Adobe Releases Photoshop Lightroom 2

Major Software Upgrade Simplifies Photography Workflows

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA –July 30, 2008 - — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer's essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.

With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish.

As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination.

Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology
New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com/) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

“Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is RM$1,179.00 for new users with an upgrade price of RM$409.00 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers.

Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel® based processor, or Microsoft Windows® XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4® processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024x768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/.

###

© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United Sates and/or other countries. Pentium is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation, or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

ppm install Email-Send

Image via WikipediaIf you are trying to install bugzilla for issues management of your projects.

And if you are following the installation instructions for Windows platform.

And if you encountered the problem with installing the Email-Send module as recommended by 'checksetup.pl', this is for you.

It goes here....

If you keep getting 'no missing packages to install' while running 'perl checksetup.pl' keep showing that 'Email-Send' is not found, then it means that previous versions of 'Email-Send' is already installed.

The problem is actually with the 'checksetup.pl' where ....

if there are multiple version of Email-Send modules are found in your system, it will feedback 'no found'.
if there is an older version of Email-Send module found in your system, it will feedback 'found' but not-ok.

To double confirm this, make use of the PPM GUI by running 'ppm' from the command prompt, a pop-up windon 'Perl Package Manager' would be launched. Look out for all Email-Send modules installed.



The solution is to uninstall all previously installed modules. You can do this from the GUI 'Perl Package Manager' or just run 'ppm remove Email-Send'. This will get rid of all Email-Send modules in your system.

Then the next thing to do this to add the proper repository.

You see, all these mess is actually due to the problem with the default repository of ActiveState Perl which is 'http://ppm4.activestate.com/MSWin32-x86/5.8/820/package.xml', and this repository brings with it the Email-Send version 2.05. Thus, since Bugzilla recommended the usage of ActiveState Perl, whenever one install ActiveState Perl, Email-Send version 2.05 will have already been installed by default.

The irony is Bugzilla requested to have Email-Send version 2.16 (or higher). And Email-Send version 2.16 or higher can be found at the repository recommended by the script 'Checksetup.pl', which is ' http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/package.xml' better known as the alias 'theory58S'.

So, after you have get rid of all 'Email-Send' modules.

You must also get rid of all other repository by doing 'ppm repo delete '

Then run 'ppm repo list' to make sure that there is not existing repository installed.

Then add repository 'theory58S' by doing 'ppm repo add theory58S http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/package.xml' as suggested by 'checksetup.pl'

The idea is to make sure that 'theory58S' is the choice of repository for obtaining 'Email-Send'.

Then run 'ppm install Email-Send'.

I guarantee that it will sure work. As at 30th July 2008, it will install Email-Send version 2.185.


Run 'checksetup.pl' again and you will see 'Checking for Email-Send (v2.16) ok: found v2.185'

Check out other similar forums here and here.

Fyi ....

Try to guess how long I detoured to do other things before solving this problem ???

1 year... (yup, it is that long .... I first encountered this problem on 16th July 2007, that is why I created a blog entry for this).

This is the problem with open source; documentation sucks and it takes more time to get things done per se.

More about open source.

This also congratulates the importance of blogs, forums and etc; to share knowledge and so that other people can live more efficiently and to fuel the Internet.

Adobe Acrobat 9 : 4 Major Features (Enhanced Powerful Encryption)

Image via WikipediaAdobe Acrobat 9 supports two types of document securities; digital ID and password.

Such facilities are useful for people who wanted to protect intellectual rights of electronic documents such as eBook publishers and sellers.

Encryption with password security is not suitable for eBook sellers. We need to track down smugglers using digital IDs. Because you can't track down a person by password matching; any kind of passwords must be confidential!

What we are trying to do is to prevent illegal mass distribution of pirated eBook. Means we want to prevent buyers from reselling the eBooks they had purchased through downloads (Internet).

To do this, there are two ways.

1. One way is to generate unique filenames for each users based on unique ID such as email address. --> But there is no way to prevent users from renaming the file. Unless we can assign an globally unique ID to the file which cannot be edited.
   
2. Encrypt documents with digital ID so that we can trace back to the PDF file which digital ID it belonged to. And form the digital ID, we can track down who is the smuggler.

So, use security with digital ID.

Open a PDF document.

1. Select encryption as 'Encryption Algorithm' as 256-bit AES
   
2. Create a digital ID.
   
3. Save the PDF document.
4. Export the digital ID to a file (.pfx)
   
5. Distribute the encrypted PDF file alongside the .pfx file to buyer.
   
6. The buyer will have to install the Digital ID in order to be able to open the PDF file.

This will be good for those people who want to sell eBooks online. All you need to do is to pre-create the digital IDs and allocate specific passwords.




Provide password for the digital ID.


Edit the permission options of the security.



Without the digital ID (file), one can't open encrpted PDF file.



One needs to obtain the digital ID (file) and then install it to local computer.


To install (or import) the digital ID successfully, one needs to have the proper password.


Having encrypted with digital ID, we can track down which PDF is belonged to which ID.

But then, if you have 1,000 eBook buyers, how you going to automatically generate 1000 different digital IDs and passwords and assign it to 1,000 eBooks ?

You have to make use of the SDK (software development kit).

Currently, the latest SDK for Acrobat is Acrobat SDK 8.1, which is free for download.

The SDK contains header files, type libraries, simple utilities, sample code, and documentation.

Check out the overview here.

You have to make use of the feature called 'Interapplication communication'.

You also need to have a valid license of Acrobat in order to be able to use the SDK.

If you don't want to buy a valid license of Acrobat but wanted to develop application using Acrobat technology, then you can perhaps go for the PDF Library SDK (where you need to apply for it).

Check out the comparison between Acrobat SDK and PDF Library SDK (two different but similar things).

Juniper Networks Names Kevin Johnson Chief Executive Officer

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today named Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Scott Kriens who will remain Chairman of the Board. Kevin, formerly President of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division, is a proven leader with an incredible career path of growth and success at Microsoft and before that with IBM. Johnson was with Microsoft since 1992.



Scott Kriens to Remain Active as Chairman of the Board

More about Juniper Networks

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, July 24, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today named Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson as chief executive officer. Upon his arrival in September, Mr. Johnson will also be appointed to the board of directors. The company also announced today that Scott Kriens will continue as chairman of the board and will remain active in the areas of strategy and leadership development.

Mr. Johnson joins Juniper Networks from Microsoft Corporation where he served in a range of strategic executive assignments over the course of his 16-year tenure, most recently as president of the Platforms and Services Division.

“The first 12 years at Juniper have been the most rewarding years of my professional life and I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together,” said Scott Kriens, chairman and chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. “We are very excited to welcome Kevin as our new CEO he is a world-class executive, and a person whose values align exactly with the culture upon which Juniper has been built. I look forward to working closely with Kevin in the years to come as we continue to build on Juniper’s success.”

“The Juniper team has been at the heart of the success we have realized since the founding of the company in 1996, and Scott has been at the center of that team with me since those early days,” said Pradeep Sindhu, founder and chief technology officer of Juniper Networks. “Today that team has gotten even stronger, with the addition of Kevin’s experience at scale, his background in engineering, and his proven ability to lead companies through times of rapid growth. I am looking forward to working closely with Kevin, Scott and the rest of the leadership team as we realize our vision of connecting everything and empowering everyone.”

“I am delighted to join Juniper,” said Kevin Johnson. “Juniper is a company with a clear technology agenda, great talent and an amazing growth opportunity in a growing industry. I’m looking forward to bringing my experiences to help Juniper scale and deliver great value to Juniper’s customers, partners, employees and shareholders.”

