Web Hosting Blog - Cirtex Hosting

Do you constantly keep over 10+ tabs open in firefox and would love to enhance your multitasking in firefox to speed up and become more efficient while working/browsing the net?

There are many add-ons for FireFox and sometimes it is very hard to find the right one for your needs, below are 5 addons that’ll help you reach the next level in multitasking with FireFox 3 while keeping things simple and elegant for your user interface.

1) Surf Canyon

Find stuff faster on Google, Yahoo, MSN and Craigslist. Also adds image previews on Craigslist. Again this tool helps speed up the process of searching and finding what you’re actually looking for. Very useful tool for those that use google, yahoo, msn, craigslist etc.. on a daily basis.

2) FaviconizeTab

This addon allows you to manage tabs by only seeing their FavIcon or assigning a Favicon to it. It is very useful if you have multiple tabs open and just want to save room for more tabs. With this addon you can easily have over ~50 tabs listed without having to scroll the tabs menu.

3) ColorfuLtabs

Very simple but elegant and helps you keep your tabs very distinct and unique from each other by having a different back ground color whether randomly generated or custom set colors. It is great if you want to have many tabs open and want a new look/way to easily distinguish each of them.

4) iMicros

To explain what this addon does simply put, it helps you multitask much faster by automating Firefox. It can record and replay repetitious work and for example you no longer have to do repetitive tasks like visiting the same sites every days, filling out forms, and remembering passwords.

5) Shareaholic

This is the ultimate addon for social networking/bookmarking and pretty much covers everything along with firefox 3 support. Shareaholic currently supports: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, healthranker, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, simpy, stumbleupon, streakr, truemors, tumblr, twitter, ycombinator, bzzster, etc.

Popularity: 4% [?]

One of the most important factors, aside from getting listed at page one of any Google search is the actual content of your website. Having a website with highly optimized keywords and other SEO-related enhancements is one thing, but building a valuable website that would have ease of use is another thing.

The first thing to realize about website design is precisely that- the website design. Your website design should maintain a level of ease and functionality that would rival other websites containing similar content. Some early internet researches concluded that the average user rates a website the first few seconds that he or she has glimpsed it, and thus, it is the web designer’s job to make sure that the first few seconds of any user to the website would impress immediately. One deciding feature in these few seconds would be the separation of the functional elements of the site, such as search, tables and graphics. The typical eyesore would present a site where the search function is at the bottom, and crazy subgroups of text are at the top and middle, with different colors, font styles and sizes. This will not do.

Simplicity is key, and many websites, including Microsoft, employ a very linear and yet very functional design. The next important feature of a highly appraised website is information architecture. Information architecture means being able to aid completely the user in his specific goals as he navigates the website. The common mistake of some websites is forcing the user immediately, for instance, to buy a product or technically cough up some dough before the user has even begun to realize what exactly the website is about, especially if he or she is a first time visitor. Make sure that the hierarchy of topics and information in your website is intelligently designed and aimed helping any user find what he or she needs. Another deciding feature of a good website would be navigability. It’s one thing to provide a very handsome main page, and following that up in the deeper pages. Make sure that there are enough linkages in the other pages linked to your site so that the user would be able to find his or her way back easily to the main page or some other pertinent page.

Including a search function in every page is a must, and should be the focal point especially of information-intensive websites like ones containing news. Another feature that cannot be understated here is accessibility. Like public buildings, your website should have the equivalent of ramps. Make sure not to marginalize users that are sensory-impaired. If you can, install applications that read text on command, et cetera. For the vision impaired, specifically, make sure that all your links are working and that there are no special actions involved during any point in the navigation of your site, such as installation of plug-ins that would require the extra two or three steps for the impaired user.

Popularity: 7% [?]

CirtexHosting is releasing two free premium wordpress themes in web 2.0 style to all users.
Feel free to download them at http://www.cirtexhosting.com/themes.shtml

Blogging Simple (Demo)
(Download)

Simplistic (Demo)
(Download)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Throughout the past years, many customers have inquired about how to check their website’s google pagerank or alexa trend and also their site value all in one while also doing a whois on their domain. We have came up with a free solution for all users provided by CirtexHosting & HostV. For those interested in looking up any domain names and their pagerank for google, or alexa rank, or just the dns and domain contact info, this will be the perfect whois tool for you.

Below is a screenshot of the tool in action on http://whois.cirtexhosting.com, note it displays much more info and is very detailed and also current/uptodate for cirtexhosting.com

Popularity: 13% [?]

Less than a month ago, one of the most deadly disasters in history occurred half way around the world. The earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people, injured nearly 400,000, and left 5 million homeless. In the weeks following, aftershocks have continued to plague the region, causing thousands of more deaths and injuries.

The damage has been staggering, estimated at more than $20 billion in losses. Unable to rebuild and faced with a food shortage, many victims are left to turn to aid organizations just to survive.

In the wake of major disasters like this one, the world community has a moral imperative to help. Businesses, embracing corporate responsibility, shoulder even more obligation. At CirtexHosting, we view it as our role to assist in the recovery and rebuilding efforts of this disaster as much as we can. We’ve made a series of financial contributions to local and international aid organizations with the goal of making a positive impact in the lives of these victims, who are like us in so many ways. Based in New York City, we know what it’s like to ask for help after a tragedy.

Today we ask for your help. We have partnered with MercyCorps and GracefulYouth to facilitate fundraising. Please consider making a contribution directly to one of these organizations, or contributing in your own way to the thousands of aid organizations playing a role in the recovery efforts.

For more information about the earthquake and contribution opportunities, please visit http://cirtexhosting.com/donate.shtml

Thank you for your support,
CirtexHosting Team
http://www.cirtexhosting.com
http://www.hostv.com
http://www.cirtex.com

Popularity: 15% [?]

As a follow up to a previous post made in this blog about video sharing scripts & ffmpeg hosting, we thought we would follow up with a comparison of the most common Youtube Clones & Video Sharing Scripts out there. There are several choices with prices ranging from free to almost $1000.00 however it all boils down to the specific features you want. Of course all the scripts require ffmpeg hosting support before you even start looking for a script. Most features are common with all the scripts out there, but one or two stand out in terms of that extra feature to make your website stand out from the crowd. Below is an in-depth analysis & comparison table on some features that may be of interest to you, plus the cost of each script. Features that are listed in the table as not being available could be updated at anytime by the developer so be sure to double check.

So how do you start a Youtube style Video Sharing Site? It’s simple as 1-2-3!
1) Choose one of the video sharing scripts below
2) Choose a hosting company (PHPMotion auto-installer included @ CirtexHosting)
(Read more at our previous article on FFMpeg Hosting)
3) Customize and Setup your Youtube Clone and you’re LIVE!

Features	ClipShare	AttachMax	Rayzz	Videoshare	VShare	OsTube	SocialMedia	PHPMotion
Customizable
Upload/Insert Videos from Youtube/Google				X	X	X	X	Paid
Rating & Commenting System
Membership Signup System (Free or Paid)					Free Only	Free Only	Free Only	Free Only
Multi-Language Support					X	X		X
Messaging System		X	?		X
Search Engine (SEO) Friendly			X	?				Paid
Multi-Server Support			X	X	X	Enterprise		X
Cost	$199	$195	$418.95	$300	$10	$Free/299	$197	$Free

Below are brief descriptions of each video sharing scripts.

Clipshare Hosting - Demo

With ClipShare, now you’re limited only by your imagination, not by the software! Unleash the power of video sharing to boost your websites’ traffic & revenues!
With a huge variety of features and options, at an extremely affordable price, ClipShare is the ultimate solution for starting your video sharing and uploading community website just like the big boys: Youtube, Metacafe, DailyMotion, LiveVideo, Vimeo, MySpace Videos or Google Video.

Attachmax Hosting - Demo

Attachmax allows you to run your very own youtube Video Community site, just like popular Videos sites such as youtube, dailymotion and revver. Additionally Attachmax includes the ability for Images and Files, following the trend of other popular File Sharing communities such as Imageshack and Rapidshare. So not only do you get a fully functional Video Script, but a complete File Sharing Website.

Rayzz Hosting - Demo

Life is a movie…You are the Producer, We write the Script! Ready for Rayzz? Agriya’s original approach to video sharing, Rayzz 2.0, is now stuffed full with even more exciting features for webmasters to enjoy! High quality video broadcasting combined with social networking and community features make this script a must to build your own video sharing website.

AlstraSoft VideoShare Hosting - Demo

AlstraSoft Video Share Enterprise is the ultimate solution for starting your video sharing and uploading community just like the big boys such as Youtube, DailyMotion and MySpace Videos and what’s more we now allow your members to share Audio and Photos as well. Video Share is our enterprise level audio, photo and video sharing software that offers a powerful and feature rich solution and most important of all, at an extremely affordable price.

Vshare Hosting - Demo

YouTube Clone Script allow you to run your own video sharing portal. Visitors will be able to upload video to your web site, view existing video, comment on video, share video with others.

OsTube Hosting - Demo

osTube is the first content management system for media contents (MCMS) - a basic framework for creating websites similar to YouTube, Veoh, and Revver. After the successful release of osTube 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 we have just published the brand new 2.1 version of osTube - a quantum leap in player-functionality and CMS-scalability.

PHPMotion Hosting - Demo

So just what is PHPmotion anyway? - PHPmotion is a free video sharing software that now also have support for audio/mp3 sharing. Our application that will allow you to create and run your very own video sharing website. With very little knowledge required you can now have website just like youtube.com and dailymotion.com and best of all, its 100% free to download and use.

AdQuick - Adbrite Clone Hosting - Demo

AdQuick 2.0 allows you to run your own ad network similar to websites such adbrite.com, adengage.com and adster.com. AdQuick 2.0 will allow you to bring together advertisers and publishers, and you the script owner will take a cut from every ad sold through your adbrite clone website.

http://www.cirtexhosting.com
http://www.hostv.com
http://www.cirtex.com

Popularity: 100% [?]

Increasing the traffic to your website can only mean one thing. More sales. The more traffic you get to your website increases the amount of people that know about your site and the products you offer. The more people that know about your products and services the more opportunities you have to sell. Of course traffic will only bring the customers, it won’t sell your products. So if you feel like your products are ready to be seen and sold, then your next step is to make sure that the people that need to see your site, and the products and services you offer, do actually find it.

One of the best ways to create traffic is to do so through social websites. People naturally phase out un-original and pushed advertising, so talking to your customers, without pushing anything is one way to get their attention.

Social news and social forum websites are generally specific to subject areas. Which means that the people who are using the forums are interested in particular areas. So for example lets have a look at one business owner. Mark Duncan owns a business that sells gardening products, like clippers, shoes, and so on. About three years ago he started trading online. Duncan Gardening offers fantastic prices and plenty of variety. Duncan had problems getting traffic to his website and even when he did, the traffic wasn’t specific enough to create sales.

Duncan decided to visit gardening forums in order to talk about his interests. After a while Duncan told fellow forummers about his business and what kind of products he sells. As time went on and word of mouth (or type) spread Duncan noticed that the traffic to his website started increasing. And over time Duncan started visiting a range of gardening websites and forums, and told more people about the products that his website offer. Duncan found that after visiting and posting on these forums for one month, his traffic increased 5 fold and his sales increased 2.85 fold. And the sales and traffic was still growing. The best part? This didn’t cost a cent.

Social news, bookmark sites and forums, are driven by the community. The community maintains it and the more interest your post gets the further it moves up into the first pages. Not many people travel to far back into the forums, so it’s important to any poster to maintain and drive interest. Social news, bookmark sites and forums are not for boring and pushy posts. In fact if you post something that reads too much like advertising, you post will likely be ignored if not deleted. So it is up to you to be interesting and in return you will get a ready made market for the picking.

To get your start in forums and increasing your website traffic through them, have a look at the terms below.

Drive Traffic: social networking sites use these words to describe traffic that has been delivered by forums and their traffic.

Reach Influencers: forums and social networking sites have the ability to reach influential people. These influential people will often help you by linking their website to theirs and so on.

Build Authority: by taking part in forums and social networking sites, that are particular to your field, you will build authority in the area. People will generally buy from someone with authority rather than someone who doesn’t.

Brand Growth: social networking sites will give you the opportunity to grow your authority and grow the recognition of your brand.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Using Forum Marketing to Build Your Business

Forum marketing and taking part in social networking and business networking websites can considerately boast your brand and traffic to your website. Forums give you the ability to reach your target audience and develop an image for your brand and yourself. The best part? IT’S FREE!!

Forum marketing a new term that often gets put in the Spam pile. But in reality forum marketing is a worthy activity that can boast more than your sales. Basically to take part in forum marketing you need to take part in forums. You can do this by answering people’s posts or starting your won threads. Generally to consider forum marketing actually marketing rather than just taking part in a forum you will need to have your own website linked every now and then (when appropriate). Although many people have their website link on their signature so that their link is always there without being pushy.

How can boast your traffic and brand identity at the same time?

1) Your profile should be well done and correct. Make sure you have a fully functional profile that actually has your contact details, name, link and information that readers can use to establish your authority in this particular field.

2) Never be to sales driven. If you are online trying to establish traffic and brand identity, people will be turned off if your posts, profile and threads are too sales driven. Forums are more about directing people rather than pushing people.

3) Take part in the forum topics. If you have an active presence in the forum people are more likely to trust you and your website. So take some time each day to answer questions and be part of the community.

4) When you post make sure that your posts make sense, are intelligent and offer something to the community. The more questions that you answer and the more people that find your posts relevant, the more authority you will form.

5) Make sure than you forget about your products and services. When posting you should be trying to build up authority for yourself, then your site and finally your products and services. People can smell a salesman a mile away.

6) Put a photo or picture on your profile, so that your posts can be recognized immediately. This way once you have trust you will develop more brand recognition.

7) Always remember that you’re representing yourself on these forums. So don’t swear or say/post things that you might regret later on.

Popularity: 62% [?]

“Is it the next best thing to sliced bread…or the next asbestos?” - Dr. Mark Wiesner, a Duke University professor.

Reports are sketchy about what really went on at the grand opening of Minatec*, Europe’s primary center for practicing innovation in nanotechnology, in Grenoble, France.

An apparent press-blanket kept news coverage of the event to a minimum, but what appears certain is this: on June 1 2006, roughly a thousand protesters crashed Minatec’s opening party, causing the French President to pull-out of his planned attendance, and delaying the center’s opening by a day. According to activist group Earth First!* there was a “military-like control & siege” of the French town, “with riot police wading in and injuring people.”

Since then the center has managed to remain open and in business, protests aside. But the questions remains: what is nanotechnology all about, and perhaps more importantly, why is it worth waging war against?

War on very small things

To start to understand the war on nanotechnology, we have to grasp at least some of the concept of what nanotechnology is. If, like me, you aren’t employed in applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science or supramolecular chemistry, it’s worth pointing out that nanotechnology is the science of the very very small. Word experts at Princeton University describe it as the branch of “engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers”; and to answer your next question, a nanometer is equal to one billionth of one of our regular meters– which makes a nanometer very very small.

So why are people becoming hostile to nanotechnology? Well, the practice of nanotechnology itself generally involves manipulating nature at the atomic and molecular level; reconstructing matter, and even creating entirely new living organisms; from the cell up. The impact this could have on our future lifestyle is tremendous. An article* published in 1995 in Wired magazine spoke about biologist Leeroy Hood’s vision of being able to “rewrite human genes” and cure diseases in an instant. Over a decade on, medical scientists are trying to realize these dreams; but now nanotechnology isn’t being restricted to medicine. An India Daily article on current and future developments in the field of “Military Nanotechnology” spoke of the terrifying “Nano-bomb that contain engineered self multiplying deadly viruses that can continue to wipe out a community, country or even a civilization.” Researchers in the US are already trying to find out just how advanced China’s research into the field of nanotechnology is.

The war against this potentially dangerous science of the very small rages on. Protests at the potential health implications of clothing modified by nanotechnology, to be “stain- and wrinkle-resistant”, has taken place outside stores selling these goods in Chicago. A spokesperson for the protesters described nanotech as “a radical and unpredictable new technology”. In Jürgen Altmann’s report Military Nanotechnology* he concluded that it “could trigger a new arms race and gravely threaten international security and stability”. A study* carried out by a professor of life sciences communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, rocked the world with news that 70.5% of Americans found nanotechnology morally unacceptable. “They are rejecting it based on religious beliefs,” said Dietram Scheufele, the author of the study. He stated they don’t want people “playing God.”

Regulating nanotech

With the scientific giants like Minatec still doing business, and the Eddie Bauer store in Chicago still selling nanotech clothes; there seems to be no end in sight for the technology which last year was incorporated into $50 billion worth of consumer goods– and neither for the war against it. As the debate becomes more and more popular, and the implications of nanotechnology come further and further into the realm of our daily lives; it’s good to hear a voice of reason amongst all the hysteria. Nanoethics* is a research & education organization, which like many similar organizations, was set up “to move nanotech ahead responsibly”, and work “to develop real safeguards before we unleash such a powerful technology on our world”. Whether Nanoethics and there contemporaries will have their desired effect on the science remains to be seen; but one thing is for sure: the war on nanotechnology has only really just begun.

References
* Minatec… http://www.minatec.com/minatec_uk/index.htm
* Earth First!… http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/?q=node/1397
* Wired… http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/hood.html
* Military Nanotechnology… http://www.amazon.com/Military-Nanotechnology-Technology-Contemporary-Security/dp/0415371023
* Nanoethics… http://www.nanoethics.org/

Popularity: 44% [?]

Recently it has been popular that people who are successful don’t have to work 5 plus days a week and work their fingers to the bone to achieve their goals. Working smarter, but not harder is the new way of doing things, so get on board and have some fun.

1. Focus

Keep the focus on your goals and where you are going, stop thinking about how you are traveling and what is in your way, instead keep your mind on what you are working towards and what it will be like to get there. Keep the focus on these goals and do every task with the knowledge that this task is taking you to your goal. You may also want to come up with short term goals to help yourself through each period.

2. Look After Yourself

You need to take the time to check in with yourself and make sure that you are balanced and focused. Take the time once a week or month to schedule some thinking time. Block everything out and spend some time working on yourself. Just like your car, you need to service yourself every now and then.

3. Work with yourself

You know what you are good at, what you need help with and what kind of things stress you. Make sure that your work is tailored for yourself. Therefore you need to spent more time doing the things you are good at, less time on the things that trouble you and the things that will cause stress. If you like working during the night, you should. Don’t try to do important things in a time of the day that isn’t your peak and so on.

4. Rewards

Take the time to reward yourself and take time for vacations. This is important but so is the idea of a mini break. This means that every hour, try to take 2 minutes to yourself. Just breath and refocus yourself.

5. Indulge your work space

If you are going to spend a lot of time in your work place, make sure that it suits you, the way you work and how you like to work. If you like bright colours around you, then put them in your work place. Make sure there is sufficient ventilation, clean air and pleasant sounds. Also make sure that your desk is organized and easy to move around.

6. Delegate or Outsource

You need not do everything yourself. If you have a small company it may be worth while outsourcing smaller work so that you can concentrate on your goals and focus. For instance you should work towards having an answering service, bookkeeper and perhaps even a virtual assistant.

Popularity: 50% [?]