Tom LaMantia

SEO Is A Complete Joke

Spam emails occasionally provide me with a source of hilarious entertainment. Ones that advertise “search engine optimization” are one of my personal favorites. What exactly IS search engine optimization?.  Google will provide you with numerous interesting results, however I thought I would come up with a short (yet not complete) list of all things SEO:

SEO is:

• A complete scam
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• A common subject of spam WordPress comments.
• A common subject of robot Twitter accounts
• A common subject of spam emails
• Marketed in all the above ways with a lack of basic grammar using excessive links from url shortening services
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• Commonly conducted by a click center
• Not taken seriously by anyone
• Overcharged
• Overrated
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• A “lingo” to give the impression you understand “all things web”
• A often hilarious gimmick
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• SEO < Nigerian fax scam
• A overused buzzword
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• The subject of 4,674 (and counting) spam comments in my trash can
• The subject of numerous weblogs that dont have a clue
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• Extraordinarily obnoxious
• Meaningless
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• That (insert groan here) when yet another SEO bot follows you on Twitter
• A way to make your “firm” look like it actually does something
• Especially the above ^

YAY! For Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts. Not

Here is a brilliant idea: put the easiest to accidentally press keyboard shortcuts with the most “dangerous” commands. It appears as though the developers at Gmail have done exactly this. A few days ago, I sent my first Gmail message! (Well I technically sent only one sentence due to someones temporary wave of brilliance) but that is just a technicality. Truth be told, it doesn’t take much skill to send a message, as I learned firsthand. One sentence into a (thankfully) unimportant email, my message magically sent itself off. BAM just like that. You get the point. Well, to my surprise, it turns out that <Tab> then <Enter> sends the message. Just brilliant! Like most people who have the misfortune to use Gmail, I indent my paragraphs. I guess I mistakenly hit the enter key after indenting my first paragraph. A simple mistake, but apparently a big one. I am sure I am not the first, or last person to do this. Next time I use Gmail, I will be sure to watch out for that. Either way, this shortcut has to be the worst idea ever. I wonder if the developers at WordPress used such a dumb shortcut… (presses <Tab> then <Enter> multiple times). Nope! My faith in WordPress is not lost! It is still mind boggling to imagine who could ever have thought this shortcut was “intuitive”. Comments? Leave em’ below.

IronKey Personal 1 Gigabyte Flash Drive Review

Today, I just received my new IronKey USB flash drive. I have been looking at this flash drive for a while and I finally decided to purchase one. For those of you who have not heard of the IronKey before, it is a super rugged, super secure USB drive. I won’t go into detail about all the features here, as they are all available on the IronKey website. I have also included some pictures with this review, as there are not too many good pictures of this device on the web. After unboxing the IronKey and trying it out for a couple of days, I have nothing but good things to say about it. It feels excellent, not like your typical USB drive. Very, very solid. The inside of the cap is rubber coated which allows it to slide on and off very nicely. It definitely does not feel like your normal Chinatown flash drive.

The performance is also excellent. The read/write speed of this drive is a blazing fast 27mbp/s read and 24 mbp/s write. WOW. The drive is also waterproof to military standards. It will most likely never get it wet, but it’s always good to know you have that protection. The interface is also very nice and the drive set up quickly and without a hitch (it has to generate the encryption keys the first time you use it). My favourite feature of this drive has to be the portable, secure FireFox. While a little slow, it encrypts your connections and allows you to browse anonymously. It also includes a virtual keyboard, a great tool against keyloggers. This will become very useful on public computers (school, library, etc).

The IornKey is supported on Windows, Mac and of course Linux – how can you go wrong with that! I think the IronKey software beats truecrypt, as you do not have to have administrator privileges on the computer you are using it with. My only concern, is that since the decrypting program is a .exe file, it will not be able to run on computers controlled by an over zealous IT department (Example: my school). I will have to test that. The same issue also applies to the on board FireFox. Apart from that, I love this flash drive, it is secure, rugged and looks great. What more can I ask for?

On another unrelated side note, What the hell happened to Google Docs!? C’mon Google, what are you doing? It seems every time I sign in to type something up, Docs has somehow changed. Mostly for the best, but today for the worse. This is the most unintuitive interface I have ever seen (except for iTunes maybe, but that’s another story). I like Google Docs because it is simple, but now I might as well be using Word.

Chrome Web Apps, Is Google Gearing Up For Chrome OS?

Today, Google launched and added a new feature, Web Apps to it’s Chrome web browser. So what are these Web apps all about? I shall get to that. But first, what the hell are these Web Apps and how do I get them? That’s a very good question. These Web Apps seem to essentially be sexy looking “links” located in your tab bar, to all your favorite Google services. Google will soon be introducing a “Web App store” (sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it) where Web Apps can be purchased. After clicking on this Web App link, which appears to be a favicon type icon, you are directed to that particular service. If you want to try out these Web Apps for yourself, I have outlined some directions below.

