Clarihon blog

• Welcome to Clarihon Web Service’s blog

If you want to have 2 or more PCs sharing your broadband facility at home or need to network a few PCs in different rooms around the house or office what do you do?

If, like us, you don’t want to run cabling between rooms and the walls are too solid to allow reliable wireless you need another solution.

Step forward Powerline technology.

All you do is buy a pair of matching or compatible network to power adapters. Plug one into a power socket near your broadband router and connect it to the router using the network cable supplied. Then plug in the other at a mains socket near the PC you want to link in. Connect the unit to the PC with the other supplied cable and Robert is your father’s brother!

We’ve used two sorts successfully here at chateau RFG. The first was from Netgear (XE104) but has now been superseded and the second is from ZyXEL (PLA400).  You might still be able to get the PLA400 from places like  Scan (www.scan.co.uk) or Ebuyer (www.ebuyer.com) but you might now only be able to get the newer version, the PLA-401 v2.

It’s been a dark and dreary month so we thought we’d cheer you up by offering two special/seasonal deals.

The first is a 25% reduction in our annual web site and e-mail hosting charge for the rest of November and December.  If you would like us to host your web site, provide up to 10 e-mail mailboxes and (re)register a .co.uk domain name for only £75 + VAT, call or e-mail us now.  See our Hosting web page for more details.

Are you fed up with writing Christmas cards for your clients (or even friends and family!), keen to save paper and trees or just want to do something a little different this Xmas?  Why not send your clients, business contacts or friends & family an electronic Xmas card? Prices start from only £70 (+VAT).  See our Electronic Christmas Card page for more details.

As mentioned in the previous article, copyright is automatic on any original creative work.  However, some countries do require you to mark your work as copyrighted material to assert this right so it is good practice to include a copyright notice on your website.  Not only does this alert people to the fact that copyright exists on the material, but also states who owns it and acts as a deterrent to anyone wishing to copy it.  Both text and proprietary images should include copyright notices.

Text – each page of your website should contain a copyright notice and comprise the word Copyright to cover the countries which do not accept the symbol; the copyright symbol ©; the date of creation or a span of dates from creation to last revision; the copyright owner’s name.  For our website this gives us:

Copyright © 2007-9 Clarihon Web Services

You will often see All rights reserved following the copyright notice as a simple way to cover all material from being copied.  If there are certain parts of your site you are happy for others to copy then make this clear in your copyright notice.

Images – for any proprietary images the best way to add a copyright notice is through the imaging software you use as it makes them harder to remove.  You may want to add a watermark if your images are especially valuable.

The flip side to this is to make sure that any material – images or text – that you use on your website is original or you have obtained the necessary permissions to use it from the rightful owner.

If your website does contain particularly valuable material or if a copy of some or all of your website would prove very detrimental to your business, then it is possible to register your website.  In the event of a dispute over ownership, registration will provide irrefutable evidence of ownership and proof of copyright.

More information about registration is available from the UK Copyright Service website.

Copyright law exists to protect the creator of a written work, music, film etc. from having their work copied, published or distributed by someone else unless express permission has been given.   The fundamentals of copyright law are based on a 19^th century convention (Berne Convention) which automatically protects a new and original creative work without the need for registering it.  In the UK, copyright is covered by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and subsequent revisions, other countries will vary.

Websites are covered by copyright law but with the advent of electronic media then it becomes much easier for original material to be copied.  All too often there are reports in the media about plagiarism particularly amongst students lifting material from the internet for their essays.  Copyscape is a useful tool for checking for duplicated web content and providing some basic guidance on how to proceed if you find your material has been copied.

We’d worked or been out for most of the week-end separately so when I got a call from a prospective client cancelling a lunchtime meeting this morning that was it.

This morning arrived crisp and clear, crying out to be enjoyed.

What did we do?

Being self-employed and with no immediate deadlines to meet we decided to have a walk along the coast.

Running a small Web Design company here in Cornwall definitely has it’s advantages. Yes, we sometimes work late or during a week-end but the ability to drive 10-20 mins and be on Bodmin Moor or on the coast at Looe when the sun shines more than makes up for it.

Since we’re in business to support ourselves and give us the lifestyle we want, shouldn’t we indulge ourselves like this a little every now and then?

That’s one of the great things about being your own boss I guess. Obviously my wife is a boss of sorts but you know what I mean. [ ]