Quirks' Animal Roadshows

I've been doing a little web design recently. I have been working with my son and daughter-in-law to design and build their new website for their business. The website is http://quirksanimalroadshows.co.uk/ Their business is taking animals to schools, nurseries, parties, old peoples homes etc to allow people to get close to an even interact with (normally) unusual animals such as snakes, spiders, scorpions and such like.

It's been hard work to get everything done but the site is now live and having fresh content available.

Paul.

Food for thought

Hi folks,

It seems like ages since I last posted to this blog. In truth there has been lots of change in my life. One of the positive ones is that I'm able to spend a little more time on the internet side of things. One of my ventures is to create some sites on food related topics - I love food (in fact I never eat anything else!). Rather than add things to this blog (which has more of a technology focus) I've created a new food related blog and will put stuff there. My first project is on Italian food. More on that on the new blog.

Happy days.

Paul.

Wii Site launched

Greetings once more,

I thought I'd better just drop a post in here about the new Wii site my son Luke and I are working on. Having succumed and bought a Wii a bit before Christmas we've had so much fun with it that I thought it would be worth building a site with information on Nintendo's Wii for others to use.

The site's at http://www.wii64.com/. At the moment we're still populating it with appropriate articles, so if you have a particular topic you'd like covered then let me know, otherwise feel free to check it out and comment.

Cheers,

Paul.

Dog Training R Us?

Hi folks,

well I've been off for a while looking at other content sites and thinking about creating some more hobby sites myself. One of our family interests centres around our pet dog Golly. He's a very active dog (collie cross labrador) so needs lots of exercise. Julia, my wife, has taken up dog agility with him - it's quite fun. Anyhow to cut a long story short I thought a web site centred around dog training might be fun, so I've created one. We're still adding content to it but I've got some google videos up already if you're interested. (Comments welcome as ever.)
The site's at www.DogTrainingRUS.com

Paul.

Website creation training

Hi folks,

I've just returned from the World Internet Summit UK 2007 held in London 15-18 November this year. What at time! As always at these sorts of events there is so much information presented that your head swims with the different options. We're noting our detailed comments on the summit on the VCS Hosts blog

While a few of us were sat eating lunch a couple of the other attendees told me how they were really looking for help with the mechanics of creating web sites, what ftp was, html files and so on. Then I remembered that I owned a training course which took people through all that stuff step by painstaking step. It was created by Jim Edwards and as far as I know it's the only training material which takes you through in such careful detail.

I haven't checked the price but I think it's around $400 - quite a bargain for UK customers with the current $2 = £1 exchange rates.



The course comprises a number of training videos which shows the whole process from start to end and includes all the tools needed to create web pages. There are some sample videos on the page so you can see the sort of presentation and get a sense of just how long it must have taken Jim to create this course.

The only criticism I can level at the training course is that it's so detailed it gets painful at times - but then I guess that's just me being a techie. (Or should I say "geek" these days?)

Anyhow if it's something you might find useful, click this link to go to Jim's site. I can personally vouch for the quality and completeness of Jim's training.

Have fun!

Paul.

Beware of false greetings

Hi folks,

twice today I've received an email which looks like this:

----------------------------------------
greetings


Hello friend !
You have just received a Greeting from someone who cares about you!

Just click here to receive your Animated Greeting !

===================
Thank you for using www.Greetings.com services !!!
Please take this opportunity to let your friends hear about us by sending them a postcard from our collection !
==================
----------------------------------------

The email says it came from "Greetings@greetings.com".

If you receive anything like this, whatever you do DO NOT CLICK THE LINK!

In this case the word "here" appeared in blue as a hyperlink. I checked it and it goes to http://flaviu.worldwidedrive.com/a_friend.exe. That means that if you click on the link it will run a program on your PC.

I have no idea what this program will do but I'm very clear that I don't want it running on my computer!

There are doubtless other emails going around with dodgy links in them. Please please please think "safety" before you click on any link in an email regardless of how friendly it looks.

It's also worth taking a moment to recognise the fact that it was addressed to "dear friend" - not to my name. If a friend of mine really did send me an online card, don't you think they would use my name?

The exception will be if you have recently done something (such as sign up for a newsletter) and so the email has arrived in response to something you have done.

Be safe.

Paul.

Protect your router - or else!

Hi again,

on CareOfWindowsXP's page about Firewalls and Wireless Networks we haven't made great play of some of the really basic items, such as ensuring to change the password on a router to something other than the default. If you have a router and haven't changed the passwords, here's a scary reminder:

From http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6159938.html?tag=nl.e550
Attackers could change the configuration of home routers using JavaScript code, security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered. The researchers first published their work in December, but Symantec publicized the findings on Thursday.

The researchers found that it is possible to change the DNS, or Domain Name System, settings of a router if the owner uses a connected PC to view a Web page with the JavaScript code. This DNS change lets the attacker divert all the Net traffic going through the router. For example, if the victim types in "www.mybank.com," the request could be sent to a similar-looking fake page created to steal sensitive data.

Change your password or be hacked!

A nice clear message.

Paul.