Or, at least they intend to be sincere

“About What” you ask? Here I am referring to the following comment found on their Webmaster’s Guidelines page.

Quote: “Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience.”

“That’s nice” you say, “But what does this have to do with me or anything else for that matter?”

Here’s the deal. There is much said about Search Engine Optimization. And, there are many, many folks out there trying to make a buck by either swindling you or serving you in the area of SEO.

Again you say, “That’s nice… But what does this have to do with me or anything else for that matter?”

Well, 90% of all search engine optimization falls under the category of “Do whatever it takes to give those readers of your webpage a quality experience.”

That means,

• provide good content
• make sure the page html is valid
• test your links
• keep the page fast
• organize your site well
• make sure you contribute something new

Basically be sincere about your own desire to provider users with a rich enjoyable and rewarding experience when they visit your website.

To quote further from Google: “Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.” (the bold is my subtle way of making sure you caught that part. Google is actually striving to create search engine algorithms that will reward webmasters that give good content.

The shysters and tricky loop-hole exploiters will win in the short run. But if you are building your website for the long run concentrate on content first. You will do better.

However,….. (note there is a however here) there are very specific recommended actions that go beyond anything you would normally do when creating just content.

Here’s an example: “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.” This is not something you would normally do when just writing content for your own webpage. At this point you are being recommended to stop, think about what some stranger might type into a search window when looking for your website. Then, deliberately insert those keywords into your webpages. This is an artificial, contrived action that is specifically designed to increase the chances of a stranger finding your webpage. This is not only allowed, it is specifically recommended.

So, first things first: create great content. Then second things second: take those steps necessary to make sure strangers have the best opportunity of finding your great content.

Poking around the web looking into the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) you’ll soon discover many articles professing to give the basics of SEO. After reading a few of these page you should soon notice something interesting, they all cover the same basic points AND they cover the same basic points in the same order.

If you know how to do a little behind the scenes prodding, you’ll discovered that Google has published a pdf file called Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. This is the source of most if not all of the so-called basic SEO guides on the web.
Do yourself a favor. Before doing any general research on SEO read the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Since they are the original source of this document you can get it straight from the horse’s mouth — so to speak. And, when you do further research you will be better prepared to identify new information.

Javascript is a powerful and useful language for adding interactivity and functionality to your web page. This is a good thing.

However, if you have been paying attention over the past few years you will have noticed that from time to time javascript was used by hackers to attack systems with hit-and-run viruses. Sometimes the javascript was the core attack. And sometimes javascript was simply the mechanism used to load the core attack.

In any case, during these times of attack it was recommended by security type experts to turn off javascript except for trusted websites. In fact a rather popular addon for Mozilla called NoScript was written to administrate this function of allowing and dis-allowing javascript on individual websites.

What does this mean to a website developer?

Does this mean that we should not be using javascript?

This does not mean that one should not use javascript. However, unless you happen to work for a 900 pound gorilla of a website it does mean that you should guarantee that navigation and other critical components of your website will function even in the absence of javascript.

Amazon can insist that all viewers allow javascript before opening the first page. This is because they are that well known and have that much clout.

However, if you do not have that much clout, if you are not that well know, it would be a good idea to let viewers poke around on your website before insisting they allow javascript.

In practical terms this means that fancy java run drop-down menus can be a problem. However, a left-side vertical system of accordion type menus can work just fine. Just make sure that the default state is open.

Just for the heck of it I created a system of expanding and contracting sub-sections on one of my web pages. That page is Review of Programming I do for Galaxy Website Design.

If you look at this page with javascript turned off you will see a bunch of headings and associated descriptive content — fully expanded.

If you look at this page with javascript turned on, you will see a bunch of headings in a list type form. If you click on a heading it will expand to reveal the associated text.

I do this by keeping the default state of the content as visible. AND, then with javascript I hide the content. That means the content is visible to those who have chosen to turn off javascript.

However, for those with javascript the page is made a bit more fun and perhaps easier to digest.

Following yet another computer death I’ve been forced to seriously reexamine my perspective on computers. I know to many my previous treatment of computers will seem quaint and perhaps mildly amusing in my naivete.

Once upon a time, at a workstation far, far away, my computer was a work environment established through hours of installation and configuration.

I do a lot of different things. Write books, edit video, create websites, program Flash, Flex, C++, write games, and create graphic/sound resources for video games. Each of these functions requires its own special program(s). And, each program seems to require some form of special configuration.

Putting my computer work environment together is a many hour job that could stretch over the course of several weeks.

The approach to setting up my computer is not unlike the approach of an organic gardener may take with a parcel of land. The gardener would add mulch and nutrients to the soil over the course of years to build it up. This same gardener may balance the pH, monitor and improve the local fauna — such as worms and other soil friendly critters. It can take a gardener many seasons to get the soil just right.

Taking this type of approach makes the notion of selling the farm and moving down the road a few miles a bit daunting.

For me it is the same. Given the amount of time that I put into setup and configuration of my computer environment it is easy to assume the posture of investment in the computer as a parcel of tilled soil. With digital mulch and binary nutrients turned into the bits and bytes.

However, after yet another computer death, it has become painfully obvious that I need a different approach to the computer.

As of now I am taking the tack that any computer I use is rented and subject to repossession at any time.

Previously configuration was a “by hook or crook,just get the job done” type of affair. Now it is more important to document the configuration and create mechanisms for reestablishing the configuration should the need arise.

The first C++ environment I created required several years — adding custom components bit by bit over the course of many project.

The second C++ environment was created over the course of several very painful days as I strained my meager mental resources to remember where and why and how I stuffed the various components around on my computer.

The third C++ environment was created over the course of a single (slightly less painful) day. On this occasion, I spent most of my time normalizing the component installations so that I had easy to capture and easy to re-install folder mappings. I gave up on the notion of putting my source on a d drive or e drive or any other drive than c. Why? Because I could not be guaranteed that whatever new computer I was forced to use would be partitioned.

Speaking of partitions, I have given up on the notion of working within partitions. That whole view came from ancient computing when it mattered that certain functions were on separate (physically separate) drives. This would optimize the trashing and access. Now I just put it all in C. This way I am not put into the position of needing to run Partition Magic and re-create folder arrays every time I start to use a computer. This is especially important on computers and I’m more or less “renting”. It may not be possible to partition. Thus, it is simply easier to work on one big C drive.

I have affirmed and doubly committed myself to working in patterns. All of my Flex 3 projects live in a folder called c:\flex3. This way, when I move projects from one computer to another I don’t have to worry so much about updating search path parameters. The project used to look for a class in c:\flex3\something-or-other, and by Gadsby that class has been moved into the same folder on the new setup. If I was smarter I suppose I could do something wicked clever with the search paths. Sigh. Maybe in a different incarnation.

This kind of nomadic approach to computing has given me renewed respect for applications that don’t embed themselves into every nook and cranny of the registry. Pegasus (my email client) is a wonder to behold. Copy that puppy onto a new drive and it just flat out runs. Now if only I could get the programmers to let the drive localization be stored in a single setup file, then I could put this application into any drive and let it run.

I believe there is going to be a migration of more and more applications into a nomadic friendly form. (Egads what a pun.) Even so, it will be a good move.

It would be so sweet if each application had a single configuration file (or small set of configuration files) that would hold all the special information, AND, then allowed for easy export and import of this information.

It would be doubly sweet if more and more applications where thumb drive friendly. Let me have Maya on a thumb drive. Then when it comes time to create a 3d model I just insert the Maya USB drive and work away.

I have several programs that each time I migrate from one dead hulk of a computer to a new computer I am forced to call the manufacture and ask special dispensation to move the application. Believe it, this is influencing my purchase decisions. If the manufacture is tracking which computer is “home” to the installation and, if they get all uppity when I am forced by ram, motherboard, or power supply to move to a new computer, then that manufacture goes on the “dump it as soon as you find a replacement” list.

I anticipate the time when my programs and data are stored on a memory device with no moving parts to fail (along with a backup of said device). Then when I want to do anything, I insert that bugger into the appropriate compartment on my “computer” then work away. When I done, I remove the storage device and move along. Basically my data and applications need to be as removed as possible from any of the riff-raff imminent obsolescent computer components that are just a matter of time away from going up in smoke.

Heck darn, I can even see a Raid like array of non-volatile ram with automatic checksums and a little repair light that brightens when I need to excise a ram chip and insert a replacement.

But, then I would be back to the same situation of building a “home” where the gigabytes roam. While the above vision of transportable environment would be nice. One day I can “rent” time on a computer optimized for video rendering, the next day I could “rent” time on a computer optimized for program debugging. Ah sigh, would be nice. But it is still heavily involved with the notion of an established home base. And that concept itself is flawed.

What’s really required is for me to develop the ability to find myself in a new situation, quickly establish a working environment from pieces readily available in that environment, then get down to work.

The process of establishing a “working environment” is partly a mechanism for imposing one’s view of what one was — rather than creating a way to be the way one is — or needs to be.

So while I believe it is worthwhile to work out mechanisms to more quickly re-establish my programming/working environments, I think it is even more important to exercise my ability to mutate with the flux.

Supposedly this worm will start doing its dirty work on April 1.
There is a strong possibility that you do not have this worm.
However, if you think you might be infected or would like to run the removal tool just in case, use the following link:

http://www.bdtools.net/how-to-remove-downadup.php

This will take you to a bitdefender page on the topic that will give you the download.

The tool is simple to run.

If you do not have an infection it will give you a nice message telling you.

If you do have the infection it will provide the options for removal.

If you have a different anti-virus program that you prefer working with, then just do a quick search on their site for any special removal tool.
Or, make sure to update all your anti-virus definitions and do a full system scan before April 1.

It is not a bad idea to do a full scan in any case.

Your anti-virus program does you little good if it is not updated or if you don’t do a scan every now and then.

Below you will find a review of WebCamMax. This program forms part of a set of programs and hardware that will easily allow you to run a classroom online.

In order to get some idea of how it is done, I will run through the example of our Blueline Academy classroom.

This is obviously particular to the Blueline Academy. But I think you will be able to see how you can easily stretch this to fit your situation.

Step 1) Open wgge.exe, select and orb, and enter 3d space.

Step 2) Use alt-D to put the editor into 640×480 mode. Actually is a little off-size, but that gives you the approximate dimensions.

Step 3) Open WebCamMax

Step 4) Select Screen on Sources drop-down

Step 5) Click “Show Selected Area” button to put the red square on the screen.

Step 6) Under Mode select “Specific Area”. You could also have opted for “Follow the Cursor”, “Specific Window” or “Full Screen.” Specific Area works best for Blueline Academy.

Step 7) Move the square around and resize so that it fits whatever part of your screen you want to send.

Step 8) There is a little button in the far upper right (next to X that would close the program) that will let you make the WebCamMax into a small bar on your screen. This will get it out of the way.

Step 9) Open Flash Media Encoder (FME)

Step 10) File->Open then select the xml file for your Justin.TV account. Refer to Justin.tv help for how to do this part. Or email and I’ll try to explain.

Step 11) Select “WebCamMax” as video source. I leave audio source alone. That works for me.

Step 12) Press the Start button and you are now live online streaming a piece of your desktop to the world — or a select group if you have an Access code on the channel.

———————————————–

A few safety precautions.

1) Close all programs that are not needed.
2) Do not type urls, passwords, names, or any other content you don’t want sent to everyone on the planet.
3) If you get a phone call during the broadcast, be aware that unless you turn off sound (and are utterly sure it is off) you will be transmitting your half of the phone call to the world.

Found two things recently Justin.tv and WebCamMax.

Justin.tv is a broadcasting site that allows for broadcast streaming. Normally one would be restricted to streaming yourself staring into a webcam. However, with WebCamMax it is not only possible but pretty simple to stream chunks of your desktop.

Before I say more about streaming your desktop it would be only fair to confess that the program does much more, much much more. You can stream a dvd. You can stream multimedia files from your hard-drive. You can switch between any number of connected and active webcam type devices. And, for those that like the extra possibilities of Picture in Picture — that is available too. Pretty sweet.

However, those are not the features that first attracted me to WebCamMax. For me it was the ease of streaming parts of my desktop. I use Camtasia to record tutorials for upload to YouTube. I like Camtasia for just that purpose. But what about those occasions when you’d like to run a classroom?

With Justin.tv and WebCamMax I am able to run International online classes of pretty much any size. I have seen channels on Justin.tv with many thousand views. I don’t expect that a HowTo channel will very soon run out of elbow room.

