Archive for November, 2006
How To Find and Fight Spammers With GMail
Posted on November 28, 2006, under Development.
Spammers come in all different flavors these days, and all it takes is purchasing something or creating an account somewhere to get on some ones list. Many people have a separate GMail account that they use for such situations, which works well and keeps junk separate from your real email account. However GMail gives you other tools to fight spammers.
Not only does GMail provide a great spam filter, it gives you the ability to have unlimited email addresses right within a single email address. You can append anything to the end of your GMail user name with the ‘+’ sign. For example “johndoe+WHATEVER@gmail.com”. This is a great feature for when you are signing up for something and later want to know how you got on a spammers list. Lets say you are ordering something online from Newegg.com, you can make your email address “johndoe+newegg@gmail.com”, and later know all email that originates from that account. This also makes it easy to filter out junk email with your spam filter settings.
Now, I must say I have ordered from Newegg a ton of times, and have never been spammed by them. I just wanted to use a fairly well known online store for an example.
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Remote Help With Copilot
Posted on November 27, 2006, under Development.
Tonight I got an unexpected chance to use Copilot, a remote administration service packed into an easy to use bundle. I originally heard about this project back when it was “Project Aardvark”.
We are having a problem with one of our products that is in development, the error is only happening on a series of computers. These series of computers are in California, while I am in Indiana. It was finally agreed that we would have to setup a remote connection for me to get into the system, however the users on the other end aren’t very computer savvy. I needed a way to setup a remote connection with ease, and not have to walk the users on the other end though long complicated instructions of installing software, setting up ports, bypassing firewalls, etc. That’s when I recalled Copilot.
Copilot was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I went over to www.copilot.com, and studied up on some of literature. The main page has two main section, “Receive Help” and “Help Someone”; basically self explanatory. I filled out a quick form and paid the $10 for a twenty four hour pass. Once paid, it gave me an option to send a code to the user on the other end via email. I download a client on my end, pre-packaged with all of the information needed to initiate the connection. The user on the other end downloaded another client, once again pre-packaged with the necessary information. Once both clients are connected, remote administration begins. Simple as that! Literally no installation, no setup, just executing a simple EXE.
The actual remote connection was as easy to use as any other software out there, a little slow but I am not entirely sure that wasn’t the connection on the other end as they have a DSL. The only feature I didn’t see is the ability to transfer files, for that I had to use an Intranet account with my company.
Copilot has monthly subscriptions as well as a free trial. Overall, I think Copilot is a great service and I can see myself using for situations where I need to connect to parents or Grandparents computers. It requires very little setup and computer knowledge.
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What To Look For In A Web Host, an Important Decision
Posted on November 22, 2006, under Development.
Choosing a web host can be a very overwhelming decision, and it’s an important one. You are going to invest time and money into setting up your websites, and the last thing you want to do is move to another host after a couple months of bad service. Let’s take a look at some important factors that will help you make the right choice.
Contracts
Most hosting companies have different contract,s you can go month to month, you can pay quarterly, or you can pay yearly; are just some of the different contracts hosting companies offer. Some companies may offer discounts for quarterly or yearly contracts in order to try to get you locked in. Locking in to a contract should only be done after you have tried out the hosting company for a certain period of time. How long? Well there are two ways that are safe to measure.
1) For the length of the contract: Meaning pay monthly for a quarter or a year, and see how the web host measures up. Then you can sign up for a contract if you are still happy. You will might think “But I am losing money by doing that!” Well you actually aren’t, because you are still getting for what you paid for and you will save more money if you have to leave the hosting company and are unable to get your money back.
2) The second way is to pay the month to month until something bad happens: Your site goes down, a hard drive crashes, etc. Then see how your hosting company handles it. If you are happy with the service from the hosting company, it then may be safe to get some savings and pay for a year.
Backups
Backups are important and should never be over looked. Here are some things that should be looked for in your web host and backup solutions:
- What is backed up? Files, Databases, Server Settings, etc.
- How often are backups done? Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
- Where are backups stored? Off-server, Off-site
- How many backups are kept? One, Two, Three
Some hosting companies will make you pay for backups extra. It is my personal recommendation that you choose a hosting company that does some sort of backup included in their prices. If they want to charge for a higher level of backup server, that’s fine, but all hosting companies should be backing up to some extent.
Support
Support is another crucial area of web hosting. You need to make sure that your host is available to answer your questions, when times are rough. Some things to look for with support teams are:
- Contact Methods: Email, Phone, Live Chat
- Support Hours: Business days, 24-7, Weekends, Holidays
- Response Time: Five Minutes, Five Hours, Five Days
- Helpfulness: Intelligent Responses, Friendly Responses, Cookie Cutter Responses
I suggest finding out the average response time, talking with someone from support and make sure you do not know more than they do, and finding when and how and for what reasons you can contact them. Again, some hosting companies will make you pay extra for certain support requests.
Sales
Always call sales before placing an order, even if you know what you want and need. Make sure there is someone on the other end, and make sure they are friendly. If they can’t win your business before the sale, then chances are they are not going to be any better afterwards.
