HomeBusiness Websites: April 2005 Archives

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April 29, 2005

Supreme Court rejects hearing 'Kemosabe' appeal

When Tonto called the Lone Ranger "Kemosabe," was it an insult?

Who knows? Who Cares?

According to an article on the CBC website, it says:

"Nova Scotia's Human Rights Commission had turned to the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify the use of the word in the workplace after a woman filed a complaint."

Apparently The Supreme Court of Canada doesn't care...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2005

One page prtoected or Multiple...

I get asked a lot of times on how to protect pages and directories. This morning I found a couple of tutorials that will show you how to do it. There are lots of different methods, and websites hosted on servers that offer Cpanel have access to a tool to do this.

The first one I'd like to share with you is how to protect a single page.

This would be handy if you have offered your subscribers a download, but don't want to allow access to the general public. In this case, you would send out the user name and password in your newsletter or in the email they receive when they subscribe.

You can see the quick tutorial and download the code.

The second one is slightly more involved. This tutorial show you how to use Php sessions to protect a group of pages. The author says:

This tutorial will show you one of the ways to protect areas of your web site using the PHP sessions. You only have to write the login script that changes the status of the user to authenticated based on a username and password provided through the form and add a small piece of code to all of your pages you want to be protected.
Usage : Session support in PHP consists of a way to preserve certain data across subsequent accesses. This enables you to build more customized applications and increase the appeal of your web site.

This would be good if you had more then one page to protect. Still, probably not quite as secure as using .htaccess and .htpasswd but handy none-the-less.

You can read the tutorial here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2005

PhpList Mailing List script

Have you guys heard about PhpList? Maybe it isn't new, but I just learned about it:

One of the features I like about it is:

"Batch Processing. To facilitate shared hosting environments, you can specify the maximum number of emails to send in a time period you identify. This can also be overridden by ISPs who can set these values server wide to apply to any PHPlist installation on that machine."

For those of you who might not know...

Normal hosting accounts are placed on what they call "shared servers" -- which means your site shares the same server resources as a few hundred other sites. To prevent one user for using up all of the system resources they usually only allow each site to place 1,000 messages in the queue at one time.

Batch sending lets you get around this limitation. You can program this mailing list program to send 1,000 messages every 12 minutes or so... I've found that setting works in most cases, but it would depend on the load of the server.

I don't have any personal experience working with this program. I just wanted to give you a "heads up" about in case you're looking for something like this.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 22, 2005

Web Development Tutorials

I was reading some articles this morning and discovered a CSS tutorial at www.echoecho.com and had a browse through it. The tutorial was well written in plain easy to understand language. This prompted me to take a second look at the site.

There is a ton of knowledge at this site on various aspects of web development, including forums you can register at to post questions to. Anyone trying to get a handle on developing their own website should make this site a favorite.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2005

The Business Case for RSS

Lee Odden's post led me to a website called marketingstudies.net. They are offering a free report titled The Business Case for RSS. They say:

"The purpose of this report is to demonstrate just how RSS can help marketers and publishers improve their bottom-line and show them how to integrate it within all of their internet marketing and publishing activities."

In this 28 page report you will learn:

Getting your internet content delivered to end-users.
Improving your online visibility and generating more traffic / visitors for you.
Powering your internet public relations through RSS conversations.
Enhancing your web presence.
Serving as an advertising platform for publishers and advertisers.

If you would like to lean more you are are encouraged to visit marketingstudies.net and download a copy of the report for yourself.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

FileZilla Basic Tutorial

This information is the least you need to know in order to be able to use FileZilla. If you're adventurous and wanted to learn everything there is about the program, the "?" on the tool bar give you access to a wonderfully detailed explanation of this great tool. Once you're comfortable using FTP, you should at least read through it.

You've heard me mention FTP a couple of times. FTP means File Transfer Protocol which was developed years ago before most of us were using the Internet. Computers automatically have the ability installed when you buy them and are capable of using this protocol to transfer files over a network to another computer.

FileZilla is an FTP client that is really only a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that enables us to make use of this tool that has already been built into our computer.

You can actually use a DOS window to connect to remote computers and transfer files, but most people (these days) are not comfortable working in DOS.

You can download FileZilla from here: http://filezilla.sourceforge.net

You will see above that I've identified the different panes with a red number to explain which section I am talking about.

Number 1 at the very top is the address bar, which means this is where you put your FTP connection information. In "address" I typed "homebusiness-websites.com" (my domain name) and the following two fields will be the username and password assigned to your hosting account when you registered. These go in these fields. The "port" number can be left blank. If you have the other information the program will find the correct port when you connect to your hosting account.

