Are you a motivated sales individual interested in earning additional income for you and your family? If so we can use your help! Barlam Enterprises is currently hiring part-time and full-time sales individuals! Work remotely from anywhere!
Positions Available:
Web Design Sales
We are currently offering 20% commission rates for web design leads you bring in and close, or 10% commission for web design leads we bring to you that you close. Average web design ticket price is $2000.
Search Engine Optimization Sales
We are currently offering 15% residual monthly commission for Search Engine Optimization contracts you bring in and close, or 10% residual monthly commission for Search Engine Optimization leads we bring to you that you close.
If you are interested please send your resume and contact information to:
If you aren’t familiar with Western Digital’s new WD TV, get acclimated. This little unit (and by little I do mean little, it’s not much larger than my 5 port gigabit switch ) is one killer device! It runs $99 and can play every type of media you throw at it from x264 mkv files to divx to mp3s. All available and output to your TV via HDMI in full 1080P HD resolution (the one main feature the AppleTV is missing, not to mention it is more than double the price) .
Anyways, I recently took the plunge and purchased one of these (Thanks NewEgg!) after reading about how they run Linux and seeing the many modified firmware projects that are out there to further enhance the functionality. Now out of the box this thing is still pretty sweet. It has HDMI out, TOSLink (optical audio) out, and RCA out. It also comes with 2 internal USB ports for local media attachment that can be expanded with a USB hub. I tested this out of the box, and copied two test 1080P mkv files and they played flawlessly! The one thing i know many of you are saying to yourself is… “Where is the nic? No network port?”. And this is where out of the box this media player fails. However, enter the modified firmware projects!
Since this unit is built on Linux, a slew of modified firmware(s) that are available for the WD TV have surfaced. They offer expanded functionality allowing you to add that network port you so desperately want so you can stream your huge media library! Luckily that is the case, and with a simple $10 USB nic you can turn this player into one killer networked HD Media player! I immediately got started and flashed my unit.
The flashing process to change your firmware is simple:
Use USB FLASH KEY from 64mb up to 2GB. I recommend up to 2GB but you could also use bigger ones but they could be using different addressing which could be issue for some models.
Format the USB FLASH key to FAT16 or FAT32 filesystem don’t be lazy and DON’T use NFTS for this case
Go to WDTV menu System→About - There is version notice it you will need this number later.
Unpack firmware package to USB FLASH KEY to root directory there have to be 2 files WDTV.BIN and WDTV.VER.
Open with notepad or any plaintext editor and change version in WDTV.VER to something higher than what your WDTV is now. If you don’t change this, it will not detect a new firmware. Save the file.
Detach all USB devices from WDTV and unplug power supply. Wait 5-10sec, plug-in USB prepared USB FLASH KEY and plug-in power supply.
Wait and don’t reboot WDTV during flashing process
Congratulations, you now have a modified WD TV with an enhanced Linux firmware! Hopefully you also have a USB nic attached now too, so you can mount your NFS/CFIS/Samba shares to stream media! Well go get started and check out the WDTV Cross Compiled Software Repository for a plethora of applications such as asterisk (turn your WDTV into a full fledged PBX!), torrent-client, wget, mysql, php, ssh, screen, icq, perl, python, x11 and more! I can see a lot of new uses for this little device, and the small footprint makes it great to take with me anywhere!
I’m sure it is only a matter of time before we starting seeing even more great hacks and apps coming out for this platform because of its open sourced nature. I can see it now, asterisk running on the WD TV and I am watching a movie, which pauses, and a visual caller id pops up letting me know I have an incoming call and shows the caller id! The possibilities are endless!
Is anyone out there really still using Internet Explorer 6 and other ancient browsers that don’t render alpha channel transparencies properly? I sure hope not because today’s web designers use them readily, and they look far superior in quality to transparent gifs and other images. In fact, our new site that is about to launch is heavily composed of transparent pngs. This poses an problem for companies such as ourself, that offer high end web design services and users who are still stuck on antiquated systems running IE6. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you ditch the minority of users that can’t properly render your site and move on to the bigger and better technology? This is also very related to the problem of creating web sites that display properly at certain resolutions. At what point do you break the line and start integrating newer innovations and features that are supported on higher end systems?
