One of the biggest problems in the web development world is getting things to work in older versions of Microsoft’s buggy browser, Internet Explorer.

But even Microsoft is looking anxiously at reducing the usage of the oldest version still pretty common on the Internet, version IE6. Microsoft is so concerned that they have dedicated a full website to counting down the number of IE6 users around the world, and are encouraging them to update their browsers.

Check out Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Countdown web site.

Internet Explorer version 6 (IE6) was released in 2001. That makes it 10 years old. An in Internet years, that is a VERY long time.

As of May 2011, 10.9 percent of Internet users around the world were still using the outdated browser. Many of these users are in Asian and Arab countries. China has the the biggest user base with roughly 33% of Internet users accessing the Internet using IE6, and South Korea in second place with about 22%.

If you are operating a website or blog, you can support the cause and put up a banner, supported by Microsoft, to direct people to upgrade to the new browser. You can Join the cause here.

If you are still using an outdated version of IE, please upgrade now. Check out the other, easy to use browsers listed below in alphabetical order. When visiting the sites below, they will usually determine your computers operating system and model and direct you to the correct version to download.

Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer (newer version)

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Every so often, we return to our roots as communications engineers and report on stories and events relating to the telecommunication sector. This is one such story.

On Saturday, Thailand’s telecommunications regulator, NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) finalized their 3G Information Memorandum. This sets in place a framework for a bidding process to award 3G licenses to carriers operating within Thailand.

This is the fourth attempt at setting out a process for 3G bidding. The rules set out must be approved by parliament before the bidding begins.

The new process includes a 28% fee increase to 12.8 billion Thai Baht ($384 million) over the original 10 million Thai Baht stated in previous proposals. The revisions also allow for second installments to be paid in year three. One item that has not changed is the controversial clause indicating that if there are three qualified bidders, only two licenses will be awarded during the first round. However and third auction could begin 90 days after the first auction is carried out. The proposal allows for three, 15 year licenses to be auctioned beginning August 30th this year.

Thailand is one of the few countries without any official 3G service. Many of the existing mobile operators have launched sudo-3G services in various areas to allow subscribers to utilize some form of the service within Thailand’s borders prior to any licenses being granted. The operators offering limited 3G service are AIS, DTAC and iMobile. Rumors have sprouted that True may also have a 3G test bed launched but as of this writing it was difficult to confirm.

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If you use Twitter on a regular basis, you will want to be aware of some changes taking place in the way the service handles links in your Tweets.

The Twitter blog details the changes that will take place over the coming few months and how they will effect all users (Twitter Blog: Links and Twitter: Length Shouldn’t Matter).

The changes are being made in order to increase security for users, and offer more relevant linking text when adding links to Tweets. Some of the changes include:

• Wrapping links using a new t.co URL
• More Intelligent shortening of links
• Better quality link scanning against malware or phishing sites

Twitter is already testing some of the features on employee accounts. They also hope to offer more details of the service to developers in order to prepare for the change.

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According to an article published on TechCrunch (Caffeine: Google Finally Brews Its New Pot Of Web Results — 50% Fresher), Google is finally ready to roll out it’s Caffeine platform for search results.

This has been confirmed on Google’s Blog as well (Our new search index: Caffeine).

Both articles offer some minor insights into the enhancements available with the new index compared to the older index. There has been a lot of hype about the launch of Caffeine since August 2009 when articles began to surface in various blogs. Many thought that the launch would come in December 2009, but it didn’t happen. It now looks like Google is ready to let the world experience this new platform.

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It was a very interesting week for us in Bangkok last week as we witnessed the worst violence the city has experienced in decades.

In all of my 16 years here, I have never witnessed anything that effected the nation as these events did. Business were forced to close their doors in the interests of the safety of their staff. The whole city seemed to come to a stand still as the military forces fought with red shirt protesters.

It would be easy to make assumptions as to what the reasons were for such violence. It would also be easy to assign blame to either side for the way events developed. But in the end, this was a tragic situation that effected many living in Thailand.

Some of the press from other countries was accurate while much of it was speculative and down right incorrect. I learned that the only a select few individuals can be trusted to reports the facts of a situation. And that the International press community as a whole litters their stories with rumors and hearsay.

