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• Replace links from specific domain with text (PHP)

  - by nuphero

  Hi guys. I have : <a href="http://abc.com">Title</a> And : <a href="http://xyz.com">Title</a> I want to replace link to text "Title", but only from http://abc.com. But I don't know how ( I tried Google ), can you explain for me. I'm not good in PHP. Thanks in advance.

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• What does 14px/26px font size in css do?

  - by Castles

  I've been inspecting someone elses CSS and I noticed they are doing something I haven't seen before... body {font:14px/26px "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif} What does the 14px/26px do? I've tried to google it but nothing seems to come up.

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• How can I dynamically resize the jQuery Colorbox plugin?

  - by James Skidmore

  The AJAX content loaded in a Colorbox has some JavaScript included that resizes things within the content. Colorbox determines its sizing based on the sizes before all of the AJAX happens. How can I make the Colorbox resize after the content has been loaded? Here is a link where someone said that you can call colorbox() again after it's been loaded, but I can't figure out how to do that: http://groups.google.com/group/colorbox/browse_thread/thread/535d21c69e9006b0

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• What does the <% $Resources:My.Resource %> access?

  - by Jack

  I tried searching, but I guess the <% $ % triggers something on google and it turns up nothing. What is this accessing in an asp.net .aspx page? I've used the = but never a $.

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• mysql: reversed content col for LIKE '%foo' - good practise?

  - by Haroldo

  I was recently watching a google lecture on mysql and learnt that MySQL wont use indexes for LIKE '%foo' searches. My site's 'live search' (ajax search) searches the column full_details(TEXT), should i create a reversed version like full_details_rev(TEXT) and index that? Or should i not index large text fields at all?

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• WARNING: RubyGems 1.2+ index not found for: RubyGems will revert to legacy indexes degrading per

  - by Sam

  WARNING: RubyGems 1.2+ index not found for: RubyGems will revert to legacy indexes degrading performance. If anyone can walk me through this problem I will give them $50.00 I've exhausted google, have reinstalled everything. All i want to to is gem install ... that's it

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• Configuring Cisco 877W router from scratch for DHCP, WiFi, ADSL2+, NAT

  - by David M Williams

  Hi all, I apologise if this is a BIG question but I am quite lost with the Cisco IOS. I know what I want to achieve just not how to do it :( I have a Cisco 877W router with 4 FastEthernet interfaces, 1 ATM interface and 1 802.11 Radio. I want to set it up for a small network and am trying to construct a configuration below. I was using Google to try and flesh it out but I think I need help and guidance from actual experts! If it helps, output from show ver says Cisco IOS software, C870 software (C870-ADVSECURITYK9-M), version 12.4(4)T7, release software (fc1) ROM: System bootstrap, version 12.3(8r)YI4, release software Here's what I have so far, which hopefully outlines clearly enough what I am wanting to do. The bits in angle brackets are placeholders (eg the secret password). ! ! Set router hostname ! hostname Shazam ! ! Set usernames and passwords ! username david privilege 15 secret 0 <PASSWORD> enable secret <SECRETPASSWORD> ! ! Configure SSH and telnet access ! line vty 0 4 privilege level 15 login local transport input telnet ssh ! ! Local logging ! logging buffered 51200 warning ! ! Set date and time for NSW, Australia (GMT +10h) ! ! ! Set router IP address to 192.168.1.1 on FastEthernet0 port ! interface FastEthernet0 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 no shut ip nat inside ! ! Forward any unknown DNS requests to Google ! ip dns server ip name-server 8.8.8.8 ip name-server 8.8.4.4 ! ! Set up DHCP ! DHCP pool covers 192.168.1.100 - .199 ! Set gateway and DNS server to be the router, ie 192.168.1.1 ! service dhcp ip routing ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.99 ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.255 ip dhcp pool <DHCPPOOLNAME> network 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 default-router 192.168.1.1 dns-server 192.168.1.1 lease 7 ! ! DHCP reservations ! ! Assign IP address 192.168.1.105 to MAC address 00-21-5D-2F-58-04 ! ! Configure ADSL2 connection details ! interface atm dsl operating-mode adsl2+ ! ! Set up NAT rules ! ! Forward port 35394 to 192.168.1.105 ! ! Set up WiFi ! ! SSID visible, WPA2 security, Pre-shared key I'm hoping most of this is boiler-plate stuff to you guys. I'm keen to not just get a working script but to actually understand it also. Unfortunately, I'm finding the Cisco reference material online very complex. Thank you!

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• Running two wsgi applications on the same server gdal org exception with apache2/modwsgi

  - by monkut

  I'm trying to run two wsgi applications, one django and the other tilestache using the same server. The tilestache server accesses the db via django to query the db. In the process of serving tiles it performs a transform on the incoming bbox, and in this process hit's the following error. The transform works without error for the specific bbox polygon when run manually from the python shell: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 325, in __call__ mimetype, content = requestHandler(self.config, environ['PATH_INFO'], environ['QUERY_STRING']) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 231, in requestHandler mimetype, content = getTile(layer, coord, extension) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 84, in getTile tile = layer.render(coord, format) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/Core.py", line 295, in render tile = provider.renderArea(width, height, srs, xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax, coord.zoom) File "/var/www/tileserver/providers.py", line 59, in renderArea bbox.transform(METERS_SRID) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/geos/geometry.py", line 520, in transform g = gdal.OGRGeometry(self.wkb, srid) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py", line 131, in __init__ self.__class__ = GEO_CLASSES[self.geom_type.num] File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py", line 245, in geom_type return OGRGeomType(capi.get_geom_type(self.ptr)) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geomtype.py", line 43, in __init__ raise OGRException('Invalid OGR Integer Type: %d' % type_input) OGRException: Invalid OGR Integer Type: 1987180391 I think I've hit the non thread safe issue with GDAL, metioned on the django site. Is there a way I could configure this so that it would work? Apache Version: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) mod_wsgi/3.3 Python/2.7.3 configured Apache apache2/sites-available/default: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin ironman@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/bin LogLevel warn WSGIDaemonProcess lbs processes=2 maximum-requests=500 threads=1 WSGIProcessGroup lbs WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/bin/apache/django.wsgi Alias /static /var/www/lbs/static/ </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:8080> ServerAdmin ironman@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/bin LogLevel warn WSGIDaemonProcess tilestache processes=1 maximum-requests=500 threads=1 WSGIProcessGroup tilestache WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/bin/tileserver/tilestache.wsgi </VirtualHost> Django Version: 1.4 httpd.conf: Listen 8080 NameVirtualHost *:8080 UPDATE I've added the a test.wsgi script to determine if the GLOBAL interpreter setting is correct, as mentioned by graham and described here: http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/CheckingYourInstallation#Sub_Interpreter_Being_Used It seems to show the expected result: [Tue Aug 14 10:32:01 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) mod_wsgi/3.3 Python/2.7.3 configured -- resuming normal operations [Tue Aug 14 10:32:01 2012] [info] mod_wsgi (pid=29891): Attach interpreter ''. I've worked around the issue for now by changing the srs used in the db so that the transform is unnecessary in tilestache app. I don't understand why the transform() method, when called in the django app works, but then in the tilestache app fails. tilestache.wsgi #!/usr/bin/python import os import time import sys import TileStache current_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) project_dir = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(current_dir, "..", "..")) sys.path.append(project_dir) sys.path.append(current_dir) os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'bin.settings' sys.stdout = sys.stderr # wait for the apache django lbs server to start up, # --> in order to retrieve the tilestache cfg time.sleep(2) tilestache_config_url = "http://127.0.0.1/tilestache/config/" application = TileStache.WSGITileServer(tilestache_config_url) UPDATE 2 So it turned out I did need to use a projection other than the google (900913) one in the db. So my previous workaround failed. While I'd like to fix this issue, I decided to work around the issue this type by making a django view that performs the transform needed. So now tilestache requests the data through the django app and not internally.

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• How to publish an ASP.NET MVC application to a free host

  - by Lirik

  Hi, I'm using a free web host (0000free) which supports ASP.NET MVC, but it uses Mono. This is the first time I deploy an MVC application, so I'm a little confused as to where I need to deploy it. I have Visual Studio 2010 and I used its Publish Feature (i.e. right click on the project name and click publish) and I tried several things: Publish method: FTP to the root folder. Publish method: FTP to the publich_html folder. Publish method: File System to the root folder. Publish method: File System to the publich_html folder. Publish method: File System to a local directory on my computer and then FTP to root and also tried the public_html folder. I went into the cPanel (control panel) to try and see if ASP.NET has to be added/enabled for my web site, but I didn't see anything there. I can't browse to Index.aspx nor can I redirect to it from index.html (as suggested from other posts on the host forum), right now I have a link from index.html to Index.aspx but it's not working either (see http://www.mydevarmy.com) I've also tried renaming Index.aspx to Default.aspx, but that doesn't work either. The search utility of the forum of the host is somewhat weak, so I use google to search their forum: http://www.google.com/search?q=publish+asp.net+site%3A0000free.com%2Fforum%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a I've been reading Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework and they have a chapter about publishing, but it doesn't provide any specific information with respect to the location of publishing, this is all they say (and it's not very helpful in my case): Where Should I Put My Application? You can deploy your application to any folder on the server. When IIS first installs, it automatically creates a folder for a web site called Default Web Site at c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\, but you shouldn’t feel any obligation to put your application files there. It’s very common to host applications on a different physical drive from the operating system (e.g., in e:\websites\ example.com). It’s entirely up to you, and may be influenced by concerns such as how you plan to back up the server. Here is the exception I get when I try to view my Index.aspx page: Unrecognized attribute 'targetFramework'. (/home/devarmy/public_html/Web.config line 1) Description: HTTP 500. Error processing request. Stack Trace: System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Unrecognized attribute 'targetFramework'. (/home/devarmy/public_html/Web.config line 1) at System.Configuration.ConfigurationElement.DeserializeElement (System.Xml.XmlReader reader, Boolean serializeCollectionKey) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSection.DoDeserializeSection (System.Xml.XmlReader reader) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSection.DeserializeSection (System.Xml.XmlReader reader) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Configuration.Configuration.GetSectionInstance (System.Configuration.SectionInfo config, Boolean createDefaultInstance) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSectionCollection.get_Item (System.String name) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Configuration.Configuration.GetSection (System.String path) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.GetSection (System.String sectionName, System.String path, System.Web.HttpContext context) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.GetSection (System.String sectionName, System.String path) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.GetWebApplicationSection (System.String sectionName) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.get_CompilationConfig () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.Build (System.Web.VirtualPath vp) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetCompiledType (System.Web.VirtualPath virtualPath) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetCompiledType (System.String virtualPath) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Web.HttpApplicationFactory.InitType (System.Web.HttpContext context) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

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• Have I pushed the limits of my current VPS or is there room for optimization?

  - by JRameau

  I am currently on a mediatemple DV server (basic) 512mb dedicated ram, this is a CentOS based VPS with Plesk and Virtuozzo. My experience with it from day 1 has been bad and I only could sooth my server issues with several caching "Band-aids," but my sites are not as small as they were a year ago either so the issues have worsen. I have 3 Drupal installs running on separate (plesk) domains, 1 of those drupal installs is a multisite, that consists of 5-6 sites 2 of those sites are bringing in actual traffic. Those caching "Band-aids" I mentioned are APC, which seemed to help alot initially, and Drupal's Boost, which is considered a poorman's Varnish, it makes all my pages static for anonymous users. Last 30day combined estimate on Google Ananlytics: 90k visitors 260k pageviews. Issue: alot of downtime, I am continually checking if my sites are up, and lately I have been finding it down more than 3 times daily. Restarting Apache will bring it back up, for some time. I have google search every error message and looked up ways to optimize my DV server, and I am beyond stump what is my next move. Is this server bad, have I hit a impossibly low restriction such as the 12mb kernel memory barrier (kmemsize), is it on my end, do I need to optimize some more? *I have provided as much information as I can below, any help or suggestions given will be appreciated Common Error messages I see in the log: [error] (12)Cannot allocate memory: fork: Unable to fork new process [error] make_obcallback: could not import mod_python.apache.\n Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line 21, in ? import traceback File "/usr/lib/python2.4/traceback.py", line 3, in ? import linecache ImportError: No module named linecache [error] python_handler: no interpreter callback found. [warn-phpd] mmap cache can't open /var/www/vhosts/***/httpdocs/*** - Too many open files in system (pid ***) [alert] Child 8125 returned a Fatal error... Apache is exiting! [emerg] (43)Identifier removed: couldn't grab the accept mutex [emerg] (22)Invalid argument: couldn't release the accept mutex cat /proc/user_beancounters: Version: 2.5 uid resource held maxheld barrier limit failcnt 41548: kmemsize 4582652 5306699 12288832 13517715 21105036 lockedpages 0 0 600 600 0 privvmpages 38151 42676 229036 249036 0 shmpages 16274 16274 17237 17237 2 dummy 0 0 0 0 0 numproc 43 46 300 300 0 physpages 27260 29528 0 2147483647 0 vmguarpages 0 0 131072 2147483647 0 oomguarpages 27270 29538 131072 2147483647 0 numtcpsock 21 29 300 300 0 numflock 8 8 480 528 0 numpty 1 1 30 30 0 numsiginfo 0 1 1024 1024 0 tcpsndbuf 648440 675272 2867477 4096277 1711499 tcprcvbuf 301620 359716 2867477 4096277 0 othersockbuf 4472 4472 1433738 2662538 0 dgramrcvbuf 0 0 1433738 1433738 0 numothersock 12 12 300 300 0 dcachesize 0 0 2684271 2764800 0 numfile 3447 3496 6300 6300 3872 dummy 0 0 0 0 0 dummy 0 0 0 0 0 dummy 0 0 0 0 0 numiptent 14 14 200 200 0 TOP: (In January the load avg was really high 3-10, I was able to bring it down where it is currently is by giving APC more memory play around with) top - 16:46:07 up 2:13, 1 user, load average: 0.34, 0.20, 0.20 Tasks: 40 total, 2 running, 37 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 0.3% us, 0.1% sy, 0.0% ni, 99.7% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si Mem: 916144k total, 156668k used, 759476k free, 0k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached MySQLTuner: (after optimizing every table and repairing any table with overage I got the fragmented count down to 86) [--] Data in MyISAM tables: 285M (Tables: 1105) [!!] Total fragmented tables: 86 [--] Up for: 2h 44m 38s (409K q [41.421 qps], 6K conn, TX: 1B, RX: 174M) [--] Reads / Writes: 79% / 21% [--] Total buffers: 58.0M global + 2.7M per thread (100 max threads) [!!] Query cache prunes per day: 675307 [!!] Temporary tables created on disk: 35% (7K on disk / 20K total)

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• What is wrong in my DKIM setup? I'm getting all fails

  - by djechelon

  I own a domain name I have implemented SPF and DKIM to avoid my mails being junked. I have also upgraded to DMARC in monitor mode. Since I received a few failure reports recently I wanted to investigate more. I have only one server sending outbound emails, running postfix + dkimproxy. I trust that dkimproxy has no major software bugs resulting in bad messages. I have tested ReturnPath's automated DKIM test and this is the part related to DKIM/DomainKeys DKIM Results ============ Result = failed: invalid key for signature: Syntax error in tag: \"v Domain = domain.org Selector = sel DNS Record(s) = sel._domainkey.domain.org TXT "v=1; p=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; t=s" Public Key Length = 4096 DomainKeys Results ================== Domain = domain.org Selector = sel DNS Record(s) = sel._domainkey.domain.org TXT "v=1; p=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; t=s" The mail displays an anonymised DNS record with genuine public key. It reports an error in tag v. A few hours ago I noticed my v tag was v=DKIM1 instead of v=1 as specified in RFC. I thought it was an error made by me during the initial setup months ago and fixed to v=1, but anyway I received one DMARC success from Google. Let me explain better: I enforced DMARC a couple of days ago. On 4/16 morning I got a mail from Google telling me that DMARC fully passes, then since 4/17 I get all failures. Then I discovered the v=DKIM1 tag and replaced with v=1 without success I have not modified my DNS records before that. So, keeping in topic with the question, why does ReturnPath refuse my DKIM DNS record? Is something wrong in my DKIM implementation at DNS level? [Add] I have just tried port25.com's tester but at least DKIM passes ---------------------------------------------------------- DomainKeys check details: ---------------------------------------------------------- Result: permerror (DK_STAT_BADKEY: Unusable key, public if verifying, private if signing.) ID(s) verified: header.From=########### DNS record(s): sel._domainkey.domain.org. 1800 IN TXT ""v=1; p=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; t=s"" ---------------------------------------------------------- DKIM check details: ---------------------------------------------------------- Result: pass (matches From: #########) ID(s) verified: header.d=domain.org Canonicalized Headers: message-id:<[email protected]>'0D''0A' date:Thu,'20'18'20'Apr'20'2013'20'11:40:26'20'+0200'0D''0A' from:#############'0D''0A' mime-version:1.0'0D''0A' to:[email protected]'0D''0A' subject:Test'0D''0A' content-type:text/plain;'20'charset=ISO-8859-15;'20'format=flowed'0D''0A' content-transfer-encoding:7bit'0D''0A' dkim-signature:v=1;'20'a=rsa-sha1;'20'c=relaxed;'20'd=domain.org;'20'h='20'message-id:date:from:mime-version:to:subject:content-type'20':content-transfer-encoding;'20's=dom;'20'bh=uoq1oCgLlTqpdDX/iUbLy7J1Wi'20'c=;'20'b= Canonicalized Body: '0D''0A' DNS record(s): sel._domainkey.domain.org. 1800 IN TXT ""v=1; p=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; t=s"" Public key used for verification: sel._domainkey.domain.org (4096 bits)

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• Where should I go with hosting my site: VPS, GAE, another option?

  - by Jonathan Hayward

  My website, http://JonathansCorner.com/, began life before 1994 as www.imsa.edu/~jhayward/ and has been through various iterations and improvements to content, HTML, and the like, but remains a literature site that is from a web administrator's perspective fairly simple and primitive: a fair amount of static HTML and supporting files, a little bit of CGI and URI rewriting, .htaccess files providing Expires: headers and the like. An associated site demoes various CGI scripts that fall under the category of "and other creations"; the site as a whole has the purpose of sharing my creative works, and so far a fairly rudimentary use of Apache functionality, supported by Unix tools to, for instance, update RSS feed and the "starting point" link on the home page, has served that purpose fairly well. I looked around here on web hosting, and found the note on web host reccommendations as a good note for "What are some of people's favorite web hosts overall," but I wanted to ask a more focused question of "What are the best web hosts for criteria XYZ:" I am looking at a VPS so I will have root, be able to install stuff and edit Apache's config files etc., running Gentoo or other Linux, BSD, or the like. I would like a system that is secure enough that the host's vulnerabilities are mostly the ones that come along with what I am trying to do: that is, I won't be trying to administer and secure an ancient Linux like some have complained about at 1and1. I would like good uptime/reliability and competent support staff: if the level 1 help desk is going to tell me to go to "My Computer" on a Linux box, I'd like to be able to get past them. Ideally I would like a site hosted within some place that will have low latency for U.S. visitors in particular. I would like a hosting solution that will be with a stable business, one that will probably be around, and one unlikely to vanish without warning. With those things specified, I would be interested in knowing what are the less expensive options. (I expect that some of the things I've specified will knock out all of the cheapest options, but I'm still interested in price.) With all that stated, I'd like to back up a bit and look at whether I am asking the right question. I am concerned that the above is a very good way of asking, "How can I keep my site in line with the wave of the past?" I am wondering if it might be specifically wiser to look to adapt my site to newer technologies instead of trying to keep it on older technologies. For instance, while I would hardly portray my site as a way to show off the full power of Google App Engine, the main site at least should be a straightforward port if I were to do that. And beyond Google App Engine, my knowledge of cloud solutions is basic. If it is a better and more future-proof solution to port my site to another kind of solution, I would be interested in knowing where those future-proof solutions lie. So I would be interested in wisdom. If the question I asked in detail is still a good question to be asking, what would people suggest? Or if I should seriously consider porting my site to a newer basic option, what should I try there? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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• Backup a hosted Sharepoint

  - by David Mackintosh

  One of my customers has outsourced their Sharepoint and Exchange services to a hosted services provider. I believe it is a Sharepoint 2007 service. It is a shared hosting solution, so we do not have any kind of access to the server itself; we only have user-level and sharepoint-administrator-level access to the Sharepoint application. They have come to the point where they would like to have a copy of everything that is on the Sharepoint server. I have downloaded the Office Sharepoint Designer 2007, and it features three (!) ways to backup a Sharepoint server, none (!) of which work for me: File-Export-Personal Web Package: When selecting everything, it calculates a negative size. Barfs with No "content-type" in CGI environment error. File-Export-Sharepoint Template: barfs with a A World Wide Web browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, is required to use this feature error. Site-Administration-Backup Web Site: wants to create the backup .cmp file on the sharepoint server itself. I don't have access to any servers on the same network so I can't redirect it to any form of the suggested \\server\place. Barfs with a The Web application at $URL could not be found. [...] error. Possibly moot because Google tells me that bad things happen using OSD to back up sites larger than 24MB (which this site is most definitely). So I called the helpdesk of the outsource provider, and got told that they recommend using OSD, but no they don't actually provide any application support for OSD (not that I blame them for that), but they could do a stsadm.exe backup and provide us with that, and OSD should be able to read the resulting cmp file. Then for authorization reasons they had my customer call them directly (since I can't authorize such an operation), and they told him that he didn't want a stsadm.exe backup, he wanted to get into an 'explorer view' and deal with things that way (they were vague). Google hasn't been much help in figuring out what an 'explorer view' is, let alone how I bring one up. The end goal of this operation is to have a backup of the site as it exists (hopefully today, but shortly anyways) in such a format that we don't need another sharepoint server to restore it to. Ie we'd like to be able to pick individual content directly out of this backup. We are not excessively concerned with things like formatting. We just want the documents. This is a fairly complex site with multiple subsites and multiple folders per subsite, so sitting there and manually downloading each file isn't really going to happen if there is a better easier way. So, my questions: Is the stsadm.exe backup what I want? If not, what do I want? If I manage to convince them that I do want the stsadm.exe backup, can I pick files out of the resulting backup file with OSD? If OSD isn't going to let me extract individual files, is there a tool I can use that can?

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• Apache access.log interpretation

  - by Pantelis Sopasakis

  In the log file of apache (access.log) I find log entries like the following: 10.20.30.40 - - [18/Mar/2011:02:12:44 +0200] "GET /index.php HTTP/1.1" 404 505 "-" "Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; U; en) Presto/2.7.62 Version/11.01" Whose meaning is clear: The client with IP 10.20.30.40 applied a GET HTTP method on /index.php (that is to say http://mysite.org/index.php) receiving a status code 404 using Opera as client/browser. What I don't understand is entries like the following: 174.34.231.19 - - [18/Mar/2011:02:24:56 +0200] "GET http://www.siasatema.com HTTP/1.1" 200 469 "-" "Python-urllib/2.4" So here what I see is that someone (client with IP 174.34.231.19) accessed http://www.siasatema.com and got a 200 HTTP status code(?). It doesn't make sense to me... the only interpretation I can think of is that my apache server acts like proxy! Here are some other requests that don't have my site as destination... 187.35.50.61 - - [18/Mar/2011:01:28:20 +0200] "POST http://72.26.198.222:80/log/normal/ HTTP/1.0" 404 491 "-" "Octoshape-sua/1010120" 87.117.203.177 - - [18/Mar/2011:01:29:59 +0200] "CONNECT 64.12.244.203:80 HTTP/1.0" 405 556 "-" "-" 87.117.203.177 - - [18/Mar/2011:01:29:59 +0200] "open 64.12.244.203 80" 400 506 "-" "-" 87.117.203.177 - - [18/Mar/2011:01:30:04 +0200] "telnet 64.12.244.203 80" 400 506 "-" "-" 87.117.203.177 - - [18/Mar/2011:01:30:09 +0200] "64.12.244.203 80" 400 301 "-" "-" I believe that all these are related to some kind of attack or abuse of the server. Could someone explain to may what is going on and how to cope with this situation? Update 1: I disabled mod_proxy to make sure that I don't have an open proxy: # a2dismod proxy Where from I got the message: Module proxy already disabled I made sure that there is no file proxy.conf under $APACHE/mods-enabled. Finally, I set on my browser (Mozzila) my IP as a proxy and tried to access http://google.com. I was not redirected to google.com but instead my web page appeared. The same happened with trying to access http://a.b (!). So my server does not really work as a proxy since it does not forward the requests... But I think it would be better if somehow I could configure it to return a status code 403. Here is my apache configuration file: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName mysite.org ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/ <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log LogLevel warn CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/" <Directory "/usr/share/doc/"> Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128 </Directory> </VirtualHost> Update 2: Using a block, I restrict the use of other methods than GET and POST... <Limit POST PUT CONNECT HEAD OPTIONS DELETE PATCH PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK> Order deny,allow Deny from all </Limit> <LimitExcept GET> Order deny,allow Deny from all </LimitExcept> Now methods other that GET are forbidden (403). My only question now is whether there is some trick to boot those how try to use my server as a proxy out...

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• Installing .NET Framework 4 Client Profile breaks Windows Update

  - by Richard

  I have a Samsung NC-10 netbook with a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit (it only had 2GB). If Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile is installed on it, Windows Update will always return error code 8024402F ("Windows Update encountered an unknown error"). As soon as I uninstall it, Windows Update works just fine again. Out of the four computers in this house, only this netbook has the problem. My question is: How can I get the .NET Framework 4 Client Profile installed on my netbook and continue to have a functioning Windows Update? ----- More information ----- The hard-drive recently died on my netbook so I replaced it with a nice new SSD and did a fresh installation of Windows 7 Home Premium (SP1) - along with all the updates. At some point I found that, when I ran Windows Update, I was greeted with error code 8024402F ("Windows Update encountered an unknown error"). Looking in C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log, I saw the following issue: WARNING: ECP: Failed to validate cab file digest downloaded from http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/dflt/2012/02/4913552_4a5c9563d1f58c77f30d0d5c9999e4b8bff3ab21.cab with error 0x80091007 WARNING: ECP: This roundtrip contained some optimized updates which failed. New Update count = 0, Old Count = 3 FATAL: ProcessCoreMetadata did not return any update to be committed WARNING: Sync of Updates: 0x8024402f WARNING: SyncServerUpdatesInternal failed: 0x8024402f When I downloaded the CAB from the URL listed and opened it, it contained a file called 4913552.txt. A search on Google suggested that it's related to Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile. Other people had reported problems with it breaking Windows Update, but they were running Windows XP. I tried the steps outlined on the Microsoft site for this error code, but it reported that there was nothing wrong. I also found this superuser question, I tried all the answers listed but none of them made any difference. My router doesn't block ActiveX, changing my internet settings in IE made no difference, assuming it was a corrupted update repository didn't do anything (except wipe my update history), my date and time was correct, switching to Google's DNS didn't work and neither did disabling IPv6. Figuring that this update was corrupted, I repaired it and nothing changed. In desperation I un-installed it and Windows Update started working again! Brilliant! I then downloaded the full version from the Microsoft website, installed it and, thankfully, Windows Update continued to work just fine. A week later I turn on my netbook and Windows Update is broken again with exactly the same error message and log entries as before. Repairing .NET Framework 4 Client Profile did nothing, removing it entirely solved the problem again. Thinking this might be some odd Windows installation issue, I formatted the hard-drive and re-installed Windows. Same problem as before - as soon as .NET Framework 4 Client Profile ended up on the netbook, Windows Update stopped working and reported error 8024402F. As soon as it was un-installed, everything worked just fine again. There are three other machines in this house and all of them have working Windows Update and this Client Profile. Does anyone know why it causes this netbook to break and, more importantly, how I can fix it?

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• What is the best server or Ip address to use for prolonged testing?

  - by eldorel

  I usually run uptime/latency tests against (and from) two servers that we own at different sites and until recently I've used the google dns servers as a control group. However, I've realized there is a potential problem with monitoring latency over extended periods of time. Almost all of the major service providers are using ANYCAST. For short tests this doesn't matter, but I need to run a set of tests for at least a week to try and catch an intermittent problem, and a change in the anycast priority while trying to test latency will cause the latency values for that server to change accordingly. Since I'm submitting graphs of this data to the ISP, I need to avoid/account for as many variables as possible. Spikes in the data for only one of the tested servers will only cause headaches. So can anyone recommend servers that: are not using anycast are owned by an entity that has a good uptime reputation (so they can't claim that the problem is server-side) will respond to ICMP requests Have an available service that runs on TCP/UDP (http or dns preferably) Wont consider an automated request every 10 minutes to be abuse Are accessible from anywhere in the world Are not local to the isp ( consider this an investigation of a hostile party ) Thanks in advance. Edit: added #6 and #7 above. More info: I am attempting to demonstrate a network problem for an entire node of our local ISP's network. They are actively blaming the issue on the equipment installed at the customer sites (our backup site is one of these), and refuse to escalate the problem. (even though 2 of these businesses have ISP provided modems, and all of us have completely different routers/services running) I am already quite familiar with the need to test an isp controlled IP, but they are actively dropping all packets targeted at gateway ip addresses and are only passing traffic addressed beyond the gateways. So to demonstrate the issue, I am sending packets to other systems in the same node, systems one hop away from the affected node, and systems completely outside the network. Unfortunately, all of the systems I have currently are either administered directly by myself, or by people who are biased enough to assist me. I need to have several systems included in the trace/log/graphs that are 100% not in the control of either myself or the isp so that the graphs have a stable/unbiased control group. These requirements are straight from legal, I'm just trying to make sure that everything that could be argued to invalidate the data is already covered. In Summary: I need to be able to show tcp/udp/icmp as 3 separate data points, and I need to be able to show the connections inside the local node, from local node to another nearby node, from those 2 nodes to the internet, and through the internet to both verifiable servers and a control group that I have no control over whatsoever. Again, Google/opendns/yahoo/msn/facebook/etc all use anycast, which throws the numbers off every time the anycast caches expire, so I need suggestions of an IP or server that is available for this type of testing. I was hoping someone knew of a system run by someone such as ISC or ICANN, or perhaps even a .gov server (fcc or nsa maybe?) setup for this type of testing. Thanks again.

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• Windows 7, HTTPS WebDav: Asks for password twice and fails. Any workarounds?

  - by AutoDMC

  Howdy. I have a Dav server running with PHP SabreDav (code.google.com/p/sabredav/wiki/Windows) on Cherokee at an HTTPS secured URL. It's set to use https, and uses Digest Authentication. I can log in with multiple browsers and a few third party clients (BitKinex and Java AnyClient can connect and browse as well, caveats below). However, when attempting to log in with Windows 7 (surprise, surprise), it asks for my password twice, then tells me that my folder is invalid. I have verified that the server is using Digest authentication. I've verified multiple times that third party software can connect. I even went out and bought a GoDaddy SSL certificate so my SSL wouldn't be self signed anymore. I've applied the registry hacks here: support.microsoft.com/kb/943280 (Note that the article says the "fix" already exists for Windows 7, I just need magical registry hax to get it to work) I've applied the registry hacks here: support.microsoft.com/kb/941050 I've applied the registry hacks here: support.microsoft.com/kb/841215 (Supposedly allows Basic Auth, which shouldn't apply, but why not?) All to no avail; Windows continues to ask for my password twice, then state that "The folder you entered does not appear to be valid. Please choose another." Try the command line? Sure: I've attempted to access with NET USE "https://dav.example.com/" password /USER:me (System error 59) I've attempted to access with NET USE "https://dav.example.com/" (System error 1790) I've attempted to access with NET USE "https://dav.example.com/subdir/" password /USER:me (System error 59) I've attempted to access with NET USE "https://dav.example.com/subdir/" (System error 1790) For good luck: ping dav.example.com ... works. And again, web browsers can access the share just fine, so can third party tools. Best I can tell at this point is "HAHA, NO WEBDAV FOR YOU ON WINDOWS 7" which would be fine except everyone who will be using this application... uses Windows 7. And most are not as persistent or pugnacious as I am. I feel like I've burned through every random suggestion I've found anywhere in the first 10 pages of Google on every search term I can think of. Any ideas? I need it to be Webdav, I need it to be over HTTPS, and I really do need a method to access it from Windows 7. EXTRA DETAIL: However, the "third party" programs I've tried have either been buggy, incomplete, or have silly ... "glitches." For example, BitKinex seems to fixate on any http error codes sent, so if there's a glitch reading a directory, BAM, that directory is always listed empty. Long directory listings also show up as blank, even though the transfer panel shows that directory listing is still taking place. In any case, BitKinex is useless for development purposes for the reasons above. And besides, I'm building this for people other than myself, people who will want to get this dav share working "the regular way."

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• I am starting to think that Prevx.com isnt a legit site...but heres my long-winded question

  - by cop1152

  I apologize in advance for the long-winded post. I posted it all because I believe its informative and may be useful. Also, I posted my question at the end. Moments ago I was RDC to a file server in my home (from inside my home). I had opened Firefox and Googled for a manufacturers website. Immediately after clicking the link, Firefox abruptly closed. This seemed odd to me to so I checked the running processes and discovered d.exe, e.exe, and f.exe running. I Googled these processes on a different machine and found them belonging to a key-logger/screen-capturer/trojan called defender.exe, which according to the Prevx lives in c:\documents and settings\user\local settings\temp. (Prevx link http://www.prevx.com/filenames/147352809685142526-X1/DEFENDER32.EXE.html) Simultaneously, an obviously-spoofed Windows Firewall popup appeared on the server asking me to click ‘yes’ to update Windows Firewall. At this time I ended all rogue processes, emptied the temp folder, removed defender.exe from startup, and checked my registry and a few other locations. Before deleting Defender.exe I noted that it was created moments ago, just before Firefox crashed. I believe that I was ‘almost’ infected with this malware. I believe that it needed me to click the phony popup in order to complete infection because it wasn’t allowed to execute processes from the temp folder. After cleaning the machine, I restarted it and have been monitoring it for over an hour. I am debating on whether or not to restore the Windows partition (a separate physical drive from the data) or to just watch it for awhle. I should mention that, because of the specs on this machine, I do not run antivirus software, but I know it well and inspect it regularly. It is a very old Compaq with a 400mhz processer and 512mb of ram. I have a static IP and the server is in the DMZ running an FTP client and some HTTP server software. All files transferred to and stored on this machine are scanned for malware before transferring. Usually the machine only runs 19 processes and performs pretty well for its intended purpose. I posted the story so that you could be aware of a possible new piece of malware and how it acts, but I also have a question or two. First, over the last few months I have noticed that PREVX is listed at the top of most of my Google searches when researching malware, especially for new or obscure malware…and they always want you to purchase something. I don’t think they are one of the top AV companies, so it seems odd that they are always the top Google result. Does anyone have any experience with any of their products? Also, what sites do you rely on for malware researching? Recently, I have found it difficult to find good info because of HijackThis-logs and other deadend info cluttering up my searches. And lastly, besides antivirus, third-party firewall, etc, what settings would you use to lock down a machine to make it more secure in instances where a stubborn admin like myself refuses to run AV? Thanks.

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• How does the Cloud compare to Colocation? And development too

  - by David

  Currently I/we run a SaaS web application where each subscriber has their own physical instance of the application in addition to their own database. The setup has each web application instance deployed on two different IIS boxes both for load-balancing and redundancy (the machines have their Windows Update install times 12 hours apart, for example). Databases are mirrored on two different SQL Server 2012 machines with AlwaysOn for uptime. I don't make use of SQL Server clustering (as it doesn't provide storage-level failover: we don't have a shared storage box). Because it's a Windows setup it means there are two Domain Controllers (we cheat: they're both Mac Minis, 17W each, which keeps our colo power costs low). Finally there's also an Exchange server (Mailbox, Hub Transport and Client Access). One of the SQL Servers also doubles-up as an Exchange Hub Transport. Running costs are about $700 a month for our quarter-rack colocation (which includes power and peering/transfer), then there's about $150 a month for SPLA licensing, so $850 a month in total. Then there's the hard-to-quantify cost of administration, but I reckon I spend a couple of hours a week checking-in on the servers: reviewing event logs, etc. I keep getting bombarded by ads and manufactured news stories about how great "the cloud" is. Back in 2008 when the cloud was taking off I was reading up about the proper "cloud" services like Google AppEngine, where you write in Python against Google's API and that's how they scale your application across servers and also use their database provider for scaling storage. Simple enough to understand. Then came along Amazon, and I understand how Amazon Storage works, but I'm not sure how Amazon Compute works: web application pages don't take much CPU time to compute, how do you even quantify usage anyway? Finally, RackSpace gets in the act and now I'm really confused. RackSpace advertise "Cloud" SQL Server 2012 available for about "$0.70 per hour", going by how they advertise it I thought the "hour" meant the sum of CPU time, IO blocking time, maybe time spent transferring data, so for a low-intensity application that works out pretty cheap then? Nope. I went on to a Sales Chat window and spoke to one of their advisors. They told me the $0.70/hour was actually for every hour the SQL Server is running... but who wants a SQL Server for only a few hours? You're going to need it available 24 hours a day for months on end. $0.70 * 24 * 31 works out at $520 a month, which is rediculously expensive for SQL Server. An SPLA license for SQL Server is only $50 a month or so. That $520 a month does not include "fanatical support", and you also need to stack on top the costs of the host Windows server instance too. From what I can tell, Rackspace's "Cloud" products seem like like an cynical rebranding of an overpriced VPS service, but priced by the hour. I have the same confusion about Windows Azure which uses similar terms to describe the products available, but I think that's because Azure offers both traditional shared webhosting in addition to their own APIs you can target for scalable applications.

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• Create a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash Drive

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  The Ubuntu Live CD isn’t just useful for trying out Ubuntu before you install it, you can also use it to maintain and repair your Windows PC. Even if you have no intention of installing Linux, every Windows user should have a bootable Ubuntu USB drive on hand in case something goes wrong in Windows. Creating a bootable USB flash drive is surprisingly easy with a small self-contained application called UNetbootin. It will even download Ubuntu for you! Note: Ubuntu will take up approximately 700 MB on your flash drive, so choose a flash drive with at least 1 GB of free space, formatted as FAT32. This process should not remove any existing files on the flash drive, but to be safe you should backup the files on your flash drive. Put Ubuntu on your flash drive UNetbootin doesn’t require installation; just download the application and run it. Select Ubuntu from the Distribution drop-down box, then 9.10_Live from the Version drop-down box. If you have a 64-bit machine, then select 9.10_Live_x64 for the Version. At the bottom of the screen, select the drive letter that corresponds to the USB drive that you want to put Ubuntu on. If you select USB Drive in the Type drop-down box, the only drive letters available will be USB flash drives. Click OK and UNetbootin will start doing its thing. First it will download the Ubuntu Live CD. Then, it will copy the files from the Ubuntu Live CD to your flash drive. The amount of time it takes will vary depending on your Internet speed, an when it’s done, click on Exit. You’re not planning on installing Ubuntu right now, so there’s no need to reboot. If you look at the USB drive now, you should see a bunch of new files and folders. If you had files on the drive before, they should still be present. You’re now ready to boot your computer into Ubuntu 9.10! How to boot into Ubuntu When the time comes that you have to boot into Ubuntu, or if you just want to test and make sure that your flash drive works properly, you will have to set your computer to boot off of the flash drive. The steps to do this will vary depending on your BIOS – which varies depending on your motherboard. To get detailed instructions on changing how your computer boots, search for your motherboard’s manual (or your laptop’s manual for a laptop). For general instructions, which will suffice for 99% of you, read on. Find the important keyboard keys When your computer boots up, a bunch of words and numbers flash across the screen, usually to be ignored. This time, you need to scan the boot-up screen for a few key words with some associated keys: Boot menu and Setup. Typically, these will show up at the bottom of the screen. If your BIOS has a Boot Menu, then read on. Otherwise, skip to the Hard: Using Setup section. Easy: Using the Boot Menu If your BIOS offers a Boot Menu, then during the boot-up process, press the button associated with the Boot Menu. In our case, this is ESC. Our example Boot Menu doesn’t have the ability to boot from USB, but your Boot Menu should have some options, such as USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, USB-FLOPPY, and others. Try the options that start with USB until you find one that works. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work – you can just restart and try again. Using the Boot Menu does not change the normal boot order on your system, so the next time you start up your computer it will boot from the hard drive as normal. Hard: Using Setup If your BIOS doesn’t offer a Boot Menu, then you will have to change the boot order in Setup. Note: There are some options in BIOS Setup that can affect the stability of your machine. Take care to only change the boot order options. Press the button associated with Setup. In our case, this is F2. If your BIOS Setup has a Boot tab, then switch to it and change the order such that one of the USB options occurs first. There may be several USB options, such as USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, USB-FLOPPY, and others; try them out to see which one works for you. If your BIOS does not have a boot tab, boot order is commonly found in Advanced CMOS Options. Note that this changes the boot order permanently until you change it back. If you plan on only plugging in a bootable flash drive when you want to boot from it, then you could leave the boot order as it is, but you may find it easier to switch the order back to the previous order when you reboot from Ubuntu. Booting into Ubuntu If you set the right boot option, then you should be greeted with the UNetbootin screen. Press enter to start Ubuntu with the default options, or wait 10 seconds for this to happen automatically. Ubuntu will start loading. It should go straight to the desktop with no need for a username or password. And that’s it! From this live desktop session, you can try out Ubuntu, and even install software that is not included in the live CD. Installed software will only last for the duration of your session – the next time you start up the live CD it will be back to its original state. Download UNetbootin from sourceforge.net Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayReset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDHow-To Geek on Lifehacker: Control Your Computer with Shortcuts & Speed Up Vista SetupHow To Setup a USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 7Speed up Your Windows Vista Computer with ReadyBoost TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats Google Apps Marketplace: Tools & Services For Google Apps Users Get News Quick and Precise With Newser Scan for Viruses in Ubuntu using ClamAV Replace Your Windows Task Manager With System Explorer Create Talking Photos using Fotobabble

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• Ajax Control Toolkit and Superexpert

  - by Stephen Walther

  Microsoft has asked my company, Superexpert Consulting, to take ownership of the development and maintenance of the Ajax Control Toolkit moving forward. In this blog entry, I discuss our strategy for improving the Ajax Control Toolkit. Why the Ajax Control Toolkit? The Ajax Control Toolkit is one of the most popular projects on CodePlex. In fact, some have argued that it is among the most successful open-source projects of all time. It consistently receives over 3,500 downloads a day (not weekends -- workdays). A mind-boggling number of developers use the Ajax Control Toolkit in their ASP.NET Web Forms applications. Why does the Ajax Control Toolkit continue to be such a popular project? The Ajax Control Toolkit fills a strong need in the ASP.NET Web Forms world. The Toolkit enables Web Forms developers to build richly interactive JavaScript applications without writing any JavaScript. For example, by taking advantage of the Ajax Control Toolkit, a Web Forms developer can add modal dialogs, popup calendars, and client tabs to a web application simply by dragging web controls onto a page. The Ajax Control Toolkit is not for everyone. If you are comfortable writing JavaScript then I recommend that you investigate using jQuery plugins instead of the Ajax Control Toolkit. However, if you are a Web Forms developer and you don’t want to get your hands dirty writing JavaScript, then the Ajax Control Toolkit is a great solution. The Ajax Control Toolkit is Vast The Ajax Control Toolkit consists of 40 controls. That’s a lot of controls (For the sake of comparison, jQuery UI consists of only 8 controls – those slackers J). Furthermore, developers expect the Ajax Control Toolkit to work on browsers both old and new. For example, people expect the Ajax Control Toolkit to work with Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 9 and every version of Internet Explorer in between. People also expect the Ajax Control Toolkit to work on the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome. And, people expect the Ajax Control Toolkit to work with different operating systems. Yikes, that is a lot of combinations. The biggest challenge which my company faces in supporting the Ajax Control Toolkit is ensuring that the Ajax Control Toolkit works across all of these different browsers and operating systems. Testing, Testing, Testing Because we wanted to ensure that we could easily test the Ajax Control Toolkit with different browsers, the very first thing that we did was to set up a dedicated testing server. The dedicated server -- named Schizo -- hosts 4 virtual machines so that we can run Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9 at the same time (We also use the virtual machines to host the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari). The five developers on our team (plus me) can each publish to a separate FTP website on the testing server. That way, we can quickly test how changes to the Ajax Control Toolkit affect different browsers. QUnit Tests for the Ajax Control Toolkit Introducing regressions – introducing new bugs when trying to fix existing bugs – is the concern which prevents me from sleeping well at night. There are so many people using the Ajax Control Toolkit in so many unique scenarios, that it is difficult to make improvements to the Ajax Control Toolkit without introducing regressions. In order to avoid regressions, we decided early on that it was extremely important to build good test coverage for the 40 controls in the Ajax Control Toolkit. We’ve been focusing a lot of energy on building automated JavaScript unit tests which we can use to help us discover regressions. We decided to write the unit tests with the QUnit test framework. We picked QUnit because it is quickly becoming the standard unit testing framework in the JavaScript world. For example, it is the unit testing framework used by the jQuery team, the jQuery UI team, and many jQuery UI plugin developers. We had to make several enhancements to the QUnit framework in order to test the Ajax Control Toolkit. For example, QUnit does not support tests which include postbacks. We modified the QUnit framework so that it works with IFrames so we could perform postbacks in our automated tests. At this point, we have written hundreds of QUnit tests. For example, we have written 135 QUnit tests for the Accordion control. The QUnit tests are included with the Ajax Control Toolkit source code in a project named AjaxControlToolkit.Tests. You can run all of the QUnit tests contained in the project by opening the Default.aspx page. Automating the QUnit Tests across Multiple Browsers Automated tests are useless if no one ever runs them. In order for the QUnit tests to be useful, we needed an easy way to run the tests automatically against a matrix of browsers. We wanted to run the unit tests against Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari automatically. Expecting a developer to run QUnit tests against every browser after every check-in is just too much to expect. It takes 20 seconds to run the Accordion QUnit tests. We are testing against 8 browsers. That would require the developer to open 8 browsers and wait for the results after each change in code. Too much work. Therefore, we built a JavaScript Test Server. Our JavaScript Test Server project was inspired by John Resig’s TestSwarm project. The JavaScript Test Server runs our QUnit tests in a swarm of browsers (running on different operating systems) automatically. Here’s how the JavaScript Test Server works: 1. We created an ASP.NET page named RunTest.aspx that constantly polls the JavaScript Test Server for a new set of QUnit tests to run. After the RunTest.aspx page runs the QUnit tests, the RunTest.aspx records the test results back to the JavaScript Test Server. 2. We opened the RunTest.aspx page on instances of Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, FireFox, Chrome, Opera, Google, and Safari. Now that we have the JavaScript Test Server setup, we can run all of our QUnit tests against all of the browsers which we need to support with a single click of a button. A New Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit Each Month The Ajax Control Toolkit Issue Tracker contains over one thousand five hundred open issues and feature requests. So we have plenty of work on our plates J At CodePlex, anyone can vote for an issue to be fixed. Originally, we planned to fix issues in order of their votes. However, we quickly discovered that this approach was inefficient. Constantly switching back and forth between different controls was too time-consuming. It takes time to re-familiarize yourself with a control. Instead, we decided to focus on two or three controls each month and really focus on fixing the issues with those controls. This way, we can fix sets of related issues and avoid the randomization caused by context switching. Our team works in monthly sprints. We plan to do another release of the Ajax Control Toolkit each and every month. So far, we have competed one release of the Ajax Control Toolkit which was released on April 1, 2011. We plan to release a new version in early May. Conclusion Fortunately, I work with a team of smart developers. We currently have 5 developers working on the Ajax Control Toolkit (not full-time, they are also building two very cool ASP.NET MVC applications). All the developers who work on our team are required to have strong JavaScript, jQuery, and ASP.NET MVC skills. In the interest of being as transparent as possible about our work on the Ajax Control Toolkit, I plan to blog frequently about our team’s ongoing work. In my next blog entry, I plan to write about the two Ajax Control Toolkit controls which are the focus of our work for next release.

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• Getting Started with Boxee

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Boxee is a free Media PC application that runs on Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu Linux. With Boxee, you can integrate online video, music and pictures, with your own local media and social networking. Today we are going to take a closer look at Boxee and some of it’s features. Note: We used Windows 7 for this tutorial. Your experience on a Mac or Ubuntu Linux build may vary slightly. Hardware Requirements x86 (Intel/AMD processor) based system running at 1.0GHz or greater 512MB system memory (RAM) or more Video card capable of OpenGL 1.4, Direct X 9.0 Software Requirements Mac OS X 10.4+ (Intel based processor) Ubuntu Linux 9.04+ x86 only Windows XP / Vista / 7 (64 bit in Vista or 7) Installing Boxee Before downloading and installing Boxee, you’ll need to register for a free account. (See link below) Once your account is registered and verified, you’ll be able to log in and download the application. Installation is pretty straightforward…just take the defaults. Boxee will open in full screen mode and you’ll be prompted to login with your username and password. Before you login, you may want to take a moment to click on the “Guide” icon and learn a bit about navigating in Boxee. Some basic keyboard navigation is as follows. Move right, left, up, & down with the arrow keys. Hit “Enter” to make a selection, the forward slash key “\” to toggle between full screen and windowed mode, and “Esc” to go back to the previous screen. For Playback, the volume is controlled by plus & minus (+/-) keys, you can Play / Pause using the spacebar, and skip using the arrow keys. Boxee will also work with any infrared remote. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you can download software to enable them as a Boxee remote. If you’re using a mouse and keyboard, hover over the username and password boxes to enter your login credentials. If using a a remote, click your OK button and enter credentials with the on screen keyboard. Click “Done” when finished.   When you are ready to login, enter your credentials and click “Login.” On first login, you’ll be prompted to calibrate your screen. If you choose “Skip” you can always calibrate your screen later under Settings > Appearance > Screen. When Boxee opens, you’ll be greeted by the Home screen. To the left will be your Feeds. This will be any recommended content from friends on Boxee, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Although, when you first login, it will mainly be info from the Boxee staff. You’ll have “Featured” content in the center and your Queue on the right. You’ll also have the Menu along the top.   Pop Up Menu The Pop Menu can be accessed by hitting the “Esc” key, or back on your remote. Depending on where you are located in Boxee, you may have to hit it a few time to “back out” to the Pop Up menu. From the Pop Up Menu, you can easily access any of the resources, settings, and favorites. Queue The Queue is your playlist of TV shows, movies, or Internet videos you wish to watch. When you find an offering you’d like to watch, select it and then click “Add to Queue.” The selected item will be added to your Queue and can be accessed at any time from the Menu. TV Show Library The TV Show library can contain files from your local hard drive or streaming content from the Web. Boxee pulls content from a variety of online locations such as Hulu and TV network sites. Click on the show to see which specific episodes are currently available. To search for your favorite shows, click on the yellow arrow to the left, or navigate to the left with your keyboard or remote. Enter your selection into the search box. My Apps By default, the “My Apps” section includes a list of the most popular apps, such as Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, and others. You can remove Apps from “My Apps,” or add new Apps from the Apps Library.   To access all the available Apps, click on the left arrow button, or click on the yellow arrow at the left, then select “App Library.” Choose an App from the Library and click it to open… … and then select “Add to My Apps.” Or, you can click start to play the App if you don’t wish to Add it to your “My Apps.”   Music, Pictures, and Movies Boxee will scan your PC for movies, pictures, and music. You can choose to scan specific folders by clicking on “Scan Media Folders…” … or from the Pop Up Menu, selecting Settings > Media, and then browsing for your media.   Conclusion Boxee to be a great way to integrate your local media with online streaming content. It can be run as an application on your home PC, or as a stand alone media PC. It should also be noted, however, that your access to online content will vary depending on your country. If you are a Windows Media Center user and and want to add the additional features of Boxee, check out our article on integrating Boxee with Windows 7 Media Center. Download Boxee Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Integrate Boxee with Media Center in Windows 7Disable Fast User Switching on Windows XPOops! Sorry About the Feed ErrorsDisplay a list of Started Services from the Command Line (Windows)Feedburner to Google: Worst Transition Ever. TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Discover New Bundled Feeds in Google Reader Play Music in Chrome by Simply Dragging a File 15 Great Illustrations by Chow Hon Lam Easily Sync Files & Folders with Friends & Family Amazon Free Kindle for PC Download Stretch popurls.com with a Stylish Script (Firefox)

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• Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC today

  - by Matthew Guay

  Anticipation has been building for the new Windows Phone 7 Series ever since Microsoft unveiled it at the Mobile World Congress in February.  Now, thanks to free developer tools, you can get a first-hand experience of the basic Windows Phone 7 Series devices on your PC. Windows Phone 7 Series represents a huge change in the mobile field for Microsoft, bringing the acclaimed Zune HD UI to an innovative phone platform.  Windows Mobile has often been criticized for being behind other Smartphone platforms, but Microsoft seeks to regain the lead with this new upcoming release.  A platform must have developers behind it to be useful, so they have released a full set of free development tools so anyone can make apps for it today.  Or, if you simply want to play with Windows Phone 7, you can use the included emulator to try out the new Metro UI.  Here’s how to do this today on your Vista or 7 computer. Please note: These tools are a Customer Technology Preview release, so only install them if you’re comfortable using pre-release software. Getting Started First, download the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (link below), and run the installer.  This will install the Customer Technology Preview (CTP) versions of Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone Emulator, Silverlight for Windows Phone, and XNA 4.0 Game Studio on your computer, all of which are required and cannot be installed individually. Accept the license agreement when prompted. Click “Install Now” to install the tools you need.  The only setup customization option is where to save the files, so choose Customize if you need to do so. Setup will now automatically download and install the components you need, and will additionally download either 32 or 64 bit programs depending on your operating system. About halfway thorough the installation, you’ll be prompted to reboot your system.  Once your computer is rebooted, setup will automatically resume without further input.   When setup is finished, click “Run the Product Now” to get started. Running Windows Phone 7 on your PC Now that you’ve got the Windows Phone Developer tools installed, it’s time to get the Windows Phone emulator running.  If you clicked “Run the Product Now” when the setup finished, Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone should have already started.   If not, simply enter “visual studio” in your start menu search and select “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone”. Now, to run the Windows Phone 7 emulator, we have to test an application.  So, even if you don’t know how to program, we can open a phone application template, and then test it to run the emulator.  First, click New Project on the left hand side of the front page. Any of the application templates would work for this, but here let’s select “Windows Phone Application”, and then click Ok. Here’s your new application template, which already contains the basic phone application framework.  This is where you’d start if you want to develop a Windows Phone app, but for now we just want to see Windows Phone 7 in action. So, to run the emulator, click Debug in the menu and then select Start Debugging. Your new application will launch inside the Windows Phone 7 Series emulator.  The default template doesn’t give us much, but it does show an example application running in Windows Phone 7.   Exploring Windows Phone 7 Click the Windows button on the emulator to go to the home screen.  Notice the Zune HD-like transition animation.  The emulator only includes Internet Explorer, your test application, and a few settings. Click the arrow on the right to see the available applications in a list. Settings lets you change the theme, regional settings, and the date and time in your emulator.  It also has an applications settings pane, but this currently isn’t populated. The Time settings shows a unique Windows Phone UI. You can return to the home screen by pressing the Windows button.  Here’s the Internet Explorer app running, with the virtual keyboard open to enter an address.  Please note that this emulator can also accept input from your keyboard, so you can enter addresses without clicking on the virtual keyboard. And here’s Google running in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7 supports accelerometers, and you can simulate this in the emulator.  Click one of the rotate buttons to rotate the screen in that direction. Here’s our favorite website in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7 in landscape mode. All this, running right inside your Windows 7 desktop… Developer tools for Windows Phone 7 Although it may be fun to play with the Windows Phone 7 emulator, developers will be more excited to actually be able to create new and exciting apps for it.  The Windows Phone Developer Tools download includes Visual Studio Express and XNA Game Studio 4.0 which lets you create enticing games and apps for Windows Phones.  All development for Windows Phones will be in C#, Silverlight, and the XNA game framework.  Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone includes templates for these, and additionally has code samples to help you get started with development. Conclusion Many features are still not functional in this preview version, such as the search button and most of the included applications.  However, this still gives you a great way to experience firsthand the future of the Windows Phone platform.  And, for developers, this is your chance to set your mark on the Windows Phone 7 Series even before it is released to the public.  Happy playing and developing! Links Download Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Windows Phone Developer Site Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Keep Track of Homework Assignments with SoshikuWeekend Fun: Watch Television On Your PC With TVUPlayerEasily Manage Your Downloads with Download StatusbarCreate a Shortcut or Hotkey to Mute the System Volume in WindowsHow-To Geek on Lifehacker: How to Make Windows Vista Less Annoying TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Convert the Quick Launch Bar into a Super Application Launcher Automate Tasks in Linux with Crontab Discover New Bundled Feeds in Google Reader Play Music in Chrome by Simply Dragging a File 15 Great Illustrations by Chow Hon Lam Easily Sync Files & Folders with Friends & Family

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• Interesting things – Twitter annotations and your phone as a web server