Most recently, Mr. Johnson, 47, led the Platforms & Services Division, an organization of over 14,000 employees with responsibility for product development, marketing and strategy for the Windows and Online Services businesses. Under his leadership, the division achieved record breaking results with over $20 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2008. In addition to leading the Windows business, Mr. Johnson focused on building Microsoft’s position as a leader in online advertising and evolving its “software + services” strategy.

He also worked globally with consumer, small and medium-sized business, enterprise and service provider customers. Prior to his current role, Mr. Johnson served as group vice president of Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing and services and oversaw corporate operations and IT functions that supported the work of Microsoft employees around the world. Previous to Microsoft, Mr. Johnson worked in IBM's systems integration and consulting business and started his career as a software developer. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from New Mexico State University and served as a founding member of the board of directors of NPower, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help other nonprofits use technology to expand the reach and impact of their work. Mr. Johnson also served as a member of the Western Region Board of Advisors of Catalyst, a non-profit organization dedicated to women's career advancement.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Juniper Networks and the Juniper Networks logo are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

###

WangTool.com - Personal Finance Software and Forum

WangTool.com is a personal finance website to provide a web-based community platform for individual to help each other to improve their personal finance management skill. WangTool.com believe that personal finance management will be best mastered through community sharing and learning in terms of knowledge, skills, information and experiences.

Currently there are 3 services provided by WangTool.com,

1. WangTool.com Personal Finance Assistant (PFA) Software
   
2. WangTool.com Forum
   
3. WangTool.com Information Board

WangTool.com PFA is a free-to-use personal finance software that help individuals to keep track of their personal finance such as Asset, Liability, Income and Expenses. It is written in Java, deploying using Java Web Start (JWS) and use many of open source libraries to ensure ease of installation, robustness, efficiency and cross platform. It uses Accounting double entry bookkeeping, which will help individual to keep track their accounts more accurate. Further, the data entry has been simplified, so that individual without/with less Accounting background still able to use the software.

WangTool.com Forum is a public forum, using phpBB, that allow individual to share their information, knowledge and experiences related to personal finance. It is a place for visitors to ask, to share, to discuss, and to promote (products).

WangTool.com Information Board is where many personal finance related posts/news from other websites/blogs are pull in and pool together in reverse chronological order. Visitors can have a one stop view of all recent news/posts from various famous websites.

Running on sponsorship basis, WangTool.com is a project from GQR Solutions (MySoftwareHouse.com), a Malaysia-based company that provides professional business software solutions. (Basically, business software using same technology as WangTool.com PFA.)

WangTool
MySoftwareHouse

Juniper Networks Announces Next-Generation Application Acceleration Hardware

Juniper Networks announced the next generation of its best in class WXC application acceleration platforms – the WXC 1800 priced at US$4,895 (supports up to 10 connections), the WXC 2600 at US$12,395 (supports up to 20 connections), and the WXC 3400 at US $24,995 (supports up to 140 connections).

The new WXC hardware provides a highly scalable and modular platform, which delivers higher disk capacities and performance in a smaller form factor. They help businesses make the most efficient use of their existing WAN resources and improve application response times by providing a more LAN-like experience for branch office users accessing centralized applications.



More about Juniper Networks.

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, July 23, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the next generation of its best-in-class WXC application acceleration platforms – the WXC 1800, WXC 2600 and WXC 3400 appliances.

The new WXC appliances provide distributed enterprises with a more scalable, modular and cost-effective approach to delivering fast and consistent application response across the WAN to help ensure uncompromised access to mission-critical applications and services.

High-performance businesses are required to provide their employees, partners and customers with real-time access to important applications and services to meet business objectives. They can’t afford the risk of slow or unpredictable application performance across the WAN because it disrupts business.

Juniper’s next-generation WXC hardware provides a highly scalable and modular platform, which delivers higher disk capacities and performance in a smaller form factor. They help businesses make the most efficient use of their existing WAN resources and improve application response times by providing a more LAN-like experience for branch office users accessing centralized applications.

“The new generation of WX-series platforms marks another step toward Juniper’s common hardware platform strategy, which will bring greater scalability, modularity and operational simplicity to Juniper’s WAN acceleration portfolio,” said analyst Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler & Associates. “They form the important building blocks of Juniper’s next-generation WAN acceleration feature set.”



Innovative Features Extend Operational and Cost Benefits to Partners and Customers

Juniper is recognized for innovative features that allow businesses to accelerate high volumes of traffic across a broad range of applications, including TCP, UDP, MAPI, CIFS and HTTP/S.

Juniper delivers rich functionality such as QoS, content distribution and policy-based multipath along with an integrated configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting application. The WXC platforms seamlessly integrate application acceleration with Juniper’s best-in-class routing, switching and security technologies.

The new platforms use software that fully automates provisioning and management tasks, which provide the network and application visibility to help deliver applications exactly as intended.

The WXC platforms improve application performance over the WAN by recognizing and eliminating redundant transmissions, accelerating TCP and application-specific protocols, prioritizing and allocating access to bandwidth and ensuring high application availability at sites with multiple WAN links. On-board hard drives provide support for Network Sequence Caching, which enable the devices to store repeated data patterns, and can produce up to a 100-fold increase in effective WAN capacity.

The new appliances can accelerate WAN traffic up to 2 Mbps for the WXC 1800 – typically deployed at small to medium branch offices; up to 8 Mbps for the WXC 2600 – typically deployed at medium to large branch offices and small data centers; and up to 45 Mbps for the WXC 3400 – typically deployed at higher speed remote locations, head office or data centers.

The new WXC platforms also support Juniper’s universal Field Replaceable Units, which simplify logistical management and ordering for distributors and Juniper support depots, can reduce stocking costs and help lower the carbon footprint because less sheet-metal and corrugated-cardboard is produced, stored and transported. In addition to helping its partners improve operational and cost efficiencies, Juniper is demonstrating one of its key corporate social responsibility initiatives of developing products that can reduce corporate impact on the environment.

“Juniper’s best-in-class WXC application acceleration platform has been deployed by some of the world’s largest organizations based on its ability to fuel large-scale, high-stake customer interactions and transactions real-time,” said Matt Kolon, Asia Pacific CTO for Juniper Networks. “Our next-generation WXC platforms demonstrate our ongoing commitment to delivering the most flexible and scalable solutions that enable high-performance businesses to use their applications to accelerate a competitive advantage.”

Pricing and Availability

The Juniper Networks WXC 1800, 2600 and 3400 appliances are available today through Juniper Networks and its global network of reseller partners. The list price for the new appliances start at US$4,895 for the WXC 1800 with support up to 10 connections, US$12,395 for the WXC 2600 with support up to 20 connections, and US $24,995 for the WXC 3400 with support up to 140 connections.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Juniper Networks and the Juniper Networks logo are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Wendy Lang

Juniper Networks, Inc.

+65-6511-3519

wendylang@juniper.net

PR Agency Contact:

David Gibson

PPM Technology Communications

03-2094-4091, 017-357-2895

ppmpr@yahoo.com, david.ppm@gmail.com

Adobe Acrobat 9 : 4 Major Features (Enhanced: Web Capture)

In Adobe Acrobat 9, there is a feature under 'Advance' tab which is known as 'web capture.

This feature is simply an ability to download and archive all information from a http source into PDF documents.




It is good to achieve the following benefits.

• Good for bloggers to backup and archive a snapshot of the content
  
• Good for bloggers to create digital book out of the content
  
• Good for downloading data for analysis (document comparisons and etc)
  
• Good for project management of web development projects

For example, project managers can include ad-hoc comments and sticky notes in the captured web document and use it for communication with developers. This will save a lot of the time doing-away with print screen.



You can also use the plugin from web browser directly..

1. Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer, and open the website www.adobe.com. Note that if you’re using an another browser
   like Firefox or Safari, you can also create a PDF from a website by launching Acrobat and going to File > Create PDF > From
   Web Page.
   
2. Click Convert in the IE toolbar. Choose a name and location for the PDF file and click Save to save the Adobe
   home page as a PDF file. Watch the conversion status in the dialog to track its conversion progress. If you don’t see the
   Adobe PDF toolbar in IE, open it by selecting Tools > Toolbars > Adobe PDF.
   
3. When the conversion finishes, the resulting PDF file opens. Note that the layout of the PDF file looks just like the website.
   The content responds just as it would if you were viewing the web page from the web server—Flash animations automatically
   play when you mouse over them and links are live, so clicking any link takes you to the page.
   
4. NEW: New to Acrobat 9 is the ability to convert a selected region on a web page. Return to IE and www.adobe.com, and click
   on one of the News links. Choose Select in the IE toolbar. Note that when you hover over portions of the website,
   red dotted rectangles outline portions of the page. Select the title and some text and click your mouse. Any red dotted outlined
   areas turn to a solid blue outline, indicating that this content has been selected for conversion to a PDF file. If you wish to
   deselect a selection, just click again. Click Convert, choose a name and location for the resulting PDF file, and click Save.
   
5. When the resulting PDF file opens, note that you’ve retained only the areas you wanted to retain.

SINGAPORE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SECURES CAMPUS WITH JUNIPER NETWORKS

Deploys High-Performance SSL VPN, Firewall and Secure Routing Network Infrastructure

More about Juniper Networks

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, 18 July, 2008– Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, announced that the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) is securing its campus, lowering bandwidth costs and enhancing user productivity using Juniper Networks' networking and security solutions to deliver secure remote access, routing and network firewall measures across its campus.
The new infrastructure supports IP traffic growth from SIM's expanding staff and student population, including time sensitive network services for administration, communications and coursework.

Founded in 1964, SIM is one of Singapore's oldest private education organizations. Rapid student growth led to a corresponding increase in campus network traffic, intrusion attacks and the need for fast, reliable and secure access at scale for remote and mobile employees.

SIM needed to filter content, control bandwidth utilization and protect student information such as examination results and other sensitive data.
"The challenge was to deploy a comprehensive and integrated security solution that would ensure constant vigilance for both the internal and external networks," said Mr Jeffrey Ho, Manager, Network & IT Services, SIM. "



We evaluated other security point products, such as anti-virus, Web filtering and anti-spam solutions, but they did not meet our expectations or cost structure. Only the Juniper security suite met all our key criteria for performance, security, reliability, and the ability to handle high traffic loads, while minimizing operational expenses and support."

SIM is securing its network perimeter with Juniper NetScreen and security devices, which tightly integrate best-in-class Unified Threat Management (UTM) features to protect against worms, Trojans, viruses and other malware.
Additionally, Juniper's firewall/VPN solution offers full Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) capability with the optional Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) security modules.

SIM also benefits from multiple management mechanisms including complete command line interface, WebUI or centralized management via the NetScreen Security Manager to facilitate rapid deployment while minimizing ongoing operational costs.
Secure remote access for SIM's faculty is provided by Juniper's remote access equipment which uses SSL, the security protocol found in all standard Web browsers, as the secure access transport mechanism.

The use of SSL eliminates the need for client-software deployment, changes to internal servers and costly ongoing client maintenance and desktop support. Juniper's remote access appliances also offer sophisticated partner/customer extranet features that enable controlled access to differentiated users and groups, with no infrastructure changes, no DMZ deployments, and no software agents.

"Centers of learning, such as SIM, depend on fast, reliable and secure networks to accelerate the delivery of intellectual property and vital resources to better serve their constituents," said Beni Sia, Juniper's country manager for Singapore. "With Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure and best-in-class security solutions, SIM has greater choice and control in securing network performance without compromise, all while enhancing user productivity and reducing operating costs."

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Juniper Networks and the Juniper Networks logo are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. JUNOS is a trademark of Juniper Networks, Inc.All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Further Information:

Media Contacts:
Wendy Lang
Juniper Networks, Inc.
+65-6511-3519
wendylang@juniper.net

PR Agency Contact:
David Gibson
PPM Technology Communications
03-2094-4091, 017-357-2895
ppmpr@yahoo.com, david.ppm@gmail.com

Invalid Port Number 8002

Image via WikipediaIf you are developing codes using VB6 and is facing this error, this may help you.

First of all, in a typical code, it looks like this.

MSComm1.CommPort = 26

MSComm1.Settings = "57600,N,8,1"

MSComm1.RThreshold = 1

MSComm1.SThreshold = 1

MSComm1.DTREnable = True

MSComm1.RTSEnable = True

MSComm1.PortOpen = True

Thus, if you are able to find out which line the error is triggered, you may be better off.

If it is triggered from the following line.

MSComm1.CommPort = 26

This is because using 'MS Comm Control 6.0' activeX control, you can only set a maximum port number of 16. Thus, the example above with port number = 26 is considered invalid.

If it is triggered from the following line.

MSComm1.PortOpen = True

Then it means that the port is not existence.

Ok, so the bigger problem is that sometimes you may be in a situation where the port number has to be higher than 16, especially when you are dealing with serial-USB connection (the COM Port number is automatically assigned).

How to solve it ?

Two solutions:

1. Using Win32 API instead of ActiveX object to make serial port connection.

And thanks to this forum, and check out this forum for exact solution.

Mainly it involves usage of createFile API.

The API creates or opens a file or I/O device.

The most important parameter is the 'lpFileName'. Which is the exact name of the resource to be opened in Windows system. For instance, if COM Port 1, the name is 'COM1' as listed in 'Control Panel/System/Device Manager/'

Check out a sample code by Riaan Aspeling (from planet source code) is promising, but it doesn't make use of events. It is using timer.

2. Manually change the port to a number less than or equal to 16.

It can be done, only if the situation permits.

Then you can keep using ActiveX control (MS Comm Control 6.0).

Intelligently Green Forum 2008

Charles DarwinSAS presented world's first ever environmental performance measuring software launched by WWF and Maya Karin.

If you want to go green, how would you go about it ? What indicators should you look at and how should you start ?

SAS has a solution; Sustainability Management Scorecard.


According to SAS, the challenges of sustainable management are:

1. Measure emissions and consumption, physically and financially, throughout your enterprise value chain or product life cycle.
2. Ensure regulatory compliance.
3. Build new business strategies with proven return on investment.
4. Stay ahead of the competition.
5. Manage and forecast complex alignment of strategies, financial costs and resources across the organization.
6. Improve performance by focusing on those metrics that will drive positive impacts on your Triple Bottom Line.
7. Report ongoing performance to key stakeholders and regulatory agencies to improve the transparency of green operations and corporate stewardship initiatives.

So, you need a tool to dig out these information and that blends tremendously well with SAS' background in business intelligence.

Sustainability is about three main elements. (1). Economic (2). Environment (3). Social.

And to tell us how the harmony interactions of these three elements can bring corporate benefits, the forum invites Ms. Choon Bow Bow (Director of Marketing), WWF Malaysia to give us some insights.

According to Ms. Choon, a harmonic sustainability means having a good CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) which complements business.

