Microsoft hooks several Mice to One PC

Microsoft has developed a technology that lets several mice be used with a PC simultaneously to make up for shortage of computers in classrooms. The mice are connected to the PC’s (universal serial bus) port.

Multiple cursors are displayed in different colors on the screen. A voting mechanism is in place that lets students switch to a different PC application only if the majority of them click their mice in favor. Another utility keeps track of how each student does on an instructional program.

A key problem at rural schools in India is that the number of students far outnumber the PCs in the classroom, said Kentaro Toyama, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India. As a result, several students often have to use the same PC, and one child often monopolizes the computer, he said. [via]

Microsoft Launches SNARF Email organizer

Microsoft Research has launched SNARF that extends Microsoft Outlook email notification and message organizing capabilities. SNARF sorts email messages in order of ‘social’ importance.

The tool runs simultaneously next to an e-mail client and allows a user to look at unread e-mail in three views: Unread To/CC Me, Unread Mail, and Unread Lists. The default sort mechanism ranks e-mail messages in those categories based on how many times a user e-mails an address or person on the list.

SNARF can help you find the right ordering of email messages for maximum productivity. Each person in their inbox is assigned a set of meta-information: “number of emails sent in the last month,” for example. These metrics can, in turn, be combined to create an ordering across all contacts. Each person or list has a count of messages associated with them and a a blue bar under indicates the magnitude (on a log scale, and relative to the other people in the same pane) of the number of messages for that person.

The software requires Microsoft Outlook 2002 or 2003 as a MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) source, but also has been tested with Exchange and MAPI servers, Hotmail, and e-mail clients using POP (Post Office Protocol), IMAP, and the OL Connector (for Lotus Notes).

Download Microsoft Snarf | Microsoft Snarf Home

Official Google Blogs Aggregator

Google now has 11 official blogs. If tracking these many individual official Google blogs seems a bit complicated, you can read them “together” here.

Google Reader - googlereader.blogspot.com/
Google Adsense - adsense.blogspot.com/
Google Adwords - adwords.blogspot.com/
Google Desktop - googledesktop.blogspot.com/
Official Google Blog - googleblog.blogspot.com/
Adwords API - adwordsapi.blogspot.com/
Blogger Buzz - buzz.blogger.com/
Google Talk - googletalk.blogspot.com/
Google Video - googlevideo.blogspot.com/
Google Sitemaps - sitemaps.blogspot.com/
Google Base - googlebase.blogspot.com/

The Google Blogs Kinja Digest lets you export the above feeds as an OPML file which you can later import in your favorite newsreader.

Ask Me a Question

You could be very knowledgeable about computers and the Internet but lack the time necessary to go online and do extensive research for your work. And even if you have the time to research the web, you may still not be able to find the information you want because you cannot create the right query for the search engines. Don’t worry, help is just a click away.

Even experienced web users sometimes need help to search information on the internet. I can help you locate hard-to-find information on the web or solve technology-related problems that you are facing.

Your question can be related to Tech Support, Online Map of the nearest Pizza store, how to choose the best software, Hardware Buying Guide, Where to download Drivers for my Windows 95 PC, Quotes for Wedding Anniversaries, Where is the nearest Wi-Fi Spot, Should I buy a PC or a Mac, Should I buy a XP PC or wait for Vista, Access restricted websites, locating a lost friend’s email address, How to make money from Adsense, blog design or just anything under the sun - I will find the answer for you.

Type your question in this area, provide as much detail as possible upfront about your question.

Do not press the payment button until you type your question in the box above. Your question will also be shown on the next screen, the PayPal payment page.

You are free to set the price for your question. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can immediately ask for a refund. If the answer you receive to your question is unclear for whatever reason, you can request a clarification at no additional charge.

Firefox referrals for international Adsense publishers

Google is now accepting International (non-US) Adense Publishers for Firefox Referral program.

A Firefox referral is counted when a Windows user, who has not previously installed Firefox, downloads and runs the program for the first time. You can place upto one Firefox referral button on your website. Google pays $1 per referral the first time a user installs Firefox.

To add a referral to your site, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your AdSense account at www.google.com/adsense.
2. Visit the Referrals tab and choose the Firefox sub-tab.
3. Choose the referral button you’d like to place on your site and copy the code from the box to the left of your selection.
4. Paste the referral code into the HTML source code of your site.

IE 7 vs Firefox 1.5 vs Opera 9 - The gap is closing

The upcoming releases of IE, Firefox, and Opera show that innovation in Web Browser Development has just come to an end. Companies are simply integrating the more popular features of rival products into their browsers. No radical changes are planned in any of the upcoming browser releases. It is very possible that in near future - IE, Firefox, and Opera will all have similar features and similar, tight interfaces.

1. IE 7 includes tabbed browsing, a capability that Firefox and Opera have offered for a while.

2. IE 7 has an integrated search box similar to that in Firefox and Opera.

3. Both IE 7 and Firefox 1.5 offer an easy method for deleting personal browsing data (browser cache, URL history, saved forms) via one menu option. The feature already exists in Opera 8.5.

4. Firefox 1.5 offer automatic updates similar to IE.

5. Opera comes with several advanced features that you can get in Firefox only with add-ons, and that IE lacks entirely.

Erik Larkin compares the three most popular browser on earth - Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1, Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1, and Opera 9 Preview 1. He also mentions Flock, a social browsing application. Flock rethinks the browser as a tool for creating Weblogs, organizing bookmarks and connecting with others online.

IE 7: The new Phishing Filter in IE aims to warn users if they visit a known or potential phishing site—a function previously available only via third-party toolbars.

Firefox 1.5: Firefox 1.5 includes drag-and-drop tab reordering. The new Auto-update process is streamlined and smooth.

Opera 9: Users can choose which Web sites can run JavaScript or display images. And the impressive built-in RSS feed handler now supports Atom 1.0. However, Opera has no plans to introduce Firefox-like extensions, so if you don’t like the way it does something, you’re stuck.

Browser Market Share: Though IE has been losing market share, it remains dominant yet. The number of users jumping to Firefox has slowed recently leading some experts to suggest only a finite number of people are willing or able to try an alternate browser.

Read full story at PCWorld - Browser Face-Off

Difference between Laptop and Notebook computer

Notebooks and Laptops are portable computers but there is a minor difference between laptops and notebooks.

Laptop: A portable computer small enough to use on one’s lap.

Notebook: A light, portable computer that is generally thinner than a laptop.

Even according to Webopedia, laptop computers are more frequently called notebook computers, though technically laptops are somewhat smaller in size than notebooks.

Source: Notebook Computer | Laptop Computer

Randy Morin does a Mark Cuban

In an effort to reduce comment spam,Randy of the RSS Blog has decided to delete any new comment that links to blogspot.com blogs. He will also delete existing comments (even legitimate ones) that link to blogspot.com.

Earlier, Mark Cuban had declared a war on Blogspot blogs and hinted at banning blogspot.com blogs from the Icerocket blog search engine.

Randy: I know blog comment spam is the most irritating thing but how about adding word verification kind of a thing. It really helps reduce spam.

AntiVirus Software: Full Virus Protection ?

What problems might the antivirus industry be facing, apart from the market headaches which plague any manufactuer of consumer goods. We all know that viruses exist, and so do antivirus solutions. It might seem that antivirus solutions are a standard consumer product - one solution barely differs from the next. Users choose their product according to design, or marketing, or for some other non-technical reason. Given this, an antivirus solution is, in theory, just another consumer product, like washing powder, toothpaste, or cars.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this is not the case. Users often chose an antivirus solution for its technical characteristics, and these differ widely between products. Users often focus on whether or not a specific product protects against a specific type of cyber threat, and the overall level of protection offered.

An antivirus solution should be able to protect against ALL types of malicious program. The better the antivirus solution, the happier users and system administrators will be. Anyone who doesn’t understand this in theory will very soon be faced with the practical consequences; without a good antivirus solution, someone can start stealing money from the user’s bank account, or the computer may start dialing phone numbers of its own accord, leaving the user to wonder why outgoing traffic has increased so much. Given this, users should have some idea of what protection is offered by antivirus solutions, so that an informed choice can be made.

Read the detailed paper by computer virus researcher Eugene Kaspersky, the head of the Kaspersky Lab here. [via]

calendar.google.com goes live

It looks like Google Calendar (GCalendar) is coming really soon. The calendar.google.com domain is live now though it shows the main Google search page for the moment. I noticed this while seeing one of my website referral.

Even before the launch of Google Talk and Google Base, their subdomains went live few days before the actual launch. The same can be anticipated with GCalendar since the Google calendar subdomain is now live.

It’d be nice if Google integrates calendar into GMail. Yahoo Mail already supports calendar which can also be synched with Microsoft outlook. Let’s hope gCal could be much better. Google calendar should also connect with the Calendar plugin in Google Desktop and even the TODO list plugin.

Rapidshare, MegaUpload and YouSendit - Unlimited File Hosting

Q: What is Rapidshare, Megaupload or YouSendIt ?

A: These are free and unlimited file hosting services where anyone can upload and download large files including MP3 songs, videos, games, software, ebooks, etc.

While Rapidshare and Megaupload are available only in the browser, alternative YouSendIt also has a desktop client that can resume uploads.

Problem: Since services like Rapidshare or Megaupload make file sharing so simple, they are often used for sharing illegal content like warez, adult movies and software cracks. Rapidshare URLs are not protected by passwords so anyone can download that content.

Q: What is a Rapidshare Premium account ?

A: When you download files from Rapidshare (or Megaupload), there are certain download limits per IP address. You have to wait for some time and type a certain CAPTCHA before downloading Rapidshare files. No FTP support and it is not possible to leech Rapidshare files as the service permits one download thread per IP. You can bypass all these restrictions by purchasing a Premium Account for unlimited downloads.

Q: How to get free Rapidshare accounts?

A: Rapidshare in the past has offered free premium accounts on their website but they are extremely rare. Most of the username and passwords for Rapidshare premium accounts that you would find on the web are either expired or just an hoax like the rapidshare golden pack. You just need Paypal for becoming a premium Rapidshare user. The same is true for Megaupload premium accounts.

Q: Is there an Rapidshare File Search Engine ?

There’s no official Rapidshare search engine but you can use Google to search files on Rapidshare and Megaupload. Here are some search tips:

Search Videos on rapidshare.de avi|mpg|mpeg|wmv|rmvb|3gp site:rapidshare.de
Search Audio MP3 files on Rapidshare: mp3|ogg|wma site:rapidshare.com
Search archives or programs on Rapidshare zip|rar|exe site:rapidshare.de
Search pdf files, documents, ebooks, magazines: pdf|doc|lit|rar|zip site:rapidshare.de

Other Google search operator that will help search files are intitle: and inurl:

Q: Do you know of any working Rapidshare Tricks?

A: You can bypass the download limit on Rapidshare with an IP address change - turn off and on your modem if you have a dynamic IP - the tip will not work for static addresses. Also remember than Rapidshare will delete files that have not been accessed for 30 days or longer.

Q: How to Download Files from Rapidshare and Megaupload?

A: If you have a web browser that accept Javascript, you can download files easily. Wait for some time and let the download begin. There are some Rapidshare hacks to beat the download timer by reducing the wait time but they are too complex for the average Joe and not recommended.

Incase of free Megaupload accounts, the limit is on the country. You can access Megaupload files via proxy (like anonym) or Google Translate to download without wait.

There are some Rapidshare clones that provide FTP access, no download limit and can resumes broken downloads but not sure how they will survive in the near future.

Q: How to Upload files to Rapidshare ?

A: Incase of Rapidshare and Megaupload, you need the browser but for uploading files to YouSendIt, you can use Microsoft Outlook.

Q: Is there any Rapidshare Downloader ?

A: If you have free Rapidshare account, you can only download files via the browser. However, Premium Rapidshare account owners get direct file URLs that they can paste inside any download accelerator software like RapidGet, FlashGet, GetRight or Orbit Grabber.

Q: Rapidshare.de and Rapidshare.com - how are they different ?

A: Rapidshare recently moved from the .de to .com domain though its the same service.

Q: An email contains links to download Playboy magazine and Paris Hilton video. What should I do ?

A: When you upload files on Rapidshare or Megaupload or YouSendIt or SendSpace, they are are not checked for the presence of any virus or trojans. Therefore always stay away for such luring offers as executables are often dangerous for the health of your computer.

Q: Do I need a file hosting service when I can send them as email attachments ?

A: If a file is large enough to send as an email attachment, just upload it to rapidshare and email the file link to the recipient. Rapidshare also provides a delete link so that you can remove the file from Rapidshare servers once the recipient has download the file to his own computer.

Google Adsense Vs Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)

Website owners can now earn money by allowing contextual advertisers (like Adsense or YPM) to place ads on their webpages. The more people visit and click the ads, the more money the advertisers will pay to the website owner. Richard Warren compares the two big players in the Contextual Advertising market - Google Adsense vs Yahoo Publisher Network.

Relevance of Ads: YPN is not returning ads that are as relevant as the ones that Adsense users are finding. For example, one blogger reported that on a website on PHP programming, YPN returned ads for a florist and for a phone service provider. The blogger couldn’t understand what words the YPN program picked up for the florist. But it was the word ‘hello’ that apparently signaled the ads regarding the phone service.

Publisher Earnings Report and Statistics: Additionally, some users have complained that YPN doesn’t seem to update earnings and visitor information as often as Adsense. So website owners have to wait to learn if changes they have made have actually impacted the visitors that they get.

Better CPC: It seems that YPN is paying more per click than Adsense. But the feeling is that payments will be made more appealing long enough to get website owners to switch from Adsense to YPN, but then prices will even out. Some argue that in the long run it won’t matter if YPN pays more if they can’t improve their ad relevancy because they won’t get the number of clicks from visitors to see a real difference in their earnings.

Read full story - An Adsense - Yahoo Publisher Network Comparison

Cheerioke: Create Animated Avatars with Voice (lip sync)

Users can phone in karaoke songs and send them to friends, via singing Oddcast avatars.

Cheerioke is an online tool that lets people customize an animated character (avatar) and then sing along to a tune. Visitors can select one of three songs and sing along to music playing on the PC. The voice can be recorded directly to the PC with an attached microphone; alternatively, users can dial a toll-free number, sing into the handset, then save the performance to a server.

Once the performance is saved, a Cheerioke user can watch the Oddcast character sing in his or her own voice. The animation’s head bobs, the eyes move and the lips open and close in time to the vocals.

Visit the Cheerioke Website. The Flash characters are created using technology from Oddcast. [Macromedia Edge]

Yahoo, MSN may offer Web Analytics like Google

Web Stats Analysis companies like WebSideStory, Omniture, WebTends and Coremetrics Inc. charge customers thousands of dollars for their analysis tools that tell Web marketers how well visitors like their site design, products, promotions and advertisements.

But the future is not so bright for these Web site traffic analytics companies with the entry of Google. They may soon find themselves under pressure to slash their fees if they can’t demonstrate that they offer premium tracking services that are far superior to what Google offers.

