What value this is, I dunno, but it is very cool.

My Twitter rating is 96.6/100 and I am ranked 36th amongst Canadian users of Twitter.

So be sure to check it out, let me know what you think.

Interested in seeing what other sites are being hosted on the hosting account you are paying for? Or maybe you are interested in scoping out info on competing sites and getting an inside edge into their business and what may be coming down the pipe. Give this handy tool a try.

About

Background

All web sites are hosted on web servers, which are computers running specialized software that distribute web content as requested. Each web server typically has a single IP address, a unique numeric identifier assigned to no other computer on the entire Internet. Web sites are usually associated with domain names, textual strings like “google.com” that are easier for users to remember than numeric IP addresses. Since HTTP version 1.1, many domains can be hosted on a single IP address.

As of 2003, more than 87% of all active domains names were found to share their IP addresses (i.e. their web servers) with one or more additional domains. More than two thirds of these domains share their server with fifty or more additional domains. Simply put, most web sites are hosted on servers that host many other web sites.

While IP sharing is typically transparent to ordinary users, it may cause complications for both search engine optimization and web site filtering.

Concerning SEO (search engine optimization)

Almost all popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) increase a web site’s rank based on the number of links pointing towards the web site. In an attempt to falsely inflate a web site’s popularity, an individual may generate hundreds or even thousands of dummy web sites containing little to no content except for links pointing towards a specific domain name. One method that search engines use to detect this type of miscreant behavior is to see if these inter-linking web sites are hosted on the same IP address or IP address range. If the web sites are in the same IP address range, it is highly likely that they are operated by the same individual. Search engines devalue links from web sites pointing to other web sites hosted on the same IP address range.

Conversely, search engines value links from web sites hosted on different IP addresses. An effective search engine optimizer would go further than hosting inter-linking web sites on different IP addresses. They would host the web sites on completely different class C network addresses. They would make sure that all of their domains were registered with different registrars under different names. They would not use the same template on more than one web site. They would erase all traces that their sites are operated by the same individual. They would go through all of this trouble with one goal in mind - to game the search engines in order to bring in more organic traffic.

For most web sites, having a dedicated unique IP address will have little to no effect on search engine rankings. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, stated:

“If you are an average webmaster and just running a few sites, I wouldn’t worry about them being on the same IP address and I definitely wouldn’t worry about them being on the same server. That’s something that everybody does.”

Concerning web site filtering

With so many sites sharing IP addresses, IP-based filtering efforts are bound to produce “overblocking”, which is the accidental denial of access to web sites that abide by the stated filtering rules. Overblocking occurs when a single website containing some form of adult or explicit content is blocked by its IP address. If this happens, all other sites hosted on that IP address, regardless of their content, will be blocked as well. Unfortunately, research has indicated that it is not atypical for a single web server to host a mixture of sites that are sexually explicit and sites that are not.

Overblocking is a problem known to affect filtering in China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that employ government-mandated country-wide web filtering policies. Additionally, research has indicated that IP address filtering is used by many commercial web filters installed in libraries and schools in the United States. Sometimes Internet services providers are legally required to implement IP address level filtering. For example, under 2002 law, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania ordered Internet service providers in Pennsylvania to disable access to sites found to offer child pornography. Most providers receiving such orders reportedly use router-level filtering to disable access to the affected IP addresses, even though those IP addresses host scores of additional web sites without child pornography.

Solution

To avoid any of the potential problems related with IP address sharing, it is best to acquire a unique IP address for your web site. Contact your web host and tell them you would like your own unique IP address. Be sure to let them know you would like a fresh IP address, not a recycled one. Web hosts will often reuse IP addresses that spammers have previously blacklisted. You may need to speak with several individuals until you can find a technician who can understand your request. Acquiring a unique IP address for your web site can cost anywhere from $25 to $100 for an initial setup fee, and $2 to $25 per month thereafter.

On SlashDot, one person mentions that they were served a self-signed certificate when they clicked through to CheckFree from their bank. This attack could have been even nastier if the attackers had procured a legit CA signed certificate. Maybe the Network Solutions credentials also worked for CheckFree’s EquiFaxSecure/Geotrust account (check out the cert for https://mycheckfree.com). If they had a valid cert and weren’t hosting malware, who knows how long the hijacking could have lasted. All Check Free traffic could have been routed through the attacker servers in plain-text. Scary.

Article Courtesy of http://schmoil.blogspot.com/

This post may be way off base with the topics covered in my blog, but WTF, it’s my blog and I may need to look back at what I did should I mod another PSP. This is a great way to archive my steps.

What you need:

• 1 Slim PSP: I have the silver one, model 2001.
• 1 Sony Memory Stick: Mine was a 1 GB stick, way more than enough space for this.
• WINDOWS XP: To my knowledge Vista complicates things.
• A mini USB cord: I used the USB cord that allows me to charge my PS3 controller.
• Knife: I simply used a pearing knife, though an exacto knife would do a better job.

Downloads:

• The Partition Mover - There should be minimum three (3) files in this: the msipl.bib, msinst.exe, and a readme
• The Pandora Files (Universal Unbricker)- This has the eboots, folders, bin file, etc. that will be mentioned later on…
• WinRAR - This is a free archiving program (like Winzip).

Phase One: Creating the PROPER Memory Stick

This is where your PSP will be getting the info it needs to be modded so be sure to follow these steps VERY carefully.

1)Turn on the psp and go into USB mode
2)Download Winrar (see downloads section) if you havent already
3)When your computer detects the PSP, go to “My Computer”

4)Right-click on your PSP’s drive and select “Format”
5)Format the memory stick
6)Next download the “Universal Unbricker” (we talked about this in the downloads section)
7)Place all the files inside of it onto your psp’s drive. These files should include:

-Three folders called “PSP”, “kd”, and “registry”
-Three eboots called “150.pbp”, “340.pbp”, and “371.pbp”
-One bin file called “msipl.bin”

Phase Two: Moving the Partitions

(NOTE: Keep your memory stick in through USB)

1)Download the Partition Mover (We talked about this earlier)
2)Extract the folder “msinst” to your hard drive (C:\)
3)Go to “My Computer” and find your PSP drive letter (Removable Disk “?”)
4)Go to “Start”
5)Go to “Run”

6)Type in “cmd” and press OK

7)Type this in: “cd C:\msinst”
8)Next, type in “msinst ? msipl.bin” (remember No quotes) (also, replace ? with your removable disk letter)(also, use a CAPITAL LETTER to represent your drive. example: C:\msinst>msinst J msipl.bin)
9)It will show some stuff and give you 2 options:

1)Y=Yes 2)N=No

Choose Yes.

10)You should receive a confirmation that the partitions were successfully moved.

Thats it! You’re done with your magic memory stick and partition moving!!!!!

That wasnt so hard now was it? Now, lets continue! Because here comes the dangerous/hard part. MAKE SURE YOU FULLY CHARGED YOUR BATTERY BEFORE YOU BEGIN!

*NOTE: I did not get a confirmation when I went through this process, I got an error message. After some research I found a program call MSPformat.exe. If you also experience problems with the above process, dowload MSPformat.exe and run from your command prompt the following C:\mspformat\mspformat.exe X (x being the letter drive your psp is in and then press enter. Then go trhough the other steps again as mentioned starting at Phase One step 3.

Phase Three: Hard Modding Your PSP Battery

1)Take your battery (THE ONE THAT CAME WITH THE PSP) and open it using the knife or exacto knife. Be careful because it’s a Lithium Ion battery and if you poke or cut the inner pack… Kaboom!

2)Look on the main board for the display “ICO4″ or “CO4″ (depending on your battery)

3)Now, take a needle or something like that and remove pin #5
here is a diagram: (NOTE: you can find pin #5 easily when the ICO4 or CO4 display is facing you!!!!)
__ (pin 4) __ (pin 8)
__ (pin 3) __ (pin 7)
__ (pin 2) __ (pin 6)
__ (pin 1) __ (pin 5)

THIS IS WHAT THE BATTERY SHOULD LOOK LIKE

As you can see there are the 8 pins BUT to make life easier, the way I did it was the way it’s done in the picture. I just scraped the chip with a pin until the circuit that LEADS to the pin you’re supposed to cut, is broken. Notice how and where the cut was made into the board. YOU’RE DONE HARD MODDING THE BATTERY

Seal the the battery up with Crazy Glue or scotch tape but if you use scotch tape, make note that putting the battery back into the back of PSP will now be a snug fit.

Note: Do the cutting nice and slow…back and forth. Careful not to rip any of the cords out of the battery pack (there are two leads at the top pf the battery pack), damage any other part of the chip, or damage the inner battery or you’re gonna have a ruined battery….possibly a ruined face…

Phase Four: Installing CFW

Once your battery and your memory stick are being used at the same time, you will now have what the PSP Modding Community calls, a “Pandora’s Battery”.

1)Make sure you put in your Magic Memory Stick
2)Put in your Pandora Battery

(If you see your WiFi LED and memory stick LED blink, you have it working! As though in most occasions your screen won’t light up but if it does, that’s always good too)

3)When your LED’s are done flashing, press “[]” (square) to dump your nand flash (just in case you brick. be warned, the file is anywhere from 32MB-64MB depending on your psp….don’t do ANYTHING, just let it load what it needs)

4)After that is done, you will be required reboot, so press X (cross) when your LED’s are done flashing (or when instructed to)

5)Re-put in your battery and the Pandora menu will load

6)Press X (cross) to install 3.71M33

7)After thats done, you will need to reboot again so press X (cross) (when instructed to or when the LED’s are done flashing)

8)Now, remove your battery

9)Plug in your charger

10)Turn on the psp

11)Put in your battery

12)Remove the charger

13)And you should now be running 3.71M33!!!!!

So what do I mean by having too much content? Here is a fictional example company’s website based on a real example I have dealt with in my career.

Company Name: Joe Web’s Everything Store

Products/Services: Joe Webs Candy (Home Made Candy Sales), Joe Webs Fabrics (Upholstery and Sewing Supplies), Joe Webs Landscaping (Lawn and Garden), Joe Webs Comics (Comic Books Store).

Joe has a retail store which houses all of the above, a real mix of unrelated products and services. His prime money maker is the landscaping business, but does all of the other businesses to keep a steady stream of income coming in year round. He wants to finally take the plunge and get an online presence. He contacts a reputable company with a solid custom website design portfolio.

Despite the advice of the company he is working with, he is absolutely wanting to feature all of the businesses on the home page. Each business then goes into sub-page after sub-page featuring every possible photo and piece of literature that he has at his disposal.

In the end a website exist that looks like a cross between a coming soon/directory site and some sort of spam site. No direction whatsoever, if you were to stumble across the site you would have no idea what the site was for. And if you are like most users, you would not bother looking around to figure it out.

So where did Joe Web fail? He has heard that content is what people want. Content is what helps you rank highly on Google.

Well he forgot about K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid. Any website, whether business or personal, should have a central theme or focus. Something that when a new user arrives allows them to clue in immediately as to what the website is about and what it is trying to portray.

What should Joe Web have done instead? His core business is the landscaping business, this is his money maker. The website should focus almost entirely on this and be the one focal point on the home page and the sub-pages. Within his about us section would be the ideal place to mention the other services and products he is also involved in if it is absolutely necessary to even talk about them. If they are crucial to also be on the web and to have more real-estate then a mention on the about us section, then they should have their own separate websites. Going with the a bloated/all-inclusive site just kills the entire site and renders all sections ineffective, you are wasting your money.