As people, I guess we all get caught up in the emotion of a situation like this which causes us to say and do things that are out of character. But there were a few people that, with a calm heart, made statements that simplified the situation and put into perspective the reasons for the clashes. One such person, Na Tusakon, wrote a very nice note on Facebook: “Bangkok: To Misunderstand is the Greatest Loss“.

If you were wondering what the real reasons for all of the trouble is, he has captured a clam hearted and succinct view point in his note.

Things seem to be back to normal and we are all returning to work today to start fresh. We hope to stay a bit more regular with posting articles that will help website owners stay on top of their online issues.

Thanks for visiting.

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I am often asked by friends and business associates, “Should I start a blog?”.

The first thing you need to answer this question is a reason to have a blog. If you have never blogged before, the effort might not seem worthwhile.

So I’ve written down a few reason you might want to start blogging, whether for personal or business reasons.

• Announce Events

If you are a bar or a restaurant owner, a blog is a great way to let your customers know more about you and your offering. It is also a great way to let them know when special events are going on. Perhaps it’s a Live music venue, or even a sporting event. Staying in front of your customers even when they are not in your establishment help you to get return business.

• Announce Specials

During certain times of the year, perhaps holidays or even low season, you may run specials on certain items to help draw your customers back when they normally might not consider it.

• Share Your Knowledge on a Topic or Industry

If people seem to be always asking you about certain topics, writing about them helps you reach a wider range of people wth similar questions. Chance are, if one person has a question, there are more people with questions. I find that even when I think I know the only answer, doing a bit of research on the Internet yields some results I hadn’t yet considered. including this additional research into a Blog post can draw in more readers to your blog. If your a business owner, this in turn allows you to advertise your products and services to a like minded group without being intrusive. Once the article title has peaked their interest, they visit your blog and discover your other articles as well as your service offering.

• Share travel or other experiences

The world is becoming a much smaller place, thanks to the Internet. Many people have traveled and recorded their experiences on their visits to far off countries … or even places close by their own home. In either case, there are people that research a place before they go to visit. Your knowledge and experience could be beneficial to helping them enjoy their trip. And if you’re in the travel industry, you might just find a way to offer your services to these visitors.

• Share photos

I really enjoy looking at photo blogs. Especially when they are focused on a certain topic and maintain that focus. Many professional photographers have their own galleries online with examples of their work.

These examples are just a few, high level suggestions based upon our own limited experience. But hopefully, it gets you thinking about the ways that you might be able to start blogging.

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We have just put the finishing touches on the first version of our Online Web University.

It is difficult to locate a single source for tools to help make your web site more profitable. So we have started our own online web university to offer courses on how to run an online business. We have started out with courses on seven subjects we think will be the most beneficial to your online business:

• Affiliates Course – How to make money as an affiliate
• Selling your Services online – Some great guidelines to follow
• Work at Home Mothers – Earning an income at home, spend quality time with your kids
• Web Masters – Running your own web hosting or Web Services business
• Net Auctions – Build your own Net Auction business
• Net Writing – Write better. The power is in your words
• Pricing Course – Choosing the right price for your service or product

All seven courses were written by experienced web professionals, each is comprehensive, and to the point. As you progress through each course, you will be given access to the tools you’ll need to create a thriving online business.

But the best part …

These courses are Free! No risk, no tricks, no catch.

Drop by the Web University today and let us know what you think.

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I am still amazed when I read stories that state thousands of users have credit card information leaked onto the Internet. Especially when it is clear that the reason they were leaked was because there was little concern for the security of the data collected.

In today’s Internet, many of us web site owners store data about our users and those who subscribe to our content. While there are many applications and solutions developed and pre-packaged to make life easier, the truly good applications put a large amount of effort into securing that user data in a secure environment.

This effort should not be discounted by any means. I thought it important to discuss the aspects of ensuring that your users data stays secure from prying eyes on the Internet. What sparked my interest in this topic was the recent news published by the Boston Globe, “Google unveils medical records storage plan“.

This story offers a great example of keeping data secure because it uses a basis that is dear to all of our hearts, our personal medical records. One quote that helps set the tone for maintaining users data is a quote from a Medical professional in the article that states, “We believe that patients should be the stewards of their own data”.

