Is Flash Dead?

The quick and short answer is yes.

Website owners are recommended to not use Flash for several reasons.

Flash does not add to the user experience!

Getting error messages that Flash has crashed restart your browser is not a experience users want.

Turning off does not help as the errors just keep coming! One would have to set the browser to not activate it or reset the browser to it's original initial settings. Few users know how to do this.

Flash does not work on Cell Phones.

Anything that can be done in Flash can be done with HTML 5!

I can not see a valid reason to use it on any website and for those that have it they should think about getting rid of it.

HTML 5 is the way to go if you want happy campers on your website that will return over and over.

It's our opinion that flash is an outdated technoligy that is no longer needed.

Fake uptime reports from arklinux.org / webhostuptime.com

This website has twice sent us a report that our website was down for 19 hrs.

You may have received  such a report.

It is to bring in your kind notice that your website (website name) was down for 19 hour(s) and 4 minute(s) in last 7days .
DateFromTo 2014/09/0504:5523:59Data Provided By ArkLinux

This email also contains a list of what they claim is the top 5 hosts which are all obscure hosting companies.

When we do a search for ArkLinux iwe find a post that states it was taken over by spammers.

http://bero.eu/arklinux.html

What we have here is a Spammer that is telling people a lie about their Website's uptime!

The site is owned by:

Registrant Organization:Star Cpwebhosting pvt. ltd.
Registrant Street: SP2, Shastri Market
Registrant City:Jaipur
Registrant State/Province:Rajasthan

If you have received such an email you can be sure of one thing - they are trying to sell hosting from either their service or from their affiliate deals / advertisers

Nothing real here so ignore it.

CloudLinux

Although it's named CloudLinux it is not a Cloud!

What is CloudLinux then if it's not a Cloud system?

It was designed to limit resources for CPU, Ram and more in much the same way it's done in a Cloud system.

For Hosts that advertise Unlimited this is a perfect solution.

They will not limit your Transfer or Space but will make it so your site can only use this much Ram or This much CPU percentage and so on.

Things it will allow them to limit are Concurrent Сonnections limits, CPU, Memory, IO, Number of Processes and a MySQL Governor to top it off.

So if your Website is not available due to it exceeding any one of the above it's due to CloudLinux.

I can not see why we need this other than to continue to Lie to people by telling them they have unlimited everything but under the hood they use CloudLinux to clip your wings.

They only good feature with it is the ability to have older PHP versions available to use.

But this too has a downside for users as older PHP versions are a security risk.

Putting aside the SEO aspect of this question what about flexibility and the ability to grow.
Website Creators are fine if all you want is a simple website.
Also for an end user Website Creators are easier to work with.

But if you want the latest fancy new gizmo then you need to turn to a platform that has good third party support.
Third party support is where the action is and no one will support a closed system Website Builder as there is no money in it.
Applications like Joomla or Wordpress have tons of third party support which is why they are popular.
In fact the operating system you are using has tons of third party support and that's why it's popular.
Applications like Photoshop, Firefox or Open Office are all third party vendors supporting an operating system.
Without third party support even Windows would have few to no users.

Third party support brings to these mostly open source applications a wealth of tools and gadgets like no other.
No matter what you want to do there is most likely a third party add on that will do just what you wanted.
Applications such as flexible Image Sliders that can show Slides in many mind blowing fashions.
Or applications that can add full blown real estate functionality such as linking to Multiple Listings.

You can take Joomla or Wordpress and turn it into almost anything you please.
There are other Open source applications out there but the ones with the most third party support are king.

As for the down side of website builders we see many are free to use but have high monthly costs should you need support. ( Free has no support )
Email is another problem as it costs extra with some and one I seen helps you sign up with Gmail.
Domains maybe required to be registered or transferred to them.
Last your Website is not portable as you cannot pack up and move to another host or builder.
This is because your website really is not your website at all.
The website builder is one dynamic website which will look different for each of the millions of registered users.
Each of the millions of users have their design saved in a database which when called upon will render the design matching the domain used in its tables.
Other than any images you may have uploaded there are no files in such a system thus nothing that can be moved.
 

XP support is Over

What does this mean?

Should we hide our PC's from the world?

It's not all that bad really. With XP on the shelf of the many outdated OS's hackers will no longer care about XP. I doubt you will run into any problems a decent Anti Virus app could not handle. But if you can no longer get an Anti Virus that works on XP then that could be a problem.

Should you wish to upgrade it to Windows 7 or Windows 8 then all you need do is follow these instructions.

First check to see if your PC can run Win 7 or Win 8

Get the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Or get the Windows 8 or 8.1 Upgrade Assistant

If the hardware and hardware drivers pass then you can upgrade.

Upgrading your XP PC to Window 7 or Windows 8 to either 32 or 64 Bit

Do you have a PC that is running Windows XP but don't want to have to re-install all your Apps in Win 7 or Win 8. 

Do you want to move to the Faster 64 Bit version of Windows?

Yes that's correct these tools will get you up and running in 64 Bit Win 7 or Win 8.

We have all the tools you will need listed here in this article.

First are you getting a new computer or are you upgrading an existing one?
In either case there are two software solutions that work.

If you only have one or two applications to install on a new PC or on your upgraded old PC we suggest not to try to use either of these applications.

But if your installed applications are large in numbers or take very long to install then these tools are what you need.

If you are upgrading and installing a lager Hard drive:
EaseUS Partition Master
---------------------------
http://www.partition-tool.com/

This tool can resize and copy partitions.
The cost is low and the free version is quite good.
Western Digital offers a free version of Acronis which can be found on their website which can be also used.
But this tool has more features and does a great job.

Revo Uninstaller
------------------
http://www.revouninstaller.com/

PC-Mover
------------
http://www.laplink.com/index.php/individuals/pcmover-for-windows-8/feature-overview

or

Zinstall XP7
------------
http://zinstall.com/products/zinstall-xp7

First let’s look at the difference between the two products, PC-Mover and Zinstall.
PC-Mover is lower in cost and will move your applications into your new OS.

Zinstall costs more and runs your applications in a virtual XP OS
It does not install the applications in the OS.
For this reason I do not recommend it.
But if you have an application which cannot run any other way and you must have it then Zinstall maybe a good solution.

PC-Mover works well and all your applications will be moved over.
You may experience problems with some applications which cannot be solved and worse cannot be removed with Windows Uninstall a program.
This is where the Revo Uninstaller comes to the rescue!
If you have an app that can't be repaired or removed then the Revo Uninstaller will remove it.
For all other applications you have problems with run the application repair if it exists or re-install it.

After you fix up any applications that didn't move over smoothly your done.

Follow these steps to be sure you have no problems.
1. Backup your PC
2. Make a copy of all PST files in your Outlook Folder.  ( they may need to be copied to a different location in Win 7 or Win 8 )
3. Run PC-mover ( old or before upgrade PC )
4. If an in place upgrade - install new Windows as recommended in PC-Mover help doc.
5. If a new PC or after a new OS install and run PC-Mover ( new or after upgrade PC )

Worse case is you revert to backup and your back on windows XP.
But from my experience it works well and yes you will have some problems but nothing that can't be solved.

If you have an office with 10 or more computers that need to be either replaced or upgraded then this is the way to go for sure.
After the first few you should have it down pat as to quickly resolving the problems for the remaining computers.

Hope this helps

The Problem with Bitcoins

Why I don't think Bitcoins will fare out well over time.
The problem as we have seen is the exchanges.
When bitcoin first came out I thought that this was not such a great

I thought this for the following reasons:

1. You can lose them should your hard drive fail.
2. Hackers can either delete them or steal them.
3. Exchanging them for cash maybe a problem.

As it turns out hackers became the number one problem.
Placing millions of dollars in a PC makes it a very big target.
The Bitcoin exchanges found this out the hard way.

Some Hackers break into major systems just to say they can do it.
Putting millions of dollars in reach of these hackers is not something any sane person will do.
So now we can see that there needs to be a way to remove these coins from the system for the purpose of storage.
Plus there needs to be rock solid security not only in the network but also in the building.

This raises the costs of the exchange considerably.
They would have to come up with software that removes Bitcoins as soon as they come into the system.
That software would have to convert it to a book line item.
The problem with that is it then opens the door for the exchange itself to be able to print Bitcoins.

If they can't store the coins then the security required would be extensive.
I doubt they would be able to afford it or even if they could afford it be able to maintain it.

For this reason we can see what seems to be an ideal system that is in fact a pipe dream.
This in my opinion will never work to the scale they envision it to be.

Bitcoins will most likely not go away but it will not be a replacement for money.
Maybe they will wind up in some video game.

Developing web sites on a Windows PC

Using IIS is fine if you are going to work on a dot net website.
Since I don't bother with dot net or ASP I use Apache to develop websites on my PC.
Also Windows does not allow you to have more than one website on your PC.
You can place several in sub folders but you can set them to have their own public root.
Also Windows does not support the use of .htaccess
So if you are building sites for Linux servers and don't want to setup a Linux box this is the solution.

First we need to install the Apache Web Server.
You can get it at http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi#apache24
Go to the link for Apache version 2.2.25 and choose which one you need.
One has SSL support and the other does not.
Since this is a development server then the question is do you really need a SSL service?
If you think you maybe be writing code for a shopping cart which would require
 testing the Merchant code then by all means choose the SSL version.
I went with the non SSL version as I will not be building applications.

If you have IIS installed remove it!
Install Apache and make the minor adjustments for it to work as you wish.
This includes setting the DocumentRoot to where you want your web sites to reside.
Can be DocumentRoot "C:/wwwroot/" for instance.
Now lets setup Apache so you can have multiple sites on your PC.
Look for the lines:
# Virtual hosts
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Remove the pound sign for this include.
Open the httpd-vhosts.conf in notepad and copy one of the <VirtualHost *:80> entries
Lets assume you have a site you wish to name site1.
Paste it as a new entry and edit it to your website name which will look like:
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
    DocumentRoot "C:/wwwroot/site1"
    ServerName site1.loc
    ServerAlias www.site1.loc
    ErrorLog "logs/site1.localhost-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/site1.localhost-access.log" common

</VirtualHost>

You can create one for each website you wish to work on.
The last step is you also need to enter a line in your hosts file for each web site added.

127.0.0.1 site1.loc

You now need to restart Apache.
Now you can enter http://site1.loc or http://www.site1.loc in your browser and site1 comes up.
The development site will behave the same as it will on a production server.
As with IIS for Apache PHP and Perl would have to also be installed.
Also if you wish to test Zend or Ion Cube those too will need be installed.

Any changes you make to Apache .conf files will require a Apache restart for them to take effect.
From my experience Apache is quite good on Windows as I have had no problems at all.
For me IIS was fun at first back in the 1990's but due to it's draw backs I think Apache is better.
 

Custom HTML Error Page

The error page is as important as the rest of your website.
The problem is most do not know how to deal with it.

There are a list of errors that covers anything that can go wrong.
But most web designers and web site owners ignore it .
The examples given by almost all show that you need create a page for each error.
This is not correct!

Here I will show you how to have a single HTML error page that covers all errors.

First we need to create the basic html page.
To start place this code at the top of the page.

<html>
<!--#set var=e value="t" -->
<!--#set var=400t value="400 Bad Request" -->
<!--#set var=400 value="400 Error The file you requested is top secret!" -->
<!--#set var=401t value="401 Authorization Required" -->
<!--#set var=401 value="401 Error You don&acute;t have permission to access this file!" -->
<!--#set var=402t value="402 Payment Required" -->
<!--#set var=402 value="402 Error You can\'t have it free!" -->
<!--#set var=403t value="403 Access Forbidden" -->
<!--#set var=403 value="403 Error You are forbidden to to access this!" -->
<!--#set var=404t value="404 File Not Found" -->
<!--#set var=404 value="404 Error The file you requested does not exist on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=405t value="405 Method Not Allowed" -->
<!--#set var=405 value="405 Error The page you requested is using a method not allowed on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=406t value="406 Not Acceptable" -->
<!--#set var=406 value="406 Error The file requested or file type is not acceptable on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=407t value="407 Proxy Authentication Required" -->
<!--#set var=407 value="407 Error A proxy request to a remote server has failed authentication!" -->
<!--#set var=408t value="408 Request Timeout" -->
<!--#set var=408 value="408 Error A timeout occured as there maybe a problem with the page you are trying to access!" -->
<!--#set var=409t value="409 Conflict" -->
<!--#set var=409 value="409 Error A conflict has occured!" -->
<!--#set var=410t value="410 Gone" -->
<!--#set var=410 value="410 Error That resource no longer exists on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=411t value="411 Length Required" -->
<!--#set var=411 value="411 Error Your response failed to provide a lenght!" -->
<!--#set var=412t value="412 Precondition Failed" -->
<!--#set var=412 value="412 Error A condition prior to the response submitted has failed!" -->
<!--#set var=413t value="413 Request Entity Too Large" -->
<!--#set var=413 value="413 Error The file you sent is larger than the max size allowed on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=414t value="414 Request-URI Too Large" -->
<!--#set var=414 value="414 Error The info you requested has generated a line that is beyond the limits of a URL!" -->
<!--#set var=415t value="415 Unsupported Media Type" -->
<!--#set var=415 value="415 Error The file you requested is not supported on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=416t value="416 Request Range Not Satisfiable" -->
<!--#set var=416 value="416 Error The file you requested is not as specified!" -->
<!--#set var=417t value="417 Expectation Failed" -->
<!--#set var=417 value="417 Error What you requested can not be met by this server!" -->
<!--#set var=422t value="422 Unprocessable Entity" -->
<!--#set var=422 value="422 Error You requested was well formed but could not be processed!" -->
<!--#set var=423t value="423 Locked" -->
<!--#set var=423 value="423 Error The file you requested is locked on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=424t value="424 Failed Dependency" -->
<!--#set var=424 value="424 Error The file you requested is in part locked on this server!" -->
<!--#set var=500t value="500 Internal Server Error" -->
<!--#set var=500 value="500 Error The page you requested has caused a Server Error!" -->
<!--#set var=501t value="501 Not Implemented" -->
<!--#set var=501 value="501 Error The request you made is not understood or supported by this Server!" -->
<!--#set var=502t value="502 Bad Gateway" -->
<!--#set var=502 value="502 Error The request has caused a remote Server Error!" -->
<!--#set var=503t value="503 Service Unavailable" -->
<!--#set var=503 value="503 Error The Server is under stress or maintenance and can not complete your request at this time!" -->
<!--#set var=504t value="504 Gateway Timeout" -->
<!--#set var=504 value="504 Error The request has timed out at the remote Server!" -->
<!--#set var=505t value="505 HTTP Version Not Supported" -->
<!--#set var=505 value="505 Error The HTTP version requested by your browser is not supported on this Server!" -->
<!--#set var=506t value="506 Variant Also Negotiates" -->
<!--#set var=506 value="506 Error The resource you requested has caused a circular reference!" -->
<!--#set var=507t value="507 Insufficient Storage" -->
<!--#set var=507 value="507 Error The Server does not have the space required to complete your request!" -->
<!--#set var=510t value="510 Not Extended" -->
<!--#set var=510 value="510 Error The bandwidth has been or soon will be exceeded on this Server!" -->
<!--#set var=etitle value="$REDIRECT_STATUS$e" -->

Next we add the page title

<header>
<title> <!--#echo var="$etitle" --> Error!</title>
</header>

Last we add the error messages

<body>

<h1><!--#echo var="$etitle" --></h1>
        <p><!--#echo var="$REDIRECT_STATUS" --></p>
</body>
</html>

And that's it !!
Now name the file error.shtml

Why .shtml - well this is in case you wish to add a header and footer include.
For instance you can put:

<!--#include Virtual="/includes/header.html" -->
<!--#include Virtual="/includes/footer.html" -->

If you use includes you need to create the files you wish to include.
You can add your header and footer so as to make the page be identical in look to your website. I will add a PHP version that can be downloaded which will work just as well.

The last step is to add the code to your .htaccess file to let your server know that for each error we open this file error.shtml. If you don't have a .htaccess file create one and put the following code in it.

# 400 - Bad Request
ErrorDocument 400 /error.shtml

# 401 - Unauthorized
ErrorDocument 401 /error.shtml

# 402 - Payment Required
ErrorDocument 402 /error.shtml

# 403 - Forbidden
ErrorDocument 403 /error.shtml

# 404 - Not Found
ErrorDocument 404 /error.shtml

# 405 - Method Not Allowed
ErrorDocument 405 /error.shtml

# 406 - Not Acceptable
ErrorDocument 406 /error.shtml

# 407 - Proxy Authentication Required
ErrorDocument 407 /error.shtml

# 408 - Request Timeout
ErrorDocument 408 /error.shtml

# 409 - Conflict
ErrorDocument 409 /error.shtml

# 410 - Gone
ErrorDocument 410 /error.shtml

# 411 - Length Required
ErrorDocument 411 /error.shtml

# 412 - Precondition Failed
ErrorDocument 412 /error.shtml

# 413 - Request Entity Too Large
ErrorDocument 413 /error.shtml

# 414 - Request-URI Too Large
ErrorDocument 414 /error.shtml

# 415 - Unsupported Media Type
ErrorDocument 415 /error.shtml

# 416 - Request Range Not Satisfiable
ErrorDocument 416 /error.shtml

# 417 - Expectation Failed
ErrorDocument 417 /error.shtml

# 422 - Unprocessable Entity
ErrorDocument 422 /error.shtml

# 423 - Locked
ErrorDocument 423 /error.shtml

# 424 - Failed Dependency
ErrorDocument 424 /error.shtml

# 500 - Internal Server Error
ErrorDocument 500 /error.shtml

# 501 - Not Implemented
ErrorDocument 501 /error.shtml

# 502 - Bad Gateway
ErrorDocument 502 /error.shtml

# 503 - Service Unavailable
ErrorDocument 503 /error.shtml

# 504 - Gateway Timeout
ErrorDocument 504 /error.shtml

# 505 - HTTP Version Not Supported
ErrorDocument 505 /error.shtml

# 506 - Variant Also Negotiates
ErrorDocument 506 /error.shtml

# 507 - Insufficient Storage
ErrorDocument 507 /error.shtml

# 510 - Not Extended
ErrorDocument 510 /error.shtml

For windows Servers there is no .htaccess file!
You will need to contact your host to set all errors listed above to the error.shtml file.

Full Example:

How to protect yourself from a Scam

There are many scams on the internet and I will list just a few of them to teach you how to best avoid them. First I will make it clear on what the methods are that scammers use.

Scammer prey on those that are in financial problems!

Why do they do this? Because if a person is in financial trouble they are easy prey. It's easy to try and convince someone that all they need do is follow what the scammer is saying and all their troubles will be over. This iperson s called a sacrificial lamb.

There are many variations of this type of scam. The most popular are the scams from Nigeria where you are promised a large sum of money if you help someone transfer 100 million dollars from that country. But these scams can be in many other forms and can be from scammers right in your own country. A poor woman that fell for such a scam that is serving a jail sentence for embezzling money from the company where she worked. She thought she would pay it back as soon as the 100 million was delivered and she got her fee.

One scam I have seen was one which a person wants you to setup 100 computers for them. They will send you the computers and you will set them up and ship them to where they instruct you to send them. You will be paid quite well for this and think you are doing great until the police show up at your door.

Another is a great investment opportunity is shown to you and this person somehow seems to like you and has made promises to put you in charge of something. You think that this is great and since you have nothing this can't be a scam. Well you better think again about this as you may not have anything but you were not singled out for what you have but for those people around you and what they have. The way that works is at some point you are told that a money person backed out of the deal and without that money they can't continue. It's not a very large amount and of course you feel horrible as your promised new job is about to disappear before it even had a chance to appear. So you think  your relative which just so happens to have this money sitting around and if you convince your relative that this would be a perfect solution to the problem.
And if you did that you would be dead wrong as this really was nothing more than a con by a professional Con Artist and it was the person you knew that was the Mark all along.
A professional  Con Artist targets the prey and the prey is called a Mark. You are just a stepping stone to that person.

So to avoid a Scam you have to first face up to your problems as there is no quick fix.
And should you be a person that has a relative or friend that has fallen for a scam and is coming to you to convince you to invest in this Scam you better call the police right away.
It's not going to be easy to convince your relative that this is a con game but the police will help.

Con Artists almost never go directly to people that have money. The sacrificial Lamb makes it easier for them to get away. This puts distance between themselves and the person that they steal the money from. It also makes it harder to charge the Con Artist with a crime since there was no direct contact with the mark.

The bottom line is there is no one that will give you money and there are no investments that pay off big. If you are down and out you have to dig your way out of what ever mess you are in as there are no quick fix to such problems.

Vincent G.

Do you have Complaints about  Windows 8

Well don't expect Microsoft to worry about it much. The agenda is clear and your going to have to use what they tell you to use. For one thing is for sure and that is the Cloud has you and there is no escape.

Just what is the Cloud and why worry about it?
The Cloud was a plan hatched by Oracle almost 20 years ago where they wanted to eliminate PC's and replace them with work stations. A PC which had no hard drive or drive of any kind. This was their dream to lock users into paying for software. Oracle and many others have been working towards this goal for over a decade.

The downside of this pay for play is you no longer matter. They have you captured into a world they control and you either pay the monthly fee or you are cut off.
This is not my idea of freedom not only to use your PC as you want but also freedom on the internet also.

With the current system we have there is plenty of free software but what if they changed the market to make it so easy for big companies to force you to pay for software?

Ah yes that 20 year old dream just may come true as the majority are sleeping while the Cloud creeps in. Guess  you can say most have their head in a Cloud.