Irish technology blogger Damien Mulley has organised an interesting initiative called the Tuesday Push. The idea being to put the spotlight on cool startups and services in a co-ordinated fashion.

This week's "target" is photo sharing site Pix.ie which just happens to be a client of ours.

So what do they do exactly?

In their own words:

Pixie is Ireland's new online photo sharing community! We provide you with a safe place to upload, share and permanently store your photos online.

The system is quite easy to use and comes with a lot of "social" features so that you can easily connect to other users and share photos with them.

Since the entire thing is hosted in Ireland the connection speed for Irish and European users is fantastic (not that we'd know anything about that *cough*).

What gives pix.ie an edge over Flickr in many respects is that a lot of the more "advanced" features are bundled in at no extra cost, though I assume that their longer term strategy would involve some charges for "premium" features.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Up until a few short months ago Movable Type, which is my preferred blogging platform, was not open source. While there was a free personal license if you made commercial use of the software you were honour bound to get a commercial license of some kind.

Since then MovableType has launched an open source project, while still maintaining its commerical versions.

If you want to play around with a robust blogging / CMS platform then you can either opt for the personal license or go down the open source route.

What's the difference?

The difference is primarily in terms of support.

If you opt for a personal license you can upgrade to get commercial support for a nominal fee. You can also upgrade your license and install to one of the other commercial versions of Movable Type that offer a variety of extra features.

With the Open Source version you are pretty much on your own and have to rely on the "community" for assistance.

While the open source route might be the best and most attractive option for some people it probably isn't for others.

Ultimately I'd recommend you weigh up the pros and cons and make your own decision.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 3:18 PM | Permalink

We're happy to announce that we've finally enabled dotmobi (.mobi) transfers.

If you have a .mobi domain registered elsewhere you can transfer it to us for the low cost of € 10 (ex-vat).

Similar to .com and many other domain extensions, .mobi uses the EPP system, so you will need to ensure that you have the EPP key from your current registrar before you initiate the domain transfer on our site.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 12:16 PM | Permalink

If you're using Twitter you can now follow our updates from both this blog and our technical status one by simply following the bksolutions user on Twitter.

Of course we're still offering email updates and RSS feeds, so if you aren't using Twitter you don't need to worry about it.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:31 AM | Permalink

Quite a few of our clients will have received emails over the last couple of days about their domains' contact details.

The text of the email is similar to this:

Dear Domain Holder,

This message is a reminder to help you keep the contact data associated with your domain registration up-to-date.

As of October 31, 2003 we are required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to send you this reminder by the Anniversary date of each registered Domain Name that is subject to the terms and conditions of that organization.

Below is a list of domain names with your email address listed as the registrant or administrative contact. The current contact information associated with the domain may be verified by following the link provided.

If any of the contact data is inaccurate, it must be corrected. If you need assistance in accessing your account to make these updates, please reply to this email. If the contact data is accurate, no further action is required to comply with this notice.

Please remember that under the terms of your registration agreement, the provision of false Whois (contact) information can be grounds for cancellation of your domain name registration.

It also includes a reference to the domain and a link to a page showing you the current details.

If the details aren't correct you can update them via your billing control panel quite easily and if you need assistance please let us know.

Keeping your domain details up to date will save you headaches, so do take the time to verify that it is all up to date.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 3:17 PM | Permalink

If your site is accessible over ipv6 or you simply want to find other ipv6 enabled sites then a new web directory called Sixy might be of interest.

Unlike a lot of more traditional directories Sixy uses tags to categorise sites and as a site owner you can specify which ones you'd like associated with your site. Of course if you have tags, then naturally you'll end up with a tag cloud, so you can easily see which tags are the most popular etc.

It's an interesting idea and if your site is available over ipv6 it might be worth your while getting listed now.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 12:10 PM | Permalink

TJ McIntyre posted earlier this week about a courtcase in Dublin involving abusive activity on Bebo.

TJ goes into some detail about the case and how the court was able to apply pre-existing legislation to a new medium.

He also goes onto add a word of warning which many legislators should heed:

But any extension of the law must be carefully limited to avoid damage to freedom of expression.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Image via Wikipedia

It's been completely overworked and abused since we first got it and we now have to schedule some downtime.

Naturally we'll be conducting the much needed maintenance outside office hours, as we wouldn't want a lack of caffeine to have a negative impact on our staff's performance.

We have warned our staff members who work the early morning shift that they may have to wait for their first dose of the day (I think some of them have taken to referring to it as a "fix") while our office manager does the necessary.

We expect service to return to normal around 9am, however there are no guarantees, so please excuse our sleepy staff.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Image via Wikipedia

The idea behind the new policy (PDF) is to help stem online fraud and cybercrime of various kinds, however the policy document itself is very ambiguous in its wording.

While ambiguity might be a good idea in certain contexts it's not a good idea when it can affect people's businesses and income.

Both myself and several other people have gone on the record about this, but ICANN seem to have approved the policy change regardless.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Image via Wikipedia

Leo Vegoda has posted an excellent followup of the session on the ICANN blog, summarising the speakers' various comments and thoughts.

While we may have some experience with ipv6 the session in Paris definitely opened my eyes to a whole set of issues that we will need to address moving forward.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 9:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

We're currently putting what I hope (and even pray!) are the final touches to our new website.

One of the things we are very very interested in updating is the testimonials page ie. the place where people tell us how wonderful we are!

Seriously. If you like our services and are happy to let others know email me directly (michele@blacknight.com) and we'll put it up on the new site.

Please don't ask me to write your testimonials (it's happened before!) We're only interested in genuine ones.

Thanks!

Posted by Michele Neylon at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Image by el frijole via Flickr

According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog (via), the latest firmware release for both the iPhone and iPod Touch includes support for other domain extensions; namely .net, .edu and .org.

The inclusion of .edu is an odd one. Either they're targetting a LOT of US students or there's something very odd going on. What's odder still is that they've completely excluded dotMobi (.mobi) as well as .info and .biz. Surely adding support for .mobi would have been more logical on a mobile device than adding .edu?

Posted by Michele Neylon at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Image via Wikipedia

I personally own a very eclectic mix of domains including a .kz (Kazakhstan), but I know that that kind of madness isn't for everyone!

While catching up on RSS feeds this morning I came across a short piece about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. While most of the press are focussing on their newborns the writer in question had spotted that Ms Jolie, or someone acting for her, had registered a bunch of domains related to the twins.

That's good going!

It's never too early to register a domain name. Registering your child's name, for example, means that they'll have their own little slice of cyberspace when they're ready for it.

In the case of the Jolie - Pitt babies it's a little different, as they were bound to attract plenty of online interest for the next few years, so registering the domains now will save them a lot of headaches (and money) further down the line.

So when should you register a domain?

When you want to. When you can. When you feel that you should.

Worst case scenario, your idea doesn't blossom and grow and you let the domain expire.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Since we launched our VPS hosting a couple of months ago we've been working on adding extra documentation both internally to our wiki and externally to our knowledgebase and websites.

We've recently added a short FAQ for VPS clients which hopefully addresses some of the questions people have.

We'll be adding more content as we can, but if there are any areas that people would like us to focus on please let us know.

I've also added a new VPS section to our forum

Feedback, as usual, is welcome

Posted by Michele Neylon at 2:39 PM | Permalink

I spoke to a Sunday Business Post journalist a couple of weeks ago about blogging and business blogging specifically.

This month's Computers In Business supplement features an in depth article where they spoke to a wide variety of people including TJ McIntyre, who was able to provide a legal angle:
Brave new blogging world

Posted by Michele Neylon at 3:43 PM | Permalink

One of the things to come out of the recent ICANN meeting in Paris may have slipped "under the radar" due to the media attention for new TLDs.

Pir, the organisation that manages the dotOrg registry (.org) was granted permission to implement DNSSEC.

DNSSEC, in simple terms, adds a level of security to DNS and can help prevent spoofing. While the implementation of DNSSEC has been discussed at length by many people over the last couple of years it's only with PIR's move that we may see it becoming a reality.

You can read more about what they are doing and why over on the official PIR blog.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 12:59 PM | Permalink

Web developers and designers hate dealing with odd browser issues, so the more people that use standards compliant browsers the better.

In the case of Internet Explorer 6 it seems that people have to do lots of hacking around to get it to "play nice".

Check out Save the developers

Posted by Michele Neylon at 2:56 PM | Permalink

Blacknight Solutions, Ireland's leading internet services company, is now accredited to sell .co.nl domain names. By registering a .co.nl domain name, for example myname.co.nl, registrants have the opportunity to reach a wider audience, particularly in The Netherlands.

Domain names with the .co.nl extension can be registered by anyone anywhere, unlike the .nl country code that requires a contact point in The Netherlands.

"Becoming an accredited registrar for .co.nl domain names allows us to give our clients an even wider range of options for registering domain names", said Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon.

"It extends the level of service we can offer our clients, making Blacknight Solutions a one-stop shop for all a businesses' internet hosting and domain name requirements."

With over three million .nl domain names already registered, obtaining your preferred .nl domain name can be difficult, however with this new extension, it will be much easier.

To ensure our clients get the .co.nl domain of your choice, Blacknight Solutions suggests contacting us as soon as possible to discuss requirements.

The .co.nl domain name extension was launched at the ICANN meeting in Paris held from 23-26 June, 2008. To ensure every person and every company has a fair chance to register their own .co.nl domain name, there will be a Sunrise process, as outlined below.

During this Sunrise period, every owner of a .nl and/or a valid trademark registration has the exclusive opportunity to register the international variant of their domain name within the defined Sunrise periods:
Sunrise 1: Grandfather period - commencing date Q3 2008
During the Grandfather period, owners of a .nl have an exclusive right to register their .co.nl as well. This implies that a registrant owning mydomain.nl, will be the only entity that has the opportunity to register mydomain.co.nl during the Grandfather period.

Sunrise 2: Registered Trademarks - commencing date Q4 2008
Domains that were not registered during Sunrise 1 (Grandfather) can still be claimed by trademark owners during the second phase. These applications will also be reviewed by a Verification Agent.

Multiple eligible applications of the same .co.nl name received during the 2nd Sunrise period will be assigned on a first come first served basis.

Landrush/ Go live - commencing date Q1 2009
In the Landrush phase, application requests can be made by the general public without restriction. They will be accepted on a first comes first served basis.

(Mentioned dates are merely indicative. Specific dates will be communicated two months before the actual launch)

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:54 AM | Permalink

The Irish communications regulator, Comreg, has opened a public consultation period about dotIE (.ie), which I mentioned last week.

This follows on from a study conducted by Comreg into stakeholder attitudes towards the IE namespace and the current registry operator, IEDR.

We get a lot of people complaining to us about the IE domain registration process, so now is the time for them to make their opinions known.

You can download the consultation document and submit your feedback via email or more "traditional" methods.

I'll be submitting a detailed set of answers to Comreg before the August deadline.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 9:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)