This is a good article on using reCAPTCHA. It has a video introduction to reCAPTCHA for non technicals as well. Very good value.
via Protect your site from spammers with reCAPTCHA.
Archive for category Internet
What fingerprints does your browser leave behind as you surf the web?
Traditionally, people assume they can prevent a website from identifying them by disabling cookies on their web browser. Unfortunately, this is not the whole story.
When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this information can create a kind of fingerprint — a signature that could be used to identify you and your computer. Some companies are already using technology to try to identify individual computers. But how effective would this kind of online tracking be?
EFF is running an experiment to find out. Panopticlick will anonymously log the configuration and version information from your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it to our database of many other Internet users' configurations. Then, it will give you a uniqueness score — letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web.
Adding your information to our database will help EFF evaluate the capabilities of Internet tracking and advertising companies, who are in the business of finding as many ways as possible to record your online activities. They develop these methods in secret, and don't always tell the world what they've found. But this experiment should give us more insight into the future of online tracking, and what web users can do to protect themselves.
Is your browser configuration rare or unique? If so, web sites may be able to track you, even if you limit or disable cookies.
Panopticlick tests your browser to see how unique it is based on the information it will share with sites it visits. Click below and you will be given a uniqueness score, letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web.
Test yourself at: https://panopticlick.eff.org/
via Panopticlick | About.
An old friend of mine was contemplating hosting his own website and asked me about my recommendations in terms of technology. I asked about his requirements and use cases. his response was:
“The start up will be educational and tutorials for anyone. Later it will grow to sell software programs, technologies and ideas“
If you happen to have a similar set of needs, I suggest at the start that you use a service either free or paid. The following services are the most viable solutions:
- www.squarespace.com (paid)
- www.wordpress.com (free+paid)
- http://sites.google.com (free)
Wordpress and squarespace are both blogging platforms as well as great web publishing tools. Squarespace is more consumer friendly for web publishing but both can do the job nicely and easily.
When you start selling we will use other augmenting services including google checkout. Paypal and authorize.net. Squarespace is my number one choice. Wordpress is more viable if you want to start free the upgrade later. All these services import from each other and can export to other formats. You can also
use the wordpress platform on the other hosing providers as your Content Management System (CMS).
When you start selling we will use other augmenting services including google checkout. Paypal and authorize.net. Squarespace is my number one choice. Wordpress is more viable if you want to start free the upgrade later. All these services import from each other and can export to other formats. You can also
use the wordpress platform on the other hosing providers as your Content Management System (CMS).
All these are very easy startup solutions that you can elegantly use and grow. They require no learning curve. They require no admin and security hardening and defense. which are all time wasters. I am aiming at conserving your time to concentrate on your core work not on web admin, security or content management technologies.
If you still want to run your own server, then I suggest:
if you need to run your own software on a server not just traditional hosting, you can use their virtual server options instead of the traditional hosting packages.
Finally if you have lots of money and hate to keep it, you can get your own dedicated server at www.rackspace.com the ultimate in availability and reliability. too much for a startup in my opinion.
There are other technologies like Amazon’s Elastic Computing or Google App Engine, but these are suitable for more interactive online apps and services.
An Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you’re ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database inWebMonkey’s PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP’s online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)
An excellent article on how to get kids interested in programming. it gathers a great collection of programing languages tools and sites specifically geared to the younger minds.
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Teach_a_Kid_to_Program
The service is simple. They send you a kit. You provide a saliva sample and send it back for analysis. But the result is an amazing insight into yourself, your health, and your ancestry. Details from their web site are below: for more info visit: http://www.23andme.com
A high-density, custom genome scan.
Our customers submit a small saliva sample that is processed using a custom DNA chip. The resulting data is then presented on a secure website using interactive tools that offer information about ancestry, inherited traits and disease risk.
Hundreds of insights into your genetics,
with regular updates.
We help you understand how your genetics influences more than 80 diseases, health-related conditions and traits. We also help you explore your family relationships and ancestrywith the information in your DNA. And as new discoveries are made, we update your account with the latest findings.
Innovative sharing and comparison features.
23andMe is the leader in giving you secure, simple options toshare your genetic information with family and friends. You can also post stories and questions for other members of the 23andMe community. Other tools show you how you fit into the 23andMe customer database–and the whole human gene pool.
An opportunity to drive the future of research.
For the first time, anyone can help advance research by participating in our research program, 23andWe. Through online surveys that simultaneously collect scientific data and enhance the experience for our customers, 23andWe is designed to reveal the genetic basis of disease and contribute to making personalized medicine a reality.
Secure, permanent web-based access.
The safety of your data is our priority. Your personalized 23andMe web account provides secure and easy access to your information, with multiple levels of encryption and security protocols protecting your personal data.
Google releases Google Chrome. an exciting advance in browser technology. Very advanced efficiency,usability and security features. Google name is on top of it.
Features and Videos
Download Beta Version
Displays search results in a way similar to the album browser in iTunes and iPod.
Google Health Launches
May 19
Google Health Launches: “After a year and a half since the first announcement, the much-anticipated Google Health has been released at Google Factory Tour of Search. ‘Patients need to be able to better coordinate and manage their own health information. We believe that patients should control and own their own health information, and should be able to do so easily,’ said Adam Bosworth in November 2006.
Here’s what you can do in Google Health:
* create a health profile with information about your health conditions, medications, allergies
* import medical records from US hospitals that use Google’s APIs to make the conversion possible. Unfortunately, the list of partners is almost empty.
* read medical resources, information about diseases”
By Jane Hart, Head of Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
to appear in e.learning age magazine, April 2008
Whether you are a corporate trainer, a Learning & Development manager, a learning designer or developer, or an educator in a school, college or university, these are the 25 must-have tools. What is more they are all free, which makes them very useful for those on a low (or non-existent) budget or simply for experimentation and exploration of the widening e-learning space.
These tools have been taken from the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list compiled from the Top 10 Tools lists of over 100 learning professionals worldwide and are a mix of personal productivity tools (for managing personal learning) as well as authoring tools (for creating learning solutions). Many of them are Web 2.0 tools that promote a social, collaborative, sharing approach to learning.
Source: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/articles/25tools.html