Archive for April, 2005


Works with Netscape 4.08!

4/6/2005

Netscape used to be my favorite browser a long time ago. Back when the browser wars were in full swing, I was a hardcore Netscape user. I absolutely refused to use Internet Exploder Explorer. I still hate using IE and am a Firefox nut now, but that’s not the point. My Netscape flavor of choice was v4.08 “Browser Only” version. It was small and light. Worked great. I also used that browser to “bench test” all my web design, because I knew if a site worked in Netscape 4.08, it would work anywhere.

One thing that absolutely astonishes me is that yahoo.com still works (to this day!) with Netscape 4.08. Seriously, it leaves me scratching my head and saying to myself “How does Yahoo do that?” It’s a true testament to good design if your site is that much backwards compatible.

But anyway, this current rendition of this site does work in Netscape 4.08. It’s not perfect, but it does not crash the browser, everything shows up as it should and all pages work well. Kudos to me. (grin)

If you’re feeling the need to run a really old browser, the best browser archive is browsers.evolt.org. The Netscape I used is here, look for “4.08navonly”.

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Linksys and Wireless = Bad Idea

4/6/2005

After using my Linksys WRT54G (wireless router) for a little while now, here’s my opinion of it: It sucks. It keeps dropping the connection all the time which is very VERY annoying. I will be ordering a new wireless router from D-Link tonight and just get the thing overnighted to me. Yeah, the dropped connections are annoying me that much. (grin)

Normally I don’t resort to such drastic maneuvers.. but I don’t pay for fast internet just to have my connections drop. When you’re doing FTP, transferring files between computers and so on, the connection has to be solid or the data corrupts.. and we can’t have that now, can we? ;-)

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My truck is metal

4/7/2005

I was listening to a rock radio station on my way home today. I took my normal exit off the highway. There is a stop sign at the end where I stop (obviously) and then turn. So I get to the stop sign and put the blinker on. As I’m waiting for traffic to clear, “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC comes on the radio. As I’m listening, my blinker is in exact time with the drums.

Awesome.

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Google hates blogs?

4/8/2005

Before I start off my day today, I noticed something a little weird in my server logs. Google barely hits this site, while other engines like MSN and Inktomi (Yahoo) crawl this site like crazy. After doing a lil’ research, it seems that Google doesn’t “like” sites with feeds on them (xml, rss and so on).

The big G likes to filter a lot of stuff evidently. You won’t find too many Geocities, Angelfire or Lycos sites (the good ones that aren’t ancient).. and you also won’t find a lot of other stuff listed on other engines like MSN or Yahoo. Kinda sucks actually.

Guess the big G don’t like this site either. Oh well, no biggie.. just kinda sad and annoying at the same time.

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Slightly more than half

4/9/2005

Well, it would seem that broadband users are finally outgunning the dial-up users (in the USA at least). According to this article (which is old but I just found it today), slightly more than half of everyone using the ‘net in the US is on broadband. From a web designer’s perspective, this is good information to know. It means that it’s more or less “safe” to put things on your web site that would otherwise be inaccessible to people on a slow dial-up connection.

Even if this statistic is true, I still design my sites to be dial-up friendly. I don’t think dial-up internet is ever truly going to go away.. at least not for a long time. I still know a few people who use dial-up.

But check this out:

The cost between dial-up and broadband is almost a wash. The cheapest broadband you can get is $35 a month. The cheapest dial-up you can get is $25 a month.

“But dial-up internet is $9.95 a month.” True, for the service only - you didn’t take into account the cost of the phone line. Read on.

If you want a plain old dial-up internet connection, you need a phone line. The cheapest phone line you can get is about $15 a month. That’s a regular phone line with no frills (not even Caller ID). Add to that the $10 bucks a month it takes to get internet and your total cost per month is $25 a month, assuming the phone call it takes to get connected to the internet is local.

