Included in the card was a code for $100 in free Adword credits, good to drive a decent amount of traffic to your site!

On the back of the card was a QR Code, the popular 2D matrix bar code that is popular in Japan.  It’s a code that can be read by some mobile phones and directs to the same URL shown on the card.

If the pictures are too small, the card reads:

Front: Others will fill your heart this Valentine’s Day
Inside left: We want to overload your servers.
Inside right:

Because nothing says “I love you” like free traffic to your website.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

XOXO The AdWords team.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers!

In order to increase your search engine rankings, the best way is by building what is known as “organic” or natural backlinks. An example of an organic backlink is when a blog links back to your site because of your interesting content or relevance to their content.  Typically, these are done without asking or any sort of trade, hence the term organic or natural.

Trading links used to be a common tactic amongst website owners and I still often get e-mails along the lines of “If you’ll put a link to my website from yours then I will do the same.”  While this has the advantage of potentially increasing exposure to new users, this type of trade is typically very one sided with one site being more popular than the other.  Also, trading links does not increase search engine rankings as the links can be seen as “cancelling” each other out.

Ideally what you want are one-way organic backlinks and LinkWheeler.com is a service that looks to address this issue through the creation of link wheels.

What is a link wheel?
A link wheel, simply explained, is when sites link to one another in a cyclical pattern.  For example, site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links back to site A.  This example is a small link wheel and generally does not work as their short cycle is easily detected by search engines. LinkWheeler.com offers link wheel packages that are much bigger and more sophisticated with links coming from different types of sites.

Their link wheels are also not cyclical, meaning the last node does not link back to the first node. This “open wheel” is more effective and more attractive to search engines compared to traditional closed wheels.

Web 2.0 and Social Media
Perhaps the biggest advantage of LinkWheeler is their usage of social media websites and other web 2.0 outlets in addition to traditional article submission strategies.

I’ve seen other backlinking services, all of which make big promises, but their methodology is pretty primitive compared to what LinkWheeler is doing.  Simple directory submissions and article farms just don’t cut it anymore in this day and age.

Pricing and Features
There are three possible packages to choose from ranging from $149 for 27 backlinks to $359 for 89 backlinks. Not everyone will consider this cheap, but you do get what you pay for and results can speak for themselves.  The lowest package includes linking to two URLs with two different keywords whereas the top package links to eight URLs with eight different keywords.

In terms of value, the top premium package is definitely the way to go in my opinion.  With eight keywords and 89 backlinks, you can be sure you’ll get to the first page of search results at least for low-medium competition keywords.  For those highly competitive keywords, it may not boost you to the top but it will certainly go a long way to help getting you there.

Conclusion
The field of search engine optimization (SEO) is a highly competitive one so it’s nice to have a service like LinkWheeler who are experienced and clearly know what they are doing.  The money invested in building links will show returns within a couple weeks once search engine traffic starts funnelling its way onto your site.  In my opinion, link wheels are a great way to increase exposure of your site or blog, and LinkWheeler is an effective and easy way of creating these link wheels.

I had a Lenovo Thinkpad X41 Tablet that I purchased a few years ago with high hopes of using it in the classroom. The idea sounded a lot better on paper and the tablet ended up not getting much use. Instead of selling it (goes for a couple hundred dollars these days), I decided to put it to better use by mounting it under a kitchen cabinet.

This way I can use it to listen to music, watch movies, or to look up recipes while I cook!

The process of mounting it was rather simple. You’ll only need the following:

• Industrial strength adhesive velcro
• Old laptop (preferably a touchscreen tablet)

I bought 4 feet of industrial strength velcro from Office Depot/Staples for about $10.  You won’t need 4 feet but it was the smallest amount it came in.  Unfortunately, the X41 is not a touchscreen tablet which means I need to have use digitizer pen instead of poking with my fingers.  Theoretically, any laptop could be mounted but tablets are best because of the swivel-able screen and light weight.

And of course, if you’re not looking to make the laptop removable/swappable, one could always use something more secure than velcro.

Note: Sorry for the poor iPhone 2G picture quality.

Step 1 – Put velcro under the cabinet
I would use the “hook” part of the velcro for this.  You’ll want to save the soft side for the underside of your laptop for comfort.  I also put an extra piece on the side for the power adapter. Make sure you leave room on either side in case you need to plug in USB devices later.

Step 2 – Put velcro onto the underside of your laptop
The basic idea is to put as much velcro on the underside as possible (making sure the velcro is higher than the laptop feet).  You’ll want to leave any vents uncovered and ideally avoid areas of high heat output.  I also removed the battery to decrease the weight.

Step 3 – Mount it up.
Make sure you let the adhesive set first before mounting.  I put a beach towel under the laptop for the first few days just in case it fell but it seems to be very secure.  I would worry about leaving the laptop running 24/7 in case the heat generated wears out the adhesive.  I keep my laptop on stand-by most of the time.

Step 4 – Set up the Software
Make sure you’re using a tablet-supported operating system (e.g. Windows 7/Vista/XP Tablet edition) and using either the video driver or some other software, flip the displayed image so that it appears right side up when in use.

That’s it, enjoy!  If you like this simple DIY project, check out my ethernet cable mod and IBM Model M Keyboard mod.

I’ve reviewed Mozy before and found it to be the best back-up solution.  2.5 gigabytes isn’t much space by today’s standards but it’s more than enough to store important documents and files offsite.  Backing up everything to an external hard drive is a good idea but if some sort of accident (e.g. fire, earthquake) damages your computer, chances are, your external hard drive will be lost too! That’s why it’s also important to keep at least one extra copy of your back-up offsite.

Not to mention, it’s one of the only online back-up services available for Mac OS

Enter referral code T3DN37 to get the bonus 512 megs of space (full disclosure: I’ll get a 512 meg bonus as well).  This offer ends January 10, 2010.

# ruby
l=92.chr;eval s="s=s.dump[r=1..-2].gsub(/("+l*4+"){4,}(?!\")/){|t|'\"+l*%d+\"'%(t
.size/2)};5.times{s=s.dump[r]};puts\"# python\\nprint(\\\"# perl\\\\nprint(\\\\\\
\"# lua"+l*4+"nprint("+l*7+"\"(* ocaml *)"+l*8+"nprint_endline"+l*15+"\"-- haskel
l"+l*16+"nimport Data.List;import Data.Bits;import Data.Char;main=putStrLn("+l*31
+"\"/* C */"+l*32+"n#include<stdio.h>"+l*32+"nint main(void){char*s[501]={"+l*31+
"\"++intercalate"+l*31+"\","+l*31+"\"(c(tail(init(show("+l*31+"\"/* Java */"+l*32
+"npublic class QuineRelay{public static void main(String[]a){String[]s={"+l*31+"
\"++intercalate"+l*31+"\","+l*31+"\"(c("+l*31+"\"brainfuck"+l*64+"n++++++++[>++++
<-]+++++++++>>++++++++++"+l*31+"\"++(concat(snd(mapAccumL h 2("+l*31+"\"110"+l*31
+"\"++g(length s)++"+l*31+"\"22111211100111112021111102011112120012"+l*31+"\"++co
ncatMap("+l*32+"c->let d=ord c in if d<11then"+l*31+"\"21002"+l*31+"\"else"+l*31+
"\"111"+l*31+"\"++g d++"+l*31+"\"22102"+l*31+"\")s++"+l*31+"\"2100211101012021122
2211211101000120211021120221102111000110120211202"+l*31+"\"))))))++"+l*31+"\","+l
*63+"\""+l*64+"n"+l*63+"\"};int i=0;for(;i<94;i++)System.out.print(s[i]);}}"+l*31
+"\")))))++"+l*31+"\",0};int i=0;for(;s[i];i++)printf("+l*63+"\"%s"+l*63+"\",s[i]
);puts("+l*63+"\""+l*63+"\");return 0;}"+l*31+"\");c s=map("+l*32+"s->"+l*31+"\""
+l*63+"\""+l*31+"\"++s++"+l*31+"\""+l*63+"\""+l*31+"\")(unfoldr t s);t[]=Nothing;
t s=Just(splitAt(if length s>w&&s!!w=='"+l*31+"\"'then 501else w)s);w=500;f 0=Not
hing;f x=Just((if x`mod`2>0then '0'else '1'),x`div`2);g x= reverse (unfoldr f x);
h p c=let d=ord c-48in(d,replicate(abs(p-d))(if d<p then '<'else '>')++"+l*31+"\"
."+l*31+"\");s="+l*31+"\"# ruby"+l*32+"n"+l*31+"\"++"+l*31+"\"l=92.chr;eval s=\"+
(z=l*31)+\"\\\"\"+s+z+\"\\\""+l*31+"\"++"+l*31+"\""+l*32+"n"+l*31+"\""+l*15+"\""+
l*7+"\")"+l*4+"n\\\\\\\")\\\")\"########### (c) Yusuke Endoh, 2009 ###########\n"

To properly try this, you’ll require the following versions of each compiler:

* ruby 1.8.7-p72
* Python 2.5.2
* perl v5.10.0
* Lua 5.0.3
* OCaml 3.10.2
* ghc-6.8.2
* gcc 4.3.2
* java "1.5.0_17"
* beef 0.0.6-2
* whitespace 0.3-2
* unlambda 2.0.0-5

Credit goes to Yusuke Endoh for this masterpiece of programming art.

Fast forward a couple months later and I’ve received another wallet for review, this time from the nice people at Koyono.  They sent me their View Slimmy SE Front Pocket Wallet.  I’ve mentioned the Slimmy series of wallets in my aforementioned post but I’ve never actually used one myself.

The Slimmy series is one of the more popular minimalist wallet choices out there.  Its selling point is how exceptionally thin it is.  It’s not a tri-fold or even a bi-fold, it’s a front pocket wallet meaning it’s thin enough that its meant to be put in your front pocket, reducing risk of back pain resulting from an off-balanced seating posture.  The Slimmy wallets consist of just a sleeve of leather where cards and cash stay in place through friction alone.

The ViewSlimmy adds a little utility by replacing one of the end pieces of leather with a plastic window for ID cards and transit passes.  The extra window actually doesn’t add any sort of bulk to the wallet, but I do think the regular Slimmy looks nicer if having an ID card slot isn’t a necessity for you.

Now the special edition of the ViewSlimmy, the ViewSlimmy SE, is described as the “Front Pocket ID Wallet with a little nuance.”  The unique thing about the special edition is the red interior which adds a bit of flair to the design.  Personally, I think the color combination looks quite exquisite.

How much can it hold?
In order for this wallet to live up to its minimalist claims, the user must live a minimalist lifestyle by carrying no more than 3-4 cards and some cash.  If you find that you can’t slim down to a few cards, then maybe this wallet isn’t for you, at least not as a primary wallet.

Personally, I get by fine with just a few cards.  Most of the time, I only carry:

• A little bit of cash
• A credit card
• A bank card
• An ID card
• Transit pass

Canadian Friendly
Canadians should be aware that the entire Slimmy series is designed for American currency but all the wallets except for the SlimSlimmy can just barely hold Canadian currency, so it is usable by Canadians.

What may make this wallet not so popular amongst international customers are the large shipping costs involved with international orders.  I’m not sure why Koyono charges so much for international shipping but there is definitely a lucrative market outside of the United States.  Maybe they just need to find an international supplier.

The Slimmy is not a cheap wallet by any means.  A regular Slimmy starts at $30 and goes up to $50 for the special editions.  Some may think that this is expensive for the amount of material you get, but what you’re really paying for is the genius of the design.  From what I know, Koyono is the only store in the world that sells wallets like the Slimmy series.  The quality of the leather seems quite high and the stitching looks clean and strong enough to last quite a while.  Once a card goes in, it won’t accidentally drop out unless you pull it out.

The non-View Slimmy special edition also comes with a hot pink interior, creatively called “Floyd,” no doubt a reference to Pink Floyd which happens to be my favourite band.  It’s too bad that wasn’t the wallet Koyono sent me, but I’m not complaining!

“What’s Your Raashee?” is a Bollywood (Indian Hollywood) movie that I can see having great reception in mainstream North American theatres.  This was actually my first experience with a Bollywood film so you can take this review with a grain of salt.

