Adding sitemaps just became easier – enable auto discovery!
It was not long ago that major internet players Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! agreed on a common sitemap protocol. This allowed webmasters to provide an XML file indicating the structure of the Website.
One of the problems with sitemaps was that you needed to submit it to each search engine separately. For Google, this meant creating your own Webmaster tools account and then adding your sitemap XML there. With so many search engines out there it was a chore.
But not anymore! Google, Microsoft, Ask and Yahoo! again joined hands to enable something called auto discovery of sitemaps. You just need to add a reference to the sitemap in robots.txt and all the search engines will automatically pick that up! Now that is what I call a cool idea!
In your robots.txt file, just add
Sitemap: http://www.yousitedomainname.com/sitemap.xml
Is your Wireless network secure? – think again!
Is your Wireless network secure? If your answer is “Yes, I use WEP encryption”, then probably you need to think again. I have been using WEP encryption for sometime and hence was not amused when I saw this news!
Code breakers have discovered a technique for extracting a 104-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key in under a minute.
Under a minute? Basically RC4 stream cipher used by WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy) has cryptographic weakness which is exploited by WiFi crackers. You can checkout more details of the WiFi exploit here.
We were able to extend Klein’s attack and optimize it for usage against WEP. Using our version, it is possible to recover a 104 bit WEP key with probability 50% using just 40,000 captured packets. For 60,000 available data packets, the success probability is about 80% and for 85,000 data packets about 95%. Using active techniques like deauth and ARP re-injection, 40,000 packets can be captured in less than one minute under good condition.
It is time for me to switch to WPA which is supposed to be much more secure. I mean, till it is cracked by somebody else!
But in a world where there are so many insecure WiFi networks, WEP weakness is probably the last thing you worry about!
Time to get naked – CSS naked day 2007
Today (April 05) is the official CSS naked day. Don’t be confused, you are not getting naked. Instead you need to remove all of your CSS files (design) in your blog/website and leave just the content in place.
The idea is to promote Web standards. If your site conforms to Web standards, things should look just fine. You can check out more details here. More than 1500 Websites are taking part in this “prank”.
No, I have no plans of getting naked. Frankly I don’t know how it will look (It will not be pretty for sure!). Do you have any plans for getting naked?
How to make quick money if you are a domain registrar
Domains are extremely cheap these days. So as a domain registrator, it is difficult to make some nice cash. But if you adopt the following technique, you might be able to make a good amount of money with minimum effort and time.
- Find domains with non-working/incorrect email addresses that are registered with you.
- Shortlist valuable domains from the above list. Look at the traffic, links and domain name value.
- Ask your relative/friend to backorder the domain.
- Send mails to the wrong/incorrect email asking the domain owner to correct his email address(!)
- After 8 weeks, delete the original registration and transfer the domain to your friend/relative.
- Profit!!!
Bashing digg – stupidity of Wired
Wired is supposed to be a cool tech reporting site. But unfortunately it is owned by the same company which owns reddit. I have nothing against reddit. It is a good source to find interesting links.
But paying someone to destroy your competitor’s reputation is hardly commendable.
Here is a summary of what Wired’s reporter Annalee Newitz has done,
1. Annalee creates a blog about “photographs of crowds“. It is supposed to be very badly written.
2. Then she submits the blog to Digg.
3. Then she contacts user/submitter and pays $450(!) to buy digg votes.
4. The story gets over 100 diggs. Eventually it is buried.
Consider this. Suppose Pepsi hires a lot of bloggers to write bad articles about Coca cola. Is it possible? Obviously yes, if you pay enough you can find bloggers who do that. But is it ethical? Obviously No. Does that make all bloggers irresponsible? Obviously No.
What is interesting is this. She paid for 430 diggs and got around 100 only! On top of it, the story is buried. Frankly it only shows that Digg works, probably a bit slow.
I guess some people gets irritated when someone else becomes successful 
Google censors Indian installations on Google earth
Finally it happened. Google has agreed to blur sensitive military and goverment buildings in India from Google earth. This follows discussions between Google executives and Indian beaurocrats. Surprisingly, simple blurring of images was acceptable to the Indian side.
BBC report says,
In a statement the search giant said: “Google has been talking and will continue to talk to the Indian government about any security concerns it may have regarding Google Earth.
“We are pleased to have initiated dialogue with the Indian government, the discussions have been substantive and constructive, but no agreements have been made.”
It added: “We have committed to continue the dialogue”.
In fact Google had no other option. They will have to continue with the censorship. Indians are too happy to ban Websites which are considered harmful to national integrity. Last year major blog sites such as blogspot and free hosting providers such as geocities were completely blocked by Indian ISPs on government order. It took sometime before the ban was revoked.
Indian president Abdul Kalam (who considers himself a geek) expressed his displeasure with Google earth many times before. He was of the opinion that Google earth may be used by terrorists to plan and execute attacks on Indian installations!
Windows home server in detail
Nathan Weinberg has done a detailed post on upcoming Windows home server,
There are three primary purposes of Home Server:
1. Automated Computer Backup – Home Server will sit in the middle of your house and completely backup the entire hard drives of every computer connected to it, automatically. Lose anything, even an entire computer, and you will be able to restore it. You will even be able to restore older versions of files, taking advantage of a valuable feature in Windows Vista.
