Destructive Chaos » Computers and Internet

META Generator!

Ian Gutjahr — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:13:00 +0000

First a little background on why META tags are important and why you should use them.

Meta elements provide information about a given webpage, most often to help search engines categorize them correctly. They are inserted into the HTML document, but are often not directly visible to a user visiting the site.

They have been the focus of a field of marketing research known as search engine optimization (SEO), where different methods are explored to provide a user’s site with a higher ranking on search engines. In the mid to late 1990s, search engines were reliant on meta data to correctly classify a web page and webmasters quickly learned the commercial significance of having the right meta element, as it frequently led to a high ranking in the search engines â€” and thus, high traffic to the web site.

As search engine traffic achieved greater significance in online marketing plans, consultants were brought in who were well versed in how search engines perceive a web site. These consultants used a variety of techniques (legitimate and otherwise) to improve ranking for their clients.

Meta elements have significantly less effect on search engine results pages today than they did in the 1990’s and their utility has decreased dramatically as search engine robots have become more sophisticated. This is due in part to the nearly infinite re-occurrence (keyword stuffing) of meta elements and/or to attempts by unscrupulous website placement consultants to manipulate (spamdexing) or otherwise circumvent search engine ranking algorithms. While search engine optimization can improve search engine ranking, consumers of such services should be careful to employ only reputable providers.

Major search engine robots are more likely to quantify such factors as the volume of incoming links from related websites, quantity and quality of content, technical precision of source code, spelling, functional v. broken hyperlinks, volume and consistency of searches and/or viewer traffic, time within website, page views, revisits, click-throughs, technical user-features, uniqueness, redundancy, relevance, advertising revenue yield, freshness, geography, language and other intrinsic characteristics.

What I foundÂ

I was searching online for different meta tags I could add to Destructive Chaos. I searched Pixel2life and found a cool little script on internet.com. How it works is, you fill in the blanks and it creates the HTML and you just add it to your tag. It’s really quite a simple script. Maybe I’ll make one in PHP? Why?, because I can. And did.

You can use my script at http://destructivechaos.com/metaGen

WLH broken, not my fault?

Ian Gutjahr — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:39:14 +0000

A few minutes ago I found a neat little code to get a live.ca/.com/.be/.nl email account. I think Microsoft might have caught on to my mischief and killed my fun. After creating a few random accounts on really weird domains (@google, @microsoft) all the sudden the fun was stopped. Now when I go to create a new account it gives me an error.

Sorry everyone, I think I recked the fun.

I used a javascript explote to get the live.com domain to work in the hotmail signup.

Â I won’t go into detail on how to use it, because I don’t want the FBI busting down my door haha.

It was a fun night.

UPDATE:
To fix the problems that I think I may have caused. They have changed their signup form so that it does not use the drop down box on the domain. Only if Microsoft would just let all of us use the @live domains, eh? To bad.

Also another thing, I went to login to my connect.microsoft account and now I get a “Page cannot be displayed” error. Could they have blocked me from that site?

Joost up your Internet!

Ian Gutjahr — Wed, 02 May 2007 02:02:07 +0000

What is Joost?

“Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.” - Joost website.

Basically Joost is free television. The only down side is that it only has a limited amount of channels you can watch at the moment, and uses alot of bandwidth, which is acceptable for such an inivative program.

Watch this video advertisment, it explains all. You’ll be addicted in no time!

What’s the catch?

There is no catch - so far. Joost does use P2PÂ (Peer 2 Peer)Â to send the information to more people with less strain on their servers. You can’t turn this off - it wouldn’t be fair if you could. But make sure you close the program after using it - or else you bandwidth will spike and your ISP will be emailing you with complaints (Telus!).

OK, you sold me, how do I get in!

Well Joost is still in it’s early BETA stages. I know, it’s a let down. But don’t worry - that doesn’t concern us. Since you take the time to read my blog (always right?!) just email me and I’ll send you an invite to try out this awesome program! But be quick cause I only haveÂ 999 of them! First come first serve I guess. If I don’t have any left by the time you read this, you can always check the Joost BETA page and see if they’ll accept you.

I have 999 invites! So keep the comments/hits coming - as a bonus you could even register…. that’d be cool wouldn’t it? Your choice though ;).

Please remember that even though I have 999 to give out - they are still limited. And you only need one login to use Joost - you can even use it on more than 1 computer. DO NOT POST TWICE! I will not give you an invite if you do.

Generate the new!

