technically owns GP Standard
Ctree/Pervasive clients with high volume of employees count in GP Payroll/HR now have to cut it to 500 employees due to the cap for GP Standard. You can imagine frustration, especially due to the fact that a lot of mid-size and big companies were running very cheap Dynamics on Ctree for just Payroll/W2 filing. This was a very nice alternative to products like Abra HR – not any more.
What to do. Well, if you plan to stay with GP – the only alternative is to migrate to MSDE. Contact your MBS VAR (or call us directly: 1-866-528-0577). You will be given Migration Tool quote – then install MSDE and Great Plains with exactly the same accounts structure that you have on Pervasive/Ctree. Tune Migration Tool, select all the tables in all the modules, click the button and wait a few hour – and you are in the SQL World!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Reduce TCO: The Java Database Way
TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in today’s business world. This metric helps enterprise managers assess direct and indirect costs and benefits derived from their investment on IT components and services. A vital component of overall TCO is database management. All information-centric applications need databases for data storage. Also, the storage demands of small and mid-sized companies are growing rapidly, as more emphasis is given on data backup and long-term archival of data disaster recovery.
Embedded databases have arrived in this scenario as a major cost-cutting tool. They help organizations in managing the growing storage requirements by providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for data backup, file storage and archiving, thereby assuring a lower cost of ownership for small to medium sized business organizations.
The remainder of this article will focus on the database server that I am most familiar with (Daffodil DB) and how it helps in the reduction of TCO. Though the example has some nuances specific to Daffodil DB, I am sure that readers will be able to extrapolate the theme to better understand the role of a database in TCO reduction.
Let’s begin with Development and Deployment Costs. Gone are the days when applications had to be tested extensively for all underlying platforms. Now, one can shrink the cost and time required to develop and setup solutions on multiple platforms by using a Java database. A separate deployment for different platform implementations of a large application is a major expense that an enterprise can do without.
Administration Costs are a major concern for many-a-company. Logically, database administration costs are a significant component of TCO. When embedded with an application, a compact Java database can be made practically invisible to the user, since it (the database) requires no administration and runs on the same Java virtual machine (JVM) as does the application. Its simple performance tuning process helps in optimizing database performance and vastly reduces database administration costs.
Now let’s move on to Compatibility Cost. Java databases, being platform independent, are compatible with all operating systems and application servers. This feature helps developers in choosing their own range of effective and economical solutions. For example, with Daffodil DB the developer can use Open Source tools like JBOSS application server for reducing overall TCO.
Last, but certainly not the least, let’s get to Licensing Costs. Pardon me if I seem to evangelize Daffodil DB, but that’s one area where I can ‘preach’ with confidence. As Daffodil DB can be used / embedded with a wide array of applications, flexible licensing policies have been developed to accommodate the diverse needs of the development community without restricting the same to just one standard license. Each application development organization may pick the right combination of licenses that best meets its needs. The organizations may also acquire additional licenses or upgrade their licenses. Do I hear someone shout ‘What about Open Source?’
Embedded databases have arrived in this scenario as a major cost-cutting tool. They help organizations in managing the growing storage requirements by providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for data backup, file storage and archiving, thereby assuring a lower cost of ownership for small to medium sized business organizations.
The remainder of this article will focus on the database server that I am most familiar with (Daffodil DB) and how it helps in the reduction of TCO. Though the example has some nuances specific to Daffodil DB, I am sure that readers will be able to extrapolate the theme to better understand the role of a database in TCO reduction.
Let’s begin with Development and Deployment Costs. Gone are the days when applications had to be tested extensively for all underlying platforms. Now, one can shrink the cost and time required to develop and setup solutions on multiple platforms by using a Java database. A separate deployment for different platform implementations of a large application is a major expense that an enterprise can do without.
Administration Costs are a major concern for many-a-company. Logically, database administration costs are a significant component of TCO. When embedded with an application, a compact Java database can be made practically invisible to the user, since it (the database) requires no administration and runs on the same Java virtual machine (JVM) as does the application. Its simple performance tuning process helps in optimizing database performance and vastly reduces database administration costs.
Now let’s move on to Compatibility Cost. Java databases, being platform independent, are compatible with all operating systems and application servers. This feature helps developers in choosing their own range of effective and economical solutions. For example, with Daffodil DB the developer can use Open Source tools like JBOSS application server for reducing overall TCO.
Last, but certainly not the least, let’s get to Licensing Costs. Pardon me if I seem to evangelize Daffodil DB, but that’s one area where I can ‘preach’ with confidence. As Daffodil DB can be used / embedded with a wide array of applications, flexible licensing policies have been developed to accommodate the diverse needs of the development community without restricting the same to just one standard license. Each application development organization may pick the right combination of licenses that best meets its needs. The organizations may also acquire additional licenses or upgrade their licenses. Do I hear someone shout ‘What about Open Source?’
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Internet, Jeff Buckley music, websites, epiphanies, following your dreams…everything’s connected in the Universe.
Internet, Jeff Buckley music, websites, epiphanies, following your dreams…everything’s connected in the Universe.
This may come across as a strange article contextually as I am a writer for a web hosting company who likes for me to spread the word about how cool the Internet is, so average people, if they ever get to read this stuff, may be inspired to partake in this new aspect of our collective, privileged, contemporary society. I have been an avid music listener and player for many years of my life and I want to give you the simple story of how the Internet has now connected once again with my life’s journey. I have a deep-seated dream of one day producing some music while I’m here in the world, but as in many cases, we humans have fears in relation to the ideas and feelings that mean the most to us. Recently I first heard music from a guy called Jeff Buckley.
This Jeff Buckley fellow can really play, I mean he could really play. His music spoke to me instantly; he plays guitar and sings in a way that touches and even haunts the soul. For a person like myself who hopes to one day become a ‘real’ musician and not just a hobbyist, this guy is a true inspiration. Buckley died at the age of 31 years. So how did I find out about the guy? The Internet. I even read the lyrics off a website to the song I was listening to at that very moment. Looking at photos, reading his biography; the experience of hearing the music at the same time as ‘seeing’ and learning about Buckley added a whole new dimension to the experience. The Internet let me feel the music in a new way, and resulted in a moment of epiphany-and don’t these moments mean so much to us?
So what am I alluding to? What am I getting at here? The idea I think I’m trying to articulate is that the Internet can add dimensions to our experiences. Of course there is nothing wrong with listening to music on its own, simplicity is one of the most beautiful ways to live life. But for me in this particular instance, adding visuals, lyrics, and information about the musician seemed to make the feelings I received via the music grow and swell in the moment. The experience became multidimensional, both a reflection and a new vision simultaneously felt.
The result for me was like a big kick in the ass. If you want to make music, stop procrastinating. This guy Jeff Buckley gave it his best, made beautiful music and then died. He didn’t get to hang around very long, and the same thing can happen to any of us. If I don’t follow my dream now, in the present, I might just leave this place before I use the opportunities that have been given to me.
All I’m trying to say here is that the Internet is becoming a tool that we can use in our daily lives that can add richness and texture to our lives. Like all internal and external stimulus in our world, it too just might be the medium that ignites the ‘light bulb’ idea that changes the rest of your life.
This may come across as a strange article contextually as I am a writer for a web hosting company who likes for me to spread the word about how cool the Internet is, so average people, if they ever get to read this stuff, may be inspired to partake in this new aspect of our collective, privileged, contemporary society. I have been an avid music listener and player for many years of my life and I want to give you the simple story of how the Internet has now connected once again with my life’s journey. I have a deep-seated dream of one day producing some music while I’m here in the world, but as in many cases, we humans have fears in relation to the ideas and feelings that mean the most to us. Recently I first heard music from a guy called Jeff Buckley.
This Jeff Buckley fellow can really play, I mean he could really play. His music spoke to me instantly; he plays guitar and sings in a way that touches and even haunts the soul. For a person like myself who hopes to one day become a ‘real’ musician and not just a hobbyist, this guy is a true inspiration. Buckley died at the age of 31 years. So how did I find out about the guy? The Internet. I even read the lyrics off a website to the song I was listening to at that very moment. Looking at photos, reading his biography; the experience of hearing the music at the same time as ‘seeing’ and learning about Buckley added a whole new dimension to the experience. The Internet let me feel the music in a new way, and resulted in a moment of epiphany-and don’t these moments mean so much to us?
So what am I alluding to? What am I getting at here? The idea I think I’m trying to articulate is that the Internet can add dimensions to our experiences. Of course there is nothing wrong with listening to music on its own, simplicity is one of the most beautiful ways to live life. But for me in this particular instance, adding visuals, lyrics, and information about the musician seemed to make the feelings I received via the music grow and swell in the moment. The experience became multidimensional, both a reflection and a new vision simultaneously felt.
The result for me was like a big kick in the ass. If you want to make music, stop procrastinating. This guy Jeff Buckley gave it his best, made beautiful music and then died. He didn’t get to hang around very long, and the same thing can happen to any of us. If I don’t follow my dream now, in the present, I might just leave this place before I use the opportunities that have been given to me.
All I’m trying to say here is that the Internet is becoming a tool that we can use in our daily lives that can add richness and texture to our lives. Like all internal and external stimulus in our world, it too just might be the medium that ignites the ‘light bulb’ idea that changes the rest of your life.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Another title by Atari released on StarForce protected DVDs
“Atari has selected StarForce to protect their brand-new game called Race Driver 2”, a supervisor from StarForce has stated today.
“Race Driver 2” is produced by Codemasters and distributed by Atari. It was released in Taiwan in July 2004. The game is designed for both PC and Microsoft Xbox platforms. The product is distributed on DVD discs protected by StarForce.
Atari is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive entertainment for both gaming enthusiasts and the mass-market audience. The company’s products are based on internally created intellectual properties or products licensed from third parties, and include most recognizable names in popular entertainment industry.
This is the second case of Atari’s cooperation with StarForce. Earlier they used StarForce to secure their hit game — “Desert Rats VS Afrika Korps”.
Both titles are protected using the StarForce Professional 3.0 solution. StarForce Professional 3.0 utilizes latest copy protection know-how and provides a high level of security yet being a very usable solution for end users. StarForce Professional is designed to assist software developers and publishers to suppress high-volume industrial piracy as well as illegal copying by end users. The protection technologies implementation doesn’t require publishers to use any special tools for a licensed disc production, quality control, or other procedures.
Pleased with the quality of StarForce service and proven effectiveness of the company’s technologies, Atari is planning to continue its cooperation with StarForce in the nearest future.
“Race Driver 2” is produced by Codemasters and distributed by Atari. It was released in Taiwan in July 2004. The game is designed for both PC and Microsoft Xbox platforms. The product is distributed on DVD discs protected by StarForce.
Atari is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive entertainment for both gaming enthusiasts and the mass-market audience. The company’s products are based on internally created intellectual properties or products licensed from third parties, and include most recognizable names in popular entertainment industry.
This is the second case of Atari’s cooperation with StarForce. Earlier they used StarForce to secure their hit game — “Desert Rats VS Afrika Korps”.
Both titles are protected using the StarForce Professional 3.0 solution. StarForce Professional 3.0 utilizes latest copy protection know-how and provides a high level of security yet being a very usable solution for end users. StarForce Professional is designed to assist software developers and publishers to suppress high-volume industrial piracy as well as illegal copying by end users. The protection technologies implementation doesn’t require publishers to use any special tools for a licensed disc production, quality control, or other procedures.
Pleased with the quality of StarForce service and proven effectiveness of the company’s technologies, Atari is planning to continue its cooperation with StarForce in the nearest future.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Introduction To ISDN, Part II
In the previous ISDN article, we looked at how and why one router dials another using ISDN. Just as important is knowing what keeps the link up once it is dialed.
Why? Because ISDN acts as a phone call between two routers, and it’s billed that way to your client. The two routers that are connected by this phone call may be located in different area codes, so now we’re talking about a long distance phone call.
If your ISDN link does not have a reason to disconnect, the connection could theoretically last for days or weeks before someone realizes what’s going on. This is particularly true when the ISDN link is used as a backup for another connection type, as is commonly the case with Frame Relay. When the Frame Relay goes down, the backup ISDN link comes up when the Frame Relay link comes back not billed for all that time.
To understand why an ISDN link stays up when it’s not needed, we have to understand why it stays up period. Cisco’s ISDN interfaces use the idle-timeout to determine when an ISDN link should be torn down. By default, this value is two minutes, and it also uses the concept of interesting traffic.
Once interesting traffic brings the link up, by default all traffic can cross the link. However, only interesting traffic resets the idle-timeout. If no interesting traffic crosses the link for two minutes, the idle-timer hits zero and the link comes down.
If the protocol running over the ISDN link is RIP version 2 or EIGRP, the most efficient way to prevent the routing updates from keeping the line up is expressly prohibiting their multicast routing update address in the access-list that is defining interesting traffic. Do not prevent them from crossing the link entirely, or the protocol obviously won’t work correctly.
With OSPF, Cisco offers the ip ospf demand-circuit interface-level command. The OSPF adjacency will form over the ISDN link, but once formed, the Hello packets will be suppressed. However, the adjacency will not be lost. A check of the adjacency table with show ip ospf adjacency will show the adjacency remains at Full, even though Hellos are no longer being sent across the link. The ISDN link can drop without the adjacency being lost. When the link is needed, the adjacency is still in place and data can be sent without waiting for OSPF to go through the usual steps of forming an adjacency.
This OSPF command is vital for Cisco certification candidates at every level, but is particularly important for CCNA candidates. Learn this command now, get used to the fact that the adjacency stays up even though Hellos are suppressed, and add this valuable command to your Cisco toolkit.
One myth about ISDN is that Cisco Discovery Packets keep an ISDN link up. CDP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that runs between directly connected Cisco devices. There is a school of thought that CDP packets have to be disabled on a BRI interface in order to prevent the link from staying up or dialing when it's not really needed. I've worked with ISDN for years in the field and in the lab, and I've never seen CDP bring up an ISDN link. Try it yourself the next time you're working on a practice rack!
Keep studying!
Why? Because ISDN acts as a phone call between two routers, and it’s billed that way to your client. The two routers that are connected by this phone call may be located in different area codes, so now we’re talking about a long distance phone call.
If your ISDN link does not have a reason to disconnect, the connection could theoretically last for days or weeks before someone realizes what’s going on. This is particularly true when the ISDN link is used as a backup for another connection type, as is commonly the case with Frame Relay. When the Frame Relay goes down, the backup ISDN link comes up when the Frame Relay link comes back not billed for all that time.
To understand why an ISDN link stays up when it’s not needed, we have to understand why it stays up period. Cisco’s ISDN interfaces use the idle-timeout to determine when an ISDN link should be torn down. By default, this value is two minutes, and it also uses the concept of interesting traffic.
Once interesting traffic brings the link up, by default all traffic can cross the link. However, only interesting traffic resets the idle-timeout. If no interesting traffic crosses the link for two minutes, the idle-timer hits zero and the link comes down.
If the protocol running over the ISDN link is RIP version 2 or EIGRP, the most efficient way to prevent the routing updates from keeping the line up is expressly prohibiting their multicast routing update address in the access-list that is defining interesting traffic. Do not prevent them from crossing the link entirely, or the protocol obviously won’t work correctly.
