If you are closely tuned in to the web world as I am, you may have heard that Google may include “web page load time” as one of their ranking factors in 2010. I heard about this, saw a few videos about this and read about this. Apparently, when Google talks about changing what makes people’s websites rank differently, people listen…and then talk about it themselves.
I run a bunch of different websites. Some of them have rather large page sizes. The reason they are so large is because of additional files beyond simple HTML that each page pulls in to make the web page behave correctly. These files, such as .js and .css files can get kind of big. Over the years, I didn’t really dig too deeply into the page size issue because the sites get fairly good traffic. I just let things ride.
A few days ago, I came across a post on a forum that talked about mod_gzip or otherwise known as GZIP. This is software that you can install on your web server that compresses your web pages up to 70%. Google recommends that webmasters use GZIP to speed up their websites. Google likes to present its visitors with nice speedy pages in their search results.
I read that it’s pretty easy to deploy GZIP and that it really shouldn’t take more than a few minutes (if it’s already installed on your server). I decided to give it a try. So I did. It didn’t work. Hmmm.
I called my web host and started asking questions. I was like, YO B%^&*, what up with my GZIP??? No really, I was polite. I asked about why GZIP wasn’t giving me any compression results and they told me that I was running Apache2 and that mod_deflate was already installed, not mod_gzip. All I needed to do was to deploy it. I kind of like the name “GZIP” better than “DEFLATE” but who am I to argue?
By the way, here are some good resources on using GZIP and DEFLATE:
First, I asked the web host to deploy mod_deflate on only one domain. I wanted to gauge the results and also take a night to see if anything got screwed up from it. They were agreeable and did the following:
At your request I enabled mod_deflate for one domain on server 123456:
I checked out some stuff overnight and since everything looked fine in the morning, I gave the web host a call back and asked them to undo what they did to that individual domain and set it up server-wide. They put the server back the way it was and set up mod_deflate to compress all the websites on the server by doing this:
Created a file /my/path/mod_deflate.conf with the following line:
That was about it. Since Apache2 comes with mod_deflate installed already, all we had to do was to deploy it. We did this both for an individual domain and server-wide.
I bet you want to know about the results, right? Okay. Well, I can tell you that I had some web pages that were over 400kb. They are now running at about 165kb. I also had some web pages that were about 445kb. They are now running at about 45kb. That’s about 10% of what it was. Is that crazy? Yes, it’s nuts.
Next week, I am going to deploy mod_deflate on my other web server. That should really make some positive changes.
There are a few things you should know. The first thing is that if you decide to do this and have a cable internet connection where you are connected to the internet, you most likely won’t notice much of a change. I read that this has something to do with packets. I am not that smart, so I just took this statement as face value. Although, I run cable and didn’t really notice much of a change. People who use DSL and dial up will definitely see some speed improvements from the smaller web page sizes.
Also, if you are running a website and are using a shared server, you may not be able to use mod_gzip or mod_deflate. Since both of these modules use an increased amount of processing power, many web hosts won’t allow its use. If you aren’t aware, some of these web hosts pack like 10 billion websites on each server. Any increase in CPU demand is going to cause problems. Still, you should give them a call to see what they say. You might get lucky.
After a few days of using my new Droid with only a screen protector, I decided that it was time to get a case. When I bought the phone up at Verizon Wireless in Glastonbury, the sales guy showed me some cases. I didn’t really like any of them there, so I figured I would just grab one online. Well, if you haven’t noticed, there aren’t all that many places selling Droid accessories and the ones that are, are pretty much sold out. I thought to myself, “Self, if I look hard enough, I bet I can find something I like back up at Verizon Wireless.”
Last night, I drove up to the store before my Jiu Jitsu class. I looked at the selection and I was again disappointed. There were a few “holster” type cases made of leather. I kept picturing myself walking around with a cell phone attached to my hip. Ummm…no. Not that kind of guy. If I were to do that, I may as well just get a big key ring and hang it from my belt loop. Also, what is it with technology and leather? In my opinion, some sort of synthetic material would be more appealing to the younger cell phone generation. We really need to get over this leather thing.
