This is an update to our March 2009 article on registrars that impede the progress of entrepreneurs.  Now the latest problems that small entrepreneurs are facing are cheap web hosting companies that are secretly using the “permission 77″ to add phising content to entrepreneurs websites to steal information from large banks and trust companies.

As if the slow economy, recession and depression are not enough to endure now there’s a new culprit - your own web hosting company.  These are times when small entrepreneurs have to spend endless hours trying new marketing and advertising methods to be able to stay relevant in the competitive global economy.  Which entrepreneur can afford to waste valuable resources keeping tabs on crooked registrars and web hosts.

As pointed out in March 2009, it is time for the “watch dog” ICANN to use its power and put its regulatory system to help business people with this growing problem that is threathening the survival of small entrepreneurs.

Corporate America has become a victim of their own creation.  Several American corporations and businesses have turned to cheap labor, cheap programmers and cheaper customer service representatives in foreign lands.

Now that the economic bubble has burst, these companies were forced to layoff these same people only to fall victim of being victimized for their actions - pun intended.  Cheap is never always good - these foreign programmers have had access to sensitive inside information about these companies.

Apparently, according to information that’s reportedly attributed to Cyveillance SecFraud, these foreign programmers are using unsuspecting small businesses to conduct major “phising” activities against banks such as Citibank.

Since this website is dedicated to provide free widgets and software to small businesses, we’ve decided to contribute this article to our readers as a heads-up to be on the look out for suspicious emails asking you for database information.  Also, have your webmaster/developer set up surveillance for offending URLs on your hosting web server that’s placed without your knowledge.

Some cheaper web hosting companies have some questionable security issues as it relates to the web hosting servers.  If they hope to continue to provide these valuable services to the business public, serious security improvements are urgently required.

Google continues to surprise and it can be said that top brass at Google seem to recognize as well as buy into the President’s concept that we have to lead by example.  It is indeed very refreshing that such a large corporation would demonstrate that what President Obama is advocating is not just imaginery but very realistic.

Perhaps now that Google has shown what can be done to reduce our dependence on Big Oil and our mass consumption of it as a depleting natural resource; some folks can get their heads out of the proverbial sand, stop dragging their feet and follow Google’s lead.  Forbes.com first brought this story to our attention in November 2007 so it has taken 2-years to bring the idea to power and cool its massive data centers.

Google has shown that “dirty energy” can be replaced with the cheaper alternative “solar thermal power”. If you are interested in finding out more about Google’s energy initiatives, check out google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm.

Although this blog is about free widgets and software, it was felt that a tribute should be paid to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two of Google’s co-founders for their corporate responsibility.  If you are investor, look for GOOG on Nasdaq stock exchange, support and benefit from Google’s solar thermal power, wind power technologies and other geothermal systems.

guide to natural weight loss

It is very true that the best way to lose weight is to develop better eating habits. Natural weight loss can be fast and easy if you find a way to use food as a weapon in your fight against weight loss. However, without a guide or plan, this can still be a difficult task for most of us who are struggling to lose weight in a healthy, permanent way.

After years of trying all kinds of diets, some with significant success, others without success, I can now say that I have finally found a natural weight loss guide. It teaches you to use natural foods that you buy from your local grocery store to lose weight easy. You are encouraged to use healing herbs reference database, a free resource of information that empowers created by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger with this inexpensive ebook and you’ll improve your health and prevent certain diseases.

With mounting evidence that obesity can be detrimental to your health, it’s still puzzling that guides like click2loseweight natural weight loss guide are not being put to good use.  This guide could be used not only to nourish kids but encourage them to eat nutritious foods, fruit and vegetables. Lots of tasty smoothies made from all natural ingredients.

Let’s eat comfort food with a healthy twist.

Are you an expert in a field?  Do you have knowledge that you can share with the public?  Google is forever re-inventing itself, this is a welcomed tool that will definitely improve the intrinsic value of the Internet. Google has gained respect over the life of the Internet and has been the search engine of choice to the extent that now when one needs to look-up anything the term is “Google it”.

Now Google has knol (a unit of knowledge) to publish information and knowledge for the benefit of the public.  This knowledge can then be shared with others on the network with similar knowledge or who can add something of substance to that same information.

This “knol” knowledge can also be distributed with the help of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.  Activity on the knols is recorded so the popularity of the knol can be immediately known. There is even a knol translation that can help translate English knols into other languages and vice versa.

Since Google is now the search engine of choice and there’s Google Earth, knol knowledge is more value added to Internet content all in one easy-to-find place, Google.

Are you affected by the recession?  Do you have less money to spend on food?  Do you want to lose weight easily, no gimmicks?  Do you want to learn to cook unprepared food and snacks?  Are you looking for a gift for a young girl or boy?  Are you looking for recipes that can be prepared in 30-minutes or less?  Do you have a blender or the Magic Bullet?  Do you know that all these recipes can be made easily in a blender or using your Magic Bullet?  Do you have diabetes, use these recipes to control your blood sugar levels?

Do you know that most diseases thrive in an acidic environment?  You can use these recipes to keep your body alkaline and maintain good health while at the same time lose those stubborn extra pounds.

You can use this natural weight loss guide to learn how to cook simple, easy meals that are suitable for growing kids, anyone concern about nutrition, want to lose weight, maintain weight loss, save money on food or cook unprocessed food on a strict budget.

It is amazing how many musicians work hard at menial jobs in order to do music.  It is done because they love the art form and want to succeed.  However, a lot of people start businesses aimed primarily at these artists knowing that they are eager to pay anyone that will offer the perfect sales pitch.

Several musicians have been complaining all over the Internet about sonicbids saying that “Sonicbids sucks and they are ripoff scum” that no one should be involved with at any level.  It is funny how many large conferences, trade shows and/or festivals are constantly aligning themselves with Sonicbids.  In fact, nowadays it’s becoming impossible to attend any large conference, such as Billboard Music and Advertising Conference, CMJ, NXNE, MIDEM, etc. without submitting an application or registration via Sonicbids.

There are sonicbids members, that have never been selected for any gig through sonicbids in all the years that they have been members. What’s more amazing is that they are frequently told that they have not been selected for the gigs they pay to submit to but there is no evidence that the online EPK was ever looked at. Does anyone know the selection process or the criteria and how someone can be turned down without an EPK ever being reviewed?  It seems that Sonicbids is definitely useless. All these conferences, such as MIDEM and NXNE that are forcing artists to submit through sonicbids should be publicly exposed and/or boycotted.

If you are musician that has been abused by the Sonicbids process, it’s in your interest to take action to curtail this fraudulent practice by mobilizing other artists to write a press release exposing Sonicbids in a meaningful and appropriate way.  It is obvious that these festivals: POPKOMM and others see the benefit to work with Sonicbids in order to collect money from thousands of artists that can then be shared for a handsome profit to the detriment of helpless musicians.

PC phone

In today’s business environment, saving money has to be key to surviving in these tough economic conditions.  As a business person, it is necessary to control overhead costs in an effort to streamline one’s operations to stay afloat.

One way of accomplishing this is to find ways to continue to operate at below normal operating costs.  Telephone costs can be a huge component in one’s business, especially with shrinking revenues because cold calling and follow-ups with one’s existing client base to make new offers will maintain core business.

It is the aim of this blog to review areas that may be useful to business people in helping them to survive.  It may be a good idea to look for additional revenue sources and this may require making telephone calls to prospects outside of one’s business area to friends and associates.  Feel free to learn more about this service here to find out if it would be useful.

Rebtel is a communications company that offers calls to many destinations at a fraction of the normal rates to friends, relatives and business places from both landlines and mobile phones.  This company has been around since 2006 and provides a free 5-minute test call for that can be used to evaluate the service. It’s free to set up an account with additional funds on a pay-per-use basis without having to make long-term contracts or commitments.  From mobile phones, a local calling number is assigned so that calls are made at the local calling rates to significantly reduce costs.

registrars

An Internet entrepreneur usually develops various businesses around domain names as an important step for his small business. The greed of some companies and the unethical business tactics that they employ to either gain competitive advantage or advertise to prospective consumers is one that needs to be carefully monitored by an impartial, independent body or watch-dog.

Isn’t this what President, Barack Obama is now forced to grapple with in another sector of the economy, namely the Banking Industry? This sector was allowed to continue for years unregulated or with regulators that either lack the capacity to act or failed in their public duty to do so. The result is now very well known and it has impacted companies, innocent people and countries worldwide.

The Internet, especially domain name registration and registrars is one area of the telecommunications sector that is heading in a similar direction. Registrars are acting like “gods” and appear to be “untouchables” even though the public is supposedly legally required to pay fees to regulators to enforce rules of engagement in its best interest.

Registrars are refusing access to “A Record IP” updates unless the domain name is registered and hosted with them. In other words, customers are denied the right to shop for the most economical registrar and web host as separate entities as was possible back in the early days of the Internet. Increasingly, it seems that Registrars are not aware of the basic rules of the structure of business in a Capitalist system.

Just like the Banks, Registrars are allowed to change the rules of the game to eliminate all competition, create misleading products, bully the public and in some cases hold “intellectual property” hostage by refusing to update “A Record IPs”, if the domain name is not registered and hosted by the same registrar.

domain names

The registrant (domain name owner) is left powerless because there is a 60-day waiting period after registration before a domain name can be moved to another registrar. In most cases investigated at the time of this article, the registrants are either forced to sit out the waiting period or buy web hosting from the registrar of the domain name so as not to impede the natural progress of the business.

This practice is becoming very prevalent amongst registrars and web hosting companies as the economy contracts. The current economic crisis, the way that is was cleverly engineered should serve as a guide to ensure that regulators have not only the will to enforce common sense rules but are held independent of the companies they regulate. In addition, there must be transparency and accountability if this industry too isn’t allowed to deteriorate into chaos.

magicjack voip device

The Magic Jack is device that offers free telephone service while traveling even outside of the United States and Canada.  The advertisers claim that you can choose your USA area code and it is ready to use anywhere in the world.

After some diligent research online and offline, it was discovered that there are several problems with this device.  It does not work well when plugged directly into the computer’s USB outlet but rather an AC powered USB hub is a requirement.  Several of these issues are addressed at voip2u.org and there is even a lawyer threatening a class action law suit.

There were many complaints about not being able to use the telephone to which this device is attached. The phone either goes directly to voice mail, never rings or it interferes and interrupts the user of the computer because of the screen that pops up when a call is in progress.

One of our contributors reported that customers (whose prepaid credit cards are declined for invalid 3 or 4 digit security codes) have their cards charged nominal fees of $1.00 each time an attempt is made to correct the code even if the cards are eventually declined.

Magic Jack may work perfectly for some but for others it has been a source of many bugs, defects and aggravation not to mention wasted time because the product is not adequately supported.