December 19, 2006

OverEx.net Discussion Forum is Open

The OverEx.net discussion forum is open to the general public, but you will need to register first before you are able to post.

In the event you want to register for a free dating profile account, you won’t need to worry about registering for the discussion forum. You will be automatically registered.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 03, 2006

Something to think about

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2006

Can We Make a Deal with Aaron White?

I was reading an article from the Halifax Herald this morning about a gentleman, Aaron Glenn White, who owes $30,000 for 30 convictions of driving a car without any insurance or license. He claims he only tries to drive to get to work or get groceries. In the small town of Bridgewater, police officers recognize his vehicle and pull him over and fine him every time they see him.

He told Judge John Nichols, that if he can build up some savings that he would like to go to jail to pay off his fines because he doesn't feel he will ever be able to pay this amount. The judge said:

"You’d be in jail the better part of five years to pay that off"

I did a quick search for the yearly cost per inmate in Canada and found at the bottom of a CBC article, Doing the crime and doing the time, that medium- and minimum-security inmates cost taxpayers more than $70,000 a year. So in order for Mr. White to be incarcerated for 5 years to pay off his 30K fine, it would cost us $350,000.00.

Maybe they should consider cutting that expense in half? Why couldn't the province give someone the job of being his personal chauffeur for 5 years; pay this person $35,000 per year, and than absolve Mr. White of the debt he owes? At least he wouldn't be convicted of anymore traffic violations during this period and we save ourselves (taxpayers) $175,000.00.

All-right! Maybe this is a little absurd. Do you have a better idea?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 02, 2006

If you can't trust Caller ID...

An article on USA Today reports about Caller ID spoofing and that...

"spoofing websites are used by people who buy stolen credit card numbers. They will call a service such as Western Union, setting Caller ID to appear to originate from the card holder's home, and use the credit card number to order cash transfers that they then pick up."

They say there is also a service called Spoofcard.com that you dial into, to spoof your number, and also have the option of masking your voice to make it sound like you were a member of the opposite sex.

This kind of takes the fun out of thinking you know who is on the other end. But I've noticed with a lot of long distance calls my service often prints the message "out of area" to the display screen. And too... it is easy enough for someone to block their number from being displayed.

Apparently spoofing your number is legal; just some of the callers might not be.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 04:54 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Buying a new computer this year?

I was browsing some stories at eWeek and saw a column by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols titled Why Windows Vista will suck.

"The truth is that very, very few people are going to be upgrading their existing systems to Vista. To make it work well, you're really going to need a new computer. If you didn't buy your PC in 2006, I wouldn't even try to run Vista on it."

He says he has 20 computers in his office and there is only one out of the 2o that will run Vista.

He says it is a Gateway 835GM which has an Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz dual-core processor, an Intel 945G chipset, 1GB DDR2 (double data rate) DRAM, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and built-in Intel GMA (graphics media accelerator) 950 graphics.

I think from reading the article that he is a bit bias towards Microsoft systems but the point I think he is making is you're going to need a powerful computer to run it and unless you just bought a computer this year, there is a good chance you will be out of luck.

I say, "Let's be optimistic!" It means a new computer for everyone, in the not so distant future.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 28, 2006

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 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 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

October 23, 2005

Wireless Providers

Of course we are not mentioning any specific company, but let me know if this simulation reminds you of your wireless provider. In this simuation, you see someone who is trying to order a pizza.

You will need to have your speakers on and Flash enabled in your browser to view it. Click here to view.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dolphins in the Bay of Fundy

A friend of mine sent me this picture she claimed to take down at the beach by our cottage.

The thing I find a little odd about it is that dolphins don't come up the bay, although we have had the odd whale a time or two. I think my friend is "putting me on" — what do you think?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 22, 2005

Got something to discuss?

Try this:

1) Go to google.com

2) In the prompt, type: Steve MacLellan

3) Push the button that says "I'm feeling lucky"

When I tried it, and it instantly loaded my discussion forum in my browser.

Is that cool?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 09, 2005

Bob Serling's new Blog

Anyone who knows of Bob Serling already knows that he is a marketing genius. There was a newsletter he published, seems to be a hundred years ago now, that was called something like "Reverse Invent Marketing"... or some similar name. Of course it really wasn't a hundred years ago. I was receiving it by the Internet. But it was in the early days...

You know, back in those days, many of us were building websites the same way. Have you ever noticed this? Website building, the construction, presentation, layout, marketing methods and general shape and form almost seem to follow a trend. I don't know who starts these, but I can tell you who finishes them.

In the mid 90's most websites were following a trend to put all the useful links they could find, related to their business theme, on their website. Most people didn't seem to question the philosophy behind this phenomenon. Bob did. He said:

Why would you want to do that? That's what search engines are for...

I scratched my head a bit; you know, not being the brightest crayon in the package, and all...

Then I removed all the other "useful" links to outside resources. Two things happened.

First, my traffic decreased.

Second, those that were visiting took more of an interest in what I was doing.

Regardless of whether you know Bob, or not, he has started a blog that you might want to bookmark in your favorites, or subscribe to his RSS feed.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RE: Article Dashboard

On September 03, 2005 I posted a review of the ArticleDashobaord Script. Three script updates later, and I still have a broken script. These files are encoded so there isn't any chance to correct the errors myself.

In my humble opinion, if you are looking for an article generator script... keep looking.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 11, 2005

Getting the word out

I was listening to a podcast called The Age of Review Blogs by CBC's technology columnist Tod Maffin. He spoke about how reviewing business and services on blogs can really help spread the word.

Thought I would do a search of my own. In February of this year I wrote and article titled "Manitoba Telephone System (MTS) harbor spammers"

Then in April I followed this up with MTS Spammers -- goodbye!

I googled Manitoba Telephone System (without quotation marks) and my complaint about their service is right there on the first page of results for anyone to see.

That's good. If their users find they are being blocked from various websites around the web, maybe it will enough for MTS to reconsider and start enforcing their no spam policy.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 05, 2005

Tougher times ahead for small US entrepreneurs

Drew Armstrong's article on BusinessWeek Online announces "The Bush Administration is eliminating funding for the SBA's MicroLoan Program — a move critics say will hurt urban entrepreneurs."

"Small businesses traditionally generate between 60% and 80% of net new jobs, and in 2000-01, the most recent data available, small businesses were responsible for all net new jobs in the U.S., according to the Small Business Administration."

They are still making loans available for more established businesses, but this doesn't help the solo entrepreneur. Those who are going to need some assistance getting started will need to explore their options.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 03, 2005

RE: WebAlias.com

In a post on July 29th, 2005, I mentioned a service called WebAlias that I decided to use after ShortURL.com gave me the long run-around.

Anyone new to webpage building needs to understand that this service pulls your page into a frameset. If you were going to use this method to cloak an affiliate URL you would need to modify the order link to include "target=_blank" so that the ordering page opens in a new browser window.

Alternately you could use "target=_top" to open in the same browser window.

This is important if you are selling affiliate programs from Clickbank. You would want to make sure you have read and understand their HopLink FAQ. Frames are a "no-no" and could cost you your commission in some cases.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 31, 2005

Icebreaker for sale

Dan Burry is selling his icebreaker on eBay. He says:

"It could be used for research or as a floating hotel, and would be perfect for touring icy Arctic destinations."

The minimum starting bid is $1 million US. You can see the listing here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 27, 2005

Blog Question and Answers

I said to my client, "Most people will have no idea it is a blog. They will only understand that it is an area of your website that you update frequently."

"Which RSS feed should I tell them to add to their feedreader, and why?"

I said:

People who view your blog and want to subscribe to an RSS feed will know how to extract the RSS feed that they want.

But on second thought... for those who don't know anything about this, it might be better to give them only one choice:

RSS (2.0)

This version is going to get a lot of support from the next version of Windows due out next year. So people who decide to switch from feed reader software to use the Microsoft software (that will be installed with Windows) will have a lot less trouble.

For reference see:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1831242,00.asp

Wayne Hurlbert has put together a wonderful article of blog question and answers. If you find yourself answering a lot of basic questions about blogs, you can save yourself some typing by pointing them at this article.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 26, 2005

9Rules hiring bloggers

9rules blog network announced that they are hiring writers for topics related to cars, gadgets, phones, etc...

If you're a blogger who is interested in writing for pay, you might want to check it out.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 05:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 08, 2005

Internet riding on top of electricity

Years ago Nortel and a power company in the UK were testing using powerlines to transmit an Internet signal over electrical lines. My understanding was the test wasn't altogether successful. I think they were having problems filtering the signal, and the report I said suggested that when they were able to solve this problem it would likely become a reality.

