Archive for September, 2005
· September 22, 2005 at 9:00 am · Odds & Ends
This article is not for you or for me. This isn’t even for the Firefox developers. This is something special between my favorite browser and myself. Instead of sharing something about Firefox with you that I love, I thought today I would take a little time to write my favorite browser in the world a letter. I recently had to go through a total reinstallation of Windows on my personal machine, and while I was doing it, I really missed my Firefox. So now, before I have to tear myself apart from it again, I thought I’d let it know how much I care.
Dear Firefox,
Although I might have missed you while you were away, you are now back on my computer and I couldn’t ask for a better companion to be surfing the Internet on. The glow in your icon when I launch you every day is enough to put a smile on any man’s face, especially mine. When I think of those cold and lonely night when you weren’t around, I am afraid. I am afraid that someday you might not be as great as you are right now. You do have some growing to do, as any great browser should.
In the next version of you that I get my fingers on you will have a menu selection where I can clear you of all the forms, passwords, history and all that other stuff I don’t want you to remember once I shut you down. You will also have tabs that I can move around and reorganize. Although this might not sound like much now, I am sure by the time you hit 2.0 you will be as solid as ever. You will still have a special spot on my quick launch bar as well.
As something special for you and me to share, I thought I might download a few new themes for you to wear. I hope you like them! With that said though, I really must get going before folks start to question my sanity, or lack there of. Keep up the good work, my sweet little Firefox and I will keep clicking through your tabs for many more years to come.
Your “Special” Clicking Friend,
Mitch
Now as you can see, I love my Firefox! I honestly do not know what I would do without it.
· September 22, 2005 at 5:24 am · Odds & Ends
The first (of hopefully many) video tutorials from the Web Hosting Show is now up and running! Check it out, and give me your thoughts!
· September 22, 2005 at 12:17 am · Odds & Ends
I think they might be running out of things to cover over at Lifehacker. (Link via Eric Rice who was via Stevel Rubel) Do folks really need a guide on how to comment? I figured I’d help out the editors of Lifehacker with a few more article topics. It is obvious somebody isn’t swimming too deeply into the pool of intresting ideas.
A Guide to Turning a Doornob
A Tutorial Covering How Wear Headphones
An FAQ Covering How to Brush Your Teeth
A Tip Sheet For Flushing the Toilet
and here is my favorite…
How To Get Attention for Writing Articles on Stupid Topics!
Got any more ideas we can send over to the folks at Lifehacker? Let me know!
· September 21, 2005 at 1:54 pm · Odds & Ends
I recently got an E-mail from a reader of mine named Peter. It seems like Peter has some questions when it comes to the best way of getting Web hosting for a big project. Hopefully this will be of use to anybody else out there who has a big idea, but doesn’t know how to get it started, up and running Online. Knowing when to use a shared, reseller or dedicated Web hosting account can be a tricky thing to master.
Hi Mitch,
I’m an entrepreneur and blogger, and I need some advice on web hosting. I’ve been subscribed to Mitchelaneous and the Web Hosting Show for a good while now, so I knew you’d be the right guy to contact.
Basically, I’m interested in setting up an online storage company similar to streamload and box.net. I need to lease a rack and I’d like to know which companies you’d recommend. I plan to rent the space to individual users, charging around $3/GB per month (this seems to be the going rate). I don’t plan to charge for bandwidth. Obviously I’m going to need a lotta storage in the long run, but I don’t have much cash to invest right now, so who would you recommend? Do you still run your own servers? What other pointers would you give me?
It sounds like Peter has got a really nice idea going there. I am excited to see how far you get with it and the finished project. As far as the hosting suggestions go, this is what I can tell you.
I don’t usually do many company recommendations, but I would say you’d need at least one dedicated server to get started on. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about server loads from anybody else on the server and you would have plenty of room and bandwidth to grow on. Right now I host all my audio and video files for the show on a separate server that the folks at Web Hosting Chat provide me for free. I think they use FastServers.net. I haven’t dealt with the support side of FastServers.net personally, but from the user side I haven’t had a problem with the hosting experience since I started doing the Web Hosting Show.
Getting a dedicated server is going to be a little costly as well. If you feel like you don’t want to put that much weight onto yourself right now, you might go with a large reseller account or a small semi-dedicated server. Just contact a few companies, see what the going rates are and how much traffic and work you can pump through the server itself. Never let yourself get intimidated by a Web hosting company. They are there to serve you either by hosting your Web site or answering your questions as a possible client.
· September 21, 2005 at 1:53 pm · Odds & Ends
The folks at IBM have reached out to disabled computer users who might want to make Firefox more user friendly. IBM has contributed 50,000 lines of code to make the browser more accessible to the blind and motor impaired. Web developers can create pages that reduce, for example, the amount of tabbing required to navigate a document, tabbed sections and spreadsheets, to help minimize keystrokes for users with mobility disabilities.
I am happy to hear IBM putting forth this effort to help out Firefox users. Between 750 million and 1 billion of the world’s 6 billion people have a speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive disability, according to the World Health Organization. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one quarter of the U.S. population will reach 55 by 2008, and about two-thirds will experience a disability after age 65. Many are working past age 65.
While many of us do not think about these issues from a day to day basis, it is nice to know that somebody out there is.
What does this mean for the Web in general? It means that companies, businesses and regular folks will be able to expand the number of people using their services and Web sites. Being able to hear more voices on the Internet is definitely a good thing for all of us.
· September 20, 2005 at 12:14 pm · Odds & Ends
Who knew there were so many different and neat start page projects in the works? (link via Mashable*)
Ajax is infinitely cool, isn’t it? Tech Crunch today has a review of NetVibes, a personal homepage that features a really slick ajax interface. Check it out! NetVibes isn’t alone as far as ajaxian start pages go: there’s also Microsoft’s Start.com, Google’s Personalised Homepage, and the exceptionally beautiful Protopage. All these services are free to try without registration, so give them a go! Of course, there’s also MyYahoo, but you’ll need a Yahoo ID to play around with that one. One last tip: if you’re interested in Web 2.0, head over to the Tech Crunch blog - you’ll love it.
I really like the looks of both NetVibes and Protopage. I’d like to see more companies take the more clean or more customizable route when it comes to start pages.
