Friday, June 6, 2008
What's Behind the Flare-ups in Oil Prices? Jeremy Siegel and Witold Henisz Weigh In
Memorial Day, which marks the beginning of the summer driving season in the U.S., saw gas prices at nearly $4 a gallon all over the country -- and even higher in states such as Florida. Globally, the picture looks more worrisome: Oil prices crossed a record $135 a barrel during the weekend of May 24-25, although by Tuesday prices had come down to $131. What's behind these regular flare-ups in oil prices? What are the major economic and geopolitical factors at work? How does expensive oil affect the U.S. and world markets, and what can we expect over the coming months? Knowledge@Wharton discussed these questions and more with finance professor Jeremy Siegel, author of The Future for Investors, and management professor Witold Henisz.
Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate Technologies
The boundaries between work and play are beginning to disappear as consumer technologies -- including social networking tools, user generated content and wikis -- are increasingly adopted by corporate America. For technology companies, this emerging "consumerization" trend represents an opportunity, but it also brings new management challenges as companies struggle to embrace these technologies in a way that doesn't limit their usefulness but also doesn't result in lost time or money. And while there may be productivity gains for corporations that experiment with integrating the latest consumer gadgets, security remains the deal breaker, say experts at Wharton.
You've Worked Hard, Saved and Just Retired: How Do You Manage Your Finances Now?
As baby boomers retire and start spending their nest eggs, they will need new financial products to make their money last, according to speakers at a recent Wharton Impact Conference titled, "Managing Retirement Payouts: Positioning, Investing and Spending Assets." The conference explored emerging patterns in spending during retirement and debated new ideas to help retirees manage their finances after leaving the workforce.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Are You Missing Out By Not Practicing SEO Techniques?
I got a comment on my article about how Google ranks websites asking me: “How did you get from 0 to 4 if you do not have visitors? And why would you care if no one else does?”
The truth is that if you are not interested in attracting a lot of visitors or customers, then page rank and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t your thing. Who would care? If you don’t care, then don’t bother.
But if you do care, then it is important that you understand what Search Engine Optimization is and how to make it work for you.
In Infoconomy’s article, “Standing Out From the Crowd”, it asks the question: “Why aren’t more companies paying attention to SEO practices?”.
The world’s largest companies are missing out on billions of online dollars by failing to optimise their websites for search engine listings.
Search engine rankings are a vital component of an Internet presence: More than three quarters of hits on Internet home pages are directed there via a search engine; and half of consumers research online prior to making purchases. But many of the world’s largest businesses are failing to take advantage of this growing channel for acquiring customers.
SEO techniques involve some very simple or very advanced techniques to make sure that your site is fully optimized, or in better words, ready for search engines to visit and gather the data they need to place you in their database so people can find you when they search.
Rumors of the Death of SEO
On the other side of this, Shoe Money reports that Jason Calcanis claims SEO is dead. I agree but I also disagree with that statement.
SEO techniques that make website managers and administrators use lunscrupulous practices to attract the attention of search engines to their site and force up their page ranking are dead. Totally killed off. WordPress and other blogging tools and plugins have made it difficult for comment spammers and bad referers to get their fingers into your website to force link popularity and page rank. Today, search engines are no fools when it comes to detecting greedy attempts to abuse and attract their attention. The games played under the guise of SEO techniques to spam search engines and fool with page ranking is dead and gone, part of history. Sure, you can try the old techniques, but the odds are that you will get slapped really fast. Technology has caught up and surpassed you.
Still, the original intention of Search Engine Optimization techniques benefit everyone, including search engines. Streamlined coded websites that load fast and put the information you need in the fore is critical to a site’s success. Simplistic, easy-to-read and use websites and blogs make it useful for users as well as search engines.
SEO really means following web standards and practices that make your website and blog accessible to everyone, including search engines. Here are some examples of articles and information that will help you learn more about good SEO efforts and practices to help your website and blog be not only ready for search engines when they come to visit, but accessible by everyone using every browser, computer, cell phone, and handheld computer.
The truth is that if you are not interested in attracting a lot of visitors or customers, then page rank and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t your thing. Who would care? If you don’t care, then don’t bother.
But if you do care, then it is important that you understand what Search Engine Optimization is and how to make it work for you.
In Infoconomy’s article, “Standing Out From the Crowd”, it asks the question: “Why aren’t more companies paying attention to SEO practices?”.
The world’s largest companies are missing out on billions of online dollars by failing to optimise their websites for search engine listings.
Search engine rankings are a vital component of an Internet presence: More than three quarters of hits on Internet home pages are directed there via a search engine; and half of consumers research online prior to making purchases. But many of the world’s largest businesses are failing to take advantage of this growing channel for acquiring customers.
SEO techniques involve some very simple or very advanced techniques to make sure that your site is fully optimized, or in better words, ready for search engines to visit and gather the data they need to place you in their database so people can find you when they search.
Rumors of the Death of SEO
On the other side of this, Shoe Money reports that Jason Calcanis claims SEO is dead. I agree but I also disagree with that statement.
