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Monday, October 16, 2006

Bluehost Rebate Question

Hi,

I am planning to start a blog, and Bluehost seems like the best option. I wanted to use a rebate on Bluehost, and there were plenty out there. I found some for $50 and some for less. Are they just going to cheat you, or will they actually pay you money? I would appreciate if you could show me some that actually work.

I understand that these "rebaters" give you a portion of what they earn through getting their affiliate commission. Are you allowed to sign up as an affiliate and buy through your own affiliate link- receiving a commission? Or is that not allowed?

Thanks for your help.

posted by host @ 12:26 AM   0 comments  

十大国外虚拟主机对比评论 国外虚拟主机购买指南

在国外购买主机大概有两年的历史了，前前后后也用过不少，对比过不少，前几年刚开始买时国内使用国外主机的很少，在国内几乎找不到有关国外虚拟主机的介绍评论等资料，都是在国外的主机论坛一页一页翻着看来对比，希望能找到便宜的适合自己用的主机空间。

两年过去了，现在也积累了一些经验，对国外的不管是虚拟主机，VPS主机(虚拟个人服务器，root权限)，还是专用服务器等，从价格、功能、商家 服务服务等各方面都有了一个不少的了解，在这里略作总结，挑选了10家国外最便宜的，比较受欢迎的虚拟主机商介绍给大家，希望对那些打算购买国外主机空间 发展的朋友能有所帮助。

这里介绍的是虚拟主机，以后有时间还会介绍一些VPS主机，即Virtual Private Server, 虚拟私人服务器。VPS 一般都可以防置多个域名，多个网站，对于一些发展比较多的站长来说毫无疑问是很好的选择。VPS一般除了你购买的容量、流量大小有限制外，其他的所有功能 都是不限的，有的会限制一下总共可以放置网站的数量，比如10个，但多数都是不限的。是介于专用服务器和虚拟主机之间的一种主机，专用服务器所具有的功能 他都有。

一. 为什么要选购国外主机？

购买国外主机的最主要原因就是便宜，比如一个5G容量的空间，在国内每年可能需要700美元（5500RMB），但在美国一年也就是95美元(800RMB)，价格差距8倍左右。便宜的原因主要是国外已形成了规模经济，成本已经很低，而国内的则成本较高。

二. 购买国外主机需要准备什么，多长时间能开通？

购买国外主机需要有一定的英文基础，因为操作界面都是英文，但一般操作面板Cpanel最多，也没多少单词，稍微有一点英文基础和Web管理经验就 可以操作。再一个国外主机的付款都以美元支付，一般都接受信用卡、Paypal(Ebay旗下的国外最大的在线支付系统)等支付，所以一张国际信用卡是必 不可少的，国内银行发放的Visa，MasterCard都可以，当然Paypal也可以，不过paypal你也先需要有国际信用卡往自己的Paypal 里边转些钱然后再支付。有了国际信用卡一般从主机的选择、付款到开通快的几个小时，最慢也不超过24小时，非常便捷方便。

三. 购买国外虚拟主机需要考虑哪些因素？

1. IP地址能否访问到？

首先，如果你的网站用户将来面向的是国内的话，必须要考虑的问题就是这家主机上的IP地址在国内是否可以顺利访问到，这一点是由于众所周知的原因了。如果你买的访问不到，还要退款等比较麻烦，比如PowWeb这家在国外是很不错的主机商，但IP在国内访问不到，就不能买了。下面将要介绍的十家都是经过测试或使用过在国内可以顺利访问的主机。

2. 主机的硬件设施情况

虚拟主机商的机房 (data center) 整体对外专线的带宽越大，网站联线的速度也就越快。

3. 主机上架设的网站有多少？

一个主机的网站数量越多，资源占用越大，访问速度就会变得缓慢。因此，选择一家有信誉的虚拟主机商了是非常1必要的。

四. 国外主机在国内的访问速度会不会慢？

中国以及其他的国家对美国的带宽都很充足，因此访问速度的差异已经无法察觉。可以想一下，你访问www.apple.com, www.google.com 是否觉得速度慢呢？甚至包括您正在浏览的站长日志(我们的主机商是 BlueHost )的时候，您是否有察觉与国内的网站有任何差别？

五. 10大国外主机商对比评论

这里根据虚拟主机商的运作经验，硬件设施，主机价格，空间容量，流量，软件支持，商务支持等等因素特别选择了10家在国外较受欢迎，信誉较好，价格较低的主机商介绍给大家。下面所选的每月价格都低于8美元，空间容量都在1GB以上。

  • iPowerWeb
    iPowerWeb 空间容量10GB, 每月流量250GB，每月价格7.95美元，可以放置6个网站，在短短6年里的时间里已经有了30万客户。
  • EasyCGI （Windows 主机，推荐）
    EasyCGI 的环境如下：Windows 2000 主机环境，6 GB 硬盘空间，150 GB 月流量，月价格7.96美元，500 POP3 Email，50 MySQL 数据库，24/7 电话、邮件支持，不限量邮件转发，Web Based Email，不限量 FTP 帐号，自己私用的cgi-bin，脚本和语言有 Perl 5, PHP 4.3.1, SSI, ASP and ASP.NET 1.1，Persits ASPUpload, ASPJpeg and ASPEmail
    128bit Shared SSL …
  • Globat
    Globat的虚拟主机提供的空间比加大，10GB容量，300GB流量每月，放置6个网站（顶级域名），月价格7.95美元。
  • LunarPages (推荐)
    LunarPages 在虚拟主机领域有5年的历史了，在全世界有7万多个客户。在这几家中以前是最贵的一家，口碑用户反映也是较好的主机商之一，各方面服务非常好，以前价格很 贵，去年初价格才降了下来，与另外一些差不多。我们有几个网站包括几个朋友的网站都在使用或者曾经使用过LunarPages的虚拟主机服务，对他们非常 满意，因此有信心推荐他们。容量3GB,流量400GB，每月价格7.95美元。
  • BlueHost (推荐)
    BlueHost 在全世界有4万多客户，9年的运作经验。空间容量10GB，月流量250GB,价格6.95美元每月! BlueHost比较吸引人的一点就是在虚拟主机上可以架设多个网站，允许多个域名，有点VPS(虚拟个人服务器)的意思了，根据你的需要，网站多的话又 不想花大钱买VPS，BlueHost是不错的选择。
  • HostGator (推荐)
    HostGator创立于2002年，是一家增长很快的主机商，在低价主机市场已经占有了相当的市场份额，他的主机组合相当受欢迎，在国外主机论坛颇受好 评，客户服务非常快，有实时聊天支持，邮件支持通常不超过2个小时就会回复，是所用过的客服最快、最好的主机商之一。最近他们推出了不限制网站数量这一举 措，也就是你可以放多个顶级域名的网站，这一点最近很热门，对那些想在一个空间放置多个网站的用户来说是又多了一个选择。
  • BlueFish Host
    这是一家老牌的主机商了，主要经营虚拟主机这一项业务，服务反映都相当不错，价格便宜，比较实惠。
  • ExistHosting
    ExistHosting 创立于1999年，拥有世界一流的数据中心，至今已有数万用户在使用他们的服务，主机组合10美元以下的就有两款，有Lunix和Window主机供选择，客户支持非常好，推荐！
  • IXWebhosting
    IXWebhosting 有6年的运作历史，价格低廉，空间功能丰富。
  • HostExcellence
    HostExcellence 创立于2002年，也是一家增长快速的主机商，空间功能非常齐全，价格从每月2.95美元到36美元都有，并且除了最便宜的以外都可以放置多个域名，多个网站，是一家值得推荐的虚拟主机商。

六. 主机基本功能详细对比：

(说明：这里对比的是每个主机商最便宜的主机组合的一些基本功能，还有更多的详细的功能或者包括的有一些常用的脚本等，详情请查看主机商的网站。下 面为”额外”的表示另外付费可以增加的功能，注册费用指购买时一次性的注册费。一些不太了解的功能未标明，另外主机商搞活动时价格会有优惠变化，具体请到 主机商网站详细了解。)

功能 \ 主机商 Lunarpages iPowerWeb Globat BlueHost EasyCGI HostGator BlueFish ExistHost IXWeb HostExcellence
空间容量 5GB 10GB 10GB 10GB 6GB 5GB 6GB 1G 2.5G 5G 1GB 3G
每月流量 400GB 250GB 300GB 250GB 150GB 75GB 100GB 30G 60G 300G 50GB 100G
每月价格 $6.95 $7.95 $7.95 $6.95 $7.95 $9.95 $6.95 $3.5 $6.95 $6.99 $4.95 $9.95
注册费用 无 $30.00 $29.95 无 无 无 无 无 $20 $20
放置网站数量 2个 6个 6个 6个 1个 不限 1个 2个 2个 1个 3个
FTP帐号 支持, 不限 支持 支持 1000 不限 不限 不限 不限 不限 1000
赠送域名 1个 无 无 1个 无 无 1个 1个 1个 1个 2个
二级域名 不限 5 不限 20 不限 不限 不限 不限 20
Email帐号 不限 500 不限 2500 不限 不限 不限 不限 不限
管理面板 Cpanel
不明 Cpanel
Cpanel



MySQL数据库 支持, 不限 支持 支持 50 50 不限 不限 支持 2个 3个 10个
Postgre SQL 支持, 不限
不明 10



2个 3个 10个
PHP 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
CGI-BIN 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
Perl 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
Python 支持
不明

支持 支持
支持 支持
SSI 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
支持
ASP 额外


支持




JSP 额外
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
专用IP地址 额外





1个 2个 1个 3个
Video 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

Audio 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

Flash 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

ShockWave 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

POP3 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

SMTP 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

IMAP 支持
支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持

邮件列表 包括



支持 支持 支持

网络统计 包括 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持 支持
备 注









功能 \ 主机商 Lunarpages iPowerWeb Globat BlueHost EasyCGI HostGator BlueFish ExistHost IXWeb HostExcellence

posted by host @ 12:15 AM   0 comments  

Friday, October 13, 2006

SimpleSeating - Web 2.0… Seating Charts?

SimpleSeating is a new Web 2.0 product, currently in private beta, for seating arrangement and chart creation. It aims to simplify the process by providing its users a web-based interface with drag-and-drop functionality and easy guest management. At first impression I thought, “Seating charts? Really?” I’ve never thought about this market before, but seating charts are actually common with events, school systems, and conferences. Whether you are planning a wedding or arranging a class full of students, seating charts are often used and SimpleSeating hopes to make the creation process painless.

SimpleSeating Guest Management

The way it works is simple. You first create an event and specify the room dimensions. Then add guests, organized in groups, and assign each guest to a table. It’s actually kind of fun too because SimpleSeating has a visual interface where you drag and drop different types of tables on your scaled room and place each guest to a seat. Unsure if this type of visual interface was new or not, I decided to research seating chart products and found many to be confusing and resembling much of what looks like Excel spreadsheets.

SimpleSeating Seating Chart Interface

The above screenshot is the interface in which you will design your seating chart. Along the top are six table types to add to your seating chart ranging from 4 seats to 10 seats a table and on the right you will see a guest list which shows all of your guests in their groups you assigned them to. Green guests have RSVP’d the invitation to the event while yellow guests have not. Simply click and drag the tables into your workspace (the grid), using as many as you need, to replicate the room where the event will be held. Then click and drag each guest to a seat of a table (the guest will automatically snap to the seat). Lastly, and just to note, as you make changes to your seating chart, SimpleSeating will automatically save your work.

SimpleSeating is an interesting product and it’s actually the first seating chart product I have seen. I’ve never thought about this market before and I immediately researched what’s available once learning about it. I found seating chart products are commonly used for planning weddings and parties and that most solutions are desktop based rather then web based. This is good for SimpleSeating, however, I am curious about the demand for this type of product and how they plan to attract their target users. SimpleSeating is currently in private beta and plans to launch sometime this month. No word has been said about pricing, but I would imagine pricing to be based off the size of your guest list.

posted by host @ 6:58 AM   0 comments  

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 2

This is part two of the “Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0″ series. In this article, I will cover web-based alternatives to desktop office applications including: word processing, presentations, diagrams, spreadsheets, and more. If you are new to the series and want to learn more about educations tools, I recommend reading Part 1 of the series. If you enjoy Part 1 and Part 2, I hope you will stick around for Part 3 where I will cover real cases of Web 2.0 used in classrooms around the world.

There are a few office applications I have left out in this series. First, many would argue email applications are part of an office suite, and I agree to that, but I have not included a category for them in this post because most colleges and schools provide email to students as is. If I were to recommend one, I’d say Gmail for its features and offered space. I have also left out database applications as I don’t feel they are essential to a student unless they are majoring in computer science or related, in which case they would likely use Microsoft Access or a school DBMS (Database Management System) – not to mention that the Web 2.0 database applications are more geared towards a completely different ball park. Additionally, I have decided to leave out imaging and project management applications.

This article has three sections to it: “Office Applications,” “Web-based Word Processors Compared,” and “Are Web-based Office Applications Ready for Education?” Also, be sure to check out the comparison grid, or feature matrix, in the “Web-based Word Processors Compared” section.

Red Arrows indicate personal favorites with education in mind.
Products may appear more than once if related to multiple categories.

Part 2: Office Applications

Word Processing

  • Writely: Online Word Processor allowing users to create and edit documents collaboratively online, import Word documents, publicly or privately share documents, publish to a blog, and more.
  • Zoho Writer: Similar to Writely, Zoho Writer is an Online Word Processor where you can create, share, and collaborate on documents. Users can also publish to a blog, import and export documents, and make documents public.
  • Writeboard: Writeboard is a collaborative writing tool where users can write, share, revise, and compare their documents online with others. It is not an advanced system featuring a WYSIWYG editor, Ajax, and flashy effects, but that’s what I like about it. Writeboard is a personal favorite of mine and as a matter of fact I am using it right now for this very post. It includes version control with text comparing and is great for essays and writeups of any kind. More on Writeboard.
  • ThinkFree Write: ThinkFree Write is a free word processor that, at this time, is probably the closest you can get to an online version of Microsoft Office with features and appearance in mind. You can perform formatting options, create tables, add a header/footer, and spell check as you type just like your average desktop word processor. Pretty impressive. You can also open and save Microsoft Word and OpenOffice documents as well as share documents online with others. Note: There are two versions of ThinkFree Write: Quick Edit (Ajax-based) and Power Edit (Java-based).
  • AjaxWrite: Lightweight word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word and other standard document formats, display multiple documents at once in tabs, and feature basic formatting. However, feature wise, it just does not cut it for me. What I do like about it is that it’s very quick and there are no signups – get in and get out.