I did notice a few of the “snap on” type of protector cases. There was a small assortment to choose from; some were shiny and some more rubberized. Since I really needed to walk out of the store with something, I grabbed a rubberized snap on case for my Droid.
Snap on case for Droid – corner view
Snap on case for Droid – side view
Snap on case for Droid – front view
Snap on case for Droid – rear view
When I got in the car, I put the cover on the phone. The front part went on fine. The back part took a little bit of creativity. If you aren’t careful, you can damage the phone with the clip on hooks.
The cover is okay. I still want to get something that I can put the phone completely inside of for when I carry it around in my pocket or in my bag. I guess I have to wait for more product to become available online.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I paid $29.99 for this cover, which is almost 3x what they cost online. I asked my female partner last night how much she paid for her plastic cell phone cover and she replied, $1. Sheesh.
I told you I was going to write about how to upload music to the Droid in my last post. I mean, getting songs over onto this thing is one of the great features, right? By the way, I was laying on the hammock this most perfect afternoon listening to some tunes through the new Droid. I must say, the quality is right where it’s supposed to be. I use real headphones, so my results are probably better then some earpieces out there.
Okay, let’s get to uploading some music files over to the Droid. It’s actually very simple once you figure it out. Here are the steps:
1. Plug the micro USB cord into your Droid.
2. Pull down the “notification menu” and you will see an area that says, “Ongoing – USB connected – Select to copy files to/from your computer.”
3. Select that area by touching it with your finger.
4. You will be presented with the next screen that says, “USB connected – You have connected your phone to your computer via USB. Select “Mount” if you want to copy files between your computer and your phone’s SD card.”
5. Press “Mount”
6. Now, on your computer, open the “Computer” folder.
7. Open the “Removable Disk” folder. In my case, it was drive H:
8. Next, open the “dcim” folder.
9. What I did was to create a new folder called “Music” and copy my songs into that folder. You can arrange them any way you want. The Droid recognized that and I have been listening to music ever since.
Oh yeah, you will obviously need to open up the “Music” app and play around in there. That’s where all your music is. Questions? Comment?
I took a few pictures to help explain the process.
Micro USB plugged into the Motorola Droid
Droid notification menu with USB connected box showing
USB connected box on the Motorola Droid
Opening the removable disk folder on computer
Opening the dcim folder on computer
Creating Music folder and filling up with songs
One last thing. If memory serves correctly, I think I had to “Unmount” before any songs showed up in the Music app. I forget, but I think that’s what happened.
Okay, so last night I figured out how to get some music on my Droid. It’s really easy. If you need help, let me know. Perhaps I will even write a post on how to upload music to the Droid. Who knows. What I do know is that I now have a music player.
This evening (actually just a few minutes ago), I was reading an article about how developers of Droid apps saw an increase in downloads yesterday. One such app that saw a big uptick in downloads is a music player created by Pandora. When I read this, I said, “Hmmm.” I hadn’t really thought much about a music player on a PDA that actually streamed music from the internet. This opens up a whole new world.
I visited Pandora to see what it was all about. Apparently, some geniuses discovered a way to find music that is similar to what you like. Basically, when you visit their homepage, you are asked to type in the name of a song or group that you like. Then, Pandora will find music that is similar to what you typed in and start playing it. I typed in “Days of the New” and was happy to hear “Alice In Chains” and “Stone Temple Pilots.” After that, I heard some Days of the New. Where have I been? How long has this site been out there? It’s pretty awesome.
I haven’t tried to play any music on the Droid from Pandora yet. I downloaded the app and was warned that this service downloads some pretty hefty data, so I should be sure that I am on an unlimited data plan. I know I am, but I am going to give a call over to Verizon tomorrow just to make sure. Can you imagine listening to music that streams from the internet on a cell phone? Now, can you imagine that this music is what you actually like? That’s huge.
There is this really annoying feature that OpenOffice Writer offers that I couldn’t figure out how to turn off. It was so annoying that I figured that I would write about it here, just to help out the few souls who need to turn this thing off like I did.
The feature is called “Word Completion” or othewise known as AutoComplete, or auto complete. What ever floats your boat. The annoying thing about this feature is that it, obviously, completes words for you. Does it accurately complete words for you? Not really. What it does do is create a huge number of misspelled words in whatever document you are working on. I was working on something this afternoon and kept wondering why there were all these strange words with weird endings. They all had those squiggly red lines under them indicating they were spelled incorrectly. I finally figured out that the word completion feature was causing this and that I needed to disable it.
Okay, how did I do that? 3 easy steps.
Open OpenOffice Writer and click on Tools and then AutoCorrect Options...
When the AutoCorrect box pops up, click on the Word Completion tab
While under the Word Completion tab, uncheck the Enable Word Completion check box
Then, hit “OK” and you should be good to go. Does this help?
I read somewhere a few days ago that pictures and video on the internet don’t do the Motorola Droid justice. Boy, they were right about that. In person, this thing is phenomenal.
After Jiu Jitsu practice this afternoon, I somehow ended up in the Verizon Wireless store in Glastonbury. Don’t ask me how I got there, it was a blur. All I know is that I wanted this new PDA because the screen is much larger than my current Blackberry Curve screen and I can see the browser 100% better. Also, HTML emails show up as HTML, not text with code all over the place. It’s a superb business tool.
I am going to keep this post short because the Motorola Droid has been plastered all over the internet and television for that past few weeks. I am not going to go over all that again, but I will throw a nice little video in this post for you. Let me say this…the phone is awesome. Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts are seamless. Apps are just a few clicks away. The operating system is extremely intuitive. At first glance, I thought I would actually need the manual to learn how things work. About 15 minutes of playing with the phone gave me a good working knowledge of how to use just about everything.
The Motorola Droid is the best PDA device I have ever touched…hands down.
I’m not even sure I am going to head down this road. I don’t want to use too many tools offered by one company. It is a good idea though…
Here’s the problem. Google offers the tools that rock. I mean seriously. I have mentioned this before, but it’s true now more than ever. I use a lot of tools online that are offered by a variety of companies. The one company that seems to really get it right is Google. Somehow, they have gotten in my head and figured out what I want.
I don’t know how they did that.
Perhaps it’s the median age of their employees. I bet it’s the same age as I am. I also bet that many of Google’s employees like the same things I do and do what I do. We appreciate the same types of cars and read the same magazines. I suppose I am a market for them.
So, what’s Google Voice?
From Wikipedia: “Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. The service provisions a U.S. phone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application.”
Kind of reminds my of Skype, except Skype has video as well, which is really cool. I bet (if they don’t already), Google Voice will have that soon too.
Well folks, as you can see, this is where things are heading. Get ready to use your cell phone with some sort of a voice app on it. Also, get ready for video calls on your cell phone. Oh wait, that’s probably already available. Where have I been?
By the way, if you are interested in getting in on Google Voice, you can click here to visit Google’s blog post with instructions on what to do.
When I read that line, I stopped cold for a second or two. I started thinking and asking myself silly questions, like, “Gee, I’m working on Vista right now. What’s wrong with it?” and “Why is it that when ever I read something about Windows Vista, it’s negative?” and “Why do I feel like every computer I go near that has Vista installed on it is going to blow up like a giant stink bomb?” Seriously, I am typing on a machine running Windows Vista right this very moment and the world is okay.
I am not simply sticking up for Microsoft, although I was just saying a few days ago that it wouldn’t really matter what position someone takes, I am bound to take the opposite one. I am a debater by nature and right now Vista is the underdog. So there you are.
I will tell you this, I absolutely hate Internet Explorer. It doesn’t matter what version comes out, it pains me to open the program. Maybe it’s because it is excruciatingly slow. It’s not only slow to browse web pages, it’s also slow to just open and run. I read a comparison between the latest versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome the other day. They said that speed was generally the same among all three applications. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. I was like, “What planet are you from?” I only use IE for one thing now and I don’t look forward to it.
