Archive for 2006

CakePHP Routing

December 08, 2006 Add Comment
CakePHP Routing 


I'm currently playing around a bit more with CakePHP. I'm rewriting our CMS system based on the CakePHP framework. It's a great learning exercise because you constantly have to deal with real life problems!

Just now I was wondering about the url structure of the website. The CMS has two different "areas" designed for two different end users. First there is the site itself (displayed to the visitor of the website) and second there is the CMS administration panel. Because I started designing the system from the administration panel's perspective, I soon discovered that thát part of the website was going to be accessed at the root (/). This of course isn't a logical structure, as it would require the pages the visitors visit to have a prefix or something.. So I looked into CakePHP's routing system and came up with some solutions to my problem.

First of all, there is CakePHP's CAKE_ADMIN config setting. This is a routing solution that allows a function called: index() in controller: users to be accessed like this: /admin/users/index. All you need to do is rename the method to: admin_index() and set the CAKE_ADMIN variable to 'admin'. This seemed like a nice solution, but frankly it wasn't. You can still access the controller without the /admin/ prefix, but it will then give out errors (view for admin_index() could not be found). So I went to play a bit more, and found out the following:



  • You can easily reconstruct Cake's default routing (i.e.: /controller/action/param1/param2/...) by using the following route: $Route->connect('/:controller/:action/*', array());

  • The order in which routes are set matter: if one route is successful, Cake will not bother to look at the rest of the routes.So I designed my own /admin/ prefix, like so: $Route->connect('/admin/:controller/:action/*', array());


Then by changing the default route (for '/') to the following line:
$Route->connect('/:page/*', array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'output'));

I can have nice page structures, which are rerouted to /posts/output... Using this structure /posts/output knows which page to load by looking at $this->params['page'] (:page is a custom parameter!). Even better, secondary parameters are still passed (thanks to the trailing /*)!

Since CakePHP uses ordering in the routing, it stops routing after a route was successful. So if you place the /admin/ route above the /:page/* route, administration should be fine!
Also, you might want /admin/ to be accessible without passing on controller/action, etc. (i.e. you would end up at the start page for the administration panel). To do this, include the following route (place it at the top):
$Route->connect('/admin*', array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'index', 'page'));

This will reroute a request to /admin to a default routing location (for me: /posts/index/page)

What I find strange is the fact that the above route doesn't stop Cake from looking on (it will still find the more elabore one; /admin/:controller/:action/*). This is possibly because of the trailing Asterix (*)?

You can of course use these techniques to set up different "areas" for your website (while physically all files are located in the same Cake folder). For instance you could have the following areas:
/blog/
/shop/
/customer_service/

simply by setting up your routings properly.

Please note the 'standard' routing variables:
/somedir/:controller/:action

Here: :controller sets the controller Cake will use and :action sets the action that will be invoked. Furthermore you can set custom parameters with this:
/blog/:page
Now the value for page will be available by using: $this->params['page'].
By the way, other parameters are available in the following array: $this->params['pass']!

Increase Your Google Page Rank: SEO tips

December 06, 2006 1 Comment

Increase Your Google Page Rank: SEO tips


Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are Links pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have the higher your PR will be.

1. Join forums, forums are a great way to achieve links to your website. In most forums you are allowed to have a signature and in your signature you can put a link to your website. But another important note to look on is making sure the forum is somewhat related to your website. You will still get credit if it's not, but if it's related to your website than you will be accomplishing two tasks at once.

You will be advertising for your website (bringing in targeted traffic) You will also be building your websites presence.

Your websites presence is very important to your survival. The more people see, or hear about your website the more credibility you will have and this increases your chances of having these visitors come back and possibly become leads.

2. Submit to search engine directories. Search engine directories are a good way to get a free link to your website. They also increase your chances at being listed higher on popular search engines like Google, and overture.

Most search engine directories allow you to submit to their website for free. This will allow you to increase your web presence by being listed on another search engine, and it will also be a free link.

Remember the more links you have the higher your PR will be

3. Using ezine ads (or newsletters). Creating an ezine will probably be the most beneficial step you can take to increasing your web presence. When you create an ezine you will be able to keep visitors coming back to your website for more by using signatures and giving special deals.

Ezine's will also allow you to increase your back links. By creating an ezine you can submit your information about your ezine to an ezine directory. This directory will than link to your website(thus giving you a free link).

4. Creating and publishing articles. Articles are an easy source of generating new traffic. You can include your signature in your article. This will bring in more traffic from article submission directories.

Your signature usually consists of 4 to 8 lines. Usually the first line would be the title of the website that you are trying to advertise. The last line would be the link to the website and the lines in between these would be a sales pitch to draw your viewers into your website. 

5. Links from related websites. Gaining links from related websites can be one of the most frustrating tasks you can attempt. 

They are very easy to find, but can be somewhat difficult to obtain links from.

To find related websites, all you have to do is go to a search engine... say Google... and type in your subject. Maybe your website is based on ford mustangs. 

You go to Google and type in ford mustangs, than you look around for pages that are somewhat related to your website. After you have done this (which should be very easy) you have to contact them in some way to get your link posted on their website. This can be the most difficult task because a lot of webmasters ignore e-mail's from people requesting links because they don't see the importance of it at the time. Some other reasons could be that they are rarely online, or they delete spam mail and sometimes delete their important emails in the process.

Important note: When looking for link partners don't just link with websites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. Link with anyone and everyone you get a chance to. If you link to someone that has a page rank of zero, this will not hurt your page rank. It will only increase it because you are getting a link back to your website. Google doesn't look at your back links page ranks to determine what yours is going to be. It simply looks at how many back links you have. 

So if Google one day decided to link to a website that was just created and this website has a page rank of 0 and has a domain that goes something like this: mywebsite.geocities.com it's page rank wouldn't increase even though Google's page rank is 10, it's rank would still be zero because it would only have that one back link.

Microsoft Word Helpful tips

December 05, 2006 Add Comment

Microsoft Word Helpful tips




Evidently the chap who said there are no shortcuts to any place worth going was not a practical sort of fellow. Quite unlike us who dote on the shortest route to success with application like MS Word.

Our series on making you an expert at Microsoft Word continues with more tips and tricks for the world’s most ubiquitous word processing application.

Formatting Killer

Want to kill all formatting in Word doc? Select the whole document by pressing Ctrl+A, or select just a portion of the document that you want to remove formatting from, And simply press Ctrl+Shift+N.

Password Protection

To prevent all and sundry from opening sensitive Word document, open the file you want to protect. Select Tools > Option and click on the Security tab. Against the “Password to open” box, type in your password and click on the OK. In the “Reenter password to open” box, key in the password again. Click on the OK. If you want a more than 15-character password, hit the ‘Advanced’ button and select RC4 encryption. Remember, these passwords are case-sensitive. And just ensure that you never forget the password…

Professor Calculus Here!

If you need to do a lot of calculation in Word, do not flap your arms around looking for a calculator, or sit around sighting with pencil and paper. Use Word’s calculator. First add the Tools Calculate button to your Word toolbar. Click on the Tools in the Word menu. Or right-click on the toolbar. Then click on Customize. In the Commands tab, find Tools in the left pane (Categories) and click on it. Next, in the right pane (Commands), scroll down the tool calculate, click on it and drag it to your Word menu, placing it between the existing icons. Releasing the mouse button creates the toolbar button. Close to the Customize dialog box. Now for calculations in your Word doc, select the numbers you want to add/subtract/multiply etc. and click the Tools Calculate button. You will see the total in the status bar below.

Where's that file?

Want Word to remember more than just five of your recent documents that appear that the bottom of the file drop down menu? Select Tools > Options, and click on the General tab. Next to the text “Recently used file list”, key in 9. Click on OK.

Need for Speed

If you have a slow PC, navigating and editing complex Word docs can be a real drag. To speed up the display, you can choose view your document in a draft font. This really speeds up screen rendering by hiding all complex screen formatting while retaining all the content intact.
For this, go to Tools > Option and select the view tab. Here, check the “Draft Font” box to enable it and click on OK. Then in the Word menu, click on View >Normal. Now you entire document will appears in a draft font with basic formatting like bold, italic, or underlined text. The change is only in the onscreen appearance of the document; the original formatting of the document is retained.

Table Magic

You can easily create a table in Word 2003 without clicking and editing data in each and every cell. To do this you need to key in you table data in a ‘comma-delimited format’. And that means something as simple as this:
Antenorio, 101
Tina Hancock, 95
Tara, 94
Smith , 76
John, 89

Highlight this text. In the Word menu go to Table > Insert >Table. That’s it. You can also work on its appearance via the Table > Table Auto format command to apply various style, or edit the table’s display properties manually.

WordPress Plugin: show Google Analytics & FeedBurner Reports Statistics

December 01, 2006 Add Comment

WordPress Plugin: show Google Analytics & FeedBurner Reports Statistics



If you’re using WordPress as your blogging platform, and also use Google Analytics to track web traffic statistics reporting and tracking tool, and FeedBurner to manage your web feeds and track the feed stats and syndicated traffic, then you will like the Google Analytics and Feedburner Reports plugin for WordPress. The plug-in allows WordPress users to easily view the Google Analytics and Feedburner website traffic reports, both are popular third-party web analytics and traffic tracking tools, from WordPress administration area by adding a top-level Reports tab.

At the Reports tab, WordPress users will be able to view 7 day overview of important web traffic statistics, including daily page views  daily unique visits, daily circumlocution  referrers, and etc. Other features include:

Provides a birds-eye view of what’s going on with your site.
Retrieves data from Google Analytics and Feedburner.
Reports are represented visually with graphs.
Choose the reports you want to view.
Ability to automatically install the Google Analytics tracking code for you, along with optional outbound link tracking.

SEO Tips: Learn How To Promote your Website Tips & Tutorials

November 17, 2006 Add Comment

SEO TIPS : Learn How To Promote your Website Tips & Tutorials



In order for your web site to be a success you must have visitors. You cannot ignore this fact and there is really no way to get around it. This leaves you three alternatives: you can hire a web site promoter to promote your web site, try to promote your web site yourself, or pay for advertising. Whatever you decide to do, you should learn about web promotion beforehand. If you hire someone to promote your web site, how will you know if they are using effective promotion methods? Not all promotion experts are credible, responsible, or effective and it pays to know what to look out for before you hire someone.

What you will learn here is basic web promotion. There is no trickery or special techniques; just the basic foundations of building a popular web site. Always remember there is more than one method of effective web promotion. Combinations of effective promotion systems will benefit your web site more than just using one method. Have you heard the saying about "putting all your eggs into one basket?" The same works with web site promotion; never depend on a single method for getting traffic to your site.

There are no secrets to web promotion. All the knowledge you need can be found on the Internet. What sidetracks most promotion campaigns is the lack of patience and the forms of web promotion being used. There are many systems for generating traffic but there are only a few that really work. Most web site owners try to target search engines and directories for their traffic. This is a very good choice because search engines/directories generate a lot of traffic to web sites. Just keep in mind there is more to search engine/directory traffic than just building a web site and submitting it.

Many submission companies say that effective web promotion can only be achieved by submitting your web site on a monthly basis. This is total nonsense and can actually hurt your promotion efforts. Every search engine and directory has different periods of time they want you to wait before you resubmit your web site. This can be 30 days or more. If you submit your site to those engines/directories every month and their waiting period is 6 weeks or 90 days, it could be considered as a form of spamming.

Submitting web pages that are not search engine friendly or correctly optimized is a waste of time. Monthly submission is an even bigger waste of time and believing that a submission service will submit your web site to a gazillion search engines is even worse.

There are probably less than 10 thousand credible search engines worldwide. We already know who the big guys are but there are lesser known engines as well. Some are country specific, which means they only accept web sites from their own countries. Others are content specific, which means your web site has to fall within a specific category to be accepted. Some engines are PPC or paid inclusion, which means you have to pay to be added to the engine or pay for each visitor they send to your web site, which leaves out the submission company services since they are not going to pay for your search words or site inclusions out of the goodness of their hearts.

There are also web directories. Only a few are high profile but because of the money that can be made by search engines/directories accepting payment for including your web site in their listings or paying for each visitor, there are a large number of new search engines/directories launched all the time. But there is no where near the amount some submission companies claim.

So where exactly are these people submitting your web site?

That question should be thought out in detail before paying a company that claims to submit your web site to millions of engines and directories.

There is also a myth that creating and using Meta tags is a waste of your time. Many high profile Search Engine Optimization experts continue to use Meta tags in their search engine optimization services and advise that you do so as well, with emphasis on the Meta tags being applied correctly and not abused. Placing Meta tags in your web pages will NOT guarantee more traffic or a higher search engine rank, they are not a magic answer.

If you are in need of web promotion services, resources, or advice, you will find the so-called experts telling the Internet world about special programs, link farms, deep submission, cloaking scripts, gateway pages, traffic exchanges, exit exchanges, secret web promotion techniques, banner exchanges, and more.

Whatever you decide to do, always take your time before you jump into anything that sounds too good to be true, if you are in doubt ask for help or advice from someone more knowledgeable.

Anyone can effectively promote a web site that is if they are willing to learn the basics of building a web site designed to generate traffic. You need to learn as much as possible about search engine optimizing, link marketing, and the little things that will effectively get your site generating traffic.

Informative content on your web pages is the root of it all.

When researching the Internet for information related to web site promotion, you will come across a lot of information, some of that information will be bogus. You will have to rely on your instincts to help guide you in what to believe and what not to.

If you want, you can publish these articles on search engine positioning in your newsletter, web site or ebook. You don't need to take my permission for re-publishing these articles, as long as you display the resource box with links active at the end of each article.

Dual Boot tips multiple Operating System on one pc

November 06, 2006 Add Comment

Dual Boot tips multiple Operating System on one pc



You can install more than one operating system on your computer and choose which operating system you want to use every time you start your computer. This is often called a dual-boot or multiple-boot configuration. Windows XP supports multiple booting with MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000.

Disk volumes and disk format

Each operating system must be installed on a separate volume on your computer. In addition, you must ensure that the boot volume is formatted with the correct file system. If you have only one volume, you must repartition and reformat your hard drive so that each installation can retain its own files and configuration information.

If you want to install Windows 95 or Windows 98 with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, the boot volume must be formatted as FAT, not NTFS, because Windows 95 and Windows 98 must be installed on the boot volume when more than one operating system is installed, and FAT is the only file system those systems support. Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP support FAT32 volumes.

However, if you format a Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP volume with any file system other than NTFS, you will lose all NTFS-specific features. This includes some Windows XP features such as file system security, encrypting file system (EFS) settings, disk quotas, and Remote Storage. Likewise, Windows 95 and Windows 98 cannot recognize an NTFS partition and will identify it as unknown. Therefore, if you format a Windows 98 partition as FAT, and a Windows XP partition as NTFS, any files on the NTFS partition will not be available or visible if you try to access them while running Windows 98.

Operating System__________Supported File System

MS-DOS________________FAT

Windows 3.1_____________FAT

Windows 95_____________FAT

Windows 95 OSR2________FAT, FAT32

Windows 98____________FAT, FAT32

Windows 2000__________FAT32, NTFS

Windows XP___________FAT32, NTFS

How to create a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP

You will be less likely to encounter problems installing a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP if you install these operating systems in the following order: MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then Windows XP.

If you have Windows XP installed on a volume formatted as FAT, and you have another free volume formatted as FAT or FAT32, you can install Windows 98 to the free volume without reformatting your hard drive.

After ensuring that your hard drive is formatted with the correct file system, do one of the following:
If you want a multiple-boot system with MS-DOS, Windows 95 or Windows 98, and Windows XP, install MS-DOS, then Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then Windows XP.
If you want a dual-boot system with only Windows 95 or Windows 98, install Windows 95 or Windows 98, and then install Windows XP.
How to create a multiple-boot system with Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP
Using a multiple-boot system with both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP is not recommended as a long-term solution. The NTFS update in Service Pack 4 for Windows NT 4.0 is provided only to help you evaluate and upgrade to Windows XP.

After ensuring that your hard drive is formatted with the correct file system, install Windows NT 4.0, and then install Windows XP.

You must treat each operating system as a separate entity. Any programs and drivers you want to use must be installed under each operating system under which you want to use it. For example, if you want to use Microsoft Word on the same computer under both Windows 98 and Windows XP, you must start Windows 98 and install Microsoft Word. Then, you must restart your computer under Windows XP and install Microsoft Word again.

Notes:

If you have more than one operating system on your computer, you can set the operating system you want to use as the default when you start your computer.

Windows 95 or Windows 98 might reconfigure hardware settings the first time you use them. This can cause configuration problems when you start Windows XP.

iTunes Saving The Office

November 02, 2006 Add Comment

iTunes Saving The Office



The Office is one of the best shows on network TV. It’s clever, witty and very funny. But according to the Nielson ratings, The Office was a dud. The ratings were so bad that NBC almost cancelled it before the end of its first season. But since NBC owns and produces The Office, they had nothing to lose by posting it in the iTunes Store. At the very least, NBC thought they might make a little money on iTunes before canceling the show. But once episodes of The Office were available online, they became an iTunes overnight best seller. The Office had a huge fan base and the low Neilson ratings were basically just a lie.

Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studios, had this to say in Newsday:

“I’m not sure that we’d still have the show on the air” without the iTunes boost… The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.”

Personally I think the Nielson ratings are a total joke. They only put a few thousand viewing monitors in dumb people’s houses. How is this an accurate sampling of US households? It’s not. Think I’m wrong? Consider the following:

Why is COPS still on the air and getting good ratings 10+ years later?
Why were shows like Family Guy and Futurama cancelled for low ratings, only to be renewed after doing well on the Cartoon Network and DVD.
Why is wrestling now on the SciFi Channel?
Why did Fox cancel Firefly before the end of its first season? The show went on to be a best seller on iTunes as well as on DVD. It was also made into a major motion picture called Serenity.
The answer to all these questions: only dumb people have Nielson boxes and the networks don’t have enough guts to ignore Nielson’s lies. Also, ponder this little tidbit. Until recently, the Nielson boxes were NOT compatible with home TV systems that had a TiVo, satellite dish or digital cable box. That’s a lot of people Nielson just decided to conveniently ignore.

If you are also a fan of The Office, just remember that the iTunes Store is responsible for keeping the show alive. Fans of the show voted with their wallets while dumb Nielson households were busy watching COPS reruns. Again.

How to Troubleshooting ADSL Router

August 17, 2006 Add Comment

How to Troubleshooting ADSL Router


There is a common trouble on ADSL router, that my be easy to solve without contact any technical support from ISP provider or hardware vendor. 
Below is common troubleshooting you can use to solve your ADSL Router problem before you contact any technical support

The ADSL Router Is Not Functional


  1. Check to see that the power LED is green and the network cables are connected correctly. Refer to the Quick Installation Guide for more details.
  2. Check to see that the ETH/LAN and PPP/WAN LEDs are green.
  3. Check to see that the DSL LED is green.
  4. Check the settings on your computer. Again, refer to the Quick Installation Guide for more details.
  5. Check the ADSL router’s settings.
  6. From your computer, can you PING the ADSL router? Assuming that the ADSL router has DHCP enabled and your computer is on the same subnet as the gateway, you should be able to PING the gateway.
  7. Can you PING the WAN IP? Your ISP should have provided the IP address of their server. If you can ping the ADSL router and your protocols are configured correctly, you should be able to ping the ISP’s network. If you cannot PING the ISP’s network, make sure you are using the correct protocols with the correct VPI/VCI values.
  8. Make sure NAT is enabled for your connection. If NAT is disabled, the ADSL router
  9. will not route frames correctly (except in Bridge connection).