SEO techniques that make website managers and administrators use lunscrupulous practices to attract the attention of search engines to their site and force up their page ranking are dead. Totally killed off. WordPress and other blogging tools and plugins have made it difficult for comment spammers and bad referers to get their fingers into your website to force link popularity and page rank. Today, search engines are no fools when it comes to detecting greedy attempts to abuse and attract their attention. The games played under the guise of SEO techniques to spam search engines and fool with page ranking is dead and gone, part of history. Sure, you can try the old techniques, but the odds are that you will get slapped really fast. Technology has caught up and surpassed you.
Still, the original intention of Search Engine Optimization techniques benefit everyone, including search engines. Streamlined coded websites that load fast and put the information you need in the fore is critical to a site’s success. Simplistic, easy-to-read and use websites and blogs make it useful for users as well as search engines.
SEO really means following web standards and practices that make your website and blog accessible to everyone, including search engines. Here are some examples of articles and information that will help you learn more about good SEO efforts and practices to help your website and blog be not only ready for search engines when they come to visit, but accessible by everyone using every browser, computer, cell phone, and handheld computer.
Site Optimization: Checking Loose Links
The three biggest complains by Internet users are speed issues, broken links, and slow ads. Let’s tackle the number two complaint: broken links. Few things are more frustrating than tracking down the information you want, and you click the link and get the famous “404 Page Error - Page Not Found”.
The term “web” came about as a visual image of how the Internet and web pages work. Through a process of links within a web, each web page connects with another web page which connects with another, and another, and so on and so on, all connecting the strands of the web together. When one of those strands is broken, the web weakens.
A web page features two different types of links: internal and external. External links take the user to another site, leaving yours behind. Internal links are the links that connect one page to another within your website.
As a search engine moves through your site, it relies upon the internal links to move through your web site from page to page, gathering information. If there is a break in any of these links, or you have pages that are not linked to from within other pages in your site, that page won’t be found by the search engines.
If you use site statistics programs to monitor your website or blog visitors and access, check to see how often your 404 page is being accessed, or how often a 404 error is reported. If frequently, thoroughly check how up-to-date your internal links are to keep people inside your site on the right content.
Keeping up with “dead links” can feel like a full-time job. There are several link checking software programs available to help you organize and check your links, as well as free online link checkers to help those with only a few links on their pages. Blogs and pages come and go rather quickly. Or administrators change their linking structure so broken links are found even though the site is still functioning. While link checking programs can identify broken links, you still have to manually check to see if the link is really dead or just moved.
If you have a small business or site, schedule link checking about once every three to six months to keep your external links updated.
The term “web” came about as a visual image of how the Internet and web pages work. Through a process of links within a web, each web page connects with another web page which connects with another, and another, and so on and so on, all connecting the strands of the web together. When one of those strands is broken, the web weakens.
A web page features two different types of links: internal and external. External links take the user to another site, leaving yours behind. Internal links are the links that connect one page to another within your website.
As a search engine moves through your site, it relies upon the internal links to move through your web site from page to page, gathering information. If there is a break in any of these links, or you have pages that are not linked to from within other pages in your site, that page won’t be found by the search engines.
If you use site statistics programs to monitor your website or blog visitors and access, check to see how often your 404 page is being accessed, or how often a 404 error is reported. If frequently, thoroughly check how up-to-date your internal links are to keep people inside your site on the right content.
Keeping up with “dead links” can feel like a full-time job. There are several link checking software programs available to help you organize and check your links, as well as free online link checkers to help those with only a few links on their pages. Blogs and pages come and go rather quickly. Or administrators change their linking structure so broken links are found even though the site is still functioning. While link checking programs can identify broken links, you still have to manually check to see if the link is really dead or just moved.
If you have a small business or site, schedule link checking about once every three to six months to keep your external links updated.
Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips
So you think you’ve got the hang of the usual SEO. Links, content, usability. But what about WordPress?
There’s a lot of amazing SEO power built into WordPress. Unfortunately it doesn’t all come by default, and you might not know what’s best when it comes to templates and options.
This simple, easy to follow article will outline many WordPress SEO tips which people often forget to implement (even the most famous bloggers), or haven’t yet arrived at for some reason or another.
Permalink Optimisation
The goal: stick more keywords up into the URL and remove the faff which nobody uses, to make the URL seach engine and people attractive.
* Include %postname%
Having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, especially when it’s as easy as WordPress makes it.
* Get rid of useless tags
Don’t use %day%, %post_id% , %hour%, %minute% or even %second% in your permalink structure. None of these are necessary. Monthly posting archives are perfectly acceptable, but for the vast majority daily ones are not. Putting more /***/ rubbish into your permalink URLs will make it harder to see the URL’s boldened keywords on search engine results, less emphasis is placed on your post title keywords (which are really great).
* Bonus tip: want to go really mad with your permalink SEO? Try dropping date tags all together for %category%! It does away with your neat date tags, though, so you could even try keeping %year% and %month%.
* Stick with the structure you choose! Changing it will probably invalidate all of the links coming to you.