Ian Gutjahr — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:44:24 +0000

In my daily random web browsing tonight I found a neat little tool that generates custom WordPress themes on the fly straight from the site - that you can download and FTP right into your WordPress powered web space. This piece of website generation is really quite a cool concept. I played with it for a brief few seconds and found that it works really well!

It’s 100% free to use!

http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/

Destructive Chaos Scores 91% SEO!

Ian Gutjahr — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:24:34 +0000

I just checked Destructive Chaos’s Search Engine Optimization score! My site scored 91%! The only help they give me to make this any higher is that I should put alt tags on all my large images. What large images? All of them have alt tags!

My META tag relivance kind of sucks though. I’m not sure how to fix this. WordPress adds everything into the META tags to get my site out there more. There is nothing I can do about this. Do you have any ideas on how I can fix this low score (25%).

Destructive Chaos is my most updated web site I have. I take the most care of it. It’s taken a long time to get it where I enjoy going to it and figuring out what software I want to stick with. I think I found my match with WordPress. There is not much that can beat this blogging/CMS software for free. All open source and no encoded parts! It’s just what the doctor ordered. I haven’t had to code much to add onto the site. It’s basicly all been done, so all I have to do is upload the plugins and the site updates it’s self.

WordPress’s built in bloglog ping function is great! Everytime I post new content on the site Google,Bloglog,Yahoo,Ask and all the other major search engines that you may have come across come directly to my site within seconds bring you up2date content by the paragraph. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed and get my comments right to you Vista sidebar, Live.com account. For those of you that usedÂ to read my blog just by Windows Live Messenger, you can set my RSS feed to a Live Alert and you’ll get a nice little popup when I post something new. (Who knows maybe that’s how you got here in the first place!)

Also WordPress is very bandwidth friendly - not like I get enough hits to really care - it uses AJAX for many of the admin area, thus making it very interactive and enjoyable. Load times are also better than ever seeing as how muchÂ mysql driven stuffÂ actually has to be loaded to get the product.

I’ve kinda taken myself on a rant here again, but you know, it’s my site and I’ll do what I want. Another great thing about lots of text is that it makes your site look really import and well writen - even if it’s full of junk.

Â I hope you enjoyed reading my post. And don’t forget to add me to your favorites, or even submit my site to some awesome “topsites” or add a link on your own site, it never hurt anyone, you know. Email me and I’ll add your link to my site (no adult stuff though - I don’t want any outgoing links to that on my site).

Don’t forget to register! Make my day. :p

The “WOW” Begins Now!

Ian Gutjahr — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:54:31 +0000

As many of you may or may not know, I bought a new computer right after NavidadÂ (Spanish for Christmas). My new computer came with a free upgrade to Windows VistaÂ (wikiÂ page onÂ Vista)Â when it was to be released. IÂ received Â my upgrade in the mail on Wednesday and after days of thinking about the upgrade I have decided to take the plunge into the world of “WOW”. I know some of my software will not work with Vista.

Some of you may be asking “Why upgrade if some softwareÂ doesn’t work?”. Simple answer to that, Vista is new! And I like the look of the new UI (User Interface). I just hope F.E.A.RÂ works on Vista. I’m not worried about my hardware not being good enough for Vista. My hardware is good enough to run what ever I want - for the next 6 months at least. You know how it is with computers now a days. One major thing that I hope works with Vista is my network card. I don’t want to have to buy a new one (or do I ;)). Having Vista with no internet would suck.

So, I started creating a Recovery DiscÂ about a half an hour ago. It takes forever. I don’t think I’ll be needing these discs but you never know - Vista might not work well for me. My first disc is complete (1 of 2)! One more to go! Verifying the disc is taking longer then I expected.

I’ll post some screen shots when my computer is running Vista.

As you can see, I’ve linked a lot to Wikipedia. I’ve done this to be the most informative to all of you. :). Join the Wikipedia movement. (It’s not really a movement. Just something I do. :P)

Â UPDATE # 1!

I’ve run into a little (or a major problem I guess.) Basicly, HP requires that I get the BIOS update for my PC before I can continue with the upgrade to Windows Vista. So, I get the update off their site and install it. Of course I have to restart my computer after running this install - so that’s what I do. The only thing now is that my computer can not run the OS and I get a nice little black screen saying “Error loadingÂ OS_”. So basicly what this update does is turn your computer into a really big, fansy - paper weight.

Now I’m totally lost in what IÂ could do to fix this. Should I cut my loses and throw my computer off my second story balcany, or call Hewlett-Packard (not like they’ll know what to do :P). I’ll just have to wait and see what I canÂ come up withÂ to fix this problem. What could have went wrong?

One things for sure, I’m not buying a full copy of Vista anytime soon.

I’ll keep ya updated on my predicament.

UPDATE # 2

Problem fixed! (I think). What I decided to do is simple - just stick in the upgrade disc and boot the computer from CD just to see if it would work. To my surprise, it did. Now my computer is being updated as I type (from a different computer of course). I really hope it goes on without another problem. I think I caused the problem myself anyway, I got the BIOS update a little late. I half started the preperation before getting the updated BIOS.

Oh well. No harm done (I put all my music on my new external hardÂ drive before Vista even came (always thinking a head!). It will be interesting to see how long it takes to fully upgrade my computer to the new operating system and if the games I have will work on it. We’ll all have to wait and see. I also wonder how many system upgrades have become avalibe for Vista since it’s release? And for that matter - will McAfee work with it? Hmm. I’m running a little blind on this upgrade.

UPDATE # 3

I’m running Vista! My long day of upgrading to the newest Microsoft operating system (Codename: LongHorn) Windows Vista is now complete. The interfaces are fresh and stylish. I’m extremely happy to be on Vista now! There are a few problems like I mentioned above: Network Card doesn’t have Vista drivers; Sound Card isn’t Vista ready (there is a driver for that though - I hope.); Not sure if my Adobe software will work on Vista either.

Â This has been an exciting experience for me today. I’m kinda glad to finally be done with it and able just to sit back and play with my new system. It’s been a pretty long day as you can tell. I recommend installing Vista - but you might want to wait before you go out and buy your upgrades. Make sure all your stuff works with Vista first.

As I said above: I’ll post some pictures as soon as I get my Internet working. So I don’t think I will be on WLM tonight.

Viruses Not A Problem?

Ian Gutjahr — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:19:47 +0000

Are you afraid of getting viruses? No? You should be.

I just received a popup from my Norton Virus Scan/Protection basicly telling me: "You have been protected against 73139 virusesÂ over the last 47 days.". What kind of sites have I been visiting? I never really thought about how important virus protection is untill I saw this warning. So next time you view a web site think of this: "What the hell are they putting on my computer?" and "How the heck am I going to fix this now…".

The irony of this being posted on DestructiveChaos.com

By the way, Networked-Hosting’s servers are back to normal. Some of our hardware bit the dust. No worries though, it’s all worked out.

Vista Declined! Ooh noos!

Ian Gutjahr — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 18:29:04 +0000

I bought a new computer for christmas as you all may know. It came with “A free upgrade to Windows Vista”. I registered so I could get my free upgrade.. guess what they told me, “Your code is wrong. We’re not sending you Vista”. I’m pretty sure I’m not getting Vista from them now Â I sent them a rather long email on how they suck and should burn in hell. I paid $1000 for a brand new computer with what they call a ‘free upgrade’ - I like to call it, ‘A free pain in the ass’.

So, everyone, send me a copy of Vista!

New Windows Live Messenger released by the way.

Mi Connection es Longer y mas Stable than Yours!

Ian Gutjahr — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:21:44 +0000

Today my connection has reached the longest it’s ever been connected! 7 days! Un whole week! I wanna see if I can make it 10 days without a connection drop. I wonder if the reason my connection has stayed stable this long is because I haven’t been downloading as much as I usally do. What ever it is, it’s great! It’s nice not having to go down to the basement to reset the network switch. My lazyness is becoming overwelming I know.

This was something I just felt I needed to take a screen shot of to prove to you guys.

File Sharing with (m)IRC - New/Old Fad?

Ian Gutjahr — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:41:24 +0000

Today I used IRC to get an album (Los Benjamins - again)Â I’ve been waiting on for awhile. With torrents, it was hit or miss for the CDs I’m looking for. It seems everytime I search for a CD on this new system it comes up with the proper result. Using IRC for file sharing is simpler then I thought it would be. I tried to understand it years ago, but with all the commands and messy web sites for these file sharing servers - it always confused me. This site, which I now use and is saved to favorites . It’s so easy! Anyway, on with the fun stuff. So all you do is type in your search, and it basically does it for you! The website connects to the IRC file server and channel. All you have to do is type in a message like "/msg username filename #5" the site will give you a little pop up with all the needed command info and all you have to do is copy and paste!

There is only one down side that I have found with this though. I’ve only been able to get 33kbps - on all the servers I try. If you know how to make this go faster - it’s probably something simple like a option - contact me!