Over the past few months you may have heard the buzz about something called RSS syndication
G'Day Sizzlers!
Before we start, since you are Sizzler Newsletter
subscribers and also Sausage Software registered users.
We need to mention the Sausage Holiday Special. This has never been done before.
To view the special go to
http://www.sausage.com/special-offers.html. Upgrade users especially, note
your specials link at the top of the page that states this.
"If you are already a HotDog Professional Registered user
go here. Here is the catch, we have only produced 3,000 CD's
we have designated 1,500 for new orders and 1,500 for existing HotDog registered
users at a very reduced rate. This may sound like a large amount of CD's,
it's not. With 78,000 Sizzler Newsletters going out and other advertising this
will go very quickly. Check out the pricing and you'll see why. Because of a
severe fraud count of late, all CD's will be shipped with a signature required
with your registration information enclosed. At least this way when there is a
charge back the person that committed identity theft and stole someone's Credit
Card number will not benefit. For the people that wish to upgrade especially, if
you have access to use a fax please do so when ordering. We have a feeling this
could get overwhelming. How do I know if my order made it in time? No news, is
good news if we run out we will notify you within 24 hours of your order. If
this occurs, your order simply will not be processed.
Enough for this now on to the Sizzler.
Long time no Sizzler, well things at Sausage have
changed. As you can see we have given the site a rather substantial face-lift.
This was long over-due. So, what's new??? Let's do this in a list format for
easy skimming.
1. In August, Lockergnome who was providing the vehicle
for the newsletter (Lyris Server) opted
to change their mode of operation so we had to scour the
market for the best software that
would suit are needs. We accomplished this an sent out one
"test" message to all our subscribers.
What we found was 30% of them were either bouncing or being
blocked by spam filters. We recently
have heard the beat of a different drummer and have come up
with a way to solve this dilemma. More
about SPOT soon. And yes we will continue the Sizzler
Newsletter on a weekly basis.
2. Implemented the new helpdesk area for support.
This system works very well. You can find it at
http://www.sausagesupport.com/help This really organizes departments well.
It's the closest thing we
could come up with to live chat without stretching our
selves to thin. We are fielding about 250 emails a
day to the various departments. This covers everything
from Hosting to Lost Registration Keys. We are
averaging to date approximately 92% of all inquiries
are responded to within 24 hrs. This is by a real
person in a real department not an auto responder. This
is making growth and customer satisfaction
something that can co-exist. Usually during
growing pains of a company the end user suffers. We made
sure to keep you first. It wasn't accomplished
overnight. Things that work usually aren't.
3. Let's see in releases we have had quite a few.
HotDog 7 was released in May, with a total of 5 updates
since that release. HotFtp was released. PageWiz had a
minor tweaking. FlashPoint was released and
updated once. Boomer became a permanent resident with a
Boomer Pro version slated for January. Last
but not least the long awaited HotDog HTML Publisher.
This is on the CD only and is included with the
purchase. Let me take a minute for this. HotDog HTML
Publisher is a WYSIWYG editor with CSS support
and a really cool feature is it has a blogging tool
built directly in it. This gem will be released to the
general public in January. You can only get it on the
CD for now. : ) All registration and general upgrade
rules apply. Lockergnome News Feeder is a branded feed
reader that provides you content on a grand
scale. Two more offering in the wings are HotDog Feed
Builder and SPOT.These are for the creation and
the reading of XML/RSS files. We firmly believe that
this format is not a fad but a trend and will show
exponential growth in the next six months. SPOT is the
name of our aggregator. "Ok, Why build 2
different aggregators?" This is simple, Sausage is a
software provider not a general content provider
even though we will be creating RSS feeds for Sausage
Software. What we have built is a turn-key RSS
delivery system that can be customized to any of our
corporate clients needs.
4. Hosting prices have changed and we offer more of a variety of packages to fit
any pocket book and
can provide co-location on a case by case basis. We have
Flash tutorials that will become a part of
Sausage Hosting as to using all the features of Cpanel X
within the next 48 hours.
Keep on Sizzling and Thanks,
Travis Martin
Sausage Sizzler News
I can be reached at http://www.sausagesupport.com/help
The 3 most asked questions to the helpdesk.
1.
Q. I'm HotDog Professional 7 and using Windows XP, it seems like my cursor
freezes and then after a minute it will be ok. How do I fix this?
A. Running Hotdog under Windows XP, In some cases and
with some configurations Hotdog will seem to slow down during editing of pages,
the symptoms are slowing down of the cursor, it looks like the editor has frozen
up, then it pops back to normal again, and then the cycle repeats itself. How do
you solve this?
Simple,
Go to Control Panel > Performance & maintenance/System/Advanced/Performance.
Click on Settings tab, click on Advanced.
In Processor scheduling check "Background Services", and in Memory Usage check "Programs".
Click OK, and click ok again.
