Technologist For Hire

You are not reading that wrong… Gmail now has IMAP!

Note: They are rolling the feature out to select test accounts now. If you do not have IMAP options in your settings, you are not cool enough. Google will most likley do a full scale roll out shortly.

For ages, Gmail has been strictly POP3-only for external access. It got the job done, but it lacked functionality. There are a few key differences between POP3 and IMAP4 (at the user level) that make the addition of IMAP very exciting news. With traditional POP3 access to email, you generally are required to download the message (thus removing it from the email server). This sucks if you use a web interface (such as Gmail) & a remote client or mobile device equally… you would be missing emails from the web interface as they were downloaded to the remote client or mobile device. Google tried to combat this problem by adding a “keep on server” option. This was cool, but now things you do to the emails do not sync between the web interface and the remote client or mobile device (such as an email being marked as ‘read’). IMAP solves these problems! With IMAP you aren’t removing the email from the server on download, and all actions performed on an email, are synced between the clients and server. And the best thing of all? IMAP PERSISTENT CONNECTIONS! Think Microsoft Exchange-like functionality… without Exchange (or Microsoft). You can have a constant connection to an IMAP server and be notified instantly of new mail and have changes synced on the fly. This is why IMAP rules.

Good job Google. Good job! I have been waiting for a LONG time to see IMAP available on my account. I use Gmail for domains, so I have @nexdot.net and a bunch of my other sites hosted at Gmail. I was previously using my Motorola Q to access them all via POP3… it sucked. Now I have switched them all over to IMAP and I couldn’t be happier.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=75726

I have been experimenting with different CPC (cost per click) products the last few months. I have obviously gone down the Google AdWords route, and I have looked at StumbleUpon’s pay-per-stumble; but my newest victim is proving quite valuable.

Facebook Flyers Pro is Facebook’s hand at AdWords. Unlike AdWords though, I have the ability to do some heavy demographic targeting. With Facebook Flyers Pro, I also have the added bonus of being able to see the exact number of people I am reaching. It starts off at 20 million people. As you add in location, sex, age, political views, relationship status, keywords (which looks at their entire profile), educational status, and place of employment, your total reach drops. I have a Flyer running right now that is targeting 87,200 females between the ages of 16 and 30, who live in the United States, and have certain keywords in their profile.

Just like any other CPC program, you bid on your max CPC, and set your max spending per day, then hit go! My experience with Facebook Flyers Pro so far as been amazing. Keep in mind that I am using Facebook Flyers Pro, which is CPC. They also have Facebook Flyers Basic which is based on views, and not clicks (better for spreading information, but no good for getting traffic). With the demographics I mentioned above, and that pool of 87 thousand people, I am seeing a decent CTR (click through ratio). The fact that the ads are highly targeted make this a great value. The higher my CPC max bid, the more my banner is shown.

Using some Google Analytics magic (see comments below), I can see that 25% of the click-thru’s actually converted… WOW. And I am only spending $5 a day, max! Within a few hours I had converted 10 people. I would recommend everyone who is interested give it a try.

Why I am calling this Day Zero? This is the tutorials day, no conference, no keynotes, no free breakfast. This is Day Zero.

So far I have attended two tutorial sessions, once of which was way over my head (Extending PHP). The second tutorial (Best Practices) was what I really wanted to see, and I feel that I got a lot out of it. I am making a point of doing a lot of networking. It is great that there is an environment where hundreds of PHP enthusiasts and developers can conglomerate, learn, talk, and share. I am passing out, and collecting, business cards/names.

I have met a lot of interesting, and very smart, people. SO far, the lists includes (insert shameless plugs of awesome attendees): Sara Golemon - aka Princess of PECL, Ligaya Turmelle, Elizabeth Naramore, Keith Casey, Matthew Weier O’Phinney, Elizabeth Smith - aka Queen of Windows, Matthew Turland, and a great new friend of mine from Belgium: Michelangelo van Dam.

Later this evening I had the HONOR to personally meet a large selection of the PHP/Zend development team, thanks to Elizabeth Smith and Sara Golemon. I also had the pleasure of meeting Cal Evans, an THE editor over at DevZone. Great guy!

I have lots more to see, learn, say, and do! PHP/ZendCon 2007 = PWN.

AuctionAds.com is a non-contextual, 3rd party, eBay affiliate program that earns YOU (a publisher) money for linking to eBay auctions. When someone clicks on your AuctionAds link/banner, they are taken to the respective eBay page, and are also given a cookie. Anything they purchase, including the original item they were interested in, within 30 days, earns you eBay affiliate commission. You earn 50%-75% of the revenue that eBay generated off of that sale. “Revenue” is the listing fee, final value fee, and all other fees associated with selling something on eBay. The reason that AuctionAds is better than being a direct eBay affiliate is because AuctionAds’ large user base means they receive the highest payout per successful eBay transaction, which earns you the most money possible.

Now, I got wind of a new product that MediaWhiz / AuctionAds / Text-link-ads is about to release called ShoppingAds.com. ShoppingAds is their new CPC (cost-per-click), versus the AuctionAds CPA (cost-per-acquisition), product. The website, internally, is exactly the same as Auctionads.com, with a different color scheme. The ad-formats are the same, the Get Code section remains the same, but the ads are different. ShoppingAds.com has teamed up with “a number of online merchants”, and, so far, I can tell Amazon is one of them.

A CPC revenue model will work wonders on some sites, and fail horribly on others. For instance, if an AuctionAds publisher is receiving 700 clicks per day, but it only translates into $20 via the CPA model, that same user, receiving 700 clicks using the ShoppingAds.com CPC model, with a payout of $0.05 per click, would make $35. There is no information up yet as to how much each click is worth on ShoppingAds. It now appears that ShoppingAds is claiming a $0.25 CPC on average. I cannot back this up personally, but I received an email from Patrick Gavin (of TLA & ShoppingAds) that this was the case. This new estimate of $0.25 CPC brings the test case above to a total of $175.00, without taking into consideration the difference and variation in product selection (so it is not likely you will receive the same 700 clicks using ShoppingAds that you were receiving with AuctionAds, because the products may not be the same). It will work out for some this way though, and they will make more, on average, with ShoppingAds; as long as their keyword selection yields sufficient, similar, products on ShoppingAds. If your users click on your AuctionAds links, but do not follow through with sales, the ShoppingAds CPC model may have a higher payout for you.

I have noticed one problem so far, and it is inherent to the affiliate sources. With AuctionAds, eBay is a crowd sourced database of products. You have a lot of people putting a lot of random stuff up for auction. Your chances of finding fake dog poop on eBay are very high. However, online merchants tend not to carry as many specialty items as they would regular items. ShoppingAds has a much smaller database of non-standard products. For instance, with AuctionAds, the keyword “sewing” is going to show you never ending random auctions for sewing products, and machines, and tools. With ShoppingAds, the keyword “sewing” brings up 5 items (3 sewing machines, and 2 sergers). Sony PSP, iPod, xbox360, and all other currently popular items show great results in both products. So, ShoppingAds may not be the best for specialty websites that deal with topics that wont show relevant products. It would be nice if a keyword such as “sewing” was not taken literally, and a contextually similar set of items were returned (sewing would then yield results of sewing machines, fabrics, sewing books, thread, etc).

With all of that said, I am glad that MediaWhiz is releasing a CPC product that is similar to AuctionAds. I can see it performing well on one of my sites that generates clicks, but no follow-through on the auctions. According to Patrick Gavin of Text-Link-Ads and AuctionAds, their new ShoppingAds.com product will be out of private beta within the next week or two.

Yes, the business card. I am trying to create the perfect business card. Sadly, I only pretend to be a graphic designer (shh, don’t tell anyone), so I can’t just design awesome cards and be happy with them. To me, its not just about what is ON the card, but also what the card itself is made out of.

Steve Wozniak has metal business cards, but I think they are very lame. I personally print my own cards on a standard Avery stock (i know, also lame), but I round 1 corner (so, lame, but lame - 1). I also now have a few sets of Moo Mini Cards, which are pretty cool. They are printed on a thick stock, they are half the height of a standard business card, and a full color (side 1), text (side 2). $20 gets you 100, not bad, but not super-awesome-deal either.

An interesting post over at creativebits.org, which was dugg a while ago (which is how I found it), shows some really nice cards. I am into the more simplistic ones.

Your business card is often the first impression you leave with a prospective client. They may not remember their initial meeting with you, but they will have something visual to remember you by. If your card is interesting, or creative, or can somehow convey the ‘essence’ of YOU/Your product/Your business, then you are likely to either get a call from the person you gave your card to, or from a person that someone passed your card on to!

Check out your local Staples for non-perferated business card stock, moo.com for an interesting twist on business cards, orange32.com for some high-end cards, and the ever-so-awesome Young Go Getter for a chance to WIN 5,000 of those high-end Orange32 cards!

Welll, it appears that one month after Facebook asked me, and others, to remove my little cURL ‘hack’ for updating your Facebook Status, Facebook has finally implemented a users.setStatus() method in their API.

I originally posted my code and the ideas surrounding its creation and use on April 20, 2007. Five months later, Facebook decided to lay the hammer down, after many people had already implemented, ported, optimized, and whored my code. Now, one month after that, Facebook has an official API method for updating your own status.

Was this a move to open their platform more and to silence those who believe Facebook’s f8 is more of a ‘closed’ platform when compared to other service providers with APIs, a move to implement something that they obviously forgot about so they would look like less of a loser, or an honest move towards helping the federated status initiative? Either way, I am glad that the API method now exists.

And, as noted by Daniele Muscetta (a new friend of mine, and Facebook F8 Developer), it has already been picked up and implemented in a project that echoes that of my original vision of Twitter->Facebook over at TwitterSweet.

So, good job Facebook… kind of.

So I am currently an IT professional for a company in the Midwest. Just like any large company, there are plenty of presentations where Power Point is the main visual. We have a graphic design department for our advertising. They maintain a large database of images, logos, photos, flyers, etc. They have a total hard-on for ultra-high-res images. I respect the idea, and the proper uses, of high-res imagery! There is one problem though: they don’t believe in compression. I LOVE compression. I love being able to compress server logs by a factor of 88%, or compressing a jpg from 3.4MB to a wimpy, yet still usable 45KB. The Power Point presentations that are generated here contain 10-50 images, all in their 10 mega pixel glory, along with transitions, lame type-writer effects, and horrendous page backgrounds.

After the presentations are created, the users attempt to send it to people inside and outside of the company. They quickly receive a “Mailbox is over its size limit, or you are trying to be a dumb ass and send a 91MB Power Point presentation to someone”.

They then call me and yell at me for putting limits on their email. I try to explain to them how stupid sending a 91MB Power Point presentation is, but they wont listen. So I grab it off the network drive and work magic on it. I quickly turn that 91MB Power Point into a 7.2MB Power Point, which is the EXACT same quality on screen and in print.

Here is how:

1. Step1:
   Open your gigantic Power Point presentation. The one I am using in this demo is a sexy 33.98MB (35,631,104 Bytes).
2. In Office 2007, click on ANY photo/image in the Power Point Presentation.
   1. Up in the Ribbon (fancy name for Office 2007 Tool Bar), click on the “Format” menu, under “Picture”.
   2. Now click on the “Compress Pictures” option to the left
      
       
   3. Make sure “Apply to selected pictures only” is UNCHECKED (see below)
      
       
   4. Check the top 2 boxes, and select “Screen (150 dpi)” (or, if you are really advantageous and wanna stick it to the MAN, choose “Email (96 dpi)”)
      
       
3. In Office XP/2003, you simply right click the photo, click “Format Picture”, goto the “Picture” tab, in the bottom left of the window, click “Compress” and use the same options as above!

This works in Office XP/2003/2007 in all programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc)

The Power Point presentation used in the example above is now 3.36MB (3,527,168 Bytes).

Enjoy.

On October 7th, 2007 I will be in SF Cali attending the third annual ZendCon Zend/PHP Conference and Expo. I will be in SF Sunday through that Friday. Aside from attending the conference, I am going to hang out in SF and hit up some networking events. It should really fun. I am going to post some of the interesting stuff that I absorb from the conference, so check back in for that.

Also, if you are in SF and wanna hang out, or know of any interesting events/parties I should attend, hit up the About section of the site and grab my email.

Earlier last week when the Facebook controversy started, I contacted TechCrunch to get some questions answered before I responded, because I know they have experience in talking to service-providers. After speaking with TechCrunch, and not responding to Facebook’s take-down request, my account was disabled. I finally responded and, after a few emails, agreed to remove the code from my website (for fear of legal intervention, and to get my Facebook account back).

TechCrunch ran a story today detailing the controversy and the implications surrounding it. It is great to see that others have the same ideas as I do and agree with me on some levels.

So check out the article, Facebook: Opening Up, But on Its Own Terms!
P.S.: NYTimes Tech section picked up the story as well: Closing the Open Facebook

If you would like to contact me, please read the About section of the website.

Well, I have done it. I have managed to bridge that gap between my computer and my toilet… or my computer and my drive to work… or my computer and those boring lectures at school…. I no longer have to suffer through the pain of not having access to my live feed of everyones life. I can now continue my daily stalk even when I am not at my computer.

If you are like me, you have your Facebook status update feed for all of your friends in your favorite feed reader and set it to update every 1 minute. You also added your friend’s Twitter feeds. You may have even taken advantage of Facebooks SMS notification feature, where it txt-msgs you whenever a friend updates their status… Well, that was not good enough for me, and only provided me with limited info on a few people… I wanted INSTANT access to my Facebook/Twitter stalking resources!

So, I found a way. I own a Motorola Q, and I love it. Despite all of the problems everyone has with it and what everyone says, I find it to be the most useful mobile tool I have. I watch TV on it (SlingBox + Comcast Digital Cable), listen to music on it (SiriusWM5 for Sirius, and Orb for mp3s from my large library on my desktop PC), play SNES games on it (thank you PocketNesterPlus), use it for GPS navigation & phone book (Windows Live Search), instant message from it (Agile Messenger), and of course that phone/email/web thing as well. I WANTED MORE!

I wanted to move my obsessive Facebook/Twitter habits into my mobile lifestyle so I could stalk on the go. Here is my solution:

Notice the information that I circled in red. This the latest Facebook update from my entire set of friends. “Katie S. is on her way to target.” My homescreen is updated every 3 minutes with the latest status update from Facebook. Whenever someone updates their status, my phone makes a very light noise and the update is displayed on my home screen. ULTRASTALK! I see all and hear all now.

And now, here is how it works. I found a scripting language that works on mobile phones and has a nice set of functions and features. It is called MortScript. MortScript has the ability to read/write to the registry, download and read files from the internet, automatically run at specified intervals, etc etc etc… I created a very simple script that checks a PHP file on a server of mine, and saves the information to the phone. Then I added a built-in plugin to the home screen that displays that information. I currently only have it doing a live Facebook status update, but the PHP script could easily be made to pull Twitter, or even BOTH. This MortSCript is only for displaying the information, so really, the PHP script could grab ANY type of information, such as: server status, new email, feed updates (such as facebook/twitter), IM presence information, number of users on your website, new comments on your blog, important alerts (like a pager?). Really, I have created the framework for any type of instant mobile alerts.

MortScript:

scriptURL = "URL_TO_YOUR_SCRIPT"
ThisScriptPath = SystemPath("ScriptPath")
ThisScriptName = SystemPath("ScriptName") & SystemPath("ScriptExt")

#Update interval in seconds, 180 = 3 minutes.
UpdateInterval = 180

Call SetUpdateTime

#Turn Errors OFF
ErrorLevel("off")

Contents = ""
wURL = scriptURL
Contents = ReadFile(wURL)
OldContents = RegRead ("HKCU","ControlPanelOwner","Notes")

If (OldContents ne Contents)
	#For the Q
	RegWriteString ("HKCU","ControlPanelOwner","Notes", Contents)

	#Uncomment the following and change filename to play a sound
	#PlaySound("NewUpdate.wav")
EndIf

Exit
# -------------------------------------------------------------
Sub SetUpdateTime
If (UpdateInterval <> 0)
	RunAtTime = TimeStamp() + (UpdateInterval)

	#Remove the Notification Queue (if exists)
	RemoveNotifications(ThisScriptPath & "\" & ThisScriptName)

	#Set the Notification Queue Item
	RunAt(RunAtTime, ThisScriptPath & "\" & ThisScriptName)
EndIf
EndSub

PHP Script

$url = 'FACEBOOK_STATUS_FEED_URL';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0");
$xml = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$xmlobj = simplexml_load_string($xml);
$status = $xmlobj->channel->item[0]->title;
$author = $xmlobj->channel->item[0]->author;
$authorn = split(' ',$author);

switch(count($authorn)):
case 1: // single name
    $authorabbr = $authorn[0];
    break;
case 2: // first & last name
    $authorabbr = $authorn[0].' '.$authorn[1]{0}.'.';
    break;
case 3: // first middle last, take first and last
case 4: // first middle last sr/jr/III, take first and last
    $authorabbr = $authorn[0].' '.$authorn[2]{0}.'.';
    break;
default:
    $authorabbr = 'Someone';
    break;
endswitch;

$status = str_replace($author, ucwords($authorabbr), $status);

echo $status;
?>

XML to add to your home screen file:

You will obviously need to customize the XML to suite your current home screen needs (x,y,height,width,font-size, etc etc). Follow this link to download MortScript and install it. Name the script above ultrastalk.mscr and run it from filemanager to start it. If anyone is actually interested in using this, just leave a comment and I will post a follow up with step-by-step instructions.