1. Update/Download/Install the newest version of Google Chrome (6.0.472.0) Here.
2. Navigate to Extensions >> switch into developer mode >> and click “unpack extensions”.
3. Navigate to: %APPDATA%/local/Google/Chrome/Application/6.0.472.0/Resources on Windows, Linux users see below.
4. Load those extensions.
5. Enjoy.

Of course I wouldn’t forget Linux, the extensions can be found in: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default

Macs do not matter, so I will not bother to post those instructions here.

After excitedly loading these extensions, I found myself wondering: Whats the difference between using these “Web Apps” or navigating to the service/page itself. Well, sexy favicons aside, there doesn’t appear to be one. However, I think these Web Apps might just be the beginning of something very important. If you search way back in the archives you will stumble upon this post. I always said that the Google Chrome OS, will extensively use an “App” system, in which everything is an App. These Web Apps, are the beginning of the Chrome OS “App system”, or at least that’s my bet anyway. I will agree that these Apps seem pretty useless right now, but they might come back later, to become an essential part of Google’s Chrome OS, but that’s just my opinion.

On a totally unrelated side note, I hate the new version of the Chrome Browser. While it still feels like you are not actually using a browser, the rest of the visuals have gone downhill. I think the new menu shading really cheapens the browser and brings down the whole user experience.

My Thoughts On The iPad

Apple’s latest is bound to be a bust. After much speculation, Apple revealed their new “iPad” tablet. There were many rumors surrounding this event and I have to admit, I was really looking forward to seeing what the Apple tablet was really going to look like. Little did I know all I had to do was pick up my iPod Touch to see EXACTLY what the iPad was all about. I was really hoping to see two or three USB ports (NOT USB/Ipod ports), and running something a little more than simply iPhone OS. I can just imagine how the design process of the iPad went: Steve Jobs phoned up the Chinese production line and ordered a 10” iPod Touch, and to flash the same iPod firmware onto it (“Oh, and don’t forget to paint “iPad” on the back”). I laughed aloud when I read about the iPad off the Apple website “Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device”. The iPad is not anywhere CLOSE to “revolutionary and innovative”. There has been tablet PC’s on the market for years and the iPod touch has been out since 2007! One old technology + another technology every body’s seen does NOT make a revolutionary and innovative product! The price is great, but still roughly in the same ballpark as a laptop. Which, I might add has flash support, USB ports, runs a real OS, and does not require a monthly data plan. If someone was going to buy an iPad, I think the 3G is a necessity and nobody in their right mind wants another data plan payment each month. Now all the people at Apples head office must think the iPad is a good idea, and a strategic product/business plan, but I don’t see how it cannot fail. Don’t get me wrong, I think Apple has a really slick new toy, but I think the tech world was expecting MUCH more.

Is It Just Me, Or Is iTunes A Piece Of Crap?

For a guy, with at least a little bit of computer knowledge, a program like iTunes should be super easy to figure out, right? WRONG! Apple would lead you to believe iTunes is this seamless program that plays your music, makes your playlists, mows your lawn and makes your coffee, but apple says a lot of things (that’s another story) that make no sense at all. After using iTunes for the past few months I have had time to try out its capabilities (read inabilities) and features. After many frustrations and one phone call to Apple, there are still a few things I am still trying to figure out. Like why does it take over 40 seconds to open on my dual core, 4 GB RAM machine? During my short relationship with this terrible program, I even discovered a small glitch. The Ipod will not “sync” if you do not click “no thanks” on this one advertisement. That only took me 1 week to figure out… To make a long story short, here’s 8 reasons why it sucks:

ITS A STORE!!! Yes, Apple wants to sell you their stuff.
Your Forced to use it. Wouldn’t a simple, drag and drop file structure make a little sense?
So damn hard to use. The interface makes absolutely no sense.
System Hog. Can someone please explain to me why it takes up so much RAM and processing power?
Difficult To Complete even the simplest Task.
The interface is terrible.
Total overkill for a simple music player.
No Linux support.

I could probably think of a million and one more reasons why I absolutely hate iTunes, but that sums it up pretty well. Thats it for my rant, but I still don’t think thats going to make my iTunes experience any better!

Why I Am Excited About Chrome OS

The day the Google OS comes out, I will be camping out in the Best Buy parking lot, waiting for a copy to get on my Netbook. I can’t even begin to count all the “revolutionary” ideas and products when it comes to computers. Everything claims to “revolutionize” the computer world. I am almost certain that the Netbook will accomplish this. Sure, mobile Internet and computer technologies already exist. I can take my laptop with me anywhere, with a mobile Internet stick and surf the net and accomplish day to day tasks on the bus or at Starbucks. I can even do that on an IPod touch. However this “solution” still leaves many things to be desired. The first reason a normal laptop is not the best for lunch in the park is the fact that its simply too big. The Netbook is easy enough to carry under your shoulder and take with you everywhere. The neat thing about that is a computer the size of a Netbook would have cost you over 2000 dollars a few years ago. You can now get a Netbook for less than 400. However, I personally think Netbooks will become MUCH cheaper than this. C’mon, you get a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of ram, a cheap screen and plastic case for 400 dollars. This is where the Netbook will revolutionize the computer world. Once these computers flood the market, I’ll take bets you can get one for 199 dollars or less. I personally think today’s laptops are cheaply made anyhow. You don’t have to spend too long in your local electronics store to find a laptop with a bunch of busted keys. You get a few scratches, whatever it only cost 199 dollars anyhow. At that rate you can get a new computer every other year or so.

