Using Mozilla
The site linked to the title allows you to download the latest Mozilla browser. If this proves difficult, get in touch. It is about 10 Meg (with Java) but if you are updating, it is a bit smaller. You can also install Mozilla from cover disks of popular and very recent Netguide magazines.
Once it has been installed, there are a few configuration tricks you should understand. IE6 celebrates the mono culture of Microsoftware - each new window you open is an entity on your desktop. Fifteen windows later, and your desktop becomes unmanagable.
Not so with Mozilla, or another popular alternative to Windows, Opera which is very fast. I need to get an update for version 7, there was one security scare with it since it was released, compare this to several each month with IE!
Back to Mozilla. The best browser in terms of standards compliance. Well nearly. Perhaps Opera is now. I will find out and comment in a future article.
Open your Mozilla window, and use CTRL-T to open new panels, CTRL-N to make new windows. Try it. Now imagine you are reading a newspaper. You want to keep its pages together in one frame, whilst another job sits in a separate window, with its own set of tags.
Starts to go slow? Put more memory in your machine, or use LINUX - its is much much more efficient and comes with the Mozilla browser installed.
One more important trick is the adjust the preferences, so when you RIGHT CLICK on a link, and open it in a new tab, you do not immediately switch to the new tab. EDIT menu, Preferences >> Navigator >> Tabbed Browsing and turn on the option: Load Links in the Background. Now when you control-T you can load up a browser window with each page you want from an index, quickly and efficiently.
Site Updated
The sfsw.net site has been updated. We are experimenting with new front page formats, but the inside part of the site has been subject to a spring clean.
Clients work comes first, so I only update this site between projects. When we have a gap, we make special offers, but you have to find them. Want to book 50 hours of work on your site at half price? Click here . Strictly first come, first served!
Site updates and experimentation with new hosting method s left some functions disconnected from the database. Some of our forms are presently submitted by email, as we have found that most of the time substantial communication occurs before someone purchases, and email is often more useful than a heartless form submission.
Please feel free to experiment and read over the site. We try and publish useful tech articles at least weekly.
NZ Herald
More nonsense about Spam
Spam not a problem. It is the content and management of these unwanted advertisements that is the problem. We are used to a mute button when it comes to advertising, but some of us do not know how to press the mute button on Spam.
The Herald decries Spam as a scourge of the modern workplace. The article is an advertisement based on IHUG's press release dressed with some attractive writing. The Herald is a formidable advertiser and it hates competition.
Spam is the same thing as newspaper/radio advertising. To eliminate it from your attention, you can take certain steps.
Spam guard products are hitting the market with increasing frequency. More harm can come to you if you do not scan your email for vicious attachments, so I must ask the Herald why they do not filter out the spam from their IT reviewer's in box? Surely it is easy to scan for the words "penis enlargement" and eliminate these emails!
Why use a monthly service to filter spam when you can get the same thing for free? Because it makes good business sense to outsource things you do not understand, but spam filtering can be done in-house. Auckland is a culture of Microsoft connectivity that have a legacy of being attacked.
To filter out spam takes in-house intelligence. It takes a set of policies and a strategy. Any Unix sys admin can do this, put in a Linux mail server and filter email against a set of rules.
If an investor wants to market an Anti-Spam product, we would be happy to create products in partnership. Hosting a mail box with a domain from sfsw.net has basic Spam protection. This is usually good enough. Want to go further?
EMail is like the radio. It is visible to anybody. We don't like but permit unsolicited advertising via the radio and TV media. We evolve methods to filter these from our attention.
If you need help with spam issues, just send us an
Finish Spam
Hands up if you get unwanted emails advertising get rich quick, unwanted pornographic links or sites, herbal medicines, penis enlargement, etc
Put your hands down. We read the above article with horror, because we have controlled spam and don't see that much of it. What is our secret?
If you wish to reduce spam, there are some essential rules:
- Never respond to a spam
- Use a structured mail box scheme, a personal email address you give out, and a spam box you advertise.
- Never publish your personal email address
The trouble with spam filters is simply that you do not receive every email sent to you. Its an issue of mailbox integrity. Recently changes to the way HotMail works, for example, makes the default sending mode of hotmail look like spam to many filters. If, for example, the future love-of-your-life were to send you a Valentine Card via email and it was seen by your ISP as spam, you would never know and your potential future is prevented.
If you want mail box flexibility, sfsw.net can manage your email boxes for you as part of our domain hosting services.
Your Community
If you have a community group and want to use the web as “groupware” - to exchange messages and post notices, then invest in one of our community sites. Prices for a hosted database community solution start at $125/annum for a web based newspaper, up to $475 for a full community site.
You may require additional services (logo design) but due to the use of templates, you do not have to pay for any programming and we can have your site ready for you within a couple of days.
We host and create interactive community sites and from these you can build your web based interaction community. They work for you by involving many people in the process.
We are currently setting up a poetry community site: aucklandpoetry.com
