So the war continues between the two Giants of the Tech world. Once again Microsoft and Google have battled it out…this time in the ADVERTISING WORLD? I’ve reported earlier in the month on how Google and MySpace have connected on a $900 Million Dollar Advertising deal but I don’t believe I mentioned that Microsoft was trying to get that deal before Google, so I’ve been hearing. Apparently MySpace said “bug off” and Google got the deal for a “few more dollars”. Well, apparently Microsoft decided to go to “the next big thing”: Facebook.com …but is it REALLY the next big thing? While neither Microsoft nor Facebook.com have given details on the Price of this deal - sources say it was for approximately $750 Million.

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I won’t lie… I wanted to purchase one of those GREAT SOUNDING Packages for “AdSense Ready” Websites with 30,000 Articles, ready to go for anybody for only $99.00! Sound too good to be true?

If you thought it did - you are dead on. Made For AdSense website companies who sell these packages are overselling these products like crazy, but lying to you in their sales pitch. Each company stresses that they “DO NOT” Oversell their packages, yet they OBVIOUSLY DO! Everywhere I go I see the same trashy websites with the same overly used garbage articles. And the poor saps who purchase these packages might make $10 back, if they’re lucky enough not to get banned by Google… who is coming down on these MFA Sites.

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I found a cool new Search Engine today called: www.Surchin.com and so far it’s awesome. I like how it shows results for the searches. Give it a shot - it’s well worth the 2 minutes to do so (if that)!

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So most of you know by now about the AOL Search Data Leak… I was reading a blog today (I would link to it but I accidently closed the tab and can’t remember the link - sorry to the guy/girl who owns that blog!) and I found a link to this result showing a guy searching for some rather “unusual” information. I hope it didn’t turn out to be as bad as it looks!???

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Everywhere I look lately it seems that Google, Microsoft or another gargantuan Corporation is throwing hundreds of Millions of Dollars into sites such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com, etc. while sites such as YouTube are being reported to be making huge ad impacts lately as well. It’s a huge Social Networking market out there… just not for Adult Social Networking sites apparently lol

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Wow… alot of stress over the past few weeks with plenty of thoughts of Cancer. I did the colonoscopy and the EGD, along with the Bloodwork on Monday. My doctor told me everything looked good, blood count was normal, etc, etc. Although I still have the CTScan to do - but WOW I feel GREAT knowing everything looks good so far. Mentally I feel like a years worth of weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I was in so much pain yesterday and felt so sick that I couldn’t enjoy a free lunch at Red Lobster but I boxed it up and took it home and ate it about 20 minutes ago today! I’m feeling great right now and I feel like life gave me something new today… mentally I feel GREAT.

Thanks to the few people that were worried but everything is good now! Hopefully the CATScan comes out good too!

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It’s been about a week since my last post so I figured I’d write a quick post until I can think of something else to write about. I’ve been stressing out about Thursday - which is my Doctors appt - because of all the stuff I have to do. I hate being “put under” by medicine and I know I’m going to be stressing like crazy all night tonight… I’m hoping they don’t find anything because (to be honest) I’m scared as hell of the whole cancer thing… I haven’t eaten since monday night and won’t be able to eat anything but clear liquids until thursday after the tests.

Like Homer Simpson says: “me hungy”.

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Cal Evans recently interviewed George Schlossnagle and you can read the interview at Zend.com: http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/799

It’s a great read. I’m still amazed at how OmniIT has all those guys working at the same place!

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It still amazes me how many people seem to use addslashes() in their PHP projects rather than using mysql_real_escape_string(). Now, don’t get me wrong - I know that I have used addslashes in the past - but that was when I was a pure n00b in PHP! I’ve been using mysql_real_escape_string for quite a while now for many reasons. For one, when using MySQL you should be using the Native functions, if possible, to add slashes … it just makes sense. I feel that there’s too many books out there teaching n00bs, along with too many n00bs teaching n00bs how to program like this.

These people are usually the same people using $_REQUEST rather than $_GET or $_POST. It’s pure laziness and it erks me to see it.

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I’ve been big on Security over the past 6 months or so and I’ve pretty much adopted the Chris Shiflett method of securing User Passwords. It just seems to work for me mentally and physically - meaning I don’t feel stressed out about Passwords being stolen as easily.
Example:

$clean = array();

$clean['username'] = $_POST['username'];

$clean['password'] = $_POST['password'];

$salt = ‘CLENARD’;

$password = $salt . md5($clean['password'] . $salt);

?>

Of course that’s a simple example and one that Chris Shiflett explains in several examples but it’s pretty similar to what I’ve been using.

How do you secure your passwords? How do you filter your Data? I’m no PHP Expert and never claimed to be… but I love hearing how others secure their passwords. I used to use SHA1 because people claimed md5 reverse engineering was easy to do, which I no longer believe. I’ve tried many “engines” to test MD5 hashes and only one password actually worked out of hundreds I’ve tried.

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I’ve just hopped on 3 new projects… I’m not sure why I’ve done this as my Health problems may slow me down later, if the doctors find anything. All three projects are pretty damn big too!  One is an Automobile Website…actually a Portal full of Auto Info. Another site is for ..I can’t say….but this one will be the biggest of the three. I’m actually excited about this one as I know it will turn out pretty successful on a nationwide level. Then there’s another one that’s like an entertainment type portal. It might come out pretty successful but not huge, if you ask me. It will be kind of different from the others though. I have alot of ideas for this one to make it a little different from other sites that I’ve looked at over the past few days.

All will incorporate PHP, MySQL (I may try oracle for ONE!), AJAX and more web 2.0 designs for them.

Who owns these? Oh, that would be me.

I’m just trying to get more sites under my belt now… right now I have about 100 Domains but only about 20 that are built out now. I may start selling some of the other domains later, I guess I’ll see what happens.

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I’ve never heard anybody use that saying before - I actually used it in one of my songs a while back when my life felt like it was in Shambles. Everything I had dreamed about seemed to be just that: Dreams. I’ve been a daydreamer since I was just a little boy. I used to daydream in school about my life and the future. I always wanted to be a Professional Baseball player and I can assure you I would have been if it wasn’t for my arm problems suffered at 15 years old. Before that happened I was throwing around 80+ MPH and had a NASTY forkball nobody EVER hit. I became the best pitcher in my district quickly with that pitch and not to mention — we had some of the best Baseball Players in the country in our Area. Unfortunately that nasty pitch became the downfall of my Baseball career when it tore a tendon near my elbow.

So life passed me by when it came to Baseball… it basically became a thing of the past but that’s okay. I love my life for the most part and can’t wait to see what’s next. Am I the happiest person in the world? No, definately not. With all the Family deaths experienced over the past few years and my own Health Problems — I am definately not the happiest person in the world. But I do try to make the most of it and I love living this life I call my own!

Over the past 3 days I’ve had dreams about my ex-girlfriend. Psychologically I feel there’s a reason for these dreams but I’m not sure why they’re happening. To be honest, I’ve had maybe 10 dreams in the past 2 years or so and I don’t think she’s ever been in any of them… now all the sudden I’ve had 3 nights in a row with her in my dreams? Odd if you ask me. Hopefully nothing is wrong!

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Some of you may remember Mary Carey running for Governor of California back in 2003… well, she’s back! Now a brunette and a little thinner. Her Slogan is great too: “Finally, a politician you want to be screwed by”.

I say: “Why not?” We’ve got such a Circus of a Government, even in California.

Reuters posted their Article here:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sporting new breasts and draped in a cream-colored, ankle-length gown, porn star Mary Carey, who gained worldwide fame running for California governor in 2003, set out on Wednesday to do what she could not three years ago — beat Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I think I’m more serious now,” Carey said as she arrived at a Los Angeles County elections office to launch her 2006 gubernatorial campaign. “As you can see I’m dressed more seriously. I’ve got brown in my hair because brunettes are taken more seriously.”

The star of “Boobsville Sorority Girls,” and “Cheerleader School” said her campaign had already hit a snag because she had collected only about 40 of the 164,000 signatures required to register as an independent candidate.

Undaunted, Carey said she would enter the race as a write-in candidate and barnstorm across California colleges in a “shock the vote” tour aimed at her core constituency: young men.

Carey, who announced in December that she had lost weight, replaced her teeth and acquired new, size 36-D breasts, drew a throng of photographers and gawkers as she entered the building, inspiring one man to call out: “Mary, you’re thinner!”

The porn star responded: “Thank you. Smoking cigarettes and quitting birth control.”

Carey said a San Diego college student was serving as her campaign manager and she was accompanied by her publicity man and husband-to-be, Harry Shevlin. Asked by a photographer if Shevlin was being paid, she answered: “Um, in sex.”

Carey said she believed porn and politics went together, inspiring her slogan: “Finally, a politician you want to be screwed by” and was determined to win.

“I’ve actually been sober for five days now,” she said, adding that she intended to give up alcohol until election day in November to focus her energies on the campaign.

Carey’s platform includes getting the FBI to “leave porn stars alone” and concentrate on the war with Iraq and said that if elected she, like Schwarzenegger, would put her film career on hold while she served as governor.

“Although my movies only take a day or two to shoot, so I could probably do them on weekends,” she said.

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So today I had my first Doctors Appointment in 13 years. Unfortunately it was because I was having some Stomach issues unlike any I’ve had before. I was nervous at first… I thought I was going to have a panic attack! But the Doctor was cool and things went pretty smoothly. The bad thing is - I have to get a Colonoscopy and a CAT Scan as well. That’s pretty scary for me as I’ve had quite a few Family members and friends that have either Died or atleast went through cancer, which is obviously what they’re thinking they’ll find.

A Colonoscopy sucks though. I’m scared of having to be sedated and I just hate the fact that they will probably find something. 2 days prior to the procedure I can’t eat food for two days, which isn’t a good thought. Eating Ensure and water for 2 days will make me feel like crap…

Oh well, we live and die alike - hopefully they find nothing life threatening though!  Wish me luck on August 24th!

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I found an interesting article on BusinessWeek.com  talking about Microsoft at the BHC in Las Vegas. Looks like they’re finally getting real with themselves and asking Hackers to crack their new Operating System : Vista. Unfortunately I will never trust Microsoft Vista in the first year of its life, no matter what vulnerabilities they fix. Here’s the full article below from BusinessWeek.com’s Article titled “Heading off the Hackers”

File it under the category of “be careful what you wish for.” In early August at the Black Hat Conference, an annual meeting of computer security experts in Las Vegas, Microsoft (MSFT) handed out 3,000 test copies of its new operating system, Windows Vista, and challenged attendees to help spot security glitches. A short time later, Joanna Rutkowska obliged. In a packed ballroom at Caesar’s Palace (HET), the 25-year-old Polish programming whiz delivered a devastating presentation in how to hack an earlier but similar test version of Vista. Before a crowd of fellow researchers and hackers, she bypassed security measures and implanted a potentially undetectable piece of malicious code called “Blue Pill.” The presentation, titled “Subverting Vista Kernel for Fun and Profit,” was rewarded with a hearty round of applause.

The exercise wasn’t much fun for Microsoft security mavens. They put on a brave face: “We’ll take a look and see if there are ways we can mitigate it,” says Stephen Toulouse, program manager for Microsoft’s 650-member Security Response Center. But Rutkowska’s demo was the latest reminder of how difficult it will be for Microsoft to make the new version of its flagship product truly secure.

Microsoft went to full battle stations over PC security four and a half years ago, when Chairman William H. Gates III acknowledged in a memo to his staff that the plague of viruses and worms afflicting Windows and other products had gotten out of hand and something drastic had to be done. Henceforth, Gates decreed, security would be the top priority. All programming was temporarily halted as Microsoft embarked on an effort to make its products safe.

FEAR OF A BLACK HAT.  Soon we’ll know if the delay was worth it. The business version of Windows Vista will arrive late this year, with a consumer version due in early 2007. Vista is Microsoft’s first new PC operating system in five years and the first version of its flagship product to get a full security makeover. Hackers are expected to probe Vista relentlessly for vulnerabilities after final versions come out. But already there are signs that Microsoft may fall short of Gates’s goal—at a time when it’s facing pressure from a resurgent Apple Computer (AAPL), which suffers few security problems.

For Rutkowska, the Black Hat Conference was just another day at the office. She works for Singapore-based COSEINC, specializing in technologies used by hackers to cloak their activities. Her job is to anticipate the moves of criminals. “I see this as a continuous process, an endless game of chess, where nobody can really ultimately win. It’s essential, then, to enjoy the game itself,” says Rutkowska. She says she has always been a “white hat” programmer and never created malicious code like “black hat” hackers do.

