The Common Hoster
Tips and Advice For Your Web Site
Social Media Cheat Sheet
In: Social Media
10 Mar 2010I found this to be a really cool, and informative breakdown of the main social media sites, along with their positive and negative benefits. This was originally created by Drew McLellan. Click the picture to see a larger version.
- No Comments
- Tags: benefits, cheat sheet, cmo, guide, Social Media
Bing Bans Adult Words In The Middle East
In: Internet
9 Mar 2010Microsoft has started banning what users in areas of the world can search for. The latest ban is in all Arabic-speaking countries. If you’re in one of those areas, and search for the word “sex,” you receive the following response:
Similar “bans” are in place in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia! The Open Net Initiative found that the additional English and Arabic terms are also being blocked:
The question is: why would Microsoft be doing this? The same bans are not in place on Google, Yahoo, etc. Very strange! Do you think they’re being influenced by governments in the region?
Topeka Is Now Google?
In: Internet| Miscellaneous
2 Mar 2010Topeka, Kansas has officially (and temporarily) changed its name to Google, Kansas. In an effort to sway Google, Inc. to provide Topeka…I mean Google…with its new gigabit fiber Internet, Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation yesterday!
The name change is in place for the entire month of March. According to Bunten, the hope is that the name change “would set Topeka apart from other cities vying for Google’s attention, which include Grand Rapids, Mich., and Baton Rouge, La.”
I think they might be on to something here. Google, Inc. is initially going to be releasing the new Internet service to a select few places before making a more widespread offering…and it will be hard to ignore the name change of a fairly large city. Maybe I can increase my chances by naming my unborn daughter Google (due in June)? Just a thought…
- No Comments
- Tags: Google, Internet, kansas, name change, topeka
Behind The Scenes Of Twitter’s Growth
In: Social Media
1 Mar 2010Check out this very cool infographic representing the programming continually being performed on Twitter. To make sure the social networking site can handle its growing user base, the code behind the site has to be constantly revised and improved upon.
Ben Sandofsky, an engineer at Twitter, used a data vizualization program called Code Swarm to illustrate the constantly evolving platform. The icons show developers, and the dots moving all over the place show the code that developer is working on. I feel like I’m looking at a picture from space!
Twitter Code Swarm from Ben Sandofsky on Vimeo.
- No Comments
- Tags: code, growth, programming, Twitter
Protect WordPress From Malicious URL Requests
16 Feb 2010This is a quick and easy way to help secure your WordPress blog. Last September, tons of blogs worldwide were infected with malicious codes.
By creating a new file and uploading it to your plugin directory (/wp-content/plugins/) you can automatically block malicious URL requests! Just open a new php file, and paste the following in the file:
<?php /* Plugin Name: Block Bad Queries */
if (strlen($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) > 255 ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “eval(“) ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “base64″)) {
@header(“HTTP/1.1 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Status: 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Connection: Close”);
@exit;
} ?>
I definitely don’t understand much about hacking, but the major attacks in September were base64 code. This file will check for base64 as well as evel( code that could be a threat going forward. This is definitely worth the 5 minutes it will take!
<?php /* Plugin Name: Block Bad Queries */
if (strlen($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) > 255 ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “eval(“) ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “base64″)) {
@header(“HTTP/1.1 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Status: 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Connection: Close”);
@exit;
} ?>
The Downside To Twitter Lists
In: Humor
12 Feb 2010
- No Comments
- Tags: cartoon, comic, Lists, Twitter, twitter lists
Foursquare Adds More Services
In: Social Media
9 Feb 2010As location-based applications continue to evolve, Foursquare continues to try differentiating itself. After announcing a partnership with Bravo last week, new partnerships with Zagat , Warner Bros and HBO are being rolled out.
This is actually pretty cool. With the Zagat deal, there will be quality reviews to applicable restaurants and locations. Foursquare users will also have the ability to earn a “Foodie” badge for checking in to specific restaurants.
The deal with Warner Bros and HBO is much like the previous deal with Bravo – basically a glorified way to advertise and promote television shows and movies.
I’m looking forward to seeing Zagat reviews for places I’m eating, and I am hugely addicted to Foursquare – but they need to watch their next steps. Flooding their application with advertisements could drive users to other services such as Yelp, Gowalla, etc. What do you think?
How To Calculate The True Size Of Gadgets
In: Humor
5 Feb 2010This is funny. While I don’t think the “Full Gadget Ratio” equation literally works…you still get the idea!
- No Comments
- Tags: cartoon, equation, gadget, Humor, real gadget size, size
Sadly, This Is Me In Public
In: Humor
4 Feb 2010
- No Comments
- Tags: augmented reality, check in, checkin, facebook, foursquare, gowalla, location based, myspace, mytown, Twitter, yelp
We’ve all gotten the emails. Dear sir, I’ve just inherited a large fortune but need your assistance in getting the money released. Please provide me with you bank account, and I will share the money…
But nobody actually responds to those emails, right? Well apparently, there are more suckers out there than I’d realized. According to a study by an investigation firm, Ultrascan, $9.3 billion was stolen in 2009 as a direct result of these scams! Those figures are up from $6.3 billion in 2008.
These scams are typically referred to as 419 scams, referring to article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code (the country where these scams first originated). The reason in the huge growth is that scammers are now focusing their efforts on emerging Internet markets, like China, India, South Korea, and Vietnam.
So what’s the solution? Apparently, one isn’t in sight. While a growing number of people in the US and Europe have gotten wise to the attempts, much of the rest of the world still needs to catch up. And furthermore, it’s virtually impossible for law enforcement to go after scammers outside of their country. Personally, I have come up with a solution: just email me your social security number, and I’ll share it with you 
- (2) Comments
- Tags: 419, 419 scam, nigeria, nigeria scam, scam
About this blog
Starting a web site or trying to improve your online presence can be a daunting task for the casual computer user. Drawing from experience in the web hosting and ecommerce industry, The Common Hoster is your spot for technical resources, in an easy to understand format!
Categories
- Blogs (18)
- Design (9)
- Domains (3)
- E-Commerce (2)
- Humor (43)
- Internet (34)
- iPhone (1)
- Miscellaneous (6)
- Search Engine Marketing (3)
- Search Engine Optimization (16)
- Security (7)
- Social Media (31)
- Uncategorized (2)
- Web Hosting (8)
- WordPress (22)
- Jake Gomez: i always update my Twitter and i love to twitter my daily activities to my friends [...]
- Kim Lautner: I use both Bing and Google search engine and i dont see much difference in their search [...]
- Tweets that mention People Care More About Apple Than Obama | The Common Hoster -- Topsy.com: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kelly Freund and Jon Blackburn, Lorann Snow. Lorann Snow [...]
- Tweets that mention Five Percent Of Twitter Users Create Most Of The Noise | The Common Hoster -- Topsy.com: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dietmar Walser and sabo, Rusty Todd. Rusty Todd said: In [...]
- Are you a social media producer or dead beat? « Amos White Internet Marketing Training & Stuff: [...] their post, The Common Hoster [...] [...]
- Social Media Cheat Sheet
- Bing Bans Adult Words In The Middle East
- Topeka Is Now Google?
- Behind The Scenes Of Twitter’s Growth
- Protect WordPress From Malicious URL Requests
- The Downside To Twitter Lists
- Foursquare Adds More Services
- How To Calculate The True Size Of Gadgets
- Sadly, This Is Me In Public
- Apparently People Really Do Click On Nigerian Spam Emails
