Computing,Internet tips and tricks

Online Marketing - The Gangnam Style

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 04:56:00 +0530

Gangnam style !! Unless you are living in a deserted island far beyond the reach of media sources, you must have heard about "Gangnam Style". This is a pop music video by Korean rapper and choreographer PSY. It has already crossed 300 million YouTube views and reached no. 1 spot on itunes. PSY also featured on 2012 MTV Video Music Award, Saturday Night Live and The Ellen Show. So, what makes it tick ? How did it manage to reach the position, coveted by many social media and online marketing campaigns ? This is the ultimate outcome of humor and eargasmic music with the touch of viral inbound marketing.

Viral marketing in the context of online world is mass distribution of content (text, music, video, picture) to large number of targets, with the intent of encouraging them to share with their contacts. This content sharing process leads to massive traffic growth, without much effort from the marketing firm. One important factor is that, the content here should promote a product/service or at least convey a marketing message.Any YouTube video of a cute puppy that has huge amount of views can't be a result viral marketing, as it didn't promote any business.

The unconventional look (chubby Korean singer with slicked-back-hair in a tacky suit),funny dance steps, catchy beats, unorthodox places to dance and of course the Korean hotties are the elements of the video accounting for 269000 facebook likes & 786000 twitter shares. This is the very essence of inbound marketing. The end product is so lovable that, it gets found by the customers and what follows is highly targeted enormous traffic.

Inbound marketing is so attractive because the marketer doesn't get skimmed through the spam filter or clutter.This is crucial, as people have control over the information they receive. You can make use of free web marketing tools like blogging, social media, press release, social bookmarking,article submission to get started.This is one more prime factor, as it significantly reduces the cost in comparison to traditional media (TV, Print).

"Gangnam Style" may not look like outcome of the efforts of a marketing firm. But, that's the primary objective behind it.Check out the highlighted links present in the description of the video, which are ready to be converted into sales with a single click.

From the success of "Gangnam Style", following factors can be observed:

1. Content is king

There is no absolutely no denying to the fact that "content is king". The focus should be on producing an entertaining advertisement.Something, that will be liked and shared by the audience. It is obviously difficult to get the number of views like this music video for an advertisement. Still, we can consider 'The Force' campaign by Volkswagen can excellent example of commercial that wen viral producing 54 million views on YouTube.

2. Content Deployment

None will be sharing or liking the content, if they don't find it. "Gangnam style" video was shared on twitter, liked and shared on facebook, Youtube and whatnot. So, when it comes to campaign distribution a marketer should not leave any stone unturned to share the content. If the content deserves it, none will hesitate or retweet or share the same.US President's Barack Obama's winning was partly because of leveraging power of social and inbound marketing.He successfully tapped Facebook and YouTube to connect with youth.

3. Hitting the Right Note

PSY went to USA, for the promotion once the video became viral. He promoted himself on The Ellen Show, The Today Show, SNL, all of L.A’s hit music stations and even made an appearance at the MTV Music awards.When it comes to online advertising, evrything changes with a blink. So, a marketer needs to strike when the product is hot.The picture given below depicts "Gangnam Style" t-shirt on sale.

4. Celebs !!

Celebs have huge fan following and their tweets can instantly put you in lime light.In this case, Britney Spears and Katy Perry loved the video and shared with their followers.Check out the video of Britney learning the dance steps of "Gangnam Style".

This is the parody by web marketing solution provider Hubspot, with focus on inbound style.

Comparative Analysis of AdWords, adCenter, Facebook and Yahoo! Ad Solutions

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Wed, 1 Aug 2012 01:12:00 +0530

Online advertising is a type of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. It has become one of the most sought after medium, as this model is highly targeted to audience, low on cost, not limited by geography and enables effective tracking. In this post, we'll be primarily focusing on Google AdWords, Facebook Advertising, Yahoo! Advertising Solutions, Microsoft adCenter.

Objective:

Adwords, Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo! Advertising have similar kind of advertising solutions. Yahoo! has joined hands with adCenter in order to cater to search marketing. But, Facebook is very much different from all of the above when it comes to Pay Per Click advertising. Basically, in search engines users are actively searching for a solution. But, in Facebook the primary purpose is to socialize. Thus, advertising on Facebook should basically concentrate on building relationship rather than converting into sell. Facebook advertising is also great for creating brand awareness. In case of AdWords and adCenter there is more probability of selling conversion in comparison to Facebook advertising.

Reach:

AdWords has more reach to users because of high search volume of Google and very large number of publishers who bolster the Google Display Network. Facebook, adCenter and Yahoo Adverting lag behind Google Adwords when it comes to reaching large number of audience.

Cost:

Facebook and Microsoft adCenter have lower competition in terms of bidding for Cost Per Click or Cost Per Mile advertising in comparison to AdWords. So, highly targeted ads in case of adCenter can actually produce far better return on investment in comparison to AdWords.

Ad Format:

Only Adwords and Yahoo! Advertising Solutions provide wide array of ad formats (text ad, image ad, rich media, video ad, banner ad). The ads offered through AdWords can have large variety of dimensions in comparison to other solution.
Yahoo advertising has gone one step further by proving dedicated audience buying service (Genome), interactive video ads, clickable video ad and interactive TV broadcast ads along with all the ad formats given by Google AdWords.

Targeting:

Microsoft adCenter targeting feature lets advertisers use specific data – like user location, days of the week they search on – to target set groups of people. This is excellent news in terms of marketing as the result is a highly customised PPC campaign that may lead to a high return on investment.

Research:

Google provides most comprehensive tools for market research and conversion tracking. Google Analytics, Google Hot Trends, Google Adwords Tool (for keyword volume, estimation) are some of the tools than can provide deep insight into advertising campaign tracking. Facebook were to provide data around likes, shares, and keyword targeting in status updates and comments, they could provide research tools and targeting that could surpass that of AdWords.

