We start up 2008 in a great way! Starting from yesterday support for php 4 is discontinued!

IMO it was about time they discontinued support for php 4, because it is pretty old and not as flexible as php 5 is, plus php 6 is almost knocking on our doors.

Quote from php website:

PHP 4.4.7

Support for PHP 4 will be discontinued at 2007-12-31. Please consider upgrading to PHP 5.2.

This means that all you php4 fans will have to suffer, and most probably you will have to tune-up your scripts to work without problems on php 5.

The conclusion is that most probably medium/major webhosts which run php4 will most probably upgrade to php 5.2.

Now you can finally understand why the Chameleon theme was made to run flawlessly on servers that run php 5.

About 15 hours ago the guys at wordpress released version 2.3.2. This version is an important security update, but along with the 3 important security fixes bugs have been fixed as a bonus.

Quote from Release page:

WordPress 2.3.2 is an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures.

The coolest bonus in Wordpress 2.3.2 is that you can define a custom database error page by placing your custom template in wp-content folder with db-error.php name.

This page will handle database errors(for example: when wordpress can’t connect to the database) and wordpress will use this page instead of the default error page.

I already upgraded my blog, and you should really consider upgrading also

Along with the new AJAX powered submission system i noticed that stuff got laggy. submissions sometimes freeze, and you need to start from the beginning to get your story submitted. Along with the lag the duplicate posts appear(check image) or errors like: “Rats! This submission has not been verified.”

I reloaded the page 3 times thats how the duplicates appeared.

Remember about 6 months ago some of the Iwebtool Tools were broken and either didn’t work or they showed inaccurate data? Well history is repeated, some of the tools mysteriously got broken again.

Before i begin just a quick reminder: If you click the title of the tool it will take you to the tool’s page, all the images are enlargeable by clicking them.

1) Google Pagerank Prediction:

For every website it displays Insufficient backlinks* even for google, yahoo,live etc

2) Link popularity tool:

You can notice that the pagerank isn’t displayed “/10″ and that the data is very innacurate:

Here are the results from Google:

Results 1 - 10 of about 3,090,000 linking to google.com

Here are the results from Yahoo:

1-10 of 103,000,000 for google . com

3) Pagerank Checker:

Notice that the tool can’t connect to some of the datacenters(the DC’s are working) and classifies them as Datacenter down.

I’m just wondering how much will it take to get the tools fixed(last time it took almost 3 months till they got back to normal) and what do the sponsors have to say(if i would have sponsored a tool and the tool stopped working i would probably tell them to fix the tool or give a refund.

A few days ago i was contacted by a Buzzcorps representative. Buzzcorps is a social company working with HP. They mostly contacted those who blogged about the Jerry Seinfeld TV spot or commented the video.

They are looking for ideas and suggestions for the new TV spot along with suggestions about who will be the next star in the new TV spot.

Here’s what Geoff(buzzcorps representative) wrote:

“I would appreciate if you might also pass this on to anyone else who might have an opinion.HP is hoping for some wonderful ideas!”

In my opinion this campaign is a great idea and will serve for the best of the watchers. We all know that the purpose of a good TV spot is to keep the watcher in front of the spot till the last second.

In this campaign you have the chance to express and share your ideas. You will ind more info about it on The Official Page(click).

I also posted some suggestions at the forum :

Animation looks very good and very creative in TV spots and both the kids and adults love it, so what do you say about the idea of using Shrek in the next TV spot?

He is a very popular and loved animated character.

If i would be in charge of directing the TV spot i would do it like this:

A shot of the forest with the camera zooming on shrek’s house, from where shrek exits sleepy to grab the morning paper but he notices that it isn’t there. He growls(or something) and goes back in the house where he sits down to the table and opens up the HP laptop(the laptop would have a muddy and green look, that would fit the picture) where he starts browsing the web and talking about something(sorry i’m too tired can’t really make up some lines now), in the background the other characters appear who get around him to watch what he’s doing.

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As a real person i would suggest Adam Sandler or Rob Zombie, both of them are highly appreciated in the movie industry, and IMO(in my opinion) they could really keep the audience in front of TV till the end of the video

Exactly 60 years ago 3 scientists at the Bell laboratory: William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain invented the transistor. The transistor shortly after its invention replaced the Vacum tubes which used huge power and resources and also they we’re very fragile and their life time was relatively short. year by year the transisotor’s performances grew more and more and their size and price dropped. Today you can buy a BC or BD transistor for like 15 cents(US).

Maybe you have no idea what it is and never heard of it, but you use it day-by day in your everyday life: in your car, your Personal Computer, cell phone and lots and lots of other electronical devices. Just think of your PC, the CPU has 147 MILLION transistors , now thats a lot of transistors in a tiny place right?

WRONG! Today’s scientists claim that this is also just the beginning of cybernetics, robotics and artificial intelligence and that there is a high probability that in the future today’s science fiction stories will become reality.

So every time you use a bit complex electronical device think of this tiny component which revolutionized the world of technology and electronics, hell if this component wasn’t invented you wouldn’t probably be here using a computer.

If you are reading this post you are most certainly familiar with DIGG . If you are familiar with digg you should know that if you get on DIGG’s Frontpage and/or in DIGG’s Popular your traffic will go sky high, and you will get lots and lots of traffic.

Along with this a chain reaction is started: your page will be stumbled by hundreds of users, many people will blog about your post and leave trackbacks, you will gain backlinks and Technorati authority.

Want all this? Well getting there isn’t easy so try to follow the steps above and your chances on getting on DIGG frontpage or popular page will increase substantially.

The steps below are relatively simple, you just need to work everything out right:

1) Step One:

Write a KICK-ASS unique article specific to your niche. Write about what your the best at, research, combine and create the perfect article. Writing a great article may take even 10 hours or more. The better and more descriptive the article is the more users will read it. Make sure you write it in a form so everyone will understand it(if you use specific terms explain them in brackets so the readers will know what your talking about).

After you wrote the article check it again for eventual errors and misspells, after which ask a few friends to read the article and express their opinion. This is almost crucial in writing a great article, after their reviews you will know what to modify/add/remove.

After everything is done make sure your article’s title is catchy and to the point, after which submit your article to DIGG.

2) Step Two:

Ask a few of your friends(even those who reviewed it) to read and eventually digg your article, this will give you a kick-start and you will get into the HOT NEWS box on the upcoming page of the selected category.

About 12 diggs will do the job just fine and will guarantee that you will stay there for 24 hours(after 24 hours your post is removed automatically from HOT NEWS box on upcoming page) so every time when someone checks the upcoming page of the specified category they will surely see your article and the number of diggs.

Ask on webmaster forums opinions about the article and ask the users to digg your article if they like it.

The more diggs your article gets the more eye appealing it will be in the HOT NEWS box.

Simple isn’t it? You just took the 2nd step on getting your article on front page.

Don’t be to excited, the hard part is yet to come. When i mean hard part i mean the REALLY HARD PART.

3) Step Three:

In the Hot news box its all about the title, if you chose a catchy title you have big chances of getting on main page. People will check out your article and comment/digg it. Adding a DIGG THIS button to your blogpost will help you get more diggs(read further to find out why).

Remember to promote your article on forums and sites related to your niche, eventually joyn an exchange network like www.piqq.us

REMEMBER! diggs gained from exchange services are NOT legit.

If your post will get around 100 diggs it will be made popular and put on POPULAR page and Main page. By this time readers will start commenting/digging, leaving trackbacks and most importantly stumbling your page(remember digg this button) -> users who will stumble over your blogpost will digg your article(remember the chain reaction)

Once you hit the 100 diggs and your article will get on main page just see how the hundreds of diggs and comments will flow in in a VERY short period of time.

Good Luck!

A group of american and romanian investors bought a little less than 7% of the shares of Bitdefender. The investment’s value is 7 million US $, and it places Bitdefender to a value of over 100 million $.

The investment will help Bitdefender expand on new markets aswell in consolidating its presence in countries where the company is present.

For this year Bitdefender estimates sales of 100 million$, almost double than in 2006 when it had sales of 69 million $.

More friends are more fun. Gmail welcomes your AIM® friends.
Its a fact. Google doesn’t want to be left behind. If you are a Yahoo Messenger user you probably noticed that starting from Yahoo messenger 8 yahoo messenger supports adding users from MSN Live messenger.

Recently Gmail made lots and lots of upgrades and TUNE-UPS and also introduced the feature to chat with users on AIM messenger and sign into AIM account along with brand new cool emoticons. Is it just a coincidence? or doesn’t google want to be left behind and considered yahoo messenger as a threat?

Gmail chat now offers the option to sign in to your AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account to chat with your AIM buddies from Gmail. Your AIM buddies will populate your Contacts list, and are searchable just like your Google Talk contacts.

Anyway, lets get over this competition stuff and lets get back to the point.

This handy feature will sure help lots of gmail users who either can’t install messenger on their pc @ school or @ work or they just want to chat with AIM and Gtalk users in the same time.

Read the Official Google post

It is quite a dilemma among internet users which Instant Messaging to choose and which to use the most/to be the primary IM client.

99% of my online time i use Yahoo Messenger. Why? Because all the people i know use it and i like it because its flexible and i’ve been using it.

a) Check out some of Yahoo Messenger’s features:

Make Cheap PC-to-Phone Calls
Make free worldwide PC-to-PC calls. Plus call regular or mobile phones in the U.S. and worldwide for as low as 1¢/min.

Make FREE PC-to-PC Calls
All you need is a headset, or a microphone and speakers. It’s that easy - just click the Call button.

IM with friends using MSN LIVE messenger
Yahoo messenger gives you the possibility to IM with LIVE messenger users, but it is only limited to chatting, you can’t send files,watch webcam,play games,etc

File sharing
You have the possibility to send files to users who use yahoo messenger, transfer progress can be viewved on the progress bar

LaunchCast radio
Listen to your favorite music by choosing from hundreds of online radio stations!

