I talk about whether it makes sense to move to HTTPS, even if your site doesn’t sell products or take in user data.
ScreenConnect, a remote access tool, allows you to host a server that enables remote support of client computers. Many of the best features of this software relate to giving you control over deployment and hosting. This would seem like the perfect fit for Amazon’s cloud server infrastructure. If what you wanted to do is run it on a lower-cost AMI (Amazon Machine Image) free-tier micro instance, here’s how to do that.
I’m reminded of a rather prescient article from Kurt Sutter – creator and showrunner for Sons of Anarchy. I consider him eloquent, interesting, entertaining, and somewhat crazy. But he’s also as wrong as, well, everything Gene Simmons says. The early August article for Variety went after Google and its apparent love of piracy.
There is a real sense that sites of all shapes and sizes are moving away from commenting systems. I’m seeing comment systems that have been reduced to identity verifiers that allow users to enter text-only when the web itself allows so much more. This had me thinking, how could we remake the entire idea of commenting on blogs (and the web in general). I have an idea of how we can save them.
You may well have heard of the third instalment of The Expendables. The movie opens in wide release on August 15, but a high-quality version was leaked to the Internet almost three weeks before the release. This kind of thing has happened in the past, but never so long before release, and never in such a completed state. Again, the debate over piracy (and associated penalties) is in the public’s consciousness.
While working to move this site to using encryption, I have come across another painful reminder of how inadequate the Facebook comments plugin really is. When changing the url (and ultimately the domain) of this site from http://cwl.cc to https://cwl.cc Facebook doesn’t handle the change very well. What I’m left with is losing another swath of great comments and thinking of a fix.
Google’s bread and butter is search and advertising. While that will likely not change for some time, Google seems to be looking for ways to converge some of its services into a kind of super offering. One such case is Google Domains; hosting, DNS, mail and registrar services all on Google’s infrastructure. For a cost. Here’s what the service currently offers and a first look at what you can expect from this invite-only offering.
As a blog that runs on WordPress, this site is bound to the glorious options that are presented by this tool; but also many of the limitations. I’ve worked with WordPress in a number of ways, but one that seems to be most tricky is its internal linking. Out of the box, WordPress won’t offer you the ability to show internal elements (such as images) with a relative URL.
Things have changed with us offering stuff like free software. This may not be the only thing we provide in the future, but as a blog, and the face of a business, I really wanted to start encrypting information on this site.
In any business, some form of competition is a way of life. Any company with clients will have to compete with the need for growth and profit, the difficulty in satisfying customers, and even internally. Over the years, however, I have learned that there are more dangerous threats to technology service companies than those mentioned. In an industry that moves so fast, and depends so much on the prevailing wind of customer choice – two challenges stand alone against the strength of a company: Disruption and Erosion. Let me explain.