May 2006 Archives

Now we can use the free picasa in the Linux.
There are three package can be download
Free Download (.rpm) - for Red Hat/Fedora/Suse/Mandriva x86
Free Download (.deb) - for Debian/Ubuntu x86
Free Download (.bin) - Self-extracting installer, for any x86 Linux distribution

This Picasa can run on the 764-bit linux with 32-bit compatibility libraries.
What's different between the Windows version of Picasa and Picasa for Linux?

For the people used Picasa for windows, there are a few differences between windows version and linux version as below:

+ Picasa for Linux is currently available only in the U.S., with an English interface.
+ Google's Hello photo-messaging application is Windows only, so it’s not currently integrated with Picasa for Linux.
+ CD burning isn’t supported in Picasa for Linux. The button will be grayed out in the interface. The CD-ROM-burning library used by Picasa uses a Windows driver that’s not easy to support on Wine.
+ Similarly, the backup feature is not supported.
+ There’s currently no Export to TiVo® feature.

There are a lot of new users registered just for put advertisement on my bulletin board. I hate them. It is very complicated to delete these users in the default administrator site.

I search the MODS-Database on PHPBB.com. The following mod is what I installed in my bulletin board.

Installation Level: Very Easy
Installation Time: ~ 5 Minutes

MOD Name: Admin Userlist
Author: wGEric
MOD Description: This MOD lets you view all of you members and various information about them in the Admin Control Panel. From the list, you can perform various actions on multiple users.

The latest verison is 2.0.2 (Updated 08/09/04)

I installed it on the phpBB 2.0.19.

The installation is very easy and functioned well.

The click-to-play video advertisements go on sale beginning May 23, and will be available to advertisers in the US, Canada, and Japan at launch. Visitors to sites in Google's network of AdWords publishers will have complete control over the video ad experience.

So, Google has text, image, flash ad format. This time, Video ads come out.

First, as with all AdWords ad formats, video ads will compete for placement on sites in the Google content network with other text, Flash and image ads -- and, as with our other image ad placements, you can choose to bid on a CPC or CPM basis.

When a person lived in Canada four or five yeas, the understanding is totally different.
He has a viewpoint and want to express it in his native language to the visitor from his native country. The result is misunderstant. The focus, target of meaning, is not being relized.

The reason is the thinking in different way.

Chinese from main land, often looking for the gaps in the law. They have a very worse environment. The regular way, the way regulared by law, is not in reason generally.
Canadian often follow the law. It is simply way and I think over 90% Canadians are do everything by this way.

Just like a piece of paper. You give one calculator to a Canadian. He read guideline carefully and learn how to use it. Chinese will leave the guide in the box and pull the calculator to use or hack it. They like to find their own way to use it.

When I search the real-time airline information by Google, I found a site named http://airinfo.aero/
It looks so strange. I have never seen a top level domain with four letters. There are very common three letter domain or two letter domain, like .com, .net, .uk, .cn, .cc.
This time it is four letters - aero.

After doing some research, I got the answer.

.aero - the world's first industry-based top level Internet domain
Reserved exclusively for aviation, .aero is inspiring a revolution in the way people access and use air transport information.

Registration service is provided by http://www.information.aero/

I found the Xubuntu, which is a complete GNU/Linux based system with an Ubuntu base. It is a new project, born in April 2006. So now we have Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.

Xubuntu is s lighter, and more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, as well as thin-client networks.

Edubuntu is customised for classroom use. The idea is that as an educator you'll be able to set up a computer lab, or establish an online learning environment, in an hour or so -- then administer that environment without having to become a fully-fledged Linux geek.

Kubuntuis a user friendly operating system based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment. With a predictable 6 month release cycle and part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu is the GNU/Linux distribution for everyone.

Ubuntu is shiped with the latest Gnome release and is the base of the Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.

Xubuntu is shipped with top quality packages from the Ubuntu archives. Xubuntu will use, as far as possible, GTK2 applications, ensuring maximum efficiency. If you wish, you can install any KDE or GNOME application on your Xubuntu desktop system, as it shares the Ubuntu main and universe package selection.

Ubuntu is a good Linux distribution. It can be download freely, and it can be mail to your home by ShipIt free of charge.

Last time, I ordered Ubuntu 5.10. It took about 52 days to my home.

This time they provide up to 10 CDs. I think they know the 64bit machine is not so popular, so that provide max. one 64-bit PC verison CD only per shipment.

I ordered 10 Ubuntu CDs including 8 PC Edition, 1 64-bit PC Edition, 1 Mac Edition. I will give some PC Edition to my friends.

Skype announced that "Calling people on Skype is totally free. It's also free to call landlines and mobiles within the US and Canada until the end of the year."

So now, we can use skype to call anyone's mobile or landline in the USA and Canada.

In the Terms of Service of Skype, it said:

Free Calls in the US and Canada: Until December 31st 2006, Skype is offering free SkypeOut calls from the US and Canada to US and Canadian mobile and landline telephone numbers. In return for offering this, Skype asks that You use the product sensibly and don't abuse the free offer. Skype reminds You that it does not allow You to resell SkypeOut and that if Skype does see systematic or intentional misuse, it reserves the right to terminate your access to your Account immediately in accordance with clause 12.3 below.

