Feb 17

Website Performance Test and Optimizations

Posted in: performance, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 21, 2010 by CyberNet.

web page test.png

A few weeks ago I was browsing around looking for a website benchmark and optimization tool, and in doing so I stumbled across a real gem. WebPageTest.org is what I’ll safely call a powerful set of data that you can quickly pull up about any site. Even better is the fact that you can have it speed test the site from one of a dozen different locations from around the world.

Sounds like a pretty basic test, right? Not at all. If you start to drill into the data you can see all kinds of nitty gritty details. The waterfall will display load times of all the objects, and the optimization checklist tries to point out some areas you might be able to speed up the site (by combining JavaScript files, for example). The URL will process both of those reports twice: one request being made with a clean slate, and the second request makes use of images that are still cached. That way you can examine what the performance may be like for a repeat visitor.

From there you can drill into each of the reports. The waterfall is definitely my favorite because it will also provide details on how long the DNS lookup took for each item, how long the content actually took to download, and a lot more info you probably don’t care about. It even breaks down both the request and response headers for every single item on the page, which can be especially useful when troubleshooting issues.

Oh, and did I mention that you can choose to have screenshots rendered by IE 6, IE 7, IE 8, or IE 9 Beta? Just expand the advanced settings before starting a test, and you can select from one of those 4 browsers. As part of the results you’ll be given a screenshot of what the page looked like after it finished loading.

This is great stuff. 100% free, exportable data, performance review, content breakdown, and so much more. I can’t say enough about how awesome this is, and everyone I’ve shown it to feels the same way.

WebPageTest.org Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 16

Caution: Online MD5 Cracker Tool

Posted in: Hacks, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on December 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

MD5 Cracker

One of the most popular ways for securely encoding passwords is using MD5. Many online services use it as well as some applications because it is an efficient way to securely store a user’s password. For example, if your password was “admin” the MD5 hash would look like “21232f297a57a5a743894a 0e4a801fc3.”

There is no easy way to take an MD5 hash and have it reversed back to the original text. Hardcore crackers, however, often have databases that consume several gigabytes of pre-calculated MD5 hashes. By that I mean they’ll go through the dictionary and calculate the MD5 hash for all known words, and then move on to common password combinations. That way when they get their hands on a database filled with MD5 hashes they can begin searching to see if any of the users had used one of common words.

Pieter over in the forum posted a big eye opener for anyone that still uses common passwords. He pointed out this tool where a user is able to enter an MD5 hash in the text box. It will then scan what appears to be a rather extensive database to see if the MD5 hash corresponds to any of the known entries it has stored. Here are some of the results from the test Pieter did with it:

  • 21232f297a57a5a743894a0e4a801fc3 – CRACKED (admin)
  • 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99 – CRACKED (password)
  • 33c5d4954da881814420f3ba39772644 – CRACKED (crackme)
  • ec79d4bed810ed64267d169b0d37373e – CRACKED (8612)
  • 61ebd641ffb9b13f2b3163677ef58b0a – CRACKED (2w9)
  • 2eaa8683175fa19f2710707e793b1f04 – FAILED (2w9ss)
  • 68dc6cbea6ddad512bc670c0df5c0804 – CRACKED (23984)
  • 22604bba610abedf926b74646008896f – FAILED (613593)
  • 031e174662676c05db4e019eaaa4de3d – FAILED (65151611)
  • e425adc17b1e4feed1dc295b82d16cbd – FAILED (crackme123)
  • 80e48c2df0e639b36cf2a2a75cbd8fdb – FAILED (imahacker)

As you can see, the more complicated a password is the more likely it won’t be in the database. Overtime the database will continue to grow, and the first thing that it will index is all passwords with lowercase letters and numbers. For that reason I urge everyone to re-evaluate the strength of their passwords. You should consider mixing upper and lower case, as well as using both numbers and symbols. It will take awhile to get used to a new password, but it’s worth the added security.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 16

Facebook to create “Facebook Diaries”

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on February 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

“The Future of TV is not on TV. It’s the Internet.” You’ve heard that a few times recently, haven’t you? That’s what movie-maker/ producer R.J. Cutler has to say about his reasoning for producing “Facebook Diaries,” an online movie which will be composed of “compelling and engaging and dramatic, and powerful and worth of telling” stories of 18-24 year olds on Facebook.

Facebook Diaries will be composed of 10 half-hour episodes which will air later in the year.  Each episode will include video clips that have been uploaded by Facebook users on topics like “who am I?” “heartbreak,” and life during wartime.”

This is the first time that Facebook has even step foot into video uploads, and still, they’re doing it in their own style. They’ve partnered up with Comcast for this venture with their Ziddio video upload site. Users will be able to upload their video’s for this contest on Ziddio. Part of the deal includes sponsorship and advertising.

With 16 million users and a demographic of 18-24 year olds, Comcast is pretty happy to get in on this deal. Elizabeth Schimel who is the senior vice president of entertainment for Comcast Interactive Media says,”We’re tapping into Facebook’s very large and very young demographic.”

Source:

Business Week

–Other Facebook Stuff–

Facebook has just added a new feature which will raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer research charity.  Users will be able to give eachother “gifts” or tiny tokens of appreciation.  Each token (they’re all pictured above) will cost $1.00 and they can be given to your friends privately or publicly.  Each user will have a “Gift Box” on their profile where the gifts will be displayed.

The net proceeds for the month of February will go to the Komen for the Cure.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 16

Find Removed YouTube Videos/Download your Favorites

Posted in: Google, Today's Chili, videos, Web Sites, YouTube

This article was written on March 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

If you frequent YouTube, at some point you’ll probably go to watch your favorite video only to find that it’s been removed. Videos can be removed for a variety of reasons, like YouTube removing them because of a copyright issue, or even owners removing their clips.

By using Delutube, you still have a chance of getting those deleted clips back.  Think of it as a Google Cache for your Videos.  Google Cache can pull up a webpage that’s no longer available, and then you can go view it as a cached version. Delutube will work if the video hasn’t been permanently deleted from the servers.

Delutube

All you have to do is find the video ID that’s found at the end of the URL, go to Delutube and enter in that ID, and if it hasn’t been permanently deleted, you’ve hit a jackpot!

KissyoutubeAnother service out there called Kiss YouTube provides an easy way to download all of your favorite videos.  All you have to do is enter in the word “kiss” right before YouTube in the URL so it would look something like http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=nsjuPX8C2lo.

After pressing enter, you’ll be taken to the Kiss YouTube page where you’ll have the option to “download now” in flv format, or send to your friends. They also provide a download link for the video in case you want to post to a forum, blog, IM, etc.

Because they’re using the same logo as YouTube, they might run into some issues. But for now, it’s one of the simplest ways I know of for downloading your favorites. Just type “kiss.”

Source: Digital Inspiration

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Feb 15

Online .htaccess Generator

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 06, 2010 by CyberNet.

htaccess generator.png

If you’re a webmaster that is running a site using Apache then you are likely familiar with the .htaccess file. It’s a powerful way to redirect and control access to virtually any page on the site, but it can take time getting used to the syntax needed for some of the things you may want to do. One thing that comes to mind is setting up a domain (ex. cybernetnews.com) to redirect to the www version of the site (ex. www.cybernetnews.com).

This online .htaccess redirect creator makes doing this kind of stuff easy. As you can see in the screenshot above you’ll just have to fill out a simple form to get started and you only have to select the options that you want to activate. It will then generate the .htaccess file that you can use to update your site.

Here’s some of the things you can customize:

  • Redirecting to the www version of a domain
  • Creating 301 redirects for a specific file or directory
  • Enable client-side caching
  • Password protecting a file
  • Hotlinking protection based on filetype
  • Custom 400, 401, 403, 404, or 500 error pages
  • Block users by IP address
  • Block known bad bots
  • Change default directory page
  • Prevent viewing of the .htaccess file
  • Prevent directory listing

Out of all the options available I thought the “block bad bots” feature was the most interesting. Checking that box will automatically create a long set of rules that will prevent useless crawlers from being able to hit your site based on the user agent they are coming from. If you’re already running an underpowered server this may help save some of your resources for legitimate crawlers and visitors.

.htaccess Redirect Homepage

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Feb 15

Another Trick to get an @Live.com Email Address!

Posted in: Email, Microsoft, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Live AddressAre you still one of the people who have patiently been waiting for Microsoft to launch the @Live.com email addresses? We’ve showed you plenty of tricks in the past as to how you can get one of those coveted addresses (here, here, and here), but they were all taken down very quickly. We’ve got another one for you today that doesn’t take much effort on your part, and gives you the chance to get in before the rest of the crowd snatches up the good addresses.

Here’s what you have to do:
Note: I had to use Internet Explorer to get this to work.

  1. Go to www.hotmail.com, click on Sign up, and choose a free account.
  2. You’ll be taken to the @hotmail.com signup page…don’t panic.
  3. Modify the URL in the address bar so that hmnewuser.aspx becomes newuser.aspx and then remove the this text: &hm=1
  4. Hit Enter and signup for your @Live.com address!

This should even work for the different locales (a.k.a. Live.fr, Live.ca, etc…). Go ahead and give it a whirl. Make sure you grab your name, your kids’ names, your cousins’ names, and your aunt’s nephew’s grandma’s twice-removed grandson’s horse’s name. You get the point…it’s an email extravaganza!

As previously mentioned, these addresses won’t be available to the masses until this fall. That means you need to get them while you can!

Kudos to LiveSide for finding this out!

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Feb 14

AllofMP3 Speaks Their Mind

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on June 06, 2006 by CyberNet.

AllofMP3 Speaks Their Mind

AllofMP3.com is a site that sells music for 1/10 what iTunes does. They are located in Russia and obey Russian laws but their services are classified as illegal in the United States (as well as many other countries).

Investigators claim that AllofMP3.com does not pay royalties to artists for selling their music. It has been a long time coming but AllofMP3.com has spoken their mind about this and other issues they are constantly criticized for:

The US government officials and politicians have been demanding lately that the Russian authorities shut down allofmp3.com, alleging the site is pirate. Otherwise, they threaten Russia with sanctions, including blocking its entry to WTO.

In this regard we would like to make a statement:

1. The site AllOfMP3.com belongs to a Russian company and for 6 years it has operated within the country, in full compliance with all Russian laws. Throughout this period the various government offices have scrutinized site’s legality and have not found any breach of the law. So far there has been no decision by any Russian court contesting the site’s legality.

2. The Russian site AllOfMP3.com is not operating or advertising its business on the territory of other countries.

3. The site AllOfMP3.com does regularly transfer substantial amounts of royalties to the Russian organizations for collective management of rights such as ROMS and FAIR, which have granted the site licenses to legally deliver music through the Internet.

4. The site AllofMP3.com reserves the right to take all steps necessary to protect its business reputation. We call upon everyone to take a thorough and unbiased view of the site’s legality.

5. On September 1, 2006 the changes to the Russian copyright legislation will come into force. Since January 2006 the site has been making direct agreements with rightholders and authors at the same time increasing the price of the music compositions and transferring the royalties directly to the artists and record companies. The aim of AllofMP3.com is to agree with all rightholders on the prices and royalties amounts by September 1, 2006.

6. We believe in the long term and civilized business based on respecting the law, considering the customers’ demands as well as the interests of both national and international rightholders.

The AllofMP3.com Administration
June 6, 2006 Moscow

There are a few other Russian music sites that sell low-cost music just like AllofMP3.com does. One of them is MP3Search.ru. While AllofMP3.com sells song for 2 cents per megabyte, MP3Search.ru sells songs for a flat 10 cents (if you purchase an entire album they give you a 10% discount). Both of these services are significantly lower than any music source in the United States which is why many people are turning to Russian sites for their music.

Are organizations like the RIAA going to start attacking these Russian sites even harder? I wonder if the United States will actually be able to penetrate the Russian Government enough to take down these sites. It might be hard since it couldn’t be done with The Pirate Bay!

News Source: Slyck File Sharing

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Feb 14

Search Commands Available for Office 2007

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

One of the complaints I’ve heard from people who start using Microsoft Office 2007 is that because of the new Ribbon, they sometimes have a hard time finding the commands that they’re looking for. The Microsoft Office Labs team knows this, so they’ve decided to help users by launching a project for Office 2007 called Search Commands. Before we dive in and explain how it works, we first need to explain the new web site/community for Microsoft Office Labs found at www.officelabs.com.

Office Labs is the site that has been put together by the Microsoft Office Labs team. They’re the ones that test different ideas and then build the prototypes for people to experiment with. They like to describe the prototypes that they build as “Concept Cars.” From their About page:

The prototypes you see here are like “Concept Cars”. They aren’t products or features of Microsoft Office. Don’t expect them to work perfectly, or be available here forever. Just as when a concept car is shown at an auto-show, one or two or none of the ideas shown might make it into a future vehicle. Everybody knows its unpredictable, so don’t go off thinking this is some kind of preview for future versions of Office, ok? Anyway, we thought it would be interesting to present some ideas we are exploring.

