Nevyan's Tips and Tricks

Windows installation of Php, Mysql & Apache

2009-06-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

This article will show how with only a few easy steps you can install the Apache web server, the Php language, and the Mysql databases all under Windows OS. This way you'll be able to develop your own websites.
Let's begin!

First download and install the following packages in the this way:
1. Apache Win32 Binary http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
2. PHP installer http://www.php.net/downloads.php
3. mysql community server http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html
(optionally: mysql php_mysqli.dll driver from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php-mysqlnd/)

APACHE
Check up: After the initial installation in a browser window address bar window type: http://localhost
If working properly the Apache server will show you this message: It works!

PHP
1. Open the file httpd.conf found in directory: C:\Program files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\ and add after the last LoadModule section:
LoadModule php5_module "C:\Program Files\PHP\php5apache2_2.dll" where php4apache2_2.dll is the file telling Apache to load dynamically the PHP language.
Note: if your file has different name please use it!

2. Find the AddType line and add the following under:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
This tell the webserver to associate all .php files to the interpreter. Otherwise when you run a .php file in your browser you'll see i as normal text file followed by the usual Save as dialogue.

Check: Create a new file named index.php and type in the following: <? phpinfo(); ?> . Place it in C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs. Open the browser again and load the index.php file. If it loads up properly then your Php is being installed correctly!

MYSQL
1. Rename the file php-dist.ini to php.ini and copy it from directory it's installation directory i.e. Program files\PHP in c:\windows. Then copy the files php_mysql.dll and libmysql.dll in directory c:\windows\system32.

2. Open c:\windows\php.ini and add after the section Dynamic extensions the following 2:
extension=libmysql.dll
extension=php_mysql.dll

Check: If everything is ready create index.php file having content <? phpinfo(); ?> in: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs
Point your browser to: http://localhost and you'll have to see in the information the Mysql section.

When having problems:
If Apache fails to run open Start->Run->eventvwr.msc and check under the Application tab the type of error coming from Apache Service. Most common error is:

Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80

Solution: open httpd.conf and change the listening port used by Apache to 3128 for example.

Other often harder to see error is being produced when you use the short <? when typing your code - this is forbidden in some of php versions. If you want to use this functionality then change the option:
short_open_tag = On
in php.ini

Cheers, and if you have any questions just ask!

Increase indexing by clearing supplementals

2009-04-07T04:07:00.000-07:00

Google maintains two indexes: primary and supplemental. Everything that looks spammy(i.e. same content) or not considered worthy(i.e. doesn't have enough backlinks) goes to the supplemental.

A limit factor shows the percentage of indexed and available via search to its supplemental pages a particular website might have.

In summary: the more pages you maintain in Google's primary index the better!

For example if you run a PR5 website with 500 articles then you may be allowed to show no more than 800 of site's pages in Google's primary results(ie. without having to use &filter=0 in the end of the query).
But what happens when you want to place a new internal link sitewide but forgot to add rel="nofollow" to it ? like: href="read_later&article_id=xxx" where xxx changes but points to same content. This is considered as useless and spammy by Google.

Few days later you'll notice such picture: 300 indexed pages in the primary index and the rest 500+ out in the supplemental index. Followed by a traffic decrease - because now the supplemental pages not even shown in user's queries.

What happened?
By placing a link to each and every of your pages you've reduced the particular page's power. This way only few pages supported by lots of incoming links manage to get through the main index.

What can you do?
You need to clean up the mistaken link and page.
Procedure:
1. Add rel = "nofollow" to the link.
2. disable the page pointed by the link from indexing by using robots.txt or meta noindex, nofollow
3. find the spammed pages and remove them one by one via Google webmasters tools(remove urls)

How to find those supplemental links more effectively?
Sometimes when you try to find links via: site:http://yourwebsite.com you wont see their full list.
What to do?

use the parameter "-" in your query:
First do a site search site and then consecutively remove the known and valid URLs from the results.
"site:http://yourwebsite.com -article"
will remove all urls like article-5.html, article-100.html etc... This way you'll see the spammy pages more quickly.
when you know the spammy page name just do
site: http://yourwebsite.com problematic_parameter

ie.:"site:http://yourwebsite.com mode" this will show all of the indexed modes of your website like: mode=new_article, mode=read_later, mode=show_comment etc... Pick the wrong ones and do a removal request upon them.

Cheers!

Reducing bounce rate for fun and profit

2009-02-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

What is Bounce rate and why it's so important?

The bounce rate factor shows the percentage of visitors watching pages on your website for less than 5 seconds. It is also a metric for those who visit only one page without continuing further.

Example: if you have 2000 visitors with 100% bounce rate it means that all those 2000 leave right upon entering your site.
In other words bounce rate reveals % of visitors who've "escaped" or bounced away. It's also important to know that when this percentage is high enough the traffic inflow becomes pointless. In such situation website resembles a bottomless glass - with visitors just going in and out without further exploring.

A good one is the shops analogy where in order to achieve a sell you want your visitors to look at the next blouse, jeans etc... So it's essential if they don't "bounce" to the next store or to keep this rate to the minimum.

Now go ahead and take a look at bounce rate in your analytics software. And if you notice values higher than 70% you'd better lower them.

Here are some practical tips you can do to decrease a website bounce rate levels:

1. Make the outgoing links open in new Window/Tab
When clicking on external links visitors usually forget about the main page. Once finished visiting they click on the X button and loose connection to the referring page. But when links open in new tab the visitor will just go back to the main page.

