The Domain Name of Pizza.com seeks million

Posted by signup

Who the would’ve have it think that a Domain Name generic motionless have the capacity of draw inside large male? Chris Clark, the salesperson of Pizza.com, seemed a little in the shock after it managed to rake in $2.6 million the bidding of the Domain Name.the It insane, insane just of the it he said the sun of Baltimore after the end of the bidding Thursday.

Clark, which has a company of software, recorded the Domain Name of Pizza.com it there A 14 years for Juste $20. Nothing profitable always really came from the field, thus it sat down on top during a moment, and then him and a friend transformed it into publicity and directory of pizza pie. Then, they intended to speak about the fortuitous sale of Vodka.com and decided to test their own chance with Pizza.com, according to the sun. In March 29, to offer struck $2 million and even more of the offers entered.

During the days of outward journey-outward journey of the Internet, the companies full with hope and the contractors broken to the top of easy-with- remember, of the generic names of field with the hope which they would cash translate with the cargoes money a IPO — or even impetuous. But gold precipitations started to die to the bottom while it became obvious that the names like Jewelry.com and Meat.com were a loosing proposal. Vodka.com and the sale evens larger of Business.com for $7.5 million in 1999 can be called the anomalies between the many failures.

Clark Pizza.com bidding was held by Sedo.com, which currently composes candidates such as, of fattoskinny.com waterfrontretreat.com , and getforeigncurrecy.com .

Google April fools for 2008

Posted by multippt

Looks like April Fools went silently this year, but not without it being forgotten. Google went 14 steps further this April fools, this time with 16 April fools hoaxes, compared to the two earlier last year. Sounds like Google is pretty busy preparing for its favorite day.

1# Virgle - Google aims to built a permanent human settlement on Mars with the Virgin group. Comes complete with invitations and applications as well.

2# AdSense Blog - Looks like Google considered the literal meaning of contextual ads, going as far as to adding AdSense to your normal conversations. The link to the blog entry is here. Clicking on the supposed sign-up link takes you to a Wikipedian entry on April’s fools (wow, looks like even Google acknowledges Wikipedia). Of course, it would be really nice if Google could actually implement that.

3# Orkut - Orkut’s name was changed to “Yogurt” for the day. Well, at least they still sound similar.

4# Google Japan - Google launches the site with the mission of “organizing the world’s laughter”. (Japan exclusive)

5# gDay - Google announces (in Australia) that they have developed technology that can search for pages hours before they are created. (Australia exclusive)

6# Google Translator - A new feature to translate different dialects of Korean. (Korea exclusive)

7# Google custom time - A new feature in GMail that allows you to send E-mails to the past.

8# Google calendar - Google decided to bring “I’m feeling lucky” to Google calendar, except that clicking on that button will not bring you to the first page of the results, but rather adds a nice event that sets you up with a date with some famous/popular people.

9# Google summer of code - The license were changed to WTF Public License temporarily for the day.

10# Google wake up kit - Adds a feature to the Google calendar that does the classics of waking up people using unorthodox/extreme methods.

11# Google documents - A new easter egg was added in the file menu (called “New Airplane”). Clicking on it literally opens up a document containing instructions to fold a paper airplane, complete with the Google logo.

12# Google manpower search (China) - Uses search results powered by human labour. Of course, it would have been the best search engine all-time if that were true and feasible. (China exclusive)

13# Google book search - Adds a new section called “scratch and sniff”. Basically the idea is to click on a button and “smell” the book (by placing your nose close to the monitor).

14# Blogger - Blogger featured an announcement on Google Weblogs which is touted as the next revolution in personal publishing (or simply, blogging). This new “Blogger 3.0″ places your best content at the top, rather than the latest posts. In addition, it supposingly populates your sidebar with relevant content (technically, this is already done - it’s called ads).

15# Google Talk - Google annouces that it plans to shorten conversations (by omitting certain vowels and letters) on the 22nd of April (i.e. Earth Day). Kind of nice to think that Google brought up Earth Day on April Fools.

16# Youtube - This is the first time Youtube gets a nice April Fools addition. All links linking to featured videos point to Rick Astley’s song. In other words, anyone using Youtube on April Fool’s will get RickRolled - by Google. That’s neat. At least Google is paying attention to Internet memes. (United Kingdom [UK] and Australia Youtube sites initially affected [Google must have been following the time-zone], followed by the remainder.)

—

P.S.: Never believe anything you read on April Fools. Even newspapers lie…
P.S. #2: April Fools is yesterday, so this post ain’t an April Fools joke.

Wordpress 2.5 released

Posted by multippt

Looks like Wordpress 2.5 went gold earlier than expected. To commemorate the event, Wordpress.org underwent a complete overhaul to match the administration interface in Wordpress. A pretty cool update I must say, since no one expects Wordpress to have a behind-the-scenes planned change for their entire site.

Some features are highlighted as followed:
Administration interface - A complete revamp, so much so that veteran users may need time getting use to it. However, it won’t take long because it is very easy to use.

Revamped Dashboard - The dashboard can be customized as easily as iGoogle (sort of) using Widgets.

File Upload - You can upload several files at once, complete with a progress bar that ensures that your uploads are not stalled.

Image information - If you take photos, Wordpress will attempt to extract information in the photos via information present in EXIF metadata.