Now that you’ve got an idea what the Microsoft Office Labs site is all about, we’ll dive into Search Commands. Knowing that Search Commands is a product of Office Labs should tell you straight from the start that you might run into a problem or two. But it could also be a great help to you as well. After downloading and installing it, a Search Commands tab will appear in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. By clicking on it you’ll see a search field where you can type in what you’re looking for like “spell check” or “bold.” The image below shows what you’ll be looking for in Office once you install Search Commands:

Search Commands.png

Here’s a quick list of all of the different things Search Commands will help you find:

  • commands
  • options
  • wizards
  • galleries

The only downside that we can see at this point is that English is the only supported language, and that it is just a prototype so it may not always work perfectly. Other than that, it might be a pretty big help for some of you still trying to adjust to Office 2007.

If you’d like to watch a really corny video which shows Search Commands in action, click here.

Get Search Commands Here

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Feb 13

Web-Based Photoshop Express Launches

Posted in: adobe, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 27, 2008 by CyberNet.

As expected, Adobe has officially entered the World of online applications. Adobe is known best for their desktop software like their photo editing solutions (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Elements, etc.), and so it makes sense that their first web-based application is a basic version of Photoshop called Photoshop Express. It has launched into beta and anybody can go give it a try and sign-up for a free account. Photoshop Express isn’t just about editing photos online, they’ve also made it a place where users can store their photos and share them with others.

photoshop express screenshot

We decided to test-drive Photoshop Express and overall, we were pleasantly surprised at what it offers.  One of the first things we did was select a personal sharing URL. If you sign-up for an account you will get to pick a sharing URL so that you can easily give it out to friends and family to view your photos.  For example, your personal sharing URL would be something like http://yourname.photoshop.com. Adobe gives each registered user 2GB of space that they can use however they please.

photoshop express editing tools When uploading photos, by default they will be uploaded to your main library. You can also have them uploaded to a new album or an existing one.  We uploaded a 2.1 MB file which is a pretty typical photo size and it uploaded within just a few seconds. Once it was uploaded we decided to put the editing tools to the test. Editing tools fall under one of three categories, the Basics, Tuning, and Effects. Here’s a quick run-down of what you’ll be able to do in each category:

  • Basics: crop and rotate, auto correct, fix exposure, red-eye removal, touch-up, saturation
  • Tuning: white balance, highlight, fill light, sharpen, soft focus
  • Effects: pop color, hue, black and white, tint, sketch, distort

Each of the different tools that are offered are very easy to use. And if you apply an effect or make a change that you don’t like, you can easily have it removed by clicking “reset all” which takes your photo back to the original state. Once you’ve made all of the changes that you want, you just click save and all of your editing will be saved. The only downside we noticed is that saving a photo seems to take a few minutes.

With all kinds of free online photo editing solutions available, Adobe knew they needed to jump on the bandwagon. Given that Photoshop Express is their first entrance into online web applications, they’ve done a great job. We’re still partial to Picnik and the interface that they’ve developed, but Photoshop Express is a great tool for online photo editing as well.It’s impossible to cover all that it offers, so go check it out for yourself and let us know what you think! Just note that you must have Adobe Flash 9 installed, otherwise it won’t work. If you don’t have it installed, you’ll be prompted to once you visit the site.

Source: AP

Thanks for the tip Omar!

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Feb 12

AskMeNow Service A Good 411 Replacement

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on January 18, 2006 by CyberNet.

AskMeNow Service A Good 411 Replacement

The AskMeNow service that has been released could be a good alternative to using 411. I know on my cell phone using 411 costs $1.25, and with Google Mobile I haven’t had to use 411. Now there may be a nicer alternative if I don’t want to use text messaging. AskMeNow uses automated menus and can get information like sports scores, stock quotes, directions, and more. Now, you may ask yourself ‘why is it called AskMeNow if you use menus’? Well, they offer the service called AskMeAnything where AnswerAgents will send you an answer back but a $0.49 fee will be applied to your phone bill. I guess that is still cheaper than using 411.

News Source: AVING

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