Gideon Marken: Web Technologist

My Lovely Wife Lou is Pregnant

Gideon Marken — 2008-09-28T07:55+00:00

I'm so very pleased to announce that Lovely Wife Lou is pregnant!

After
years of not having any luck naturally, we sought help from a fertility doctor, but this too was not working, at least the procedure and medications weren't.

Finally, we had one good egg and were ready to have it fertilized and see if that would work. Not taking any chances, we went with a procedure (ICSI) where they select the specific sperm, and fertilize the egg with it. Days later, they called and it worked! Next, Lou was implanted with the fertilized egg, placing it in the ideal location.

Two weeks later, we found out she was pregnant!

Today, we are nearing the end of the 1st trimester and doing well. This photo is of the fertilization at 5 cells, and the next 5 are ultrasounds. The fertilization photo is approximately 1hr before it was implanted. Photo here.

ArtistServer News and a new site: FreeMusicLicensing.com

Gideon Marken — 2007-12-14T08:14+00:00

Hi all, it's been awhile since I've posted any news about ArtistServer, so here we go...

1. As you can see, the forums have slowed down again over the holiday season. This seems to happen every year, and usually picks back up near the end of January.

2. We now host 7,600 mp3s! While we did not get to the 10,000 I was hoping for, we've definately grown this year and have attracted many new artists with great material.

3. WTF is with the Video section at ArtistServer? Well - unfortunately, the situation isn't looking good. I had signed up with VideoEgg to be a site that uses their video hosting services. They have this amazing upload tool that will convert video from files, your cam, even your digital video camera. I have it 'working' in the Admin area, I even added genres/categories, a comment and rating system, send to friend option, and a means to add the videos to your favorites... It's all done.

So what's the problem? The problem, is that I've emailed VideoEgg 3 times now to two different email addresses to request an approval for the integration, and they haven't replied. The video section is 'done' - it's ready to go live - it would take me 2 minutes to turn it on for the public... but, if VideoEgg never replies, the video section can't open. I'm not sure what their deal is - maybe they changed their policies, maybe they are having troubles staying in business - who knows. I'm looking for alternate solutions, but so far, nothing out there works like Video Egg (free integration and video hosting). The only services I've found would have a fee, and since ArtistServer doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the audio streaming, I can't afford to add to that and cover the video hosting fees too. I'm going to try and contact them for another week or two, if nothing comes of it, I'll remove the "Video" button from the site's main menu. I'm sorry this hasn't worked out.

4. What about some good news? Yes! I always have some good news for you :) As you know, one of my main goals with ArtistServer is to help all of you gain more exposure. I want your music to be heard - I want people to email their friends and point them to your music - I want your music on peoples MP3 players - and... I want your music to be used in places where commercial music has traditionally been used. What I'm getting at hear, is that there's a LOT of music that is licensed for all kinds of productions, including: company demos, commercials, personal videos, wedding videos, presentations, films/videos, flash websites, and more.

Ever since the Creative Commons Licensing options were released on the world, we've had a set of license options which actually 'define' how a piece of work can be used. If you had not noticed, we use Creative Commons Licensing on the music and the photos here at ArtistServer (but you can pick the vague 'copyright' option still). Each of these different license options defines a different type of 'use scenario' - for example - one of them allows for use if you give credit, but you can't use the work in a commercial manner. Another license requires credit, but does allow commercial uses, etc.

So, now we have this big catalog of music - and there's this big population of people who want to use music in their productions - the goal, is to bring both parties together so they can mutally benefit.

We could expect that population to find us by searching at ArtstiServer, and they can, but I'm about to make things MUCH easier for these people... I'm launching a site designed specifically for people who are looking for Creative Commons/Free music to use in their productions. The site is about 2/3 done and is in 'beta' - you can browse to it here: http://www.freemusiclicensing.com/

This is my first site coded/designed in Flex, so it's been a bit of a learning experience :)

The site is not complete - the popup artist info dialog isn't working yet, and the side panel information needs to be added. BUT - the search, streaming and downloading work. Once the site is done, I'll work a bit on the promotion of the site and see if we can get some press. I'm not sure when the site will be 100% done, as I'm having to learn a new language to code the site, but I hope to have it completed next month.

This opportunity is open to everyone - but I hope that if you appreciate this, that you'll consider upgrading your account - we NEED PAYING MEMBERS! ;)

Certainly, the music here is worth money - and it is your choice to make your music available for free use or not. If you are concerned about your music - sign into the site and check your songs and see what license you've selected. When you edit a song, the license 'wizard' is at the bottom of the screen.

Don't be afraid of giving your music away - each song you release becomes an agent working for you - promoting you and your music. If you don't believe this, we can look at it from another angle - several artists from our own community are/were featured on the "Making of the Matrix" DVD - which sold quite a few copies... and each artist was paid something insanely low, like $100 - in the end, what has more value, the exposure, or the $100? Just think if you were one of those artists - and you had decided you wouldn't take less than $250 - you would have missed out on all that exposure. By all means - each deal stands on it's own, and if you 'can' get paid, perfect! If you can't make much but can get exposure... see the value in the exposure.

In closing, I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to all of you, to say thank you to all those who have been with us all these years, and to say welcome to those who have recently started using the site.

Thank you for being a part of this, and Happy New Years to everyone. :)

- Gideon / ArtistServer Admin

==========================================

For those wanting more info on Creative Commons licensing: http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses

AritstServer and ToneThis Serve Up Indie Ringtones

Gideon Marken — 2007-09-18T01:38+00:00

ToneThis is a desktop application for delivering personalized and third-party content to your phone. Unlike traditional content stores (ringtones, wallpapers, videos, games), ToneThis sits on your desktop enabling you the freedom to select and personalize your own content for delivery to your cellphone.

ToneThis desktop software allows you to create MP3 ringtones, truetones, realtones, cellphone wallpaper and mobile video ringtones using your CD, MP3, WAV, iTunes, image (JPEG, GIF, BMP), and video (AVI, MPEG) collection. Create an unlimited number of cellphone ringtones, wallpapers, and videos. Access to mobile music, image, and video content. Access to mobile games. Almost all US/Canada/EU/AU carriers supported.

400,000+ users
Both a free and upgrade version
Windows only
Most popular 'mobile' download at Download.com
Download ToneThis

For an overview of ToneThis, watch this interview and demo with Raj Singh, founder of ToneThis:

http://www.podtech.net/home/3993/lunchmeet-tonethis-gets-your-media-on-your-cell-phone

When you first see the demo of the software, take note of the right side panel.

ArtistServer has partnered with ToneThis to provide music with Creative Commons licensing and currently loads as the default content provider when you launch ToneThis. The mp3 used in the demo is by an artist on ArtistServer - very cool! Check out the screenshot below:

[view full size]

This is a great opportunity for artists to gain more exposure and take advantage of a great marketing tool - ringtones. We are serving over 110,000 page views to more than 60,000 unique visitors per month within the ToneThis application alone!

Not all songs are available through ToneThis, only those with one of the following Creative Commons licenses:

Attribution
Attribution Share Alike
Attribution Non-Commercial
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
Public Domain

If you are an artist on ArtistServer, and want your music available on ToneThis, make sure you have selected one of the previous licenses, and make your song available for download. http://www.artistserver.com

The ToneThis panel also provides an 'artist' view, which lists artists who have music with the proper Creative Commons license. Only artists with upgraded accounts are listed.

ArtistServer also supports ToneThis as a ringtone transfer method for the ringtones artists upload with their songs. When using the ToneThis transfer method, the mp3 will first be downloaded to your local copy of ToneThis, then you send it to your phone. While the final download step is similar to what ArtistServer already offers, ToneThis has gone several steps further by providing detailed support for mobile networks around the world, and for 100's of phones.

Running LightTPD and PHP on Windows

Gideon Marken — 2007-09-11T06:44+00:00

While I honestly feel ColdFusion is a great platform for Web Applications, it turns out there's some things it's not so great at, one of which is serving of a lot of files, and in my case, it's the streaming and downloading of mp3s. ColdFusion has a max thread count setting, and if you are serving an mp3 file via CFContent (to hide the file's location, and handle tracking it's use), this max number becomes a serious limitation.

This has now become a problem because ArtistServer is seeing more traffic and more listeners, which means more streaming and downloads. We've started hitting that max thread count, and need to move the mp3 streaming and downloading to another solution. My goals for the new solution include:

High availability ? Able to support a large number of simultaneous users

Free ? I can't afford to purchase solutions, and I'd like to move more into open source solutions

Stable ? While I am looking for mature solutions, I will try newer options if they look promising, but they need to be stable

Focus on serving files ? If possible, the soltuions will need to be ideal for serving files and supporting byte ranges (ffwd an mp3)

Can Run on Windows ? I'd like to move to linux, but I'm hesitant to change everything at once.

After some research, I decided to try a relatively new Web server called LightTPD and PHP, a Web standard. For the OS, I'll use Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The process takes a few steps, so I thought I'd outline them and post the process so that other's can save time and use this as reference.

From the lighttpd Web site: http://www.lighttpd.net/

lighttpd is used by many well-known sites. The typical scenario is using lighttpd as off-load server to push out static content and leave to complex work to another server. One example is YouTube. They have a farm of servers which push out the thumbnails you see before you see the movies.

Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility--all of these describe LightTPD which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a webserver; as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) LightTPD is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it's Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

light footprint + httpd = LightTPD (pronounced lighty)

For my specific case, I now have a test server setup with lighttPD and PHP, and have started working on a translation of my file serving/streaming/tracking code. Once I have the code up and running, I can start testing on linux server and consider removing Windows from the equation. Making a platform change would provide even better performance and a higher number of concurrent users. Why not do it now? Because I'm new to PHP and don't want to change all the elements at once. After I gain a comfort level with PHP, I can start working with it on linux.

Windows + LightTPD + PHP

Install Windows Server: I'm using Win2000 Adv Server. Remove all the items from the installer that you won't need on a server, like games, etc. Uncheck everything that deals with IIS, the mail server, and ftp. I suggest using other options for FTP. I don't know of a mail server to use, so if you must, install Microsoft's mail server.

Once Windows is installed, run Windows update and reboot accordingly. Do this until you finally do not see any more updates. With Win2000 Server, I had to upadate 'Windows Update' then do a few updates, then about 54 updates, then another 9, then a few more... so it takes awhile.

Download: Now download all the software you'll need to run the server. In my case, this will include:
- LigHTTPd for Windows: http://wlmp.dtech.hu/down_lighty.php?lang=en
- PHP: http://www.php.net/
- FileZilla Server: http://filezilla-project.org/
- VNC: http://www.realvnc.com/download.html
- Notepad ++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Install: VNC Server ? for remote access, Notepad++ for editing config files, and FileZilla as your FTP server

Install LightTPD: I suggest installing to the root: C:\lighttpd

Install PHP: I suggest installing to the root: C:\PHP - during installation, you will be asked to select your server, select 'other CGI' as 'lighttpd' is not a listed option.