Toulouse points out that revelations such as Rutkowska’s are exactly why Microsoft engages in a running conversation with security folks: “We realize we don’t know everything. These people hold the keys to making our products more secure.”

SPOTTING FLAWS.  Indeed, independent security researchers are fast becoming the tech industry’s first line of defense against viruses and other hacks. They typically get paid for staging test attacks on company computing systems and gain bragging rights by spotting flaws and showing how to exploit them. “You’d rather have the vaccine from researchers than a malicious attacker giving you the real disease,” says Phil Zimmermann, a security pioneer.

Microsoft had received only a smattering of feedback from other Black Hat attendees as of press time. But reviews are trickling in from established security companies, with mixed appraisals. Symantec (SYMC) recently issued two white papers analyzing Vista’s strengths and weaknesses. “Overall, it’s very solid,” says Vincent Weafer, senior director at Symantec Security Response. Still, he warns that the need to make Vista compatible with applications written for earlier versions of Windows “creates some holes.” Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer for consultancy Counterpane Internet Security, is less charitable: “It’s more complex than the last one, and complexity is the worst enemy of security. If you want security, buy a boat, not a cruise ship.”

Even Microsoft admits that Vista won’t be perfectly safe. “You can’t get the code 100% right,” says Toulouse. He points out, however, that Windows Server 2003 was more secure than Windows Server 2000, thanks to an extra year of security work tacked onto the end of the development process. Toulouse believes Vista will do even better.

We’ll see. A few days after the Black Hat Conference wrapped up, Rutkowska was back at her desk in Warsaw coming up with new ways to bedevil Microsoft. And you can bet that others will work just as hard, with less noble intentions.

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I’ve been thinking about Black Hat Hackers (crackers) and the things they’re capable of and even my own experiences with “crackers”. In California alot of cities have adopted a law called “Street Terrorism” which usually means “there may not be two or more members of a certain Gang that can walk the streets together”. This law was passed in Los Angeles and Long Beach during the 1990’s for 18th Street and seemed to work, for the most part. Atleast in those cities eyes… they ended up arresting a ton of 18th Street Members, whether they were up to no good or not.

So, why wouldn’t there be some sort of Online Terrorist law? A Law that could be enforced in any country at any time if known crackers communicate with each other? Wouldn’t this help enforce other laws a little easier? I’m sure some countries wouldn’t adopt the law but I’m sure adding to broken laws could push an “anti-crackers” movement throughout the Webmaster Community.

Sure, there’s some “good crackers” but I’m still not sure what’s good about them? I think everybody that can develop on the web has pushed the envelope at one time or another - but those who constantly push the law should get more than what they are currently getting.

Don’t get me wrong… there’s a ton of great “Hackers” out there along with great stories (Kevin Mitnick for example) but there are some who are just a little too close to the borderline of “bad”. Bad being: Those who “let you know a certain directory has its Permissions set too high” or even letting you know that “Hey, check out your site…you weren’t filtering SQL data good enough”, bad.

I think Governments should push “Online Terrorism” as a law and see how it goes. Maybe I’m missing something - maybe there already is such a law I’ve yet to hear about? Either way - they should make it more obvious if there is such a law and more Governments should enforce this law. I’m tired of seeing Companies, especially SMALL companies, invest all that time and energy into their Business only to have to worry about the “online thugs” come in and destroy their hard work.

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I know some of you may have heard that Friendster, who filed for a Social Networking Patent back in 2003, won their Patent Award in late June. But the question is: What will they try with it? When? Where? Will MySpace be the first attempt to push this patent in court?

I find it hard to believe that the Friendster Patent will affect anybody, especially MySpace. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. are very powerful people…how will a patent over “social networking” REALLY affect these sites? I’m curious to see as I own and operate several Social Networking Communities, similar to MySpace. It should be an interesting show!

Here’s what RedHerring.com reported about the Patent:

Friendster Wins Patent
After emerging from debt, Friendster wins a patent on social networking.
July 6, 2006

Friendster said Thursday that it has received a patent that covers online social networks, one the company had applied for long before its decline and recent recapitalization.

