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Archive for March, 2008

Web Hosting Choice

Monday, March 24th, 2008

WebHostingChoice.com is another web hosting directory, but it’s much more nice and clean in the layout then any other hosting directory I’ve ever seen before . Most web hosting directories are packed with ads, usually so many ads that the content and the comparisons are hard to find, but not in this directory.

They got a nice resource center where you can learn a lot about dedicated server, scams, domains, cheap hosting, bandwidth, colocation and much more. The guide about dedicated servers is really useful since most people don’t realize the difference between managed and unmanaged dedicated servers but only look at the price tag on the server. As the guide is mentioning it can be expensive to go for managed but it’s really good for people with limited technical experience and for newbies until they’ve learned enough about servers . Here’s a short quote, but please read the full guide about dedicated server:

While more expensive, it will save you the headache of trying to get your server to work if there are any problems.

There’s also a good quick start guide where you can learn all the basic steps and facts about getting your own domain name and getting your site hosted. The quick start guide is also giving some advice on the design of your web site and you can read about some common scams in the web design business.

What I really like about the scam section is the explanation, or maybe I should say warning, about the “unlimited bandwidth” scam. A lot of newbies fall for the unlimited bandwidth scam thinking they can just pay $1.99 per month for unlimited bandwidth, but if that would be true then Yahoo!, Google and all the other big companies wouldn’t pay millions for their bandwidth.

Unlimited bandwidth/space - it is simply impossible for a company to offer unlimited space or bandwidth to use. As hosting companies and their associated technologies are themselves limited (i.e. bandwidth or hard disk space), unlimited offerings are usually just an advertising gimmick. Often you will find clauses embedded deep within the company’s terms of service contract that negate the unlimited offering. The clauses are usually arbitrary, such as excessive CPU usage will be grounds for account termination.

Check out WebHostingChoice.com today.

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Posted in Web hosting | 1 Comment »

How to create your own favicon

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I guess you’ve all seen that sometimes when you visit a site or bookmark a new page their icon is not the usual standard icon. Have a look at the following examples if you haven’t noticed the icons before:

blog.xaviermedia.com in the Firefox address bar www.sampladdress.com in the Firefox address bar

As you can see, www.sampleaddress.com got the boring standard icon while blog.xaviermedia.com got the Xavier Media logo as favicon.

This may seem like a kind of useless function, but this icon is actually really valuable. Since it’s not only used in the address bar of the browser, but it also shows up in the bookmark list making your site standout from the rest of the bookmarks. Why would all the big sites like Google and Yahoo use it otherwise?

There are several online favicon creators that are both free and easy to use. I created the Xavier Media favicon at www.favicon.cc for example. At favicon.cc you can design the icon from scratch or upload a picture (like your company or web site logo) and the creator is free to use:

When you’ve designed your new favicon.ico icon you simply upload it to the root of your web site like www.sampleaddress.com/favicon.ico. You also need to add this tag of HTML code between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags to make the favicon work on all your pages:

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

For some reason I only got this to work in Firefox and not Internet Explorer, so I had to use a favicon validator I found using Google. The validator will check if you’ve done everything correct setting your favicon up, and according to it I did so I have no idea why I can’t see the favicon in IE .

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Posted in HTML & The Web | No Comments »

Fun stuff from Google

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

I think Google only hires developers with a good sense of humor. I base this on all the funny features and hidden jokes you can find in almost every Google product or service. Here’s a couple of funny things I’ve found.

Easter game

Since it’s Easter you simply just have to try the Easter bunny game Google got at Google.com. The game is really simply, you just move around your mouse pointer to help the Google bunny collect eggs to spell GOOGLE.

iGoogle

Have you tried changing themes in iGoogle? Not, well then it’s time you do since some of the themes got some hidden features built-in. For example the City scape theme is visited by UFOs at 03.14 in the morning and if you select the Beach view you get to see the Loch Ness creature (also at 03.14 in the morning).

Gmail Paper

This service was actually an April fools joke, but check it out anyway. This service is something you use when you need to have your emails printed and delivered to your doorstep . Did anyone fall for this joke?

Foreign languages

I guess you all know by now that Google is available in almost any spoken language in the world, but did you know that Google is also available in languages like Klingon (for non-geeks: it’s from Star Trek ), Elmer Fudd and Pig latin.

Google Gulp

Another April fools joke where you drink Google Gulp to increase your surfing powers . Google Gulp is available in four different flavors.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)â„¢ with Auto-Drinkâ„¢ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of “smart drinks” designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.

Get the answer to the ultimate question

Do you want to know the answer to life the universe and everything? Then you can use the built-in calculator in Google to find the answer. Just visit Google.com and search for “answer to life the universe and everything“. The answer is from Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy if you hadn’t figured that out

Googoth

This is not an actual Google service, but instead more like a parody on the Google search engine. Visit Google.com and use the “I’m feeling lucky” function to find “Google Gothic“.

Google maps and street view

Using the correct coordinates in Google maps you can check out a picture of the people behind Google. Just check out this link and you’ll see what I mean. Don’t forget to zoom in

Swim across the Atlantic Ocean

I don’t think this is working any more, but if you use Google Earth or Google Maps to get directions from for example London to Boston you get the advice to “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean”. You can read more about this at Google Earth Blog.

Now you’ve had fun a couple of minutes so get back to work! Just kidding , have a nice Easter holiday everyone!

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Posted in Fun & Games, Google | 3 Comments »