Owner: AVirtualExit.com URL:http://www.avirtualexit.com Join Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:38:35 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: AVirtualExit.com features valuable information on Web 2.0 related topics as well of Sotware Reviews, Blogging Tips and PC Hacks Site statistics:Click here
MySpace.com account sold for $2,125 2007-03-15 16:16:46
Did they tell you that money won’t buy you friends? We’ll not really. A Myspace.com account
with 100K friends, was sold in Ebay for $2,125. That makes it around 2 cents a friend . As per the seller, this is one of the first MySpace
.com 50K accounts. The account url was not disclosed. After doing a quick research in eBay, i saw a myriad of ongoing auctions for MySpace accounts, but bids seems to be much lower, as these are less popular accounts, most of them currently biding at a level for $30-$60.
A huge MySpace.com account, can proof valuable for web marketeers as in most cases it will provide them with a well segmented consumer target for their marketing campaings.
Remember this post next time you join someone’s network in MySpace.com
Digg this post.Technorati Tags: ebay MySpace , MySpace account sale, MySpace
ShareYourself - a cool Web 2.0 widget 2007-03-13 16:16:40
Being Web 2.0 geeks, many of us have user accounts in a HUGE amount of social networking sites (myspace, digg, reddit, flickr, facebook etc’). Dustin Bachrach has come with a nice way to get those accounts organized in our blog or other web page you mantain.
ShareYourself is a cool utility, that lets you easily build your own widget
that will display all your web 2.0 identities.
To get started, just add your login name to the relevant web 2.0 sites, and grab your code. Note that there is an option to store the widget image files in your hosting account.
Enjoy!!
Google’s morning commute service 2007-03-13 13:54:47
Troubles with your morning commute? Not if you work for Google
in the Silicon Valley.
The latest perk that Google employees at their Silicon Valley campus enjoy is a free transportation service to the Googlepex (Google’s facilities in Mountain View, CA). Google operates a 32 biodieseled buses fleet that ferries more than 1200 of its employees to work every morning. The buses are equipped with Wireless internet connections, so Google potentially gains around two extra daily hours of employee productivity. Morning Service starts at 5:05 AM and Evening service ends at 10:05 PM.
Does your company offer such transportation services ? Mine doesn’t
More in news.com
Technorati Tags: Google, Google Bus
Wordpress.com Vs Wordpress.org 2007-03-12 19:14:37
The choice of your blogging platform is in most cases the fourth decision you make when starting up a new blog ( after the decision to start the blog, pick a concept for your blog, and think about your domain name). As you can see, i opted for Wordpress
, even though prominent bloggers might opt for Blogger or others.
Wordpress has two different flavors and understanding the pros and cons of both is important as it will influence your daily blog operations as you move forward.
Wordpress.org
Wordpress.org is an open source (and thus a free) platform that provides you with tools required to set up a blog. In order to get started you’ll need to find an hosting service that will be compatible with Wordpress hosting. Wordpress.org has a list of preferred hosting services (but also companies not listed there can host your blog). I am hosting this blog with BlueHost, and to date their service was completely satisfactory, although i didn’t yet experience a spike that allowed me t
The next Google PageRank Update 2007-03-09 17:09:11
From time to time i found myself wandering around some Webmaster forums trying to find out when the next Google
PR (PageRank
) update. I would like to share my finding with you guys. In case you have a new web site or blog this can be considered important stuff.
A bit of history first.The PageRank was invented by Larry Page and Sergey Brin from Stanford University. These two guys are now billionaires as they later on founded a small company named Google :).
Google PageRank
technology in a shoestring
Google runs a sort of voting system, in which web pages link to (or vote for) each other. The more incoming links your page has, the more important your page is. Well… not fully true. The Google world is not a democracy and as such, a link (vote) from an important page weighs more heavily than a link from a non-important page.
So what’s the PageRank algorithm?
PageRank measures the importance of a web page. The PR scale goes from 0 to 10(most important).
How can i know my Read more:Update
Review my blog - episode 1 :) 2007-03-08 11:03:17
AVirtualExit.com is two weeks old, and myself as its proud founder , would like to hear some feedback from you guys. I am looking for reviews that are no longer than 40-50 words. I am interested in your insight on this blog contents and aesthetics, as well as on any comment you might have on how to make this blog a success (BTW - my goal is not to become the next John Chow (although i admire his abilities) , but to be able to communicate my thoughts to many individuals). Naturally, every blogger that reviews AVirtualExit.com, will have his/her own blog reviewed back. The blog review batch will be posted starting with the first review and as opposed to the “industry standards” , will consist of no more than 7 blog reviews.
