Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
November 28, 2005

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Volume 1, Number 24 -- Monday, November 28, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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4.  Web Find: Clif Notes Newsletter

Are you interested in free software -- utilities, tools, office programs, suites and more? Then you need to subscribe to the free Clif Notes Newsletter.

Clif writes a weekly online newsletter about his latest finds in the world of freeware and shareware. Some of his articles are software reviews, and include his notes, comments from others, a screenshot of the program and a quote from the source.

His Cool Web Sites, News and Freeware Adventure sections are always worth reading, as are the feedback comments from his readers.

I'm glad Clif found my Terry's Computer Tips web site when it was mentioned in Fred Langa's newsletter. Clif subscribed to my newsletter and wrote me to introduce himself and his newsletter. I took a look at his newsletter and quickly subscribed.

Clif's Clif Notes Newsletter has both an online and an email component. The email announces this week's articles and provides a link to the latest newsletter. Of course, Clif has all his older newsletters online for you to enjoy, too.

Don't miss the links near the top of his page. These are the links for the newsletter archives, the reviews archives and the link to subscribe.

Clif's focus is free software. He's also quick to note other free stuff -- his newsletter is hosted at http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com, which provides free hosting for wikis. A wiki is a community-built website that is designed for easy editing my multiple people.

Clif's lastest find is a free domain name -- clifnotes.tk! Read more about DotTK domain names in the next article.

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Good Stuff, and you can use the Internet to get it

I recently found a small, fourth-generation, family-run toffee manufacturer that sells their fantastic almond toffee via the Web.  When I tried some of their Chocolate Almond Toffee, "My, oh, my!"

Greenmar Toffee was so rich that one piece was actually satisfying — no kidding and no exaggeration.  It is so good that you will come back for more, later, of course.  But, I did not reach for the second piece immediately because one piece satisfied my taste buds.

Greenmar says about their toffee:  "One gift everybody loves, every time you send it. Greenmar toffee uses the freshest all-natural ingredients and tastes more like home made. Simple, secure online ordering makes this gift easy to share."  The thin block of toffee with tiny, embedded almond slices is coated on top and bottom with rich chocolate.  Butter, chocolate and sugar:  those are three of the basic food groups, aren't they?  ;-)

After receiving my shipment and tasting the toffee, I promptly ordered a gift shipment for my mother.  She loves toffee and loves to get it at this time of the year, as do many people.

Greenmar's web site easily handles gift orders, including shipments to multiple recipients, and they offer discounts for volume purchases, too.

Try Greenmar Toffee — I like it and I think you will, too.

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5.  Get a Free Domain Name

Ever want a domain name of your own? You've got a web site on your Bellsouth, Cox, Charter, RoadRunner or other ISP account and that long tacky URL to get to it -- members.isp.net/username, or something worse.

Now, you can get your own free domain name from DotTK (www.dot.tk). DotTK will let you have up to 3 free domain names, or you can register .tk domain names through them.

The free domains include the ability to have up to 5 email addresses that reroute to the account of your choice. So, you can have an email address me@mydomain.tk (for example) that automatically reroutes the incoming email to your regular email account.

The redirection to your actual web site is "framed" -- that is, the domain name points to a specific web page -- the home page you select -- visitors see only that address in their web browser's location bar.

If you use "framed" web pages, whether through DotTK (www.dot.tk) or through any other domain registrar, be careful with your links that go outside your web site. Since the "frame" includes the address bar, the visitor will always see your domain name, even if she has now gone to Yahoo, Google, or any place else! The fix is up to you. In your anchor tags to other web sites, the clickable links that go to other web sites, always include target="_blank" within the <a> tag.

Although there is a lot of boilerplate to the domain registration agreement, it didn't seem as long as others I had read. The most important thing that stood out was that you have to have visitors to your domain -- if you do not have 25 visitors to your domain every 90 days, they will deactivate your domain. At that point, you can register the domain for $9.95/year to reactivate it.

Of course, at any time you want, you can convert to a paid domain, which has its own advantages. If you want to keep your .tk domain but wish to set up regular non-framed hosting at your web host of choice (I recommend Powweb), you have to pay the $9.95 to convert to a paid listing before you can set it up for use as a regular non-framed domain -- hosted wherever you want. Of course, once you convert to a paid .tk domain name, as long as you keep your .tk domain name, you will have to pay the .tk registrar its $9.95 annual fee

You have this issue with any domain name, anywhere -- you pay an annual fee for its use. While some registrars offer a free domain name, I recommend against taking them up on the offer. The problem is that, if you change domain registrars -- which may or may not require changing web hosts if they are the actual registrar -- your web site may not be available for hours during the change. Similarly, if you want to change web hosts, your site may have transition outages.

So, I recommend buying a domain name and buying it from someone other than the web host that is hosting your site.

Back to www.dot.tk -- this looks like an excellent choice for any hobbyist who has their own web site. This is your chance to get away from http://members.cox.net/[userid] for free and to have your own domain for your web site.

If you want to pay for your own .com, .net, .org or many others, I recommend GoDaddy.com. Prices may vary depending on the top-level domain. Prices will vary significantly from domain registrar to domain registrar. GoDaddy has an excellent package of services for domains, even if you host your site on a free service.

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Continued in Part 3

Volume 1, Number 24 -- Monday, November 28, 2005
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Copyright © 2005 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.