It is a product differentiation strategy motivated by cause-related marketing. It reaps the following benefits:

1. Increase sales
2. Reaching new market segments
3. Improve employee relationship
4. Enhance customer's loyalty
5. Boost corporate brand

Ms. Choon presented the Key Sucess Factors as:

1. Having the right partnership - strategic fit between cause and desired brand value
   
2. True belieft & commitment to the cause
   
3. Prepare to invest time & money

She quoted a few examples:

Who	Activities	Benefits
BMW & Susan G Comen (Breast Cancer Foundation)	BMW donates $1 for every mile of test drive.	- Soften the brand of BMW and reaches the women’s market - Sales improved
Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.	Challenging Spirit : Rhino Rescue	Exemplifies the brand of “Challenging Spirits & Realizing Dreams”
Boh: Brings People Together	Saving orang utan	Generates goodwill for the brand
HSBC Climate Partnership	- 100 million commitment for 5 years - Creates activities (that is climate nature) around the brand.	Generates goodwill for the brand

Some statistics presented during the forum.

• 72% of consumers would switch brand if the price is almost the same, but for a better cause.
  
• 75% would be happier to work for a company associated with a good cause.
  
• 88% of malaysian think that companies should be environmental friendly
  
• 85% endorses the work of organizations like WWF

And then Mr. Thomas Spiller (Snr Director, International Programs, SAS) provides a more direct insights about business.

According to him, Charles Darwin (Father of Economics) quoted that the winner will be the one who can adopt to changes faster and not the fittest or the smartest. And supply and demand is no longer matching and as a result, companies really need to adopt faster to perform better.

Mr.Spiller shared that going green is a long term problem for human, because we have no choice. And going green actually helped companies to create better profits for the products. For instance, GE's Ecomagination generated $US 20 billion revenues and UPS turn-left-only-shortest-path's initiative saved them 13 millions liters of fuel (saving money as a result). Same goes to DuPont's initiative of reusing waste.

Not just for the profit, it results in employee retention because employee now can stay focus on their jobs which promote a good cause. This is exciting.

According to Mr. Jimmy Cheah, people are keen on the subject more than any other thing.

In short, to reap similar benefits, know your CSR first and to do that get SAS' Sustainability Management Solution. Why ? Because it is beneficiary for all.

Actress Maya Karin; the Ambassador of Environment for the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment of Malaysia stresses the followings on top of coexistence:

1. Search for solutions for a sustainable future
   
2. The need to set new standards and change our attitude
   
3. Saving environment is saving ourselves
   
4. Redirect development into sustainable ones

As Maya puts it beautifully..

Coexistence teaches us about mutual respect and makes us better people . (15th July 2008,Maya Karin)


And to learn how well SAS perform in terms of CSR, check out this full report.

Check out the full press release this page.

More about SAS.

Thomas Spiller

Thomas Spiller is Senior Director for International Programs at SAS. He joined the company early 2007 and, in his capacity, Thomas is in charge of driving the global public policy initiatives that SAS has launched, such as sustainability or e-Government. He is also in charge of representing SAS vis-à-vis international Institutions and national, regional and local governments throughout the world bringing with him fifteen years of experience of International Affairs both at the Corporate and Government levels.

He started his career in 1993 working two years in the communication and information department in the office of the French Prime Minister, Mr. Edouard Balladur.

Thomas then spent the next eight years as government affairs manager for AREVA, the world leader in nuclear power, with assignments in Paris, Washington, Tokyo and finally Brussels. He was notably in charge of economics, waste management, security and societal aspects of nuclear energy.

Building on his energy expertise, Thomas then worked for five years for GE (General Electric) at their European Headquarters in Brussels. As Counsel for European Affairs, he represented GE Energy, GE Oil and Gas as well as GE Aviation to the European Union where he was active in shaping policy that led to the current EU energy and environmental policies being discussed in Brussels.

Thomas Spiller is an active member of the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) and is a frequent speaker in international business and policy circles with experience at the European Commission, European Parliament, World Economic Forum, International Maritime Organization, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Transatlantic Policy Network, Center for European Policy Studies…

Thomas Spiller graduated a lawyer from La Sorbonne University Paris with degrees in Political Science, Defense and International Relations. In his personal time, Thomas Spiller enjoys scuba diving and collecting vintage watches.

Jimmy Cheah:

Jimmy is the Managing Director of SAS Institute Sdn Bhd since April 2003. He is responsible for driving the business development and growth of SAS Malaysia and he manages the entire sales, marketing and operational activities. During his three years with SAS, the company saw an increase in operating revenue by more than 60%, employee headcount by 60% and a 20% growth in customer portfolio.

Jimmy has a wealth of experience and expertise in a wide range of sectors. He has over 20 years experience in IT and has held executive positions with international ERP and Supply Chain software companies, including the “Big Four” consultancies in Malaysia. During his 10 years as a consultant, he has served organizations in Government, Manufacturing, Financial Institutions, Retail and Healthcare sectors in a variety of engagements including developing IT plans and financial and operations review.

He graduated from the University of New South Wales, Australia with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Information Systems.

SAS launches first ever Sustainability Management Solution

SAS Sustainability Management to make going ‘green’ easier.



(Jimmy Cheah, Maya Karin, Thomas Spiller)

More about SAS.

Press Release:

Kuala Lumpur (July 15, 2008) – Leading business intelligence provider SAS Malaysia, today launched its Sustainability Management Scorecard, the first in the Sustainability Management Solution suite designed to help organizations accurately measure, manage and improve the impact of their operations on the environment.



The SAS Sustainability Management Scorecard launch is in conjunction with the 2008 SAS Forum Malaysia themed “Intelligently Green” with the participation of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Malaysia and the Environmental Envoy for Malaysia, Maya Karin.

The SAS Sustainability Management Solution is an industry breakthrough as it is the first ever decision-support software that enables organizations to proactively identify innovative strategies that address complex environmental, social and economic situations while achieving stakeholder objectives.

Thomas Spiller, SAS Senior Director of International Programs says that while most executives support ‘green’ business strategies, few actually know how to prioritize and incorporate the strategies into their business operations.

“Many organizations are struggling to understand the complex business-social situation that requires them to balance between good environmental practices whilst concurrently pursuing profitable economic situations. At the same time, they lack tools that can enable them to properly measure the actual benefit and impact of their business strategies on the environment, in a manner that is accountable and reportable.”

“With SAS Sustainability Management Scorecard, organizations can now manage holistic strategies for sustainability that take into consideration the interrelationship between social and environmental programs. It enables effective execution of these strategies as well of reinvestment of savings from here into other areas of the business”, explained Spiller.

According to a McKinsey survey , environmental issues such as climate change top the agenda in executive suites worldwide. But measuring and managing environmental impact is difficult as it involves massive, intricate work that spans across an organization’s entire operations. Causal relationships connecting issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, use of scarce resources, ethical sourcing and regulatory compliance make it extremely complex to invest in green technology and expand sales of products and services with measurably better environmental performance.

SAS Sustainability Management Scorecard helps establish an integrated, consistent source of quality information where you can bind initiatives to a common sustainability framework, while being able to predict valid sustainability strategies, identify causal relationships and forecast improvement scenarios. The solution is based on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform and uses the Global Reporting Initiative framework to report on Triple Bottom Line indicators.

Jimmy Cheah, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia says “In the emerging landscape of sustainability, it is not enough just to talk green. Organizations need to identify the green-related metrics that apply to the business as well as find the right data to describe and measure those metrics.”

“SAS Business Intelligence and Analytics solutions have long been used to take costs out of business, so it's not much different to take carbon out. With SAS, organizations can optimize business strategies for minimizing risks and costs, developing new lines of business, and improving resource use, environmental or otherwise” he ends.

About SAS:

SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. Customers at 44,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. Only SAS offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®. www.sas.com

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2008 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial Contact:

Jeanisha Wan
Marketing Manager
SAS Malaysia
Tel: 2273 6288
Jeanisha.wan@sas.com

Visithra
PR Consultant
Sirius PR Sdn Bhd
Tel: 7805 2700
visithra@siriuspr.com.my

Sekilas Tentang dmoz

Sekilas Tentang ODP (Dmoz). (ODP) Open Directory Project atau biasa di sebut Dmoz merupakan directory search engine terbesar untuk saat ini, hampir kurang lebih 37.000 sukarelawan yang menjalankan tugasnya sebagai editor pada directory tersebut (Sumber : Buku "Top 10 On Google" - Rahmat Putra - Penerbit : Dian Rahmat). Dmoz termasuk yang penomenal dalam Directory search engine karena hampir semua search engine terkenal mengacu pada directory Dmoz. Beberapa Search Engine yang mengacu pada Dmoz diantaranya: Google, Alexa, Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Teoma, AskJeevess Netscape, Hotbot dan beberapa Search engine yang lain. Yang jelas bayangkan saja jika situs atau blog anda ter-index pada directory tersebut, berbanggalah jika blog anda salah satu yang dipilih dan pantas masuk kategory mereka, karena blog atau situs yang pantas masuk merupakan dari suatu proses penyaringan yang sangat ketat. Tidak jarang blog/situs yang mendaftar di tolak bahkan tanpa konfirmasi sama sekali.

Apakah mendaftar ke ODP trafik pengunjung akan meningkat?

Untuk dikatakan meningkat secara drastis jawabannya masih terlalu abstak, tetapi pada kenyataannya blog atau situs yang telah terindex pada Dmoz trafiknya akan sangat meningkat hal ini disebabkan karena site/blog anda akan muncul hampir pada setiap direktori search engine terkenal, tentunya sesuai dengan katakunci yang di cari yang berkenaan dengan deskripsi dan title blog anda. Menurut dari beberapa pengamatan, blog/situs yang terdaftar pada ODP memiliki peringkat yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan yang tidak terdaftar. Sangat menguntungkan bukan!

Berapa lama Situs/Blog akan ter-index di ODP?

Saya pun tidak mengetahui pasti berapa lama situs atau blog kita terdaftar ke ODP, yang harus dipahami adalah editor ODP ini menggunakan jasa manusia bukan mesin seperti spider-nya Google. Dari pengalaman saya mendaftar ke Dmoz, blog saya baru di index selama 2 minggu setelah pendaftaran bahkan mungkin saja waktunya lebih lama lagi tergantung mood sang editor kali ya :). Teruslah berjuang dan jangan putus asa jika blog anda masih belum di index, mungkin saja masih dalam tahap proses, tapi jika dalam waktu 3 minggu tidak terdaftar juga, Dmoz membolehkan kita mencoba mendaftar kembali ke direktory mereka dan anda masih bisa memilih kategory yang lain sesuai dengan tema blog/site anda.

Beberapa hal penting sebelum melakukan pendaftaran.
Pada Title :
- Pilih Title sesuai dengan titile sebenarnya
- Jangan menggunakan huruf ALL CAPITAL.
- Buangkan bahasa pengiklanan dari tajuk.

Pada Deskripsi :
- Jangan gunakan tag HTML.
- Hindari bahasa pengiklanan. Perkataan dan frasa seperti "cool" dan "best darn site" akan dihapus.
- Jangan menggunakan ALLCAPS di dalam huraian anda.
- Elakkan membesarkan huruf pertama dalam setiap perkataan dalam ayat.
- Jangan mengulangi tajuk laman anda di dalam huraiannya.
- Semak ejaan anda.

Baca Baik-Baik Peraturan dari Dmoz :
- Sila memohon sekali sahaja, tambahan URL ke Open Directori. Jika laman itu tidak disenaraikan dalam masa tiga minggu, anda boleh memohonnya semula.
- Menyamar pemohonan untuk menambah URL yang sama lebih dari sekali, juga tidak dibenarkan.
Contoh: http://Dmoz.org dan http://Dmoz.org/index.html
- Jangan memohon laman cermin. Laman cermin mempunyai kandungan yang sama tapi mempunyai URL berlainan.
- Elakkan memohon laman yang mempunyai URL yang bertukar ke URL lain.
- Sila memohon tambahan URL ke kategori yang paling berkenaan. Laman yang ditambah ke kategori yang tidak berkenaan akan dihapuskan.
- Sila tunggu sehingga laman anda siap sebelum memohon tambahan URL anda. Laman yang belum siap, mempunyai notis "Under Construction", atau mempunyai grafik patah dan link patah bukannya calon baik untuk direktori ini.
- Laman dengan kandungan haram dan pornografi adalah tidak dibenarkan di dalam Open Directory. Contoh kandungan haram termasuk, tetapi tidak terhad kepada, pornografi kanak-kanak dan laman menyalahi hakcipta.

Catatan : Semua peraturan diatas merupakan informasi resmi dari situs Dmoz, yang jelas tidak ada penambahan dan pengurangan dari informasi tersebut

Tips Penting dari penulis :
- Pilih kategory yang tepat jangan sampe salah, setidaknya pilih yang paling mendekati sesuai dengan tema blog/site anda.
- Jangan mendaftar lebih dari satu kali, jika gagal tunggu selama 3 minggu lalu daftarkan kembali blog atau situs anda.
- Pada "Title" sebaiknya samakan saja sesuai title blog anda, jangan membohongi Editor Dmoz, ingat! editor Dmoz manusia bukan mesin.
- Pada "Site Description" ini sangat penting dan berpengaruh pada hasil pencarian, gunakan deskripsi sebagai kata kunci, karena menurut pengalaman saya beberapa search engine seperti google melakukan pencarian sesuai dengan deskripsi blog yang anda masukan (Kesalahan dari blog saya adalah ketidak telitian saya ketika memasukan deskripsi dengan benar)
- Jika blog atau situs anda tentang Pornografi, kekerasan, virus sebaiknya lupakanlah Dmoz!
- Jika Gagal mendaftar padahal anda telah mengikuti intruksi dengan benar? Pertama coba anda daftarkan sekali lagi, apa salahnya mencoba dan berusaha. Kedua : Jika anda mendapatkan konfirmasi dari editor berupa kesalahan yang disampaikan, coba kontak kembali editor tersebut. sebaiknya dalam menyampaikan pesan gunakan kata yang halus, tegas dan jangan bertele-tele apalagi kasar. Ketiga: coba daftarkan kembali pada kategori yang berbeda, mungkin saja editor juga berbeda. Keempat: Berdo'a lah mungkin ini cara terbaik hehehehe becanda :)

Langkah Mendaftar ke ODP
1. Buka situs http://www.dmoz.com
2. Pilih directory yang ada hubungannya situs/blog anda, misalnya situs/blog anda bertemakan bisnis pilih kategori bisnis jika tentang komputer ya pilih tentang komputer atau Misalnya anda ingin bergabung dalam blog pribadi dimana blog saya terdaftar anda bisa klik World - Bahasa_Indonesia - Masyarakat - Orang-orang - Halaman-halaman_pribadi - Anonim.
3. Jika anda sudah merasa sesuai dengan kategori yang dipilih klik tambah url (suggest url) yang terdapat pada halaman kanan atas pada halaman Dmoz
4. Selanjutnya Dmoz akan mengarahkan kita ke pengisian formulir
Perhatian: Baca semua peringatan dan peraturan yang harus dipatuhi ini sangat penting!
URL halaman : Masukan nama site/blog anda (contoh : http://namablog.blogspot.com)
Tajuk Halaman : Bisa dikatakan sebagai title, masukan title/judul halaman blog.
Huraian Halaman: Bisa dikatakan sebagai deskripsi dari blog.
Alamat imel Anda: masukan alamat email anda (Contoh : nama_email@gmail.com)
Masukan code verifikasi : Masukan code verifikasi yang ada pada gambar.
5. Cek kembali semua data yang telah anda masukan sebelum diproses, kesalahan kecil sedikitpun akan merugikan anda.
6. Kemudian tekan tombol "Submit"
7. Sampai tahapan ini proses sudah selesai, jika ada kesalahan dalam proses submit lihat deskripsi atau peringatan kesalahan tersebut. segerah perbaiki.