LigHTTPd Configuration ? I'm using version: 1.4.18
- Open the configuration file: C:\LightTPD\conf\lighttpd-inc.conf
- Uncomment mod-cgi ? just delete the '#' in front of it.
- Uncomment mod-rewrite - same method, unless you don't need it
- edit "index-file.names" leaving only: "index.php", "index.htm"
- consider trimming the mimetypes down to what you would be serving
- edit "static-file.exclude-extensions" - set to ".php" only
- be sure to create a file for catching errors ? uncomment this line after you create the file and save it at the root.:
  server.error-handler-404 = "/error-handler.php"
- Uncomment cgi.assign, delete all but php, and add a slash:
  (".php" => "PHP/php-cgi.exe") to this: (".php" => "/PHP/php-cgi.exe")
- Set LighTTPD up as a service ? first, click on this exe file: C:\LightTPD\bin\Service-Install.exe
  When I tried this, the registry entries fail, so the next step is to edit the registry and add the keys by hand (or a .reg file). Be sure to replace the lighttpd installation directory with your own. Save the following as a .reg file and double click on it to merge these keys with your registry (if the service installer did not show an error, skip this step):
  
  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LightTPD]
  
  "DisplayName"="LightTPD"
  
  "Description"="A fast, secure and flexible webserver - WLMP Project"
  
  "ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
  
  [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LightTPD\Parameters]
  
  "AppDirectory"="C:\\LightTPD"
  
  "Application"="lighttpd.exe"
  
  "AppParameters"="-f conf\\lighttpd-srv.conf -m lib -D"
  
  [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\List]
  
  "C:\\LighTTPD\\lighttpd.exe"="C:\\LightTPD\\lighttpd.exe:*:Enabled:LightTPD (WLMP Project)"
- At this point, you may need to stop/start the lighttpd server service ? I use the Computer Management Console ? and navigate to the Services icon, then the actual service.
- In your browser's address bar, type: localhost ? you should now see the default index page for lightTPD. If not, possibly the registry keys were not added correctly, or you made a mistake when editing the lightTPD configuration file.

PHP Configuration ? I'm using version: 5.2.4
- open the php.ini file: C:\php\php.ini
- move the upload temp and session directories, and changed their references in the php.ini file:
  
  upload_tmp_dir="C:\php\upload"
  
  session.save_path="C:\php\session"
- locate and set: doc_root ="C:\lighttpd\htdocs"

Test the server
- create a new text file in the web root called index.php
- type this into it:
  then save
- in your browser's address bar, type: localhost
- you should see the php info specs in your browser

Alternate Setup: Unfortunately, fastCGI on Windows either doesn't work, or doesn't work very well (at this point in time), which means it won't work with lightTPD. There are many other options for you to tweak and try in the configuration file, my only suggestion is to save a copy of this first version of your configuration file as a backup.

Finish:
- Be sure to setup VNC and install a VNC client on your local PC/MAC if you don't have it already.
- Setup FileZilla and make sure it's secure. I like to limit FTP access to my office's IP address only.
- You may want to add a firewall, I like using BlackIce http://blackice.iss.net ? but it's a bit expensive. Windows 2000 doesn't come with a Firewall, and you don't want to install one that is designed for a workstation.
- More Info:
  
  http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/
  
  http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/wiki/Docs
  
  http://forum.lighttpd.net/forum/1

This information is offered for free and does not imply any responsibility nor consultation. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer, but I think the best thing to do is to post to the lighttpd forums.

Good luck in your developments, I'll post again once I have made some progress.

Compete.com -vs- Alexa.com - Comparing Website Rank

Gideon Marken — 2007-09-06T11:07+00:00

In the past, I've expressed my views about Alexa.com's data and the Web site stats they make available. While I'm sure they've worked to improve their data processing, and have hopefully dealt with the 'gaming' issues (where people would drive their rank up), I'm still unsure that the data is anything more than a generalized indicator for the Web. Sites like AdBrite use your Alexa rank as a means to show advertisers your site's worth, and many top bloggers quote these same numbers when talking about sites. Why? Because it's been around for five years, and it was the only option for such data.

Fortunately, good ideas spread, start-ups come to life, and usually improve the overall market by raising the bar. In the Web stats and comparison market, Alexa was joined by Compete.com (last year?), and we can at least compare data between the two services.

I'll leave it to you to visit compete.com to learn how they get their data. Alexa gets their from their browser toolbars. Attention Firefox users... Alexa now has a toolbar for you too.

I think the best way to compare data between the two services is to look at a specific collection of sites which are in competition with each other - a single vertical market. Since I run a social music site (ArtistServer.com), I selected to compare my vertical as an example. Below, you'll see a table which lists most of my competitors, there are many more than this, although these are what I consider "music hosting services" that cater to artists/musicians, which is ArtistServer's focus.

Site Ranking Comparison
Site	Compete.com	Alexa.com
MySpace.com	6	6
Last.fm	1,450	284
Soundclick.com	2,319	1,495
PureVolume.com	2,523	2,095
ReverbNation.com	15,864	55,831
GarageBand.com	19,591	27,229
AudioStreet.net	42,638	58,403
AmieStreet.com	54,539	41,000
broadjam.com	62,974	27,471
iacmusic.com	75,778	135,873
Jamendo.com	79,377	19,037
dMusic.com	124,412	115,540
Funender.com	127,294	56,716
ZeBox.com	132,670	198,267
ProjectOpus.com	143,261	210,103
ArtistServer.com	148,780	165,307
MusicV2.com	170,543	92,029
SellaBand.com	194,966	47,262
ArtistLaunch.com	421,813	684,648
Soundlift.com	439,361	379,774
SonicGarden.com	558,929	449,186
Data from: 9/6/07

What do you think? At first it would seems that as you move down in rank, that the numbers would have a greater variance, but that's not the case. The numbers simply jump around - for example, look at ReverbNation or Funender, how is it that their rankings are so different between Alexa and Compete?

I think if we can gain access to a third or fourth dataset from another service, the best thing to do would be to average their rankings together to give us a single ranking. While the results would continue to just be an 'indicator' and not a real ranking, it might be a step in the right direction.

So - who is going to build the first Web Rank Aggregator? Or does it already exist?

HostMySite.com Limits ColdFusion, Does Not Tell Customers

Gideon Marken — 2007-08-29T09:35+00:00

Are you considering HostMySite.com as a Web host for your ColdFusion site?

If you are, please read the following, because you won't find this
information out on the the HostMySite.com Website - in particular, this
post refers to their "Builder" package.

Two months ago, a new client of mine wanted their site hosted with a
'more established' ISP as opposed to hosting with my current ISP - who
is great, very responsive, honest, etc. - but they are small, have less
resources, etc. While they aren't 'big,' my host is at a great facility and we have a lot of bandwidth available. I definitely recommend them. HostMySite.com on the other hand... is a company you may want to avoid.

The issues I'm going to cover here came up because I ran into a problem
when trying to upload a 1.2mb zip file using a very simple file upload
script. The upload failed, so I checked my code - no problems there -
then I run though some tests and find that smaller files 'do' upload. I
found the largest file that would upload was 550k - anything larger,
and the server would not respond. No error message... just no response at all.

After wasting 30 minutes trying to find the problem, I contacted their support team over chat.

My description of the problem was not enough - the staff at HostMySite
would not do anything unless I would give him the URL so he could see
the issue happen for himself. My question to him was, "How many sites
are you placing on each server?" Over the period of 30min that we were
on chat, I asked the same question 5 times - finally, asking, "Why will
you not tell me how many sites are on that server?" then backing up my
request with the following, "This is key information for me as a
customer - I need to know how overloaded this server is that you have
us on." He replied that it's not their policy - in other words, they do
not feel it is important to let their customers know what they are
paying for. Here is a direct quote from Julius F., the second support
person who responded by email:

We are not allowed to disclose how many sites are assigned to each
server however I can say we do allocate a set number of sites based on
the specifications of the server and each configuration has been
time/stress tested before it is deployed as a production server.

Interesting wording... they are not "allowed." What are they afraid of?

Another thing to point out here... this stress test they do... doesn't
mean much when you place the same number of applications and users on a
box who are amateur developers. Although, they do have a 'safety
measure' in place, which brings us to the second issue with
HostMySite.com that you should know about.

"All ColdFusion processes must complete in under 50 seconds. If a
process takes 50 seconds or longer, the process gets cancelled."

This is not written on their site.
This is not listed as a feature of their hosting packages.
This is not listed in the Admin area where you manage your site.
Apparently, not even the general support staff know about this limitation.
If they kill off your processes, they don't inform you - you would have to discover that it is happening either on your own or if you are lucky, a user would inform you

The support person I was chatting with had no idea this was put in
place. He hit our site, tried the form, and uploaded a 10mb file (he's
on the same network) with no problem. I then had to waste another 30 minutes doing
more tests, uploading files from remote servers, etc. In the end - the
support person said they would respond to me in email once they figured
it out. Here's the email:

HostMySite.com Support:

The timeout error that you are receiving is from a program that we run
on our ColdFusion servers called SeeFusion. It is set to kill any cf
process that runs longer then 50 seconds. SeeFusion was implemented to
increase the stability of our ColdFusion servers, which it has done.
The only way to avoid this timeout on a shared server would be to use a
different method of uploading, like ASPupload. Alternately, you could
go to a VPS.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact us.

I wrote back, and explained that what they were doing was enforcing a
limitation on my hosting package that I was never told existed. If I
would have known this before I signed my client up, I would most likely
have selected a different host. While you may not agree with me, I tend
to feel that HostMySite.com is misleading customers. I also told them
that this is a "feature" of the hosting package, and that they need to
list it on the package page: http://www.hostmysite.com/hosting/builder/
- as you can imagine... they probably don't put it there because it
will not help with sales.

What do you think? Is not telling a customer about a limitation of a
service the same thing as lying about what you've sold a customer?
Would you be happy if you bought a car, and then find that it could
only go 60mph for 50 seconds before the engine would turn off?

HostMySite.com - I thought you were going to be a great host, instead,
I'm quite disappointed at your lack of openness with customers about
the number of sites per server, and the lack of informing customers
what you've really sold them. I will not set another client up on your service and will continue to tell others to look elsewhere until your policy changes.

What am I going to do? Well, we are past the 30 day money back
guarantee and the client already paid for the first year - so it looks
like I have to create a hybrid solution for them that uses ASPupload
for all the file uploads. Hopefully I can integrate it without having
to spend much time in ASP rewriting portions of my application. Thanks HostMySite - I was almost done with this project - now you've added more work AND wasted an afternoon spent discovering your 'features.'

How about you? Do you host a site there? Did you know of these issues? Are you experiencing any other problems with HostMySite.com?

New Song: Chocolate Rain - Sonic Remix

Gideon Marken — 2007-08-14T08:49+00:00

Possibly you've run into this video in the last few weeks, it's by "Tay Zonday" and it's simply him singing a song he wrote called "Chocolate Rain." www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwp

The video has received a lot of responses, replies, parodies, and remixes of both the video and the song.

Tay was kind and smart enough to release the vocal track of the song and allow others to create their own remixes.

Once you hear his low and distinct sounding voice, you'll get an idea as to why it's getting attention.

Being one who enjoys the art of remixing, I downloaded the vocals, and recorded a thick and gooey funk version of the song.

You can visit my music site and hear the song at the top of the page: Chocolate Rain - Sonic Remix / Sonic Wallpaper

Or stream/download the mp3 from these links: Download - Stream

Enjoy!

If You Use Open Source, Leave the License and Credit

Gideon Marken — 2007-08-03T08:49+00:00

What percentage of Web developers and site owners are cool? Have you ever stopped to wonder? We're talking about a population that designs and builds the foundation of our digital existence. The people who provide the sites, the services, and the means for everyone to explore and experience this "World Wide Web."

Personally, I've judged it all based on my experiences, which have mostly been very positive. Fortunately, I got on this train back in 1996, back when the Web was battleship grey, and developers were hard to come by. Eleven years later, I'm now in a sea of developers and site owners, and yes, my experiences have remained very positive... until recently.

About two weeks ago, I rolled out a new version of my AddToBookmarks script, which is an easy to use solution for adding social bookmarking buttons to your pages or posts. I released the script with an open source license, and some credit/info in the files.

I wanted to see how many sites were using my script, so I do a search at Google that would locate my script: "Del.icio.us Digg Google Spurl Blink Furl Simpy Y! MyWeb," out of the first 25 results, 16 of these sites had stripped out the license and my credit/info from the script, and only 9 had left the license and credit.

Wow - Apparently, only 36% of developers and site owners are cool?!?

Actually, that's not true, as you can't conclude much from a 25 person study, although, these results are not very positive. It seems a lot of people either don't understand or don't care about open source licensing and giving people credit.

It's all very simple, if you use someone's work, and that work has a license and/or credit listed, you leave it. If you create a variation of the item, most likely the license and credit must stay with the variation.

Here are the results from my search:

Has License/Credit: 9

http://www.israelnewsradio.net/the-marty-roberts-show.html
http://www.watch4jobs.co.uk/blog/
http://www.brazil-travelnet.com/index.html
http://www.soccer-game-information.com/soccer-video.html
http://news.stepforth.com/blog/
http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/weblog/weblog.html
http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/zodiac/signsindex.htm
http://www.tophosts.com/articles/?002404.html
http://www.leadership-tools.com/advanced-site-search.html

Removed License/Credit: 16

http://forums.seochat.com/seo-scripts-10/coldfusion-optimization-3214.html
http://starrynightlights.com/blog/?m=200604
http://www.thegnuru.com/
http://ngeorgia.com/blueandgray/
http://www.europeanexperts.org/disp_zone.html?id_zone=33&lazone=VBA+(Office)
http://www.setfocus.com/aboutdotnet/default.aspx
http://rdoctor.com/symptoms_disease/content/blogsection/11/9/
http://www.roseindia.net/tutorialhelp/comment/6225
http://www.evictstop.com/bisf-mortgages.shtml
http://forums.devshed.com/business-news-124/google-to-bid-for-u-s-airwaves-if-condition-added-461312.html
http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/ASP.NET/Working-with-Parameters-with-Crystal-Reports-and-ASP-NET-2-0/
http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/184406031
http://forums.devarticles.com/technology-news-57/effect-of-google-cookie-policy-unclear-ap-107583.html
http://www.scripts.com/remotely-hosted-scripts/web-traffic-scripts/free-google-pagerank-checker-webmaster-tools/
http://starrynightlights.com/blog/?p=19
http://www.vakaruge.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=173

Add Links to Profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and More

Gideon Marken — 2007-07-31T09:23+00:00

Add Links to Profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and More

ArtistServer has integrated the services of http://SocialNetwork.in, a profile aggregator, to display links to all your profiles in the side bar of your site.

Just visit and join SocialNetwork.in (for free), then add links to your profiles at each social network and site you use, then return to ArtistServer, and add your SocialNetwork.in profile name to your profile in the My Account area. Once you are done, you will see all your profile links on your site.

To the right, is a screenshot of the "Profile Widget" from my site: http://www.artistserver.com/sonicwallpaper

And here is a link to my profile at SocialNetwork.in: http://socialnetwork.in/index.cfm/member/gideonmarken - my SocialNetwork.in profile name is: gideonmarken

Who or What is SocialNetwork.in?

It's a site I launched in January of this year to serve as a "profile aggregator" - which means, it's a site which helps you pull together your many profiles on the Web. Currently, the site supports over 100 social networks, community sites, and other Web sites which provide a profile. If you'd like a site added to SocialNetwork.in, make sure it meets the basic criteria:

The Name of the site - example: Site Name
The full URL to the site - example: www.sitename.com
A link to a user/member URL on the site - example: http://www.sitename.com/ProfileName

You do have the option of adding profiles and links to other people's profiles as "private" links, although these links will only be available to you on the SocialNetwork.in site.

Why do you want all your profiles linked together?

This helps people connect to you, when they see that you are on some other site, the site visitor may click on the profile link and visit you there. If they are on that site too, they may add a link to you or add you as a friend. With this tool, you'll greatly increase your cross-site networking and begin driving more traffic around to all your profiles. Start thinking about your 'core' profile, and not about having dozens of identities scattered around the Web - this tool helps make this happen, not only here, but any site that selects to adopt the SocialNetwork.in API.

Why signup at SocialNetowork.in?

Because the services it offers can be 'plugged in' and used at any Web site, which would allow you to benefit from greater levels of integration with the sites you use.

For example, lets say you are a member of SocialNetwork.in, and you are a member of Flickr.com - then you go out and join some new social/travel site that uses SocialNetwork.in's API to connect to our data and your profiles. By adding your SocialNetwork.in profile name to your account on the new site, they can now locate your photos and display them on your new profile without you having to reupload or import them in.

What is an API?

An API is an acronym for "Application Programming Interface." API's are VERY cool because they allow developers to connect to different sites and services and utilize the data and information in their own applications. You may have heard of the term "Mashup" being used on the Web - this relates to the process of connecting to at least one API and blending your own data with the data being offered by the API. For example, all the various maps you see on the Web which display various types of data or photos or icons, etc are usually "Map Mashups" that use either Google or Yahoo Maps API.

Enjoy!

Oh... BTW... ArtistServer and IndieMobile now have 250 free Mp3/Realtone Ringtones available for download. All ringtones are provided by the artists at ArtistServer.com

SocialNetwork.in API Promotes Cross Site Networking

Gideon Marken — 2007-07-23T03:18+00:00

SocialNetwork.in, a profile aggregator, uses standards to help connect people's profiles and friends. This new API will function as a powerful tool in the hands of developers, allowing them to identify what services they should support through integration. Utilizing the API helps promote cross network connectivity and empowers people. Promote SocialNetwork.in to your members, and start extending your site as a platform.

The SocialNetwork.in API provides RSS2 feeds containing links and profile names of our members. Members of our site can aggregate their many website profile links and links to their friends profiles with our easy to use interface. We support more than 100 popular social networks, social bookmarking sites, and other services which support member profiles.

Create Profile Widgets and More

As a developer, you can extend your site and services with our API by connecting your members to their SocialNetwork.in profiles. Once you've made this connection, you now have the means to display a 'profile widget,' or go further and connect to other profiles for each member, and connect to other sites and APIs to display their content.

The screenshot to the right shows an example of a profile widget as used on ArtistServer.com.

Mashup Connectivity

SocialNetwork.in is great for mashups. With a single member profile, you can tap into any of the 100's of sites we provide profile linking to. If your site's members are not using SocialNetwork.in yet, ask them to join and start extending your site and adding value for your members.

Additional SocialNetwork.in Site Updates

The site is once again functional in Internet Explorer (6 and 7), sorry about that!
We now provide traffic charts from Compete.com on the category and site profile pages.
Slight design update - the backgrounds for the site ratings, site icons, and number of people rating have all been replaced so they fit the site design more.

http://SocialNetwork.in - for more info!

AddToBookmarks.com Script Updated to Version 1.1

Gideon Marken — 2007-07-22T07:03+00:00

I've released version 1.1 of the AddToBookmarks.com script. It doesn't have any new features, just a few fixes and changes. For those who are using this script, I suggest you upgrade to the new version.

Updates In Version 1.1

Fixed a CSS issue in the horizontal layout, it's now set to a fixed size.
Updated both the Google and Furl bookmark links.
Fixed a Safari browser issue - the popup/timer needed to be addressed a different way.

Not Sure what AddToBookmarks is?

The AddToBookmarks Javascript is easy to use, and it helps get your blog or site on the top social bookmarking sites, by making it easier for people to bookmark your site or page.

How AddToBookmarks Works

User clicks on a link or icon, this passes the link's ID to the script. There, the URL page's TITLE are extracted dynamically by Javascript, then built into the Social Bookmarking site request. Depending on how you set the method,either a popup window will open with the site, or the user will be sent off to the Social Bookmarking site. Once the bookmark is added, the user is sent back to your site. If you used the popup window method, the script would then notice that the popup is displaying your site, then close it, so the user can continue browsing from where they were. If you used the direct method, the user will be sent back to the originating page in the same browser.

AddToBookMarks Supports the Following Social Bookmarking Sites

Del.icio.us
Digg.com
Google.com
Yahoo.com
Furl.com
Simpy.com
Spurl.com
Binklist.com

AddToBookMarks Features

Multiple Layouts - The AddToBookmarks script currently comes in four layouts, allowing you to select what works best for your use. To set or change the layout, simply alter a variable. See below for more information.
Add To Methods - While I suggest you use the 'direct' method for linking, you also have the option of using a popup for the social bookmarking sites.
Single Version - Adding the single version to your site is easy. It's designed to be used where you only need one AddToBookmarks displayed per page. For example, if you want to add this to your Website, the Single Standard Version is what you want to use. See below for more information.
Multi Version - If you are adding the AddToBookmarks script to your blog, you may want to set it up so you output a version of AddToBookmarks per each blog posting. This would allow visitors to add each post of yours to their Social Bookmarking site. This version will require you to do more work, but if you are considering this version, it should be a snap to setup. All you need to know is how to output the URL and TITLE of your blog posts in the language you use (CFML, PHP, ASP, JSP, etc.).
Demos - The zip file contains demos so you can get started quickly. Each layout, version, documentation, icons and license included.

http://www.AddToBookmarks.com

New Features and Solutions at ArtistServer

Gideon Marken — 2007-07-19T08:02+00:00

While I haven't been posting to my blog, I have been jamming on a lot of work, took a week vacation in Kauai with my family, worked in the yard a lot, had a 5yr anniversary with my wife, and hammered out five updates to ArtistServer in the last two and a half months.

Here's a summary of the last five site updates - I posted these on our forums, but I'm sure this is still news for most people:

1. 05/02/07 - New "Local" section on the site

If you are signed into ArtistServer, and click on 'Local' from the main menu, you'll see a page which lists content and people from your local area. This is based on your setting in your profile.

If you are not signed in, you'll see a listing of countries, along with a count of how many people we have in that country.

Each page displays new photos, music, store items, and ringtones, plus a listing of recent visitors to the site that live in the currently selected region.

Country Listing: http://www.artistserver.com/local.cfm

Viewing all of the US:
http://www.artistserver.com/local.cfm/country/United+States

Viewing all of California:
http://www.artistserver.com/local.cfm/country/United+States/state/California

Viewing San Diego:
http://www.artistserver.com/local.cfm/country/United+States/state/California/city/San+Diego

Later on, I'll improve this area so you'll also see listings of events for the selected region (most likely using the services and data from http://www.Eventful.com). Let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.

If your location is not correct - make sure you are signed in, then check your profile (under My Account) and see if your Country, State, and City are set correctly.

Keep in mind that the Cities and non-us states are entered by the site members and artists - so there are many errors like: LA and L.A and l.a. when all of them should be: Los Angeles

2. 06/02/07 - Another Year, A Present For You

I have a present for all the artists on ArtistServer, your total song counts have been raised!

Freeware Artist account: your song count was raised from 3 to 5
Upgraded Artist account: your song count was raised from 200 to 300

Why? Because we made it through another year!

We have 2 anniversaries around here, one is the date it all started, and the other is the date we first went live. We first went live on 12/05/2001, and it all started back in May of 1999 with a post to the Electronic music forums at mp3.com. Ah the old days...

The first stage of 'this' site was launched a year later (5/2000) as ElectronicBBoard.com. And another year later, on 05/22/2001, the beta site for ElectronicScene.com went live.

There's a short timeline here: http://wiki.artistserver.com/index.cfm/History

Thank you for all the music, memories, and friendship!

3. 07/09/07 - ArtistServer Now Offers ID3 Tag Editing

Depending on what you use to encode your mp3s, you may or may not have your ID3 'tag' set in your mp3 file.

An ID3 Tag is a set of information that is included in the mp3 file and is displayed by mp3 players by default. If no ID3 tag is present in the file, mp3 players usually attempt to figure out the artist name and song title from the filename.

At ArtistServer, we've always served your songs to people with both your artist name and song title, but until today, we didn't have a means for you to edit the ID3 tag within the files.
When I encode 'my' mp3 files, I usually open them in WinAmp and fill out the ID3 tag info, but I'm sure a lot of artists out there are not doing this, most likely because they are not aware of the ID3 tag nor how to set the information in the tag.

No problem... we can help!

When you view the listing of your songs from the "My Account" area of the site (this is where you'd go to upload or edit your songs), you'll now see a new option/button for "MP3 ID3 info" - click on the 'edit' button you see, and wait a few seconds for the server to complete the process.

The server will take your artist name, song title, description, upload year, and genre, and write them directly to the mp3 file. Now when people download your mp3, all the important information is saved along with the file.

For best results, do not stream your mp3 before or during the time you click on the edit button, as the process could fail.

4. 07/16/07 - PayPal for Classified/Store Payments

ArtistServer now supports "Paypal Accounts" - to enter your PayPal Account information - visit the My Account area, and edit your Profile.

After entering your PayPal Account Email address (you'll need a PayPal account), you can then edit your store/classified items, and set them to be sold using PayPal.

Site visitors will click on the cart/buy now button next to your store item, and be sent to PayPal along with the price, money type, and item title. PayPal handles the transaction, you receive an email that a payment and order has been made, then you send the purchased item.

ArtistServer does not participate in the sale, nor take any percentage from your sale.

As an attempt to keep 'spam bots' from extracting your email address from the PayPal buttons, I've added a script which converts your email address into ASCII special characters.

5. 07/17/07 - Tip Jar Option for Artists

ArtistServer now provides a "Tip Jar" option for all artists. To use this new feature, you will first need an account at PayPal, then follow the steps below:

1. Add your PayPal account email to your profile on ArtistServer (in the My Account area)

2. Edit your Site Settings on ArtistServer (also in the My Account area), and turn your Tip Jar on (it's the last item in your site settings, bottom of the page).

Now when people visit your artist page, they'll see a "Tip Jar" button like this on the side of your page:

All donations made to your Tip Jar go directly into YOUR PayPal account, not ours. ArtistServer does not collect money for you, nor does ArtistServer take any percent or fee from the donation - it's all for you!

Grandpa Marken's 90th Birthday

Gideon Marken — 2007-05-02T09:26+00:00

I recently went to Missouri, out to the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday. In classic Marken style, my parents flew in from San Jose, CA, my sister flew in from Phoenix, AZ, and I flew in from San Diego, CA.

While waiting for my transfer at the Dallas airport, I was quite surprised to find these huge vending machines for devices like iPods, headphones, and Sony PSP units. My first question was, "Are the batteries fully charged? And - Where is the digital download kiosk so these people can fill up their new mp3 players? Even better... Apple should preload these units with independent music from ArtistServer.com! Right...

My grandpa and grandma live on her son's 46 acre property, just off the water. Unfortunately, there was a frost a few weeks earlier, so the Dogwood blossoms were unable to bloom. What normally would have been a landscape of white, was rolling hills of brown.

Here is the old barn on the property:

Off on the far end of the property, is the old outhouse:

Just a few trees away, was this clusterfunk of catepillers:

I helped Grandma plant a rose out in front of their house:

Here we have three Gideons... yes, that's Gideon Marken II, Gideon Marken III, and Gideon Marken IV. My dad goes by 'Andy' - from our middle name 'Andrew,' and Grandpa goes by Gid.

The table in the photo was built by my grandpa when he was 15. We were setting it up to use on his 90th birthday, and found the screws pulled through one of the hinges, and one of the wood joints was loose.

Grandpa went out to his tool shed, found the glue and some new screws, and minutes later... the Gideon's had a steady table.

Here's a family photo, with Grandpa, Grandma, my parents and sister:

We had a great visit, met more of the family, and Grandpa looked like he had a very happy 90th birthday party.