Presentations

  • Zoho Show: Web-based presentation tool to create, edit, publish, and show presentations. Zoho Show is very feature packed allowing users to create presentations full of text, images, shapes, lists, and pre-formated content templates. Users can also import their existing PowerPoint and OpenOffice presentations, view presentations online, and export as HTML.
  • Thumbstacks: With Thumbstacks, create and share web-based presentations over the web. Thumbstacks provides a clean and easy to use presentation builder, although not as feature rich as Zoho Show, and allows users to export presentations in HTML format.
  • SlideShare: Great new service, currently available by invitation only, that consists of an YouTube-like site for Powerpoint and OpenOffice presentations displaying presentations through Flash players. Users can even place the Flash presentation players on their own websites. I’ve been waiting for a site similar to this for some time now; perfect for students and educators wanting to store presentations online for sharing and receiving feedback.
  • Empressr: Empressr is an Ajax and Flash-based service that lets you create and share presentations online. One advantage on the feature side is that it uses Flash and Ajax rather than HTML and Ajax allowing you to add more media then other tools including audio and video, although I personally prefer HTML presentations.
  • ThinkFree Show: Excellent Java-based presentation application that feels much like Microsoft Powerpoint. Create rich presentations and play them through the online editor or by graphic. You can also save your presentations for viewing in Microsoft Powerpoint and share them with others online.

Diagrams and Mind Mapping

  • Mayomi: Mayomi is a free flash-based mind mapping tool that lets you map out ideas, projects, research topics, or anything else that can be dug into. Great for students when it comes to writing essays. More on Mayomi.
  • Gliffy: Draw and share diagrams online using Gliffy. You get all of your basic functionality that you would in an offline diagram application but with a few extra bonuses like working online collaboratively and dynamic publishing of diagrams. Create flow charts, floor plans, technical diagrams, and more.
  • mxGraph: mxGraph is a very impressive JavaScript based diagramming library where users can create advanced diagrams within their browser. The only catch is that it is not a hosted solution where users can create and save diagrams. It is a library in which companies, and probably schools, can use under the mxGraph license. I’d love for it to be a hosted solution, like Gliffy.

Spreadsheets

  • Google Spreadsheets: Create, store and share spreadsheets on the web. Includes real time editing and chatting with others as well as import and export options. Google Spreadsheets is my web-based spreadsheet application of choice, although on the negative side, it does not provide chart functionality.
  • EditGrid: “An online spreadsheet featuring real-time-update and extensive collaboration features.” EditGrid has support for more then 500 functions, includes remote data update, access control, and more.
  • iRows: Create and share spreadsheets online, create charts, include dynamic information, and upload and save Excel, CSV and OpenDocument files. More on iRows.
  • Zoho Sheet: “Zoho Sheet is a web based alternative to traditional spreadsheet applications, like MS Excel or Openoffice Calc. It provides basic spreadsheet functionalities coupled with web based features like sharing, tagging, publishing and more.”
  • Num Sum: Possibly the first web-based spreadsheet service launched that introduced social spreadsheets where users can tag their spreadsheets and share with others.
  • ThinkFree Calc: Java-based spreadsheet application that has the look and feel of Microsoft Excel. Users can share their spreadsheets and work on them collaboratively online.
  • Numbler: Simple online spreadsheet solution with great real-time editing and chatting with multiple users. Nice and clean interface although not as feature packed as some of the other options.

Calendars

  • 30 Boxes: 30 Boxes is an online calendar that I feel works great for students due to its simplicity and sharing options. It also features RSS subscription to automatically populate the calendar with feed items on the day they were published – great for tracking teacher blogs and academic feeds. Furthermore, users can access their calendars on the go with 30 Boxes Mobile.
  • Google Calendar: A bit on the advanced side, but once you get used to it, you’ll find it’s quite powerful. Users can create multiple calendars; view by day, week, or month; share their calendars with the web or a select few; subscribe to other shared calendars; and more. More on Google Calendar.
  • Spongecell: “A free and easy to use calendar for you and your friends.” Features a simple drag and drop interface where events can be created and viewed on calendars in multiple formats. Users can also share their calendars with others.
  • CalendarHub: CalendarHub offers a great service for personal and group use offering a simple drag and drop interface, calendar subscribing, reminder notification, and more. More on CalendarHub.

Miscellaneous

  • Scanr: Scanr is an interesting product great for those without access to a scanner. Scan, copy and fax whiteboards, documents, and business cards with just a camera phone or digital camera! Great for research at the library and creating a backup of printed class handouts on the computer.
  • eFax: Although this may not be that useful for students, I felt it’s worth mentioning. eFax lets users receive faxes through email for free simply by providing them with a temporary phone number that senders can use to send their documents. eFax is free for receiving faxes but will cost you to send them out (eFax Plans).
  • Gmail: Generally, most colleges and schools provide email, but if you’re an High School student, chances are you weren’t given one. I’d personally recommend Gmail for its features and space, however you may have trouble using it in schools due to its chat functionality.
  • Google Page Creator: Users can create quality sites without learning HTML or any other technical knowledge, although they can use them if they wish. You get 100MB of space for yoursite.googlepages.com and can upload files and attach gadgets to your pages. Here’s an example site I created in just a minute with Part 1 of this series. Dead simple, but presentable.
  • Zoho Creator: Can’t find a product that does what you want? Try creating your own. Zoho Creator allows its users to structure a database, insert and connect data, and publically share it with others.

Web-based Word Processors Compared

Throughout my educational career as a student, I know that the program I spent most of my time in was Microsoft Word. In college, every teacher requested that we type our assignments up and send them to their email address so they can “easily” download, review, and email back with changes. It’s a process, and it works, but with today’s technology and offerings, things can be much simpler. Imagine one location where students compose and publish papers accessible online and a place where teachers can collaborate with their students without the need to download or email a single document.

After compiling a list of online word processors for this series, I decided to seperately research each one to find if they are ready for educational use. I realize that services like Writely are excellent for users like me, using it to compose and collaborate on documents for Parallel (my company), but what about students when it comes to assignments that are required to follow certain formatting? Can these web-based word processors handle it?

Time to put web-based word processors to the test! First, I created an account over at Competitious to easily list common word processor features and view a comparison grid displaying features from each product. I then went through features of Writely, Zoho Writer, AjaxWrite, and ThinkFree Write (Online). After viewing the results, it was clear which were capable of following common writing and paper guidelines.

