WildFire - post Social Network updates to all networks from one place!

As a Lotus Notes head I am happy now to find that I do not have to fumble through multiple social networking sites in my browser or continue on my ongoing search for the perfect all in one solution for posting to multiple networks. Now I have the ability to post updates from the environment I spend most of my day in with more control than I have found in many of the web based applications that I have tried (and believe me that it most of them)


WildFire is a Lotus Notes 8.5 Sidebar Application to Update Status's across a wide range of Social Networks including Sametime, Connections, Socialtext, Facebook, GTalk, PingFm, Plurk, Tumblr, Twitter, Wordpress and more!


The website provides some fairly comprehensive instructions on the set-up process so developers as well as most savy users will be able to get it up and running in no time.


Please check it out. It is great to see such and innovative product come from an Australian IBM Partner too.. Keep up the good work guys..



Download - http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/WildFire
Developers - http://www.isw.com.au/wildfire

9 Ways to Instantly Code Faster

There are a wide variety of tools and techniques which can drastically improve the speed at which we code. Particularly during time-sensitive settings, even a savings of a few seconds per iteration can add up substantially over the course of the month. Here are 9 ways to save time coding;

http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/general/9-ways-to-instantly-code-faster/

Improve Your Businesses Wireless Security

A business wireless network should be a network that is safe from hackers and unauthorised users. Here are some steps to secure your network from such intrusions;

Create a Wireless Security Policy
Create a policy that specifies who can use the network, and how to protect the network This is one below is taken from a Cisco template I found on a website;
- Acceptable use policy, to specify what types of network activities are allowed and which ones are prohibited.
- E-mail and communications activities, to help minimise problems from e-mails and attachments.
- Antivirus policy, to help protect the network against threats like viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
- Identity policy, to help safeguard the network from unauthorised users.
- Password policy, to help employees select strong passwords and protect them.
- Encryption policy, to provide guidance on using encryption technology to protect network data.
- Remote access policy, to help employees safely access the network when working outside the office.

Educate your Employees
Educate your employees and get them involved in protecting the network. Use informational posters and training about security, passwords, and privacy to help you keep your business information and communications secure.

Secure the WLAN
- Use strong encryption: When you install your network, set up the strongest wireless encryption you can. WEP encryption is adequate, but WPA and WPA2 are better options.
- Secure communications: Encrypt data that travels on the network, and authenticate users to be sure you know who is using the WLAN.
- Change the default network name to something that is hard to identify so it is unrecognisable.
- Use MAC address control lists combined with encryption to restrict user access.
- Be sure that management ports are secured with non default names and passwords.
- Hide the access points to prevent tampering.
- Use video surveillance cameras to monitor your office building and site for suspicious activity.

Protect Your Company from Outside Threats
Protect wireless devices with the same security you use for the your company network. (i.e. firewalls, VPNs, and antivirus software)

Protect Your Wired Network from Wireless Threats
Install wireless intelligent protection switching (IPS) devices to prevent unauthorised, "rogue" access points and other wireless threats.

Review of Untangle UTM

Recent open source start-up Untangle has launched one of the first open-source unified threat management software platforms (UTM) for network security, targeted at small to mid-sized businesses. The Untangled Gateway Platform was built around more than 30 open source projects, including SpamAssasin, ClamAV, and Snort, and competes with proprietary systems from SonicWall, Barracuda and WatchGuard, among others.

Untangle is aimed at SMB appliances and is geared toward 250 users or fewer, and is meant to work on one server although not released as an enterprise product it is targeted at SMB’s who previously may have used a combination of open source projects.

There is an enterprise-scale version slated for a 2009 release with the free version including a spam, virus, spyware, phish and attack blocker, as well as a web filter, protocol control, open VPN, intrusion
prevention, firewall, router and web reporting.

The paid version of Untangle includes active directory integration and advanced policy management, as well as remote access portal and configuration back-up.

Pricing for up to 10 users is US$25 a month, and it's double for up to 50 users. From 51 to 150 users it will cost US$150 a month, and for more than 151 users US$250 a month.

For more information go to
http://www.untangle.com/

TwitterFox - Firefox extension

If you have not heard of Twitter yet it is a micro blogging tool that allows you to write 140 characters at any point in time. For more details on it please read my previous blog post which will give you some background on what it is. Well I have been using Twitter now for quite a few months and enjoy its ability for me to post useful comment and sometimes not so useful comments off to my followers. Something that I have found very useful is a Firefox extension called TwitterFox. This is the primary method I have been using it to post my tweets and interact on Twitter. If you live inside the Firefox web browser then TwitterFox is a great way for you to post, receive replies, direct messages and generally keep updated on the people that you are following. The extension is very lightweight and adds a tiny icon to the status bar of Firefox. I have been through quite a few bits of standalone pieces of software as well as a number of other Twitter downloads including the majority of the ones listed on the Twitter website (http://twitter.com/downloads) and found this one to be the fastest and most reliable. The URL to the extension is below;

http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox

Change file types in Vista - Using Types

Have you noticed that the functionality to associate file types with a program has been dropped in Vista from the explorer menu "Tools" > "File Types". Well there is a way to give you back the control that you are used to with a program called Types. It is a is a free and lightweight configuration utility for Windows Vista and XP that allows you to edit program associations, icons, context menus and other properties of various file types displayed in Windows Explorer programs in Vista. You can still use Vista to change what programs open which file extensions. For example by clicking on "Start" > "Default Programs", or by right clicking on a file and clicking "Properties" and on then by clicking on "Change" on the "General" tab. Types however allows you to full control of editing file types and context menus and many other properties. It is definitely worth a look at and is in my mind ones of the most powerful freeware file extension managers out there as changes are made instantly with a quick refresh click. It is definitely an improvement on the inbuilt Windows file extension management options.

http://types.sourceforge.net/

Recuva - Restore files that you have deleted

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility that can be used to restore files that you have deleted from your computer. It comes from the makers of CCleaner so you can trust the product developers. It can be used to retrieve files that have been deleted from memory cards, mp3 players as well as the recycle bin. If you have been hit with a virus that has deleted files then you can use the program to locate the files that have been deleted and restore them to their original location. I have only just started playing with the program and ran a few tests and it seems to work quite well. The interface is quite easy to use so it can be used by all levels of computer users with a relatively good understanding of a computers file system. It is in beta phase so it may have some bugs, but I am yet to find any. If you have deleted a file or need to recover lost data then give it a try. You can find it at http://www.recuva.com/.

Link Tiger - Broken link finder

Link Tiger is an easy to use broken link finder that can be used for free if maintaining a single website with no more than 1000 links contained throughout your website. As a website developer it can also be used to maintain more than one site with more links however a licence fee is required in this case. Link Tiger allows you to locate the broken links on your website so that they can be fixed before the customer has time to see it. From my experience with the product it is very easy to use with the summary page providing you with a list of broken links on your website that is really easy read. The page then provides you with the ability to click on the broken link item listed while the software locates and highlights the broken link on the page, so that there is no searching through the page trying to find the link. It is a very useful online service that I recommend that you use if you are concerned about having broken links throughout your website. Broken links can have an effect on your search engine rankings as well as be a bit of a turn off for your website visitors so it is important that you fix them if they appear on your website.

http://www.linkfinder.com/

Web based Operating System

Something that has interested me recently with all of the "Web 2" activity going on is the area web based Operating Systems. I have stumbled across this one which seems to be in use mainly in Europe called "eyeos". Its a very simple operating system, if you can call it that, however toots a number of simple applications that are functional in a web browser. Who knows this could be the way of the future, but I think that it has a long way to go yet before it can replace the likes of Windows, Linux or MAC OS. I mean I played with it for a couple of hours to see what sort of functions I could perform with it and it runs quite well and doesn't seem to fall over, however the big drawback is the limited amount of applications for the OS. It comes with a "Notepad" style application as well as a few games and office applications, but every application had many shortcomings. I would have a look at it as it is quite interesting and as a web developer it is interesting the technology that is used to hold it together, but Ii think it has a long way to go before I trade in my current OS.

One other concern of mine in this arena is do I want my computer applications and data in the hands of a Company that cold virtually access my information at any time they want. Maybe I'm paranoid but I think you can see my point.

Take a look at the link below;
http://demo.eyeos.org/

Civilnetizen

Stumbled upon a free tool that can be used to transfer files of up to 4GB in size between users of the Netizen software. The transfer is secure as it uses 128-bit AES encryption and you are able to start, stop and resume your file transfer at any time. It is quiet a cool tool that can be used to transfer large files across the web securely to family, friends or other people from the dark side.

http://www.civilnetizen.com/

Optimising Page Content Guidelines and Tool

Over the past few months I have been optimising the content of a website to try to achieve the highest possible results in the main search engines (http://www.purebean.com.au/ ). After trial and error I have found that the guidelines described below seems to work the best. When populating the page content with keywords, you want to contain your keywords in your content as much as possible, without going too overboard. The reason being that if you include your keywords too much then the search engines will identify your page as spam which will have a negative affect on your rankings. This is to prevent those pages that contain nothing but keywords and advertisements from finding themselves highly ranked in the search engines. I have found that a good keyword to content percentage to aim for is about 2-3%, when your page content is between 300 - 1200 words. A good online tool to use to check the keyword to content % of your page is "Live Keyword Analysis", http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/, which allows you to type up to three of your keywords, in three field located at the top of the page, and paste your page content in a rich text field in the body of the page. The page then computes the % ratio that your keywords are included in the content of your page. I find it quiet a useful tool as helps me refine my content and lets me know if I am going over the top by including too many keywords or if I need to add the keywords a few more times. I also recommend that you keep the contents of your pages between 300 and 1200 words as a guide, as having too much content on one page can prevent the search engine spiders from indexing your whole page and also turn your readers away. Stick to these guidelines when you are writing your page content and you can be happy knowing that you are doing as much as you can do, in relation to optimising page content, to get high rankings in the search engines.

Mozilla Addons dedicated site

What a busy week this one has been, and yes, bonus I have been blessed with a four day Easter weekend!

I stumbled across a post today which is a few days old which includes a write up on FireFox and the fact that the Mozilla Cooperation have now launched a specific site for listing extensions and other personalisation features for their products. As I love the FireFox browser, a few reasons being the fact that I feel more secure, am offered a huge amount of useful extensions that assist with website development and the fact that it performs better than any other browser, I was quick to check out the new site. (http://addons.mozilla.org/) The site is branded with the familiar Mozilla look and feel and at first feels like you were in the old extensions section of the old site. I quickly found though that the site boasts refined navigation, to make it easier to access different sections of the products that I am able to customise, and more prominently links to a section designed to get you to create your own extensions. (When I get a few more long weekends, I will definitely be taking some time to come up with something useful for web developers out there) There also seems to be more information about each of the extensions on each individual page, with each page allowing you to check reviews and related discussions on the extension.

The fact that Mozilla have expanded this section of the site leads me to believe that their support to other like minded developers out their is strong and that they are keen to promote 3rd party extensions for their products. I'm sure this will make for ongoing innovation in their browser and products in the future, allowing developers to take the browser platform to new levels.

Add This - Bookmark & RSS buttons

If you have a website then you will know that maintaining shortcuts for your users to bookmark your site to their bookmark manager or RSS feed to the feed reader of their choice has become become a bit of a task. Which bookmark manager or RSS reader are your visitors using? If I add a shortcut to bookmark with one tool should I add one for the other tool. There are that many out there now that if you were to include links to them all then you would end up with a huge amount of icons on each page to perform these simple operations. There is "Google Bookmarks", "De.icio.us", "Digg", "Furl", "Diigo", "Technorati", "Shadows" just to name a few.

Now there is one button that you can add to your site that allows your users to bookmark your site using the bookmark manager of their choice and another button to add your RSS feed to the feed reader of their choice. The website that provides this service is called Add This and boasts they have over 2,000,000 buttons out their on peoples websites, some of these being quiet well know sites. As you can see I have subscribed to their free service and now have these buttons on my blog (down on the right hand side - click on them to check out the full list of providers they support). I'm happy with the service they provide as I will no longer have to keep adding these sorts of buttons to my blog as these two button cover all of the bookmark manager and RSS reader services out there.

Google Apps Premier Edition

Google have updated their Google Apps service so that they now offer a Premier Edition of the service. You get all of the offerings of the Standard Edition (access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs and Spreadsheets) along with more services and guarantees. These include 24/7 support for critical issues, 99.9% up-time guarantee for Gmail, 10 GB email quota for each account, no adds, API for setting up an email gateway to conduct a deployment pilot or for archiving of email and compliance, API for integrating single sign-on services, API for migration of calendar data (email migration is coming) and partner technology and services. All of this costs $50 per account which is quiet reasonable if you think of how much other technology providers would charge for all of these services. I believe that the added support and guaranteed up-time for the mail services really make this a serious service to be considered for businesses looking to outsource these core business services. Check out the Premier Edition at http://www.google.com/a/enterprise/

Yahoo Pipes

Yahoo Pipes is a new online tool from Yahoo that allows you to merge news sources and RSS feeds from the Internet and then query and perform a number of operations on the data to give you a desired output. To give you a clearer idea of its function you can create a pipe that draws data from all of your favorite blogs RSS feeds then perform a search query across them to find is there are any postings that match you query. To get a better idea of what I am talking about I suggest that you check out some of the examples that users have created that perform a number of useful functions. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ The pipe editor is drag and drop, so you can layout the different elements of the pipe is a relatively easy way for you to understand. The reason I say relatively is because you have to have a fair bit of understanding of URLs and how site searches function before you can really use the interface and its modules. It is a revolutionary tool and the first of its kind that I have seen as it allows you to process data from all over the Internet through you web browser. Check it out at http://pipes.yahoo.com/.

FireFox Extension - Dummy Lipsum Generator

If you are in the business of creating web pages then you will know that when you are creating a draft page to present to a client then you need present the page with content so that they can get an idea of how the graphics and content will look on a page together. A handy FireFox extension that I have come across is the "Dummy Lipsum Generator". This extension allows you to create dummy content easily in a couple of clicks by adding a new button to your "Tools" button which performs this operation. It is configurable so that you can specify the number of paragraphs of content to create also provides you with a "Copy to clipboard" option so that you do not have to highlight the content it creates. It works by looking out to the http://www.lipsum.com/ website and then copying the generated text back into the extension interface. To find out more and download the extension visit https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2064/.

Spyware, adware removal tools

Removing spyware can be a time consuming and tricky task as spyware becomes more and more advanced. Fortunately there are a number of Windows tools that are available to help identify and remove spyware, adware, and other malicious code. Here is a list of my personal favourites, which are my favourites because they are free. These are Spybot Search & Destroy and HijackThis. There are also many commercial alternatives which include Ad-Aware and Microsoft's Windows AntiSpyware beta.