Jay Gaulard Blog

Technology, Spicebird, Firefox and Open Source

Sunday, December 30th, 2007

Technology Consumers Got More Choice in ‘07

In 2007 The computing world revolved around Microsoft, your wireless carrier controlled what your cellphone could do, and the record labels locked your legal music downloads with software to limit what you could do with them.

Spicebird a Mozilla-based collaboration Outlook killer

Spicebird is built on Thunderbird and Lightning, the powerful extension that adds calendaring functions to Thunderbird. Additionally it seems to integrate SamePlace, a Firefox extension that provides instant messaging capabilities based on the Jabber protoco

5 Things You’ll Love About Firefox 3

Firefox 3 Beta 2 shows some nifty new tools we can expect in Mozilla’s next browser

The Flexibility of Open Source

One of the things that has been a strong point of Open Source Software (OSS) for years, even if it hasn’t been held at the forefront of the battle, is the flexibility that OSS offers.

36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More!

This is a collection of startup tips covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance. They describe best practices for an early-stage startup

Microsoft Live Search Link Command is Offline

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

I just might be the last known web dude on the planet to notice this, but the Microsoft Live Search link command is officially offline. Boy do I feel like a loser.

I was checking some backlinks today and read a little note on MarketLeap’s website that said…

*Important Announcement!
MSN has recently discontinued reporting results for the operator 'link:'. As such, our Link Popularity tool is no longer able to report MSN results. More information regarding their decision is available on the MSN blog.

Well, wouldn’t ya know, I strolled over to MSN’s blog and took a look at the “We are flattered, but…” post. Mind you, this post was written in March. Where the hell have I been?

So basically, here is a key line of the post…

We have been seeing broad use of these features by legitimate users but unfortunately also what appears to be mass automated usage for data mining.

Hmmm, Yahoo! and Google and other search engines still offer advanced query syntax, such as “link:, linkdomain: and inurl:,” or some variation thereof.

Now, MSN can do anything they want and I am not somebody who is going to complain about Windows and Microsoft and all that. I sincerely hope I am beyond that, not that I was ever into it. I am just saying, “look around.” Many people who use that advanced query syntax are acedemics, webmasters and programmers. Those are the exact people you want on your side. How much $$$ has Google made off of AdWords? Gee, who was Google’s first target market for AdWords and AdSense? Man, it doesn’t take a genious to figure out that they are the ones you should be catering to and that they can be very vocal on the internet. I gotta say, it takes a bold person to take away one of the very tools that a very important market uses quite often. Oh well, I suppose I will just have to get used to Google’s and Yahoo!’s tools that they continue to offer.

Popular Websites For eBusiness

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

I thought this was interesting. I just found this article on Digg.

The article lists the top 25 eBusiness websites based on a few factors. I like this list, because I have visited a few of these websites. I do get a little jealous because I hate to see these huge numbers from other websites than my own. I mean, hey, more power to ya’, but still, it’s not me. Oh well.

Here is the list of the most popular eBusiness websites. I have probably visited the top six at some time or another.

If you are into SEO, eBusiness and things having to do with being a webmaster, you might want to bookmark this.

What is Web 2.0?

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Sometimes people name things and think they are very very cool for doing so. People hear these cool new names and start using them in everyday conversation. I bet you know what I am talking about.

Let’s say…”24/7” for example. I for one, think this is a very stupid little saying, but it seems as though just about everyone has jumped on this bandwagon. At this point, there probably is no stopping it. Once the Pope says it, it’s over.

Lately, I have been hearing little things here and there about “Web 2.0.” I read “Revenue Today” magazine. There are articles with hints of the “Web 2.0″ phrase. I kind of roll my eyes each time I come across it because it seems like people are trying too hard to grab hold of something. This is what got me going.