Page & Text Formatting

Student papers don’t require too much formatting, but there are guidelines and structures to be followed – for example, MLA Formatting on research papers. Will we be using web-based products to work on these kind of papers? I can’t say, but I would imagine that we would need to if there are hopes for entire web office suites in the future. During my High School and College career, I’ve had to change document margins, add headers and footers, double space sentences (or often 1.5 space), and enable page numbering. Are web-based word processors capable of such formatting? To find out, I have tested each one looking for text formatting options and page formatting options. Can users bold text, add paragraph styles (Heading 1, Paragraph, Blockquote), double space lines, make page breaks, and add page numbers to the header of each page?

Writely and Zoho Writer are similar in that they offer all of your basic text formatting options, including: bold, italic, paragraph styles (Normal, Heading, Paragraph), and line spacing, but lacked when it came to page formatting only allowing for page breaks. AjaxWrite fell behind when it came to paragraph styling, line spacing, and document formating. Lastly, ThinkFree passed with flying colors featuring text formatting options and page formatting options. It had margins, page breaks, page numbering, and even custom headers and footers. It’s practically Microsoft Word online in appearance and functionality.

Functionality

I want in a word processor, in terms of functionality, spell checking, copy & paste, undo & redo, find & replace, auto-save/backup, and at times, word count. These are functions that I use regularly when working on papers and I assume others as well. Fortunately, all the processors had these functions, except for Zoho Writer not having word count and AjaxLaunch without spell checking, backup options, or word count – didn’t even prompt me when “accidently” closing an unsaved document.

Collaborative Value and Sharing

One advantage is that these products are web based. You can access your documents anywhere at any time and work on them as you normally would. Being web-based also allows you to share documents with others and work on them collaboratively. Users can even work on documents together in real-time from different locations or even post to their blog.

Writely has five stars in this department making it very simple for anyone to publicly or privately share documents, tag documents, compare versions, add comments, subscribe to RSS, and best of all, collaborate in real-time. Zoho Writer had similar results, except I found it a little more confusing to use and had a rough time finding an RSS feed. AjaxWrite had no collaborative functionality or sharing options at all, though its purpose is to simply act as a word processor. Lastly, ThinkFree featured public sharing, tagging, version control, and commenting, but no real-time collaboration like Writely and Zoho.

Feature Matrix

Thanks to Competitious for their great service (expect a review soon), I was able to easily create and manage a Feature Matrix. Competitious does not offer exporting of the Feature Matrix at this time, but they have kindly allowed me to use it for this post.

The matrix covers formatting, document structure, functionality, document objects, collaboration, exporting, and importing. If you have any suggestions about this feature matrix, please feel free to pass it by me and I will change it. I tried to only include common features in word processors, so if you think something is missing that should be there, please let me know.

Summary

These applications are impressive, but not quite there yet. ThinkFree is the only one that was capable of producing an MLA formatted document with double spaced lines, 1-inch margins and headers with my last name and page number. The only problem I had with it though was the fact the interface was so similar to Microsoft Word (confusing and intimidating) and that is was Java-based. Writely on the other hand had an excellent interface that was very inviting with great collaborative features. Zoho Writer had similar results as Writely, but I found the interface to be a little confusing and I deeply missed the top menus you see in applications these days (File, Edit, View, Help, etc.) which made it harder to look for specific functionality. Finally, AjaxWrite did fair in my opinion, acting as a basic word processor but just didn’t cut it for me due to the lack of features.

Are Web-based Office Applications Ready for Education?

As you can tell by the compilation above, Web Office is nearing. But are these applications ready for any main-stream attention? Should we just drop the desktop counterparts and start using Web 2.0 (or Office 2.0) products? In my opinion, not yet, but we’re certainly getting closer to the possibility.

Who knows when it will happen? Maybe in a couple years, or maybe five. What I do know is that right now, web-based office products are on a roll with new enhancements week after week because of technology improving day after day. Not to mention, they’ve got some pretty convincing features to switch for already including collaborative editing, document sharing, online storage, and so on. Did I mention they’re free? At the same time, they lack some important functionality, such as: document formatting (margins, headers, footers, page numbering); adding sounds and video to presentations; and advanced spreadsheeting with charts and forms. Also keep in mind dependence on Internet connection and possible security issues.

All in all, I do not feel school systems or businesses should immediately jump on the Web 2.0 train, but I think it’s time they start considering it as an option and try some of the solutions it has to offer. Try some of the applications for a week or two and find if they work for you. If your a teacher, see if your class prefers writing in the friendly and social Writely, or the intimidating and feature packed Microsoft Word. Some teachers are already doing it (you will see real cases of this in Part 3 of the series). Why not you?

posted by host @ 8:39 PM   0 comments  

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 1

With the start of the new school year, many teachers and students are seeking new products and technologies to help them through their upcoming academics. With the increase of teachers using blogs and wikis, and students networking and utilizing online tools, the demand for easier and more efficient ways of learning is on the rise. To me, the growing interest for web-based learning is amazing, which brought me to thinking; what if I were to consolodate some of the helpful online products and services that can help students, teachers and administrators alike? Well, I convinced myself. The following is a compilation of Web 2.0 products that I’ve personally researched and tested. These services are grouped into two main categories: “Tools”; and “Office Applications”. Some more specific services include: organizers, gradebooks, research tools, document managers, diagrams, and more.

There are going to be three parts to the “Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0″ series: part one covering tools; part two covering office applications; and in part three, real cases of Web 2.0 used in classrooms around the world. I hope that this series becomes a valuable resource for students, teachers, and school administrators alike. On a last note, part two is almost complete and I expect to publish it within a day or two followed by part three shortly after.

Red Arrows indicate personal favorites with education in mind.
Products may appear more than once if related to multiple categories.

Part 1: Tools

Organizers

  • Stu.dicio.us: Student organizer and social notetaking tool where students can create a schedule, track their grades, manage a to do list, store files for classes, and write public notes in an outline-like format. Stu.dicio.us also allows students to connect with friends and soon will include Facebook integration. More on Stu.dicio.us.
  • Gradefix: Best described by Gradefix, “Gradefix intelligently organizes and prioritizes all of your homework so you are always on top of it.” Students that use Gradefix create a study schedule used to best spreadout and prioritize homework throughout the week in hopes to decrease stress and improve grades.
  • Chalksite (Teachers): Chalksite is a system built for teachers, students, and parents providing teachers with an easy to use central point where they can communicate with students and parents, post assignments and grades, send messages, and manage a website for their courses. More on Chalksite.
  • Engrade (Teachers): Similar to Chalksite, Engrade allows teachers to create an account and have direct communication with students and their parents. Teachers can manage student grades, track attendance, schedule upcoming homework, and provide students and parents progress reports.
  • mynoteIT: (New release came out the other day) An online note taking tool for students including a WYSIWYG note editor, assignment reminders, grade management, to do lists, and more. Students can also share notes with friends and receive feedback through commenting on notes.
  • Haiku LMS (Teachers): Haiku has yet to launch, but its feature set sounds promising making it worth mentioning. Haiku provides a system for teachers where they can create a public website for their classes, manage content, list assignments and announcements, track grades, and more. Sounds like a similar application to Chalksite.
  • CollegeRuled: Academic organizer, class scheduler, and message board area for students. Students can either create a schedule or connect to their Facebook schedule with CollegeRuled and take notes and manage a to do list for each class. Note: I have not been able to test CollegeRuled as it requires an .edu email address.
  • Backpack: Backpack is an all around great organizer including note taking, file storage, to do lists, a calendar, and more. An example use could be that students can create pages in their organizer for each class and manage notes on class discussions as well as upload related files and class documents.
  • PocketMod: This isn’t really a “Web 2.0″ product, but I felt it’s worth mentioning. Pocketmod is a small tool for creating disposable paper organizers using print out templates covering just about anything from note paper to reference sheets. It’s perfect for students that prefer keeping organized on paper. Also, it’s just helpful to carry around with you for whenever you may need to jot some things down.
  • JotSpot: JotSpot is a free wiki allowing users to create and share documents, spreadsheets, calendars, and more. It is my top pick for a wiki and provides a great set of features. Users can even install other applications from an application gallery to extend their wiki with project managers, to do lists, photo galleries, and other applications. It may be a little on the advanced side for students and teachers, but if your tech savvy, have at it.