Site Redesign Under Development

Gideon Marken — 2007-03-23T11:26+00:00

It's funny how updating one's site is similar to working on your house... you decide you're going to make one change, but then suddenly that one thing grows to 2, then 5 things and then suddenly... you're into all kinds of projects. :)

My initial task was to modify the site to expand to a larger width. We are currently designed for 800x600 screen resolution, but as of this year, only 9.7% of the site visitors are using 800x600 - which means we can now scale the site up for a 1024x768 resolution. The new target resolution is 1024x768, which will put us at 990px wide (we gain 220 more pixels in width). You just can't set a new width though, if you did, the layout would no longer look 'tight.' While any layout 'could' be liquid (fully expand and contract), the end result is often an inconsistent look. Personally, I like to create a consistent experience, so I never use liquid layouts.

Here's a screenshot of the new site homepage:

click to view full size

With the site getting wider, I had to adjust the spacing and layouts of all the pages on the site. Most of these are done, except the artist pages.

Here's a layout sketch of the new artist/member sites:

click to view full size

The left column will be 270px, and the right will be 695px. The main change here, is the smaller column is now on the left, and the wider will display songs in 2 columns.

Since the artist and member pages were going to change, it seemed like a good time to update and fix the site designer tool. As a site tool, I've felt it's always been a bit confusing, and I view it as 'almost useful,' so it was time to start from scratch. The Web has evolved a bit since I originally wrote the site designer, so I decided to go all out and create what I felt was the ideal tool and utilize modern Web design concepts.

My goals were to make the tool simple, and to make it as it should work - with real-time updating, drag-n-drop functionality, and an intuitive interface. With the help of an amazing Javascript library called "Jquery" and a set of plugins called "Interface Elements" - I was able to create the tool exactly as I imagined in only a few days. Let's take a look!

click to view full size

You'll see there's a top section with directions, and a lower section where you'll setup your page layout and design. Let's move from left to right over the screenshot:

Available Modules - each item or object you place on your page will now be called a "Module" - for example, you'll have a module to view show your profile, and another for showing the first 8-10 photos, etc. The Available modules column shows you the modules that are available for you. To add one, click on it and drag it to the Page Preview on the right. To remove a module, drag it to the Available Modules list. And yes, we'll support more modules, like adding your external RSS feed, or your Flickr photo feed.

Page Preview - this works in real-time, all color or background image changes are applied to the Page Preview area. You can also drag your modules around the page, setting their order and position on the page. In the screenshot, you can see that I'm dragging the photos module. When you click on the Update button, the site will reorganize your page's layout to match what you setup in the Page Preview.

Color Settings - this works similar to the current site design tool, where you can click on a color setting to select it, then change the color and see the preview. What's new, is that you now have control over the border of your page items, and the selection of colors is much easier.

Color Picker and Background Images - this color picker is much easier to use, and you have access to any color your monitor can generate. Just click on the color setting you wish to edit, then click on the color picker to set it - no more popup color picker! You've always had a page background image, but now you'll also get to set it's position and repeat settings. For those who already use a backround graphic, I'm sure you'll be excited about this new addition - you now have much more control. But wait... there's more! You'll also have the option to set a background graphic for the title bar and container for the items on your page, and again, you'll have position and repeat attributes available to you. Just like the color picker, the background images load and display in real-time.

I have to make some database changes, and finish modifying all the pages for the larger layout before I can integrate the new design tool, so expect to see the new changes on the site in 2 weeks or less. The new site designer is built using open source code, if you are a developer, and you feel it would be something you can use, let me know and I'll point you to the files.

Website Ad Policy or Shooting Yourself in the Foot

Gideon Marken — 2007-03-07T10:25+00:00

Do you know ArtistServer's Ad policy?

I was recently talking to someone about ArtistServer, and pointed out that the site doesn't generate enough revenue to cover all the expenses. This person then asked about the ads on the site - stating that ArtistServer should have enough traffic to 'break even.'

I agreed, but then explained my policy about ads.

I don't think I've ever posted what that policy is, and I think it's important for people to know, as I feel it creates a much better experience on ArtistServer when compared to other social media and music sites. Unfortunately, my policy is like shooting myself in the foot, as the end result, is that ArtistServer doesn't generate enough revenue to cover all it's expenses. Ah... the cost of pride... or is it a fine for being stubborn?

My policy is simple:

No animated ads - currently, this also means no 'graphic ads' since our ad provider groups animated ads with graphic ads.
No popups - popup ads are lame, they're a waste of people's time, and because of them, Web developers can no longer pop a window open since most people now use popup blockers.
Three ads max on public pages - you'll never see more than 3 ads per page - usually one larger one, and two smaller ones
Two ads max on artist/member pages - One of the reasons I started all this back in 2000, was because of the annoying ads mp3.com was placing on my artist page. Those of you who have been around all these years can probably recall my actions against mp3.com and their main advertiser, "Sephora." I created an artist site on mp3.com and started the AntiSephora campaign... artists joined in, and we produced a 2CD set of music that made fun of Sephora. The end result... we were heard, mp3.com shut down the site, and the ads continued. That was one of the final straw for me, and I began building what is now ArtistServer.

Will this policy change? I can't predict how things will change in the future, but I will always work to keep these four ad policies in place. Why? Because I use this site to - every day, and I, like most of you, can't stand advertisements. Ideally, we would rip all of them off the site, but that's something I can't afford to do.

I do think we'll display graphic ads at some point, as I don't think they're any worse than the text based ads - as long as they are graphic ads are NOT animated.

If you like this policy - tell others about it. When you hear someone complaining about MySpace, or some other site that's covered with ads - point out that ArtistServer has a firm policy about ads, and that we care about your experience on the site more than dollars.

Another thing you can do, is help support the site by upgrading your account. :)