If you’re like many people these days, you spend a growing amount of time on one or more of the Internet’s social media sites - YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. While hanging out on these sites used to fall squarely into the realm of pastime, that’s no longer the case. Many of the best social networking sites fulfil serious business or personal development needs. That’s why finding ways to use them more efficiently can pay big dividends by allowing you to focus on the rest of your life while keeping up with your social networking tasks. Here are some tools that can help.
Live Writer
If you’re a blogger, you need a tool that lets you blog offline and update your blog when you’re ready - regardless of whether you have direct access to the blog at the moment. Windows Live Writer (http://bit.ly/XIUQ) fits the bill. This tool, free to registered Windows users, ties in to most blogging sites and blogging software - including WordPress - and gives you a slick, word processor-like interface in which to compose blog entries. When you’re ready to publish an entry, either on the spot or at a later date when you’re connected to the internet, just click the Publish button, and you’re done. A nifty scheduling feature even lets you set up a post to be published at a specific day and time - so you might, for instance, compose a blog post to be published a week from now to coincide with some event.
If you happen to maintain and update several blogs, you’ll be happy to know that Live Writer lets you add multiple blog accounts and update one or more of them from the same writing session. Plus you can use the tool’s table editor and spell checker to format and proofread your work, just like in a word processor.
TwitterFeed
Many use Twitter to inform their followers of updates to other sites that they maintain. For instance, people who regularly blog often use Twitter to alert followers to new postings. TwitterFeed (http://twitterfeed.com) helps you automate that chore.
TwitterFeed takes advantage of the RSS (really simple syndication) feature of many web sites to make “tweets” on your behalf. To set up TwitterFeed, you simply provide the RSS feed URL to the site of your choice, allow TwitterFeed to access your Twitter account, set a few options, and you’re done. From that point on, TwitterFeed will keep your Twitter account active - with or without you.
YouTube downloaders
YouTube is brimming with useful videos on almost any topic. The only trouble is that you typically have to be on YouTube to watch them. With YouTube downloaders, you don’t have to. These tools allow you to download a YouTube video to watch later or even re-use in another format, assuming you have the rights.
There are many YouTube downloaders from which to choose. YouTube Downloader (http://bit.ly/HePLJ), for example, is a simple freeware application that downloads YouTube videos and converts them into a format of your choice. Included are formats for iPhone and iPod as well as standard desktop-compatible formats like AVI and WMV.
Literally dozens of other free apps on the market do essentially the same thing. For an conversion tool that you don’t have to install, try Kiss YouTube (http://www.kissyoutube.com), which lets you simply paste a YouTube URL into a box and then click a download link once the video has been converted. Firefox users should give the Video DownloadHelper plugin (http://bit.ly/9pLo0t) a try.
Messaging tools
There’s one thing that most social networking sites have in common: they let you keep in touch with others by posting messages.
Why not, then, have a tool that lets you update all of your social networking sites at once? That’s the idea behind Ping.fm (http://ping.fm), and the service works remarkably well.
Just create an account on Ping, allow the site to connect to your Twitter, Facebook, or other social networking site, and then type a message in the message box, including a URL if you wish. Click Ping It!, and Ping sends out your message to all of your social networking sites at once.
Ping also allows you to set up custom posting groups. So, for example, you can create a custom Ping that will send out a message only to your Facebook and Twitter account and not to your LinkedIn account. Ping supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, and dozens of other social networks, in addition blogging sites like Blogger.
Search engines
Traditional search engines - which rely on store and retrieve technology - aren’t good at indexing up-to-the-minute changes on social networking sites. Collecta http://collecta.com) is.
Collecta specialises in “real time search,” and it focuses on those sites where information is continually updated - specifically social networking sites, news sites, and blogs.
What’s more, Collecta continually updates its search results, and you can see those results being updated in real time. It’s a far cry from the constant refreshing you would need to do at most search engines.
Collecta isn’t the only search engine doing real-time search.
IceRocket (http://www.icerocket.com) and OneRiot (http://www.oneriot.com) have similar missions, scouring the “realtime Web” and presenting you the results.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Essential social networking tools
Labels:
blogs,
Facebook,
social networking tools,
Twitter,
YouTube
Monday, June 28, 2010
iPhone-OS4.0-The-Best-New-Features
• Multitasking:It's handled with a simple task switcher: double click your home button, and you get a list of running apps. Select, switch, done. Multitasking is limited to audio streaming, VoIP and GPS apps, as well as a few other allowances: they can finish specific, important tasks in the background, for example. As far as non-music/nav/VoIP apps, those can be suspended in the background, but not left running. (See below.)
• Fast app switching: With iPhone 4's multitasking, most apps aren't actually running in the background—just certain functions of the app, like an audio stream or a GPS lock. But! All apps can now be frozen, in full, so that when you reopen them, they're restored to exactly the state they were in when they were closed.