Given below is a chart of market share by ZenithOptimedia.

Taking into consideration of the above parameters along with target audience and marketing tactics a product or service should be promoted through one or combination of advertising solutions.

Shell Script to Validate JAVA Version

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Fri, 6 Jan 2012 17:49:00 +0530

In this post we'll go through a shell script to validate JAVA version. In my recent project, I had to check for JVM version greater than or equal to 1.6.Lower version of JVM would throw UnsupportedClassVersionError when class compiled with higher version of compiler gets executed.My utility gets called from shell script.So, I put a put check in the script to validate minimum JDK version of 1.6.Given below is the shell script and it was tested successfully in Korn shell.

#Put value in required version. Example 1.4,1.5
REQUIRED_VERSION=1.6
#Converting the value in numeric value for comparison in later part of the script REQUIRED_VERSION=`echo $REQUIRED_VERSION | sed -e 's;\.;0;g'`
#Redirecting complete output of java -version to tmp.ver file
java -version >tmp.ver 2>&1
#Getting current version from the tmp.ver file
VERSION=`cat tmp.ver | grep "java version" | awk '{ print substr($3, 2, length($3)-2); }'`
rm tmp.ver
#Coverting into numeric value
VERSION=`echo $VERSION | awk '{ print substr($1, 1, 3); }' | sed -e 's;\.;0;g'`
if [ $VERSION ];then
        if [ $VERSION -ge $REQUIRED_VERSION ];then
             echo requirement matched
           else
           echo lower version
    fi
    else
   echo not able to find java version
fi

Remove specific section from text file using java

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 21:04:00 +0530

In this post I'll share a code snippet that will remove specific section from the text file.Suppose your file has following structure:

Something
blah blah blah
START
lines...lines..
more..lines..

END

again some text

Our code will remove all the text present between and including START & END.

Here is the method:

public void removeLineFromFile(String file, String start, String end) {

    try {

      File inFile = new File(file);

      if (!inFile.isFile()) {
        System.out.println("Parameter is not an existing file");
        return;
      }

      //Construct the new file that will later be renamed to the original filename.
      File tempFile = new File(inFile.getAbsolutePath() + ".tmp");

      BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
      PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter(tempFile));

      String line = null;
      Boolean flag=true;
      //Read from the original file and write to the new
      //unless content matches data to be removed.
      while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {

        if (line.trim().equals(start)) {
         flag=false;

        }
        if(line.trim().equals(end)){
        flag=true;
        }

        if (flag && !(line.trim().equals(end))){
        pw.println(line);
        pw.flush();
        }

      }
      pw.close();
      br.close();

      //Delete the original file
      if (!inFile.delete()) {
        System.out.println("Could not delete file");
        return;
      }

      //Rename the new file to the filename the original file had.
      if (!tempFile.renameTo(inFile))
        System.out.println("Could not rename file");

    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
      ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    catch (IOException ex) {
      ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Happy coding !! :)

Anyconnect was not able to establish a connection

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:45:00 +0530

Cisco anyconnect on windows 7 will give this nasty error "Any connect was not able to establish a connection to the specified secure gateway".My password was authenticated.But, it threw same error soon after password authentication.Now, I didn't have a clue about what went wrong.After Googling out the error, found that hell lot of people face this issue.Let's ge
t into the point.First and foremost thing to do is to disable your internet sharing.If you are on windows 7, follow the steps given below.

1.Go to Network and Internet from your Control Panel.
2.Click on Network and Sharing Center.
3.Click on change adapter setting
4.Select your network connection and go to properties.
5.Click on Sharing tab and uncheck sharing option.

If your issue doesn't get resolved, try to check whether any firewall in blocking it or not.

Windows Phone 7: Gaining a Competitive Edge

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:38:00 +0530

The giant returns to power! This time Microsoft comes to limit all the competitors’ ambitions by the innovative OS for mobiles. Windows Phone 7 is known as the new mobile platform released by Microsoft and related to Windows Mobile operating systems. It is based on the Windows CE 6 kernel and integrated with Xbox Live, Zune, and Bing services.

With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft has taken a fresh approach by writing the OS from scratch. There have been a lot of improvements included in the update. Let me outline at least some of them. What catches your eye in Windows Phone 7 straight away is a unique interface not copied from other mobile platforms. A new design language has been extensively developed to pave the way for a remarkable UI, based upon Microsoft's Windows Phone design system, codenamed Metro.

The system has been made really convenient and pleasant to use. It is stable and fast, features a sophisticated music experience, consistence update directly from Microsoft, tight cohesiveness among applications, amazing social networking integration, smooth scrolling, pinch zoom etc. Instead of static icons there are ‘live tiles’ (links to apps, features, functions and individual items), which reflect all the information online without the user’s participation.

Being Microsoft Gold Certified company, EffectiveSoft has been one of the first to provide top quality Windows Mobile development services, including undoubtedly Windows Phone 7 development. EffectiveSoft carries out Windows Phone 7 application development services leveraging the power of .NET Compact Framework and such programming environments as Silverlight to develop rich internet applications or XNA for games development. Our team of keen and high-qualified mobile software developers are always ready to do their best or even more to implement your plans and ideas to the full extent.

Link Cloaking in WordPress Blogs

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:33:00 +0530

It has become a common practice to promote products and services through affiliate marketing. WordPress being most customizable CMS/blogging software; Internet Marketers, bloggers use it.Marketer puts a referral link and visitors click on it. Website owner gets some percentage when target is successfully converted. Now chew on this fact "People just don't get over fact that IMers or bloggers make many money when they click on a link".Anyway the solution is to cloak links and then forward them to target website.

