milliondollarhomepage

I'm just curious about this site http://milliondollarhomepage.com/. 1.000.000 pixel site, with $1/pixel, it is an advertising website with unique way. But it was cool.... Btw: there is a lot empty pixel still..

Push Firefox, Make Cash

November 11, 2005 12PM PST

Good news: Google will now pay you $1 every time you successfully refer someone to download and install Firefox (a version pre-loaded with the Google toolbar, of course). US-only for now, it seems.

Firefox has seen an amazing adoption rate, but it has been slowing down. This is a huge boost. Combine the cries of frustrated web designers and developers over the past few years, the plethora of anti-IE sites by designers for end users, the reach of people building web sites who are thoroughly and utterly sick of supporting IE6, and the lure of cash. Any bets on how many percentage points Firefox is about to jump?

Somehow this flew under my radar last week, but I don’t see many people talking about it. It seems pretty important. Google has the pockets for this (scamming aside), and given the past year or so of rumbling in their direction from Microsoft, the motivation as well.

Know Linux

by: Pawan Bangar

Linux

Linux essentials:

• It’s free for download but you have to pay a tiny bit to mail order it or buy it from a company. If you’re getting Linux for more than 2-3 PCs, you can also get training and support at a small free, if you choose to have it. Else it’s the Linux community on the Net to your rescue.

• If you want to get comfortable with Linux, you don’t have to let go of windows. Get Linux installed on a seprate partition and you can switch between Windows and Linux. There are some Linux versions that run off CDs too-xandross and Knoppix.

• You don’t have to be a geek to work with Linux. There are Desktop environments that let you work in Linux as you work in Linux as you would in Windows.

Linux hand in decreasing PC prices.

The PCs bundle the operating system. Linux being an open source operating system, means that the code that runs is open for everyone to see, work with, modify and develop their own innovative apps for it. The deal with this experimentation is that you have to share the knowledge you gained and the software you created with the public domain. So the operating system comes to you for free, or if there are some copyrighted application on it, you play up a bit. But this is nothing compared to the fortune people spend on OSs like windows. And a company bundles Linux and applications based on it with a computer, quite a bit of the software cost comes down.

Linux came into being about 11 years ago- it was developed by Linux Tornados of Finland along with a group of programmers from the open source software movement. Linux was mostly something only the geeks worked with. And yes, it was mostly about commands and programming. But over the years with so many Linux enthusiasts (about 50 million of them) working on it and sharing knowledge about it, quite a few versions have come up which are as easy to use as windows. And developers are still free to work with code and enhance it.

Linux is growing steadily year after year. With a passionate community backing it, with big companies Like IBM and HP pledging their support for it, it’s no wonder Linux- the wonder operating system for servers of the past, has also made it to the desktops of today. Not in a sweeping way yet, but in ways that will help you –the user. PC prices are already on their way down. And you get more choice with operating systems and applications. From being an OS only computer professionals had heard about, Linux, in a short time, has made a transition into the lucrative and high profile home PC segment. Most of the decision to switchover sounds very economical. From a measly base of a few thousand users, Linux now boasts of close to 50 million users, cracking the monolith of Microsoft’s monopoly. Companies like IBM, HP and Dell have also taken to Linux in a big way. Microsoft doesn’t agree with the free concept at all-the software is free but the support isn't Windows code to outsiders so they could build on to it. Very recently though, the company has allowed part of the code to be opened up to some US government are vying with each other to get tech-savvy and help the citizens through e-governance, the opening up of the OS code is important, countries like India need a variety of regional language fonts and content to be created which can’t done without Microsoft’s help, if the choice is Windows. Since this isn’t happening much, they have gone ahead with adopting Linux.

Linux is based on the commercial OS, UNIX. All the OSs tries to pack in command line management of systems. System administrators of companies use command lines all the times as their lifeline, but it’s not really meant for regulars users. But UNIX and Linux are not all about just command line stuff. UNIX has had a graphical user interface for 30 years. In its 11 years Linux has always had always had a GUI too-in fact a choice of GUIs.

Linux Versions:

If there are so many people working on it. There’s likely to be many Linux versions too. Many companies working on Linux have come up with what are called Linux distributions. There are Linux versions that are compiled and packaged and released with various additional software.

The popular distributions or destroys include Red Hat Linux Mandrake Linux, Corel Linux SUSE Linux and Debian . it’s just like having different flavors of ice cream. True to the spirit of open source, if you download the distro from the company’s Website, it is free for use. But the distros are usally quite huge. If you are getting the distorts from the company, be ready to pay up a tiny bit. Companies compile the packages, make installation hassle free, bundle applications, add a manual, and extend any support you need. So they charge a fee for all this.

One note here though: the free in Linux stands for freedom of choice, to redistribute, to install a feature, freedom to modify the source code. That’s the spirit of Linux being free.

Linux better than other OS

Linux users won’t even bat an eyelid before they say an emphasis comes from a deep dislike of Microsoft’s practice of changing the earth for software. But a lot of it comes from the fact they are ready to swear upon-that Linux is more stable. There are no blue screens and no viruses to speak of. Linux has a better security support for multi-users, lets you set up a stable server, internet gateways etc, and still lets it-self to be used as a desktop workstation. Add to that it being free, and they argue that you don’t lose anything by giving it a try. You get free support on the Net quickly on any query you may have. And you don’t even have to wipe out your Windows. Just get Linux on a different hard disk partition and free to switch between the OSs as you please .

Myths about Linux

Installation:

Linux is hard to install, isn’t it? Not really. Most people haven’t ever installed Windows on their computers either-since it comes preloaded. Linux is as easy-some say easier-to install compared to Windows. You can install it through a graphical user interface like Windows. But what really stumps most people in installing Linux on a second partition on their hard disk, when they want to be able to use both operating systems.

A partition is a way of organizing space on your hard disk by creating virtual sections that are separate from each other. Most computers that are running Windows or MS DOS have one large chunk of space holding the OS. This space is the C drive. If you have a large hard disk, it’s likely that it has been divided up into smaller bits called partitions to help you organize your data better. These partitions are usually called D:, E: etc. you could have Linux on any of these.

Windows 98 creates a file system called FAT32 on the entire hard disk, DOS and Win95 use FAT16. Linux has many file systems-on the most popular is ext3. But you could have Linux installed on Fat32 partitions also.

Linux is geeky and based on text command

Linux has come a long way from being the system of geeks. It has an extremely advanced X Windows systems that has a complete graphical user interface-you know, like Windows. It also has a large number of window manager that let you work with different levels of customization of your desktop.

Linux has a robust character-cell interface where commands need to be typed in. x Windows is a free program that runs with Linux to provide a GUI where the mouse and keyboard can be used extensively. But the X system itself is quite primitive and needs a window manager, or a desktop environment- like GNOME or KDE- to be really usable. Window managers are programs that let you interact with the underlying X system and LinuxOS by relaying commands. The popular window managers are Sawfish, Enlightenment, Black box, after step and Window maker.

As for desktop managers, they have their own window manager and other tools that make you feel that you are working in Window! GNOME and KDE are the most popular of these. GNOME stands for GNU Network Model Environment and KDE for K desktop Environment. They have tools that allow drag and drop, have panels and taskbar- almost like clones of windows.

Hardware compatibility problem and few applications that run on Linux

Well, most new distributions will detect and configure your hardware in a jiffy, unless you have some really old or exotic piece of hardware. Only Win modems (internal modems driven by Window drivers) face problems.

As for software, there’s plenty. And most of it comes free-free for you to use, modify and configure according to your needs. Other packages are commercial and you have to buy the software-but this is mostly for the software and training you need, and not for the support and training you need, and not for the software itself. Sometimes, if you have the Windows version (as a doom) you can download a small program that will allow you to play the game in Linux. Here what’s available?

Office suites: Star Office, Open Office, Applixware, Corel WordPerfect

Graphics: GIMP, Corel Photo paint

Music: XMMS, Free amp, Real Player

Video: MTV, Xine

Games: FreeCiv, Tux racer, Doom, Quake, Heretic, Unreal

And the list is growing.

Linux varieties:

• Debian : One of the oldest and still most popular distros is Debian. This Project is a voluntary effort of a team of programmers who developed the GNU system. Debian is not very easy to install, and that has been its problem, Debian also has its own software comes with a. DEB extension. Updating and installing new software is very easy. The applications bundled with Debian are great for even a power user.

• RedHat: Probably the most popular and in many ways the leading distro. It’s currently in version 8. The installation and configuration is easy. A blue curve file manager and the default GNOME desktop make it look simply stunning. It comes with a host of tools that allow usage as a server and as a workstation. The Red Hat Package Manger(RPM) format developed by Red Hat has almost become the defector for software distribution in Linux world. Installing new software is a breeze. It also has an advanced and easy font management system that makes fonts in X Windows look cool. But being the leader comes at a price. Red Hat charges a little more than others for its istro.

• Mandrake: Mandrake Linux is now in its 9 version. This distro can be installed on a native Windows Partition using the Lin4Win tool, but this may slow the machine down. It also lets you do a traditional Linux install into its own dedicated partition. Mandrake’s configuration and software installation is painless. It follows a slightly modified RPM architecture called mdk.rpm but most Red Hat software can also be used for Mandrake. The outstanding feature in this distro is the collection of window managers-eye-candy freaks will have a great time.

• SUSE : From Germany comes the Chameleon Distro, SUSE. Now in its 8.1 avatar, it has one of the most extensive software packages compiled, and getting them installed is easy with yast (Yet another Software Tool) which gives a centralized interface from where you can pick and choose the software to be installed. Among other things, SUSE comes with some stunning 3D games that showcase Linux’s gamming prowess.

• Corel/Xandross : Corel entered the Linux distro market with Corel Linux a few years ago. Now it has merged into Xandross OS, which is based on Corel Linux. This is a Debian-type distro, and can be installed without much fuss after resizing the Windows partition. Xandross contains Crossover office, which is a refined retail version of WINE that lets you install and run many Microsoft apps.

Windows applications in Linux

Some applications have been ported over to Linux, other run with a program called WINE (Wine is Not an Emulator). Crossover, commercially available software also lets you use your Windows programs Linux. VMWare is another program that lets you run Windows under Linux.

Bottom Line:

The cool thing about Linux is that most software is free, and you can legitimately use them without worrying about piracy. If you’re worried that Linux won‘t look as pretty as windows can, all you have to do is check out some of the cool Linux interfaces and Window managers. But you don’t find a lot of multimedia titles for Linux. And if you’re into a lot of these, Windows in the way to go. So if you have a PC that runs both, you can easily switch between the two, and get the best of both worlds.

Know How DNS Works

Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses is known as dotted decimal Notation". A typical address looks like this: 199.249.150.4

It is very difficult to keep in mind the IP addresses of all the websites we visit daily, because it's not easy to remember strings of numbers. However, we do remember words. This is where domain names come into the picture. If you want to connect to a particular site, you need to know its IP address but do need to know its URL. The DNS gets the mappings of the IP addresses and the corresponding names.

Names and numbers

DNS converts the machine names (such as www.xyz.com) to IP addresses (such as 199.249.150.9). Basically, it translates from a name to an address and from an address to a name.

The mapping from the IP address to the machine name is called reverse mapping .when you type http://www.xyz.com into your browser, the browser first needs to get the IP address of www.xyz.com. The machine uses a directory service to look up IP addresses and this service is called DNS. When you type www.xyz.com your machines firsts contacts a DNS server, asking it to find the IP address for www.xyz.com. This DNS server might then contact other DNS servers on the internet. DNS is therefore is considered as the global network of servers. The great advantage of DNS is that no organization is responsible for updating it. It is what is known as distributed database.