2. Access Everything From Anywhere – With a Home Server, you will be able to access all of your files from any computer, inside or outside your home, as well as accessing your home computers from outside the home. You will centrally store your files to make them easier to access at all times.
3. Grows With You – Home Server will be designed to make it easier for users to expand its capabilities, especially making it easy to add more hard drives.
Video ads on Adsense
Adsense is piloting video ads with a select set of publishers.
This time, we’ll be working with a larger set of content providers, grouping together video content from providers such as Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment together with quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. Participating publishers range from small to large, and cut across many different types of content.
As the bandwidth availability is increasing everywhere, streaming videos is no longer an issue. Google obviously wants to be the first in trying video ads on a large scale! Interestingly this time small publishers are also included in the Adsense video beta testing program.
Small DAM virus outbreak on F-Secure’s WorldMap Live
Small.DAM, a variant of Small, is a Trojan that arrives on the system as attachment file to spam emails. Small.DAM loads a malicious service named “wincom32″ in the affected machine.
Check out the following video on F-Secure’s WorldMap Live showing an outbreak of malware named Small.DAM.
This shows how many people are still ready to click on suspicious attachments in emails!
Wikipedia’s ultimate weapon against spam – rel=spam
Having been requested by Jimmy to do so, and having seen a fun rumor of a “search engine optimization world championship” contest targeting WP[1], I’ve gone ahead and switched rel=”nofollow” back onto URLs in en.wikipedia.org’s article namespace.
I love this! All the hard work done by SEO specialists and spammers have gone down the drain in a single stroke! What this decision means is that getting your site on to the wikipedia will no longer help you in search engine rankings.
There are lot of clever SEO guys out there who has managed to get their sites included in Wikipedia articles. Since Wikipedia is a high pagerank site on Google, getting a link to your site will increase your pagerank and you will also get a lot of referral traffic. After this rel=nofollow change, pagerank benefit is no longer available.
Since there is no pagerank benefit, the spamming activity on Wikipedia is bound to come down. I wonder why they haven’t done it in the first place!
Apple threatens bloggers over iPhone images
OmniNerd is reporting that Apple lawyers are going after bloggers for using iPhone images,
Turns out Apple is not happy about all the publicity. Someone has created a skin for Windows Mobile phones that looks very similar to the new iPhone user interface. Shortly after Paul O’Brian posted a link on an xda-developer forum to the interface, he got a cease and desist letter from Apple’s lawyers. The lawyers warn, “The icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law explicitly prohibits unauthorized display and distribution of copyrighted works. Apple therefore demands that you remove this screenshot from your website…
Well done Apple! Harassing bloggers is an easy way to increase your business. I have a feeling that some of the Apple lawyers are Microsoft employees!
Internet Explorer 8.0 on the way
Microsoft has already begun development of Internet Explorer 8.0,
One Microsoft official at CES has told ActiveWin.com that work has already begun for IE 8, the next version of Internet Explorer, and we can expect to see a final product within 18-24 months. In addition, there are reportedly no plans for an interim service pack, but rather focus completely on the next version, which will compete even more directly with Firefox.
Some of the features rumoured to be included in Internet Explorer 8.0 are,
- Full compliance to CSS specifications.
- Ability to move tabs from one IE window to another.
- A “Lock Page” functionality. This will prevent accidental navigation.
- Enhanced support for add-ons (plugins)
I think we can expect IE 8.0 release towards the end of 2008.
What is apple upto?
Check out the Apple homepage. They have put up a big image which says “The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007″.
Now the expectation on the new stuff they are going to announce has reached its peak! Dreamhost predicts on what it is going to be
The next iPod? – Apple to release new gadget on tuesday
International Herald Tribune in an article titled “War for the 4th screen” talks about a new device from Apple. It is rumoured that the new device will be a true pocket computer capable of handling music, video, productivity tasks and mobile communication.
For functions from e-mail and instant messaging to mobile MySpace and ESPN, computer users are increasingly turning to the “fourth screen” – the one on their cellphones – which is evolving to adopt more characteristics of the three previous generations of screens: movie, television and computer.
That shift may well be underscored on Tuesday when Steven Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, is expected to unveil an Apple phone representing his company’s new mobile communications strategy – highlighted by a device that may include Jobs-inspired refinements like a sleek ceramic case and a transparent touch screen.
Only time will tell whether this will turn out to be the pocketpc killer like what iPod did to other MP3 players. Well, one thing is sure, it won’t be that easy.
Bill Gates keynotes consumer electronics show 2007
Catch the Bill Gates keynote at CES 2007, where he discusses connected experiences vision. The video requires Windows Media Player.
Join Bill Gates as he keynotes 2007 CES demonstrating how Microsoft is delivering a new generation of connected experiences. Bill will be joined by Robbie Bach in announcing several new offerings from Windows Vista, Xbox 360, Microsoft TV and more.
Microsoft also has a blog on the CES events. The video is available there as well.