SLA
Your website is an “always on” business. Make sure you web host recognizes and respects this. An S.L.A., or Service Level Agreement, is that part of a service contract in which a certain level of service is agreed. It will usually include and “Up time guarantee” which will probably be like 99.9% or something. This is important to note, and enforce. You can get money back if your site is down for less that what the S.L.A. states. Maybe investing in a third party monitoring company is in order, so you have an unbiased view of how your host is performing.
Package
Don’t over purchase! Make sure you know what you need, and allocate for growth; but beyond that don’t splurge. Hosting charges can add up quickly, and it’s a monthly expense. Also make sure you can upgrade packages with ease and no charge to you, so as your business grows your website can as well. Deciding between Windows and Linux is also an important decision when looking at hosting packages, Windows generally costs more. If you choose Linux, make sure you know your way around a Linux box, as it is not the web hosts job to teach you.
Bandwidth
This probably can be filed under the above category, but it’s something that is commonly overlooked. Bandwidth is important, and overage charges hurt if you go over your alloted amount. Most hosting providers will give you more than you will ever need, some even unlimited (with fine print), but take a look at the prices in case you do go over and make sure they are affordable. Also ask what the coarse of action is if and when you go over your limit. I have heard horror stories of some hosting companies turning off accounts and locking access to the server. Or where they immediately charge your credit card with huge amount of services and upgrades.
Fine Print
Always read the fine print, have a lawyer friend look it over if you have the resources. Fine print is where a lot of the important details are over looked. Does 100% uptime really mean 100%? Does unlimited bandwidth really mean unlimited? The fine print will tell you, and it’s better to know now than later.
Money Back
Some web hosts will offer a money back period. It is important to know and work within this period. After the order, play around with your new web host and start setting things up. If you are not happy, you can walk away - no harm no foul.
Control Panel
Unless you are a hosting GURU, a control panel is a helpful tool. A control panel commonly helps you setup up domains, email accounts, websites, logins, software, etc. Some hosting companies use there own home-brewed control panel, and some use commercial solutions like Plesk. If your web host uses a commercial solution, chances are they are going to put that cost on you. Request a demo of the control panel, play around, and make sure it’s something you can handle. Most are very easy to use, with pretty icons and helpful tips.
Updates
Find out how often your web host provider does security and product updates. Your web host may have thousands of servers, which can make patching a difficult and timely process. There are some web hosts that pass this task on to customers, depending on your setup. Understand what is your responsibility before hand.
Ask Around
Nothing is better than learning from someone else. There are many great web host review services out there: HostReview and FindMyHost are some just to name a few. Every web host is going to have at least one negative review, and it can be a difficult to weed out the true reviews from the people who are just mad because they didn’t read the find print and do their research.
Free As In Beer
Yes there are free web hosts out there, the only thing to say about this is: you get what you pay for.
Conclusion
I hope this arms you with some insight on choosing a web host, it is a difficult but rewarding step in the online market. Let me know your experiences, and say tuned for more web hosting tips and tricks.
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How To Backup Wordpress
Posted on November 21, 2006, under Development.
Backups are important, very important. If you don’t think so, do not wait until you have lost your critical information before your convert. You should approach backups in a way of “What would I need in order to get back up and running?” The answer to this question will vary depending on what is important to you.
There are many ways to backup Wordpress. Hopefully your web host has a backup routine for your server and backups often. If you do not know, I would ask. Web host backups will most likely be of your entire server in some sort of archive. This is an efficient way of backing up, however when you are overhauling a blog or just want a backup in case you need to roll back; sifting through an entire server backup can be tedious. Backup Plugin for Wordpress gives you a simple and effective way to backup your Wordpress installation. I am not sure if I would recommend this over an automated and more robust method, but it really is handy for those redesigns or the occasional backup scenarios.
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Sending an Email in Java
Posted on November 20, 2006, under Development.
Sending an email is a very common task in developing an application. You can send notifications, subscription notices, new comment notices, password changes, and the list goes on and on. Java has great API’s that allow you to easily send an email within a Java application. Below is a common function that I use in several Java applications to send an email. You have the option to set the server, username, password, array list of recipients , subject, message, and X-Mailer. This code snippet assumes you have a SMTP server that requires authentication to send mail, as mail servers these days do require authentication so that spammers do not abuse their servers.
