I must be in an obessessy, tech mood this weekend. 

I just read this article from Chris Brogan: Get More Subscribers Today.

He talked about how he updated his blog’s theme to “Generate”. It’s cool because it has a huge email call to action on the top. I’m all about that.

So, I checked it out, loved it and installed it. 

You can see it in action here:

http://www.sagerock.com/blog/

And because Chris is awesome, and I get a ton of great ideas from him, here is his affiliate link to the Generate theme:

 Generate

He’s a guy that asks for little but gives a lot. So, if you decide to buy it please support great thought-leaders by using that link to check out the theme.

So I was one of the lucky people who got an HP TouchPad for $99. 

I actually gave it to my kid for his 7th birthday in November. I told him it was an iPad. I don’t think he was any the wiser. Although I sometimes wonder if he’s just playing along with my parental lies (tooth fairy, Santa, iPad) just to make me happy.

But at any rate we all are loving it. Plus I’m really excited that HP decided to make the operating system, WebOS, open source: How HP and open source can save WebOS | Application Development – InfoWorld. 

That could actually become a true competitor to Android.

All that said, there have been some awesome developers, CyanogenMod, who have been furiously porting Android to the HP TouchPad.

I’ve wanted to try installing it for some time. But I didn’t get a chance until this weekend. That’s mostly because Indy is with his Nana all weekend so I was able to get a few hours alone with the tablet.

I wanted to give you my experience of installing it just because I ran into a couple problems.

First, these instructions are great:

How to install Google Android on the HP TouchPad (with CyanogenMod7) – Liliputing

These are exactly right. That said, looking back, I found that I didn’t always follow the instructions exactly. That was mostly because of my lack of knowledge working in this space.

The first hurdle that took me some time understanding is that you MUST have a version of Novacom installed on your computer. I don’t really fully understand what it is. But I think it’s a developer platform that helps you make applications for your tablet. It doesn’t really matter what it is. You need it!

I did this on a Windows 7 laptop (actually 2 machines, in the end, which I’ll explain in a moment). 

For me, this is was a big hurdle. I installed and uninstalled Novacom multiple times. I tried using an developers edition, etc. I now realize that it wasn’t Novacom’s fault. There was something that didn’t jive with my laptop. I still don’t know what it was. But Novacom did not work on my first laptop.

I would continually get an error that said: “Failed to connect to server” when I got to this step in the instructions:

12. Enter the following command (without quotes) and hit return: “novacom boot mem:// < ACMEInstaller”.

Again, for me, this had nothing to do with Novacom. It was something with my laptop. I worked on it for several hours last night. But this morning I got the idea of trying another laptop. That instantly solved my problem and then everything worked perfectly.

I will also say that the instructions are a little vague with getting help installing Novacom. I think that’s just because it can go many different ways depending on what operating system you are on. 

The solution that worked for me was using WebOS Quick Install to get Novacom running on my computer. I went through so many sites that I can’t remember exactly where I got the file. But start here:

WebOS Quick Install – webOS Nation Forums

There was one step that tripped me up. In between step 7 & 8 of the instructions you are going to need to unplug your tablet from your computer and then plug it back in. 

What happens in step 7 is that you copy the zip files (make sure you don’t unzip them, like I did the first time) to your Tablet into a folder called ‘cminstall’ (the exact name and location of this folder is important). 

Then in step 8 it wants you to restart your tablet. The only way I know of to be able to do that is to unplug your tablet from your computer (the tablet will yell at you if you don’t unmount it correctly so try to disconnect the usb properly from the icon in your bottom right bar of your computer). 

So I think there should be a step 7.5:

Disconnect your tablet from the computer by properly unmounting it in the USB manager thingy (this is why I don’t make instructional tutorials). Then plug your tablet back into your computer and press cancel (don’t tell it to connect as a USB drive). 

Now go on to step 8. 

I installed this version: update-cm-7.1.0-tenderloin-a3.5-fullofbugs.zip

I was expecting everything to be terribly formatted. I didn’t think anything would work. But it works awesome!

The first thing I did was install the Youtube app to see if it would stream video. It worked beautifully.

I then turned on the camera to see if it worked. That looked awesome too.

I’m sure as I dig into it I might notice some failings. But it already has extremely surpassed my expectations. 

I also really love that the developers are not offering a way to remove WebOS. (The tablet becomes a dual boot machine.)

I love that because I believe there is a real possible future for WebOS. I was a Palm Pre phone user for a couple years and I honestly believe it’s a little more nuanced and intuitive OS than Android. 

Don’t get me wrong, Android is amazing. And the apps blow away the WebOS availability right now.

But I believe in WebOS. I really think it has a future. 

Anyway… that was my experience installing Google Android on my HP TouchPad with CyanogenMod7.

I almost gave up two or three times. But I’m not really glad I didn’t. It’s has made my choice of buying the HP TouchPad really worth it for me.

Plus Indy is going to LOVE playing Ninja Fruit.

I’m doing a two part series over at the SageRock Blog:

Social Media Link Building Strategies – Does it matter?

I’m discussing how to use social media when it comes to link building for Google and Bing.

The second part will come out on Wednesday.

This is also part of a little experimentation too. I want to show how a person goes about getting an article into the search results for a particular phrase.

But to do that, I need your help.

If you like the article would you be willing to link to it, Tweet it or Share it or whatever it is you do?

Here’s some resources that you can use for any sharing that you would care to do:

You can use this for Twitter:

Check out this article on social media link building strategies: http://t.co/kZCYvIW

or:

My friend Sage just put up a cool article on social media link building strategies. Check it out here: http://t.co/kZCYvIW

You can share this link in Facebook:

http://www.sagerock.com/blog/social-media-the-seos-secret-weapon/

There are also a bunch of sharing buttons at the top and bottom of the article.

If you want to post a link to the article in your site you can use this html:

<a href="http://www.sagerock.com/blog/social-media-the-seos-secret-weapon/">
Social Media Link Building Strategies - Does it matter?</a>

You also might just be able to copy this:

Social Media Link Building Strategies – Does it matter?

If you decide to link to it thank you SO much! My goal here is to show the process of getting an article to the top of the engines for a specific phrase. In this case: “social media link building strategies.”

A big part of that is to get people to link to your article with the phrase that you want the article to rank for.

I’ll follow up more.

Dear FiOS,

I have been wanting to write this letter to you for some time. But I have been shy about expressing my true feelings in fear of being hurt again like so many past loves.

But I can hold my feelings back no longer.

You are the ISP for me. You and I are meant to be together.

You understand me. You get me.

The ISP I’m currently seeing is just like all the other ISP’s. They’re shaping and throttling my bandwidth.  They are giving me the run around about pricing. I mean, I call them one minute and they tell me one thing. And I call them another minute and they tell me something totally different. They just told me they were going to be raising my rate $5 next month. Why? Who knows. They’re such a jerk. They just want me for my money.

Do you know I can’t even watch a simple Youtube video without it constantly spooling? That’s not cool.

But you. You are different. I know it.

You know I love the Internet. You know I want Youtube, Netflix, Pandora, Google TV. You know I want to back up my files on the cloud.

I mean I’m not one of those skanks that is doing p2p bitTorrent file sharing or anything. I just want to have good, clean, honest fun. Ya know?

Yeah, you know.

That’s why I love you.

I know it’s really early in our relationship for me to be telling you all this already. I mean we haven’t even really met in person. But everybody says it. They all say you are like SO awesome. I know it’s true.

Now I know you aren’t quite yet Japan’s 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com.

But I believe in you! I know you can be whatever it is you want to be. You have so much potential. And besides, you are so amazing already. I mean, what do I need with 160-megabit-per-second, anyways.

Your 50 megabit-per-second service would be a dream come true for me.

Yeah. You’re so awesome. I love you with all my heart.

You had me at “No Throttling”.

Please hurry and come to Akron Ohio. We deserve you. I deserve you.

With the core of my online-being, you are my destiny, my “one”.

FiOS please give me service.

Desperately seeking FiOS,
Sage
Akron, Ohio

I’m not sure if this is a conspiracy or possibly due to a plan I have. (I’ll call them to find out.)

But I’ve long suspected Time Warner is screwing with my bandwidth.

The first test I ran was “ShaperProbe traffic shaping test“.

This test looks to see if, after a certain amount of time, your ISP slows down your traffic.

Sure enough, they do!

Here are the finds of my test:

DiffProbe beta release. October 2009. Build 1002.

Shaper Detection Module.

Connected to server 80.239.142.202.

Estimating capacity:

Upstream: 494 Kbps.

Downstream: 13982 Kbps.

The measurement will take upto 3.0 minutes. Please wait.

Checking for traffic shapers:

Upstream: No shaper detected.

Median received rate: 448 Kbps.

Downstream: Burst size: 9443-9755 KB;

Shaping rate: 6850 Kbps.

So, this is the summary:
Upstream: No shaper detected.Median received rate: 448 Kbps.
Downstream: Burst size: 9443-9755 KB;Shaping rate: 6850 Kbps.

I can apparently upload stuff all day long at about 448 Kbps. But downloading is a different story.

Just to check, I ran the test again and got virtually the exact same results:

Estimating capacity:

Upstream: 443 Kbps.

Downstream: 11531 Kbps.

Checking for traffic shapers:

Upstream: No shaper detected.

Median received rate: 448 Kbps.

Downstream: Burst size: 9384-9581 KB;
Shaping rate: 6850 Kbps.

This seems very telling to me because if you notice, my downstream capacity was a little different in each test. 13982 Kbps in test #1 and 11531 Kbps in test #2. But the shaped rate was totally identical! 6850 Kbps on both tests.

This looks very controlled to me.

Next, I REALLY wanted to run the Glasnost test. But they are doing maintenance on their servers this weekend. Figures!

This test checks to see if they are throttling specific kinds of traffic. I have a theory Time Warner is killing me with Youtube traffic. I can’t stream anything in my house. I first thought maybe this was because of my home network. My router is on the third floor and I’m currently on the first floor. But I recently installed a repeater. I get poor streaming capabilities no matter where I am in the house.

I’m not a file sharing person. I am just trying to watch freakin’ Youtube videos!

From this CNET article:

I asked Dudley a simple question: “Does Time Warner Cable throttle that 5 percent of major network users?”

He simply said that his company does not comment on that and users should consult their use agreement to see exactly what Time Warner could do if it sees people using too much bandwidth.

I have to say, I’m a little concerned about posting this. I suspect they could just turn me off all together. Fortunately, I have a DSL option. But who knows if that’s good.

We, in this supposedly uber-capitalistic country, are being seriously squeezed by our Internet providers.

From this NYT article:

Competition, or the lack of it, goes a long way to explaining why the fees are higher in the United States. There is less competition in the United States than in many other countries. Broadband already has the highest profit margins of any product cable companies offer. Like any profit-maximizing business would do, they set prices in relation to other providers and market demand rather than based on costs.

Cell phone and Internet costs a lot less is many other places in the world. We just live in this haze of “America is the best” mentality. It is shocking to even suggest that maybe some other country has anything better than us.

From the NYT article above:

Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world is the 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com, the largest cable company in Japan. Here’s how much the company had to invest to upgrade its network to provide that speed: $20 per home passed.

We are are just getting squeezed for every penny the market will bare. We can’t forget that capitalism is all about getting the most money as you possibly can for something. Competition is supposed to be the great leveler in the system. But with Internet service we simply don’t have major competition… yet.

The holy grail in the U.S. right now is Verizon’s FiOS. The user community pretty much gives it the best rating of all ISP’s out there. They say they don’t throttle connection right on their site:

No throttling
Some high speed Internet service providers will resort to “throttling,” or slowing down your Internet connection if they decide your usage is too heavy. Verizon doesn’t. FiOS is consistently, blazingly fast.

I don’t know how up to date this site is, but they say FiOS currently in 16 states but have plans to come to all 28 states they have other services in.

I honestly feel like I live in China or some place. Except instead of the government controlling us, the large monopolistic corporations are controlling us.

With that, I’m going to start a personal petition to get Verizon to move FiOS to Ohio.

I’m sure you have strange moments in your life that just will be with you until the day you die.

Who knows why they stick in your brain like they do. It’s like that song you can’t get out of your head. Maybe its a glitch in our programming.

One of these moments was listening to some keynote speaker at some event (both details are lost to me). He was talking about the difference between kids today versus kids in the ’70s.

He said that in the ’70s kids would sit around and watch Gilligan’s Island over and over again.

Today, kids would still sit around and watch Gilligan’s Island over and over again.. But they would also start a Gilligan’s Island Facebook group, blog or Youtube video mashup.

I can’t stop thinking about that societal shift. We’re becoming a society of catalogers. We are become a society of amateur experts…  librarians of our passions.

There is a culture of contribution going on these days that I love.

I have a friend who writes a great blog, “Swords & Dorkery“. He expounds on things like:

• Sword & Sorcery
• D&D
• his miniatures collection he painstakingly paints.

His currently most viewed post is: Labyrinth Lord skills — revised.

I love this blog for two reasons.

1. He’s proud of who he is and what he’s into.
   There is a “to hell with what people think” evolution going on today. People are who they are and you can take them or leave them. It’s not like he’s free basing heroin. He’s into roll playing games. But I believe that not long ago people might have been much less willing to be open about their private lives.  I think all of this bring us closer together as friends and family and globally.
2. He’s contributing to the world in his free time.
   He’s not just playing games and painting miniatures. He’s sharing his experiences and what he is learning. He’s cataloging something that no one would have ever taken the time to catalog. This adds value to anyone else who is into what he’s into. But blogs like this will be incredible snapshots of personal lives 100 or 200 years from now.
   Just as we like to see old timey photographs, we’re going to love old timey blogs in 2110. And I pretty much guarantee there will be some amateur cataloger of early 21st century blogs.

My thing is politics and current events. I’ve actually wanted to get away from these topics because they often times frustrate me. But I seem to always come back.

These are delicate topics. Most people have opinions on these topics. I think if I was extreme in my beliefs (right or left) I probably would be less likely to discuss these issues publicly.

But I honestly feel like I have more questions than answers when it comes to most of these topics.

I am astounded how everyone seems so absolutely positive that their idea is THE correct answer to any of the global problems we face. Every commentator, every politician… they all have everything figured out.

I don’t have everything figured out. But I love trying to figure it all out.

I’m excited about discussing these topics from this perspective because certitude is everywhere. Flushing out answers seems rare right now.

And that’s why I do it… to contribute what I’ve learned and possibly hear from what my friends think on these topics.

Also, I realize most of my posts are brutally long. I have a hard time reading them, myself. But I write on a topic until I feel I’ve got it covered. I realize people don’t like reading long blog posts. But I’m not as concerned about the readability as I am the coverage.

Plus, the only reason I do this is because I enjoy it. I blog professionally all week long. I’m just playing around on this blog. I’m selfishly making my own rules over here.

Oh! And I can’t forget photography. I’m way into that too. So there should be a decent amount of that too.

this is just funny:

It’s titled: “Its Shit Steve Jobs”

OK, I know we all see what we want to see. I’m not really a Mac/Apple guy. And so I gravitate towards anti-Mac stories.

But I thought this was interesting:
Why You Shouldn’t Buy a Mac (It just features the high, high price of a Mac).

You should know that my real agenda when I dis the Apple brand is to just raise awareness. We are all currently trained to love Mac and Apple with no questions asked. I don’t believe that’s healthy. Nothing is as good as all this hubub.

They are just as dangerous, money grubbing and “evil” as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Wal-mart, BP (OK, not BP. They have a special evil place in my heart.) Apple’s brand image they have created is just way better positioned than pretty much any other company on the planet at the moment.

I’m merely taking on the cause of occasionally shining a little light on their moles and ugly spots.

Every time I miss an @reply from someone I feel like a total jerk. You see, I don’t usually check my twitter in a browser. I do most of it on my phone. I miss @replies all the time.

The only way you can get @replies to go to your phone is if you have all messages from a particular person sent to your phone.

Well, I “think” I got a solution.

The first thing I did was go to search.twitter.com

I then did a search for: @sagerock

This search gives you an rss feed.

I then took that feed over to Feedburner and “burned the feed.” That’s not a hard process. You just get a free account with them and then add a feed you want sent through Feedburner.

From there, Feedburner has an email feature:

FeedBurner Email that I set up for my new feed.

I then subscribed to the “@sagerock” feed I burned and turned into email via feedburner.

Now, hopefully, I will get my @replies sent to my email address.

I also have Tweetscan running. But for some reason those weren’t sending @replies to me.

Maybe now I won’t look like a total heel.

I am teaching a class tomorrow on SEO Tech Tips. Part of the class is .htaccess rewriting. I think one of the hardest parts of this is knowing what all the different codes stand for in what is called Regular Expressions. I won’t list them all. But I do want to put the most common ones used in .htaccess rewriting. I’m going to put them here for easy access:

• ^ The caret signifies the start of an URL, under the current directory. This directory is whatever directory the .htaccess file is in. You’ll start almost all matches with a caret.
• $ The dollar sign, $, signifies the end of the string to be matched. You should add this in to stop your rules matching the first part of longer URLs.
• . The period or dot matches any one character, except a newline.
• \. This backslash is an escape telling the Apache server to treat the . as a normal character.
  
• [] The parts in square brackets are called ranges.
• () We have encased the regular expression part of the URL in parentheses, because we want to store whatever value was found here for later use. In this case we’re sending this value to a PHP page as an argument. Once we have a value in parentheses we can use it through what’s called a back-reference. Each of the parts you’ve placed in parentheses are given an index, starting with one. So, the first back-reference is $1, the third is $3 etc.
• + The plus modifier changes whatever comes directly before it, by saying ‘one or more of the preceding character or range.’
• * The asterisk means ‘zero or more of the preceding character or range’,
• ? The question mark means ‘zero or only one of the preceding character or range.’
• [R] R forces a redirect of the url
• [R,L] flag. R forces a redirect of the url, while L says this is the last rule, don’t bother checking any more.
• [R=301] makes the redirect a 301 permanent redirect.
• [NC] Since Unix is case sensitive, the [NC] flag makes the statement case insensitive.