Jika ada kesalahan dalam informasi yang saya buat, tolong sampaikan pada kolom komentar.thanks:)

Etika dan Cara Promosi Blog yang Baik

Banyak cara yang bisa dilakukan untuk mempromosikan blog agar dikenal oleh banyak orang, akan tetapi ada sebagian juga yang tidak mengerti dan mengenal etika dalam mempromosikan blog yang telah mereka buat, kadang cara apapun ditempuh agar blog menjadi terkenal. Hal yang terpenting sebenarnya adalah mengarahkan pengunjung kepada blog yang kita buat, agar informasi yang terkandung didalamnya dapat dilihat dan sampai secara maksimal kepada banyak pembaca.

Tulisan ini memberikan informasi penting bagi blogger pemula yang baru memulai dan ingin mempromosikan blog mereka agar diterima serta dikunjungi oleh banyak pembaca dengan cara yang baik dan benar. Artikel ini dibuat khusus untuk blogger pemula, dan jangan pernah tanyakan apakah saya blogger professional? Dengan tegas saya katakan tidak. Saya sama seperti kalian (bloger pemula) yang masih harus belajar, tulisan ini hasil pengamatan dan pengalaman saya dalam waktu yang cukup lama.

Tujuan penulisan ini bukan untuk mengatur dan menggurui siapa pun, artikel ini hanya untuk memberikan bantuan bagaimana cara mempromosikan blog dengan baik dan benar serta etika yang terkandung didalamnya.

Dibawah ini merupakan cara terbaik dalam mempromosikan blog anda:

Promosikan blog anda melalui search engine:

Cara yang paling praktis adalah dengan menggunakan auto web submit. Ada banyak layanan gratis yang menyediakan layanan untuk pendaftaran, anda bisa mencarinya sendiri di search engine atau tanyakan ke om Google :)
untuk memudahkan dalam mendaftar ke Search engine, saya sarankan anda menggunakan layanan mypagerank
Layanan lain yang dikhususkan dalam pencarian blog diantaranya adalah Google blog search dan blogdigger kedua layanan ini merupakan pencarian blog yang paling banyak digunakan saat ini. hampir semua penyedia layanan blog mempunyai fasilitas pencarian dengan cara mengindex link pada database mereka sendiri, selain itu kita juga lebih diuntungkan apabila penyedia layanan blog tersebut mempunyai fasilitas ping karena hal ini akan memudahkan kita dalam mempromosikan blog yang telah dibuat.

Memberikan komentar adalah promosi terbaik:

* Beri Comment pada blog yang dikunjungi, cara ini cukup akurat dalam mempromosikan blog anda
* Isikan komentar apapun yang positif pada blog orang lain
* Isi buku tamu atau online chat atau tagboard kalo memang tersedia
* Berikan pujian apa adanya pada blog yang dikunjungi, jangan terlalu belebihan dalam memberikan pujian. munkin ada pada sebagian orang pujian adalah hinaan.
* Beri komentar yang berbobot sesuai dengan topik yang ada
* Jangan melakukan spam Contoh “Kunjungi blog saya dong”, “hai saya punya blog baru nih, mampir yah” cara ini menurut saya pribadi kurang baik dan sangat mengganggu pemilik blog yang anda kunjungi

Bergabung dengan forum/mailing lists :

* Cara ini akan membuat relationship antar blogger.
* Cari forum yang sesuai dengan topik blog anda, jangan join dengan tema yang berbau fornografi jika blog anda bertema keagaaman, malah gak nyambungkan
* Beri komentar atau menjawab semua persoalan yang baik diforum dan ingat jangan lakukan spam.

Bertukar link (banner exchange)


Untuk blogger baru:

* Cari blog yang sudah terkenal yang mempunyai ranking terbaik, selain meninggalkan jejak hal ini akan membuat blog anda terindex oleh search engine.(istilahnya nebeng beken!)
* Saling bertukar link antar new blogger tidak hanya membuat blog anda dikenal, akan tetapi sebagai media pengingat alamat blog yang pernah dikunjungi
* Jangan pernah punya perasaaan buruk, dendam, kesal, merasa terhina jika tidak di link balik, berpikir lah positif mungkin saja saat ini ia lagi sibuk atau lupa.
* Berikan komentar dengan cara bijak dan lebih halus namun menjanjikan, sebagai contoh:”artikel diblog ini sangat bermutu dan bermanfaat bagi saya, saya akan menyimpan link blog ini pada halaman favorit, dan saya pasti akan berkunjung kesini lagi” cara ini cukup jitu dan membuat pemilik blog merasa dihargai serta saya jamin blog yang dikunjungi akan melakukan hal yang sama.


Untuk blogger lama:

* Bagi para blogger yang sudah dapat nama (terkenal) berbagilah link dengan blogger baru, kenapa? Karena tanpa dukungan mereka blog anda tidak akan berarti apa-apa.
* Memang bertukan link dengan blogger baru tidak akan menguntungkan apa-apa dari segi web page ranking dan malah menguntungkan blogger baru, tetapi ingat dalam hal lain blog anda akan terus dikunjungi dan diingat oleh para blogger baru, alasannya cukup simple karna mereka merasa sangat dihargai dan diperhatikan serta memberikan kesan positif
* Jangan merasa kesal dengan ulah blogger baru, maklumi saja mereka masih pemula (termasuk saya sendiri) munkin perlu waktu untuk belajar lebih banyak, coba anda renungkan kembali bagai mana cara anda ketika baru belajar mempromosikan blog, saya rasa mungkin sama, iya khan.

Publikasikan Melalui email

Cara ini cukup efektif untuk mempublikasikan blog anda, misalnya anda mengirim email keteman, saudara, rekan kerja/bisnis. Cukup berikan keterangan alamat blog sebagai informasi lebih lanjut, tanpa harus melakukan paksaan untuk mengunjungi blog yang diinformasikan.


Hindari penggunaan SPAM
Spam adalah tindakan mempromosikan blog/situs anda tanpa memperdulikan waktu dan tempat. Pastikan tempat anda ber-promosi sesuai dengan promosi yang anda berikan. Kalau tidak sesuai, pikirkan lagi jalan keluar yang baik agar orang menyukai dengan promosi anda.


Penggunaan bahasa pada blog yang anda tulis
Ada cara lain dalam mempromosikan blog anda, yaitu dalam penggunaan bahasa, ingat pembaca blog anda tidak hanya orang indonesia saja tetapi hampir semua orang didunia bisa membaca blog anda, ada baiknya anda memasukan tulisan menggunakan bahasa inggris, selain bisa dimengerti embaca luar juga mudah dimengerti oleh mesin pencari (search engine)


Pasang iklan pada dunia nyata
Selain mempromosikan pada dunia maya, anda juga bisa mempromosikan pada dunia nyata, terkesan aneh dan lucu memang hal ini memang jarang dilakukan para blogger (apabali saya pribadi masih gak PD hehehe ), Anda bisa mempromosikan blog dipapan pengumuman, kantor, kampus, radio, lewat SMS, PhoneCell atau media cetak, kalo di media televisi pun sebenarnya tidak jadi masalah he3x.


Daftarkan blog kelayanan pihak ketiga
Layanan pihak ketiga memungkinkan blog anda lebih dikenal luas keseluruh dunia.

