http://www.johnmckown.com John McKown: President of Delaware.Net, Inc. Thu, 08 May 2008 15:50:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I just updated my Windows laptop to XP Service Pack 3 this morning and I haven't had any issues with it.  The update went pretty smoothly, but the Windows Update site was a little slow to download from, since there are so many people updating their systems today.   In fact, ... http://www.johnmckown.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-launched-today/ I just launched a new real estate portal on Delaware.com. The new real estate search engine for Delaware includes all homes in both Delaware area MLS databases. This allows us to offer a local real estate search that covers ALL of the available homes in Delaware. Each morning, we ... http://www.johnmckown.com/delawarecom-real-estate-portal-launched/ I don't use a desktop computer anymore I've gone 100% laptop, and I really don't miss having a big desktop computer any longer. I get asked a lot by friends and customers what computer they should buy. My advice is that if you are a businessperson that needs to ... http://www.johnmckown.com/what-i-am-buying-for-my-next-laptop/ Companies that offer email hosting service have seen quite a few changes over the years. Compared to years ago, spam is obviously more of a problem for everyone that uses email. To combat spam, we have employed special technologies on our network, and we have ... http://www.johnmckown.com/hosting-companies-must-stop-forwarding-email-or-else/ Three years ago, I came up with an idea to get a little more local exposure for us, and to also help out area chambers of commerce.  The idea was to have a business-to-business (B2B) trade show, where businesses that sell to other businesses could mix and market.  On March ... http://www.johnmckown.com/delaware-expo-trade-show-a-huge-success/ I installed an alternative to iTunes called VLC, and I love it.  It is small, clean, has no spyware, no advertisements, and it loads super-fast.  It also plays every major codec and streams Internet radio easily.   You can download it here.   Why did I ditch iTunes? More after the jump. First ... http://www.johnmckown.com/alternative-to-itunes/ I was asked whether I have Google Adwords experience by a trade group, so that I could share some tips about selling AdWords management as a service. Sure, I do have some Google adwords experience. But I also have tremendously more Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experience. SEO work ... http://www.johnmckown.com/dont-just-throw-money-at-google-adwords/ Here we go again, another election year... Election years can be dangerous times for business owners that have strong political views and little self-control. Especially for those who force those views down the throats of their customers, employees, and peers. While I feel that it's commendable for anyone to ... http://www.johnmckown.com/online-etiquette-%e2%80%93-mixing-politics-and-business/ 2007 was a good year for Delaware.net. We grew 24% overall, and web design project revenue grew 90%. Our staff also grew, and we accomplished most of our goals, including launching new applications. Lots more is coming in 2008, and if you want to hear ... http://www.johnmckown.com/2007-accomplishments-and-looking-ahead-to-08/ Microsoft FrontPage is a web design program designed for beginners. In early 2006, Microsoft reported that they will not release any further versions of their web design tool. They decided to stop making the product for several reasons: FrontPage was a beginner tool, that professional web designers shunned. Adobe ... http://www.johnmckown.com/alternatives-to-frontpage/