« November 2005 | Main | March 2006 »
February 28, 2006
MyIE becomes the new Maxthon Browser
A browser named Maxthon has become very popular in China. It started in 2000, and was known as MyIE. It is also available for free to the North American market.
Apparently it is the second most popular browser in China with an estimated online population of 110 million.
The browser is built on the Trident rendering engine which is the same engine used by Internet Explorer. This browser has a number of new features and enhancements
From an article on eWeek written by Matt Hines, he says:
Like Opera, Firefox and even beta versions of Microsoft's next-generation Internet Explorer 7, Maxthon offers so-called tabbed browsing controls, onboard security tools and an RSS reader, along with a range of user interface customization options.
It is claimed on the Maxathon website that the browser uses very few resources, resulting in an average of 65% less RAM usage compares to IE when having the same large number of pages open.
From their features page they also claim there are 400+ plugins that are available, but when I clicked the URL to have a look at the "plugin site" I was returned an error message saying the site couldn't be found.
Still... if you're looking for a Microsoft compatible browser, and are not concerned about using a standards compliant browser you can have a look at http://www.maxthon.com and at least get what could be considered a long awaited, updated version of Internet Explorer.
Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PR Blog
If you're looking for some publicity ideas, you might want to check out Joan Stewart's blog.
Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 24, 2006
ScanToPDF
Just wanted to let you know about a cool and free utility that will scan multiple documents (even ones that include hand-writing and images) into pdf format.
It is called ScanToPDF
It is set by default to 80% compression rate. I found if you set this to 100% every things comes out perfect.
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 23, 2006
Where's my kids?
Bob Bly asks an interesting question on his blog, "Would You Encourage Your Kids to Take Your Job?" He says:
An article from CareerBuilder.com lists the "25 top jobs for 2006."
You can see the list here. I don't know about some of the jobs. I think I would discourage my kids from taking jobs as a waiter or waitress, or anything else that could be considered a lower paying job. Still, I will encourage them to do whatever makes them happy...
My job? Yes, if they were inclined to give it some consideration, I wouldn't have any problem encouraging it. I would be happy to show them the ropes, guide their study habits, and eventually turn over the rein when I get to old and senile to do it. Of course this assumes that there are still jobs for web developers when I get ready to retire.
It may not necessarily be the job. I would like to encourage them to work for themselves — start their own business. Working in your own business is far more fulfilling than having a job. I understand that this is a personal opinion. I'm sure there are people with jobs who find them very fulfilling.
In the end, it isn't so much what they choose to work at but rather how happy they are working in their chosen field. I think we all want the same things for out children — and that is to see them happy.
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2006
Whoops! It got deleted.... er... maybe not...
I'm sure most of us have accidentally deleted files that we wished we didn't. I know on older PC computers there was a command you could use in DOS to recover deleted files. But he same command used on MS-DOS versions 5.0 to 6.22 no longer works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, ME, XP or any other Operating system.
I was reading Woody's Watch last night, and in his newsletter he mentions a free utility for un-deleting files.
FreeUndelete is a freeware data recovery program for deleted files. Please note on the website that it says:
A deleted file is essentially an area on disk designated as free and ready to accept data (such as contents of some other file). Luckily, unless the area has already been overwritten, it still holds the contents of the deleted file. Due to this fact it is possible to undelete files.
So it is wise not to waste time if you have deleted something but run this program right away. The more you use your computer the more chance you will have of over-writing the space that was assigned to the deleted file. This means... even this program won't be able to help you.
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 19, 2006
Spam Assassin versus Filters
A couple of weeks ago I installed Spam Assassin on my server. If you are a client of mine and are hosted by AMS Computer Services, this is likely available to you from your control panel. However I tried other options first, because I was worried about losing legitimate email.
Last year I was getting about 300 spam message every 24 hours and I decided I had to start setting some filters. Over the course of several months I created 3,000+ filters. This seemed to work pretty good, but I was still getting a lot of spam. Then one day a client called me and said, "Why aren't you answering my email?"
The reason for this had to have something to do with all of the filters I had set-up. I examined them all, one-by-one, and didn't see anything that should prevent this client from emailing me. But several tests later and it was confirmed — for some inexplicable reason I was unable to receive email from her. I assumed if I couldn't find the filter that was blocking her email, maybe my hosting support team could explain it; perhaps fix the problem. So I emailed them about it.
I don't think they quite understood what I was hoping they would do. I got an email back from them that looked like this:
Hello Steve,
The problem is the filters you have set up. We've removed them. Let us know if you have any more problems.
Each of those filters they deleted had to be individually set up. I spent hours over the course of several months, setting these things up.
Yes... not I could get this particular clients email but the spam gate was wide open. While my filters had offered good protection, other spammers had added me to their list, so this put me up to 500 spam messages every 24 hours.
I decided to try Spam Assassin after trying to sort through tons of email for a few months. I understood I might lose legitimate email, but in my haste to sort through this many messages per day, I was accidentally deleting email that I wanted. I was using a program that allowed me to preview my messages off of the server and delete the ones I didn't want. Sometimes... real emails got deleted.
SpamAssassin incorporates several means of detecting spam. Bayesian-style probabilistic classification is one of them, but not the only one. But it also offers you an interface to "whitelist" your contacts. By setting the software to score at an appropriate level and taking the time to copy and paste the email addresses of everyone who I have been in regular contact with the last six months, I find I am really impressed with the results.
I set up a special spam folder so I could monitor what was being removed from my inbox. In the last two weeks, it hasn't blocked any legitimate email.
I heartily recommend this method of dealing with spam.
Regards,
Steve MacLellan
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 17, 2006
Protection for Service Professionals
Susanna K. Hutcheson is a copywriter, who publishes a blog about copywriting. In one of her posts she tells of someone she knows who did some copy writing for a client who paid by credit card. The client later processed a chargeback.
The copywriter tells us that Mr. Smith hired them to write copy for which Smith paid close to $5000. He put the money on his credit card.
Smith did not contact the copywriting firm after he got his copy. He made no complaints. The copywriters assumed he was satisfied in that he did not tell them he was not, nor did he request any changes or corrections.
A few months later Smith did a refund job on his credit card called a chargeback, leaving the copywriter holding the bag for all their time and work and the completed copy.
This story could be echoed by almost any service professional but it doesn't have to happen to you.
There is a company setup to help protect entrepreneurs from having this sort of thing happen to them. They say "If your charge-back percentage reaches 1% of your total sales volume during any given month, your merchant account could be canceled. Most banks and merchant processors have loss prevention guidelines that allow them to terminate any account that exceeds this industry par. If your merchant account is terminated, it can be very difficult to get another merchant account again."
ChargeBackBureau can help you get your money back. If you are a service professional who has had this happen to them, you might consider joining this organization.
Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 13, 2006
Firefox Preloader
It seems the more extensions you add to FireFox, the slower it loads. Here is something to speed it back up again.
Firefox Preloader loads parts of Mozilla Firefox into memory before it is used to improve its startup time.
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Virtual Private Network over the Internet
Hamachi enables you to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network). You can use it to access remote computers for file sharing etc. Great for those who need access to their office computer while at home. They claim it is secure:
Hamachi is a UDP-based virtual private networking system. Its peers utilize the help of a 3rd node called mediation server to locate each other and to boot strap the connection between themselves. The connection itself is direct and once it's established no traffic flows through our servers. It is verifiably secure peer-to-peer.
I haven't tried it, but it looks pretty cool. Who knows? Maybe this summer when I'm out at the cottage on the weekends?
Posted by Steve MacLellan at 04:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack