Call Sign May 2000

COMPUTER CHINCHAT

New Domains
When attempting to register a domain name, you'll probably start searching for a top level domain of .com. Then if that's not available, you'd try .co.uk . Now there is a new top level domain to rival the ubiquitous .com domain. It's .ws for WorldSite http://www.worldsite.ws and it is causing quite a stir.
   WorldSite has launched the new .ws domain to directly rival the .com domain and has been built from the ground up as a worldwide top level domain, not USA biased as the .com domain is. If you're a member of discuss@taxicab.co.uk then you would have already received an email from me about the .ws domain telling you to visit the WorldSite URL and register - so you're one step ahead of others.
   Hopefully, you may have nabbed some good domain names just as I have. I'm amazed that it hasn't been widely publicised, only appearing on certain newsgroups and USA magazines, but the fact is there are extremely good domains up for grabs for those early subscribers.
   One word of warning, though, it's a bit of a gamble. No one knows for sure whether the .ws domain will be a success but my feelings are that it will. Already the first $100,000 .ws domain has been auctioned off so there will be more, but be careful whose domain you register as you could end up in court!
   I'm sure Dial-a-Cab, as usual, have lead the UK taxi industry and registered their domains. I wonder if the other radio taxi circuits have too??

DaC Driver Problems
In the past month I've helped three Dial-a-Cab drivers with queries or PC or Internet related problems. Please bear in mind that it could be a long drawn out process of several emails for me to try to establish the root of any problems you may have,

but thanks for your patience as sometimes I'm overwhelmed with emails and work. Usually, if I'm in front of a PC, I'll have the problem sorted out pretty quickly, but remote trouble shooting can be time consuming and irritating to the person with the problem.
   If you do have a PC related problem, email me at chinvb@taxicab.co.uk or contact Alan Fisher at callsignmag@aol.com, I think he's something to do with this mag!
   Speaking of Call Sign, did you know that Call Sign online regularly receives over 2,200 visitors every month? They are not 'hits' - which total many more - these are real, unique visitors who return monthly to read the magazine. A figure to be proud of and to publicise, I'd say.
   And speaking of visitors to web sites, my http://www.taxicab.co.uk web site receives approximately 70,000 'hits' every month, which equates to 7,000 unique visitors every month, over 84,000 unique visitors a year. Sorry if these figures bore you, but in a niche area that the UK taxi trade is, those figures are extremely good.

Money
It's rather funny that a couple of months ago I featured the http://www.moneyworld.co.uk web site and mentioned that I had considered buying shares, when along comes a new stocks and share web site, http://www.sharepeople.com. SharePeople now joins the already crowded stocks and shares sites, but is cheap and not intrusive like so many others. If you're considering dipping your toes into stocks, then this site is a must, but beware! I have lost US$900 lately, although my investment is long term so I should recoup that over the years (I hope)…
Cya next month - so long as I don't lose any more dosh, or I'll have to find a real job…

C Ya
Vince Chin

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
Bernie Pressman looks at the origins of some more famous phrases… Most people love children and the things they say, but what we say about children can also be interesting - as you may have read in last months' Mind Your Language. So I'd like to continue with a few more good 'children' quotations that I've found… First from a Mr John Plomp who said: "You know children are growing up, when they start asking questions that have answers!" And from Samuel Butler: "Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children." A joker named Lionel Kauffman put it somewhat differently when he exclaimed: "Children are a great comfort in your old age - and they help you reach it faster too." Another gentleman, Sam Levenson, one said: "Insanity is	hereditary, you can get it from your children!" I think I would agree with Harold Hulbert who sportingly said: "Children need love - especially when they don't deserve it." He also later added: "In bringing up children, spend on them half as much money, and twice as much time." Winding up this section, this comes from Mignon McLaughlin: "Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children." Moving on, the movie cowboy joker Will Rogers, when asked for his view of cities, said: "In a Real Estate-mans eye, the most exclusive part of the city is wherever he has a house to sell." And how about these views on colleges…L.Hendren gave this view: "Fathers send their sons to college, either because they went to college themselves, or because they didn't!" Or as R.M.Hutchins	once said: "It is possible for a student to win twelve letters at a university without ever learning how to write one!" Not everyone is in favour of colleges. George Howes once exclaimed: "The chief value in going to college is that it is the only way to learn, but does it really matter." Moving on to committees, I suppose we've all at some time or other, sat on a committee or had to listen to them wittering on, but I suppose they are a necessity of sorts. The famous actor Fred Allen once said: "A Committee is a group of men who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide that nothing can be done." Or as Stewart Herrol once jokingly said: "To kill time, a committee meeting is a perfect weapon!" He then went on to describe a committee as: "…a group of the unfit, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary!" See you next month…

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE