Spot Spoof Email Before You Get Burned
Paypal has published some tips on detecting and preventing identity theft attempts. It is worth reading for anyone with a Paypal or eBay account.
February 27th, 2006
Archive for February, 2006
IE7 & WMP Internet Connection Fix
I did some quick research at MSN.com (Why didn’t I do this earlier?) after my post on my IE7 internet connection problem started to get some traffic. Of course, I found the fix to connecting over a LAN with IE7 posted clearly for all to see here. I quote the relevant text below:
Internet Connection Settings - If you notice a problem connecting to web sites, it may be due to the upgrade changing your Internet Explorer 6 Internet Connection settings. To rectify the problem, take the following steps:
1. Launch the Internet Control Panel by clicking “Internet Options” from the Internet Explorer Tools menu.
2. Navigate to the Connections tab
3. For each connection in the “Dialup and Virtual Private Networks” list, click the “Settings” button
4. Verify that “Automatically detect settings” is checked. If not check it
5. Click the “Lan Settings” button in the Connections tab, and repeat step 4 6. Click OK on the Connections tab.
6. Close IE and restart it.
Hopefully this will fix the problem. It seems Microsoft made a major change in how the internet connection is configured.
1 comment February 27th, 2006
What Business Isn’t Google Getting Into?
According to Matt Cutts, Google has released a free Web page builder.
Yawn. What’s new. Google embarking on yet another venture. Of course, usually their tools are very good, so perhaps my attitude shouldn’t be so blase.
I doubt any Web designer’s livelihood will be on the line, but Google’s Web page builder may be a great way to test out online business and design ideas for free before taking them to a designer like myself.
Edit: Google’s Web Page Hosting Service Closed To New Users
“Much like Google’s free Web analytics project, overwhelming demand
quickly exceeds supply.” Read the full article at Computer World.
Planned shortage creates great publicity!
February 25th, 2006
Looking for a Fast Bulk Ping Service
I’ve tested a number of ping services and none of them have stopped my blog software from bogging down when I submit a new post. For the uninitiated, a ping service notifies blog directories and search engines that new content has been posted on a blog. More than one helpful blogger has posted a list of ping services.
I am looking for recommendations from other bloggers. What bulk ping service do you use? Why?
I am currently testing Pingoat after using a number of others. I have started to ping several services, like Technorati directly because they were not being notified by the ping service I last used, which shall remain nameless!
If this post was greek to you, congratulations on haning in there and reading it anyway! More information is available on the Wordpress Web site.
February 25th, 2006
Creating Clean Code Boosts Search Engine Results
Using standards compliant methods to create highly readable, content rich code with optimized content can aid in your campaign to dominate the search engine category.
February 25th, 2006
Consuming RSS with PHP
This excellent little Sitepoint tutorial can get anyone with a basic knowledge of PHP started consuming XML/RSS feeds in short order! Includes a working example and PHP code for download.
February 23rd, 2006
UC Berkeley Podcast - Foundations of American Cyberculture
UC Berkeley generously allows designers and those interested in new media to download its classroom podcasts free of charge at their Web site.
Of special interest to me, Web designer that I am, is Art 23 - Foundations of American Cyberculture. This course covers the basics of what makes up the psychology of the Web. Very, very interesting. This is a great way to keep learning after college.
February 22nd, 2006
Google PageRank Update
It looks like google is in the middle of a PageRank update. I’m sure others are blogging about this also, but thought I would chime in and mention that if you want to see the Google PageRank dance taking place you can use the handy Future PageRank Predictor at SEO Chat.
What you should see is a considerable amount of difference in the PageRank on each server. As you can see below, my web site today (Februrary 21, 2006) shows some variation and looks like it is being promoted to PR6 from PR5. I won’t hold my breath, but it is fun to watch.
Edit: I see another post on the Google PageRank update here.
February 22nd, 2006
I Want Persistent Design-Time Stylesheets in Dreamweaver
Recently, I started designing Web sites based on Dreamweaver templates. It was something I avoided as long as I could since I prefer to create my own PHP driven templates. They are simple and never break!
Since Dreamweaver’s internal CSS rendering engine differs from those in Web browsers, the folks at Macromedia kindly created something called design-time stylesheets that can be used to make things look attractive and useful as clients maintain their pages.
There is a major drawback. When I create a template, I expect the behavior emulated in that template to be passed to any page created with it. Reasonable right? Design-time stylesheets, however, cannot be passed on to child pages at present.
What this means is that my carefully crafted Dreamweaver CSS hacks will not grace new pages created by clients. I don’t expect clients to have to learn how to add design-time stylesheets, but will need to alter my expectations for now.
Macromedia, are you listening? Please create persistent design-time stylesheets so CSS Web designers can avoid headaches!
By the way, Stephanie Sullivan at Community MX says, “Paul Boon created an extension at CMX that allows you to put it on a whole group of pages (or entire site) at once.” This is part of a solution I suppose.
February 21st, 2006
Is the Sun Setting on Business Blogs?
I know better than to contradict someone like Daniel Gross when he says, “… as businesses, blogs may have peaked.” But if this means that blogs are losing their edge as a business pr tool, I’ll have to cautiously differ. Small businesses and nonprofit organizations are just beginning to innovate successfully with blogs, and freelance professionals still can quickly leave a big footprint in the blogosphere.
What happens on a national scale with mega corporations may not impinge upon the effectiveness of your small business or non-profit organization’s use of a blog. However, since blogging is beginning to grow up and there is a glut of average blogs on the market, the truth is that success in blogging requires innovation.
Brief Case Studies
Two innovators that caught my attention recently prove the point that it hasn’t all been done already. Jim Boykin of We Build Pages (a client), and the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.
Jim Boykin: SEO Blog
Jim Boykin heads a prominent search engine optimization company in an industry with a reputation for shady dealings. His blog, launched in September 2005, builds trust and community by discussing current issues and keeping company followers in touch with the latest product offerings and free tools he has developed.
The result of his blogging is evident on this Alexa traffic detail graph. Has all this blogging paid off in terms of business? For a man who sells the ability to generate traffic, I’d say it is likely to help.
Visit PA
The Pennsylvania Tourism Office hosts a blog community called Real People/Real Roadtrips that unfortunately pays bloggers to chronicle their trips across the state of PA. The principle of paying a blogger goes against the grain of the blogosphere, but this still is a very innovative project that deserves attention. The front page of the site looks sanitized and marketing focused, but the blog posts are personal and authentic.
This blog community shows real people enjoying different types of tourism and will likely be an effective recruitment tool for the State of PA. I expect others to follow suit, and I am sure others already have, but there is still a chance to be at the forefront of blogging in a new industry.
For more information on tourism and blogging, search Google for roadtrip blog and tourism blog.
So while blogging may be peaking, especially in the mainstream corporate world. However, real opportunities to create positive PR still exist within the blogosphere.
February 18th, 2006