I was looking for some plugin for my new project based on Pay Per Install program.Finally found a plugin that works like a charm.

Some drum roll ... goes here

And the plugin is Affiliate Link Cloaking

You can create link from the Link Cloaking option present in LHS menu. This plugin will also show you statistics of all the Unique clicks in Daily and Monthly break-ups.

Playing MP3 Audio using JAVA

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:25:00 +0530

In this post we'll discuss about playing music files using java . cool huh ? Well, this post contains three ways to play music files.To play files with au or wav extensions we'll use libraries already available with JDK.For MP3 files there is use of an external API called JLayer(Javazoom project). Ok .. let's get started.

1.sun.audio package
Import following to your class :

import sun.audio.*;
import java.io.*;

Following is the sample code :

           try {
              InputStream in = new FileInputStream(MusicFileName.wav); //InputStream for the audio file
            AudioStream as = new AudioStream(in); // AudioStream object using InputStream of audio file
            //Following is to continuously play audio until it is not stopped
            AudioData data = as.getData();
          ContinuousAudioDataStream cas = new ContinuousAudioDataStream (data);
              AudioPlayer.player.play (cas); // To play continuously
              AudioPlayer.player.stop (cas); // To stop
       }catch (Exception ex){
             System.out.println("Exception while playing audio "+ex.getMessage());
       }

To play the audio without loop following can be used

AudioPlayer.player.start(as);

To stop following :

AudioPlayer.player.stop(as);

2. java.applet package

import following

import java.applet.*;

Sample code :
//key.mp3 bundled with the JAR file

AudioClip ac = Applet.newAudioClip(ClassName.class.getClassLoader().getResource("key.mp3"));

ac.play();   //play once
ac.stop();   //stop playing
ac.loop();   //play continuously

3.JLayer API to play mp3

Download the JLayer library .

import following :

import javazoom.jl.player.Player;
import java.io.FileInputStream;

Sample code :

try
        {
            FileInputStream mp3_file=new FileInputStream("key.mp3");
            Player mp3=new Player(mp3_file);

            mp3.play();
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println("Error while playing audio "+e.getMessage());
        }

Ok.. that's not all.There is one little problem.
While playing this, any other code won't run.Which means your app will freeze until music stops playing.

Following is the enhanced code that uses Thread to make it work.

public class Player implements Runnable{

Thread musicThread = new Thread(this);
AdvancedPlayer mp3Player;

public void loadMusic(){
       try{
        mp3Player = new AdvancedPlayer(PlayerView.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(filename.mp3)); //input stream of mp3 file bundled in JAR file
             } catch (JavaLayerException ex){
                System.out.println("Exception while loading file "+ex);

           } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
                System.out.println("Audio file not found "+ex);
         }

       }

public void playMusic(){
        musicThread.start();
        }

public void run() {
         try {
               mp3Player.play();
        } catch (JavaLayerException ex) {
            System.out.println("Error while playing audio "+ ex);
        }
    }
}

Note: If mp3spi1.9.5.jar and tritonus_share.jar (Javazoom project)are kept in classpath, using the java.applet package mp3 file can be played. Link to download mp3spi.

Store Multiple Values for a Key using Apache Collections

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:20:00 +0530

In common programming we use maps to store key and value pair. They have one-to-one relationship.But, sometimes we need to use one-to-many relationship in order to store multiple values for a particular key.To achieve this we can use a hashmap to store a key and value will be a list.But,Here we'll discuss about Collections API given by Apache to do the trick.

First of all download the Collections API and keep it in your classpath. Now go through the sample code.

MultiMap map = new MultiValueMap();// map object with reference to the subclass MultiValueMap map.put("mark","purdue" ); // Adding of values into the map
map.put("mark", "Isec");
map.put("mark","sophomore");
Set set = map.keySet(); // keyset method will fetch all the keys
for (Object o: set) { // advanced for loop to access all the keys
System.out.println("Values in "+o+" are: "+map.get(o)); // This will print the set of values for the key
List list = (List) map.get(o); // List to contain all the values for the key
Iterator it = list.iterator(); // Iterator to loop through all the values in the list
    while (it.hasNext())
    {
    System.out.println("value: "+it.next()); // to print each value individually
   }
}

If you have any doubt, post it here.

Happy coding.

Adding Ad to Mihalism Image Hosting Script

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:25:00 +0530

Mihalism is one the most widely used free image hosting script.I have already discussed about this script in my previous post about free scripts for image hosting site.I'm running my image hosting sites on Mihalism script. And, I must say that this image hosting script is highly customizable. Now mostly these image hosting sites are monetized using CPC/CPM advertising model.This post will discuss about configuring Ad in the homeand image viwer page.

Generate advertising codes from Adsense,Adbrite or any other advertiser
-- For home page get a 300 x 250 ad code.
-- For image viewer get ad code around the size of 720 x 90.

Home Page Ad
1. Open style.css present in css directory and add following.

/* 300 x 250 ad */

#ads{
float: right;
width: 350px;
margin:5px 0 5px 5px;
padding:5px;
border:1px solid #c0c0c0;
background-color:#fafbfc;
color:#505050;
line-height:1.5em;
}

2.Open home.tpl present in source/public_html directory. Add following code after
<template id="normal_upload_page"> and <template id="url_upload_page"> .

Image viewer Ad
1. Locate following in viewer.tpl present in source/public_html

<a href="<# UPLOAD_PATH #><# FILENAME #>"><img src="<# UPLOAD_PATH #><# FILENAME #>" alt="<# REAL_FILENAME #>" style="border: 1px dashed #000000; padding: 2px; <# IMAGE_RESIZE #>" /></a>

2. Add the generated ad code above and below the line given above.To make it look good, you can put the ad code like the way given below ;

<div style="text-align: center;">

</div>

Adding File Chooser using NetBeans

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:28:00 +0530

File chooser is one of the most prominent and widely used feature, used in in any kind of application.This feature can be added to JAVA based application using NeatBeans IDE with few steps and some custom code.This post assumes that you know your way around with NetBeans.