Thankfully Firefox, IE7, Safari and other modern day browsers tackle this transparency issue and display them to perfection allowing web designers to fully utilize them. The addition of such transparencies really can make your site stand out and give it that extra appeal!
I for one embrace web 2.0 and all that comes with it. I hope the casual end users will too, and upgrade from their 1024×768 monitor and IE6 and take advantage of the new technology that is out there!
Slashdot recently reporting that “A researcher recently released proof-of-concept code for an exploit that allows a hacker to overrun an Intel CPU cache and plant a rootkit. A second, independent researcher has examined the exploit and noted that it is so simple and so stealthy that it is likely out in the wild now, unbeknownst to its victims. The attack works best on a Linux system with an Intel DQ35 motherboard with 2GB of memory. It turns out that Linux allows the root user to access MTR registers incredibly easily. With Windows this exploit can be used, but requires much more work and skill and so while the Linux exploit code is readily available now, no Windows exploit code has, so far, been released or seen. This attack is hardware specific, but unfortunately, it is specific to Intel’s popular DQ35 motherboards.”
This news could be troublesome for web hosting environments where virtual machine technology is often employed. A VPS “root” user could exploit the system and obtain root access over many systems and compromise them all. We will have to keep a close eye on this one!
Google has released an open source browser plugin that provides a JavaScript API for displaying 3D graphics in web content. Google hopes that the project will promote experimentation and help advance a collaborative effort with the Khronos Group and Mozilla to create open standards for 3D on the web. Google’s plugin offers its own retained-mode graphics API, called O3D, which takes a different approach from a similar browser plugin created by Mozilla. Google’s plugin is cross-platform compatible and works with several browsers. In an interview with Ars Technica, Google product manager Henry Bridge and engineering director Matt Papakipos say that Google’s API will eventually converge with Mozilla’s as the technology matures. The search giant hopes to bring programs like SketchUp and Google Earth to the browser space.
O3d Info
O3D is an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. This API is shared at an early stage as part of a conversation with the broader developer community about establishing an open web standard for 3D graphics.
Welp it is that time of the year again, and we here at Barlam Enterprises finally took the plunge and are launching our brand new search engine optimized site here very shortly. We will be targeting brand new competitive terms, and feature a more complete site layout with lots of useful information for web designers, search engine optimization and internet marketing. Stay tuned for this major structural, graphical and informational update!
I read an interesting article over today at SEOmoz where randfish claims that footer links may be “devalued by search engines automatically” and furthermore that “Yahoo! says they may devalue footer links” and suggests that “Google might do this (or go further) as well.”
This is very alarming and can effect the rankings of many websites who rely on footer links to improve their rankings as well as webmasters who use footer links as a means of navigation (like we do in this site). Footer text links serve an important role in web design and lots of times will give a website that rounded out feel. Also, footer links are very helpful and beneficial for navigation with pda/phone/handheld devices that cannot render a full size page correctly, or pages that are specifically made for these devices. Furthermore, people who are using text based browsers on terminals such as lynx or links also rely on such links for navigation purposes.
The ramifications of such a strategy is sure to shake up the SEO world and we here at Barlam Enterprises will definitely be evaluating our current link structure for our sites as well as our clients such as Alaskan Northern Lights, distributor of light therapy products.
While Yahoo only claims a small share of the search engine market place, only time will tell if and when the big G will implement these ideas. However, when or if they do, you can be assured many more will take notice than currently are.
I like many other webmasters regularly check logs and statistics of my websites to see what type of traffic I am receiving, and where it is coming from. It is a necessary part of search engine optimization and interactive marketing. I personally use awstats (an open source project) for this task as it analyzes the key areas of my logs that I am interested in and outputs it in a very easy to read and use HTML layout. However, awstats while very useful, doesn’t by itself allow you to deeply analyze the logs and see exactly who is visiting you which in turn determines to some extent whether your marketing campaigns have been successful.
Enter GeoLite City by Maxmind. Another open source project (with licensed paid versions as well) that is easily added to awstats as a plugin. GeoLite City is a database of ip address ranges showing the location they are registered to. This allows awstats to check this database against every ip address that visits you, and prints this information into your awstat logs (screenshot)! Pretty cool huh! This information is extremely useful to determine how successful your marketing initiatives have been.
As an example, say you post an ad for investment properties in various local Dallas, Houston and Austin Texas newspapers. In this ad you included your web site information. With this plug-in you will be able to analyze exactly how effective your ads are pulling. Not seeing the results you want and the hits from Houston? Maybe pulling the ad, modifying it or changing the placement will yield better results and a positive return on your investment! That is just a small example of you can utilize this software and the GeoIP database to your advantage. The possibilities are endless!
According to this NY Times article Presidential candidate Barack Obama is in fact campaigning on the Xbox 360 in the game Burnout Paradise.
The senator’s campaign committee confirmed the advertisements.
“I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”
The constant online atmosphere of Xbox live and the Xbox 360 allows for in game live dynamic marketing opportunities for many companies and individuals.
So I recently had a client request to pay me with Google checkout instead of Paypal. I said ok and signed up for a Google checkout sellers account. Seems like a standard procedure ala Paypal. They do the bank deposit verification, add credit/debit card, ssn/ein etc very much like paypal. This took 3 business days to complete. Of which, 99% of that time encompassed waiting for the verification deposits to arrive in my account so I could be authenticated and ACTUALLY receive payments. This finally happened and I thought I was ready to collect my payment until I learned they go slightly further than PayPal and also physically mailed me a document with a verification code to enter online. On Google’s site it said this would take approximately 5 business days *sigh*. Ok, looks like I wasn’t going to receive my money this week. So I wait, and wait, and wait, finally after 9 business days my verification code arrives. I quickly enter it online and it authenticates me! Woohoo! Money in the bank… or so I thought.
Five more business days go by and no deposit into my account. Finally, today, I receive the following from Google via email:
———————
Google Checkout was unable to verify the account information you provided during the sign-up process. Although you may still accept and charge new orders at this time, you are required to complete the form below to receive any future payouts.
Note: The account verification process is not related to the bank verification you completed during sign up.
1. Collect all of the following documents, and write your Google Checkout Merchant ID number at the top of each document:
* The front of the credit/debit card you used to sign up. Conceal the first 12 digits, leaving only the last 4 visible. For American Express cards, you’re also required to conceal the 4-digit Card Verification Code on the card’s front.
* The front of your driver’s license.
* Proof of address for each address entered in your Google Checkout merchant account. Acceptable forms include:
o Driver’s license with matching address
o Bank statement
o Credit card bill (please black out the first 12 digits of your card number)
o Water, phone or other utility bill
o Business license
* The original supplier invoices/receipts for your previous order(s). Invoices must contain order details and your supplier’s phone number.
* To help us better understand your business, information on the services or items you’re providing, the nature of your business, and how you acquire your customers.
2. Scan or copy each document, making sure the copies are clear and legible.
3. Submit the documents to Google within five business days using the form below. Alternatively, you may fax the information to 650 887 1640, Attn: ‘Google Account Verification’.
We’ll contact you by email once we’ve received and verified your information.
———————
Are you kidding me???? Am I applying for a business loan or a Google checkout account? I don’t even think lenders ask for this much information! Talk about an intrusion into my life and spending habits. I am beginning to wonder about Google’s “do no evil” slogan/policy. The amount of data and information that this company is amassing is astonishing and also somewhat scary. With vast amounts of information, comes power and money.
…and as Stan Lee taught us very well, “with great power, comes great responsibility.”
It just depends what Google plans on doing with this great power… I guess time will tell.
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If you aren’t familiar with Western Digital’s new WD TV, get acclimated. This little unit (and by little I do mean little, it’s not much larger than my 5 port gigabit switch ) is one killer device! It runs $99 and can play every type of media you throw at it from x264 mkv files to divx to mp3s. All available and output to your TV via HDMI in full 1080P HD resolution (the one main feature the AppleTV is missing, not to mention it is more than double the price) .
