Diary of a Network Geek

When I optimize a site, I do it with Google in mind.

Over the past two years, or so, Google has slowly introduced a new site-search protocol called Sitemaps. Basically, it’s a special XML-based index that lets Google more efficiently catalog your website, which theoretically increases your PageRank. Now, there’s a public specification for the Sitemap protocols, but, well, it’s kind of a complicated thing to make by hand. Luckily, they’ve got links to tools to make Sitemap files for you: Google Code – Sitemaps Third Party Programs.
And, of course, if you use WordPress like I do, there’s the Google Sitemaps Plugin. Some people say it’s a resource hog, but I like it!

I thought Google hated text ads?

Hmm, maybe there’s a reason that everyone thought Google has hated text ads for a while now. In fact, they seem to go so far as to devalue Page Rank of sites selling paid links.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s because they’re starting to offer their own text link ads, or, as they call them “pay per action” ads and they didn’t want the competition. Maybe. Honestly, though? I don’t care why.
The real question is, how can I make this work for me?

Wow, I wish I’d had these when I was on the road so much!

Sadly, that seems to be how life works. I never have the information I need, when I need it. Well, at least I can pass the information along and hope that it helps someone else who’s currently engaged in the road warrior “lifestyle”.

First, there’s RoadNews. This website has everything from reviews of laptops to advice on international travel. They’ve been around for a while now and have quite a bit of information on high-tech travel. This should be your first stop when looking for answers to questions about hitting the road with your mobile office.

Next is an article on FastCompany about road warrior packing under the new TSA rules. Not bad general advice, though not specific to those of us who go high-tech with our travel.

The next article, from StreetTech.com, however, is ALL about high-tech. In fact, it’s a little bit “do it yourself” and might not be for everyone. Still, for geeks like me, there are some usefull tips and great ideas about making your own adapters. Super cool.
Along with those adapters, you might check out this universal, retractable USB cell phone charger. I can’t count the times I wished I’d had something small like this for my cell phone.
Finally, the thing that we all forget about, until it’s an emergency: bathrooms. Yes, the Bathroom Diaries bills itself as the “World’s largest guide to public toilets, restrooms and loos”, and it lives up to the title. Finding a clean, safe bathroom while in a strange city or country is more important than finding a free Internet connection. Trust me! I’ve been in some really scary bathrooms in the rural South that made me fear for my life!

So, there you go, road warriors. Some helpful links from your Uncle Jim. Hope they make life on the road a little easier for you!
Also, if you haven’t voted in the current poll, read the post that explains it and vote!

I probably shouldn’t have done this, but…

You know, sometimes, I just get so irritated with the scams I get via e-mail that I just can’t help myself. This morning I read one too many eBay phishing scams in my inbox and, well, I had to do something about it.

So, this is the e-mail I got that sent me over the edge.
Notice how this looks like a legitimate e-mail from eBay. It has all the same things that the official notices from eBay would have, including links to what look like official notices and actual sign-in screens.
The only real problem with this is that it was sent to an account that’s not associated with my eBay account and I haven’t bought or sold anything on eBay in over a year. What bothered me, though, was that I know people who would click on this and get scammed.
For fun, I hovered over the links to see where they led. If you look at the bottom of the linked screen capture here, you’ll see what I saw, but with the IP address obscured for safety’s sake.

This is the page that the phisher wanted me to go to.
Again, notice how it looks like a legitimate page on eBay’s website. It looks so good because the phisher’s page actually links to the graphics on eBay’s site. But, if you look in the address bar in the browser in the linked screen capture, you’ll see what led me to mess with the scammer.
The link is to an FTP site and includes logon information, complete with password.
Naturally, this was just too good for me to resist.
So, I popped open a DOS prompt and loaded the default FTP client on my Windows machine. When I connected to the FTP address listed in the link, I was prompted for a userID and password. When I used the credentials in the link, the FTP server let me in!

Naturally, this was far too good an opportunity for me to pass up.
So, while keeping the connection open, I renamed the phisher’s scam page from “ne.html” to “nono.html”. Then, I created my own “ne.html” and uploaded it.
In the linked image to the left, you can see that it gives anyone who loads it a warning not to click on just any old link they get in e-mail. Hopefully, this will serve to not only frustrate the phisher, but also educate anyone who might click the link.

Naturally, I don’t expect this to be up for very long on the phisher’s site, but, I figure if I help anyone with this little stunt, it will have been worth it. Though, you will notice that I obscured the IP address in my graphics to protect anyone the phisher may have hacked to run his scam. Also, it’s entirely possible that I was technically breaking the law by doing this, but I don’t expect the phisher is going to actually try to prosecute. After all, just how would one explain this to a judge?

Oh, and when I checked on it just before posting this, the phisher had changed the files back.  So, I did it again.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
   --Mark Twain

This is old news.

So, lately, there’s been a bit of buzz about Windows Home Server. The press has gone on at length about how this was such a brilliant idea who’s “time has finally come” and patted Microsoft on the back for thinking of it.
Well, this is really old news. As I was going through some old magazines recently, before throwing them out, I saw a short article on the Memora Servio Personal Server. A Linux-based home server that did everything from share files to filter e-mail to act as a firewall for home users. The device was auto-configuring and sat between your home network and your broadband connection and even could be ordered with wireless built in. The magazine was from 2001.