Number 2 isn't something you really have to pay too much attention to you. In order for your FTP program to connect with your hosting account, the two computers need to pass information back and fourth. This just shows you what information is being passed. As long as there is a connection, you don't need to be bothered with anything else in this area

Number 3 shows the drives and folders on you computer. You can click through on the folders to navigate to the folder/directory where your website files are stored. When it is opened, the individual files and sub directories will be displayed in the window below (number 4).

Number 4 shows the individuals files and folders that you will want to transfer to your hosting account. Double-clicking on them will automatically transfer them. Or you can select them by holding down the "Ctrl" key and highlighting them by left clicking with your mouse on the files you want to transfer. If you have some files highlighted this way, a right-click will open a popup menu that allows you to choose the upload command. You will see these files appear in number 5.

Number 5 (if you're connected to your host) will list the files and folders you are allowed to access on your server. Any files you upload from number 4 will appear in this window. If this is a new website, and you're using Linux hosting account there is a good chance when you view the folders on your server you will see a directory called "public_html". This is where you will put your files.

Number 6 simply shows you the status of files being transferred. Again, this is something you shouldn't have to pay too much attention to.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:39 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 20, 2005

Opera 8 is ready

Opera 8 was released yesterday and they claim it is a substantial upgrade from previous versions, and includes new features such as a unique security information field that indicates the trustworthiness of banking and shopping Web sites and voice interaction capabilities.

Håkon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software has this to say about it:

"The vast majority of Internet users have had to deal with a slow and insecure browser for too long. People are spending more time online, and with the increase in online fraud it is vital that they have a browser that is fast, secure and easy to use. That's what we offer with Opera 8."

Opera supports all major Web standards currently in use, including CSS 2.1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01, WML 2.0, ECMAScript, DOM 2 and SVG 1.1 tiny.

You can see a list of the main features and see some screenshots here. The screenshot page offers additional information on some of the features.

I clicked a link to compare browsers and got a chuckle out it. They didn't name names... but it seems pretty clear to me what other two browsers they are comparing it to.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cool looking dropdowns

Aaron Gustafson says:

So you’ve built a beautiful, standards-compliant site utilizing the latest and greatest CSS techniques. You’ve mastered control of styling every element, but in the back of your mind, a little voice is nagging you about how ugly your <select>s are. Well, today we’re going to explore a way to silence that little voice and truly complete our designs. With a little DOM scripting and some creative CSS, you too can make your <select>s beautiful... and you won’t have to sacrifice accessibility, usability or graceful degradation.

No doubt about it. They are nice to look at, but some testing has show it may not work on all browsers. There seems to be a difference of opinion as Stuart's readers discuss the idea over at the DHTML & CSS Blog Sitepoint blog.

I tried it in Firefox, IE 6, and Opera 7.0 and I agree Opera has problems with it. This might not be such a serious problem. Typically, regular Opera users are quick to download new browser updates and Andy posted a comment claiming it worked on Opera 7.51.

This is the first part of the article and according to Stuart, Aarron will address accessibility issues.

Aaron has made the code available for download if you would like to try it yourself.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2005

Firefox security vulnerabilities

Larry Seltzer of eWeek reports there are new releases of Mozilla and Firefox to addresses security vulnerabilities. It is advisable to update these browsers if you are using them.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 14, 2005

Relax... it's only a joke!

One of my ex-wives sent me this one... really!

If you're easily offended, just don't click the link below to continue reading. It's just a joke... all-right, maybe it is in bad taste.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Need help moving a website?

Moving websites from one server to the next can be a real pain. I ran across a script that will help a bit. Here is what the author says:

"These scripts will make an exact copy of an entire directory with all subfolders and files on a remote server. It's the perfect tool if you move sites or if you have a site template somewhere which you want to copy over. Having to download a whole site to your desktop just to upload it again on the next server is, especially if you consider the difference between the bandwidth of your server and your desktop, not the best option.
This file will copy from one server directly to the other, without FTP. Of course you have to have access to both servers,..."

Hopefully this might ,make your next move a little easier. You can find the scripts here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 13, 2005

RSS Builder

RSS Builder is an easy to use program to create RSS feeds for your web site. It provides a simple interface that lets you add topics, links and content, and then publish the RSS (v2.0) feed to your web server, using the built-in FTP client.

The program is being offered here for free.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2005

WeBBBs and SSI

Someone I know was having a problem getting a message forum to show random text ads using SSI (Server Side Includes). I thought I would share this response with you. It will work with any CGI script that calls a header.txt file in the script.

The problem is that WeBBBs reads those text files that make up the headers and footers on these pages and displays the output. Unless you write it into the script to execute the randomtext.cgi script, the WeBBBs cgi is not going to parse these files for SSI.