With OSPF, Cisco offers the ip ospf demand-circuit interface-level command. The OSPF adjacency will form over the ISDN link, but once formed, the Hello packets will be suppressed. However, the adjacency will not be lost. A check of the adjacency table with show ip ospf adjacency will show the adjacency remains at Full, even though Hellos are no longer being sent across the link. The ISDN link can drop without the adjacency being lost. When the link is needed, the adjacency is still in place and data can be sent without waiting for OSPF to go through the usual steps of forming an adjacency.
This OSPF command is vital for Cisco certification candidates at every level, but is particularly important for CCNA candidates. Learn this command now, get used to the fact that the adjacency stays up even though Hellos are suppressed, and add this valuable command to your Cisco toolkit.
One myth about ISDN is that Cisco Discovery Packets keep an ISDN link up. CDP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that runs between directly connected Cisco devices. There is a school of thought that CDP packets have to be disabled on a BRI interface in order to prevent the link from staying up or dialing when it's not really needed. I've worked with ISDN for years in the field and in the lab, and I've never seen CDP bring up an ISDN link. Try it yourself the next time you're working on a practice rack!
Keep studying!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Will The Online Quiz Make The Old Fashioned Printed Quiz Obsolete?
Q. Can you tell me the benefits of publishing an online quiz versus a printed one?
A. Well, the first benefit of publishing an online quiz that comes to mind is the fact that it's an outstanding way to drive traffic to your web site. People love quizzes and they take ones that are printed in magazines all of the time. It's reasonable to assume that if these same people knew about the existance of an online quiz that they would beat a path to your home page.
Another great feature of offering an online quiz is that you can change the subject regularly. In fact, you could offer a subscription where members sign up to be notified whenever a new online quiz gets posted.
An online quiz can also be used as a sales tool. One of the best ways of accomplishing this is to link your quiz questions to affiliate sites where you earn money when people make purchases. Then you can have a "scavenger hunt" online quiz where people have to visit those sites to find the quiz answers.
People also like to take an online quiz because they can get instant scoring without having to turn the page upside down, or flip to the end of the magazine, to find out how they did. You can even design your online quiz so that it gives instant feedback after every answer is entered.
One last thing to consider is that you can create keyword-rich versions of your online quiz and then post the URLs to search engines. That way you will not only get search traffic from people who like quizzes, but you'll get traffic from people who are searching on the terms that you include in your online quiz!
So, while it's not likely that a printed quiz is going to become obsolete any time soon. The Internet has once again forever impacted the way that we communicate. Today's latest example? The online quiz.
A. Well, the first benefit of publishing an online quiz that comes to mind is the fact that it's an outstanding way to drive traffic to your web site. People love quizzes and they take ones that are printed in magazines all of the time. It's reasonable to assume that if these same people knew about the existance of an online quiz that they would beat a path to your home page.
Another great feature of offering an online quiz is that you can change the subject regularly. In fact, you could offer a subscription where members sign up to be notified whenever a new online quiz gets posted.
An online quiz can also be used as a sales tool. One of the best ways of accomplishing this is to link your quiz questions to affiliate sites where you earn money when people make purchases. Then you can have a "scavenger hunt" online quiz where people have to visit those sites to find the quiz answers.
People also like to take an online quiz because they can get instant scoring without having to turn the page upside down, or flip to the end of the magazine, to find out how they did. You can even design your online quiz so that it gives instant feedback after every answer is entered.
One last thing to consider is that you can create keyword-rich versions of your online quiz and then post the URLs to search engines. That way you will not only get search traffic from people who like quizzes, but you'll get traffic from people who are searching on the terms that you include in your online quiz!
So, while it's not likely that a printed quiz is going to become obsolete any time soon. The Internet has once again forever impacted the way that we communicate. Today's latest example? The online quiz.
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