2. Place only relevant most read & commented articles right after the post
If you only put some random articles behind your post a visitor interested in fishing will quite unlikely be interested in IP filtering etc... and will bounce.
On the other side when you offer relevant information behind the post visitors will continue to explore further. Also true if you put "More articles from article's subject" just behind the article.

3. Put "go back" or "return to section" link at the end of pages
When visitor reads an article he/she is already fed with information and wants to close it by thinking that this is all what you can offer.
By placing "return to section" link at the page bottom you give an option of what can be done next.

4. Place HOME button combined with relevant image at the upper left corner of the website.
Typical visitor wants to feel safe, always knowing how to get back to the first page or category start. This way besides the increased navigation usability you are revealing him/her the route of your website.

5. Divide long content by pages.
It's true that almost no one wants to read long screens of text, so shorter passages are great way if you want to hold someone's focus. Practice, also beneficial for increasing the page stay time.

6. Make the links easy to distinguish
- underlined and styled with the default blue color. There is no need to make users guess which are links.

7. Limit the ad space to minimum.
This way you create feeling of website made not only for advertisement thus minimizing the distraction for the interested individuals who will continue to read.

Resources: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/08/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate.html

How to share Internet connection in Windows XP

2009-01-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

Here is how to share your Internet connection in a way that other computers to be able to use it. The popular way of doing this is by using a hardware router or a combination of a proxy server and a hub. In the article I'll show how to easily share your connection with the Windows XP integrated Internet Connection Sharing.

The alternatives:
Hardware router
Pros: - once turned on the device provides Internet connection.
Cons: - set up, price.

Hub
Pros: - price, allows proper connectivity and data transfer between several computers.
Cons: - doesn't support network address translation(NAT).
+
Proxy server
Pros: - emulates hardware router functionality and gives IP address and port to the clients to provide Internet connectivity.
Cons:
- every client needs to use the Proxy server address
- network connection protocols are not being fully supported

What you'll need:
- one additional network(LAN) card, which will act as an outgoing Internet device
- (optionally) hub, if you are willing to share you Internet with more than one computer

Let's begin
Server setup
First off you'll have to know whether you've been using:
Dial up type of connection (PPPoE) providing a username and password or you are directly connected to your provider(ADSL...) without having to enter username and password every time prior using the Internet.

Open up Start->Settings->Network Connections to see your network cards(LAN).

Important!
If you are using ADSL find the incoming Internet connection card(i.e through which the Internet comes in) and right click -> Properties(fig. 1)
If you are using LAN + Dial up find your Dial up connection(and not the LAN card) and right click -> Properties(fig. 2)

Fig.1 ADSL

Fig 2. LAN + Dial up

On the next screen check the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.

Then you'll be prompted to allow the ICS to change your second(inner) LAN card settings.
From now on it'll have IP 192.168.0.1 and will serve dynamic IP addresses via DCHP to the connected computers(clients).

Other computers setup(clients)
The only thing left to do is to go to Start->Settings->Network Connections, right click on the network card Properties -> Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) - then again on Properties.

...and check both as shown automatically

Don't forget!
Protect the shared connection
When all of your computers already have Internet it is important to turn on the integrated Windows firewall:
from Start->Run->Firewall.cpl
and then check both: On(recommended) and Don't allow exceptions

Now you are ready. Happy surfing!!!

Remarks:
If you are using home LAN having IP addresses different than 192.168.0.х you'll have to change your DHCP server settings from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230148

Easy solve the AJAX c00ce514 error

2008-12-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

If your AJAX code runs smoothly on Mozilla Firefox but experiences problems when running on Internet Explorer and gives out an error:

"Could not complete the operation due to error c00ce514"

here is what to do : just set the proper character set encoding in your requested file and try again:)

PHP Example:

header("Content-type: text/html; charset=windows-1251");

The error means that Microsoft XML Parser is having problems when parsing the AJAX response string.

Cheers!

How I easily increased my website visitors by 30%

2008-12-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

From the articles we read we suppose that users are equipped with latest browsers, and are using more and more Firefox, Opera and Chrome. Let's see whether this is true.

Problem description:
I decided to test my website layout in different browsers so I've loaded it up in browsershots.org.

Result: Everywhere except on Internet Explorer 5.5 & 6 the site rendered correctly. On the mentioned versions a JavaScript error alert popped up followed by blank page. It appeared that Internet Explore 5.5 & 6 both fail to render a page when its DOM structure is changed by Javascript/AJAX methods residing in a element under the body tag. In that case Internet Explorer gives error: 'The Page cannot be Displayed' or 'Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://... Operation aborted'

Here is the official statement on this issue from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927917

Statistics:
When I looked at Google Analytics I've understood that around 70% from all users preferred Internet Explorer 35% of which using IE6. Because I wanted to help my IE6 users I ran the following solutions then tested again with browsershots.org:

Solutions:(chose what suits you)

- move the script at the end of your body tag or place it up in the head tag.

- load up your JavaScript code from a function called by window.onload

- do not load JavaScript code if your Internet Explorer version is < 7

- add the attribute defer="defer" after your script

Results: The stats showed over 30% increase in my website traffic. And that was a real success!

....
P.S. Sometimes same JavaScript code runs flawlessly under Firefox, but produces errors within Internet Explorer. So here are some common errors and ways of fixing them:

Expected identifier, string or number
array: var img= {width:100, height:100,}
Firefox runs without errors, IE - gives error.

