Along came Netscape with its popular browser called Navigator, and life was never the same again. In the early days of the TCP IP protocol, the point and click interface presented by HTML websites seemed really cool.

Of course, now it is no longer possible to be impressed merely by using a browser or a point-and-click interface. But that does not mean that there is no innovation any more. In fact, sometimes it is the simplest of software tools that make life the easiest.

In my quest to bring you the latest, and the best, I am happy to report that I have come across this cool new toolbar called, Somoto. I find that it is a real nifty tool for anyone wanting to access the most common functions on the web.

Since I find myself repeatedly visiting the same websites, what I had done earlier was to bookmark all the sites and then choose the browser option of opening a set of bookmarks every time I open the browser.

My method worked fine the first time I would open my browser in a day. But in subsequent visits, I would find myself repeatedly closing the different tabs. So, I had reversed my problem and in doing so created a new, equally severe problem.

Today, I have managed to eliminate this problem entirely with the help of the Somoto toolbar. To read more about what another blogger likes about the toolbar, do read: http://www.webtrafficroi.com/why-i-like-the-somoto-toolbar/

Basically, this toolbar uses buttons, drop downs and search boxes to assist you reach your favorite destinations. Want to post an update on your Facebook page? No problem, just click the Facebook icon. Want to tweet those precious few characters? Once again, go ahead and click the right button to immediately reach your twitter account. No more do you have to bother with typing URLs or selecting bookmarks.

And that is not all. You can reach your favorite news destinations and check your email on most of the popular services in just one click. I think that sort of ease of use should be classified as a great technological innovation. Make sure to try it out.

What People Are Looking For:

I feel that the day is not far when we will look longingly at old pictures of people reading newspaper. We would refer to them as good old days. That day has to come, as there is no value left is waiting for “tomorrow” to come, so that we can find out what happened in the world “today.”

And as the world of online publishing grows, along with it advertisers move online. So are the ad agencies geared up to meet the challenge.

In talking to the classical old-school ad agencies, I find that some of them have indeed deployed a lot of effort and energy in catching up. But many of them are still in a state of denial.

That is what has given rise to an entirely new industry — online advertising networks. When you say advertising networks, one of the first name that pops in your head (well, my head at least) is DoubleClick. DoubleClick was later acquired by Google.

But there are many more interesting ad networks. Today I want to make special mention of Marimedia. It calls itself one of the “hottest global advertising networks.” I know that trusting advertising slogans is tough, especially when it is a slogan made by an ad agency about themselves! But if you look closely, you will see that they are not kidding.

If you want to get a good snapshot of this ad network, do go through the Marimedia slideshare presentation.

Basically, they are a full service ad network. Regardless of whether you are seeking Branding or RoI (made popular by AdWords). Regardless of whether you are seeking to target based on geography, or behavior, or demographic. Well, you get the idea.

The bottomline: If you are seeking an ad network that will continuously reinvent itself to help you attain your online goals, then Marimedia is not a name you can choose to ignore.

Keep reading TechnoZeast. I promise to keep finding the best Internet destinations for you.

If you buy my premise, you will agree that businesses need to equip themselves to deal with the mobile customer. Migrating ones website to the mobile phone is not just about reformatting its user interface. It is also about re-engineering the website to take advantage of the technologies offered by the popular mobile operating systems such as Android, iOs, Symbian, Windows, BlackBerry, among others.

If you are an ecommerce merchant or engaged in ecommerce on your content site, you are missing out on a great opportunity if you are not addressing the mobile customer.

But you knew all that, right? You already have a fabulous app going which allows Droid-ers to access you any place any time. But, errr, what about the payment gateway?

Are you equipped to accept credit cards? Sure most of the popular merchant accounts now offer mobile payment processing, but I think that you should consider the use of specialized mobile merchant account services.

If you follow the link that I just gave you, you will figure out what a full featured credit card processor is all about. When you choose a credit card processing service, you need to make sure that you are not in a situation where you need to jail-break any equipment. The processor should allow you to use any equipment. In addition you must make sure that you have the best state of the art security processes in place.

At TechnoZeast, I will keep bringing you the latest and the best in technology. So, keep reading.

What People Are Looking For:

Not every device has a 41 megapixel camera but over the past twelve months the quality of camera and sensors on the back of a handset mean you can take some fairly decent snaps with your phone. So if a camera is an important consideration when you’re buying a smartphone, which devices should you be looking at?

The Pureview 808 isn’t Nokia’s first step in making a name for itself in terms of its camera phones. The N8 famously boasted a camera which is still one of the best on the smartphone market. More recently the Nokia Lumia 800 has a camera that has proved to be a selling point for the new device.