Beberapa yang terbaik ditantaranya dalam melakukan promosi adalah:

* Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
* Blog Pulse: http://www.blogpulse.com
* Blog Digger: http://www.blogdigger.com
* Mybloglog : http://ww.mybloglog.com
* Digg : http://www.digg.com
* Del.icio http://www.del.icio.us

Tips untuk Technorati: sering-seringlah melakukan ping dengan layanan ini. kebanyakan pengunjung Technorati adalah para blogger juga, jadi gunakan keyword atau tag yg sepatutnya anda gunakan yg berkaitan dengan blog anda.

Sampai saat ini cara promosi diatas cukup akurat, dan hal terpenting dalam mempromosikan blog adalah hindari penggunaan SPAM, gunakan cara yang wajar dan bijak sesuai dengan petunjuk diatas. Thanks

Ping Service For Blog Promotion

Salah satu cara mempromosikan blog adalah dengan menggunakan fasilitas layanan ping. cara ini merupakan cara praktis agar blog selalu diketahui banyak pengunjung.
Blogger sebenarnya telah menyediakan layanan ping bisa dilihat pada halaman pengaturan->Publikasikan->ping. jika kamu gak puas dengan layanan blooger kamu bisa memilih salah satu layanan yang ada dibawah.

Ping Tips:
Lakukan ping jika kamu telah mengupdate blog kamu.
Lakukan ping jika kamu melakukan posting terbaru
Jangan lakukan ping terlalu sering karna ini bisa dikatakan sebagai spam
Lakukan ping seperlunya dan jangan berlebihan

Ping favorite saya:
http://mypagerank.net/service_pingservice_index
http://www.pingoat.com/
http://pingomatic.com/

Google FAQ

Sebagai major player terkuat saat ini, Google memang masih sering menjadi perdebatan di kalangan webmaster. Terutama bagi mereka yang baru masuk ke proses SEO. Dalam beberapa bulan terakhir, banyak pertanyaan seputar Google yang masuk ke Promosi-web.com. Untuk itu saya ingin merangkumnya pada artikel kali ini dengan harapan semoga bermanfaat untuk Anda semua.

1. Apakah Google Dance itu?
Google dance adalah proses update rutin yang dilakukan oleh Google. Biasanya hal ini terjadi satu bulan sekali. Pada saat Google dance berlangsung, listing hasil pencarian yang ditampilkan biasanya berubah-ubah. Kadang kala website yang biasanya berada di posisi puncak untuk kata kunci tertentu, tiba-tiba terlempar ke halaman belakang atau hilang sama sekali. Hal sebaliknya juga bisa terjadi. Proses ini akan selesai kira-kira dalam waktu 1 minggu dan setelah itu listing akan stabil kembali.

2. Apakah Googlebot itu?
Googlebot adalah nama mesin spider dari Google. Googlebot dapat menemukan sebuah situs dari form pendaftaran (Add URL) atau dengan menelusuri link yang ada di situs lain. Anda bisa melihat kapan Googlebot mengunjungi situs Anda melalui access log dari web server. Jika web server Anda dilengkapi dengan program statistik seperti AWStatas, akan lebih mudah lagi mengetahui kedatangan Googlebot. Awstats dapat membaca spider-spider yang mengunjungi sebuah website dan mencatat kapan kunjungan terakhir mereka.

3. Apakah Google dapat membaca website yang menggunakan halaman dinamis (asp, php, cgi, jsp) ?
Tentu saja bisa, sebab pada umumnya output dari server side script (asp, php, cgi, jsp, dan lain-lain) adalah content yang mampu dibaca Gooblebot. Output dapat berupa HTML, XML, file-file gambar, ataupun file-file dokumen seperti PDF, Ms. Word, Ms Excel, dll.

4. Apakah Pagerank itu?
Pagerank adalah salah satu metode yang digunakan Google untuk menentukan rangking dari sebuah website. Banyaknya external link atau link yang mengarah ke situs Anda sangat menentukan besarnya Pagerank. Tapi satu hal yang perlu dicatat, Pagerank hanyalah salah satu faktor yang digunakan untuk menentukan rangking. Masih ada puluhan atau ratusan variabel lain yang ikut menentukan rangking sebuah web. Indikator besar kecilnya pagerank dapat Anda lihat melalui Google Toolbar yang bisa Anda install pada browser Internet Explorer maupun Firefox.

5. Kenapa deskripsi sebuah web di Google selalu berubah?
Google menggunakan deskripsi sesuai dengan konteks keyword yang dicari, jadi tidak bersifat statis. Ada beberapa sumber yang biasanya dipakai sebagai description, yaitu : teks pada halaman web, meta tag description, dan ALT pada tag. Pada umumnya sumber yang pertama paling banyak digunakan, sehingga menyebabkan deskripsi berubah-ubah dan terkesan tak teratur. Namun pada kondisi tertentu, meta tag description digunakan apabila dianggap relevan dengan keyword. Maka dari itu disarankan untuk membuat meta tag dengan baik, sesuai dengan konteks isi halaman. Penggunaan keyword yang berlebihan pada meta tag akan dianggap spam, sehingga isinya tidak akan pernah digunakan sebagai description. Hal menarik lain yang pernah saya temukan yaitu halaman yang memuat kumpulan foto-foto, tanpa teks sama sekali dan tanpa meta tag, memiliki description pada hasil pencarian Google. Setelah saya lihat, ternyata deskripsi ini berasal dari atribut ALT yang dipasang pada masing-masing gambar.

6. Saya pernah melaporkan sebuah website yang melakukan SPAM ke Google. Namun kenapa listingnya masih saja muncul?
Google tidak langsung menghapus listing sebuah web hanya karena ada laporan. Bayangkan saja kalau yang melapor ini adalah pesaing Anda. Mereka melakukan pemeriksaan terlebih dahulu terhadap kebenaran laporan tersebut sebelum mengambil tindakan. Jika memang terbukti melakukan SPAM, tim google bisa menghapusnya secara manual dan memasukkan situs tersebut ke daftar hitam. Namun sedapat mungkin google akan melakukan perubahan pada algoritma filter search enginenya, sehingga SPAM bisa ditangkal secara otomatis.

7. Apakah dengan memasang iklan di Google (Adwords) bisa meningkatkan rangking pada listing regular?
Tidak. Sebab Google secara tegas telah memisahkan antara listing regular (atau biasa disebut organic listing) dan listing iklan (paid listing). Metode rangking yang diterapkan pada kedua jenis listing ini benar-benar berbeda dan terpisah.

8. Apakah website yang terlalu sering disubmit ke google bisa ter-blacklist?
Sebenarnya Google tidak menyarankan Anda untuk melakukan pendaftaran (submission) berkali-kali. Cukup dengan sekali pendaftaran, Google akan mengunjungi website Anda secara berkala. Dan Google juga tidak akan menghapus atau mem-blacklist website yang didaftarkan berkali-kali. Lebih baik Anda memanfaatkan waktu untuk mengoptimalkan kinerja website Anda daripada mensubmit website berulang kali.

9. Apakah pemilihan jenis web server seperti Apache dan IIS berpengaruh terhadap rangking? Bagaimana dengan penggunaan dedicated IP?
Penggunaan web server dan dedicated IP tidak ada hubungannya dengan rangking. Anda bisa menggunakan web server apa saja sesuai dengan kebutuhan. Hal yang lebih penting adalah bagaimana membuat website Anda mudah diakses oleh semua pengunjung.

10. Listing website saya tiba-tiba lenyap di Google, apa yang harus saya lakukan?
Terkait dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan sebelumnya, ada banyak faktor yang bisa menjadi penyebab. Apakah kesalahan memang ada pada website Anda atau itu hanya bersifat sementara (misalnya karena google dance). Hal pertama yang harus Anda lakukan adalah melakukan evaluasi kedalam. Apakah Anda merasa pernah melakukan SPAM, atau mungkin secara tidak sengaja? Apakah website Anda bisa diakses dengan baik? Mungkin saja web server Anda pernah down selama seminggu pada saat Anda liburan atau keluar kota misalnya. Atau mungkin juga website Anda tidak lenyap, namun terlempar ke halaman belakang karena banyaknya pesaing baru, website Anda tidak pernah di update, banyak broken link, javascript error, gambar atau flash yang tak bisa muncul, dan lain-lain. Namun jika merasa tidak ada yang salah dengan website Anda, berarti kesalahan ada pada Google. Listing pasti akan kembali dalam kurun waktu 2 hingga 4 minggu.

Sumber : http://www.promosi-web.com

Bagaimana Memulai Proses SEO ?

Bagi Anda yang telah membaca seluruh atau sebagian artikel yang ada di situs ini mungkin sudah mengerti konsep-konsep dasar dari proses Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Namun dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang dikirim oleh pengunjung, ternyata masih banyak yang susah untuk menyimpulkan darimana harus memulai proses ini. Untuk itu saya mencoba memberikan ringkasan dari tahapan-tahapan SEO dengan harapan bisa lebih mudah untuk Anda pahami secara global, terutama bagi pemula di bidang SEO. Artikel sejenis sebenarnya sudah pernah dimuat sebelumnya, namun kali ini saya berusaha membahasnya lebih lengkap.
1. Jika memungkinkan, mulailah dengan website baru yang belum pernah dipublikasikan atau didaftarkan ke search engine. Pilih sebuah domain yang paling tepat untuk mewaliki brand dari usaha Anda. Akan lebih baik jika Anda dapat menggunakan salah satu kata kunci (keyword) utama pada domain, selama tidak bertentangan dengan brand Anda.
2. Kuasai dasar-dasar HTML. Banyak teknik-teknik SEO yang akan menuntut Anda untuk mampu melakukan editing langsung pada kode HTML. Setidaknya Anda bisa melihat dan memahami kode-kode tersebut beserta strukturnya secara umum. Anda bisa mulai belajar dari buku-buku HTML atau artikel-artikel online seperti yang tersedia di situs IlmuKomputer.com.
3. Pilih 2 atau 3 kata kunci yang kira-kira paling tepat untuk mewakili isi (content) dari website Anda. Dalam hal ini jangan asal tebak dalam memilih keyword-keyword tersebut. Kata kunci yang Anda kira tepat belum tentu banyak dicari pengunjung melalui search engine. Gunakan alat bantu seperti yang disediakan oleh Wordtracker.com. Situs ini menyediakan daftar kata kunci populer berdasarkan record yang dimiliki beberapa search engine utama. Jangan pernah memilih kata kunci yang terlalu umum seperti hotels, vacation, atau travel. Persaingan keyword-keyword umum seperti ini sangat ketat dan akan sangat sulit bagi Anda untuk dapat masuk 10 atau 20 besar. Disamping itu pemilihan keyword-keyword umum belum tentu dapat mendatangkan pengunjung yang tepat untuk website Anda. Misalnya, jika website Anda menawarkan paket-paket liburan di Indonesia, akan lebih baik menargetkan keyword yang lebih spesifik seperti indonesia vacation packages atau lebih spesifik lagi bali vacation packages. Pengunjung yang datang dari keyword vacation, belum tentu akan membutuhkan jasa Anda, sebab ia belum tentu membutuhkan informasi mengenai paket liburan di Indonesia. Mungkin saja ia membutuhkan liburan di Hawaii atau bisa jadi hanya mencari artikel mengenai tempat-tempat liburan di seluruh dunia. Inilah yang saya sebut sebagai pengunjung yang tidak tepat.
4. Tulislah teks untuk website Anda berdasarkan kata kunci yang telah Anda pilih. Untuk halaman depan, usahakan membuat teks dengan panjang minimal 300 kata. Gunakan kombinasi dari keyword-keyword utama pada 300 kata ini. Namun yang perlu Anda ingat, jangan membuat kombinasi keyword yang berlebihkan sehingga teks Anda tidak enak untuk dibaca. Disinilah dituntut ketrampilan Anda dalam menulis sebuah artikel.
5. Rancanglah sebuah title tag yang baik. Title tag sampai saat ini masih sangat berpengaruh dan digunakan sebagai acuan untuk menentukan relevansi dari sebuah web. Title tag tidak usah terlalu panjang, cukup 60 - 70 karakter. Usahakan pula memakai kata kunci utama yang telah Anda pilih. Title tag harus benar-benar mencerminkan apa isi dari website Anda.
6. Buatlah meta tag secara optimal. Walaupun saat ini meta tag tidak terlalu memegang peranan, namun beberapa search engine masih menggunakannya sebagai pembanding bagi isi website Anda. Artikel yang lebih lengkap mengenai meta tag bisa Anda baca disini.
7. Mulailah melakukan pendaftaran ke search engine dan direkroti utama, dengan melakukan pemeriksaan teknis sebelumnya. Pastikan semua link di web Anda berfungsi dengan baik. Jangan sampai ada javascript error, gambar yang tidak tampil, atau kesalahan-kesalahan sejenis. Dalam melakukan pendaftaran ke search engine, lakukan secara manual melalui form Add URL yang telah disediakan oleh masing-masing search engine. Jangan pernah menggunakan software submit otomatis sebab keberhasilannya tidak dapat dijamin. Jangan mudah tertipu oleh jasa-jasa submit yang menjanjikan pendaftaran ke 500 atau 1000 search engine sekaligus. Anda sama sekali tidak memerlukan jasa tsb. Hanya ada 3 search engine besar dan 3 direktori utama yang perlu Anda beri perhatian khusus.
8. Mulailah membangun link popularity. Link popularity adalah faktor yang sangat penting dalam menentukan keberhasilan dari proses SEO Anda. Ada banyak cara yang bisa Anda tempuh, diantaranya dengan menyumbangkan artikel ke website lain yang dibawahkan Anda selipkan copyright dan link ke website Anda. Anda juga dapat melakukan pertukaran link dengan website sejenis, atau situs-situs lain yang contentnya kira-kira bermanfaat untuk pengunjung Anda. Jika Anda menulis content dengan baik, dan isinya bermanfaat untuk banyak orang, maka secara alami akan banyak orang yang mereferensikan situs Anda. Inilah yang disebut sebagai konsep natural link. Dan natural link adalah poin utama yang paling dihargai oleh search engine.
9. Hal terakhir yang sangat perlu Anda perhatikan adalah berusaha bermain jujur. Anda tidak usah mencari metode atau cara yang tidak umum, untuk mencurangi search engine. Perubahan cara kerja search engine dapat terjadi setiap saat, dan tentu saja dapat berdampak baik atau buruk pada website Anda. Namun Anda tidak usah membuang-buang waktu untuk mencari bagaimana sebenarnya poin-poin ajaib yang dipakai Google atau Yahoo. Percayalah, tak seorangpun mengetahui metode ini, kecuali staff teknis Google atau Yahoo sendiri. Saya lebih menyarankan agar Anda berkonsentrasi mengembangkan content, dan membuat website Anda lebih baik dari hari ke hari. Trik curang dengan cara apapun merupakan bahaya besar untuk bisnis Anda kedepan.

Sekali lagi saya tekankan, SEO merupakan proses yang membutuhkan waktu cukup lama. Anda harus menempatkannya sebagai proyek jangka panjang. Semoga artikel ini bisa memberikan pemahaman yang lebih baik mengenai SEO.

Sumber : http://www.promosi-web.com