REGISTERING DOMAINS
Last month I mentioned the top-level domain WorldSite available at http://www.worldsite.ws
which has been created to compete with the ubiquitous .com domains.
Subsequent to that article I've had an enquiry from Steve Jackson (P38)
regarding the best place to register .com and .co.uk domains.
There are numerous places to register domains, but one site
that offers that little bit more for an individual is http://www.freeparking.co.uk
. However, if you're a company with more demanding requirements, such as
professional hosting, building and marketing of your site, then I suggest
you do some homework and seek the advice of a professional.
For those just wishing to register a domain to forward onto
another web site or just to park,
http://www.freeparking.co.uk is
the ideal solution and they're very competitive. They also provide a quick
search facility for checking the availability of your domains, including
.com .net and .org .
Now a word of warning, Freeparking.co.uk are a professional company, but
please be wary of sites that offer free registration of domains as nothing
is ever for free. You will usually be tied into a contract with a cost to
transfer to another provider. If you're not sure, just give me a quick
email at chinvb@taxicab.co.uk
or you can send your query to callsignmag@aol.com
and Alan will pass it on and I'll try to help you out.
E-BOOK
Recently I heard of an Australian taxi driver, David Gawthorn, who has
used the Net to publish his book, an e-book called "Are you free?
Confessions of a taxi driver". The advert states that it is a true
account of a Melbourne taxi driver and the book is available to download
from http://www.zeus-publications.com
at the price of $7.95 Australian dollars (just over £3).
You get the first chapter free, if you like it you can
purchase it online by credit card using their secure server. The content
of the book is very much what we'd all identify from our own experiences -
seems like taxi driving is the same the world over - but the |
style and structure of the book leaves something to be desired even if the
story is entertaining.
The structure is HTML, basically one big web page without any
graphics. In my mind, this really could be improved upon; a little bit more
thought into the layout and the book would've got top marks.
Personally I feel e-books have a long way to go before they can
beat the traditional publishing methods, although the book is a good read and
very cheap.
LONDON ULTIMATE TAXI
For those that have followed my articles for a couple of years, you
may remember me featuring a United States web site called Ultimate Taxi on http://www.ultimatetaxi.com
that had a webcam installed taking regular photos whilst the driver was working
and automatically uploaded them to his site,
Well now we have a London Ultimate Taxi available at
http://www.ultimatetaxi.co.uk . I'm not too sure if it is a London cab but
it certainly looks like one and I'd lay bets it is as it's out all times of
day. Well they have to pay for the cab, don't they!
FOLLOW MY PROGRESS
I know I've been waffling on about the Net over the years, but I now feel that
I've got an idea that could be worth going with in a big way and I thought it
would be a good idea to feature it's progression in this column. Hopefully,
you'll then all be able to follow whether I turn into a millionaire or whether
it's a complete flop! Seventy percent of Internet ventures flop due to
ill-conceived business plans or not enough technical expertise. Basically I'm
going to go up against the big boys in the UK search engine arena, but
initially I'm going to concentrate on London alone.
I have built a prototype and it works fine, now the real
development and investment begins. Watch out scoot.co.uk and watch this site; http://www.theknowledge.ws
.
Who's got The Knowledge? Keep watching this space...
C Ya next month... Vince Chin
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