Moazam’s Blog

I have couple of websites running Google ads to pay my hosting bills, recently I found Widget Bucks program. Widget Bucks click rate and eCPM is higher than Google adsense. Below are some quick details about Widget Bucks program.

Higher eCPM
Some early adapters are claiming earnings of $3 to $6 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Most ad networks are paying out $1 to $2 CPM. Of course only time will tell if the $3 to $6 CPM carries over for everyone, but it’s worth a shot to see what happens.

$25.00 signup bonus
You need $50.00 for a payout and the $25.00 bonus puts you halfway there. The only condition is that the bonus only hits your account after you have made another $25.00 in clicks. Not a big deal.

Referral Program

With WidgetBucks Referral program, affiliates can earn a 10 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people they refer. Affiliates receive this 10 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins. Payouts to affiliates are monthly, along with their commission checks.

Payout System

Minimum $50 to request payout. Payment either by check or paypal.

What are YOU waiting for?
I know you’re interested so why not just sign up for Widget Bucks and give it a shot? For $3 to $6 CPM, and an instant $25.00 signup bonus what have you got to lose?

I melted my MacBook Pro, it all started when I spilled water on the keyboard of my notebook. I then tried to dry it with hair dryer and it melted the keyboard. So I gotta call Apple now to find out how much it costs for a replacement keyboard.

The notebook is not even one year!

Looking on the bright side, this happened right after I purchased a new 20” iMac (Core 2 Duo). I now have to move all my work from the MacBook Pro to the iMac until I can get it repaired.

In preparation of Windows Vista, Yahoo has decided to rebuild its popular instant messaging software from scratch. The new Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista will take advantage of Vista’s new graphical subsystem called Windows Presentation Foundation (It was code-named Avalon before).

Windows Presentation Foundation will bring some significant improvement to the look and feel of the software. Some noticeable change would be: smoother animation, better looking animations, improved scaling and transparency.

The Contact List

The first noticeable change to the contact list is your contacts’ info and avatar would automatically scale up when you place your mouse over on a contact.

An iPhoto-like slider is available at the bottom of the contact list which would allow the users to resize the contact list depending on the users’ preferences. When you resize the contact list to very large, you will be able to see your friends status on Yahoo services such as Flickr, Yahoo! 360, etc.

Chat window

Similar to Adium, Yahoo Messenger for Vista will feature tab chats which will allow you to organize multiple chat windows into a single window.

To turn a single chat window into a tab, all you have to do is drag the window and drop it onto another chat window. Drag a tab out of a window and the chat window will reappear.

I hope Yahoo will allow users to set tab chat as the default chat window mode. So when you started a new chat with friends, a new tab will automatically appear.

You can now share your flickr photos right from your chat windows.

Windows Sidebar

Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista will also take advantage of Windows Sidebar, a panel for Desktop Gadgets (a.k.a Widgets) located on the side of your Windows Vista desktop.

The new Yahoo Messenger will include a custom Yahoo Messenger gadget which will allow you to drag someone from the contact list to the gadget. The gadget will then show whether that particular contact is available or not.

New Emoticon

A rather obtrusive feature is the new animated emoticons. Similar to Windows Live Messenger, you can now send a large animated emoticon which will automatically shrink to normal size.

I’m not sure when the software will be available, you can now leave your e-mail address on Yahoo Messenger for Vista web. They will let you know when it’s ready. Meanwhile, you can preview the video of Yahoo Messenger for Vista.

A quick review of Xbox 360 that I bought last Christmas holiday.

Why Xbox 360

First, I’d like to explain why I decided to buy the Xbox 360 when everyone around me is buying Wii or waiting for Playstation 3. The main reason why I didn’t get a Wii is because it cannot produce high definition video (I have played Wii at a friend’s place for a few hours). Playstation 3 produces high-definition video but the price is too expensive (I don’t want to spend too much money on video games).

