A few new additions to the Network

Dedo Design will go live soon on our network, and since Xmas, we've also added Napa Wine & Kitchen as well as SanMix International.

We're currently helping Fubar in Urumqi get their web-presence back, but as anyone who's dealt with less-scrupulous Chinese IT companies, this is next to impossible sometimes, as there's no recourse with companies who suddenly, simply disappear.

Christmas with Shanghai Fox!

Shanghai Fox is considering doing a special Christmas Day broadcast featuring classic & new Holiday songs. This time around, however, we're going for a more family oriented show. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, the Muppets' 12 days... That sort of thing. Check out www.chinaexcursions.com/shanghaifox.htm closer to Christmas for details. Once the playlist is done, I'll post more information there.

Google Picasa-Changing the Default Language

Someone on Shanghai Expat recently asked about how to change the language settings on Picasa. Their Picasa was in Chinese, but the user doesn't read Chinese, and didn't know how to go about changing the language. The Solution:

Go to Tools (2nd to last menu Item at the top)
Options (Last Choice of the tools menu at the bottom). Click on that.
You'll see 5 checkboxes & two dropdown menus.

Use the 2nd dropdown menu to change the interface language to your preferred language.

This'll work in changing any language to any other language, not just from Chinese to English.

JustBeer in Shanghai

One of our TeraScape clients, JustBeer, has recently added a few more products to their list of deliverable goods in Shanghai. Perrier Water is now available in 3 flavors & 2 sizes.

JustBeer owners have been friends of ours at TeraScape for a couple years now, and we've done quite a bit of IT work for them in the past as well. They've also recently contracted us to build another site for them, this one for their office/bar, The Shed. If you want to catch us out and about on a Saturday night, this is one place to look.

Lost Domain Names

As mentioned a few months ago, the Warren Jaycees lost a domain name to Kenyan spammers due to the lack of domain management. Recently a client of mine almost lost his to neglecting the renewal date.

While TeraScape does deal with domain names, we do it on a more personal level, and not through a customer account (yet). What this means is... we buy the domains for our clients and generally simply attach our own whois info onto it unless otherwise asked. We get 90, 60 & 30, 15 & 5-day reminders of when a domain will expire, and then promptly remind our customers from the beginning. The fee for this: maybe a couple bucks more than the actual cost of the domain. Hardly a money maker for us.

Our client, however, has had his domain for a couple years before switching to our host. He contacted me through Skype and asked what happened to his email & site. Sure his hosting fee is due, but I certainly didn't shut him down. I know him personally, and has always been good for the money for over 2 years. The reason he didn't know about the domain expiration was because the contact information on the domain wasn't him, but a former business partner. His domain name company is AIT, and having formerly worked with AIT, they've always been good at nearly spamming its clients when bills are due. Ample warning. It doesn't help though, if the contact information is wrong.

What can you do?

CHANGE THE CONTACT INFORMATION! If you're the primary business owner, make sure your name is associated with the contact information at the registrar. Your business partner could be listed under "Admin", "Technical Contact" or whatever else the registrar lists as contacts. Whether it be in your name, your business partner's name or a 3rd party manager (like us), the notices should go out a bit better. Of course this really has to do with how each registrar sends notices, but its also your best bet in case you forget about domain registration & your partner quits the business (or in some cases in China, steals your information & client list & starts his/her own.)

This was very similar to the mistake made with the Jaycees over a year ago. The contact information was under a Jaycees member from years ago, who simply wasn't around anymore. Fortunately, our client got his domain name back just in time (less than a day to spare) and is now back in operation.

Shanghai Fox

Shanghai Fox is our not-so-new creation featuring classic & modern rock music & soon, updates and news from around Shanghai. The makeshift website, currently part of China Excursions has details on how to listen in every Friday.

The idea behind Shanghai Fox is to offer the expats of the city a Friday musical experience, complete with local news, upcoming events, listener-participation and most of all, a way to roll in the weekend without having to search the 20 or so websites (including ours) to find out what's happening in the city.

This week was week 8 of the beta test. We're thinking that it's going to be another few months before the whole idea of "Shanghai Fox" becomes official. By official, we mean an actual host server, static IP address and most of all, becoming legit by paying out the royalties to bands like Bachman Turner Overdrive & AC/DC, among others.

In the meantime, check the site above to have a listen.

The Adventures of Jeff and his trusty CJ750 Sidecar, Mick

Somewhere in the sprawling metropolis of Shanghai, Jeff cruises around the city, leisurely taking in the sights, sounds and clean fresh air one Saturday Afternoon.

"You know, Mick, this is yet another lovely day in Shanghai, isn't it?" Jeff says to his trusty CJ750. "It's always just the right temperature, and the blue sky is absolutely lovely!"

"I totally agree, Jeff. My wheels are hugging the streets in style today!" Mick replies in a not so unlike Kitt sort of voice, and yet completely and utterly unrelated for copyright reasons.

"I think we should head on over to the Bund this afternoon and see if we can get our pictures taken by Japanese tourists, Mick."

As they cruise, Joe Walsh songs playing through the motorcycle helmet, a buzzer suddenly starts buzzing (as that's what buzzers usually do.) "Mick, it's the Super-Secret Marquass-Brand Red Alert Alerter (all rights reserved)!"

"I'll extend the viewscreen for you, Jeff!" Mick says. A pole extends outward from between Jeff's legs, revealing a small viewscreen, with a picture of a woman with a leather mask."

"Harley Harlequin! You vile woman! What foul scheme have you cooked up this time?" Jeff snarls at her. "Last time we met, I left you in the capable hands of the Shanghai Police Department!"

"You FOOL!" she cackles. "Didn't you know, it's off-season for organ donations? It only took one simple phone call to Guanxi Gary, and I was out of there before Mick could even toss a smoke circle. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Jeff smacked his helmet with a serious D'OH-like slap as Mick passed by his usual spot outside the Big Bamboo.

"I've left a bomb somewhere, big enough to blow up this entire city! And this time, You Can't STOP ME! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"You FIEND!" Jeff yells, Mick, revving in anger. "I'll stop you yet!"

"You'll NEVER find it on top of the Jin Mao Building, NEVER!"
...
...
...

(crickets chirping)
...
...
...
"D'oh!"

"HaHA!" Jeff yells in a strange, Bruce Campbell-ish yell! "Mick, to the Pudong Airport! We've got a bomb to diffuse!"

"Uh, Jeff... she..."

"NO TIME! GO!"

Mick races full speed to the Jin Mao building to bring our hero, Jeff to the scene of the crime! "We're here, Jeff! Hurry, diffuse the bomb!" Mick quickly pulls up the wikipedia entry on bomb disposal on the vidscreen, as Jeff reads it with lightning-fast reading ability!

"But Mick, this is BomBUH Diffusing. We want to diffuse a BOM!"

"Just go! I'll talk you through it!" Mick sighs.

"Aah... the Pudong Airport. So Tall! It could be anywhere! Mick, drive me to the top of the building!"

"Right away, Jeff!" Mick's wheels extend out in super-robotic flexible form with spikes forming on the tires, and our two heroes start scaling the side of the Jin Mao... uh Pudong Airport... Building. Halfway up, they meet a Frenchman climbing up the side.

"S'alright?"

"S'alright."

In a matter of seconds, they're at the top.

"There it is, Mick! My GOD! It's HUGE!" Jeff looks over at the pink & gray superstructure.

"That's the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jeff. I think you want that metal box you're standing on. The one with the numbers counting down."

"Of Course!" Jeff examines the metal box to try to disarm the bomb. "My god! Only 10 seconds left! We've got to do something!"

9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
(cough)
4...
3...
2...

Jeff quickly picked up the metal box, and with all his strength, hurls it toward the heavens! As he watches it go up, Mick watches it come down onto a boat on the Huangpu River full of clubbers and DJ's. Fireworks & extasy flew everywhere as the bomb exploded, but the sheer amount of hallucinogenic head-bouncing on the boat counteracted the shockwave of the bomb, and it fizzled out to a mere whimper.

"That was a close one, Mick!"

"Yes it was, Jeff. But you saved the day as usual!"

"Now, on to Harley Harlequin!"

Jeff & Mick ride to one of Shanghai's most seediest areas. "There it is, Mick. The Shanghai Racquet Club! A Fortress of Solitude for some, but a den of evil for Harley Harlequin."

"Be careful, Jeff. You don't know what's inside those walls." Unbeknownst to them, the double-racquet symbol on the walls twitch as they record their every word. Jeff stealthily sneaks in, leaving Mick to scan the perimeter.