With an 8 megapixel camera even a simple Google search will show you one of the best things about the Lumia 800′s quality as a camera phone is the clarity of the pictures taken using it. Incorporating the Carl Zeiss optics that have become a feature of Nokia camera’s the camera is easy to use and is not too complicated, making it simple for even non-techies to explore and play with. The camera resolution is 3264 x 2448 pixels with an f/2.2. Other features on the camera include a touch to focus, dual LED flash, geo-tagging, an auto and manual white balance and a HD video recorder capacity of 720p.

As the smartphone market awaits the release of Samsung Galaxy S3 contracts it is still worth remembering that its predecessor, the S2, still has one of the best cameras available on a phone. The device comes with a powerful 8 megapixel camera that is also equipped with a video camera. The S2 camera focuses largely on manual controls, allowing users to customise the images they are taking. There are 5 different white balance settings and a range of scene modes to take the best pictures in a range of light conditions. There is also autofocus and a face detection mode. The S2′s video shoots HD 720p and 1080p at 30fps.

Another 2011 release but still one of the best cameras on the smartphone market is on the iPhone 4S. An upgrade to an 8 megapixel camera was a n important feature of the latest Apple handset. Its features include autofocus, tap to focus as well as face detection in still images. There is an LED Flash and HD video capability at 1080p and 30fps. The video also has a stabilization feature and both stills and video have geo-tagging.

More recent but equally impressive is the Sony Xperia S. At 12 megapixels it is one of the best cameras currently available on the smartphone market, largely because of the inclusion of the Sony Exmor R sensor which improves the quality of pictures taken, even in low light. There is a good LED flash function and one of Sony’s main selling points was the fact that you can switch from standby to taking pictures in a second. The camera on the Xperia S shoots HD video at 1080p resolution.

Another new device with a decent camera is the HTC One X which sports an 8 MP camera taking a picture at 3264×2448 pixels resolution. It comes with auto-focus and LED flash. The camera has simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection facility as well. It can also record video 1080p at 30fps with stereo sound recording and video stabilization.

A camera phone is increasingly important on the back of a smartphone and often the specs of each camera are almost identical. These are the best camera phones on the market but it’s always vital to test each camera and see which pictures you prefer and whether each device suits the functionality you’re looking for from a smartphone.

What People Are Looking For:

• My Writing Nook

A word-processing app aimed at writers working on books, My Writing Nook organizes content by chapters and is laid out specifically for book writing. This word processor has more features than some of those minimalist programs available on the iPad, and it automatically syncs all documents with the online version, enabling a writer to seamlessly access documents from any machine.

• Chronicle

Chronicle is a note-taking app designed to look like a paper journal.  Users can jot down quick notes, maintain multiple entries and easily access previous notes.

• Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus

Precisely as it sounds, this app provides both a detailed dictionary and thesaurus to help writers find exactly the right word while working on a project. It is accessible offline, so users don’t have to be near Wi-Fi to utilize it.

• iA Writer

For those writers who prefer to write in an immersive, no-bells-or-whistles word processor, iA Writer provides a simplistic and clean format for writing. The app eliminates distractions by hiding everything on the page except the last three lines of what you’re working on, making it much easier to avoid procrastinating by checking your email or playing with other apps.

• Penultimate

For writers who prefer to work by hand, this app provides a way to write documents in longhand directly into the iPad, where the notes can then be saved in each of several “notebooks.” You can also erase and undo writing and customize your pen color and line weight.

• IndexCard

Many writers like to brainstorm their stories on index cards prior to writing. This app provides a way to do that without fear of losing the cards. Users can write notes on index cards, change their order, label them by color and export them into multiple formats.

• Noterize

Noterize enables writers to read and annotate PowerPoint and PDF documents. You can take notes in longhand with the pen tool, type annotations, or leave virtual sticky notes on interesting pages. Documents can be imported from the Web, and content can be shared on social media like Facebook or Twitter.

• Instapaper

This app allows users to save websites to view offline on an iPad or other mobile device. It’s a great application for reading publishing guidelines or market listings.

If you’re a writer with an iPad, you can utilize its technology to the max by downloading a few of the above apps. Depending on your writing style, some will be more useful than others. The investment, however, will be minor — less than $5 in most cases —and the benefits of a good app will definitely outweigh the cost.

What People Are Looking For:

• Google Talk

Since it was launched, Google Talk has quickly become a popular instant messaging platform. Over the years, the big G has improved a lot of things including voice and video chat. As long as the person is in your contact list – i.e., he is also using Google Talk – you can initiate calls wherever you are in the world for free. You can use the Google Talk client or the in-browser version. Google even has promos that offer free calls to phones in the US and Canada, so you might want to check into that. Imagine all the savings you can make!

