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24 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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Is There A Point To This Rapidly Moving Merry-Go-Round?
I am sure that if you asked a dozen people about the purpose of the Internet you would get a dozen different answers. Some people see it as an effective money making vehicle. Some see it as a tool for advancing the ever widening political divide in our country. One might wish that the Internet and the Blogosphere might be used for unifying purposes rather than muckraking and political hate mongering. I prefer to look at the Internet as the greatest tool for the success of an organization and the advancement of a unified cause.
Maybe many of our people have never seen that power that comes through the advancement of a unified cause. I have seen such. I am sure that companies are moving forward to success these days. However, on the surface, it seems like most of the entities we know of do so through a rather dysfunctional and cut-throat series of disjointed events. Someone looking at the status of our political scene might come away wondering how long we will be able to continue functioning as a successful nation. Click to continue »
Pursuing All Things Web
| Category: purpose of technology | Tag: blogosphere, common good, common wellbeing, politics, purpose of Internet, unified purpose |
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24 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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Spam: Good In The Lunchbox But Bad In The Mail Box?
Email spammers are persistent. They go by the words of Napoleon Hill, "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." With spammers the first two ingredients are certainly present; they have persistence and patience. This makes spammers very difficult to get rid of. They believe that if they make only one sale out of 50,00 pieces of mail sent they are successful. Therefore those wanting to get rid of spam mail are going to need to practice certain principles diligently. There are 3 good tips that everyone should use to prevent most spam mail.
Don't Sign Up With An Email Account You Want To Keep
The Internet has many interesting free offers. There is everything from free software to free advice. Every time someone signs up they will end up on another person's mailing list. Those Internet marketers who are legitimate will send you a confirmation email and ask you to confirm that you indeed signed up. By this method, called Double Opt In, they give you the chance to rule out that your husband or teen did not sign you up. Under this method, you may opt out at any time want and you will stop receiving the emails. The problem is that there is also an irresponsible way to run email marketing. Click to continue »
Pursuing All Things Web
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17 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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As Internet users we have to deal with the problem of spam Email. Most people already have effective tools for dealing with spam. It is a simple matter to set up spam filters which will protect us from all of that unwanted spam.
All Internet users should fall into one of two categories. It is likely that we either have an ISP which offers spam filters or we have an online hosting service which offers them. We shall take a look at the spam filters that are offered by online hosting services. I speak of those included in the cPanel of your hosting account. Most are probably very similar.
cPanel Offers Good Spam Filters
The cPanel will have a section entitled Mail. Under the Mail section chose the option "User Level Filtering". This option will allow you to set filters for each email account that is set up under your hosting account. Choose the partcular account that you want to set filters for. Click the button at the top which is called "Create A New Filter". When you do this you will get a page which looks much like a web form. At the top name the filter. You may set up a number of rules (think conditions) which oif met, will allow the server to deal with your spam mail. In my instance, Click to continue »
Pursuing All Things Web
| Category: Spam Prevention | Tag: Spam Assassin, Spam Blocker, Spam Filters, Spam Prevention |
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17 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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Drupal is a great, powerful and flexible Content Management System which has been used to build some of the greatest websites in the world. Some of the sites built with Drupal have include Sony BMG and Economist.com. Drupal was used to consolidate 24 websites owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Peoria, IL. The 24 Joomla sites had presented various problems and were consolidated into one Drupal installation. When all things were finished, the new site built with Drupal was running better than the former setup and with less server resources.
Drupal is an Open Source CMS that is maintained by thousands of Developers around the world. While touted as more difficult to use than Joomla, I have found Drupal to be easier to understand and more agreeable to work with. The amount of free themes and modules far outweighs those available with Joomla. As of this date Drupal has 7,695 free modules to work with. It is possible to do everything with Drupal: from Forums, to Ecommerce to Podcasting. A tremendous security module, called Mollom, is available in a free and paid version.
The new Version 7 of Drupal came out a few days ago. Installation was easier than ever before. Some features have been built in which were formerly available as modules. Cron is now included, where formerly, a Cron module needed to be installed. The interface has been streamlined with AJAX technology adding to a more pleasurable experience. Various things are new in the most recent version. I have not had a chance to look it all over well. One thing I can say from experience: "When I look it over I will be looking at quality and excellence."
Pursuing All Things Web
| Category: Content Management Systems | Tag: CMS, Drupal, Drupal 7 Released |
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9 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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Someone Important Was Hacked On Facebook
We have all heard the horror stories about Internet security lapses, hackers and the like. It appears that the CEO and founder of Facebook had his profile hacked last week. This news might be the true justification for the man I met in the store this week who claimed that he would never have a computer. Most of us will never go that far, but we are all interested in have some real assurances of security online.
Mark Zuckerberg Takes Steps to Insure Facebook Security
The weakest point of security which allows a hacker is to gain access to an account is through capturing traffic on an insecure network, like a public Wi-Fi hotspot. This means that on an open public Wi-Fi network (such as at Starbucks or other cafes). In such situations it is possible for a hacker to gain access to your data as it moves through the network. Doing things that involve passwords and credit card transactions is risky in these settings.
Facebook has introduced a new security feature that all users can access. The new feature will cause your access to Facebook to be over a secure "https" connection such as you would encounter on a secure online shopping cart (notice padlock on lower right corner). To enable this feature click on Account in the upper right corner and select Account Settings. On that page click on Account Security. The first option at the top will be Secure Browsing (https). Click that, then hit the blue Save button just below it. Now you will be using Facebook over a secure connection.
The secure "https" connection is much more secure than an ordinary connection. This is good news for Facebook members who want to use their accounts on a public, unsecured network.. The wisest course of action would be to avoid doing any credit card transactions on a public network regardless of having a secure "https" connection through the site. And it is probably not necessary to use this secure option if you are at home on your own network (the use of it may slow down your browsing experience).
Pursuing All Things Web
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1 Feb
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Posted by Greg Nicholl
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Pursuing All Things Web
