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CyberArtisans Web Developers Newsletter )
Keeping you up to date on the web June 2008
In this issue
  • Choosing a Domain Name
  • Be Careful Who and What You Quote on the Web
  • The Hazards of Recovery CDs

    		•

    Welcome to the June 2008 issue of the CyberArtisans newsletter!

    Each month we try to present information that will be useful to you as a website owner and as a user of the web. If these newsletters are useful, please forward this to a friend. To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the bottom of this email.


    		Choosing a Domain Name

    A well-chosen domain name can help potential customers find you easily on the web. Here are some simple rules to follow when choosing a domain name:

    1. Keep it as simple as possible.
    2. Use your company name if it's available. And use a .com domain name if at all possible.
    3. If yourcompany.com is taken, you can choose yourcompany.net. Unfortunately, web users are so used to .com domains that they may accidentally enter yourcompany.com when looking for you. If yourcompany.com is your competition, you could be steering potential clients to them. A better option is to use a geographic reference, like yourcompanyboston.com.
    4. Don't make up words that people may have trouble remembering. Instead, use a word or phrase that someone will remember easily if you tell it to them at a cocktail party. Yes, even after they've had a drink or two.
    5. If the name you want is taken, see if the owner would be willing to sell it. People often collect domain names and then don't use them.
    6. Watch your expiration dates! If you forget to renew your registration you could lose it.

    		Be Careful Who and What You Quote on the Web

    The Associated Press has recently announced that they will charge for quotes from the AP on the web. The charges are relatively small ($12.50 for 5-25 words, $25 for 51-100 words, etc.), but along with these charges comes the implied threat of legal action if you quote them without permission (and without paying the fee).

    This flies in the face of common practice on the web, where most sites are delighted if you quote an excerpt from them, especially if you include a link to the full article. It may also conflict with the copyright laws on fair use, but the courts will probably end up deciding that.

    Reaction among political bloggers has been quick and negative: While some are promoting a boycott of AP, others have decided to continue to use quotes from AP and fight the fair use violation in court.

    For those of us who can't afford to defend such a lawsuit, the message is to be careful who you quote on your website. If you have any doubt, contact the webmaster of the site in question and ask. We've done this many times and can help you do it if you wish. In most cases, the website owners are delighted to have the quote and the link.

    		The Hazards of Recovery CDs

    This just came up in a discussion with a client and we thought it was worth telling others: If your computer crashes and you can't restart it easily, you may be tempted to reach for the Recovery CD that came with the computer. Don't, unless you are sure you know what that Recover CD does and you are sure you want to do what it does.

    Unfortunately, "Recovery CD" is a lousy name for this disk, since the only thing it recovers is the basic software that was on your computer when you bought it: the Operating System, possibly some software you bought with the system (usually Microsoft Office), and often some trial utilities like an antivirus. In the process, it destroys everything else.

    The first thing a Recovery CD does is wipe your hard disk clean. That's right, it destroys all data files -- all Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files, as well as all photos and videos, and anything else you have created or downloaded and stored on your hard disk. It also destroys all email you have received using Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, or any other non-web email software. The only exceptions are if you use Outlook with an Exchange Server or any email software with an IMAP server. In these cases your email is on the server, so it's protected from anything that happens to your disk.

    Any time your computer crashes, proceed with extreme caution to protect your data. If you have any doubt at all as to how to proceed, shut down the computer and call a professional computer repair person. Usually most if not all of the data can be recovered if you do nothing to the disk. But if you use the Recovery CD, there may be no data left to recover.

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