The former editor of the East County News (a newspaper in which I wrote computer articles from 1998 to 2001) has begun a local news blog, called EastPDXnews.

The URL is  http://www.eastpdxnews.com and if you’re looking for up to date news about issues concerning East Portland Oregon, keep your eye on this blog.

Another East Portland news blog is the one currently operated by the editor of the Mid-county Memo, at http://www.midcountymemo.com/weblog. If you know of others, please post the URL’s here as a comment for others to visit.

*update – as of 1/1/2007 AVG is no longer free…sorry!

Antivirus companies charge a lot for their product, and with good reason. However, there’s a company that has decent software that they give away free to home users, with the hopes of earning your office business.

I really like AVG Free antivirus for home users, and I have it on my kids computer.

I just went to make a phone call, and the screen of my XV6700 says this… 

“Internal Use Spy”

hwnd: 7c078c50 style:

10008004 ex:4

Title: Phone – Class: dialog  Window [0,26]-[240,294]

Client 240 x 268

hwnd owner: 000000

Do you want to dump the parent?

Yes / No ?

I just bought a “new” version of Voice Command (July 2005!) and I incorrectly assumed that Voice Command would work via Bluetooth by now, and frankly, I’m shocked that it doesn’t.

Although the software is great, and will announce upcoming appointments, and react to spoken commands quite well, it’s amazing that you still have to physically pick up the phone and push buttons to initiate the program, even though you’re connected wirelessly via a BT headset.  Come ON, Microsoft, get it together already!

Don’t you hate those online ads that look like security warnings or questions? Have you ever fallen for them? I just actually fell for one, while I was buying a site security certificate for a new website we’re doing.

I was filling out an online form, and had just entered my credit card number. I hit “next” and a second window popped up that looked identical to the form I was filling out.

It still seems to be a relatively low percentage of businesses that are really maximizing the internet as an advertising medium. I think many businesses are losing sales every minute of every day.

You’d be surprised how often the company with the largest ad in the Yellow Pages is barely visible in the search engines.  Smaller, locally owned businesses are dominating the search results and even the “sponsored listings” on the local search result pages.

 

I finally did the unthinkable. I upgraded my phone before I was eligible, and that cost me an extra $250. Why?

To recap, In July 2005, I did an upgrade from my 2 year old Kyocera 7135 clamshell PDA/phone to the brand new Samsung i730, which had a full keyboard, broadband internet access, and the Windows Mobile OS.

A new PDXTC customer project has rolled out and it up and running smoothly. It’s an e-commerce store for high end childrens furniture.

There’s a national chain of childrens fitness centers called My Gym with about 150 locations around the country. (Two are now located in Portland). My Gym has now partnered  with a furniture company to build and distribute some really nice, quality childrens furniture.

If you’re a client or subscriber of mine, would you please take a quick minute to comment on your experiences?
All comments will remain unedited (assuming they’re family friendly!) and anonymity is allowed, although not preferred.

I’m putting this shameless request here because my website is sorely lacking in customer testimonials. I’ve received plenty of positive emails and phone calls over the years, but I’ve never taken the time to put them on my website, and I would sure appreciate any time you could spare, however brief.

Part of my job is to review websites from all over the world to identify problems. Frequently, these sites have been optimized or “SEO’d” properly, yet are still not doing as well in the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages) as the site owners would like.

A domain name in your own name costs just $17.50 per year, and web hosting starts at $9.99 a month with PDXTC. Why would you pay hundreds of dollars a year for service elsewhere?

I suppose this is just a commercial, but every single day I see businesses that have been paying a fortune years to the same person or web hosting company, just because that’s where they began.

Is it possible to get a decent website for free? Well, yes it actually is, if you’re willing to spend a little time using some great free software. How little time? A clever 9 year old can have something online for the world to see in as little as 15 minutes.