I would like to thank the bloggers that reviewed my blog. Many of their comments were already implemented.
OK, so here we go with the first reviews:
Rebitran.com: Rebitran.com (”a quasi-phonetic pronounciation of the words “rabbit run””)
The Best Wordpress plugin series - part 2 - Social Bookmarking 2007-03-07 18:21:47
Many bloggers that use Wordpress
might get quite overwhelmed with the huge amount of plugins that were written in order to enhance Wordpress’ functionality.In this post, which is the second post in my “Best Wordpress plugin series
”, i would like share my experience with Sociable, a social bookmark plugin i implemented in this blog.
Social
bookmarks are in mho an essential feature in blogs, as they provide benefit to both readers and bloggers. Readers can vote on posts, and thus determine their quality and popularity. Bloggers benefit from social bookmarking, as they can help to create a spike (every new blogger wet dream) even for a new relatively unknown blog.
Prior to using Sociable, i used Social Bookmarks as my social bookmarking plugin. Social Bookmarks has two annoying features: (1) its appearance and (2) the fact it offers a limited number of web sites to which you can bookmark a post you like.
I found Sociable at wordpress.org , and decided to give it a shot Read more:Bookmarking
, Social Bookmarking
Tech Blogger? Spread some link love with the Tech List 2007-03-06 10:15:45
John Chow dot com often comes out with great marketing ideas that helps to promote our blogs. This one was sent to him by Jimi of JMH Techtronics.The Tech List is a list of tech related sites/blog that anyone can add to. You add your 5 favorite Tech/Science/Consumer Electronics blogs, and tell them you have added them, so they can spread the word. If John recommends on this list, i am sure it will be spreaded all over the Blogsphere….
Ready to get started? Please follow the basic rules as outlined below:
***Start copy here***
1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content string. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra linkback.
2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your p Read more:Blogger
, Spread
The Best Wordpress plugin series - part 1 - Similar Posts 2007-03-04 22:41:20
As i wanted to increase the number of page views per visitor, i decided to look for an easy to use plugin for Wordpress
2.1 that will help me to automatically display related posts within my Wordpress loop.
I first test Related Posts, and got a bit disappointed. I kept searching and found Similar Posts , which can be considered a sort of “Related Posts” on steroids .
The installation process is fairly simple:
1. Download the plugin files from here
2. Upload the Similar Posts directory to your plugin directory
3. In Wordpress, go to Options and activate the plugin.
4. In case it fails (like in my install), open your PHP MyAdmin and paste the SQL query code provided in the Instructions here.
5. From the “Presentation>> Theme Editor tab in Wordpress, open your index.php file (called Main Index Template).
6. Paste the following code within your WP loop: <?php similar_posts(); ?>
7. Go to the Options tab and configure your plugin options. Here you can tak Read more:series
Getting started with Joost - Part 1 - The quest for the Beta user account 2007-03-04 20:03:23 Joost
™ is a new plattform that offers free-of-schedule TV. It uses secure peer-to-peer technology to stream programmes to your computer. Unlike other TV and video-based web applications, it does not require users to download any files to their computers or browse through complicated websites.
Joost was founded in early 2006 by serial entrepeneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (in case you didn’t hear those names yet, these are the guys that founded Kazaa! and Skype).
Joost is currently in its beta phase. As of now only a handful of beta users are currently playing around with the tool. Beta Joost accounts are difficult to get. You can register in the Joost website, however they do not state a precise timeframe in which you will be mailed your beta account details and be able to access the system.
Joost Beta users are normally provided with several accounts, that can be transferred as the Beta user sees fit. Today i stumbled upon Joostswap.com, a website that provides
The Microsoft Time Zone Utility 2007-03-15 21:33:13
Are you having trouble finding out what’s the time in Bangalore, San Francisco, Amsterdam or any other place where you have friends or business associates?If so, i recommend that you try the MicrosoftTime ZoneUtility
.
This nice utility recently released by Microsoft, lets you see what’s the time at 5 different locations around the globe.
How to Install?
1. Go to the Microsoft Time Zone Download Page.
2. Download the utility (requires Windows OS Validation).
3. Run the installer. After it finishes i recommend to reboot. Note that in XP SP2, the utility doesn’t automatically run on startup.
4.From Start>>Programs Click on Microsoft Time Zone. The utility should appear in your system Tray.
5. Right click on the system tray icon that was just created and from the Options menu select the locations you would like to have displayed.