So, I’ve been doing Blueline Academy workshops, tutorials, and classroom lessons using WebCamMax. I can work in the program, people can view what I’m doing live. Ask me to clarify a particular point, redo something, and in general interact. Can’t beat that.

There seems to be a minor glitch in the system if you want to use voice over while running a video. Well, what do you want for $29.95? And, I’m not entirely convinced there might not be a workaround for that issue. The problem is, in order to broadcast you are juggling Flash Media Encoder, WebCamMax, and your audio card mix board. Lots of buttons to monkey with. So who knows what other potentials exist.

For me, I know that just doing the simple stuff I can manage to get my mic to transmit audio and the WebCamMax to transmit my desktop, and thus I can do online classes around the world. A major boon for a distant learning program. And the total cost is practically zero.

If you happen to be reading these blogs from the bottom up, or for some strange reason actually reading them as they are posted, then you know that my computer had a major harddrive crash.

I used SpinRite to repair the drive as much as it could be repaired. Did its job well enough. But no miracle in data recovery. Okay, I know that grc.com (Gibson Research) doesn’t promise data recovery. But I was hoping that somehow fixing the bad sectors would magically make the data come back.

I would have had better luck waving a bowl of Lucky Charms over the drive.

So the next step was google and the long dive off a short pier into the murky waters of data recovery. Man, there is a ton of bull shit websites devoted to taking advantage of some poor sucker desperate to get data back.

Fortunately my karma musta been good (alright not too good or maybe the drive would not have gone belly up) but still, I managed to stumble across a helpful website.

I’m sure there are more. There may be much better. Don’t know. Since I only needed one working tool and no one is paying me to do a comparative study of recovery tools, I quit looking when I found runtime.org and GetDataBack.

I was a little put off by the fact that I had to know what type of drive I had. Might be nice if they made a little tool to tell me. Don’t laugh. Do you know if you have a six or twelve volt battery in your car? What, they come in different sizes?

Much to my surprise, and the reason I decided to give these guys a chance, they have a totally enlightened approach to retail on their site.

They give you a free download of a fully functional program with one exception — the ability to save your files. Other than the fact you can’t save the files it functions 100%. Might sound like a major bummer. You put all the time into discovering if you can get your data back only to find out you can’t save it.

Well, that is exactly what I wanted. I wanted to know if I could save my data before I shelled out $79. As bad as it is to have totally lost data, it is even worse to spend money then find out the data is totally lost.

But what about all that time spent waiting while the GetDataBack rebuilds new directories and scavenges around for files? Not a problem. If you find that you have access to your data, you buy the program, they give you an instant registration, you input the registration into the STILL open program, you save your files.

So basically you can poke around and see if your data is recoverable before you shell money out to recover it. I like that.

An interesting side effect of this was a serious talk with myself about the value of the lost data. Before I found the data I *knew* it must be valuable. After I found the data and was staring at it (face to face) I finally confronted the real question “Are those missing files worth $79 to me?”

In my case the answer was yes. And fortunately the GetDataBack performed as promised.

Notably I am so shell shocked as a consumer on the web that I am still waiting for the gotcha. Whether it be spyware, backdoors, identity theft, or ????… I can’t quite shake the feeling that I’ve been screwed. Why? Because as a consumer on the web every time I turn around I’m getting screwed — or almost screwed.

In this case, so far so goo….

Don’t know if you caught the full story. My iMac was displaying bold blue text in red and bold red text in blue. Regular blue text was showing up blue and regular red text was red — as one would expect. But, the bold was reversed. Red for Blue and Blue for Red.

I didn’t even call Microsoft on the issue. After twenty some years they have trained me well to expect nothing in the way of support.

Apple has these wonderful commercials that make them sound so bright and cheerful and willing to help. I expect they might be — unless you call about an issue with Boot Camp and the functioning of Windows in the Boot Camp environment.

I had the wonderful experience of trying to get support from Apple Care on this red to blue and blue to red issue.

Lord, the minute you mention the dreaded words “WinXP” they stop listening. “Not our problem.” Just because it doesn’t happen on any other machine in the universe than the Mac running Boot Camp does not seem to phase them. Just because it is only happening on the piece of hardware I purchased with the wonderful apple logo does not phase them.

