Finding the cheapest service

You've done it, I have done it. At some point we have all combed the Internet trying to dig up the cheapest service rates we can find. Some of us look for discounts in the form of bundled services, while others seek out that holy grail of low rates.

When looking for the cheapest service rates, new technology is worth looking into more often than not. Instead of just searching for low rates, try looking for new ways of getting that service first, then compare rates on those services.

Thanks to modern technology, elective utilities can be much less expensive than ever before. You might try voip service, or satellite tv rather than cable, both of which can save one a significant amount of loot each month.

Another way to pinch a penny is to keep an eye out for promotional offers and special incentives. People sometimes have a habit of thinking this is just another way to get you to "buy something". Maybe so, but is sure is nice to get that rebate a few weeks later.

Sometimes finding the cheapest service is a matter of taste. My grandfather for example wouldn't touch voip service with a ten foot pole for fear the "new fangled" monster might do him in. We all know this type, and pardon me if this is you :)

In closing, when sticking with traditional services, be sure to read the fine print. It isn't always the advertised rate that gets you. 0.02 cents a minute is great for long distance, but not if it's only that rate for 2 hours on Friday afternoon.

Electronic message boards how to use them

When we talk about electronic message boards, there are actually a lot of definitions that may fit to the term. Some people considered the electronic message boards as simply internet forums participated by people working in the electronic field. Others also define the term as those message boards that display messages or announcements for the students in schools; those that display the prices of the items sold in stores; or those that display the hymns for the church people. Well, in this article, I will talk about electronic message boards that are simply internet forums.

There are a lot of electronic message boards or forums available online these days. These forums primarily serve as a great place for people who share the same interest in electronics to meet and chat, and make friends. Also, the electronic message boards are a great place to learn. It is where the newbies and the experts in the field of electronics exchange thoughts, comments, advices, or recommendations. And, what makes it really a great place to learn is that you can post questions about machinery, equipments, and components for the electronic industry, and receive answers from the expert members of the board. You may even meet people from different areas in the world through these electronic message boards.

So, the question is, are you interested to find at least few of the well-known and safe electronic message boards to discuss everything electronics? If your answer is affirmative, then this page is no doubt for you. I have mentioned below a few of the most visited electronic message boards online.

Instrument Design Forum

This is the community that discusses issues and techniques relating to the electronics and physical details of designing instrumentation. Perhaps what is best about this electronic message board is that when you post a follow-up on the existing threads, their system will automatically send a notification to the person you reply to. Your follow-up therefore will not be missed, even if you post it long after the original message was posed. And, since this forum now contains a lot of messages, you are suggested to use to their site search for you to find those topics that you are interested to, thus saving your time.

Electronics Manufacturing and Automation Forum

This place is but a discussion forum designed for all those who are interested in electronics factory automation and process aspects. The discussion threads contained in this electronic message board were first opened in year 2000, and the threads are still open up to these days. Therefore, you can post follow-ups and make contribution to the knowledge base contained in the archives.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Forum

Another well-known electronic message board is the Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Forum (MEMS). What actually sets this forum unique from the other electronic message boards online is the fact that it limits its coverage on topics about polysilicon sensors, actuators, and microstructures. However, the members of this board can also discuss about bulk and surface micromachining technologies, fabrication process, and physical principles. Note that electronic message boards that tackle these topics are only few these days.

Website navigation - some tips

The navigation scheme you set up for your web site acts as its road map so it needs to be clear, structured and intuitive. No matter how good a site looks or how much useful information it has, if it does not have sensible navigation it will confuse visitors or drive them away. If a person has to look hard to find where they need to go, then they quickly lose focus and that is fatal to your chances of keeping them on site.

Navigation (and page titling and headlines) needs to tell visitors immediately:

* Where I am

* What is here

* Where I can go next

There are many ways of presenting navigation: down one side of the screen, along the top and bottom or in a frame. However, think of the search engines, as well as visitors as most search engines don't like frames or java script - which they can not be understand. As search engines need to read the links to index the site properly and you want good organic listings, java script is not a good idea and anyway some visitors will have it disabled.

So here are some more 'top tips':

1: It is important to allow instant access to the rest of your site from anywhere within it. Ideally, you should be able to go to any page in a maximum of two clicks and one is better. Motto: the less clicks the better.

2: Use the same navigation scheme and elements on all pages. Create a common navigational look to ensure that your users can use your site navigation effectively.

3: Wherever possible, use text navigation. Think about the tradeoff between text and graphics. Text based navigation works better than image based navigation because it enables users to understand the link destinations in detail. Too many sites have beautiful and fancy images for navigation that mean nothing to visitors. (Ever been abroad and been confused by their roadside or 'restroom' images?) Research also shows that 'breadcrumb trails' positioned under the page title (at eye level and closer to other links on the page) are used more than breadcrumb trails positioned at the top of the page.

4: Keep navigation elements (elements meaning different navigation 'lists') in close proximity and help users to develop a mental model of your web site.

5: Use the right margin for your web site's main index. Research shows that users are lazy and click on topics in the right margin more than topics placed on the left because they are located much closer to the scroll bar and they don't have to move their mouse so far! This allows users to quickly move the pointer between the scroll bar and the index items. These benefits are particularly strong for laptops with those horrid fingertip based mouse controls.

6: Separate important items from housekeeping links. Housekeeping links are the things people may need to find from any page but that don't need to be prominent. For example Privacy Policy, Site Map, FAQs and Contact Us can appear in the header or footer of the page

7: Make links easy to find. Don't expect visitors to mouse over every word on the page to discover if it is a link or not. Links don't have to be underlined, but do make them a different colour so that they stand out from surrounding body text and add a hover colour to links so that users can see what they are about to click. Use new windows (pop ups) sparingly.

What is icmp

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) is an Internet protocol that is focused on the control of messages and the reporting of errors. In design, ICMP is configured to provide these functions as a mediator between a gateway and a host server. The presence of ICMP helps to protect the integrity of the messages that are relayed back and forth between the two devices, as well as make efficient use of the Internet Protocol datagrams that are present.

Being one of the core protocols within the overall protocol suite, ICMP takes on the direct responsibility of processing error messages. This can be especially helpful in a networked environment, as ICMP makes it possible for a server to send out an error message to all connected workstations in the event that a program is taken offline or is temporary unavailable for some reason. This makes ICMP a valuable tool in making the most use of the operating system interface on the network, without tying up a lot of resources at the same time.

How Does ICMP Work?

The beauty of being the go-between for the host server and various connected devices is that ICMP can encapsulate the message in a way that protects the content, but does not use up lots of resources. When a message is received by ICMP, the protocol places the entire message in single IP datagram, and then forward the datagram to the destination. This special routing relieves some of the usage from the more standard protocols and helps to keep resources open and available to the other protocols. Overall, this aids in the total efficiency of the network.

How Do I Get ICMP?

Chances are you already have ICMP in place if you work within a network environment, or are using a computer system that has the ability to be linked into a network. Installation on systems that do not have ICMP is not difficult, but owing to the widespread use of the protocol, there is not much chance that an outside installation would ever be needed. Just to be sure, check with a technician about the use of ICMP on your network.

Spiritual web site sees significant growth

DailyWord, a 21st-century outgrowth of the Daily Word magazine, has grown from an initial user base of 150 to more than 30,000 since its launch in March 2005.

"Our goal was to make Daily Word conveniently available to as many people as possible at any time, day or night," said Tom Zender, president and chief executive officer of Unity, the publisher of the magazine. "More and more people are turning to the Internet for spiritual guidance and enrichment, so to serve spiritual seekers well, we needed to be where they are."

Daily Word has been published since 1924, making it the oldest continually published daily inspirational magazine in the nation. The print version is published in seven languages and has more than 1 million readers in at least 180 countries and territories around the world.

Unity is a transdenominational organization based near Kansas City, Mo., whose goal is to help people of all faiths apply positive spiritual principles to their lives.

Besides offering access to daily messages of inspiration, DailyWord. com provides messages that reflect on current events. DailyWord. com was able to respond quickly with a request for affirmative prayers for the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the hurricanes in the U. S., the earthquake in Pakistan and the mining accident in West Virginia.

DailyWord also offers premium privileges to paid members. For example, members can share thoughts and feelings about daily messages or other spiritual-related topics in the Daily Word Cafe.

"Another benefit for paid members is the online Daily Word archives. We now have all Daily Word messages included in the DailyWord. com archives going back to 1924. This is a total of more than 25,000 individual daily inspirational messages," said Zender. "People love to search these archives to find the messages from significant milestone dates in their lives or in history. Many members tell us they e-mail specific messages to their friends or print them for keepsakes."

Zender said the percentage of trial members who decide to stay with DailyWord has been outstanding.

"We're so gratified that 98 percent of our members stay with us beyond their 14-day free trial period," he said. "This tells us people are receiving from Daily Word. com the spiritual content and inspiration they need."

Top 10 innovative web 2.0 applications of 2005

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As 2005 draws to a close, I am overwhelmed by the amount of Web 2.0 startups that this year brought. There were no doubt hundreds or perhaps thousands of new services that came about following on the trend of "Web 2.0". Developers are beginning to create apps that are truly useful. Characteristics include more user interaction, far more efficient use of technologies such as AJAX, and slick design.

2005 also brought many "me too" companies. It seemed like every other Web 2.0 application was "The Best Social Bookmarking Site" or "The Best Startpage Site" or "Another Boring To-Do List site". My only hope is that this nonsense ends a quick death by the end of this month. I am optimistic that 2006 is the year of "Web 2.0 Innovation". It is the next logical step...and I anticipate it with great enthusiasm.

There have been quite a few "top web 2.0 companies of 2005" lists made in the past couple of weeks and I was sick of seeing the same high profile sites over and over again. Here are my picks for Innovative Web 2.0 companies.

To all developers: Your new years resolution should be to innovate, not immitate...we are counting on you!

1. TravBuddy - I like TravBuddy because it allows users to create journals of their journeys. The application mashes up with Google Maps and has some very cool AJAX features. This is a very cool way to discover and research destinations. Out of all the Web 2.0 apps from 2005 I am most excited about Trav Buddy growing and becoming a huge success. I love to travel and I love to research travel destinations. I'm tired of reading snippets from real people rating a hotel and even more tired of reading "about" sections on city websites, hotel pages, etc. This has huge potential.

2. Rollyo - Plain and simple, Rollyo allows you to create a search engine based on any criteria that you see fit. From digital cameras to triathletes, Rollyo is one cool way to gather information. The site is designed well and super easy to use. Great application!

3. TagCloud - Tag cloud is cool because it is loosely based on social bookmarking...and I do mean loosely. I like this site because you can through RSS feeds into it and it will automatically parse keywords and create massive "Tag Clouds". This is a very innovative way to keep track of news, blogs, etc. that you have in your feed reader.

4. Digg - Viva La Democratic media! Digg was one of this years smash successes, and rightly so. Users submit stories, users "digg" these stories, popular stories go to the homepage, lame stories turn to dust. Digg is the first site I go to every morning to find out whats new in tech. Rumor has it that Digg will be branching away from tech soon, and as long as they do it in a way that doesn't offend the techies...I can't wait to read politics. digg. com, and money. digg. com, and bizarre. digg. com.

5. Yahoo Answers - Yahoo has been on a Web 2.0 rampage the past couple of weeks. One property that came out of this is Yahoo Anwers. The site allows you to simply ask a question. Then, the community answers you and users can vote which answer is best. This is one of those apps that might depress you for not thinking of it first. Want to know how to tie a fancy knot? Just ask and in a short time users will tell you! Brilliant!

6. NetWorthIQ - Wanna know how filthy rich you aren't? NetWorthIQ allows you to enter in your debts, assets, cash, etc. and track your net worth over time. The site is easy to use and you can even compare yourself to other people your age, location, education level, etc. The graphs are pretty and the site really sets itself apart from the Web 2.0 pack.

7. SideJobTrack - Here is a beautiful project management application which, at first glance, seems to be a site in a very a crowded space. It is not! SideJobTrack sets itself apart by catering to more of an offline enviornment. There are tons of useful features such as invoicing, estimates, reports, and of course all the general project management features that all the other applications in this stuffy space have. Two thumbs up for this company going a step above to really carve out a niche.

8. gChart - gChart is a very cool idea based on the Google Maps API. You click anywhere on the map and it tells you the time zone and has a live clock. Who said Web 2.0 had to be fancy? This site proves that you can take a simple idea and create a very useful application. I love it!

9. MooFlex - I first got a glimpse of MooFlex a couple months back when they produced a video of the admin backend. MooFlex is a content management solution that has ajax galore. I give these guys two thumbs up for design and innovation in the content management arena. They are currently in private beta but there is an ultra cool demo on their site.

10. GiveMeaning - "GiveMeaning. com is a website for the $5 philanthropist." I like this site because it creates a community where people can help people. There are a lot of very cool opportunities to donate to causes that aren't stemmed from the big likes of Red Cross, etc. I found an organization that was collecting money and support to print brochures to educate the public about suicide. This is a very cool way to help out those in need and a very cool platform indeed.

There you have it folks. My Top 10 List of Innovative Web 2.0 Companies of 2005. Lets hope 2006 spawns a surge of innovation. I am excited about what is going on with internet business right now and I can't wait to see what the next step is.

Also, lets hope that 2006 spells the death of the social bookmark clones, to do list clones, calendar clones, startpage clones, etc. etc.