Have you ever seen any shows on HGTV? Well, if not, let me explain. HGTV is a channel devoted to home improvement. I watch it because I like to see the gardening stuff. Sometimes I have to grin and bear it through the DIY shows. When you were a kid, what did you call the box in your house that you had all of your stuff and your bed in? Your “room,” right? Yes, your room. Not anymore. Now they call it your “space.” Since when did we call everything a space? “Yeeeeeezzzzz, well, hhmmmm, mumzy, pleeeease move the Range Rover into the space.” “You mean the garage?” “Yeeeezzzz, the garage space.” Do you get what I am saying? If not, here it is. I am saying that calling a kitchen a kitchen is good. Calling a room a room is good. Only those people call things “spaces.” Unfortunately, even the homeowners (those whose homes are being worked on by HGTV) are now made to call things spaces. “Yes, we sure would love a teensy weensy little bit larger coffee table in our space.” That just sounds dumb. It almost feels like there is some huge effort in Hollywood to change what we call a room. Can you imagine getting wicked pissed at your kid and yelling, “You little $%#^%, go to your space!!! No dinner for you!!!”

Anyway, sometimes it seems like this is what is happening on the web. Kind of like in the corporate world. If you have ever worked in that world, I am sure you are well aware of the idiotic things people make up names for. Someone has got to stop them.

So, without further ado, let’s get to looking at Wikipedia’s definition of Web 2.0.

The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. It became popular following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, and has since become widely adopted.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web as a platform. According to Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of “Web 2.0″ have existed since the early days of the Web.

Let’s look at the first sentence. “The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived…” Ok, let’s stop right there. This is exactly what I am talking about. A perceived…this means that someone made this up and it is being pushed on the rest of the world. I gather that because this phrase has become so popular.

Let’s look at the first sentence in the second paragraph. “Although the term suggests…” Let’s stop again. The word “suggests” to me, means that I can not use this phrase with any seriousness in the least. I like actual meanings of things.

Let’s look at the third paragraph as a whole. I agree with Tim Berners-Lee. We are floating on the same brain wave if you are catching my drift. Why in the world would anyone try to give the simple and natural evolution of something a name like Web 2.0? Oooohhh, yeah, version two baby.

I remember back a few years ago, a local radio station tried the whole 2.0 thing. This is when the web was just getting all heated up. They were so proud of themselves. The announcer would say something like, “Yeah, the best music of the 40s, 50, 60s, 70, 80s, 90s and today!!! J98.6FM — version 2.0.” That didn’t last long. I think once someone in management realized that no one on the planet had any idea what they were talking about, they put a stop to it.

I was down at the hardware store this morning and the paint guy asked what I was up to. I told him that I was going to head home to really dive in to the intricacies of Web 2.0. I told him that I was going to envelope myself in what I would seriously consider the lightening fast and exponential explosion of how “Web 2.0″ has defined what we call the web. Ok, that didn’t happen, but I am sure it would’ve if I had gone to the hardware store.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have truly noticed a shift in what has happened on the web. I am just not sure it should be called the second version. As a semi-ex website designer, I have noticed a squeeze in my profession. People still come up to me and ask if I can design websites for them. I am a little puzzled at why they are asking. I tell them to just set up a blog. They look at me all confused and then I remember that these people only spend a fraction of the time I do on the web. I mean, c’mon, just set up a site file, a folder structure, buy a domain name, set up a hosting account, download the latest version of Wordpress, set up a database and go to the install URL. Hit go, and if you want to get fancy, download a nice theme.

Is that too much to ask? Sorry, did I answer the question?

Sitemap Location in Robots.txt

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

Yesterday, I was updating my website sitemaps in Yahoo! Site Explorer and came across a post in their blog called, “Webmasters Can Now Auto-Discover With Sitemaps.”

This got me thinking, so I did a little more homework. Basically, this semi-new feature allows search engines to auto-discover website’s sitemaps. The syntax looks like this…

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

All you have to do is to add this line to your robots.txt file, or course, with your URL inserted instead of the example one above. This helps, because there are many search engines that now recognize Google sitemaps, but have no idea where yours is. Ask.com is a big one.

I found some resources and decided to list them here for you…

- Sitemap hint in robots.txt
- Sitemaps XML format
- What’s new with Sitemaps.org?
- Robots.txt Checker

Google Buys FeedBurner?

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Weird. I hadn’t heard about this. I was reading my latest issue of Revenue Magazine the other day and I came across an article letting me in on the big secret. It said that they made the deal back in June. I did a little Google search and came across a few articles covering the issue.

