So unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve probabbly already heard about Godaddy supporting SOPA. I won’t reiterate what ignorance statements bob has made in regards to supporting sopa, or why companies who deal in tangible goods are backing it up. (Like who’s going to pirate make-up and pharmaceuticals electronically?)

The Exodus from Godaddy: seeking an alternative

This has lead up to a mass exodus from Godaddy to be executed on Dec. 29th. I’ve done some research(googling) on who we should be looking at transferring to and it was a close call cause there’s a couple of good ones out there, but the best well rounded one I could find, with the longest history of good service, dependability, price, and secure (in terms of size, customer base, low domain hijacking rate, etc) Is Moniker.

Moniker: the quality alternative

I’ve provided an affiliate link (and non-affiliate link) if you want to say thanks to me for looking into them for you. It won’t cost you extra, and it doesn’t pay me very much. I’m just hope 1 or 2 people will follow through to help me with my transfer fees.  With over 1 million domains under management, Moniker is a top ten domain registrar.

Another Alternative to Godaddy for the cheapskate

Another top registrar to consider is namecheap. I’m extremely tempted to go with name cheap because of their insanely low rates, and top notch recommendations from, oh about everyone. However with rates that “Cheap” and no widespread brand recognition, I worry about things like their ability to support a really tough problem, should one arise. I also don’t like my clients knowing that their business is registered with a company with “cheap” in their name. It’s only a few dollars more for moniker, and they are trusted by some very large firms. There are a few (not too many) reports of namecheap.com also providing poor customer service, as in not responding to customer e-mails. As with anything milage may very. I’m sure the opposite must be true about moniker, but there’s much less “Buzz” on the internet about it. So while if you bottom line is just the best deal, and you run just a few sites, but really need to save a few bucks, than maybe namecheap is for you. But I’m going to “play it safe” and stick with a reliable partner.

TL;DR

Use Moniker for highest quality/ customer satisfaction ratio (and their prices are not bad) (Non aff-link)
Or NameCheap for cheapest, while still pretty good usability (Non aff link)

Source:

A few hours of Googling

Wordpress 3.0 + Nginx

I upgraded nginx on my server and all was well, or so I thought…. (TL;DR at the bottom)

Feeling good about my self I patted my back and went to bed. The next day I was writing a new post when after uploading a photo to WordPress it did not load in the editor. So after a little struggling I figured out why non of the images from the /files/ directory in wordpress were working, but not until after I gave up trying to find the answer in Google.

I tried Googling all this to no avail: (Hopefully this will help some other Googler out there)

• Ngnix not rewriting ms-files.php properly
• my nginx default conf for wordpress was faulty
• no errors in php for ms-files.php WPMU
• ms-files.php corrupting images WPMU
• ms-files.php white (blank) screen of death

79	79	}
80	80
81	81	// If we made it this far, just serve the file
	82	ob_clean();
	83	flush();
82	84	readfile( $file );
	85	flush();
83	86	?>

Check out the new version of youTube before anyone else! It’s super easy, while in Google Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+J and paste in this code (Cookie)

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

And bam! Refresh youtube.com and see all that the new version has to offer!

I think it’s really cool, check out the screen shot below…

Btw, in case you want to go back, just clear your cookies!

Google has a secret laboratory, unknown even to most of the company’s employees, called the X Lab where it develops projects that sound like something from the x-files, according to the New York Times.

At the lab, located somewhere in the Bay Area, Google’s brightest engineers are working on hundreds projects, including smart refrigerators and dinner plates, servant robots  and space elevators.

A leak from a Google engineer says that the lab is run mysteriously, in two different office buildings — one for logistics and the other for robotics projects.

The scientists working in the lab include hires from Microsoft, Nokia, Stanford, M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon and New York University. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly “deeply involved” with the project, and he and co-founder Larry Page have come up with a list of ideas for the lab.

It is reportedly headed by robotics and artificial intelligence expert Sebastian Thrun from Stanford, best known for his work on the world’s first self driving car. Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and an esteemed A.I. expert, also works at the lab.

A Google spokeswoman would not confirm the existence of the lab, but she did say that Google likes to invest in speculative projects. Google’s 20% rule, which lets engineers spend one-fifth of their work time on personal projects, is one example of that, but a secret lab takes this idea a step further and makes you wonder which of these technologies will graduate to be full-fledged Google projects.

While many (most everyone) has heard, for the few that haven’t, Steve Jobs has passed away today. He had recently resigned as CEO of Apple for health reasons, and many people saw this was coming. So I have to ask, with the many apple fans out there, what do you think this will mean for apple? Many have stated that he was the corner stone of the company, making all the big decisions and going against popular opinion quite often. Will the current, colorful CEO Tim Cook be able to keep the ship steady in the wave of the passing of a giant?