Solution(remove the comma at the end, otherwise it actually instructs the interpreter to expect next element.):
var img= {width:100, height:100}

object Expected when working with previousSibling and nextSibling
var prev=el.nextSibling;
again Firefox goest without errors, in difference with Internet Explorer

Solution: always check whether the element exists or not:
if (el.nextSibling) {
//use the element
var prev=el.nextSibling;
}
...
Initial element check:
var el = document.getElementById("el_id");
if(el) {
//use the element
}

You can also try the free online JavaScript checker JSLint.

PHP & Oracle Cyrillic howto

2008-12-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here is how to display and work with actual Cyrillic characters instead of unrecognised '???'
The following examples are suitable for fetching data between php and oracle.

How?
Just set the proper internal Cyrillic charset in the oci_connect function
example:

oci_connect('username', 'password', '',"BG8MSWIN");

List of Oracle's internal charsets you can see here:
http://www.daylight.com/meetings/emug04/Delany/charsets.html

Optional:
Once you've got Cyrillic symbols and not only ???(question marks) you can detect the encoding of a given string using:

echo mb_detect_encoding($string);

and then convert it via:

$string = iconv('utf-8','windows-1251', $string);

That's it! I hope the information helps you!

Category feed subscription script for Blogger

2008-11-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

When I first started writing my blog I managed to put a feed. Not long after I was happy that visitors actually subscribed to my posts. Later the feed statistics showed old subscribers withdrawal, substituted by new fresh subscriptions. This way the overall subscribers count stayed the same and that was a problem.

Since then this has been a mystery to me until I thought more on the subject: The posts were ranging from computers to garden, aquarium fish, fitness etc... - all unrelated - so that might be the reason behind user's opt out - the next post was not always of their interest.

That's why I've implemented this handy script that you can place at the bottom of your posts to encourage user's subscription to a specific feed category. It is based on your post labels - so if you've already labeled your posts then feed subscription links will show automatically.

Demo: You can see it working at the bottom of this post.

Installation:
1. Open your Blogger HTML template
2. Check Expand Widget Templates
3. Replace 'your_blog_address.com' with your actual blog address and paste the following code below your <data:post.title> tag:

<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<div style='background:orange; padding:1em;'>
Free subscription to new articles from category:
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='"http://your_blog_address.com/feeds/posts/default/-/" + data:label.name + "?alt=rss"' rel='nofollow' style='color:brown;'> <data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
</b:loop>
</div>
</b:if>

How to track feed conversion rate
If you wish to track your feed subscriptions just use Google Analytics to create a Goal.
Fill in:

Goal URL: http://your_website.com/feed
Goal name: Feed label subscription

Then edit the subscription link and add the following tracking JavaScript code

onclick='javascript:urchinTracker("/feed")'

example:

<a onclick='javascript:urchinTracker("/feed")' href="http://yourwebsite.com/feeds/posts/default/-/your_label?alt=rss">Feed label subscription</a>

That's it. When a visitor subscribes you will see it from the Goals report as accomplished goal. Even more interesting is the Reverse Goal Path report that will show you the actual navigation and pages from which visitor's subscribed.

Cheers!

Take a rest

2008-11-20T00:17:00.000-08:00

Now finished with my job I am free to take an active rest for a week. Here is my plan:

It's the season of late fall and man must eat lots of natural supplements to boost his health so I'll try out with these:

fish oil - EFA(essential fatty acids) for the brain and eyes
lemon juice - to restore the electrolyte balance
olive oil - rich in EFA: omega 3:omega:6 ratio is 1:1
yoghurt - for the beneficial stomach bacteria
spirulina, pumpkin, carrot juice or beta carotene capsules for the eyes
2 litters of water daily

Most importantly I'll try to limit my time in front the computer downto 2 checks of the email - morning and evening. Instead I'll strengthen my social contacts.

Cheers and relax!

(images courtesy of Flickr!)

Growing lemons at home

2008-11-20T00:11:00.000-08:00

After several attempts I've succeeded to grow my own lemon tree from a seed. Here is how I've made it:

1. Take the seeds out of a big & ripe lemon.

2. Plant them 1-2cm. deep.

3. Wait 2-3weeks and new cuttings will begin to appear.

4. Give them plenty of water, and don't let the top soil to dry.

5. The outside temperature must be around 22C.

Enjoy your new lemon tree!
Cheers!

Here is my smallest one.

And my 3-years old lemon tree.

If you want to be successful and grow your own lemons there are some simple rules that you could follow:

Lemon tree loves shades and dislikes dry soils. Room light is usually sufficient for its growth, but for faster results during the winter season you can think of adding artificial lighting. Providing temperature between 15 and 20C will make your plant grow vigorously during the whole year.

Plant leaves are important to the tree and last between 2 to 3 years. If you're experiencing a leaf-fall please check for over watering, insufficient light or freezing. The lemon tree blooms 2-3 times per year, and its fruits ripe for about 10-12 months.

Don't over water the plant and provide water only when the soil dries. If you notice faded leaves then you must increase the watering. Between March and November it's good to add the following supplements to the soil:

Every 10 days: dissolved in 1ltr. of water 1tbsp. of ammonium nitrate + 1/2tbsp. of potassium.
Every 2 weeks give a combination of already fermented compost(1part) and 10parts of water. Once per month give the plant the combination from above supplements.

Good Luck!

Apple style JavaScript folding menu

2008-11-13T04:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a my full working version of the sliding vertical menu that you may use on your website. It resembles the functionality of the beautiful right menu from Apple's website. Demo version of the script you can see on the right side of this website: http://newiaqua.royalsbg.com

The code is using some pre-made unobtrusive javascript functions like jscss() thanks to http://www.onlinetools.org/. The menu also degrades successfully on non-supporting JavaScript browsers.

JavaScript Code:

function jscss(a,o,c1,c2)
{
switch (a){
case 'swap':
o.className=!jscss('check',o,c1)?o.className.replace(c2,c1): o.className.replace(c1,c2);
break;
case 'add':
if(!jscss('check',o,c1)){o.className+=o.className?' '+c1:c1;}
break;
case 'remove':
var rep=o.className.match(' '+c1)?' '+c1:c1; o.className=o.className.replace(rep,'');
break;
case 'check':
return new RegExp('\\b'+c1+'\\b').test(o.className)
break;
}
}

function close(cl) {
var re = new RegExp("(^| )" + cl + "( |$)");
var el = document.all ? document.all : document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].getElementsByTagName("*"); // fix for IE5.x
for (var i = 0; i < el.length; i++) {

if (el[i].className && el[i].className.match(re)) {
if (el[i].nextSibling) {
var tohide=el[i].nextSibling; while(tohide.nodeType!=1) { tohide=tohide.nextSibling; }
el[i].tohide=tohide; //store the inner div
//close the opened content
jscss('swap',el[i].tohide,'open','close');
}
//remove state open from title
jscss('remove',el[i],'open');
}
}
}

function init(cl) {
var re = new RegExp("(^| )" + cl + "( |$)");
var el = document.all ? document.all : document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].getElementsByTagName("*"); // fix for IE5.x
for (var i = 0; i < el.length; i++) {
if (el[i].className && el[i].className.match(re)) {

//find the next div
var tohide=el[i].nextSibling; while(tohide.nodeType!=1) { tohide=tohide.nextSibling; }
el[i].tohide=tohide; //store the inner div

//hide all closed content divs
if(!jscss('check',el[i],'open')) { jscss('add',el[i].tohide,'close'); }

el[i].onmouseover = function () {

//find the content div
var tohide=this.nextSibling; while(tohide.nodeType!=1) { tohide=tohide.nextSibling; }
this.tohide=tohide; //store the inner div

if (jscss('check',this.tohide,'close')) {

close("open");

//set title to open
jscss('add',this,'open');

//open the content
jscss('swap',this.tohide,'close', 'open');

}
}
}
}
}

function myUnobtrusiveBehavior {
if (document.getElementsByTagName) {init("menu_title");}
}

if (document.getElementById) {
window.onload = myUnobtrusiveBehavior;
}

CSS Code:

.menu_title{ padding:1em; font-size:1.3em; border-bottom:1px #999999 solid;
line-height:1.3846em; text-align:center; cursor:pointer; cursor:hand; background:#cccccc; color:#333333;}
.menu_title.open{ background:#FFE2D7; background:#9ba3b5; color:white; }
.menu_content{height:300px; font-size:1.3em; line-height:1.3846em; padding:1.8em; border-left:1px #D6D6E5 solid;border-right:1px #D6D6E5 solid; border-bottom:1px #D6D6E5 solid;}
.open{display:block;}
.close{display:none;}

Installation:

1. Include the above 2 files into a HTML file.
2. Use the script via this simple structured HTML file:

<div id="menu_title open">Menu title 1</div>
<div id="menu_content open">Menu content 1</div>

<div id="menu_title">Menu title 2</div>
<div id="menu_content">Menu content 2</div>

<div id="menu_title">Menu title 3</div>
<div id="menu_content">Menu content 3</div>

3. If you want a menu item to be opened by default just set add "open" to its class name.

Enjoy!

How do you test your PC?

2008-11-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

It's always good to know that your computer is stable. Here I'll show you a few reliable programs for CPU and memory testing.

How to test the CPU
I've been using IntelBurnTest which includes Intel libraries used exclusively for CPU testing prior its market release. IntelBurnTest software is compatible with AMD processors and tests faster than Prime95. Just make sure that your testing sytem is equipped with a proper cooling.

Hints:
Prior testing please download and run Realtemp - this way you can watch in realtime the temperature - and make sure it's below 70°C.
Prime counts determines the memory size used in the test.
Residual values must be equal or less e^-09 i.e. e^-10, e^-11, and so on.
Residual Normalised should be between e^-02 and e^-04. (from 0.01 to 0.0001)
Numbers outside these ranges indicate that you experience memory or CPU errors.
Try at least 10 or 20 passes.
When having more than 2 GB RAM running on the 32-bit version of Windows please test on a 64 bit version in order to allocate the whole memory.
Linux users could use: http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/hpl/

Here are the 32 bit
http://www.ultimate-filez.com/files/IntelBurnTest.zip

and the 64 bit version
http://www.ultimate-filez.com/files/IntelBurnTest-x64.zip

you may also try:
http://systester.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
and CPU Stability Test

Memory testing
I've been using: memtest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

Effective back training exercises

2008-10-09T03:41:00.001-07:00

Back muscles are an important body foundation. They are heavily being used in lots of base movements and greatly influence our body posture. It’s a known fact that gorillas chose their leader because of his big and strong silver back. So if you really want to have a harmonic body that screams from a distance who’s the boss, please apply the following advices to your training.

In the article will be emphasized on the exercises for upper and middle back areas which can be developed quickly via chin ups and pull ups. And even though these movements are popular they still remain hard to follow by lots of people.
So here are the 5 highly effective time proven exercises along with their proper form. Doing them can make you sore for day or two, but don’t worry - that is just a sign that you keep progressing.

1. Narrow grip chin up with palms facing your body. Initially go for 3 sets with 6-8 reps and aim for a 6 sets with 10-15 repetitions. Remember that when conditioning for the 300 movie the actors had to make 50 chin ups and if you’ve forgotten how to do the exercise here is a video showing its proper form. The video shows slightly wider grip that is also a great exercise:

2. Bar rowing

Load a bar with light weight up to 60lbs. Place your feet at shoulders width. Bend at 45degrees and grab the bar with palms facing you at a wider than shoulder width. Move your abdominals forward keeping your lower back straight. Brace the abdominals and move it slightly forward. From this position begin pulling the row with your elbows to your body. The aim is to reach your lower chests with the bar. Do 3 sets with 15 reps.

3. Dumbbell bend rows

Squat at 45 degrees. Grab the dumbbell with your right hand, and the right one keep next to your chest. Start flexing your arm from the elbows up and pull the dumbbell to your body.
The trick: Pull with your shoulder blade contracting it toward the other blade, like if your shoulder blades are coming one to another.

4. Wall slide: 3sets with 15 reps

5. Forward and up swing

Proper form: squat and bend forward so that your upper body is parallel to the floor. Keep your left arm close to your body and with your right arm grab a lightweight dumbbell (10lbs). With thumbs pointing upwards start lifting up and down the weight. When done change the arms. Do 3 sets with 11 repetitions. Note: Lift up clean without relying on the initial momentum swing force.

One of the most important things to notice when exercising is to feel how you muscles are getting pumped and stay in such condition for a few moments. During all the exercises remember to keep your lower back straight. I wish you great training and excellent results!

Before you go to the gym

2008-09-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

Being eager to hit the gym for the first time and the last think that you might expect is not to go straight, but to wait until you are prepared???
Well, that's true - it's essential to be in good shape prior entering the gym, otherwise your dream training might turn into a slightly bad experience. But, don't worry I'll reveal you how to avoid such situations with a few exercises that will prepare you for the bigger challenge.

The following program is designed to show and improve your current fitness level. It consists of indoor and outdoor training without using any weights. Here are the exercises:

1. Chin up

Grab the bar firmly at the shoulder width, cross your legs and start rising your body up. Try to keep your elbows perpendicular to the floor.

2. Dips

Go to the parallel bar and rise until your hands are straight. Then flex your elbows and go down until your elbow and upper arm are perpendicular. Raise again to the initial position.

3. Inverted parallel row

Use the parallel bar to place your feet on the two separate bars and let your body sink. Grab the handles and start flexing up. This exercise is a sort of inverted push up.

4. One leg Bulgarian squat
4.1 Start sitting and standing up on one leg from a chair. The other leg stays straight forward. Repeat until you can make the move without the chair.

4.2 Place your right leg foot parallel on a chair. From that position start squatting. Keep your posture straight during the exercise.

4.3 Take a smaller chair and start climbing up and lowering down while alternating your legs.

5. Hanging leg rise
Grab the bar with arms and hang. Then slowly rise your legs until your ankles reach you chest. Make a short pause and continue.

6. Vertical leg crunch

Lay on your back with hands close to your body. Start raising your legs to the chest until they are perpendicular to the floor. Next lower them slowly till they are 5inches from floor. Don't bend your lower back during the exercise!

7. The plank

Take a push up position, but with your elbows on the floor. Try to hold for a 120 seconds.

8. Push up

Start from a normal push up position with palms and toes on the ground, and keeping a straight line from your heels to shoulders, place your legs on a chair or swiss ball. From that position bend your elbows down until your chest reach the floor. Then quickly go up into a initial position.

The preparatory exercises are designed to be used with 3 sets by 8 repetitions or 3x12reps. Know that you are ready for the gym when they cause you no huge effort.

Cheers!

Simplify your income plans using the Adsense Calculator

2008-09-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

This quick post is not intended to show you how to optimize your clickthrough rates or some income parameters..., it's about how you can predict your Adsense earnings, have a broader overall picture and act more confident based on the result information.

Try the Calculator from here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/adsense-calculator/

The only three parameters you'll need to know are:

1. your website impressions

2. click through rate(how many clicks/100 do the ads on your website usually receive)

3. the average cost per click(how much you get paid for 1 click)

The result will be a nice a clean future income report that will save you lot of time otherwise wasted by counting everyday clicks.

Cheers!

Quickly shrink the belly fat

2008-09-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

The theory
There are two types of fat in our body: subcutaneous and visceral. The first one is located beneath the skin and can usually be seen. The Visceral fat on the other side resides deep within the torso, wrapping itself around the heart, liver and other major organs thus remains unseen. It’s referred as "hidden" or “deadly” belly fat. You can actually measure your waist line, be within limits (40inches for men and 35inches for women) and still have too much of visceral fat.
Here are some advices that will help you to limit and reduce those dangerous fats. Choose what method suits you best and do it!

The exercises
• vigorously exercise and stay active, even at a low level! (no exercise increases visceral fat by about 1%/month)
• do the most effective ab exercises: the plank and bicycle do 6-8 sets x 12reps., but not everyday, because abs need time to recover. Remember that 1% body fat loss shrinks 3% of visceral fat
• walk 20 minutes/day to shrink your waistline by an inch for a month

The diet
• consume monounsaturated fatty acids: from almonds, avocados; dark bitter chocolate, stirred flaxseed oil and almonds
• substitute coffee with green tea
• when you’ve finished eating take fish oil up to 2grams/day.
• eat more fiber – this will slow down the release of insulin hormone thus lowering the visceral fat storage.
• limit the sweeteners, use honey instead. Try to resist when you have sugar cravings!
• try limiting your refined carbohydrate intake, and eat fruits with high-glycemic index early in the morning
• prior meals drink a shake made from the juice of 1 ripe lemon, 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, 1/2tbsp. cinnamon and 1tbsp honey mixed with warm water.

Advanced hard drive partition and geometry recovery

2008-09-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

Here is the story: My brother’s got a full of information 160GB hard drive which after running several Scandisk tests didn’t show up at the BIOS system report at reboot. The hard drive was NFTS formatted so I thought that the recovery process should go easily.

I run my favorite recovery software R-Studio, FileScavenger etc… but they didn’t recognize the hard drive at all. It appeared that drive’s geometry (heads,sectors,cylinders) information was also incorrect. So no matter how many file recovery applications I was using the result stayed the same: unrecognized file system or misplaced file information.

I looked at the hard drive’s sticker and noticed the Cylinders Heads Sectors values which could be also found in its service manual. Then loaded up the free testdisk program and carefully entered those numbers in the Geomety section. But the 160GB hard drive now appeared as 37GB…what was happening? In order to allocate bigger hard drives sizes 2 types of addressing have been invented: logical and physical and the drive’s cover ones were the physical. The logical CHS are being chosen by the operating system.

Indeed testdisk need one more value: the sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4092). I opened the format dialogue in windows and noticed that the default value was 512. Next searched Google for my hard drive’s serial number and found the logical CHS values in postings from linux dmesg command and other diagnostic tools.

I loaded testdisk’s Geometry with those new numbers, then run Analyse to rescan the hard drive for partitions and they showed up, Write followed and after the reboot the hard drive finally showed in BIOS system report. Windows also recognized the drive but the information was still inaccessible.

So I run Filescavenger and restored the information to a blank hard drive. Then reformatted the old one and moved back the recovered information.
Cheers!

Developer's benefits from Google Chrome

2008-09-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well you may know that Google released a new browser called Chrome, but before start thinking that it's just one more in the row of modern browsers, let me tell you how can you benefit from.

Here is the story:

Many years I've been doing web design and redesign on a highly optimized 900Mhz AMD PC:) until recently when I upgraded to 3000Mhz Core 2 Duo but didn't noticed the actual performance increase when building applications.

So I downloaded Chrome... when I first tried it i didn't realized the difference, but on JavaScript applications(web2.0) I realy felt it - the rendering was times faster than Firefox's.

The result:

My work speeded up, I was able to get more done and the frustration levels of waiting went down. So the conclusion is: if you want more speed wen developing web applications try Chrome.

Cheers!

PHP file uploader

2008-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple working php uploader:

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="<?echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>">
<label for="file">File:</label>
<input id="file type="file" name="fileupl" size="50" maxlength="100000" />
<input name="submfile" type="submit" id="submfile" value="Upload >" />
<input type="hidden" name="step2" value="true" />
</form>

<?
ini_set("upload_max_filesize", "100M");//set the max. file upload size
$directory=""; //$directory is the default upload dir

$target_path = $directory."/";
if ($handle = opendir($target_path)) {
echo "Published files:\n";
while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
if ($file != "." && $file != "..") { $arr_files=1; echo "<br /><a href=\"/$target_path$file\">$file</a>"; }
}
closedir($handle);
}
if (empty($arr_files)) $arr_files="There are no uploaded files.";
else if($step2 == 'true')
{
ini_set("max_execution_time", "500"); //maximum upload execution time
if (!is_dir($target_path)) {mkdir($directory, 0700);}
$target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['fileupl']['name']);
if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['fileupl']['tmp_name'], $target_path)) {
echo "The file ".basename( $_FILES['fileupl']['name'])." has been uploaded successfuly.";
}
}
?>

AJAX & PHP star rating system script

2008-08-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

After reading lots of articles about star rating systems here is my improved Ajax & CSS version based on the PHP(http://slim.climaxdesigns.com/) and CSS(komodomedia.com) scripts. First you can try the Online working Demo

Installation:
To implement the script into your existing CMS you have to:

1. set the variable $article_id so that every article to have its own unique rating. ( i.e: $article_id=1; etc...)

2. add <div id="myspan"></div> to your HTML page on place where you want the star rating to appear.

3. create table ratings in your MySql database:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `ratings` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`total_votes` int(11) NOT NULL,
`total_value` int(11) NOT NULL,
`used_ips` longtext,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
)

4. Include the following star_rating.php script at the end of your webpage:

<script>
var http_request = false;
function makePOSTRequest(url, parameters) { http_request = false;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
if (http_request.overrideMimeType) { http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml'); }
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
try { http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) {
try { http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) {}
}
}
if (!http_request) { alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance'); return false; }
document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = "Loading...";
http_request.onreadystatechange = alertContents;
http_request.open('POST', url, true);
http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
http_request.setRequestHeader("Charset", "windows-1251");
http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
http_request.send(parameters);
}

function alertContents() {
if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
if (http_request.status == 200) {
result = http_request.responseText;
document.getElementById('myspan').innerHTML = result;
} else { alert('Please try again later.'); }
}
}

function rate(article_id, vote){ makePOSTRequest('star_rating.php', 'article_id=' +article_id+'&vote='+vote); }

if (document.getElementById) { window.onload = myUnobtrusiveBehavior; }

function myUnobtrusiveBehavior() {
var percentstyle="width:<?echo @number_format($current_rating/$count,2)*20 ?>px;";
var content ="<div class=\"rating\" id=\"rating\"> <ul class=\"star-rating\"> <li class=\"current-rating\" style=\""+percentstyle+"\" >Current rating</li> <li><a id=\"rate1\" class=\"one-star\">1</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate2\" class=\"two-stars\">2</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate3\" class=\"three-stars\">3</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate4\" class=\"four-stars\">4</a></li> <li><a id=\"rate5\" class=\"five-stars\">5</a></li></ul>";

/*
var myspan = document.createElement("div");
myspan.setAttribute("id", "myspan");
myspan.innerHTML = content;
document.body.appendChild(myspan);
*/

document.getElementById("myspan").innerHTML=content;

if (document.getElementById("rating")) {
var article_id=document.getElementById("item").value;
document.getElementById("rate1").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'1'); return false;}
document.getElementById("rate2").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'2'); return false;}
document.getElementById("rate3").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'3'); return false;}
document.getElementById("rate4").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'4'); return false;}
document.getElementById("rate5").onclick = function () {rate(article_id,'5'); return false;}
}

}

</script>

<style>
.star-rating,
.star-rating a:hover,
.star-rating a:active,
.star-rating a:focus,
.star-rating .current-rating{
background: url(star_rating.gif) left -1000px repeat-x;
}
.star-rating{
position:relative;
width:125px;
height:25px;
overflow:hidden;
list-style:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
background-position: left top;
}
.star-rating li{
display: inline;
}
.star-rating a,
.star-rating .current-rating{
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;
text-indent:-1000em;
height:25px;
line-height:25px;
outline:none;
overflow:hidden;
border: none;
}
.star-rating a:hover,
.star-rating a:active,
.star-rating a:focus{
background-position: left bottom;
}
.star-rating a.one-star{
width:20%;
z-index:6;
}
.star-rating a.two-stars{
width:40%;
z-index:5;
}
.star-rating a.three-stars{
width:60%;
z-index:4;
}
.star-rating a.four-stars{
width:80%;
z-index:3;
}
.star-rating a.five-stars{
width:100%;
z-index:2;
}
.star-rating .current-rating{
z-index:1;
background-position: left center;
}

/* for an inline rater */
.inline-rating{
display:-moz-inline-block;
display:-moz-inline-box;
display:inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}

/* smaller star */
.small-star{
width:50px;
height:10px;
}
.small-star,
.small-star a:hover,
.small-star a:active,
.small-star a:focus,
.small-star .current-rating{
background-image: url(star_small.gif);
line-height: 10px;
height: 10px;
}
</style>

<?
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = 'your_username';
$dbpass = 'your_password';
$dbname = 'your_databasename';
$tableName="ratings";
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql'); mysql_select_db($dbname);

$rating_posted=$_POST['vote'];//the actual user vote
$id=$_POST['article_id'];//passed article_id
if (empty($id)) {$id=$article_id;}

$query=mysql_query("SELECT total_votes, total_value, used_ips FROM $tableName WHERE id='$id' ")or die(" Error: ".mysql_error());

$numbers=mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
$checkIP=unserialize($numbers['used_ips']);
$count=$numbers['total_votes'];//how many votes total
$current_rating=$numbers['total_value'];//total number of rating added together and stored
$sum=$rating_posted+$current_rating;// add together the current vote value and the total vote value
$tense=($count==1) ? "vote" : "votes";//plural form votes/vote

$voted=mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tableName WHERE used_ips LIKE '%".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."%' AND id='$id' ")); //This variable searches through the previous ip addresses that have voted and returns true or false

//when already voted
if($voted){
echo "<ul class=\"star-rating\">
<li class=\"current-rating\" style=\"width:". @number_format($current_rating/$count,2)*20 ."%;\"></li>
</ul>
Rating: <strong>".@number_format($current_rating/$count,2)."</strong> ( $count $tense )
<br /><span style=\"color:red;\">You've already voted.</span><br />";
}

else{
//if not voted do the actual voting
if(isset($rating_posted)){
//open initial voting row if necessary
if (mysql_num_rows($query) == 0) { $sql = "INSERT INTO $tableName (id, total_votes, total_value, used_ips) VALUES ('$id', '0', '0', '')"; $result = mysql_query($sql) or die("err");}
//increment votes, check ips & add/update vote to table
if($sum==0){ $added=0;} else{ $added=$count+1;}
if(is_array($checkIP)){array_push($checkIP,$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);}else{ $checkIP=array($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);}
$insert=serialize($checkIP);
mysql_query("UPDATE $tableName SET total_votes='$added', total_value='$sum',used_ips='$insert' WHERE id='$id'") or die("Error");
$response = "<div class=\"rating\">Rate: <strong>".@number_format($sum/$added,2)."</strong> <br /> <span style=\"color:red;\">Thank you for your vote cast!</span></div>";
echo iconv("windows-1251", "UTF-8", $response);
exit;
}

//if not voting just show the current rating
else { echo "<div id=\"myspan\"></div>";}

}//end if

?>

Note: system works only when JavaScript is enabled.

Move content and avoid the duplicate penalty

2008-08-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

Recently I've decided to move some articles from my personal website to my CMS. They've all been well placed and appeared at search engine positions from 1 to 10. Not long after the move I've noticed that identical(new+old) articles appeared fighting for position on Google's search.