Personalize and interact
YM! gives you the possibility to personalize your messenger and interact using animated avatars(which can be created online) and by using custom avatars/emoticons/audibles. Connect with many friends at once by making conferences.

b) MSN Live Messenger

Most probably the biggest battle among the IM clients is between Yahoo Messenger and MSN messenger, they are the most used messengers around the world.

Feature List:

Connect with friends
Connect with your friends, using your Hotmail or live account, or setup a personalized @yourdomain.com screen name.

Share files
Live Messenger also gives you the possibility to share files in a very convenient and easy way

Use the IM for a social cause
Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective organizations dedicated to social causes.

Interact
Share your webcam, play games, choose your avatar, IM only with those who you want to, block the users you disslike.

c) AIM Messenger

Ah…i remember the good old days back 3 years ago when i really played Ouwtar and played it like 13 hours a day. Back then all our crew as using AIM messenger…i remember i never learned how to make a conference, anyway lets get to the Feature List:

Set your status:
Share your current feelings by setting your status. You can choose from predefined status messages or create custom ones.

Create your Buddy list:
Add and organize your friends in categories.

Send TEXT messages to Cell phones
You can send in real time messages to your friends who are using Mobile AIM messenger.

Play Games, share Videos, Webcam and Files
Aim has a cool list of QQ games which are multiplayer games that you can play with other AIM messenger users and enjoy a true multiplayer experience.

Share your files,videos and webcam with your friends.

Personalize
Personalize your AIM messenger by setting the color of the client, create your custom BUDDY icon or choose from a predefined one.

d) Google Talk

If you use Gmail you most probably seen/used it but with limited features. In your email account you have a widget which you can use to IM with anyone who is using GMAIL

Well Gtalk does the same only in a more advanced mode. Lets have a look at the features:

Usability
GTalk is an extremely lightweight Application, you can chat with all your GTalk contacts and Gmail contacts at once. Get GMAIL Notifications on your desktop.

File transfers
Share as much files as you like with your friends or other GTalk, Gmail users.

Voicemail, PC to PC calls
Make FREE PC to PC calls, and in case the desired contact isn’t available leave him a voicemail.

e) ICQ Messenger

As i noticed ICQ is mostly used by companies and by people who work in the business area. In my opinion a BIG “problem” of icq is that they don’t use screen names,buddy names, email addresses, at sign-up you get a number(for example 21523627234 ). That number is really hard to keep in mind and it will surely take you a while till you learn it, and the digits are going up day by day since many people sign up at ICQ

Feature List:

Extra Quick Instant Messaging
You have the option of sending and viewing instant messages directly from within your Contact List or from the message notification.

Grouped Conversations
Manage all of your conversations in a single message window.
With ICQ 6 you can switch back and forth from conversation to conversation simply by clicking on the tabs at the top of the window.

2 Way SMS
Send your friends an SMS from your PC with ICQ. Your friends can SMS back from their mobile directly to your ICQ message window.

Advanced Search Options
You can search for contacts or on the web directly from your contact list.

History Miner
ICQ automatically saves your conversation history, so you can sort and search for important messages.

f) mIRC

IRC comes from INTERNET RELAY CHAT and its a real-time form of instant messaging. Getting to know people on mIRC is unlimited ans you may IM with anyone on the channel you are in. mIRC has advanced a lot and lots and lots of plugins appeared that made the user’s life easier and more fun, so if you have a bored day or need some speciality help FAST using mirc is one of your best options as there are lots and lots of channels where users can help you out. In fact there are some channels like #vh on quakenet that can help you disinfect your PC.

Many people don’t prefer mirc because they say that they don’t have any privacy there and the contact list isn’t private. In a way its true but in other way its not because almost all servers(quakenet/undernet/chanserv) provide registrations and hotmasks that help you protect your privacy.

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You may have noticed that all the Instant messaging clients mentioned above have almost the same features(file/video sharing, confereces,status,emoticons,etc) but each one of them have some unique elements.

Its just like at cars, you may have noticed that car models made by different brands look almost the same. Why? because they all tend to assure the driver the best comfort and the best features and usability. You probably say that they steal ideas from each other. In a slight way that is true, but to achieve the mentioned above they all ran tests and they all got to the same shape and conclusions.

Do you want to use multiple Instant Messengers?

Various browser based clients and applications provide usage of instant messaging services.

The most important Browser-based messaging service is Meebo. On mebo you have the possibility to log-in to Yahoo messenger, LIVE messenger, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk and AIM. If you create an account you can group all your accounts on IM services together.

Windows users who prefer MULTI IM service usage mostly use Trillian Although it doesn’t support file sending and some other features it is widely used around the world, it even provides extra security. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC but you can configure it so you can use other IM services as GTalk.

Trillian has both FREE and Paid versions. The extra in paid version is Identities and your support for the project.

In the World of Linux the most popular Multi-IM application is GAIM which is now known as PIDGIN which is newly available for Both Linux and Windows

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once.

It is the most flexible and OPTION-FULL application of its type as it supports 16 IM services.

I really hope you enjoyed this post, i spent quite a lot of time on testing stuff and writing my own taughts(i admit at some IM services i COPY/PASTED some of the features but most of the reviews are my own words)

Last but not least: remember that there are zillions of ways to interact on the internet