1. Open the file in DESIGN mode.
2. Open Inspector window, if it is not opened. (Windows --> Navigating --> Windows)
3. Add File Chooser :
i)Right Click on the JAVA file name in the Inspector.
ii)Invoke Add from Palette --> Swing Windows --> File Chooser.

4. Right click on the file chooser and change the variable name to "fileChooser".
5. Now add a jButton using the designer and invoke Events --> Actions --> actionPerformed.
6. Add following code :

int returnVal = fileChooser.showOpenDialog(this.getFrame());
if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
{
file2save = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
// custom code ...
}
else {
}

7. Done !! :)

Adding CPALead/LodeBolt code to WordPress Post Pages

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:35:00 +0530

CPA has already emerged as a very profitable internet advertising model.Recently many asked me about integrating content blocker to WordPress blog posts.Here we will discuss about two methods.Needless to say, this post assumes that you have already got your CPA code for your website.Ok, enough of talking.Let's get into action.

1. CPA Lead Plugin

You can install CPA lead plugin to add the content blocker code for blog posts, category, pages.This plugin will also seamlessly work with LeadBolt code.

Here is the link to get the CPAlead plugin for WordPress.

After adding the plugin look for theCPAlead Gateway Options in the Settings section of LHS menu.
Click on it and enter the post name and code int the given box.After clicking on CREATE NEW, you are done.

Only thing is that, we have to manually add code the for each post.

2. Editing WordPress Theme

   i)Click editor in the Appearance section.
ii)In the RHS menu click on Single Post (single.php).
iii)Add your CPALead/LeadBolt code just before any one of the following closing div tag.

   CODE GOES HERE
                                                     </div>
                                               </div>

Switching off Log4j logging using JAVA

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:41:00 +0530

Sometimes we need to switch off logging done by Log4j API. In most of the cases console logging is given by default for external APIs using Log4j.We can turn it off through simple Java code.Following is the explanation.

Import following packages :

import org.apache.log4j.BasicConfigurator;
import org.apache.log4j.Level;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

Given below is the code to turn it off

try {

BasicConfigurator.configure();
Logger log = Logger.getRootLogger();
log.setLevel(Level.OFF);

}catch (Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error while turning off Log4j logger "+e.getMessage());
}
}

SFTP without host key verification using J2SSH

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:32:00 +0530

In this post we will see how to make SFTP connection using J2SSH library and by pass host key verification.When client connects to server using SFTP, server provides public key to the client for verification.

While connecting to a unknown host, it asks for key verification.Once, we allow it
key exchange takes place and user authentication can be done after that.

Sample message :

The host shell.fuzion.com is currently unknown to the system
The host key fingerprint is: 1028: 69 54 9c 49 e5 92 59 40 5 66 c5 2e 9d 86 af ed
Do you want to allow this host key? [Yes|No|Always]:

Sometimes, you may want to override this for uninterrupted operation.

In J2SSH 0.2.9 there is a method IgnoreHostKeyVerification(), which simply ignore the process.

Please go through following code for the reference.

SshClient ssh = new SshClient();

try {
ssh.connect(hostname,22,new IgnoreHostKeyVerification()); //standard port 22 is used
}catch (Exception ex){
System.out.println("Error connecting ..."+ex.getMessage()+"\n");
ex.printStackTrace();
}

PasswordAuthenticationClient passwordAuthenticationClient =
new PasswordAuthenticationClient();
passwordAuthenticationClient.setUsername(USERNAME);
passwordAuthenticationClient.setPassword(PASSWORD);

int result = ssh.authenticate(passwordAuthenticationClient);

if(result==AuthenticationProtocolState.FAILED)
System.out.println("The authentication failed");

if(result==AuthenticationProtocolState.PARTIAL)
System.out.println("The authentication succeeded but another authentication is required");

if(result==AuthenticationProtocolState.COMPLETE)
System.out.println("The authentication is complete");

// Open the SFTP channel
SftpClient sftp = ssh.openSftpClient();

sftp = ssh.openSftpClient();

//filepath is the file to be copied and fos is the destination file output stream
sftp.get("filepath","fos");

Note: For older verison of J2SSH you can try using AlwaysAllowingConsoleKnownHostsKeyVerification class .

Packaging dependent libraries in Jar file

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Wed, 9 Mar 2011 02:09:00 +0530

Sometimes developers release Java based applications as distributable Java Archive or JAR files.Most of the time, my applications are JAR files only.The major concern lies with dependent external library files.The final released JAR file look ugly, accompanied by a directory containing external libraries.It will be total mess when user will some how miss one library file.In one go it can be a nightmare for programmer when the user will go insane because of this.
Q. So, what's the solution ?
Ans. Good news !! There are multiple methods to package dependent libraries into the final JAR file.

JBuilder

Till now I've used only one IDE, JBuilder that has inbuilt option to include external libraries into the JAR file.

Latest version of JBuilder (2007 onwards)is developed on top of Eclipse and it has option to export dependencies into the distributable JAR file.
Earlier version of JBuilder had option through archive builder wizard.

JBuilder is not free.

NetBeans
Ok..It won't be out of context to admit this IDE is smouldering hot and I've have huge crush on this chick.

Hotness apart, NetBeans uses Apache Ant for building project.Here all we need to do is tweak the build.xml file in the NetBeans project to include external libraries.

Click on Files tab to locate build.xml and open it.
Append the following Ant build target code above </project> .