• Local notifications: Notifications can be sent between apps on the phone, not just from remote servers. In other words, if something important happens in an app you've opened and moved away from, a notification will pop up in whatever app you're using at the time, effectively saying "switch back to me!" It's a fairly clever way to keep track of multiple apps without the need for a start bar or dock-type interface. From Apple's dev guidelines:
• App folders: Now you can sort your apps into folders! That's homescreen clutter solved, just like that. Apple's description:
Folders help users better organize and quickly access their apps. Simply drag one app icon onto another, and a new folder is automatically created. The folder is automatically given a name based on the App Store category of that app, such as "Games," which the user can easily rename. Using folders, users can now organize and access over 2,000 apps on their iPhone.
• A new Mail app: Unified inboxes, multiple Exchange accounts, fast inbox switching, threaded messages: These new features are actually a huge deal, since the iPhone's mail client has barely changed since 2007, and Apple doesn't allow alternative mail apps. Apple's pitch:
iPhone OS 4 delivers the best mail experience on a mobile phone with its new Unified Inbox, allowing users to see messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. With just a few taps, users can quickly switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account.
• Game Center: Apple's going to roll out a centralized gaming service—a multiplayer network like PSN or Xbox Live—to help connect games to one another, by the end on the year. There are 3rd-party services that already do this, like OpenFeint. They will probably die.
• iAd advertising: It looks like Apple's finally making use of Quattro, that mobile ad company it gobbled up a few months ago, by rolling out its own advertising platform, a turnkey ad plugin for app developers called iAd. The theory here is that instead of relying on links to external websites, which pull users out of apps whenever they tap on an ad, developers can use Apple's new tools to keep people in the app while still showing them advertising—sort of like popover browser windows. You can watch videos, play games, and even buy apps from within these ads. This is in the iPhone OS 4 developer tools, but it's not explicitly a part of OS 4, so you won't see apps with iAds until later this year.• 5x digital zoom: Could this hint at a higher quality camera in the next hardware? 3.2 megapixels seems a bit low for 5x digital zoom.
• Bluetooth keyboards: Another carryover from the iPad, Bluetooth keyboard support will finally come to iPhone 4.
• A bevy of other new developer features, including 1500 new APIs to play with: See here for more details.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tips for Safer Online Passwords
Here are some of the key tips:
1) Passwords don’t have to be hard to remember, just hard to crack. Type a sentence with lots of words and include punctuation.
2) Change your passwords more often if the content in the account is very sensitivity and needs to be protected.
3) Avoid generic password phrases like “To be, or not to be.” Deliberately misspell words.
4) Stay away from easy-to-find words and numbers you like your pet’s, partner’s, your mother’s maiden name, birthdates, etc.
5) Do not write write a password or pin on a piece of paper. If you need to, scramble the letters.
6) Don’t keep the same password for different sites.
7) Use a password manager like Keepass on Windows or 1password on Macs to generate stronger passwords.
8) Consider adding a number to the end of sentence-based password phrases.
9) Avoid public wi-fi and typing passwords into other people’s machines in case a keylogger is installed.
10) Reuse passwords only at unimportant sites.
11) Log in on pages protected with SSL encryption. Look for the “s” in “https://
12) Cheap password management software can sometimes generate passwords that look strong but aren’t
13) Some people replace letters for numbers, and vice versa. This doesn’t always work because software can replace letters too. Use different numbers to replace a letter, i.e., r7plac8 not r3plac3.
14) Archive important passwords so that friends and family can have access to your accounts in case of emergency.
1) Passwords don’t have to be hard to remember, just hard to crack. Type a sentence with lots of words and include punctuation.
2) Change your passwords more often if the content in the account is very sensitivity and needs to be protected.
3) Avoid generic password phrases like “To be, or not to be.” Deliberately misspell words.
4) Stay away from easy-to-find words and numbers you like your pet’s, partner’s, your mother’s maiden name, birthdates, etc.
5) Do not write write a password or pin on a piece of paper. If you need to, scramble the letters.
6) Don’t keep the same password for different sites.
7) Use a password manager like Keepass on Windows or 1password on Macs to generate stronger passwords.
8) Consider adding a number to the end of sentence-based password phrases.
9) Avoid public wi-fi and typing passwords into other people’s machines in case a keylogger is installed.
10) Reuse passwords only at unimportant sites.
11) Log in on pages protected with SSL encryption. Look for the “s” in “https://
12) Cheap password management software can sometimes generate passwords that look strong but aren’t
13) Some people replace letters for numbers, and vice versa. This doesn’t always work because software can replace letters too. Use different numbers to replace a letter, i.e., r7plac8 not r3plac3.