I will admit, the keys of a Netbook are rather small. But I’m sure that when your neighbour gets a 200 dollar laptop, you’ll be impressed too. Its the Google Chrome OS however, that’s the most exciting to me. I first read about the new Chrome OS on the way home from the UK. I was mildly interested and made a mental note to research it later. Well a few clicks later there turns out to be a fair amount of information on the Internet about it. And the more I read, the better it sounds. How can you go wrong with a super fast, super light Linux based OS? While there has been much talk in the tech world about this new operating system, not too much is actually known. I have a feeling that this Linux based OS will not include a file structure. I honestly have no idea how they can have a quick booting, no additional drivers or updates system while including a file structure. It’s simply not possible. Microsoft spends millions of dollars maintaining their equipment and providing you with “service packs” and such. If this is true, then I think everything will become an “app”. You want Photoshop, you get the Photoshop app. You get the idea.

I also believe there will become a few “Google Haters’. There’s already die hard Microsoft haters and Apple ignorers like myself. But if this thing boots up in under 10 seconds and is lightning fast, I think other people will find it hard to resist too. I’m not sure how long it will take for this Netbook thing to takeoff, but if I was Microsoft, I would be getting worried. This battle is just starting to heat up, and you can find me first in line to buy a Google OS Netbook!

Windows Vista Review – Part 2

If you haven’t been following, scroll below to catch up. So I have been running Vista for a few weeks now. A have a few issues, but I do like some stuff. Lets go over the basics first. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it has not gotten any slower over the last few weeks. The Vista interface also looks much better than XP. My issues:

Vista to Win 98 networking is TERRIBLE!
SD card reader does not work (I blame that on Acer)
All the stupid crapware it came with
and last but certainly not least : my computer

One of my Mac obsessed friends once sent me a screen shot of his Mac file manager. It had 4 folders and he said “look at that amazing organization”. The Vista my computer reminds me of this. Just terrible. They changed it for the sake of change. Its the most pointless piece of crap ever. I hear the computer in windows 7 is even more changed.
My only question is “whats all that different about Vista?” Yeah, they put in a few questionable features. Like the cool window viewer and the sidebar thing. High cool factor, but totally pointless. Aside from that, its just a visually improved XP. I don’t understand why you would upgrade from XP just for a few pointless features. And XP networked with older versions of Windows FLAWLESSLY! I get a free upgrade to windows 7. I will try it out and see what happens. I am happy to see that I don’t have the problems that came with earlier versions of Vista, but i am still disappointed. But hey, I happy that I finally upgraded!

Windows Vista Review – Part 1

Today I did something I thought I would never do. I got windows vista. Some people would say I just came from the moon, as a large amount of people already have it. But with the blue screen of death and countless other problems, I was afraid to get it. My good old XP machine died yesterday (burnt out power supply), and I needed a new computer. Virtually every desktop on today’s shelves comes with Vista. It would have been possible to downgrade back to XP, but I thought I would see what this Vista thing is really about. So this is my review. Part 1 of I’m not to sure how many. But here goes:

Well the fact that you are reading this review is somewhat of a good sign. I’m surprised about the ease of setup so far. I had to install windows for the first time last night. Couldn’t have been more simple. I was expecting to stay up all night fighting with the computer, but that was not so. It basically installed itself. The DOS command prompt showed you what the machine was working on at the time. It said “cannot find specified file” a few times, but didn’t seem to be a problem. I liked the user/profile interface of XP so I went to set that up. For a guy with limited vista experience, it went well. My user profiles are up and running with out a hitch. Came with Internet Expoler 8 (Of course we cant do with that, can we? ). Firefox is working well.

My biggest issue lies with all the crapware. There’s this annoying acer “empowering technology” toolbar on my desktop. I will get rid of that as soon as I’m finished with this blog. It seems to be installing “important updates” quite often. I hope they really are important windows updates, not crapware. of course, this happens with any new computer. You just have to grin and bear it.

Next observation: speed and performance. Its running pretty fast. Not as fast as I expected, but still pretty good. Perhaps my expectations are too high. My only issue is to see if it slows down after a couple of weeks.

Next observation: It looks good. A LOT better than XP. Its much better on the eyes. Not as harsh and blocky.

Well that’s it for the first day. I will keep you posted.