6. In case you would like to display the time in your selected locations, jus right click on the icon and click on “Show My
Twittering with Google Talk 2007-03-17 20:39:36
If you have being around lately, i am sure you have noticed Twitter. This great web site helps you update your friends about what’s going on , by simply answering the million $ question… “What are you doing?”.
You can use Twitter via the standard web interface, a mobile cell phone or Instant Messaging (supports AIM and since recently also Google
Talk).
Twitter has even develop an handy Lingo, that reduces the typing when inviting friends, activating switching notifications etc’.
Although announced more than two weeks ago, the integration to Google Talk
wasn’t fully stable until today. If you want to use twitter with Google Talk, create a Twitter account, then go to Settings>>Phone & IM, select your IM tool, and get the code to get started.
How bloggers can benefit from Twitter?
Bloggers might also incorporate a twitter badge to their blogs, and update their audience on what’s going on in real time. This will help you gro Read more:Twittering
Did you check your Akismet spam filter lately? 2007-03-17 09:38:40
While going through my Google Reader, i stumbled upon a blog post at Paul Stamatiou’s on the importance of periodically checking the Akismet
anti-spam service in the Wordpress pannel.
Akismet is a wordpress plugin that is aimed to reduce comment and trackback spam. The plugin is bundled into the default Wordpress.org installation, however ti requires the Wordpress API key to get activated (API key is avaialable after signing up with Wordpress.com).
Today, i logged to my Wordpress 2.1 CP, went to Comments>> Akismet spam, and was surprised to see that around 5 out of my 15 “spam” comments were fully legitimate.
Lesson learned: check your Akismet spam periodically ( i would say every other day) as it might have spammed legitimate stuff.
My two cents on this.
Technorati Tags: Akismet, Akismet plugin, Akismet spam Read more:lately
How to add an address bar icon (favicon) to your Wordpress.org blog? 2007-03-20 12:20:54
Do you want to differentiate your blog / website from other millions of blog in the Blogsphere? start by displaying an icon next to your URL in the browser address bar!
The Address bar icon is sometimes referred as a favicon
- or Favorite Icon.
(more…) Read more:Wordpress
A face lift for AvirtualExit.com 2007-03-25 14:55:53
Hope you are having fun wherever you are. I am happy to announce that this web site has undergone a tremendous face lift. Here is what we have:
1. New theme: i implemented the well known Misty Look instead of Vertigo.
2. Made a major Sidebar change. Actually i deactivated SideBar Widgets plugin, and modified my SiderBar using PHP.
3. Implemented 4 new great wordpress plugins that are meant to enhance the reader’s experience:
Enhanced WP Contact form - So you can contact me in case you have a comment, want to have a review or link exchange.
Most Viewed Posts - I like this one. It will let everyone know what posts you are interested in , so i can write more on those topics.
WP Post Rating - This one will allow you to rate each and every single post.
Show Top Commentators - This plugin was the one i wanted to implement the most. It’ll display “real” links (without the ‘nofollow’ property) to the 10 top commentators blogs or web sites. Thanks guys
One of the best soccer goals i have ever seen 2007-03-24 20:28:44
Being a soccer fan, i often search YouTube.com, for great goals. I even set up Soccer Goals, a brand new web site, built on the Blogger platform, in which i will be posting the best Soccer videos i find in the web.
This is one of the best goals i have ever seen. Scorer is Matuzalem, a brazilian who plays for Ukranian club Shakhtar Donetsk, against Sevilla from Spain.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: Shakhtar Donetsk, Soccer Goals
Web 2.0 defined 2007-03-26 15:56:54
A month an a half ago, when i first thought about setting up a technical blog, i decided to devote it almost exclusively to topics around Web 2.0. Few days later, while socializing with some of my peers, i mentioned my decision to write about Web 2.0 stuff. That started an interesting debate , which then led me to believe that Web 2.0 is a fuzzy concept for many people.
This is the first in a series of posts aimed to scatter the fog around the concept of Web 2.0 and to demonstrate that although Web 2.0 was first used to build applications targeted at tech geeks, its real value is in the Enterprise IT world.
Let’s start by mentioning some of the prominent Web 2.0 applications. From the top of my head i can think of: Wikipedia, Flickr, Google Maps, Blogger, Gmail, Del.ici.us, Digg, MySpace, Facebook and Technorati. Is there any common denominator here? You bet.
1. Web 2.0 is about collective intelligence (sometimes referred as User Content) - it relies on users as content creators Read more:defined
Have a blog ? Leverage the “long tail” to increase traffic 2007-03-27 19:48:36 A common challenge that many bloggers face is how to increase traffic
. Seems that everyone offers you the same piece of advice: (1) Write great content (2) Exchange links and pump up your Technorati rate (3) Build a community. All these are indispensable if you want to make your blog a success. However, i have a slightly different view on a topic, and i want to share it with you.