* You better be using .htaccess, punk!
On my sites
On Dech, the permalink structure is /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/, which is ideal! It keeps the blog neat, but means that all of the URL, with bold keyword matches, will show up in Google results, etc.
I’ve taken a different approach with Buster Studies, where I’ve decided to go for sheer SEOage, in the form of just %postname%. It really works, especially with some of the techniques mentioned later. Search refferals are sky-high for this very new site. I’m not worried about post-title clashes, because each post covers a different topic, and WordPress doesn’t ever let post slug clashes occur.
What’s that? You can’t use the calendar properly? Well it still happens to work for me when you want to look up dates like yesterday.
Page Titles
Unless you’re some kind of international superband with just a few letters for a name (Apple, IBM…), you’re very likely allowing WordPress to make a big mistake for you when it comes to your page title (the one within the title tags).
You don’t want a title like this:
Buster Studies » Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution
Why not? Well, to start with the key words are right at the end! You have to put up with Buster Studies » before your eyes can make it to the real juice!
In Google, when you do a search, searched keywords which appear in your title are made bold, and they sand out really well. You want as much of that as possible. Because Google truncates titles when they pass a particular length, you need your important keywords up front. Google might also be counting words which appear earlier in the title as more important.
The format I use for page titles on Buster Studies and Dech lets people see what the post is about first.
Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution · Buster Studies
Look at the top of the page. I even spice it up a little by loosing the common “»” for a lovely “·“.
Even better, the title of the post can be seen in Firefox’s tabs or minimised Windows windows easily.
The code you need to put into your template for this to happen:
< ###title>< ?php wp_title(' '); ?>< ?php if(wp_title(' ', false)) { echo ' ·###; '; } ?>Buster Studies< ###/title>
(remove the ###s and replace stuff with your own bits)
So just rearranging your title will shower your with some fantastic results.
On my sites
As I said, I use the technique above which throws out great, powerful titles like:
Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips · Dech from Fintan Darragh
Essay Notes: Arguments For/Against Regulation of the British Press · Buster Studies
What do you see first? Exactly what I want you to…
Post Titles
Keep it sweet
Keep your post titles nice and simple, and as straight-forward as possible. Sure, pack in the keywords, but do it smartly.
You have to blend readability with keywords. It’s easy to muck-up, but doing it right will help you loads.
Link to the bloody post!
If you don’t use your title to link straight to your permalink URL, the page where your post lives, you are stupid to say the least.
It’s naturally where users click, and it also is a keyword-rich inward link which should reinforce a good post title, page title and URL.
Some HTML might come in handy…
XHTML if you prefer.
* On pages where a list of posts appear (like the front page), wrap the title in H2, H3 or H4 tags. This provides maximum superiority of linkage without going too far. Which ones you use depend on how many posts the page is showing (lower number of posts, opt for H2…).
* On the post page, wrap it in H1 tags! It’s the page title, so it deserves to be wrapped up like that! You’ll benefit greatly from this when it comes to the search engines.
* SEO mad! If you’re capable of bending WordPress to your will, try putting a link to your newest post in H1 tags on your front page! It works wonders!
On my sites
I use this very technique on Dech and it seems to be working very nicely indeed. Buster Studies uses the H1 as a front-page one-off link, and that seems to have a great deal of influence.
There’s a lot of amazing SEO power built into WordPress. Unfortunately it doesn’t all come by default, and you might not know what’s best when it comes to templates and options.
This simple, easy to follow article will outline many WordPress SEO tips which people often forget to implement (even the most famous bloggers), or haven’t yet arrived at for some reason or another.
Permalink Optimisation
The goal: stick more keywords up into the URL and remove the faff which nobody uses, to make the URL seach engine and people attractive.
* Include %postname%
Having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, especially when it’s as easy as WordPress makes it.
* Get rid of useless tags
Don’t use %day%, %post_id% , %hour%, %minute% or even %second% in your permalink structure. None of these are necessary. Monthly posting archives are perfectly acceptable, but for the vast majority daily ones are not. Putting more /***/ rubbish into your permalink URLs will make it harder to see the URL’s boldened keywords on search engine results, less emphasis is placed on your post title keywords (which are really great).
* Bonus tip: want to go really mad with your permalink SEO? Try dropping date tags all together for %category%! It does away with your neat date tags, though, so you could even try keeping %year% and %month%.
* Stick with the structure you choose! Changing it will probably invalidate all of the links coming to you.
* You better be using .htaccess, punk!
On my sites
On Dech, the permalink structure is /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/, which is ideal! It keeps the blog neat, but means that all of the URL, with bold keyword matches, will show up in Google results, etc.
I’ve taken a different approach with Buster Studies, where I’ve decided to go for sheer SEOage, in the form of just %postname%. It really works, especially with some of the techniques mentioned later. Search refferals are sky-high for this very new site. I’m not worried about post-title clashes, because each post covers a different topic, and WordPress doesn’t ever let post slug clashes occur.
What’s that? You can’t use the calendar properly? Well it still happens to work for me when you want to look up dates like yesterday.