Today I read that "a company that provides high-speed Internet access over electrical power lines on Thursday said it has received a major investment from Google Inc., the Hearst Corp. and Goldman Sachs."

I am very happy to see this is making some progress. The main benefit of this service will be:

Internet access over power lines is seen as a way to deliver broadband service to rural areas where telephone and cable lines do not reach, or where various forms of wireless access are too expensive or not yet in place.

Think of the possibilities!

Who knows, in the next few years you may see a lot of people who earn their living online, moving out of urban hotspots, to run their business from a cottage by the sea.

Pinch me! I must be dreaming.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 07, 2005

Dead? Maybe not!

Yesterday I made myself something to eat and turned on the TV at Supper time. There was a re-run of Star Trek Voyager on. In this particular episode, Nelix dies, and 18 hours later Seven of Nine uses nanotechnology to reanimate him. We all know this is impossible... right?

Au contraire! The Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

The article goes on to say:

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

They say this "should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties" and that's all good and fine. I can't help but think how discouraging it would be to be killed twice in the same day though.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 04, 2005

Hacking for CASH

Business people aren't the only group getting more serious about Internet profits. More and more hackers/crackers are being lured by money. An article from Ryan Naraine on eWeek says:

The malware writers are looking to steal identities and credit card data. They are using their skills to make money from illegal activity. They're no longer going after typical attack mechanisms that are more along the lines of a nuisance. Now, it's a subversive, organized scheme. It's about making money from the Internet rather than harassing the Internet.

A lot of these malware programs are getting installed on computers from a method Paul F. Roberts refers to in his article titled "Drive-By Download Sites Chauffeur Spyware." He said some of these site owners are commissioning affiliates through programs similar to networks such as Commission Junction and LinkShare.

One site offers it's affiliates as much as Fifty-five cents for every one they can infect.They convince users to download 3KB program that "changes the homepage and installs toolbar and dialer."

According to Ken Dunham, director of malicious code at iDefense:

In addition to distributing malicious code and adware through its affiliates, (site name removed).biz mines click-through traffic from systems compromised by the group's exploit and uses pop-up messages to tempt users into buying nonexistent software programs, taking a cut of any sales.

The (site name removed).biz crew isn't above using its network of compromised machines to distribute spam or to steal personal information from users, either, Dunham said.

In Mr. Naraine's interview with Marc Sachs, director of the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, Mr Sachs claims he feels a little safer on the Internet using the Firefox browser, and recommends it to all of his friends and family.

Do you think this is a reasonable precaution?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 04:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 21, 2005

Divorced? How about a Fembot?

If you like watching re-runs of Data on Star Trek, Next Generation, you will like this.

Business 2.0 Blog reported today about a female android that made its debut at the 2005 World Expo in Japan. Apparently the android is named "Repliee Q1" and it supposed to look like a Japanese housewife.

You can see a couple of images here and a brief article. My curiosity got the best of me so I did a little searching.

Another site about the robot was found here which includes three MPG videos you can watch that show it in action.

I also found a bit of discussion around the web on it including one poster who said:

Look out, ladies! Fembots are coming to steal your men away!

Repliee Q1 expo developer Ishiguro said:

When a robot looks too much like the real thing, it's creepy, but if they resemble human beings, it also makes communication easier.

There are some more links and videos at androidscience.com that offer more information about this project.

I haven't heard any mention of the price for one of these yet, but I would expect it would be in the neighborhood of your house and car. ;-)

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 04:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 09, 2005

Are you looking for a web content management system?

While musing over how much to charge for the eBook I am writing, a newsletter from PC Magazine came in today announcing a new eBook that compares 18 Web Content Management Systems.

What would a eBook like this be worth to you?

web content management systems product comparison guide

The Guide provides detailed information on:

* 18 WCM products and vendors
* Features and functionality (over 400 individual features compared)
* Pricing
* Support

PRICE: $599

I wonder how many of these they will sell? If you're interested you can pick up a copy here.

Certainly a lot of work went into this report. Still, I feel that is a pretty hefty price tag.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 01, 2005

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor

Today, AMD announced the immediate availability of the AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor.

This is the sort of system many of us will need to upgrade to when the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn) becomes available.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 05:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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 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

March 19, 2005

Jobs for Bloggers

Wayne Hurlbert posted yesterday about a new service from www.indeed.com that lists jobs for bloggers.

He says:

"You can even get the latest professional blogging employment opportunities sent directly to your computer, through their handy RSS feed."

