There are a few ways to disable or stop the popup.

Another way is to stop the service that runs Windows Auto Update. Hence, I have written a small program in VB.Net that will temporary stop the Auto Update service (that prompts auto restart window). This service will start automatically once the computer finally restarted. So, you can do your work without the having to deal with the nagging prompt.

Download Here (exe size 36kb)

You can create shortcuts to your favourite programs, frequently used folders and even websites. Instead of clicking the program shortcut from the start menu, you just type the shortcut keys on Slickrun to run the program. For example, you can set MsWord to run Microsoft Word and etc.

On top of that, you can set what to display when the program is not on focus or idle. There are presets of settings for you to choose from; date, time, memory, power status (notebook), and custom text.

It might takes a while to get used to it but after once you get the hang of it, this tiny application could be one of your frequently used program!

By the way, did I mention that this utility also has a sticky note feature?

Check it out Slickrun at http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/

After completed testing of my ASP.Net in test server, I deployed the same application to client’s server. However, I was hit with following error:

HTTP 500 - Internal Error Server

On further testing, I can’t even connect to localhost (that’s weird!). It gives the same error as above. My client’s system has the following:

1. Windows XP SP2
2. IIS 5.1
3. Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 (v 1.1.4322)

I tried the following but still couldn’t work:

1. Reinstall IIS
2. Reinstall Microsoft .Net Framework
3. Run aspnet_regiis.exe -i

Solution:

1. First of all I need to ensure that IE will not suppress any error messages. In order to do that, open Internet Explorer go to Tools-> Internet Options ->  Advanced Tab. Check option Show Friendly HTTP Error Messages.
2. Install IIS
3. Install Microsoft .Net Framework
4. Make sure Distributed Transaction Coordinator service is installed and running!
• open up your services panel or enter "services.msc"
• look for Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC)
• If it is not there, that means it is not installed.
• To install DTC, open up command prompt,
• go to your %windir/system32
• run msdtc.exe -install
• Once installed, you should be able to see DTC in your service panel.
• Start it
5. Run aspnet_regiis.exe -i to complete installation.
6. And voila! My ASP.Net application works!

For guides to reinstall DTC, click here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891801

Our homegrown Internet advertising company, Nuffnang, had made it to TechCrunch post but for the wrong reason. Nuffnang Singapore, a counterpart of Nuffnang Malaysia,  reportedly charges publishers SGD1 for transaction fee for cash outs leaving many bloggers furious by the decision.

However, I have not heard or read any news on Nuffnang Malaysia imposing the same administration fee.

Anyone who is serving Nuffnang Malaysia and have received payment recently care to share their experience?

I do subscribe to Nuffnang (Malaysia) co-founder, Timothy’s blog, but didn’t hear anything from him. Hopefully thing turns out well for them.

The latest release fixes some of the known issues found in previous release.

Not running on Firefox. Get your own copy now.

After the recent pagerank (PR) shake up by Google, there is one question remain? Oh, maybe two. The first one would probably want to know who are affected and who survived. Now, the only question remain is whether if one should remove all paid links and stop posting for pay-per-post entry.

Google not only punish publisher who sell links by dropping their PR but sometimes reduce your site’s ranking on Google’s search engine result. Thus, making it more difficult for people to discover your blog. The worst could ever happen is they remove your site from their search engine result, totally. Don’t believe me? Try googling "John Chow" (JohnChow.com, the popular blogger who writes about making money online). You won’t find it there, at least not in the first page. (After more clicking, and onto the 5th page, no sign of JohnChow.com). Even John Cow (a parody of JohnChow.com) is on the first page. Holy cow!

So, some decided to remove paid links after their PR dropped, however, other just being obnoxious and can’t be bothered about it at all.

Here is my top reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid of Big G (read: Google). The list is not in order.

1. You have a large reader’s base.
   • If your blog is well known and established, and have loyal readers who keep coming back to your site on regular basis, a drop in PR won’t hurt that much. They enjoy your writing and your posts, and not one time visitors.
2. Only minority of your traffic come from Google search engine.
   • In relation to point (1), if most of your traffic are direct traffic or from referring sites, then Google search engine is really just a web directory and not a major traffic generator for your site. For eg. John Chow is not listed in Google search engine but he still makes lots of money anyway.
3. You have PR less than 4 (before latest Google updates).
   • Seriously, when you are on PR0 (PR N/A) to PR3, it only means one thing. You have whole lot of things to do to improve your traffic and readership. You should be reading more SEO tips. I don’t think Google would care to penalize you. After all, who wants to pay for a PR0 link? By the way, my site has a PR3 only.
4. Your main income stream is not from Google Adsense.
   • If you earn more by selling links and paid per post than Google Adsense, why ditch them?
5. Your other ads DO NOT take your PR to gauge your site popularity.
   • Some other ads like TLA do take your Google PR into consideration before rating your site popularity. That means, they pay you more if you have higher PR. Then again, Google penalizes you for having paid links, so decide which side you want to take!
6. PR = EGO
   • For some people, PR is just a number to boost your ego and compare with other bloggers. It’s a like race to see who has higher PR.
7. Google Adsense was sooo yesterday.
   • Heard of Yahoo!Publisher? What about WidgetBucks, AdBrites, Kontera, private ads and many other Google Adsense alternatives? Diversify your income sources.
8. You don’t blog for money.
• Unless your last updated site was in 1993 and you never heard of Wordpress, I think most of the bloggers out there blog for money. However there is also a number of people who blogs for fun, not for making money. Moreover, nowadays, it is a norm for companies to blog or engage bloggers to market or create awareness of their products in the Net. Hence, their main purpose is not getting high PR but doing PR (public relations).
9. What’s a Google PR?
• Guess you have just wasted your precious time reading the last 8 reasons. Oh, by the way, click here to read on Google PR.

Don’t agree with me? Have other thoughts that you want to share? Pen it down your comment below and share with the rest.

The Google PR campaign started last week and I thought our very first full time blogger, LiewCF won’t get hit by it. However, when I read LiewCF this morning, apparently, his PR also drop from PR6 to PR5. I double checked it with PRChecker and it still gives the same result.

Guess, everyone falls within Google radar this time. Ouch!

By the way, can anyone appeal on this? Or just have to wait Google to do another round of updates?

Are you a victim of recent Google campaign to update Pagerank?

Loren Baker, the editor for SearchEngineJournal has confirmed that Google has emailed them regarding the PageRank (PR) update that caused many blogs have their PR dropped.

Matt Cutt, the key person in Google that heads the search engine optimization group confirmed that the PR dropped was to punish web publisher who sells links to other sites.

Many sites are affected by the updates; including:

• ProBlogger  - from PR6 to PR4 Updated:(back to PR6; thanks pablopabla)
• Engadget - from PR7 to PR5
• JohnChow - from PR6 to PR4
• and etc.

Our local blogs are not spared too.

• 5xmom - from PR5 to PR3
• Sabahan - from PR5 to PR3
• Hongkiat - from PR4 to PR2

Are you website affected? Do you really bother about it anyway?

via SearchEngineJournal

Google Adwords is medium for publisher to advertise on Google Ads Network. It’s one of the most popular advertising network in the Net today.

I haven’t set up the account yet. Will probably do it later. Have you received such promotion from the Big G? Have you tried Adwords? Does it really works?

 

Have you updated your Firefox? Mozilla just release Firefox 2.0.0.8 recently that fixes some security issues and support more languages. Read Release Note for more details.

Not running on Firefox. Get your own copy now.