We all know John Chow and think he is a smart guy. John has been preaching on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) importance lately. He actually ‘SEOd’ his site. He smartly picked a popular keyword , with not much competition and sticked with it. His blog header, all new incoming links and every post displays John’s new mantra ‘Make money online’ (i just gave him other link). John’s new target keyword is being searched 120K times a month, and thus is expected to bring to his blog around 8K visitors from search engines every single month.
The thing is that small bloggers aren&r Read more:Leverage
, increase traffic
Web 2.0 defined 2007-03-26 15:56:54 A month an a half ago, when i first thought about setting up a technical blog, i decided to devote it almost exclusively to topics around Web 2.0. Few days later, while socializing with some of my peers, i mentioned my decision to write about Web 2.0 stuff. That started an interesting debate , which then led me to believe that Web 2.0 is a fuzzy concept for many people.
This is the first in a series of posts aimed to scatter the fog around the concept of Web 2.0 and to demonstrate that although Web 2.0 was first used to build applications targeted at tech geeks, its real value is in the Enterprise IT world.
Let’s start by mentioning some of the prominent Web 2.0 applications. From the top of my head i can think of: Wikipedia, Flickr, Google Maps, Blogger, Gmail, Del.ici.us, Digg, MySpace, Facebook and Technorati. Is there any common denominator here? You bet.
1. Web 2.0 is about collective intelligence (sometimes referred as User Content) - it relies on users as content creators Read more:defined
A face lift for AvirtualExit.com 2007-03-25 14:55:53 Hope you are having fun wherever you are. I am happy to announce that this web site has undergone a tremendous face lift. Here is what we have:
1. New theme: i implemented the well known Misty Look instead of Vertigo.
2. Made a major Sidebar change. Actually i deactivated SideBar Widgets plugin, and modified my SiderBar using PHP.
3. Implemented 4 new great wordpress plugins that are meant to enhance the reader’s experience:
Enhanced WP Contact form - So you can contact me in case you have a comment, want to have a review or link exchange.
Most Viewed Posts - I like this one. It will let everyone know what posts you are interested in , so i can write more on those topics.
WP Post Rating - This one will allow you to rate each and every single post.
Show Top Commentators - This plugin was the one i wanted to implement the most. It’ll display “real” links (without the ‘nofollow’ property) to the 10 top commentators blogs or web sites. Thanks guys f
One of the best soccer goals i have ever seen 2007-03-24 20:28:44 Being a soccer fan, i often search YouTube.com, for great goals. I even set up Soccer Goals, a brand new web site, built on the Blogger platform, in which i will be posting the best Soccer videos i find in the web.
This is one of the best goals i have ever seen. Scorer is Matuzalem, a brazilian who plays for Ukranian club Shakhtar Donetsk, against Sevilla from Spain.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: Shakhtar Donetsk, Soccer Goals
How to add an address bar icon (favicon) to your Wordpress.org blog? 2007-03-20 12:20:54 Do you want to differentiate your blog / website from other millions of blog in the Blogsphere? start by displaying an icon next to your URL in the browser address bar!
The Address bar icon is sometimes referred as a favicon
- or Favorite Icon.
(more…) Read more:Wordpress
Twittering with Google Talk 2007-03-17 20:39:36 If you have being around lately, i am sure you have noticed Twitter. This great web site helps you update your friends about what’s going on , by simply answering the million $ question… “What are you doing?”.
You can use Twitter via the standard web interface, a mobile cell phone or Instant Messaging (supports AIM and since recently also Google
Talk).
Twitter has even develop an handy Lingo, that reduces the typing when inviting friends, activating switching notifications etc’.
Although announced more than two weeks ago, the integration to Google Talk
wasn’t fully stable until today. If you want to use twitter with Google Talk, create a Twitter account, then go to Settings>>Phone & IM, select your IM tool, and get the code to get started.
How bloggers can benefit from Twitter?
Bloggers might also incorporate a twitter badge to their blogs, and update their audience on what’s going on in real time. This will help you grow Read more:Twittering
Did you check your Akismet spam filter lately? 2007-03-17 09:38:40 While going through my Google Reader, i stumbled upon a blog post at Paul Stamatiou’s on the importance of periodically checking the Akismet
anti-spam service in the Wordpress pannel.
Akismet is a wordpress plugin that is aimed to reduce comment and trackback spam. The plugin is bundled into the default Wordpress.org installation, however ti requires the Wordpress API key to get activated (API key is avaialable after signing up with Wordpress.com).