"My God, It's full of Grass!" Jeff whispers into his Super-Secret Marquass Riding Glove/Two Way Radio Radioer (all rights reserved). "There's... cars... and BMX bikes. Kids playing wiffleball, and a little girl with a lollypop! And the lake inside is so... so... crystal clear!" Jeff had to stop to collect himself. The strange fresh-cut-grass smell was almost overwhelming. "How can something like this exist in Shanghai?"

"My sensors are telling me that Harley Harlequin is in the 3rd building over, on the top floor. Be careful, Jeff. She's not alone!"

Jeff sprints into action, running past a Ford Ranger and a man fixing his daughter's 10-speed, then scaling the treacherous stairs leading to the elevator. He skillfully dodges a skateboarder & leaps over a discarded baseball glove. Children singing "happy birthday", holding a cake with non-toxic candles, three teenage girls practicing cheerleader maneuvers, a little boy carrying a "Smurfs" dvd, oddly in a plastic case with no Chinese on it, all of this, Jeff deftly avoided, his sheer skill and fortitude protecting him from the white-collar suburban onslaught.

Signs telling of diabolical swimming lessons & squash team sign-ups give Jeff a chill down his spine. He gathered all of his testicular fortitude to press on after passing the Aerobics/Yoga class poster.

As he made his way up to the top floor, he was almost floored by the Barry Manilow song playing in the elevator. Stopped on the 3rd floor, a woman clad in a flowery sun-dress stepped into the elevator and said, "Hello. You must be new here! Would you like to try one of my truffles? I just baked them this morning in my oven!"

"Baked? Oven? TRUFFLES! Get BACK foul woman!" Jeff quickly grabbed the bag of truffles and dashed to the staircase, leaving the dumbfounded woman far behind. As he looks in the bag expecting to find a bag full of furry creatures, he breathes a sigh of relief. "They're all dead! And Chocolaty! Every last one of them! They must've been poisoned by the grain! Fancy that!"

Jeff ascended the staircase to the top floor and bursts in on Harley Harlequin. "HaHA!" he yells, in a Monty Python/Holy Grail-ish voice. "I've got you now!"

Harley, shocked to see Jeff in her secret lair, points to the Ayi and shouts, "Kill!"

The ayi looked at Jeff, and says, "Stuff that, lady. I'm outta here." and quickly walks off, grabbing a 50 from the table.

Harley & Jeff prepare for the epic final battle. Harley grabs her riding crop, while Jeff readies his Super-Secret Quick Release Detachable Ammo Boxy Box (all rights reserved) from his utility belt. Harley strikes forth with her crop as Jeff dodges, pulls a bagel from the box & wings it at her like a frisbee, connecting on her right shoulder. POW, SMACK, WHAPPO!

Harley is shaken, but not yet stirred as she lunges forward, whipping the riding crop across his left leg. "Take that! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Jeff jumps back in pain, and pulls out a vampire-duck-on-a-string from the Boxy Box. "Now I can dig through the ditches and burn through the witches and slam you in the back with my Duckula!" The duck lunges forward, snapping at her left ear.

"Ouch!" she yells!

"What?" Jeff laughts mockingly!

Again, Harley leaps forward, flailing her riding crop like a flail at her steadfast opponent, as Jeff bends backwards, head almost touching the floor. He sees the riding crop whip right above him in slow motion. He takes the time to pick a piece of lint off of the flail as it whips itself back toward the owner.

As he leaps back up, Jeff reaches into his Boxy Box and pulls out a Cat-O'7-tails. Suddenly realizing what the Meat-Stick Seller meant by "Thanks for the tip," Jeff strikes at his opponent with the tails, grazing her forehead, and leaving an odd lightning bolt scar in their wake.

"That's it! Harley steps back and starts to summon the most evil dark incantation known to man. The room grows dark as she conjures her spell. The sun suddenly eclipses, and the moon suddenly reaches perihelion. Mars crashes into Jupiter, and Mat Ryan's poker game gets ruined.

As she chants, Jeff lunges forward and biffs her in the nose. The sheer force of the biff sends her into a startled rage, disrupting her incantation. Harley leaps up in anger, but hits her head on the chandelier, sending her stumbling backwards, tripping herself over some wicker furniture and flipping her over the railing of her balcony. "I'll be baaaaaaack!" she yells as she plummets, landing next to a man holding a tennis racquet and two little girls playing with their Barbie(TM) tea set.

"What?" Jeff yells mockingly again.

---

With the crisis over, Jeff & Mick head back into town, away from the evils of the Racquet Club. Mick pulls into his usual spot over at the Big Bamboo.

"Do you think we've seen the last of her, Jeff?" Mick asks as he clears one last puff of exhaust.

"I don't know, Mick. I just don't know." Jeff sighs, and then smiles. "But right now, that doesn't matter. It's another beautiful day in Shanghai, and there's a chardonnay with my name on it right inside these doors!"

"Oh, Jeff!" They both have a good chuckle, and life in Shanghai is good again, thanks to Jeff and his Trusty Supercycle, Mick!

THE END!!?

The preceding article is just a different way to say, "Check out Jeff Marquass's new blog!" But then that would've been kind of boring, now wouldn't it.

Blogspot in China?

Yes, it's possible. First of all, you need a domain name. Take... sinopenn.com for example. Blogger software, blogger blog, google everything else, except for the posts. But it's not blocked in China.

How do you do this? First of all, you need a domain name. Domains cost no more than $10 from a place like Godaddy.com or around 200 RMB through a little known outfit called TeraScape.NETworks.

If you're a long-time blogger, and you're over here behind the Great Firewall, then you absolutely should buy yourself a domain name. It's a 10th of an English Teacher's salary over here. Why wouldn't you?

Once you get that, you need to set up your FTP settings. You NEED to have a host. Whether it's a cheap $3.99 host out of the US, or some cheap service out of Shanghai... I know there's one somewhere... or even some free service, get yourself a service. Make sure you have FTP settings, as that part is next.


Go into your blogger & click "Settings" then "Publishing". See that little "FTP" link? Click that & you're one step closer.

Here's where you enter your information. If you need help, ask your administrator, or check your control panel. 99.9% of the time, all the information you need is on the Control Panel.

FTP Server: How do you update your website? Your site location goes there.
Blog URL: Remember that domain name you just got? That goes there.
FTP Path: Could be left as a "/" but check your settings.
Blog Filename: if you don't want a "blog.html" or anything like this, or you only want a blog on the domain, leave it as index.html. If you have other things you want your website to be, then try changing it to blog.html or something else.
FTP Username: Your login for when you want to update your website.
FTP Password: Your Password...

One IMPORTANT thing to note: When you were using blogspot only, you may've added a few things via blogspot to your template. When switching to FTP, these will be LOST. Google or Blogger cannot use its widgets on an FTP Blogger blog. You'll have to add these in manually.

Since we're talking Google products here, we're pretty sure they're not going to go stealing your server or domain name anytime soon. But to be on the safe side, never have your Server password the same as your email or Google account password. And as with any company, it's a sure bet that Google, nor any reputable company out there, will EVER ask for your password.

You're all set. Time to stop bitching about blogspot being blocked, and get back to what you do best... Blogging!

Google Apps in China?

While we run our own servers & such, complete with email packages, we prefer the Gmail way of doing things and have outsourced our personal email accounts to Google Apps. However, we ran into a problem when trying to register for the service from here in China. Google Apps "isn't available in your country".

Don't let this stop you. Google Apps CAN work in China. All you need to do is find a trusted contact in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia or most of Europe & have them go through the set-up process. Personally, I had a family member do it for me. Since then, we've been on Gmail for our email for almost a year.

The trick is, going step by step with them until they get to the point where it's "not available" for you. They'll have to finish the rest. Remember that your Contact will be entering YOUR password. Don't use your main password at first. You can change this later when you get access. If you have a primary email address you'd like to use, make sure that your contact knows it & types it in properly. Your primary address CANNOT be changed or edited on Google Apps once it's entered. And if you have to start over, it generally takes Google over a week to reset it's end.

From there, all you have to do is log into your control panel & make the necessary adjustments to your MX records. Google has a nice 5 step tutorial on how to do just that. Once you're set up, change the password you gave to your contact. Even if it's your own mother, you never know what kind of viruses & keyloggers could be lurking on her computer.

Things to know about Google Apps in China: Email works, as does Docs, Calendar & others. Web pages, however, do NOT. If you expect to get a free host out of Google in China, think again. We've tried this for a few clients & it's never worked. This may change, but as of this particular post, Google free websites are quite blocked here.

Also, if your domain is also your server, you'll have to do a bit of tweaking to your records. Otherwise, your "localhost" clients' emails will bounce. Some servers will look for localhost email addresses first, and even if it exists on Gmail, it'll fail & bounce back to the client. Instructions for this will be coming soon.

About Google Apps in general, there are a lot of complaints circulating around the Internet about sending an email from an alias on Google Apps and Gmail. It'll look something like "From: you@emailaddress.com~On Behalf Of yourprimary@emailaddress.com". If you think that using Google Apps as opposed to Gmail will remove the pesky "~On Behalf Of" part, you're mistaken. Contrary to popular belief, this has nothing whatsoever to do with Google. This is a Microsoft Outlook & Outlook Express Issue. When Google sends an email, it attaches the extra email address to "Sender" in the headers, rather than "XSender." Until Google decides to use either "XSender" instead of "Sender", or offer its users a choice, there's no way to remove the "On Behalf Of" listing. But be happy in knowing, it's generally only Microsoft that shows this.

Other than all that, you have Gmail with your domain! Enjoy it!

What ever happened to WarrenJaycees.com?

What ever happened to the old WarrenJaycees.com? Why is it now WarrenPAJaycees.com? It's a long story.

As you Warrenites know, The Warren Jaycees have had an online presence longer than some of the major companies in Warren. We predated WarrenPA.us, HellIfICare.com, and VoteWarren.org. It's been around around almost as long as the now defunct WeLoveWarren.com and the still-running, WarrenNet.com (probably the oldest), TimesObserver.com and our local major industries like Blair & Whirley Industries.

Since 1998, the Jaycees site has gone through several "free site" URLs, incarnations & even more changes, originally hosted with civic-clubs.com as a free site, they went defunct, and we moved to WorldZone.net. It stayed there as a free site for over a year. Then as another incarnation on WorldZone took place, they suddently changed their Free Website packages. Yet another URL for Warren Jaycees.

Eventually, it became part of my personal Penn.com account, an account that would sty put for years! So I thought, until they were ruthlessly taken over by Earthlink, in which I spent 3 months trying to prove to them that my bill was paid for the next 6 months.

After the Earthlink fiasco was done, we, as a chapter decided we needed our own domain name. As always, I was still the webmaster. We chose WarrenJaycees.com, narrowly beating out the Warren, Michigan Jaycees for the domain name. Now, we had a permanent place for our website.

Or so we thought.

One of the problems of membership-driven organizations is that people like the treasurer, the secretary, president, and in some cases (but not ours) the webmaster, changes from year to year. When it comes to domain names, over the years, when people come and go, these names & accounts can get lost; which was the case for warrenjaycees.com.

The original treasurer who bought & paid for the domain name, left the account in an old email address, no longer used. When the renewal notices came in, they fell upon deaf inboxes. We as the chapter had no idea, since this is all supposed to be taken care of by... the treasurer. But as with an organization such as the Jaycees, the old treasurer is no longer the new treasurer, and bills such as this sometimes get lost.

But then the worst possible scenario happened. The domain fell upon a group called, NOLDC.com. They claim to be from New Orleans, but enough google searches shows them to be from Kenya. They buy up expired domain names & offer them back to the original owners for hundreds of dollars. They never made an offer to us, but we knew the domain was lost.

Hence the newest & much more stable incarnation, www.WarrenPAJaycees.com. As the Jaycees' web admin for almost 10 years, now that I have this power, with this one, I now own the domain name personally, provide the hosting, provide updates (along with Mike Sharp, from the Russell Roller Rink), and maintain the server & email.

If this gives a nice heads-up to other organizations out there to teach you how to manage a non-profit domain or membership organization domain, then the job is done. Watch your ASSets. It's a shame this didn't reach the Warren, Michigan Jaycees sooner. If you bothered to click on their link, by the looks of it, they lost theirs too.

SinoPenn? What the hell is SinoPenn?

Sinopenn is a simple update blog for TeraScape.NETworks. SinoPenn stands for "Sino-Pennsylvanian" simply because, this particular Pennsylvanian just happens to live in China and happens to be the CEO/Chief Consultant for TeraScape.NETworks.

TeraScape hosts websites around China and the world. We've done work for Just Beer, Marquass Motorcycles, the former Senses Wine Lounge and, most recently, WD-40 China. We also run a few of our own sites, such as China Excursions & JinanLIVE.com.

On the Pennsylvania side, TeraScape provides free hosting & maintenance to the Warren Jaycees, and runs WarrenPA.us & JamestownNY.us. TeraScape also LOVES NPO's in Warren. If your LOCAL Non-profit Organization in Warren needs anything, absolutely contact us. We'll be happy to help with marketing, publishing and even website design & hosting.