• Skype

Skype is another instant messenger that has been around for a long time. While it does offer text chat, I think that it is used more for voice and video calls. You simply need to download the app to your computer – or smart phone – and you can do Skype calls with anyone in the world who also has the app installed.

• Yahoo Messenger

Who hasn’t used Yahoo Messenger at some point in his life? Truth be told, my ancient account is still active and used regularly. If you are old school, and you do not want to install new programs and create new accounts, Yahoo Messenger will do the trick for you. Sometimes the voice and video quality becomes tricky, but it does the job for the most part. Again, to save money, the other party also has to have the program installed.

• Facebook

Isn’t Facebook for “likes” and comments only? Nope! Facebook chat has already developed up to the point that you can have multi-person chats and voice/video chats as well. Since everyone is on Facebook these days, this platform might just be your best bet in keeping in touch without having to press those number buttons – virtual or otherwise – on your phone. And be honest, you spend so much time on Facebook anyway. You might as well use it for your calls! If you’re serious about lowering your phone bill, simply check out at least one of these services. It doesn’t take much effort to install them if necessary, and the savings that you will make will be more than worth it.

How to Use .htaccess to Block Proxies

Using .htaccees to block proxies is actually a very simplistic procedure.  First open your .htaccess file in your website directory, its usually in the website root.  When you open it you should add the following lines to the top.

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP:VIA} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:FORWARDED} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:USERAGENT_VIA} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:X_FORWARDED_FOR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:PROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:XPROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_PC_REMOTE_ADDR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_CLIENT_IP} !^$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F]

Please note this will block all the proxies on the internet and some people specifically at work and at school are forced to use proxies to browse the internet.

Why would people use proxies?

Schools and work places often use proxies to log internet traffic as well as filter it for content.  This is a quite common practice so if you are blocking all users from browsing with proxies you will be blocking these users from browsing your webpage as well.  This is most likely not the desired outcome of you doing this and there is another way that you can allow certain proxies to use your webpage.

How To Allow Certain Proxies Access with .htaccess

Allowing certain proxies access to a webpage is also very easy with the .htaccess file.  Just open it up again and add something like:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP:VIA} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:FORWARDED} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:USERAGENT_VIA} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:X_FORWARDED_FOR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:PROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:XPROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_PC_REMOTE_ADDR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:XROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-FORWARDED-FOR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_CLIENT_IP} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:FORWARDED-FOR} !^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-FORWARDED} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !(.*)allowed-proxy-01.domain.tld(.*) RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !(.*)allowed-proxy-02.domain.tld(.*) RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !(.*)allowed-proxy-03.domain.tld(.*) RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F] </IfModule>

Just be sure to replace the last three lines with the host names of the proxies you will want to allow to use your site.  You will have to do this for each proxy that will be allowed access to browse your site but it will stop any proxies that you do not allow from using the site.

Try Other Methods As Well

Many content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla have plugins and extensions that either block access to or stop from commenting on and submissions of content from people who are browsing using proxy servers.  Another thing is if a proxy server is being used for malicious use try contacting the abuse contact for the IP address as listed in ARIN.  Often times the systems administrator is una

What People Are Looking For:

Getting started:
With WordPress, all it takes is a simple registration for a blog to go live. Free WordPress hosting can be offered as a subdomain if a domain registration is out of question. Upon registering, a graphical user interface such as a sidebar will grant the ability to customize everything from text size, background color, and much more. Some clicks and keystrokes can turn a bland looking wordpress page to a rich and dynamic web page.

Programming knowledge:
Knowledge of PHP can be very useful, WordPress can be dissected and customized from the ground up with some PHP. A graphical user interface can give you control over your site, but to really dive into it, PHP is essential. You have the choice of studying all by yourself, but you would also consider joining computer programming classes. Joining classes will help you gain from the professional expertise of a teacher.

Plugins are nifty add on’s to websites that can host a range of many features. An example of a plugin would be the integration of Facebook’s like button offering visitors the ability to like a page or piece of content. Another example of a plugin would be for Seach Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO plugins are made to optimize and configure the website to tailor to the search engine for better results. Any webmaster looking for web traffic would add on some SEO plugins for a higher page rank on search engines like Google.

Community:
Fortunately, there is a vast collection of plugins and add-on’s in the wordpress community, therefore a non programmer can use someone else’s code instead of programming. Many of the plug ins come with much documentation and support, so there is hope! Be sure to add some kind interactivity between visitors and the site, such as a comment box. The internet is full of spammers, so preventive measures such as comment approval can drastically cut down on unsolicited visitors.

Design Tips:
Users prefer a simple and organized layout, there is many websites on the web to be explored. The easier, and simpler the layout, the more likely a user will stay on the page with interest. In other words, when it comes to web design, less is more.

Conclusion:
Overall, starting a site with WordPress is relatively simple. Everyone is just a registration away from having their own personal and customizable website. Making websites is easier than ever with WordPress so anyone looking into webdesign should start to use WordPress as a stepping stone.

Browser is the first thing that you open when you feel like surfing the Internet. It is actually software that is particularly designed to help you get access to the Web. There are various kinds of browsers that people use, most common of which are Internet Explorer (also abbreviated as IE), Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Apart from this, other web browsers are Opera and Safari. Every now and then, the developers keep upgrading these browsers, which can be called a rectification of errors or maybe even introduction of features which are not found in the predecessor versions. It is important that you should download latest browser for surfing the Internet.

Why to use latest browser?

For security concerns: As and when the software developers think or feel that the threats to your computer are arising because of their browser; they rectify these errors by upgrading the browser. Not using the latest browser only leaves you at the peril of attacks from hackers and viruses that might be found in the previous versions of the browsers.

For getting better speed: When a developer upgrades or updates the browser, he makes it better and faster than the forerunner version of it. Once you start using the latest version of a browser, you will realize that the speed of Internet will become much faster and better.

For better browsing experience: Apart from the two main concerns mentioned above, the developers themselves try to attract you to download latest browser through styling and certain features. In the newer versions, you can find certain elements and attributes that are not found in the previous versions.

For viewing the page as it is intended to be viewed: The reason you should download latest browser is also because the web pages are coded and designed in such a way that they do not appear similar in all the browsers. In order to view these pages as intended by its designer, you should go for updated versions of the browsers.

How and from where to get the latest browser?

Installing latest browser is not a complex process, especially because the option to upgrade it will be very much visible as soon as you open the browser’s existing version on your computer. Usually, it is advisable that the latest versions should be downloaded by following the links as suggested by the existing version only. In case, you do not get any such option, you can simply go to Google and type the version’s name. Click on the link that is offered by the developer and follow the steps to download, install and save the latest version of the browser. Also, while downloading, it will be recommended that you should uninstall the older version. It is best to follow the steps as mentioned and download the latest version successfully.

Conclusion

Over the years it has been observed that Internet has become like another pillar of media and so developers are constantly on their heels to provide the users with better browsing experience and features. Therefore, every now and then the latest versions keep coming up. In order to remain abreast with these technical advancements, it is good to download latest browser versions.

Many times you have trouble makers on your website either harrasing users, being general trouble makers or even click bombing your website.  These people have to be rid of quickly at times, and in a way to make sure that your website is safe.  Often times this requires blocking IP Addresses in Apache with the .htaccess file.  Many people not familiar with Apache’s .htaccess files are often intimidated by them, and to be honest its quite easy to block an IP Address using htaccess.

First Make Sure Its Static

The first thing you are going to need to do is make sure the IP Address you are blocking is a static IP Address and not dynamically issued with DHCP by the Internet service provider.  The easy way to find this out is look at your records and see if the user pretty much at all times logs in from the same IP Address.  If its static this method will work great, if its not you may have to block an entire ISP to get rid of a one trouble maker on that internet service provider.

The .htaccess file

Your .htaccess file will be located in the root directory of your site.  Its often times hidden when doing a listing of contents in a directory so you should just try and open the file with a program like vi or nano.  If you have to create a new .htaccess file its as easy as opening up the file.  The next thing is you need to know the IP Address, or IP Address range you wish to block.  Below are some examples of blocking the made up IP Address 1.1.1.1 (I wonder who is lucky enough to get that IP Address assigned to them)

order allow,deny
deny from 1.1.1.1
allow from all

The above script allows you to block all GET and POST requests to the Apache server from the IP Address 1.1.1.1.  If for some reason you need to block multiple addresses from accessing your Apache server that is very simple to do as well, and is shown in the example below.

order allow,deny
deny from 1.1.1.1
deny from 1.1.1.2
deny from 1.1.1.3
allow from all

This will give everyone with the IP Address 1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.2. and 1.1.1.3 a 403 Access Forbidden error when they attempt to do some sort of activity on your Apache Server.  However there are a few other options to help you block the users causing problems on your website.  Based on the above list it looks like I’m having problems with the 1.1.1 IP range, and if necessary its quite easy to block people from that entire IP range from accessing my Apache server.  That can be done with the example below.

order allow,deny
deny from 1.1.1
allow from all

That will redirect any IP Address starting with 1.1.1 to a 403 forbidden page with Apache.  Now lets say your having a problem with users of badisp.net  These users are just being mean to you, or they might even be your company’s competition and you don’t want them looking at your website.  Its quite easy to block them as well.

order allow,deny
deny from badisp.net
allow from all

What People Are Looking For: