In fact, they’re the only sensible option.
Some people say that custom-built computer systems involve too much cost, time and risk. They say that it is better to take pre-existing, off-the-shelf products from software companies, and then adapt your business to make use of them. I disagree. In this current technological environment, custom-built applications are not just feasible, but they are more beneficial than ever. Read More »
Oh wow, code injection is fun. Especially in the Encyclopedia Britannica!
Look at this for a hyperlink URL: [link].
If you just look at the first part, you see http://www.britannica.com/. Great, fine, dandy, everybody feels safe following a link to the Encyclopedia Britannica site.
Uh-uh. Nope. It’s actually abusing the Britannica search page to inject JavaScript code into the search results page. The moment you land on the Britannica site, you’ll be wooshed off to some dodgy pharmaceuticals vendor!
I hadn’t seen this kind of shenanigans before. It reminds me of a few years ago, when every two out of three sites running SQL databases would succumb to ‘SQL injection’ attacks. Those were cooler, because they injected code into the server and could earn the attacker money, while the present method just annoys people.
But then think about a website like Lifehacker. When you post links in the comments section on one of their articles, the link is abbreviated to just the website name. So, the link above would be shortened to www.britannica.com. Most folks wouldn’t know they were visiting some dodgy third party site until it was already happening!
EDIT: This blog has ‘Snapshots’ enabled, so when you hover your mouse over a hyperlink, it gives an image preview of the site you will visit next. When you mouseover the magic link above, Snapshots still shows you Encyclopedia Britannica. Yet when a human actually clicks on it…
Compare this behaviour to what happens when you search on Wikipedia: [link]. Wikipedia just turns around and says, “ask a silly question, get a silly answer”. No redirection for you.
It just goes to show that the Encyclopedia Britannica is poor by comparison to Wikipedia.
I tried out Net-SNMP today. It’s a great set of command-line utilities for monitoring your SNMP devices.
In my case, I used it to monitor bandwidth usage on my Linksys AG241 broadband modem. If you like the command-line, as I do, then you’ll enjoy the no-nonsense, functional approach of Net-SNMP’s tools.
Plus there’s a handy wiki full of tutorials, how-tos and other information to get you up and running!
Start with snmpwalk, which lets you query a device for all the information it can give you. You can use that to find the names and numbers of network interfaces, for example.
Once you have the object identifiers (“OID” in SNMP-speak) for the data you want, use snmpget whenever you’d like to grab that info. Use snmpwalk and snmpget with grep, awk and perl to periodically poll the data you need, and:
SNMP is great, and Net-SNMP is a great implementation.
Maybe Blackle isn’t total garbage. According to Dan’s Data, there is as much as 10 watts of difference in power usage between an LCD screen showing all white and the same screen showing all black! However, you can save another 40 by turning down your brightness setting.
Now that’s an LCD screen. Think about many more watts a CRT sucks down, and imagine the difference between black and white for one of those chunky chaps.
So what does that tell us, from a practical perspective? It means you should turn down the brightness on your computer screen!
And if you feel like saving five cents a year on electricity, make Blackle your home page.
Let me show you a Firefox extension to upload files, simply by dragging files from your computer and dropping them into a file upload form.
Check out one of these amusing sites about Dubya. This one has an interactive tool. Hours of fun!
Example:
Professor Joshua Gans, world-renowned economist and Australia-renowned Internet expert, reports on Internet speeds around the world in his CoreEcon blog at economics.com.au.
His findings are that you can, generally, get the same download bandwidth in Australia as in the US or Japan. However, he also notes that upload bandwidth for households in Australia is crippled.
The Internet pipes between countries are plenty big enough; you already know that the only thing limiting your bandwidth (in a practical sense) is “the last mile” of the ADSL/cable/NextG service to where one happens to be accessing the Internet.
It’s interesting that Australia was the only place where you were subjected to a strictly limited upload rate. With some cable systems (servicing internet and TV, like Foxtel), or one-way satellite links, this is because of an actual technical limitation. But in general, internet services are only restricted like this because the internet companies have made a commercial choice.
They limit your ability to send data at high speed, and “cap” you for breaching silly “download limits”. The reason, of course, is that they hate to have to pay for all your email, photos and other important data to move over the Southern Cross link from Sydney to California. As everybody knows, everything good on the internet is in California.
Moving data inside Australia need not be expensive. Moving data internationally need not be expensive either, but hey, if you owned one of only two internet links between Australia and the world, you’d charge an exploitative price too, wouldn’t you?
It occurred to me that Al Gore is a fantastic example for people who want to make money through Internet marketing. Here’s my hypothesis, let me know what you think:
He’s become the master speaker on global warming. The go-to guy for that market. Like a niche blogger, he attracts crowds every time he opens his mouth about his specialist topic. His job is to jet-set around the globe, light a hot fire under people’s butts, and get the word out about the inconvenient truth of global warming.
So what, he’s an effective public speaker, a former vice-president of his country, and he wants to make a difference in the world. What’s that got to do with Internet Marketing? Or even internet marketing, for that matter.
Well, here’s my idea:
Credibility. Al Gore has credibility. Whether you’re a pot-smoking Democrat, a baby-eating Republican, or simply not an American, people all over the globe take Al Gore seriously. Sure, not everybody does. Not everybody takes Ed Dale seriously. And not everybody takes the Chaser boys seriously. But, like a good niche blogger, Al Gore does have credibility: that means that when he opens his mouth and talks about global warming, people listen. If Al Gore had a blog about global warming, people would subscribe to it. (I think he does, but I couldn’t find it.)
Frequent communication, without explicit selling. How many check moves do you personally get every week from Al Gore. Well, if you’re me, he rings up every second night crying for me to come back to him. But even you probably still get all kinds of communications from him. You watched his movie. You saw him in the newspaper. If you’re in the US of A, you listened to his campaigns and decided not to vote for him. But in any case, you still hear Al Gore’s message all the time. But does he say things like “buy my book”, “I sell carbon credits”, or “HOW I HALVED MY CARBON FOOTPRINT IN TEN DAYS”?
Products. Did you even notice, or did he sneak it past you too? Al Gore, and his companies, sell seminars, movies, carbon offsets, consulting services, and who knows what else. He has commercial relationships with hybrid car manufacturers. Every time Al Gore promotes his climate change cause, he also promotes these products. It’s a big conversation with the world, and every time he communicates, it gives the world a chance to buy his products.
Profits from not only the products, but also the communications themselves. This point is where Al Gore is like a blogger with Adsense on their blog. See, Al Gore’s speaking tours are great for the cause, and great for promoting his products. But they also provide for him financially. He makes money in the process of encouraging people up to make money off them… even if the people at the seminars and cinemas don’t end up buying carbon credits or hybrid cars… a true money machine.
Oh yeah, and YouTube. Everybody loves YouTube, even if the YouTube data centres are just big blocks of carbon-burping electricity-guzzling non-recyclable something-something I need beer! My rants are lame, but this video is funny.
Well, wouldn’t anyone agree that Al Gore is the ultimate (hybrid-fuel) Internet-marketing idol?
Pat! Put your capital back in your business before you get hurt!
But Mum! I can run a business without any capital.
No you can’t, you won’t be able to produce a decent product, plus in this analogy you might fall off ad graze your knee!
Hey Mum have some flowers I bought with profits.
<3
One approach to starting a business is to set up your own infrastructure for plying your own trade, then expand and hire labour to assist you.
But how does a business person found a business in an industry he does not personally work in?
Back in the day, a businessman who was not a baker could start a bakery by putting up the capital to buy a shop and some equipment, and then hiring a baker and shop assistants. His work would be to design and market the brand, handle administrative business things, and manage the staff. And collect profits.
Nowadays, a businessman who is not an English tutor can start an English tutoring school without putting up any capital; he simply hires tutors. His work is to design and market the brand, handle administrative business things, and manage the staff. And collect profits.
The key difference is the relevance of capital. People don’t even need capital; they can use near-free technology to recruit and coordinate the network of staff needed to generate profits.
I should probably go swipe some buckets of money now, goodnight.
Glen Boreham, Power and the Digital Age, Business Review Weekly, 5 April 2007. Large companies became multinationals to gain economies of scale greater than their native country’s market. Now technology allows individuals to run global businesses. What is the value of the infrastructure provided by an institution like the employer?
Technology made infrastructure so cheap that an employee doesn’t need the business’ help. The employee might as well hire sales staff and manufacturing staff, interpose himself in-between, and collect his salary as a cut of sales.
Technology has freed up communication to enable global networks of people (e.g. Wikipedia, eBay) to cooperate. The new business model is about drawing together suppliers and buyers to a common purpose.
“Outsourcing is about costs. Global integration is about creating greater value.” says Mr Boreham. So finally the business world is progressing past simply minimising costs (and slashing quality where possible) and starting to look at fundamental business model innovations that will actually increase the benefits to all involved. w00t!
