In March, I noticed that more people were browsing my websites with Windows 98 than with Vista.

Vista was released, worldwide, on the 30th January 2007. So it had been around for just a couple of months when I wrote about it so I decided to do a follow-up.

I’ve used the same site as my earlier post, over the same period of time.

As you can see, that's quite a significant increase in 4 months.

So, what's your operating system? Are you happy with it?

I use XP Professional and I won't be upgrading to Vista until I get a new PC because, quite simply, I've no real need to - XP does everything I want. I use XP Professional mostly for IIS and so I can test and develop my websites and applications without the need to use my dedicated server. It certainly saves a hell of a lot of time FTPing and refreshing!

As I mentioned a couple of days ago I'd been neglecting this blog and have decided to get back in to the swing of things.

New Design

I worked on a new design for an hour or so in Photoshop then spent a few hours yesterday putting it together as a WordPress theme. It's still a bit 'dodgy' in places but any issues shall be sorted out over the coming weeks. I'm not sure about the order of the sidebar items but I suppose that'll improve with time.

"Posts Posts, There Are Never Any Posts"

Well you should see an improvement from now on. I'm going to try and post at least once a day so we shall see how that goes but don't worry, I'll try and make the posts half decent

Top Commentators

I've added the 'top commentators' plugin (I always want to type commenters) so hopefully I'll see some sort of interaction going on and it's a bit of a reward for anyone taking the time to read and comment.

This blog has been neglected.

I've been thinking, this past couple of weeks, what to do with it. I've decided I'm going to start blogging regularly because I need a bit of variation in my online work.

 Anyway, I've just spent a couple of hours knocking up a new design - it's getting there - you can see my results so far below. 

You're now able to see the results on the site here.

There's obviously still more work to be done, but the general feel is okay. I don't want to spend more than another couple of hours "designing" it because the real work is in the coding. Guess this will be my first custom WordPress theme. (I'd used K2 previously)

Gig Lovers has been online and running for just over a week ago and while I’ve not been promoting it at all it’s been getting a steady trickle of traffic from Google and for about 3 days StumbleUpon (who sent just over 1,000 visitors in the space of 15 minutes – the site handled that without problem)

Bug Fixes

I’ve fixed a number of small bugs that I’d missed from my own testing of the site. It’s amazing how many of them crop up. I’ve also tweaked a few things for usability and integrated states in to the mix to make it simpler for both Americans and myself.

Indexed Pages [google.com]

For the past week it’s been floating between 390 and 550 indexed pages and we’ve had 1,300 visits from Google which works out at just under 200 visitors from Google each day,

I checked earlier today and the figure had risen to 1,400 indexed pages on a few data-centres so that should bring in some more traffic.

Upgrades

I’m just adding the finishing touches to the ‘Gig Finder’  where you enter your home (or desired) city, choose the distance of miles you’d be prepared to travel, add a few dates and are then presented with a list of gigs that match your settings.

I'm hoping to get this online today at some point along with the new 'Add Gig' form with 'state enhancements'

Well it’s that time of year again; I received yet another letter (snail!) from the ’Domain Registry of America’

For those of you unacquainted they offer a fantastic service where they’ll renew my domain name for one year for the lowly sum of just £18 ($35 USD) – wow – how could I refuse such an offer? IDIOTS

Letter from DROA (Borrowed from here - don't have a scanner!!)

At first glance you’d think the letter was from your current domain registrar or hosting company but this is not the case – it’s spam - and a ‘company’ trying to get you to transfer your domain(s) over to them.

An action that will no doubt mess up your hosting, email and give you a big headache while you scramble to get everything working again. I don’t even have to mention  the money you just wasted on their over-priced “renewal” fees. (they also charge for transfers back to your registrar but, surprisingly, don’t say how much)

In fairness to them it does say in the text “This is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration to the DRoA” – but who reads all the text.

So just be weary if you receive any post asking you to renew your domain name or warning you about a domain name expiring. I’d advise you contact the company you registered the domain name with in the first place and renew that way.

Oh… and always read the small print