The Columbian TLD of “.co” was originally delegated on December 24th, 1991, to the Universidad de los Andes, which is located within Columbia. During 2001, the University explored the exploitation of the domain for commercial purposes, attempting to treat it as just another “.com” domain name.
Due to these actions, and in response, some legal action and activity was taken to prevent this, and the Minister of Communications wrote to the University asking them not to proceed with this course of action.
On February 12th, 2002, the current delegate of the TLD (the university) wrote to ICANN stating that it had “terminated the .CO country-code top-level domain commercialization process and has further decided not to appoint a new registry operator.” It further went on to say that the University was experiencing “great difficulty” in operating .CO in light of the December 2001 council decisions, as well as the legal actions concerning the commercialization.
A little later that same year, in May, the Minister and Vice-Minister of Communications along with the University parties met at ICANN’s offices in Los Angeles, CA to discuss the future administration of the TLD, the meeting was successful and thus allowed the University to keep control of the TLD.
Due to further problems with the University handling the needs of running a TLD, in late 2009 ICANN begun considering handing off the ownership and delegation of the TLD to a more capable and responsible party, and as of early 2010 the TLD is now owned and delegated by the “.CO Internet SAS (“The Concessionaire”)”.
Also, commercial organizations and personal entities may now register domains under the “.co” TLD, as of around this late summer, big companies such as GoDaddy and NameCheap begun allowing anyone to register domains under the TLD again.
This was a brief overview of what happened with the “.co” TLD, you may read the full length IANA article. This is important to the internet community since you could easily accidently mistype a “.co” for a “.com” and be misled or taken to an entirely incorrect website.
For Small Businesses, hiring new employees is a big financial leap. The good news is, there’s a temporary relief for business who are contemplating new hires.
A new Act was signed March 18th, 2010; Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) which combines payroll forgiveness for Social Security taxes paid by employers on qualified new hires with a tax credit for keeping new hires on the payroll for at least 52 consecutive weeks.
What this means, the HIRE Act provides employers with an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes for every worker hired after Feb 3rd 2010, and before Jan 1st 2011, who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. Considering the benefits to the employer are tied to the 6.2% of any salary paid, a qualified worker may be hired for any number of hours, part time or full time.
In order to claim these benefits, the Employer will have to fill out a Form 941 revised, and begin on the second quarter filing. In addition, a Form W-11 will have to filled out by the employee for proof of his working terms within the time. These forms are not filed with the IRS, but retained with other income and payroll tax records. Make sure you hold onto them in case of an audit.
In addition, HIRE gives $1,000 income tax credit for every new employee retained for over 52 weeks. Granted, the employer will have to wait till 2011 tax returns are filed to benefit since it is a consecutive 52 weeks prerequisite.
Included within the HIRE Act, a bipartisan Senate Vote extended the Section 179 deductions of 2008 & 2009 expense thresholds so that small businesses can continue to write off ‘Eligible Property‘ of up to $250,000 with a phase-out of $800,000 till Dec 31st of this year 2010. So if you haven’t already gone Christmas shopping for your company, now’s the time.
If you have any further questions, you can follow the IRS likes listed:
Netflix announced their new updated free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the last Apple Media event. Being a Netflix subscriber myself for the last several years I was very excited. My iPhone 4 is my most used portable electronic device.
Being able to watch movies and television from my Netflix account helps pass the time while traveling. With a small monthly fee of just $8.99 this added feature gives you more bang for your buck. Not only do you have the ability to stream Netflix from my Playstation 3, xBox 360 and most recently my Wii but you also receive both regular and Blue Ray DVDs in the mail.
After receiving my Apple iPad, Netflix was the first iPad specific app I downloaded. Having a more compact and easily portable device with Netflix availability is very exciting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out AT&T and Apple approved this application for use with their 3G Network and did not limit it to WiFi use only. Netflix currently has more than 15 million subscribers but after this application is released I believe this will attract the attention of even more.
The only feature users feel is missing from this application is a TV Out function. TV Out would give you the option of connecting your iPhone or iPod Touch to your television. Hopefully, Netflix will listen to its subscribers and introduce this option in future updates.
Included in this post, are two demonstration videos shot with my iPhone 4 of this application in use on the iPod Touch as well as the iPad. Does the availability of this app entice you to subscribe to Netflix? Have you had the opportunity to test the new iPhone and iPod application? If so, what are your thoughts?
iPhone/iPod touch Netflix App
iPad Netflix App
Screen Shots
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A few weeks ago a few friends and I went out to grab some Margaritas on a Friday evening. I was prepared to spend $20 to $30 on the Margaritas, Queso dip and my Enchiladas. Three or Four ritas later, and a full belly, we received our bill. $15. Excuse me? I had at least three ritas, and dinner. The week before, my friend had purchased a Groupon to said Mexican restaurant for $45, but only had cost her $18. She was nice enough to use this towards our entire bill. What a steal! We received a $27 discount with the pre-paid Groupon. How had I missed this fenomenon?
Thus, began my obsession with the Groupon. I went home that evening and signed up on Groupon.com to receive emails with the latest Groupon in my area. The signup was nothing more than entering my email address at the top of the page to received daily ‘deals’. The idea behind Groupon, is that a business determines how many coupons they would need to sell to make it worth their while and provide this number to Groupon. Let’s say they would need to sell 100 coupons to make this deal happen. An email is then sent out to everyone who has signed up on Groupon.com with the deal of the day in their city, and once 100 people have purchased the Groupon, the deal is on. 100 people have to purchase the Groupon that day to make the deal happen. If not enough people purchase the Groupon to make the deal, the deal is canceled and there is no charge to the people that purchased the Groupon.
Groupon.com started in November of 2008 out of the Chicago based site, ThePoint.com. The Point is a platform that focuses on collective action, which ties into the concept of building a Group of people to purchase at discounted rates. Groupon focuses on local businesses and features local charities. They pride themselves on offering “too good to be true” experience and deals. Groupons are now offered in more than 150 cities around the world and have just recently acquired Japan’s Qpod Inc. and Russia’s Darberry Inc. as part of its international expansion.
Although Groupon is working on a patenting their idea, many others sites have started to join the group discount bandwagon. Here are just a few of the sites competing;
8Coupons – This site lists the top 8 deals in a specific city.
Buywithme – Almost identical to Groupon, but with a smaller number of cities represented.
Woot – Does not require a ‘group’ to purchase, but just offers daily deals on one product.
Livingsocial – Offers 1 Day Deals for wide range of cities in the US
Steepandcheap – Focuses on outdoor gear with 1 Deal a Day format.
Last Thursday Groupon hit a milestone when they their first nationwide Groupon for the Gap, with a $25 price for a $50 Groupon. The Gap Groupons started selling at an average of 10 Groupons per second! As of right now, this is Groupon’s bestselling deal. The deal was so big, Groupon’s site crashed at the end of the day on Thursday. With the success of the Gap Groupon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more nationwide deals popping up on Groupon. If you haven’t already signed up to receive a daily deal day, visit Groupon to start saving.
Where do you shop for 1 Day Deals?
Internet access through Wi-Fi connections has become a common thing, whether through home computers, laptops or cellular phones, something that even the hardiest of traveler will do without, even while exploring the great outdoors. I recently experienced this myself while visiting Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I usually take a Wi-Fi card with me when I travel, so I can get online while traveling for work, information and staying in touch with loved ones. Before traveling I usually check my cell phone providers signal area for the places I will be in. When looking at the Yellowstone area map I didn’t see much and practically no cell/ Wi-Fi service mapped in. However when I arrived at the park, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized my cell phone had service in the more populated, lodge and Visitor Center areas of the park. I then tried the wireless card and “presto” I was connected! The service was a little slow but pretty decent for being in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a deed to be connected to the world online and staring right at “Old Faithful”. I don’t recommend you spend your whole time working while trying to take a vacation in one of the most beautiful National Parks of the world. However it’s beyond being able to get work done in such a wild place, Wi-Fi/Cell phone access unites us and brings safety to what would otherwise be an extremely isolated place. It’s a pretty incredible feeling to share such a magnificent place live with your friends and family all over the world, while you’re living it. By doing so it also promotes the park, as people who may have never heard or seen of such a place are now living it through your live experience via the internet.
Yellowstone National Park is the first national park to bring Wi-Fi into their remote wilderness area. Despite the varied isolated regions of the park, Wi-Fi Internet has been incorporated in some limited places to satisfy the modern tourist. Many lodgings offer possible Wi-Fi and cell phone access, something that was never available before. The park is still limited as it has not yet provided broadly available hotspots. The National Park Service found that Wi-Fi Internet service access within Yellowstone National Park would not have the environmentally detrimental impact that had once been thought. While there are no WIFI Internet access points within the park, there is digital cellular service at Old Faithful and Grand Canyon Visitor Centers where a cell phone or cellular data card can get you access to the Internet. Visitors can also find hotspots at the park’s edges, without interfering with the natural habitats of wildlife and natural surroundings. The strongest signals by far are found within the lodgings as long as the guests have their own laptops.
Yellowstone was the world’s first national park and again has become first, but this time in bringing Wi-Fi and cell phone access into the park. Perhaps they can pave the way once again and set a standard for other national parks all over the world. Wi-Fi/cell phone access provides tourist the technology and safety that we depend on in these modern times. Now you can share your vacation immediately with friends and family by seeing live images and sharing pictures right as you’re living them. It also provides business travelers the chance to get outdoors and still remain in touch. Most importantly cell phones work in case of any emergency while in the wild. There are many benefits to this new access that we can all enjoy and benefit from, while maintaining the integrity of nature.
The iPhone 4 was released to the public on June 24th 2010. In the first 3 days over 1.7 million new units were sold. On June 15th Apple allowed its large customer base to start pre ordering their new iPhone 4. The pre order system on Apple and AT&T’s websites did not last long as they were up and down all day. Most customers, including myself, tried to pre order online over and over again. Finally a large number gave up after a long day of disappointment. After being denied by apple’s online order system, I personally called AT&T and placed my order over the phone. Many other customers went into their local AT&T retail stores to place their pre order. Because of the high demand AT&T was forced to place pre orders hand written on paper and processed at another time. Even with all the problems surrounding the pre order, the new iPhone 4 has done very well in sales. Selling over 3 million new iPhone 4’s in the first 3 weeks.
When everyone started to receive their new iPhones on June 24th people started noticing a problem with their reception signal. Within a few hours more and more stories were reaching the web as well as other media outlets. Many documented videos were posted on YouTube and other video sites of users gripping their new iPhone 4 and the signal dropping just like when the xBox 360 had the red rings of death. The new iPhone 4 has its own “death grip”. The new innovative antenna design for the iPhone 4 includes a steel band that wraps around the phone. At the bottom left corner of the antenna there is a small gap. When you place your finger over the gap or wrap your hand around the phone, signals have been reported to drop from five bars to no signal. Even though the new iPhone 4 has some new innovative and ground breaking technology, the press surrounding the antenna “death grip” problem have overshadowed the positive new steps the phone has taken.
At 10:00 am Pacific Steve Jobs addressed the public with his latest press conference where the main focus was the antenna “death grip” problem. At the beginning of his statements he explained that all smart phones have this same issue. His smart phone examples included the HTC Droid Eris, Blackberry Bold 9700 and the Samsung phone. Previously announced by Apple the actual signal strength bars had been using the wrong bar formula for the last three years. So the first step to help fix this issue is to download the new software update 4.0.1. This update fixes the signal bar formula and also makes the signal bar icon larger, making one bar signal strength more noticeable. Jobs went on to discuss the success of the new Apple bumper case which gives the user a small buffer between him and the antenna resulting in a solution for the antenna “death grip” issue. From these findings Apple has decided to give their loyal iPhone 4 customers a free bumper case for those ordering one before September 30, 2010. However, Apple is unable to produce enough bumper cases to meet the demand. Starting late next week users will be able to apply on Apple’s website for a free case. If the free case and new software update still does not meet your standards Apple is allowing you to return your undamaged iPhone 4 within 30 days for a full refund without the restocking fee.
Jobs wanted to make it clear how much they appreciate their customer’s loyalty. He concluded with “We love our users. We really love ’em. And we try very hard to surprise and delight them. We work our asses off for them. And it’s great. And we have a blast doing it.” Do you feel that Apple has redeemed themselves by offering the free bumper case or will you be taking advantage of the full refund?
If you’re an avid Internet user, you owe Finland a great deal of gratitude. They’re the first nation in the world to make broadband service a basic right to its citizens. Without this big step from them, there’s no telling how long it would’ve taken for another country to finally pull the trigger. That’s right: while America tries to figure out how to get broadband into rural areas, Finland is moving forward with a much bolder plan that involves giving broadband access to every single person in its country.
Why is this such an important move? Internet has been the most used tool in the last few years, that is free and provides valuable information for anyone using it properly. Bringing high speed access to all would improve the quality of life in some of the country’s most sparsely-populated regions, as well as boosting business and encouraging online business. Making internet a basic right for all citizens, is a step forward in providing each person with the latest news, education, technology and everything else available at your finger tips.
Starting this month, any Internet provider that operates in Finland will be obligated to provide a 1Mbps connection to all Finnish households, regardless of location. That’s certainly a huge thing to ask of ISPs, but there are limitations in place to prevent outrageous extra fees from cropping up. This is s BIG move and it will hopefully spark a lot of copycat movements from other governments around the world. No one wants to lag behind in the race to become the most connected nation in the world, and while Finland is certainly small, it’s far from being “tiny.”
The human body was not designed to sit still in front of a computer for 12 hours a day. Yet, that is what most of us do on a daily basis. We sit still and move our fingers from the keyboard to the mouse, and answer our phones. It is almost impossible to get around the amount of time you sit still at your desk, and the little movement that your body makes.
This can ultimately cause poor circulation, joint pain, cramping, and potentially swelling.
How can you work your way around this sedentary type of work? Here are a few ways of keeping active, in a non-active environment.
- Stretch
- Arms: Roll your wrists 10 times in each direction a couple times during the day.
- Feet: Move your ankles and roll them a couple times during the day to prevent “pins and needles”.
- Calves: Flex your calf muscles by pointing your toes.
- Back + Shoulders: Roll your shoulders back 10 times a couple times during the day.
- Neck: Slowly move your head front to back and side to side (be cautious).
- Posture
- Consistently check your posture during the day
- Are you sitting up straight?
- Are your legs crossed? (uncross them)
- Are your feet flat on the floor?
- Is your monitor at eye height? (you should not be looking up or down)
- Make sure you are using a chair that is ergonomically designed and adjusted for your height. Alternatively, you can use a stability ball instead of a chair.
- Consistently check your posture during the day
- Down time
- Use any time that you do not have to be looking at the computer to get up and walk around. Get up from your desk at least once an hour.
- Eating + Drinking
- Make sure you are getting up from your computer during lunch (and maybe dinner).
- Drink plenty of water during the day. This will also help with getting up from your desk at least once an hour.
- Aerobic Activity (Non-Desk Exercise)
- Walk briskly for 10 minutes 3 times a day. This is simple to break down. Take 10 minutes mid-morning, 10 minutes after lunch and 10 minutes in the late afternoon. This will help increase circulation and will also give you a little break from the computer screen.
- Spend some time on the weekends and in the evenings walking or doing some light jogging for 30 to 45 minutes, 2 to 3 times a week.
If you need some more ideas on how to stay active at your desk, or just want to mix up your routine, check out this video.
Staying active is a vital part of our lives that can be easily neglected by the demands of our jobs. Take time during the day to think about moving. This will help you feel better, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to move can help cleanse your mind and release stress. Try doing some of these deskercises over the course of this next week and see how you feel!
Having been in the web development life cycle for many years, I have learned the reality of trying to stick to HTML/XHTML best coding practices, which include being as much W3C compliant as possible, but in the real world, not all web browsers are created equal, that we can only wish!
It is still most beneficial as a programmer to follow a standard flow of key decision choices, that is to keep future modifications and improvements easier and leads to quicker maintenance of your current website’s needs. It can also be easier for people new to your project or site to get acquainted with how its setup in both the front-end and back-end aspects of it.
While being able to have a nice shiny W3C compliant badge, may be cool, it surely does not mean that your site is going to just simply look the exact same in the currently most used web browsers by your visitors, let alone any really older or non-common web browsers.
In fact, having such a badge, and forgetting to check the compliance results from W3C’s online tools, may lead to a negative effect, where the visitor clicks on it, and because you didn’t confirm every page is complaint, one single html, xhtml or css level error will display a nasty non-compliance screen.
That is something you want to avoid, as it makes your site seem as if it was poorly put together, which is most likely not the case at all. As you can see above, even big name sites, do not follow compliance, and may even have hundreds of erroneous reports from online compliance validation tools, while their website looks and functions without any issue.
The best recommendations I have for people is to keep your code as clean and human readable as possible, along with attempting to follow standards as much as you can, and if you need to utilize some non standard, or non compliance code, its fine, go ahead.
Truly, as long as your website fully functions properly for your audiences needs, you are actually ahead of the curve. A lot of sites still to this day have things that do not work in Firefox or Chrome, and only work properly in Internet Explorer, sometimes even specific older version of it.
Another thing to consider is switching your document type, as typically I utilize XHTML with Transitional, meaning some “older” style HTML is allowed, such a table-specific items, this may allow what you were trying to accomplish and might put you that much closer to compliance validation.
Also keep in mind to always cross browser test not just in each web browser, but also in many different (most commonly used/recent) versions, and on different computers, as things like font sizes and generic style sheet rules may surprise you on a certain combination of browser, version and operating system.
Bonus Tip: Different sites will attract different user types, meaning even further potential browser support that you must maintain, you should utilize tools like Google Analytic’s to identify which browsers your visitors are using.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply. Thanks!
Over the past week every other headline seems to be about privacy online. Google and Facebook have both been making headlines about questionable security practices. Each of these online giants touches our lives on a daily basis and it is important to stay on top of their security practices.
Google has many countries across the world are in an up roar about “accidental collection” of personal information from the public Wi-Fi Networks. Many countries, including the US, have started an investigation to whether or not they breached data protection and computer hacking laws. Google is claiming they overlooked this problem and that they did not use the gathered information for any other purpose then to improve services. Look for more headlines regarding Google’s oversight and how they will be correcting their privacy issues.
Facebook has been topping the headlines with their privacy settings issues that affect all of their 400 million users. So, what is going on with Mark Zuckerberg and all of his friends at Facebook? They have been receiving a lot of heat for their lack of privacy and bulky privacy settings page. The current privacy settings are defaulted to public, and you have to navigate your way through about 170 different granular settings to make the switch to having a more private setting. Facebook users have been voicing their concerns for months about the default privacy settings and awkward granular privacy settings page. Finally, Facebook has listened to the users and will be making significant changes to their privacy. The changes will include;
- Sharing
- One page of privacy settings that will have a default privacy setting, along with separate levels of privacy.
- Granular controls are still available to use, but do not have to be used.
- Basic Directory Information
- Less publically available information.
- Only necessary information for people to find you on the site.
- Platforms
- Control over what applications (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc) and sites have access to your information.
You can read more about the updated privacy settings on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg also posted a nice blog and video today reviewing the changes to the privacy settings. These new privacy controls will start taking effect gradually over the next few weeks, so you won’t see them right away. If you are interested in changing your privacy settings, you can log into your Facebook account, go to Account, and select privacy settings.