DSL Broadband internet uses the same method, that being the phone line. The line is $15 a month. The cheapest broadband I have found is $19.95 a month. Total cost is $35 a month.

In basic terms, you more or less have to decide whether or not you want to spend the extra ten bucks a month. To be honest, anyone can afford that. Anyone. There’s basically no excuse not to be on broadband any longer if it’s that cheap.

The only time you would be paying more for fast internet is if DSL broadband is not available in your area. If this is the case, you have to use cable television or satellite. At that point the cost for broadband goes up exponentially, to the tune of around $75 on cable and slightly less for satellite.

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I should take stock in socks

4/10/2005

Site changed again.. and now it definitely won’t work with Netscape 4.08, although I haven’t tried it (and why would I bother?) The crux of the biscuit is basically this: It’s my site. Why I continue to argue over “compatibility” I don’t know. I mean, this site is already designed better than about, oh, 99% of the sites out there anyway due to its ease of use. I mean, I don’t want to make my site ultra useable like this one. I’d rather have a lil’ style to it, sheesh. ;-)

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Getting atomic

4/12/2005

I needed a little clock for the kitchen table where I pay my bills and found a nice little travel clock for that at Radiio Shack. Reason for buying: I always forget the date. I needed a clock that would display the date whilst I’m writing out bill payments. The clock has a nice little perk: It’s an atomic clock. This means it automatically sets the time via radio signal. I have another atomic wall clock in my home office. Very cool to have because you never have to set them, they set themselves.

One of these days I’ll have to get an atomic watch (they do exist).. if I ever decide to start wearing a watch again. :-)

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It pays when you do your research

4/13/2005

The next “wave” of advertising (should you call it that) is going to occur for my biz relatively soon. I’ve been doing a lot of research on advertising lately, which included several phone calls, e-mails and so on. This is what I’ve found out.

Concerning print:

Newspapers, while powerful, will positively rape you on cost. It’s no wonder they have shiny offices with nice furniture in them. These guys make a mint and a half. Just recently I got a cost quote for the “A” section for large newspaper in Maine. The cost for an itty bitty ad is almost $10,000.00 a month — and here’s the kicker: You might get in the “A” section. There’s no guarantee. Would you pay 10k for something that might happen? Neither would I. How can you expect to make 10k back in only a month unless you’re selling high-ticket items?

Concerning magazines, I would love to speak with anyone who has actually had a magazine ad work for them. From what I can tell, you have to pour out cash like soup for many months to get any kind of response whatsoever. Like newspaper companies, magazine companies also have nice big shiny offices too. This is because they charge an arm and a leg just like the ‘papers. I once got a quote for a back cover, it was $25,000. No joke. And that was for a smaller magazine.

A while ago I looked at billboard advertising. Of course, this type of advertising all depends on location. If you’re going to use billboards, you have to pick one that’s in a high-traffic area, like Boston for example. You will spend tens of thousands of dollars for a single billboard run, but, in my estimation there is a much higher probability you will get back when you put into it. However, I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend.. (du-huh..) I also don’t feel like going on a waiting list for a billboard, either.

I also looked at large-print advertising on buses. There is the “king” side, “queen” side, and the back of the bus. The back of the bus is what you want, simply because that’s the part of the bus most people look at. Once again, this costs tens of thousands of dollars for a single bus, but, your ad does move and is shown in a lot of places. The drawback is that your ad will only show up for about 3 months on average. Oh, and I should say that you can also advertise on the inside of the bus. I forget what the terminology for that kind of print ad is.. but it’s available.

Concerning television:

I’m going to give away a few of my trade secrets here since I used to buy/sell television ad time, take notes. (grin)

A few things to bear in mind concerning television advertising.

