Over the years I used FlashFXP, CuteFTP, SmartFTP… most recently FileZilla, and now about to try out Cyberduck (Open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files, Google Docs & Amazon S3 Browser for Mac & Windows). Looks promising and available for both Mac and PC.
Comparison
Online Event Ticketing Services Compared
In trying to help out my friends that were promoting some events (with 300-1,000 attendees and tickets ranging from $15 to $25), I did some research to compare the various online ticket service alternatives.
Of course all these services provide you with the basic ticketing process, email collection, and credit card processing through internal or external integrates merchant accounts from PayPal or Google Checkout. And then most of them also have the “cool” features social networking integration (like links to help promote your event on Facebook).
Eventbrite seems to be the most popular service right now, but maybe it’s just because their custom subdomain URLs like ‘[yourevent].eventbrite.com’ are just so noticeable when people promote them. They do have a lot of features, if you really need them all.
But in the end, it comes down to total commission rates and/or fees, and when you are doing a few hundred tickets that might be $500 in extra savings or profit to you or your attendees.
So here’s a quick summary of the pricing schemes of March 2010 (in many cases, doing the simple math on the number of attendees you have and your ticket price will make one of these choices stand out as a superior choice for your event).
- Eventbrite – 2.5% of ticket face value plus $0.99 per ticket. An additional 3% if using Eventbrite credit card processing or regular merchant fees if using Paypal or Google Checkout.
- Brown Paper Tickets – $0.99 fee for tix under $9.99 and $1.99 fee per ticket for tickets above $10. That’s it! No credit card processing fees after that. Plus you can get a batch of hard tickets printed to sell in person for $0.10 each plus minimum $6 shipping.
- Eventbee – $1 flat fee per ticket plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).
- Ettend – Interesting pricing model here: $24/month for two active event listings, no per ticket cost, and then just the external credit card processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout). Pricing details here.
- Eventat – No per-ticket fee while in beta plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).
- Guestlist – No per-ticket fee while in beta plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).
The above are great for simple events like concerts, shows or raves, and not necessarily something like a trade show, conference or seminar (where you might be collecting more user information, have many tiers of pricing or be sending out regular communications; for that there are better alternatives like RegOnline).
CMS/Blogging software packages not needing a database
I run this site on Wordpress but a small project came up where I wanted to research some database-less CMS / blogging alternatives (still need PHP, just no databases to store the content).
After researching this a bit, the two I’ll be trying first are:
And some others I came across and may try next:
My Favorite Domain Registrars Compared
At the moment, I have a couple dozen domains registered across three different registrars: GoDaddy, 1&1 and Name.com. As my domains near expiration, I transfer most of them over to my whatever is my favorite registrar at that time, but I also keep a few domains parked at the other registrars just for comparison’s sake.
Below is some of my reasoning behind my decision making process:
- Most popular registrar… by far!
- $10.69 for .com registration
- $8.99 additional for whois privacy
- Annoying ads and offers all across the site
- Site navigation can be overwhelming at time, but still pretty simple
- It’s where I tell my friends and family to register their domains
- One of the five largest registrars.
- $8.99 for .com registration
- Whois privacy is included/free
- Pretty simple and straightforward interface
- Can only register domain for one year at a time – WTF!?
- Domain registration/expiration unnecessarily difficult to find
- $8.99 for .com registration
- Whois privacy is included/free
- Advanced settings, nameserver configurations, etc. readily available
- Some options/features may scare novice users
- Popular with and recommended by advanced users with lots of domains
My favorite of the moment: Name.com (as of January 2010). I like the $8.99 cost with free whois privacy. Unlike 1and1 I can register domains for more than one year. But as I mentioned, for most people I would still recommend GoDaddy. And as for any horror stories you might hear about GoDaddy, it’s to be expected when they are so large. I personally usually hear stories like that about small registrars.
Lifehacker.com’s Top High Five Topics of 2009
Lifehacker’s High Five topics are an awesome resource, when it’s readers vote for the top five of various tech categories. I’m already using a lot of the most popular apps, but I’ve also learned about a lot of alternatives and discovered some real gems. And now I’m going to double check each of these one by one to make sure that I am in fact using the latest and greatest.
Below are some of their most popular High Five topics of 2009.
- Five Best Netbooks
- Five Best Malware Removal Tools
- Best Home Server Software
- Five Best Linux Distributions
- Five Best Wallpaper Sites
- Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools
- Six Best Video Editing Applications
- Five Best Web Browsers
- Six Best MP3 Tagging Tools
- Five Best Antivirus Applications
- Five Best Live CDs
- Five Best Disk Defragmenters
- Five Best Portable Applications
- Five Best Instant Messengers
- Five Best Free System Restore Tools
- Five Best People-Search Engines
- Five Best System Tray Applications
- Five Best Online Backup Tools
- Five Best PDF Readers
- Five Best Video Players
- Five Best Windows Task Manager Alternatives
- Six Best Portable Operating Systems
- Five Best Portable Apps Suites
- Five Best Virtual-Desktop Managers
- Five Best Application Docks
- Five Best Software Update Tools
- Five Best Alternative File Copiers
Must-have Adobe Acrobat Alternative: Foxit Reader
As usual, Adobe came out with yet another version of Acrobat Reader (9.0) claiming it had addressed some of the issues with it being slow and bloated when it came to opening PDFs, and it seemed speedy on a fresh Windows install, but the speed, and my patience, quickly deteriorated… so as usual I go back to the trusty free Foxit Reader (PC only).
If you’ve ever stared at your browser for more than 10 seconds waiting for a PDF on the web to open, or wondering if your browser is crashing, then Foxit Reader is a must-have download. However, I still have Acrobat installed for the rare times when a PDF document might have heavy graphics or more advanced features that Foxit can’t handle.
A few other alternatives are, although Foxit Reader is the down right most popular:
Microsoft Security Essentials: My Current Pick for Anti-Virus
With the release of the retail version of Windows 7 in October 2009, I did a round of research on the latest opinions and reviews of anti-virus software and in the end I settled on the free Microsoft Security Essentials (PC only), which combines anti-virus and anti-spyware and malware protection.
I knew it had been available for quite a while, although not too heavily marketed by Microsoft, but this was the first time I would personally try it. And I’m going to stick with it for now. It integrates nicely and seamlessly into Windows 7 and since I would like to think of myself as pretty safe and vigilant against threats in the first place, I feel safe enough.
Microsoft Security Essentials has also become my default choice of security software to install on my friends’ and families’ computers. Previously, I would have installed the free version of AVG (still highly recommended) and while some may argue it provides better security because of virus detection rates, I would rather have a computer illiterate person use a piece of Microsoft software that they’ll automatically feel comfortable with. I bet that some of my friends might not even recognize AVG a day after I install it and accidentally disable.
However, just before my recent switch to Microsoft Security Essentials, I had been using the free version of Avira AntiVir. I switched to it in late 2008 after AVG’s free version started getting a bit too bloated and resource intensive. AntiVir turned out to be better because of it’s tiny footprint and much better real-time virus detection (it was great at detecting potential threats from torrents, even if it meant a few false positives). There was an annoying daily pop-up advertising the premium version, but that could easily be disabled.
So in summary, my top 3 picks for free anti-virus software on the PC:
- Microsoft Security Essentials – Combines virus, spyware and malware protection. Seamless and foolproof integration and automation into Windows.
- AVG – Can’t really go wrong with this popular free choice. Virus detection might be better than Microsoft’s app, as long as the computer user lets it run it’s routine scans and updates.
- Avira AntiVir – Recommended if you have little memory because of its tiny resource footprint or for those doing a lot of file sharing and/or downloading lot of torrents, cracks, warez, etc.