  - by jamiet

  I overheard/read a couple of things today that really made me, data junkie that I am, take a step back and think, “Hmmm, yeah, that could be really interesting” and I wanted to make a note of them here so that (a) I could bring them to the attention of anyone that happens to read this and (b) I can maybe come back here in a few years and see if either of these have come to fruition. Your phone as a web server While listening to Jon Udell’s (twitter) “Interviews with Innovators Podcast” today in which he interviewed Herbert Van de Sompel (twitter) about his Momento project. During the interview Jon and Herbert made the following remarks: Jon: [some people] really had this vision of a web of servers, the notion that every node on the internet, every connected entity, is potentially a server and a client…we can see where we’re getting to a point where these endpoint devices we have in our pockets are going to be massively capable and it may be in the not too distant future that significant chunks of the web archive will be cached all over the place including on your own machine… Herbert: wasn’t it Opera who at one point turned your browser into a server? That really got my brain ticking. We all carry a mobile phone with us and therefore we all potentially carry a mobile web server with us as well and to my mind the only thing really stopping that from happening is the capabilities of the phone hardware, the capabilities of the network infrastructure and the will to just bloody do it. Certainly all the standards required for addressing a web server on a phone already exist (to this uninitiated observer DNS and IPv6 seem to solve that problem) so why not? I tweeted about the idea and Rory Street answered back with “why would you want a phone to be a web server?”: Its a fair question and one that I would like to try and answer. Mobile phones are increasingly becoming our window onto the world as we use them to upload messages to Twitter, record our location on FourSquare or interact with our friends on Facebook but in each of these cases some other service is acting as our intermediary; to see what I’m thinking you have to go via Twitter, to see where I am you have to go to FourSquare (I’m using ‘I’ liberally, I don’t actually use FourSquare before you ask). Why should this have to be the case? Why can’t that data be decentralised? Why can’t we be masters of our own data universe? If my phone acted as a web server then I could expose all of that information without needing those intermediary services. I see a time when we can pass around URLs such as the following: http://jamiesphone.net/location/current - Where is Jamie right now? http://jamiesphone.net/location/2010-04-21 – Where was Jamie on 21st April 2010? http://jamiesphone.net/thoughts/current – What’s on Jamie’s mind right now? http://jamiesphone.net/blog – What documents is Jamie sharing with me? http://jamiesphone.net/calendar/next7days – Where is Jamie planning to be over the next 7 days? and those URLs get served off of the phone in our pockets. If we govern that data then we can control who has access to it and (crucially) how long its available for. Want to wipe yourself off the face of the web? its pretty easy if you’re in control of all the data – just turn your phone off. None of this exists today but I look forward to a time when it does. Opera really were onto something last June when they announced Opera Unite (admittedly Unite only works because Opera provide an intermediary DNS-alike system – it isn’t totally decentralised). Opening up Twitter annotations Last week Twitter held their first developer conference called Chirp where they announced an upcoming new feature called ‘Twitter Annotations’; in short this will allow us to attach metadata to a Tweet thus enhancing the tweet itself. Think of it as a richer version of hashtags. To think of it another way Twitter are turning their data into a humongous Entity-Attribute-Value or triple-tuple store. That alone has huge implications both for the web and Twitter as a whole – the ability to enrich that 140 characters data and thus make it more useful is indeed compelling however today I stumbled upon a blog post from Eugene Mandel entitled Tweet Annotations – a Way to a Metadata Marketplace? where he proposed the idea of allowing tweets to have metadata added by people other than the person who tweeted the original tweet. This idea really fascinated me especially when I read some of the potential uses that Eugene and his commenters suggested. They included: Amazon could attach an ISBN to a tweet that mentions a book. Specialist clients apps for book lovers could be built up around this metadata. Advertisers could pay to place adverts in metadata. The revenue generated from those adverts could be shared with the tweeter or people who add the metadata. Granted, allowing anyone to add metadata to a tweet has the potential to create a spam problem the like of which we haven’t even envisaged but spam hasn’t halted the growth of the web and neither should it halt the growth of data annotations either. The original tweeter should of course be able to determine who can add metadata and whether it should be moderated. As Eugene says himself: Opening publishing tweet annotations to anyone will open the way to a marketplace of metadata where client developers, data mining companies and advertisers can add new meaning to Twitter and build innovative businesses. What Eugene and his followers did not mention is what I think is potentially the most fascinating use of opening up annotations. Google’s success today is built on their page rank algorithm that measures the validity of a web page by the number of incoming links to it and the page rank of the sites containing those links – its a system built on reputation. Twitter annotations could open up a new paradigm however – let’s call it People rank- where reputation can be measured by the metadata that people choose to apply to links and the websites containing those links. Its not hard to see why Google and Microsoft have paid big bucks to get access to the Twitter firehose! Neither of these features, phones as a web server or the ability to add annotations to other people’s tweets, exist today but I strongly believe that they could dramatically enhance the web as we know it today. I hope to look back on this blog post in a few years in the knowledge that these ideas have been put into place. @Jamiet Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Twitter traffic might not be what it seems

  - by Piet

  Are you using bit.ly stats to measure interest in the links you post on twitter? I’ve been hearing for a while about people claiming to get the majority of their traffic originating from twitter these days. Now, I’ve been playing with the twitter ruby gem recently, doing various experiments which I’ll not go into detail here because they could be regarded as spamming… if I’d conduct them on a large scale, that is. It’s scary to see people actually engaging with @replies crafted with some regular expressions and eliza-like trickery on status updates found using the twitter api. I’m wondering how Twitter is going to contain the coming spam-flood. When posting links I used bit.ly as url shortener, since this one seems to be the de-facto standard on twitter. A nice thing about bit.ly is that it shows some basic stats about the redirects it performs for your shortened links. To my surprise, most links posted almost immediately resulted in several visitors. Now, seeing that I was posting the links together with some information concerning what the link is about, I concluded that the people who were actually clicking the links should be very targeted visitors. This felt a bit like free adwords, and I suddenly started to understand why everyone was raving about getting traffic from twitter. How wrong I was! (and I think several 1000 online marketers with me) On the destination site I used a traffic logging solution that works by including a little javascript snippet in your pages. It seemed that somehow all visitors disappeared after the bit.ly redirect and before getting to the site, because I was hardly seeing any visitors there. So I started investigating what was happening: by looking at the logfiles of the destination site, and by making my own ’shortened’ urls by doing redirects using a very short domain name I own. This way, I could check the apache access_log before the redirects. Most user agents turned out to be bots without a doubt. Here’s an excerpt of user-agents awk’ed from apache’s access_log for a time period of about one hour, right after posting some links: AideRSS 2.0 (postrank.com) Java/1.6.0_13 Java/1.6.0_14 libwww-perl/5.816 MLBot (www.metadatalabs.com/mlbot) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;MSIE 5.01; Windows -NT 5.0 - real-url.org) Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Twitturls; +http://twitturls.com) Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Viralheat Bot/1.0; +http://www.viralheat.com/) Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 4.6; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-us; rv:1.9.0.2) Gecko/2008092313 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.5 OpenCalaisSemanticProxy PycURL/7.18.2 PycURL/7.19.3 Python-urllib/1.17 Twingly Recon twitmatic Twitturly / v0.6 Wget/1.10.2 (Red Hat modified) Wget/1.11.1 (Red Hat modified) Of the few user-agents that seem ‘real’ at first, half are originating from an ip-address used by Amazon EC2. And I doubt people are setting op proxies on there. Oh yeah, Googlebot (the real deal, from a legit google owned address) is sucking up posted links like fresh oysters. I guess google is trying to make sure in advance to never be beaten by twitter in the ‘realtime search’ department. Actually, I think it’d be almost stupid NOT to post any new pages/posts/websites on Twitter, it must be one of the fastest ways to get a Googlebot visit. Same experiment with a real, established twitter account Now, because I was posting the url’s either as ’status’ messages or directed @people, on a test-account with hardly any (human) followers, I checked again using the twitter accounts from a commercial site I’m involved with. These accounts all have between 500 and 1000 targeted (I think) followers. I checked the destination access_logs and also added ‘my’ redirect after the bit.ly redirect: same results, although seemingly a bit higher real visitor/bot ratio. Btw: one of these account was ‘punished’ with a 1 week lock recently because the same (1 one!) status update was sent that was sent right before using another account. They got an email explaining the lock because the account didn’t act according to their TOS. I can’t find anything in their TOS about it, can you? I don’t think Twitter is on the right track punishing a legit account, knowing the trickery I had been doing with it’s api went totally unpunished. I might be wrong though, I often am. On the other hand: this commercial site reported targeted traffic and actual signups from visitors coming from Twitter. The ones that are really real visitors are also very targeted. I’m just not sure if the amount of work involved could hold up against an adwords campaign. Reposting the same link over and over again helps On thing I noticed: It helps to keep on reposting the same links with regular intervals. I guess most people only look at their first page when checking out recent posts of the ones they’re following, or don’t look too far back when performing a search. Now, this probably isn’t according to the twitter TOS. Actually, it might be spamming but no-one is obligated to follow anyone else of course. This way, I was getting more real visitors and less bots. To my surprise (when my programmer’s hat is on) there were still repeated visits from the same bots coming from the same ip-addresses. Did they expect to find something else when visiting for a 2nd or 3rd time? (actually,this gave me an idea: you can’t change a link once it’s posted, but you can change where it redirects to) Most bots were smart enough not to follow the same link again though. Are you successful in getting real visitors from Twitter? Are you only relying on bit.ly to provide traffic stats?

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