I used skype for a long time, and the voice quality is always good, except you use the dial-up.

There is one inconsistency between the Google Adsense Terms and Conditions and the Program Policies.
I discussed with a smart person in the Adsensor Club and send a lot of emails to Google Support, Becky, back and forth.

In Google AdSenseTM Online Standard Terms and Conditions, Point 2 Implementation and Operation of Ads, Search Results, and Referrals. Section 1 Adsense for Search, the wording is as below:

AdSense for Search. If You have elected to receive Search Results, You will display on Your Site(s) a Google search box (a "Search Box") in accordance with the specifications provided by Google. Each Web page(s) that contains a Search Box must also contain other content related to Your Site. Except for related Google queries, all search queries (including queries entered into an Ad search box) must originate from individual human end users inputting data directly into a Search Box (or Ad search box, as applicable) on Your Site(s). You will send any and all queries (without editing, modifying, or filtering such queries individually or in the aggregate) to Google and Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide You with corresponding Search Results and/or Ads, as applicable and as available. Search Results and any accompanying Ads will be displayed on Web pages hosted by Google (each, a "Search Results Page"), the format, look and feel of which may be modified by Google from time to time.

The sentence I think important is underlined.

My understanding is Each Web page(s) that contains a Search Box must also contain other content related to Your Site. Becky gave me the defination of other content.

By 'other content,' we mean that there should be text related to your site also on the page. For example, if your site is about television, the page with the search box should have text about televisions.

She also pointed that, "Please be assured that if a page contains other content related to your site, you may place the Google AdSense for Search bar on that page. Because the page contains content related to your site, it would not be considered a non-content-based page."

It is the third day. I check the report provided by Google Analytics. The chart looks so clear and beautiful.
After 24 hours collecting visitor information, the report is coming today.
The first one will be seen is Executive Overview.There are four main charts as below:

The Visits and Pageviews show us how many visits and pageviews in the specifiy date range.
The Geo Map Overlay display the visits' geographic location in the world based on the city.

Visits by New or returning tell us how may visits are new visits by percentage.
Visits by Source organized the visits by referrals. Just tell us where the user came from or how did they find our site.

Microsoft only provides Windows PE to OEM and Enterprise customers. So the small companies and end users do not get Windows PE. This is really bad. With Bart's PE Builder they can build a Bootable XP CD-Rom (called BartPE) to use for maintaining their systems. For example to fix something which can not be fixed even under safe mode.

To make a Bart's PE Boot Disk, you need following itmes:
1) The files from your Windows Installation CD-Rom.
Supported Windows versions are:
Windows XP Home Edition (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
Windows XP Professional (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
2) PE Builder runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/BartPE systems.
3) CD/DVD writer if you want to creat a bootable CD/DVD.

Section 1: Prepare the Windows XP SP2 installation files
First of all I want to introduce how to slipstream a Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
If you have a installation CD of Windows XP without SP1 or SP2, you need to follow the steps to make it.
Prepare Installation CD of Windows XP and Service Pack 2 for Windows XP.
Download Windows XP SP2 (266mb)

I received a Google Analytics invitation code this morning. I almost forget it after about four or five monthes waiting.

The website analytic systems I used over a year are including Awstats and sitemeter. Based on my experience, Awstats is a perfect web site log file analytic system. It provide a detail report.
The weakness is it is not realtime. I use it as a history log tool.
Sitemeter is an online service, which can let me know who is on my site now. It is an realtime tool. The cons is it has not detail history record, only the latest 20 100 record wil be viewd as a free service.

Google Analytics is free because of my site is under 5 million pageviews per day. I don't need an AdWords account to link to it.
I added some site profiles into this Google Analytics account. It need 24 hours to collect enough data to display the report.

New WGA notifications gave me a two or three hours problem, when I start my computer and looked the notification balloom. I searched the web by Google or Yahoo, and got little answer in April 25, 2006. I don't think a lot of people update their Windows XP with the new WGA. I have to fixed it by my way. It works.
Pleaase refer to my post: Remove WGA Notifications

This week, I found the traffic was double from May 7. A lot of visitors come here because of WGA. They googled the "wga notifications", "remove wga logon", "uninstalling WGA Notifications", "Xp validation failure removal", or some terms related WGA.

Let's go through these two free anti-virus program on windows 2000 pro.
Avast! 4 Home Edition and AntiVir Personal Edition Classic v7 are freewares and only used for personal pc, not for commercial use.

Avast! 4 Home Edition:
avast! 4 Home Edition can only be used by home users that do NOT use their computer for profit.
Only has windows version. Here is a Linux version, avast! Linux Home Edition.
24 languages available.
The download pack is about 10.50MB in English.
It is a complete antivirus solution, fully able to find computer viruses, to create and check the integrity of programs installed, to test executed programs and opened documents, to test and check email and other functions. Scanning is also available in the shell extension and screen server.

AntiVir Personal Edition Classic
Both Windows and Linux version.
Version 7 now. For Windows 2000/XP, the download pack is about 10.32MB

I bought a brand new laser printer, Samsung ML-2010 yesterday at Staples. I paid $148.10, which is regular price $199.92 minus instant rebate $70.00, plus 14% tax. This printer has another mail-in rebate $30.00.
Staples provides an Easy rebates, which is an online rebate. Really easy and quick. I don't need to cut the UPC bar code and put all related receipts into a envelope. And even no postage. Just go to Easy Rebates and fill in the rebate form online, submit it and all done.

The good: Fast; inexpensive; good-quality text; easy to set up and use; PC, Mac, and Linux compatible.

Based on the Google Adsense official blog, Google has added more products to the range of referral products for adsense publishers.

According to the official adsense blog they have released Picasa and Google Pack. You'll earn up to $2 for each time a user installs Pack and up to $1 for each Picasa install.

For some odd reason I can only see picasa… Please check below screenshot:

I think Google will fix it this weekend.

Why China and the U.S. aren’t on the same page.

This article is excerpted from Business Week April 24, 2006. I digest this one doesn't mean I agree to his viewpoint or some sample.
The point of differenc between the leaders of these two nations are very huge.
China’s leaders are trained engineers.
America’s are lawyers.
I think another big difference is thinking in Chinese and thinking in English.

Chinese president Hu Jintao arrives in Seattle next week for his first state visit to the U.S. During meetings with the likes of William H. Gates III, Yale University students, and finally President George W. Bush, there will be plenty of talking. Given the huge geopolitical and economic stakes riding on that dialogue, it’s appropriate to ask: Why do China and America have such difficulty communicating? Sure, the two nations are half a world apart, eographically, historically, and politically. But the cause of their at times cacophonous discourse could lie in something less obvious: the strikingly different academic training of their political leaders.

The majority of American senators and congressmen were schooled as lawyers. But each of China’s senior leaders—all nine members of the Politburo’s Standing Committee—was trained as an engineer:
President Hu in hydropower, Premier Wen Jiabao in geological structure, for instance. Perhaps the difficulties between China and the U.S. lie less with dissimilar languages, cultures, and histories, and more with the divergent ways of thinking between lawyers and engineers. This is no small difference. Engineers strive for “better,” while lawyers prepare for the worst. Failing to appreciate the implications of these different approaches (and the relating styles they engender) can lead to missed signals.

Here's a list of useful freeware applications, arranged alphabetically by category.
Freeware means it is free to access and use.
The following list is checked on May 03, 2006, all free.

Antivirus:
Avast avast! 4 Home Edition - http://www.avast.com/
AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic - http://www.free-av.com/
Panda ActiveScan - http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan

Audio Players:
Foobar2000 - http://www.foobar2000.org/
iTunes - http://www.apple.com/itunes/
jetAudio - http://www.jetaudio.com/
QCD - http://www.quinnware.com/
Winamp - http://www.winamp.com/

Google Adsense has a service for the big client.

The official description shown below:

Maximize revenue on parked pages
AdSense for domains allows domain name registrars and large domain name holders to unlock the value in their parked page inventory. AdSense for domains delivers targeted, conceptually related keywords and advertisements to parked domain name pages by using Google's semantic technology to "understand" the meaning of each domain name. Powering over 3 million domain names, AdSense for domains is the industry's leading parked page service.

AdSense for domains is fully scalable and is designed for easy integration – so your network of sites can start earning revenue through AdSense for domains quickly and easily.

Who can apply for this service?
If your sites generate more than 750,000 page views per month, it is right for you.

You need to look for certain essential features when shopping for a new digital camera—whether you’re retiring your old film camera or upgrading your outdated 2-megapixel shooter. Here are the vital specs you need to know, plus a few great models to consider.

RESOLUTION
Measured in megapixels, resolution refers to the number of pixels of image information provided by a digital camera’s image sensor. Among low-end consumer cameras, 5 or 6 megapixels is now standard, with many 8-and even 10-megapixel models also available.
Note that it’s often difficult for the untrained eye to differentiate between snapshots taken at these high resolutions.

While surfing the Ubuntu site, I was noticed that LPI - Linux Professional Institute, which provides Linux Certification.
It is a standard course, with three levels for administration. "Why get the Certification?" tells more details about this exam. Following are some advantages to get it.

Create industry recognition
Provide an organizational path for students
Provide an organizational mechanism for training centers
Enhance marketing
Counter the "no-support" argument
Turn students into advocates
Provide other means of employment for Linux skilled individuals
Recruit new Linux users
Assist in the hiring process

The latest payment, in April, was made on time, but the exchange rate is incorrect.
Their support is good. The response is so quick that I received reply in the same day in which I asked the question.

The exchange rate should be about 1 USD to 1.12 Canadian dollar. Google paid the commission by the reversed rate, just 0.88.
Exchange rate reference
The Google AdSense Team's reply is shown below:

Hello,

We wish to inform you that the exchange rate used for your
April payment was incorrect. We're working hard to
investigate this error and will update you once we have
additional details on how we intend to resolve the issue.

If you normally receive communication for us in a
language other than English, we will provide additional
information in your preferred language next week.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your
patience.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

I trust they will resolve this problem in the next week.