gbnotify.com - very cool Amazon.com tool

I already do a bunch of shopping on Amazon.com. If there price is within about 5% of the lowest I can find on the internet, I’ll usually buy from them just because I’ve never EVER had a problem with an order.

If you shop on Amazon, you probably know about their Gold Box deals. These are a series of 10 or so items that are available to you once per day for a discounted price. As you are shown these items you have the ability to say yes or no, but you can’t go back. The deals are usually pretty good, but your timing has to be pretty good also in order to actually need/want the items that they have in the Gold Box.

One better than the Gold Box deals is the Lightning Deals. These are only became available a couple times a day. They are heavily discounted items, but they are only available for purchase for a couple hours. Then, the deal is gone. The trick is, catching these deals when they are available. What to do, what to do.

A friend of mine has been digging in to the Amazon.com programming API and came up with a fantastic solution; GBNotify.com. Go to the site and either enter in your email address or a cell phone number and during the day as these deals become available you’ll be notified. I’ve been getting the updates for a couple days now. I haven’t found an item that I want to buy just yet, but the discounts on the items are staggering. I’ve seen 70%+ discounts on items go by. It’s almost worth buying the item to sell it for a profit on eBay. That’s not something I have time or energy enough to try out, but hey, somebody out there could turn this in to a nice little money maker.

One month with Akismet

Last month while attending BlogWorld I had the opportunity to hang out with Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress, at the WordPress Meet-Up. One of the topics we spoke about was Akismet, the spam blocking plugin. I had used Akismet a few years back, but had run in to some issues with it. At that time I found Spam Karma and started using it exclusively. A few drinks, a little dinner and some great conversations later, I headed home to give Akismet another shot.

I downloaded and installed the latest copy of Akismet on 2 blogs; geeeek.com and austinsink.com. While this blog has been around for several years, austinsink.com is relatively new and I was curious how it would handle the two. Would I seed any differences between a blog that receives a TON of spam and a blog that receives hardly any.

geeeek.com results
Total Comments: 10,724
Real Comments: 33 (0.30 %)
Spam Comments: 10,691 (99.7 %)
False Positives: 0
Uncaught Spam: 0
Uncaught Spam Pingback: 1

austinsink.com results
Total Comments: 73
Real Comments: 14 (23.72 %)
Spam Comments: 59 (76.28 %)
False Positives: 0
Uncaught Spam: 0
Uncaught Spam Pingback: 1

Overall I have to say I’m really pleased with Akismet. In the 2 months leading up to the switch, Spam Karma had been doing a great job of keeping the spam out of my blog and had zero false positives, but I was receiving a hefty amount of spam pingbacks that were all going uncaught.

I did have a bit of “user error” the first few days I was running Akismet. In the Options -> Discussion settings on WordPress, I had left the following box checked:

WordPress Settings 

This setting was being overruled by Spam Karma. When I switched to Akismet, all comments needed to be approved prior to showing up on the blog. I was under the impression that all my comments were being held up as spam and I was counting these as false positives. I unchecked the box and the comments were flowing freely to the blog without my intervention. All is right in the world again, yeah.

So for now, I’m going to stick with Akismet. It seems to be doing the job fantastically.

Tubemogul.com; continual time saver

So many tools that you run across on the Internet claim to save you time. When you try them out you find that they save you time initially, but as you use them more and more they have other aspects that end up costing you time. You can get blinded by the initial time savings. When I first heard about tubemogul.com, the first thing I was told was that it’s a huge time saver. When this is the lead-in, I’ve become jaded and immediately look for the catch.

tubemogul Logo  If you are unfamiliar, tubemogul.com is a free service that lets you upload a video to their site and then from their control panel you can have your video posted to several popular video sites, like: youtube, google, yahoo, revver, metacafe, myspace and several others.

Sounds great, right? So far, so good. The upload process is simple. You title, tag and categorize your video one time through a very simple interface. You select the video sites you want to post to, enter your username/password for each site and click the post button. Your video gets pushed out to several sites at once.