Price

For $689 AUD the console pack include 2 Xbox wireless controllers, Xbox 360 20GB Hard Drive, Xbox 360 Media Remote, Component Cable to connect to my HDTV and two games: Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3.

Setup

The console is quite easy to setup, the first thing I did was connect the component cable to the console and then slide the switch on the connector to HDTV then connect the red, green, blue, red (audio) and white (audio) to the TV. Then you need to connect the power supply. The power supply is huge and takes too much space.

When the console is turned on, I pressed the “connect” button on both the console and the controllers to sync the controller.

The dashboard appear right after I turned on the console (because I have no games inside). I went straight to the system tab on the dashboard, click on the console settings and then change the display settings. I went to the HDTV Settings to select the high definition output setting and select to 1080i.

According to Arstechnica article on Xbox 360, the only way the Xbox 360 could produce 1080p display is by using the VGA cable.

Online

The Xbox 360 has built-in ethernet port to connect to Xbox Live. You can also purchase $165 AUD wireless network adapter if you want to go online with Wifi. My home router is located far from the Xbox 360 but I don’t want to spend $165 for wireless network adapter. So I decided to enable “Internet Sharing” (NAT) on my MacBook Pro ethernet port and connect the network cable to my notebook’s ethernet.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live is the online gaming and entertainment service provided by Microsoft. By connecting to Xbox Live, you will be able to play other gamers online, download system and game updates, shop for xbox arcade games/themes/user pictures, and download game demos.

There are two types of Xbox Live membership: The Silver membership and the Gold membership. Xbox Live silver membership is free for all Xbox 360 owners while the gold membership requires you subscribe. The gold membership is the only account type that allows you to play online with other gamers.

Here’s my Xbox Live gamecard and link to my Xbox Live profile:

Games

Just a quick comment on my first few games:

Gears of War — Tactical first person shooting game. Gears of War is currently the fastest selling title on the Xbox 360. It won so many awards. I’ve finished the game on casual level. Awesome game, I have no regret buying this game.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — A role-playing game with a very large map and very good graphics. This game is also available on PC although I don’t think my PC at home is capable at playing this game. I haven’t spent much time playing this game so I can’t comment whether I like this game or not.

Dead or Alive 4 — Yet another fighting game with high definition graphic.

Project Gotham Racing 3 — Yet another racing game with high definition graphic.

Microsoft XNA

Last released the final version of Microsoft XNA last month. According to Wikipedia, Microsoft XNA is a set of tools and technologies for game developers. By downloading XNA Game Studio Express, hobbyist and casual developer could develop their own game for Windows and Xbox 360.

A $99 USD annual fee to the XNA Creators Club is required to run the games you developed on Xbox 360.

In 2007, Microsoft will release XNA Game Studio Professional which is intended for professional game developers.

Happy New Year to all of you. Here are some technology that I look forward to in 2007:

Windows Vista — On 30th January 2007, Windows Vista will be released for general public. I tested Windows Vista while the operating system was still in beta and release candidate. I don’t think my small business customers will be upgrading to Windows Vista anytime soon but I will buy Windows Vista (probably the Ultimate Edition).

Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) — A new major version of Mac OS X, dubbed Leopard, is expected to be released this year. Mac OS X Leopard will include some new exciting features. I’m also interested to try Mac OS X Server, which I wrote about a few months ago.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 — Adobe Creative Suite software are also expected to be released this year. This version of Adobe Creative Suite are Universal Binary which would provide performance benefit for Intel Mac users. Photoshop CS3 Beta is currently available for download at Adobe Labs.

Microsoft Office for Mac (Universal Binary) — I have been using my Windows PC to work on office documents because I don’t want to purchase an Office 2004 license which doesn’t work very fast on Intel Mac (because it’s not universal binary yet).

I hope Microsoft won’t delay releasing Universal Binary version of Microsoft Office. This version of Microsoft Office should also support the Microsoft Office Open XML. Microsoft Office Open XML is a new default file format produced by Microsoft Office 2007.