I DO lean more towards the Android product line of phones, if you couldn’t tell, but I do have a rich respect for the man who actually opened the way for Android to even exist. In a market that was dominated by RIM (Blackberry) and Windows Smart phones, he took them head on and showed the world what a “Smart” phone really was. Opening the eyes of competition like Google to bring in Android, and almost crush the big M and flip RIM on their head.

For the advances in technology he’s brought us, I salute him. But my question still stands.
Can Tim Cook man the Oars?

In the midst of the loss of tech giant Steve Jobs, Facebook rolling out some changes on their Facebook Pages. You were able to import your blog’s RSS feed into the notes to automate the syncing of your blog posts to facebook. What I wonder is if this change will effect the third party apps like networked blogs, from posting on your wall. I guess if you really want to keep syndicating to your wall you could run your feed through a desktop app like seesmic or tweetdeck… As long as they supported RSS feeds….

This is the ultimate add on for any webmaster who wants to see where their website (or their clients) website stands in goolge’s search results pages easily. The only think I can really say is give it a try, you will really love it!!! Just add a campaign to track, and then a list of urls you want to know positions for, and then try some different keywords against the list and save them one at a time.  This way every time you click on that keyword in the future, it updates the list of positions! Great stuff…

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ehbgolklgacemnfnmkkpgekngaaggjjl?hc=search&hcp=main

Have you ever wondered when you are posting a status update, tweet or sharing a link on Google+, how many people you are reaching out to?
Well so were the guys that made Klout, a service that lets you measure your audience, their feedback, and creates a “Klout” score, from 1 to 100.

But it doesn’t end at just measuring your reach. There is also benefits such as “Perks” which are exclusive products or experiences that you earn based on your influence. Like for example, I can get a Subway Oven Crisp Chicken Sub since my Klout score is above 40, but alas, they are all out at the moment. I suddenly don’t feel so impressed by my “41″ Klout score. But then again, Keven Rose only has an 81, and he’s a celebrity.

But Perks aside, I think the best part about Klout is the self aware factor. Once you realize how to focus what you’re talking about, and see what topics trend better, you could really use this as a tool to hone in your online social skills. And that would translate to growing a larger audience, so while I personally am not in it for the “Perks” I’m watching my Klout score on a daily basis. I haven’t figured out how frequently it updates, but I can see that over the next few months it will have a positive impact on my blogging as my social consumption should increase. Speaking of which all this is making me hungry for a meatball and pepperoni sub…

Why not check me out on Klout http://klout.com/#/LarcenIII and follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/LarcenIII or Google Plus http://➸.ws/~fc5L1

P.S. I’m also a stumbler!

I was reading one of my favorite comics the other day (Xkcd) and it really hit home with me.

(They usually do, it’s odd, the creator and I must be kindred spirits or somthing)

It’s about password strength, and really underlines the power of, well powers.

This really underlines the point, that when possible, it’s by FAR safer to have a longer, password, regardless of how many special characters are used. In the end, the power of length trumps all the complication of case sensitivity and substitutions. I don’t even need to explain much further into detail, because xkcd has illustrated that point so well. For years I’ve been trying to explain just this thing to people, and it was summed up into a nice little 6 panel piece.

So I’m blasting it out to those who care about security, and a way they could “Salt” this method to services that support longer passwords. Salting passwords is a way to make each password for every service you use different. With a method like the one above, you could “salt” your password using either the service name, or type, or a word you could remember that is associated to that service.

Like for yahoo, your password could be correcthorseyahoostaple and Hotmail could be corecthorsehotmailstaple . This way if one password is compromised via logging or other keystroke capturing methods (Spy Cam Video?) Your other passwords would be relativity safe, so hopefully you could change them before the attacker compromised all the services you use. Even better, would be to change up the word order, or use association. Like correcthorsejunkmailstaple  or yahoocorrecthorsestaple…

Really just food for thought… too bad that many services out there, especially the really important ones it seems, likes to limit you to a maximum of around 12 chars.

I’m proud to announce our new advertising network  is opening its doors to the internet, and before launch I would like to  informed everyone that we are running a signup for our beta program before we open up. We called our new service Tranquility Ads, and offer something a little “Different” than most other publisher / advertiser platforms. I did a mock interview with Greg, one of our developers in order to showcase some of the questions you may have about our new service and why what we offer is any different than existing platforms (Ie, Adsense, Adwords, AdBright, Technorati, just to name a few).

Me: So ca you tell everyone what is the premise behind Tranquility Ads?

Greg: Well you approached me with an idea for a new type of ad network, and after being a blogger myself, we realized that while advertisers are the life blood of any ad network but the publishers are the heart. Most of the services I’ve tried treated publishers quite poorly. I’ve found that support usually isn’t even an afterthought, much less implemented in any form. So we developed a platform that is both, versatile, easy to use, and provides an unprecedented level of support for any ad network out there.

Me: So is support the most important thing in an ad network?

Greg: No, of course and it’s not the only thing that sets us apart, actually, it’s just one of many things that is different. By versatile I ment that we already have Android and Iphone apps to monitor your stats and funds directly from your phone. We have also reconsidered the whole ad format idea that many other adnetwork use. Most are outdated and only fit older websites. We have HD advertisments, that webmasters and advertisers who design ads for 960px wide and fluid layout sites will love. We also call our matching system “Organic Advertising”

Me: Organic advertising? Sounds like your trying to sell expensive food, lol no offense…

Greg: Lol well you came up with it …  Well we feel that “Organic” ads in this sense, that they naturally place themselves in appropriate places. We use a special system of categorization to match advertisments with publishers. It uses a matrix of categories and ratings that ensure publishers and advertisers are matched accurately. We love Google, but some things that they do we simply can’t, and won’t do. Their ads have a tendency to “Follow”  you around on the internet. That’s because they are tracking you, with a complex system of  IP recording, cookies, and algorithmic search patterns. We respect everyone’s privacy, and feel that if you are on a website about “Cameras” then Ads relating to camera are the only thing that makes sense there. You should see ads for guitars, just because you searched for some tabs a few minuets ago. When you are looking at that camera site, right then, you are not interested in guitars. Even worse is when unrelated ad matching comes into conflict. Like that recent newsite covered a story about a bear attack, and the advertisement was for camping in Alaska to see the bears.

Me: I remember that bear story, I think I saw it on reddit. Lets move on to protecting advertisers. There are many bad guys out there who would love to try and cheat, how do you provision handling incidents like that?

Greg: Well, obviously I can’t say too much about our methods, but fraud protection is extremely important to us. Click fraud is an uncomfortable topic with any ad network, but I can tell you that we have a rollback system, where if fraud occurs, the publisher (and website) is blocked forever, and all clicks and transactions are rolled back. We also use a verified funds system where all clicks are verified before they are confirmed. We have enlisted the help of 3rd party companies that also aid in the detection of fraud clicks, so the experience is there as well. Advertiser safety is a primary concern.

Me: And now the question I know everyone is thinking… What is the % you payout to the publisher?

Greg: Heh, well I don’t think I can divulge here and now, but it will be higher than any other network currently offers. We are giving our beta testers 90% for helping us find problems and for being patient while we trace out the last bugs in the system. This is a huge added value for advertisers as well, because their dollar goes further. We’re not sure how many beta testers there will be, but we are going to control it with a dual control invitation system. We will invite webmasters we think will benefit in growing our base, and then give them invitations that they can share with others in their circles. The other part is that after they are invited, we will still need to approve their website.  There will be a signup form for beta testers on our website very soon.

Me: Ok, when I asked you about the interview, you mentioned some suprises?

Greg: Oh yeah, our system provides another service for publishers. If you’re familiar with “House Ads” blanks, or Public Service Announcments, with other ad networks, or if you don’t know, these are the ads that the network provider displays when there are no ads for your website. With our system, we categorize our sites using a similar matrix to our advertisers, and we use this to display “Fliers”. A Flier is like a coat-of-arms for your website. Your banner gets displayed on similar publishers. So if you run a camera blog, and Fred runs a camera blog too, both of your visitors will see the related blog on the other site. For all the visitors your site generates for other sites, your site becomes stronger in the network, and more traffic is sent back to you.

Me: Wow, ok that’s different alright, but why couldn’t an advertiser just do that?

Greg: Well in a way they could, but the flyers are much more limited in how they can display compared to an ad. Fliers have a set size, like 125 x 125 px squares on a blog. So one adbox may show 4 fliers when it normally only shows 1 ad. That divides that space’s value, but many bloggers recognize the button banners. It’s really a good way to build traffic to your website if you’re looking for more readers, subscribers, etc.

Me: Ok, that’s really neat, I’m eager to see how this is going to all work out. Do you have any concerns about getting started?

Greg: I think if we do a quality execution and continue to provide an experience unlike any other (Trying badly to not sound like I have better than thou attitude) then success will find us. We know from both sides of the fence that there isn’t a perfect system out there. We think we have found an untapped and powerful resource in ourselves and the love of the blogging community that will keep us alive for quite some time.

Me: Well you sound really confident, I think I’ll give your network a try if I could get a beta invite *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

Greg: *rolls eyes* I’m sure we can work something out… lol
Tranquility Ads is the brain child of Jason Green and Greg Wiggleton. Jason works out the design, structure and interface functionality, and Greg writes the backend, API, and database schema. We are both committed to creating a fantastic service and experience for advertisers and publishers alike.

I’ll try to get some screenshots from the beta and I’ll post some updates in the near future.

Thank you Greg for the [mock]  interview. We’ll get some beta invites when they open it up and hand a few out.

Here is a link to subscribe to the mailing list, and a link to the facebook page.

We’ll try to post info in both places, but you may want to subscribe to both, just in case you miss the first message.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tranquility-Ads/258507007494625

Feedburner: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TranquilityAds

Comment if you want a beta invite, and be sure to include your website URL!!!

example: www (dot) example (dot) com