Poll: What Operating System Do You Mainly Use?
February 1st, 2008 at 11:27 PM by Matt Freedman
This post marks the beginning of a new weekly feature, “Reader Poll”. Each week, on Friday, there will be a new Poll for readers to vote on. Here’s this week’s poll (click here, if you’re reading this in a feed reader):
What's Your Internet's Advertised Download Speed?
- 6-10 mbps (67%)
- < 1 mbps (33%)
- 1-5 mbps (0%)
- 11-20 mbps (0%)
- 21-50 mbps (0%)
- > 50 mbps (0%)
Total Votes: 3
Loading ...The results for the last poll are available here.
Win 300 Entrecard Credits
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 PM by Matt FreedmanI used to have the Entrecard widget on my blog, but have since removed it. It did bring traffic to my blog, but the traffic was worthless, as the bounce rate was like 99% and the average time visiting was 2 seconds. So, since it was pointless and just slowing down page loading time (well, not significantly, but it wasn’t making it faster, either), I got rid of it.
I have 300 credits in my account, and I’m sure using them to advertise on an Entrecard won’t lead to any increase in real traffic, so I’m giving them away.
If you want 300 Entrecard credits, then post a comment on this post, and I’ll randomly pick a winner on Friday, February 8, 2008 from comments posted before February 8, 2008 at 12:00 AM (PST). When posting a comment, please enter the email address you use for Entrecard in the email address field.
On a New Server, Again
January 29th, 2008 at 2:56 PM by Matt FreedmanTwo weeks ago, BlueFur (use coupon code “10off” for 10% off your order) released yet another shared server. And, not surprisingly, I asked to be transferred to it, and I was, right away.
This new server is the first step in phasing out PHP 4. This server (named Dagon) runs Apache 2.2, PHP 5.2.4 running as the default (with PHP 4 running in CGI) and MySQL 5. That’s right, MySQL 5!
This server appears to be faster to, since execution times are down on this blog (possibly because of MySQL 5).
Sweet!
Twisted PageGetter is… SpotPlex?
January 29th, 2008 at 12:30 PM by Matt FreedmanAwhile back, I made a post on a bot called Twisted PageGetter. Twisted PageGetter is a bot that I found while searching through this blog’s access logs, and it was crawling quite often.
Well, two days ago I got a trackback on that post from this post. They seem to have discovered, somehow, that this bot is actually crawling for SpotPlex.
I emailed SpotPlex to confirm this, and, sure enough, it is their bot. I obviously replied suggesting that they change the name of their bot, or put up a page on their site about it.
So, if you currently have Twisted PageGetter blocked, and you’re signed up to SpotPlex, you may want to unblock the eager little bot.
Google AdSense Phone Verification
January 28th, 2008 at 10:55 AM by Matt FreedmanA got an email this morning from Google AdSense, saying that they’ve started requiring publishers to verify their phone number.
In an effort to protect the accounts of Google AdSense publishers, we’ve starting using automated telephone number verification to ensure that your information is accurate and up-to-date. As a result, you should see a Required Action on your Payment History Page to ‘Please verify your phone number’ after you log in to your account. To initiate this process, click the ‘Please verify your phone number’ link and follow the instructions.
Keep in mind that you have 6 months to enter the verification code. If you have not entered your verification code within 4 months, we’ll start displaying Public Service Ads (PSAs) on your web pages. If you have not entered your verification code within 6 months, your account will be disabled and any unpaid earnings will be refunded to the appropriate advertisers. You can learn more about our phone number verification process at https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=32055 .
For additional questions about getting paid, please visit http://www.google.com/adsense/payments . If you prefer a video presentation of this information, we encourage you to watch our Payment demo (currently available in English only), located at http://www.google.com/adsensedemo4 .
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
So, I logged into AdSense, and sure enough, there was the required action. It’s really quite a simple process. Just go to the page (it’ll say the required action under My Accounts > Payment History), choose when you want Google to phone you, and click continue. It’s an automated phone system that will call you. If you choose “Now” (like I did), you’ll literary be phoned within seconds. It’ll tell you to enter the number shown on the page, and hit the “pound” button, and that’s it. Then, when you’re finished the call, hit the continue button on that page, and you’re finished verifying your phone number. The call takes less than 20 seconds.
You might want to verify your phone number soon, otherwise your AdSense account could be disabled if you forget “to do it later”.
Apparently, I also have to enter a PIN they mail to me to…
Update [January 29, 2008]: The AdSense team’s blog has a post on the matter, explaining that they now require verification once you reach $10, instead of $50. Check it out here.