<target depends="jar" name="package-for-store">

<property name="store.jar.name" value="MyApp">

<property name="store.dir" value="store">
<property name="store.jar" value="${store.dir}/${store.jar.name}.jar">

<echo message="Packaging ${application.title} into a single JAR at ${store.jar}">

<delete dir="${store.dir}">
<mkdir dir="${store.dir}">

<jar destfile="${store.dir}/temp_final.jar" filesetmanifest="skip">
<zipgroupfileset dir="dist" includes="*.jar,*.zip">
<zipgroupfileset dir="dist/lib" includes="*.jar,*.zip">

<manifest>
<attribute name="Main-Class" value="${main.class}">
</attribute></manifest>
</zipgroupfileset></zipgroupfileset></jar>

<zip destfile="${store.jar}">
<zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF, META-INF/*.DSA, META-INF/*.RSA" src="$%7Bstore.dir%7D/temp_final.jar">
</zipfileset></zip>

<delete file="${store.dir}/temp_final.jar">

</delete>
</mkdir>
</delete>
</echo>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</target>

Note: Make sure that you change MyApp to the name of required JAR file.

Choose Run Target, scroll down to select Other Targets, then choose package-for-store.
Here is one article from NetBeans' wiki about bundling dependencies in one single JAR using OneJAR.

Article very well explained (rather spoon-feeding redefined) and more useful for those who have multiple projects using same or little varied libraries .

Eclipse
Personally, I don't use this IDE . But, there is one cute little plugin for Eclipse called FatJar which works like a charm.

Shell script to validate shell type

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:05:00 +0530

Sometimes its required to check the shell type to dynamically carry out some operation in unix environement.Here is a small shell script I wrote to check shell type.Currently the script only checks for Korn and bash shell type.
Script can be modified according to need.This script is validated on AIX,RHEL,OEL and HP-UX.

# Validation to check shell
echo "$SHELL" | grep -q "ksh"
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
echo
echo K Shell found
echo
exit
fi

echo "$SHELL" | grep -q "bash"
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
echo
echo Bash Shell found
echo
exit
fi
# validation end here

1)In the script given above we are doing grep on $SHELL variable to search "ksh" and "bash".

2)In $? -eq 0, $? is the return code for the command that was executed previously and -eq stands for equals.

For successful completion the standard return code is 0.

How to persist OAuth access token for twitter application

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:16:00 +0530

Twitter has become become the information hub in the world wide web.Popularity of Twitter is because of its simple user interface with abounding features and galore of APIs.Any developer will agree, Twitter has most varied, efficient and well documented APIs in comparison to other giants of web.This is the reason, there are so many Twitter applications floating around the internet.In this post we'll check out OAuth work flow and persisting access token fetched from a particular Twiiter account for future use.For this tutorial we'll using Twitter4j API which has OAuth support and its independent of any other jar.At the end I'll share the desktop application created for twitter.

What the heck is OAuth ??
OAuth is all about securing credentials in the ever-changing web world. The end-user is not required to hand over the username/password combination to any appliation.Rather, login credential will be handled by the service provider itself.Application will act on behalf of the user depending upon the generated access token by the service provider.End-user can revoke the permission at any time.

So roughly developer doesn't need to worry about authentication.This headache is solely transferred to the service provider.Bad news for black hats.

So , what will we be doing ??
Let's go through the following simple work-flow screen

The work-flow screen given above includes pretty much everything.
1)Each application will have unique consumer key and consumer secret given by Twitter during application registration.
2)When end-user invokes the application, one authorization url is generated from the request token.
3)User has to authorize the application after accessing that url.
4)After that user will be given one secret pin, which will confirm specific user has granted access to the application.
5)At last Twitter sends access token and access token secret key to the application.

Using token and key pair application will be able to change or update on behalf of the user.Same token / key pair can be stored in database or file system in order to do the required changes without going through full cycle of authorization.

Code Snippet

Twitter twitter = new TwitterFactory().getInstance();
twitter.setOAuthConsumer("[CONSUMER KEY]","[CONSUMER SECRET]");
RequestToken requestToken = null;
try {
requestToken = twitter.getOAuthRequestToken();
}catch (Exception ex){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error ... here is what I know :"+ex.getMessage());
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Exiting from the application ...");
System.exit(0);
}

AccessToken accessToken = null ;

if (accessToken == null){
String authURL = requestToken.getAuthorizationURL();
/* Here goes code to open authURL
.....
.....
*/
}

String oauth_verifier = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,"Enter Twitter Authrization code","Authrization",1);

if (oauth_verifier == null || Integer.parseInt(oauth_verifier) == JOptionPane.CANCEL_OPTION ){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "You pressed cancel button. Exiting the application ...","TwitterApp", JOptionPane.CLOSED_OPTION);
System.exit(0);
}

try{
if(oauth_verifier.length() > 0){
accessToken = twitter.getOAuthAccessToken(requestToken, oauth_verifier);
}else{
accessToken = twitter.getOAuthAccessToken();
}

} catch (TwitterException te) {
if(401 == te.getStatusCode()){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Unable to get the access token.");
}else{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,te.getMessage());

}
}

String token = accessToken.getToken();
String tokenSecret = accessToken.getTokenSecret();

Now write these token and token secret into a file or store it in a database.Use the code given below to re-use them

try {
AccessToken accessToken = new AccessToken(token, tokenSecret);
Twitter twf = new TwitterFactory().getOAuthAuthorizedInstance("[CONSUMER KEY]",
"[CONSUMER SECRET]",accessToken);
}catch (Exception exc){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, exc.getMessage());
}

Following is the example to fetch user information

try {
String user = twf.getScreenName().toString(); /* Get screen name */
User usr = twf.showUser(user);
String currentStat = usr.getStatus().getText(); /* Get current status of the user */
URL iconSrc = usr.getProfileImageURL(); /* Get hot link for profile picture */
String usrDesc = usr.getDescription()); /* Get user description */
String loc = usr.getLocation(); /* Location of user */
}catch (TwitterException twfc){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Exception while getting user information "+twfc.getMessage());
}

Following is the example to fetch time line

try {
List statuses = twf.getFriendsTimeline();

for (Status status : statuses) {
System.out.println(status.getUser().getName() + ":" + status.getText());
statusesListModel.addElement(status);

}

}catch (TwitterException twc){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Exception while fetching time line"+twc.getMessage());
}

Here is a desktop application for Twitter I created using swing framework :

You can download the application from the link given below :

Requirements for the Application:
JRE 1.6.X

Note:
Please go through the ReadMe.txt for instruction about using the application.