Their only suggest was to delete the partition and reinstall Boot Camp and WinXP from scratch. All data gone, all programs gone. And this was of course just a way to trouble-shoot the problem. Not a promised defined solution. Not a “hey sorry dude, we know it’s a bitch to do it. But everyone that has this problem finds the only solution is to delete the partition and start over.” No it was “hey, it’s not a problem. If you insist on making us give you any kind of help on this issue the only thing we can think of is to have you delete the WinXP and start again.”

A little harsh dude (or dudette depending on which support call I am referring to).

Fortunately before doing this I gave one more try at something else. I reinstalled my video drivers.

First I did a repair using my Leopard disk. Then I went to the amd.com website http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/mac/bootcamp-xp.html and installed the drivers there.

The trick here is that when you go to the general driver page http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html you need to scroll down in the OS selection box to notice an option for Apple Boot Camp WinXP. I use iMac and it fixed it for me. Don’t know if it will work for others or not. But this is very well worth the effort before deleting the partition and reinstalling Windows. Especially since that is only a trouble-shooting test.

I call myself a Zebra. Apple loves their animal names for the OS. So I figure Zebra is a good name for the idiots such as myself that want to make serious use of Windows on the iMac. I would consider switching to 100% Leopard if I could. But there are many applications I use that simply do not exist in Mac osX. Even if I wanted to shell out the thousands of dollars to buy new Mac versions of the software, the mac version does not exist — period.

Hence, I have to function as a Zebra. Some of my work in Leopard, some of my work in WinXP.

I’m not saying that Apple Care should be responsible for all my Windows issues. Would be nice if someone was because Microsoft has demonstrated no ability in that area. I don’t expect Apple Care to handle much of anything other than hardware issues. And for me, I consider drivers to be part of the hardware. The hardware manufacture is responsible for drivers that run their devices.

Now if Apple supplied an empty box which I would fill myself with odd bits of hardware purchased off the internet then I expect that I would need to bug the individual hardware dudes for support. But, since they assemble all the pieces and sell me a fully loaded box, I kinda expect some support when the hardware and drivers go whacky. Well I can expect free beer to fall from the sky in 40 ounce bottles. That won’t happen either.

As I said, I didn’t even dare to dream that Microsoft would care or help. But I fell for the marketing and allowed myself to dream that with the iMac I was coming home after a long journey in the woods to a warm fire and the friendly support of folks that would care. Well, they do care. As long as I’m not a Zebra. Apple Care and Microsoft share one thing in common — neither of them will give much support to us black and white stripped freaks.

It’s a bit odd writing a thread when you know that most folks will encounter the pieces of the thread back to front. Definitely a different headset. At the moment my only concession to this oddity is to periodically drop a hint on what the hell the topic is referring to. Such as “recall that this thread started as a result of hard drive turning into burnt toast.”

Even though I’m working on my brand new (alright, it’s a year old but it really is hardly used) computer with its new hard drive I can’t escape the feeling that I might need to go through all of this again very soon.

These feelings of dis-ease come from two sources 1) the sting of recent events, 2) every time I turn around on the apple support forums for bootcamp and winxp they are advising re-install windows.

What the bleep is up with “re-install windows” as the first “go to” answer when encountering a problem. Don’t these guys have more than one or two programs they run? Don’t these guys have a life? I’m running on into the third day of this installing my way back into a working environment. The flippant manner in which it is advised to *try* reinstalling windows knocks my breath away. It’s not like they are saying: “yo, I know it’s a pain, but I can assure you that if you install windows it will solve your problem.”

Well, I’m on the phone as we speak (or I type in the present and you read in the unknown future) with AppleCare. Lord have mercy, if you are thinking about buying an iMac and using bootcamp as a way to transition from the Windows world to the Mac world give it some hard thought.

Basically, if you don’t actually need to use any windows applications then by all means consider the switch. But, if you truly need any of your windows applications then look out. After calling Apply Care with an issue the first thing they determine is “are you having the problem in Leopard or in WinXP?” If the answer is WinXP then they instantly stop listening.

The way it goes is this. The computer is Apple. Boot Camp was written specifically to allow the installation of Windows on the computer. But Windows is most definitely a distant (and not looked upon fondly) third cousin. The official line from Apple Care is “If the problem is occurring in the Windows side it is Window’s problem not Apples.” Actually it is not Windows problem it is mine. It is my problem running Windows on a piece of hardware that I was led to believe would run it.

Frustrating? You bet.