Parallels Beta 3 — The Parallels team released a new beta version of Parallels Beta for Mac with a new feature called Transporter. Transporter is a powerful tool that helps you: Migrate your existing Windows PC to a Parallels Virtual Machine and Convert VMware and Virtual PC virtual hard disks to Parallels virtual machines.

Linux Kernel 2.6.20 — According to an article on linux.inet.hr, the upcoming 2.6.20 Linux kernel is bringing a nice virtualization framework for all virtualization fans out there. It’s called KVM, short for Kernel-based Virtual Machine. Read more about it: Finally user-friendly virtualization for Linux.

Feel free to share some technologies that you look forward to in 2007. Once again, I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous new year.

A few days ago the Parallels team released a new beta build 3036 of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Parallels Desktop for Mac is a virtualization software available for Intel Mac computers. By using Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can run virtual machines running different operating systems including Windows, Linux, and many more.

There are tons of new features and enhancement provided in the beta version. The most interesting features for me are:

• Drag and drop files between Mac and Windows
• Read/write BootCamp partition
• Boot from Bootcamp partition
• Coherence which show Windows applications as if they are native Mac OS X application. Want to see an example? View screenshot of Internet Explorer 7 with coherency support by Dan Benjamin.

A great list of changes and the good news is it will be a FREE update. I just wish Parallels would support the above mentioned features on other operating systems especially Linux. It would also be handy (for me) if they could provide support for more operating systems such as OpenBSD or NetBSD.

You read more about the new features or download the beta version of the software from the announcement on Parallels Forum.

I can’t wait to see how VMware for Mac would compare with Parallels Desktop. The virtualization software from VMware for Mac is currently in private beta. The new version is codenamed Fusion and you can find out more about it from VMware for Mac OS X site.

SearchMash is a new search engine operated by Google Inc. SearchMash allows you to search web pages, images, blogs, video and wikipedia. The search results produced by SearchMash are similar to the results from Google Search.

When you click on the “search more” button at the bottom of your search results, SearchMash uses AJAX to display the next search results instantly rather than loading a new page. You will also get an instant images, blogs, videos, and wikipedia results when you click on the links on the right hand side of the page.

The “hide details” link allow you to expand and collapse the description of your search result. By hiding page description from the search results you could fit many more results.

With SearchMash, you don’t have to put your mouse cursor in the searchbox to start searching. All you need to do is type the query right away.

If you wish to follow the development of SearchMash, you should check the SearchMash feature page from time to time. You could also provide feedback whether a particular feature is useful or not.

Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so search engine can more intellegently crawl the site. Sitemaps helps speed up the discovery of your pages.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo agreed to support the same sitemap protocol. Anyone using Google Sitemap do not need to make any changes, Yahoo and Microsoft will index those sitemaps.

If you maintain a small site with static content, you can easily hand code the Sitemap by following the protocol.

Bloggers who are using WordPress can use the XML Sitemap generator plugin for Wordpress, which will automatically generate a sitemap for homepage, posts, static pages, categories and archive pages.

Movable Type users can create a Index Template and copy the following code:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″>
<url>
<loc><$MTBlogURL encode_xml=”1″$></loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>

</url>
<MTEntries lastn=”9999″>
<url>
<loc><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml=”1″$></loc>
<lastmod><$MTEntryModifiedDate utc=”1″ format=”%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ”$></lastmod>
</url>

</MTEntries>
</urlset>


Save the file to something easy to rememember, save and rebuild it.

You can now submit your Sitemap XML file to Google Webmasters, MSN LiveSearch, and Yahoo Site Explorer.

Related Links:

• Sitemaps.org
• techmeme: Search Engines Unite On Unified Sitemaps System

Most operating system such as Windows and Mac OS X include utilities to capture screenshots. These tools are good enough to capture basic screenshot of your screen. However, most of them do not support the ability to record your screen and save it as video or they do not support the ability to capture objects such as menubar, or toolbar.

