Eddie On Everything » internet

Use Google Public DNS To Speed Up Your Browsing Experience

eddie — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:41:30 +0000

A recent comment on an old article about Comcast’s DNS servers being really slow brought something to my attention: Google now offers a public DNS service.

Why use Google public DNS? For starters, it can really speed up your browsing experience. The average webpage requires about a dozen DNS lookups, and these lookups can be quite time consuming. That’s because when a company (your ISP) sets up a DNS server, they normally just set-it-and-forget-it. Google, on the other hand, has specifically engineered their DNS servers to be wicked fast.

There are a couple of other benefits as well, but I’ll leave that explaining to the public DNS page.

The IP addresses are easy to remember, too:

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Thinking of running ZTMC ads on your website? Think again.

eddie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:57:45 +0000

Someone from a company called ZTMC recently contacted me about running paid advertisements on one of my other websites.

I already run Google AdSense ads on that website, and thought that the introduction of another ad block wouldn’t be that big of a deal as long as it wasn’t obtrusive, fit well into the site content, didn’t mislead users, etc.

So I was initially open to the idea.

I mean, hey, they wanted to pay me a few hundred dollars per month, up front, just for putting a few links in the footer of my website – who wouldn’t want a piece of that action?

But then I did a little checking into ZTMC, and I am very happy that I did. It seems that ZTMC.com runs the “Digitalpoints Advertising Network,” a pay-for-linkage link-farm that pays webmasters with a high Google PageRank to link to other, lower-ranked sites. This scheme increases the PageRank of the lower-rated sites, resulting in more traffic to those sites.

The only problem with this scheme? It’s expressly forbidden in Google’s Terms of Service, and participating in schemes like this will get your website blacklisted from Google Search Engine Results pages faster than you can say “SERPs!”

From the Google’s “Webmaster Guidelines” :

Paid links
Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the “” tag

Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such excessive link exchanges and purchased links that pass PageRank. If you see a site that is buying or selling links that pass PageRank, let us know. We’ll use your information to improve our algorithmic detection of such links.

And wouldn’t you know it, the ZTMC ads don’t contain the “rel=nofollow” directive in their links. However, as astutely pointed out by one commenter, the link back to Digitalpoint itself is using rel=”nofollow,” which is OK as far as Google is concerned.

How’s that for nerve? They sell links that they know will destroy the PageRank of the hosting site, as well as the linked-to site, yet they keep the link to their own site clean and pristine.

The forums are full of people who are suffering the effects of ZTMC – just have a look around.

Here’s a guy who experienced a pretty significant drop in traffic as a result of adding ZTMC ads.

I drop my PR from 5->3 and lose all my Google Search Traffic, lost of 16 000 visitors/day.

I removed the ZTMC links and asked for a reconsideration request that I received 5 days later.

From what I’ve been able to gather, he was lucky to receive re-consideration in just 5 days – many other people report that it takes months for re-inclusion.

Here’s a guy begging for reconsideration after removing the links.

“Dear Google,

In my ignorance I accepted a request from the Marketing Manager of ztmc.com wanting to do some DigitalPoint co-op link exchange scheme on my website but at the time fooled me into thinking it was a legitimate way of their company just advertising on my site.

Under their advisement and to the best of my memory, I uploaded files ad_network_274.php, ad_network_ads_272.txt and display.php to the root of my website and forum. I then placed in every page of my entire site so that the ads would display.

If this form of advertising was a factor in me getting penalised then you should know I no longer participate in this co-op link exchange and no longer have their ads on any of my pages including the root page.

I have learnt my lesson and as an honest author I will never participate in such schemes again and will never sell links that can affect SERPS.

Sincere apologies for breaching the Google guidelines.

Kind Regards,

Mark S.”

Here’s a guy summarizing what he knows about the company.

The DP co-op is a link farm. Apparently a lot of people felt Google’s wrath because of their participation. I would stay away from it. Far away from it.

This guy told ZTMC about the problem, and they didn’t seem to care.

IDK, when i cancelled they I told them cause they are killing me rankings and their response was “ok”

lol, not kidding..

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t state that all paid links are bad – on the contrary, they expressly say that paid links are a valid part of the internet economy. Instead, they say that only those links designed to to influence search engine ranking are bad. Paid links should benefit readers, not game search engine rankings.

I’m going to stay far, far away from ZTMC. And if they contact you, I recommend that you do the same.

Facebook Makes New Layout Changes in February 2010

eddie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:25:56 +0000

I logged in to my Facebook account today and saw that Facebook has once again changed things up. Since the changes are being rolled out to just a few users right now, here are a few screengrabs of the new layout.

(Click for a larger version.)

It looks like they’ve really cleaned things up – most everything has been moved to the top navigation bar, and account functions are now available via a drop-down menu. Also, the search bar has been expanded, and now occupies the center of the menu bar. Finally, 3 notification icons have been added, ala the Windows system tray – “Friend Requests,” “Messages,” and “Notifications.”

Said one Facebook engineer,

“We’re releasing a set of products designed to improve your everyday experience,” said Facebook engineer Jing Chen in a blog post. “In keeping with our commitment to innovation, these product releases are part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to streamline the site and make it easier to use.
“For example, when you receive a Facebook notification about someone writing on your Wall or tagging you in a photo, you’ll see a red bubble appear in the left-hand corner, near the search bar. When you click on the icon, you’ll see a drop-down menu with the most recent notifications.”

All in all, I think they succeeded – I really like the new look.

I have to wonder if they are taking aim at Google with the newly prominent search box placement. After all, you can search for literally anything in that box, and the results will show you not only Facebook pages, but internet-wide search results as well.

What do you think? How do you like the new Facebook look and feel?

Searching your Facebook page for “Automation Log” does not show you people who have “Hacked’ your account

eddie — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:53:59 +0000

A recent Facebook hoax reads like this:

IMPORTANT No joke! Apparently multiple people have had a hacker. I tried this and yes he was listed on mine too. The way to find them is to go into your settings, privacy settings, block list, and in the “person” box, type “automation log.” If someone pops up, block them because it seems they’re the hacker. I had 3 names in my block list show up!!!!

The problem is, this is entirely false.

Here’s what’s happening: When you search for “automation log” you are searching for all people with the words “automation log” listed as their employer. It’s as if you were searching for the term “Microsoft,” or “Comcast.” What you are seeing is a list of people who have written that word in their profile, not a list of people who have hacked your account.

As an experiment, I changed my Facebook page to contain the magic words “Automation lab.” Within 10 minutes I had received a couple dozen hate emails. A sampling:

“get a life dude. stop hacking my sh*t”

How the F*CK did you get into my friend’s list?
“I just reported you – LOSER”

“you fu*in freak get a job you fat fu**er specky tw*t!!!!!!!!”

FU* YOU AR** HOLE

“u bin tryin 2 hack me pu**yole?”

“okay so I have to ask you … there is this going aroung on fb. it’s saying there’s hackers…are you a hacker automation log. is what I was told on how to find you?”

You just pissed off the wrong people…

Wow, harsh! Hey guys (and gals), I’m only trying to help!

To be fair, I did receive a number of thoughtful inquiries as well. So the world isn’t all bad. :) One person even wanted to save my soul!

“They say y’all are hackers, and I don’t care what you are doing Eddie even if you are stealing information. I am worried about your eternal soul. did you know that you are on your way to hell unless you have asked Jesus Christ to save you? Eddie you should stop whatever you are doing right now and get on your knees and ask and beg the LORD Jesus to forgive you through His Blood. I am going to report you to Facebook and block you from my profile, but you can still contact God. I am truly concerned for you and where you will spend eternity. Please ask him to forgive you!”

How To Watch Flash Videos Full-Screen on Dual Monitor Setup

eddie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:08:05 +0000

If you have a dual monitor setup, you’ve probably tried to watch a flash video on one screen while working on the other. As you likely know by now, it doesn’t work – as soon as you click the mouse on the other screen, the Flash video snaps back to regular size. Pretty annoying, I know.

Fortunately, there’s a way around this. Polish blogger D.I.Z. has created a patch that will allow you to watch a full screen video on one monitor while working on another. The patch, a single DLL file, is available at his blog.

To install the patch, you simply download a single DLL file & replace the version on your system.

This hack should work in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. And of course, if you upgrade your flash player, you will lose the changes. Bookmark this page so you check back for new versions of the DLL file needed for future releases.

Link to D.I.Z.’s blog.

Found at Lifehacker.

A Reddit thread on the matter.

How To Reveal Stored Passwords in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE

eddie — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:56:02 +0000

Nowadays browsers store passwords then auto-populate forms, hiding that stored password behind little dots or asterisks. Guess what? There is a way to reveal the password hidden behind there. This is very handy for when you forget your password but have it stored in the browser.

Reveal Stored Passwords in Mozilla Firefox and Chrome

Navigate to the page where the passwords are stored. Paste this code into the location bar and hit enter. The passwords will be revealed.
javascript: var p=r(); function r(){var g=0;var x=false;var x=z(document.forms);g=g+1;var w=window.frames;for(var k=0;k

Note that the flip-side of this trick is that you probably shouldn’t be storing your password for sensitive websites – anyone with access to your computer could use this trick to reveal your password, write it down, then check your email/bank/cheating-on-your-spouse account from anywhere.

How to use your Netgear (or Linksys, or D-Link) wireless router as a Hub

eddie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:52:56 +0000

Ok, here’s the deal:

I have 2 wireless routers, a Cisco and a Netgear.

The house’s primary router, a DD-WRT-based Cisco, is in my first-floor office. Unfortunately, the signal isn’t strong enough to make it to the third floor of my house.

I wanted to run a wire to the third floor of my home & use the Netgear router as a hub (both wired and wireless) on the third floor, letting the DD-WRT router continue to handle the firewall, DHCP, etc., for the entire house.

The problem was – there’s no setting in the Netgear WRT-642g configuration page for “hub mode.”

Searching yielded little helpful information. A few nuggets led me to do a bit of experimentation, and I discovered a working solution.

The trick: Connect the second router (the one you want to use as a hub) to the first using one of the second’s LAN ports, not it’s WAN port. That is, don’t use the port you would use to connect this router to your cable modem. Instead, use one of the other ports, usually labeled 1-4.

Doing this allowed me to use my Netgear router as a hub, even though it’s not officially supported.

Happy surfing!

Make any website editable with this handy javascript snippet

eddie — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:30:12 +0000

I recently spotted this handy little tip at blogstorm.co.uk.

Ever wanted to edit the text of a web page to create an annotated screenshot or mockup? Simply paste this line of code into your browser’s location bar, and voila, the page text can be edited:

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

No, you it doesn’t enable you to edit the original page. It does, however, let you easily alter your local copy.

Handy, eh?

Random Posts

Cpanel problem parking domain using a remote nameserver

eddie — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:47:58 +0000

I was using Cpanel to park a domain and I was getting the following error message:

Error from park wrapper: Using nameservers with the following IPs: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Sorry, the domain is already pointed to an IP address that does not appear to use DNS servers associated with this server. Please transfer the domain to this servers nameservers or have your administrator add one of its nameservers to /etc/ips.remotedns and make the proper A entries on that remote nameserver.

The new domain that I want to park is indeed using remote nameservers, and I would like to keep it that way, so solution #1 isn’t ideal.

The other solution isn’t ideal either – I don’t want to make system-wide changes for a single cpanel account.

My solution: I didn’t find this solution listed anywhere else in the forums, but to me, it seems to be the best – simple use WHM to park the domain, or, if you don’t have root access, ask your administrator to do the same. The root user is permitted to park domains that use remote nameservers.

No adding to /etc/ips.remotedns necessary, and you can still keep using remote DNS servers.

Problem solved.

How to remove yourself as a “Fan” on your Facebook profile

eddie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:25:44 +0000

I’m posting this tip because it took me forever to figure out how to remove myself from being a “Fan” of something or other on Facebook.

Seems that it is really easy to become a fan of something, but when you decide that you no longer want to be a fan, it’s not easy to find out how to become an “un-fan,” or an “ex-fan.”

This is because the link is hidden away at the bottom of the page that you have previously fanned. That is, the link to “remove me” is not grouped with the other links on the page. Instead, it is hidden away at the bottom of the page that you previously became a fan of.

I couldn’t find out how to do it on Facebook, even after looking for over 10 minutes. Fortunately, I found this page from Yahoo Answers where someone reveals the technique.

The solution: Go to the page that you are a fan of then go to the bottom and press ‘Remove me from fans’ and that should do it! Good Luck!

Easy once you know how to do it, eh?

Update
Step by step instructions, courtesy of Warren:

Thanks. If you still cannot find it, the following are the five steps:
1. Click ‘Profile’
2. Click ‘Info’
3. Click the page you want to remove yourself from
4. Go to the bottom of the left hand side column
5. Click ‘Remove Me from Fans’

Eddie On Everything » internet

Use Google Public DNS To Speed Up Your Browsing Experience

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