In the same way, we as Webmasters should apply the same level of care and concern about our users data, letting them be the “stewards of their own data”. Some simple rules that can be applied when considering the storage of our users data can be:

1.) Make our policies and procedures for maintaining and storing a users data clear to our users

2.) Provide a clear and easy method for a user to remove their data from our systems

3.) Securing our data systems from outside hackers and data thieves by storing our users data in a secured environment. (i.e. – Not on a laptop we carry around with us everywhere)

By taking care of our users data, and offering it the same level of concern we would to our own medical records, will certainly help us as Webmasters build credibility with our own user communities.

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Google has reportedly reached out to Yahoo to thwart Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid. And in case that doesn’t work Google has already started working policymakers. Simply put, the games have begun (Techmeme). Get ready for the FUN fest folks.

This is how the article on ZDNet started out with the latest news on this hot topic.

This got me to thinking back a long time ago when the Internet was just starting to become a popular topic for the normal folks. And dear old Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to launch a competitor to the Internet. The result … it failed miserably.

The next monopoly move made by Microsoft was to embed Internet Explorer into the Operating system. A move that was very much opposed by a company called Netscape. And again, thank goodness for that because we wouldn’t have such a nice array of browsers that actually perform properly and securely. I also do not think that IE would be nearly the quality product it is today if it weren’t for the competition.

So keeping these past events in mind, I would whole heartedly support a move by Google to … once again … make an attempt to keep Microsoft honest and out of the monopoly game.

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Every once in a while, we stumble on those less desirable people that lurk on the Internet looking for new ways to take advantage of the system. Today, we would like to offer a warning to our users about one such dishonest group of people that call themselves, www.webdesignvalidation.com.

They offer you to submit you contact details and your web site information for a chance to win a new design for your site. We entered one of our sites into their contest at the beginning of the year with the chance to win a newly designed web site using Web 2.0 technologies. We thought, “Hey that’s a good idea. Let’s see how good they are so we can recommend this to our readers”.

So we complied with their rules. We put up a badge on our web site that let’s people click through to their site and vote for our site. Pretty simple … or so we thought.

They sent us a notice that on the 19th, our submitted site had been approved for submission as a “Non-Web 2.0 site”. Good news! On the 20th, they notified us that they were offering more rewards for their users. And a small note that said “a 3-plan membership was added in order to create a profile”. We weren’t sure what that meant. Nothing ever stated in the rules about a membership but we had already joined and been approved so we mistakenly assumed we were already members. But nothing was said about changes to the rules since we had joined.

On the 21st, another email about 3 new rewards. They were the same rewards as mentioned the day before. There was another mention of membership but again it was not obvious. “We have updated our awards for your category and added 3 membership options”. Ok, so what. Are we supposed to do something? No call to action in the email … no reference to rules changes for those already entered in January’s contest. We’re good to go.

But, out of caution, we decided to logon to the site and see how our submitted site was fairing in the ratings. Good news again, our submitted site was in first place with plenty of margin over the second place person. No worries then.

On January 31, we heard from one of our loyal fans that the badge on the homepage of our site was taking them to an error page (Error 404, page not found). We thought that was odd so we checked it out. Sure enough, no voting page. So we went to the home page at WDV and there was a notice that their system was down for scheduled maintenance and would be back online on February 1. Ok, we can wait.

On Feb 1 we received this little gem in our email exactly as quoted:

Wait a minute … we already have a user account. And to prove it they have addressed us as “Dear Member”. Now they are telling us that they have upgraded the site and we have to create an account again. What happened to our old account? What happened to our first place rating?

So we checked …. no account, no first place rating, all of the old pages resulted in “Page not found” errors. We sent an email asking what was going on. The following email was received the same day (copied exactly with spelling errors included):

Obviously, we did not hesitate to contact them.

It is amazing the methods that some people will use in order to build a contact list. While we did not loose any money on this, we do apologize as we did ask some of you to cast your vote for the site we submitted to understand how this was going to work. But we were most put out by the fact that they promised something to the web community, and then changed the rules to seemingly avoid delivering on the promise.

If this is how they treat their members, I am certainly not going to give them money as a registered member to be treated this badly. Obviously not a lot of gray matter exists in the heads of the people over at WDV.

We want to offer our sincere appreciation for your effort and we apologize for this inconvenience. Now we know that the people at WDV are not desirable business partners. We warn our customers not to use their service.

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