Today, i logged to my Wordpress 2.1 CP, went to Comments>> Akismet spam, and was surprised to see that around 5 out of my 15 “spam” comments were fully legitimate.
Lesson learned: check your Akismet spam periodically ( i would say every other day) as it might have spammed legitimate stuff.
My two cents on this.
Technorati Tags: Akismet, Akismet plugin, Akismet spam Read more:lately
The Microsoft Time Zone Utility 2007-03-15 21:33:13 Are you having trouble finding out what’s the time in Bangalore, San Francisco, Amsterdam or any other place where you have friends or business associates?If so, i recommend that you try the MicrosoftTime ZoneUtility
.
This nice utility recently released by Microsoft, lets you see what’s the time at 5 different locations around the globe.
How to Install?
1. Go to the Microsoft Time Zone Download Page.
2. Download the utility (requires Windows OS Validation).
3. Run the installer. After it finishes i recommend to reboot. Note that in XP SP2, the utility doesn’t automatically run on startup.
4.From Start>>Programs Click on Microsoft Time Zone. The utility should appear in your system Tray.
5. Right click on the system tray icon that was just created and from the Options menu select the locations you would like to have displayed.
6. In case you would like to display the time in your selected locations, jus right click on the icon and click on “Show My L
MySpace.com account sold for $2,125 2007-03-15 16:16:46 Did they tell you that money won’t buy you friends? We’ll not really. A Myspace.com account
with 100K friends, was sold in Ebay for $2,125. That makes it around 2 cents a friend . As per the seller, this is one of the first MySpace
.com 50K accounts. The account url was not disclosed. After doing a quick research in eBay, i saw a myriad of ongoing auctions for MySpace accounts, but bids seems to be much lower, as these are less popular accounts, most of them currently biding at a level for $30-$60.
A huge MySpace.com account, can proof valuable for web marketeers as in most cases it will provide them with a well segmented consumer target for their marketing campaings.
Remember this post next time you join someone’s network in MySpace.com
Digg this post.Technorati Tags: ebay MySpace , MySpace account sale, MySpace
ShareYourself - a cool Web 2.0 widget 2007-03-13 16:16:40 Being Web 2.0 geeks, many of us have user accounts in a HUGE amount of social networking sites (myspace, digg, reddit, flickr, facebook etc’). Dustin Bachrach has come with a nice way to get those accounts organized in our blog or other web page you mantain.
ShareYourself is a cool utility, that lets you easily build your own widget
that will display all your web 2.0 identities.
To get started, just add your login name to the relevant web 2.0 sites, and grab your code. Note that there is an option to store the widget image files in your hosting account.
Enjoy!!
Use your Google search box as a Calculator 2007-03-30 11:41:55 This is an extra cool (but somehow often overlooked) tip for Google
users.
No need to use the Microsoft calculator any more, because the Google search box we all know (and love) can also be used as a calculator!
So how it works?
(1)Go to your Google Search box in your browser toolbar and type any arithmetic operation you can think about.
(2) The Google Suggest tool will provide you with the answer (as shown below). Works like a charm in FF and IE6.
A list of all supported Google Calculator
arithmetic operations can be found here
Technorati Tags: Google Calculator
AJAX - the web 2.0 language 2007-03-30 10:24:56 Ashish from Techspot runs a successful blog on technology. Today,as a part of Techspot’s guest blogger week, i posted an article on AJAX
at Ashish’s web site.
AJAX is the main building block of Web 2.0, so stay tuned for more exciting stuff on this topic.
More to come.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: AJAX, AJAX for dummies Read more:language
How to backup Firefox bookmarks ? 2007-03-31 11:08:54 Our browser bookmarks folder contains invaluable information we better periodically backup
.
Here are two easy ways that will help you to keep your Mozilla Firefox
bookmarks safe:
Export the Firefox bookmarks from the Bookmarks Manager
1. In Firefox, click on Bookmarks>>Organize Bookmarks.
2. The “Bookmarks Manager” will open up.
3. Click on File>> Export, provide a meaningful name and save the file.
Export the Firefox bookmarks from the File System
1. The Firefox bookmarks location is : C:Documents and Settings\Application DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesPROFILENAMEookmarks.html
2. Copy the bookmarks file.
3. Paste that file to your backup directory of choice
How to restore your bookmarks?
1. In Firefox, click on Bookmarks>>Organize Bookmarks.
2. The “Bookmarks Manager” will open up.
3. Click on File >> Import, and select your bookmark export file.
Technorati Tags: Firefox bookmarks
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