Dominating SERP with Long tail Keywords

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sun, 5 Sep 2010 01:10:00 +0530

Previously I discussed about Google sandbox algorithm and search engine ranking with a heads up for long tail keywords.In this post we'll get real dirty with these type of keywords.So, what exactly is a long tail keyword ?? These are key phrases used by folks out there after narrowing down search query.In other words they the straight forward MONEY MAKERS !! We got to hit the bull's eye to make this work and play smart.Because, the Internet is really wild with so much of nasty competition.

So, first thing first , one single page can not rank 1st in search engine result page for different keywords and page rank and site are completely different stuff. Even one of my site with a PR 0 ranks first in Google.The link base has to be diverse as well as relevant to take you upto that coveted position.

What most people generaly don't understand is , back links from any site adds positive result to the targeted page.Well, this is pretty bassic , for new website which is not at all indexed backlinks from web statistics site work fine for the purpose of indexing.But, back links from non relevant sites with utterly diverse set of keywords will actually confuse search engine.This will bring down your site ranking for sure.

There is one simple funda used by Google uses for ranking.They reward page with relevant information which is targeted for search phrase, not authority of a site.The only reason for this is their motto to provide "best matching" page for a search phrase.So, this is the place from where we'll take the game into our control.One well crafted page optimized for long tail keyword can seamlessly out rank authority website.

The following are the primary factors for dominating search enignes :

Keywords : They have to be the primary target in the endeavour to rank high.Be very careful while choosing these keywords.Refer my previous post about Google sandbox algorithm, which describes about choosing long tail keywords.

Put the long tailed keyword in your title , targeted URL (of course if not the home page.) and body text.

Anchor Text : Never use large set of keywords to use as anchor text.Keep it to miximum three for the long tails.For example if you are optimizing for "adult acne solution", try rearranging them as "acne solution
for adults" , "adult acne solution ", "solution for adult acne".The point is try using filler word link and , the , etc for better keyword set.

Back-links : Try to get incoming links from old sites.Because, Google also beleives "old is gold".Jokes apart we always give respect to established brands.

We can also make use of a sensitive tactic called cross-linking, in which your own sites give incoming links to other sister sites.This is safe only if the links are relevant and they point from unique C class IP.

Link to specific page with content, not the home page (if you don't target the home page).This is one of the simple , yet powerful approach for road to success.

Well, this is all I can think of right now.This post will be updated once if get to know something else.Once again, this is my perspective.Feel free to put your notion.

Access and Manipulate Elements of XML file Using Jdom

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Tue, 6 Jul 2010 01:22:00 +0530

It has been long time since I updated my blog, challenging the very definition of blog.Anyway lately I've been doing some XML parsing for a new project using Java.I used the default "document Object Model" and it gave me tough time.Reading elements was not not tough , but manipulating and generating new xml file was somewhat difficult.Then came jdom to my rescue after using the Big G (Google).So, now it's time to share something I gained from open source community.Jdom is simply "document object model" based on java for representing XML documents which is an alternative to DOM and SAX.Jdom uses JAXP parser by default rather than crimson or any other parser.But, it can work with nearly every other parser and integrate very well with DOM and SAX.

In order to use the Jdom API, you need to add the jar file to the used library.In case of JBuilder IDE, you can add the jar file by going to Project, then Project Properties and at last Required Library tab.For Eclipse go to Project, Properties, Java Build Path, library tab and add the jar file.

Here, I'll be providing a sample program that checks whether an element is present or not in a XML file.Then, it will add the element with default node value "1" in case it is not present or increment the value by "1" in case of presence.You will see that SAX events of SAXBuilder class is used in this program and getPrettyformat of Format class is used for white space beautification.I've put comments in the code, because my C++ instructor used to say "The best way to punish a programmer is to give him code written by someone else".

The sample XML file used in this example :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<FIRSTELEMENT>
<FirstSubElement>h3r3 and th3re</FirstSubElement>
</FIRSTELEMENT>
<secondelement>something n3rdy</secondelement>
<thirdelement>too lazy to think</thirdelement>
</root>

package dev.preetish;

import java.io.FileWriter;

import org.jdom.Document;
import org.jdom.Element;
import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder;
import org.jdom.output.Format;
import org.jdom.output.XMLOutputter;

public class xmlParser
{
/* This method is used to manipulate the element node value */
private void updateXML()
{
try
{
String xmlPath = "D:" + File.separator + "devArea" + File.separator + "sample.xml";
File xmlFile = new File(xmlPath);

/* The SAXBuilder class is initialised here */
SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();

if (file.exists())
{
/* Creating instance of Document class and building a document from given file using method build */
Document document = (Document) builder.build(xmlFile);
/* Getting the Root element from Document class instance */
Element rootEle = document.getRootElement();
/* Getting the child element from the root Element and getting their child element */
Element firstEle = rootEle.getChild("FIRSTELEMENT");
/* Checking whether <i>ADDON</i> element is present or not*/
Element addOn = firstEle.getChild("ADDON"); /* Returns null if element is not present */

if (addon != null) {
/* Getting value of addon element*/
String addCounter = addon.getValue();
/* Incrementing value by 1 */
int add_counter=Integer.parseInt(addCounter)+1;
/* Setting value of the node */
addon.setText(Integer.toString(add_counter));

}
else {
/*Adding new element ADDON */
   Element make = new Element("ADDON1");
   make.addContent("1");
   firstEle.addContent(make);

}
/* Printing after manipulation of XML document and using getPrettyFormat method of Format class for white space beautification */
String newXmlFile= new XMLOutputter(Format.getPrettyFormat()).outputString(document);
System.out.println("XML file after Manipulation : " + "\n"+xmlFileData);
/* Modify the orginal document using FileWriter */
FileWriter fileWriter = new FileWriter(file);
fileWriter.write(newXmlFile);
fileWriter.close();
}
else
{
System.out.println("File does not exist");
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

public static void main(String argS[])
{
try
{
new xmlParser().updateXML();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

Happy XML parsing !!

KeyWord Research Using Google Adwords

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Mon, 5 Apr 2010 02:39:00 +0530

The most important and basic factor in assessing potential of online product's niche market is keyword research for some unique terms, phrases. This means the affiliate marketer or the vendor himself has to compile a set of common phrases or search terms that are commonly used by people to locate products available in the targeted niche.
Let's take a simple scenario in which a user is trying to find remedy of headache. So, the common search query can be something like this "headache home remedies" or "how to stop headache quickly" .Moral of the story is the marketer has to ponder from the view point of the potential customer.

Ultimate goal is to club together marketing campaign and website into search phrases that are used by people and the webpage stands at a glorifying position in the SERP. Deny this and the webpage will bite dust in the vast wild web.
Well, we have some pretty nice online keyword search tools for conducting keyword research. Some of them are and some require paid membership.
I'm listing few of them here :

Paid Services
WordTracker (most popular)	http://www.WordTracker.com
KeyWord Elite	http://www.KeywordElite.com
Free Services
Overture Keyword Search	http://inventory.overture.com
Google External Search	https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Good Keywords (Windows application)	http://www.GoodKeywords.com

We will now consider Google Adwords Keyword tool to demonstrate keyword research.
Now, in the given box search put the keyword and go for "Descriptive Words or Phases" instead of "Website Content".

Choose sort by "search volume" to estimate number of searches conducted using different key phrases.

Advertiser Competition

This column shows the number of bidding by advertisers in comparison to all other keywords across Google. A shaded bar represents the level of competition for that keyword in a low to high growth.

Search Volume

This column shows the search volume for each specific keyword used on Google in the previous month.Just like previous case the shaded bar shows low to high representation of competitive ad placement.

Average Search Volume

Just like “Search Volume”, this column shows results of past searches, over course of the year instead of
Result of the previous month.

The result table gives position of position of ads in the sponsor bar for advertising using specific keywords on the SERP as well as the cost. Once its confirmed that key phrase will receive significant amount of traffic per month, we’ve to check for competition and ultimately how expensive it would be to advertise via Google Adwords . As this is one of the best method to generate quick fire sales.

Our ultimate motto has to be one thing “profit has to be more than what we are spending”.

This screen-shot shows result for keyword "weight loss products".
In the box "calculate estimates using a different maximum CPC bid".After putting bid as 1$ it shows relative of ad campaign position under the column "estimated ad position".

This is how keyword research is done.

In my next post we'll look into CPA markets.

Top Five Tips to Secure Website

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:31:00 +0530

A secure website is always essential ingredient of peace of mind for both web-master and the end user.These days hundreds of website come alive on the Internet because of high competition and >web hosting that comes with cheap price tag.But, what people do not understand is value of hack-proof website.Recently, according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in the year 2009, companies are reducing their security related costs primarily due to recession.But, the number no. of victims is growing without any hurdle.This clearly indicates immense need for security.This post describes few most basic yet powerful ways to curb any hazard to your websites.

1)Vulnerability Assessment
A vulnerability scanner is a tool that searches and maps a system or network for different possible weakness and report it with feedback for the use of administrator.They can give you possible web application vulnerabilities like sql injection, XSS and firewall security breach.Nikto is a very useful open source scanner and also you can use Acunetix Web Vulnerability scanner.

2)Penetration Testing
This is part of security testing in which a deliberate and simulated attack is carried out to circumvent security of a system.This is a must to be deployed step for commercial websites.Security can not be full-proof, as secured wordpress web hosting can be compromised with c99 madshell script written in php.

3)Web Application Firewalls
Web application firewalls are essential for larger and advanced websites as these can not be affordable by everyone.These firewalls are specifically designed for fine tuning web application by keeping a check on HTTP traffic and data leakage by residing in between client and server.

4)Client Security Tools
A web-master can do everything from his part to secure a server.But, risk management has to be one of the most important priority.One can never predict about security in the future.So, clients have to advised by web-masters to use some of browser security tool to save themselves from any loss.Such a tool can be XSS me FireFox add on or Internet Explorer 8's in built XSS filter.

5)Application Whitelists
It is a policy that is employed by administrators to document congiguration pf applications put in the whitelist.This way they can detect any unauthorized changes to the server environment.

These are the five ways to put a secured website on the Internet.But, all these are not affordable by everyone.You must be aware of Internet mobs.While choosing a CMS for your website go for something that gets updated quickly with larger user base like Joomla, Nuke, drupal web hosting etc.

Public DNS Service from Google

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Mon, 7 Dec 2009 17:56:00 +0530

Google is on its way to establish monopoly on the Internet with the public DNS service.DNS (Domain Name System) in simple word is a set of protocols that translates IP address into names.Every computer on the Internet has an IP address.Thus, the server which is to be accessed by the client, must have have its IP address translated to a name.Like, when we type www.google.com it points to the IP address of the Google server.

Google Public DNS is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that one can use as an alternative to current DNS provider.

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

Building Quickfire Backlinks from Disqus Comments

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:04:00 +0530

A website is up and running live on the Internet.Now,one important factor in terms of SEO is backlinks.Backlink is link pointing to the target website from another website.Getting backlinks from high quality websites can do wonders to your website.Now, many people buy links from other websites.But, here we will chalk out a way to get high quality backlinks for free to lift authority of your website.
Here, we'll try to get backlinks from blogs which have do follow blog commenting system enabled.Though, this method is known to many, this approach is different.

First of all we need three things
1. FireFox Browser
2.SearchStatus Addon
3.NoDoFollow Addon
If you already have FireFox browser, install the two addons given above.
Now, go to Disqus and register an account.Most of the blogs powered by Disqus comment system have DoFollow blog comments.We'll be using them to get backlinks.
Next thing is using Google to find out Disqus powered blogs.Use the following query to get results:

KeyWord "blog comments powered by Disqus"

In place of KeyWord place your niche keyword and do not forget to include the double quotes.Double quotes are used to match exact string.
After using the search method described above, you will get tons of result.

Visit the blogs and find out the page rank which is displayed by the SearchStatus addon.Now, activate NoDoFollow by clicking on NoDoFollow present under the Tools menu of FireFox.

DoFollow Links will have blue color.
If the website has DoFollow commenting system, simply post a nice comment (don't spam) with name as anchor text and site URL in website field.

Get Indexed Quickly by Search Engines

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:56:00 +0530

After building a brand new website, it becomes irresistible to get indexed quickly.Well, with little effort a website can get indexed quickly by search engine crawlers.All we have to do is to push our site to a place where search engine bots hit frequently.Here, there are few techniques to get your brand new site listed by search engines.

1.Webmaster Tools

First of all register with webmaster tools provided by search engine giants like Google, Bing, etc.Verify your website ownership and submit your site with a sitemap.

2.Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web tool from Google.It is used to track visitors to your website.Register there and add your website by inserting a nice little javascript into your website.

3.MyYahoo
Register a MyYahoo account and submit your site RSS feed .Then use services like pingomatic to ping every time you update your blog.

4. Digg
Digg is social bookmarking website with a huge traffic. Search engine bots usually crawl websites featued on Digg.So, register an account with Digg and submit your site.

5.NewsVine

This is news oriented website and important fact is this site is loved by search engines.you can register and submit your site.
Some other sites to be used for same purpose are :

SlashDot

StumbleUpon

Propeller

Mixx

Squidoo

Google SandBox Algorithm and Search Engine Ranking

technoplex1@gmail.com (Preetish Panda) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:39:00 +0530

Google sandbox algorithm has been one of the most controversial topic of discussion in the SEO world. Though it is not established, it’s effect is palpable as reported by web masters. We know that backlinks (external sites linking to a particular site) play a vital role in SERP (search engine result page) and page rank of a site. Earlier, new sites with quality back links used to boost their search engine ranking, soon after their inception. But, as always after changing of algorithm by Google, this is not happening anymore. There is dampened link juice pass after algorithm change.

What is Sandbox??

According to perception a new site, in the sandbox will not rank well for the relevant and competitive keywords in comparison to aged domain. Although there is good SEO and quality content in the new site, it'll suffer out of bad SERP.
A new site might rank well for a limited time period. But, soon there will be a drop in organic traffic (traffic from search engine).The concept behind this is, with initial boost in the ranking, it will gain backlinks with quality content. Otherwise, this will take a much longer time to rank well.

How to know if site has been Sandboxed??

Does Google bot accesses your site frequently ?
Does the site rank well on other search engines like Yahoo or Bing ?
Does the site features unique and quality content ?
Have you applied good white hat SEO tactics to the site ?
Do you see a huge difference in the result for allinanchor:keyword and general search of the keyword ?

If the answer to the entire questions given above is yes, then your site has been probably Sandboxed.

How to tackle Sandboxing??

You can buy an aged domain with PR (more than 4 or 5).So that you won't have worry a lot about backlinks and sandboxing. All you have to do is to get some quality content and clean SEO approach. While buying these domains, stay away from the ones with dropped PR. One thing is that, their price will be high.
Other than that, you can optimize your site with long tail keywords. With some smart SEO you can jump into top 10 of SERP for long tail keywords.
Try to get some one way backlinks from high authority websites.
For primary keywords you can drive traffic from Hubpage or Squidoo lenses. They rank well for some competitive keywords. Only thing you have to make sure that your Hubs and Lenses share hot keywords/tags of relevant Hubs or Lenses.
Before creating your site you can check competition for specific keywords from Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The fully filled green box shows that, particular keyword is highly competitive and there are enough sites in the queue.

Link building has to be done in a steady and not too fast manner. Any anomaly can make search engines flag your site. So, patience will be best policy in this hurdle.

My Experience :

In the month of July, 2009 I registered a brand new domain and made a fresh WordPress installation. The site is in movie and entertainment niche and this is a highly competitive niche.

Within 2-3 weeks of its inception, the search engine ranking of my site for a semi competitive keyword was at top 3 without any directory submission and quality backlinks.Since then it has been toggling among top 3,4,5 position of Google SERP.Site doesn't rank well for highly competitive keyword. But, addition of an extra word sends it to top 3.Most interesting thing is that, for the same keyword numero uno position is held by a 2 year old blog that is not getting updated since early 2009.

But, I've managed to drive some healthy traffic from Hubpage method, as the Hub pointing to my site ranks at 9th position for a highly competitive keyword mentioned above. I’ve not yet created Squidoo lenses. But, I'm optimistic about its ranking. The website will be flipped around December, 2009.I'll get you updated if I notice anything worthy before that phase.