This should have solved the problem
2.
Q. Two different scenario's for the same question.
- I can't upgrade to HotDog Professional 7 it states that I am an invalid user.
- I can't re-register my Sausage Software product on my new machine it states I'm an invalid user.
A. When you registered your software when you purchased it you had a specific
email address that you entered that you are probably not using anymore. To
get this changed go to the HelpDesk and proceed to the area for Lost Keys. Send us the following
information or as much of it as you can. Which Product, what was your email address at the time of
purchase, and the best one your Sausage Software Registration ID number. We will get it sorted out
for you or phone you at our expense to resolve the problem.
3.
Q. I have Hotdog Professional 7, I receive the message "memory buffer under-run"
and the program won't start.
A. This question comes up quite a bit. What it means is one of the following
things are true.
- A key that was found on a WAREZ site was entered into the program
- Your computer clock was set back in time more than 24 hours in the trial version. Yes our software knows what time it is. : )
- There is hackerware on your computer that attempted some mischief.
Over the past few months you may have heard the buzz about something called RSS
syndication. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a lightweight XML format
designed for sharing headlines and other Web content directly with it's readers.
RSS was originated by Userland in 1997 and used by Netscape to offer content in
"channels" for their Netcenter visitors.
Today, RSS channels or "feeds" can be aggregated directly to your desktop by
using software know as an aggregator. This software can be found scattered all
over the internet on a variety of download sites. Content aggregation was slow
to start off with initially. However, that quickly changed as the idea of
publishing your own personal content began to take off. Weblog writers or "bloggers"
have literally transformed the face of web based content almost over night.
Blogging software such as Movable Type combined the power of personal publishing
and personal syndication into one dynamic setup. Because of these events, RSS
traveled at a fiery speed as it tore through the internet to thousands of blog
reader's desktops. Blogging is the parigem shift that started the mainstream RSS
syndication movement for the home user.
Current trends today dictate that RSS is quickly becoming the choice method for
all types of web based content delivery. Yes, there are still a few naysayers,
but overall the virtual steamengine that RSS syndication rides on continues to
push forward. Publishers are beginning to understand just how powerful RSS
really is. For instance, huge web portals such as Yahoo! readily offer RSS feeds
for their most popular content. Also newspapers such as the Seattle P.I. and
specific national magazines like U.S. News are jumping on the bandwagon as well.
Not everyone offering web based content has the time, nor the desire to publish
their own RSS feeds. Media sources that are not publishing feeds themselves are
allowing services such as NewsisFree.com and Moreover.com to do the hard part
for them. These services, "scrape" feeds together and host them on their own
servers. If you look, you can find feeds for almost any area of interest these
days. There is something to be said about browsing, for everything from sports
to entertainment headlines, without having to jump from website to website.
So who are the major players in the RSS movement? There are so many people that
have slaved away long hours so that RSS can eventually become more mainstream.
You might hear names like Dave Winer thrown around from time to time. Heck, even
Bill Gates has RSS in his crosshairs with the upcoming Microsoft Operating
System code-named Longhorn due to come out in 2006.
It is important to understand that there are many folks that have contributed to
the success of RSS. None of these people have received as much attention about
this subject as Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome. "E-mail is dead, period," declares
Chris Pirillo, the Internet entrepreneur who distributes about 400,000 e-mail
newsletters weekly. "I don't care what kind of legislation goes through, people
aren't signing up for newsletters anymore. People are assuming that every e-mail
publisher is a spammer." This comment has literally thundered throughout the
publishing industry and the internet as a whole. Newspapers such as the Seattle
P.I., just one of many regional and national publications, have helped to spread
Chris's message regarding the demise of email. He has been an active RSS
"advocate" for quite sometime now.
The biggest remaining problem, for the average person wanting to read content,
is figuring out which aggregator to use. Search the 'net and you will find
countless options out there to choose from. Most aggregators out there are
cumbersome and difficult to use. Never fear though, Sausage Software is
developing a newsreader called "Spot". The first release of this software is due
out soon.
So where will the future of RSS end up? There are so many possible directions
that it could go, it could easily boggle the mind. One new area of development,
is a syndication architecture called Atom. Another new architecture is called
RSS 2.0, and is very popular among most publishers. RSS 2.0 and Atom are
basically competing for the future of content syndication at this point. As of
this moment, I would say that it could go either way.
So what about email? Is it really dead? Personally, I believe that there will
always be a place for email. This is the most effective method of common
communication back and forth for most people.
Where does this leave RSS? Is this syndication architecture really as useful and
important as the RSS advocates claim? Well, let me put it this way. In the
1990's the world was turned upside down by a web based tool called the "search
engine". This gave everyday people the ability to sift through huge droves of
information in a matter of minutes. Thanks to the power of RSS syndication,
people can now do it in a matter of seconds. You be the judge. - TM
