SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization 101

I just came across a video clip on ZDNet about SEO 101 – see here for the video clip - You may also find a transcript here

1. site structure
2. Link relationships
3. Content
4. Information Design
5. Code cleanup – Keep it simple – CSS styles, etc
6. Traffic and Popularity
           Blogs, PodCasts, etc.,

check it out … It is a great video.

As I watched and read thru' the transcript - I think (just my opinion) #6 and #3 go hand in hand. I recently read a book about blogging – Naked Conversations – where I noticed many such examples of driving traffic – well let me phrase it properly – it is the content that drives the traffic. Also as I read and understood, one shouldn't be concerned about the traffic – because if you have the right content and if it is authentic, it pulls the audience towards the site. Of course, it still needs to get the initial visibility but then the retention aspect should be stable with great content.

If you haven't read the book – try reading this book as well.

Outlook message and remove attachments??

Is there a way to retain email message and remove the attachments? did i say it clear enough?

Ok.. here is the scenario. I have many emails with attached docs and pictures in them. As I approach max'up my storage limit, i tend to delete those big emails. But I would rather like to save those attachments and keep the email for the information in them instead of deleting the entire emails.  At times, I forward the message to myself removing an attachment but then, I would lose the sender name on that email for later search.

Is there a better way to do it? I was searching for an Outlook/email blog but couldn't find one.

Done Done!

Before coming to seattle area, my understanding for Done was “task is completed” and it wasn’t “Done…But”. During a conversation with somebody years ago when I said Done, I was asked if I was Done Done? I said “what do you mean?” Well, to cut the story short, this is when I learned the pattern and usage for Done Done!

How many times we get into such situations on our daily life? How about customer support? Here is a great article on Sticky Minds titled “Done Done – the magic of Completion Criteria Magic” by Payson Hall - gives such an instance and where the possible root cause is.

Setting expectations with each other in daily life is one of the basic frustrations that usually encounter. It also boils down to perception, most of the times. The way we understand each other. At times, I realized, people convey half of what they have in mind and not being open enough to convey what they want to and need to. When I think about it from self experiences and observing others, it is to an extent, the relationship, trust factor and ofcourse that leads to open and honest communication.

There are many great articles on Sticky Minds and Better Software websites. check it out….

I thought I was done writing this post… but not really done done…
Well, I better stop here … done done

Photo Story for Windows

I have taken lot of pictures of my infant daughter in the past year. I came across this beautiful tool Photo Story and made some story threads out of it. It is a pretty cool tool. It is available for free on Microsoft.com 's digital photography website

 Try it out … here is the download location

(image source here)

Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Myers-Briggs Personality Test

I recently heard again about the personality test – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I got home and searched for an online test and took a test for myself. I turned out to be INFP.See here for the Personality preferences to learn more about what these acronyms are. After my test, I got curious and thought of taking the test for my wife as I understand her. I then had my wife take the test on the same website. This was pretty neat as I was watching each question that my wife answers – and the answers were almost matching mine (for her). Try it out. I think there are many such online tools available -  I just tried this site {technorati tags: PersonalityTest; wikipedia}

Kannada Wikipedia

Kannada Wikipedia meet being organized in Bangalore on April 2, 2006. I believe most Kannadiga Geeks in Bangalore will be at this event. See here for more information on Wikipedia site

Venue details

Venue: Nayana Auditorium, Kannada Bhavana, J C Road, Bangalore – 02

Date: April 2, 2006 – Sunday

Time: 4 PM to 8 PM

SASQAG: Key Measurements for software test

SASQAG has organized a talk event tonight at Construx Software, Bellevue. See here for venue information. This is the 2nd part of the talk Pamela Perrott gave couple of months ago. See for summary and Slide deck for the previous talk.

I often attend the SASQAG events and if you haven’t heard about it before, SASQAG stands for Seattle Area Software Quality Assurance Group and they organize for the Software Quality related talks once every month. SASQAG.org has all the past meetings information and slide decks available. There has also been an On-Demand video presentations available for recent talks. This is a great opportunity to meet with fellow software people, talk to them and learn from the experienced people around.

 

Happy Holi

I had completely forgotten about Holi until this evening when I looked at the hindu calendar. Anyways, Happy Holi to you all.

(image source here)

See here to know about what Holi celebration all about.

We used to have a lot of fun back home during our school and college days. I remember spending the entire day outside playing with colors. Co-incidentally, Holi used to be around the time we had year end academic exams. And, that makes it hard to play as opposed to being prepared for tests. Anyways, when we had leisure we had a blast.

Technorati tag: holi

Sports drink and your Teeth

How worse could a Sports Drink like Gatorade or Red Bull to your teeth. Study shows, Gatorade is much erosive than any other soft drinks. Although I have never tasted this drink, I have seen many people enjoying this drink. I had also heard from many who go workout at Gym that Gatorade hydrates your body as you work out. It is now concerning that it could even harm the teeth.

I came across this article on WebMD. 

“I don’t think everybody realizes how erosive these things are, especially Gatorade and Red Bull,”
“People need to be aware that all sorts of beverages can be causing dental erosion.“

It was surprising to me that even fruit juice like Apple Juice can cause this issue. So, I learned that the basic ingredient that makes it harmful is sugar. I remember another article couple of years ago that a can of Coke/Pepsi might include about 32 teaspoons of sugar. umm… now thats scary..

“There is pretty good evidence now that this is not just sports drinks, but soft drinks and juices in general’
 ”They have become the main source of sugars in the diet. It comes down to the more sugar in the drink, the more risk of [cavities] to the person drinking it.”

Read this article on webMD for information about experiment, consumption and more… [link]

(copied from my spaces blog)

eastside blogger meetup 3/7/06

I was at the bloggers meetup this evening at Crossroads-Bellevue. I met with Jack Bell, Anita Rowland, Tommy Williams, Alex Barnett and Dennis Hamilton. I joined the discussion a little late, I think they were talking about RSS versions, and OPML when I got there. We then started sharing about the technology evolution in software industry, different languages from assembly to 4^th generation language. I also heard about Fortran IV and Fortran 77. Oh! This takes me back to my college days where I learned Fortran programing on paper – Yes, writing programs on Papers without having access to computer labs – I know thats funny. So anyways, we were talking about blogging, vi editors, pascal, php, dhtml, java script, C, C#, Agile Management, etc etc…  What are some of your Aha! phases in your earlier days of programming? we shared some of our aha instances writing programming and getting fascinated into software technology.

Dennis shared an article that was written in 1960s and also shared about his career. Dennis Hamilton and I were at SeaSPIN  talk couple of weeks ago, I had missed to meet with him then and we caught up this time. 

Dennis shared an article that was written in 1960s and also shared about his career. Dennis Hamilton and I were at talk couple of weeks ago, I had missed to meet with him then and we caught up this time.   

Thank you Anita, for organizing this meetup