There are a lot of good choices when it comes to picking your FTP client.  I have reviewed several via the website here and I am sure there are other good ones I haven’t looked at.  Personally, my favorite FTP client is FileZilla. You could also try out WS_FTP, SmartFTP, CuteFTP or a number of other choices there are out there.

Now that you have an FTP client, how do you get started? Well, instructions may vary depending on the FTP client you choose.  Here are the basic details you will need to input:

• Hostname: yourdomain.com
• Username: your account username
• Password: your account password
• Passive FTP: ON for linux accounts, OFF for Windows accounts

Should you use a web browser for FTP? I would suggest against it.  It can be done usually by going to ftp://yourdomain.com or ftp://user:pass@yourdomain.com/ but my best advice for you would be to get a FTP client to do the job for you.  If your webhost allows it, you might also want to set up secure FTP or FTP over a TLS connection.

The 3DS System Itself

The first thing you’ll notice, if you have had one of the other variations of the DS systems before is this one is a little ‘bit heavy in comparison.  It is nothing mind-blowing or anything, but it is a little noticeable.  I also keep wanting to pull the stylus out of the side, even though now it has been relocated to the back of the 3DS.  The buttons and controls feel really solid, not cheap at all.  Some people have said that the fact that it is a little ‘bit bigger than the regular DS Lite is an issue, but for me it wasn’t really noticeable.

The 3DS System Software Basics

Playing around with some of the basic applications and the system itself was almost as much fun as playing the games.  I am sure eventually the novelty of running around the house taking 3D pictures of things might wear off, but right now it’s just really cool.  I’ve also thought about using the 3DS as my defacto MP3 player too.  It does have all the functionality there – but not sure yet if I want to carry it in my pocket with me everywhere I go.  Right now it is more of a really expensive baby I am taking really good care of.

Here is a quick rundown of the built-in software:

• Nintendo 3DS Camera  – Not a replacement for your expensive digital camera, but it is fun to take both 2D an 3D pictures.  There are also a lot of interesting photo effects you an add too.
• Nintendo 3DS Sound – Your standard sound recorder and player.  Comes with a few audio effects you can add too – just in case you wanted to listen to yourself in a tunnel while talking into an electric fan.
• Mii Maker – Creating a Mii from your photo is really the draw with this application.  You also have a few more items to choose from in comparison to the Wii Miis, however facial hair is still rather wonky looking.
• AR Games – A great example of what the 3DS is really capable of.  I haven’t gotten around to playing with all the cards and features, but this one is great to use when you want to show the 3DS off to a friend.
• Face Raiders – I thought this would be stupid and I was surprised by how fun it was.  You pretty much turn around with the 3DS, shooting flying faces you input into the game.
• Activity Log – Here you can check to see how long you have played each game and some other interesting stats.  I really haven’t played with the 3DS long enough to get much to show up here.

I am sure over the next few days and weeks I’ll have more to say about the 3DS, as I get a chance to play with it longer.  Overall, I can sum up the experience like this.  It was the same sort of wow factor I had when I played the Wii for the first time.  You are kind of in awe of the technology – and then realize, they the games are pretty fun too.

Coe’s Quest is the YouTube web series I ran across when I was looking for a way to do more inside of the game of Minecraft. He has a very pleasant tone about him and his videos are not filled with cuss filled rants just for the sake of cussing.  Not that I have anything against adult language – but I have been even able to show my two nephews an niece the videos without worry of having to cover their ears every two seconds.

Here is the first video – just to give you a sample of how neat this series of videos is:

You can learn more about Coe’s Quest from coesquest.com. I hope you find it as useful as I have when it comes to navigating around the world of Minecraft.

Think of it as a visual reminder for the browser of what site you are on.  This is really handy when it comes to favicons in tabs, because you can quickly see and think “Oh, there is an ‘m’ there, and it looks like Mitch’s layout – that tab must be where I loaded Mitchelaneous.com”.

Favicon creation is not that hard, as long as you have a good graphic editing program.  What you need to remember is keep it 16×16 pixels and name it favicon.ico. Also it will need to be in the root folder for the domain in question – so for example on most Linux-based/cPanel hosting plans for your primary domain name that would be your public_html folder. If it is located somewhere else you can specify a location with these strings in between your <head> and </head> code on your web page:

<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" href="/favicon.ico" />

Going back to the favicon creation, there are several good resource online to help you get this done quickly and easily.  Here are some of my favorite favicon generators:

• FavIcon from Pics
• Dynamic Drive’s FavIcon Generator
• Favicon Generator and Gallery
• Anti FavIcon
• FaviconGenerator.com
• Favicon Editor
• Favicon Drawing Program
• Graphics Guru Favicon Generator

There you can quickly create, edit and download your own personal favicon to use.  It cuts some of the work out of the overall chore of getting your favicon ready for public consumption. 

Let us remember, the key word here is simple.  All you have to do is sign up.  After that, you just click anywhere on your page, type and then click somewhere else to save.  Everything you put on the page can be dragged around, and the general troubleshooting tip they give for errors is “refresh the page”.  Simple, right? (Try the DEMO!)

When your ready to publish, you will be given an URL that looks something like clutterme.com/yourname, which is totally understandable for a free service.  If needed though, you can pay them to register a domain name for you.

To check out a little more on the development side of things, be sure to thumb through their blog and check these links for some example creations:

• Jessica’s Website
• a site to Ban Crocs
• a site dedicated to Saved by the Bell
• a page with Pictures and Video
• instructional website #1 and instructional website #2

If you are looking for a simple and easy way to put your first page out there on the Web, I would highly recommend giving Clutter Me a shot.

• What is Mozilla Firefox?
• How Do I Download Firefox?
• Why Should I Switch to Firefox?
• What Are Firefox Extensions?
• What Are Firefox Themes?
• Can I Customize Firefox’s Toolbars?
• How Can I Manage My Firefox Bookmarks?
• How Does Firefox Handle RSS Feeds?
• Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts to Remember
• What is the Firefox Search Box?

Know of any other topics that you would like to see me cover? Drop me an E-mail and let me know.

+ A Beginners Guide to Web Hosting

If you ever need anything that is a little more in depth, then I would recommend that you pick up Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting as well.

A few more important things are covered though, so hopefully it will not be too much of a problem in the long run. Keeping up with how much I have been writing, I could end up with around fifty pages when it is all said and done. Some might get cut out when editing comes around though. I’ll tackle that problem when I get to it though.

I plan on being a part of it next year as well. This just goes to show you that the world of Web hosting is not as cut throat as many may think that it is. When there is a good cause, it is nice to see that so many people can come together to help. This is the true meaning of the holiday season for sure.

I’ve set a target date, for the end of January, for me to reach a finished “rough draft” of the book. Then I’ll probably go through and make some modifications, then let a few other folks play editor for me, then I might be ready for a public release.