I wandered over to the Official Google Blog and found the official statement from Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product Management. She said that Google is looking for more avenues to distribute ads for that AdWords customers.

I would say this is a very smart move, considering that Google is working on getting ads into website feeds. I have been waiting for that one for a while.

So, let’s wait and see what FeedBurner starts to shape up like. I always like to see the changes and enhancements to a product when something like this happens.

Article Submission - Pulling Articles From Isnare

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

I did a few upgrades this weekend…all of my blogs as well as my “Article Submission - ArticleHub.US” website.

The article submission site upgrade is really cool. Not only did the company that created the software fix a bunch of bugs that I have complained about, they also added a really cool feature. Now, I can pull article submissions from Isnare.com. Isnare.com is a huge article submission website. Many people post articles to that site. The new feature in my software allows me to map my own categories to Isnare’s categories. When someone submits an article to Isnare now, it automatically posts on my website, filling it up.

Yesterday, before I did the upgrade, I have about 60 articles. Right now, I have 146. That’s a pretty good improvement. You may be asking yourself, “What about duplicate content?” I am not too concerned. I was never under the impression that people were going to write unique articles for my site only. I think people write the article once and then go around from article site to site, copying and pasting that same article.

I have had a semi-decent stream of new authors and article submissions, but this is certainly going to help.

Math Function - MediaWiki - Wiki Tutorial

Friday, June 8th, 2007

Paul sent me an email this morning about the Math Function he added to his Wiki. Here is an entry that shows the result.

Paul did some lengthy and frustrating research trying to get this thing straight. He says, “It is called mimetex, and if you have a shared server, it may be the only way you can use a TeX markup to show your math formulas. Your server needs to be able to run a CGI script, and you need to create a cgi-bin/ director in the root of your webpage. All the installation directions are located here. There is also a wordpress plugin, which is really cool. You can find the user’s manual here.”

Well, thank you Paul. See, I told you he was a good researcher.

Riding a Segway in the Hudson Valley

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

A really nice guy, Jack White of “Segway of the Hudson Valley,” stopped by work today to show us some of his good stuff.

Jack owns a few companies that sell high-end mobility products. He is quite informative and really knows his stuff. Anyway, today was the day of the Segway.

When Paul and I were leaving to go to lunch, we noticed a truck in the parking lot. I ran over to the truck because there was a Segway sitting on a trailer type thing on the back of it. I was so excited…I have always wanted to ride one of those things. I kept looking around for the person the Segway belonged to, but couldn’t find them. We were getting hungry, so we hopped in the car and left.

So, we ate and had a nice lunch. We hung out on Main Street, Beacon. Then, we drove back to work and pulled in the parking lot. We saw a few people standing around the back of the truck with the Segway nearby…but wait, there were two!!! Man oh man, it was our lucky day. Jack kindly offered to let Paul and me take both Segways for a ride around the parking lot. I have to say, those things are quite handy. They can be quick or just stay slow and they turn on a dime. They are really easy to learn too. Within about 2 minutes, I was up and at ‘em.

Here are a few Segway pictures for you to enjoy…

Notice the two different Segways…one with the smaller tires and one with the bigger tires. I like the one with the bigger tires better. I would like to go on a ramp or hit a jump or something.

Here is a good plug for Jack - If you are interested in contacing Segway of the Hudson Valley, you can call them at 845-255-7867. Go for it…have some fun.

Like.com Visual Search - A New Type of Search

Sunday, May 20th, 2007

I found something pretty interesting this morning while reading my latest issue of “Revenue Magazine.” I really don’t have too much to say about it, besides that it’s an interesting idea.

Like.com has launched a new type of search…a search based on images. Well, they call it “Visual Search.” Basically, their techology recognizes image features and allows you to drill down on those features to find exactly what you are looking for. Probably good for those of us who sometimes can’t put things into words.

I gave it a try on a pair of sneakers on their homepage. I refined my search on a design on the side of the sneakers. The results were mixed…I was offered various textures and designs, but nothing exactly like the design I was looking for. I suppose they have some work to do, but I offer them the best of luck.