April 2008 Archives

Chitika announced that CPM Graphic Banners have officially been integrated into your sites, and the results are excellent as we have seen an immediate increase in revenue across the board.

As you may remember from our blog post on this, we are incorporating these ads when we know that we will be able to make you more money with a CPM ad than our standard ad units. For example, if you are in Canada, and viewing a page with a Chitika ad on it, we will most likely show you a CPM Graphic banner because we are seeing more revenue from graphic ads for Canadian traffic.

Of course - if you are the type of person who does not like graphic ads on their site - you can opt-out of our CPM program by logging into Chitika.com and then clicking on the "Account" tab near the top of the page (on the following page, the opt-out option will be at the bottom). However, we do not recommend doing this, because it will result in less revenue for you.

As always, if you have any questions about this please contact your account manager or contact Chitika Support. We are extremely excited about this, and we look forward to increasing your revenue further as we continue to bring new sources of advertising into our network.

To be noticed that WordPress 2.5.1 release. It includes security fix. So I recommend you to upgrade as soon as possible.

* Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
* Better performance for those who have many categories
* Media Uploader fixes
* An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
* Widget Administration fixes
* Various usability improvements
* Layout fixes for IE

2.5.1 has over 70 fixes. Don't waste your time and put your Blog under security shadow. Download it now and upgrade it.

Testfreaks is a site aggregating all information about your favorite products. User reviews, professional reviews, prices, blog posts, forum threads, news, rumors, manufacturers descriptions and specifications, manuals, videos and more.

For example, I want to buy a mono laser printer, Lexmark E120.
I do the search on the Testfreaks, and got the product page which under the Printers category.

Lexmark E120 is better than my current printer Lexmark E210.

It shows me 8 expert reviews, 16 user reviews, price from UK$59 - UK$62. Including Manufacturer's Specs with photos.

I have two news, one good, one bad.
The bad news is Dreamhost has no PEAR default.
The good news is we can install it by ourselves.

Let us go through the steps of install PEAR on Dreamhost.
1) SSH to Dreamhost.

2) Enter the command

pear config-create $HOME .pearrc

3) Enter the install command

pear install -o PEAR

Now you can enter pear help to see the information of PEAR you just installed.

The PEAR environment is installed.

I saw the official site said, new Ubuntu will release in 6 days. I am already waiting for months.

Can we upgrade it now?
DaNmarner said it is time to upgrade now.

Back up all your important files.
Make sure you have at least 1GB space on the Ubuntu partition.
Install update-manager in a terminal if you don't have it:

sudo aptitude install update-manager

Stay in the terminal:

update-manager -c -d

There's no need to use sudo here.
Update Manager will tell you that Ubuntu 8.04 is available now!
Don't hesitate to click the button "update"!
Next, you will see a release candidate for "Hardy Heron", feel free to neglect it (or read it, if you can wait), click the button "Upgrade".
There's not much left to do but wait in the next couple of hours. Except that you need to click "Yes" when the manager ask you about changing source.list.
When it almost comes to the end, a window asking if you want to delete the old packages, let's call it "Remove".
Well, you need to restart your machine before start exploring Hardy Heron.

Firefox pop up the upgrade notice.

Click "Restart Firefox Now" button to start upgrade.

It is very quick to upgrade Firefox.

It is a Security Update. I recommend every Firefox user to upgrade.
Crash in JavaScript garbage collector is fixed.

Mozilla release this version for just one security issue. That means it is very important.

I use phpMyAdmin when I need to access MySQL database directly.
The phpMyAdmin application requires not only the MySQL server, but also PHP and a Web server to be installed. This application is commonly found in a virtual hsoting envirnment through an Internet Service Provider, as it allows the user complete access to only their own database.

1and1 and Dreamhost both have phpMyAdmin.

The main features of phpMyAdmin:
* browse and drop databases, tables, views, fields and indexes
* create, copy, drop, rename and alter databases, tables, fields and indexes
* maintenance server, databases and tables, with proposals on server configuration
* execute, edit and bookmark any SQL-statement, even batch-queries
* load text files into tables
* create1 and read dumps of tables
* export1 data to various formats: CSV, XML, PDF, ISO/IEC 26300 - OpenDocument Text and Spreadsheet, Word, Excel and LATEX formats
* administer multiple servers
* manage MySQL users and privileges
* check referential integrity in MyISAM tables
* using Query-by-example (QBE), create complex queries automatically connecting required tables
* create PDF graphics of your Database layout
* search globally in a database or a subset of it
* transform stored data into any format using a set of predefined functions, like displaying BLOB-data as image or download-link
* support InnoDB tables and foreign keys
* support mysqli, the improved MySQL extension
* communicate in 54 different languages

To create a good database, I have to know the relationship between tables.
It is clear, the database I talking about is relationship database.

There are three types of table relationships.

• One-to-one relationships


• One-to-many relationships


• Many-to-many relationships

One-to-one relationships
In a one-to-one relationship, a key will appear only once in a related table. It is the most simply relation.

One-to-many relationships
In a one-to-many relationship, keys from one table will appear multiple times in a related table.
The exapmle is a connection between department and employees. One department has many employees. One employee can only be in one department.
It is a very common type of relationship.

Most of the PC users use Windows from Microsoft. Based on the website log analytics report, over 85% readers of my Blog use Windows. The rest are Macintosh, Linux, BSD, etc.

I'm also use Windows in the office and home.
Some times your Windows has some problems and you have to fix it by your self. You may use some tools to help you and you may need more knowledge of the problem.
The very important part of Windows is Windows Registry.

The site I mention above has a section of Windows Registry. It has many articles about it.

From basic information to the advanced skills of Windows Registry.

Microsoft Windows use ini file when it start Windows 3.1. It changes to Windows Registry from Windows 95. It has more power to manager the information, configuration of application and Windows itself.

The official description is:

A central hierarchical database used in Microsoft Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 used to store information that is necessary to configure the system for one or more users, applications and hardware devices.

The Registry contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer and the types of documents that each can create, property sheet settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists on the system, and the ports that are being used.

The Registry replaces most of the text-based .ini files that are used in Windows 3.x and MS-DOS configuration files, such as the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. Although the Registry is common to several Windows operating systems, there are some differences among them.

Look, almost same as what I said.
To manually change Windows Registry, you need to enter the command: regedit.
Please be very carefully when you doing any changes you make. I suggest you should doing some backup before it.

Sponsored Post: through ReviewMe.

I choose MySQL as my program's database.
The main features of MySQL are:

• Speed


• Portability


• Ability to interface with any programming languare


• Price

MySQL is a multithreaded server, meaning that each time a connection is made, a new server process is started.

If you have to switch operating systems or languages mid-stream, use the mysqldump program to get your data out, and mysqlimport to get your data back into the system.

The ability for MySQL to interface with virtually every programming language - PHP, Perl, C/C++, Java, Python, and Tcl.

The selling point of MySQL is that it's free, in most cases.

This blog has some error last week. Some pages were not build correctly.
I diagnosed it and found the template was broken. A bunch of codes were missing.

I want to find the backup of MySQL database.

Go to Dreamhost Web Panel > Goodies > Manage MySQL

Next to the database name, there are four links. One of them is Restore DB.

Click Restore DB, and go the following page.

I have a phpBB board with some modification.
To upgrade it from 3.0.0 to 3.0.1 is not that difficult.
Previously, I have to record all modification I made on it and backup everything and upgrade it through a patched package or changes package. After upgrade I have to do all modification again, because they are all gone during upgrade processing.

Now Automatic update package is released with phpBB 3.0.1.
It is a good news for me.

This update method is the preferred method for updating. This package allows detecting changed files automatically and merges changes if needed.

The automatic update package is holding - contrary to the others - only the update informations for updating the last released version to the latest available version. These package is meant for use with the automatic update tool.

To perform the update, either follow the instructions from the Administration Control Panel->System Tab - this should point out that you are running an outdated version and will guide you through the update - or follow the instructions listed below.

* Go to the downloads page and download the latest update package listed there, matching your current version.
* Upload the archives contents to your phpBB installation - only the install folder is required. Upload the whole install folder, retaining the file structure.
* After the install folder is present, phpBB3 will go offline automatically.
* Point your browser to the install directory, for example http://www.example.com/phpBB3/install/
* Choose the "Update" Tab and follow the instructions

During update, it will compare the difference between current files and new files. Then it ask the FTP information and do all the changes for you.

It is easy and fast.

phpBB 3.0.1 released yesterday.

It is normal to download it and upgrade phpBB 3.0.0 of my Support Board.

This is a bug fix release. It fixed lots of bugs and change some security issue.

phpBB 3 Download

When I add a new domain on the control panel of Dreamhost, Google's logo catch my eyeball.

Now users can Set up calendar.domain.com, docs.domain.com, sites.domain.com, and start.domain.com, free with Google.

And use Gmail as email provider.

And the last is Google Page Creator for hosting. All free.

If you want better email service, not he simple web mail interface, I suggested you use Gmail. It is part of Google Apps services. Google Page Creator is good for new site owner without HTML knowledge. It is easy to use and similar to word processor.

A lot of pre-installed Windows XP on the new computers are English version.
Some of my friends know little English. They prefer Chinese.

So the question is how to convert the task bar and menu list of XP from English to Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese.
The answer is Microsoft Multilingual User Interface (MUI).

MUI is an add-on to the English version of Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 family of operating systems, and will not install on localized versions of Windows XP/2000 or on Windows XP Home Edition. Every additional language installed will require approximately 115 MB extra disk space for Windows XP, 45MB for Windows 2000; East Asian language support requires an additional 250 MB.

Microsoft Office also has its own Multilingual User Interface. (Office MUI)

Office and Windows MUI Packs: Links to Resources

Ubuntu 8.04 will release in 22 days.
I have a Ubuntu 7.10 installed on my desktop. Before I can upgrade to the new version. Let's go through the new features from 8.04.

Xorg 7.3

The latest Xorg, Xorg 7.3, is available in Hardy, with an emphasis on better autoconfiguration with a minimal configuration file. This Beta brings a new Screen Resolution utility that allows users to dynamically configure the resolution, refresh rate, and rotation of a second monitor. This will be particularly handy for laptop users that connect to a projector or external monitor.

Linux kernel 2.6.24

This Beta includes the 2.6.24-12.13 kernel based on 2.6.24.3. This brings in significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel, including:

* dynticks support for amd64, bringing the same power savings already available on 32-bit systems to 64-bit laptops and desktops
* the "Completely Fair Scheduler", a new process scheduler introduced in Linux 2.6.23 that provides improved interactive performance.

GNOME 2.22

Hardy Heron Beta brings you the latest and greatest GNOME 2.22 with lots of new features and improvements, such as a new Nautilus that uses GVFS as its backend. GVFS makes it possible to fix shortcomings of Nautilus such as the inability to restore files from trash, pause and undo file operations, and will make it possible to escalate user privileges for certain operations using PolicyKit for authentication. It also brings a significant performance boost to many operations.