because you value your mind

Top 10 Coolest Mobile Phones of 2008

Chris — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:28:51 +0000

A mobile phone, a.k.a mobile, wireless, cellular phone, cell phone or hand phone, has been evolving rapidly since its conception by Martin Cooper who made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973. Every year mobile phone manufacturers will compete against each other to bring out the best in features and looks to capture the ever growing market of consumers. Anyways, below are 10 of the coolest mobile phones, in my opinion, available in 2008 that are worth your attention and maybe, your money too. They are arranged in no particular order.

Samsung Instinct

Screen Resolution:	240 x 432 pixels
Weight:	125 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS
Talk Time:	5.75 hours
Phonebook:	600
Camera / Video:	2 MP

Samsung Glyde

Screen Resolution:	240 x 440 pixels
Weight:	139 g
Connectivity:	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / WCDMA 850 / 1900
Talk Time:	3.5 hours
Phonebook:	500
Camera / Video:	2 MP / Flash / Auto-Focus

LG enV2

Screen Resolution:	320 x 240 pixels (main)
Weight:	120 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS
Talk Time:	5.33
Phonebook:	1000
Camera / Video:	2 MP / Flash / Image Editor

LG Glimmer

Screen Resolution:	240 x 400 pixels
Weight:	127 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS
Talk Time:	3.5 hours
Phonebook:	500
Camera / Video:	2 MP / Flash

LG Secret

Screen Resolution:	240 x 320 pixels
Weight:	139 g
Connectivity:	3G
Talk Time:	3.81 hours
Phonebook:	1000
Camera / Video:	5 MP / Flash / 120 fps video

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000

Screen Resolution:	480 x 320 pixels
Weight:	133 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS, Wi-Fi
Talk Time:	5 hours
Phonebook:	Depends on available memory
Camera / Video:	2 MP / Flash

HTC Touch Diamond

Screen Resolution:	480 x 640 pixels
Weight:	110 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS, Wi-Fi
Talk Time:	5.5 hours
Phonebook:	Depends on available memory
Camera / Video:	3.2 MP / Auto-Focus

Nokia N96

Screen Resolution:	240 x 320 pixels
Weight:	125 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS, Wi-Fi
Standby Time:	3.67 hours
Phonebook:	Depends on available memory
Camera / Video:	5.0 MP / Flash / Auto-Focus

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Screen Resolution:	480 x 800 pixels
Weight:	145 g
Connectivity:	3G, GPS, Wi-Fi
Talk Time:	8.5 hours
Phonebook:	Depends on available memory
Camera / Video:	3.2 MP / Flash / Auto-Focus

Sony Ericsson W980i

Screen Resolution:	240 x 320 pixels (main)
Weight:	100 g
Connectivity:	3G
Talk Time:	9 hours
Phonebook:	1000
Camera / Video:	3.2 MP

The Funny Side Of Google Suggest

Chris — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:19:32 +0000

Google Suggest, the auto-completion search tool that ’suggests’ popular search results to you while typing is very useful. That is if you would want to know more about what the universe is searching for. Here are just an example list of 30 of the funniest Google Suggest search terms I came across.

Thanks, freibooter

140 Faces Of Well Known Bloggers You Won’t Want To Miss

Chris — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:56:24 +0000

As of February 2008, Technorati was tracking over 112.8 million blogs worldwide. Blogs, a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order, are influential, personal, or both, and they reflect as many topics and opinions as there are people writing them. Anyway, did you know how the editor or owner of your famous blogs look like? Look no further. Below are a list of influential bloggers you may not have seen before.

Aaron Wall of SEObook

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Adam Curry of PodShow

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Amanda Congdon of ABC News

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Ana Marie Cox of The Ana Log

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Andrew Krucoff of Young Manhattanite

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Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish

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Andy Baio of Waxy

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Anil Dash of Dashes

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Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post

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Arnold Kim of Mac Rumors

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Beppe Grillo of Blog di Beppe Grillo

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Bill Simmons of The Sports Guy - Page 2

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Biz Stone of Biz Stone, Genius

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Blake Robinson of CrunchGear

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Bob Lutz of GM FastLane Blog

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Brian Clark of CopyBlogger

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Brian Crecente of Kotaku, The Gamer’s Guide

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Brian Lam of Gizmodo

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Casey McKinnon of Galacticast

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Caterina Fake of FlickrBlog

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Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs

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Chris Anderson of The Long Tail

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Chris Pirillo of Pirillo!

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Chris Sherman of Search Engine Land

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Craig Newmark of craigblog

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Daniel Lyons of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

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Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch Blog

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Darren Rowse of Problogger

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Dave Winer of Scripting News

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David Lat of Above the Law

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Doc Searls of The Doc Searls Weblog

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Drew Curtis of FARK

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Elizabeth Spiers of elizabethspiers

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Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices Online

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Evan Williams of evhead

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Frank Gruber of Somewhat Frank

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Frank Warren of Post Secret

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Fred Wilson of A VC

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Gina Trapani of Lifehacker

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Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com

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Graham Hill of TreeHugger

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Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World

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Harvey Levin of TMZ

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Heather Armstrong of dooce Â®

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Heather Champ of heather powazek champ

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Heather Cocks(right) of Go Fug Yourself

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Thanks andy

Henry Copeland of Blogads

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Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid

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J.D. Lasica of Our Media

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James Farmer of INCorporated SUBversion

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Jason Calacanis of Calacanis

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Jason DeFillippo of Metroblogging

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Jason Kottke of Kottke

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Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror

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Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine

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Jeffrey Zeldman of A List Apart

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Jen Chung of Gothamist

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Jeremy Schoemaker of ShoeMoney

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Jeremy Zawodny of Jeremy Zawodny’s blog

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Jessica Coen of Vanity Fair

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Jessica Morgan(left) of Go Fug Yourself

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Thanks andy

Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software

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John Amato of Crooks and Liars

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John Battelle of Searchblog

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John Biggs of CrunchGear

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John Chow of John Chow

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John d’Addario of Fleshbot

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John Dvorak of Dvorak Uncensored

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John Gruber of Daring Fireball

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John Neff of Autoblog

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Joi Ito of Joi Ito’s Web

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Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo

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Judd Legum of Think Progress

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Julia Allison of Julia Allison

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Kevin Rose of kevinhasablog

Scott Beale

Lawrence Lessig of Lawrence Lessig

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Leo Babauta of Zen Habits | Simple Productivity

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Leon Ho of Lifehack.org

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Lockhart Steele of Lockhart Steele

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Thanks Ryan

Loic Le Meur of Loic Le Meur Blog

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Malcolm Gladwell of gladwell

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Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. of Perez Hilton

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Mark Cuban of Blog Maverick

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Mark Lisanti of Defamer

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Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing

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Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos: State of the Nation

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Matt Cutts of Matt Cutts

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Matt Drudge of Drudge Report

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Matt Haughey of Metafilter

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Matthew Mullenweg of Photo Matt Â» Unlucky In Cards

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Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusters

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Melissa Lafsky of Freakonomics Opinion New York Times Blog

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Mena Trott of Mena’s Corner

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Merlin Mann of 43 Folders

Scott Beale

Michael Arrington of Techcrunch

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Michael K of Dlisted

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Michelle Malkin of Hot Air

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Mickey Kaus of Kausfiles (Slate)

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Mike Masnick of Techdirt

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Neil Gaiman of Neil Gaiman’s Journal

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Nick Denton of Gawker

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Nick Douglas of Valleywag

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Nick Wilson of Performancing

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Nurudin Jauhari of Jauhari

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Om Malik of GigaOM

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Pete Cashmore of Mashable

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Peter Rojas(left) of Engadget

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Peter Sciretta of /Film

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Phillip Torrone of MAKE Magazine

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Rachel Sklar of Huffington Post

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Rafat Ali of paidContent

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Ray Wert of Jalopnik

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Rich Juzwiak of FourFour

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Thanks DeeDee, Emily

Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb

Scott Beale

Ricky Van Veen of College Humor

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Rob Beschizza of Gadget Lab

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Rob Malda of Slashdot

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Robert Scoble of Scobleizer

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Ryan Block(right) of Engadget

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Scott Adams of The Dilbert Blog

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Scott Lapatine of Stereogum

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Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist

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Scott Watermasysk of Ancora Imparo

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Sean Bonner of seanbonner

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Seth Godin of Seth’s Blog

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Steve Garfield of Steve Garfield’s Video Blog

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Steve Hall of AdRANTs

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Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion

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Steven Levitt of Freakonomics

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Stewart Butterfield of FlickrBlog

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Takashi Yamada of Yanko Design

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Ted Leonsis of Ted’s Take

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Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Radar

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Trent Vanegas of Pink Is The New Blog

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Tucker Max of tuckermax

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Xia Xue of Xiaxue

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Wil Wheaton of WWdN: In Exile

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Will Leitch of Deadspin

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Zach Braff of zachbraff

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Ze Frank of The Show

Scott Beale

Warning : Online Web Based Desktops Are Taking Over And These 15 WebOS Are In The Running To Do So

Chris — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:09:35 +0000

Some call it webtops, some call it WebOS. The purpose; to mimic the look, feel and functionality of a local computer contained within a web browser, fully accessible from any Internet-connected device. They are great because :

you are always using the latest software
you skip the necessary need to install updates or patches
their hardware requirements are at a minimum
https will safe guard your data from external interceptions
No risk of getting laptop stolen

Below are 10 of the most notable web desktops of the moment.

AjaxWindows

You can synchronize your desktop environment to be easily with AjaxWindows’ wizard. Most of the applications found in the online desktop are from Ajax13, the creators of AjaxWindows. It is deadly similar to Windows, which makes it pretty easy for existing Windows users to navigate around. It is stable (though laggy when you open too many applications) and includes the synchronization feature which no one else has at the moment of writing. Some of the basic applications are :

Word processor
Drawing and presentation tools
Spreadsheet
Media player
Address book
Instant messenger
Desktop widgets

Desktop On Demand

It uses Java and NX technology as it’s core engine. It’s free and it’s currently in it’s Beta stages. The GUI is more of a mixture of Linux and Windows. An account provides 1GB of remote storage space, with the option of buying additional space in increments of 1GB weekly. Main features at the time of writing are :

Web browser - Epiphany
Full featured email client - Evolution
Microsoft Officeâ„¢ compatible word processor - AbiWord
Multi-protocol IM - GAIM
Media player - VLC
Photo editor - GIMP
Password manager - Revelation
Desktop searching - Meta Tracker
Download manager - gwget