I thought I should mention this as I know a number of you are looking for writing gigs and blogging gigs. For me? Well... I do well enough to keep up with my own blogging ;-)

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 04, 2005

Microsoft using PHP/MySQL on Apache?

Like the old adage says "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." So... a recent article on CNet that says:

"An image posted online indicates that some of Microsoft's own developers apparently prefer open-source products to build Web pages than Microsoft's own proprietary software."

... could be a tad mis-leading...

It goes on to say:

Certainly, those MSN Brazil developers are not alone in their fondness for PHP and MySQL. Those two tools are ingredients of the popular "LAMP stack" of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

I don't know of this is a joke or the truth. I thought it was funny enough to share with you.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 11, 2005

The file upload dilemma

The odd time I get a request from a client to install a script on their site so people can upload files to their server. My response to this is that it is a bad idea, for security reasons. It is probable that someone could upload code, execute it, and damage the site.

Then, my job is to do as I am told, whether I think it is a good idea or not. Some people who have requested this I have been able to talk them out of the idea. Others... well...

Robin Good's post titled How To Send Large Files Without Email: Best Services Online provides a great solution, and one of the free services, YouSendIt, offers storage of up to 1GB. One of the options includes website integration — you can include a FileLink url on your website that allows people to send you files.

YouSendIt is currently the most popular large-file transmission service. It was developed by Khalid Shaikh from Campbell, California. YouSendIt is free and does not require upfront registration. It is very easy to use.

This is a lot better solution, then allowing people to upload files to your own website.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 28, 2005

THINK and GROW RICH and Workbook

A free copy of THINK and GROW RICH By Napoleon Hill can be viewed online and to accompany it a workbook (PDF) has been created by By Pat O’Bryan, President and Founder, Milagro Research Institute with Dr. Joe Vitale President, Hypnotic Marketing, Inc., Author of Spiritual Marketing, etc.

Jim Straw who has sold over two-hundred & fifty-million dollars ($250,000,000) worth of products and services by mail says there is a secret buried in the book.

He says:

"Once you truly learn the "secret" in "Think and Grow Rich" you will be unable to tell it to anyone. When you are ready, IT will appear to you as if my magic."

Isn't that what we are all looking for? The secret to success in our personal and business lives? It is unfortunate that the true secret eludes me. Alas! Perhaps I'm not ready...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2005

The Internet Evolution

In a survey, released by Pew Internet & American Life Project, technology experts and scholars evaluate where the network is headed in the next ten years.

They believe the dawning of the blog era will bring radical change to the news and publishing industry and they think the internet will have the least impact on religious institutions.

The report is a 62 page pdf, and from the link above you can view the questionnaire.

I think a good percentage of these people involved in bringing us this radical change will either be self-employed or unemployed.

Dana VanDen Heuvel has published a list of companies that are purported to have fired employees for blogging "fired, threatened, disciplined, fined or not hired people because of their blog."

What does this say about free speech?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 18, 2004

Writing Tips for the Web

Inc.com offers some handy writing tips for the web. They say:

Hardly anybody really likes reading online. No surprise there, since so many websites are so poorly written. Here are easy ways to make your Web words more reader-friendly.

You can read the article here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2004

Stump the blogger...

I was reading Wayne Hurlbert blog post this morning about blogging when you have nothing to say which is kind of an interesting perspective. Let's face it... some days you have so much work sitting in front of you, or your mind is thinking about something else, and you don't feel very creative.

You have to try and be creative for your blog, your newsletter, and usually (in my line of work) you have to be creative there too, because many days my job consists of coming up with a solution that will solve someone's web related problem.

And of course, this time of year everyone is thinking about the holidays.

What about you? How do you get the creative juices flowing when you're stumped?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 15, 2004

Nasty Christmas Cards

Nasty Christmas Cards are making their rounds. A new virus strain masquerading as electronic Christmas cards is accounting for one in every 10 e-mails hitting in-boxes, security experts warned Wednesday. This most likely accounts for the whole Internet slowing down around supper time, when people get home from work. Besides the nasty virus, there has been an increase in holiday spending which some retailers are reporting to be up by 25-36 percent.

Have a safe Christmas. Don't open electronic holiday cards from anyone you don't know.

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

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Scientists in China have developed a microscopic swimming robot that could lead to devices that are able to deliver drugs to a particular part of the human body. It uses nanotechnology.