With most services, this is where the time savings would stop. Not with tubemogul. Here’s the part that really sold me on the service. Starting the day after you upload your video, tubemogul starts collecting stats for your videos across all the sites where you’ve published your video. You don’t need to log in to each of your video site accounts to see how many viewers you have had. You can check them all from one centralized location.

If you use video as part of your marketing or advertising and you aren’t using tubemogul, you are crazy. Did you miss the part where I said the service is free?

Check it out, you’ll be glad you did.

What to do when Firefox bites the dust

CNN - No StylesheetLast night the power went out at our house. Not once, but twice. After the first outage, I restarted my computer and set out to do a little web-surfing. When I opened FireFox and went to CNN.com, it was immediately apparent that something wasn't quite right. CNN looked like the image to the left. Other sites  I visited were having similar issues. I went through every possible option screen and was not able to solve the issue. When the power went out the second time, I decided to pack it in for the night. 

When trying to fix the issue the following morning with a clear head, there was still no luck. At this point it's looking like there is a corrupted file that's causing Firefox to act up. I was left with one option: re-install Firefox. As easy as that may sound, there's more to it than you might think.

The problem is, if you go to Control Panel and use the Add/Remove programs feature to get rid of Firefox, after you are done, there are still several files and registry entries remaining on your machine. If you then re-install Firefox, it's possible that the corrupted file may not get updated and your Firefox install will still be messed up. This is what happened to me the first time.

Here are the steps you need to take in order to completely remove Firefox from your machine BEFORE reinstalling:

  1. (optional) Export your bookmarks (video how-to)
  2. (optional) Create a list of currently installed extensions
  3. Uninstall Firefox using the Add/Remove Programs function in Control Panel
    [Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Mozilla Firefox]
  4. Remove application data that's not automatically deleted in the previous step be deleting the Firefox directory located here: c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\
  5. Delete the previous Firefox install directory located here: c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
  6. Remove registry entries for Firefox using Regedit [Start -> Run -> regedit]. Search for and remove the following entries:

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML]
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla]
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MozillaPlugins]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Mozilla]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\MozillaPlugins]

Once you've completed these steps, restart your machine. Use Internet Explorer to http://firefox.com/ to download the latest version of Firefox. Once you've installed the new software, you can import your bookmarks, reload your extensions and if all goes well, your Firefox install will be good as new. Thankfully, mine was. 

rarely usedAs smooth as I made this sound, my battle with Firefox last night/this morning didn't go as smoothly as it should have. To start with, I forgot to backup my bookmarks so they are all gone. However, one funny thing did come up. When using the "Add/Remove" programs, menu, I had to chuckle when I saw the status for how often I used FireFox says "rarely". Considering I use the software for several hours every single day, it makes me wonder exactly how much time you must put in for that rating to say something like "often".

Hopefully you won't need this information any time soon. But if you do, I hope this helps you out.

5 spiffy Mac tools

As I mentioned recently, I purchased a Mac last month. Mainly I’ll be using the Mac for content creation, but, that doesn’t mean I can’t use it for a portable development system as well. Last night I invited Todd over for dinner and in exchange I had him help me set up Apache, MySQL & PHP. As luck would have it,he had done some homework ahead of time and had found the first spiffy tool, MAMP. MAMP is a “One-Click-solution for setting up your personal webserver”. The description did not disappoint. After a quick download and install, we were up and running in a matter of minutes.

We spent some time reconfiguring Apache to allow for hosting several sites inside the htdocs directory that, after a quick entry in the HOSTS file, can be accessed by simply typing: http://[dir-name]/ - This is the same basic setup I had on my previous development solution so the transition to the new system will be quite easy.

Tool #2 is for working with graphics and is called Pixelmator. I’ve usually stuck to the Adobe line of products. Since my needs are pretty basic (resize, crop and some mild design), I’ve always used Adobe Photoshop Elements on the PC, but when shown the Pixelmator site, it seems that I’m going to have more than I need when it comes to features. With a $59 price tag, I don’t think I can go wrong here.