There are many elements to getting a website online. Basically though you can break things down into 3 stages. This is what you can expect when working with my company and likely many others out there.

1. Comp/Mock-up stage: This is where we play with various ideas taken form the customer input and our own and come up with a Photoshop-made mock-up. Depending on the complexity, turn-around time on this is anywhere between 1 and 2 days.

2. Content gathering and site build: This is where we move ahead on an approved comp and build the website. We also look to the client to feed us as much content as possible. The site build takes anywhere from 5-7 business days. Getting content takes anywhere from hours to months :).

3. Site publish and ongoing maintenance: The website is published live with no less than 75% of the content. The site is then only requiring random maintenance on a monthly basis, content changes mostly. Clients can contact us pretty frequently on a monthly basis, any changes that are requested will be applied within 1 to 3 business days depending on complexity and how much is already on our plate.

My target for all my clients from start to finish is 30 to 45 days for the entire build cycle. That is from our first call to the site being online.

A non ecommerce website will costs you $785.00 up front and then $99.00 per month. Ecommerce cost you $985.00 up front and then $195.00 monthly. The monthly fee on both packages takes care of your website, hosting, domain name, privacy protection, and up to 10 email accounts.

I choose to pay someone to cut my lawn, not because I can’t do it myself, but because I rather spend that time with my still less than 1 year old son. I am happy, the guy who takes my money is happy.

A common question I get as a blogger is about setting up a Wordpress blog. Again and again I answer it. Well this week it dawned on me that maybe I could and should make a few dollars off of this. I know how to setup Wordpress, others don’t and don’t want to even bother learning how to. So its a win-win situation.

If you are interested in getting setup with your own blog without all the hassle, visit:

SetupMyBlog.dropthemike.com

Once I picked my jaw off the ground I convinced them to give it a try. I could not believe they had not ever heard the song. Am I really that old? LOL. Anyway we rocked it out. It was amazing.

So for all of you who have never enjoyed the greatness that is Spoonman, enjoy. Also check out some of the other great Soundgarden tunes.

Pretty Noose

Jesus Christ Pose

Rusty Cage

Black Hole Sun

“YummyNames, the public face of our domain portfolio service group, provides an additional means by which to realize the value of our domain portfolio assets to drive continued growth for the Company,” said Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows.

There are “ten thousands of names” listed on the site; Tucows’ portfolio is estimated to contain more than 70,000 domain names. Sample names listed for sale are countryrock.com, divorced.com, lemons.com, listener.com, mygarden.com, thepub.com, tool.com and veggies.com. While the site stats that “These premium domains are priced starting at $500 USD”, it appears that none of the names has actually listed a fixed price at this point. Names are being offered for purchase or lease. The site lists previous clients such as: Bell Mobility, CanWest Global Communications, EMI Music, General Motors, Grand & Toy, Harlequin Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson,  Microsoft, Nestle and RBC Royal Bank.

The Tucows domain portfolio mostly consists of names that were not renewed by registrants, as well as domain names that were purchased as part of the Netidentity acquisition. S

[via Press Release]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

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SEO Friendly Images is a Wordpress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images in your posts with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/xHTML valid as well.

ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. It describes your image to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.

TITLE attribute play lesser role but is important for visitors as this text will automatically appear in the tooltip when mouse is over the image.

Download

• Download: SEO Friendly Images

Installation & Usage

1. Upload the whole plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
2. Go to the Plugins page and activate the plugin.
3. Use the Options page to modify ALT and TITLE options.
4. You are done, SEO Image does everything else

SEO Friendly Images options recognize two tags %title (post title) and %name (filename of the picture). By combining these two tags and additional words (photo, picture etc..) you can create relevant alt and title tags automatically for all images.

Here is a live example of the plugin (active on my blog). The image that has title and alt replaced with “%title” and “%name %title” respectively resulting in “SEO Friendly Image” for title and “example SEO Friendly Images” for alt.