It's hard to think of Nanotechnology that doesn't conjure up images, of the very lovely, Jeri Ryan who played Seven of Nine in the Star Trek Voyager Series. Like her character's nanobots, nano-transistors can self-assemble using biology. There are a slew of stories emerging about this new technology which lays claim to the fact that some day they will be able to put a 100TB storage capacity on a 3.5" floppy disk.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Google Digital Library

Google plans to stay one step ahead of the competition by offering content from five major libraries who will scan millions of books for inclusion in its Web index. Google is partnering with the New York Public Library and the libraries of Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Oxford and the University of Michigan.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 11, 2004

GoDaddy Hosting

A gentleman contacted me on Friday about installing a simple CGI script on his hosting account at godaddy.com. He claimed the fellow he initially contacted didn't seem to be getting anything done.

There seems to be some problems with these hosting accounts...

After doing a number of tests and then running a script that would output the CGI variables here is the result:

SCRIPT_NAME -> /cgi-bin/sbox/env.cgi
SCRIPT_URI -> http://www.xxx.com/cgi/env.cgi
SCRIPT_FILENAME -> /html/cgi/env.cgi
PATH_TRANSLATED -> /home/content/x/x/x/xxx/html/env.cgi

(The domain name has been x'ed out to protect the owners privacy)

The problem: 4 paths to one file.

Any scripts that need to rely on server paths will likely fail.

My advice to anyone hosted there who needs to install scripts is to move your site to a more professional hosting account.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 30, 2004

MSN Readies New Blogging Service

Look out Blogger.com (Google)

Microsoft hopes their blog service will be a direct competitor to blog-creation and hosting tools, such as Blogger, Blog*Spot, LiveJournal and TypePad.

| More from eWeek |

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 25, 2004

I'm stinkin' filthy RICH!!!

No... I didn't win a lottery.

I read Don MacLeod's Thanksgiving blog post... that beside other things to ponder, says:

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest.

You understand it isn't Thanksgiving here in Canada... that was last month, but still, always a good idea to reflect upon your blessings.

Mostly... I'm one of these guys that you never hear about. I'm not an overnight success, and I don't make TONS of money... well... compared to the 8% Don speaks about. I make a good living from developing websites for mostly US based clients. They send me the work, and I get to work out of my office in my home. I've been doing this since 1998. So I suppose if you consider the amount of people out of that 8% who make their living online, I'm in the top 1-2%.

Some days... my only stress is worrying about which car I'm going to drive, or worry about the time wasted at the garage while I'm having one of them fixed. Or taking the time to go shopping for groceries! I really despise grocery shopping, but a large percentage of the world would feel blessed if they had my problems.

I'd just like to give thanks to all the wonderful people who have continuously sent me work over the last several years. Just so you know... I still have family members asking me if I have "found a job yet," which means that some people close to me don't understand how I can sit at home and "play" on the computer and still be so much "better off" then they are.

Thanks to Don for his post. It reminds me of just how fortunate I am.

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

November 24, 2004

Tuesday's random thoughts

Some people will do anything to make a dollar. Thats just what I though when I found out that Google is suing Auctions Expert International LLC for clicking on their own AdSense links. An eWeek article says "Not only can click fraud lead advertisers to pay for fraudulent clicks, but competitors also can use the tactic in an attempt to game the auction-based model used to determine the positioning of ads in pay-per-click programs, search-engine marketers said during the conference."

But Google isn't the only one handing out law-suites these days. Google is being sued by an adult website owner.

Apparently, according to Norm Zada of the offending website (pun intended) Google has been giving away "free peeks" of a password protected area that the website charges about $25 per month to access.

Well... well... nothing like the Christmas season coming on to bring out the worst in some people. But you don't have to be at your worst! And if you're thinking of sending all of your clients Christmas cards to tell them they are special you might want to read Holiday Card Games to make sure you're not upsetting the very people you don't want to.

Me? I'm just going to let my clients know I adopted a stray cat in their honor.

Really though... Bob Bly, although he has openly trashed the idea of blogging, has just launched his own blog with an article about How Direct Marketers Think. Regardless of what he thinks about blogs, he does offers some useful tidbits. I heard Bob Serling recommends Mr. Bly, and said that he never misses an issue of Bob's newsletter.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 17, 2004

MSN's desktop search

Details of MSN's desktop search were leaked Sunday and posted to the neowin website complete with screenshots. It looks like Microsoft is starting to get more then a little concerned with Google's activities lately. I still believe Google will release its own browser next year, built on top of the Gecko rendering engine that powers Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape. (The Gecko engine powers other browsers as well).

What does Microsoft say about this leak?

A post to the msnsearch's WebLog says:

While we're flattered by the attention and interest, this was an unauthorized disclosure.

We plan to release the beta bits only when we feel they are ready from a quality and completeness standpoint, and we’re looking forward to getting feedback from beta users at that time.

Should be an interesting year up ahead of us in 2005. Microsoft is desperately hoping to unseat Google from the dominant search engine position with their own MSN search engine.

You know, years ago the search engine AltaVista was pretty well the top search engine and I remember at one time, they had a program you could download to search all of your local files and drives. It was handy, no doubt about it, but it sure chewed up the system resources. I recall I had mine set to re-index the hard drive nightly.

Of course things change...

If any of you try one or the other, feel free to post a review of it here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2004

Nine Years for Spamming. But...

Jeremy Jaynes gets nine years for spamming and Former St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton gets 7.5 years after he tried to hire a hit man to kill David Frost, his agent and Canadian youth hockey coach.

Barry Green is a District Attorney for the 271st Judicial District and he says:

"...a Defendant convicted of "plain" or "simple" murder is allowed the option of having the jury assess his punishment at anywhere between 5 years and life in the penitentiary."

Barmin Meiwes who killed and ate another man got 8.5 years. And... Meiwes is a sick, sick man.

Alexander Pring-Wilson was sentenced six to eight years in prison for fatally stabbing a teenage father who made fun of him.

What do you think this means?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 12, 2004

HTML Utopia: Look Ma? No Tables!

Working as a web developer full time certainly gives me a very broad range of knowledge in how to use CSS and html to create tableless, CSS driven, XHTML documents. A good example can bee seen in my tutorials Building a SEO Template Part I and Building a SEO Template Part II.

But like you, I'm always looking at ways to improve my efficiency, and keep a watch for anyone who offers intriguing information. I may have found something...

As a subscriber to www.sitepoint.com I was recently introduced to a new book by Rachel Andrew called The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks and luckily you can download the first three chapters for free.

I found this more as a good primer to CSS, and as I quickly scrolled through the free chapters, I was saying to myself... "Yeah, I know this, and this.... and this..." — but it would be a great guide to anyone starting out trying to learn enough CSS to build a site with it.

Then I ran across HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS by Dan Shafer. In the section, about Dan it says:

He cut his teeth as the first Webmaster and Director of Technology a Salon.com, then spent almost five years as the Master Builder at CNET’s Builder.com division.

Anyone who is used to visiting the Builder.com website knows Dan is truly an expert... there isn't any doubt about that. I was quite excited about downloading the first three chapters of his book for free.

It is apparently a large book... 700 pages or so... and it would seem a lot of the stuff at the first of the book is filler — depending on your proficiency with CSS. But when he actually starts getting into the meat of the book, you can find some really useful information. I found myself learning something useful.

His method for creating multiple columns is so simple that I was amazed that I hadn't thought of the technique before. His information is creative and innovative and I was thoroughly enough impressed to order the book today. It is a hard copy book, so it might take a week or so to get here.

Seven-hundred pages? Gosh, that's a little scary. I'll post a review of it here if I ever get all the way through it.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 11, 2004

Urlencoded problems

It was quite common over the last few years to urlencode a username and password into an URL to deliver a digital product. The release of SP1 from Microsoft prevents this from working in Internet Explorer. This is just a reminder to those of you who might be using this construct.

Here is an example of the URL: http://username:password@yourdomain.com/fd/some.pdf

A page on a client's site that seldom gets used incorporated this method for a didgital download. Since it worked in my browser (Firefox) I had forgotten about this problem. So naturally the fix is to send the, the password protected URL with the username and password not included in the URL.

If you have been having customer complain about not being able to access a download, it might be a good idea to check and make sure you're not using this method.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 05, 2004

George Bush won -- OK, I'm moving to Canada

The CBC reported this morning:

OTTAWA - Canada is starting to look like a pretty good place to live for thousands of Americans who are unhappy about George W. Bush winning the presidential election.

Of course, I always have an opinion...

I was disappointed that Canada did not offer more support to the US after 9/11, in fact... I wasn't so proud to be a Canadian right about then. I felt that the government representing us had acted in a cowardly and shameful way and although I don't necessarily agree with their reasoning... I do at least understand it.

I would have been quite proud to be a US citizen. I know some fun has been poked about Bush stalling, shortly after he received the news... but anyone who has ever witnessed a tragic even knows that it takes time for shock to wear off, and it practically paralyzes you. So... the president is human, after-all.

And according to the CBC there were about 179,000 visitors to Canada's official immigration website following Bush's re-election.

Maybe this isn't such a surprise after-all. My understanding of married couples in the US show that over 60% of those that file for divorce are surprising their partner with the fact that they want a divorce and no attempt has been made to resolve the issues that drove the spouse to seek a divorce.

You know what? Maybe that 179,000 should be living in Canada. Americans have always been known for being people who will stand up for their rights, and die fighting for them if need be.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 02, 2004

Ben's Holsum 100% Whole Wheat Bread is Rancid

I have always been very fond of different types of bread, but until recently had never tried Ben's Holsum 100% Whole Wheat Bread. Afterwards, I threw out my mustard and a pound of baloney.

I quite often have a sandwich at lunch time. I bought some baloney two days ago. Yesterday I was having a sandwich while I worked, and noted a smell of some sort and a bad taste. I was working and eating at the same time so I didn't really pay too much attention to it, until I had almost finished the sandwich... thee was definitely something wrong.

The load of bread was fresh, and the baloney package was kept in the fridge and had only been opened for two days.

Something tasted rotten.

I took the baloney out of the fridge, along with the mustard and threw it in the garbage.

Today, my little girl stayed home. Had a sore stomach ;-) (no she didn't have any bread)

I was feeding us some "chicken noddle soup" for lunch and I decided to have a slice of bread with some butter on it too.

As soon as I opened the bag of Ben's it hit me. Luckily, I had bought two loaves and opened the second one. It smelled just as bad... but the bread was fresh...

What does Ben do to their Holsum bread? Do they make it from fermented wheat? Now that I think about it... that's exactly what it smelled like... spoiled grain.

You would think their Quality Control would have let that one slip by... unless it is supposed to smell that bad...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2004

Pardon me?!!

I'm having a little trouble understanding you... when did you say you wanted it? Well... the reality of it is... I'm on it! Like a dirty shirt! Really... another cup of coffee this morning is going to do wonders for me. This afternoon there is going to be total chaos as the printer, fax machine, email and telephone go completely berserk.

Well... they do on Fridays anyway...

But seriously it looks like it is going to be very busy around here in the next little while, so my response time may be a little slowed.

My picture? Nah! I don't always look like that. Sometimes I have "bad" days.

If you can... those of you who send work on Fridays and want it done on Fridays, it would be appreciated if you could send it two days before you need it. It give me a chance to schedule it into production so I'm not missing other important duties like personal grooming. Give me time to pick the bugs out of my hair.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 30, 2004

Weekend beer dump

Ah! Nothing like having to work through the weekend...

This week was very busy and it looks like next week is going to be a killer. And to think, I don't get paid for my over-time. In contrast to lots of work, which might be no work, I guess I shouldn't complain. The main things tying me up right now is a) I have to get my month end done up b) organize some projects c) try and find something newsworthy for my newsletter, which has lately been published every Tuesday.

Last Monday Lynn was talking about her "brain dump" but since this is Saturday I think what is in order is a "beer dump." Lynn said she "I felt sort of - - empowered" and (he-he) maybe I will too...

That's the thing about running a home office — there is always going to be chores you don't particularly care for. I, for one, don't really like doing up the month end — too much paper work. I'd much prefer planning some projects, or doing some actual coding. Maybe I should surprise my clients by sending them an email that says:

Hi... it's me! You know how much work I did on your site this month, so please send some money. An appropriate amount would be fine.

(he-he)

Yep! Like that would work!

Well... time to get productive... and so begins the long sojourn to the fridge and back ;-)

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 29, 2004

RSS Feeds for This Blog

HomeBusiness Websites blog has been changed. If you're looking to update your feed readers, please use one of these links:

RSS 1.0 = http://www.homebusiness-websites.com/mt/index.rdf
RSS 2.0 = http://www.homebusiness-websites.com/mt/index.xml
Atom 0.3 = http://www.homebusiness-websites.com/mt/atom.xml

The old feed which was http://homebusiness-websites.com/xml/homebusiness_websites.xml won't be used anymore

Thank you!

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)