This is quite interesting how Microsoft can optimize better than Google for Google. Just try to search for a "search" in Google – see who the Google’s favorite is… ;)
13
Apr 07
Great Minds Blog Alike
You wake up and think "hmm.. what should I blog about today?" Not that you don’t have anything to blog about, you just have so many ideas, and can’t choose the right one, ’cause your brain just don’t digest those waves of ideas…
In the middle of something important at work (e.g. meeting), you think "hmm… what does my blog statistic look like? how many people visited?", you go online and check – it is so easy to do…
Before you go to sleep, you think "hmm.. I’ll just take a very quick look, and see my technorati rating – do I have any new links? How about trying different Google searches?"..
sounds familiar? – well, then I think I am not alone out there in www universe :)
Having a good psychological understanding behind the above "addiction" (and that is exactly what it is – "opium for the masses") I came to realize that it really is "reigning over me", and I just have to acknowledge this fact in order to come back from a "stuffed and screaming brain" to the "peace of mind". And guess what, I did find a very simple and working, at least for me, approach.
I woke up yesterday, and the wise, and often very silent, part of me suddenly spoke:
Toly, define you purpose, you are loosing it, just because your purpose is not defined. What exactly do you want from this blog? Do you want to make money on it, is that it? Would you like an overall world recognition? Do you like to share your insides with outer existence? Do you keep notes for yourself? Are you trying to open up, by ‘writing you brain’ out? Define it – only then shall we speak again
And you know what, that was a real discovery for two weeks of my blogging period, so I decided to follow my wise insides, and define that hidden purpose.
Make money? – I am making money. That is never a burden to have more, but definitely not the purpose, so heck with all that "make money’, "I’ll teach you how to blog for profit", "marketing your blog" websites. As my Italian friend says "Fooo ged a but it!" And the truth is, if you have a common sense, and know how people think and act, then to get those google ads blend in with a blog, so visitors click on them and to choose expensive key words is NOT all that hard. Screw those million cheesy "I know it all" articles out there – have a common sense – you’ll be just all right!
Word ranking and recognition? – sure! who does not want that? But what does blog has to do with it? My take on it would be to implement a great idea – give it a life, and get all that "good-for-nothing" world recognition. Why "good-for-nothing"? Well it is very simple: you see the need for more (than already is) recognition is inversely proportional to the level of self-confidence and self-happiness, so if you want more that only means that those two "selfs" do not satisfy you. Why "good-for-nothing" again? :) ’cause even if you get it, self-confidence and self-happiness will still not satisfy you – this is a wrong way to boost those.
I look at ranking as I look at the game that many people know the rules to, but very few know how to play. But you know what? You learn by doing – so just play it, if you like the game! There is no penalty for loosing, in fact loosing is not even well defined in this game. :)
So the verdict is "to share my insides with outer existence, to keep notes for myself, and to open up, by ‘writing myself’ out"! that would be, and that is my purpose.
The funny thing is, I am currently "writing myself out", by creating this article, and I do feel "peace of mind" coming back to me. I wish, my dear reader (if you anybody else but me :) ) you define your purpose, and join me in peace!
Great minds think alike – Great minds in peace are alike…
11
Apr 07
GOOGLE: “If you’re watching a YouTube video, we know you’re watching that video.”
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– Hey, mom, what channel is GOOGLE on today? – Hey, mom, I am bored, can you turn on the radio? |
Information right from the source
Google CEO Eric Schmidt on "How big is the market for all these Google ads":
Today, the vast majority of our revenue is in text ads correlated with searches. In the last couple of years, we have developed what are called display ad products, including banner ads, video ads, click-to-call ads, and things like that. And I’ve also said that we are pursuing the possibility of television advertising. By that I mean traditional television advertising. And we bought dMarc Broadcasting to do radio ads.
So let’s rank the probability of them being affected by targeted ads. There’s search: That’s 100 percent affected. What about radio? Is it possible to get a targeted ad right to your car right now? Not yet because we can’t target the individual receiver in your car. If two cars are next to each other, the same radio station cannot have two different ads. However, if it’s at a regional level we can do it to the zip code level. So let’s call that partial targeting.
Now, let’s look at television. Every one of the next generation of cable set-top boxes is going to get upgraded to an IP-addressable set-top box. So all of a sudden, that set-top box is a computer that we can talk to. We can’t tell whether it’s the daughter or the son or the husband or the wife in a household. All we know is we’re just talking to the television. But that’s pretty targetable because family buying patterns are pretty predictable, and you can see what programs they’re watching. And if you’re watching a YouTube video, we know you’re watching that video.
My point of going through this little treatise is to say, if the total available market is ($600 billion to $800 billion, we won’t be able to target all $800 billion. It will not be a 100 percent perfectly targetable, straight into your brain, but we should be able to offer a material improvement (in response rates) to many businesses.
10
Apr 07
Top 10 Windows XP shortcuts
Always very useful to have/know these if you are using Windows XP. The best and the easiest way to see how useful they are is just to try them out as you go along the list:
– an example of a <Win Key> that is used here in the list
- 1. <Win Key> + e = Opens “Windows Explorer”
2. <Win Key> + r = Opens “Run command” – e.g. where you can type “cmd” and press enter
3. <Win Key> + Pause/Break key = Opens “System Properties”
4. <Win Key> + f = Opens “Find Files”
5. <Win Key> + d = Minimizes all windows – shows desktop – press it again to get back to original state, or try <Win Key> + Ctrl + M
6. <Win Key> + l = Locks Computer (Keyboard)
7. <Ctrl> + <Shift> + <Escape> = Opens “Task manager”
8. <Shift> + <Del> = Removes file(s) without sending to Recycle Bin
9. <Alt> + <Enter> = Shows file(s)/directory(ies) properties
10. <Alt> + <Prnt Scrn/SysRq> = Saves snapshot to the clipboard of the current active window only
Extra cool stuff:
- <Alt> + <Esc> = Activates windows in the order that they were opened
Below two shortcuts are not necessarily Windows XP’s – they are for Firefox & IE but very useful:
- <Alt> + d = Selects browser’s Location Bar, now type google and press
<Ctrl> + <Enter> = Attaches www. and .com to whatever you just typed, and submits it to the browser
Very simple – not for gurus, but very useful!
10
Apr 07
MySQL: Reset Lost Root Password
Here is a quick Step-by-Step “how to” which helps restoring MySQL root password that was lost/forgotten.
It happens to everybody, especially if several distributed (different) systems are maintained, where the password is not the same. Here is what needs to be done to restore it:
Step 1: Stop MySQL daemon if it is currently running
Depending on the operating system MySQL is installed on, the daemon can be checked/stopped differently. Here is an example on how to do it in Unix-like systems.
[ NOTE ]: You might need to run it as a Unix System superuser (root) - depending on how the system is configured, and what permissions your Unix account is granted) |
Here is how to stop/kill the existing mysql daemon, in case it is running:
ps -ef | grep mysql - checks if mysql/mysqld is one of the running processes. pkill mysqld - kills the daemon, if it is running. |
Note: if pkill (’process kill’) is not on a particular Unix system, use kill -9 ‘pid’, where ‘pid’ corresponds to processes that were found with ps -ef | grep mysql
Step 2: Run MySQL safe daemon with skipping grant tables
mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables & |
Step 3: Login to MySQL as root with no password
mysql -u root mysql |
Step 4: Run UPDATE query to reset the root password
In MySQL command line prompt issue the following two commands:
UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD("ualue=42") WHERE user="root"; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; |
“ualue=42” is a common password for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” people which reads “Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything=42“
Step 5: Stop MySQL safe daemon
Follow the first two steps, but this time kill (pkill) “mysqld_safe” instead of “mysqld”
Step 6: Start MySQL daemon
Depending on the operating system (Unix-like examples):
/etc/rc.d/rc.mysql start |
OR
/etc/init.d/mysql start |
OR
/etc/rc.5/mysql start |
etc.. check existing MySQL configuration
Step 7: Root password is reset and ready to use
Password is reset. Privileges are flushed. Start MySQL and login as root with the password set in step 4:
mysql -u root -p mysql |
Note: sometimes (most of the time) ‘root user’ privileges are required for the system (OS) in order to stop/start processes
what is next? Reset Lost Password in Sun Application Server…