March 18, 2002– Newsletter #172

Goodies to Go ™
March 18, 2002–Newsletter #172

This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
 

Announcement Goodies

In the last issue I proclaimed that
having an ISP that assigns
you an IP address dynamically makes it impossible to host your
own web server. Well, it seems that isn’t quite true.

Apparently, there are services available that reroute your requests for your
site from the static IP address or domain that the service gives you to your
dynamically assigned IP address. These services are available with annual fees
ranging from free to $50 and higher.

If you are interested in this type of
service you can check out two such sites at
http://www.dynip.com and
http://www.no-ip.com.

A special thanks to the folks that
wrote in with this information.

Thanks for reading!

Goodies Thoughts – Where has the Free Stuff Gone?

Are you one of those
firm believers that everything on the internet should be free? Do you believe
that the internet should be a giant open forum of information?

If you are, you’re not
alone. Most of us have become very comfortable with the fact that you can
research almost anything  on the internet for free like HTML tutorials, for
example. But is that changing?

Many experts believe it
is and that we are slowly migrating to a fee based system for information and
content access. So, why is that?

Since the stock market
headed south and advertising revenue practically fell off a cliff, site owners
have found it very difficult to stay afloat on advertising alone. During the
internet boom of the ninety’s it wasn’t unheard of to get thousands or even tens
of thousands a month in advertising revenue for banner ads. Now sites are lucky
to receive one-tenth of what they were formerly charging. There are simply too
many sites and too few advertising dollars.

So, where are sites
getting their revenues from? Good question. Nowhere, that’s the problem. Many
companies just don’t have the revenue resources available to keep plugging along
at a loss. In order to stay solvent many sites are turning to a fee or
fee/advertising based model.

For example, CNN is in
the process of switching to a fee-based model for viewing video clips. The new
service will be available for about $5 per month or $40 a year. And they are not
the only ones. Fox Sports, ABC and now even NASCAR have gone to a fee-based
model for viewing video, just to name a few.

What about non-video
forms of information? In many cases, magazines and periodicals are adopting a
sort of fee based system that only allows subscribers access to content. And
those sites that don’t produce a revenue generating publication may find
themselves shutting down if the internet advertising market doesn’t pick back up
or a fee system isn’t adopted.

So, what does this mean
for the future of free information on the web? No one really knows but many
experts are watching to see how CNN’s move effects others like MSNBC and CBS
that still offer free video news. As the leading news content provider on the
web, MSNBC expects CNN’s move will give them an even bigger boost in daily page
views as people migrate to the free content. We’ll see.

Didn’t several sites try
doing a fee-based system several years ago? Wasn’t it a big flop? Yes, many
sites did try a fee based system for content, services and many other things. As
a result many of those sites went under. However, today’s internet is much
different now. Then, there was an abundance of free stuff around every corner
you turned, so why would you pay for something you could get for free? Not so
today, which may be part of the reason the fee-based idea seems to be catching
on.

So, is this trend going
to impact HTMLGoodies? No, not that I know of. For now you will be able to enjoy
the articles, tutorials and newsletters that HTMLGoodies provides for free. Just
as it should be, eh?  😉

Thanks for reading!

Quiz Goodies

I’m sure that many of
you have heard of web-related affiliate programs. So, what are they and how do
they work?

Read answer below.

Q & A Goodies

Q. I have a link
on my page which uses the following code to bookmark a page.

"javascript:window.external.AddFavorite

(document.location,document.title)"

>Bookmark Us!

It is on a frames page and it only links to the frame which it is on. (f a
person would click the link in their favorites list, it would only go to that
frame)

How can I change the code so that it bookmarks the parent document?

A. Change the
document.location and title items in your code to be the actual URL and TITLE of
the main document you want to set a bookmark to.  The results you say you are
getting now are exactly what you should get the way you have it setup now.  The
document keywords work on the current HTML page, whether it is the main page, or
it is in a frame.

*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by C.L.Smith, one of our JavaScript Mentors.

Q.
I’m trying to create a background with a repeating side line image and a top JPG
image header. I’m not quite sure how to encode this correctly so that the header
image will be placed right at the top of the screen. Right now there is a small
grey space in between the top, and I pretty much just want to boost that JPG
image right to the top so it’s seamless.

Do I have to use seamless frames for
this, or is there just a simple way to align that image to the top, on top of
that particular background?

A. 
What you need to do is declare your top margin as zero. This can
be accomplished with the following CSS code. Place this in between your
:

*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Peter, one of our Web Design Mentors.

Q.  I am
attempting to learn ASP.NET…and the differences from Classic ASP. My biggest
difficulty is in the methods of data access. I understand the concept of
datagrids and [somewhat] data reader. It seems to me that both these methods are
more for displaying multiple lines of data from a broad query in a clean
sensible fashion. How then is the appropriate and most effective method to pull
one specific data piece (from a SQL query) and display it in any cell or field I
want without using a table?

A. If you are
looking to customize the way you display the data you retrieve you can approach
the solution much the same way that you may have in Classic ASP. There are only
a few differences.

Instead of retrieving a
record set you will be retrieving a data set. Below is a Classic ASP and ASP.NET
example to display a single piece of data. This should give you a good idea of
the other differences.

Classic ASP:

First Name: <% =RecordSet("first_name")
%>

ASP.NET:

You will need to create
a Data Row for the table in the Data Set that you want to display.

<% Dim CurrentRow As
DataRow
CurrentRow = DataSet.Tables("names").Rows(0) %>

First Name: <% =CurrentRow.Item("first_name") %>

The CurrentRow is set to
the first row of the table called "names" that was retrieved. Once you have set
CurrentRow you can display the data much the same way that you did in Classic
ASP. Using Data Rows is a great solution for occasions when you do not want your
data displayed in the typical table grid format. It does take a bit more work,
though, so I would definitely suggest using the built-in Data Grid features of
.NET whenever they apply.

This is, of course, a
very brief example of how you can display data in a "non-grid" format. You also
have the option to bind data to controls such as drop down list boxes, radio
buttons and labels.

We will be doing a basic
level introduction to ASP.NET sometime in the near future, so check the site
often.

News Goodies

So, how do you feel about Netscape?
Well, if you are an AOL subscriber, you may be getting used to to it whether you
like it or not when AOL 8.0 is released.

Click here to read the article

With the evolution of the internet
also comes the evolution of the copyright as it pertains to the internet. Read
about a California Appeals Court ruling.

Click here to read the article

In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft
is back in court again as the nine hold-out states present their arguments for
stiffer sanctions against Microsoft.

Click here to read the article

Quiz Answer

Many companies on the
web today offer affiliate programs. An affiliate program is simply a way for
companies to promote their products or services by paying commissions or other
compensations to individuals and companies that promote their products or
services. Amazon.com is a great example of this.

I’m sure you have seen
links to Amazon.com on several of the sites you visit. Ever wonder how Amazon
affords all of those ads? Well, that’s easy, they are only paying when someone
places an order. This means the promotion is in the hands of the affiliate and
Amazon.com only has to pay when they get a confirmed sale. That’s great for
Amazon.com. It also benefits the affiliate in that they don’t have to search for
and secure advertising contracts for their site. Getting set up in an affiliate
program is usually very quick and easy.

You can become an
affiliate member of Amazon.com and many other companies by directly contacting
the companies you want to affiliate with or by locating a service that is a
"broker" for several companies like www.cj.com, for example.

And Remember This . . .

Did you know that on
this day in 1949, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was officially
formed. It was intended to share defense responsibilities amongst all of its
member nations. Despite defections and the many critics over the years, NATO has
survived.

Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!

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