Gradebooks

  • Teacher! (Teachers): Teacher, formerly known as Teacherly, is an online grading tool for teachers where they can create classes, add students, and track grades for all assignments and test scores. I would imagine it would work out fine for students as well wanting to track their own grades in classes. Unfortunately, Teacher is not accepting new users at this time but you can signup to be notified when they do and check out a demo in the meantime.
  • Stu.dicio.us: Built into the Stu.dicio.us organizer comes a very simple grade manager allowing students to assign grade categories (homework, quiz, tests, etc.) and grades to each of their classes.
  • mynoteIT: Students with an mynoteIT account can login and access their classes where they can add grade sections and grades. What’s nice too is that unlike Stu.dicio.us, mynoteIT gives the student a clear look with letter grades rather then just percentages and averages.
  • Chalksite (Teachers): Designed for teacher, student, and parent communication, Chalksite provides teachers with online gradebooks where they select their class and simply fill in grades for each assignment that they have sent to their students. Students and parents can then login to their account to view their grades.
  • Engrade (Teachers): The Engrade online gradebook is built to be flexible to a teachers needs where they can add assignments, create weighted grading categories, customize grading scales (A, B, C, Pass, Fail, etc.), and more. Students and parents can also login and view their grade report.

For Teachers, Clubs, and Management

  • Groupvine: A service designed to help bring group members together to keep track of events, tasks, and news. Great for students in clubs, professors teaching specific topics, and campus management. For a screencast, view Screeniac.
  • Nuvvo: Teachers wanting to teach online can use Nuvvo providing them with their own online learning portal. Teachers can can add courses that anyone can find and enroll in as well as charge for the online courses. They can manage students, class curriculum, quizzes, and more importantly, learn pages (allowing for headings, text, files, images, and video) that their students will be reading throughout the course.
  • Schoopy: Built to strengthen community communication, Schoopy provides a system in which teachers can manage participating teachers, students, and parents and send messages, ask questions, keep up with assignments and even take quizes. Communities/Schools also can create a public website making it easy for students and parents to keep up with recent updates.
  • Tuggle: Tuggle, launching Fall 2006, is a web-based organization tool for student leaders to manage groups, online payments, bulk email and texting, and more.
  • Chalksite: A web package developed for teachers to help create a class website and a central point of communication with students and parents. Manage class assignments, student grades, and even a public blog.
  • Engrade: “Engrade is a free online gradebook that allows teachers to manage their classes online as well as post grades, assignments, attendance, and upcoming homework online for students and parents to see.”
  • Haiku LMS: Haiku has yet to launch, but its feature set sounds promising making it worth mentioning. Haiku provides a system for teachers where they can create a public website for their classes, manage content, list assignments and announcements, track grades, and more. Sounds like a similar application to Chalksite.
  • Zoho Challenge: Online test tool where you can easily create tests, send tests to candidates (students, in this case), and view results with visual reports and straight forward grading (pass or fail).

Mathematics

  • Calcoolate: Calcoolate provides users with a simple calculator with advanced expression support, mathematic functions, and history for viewing past calculations.
  • Calcr: Similar to Calcoolate, Calcr is a web-based calculator with mathematic expression and function support as well as history logging in a very minimalist design.
  • Create a Graph: Create a Graph is a free tool by Students’ Classroom that aims to make it easy for students to create bar graphs, line graphs, area graphs, pie charts, and point graphs. Navigate through its easy to understand visual interface to add data and customize graphs.
  • e-Tutor Graphing Calculator: Advanced web-based graphing calculator allowing students to enter one or more equations and view them with position/intersection indicators and zooming functionality.

Resume Building

  • Emurse: Great service built for job hunters that want to create, send, and share a professional resume. Users can view their resume’s statistics, send out their resume via fax and ground mail, and receive a public or private web address. One of my favorite applications of the year. More on Emurse.
  • hResume Creator: Helpful tool for the tech savvy crowd that want to create a Microformat compatible resume for their website. Simply fill out the hResume form covering basic resume information and retrieve an HTML file which you can use to copy-n-paste into your website. You can then style the resume as you wish with basic CSS if your not thrilled with the default appearance.
  • Amiko: Amiko does not appear to work or be officially launched yet, but I have been keeping an eye on it for the last month or so and hope to try it out soon. It appears to be a service that allows users to create and manage an online resume although it’s feature set does not look all that promising compared to Emurse. Note: The signup form doesn’t seem to work for me and I’ve tried reporting it as a bug, but the bug form did not work either. I’ll keep my eye on it.

To Do’s and Note Taking

Note: I did not list all of the note taking solutions I am aware of as I’ve already made a roundup of 50 notetaking tools here at Solution Watch, but I will add a few new student specific ones that I have recently come across.

  • 25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive: Solution Watch roundup of 25 web-based task managers that can be helpful for students wanting to keep track of homework and upcoming quizzes. Be sure to check visitor comments for more.
  • Fifty Ways to Take Notes: Another Solution Watch roundup including over 50 ways to take notes using various web-based tools in seven categories.
  • NoteMesh: Best described by NoteMesh, “There are plenty of notes services out there; NoteMesh is a different way of thinking about your notes. Collaborate with your classmates to create a unified set of notes for your class. It’s like Wikipedia for your notes.” Note: School email address required when registering.
  • Notecentric: Notecentric is a new notetaking site designed to help university students have their notes wherever they are and easily share them with fellow classmates. You can add multiple classes to your account and save notes to them using a WYSIWYG editor. Note: School email address required when registering.
  • NoteTango: Free and collaborative note sharing site, launched just days ago, that allows students to create and share notes online and search notes created by other students.

Learning and Research

  • EasyBib: An “automatic bibliography composer” that lets users enter sources and fill out a simple forms to be given MLA style bibliographies. I’ve used this multiple times in the past for research papers.
  • Ottobib: Similar to EasyBib, Ottobib is a simple bibliography tool that allows users to enter multiple ISBN numbers for books at a time and retrieve the bibliographies in MLA, APA, AMA, or Chicago/Turabian format.
  • Nuvvo: Nuvvo offers a service where students can search for courses to enroll in online on any just about any topic. It’s a fun and easy way for students to learn and they can select from free or paid courses.
  • Diigo: Social annotation and bookmarking service where users can bookmark sites and add highlights and notes to them. Great for research. In fact, I used Diigo to help organize bookmarks and notes for this post.
  • Wizlite: “Wizlite allows you to highlight text (like on real paper) on any page on the Internet and share it with everybody (or just your friends).”
  • Mindpicnic: Similar to Nuvvo, Mindpicnic offers a service where users can create courses and find and study interesting courses full of media, links, flash cards, and more.
  • Answers.com: Excellent site for researching anything at all. Make a search and receive results from dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other information sources.
  • Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia under a Wiki platform that is written and maintained by volunteers. It has possibly grown to be todays largest reference site and encyclopedia on the Internet.
  • Del.icio.us: Social bookmarking site where users can save bookmarks and organize them with tags. Users can also take advantage of their del.icio.us network allowing them to add friends to their account and keep track of bookmarks left by each friend.
  • Zotero: Next-generation research tool for Firefox that is currently in private beta. With Zotero, users can capture citation information, store media and websites, take notes, and more all within their browser. Note: Zotero is in private beta and I have not had the chance to try it out and will keep my eye on it.
  • Newsvine: I could have picked any ol’ news site for this post, but Newsvine is, in my opinion, the best news source for students. It’s a clean and friendly social news site containing articles from the Associated Press, ESPN, and New Scientist as well as user contributions. Students can browse the site comfortably, rate news articles, participate in article discussion, and even start their own news column where they can write and publish articles. More on Newsvine.

Media Sharing

  • Youtube: YouTube has quickly grown to be one of the most popular websites on the Internet. I personally use it for entertainment, although you can find a great deal of educational videos as well as create an account to upload your own videos for free. Students can research the site (may come across inappropriate content here and there) and even create projects with video and share them on the web.
  • Google Video: Similar to YouTube, Google Video allows users to search, upload, and share videos online for free. I’m a fan of YouTube, but Google comes on top when it comes to quality educational videos. Google Video even has an educational category providing hour long videos and caption/subtitled videos (new).
  • Flickr: Explore, upload, and share photos online. Includes commenting and neat note functionality where users can add blocks of notes on the photos themselves for others to see.
  • Eyespot: Neat site where users can actually create video mixes online and share them with others. You can add up to 100 clips or photos to a movie as well as add transition effects and video effects. Reminds me of videos I had to create back in High School for Graphic Communications class. More on Eyespot.

That about does it for part one of the series. If there are any services that you feel should be on this list, please comment and let us know about them! If you are interested in more services in any of the above categories, feel free to contact me as I have only mentioned ones that I personally felt were best for educational use. Also, I just want to make a last note that red arrows throughout the article indicate personal favorites of mine but do not mean they are the best options for you. I recommend looking at a category that you need improvement on and find what product will best fit your needs, then go from there. Hang tight for part two of the series and enjoy!

posted by host @ 8:36 PM   0 comments  

Google Calendar Released

Google Calendar is now up and running (thanks, Mike, for the announcement) and my first impression is definitely a good one. I have been playing around with it for a while now and I am very impressed with its functionality. Calendar is very fast, simple, and has an excellent interface that anyone can quickly get the hang of.

The interface is an event planning type calendar, much like iCal for Mac users, which allows you to add events to a specific date or range of dates. There is heavy use of Ajax making navigating and using the calendar very fast along with simple drag and drop functionality so the user can easily drag and drop an event and change the length of time for an event. On the left on the interface will be a list of your calendars and calendars that you have been given access to or added from the public calendar selection. Along the top is a menu allowing you to select the viewing format of your calendar with Day, Week, Month, Next 4 Days, and my favorite, agenda.


Monthly View of Google Calendar


Agenda View of Google Calendar

Lets take a look at your calendars workspace. You simply click on any date on the calendar and fill in the “What” value and the event gets assigned. You can then click and drag the bottom of the event to lengthen the amount of time or click or drag the whole block to reposition it. If you would like to modify an events details, click on the event and select “edit event details.” Although, If you prefer, you can add an event even faster by clicking on the “Quick Add” link on the left hand side and filling in information like the example, “Dinner with Michael 7pm tomorrow.” Google Calendar will automatically fill in the correct details for you.

The edit event area allows you to modify your basic even information, but what stood out the most for me was the extra functionality for each event. First, to modify your event information, hover over each field and you will see that it highlights. Clicking on the field will then allow you to modify its value. Clicking the date field will split up the date into seperate fields which all will return a dynamic list of times or miniture calendar when clicking on them. Fairly basic, but what I found different were the areas around your event information. You can add guests to your event allowing them to not only view the event details, but to give them access for commenting on the event and responding to an invitation to an event.

The settings area of Google Calendar allows you to create and manage multiple calendars, set access privileges, and more. You can set notifications for events under the notifications tab allowing you to receive an email or even have Google send you a text message to your phone before an event. You will also find an import section in the settings that allows you to import Yahoo, Microsoft Outlook, and iCal calendar files to easily append dates to your Google Calendar. You may also share your calendar by inviting your friends individually, setting the entire calendar public, or by subscribing to the supplied XML and iCal files for each calendar (make sure calendar access is set public before subscribing).

Lastly, it is said that Google Calendar has Gmail integration, although I have not seen it function yet. According to the help center, Gmail will allow you to easily create an event in Google Calendar when an event has been detected (Google says it is pretty good at detecting, although there may be times it has trouble) by selecting “Create Event” in the More Options drop-down. It is also said that you can respond to RSVP’s through Gmail when receiving one which on responding will direct you to the event page in Google Calendar.

As I have said before, I am very impressed with the functionality offered with Google Calendar. It has event planning, import and export options, quick adding of events, sharing, Gmail integration, and more. Looks like 30boxes has quite the competition.

View Google Calendar. - TechCrunch and CNet has more on the story.

posted by host @ 8:33 PM   0 comments  

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

What Is Wiki

Wiki is in Ward's original description:
The simplest online database that could possibly work.
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.

posted by host @ 5:05 AM   0 comments  

What Is RSS

RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.
RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them.
A brief history
But coders beware. The name "RSS" is an umbrella term for a format that spans several different versions of at least two different (but parallel) formats. The original RSS, version 0.90, was designed by Netscape as a format for building portals of headlines to mainstream news sites. It was deemed overly complex for its goals; a simpler version, 0.91, was proposed and subsequently dropped when Netscape lost interest in the portal-making business. But 0.91 was picked up by another vendor, UserLand Software, which intended to use it as the basis of its weblogging products and other web-based writing software.
In the meantime, a third, non-commercial group split off and designed a new format based on what they perceived as the original guiding principles of RSS 0.90 (before it got simplified into 0.91). This format, which is based on RDF, is called RSS 1.0. But UserLand was not involved in designing this new format, and, as an advocate of simplifying 0.90, it was not happy when RSS 1.0 was announced. Instead of accepting RSS 1.0, UserLand continued to evolve the 0.9x branch, through versions 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, and finally 2.0.
What a mess.
So which one do I use?
That's 7 -- count 'em, 7! -- different formats, all called "RSS". As a coder of RSS-aware programs, you'll need to be liberal enough to handle all the variations. But as a content producer who wants to make your content available via syndication, which format should you choose?
RSS versions and recommendations
Version
Owner
Pros
Status
Recommendation
0.90
Netscape

Obsoleted by 1.0
Don't use
0.91
UserLand
Drop dead simple
Officially obsoleted by 2.0, but still quite popular
Use for basic syndication. Easy migration path to 2.0 if you need more flexibility
0.92, 0.93, 0.94
UserLand
Allows richer metadata than 0.91
Obsoleted by 2.0
Use 2.0 instead
1.0
RSS-DEV Working Group
RDF-based, extensibility via modules, not controlled by a single vendor
Stable core, active module development
Use for RDF-based applications or if you need advanced RDF-specific modules
2.0
UserLand
Extensibility via modules, easy migration path from 0.9x branch
Stable core, active module development
Use for general-purpose, metadata-rich syndication

posted by host @ 5:03 AM   0 comments  

What Is Web 2.0

The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions. Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum's rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other.
The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.
In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. But there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means, with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom.
This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0.
In our initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example:
Web 1.0 Web 2.0 DoubleClick --> Google AdSense Ofoto --> Flickr Akamai --> BitTorrent mp3.com --> Napster Britannica Online --> Wikipedia personal websites --> blogging evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB domain name speculation --> search engine optimization page views --> cost per click screen scraping --> web services publishing --> participation content management systems --> wikis directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy") stickiness --> syndication
The list went on and on. But what was it that made us identify one application or approach as "Web 1.0" and another as "Web 2.0"? (The question is particularly urgent because the Web 2.0 meme has become so widespread that companies are now pasting it on as a marketing buzzword, with no real understanding of just what it means. The question is particularly difficult because many of those buzzword-addicted startups are definitely not Web 2.0, while some of the applications we identified as Web 2.0, like Napster and BitTorrent, are not even properly web applications!) We began trying to tease out the principles that are demonstrated in one way or another by the success stories of web 1.0 and by the most interesting of the new applications.
1. The Web As PlatformLike many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.

Figure 1 shows a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at O'Reilly Media. It's very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core.

For example, at the first Web 2.0 conference, in October 2004, John Battelle and I listed a preliminary set of principles in our opening talk. The first of those principles was "The web as platform." Yet that was also a rallying cry of Web 1.0 darling Netscape, which went down in flames after a heated battle with Microsoft. What's more, two of our initial Web 1.0 exemplars, DoubleClick and Akamai, were both pioneers in treating the web as a platform. People don't often think of it as "web services", but in fact, ad serving was the first widely deployed web service, and the first widely deployed "mashup" (to use another term that has gained currency of late). Every banner ad is served as a seamless cooperation between two websites, delivering an integrated page to a reader on yet another computer. Akamai also treats the network as the platform, and at a deeper level of the stack, building a transparent caching and content delivery network that eases bandwidth congestion.
Nonetheless, these pioneers provided useful contrasts because later entrants have taken their solution to the same problem even further, understanding something deeper about the nature of the new platform. Both DoubleClick and Akamai were Web 2.0 pioneers, yet we can also see how it's possible to realize more of the possibilities by embracing additional Web 2.0 design patterns.
Let's drill down for a moment into each of these three cases, teasing out some of the essential elements of difference.

posted by host @ 4:45 AM   0 comments  

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Changing domain and PageRank

I have a domain, e.g. XYZ.com - and I don't like it because it's too long I want to change it to e.g. XYZ.eu - but I have high PageRank on XYZ.com. Is there a way to change the domain WITHOUT loosing PageRank?
I heard sth like this:
PHP Code:
header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
header( "Location: http://nowy_url.pl" ); ?>
or redirection set in .htaccess file would help. Is it true?

posted by host @ 8:26 AM   0 comments  

Small business web hosting, how to choose

The best choice of small business web hosting is not only about a storage space for your content, it has to include a comprehensive tool kit to allow you to build your own web site. It must also include the tools and services You need to maintain a small business web site.

The best web hosting providers give you easy to use web site builders and user friendly interfaces. This kind of service providers are targeting small business owners for whom a high standard web site is essential. Since you pay your host for their services, it saves you workforce for your web site maintenance and upkeep.

You don't need to worry about server crashes and technical issues. You can relay on your web hosting provider to make sure your visitors has easy access to your web site.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you choose web site host for your small business. This will help you to get efficient services. The main thing, will be to choose a reliable web hosting service that provides you with enough server space to host your web site.

You want to see that the technical support are top notch. And the web site builder have to be user friendly. What kind of special features are included? and what features do you need at your website? Your web site host should also offer you some flexibility to move around and grow with your business and the traffic at your site.

Some of the best web hosting providers also offers web design services. Professional web hosting designs are user friendly, ready made templates that give your web site a professional look and feel. These are custom made by the provider and you can choose from a variety of templates. there are different templates for specific business purposes.

Once you choose a design template, all you need to do is upload your content. Sit back and enjoy the effect of an eye catching web site.

To create your web site with a template, is a good way to avoid falling in the trap of create a flashy site with a lot of graphics and slow navigation. People don't like to wait, keep your site lean and mean.

posted by host @ 8:13 AM   0 comments  

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Avril Lavigne apologizes



Avril Lavigne issued a half-assed apology on her website in regards to her inability to contain her bodily fluids.

In response to reports of Avril’s recent run in with paparazzi, she would like to say the following: “I’d like to sincerely apologize for my behavior with the Paparazzi. It’s trying at best dealing with their insistent intrusions. I meant no offense to my fans, whose relationship I truly value. I have and will always go out of my way for my fans. My behavior was a reaction to the persistent attack from the paparazzi.”

If you read that over, you’ll see Avril Lavigne says it’s the paparazzi’s fault that they got spit on. Kind of like the “she was asking for it” excuse rapists use. Yes, I’m equating Avril to a rapist as she’s already raped the eardrums of many during her years as a “singer”.

Regardless, the apology to her fans was endearing. They’ll be glad to know she’ll always go out of her way to scream “Fuck you” at them. If my mom has taught me anything at all, it’s that those two simple words can warm your heart like hot chocolate with marshmallows in the dead of winter.

posted by host @ 4:58 AM   0 comments  

Monday, September 25, 2006

百度二级域名全面曝光

1 http://www.baidu.com/ 百度顶级域名
2 http://post-js.baidu.com/ 百度贴吧
3 http://bbs.baidu.com/ 百度贴吧
4 http://tieba.baidu.com/ 百度贴吧
5 http://wapp.baidu.com/ 百度贴吧（WAP版）
6 http://post.baidu.com/ 百度贴吧（常用）
7 http://ix.baidu.com/ 百度mp3搜索
8 http://mp3search.baidu.com/ 百度mp3搜索
9 http://mp3.baidu.com/ 百度mp3搜索
10 http://imgnews.baidu.com/ 百度图片搜索
11 http://image.baidu.com/ 百度图片搜索
12 http://newsalert.baidu.com/ 百度邮件新闻订阅
13 http://rnews.baidu.com/ 百度资讯
14 http://news.baidu.com/ 百度资讯
15 http://z.baidu.com/ 百度知道
16 http://iknow.baidu.com/ 百度知道
17 http://zhidao.baidu.com/ 百度知道
18 http://hi.baidu.com/ 百度空间
19 http://kongjian.baidu.com/ 百度空间
20 http://b.baidu.com/ 百度百科
21 http://baike.baidu.com/ 百度百科
22 http://love.baidu.com/ 百度传情
23 http://index.baidu.com/ 百度指数
24 http://www2.baidu.com/ 百度搜索引擎竞价排名系统
25 http://jingjia.baidu.com/ 百度竞价
26 http://movie.baidu.com/ 百度影视
27 http://youbian.baidu.com/ 百度邮编
28 http://map.baidu.com/ 百度地图
29http://diqu.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索
30 http://top.baidu.com/ 百度风云榜
31 http://guoxue.baidu.com/ 百度国学
32 http://dict.baidu.com/ 百度词典
33 http://file.baidu.com/ 百度文档搜索
34 http://mobile.baidu.com/ 百度手机娱乐
35 http://bar.baidu.com/ 百度超级搜霸
36 http://flash.baidu.com/ 百度flash搜索
37 http://site.baidu.com/ 百度网站
38 http://wireless.baidu.com/ 百度手机搜索
39 http://wappass.baidu.com/ 百度手机
40 http://iebar.baidu.com/ 百度搜索伴侣
41 http://yp.baidu.com/ 百度黄页搜索
42 http://passport.baidu.com/ 百度通行证-百度用户登录
43 http://coin.baidu.com/ 百度币
44 http://gov.baidu.com/ 百度政府网站搜索
45 http://edu.baidu.com/ 百度教育网站搜索
46 http://shaoer.baidu.com/ 百度少儿搜索
47 http://disk.baidu.com/ 百度硬盘搜索
48 http://x.baidu.com/ 百度下吧
49 http://cache.baidu.com/ 百度快照
50 http://life.baidu.com/ 百度常用搜索
51 http://daxue.baidu.com/ 百度大学搜索
52 http://law.baidu.com/ 百度法律搜索
53 http://wap.baidu.com/ 百度搜索WAP版
54 http://pda.baidu.com/ 百度搜索PDA版
55 http://hk.baidu.com/ 百度繁体搜索-香港
56 http://tw.baidu.com/ 百度繁体搜索-台湾
57 http://unio/ n.baidu.com/ 百度搜索联盟
58 http://up.baidu.com/ 百度中文精品网站排行榜
59 http://widgets.baidu.com/ 百度搜霸自定义按钮
60 http://cs.baidu.com/ 百度一个很奇怪的域名
61 http://wapsite.baidu.com/ WAP版本hao123
62 http://msg.baidu.com/ 百度通行证个人消息二级域名

市场活动类24个：

1 http://media.baidu.com/ 百度泛媒体联盟
2 http://hr.baidu.com/ 百度招聘
3 http://mu-zone.baidu.com/ 百度泛音乐联盟
4 http://zhangmen.baidu.com/ 百度音乐掌门人
5 http://star.baidu.com/ 百度之星程序设计大赛
6 http://bj.baidu.com/ 百度北京公司邮件域名（不能直接打开）
7 http://sh.baidu.com/ 百度竞价排名上海分公司
8 http://gongyi.baidu.com/ 百度公益
9 http://dbd.baidu.com/ 大百度交流平台（只对百度公司内部人员开放）
10 http://slogan.baidu.com/ 大百度交流平台（只对百度公司内部人员开放）
11 http://games.baidu.com/ 百度搜霸大赢家
12 http://vote.baidu.com/ 百度调查（无法直接打开）示例
13 http://game.baidu.com/ 广告跳转域名（无法直接打开）示例
14 http://ir.baidu.com/ 百度英文介绍
15 http://gongshe.baidu.com/ 百度公社，可以打开（现在已无任何内容）
16 http://apple.baidu.com/ 百度全球华人创想大赛
17 http://ma.baidu.com/ 百度火爆地带（不能直接打开）示例
18 http://xuanzang.baidu.com/ 玄奘之路
19 http://sfout.baidu.com/follow/ 百度电话跟踪系统
20 http://postvote.baidu.com/ 优秀吧主评选
21 http://mail.baidu.com/ 百度邮箱登陆系统（只对内部员工开放）
22 http://smtp.baidu.com/ 百度邮箱登陆系统（只对内部员工开放）
23 http://pop.baidu.com/ 百度邮箱登陆系统（只对内部员工开放）
24 http://baiduworld.baidu.com/ 百度世界

地区搜索类34个：
1 http://hunan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-湖南
2 http://xizang.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-西藏
3 http://hebei.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-河北
4 http://liaoning.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-辽宁
5 http://jilin.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-吉林
6 http://sichuan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-四川
7 http://jiangxi.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-江西
8 http://chongqing.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-重庆
9 http://gansu.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-甘肃
10 http://guangdong.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-广东
11 http://tianjin.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-天津
12 http://zhejiang.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-浙江
13 http://henan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-河南
14 http://guizhou.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-贵州
15 http://guangxi.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-广西
16 http://neimenggu.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-内蒙古
17 http://fujian.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-福建
18 http://xinjiang.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-新疆
19 http://shanxi.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-山西
20 http://qinghai.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-青海
21 http://jiangsu.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-江苏
22 http://yunnan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-云南
23 http://shandong.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-山东
24 http://hubei.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-湖北
25 http://shanghai.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-上海
26 http://beijing.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-北京
27 http://shaanxi.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-陕西
28 http://anhui.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-安徽
29 http://hainan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-海南
30 http://ningxia.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-宁夏
31 http://heilongjiang.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-黑龙江
32 http://hongkong.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-香港
33 http://taiwan.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-台湾
34 http://macau.baidu.com/ 百度地区搜索-澳门"

posted by host @ 7:33 AM   0 comments  

Huge Scale Model of Disputed Border Region of China Found inGoogle Earth



This is one of the most interesting finds in Google Earth in quite some time. A few weeks ago a first time poster, called KenGrok, at the Google Earth Community (GEC) discovered a very exact scale model of some mountainous region located in the middle of a desolate area in north central China. Seen in Google Earth [Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.] the huge scale model is .9 km tall by .7 km wide. It is adjacent to what looks like a military base with many camouflaged vehicles. Last week, the same poster found the location [Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.] the scale model represents - a region occupied by China but claimed by India near north central India. If you turn on the "Borders" layer in GE you will see they are colored red to indicate the dispute. Another GEC member showed how exact the scale model is by taking a screen shot of the satellite photo of the scale model and overlaying it over the real terrain [Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.] (turn the image overlay on and off to see how exact it is). This scale model was most likely created for military reasons. Someone posted a description of why a military terrain visualization is critical for military purposes.

posted by host @ 7:20 AM   0 comments