Improved search - Search results now include pages as well.

Tag management - You can now edit and delete tags, without the need for plugins.

Password strength - An added safety precaution against weak passwords.

Concurrent editing protection - Prevents several users from editing a post simultaneously.

Plugin update - One click is all it takes to actually update the plugin in place. This depends if the plugin author made their plugins updatable via Wordpress.

Revamped Visual post editor - Made to look similar to Blogger, this editor places several options in convenient to reach places.

Galleries - Wordpress has a built in gallery system that you can use to construct image galleries in your blog.

Password hashing - One step more to protecting your password - making it totally impossible to crack. Cookies are also encrypted as well.

Documentation within Wordpress - A great help to developers, since almost all functions are now documented within the Wordpress install itself.

Wordpress 2.5 next week

Posted by multippt

Looks like Wordpress 2.5 would finally be released next week, most likely on the first of April (and no, it’s not an early April fool’s joke). Wordpress trac no longer gives an accurate time line, but to hint is still there. The release is most likely targetted at 1st of April (though funny that the trac puts it at year 2030). Following Wordpress’s release candidate schedule, if the second release candidate gets the green light, then the final release would most likely occur close to a week after the lastest “stable” release of 2.5, which put the 1st at a very nice place.

In the mean time, Wordpress plugin writers may want to ensure their plugins still works on Wordpress 2.5. The same goes for theme designers, though not much of a problem since nothing much was changed related to the theming system in Wordpress.

Some changes from Wordpress 2.3 to 2.5 that you might want to take note of:
-Easier plugin upgrade (probable): One click and an old plugin is updated to its new version. That is, if the plugin author explicitly states that the plugin supports the new version of Wordpress.
-Revamped administrative interface: One of the most talked about changes in Wordpress 2.5. You’ll have to see it to know what’s change.
-Security change: Your password now even more securely encrypted by Wordpress, keeping your password safe even if a person manages to gain access to the Wordpress database.
-Changes to WYSIWYG editor: The What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get post editor is now revamped to look not too different from the one in blogger. Kinds of makes it easier to switch from Blogger to Wordpress. The location for some features have changed, such as uploading images (now relocated to a small button which when clicked will open up a box for you to upload your stuff immediately).

Comment spam at new highs

Posted by multippt

Clearing spam in blogs have never been more easier thanks to Akismet. Click “delete all”, and all hundreds of spam comments will go poof. Why don’t spammers realize is that spamming no longer works the way it use to? Looks like they still don’t, and increasing the bulk of spam isn’t going to make things any better as well.

New comment spams are getting interesting month by month. New spam now point links to Google groups, which is a forum system in Google. However, since almost everyone of those advertisements looks almost identical, it’s incredibly easy for akismet to find it. Of course, Google has done its job of deleting the threads, making sure none of those advertisements see the light.

Bloggers know very well not to show spam comments, which is why almost 0% of spam comments make it at all. Akismet lays out comments in a way that it makes pin-pointing legitimate comments, which is why few bloggers actually check through the queue (and prefer to click on delete all). Of course, the good news is that Akismet is quite accurate, as accurate as the Google spam mechanism.

Of course, there are ways to combat spam, but it pose an inconvenience to actual commentators. Capcha systems are one way to prevent them, but not everyone can read capchas. Spammers are also able to crack poorly made capchas (that is, if the capchas are widely used). Of course, the mathematical capchas work as well, unlike image ones, most people can answer them even with visual disabilities. Though, it won’t be long before JavaScript obfuscated code becomes readible by spam bots.

Not all spam is made through spam bots or botnets. There is manual spam, which is made by cheap labour out looking for a penny off spam. The only “protection” against this is probably Akismet.

Firefox 2.0.0.13

Posted by multippt

Firefox dished out yet another update in just a few weeks just a few hours ago (25-26 March). There isn’t really much changes added in this update, mainly security updates.

It’s recommended that you update to this version of Firefox as some of these fixes help patch up security holes that could leave your computer vulnerable to attacks. Automatic updates should kick in immediately when you launch Firefox.

Entrecard controversy

Posted by multippt

My earlier post on Entrecard didn’t capture much attention - it was a plain old boring post about a few Entrecard contests. The second one did better (technically the third one, but since the first post was rejected anyway for being too controversial…) - funny to think that Entrecarders will feel so uncomfortable at having suggestions for them to lower their drop rate. What inspired the controversy was none other than a post from John Cow (not John Chow), who decided to temporarily drop the Entrecard because they feel that it isn’t appropriate for them.

I have to agree with John Cow*, even if that meant taking a stance against Entrecard. While Entrecard gives a large amount of traffic, what good would it do if they just went to your site so as to click on “Drop”? Entrecarders are too concerned with optimising their Entrecards, the EC market, etc. Others spend hours dropping cards, in the end actually forgetting about their blogs they were meant to promote.

Entrecarders themselves also feel the pinch. Everyone is so obsessed with dropping that if you were to take a day-off from dropping, the value of your card will fall tremendously (and so will the Entrecard rank).

Naturally, most Entrecarders will not comment on a post that says otherwise. They’ll prefer to stick to the topic of Entrecard/community optimisation (seriously, even if the Entrecard blog were to have hundreds of those same-old posts, it won’t matter since the community will read them anyway).

*Great… I fell for his link-bait