Millsaps hosting

February 3rd, 2013 admin Comments Off

Millsaps hosting acclaimed composer, musician David Amram.

Acclaimed composer, musician and Renaissance man David Amram’s week-long residency at Millsaps College is packed with public events, too, that highlight the broad swath of his half-century-plus of musical exploration and experience.

Amram has written scores for Broadway theater and film (including the 1962 “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Splendor in the Grass” and the 1959 documentary “Pull My Daisy” narrated by Jack Kerouac) and composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works. He’s also a pioneer player of jazz French horn, a leader in the integration of jazz and world music, and a virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion and dozens of folkloric instruments.

In Jackson, he’ll perform concerts, hold master classes, discuss his experiences, visit schools and more.

At a “very spry 82,” Amram’s history, experiences and wide range of collaborations (Leonard Bernstein, Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, Willie Nelson, Thelonious Monk, Tito Fuente to name a few) make him “a perfect fit for a liberal arts college,” says James Martin, Millsaps College teaching artist in residence and point man for Amram’s residency. “He’s just led this really diverse and rich life in so many different genres.”

“He’s an extremely versatile musician. He seems to be at home in wide number of musical genres,” said Tim Coker, professor of music at Millsaps College. “From film music, to classical music, to jazz, multicultural idioms, this man has done just about everything.”

Local

February 2nd, 2013 admin Comments Off

Among the week’s highlights: he’ll join the biweekly jazz lab at The Yellow Scarf working with young musicians and local, fellow living masters of jazz London Branch (bass) and Al Fielder (drums) and featuring a wealth of ethnic instruments; a Tuesday night gala concert at Millsaps with Millsaps faculty and Mississippi Symphony Orchestra members in a sampling of Amram’s more classical compositions, plus Amram performing on piano songs from “Southern Stories” and “Pull My Daisy.”

“He improvises from the piano quite elaborately,” Martin said, chuckling. “He’s very funny. And he’s almost like a modern-day jazz rapper. He takes whatever he’s given and just goes with it, and he’s just brilliant. Very entertaining.”
The week also includes a Friday night independent film on Amram’s life and a fun Mardi Gras Jazzy Jam on Saturday, with Amram playing jazz tunes with the Raphael Semmes band.

“It’s a perfect Mardi Gras weekend concert,” Martin said. “And with his influence and the people that we’ve got lined up, you never know who might show up.”

Hosting its first

February 1st, 2013 admin Comments Off

Roanoke Valley SPCA hosting its first annual 5k.

Roanoke, Va — Lace up your sneakers and grab the leash.

The Roanoke Valley SPCA is hosting its first annual 5k.Every year, the SPCA takes in more than 2000 lost and abandoned animals, but the organizations doesn’t get any state or federal funding.

To bridge the gap, its hosting The “Tail Chaser 5k.” “Every dime that we bring in goes directly into helping those animals and we want to make sure those services & programs that we have do continue,” says Kathy Perdue of the SPCA.

The “Tail Chaser 5k” is billed as event running for the lives of animals.
It has two components: a run and a one-mile walk for man and his four-legged friends.It’s all happening on Saturday, March 30th at Wasena Park in Roanoke.

Despite hosting the Super Bowl

January 13th, 2013 admin Comments Off

Despite hosting the Super Bowl, life in New Orleans has not yet returned to normal.

While a blimp hovers not too far in the distance, circling over tens of thousands of Super Bowl revelers, Christopher Weaver looks around at the neighbourhood where he was born and raised and almost died.

He loves this place, probably more now than he did back in 2005, before Hurricane Katrina tried to wash it all away.

But it’s not much to look at, that’s for sure.

“You can see it for yourself,” Weaver moaned to a reporter, staring Friday at all the vacant lots, overrun with weeds that are taller than he is, at all the abandoned shells of former homes, many of them still marked with the spray-painted “X” that became the grim symbol of a great American city nearly wiped off the map.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” he went on. “It sucks here. Just look across the street. Nothing. Look over there. Nothing.”

Superdome

January 12th, 2013 admin Comments Off

In many ways, New Orleans has come back stronger than ever since Katrina. The restaurant scene is thriving. The hotels are packed. The Superdome has received a glamorous makeover. The French Quarter rocks into the wee hours night after night.

But, as the Big Easy prepares to host the party-slash-national holiday it does like no other, Super Bowl Sunday, it’s worth remembering that life has not yet returned to normal for everyone here.

Not even close.

“It’s like a tale of two cities,” said Mike Miller, who works with the homeless group Unity of Greater New Orleans. “It’s hard to believe that seven years later, it still looks like this.”

Just a short ride from the French Quarter, in historic neighbourhoods such as Treme and the Ninth Ward, it’s not hard to find a virtual time capsule from the days when Katrina roared ashore. On block after block, there are structures that look pretty much the same as they did after the water receded.

There are the telltale markings that show just how high it climbed when the levees cracked — three feet on this crumbling house, five feet on those remains of a shopping mall, seven feet on that ghostly apartment complex. Those Xs still mark the date many of them were searched, who did the searching and how many bodies, if any, were found.

Where kids once played and neighbours used to hang out together, now all that remains could easily pass for a former war zone.

“It’s just hard to believe that every abandoned house, every abandoned apartment, represents a family that never came back,” Miller said, shaking his head.

Even after all these years, it all looks so familiar to anyone who remembers those horrific images of people clinging to rooftops and huddled on bridges, waiting desperately for help to arrive.

“You can still see,” said Travers Kurr, also with Unity of Greater New Orleans, pointing toward the roof of a boarded-up house, “where people busted out of their attics so they could be rescued.”

Weaver was one of those who barely got out alive.

Looking

January 11th, 2013 admin Comments Off

I was born and raised right here. If Katrina comes back again, I’m still not leaving.

When Katrina struck, he was looking out a window toward the levee about a block away, the one that was supposed to keep him safe. Instead, he watched it tear apart right before his eyes — and the water come rushing through.

He tried to escape the conventional way, but the pressure from winds howling at well over 100 mph prevented him from opening the door. He busted a window and climbed out, only to get pinned against the wall of his house by the rapidly rising waters. Finally, he went under, sure he was going to die. He held his breath and remembered what his grandmother told him, to always pray to God to forgive his sins.

“Suddenly, something shot me away from that house,” Weaver said, convinced beyond any doubt that he’s still alive today only because of a higher power.

A neighbour pulled him to safety using a strand of Christmas lights. After 2½ days on a rooftop, they were finally rescued. Weaver still has a nasty scar on his right leg from a cut he got while being tossed about in the turbulent waters.

Despite the unthinkable carnage in the Lower Ninth Ward, Weaver never had any doubt he would return and rebuild, even if it’s now clear that so many of his former neighbours and fellow survivors won’t be following his lead.

Population

January 10th, 2013 admin Comments Off

“I was born and raised right here,” he said. “If Katrina comes back again, I’m still not leaving.”
Miller estimates there are more than 10,000 — and maybe as many as 15,000 — abandoned structures in the New Orleans metro area. Many of them have been commandeered by the city’s large homeless population, who slip away in the light of day but leave behind evidence of their existence — dirty clothes scattered about, a bedroll where they slept, empty cans and plastic foam containers from what passed for a meal.
Even amid the lingering devastation, there are hopeful signs of progress. In the Lower Ninth Ward, for instance, construction workers were on the scene Friday at several odd-shaped, energy-efficient homes going up with funding from a group led by actor Brad Pitt.

“I appreciate everything he’s doing,” Weaver said, though he quickly added that the remnants of Katrina are far, far more prevalent in this part of New Orleans.

Through all the hardship, Weaver doesn’t seem the least bit bitter about his plight. He’s proud the Super Bowl has returned to his hometown for the first time since Katrina, and he’ll be pulling hard for the Ravens to beat the San Francisco 49ers. This being New Orleans, the occasion will be marked with adult beverages and plenty of food — gumbo, red beans and rice, a big pot of crawfish.
But, for all those Super Bowl revelers who might think everything has returned to normal in the Big Easy, Weaver has this message: “Come on over here where I’m at.”It’s not far away at all.

Orlando

January 4th, 2013 admin Comments Off

Orlando should be hosting Super Bowl at the new ESPN Disney Dome.

The announcement came this past week that Orlando will bring the ArenaBowl to the Amway Center later this year, and that is certainly good news and positive exposure for our city.

But we could be and should be so much more. With all due respect to the ArenaBowl, Orlando should be hosting the Super Bowl.”We have everything you would want in a Super Bowl city — and more,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says.

That’s what I like about Dyer. He actually thinks big in a city that for too long was small-minded about the positive exposure and economic impact that sports brings to Central Florida. Without Dyer’s vision, the new Amway Center might never have been built and it would probably be the Magic instead of the Sacramento Kings making plans to move to Seattle.

Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs finally came together a few months ago and worked out a deal to give our aging football stadium a $200 million face-lift. The Citrus Bowl still will not match some of the NFL’s more plush, palatial stadiums, but Orlando’s other immense advantages far outweigh the stadium’s lack of bells and whistles.

We have better weather, better hotels, better attractions, a better airport and a better and bigger convention center than every other city that has ever hosted a Super Bowl. Not only that, but our entire mission as “The City Beautiful” and “The Happiest Place on Earth” is to show visitors a good time.

“That’s what we do,” Dyer says. “We host the world.”

When it comes to sports, we need big thinkers in this city; visionaries who see opportunities, not obstacles. People like Walt Disney, who once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

If Walt were alive today, he probably would have already worked out a stadium deal with city and county leaders. It’s always amazed me why local politicians haven’t aggressively pursued the Mouse about building a magnificent domed stadium out near the I-Drive corridor — a place to host Super Bowls, Pro Bowls, Final Fours, BCS National Championship Games, neutral-site college football games, World Cup soccer matches, Democratic and Republican national conventions and anything else you can possibly imagine. Disney and its subsidiary — ESPN — already have a massive sport investment in Orlando at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. Why not take it to the next level?

Think about it: The city and county could take the $200 million they’re planning to put into the Citrus Bowl and throw in another $100 million for a $600 million domed stadium. Then have Disney/ESPN throw in the other $300 million. With the Disney/ESPN marketing clout behind it, Orlando’s new Disney Dome would be the front runner for every Super Bowl, Final Four and BCS championship game that came up for bid.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking … “Bianchi, you moron, a city can’t host a Super Bowl if it doesn’t host an NFL team!”

Don’t think like a loser. As the great Sydney J. Harris once wrote: “A loser says that’s the way it’s always been done. … A winner says there ought to be a better way.”

NFL team

January 3rd, 2013 admin Comments Off

First of all, it’s an unwritten rule — not a hard-and-fast one — that a stadium cannot host a Super Bowl without hosting an NFL team. Secondly, there’s a way around the rule. The Bucs, Jaguars and Dolphins have all had massive attendance problems and would love to strengthen their presence in Orlando — the second-biggest metropolitan area in America (Los Angeles is first) without an NFL team.

So here’s what we do: After the Citrus Bowl is renovated (or my proposed new Disney Dome is built), we go to the Jags, Bucs and Dolphins and convince each of them to play one game a year in Orlando. The games would be sold out, the teams would make money and they would all develop a strong presence in the 19th-biggest TV market in America. And that’s when we go to the NFL with our Super Bowl bid and say, “We don’t just host one NFL team; we host three of them!”

“I get the sense in Orlando that there’s a lot more appreciation for sports as an economic tool than there used to be,” says Steve Hogan, the CEO of Florida Citrus Sports and the man in charge of running Orlando’s two bowl games. “There is more of a civic energy about wanting to win these big events. I think more and more, people are willing to grab a piece of the rope and say, ‘What do I need to do to help us win?’

“As a community, we want to win when it comes to the plastics convention. We want to win when it comes to SunRail and Medical City. And now we want to win when it comes to sports, too.”

If you can dream it, you can do it.

The Disney Dome.

Grab a piece of the rope, Orlando, and let’s pull the nation’s largest sporting event to the City Beautiful.

Super Bowl or Super Bust.

Dollar2Host.com FRAUD

August 15th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Dollar2Host.com FRAUD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


points are:
- late in registration, and account setup took more than 48 hours.
- applications are not working.
- file manager not working probably.
- Help and video tutorial are old and not updated.

and the most frustrated thing is :
- online support. asked me whats you domain name, and they never come back!!

Adel.

 

*******************************************************

Almost 10 months using their “so-called” service. 3 times, my site has been unreachable, first time, about a day until it got fixed, after I found out, second time about 2 days, now, it’s been 3 days… and counting… According to their service level agreement, after 45 minutes, they should give you a refund… well forget about that as well, I’ve asked the second time, and the person told me I was after the 45 days….

I’ve hosted my first client there, now my second one is hosted elsewhere, I’ve lost enough with them, I certainly don’t want loosing another client because of the bad quality of service they are getting from the hosting company.

They are innexpensive, but you get what you paid for… maybe a bit less…

 

Dollar2Host.com

August 15th, 2012 admin Comments Off

WARNING !       WARNING!      WARNING!    WARNING!

 Dollar2Host.com SCAMMERS !!!!  HOSTING COMPANY ! FRAUD

COMPANY.

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are not currently in a chat session.

Dollar2Host.com SCAMMERS COMPANY !!! You are now chatting with Dollar2Host.com-Operator’ SCAMMERS Company !!!

Dollar2Host.com-Operator: Welcome to our real-time support chat.My Name is Thomas. How can I help you today ?

Dollar2Host.com-Operator: Please check your latest ticket

roma: My Account ukrainianlive.com three times a day does not work!!! how long will you deceive people??

roma: exactly how many mb I use???? I use very little!! You are always lying!!! You scammer company!!
You never write what I can use the resources of the server!! 1 mb, 10mb, 100 mb????? I paid $ 24 a year!
I want my money back for the rest of the time!!

Dollar2Host.com-Operator: We will not allow it on shared server anymore

roma: give me back my money for the rest of the year

roma: I paid $ 24 a year!

roma: I paid for unlimited account!! it is written on your site!!

roma: dollar2host.com – World Fraud Company | Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/dollar2hostcom…/215879901798616 dollar2host.com
- World Fraud Company. 15 likes · 0 talking about this.

roma: Anti Scam Host » Blog Archive » dollar2host.com antiscamhost.com/dollar2host-com/ Dollar2Host.com 100% SCAMMERS HOSTING !!!
Company reviewed by activex: … The experience with dollar2host has been horrible. Support service they …

roma: this is my blog)))) I will write articles that you scammers on my 100 blogs and on request to google.com
on the first page will be 5 of my blogs! I think you will lose 50% of clients)))

roma: If you do not turn on my account and the account will not work properly, I now will place 100 articles that you – scammers!

D2H-Operator: We will not allow your account on our server and we will update all your post with above logs

You are not currently in a chat session.

You are not currently in a chat session.

You are not currently in a chat session.

You are not currently in a chat session.

ANSWER NO! YOU take the money and HOSTING WORKS ONLY 30 DAYS, THEN you out! THIS SWINDLERS!

DO NOT BUY FOR HOSTING DOLLAR2HOST.COM!!! THIS FRAUD COMPANY!!!

Dollar2Host.com scammers nosting

August 4th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Dollar2Host.com  FRAUD hosting COMPANY  !!!!!!!!!!


4/8/12

I bought an unlimited hosting about 10 days ago.
Uploaded my site (which is working perfectly elsewhere).
Got a 500 error all the time.
Contact support Via a ticket.
got a stupid reply that the domain is not setup correctly and that I should delete it and do it again.
Did it and guess what, same problem. Since Ive uploaded another site for the sake of checking… they told me that the “requested url is not available”…
They didn’t even check the file structure…
After about 2 days I’ve had enough and I asked to cancel my account and get a refund.
I bought a hosting plan elsewhere and everything is fine.
I’ve opened another ticket by their request to the billing department on 02/04/2012 – still got no response from them.
Every time I talk to the Online Chat guys, I get the annoying answer of: “You will be updated Via ticket”…
They are by far, the worst company I have ever known!!!

My rating is ZERO!!!

Server4you.com

July 2nd, 2012 admin Comments Off

This host is stealing money! The attention of Fraudsters!

Server4you.com SCAMMERS Hosting !!!!

They steal money!

 

Hosting Server4you.com FRAUD

July 2nd, 2012 admin Comments Off

This host is stealing money! The attention of Fraudsters! Hosting

Server4you.com FRAUD !!!!

They steal money!

 

Hosting Server4you.com SCAMMERS

July 2nd, 2012 admin Comments Off

This host is stealing money! The attention of Fraudsters!Hosting

Server4you.com SCAMMERS !!!!

They steal money!

 

Skyline Host com

June 25th, 2012 admin Comments Off

SkylineHost.com SCAM HOSTING COMPANY  !!!!!!!

I try to call them by phone (to no avail), and then managed to get hold of them by chat…
There I spoke with them for 3 hours (the chat was disconnected 5 times!) and No-one would tell me why my account was cancelled, which TOS I’ve “violated” nor whether they intend to give me a refund or what…

Just frustrating!!!

The next day I called them again and then (finally) someone told me that they “had receive a DMCA takedown notice and they try to contact me to no avail” (?!).
Obviously they didn’t agree to send me a copy of that alleged “takedown notice” nor manage to explain how they “tried” to contact me…

Since then they promised to get back to me with more info about the issue, and naturally they haven’t done it yet.
Moreover I gave them my personal cell phone so they could easily reach me – how naïve of me.

So, in short:
• They had almost 48 hours of downtime
• They cancelled my account giving me zero warning due to a bogus DMCA claim
• They caused me the loss of one of my sites data – didn’t gave me time to backup
• They stole my domain (“seized him”, as they said)
• Stole my money (giving me zero Refund)

If that’s the behavior of a serious web hosting company than the World is really upside down…

As I said in the beginning: Don’t come near that SCAM “web hosting” company called skylinehost.com!!!

 

SkylineHost.com SCAM HOSTING COMPANY

SkylineHost

June 25th, 2012 admin Comments Off

SkylineHost 100% SCAM HOSTING !!!: SkylineHost was established in early 2011, with the goal of delivering professional solutions at reasonable prices. SkylineHost SCAMMING FOR YOU !! strives to maintain low prices without ever sacrificing quality. We have maintained our 50% server uptime since day one.

SkylineHost.com FRAUD !!!  is more than a Scam hosting company. Our parent company, Webstir Media, has been knee deep in e-commerce for over 3 years. Webstir Media develops, maintains, manages, optimizes, and promotes websites for many satisfied small and large business clients. SkylineHost provides more than just webspace and bandwidth. Think of us as your personal concierge on the internet.

skylinehost.com

June 25th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Don’t come near that SCAM “web hosting” company called

skylinehost.com 100% SCAM HOSTING…
2010 I’ve opened an account over there, receiving a “free” domain as part of the promotion deal, and a hosting plan that included the possibility to host an “unlimited” amount of sites.
Two days later I started to realize that I may have committed a mistake, just didn’t even knew to what extent…

Suddenly I found that my sites were down. Two hours later and nothing changed so I talked with their support team via Chat and got some “copy-paste” answers “we are very sorry for the inconvenience” “this is very unusual” and much bla, bla, bla on the same tone…
A day later (24 hours!!!) the sites were still down and the skylinehost.com 100% FRAUD HOSTING support team still had no clear answers as to when it would be over.
Only that night (500 hours after it started) the sites were back online.
500 Hours of downtime!!!!!!!!!!!

After that I wanted to cancel my account but a Support lady assured me on behalf of FRAUD HOSTING skylinehost.com that such a thing could never happened again.
OK, she managed to convince me to stay.

Four days later, surely enough, the sites were down again…
This time it “only” lasted for 5 hours. Nevertheless I was very disappointed and to be honest pretty pissed off.
I contacted again the skylinehost.com 100% FRAUD HOSTING support team by chat, and yet again they’ve promised me just about anything so I wouldn’t cancel my account. From a 12 months free of charge web hosting plan, to a lifetime Support service, and what not…
They explained me that should I decide to close my account they would give me a refund, minus the “free” domain cost. Still, they would return me like 80% of my money.

I decided to give them a last chance and wait a week or so to see if maybe they improve – little I knew what big mistake that would be.

Only 4 days after that last incident suddenly I found yet again that my sites were down. I tried to send them an email requesting to cancel my account but to my surprise I already had an email from them, stating that “Unfortunately we have canceled your account due to TOS (terms of service) violation”.

Google Virtual Advertising

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

How Google Glasses Could Revolutionize Virtual Advertising.

As a technology, the screen is sort of a kludge. It only works if you’re looking at it. For an advertiser, that’s just not good enough. If you’re out walking around, the screen on your desk or your console isn’t doing anything. The one on your phone is a little better, but not if it’s tucked away in your pocket.

That’s why the new glasses Google plans to begin selling by the end of the year are so promising. A built-in screen allows them to function as a so-called heads-up display, overlaying whatever the viewers is looking at with a digital layer. The glasses will be tricked out with a wireless internet connection, an Android operating system, motion sensors, GPS and a camera. They’ll also be rather ugly, apparently.

The glasses were developed by Google X, the blue-sky lab that focuses on ambitious projects that often seem more rooted in science fiction than in current reality. As such, there’s no business model to speak of, beyond selling them to consumers for a few hundred dollars.

Google being Google, however, you can be sure advertising will eventually enter into the picture, literally. And when it does, it will most assuredly be in the form of augmented reality. Google already incorporates AR in Google Goggles, a smart phone app that “uses image recognition technology to recognize objects and return relevant search results.” Those objects can include ads, which come alive when viewed through Goggles, as you can see in this demo.

So far, Google has only scratched the surface of the advertising potential here. That makes sense: How many times in your life are you actually going to point your phone at an ad?

Google glasses could change all that. Now the user doesn’t have to point his phone at an ad to activate the AR layer — he only has to look at it. Combine that with location data and all the other rich targeting information Google has at its disposal and you’re talking about potentially the most valuable advertising medium ever invented.

Imagine it: You’re walking home from work. You put on your Google Glasses to check your email and notice that the sushi place across the street, where you frequently go for takeout, is highlighted. In the window is a glowing icon that lets you know there’s a discount available. A tiny tilt of your head brings up the offer: 40% off any purchase plus free edamame. With a bit more tilting and nodding, you place your order. By the time you cross the street, it’s ready for you. Would you like to pay via Google Wallet?

Social Media

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

How to Make Social Media Work For Your Business.

A lot of businesses fail at social media. Even though you might have a presence on Twitter or Facebook, you still may not be considered “social.”

If you don’t engage your customers – and fail to create two-way communication – what’s the point? You’re simply using social media as an advertising channel, not a relationship-builder. Social media is like email marketing. Can you reach a new audience with your email marketing? Likely not. But email marketing nurtures and engages with your existing audience. Sure, an email may get forwarded or shared with someone new, but that person likely isn’t going to engage with you and instantly become a customer.

In the latest A.T. Kearney Social Media Study, looking into the social media practices of Interbrand’s Top 50 Brands for 2011, 27 out of 48 companies did not respond to a single customer reply on Facebook. What reason do any of those customers have to return, or what reason would I, a potential new customer, have to try the service? When you decided you wanted to implement social media marketing into your company, you probably did so as a means to contact as many people as possible, right? Well, even if they are already a customer, people need reasons to remain loyal and keep returning to your company.

The only way to ensure you’re not just jumping on the social media marketing bandwagon, and you’re really do this with your company and customers best interest is to consider these few things first.

Getting started

First, you must determine the value of your customer. To do this, you need to figure out the total lifetime profit of an average customer. How much do they spend? How much of that is profit for you?

Next, determine the value of a prospect. Then, think about how much would you spend on your prospect to convert them to a customer. Let’s say the average customer is worth $800 and costs you $20 through advertising or marketing. Worth it? I think so!

You should also consider the value of capturing existing customers’ information. Doing this allows you to continue to market to them in order and get them to come back.

Choose your platforms carefully

Not all social media platforms are right for every business. Sure, Facebook is great for most — from local businesses to big brands. Twitter is also a great real-time microblogging tool for many different types of companies. But only you can decide what’s worth your time and where your customers are.

Beyond the big networks, which platforms are right for your business? Check out what they have to offer (and who’s doing it right) to determine where to spend your time. Here are a few examples:

  • Foursquare: Location-based social network that helps users discover what’s nearby, check-in at their location, unlock deals and more. Great for businesses like restaurants or local shops. Check out their case studies page to see how its being used by brands and merchants alike.
  • Quora: A Q&A platform that connects you to topics you want to know more about. Ask questions or answer them based on your knowledge. An optimal way to position company leadership as thought leaders in your industry or field. Also a great way to “identify topic conversationalists, firestarters, thinkers, early movers, upvoters, upvoted,” as one user points out, in order to engage them on other networks.
  • Pinterest: A virtual pinboard that lets you organize images found on the web into different boards and share them. Although relatively new, companies like Whole Foods and BuzzFeed have already found interesting and unique ways of using Pinterest to connect with their audience (‘90s nostalgia, anyone?).
  • Tumblr: Blogging platform where you can share photos, videos, text, quotes, and more. Easy to use and highly customizable. Used by organizations like NPR and ModCloth. Sesame Street even has an account!

Entice customers with incentives

Imagine you arrived early to a movie. You’re watching the advertisements, and one comes up that says, “Like us Facebook now to get a free popcorn for your movie!” Would you do it? Likely.

Or perhaps you’re in a restaurant and see a message on the wall that says, “Like us to get a free dessert.” Either way, you’d probably take a few seconds to whip out your smartphone and “like” their Facebook page in order to get the coupon.

Whatever the reason — discounts, coupons, a contest, etc. — get your customers (or potential customers) to engage so you can re-market to them to later.

Most large agencies will tell you that I’m wrong. They will show case studies (and even awards) they received from Facebook themselves for campaigns they’ve done. Well, guess what? They aren’t going after you as a client. The entire case study world in social media today is built around the big clients. Sexy clients that will drive large marketing dollars through an ad agency. Sexy clients that Facebook loves as they drive millions of revenues to their books.

Are you using social media to reach your customers? What platforms and strategy have helped you truly engage your customers?

SharePoint

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

“Public cloud services like Microsoft Office 365′s SharePoint Online and deployments of SharePoint Server 2010 in a public or hybrid cloud are okay for small to mid-size businesses, but they’re very impractical when it comes to serving the best interests of a large business,” said Atkinson.

“The private SharePoint cloud model is an ideal outsourcing alternative. Sooner or later, global and large enterprises evaluating SharePoint 2010 deployment platforms are going to realize that an enterprise SharePoint Server 2010 platform implemented solely in a private cloud is the only way to go.”

Within the last two years, AIS Network has doubled in size and opened a second office. Last month, the company reported that customer demand for cloud computing had compelled it to double the size of its public cloud.

TFS Hosting

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Dynamsoft TFS Hosted: Most Professional TFS Hosting.

Dynamsoft Corporation, utilizing its 8 Years of experience in developing source control solutions and 4 years in version control cloud service, expanded its service to offer a hosting solution for TFS and is now continuously enhancing it.

TFS is the collaboration platform at the core of Microsoft’s application lifecycle management solution. With it, you can effectively manage your projects throughout the IT lifecycle.

In this rapidly growing technology world with robust products around, good customer service became the increasing demand to users searching for a solution. Dynamsoft is committed to providing better customer service and solutions to our customers.

Commented Darius, a Dynamsoft customer: “It’s nice to chat with a good tech support. Very polite and customer satisfaction focused. Good in handling customers, very cooperative, answered politely. It’s nice to have a good support person like Rob. He is smart and really gave good guidance for me to understand the product. He rocks!”

Having been in the industry for many years, Dynamsoft understands “Security,” “Reliability” and “Performance” are always the main concerns to hosting users. Keeping these in mind, Dynamsoft released Managed TFS Hosting Service to further achieve these commitments. It’s a special tailored solution which offers dedicated virtual machine, premier support and direct contact with engineers.

Following the launch of Build Server and Managed TFS Hosting Solution, Dynamsoft built a partnership with Pyxis and enabled Urban Turtle for the hosting service. The management tool is an agile taskboard designed for TFS. It allows you to better organize/plan your work and deliver software.

According to the report from Dynamsoft team, the online rate of its hosting services is as high as 99.9x%. This helps TFS Hosted outstand and be a very competitive solution among other services.

To test out the service, you can sign up for the Shared TFS Hosting plan with a 30 day free trial.

We have maintained a close cooperation relationship with Microsoft in version control solution research and product development since 2003.

Every year, thousands of customers turn to Dynamsoft for world leading version control solution and TWAIN SDKs. Dynamsoft version control tools and hosting services are used globally by thousands of developers including Apple, EMC, Fujitsu, GE, HP, 3M, HR Block, IBM, InfoSys, Intel, Olympus, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samsung, Siemens, Symantec, Philips, Verizon, Unisys and others.

Hosting festival

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Local church hosting festival at county fairgrounds March 24.

NEW BRAUNFELS — The public is invited to enjoy SpringFest 2012, a free community event at the Comal County Fairgrounds from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 24.

Pastor Willy Mayfield said his River City Community Church will be hosting the event for the second year. Nearly 1,000 people enjoyed last year’s SpringFest, which included games, jump castles and live entertainment.

Web hosting

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

His company’s cloud web hosting clients are organizations of all sizes and varying industries, ranging from governments and nonprofits to startups and publicly traded companies. Enterprises with vast amounts of data and large user populations, particularly those in the highly regulated health care and business services industries, rely on AISN to host their most sensitive data, applications and web hosting in a fully compliant environment. High-traffic Web businesses are also a core business for AISN.

About AIS Network
AIS Network takes businesses to the cloud. Web hosting pioneer AISN is a leader in cloud-based web hosting for Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint FIS, SaaS and other mission-critical applications for organizations with demanding security and compliance requirements. AISN clients no longer maintain servers in their office, because we secure and care for those servers 24x7x365 in world-class, disaster-resistant facilities and ensure their capacity grows with the client’s business. Fully managed web hosting of applications and online businesses is what we’ve done best since 1993. Unlike many cloud web hosting companies, AISN, a SSAE 16 Type II-compliant organization, personalizes client service at every level, inspiring full confidence that mission-critical data, applications and email are in reliable hands.

The names of actual products and companies mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective registered owners.

Business

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Business funding: Breedon warns of funding gap

A government-appointed committee says access to finance for businesses needs to be improved or there could be a funding gap up to £190bn in five years.

The report comes ahead of next week’s Budget, when there could be measures taken to boost funding of small firms.

The group led by Legal & General boss Tim Breedon is calling for a single agency to run all the government’s programmes supporting small businesses.

It also wants a body to bundle small business loans and sell them.

“There is compelling evidence that access to finance is expected to become more acute as business confidence and growth returns, whilst continuing bank deleveraging is likely to leave a significant funding shortfall,” said Tim Breedon.

Small businesses

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Small businesses in particular have complained about problems raising finance from the major UK banks in recent years.

Eagle Vending Services had been profitable for 10 years but suffered a setback in 2009 when a fire at a unit adjoining their warehouse caused a major disruption to their business.

The Kent-based firm, which supplies vending machines to factories and offices, needed some additional financing to help them recover and fund some new projects. But the banks would not help.

“We approached them on a couple of occasions and each time it’s just been automatically rejected. Speaking to the business manager, he more or less said no straight from the start. They are just not interested,” said Mike Steel, the managing director of Eagle Vending Services.

Mr Steel turned to an online service that matches borrowers to lenders. After going through the application process they received approval and were offered a loan for 3 years at an interest rate of 8.3%.

Commenting on the government’s initiative he said: “There’s definite need in the market for small business to get access to loans. There is business there. A lot of businesses just need some funding to expand or stabilise themselves in the market.”

Business funding gap

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Warning of business funding gap.

The Breedon report predicts a funding gap of between £84bn and £191bn over the next five years.

BusinessIndustry should establish a Business Finance Advice network that used the main accountancy bodies, according to the report.

It also recommends setting up a body that would bundle up loans to smaller and medium sized firms. Those loans could then be sold on, potentially attracting new money into the sector.

It also calls on bigger businesses to support smaller ones in ways such as the prompt payment of invoices.

“We need to reshape the UK’s finance landscape to better serve the needs of ordinary businesses, helping more companies find the support they need to start and grow,” said Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Earlier this month, Mr Cable said UK banks were “imperilling” the country’s economic recovery by not lending enough to small and medium-sized businesses.

He had previously suggested that RBS should be split up to create a British business bank.

John Walker, head of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “We very much welcome this report as the recommendations chime closely with changes the FSB has called for to open up finance for small businesses.”

“Bold action needs to be taken to ensure a behavioural shift so that small firms know what alternatives to bank finance are available.”

Business plea

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Business plea: ‘we can help.

Business groups have been shut out of the Baillieu government’s budget process amid growing concerns it lacks a plan to kick-start the Victorian economy.

In a break with past practice, the government has abandoned efforts to engage industry groups in a formal process by requesting submissions before the May state budget.

Business leaders contacted by The Saturday Age have expressed concern about the lack of an economic plan, urging the government to press ahead with fresh efforts to revitalise the economy by boosting infrastructure, lifting skills and overhauling the tax system.

”What concerns me is a wealth of experience and knowledge in industry organisations that could assist in this very tough economic climate in terms of decision making in the budget is not being tapped into,” Property Council Victorian executive director Jennifer Cunich said.

”The lack of infrastructure projects is very concerning and I’m very concerned that we are losing skills out of the state to resources states and overseas.”

Australian Industry Group Victorian director Tim Piper said although the government had not formally asked his group for a submission, it would be making its views known.

It will urge the government to press ahead with tax reform, with an emphasis on the need to work with the Commonwealth to find the revenue needed to abolish inefficient stamp duties and other taxes. Mr Piper said despite the tough budget environment, the government also needed to boost business confidence by releasing a detailed infrastructure plan, with a particular need to tackle traffic congestion and improve transport links.

Bank of Melbourne chair Elizabeth Proust, who headed the premier’s department during the Kennett era, yesterday said discussion in boardrooms about a lack of government action to address Victoria’s economic problems was ”getting louder and louder”.

”People are saying that Victoria may well be losing its edge because of inaction in this state,” Ms Proust told ABC radio. ”I think the time for thinking and reflecting has passed and we should expect that the Victorian Government will start acting in a whole range of projects, including infrastructure projects.”

The comments follow figures suggesting the Victorian economy has stalled or is in reserve, with more than 1000 jobs now disappearing each week as the high dollar, relatively high interest rates, sluggish retail sales and a property slowdown cause pain the economy and the budget.

In a briefing to the incoming Baillieu Government, Treasury suggested Victoria could be on track to have the highest taxes in the nation by the middle of the decade unless the government embarks on a reform agenda.

Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief economist Steven Wojtkiw said the May Budget should map out a detailed plan for infrastructure, including funding and a timeline for delivering it.

Ms Cunich confirmed there had been no requests for submissions and no meetings, breaking with past processes that involved consultation with various industry groups.

Housing Industry Association Victorian executive director Gil King said although there had been no invitation for submissions, his organisation had been involved in talks with the Department of Premier and Cabinet about tackling costs and productivity in the construction sector.

He said he was particularly concerned that the first home buyers’ bonus might be dumped to help the government keep the budget in surplus.

Treasurer Kim Wells ordered the Department of Treasury and Finance to get to work on a so-called infrastructure pipeline in June last year, but has since said little about when, if ever, it will be released. Treasury figures this week revealed Victoria recorded a deficit of $341 million during the final six months of last year, a huge $823 million turnaround from the surplus of $482 million recorded for the same six-month period in 2010.

Business Apps

March 17th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Business Apps Eye Apple’s iPad Retina Display.

MeLLmo — one of the first software developers to embrace the iPhone and the iPad as business devices — has released new versions of its Roambi applications for the new iPad and its Retina display.

On Friday — the day the new iPad went on sale — MeLLmo unveiled new versions of its Roambi Business Analytics and Roambi Flow applications, two tools that give corporate types instant access to information stored in business tools such as SAP Crystal Reports and Salesforce.com. A business manager can bring up, say, interactive graphs representing a company’s most recent sales forecasts.

Apple’s retina display is a high resolution screen, and developers must retune their applications to use it. Some big name apps — such as the productivity and memory booster Evernote — are already available for new iPad. And even Apple is getting into the iPad-for-business game. Last week, the company released a free tool that lets organizations configure and deploy Apple tablets for their workforce.

Life Technologies — an outfit that sells biotech products — tells Wired that it recently purchased about 900 iPads for its worldwide sales staff, and these are being loaded with Roambi. “Being early to the game here with the iPad — with its interactive applications that are so easy to use — we find that training cycle our sales staff is relatively small,” Life Technologies chief information officer Joe Beery tells Wired.

The Roambi apps have new been updated for the new iPad’s Retina display. “The Retina display and enhanced graphics of iPad give us the tools to deliver business apps with unrivaled speed, clarity, and vivid imagery,” reads a canned statement from MeLLmo CEO Santiago Becerra.

SEO

March 16th, 2012 admin Comments Off

hree Aussie Companies Will Win $8,000 Each in Search Engine Optimisation from PayPal

In an Australian-first initiative, PayPal is partnering with local search engine optimisation (SEO) company, Dejan SEO, to offer Australian businesses the chance to win $8,000 worth of SEO services.

In an Australian-first initiative, PayPal is partnering with local search engine optimisation (SEO) company, Dejan SEO, to offer Australian businesses the chance to win $8,000 worth of SEO services.

There are three $8,000 SEO packages up for grabs, each designed to dramatically boost the ranking of the winner’s website on Google and the other search engines.

The competition is PayPal’s first foray into the field of SEO. It signals the company’s awareness of the importance of a strong search presence. And according to Simon Phillips, General Manager of Dejan SEO, it also signals their understanding of the importance of a sound SEO strategy and intelligent implementation. “They know online success requires a holistic approach. Good SEO is just as important as a good website and a good e-commerce system,” he says.

79% of Australians access the internet at least once a day — it’s their main mass-media channel for researching products, services and retailers. And 80%+ of those people use search engines as their primary research tool. No surprise, then, that 63% of Australian businesses are planning to increase their SEO budget during 2012.*

Head of Search from Dejan SEO’s Melbourne office, Chris Ward, claims that online marketing offers far better ROI than traditional marketing channels. “Dollar for dollar, it’s streets ahead,” he says. “Today’s consumer is technologically competent, brand-aware and likes to research before committing. Their first port of call is the search engines. Only with a solid search presence can you hope to capture that market.”

The $8,000 SEO prizes from PayPal and Dejan SEO will help three businesses keep pace with — or possibly even outrank — their competition.

“This prize could take a fledgling internet presence and transform it into search engine dominance,” says Ward. “A lot of large corporations in Australia rely on Dejan SEO to manage their entire internet marketing strategy.” He says that, “getting that for free would be a major boost to a small to a medium sized business.” He even went so far as to offer a guarantee: “After three months we will show results, 100% guaranteed.”

In summary, Phillips, General Manager of Dejan SEO, said: “We feel honoured that PayPal chose us, of all Australia’s SEO companies, to run this promotion with. Brand trust is integral to PayPal’s success, and their willingness to co-brand with us on this endeavour speaks volumes about Dejan SEO’s own brand and industry reputation.”

Google Seo

March 16th, 2012 admin Comments Off

Google Is Working On Making SEO Matter Less.

At SXSW there was a internet session called, “Dear Google & Bing: Help Me Rank Better!” As previously reported, Matt Cutts was supposed to be there, but couldn’t make it due to his wife having foot surgery. He was still able to appear remotely, and during the internet session, he just happened to mention that Google is working on some things that will “level the playing field” for people who just have good content, and don’t focus on much on SEO. Bing’s Duane Forrester also participated as Danny Sullivan moderated.

f you build it, they might not come, if you haven’t thought about how search engines view your web site. Forget testing for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Search engines are the common browser that everyone uses. The good internet news is that search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t mean terrible design or some type of black-magic trickery. Rather, there are good, sensible things that everyone should do that pleases both SEO and human visitors. In this session, representatives from Google and Bing provide this type of advice. They’ll even get you up to speed on the impact that internet social media is playing on search results. Even better, it’s all Q&A. Bring your top questions about how they rank sites and get answers directly from the source.

The official SXSW page has the audio for the entire session. Hat tip to Barry Schwartz for pointing to this specific part of it.

During the Q&A, one webmaster asked how a mom and pop doing its own optimization can stand a chance against all of those who are spending thousands of dollars on SEO.

“The way that I often think about SEO is that it’s like a coach,” said Cutts. “It’s someone who helps you figure out how to present yourself better. In an ideal world though, you wouldn’t have to think about presenting yourself and whether SEO can crawl your website, because they’d just be so good that it could figure out how to crawl through the Flash, how to crawl through the forms, how to crawl through the javascript, how to crawl through whatever it is. And for the most part, most search engines have made a lot of progress on being able to crawl through that richer content.”

Regarding the people that are optimizing “really hard” and doing a lot of SEO, Matt says, “Normally, we don’t sort of pre-announce changes, but there is something we’ve been working on in the last few months, and hopefully in the next couple months or so, or you know, in the coming weeks, we hope to release it.”

“And the idea,” he says, “Is basically to try and level the playing ground a little bit, so all those people who have sort of been doing, for lack of a better word, ‘over-optimization’ or overly doing their SEO, compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to sort of make that playing field a little more level. So that’s the sort of thing where we try to make the website…the Googlebot smarter, we try to make our relevance more adaptive, so the people who don’t do SEO, we handle that, and then we also start to look at the people who sort of abuse it, whether they throw too many keywords on the page or whether they exchange way too many links, or whatever they’re doing to sort of go beyond what a normal person would expect in a particular area. So that is something where we continue to pay attention, and continue to work on it…we have several engineers on my team working on that right now.”

Duane Forrester joked that Bing has some hamsters working on this in the back room, spinning some wheels. He suggested having a great product and being engaged socially. These are strong signals for Bing, he said.

HostFly.in Scammers

November 4th, 2011 admin Comments Off

HostFly.in Scammers site, you had to know this would eventually catch up to you and to make matters worse, you had PLENTY of time to resolve this one. In January of 2011, a HostFly.in Scammers member pointed out that your website is nothing more then a ripped template stolen from Host-A-Tree [Thread]. The thread simply ended with a message saying that you were working to resolve the issue. The story should have ended there.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a post where you (HostFly.in Scammers) were making a very insane offer (and trust me, if anyone buys it…). I looked at the website and to my shock, you are STILL using the stolen website template, only with the background changed. Granted you did make a few small changes but not enough… you even kept one of the reviews from HostFly.in Scammers!

MagmaHost Scammer

November 4th, 2011 admin Comments Off

Is this the place where you can add that MagmaHost Scammer is a shitty hosting ?
MH-Andy you should take more of your time solving your hosting problems than promoting your company as you’ll never

be able to write more good reviews for your hosting company than us (angry customers) who will search for MagmaHost Scammer

on internet and will share their extraordinary experience with MagmaHost Scammer.

So first of all the actual server uptime is 68% and, unfortunatelly, I don’t have only one domain or hosting plan

with them so this is actually an accurate number.
The next thing would be that all my MagmaHost Scammer hosting accounts have been moved around their servers like ping pong balls and

that hearts my seo rankings. My website changed it’s ip address 7 times in 6 months – that’s more than 1 ip change

per month – I was first on a US server now I’m ok a UK one.
Regarding customer support … they answer only what they want to and when they want to – they have a bad ticketing

system and they close your tickets even if not answered by default. Besides that, they can hardly understand english

as they are hired from india (at least that’s what my logs show after customer support checkeed my website) Online

customer support is out of the question as they don’t even answer the phone so it’s obvious that an online chat

customer support is missing.

They DO have awesome prices – you can get basic hosting for 1 year for $5 BUT you should consider adding:
+ $13 for doamin transfer to another registrar (when you’ll fear that you’ll loose your well ranked domain for good)
+ $10 out of nowhere without explanation of any kind (nor any answer to your “please explain this invoice”) with

your website being shut down for payment issues (I have registered/purchased domain and hosting for one year on

07.2009 and received my invoice for same package on 03.2010). Was forced to pay because my website was shut down for

payment.
+ $$$$$ – off your revenue for the website down (32% of time)
+ $$$$$ – time you took to write reviews like that instead of working on your websites
+ $$$$$ – money lost because search egines found your website down and ranked you bad

PS: Did you know that your google PR might go down because your shitty hosting ? Now you know – I have lost 1 PR

point for 2 domains hosted by magmahost (from pr 4 to pr3) so it’s real. Actually they even rank respected hosts

like godaddy hostgator or bluehost better than shitty not known hosts like MagmaHost Scammer based on ip – class. Example: if magmahost has shitty spamming customers hosted on their servers you’ll get in trouble just for that because you are on the same network.

On my side it costs me something like $300/domain/host/year with MagmaHost Scammer so in the end I would be easely buy a

reseller account with any other respected hosting company.

In the end I am forced to waiste my time trying to get my domain out of their hands and to move my websites to a

different host with all the trouble this might imply.

My advice: Buy only verified respected webhosting services as for the domains – keep them with godaddy – this way

you’ll have full 24/24 control for reasonable prices.

Use those shitty hostings only for shitty websites that you don’t care of and you want to do shitty things with and

remember – don’t try to register any domain with them.

In the end I have a question – what would you recommend that I should do in order have my domains transferred to

another registrar if they (obvious) refuse to. Have already filled a complain with icann but as they stated on their

website they don’t even guarantee a response nor they will act in any way to solve individual disputes.

I have rewritten your signature with a more appropiate one:

MagmaHost Scammer ►► Professional & Affordable Shared, Reseller Services – only if professional would be synonym to shitty
»» Performance, Reliability, Stability. Your data is safe with us. – “safe” it’s at least relative as you could lose anything including your domain.
»» 99.9 Uptime | Extremely Secure | 24/7 Support | LiteSpeed – that’s just plain true lie 99.9 in your dreams … or mine
★★★ Hosting anyone can afford. ★★★ UK AND USA SERVERS – Consider payment to magma as a long time loan as you’ll pay every day or at least lose money and regarding UK and USA servers it’s actually any random server they choose without notice every month.

MagmaHost

November 4th, 2011 admin Comments Off

Than not, and since the start of August has been down for 5 days (in August) and 10 days in September (my ticket has been closed today, although my site is still down from 15th September).

An appalling level of customer support from MagmaHost – they do not respond to emails or support tickets. The telephone number provided on their website has not belonged to them since January 2010 (at least).

I have reported them to trading standards, PayPal and Companies house as they still appear to be a UK limited company (MagmaHost Limited) and suggest other unsatisfied customers also refer them to trading standards and raise a PayPal dispute.

If you read their site carefully enough you can see that they are now probably best described as a rogue trader. Their telephone number does not belong to them. They do not meet the requirements of the Companies Act in that their website does not refer to them being a UK registered company with registered number and registered office address. The terms and conditions say they are subject to the laws of Texas – clearly incorrect as they are a UK registered company, so would be subject to UK law.

The moral of the story is that MagmaHost provide:
- poor customer service
- non-response
- uptime is probably less than 50%
= Use another hosting provider!

Hello world!

October 30th, 2011 admin Comments Off

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!