May 13, 2008
I remember when geocities came out with their concept of limited free web hosting for anyone wanting to put up a website the idea was quite novel. They financed this generous offer by presenting ads alongside the websites they hosted. But with the extremely low prices of shared hosting today, such an offer has very little relevance to most webmasters.
In fact, most webmasters prefer paying the penny prices of a shared host (often under $10 per month) and place their own ads along the site to make a profit. But not all shared hosting solutions are equal and it’s important to compare features and performance before signing up with any host.
Most hosts offer fair disk space and bandwidth, adequate for most sites. But features such as email marketing management and mailing list administration can be a big bonus for webmasters who can take advantage of it. Often going with a host that doesn’t provide the right tools can be a costly decision in the long run. But even a heavily featured host shouldn’t be too expensive. Fat Jack Hosting is a good example. Their shared hosting plan offers very generous storage space and bandwidth and provides a no limit mailing list solution and up to 2,400 email sends per day for just $4.97 per month.
The Thin Line Between Open Source and Free Software
May 11, 2008
Open source and free software are terms associated with Linux. Open source is often taken to be more or less in the same category as free software. In truth, they are not exactly the same class of software since open source can accept licenses that may be considered too restrictive by free software while there are also free software licenses that are not acceptable to open source.
The distinction can be very hard to see since nearly all free software is open source and vice versa. However, the term “free software” also refers to freedom in use which “open source” cannot claim to offer.
One Person’s Junk is Another Person’s Treasure
Book claiming to teach how to become invisible
One of my favorite online pastimes is not reading the latest news or catching up on the blogs I follow. It’s actually going on eBay and trying to find the weirdest and most interesting items I can find. I don’t necessarily look for weird stuff but it just so happens that the weirder the item the more interesting it is anyway. And believe me, on eBay it is not difficult to come up with some really strange stuff. Just today I came across someone selling a book that he claims will teach you to become invisible. No hoax according to him.
But if there’s something constructive I learned from my eBay pastime is that truly anything and everything can sell on eBay and there is always a buyer at the right price. Why is this important to know? Because all of us have so much junk around the house that we would be happy to get rid of and tend to think that no one in their right mind would want to buy it. Well, I can’t guarantee that you will find a buyer who is in his right mind but chances are you will find a buyer nonetheless. And with services like iSold It, it’s real easy too.
If you have seen the movie “40 Year Old Virgin” you should be familiar with the iSold It concept. It is similar to what Trish did in the movie. With iSold It you really have nothing to lose and putting your stuff online is as easy as dropping it off at one of their numerous locations across the country. Once you try it you will discover just how addictive it can be. Besides the extra bucks you can make, it’s also really fun to follow the interest your items receive. Be sure to send me a link of your listings, you may just make a sale…
Users exploring the possibilities of the Linux operating system are bound to come across Gedit which is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. It aims primarily for simplicity and ease of use but features a wide range of options including full support for internationalized text, configurable syntax highlighting for various languages, editing files from remote location, print and print preview support, clipboard support and a complete online user manual, among others.
Gedit also features a flexible plug-in system which can be used to dynamically add new and advanced features to itself. Released under the GNU General Public License, the Gedit has plug-ins that can be used to perform a variety of tasks related to text-editing from within the Gedit window.
