http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/ Case notes and observations from a wide range of tech support and web development projects en-US Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:03:24 GMT John's Tech Journal BP Blog 7.0 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=149 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=149 I'm writing this post reluctantly because UPS has been my carrier of choice both as a shipper and receiver for many years but their performance the past few weeks has been awful. We had some snow in the Puget Sound area in December 2008 and some services... Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:03:24 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=148 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=148 I signed up for Verizons FIOS Triple Freedom bundle a few weeks ago. Triple Freedom includes TV, Internet and Phone. The TV and Internet part of the bundle seems to be pretty good. Compared to Comcast, the Internet is a little faster the TV has many... Sun, 7 Dec 2008 17:55:32 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=147 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=147 There seems to be a new malware player that hasn't been very well documented yet. This Trojan replaces hyperlinks in Internet Explorer so that when you click on a link you are redirected to a site of their choosing (or an error page). I think the links... Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:12:55 GMT PC Maintenance http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=146 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=146 A customer e-mailed today about an Outlook Security Alert that was showing up on one of their workstations. I used Remote Desktop to log in to the PC to check on the error.Since this was one of my customers using my hosted Exchange service I first... Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:58:31 GMT PC Maintenance http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=145 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=145 I guess blogs tend to evolve. This is supposed to be a technical site but sometimes one just needs a soapbox to shout from and vent some frustrations. Here's one now.I just received a notice from Advanta Bank that my interest rate will be going up... Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:20:30 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=144 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=144 This new wave of spam with the fake headlines and lists from CNN and MSNBC are really odd. I don't know how they've managed to get thru most spam filters but it just occurred to me how to track down the culprits.I noticed that the two news networks... Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:53:22 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=143 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=143 Have you tried adding translation to your web sites?I added it to my blog a few days ago (it's on the nav bar to the right) and am really impressed with the results. Since I know Dutch, I tried that first and it looks like it does a nice job of getting... Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:54:32 GMT Web Development http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=142 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=142 I hate pop-up blockers. I've had three calls this week from clients that could not access certain web functions. They thought that either the web sites or their browsers were malfunctioning. All cases were solved by turning off pop-up blockers and/or... Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:21:07 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=141 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=141 Just the other day received an e-mail from PC Pitstop. I've been a long-time user of their web site so I usually read their e-mails because they have some interesting insights to offer. This message had a link to sign up as an affiliate to sell their... Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:54:55 GMT Miscellaneous http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=140 http://www.johnstechjournal.com/blog2/template_permalink.asp?id=140 Since I have several customers with online stores in Washington State, I need to update their shopping cart checkout procedure to reflect a new rate collection rule that went into effect on July 1, 2008. The rule stipulates that Washington businesses... Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:18:55 GMT Web Development