A little while back I wrote about NetSol nefarious domain front-running. Well they’re at it again. NetSol will put up parking page with their own adverts on your sub-domains that aren’t being used. Now it seems that unless you read the 59,000 word long EULA you wouldn’t even know about it and the fact that you can opt out.

This is an excerpt from their EULA:

You also agree that any domain name directory, sub-directory, file name or path (e.g.) that does not resolve to an active web page on your Web site being hosted by Network Solutions, may be used by Network Solutions to place a “parking” page, “under construction” page, or other temporary page that may include promotions and advertisements for, and links to, Network Solutions’ Web site, Network Solutions product and service offerings, third-party Web sites, third-party product and service offerings, and/or Internet search engines. You agree that Network Solutions may change the content and/or appearance of, or disable any of these temporary pages at any time, in its sole discretion, and without prior notice.

Edit: I came across this personally when looking at my position in the Google ranks. This site comes up before me and has an under construction page. You wouldn’t really know it was under construction except for a tiny little text box in the top right corner.

Source: The Register

Tags: business, Internet, network solutions, scammers

I just downloaded Safari 3.1 for Windows, yes downloaded not forced-updated, and my initial impressions are good. Apple has been catching crap over the way the have released Safari to Windows users through Apple Software Updater. While the name implies that it will only update software you’ve installed Apple decided to push out Safari with it as well, the kicker is that it is checked by default. Infoworld explains more.

Safari feels very fast opening pages. It’s got all the standard web browser features, tabbed browsing, rss feed reader, form auto-fill. I really like the built-in rss reader, it puts Firefox reader to shame. Screen shots will follow. Another big feature is the private browsing right out of the box in Firefox you need a plugin for that but Safari has this as a standard feature.

Update: It seems that Apple violates it’s on EULA with the new Safari for Windows. According to The Register Safari can only be installed on Apple hardware running Windows.

(more…)

Tags: apple, browser, firefox, safari, web, windows

I’ve been testing the latest betas of Firefox for awhile now and Firefox 3 is shaping up to be very nice in my opinion. The biggest thing is the Mozilla team seem to have started plugging some of the memory leaks. Just my rudimentary test but after having both version open for two minutes and surfing the same few pages the memory usage of Firefox 2.0.0.12 is over 63 Mb and was still climbing when I stopped. While Firefox 3 the usage hovered around 55 Mb at the end and was steady. With some basic calculations thats over an 80% decrease (please don’t hold me to these numbers just very basic tests).

Some of the new features are very nice as well. My favorite being the adaptive autocomplete address bar. What this does is based on your usage patterns of the sites you visit the most and sites you visited recently and of course by letters your typing, it shows you the most relevant sites in the autocomplete menu. Also another nice thing is the ability to save your current tab layout when you quit. So when you come back to browsing everything is just how you left it.

Firefox 3 Beta 4 can be found here.
PC Magazine also has an article about the new beta: PC Magazine

Tags: beta, firefox, IT, Mozilla

Shady business practices abound at Network Solutions. The domain registrar is being accused of ‘front-running’. What happens is when someone goes to the Network Solutions site and searches for the availability of a domain name Network Solutions immediately registered the name for itself. Then the company forces the user to pay outrageous fees to buy the name from them. One client in the suit said $34.99 when the same domain elsewhere would have been $9.99. For anyone who’s been burned by this practice this is welcome news. The original filer of the suit also claims that ICANN is in on the deal as well.

Source: Vnunet.com

Tags: business, icann, IT, network solutions

ICANN the company that handles all the domain names and ip addresses for the world have just turned on IPV6 in 6 of the 13 root servers. So the movement to version 6 has begun. Some large companies have been using IPV6 for awhile and pretty soon will be able to start using it only public networks.

Source: Cnet

Tags: icann, Internet, ipv6, IT, server