According to John Pallatto, the new Google Analytics service is as much a threat to these website tracking services as Microsoft’s decision to offer its Internet Explorer Browser for free to overwhelm the user base of Netscape Navigator. John’s opinion is that the Google announcement could spell the end of Web analytics as a money-making business. Yahoo, MSN and AOL may also join the race by offering free Web site analytics service following the entry of Google.

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts for Power Users

All features in Mozilla Firefox browser are accessible through the use of the keyboard. You can use shortcut keys to view and save Web pages, search the web, open new webpages, work with bookmarks, or find text on the current webpage.

Some of the most common keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox are Ctrl+N (to open a new Firefox window), Ctrl+T (to open a new tab), Ctrl+F4 (to close the current tab) and Ctrl+S to save the current webpage.

Mozilla Firefox supports many more powerful keyboard shortcuts. For instance, by pressing a simple key combination, you can manually delete autocomplete entries from the Firefox location bar or Web forms. I am sharing a list of my favorite Mozilla Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts that make web browsing with Firefox even more fun. And you also save your precious time as navigating through several layers of Firefox Toolbar menus is no longer necessary.

1. Web Search Ctrl+K moves the cursor to the Search Bar. You can then type in the terms you wish to find on the Web. Press Ctrl+Down to select the next search engine in the Web Search bar. and only works if the Search Bar is visible. If the Search Bar is hidden, this keyboard shortcut has no effect.

2. F3 or Ctrl+F or / (Slash) displays the Find Toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. Use Shift+F3 to find the previous occurrence of the entered text on that page.

3. Select text on webpages with keyboard keys. Press F7 to turn Caret Browsing on. Caret Browsing places a moveable cursor in webpages, allowing you to select text with the keyboard just like a normal text editor. Ctrl+C copies the selected text to the Clipboard. When you are done copying the texting, press F7 again to turn Caret Browse off.

4. F5 reloads the current page. Ctrl+F5 will display the most up-to date version of the webpage (overriding the browser cache). Works the same as in IE.

5. Alt+D or F6 or Ctrl+L will select the location bar. Alt+Enter will open the URL in the Address Bar in a new tab.

6. Ctrl+U will display the source code of the current webpage in a new tab or window.

7. The is my most favorite Firefox shortcut - Firefox AutoComplete feature saves previous entries you’ve made for Web addresses, forms, and passwords. Firefox also lets you delete selected autocomplete entries. When typing information in Web forms, and typing passwords, you can remove an item from the list of suggestions by clicking the item and then pressing Shift+ DELETE key.

Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browser share many of the same keyboard shortcuts. In particular, menu navigation uses the same combinations of arrow keys and Alt as most Windows applications, and navigation within text-editing fields supports the same keystrokes as most text editors. Only the shortcuts highlighted in bold are exclusive to Firefox.

Keyconfig - another great Firefox extension, gives you a menu of all of Firefox’s keyboard shortcuts, and lets you replace any of them with the key comibnation of your choice, or disable it entirely. It even lets you change keyboard shortcuts owned by other extensions.

You can also download and print the official Firefox keyboard shortcut chart.

Unlimited Rapidshare Downloads sans Rapidshare Premium Account Generator

Rapidshare is the default destination for all sort of program files, ebooks, movies and audio clips. But the problem is that either you get a Rapidshare Premium Account or will face restrictions on your downloading limit.

Generally people who are on dial-up or have a dynamic IP address assigned by their ISP, they’ll just turn off and restart their modems to change their IP address to fool rapidshare and resume downloading. More Rapidshare Tricks

The other trick to cheat rapidshare without getting a rapidshare premium account involves some sort of dos commands:

1. Clear your browser cookies.
2. Open the command prompt (Start - Run - cmd.exe)
3. Run the following simple commands:
   ipconfig /flushdns
   ipconfig /release
   ipconfig /renew
4. Type exit to close the DOS window. Restart the rapidshare download job.

Now Megaupload is even smarter and impose a limit of simulataneous users based on your country. To bypass the Megaupload limit, type the download uRL in a translate website and work on from there.

Strange fight erupts at Digg.com

The technology news-filtering service Digg is facing some trouble. The problem erupted after a digg.com poster (kooaidguy) submitted misleading stories about the Digg founder Kevin Rose.

Now Freespeech, another digg.com spammer, is trying submit the same story on Digg in every section a few hundred times.

Free Image Hosting Sites for Blogs, Auctions, Websites

Store and share your images online without paying any fee. This is a directory of most popular websites offering free image hosting services. You can host your family pictures, avatars and signatures for message-boards, Internet forums, host images for eBay auction webpages or for posting images to blogs.

Uploading new images is simple. Visit the image hosting service provide website, select browse to find an image that you want to upload and click upload. The hosting website will automatically generate linking image code (URL) to post your images in blogs, email messages or websites (html image) including eBay, ubid, WebTV, Yahoo Auctions, and EZBoard message boards.

Village Photos - The free basic account allows an upload of 25 images. You can upload images straight from your hard drive or via FTP. You can give your photos titles and captions, resize or compress images. Free signup is required. GIF or JPG file formats supported.
Limitations: File size limit 250KB; Monthly Transfer 600 MB; 90-days inactivity limit.
villagephotos.com

IMGSpot - No signup required. There are no limits with the number of images you can upload. Hotlinking is allowed. You may upload .jpg, .png, .gif files. There is no set limit to how much bandwidth images can consume. There is currently no expiration on images.
Limitations: File size limit 650 KB;
imgSpot.com

ImageShack - Each image you upload to ImageShack must be less than 1024 kilobytes in size. Images greater than 1024 kilobytes in size are resized automatically. You may upload .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .swf (flash) and .png image types. bmp, tif, and tiff images will be converted to .png automatically. ImageShack allows each image 100 megabytes of transfer per hour. If an image exceeds this amount, it will be rendered inaccessible. Imageshack us provides unlimited amount of space for storing your images. Direct linking is allowed (hotlinking). No signup required. Images that have not been accessed in over a year will be deleted.
Limitations: File size limit 1024 KB;
imageshack.us

PhotoBucket - Users are allowed to upload up to 20 pictures at a time. You can also categorize, add titles and delete images. Direct linking is allowed. Photos larger than 512 KB are automatically scaled down. Photo Bucket allows image uploads by mobile camera phone or via email message attachments. The Photobucket uploader converts bmp and tif formats to jpg. You may upload .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .swf (flash) and .png image types. You can view the most recently uploaded pictures.
Limitations: 50 MB storage space; 2500 MB/month bandwidth; 512 KB file size limit;
PhotoBucket.com

ImageVenue - Free large image hosting service.. Users are allowed to upload up to 10 pictures at a time. There are no limits with the number of images you can upload. Hotlinking is allowed. No registration is required. Only jpg and jpeg image formats are supported. Unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage period. ,
Limitations: File size limit 1.5 MB; Hosted images not accessed for one year will be deleted from their dedicated server.
Imagevenue.com

WebLogImages - Weblogimages.com is another image hosting service, specially designed for people who use blogs (such as Typepad, LiveJournal). The free account of this image hosting service allows 10 MB of storage space and a limit of 200 MB monthly bandwidth.
weblogimages.com

TinyPic - Images greater than 250 KB are authomatically resized. Tinypic generates a very simple direct link (URL) for the uploaded picture like http://tinypic.com/ab. You may upload .jpg, .png, .gif and .bmp image files.
TinyPic.com

Traffic to these image hosting websites has skyrocketed due to the massive rise in blogging activity in the recent months. I personally prefer Google Image Hosting accessible via the Blogger interface or Picasa’s Hello software. Hello provides the ability for Blogger.com (also owned by Google) authors to post thumbnail images int heir blog posts that, when clicked, show a full size image.

All free image hosting services have a very similar business model. They cover the cost of running the business by placing text advertisement links or banners on their websites. You can also start your own image hosting website by buying lot of webspace, a google adsense account and a free image hosting script.

Direct Linking is a term referring to when a web page of one website owner is linking directly to the images or other multimedia files on the web host of another website owner (not just linking to a web page on their server which loads the image). If this is done without permission, it is stealing bandwidth and is also known as “hotlinking”, “hot linking”, “leeching”, and “bandwidth theft”.

Google Internet Cafe at London Airport

In a unique experiment to gather live user feedback, Google has opened an Internet Cafe - Google Space at Terminal One of Heathrow Airport in London. Google products being shown at Google Space include Google Earth, Google Local, Google Toolbar, Picasa and Google Mobile.

Google Space will be running at Terminal 1 until 17th December, with Google staff on hand to offer advice and assistance to users. The 10 Samsung laptops in the temporary installation will be manned from 0700 to 1900 by Google employees from across the organisation, with some flown in especially to help out.

Although the search specialist claims the project is primarily about helping travellers use their time more productively at the airport, it admitted that Google Space will also act as a physical testing lab for its new applications.

Although the company chose Heathrow for the project, other areas which attract large numbers of people with time on their hands were considered, including train stations and doctors’ surgeries. If the pilot proves successful, Google may roll-out Space projects in some other locations.

Google Space consists of ten Samsung laptops in the public lounge of Terminal One at London’s main airport. Lorraine Twohill, Google’s European Director of Marketing Programmes, said: “People waste so much time hanging around in airports. Google Space will help people make that wasted time useful. And for Google, Space is a live lab where people can test our most up-to-date products, and give us their feedback”.

Apple Aperture in Amazon Stores

Apple Aperture, one of the most innovative digital photography software to come around in a long time, will be available for customers from Nov 30. According to an email received by Amazon.com customers, the company has already received copies of Aperture, but is unable to release it to the public until November 30th.

"Although we do have your copy of "Apple Aperture Post Production Tool for Photographers (Mac DVD)" on hand, we are not able to ship it to you until its official release date, November 30, 2005." The Aperture software appears to be a complete rethinking of the user interface for digital-image-editing software, giving users the option of seeing their photographs laid out like slides or negatives on a light table.

Apple may be able to find a place on customers’ desktops for Aperture even if the program doesn’t displace Adobe Photoshop.

Invite Google Adwords advertisers directly

Google Adsense publishers can invite Adwords advertisers to advertise on their websites. The “Advertise on this site” link is contained in the Adsense panel. Advertisers clicking on this link are taken to the Adwords sign-up page.

There is a however a downside to this approach. If Google ads system can’t find targetted ads for your webpage, there won’t be any advertising invitation on that page.

Using some simple HTML code listed below, you can actually add a “Advertise on this site” link to your blog or website even outside a Adsense ad unit. The advertising link can be added anywhere on your website or weblog independent of the location of the adsense panel.

<a href="http://adwords.google.com/select/OnsiteSignupLandingPage?client=ca-pub-xxx&referringUrl=&hl=en&gl=IN">http://adwords.google.com/select/OnsiteSignupLandingPage?client=ca-pub-xxx&referringUrl=&hl=en&gl=IN</a>

Rembember to replace ca-pub-xxx with your own adsense client ID. The value of referringUrl can either be the location of your homepage or the current webpage’s location. I use BlogItemPermalinkURL template tag to use the URL of the current webpage.

Your link should now like something like: Advertise on my website with Google Adwords

I am yet to confirm if this complies with the Google Adsense TOS.

Fix for Adsense Flicker problem

In some float layout based websites (like Digital Inspiration), Google Ads are seen to flicker (blink) when you hover the mouse over another website navigation link (non-adsense link). Adsense Flickering is normally noticed in non-IE browsers like Firefox (Gecko based) and Opera. The recently released Adsense Referral buttons are also seen to flicker.

The ad panel flicker occurs for a split second, it is enough to drive new visitors away from your website because they think your website has a bad design. First impression is indeed the last impression.

Sometimes, the problem in Firefox can be traced to the use of floated elements (elements inside the div tag). Obviously, the most easy solution to fix adsense flicker is to us absolutely positioning instead of floats. There are some other possible solutions for fixing the flickering google ads:

1. Make sure that all your images contain the height and width attribute inside the img tag.

2. Google displays the ad code inside a IFRAME. Try to increase the height of the div tag that surrounds the Adsense IFRAME window to avoid Google ad scrolling and flickering issue in Firefox. The iframe element should be inside a absolute position div.

3. Double check your Google Ad code to ensure that you are using the right ad size format. Firefox adsense flicker problem can happen if you try to display a 468x60 ad in a 160x600 div container.

4. Check your CSS, sometimes the culprit is float:left - Google ads may blink on the right hand columns that are floated right. Try changing to float:right. Never use link:hover with float:left

5. Try adding overflow: auto; to the right floated sidebar.

6. If you use borders on Hovered links (a:hover), try disabling them.

In a majority of the cases, the flickr problem can be fixed by focussing on the CSS hover property. The Adsense IFRAME panel flickr problem is reported by users of Firefox 1.0.6 and 1.0.7.

Riya: Google answer to Yahoo Flickr

Google likely to acquire Riya for $40 mn

Riya, an online photo service that can automatically recognise human faces and tag it with names, is being courted by Google for a potential acquisition even during its beta stage. Riya could be Google’s response to Yahoo’s acquisition of Flickr, which also uses tags to organize photos.

Riya’s service, which makes use of artificial intelligence and face-recognition technology, is supposedly superior to Flickr’s.

This is one step ahead of other services like Flickr and Picasa, another Google service. The Riya software can distinguish between twins (even if the resemblance is extreme) and recognise members of the same family.

Munjal explains how the Riya photo recognitions system actually works:

The Riya system only looks for people you train it to recognize (with one exception I’ll describe later). So if you can’t identify a person yourself then it won’t recognize that person. Furthermore, the Riya system only looks for the people who you have trained in your account. So even if another user has trained us on Brad Pitt and he is in your photos, he won’t get recognized in your photos.

If your ten friends use Riya to auto-tag their photos then you can search for your name and find those photos (and see them if they are public). In this case Riya has already locally auto-tagged each photo and is only doing a tag/text search at a global level.

Something fishy going on at Google

Indymedia has pointed out some disturbing Facts About Google.

Google’s immortal cookie:
Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether.

Google records everything they can:
For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as “IP delivery based on geolocation.”

Google hires spooks:
Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency.

Google are clearly gathering information about us but refuse to tell us why. Read the complete list of Disturbing Facts about Google.

Mozilla Firefox Video Ads

Mozilla is planning to ask amateur film makers to make 30-second video ads to promote Firefox. Through a series of online viral videos, made by volunteers who enter a competition, Mozilla is hoping to repeat the success of the last year’s campaign to promote the launch of Firefox 1.0. The films will be judged by a panel drawn from the film industry and prizes will include high-end computer systems.

Word-of-mouth recommendation and a reputation for superior security and privacy features have helped Firefox claim 50 million active users over the past year. Such was the cult status of the first Firefox browser, tens of thousands of supporters, recruited through www.spreadfirefox.com, donated money to buy a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to promote it.

Mozilla which is run as a charity and relies on a global army of volunteers to build its products, is due to release Firefox 1.5 on Nov 29. It expects to roll out Firefox 2 next summer. Read full story - Film-makers asked to spread Firefox word

Firefox recently launched the Extend Firefox Contest, designed to encourage development of extensions to the browser. Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality. They can be anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature.

Firefox has had good success with its marketing hype, the only question is whether or not independent filmmakers will vie for the prize. Analysts said the worst case scenario is Mozilla ends up with only a handful of films to choose from, but that is not the expected outcome.

Disable Acrobat PDFMaker in Microsoft Office

Using the windows registry, you can easily disable or remove the Adobe PDF Creator buttons that Acrobat installs into Word, Excel and other Microsoft Office applications.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin] “LoadBehavior”=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin] “LoadBehavior”=dword:00000000
You can even remove the PDFMaker from the Add/Remove Programs panel.

Google Adsense Smart Pricing is real

Google’s Smart Pricing has been a well-kept secret till now. Basically, if you are a Google Adsense publisher running a network of sites, one low-performing website could cause Google to lower the ad prices (EPC) of all sites in your account.

Smart Pricing “black-box” techniques are definitely a cause of worry for Adsense publishers. I have personally seen my earning drop when I started showing Google Ads on another less-popular website. Once I removed ads from this website, it took about 7-10 days until my earnings graph hit the normal mark.

I wish Google had been more open about Smart Pricing. AdSense Publisher Support did try to clear the misconceptions but that may not be enough to satisfy Publishers.

How to get Scobleized

Robert Scoble of Microsoft has a simple tip for people who like to get scobleized

Don’t beg for links. I immediately delete them. Never beg a blogger for links. Say, instead, “here’s something you might find interesting.”

So if you want to get your link published on Scoble’s blog, you should send an email to Scoble in the format that he won’t delete immediately.

But on a serious note, I think Scoble is right. I am sure all popular bloggers can relate to this issue of spammers asking for reciprocal links. Even Greg has some similar advice for link beggars:

If you see something cool and want me to blog about it, send me a link and tell me what’s got your interest and why. I don’t care whether it’s a link to your site and your comments or if it’s pointing to the original info, or whatever.

I agree with Robert’s and Greg’s suggestion. If you find something interesting or wrote something that others might find interesting, you have to sell it to the other person. Explain him why you think he should blog about it.

Munjal Shah, founder of Riya, doesn’t welcome comments from anonymous poster. His user comment policy says:

I will delete/block further postings any comments that:

a) Have a link to a bogus URL / non-existant
b) Use an email address which bounces back or is obviously fake

Google is in advanced talks to acquire Riya.

Google Adsense Domain Name Parking

Anyone can now register a new or expired web domain for less than $10 a year. Domain-name Squatters are registering thousands of domain names in the hope that someone will buy them at a higher price. Some cyber-squatters are using Pay-per-click advertising (Google Adsense) to monetize domain names without even building a website.

Google Adsense for Domains is one such domain parking service to earn money from unused or dormant domains. The service creates a HTML (or XML) webpage filled with pay-per-click ads which is served to the user visiting the parked domain. Since the webpage has only links, there is a good possibility that user will click to navigate - and this user activity translates to revenue since the clicked link is an advertisement.

AdSense for domains program typically analyze a domain name and tries to match its meaning with Google Adwords’ ads and related searches that are related to the domain name subject. AdSense for domains customers redirect traffic from parked domains to the AdSense for domains service. When Google receives the request, it processes the domain name and returns formatted HTML that includes contextual ads and related searches.

Sites that use Adsense for domains may typically rank low in Google search-engine results since they consist solely of commercial links. But they aren’t automatically excluded. Google Adsense for domains is running across 3 million parked domain names.

These advertising-oriented domains typically attract visitors searching for information by directly typing the address into their Web browsers, rather than using a search engine. Google parking requires atleast 750,000 page views per month to be eligible for the AdSense for domains service.

Google Domain Tasting:
Sign up for millions of domain names; set up pages and run ads on them; delete domains within 5 days that have no or marginal traffic; keep the 1% of pages that have enough traffic to be worth keeping the domain. Because of the refund policy, the 99% of pages deleted before the 5 day grace period are refunded in full and the monetizer (or cybersquatter) gets to keep the adsense revenue generated over those 5 days. Domain registrars make over $5m-$8m / year from parked domain monetization pages.

Official Site: Google AdSense for domains
See example of a Website using Adsense for Domains
Google Press Center

How to Download Flash Games (SWF) and Flash Video Files

Here you will learn how to download and save Shockwave Flash swf files (including videos, animation movies and Flash games) from the Internet to your hard disk using Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

If an animation video or an online video game is using the Adobe Flash Player, you can download the embedded Flash file to the computer and play it offline.

The problem is that saving Flash Animations from websites is not so easy. The Adobe Flash player context menu has no option to download or save the Flash movie so here are some workarounds to help you save the swf files using your favorite web browser.

How to Save Flash files in Firefox

1. Click Tools -> Page Info and then click the Media Tab on the Page Info screen.
2. The media tab has a complete list (with preview) of Images, CSS Files and Shockwave Flash files that were downloaded by the Firefox browser while loading the page.
3. Scroll down the list and locate the swf file. Click the “Save As” button. Select some directory on your hard drive and save the file (No need for a third-party plug-in)

There’s an alternate way as well though its for advanced users.

• Type about:blank in the Firefox address bar
• Now click List cache entries or directly type about:cache?device=disk (Disk cache device)
• Press Ctrl+F and try to location the flash file by typing some part of website URL or the flash file name or just .swf. After some hit and trial, you should be able to locate the swf file URL
• Click the SWF URL to open the Cache Entry Information page. Right click on the link and choose “Save link as”

Related: Watch YouTube without Flash Player

How to Download Flash Movies in Internet Explorer

• Click Tools - Internet Options and in the General Tab, click the Settings button available in the Temporary Internet Files group.
• Click View Files to open your Temporary Internet Files folder. Depending upon your IE settings, the Temp. folder can contain tens of thousands of files.
• Click View - Details. Now click View - Arrange Icons By - Internet Address. Depending upon the webpage, there could one or more Flash files (Shockwave Flash Object) under the Inernet Address.
• Once you find the right flash file, right-click and choose Copy. Then paste the swf file in any other directory. Be sure to keep the page and IE open to avoid purging of the cache file.

Alternatively, you can get a download accelerator like Flashget and tell it to automatically download the shockwave extention (*.swf). 

How to save Flash files from Opera or Google Chromebrowser
Just like IE, these browsers store also the flash files in the browser cache.

Tracking Adsense clicks with Google Analytics

Google Adsense program could soon be integrated with Google Analytics to track visitor clicks in Adsense Units. This was revelead in an email from the Google Adsense Support team.

While Google Analytics is certainly still useful for tracking your website performance data, at this time it isn’t able to track your AdSense clickthrough data, nor is it integrated into your AdSense account. We’re working hard to add new functionality as quickly as possible, but are not able to say at this time whether an integration with AdSense will occur.

I am actually exploring different methods to track visitor clicks in Adsense units. Google Analytics looks like the best available option to track visitor clicks since both the products come from Google. And Google has clarified that it would not violate the AdSense Terms and Conditions to use Google Analytics to track outgoing clicks.

With Google Analytics, you can track clicks on links that lead away from your site. This technique can be extended to track the Google ads that are being clicked, on what page they are being clicked, and who is doing the clicking. Because these links do not lead to a page on your site containing the UTM JavaScript, you will need to tag the link itself with the urchinTracker JavaScript.

The following Google Analytics Adsense click tracking javascript should be inserted after your Google adsense code. It will loop through all of the IFRAME on the page, and if the IFRAME source includes “googlesyndication.com”, it will attach the function asClick() as an onfocus handler. When the ad unit obtains focus, asClick() will check to see if the status bar contains either “go to” or “View ads about”. If so, urchinTracker() is called, with a page identifier that includes the ad type (ad unit or link unit) and the ad or link text, as shown in the status bar.

<script> function asClick() { if (window.status.indexOf('go to') == 0) { urchinTracker('/adsense/ads/' + escape(window.status.substring(6))); } else if (window.status.indexOf('View ads about') == 0) { urchinTracker('/adsense/links/' + escape(window.status.substring(15))); } } var elements; if (document.getElementsByTagName) { elements = document.body.getElementsByTagName("IFRAME"); } else if (document.body.all) { elements = document.body.all.tags("IFRAME"); } else { elements = Array(); } for (var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) { if (elements[i].src.indexOf('googlesyndication.com') > -1) { elements[i].onfocus = asClick(); } } </script>

If the above method sounds a little complex, you can try adsense clicking scripts that work with PHP, ASP or VBS. But you need access to the webserver since all these script require a external database to store click tracking data.

Advertise on this site link in Adsense ads

Google is making it simple for website owners to find new advertisers for their websites. Advertisers wishing to advertise directly on a Website using Google advertising program can click on an “Advertise on This Site” link that takes them to a Google page where they can create an AdWords ad for the specific Web site. (see screenshot of Advertise on this site link embedded in 336x28 adsense block)

Onsite Advertiser Sign-up is actually an extension of Google site targeting that makes it easier for advertisers to bid on your site. Site-targeted ads take cost-per-impression (or CPM) pricing, which means advertisers decide how much they would like to pay for every 1000 impressions the ad receives on the website.

Onsite Advertiser Sign-up program could put significant pricing pressure on blog advertising vendors like BlogAds and Adbrite. To attract advertisers, Google allows you to customize the landing page advertisers see with the logo, color scheme, and site description of your choice.

Previously, advertisers seeking to market on Web sites using Google’s syndicated AdSense advertising system had to enroll through Google’s AdWords program and list sites where they wished their ads to be featured.

If you are an Adsense publishers, Google has already enabled the “Advertise on this site” link for your Adsense blocks. It is not immediately know if this link will appear in ads of all sizes. And if you are unhappy with the feature or feel that this could drive visitors away from your website, Google make is easy to opt-out.

You will not receive any referral money from Google if you website attracts new Adwords advertisers.

Find visitor locations from IP Address

Using some very simple maths and a IP-based geo-location reference table, you can find the exact physical location of you website visitors. This technique can be extended to retrieve visitor’s IP address using ASP, PHP, JSP, Perl or ColdFusion.

The first step is to convert the visitor’s IP address to an IP Number. Then we can search the IP-Country-Region-City database using IP number to match a record that has the IP Number between Beginning IP Number and Ending IP Number. Then, we can search the free IP-to-Country Database to match a unique record that has the IP number fits between From IP Number and To IP Number.

An IP Address is generally of the form w.x.y.z

The IP Number = 16777216*w + 65536*x + 256*y + z

For example, if IP address is “202.186.13.4”, then its IP Number “3401190660” is based on the Formula 1.

IP Address = 202.186.13.4 (w = 202, x = 186, y = 13 and z = 4)

IP Number = 16777216*202 + 65536*186 + 256*13 + 4
= 3388997632 + 12189696 + 3328 + 4
= 3401190660

It falls in the following range of IP number in the table because it is between the “From IP number” and the “To IP number”.

"begin_num","end_num","country","name"
"3401056256","3401400319","MY","MALAYSIA"

From the IP range, the Country Name is Malaysia and Country Code is MY.

The country-level mapping database are available for free but you will have to pay for national, regional and metropolitan databases which reveal visitor details like region, city, latitude, longitude, ZIP code, ISP and domain name from IP address.

Technique available in detail at IP-Country Database FAQ

Windows Genuine Advantage supports Firefox

Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage program is an online validation process that enables you to verify that your copy of Windows XP is genuine (non-pirated). You will be prompted to validate your copy of Windows if you request a genuine Windows download from the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update.

The initial WGA 1.0 program downloaded an ActiveX control to check the authenticity of your Windows software. Since it was an ActiveX control, only Internet Explorer (IE) users could use it.

But the recent growth of Firefox has forced Microsoft to rethink their strategy. Microsoft Genuine Windows Validation process now works in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Firefox users can download and install the Windows Genuine Advantage validation Firefox plug-in - WGAPluginInstall.exe available on Microsoft’s website to complete the Windows validation process.

Microsoft WGA Plug-in for Mozilla Firefox provides the same Windows validation as the original IE ActiveX control. The Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Site will automatically detect settings of your Mozilla Firefox web browser (1.0.5 or higher) to ensure that the appropriate helper applications such as the WGA Plug-in for Mozilla Firefox is installed.

Brad Graziadio of Windows Genuine Advantage team told Dean (IE Blog) that the primary reason for porting the Windows Validation application to Firefox was Customer Feedback. Microsoft customers, running genuine Windows, wanted access to Microsoft Download Center even from Mozilla browsers.

The genuine validation process will collect the following information about your PC:

* OEM product key
* PC Manufacturer
* OS version
* PID/SID
* BIOS info (make, version, date)
* BIOS MD5 Checksum
* User Locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
* System Local (language version of the operating system)

MSN Leaked paper reveals a worried Microsoft

An internal confidential Microsoft strategy paper has documented a drop in sales of full packaged Microsoft software. Microsoft gets only about $2 for each copy of Works that is bundled on new computers. The standard version of Microsoft Money isn’t even a break-even proposition, and the company has had to heavily discount its OneNote application in order to get computer makers to include it.

Calculating that the average person keeps their copy of its entry-level productivity suite Works—a kind of “Office lite” for consumers—for about three years, Microsoft reasoned that it wouldn’t take a lot of ad revenue to justify moving the product to an ad-driven model.

Worldwide sales of full packaged software—which includes Works, the Encarta encyclopedia, digital imaging software and Money—dropped by 7 percent in fiscal year 2004, the paper says, noting similar trends for fiscal 2005.

The MSN strategy paper argues that subscriptions are not the way to go, pointing to the success of Google’s ad-supported Gmail. In the MSN-drafted paper, Microsoft points to controversial adware maker Claria, noting that Claria claims ad rates six to 20 times those of traditional Web advertising because of its ability to target to a user’s activity.

The OneNote note-taking program represents an interesting example of, at the extreme, the types of products that could be funded by advertising. It is one of the Microsoft Office application that users keep open longest (second only to Microsoft Outlook e-mail).

Read - Microsoft eyes ads - CNet

Domain Name Squatters target Google

Google has recently registered four new domain names - GoogleMagazines.com, GooglePapers.org, GoogleMicrofilm.com and GoogleLibrary.org.

But Domain-name Squatters are registering Google related domain names in the hope that either Google will buy them back or another speculator will buy them at a higher price.

A simple misspelling of Google’s domain name could lead to a Web surfer’s worst nightmare. In a new twist to the old practice of “typosquatting,” virus writers have registered every possible variation of google.com to take advantage of any users who mistype the spelling of the google.com URL.

The whois database reveals that the largest gooo…ogle.com domain name has the letter 'o' repeated 59 times. Infact, cyber Squatters have registered all variations of domain names that rhym like google.com See the complete list of domain names below. Some of them are owned by Google Inc.

gogle.com google.com gooogle.com goooogle.com gooooogle.com goooooogle.com gooooooogle.com goooooooogle.com gooooooooogle.com goooooooooogle.com gooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com
According to F-Secure’s alert, the attack scenario also includes a separate Trojan dropper that copies itself to the Windows System folder with a random name and drops a DLL that modifies the HOSTS file to block connection to several anti-virus Web sites.

Another executable also drops a DLL file into the Windows System folder and prompts a fake virus alert on a desktop. The fake alert warns the user about a computer infection and prompts the user to yet another malicious site promising virus protection.

The Web site offers links to several different sites offering anti-virus and spyware cleaners for download. Those downloads all turn out to be a “toolbar.exe” file that is actually an adware installer, which installs a spyware toolbar known as “Perez,” F-Secure said.

Macromedia Flash Media Server 2 for Web Video

Flash Media Server 2 is the latest version of Macromedia Flash Communication Server. Flash Media Server 2 is the foundation for delivering both recorded and live Flash video in large-scale deployments such as video on demand, live web broadcasts, MP3 streaming, video blogging, and video/audio chat applications. Playback of these media applications occurs via Flash Player 6 or higher.

The Macromedia Flash Media Server operates as a stand-alone server software and can run without Macromedia Flex, ColdFusion or JRun. Macromedia Flash is however required to develop applications for the Flash Media Server.

Flash Media Server 2 complements Macromedia Flash Professional 8 and Macromedia Flash Player 8. Flash Media Server 2 video experiences take advantage of the new high-quality video codec in Flash Player 8, complete with automatic detection of the client’s bandwidth connection and capability to adjust the stream accordingly.

Flash Media Server 2 includes a suite of secure streaming tools to keep your content protected. URLs are hidden in virtual directories and filenames are obscured in the SWF format. Audio/video content streamed to Flash Player using Flash Media Server is not cached locally.

Customers with current Flash Communication Server maintenance contracts are entitled to free upgrades to Flash Media Server 2. The Developer Edition has no expiration time period and contains all of the features and functionality found in a full version of the product. However, it has a capacity ceiling of no more than 10 simultaneous users and prohibits use for in production via the end-user license agreement. Available for Linux and Windows.

Link: Download Flash Media Server 2

Official Website: Macromedia Flash Media Server 2

Google Base: Opportunity for Bloggers

Google Base service is now live. You can take advantage of this free Google service to advertise your home inventory, archives of Playboy magzines, mom’s favorite cooking recipes or even your latest ebook on “Make more money with Adsense”. Your customers can pay you in Dollars, Pounds, or Euros.

I think Bloggers and Website designers have a great opportunity here. They can advertise (or sell) their blog articles, website designs, blog templates and even offer consulting services. Adsense experts can offer advice to newbies on integrating Adsense in Blogs. The possibilities are endless.

Google Base will host your item details and images. It will then supply a unique URL (web address) where searchers can visit and view your content. This URL will be activated within a few hours after you publish your item.

You can submit multiple items to Google base using Bulk Upload. Google Base will accept bulk uploads in Tab-Separated, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom 0.3 formats. This means that content providers who already have RSS feeds can easily submit their content to Google Base without requiring much additional work.

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. Depending upon your item, it may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.

Inside Windows Desktop Search Enterprise Edition

Today, Microsoft announed a business-class version of MSN desktop search meant for use in the corporate environment. In future, Microsoft plans to integrate Windows Desktop Search Enterprise with Windows Live services to search across new data sources on the internet.

Microsoft Desktop Search software can now be downloaded without the MSN search toolbar. Here are some other features of the new WDS enterprise release:

1. The core of latest Windows Desktop Search Enterprise version is same as the previously released MSN Search Toolbar with Desktop Search. Just lots of bug fixes and improvements all around. [via]

2. Enterprise desktop search software are all about Security and Privacy. But Microsoft’s idea of “Enterprise” is all about deployment and integration. The WDS Enterprise edition comes with a set of tools that facilitate easy deployment of desktop search software across the enterprise environment. There are no other security or privacy features.

3. WDS Enterprise respects Windows Group Policy and can be deployed like other Windows components via SMS.

4. WDS Enterprise can be integrated with Intranet search services like Windows SharePoint portal, or a Google search appliance. It also replaces the familiar Windows XP Search Companion.

5. Windows Desktop Search enabled for enterprises is free of charge with your Microsoft Windows license.

6. By default, the contents of ‘My Documents’ and default email store will be indexed. Users can go into the Indexing Options menu to specify exactly which folders in Outlook will be indexed, in addition to specific local folders.

Related reading and downloads:
• Download Windows Desktop Search Enterprise (without the MSN Toolbar)
• Download MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search - consumer edition
• Read Microsoft PressPass release

MsnSearchToolbarSetup_en.exe
WindowsDesktopSearch-KB907371-x86-ENU.exe

Microsoft has posted two guides for network managers planning deployment of Windows Desktop Search and the MSN Search Toolbar across their organizations.

Windows Desktop Search Administration Guide: This document describes how to use Group Policy templates to customize a user’s search experience, including the type of information that can be searched and how the search is performed.

MSN Search Toolbar Administration Guide: This document provides help with troubleshooting MSN Search Toolbar issues and describes how to use Group Policy templates to customize, deploy, and maintain MSN Search Toolbar in your enterprise environment.

Adobe PDF Reader 7.0 Javascript Tracking

A hidden undocumented feature in Adobe PDF Reader can track how many times a PDF document has been accessed. It can also log the number of times it was viewed from the IP address of the computer on which it was opened. For the feature to be used, a PDF had to be created, uploaded to the company’s server to be tagged, and then distributed.

Adobe Reader 7.0 comes with JavaScript support enabled by default and this enables the tracking. The tracking failed when the PDF was viewed by other readers such as Xpdf and Kpdf, and version 5 of Abode Reader.

The information is submitted over port 80 using HTTP - the standard port for web servers - which no home or office firewall would normally block.

John Hogerland, the technical marketing director for Adobe’s Intelligent Document Business Unit, and Mark Phibbs, marketing director for the Asia-Pacific, said they they are unaware of features in the latest version of Adobe Reader .

Source: Adobe unaware of tracking claims

MSN Desktop Search Enterprise Edition

Microsoft is expected announce a business-class version of MSN desktop search for use in corporate environment at the Microsoft IT Forum 2005 in Barecelona (Spain).

Microsoft says the new facet searches for information stored on individual PCs, or among clusters of computers typically found in offices. File sharing and a single starting point for any search are two features of note, according to Microsoft.

Earlier, a Microsoft press release has said that Microsoft was developing a Corporate Desktop Search Solution in response to feedback from corporate customers looking for desktop searching capabilities designed for their needs. The Enterprise version is being built on Windows Desktop Search for the corporate environment.

Read - Microsoft Offers Business-Class Desktop Search

OpenOffice.org Vs Microsoft Office

According to Washington Post, OpenOffice, a free open-source competitor to Microsoft Office, can do just about anything that Microsoft Office can at home, and can also read and write to Microsoft’s closed, proprietary formats. You can set OpenOffice to use either OpenDocument or Microsoft formats as its default. And yet, OpenOffice is free and Microsoft is not.

For many home users - people who spend most of their time writing letters in Word and putting together the occasional simple spreadsheet, but don’t want to risk not being able to read the documents people send in e-mail - that’s all they need.

Unlike Microsoft Office, however, OpenOffice can also save your work as a Portable Document Format file that preserves every pixel of your creativity — whether it’s read in Windows, on a Mac or even on a handheld organizer.

But if you need to run Outlook or you regularly work on complicated Excel or PowerPoint files with other people, OpenOffice may not work for you — at least for now. OpenOffice isn’t always as accurate at saving files in Microsoft formats, especially as they get more complicated.

After years of ignoring complaints about the overgrown nature of Office’s interface, Microsoft is giving its own suite a radical rewrite for next year’s revision. OpenOffice could look old a year from now.

Read: Office Suite Software Without the Sticker Shock

Prevent Google Analytics from tracking your visit

Webmasters will increasingly use Google Analytics (formerly, Urchin) to determine how many people are visiting their sites, where they are coming from and what they’re clicking on. There are certainly good times for the website owners.

The UTM is the Google Analytics Traffic Monitor - proprietary Google Analytics Tracking Code (urchin.js), which is installed on a web page for the purpose of collecting Customer Data, whereby unique visitors can be accurately tracked using a combination of server and client-side technology including cookies.

Not all website visitors like to reveal their details to the website owner. If you are one of these visitors, you can block Google Analytics from tracking your visits by adding the following line to your Windows Hosts file.

# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com

How this works: Google Analytics downloads a small javascript urchin.js (Google Analytics Urchin Module) on the client’s computer which reports the all the tracking and analyzing data about the visitor back to Google. By adding the above line, we have effectively blocked our browser from downloading the urchin.js file.

If you don’t like changing the the hosts file manually, download a free Hosts File Manager utility to manage the hosts file for you.

If you are using Firefox, CustomizeGoogle extension lets you block all Google Analytics cookies, on any website. Using this feature makes you more anonymous. But your visit on a single webpage can still be logged. This way, both Google and the owner of the website knows that someone visited a webpage, but it’s difficult to track all pages you’re visiting.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 at 80% discount

Adobe China has slashed 80 per cent from the cost of Adobe Creative Suite 2 to encourage the use of authentic legal software as opposed to pirated goods.

Adobe’s price cut is part of the Sunshine Copyright Program which was launched in early November. Under this program, Chinese users that buy two or more licenses for Simplified Chinese language editions of Adobe Creative Suites 2 products will be eligible for the 80% price cut.

Adobe actually cut the price of its products by 50% in another anti-piracy program called “Adobe China Storm" launched in August of this year. While China is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets it is also among the world’s leading country’s for pirate goods.

In addition to Adobe, Microsoft has also introduced price cuts for its products on the Chinese market to increase sales of copyrighted software and discourage use of pirated software.

Meanwhile, you can request Adobe for a Adobe Creative Suite 2 Trial DVD by snail mail.

Good Blog Titles are short, still descriptive

When writing titles for Blogs, forget search engines and write 3-8 word long titles that describe your post and attract clicks.

Keep it short:
A title that’s too long is just as bad as a non-descriptive title.

Eye Grabbers
If you’re writing about a hot topic, or a contraversial topic, or even just a relatively plain topic, you need to get your eye-grabber in those magic first 3 words. 4 at most.

And if you write a blog, Be Bold!

It’s all about the click, and after the click, it’s all about trust, and reputation. Source: Blog Titles are Ads

Track visitor clicks on Banners, Files, Javascript and Flash objects

Google Analytics provides a sophisticated visitor-click tracking system based on Urchin. You can track visitor clicks on any object of the webpage including Javascript, Flash elements, Banners, Graphics and even downloadable files like PDF.

Here’s a quick primer on enabling tracking mechanism in Google Analytics. [source: Google Analytics Help]

Track clicks on links that lead to file downloads (such as PDF, AVI, or WMV)

You’ll need to tag the link itself with the urchinTracker JavaScript if you would like to track these downloads. This piece of JavaScript assigns a pageview to any click on a link. For example, to log every click on a particular link to www.example.com/files/map.pdf as a pageview for /downloads/map you would add the following attribute to the link’s tag:



Track which advertisers are popular by tracking clicks on banners ads where visitors click on to leave your site.

To track outbound clicks on an animated GIF or other type of static banner ad, add the following code within the tag (You may use any folder/filename structure that you desire)



The equivalent code for a Flash banner is provided below:
on(release) {
getURL(“javascript:urchinTracker(‘/bannerads/adname/bannername’);”);
getURL(“http://www.advertisersite.com”);
}

Track clicks on outbound links that lead visitors away from your site.

You will need to tag the link itself with the urchinTracker JavaScript. For example, to log every click on a particular link to www.example.com as a pageview for “/outgoing/example_com” you would add the following attribute to the link’s tag:



Track JavaScript events like RollOver or OnMouseOver

To track an event, use the urchinTracker JavaScript function to specify a name for the event. The following illustrates how to log an onClick event:


Or, to log a rollover event:


Related Reading:

10 Things about Google Analytics you may not know
Screenshots of Google Analytics system
The circle of analytics

Google Analytics FAQ - 10 Interesting Things

10 interesting facts and tricks about the Google Analytics program.

1. You can change the length of time that Google Analytics waits before timing out a visitor by adding a _utimeout variable to your tracking code.

2. There is no Google Analytics API to access reporting data. You can however exports reports to XML, CSV (Microsoft Excel) or Tab-Separated text format.

3. Google Analytics doesn’t offer automatic emailing of reports.

4. Google Analytics will track and analyze as many websites as you own but you are limited to 5 million pageviews per month.

5. After you first install the tracking code, it may take several hours for report data to appear in your account. Google Analytics generally updates your reports every hour, but data can take up to 6 hours to appear in your account.

6. You can make use of the _utmLinker JavaScript function when the links on your site require users to change root domain names - for example, from www.example.com to www.shoppingcart.com.

7. Google Analytics’ urchinTracker allows you to track events on your site that do not generate a pageview. Using the urchinTracker JavaScript, you can assign a specific page filename to Flash events, JavaScript events, file downloads, outbound links, and more. [Using the urchinTracker]

8. You can setup Google Analytics even if you do own the website domain. You only need access to the source of your webpages. If you’re able to update the content of your webpages, you should be able to set up Google Analytics.

9. Even though www.example.com/ may be the same page as www.example.com/index.html, they show up as two separate entries in your logs. You can tell Google Analytics to treat them as the same page by defining the Default page for your profile.

10. Google Analytics tracks referrals from 20 search engines as listed in the urchin.js JavaScript file. You can also configure Analytics to identify referrals from additional search engines by adding the following line to your tracking code:
_uOsr[20]=”search_engine_name”; _uOkw[20]=”query_variable”;

Google Analytics - Urchin on Demand Tools for free

Google is offering webmasters a full-featured, powerful analytics package from Urchin to determine how many people are visiting their sites, to view the source of referrals to your site and what they’re clicking on. Google Analytics is the latest version of Urchin On Demand that can also track user clicks in Flash objects and Javascript code.

A Google Account is required to login into Google Analytics. If you’re an AdWords advertiser, you can also sign up for Analytics from within your AdWords account. Analytics’ free version is limited to 5 million pageviews a month but the limit is is removed if you’re also an active AdWords publisher.

The urchin.com website is now redirecting to google.com/analytics/. Google Analytics is a hosted web analytics service, and is not currently available as a software application. The Google Analytics software product is currently in development and a release date has not yet been set.

Once you submit your website details, Google Analytics will provide a small Javascript code snippet (like Google Adsense javascipt code) that you can insert anywhere in the webpages that you want to track after the

and tags and before the tag.

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-XXXX";urchinTracker();</script>
XXXX is the Urching tracking account number.

Google Analytics will itself check to see that the tracking code has been installed correctly on the home page of your site - once you’ve created a new profile, the Tracking Status will display a warning, “Tracking status unknown,” until the system detects the code. Google Analytics uses a first-party cookie and JavaScript code to collect information about visitors and to track your advertising campaign data.

Google Analytics will also put significant pricing pressure on vendors. Google Analytics could hurt companies like Statcounter, Tracksy, Web Trends, Web Side Story and Click Tracks, and others focusing on the small to medium-size business market. These vendors will only be able to compete with Google Analytics (Urchin) if they provide better professional services and consulting units.

Google Analytics is not just for Adwords advertisers, it is a complete website traffic monitoring tool. But it is painfully slow at the moment. Google Analytics reporting is currently undergoing maintenance and will be available shortly. Your site traffic is being logged and you will be able to see the data after system maintenance has concluded.