* Instant gratification does not exist. There are those who would foolishly believe that as soon as you advertise something on television, people will instantly buy it. Wrong. Very wrong. An unofficial statistic is that someone will have to see your ad a minimum (repeat, minimum) of six times before they even consider buying it. Don’t be told otherwise, because anything else you’ve heard just isn’t true. If you think that “impulse buyers” would even think about buying your stuff, think again. Some people say “Well, there are people on QVC who impulse buy stuff all the time”. Yeah, ON QVC - not from regular television. If your goal is to target impulse buyers, then you should get your product on QVC. (duh!)

* Short-run advertising campaigns do not work for new products and/or retail establishments. This is because the exposure level is way too low. Waaaaay to low. What is a short-run campaign? 13 weeks. And yes, that’s short. No one will ever remember you in 3 months. A long campaign is six months or more. If you want to promote proper business exposure you will need a minimum of at least six months of advertising. And yeah, it will cost you a shitload of money.

Is there a solution to this conundrum? Yep. The answer is cheap late-night advertising on cable television. I happen to know places in the United States that sell cable television advertising for less than 50 cents per 30-second slot. That’s $350 for 700 ads per month. Span that over six months and you got a total cost of $2100. Bear in mind that’s 4200 ad showings. You want ROI? That’s ROI. Unless your product totally sucks, anyone can sell something if it’s shown 4200 times. (hehe)

Small side note: To those whose ears just perked up from reading that, you can contact me and I can set that up for you. I charge 20% finder’s fee. Do the math. It’s still dirt cheap. (grin)

Concerning print (again):

So anyway, concerning my biz, the service I provide doesn’t sell well on television, so it’s back to print again. My target is going to be a “trade” magazine this time. I think this might just work. Trade mags have very high readership. They also have wide distribution. The best part: Advertising is cheap. I’ve discovered (or actually rediscovered) a trade mag up north which I’ll be getting in the mail in a few days. If I like what I see, I can get 12 weeks (three months) of good advertising for… (drum roll..) 200 bucks.

I don’t think it gets any better than that, so I may give it a go.

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Justification

4/13/2005

I feel that I have to justify why I said what I said in my last post.

First of all, I do not normally rant that loud in public. There are very few instances on this blog where you will see that. The reason the big rants are few and far between is because I don’t want this place to be a site where all you hear is me complaining about stuff. Granted, I complain a lot. We all do. Life isn’t life without complaining about something from time to time. There are times when you just have to let it out - and I let it out there.

Secondly, I hate liars. Everyone feels that way, so I’m no different than how anyone else would feel about them. The guy I mentioned lied to me and to my friends - and the list doesn’t end there, it’s growing. He’s basically piling it on pretty thick, and now the weight is going to crush him. When you lie, you’re eventually going to get caught. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will get caught.

Third, I hate liars who call themselves businessmen (or businesswomen). It’s one thing to lie. It’s twice as worse when it concerns money. We already know that people hate being lied to, and when there’s money concerned that’s most likely being used in not-too-honest ways, well.. you can figure out what happens next.

The guy I spoke of tried and failed miserably to screw me and screw one of my best friends. It’s painfully obvious that he didn’t care and didn’t want to care, and that’s bad business, plain and simple.

I have never in all my years of business ever tried to intentionally screw someone over. I have had the opportunity, but I don’t do it, and I won’t do it. This is because the ends don’t justify the means. Good businesspeople create lasting relationships based on trust. Without trust, there is nothing.

..and that guy’s got nothing now.

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I don’t know who Lucida is, but she makes good fonts

4/13/2005

I’ve decided to use “Lucida” fonts here. If you take a look at Standard installed Windows XP fonts, there are two Lucida’s in there. One is Lucida Console and the other is Lucida Sans Unicode. I think they look cool, and they’re very readable.

So, if you’re using XP, you will see the Lucida fonts. If you’re not using XP, you will see Verdana or Trebuchet MS. If you’re not using Windows at all, you’ll see the stock sans-serif fonts for your operating system. (grin)

Realistically speaking, no one give a shit about what font you use as long as you can read whatever it is you put on your site. But I changed the fonts around so I’d thought I’d blab about it, so there. :P

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