I also hate ActiveSync. I used to use it to sync my Treo with Outlook. It was such a waste of time. How many times can a person sever and restore the relationship between the phone and the computer? My fingers used to hurt from crossing them so much.
This brings me to the last thing (I think) I don’t like from Microsoft…and that is Windows Mobile. When I was using Windows Mobile on that Treo, I must have given that phone a hard reboot hundreds of times. It pushed me into the arms of Blackberry, where I have been warmly embraced ever since. I have had my Blackberry for about two years now. Do you know how many times I had to reboot the phone? Once. That’s right. I had to reboot the phone once since I got it and that was just last week and the problem wasn’t even with the phone. It had to do with a Google app that had a bug. Now that’s good.
So, back to my original question. What in the world is wrong with Vista? It is just that there were some compatibility issues when it first came out? Does it have to do with usability issues? Do people dislike the little box that pops up when they have to install or uninstall software?
Since I really don’t know the answer and really have only had a few problems with Vista, I decided to do a little Google search. Here are some sites that offered me some answers:
I guess there are some legitimate reasons why people are a little ticked off. Especially when the company that made the software admits it didn’t work out. I seem to think they are just pumping up Windows 7 though. You know, if you say your previous product (which is naturally dying off soon anyway) was so bad, it makes people want your new product that much more. “Gee, this new Windows 7 must be really GREAT!!!” Honestly, if you want to beat up on a version of Windows, you should have beat up on Windows 98. I am still having shivers from that one. Want to talk about blue screen?
I gotta tell you something. Maybe a lot of the people who are complaining about Vista are open source users. Over the last year, I have actually transitioned myself to use more open source programs than traditional ones. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. I use a few though. I really like what I use. Most of them are smooth, lightweight, fast and have frequent updates. I can’t wait for the day that I have the guts to actually switch to an open source operating system. That probably won’t happen for some time because I am not one to sit and struggle with configurations or trying to see what works with what. I am impatient. If it doesn’t work quickly, it gets uninstalled.
Here’s a question – What has Vista done to you? I would like to hear from real people with real problems. I’m sick of the biased bloggers out there who now have a venue to talk smack. I don’t believe any of them. The problem is, many people do. So, let’s have it.
Have you seen this? I guess the launch was today, because the new “Dyson Air Multiplier” is all over the place on the web. It’s funny, because as I was looking for videos to post here, they were being posted to YouTube pretty rapidly.
Basically, this “bladeless” fan consists of a stand (with a fan in it) and a big round thing (with a slit in it) that the fan pushed the air through.
Some people are saying that this is simply revolutionary. Some people are saying this is just a fan with hidden blades. I say that this guy is a genius because he can 1. come up with such a simple idea, 2. create such a buzz about it, and 3. actually get people to spend $300 on such a device. Hey, you can’t blame him.
Check out the two videos. In the first one, you see a woman with a weird grin on her face who is just mesmerized by the cutting edge technology of this new fan. If you’ll notice the hair in this video, it’s blowing as if the woman and baby were standing in front of a traditional fan.
Now, take a look at this video. Do you notice anything strange? Yup, there is not a hair out of place. Also, it seems very much like these people are either hired or work for the company. What kind of person right off the street says, “It looks like another amazing new technology?”
So, what do you think of the Dyson Air Multiplier? Will it sell?
I just heard of this thing called Google Wave. Now, I use a lot of tools on the web and many of them are offered by Google, but when it comes to sheer continuity, this tops the cake. Google Wave basically merges many functions of GMail, orkut, Friend Connect, Picasa, Docs, Chat and probably many more. It’s pretty incredible.
For a while now, I have been wondering where some of these tools were headed. I mean, the last time I heard of orkut was a few years ago. I had no idea that there was a buzz about it and development of it behind the scenes.
Since I am really no good at tearing apart a video to regurgitate its contents, I’ll just post the video. Check it out.
