Saturday, August 26, 2006

Freedom to charge any amount for domain names

Read the proposed contracts at:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-28jul06.htm

Registries can start charging differential/tiered pricing on a domain-by-domain basis would not be forbidden under the .biz/info/org proposed contracts. This means that the registries could charge $100,000/yr for sex.biz, $25,000/yr for movies.org, etc. if they wanted to -- it would not be forbidden the way the proposed contracts are currently written. This would represent a powerful pricing weapon for registries, and a fundamental shift in possible domain name pricing, that could lead them to emulate .tv-style price schedules.

This is totally against the way the internet was supposed to work. For the millions of small business that started on the internet this is omnious.

Feel free to spread the word on the mailing lists or media, and contact Vint (vint AT google.com) or John Jeffrey (jeffrey AT icann.org) or other ICANN staffers if you want to confirm things and voice your concerns. Time is of the essence, as the public comment period ends next Monday. Registrants DO NOT know what is coming (the public comment board is almost empty), as it's the summer holidays! (typical ICANN tactic, introduce 500+ page contracts for public comment when everyone is on holiday)

Read detailed post at http://www.webmasterworld.com/domain_names/3059492.htm

Public comments can be sent using the addresses at:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-28jul06.htm

(be sure to send to all 3 email addresses for all 3 contracts, and also click the link in the email ICANN will send you to authenticate your email address, otherwise your comment doesn't get received)

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Disclaimer

This is standard practice for all Bloggers who have a day job. The opinions expressed here are solely mine and have no connection to my employer.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Choosing a laptop

Just got a new laptop. Its my 3rd laptop in the past 5 years and one would think its eacy to decide on which laptop to buy.

Price is always a consideration. The first question is - PC or a Mac ? From what I have heard a Mac notebook is so full of features and sturdy that it could last you a few years. The PC world is competitive with the race between Intel and AMD and new processors come out every few months making your new notebook outdated.

My laptop : HP dv5127cl
RAM : 2GB ( The amount of memory for processing your tasks)
Hard drive : 120 GB ( with digital cameras being more popular this is probably about 2000 hours of music, about 30 to 35 thousand photos so its probably all that I will need for a few years.
processor: Intel Centrino Duo 1.83 ghz ( its going be outdated next month as Intel introoduces Core Duo 2)

The cool features that this laptop has : a remote that fits into the laptop. It came with stereo headphones.

I have a HP computer and it has performed well so I am confident the laptop will be great

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Why Restaurants should have websites

A very relevant question that probably has puzzled many a restaurant owner.

In today's connected world a restaurant website is a absolute necessity.

1) It is like free advertising. Newcomers to the area often do a search on the Internet to find restaurants.

2) It is convenient for guests to remember (Have a simple and nice name for the website) if they need to go there.

3) It replaces some of your telephone queries.

4) It can be a selling tool.

5) It can help you get feedback.

Now about what it needs to contain...A basic website should have:

a) The restaurant introduction (cuisine, ambience, history, USP

(unique selling proposition).

b) The location with links to directions from all likely places.

c) The hours of operation.

d) The reservation policy.

e) Menus (Have a simple document that loads fast and in colors that it

can be printable by the guests if needed).

f) Catering facilities.

If you decided to advance another level, you could add...

- Reviews of your restaurant.

- Recipes

- Photo gallery

- Feedback form.

- Marketing tools like email newsletters etc.

Who can do the job ?

Professionally there are many companies that develop websites. On a second level there are several freelance professionals who do

websites. On a basic level it is not too difficult to find a neighborhood friend with some basic web building skills.

Your choice will depend on your budget:(A simple one with 5 to 6 pages may be developed under a $1000, a professional one with a lot of

bells and whistles may cost upwards from $10,000, or a friend of yours could do it for a couple of meals)

After the site is setup putting it on the web and maintaining it you may have to budget for ISP/Web hosting fees and domain name

registration for about $300 to $500 dollars per year.

Disclaimer: The figures mentioned are solely for guidance. Precise rates will depend on a variety of factors and markets and have to be

obtained by the readers.



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