MSN Watch

What do you get when you mix some peanut butter with a search engine? Aaron Wall, the creator of site Black Hat SEO puts his satirical talent to work again with MSN-Watch.org which is a spoof on the Daniel Brandt conspiracy watch sites Google Watch and Yahoo Watch.



The site has all the trimmings in portraying MSN as the Evil Empire out to destroy the world of Search. I don't know what they are putting into the peanut butter these days, but give me some of it too -- whatever it is.

MediaWiki 1.2.6 released

MediaWiki is the collaborative editing software that runs Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and other projects. It's designed to handle a large number of users and pages without imposing too rigid a structure or workflow.



Changes since 1.2.5:

* Spam blocker ($wgSpamRegex - refuses to save edits that match)

* Updated documentation about $wgWhitelistRead

* Ensure that searchindex table is created as MyISAM

* Interwiki cache timeout (memcached)

* Fix uploads on Windows with magic_quotes_gpc

* Some config fixes for Windows (slashes etc)

* Local interwiki URL redirects

* Fixed obscure deletion problem in squid mode on corrupt entries

* Language files updated to remove more hard-coded "Wikipedia" strings



There are no database format changes.



See the release notes for MediaWiki.

Create Free Acrobat PDFs With PDF/TextBox

Robin Good recommends PDF/TextBox in which you can create Acrobat PDFs -- free, no strings attached.



Acrobat PDF is a popular digital distribution format for documents, presentations and other multimedia content requiring faithful display across platforms, security and a more manageable file size.



PDF/TextBox is an easy to use free PDF editor. It allows you to write documents quickly and easily and then to save them in PDF format directly. You can also copy/paste content straight from Microsoft Office applications. PDF/TextBox supports editing and changes to PDFs you have already created. PDF/TextBox also supports typical PDF features such as password protection, encryption and document info.



PDF/TextBox runs on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional and Windows 2003. It also requires Microsoft .NET runtime, but that is available as a download option. You can significantly decrease the download size by excluding the Microsoft .NET runtime from the download. Free download, no spyware, no ads, no tricks.

Dynamic CSS Animation: The Jog-Shuttle Dial Control

Here is an interesting graphical effect called the Jog-Shuttle Dial Control. When I first saw it, I thought it was a flash animation. I was wrong. The effect was all controlled with four images, some CSS, and a little bit of javascript thrown in.



The effect is part of Web Page Design for Designers series of articles on Dynamic CSS Animation. Two other effects are demonstrated, a news ticker and a digital timer, both of which give an irritating flicker to the mouse cursor. Still an interesting effect (if you can keep your mouse out of the window).



The website also includes an easy to follow tutorial CSS from the Ground Up, which has some visually fantastic table and list creations in it. Well worth a look at.

Blog Software Breakdown

Owen at Asymptomatic has caused a stir over at Slashdot with the posting of his Blog Software Breakdown chart. The chart displays attributes of different user-installed blog software packages side-by-side for comparison. Only server-installed scripts were included in this list. (No Radio, Blogger, etc.) The chart was created by Owen to help figure out what blog tool best suited his needs. Hopefully, says Owen, it will be useful to the self-hosted blogging community as well.

"Even before the whole Movable Type fallout, I had been trying to decide which of the many weblog CMS packages would be best for my needs. I got tired of flipping back and forth between each of the sites, especially when not all of the answers to my questions were apparent from simply reading the main web page."

See the Blog Software Breakdown at Asymptomatic, which covers Movable Type, pMachine Pro, WordPress, b2evolution, TextPattern, Pivot and more. It is one fine piece of work in my opinion and undoubtedly will prove to be invaluable for anyone looking into setting up their own server-installed blogging scripts.

An Excel spreadsheet containing all the data is also freely available for download.

The Slashdot post points out "Here's a rather detailed breakdown of currently popular blogging and content management systems. Out of 11 software packages, 10 run on any server with variations of Perl/PHP and MySQL/PostgresSQL, and one requires Windows and .NET Framework. 4 are licensed under GPL, 3 are under BSD."

Of the PHP/MySQL entries in the chart, such as WordPress, they can all be test driven at OpenSourceCMS. The site features over 60+ Open Source CMS software installed onsite with access to the adminstrative panels. Each CMS is reloaded every 2 to 3 hours, so don't worry about screwing anything up.

GoogleGuy Goes Quiet?

GoogleGuy Goes Quiet?. Mark Carey at GoogleGuy-Says has noticed it lately. Mark has only seen one post from GG in the month of May.



"With the Google IPO annoucement, Google is now in the "Quiet Period". And it appears that GoogleGuy is also in the quiet period. Many, including myself, expected this to happen (especially after GoogleGuy asked me to be quiet).", says Mark.



GoogleGuy may be quiet, but AdWordsAdvisor is logging in about 30 posts a week this month so far. After being congratulated for his 1000th post on May 3rd, AWA is up another 94 posts to date.



If the IPO is the cause for GoogleGuys silence, then why does the policy only apply to him and not AdWordsAdvisor? Curious that.

PHP 4.3.7RC1 released!

PHP 4.3.7RC1 has been released for testing. This is the first release candidate and should have a very low number of problems and/or bugs. Nevertheless, please download and test it as much as possible on real-life applications to uncover any remaining issues.



List of changes can be found in the NEWS file.

YahooPOPs! - POP3/SMTP access to Yahoo Mail!

YahooPOPs! is an application that provides POP3 access to Yahoo! Mail. It is available o­n the Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac platforms.



Yahoo! Mail disabled free access to its POP3 service o­n 24th April, 2002. This application emulates a POP3 server and enables popular email clients like Outlook, Netscape, Eudora, Mozilla, etc., to download email from Yahoo! accounts.