DesktopTwo

With more than 160, 000 active users since launching back in August 2006, DesktopTwo was built on PHP that enables it to drag and drop files. It’s free and open source. GUI is a mixture of Windows and Macinstosh. Some of the features available are :

1GB hard drive
Email client
Address book
Website editor
Blog enabled for blinkinblog or myblogtwo
Instant messaging
MP3 player
OpenOffice
Message boards
RSS reader
My SitesTwo (site bookmarking and sharing)
DesktopTwo live chat

Exo Portal

Exo Portal WebOS uses a 100% AJAX based interface resembling a desktop-like GUI and a Java backend to simulate a true WebOS that fits the Enterprise needs. Several mentionable features include :

Widgets - Where administrators can provide small web components to notify users on the IT and business system states.
Drag and Drop - Where anyone (according to the company policies) can easily add new applications into their page or into the pages of the group they have the responsibility on.
Skins - where user can swap from custom corporate skins to classic eXo ones
Easy to use wizards - Creation processes have been simplified thanks to wizards that takes the user by the hand to help him create new pages

EyeOS

EyeOS is an open source web operating system that is powered by AJAX. It is free and has the ability to develop new applications with the eyeOS toolkit. GUI is more Macintosh than others. eyeOS’s base applications include :

editLink - Utility to edit system links
eyeCalc - Widget, Basic Calculator
eyeCalendar - Calendar Application
eyeChess - Chess Game
eyeContacts - Contacts Management Application
eyeDocs - Word Processor, provides the ability of saving Word-compatible documents
eyeFiles - File management tool. Includes many plugins for managing the files, such as Upload, Download, Download as Zip file, Copy, Paste, etc.
eyeGroups - User Groups management tool
eyeInstaller - Application to install eyePackages, individual packages for the system
eyeMp3 - Mp3 player
eyeNav - Integrated Web Browser
eyeNotes - Text editor
eyeProcess - Process Management application
eyeRSS - Feed reader
eyeSoft - Ports-based system, which comes by default with the official eyeOS repository
eyeTrash - Recycle bin
eyeZip - Utility to uncompress zip files that have been uploaded to the system

G.HO.ST

It’s core engine is Flash and it is a lot like Windows. A lot. A basic account gets 3GB free. Key features include :

Integration with third-party web applications (Google Docs, ThinkFree, Meebo, Zoho)
Mail/calendar/contacts programs
Links to other internet resources (My Items)
Desktop widgets (RSS reader, clock, weather)
Multiple language support

Glide

Transmedia’s self proclaimed ‘first online OS’, Glide OS 2.0 lives in a collaborative ecosystem that is free for up to 2GB. Glide comes in 4 platforms, Glide Next, Glide Mobile, Glide Business and Glide Campus. Glide, which uses Flash, allows you to invite others to view and collaborate on presentations over email, IM or from the address book. Notable features :

Glide Presenter - upload multiple images or audio/video files, stream large media files within presentations, save and serve presentations on any Windows, Mac or Linux machine, save presentations in Powerpoint or PDF.
Glide Write - advanced document formatting and templates as well as the ability to post Glide Write documents not only to Glide Blogs but also to major third-party blogging services.
Glide Spreadsheet - support powerful spreadsheet functions including advanced formulas and macros.
Glide Online Photo Editor & Print Shop - over 75 filters, effects, and photo manipulation tools for online photo editing.
Glide Mobile - support for the Motorola Q, Rim BlackBerry 8700c/g, T-Mobile SDA, Palm Treo 700p, Palm Treo 650, Samsung SPH-I730, O2 Xda IIs, Blackberry 7100 Series, Nokia S60/90, Sony Ericsson P900, HP iPAQ h6315, Kyocera 7135, Audiovox SMT560, Audiovox PPC 6600 Pocket PC, Motorola MPx220, Motorola V276 and the Motorola E815 EV-DO in addition to the already supported Palm Treo 700w, Sony Ericsson W600i and Motorola RAZR V3.

Goowy

They thought it was funny and easier to remember, so they called it Goowy. In addition to that, Goowy sounds like GUI for graphical user interface, an area that Goowy strives to make a difference with it’s vibrancy and interactiveness. Allyou need is a flash enabled browser. Key features include :

An instant messenger
A powerful e-mail client
Contacts & calendar applications
Customized news feeds
Rss
Minis (tiny specialized application providing easy access to frequently used functions)
File storing capabilities
File sharing
Some fun games to relax

oDesktop

oDesktop comes with the ability to install the entire application on your own webhost, to make use of your hosting space. That is one feature that makes this application unique. The interface looks cool and simple enough to use. Product features include :

oDrive - to safely upload and access files quickly and easily
oPhoto - photo album application
oMusic - upload, share, play and listen to mp3 songs directly
oNetwork - to allow different web hosts to network or collaborate with all other oDesktop users.
oEmail - a full functional email client
oNews - news and RSS aggregator.
oGames - during times of boredom and stress.

Online Operating System

When comparing OOS to other webtops like YouSO or EyeOS it sticks in the eye that OOS seems to offer more functionality. Additionally the usability is quite good since it looks very similar to Windows. The site gives you 1 GB of space and your own domain name and address (www.username.oos.cc). After registering, OOS will give you a file manager, a system control panel, and utility programs like a text editor, image viewer, games, etc.

Purefect

Made out of AJAX and PHP, Purefect is free and it gives users a Windows + Macinstosh like feel. Key features are :

Web-based IDE
Instant messenger
File explorer
Error console
Address book
Display settings
Multiuser capabilities

Xcerion XIOS

This internet OS is XML based and is currently in closed Beta, meaning that you’d have to get manual approval when you apply for a Beta account. The XML is actually an abstraction layer that sits atop a true operating system like Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows, just as does Transmedia’s Flash-based Glide Next media sharing environment.

XIOS provides a substantial advantage over current Internet-based applications because XIOS handles server communications more efficiently and it makes better use of local computing power, rather than relying on servers in the cloud for heavy number crunching. The result is fewer client-server transactions, better use of bandwidth, and faster response time for the user.

Because XIOS was built from the ground up, it includes an answer to two of the most distressing computing issues today: collaboration and keeping files backed up and synchronized across multiple machines and operating systems. Its transaction engine can mirror local files in the cloud and distribute them to others, allowing users to collaborate on the same XML document. An IM chat client could be created with a mere dozen lines of code because the process of communicating was simply mirroring the text input entered into two XML documents in different places, a functionality built-into the system.

Xindesk

Xindesk uses AJAX and is a lot like Windows. It is free but users by invitation only. Features include :

File manager
Internet browser
Stickies
RSS support
A free Xinmail account
Support for 3rd party POP and IMAP4 accounts
MS office support applications
Address book
Photo viewer
IM with Jabber, AOL, MSN support
Ability to share any type of file

YouOS

Ranked 7th in PC World’s ‘20 Most Innovative Products of 2006′, the free YouOS was first started in late December 2005 as an experimental, collaborative web operating system. Over 755 applications have been created using WebShaka’s (YouOS producer) own API since then. Notable applications include :

FlickRSS - thumbnail flickr browser
YouBrowser - web browser
YouBuddy - buddy list application
YouChat - local IRC application
YouEditor - rich text editor
YouFeeds - feed aggregator
YouFiles - file manager
YouFS Uploader - file upload application (uses Java)
YouNES - NES emulator
YouNiversalChat - universally translated chat room
YouProc - processes manager
YouShell - command line interpreter
YouSticky - persistent sticky notes
WhereWolf - web browser

ZimDesk

Contains a comprehensive list of ‘on demand’ web applications for work and entertainment. They are :

Zimwrite - word Processor, provides the ability of saving Word-compatible documents
Zimsheet - spread Sheet, provides the ability of loading and saving Excel-compatible documents
Zimmail - pOP3 based email system
Zimcalc - full Scientific Calculator
Zimreader - rSS Reader with favorites and feed management
Zimnav - integrated Web Browser with favorites and useful links selection
ZimIM - web messenger with access to the MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, AIM (AOL), Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, IRC, and XMPP networks
Zimearth - map application with access to Google, Yahoo and MSN maps.
Zimradio - listen to some of the best streaming Internet radio stations.
Zimmusic - upload and listen to your own MP3’s no matter where you are.
Zimvideo - upload and share your video clips.
ZimTV - watch streaming web TV from around the World.
Zimcommunity - complete social networking system. completely inter grated into the desktop.
Zimforum - forum, allows any zimdesk user to create there own group.
Zimblog - complete blogging system available directly from the desktop and viewable by all users
Zimdrive - file explorer and file management application

23 Things Every Webmaster Should Know About The Behaviour Of Reader’s Eyes

Chris — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:35:58 +0000

Ads in the top and left portions of a page will receive the most eye fixation.
Ads placed next to the best content are seen more often.
Bigger images get more attention.
Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixation.
Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
Formatting can draw attention.
Headings draw the eye.
Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page.
Large blocks of text are avoided.
Lists hold reader attention longer.
Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.
One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
People generally scan lower portions of the page.
Readers ignore banners.
Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
Show numbers as numerals.
Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested.
Text attracts attention before graphics.
Type size influences viewing behavior.
Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.
Users only look at a sub headline if it interests them.
Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus.
White space is good.

Eyetracking
What you most need to know

Differences Between The 5 Types Of Archiving And Compression Formats

Chris — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:00:40 +0000

.7z

.7z is a compressed archive file format that supports several different data compression, encryption and pre-processing filters. The .7z format initially appeared as implemented by the 7-Zip archiver. Both the 7-Zip program and a library to read the .7z file format are publicly available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

Features of the .7z format are:

Open, modular architecture which allows any compression, conversion, or encryption method to be stacked.
Compression ratios from about 2 - 10%
Ability to compress large files. Largest is about 16 billion GB.
Uses a 16-bit code standard for uniform representation of all the character systems in the world, digits, symbols, and control sequences to use when storing data.
Support for solid compression, where multiple files of like type are compressed within a single stream, in order to exploit the combined redundancy inherent in similar files.
Even archive headers (supplemental data placed at the beginning of a block of data being stored which contain information for handling the data block) are compressed.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256 bit key encryption is used to encrypt filenames.

.tar / .gz

.tar (tape archive) is actually an archive format only. What it does is only to collate collections of files into one larger file, for distribution or archiving while preserving file system information such as user and group permissions, dates, and directory structures.

.gz (GNU zip) on the other hand is used to compress files, with no archiving capabilities whatsoever.