But...

Since these files can display html, you can add an iFrame which pulls in an outside shtml file.

Let's say you create a new webpage called random.shtml and place it in your main directory.

SSI files don't need the same document structure that an html page does. You only need one line of code in this file:

Then upload this file.

Then take the files called header.txt and msgheader.txt and add something like this to them:

Save header.txt and msgheader.txt and upload them.

If you prefer, you can adjust the width and height of the iFrame.

Since the outside file isn't part of the txt files, the server will parse it for SSI.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 11, 2005

Are you OK with spam this year?

A new report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says:

Email users get more spam, but the harmful impact of unsolicited messages is diminishing for them.

It also goes on to say that "And in a first-time measure of "phishing," or unsolicited email requesting personal financial information, 35% of users say they have received such email, and 2% have responded by providing the information.

Although this report implies that spam isn't being minded as much as it was a year ago, it would appear to me that the the threat has increased. Phishers getting a 2% response is a serious threat to the everyone's security.

It also goes on to say:

Compared to a year ago, fewer email users now say that spam is undermining their trust in email, eroding their email use, or making life online unpleasant or annoying.

I would have to dis-agree with this. I find that my clients and I are having to make more use of the telephone this year, to make sure messages have been received.

Would you agree or dis-agree with this report?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 06, 2005

Interactive Canadian Atlas

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has put the country on the map in an new interactive, web-based atlas. According to a description on the main page it says it:

"...brings cartography to life with exciting graphics and animation. This state-of-the-art interactive atlas allows you to explore Canada in a way you’ve never experienced before, and helps the Society to fulfill our mission “to make Canada better known."

It is suppose to allow you to zoom in on maps, and it adds overlays of information that links to pages with a lot more detail — such as Canada's history, culture, people and geography.

The highest zoom setting shows everything within 20 kilometers. As an example I've posted below and marked with a red X where MacLellans Cottages (family business) is located.

This site is definitely worth a bookmark but you may need to set aside some time to explore it. I found the interactive maps very, very slow. It may have something to do with the server load. The site was featured today on the CBC website, so I expect it is receiving a large amount of traffic today.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yahoo! Toolbar

A newer Yahoo! toolbar released for FireFox users will help protect you from spyware with Anti-Spy... for Windows. See toolbar.yahoo.com

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 05, 2005

HomeBusiness Websites Journal 04/05/05

To those of you who may be wondering why you didn't receive this week's issue of the HomeBusiness Websites Journal, I offer this explanation:

I need work done to both of my vehicles and since my regular guy isn't available, I'm scrambling trying to find someone else. I will only be at the computer long enough to get some work done for a couple of clients today.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 04, 2005

MTS Spammers -- goodbye!

In a previous post I detailed a little trouble I was having from spammers using the Manitoba Telephone Systems Internet Service. Since they have thousands of subscribers, I didn't want to completely ban potential clients from, at least, my contact information.

I have found over the years that most work comes in through referrals. I have a number of clients who have never seen my website. They get my number passed on to them from someone else and give me a call. When you sell a big ticket item, people (in most cases) are going to phone you before hiring you.

I found a webpage listing some free website hosts and signed up for an account. Then I added these lines to my .htaccess file at homebusiness-websites.com:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^142\.161
RewriteRule .* http://dogbyte.do.funpic.org

The above lines takes into account MTS complete IP range.

What happens is that when someone tries to connect to homebusiness-websites.com from mts.ca they get redirected to here.

Who knows? Maybe if enough MTS users complain, maybe it will prompt them to re-consider their position. I would have to say the chance are very slim. You just never know...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 01, 2005

Ken Evoy's Unethical Affiliate

I ventured to IceRocket.com today to see how many of my blog posts were indexed, and how fresh the posts were. From doing a search I ran across this blog which has stolen the copy from my homepage, and The link at the top of the post (which says "Home Business Web Sites") goes to an affiliate for Ken Evoy's SiteBuildIt.

Put your mouse over the link and you will see "home-business-web-sitescom-web-site.html."

Even though HomeBusiness Websites is a registered business name, clearly I can understand that use of these words in another context. What really irks me though, is that this guy would copy the the blurb from my homepage, and link it to something else.

And this comes as no surprise &mdash that if you navigate to the homepage of the blog, you will see this guy has done the same thing by targeting other design businesses.

I understand that Ken Evoy may not have any control over unethical affiliates but it would indicate that along the way better affiliate tracking programs need to be built and put to use. I think Ken is fine person and produces some needed programs. It is a shame to see Mr. Envoy getting the name of some of these products dirtied by unethical affiliates.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack