Troy has been struggling to find a low cost method to give his company an internet presence and asks the following question: “Can you tell me the lowest cost method to simply get me started on the web?” Troy, there are many ways to start your company on the internet and give yourself a presence. I’ll run you through a couple ways that I like for a startup and maybe a secret or two of my own.
As you’ve told me, a website can be a major investment especially for a startup company. The $200.00 per page you were quoted is not that far off from what I expected. You should know that designing a website can be time consuming and frustrating and sometimes a professional service is the best way to start.
I use Microsoft’s FrontPage for the LocalComputerWiz.com website because it is a very straightforward design utility even though it’s quite expensive. An alternative is WYSIWYG Web Builder which costs under $40.00. Either will allow you to design a website using familiar controls. No matter the software, the goal is to make the design process easy.
Integrating dynamic content like Flash requires purchasing Adobe Flash software. However, if you want to dabble a little more than a simple website and want to add some eye-grabbing dynamics I would suggest looking at the ‘free’ section of Coffee Cup Software’s website. Coffee Cup’s software is very easy to use and readily integrates with other manufacturers.
I promised I would share a personal secret with you. Aren’t you excited? Anyways, I am spending under $12.00 per year to host my website. I searched for a long time until I found a company in the Philippines that offers limited service, 100% uptime webhosting. Before you purchase space you should evaluate how big your site is going to be. There are two variables that hosts use to establish pricing. First is size. In other words, the amount of space a website is going to use. Second is bandwidth; or, the amount of traffic this website will see on the network.
Good luck, and if you get really frustrated then I’m sure there’s a Dummy book out there you can buy.
Jack wants to install a computer into his car and has the following question: “Can you give me a pointer about purchasing a carputer?” Sure can Jack. Car computers are generally installed with a touch screen LCD. Most of the time carputers are loaded with a dedicated operating system for in-car computing.
Two types of systems are generally used in automobiles. My personal favorite is Mini ITX as Nano ITX is still fairly expensive. A Mini ITX system is relatively close in size to a large textbook and is easily powered from a 12VDC power source. Most of the time these systems are placed under a seat and wires are run from it to the monitor, antenna, radio etc. Searching the internet will lead you to an operating system.
There are very few choices when it comes to good quality touch screen LCD’s for automobiles. A company called Lilliput seems to have the market cornered and you can find monitors at many different online sources. A reasonable location to mount the monitor is above the dash board; though, I’ve seen them mounted in many places. I would expect to pay anywhere from $600.00 to $1,000.00 for the computer and monitor.
Tech-Tip of the week: Google Docs is a free online utility for creating, sharing and saving documents between multiple users. I wish I had this when I was doing group projects in school!
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at Jeromy@LocalComputerWiz.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)