14) Archive important passwords so that friends and family can have access to your accounts in case of emergency.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
How to Make Others Read Your Tweets
Keep it simple
Tweets have a very short attention span. If they are too complex or uninteresting, they are likely to be given a miss by most readers. Every day, I open my twitter account; my account shows nearly 50 odd tweets on the screen. Since I hardly have the time to read all of them, I pick the interesting ones and leave the others for another day (which in case of twitter comes rarely).
Make it search friendly
If you are tweeting about a certain topic, make sure to use #hashtags and annotations so that Twitter search facility can seek out your relevant stories. Make sure that the keywords which describe your business are incorporated in your tweets. If anyone searches for recent tweets about a business or a product, your post will appear in the displayed results.
Use Short URLs
Twitters users aren’t fond of reading long URLs so make it a point to use Bit.ly or a similar service to shorten your URLs. Further, characters are real estate in twitter and you just get 140 of them for each tweet so why waste precious real estate in URLs?
I personally recommend using Bit.ly as the URL shortener because it integrates seamlessly with twitter and provides great stats and reports which are handy from tracking perspective.
Don’t oversell
If you try too hard to sell, your tweets will probably end up being overlooked by most users and worse, you are likely to be labeled as a spammer. Try to get people engaged in what you are trying to tell them and highlight why they should go and visit your business website or read your blog. Stir their interest and the readers will oblige – that’s no rocket science, its just human nature!
Think like readers do
If a tweet makes sense to you as the author, it does not mean that readers will like it for sure. The philosophy of ‘I know what you mean’ does not work on twitter. Your tweets need to be accurate, preferably with a touch of humor and must appear ‘pleasing’ to ensure maximum impact and be read by the highest number of viewers.
Use questions as tweets
If you have just added new content to your business site, get the users engaged by popping a question on Twitter. Add the question as a tweet and encourage users to respond with their answers. People love to get into a dialog and twitter is no exception to that rule.
Keep an eye on the competition
Make sure to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to. Read their tweets and try to tap their follower base. It does not harm to see what they are tweeting about and how they interact with their readers.
Follow these simple effective ‘tweeting’ habits and reap the rewards that Twitter has to offer for you business.
Tweets have a very short attention span. If they are too complex or uninteresting, they are likely to be given a miss by most readers. Every day, I open my twitter account; my account shows nearly 50 odd tweets on the screen. Since I hardly have the time to read all of them, I pick the interesting ones and leave the others for another day (which in case of twitter comes rarely).
Make it search friendly
If you are tweeting about a certain topic, make sure to use #hashtags and annotations so that Twitter search facility can seek out your relevant stories. Make sure that the keywords which describe your business are incorporated in your tweets. If anyone searches for recent tweets about a business or a product, your post will appear in the displayed results.
Use Short URLs
Twitters users aren’t fond of reading long URLs so make it a point to use Bit.ly or a similar service to shorten your URLs. Further, characters are real estate in twitter and you just get 140 of them for each tweet so why waste precious real estate in URLs?
I personally recommend using Bit.ly as the URL shortener because it integrates seamlessly with twitter and provides great stats and reports which are handy from tracking perspective.
Don’t oversell
If you try too hard to sell, your tweets will probably end up being overlooked by most users and worse, you are likely to be labeled as a spammer. Try to get people engaged in what you are trying to tell them and highlight why they should go and visit your business website or read your blog. Stir their interest and the readers will oblige – that’s no rocket science, its just human nature!
Think like readers do
If a tweet makes sense to you as the author, it does not mean that readers will like it for sure. The philosophy of ‘I know what you mean’ does not work on twitter. Your tweets need to be accurate, preferably with a touch of humor and must appear ‘pleasing’ to ensure maximum impact and be read by the highest number of viewers.
Use questions as tweets
If you have just added new content to your business site, get the users engaged by popping a question on Twitter. Add the question as a tweet and encourage users to respond with their answers. People love to get into a dialog and twitter is no exception to that rule.
Keep an eye on the competition
Make sure to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to. Read their tweets and try to tap their follower base. It does not harm to see what they are tweeting about and how they interact with their readers.
Follow these simple effective ‘tweeting’ habits and reap the rewards that Twitter has to offer for you business.
Friday, June 25, 2010
HowTo Buy International Phone Number
There are multiple benefits to having an international number with a carrier like Callcentric. You will have the bonus of being able to make free calls to people who have this carrier as well, so you don't have to spend quite so much each month on your phone bill. There are many different rate plans that you can get to ensure that you don't pay too much each month. You get exactly what you choose, so there are no hidden fees or complicated steps to paying your bill or using the service you signed up for. It is all very simple and straight-forward, designed for both individuals and businesspeople who need these kind of services to keep in touch with whoever they need to. In fact, more and more businesses are starting to look into getting international numbers, simply because of the number of clients they have that are located all over the world.
Article Source:
If you have family and friends that are abroad, then you will also want to think about the benefits of an international number, especially with a carrier like Callcentric that gives you the kind of every day service you need. It is important to take a look at what you will need to make these international phone calls for less than you have ever paid before. You will have to have a broadband internet connection, such as a cable line or DSL. This will ensure that all of the calls you make go as quickly and smoothly as possible. It will also ensure that your connection can handle the software installed on your computer that makes all of this possible for you.
Computer programs called "softphones" are required to run VoIP technology which enables you to make calls to people all over the world and receive phone calls from traditional numbers. They are sold many places, including on Callcentric's website, so if you are interested, it's highly recommended that you get started by choosing one. After you get your new international phone number and install the proper software, you will discover just how easy and cheap making these international calls can be.
Individuals aren't the only ones who can enjoy Callcentric's many features and plans. Call centers and calling card providers can also make use of these services for their customers. It is the perfect carrier for your needs, whether they are personal or professional in nature. The point is that with Callcentric, you get the quality of service you need when calling people around the world, along with the price that is reduced for your benefit. With more people than ever using this carrier, it means that your ability to make free calls to people increases, and nothing is better than cheap/free international calls and the best phone services available.
It important that you learn How to buy international phone number from Callcentric, so you can talk to people all over the world for a minimum monthly charge.
Article Source:
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phone
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
5Things-iPhone4-Lacks
Faster 3G
The iPhone 4 comes with quad-band GSM/EDGE and quad-band HSDPA/HSUPA 3G. It can download at a theoretical maximum of 7.2Mbps and upload at a theoretical max of 5.8Mbps. What about HSPA+? I realize AT&T is enriching its 3G network slowly, and these faster 3G speeds aren't necessarily available immediately, but Apple had a chance to take the 3G lead here and have one of the first HSPA/HSPA+ 14.4Mbps devices. It didn't. That strikes me as odd.
(That it has 5.8Mbps HSUPA is a really nice upgrade, though, as photos and videos will transfer from the iPhone to the network much faster.)
According to AT&T, its entire network has already been updated to 7.2Mbps, and the 14.4Mbps HSPA+ upgrade is on track for roll-out by December. AT&T said it will cover 250 million people with 14.4Mbps HSPA+ by the end of 2010. That's certainly early enough into the contracts for many iPhone 4 owners that it would have been a nice inclusion with the new device. Oh well.
Bluetooth 3.0+HS
The iPhone 4 comes with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. That's the same Bluetooth it has had forever. Why not upgrade to Bluetooth 3.0+HS? The Bluetooth 3.0+HS spec has been approved since 2009, and chip makers have had silicon available since 2009.
The 3.0+HS spec's largest feature is vastly increased data speeds. In devices that have both Bluetooth 3.0+HS and Wi-Fi on board, the new spec will pair the devices via Bluetooth, and then transfer data wirelessly via Wi-Fi at a rate of up to 24Mbps. This will allow end users to transfer large amounts of data between devices quickly without the need for cables. The new specification also has enhanced power control features to reduce battery drain.
The high-speed data transfer and power savings could have been amazing stand-apart features. This could have been another real leap forward for Apple. Instead, it stuck with older technology. (It strikes me that developers, in particular, would have loved to have this feature available.)
HDMI Out
The iPhone 4 can record 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. It would appear to be the perfect vehicle for capturing and then sharing HD video on an HDTV. What an odd omission. This is another blown opportunity that Apple could have used to really impress with the iPhone 4. Instead, those wishing to share video will have to use Apple's proprietary connector with an expensive accessory cable to share video signals with HDTVs. That, or upload the content to another device/service, first. Bad form.
64GB of Storage
The iPhone 4 comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Don't get me wrong, 32GB of storage is still very generous, and more than what most other phones come with. I still think it would have been great for the iPhone 4 to ramp up to 64GB of storage. Here's why.
The iPhone 4 records HD video. That stuff eats up storage like you wouldn't believe. And guess what? The 5-megapixel camera will also chew up storage with each image captured, too. Users who are more prone to take pix and shoot video will be forced to prune down the music and/or movies and/or TV shows they might otherwise store on the iPhone 4 in order to leave sufficient room for what they capture.
Also, since the display supports such a high resolution, that means high-def videos from the iTunes Store will also play back on the iPhone 4. High-def movies often creep over the 3GB mark.
(Slightly) Bigger Display
The original iPhone had a 3.5-inch display. So did the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and now the iPhone 4. Many of the higher-end Android devices are shipping with 3.7- to 4.3-inch displays. Granted, devices with 4.3-inch displays feel like a cookie sheet in your pocket, but it would have been nice if Apple had bumped up the size of the iPhone's display even a teensy amount. Still, the new display does look stunning with its 326 pixels per inch.
The iPhone 4 comes with quad-band GSM/EDGE and quad-band HSDPA/HSUPA 3G. It can download at a theoretical maximum of 7.2Mbps and upload at a theoretical max of 5.8Mbps. What about HSPA+? I realize AT&T is enriching its 3G network slowly, and these faster 3G speeds aren't necessarily available immediately, but Apple had a chance to take the 3G lead here and have one of the first HSPA/HSPA+ 14.4Mbps devices. It didn't. That strikes me as odd.
(That it has 5.8Mbps HSUPA is a really nice upgrade, though, as photos and videos will transfer from the iPhone to the network much faster.)
According to AT&T, its entire network has already been updated to 7.2Mbps, and the 14.4Mbps HSPA+ upgrade is on track for roll-out by December. AT&T said it will cover 250 million people with 14.4Mbps HSPA+ by the end of 2010. That's certainly early enough into the contracts for many iPhone 4 owners that it would have been a nice inclusion with the new device. Oh well.
Bluetooth 3.0+HS
The iPhone 4 comes with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. That's the same Bluetooth it has had forever. Why not upgrade to Bluetooth 3.0+HS? The Bluetooth 3.0+HS spec has been approved since 2009, and chip makers have had silicon available since 2009.
The 3.0+HS spec's largest feature is vastly increased data speeds. In devices that have both Bluetooth 3.0+HS and Wi-Fi on board, the new spec will pair the devices via Bluetooth, and then transfer data wirelessly via Wi-Fi at a rate of up to 24Mbps. This will allow end users to transfer large amounts of data between devices quickly without the need for cables. The new specification also has enhanced power control features to reduce battery drain.
The high-speed data transfer and power savings could have been amazing stand-apart features. This could have been another real leap forward for Apple. Instead, it stuck with older technology. (It strikes me that developers, in particular, would have loved to have this feature available.)
HDMI Out
The iPhone 4 can record 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. It would appear to be the perfect vehicle for capturing and then sharing HD video on an HDTV. What an odd omission. This is another blown opportunity that Apple could have used to really impress with the iPhone 4. Instead, those wishing to share video will have to use Apple's proprietary connector with an expensive accessory cable to share video signals with HDTVs. That, or upload the content to another device/service, first. Bad form.
64GB of Storage
The iPhone 4 comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Don't get me wrong, 32GB of storage is still very generous, and more than what most other phones come with. I still think it would have been great for the iPhone 4 to ramp up to 64GB of storage. Here's why.
The iPhone 4 records HD video. That stuff eats up storage like you wouldn't believe. And guess what? The 5-megapixel camera will also chew up storage with each image captured, too. Users who are more prone to take pix and shoot video will be forced to prune down the music and/or movies and/or TV shows they might otherwise store on the iPhone 4 in order to leave sufficient room for what they capture.
Also, since the display supports such a high resolution, that means high-def videos from the iTunes Store will also play back on the iPhone 4. High-def movies often creep over the 3GB mark.
(Slightly) Bigger Display
The original iPhone had a 3.5-inch display. So did the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and now the iPhone 4. Many of the higher-end Android devices are shipping with 3.7- to 4.3-inch displays. Granted, devices with 4.3-inch displays feel like a cookie sheet in your pocket, but it would have been nice if Apple had bumped up the size of the iPhone's display even a teensy amount. Still, the new display does look stunning with its 326 pixels per inch.
Tips-for-bloggers
Exist as a real person and not as a bot
Since a blog is a place where you need not be formal, you need to be very casual, as this will let you connect with the reader really fast. You need to put up your experiences as though you were telling your friends about it and not as you would report on a news website..
Be topical
Try not to go off topic on your blog if your blog is about certain specific topics. For example, you should not post a travel experience on a blog which is all about technology. Posting off topic tends to drive people away from the blog, as the reader may be put off if he/she visits your blog for certain topics and finds out that there is something else posted there. To ensure a loyal reader following, you therefore need to stick to the topic.
Stick to a schedule
If you are a regular blogger who is supposed to post blogs at certain regular time intervals, then you need to stick to that schedule. Not being able to stick to the schedule tends to drive readers away because of the disappointment they experience when they do not see an eagerly awaited new post at the planned time. In such cases readers usually try to find if there are other similar blogs and you are more likely to lose loyal readership.
Be the master of your blog topic
For those who want to post blogs about serious topics, being authoritative is a must. Always make sure to double check what you post, as your reputation depends on it. Checking all the facts before posting will make sure that you will not get caught with your pants down. Pay proper attention to the grammar, because if you don't, it creates an impression that you are not a responsible blogger.
Stay current
A blog is something that should never appear to be stale, it has to remain fresh. Frequently updating your blog will make sure that its popularity will soar, with more readers visiting your blog looking for something new.
Interact with your readers
A blog is a very personal piece of your opinion that you put online to share with others. Reader opinions can therefore vary, with some agreeing, while others disagreeing with you. Interaction with the readers is necessary in improving the popularity of your blog. Make it a point to regularly reply to comments wherever and whenever possible.
Interact with other blogs
It goes like this, if you want to be helped, you must help others too. In a similar way, make it a point to visit other blogs and comment. You will soon see that other bloggers will return the favor.
Advertise on social networking websites
If you are a blogger, it is almost certain that you already use social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc. Trust me, there is no better free way of advertising your blog and pulling in more readers than these social networking websites. Try it and you will soon see how much of a difference it makes.
Make adequate use of plug-ins
There are different plugins available for blogs and you must make proper use of these. There are plugins such as gravatar and Flashy titles which make your blog look more appealing to the reader. Plugins such as Akismet can filter spam. You must also use recent posts, popular posts and related posts, which increase the popularity of blogposts other than the one the reader is reading, even though that post may not be on the main page.
Make use of adequate keywords
To pull in more traffic to your blog, it needs to be more visible to search engines such as Google. Search engine optimization in itself is a huge topic, but you can simply include relevant keywords to make your blog appear near the top in the search engine. You can set the page title as a headline for example. Using proper page title is one of the keys to attract readers
Keep it simple and clear
AA blog is meant to be read and understood by anyone and everyone, so the language used has to be kept simple. Try to avoid complicated terms and idioms and go an extra mile to give explanations wherever possible.
Keep adding and refreshing content
Like any other website, a blog needs constant replenishment of new content to keep people interested in coming back. Old blogs can be archived and categorized into similar themed content, which will be easy to find. Refreshing the content regularly means that the web spiders will crawl pages at regular intervals to increase page ranking in the search.
Make use of RSS
Including your blogs contents in an RSS feed in your blog will maximize the reach of your blog and increase the chances of it being distributed over a larger readership.
Since a blog is a place where you need not be formal, you need to be very casual, as this will let you connect with the reader really fast. You need to put up your experiences as though you were telling your friends about it and not as you would report on a news website..
Be topical
Try not to go off topic on your blog if your blog is about certain specific topics. For example, you should not post a travel experience on a blog which is all about technology. Posting off topic tends to drive people away from the blog, as the reader may be put off if he/she visits your blog for certain topics and finds out that there is something else posted there. To ensure a loyal reader following, you therefore need to stick to the topic.
Stick to a schedule
If you are a regular blogger who is supposed to post blogs at certain regular time intervals, then you need to stick to that schedule. Not being able to stick to the schedule tends to drive readers away because of the disappointment they experience when they do not see an eagerly awaited new post at the planned time. In such cases readers usually try to find if there are other similar blogs and you are more likely to lose loyal readership.
Be the master of your blog topic
For those who want to post blogs about serious topics, being authoritative is a must. Always make sure to double check what you post, as your reputation depends on it. Checking all the facts before posting will make sure that you will not get caught with your pants down. Pay proper attention to the grammar, because if you don't, it creates an impression that you are not a responsible blogger.
Stay current
A blog is something that should never appear to be stale, it has to remain fresh. Frequently updating your blog will make sure that its popularity will soar, with more readers visiting your blog looking for something new.
Interact with your readers
A blog is a very personal piece of your opinion that you put online to share with others. Reader opinions can therefore vary, with some agreeing, while others disagreeing with you. Interaction with the readers is necessary in improving the popularity of your blog. Make it a point to regularly reply to comments wherever and whenever possible.
Interact with other blogs
It goes like this, if you want to be helped, you must help others too. In a similar way, make it a point to visit other blogs and comment. You will soon see that other bloggers will return the favor.
Advertise on social networking websites
If you are a blogger, it is almost certain that you already use social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc. Trust me, there is no better free way of advertising your blog and pulling in more readers than these social networking websites. Try it and you will soon see how much of a difference it makes.
Make adequate use of plug-ins
There are different plugins available for blogs and you must make proper use of these. There are plugins such as gravatar and Flashy titles which make your blog look more appealing to the reader. Plugins such as Akismet can filter spam. You must also use recent posts, popular posts and related posts, which increase the popularity of blogposts other than the one the reader is reading, even though that post may not be on the main page.
Make use of adequate keywords
To pull in more traffic to your blog, it needs to be more visible to search engines such as Google. Search engine optimization in itself is a huge topic, but you can simply include relevant keywords to make your blog appear near the top in the search engine. You can set the page title as a headline for example. Using proper page title is one of the keys to attract readers
Keep it simple and clear
AA blog is meant to be read and understood by anyone and everyone, so the language used has to be kept simple. Try to avoid complicated terms and idioms and go an extra mile to give explanations wherever possible.
Keep adding and refreshing content
Like any other website, a blog needs constant replenishment of new content to keep people interested in coming back. Old blogs can be archived and categorized into similar themed content, which will be easy to find. Refreshing the content regularly means that the web spiders will crawl pages at regular intervals to increase page ranking in the search.
Make use of RSS
Including your blogs contents in an RSS feed in your blog will maximize the reach of your blog and increase the chances of it being distributed over a larger readership.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Top 5 Most Dangerous Computer Viruses of the Decade
1. Sadmind worm (2001)
ALIAS: Sadmind/IIS, Unix/Sadmind, Solaris/Sadmind.worm
The Sadmind worm was a self-propagating piece of malware, It was first discovered on May 8, 2001 in china. Sadmind is designed to provide remote system administration operations and is installed by default with many versions of the Sun Microsystems operating system. It affected some big operating systems like Sun Microsystems Solaris(OS) and Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) which is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites behind the industry leader Apache HTTP Server.
2. Beast Trojan (2002)
Beast is a Windows-based backdoor trojan horse more commonly known in the underground cracker community as a RAT (Remote Administration Tool). It was created in Delphi and released first by its author Tataye in 2002. Beast was one of the first trojans to feature a 'reverse connection' to its victims and once established, it gave the attacker complete control over the infected computer.
Once connected to the victim computer, via Beast hacker can access victim's all computer file and directories along with the power to upload, download, delete or execute any file or folder.
3. SQL Slammer (2003)
ALIAS: Sapphire, Worm.SQL.Helkern, SQLSlammer
Appeared first in 27th January 2003 and soon got a high rank in the list of most dangerous worms of the year because it is the first fileless worm. Slammer was able to spread by taking advantage of the vulnerability found in the SQL Server.
Slammer spread to over 90 percent of all vulnerable hosts in 10 minutes and infected around 359,000 computers total and according to London-based market intelligence the worm caused between $950 million and $1.2 billion in lost productivity in its first five days worldwide.
4. Sasser (2004)
Sasser is an Internet worm that probably caused around $18.1 billions of dollars of damage in 2004. It was created by a Computer science student, Sven Jaschan in Germany first seen on last day of april. While there was no intentionally destructive payload, Sasser did cause many computers to slow down or crash, causing some high profile damage.
And was destructive enough to shut down the satellite communications for some French news agencies. It also resulted in the cancellation of several Delta airline flights and the shutdown of numerous companies’ systems worldwide.
5. Bandook (2005)
ALIAS: Bandook Rat
Bandook Rat is a backdoor trojan horse that infects Windows NT family systems (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista). It uses a server creator, a client and a server to take control over the remote computer. It uses process hijacking / Kernel Patching to bypass the firewall, and allow the server component to hijack processes and gain rights for accessing the internet. It is somehow very similar to Beast Trojan (2002)
ALIAS: Sadmind/IIS, Unix/Sadmind, Solaris/Sadmind.worm
The Sadmind worm was a self-propagating piece of malware, It was first discovered on May 8, 2001 in china. Sadmind is designed to provide remote system administration operations and is installed by default with many versions of the Sun Microsystems operating system. It affected some big operating systems like Sun Microsystems Solaris(OS) and Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) which is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites behind the industry leader Apache HTTP Server.
2. Beast Trojan (2002)
Beast is a Windows-based backdoor trojan horse more commonly known in the underground cracker community as a RAT (Remote Administration Tool). It was created in Delphi and released first by its author Tataye in 2002. Beast was one of the first trojans to feature a 'reverse connection' to its victims and once established, it gave the attacker complete control over the infected computer.
Once connected to the victim computer, via Beast hacker can access victim's all computer file and directories along with the power to upload, download, delete or execute any file or folder.
3. SQL Slammer (2003)
ALIAS: Sapphire, Worm.SQL.Helkern, SQLSlammer
Appeared first in 27th January 2003 and soon got a high rank in the list of most dangerous worms of the year because it is the first fileless worm. Slammer was able to spread by taking advantage of the vulnerability found in the SQL Server.
Slammer spread to over 90 percent of all vulnerable hosts in 10 minutes and infected around 359,000 computers total and according to London-based market intelligence the worm caused between $950 million and $1.2 billion in lost productivity in its first five days worldwide.
4. Sasser (2004)
Sasser is an Internet worm that probably caused around $18.1 billions of dollars of damage in 2004. It was created by a Computer science student, Sven Jaschan in Germany first seen on last day of april. While there was no intentionally destructive payload, Sasser did cause many computers to slow down or crash, causing some high profile damage.
And was destructive enough to shut down the satellite communications for some French news agencies. It also resulted in the cancellation of several Delta airline flights and the shutdown of numerous companies’ systems worldwide.
5. Bandook (2005)
ALIAS: Bandook Rat
Bandook Rat is a backdoor trojan horse that infects Windows NT family systems (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista). It uses a server creator, a client and a server to take control over the remote computer. It uses process hijacking / Kernel Patching to bypass the firewall, and allow the server component to hijack processes and gain rights for accessing the internet. It is somehow very similar to Beast Trojan (2002)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Top 10 Mobile Technologies
Gartner has identified 10 mobile technologies that it feels should be on every organization's radar. These technologies will evolve through 2011 and affect corporate strategies, are set to be adopted by a sizable number of customers and employees, and will tackle mobile challenges that organizations will face through 2011.
1. Bluetooth (3 and 4)
Two new Bluetooth versions will emerge by 2011: Bluetooth 3 will allow for data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors
2. The Mobile Web
The growth in smartphones with relatively large and high-resolution screens will encourage access to conventional websites, making it possible to deliver B2C applications using conventional Web tools without adaptation. In mature markets, the mobile Web, along with associated Web adaptation tools, will be a leading technology for B2C mobile applications through 2012, and should be part of every organization's B2C technology portfolio.
3. Mobile Widgets
Widgets exploit well-understood tools and technologies; have lower-entry barriers as compared to complex native applications. Thus, they can be a good first step to assess the demand for an application on a specific platform before undertaking expensive native development.
4.Platform-Independent Mobile AD Tools
Mobile platforms will become more diverse through 2012 five or more platforms may have a significant presence. Therefore, tools that can reduce the burden of delivering installable applications to several platforms will be very attractive.
5.App Stores
App stores will be the primary (and, in some cases, the only) way to distribute applications to smartphones and other mobile devices. Gartner believes that app stores will play many roles in an organization's B2C and B2E strategies.
7.Cellular Broadband
Continuous improvements in wireless broadband performance will increase the range of applications that no longer require fixed networking, and make cellular broadband a more effective fallback when fixed connections fail. Embedded cellular networking will become a standard feature of many corporate laptops, and will enable new types of network-connected devices and business models, such as e-books and media players
8.Touchscreens
Touchscreens are emerging as the dominant user interface for large-screen handsets, and will be included in over 60 percent of mobile devices shipped in Western Europe and North America in 2011. Organizations developing native handset applications may need to exploit single and multi-touch interfaces and haptics (tactile feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to the user) to give their applications a compelling and competitive user experience
10.M2M
Many network service providers increased their commitment to machine to machine (M2M) in 2009, so a good range of both national and multi-national M2M service options will be available in mature markets during 2010 and 2011. Key applications include smart grid, meter reading, security/surveillance, automotive systems, vending and point of sale, remote monitoring, and track and trace
10.Device-Independent Security
This isn't a single technology, but rather a collection of security technologies, application technologies and sourcing options that enable the provisioning of applications that are secure, but less tightly tied to specific devices and platforms, and that, in many cases, do not require security tools to be installed on the client.
1. Bluetooth (3 and 4)
Two new Bluetooth versions will emerge by 2011: Bluetooth 3 will allow for data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors
2. The Mobile Web
The growth in smartphones with relatively large and high-resolution screens will encourage access to conventional websites, making it possible to deliver B2C applications using conventional Web tools without adaptation. In mature markets, the mobile Web, along with associated Web adaptation tools, will be a leading technology for B2C mobile applications through 2012, and should be part of every organization's B2C technology portfolio.
3. Mobile Widgets
Widgets exploit well-understood tools and technologies; have lower-entry barriers as compared to complex native applications. Thus, they can be a good first step to assess the demand for an application on a specific platform before undertaking expensive native development.
4.Platform-Independent Mobile AD Tools
Mobile platforms will become more diverse through 2012 five or more platforms may have a significant presence. Therefore, tools that can reduce the burden of delivering installable applications to several platforms will be very attractive.
5.App Stores
App stores will be the primary (and, in some cases, the only) way to distribute applications to smartphones and other mobile devices. Gartner believes that app stores will play many roles in an organization's B2C and B2E strategies.
7.Cellular Broadband
Continuous improvements in wireless broadband performance will increase the range of applications that no longer require fixed networking, and make cellular broadband a more effective fallback when fixed connections fail. Embedded cellular networking will become a standard feature of many corporate laptops, and will enable new types of network-connected devices and business models, such as e-books and media players
8.Touchscreens
Touchscreens are emerging as the dominant user interface for large-screen handsets, and will be included in over 60 percent of mobile devices shipped in Western Europe and North America in 2011. Organizations developing native handset applications may need to exploit single and multi-touch interfaces and haptics (tactile feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to the user) to give their applications a compelling and competitive user experience
10.M2M
Many network service providers increased their commitment to machine to machine (M2M) in 2009, so a good range of both national and multi-national M2M service options will be available in mature markets during 2010 and 2011. Key applications include smart grid, meter reading, security/surveillance, automotive systems, vending and point of sale, remote monitoring, and track and trace
10.Device-Independent Security
This isn't a single technology, but rather a collection of security technologies, application technologies and sourcing options that enable the provisioning of applications that are secure, but less tightly tied to specific devices and platforms, and that, in many cases, do not require security tools to be installed on the client.
For details, read the full article on Top 10 mobile technologies at the Gartner website.
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