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Sausage Sizzler - HotDog History |
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| Editorial October 9, 2002 |
G'Day Sizzlers!
We are slowly but surely moving forward with various projects at Sausage. This is great for everyone, especially us! "Why?" you ask. Well it is a great feeling to know that old our hard work and effort since buying the company is going to turn into something useful and great for our customers, both old and new.
At the moment I am also putting together some packages that should help our customers get more bang for their buck. The packages will involve our hosting and domain name service as well as our products of course. To keep our die hard fans happy we are even going to include new merchandise, such as t-shirts and baseball caps.
Some of you were not happy with the amount of pop-ups that came with the Marketing Tips article link. I checked it out and was disappointed as well so I asked the guys at Marketing Tips to do something about it. They complied and have set up a new landing page where you can get more info but will not get a single pop-up. I really do not like pop-ups either so I really appreciated this being done.
Finally keep reading Bram's Gear Grinders series as he describes how to set up a local development environment that is accessible to the outside world. I just bought myself an old desktop for $30 which I will be setting up to do this.
Keep on sizzling!
Nathan Allan
Sausage Sizzler Editor
editor@sausage.com
Letting the outside in: Setting up a local development environment
Last week I went into much detail about what a router, especially the Linksys that I love, can do for you. I also touched on how to broadcast your IP address, as given to you by your ISP, to the general public. One should note that Google may likely never cache your connection, at least not if you're on a dynamic IP (refreshing as needed by the ISP).
Of course, if your ISP has sold you a dynamic IP (DSL does this now) then of course you don't need to read any further. Just set up a domain name and place your IP in those settings and you are ready.
Last week I mentioned that one way of broadcasting your dynamic IP is with a free service such as DynDNS.org. I also went into detail about how I use my DnyDNS URL with a sub-domain, making it much easier to utilize.
One thing I didn't go into detail about was how I actually broadcast my IP address to DynDNS. DynDNS offers links to a variety of Windows programs that are specifically written to broadcast IP addresses. The program I've used for approximately 2 years is called DeeENES.
One great thing about this program is that you can install it first and then use that program to learn about all different dynamic DNS hosts. I've used DynDNS.org for the same 2 years and I know they work well, so I continue to use them.
I happen to have 3 PCs on my LAN. Two are Windows 2000 and one is my development machine. The second Windows PC is my file and print server and on that machine I have DeeENES in start up. The program starts with the PC and broadcasts to DynDNS my current ISP-given IP address.
The tiny program actually does a lot. It detects changes as they occur and it also keeps a log on all that it does. Every so often while working on my development work I may not be able to reach myself. 99% of the time it's because my IP address changed and DeeENES hasn't yet refreshed. Again, this is rare, but it does happen. What do I do? I simply walk over to that PC and click on DeeENES and force an update. Within a minute I am back in action.
That PC does a few tasks for me, and even though it's essentially only a few footsteps away in the front closet, I'm thinking about becoming lazy and installing PC Anywhere Host on that machine and client on my work machine. Why get up if I can click? Actually, it would save some time.
Well, there's not much more to letting outsiders in. The only thing I can think of is that with any constant-on connection, port sniffers will find you. If I took the time to check my routers inbound traffic log, I'm sure I'd see a lot of action. But because the only port open is Port 80 on the Linux machine (knock on wood) all should be safe.
Have questions? Post them here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=937
Discuss your experiences with Bram
NMS
Richard Anderson was the first of many readers to recommend the NMS site over Matt's Script Archive. The scripts are the same as Matt's but do not include some of the same security holes and are generally coded better.
Here is what Jason had to say:
"Just a note about the Matt's script archive. The scripts are generally dreadfully insecure. The formmail script has been a favorite of spammers for quite a while now. Matt Wright has said that he no longer codes in the way the scripts are written.
Some people have beefed up the scripts at:
http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/
There are some interesting comments by Matt Wright there".
Editors Note:I will be sending Richard a little something as a thank you for his prompt "heads-up" on this. Thanks Richard to adding to the quality of this newsletter!
Review by Nathan
The Evolution of the Dog
Well our ever growing thread on the new HotDog Character took a turn the other day when Erich posted pictures of all the old characters.
This was definitely a blast from the past for a lot of older users. I copied them onto my own personal site so that Erich would not be overrun by you guys hitting his site. Take a look at them here:
http://www.netbloke.com/hotdog/
The thread can be found here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=846
Erich was the helpful Forums user who got together all of the various images of the HotDog Character. For his efforts I have decided to award him with one of our new Sausage T-Shirts. They are just like the older ones, however they have our yet to be announced catch phrase on the back. Erich's profile can be seen here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=869
Review by Nathan
Seeing Double
For years I've used computers for most things I do. In high school it was for AutoCAD on a PC. In college it was AutoCAD on a PC and writing papers on a MAC. After college, I used a PC for all work related production. Each of those times, I was staring at one screen.
Almost 2 years ago I saw something that I had never thought of and now, cannot live without. A programmer that worked at my dot-com commandeered the monitor of a PC that had been used by someone else (until she had been fired for doing little or no work). I had never seen a PC handle two monitors as one, larger, continuous desktop.
After a few weeks I began to get very envious of the set up, seeing how much more productive having 2 monitors actually turned out to be. Since that time I have been a two-monitor person.
It makes a huge difference in what I can get done largely because I'm not switching back on forth on one screen between anything I'm doing and then previewing. Likewise if I'm working on some documents and I need to refer to e-mail, I have Outlook in one screen and my work in the other.
A major benefit as well, besides being able to view 2 windows at once, is that you can maximize both, or double what you did before.
One thing to make note of is screen quality. 3 years ago, I had no idea of the difference in quality between a "standard" CRT and a Flat Screen CRT. I had of course heard of Flat Panel LCDs, but I had also heard of their megaprice tags. Let me tell you this -- if you currently use a standard, low-cost monitor, the one that has a convex (curved outward) glass screen, throw it out or donate it. Flat Panel CRTs are actually 3 monitors in one.
In the standard CRT there is one projector and the glass is curved so that the projection spreads to all corners. In a Flat Screen CRT, there are 3 projectors and 3 screens that add up to one image. Because the projectors are aligned with their portion of screen, the glass can be flat. That allows for much higher resolution and a crisper and brighter image. The brand you choose is also important. I know that Dell and Gateway use a similar tube. I currently have two 19" Viewsonic monitors, both PF790's. They are crisp, but they are also HUGE. In December I replaced my Gateway system with a home built one. Originally it was because I was going to have one system at home, one at work. A few things changed and now I have an extra PC.
Anyone interested? It's still under warranty:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2060245257
One thing that I am still not sure about is overall image quality of a Flat Screen CRT versus a Flat Panel LCD monitor. I have been told many times that while a Flat Panel LCD is great for saving space, it's not as good for graphic design work because of its lower refresh rates. I have yet to find anything online that gives a definitive answer. Regardless, even with lower prices now, I'm not ready to spend $1000 total for two 19" Flat Panel LCDs.
If you've never used two monitors on one PC, make sure you know that it requires either 2 video cards or one card with 2 outputs. With my Gateway and my current PC, I've learned one very important thing. While it's great to have 2 video cards of nearly equal power, nothing is as good as AGP. Both systems have one AGP card and one PCI. Next time I build a PC, it will have a dual-port AGP card -- something to consider.
I'd very much like to hear back from any of you with experience and knowledge on Flat Screen CRT vs. Flat Panel LCD.
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=936
Discuss with Bram
Save Yourself a Fortune in Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Bidding on keywords in the pay-per-click search engines can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site. But before you start bidding on all of those relevant search terms, here's a little tip that could save you a small fortune: Close the Gaps.
You should always bid $0.01 MORE than the site in the position BELOW you
. This may seem obvious, but I often see people bidding $0.01 LESS than the bid ABOVE them.
For example, let's say you want to be ranked in the #2 position for the keyword "stereo equipment." The highest bid for this term is $1.65. The next highest bid is $1.03. So to rank in the #2 position, you should bid $1.04, NOT $1.64.
Either way, you'd be listed in the #2 position, but by carefully managing your bids and closing the gap, you'll have saved a whopping $0.60 per click! And these kinds of savings can add up very quickly!
For more tips check out:
http://www.marketingtips.com/
Tip by Corey Rudl
To read the Sizzler Forums you do not need to be a member.
However to take full advantage of this resource it will only take
you a few seconds to sign up!
- Go to: http://www.sizzlerforums.com
- Read the information and click on the REGISTER button
- Fill out the form
- You will receive an email that you simply reply to
- Hey presto! Your a fully fledged Sizzler Forums member!
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