Uncategorized 9 December 2011

I just noticed that people are hot linking items from my site, I am not against it but I will appreciate if you hotlink anything from me that you drop a message or something telling me what you have files you are linking. This will benefit both of us since …

 Author's Choice,General 3 February 2011

I have noticed that over the months (since 2010), Bing was catching up on Google in terms of search relevance and search results. Almost all the things that I searched on Google using my IE with improve user experience turned on appeared on Bing after a few minutes. This is odd since I search them on Bing first (laziness to turn the default search engine to Google).

For months I was thinking it was normal due to the mere fact that Microsoft has acquired of some search engines including Yahoo’s directory over the years. I was not aware that even Google itself was intrigue on this issue and they have conducted a test by inserting fake search terms and fake search results on their database. This dummy data was used as a test medium to confirm the theory that somewhere inside IE8 or Windows itself is a recorder of Google search terms and results. The test will prove true if the bogus search terms will appear on Bing and eventually the search results.

 General 3 February 2011

Today is the yearly celebration of the Chinese New Year which is highly based from the lunar calendar. I am warmly extending my greetings to all Chinese friends out there for this special day.

Generations ago, the first day of the lunar year (or the first day of the Chinese calendar) was being used to take a break from a very long period of planting and harvesting cycle.

A festival was being held to on this day which is just a few days after the harvest and a few days before the planting season. Some even called it as the Spring festival which may last up to 15 days.

The preparation usually takes a month earlier just like the New Year celebration that we got used to. The houses are being cleaned from top to bottom in beliefs that this will drive away bad luck, doors and windows are also being repainted.

 Coding Tips,Online Security,Programming 23 January 2011

Apache web servers offer a flexible way to control the server settings by using .htaccess file. This tiny is being read and translated by apache before serving the actual web pages or files. Here is a list of a few simple and useful .htaccess commands.

Changing the default index file

DirectoryIndex index.html

This code changes the default index file. An index file is the first page that will be loaded up hen visiting mywebsite.com or even mywebsite/foo/. In this case visiting mywebsite.com will load up mywebsite.com/index.html.

DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.htm

You can also give a list of options such as shown in the snipper above. This command will search for index.html, index.php and index.htm in the exact order. If you have index.php and index.html sitting on the same folder, the one that will be loaded is index.html.

Custom error pages

ErrorDocument 404 errors/404.html

 Publishing,Savings 22 January 2011

With over one million active users, the JW Player™ is the Internet’s most popular open source video player. It supports playback of any format the Adobe Flash Player can handle (FLV, MP4, MP3, AAC, JPG, PNG and GIF) and now supports HTML5 too.

Additionally, the JW Player™ supports RTMP, HTTP, live streaming, various playlists formats, a wide range of settings and an extensive JavaScript API. The JW Player’s™ skinning functionality allows you to completely customize its look and its plugin architecture allows you to easily extend the player’s functionality.

A new 50% discount coupon was now released for the month of January was active for a week now as of writing. The discount code is jandisc5011 enable you to get a full 50% discount on all the longtail product line including modules and skins.

 Author's Choice,Publishing 21 January 2011

Dropbox is a popular online storage solution that helps you store files and access them across multiple computers that have a drop box client. The application allows you to sync your files online and across your computers and mobile phones automatically.

An initial account will give you 2GB of online storage for free with an option to go paid increasing your file storage up to 100GB. The application works on Windows, Mac and Linux and on selected mobile devices. There are 2 types of sync mode, an automated one that will pick up new files and modified files automatically. The second mode is selective where you choose what will be sync, this saves bandwidths specially if you are storing big chunks of files.

File sharing is also available where the files can be accessed online and converted into public shares. Shared files/folders will appear as a new folder entry on your friend’s accounts where they interact with the files. For those that are worried on allowing a stranger to access their files, Dropbox also have the feature to monitor who is accessing your files and keep them out or give them access.

 Author's Choice,Coding Tips,Exposure,Programming,Publishing 20 January 2011

If you have been maintaining a website or plan to maintain one, I am pretty sure that you have already known some of the trickiest part of being a webmaster. Everything starts on your work board where you plan and decide what the website will be, how people will find it and what audience you will aim to serve. Going online gives a few more hurdles such as picking the right webhosting service, for a starter, you won’t get a Linux webhosting service if you want to host ASP files and vice versa.

The hurdles gets on moving to securing your files, protecting the server, making sure that everything runs and that you have enough bandwidth or disk space to carry everything out flawlessly. Sooner or later you will hit a certain condition where uptime will be questioned. Are you 100% sure that your website is live 24 hours a day and 7 days a week?

Introducing the Robot.
Fortunately, you no longer need to sit in front of your computer checking at regular intervals to make sure that your website is live. “Uptime Robot” a web application from WebResourcesDepot & SSLmatic will dutifully alert you if your website suddenly went down so you can take an action at once.

 Savings 19 January 2011

Hostgator is offering coupon codes for their webhosting services for the year 2011. A coupon exists for each bracket of hosting that they offer including a trial coupon. The trial coupon can be used on any shared hosting services excluding the domain for new accounts.

SPRING – This code gives 20% savings coupon for your first month and works on all hosting packages including the shared, virtual private hosting (VPS) and dedicated hosting.

HOSTGATORFREETRIAL – This will activate a trial account with a one cent bill (S0.01) and good for hatchling plan and baby plan. The same coupon gives a discount of $9.95 for business plan, virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated hosting.

1CENTBABYPLAN – This will activate a trial account with a one cent bill (S0.01) and good for hatchling plan and baby plan. The same coupon gives a discount of $9.95 for business plan, virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated hosting.

 Author's Choice,Coding Tips,Exposure 9 November 2010

Sometimes we need to change filenames or directory structures but simply can’t since this always results on being penalized by search engine ranking. If a file was moved or renamed, a search engine index will end up as an error 404 which only puts you down on ranking with search engines but also drive away your visitors thinking that your website ends up broken.

A common user will use script base forwarding by manipulating the headers, it will work but the robots will get confused and may mark your site as spam. The best way to redirect in a search engine friendly way is to utilize error 301 (Moved Permanently).

Here are the steps that you need to do:

• Make sure that you have a Linux or Unix webhost, the OS can be optional as long as you have Apache as the base server.
• Consult your webhosting company if they support .htaccess file, a few years ago support for this file is not supported on most shared hosting accounts.
• Open your ftp software or file manager in case you prefer a file manager
• Navigate to the web root, in case for php hosting it is either public_html or httpdoc (httpsdocs for SSL directory)
• Locate if you have a file named .htaccess (take note of the . and the blank filename).
• If you have an existing .htaccess file, download the file and create a backup.
• Add an entry taking this format redirect 301 /odlfilename http://domainname.com/newfilename