The premise of the movie involves an NRI (Non-resident Indian) played by Harman Baweja who needs to go back to India to find a wife.  He decides to interview 12 girls, one from each raashee (zodiac/star sign) to find his most compatible match.  All 12 girls are played by the beautiful Priyanka Chopra (she is playing 12 different characters) and hilarity ensues.

Being a romantic comedy, it was a pleasure to watch although it was hard to get past Harman Baweja’s poor acting at the beginning of the film.  Once you see past the forced and unemotional delivery, the story really starts to shine.  Priyanka  is absolutely brilliant in all 12 roles although I found some of the characters forgettable and shallow.  At a couple points in the movie, I was confused as to which character she was playing but that may be partly because I’m not used to distinguishing Indian names.

I also found that the couple of side stories didn’t serve to add much to the movie, but rather served as comedic relief.  The movie itself was also very long, at almost 4 hours.  I’ve been told that many Bollywood movies are around this length but if you take out all the dance numbers, the length would be much more manageable, but then it wouldn’t be a true Bollywood movie then, would it?

All in all, “What’s Your Raashee?” is a pleasure to watch, in fact it’s got me interested in the whole genre of Bollywood films.  Any recommendations for Bollywood classics?

In a country and age where bandwidth is at a premium, it is very important none of it goes to waste.  You don’t want to have to download gigabytes of data only to find out later it was the wrong file, a fake file, or worse: an infected file.

All this preamble was simply to introduce the best BitTorrent search engine I’ve used thus far, VerTor.  What sets VerTor apart from other engines and trackers is that it verifies the content of every torrent file (hence the name).

How does it verify torrent files you ask? Here are some of the ways:

• Lists all individual files contained within a torrent file
• Scans all contained files for viruses (using Clam Win)
• Captures and displays a preview of actual screenshots of video
• Splits a sample of audio files for preview
• Checks to make sure files are not password protected
• Checks for DRM protection on files

Can’t find a torrent you want on their site? You can download the torrent file on another site and upload it to VerTor for verification without taking the plunge yourself.

The site is also very friendly for users new to the whole concept of BitTorrent.  Torrent files can even be opened using the web-based BitLet software so you don’t have to install or configure a client on your own computer.  One disadvantage is that it takes a while for VerTor to verify torrents so it takes a little while for new content to be verified and listed on the site.  A small price to pay for peace of mind in my opinion.

All in all, VerTor is a great site and an excellent example of the type of services the web is capable of these days.

Just remember, make sure what you’re downloading is legal and not copyrighted!

The newest OS X from Apple, Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6 was just released and boasts some pretty nifty features.  One of the more interesting ones is that it claims to take up a lot less space than Leopard.  Upon installation, you can actually RECOVER up to 6 gigabytes of space.

However, it was also recently revealed that Snow Leopard reports free space differently than most other operating systems.  Instead of reporting a kilobyte as 1024 bytes, Snow Leopard reports a kilobyte as 1000 bytes.  Likewise for megabytes, gigabytes, and I would assume, terabyte.

As a result, that 8gb USB stick will actually be reported as 8gb as opposed to 7.4gb.  I would assume that this move is an attempt to alleviate consumer confusion about “missing space” though I can see it potentially increasing confusion instead!

So does Snow Leopard actually recover 6 gigabytes of space or is it just reported as such?  The truth is, it does recover close to 6gb of actual space in addition to any “gains” from the change of disk space calculation.

It should be noted that technically, both definitions are correct and are often used interchangably so Snow Leopard isn’t doing anything wrong.  Apple just isn’t following the convention that previous operating systems have always adhered to.

Now’s your chance to put your “traveller IQ” to the test! Tripbase has a fun travel intelligence quiz that will test your “travel-savvyness” based on how you would react in various extreme scenarios.

75% of the world!

Quiz by Tripbase

I did the quiz myself but only got 75%, it’s not as easy as it looks! I found that what seems to be the most logical answer were in fact incorrect.  I went out of my way to look up some of the answers on Google and was quite surprised by what I found.  So go ahead, do the quiz. It might even save your life in the future.

If you’re the traveling type, Tripbase.com itself is a neat site to check out.  They offer suggestions on places to travel based on things that you like to do and present everything you’ll need to know to plan the trip including hotel costs, flight costs and required spending money!  It’s even been described as the Match.com of travel planning!