Dotster 'does' web design

Dotster now offers 'custom' web design. The part I like best is, "And the best part is our services are affordable, starting at just $199 for a basic 1-page site." Yeah, $200 for one page, what a deal. And what do they mean by custom? Their service starts at the 'Basic' level where the sucker customer can, "Pick a sample design. Our designers incorporate your content." Sounds like you get to choose one of their templates and they throw a bit of stuff in for you. Funny, sounds like the same thing that both Google and Microsoft do FOR FREE, with some work from you.

Granted, with Google you don't get a professional looking domain, but you do with Microsoft's 'Basic' Office Live service and its free. I have already written. about Google Pages and Microsot Office Live.

Dotster does not stop there, you can also pay them $859 for a single web page with their 'Intermediate' service which provides, "Start with a sample site. We design around your content with lots of extra features." So maybe you get to pick from a different set of their templates and then they make some minor changes to it. Then there is their 'Advanced' service for $1299 (also just one page). But they don't even bother trying to justify the expense saying rather, "When only the best will do." Best what?

And I am guessing that with these services you get to pay Dotster for their over priced domain registrations and lack-luster web hosting.

Now with Google Pages and Microsoft's Office Live you have to make the page yourself, but the tools are easy enough if you only need one page, and did I mention that both are free. No design fee, no registration fee, and no hosting fee.

I used to love Dotster, but they are just crazy now, their web hosting barely works, their registration is over priced, and now they have a very overpriced web design service. There are many independent web designers out there (including myself: JFDS) a cheaper and better job.

Newsletter #1

New Phishing Threats

Typically, a "Phishing" scam takes the form of an email that you would receive from a large company that you may have an account with. Ebay, PayPal, and City Bank have been some of the most common companies that have been used as a cover. Though Phishing emails may appear to be coming from these companies, they are not and the scam artist is hoping that you will not notice this and click on one of the links in the email. The link will take you not to Ebay’s web site, but the the scam artist’s web site (that will be made to resemble Ebay) where you will be asked to input your user name and password. Once the scammer has these, he can access your account and do things that you probably don’t want him to do (like take all your money).

I have discussed this issue with many of you in the past, but I think an update is in order as scam artists are starting to use smaller brands to hide their fraudulent emails. As reported by Techdirt, scammers are becoming aware that their methods are becoming easily recognizable and are shifting to a new model. Now it appears that they are using smaller companies, or topics of interest that you may not expect. So please be cautious when clicking on links in an email, you don’t know where you may end up. Though in some email applications and in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, you can see the full URL of the link when you roll your cursor over it. The URL appears in the status bar at the very bottom of the email or browser application window (see attached image). If the link in the status bar does not appear to match what is in the email, there may well be a problem with that link.

Metal Art

Links to two artists working with reclaimed metal objects to make fantastic sculptures, eonjoy:

Edouard Martinet
http://www.edouardmartinet.com

Ptolemy Elrington
http://www.hubcapcreatures.com
http://www.canadiancontent.net/forums/about16914.html

Louisville

We were in Louisville, KT for Jennifer's board exams. What I saw of the city, which was not much, is quite pleasing. I am not sure what I had expected, but it is a beautiful town.

It is a bit odd in being rather bi-polar, I have seen many people who appear not to be able to afford to take a shower walking down the street being past by Porsches and Lexuses, and not the cheap ones (these were Carreras Lexus convertibles). There is clearly a lot of disposable income in Louisville, but it does seem rather concentrated. The buildings are in a similar state. I walked down to the 'museum district' and as one would expect, that area is filled with gleaming posh businesses. I passed several expensive looking ad agencies, but right in the middle is a very dilapidated building with a tree growing out of the wall. Urban renewal seems in full swing, but looks to be a bit sporadic.
I keep ogling at all the beautiful buildings, even the ones falling down and dreamed about renovating them. This is probably just a reaction to the rather dull state of Houston architecture. I have been starved for so long that I don't think I would mind having a tree growing out of my wall, if it was a nice wall.

Jennifer is just happy to have a Whole Foods in town, and naturally, that is where we stopped first.

We took a few pleasant drives through the city which fluctuated from developed down town to more relaxed sprawl that felt more like an extended small town then 'generica', though we did eventually find our selves there.I had a nice time visiting a few museums in town, The Science Museum, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, and Glassworks. I was reluctant to return to College Station.

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

While in Louisville, we visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. It is located not far from several hotels and is close to many other museums and places of interest.

Second floor gallery

During our visit we saw a furniture show and wood turning show. Both were enjoyable and worth seeing. The museum works to share the art and craft of Kentucky artist, but also reaches out to weave in national artists and craftspeople. It makes for a good mix. The museum is spread over three public floors and has a good amount of work on exhibit, definitely worth a trip.

Fin Spin by Bruce Mitchell

The Museums gift shop is also of note displaying the work of dozens, if not hundreds of Kentucky artists. It is a show in itself and quite densely packed, so walk through it twice, or even three times to not miss anything.

The museum also has a permanent collection, part of which is on display. I was somewhat less impressed with this section. There are several good examples of ceramics, wood turning, and an exceptional quilt, but it also had some questionable folk art, or outsider art as some like to refer to it. I appreciate genuine folk art, but it is a title used far too loosely and it did not seem to fit well with the museum's focus on craft.

sweet new blog

Found a sweet new blog for people who like to make stuff, check it out: Make.

wooden bike builder

There are a lot of people building a lot of crazy bikes out there, but something about this guy caught my eye.

stumbling around

As is common on the web, I just sort of fell into this guy's Flickr album and was moved by the photos.

Photo Lighting

Photographic lighting setups are very expensive. I have tried to do them on the cheap in the past with less then stunning results. But today there are much better options. Photoshop allows for the correction of what is typically the biggest problems of photos taken indoors and that is color correction. And the ability to do a batch color correction makes it practical. It is even easier if one is working with RAW image files and uses Photoshop's RAW pre-processor.

But still, it is much easier to just start with a well lit image and this article talks about how to get there much cheaper then ever before (unless you just shoot outside).

bunch of links

Just don’t know what to do with this stuff, so I will post them here:

• Cool Shelving
• Solar Decathlon
• Earth Shots
• Cheap Daily Tech Bargins (with comentary)
• Cheap CDs