SourceForge.net: Latest Release of Back-End CMS

SourceForge.net announced the latest release of Back-End CMS, a flexible, multi-lingual template driven PHP/MySQL CMS which includesin-line editing and text, html, wiki or WYSIWYG editing interfaces.



Popular applications like phpList and phpBB2 have been incorporated as modules. Streamlined templates and template variables to make it easier to manipulate the look/feel of your site. Considerable performance enhancements and Html content can now be uploaded directly as an html file into the sections and articles.



Visit the Back-End CMS site for more information.

Andy Kaufman Returns ... or not ???

Twenty years ago the world lost a wonderful comedian in Andy Kaufman who first became known as Latka from the television series Taxi. In 1999, a new crop of Kaufman fans were born after Jim Carrey starred in the hit film Man on the Moon.



According to a PR Web news story, Andy Kaufman faked his own death 20 years ago and has returned, alive and well. DNA tests prove that this is indeed the real Kaufman and not another hoax. Some fans are outraged, others are just glad to know the legendary comic is alive.



"Andy’s bizarre mix of comedy and performance art will inspire fans and comedians alike for generations, especially after this stunt," says Jim Carrey.



Andy Kaufman's official site has been launched at Andy Kaufman Returns which is set up on Google's Blogspot.com. The Andy blogger is also using a HotMail address.



But now, according to the Snopes urban legends website, it's all a hoax.



The website says Kaufman is indeed dead and has a link to his death certificate from the Cedars Sinai Medical Centre to prove it. It also has pictures of his grave and headstone in New York.



Snopes also says the website purporting to carry messages from Kaufman, has admitted Kaufman wasn't interviewed by ABC. It also says Ernst & Young never carried out a DNA test on Kaufman.



Andy (or Bob or whoever) blogged away some of these doubts. The blog, if anything, is a bizarre episode that plays out in true Kaufman form I think.



The blogger has announced Andy Kaufman's National Starbucks and Wal-Mart Tour. He may show up in disguise as an "aging comedy legend who still thinks everyone recognizes him" or an "aging fat and bald guy who thinks he is god's gift to women".



Dead or Alive? You make the call. One thing is certain -- Andy lives in this blog.

phpBB 2.1/2.2 Development FAQ

The phpBB Group has released the details on the new version of phpBB. The phpBB 2.1/2.2 Development FAQ explains that version 2.1.x will be the development version of 2.2.x. The development version is being made available for experimental purposes, but should not be used in a live environment. You can find a copy on the CVS snapshots page.

There is no projected release date of phpBB 2.2.x according to the FAQ. They believe that their products should not be set with a release date. This means that the developers are not rushed to finish the product by a set date, or disappoint their users by pushing said date back. Thusly, there is absolutely no release date for phpBB 2.2.0. It will be released when the product is finished. This way, you are bound to get a higher quality product.

The Group has set up a feature tracker and overview broken down by milestone. Further information can be found at phpBB 2.2 M-2 completion ... and M-3. According to the tracker, there are four major milestones to version 2.2.x. Currently they have just completed milestone two, which puts them at the 50% completion mark.

Going down thru the overview of features, many modules are being completely rewritten from the ground up. Improvements in the templating system, caching of data, reductions in global variables, and creation of thumbnails for over-sized graphics to name just a few. The list is very extensive and yet they say it is not exhaustive. Wow.

Color Schemers and Resources

Reach Customers Online published a fine list of color schemers and resources. Included in the list are a variety of desktop applications and online tools including Color Schemer, Color Match 5K, and one of my favorite online tools the Pixy Color Picker.



The list is rounded out, of course, with a link to Lynda.com who is one of the original designers (if not the original) to figure out the web and then write books and produce extensive training on the topic. She's a first rate resource.



More color resources at ReachCustomersOnline.

SourceForge.net: phpWebSite 0.9.3-3 Stable Released

SourceForge.net announced that phpWebSite 0.9.3-3 Stable is now released.



The development team at Appalachian State University has released version 0.9.3-3 of phpWebsite. The focus of this release was to address bugs. There have also been several user submitted patches applied. Developed by the Web Technology Group at Appalachian State University, phpWebSite provides a complete web site content management system. All client output is XHTML 1.0 and meets the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative requirements.



Changes Include:

• Search revision which improves site wide search abilities



• Improvements to photoalbum slideshow for modem and IE users



• What's related On/Off patch



• Post processing patch for phatform



• Remember Me login patch



• Added debug theme



• Added W3C Core Styles



• BBcode Parsing ability

A list of sites that use phpWebsite shows the wide range of possibilities that the software is capable of. Also a demo of phpWebsite is offered at the ASU website.



For more information, visit the phpWebsite Home Page

htmlArea - Turn any <textarea> into a WYSIWYG editor

htmlArea is a WYSIWYG editor replacement for any <textarea> field. Instead of teaching your software users how to code basic HTML to format their content, they can use htmlArea to do it instead.

The interface provides for:

• Format text to be bold, italicized, or underlined.



• Change the face, size and colour.



• Left, centre, or right-justify paragraphs.



• Make bulleted or numbered lists.



• Indent or un-indent paragraphs



• Insert a horizontal line.



• Insert hyperlinks and images.



• Insert tables



• View the raw HTML source of what they're editing.

You can also create your own buttons to insert custom blocks of HTML code and images. Currently version 2.03 is available for IE 5.5+ browsers. Version 3.0 (beta) adds support for Mozilla 1.3 (all OS) cross platform functionality.



See interactivetools for more details.



Cross-Browser Rich Text Editor



Another editor of note is the cross-browser rich-text editor by Kevin Roth. This editor implements the Mozilla Rich Text Editing API included with Mozilla 1.3+.



The editor supports IE5+/Mozilla 1.3+/Mozilla Firebird/Firefox 0.6.1+ for all rich-text features to function properly. If browser does not support rich-text, it should display a standard textarea box in it's place. Included in the archive package are HTML, ASP, and PHP demos.



TTW WYSIWYG Editors



htmlArea is one in a line of what is referred to as a through the Web (TTW) WYSIWYG editor. In order for it to be classified as a TTW, it must function within a browser. Some editors allow you to toggle between the view and source modes.



The University of Bristol's Information Services has compiled a list of known TTW editors. The list is heavily commented on supported browser, XML support, scripting language, spell checking, and other notes of interest. Also the list is grouped into three areas Open Source, Commercial, and Web Based Services.

Google tests waters with 1,000GB e-mail limit

Just when you think this day would not get any stranger. Google has upped the storage space on my Gmail account to one Terabyte -- or 1,000 Gigs of mail storage space. I was unaware of this until I read about in CNet News story. I rushed right over to take a look, and sure enough my meter read You are currently using 56 MB (0%) of your 1000000 MB.

According to the story, The Gmail service still is in testing and it wasn't immediately clear how widely Google will offer the higher storage limit, under what conditions, or to which users. Google didn't respond for requests for comment late Tuesday.

So file this away in your for what it's worth department for right now. I am sure something will come out about this soon.

Yahoo Releases E-Mail Standard to Fight Spam

Just in from Reuters -- Internet portal Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday released an e-mail standard that prevents "spam" marketers from hiding unwanted messages behind legitimate e-mail addresses.

The technique, if widely adopted, could help Internet providers more easily block the unwanted bulk messages that currently account for up to two-thirds of all e-mail traffic.

Yahoo's proposed standard, known as DomainKeys, would embed outgoing messages with an encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the message.

Internet providers could check the signatures on incoming messages and block those that do not match up.

The procedure would be invisible to regular e-mail users because it would be implemented by e-mail providers, Yahoo said on a Web page describing the standard at http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys.

Read the story at Reuters

Google Planning Desktop Software Search Tool - NYT

Just in from Reuters -- Google, the Internet search company, is planning to release a file and text software search tool for finding information stored on a computer, The New York Times said on Wednesday.

Google's software, which several people with knowledge of the company's plans told the Times is expected to be introduced soon, will allow the company to offer tools to search the desktop, a domain now controlled by Microsoft Corp.

Upgraded technology for searching stored information on a personal computer will be part of Microsoft's upcoming version of its Windows operating system called Longhorn, the Times said.

A Google representative was not immediately available to comment to Reuters.

Discuss at Band of Gonzos Forum

Lycos Leapfrogs Yahoo, Google in E-Mail Race

Lycos' Europe new 1-GB e-mail offering will be devoid of ads and protected with anti-spam and antivirus software, the company said. The service will cost £3.49 (US$6.18) per month. Yahoo also will require a fee for storage at the 1-GB level. Google's 1 GB of storage will be free, but it comes with strings attached.

Google (with its upcoming Gmail) and Yahoo both have said they will offer similar storage, but neither has a live system yet in the United States, much less in Europe.

Complete story at NewsFactor Network

Online Job Sites Targeted by Money Launderers

Fake employers are hiring people via Monster.com and other employment sites and tasking them with "job responsibilities" that involve transferring funds -- usually money stolen or gained through other illegal activities -- through their Pay Pal or credit-card accounts.

The scam typically works like this: The criminal organization -- and, increasingly, it does appear to be an organized effort -- posts a job on Monster or one of the other well-known sites. Usually, Dixon says, it has swiped a logo from a legitimate company to mimic its Web site. Some of the mock-ups are so good that they can fool the average person who is not looking that closely. The victim applies for a job, usually advertised under "shipping" or "accounts receivables."

The "receivables," of course, are either funds stolen from credit cards or money from illegal activities. In the case of the former, people who recycle the money through Pay Pal are often on the hook for the transaction fees -- in some cases in the thousands of dollars -- once it becomes clear what has been going on.

Read the complete story at NewsFactor Network

CNN dumps Google for Yahoo

It is official, CNN.com News is now using Yahoo Search for it's web site. After a report appeared in the May edition of the Market Position newsletter, it now appears to be official ... the change has been made at CNN.

The odd thing about the search bar at CNN is that it defaults to the World Wide Web, and not CNN. Even after submitting a search query through the search input box and changing the option to search CNN, it would default back to the original setting of WWW. I did a some simple queries inside of CNN, and the results were often dated and off the mark. Of course, it may take time for them to get their indexing up to speed and in sync with CNN.

Although CNN would not be a persons first choice to search the Internet from, it does show that Yahoo is showing aggressive behaviour and turning the heat up on the search engine wars. CNN is part of the AOL Time Warner media empire and at present AOL Search is powered by Google. But the move into CNN can only bolster the array of News agencies that provide feeds for Yahoo News which include Reuters, CNET News, and a long list of others.

ThumbShots Search Engine Ranking Tool

Thumbshots.com, the site that provides you with the thumbnail images of your Web site is now offering a new tool for search engine ranking. Thumbshots ranking tool allows you to check your site ranking and compare it with different search engines. The ranking tool is made by Thumbshots.org engineers & volunteers and is provided as a free service.

You can type in different keywords to perform searches and see how your site ranked in different search engines. It provides some of the most popular search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, etc. for you to check rankings for.

Just type in the keyword(s) that you want to search in the search box and select the search engines that you want to see the rankings for. A result will display and you will see the small dots with connecting lines will appear if any links appear in both queries for the terms that you selected. Putting your mouse over the dots will show you the site address and if it's available, a thumbshot (small screen shot) of that website will be shown as well.

The multiple keyword terms was a nice touch. For example, you can enter in the terms for "web design" and "website design" at the same time and the results will be compared on the next screen. While you could optionally check for two different search engines also, the most benefit from this method is checking against a single search engine.

For those of you who wants to locate your website easily, you can type in a site address in the Highlight Site box and the red dot will appear if your site is within the top 100 ranking. This feature requires that you are running Internet Explorer 5 or greater though.

PayPal 'Phishing' Scam tries to spoof PayPal site

A member of the Band of Gonzos Forum who is also a PayPal Account holder, recieved a suspicious email today. The letter was quite convincing in appearance and detailed that his account was suspected to have been accessed by a third-party. He was not to answer the email, but to log into his account at the PayPal site and follow instructions there.

This was a completely plausible looking piece of mail when I first saw it. But the member pointed out a couple of typos in the letter which raised his eyebrow a little. There was also a link in the mail to the PayPal site, but it was spoofed. Examination of the header proved the mail to not come from the PayPal site at all.

Clicking the link in the mail took you to a site that "appeared" to be PayPal also. But it was actually another site, and this idiot did a shoddy job of trying to cover it up. Still -- the fact is that the letter and the fake site is done well enough that someone may fall for it.

Read the discussion in progress and see the full letter in it's entirety at Band of Gonzos forum.

Cisco Source Code Reportedly Stolen

Russian security Web site SecurityLab is reporting that the source code for Cisco Systems Inc.'s main networking device operating system was stolen on Thursday.

According to the report, criminal hackers broke into Cisco's corporate network and stole 800MB of source code for IOS 12.3 and 12.3t (an early deployment version containing features not found in the vanilla 12.3 version). In addition, a 2.5MB sample of what is supposedly IOS code was released on an Internet Relay Chat channel as proof of the alleged theft.

If the report is accurate, this represents a major security threat not just for Cisco users, but for the entire Internet. According to the Dell'Oro Group, a market research firm that specializes in the networking and telecommunications industries, Cisco owns 62 percent of the core router market.

Complete story at eWeek

Guess Google's IPO Price and Win Shares in the Company

Want some shares of Google stock? All you need to do is estimate the opening and closing price of the stock on the first day it trades. Google IPO Swami will then give the person with the closest answers shares of Google.

The winner of the contest will be the person whose guess has the minimum distance from the actual opening and closng prices.The minimum distance is defined as the sum of the squares of the difference between your guesses for opening and closing price and their actual values. Ties will be settled by a random drawing. The winner will receive 10 shares in Google.

Who is the Google IPO Swami? Well according to WhoIs, it is a one Tim Ogilvie of Boston Massachusetts. He is interested in how well "the crowd" can predict the price of Google's stock when it IPOs.

According to the contact page at Google IPO Swami, "I'm gathering data because I think they may be able to help predict the price of shares under the auction model and be a good tool for determining a fair price for securities offered in an auction format. I'm interested in topics like game theory and bayesian statistics and predictive modeling and will likely use a few of these techniques to analyze the data. I'll be keeping my day job".

Discuss at the Band of Gonzos Search Engine Forum

SourceForge removes Playfair from project pages

Approximately 10 days ago according to SourceForge.Net, they received a lot of coverage regarding a DMCA request that they had received from Apple Computer regarding a product called Playfair. Playfair is (was?) a SourceForge project that removes encryption from Apple's AAC digital music format. The issue was extensively written-about by their sister Web site slashdot.org and other Apple Mac-related sites. The project is now offline. SourceForge added, "When the SF.NET team receives a DMCA request, we follow our policy, which is outlined here: http://tinyurl.com/396x7"

"Typically, when we receive a DMCA request, the project at hand is removed for a minimum of 10 days. The project admin, however, has the ability to make a counter-claim, which can bring the project back online in short order. In the case of Playfair, the admin decided to not make a counter-claim, hence the project is still offline.", the SF.NET report said.

Hardened-PHP v0.1.1 announced at Source Forge

What is Hardened-PHP? Hardened-PHP adds security hardening features to PHP to protect your servers against a number of well known problems in hastily written PHP scripts. It also protects against potential unknown vulnerabilities within the engine itself.

Hardened-PHP v0.1.1 adds memory_limit check relocation and some other small fixes to the following list of implemented protections:

• Canary protection of the Zend Memory Manager


• Canary protection of Zend Linked Lists


• Protection against internal format string exploits


• Protection against arbitrary code inclusion


• Syslog logging of attackers IP

More information on the Source Forge project page

Spam ads in Atom-2-RSS converter from 2RSS.com

Thank you to Peter Forret for noticing that "a bunch of 'ADV: Goto XXX site for YYY' advert posts coming in" on the 2RSS.com AtomToRSS conversion feeds. Since Peter and I both are using Blogger which only supports Atom, we both had a need for a service to convert that feed into RSS ... and 2RSS.com provided that service. Note the keyword there - provided.

Lo and behold there are ads being inserted into those feeds and not one peep from 2RSS to inform their users of the insertion of ads. I was ready to drop the service without bothering to look for another, but fortunately Peter found another service that can automatically convert Atom feeds into an RSS for other people to use.

The service is FeedBurner and I am using it now. I must say that the service provided by FeedBurner is impressive and provides for some other goodies as well, such as conversion to RSS 2.0 (and 1.0), adding pictures to your feed, providing a browser friendly version of the feed (like the Atom does), posting stats, mobile feed optimization, and some other things.

Visit FeedBurner for more information at http://www.feedburner.com/

Slashdot Bans My Yahoo RSS Newsreader Service

Funniest thing happened on my way to My Yahoo. I got four headlines from the main feed at Slashdot, all saying that my newsreader had been banned and not to contact them until another 72 hours. You can view the screenshot here.

The links were to statements to the effect that they were tired of being hammered on a daily basis from poorly implemented headline readers. It is not my newsreader, but I got the hint loud and clear ... Yahoo is hammering the hell out of their server.

W3C invites Atom to work under their auspices

The effort among Atom supporters to create a standard XML syndication format took a new turn this week as the Web's leading standards body suggested a new route.

The World Wide Web Consortium invited the Atom community to form a working group under its auspices, rather than within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Atom proponents since have been pursuing the formation of a working group in the IETF, a first step toward creating a formal standard.

Atom is an alternative syndication format to RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and the rise of dueling formats has created disagreement, and at times acrimony, among their backers. In March, the major proponent of RSS and its co-author, Dave Winer, suggested the merging of Atom and RSS into a common format in a process managing through a major standards body.

Read full story at eWeek

Discuss at the Band of Gonzos Webmaster's Forum

Opera 7.50 Released, Everything You Need Online

Opera Software today released 7.50 for Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Opera 7.50 offers users hungry for a better Internet experience the latest advancements in Internet technologies, with the same engineering excellence and inventiveness that made its browser rendering so famous, now also offers a top-notch e-mailer, newsreader, IRC-compatible chat client, contact database, support for RSS newsfeeds and much, much more. Still, with all the features, Opera remains the fastest, best coded, small browsing application in the world, weighing in at 3.5 MB.



Visit the Opera website to learn more.

Online Tool - Email Address Encoder

Throwing your email address up on the Internet is sure fire way to attract a mailbox full of spam. Email harvesters are constantly probing websites for any and all email addresses.

Automatic Labs has an online tool that will encrypt your email link into a small JavaScript code that you can insert into your Html page.

The website has two other scripts worth noting also. One is a php script that will rotate images, and the other is a URL cleaner. If you are attempting to validate your web pages and keep coming up with errors with links to other websites, then you probably have the dirty URL problem.

Usability Guidelines from MIT

The MIT Information Services and Technologies office provides an excellent starting point for anyone needing to test, evaluate, analyze or assess the effective usability/accessibility of a Web site. In one well organized page, all critical areas of usability and accessibility are covered through a simple guidelines table that can be used to collect and annotate information.

The MIT usability guidelines include most of the critical factors to consider during a usability evaluation of a Web site though not all factors may apply to every Web site or online information system available out there.

The areas covered by the MIT set includes:

• Navigation


• Functionality


• User Control


• Language and Content


• Online Help and User Guides


• System and User Feedback


• Web Accessibility


• Consistency


• Error Prevention and Correction


• Architectural and Visual Clarity

See MIT Information Resources

Mac under fake Word 2004 attack

Per a Slashdot Post

Macworld is alerting of a malware program for the Mac. A Macworld reader alerted the magazine to the malware after he downloaded the file from Limewire. The reader told Macworld: 'I downloaded the file in the hope that perhaps Microsoft had released some sort of public beta. The file unzipped, and to my delight the Microsoft icon looked genuine and trustworthy.' However, he added: 'I clicked on the installer file, and to my horror in 10 seconds the attachment had wiped my entire Home folder!'"

This sounds similar to the recent trojan horse proof-of-concept. There are many ways to make one file look like another, on any platform. This is 2004, you should know by now not to open a file from an untrusted source.

Google AdSense now featuring Image Ads

Google is introducing an exciting new feature to its advertising program. Now you can use the power of images to drive clickthrough from your web visitors. Image ads allow AdWords advertisers to place graphical ads - in addition to text ads - and uses existing AdWords technology to target images based on keywords and phrases. Google uses AdSense contextual advertising technology to match the image ads to the content of your web pages.

What does this mean for AdSense web publishers?

• AdSense web publishers will have the option of running image ads on their web pages, and can benefit from the increased revenue potential of targeted, graphical ads.


• Image ads will increase the available inventory of ads for your pages, and offer an alternative option for publishers wanting to monetize their pages.


• Image ads will show in rotation with text ads. On a page by page basis, Google's technology determines whether text ads or image ads are likely to make you more money, and serves the best ads to your page.


• Google image ads are currently in beta and are available in 4 major formats: 468x60, 728x90, 120x600, and 300x250.

You can choose to run image ads by simply selecting the image ads checkbox from the Ad Preference page of your AdSense account. Or, set your preference at a page level by selecting the type of ads you'd like to show when generating your ad code.

Click here to see a sample ad.

Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Google must be going lunar-tunes for now they are advertising for new job positions on the moon which is slated to open in Spring of 2007. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age by April 1, 2007 and have proof of earth residency. Google is an equal opportunity employer.

Searching the heavens
Once the facility is built, the real work begins. Google will be exploring a number of exciting research projects that have the potential to advance search science to a new frontier. Among the questions Googlunars will seek to answer are:

• Exactly how far does the Worldwide web extend?


• Can it become an interplanetary utility?


• If so, will it replace Water Works on Monopoly®?


• What are the likely effects of link attenuation over extreme distances?


• Is there a limit to link strength, or is it infinitely extensible like bubble gum that gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe?


• What happens to PageRank in the proximity of a black hole?


• Is there distortion that might result in link relevancy reduction or popularity warping?


• Could this somehow be harnessed to generate more dates for engineers?


• Does spam go on forever?

Why a lunar location?
With the establishment of the Copernicus Center, Google's mission has grown beyond "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful." Our new goal is to "organize all the useful information in the universe and serve it to you on a lightly salted cracker."

Sasser Author may have wrote worm to Combat MyDoom

Per a story in the Canadian Press, the teenaged author of the Sasser Worm has told officials his original intention was to create a virus, Netsky A, that would combat the Mydoom and Bagle viruses, removing them from infected computers. That in turn led him to develop the Netsky virus further - and after modifying it created Sasser.

"He did it with good intentions, but it had exactly the same damaging effects," said Sascha Hanke, a Microsoft data protection official in Germany.

Like the other versions, the new variant - which notified users of a Microsoft patch against Sasser - caused computers to crash and reboot.

"The cause was erroneous programming of the virus," Hanke said.

Police have said Jaschan was responsible for all versions of Sasser as well as the Netsky virus.

Read the full story at the Band of Gonzos Virus & Security Forum

Sasser Worm Author Arrested

Reuters is reporting that the author of one of the latest versions of the Sasser Worm has been arrested in Germany. German police says that they acted on a tip from Microsoft which confirmed their suspicions about the suspect.

Sven Jaschan, an 18-year-old who has just graduated from vocational school, was detained Friday and admitted to being the mastermind behind the fast-spreading Sasser worm. He has since been released on bail, for the authorities do not feel he will flee.

Jaschan's father says that the young man may have released the worm in an effort to drum up support for his Mother's computer company by providing an antidote for the worm.

Read full coverage and discuss at the Band of Gonzos Virus & Security Forum

Trackbacks, Pings, and Unknown Things

I learned more in thumbing through a wealth of information at Lee Lefever's Common Craft website than I could anywhere else. Lee has a gift for explaining things in terms in a simple and easy to follow style.



For instance, I did not know what a trackback url was until I stumbled upon his site. I knew that it had to do with tracking other blogs that linked to another blog, but it was not clear to me how the process worked. Lee explained every question that I had about trackbacks. So this post is my first official use of a trackback url. Thanks Lee.



He does not stop there, for he has other information on Wikis, Rss/Atom differences, Blogrolling, and that is about as far as I got ... cuz I was still itching to get back here and test this darn trackback out.



If you get a chance... visit Lee at Common Craft : Online Community Strategies.

More Yahoo Search Shortcuts

Yahoo has rolled out several new search shortcuts, continuing the trend also in play at Google and Ask Jeeves to make ready reference information even easier to find.

A new help page lists all of Yahoo's search shortcuts, including a few new ones. Using the proper shortcut term will place a potential answer and links to find more info at the top of the results page.

Some of the shortcuts include an Encyclopedia Lookup, Synonym Finder, Hotel Information, and Traffic Reports.

A review of the shortcuts page also shows that Yahoo now offers many of the shortcuts that Google offers. These include airport info, aircraft number registration info, package tracking, patent search, UPC Codes, and VIN (vehicle identification number) info. Yahoo also recognizes ISBN's (International Standard Book Number) and will produce a link allowing you to compare prices for a book via Yahoo shopping.

Read the full story at SearchEngineWatch.com

No Business in Social Networking

Social networks are a good thing. Everybody should have one--and everybody I know does, in some form or fashion. But whether you need an online social network and, particularly, whether you need one whose primary purpose is separating you from your money is another question entirely.

I am talking about the LinkedIns, Friendsters, and Orkuts of the world. All of them, presumably, plan to monetize their online communities by charging people for introductions to people they don't now. These things have become darlings of the get-rich-quick-on-the-Internet set, who talk about these services like there's really money to be made selling introductions wholesale.

Read the full story at eWeek Messaging and Collaboration

Metadata Tagging The Social Grid Via Search

An entry in John Battelle's Searchblog had one of the more interesting uses of the Google API that I have seen so far.

Social Grid, an Orange County Calfornia based firm is what the founder Chau Vuong describes as, "a Google for people." It is a free dating service with an idea that is simple. Registered members turn their own personal or business Web pages into free personals ads.

Members that sign up get a string of HTML to put on their personal or business Web pages. The SocialGrid Search System then translates information that members enter into their SocialGrid profiles. Then Google and other search engines index not only the page but also the profile.

The search can be used to find soulmates or could also be used to find lost classmates, roommates, job listings, internships, etc. For individuals who have personal websites, blogs, or use P2P Telephony, you can use SocialGrid to increase the visibility of your site by allowing others to search for you directly through Google.

Audience Match - A new spin on search ads

A little-known technology company wants to extend the success of search engine advertising into new territory.

Tacoda Systems, based in New York, is testing a system that lets marketers bid against rivals to reach targeted audiences as they surf the Web, according to company CEO Dave Morgan. Advertisers will be able to pay to reach a certain demographic of people (for example, high-income men aged 30 to 40 who have expressed an interest in buying a sports car) through sponsored text links that appear on Tacoda partner Web sites.

Right now, four major publishers, whose names Morgan would not disclose, are testing the system. Tacoda plans to publicly introduce the service, called Audience Match, during the summer.

Read the full story at CNET News.com

What You Should Know About the Sasser Worm and Its Variants

Microsoft teams have confirmed that the Sasser worm (W32.Sasser.A and its variants) is currently circulating on the Internet. Microsoft has verified that the worm exploits the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) issue that was addressed by the security update released on April 13 in conjunction with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011.

To protect your computer against Sasser and its variants, visit the Microsoft Security website at:

• http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp

This page includes instructions on protecting your computer from the Sasser Worm and it's variants, as well a detection utility and removal tool if the worm is found on your computer.

To help protect your computer against a wide variety of security threats, see Protect Your PC also at the Microsoft website.

Google is Adjusting Backlinks and Pages

Almost 10 days after the last adjustment at Google, it appears they are at it again. I have noticed backlinks being adjusted, as well as pages being resolved at the Band of Gonzos forum.

During the last go round, which lasted a couple of days, PR seemed to disappear and reappear like a light being flicked on and off with a frenzy.

Follow the backlink discussion at the Band of Gonzos Forum.

