A (dis)advantage of being constantly busy is that I don’t get as much time as I might like to play with new tech toys. However, this might not be such a bad thing.  Apparently, there were some turkeys released this year.

Linuxinsider has come up with its list of forgettable tech products for the year that is 2009. Some are items that are on my to-be-checked-out list. Perhaps they might now find themselves removed from that list. On the other hand, one negative review hardly makes for a poor product.  The great thing about the internet is that comparison shopping is merely a click away. It’s easy to access multiple reviews and compare for yourself.

First up in the Linux review is Windows 7. The 7 is a turkey due its release date being 3 years later it was supposed to have been and requiring customers to but Vista in the meanwhile.  To add to the injury, 7 is seemingly no better than Vista. Perhaps I’ll stick to XP after all.

Next up is the iphone. Is having a smartphone a good thing?  I work long enough hours as it is. Do I really want to be able to access emails and do mobile work on the little free time I have?  I’ve been putting the smartphone on the long finger. This is just as well given that “people look like jerks using them [the iphone”. The iphone also has the vendor lock-in problem. Marketers love this concept, consumers aren’t so keen.

Number three is a continuation of number 2. Apple are quite good at coming up with useful gadgets like iphones and ipods and ithis and ithat. But these products are so heavily patented that developers are frustrated with the lock-down aspect. Remember this is coming from a site called linuxinsider.

Number 4 is a follow on from number three. Google Chrome OS netbooks comes in for some criticism for not being open enough. It’s not even publicly available yet but the jury has spoken.

For me, Nvidia have a really nice funky edge. Have a look at the cool products.  But, alas, one mistake puts them on the turkey list for a respected blogger with an off-putting name.  This blogger seems to have issues with toolbars too.

Ubuntu comes under fire for its overzealous stand on releases. One buggy release replaces another buggy release in very short spaces of time.  Who’s perfect?  At least they’re trying.

Anyone thinking of purchasing an e-reader should hold off. The Sony / Kindle / Other argument needs to be solved by replacing all of them with a DRM-free device that allows much more freedom. Apparently, e-books won’t take off until the format problem is no longer a problem i.e. all readers will read all formats.

EA Games come under fire for self-sabotage. According to Linuxinsider they buy in perfectly good game developers only to destroy them , the same applies to their products, apparently.

So, there you have it. I’m off to re-write my Christmas shopping list now…

Now let’s go directly to our essay about a topic. As you read, pay attention to what format is used in writing this essay.

Traveling on Tour vs. Traveling Alone

I can never forget the trip my friend and I had to the North. After a lot of hardships, traveling only by a map and a compass, we realized that we were in another country close to a city near the border! In contrast to my friend’s cowardice, I would really like to repeat such experiences in traveling alone around the world. To my friend, traveling on tour is the only way to prevent such bad mistakes, which in our case led to our detention as spies and staying a week in custody. Thinking about similarities between traveling alone and traveling on tour, little can be found; however, their differences are distinct. These kinds of traveling are different in two major ways.

One huge difference between traveling with a tour and traveling alone is the degree of the comfort tourists experience. Tourists are sure that they are safe when they travel in a group. They know where they are going and the new places will not be bewildering for them. On tour, if the tourists get lost, the tour managers will be looking for them; however, there is little chance of getting lost because the tourists are usually together and the tour guide will make sure everyone is present in the tour group before moving to another place. On the other hand, traveling alone, a tourist is always in danger of being confused and losing the way. Also they may not be safe from criminals who are looking forward to  taking advantage of stranger tourists. If a stranger tourist gets in a very bad trouble -like a woman kidnapped by woman trafficking groups- she will not be able to easily get out of the situation because there is no one to inform, or nobody knows her in the area. Definitely, traveling on tour has a lot more comfort and much less anxiety.

However, many who travel alone can find more memorable experiences. When a person travels alone, he is not forced to follow a strict schedule by other people. He can spend more time in a place, or he might want to observe and get more information about the people of that area. In most cases, those people who traveled around the world alone would actually decide to live with the people of a certain culture, to study them, and to gain greatly useful experiences; some of these lonely travelers would, in fact, fall in love with the new culture and would decide to live with the people they had just known. Being on tour, on the other hand, feels like being forced to visit places on a fixed schedule. It is clear where and when the tour will start and should end. That is why many people do not bother even to learn the language of the country they are going to visit. If asked about the reason they go on tour, not alone, some may answer, “Traveling with a tour will not have the bother of learning the culture and the difficulty of finding new faces!” In fact, many people who travel with tours do not want anything but the fun part of it. Surely, this kind of traveling will be boring for those who seek excitement and experience.

Choosing to travel alone or with a tour totally depends on one’s tastes and goals of traveling. Both types have their own advantages and disadvantages for different people with different preferences. Despite the advantages of being safe and its comfort, I would not like to travel with a tour. My tastes go mostly with the desire of discovering things and exposing my life to perils through which I would gain a lot of experiences. Who knows how much experience did Huckleberry Finn get, going down the Mississippi River, and how much this experience would change his life forever?

Something very interesting has happened and has been reported by many sellers of these Chinese, import iPhone knock offs.  For the longest time, the original iClone P168 was the best seller.  Then, the quad band model (P168+) gained a good bit of ground.

The recent releases of the 168S model (quad band shake and tilt) and the 168C (quad band, and dual sim active) have further split the sales. 

However, today most sellers will tell you that there are two new models that are rapidly emerging as brisk sellers – the i9 and the T32 (aka Daxian X999.) Both have features previous models did not have.  This article will focus on the similarities and differences between these two models to help you decide which may be best for you.

Similarities: Both phones are considered to be loaded, with web browsing, email and texting, MP3 / MP4, Java, digital camera, web cam, Bluetooth, and some features that until know have not been included. Both are considered smartphones.

Quad Band Vs. Tri Band: The i9 will support GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz bands offering coverage for almost all GSM carriers world wide.  The T32 covers 900, 1800, and 1900 MHZ bands. This will work fine for many carriers. There are some AT&T rural and Cingular carriers who operate on the 850 or 1900 bands. You can easily find out which you need through your carrier.

Productivity: Both of these phones are productivity power houses, but in different ways. The T32 contains WiFi, GPS, Windows Mobile 6.0 (with Java 2.0 for gaming).  Obviously, this opens up a huge amount of productivity and gaming possibilities and ensures that it offers a lot more than most clones. The i9 on the other hand supports Java which means that you can download third party software for gaming, but there are also productivity options like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It doesn’t have WiFi, but in my opinion it’s still sufficient.

Dual Sim Active:  Generally, the i9 offers dual sim active, which means that two can be online at once. Most 32s (which are properly listed) do not have this feature.

Shake And Tilt: The i model has the popular shake and tilt feature (shaking the phone to advance music and media) and the T model or Daxian generally does not.

Memory: I’ve seen both of these models holding up to 8GB of memory.  The memory is expandable, but most times, you see them selling with between 2 – 4 GB of memory.  Of course, models with more GB will be more expensive, but the phones can grow with you and don’t need to slow down as you fill them.

Price: As a general rule, the CECT T32 is more expensive than the CECT i9, running somewhere in the mid to upper $200 range, while the i model is closer to $150.

So, Which Is Better? Which of these phones work better for you will greatly depend on what you need in a phone. If you need a quad band and want the latest shake and tilt model, the i9 may fit the bill. But if you’re dead set on WiFi, GPS, and Windows Mobile 6.0, then the T32 / Daxian may be the way to go. 

Comparison and contrast essays seem very hard to many students. But comparison and contrast are the most basic mental activities we do everyday. The reason many students run away from writing comparison and contrast essays is that many of them do not make an outline of their essays because they do not practice the format of comparison-and-contrast essays. Comparison and contrast essays can have two formats: block style, and point-to-point.

Let’s start with a topic for an example. We want to compare City A with City B in terms of climate, regional features, and ethnicity.

In block-style essay format, you need to develop your essay and the paragraphs with the order shown below.

In point-to-point essay format we will not talk about City A and City B separately; we will talk separately about the features which make the cities different or similar.

www.motorcycle-usa.com Motorcycle USA takes the Kawasaki Concours 14, Yamaha FJR1300, Triumph Sprint ST and BMW K1300 GT on the coast of Oregon in the sport tourer shootout.

My Links : DIY home carsnetwork.wordpress.com

Brother has a comprehensive line of embroidery machines, and it can be bewildering to figure out the differences between the machines.

The most economical machine, and the most popular brother machine for embroidery made for the masses, is the Brother SE270D. The SE270D has a D for Disney.

It is a computerized Sewing and embroidery machine with 97 built-in designs including 27 designs featuring Disney characters and 98 stitch functions. It features Brother’s exclusive new quick-load thread cassette system. This means that simply place a spool of thread into the cassette, insert cassette into machine and the needle is threaded automatically! This unit also features built-in embroidery designs, 1-step auto-size button holes and many other time-saving features.

The brother feature of auto-threading is common in several other manufacturers and models too.

The next step up is the Brother SE350. It is considered high-end according to Brother, though this is a classification of the consumer market. It features 67 built-in stitches, 98 stitch functions, 70 built-in embroidery designs, a push-button automatic thread cutter, effortless bobbin loading and a built-in card

slot enabling use of thousands of optional embroidery designs. There are 10 styles of one-step automatic buttonholes along with the bobbin Quick-Set feature. There is an LCD screen on this machine. It is a machine that I personally own, and am very satisfied with it.

The Brother PE700 is an embroidery only machine with a 5″ x 7″ embroidery area! The PE700 recognizes all Brother memory cards (Disney Memory Cards excluded) that work with a maximum 5″ x 7″ design area. There are 136 built-in embroidery patterns which include scrollwork, florals, quilt patterns and various other designs.

The PE750D is a close cousin of the PE700, but as you would guess, the D means Disney, and this machine has 52 Disney designs. At 650 stiches per minute, the machine is no slouch.

The best home machines are around 1200 stiches per minute as far as I know.

Again, keep in mind that these PE700 and 750D machines are in the embroidery only section.

Innovis and Duetta are Brother embroidery lines, and things get a little blurry here, at least for me.

The Innovis 4000D is one of Brother’s most advanced machines. It is the top of the line Innovis and

has a maximum embroidery speed of 1000 stitchesDmin. There are 2 USB ports and a very large maximum embroidery area of 12″x7″. Of course, there is a color LCD with touch screen.

The Duetta 4500D is also a top of the line machine. The motto is “Do It All. Do It Better.” The Automatic Height Adjuster™ (AHA) feature, the extra-large quilting extension table, and bright LED lights. This includes a quilting feature.

The top of the line machine is the Brother Quattro 6000D. This is an amazing machine with quilting, sewing, embroidery all included. There is almost 50 square inches of work space – 10 inches to the right of the needle and 5 inches of height. The LCD screen is high definition. The LCD also gives a zoomed in view of the needle area. You can also integrate with applique with this machine, and it inclues 600 designs.

As many of you will know, Turbine have recently changed their subscription structure for Dungeons and Dragons Online, making it a Free-to-Play game. What this effectively means is that the monthly subscription fee has been scrapped in favour of a “micro-transactions” model. Now you can pay for additional character slots above the default three, you can pay for “XP Potions” and additional playable classes etc. However this doesn’t mean that the Free-to-Play aspect is a gimick and that you must expend real money to enjoy the game. Through grinding and questing you can accumulate Turbine Points(the currency used to purchase content), so in fact a player could play this game and never spend a penny if they were not grind-adverse.

But the question is, is it any good? Is it worth the 10GB download? In a word, yes it is. This is a polished and slick product, which offers many “handcrafted” adventures. Each quest is it’s own instance, which has scripting and set-pieces which would normally be found in end-game raids in most MMOs. The production value of these quests is extremely high, and the player will feel a real sense of connection to their character during these missions.

The community is also, surprising for a F2P game, very helpful and mature. I get the feeling most are fans of the PnP version of D&D and most seem very helpful to the new player. Unfortunately, unlike most MMOs, everything except the main towns are instanced. This means you wont encounter players in the wilderness, and so it doesn’t really have a MMO “feel” to it. It really is reminiscent of the table-top game – players meet up for some dungeons bashing and then go their seperate ways afterwards. Don’t imagine this to be a serious flaw though, the quality of the dungeons is top class, easily beating many Pay-to-Play titles hands down.

So to answer my original question, is it any good. It is, in fact it’s an excellent game. It reminds me a little of Guild Wars, except with better graphics, much better quests and a helpful community base. Anyone who likes MMOs, and in particular the PVE element, would be well advised to give this one a try.

Graphics: 8/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Overall Rating 8/10

This draw can explain more than 1000 worlds why this flu is a fake..

First of all let me say that I have been playing World of Warcraft since November 2006 and I have loved every minute of it. From the moment I first booted it up and created my human warlock I was hooked. So you can imagine my surprise when I installed Aion on a whim, and shock-horror, found it to be better in almost every way! Now, dont imagine I make this claim lightly. I love everything about WoW – I have read most of the novels, subscribe to the blogs and am a regular on the forums. But no matter how I look at it, there is no escaping the facts – Aion is a more polished and engaging game. In the following paragraphs I will outline the Top 4 Reasons why Aion is better than WoW.

Number One: Graphics

Now  I know this isn’t supposed to be the most important thing, but when you compare the two games side-by-side, WoW really is starting to show its age. Blizzard have done an amazing job ensuring that WoW will operate on a large range of PC’s and laptops. Aion on the other hand utilises much newer technology and ironically runs smoother and faster than WoW on my machine. All this with crisp and detailed graphics which really help immerse the player in the game world. The most appropriate word to describe the graphics in Aion is “stunning”. Unfortunately for WoW, the best I can say is “adequate”.

Number Two: Flying

Both games offer players the chance to see the game world from the air. In WoW a player must level their character to level 60 before sinking some serious gold into learning the flying skill. Again at 70, the price for epic flying is still 5000 gold, with another 1000 gold needed for Cold Weather Flying in the latest expansion. In Aion on the other hand, flying is an integral part of the game mechanics, rather than a gimmicky add-on. Also players learn to fly at level 10(a few hours of playing). Flying is essential in questing, dungeons and also interestingly, PVP.

Number Three: Difficulty

WoW has changed a lot since release and most would say for the better. Quests have become streamlined, elites have been nerfed and things have been made a lot easier to level. This is because the game really starts at max level for PVP and raiding. Now take Aion, which does not focus so much on max level content. The journey is as rewarding as the destination, and competitive world PVP starts at level 25. So while it will take you much longer to level up in Aion compared to WoW, there is a corresponding feeling of achievement due to the feeling of having really “earned” your place in the game.

Number Four: Community

I know this isn’t Blizzard’s fault, but the WoW community tend to be mostly players who have been in the game for a long time now. Aion is brand new, everyone is starting fresh. This means that there is a level playing field to a larger extent than in WoW. No high level mains funding alts, no “heirloom” items to make it faster to level alts. It also means more people want to experience group quest and dungeon content in Aion. Contrast this to current day leveling in WoW, where people are in such a rush to hit max level they skip the low level dungeons and group content.

Believe me when I say it wasn’t easy for me to critique World of Warcraft like that, but there is no avoiding the facts. WoW’s time is coming to an end, though I’m sure the new expansion Cataclysm will drag out its live expectancy for a few months longer. Aion on the other hand is just taking off, and I for one am glad to be in on the ground floor!

Updated 2009-11-25
Well things have really changed but then again it has been 7 years since my last update . The desktop has a smaller market share. With 3G/4G finally getting rolled out smart phones are quickly becoming the surfing method of choice. Everyone uses the custom browser that their smart phone comes with. On the desktop Firefox(previously Netscape sort of) is a robust speedy browser that is supported in .NET and other development platforms extensively. Internet Explorer(IE) is slower than Firefox to load web pages. Firefox takes longer to startup. At this time both browsers own 40%+ of desktop market. That is a huge difference from previous update . What’s next? Google solutions(conceptully) are really starting to look interesting.

Updated 2002-12-17
Most Netscape(NN) supporters have not backed version 6 thus NN is stuck at version 4 and has fallen out of favor. Meanwhile IE has now gobbled up 80%++ browser share. Wireless devices are rapidly taking market share from both browsers but these devices aren’t ready to be smart clients yet. They are advancing quickly however and are great where screen space is not important.  There is no doubt the “browser” issue has now become even more complex with many new devices supporting only XHTML, WML or proprietary languages.  NN is now relegated to the “Other browser” category for most sites that attempt to support multiple browsers… You know, basic web site with no advanced features… Like this site. Future updates will probably deal more with wireless devices like phones and PDA’s than NN. At less than 10%(for all versions) NN is no longer worth supporting a customized site. 

Updated 2000-09-02
A new Netscape is in town. It is going to shake things up a bit. It might even take some market share away from IE(not much). Anyone that hates Microsoft will for sure use the new version. But much more important is that developers embrace Netscape’s guts to really attempt to support W3C/ECMA standards. I have updated this site and now both IE and NN6 enjoy the same experience. Let’s not kid ourselves. IE is still a better browser but Netscape V6 is a real step forward. I want to ensure that IE isn’t the only browser in town. I just don’t want to write 2 sites to support each browser.

Updated 2000-03-26
Well IE 5.0 has been released(with patches) but where is Netscape(NN)? Since AOL took over the browser it has gone to never-never land. Comparisons between the two browsers shows NN is starting to fall behind Opera(browser) in standards support. When looking at DHTML or CSS Netscape falls way short of meeting the standards. The object model is much more difficult and limited. The browser crashes repeatedly and I even found a JavaScript bug that corrupts Netscape. That’s right, you would have to re-install to get it to work again. It looks like AOL purchased the browser to ensure it gets buried…..But I could be wrong. Around 75% of traffic seems to be using IE4.0 or better at this time…..My how things change…..Just not as fast as I would like.

Updated 1999-02-25
Both Netscape and Microsoft say they will support the W3C DHTML spec. Ya, right… Anyway, IE 5.0 Beta has been exceptionally stable. Matter of fact it has been more stable than IE 4.01. I really like the auto-fill capabilities but from a user perspective that is about all you notice. It does load certain pages faster if they are built for IE 5.0. For some quirky reason I have to start it twice before the browser will display on one of my systems. Once it goes to a full release I would get a copy, but wait till then.
As for Netscape….I have not tried the 5.0 version so I can’t comment.

Updated 1998-08-23
Microsoft has all but closed the doors on Netscape. It is no longer a question of which is better. IE4.0 comes with Windows 98 and is integrated into the system. Businesses will use IE because it will require less administration and integrates into IIS servers easily. Critical mass has built up on the client base for IE. Soon Microsoft may have to support Netscape like Apple just to ensure they don’t get those nasty law suites. It would be strategically sound for Microsoft to throw away a few mil. As for the active desktop you can install it but make sure you do not select the option to show window contents while dragging. This option only creates a lot of overhead for your system and no real gain.

Updated 1997-11-01 originally published 1997-09-25
With IE4.0 released and NN4.03 you can upgrade both but do not install the Active Desktop(IE4). Both are as stable as previous versions(yes, they still crash). The advances made with DHTML take browsing to a new level and are definitely worth the upgrade. Even if you surf strictly for content you get advantages. The ability to hide and display content dynamically in itself gives great advantages. 
Both browsers support Cascading Style Sheets(finally) and DHTML expands CSS capabilities. The differences between browsers referencing CSS will probably be resolved with a little from both sides(not exclusively one side). JavaScript has become the standard scripting language and with DHTML extensions is going to create havoc on Java’s future. Many things you just can’t do with JAVA can be done easily with DHTML. Securing scripts from the client is still a major stumbling block for scripting languages(You can’t stop clients from stealing code). Layer technology will not likely survive standards committees. VBscript will not survive as a client scripting language unless Netscape^® adopts it or Microsoft^® create a free plug-in(to bad). Netscape^® has new life(for now). NN4.03 is not as good as IE4.0 but is very close. It has a prettier interface than IE4.0. This has become more a personal choice than ever.

Actually, the browser war is over, Netscape^® just doesn’t know it yet;)
There are really only two browsers, Netscape^® Navigator(NN) and Microsoft^® Internet Explorer(IE). I know about Lycos, Mosaic, etc. but they are so limited in usage that it is hard to count them. At this moment use BOTH(Netscape^® and Microsoft^®)! But use V3.*, neither has a stable V4 yet. I suspect that IE4 will be stable but let’s wait till October 1st and see.
If you have to choose I would recommend Microsoft^®’s Internet Explorer(particularly on Windows95/NT). Microsoft^® has the standards, the money, and a free browser. Not to mention I personally think the capabilities are far superior to Netscape^®. By no means is Microsoft^® perfect. I have several issues with things they do(you might see a few on different pages), but they have the best browser.
Netscape^® makes a very good browser. They used to be first by a long shot. Now they are a close second. IE Version 4 will shut the door but it will take years to take effect. Remember….this is today, tomorrow an even better browser could pop-up(but would it be good enough to buy it?). IBM^® will probably buy Netscape^®’s browser before Netscape^® gives up(they need A browser for junk OS/2).
As a technician I cheer for Netscape^®’s cause but as a business owner I buy Microsoft^®.