The three letter codes

A DNS server is just a computer that's running the DNS software. The most popular DNS software is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) DNS is hierarchical, tree-structured system. The top is donated by'.'. And is known as the root of the system. Below the root there are seven immediate sub domain nodes and these are 'com', 'org', 'gov', 'mil', 'net', 'edu', 'Int', etc.

DNS consists of two components

1. Nameserver
2. Resolver

Nameserver:

This performs the task of looking up the names. Usually, there is one nameserver for a cluster of machines. If the nameserver does not contain the requested information, it will contact another nameserver. But it is not required for every server to know how to contact every other server. Every nameserver will know how to contact the root nameserver, and this in turn will know the location of every authoritative nameserver for all the second level domains.

Resolver:

This runs on a client machine to initiate DNS lookups. It contains a list of nameservers to use. As we have read, the function of each of these nameservers is to resolve name queries. There are three types of nameservers-primary nameserver, secondary nameserver, and caching nameserver. The secondary nameservers are configured for backup purposes. Caching nameservers only resolve name queries but do not maintain any DNS database files. It is important to note here that any change to primary nameservers needs to be propagated to secondary nameservers. This is because primary nameservers own the database records. The changes are propagated via a 'zone transfer'.

HOW 'CACHING"WORKS

DNS uses principle of 'caching' for its operation. When a nameservers receives Information about a mapping, it caches this information .further queries for the same mapping will use this cached result, thereby reducing the search cost. The nameservers don't cache forever. The caching has a component called time to live (TTL) and the TTL determines how long a server will cache a piece of information. So when the nameservers caches receive an IP address, it receives the TTL with it. The nameserver caches the IP address for the period of time then discards it.

When a process needs to determine an IP address given a DNS address, it calls upon the local host to resolve the address. This can be done in variety of ways:

Table look up. On UNIX hosts, the table is /etc/hosts.

The process communicates with a local nameservers. This is named on a UNIX system.

By sending a massage to the remote system that is identified from the information in the file/etc/resolve.conf.

When a nameserver receives a query for a domain that is does not serve, it may send back a referral to the client by specifying better nameservers. Typically operate in the recursive manner wherein any DNS server passes requests it cannot handle to higher level server and so on, until either the request can be handled or until the root of the DNS name space is reached.

The nameservers contain pointers to other nameserver with the help of which it is possible to traverse the entire domain naming hierarchy. A host with the initial nameserver addresses has to be configured. After this, it is able to use DNS protocols to locate the nameserver responsible for any part or the DNS naming hierarchy.

Thus when a nameserver receives a request, it can do one of the following:

It can answer the request with an IP address. This method is called iterative. In this, the client simply asks the server to resolve a domain name. The server accesses its database, finds its IP address and sends that back. If the server does not find the address, it sends back an error ;DNS not found'). Contact another nameserver and try to find the IP address for the requested name. Send back a referral to the client specifying the IP address of better nameservers.

A popular user interface, called 'nslookup'is available on the UNIX system. With this, you can perform any DNS function. This program also displays the result to the user. Using is nslookup, you can obtain a listing of all the hosts in a zone. In order to do this, you first need to identify the nameserver for the zone.

The threats that are associated with the DNS are due to the lack of integrity and authenticity checking of the data held within the DNS. Also, other protocols can use host names as an access control mechanism. The internet engineering task force (IETF) has come up with DNS security (DNSSEC) extensions to DNS protocol. The main objective to DNSSEC is to provide authentication and integrity to the DNS. These are provided through the use of cryptographic'

Keeping Passwords Secure

by: Sharon Housley

As the web has evolved, so have the methods of collecting personal information. A large number of websites require visitors to register to gain access or participate. While the need for registration is understandable, tracking user names and passwords can be burdensome. Consider using software to store your passwords, in a safe accessible manner.

Most websites have privacy policies, but the value of privacy statements are only as honorable as the people behind the websites. Here are suggestions for keeping passwords and your information secure:

1. change your password frequently

2. never share your password with anyone

3. try to choose a password so it doesn't need to be written down, but not so obvious others would easily guess the password

4. be sure your password is at least 6 characters

5. don't use a password containing all the same characters

6. don't send your password via email or provide it over the phone

7. don't use pet, family or friend names

8. don't use your telephone number, zip code or address

9. use a different password for each account

10. don't use user name

11. deactivate accounts for terminated employees

12. don't allow shared accounts

13. password contains upper, lowercase letters, non-letter characters and numbers

Resources

Password Software - http://www.password-software.com

Passwords are not foolproof. Do not rely on a password alone to protect sensitive information. Monitor accounts closely to ensure that security is not breached.

Keep Your Software Simple! A Review of EditPlus

by: Kempton Smith

I like my software simple. If it's too complex or difficult to figure out, I don't use it.

For example, I have tried a lot of different programs for creating my web pages. These include:

• Namo Webeditor
• Microsoft Frontpage
• Dreamweaver
• NetObjects Fusion
• Hotdog Pro
• CoffeeCup HTML Editor

and a variety of other commercial, shareware and freeware editors. Each time I tried one of these, I found it too complicated. What are all these "panels" for? How to I see the underlying HTML code for my page? What's a "web"? How do I begin to use this package? I just couldn't get answers to my questions easily.

Now my hard disk is bulging from the growing number of HTML editors I got from download.com and then abandoned.

A couple of years ago, I discovered EditPlus. It's a very simple and easy-to-use editor. Yet is also has plenty of sophistication if you need it.

You can use EditPlus both as a text editor and as an HTML editor. This nifty piece of software has an internal preview capability so that you you get a quick check on your HTML code. It also has a spelling checker, word wrap, and a word counter. It even includes FTP functions so that you can upload your web pages to your host provider.

I wrote this article, formatted it for publication, added HTML code and published it on my web page using EditPlus.

So far, I haven't read a manual for EditPlus and don't feel I need to because the program is so intuitively easy to use.

I admit that you need to learn some HTML if you want to create and edit your web pages with EditPlus. But I get nervous when I try to create a web page with one of those designer packages where the HTML code is hidden from view.

I keep going back to EditPlus after trying those other complicated web design programs.

If you want to test it, you can download a trial of EditPlus from http://www.editplus.com. The cost of the software is minimal (only about $30) and well worth it.

Why can't more software developers follow the KISS philosophy? Keep it Simple, Stupid! I'm convinced they would capture more of us simple-minded users if they followed this principle. Then it would be Keep It Simple, Smarty!

It Really Is Simple RSS

by: Tony Dean

I have 'Googlebot' coming to my site every day since a month ago I put up my first news feed, since then I have put up yet another.

I never used to see 'Googlebot' much before, so it goes to show that if you want to be noticed by the search engines, you need to put up a 'news-feed'.

All this re-submitting to search engines every month nonsense is just that, nonesense! I don't really think the search engines care for you to submit to them in the first place, I think that now they like to find your site on their own. Some pundits have claimed that nowadays to submit your site at all to the search engines is counter-productive and you should not do it. They say that there is much better value in allowing the search engines to find it via a 'link-back' from somewhere else.

'News Feeds' are now providing that 'link back' that every site owner needs. If you run a web site and you have still not got a 'news feed' you are being left behind in the race, first to get listed by search engines and secondly to get a higher ranking - my sites ranking has gone up very much higher in Yahoo and Google, since putting up my first news feed, and guess what, it was within about 36 hours of putting up that first 'news feed' that Googlebot discovered it was there! It did not take it long! The same with Yahoo, but a little bit later, like two days after Googlebot.