The U.S. patent, which was awarded June 27, is extremely general, and would seem to cover the activities of many other sites, especially those like LinkedIn that allow people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation.

Naming Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams, who has left the company, as inventor, the patent refers to a “system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.”

“It’s way too early to say” whether the company would pursue licenses and litigation from its competitors, Friendster President Kent Lindstrom told RedHerring.com. “We’ll do what we can to protect our intellectual property.”

Though the Friendster patent could be challenged in either the patent system or the courts, opponents would face an uphill battle. “Once the patent is issued there is a presumption of validity that follows with it,” said attorney Bill Heinze of Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley.

Hoping for a Turnaround

San Francisco-based Friendster has had a troubled past, falling from grace after being a social networking pioneer. Though it still counts 9 million to 10 million users, many of them in Asia, the company had lost momentum to younger networks such as MySpace.

Despite its pedigree—with over $15 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures—Friendster couldn’t hold onto its early social networking lead. Through the end of 2004 and 2005, the site suffered from slow load times, driving many users away. It has also been criticized for lacking the openness and cultural tie-ins of MySpace.

Mr. Lindstrom said of the problems, “I wish I could explain why—I have no idea why it happened. For a number of reasons we had trouble scaling for almost a whole year.”

In October, the company put itself up for sale after seeing MySpace be bought by NewsCorp for over $500 million. By January, it had not found a buyer and was about to run out of capital. In February investor Kleiner Perkins recapitalized the company, pulling it out of debt and giving it the resources to build a new team.

Friendster has never been profitable, but it is now on that track, Mr. Lindstrom said. The company makes money from ad sales in the United States and SMS in Asia, where users can subscribe to pay for phone alerts when their friends update their profiles.

Mr. Lindstrom said that advertisers haven’t been thrown off by the company’s rough times. “The demise of Friendster is a bigger Silicon Valley story than it is for the ad agencies in Minneapolis.”

Targeting Its Audience

The company, which has just under 30 employees, recently moved from Mountain View, California, to San Francisco. It had as many as 57 employees in the past, said Mr. Lindstrom, but scaled down after completion of an operations center in Santa Clara, California.

After the recapitalization, the company replaced most of its engineering team and got to work speeding up the site. Mr. Lindstrom said the company has improved page-loading times from 40 seconds, or even complete failure, to about two seconds.

Friendster is now planning to re-address the U.S. market, where it currently has 1 million to 2 million users. In the last month, the company took a page from MySpace and opened up Friendster to web crawlers, making users’ profiles searchable and accessible without being logged onto the site.

The company thinks it has a niche in users who are older than the teenagers and college users who frequent MySpace and Facebook, respectively. The redesigned site emphasizes what a user’s friends are doing, rather than surfing across profiles.

Patent History

The new Friendster patent covers the basic steps involved in joining a social network: entering a personal description and relationships to other users, mapping relationships and degrees of separation, and connecting to others through these friends.

Mr. Lindstrom said that Kleiner Perkins had encouraged Friendster to file patents when it funded the company in 2003. Another eleven patents are in the pipeline.

The approved patent came as a surprise. “Frankly we’d almost forgotten about it,” Mr. Lindstrom said.

Six Degrees of Separation, another failed social networking startup, had obtained a patent on social networking technology in 2001. It was bought at auction in 2003 by the founders of LinkedIn and Tribe.net.

The Six Degrees patent is cited as a reference in Friendster’s patent, indicating the U.S. Patent & Trademark examiner did not find that the two patents overlap.

The Friendster patent’s main claim applies to networks that limit relationships to a certain number of degrees of separation—for example, you cannot connect to someone who doesn’t know someone who knows someone you know.

That is very likely to apply to networks like LinkedIn that function with such limits, said Mr. Heinze.

However, the patent might also have broader application, to networks without such limits. “Since [the patent says] you can define that maximum number of degrees as any number, that’s a pretty tough claim,” said Mr. Heinze.

LinkedIn and social networks Bebo, Tribe.net, and Tagged were not immediately available for comment.

Posted by Clint Lenard | 4 Comments »

For a while Google seemed to be at the top of the net and then came MySpace… Google even has their own Social Networking Community ca