NetOffice Revitalised

Some time ago, I had some plans for a revitalised version of NetOffice that got shelved due to staff shortages.

Well, we're almost back to where we need to be and I've dusted off the folder ready to get back into it!

Will probably take a few weeks to get back up to speed. Will post again when we have something to show.

Top 8 Firefox Plugins

Just moved to a new computer, and it's time to reinstall everything again!

Thought it might be a good time to list my favourite Firefox plugins so I can find them again...

1. Web Developer
   


2. ColorZilla


3. MeasureIt


4. Timestamp Converter


5. Clear Cache Button


6. View Source Chart


7. del.icio.us


8. ShowIP

Have I missed any good ones? I think that's about it...

UPDATE

The del.icio.us plugin listed above is a new one that behaves a little differently. Actually, it hijacks your normal bookmarks toolbar! Here's the original (better) one.

How to Lose a Customer for $12

It's been a few months since I hired a movie from my local Video Ezy store. We've been collecting the Stargate SG-1 series on DVD and have been chipping away at those. Up to season 8 now, so we're nearly done. I'll be hiring a few movies once we're done as I've got a bit of catching up to do!

But I won't be going back to Video Ezy.

You see, I had a couple of late returns. Nothing major - 2 movies that were returned a day late. One day late.

Didn't think too much of it until I received a threatening letter from Video Ezy. Followed by a letter of demand from this mob called Entertainment Recoveries.

Now get this - it's all over $12.

If new release movies are $6 each, in the month after we finish with our Stargates we would probably have spent $48 with them. That's 4 times the amount of the late fees, in 1 month.

Now, for the sake of $12, I'll never go back.

What business would permanently distance a customer over $12?

Think of it this way. Even if I only hire 2 movies per month (which is pretty conservative) that's $156 in a year, or 13 times the amount of the late fee. Pretty good chance of hiring more than 2 movies a month, mind you.

I don't understand the marketing logic behind this. Sure, if I hadn't actually returned the movies I can understand the legal threats.

(And to top it off, I now have a $15 "Administrative Charge" as well. Give me a break!)

And I love this bit too - notice at the top of the excerpt above? I have a "Member Number"! I'm a member of Entertainment Recoveries now?

Top 10 Geek Business Myths

Ron Garret has posted are rather clever article, The Top 10 Geek Business Myths.

Although I don't think it's just limited to Geeks. I have people come in from time to time wanting a quote on a website that, in their eyes, will be the next big thing. Some are extremely reluctant to tell me about their idea "in case I steal it"! (How can I possibly do up a propsal for them if they won't tell me what they're wanting to do???)

And I look through this list and they are making all the same assumptions that are listed here.

Think I'm going to hang onto this link and print it off for the next one that comes in!

Top 5 Command Prompt Tips

Typing commands instead of mouse-clicking... sound a bit old-fashioned? It's true, once upon a time all computing was done this way. It may not be pretty, but the command line can still be pretty handy. Here's a few commands I use:

1. PING
   If you need to check your connection to something, this is the basic check. You can either ping a name or an IP address.
   ping www.sitename.com
   or
   ping 127.0.0.1
   are both valid. If you ping a name, you can also see what IP address that name resolves to.


2. TRACERT
   This will trace the route to another computer. Again, you can use a name or an IP address.
   tracert www.sitename.com


3. SHUTDOWN
   This one will shut the computer down. (Pretty obvious, hey!) Really handy to put at the end of a batch file that does a backup or something similar. Heaps of switches, so type shutdown /? to display all the options available.


4. IPCONFIG 
   Displays the IP address of your computer, plus the address of your gateway (eg your ADSL modem or the computer that's actually connected to the internet).


5. XCOPY
   Great for quick and easy batch backups. Check xcopy /? for all options available.

That's 5 that I use a fair bit - got any others?

If you're really bored, here's Microsoft's A-Z Reference.

21 Tips For Better Google Rankings

SEO Egghead has put together a bit of a summary of Matt Cutts' advice over the last year or so.

He's called it "Mattcuttsarama"... Dunno about that title(!) but the post itself makes pretty valuable reading.

301 Redirects

There are thousands of these posts out there already - I'm putting this here for my benefit more than anything else. Saves me from having to Google when I need to check how it should be done!

So - if you move a page and want it to be followed by a search engine (and keep it's pagerank etc), open up your htaccess file and enter (all on one line):

redirect 301 /olddir/oldpage.html http://www.newsite.com.au/newdir/newpage.html

Or if you're shifting a whole directory (again, all on one line):

redirect 301 /olddir/ http://www.newsite.com.au/newdir/

The 301 code says "moved permanently", so don't use it for temporary redirections. Obviously this htaccess stuff is for linux servers, if you're on Windows then there's a different way... But you'll have to find that somewhere else!