Both formats are usually used together to compress files resulting in .tar.gz or .tgz. This format is commonly known as tarball. The ‘Content-Encoding’ header in HTTP/1.1 allows clients to optionally receive compressed HTTP responses and to send compressed requests. It saves bandwidth as compression ratios can reach up to about 80%

.rar

Eugene Roshal developed the .rar format, which stands for Roshal ARchive. .7z’s LZMA algorithm is quite similar to RAR in providing extremely high compression efficiency at the cost of compute time to compress and decompress. Both provide among the highest compression efficiency of any popular scheme, with the question of which algorithm is the more efficient compression scheme strongly depending on the files being compressed.

Notable features include :

Ability to split archives into modular pieces called volumes. This is done efficiently with the built-in support for multi-volume files. It enable the unpacking program to simply prompt the user for the next disk, without any hassle of manually copying and then rejoining the pieces, or for extracting a file from a single piece without needing all pieces.
Ability to treat all compressed files as a single block, also known as the solid format.
Uses the AES encryption algorithm, where encrypted files are only recoverable by dictionary or brute force attacks.
Audio compression can hit up to 90%
It can even store NTFS streams and security information in the archives, both of which are usually lost upon compression.
Password protection can optionally protect filenames, so that the files contained within the archive will not be displayed without the right password.
.rar can also be embedded into other filetyps, like .jpeg. Check out this video.

.zip

Each archived file is compressed separately, allowing the use of different algorithms for a higher compression ratio on different files. The drawback lies in the archive being significantly larger when a large number of small files are compressed together. Contrary to this is the .tar.gz format that comprises of a .tar archive compressed using .gz
Files can also be stored uncompressed.
The AES encryption method have only been included since May 2003. Prior to that, .zip used a simple password-based symmetric encryption system which is known to be dangerously weak.
The uncompressed size of a file, compressed size of a file and total size of the archive was limited at 4 GB. Extensions had to be added to get around the limitations.
Unicode compatibility was only added in September 2006.
As the Info-ZIP Windows tools supports NTFS file system permissions, it will make an attempt to translate from NTFS permissions to Unix permissions or vice-versa when extracting files which can result in potentially unintended combinations like .exe files being created on NTFS volumes with executable permission denied.

DTI Data Recovery Services Review

Chris — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:13:15 +0000

Imagine working on a special project or writing a document halfway when the monitor displays a blue screen. Imagine your computer not being able to detect the drive after restart. Both events are only 2 of the many that could happen to a hard disk at any time of the day. Imagine losing your system and not knowing how to rectify the issue at hand.

Which is why data recovery is important for business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. Which is where good data recovery services like DTI Data come in.

DTI Data has been on the hard drive recovery scene since ~~2006~~ 1998, with a list of notable and satisfied past clients which include :

Cisco
Ford Motor Company
Campbell’s Soup
NASA
United States Army
United States Navy
United States Air Force
United States Marines

Currently, DTI Data has about 51 service areas scattered throughout the United States. Oh, and another surprising thing is that DTI Data’s expertise cover ANY hard drive repair imaginable. Whether if you are on a PC, Linux or Mac, DTI will save your data’s butt. DTI’s engineers are always involved with R&D to keep up to date with the most recent changes in hard drive technology. The R&D team usually develops new technology even prior to its appearance to the public eye.

Here are the 5 simple steps that a customer usually goes through.

Get a quotation.

Of course you will want to the price for the repairs. A smart person would want to compare the value of services offered by each competing company and a smart company would want to be as clear as possible about the value and price for the services offered. Both customer and company should be fully informed of the recovery process. DTI data’s online quote form is free and do not require any registration. For immediate assistance, there is always the 24 hourly available recovery hotline located at the bottom of the quote form.

Send out for recovery.

They have partners all over the US, which is quite convenient for customers to send in their hard drives. All service centres can be found here. However, there is also another option for sending out the drives for recovery, which is by mail. Just bubble wrap the hardware, print and fill up the order request form and send it to the address at the top of the form.

Diagnose.

DTI Data’s engineers will then take a look at the drive once it arrives. If the damage is irreparable, you pay nuts. They will send it back to you. DTI’s policy is ‘flat rate pricing and a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all your data recovery, free up till the moment your data is recovered’. Cool, isn’t it?

Recovery.

Once the green light is given, the engineers will work on recovering the lost data. Normal turn around time is between 2 to 5 days from the time the drive is received. DTI also owns a class 100 clean room for data recovery. A clean room is actually an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, that has a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles and chemical vapors.

Get it back.

Upon completion, recovered data is then sent back to the customer. That’s it.

There is even an interesting data recovery blog that keeps readers informed of the types of data recovery solutions and tips related to data recovery. Do check out the testimonials of previous customers and read what they say. You can even contact them through their website to further evaluate the experience that they had with DTI Data.

Easily Understand And Make Use Of Website Statistics / Analytics

Chris — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:48:15 +0000

Every website has at least 1 web analytics application running, but we rarely utilize it. What we may see are only figures and colourful charts. Data is most useful in decision making when we could fully extract and transform them into understandable information.

Let’s take a look at rangit.com’s site statistics for the month of August 2007. I use the free Google Analytics. Everyone ought to, actually.

Visitors Overview

A traffic overview page should exist in all web analytics. It allows you to get to know your site’s traffic and their communication with your site’s structure and design. From here, everyone should be able to delve deeper to diagnose the contrasting visitor subdivisions and examine the influence that produces the quality of average page views, time on site, bounce rates, etc.

Countries Overlay

Know the people that you are attracting to your site. Get a clear picture of the visits, page views and quality measures of your site’s progress and achievements by geographic region. The general info gathered on this page is enough to help make several important decisions.

Most websites have advertisements. Knowing the origin of the majority of visitors will help you in getting advertisers. For example, if the majority of visitors are from the US, then it is relevant to sign up advertisers targeting the US market.

Another thing is, if you are a blogger from Singapore and majority of the visitors are from US then it helps to know when to strategically publish your daily articles. For example, 8am in the morning US time, to cater to the lunch break crowd.

New vs Returning Visitors

Large crowds of new visitors generally mean that you are pretty good at getting traffic to your site while large crowds of returning visitors would suggest that the site content is engaging enough for visitors to come back.

The result of your effort is in the form of this graph. It indicates the success of your intent. Let’s say you’ve added a lot of related content, links on all your pages at the start of the month and update your site daily. If you hit high on return visits, then it’s good news. Otherwise, keep improving your site. There are always forums where you can get helpful opinions and suggestions. Try DigitalPoint.

Language

The language shown in the report is the language configured on their computers. I know from my statistics that 80% of visitors to this site prefer English and differ with others in site usage, and other measurements. Awareness of the language used helps in creating favorable content and fully utilizing your marketing spend. This report complements the countries overlay. Different countries have different populations speaking different languages that present crucial market targeting opportunities.

Visits

This is the most basic measure of any website analytics application. It’s the measurement of how well you’ve promoted your site. Here are some examples on the useful stuff you can get out of the visits report.

You may have changed your keyword purchases and would like to know if it landed you more visitors or not. This report is your answer.
You may want to know if stopping certain ads would affect your visitors. This report is your answer.
You may have started a marketing campaign and want to know the effectiveness magnitude. This report is your answer.
You may have moved moved up in search engine rankings for a particular search term and want to know if it improved your traffic. This report is your answer.

Pages / Visit

If you get between 1-2 page views per visit, relax, it’s normal. About 55% of others fall into the same category. If your site has been setup to interact, then you should be getting high page views. Only 2 things will cause high average page views.

The right visitors.
Quality, effective, original content.

If your page views are below 1.5 pages per visit, then you fall into the lower portion of the normal population. Low average page views is an indication to focus more time on the 2 factors mentioned.

Bounce Rate

The measurement of how many visitors leave after viewing the entrance page. The lower the bounce rate, the higher the quality of the visit. Average bounce rates vary according to websites and any average given would have so much variance it would be meaningless. Move at your own pace, improving it from month to month. 2 things that influences bounce rates.

Marketing. Whether if the campaign is bringing in the desired visitors or not.
The landing page. If the visitor enjoys what you have to offer, and you manage to hold their attention with an informative, attractive and user friendly website design, you will have low bounce rates.

Browsers / OS

Knowing which browsers and operating systems that your visitors use the most allows you to optimize your site’s technical capabilities to make it more engaging and user friendly which usually leads to higher conversion rates. This report serves as a reminder to make sure that your web site works for that browser.

This site’s visitors use 22 different browsers and 10 different operating systems. I personally check my site on Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera only, since they make up 97.42% out of all visitors. And if you ever want to cross check your website across all other browsers, OS or screen resolutions, you can do so easily at BrowserShots.

Screen Resolutions

Looking at my screen resolutions report will tell me that it is time to change my theme. Currently, it’s width is at 780 pixels to accommodate the 800×600 users who now make up only less than 3% of my visitors. As you can see 9 out of the top 10 users have screen resolutions above 1000 pixels wide. I have already found myself a super, duper cool, smashing new theme for myself. I’ll be customizing it this weekend and hope to roll it out by next week. =)

Connection Speeds

From the report, I know that around 3% of my visitors are on dial up. About 60% are on cable and DSL, which means that it is alright to have media running around without thinking too much. If you noticed, most of my articles are accompanied by visuals and each image averages to about 65kB. For broadband users, especially cable, it’s like taking a walk in the park.

However, if a majority of your users are made up of dial up, try minimizing images and keep your main content as text rich as possible.

Traffic Overview

The traffic trends report. Get an overview of your site’s performance here.

Direct traffic comes from typing the URL into the browser or clicking on the browser’s bookmark. As long as it comes from the person itself and not from any other site, it’s considered direct traffic.
Referring sites are visitors who came upon your site from another site. As long as it is not direct nor from a search engine, then it is considered referred.
Search engine traffic consist of visitors who came from the search engine result page.

Direct Traffic

This type of website traffic could be potential customers looking for you because they heard of your site from a discussion forum, saw your ad somewhere offline in print or on television, or they might have found you by directly typing in your web site address. A good web site statistical application should allow you to pit direct traffic over city, visitor type, etc. Traffic of this type spend more time on the site if compared against other types. If you have offline campaigns running, high percentage of direct traffic is an indicator of success.

Referral Traffic

Visitors coming from other websites. This is about the quantity of links to your site. To me, referral traffic is the 2nd hardest type of traffic to get because it is influenced 100% by the quality of the content on your web site. If it is interesting, cool, attractive, original then you’ll naturally get link love. Recycling material will most often lead a person away to the source.

