menu.

Yesterday’s decision by ICANN to allow any Tom, Dick or Harry to create their own top-level domain is a bit worrying.  With TLDs like .TV, .biz and .info struggling to make much of an impact (except maybe doubling the amount of spam flying around the internet), who really thinks that allowing people to make up their own?

As appealing as it might be to shift this site from SteveFerson.com to Steve.Ferson, it hardly seems worth the confusion of creating an infinite number of domains for the same company. At present you can usually find a site by typing companyname.com or companyname.co.uk into your address bar. Under these plans, even Googling for a company name could theoretically bring up hundreds of results all pretending to be the ‘real’ site.

That said, it was worth it for this headline from ZD Net.

Good news for existing proposals like .nyc for New York City and .xxx for adult sites. Depending on the costs of setting it up, I could also see a new TLD appearing for Northern Ireland (.nir ?) and am sure some enterprising spirit will attempt to register .blog.  Feel free to leave your suggestion for a new TLD below.

A lot of people come to this site searching for help on specific issues with or opinions/info a specific gadget or technology.  For that reason, I thought I’d state publicly the gadgets and technologies I use (embarrassing though that may prove).

• Wireless Media Streamer Buffalo LinkTheater
  Streams video (most divx/xvid and wmv9) and/or music to my TV from a DLNA compliant server like the Linkstation Live or Windows Media Player’s built-in media sharing service.
• 500GB Home NAS Buffalo LinkStation Live (HS-DH500GL)
  Can store video and music files and stream them over a wireless network to a DLNA certified media streaming device like my LinkTheater.
• Mobile Phone - Nokia N73 smartphone
  5 megapixel camera, Symbian/Series 60 OS, currently on Orange Pay As You Go
  
• Nintendo Wii
• PlayStation 2 (Slimline)
  
• Wireless ADSL Modem/Router - Netgear DG834G
  Old version 1; basic but functional.
  
• Laptop PC - Acer Aspire 5003 wlmi dual-booting Windows XP and Ubuntu
• Desktop PC
  My main computer is one I built up myself and upgraded over the years, specced as follows:
  • Asus A7V333 motherboard
  • 1.5GB DDR RAM
  • Athlon XP 2400+ CPU
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter
  • 19″ LG M198WA widescreen TFT Monitor/TV combination
  • 17″ CRT Monitor

So, if you’ve any questions on any of the above, please let me know. Oh and I also have broadband with Plus.net (who are excellent) where £15 a month gets me 8Mbps and 15GB usage (unlimited from midnight to 8am) and I have web hosting with WebHostingBuzz.com where I have a reseller account for just $5 a month.

It seems it’s the time for it. Queen’s University’s student newspaper, The Gown, published a story about the recent death of a man who they allege had a history of intimidating students.  Some seem to feel that it went a bit far in intimating that this death would be a source of relief to students in the area.

Then I get home on the same day and have an email from Flexicover, from whom I’ve previously bought travel insurance, using a news story about "The death of five girls involved in a tragic accident in Ecuador whilst on a gap-year" to highlight "the risks of travelling overseas" and sell me travel insurance.  They offer 6 helpful hints to people planning gap years and, unsurprisingly, number 6 is: yes, you guessed it, insurance.

A bit scummy, is it not?

Hello all and welcome to my new blog. Once the design is finalised I will be uploading guides, reviews, ideas and problem solving / ‘how-to’ posts based on my daily struggle with the beast that is technology. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, in particular with a view to recording the problems I’ve had with particular devices and/or programs so that others may find the solutions without resorting to pulling their hair out like I often have.

The topics covered will largely be computer related (hardware and software) including compatability issues, dodgy hardware/software, wired and wireless networking etc. I may also touch briefly on UK Digital Terrestrial Television (ie Freeview) and, well, anything else that I determine worthy of comment.

In fact I’ve already written one or two little guides that I plan to post in the next few days. I just hope they will prove useful to someone.