A domain in relation to the internet is [Domain Name].[TLD], such as PCMECH.COM. The domain name itself is PCMECH. The TLD, a.k.a. Top Level Domain is the dot com. Or moreover, just com.

Generally speaking you can have up to 60 characters in a domain name before the TLD, so if you wanted..

Hi-There-This-Is-My-Domain-Name-and-I-Really-Like-It.com

..you could get it.

And by the way, the above is a 52-character domain name because the dashes do count as characters.

5 quick tips on domain names

1. Watch where you search.

Have you ever searched for a domain name to purchase and it’s snapped up FIVE SECONDS before you buy it? It’s probably because where you were searching was broadcasted out somewhere, a bot picked it up and auto-registered the domain name.

You can avoid this very annoying situation by using a domain search site that does not broadcast the search results, such as DomainTools.com.

2. Don’t use dashes.

If your domain name contains dashes it’s most likely true that you’ll have to deal with people mistyping your domain all the time. Try to avoid this.

3. If stuck for ideas, use your business name + location.

If your business name is taken as a dot-com (and it most likely is), just add your business’ location. So instead of ExampleBusiness.com it could be ExampleBusinessFlorida.com or ExampleBusinessUSA.com or ExampleBusinessUK.com and so on. You get the idea.

4. Stick with dot-com.

The internet revolves around dot-com. If you have dot-net, dot-org or dot-whatever it will not be as easy to remember.

5. When you get your domain name, register every single type of free service possible for easiest communication.

Register with AIM, Yahoo, MSN/Live, Skype, eBay, Google, MySpace, FaceBook and anything else you can think of with your newly registered name. By doing this you are branding yourself in a good way.

Granted, there is a distinct possibility you won’t be able to get them all, but try your best. Even if you never use them, register with the services regardless. You may encounter a customer, friend or what-have-you that wants to communicate in a specific way, and guess what - you’re covered.

Some have found Adobe Reader to be annoying, bloated, and just a plain pain in the rear. There are alternatives like FoxIt, but if you want to abolish PDF readers all together and still be able to look at the occasional PDF, here’s a nifty service called PDFMENOT.

This service allows you to either view PDFs that are linked somewhere on the web, or upload a PDF from your computer. While this service does fine with standard text and image PDFs, you may run into issues with highly interactive PDFs.

Many people like navigating by keyboard.  It can sometimes be faster and more efficient then using a mouse once you get the hang of it.  Here’s two useful shortcuts that may help in that regard.

To open up Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer), simply hold the Windows key and press E.  No matter where you are, this will open Windows Explorer.

To navigate up and down, simply use the arrow keys.

To open and close subfolders use the * and - keys on the num pad.  Note that these shortcut keys open and close *all* subfolders on the selected folder, not just one level, so if you have a lot of files and subfolders, opening them may take a few moments.

To open only one level of subfolders, use the + key on the num pad.

While TinyURLs can sometimes be handy and short and pretty to pass around and post in your blog, they also effectively hide the original URL.  What this means, is that sometimes, people can hide all sorts of URLs behind it, including those you may not really want to visit.

Here are two ways you can unmask those URLs.

The first way is to bookmark this link (right click on the link, bookmark link or add to favorites):

<a href=”javascript:Embiggen={”runNow”:true}; var s=document.createElement(”script”); s.type=”text/javascript”; s.src=”http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/embiggen/embiggen.js”; document.getElementsByTagName(”head”)[0].appendChild(s); void(0);”>Embiggen</a>

Whenever you visit a page that has TinyURLs on it, click the bookmarked link, and it will replace all the TinyURLs with their actual URLs.  You can visit the author’s site for this tool here: http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/embiggen/

The second way is go directly to the TinyURL site and click the “enable previews” link: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?disable=1

You can also bookmark the enable link directly: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?enable=1

You will have to have cookies enabled for this to work.  Basically, what it does is visit the TinyURL website when you click on a TinyURL, show you what the actual link looks like, and at which time, you can choose whether or not you really want to visit the link.

Back in the days of olde (i.e. late 90s) web browsers were distinctively different in the way they worked as far as user commands were concerned. Today all of them act more or less identical to each other. I personally feel this is good because when going from one browser to the next there’s not too much of a learning curve, if any at all.

My favorite shortcuts are the ones that require the absolute least amount of effort to do, such as single-key functions or double-clicking a mouse in a certain spot.

I’ll be going over a few (but not all) of these shortcuts in the "big three" web browsers: Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), Firefox 2 (FF2) and Opera 9.26 (OP9).

Keystroke: CTRL+T
Function: Open new tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: CTRL+W
Function: Close currently selected tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke for only one tab open: CTRL+W
Function: Closes browser
Works in: IE7 FF2

Keystroke: F5
Function: Refresh/Reload web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: F6
Function: Go to address (URL) bar
Works in: IE7 FF2

Keystroke: / (forward slash)
Function: Quick-find text in current web page
Works in: FF2 OP9

Keystroke: Home
Function: Go to top of current web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: End
Function: Go to bottom of current web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: CTRL+(number of tab)
Function: Go to specific tab by order of load (CTRL+1, CTRL+2, etc.)
Works in: IE7 FF2

Mouse: Double-click in blank area of tab bar
Function: Opens new blank tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Mouse+Keyboard: ALT+Scroll
Function: Scroll by line
Works in: FF2

Mouse+Keyboard: SHIFT+Scroll (up or down)
Function: Go back/forward thru web page history
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

As you can see, most functions are more or less identical across all browsers. The two that are almost identical to each other are IE and FF. There’s very little FF can do that IE can’t.

Opera, while a great browser, seems to be the only one that falls behind in the shortcut department. F6 has been "go to address" bar pretty much ever since web browsers were invented, yet Opera doesn’t do it. Yes, I know you can do a CTRL+L for the same function but it shouldn’t take two keys when you can do it in just one. A nitpick? Yes, obviously. But hey, I notice these things, what can I say..

I stumbled across a really handy feature in Windows Vista, which is the ability to display the time in multiple time zones using the system clock.

This is easy to set up:

1. Right click on the time in the task bar and select Adjust Date/Time.
2. Go to the Additional Clocks tab.
3. Select the check box to show the additional clock, pick a time zone and give it a title.
4. You can add up to 2 additional time zones this way.
5. Apply your changes.

Now hover the mouse over the clock in the system tray and you will see your additional times are displayed along with the local time. This feature is very useful to me since I have customers in several different time zones around the World.

More times than not, the built in program uninstaller in Windows Add/Remove program is more than enough, but if you are looking for a bit more functionality, take a look at MyUninstaller.

MyUninstaller, in addition to the obvious function of uninstalling programs allows you do remove dead entries, view more detailed program information (including installation strings, installed paths, etc.) and export currently installed program information.

The program is free, but I expect only power users would want to take a look into this. If you are happy with the existing functionally of the Windows utility, by all means stick with. MyUninstaller, however, appears to be a great alternative for people looking for a bit more.