'News Feeds' are readable in a software called a 'News Reader', these are usually free to download and use right away to look at some of the feeds that are out there. There are directories for feeds which you can visit and get some addresses of some suitable ones to read each day, some of these feeds are more like 'blogs' in that, they change the contents several times a day, which gives a feed a 'fresher' feel to it, and which the search engines like to see. They also would like to see web site owners re-freshing there web site contents on at least a daily basis, it does help with ranking.

It has been slated that the next incarnations of browser will be 'feed' compatible, they will be reading 'news feeds' as well as viewing web sites. When this does happen the 'information revolution' will be really turned full on! Any one, even you, can set up a 'news feed', it really is simple, and if you don't set one up, you are going to be like the only person in your street who does not have television or radio, you are going to miss out on the 'information revolution', big time!

IT Department Skills to Support Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System. Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.

Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.

1. Microsoft SQL Server Specialist – we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios. On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database. The best candidate should have some accounting background - to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support.

2. Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills. Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here. In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the under-laying Microsoft technology. In the best case - she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet.

3. C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills– if you are midsize or large company - you should have this position - you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support. Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples - so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# - VB balance maybe restored.

4. Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer - Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs. This position maybe merged with one of the above.

These people should be probably cross-trained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person. In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice - these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.

Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative. This is how MBS has its channel working - it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented. If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner - give us a call 1-866-528-0577!

Introducing A9.com

by: Jakob Jelling

In this age of keeping the search engine capabilities clean and providing a less is more approach, Google.com has emerged from virtually out of nowhere to be the leading engine available. People like Google because they aren’t barraged with useless information, flashy banner ads and most of all, annoying pop-up advertisements. People want to get their information fast and without being inundated about the newest car or fad diet. Enter a new player into this domain A9.com.

A9.com was formed and opened in Palo Alto California in October 2003. Branded as a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., A9.com is looking to take over where Google left off. You may be wondering what makes A9.com any better than Google? The answer is that A9.com offers users search results from five separate repositories.

Google.com provides the web and image section and book texts are offered by none other than Amazon.com. Vast libraries of over 120,000 books on the market today are at the users fingertips should they need references. Movie and theatre references are drawn from IMDB.com otherwise known as Internet Movie Database. Gurunet.com provides reference information to this site as well.

What makes A9 interesting is that it captures or snapshots previous searches into memory. As the user searches the web abroad they will continue to build their own history file in case they need to research the information again in the future. A9.com also provides a detailed diary that you can maintain. If you think that Google still may have a stronger hold because of its toolbar capabilities, think again, A9.com has its own toolbar as well. By using the A9.com toolbar, users can retrieve information previously searched quickly and more efficiently.

A9.com’s CEO, Jeff Bezos’ vision on bringing together many technologies to help hone in on the best possible way to search the web for exact and detailed information makes A9.com a strong competitor in the new search engine marketplace.

Some of the robust features available with A9.com are:

• The ability to store a detailed search history to pull information from previous queries. Users can even modify their history files to get the results they are looking for.

• A diary function that allows the user to record and cross-reference information about any web page visited. This feature is integrated with the A9.com toolbar.

• Drag and drop a URL by book marking

• Discover feature that displays information that the user might be interested as well.

As of September 2004, this product is still in Beta testing.

By Jakob Jelling

http://www.sitetube.com

Great Plains Custom Development: Dexterity, VBA, SQL, Crystal, eConnect – overview for programmer

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package for the US market. It has multiple customization/modification/reporting tools. Currently there is upgrade campaign to version 8.0 and due to the discontinuation of the technical support for Microsoft Great Plains Standard on Ctree and Pervasive SQL - we see substantial increase in migration needs: migration from ctree/Pervasive to MSDE/MS SQL Server. This in turn increases interest to customization and customization upgrade.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Great Plains – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Great Plains Dexterity – this is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package – Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope – that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface. Nowadays, however – and this is a good thing – most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server – so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures.

2. Modifier with VBA. Unfortunately you have to purchase this tool and get new registration keys. If you are familiar with VBA customization for Access or Excel – you have all the skills needed – then you just attach your scripts to the buttons and fields on GP forms (you can modify these forms with Modifier – or just tough them with it).

3. Continuum for VB/Delphi – we don’t recommend this tool, because it is using Great Plains as OLE server – and you probably don’t want to be trapped by old technology.

4. Crystal Reports. Great Plains has its own ReportWriter, but its functionality is limited – you can’t do cross modules reports (you can’t link Sales and Purchasing tables in one report, for example). So – you use Crystal. The GP tables structure is in Tools->Resource Description->Tables … and you are in control. Feel free to create views and stored procs directly in the companies databases – it doesn’t hurt the Dexterity engine

5. Direct web publishing from Great Plains SQL databases, using Visual Studio.net and your language of choice (VB.Net, C#, J#, etc). Plus you probably want to have several SQL stored procs.

6. eConnect – this tool is type of SDK with VB.net samples. It allows you to feed data into Great Plains and was primarily created for eCommerce developers.

7. Integration Manager – it is end-user tool for importing to GP, however if end-user meets some challenges in the integration – you as a developer can help with VBA scripts. IM validates 100% of business logic and uses hidden GP forms – so it maybe slow for big on-going integrations, when you have thousands records per day – in this case you rescue to eConnect or directly to SQL store procedures.

8. SQL queries - as a developer you have unlimited potential in using SQL queries, because the database in MS SQL Server. Be careful, it is kind of surgery - you can easily delete all your customers, by executing: DELETE RM00101

Get Listed in Google Without Submitting Your Site

With Google delivering so much traffic, it is only normal to be eager to submit your page and have it indexed as soon as possible. However, submitting your page is not your only option, and it's not the best one. If this sounds strange keep reading.

Talking about its indexing process, Google says:

"We add thousands of new sites to our index each time we crawl the Web, but if you like, you may submit your URL as well. Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our index. Given the large number of sites submitting URLs, it's likely your pages will be found in an automatic crawl before they make it into our index through the URL submission form."

We can therefore draw two conclusions:

• 1. Submitting your site does not guarantee inclusion.
• 2. Most pages are found and indexed automatically, when Google crawls the web.

The Google folks have also made it clear that Google gives a page more importance when it is found through an automatic crawl. This can be easily verified when we consider how Google's PageRank system works: when page A links to page B, part of page A's PageRank trickles down to page B, increasing page B's PageRank (and, therefore, its importance). A manually submitted page will not enjoy this benefit.

Now that you know that manual submission is neither necessary nor the best way to go, what can you do to make Google find your pages?

The best way, at least in my personal experience, is to write an article on your area of expertise and submit it to popular article syndication sites like http://www.marketing-seek.com or http://www.ideamarketers.com . These sites will post your article, so that online publishers can use them for free in exchange for including your resource box at the end of the article. A resource box (a.k.a. bylines) is a small paragraph about yourself, written by you, which contains a link to your homepage.

In very little time, your article will show up in websites and ezines across the web. It will then be just a matter of time (usually days) before Google crawls those pages and finds your links. If you followed good web design practices and have included a link to a site map in your homepage, Google will follow it as soon as it finds your homepage, and all your pages will be indexed. It's as simple as that.

The most popular articles you can write are those that list a collection of tips related to your area of expertise. One of my most succesful articles is called "50 Surefire Web Design Tips", and it is nothing but a checklist of guidelines to follow when designing a website.

Another good way to help Google find your pages is to exchange links with other sites. Google will crawl those sites, find the links to your page, and add it to the index.

Finally, remember to optimize your pages before you try to get them listed, so that you have a better chance of ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs). After all, what good would it do to get your pages listed if nobody can find them?