Internet

A client recently requested ffmpeg to be installed on the server. I have done this in the past on a client's box but he had a different OS setup. For that installation I used a HowTo guide from VexxHost. (read more)

Problem: Just like you, I really hate sitting down to begin my work day only to find myself wasting the first 10 minutes removing spam. Though Firebird is smart, it still doesn't recognize junk mail as it should. I could build a ton of filters in Firebird but that is also time consuming, spammers are clever and will find a way to by pass filters and junk algorithms. What is a better solution? (read more)

I moved a few more accounts from the old server to the new server this evening. Once the accounts were setup I went to change the nameserver names at godaddy, where I keep most of my domains.

  (read more)

No more spam

Most of the web hates spam! Since my blog is being touched by spammers I wanted to send a message to all of you! (read more)

Today I logged in to Google Adwords and began managing my ads. A few clicks later I got the "sorry" message. Usually, if you reload a few back pages you don't have re-login - bypassing this message. But not today, Google decided to block my every attempt to get into my Adwords account. (read more)

FYI: I was surprised Google.com was down for 2 whole minutes this morning. It wasn't my connection, as I tried other sites and all loaded without delay. I don't recall this happening to me in the past nor others mentioning it.

I did see though that Adsense adds were loading on the sites I checked while waiting for Google.com to respond. I assume adsense ads are served up from another server (Google has 24 servers, or more, just for search); so their whole network was not down (read more)

Over the past year some online services have popped up offereing busienss owners the ability to spy on their competitors. Spying as in knowing what organic keywords their competitors are ranking for as well as any paid advertisments and those related keywords being used.

I stumbled upon keywordspy.com while looking through my logs, to see what recent referrers I have received. Seems like someone is spying on my site :) (read more)

Congratulations to NewsWeek on a great usability web page. I stumbled on this article (http://www.newsweek.com/id/98022) this evening and was surprised to see a clean yet usable "main" content page. I say "main content" referring to the article (left column).

If you take a look to the right of the article text you will see a bluish-gray box with a few eye catchy icons and links: Type Size, Print, Email, RSS, Social Networks, Links to this article. A little bit of play for every type of Web user. Let's see why this is a good fit for a broad base of Web users. (read more)

As of today Ubercart, one of Drupal's ecommerce modules, has been released as Beta. For a good while it was in Alpha. Even in Alpha this commerce module was great. I have worked with oscommerce for years and it is good to see an alternative with a content management system (CMS) like Drupal.

I suspect within the next few months Ubercart will become more and more popular and hopefully begin to capture a crowd similar to oscommerce or the others (creloaded, oscmax, zencart).

If you haven't seen Ubercart in action here is a demo:
http://livetest.ubercart.org/

Read more about the Beta release here:
http://www.ubercart.org/forum/announcements/2491/ubercart_10_beta_1_rele...
http://www.ubercart.org/news/jan-07-2008/you_beta_watch_out

Cheerios for Ubercart! (read more)

Back on October 12th (2007) I wrote Boris Mann of the Drupal Association: "I wanted to see if the Drupal Association could draw up a "badge" or something that basically represents that we are part of the Drupal Association?"

He kindly wrote back the same day: "Absolutely, this is on our list to get done... This would be something that members could feature on their website..."

And now I am happy to announce the day has come forward - Drupal members now have cool drupal badges to sport! I have placed mine on my blog and on Lafayette Web as well.

Drupal members, sport your badge! (read more)

I am happy to report that my server came in today, all 105lbs of it! I couldn't believe that thing weighed so much. In case anyone is interested in the specs of it:

Dell PE 6650 - 2x3.0/4M 4G-8 P3DC 1x73G(10K) 2x146G(10K)

If I wanted I could add two more cores, two more drives, and 28 more gigbyte of ram.

Why am I buying a server? It is pretty simple. The savings over time. The server itself plus shipping was a little under $1,900. I currently pay $167 for renting a dedicated server. $167x12 = $2004/year. But, this server package is limited, it does not have the same specs as the server I just purchased.

If I upgraded my rented dedicated server at dedicated now my monthly costs would be $667.50/month or $8010/year. (read more)

I'm excited to know that my blogging website now has a page rank of four. It only took about 1.5 years!!! With the page rank of four, I guess I can now start blogging for major blogging companies!

I really enjoy blogging. I've been writing for/journaling/blogging for somewhere around 14 years now. Writing has fundamentally changed my life, al
low me to express myself privately and publicly. When you start writing to the online world you begin to think a little bit more about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Not to mention if your English is correct. Nobody wants to look like a dummy :( (read more)

Video tutorials are a great way to teach someone about a product or illustrate how to use something. They are much more fun to see than reading a manual.

For the past couple of days I have been working with CamStudio and creating screenshots (video tutorials) for clients and the backend of the websites.

I have learned from this experience that building screencasts should be much easier. CamStudio provides a free software that helps you create screencasts but to get high quality videos with synchronized audio you have to try many settings (video and audio codecs). (read more)

Some months back I decided it would be good business to provide services to local small businesses here in my hometown (Lafayette / West Lafayette). There are some developing businesses already most charge an arm and a leg. And when you think they are reliable, then end up going out of business.

I have found over the past year I enjoy consulting and helping local business owners with web endeavors. I get more satisfaction out of that than actually getting paid. And, I have been told that is a start to something good! (read more)

Ok, so I am not that great on the command line in linux. Tonight I went to remove some files within a directory and used: rm -fR /

And that ended up removing all sorts of things from root down. That created a huge pit in my stomach! Not a good feeling. I should have used: rm -fR

Hopefully the backup will take place within a few minutes so I can finish what I was doing.

The one thing about making big mistakes is you learn from them! I won't be doing that one again... (read more)