Google Plans Foundation to Take Aim at Global Ills

Google Inc., not content with successfully making the Internet a more useful information hub, has set an even loftier goal for itself: to create a foundation to tackle "the largest problems of the world."

With a thriving enterprise driving such altruism, Google could become one of the big-time do-gooders in the world of corporate philanthropy.

Under the heading "Making the World a Better Place," Google informed potential investors that, "We intend to contribute significant resources to the foundation, including employee time and approximately 1 percent of Google's equity and profits in some form.

Full story at Reuters


Google's Web Ad Gamble: Is This Time Different?

Google Inc. made its name from Internet searches but made its fortune from Web advertising, a near-total reliance on a single revenue source that presents risks for prospective investors, analysts said on Monday.

As it marches toward an initial public offering, Web search giant Google Inc. appears to be following the lead of an earlier generation of Internet firms that bet the farm on online ads and lost when the dot-com bust saw demand for banner ads evaporate. In 2003, 95 percent of Google's revenue of $961.8 million came from a new type of targeted advertisements.

This time around, Internet advertising is a seen as a far more resilient market, but analysts said that depending on it alone it is not without risks for Google.

More at Reuters

Network Security - Linux Growth Means Security Tests Ahead

In the Windows world, there are publicly announced vulnerabilities and patches -- sort of like donning a porkpie hat and waiting near the software chicken coop with a shotgun. But most Linux flaws are fixed swiftly and quietly.

Linux has enjoyed a relatively smooth virus-free existence in its adoption phase. But the honeymoon could end as the open-source operating system reaches into more corporate networks and desktops.

Read the story at Newsfactor

Virus Targets Instant Messenger

When it comes to viruses and worms, e-mail gets all the attention--but now that instant messaging has infiltrated both home and office, it too has become an attractive and easy target for virus writers.

From 2002 to 2003, worms and viruses that spread via IM and peer-to-peer networks increased 400 percent, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report. Already this year, we've seen the Jitux.A and Bizex worms targeting MSN Messenger and ICQ, respectively.

For more on the story and discussion see Viruses Target IM

Stanford University's ITSS on Secure Computing

In a Security Alert issued by Stanford University's Information and Technology Systems and Services, a "family" of worms referred to as NDemon, Phatbot, Agobot or Gaobot are infecting a large number of machines across the Internet. They spread through a number of mechanisms, including password guessing (looking for accounts with weak passwords), scanning for open file shares, and identifying machines without vital security patches.

The alert offers links to all known detection methods and removal tools, as well as a steps that should be taken by all computer users to prevent the spread of these bots. Microsoft Windows users are strongly encouraged to take the following steps to reduce their exposure to this new threat - for details on how to make these changes, please consult ITSS: Secure Desktop Computing.

The ITSS Secure Desktop Computing bulletin includes password safety tips, procedures for securing your desktop computer, adminstrative guide policies, dealing with online harassment, and software and tools including a Security Self-Test utility.

The Stanford Security Self-Test utility is a simple, self-contained tool that performs a set of basic security checks appropriate to the kind of computer you run it on. The tool is non-intrusive, sends absolutely no information about your computer over the network, and is provided as an educational aid in your efforts to keep your computer more secure. It is not intended for use on servers, but rather individuals' desktop and laptop Macs and PCs.

If the tool discovers any significant security vulnerabilities on your computer, it will alert you to this fact, and tell you--usually by referring you back to the Secure Computing web site--how to address the problem. For help you can click the tool's "Security Self-Test Help..." button, which will take you to the appropriate web page.

Discuss at the Band of Gonzos Virus & Security Forum

Open-Source Backers Ready Longhorn Defense

The open-source development community is looking to head off Microsoft Longhorn before it escapes the Redmond corral.

Some key members of the community recently met to discuss ways the open-source movement can prepare for Longhorn, the next major version of Windows that is expected to debut on the desktop in 2006.

According to the minutes posted to the Web from an April 21 meeting involving members of the Gnome Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation teams, Longhorn's Avalon and XAML technologies appear to be the most potentially worrisome for the open-source community.

"We need to slow the upgrade to Longhorn, and since that is relatively costly to businesses, if we can make cross-platform applications work well, there is an opportunity for Linux migration," Friedman said, according to the meeting notes.

"If we're going to be competitive, we need to follow the open- source, de facto standard route, that we're all working on, rather than being bogged down with the standards process," he added.

Read the full story at Microsoft Watch

India's secret army of online ad 'clickers'

NEW DELHI: With her baby on her lap, Maya Sharma (name changed) gets down to work every evening from her eighth-floor flat at Vasant Vihar. Maya's job is to click on online advertisements. She doesn't care about the ads, but diligently keeps count — it's $0.18 to $0.25 per click.

The trend is catching up in India. Says Goutam Rakshit, chairman, Advertising Council of India: "It's a numbers game as far as media buying is concerned. And anybody who can manipulate numbers gets the edge. This is unethical, and needs to be curbed."

Read full story in The Times of India

Microsoft unveils new antipiracy tools

Microsoft has released details of a long-delayed update to its content protection technology, offering new features aimed at bringing piracy-proof digital content to mobile devices and home networks.

Originally expected as long as a year ago, the technology--internally code-named Janus--has been seen as a potential way to let subscription music services such as Napster and RealNetworks' Rhapsody move to portable MP3 players. Those services, which allow subscribers to listen to unlimited amounts of music in return for a single monthly fee, are typically tied to PCs today.

Read the full story at CNET News.com

UPS, Yahoo target small-business shipping

Global package delivery firm United Parcel Service of America on Monday said more than 30,000 merchants registered with Yahoo Small Business will be able to use its shipping services online.

UPS Online Tools integrated into Yahoo! Small Business Merchant Solutions now will be allowed to print labels and process shipments at their sites and access current UPS shipping rates. Merchants will also be able to display UPS online tools such as rates, services and time in transit on their own sites.

See the Yahoo-UPS website for more details.

PayPal offers developers a peek at its code

PayPal on Monday made available a set of Web services APIs that will allow programmers and merchants to develop e-commerce applications linked to the company's online payment service.

PayPal's new Web services APIs, or application programming interfaces, would allow developers to retrieve basic and detailed transaction information, refund money and automatically transfer funds.

Read full story at CNET News.com

Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 0.6

Mozilla.org has realeased a Technology Preview version of it's Thunderbird Email client. This software may work well enough to be relied upon as your primary messaging client as it is based off a stable Mozilla 1.6 architecture. However, Mozilla Thunderbird is still a preview release, and therefore several features may not be complete.

Per the Mozilla.org Website, "Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, extension support, and much more."

New features in 0.6 include an installer for Windows OS, a pinstripe theme for Mac OS X and smarter junk mail filters.

Thunderbird 0.6 is available for download. For developers, the development pages cover source code, developer resources, roadmap, etc.

Content Development - The Art of Writing Teasers

Many sites forget the art of a good tease in their rush to hit the right keywords and satisfy harried Web users. Teasers are the two or three lines below the headline that tell more about what's inside. They hint there's good stuff in there. You can tease for special site features and updates to your regular content.



Susan Soloman provides tips in writing effective teasers to capture your visitors attention and tempt them into digging deeper into your website.



Want more insights into writing head-snapping Web content? Read "The Better to Tease You With"



How did I do Susan? ;0)

Fix Navigation to Improve Conversions

Bryan Eisenberg explains that it is a fascinating thing about watching visitors navigate is recognizing that repeat visitors typically use sites differently than first-time visitors. You might consider changing your navigation based on this, as Amazon.com changes the tabs displayed based on purchase and browsing patterns.

As Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group said, "Usability is not the goal. Honest, it isn't. Usability is always secondary. The goal is to satisfy the needs of the user. Information, functionality... And if you work for a company, one goal is to keep the company profitable.... Would I degrade a product if I knew it would increase sales? Yup."

Read Bryan's article at ClickZ Network. This is the third part of a series of articles. Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2.

Senate OKs Bill to Ban Web Access Tax

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to restore a ban on taxing Internet connections for four years, stopping short of the permanent ban approved by the House.

The Senate settled its differences Thursday, voting 93-3 to restore the tax ban for 4 years.

The 17 states with DSL taxes have two years to phase them out.

Read the full story at Internet.com

Email marketer sues anti-spam group Spamcop

Scott Richter, President of Email marketing firm OptinRealBig.com, has filed suit against Ironport, which runs the anti-spam website Spamcop. According to Richter, Spamcop's initiatives have damaged the reputation of his company and forces ISPs to terminate contractual agreements with OptinRealBig.com and its upstream providers.



Read full story at Tom's Hardware Guide

"Open-Sourcing Java Could Promote Interoperability," Says James Gosling

"Carefully done, open-sourcing [Java] could actually promote interoperability by making it easier for disparate groups to align behind one code base," writes Sun's James Gosling, writing in his widely read blog today.



"There's been a lot of churn lately over open letters from IBM and others calling for Sun to open source Java," writes James Gosling today in his java.net blog.



Read full story at Java Developers Journal

Independent Developer Releases Win98 SE Service Pack

A service pack for Windows 98 Second Edition has been released. Big deal, right? It is if it doesn't come from Microsoft.

Last Friday, Windows enthusiast Alper Coskun posted something he dubbed “Service Pack 1.5” for Windows 98 SE on his Web site.



Although clearly labeled as “Unofficial,” the Service Pack uses updates and hot fixes Coskun collected from the Windows Update service site and Microsoft's Knowledge Base database.



The service pack includes 70 hot fixes, a solution to the 512MB memory limit of Windows 98 SE, and better USB support, claimed Coskun on his Web site.



Read the full story at TechWeb

Roundup: Google aims to raise $2.7 billion in IPO

The Internet's leading search engine files plans to raise $2.7 billion in an auction-style public offering. With the filing, the company's co-founders also issue a letter to potential shareholders.



Five stories at CNET News.com are sure to pique your Google interest.



Google files for unusual $2.7 billion IPO

update The Internet search leader files documents with regulators that provide insight into its business, as it prepares to sell shares to the public.



Google IPO mania slows SEC Web site

Intense interest in the search king's initial public offering slows the Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site to a crawl.



Want in on Google's IPO?

The search engine is opening its long-anticipated public offering to the masses through a rare auction process. But ordinary folks will still need to jump through hoops to land some of the coveted shares.



Lifting the lid on Google

A search through the company's SEC filing pulls up some interesting findings on executive salaries, the board of directors and the competition.



Co-founders release Google 'owner's manual'

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin craft a letter to map out Google's credo as a public company.



...and to round it all out with yesterdays Best of the Web feature at CNET News.com. These are some of the more interesting stories based on topics such as the people behind the company, the investor angle and the big picture.

Apple patches QuickTime flaw

Apple Computer issued on Friday a security advisory and fix for a QuickTime flaw that the company describes as a minor issue, but which is classified as a serious problem by the firm that found the vulnerability.

The company that found and reported the flaw to Apple in February, eEye Digital Security, claimed Apple is downplaying the seriousness of the flaw in its advisory. A movie file could be created, the firm maintained, that would cause malicious code to execute when the user opened the file.

Unlike a previously discovered spoofing technique, the QuickTime issue actually involves a security flaw in the program. Apple released patches for several other vulnerabilities earlier this month.

Read the story at Cnet News.com