The 2 direct benefits of referral traffic is that it heightens the awareness of the existence of your website and it also increases the value of the site. Directly. Moreover, you will definitely receive a regular source of traffic from this type of traffic.

There are so many ways to push up this type of traffic but the most importantly, as I have said before is the content. Traffic maketh not the website, but website maketh the traffic. Here are some examples to bolster your site’s referral percentage.

Try building relationships. Leave constructive comments around blogs and forums that you enjoy visiting. Write more than 10 words. For example, a constructive comment at the bottom of this article may sound like, ‘Holy shit, Chris! Your suggestions and ideas and explanations are extraordinarily profound. The part I like best is about referral traffic. Everyone who owns a website should read this piece of yours’. =P

You can even write articles for others. Be a guest blogger in other blogs. As long as your guest article rocks, your referral traffic will rock too.

Search Engine Traffic aka. Organic Traffic

The most important and hardest type of traffic. This determines whether if you have a successfully sociable or a lonely website. It’s a BIG deal to get naturally motivated high search engine traffic. It is necessary for any website that intends to generate sales or be noticed. Everyone who uses the internet uses search engines, as they are the tools that provide you what you are looking for. Always aim for the high search engine rankings, like getting on the first page, which will eventually bring up your search engine traffic because too few look past the first page.

Search engine listings are the best as they are the most relevant and free at the same time. As a result they are the most beneficial in 4 ways.

You get stable, steady, constant, regular traffic.
Pay nuts. Save on advertising. Build dollar note mountains in your room.
Get targeted traffic. Visitors get what they are looking for from you. You become of value to the search society.
More sales = more profits. More profits = more dollar note mountains.

And nothing else will bring you the desired result except by understanding and applying these 2 rules of thumb.

Unduplicated, unique content is king.
SEO techniques that are solid, white hat and full of quality. I promise you will be 35 steps ahead of others if you follow these 35 simple SEO directions carefully.

Keywords

As you can see, above are the top 10 keywords that brought in organic traffic to rangit.com in August 2007. Go ahead and try it. Enter any of the keywords above into the search engine and tell me what you find. =) And that, my friends, is an example of a successful organic traffic keyword listing done by simply applying the 2 rules of thumb above.

As of writing, I know my article is better than any of the top 10 listed. However, a good website statistical software should be able to allow anyone to segment search traffic by search engine or any other factor. A better one, like Google Analytics, even allows me to segment referrals from a particular keyword by city and visitor type.

This report acts as an indicator of success to your site’s search engine rankings for the keywords listed. If your site is small, don’t look at the percentage of visitors. Instead, look at the number of visitors coming in for each keyword. It’s clearer and you can pick up the patterns faster. Of course, if the site is huge and there are thousands of visitors, only then it is relevant to look at the percentage of visits.

Content

Above is a report of the top 10 titles that were most responsible for driving pageviews in August 2007. I can also see the time spent on page, bounce rate and % exit. I’m glad to see some 3-4 minutes average along with one 6 minute average. It shows how well that particular article has done. Overall, I’m happy with the attractiveness of my site.

Ask anyone what they expect from their own website and their response would be to attract visitors. Of course it doesn’t come easy. A lot of time and effort is needed to shape and deliver valuable information for the pleasure of others. Oh yeah and good content is defined by :

Uniqueness
Structure of point delivery
Quality of grammar, punctuation and spelling
Readability

The idea is to keep a balance between what the readers want, what the search engines think they need and what they really need.

Have fun!

Top 11 P2P File Sharing Clients Of 2007

Chris — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:29:50 +0000

P2P is defined as a computer network that exploits diverse connectivity between participants in a network and the cumulative bandwidth of network participants. It reduces server load and maintains high bandwidth transfer rates. Nowadays, you can get almost anything from P2P. That includes movies, e-books, songs, applications, games and pictures. But before you can do that, you gotta know which P2P file sharing client to use to get the best out of your time. Listed below are 11 of the best, free P2P file sharing clients of 2007 for you to try it if you haven’t. Forget the rest.

Ares Galaxy

Written in delphi, Ares was originally designed for operation on the Gnutella network. Later on in 2003, it switched to its own network of leaves and supernodes which was much more difficult to identify compared to other networks. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise when it was the only P2P application that could work on restricted networks like university campuses. Ares also has a hashlink function where it is able to search for peers with files pertaining to a hash and download from them.

As a conclusion, downloading files is rapid, file organization is as simple as a mouse click, hassles don’t exist, the interface is pretty clean and attractive, it’s so simple to use that there will never be a Complete Idiot’s Guide To Using Ares Galaxy being published because it is already idiot proof. Search response is lightning fast. On a dial-up, you’ll get a heap to select from in a second. Once you’ve selected your download, everything else is automatic. If the user is no longer available, it will find another. If it gets disconnected, it will reconnect by itself.

Azureus

One of the only bittorent clients in the world written in Java that supports I2P and Tor anonymous communication protocols. Azureus is actually the Latin name of the blue poison dart frog reason being that the co-developer, Tyler Pitchford, uses Latin names of poison dart frogs as codenames for his development projects. Message stream encryption is a method of anti throttling supported by Azureus.

A range of plugins was designed to make using the program easier and to give experienced users more flexibilty and control. The plugins which I would personally recommend are ‘Upload Shaper’ and ‘Ono’. Upload shaper will automatically adjust global upload speed limit based on download speed * factor and Ono will finds nearby peers, which tend to give better transfer rates, and preferentially connects to them.

BitComet

Written in C++, BitComet boasts of many functions including Mainline DHT, protocol encryption, disk cache, port mapping, peer exchange (PEX), UDP NAT traversal. There’s even an embedded internet explorer window for searching torrents within the client.
Since version 0.90, BitComet has included a plugin to transfer files using the eD2K protocol, which is configured to automatically connect to an eD2K server. What makes it different is the ability to preview media files.

In versions 0.85 and above, an IFrame displays a page from BitComet’s server that displayes a web search and a single ad on the right side of the client window and Google Toolbar is installed by default.

Workaround : DISABLE the IFrame in the view menu and CHOOSE not to install the toolbar.

BitSpirit

BitSpirit exceeds expectations. It will not let you down. I swear if this program is developed more it will kill azureus and utorrent.

Fast, nice-looking, feature-loaded, stable, very light on the system, like as if it’s not there while doing the best that you might imagine. Some BitSpirit’s unique features include automatic import of IPFilter.dat from eMule folder which protects you from various prying eyes and private blacklists. It also anables increasing TCP connections of Win XP SP2 and uses Kademlia DHT network(compatible with uTorrent and mainline) and encrypts connections.

Cabos

Written in REALbasic, Cabos was written based on Limewire and Acquisition. Available on both Macs and Windows. It will find every file you ever wanted and 100% successfully download them. You could check the iTMS if you wanted to purchase tracks, but there won’t be any available. That’s how good Cabos is. Moreover, it is not like Limewire in that you have to buy a PRO version to unluck full searching and download capabilities.

In addition, it allows you to import your iTunes library if you are so inclined. Thats not the only thing to make iTunes users feel like home as the search results and downloads are presented with an iTunes look, with a varying blue and white lines in a list, iTunes music icons, etc. If you are a Mac user, I would personally recommend you to take a look at these 40 useful and free mac os x softwares.

DC++

Written in C++, DC++ is the P2P files sharing program used to connect to the Direct Connect network or to the ADC protocol. On DC++ u have to connect on ‘hubs’ and every hub has admins. These admins take care of their hub really good so that users have really little chance to find viruses or fake files, because people with this things are kicked or banned from the hubs even before you can say ‘Ala ka zaam’.

There are many well known mods of DC++ out there, most popular being StrongDC++. It is suitable for newbies in the dc network as well as those who know all about p2p connections and want something more form their client. Basically, you’ll just have to configure your connection, name and put something that is of value in your share folder. Yes, understanding will take some time but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll experience the advantages of multi-source download.

eMule

Written in MS Visual C++ using the Microsoft Foundation Classes, connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. With downloads of over 330 million times as of July 2007, it has become the most downloaded project on SourceForge. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

You can find nearly any film, music or program ever made, but if there’s only a few sources it will take long to download them. It also gives more info about the downloads because there is a system where you can rate / comment on files that others can read easily. The cue system encourages people to share because the more you upload the more you can get off others and the faster your downloads. You can also add a proxy to make yourself anonymous and untraceable. Useful when downloading recently released movies.

iMesh

The audio media player works just as well as itunes along with the music search which works the same way. The database is far more limited in terms of only having audio and video but you could find many things on this that you won’t find on Limewire. Downloading speeds are higher searches are very fast. The friends and internal message system is useful, handy and surprisingly bug free.

LimeWire Basic

Written in Java, Limewire offers the sharing of its library through Digital Audio Access Protocol. As such, when LimeWire is running, any files shared will be detectable on the local network by DAAP-enabled devices like iTunes. LimeWire doesn’t forward SHA1 searches, which find exact copies of files. Magnet links use SHA1 searches and SHA1 searches can also be used to find more sources for a download. SHA-1 and tiger tree hash cryptographic hash functions is used by Limewire to ensure that downloaded data is uncompromised.

LimwWire basic is free but you can download the Pro version of Limewire off of the basic version for free. =P The only difference is that the Pro version offers personalized technical support and provides more results and faster downloads by connecting to more sources.

Shareaza

Available in 27 different languages, Shareaza supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2, EDonkey Network, BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP network protocols plus handle magnet links, ed2k links, Piolet links and Gnutella links. The user interface is clean and does not lag in any way. Start up is fast and easy to use. Power mode enables experienced users to control about nearly everything. The monitors and real time graphs are easy on the eyes. There is also a local filtering of received results, besides the many filtering options. For now, I would personally recommend you to not use it to download torrent files yet because it is still immature compared to the other bittorrent clients mentioned in this article.

ÂµTorrent

Written in C++, uTorrent is the No.1 bittorrent client that uses the least computer resources. It can use as little as 14 MB of RAM running a 486 processor on Windows 95. Translations have totaled 38 languages. It has peer exchange with other uTorrent clients , ‘trackerless’ support using DHT and a user configurable intelligent dick caching system.

Unlike BitComet, it doesn’t mess up the ratio statistics and is very convenient to bring around. It is shipped as a single stand-alone compressed executable file, and does not require installation.