Updated 2009-11-25
I am still with Domainsatcost.ca but Registryfly.com had to stop registering domains. They were doing something that was not allowed but never affected me. Moved the COM sites to Domainsatcost.ca.

Published 2002-11-12
Picking a good Domain Registrar(DR) is more important than you might think. I mean what do they do? They register your domain name right? That used to be the case but things have changed in the past few years.

What you are about to read is my personal experiences with 3 different DR’s. Specifically www.DomainsatCost.ca, www.registryfly.com, and www.networksolutions.com (now owned by Verisign). 

DomainsAtCost.ca
After 2 years of using DomainsAtCost.ca(not .com) I would definitely rate this the best DR out there for .CA domains. Their price can’t be beat but there is much more. Their service is excellent. The website is fast and easy to navigate(It could bet even faster and more efficient with a few minor performance tweaks). The site is great for managing multiple domain names at once. They make the process as painless as possible. In addition they provide what I consider an invaluable FREE redirect service that can redirect to a folder in a website (critical for multiple domains and only one website). They also provide the best search engine for common Domain Names I have found. It includes a “similar” name list on each search. Just the search engine is worth checking out their site. I highly recommend them. The only negative comments I can say is that their price on US domain names is a higher than their US competition($14.95) and for some reason more than DomainsAtCost.com (but still a good price) and email response on weekends could be improved(maybe it has, rarely need email). Compared to other Canadian DR’s DomainsAtCost.ca has no competition.

Registerfly.com
This company just keeps getting better and offering more services. I first used their service 2 years ago. They are great for general use except for .CA domains. Register with them and you may not need any other service providers. They provide many FREE services at a very cheap price but again it is service that is important. Everything works through the website and is fast and fairly easy to navigate. The problem with navigation is they have so many options(not a bad thing). For $8.99us per year you can have your domain registered, have email, and a very simple website. Now that is tough to beat. They have lot’s of other FREE options with registration. They do not offer .CA domain registration unfortunately. I prefer DomainsAtCost.ca but this company is a close second. If I needed more of their free services I think they would be #1… tough call.

NetworkSolutions.com
You knew there was going to be an exception… 
Originally I started with NetworkSolutions(NS) back in 1995 when I registered my first domain. They were the only DR available. It was simple to register because my web service provider did it for me. The cost… $70 per year, services, absolutely none. You would think paying such a premium would get you top service… HA!!! Here is my 7 year nightmare… There was no problem until I changed email addresses several years after registering. That is when I actually had to get involved… Since I no longer had my old email ID(dropped acount 6+ months before) it was virtually impossible to communicate with NS to renew my domain. At that time they did not accept anything unless it was from email. Go to their website and forms were very complex and almost impossible to find the right form. Navigation was one of the worst I have seen. It took 6 months to finally get my email changed with more back-and-forth than I care to remember. After that I moved… another nightmare trying to get my information changed… another 4 months… Their price has always been among the highest (until recently they were $30 per year…now $15.00/year-if you register for 2 years). A year ago I finally got fed up and went to change DR’s before I had to renew. After 2 months of messing around the domain was expiring and I had to renew with NS. This year I decided to get a jump on transferring. I started on September 27th(renewal is April 2003) … Good thing… I am still screwing around with the new “Verisign” to get this accomplished. I have requested it be transferred 3 times now and it still hasn’t happened. Each time the whole process works except the confirmation email from NS(now Verisign)… I even get email stating the request was rejected because I did not confirm the request. Each time the response I got when I contacted Verisign was “try again”… On the 3rd attempt I wasn’t going to wait around for it to be rejected… Requested transfer yesterday everything proceeding like other times… no response from NS by 9am today… I called them and someone(David) actually looked into it… “for some reason” they can’t see where they are sending the confirmation message. They should be able to… they just can’t… appears to be sending it to a blank email address?? Good someone actually looked at this AFTER my 3rd attempt. When I called Verisign I did note that it was quick to reach someone and David was very polite and responded to my issues as best he could. I was informed the account would be moved within 2 days. If this doesn’t get done you know I am not going to be very happy and this article will be updated for your reference. Just a thought for you…. 100 domains here= $7,000/year… 100 domains registerfly.com = $899/year
Hopefully Verisign can salvage the client base from NS. It will be a difficult challenge given the abuse NS’s customers have had to endure. Verisign will have to adjust very quickly and add a lot of options and I’m not sure they are prepared for the scope. Verisign is a big company and this integrates well with their other services to provide complete end-to-end solutions. Please note that Verisign has inherited a mess, they did not create it!

There are many good DR’s for US domains now, not so many for .CA domains. You no longer have to accept poor service and high costs. Shop around, the difference can be extreme. I have seen registration charges as high as $100 recently.

So like I said…
Picking a good Domain Registrar is more important than you might think

At time of publishing the only relationship I have with any of these companies is as a customer. The comments here are my personal experiences with 3 companies, you may have a totally different relationship with any or all of them. Due to experiences with NetworkSolutions I spent countless hours reviewing many DR’s before deciding. I think my choices have worked out well. There are DR’s that are a few dollars cheaper but guaranteed good service is worth more than $2 per year.

Like always, these are my opinions…. I could be wrong.

Updated 2009-11-25
My how things have changed. Java appears to be going the way of OS/2, Microsoft is now .NET instead of ASP, and many unix servers are using PHP(even some Windows servers). XHTML and XML are both extensively used. Netscape is gone and replaced with Firefox. Smart phones have finally replaced WAP. DIV and SPAN tags are the predominate tags now. Many more servers are now Windows based instead of Unix. .NET is dominant in large business sites. Browsers are all over the place and then there are smart phones. I expect everything to change to video/3D over next 10 years so don’t spend too much time on this stuff At this time I prefer the following:

• .NET for server. Can be C#, VB, PHP, Python or other language but .NET handles various browser issues(mostly).
• CSS – now the standard. Actually standards are recommending all layout should be in CSS format and not included in HTML tags. 
• JavaScript – The standard for years.
• Ajax or similar – dynamic communication as well as saving bandwidth.User gets virtually instant responses.
• MySQL – for databases. Open source.
• Flash – for dynamic graphics sections.
• Look into video and 3D tools – I see most sites going to interactive video/3D instead of text.

Updated 2001-02-15
Well, if you consider that AOL is a version of Internet Explorer(IE) then IE version 4+ now controls 85%+ of the browser market. Microsoft owns 98% of the operating systems. With this combination it should make your decisions easier. Now the potential to use VBScript, ActiveX etc. is feasible on the Internet. Is XHTML or XML going to win? Not sure, probably neither. Each is the “new” language that will allow everyone to communicate together… heard that before??? CSS is here to stay. It will be improved but it is a base for layouts to come. WAP is not going away for awhile… bandwidth may change that so I would not invest too heavily but it is necessary for several sites(like stock brokers, banks…) right now. You can trash all the tables and start using DIV and Span tags. Java is actually gaining ground since more powerful computers and faster bandwidth are available. Microsoft owning everything defeats the one real benefit of Java though. There is always going to be the next language that will solve everything for us… we buy it then figure out it can’t do ???? that the other product could. These of course will be solved in the next version…;-).
A big step is Netscape’s support of standards. Now if we could get Microsoft to do the same and drop that *&*%$# document.all method we could really get grooving. It might surprise many of you to know that Netscape6 is a better standards based browser than Explorer5.5. Explorer is much more forgiving for developers where Netscape is strict.

Published 1997-09-25
For Intranet(because of it’s controlled concept) I would use Microsoft^® supported languages exclusively. These would include DHTML, CSS, Jscript with server code mostly in ASP files. Limited use of VBscript, ActiveX and JAVA. This of course won’t work if you are an OS/2 shop but will work for MAC and some Unix operating systems.

For Internet I prefer to recommend more platform independent languages at this time. Unfortunately many languages are needed to truly develop a site. Unless you use at least some of the capabilities specific to the browser you limit your potential gains.
DHTML is now a must.
JavaScript(Jscript) is best for scripting simply because both browsers support it(sort of).
Pure JAVA is best for advanced requirements but is limiting and slow(this is improving very quickly).
CGI is still my choice for server side code but only because most servers are still Unix. If you can, I recommend using other languages(VB,C++,REXX, whatever).
Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) for those with requirements for specific positioning of elements. Or at least extensive use of small tables(large ones are slow to load).
All above can support both Netscape^® and Microsoft^® browsers if designed correctly.
After all that is said, I have found you need ALL languages above to provide the client with the best solution. More importantly, how(or if) they work on different browsers.

Updated 2009-11-25
Still feel the same way even with faster Internet. It is getting worse with ads down the sides of the page as well. On the other side I do run Google Text ads.  Since these met my criteria of low-bandwidth and no effect on page loading I have tried them. I don’t get a lot of traffic so they haven’t worked out that well but I have accumulated  some credits .  I have not seen any tangible value in over 2 years.

Updated 2001-02-15
Apparently the “click through” rate for banner ads is in the range of 1 in every 1000. This from people who track these things. Now think…. each banner ad is at least 30k… If you are running these things then 999 people are inconvenienced by having to download an additional 30k to visit your “awesome” site. If you run these on every page you must really like to punish your customers. I really do hate these things.

Published 2000-10-07
You might have noticed this site does not run any ads. There is a very specific reason. I take the time and effort to actually get you to come to this site. If I ran ads you could possibly leave my site on the first page because you clicked an ad that was of interest. All the work and effort I put in to get you here and I just sent you somewhere else for a fee of maybe 15¢. It just doesn’t seem to pay off. My site would be slower(all the graphic ads). I would lose a lot of valuable screen real estate displaying these ads. In addition I find customers tolerate these ads. They certainly don’t like them.

In my personal experience this has happened more than once…… I went to a site looking for something, saw an ad that was of interest, clicked the ad and forgot about the original site. That original site just gave away a potential customer for 15¢. Often sites pay more than that in promotion just to get the customer to visit. 

Banner ads can be beneficial for sites like Microsoft, Netscape, Disney, Yahoo and others. They are so large that they know the customer will be back. They are also good for free sites that provide various services “for free”.

Banner exchange ads aren’t much better. You have to show other site ads usually twice as many times as you have yours displayed. Again, do you want to promote other sites more than your own?

In summary it seems foolish to run these ads when it cost you more than the revenue they produce. The problem is the costs are not easily quantifiable and not that obvious. The ads do produce tangible revenue……but at what cost?

Anyway, that is my opinion…..Others have had great success with Banner Ads.

Updated 209-11-24
Notice no one uses the status bar for help anymore. It used to be used on almost every site. Everyone now uses the Title parameer or new custom modules that perform these yellow popups allowing very complex displays rather than the simplistic text display available with the Title parameter…some even look like the classic “balloon help”.  I suspect that these more advanced help module concepts will eventally make it into HTML standards(maybe reference a section of the page like a DIV or snippet of code as the title parm). I have been noticing that sometimes the help flashes on/off when movong over plain text that is in a SPAN with a title parameter. Quite frustrating.

Published 2000-09-02
The title parm is now available in both IE3+ and NN6+. What is it for? It provides those little pop-up help tips when you move the mouse over something. In previous NN browsers this was only available for pictures(Alt parm). This help is now available on ANY tag. For example, move your mouse over this text. Notice the pop-up help appears. Move the mouse over IE3+ or NN6+ to get a better idea of a more common usage. Another reason I supported NN6.

Title is what help should be. None of this writing to statusbar. Clients do not have to look anywhere, help hits them over the head. I had created a Form 7 process for IE3(only) that did the exact same thing before this was built in. This site is changing to exclusively Title help.

How do you do it? Simple, just put TITLE=”What you want to say” on virtually any tag.

I have more stuff on this in How To demos at my website.

Updated 2009-11-25
Iframes are everywhere now. Unfortunately they are being abused by advertisers. They are still a great solution and have provided me with numerous benefits. Still no autosizing capabilities ;(

Updated 2002-01-07
My demonstration site uses IFrames exclusively. Without them there would be no “FloatAway” toolbar. Now if they only had an automatic resizing and true transparency… Never satisfied

Published 2000-09-02
Ever use a frames design? Restrictive aren’t they? You can’t have a frame anywhere you want. A frameset document is a particular type of document. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a frame anywhere you wanted in a window. Wouldn’t it be nice to have frames that can be moved around the window at will? That is what IFrames improves on the old frames(among other things).

The biggest drawback with using IFrames was that they were only supported on IE3+. Not anymore. Netscape V6 now supports them. It is not quite as complete as IE’s version but still it is a major step forward.

Their biggest advantage is they allow a developer to create a site with multiple small windows interacting…just like many Windows applications. This is really cool and opens up the potential for a true client server model on the web.

Don’t get me wrong, frames are great. This demo site still uses frames because when making a simple 3 frame page the Frameset means you do not have to code for resizing and other weird things. I could have used IFrames, but they are not best for this particular site. I do use them on sites that need more complex interaction between many frames. 

If you have a choice and you only need to support IE and NN6 think about IFrames. There are a lot more possibilities once you use them.

Published 1999-07-08
In the computer industry it is very rare that the best product/company wins. Usually what wins is a combination of marketing and price. This also applies to most other areas.

Examples:

• Xerox actually made the first PC as we know it. They also created Ethernet and Object Oriented technology. Management didn’t know what to do with them. Steve Jobbs came in, stole the PC, and presto we have Macintosh. One of their staff quit and took Ethernet to market.
• In early 80’s Macintosh makes the best PC. IBM finally sees the potential, takes garbage parts from current PC manufacturers and sticks their logo on it. Suddenly all current PC manufacturers are “IBM Clones” except Macintosh. IBM compatible system dominate the market even with the crappy command line interface. IBM PC’s with their cheap parts are now perceived as superior to other PC’s even though other PC’s have vastly superior product.
• Billy gets someone to hack CMS and pays them $50,000 for what is called QDos. Then sells it to IBM for $80,000 while still keeping the rights to use QDos. IBM drops the Q. Billy becomes Microsoft.
• Macintosh had the best user interface(by far). Billy came with Windows(crap). Suddenly Windows was on everyone’s system. IBM came with OS/2. Technically superior system to Mac and Windows. Never got market share. Microsoft came with Windows95 and NT. Still not as good as OS/2 but guess who won?
• STK made an awesome hard disk system for mainframes but could not market it until IBM replicated most of the features.
• Amdahl made some of the best CPU’s in the mainframe but had difficulty marketing because IBM had total control of the market. Same thing with AMD and Intel in PC world. To bad, I really think they had great systems.

There are many more examples but I think you get the idea.
Almost always better products were ousted by lesser products with better marketing.
So what wins…..best product or best marketing?

Updated 2009-11-24
The new standard is XHTML. This new standard just enforces strict rules on DHTML. Forces every DHTML tag to have an end tag. DHTML has been great and has been a valuable tool. It has been a great technology investment.
Published 1997-09-25
Dynamic HyperText Markup Language(DHTML) adds zest to your pages. Finally, they have opened the object model. Now you can code for just about anything. It really isn’t anything new. You could dynamically change things before but you were extremely limited in the objects you could manipulate. All that has changed. DHTML allows you to change anything, you can have layers, redraw a section of screen at will, make animation without gif89a, and lots more. In addition the pages can work with older browsers easier than before. As a technician I think this is excellent. I am having fun learning all the new options.

Updated 2009-11-24 originally published 1997-09-25
Well many people now have higher than 1.5mbs connections and guess what… Network Computers(NC) are getting attention again. With the explosion of the Internet NC’s are becoming very viable. With Google going after Microsoft this could get very interesting. NC’s could come into favor much quicker with Google’s assistance. Many applications are already either 100% web based or have extensive interfacing with the web. A conversion of 90% of users could happen within 10 years due to the much cheaper systems and advantages of computing anywhere.

As for PC-MAC comparison… looks like many people are going to MAC’s to avoid so many viruses and attacks. Microsoft is still very dominant but has lots share to MCA. These two have bigger issues than each other… Smart phones are quickly becoming the choice of younger surfers. These new devices are chewing up both PC & MAC market share.  

Updated 1997-11-01
Which is best? A delicate question. Depending on requirements.
NC’s(Network Computers) taken as a concept should be adopted by business wherever possible. All applications should reside on central servers. As a physical computing unit NC’s have a limited focus right now. They are great for appliances like the WebTV, specific business functions that do not require intense data processing(like data entry), and others. The big advantage is in the concept not the physical unit. The concept will reduce cost of ownership dramatically for the business if applied correctly.
PC’s(including MAC) are going to be around for a long time. Personally I don’t have confidence in bandwidth to download my operating system every time I start the computer. PC’s also allow intensive applications like CorelDraw to run without problems. Business has already tried to implement the NC concept with only applications but with limited bandwidth most have found it unacceptable. I expect eventually when everyone has 1.5mbps connections and the Internet supports the required speed NC’s will become more of a reality. If you only want to surf the Web an NC is the way to go(cheap). Otherwise I would stick to the PC.

For PC Vs MAC, previous to Windows 95 I ran the following rule….PC’s are for those that want to know about computers, Mac’s are for those that don’t. That said, Windows 95 interface has really changed this. Both are now easy to use and each has it’s advantages. Apple’s MAC has very good quality hardware components(much better than most PC’s). MAC unfortunately has limited, expensive software.

The Australian cruise industry is relatively immature when compared to that of the United States. According to the US Maritime Administration,  15.2 million passenger nights were booked on North American cruises during the second quarter of 2009 alone. The monumental demand for cruise holidays in the United States has generated massive competition between cruise lines and cruise agents. Aggressive sales tactics are commonplace as prices are regularly undercut by competitors and customers are lured by exclusive incentives such as on board vouchers and discounts in an attempt to secure their bookings. The result of course, is a better deal for consumers.

Until recent times, this competitive industry was open to international customers… but not anymore.

The Story

We’ve been looking into holidaying in Europe next year and decided that our trip would include a cruise. Having sailed with Princess Cruises on two previous occasions (and being relatively satisfied with the experience), we decided that we’d select another cruise offered by Princess for our trip. Naturally, our investigation into our cruise options started online. After visiting the Princess Cruises website and deciding on our preferred cruise itinerary, I decided to browse some online travel sites in order to compare pricing.

The Research

Given that our first stop was the Australian Princess Cruises site, I’ll begin by listing the prices offered by Princess to its Australian customers. The cabins offered are based on interior, ocean view obstructed, ocean view, balcony and mini-suite designs. The prices listed below are in AUD and are those directly available on the specified Princess Cruises site (only available to Australian customers).

NOTE: Despite the .com domain, Australian visitors are directed to an Australian version of the site based on their geography, while US customers are directed to another US version of the site.

Internal        Obstructed        Ocean View        Balcony          Mini-Suite
$6,209.00       $6,979.00         $8,009.00          $9,039.00       $10,829.00

To Australian customers, these prices may look quite reasonable for a 20+ day cruise but lets look at the prices quoted by Princess for its US customers. The prices listed below are in USD and are those directly available on the specified Princess Cruises site (only available to US customers).

Internal      Obstructed       Ocean View          Balcony           Mini-Suite
$3,930.00     $4,530.00        $6,130.00             $6,130.00        $8,330.00

The above prices aren’t typically accessible by Australian customers unless you go through a US proxy server which causes the Princess Cruises website to believe that you’re a US based customer. For a final comparison, lets convert both price sets to AUD and compare (based on an exchange rate of 1USD = ~.92AUD). All prices below are listed in AUD.

If booked by Australian Customer:

Internal     Obstructed      Ocean View      Balcony      Mini-Suite

$6,209.00    $6,979.00        $8,009.00        $9,039.00    $10,829.00

If booked by a US customer (or via US):

Internal     Obstructed      Ocean View      Balcony      Mini-Suite

$4,270.42     $4,916.69     $6,654.15         $6,654.15     $9,042.82

The differences in the above figures are significant. Significant enough to warrant some form of explanation.
Keep in mind that as far as Princess Cruises is concerned, Australian passengers embark and disembark from the same locations as the US customers do. There are no additional inclusions like airfares or transfers. The only difference is your billing address.

The Question

So, why not book through a US travel agent then? Well, according to several reputable US based cruise agents, Princess Cruises has released a directive to all resellers advising them that they are NOT to book cruises for international customers. The reason is obvious in my opinion.

While the Australian cruise industry isn’t as mature as that of the US, this doesn’t mean Australian passengers are naive enough to accept a $2000 (per person) discrepancy without asking questions. So… Princess… care to explain exactly why Australian’s need to pay up to $2000 more than their peers in the US? Given that I emailed your customer relations department the exact same question over a week ago and I still haven’t received a response (despite the fact that you found me interesting enough to follow on Twitter), I wont hold my breath…. but who knows, maybe you’ll surprise me.

Princess profiteering? You decide…