Work Stuff

Slashdot get with the future, of five years ago....

2005-09-23T11:12:00.000Z

Slashdot finally got around to updating its layout to use CSS. Yay!

Not that I can talk, I'm not overly fussed about CSS, but then my sites render in Firefox correctly, so nyahh!!!!

List of sites.

2005-08-25T15:53:00.000Z

What do you do if you have a bunch of sites and you do not want to have to submit them to google individually? Just list them on a site that google already indexes, and it will pick them up pretty quick.

http://www.1clicklove.co.uk
http://www.1clicklove.com
http://www.1clicklove.info
Well, what can I say, these domains are aimed at a dating site kind of thing.

http://www.aftermathstudios.com
Aftermath Studios is my personal domain for my games development business idea. I'm hoping to develop some cross platform first person shooter type games with a strong rpg element.

http://www.authenticuniforms.com
Information on how to identify authentic military uniforms.

http://www.bidformilitaria.com
A small free aution site for militaria.

http://www.centrixhosting.com
http://www.centrixhosting.info
Centrix Hosting will offer low cost web hosting with PHP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Postgres and more.

http://www.cgcollab.com
CGCollab is aimed at 3d collaboration teams, making either short films or game assets. It is intended that this provide an easy to use application to allow easy teamwork.

http://www.dailytarget.com
http://www.dailytarget.info
Intended to be a news and reviews type site on gaming, FPS types in particular.

http://www.datez.biz
A basic dating site, showcasing a pretty awfull site.

http://www.directmotorcycles.com
Intended for a motorcycle online store.

http://www.dns-details.com
http://www.dns-details.net
Intended to provide dns services.

http://www.docjonesjustmilitary.co.uk
Information on the bricks and mortar shop by the same name.

http://www.docjonesjustmilitary.com
The on-line store of the same name. Provides excellent items, accurately identified.

http://www.docjonesjustmilitary.info
Will provide information on Dr. K. L. Jones, owner of the militaria shop.

http://www.e-letting.com
http://www.e-letting.info
Will provide property letting software for use by 'virtual' letting agents.

http://www.exchangemilitaria.com
A place to exchange militaria items.

http://www.fixmylovelife.com
http://www.fixmylovelife.info
Agony aunt type sites, to help people with their romantic affairs.

http://www.hostersoutlet.com
http://www.hostersoutlet.info
Intended to provide hosting type software and services from third parties. Currently unused due to malicious spamming activity forging headers from here. I am currently gathering information, as this is a criminal activity in the UK.

http://www.justmilitaria.com
Information on militaria, and a discussion forum.

http://www.justmilitary.com
Collectors information, masterclass articles, glimpses of collections, tips and tricks as well as a whole lot more.

http://www.leibstandarte-ss.com
Information on the Liebstandarte for collectors of militaria.

http://www.lettingportal.com
http://www.lettingportal.info
Intended for a community portal site for those letting property.

http://www.medalscollector.com
Information for the medal collector.

http://www.medalsinfo.com
Information on various medals from around the world.

http://www.newcastlelettings.com
http://www.newcastlelettings.info
A lettings site for Newcastle Upon Tyne.

http://www.realtimeservers.com
http://www.realtimeservers.info
Realtime Servers provides high quality game server rentals.

http://www.ryuo.com
General.

http://www.srjoinery.com
Steve is a great joiner (Carpenter for our 'merkin buddies across the pond).

http://www.ss-polizei.com
Information on the Polizei.

http://www.ss-totenkopf.com
Information on the Totenkopf regiment for historians and collectors.

http://www.supportingit.com
We provide an unrivalled level of support for customers not wanting to learn the details of running their own web site with PHP and Ruby on Rails applications.

http://www.supportingit.net
General software and support services.

http://www.thesturmabteilung.com
Information on the Sturmbteilung.

http://www.thewehrmacht.com
Information on the Wehrmacht.

http://www.virtualcommander.com
A fan's development of a Battletech type game.

http://www.waffen-ss.co.uk
Information on the Waffen SS.

http://www.webdatacrypt.com
Intended to provide cryptography software.

Please note, none of the military, and in particular the nazi type domains are intended to provide anything other than information, and are absolutly not trying to glorify or promote the repugnant ideals behind them. Both myslef and the owner of these domains wish to stress that.

The domain name scam..... Errrmmm Business.

2005-08-23T10:34:00.000Z

Domain names are reasonably important. Getting the right one for your site is probably one of the more difficult items on your list of to-do's. If you think thats fun, just wait untill it expires.

The expiration process is tremendously difficult for people to understand, and its not getting any better. A domain can expire for a number of reasons, you may just have not seen the reminder, your registrar may be a reseller and may not have renewed it for you, the owner of the domain may not want it anymore etc. Lots of reasons.

Now, the domain name cycle is supposed to work along these lines.

Expiration -> Redemption -> Deletion

Expiration is self explanatory, the lease on the name has expired.

Redemption is a second chance, if your domain has expired, you have a chance to renew it. Cool! When it enters this phase, it will not work, so you will not be able to visit the site, collect email, etc. Now here is where it goes a little pear shaped, at least for you, the end user. This is where the registrar may charge you whatever they like, currently its about $200 dollars, to regain the registration of the name. It can stay in this status for about 30 days. OK, its not that bad, these guys have to make a living, and its not that expensive (at the moment), plus its probably your fault for not renewing it in time.

Deletion is the next phase, where the domain name is released, and available to be registered by anyone. Well, not quite. The registrar may hang on to it, and put a fake search engine (aka pay per click / advertising) up instead. What's worse, is they may keep the whois information showing you as the registered owner. Then they may sell it to the best offer, usually someone on a drop site as some registrars have exclusive arrangements to offer their names to a certain drop site.

I tried this out with my Registrar. Two domain names, with related keywords in each expiring on the same day. Both went through redemption and only one was actually deleted. Now, according to ICANN regulations, expiration is not a valid reason for denying a transfer to another registrar, but my request for the limbo'ed domain was denied, despite my OK to transfer it upon recieving a transfer notice. Less than a month after my request however, the details for the record were hidden. While all this was probably in the small print with my registrar, it does not feel right, and leaves you with a feeling that you have been cheated.

What all this means is, do not let your names expire. Strictly speaking, its not a scam either. You agree to be shafted when you register your domain.

Another point to remember is domains names are not your property, you simply lease them. Unless you get a trademark of course, you really have very few rights.

Real Life intrudes.....

2005-08-01T22:22:00.000Z

Real Life (or Tiling the bathroom, kitchen next) tends to get in the way. You have an idea, in this case creating a project management web application for people involved in a cgcollab - Computer Graphics Collaboration.
I've long had a fascination with 3d modeling and rendering, it comes from being into games development (albeit at an amateur level). And after reading an article in an issue of 3D World, I figured creating an app to make the life of these collaborators easier would make an excellent exercise in coding a PHP web site. www.cgcollab.com
Anyway, I have managed to get off to a flying start, planning sections like storyboarding, concepts, asset management and tasks. Hell, I may even build in a way to publish a web site from the project, and as I'm also a web host......

Its going to take a dedicated server and plenty of bandwidth though. Maybe a few servers if it takes off. How to fund it is starting to nag at the back of my mind. I had envisioned a free service at one point, but that would just wind up being abused pretty quickly, not to mention costing me a fortune. Maybe advertising, but no, that's too annoying. I may just limit access and manually approve projects, thus try to ensure that only active projects get a go. But then again. Maybe a nominal fee, it would put off casual users, but shouldn't deter those who intend to use it.

Of course charging means it has to be worth the cost to the end user, or they simply wont stump up any cash. I think I have that covered though. My design is pretty comprehensive, and actively aimed at the target audience.

Oh well, I may as well get back to it.

Host me tender, host me true, never let me down.

2005-07-28T20:20:00.000Z

I'm a web host.
A small one, admittedly, I only host clients I also work directly for. Sure, I had plans to expand, but there are a few gotchas I wanted to make sure were taken care of first.

The Billing....
The first one was making sure I had a billing and payment system that was not only going to actually work, but be easy to maintain and easy to use. So I looked around and settled on Modernbill. It's a fairly comprehensive package, supports numerous payment options and is quite customisable. Sweet. So I bought the 100 user version with a view to upgrading.
So it only supports the old version of 2Checkout (My chosen credit card processor), ah. I have a new account. Ummm...... PayPal it is then .....
Easy to use, sure, for geeks like me. I do not have a single customer who knows how to use the damn thing, so much for automation. Of course that may be my fault, I do tend to simply 'take care' of most of my clients problems, it's easier than education anyday.
Easy to update? Not on your nelly. Easier to reinstall every time more like. And thats not that easy.

Hosting the host.....
I don't have enough customers with large demands on bandwidth to justify a dedicated, real server. So I use a VPS. I did have two with a company called Tektonic, but after a few un-announced server outages for up to a day, they went one better. They lost everything, data and backups. Whats worse, despite logging a ticket, emailing them and attempting to call them, they stayed silent, not even to say there was a problem. It took eight days for their boss to say anything. And he wasnt addressing me, he was limiting the damage he had and giving it rock all with the sales patter on a public forum. Take my advice and stay away from Tektonic and Unixshell#, they are both run by the same guy. You can visit WebHostingTalk.com to check up on a hosts reputation if you are looking for one. Suffice to say I was very carefull in selecting a new host.

Always look on the bright side of life......
I have access to a reliable web designer (http://www.4design.tv), I can code in PHP, and I'm my own server admin/tech so I'm otherwise pretty well set. Once I have an affordable semi redundant hosting set up I'm good to go.

The self employed blues.....

2004-11-03T10:46:00.000Z

If you are in the same position, you probably already know what I'm about to say. Money. Or getting it.

I dont know what terms you place on your invoices, but I state seven days from date on the invoice. If you dont state terms, they have ninety days to pay, by law. These laws are there to help us little guys get paid by the big guys. Do they work? Do they hell.

They do give you the right to apply penalties, and take the non paying company to court, but that costs, and they may not want you for any of that nice future work they are dangling in front of you.

I dont really mind the big companies, who pay on a 30 or 60 day cycle, just because thats the way they do it, I have no problems with small business who usually pay up right away.

No, its the medium sized businesses, usually still run by the founder.

They suck.

Ever have problems managing international projects....

2004-11-01T14:44:00.000Z

Time differences, language barriers, cultural differences.......

In saying that, most people I deal with have an (almost) perfect grasp of the English language (better than Americans), whether they are German, Finnish, Dutch or Spanish. When I used to goof around and get sent to see the head in French, my counterparts must have been furiously swotting and revising like crazy the English classes they took.

Of course, this all seems to break down when discussing technical matters, its not that my counterparts misunderstand me, or I them, its just that they seem to miss out small but vital facts, like "yes, you can do that with our software, like so...." then omit that its an optional module that you do not have and leave you to get very frustrated thinking that you *must* be doing something wrong when it does not work.

And do not get me started on manuals...... They can speak perfect English, but ask them for a translated manual, and you end up with gibberish.