The problem: Then I began to think that obviously my new CMS article pages were facing duplicate content issues(reason: the old content already had Google's trust with its earlier creation date and links pointing to). Obviously I've had to remove the old duplicates, but how?

Solution:
At first I logged at Google's Webmaster tools then from Tools->Remove URL I've typed my old URLs and waited -> Status denied. Apparently they've had too many links pointing to them.
Then I've created and uploaded a robots.txt file on my old website with all the URL's I wanted to disappear from the index and resubmitted the links again via Tools->Remove URL.

Result: Some of the pages were removed but most stayed. I've repeated the same procedure over a week and Voilla! the pages went out of the index!

Remark: If you want to further protect those old pages just create blank page with meta noindex, nofollow and place an appropriate link to the new location.

Cheers!

Solving local indexing problems

2008-08-04T00:33:00.000-07:00

This post will be short but useful.

The problem
Recently I've checked one of my websites having a solid unique content of 400+ pages. When I went to Google's Webmastertools Dashboard and clicked on the Top search queries I've got 2-to 9th position on most of my content, but still the traffic was not comparable to the competition's.

The surprise
I quickly clicked on one of the search keywords and to my surprise the web page was not listed on the suggested position, but few SERPS pages further.
What was the reason behind this? Then I started to run advanced search queries from Google with the Language attribute set. Again to my surprise the results were accurate, but only when the language attribute was set.

The analysis
Then I investigated my meta tags and those of my competition. The analysis showed that I've restricted the traffic flowing to my website by choosing explicit meta language and country definition. This way the ordinary users who've got their Windows installed with no regional settings set won't view the my content pages.

The result:
I've removed all the meta tags from my pages except:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="my_local_language">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=my_page_charset" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="my_local_language" />

Success!
A few minutes later the pages showed up in the general as well as local search!

I wish you could use this information to bring such deserved traffic to your website.

Herbal acne treatment

2008-07-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

Herbal vinegar
Gently wash your skin and while still wet pour on it apple vinegar mixed with horse-radish. Leave it so for 10 minutes, then rinse with water. Repeat the procedure 2 times daily: in the morning and night.
How to prepare the herbal vinegar:
Add finely grated horse radish to apple cider. Pour the mixture in a bottle so that the vinegar should top up the herb. Leave the consistence for 10 days in a moderate temperature. Both ingredients complement each other into a beneficial for the skin essence.
Additionally if you want to achieve more effective results prior the procedure use a cotton ball with diluted salicylic acid to clear up the old skin.

Tea tree oil
First you need to do a herbal water vapor on the affected area. How? Put dry lavender in a preheated saucepan filled with water. The lavender has antibacterial effect. Bow before the water surface and stay up to 10 minutes. If it gets harder to do this grab a sponge and massage over the affected area. This is needed to clean up the pores. Next gently apply the tea tree oil.

Alternatively before going to sleep you can apply the following herbal mask:
mix thoroughly
2 tsp. of yogurt
4 drops of tee tree oil
1 tsp. of freshly squashed lemon juice
in the morning rinse with water.

General advice:
Drink 1 litter of tea prepared from the nettle leaves - continuously through the whole day.

The honey massage

2008-07-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

Honey massage is type of soft tissue massage that has beneficial healing properties to the body. Besides water and carbohydrates, there are essential micro elements, minerals, enzymes and antibiotics. When eaten those beneficial nutrients are being partly destroyed by the hydrochloric stomach acid, but when applied to the skin they are fully absorbed.

Preparation
First make sure that you are not allergic to honey and try to get a liquid non-crystallized one from a local herbal shop.

Technique
Pour honey all over the area that will be massaged. Then try to “unglue” your hands from the area by palm clapping and rubbing motions. Continue until all the honey disappears. If you’ve been doing it right then white-gray skin pallets will form. This indicates that the years accumulated harmful toxins held under the skin are being removed effectively.
When you finish wash the skin with sponge and warm water. The healing effects can be felt immediately. Be warned that the skin will remain red for a short time right after the treatment and initially may hurt, but after a couple of sessions it will adapt. For effective cellulite removal you’ll need at least 15 such sessions.
Duration: 30 minutes to 90 minutes

Benefits:
- cleans moisturizes and nourishes the skin
- removes salts and toxins
- relaxes the nervous system
- improves blood circulation, metabolism
- increases the lymphatic system flow
- Anti-cellulite
- frees from intellectual and physical chronic exhaustion
- increases immunity and the ability of the organism to purify itself

Additionally
You can additionally pour a few drops of lemon, orange, tangerine, juniper or lavender oil. If you prefer to use a couple of oils first you’ll need to mix them and add the honey afterwards.

2 column blogger template - simple white

2008-07-22T01:19:00.001-07:00

Easy to install clean white 2 column template for Blogger.
Here are some of its features:

allows AdSense integration
has sitemap
optimized, not causing duplicate content
uses legible fonts
contrast color scheme

preview:

How to install it 5 steps(detailed):

Open Blogger Dashboard and go to Layout -> Edit Html
Backup your old template by pressing the Download Full Template link.
Download and save the new template from here. Then press the button Browse, load it in the 'Upload a template from a file on your hard drive' field and press Upload.
Next check Expand Widget Templates and change all "yourwebsite.com" items with your blog address.
Congratulations. Now you can see and use your new template!

If you have any further questions please ask.