Andrew on Technology

Why the apple app store is a revolution

2010-08-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

Steve Jobs stated at D8 that the app store is a revolution. I thought he was overselling it, but app store is a revolution because people install apps without the fear of it screwing up their phone. It's rare I download an application to my pc and run it. For fear of crashing the computer, corrupting the computer, compromising personal information, pop ups, degraded performance, being in a botnet, viruses, etc. Those fears are mitigated in the apps store. Here are the reasons:

1 The app store is the first time a large, reputable company vouched for the integrity of hundreds of thousands of applications.

2 When you close an app, it is cut off. The lack of multi-tasking (and now true multi-tasking) ensures rogue apps don't waste your cpu cycles.

3 Apps can't access or compromise the data in other apps. Users can't even mess up the files since there is no system file browser.

4 You can easily delete applications. The uninstall process is handled by the operating system. You don't have to worry about the app not uninstalling properly.

5 The login/purchase process only involves entering a password. This reduces the overhead of entering all your payment information to buy an application.

Ray Kurzweil

2008-08-19T16:58:00.004-05:00

Today I heard a speech from a local technology entrepreneur, and he emphasized points raised by Ray Kurzweil. Specifically, that technology advances at an exponential rate. For instance, the printing press took 100 years to be adopted, it took 50 years to adapt the telephone, it took 8 years to adapt the cell phone. The same principal applies across many areas of technology from Moore's Law to disk capacity, and even in biological research. Here is a speech from 2005.

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Google App Engine

2008-05-29T12:06:00.003-05:00

Google has announced pricing for their online Application Engine. It's basically like blogger except you write code instead of blog entries. The only downside is right now all applications have to be written in Python.

The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing

2008-05-07T02:09:00.001-05:00

Here are some highlights from The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0) - Joel on Software:

"In principle, it’s simple. You’re looking for people who are

Smart, and
Get things done.

How do you detect smart in an interview? The first good sign is that you don’t have to explain things over and over again. The conversation just flows.

Here’s a typical plan for interviewing a programmer:

Introduction
Question about recent project candidate worked on
Easy Programming Question
Pointer/Recursion Question
Are you satisfied?
Do you have any questions?

The introduction phase of the interview is intended to put the candidate at ease. I ask them if they had a nice flight. I spend about 30 seconds telling the person who I am and how the interview will work. I always reassure candidates that we are interested in how they go about solving problems, not the actual answer.

Recent Project
Part two is a question about some recent project that the candidate worked on.... Again, ask open-ended questions and sit back and listen, with only the occasional “tell me more about that” if they seem to stall....

What should you look for during the open ended questions?

One:Look for passion. Smart people are passionate about the projects they work on.

Two: Good candidates are careful to explain things well, at whatever level. I have rejected candidates because when they talked about their previous project, they couldn’t explain it in terms that a normal person could understand.

Three: If the project was a team project, look for signs that they took a leadership role.

Most of the time in the interview, though, should be spent letting the candidate prove that they can write code.

Easy Programming Question
If the basic concepts aren’t so easy that you don’t even have to think about them, you’re not going to get the big concepts.

Pointer/Recursion Question

the best programmers all have an easy aptitude for dealing with multiple levels of abstraction simultaneously. In programming, that means specifically that they have no problem with recursion (which involves holding in your head multiple levels of the call stack at the same time) or complex pointer-based algorithms

Are you satisfied?
Even though the format of the interview is, superficially, just a candidate writing some code on the whiteboard, my real goal here is to have a conversation about it. “Why did you do it that way?” “What are the performance characteristics of your algorithm?” “What did you forget?” “Where’s your bug?”

Do you have any questions?
As the last step in an interview, ask the candidate if they have any questions. Remember, even though you’re interviewing them, the good candidates have lots of choices about where to work and they’re using this day to figure out if they want to work for you.

In the past, I’ve used “impossible questions,” also known as “back of the envelope questions.” Classic examples of this are “How many piano tuners are there in Seattle?” The candidate won’t know the answer, but smart candidates won’t give up and they’ll be happy to try and estimate a reasonable number for you.

Search Me

2008-04-24T11:58:00.002-05:00

searchme.com is a unique search engine. Their tagline is "You'll know it when you see it." After you search you get a list of results that reminds me of Apples new interface for looking at album covers. It lets you page through the snapshots of the results with the keywords marked on the pages. Thanks to Shaun for the link.

Project management

2008-02-15T20:53:00.003-06:00

For some time I have been using basecamp for project management, but I think it's too simplistic for my needs and I plan to switch to The Trac Project. Trac has a more sophisticated priorities and categories and it also integrates with my source control subversion. It's also open source and we can host it ourselves. (I also thought about resorting back to bugzilla)

I'm also interested in some of the plug ins for Trac, like the time and estimation plugin.

Maximizing Data Throughput for Network Applications (IIS 6.0)

2008-02-14T16:50:00.001-06:00

Windows 2003 still has the default setting to maximize file and print sharing over network applications... rackspace recommended that i change it for my web server.

Maximizing Data Throughput for Network Applications (IIS 6.0)

Pushing limits with web services

2008-02-09T02:03:00.001-06:00

There are several considerations when you call or provide a web service that can send a lot of data or take a long time.

In .Net you can set the timeout period to be higher.

Also in .Net... "When the amount of data send or received by the Web service exceeds 4 MB, configure the Web server to handle the larger amount of data."
How to: Enable a Web Service to Send and Receive Large Amounts of Data

Test Automation with FireFox Add On

2008-02-07T22:12:00.000-06:00

I have been using iMacros Firefox Add On
to help automate my testing through the web.

The art of software testing

2008-02-07T16:09:00.000-06:00

In the introduction to the book "The art of software testing" it poses a simple program and ask how many test cases you can think of...

"The program reads three integer values from an input dialog. The three values represent the lengths of the sides of a triangle. The program displays a message that states whether the triangle is scalene, isosceles, or equilateral."

If you write down all the test cases you can think of, you will most likely be surprised how many things you don't think of. (they provide a list of test cases in the link)

Testing a web site before you migrate the DNS

2008-02-05T14:30:00.000-06:00

When you set up a web site on a new domain an easy way to test it out before migrating the dns is to add a record to the host file on your local machine, and override dns to get to the new ip address.

here is a command from windows system that will open host file on any windows os
notepad %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

or on unix
vi /etc/hosts

then add the record (be sure to put a tab between your ip and the domain
70.170.170.170 my.domain.com

Be sure to remove the entry when you migrate the DNS. Also before migrating DNS records be sure to lower the TTL to 5 minutes for at least 48 hours before you make the change.

windows service problem

2008-02-03T22:35:00.000-06:00

I have been having a problem for weeks with a windows service that sporadically quit working. Fortunately, it never happened in the production environments. It only happened on my dev box. Tonight I finally figured it out.

The first thing the service does is log a message to indicate it started. It is also in a try/catch that logs exceptions to the event viewer. Turns out the event viewer had reached it's maximum size, so it would quit working and there would be no indication of the problem in the event viewer, because it was the problem.

I ended up changing an option to "Overwrite events as needed" from "Overwrite events older than 7 days." The production server was already set to overwrite as needed, which explains why it worked in production, but sporadically failed in dev.

.Net Pop3 library

2008-01-29T15:49:00.001-06:00

It's always seemed strange to me that .Net doesn't have pop3 capabilities built into the framework.

Here is an open source pop3 library for .Net. http://sourceforge.net/projects/hpop/

Steve Jobs' Stanford graduation speech

2008-01-28T22:27:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite inspirational pieces about life and business. I especially like the parts about finding what you love to do and connecting the dots.

SEO Basics

2008-01-28T20:59:00.001-06:00

seo (search engine optimization) is the how to get your web pages ranked well on search engines like google. According to google there are 100s of factors that determine your rank on a search. If you are running a site these considerations should be secondary to the basic design and functionality of your web site. However more often than not, these ideas are consistent with a well designed, functional site.

Basics

1) Submit your site to google.

2) Read google's webmaster information
including guidelines,
and faq.

3) Validate your html. If your html is bad spiders can't distinguish between
visible text, structural tags, etc.

http://validator.w3.org/

Some suggest making it html 3.2 compliant

4) Make sure your links work. Links are the primary way google finds pages.

5) Use a reliable web host. Google can't index your site if it is down.

Serp basics (serp - Search Engines Results Page)

6) Raise your PageRank by getting links from on-topic sites. (See tip 16)

Submit your site to the open directory project
under an appropriate section.

Submit to yahoo or Looksmart
directory if you have the cash (or you run a not for profit site)

Swap Links with other related sites.

The page rank of the actual linking page is a key factor, not the pagerank
of the site root.

Make sure sites that link use normal links, not javascript (what about redirects?)

interlink your pages.

make sure all pages have link back to home page.

google looks at individual page independently, not at sites, so links from your own site help you.

make it easy to get to all your pages in minimum number of clicks.

make sure you use normal html links to interlink your pages. google probably won't figure out drop downs with javascript, etc. to spider your site.

use a site map.

7) Choose the keywords you are targeting carefully.

you need to know your market to choose keywords

for instance if you are selling a product, don't make "free" a keyword, or
you are unlikely to convert your traffic.

8) Keyword density is a key factor. Put your keywords in your title, meta tags (keyword and description), visible text (in bold/in H1 tags), in the url, etc.

there are tools like keyworddensity.com
that tell you the percentage for your keywords.

the best percentages are debatable, and the best percentage should depend
on functionality of site and your competition. 2%-10% is ballpark.

9) put keywords in alt and title attributes on images.

10) make simple, small pages.

this will increase keyword density.

pages should probably only target at most three keywords.

Google will index a maximum of 101k of any page

11) Create lots of pages.

For instance, one for each item you are selling.

12) use keywords in links. (internal site links, and encourge people that link to you to do the same)

this raises kwd on page with link and associates linked page with the keywords
also.

use keywords in text links

put keywords in link's title attribute.

14) put links and keywords near the top of the page. also called KW prominence.
google regards stuff further down page as less important.

15) make relative links unless the full url contain keywords.

this advice is debatable.

Checking up on your site

16) Get the google toolbar so you can check page rank of your site, your competitors
and people you might swap links with.

17) Trick to check to see how many of your pages have been indexed. Do negative
search for a word that is not on your site.

-zaazaazing site:andrewontechnology.com

18) check to see what sites are linking to your site (often called backlinks)
by searching goole for link:mysite.com.

this generally only shows pages that link with a page rank of 4 or above.

19) check to see what sites link to your competitors or related pages and
try and get linked on those pages also.

20) don't use a tool like web position gold to check your site for you automatically.
it is a violation and google might punish you.

21) study your web server refer logs. this should show you how many hits you
are getting and what people are searching on.

Stuff to not do

22) don't use a virtual host.

23) dont' use frames. frames suck anyway:-) and google may have a hard time
with them.

24) don't use javascript links for pages that you want google to follow.

some people use javacscript links for pages that they don't want indexed.

25) don't put inline javascript or css... put javascript and css in external
files.

this is debatable if it helps. i guess it keeps the page small, doesn't mess
up kwd. it's just a good idea anyway.

26) don't use flash. google can't read it.

Debatable tactics

27) Tricks that might get your site indexed faster:

- the best way is to get links from other sites.

- put a link to your site in a blog post. google owns blogger and I suspect they use it to keep their links fresher than rivals.

- submitting individual pages.

- adding the google search to your page.

- using google adwords (openly adwords doesn't affect the google index)

28) Keyword proximity: Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two
or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better

29) Don't use black hat methods.

don't link to "link farms" or bad neighborhoods.

30) don't spam.

you can spam blogs, news groups, forums, wikis, and public site statistic pages.

this is very uncool, but it is unlikely that google will punish you because if they did, people could spam for their competitors to get them punished

31) Report competitors that outrank you that are using black hat methods.
(http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html)

Hidden text or links

what it is: text that can't be seen because it is nearly the same color as
the background.

links that are for a small image (1 pixel by 1 pixel)

how to detect it: select as much of the page as you can and text will show up.

Misleading or repeated words (often called stuffing)

Page does not match Google's description

Cloaked page

what it is: where a site has one page for googlebot, and another for users

how to detect it: cache is different from real page? program?

Deceptive redirects (when you go to page a meta refresh tag sends you to another
page)

Doorway pages (page is not to on any site. submitted directly to search engine?)

Duplicate site or pages (people copy other people's page to generate content)

Other (specify)

32) remove session id from url. this makes it hard for google to distinguish pages.

Also many people advise only one or fewer parameters be passed to program.

Some suggest using mod_rewrite to avoid passing parameters.

it is thought that google doesn't want to over burden your machine so it takes
time to build an index of dynamic pages.

33) be patient. it appears google may be using how long your pages have been
indexed as part of it's criteria. this may be because people are throwing
up sites to get pagerank, and when they get banned just opening a new one.
this makes it more difficult.

34) some sites say to have outbound links to on topic, high profile (i.e. high page rank) sites.

however this may leak your pagerank that you could pass to your own site.

it could be that the only benefit is you are just raising kwd.

google.com is ranked 10 with no outbound links, however, google itself, rarely shows up in search results unless you search for google.

some think that google likes sites that link to google.

35) use robots.txt and/or meta tag to remove pages that are not good pages
to index. these pages leak pagrank.

for instance I have a login page, and every page links to it near the top of the page.

36) some people think putting all you pages in the root directory helps them.

not sure about that one.

commonly accepted that having directories more than 4 or 5 deep will cause
problems.

37) domain spamming is creating lots of domains with virtually the same content
so you get all the top listings.

the content can't be exactly the same because of duplicate site penalty. some suggest 15% variance.

GAC GUI

2008-01-28T12:08:00.000-06:00

cool tool for managing the .Net Global Assembly cache.

Think twice before using 64 bit OS

2008-01-28T11:48:00.000-06:00

I don't recomend 64 bit Version of Windows Server 2003. The only exception is a box dedicated to an application that has good support. For instance, it would make sense to have a SQL server box that runs 64 bit version of Windows Server 2003, but a web server that may need to use third party libraries should probably run on a 32 bit version. As the links illustrate, often old driver and 3rd party applications, just don't work. Error with ole db driver on 64 bit windows, and Error retrieving COM class

CPorts: Graphic netstat program for windows

2008-01-21T09:38:00.001-06:00

CPorts is a slick tool that provides an GUI for the netstat command.

BEA bought by Oracle, Sun buys MySql

2008-01-21T01:53:00.000-06:00

Oracle bought BEA, and Sun buying MySql is interesting because now all the major players... Microsft, IBM, Oracle and Sun own the entire stack for web appliation developement. Although technically Oracle doesn't own an operating system, they are famous for porting their app to different platforms. Also Microsoft and Oracle also don't sell hardware. Furthermore, even though Sun owns Java, their Java product suite is weak. They bought out netscape's server stuff, and now mysql. People only use the software that Sun gives away (apache projects and now mysql). I don't see how Sun will ever make money off software.

Rackspace back up systems

2008-01-21T00:01:00.000-06:00

I have a machine at rackspace. They used to use Legato (which was bought out by EMC) for backups, and they have switched to CommVault. I also learned SQL Server has to be backed up separately from the normal file system backup because the SQL Server files are in a state of flux and won't be able to restore your database from a file system backup.

How to guess passwords

2008-01-04T00:47:00.000-06:00

Often people's passwords are things they are passionate about and can be guessed using inference.

names:
their own name first, last, middle or maiden. their children's, their pets, nicknames, their spouse, or person they are dating, their parents or other family or friends names.

often the names are abstratct, like babygirl, my2girls, ourboys, myboys, my1stborn
often parts are initialized: hsimpsons (for homer simpsons)

interests/places:
hobbies, or sport: marathon, guitar, fishing, nascar, soccer, softball, football, golf
sports team, or sport slogan: rolltide, bamafootball, wareagle, gosteelers
alma maters, the name of their band, league, fraternity or any thing they are a part of: harvard, chiomega
a city, state or community they want to travel to, like, have lived in, we married in or are from: florida, newyork, sanfran, tampafla, africa, hoover

favorites
favorite movie, tv show, or book: oceans11, seinfeld, mobydick
favorite fictional characters: luke, vader, yoda, gandolf, mickeymouse, hawkeye, superman
favorite people, sports stars, and celebrities: dalejr, maddona,
favorite band or album: beatles, imagine
favorite brands: mercedes, drpepper, xbox360
favorite color or things: purple, flower, tattoo, apples

random stuff
astrological signs: aries, cancer (especially their own)
dates: historic events, anniversaries, birthdays: august11, november, jfk1963
religious slogans or scriptures: jesus, jesuslives, havefaith, jesussaves, godisgood, john316

adding numbers
people often add numbers to the end of their passwords: auburn31
for numbers they chooose: years they were born, their age at the time they made the password, area code, phone numbers, zip codes, etc.
simple numbers like 1, 123, 1000
adding 1 is very common because some systems require alphanumeric.

common name/numbers:
alma mater and the year of gradation: harvard93, clemson2002
child's name and year of birth: tommy1983
sports team and year of championship: bama92
their own name and year they will graduate: brittany2009
their car and year it was made: honda03
favorite sports figure and their number: jackson34

also some systems that force you to change your password people change it like...thomas1, thomas2, thomas3. so even though the system forces them to change their password, it essentially stays the same for them.

the completely obvious
using the word "password" as the password.
using their login as their password.
no password, (if the system allows it)
default passwords. like linksys routers u:admin, p:admin

guessing pins
if you ever need to get in a secure building, no doubt someone's code is 1111, or 1234, or something equally obvious.

people reuse the same passwords.
If you a person's password for one thing, you probably have the password for their other stuff
if you get access to someone's email, you can search for the word password and find other passwords.

There are oher low tech ways of getting passwords:
social engineering: asking them under a false pretext where they trust you.
Shoulder surfing: watch them type it in over their shoulder or with a camera.
also people write their passwords down all the time. especially on post it notes.

There are also more high tech ways of getting passwords.
key catchers: capture all keystrokes. hardware and software versions are available.
trojan horses, phishing, etc.

Do you know other common passwords or methods? If so leave a comment.

Google 411 used to build text to speech engine

2008-01-02T13:58:00.000-06:00

speculation that google is using GOOG 411 to help build their own text to speech engine to allow word searches in videos on the web

funny or not

2007-07-13T17:12:00.000-05:00

Check out my new web site... funny or not

bookit.com sux

2007-06-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

I recently used bookit.com because the price was $10 less per day than the same listing on hotels.com. That proved to be a huge mistake. The total sale price was misleading and it ended up being over $50 more for two nights. Don't ever use bookit.com, my advice is to stick with better known brands, like IAC's hotels.com. Also a friend of mine swears by the site skyauction. He says it is like ebay for travel deals.

Building Community

2007-06-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

here are some tips on building community...
http://fortuito.us/2007/05/some_community_tips_for_2007
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/10/12/10-techniques-to-get-more-comments-on-your-blog/

as an example of getting users to comment, here is a great post where the author shares his recollections and at the end asks the readers to "Share you Apple recollections in the comments." This got far more than average comments.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/05/30-years-of-apple/

stocklinkr

2006-12-21T11:17:00.000-06:00

stocklinkr is a web site that I created. It has several features like digg or some other stock web sites, but it also has configurable dynamic links sharing. I wanted a way to check out mad money, navallier, etc. without typing in the ticker repeatedly.

Apple and Google competitors closing the gap

2006-12-16T03:07:00.000-06:00

Apple Mac sales have been gaining ground. This is largely attributed to the "halo effect", ie increased interest in macs due to success of the ipod. I agree the halo effect is driving interest however macs have had a competitive advantage over windows xp. Mac OS X is more current, and looks better. Apple is likely to loose some of that competitive edge with release of Windows Vista.

Regarding Google and Yahoo, Yahoo is finally rolling out Panama, their new system for advertising that replaces the system put in place with the acquisition of Overture. It is more or less a copy of Google's Adwords system and is likely to dramatically increase their revenues.

I am still bullish on Apple and Google long term, but in the short term their competitors are likely to close the gap slightly.

cringley on craiglist

2006-11-23T21:09:00.000-06:00

bob cringley writes about how craigslist owns the community for local advertising.

prosper.com

2006-11-21T10:50:00.000-06:00

prosper.com is a really great idea... connecting lenders and borrowers, eliminating the banks. Here is an article, it was started by a guy at e-loan.

Windows Vista

2006-11-15T15:18:00.000-06:00

I agree with the recent criticism I have read about Microsoft offering too many versions of Windows Vista.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon

2006-11-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

Recent article in business week discusses how Jeff Bezos wants to make Amazon into an internet platform company. It mentions a9 which was a case of google envy and a waste of shareholders money. The main point is it's web services like S3 service, which appears to be basically pay as you go web hosting, and mechanical turk, a crowdsourcing application. I think they are on the right track about the future of the net, but I just don't see them being the ones that pull it off.

I think the main problem is that they charge really small amounts for their services. Charging small amounts prevents people from using them. Conversely google lets people use their services for free and monetizes them through advertising. For instance they charge $.15/thousand requests for access to the alexa web services

techcruch rocks

2006-11-09T20:17:00.000-06:00

TechCrunch is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. I saw two interesting articles about acquisitions. Reddit was bought by Conde Nast, and digg is in talks with news corp.

Google Test Site

2006-11-09T01:11:00.000-06:00

searchmash is a site where google tests out new features.

Yahoo run by old school media execs

2006-11-02T16:53:00.000-06:00

This yahoo talent show site exemplifies my problem with Yahoo's direction. The girl on this ad acts like she is on tv. I think fundamentally the problem is that Terry Semel is from Warner Brothers where he turned them around by producing a string of huge blockbusters. I don't think he or the people he has brought in understands the web. If this is their answer to google buying youtube they are in big trouble. (the original ad featured the robot break dancing clip of david elsewhere that was made famous on youtube). They don't seem to understand the interactive nature of the web versus a broadcast medium. Just today yahoo announced Yahoo food which will feature celebrity chefs.

zune and the high end market

2006-11-02T12:54:00.000-06:00

One problem that Microsoft's zune player will face is that apple has already captured a large portion of the high end consumers. The ones who are willing to pay for the convenience of using itunes. These consumers are largely locked in because songs bought through itunes won't play on other players without some effort. (for instance burning and then ripping the songs as mp3s). However some people think Microsft may try to buy these users out by giving them free copies of songs they bought on itunes. While I think this is a good idea, it exemplifies how hard it is going to be for anyone to compete with the ipod. Even if they are free I hope they make it quick and easy to download all the songs.

Microsoft Office Live

2006-11-02T12:29:00.000-06:00

Microsoft Office Live will offer free domain registration and hosting.

Google to beat TV in race for ad revenues in UK

2006-11-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

Here is another article about online advertising revenues growing at the expense of traditional media. This is antecdotal but whenever I watch a news program and they tease you with their next story before a commercial if it interests me I usually get up and do a search on google news.

Cingular deal puts pressure on Apple

2006-11-02T10:34:00.000-06:00

Cingular anounced a deal with XM, Yahoo music and others. This puts heat on apple and their ipod. I agree with this article it's very likely apple will become a mobile virtual network operator (mvno). i.e. selling cell phone services through their brand. Especially since Steve Jobs is a major shareholder in another company that is an mvno, namely disney mobile.
The ipod is likely to face competition from mp3/cell phones and they are developing an ipod/cell phone, (iPhone?) (hopefully better received than the dissapointing rockr) and they risk being cut out as the service provider. i.e. people buy music from their cell phone provider instead of through itunes.

I am bullish on apple and hold a modest position in the company.

google buys youtube

2006-10-16T15:03:00.000-05:00

Google has bought youtube. I think it was a great move and I am long on Google. The most interesting thing is that they were profitable, and kept it a secret so no one would sue them. I think they will quickly integrate adsense (and possibly video adsense) and let users share in the profits from pageviews (as they do with blogger today).

During the negotiations Microsoft was asleep at the wheel. The best thing they could do for shareholders is to get out of the internet altogether and pass on the profits from Windows and Office in the form of dividends until the company folds. Bill Gates is retiring, and the place is creatively bankrupt.

Eveyone on the street is asking who will get bought next. Some are talking about facebook. My guess is that Yahoo will pay too much for facebook, while google feigns interest to drive the price up. Meanwhile google will continue to buy companies that have momentum but are not completely mainstream like reddit or digg... (just as they did with blogger and writely).

Mergers

2006-05-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances in tech, and there have been rumors of even more largely prompted by fear of Google. Fundamentally I think there are 2 markets: Advertisers/Application Providers(namely Google, Yahoo, and MSN (which I will call GYM for now)), and sellers (ebay and amazon). Mergers within these markets would be huge. Amazon and ebay would form an e-commerce powerhouse. Yahoo and Google would create a search and internet application powerhouse. These merges would give them leverage against the other camp like ebay-Amazon could negotiate volume advertising rates on Google. However mergers across these camps are going to create an unhealthy dynamic. For instance, ebay merging with Yahoo (as has been rumored) could be bad. It would be difficult for Yahoo executives to watch the ebay side funnel money into google advertising which is critical to ebay's survival. I think this overrides the fact that Ebay (and to some extent Amazon) is a valuable community, and it competes directly with Yahoo Auctions.

Beyond that the only acquistions that make sense are GYM buying applications that have strong communities, and shunning original content for user based content. Many applications can be easily replicated but require communites to work... like myspace, flickr, delicious, digg, and youtube.

Google obviously is a powerhouse, but has been reluctant to acquire other companies and has a tendancy to create their own applications even if another community has already been established(example: orkut and myspace). They have made some acquistions like blogger, but not many. I think they can take over any field where community is not imporant (search, maps), or there are standards (like email) but need to think more about acquiring where the community is so important.

Yahoo has made some brilliant acquisitions, namely overture, flickr and delicious. I have been concerned about Yahoo and their their emphasis on making original content since they hired several old school media executives, but they appear to have changed course.

Microsoft has made few good acquisitions, and whatever they acquire they will probably destroy (think hotmail). I remain bearish on Microsoft's ability to compete on the internet. From a technical perspective they will convert it to Windows which will be a major distraction and they will loose ground. Further it will make the company impossible to spin off, as it will either have to transition back to linux or pay enormous licensing fees to MSFT. Also, they have little goodwill with other businesses or consumers. They also have a culture that is spoiled, not in the habit of competing or delivering quickly, and they have no style or originality (think Origami). Also they don't have the focus that Google and Yahoo do on advertising.

Acquisitions:

I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to buy skype. It is not a clear case of buying the community. There is a community but it is tied to another community: the public phone network. Standards destroy exclusive communities. That is why google was so easily able to compete in email with gmail, but not with myspace. I think long term skype as well as vonage and any other voip play will be hard to capitalize on.

Before I bought skype or vonage I think it would make sense for GYM to buy at least the IM part of AOL for the community, not the technology. All three have their own messaging system but IM is the leader and the stronger it is pulled into the voip market the better chance it has for becoming the de-facto standard.

Other than that AOL is a dog. It's dial up business is plummetting, and original content should come from other companies. Of course there was the big deal about it's search and google, but I don't think aol has the leverage it thinks it does.

I think News corp acquisition of myspace was brilliant. Shame on GYM for not reckognizing it's potential. Bands that are on myspace have web pages that are effectively the same except without there friends. If the internet had started out with myspace written into the protocol of http, that might be the way we use it outright.

I think GYM should all be looking hard at YouTube before News corp scoops it up. It may very well replace tv as we know it. This is an example where google has built Google video instead of buying up a company that already is building the community.

I think everyone should look at digg. However, digg need to take the obvious step and extend beyond technology before someone else does.

I suspect at some point if wikipedia can't keep up it's servers someone may adopt it and add ads to the pages. Interestingly, Google is currently providing storage and hosting.

However, possibly the most brilliant acquisition of all was Google buying dark fiber. This will give them leverage against the telcos and cable companies as they try to buy the internet infrastructure and extort them.

Microsoft down 11% on spending plans

2006-04-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

MSFT is down today because investors are not happy with spending plans, but I don't think people get the big picture on msft and their inability to compete with google. One thing that will hold back their chances is the fact their data center must use windows while everyone else (google and yahoo) use linux. linux is more efficient for data centers for several reasons including that it doesn't run a graphical user interface. when microsoft bought hotmail it was widely rumored that when they switched from linux to windows they had to use twice as many machines. that means microsoft will use more machines, more space, more power. further if they buyout web 2.0 companies, like yahoo did with flickr and delicious , they will loose ground by converting to windows, as nearly all web startups use linux.

SEO and google news

2006-04-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting article about getting on google news... they claim "In order to have your articles crawled by Google News, their URLs must contain a number consisting of at least three digits." It also it suggests emailing google directly at source-suggestions@google.com

Another article in the new york times discusses the fact that people are losing the clever headlines and using a boring headlines with keywords people will search for using services like google news.

How To Start A Business in Alabama

2006-04-16T03:36:00.000-05:00

Choose legal structure:

sole proprietarship
no liability protection
must pay fedral self-employment tax (currently 15.3%)

LLP - limited liability partnership
provides little liability protection

LLC - limited liability corporation
provides liability protection
pass through tax entity (avoids corporate taxation)
earnings require payment of fedral self-employment tax (currently 15.3%)
must be dissolved
operational and accounting ease and flexibility compared to S-Corp.

S corp
provides liability protection
pass through tax entity (avoids corporate taxation)
earnings don't require payment of fedral self-employment tax
subject to more stringent accounting guidelines than LLC.
Limited to 35 maximum shareholders, and no foreign capitol

C corp - (most large corporations)
provides liability protection
earnings are taxed at corporate and personal levels
stringent account reqirements
required annual reports, and board of director meetings

How to create an LLC:

1) Draft and file articles of incorporation.
-lawyer is needed for complex articles
-file with county courthouse
-you can use online service.
-also might want to create operating agreement.
2) Pay Alabama business priviledge tax. (Forms PSA)
-currently you have 30 days after forming corporation
-this is paid yearly. (from dec1 to march 15 for that year)
3) File ss4 with irs to get ein (employer identification number, aka tax id)
-choose closing month for accounting.
4) Get local business license.
5) Set up business bank account.
-this allows you to easily separate business and personal finances.
-normally banks require you to have EIN and local business license.
6) Get business insurance.
-Insurance can further protect your personal assets.

**** Yearly Taxes
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=295077

The LLC must file a form 1065 with irs.
The first year it must file a Form 8832 to be taxed as partnership.
The LLC sends members K-1 forms.
File earnings on 1040, schedule C.

Email Tracker

2006-02-06T23:38:00.000-06:00

This site uses techniques that spammers use to allow you to track your email and know when it was opened, forwarded, etc.

CSS Page layout

2006-01-31T10:50:00.000-06:00

This is a simple layout for the typical header, right/left nav, and centered content using css. Next time I do a page from scratch, I am going to ditch the tables and use this.

Google Maps blogs

2005-12-16T09:24:00.000-06:00

Here are 2 blogs that just cover cool google maps hacks.

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
http://coolgooglemaps.blogspot.com/

these are both examples of of a blog done right. No cost, set up blog w/ blogspot, and adsense for revenue. cool google maps got a link on digg for publicity.

digg

2005-11-22T16:39:00.000-06:00

digg is knocking slashdot off the totem pole. It's similar to slashdot except that there are no editors, the stories are choosen democratically by the users.

Process Explorer

2005-11-22T16:35:00.001-06:00

Process Explorer is a freeware that is task manager on steroids..

First Impressions of Ruby on Rails

2005-07-16T18:21:00.000-05:00

Lately I have heard a lot of buzz about ruby on rails. It is used by basecamp, the project management system that I like, and I have heard it mentioned by Martin Fowler and on slashdot.

First there is the ruby language. According to the Ruby Users Guide, it is "an interpreted scripting language for quick and easy object-oriented programming." "Rails" is the web framework portion.

After watching this intro video I can see that scaffolding is a piece that genreates quite a lot of web code for you. It appears that it breaks things into the MVC pattern.

google maps

2005-07-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

Here are links to several cool google map hacks

Project management

2005-07-11T00:03:00.000-05:00

I recently was turned onto a cool online project management program called basecamp. My only reservation is that the data is hosted by another company and you have no control over it(I don't see an easy way to export your data either), but it's very well written and works far better than excel.

FireFox and Internet Explorer

2005-06-26T00:57:00.000-05:00

There are differences in IE and FF that can cause problems.
I had a style on a table cell that set the width to 95% and I had a width attribute on the cell for 10%. 10% was what I wanted and IE rendered it with 10%, but FF rendered it at 95%. The issue comes down to the fact that FF implements the CSS spec, whereas IE does not.

Rich Text Editor for asp.net

2005-06-25T02:54:00.000-05:00

I was recently tasked with finding an editor for asp.net web pages that would allow formatting, much like the editor in blogger.

I looked at the FCK Editor, but was unable to figure out the installation. In the end I used Free Text Box.

Cool use of google maps

2005-05-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of google maps, because you can drag the map, change back forth between map and satelite views, and see yellow highlights for the primary roads. Chicago crime page is slick example of using google maps. It shows you where all the crimes have taken place in the city.

Longhorn summary

2005-05-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

LongHorn
Projected Release Date: late 2006
Projected Beta 1: July 2005
Replaces: Windows XP Professional, and Home (Not 2003 Server)
System Requirements: 512 Meg of RAM, modern pentium 4 (or amd equivalent), Direct X 9.0 graphics card

Gui Features:

Aero interface - transparent windows, a built-in buddy list, and a dockable
task pane.
Avalon - new gui api/features avalon may be backported to xp.
desktop composter - get rid of whiting out screens
high definition support - ability to enlarge legacy apps.

File system/search features
winfs cut from release, there is still new file metadata
search web sites you have visited (already available in google desktop search)
Visualize Documents - see first page of documents, etc. similar to thumbnail view for images in xp.
More file meta data - editable file properties @ bottom of screen in windows explorer
virtual folders w/ dynamic views based on criteria like metadata (similar to features (smart play lists) found in itunes.)
New Save File Dialog to allow for meta-data

Security Features:
LUA (Least-Privilege User Account)
run as standard user(non-admin)/prompt for admin features
already a feature in osx and linux

secure start up. sort of like tripwire? prevents bypassing os with boot disk
etc?

No Execute (NX) security technology in newer AMD and Intel processors.
prevents buffer overruns by distinguishing data from executable instructions

Misc Features
Metro - new default format for print spool. (attempting to replace pdf format)
"My Documents" changed to Documents
mobility - (easier to switch to different ip setups?)
hotpatch without rebooting
black box recorder - similar to dr watson
improved boot performance.
run text box on start menu

Dropped/Delayed/Scaled Back Features
WinFS - Sql Server database will form basis of new file system.

Palladium/Next Generation Secure Computing Base(NGSCB)/Trustworthy Computing
optional feature, must be supported by processor (Intel/AMD).
contains drm features.

Developer perspective:
Avalon:
WinFX (pronounced "Win Effects") - replace win32 api.
winfx is a managed .net library

Xaml - XAML is Longhorn's default language for user interface programming.
xml based UI language.
(eXtensible Application Markup Language, and pronounced "Zammel")
XAML is designed to integrate directly with WinFX.

Text Box in avalon/winfx/xaml
MSAvalon.Windows.Controls.Text

Indigo:
New web service api will replace asmx, .net remoting, etc.

This information is largely taken from Bill Gates Keynote from WinHEC 2005

C# VB translator

2005-05-14T18:26:00.000-05:00

This page will translate C# code to VB.

Team System

2005-05-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

In addition to Visual Studio 2005, MS will be rolling out a new suite of products called Team System. It includes Team Foundation server and three SKU versions of Visual Studio, namely Architect, Developer and Tester. Although there is a stand alone Visual Source 2005, Team Foundation Server includes a completely new Source Control sytem as well as integrated project and task management, process managment (eg. msf agile) and project reporting.

Team Server source control will address several of the long standing issues associated with VSS.
TSSC has parallel development, so you don't have to exclusively check out files.
TSSC has remote development so you can easily connect over web and don't have to be on the lan.
TSSC uses SQL Server under the covers so it's less likely to be corrupted and it supports atomic checkins.

Team Server is about $3,000. It integrates tightly into Visual Studio 2005 with a new "Team Explorer" window. Team Server can also integrate with MS Project, and Excel. In addition some features and reports can be accessed through a web based interface that is using sharepoint under the covers.

Adding a Search to your Site

2005-05-10T23:47:00.000-05:00

Sharepoint, besides providing a portal framework, includes a search service for web sites. It can crawl, index, and provide web service to service search requests. SharePoint has advantages over using using Sql Server because it can search content not in the database (like word, and excel documents) and it has built in relevancy ranking system.

A much less expensive alternative to share point is easy search. It is only $250 and it even has google suggest features.

Of course there is always google search service and Google Search Appliance.

Bill Gates

2005-05-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

This morning we saw Bill Gate's keynote at the MEDC, where he launched Windows Mobile 5.0, the embedded operating system that runs on pdas, smartphones, etc. This is the MS's attempt to make gains against products like the blackberry and the ipod.

here is the story on slashdot

Scoop on Whidbey and refactoring

2005-05-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

According to Bill Gates Visual Studio 2005 is coming out this summer, according to the Prashant Sridharan, the Senior Product Manager for Visual Studio, it will be the end of the year.

At any rate here is the low down on refactoring changes. VB will have refactoring features from a developers express plugin that is free w/ VS 2005, however the C# stuff will only have 5 refactoring options that the MS C# team wrote. Developer Express also has a C# plug in that has refactoring. It's $250, and there is no demo. It looks like it has lots of features, but they are missing support for pulling in using statements. However there is a user plug in that does this... Now that I have more ram I have got to get resharper or this developer express plugin.

Security Session

2005-05-09T13:36:00.000-05:00

How to keep secrets in asp.net

suggestions are to keep passwords in one way hash using the primary key of user record as the salt.

use symmetric keys to store info like connection strings and credit card numbers. the dpapi is used to help store/hide keys, but if the machine crashes you will not be able to retrieve data. so you could use dpapi for data that you can recreate (like connection strings), but not for data that you can't recreate (like credit cards).

hiding the key for symmetric encryption is ultimately a network security issue. you can keep it in the registry, in a file, in the code (probably not the best place :), etc. where ever you put it be sure that only asp.net user has access, and that it is out of the web root. on a web farm it will be easier to deploy it in a file.

VS Live

2005-05-08T16:59:00.000-05:00

This week I will be blogging from VS Live in Las Vegas.
Changes for asp.net 2.0:

ViewState will be split into control state, and another state. This will mitigate the problem with cutting off viewstate to reduce it's size, but then breaking the functionality of the control.

There is a new feature called CrossPagePost Backs that allow forms to submit to other pages than itself. It also contains a mechanism to access the previous page in a type safe manner.

DataGrid will not being moving forward, and is being superceded by a new control called GridView.

AutoScroll on PostBacks

Master Pages is a new mechanism for building templates for web pages.

Themes is a new feature that seems to add little beyond what you can already do with css.

ADO.net
Sql Cache invalidation will allow data to be cached until it is notified that it has been modified.

C# 2.0
Generics will allow type safe collections.

Visual Studio Productivity Features:
There will be limited refactoring support built in to Whidbey. Currently there are five refactorings for C# including extract method.

Inserting of code snippets or templates is now supported. the shortcut is ? space.

There is a new web basesd ui that will change web.config file.

bug me not

2005-05-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

Bug me not is a cool web site where you can get a user/password to avoid the hassle of free online registrations. There is also a firefox plugin.

2005-04-01T12:43:00.000-06:00

To get rid of spyware, run these programs in this order:
adaware, spybot, microsoft anti-spyware, and hijack this.

FireFox plugin

2005-04-01T12:31:00.000-06:00

firefox needs a way to change it's properties without starting it. When I use my work laptop at home it tries to connect to the proxy server at work. In IE you can right click the IE icon to get to the properties to change it.

Removing VSS Integration out Visual Studio

2005-02-25T09:30:00.000-06:00

After searching for quite some time I found how to remove VSS integration from VS in the google cache. I only did steps 1, 2, and 4 and it worked for me.

1. Clear the read-only attribute from all files

2. Delete all source safe files (*.scc, *.vspcc, and *.vssscc)

3. Edit each solution file (*.sln) and remove the section starting with

GlobalSection(SourceSafeControl) =3D preSolution
and ending with
EndGlobalSection

4. Edit each project file (*.csproj or *.vbproj) and remove the four
lines that begin with "Scc"

5. Edit each setup project file (*.vdproj) and remove each line that
begins with "Scc"

(Full credit to: David Neal at http://maxyourasp.com/)

Why I Love FireFox

2005-02-23T12:48:00.000-06:00

Firefox, the open source web browser, is a sweet little browser with lots of small improvements over IE. I have listed a few reasons I use it over IE. Not to mention the fact that it is important for there to be a competing browser that will prevent Microsoft (or anyone else) from controlling the standards on the web server side.

1) It's the same. FireFox keeps many of the things the same as IE, including numerous keyboard shortcuts, like (ctrl + enter), (alt + d). It also has a feature to import your bookmarks from IE.

2) Security Firefox is currently less susceptible to spyware and adware. This is because it doesn't support active x, and because many malicious programs are written to exploit holes in IE due to it's popularity. Many users will be able to run Firefox faster than IE if they have lots of spyware and adware loading with IE. Firefox is recomended by several security authorities.

3) Tabbed browsing is a cool feature not supported by IE. It's main benefit is that you easily load lots of pages with out waiting on any of them or loosing focus on the page you choose it from. For instance after a search you can right click on several results and choose open in another tab. You can then see which ones have loaded by looking at the tabs before you choose to go to them. In IE you can launch new windows and use alt+tab, but this is easier to manage and the main page doesn't loose focus.

4) Progressive search The find dialog doesn't block the page (it is at the bottom) and it highlights the first found term as you type it in. At first, I was in the habit of hitting enter when I finish, but in FireFox that takes you to the second result as you are already progressed to the first result.

5) quick searches this feature allows you to search different sites without having to wait and navigate to them, and it's easy to add engines or change the default.

6) New shortcuts Some shortcuts are for functinality that doesn't exist in IE, but other things are would be nice to have in IE.
ctrl k - quick searches
ctrl t - new tab
ctrl shift enter - complete .org address
shift enter - complete .net address

7) Open in tabs bookmark folder feature. If you check the same few web pages every morning, add them all to a folder, and then start off by clicking "open in tabs" link at the bottom of the menu.

8) rss live links. When you go to a page with an rss feed you can subscribe to it (by clicking icon in bottom right corner) and then be able from you bookmark to see headlines without loading the page.

9) 3rd Party support. Numerous plugins like Java, Adobe Acrobat, and Flash are supported. Also yahoo, google and other toolbars are supported. This is not really an improvement over IE so much as it is on par
Yahoo toolbar recently began supporting FireFox directly.
Google toolbar is not officially supported, but there is an open source project.
The project doesn't support pagerank but there is a plug-in but of course there are privacy issues.

10) Pop-up blocker. There are other pop-up blockers. Service Pack 2 adds a popup blocker to IE. google toolbar has popup blocking. This is an area with room for improvement, since none of the popup blockers seem to be 100% effective. Firefox can also get rid of pop-ups with the extension adblock.

11) Download manager. IE (on windows) has no download manager.
One cool feature is that the download manager starts downloading before you choose save location.

12) fav icons work in the bookmarks. IE has a long standing bug that prevents fav icons from working.

13) superior password manager. FF password manager allows you to view and remove password individually. IE only allows you to delete them all. (roboform is even better than FF password manager)

14) Search in web history So if you are trying to find an article you read yesterday on smoking you can search through your history. However, it only searches in the title of the page.

15) lots of free extension. extensions are small programs that any programmer can write to enhance the functionality of firefox. One of my favorites is adblock, which can remove ads from your favorite pages, and help block pop ups that get through.

Problems:
The main problems of using Firefox are not surprisingly related to Microsoft.

1) FireFox doesn't start streaming many file extnsions include .wmv and .mpg movies when you start them. Instead, it prompts you to download.
One solution is to use IE View, an extension that launchs IE. Another solution is to use the extension launchy extension. (launchy also does other cool stuff like letting you choose what application to view source in)

2) Firefox doesn't support active x. This is one thing that makes it more secure but can, in some cases, be a drawback. For instance, using Outlook web access sux on firefox.

3) Microsoft and dot net enviroment. By default Visual Studio uses IE, but it can be changed to launch FireFox.

4) Going to some .asmx web service pages in IE gives documentation, but it doesn't work in fire fox.

5) Microsoft updates of course uses IE. This is not a big deal since I hope at least this site is secure.

There is also a blog post, How Can I Trust FireFox, about security issues in FF posted on an msdn blog. I agree with some of these concerns, but I still think FF rocks.

object moved to here error on asp.net pages

2005-02-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

I am having a sporadic problem with a page that does a Response.Redirect giving the error message "Object moved to here". Adding Response.BufferOutput = true; before the call to Response.Redirect() seems to have fixed it, but it's hard to tell since it isn't consistant.

disabling buttons in javascript with asp.net

2005-02-21T14:37:00.000-06:00

Here is how to call Javascript that will disable a button after it is clicked to prevent double submission. The problem is that if you just disable it in javascript it messes up the postback.

LoginButton.Attributes.Add("onClick", "disableButtons();" +
GetPostBackEventReference(LoginButton).ToString());

Web Testing Tools

2005-01-31T23:03:00.000-06:00

I am searching for automated testing tools for a c# web project. I am looking for something cheap (i.e. forget about Rational, Mercury TestDirector, Segue Silk). Right now I'm using roboform, although it is a password/form tool for web users it has helped to quickly get through series of pages with required fields.
I am evaluating http://www.iopus.com/iim/ an IE plug in that runs macros.

Extensive list of web tools

Visual Studio Refactoring Tools

2005-01-04T09:28:00.000-06:00

I am using MS Visual Studio, and I desperately miss the refactoring and productivity tools in Java IDEs. Whidbey, the next VS release, will include some of these features but may not be released till the fall. Here are the tools I'm considering buying/using:

a vs plugin from idea, the people that raised the bar for java developement. (update: I tried resharper and had to uninstall it due to poor performance and increased memory consumption)
$99
http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

$99
http://www.xtreme-simplicity.net/

free w/ source code
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/SMRefactorAddinArticle.asp

Also someone told me to check out SharpDevelop, a free alternative to MS VS

Designing a delete confirmation system

2004-12-30T18:30:00.000-06:00

There are two ways to accidentally delete something, hitting the wrong key accidentally, and mistakenly thinking you are deleting the correct item. To avoid the first problem of accidentally hitting a key most systems require that you hit two keys in order to delete something. For instance in MS windows to delete a file you commomly hit the delete key and then are prompted with a confirm dialog. On a Mac they cleverly combine a two key combination (Command + delete) to delete a file. This avoids having to use a confirm dialog but is initially very frustrating for users that don't know the combination. Yahoo's mail interface also makes you hit two keys, first you have to select a checkbox from the list of emails, and then you click a delete button. All of these systems require that you do two actions to minimize the odds of accidentally deleting an item.

The other scenario is that you mistakenly think you should delete something and later realize it was a mistake. In this case a confirmation is unlikely to do any good since you may not realize your mistake till you need the file later. In that case all the systems mentioned have a "trash" system where you can retreive deleted items for days or weeks after they are deleted.

2004-08-09T10:06:00.000-05:00

Adware continues to be a problem for everyone I know. Spybot and Ad Aware seem to be getting out of date. There is a new free that removes lots of stuff called CW Shredder. Also, it's becoming hard to google for these things and know that you are getting the right link. I suggest choosing a reputable site like pcworld.com or download.com.

2004-07-17T23:02:00.000-05:00

my web server has gone down twice in the last few days. i set up a little program to check it once an hour to make sure it is up. http://virdi-software.com/eyeonsite/desc.shtml

http://www.download.com/EyeOnSite/3000-2155-10103479.html?tag=lst-0-5

CPM

2004-06-21T14:10:00.000-05:00

In the world of web advertising CPM stands for price/cost per thousand impressions. I guess the M is the Roman numeral.

2004-06-07T17:44:00.000-05:00

Things to try when your linux web server is running slow...
-try to ssh in, and run w or top. check for run away processes.
-run a tracert to see where the problem is.

2004-06-04T14:54:00.000-05:00

Today I found out it's important to put action tags in forms even if you are submitting to the same page. Most browsers work without the action tag, but AOL browser on the Mac fails.

2004-06-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

Search Engine Optimization tip. Use Javascript links on your unimportant pages so that you don't dilute your PageRank.

2004-05-26T13:51:00.000-05:00

Here is what I have learned about SSL certificates for a web server. You generate a CSR (certificate signing request), and a private key on your box. You send the CSR to the CA (certificate authority) and they send you a Certificate. You are supposed to be careful to guard your private key. It is the key to validating your identity.

When generating the key you have to choose the key length. Generally your choices are 512, 1024, and 2048. 1024 bits are the most popular ones in use for commercial transactions. Most respectable sites use 128 bit encryption.

Certificates are only good for a certain amount of time, usually a year. CA usually charge between $50 and $800. Verisign and Thawte are the two most respected CAs.
You can view a sites certificate details in IE by double clicking the lock icon in lower right corner on status bar. In IE, you can view the CA's that your browser trusts by going to Tools->Internet Options -> Content (tab) -> Certificates -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities.

Consider buying the certificate from the ISP you use. I bought mine from another source and when I had problems the CA didn't support installation, and my ISP blamed the CA's certificate. In the end I used my ISP and the Plesk interface made it relatively simple.

2004-05-10T13:53:00.000-05:00

I have been doing research on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
here is a tutorial and the link is optimized for search engines: Free search engine optimization tutorial
keyworddensity.com
google guidelines
article on slashdot about (SEO) contest

2004-05-06T11:36:00.000-05:00

I am using redhat 9 on my web server. Since Redhat is dropping support for up2date I decided to install yum. I downloaded to my server through lynx and then installed it as well as some dependent packages. The command to run yum manually is:
# yum update

checks for updates
# yum check-update

Fedora Legacy Project Anouncements

I also started using ftp over ssh.
Linux Security FAQ

2004-05-03T13:03:00.000-05:00

Today I got a business license. It was only $8.50 for Jefferson County, AL. I needed it to open a business bank account. Since the business is an LLC, and I am not the sole owner, I have to turn in vouchers every month for occupational tax. Also i have to remember to renew it in October. In October the amount wil be based on the previous year's reciepts.

I also applied online for an EIN, which is a social security number for a business.

2004-05-02T01:53:00.000-05:00

On my Linux box I use the last command to check to make sure no one has logged on. I noticed that the log was cleared on the first of the month and found out that it is reset based on parameters in this config file... /etc/logrotate.conf

2004-02-20T14:54:00.000-06:00

When you import files into sql server 2000 the file needs to be named the same as the table. The wizzard never asks you which table.

Web Hosts in Birmingham, AL

2004-02-12T22:48:00.000-06:00

well established web hosts in birmingham, al:

hiwaay
wwisp
inline
infomedia
venture net
libertech

Other lesser known hosts I found googling...

dwd
http://www.microxl.com
http://www.networker2000.com
http://www.webconcepts-inc.com
http://www.dbtech.net

2004-01-20T12:02:00.000-06:00

I recently needed to come up with a good domain and came up with some tips for choosing a good domain name:
The key is to get something simple.
1) get a .com. No remembers all the other domains.
2) Domain name should be short. Ideally it should be a single word with around six characters. (think ebay, yahoo, amazon)
3) It should be easy to spell and unambiguous. Don't use "the" at the start or hyphens. (imho da-jump-offz.us would be a bad name)
4) Most real words are taken, so consider making up a word (think google, napster, blogger).
blogger is an interesting one because it is presumably a "contraction" for web logger.
This creates a unique brand and it avoids having to possibly buy the domain.

- register typical misspelling, probable typos and other domains (like .net, .org, etc)
For instance google.com owns gooogle.com (notice 3 o's)
-also consider registering domains that people might mistakenly associate with your name.
For instance dripcafe.com also owns drip.com.

You can always break the rules. For instance, I think http://www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com is a good name because it is funny and easy to remember even though it's not short.

2003-11-11T16:40:00.000-06:00

Software companies should choose unique names for their products so that it is easy to search for info on search engines.

2003-11-11T10:10:00.000-06:00

In windows drag and drop moves a file. Holding down control will make it copy, and holding down shift control will make it a shortcut. If you use the right button to drag and drop it will prompt you on a context menu to move, copy, or create shortcut.

2003-10-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

hello world humor

2003-10-02T16:58:00.000-05:00

today i had to break into a red hat linux 7.2 machine because we forgot all the passwords.
-on the red hat screen hit ctrl X
-then hit tab to display kernels (default will have star)
-type "kernel_name 1"
you are then logged on as root.

2003-10-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

I downloaded an avi file and when I tried to watch it in windows media player it said "error downloading codec." I found out that all codecs have a four letter code. The easiest way to find out what the code for a file is to open it in notepad, and look for it on the first few lines. I realized mine was DX50. After googling for info on DX50, I downloaded the codec from http://www.divx.com/divx. I had to scroll down a little to find the download for just the codec, not the viewers that divx offers.

2003-09-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

the commercial database market is dominated by three players:
ibm db2
oracle 9i, 8i, etc.
microsoft sql server

in the open source world the major players are mysql and postgres.
the pros/cons of mysql:

previous versions of mysql did not support transactions, and only supported table level locking (didn't support row level locking). however that is no longer true if you use the correct type of table.
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Locking_methods.html
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Table_types.html
mysql doesn't support subqueries

mysql doesn't have a procedural language or support triggers.

2003-08-29T14:55:00.000-05:00

here is how to switch domains and keep your desktop in Windows 2k pro.

1)switch domain:
right click "my computer" -> properties -> Network Identification tab -> Properties button -> change domain.
You will be prompted to login to the domain and you will need a user/pass for that domain *not for your computer*

2)the trick to keep your desktop and settings is to login under a third username and change the "Document and Settings" directory for the newUsername to be the one that was the old username you used.

C:\Documents and Settings\newUserName to C:\Documents and Settings\newUserName01
C:\Documents and Settings\oldUserName to C:\Documents and Settings\newUserName

It is important that you are logged in as someone besides the old or new usernames.
Also any shortcuts will be lost that used C:\Documents and Settings\oldUserName in them.

*another way in xp:
system properties-> advanced tab -> user profile settings button -> copy profile button

Don't use floats for money fields

2003-08-22T15:44:00.000-05:00

On my current project we are getting slammed by rounding errors from using floats. look at this code:

double x = 426.39 + 834.20;
System.out.println("x: " + x);

Surprisingly it prints:
x: 1260.5900000000001

2003-05-16T13:48:00.000-05:00

JAD is a sweet java decompiler. There is also a plugin for jbuilder called JADClassFileNode that allows you to use the find definition command and drill down into the decompiled source from the jar file. This is nice, for instance if you are using an open source project you don't have to download the source if you want to check something simple.

2003-03-19T16:25:00.000-06:00

Lots of applications in windows, like MS Word, lock the file. I think the file it makes in the same directory with a similar name and usually a tilde (~) as the first character is the lock file.

2003-03-04T12:12:00.000-06:00

If you are using ant and expect to get line numbers in stack traces, set debug="on" attribute in the javac tag. Otherwise you end up with (source unknown).

2003-02-17T16:02:00.000-06:00

A Windows path can be composed of no more than 256 characters, including the c:\.

2003-02-04T09:25:00.000-06:00

in a web application javascript should never be your only validation. it can be disabled in any browser.

2003-01-30T10:10:00.000-06:00

Spyware keeps coming up. AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy are two popular choices for removing spyware and adware.