Archive for January, 2008

PPC Keyword Decoder

So you spend a ton of money on PPC ads right? Get the keyword information you need to stay informed and help keep your PPC ads and sites optimized.

So what does the PPC Keyword Decoder do?

• Single encoded keyword lookup
• Parses Apache access logs and provides encoded keyword lookup inside an easy to read datagrid
• Exports datagrid results to Excel with one click!

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP
• .Net 2.0 Framework (Free Download)

[ Download Link Removed Temporarily ]

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Application Automation

Unwrapping Visual Studio 2008 has been exciting as I have been looking forward to several new features and development environment updates. One of the great new features I hope to put into immediate use is the UI Automation now available in the .Net 3.0 framework.

So what is UI Automation?

Here is Microsoft’s description:

“Microsoft UI Automation is the new accessibility framework for Microsoft Windows, available on all operating systems that support Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

UI Automation provides programmatic access to most user interface (UI) elements on the desktop, enabling assistive technology products such as screen readers to provide information about the UI to end users and to manipulate the UI by means other than standard input. UI Automation also allows automated test scripts to interact with the UI.”

So what does this mean in plain english?

This means you can now write a .Net application that can automate and manipulate both managed(.Net) and unmanaged(C++) existing applications you own and use.

Why is this such great news?

Well if you have developed a .Net application or have had one developed for you, this means that you can now do a few more things with that old app:

• QA: The obvious is test several scenarios upfront in order to catch, report and debug faster.
• Flexibility: Instead of having to shell out cash to have your application re-programmed to allow automation you can now have it automated externally and generate reports, notifications, etc…
• Creativity: Daisy chain a set of applications to fire in sequence instead of re-creating a monster new application.

The big test that I would like to run is the automation of several non .Net applications that I use frequently and see what happens.

If you are interested you can download the express edition of Visual Studio 2008 and find examples of the UI Automation code at MSDN.

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ReadyHosting Sucks

Readyhosting a few years back used to be a great hosting company. I loved there $99 hosting deal with unlimited bandwidth. At the time I had several clients on there system and I told friends of mine to use them as well. At some point I think the owners sold out and instead of the quick phone support I became acustomed to I now had to wait for someone half way around the world to pick up the phone. No more first name basis, how’s business, etc…

So anyway to get to the point of this post. Here is a recent email exchange with there new tech support:

Sent:

Hello,

Regards,
Cesar Serna

Response:

Hello Cesar,

Sincerely,
*** ***
Customer Support

Seems simple enough right? At this point I start thinking “Hey maybe I was to quick to judge… Maybe I was wrong about them after all…” WRONG!

Sent:

Hello ***,

Thank you for your help.
Cesar Serna

And here is the reply I get:

Hello Cesar,

Sincerely,
*** ***
Customer Support

Now unless there is some new way of installing SSL certs that I am not aware of using JPG’s this has to go down as one of the strangest replies I have recieved. Seriously a JPG? WOW… Wait a second… The SSL cert you sent seems to be encrypted it says… Really WOW what a concept…

This is just one more to add on to a long list over the years… I have simply lost all faith in this company… It used to be so great… I really dont know what to say to this… Time to pull the plug?

*** UPDATE ***
So I did some surfing and I guess I am not the only one receiving bad service from ReadyHosting:

Anyone else experience bad ReadyHosting support or service?

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Graffiti CMS IS Faster than WordPress

Matt, founder of WordPress wrote a quick post about how Telligents upcoming .Net blog platform Graffiti dissed WordPress by saying:

“WordPress is known for having an install that takes 5 minutes or less. Graffiti’s install takes less than 2 minutes. Why? We don’t expect you to setup or configure a database.“

Sorry Matt but Graffitti CMS does install faster than WordPress! Just over 1 minute for me! No DB configs or users to setup all you need is FTP. Diss or no Diss Graffiti CMS even though in Beta has all the right stuff to be a WordPress contender and keep MS people from jumping over to the PHP side. No need to start converting just yet but I will be keeping on eye on Graffiti.

Graffiti supports Themes and Plugins just like WordPress and most important of all it looks like they got permalinks working on IIS without having to have a .aspx extension on every page FINALLY!

Here is a quick tour of some of the backend starting with the dashboard which kind of has a close resemblance to the sneak peak of the WordPress 2.4 Dashboard. It does have some cool Flash stats giving a nice visual to your post and site activity.

Writing a post is similar except you get two tabs with extra features for your post instead of the right sub nav tools.

Settings tab with tag support and more…

Options tab for writing was cool as it provided a spot to write your own Meta Descriptions and Keywords.

So here is quick note for the developers over at Graffiti CMS. Give the option to disable the Javascript prompts when leaving the writing section to another section. DONT PROMPT ME EVERY TIME! Here is a shot of the annoying prompt you get instead of an auto-save or anything else for that matter.

Themes are supported along with an editor.

The Theme Editor comes with a cool custom CSS that will allow you to overide the existing theme CSS without hacking up the original.

Drag and Drop Widgets and Header Navigation is built in. Here is a couple of screen shots of the Widget screen and other Site Options.

Overall for it being a Beta version I thought it was pretty solid. WordPress killer? Probably not but it has the potential of being a great .Net counterpart.

Unlike Matt’s claim that it costs $199 Graffiti CMS is available for FREE. Anyone else download and try this yet?

Time to start writing some sample Plugins for this!

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