Page Titles
Unless you’re some kind of international superband with just a few letters for a name (Apple, IBM…), you’re very likely allowing WordPress to make a big mistake for you when it comes to your page title (the one within the title tags).
You don’t want a title like this:
Buster Studies » Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution
Why not? Well, to start with the key words are right at the end! You have to put up with Buster Studies » before your eyes can make it to the real juice!
In Google, when you do a search, searched keywords which appear in your title are made bold, and they sand out really well. You want as much of that as possible. Because Google truncates titles when they pass a particular length, you need your important keywords up front. Google might also be counting words which appear earlier in the title as more important.
The format I use for page titles on Buster Studies and Dech lets people see what the post is about first.
Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution · Buster Studies
Look at the top of the page. I even spice it up a little by loosing the common “»” for a lovely “·“.
Even better, the title of the post can be seen in Firefox’s tabs or minimised Windows windows easily.
The code you need to put into your template for this to happen:
< ###title>< ?php wp_title(' '); ?>< ?php if(wp_title(' ', false)) { echo ' ·###; '; } ?>Buster Studies< ###/title>
(remove the ###s and replace stuff with your own bits)
So just rearranging your title will shower your with some fantastic results.
On my sites
As I said, I use the technique above which throws out great, powerful titles like:
Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips · Dech from Fintan Darragh
Essay Notes: Arguments For/Against Regulation of the British Press · Buster Studies
What do you see first? Exactly what I want you to…
Post Titles
Keep it sweet
Keep your post titles nice and simple, and as straight-forward as possible. Sure, pack in the keywords, but do it smartly.
You have to blend readability with keywords. It’s easy to muck-up, but doing it right will help you loads.
Link to the bloody post!
If you don’t use your title to link straight to your permalink URL, the page where your post lives, you are stupid to say the least.
It’s naturally where users click, and it also is a keyword-rich inward link which should reinforce a good post title, page title and URL.
Some HTML might come in handy…
XHTML if you prefer.
* On pages where a list of posts appear (like the front page), wrap the title in H2, H3 or H4 tags. This provides maximum superiority of linkage without going too far. Which ones you use depend on how many posts the page is showing (lower number of posts, opt for H2…).
* On the post page, wrap it in H1 tags! It’s the page title, so it deserves to be wrapped up like that! You’ll benefit greatly from this when it comes to the search engines.
* SEO mad! If you’re capable of bending WordPress to your will, try putting a link to your newest post in H1 tags on your front page! It works wonders!
On my sites
I use this very technique on Dech and it seems to be working very nicely indeed. Buster Studies uses the H1 as a front-page one-off link, and that seems to have a great deal of influence.
Why I tend to prefer Netbeans over Eclipse
Even though Eclipse is surely the dominant Java IDE in the market, there are some reasons that make me prefer Netbeans over it :
* Netbeans is a coherent IDE : you don’t have to check the dependencies for a plugin and the right version for every dependency to get it work (check GMF version, WTP version etc..). Plugins in Netbeans are supervised by the development team and integrate easily and very well in the current Netbeans version.
* Netbeans works out of the box : The functionalities provided by Netbeans are available from the plugins manager. You just have to install/activate them and begin working. In Eclipse, there is the update center, but it is tougher to get a stabilized IDE with a set of complementary tools. Moreover, many valuable Eclipse plugins aren’t in the Eclipse update site, but belong to independent enterprises.
* Netbeans is free : Well, I know eclipse is free too, but a lot of the valuable plugins are commercial (UML, GUI design..). Even if free components in Netbeans don’t offer all the functionalities the commercial plugins in Eclipse do, I prefer having an IDE dealing mainly with free plugins.
* Netbeans is actively supported : Sun makes a lot of efforts to market Netbeans, so we have all kinds of tutorials, videos etc (Netbeans TV, Netbeans Magazine, Netbeans tutorials..) that are made by Sun. Eclipse tutorials and screencasts are numerous but they aren’t supported by IBM so they are less coherent and less ‘Enterprise quality’ documents.
*Netbeans is made by Sun, the Java inventor : Netbeans has recently been on the edge concerning innovative Java technologies (JSF, Java FX..). It is easily understandable as Sun is creating those technologies.
*Netbeans integrates some nice productivity tools : Eclipse has better refactoring, but is beaten in other aspects by Netbeans who integrates GUI Builder Matisse, advanced JSF Web design, JUnit testing, Ant compiling and a Profiler in a user friendly manner.
I know the debate is very heated about this topic. You can leave your opinions and comments either you prefer Eclipse, Netbeans or any other IDE.
Edit in 1st March 2008 : After three months of heavily using Netbeans and then three others with Eclipse, I completely changed my mind. I currently consider Eclipse to be way more productive and feature-rich than Netbeans. Maybe I will write a new post to explain in detail what makes Eclipse superior to Netbeans in my opinion.
* Netbeans is a coherent IDE : you don’t have to check the dependencies for a plugin and the right version for every dependency to get it work (check GMF version, WTP version etc..). Plugins in Netbeans are supervised by the development team and integrate easily and very well in the current Netbeans version.
* Netbeans works out of the box : The functionalities provided by Netbeans are available from the plugins manager. You just have to install/activate them and begin working. In Eclipse, there is the update center, but it is tougher to get a stabilized IDE with a set of complementary tools. Moreover, many valuable Eclipse plugins aren’t in the Eclipse update site, but belong to independent enterprises.
* Netbeans is free : Well, I know eclipse is free too, but a lot of the valuable plugins are commercial (UML, GUI design..). Even if free components in Netbeans don’t offer all the functionalities the commercial plugins in Eclipse do, I prefer having an IDE dealing mainly with free plugins.
* Netbeans is actively supported : Sun makes a lot of efforts to market Netbeans, so we have all kinds of tutorials, videos etc (Netbeans TV, Netbeans Magazine, Netbeans tutorials..) that are made by Sun. Eclipse tutorials and screencasts are numerous but they aren’t supported by IBM so they are less coherent and less ‘Enterprise quality’ documents.
*Netbeans is made by Sun, the Java inventor : Netbeans has recently been on the edge concerning innovative Java technologies (JSF, Java FX..). It is easily understandable as Sun is creating those technologies.
*Netbeans integrates some nice productivity tools : Eclipse has better refactoring, but is beaten in other aspects by Netbeans who integrates GUI Builder Matisse, advanced JSF Web design, JUnit testing, Ant compiling and a Profiler in a user friendly manner.
I know the debate is very heated about this topic. You can leave your opinions and comments either you prefer Eclipse, Netbeans or any other IDE.
Edit in 1st March 2008 : After three months of heavily using Netbeans and then three others with Eclipse, I completely changed my mind. I currently consider Eclipse to be way more productive and feature-rich than Netbeans. Maybe I will write a new post to explain in detail what makes Eclipse superior to Netbeans in my opinion.
Automatically changing wallpaper relatively to daytime in Ubuntu
Fedora 8 introduced a nice feature which is automatically changing wallpaper relatively to daytime. Here’s how to have this cool feature in Ubuntu (and any other linux distribution) !
Select four wallpapers, one to be displayed at sunrise, the second during the day, third at sunset and the last at night.
Then, in a terminal, create a bash script as follows :
gedit .change.sh
You’ll get the newly created .change.sh file opened in a text editor.
Copy the following text in the file (Change the PATH-TO-**-PICTURE with the appropriate path) :
#!/bin/bash
HOUR=$(date +%H)
case “$HOUR” in
04|05|06|07)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNRISE-PICTURE
;;
08|09|10|11|12|13|14|15)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-DAY-PICTURE
;;
16|17|18 )
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNSET-PICTURE
;;
*)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-NIGHT-PICTURE
;;
esac
As you can tell, this script sets the appropriate picture depending on the system’s current hour.
Now we’ll create a cron job, which is a linux way to automatically run tasks.
gedit .change.cron
This will open the text editor to edit our cron job.
Copy the following in the text editor (Replace YOUR-HOME-FOLDER by your home folder’s absolute path):
* 4,8,16,19 * * * YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh
As you see, the cron task will lauch our previously created script at 4am, 8am, 4pm and 7pm to set the adequate wallpaper.
(Of course, you can change the hours at your convenience).
Now, let’s add these tasks to our gnome session so that they are automatically launched every time we login.
Open the System>Preferences>Sessions menu.
* Click the Add Button
Name: Changing Wallpaper Cron
Command: crontab PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.cron
Click Ok
Now the job of automatically changing wallpaper is set as an automated job every time we login.
We also have to add the script at session startup so that the correct wallpaper is initialized when we login. (This means, that if you login at e.g. 5:30pm, you’ll have the right wallpaper for that time). To do that,
* Click again the Add Button
Name: Initializing Wallpaper
Command: PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh
Click Ok
Here you are ! Your desktop wallpaper is living and reflecting the daytime! :P
Send your commentaries if you have any difficulty.
Select four wallpapers, one to be displayed at sunrise, the second during the day, third at sunset and the last at night.
Then, in a terminal, create a bash script as follows :
gedit .change.sh
You’ll get the newly created .change.sh file opened in a text editor.
Copy the following text in the file (Change the PATH-TO-**-PICTURE with the appropriate path) :
#!/bin/bash
HOUR=$(date +%H)
case “$HOUR” in
04|05|06|07)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNRISE-PICTURE
;;
08|09|10|11|12|13|14|15)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-DAY-PICTURE
;;
16|17|18 )
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNSET-PICTURE
;;
*)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-NIGHT-PICTURE
;;
esac
As you can tell, this script sets the appropriate picture depending on the system’s current hour.
Now we’ll create a cron job, which is a linux way to automatically run tasks.
gedit .change.cron
This will open the text editor to edit our cron job.
Copy the following in the text editor (Replace YOUR-HOME-FOLDER by your home folder’s absolute path):
* 4,8,16,19 * * * YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh
As you see, the cron task will lauch our previously created script at 4am, 8am, 4pm and 7pm to set the adequate wallpaper.
(Of course, you can change the hours at your convenience).
Now, let’s add these tasks to our gnome session so that they are automatically launched every time we login.
Open the System>Preferences>Sessions menu.
* Click the Add Button
Name: Changing Wallpaper Cron
Command: crontab PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.cron
Click Ok
Now the job of automatically changing wallpaper is set as an automated job every time we login.
We also have to add the script at session startup so that the correct wallpaper is initialized when we login. (This means, that if you login at e.g. 5:30pm, you’ll have the right wallpaper for that time). To do that,
* Click again the Add Button
Name: Initializing Wallpaper
Command: PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh
Click Ok
Here you are ! Your desktop wallpaper is living and reflecting the daytime! :P
Send your commentaries if you have any difficulty.
Another Tip’s and Trick let the mind be full by knowledge
How to UN-BAN your CHAT BANNED Y4h3ll ID!!!
Here is somthing i had figured out:
If you would like to unban your name if it has been Chat Banned(Locked up COMPLETELY)
then go to you lauguage settings in your account to change tha lauguage then change
it to:
Chineese-China(Mainland)
and then save it all then exit out of it…DO NOT try to get back on your name for
anything for about 2-3 weeks or untill its unlocked, then change tha settings
back to:
English
then try to log in and there you go you should now have your banned name unlocked and
have fun! You ask how does this work well it works by Y4h3lls Servers will reconize
you(Your banned name) as a new member but your not!! LOL
(NOTE: If it doesnot work if you put it back to “ENGLISH” put it back onto “CHINEESE-Chaina(MAINLAND” and leave it there for about another 2 months)…tnx..gudluck
Finding a Invisible User on Yahoo Messenger
1. Double Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. A message window will open.
3. Click IMVironment button, select See all IMVironments, select Yahoo! Tools or Interactive Fun, and click on Doodle.
4. The last step and the most important step. After loading the Doodle IMVironment, there will be two possibilities.
a) If the user is offline, the Doodle area will show “waiting for your friend to load Doodle” continuously. If the user is online (in invisible mode), after few seconds (it can take up to one minute, depending on connection speed), you will get a blank page.
So the user is online!There is a counter attack of this trick:Go to Messenger>>Preferences>>Messages and now uncheck Enable IMVironments. Now this trick is nullified!
Second Method: Voice Chat
1. Double Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. Click on “Voice” icon on the toolbar, or select “Contact” menu and select “Enable Voice Chat” .
3. The deciding part… there are 2 possible results:
a) If the user is offline, you will get this message: “Internal server error. Cannot obtain voice token to start voice chat.” If the user is invisible (actually online), you will see the Voice Toolbar.
Third Method: Conference Invitation
1. Right Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. When the menu appears, select Invite to Conference.
3. A window will appear. See at the right pane, the username you selected will be there. Now, click Invite.
4. The deciding part… there are 2 possible results:
a) If the user is offline, you will get this message: “None of the users in the invite list are available to join the conference.
Please try at a later time.”If the user is invisible, you will get a window similar saying: “You are now logged into voice conference - ”
Fourth Method: Buddy Spy
1. Get Buddy Spy fromhttp://www.buddy-spy.com
Yahoo tips ‘n tricks ‘n chat commands :sk:
Chat Command Help
/cls Clears the history
/help Displays this message
/join roomname Joins room ‘roomname’
/goto username Goes to ‘username’
/think xxx . o O (xxx)
/follow user Follows the user wherever they go
/follow Stop Following
/invite username Invites ‘username’ to join this room : emotion Displays user defined emotion string
/think– will get you . o O ( …….. ) just type /think whatever…..and get . o O ( whatever ) …doesn’t seem to work in messenger chat though……java /cheeta/ychat/cheeta users if they just type /think will have a random message inserted
/roll 2– will get you something like ‘fire-wall rolls 2 dice 3,4′ ……..to roll multisided dice type /roll 2:10 try /roll 2×2 to flip coins
/tell ( name )– allows you to send a private message with out a pm box
/goto ( name ) lets you go to a friend or another user
/invite ( name )– allows you to invite a user to where you are
/follow ( name )– allows you to follow someone
/stopfollow( name )– stops you following someone else…. no way to stop someone from following you. :cry: :cry:
/cls– clears the screen
/help– works great in java chat!!! be prepared for a full screen of info though.
/define– works in cheeta chat
/time– works in most clients
/version or /ver –the latter is great for when you need help………and /version helpers name sends them a private message with the same info so they can help.
/join (roomname) is great for skipping the rooms list……like
/join yahoo! chat help:1
to emote without using the pop up emotes or the list just type /emote name …….like /hug or to emote someone /hug ( name) and to make your text show as an emote …..type a : then whatever…..and your text will look like an emote like Fire-wall hugs you
/ignore add (username) a quick way to send someone to the iggy box…..
/ignore remove (username) can take an accidental ignore off….. or even remove yourself form your own ignore…. don’t laugh…. it has happened!!! despite yahoo saying you cant ignore yourself. you can also open messenger, look under privacy, and remove names there.
/save works in all but messenger (click file. then save for messenger chat)……..in browser chat make sure you know where it saves the transcript!!!!!
/logoff closes your chat screen and logs you out
Here is somthing i had figured out:
If you would like to unban your name if it has been Chat Banned(Locked up COMPLETELY)
then go to you lauguage settings in your account to change tha lauguage then change
it to:
Chineese-China(Mainland)
and then save it all then exit out of it…DO NOT try to get back on your name for
anything for about 2-3 weeks or untill its unlocked, then change tha settings
back to:
English
then try to log in and there you go you should now have your banned name unlocked and
have fun! You ask how does this work well it works by Y4h3lls Servers will reconize
you(Your banned name) as a new member but your not!! LOL
(NOTE: If it doesnot work if you put it back to “ENGLISH” put it back onto “CHINEESE-Chaina(MAINLAND” and leave it there for about another 2 months)…tnx..gudluck
Finding a Invisible User on Yahoo Messenger
1. Double Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. A message window will open.
3. Click IMVironment button, select See all IMVironments, select Yahoo! Tools or Interactive Fun, and click on Doodle.
4. The last step and the most important step. After loading the Doodle IMVironment, there will be two possibilities.
a) If the user is offline, the Doodle area will show “waiting for your friend to load Doodle” continuously. If the user is online (in invisible mode), after few seconds (it can take up to one minute, depending on connection speed), you will get a blank page.
So the user is online!There is a counter attack of this trick:Go to Messenger>>Preferences>>Messages and now uncheck Enable IMVironments. Now this trick is nullified!
Second Method: Voice Chat
1. Double Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. Click on “Voice” icon on the toolbar, or select “Contact” menu and select “Enable Voice Chat” .
3. The deciding part… there are 2 possible results:
a) If the user is offline, you will get this message: “Internal server error. Cannot obtain voice token to start voice chat.” If the user is invisible (actually online), you will see the Voice Toolbar.
Third Method: Conference Invitation
1. Right Click on the user whose status you want to check.
2. When the menu appears, select Invite to Conference.
3. A window will appear. See at the right pane, the username you selected will be there. Now, click Invite.
4. The deciding part… there are 2 possible results:
a) If the user is offline, you will get this message: “None of the users in the invite list are available to join the conference.
Please try at a later time.”If the user is invisible, you will get a window similar saying: “You are now logged into voice conference - ”
Fourth Method: Buddy Spy
1. Get Buddy Spy fromhttp://www.buddy-spy.com
Yahoo tips ‘n tricks ‘n chat commands :sk:
Chat Command Help
/cls Clears the history
/help Displays this message
/join roomname Joins room ‘roomname’
/goto username Goes to ‘username’
/think xxx . o O (xxx)
/follow user Follows the user wherever they go
/follow Stop Following
/invite username Invites ‘username’ to join this room : emotion Displays user defined emotion string
/think– will get you . o O ( …….. ) just type /think whatever…..and get . o O ( whatever ) …doesn’t seem to work in messenger chat though……java /cheeta/ychat/cheeta users if they just type /think will have a random message inserted
/roll 2– will get you something like ‘fire-wall rolls 2 dice 3,4′ ……..to roll multisided dice type /roll 2:10 try /roll 2×2 to flip coins
/tell ( name )– allows you to send a private message with out a pm box
/goto ( name ) lets you go to a friend or another user
/invite ( name )– allows you to invite a user to where you are
/follow ( name )– allows you to follow someone
/stopfollow( name )– stops you following someone else…. no way to stop someone from following you. :cry: :cry:
/cls– clears the screen
/help– works great in java chat!!! be prepared for a full screen of info though.
/define– works in cheeta chat
/time– works in most clients
/version or /ver –the latter is great for when you need help………and /version helpers name sends them a private message with the same info so they can help.
/join (roomname) is great for skipping the rooms list……like
/join yahoo! chat help:1
to emote without using the pop up emotes or the list just type /emote name …….like /hug or to emote someone /hug ( name) and to make your text show as an emote …..type a : then whatever…..and your text will look like an emote like Fire-wall hugs you
/ignore add (username) a quick way to send someone to the iggy box…..
/ignore remove (username) can take an accidental ignore off….. or even remove yourself form your own ignore…. don’t laugh…. it has happened!!! despite yahoo saying you cant ignore yourself. you can also open messenger, look under privacy, and remove names there.
/save works in all but messenger (click file. then save for messenger chat)……..in browser chat make sure you know where it saves the transcript!!!!!
/logoff closes your chat screen and logs you out
Some Tricks in YM Messenger
Here are some things you can do with your Yahoo messenger. I will put them in three sections - Easy, Moderate and Hard to show what level of computer knowledge is recommended.
Easy
Send a group message
This one is really simple. Just right click on the group title in your contact list and select Send Message to all in this group . Alternatively hold down the Ctrl and left click on the names you wish to send a message to. Once you have hilighted the required names simply right click on a name and select Send a message .
Change webcam status message
Really simple and hardly a secret. Click Login at the top left and then click on Preferences. Once the preferences window has opened click on Webcam in the list on the left. Now on the right at the bottom you should see a box and next to it it says When my Webcam is on, change my status message to . Tick the box and then type the message you want people to see when you have your webcam on.
Moderate
Change the title bar text
You can change the text that appears in the bar at the very top of the messenger window by simply editting the ymsgr.ini which you will find in the same folder as your messenger. Locate the ymsgr.ini file and open it in notepad or any text editor. Then at the end add the following
[APP TITLE]
caption=YOUR TEXT
changing YOUR TEXT to whatever you want it to say. Then save the file and close messenger. When you restart messenger you will see your new message.
Advanced
Edit/delete your custom away messages
Please only attempt this if you are confident at registry editting. Click Start and click on Run . In the run window type regedit and press Enter. Once regedit has opened click the following items in the list on the left. You can either double click the folder image or single click on the + sign. First open HKEY_CURRENT_USER then Software then Yahoo then Pager then profiles . Next open the folder for the accounts who’s away messages you want to edit or delete. Now open the Custom Msgs folder. In here you will see all the status messages you have set next to a number. The Number_DND bit sets whether it shows you as busy or not with that status. 1 will show you as busy while 0 will not and 2 will set you as idle. The away msg entry is the last away message you used.
Easy
Send a group message
This one is really simple. Just right click on the group title in your contact list and select Send Message to all in this group . Alternatively hold down the Ctrl and left click on the names you wish to send a message to. Once you have hilighted the required names simply right click on a name and select Send a message .
Change webcam status message
Really simple and hardly a secret. Click Login at the top left and then click on Preferences. Once the preferences window has opened click on Webcam in the list on the left. Now on the right at the bottom you should see a box and next to it it says When my Webcam is on, change my status message to . Tick the box and then type the message you want people to see when you have your webcam on.
Moderate
Change the title bar text
You can change the text that appears in the bar at the very top of the messenger window by simply editting the ymsgr.ini which you will find in the same folder as your messenger. Locate the ymsgr.ini file and open it in notepad or any text editor. Then at the end add the following
[APP TITLE]
caption=YOUR TEXT
changing YOUR TEXT to whatever you want it to say. Then save the file and close messenger. When you restart messenger you will see your new message.
Advanced
Edit/delete your custom away messages
Please only attempt this if you are confident at registry editting. Click Start and click on Run . In the run window type regedit and press Enter. Once regedit has opened click the following items in the list on the left. You can either double click the folder image or single click on the + sign. First open HKEY_CURRENT_USER then Software then Yahoo then Pager then profiles . Next open the folder for the accounts who’s away messages you want to edit or delete. Now open the Custom Msgs folder. In here you will see all the status messages you have set next to a number. The Number_DND bit sets whether it shows you as busy or not with that status. 1 will show you as busy while 0 will not and 2 will set you as idle. The away msg entry is the last away message you used.
Tips And Tricks How To Change IP Addres
The following is a guide on how to change your IP in 30 seconds or less. This can be used if your IP has been banned from a game server, or on gunbound if your IP get’s blocked. I’ve tried this on both Windows XP and Windows 2000, and it has worked!
1. Click on “Start” in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on “Run”
3. Type in “command” and hit okay
You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.
4. Type “ipconfig /release” just like that, and hit “enter”
5. Type “exit” and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on “Network Places” or “My Network Places” on your desktop.
7. Click on “properties”
* You should now be on a screen with something titled “Local Area Connection”, or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks. *
8. Right click on “Local Area Connection” and click “properties”
9. Double-click on the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” from the list under the “General” tab
10. Click on “Use the following IP address” under the “General” tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn’t matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up. I use my same ip address with a different number at end of ip, same sub mask, same default gateway.)
12. Press “Tab” and it should automatically fill in the “Subnet Mask” section with default numbers.
13. Hit the “okay” button here
14. Hit the “okay” button again
*You should now be back to the “Local Area Connection” screen.*
15. Right-click back on “Local Area Connection” and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the “TCP/IP” settings
17. This time, select “Obtain an IP address automatically”
18. Hit “okay”
19. Hit “okay” again
20. You now have a new IP address
Get rid of Windows Update restart nag
A simple tip for removing the annoying Windows Update nag that pops up asking you over and over again whether you’d like to restart your computer now or later.
First
Quote:
To stop this service, open [Command Prompt] (Start>Run>cmd>Enter) and type the following command sc stop wuauserv. This will not prevent Automatic Updates from starting at the next boot. So don’t worry, you’ll keep getting Windows updates. Just don’t forget to restart eventually.
If you’re afraid of the command line? Here’s how you can disable Automatic Update restart prompts using Windows Computer Policy
Quote:
Now, to get rid of it: Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations
Seems simple enough. Obviously you should still get to restarting your computer eventually, but really, Windows - how many times in an hour do we need to be reminded that you’re desperate for our restarting attention? Just let us work.
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