The third cool tool I was introduced to is called Adium. This is an instant messenger program that handles ICQ, YIM, AIM, MSN and a host of other messenger programs all in one. I’ve got contacts across all of these platforms and it’s no fun having to run 4 apps just to be able to chat with them all.

On the Windows side I’ve used Trillian for years as my multi-platform messenger program, and until quite recently there hasn’t even been a hint of a Mac version. This has recently changed and they are taking signups for Alpha testers for the new version. I’ve signed up and am hoping to become a tester soon.

Cool tool #4 is Quicksilver. This one is way cool. At first glance it’s a simple launch pad for programs, directories and files. Hit a hotkey combination on your keyboard, type the first couple letters of the program/directory/file name and get a list of everything found that matches. Click the desired listing and it opens up. However, once you dig a little deeper you’ll find that it’s also a control base for setting up hotkeys for other programs as well. For example, I was able to set up hotkeys for itunes. With the click of a couple keys I can raise/lower the volume, pause/play a song, or, bring up a search window to find an album, artist or song. These hotkeys work no matter which program you are currently using.

The 5th tool is Textmate. After about 3 minutes on the Mac I realized it’s lack of any sort of decent text editor. On the Windows side I’ve been using UltraEdit since version 1.0 and am quite spoiled. So finding a product to stand up to it didn’t seem like an easy task. While I haven’t used it long enough to say it’s handled everything UltraEdit handles, I can tell you that it cover all of what I considered to be the basic requirements: Search/Replace in files, customizable syntax highlighting, auto-indent, automatic bracket matching & column selection.

If this list isn’t enough, Carl was kind enough to pass on this list of “super OS X menubar items“. There are several on this list that I plan on trying out in the very near future.

If there are other Mac tools that you think a noob Mac user (that’s me) can use for web development or content creation, drop me a comment. I’d be happy to check them out.

Hosting: shared or dedicated server

I’ve been hosting sites for myself or for clients for over a decade. During that time I have gone through my fair share of hosting services. Some good, some bad and some others just flat out horrible. About 2 years ago I developed a site that ended up hitting pretty big and was pulling in a huge amount of traffic. The site was very database intensive and caused me to piss off a couple different hosting companies who didn’t like having my site on their shared boxes. So off I went and ordered up a dedicated server.

Fast forward a couple years and I’ve since sold off the site and the hosting for that site is no longer my concern. Even thought I host about a dozen sites on the dedicated box, my traffic levels aren’t nearly what they were back when I was desperate for the dedicated solution and yet I’m still paying the higher monthly cost for my own server.

After some talk with a few guys I know who host sites in various locations, I settled on BlueHost.com. They have a decent package that lets you have unlimited domains for a set monthly fee. They offer cpanel, which was too expensive to install on my dedicated server, Fantastico, and several other niceties that don’t come with having your own server.

After the mammoth task of moving a dozen or so sites, databases and various config files that will need updating, I’ll be saving about $500/year on hosting. I’m looking forward to that!

So what do you other bloggers do for hosting? Do you have your own server? Do you host on a shared package? Do you host on a server sitting on your kitchen table?

BlogRush threatens cheaters. Is this wise?

This morning I woke up to a lengthy email from the folks over at BlogRush talking about the changes that they are making to their system. Everything they were saying in the first half of the email sounds great and I was happy to hear that they are listening to their audience and making some needed changes. Though, I think they have everybody’s best interest in mind by doing a manual blog review for new registrants, I don’t think this is going to solve their issue. It would still be really simple to register using a real site (in English) only to bypass the manual review and then load up the BlogRush widget on an exit-pop from an off-shore porn site. (just an example)

The second half of the email gives me cause for concern. Many years ago, at a previous job, we had a problem with some people trying to cheat our system. We started putting some additional safeguards in place to stop them. When we stopped any traffic that came through that was fraudulent, we put up a simple notice that said, “Fraudulent data, your IP has been recorded.” Within a week our system received dozens of hack attempts and DOS attacks. It was as if the fraudsters took our message as a personal challenge and they were intent on bringing us down. The email from BlogRush is far more direct than our message was. They are not just suggesting they will shut down your account. They are guaranteeing prosecution.

