HostJury is compiling discount web hosting coupons and special offerings by various hosts. As always we recommend that while price may be a consideration when choosing a web host for your "baby", it should only be one of the many factors considered in your research. Page load speeds, additional features, good communication, and a fast knowledgeable support team will always top saving a few cents per day.

"In the old days a man who saved money was a miser; nowadays he's a wonder.". so HostJury encourages you to take advantage of  discounts if available.  You will find coupons on the respective host review pages!

Click here get HostPapa Green Energy Web Hosting for $3.95 per Month

HostJury is compiling discount web hosting coupons and special offerings by various hosts. As always we recommend that while price may be a consideration when choosing a web host for your "baby", it should only be one of the many factors considered in your research. Page load speeds, additional features, good communication, and a fast knowledgeable support team will always top saving a few cents per day.

"Frugality without creativity is deprivation.".. so HostJury encourages you to take advantage of  discounts if available.  You will find coupons on the respective host review pages!

- Click here to use coupon and get Unlimited Web Hosting Only $6.95 per Month from MidPhase

HostJury is compiling discount web hosting coupons and special offerings by various hosts. As always we recommend that while price may be a consideration when choosing a web host for your "baby", it should only be one of the many factors considered in your research. Page load speeds, additional features, good communication, and a fast knowledgeable support team will always top saving a few cents per day.

"Being frugal does not mean being cheap! It means being economical and avoiding waste.. so HostJury encourages you to take advantage of discounts if available.  You will find coupons on the respective host review pages!

Click here to use coupon and get 25% Off Premium Web Hosting with WestHost

HostJury is compiling discount web hosting coupons and special offerings by various hosts. As always we recommend that while price may be a consideration when choosing a web host for your "baby", it should only be one of the many factors considered in your research. Page load speeds, additional features, good communication, and a fast knowledgeable support team will always top saving a few cents per day.

"Being frugal does not mean being cheap! It means being economical and avoiding waste.. so HostJury encourages you to take advantage of  discounts if available.  You will find coupons on the respective host review pages!

Click here to use coupon and get 3 months free web hosting & 25% off with AN Hosting

In these tough and evolving economic times, the number of people making money online continues to increase, and with governments innate ability to be a killjoy, the 1099-K has now been introduced . For the most part, the 1099-K was meant to ensure that income made from power sellers on sites like eBay is properly reported. The 1099-K is issued by third party payment processors, including banks and non-bank services like PayPal.

If you work online and your transactions are processed through PayPal, this will be reflected on the 1099-K issued by PayPal. If you sell through Amazon, and Amazon processes the transactions, you will be issued a 1099-K from Amazon.

Banks that also process transactions through a merchant account or some other way will also issue you a 1099-K, stating your income from such transactions. In order to be issued a 1099-K though, you will have to have participated in at least 200 transactions amounting to at least $20,000 over the course of the year.

The IRS saw some under-reporting regarding certain transactions where a 1099-MISC might not be issued because the situation may not have been considered a contract situation.

Issues with 1099-K Reporting

While changing, many individuals receive their payments via PayPal, (or some similar method). So people can fully expect to receive a 1099-K from PayPal, the bank, and of course many clients will also issue a 1099-MISC. The problem with this is that a lot of income is going to be double reported to the IRS, making it look like you are a Steve Jobs reincarnate!

As the IRS gets a copy of all these duplicated 1099's, you will need to protect yourself in the event of an audit by cross-referencing and providing the details to your accountant. Did I mention that this will provide a steady revenue stream for accountants and bookkeepers? Consolation is that these expenses can be deducted against your income. (Audits have increased dramatically under the Obama administration)

Even if you don't receive a 1099-K, you'll still have to report your income! Maybe the IRS never got the memo that it was Warren Buffet and Bill Gates demanding that the wealthy pay more taxes on their income!

HostJury is compiling discount web hosting coupons and special offerings by various hosts. As always we recommend that while price may be a consideration when choosing a web host for your "baby", it should only be one of the many factors considered in your research. Page load speeds, additional features, good communication, and a fast knowledgeable support team will always top saving a few cents per day.

"Being frugal does not mean being cheap! It means being economical and avoiding waste.. so HostJury encourages you to take advantage of  discounts if available.  You will find coupons on the respective host review pages!

Coupon Expired.

Earlier today I passed by a site that was offering a “start a blog competition”, where the first person to reach the $3000 income goal would win a fifty dollar gift card. There was no runner up prizes as the promoters felt achieving the $3K threshold was a pretty good consolation prize in off itself.

While the lure of easy money in tough economic times may be appealing, new bloggers and website owners in general, may want to consider Google new search algorithm formula is taking punitive actions against websites that flood the top of their web pages with adverts.

According to Google, sites layouts where the visitors have to scroll down to finally view the relevant contents on the page annoys the users. Google will be penalizing those websites through search results and pagerank.

Google does state that if you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the changes as the site is re-crawled by the search engine bots. How long that takes will depend on several factors, including the number of pages on your site and how efficiently Googlebot can crawl the content. On a typical website, it can take several weeks to crawl and process enough pages to reflect layout changes on the site.

The best advice for publishers is to continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience which starts with a good web hosting company and a fast loading website. This change is just one of the over 500 "improvements" Google expect to roll out to their search algorithm this year.

As is often the case in these type scenarios, the real winner of the “start a blog competition” would be the increased traffic to the site offering the prize!

Web hosting service provider and domain name registrar DreamHost suffered a database breach on Friday and reset all 300,000 customers' FTP and shell access passwords. DreamHost sent an email stating, "Our security systems detected the potential breach this morning and we immediately took the defensive precaution of expiring and resetting all FTP/shell access passwords for all DreamHost customers and their users." All customers are advised to change their FTP/shell access passwords immediately, and although "web panel passwords, email passwords and billing information for DreamHost customers were not affected or accessed," the company "strongly" recommended changing your email password as a "precaution."

DreamHost detected the "potential" intrusion, blocked the acess, then notified their clients.  

According to the DreamHost blog, "One of DreamHost's database servers was illegally accessed using an exploit that was not previously known or prevented by our layered security systems in place. Our intrusion detection systems alerted our Security team to the potential hack, and we rapidly identified the means of illegal access and blocked it."

Neither DreamHost or their clients suffered any harm to their data or reputation. Certain other tech companies could learn a thing or two from this non story!

Seven individuals and two corporations have been charged in the United States with running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites, generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI announced today.

• Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;
• Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;
• Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;
• Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;
• Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;
• Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.

Netcraft's anti-phishing toolbar community identified a phishing attack against PayPal in December. FasterPay – which describes itself as the UK's only safe, all-in-one Internet Banking payment service – was apparently hacked, and a subdirectory on the company's own website at www.fasterpay.co.uk was used to host a PayPal phishing site.

The site sported the the Extended Validation SSL certificate used by the FasterPay website reducing the likelihood of arousing suspicion by visitors. While it may be a reminder that users may want to do more than merely look for the presence of an EV certificate when deciding whether or not it is safe to submit personal or financial data to a website, it is unclear what that would consist of.

As the SSL have the financial backing of the issuer, it will be interesting to see the fallout in the coming days.

The adage “the only bad news is no news” maybe news to the new pension fund owners of GoDaddy  but historically controversy has often fueled the vehicle that has driven the most growth to the domain registrar and web hosting company. The crowd-sourced backlash against GoDaddy kicked off after the company appeared on an official list of companies supporting SOPA.

The idea of a domain registrar supporting DNS blocking legislation to serve the interests of overzealous copyright owners and media companies prompted Internet users to stage a widespread boycott, declaring December 29 "move your domain day." Then again, the idea of a domain registrar and web hosting company owner Bob Parsons standing next to an elephant he just shot may not be ideal for most businesses either but after the story went viral, Parsons registered the domain bobparsonskillselephants.com which still redirects to bobparsons.me!

Interestingly enough, GoDaddy initially dismissed the move as having little impact on their business, then later was said to be “scrambling” to let everyone know it no longer supports SOPA legislation. Fittingly, CEO for a week Warren Adelman, (took over from mentor Bob Parsons as GoDaddy CEO just over a week ago), has been making the rounds claiming that like the Grinch with a heart that grew:

“We were seeing and hearing customers and tech leaders — many of which are our customers — talking and writing about this so we did something that was easy to do: made changes to address their needs”

Many in the blogsphere claim that GoDaddy reps are cold calling “fleeing” domain holders with enticements to stay, while others have stated that there have been delays in transfer of domains. Verified GoDaddy employees have been defending or minimizing GoDaddy's involvement in SOPA on sites like Reddit.... Then there is Twitter. GoDaddy should be trending as it is being mentioned so often! One tweet says it all...

The domain was Registered at GoDaddy.com

The Numbers DailyChanges.com

- Over 15,000 domain names were transferred from Godaddy.com on Thursday and over 21,000 were transferred away from Godaddy on Friday.
-  Note that on Thursday more domains were transferred into Godaddy.com (17,000) than left the registrar.
- On Friday Godaddy.com lost 21,054 domain through transfers out to other registrars, yet they received 20,034 transfers into Godaddy.com from other registrars.
- Last week prior to the call for the boycott on Thursday, Godaddy stats for transfers out:
Monday (8,800), Tuesday (13,000) and Wednesday (14,500).
- December 27th...
New Domains Registered: 18,401
Transferred in: 14,853
Transferred out: 8,862

It’s unlikely the Internet will ever be controversy-free. And would we really want it to be? Many Internet users enjoy (at least in part) the controversy that is so prevalent on the web. We all have a chance to be heard, whether it’s in matters of global importance, the latest celebrity gossip about Justin Bieber, or GoDaddy's next ploy!

SOPA

The proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to block access to sites accused of infringing copyright, and stop payment processors and online advertising networks from doing business with them -- all without due process.

A new report details that the US federal government operates 11, 013 Web sites, own at least 1,489 .gov domains of which 804 of them are functional. Another 400 .gov domains redirect to other government Web sites, 265 don’t work and 20 are under development. Agencies report using a total of 150 different systems for creating and publishing web content and 250 Web hosting providers with an average of 10 web hosting providers per agency. (sketchy.. see below. 35% of domains are hosted externally )

The data, published in a report issued late last week by the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget, was compiled between August and October. The report cautions that the number of domains and websites fluctuates as agencies eliminate, consolidate or create them.

The report estimated that agencies operate about 11,013 Web sites, but notes that a definitive tally is difficult to obtain as many sites function as subdomains of a top level domain. Nasa.gov for example, contains the agency’s main site and numerous others for individual projects, missions and agency offices.

Regarding domain names, agencies reported that they plan to continue operating about 70 percent of the government’s .gov domains; 26 percent of the domains are expected to be eliminated in the coming months. while 4 percent will be redirected to other sites.

The number of domains owned by federal agencies varied from 160 at the Treasury Department to just two for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Five agencies own more than 100: Treasury, the departments of Health and Human Services and Commerce, the General Services Administration and the Interior Department. Of those, HHS, Interior and Commerce operate the most active domains, while Treasury owns 67 inactive domains, the report said.

And who visits federal Web sites most often? Well that would be federal employees. Among primary users of the 804 active domains, the report said 63 percent are federal workers, followed by researchers and the press.

KEY TAKEAWAY 

Content Management Systems (CMS)

- Almost all have a CMS, but use many different systems: All but one agency reported using a CMS; many different systems are used across the 24 major agencies. Agencies referred to 150 separate implementations of 42 different systems.

- Custom-built systems: Twelve agencies reported some sort of custom-built or in- house CMS.

- Exact number of CMS is unknown: Some agencies commented that the true number of CMS in use across the agency is unknown.

Web Hosting Providers

- Multiple web hosting providers in each agency: Most agencies reported using multiple hosting providers, with an average of 12 providers per agency.

- In-house hosting: Thirteen out of 24 major agencies (or 54%) reported that at least some websites are hosted internally.

- Growth anticipated due to cloud computing: Two of the major agencies (or 8%) expect additional growth in external web hosting providers due to the rise of cloud computing.

- Exact number of web hosting providers is unknown: Six out of 24 agencies (or 25%) stated that the true number of web hosting providers in use across the agency is unknown.

Another key takeaways on performance states:

Most agencies rated the performance of their websites as 'excellent' or 'good': On nearly every question related to key performance indicators, approximately 80% of websites were rated by agencies as excellent/good. The highest rated item was "meets Federal web requirements." For this item, 87% of websites were rated as excellent/good.

Second opinions

HostJury decided to get a second opinion. Figuring that if Nasa can put a man on the moon, how hard could it be to put a site on the web! It isn't rocket science.

Nasa.gov has a google pagerank of 9 and an alexa ranking in the mid 700 range. Historically there has not been a lot of competition for the keyword search terms.

Using GTmetrix, we evaluated the Nasa.gov website... the screenshot says it all:

On the speed side though, just ping, an online tool that pings a domain from 50 locations worldwide returned some pretty good results for nasa.gov. Nasa obviously has less difficulty flying around the world!

When some clients of GoDaddy relealized their sites were down, the emails from support were not exactly soothing... or what they wanted to hear. Alternative web hosts offering coldfusion support have been listed below.

Thank you for contacting Hosting Support. In regards to your hosting account for xyz.com:(redacted)

You account was suspended while we migrate your account off the discontinued Cold Fusion server. The suspension was necessary to protect your content. After the discontinuation of our Cold Fusion support, content of the .cfm files can be displayed on the internet as plain text which may reveal site usernames and passwords. We will promptly reinstate the hosting account once the migration is complete. Once access has been restore we highly recommend you remove all .cfm files to ensure your content remains secure.

You can find more information about the discontinuation of Cold Fusion support here:

community.godaddy.com/godaddy/go-daddy-to-discontinue-coldfusion-support/

Please contact us if you have any further issues.

The link directs clients to a page which states:

We emailed our customers on September 1, 2011 to let them know will discontinue ColdFusion support on November 29, 2011.
Please understand we decided to drop ColdFusion support only after seriously considering the impact on our customers. We recognize this change might disrupt some of your plans and could even put you in a situation where you have to find other solutions. To you and all our affected customers, we sincerely apologize. We hope the advanced notice gives you the time you need to make any necessary changes.
For those curious about our decision: It will let us make improvements in other areas. The truth is that only a small percentage of our customers use ColdFusion. We regret inconveniencing even a single customer but, in this case, we feel we can more efficiently and positively improve our customers' experiences by assigning our resources elsewhere.

GoDaddy does offer offer dedicated and virtual dedicated servers that support Cold Fusion but licensing is an expensive proposition.

Some ColdFusion clients of GoDaddy are expressing feelings of betrayal, suggesting not enough time was given to modify and code their websites for a transition to PHP databases, while others claim that they only became aware of the change when their sites went down.

Alternative Web hosts offering coldfusion

Add companies HostJury misses as a comment. HostJury makes no recommendation of the providers listed. We invite users of these services to review their experinces.

IX Web Hosting ColdFusion is available with windows shared plans at extra cost of $5/month. Couple of plans available. 10 gig and 5 gig. $15.95 per month with the cold fusion. This appears to be the best offer we found.

CFDynamics   1 gig diskspace and 20 gigs of transfer. $49.95 per month. ( couple  of smaller plans available but lame package constraints)

Hostek Various plans available. Some with limits, other with none (all hosting has limits!)

HostMYSite Appear to offer good package limits. Awaiting clarification on detail

Media3 is offering 3 months free.  1 gig and unmetered transfer (Unlimited... Okay, we've all heard that term before)

Another action in a string of “fake news” cases has the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charging a Web site operator with duping consumers with fictional articles.   As someone actively monitoring various news sources, the tagline grabbed my attention.  I have commented in the past that if I ever have a spare day I intend to further research web hosting companies that appear to generate an endless stream of news, press releases, and awards.

This particular press release concerned a Boris Mizhen out of Guilford, Conn., who allegedly operated a website hawking weight-loss supplement. Mizhen's affiliate marketers, would create fake news sites and then post articles that appeared to be objective reports. The FTC filed a complaint last month in federal district court in Connecticut alleging the scam.

In addition to duping people with fake news sites, Mizhen and his companies allegedly trick consumers by offering free trials to anyone willing to pay $5 mailing costs, instead then sending regular shipments at a cost of around $80 a month.

“Defendants made it very difficult for consumers to cancel these  "negative-option" continuity plans to avoid recurring charges or redeem promised money-back guarantees. Consumers apparently had great difficulty reaching a live person when they tried to cancel or request a refund,” the FTC says in its complaint.

Fake News

Fake news, as a tool of unscrupulous marketers dates back to classical times. It could invokes notions of traveling medicine shows, and 'doctors' peddling miracle snake oil cures! The use of a 'plant' in the audience, who was then pulled on stage to 'prove' that the mystery elixir cured all ailments, was common. In more modern times, late night infomercials used similar tactics to milk chronic suffers of insomnia with tales of fortune, gain, slim bodies and long life.

As the web began to siphon market share, a growing number of traditional “mainstream” media outlet resorted to slipping corporate-sponsored "video news releases" or VNRs — promotional segments designed to look like objective news reports — into their regular news programming. (This deception is illegal under FCC rules).

The wild west of the world wide web promised to be a Madison avenue's marketer wet dream, and the reality of the fantasy was not overstated. Mega millionaire were created everywhere! As the web evolved, the low entry bar and costs, created an unforeseen issue. The issue of being seen!

Within the traditional concepts of sales leads, direct marketing pitches, and promotional philosophy, new buzz words began to emerge as marketers reorientated themselves in the highly competitive, and crowded digital market place. Words like Behavioral or targeted marketing, Reputation Management, Online Visibility, Black and White Hat SEO, as well as keywords, and meta tags among others, became commonplace.

The issue of being seen!

The webhosting and tech industry faces many of the same obstacles faced by a billion other  web sites. Increasing and/or retaining market share requires a combination of online visibility, and reputation management. A reputable service and timely support also help, but as HJ reviews attest, some web hosts see these attributes as optional.

In a quest for SEO (search engine optimization is for another post … or two), some web hosts make almost daily announcements of additional new features, services, a website redesign, or going green!

Then there are the 'new appointment of so and so' with a job title that means little else. One is forced to wonder whether these hosting company are management top heavy, or the work environment is so toxic that they've installed revolving doors so the door doesn't hit them in the butt when they leave!

But is it Fake News

Some companies have won so many awards that they have more blingage than a hip hop rapper. Is it really meaningful to be one of the top 25 hosts in November from a site with a page rank of zero, that you can nominate your own company on?

Or a press release from a fake review site announcing the #1 Best Host for December:

The team at Redacted review site  has used the web hosting service of many of the companies they review; they take that experience and combine it with the reviews that others leave about the web hosting companies, and choose a Host of the Month.

There are a number of things to look for in the search for the best web hosting providers. When reading Redacted xyz company reviews some of the things the reviews talk about are the overall feature set, the uptime, and the customer service. Most of the best web hosting providers offer all the same basic web hosting features.

A webmaster that knows exactly what he/she will need for each site will want to verify that the host he/she chooses has the specific features that are needed; but for those that are new to web hosting, a plan like the one offered by Redacted xyz company will be more than adequate.

This same xyz company mentioned has uptime and support both rated at 8 out of a possible 100 score on HostJury.  Maybe HostJury just gets the disgruntled reviewers...

The FTC revised Guideline reflect three basic truth-in-advertising principles:
- Endorsements must be truthful and not misleading;
- If the advertiser doesn’t have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product, the ad must clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results in the depicted circumstances; and
- If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

The guidelines go onto state that there is no fine for not complying with an FTC guide, and that the FTC is not actively monitoring blogs, nor do they have any plans to do so.

Is Fake News Always Fake?

One media outlet reported on the rash of complaints against a website operation, and later was shocked  to find out its own news cast was being used to promote the very site it was investigating. When the reporter went to the website homepage, she found a link to a video montage of heavily edited news reports including a clip from their report. "Left out of the butchered version was information about the difficulty of winning a hot item."

And what about the Mizhen. Well his activities may have been curtailed but...

The site is hosted at the Planet.
TraceRoute to 174.122.233.115 [leanspa.com]
73.e9.7aae.static.theplanet.com

SingleHop Co-founder and CEO, Zak Boca has been chosen as an Emerging Entrepreneur by the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. The selection committee chose Boca based on the criteria of product and service innovation, overall contribution to the industry, as well as financial success and potential. Awesome, Inc., hopes to award Kentucky’s most successful entrepreneurs and encourage others to pursue similar ambitious endeavors.

Zak Boca, born and raised in Bowling Green, KY, moved to Chicago after attending Western Kentucky University to start MidPhase, a shared Web hosting company with SingleHop Co-founder, Dan Ushman.

“MidPhase was the second company I started, so I had some experience, but as every entrepreneur knows, each new business venture has a unique set of challenges.” Boca says.

Boca and Ushman sold midPhase in 2005, which at that point had grown to over 160,000 customers and $16 million in revenue.

After MidPhase was acquired by UK2, the two entrepreneurs started SingleHop, a dedicated and cloud Web hosting provider in October of 2006. In just five years SingleHop has become Chicago’s fastest-growing company, and the 2nd fastest-growing IT company in America with over 7,900% growth over the past three years. The company’s revenue for 2011 is an expected $24 million while its number of employees has increased by nearly 75%. “I’m extremely grateful for my success and thrilled to see the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in my home state of Kentucky,” said Boca.

Boca was among the following Emerging Entrepreneurs this year:

- Wayne Yeager, Webalytics

- Vidya Ravichandran, GlowTouch

- Heather Howell,

- Rooibee Red Tea

- Rob May, Backupify

About SingleHop, Inc.

HJ used Singlhop as one of the sample companies in our post about the BBB. They pull off an A if your interested, and have been BBB Accredited Business since 04/01/2008

SingleHop is a dedicated and cloud hosting provider that offers highly scalable, on-demand infrastructure services to both end-users and resellers primarily under monthly contracts. With clients in 114 countries, two Chicago-area data centers, and over 10,000 servers online, SingleHop delivers state-of-the-art hardware, server management customization and Infrastructure-as-a-Service. While combining security and convenience to provide solutions for a wide range of enterprises, SingleHop remains an industry leader in providing customers with automatic provisioning, remote management and accessibility using a variety of personal devices.

SingleHop was established in 2006 and makes its home in Chicago, IL. In 2011, the company was named #25 on the Inc. 500 list for the fastest-growing companies in America, a significant leap from #58 the previous year.

The Zio Inc story can teach numerous lessons on properly researching a prospective web host prior to committing yourself and your data. Questions regarding off site backups, financial stability, and the ability to easily generate and download a backup or copy of your data are as important as package limits, data transfer specs, and security measures that the web host utilizes.

On December 1st the owner of Zio Inc awoke to what he describes as a ridiculously long, almost 104 (editor's note... almost 104?), voice mails from clients informing him that the servers were off line. Zio's owner claims that the night before he had notified the dedicated server company he was leasing servers from, that a payment on services would be made by 6PM EST the next business day.

Apparently the company took the servers off line including those which Zio attests where current. Zio further states that the company required full payment for all the servers that were with them before the ones that I had been making timely payments on for THE LAST 2 YEARS could be reactivated.

It appears that the owner of Zio Inc made some inquiries on December 1 where it is alleged that statements including death threats were made to staff of the dedicated server company.

HostJury has chosen to refrain from identifying the dedicated server company hosting the servers as it appears their actions have been professional, and in keeping with industry protocol. It also appears this company allowed the servers to remain on-line for over 3 months. (past due dates on some invoices in August)

As always seems the case when a web host abruptly goes off line, a number of clients are finding themselves marooned with no website, data, or backups that can be restored on another web host. Web hosting companies can transfer data and websites from another host, but the server needs to be on-line to accomplish this.

HostJury approached the dedicated server company involved, inquiring whether it was possible to bring the servers on-line for 24 hours so that clients of Zio without backups, would have an opportunity to retrieve their data. HostJury offered to pay the cost associated with bringing the servers on-line for 24 hours.

Dedicated Server Company Response:

At this time no data will be released from any servers allocated to Zio Inc due to an ongoing legal investigation. If any clients of Zio Inc are frustrated with this decision, they can of course contact legal representation and direct that frustration via action against Zio Inc regarding their data.

We cannot and will not accept any payment for these services from anyone other then our direct client as per our privacy policies. Our direct client has been given numerous avenues for resolving his situation and is the only one who can resolve this situation affectively.

For clients of Zio Inc, it may be encouraging news that their data still exists, and likely will until at least the legal investigation is complete. Equally disheartening may be the knowledge that releasing that data may hinge on Zio Inc.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart.has launched new guidelines on online behavioral advertising which aim to set out restrictions on the tracking of children and tracking technologies that people can’t turn off.  Behavioral advertising involves tracking consumers’ online activities over time, in order to deliver advertisements that are targeted to their inferred interests.

“The use of online behavioral advertising has exploded and we’re concerned that Canadians’ privacy rights aren’t always being respected. Advertisers who use targeted online ads need to be upfront with Canadians about what they’re doing and must make it easy for people to say No to being tracked”, says Commissioner Stoddart.

The new guidance document says information about behavioral advertising should be clear, obvious and understandable.  Accepting participation in online behavioral advertising should not be considered a condition for people to use the Internet generally.  People must be able to easily opt out of this practice.

The guidelines, similar to those implemented in many western countries state including:

- If an individual can’t say no to the technology being used for tracking or targeting, then the industry shouldn’t use that technology for behavioral advertising purposes... that means no use of web bugs or web beacons, no super cookies, no pixel hacks, no device fingerprinting and no to any new covert tracking technique of which the user is unaware and has no reasonable way to decline.”

- that organizations should avoid knowingly tracking children and tracking on websites aimed at children. Children are not likely able to provide the meaningful consent required under our privacy law for the tracking of their online activities.

- advertisers should avoid collecting other sensitive information, such as individuals’ health information.

You need to turn off the tracking in your browser settings or preferences!

While the guidelines may be a necessary formality, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla have already responded to calls from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and consumer watchdogs for a "do not track" option that allows Web surfers to protect their private information from being exploited by advertising networks. The major Web browser makers have decided it’s in their best interest to offer such options, even if it comes at the expense of some revenue generated by ads that use online behavior data to target consumers.

Bigger Threat... We need a plug-in for these guys!

Jennifer Stoddart, recently voiced her “deep concerns” about new surveillance powers proposed by the Canadian Government, and noted that it has so far failed to demonstrate why this is the best course of action. “Despite repeated calls, no systematic case has yet been made to justify the extent of the new investigative capabilities that would have been created by the bill,” she stated.

The changes eyed by the Government, spread out over three bills in the last Parliament, would also have given police greater power to obtain data gathered by Internet service providers. “These bills went far beyond simply maintaining investigative capacity or modernizing search powers,” says Ms. Stoddart.

“Rather, they added significant new capabilities for investigators to track, and search and seize digital information about individuals.”

One piece of legislation that will likely be revived, the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act, would have required Internet service providers to install surveillance technology on their networks.

It also would have forced mandatory disclosure of customer information on demand and without court oversight. This would obliged all ISPs to surrender customer details to the police including names, addresses, email address as well as the unique identifier number that every computer connection to the Internet is assigned.

“These bills went far beyond simply maintaining investigative capacity or modernizing search powers,” Ms. Stoddart said. “Rather, they added significant new capabilities for investigators to track, and search and seize digital information about individuals. “

Ms. Stoddart said Ottawa should consider alternatives to the changes they are planning.

After being throughly trashed by crowd sourcing techies here and everywhere for freezing the paypal account of Regretsy.com, PayPal has issued a statement acknowledging the error of their ways. Calling it a "resolution", Anuj Nayar, Director of Communications, PayPal writes:

Last night we became aware of an issue with one of our account holders, Regretsy.com. Though we can't comment specifically on the account due to our privacy policy, we can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. Just like anyone else, we believe strongly in helping those in need, especially around the holiday season. We are making a donation to Regretsy to help their cause, and we're truly sorry this occurred.

For background, we have clear guidelines for any business that uses PayPal to accept donations. For example, we require certain documentation to prevent misuse of the donated funds and, if the recipient claims charitable status, to determine whether they are properly registered. We do this to protect our customers and to protect our business. As a regulated payment service, we're also required by law to follow these guidelines.

We appreciate that this can be an inconvenience, but we have a responsibility to all our customers - both donors and recipients; and buyers and sellers. In this instance, we recognized our error and moved as swiftly as possible to fix it.

First up Paypal... The only reason Regretsy still has an account is the ridiculous list of conditions attached to closing the account... besides it was frozen.

Secondly... Regretsy doesn't need your money. They raised enough of their own

Thirdly... Resolutions are made at New Years. Need a suggestion? How about this year I resolve not to be such a douche bag

Fourth... No, actually, you don’t have clear guidelines regarding businesses accepting donations to perform charitable acts. “Subject to review” is pretty much the same as “depends on which way the wind’s blowing”

Next.... What an marketing opportunity for another online payment company... Are you listening Google Wallet

Meanwhile, over  at  web host Hostropolis , Regretsy.com server continues to contend with the little extra load.

A server over  at  web host Hostropolis may be contending with a little extra load today after the latest stunt by “when is this company going to die” Paypal began to be crowd sourced.

The slightly irreverent but charitable community at Regretsy.com decided to share some cheer by trying to buy Christmas presents for kids. Almost like Santa and his elves, they took lots of applications, vetted them carefully and set about creating a giant gift exchange program, where you could buy a gift for the over 200 children that may have been naughty or nice, but were in need of being helped regardless!

After the fund raising they found themselves in the enviable position of not just being able to send toys, but to send a monetary gift to the families as well. A little extra Christmas cheer that  may have helped make a holiday dinners more special, or maybe just pay a pressing bill.

PAYPAL SHUT IT DOWN

“Donate” buttons have been used by numerous small community organizations, startups, and web developers for years yet Paypal is now claiming they are only for nonprofit organizations to use. Paypal has now frozen the account!

Regretsy 's Helen Killer says:

After a very long and jaw-dropping conversation with an incredibly condescending representative, they have decided that I must refund all the donations and purchases that have not been processed.

Regretsy highlights of the conversation

PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
ME: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
ME: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.

ME: The problem is I’ve already bought all of these toys, so now I’m really in a position like any other merchant – which is to say, I have inventory I need to sell. Why can’t I sell them as gifts, like any other retailer?
PAYPAL: Don’t you think it would look suspicious if the same people bought them again?
ME: Why? These are my customers!
PAYPAL: If you wanted to do that, you’d have to start a new website.
ME: What? Why would I start a new website?
PAYPAL: I’m not going to argue with you.

PAYPAL: You say you’re selling these as gifts but there is no information as to what the gift is.
ME: People sell mystery gifts and grab bags all the time. What about sites where they say, let us choose for you?”
PAYPAL: It doesn’t say that on your site.
ME: Is that the problem? If I say it’s a mystery gift would that be sufficient?
PAYPAL: You aren’t going to be able to get around this. It’s too late, we know what you’re trying to do and we’re not going to let you do it.
ME: But there are hundreds of toys! Do you think it’s reasonable to create a drop down menu for hundreds of gifts, all of them different, and create an inventory for each as “one?” So that every time one sells, it’s sold out, and the customer has to keep choosing options and going through check out to see if they can find a gift that’s still available?
PAYPAL: Yes, I think it’s reasonable.

At this point, Helen asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that “No one above me will talk to you. No one at my level ever makes phone calls. We’re only doing this to help you.” … Well how could you argue with that logic. PayPal is being nice!

When she asked how to close my account, he said she had to “refund everything, write a letter saying you understood what you did WAS WRONG AND YOU WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN, and then request permission to close your account.”

Then, for good measure, they froze her personal account, which has revenue from book sales, e-books and all the other Finnish Folktales Swag. They’ll be holding that money for 6 months.

Recap

$ They allowed me to use a donate button, and got a portion of the donations
$ Then made me return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations
$ They allowed me to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales
$ Then made me return the sales, and kept a portion of the fees on the sales
$ They processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that

Wanna tell Paypal how you feel? Here’s a list of every administrative Paypal email address and phone number The Consumerist was able to find.

Isn't PayPal owned by eBay?

Also check out a prior post... Risk losing Revenue if you don't offer Paypal alternatives

Julie Whitaker Web & Social Media Strategist, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières writes:

Here at Doctors Without Borders, we are blown away by the efforts of this community to support our work. We created this reddit account just to thank you for this effort.

Doctors Without Borders exists for one purpose - to provide first-rate medical care to people who need it, with no regard for race, religion or political affiliation. We have no agenda, and the fact that we receive 93% our funds from millions of individual donors around the world is very often the only thing that allows us access to people trapped in conflict areas where other organizations are unable to work.
So, congratulations on such a successful fundraiser, and thank you for generous support!

Thank you to the 85 anonymous donors and to these 906 people who donated in the last 24 hours:

0ctobyte, 1800biteme, 1freelectron, 20, 2716057, 2fat2dance, 2oublethink, 3migo, 84_sheepdog, 8AMclass, A nony, AJL, AKDuckie, ALM1017, AU_SnackyGoo, Aaron B., Aaron Law, ActuallyThatGuy, AdHawk, Adam Anderson, Adam G, Adam Tomkins, Addequate, Adnan Selimovic, Agata, Alessandro Bassi, Alex Wolff, Ambulant, Amir, An Evangelical Christian, Andi Li, Andrew, Andrew Huang, AndyyRi, AngelOfLight, Ann Palowitch, Anon, Anony Mouse, Ansis Rezgalis, Antilogic, ApatheticElephant, Apollos_Anus, Archonium, AreYouMyMummy, Arsenic42, Ash, Astronuts, Asuka, AtheistInAFoxhole, AviusQuovis, B3arjew, BACON, BCSteve, BGilb, Babyeatingatheist, BadViper, Bandit1379, BarcodeNinja, Beans&Pinot, BecomingX, BeliefSuspended2008, Ben Randolph, BenLew, Benjamin CUrrier, BigLuckyDavy, BlaikeMethazine, Blinkinlincoln, Bob Chen, Bob_Ross, Bobicuss, Bojac Prime, Boles83, Bolnazzar, Brandon Overall, Brecourt, Brendan Sugrue, Brett-eCo, BrightWinter, Bristolshambler, Brock-o-lee, BrownianGala, Brychan Manry, Burlok, Business Markie, Buzkie, CGoller, CJT39, CWGM, Cadza, Cadza & Mende, CallieMarie, CandyCornVampire, CapnKronos, CapnM, CauchyDistributedRV, Cause_I_Got_High, Ccoralli, Cecil900, Chanther, Chaous, Charles Kressbach, Cheeser McFace, ChemicalOle, Chris Glynn, Chris Martin, Chrisbux, Christian Bundy, Claclink, Clever_Name_Here, CoffeeNtrees, Corey Hatch, Corinne, Creator11, Cricketwhacker, CrimsonKevlar, Cunundrum, Currently_me, Curtis Smith, DHumeFan, Dakota A. House, Dan, Dane De Forest, DangerSnack, Daniel, Daniel C, Darren, Dasan, Datrio, David, David Hooper, Dejan, Denster, Derek Richards, Derkistan, Destitude, Deuski, DexterJameson, Dhekke, DillonJMcGuire, Din, Dingo Dave, DiscountPhil, DisturbedPsycho, DoTheDew, Doggie, DolphinBoy, Dravleboy, Dreamnotgentle, Drew Bulman, Drodain, DukeThomson, Dumbledore, E-Pro, ERAlderidge, EatTheBar, Ejyler, Eldoop, Elipsys, Eothred, Erebose, Ezy, Fairycross, FajitaofTreason, Felipe Goetz, Fiech, Fl3et, FleetingThought, Fredrik, Fullerer, Fuzzywobs, G-M, GOBLE, Gabrielseifer, GalaxyRise, Galdor04, Gdcalif, Geedunk, Geobrew, George, George Engelbrecht, GetStapled, Glader, Gnorris, GodDid911, Goodolbeej, GoonerGirl, Gorman Freedon, Gottlos, GraharG, Grumpy Mr. Gruff, HarbingTarbl, Harry RIckards, Harryman11, Helios6, Here4TheCatPics, Hereletmegooglethat, HereticAlpha, Hibno, HisCrispness, Hobbes, Htech, I'm new to reddit, IHasIcing, I_Am_The_falconer, I_am_Mexico, Iananan, Ijoy_, ImNotAWhaleBiologist, ImpetuousRitual, InMyHead2Much, Inashadow, Ipigack, Isenki, Ishcakes, Ishouldgetanaccount, Isis, Itoucheditforacookie, Ivan Occam, JGHagood, JTFM, JTK, JakOswald, Jake Waldie, James, James Gray, Jan, Jason, Jawood Ashur Muhammad, Jayda5th, Jeff M, Jekalope, Jenez, JennaSighed, Jerik, Jessica Mason, Jimmyhoffa45, John Small Berries, Jokiesamoster, Jon, Jordan Calo, Josiah Johnson, Jsmrcina, Just some guy, Kahvikone, Kam, Karl Buckland, Kattpiss, Keith, Kelwyn, Kenny Moore, Kevin519, Kid_Burrito, Killtron82, Kim Berg, Kjetil Albrechtsen, Konrad Curze, Ksr7, Kvankess, Kyle, Leo Sprinzen, Leon Fedotov, LeonProfessional, Lester Mathias Andersson, LiarParadox, Lisa Aronovsky, Little_Joe, LivingDying3-4Time, Lokikong, LolaVi, London AHS Daniel L., Lovegood, Lowbacca1977, Lowfuel, Lynx7, M. Paepcke, M_Bot, Makken104, Malfunctional89, Mark Biesheuvel, MarshaRose Joyner, MathiasKrogh, MatterStorm, Matthew Sullivan, Maxime Petazzoni, Maytopo, Medice, MegaHz, Metasheep, Michael, Michael Arkwright, Michael Gale, Michael McDowall, Mihai, MikeDobbins, Mister_sulu, Mizoballa, MooseRidingRoosevelt, Mr. King, Mr. Tinney, MrArtless, MrAttractive, MrBlueShirt, MrGarbonzo, Mr_Hamburglar, Mr_Oppenheimer, Mr_Tulip, Mufflin, Mulligans_Steakhouse, MyFistUpYourBalls, My_First_Pony, Nate, Nathan, Nathan Brazil - Zambuka42, NerdxBomber, Nick, Nicoledm, Nieht, Nik, NinthEidolon, Notch, Noxous, Nsot, NukeThePope, NullXorVoid, OJ Simpson, OasisDK, Ocell, Ochita, Ole Marius Skodje, One Of Many, OsipKoba, Osiris02, Ovreel, P McBryde, PBAsydney, POQbum, Palodin, ParallelParadox, Parmenion, Paul H, Peachfuzz17, Peatore, Pele411, Philip Rodger, Pialpha, PoorCollegeStudent, ProjectileHerpes, Pwnasaur, RL, Rabin Joshi, Random Redditor, RandomNed, RangleGoose, Ratchard, Rayne, Redslate, Remulasce, Renewable13, Rich, Rigurun, Riven89, Rob64, Robert, Robert Neumann, Ronin44X, Rory Devonport, Rosie2jz, Roxie, RunJun, Ryan, Ryan Brenner, SSgt Lee, Sam Shore, Samit Sarkar, Sammer, Scott, Scott_B, Seanothan, Sexcellence, Shearur, Shemko, ShortNeckGiraffe, Siddharth Rajan, Simpletonlol, Sir-Captain, Sirhyl, Slowlyturningzombie, Soapy9, SociologyGuy, SodaAnt, SofaKingSomething, SolInvictus, SolarUppercut, Sourkeys, Speak_of_the_Devil, SpencerAdam, Spoungebob, Sputnik Sweetheart, Steffi, Sten Golds, StormTAG, Stuart Creedican, Stuart Grieve, Sumurika, SunAvatar, SupaGreg1, Superism, SweetPickles, SystemOutPrintln, TBTmn, Tai1983, Takamata, Taldan, Tangelasboots, TaoDao, Taptalotapus, TehHat, Teng, The Coatses, The Monks, The-Tots, TheGoshDarnedBatman, TheKibster, TheManintheSuit, TheMikeGuy, ThePoorAthiest, TheProAmateur, TheScriptKiddie, TheShrubber, TheThundering, The_phonetic_faelyia, Thekipz, Themias, ThisGodlessEndeavor, Thomas Walther, Tim, Tobias Nalepa, Todd66, ToxicToastCraft, Travisdy, Tree Lobsters, Triassic, Typesmith, Uberface, Uller999, Unconfidence, VanillaPlanet+1, Vegemash, Vik, Villy, Virek, Waqas Ali, Wazabbi, Wei, Wheelman67, Will, William_Nilliam, Yangle, Yet Another Atheist Chris, Youngdun, Zach, Zaev, ZanzaraEE, Zealotte, Zeesis, ZeroDivided714, Znsale01, Zola jesus, Ztiegs, (continued...)

(And ...continued) _Heisenberg_, a human being, a. lawrence, aGloriousDawn, a_tone, aaerox, ab57, abstractanvil, accioknowledge, adamcw, adlibitum, admbmb, aggatt, aggie1391, ajaw, ajg, ajpolson09, alanakali, alanayvonne, alanita, alex14, alexlinftw, alieonicable, aluminumfalcon, anarkyinducer, andreimarkov, andschwa, andy, angelkimne, anonymous, anothersoapbox, apollo2H, aroomacanvas, arterialblack1989, astrolia, audiodude, avnguyen213, axylone, azazaz44, bak, bdavidson1030, beans, benco, benoitcsirois, biowidth, blahspam, bmunichman, bobbiegirl, bowlerroot, bpiraeus, brithog, bromar, brugaltheelder, bryakles, bspielburg, bugalooflu, butterflystyle, cakwalker, carlandreas, carmentosca, catalyticanalytics, cbnyc, cchugon, champah-gen, cheesecake, chimpus, chloraseptic, choi152, chrisknyfe, chucatawa, clawdeeuhh, code5037, codefocus, cookmybook, coreyander, countbakula, courtandspark, crazylilrikki, crimson090, crocboss, cupofjoseph, curly_fry, cursuve, cyrusmandrake, d4th, daedalean, dakevster, damajed_goods, damian78, dappopp, darkmodem, davebgray, daversa, daytrader247, deadBB, deepfriedmarsbar, defensorveritatis, defpearlpilot, dembones01, diadem, dilbertmouse, djpk19, dlaw_14, dr_itor, drinkthepill, dripless_cactus, dubious_alliance, duckvaginas, dustinechos, dvyjones, eien, elbarto, elisa_fdm, elodin, emptypockets, erdcaged, errchy, eugenetabisco, euthyphro, everner, evolvedape, ewo2, fabioperez, faja720, floompy, floydian, fluviusindus, flyrice, foulflaneur, fractalsonfire, franciscogalt, franctastic, frenger, frosty256, funkmasta98, funkyshit, gabaji123, gabecockfive, gazeheuristic, gbendinelli, gburgdan, gearios, gizbon, gnuotaku, goldenpandora, goldenthorn, goodwithoutgod, gotyourqueen, grandarcmaster, grandia256, greenplasticjim, guregu, gyrfalcons, hackettlp, hahawaitwhat, hectorse2011, hendriks, henzi, heyt, hibbitron, hihatfedora, horn_ok_please, horstl, hskiel4_12, i don't have a redditid... i just lurk..., i hate jack, iAvocado, iFlashie, iamfantastikate, iamzepia, icewarrior, ihatenamingshit, ilikepoops, illjot, illogical_operator, imthedudeman77, in_circles, inikul, ispewbrains, itsnotthethrowaway, ivan t, izzzzzzzzzzzzz, jakebeans, jakemb, jam_spoons, jamie1743, jangofandango9, jarnish, jasowadams, jaswon1, jayisrad, jbasile1, jcdark, jchmski, jdorf, jdsmx, jellydoughnuts, jensmartin, jerekeys, jerseyslegend, jhagan, jimklopchic, jk2512, jmint52, johdan, johnridegoodwithoutgod, joka86, jomsie, jsncrs, julesa, jzeramiiiii, kane.malakos, karlfranks, karlikarli, kcsx, kdabomb, kenako, kgst, kiaga, kiaran ritchie, klmcree, kouhoutek, kpal, krangksh, kronos64, kwcannotbekilled, l33tsniper05, lag051183, lati0s-, lenish, liam_lifad, livinginspain, longboarder116, luc1fel, lukyleprechaun37, m, macterra, magic, magruff, mainacht, marainman, mathiaspius, mathmeth, mathrallan, mattypants, mawkish, md619, meatmechanic, melissa714, mhuang2286, mike rolin, mikejordan, mikeonthebass, mil24havoc, mindcheck, misterthirsty, mitchtastical, mjohniii, mkay, modern drift, monesy, mrreoweh, mrstickman, mto92, munchbunny, myeir214, myfaultstudios, mynameistoey, nalhagen, natteke, naust, necron30, nerdotron17, newgnij, newsgent, nezumiiro, nicksbrother, night81, nnagflar, nobi77, noloodler, nosmint31, notaprodigy, notverycreative5, nybgrus, offwithyourtv, ohnoeslawls, ot86, ozzzzzz22, p1985401, pHo22, p_e_t_r_o_z, pajam, panda, pandabunny, paramitepies, parasadi, pckrrr, pellucidrockstar, pfafffffff, phasors, phauwn, phillyxd, pillscavenger, pishooo, pistolpete, pmwilkins, pregnantandnursing, prettywitty, princenarwhal, protoman115, puddle_pirate, pugg_fuggly, punctuationmark, purpleevilt, pyrokittens, quirkymonsta, r/rule34, raaynes, rabbitambulance, railk, random, random-42, rapartist, ravenstar, razorbladedog, redheadjessica, reemusk, rhapsblu, rockdude14, rooibosaur, roscoegiddyup, rprz, rumfa, rvsn, salalimo, scarecrowslayer, scott, scottaino, seacreature32, seatoski, seignuers, semicoldjello, seonte, shadowhunter22, shadowman965, shalmanese, shawncplus, shawnpeps, shitloadofbooks, shoelaced, sifarat, sillyrob, simon113, sinsecticide, skinnytwit, skittyskat22, slin555, smellyeli, sophisma, sortcel, soswiss, soundtrain, spearhard, spider_dijon1, spiritofthestaircase, spriggig, squishlefunke, sriliff, srujan, staringatmaqaque, staygoldponyboy, sueeeee22, superkeer, takingcandyfromababy, takuflow21, teh feral kittehs, tempozrene, teqland, texasraindrop, theDeedster, the_sleepiest, thejem, themanifold, theodoreros, theregularlion, thetiger756, theultimatejames, theworldismycountry, threeDspider, tm258 & ageeksgirl08, topside, toytruck, treesareleafy55, trollsrfunny, tsphan, twanky, twbassist, twilightkeyblader, tylercap, ubergossen, uncoder0, uncommitted, unicornsoup, upwaaaards, user54, ushimitsudoki, vectorspace299, vegemite_is_people, vitrael, vogon_poem_lover, volantene, vtrac, waketherabble, we_dont_serve_miners, wehyrgt, whatupdave, whlabratz, whoadave, whyofry, wikilowe, willywanka86, woodrew1027, wtfhbk, wxu, x70x, xWOBBx, x_anima, xelfer, xiann, yesua, zaner123, zlucas, zombiebarbie, zomgie, zoopcupness, zswanson

You helped save lives today! Thank you!

The Sunlight Foundation took a look at donations from big media companies to politicians supporting SOPA and PIPA... and,the verdict is in. Representatives of the American people have been moonlighting as... just follow the money!

Among the 25 SOPA cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, here's a breakdown of which legislators have brought in donations from big media in TV, music and movies during their careers in Congress.

• Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., $1,727,156. His southern district border is Hollywood Blvd. and he was the beneficiary at a fundraiser earlier this month hosted by two lobbyists at a firm that represents the National Broadcasting Association.
• Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., $516,400
• Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., $488,731
• Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., $488,636
• Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Tex., $392,995 (sponsor)
• Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-VA, $316,686
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., $261,700
• Rep. Lee Terry, R-Nev., $248,168
• Rep. John Barrow, D-GA, $210,900
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., $204,199
• Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., $133,023
• Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., $130,100
• Rep. John Carter, R-Tex., $75,850
• Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., $64,648
• Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA, $54,000
• Rep. William Owens, D-N.Y., $42,850
• Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., $30,000
• Rep. Thomas Marino, R-Penn., $21,300

The nearly 40 cosponsors of the Protect IP Act, SOPA's partner legislation in the Senate, have received more than $13.5 million from the TV, music and movies industry since entering Congress. Here's a rundown:

• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., $1,996,470
• Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., $1,465,160
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., $1,295,718
• Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., $899,366 (sponsor)
• Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., $890,668
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., $747,491
• Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mont., $503,291
• Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., $493,069
• Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, $492,407
• Sen. Robert Menéndez, D-N.J., $445,575
• Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., $430,500
• Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., $368,733
• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., $365,589
• Sen. Robert Casey, D-Penn., $343,225
• Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., $312,320
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., $297,771
• Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, $291,621
• Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, $284,225
• Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., $254,162
• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., $237,084
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., $230,569
• Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., $218,539
• Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., - $217,847
• Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., - $171,790
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., $158,066
• Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., $94,450

Tax Freedom Day in 2011 was April 12 in the U.S.A ... later 'celebrations' for some states. Just be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

An disconcerting story that started with a number of domain holders claiming that their domains ownerships have been transferred to a foreign individual's account. While initially the domains in question appeared to be registered with GoDaddy, there are now indications that the problem could be affecting domains registered through other domain registers also!

Chris Coyier, the owner of a web design community, had the domain css-tricks.com registered with GoDaddy. It was brought to his attention that the ownership of the domain had been transferred  to PlanetDomain. At the moment "css-tricks.com" DNS nameservers still point to MediaTemple, and the site is still resolving to Chris's website.

Chris has throughly documented a timeline of his day researching when, and what transpired, as well as  possible solutions to resolve the css-tricks.com transfer. It would be difficult to condense the expose.  

Friday 7:30am - Chris found out about all this from emails from David Appleyard. Chris had received no email or phone call verifying the transferring of this domain. The email address in my GoDaddy account was unchanged.
Friday 7:45am - A call to GoDaddy support at (480) 505-8877. Was not helpful. Was told just to email domaindisputes@godaddy.com (which I did immediately).
Friday 8:06am - I tweeted about the problem. GoDaddy sent me a DM saying to fill out a form, but the form was a 404 page.
Friday 8:30am - Got the correct link to the domain dispute form and filled it out. This included a scan of my driver's license. The website says it will be 3 days for an initial response.
Friday 9:00am - Sometimes a banjo lesson is just more important!

Friday 10:10am - Trying to contact PlanetDomain … No Twitter account.

Friday 10:15am - Got generic email back from GoDaddy:
We have reviewed your claim and we will contact PlanetDomain and request an FOA (Form of Authorization) for the transfer. If their records also show the same registrant at the time of transfer, we will work with them to see if they can transfer the domain name back. However, they are not required to transfer the domain name back.
If they are unwilling to transfer the domain name back you will need to contact the current registrar or registrant for further assistance.

Friday 11:50 - Just got off the phone with GoDaddy (Tony in domain disputes and Alon in customer service, I think). The current status is that they have already sent a request to PlanetDomain, and the next step is to wait for them to do the due diligence and get back to GoDaddy with an answer on whether or not they will return the domain. This be a matter of days, or a week (sine it's Friday, very likely won't be until early next week). Other facts about GoDaddy:
-So far they have found this has happened to around 12 accounts, all within the "Web Design" genre (so most likely a targeted attack).
-There is no accessible log from with your GoDaddy account to see what/when things happened.
-They do have access logs, but they can't share that information with me.
-The domain was transferred away from GoDaddy the evening of Nov 20th
-They have, but cannot provide me with, the email address used to transfer the domain away.
-GoDaddy confirmed my global account email has never been changed, but it WAS changed for the domain css-tricks.com prior to the move.
-The request to unlock the domain happened on Nov. 14th at 4:30pm Mountain Time. -Normally there is a 5-7 day waiting period, but GoDaddy offers instant transfer and they remarked that it was unusual that the hacker chose not to do that.
-They confirmed no other domains have left my account.

Friday 12:15pm - I asked VaultPress if they could tell me the IP address of the person who changed the index.php file, but they don't have that information. It might be in my server logs if I have them from that long ago.

Friday 1:05pm - Former employee of PlanetDomain tells me that it looks as if the hacker attempted to remove the nameservers, but the PlanetDomain system for that failed. (This line in the WHOIS: "No name servers present.") The hacker would have to call PlanetDomain to "fix" this, which they have not (thank god).

Friday 5:25pm - About the end of the work day here and heading in to the weekend, so it's unlikely anything will happen until early next week. I'd love to get at least an acknowledgment from PlanetDomain / NetRegistry that they've gotten the domain dispute from GoDaddy. But no such luck.

Presently it appears that there are 24 domains that have been transferred to the account holder of Planet Domain. Without actual proof, it does appear that a common denominator may be the use of gmail accounts by the legitamate account holders. Many domain registers associate an email address with the domain, and any requests to transfer a domain from that email address would not raise any red flags.

Hint: never use a free email account to register a domain! The contact email address can be modified in the client area of your domain registrar.

HostJury will continue to update this post as more information emerges.

css-tricks.com - Originally at GoDaddy

Domain Name: CSS-TRICKS.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server: NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 21-nov-2011
Creation Date: 04-jul-2007
Expiration Date: 04-jul-2019

Designshack.net -

Domain Name: DESIGNSHACK.NET
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server: NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 20-nov-2011
Creation Date: 05-may-2008
Expiration Date: 05-may-2013

KIRUPA.COM - Originally on NetworkSolution

Domain Name: KIRUPA.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server: NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 30-nov-2011
Creation Date: 10-feb-1999
Expiration Date: 10-feb-2016

davidwalsh.name -

Domain Name: DAVIDWALSH.NAME 
Domain Status: pendingTransfer

scriptandstyle.com -Originally at GoDaddy

Domain Name: SCRIPTANDSTYLE.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS15.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS16.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 20-nov-2011
Creation Date: 18-jul-2008
Expiration Date: 18-jul-2013

sohtanaka.com - Originally at 1and1

Domain Name: SOHTANAKA.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS57.1AND1.COM
Name Server: NS58.1AND1.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 23-nov-2011
Creation Date: 12-apr-2005
Expiration Date: 12-apr-2013

instantshift.com - Originally at GoDaddy

Domain Name: INSTANTSHIFT.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server: NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 20-nov-2011
Creation Date: 21-aug-2008
Expiration Date: 21-aug-2013

shiachat.com –

Domain Name: SHIACHAT.COM
Registrar: PLANETDOMAIN PTY LTD.
Whois Server: whois.planetdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.planetdomain.com
Name Server: No nameserver
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 02-dec-2011
Creation Date: 26-mar-2000
Expiration Date: 26-mar-2013

UK2 Group has announced the launch of a HostPuro. The the press release states their newest web hosting brand is intended to target the hosting needs of the Spanish-speaking community.

Each HostPuro account will comes with unlimited web sites, bandwidth, disk space, and a free domain for the lifetime of the account. Hosting plans are $5 per month, and there doesn't appear to be a discount for annual payments in advance. The release states that HostPuro boasts 99.9% uptime (editors note: I am assuming that they are assuming.. domain was created September 2 2011), a 100% lifetime satisfaction guarantee, and an anytime money back guarantee.

“Web hosting is a global need and we’re very pleased to offer affordable shared hosting solutions now to the Spanish-speaking community,” said Jeff Hunsaker, UK2 Group President – US Operations. “The great thing about HostPuro is that it’s supported by a company and employees who have been in the web hosting industry for over a decade,” said Hunsaker.

Because HostPuro is part of the UK2 Group, it instantly brings years of professional hosting experience to the table. It’s also backed by a Tier-3 data center in one of the most disaster-safe locations in the U.S.

One of the main goals of HostPuro is to provide the best available technology for the Spanish speaking community located anywhere throughout the world. HostPuro offers exceptional customer service in Spanish and strives to make the user experience simple and easy for anyone, regardless of technical know how.

 

Other UK2 brands

UK2.NET

The founding brand of the UK2 Group, UK2.NET was created in 1998 and has sold over a million domain names. Known for it’s wide range of domain names and hosting solutions, UK2.NET offers professional low-cost hosting solutions to a wide-range of customers.

Midphase

Our flagship US brand, MidPhase is a one-stop shop for all of your web hosting needs. Innovative services such as DesignPhase (our revolutionary hosted web design service) and shopPhase ecommerce will give your website the best possible start.

10TB (directs to 100TB)

High power, high performance dedicated servers each with 10TB (tera bytes!) of dedicated tier 1 bandwidth. If you want high performance hosting with attitude as backed by Softlayer, look no further than 10TB.

ANHosting

Our budget-level shared hosting specialist, ANHosting keeps it simple by offering one all-inclusive web hosting account that can host up to 20 web sites without breaking the bank.

Autica

The Reseller platform of choice, Autica now provides more space and more features than ever!

Resell.biz

The ICANN accredited domain registrar provides low-cost domain registration and management services to domain resellers.

WingSix

Why should shared web hosting customers compromise on service? WingSix provides shared hosting solutions with enterprise-level service values.

Dotable

Our friendly forum-led hosting brand, where customers are encouraged to become an active part of the team.

WestHost

Our premium hosting brand where personal service, industry-leading response times and superior performance ensure we are always recommended by our customers.

Virtual Internet

Virtual Internet (VI) specialise in High Availability Managed hosting for mission critical web sites and applications which demand 100% availability. Founded in 1995, its philosophy has been to work with world class technology providers to deliver unrivaled hosting and support services.

VPS.NET

Cloud offering, bringing the flexibility and high availability of the Cloud to the masses.

Supreme Support

Relax, we’re in control; our experts are on hand 24/7 to offer high performance professional server management and task-based systems administration services.

The age-old advice to "work smarter, not harder" applies ten-fold on the web. If you're not finding techniques and tools that help you save time and do more with less then you're missing the whole point. On top of that, you're literally wasting your life.

But "working smarter" doesn't just mean saving time, it also means doing the right thing in the beginning to save yourself pain and suffering down the line. A loophole might help you make progress but is it sustainable and what is the risk involved? A shortcut might save you a couple of hours every month but is your output lower quality because of it?

The four things below all have two sides to them: a side that works and a side that will get you into trouble. Where is the terminator line between the two? It's a big, broad grey area and the further you get, the harder it is to go back. Just make sure you experiment cautiously, always iterate, and check back often.

I start with a definition of each term so it's clear what I'm addressing. I'll tell you why it's done, where it can be helpful, and where you can get into trouble.

Purchased links

A purchased link is a link from one site to another where the linking site was paid. When you purchase a link, you're doing it for one of two reasons: you want traffic from that site or you're looking for the SEO benefits of an organic text link.

There's nothing wrong with the first case here; buying a link for traffic simply equates to advertising. There's a special step in this process, though: the link has to be "nofollow" (a special HTML attribute added to the link) or the page it goes to has to be inaccessible by search spiders. A lot of extra work but Google says so. If you're doing legitimate advertising then these steps help your site so it's worth the effort.

The other side of the coin, the "shortcut to better SEO," is buying a link for the purpose of increasing the number of pages linking to your site. I'll be the first to admit it: link-building is time-consuming and frustrating. After you've been building links for a while, buying a few - or a few hundred - seems like a great way to save time.

The problem here is that you're risking your existing (and future) search engine ranking by cutting corners. Is it more likely Google won't find out you purchased links? Yes. Is it worth risking a penalty of indeterminate length or impact? Definitely not; take it from the experts.

Instead of purchasing links (or using a service that buys them for you), offer to do something for the owner of a particular site. Write a guest post, provide them with some useful information, or, if they're local, go mow their lawn (mostly kidding). The difference is that you'll be getting a better link and one that will stick around for a lot longer.


Automation

Automation is using software to do tasks automatically when once you did them manually. If you've ever connected your Twitter to your blog, your Yelp to your Facebook, or your phone to your Flickr account, you've used automation.

There is so much about automation that I love. Every new app I sign up for has to plug into at least one other thing I'm doing online or I'm already one foot out the door. I use IFTTT to connect apps together creatively to make sure that effort expended in one place isn't lost elsewhere. I also use FeedBurner to connect blogs to Twitter, among other things. If you're not looking for ways to automate certain tasks, you're wasting a lot of time.

But there is a very distinct line between what should be automated and what should not. I don't send all my tweets to Facebook and LinkedIn, for example. Speaking of Facebook, I don't connect any of my content streams to any of my Facebook Pages. I don't sync all my contacts everywhere, I don't connect every network to every other one, and I don't use any application that helps me "get more followers, traffic, fans, etc."

As soon as you start automating tasks, you run the risk of looking/sounding like a robot (a big mistake if you're representing a brand or business) as well as making an increasing number of mistakes. Software does, more or less, what it's told. When you start over-automating, the patterns emerge quickly and it becomes clear that attention to detail is less important than a few saved minutes. A mistake made once in the beginning can propagate throughout the whole system.

Look for ways to save time and use software to your benefit but be careful of how far you go, especially if it's a human touch point. Be clear on what you're trying to accomplish and talk through the system thoroughly (and with someone else) before you put it into place. Don't confuse automation with outsourcing, talked about below.

Aggregated content

Aggregated content is media that you're getting from other, likely public, sources. It means that there is another copy out there somewhere and that you're not the first person to have it. Usually this comes in the form of RSS feeds.

There is just no substitute for original, optimized, well-written, and helpful content. It gets people talking, gets shared across the web, does well in search engines, and is fun to make. It's also incredibly time-consuming. Not many people can find the time to write an incredible blog post each month, let alone every week.

The solution is to start using content from other people. You have an audience and your audience demands to be fed so you find someone providing the content they want and connect the hose. Problem solved!

Well, not quite. We'll assume, for this example, that you have someone's permission to post this content and you're not going to run into any legal issues surrounding copyright. Even then, you're creating a copy of the original and only one of the two will win out in a search engine (Google makes an educated guess as to which one is the duplicated one). Besides that, you could just be re-displaying something your audience has seen already.

The fair, effective middle ground is . This is where you find the content your audience is likely to be interested in, filter out all the nonsense, and add your own spin to it. It's more work than just re-posting what's out there but it has the huge benefit of being very linkable, shareable, and easier to compile than a post of your own. Combine curated content with your own, original posts and you have a recipe for content success.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing, for this purpose, means paying someone else to do something that you're fully capable of doing yourself. Outsourcing could be hiring contractors to help your clients, using an assistant to manage day-to-day tasks, or paying someone to write a blog post for you.

In my experience, the right kind of outsourcing can really free up a lot of time and focus. I have a virtual assistant that helps me stay on top of billing and income, does basic client outreach, and helps me with small tasks like entering content and creating reports. I also work with contractors who provide me with copywriting, code, and server management. Since one person is not infinitely scaleable, growth always requires finding people that can take on tasks for you.

But there are specific things I don't outsource, and advise others not to. I don't outsource social media management, particularly for small- or micro- (one person) businesses. In the same vein, I don't outsource customer service to another company. I don't outsource my marketing or my content.

For development, I'm very careful. When considering a project, both cost and quality always come into play. The quality I provide my clients is incredibly important to me so I don't hand that off with a grain of salt. Outsourcing to a low-cost group, regardless of their location, is simply a matter of getting what you pay for. In my experience, low-cost development is always bug-prone, difficult to modify, unorganized, poorly commented, and not future proof. It's a matter of paying more at the start or paying more down the road. For a small project that might not get off the ground, this might be a fine trade-off. For something you build your business on top of, it's not.

If you're in a position to contract out or outsource a part of your process, just make sure you're clear what needs to be done and how it needs to be done and communicate that clearly. Be careful who you partner with and remember that a personal recommendation is gold. Try a test period, see what happens, then move on from there.

About Josh

Josh C. runs Josh Can Help, a small web design, SEO and development shop specializing in WordPress. In his less-than-copious off time he love to make and eat great food, explore craft beer locations here in Seattle, cycle, drink coffee, and snowboard. He’s a total Seattle cliche but don’t tell him that because it would break his heart.

Josh will be providing some tips on a regular basis! If you got something to say that may be of interest to HostJury readers and want to write a guest comentary, drop up a line. feedback@hostjury.com

Hostjury announced earlier that we'd be giving away a package for a year of free web hosting! Everyone that submitted a legitimate review of their hosting company services, good, bad, or ugly, was entered to win!

And the winner is... drum roll please...

For leaving a review of MacHighway web hosting service

Jac Atkins from John Atkins & Co.

John Atkins & Co. is described on their website as an award-winning marketing agency providing professional web design, web development, social media, marketing and advertising services from St John’s, Newfoundland... that has also on occasion provided cookies.

John Atkins has won a Business Web Hosting Package supplied by Fused.

Fused currently provides hosting for over four thousand websites and serves an average of 60+ million visitors per month. Fused have clients worldwide & over 65 countries represented in their clientbase. Headquartered in Toronto with a support team distributed worldwide allows them to serve 100% of their clients equally no matter the timezone.

The Fused Business packages come with plenty of space to grow a business including 10 Gigabytes of RAID powered storage backed up nightly, and 100 gigabytes of premium transfer monthly. All business packages come with a free dedicated IP & SSL certificate included.

So what now?

For all those reviewers who submitted a review of their web hosting service provider and didn't win, don't fret!

HostJury is now tweaking our 12 days of Christmas giveaway event. For 12 days leading up to ringing in the New Year, HostJury will be giving away lots of prizes. All past reviews are automatically entered for a chance to win along with all eligible reviews submitted prior to the draws. As always, fake, fraud, and invalidated reviews are deleted by HostJury. Hence they will not be eligible!

Tech and Web Hosting Companies wishing to participate in some Shameless Self-Promotion are invited to email:  feedback@hostjury.com