Sunday, April 30, 2006

getting taken

Once, I did about the stupidest thing a teenager can do!

At 14 (a long time ago), I answered the phone. It was just after getting home from school. The man asked for my father, and he used his first name. I said he wasn't home and asked if he wanted to leave a message. He then asked, is your mom home? I told him no, she was out.

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He asked if I could help him? Then, he told me he was from the alarm company and my father asked him for a quote to have an alarm installed in the house. He was in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by the house? He wanted to see how many windows and doors were in the house which needed to be wired. Otherwise, he would have to return in about three weeks when he was in the neighbourhood again.

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I wasn't aware my Dad was installing an alarm. However, I didn't want to tell him he had to wait another three weeks to get the quote. You guessed it. I let him in the house! I watched while he measured the windows and doors. He made note of the measurements on his pad. Then, he left.

As an air-headed teen-ager, who forgot information quickly, I completely forgot to tell my dad until almost a week later. His jaw about hit the floor! I don't ever remember seeing him so angry or upset. My parents searched the house with a fine-toothed comb, yet nothing was missing. My parents called the police. However, since nothing was missing, and I hadn't been hurt, they said there wasn't nothing to be done. They did suggest my parents have an alarm installed.

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A week passed and nothing happened. My mother figured the man was probably legitimate and simply had the wrong house. But, I had to remind her he asked for my dad, by name. That was why I trusted him. As my Dad pointed noted, I hadn't considered my Dad's first name was in the phone book!

My father (an ex-Major in the army) called both my brothers (big lads). They were both married. He asked them to help him to catch the robber(s). Each night, one of my brothers, or my dad, would wait all night, armed with my dad's shotgun. This lasted a full two weeks. My mother thought my dad was crazy. She begged him to stop!

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So, it's three weeks to the day after getting the call. A man, who is dressed in all-black with a ski mask over his face, snuck in through the basement door. This was in the middle of the night. He did all this only to be met by my oldest brother, who was holding a shotgun in his face. My other brother's doberman pincer was waiting to rip the guy apart.

My Dad hog-tied him, in his Lazy Boy chair. Then, he called the police while my brother (an ex-policeman) held the gun, pointed at the robber. When the police arrived, my father got me up from a sound sleep. The police asked me to identify the man. Sure as day, it was the same guy I had let into the house three weeks earlier.

He went to jail and it taught me a very valuable lesson.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

understand the Google SERPs history

Everflux appeared before June 2002. Google was integrating the results of the "fresh crawl" into their index daily. Seems some kind of PR-on-the-fly calculation had been in-place for this advance to be possible.

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Yet, until that bombshell of an update called Florida (circa Nov 2003), Google SERPs were relatively static per month. Those roughly, monthly updates were highly expected by webmasters. They displayed results for whatever Google had eaten in the past few weeks. This included, I believe, a major PR re-calculation. This was to replace the everflux "estimated" PR.

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In those nearly pre-historic days, it seems PR was being precisely crunched about once a month. This included some form of estimated PR (quick PR) being used for fresh crawl web pages.

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Beginning with the Florida update (which had 3-4 months of behind-the-scenes preparation), Google used a very different type of ranking calculation. We no longer had the fun of monthly updates. Still, there was everflux. In addition, there were lower-level algorithm shifts. These were created by "dial turning" of the existing algorithm. Major updates began occurring only when entirely new algorithm factors were installed. Each new factor was complete with its own set of "dials".

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How long before we started noticing the sandbox effect, after Florida. Was it about 6 months, or less? PR was already being continuously re-calculated for over a year at that point. During this period, we saw no sandbox effect.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

MSN spaces background

MSN Spaces is the free, Microsoft blog platform. The website was launched in early December, 2004. The plan is to make the process of blogging simple and straightforward. It competes with similar services like Google's Blogger and Yahoo!'s 360ยบ.

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After completing a simple signup process, a blog is ready for use. Microsoft offers a many themes to suit someone's style. The software is compatible with MSN Messenger 7 and above. It shows other people's spaces in their contacts section. In the summer of 2006, MSN Spaces changes its name to Windows Live Spaces.

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During April, 2005, the team from MSN Spaces increased the storage limit from 30 MB to 500 MB. Later, it was upgraded again to an unlimited amount (500 new images per month limit).

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At the launch of MSN Spaces, several themes were available. Now, there are over 100 themes from which to choose. New blog entries are e-mailed by cell phone or computer. This is ideal for members wanting to post entries because the MSN Spaces domain is blocked by web filters.

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To prevent spoofing, it is best if users do not give out their MSN Spaces e-mail address. Another way to post a new blog entry is to send an SMS. The service requires a UK phone number.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

PPS, revshare, and an opinion

I am so sick of revshare programs screaming how they make people more money. As a successful PPS sponsor, I will give you a straight explanation why PPS is better than RevShare, in the long run.

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Revshare 101.

The bottom line is Revshare programs, like PPS, exist to turn a profit. As much profit as possible. They are unhappy with a 2% return. If they are losing money, they lower the %. If they are completely losing money, they go out of business. PROFIT IS THE BOTTOM LINE.

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Given the above, let me explain my logical conclusion to the statement "you make more with revshare than PPS, so promote our revshare program" below.

Either:

1) the revshare program can't pay-per-signup and they hope to spin things in their favor. There is no shame in this. For PPS, it requires a huge up-front investment. If a small revshare program can't afford PPS, kudos to them for using revshare. It's better than nothing. We started with revshare and pay-per-active. It was a good starting point SEVEN years ago.

or,

2) the revshare program can afford to pay-per-signup, but THEY make a LOT more money by convincing sheep to take all the risk.

or,

3) they actually make less money. If they are saying you make more with their revshare program (versus pps), then it means they are making less with revshare vs pps. The dollar is divided only so many ways.

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My response to these 3 points...

1) It is respectable if they are honest.

2) You are getting schooled. Go back to McDonald's.

3) This is highly unlikely. They wouldn't make a choice to earn less. They ain't yo momma. They don't love you. They do not have high hopes for your future as a doctor. They are a business. They do this to earn a profit. Remember the universal truth we are all here to make a profit.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

importance of DNS

For webmasters, DNS knowledge (and its implementation in BIND or other software) is not something which generally comes to the forefront. There are postmasters and those responsible for internet connectivity in companies or organizations large enough to have a dedicated Internet connections. They need to know about DNS in some detail.

The diagnostics at dnsreport are great. They are a useful webmaster tool. Use it the way a company looks at an external auditor. You expect the IT staff to comply with industry best practices. The auditor simply confirms it. However, the auditor doesn't know everything about the business. Sometimes a risk is aceptable, though the auditor red flags it.

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Effectively, unless you run your name server, this function is done by the hosting provider. This kind of check ensures you get solid value for the hosting dollar.

With hosting being so competitive, there's a lot of variation of expertise brought to system adminstration. Anything to let us "size up" the quality of a hosting provider is a welcome tool.

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It's hard to overstate DNS's importance to website owners. Without a working authoritative name service for a domain, no requests arrive to your website. This means no mail arrives either. But, this piece of infrastructure gets little attention, probably because it usually works.

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