[java]
// Imports
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Date;
// Email
public boolean email(String strServer, String strUsername, String strPassword, ArrayList lTo, String strSubject, String strMessage, String strXMailer)
{
// Declare variables
Properties pProp = new Properties();
Session sMail = null;
Transport tMail = null;
MimeMessage mMessage = null;
// Set properties
pProp.setProperty(”mail.transport.protocol”, “smtp”);
pProp.setProperty(”mail.host”, strServer);
pProp.setProperty(”mail.user”, strUsername);
pProp.setProperty(”mail.password”, strPassword);
pProp.setProperty(”mail.from”, strUsername);
try
{
// Make session
sMail = Session.getInstance(pProp, null);
// Make transport
tMail = sMail.getTransport();
// Message
mMessage = new MimeMessage(sMail);
// — Subject
mMessage.setSubject(strSubject);
// — Body
mMessage.setText(strMessage);
// — Set X-Mailer
mMessage.setHeader(”X-Mailer”, strXMailer);
// — Set date
mMessage.setSentDate(new Date());
// — Set from
mMessage.setFrom(new InternetAddress(strUsername));
// — Address
for (int i = 0; i < lTo.size(); i++)
{
mMessage.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress((String) lTo.get(i)));
}
// Connect
tMail.connect();
// Send
tMail.sendMessage(mMessage, mMessage.getRecipients(Message.RecipientType.TO));
}
catch (Exception eError)
{
return false;
}
finally
{
// Close
try
{
if (tMail != null)
tMail.close();
}
catch (MessagingException eError)
{
}
}
return true;
}
[/java]
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UltraMon, A Must Have For Dual Monitors
Posted on November 17, 2006, under Development.
I have two Samsung SyncMaster 930b monitors on my main desktop. I love dual monitors, even better than a widescreen monitor. I would love to get a third one, but we will see how the cards play out. Windows, by default doesn’t play well with dual monitors. The taskbar doesn’t extend to both monitors, icons placement gets messed up regularly, application placement is a hassle, and overall it just isn’t fun. I have tried many small applications that solve certain problems however UltraMon will solve all of the problems above and make dual monitor support on Windows a breeze.
UltraMon will sit in your system tray, and run at startup. I has a slew of great features. My favorite has to be the Smart Taskbar. The smart taskbar has two main options: it can mirror you taskbar so that both monitors have the same taskbar, or each monitor can have it’s own taskbar. It’s great to allow each monitor to have it’s own taskbar, that way you have your work space and then a side monitor that has application you use infrequently. Let’s say you are developing and watching Diggnation, common thing for me. Well on Desktop ‘A’ I have my favorite IDE, and on Monitor ‘B’ I have iTunes with Diggnation playing. That way my main desktop and monitor do not have too much junk cluttering up the taskbar. Excellent!
UltraMon also has the ability to add a “quick switch” button next to the minimize and close button. This allows you to switch an application back and forth from one monitor to another with a single click. Great when you need to get an application out of the way.
Desktop icon management has it’s quirks with Windows alone, add another monitor and it gets that much worse. UltraMon has a great little option that will save your Icon positions. This is great for when something messes up your desktop icons, with the click of a button you can restore their positions. Not having to ever rearrange your desktop icons again is a priceless feature. Furthermore, you can have UltraMon restore icon positions at system startup.
UltraMon come packed with a bunch of other features, but the ones I listed make it worth the relatively small investment of $39.99.
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GetFireBug
Posted on November 16, 2006, under Browsers, Development, Software.
Do you know about Firebug? It’s coming, and it’s going to change the way you do web development. Currently in Beta, the new GetFireBug website give us a glimpse of what is coming soon: Inspect and edit HTML, Tweak CSS to perfection, Visualize CSS metrics, Monitor network activity, Debug and profile JavaScript, Quickly find errors, Explore the DOM, Execute JavaScript on the fly, Logging for JavaScript.
I believe it’s going to be a must have for all Firefox web developers out there
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10-Foot DVI-D Dual Link Cable for $12 shipped
Posted on November 16, 2006, under Development.
You can never have a long enough monitor cord and DVI cords are usually really expensive. dealmac has a 10 ft. DVI cord for $12 shipped. Not a bad deal, probably will be picking up a couple to have on hand.
I also noticed that they have a 2GB miniSD card for $45, which is kind of upsetting. I just purchased a 1GB for $35. Oh well.
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Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Team Up To Support Sitemaps
Posted on November 16, 2006, under Development.
It appears that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are joining forces to support Sitemaps 0.90. This comes officially from the Yahoo blog. Google has supported Sitemaps for a while now, and now the trend is moving toward other search engines. I went over to Yahoo Site Explorer and added my site map this morning, was just as easy as it is for Google.
If you are not familiar with what a sitemap is, basically it’s an XML feed that gives websites an easy way to inform search engines when a page has changed. There are numerous plug ins and tools out there for generating sitemaps. For WordPress I use Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress. If you do not use WordPress, you should check out phpSitemapNG, which will easily create a sitemap for any website.
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WordPress Mass Category Edit Plug in
Posted on November 15, 2006, under Development.
During the redesign and clean up of Code and Coffee I have been shuffling around categories and posts in WordPress. WordPress, by default, isn’t setup to do mass category post edit. WP-Cat is a neat little WordPress plug in that honesty saved a lot of time for me during the redesign. WP-Cat puts a little AJAX addition to the Manage Posts page in the WordPress administrator section. There is a drop down list that will allow you to dynamically add or remove categories, and since it’s AJAX goodness there is no page reloads. It had a little problem with categories that had an ampersand in the name. Other than that, it is an excellent addition to WordPress, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it be a permanent addition to the already great WordPress. Here is a screen shot:
