Category: Internet

wikileaks.beecher.org

Wikileaks is having to play a ridiculous game of musical chairs this week. They were forced to move their hosting to Amazon, from which they were promptly booted; and then the DNS for their primary domain name wikileaks.org was deleted by EveryDNS. Their primary domain name is now wikileaks.ch, but if that disappears too you can use wikileaks.beecher.org to access the website; I’ll update the IP address if it changes.

Julian Assange’s personal life is not a factor here, and not just because the timing of the Swedish arrest warrant and Interpol red notice are so incredibly coincidental. Wikileaks is just an intermediary, it isn’t leaking anything, it’s just channeling it. It hasn’t broken any laws, and the likes of PayPal’s assertions that Wikileaks “encourage[s], promote[s], facilitate[s] or instruct[s] others to engage in illegal activity” is a blatant cover-up for their own engagement with – probably actually illegal – government pressure.

What’s truly sad about this nonsense is that leakers feel more comfortable sending this info to Wikileaks and not the mainstream media. If the media got their fingers out of their holes – or rather their publishers stopped cutting costs at the expense of their core business – perhaps Wikileaks would be moot, and Assange wouldn’t have to do their job for them.

Justin Mason’s Nose Flute

Is there any end to that man’s talents? Between his 1337 skillz on the nose flute and his highlighting of the crap Justice Charleton parroted in his judgement on UPC v Dumb Greed Merchants, you have to wonder. Course he’s just parroting “Gambra” on thumped.com, but that’s neither here nor there!

Long story short: Yay Charleton for deciding in favour of UPC. Boo Charleton for parroting makey-uppey numbers for “piracy”. Boo Charleton for essentially suggesting that Gov.ie enact legislation to allow the labels to skip proper due process. That’s two boos to one yay, you lose Charleton.

LLU Line Share finally a reasonable price in Ireland

(Line Share allows other operators to rent just the internetty part of the line, without having to take the phoney part.)

ComReg set it to 77c in August of last year and Eircom, predictably, appealed. The case is now settled, and the 77c price stands. For once ComReg didn’t wet themselves on the courthouse steps and run away crying like a little girl. Or did they? What did Eircom get out of it?

Google Public DNS

Could spell trouble for OpenDNS. I’m jealous of their netblocks.

Google Public DNS is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider.

To try it out:

  • Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers or
  • Read our configuration instructions.

If you decide to try Google Public DNS, your client programs will perform all DNS lookups using Google Public DNS.

Hosting365 loses ICANN Accreditation

Over 28k? Absolutely bizarre. I wonder is it actually Hosting365, or is it misdirected mail for Register365. They only have 900-1000 domains, which hardly seems worth accrediting for in the first place. (Accreditation costs $2.5k up front, $4k a year, $1-2k a quarter, plus 20c per domain; so it ain’t cheap.)

ICANN: Section 3.9 of the RAA requires registrars to timely pay accreditation fees to ICANN, consisting of yearly and variable fees. Hosting365 currently owes ICANN $28,089.20 in past due accreditation fees. Notices regarding Hosting365’s past due accreditation fees, including detailed customer statements, were transmitted to Hosting365 several times over the past year.

On 20 April 2009, ICANN sent Hosting365 a notice of breach of RAA based on Hosting365’s failure to pay past due accreditation fees. Hosting365 failed to cure this breach in the time period allowed by the RAA.

Based on Hosting365’s failure to cure the breach of Section 3.9, and in accordance with Section 5.3 of the RAA, ICANN hereby gives Hosting365 notice that Hosting365’s accreditation will terminate on 4 January 2010.

Website Costs

[This is more philosophy than an answer, but I feel people should know why web development pricing is so variable.]

“Is it £35 or £35,000,000?”

I think the best way to answer that question, in true web development style, is “Yes.” My usual answer, when people come to me is, “It depends.” :)

It’s not that we’re trying to be difficult, it’s just that there’s no set price for website design, and there shouldn’t be. Every single site is different, and that’s the way it should be – if all sites were the same, the web would be a very boring place, and eCommerce wouldn’t exist. Of course, there are development companies out there that offer “packages”, but I don’t subscribe to that way of doing things, because when you do business that way, someone *has* to lose out, and it’s usually the client – you get a “site in a box”, just like another hundred the company produced that week or month. In my view, that’s not very innovative, and it’s innovation that stands out on the web. Let’s be honest – if you’re not going to do it right, you might as well not do it at all.

The problem is that you have lots of people jumping on the bandwagon at the moment – people whose knowledge of computers and the Internet could be written in marker on the back of a stamp. (Note to self – what’s a stamp? :) One person I met described them as “Copier Salesmen” – they’re the same guys who saw the boom in copiers back when they first came out, and followed the money. The same is happening with the web – you’ve got people following the money, and these guys shouldn’t be allowed *near* a computer, because all they want is your money. And they’ll do that by selling you a “site in a box”.

Another problem is that web design is quite like traditional design – it’s a service industry that relies heavily on talent, not training. So, in essence, *proper” web development companies don’t have to subscribe to pricing guidelines – we can pretty much charge people what *we think we’re worth*. That may seem harsh, but it’s simply supply and demand – if you want good, you gotta pay for it. If you want average, you pay an average price. If you want cheap, you’ll get tack.

The only exception to that rule are the few companies out there who do damn good work and charge a fair price for it. And they’re few and far between, and the prices are still very variable. I mean, my own company’s pricing has gone up a thousand-fold in the past three years (I kid you not), and I still feel that I’m cutting myself short half the time. I’ve quoted people £20,000 for a website, and found out afterwards that they had been quoted £1m for it. And I wouldn’t be kicking myself for that – I’d be laughing at the gall of the people quoting a million. I couldn’t quote that much money for a site, the guilt would bring me down! :)

Ok, now to answer your question slighly more directly:

How much would I be expected to pay for a site that will contain:

  1. Introduction page.
  2. Contact page.
  3. Host my catalogue of products.approx 120 products.
  4. Including all set up costs, search engine registration, domain name reg, etc.
  5. Also annual costs involved.

If you came to me with that spec, the first thing I would do is tell you to go away and come back with a better spec. The problem I have is mainly with point 3 – lots of questions immediately pop into my head when I see that:

  • What kind of products are you selling?
  • Where/how will you be shipping them?
  • Have you researched the tax and shipping costs involved in international orders?
  • Do you have a merchant account?
  • Will you be breaching your contract by taking orders on the web? (Chances are you will.)
  • Do you want to process the transactions in real-time, or will it suffice to receive the orders by email?
  • If the former, do you want to store user and credit card data?
  • If the latter, do you have an encryption application installed on your computer?
  • Do you want to track orders?
  • Do you want to integrate the online system with your current system?

I could go on and on. And that’s the reason no-one will quote you directly for website development right off the bat. If they do, or they’re not asking you those questions, you shouldn’t go anywhere *near* them. Why? Because there’s huge variations involved in the questions above. For example, if you want to track orders, or integrate the system, that means more programming on our part. If you want real-time transaction processing, you need to set up with a provider. If you want to store credit card data, you’re jumping into serious money. It means setting up proper security procedures, and shortly that will mean a dedicated machine on your own premises, connected via a (very expensive) leased line. (Why? Because Visa are currently introducing new measures for online trading, and that’s the only way around it.)

My advice? To be honest it’s hard to know what to advise people. The best I can do is to tell you to set aside a good chunk of time to set out *exactly* what you want out of the site, bearing in mind some of the question above, and the way your business currently operates. Don’t be afraid to put every piddling little detail in there – the things that may seem unimportant may be hugely important on the site. Then have a good look around the web and directories for the developers that appeal to you. See if they’ve done sites like what you’re looking for. Look at their style, and their own sites, and their attitude, and use that to judge if they’re up to the job.

Now, don’t phone them and relay all that information to them, email them the spec you spent all that time on. Web developers spend most of their time on the net, and they work best sitting in front of a computer, not on the phone. Plus, when they have the spec in front of them, they’ll be able to go through it in their own time, at their own pace. When they reply, they’ll be able to comment on everything, and explain why this costs that, and any difficulties that might be involved. You also get a price that’s much closer to reality.

If they’re interested – and they should be interested, because creating a website for someone is a lot like going into a partnership – you should try and arrange a meeting, to sit down a sort out any niggles between ye. This is good because the closer the developer can get to an exacting spec of the site beforehand, the less chance there will be of problems halfway through the development, because, for example, you wanted to add something new, when the drafts have been finalised (grrr). After that meeting, then, and only then, will you get an *exact* quote.

And you should understand another thing too – this drawn out process can be bad for us too. I get calls every day from people looking for sites, and I have to go through this process with each and every one of them, because it’s the *only* way you can do it *properly*. And a lot of them call off at the end, because the price is too high, or the project is a lot more complicated than it seemed. That comes down to the fact that an awful lot of people think that setting up a site is a walk in the park. But unless you’re talking about a straight brochure site, it’s not, it’s *hard*. And when they call off, that’s my time and money wasted. It’s a tricky business!

And finally, a direct answer. How much would I quote you for a website like that? Between five and twenty-five thousand pounds. Sorry, best I can do… :)

Eircom

A follow-up to “Ye gods, even the telcos in Ireland don’t answer their email!” And more bitching about “eircom”. There’s a moral – skip to the end if you don’t want to read the body.

I don’t know if I posted here about it, but I’ve recently been enquiring about a freephone number for ieWebs, that I would be using in print stuff and the like. So I sent Esat and eircom and email last Monday week, asking them to send me information on their services, costs, etc. It was a copy and paste job, they both got the same content.

I got a phone call the next day from a very nice chap in Esat. I was disappointed they didn’t contact me by email, but he soon made up for it – he went through all the options with me, explained most of the things I needed to know, and answered most of the questions I asked. And we had a grand ould chat too, about telecommunications in Ireland – the Internet, hosting, bandwidth, wireless comms, landlines, the whole shooting match. He genuinely seemed interested in what he did, understood what I was saying and actually *out-talked* me in some cases, which as you all know is pretty hard to do. The only bad side was that he didn’t answer one or two questions I asked clearly enough, particularly on pricing. However, the figures I got for the basic running of the number were – no setup fee, and the monthly fee was waived for a year. Which means it’s just the cost of the incoming call. Which is the part he was unclear about…

Someone reminded me the next day about Ocean, so I battered an email off to them through their website, in much the same vein as the other two. And from Ocean, I received a response the *same* day, late in the evening. This guy was even better than the Esat guy, he quite definitely loved his job and chatted away with me while I ranted on about the cost of hosting and bandwidth in Ireland, the lack of eCommerce facilities et al. He commented openly, but carefully, on the Esat merger and eircom’s inability to cope with privatisation and flotation. He answered all my questions frankly, and didn’t hesitate for a second when I asked if Ocean were cheaper or more expensive, without rambling numbers at me. He also took notes on my “feedback” on the hosting, bandwidth and eCommerce problems in Ireland, and said that he would pass it on to Ocean’s R&D department, and I think I actually believe him. Final result – no setup fee, no monthly charge (not waived, none), so again it’s just down to call cost. And he *insisted* that Ocean were cheaper than Esat, who were cheaper than eircom.

Yesterday morning, almost two weeks later, I received a phone call from someone in eircom. There was dead air on the line when I made the comment that I sent the email two weeks ago – she didn’t seem to understand the problem, so I dropped it. She didn’t understand when I asked what block of numbers* eircom have available for “telemarketing services”, simply saying that I would have to compile a list and they would check them for me. I decided to skip anything else of a technical nature and cut right to the chase, how much does it cost? £50 setup fee, £10 a month fee, with an extra £5 for *number rental*! When I told her that neither Esat nor Ocean had any of those charges, she was either dumbstruck or disinterested. So I hung up.

Here’s the moral. More advice, I guess. Don’t buy eircom products. Don’t rent eircom products, don’t use eircom products. You’ve got an eircom line – for the moment at least, you can’t do anything about that. But get rid of the eircom bill – lose the service and get another one. If you need a “proper” Internet connection, get EsatClear – I’ve saved a minimum of 20% on my phone bill since I signed up. If you don’t, get Ocean and a freebie provider. Actually, now I come to think about it, it isn’t advice, it’s a personal witch-hunt – I don’t want to see Irish people being screwed by eircom, which they are. The “equipment rental” is a major demonstration of that. Look at your phone bill – is there an “equipment rental” fee on it? If there is, that’s the phone you’re paying for. For a huge number of people, they’ve being paying rental on that phone for decades – how much does that add up to? Most people aren’t even aware of that. So if  you do, pack up the phone and take it into your nearest eircom store, and tell them to take it off your bill. And GET A RECEIPT! They won’t want to give you one, but *insist* – it’s the law and they HAVE to give you one if you ask.

* The new providers are assigned blocks of numbers they can use, which is illogical – they should be drawn from a central pool, like the domain name system. Esat get 923000-924999 and Ocean get 925000-926999. It’s unclear what eircom have, but I’m under the impression that they actually assigned these blocks (which are useless for “name-numbering” – i.e. 1800-ieWebs, because the 9 key contains wxyz!) Since deregulation, it seems that there still isn’t a decent regulatory body in charge of assigning numbers and the like. Even the Ocean chappy said it was “still somewhat up in the air”.

Pirate Bay Bought Out?

This is all over the news today. Sounds to a bad April 1 prank, have the lads their dates mixed up?

The Pirate Bay has been (effectively) acquired by a gaming company called Global Gaming Factory X, who is plunking down nearly $8 million for the privilege. Their grand, surprising plan for the Pirate Bay is to pay content providers. Seriously.

via Gizmodo.

Alan Ralsky & Scott Bradley plead guilty to stock fraud

Holy god, I never thought I’d see the day. The names won’t be familiar to most, but these are two of the biggest guys in spam.

Alan M. Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield, Mich., and Scott K. Bradley, 38, also of West Bloomfield, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and to violate the CAN-SPAM Act. Ralsky and Bradley also pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering, and violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Ralsky acknowledges he is facing up to 87 months in prison and a $1 million fine under the federal sentencing guidelines while Bradley acknowledges that he is facing up to 78 months in prison and a $1 million fine under the federal sentencing guidelines.

FBI via Justin.

Opera Unite

While I won’t assign it the “reinvention of the web” tag others are giving it quite yet, Opera Unite is something new in a space where we really don’t see truly fresh things very often. In a nutshell, it’s a mashup of “traditional” web services, peer-to-peer, and your browser; in more detail, it’s locally hosted file sharing and communications, with the following services out of the box:

  • Media Sharing / Player
  • File Sharing
  • Web Server
  • Photo Sharing
  • Messaging (“Fridge”)
  • Chat (“Lounge”)

Yes, we can install all those services on our own computers – many of us have done for years – but the social aspect makes them all much more accessible. It’s a bit clunky now, but in time – particularly if they hook up with Facebook Connect or similar – you’ll be able to find people and help people find you, and take complete control of your services.

I like this. I won’t use it right now because I couldn’t possibly move away from the browser I’ve created out of Firefox, but  when it comes out of beta I could well switch over. I like control over my data, and Unite gives it to me.