Sadly, the company doesn’t seem to be around any more, though you can see the old Memora About page, thanks to Archive.org. Again, this company was doing this six years ago and, from what I can tell, only seemed to have closed up shop in the past year or two. I wonder how well this product sold? What’s more, I wonder if anyone has the distro around, with the configuration programs on it? I know, I’d love to get my hands on that!

So, some of my readers are geeks, too. Ever heard of this product? Or, maybe, something like it?

(And, if you haven’t looked at my pictures yet, scroll down to untill you see them, then vote on the sidebar!)

Hmm, maybe I could have a second job…

So, I saw a guy adverstising on the web for “Internet Marketing Services”, specifically, “Business Blog Services” and “Social Marketing Services”. Sounds simple enough to me. Frankly, I’ve done plenty of blog work for folks and I can’t imagine adding a business component to it would be that much extra work. But, this guy was asking for $600 to set up a blog! With WordPress, I’d be done in about 30 minutes, including upload time and configuration. $600 for less than an hour worth of work… Oh, and then, if you want his “daily blogging” service, wherein he will make a blog entry for you, seven days a week, that’s $500 per MONTH! And, if you want him to optimize your blog for the search engines, that’s another one-time fee of $500.
But, what got me was the ad copy for what he called “Social Media Optimization“. That service, his site claimed, includes “Search Engine Reputation Management, Social Marketing Team Launch & Management”. “Search engine reputation management”? Are you kidding me?! For not submitting your page to the search engines too often and making some minimal effort to make sure you don’t get black-balled by Google, he’s going to actually negotiate a fee? What’s more, it’s a variable fee, no doubt based on how much you know about search engines and the web. I have a feeling that the less a customer knows, the higher the fee.

Wow, I could make a bundle at this kind of thing. If only I didn’t have ethics and the last vestige of a conscience…

(And, if you haven’t voted yet, check out the pictures from two posts ago and vote!!)

I do things on the cheap.

I’m so used to working with a minimal budget, or a non-existant one, that I can pretty well come up with software or IT resources for any project for nothing or almost nothing. Granted, it may take some time, but I still manage to do it. Well, project planning and management are no different.
I’ve been trying to get reorganized since getting out of the hospital and stabilizing my health. This is no small task, especially at work. So, I’ve been thinking of ways to organize my thoughts, goals and projects, both at work and at home. That led me to search for free project management templates of various kinds to move me closer to that goal. You, my faithful readers, reap the benefit of my efforts.

First, I found a place called BusinessBalls.net. Not sure where they got that name from, to be honest, but they’ve got a great collection of free templates you can use to layout both business and personal projects.
Next, I found Matt H. Evans’ collection of free Excel templates. Though he didn’t create them all himself, he’s got quite a collection of financial, budgeting and analysis spreadsheets there that should help with all kinds of project management issues.
Finally, there’s the Free Project Decision Templates from RFP-Templates.com. Again, a fairly good selection of decision making templates to make project management a “kinder, gentler” process. A word of warning about this site, though. It seems to be more geared toward advertising their Request for Proposal “package”, for which they charge. Still, some of their stuff is free, so they can’t be all bad.

Oh, and if you need a free office suite to do all this with, why not try OpenOffice? It’s free and compatible with Microsoft Office, so there’s nothing to lose but the download time!

Now, I’m off to plan and implement Operation Wacky Weasel!
(No, I don’t know what that is, but the name sounded so, so good, I couldn’t pass it up.)

Yes, there are plenty.

No, really, even though IT is a male-dominated industry, there are still plenty of powerful women in high-ranking position. Here’s a link to the top ten, according to eWeek.com. I just thought it was worth mentioning for any geeks who might be reading my blog that happen to be female. I’m sure it gets frustrating sometimes, being a woman in our industry, so I thought it was worth reminding you that there are women who’ve “made it to the top”, as it were.

Just a little something for the techie manager-types.

I know I still have some tech-geeks who read this blog. I mean, I did start out, all those years ago, blogging about mainly technical stuff and some of the real die-hards have to still be reading, right? Well, I do try to keep y’all in mind and occasionally write up something that might help you get things done. Most of you fellow geeks know me as a Novell enthusiast, but I don’t limit myself to just one set of tools. There’s an old saying that when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Well, I like to keep a bunch of tools in the old tool bag to solve all kinds of problems.

Sometimes, though, it’s not that easy to figure out which tool to use. So, when I saw these two related articles on TechRepublic about choosing the right tools, I thought I’d share. The first is a blog post that describes the D.I.C.E framework. (In short, D.I.C.E is an acronym for Difficulty, Investment, Capability and Expandability. All things to keep in mind when implementing new technology.) The second article is really a download. It’s a spreadsheet that helps you evaluate systems in relation to the D.I.C.E framework.
So, between the two, you should have a little extra help determining what technology to install and support.
And, you might even pick up a few ideas about how to present it to the boss, too!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Sometimes someone says something really small and it just fits into this empty place in your heart."
   --Angela, "My So-Called Life"

Soaking up the rays!

Hey, two great tastes that taste great together!
My regular readers will know that I love WiFi, even if security can be an issue, but they may not know how much I love solar power. Now, there’s a company in Florida that’s combining WiFi access points with solar power. Granted, it’s to overcome some limitations in their copper cable network, but, still, I think it’s a totally cool idea.