There are many reasons why you need a more advance software to capture your screen. Technology bloggers can provide a more detailed screenshot of software they are reviewing, Software Developers can publish video demos of their software, and Web Designer might want to take full screenshot of their work, and many more reasons.

Here are some advance screen capture software you can use on different operating systems:

Windows

SnagIt is a powerful screen capture software for Windows. By using SnagIt you can select and capture anything on your Windows screen and save it as movie or image. SnagIt has several nice features such as the ability to select specific rectangular region of the screen that you want to capture, scrolling window capture, menu capture ability, and text capture.

SnagIt also has a powerful built-in editor that allows you to crop, resize, adjust, add text and apply custom effects to your capture without ever opening another editing applications.

Developed by TechSmith, a single-user license of SnagIt costs $39.95.

Mac OS X

Snapz Pro X allows you to record anything on your screen and save it as a movie or screenshot picture. Snapz Pro X is much more powerful then Mac OS X built-in screenshot tools because it allows you to capture the screen, objects (menus), selections and movies.

Developed by Ambrosia Software, Snapz Pro X 2 costs $29 and $69.

X Window (KDE or GNOME)

KDE users can use the built-in KSnapShot to capture screenshot of the whole desktop, a single window, a selection of window, or a selected region. KSnapShot also support delay capture, which enables you to open a drop down menu and take picture of it.

To capture a screenshot on GNOME, you can use gnome-screenshot program included with GNOME. To access gnome-screenshot, you can either access it via command line which support different options such as delay and border effect. The fastest way to take screenshot of the whole screen is to access the “Take Screenshot” menu from the Applications - Accessories menubar.

Alternatively, linux users can capture some or all of an X Server screen and save the image using import program included with ImageMagick or use xwd.

Xvidcap is a tool to record your screen under X Window System.

Typically, when large companies such as Google or Apple launched a new products/services, everyone in the blogosphere are talking about the new products/services and those companies benefit the traffic, valuable feedback and the buzz.

New market players often find it hard to get the word out about their products. Those who find it difficult to get the word out could now use ReviewMe to find blogs with content related to their industry and pay the blogger to write about your sites/products/services.

By using blogs you can create buzz to make your company succeed in the marketplace. You can also receive feedback from both the bloggers and the comments submitted by the reader of the blog.

A good ReviewMe success story is ReviewMe itself. When ReviewMe launched, they are giving away $25,000 USD to bloggers who are accepted into the ReviewMe Network the opportunity to make money by reviewing ReviewMe itself. Reviewme created a successful buzz and a few days after they launched “ReviewMe” became the top searches and tags on Technorati, the popular blog search engine.

Bloggers get paid to review services/products that are related to the content of their blogs.

Submitting a new site to ReviewMe is a very process. Your account may only have up to 6 active sites. Once accepted, a site may publish an unlimited number of reviews. You need to provide details about your blogs such as Blog Name, URL, RSS Feed URL, Category, Tags, and Description.

ReviewMe charge advertisers different fees on different blogs depending on the blog’s ranking. The higher your blog ranked the higher you will get paid.

Ranking of your blog is recalculated monthly and blogs are given rank from 1 – 5. The ranking system uses statistics from Alexa, Technorati, and the number RSS readers to determine the Ranking of your site.

Reviewme shared 50% of the money they get from advertisers. It costs $60 for advertisers to request a review on William Computer Blog. There could be a bug in their ranking system because I know another blog with lower alexa rank, lower technorati rank and lower RSS subscribers and it cost $100 for advertisers to request a review from that blog.

Bloggers are required to disclose in their posts that they are being paid to review the particular product/services advertisers asked them to write about. Reviews must be at least 200 words.

A good reason for bloggers to signup to ReviewMe besides getting paid is it allows them to find unique contents they can publish in case they ran out of materials to blog about.

Advertisers, it’s time to join Reviewme. Bloggers, go and join Reviewme to earn cash!

Disclosure: The following entry is a paid review.