I Can’t Connect To The ADSL Router.


  1. Check to see that the power LED is green and that the network cables are connected correctly; see the Quick Installation Guide for more details.
  2. Make sure that your computer and the ADSL router are on the same network segment. The ADSL router’s default IP address is 192.168.1.1. If you are running a Windows based computer, you can open a DOS window and type IPCONFIG; make sure that the network adapter that is connected to the gateway is within the same 192.168.1.x subnet.
  3. Also, your computer’s Subnet Mask should match the gateways subnet mask. The gateway has a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.
  4. If this still does not work, press the reset button for 10 seconds. This will place the gateway into its factory default state. Go through the previous configurations again.
  5. Make sure NAT is enabled for your connection. If NAT is disabled, the ADSL router will not route frames correctly (except in Bridge connection).


The DSL Link LED Continues To Blink And Does Not Stop


  1. This means that the ADSL is trying to train but for some reason it cannot establish a valid connection. The main cause of this is that you are too far away from the central office. Contact your ADSL Provider for further assistance.
  2. Verify that the telephone cable is connected directly to the telephone wall socket and to the DSL input on the ADSL router.
  3. Make sure that for every parallel phone line connected to telephone or fax is installed with a micro-filter.


Common Problems and Solutions

The DSL Link LED Is Always Off


  1. Make sure you have a ADSL service. You should get some kind of information from your ISP that states that the ADSL service is enabled. You can usually tell if the service is enabled by listening to the phone line; you will hear some high-pitched noise. If you do not hear high-pitched noise, contact your ISP.
  2. Verify that the telephone cable is connected directly to the telephone wall socket and the DSL input on the ADSL router.

Blogger Meta Tag Issue

August 02, 2006 Add Comment

Blogger Meta Tag Issue

BLOGGER LOGO

A couple of comments came in on my post Important Notice to Blogger Blog Owners that made me realize I hadn't included a full description of what I ended up doing.

As a reminder the problem is that Blogger had inserted:
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW"$gt
This tells the Google spider not to index this page.

To get rid of it, you can remove:
<$BlogMetaData$>

However, this also removes a few other lines from your file that includes your autodiscovery of RSS feeds. So, what you really want to do is:



  • Go to your blog
  • View Source - Original
  • See if you have the NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW
  • If you do, then keep that View Source window open
  • Go to Blogger
  • Edit your template and remove the BlogMetaData tag
  • Preview your Blog
  • View Source - with it removed
  • Copy all the lines in the Original that it had been inserting except for the ROBOTS
  • Paste those into your template manually
  • Preview
  • Save

Unfortunately, this means that future changes by Blogger to Meta Data you won't get automatically. Of course, getting NOFOLLOW was a great new feature for them to add.

Note: Blogger logo use to identifications, Learning Purpose, Attractive view purpose.. if blogger.com having objection to use it.. blogger.com have a rights to delete logo without any information or warming. 

Know about Google Robots sites

June 05, 2006 Add Comment

Know about Google bot sites 



Search Engine Roundtable has published a list of bots that belongs to Google. Bots, or robots is a software agents to gather information. Bots and robots from Google are also called web crawlers or spiders in which they are web robots that recursively gather web-page information, as does the bot used by Google (“GoogleBot”).

According to the article, current Google robots that are active including the common GoogleBot (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html) which is the main spider for the search engine, MediaBot (Mediapartners-Google/2.1) which analyzes web pages with Google AdSense ads to determine relevant ads, ImageBot (Googlebot-Image/1.0) which crawls for the Image Search, AdsBot (AdsBot-Google) which checks Google AdWords landing pages’ quality, Feedfetcher (Feedfetcher-Google) which retrieves rss feeds when users explicitly added them to their Google homepage or Google Reader, Generic Mobile Phone (compatible; Googlebot-Mobile/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html) which translates (or “transcodes”) these pages by analyzing the original HTML code and converting it to a mobile-ready format.

Other robot is Google WAP Proxy (Google WAP Proxy/1.0) which is a bridge for mobile phones to access and adapting to normal web pages via the wap protocol by converting .html to .wml.

ASK Search Engine

June 02, 2006 Add Comment

ASK Search Engine...


Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves, is an Internet search engine which also owns variety of popular web sites including country-specific sites for Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, and Spain plus askforkids.com, teoma.com, excite.com, myway.com, iwon.com, bloglines.com and several others. The combined traffic to its properties places Ask.com in the top ten parent web companies in the US.

Ask.com features support for search based on variety of user queries in plain English (natural language), as well as traditional keyword searching and aims to be more intuitive and user-friendly than other search engines. Ask.com also utilizes technology from teoma.com which clusters web sites according to topic communities, using unique technology which Ask now calls ExpertRank. ExpertRank enables you to, for example, find sites related “ozone layer” when you search for “global warming”.

CNNMoney analyses the business and search functionality of Ask.com and reviews the search engine capabality. It concluded that, in financial effect style, “Ask.com will increase its 6 percent share in the search market, and quickly. IAC/InterActive, whose stock has only suffered while Ask.com has been transforming itself, will likely see that trend reverse as this superb business surges. And finally – while I won’t foreswear Google (or count it out), I will start using Ask.com a lot.”

how to Change or reset Mysql Password

June 02, 2006 Add Comment

how to Change or reset Mysql Password




Other then the ways specified here to reset and change the root password for mySQL database in the case that the password is forgotten or lost, the following instructions explain in details the alternative way at the last part of the guide, where no additional file needs to be created:

Login as root to the Windows or Unix-like (Unix, Linux or BSD) machine with the MySQL server.
Stop the MySQL server by using either of the following command:
Linux: /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql stop
FreeBSD: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh stop

Open the mysql server startup script (i.e. mysql-server.sh – the file executed to start or stop MySQL server.
Add –skip-grant-tables to the end of the line that contains the mysqld_safe command as its parameter.
Start MySQL server with the following command:
Linux: /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql start
FreeBSD: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start

Alternatively, start the MySQL server directly and skip the editing with the following command:
mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables &

Depending on your path environment, you may need to point to the correct directory where mysqld_safe is instead.

Run the following commands to login as the mysql user and connect to mysql user/permission database:
# mysql -u root mysql

Run the update queries to change the MySQL password:
mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘newrootpassword’) WHERE User=’root’;
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Note: Replace newrootpassword with the new root password for MySQL server. Flush Privileges is needed to making the password change effect immediately.

Exit mysql database client by typing exit.
Stop MySQL server with commands listed at step 2.
Open the mysql server startup script edit in step 3 again and remove the –skip-grant-tables parameter that has been added.
Start MySQL server by using command from step 5 or 6.
For Redhat Linux users, use the following instructions as the root user of Redhat Linux machine:

Stop MySQL process by using command:
# killall mysqld

Start the MySQL server with following options:
# /usr/libexec/mysqld -Sg –user=root &

Start the MySQL client:
# mysql

You should see the following message:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 3.xx.xx

Type ‘help;’ or ‘h’ for help. Type ‘c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql>

Use mysql database:
mysql> USE mysql

You should see the following message:

Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed

Then, update the password for the root user with the following command:
UPDATE user SET password=password(“newpassword”) WHERE user=”root”;

Replace newpassword with your desired password. You should see the following message:

Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.03 sec)
Rows matched: 2 Changed: 2 Warnings: 0

Rows affected may be different, but the Query OK should be there.

Flush the database privileges to reload it in order to make the changes effective:
mysql> flush privileges;

You should get the following result:

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

Exit the MySQL client by typing exit.
Kill the MySQL server process by typing killall mysqld.
Then start MySQL again:
/etc/init.d/mysqld start

Sky HD TV review

May 28, 2006 Add Comment

Sky HD TV review


Sky High Definition TV (HDTV) is a TV service that broadcast in HD quality in UK by Sky. Broadcast content will be in one of two formats, 720/P/50 for progressively scanned picture or 1080/I/25 for interlaced picture. To view Sky HD a Sky HD set-top box is needed. The set-top box is manufactered by Thompson and features Sky+PVR, has standard component (anolouge), DVI and HDMI connections to enable maximum compliance with customers’ TVs.

Among the first channels that are viewable in High Definition (HD) format, which Sky is offering the service as a premium package, are Sky Sports, Sky One, Sky movies and various Box Office screenings. Beside, the first World Cup match and live HDTV programme to be broadcast will be Germany vs Costa Rica match on 9 June, which will also include match commentary and studio coverage. The feed will come from HBS, Germany’s host broadcasters for the tournament. High-definition images will also be fed into standard digital and analogue transmissions of the game and the Wimbledon Championships, where the BBC is the host broadcaster.

informitv reviewed Sky HD service and concluded that Sky HD represents a dramatic improvement in the technical quality of television that has been long overdue. Despite having the highest penetration of digital television, now in two out of three households, the UK has been surprisingly slow in moving to high-definition.

BSkyB has again adopted a leadership position, with the traditional broadcasting establishment struggling to keep up. The BBC has a target to move all production to high definition by 2010, which does not seem far off. By then most of the country is likely to have digital television.

High-definition is likely to become the new battleground for differentiating digital services, and BSkyB has once again taken the initiative.

Google Web Toolkit Review

May 26, 2006 Add Comment

Google Web Toolkit Review


Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail, which similar to Atlas for ASP.NET, Yahoo!’s User Interface Library and Adobe Spry. Google Web Toolkit allows programmers to write the front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler will converts the Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

For Ajax,Java class library gives you access to the XMLHttpRequest object normally used in AJAX applications. Beside, Java server-side code could be written in addition to client-side code, which doesn’t get converted to JavaScript, and thus the server-side code can use the full capabilities of the Java platform, and any additional class libraries you may require. Then in client-side code, classes that are able to communicate with the server-side code could be set up. When GWT compile the application, GWT will automatically generate all the JavaScript needed to communicate with the server on the client-side, and will compile your server-side code to a set of Java Servlets.

SitePoint concluded that Google has definitely put together an impressive platform with GWT, but as one would expect (especially from a beta product) it’s not perfect. But the biggest thing lacking in GWT is an example of a finished, real-world application running in the wild. No doubt Google is hard at work on its next big project using GWT, but for now at least GWT is unproven technology. The weak points include GWT detects and supports browsers by their user agent string, the bundled GWT widgets make extensive use of tables for layout, GWT was written to work with Java 1.4 or later, the development shell does not support Mac OS X and unclear best practices for security and performance.

Open office Org

May 24, 2006 Add Comment

Open office Org



OpenOffice is a open source and free office suite. Open Office is multilingual and multiplatform office productivity suite which compatible with all other major office suites such as Microsoft Office. Open Office is full-featured office suite too with word processor Writer, spreadsheet Calc, multimedia presentation Impress, graphic manipulation Draw and database application Base, all now greatly improved in features and reliability with the release of version 2.0.2.

rediff reviewed OpenOffice 2.0 and even wrote the review with OpenOffice Write and concluded that the program surely can’t do everything that the Microsoft Office suite can. For instance, there’s no online collaboration or Smart Tags, no grammar check, no highly flexible outlining, smart table formatting or decent hot keys.

Being free software, it has no tech support in the traditional sense (though given the vast Web resources, this argument does not hold much water). Besides, anyone used to Excel is bound to face difficulties with OpenOffice’s Calc.

However, these teething problems are common with any new software (how many of us can exploit even one-tenth of Excel’s features?) Finally, anyone who wants a feature-rich but free office suite should give this option a try.

Opt Out of Windows Live Mail and Get Back to MSN Hotmail Interface

May 23, 2006 Add Comment

Opt Out of Windows Live Mail and Get Back to MSN Hotmail Interface



Windows Live Mail is an major interface and security update to Microsoft’s MSN Hotmail web mail interface by adopting the popular Web 2.0 technologies. Windows Live Mail has a similar user interface with Microsoft Outlook, which is organized into 3 columns, plus a big vertical banner on the right. For those on unsupported browser, there are improved Classic Hotmail version of Windows Live Mail.

If for whatever reasons (such as lack of Firefox support which only been supported from M6 release, or pissed with too much ads space, or simply don’t want to be a beta users) you want to ‘uninstall’ or leave the Windows Live Mail Beta email interface, you can get back to the old MSN Hotmail interface.

To opt out of Windows Live Mail Beta, login to your Windows Live Mail account, click on the Options in the upper right corner of the Windows Live Mail Beta interface. Once you’re in the Options page, click on “Beta opt-out” to stop using Mail Beta.

Or you can opt for Classic Hotmail View by clicking on “Choose inbox layout: Windows Live Mail Experience or Classic Hotmail View”, and then select (check on) “Always use Classic Hotmail View, which includes check boxes and does not have a reading pane. If you use a screen reader, Classic Hotmail View will work better for you.”, and click on “Save”. To go back to Windows Live Mail interface, just check on the “(Recommended) Use Windows Live Mail Experience, which has drag and drop, right click, and the reading pane to quickly view emails. Using Internet Explorer version 6.0 and higher will give you the best experience.” option and click “Save” again.

Nmap Security Scanner in Windows

May 21, 2006 Add Comment

Nmap Security Scanner in Windows


Nmap (Network Mapper) security scanner is a free and open source utility for network exploration or security auditing. Nmap can determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. Nmap is a favorite hacker tool to scan for open ports. Best of all, most operating systems are supported by Nmap, including Microsoft Windows.

Nmap was originally a command-line tool for Unix only. Since 2000, a Windows version was released and has since become the second most popular Nmap platform (behind Linux). Although it’s popular, Windows port is still not as stable or as efficent as Nmap on Unix. And Nmap on Windows has some limitations, including it’s not possible to scan host machine (where Nmap is running) by using loopback IP address or registered IP address, only Ethernet network interface is supported (although it includes support for 802.11 wireless network), version detection cannot use SSL scan-through and network scans initiated from Windows often slower than scan initiated from Unix, especially tje connect scan (-sT) because of shortcomings in the Windows networking API.

There are two ways to install Nmap in Windows operating system environment, both of which are available from the download page at http://www.insecure.org/nmap/download.html. Nmap requires the free WinPcap packet capture library which can be obtained from WinPcap. Download and install the latest version of WinPcap (version 3.1 or later). There is an executable installer which automates the installation process.

Command Line Zip Binaries

If you download latest version of Nmap in a zip file format, uncompress the zip-file into the directory you want Nmap to reside in (e.g. “C:\Program Files\”) by using any compression utility such as 7-zip, WinZip and PKZip. A directory called nmap-VERSION will be created, and Nmap executable and data files will be extracted to the folder.

After installing, optionally you may apply the Nmap registry changes for Windows for improved performance by double clicking the nmap_performance.reg file located in the Nmap directory, which will make three registry changes in order to increase the number of ephemeral ports reserved for applications such as Nmap, and decrease the amount of time before a closed connection can be reused.

To use Nmap, just go to the installation folder and execute Nmap. To access Nmap from any directory, add the path to Nmap installation directory to Windows PATH environment variables.

Executable Windows installer

There is also an executable Windows installer for Nmap which is recommended way to install Nmap on Windows machine. The installer can handle WinPcap installation, perform registry performance tweaks, and decompressing the executables and data files into your preferre location, making the installation very easy.

The installer doesn’t add Nmap shortcut to the Programs menu as nmap.exe needed to be run from a DOS command prompt. Only WinPcap appears in the Add/Remove applet in Control Panel. To uninstall and remove Nmap, run the uninstall program in the Nmap folder.

The default install directory is C:\Program Files\Nmap\ but because the installer adds Nmap to the Windows’s PATH environment variable, Nmap can be called and executed from any directory. So to run and test Nmap, open a Command Prompt window and type the following, which will scan the host scanme.insecure.org:

nmap -A -T4 scanme.insecure.org

The A and T4 options enable OS and version detection, and set the timing template to “aggressive.” There are more than a hundred command-line options for Nmap. Note that the command options are case-sensitive.

All error messages when running Nmap on Windows will be wrote into Windows event log for troubleshooting.

No Drive Letter for USB or Firewire Drive

April 19, 2006 Add Comment

No Drive Letter for USB or Fire wire Drive


When you connect your USB or IEEE 1394 (Firewire) storage device (hard disk or USB drive) to your computer, Windows will pop up a notification messages that showing USB Mass Storage Device, and then Disk Drive was found. However, you just simply can’t access the drive, and there is no automatic “Autoplay” prompt too, if you enable it.

The USB or Firewire storage drive doesn’t show up (not available and not accessible) in Windows Explorer or My Computer window, although it has been detected, even if the drive has been used properly before in the same computer. In the Device Manager, everything including USB Hub and USB Root Hub, shows working properly. In some cases, it also shows a USB or Firewire storage drive attached and the drive it is working, and the USB or Firewire drive will appear in Disk Management of Computer Management in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) too.

Another symptom to the problem is when you insert the USB or Firewire drive, a “Safely Remove Hardware” icon will appear in Windows notification area (system tray). When you double-click on the icon, the drive appears in the list, but when you display the details of the disk (by double-click on the drive or select the drive then click on Stop), there is no drive letter attached to the drive.

The cause for this problem is that all drive letters are already assigned to other devices or mapped network drives, making no additional drive letters available. Or it may be caused by the drive letter that previously assigned to the drive has been taken up by a mapped network drive or other storage device.

Resolution is to disconnect mapped network drives or other storage devices, freeing up a drive letter or the previously assigned letter to assign to the additional storage device. If you can see the drive in MMC Disk Management, right click on it, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths, then click on Change. Select a drive letter that is unused and click OK. The USB or IEEE 1394 drive can now be accessible

Searching for Application in FreeBSD’s Ports Collection

April 08, 2006 Add Comment

Searching for Application in FreeBSD’s Ports Collection




The FreeBSD Ports and Packages Collection offers a simple way for users and administrators to install applications. The number of applications in FreeBSD Ports and Packages Collection is growing with the time, which now exceeding ten thousands ports.

All Ports Collection is stored at /usr/ports directory, according to their respective category-based directory. If you know the name of the port that you need, but don’t know which category it’s located, whereis command will be helpful:

whereis file_name

For example,

# whereis phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin: /usr/ports/databases/phpMyAdmin

The whereis command returns the exact location of the port specified.

FreeBSD Ports Collection also has built-in search function. In /usr/ports directory (you need to be in /usr/ports directory to use the search mechanism), run make search name=program-name or make search key=keyword to search for a particular port.

For example,

# make search name=”phpMyAdmin”
# make search key=”phpMyAdmin”

Note: Without the ” and ” will work too.

Both will return details of the ports matched, if any. One of the result if “Path”, which will tell you where is the port located.

The keyword search is a more in-depth searching that searches port names, comments, descriptions and dependencies. It can be used to find ports which relate to a particular subject if you do not know the name of the program you are looking for.

Alternatively, FreeBSD also maintains an up-to-date searchable list of all the available applications, arranged by category. You can search for your application by name and browse all applications that are within the category.

FreshPorts also allowed users to search for FreeBSD’s ports by keywords. FreshPorts tracks and lists the change made to the ports tree, and allows users to watch one or more ports, and can email you when your selected port has been updated.
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