So for all you cheaters that joined BlogRush and had your fun trying to siphon off some traffic, hopefully it was fun.  And I’ll go ahead and make this statement right now… IF you were one of the people that has been cheating our network I’m going to give you ONE opportunity…  quit now and we’ll pretend it never happened.  I think that’s more than fair.

BUT… if you continue after this point, all bets are off.  We WILL eventually discover what you’re doing, where you’re trying to send traffic, and we will prosecute you.   I GUARANTEE IT.   Sorry, but WE HAVE NO CHOICE NOW.

While I fully understand their frustration and I understand the point that they are trying to get across, I think the “attack” stance that they are taking is a dangerous line to be drawing in the sand. The number of script kiddies out there who have nothing better to do than figure out ways to mess with your app is immeasureable. While you may have the best of intentions, a direct threat like this may not be the best solution.

I’m very interested to see how things work out for BlogRush over the next couple weeks. It sounds like they are heading in the right direction. For everybody involved, I hope they haven’t kicked a sleeping bear.

I need to change my name to iGeeeek

MacBookIt has been 12 - 15 years since I have owned a Mac. My first one was a $3,000 laptop that had a battery life of about 40 minutes and enough computing power to perform 5th grade algebra. Oh how the times have changed…

Back in February Todd took the leap and ordered himself a MacBook. Since that time he has commented several times on how nice it is. Todd being the uber-geek that he is, I value his opinion above most others when it comes to things of this sort. However, I just haven’t had a need for a new laptop as my IBM ThinkPad has been getting used on a very limited basis.

Fast forward 6 months …

This week I have been in a few discussions with some people regarding the possibility of helping to run a podcast based blog for somebody who has great content, but little time. With several of my associates and friends all happily working on Macs, it seemed this may be a good time to take the plunge myself.

Before clicking the submit button on my order I asked Carl (a self proclaimed Mac/Apple FanBoy) some questions about the Mac. The most important question I had for him had to do with how easy it is to switch the keyboard from a QWERTY layout to the Dvorak layout. Once that issue was put to bed, I logged on to apple.com and placed my order.

I opted for the “starter kit”, if you will. I ordered the 13-inch: White 2.0 GHz. I upgraded to 2 GB RAM and the 160 GB hard drive. I’m considering this the “dipping my toe in the Mac waters” purchase to see how I like it. But, at just over $1500 with the upgrades & tax, it seems like an awfully big toe.

So now I wait. My status page says I’ll have the new MacBook on or before October 1st. Seems so far away right now.

Sorry Blog Rush, 3 strikes, you’re out

Based on my personal experience with BlogRush and after hearing some other bloggers talk about the large number of impressions and the drastically low number of clicks they were receiving, it was becoming quite obvious that the real winner in all of this is BlogRush themselves. I certainly don’t have a problem with a company offering a service but yet reaping the rewards. Heck, isn’t that what Google does? They seem to be doing OK and I don’t hold it against them that they benefit off me checking my email on their site rather than another. But, I digress…

Strike 1 for BlogRush came Monday morning when there had been dozens of impressions and zero clicks on any of my served up headlines. That was actually only half of it. The other half being that I had still yet to run across my own blog title and link in a BlogRush application on any other site.

Strike 2 came Tuesday morning. By this time, my interest in keeping the app on my page had already hit the skids. So when I loaded up my front page and it took an extra 10 seconds while it tried to load the BlogRush app, if I had not been at work and heading in to a meeting, I would have removed the code right then and there.

Tuesday ended up being busy and I never got back around to removing the app from the site. Then came Wednesday.

When I loaded up the page on Wednesday morning, in place of the BlogRush app was an error message. Apparently they were having troubles with their system and they would be back up soon. Strike 3. This time I was not heading in to a meeting so I removed the app from the site immediately.

This is certainly not the first web tool that came on like a lion and left with a wimper and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I wish the guys over at BlogRush all the success they can handle. But, you’ll need to get there without this geek.