Firefox memory leak Fix !

February 17th, 2010 | By admin

Just follow these simple steps to get your Firefox memory usage under control. The solution was in ”about:config” Firefox hidden configuration options.

1. Get the main configuration screen by putting “about:config” in the browser’s address bar.
2. Right click on the page and choose New then Integer and create an integer called “browser.cache.memory.capacity”. Set it to a low number (I use 16384 – that means 15MB). This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.
3. In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. Set “browser.cache.disk.capacity” (right click – Modify) to between 5000 or 15000 (I use 15000). For example: if you have 128MB to 512M use 5000, if you have 512BM to 1GB of RAM use 15000. This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.
4. Configure Firefox to swap memory to disk when minimized. In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “config.trim_on_minimize”, Right click on the page and choose New then Boolean and create an boolean called “config.trim_on_minimize”. Set it to true. This mean – when you minimize the firefox window it will free up memory.
5. In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “network.prefetch-next”. Set “network.prefetch-next” to false. Network link prefetch will download all pages with the rel=”prefetch” tag, with false you avoid that downloading.
6. In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers”. Set it to low number. I set it to 6. This controls how many pages of history are kept in the back/forward buttons.

Restart Firefox and that’s it! Now, your Firefox and your computer will be much faster and you are ready for faster surfing. Enjoy!

Wordpress SEO – A Video tutorial

January 11th, 2010 | By Antonie Geerts

As many more question came in recently in relation to WordPress SEO I decided to create a video tutorial on how to use the SEO plugin all-in-one-seo pack for wordpress and give some Google seo examples.
I also discuss some reasons on why to do certain tricks and why you shouldn’t do others.

Hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions or comments they are more then welcome !

How good does your site need to look? – The 5 rules of online shopping sites in 2010

October 28th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

Internet marketers have tried to answer these questions since the beginning of the web but with new innovations coming up every month, new answers have to be given.
If you read my blog, often enough, you might notice that I dig these types of internet puzzles and also now I have a few ground rules that you might want to consider in your new website becoming an exciting one.

Rule number 1: Let it be prepared, tested and stable before any SEO is done.

Everyone can create a website these days, often enough with only a few clicks of the mouse button. But as it happens, you make your site, you submit it to the search engines, you apply some SEO tricks and then… you’re not really happy with it and you start all over again. There is nothing wrong with changing your website BUT when you change it around you will have to do all your SEO again. Broken links that are already indexed by the search engines need to be fixed and you have to deal with “lost” visitors due to your change.

So before applying any SEO or submitting your websites to search engines and internet directories, you will first want to prepare on paper what you want , test out the functionality and have it run for a couple of weeks (months) before doing your magic in getting visitors to your site.

Rule number 2: Make your design clear and interesting.

More and more businesses look at going online with their company and the products they are selling. The fact that people can now make purchases online is great and your market has the potential to reach millions of people a day. But YOU are not the only company trying to sell these products. Many other business might have just started doing the same thing as you so you will need to step up and be sure that your site is more appealing to buy from.

Sloppy images, mismatching colours and different types of letter fonts are a BIG NO NO. Keep it clear and clean if you want to sell a product online because you don’t want to walk into a shop where the colours are all over the place, the shop assistant is talking to you in different pitches of voice and accents and the product you want to buy is somewhere hiding in the attic of the shop. Unless, ofcourse, it’s a coffee shop in Amsterdam.

Rule number 3: Give something free just for YOU

Have you ever gone into a department store when the announcer of the shop gave you the sales pitch : “Hi valued customers in our shop, we have a new promotion going on and with this once off promotion comes a great little kitchen gadget Just for YOU.” It happened to me and I ended up watching a guy chopping an onion with some new* gadget. After his 15 minute demo watched by me and a whole group of other people we all received the free gadget which was just a piece of plastic for garnishing a tomato.

It worked, we all watched the demo and some were even convinced enough to buy the chopping device for 35 euro (Later that day I noticed my friend had the same device in his kitchen which he bought for 8 Euro in Argos). So invest a bit in free offers, maybe find a collaboration with other businesses and sell your stuff !

Rule number 4: You are safe with me. I promise

Media frenzy around hackers, credit card schemes and the dodgy Nigerian businessmen with their millions in heritage money makes a potential client not very confident in buying online. In order to do safe credit card transactions online, your website will need to have some kind of security in place. Often this security is put in place in the form of a logo of the company that secures the website; companies like Instant SSL, GEOTrust , Comodo and many more will have a cool little logo with a lock on it. However, a large number of customers will not know what it means; they see it as just a little part of the overall design. In order for this to become clear, state the guarantee that your purchases are done safe and secure clearly on the main page of the website and on the checkout pages.

Rule number 5: Become more sociable – Use social networking and media

The last one which has become an obvious part of getting clients to your products is the fact that social media and networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have a huge impact on attracting customers and also on how well your service and products are. If you sell a bad product, then the online communities will know about it in a few minutes. Numerous consumer issues have been brought forward by users of Twitter and because of the large following, it would have reached the pages of most news sites in no time. Get your product solid and get in touch with your customers on a personal level.

What happened to VoIP?

October 19th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

When I first got introduced to Voice over IP it arrived in the form of an Asterisk PBX system back in the summer of 2005. Ploughing through the config files and trying to get my first BRI ISDN card to work was the difficult part but once you’re done with that the “real” fun could start. As I was getting in to it more and more really seeing a future in to the system made me invest in myself by getting the Digium Certificed Asterisk Certificated (DCAP) which I received in the beginning of 2008. So almost 2 years later where is Asterisk and its VoIP system now?

My company’s mailbox received sporadic mails in asking me for support on their Asterisk build or Trixbox system but the “boom” on VoIP has still not arrived to my disappointment. Would it be that this great technology could not cope with the pressure of mobile network companies and negative advertising from leading PBX brand systems like Alcatel and Cisco?

The best way to answer questions like this is by finding out how popular it was during the years. I am using Google Insights Search to find out this information and this is what happened.

Ah this explains already a bit more what happend to me. Since I learned about Asterisk in 2005 it was when VoIP was HOT. The tipping point was building up and keywords like: VoIP and Future where widely coined. Sadly enough this hype was kind short lived since in January 2006 the search for VoIP declined rapidly. So does this mean VoIP does not have a future anymore.

Lets try to figure this out as well by find out relations of VoIP by using Google Sets and Insight search.

http://labs.google.com/sets?hl=en&q1=VoIP&q2=Asterisk&q3=&q4=&q5=&btn=Small+Set+%2815+items+or+fewer%29

Google sets provided me with the following keywords: voip,asterisk,linux,pbx,sip,software,telephony,ser,opensource,ip,skype,phone,voice

So lets do some insight search with a couple of these

By compairing the various Opensource PBX systems and also the widely used VoIP Application called Skype we notice that although the Trixbox,FreePBX,Asterisk systems are not really widely used the SER system is.

So a conflict , on the one side we see a rapid decline in VoIP and Asterisk and on the other side we see a big rise in SER and Skype. So what are we doing wrong ?

Go out on grafton street and asking anyone about Asterisk or VoIP…The chance that they know what you are talking about is very slim ! So that is the problem with our graphs and results. We need to related the information to not what it really is but to what it really means. So lets do this “check” again but now with understandable terms.

So it looks like internet calling is really on its way out… But not completely because how many people have a land line these days ? Often the younger generation will just have there mobile and no landline phone at all. So

Well a little light at the end of the VoIP tunnel since we have a rising volume of Internet mobile calling and VoIP Mobile and GSM searches… And Skype ofcourse with its steady stream, but to be honest I would put my eggs in the basket that will offer free phone calls which will be most likely a google system that offers free mobile wifi on its android system and it will make its money by advertising on the mobiles once in a while and finding out the so called hotspots in mobile phone numbers. By the way the “hotspots in mobile phone numbers” is another artical all together !

SEO 2010 Strategy: Become an online oracle

October 12th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

One of the most sought after wisdoms in the current web market is the “how-to” on getting your newly formed website / company / band / club / religion etc found on the vast internet. If you look for “SEO” “SEO Google” “SEO Wordpress” “SEO Marketing” and “SEO Tools” etc in any search engine chances are big that the first 100 hits are outdated or spam styled articles and website that most likely will not contribute to your goal in getting yourself found on the web at all. A few years back I did a study and managed to predict trends like “Facebook” “Twitter” “Twitter Blog” but also the impact of celebrity comments , tweets and there regional impact on the search ranking of websites. If you happen to have a blog talking about “Katie Price”, “Stephen Fry”, “Stephen Gately”, “Boy Zone” then the odds are high that you will hit a increase of visitors to your website for a certain period in 2009.

Imagine if you could use this information about what is going to be discussed on the web in the next week, next month or even next year in a business context. For example the last twelve months was full of “business”, “PayPal”, “companies house”, “Marketing” and “Manager” as business keywords but what if you know that next year around this time the keywords would be : “scrappage scheme” , “paypal login” , “2010 calendar” , “free tv project” and “staples uk”. If you have this knowledge about what would happen in the future then this would give you the edge on which you can base your up and coming marketing campaigns and strategies on.

What if I would tell you this is very well possible, and that most of these tools to predict up and coming trends are widely available. Not only are they available they are often for free as well. The only investment that I could recommend is getting an expert involved which can provide training on how to use the wide array of tools to your benefit and how to incorporate them fully to benefit your business. Experts like me.

Lastly I want to say, you might be critical about this concept but just think about what brought you to my blog in the first place….

A very good way to get rid of spyware & adware Video tutorial

October 7th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

I added this video to show you how its done !

(original blog text)

Hearing more and more complaints about how spyware is ruining pc’s and how the only solution is formatting your drives I decided to write down a simple 5 step config for getting rid of most of them (With these steps I got rid of the Brittiania Search / Feed Yard Virus for example)

So first up download the following 2 programs

1. GMER (http://www.gmer.net/#files)
2. MalwareBytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php)
3. Install GMER and start scanning , after the scan remove all items that are marked RED (see this vid for an example )
4. Install Malwarebytes and do a Quick Scan
5. After the quick scan is finished delete the selected “problems” and reboot your pc.

You should now be adware free !

Let's Go Lite! Facebook Lite to be precise

October 6th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

When the first social networking websites came out they were heavy loaded, full of images, colors and cool widgets. Remember those days that you would open a MySpace page and the annoying glitters, flashy imagines and the Britney spears mp3’s would start kicking off.  The internet and pc’s were quick enough for most of the western world and your pc would only crash after maybe 4 or 5 pages open. Now some things we have changed, technology is getting faster however it also is smaller and with the introduction of the IPod touch, the Iphone and now another tsunami comes in at form of Google Wave the internet had to make a Lite Change !.

A Lite Facebook is the same as your Face Book but then smaller, quicker and less flashy. This type of “lite” site is perfect for your IPhone, notebook or a cloud computing system. So you can expect in 2010 not just facebook lite (which is here http://lite.facebook.com/ )

But also gmail-lite , myspace-lite , twitter-lite and ofcourse YouTube lite !

How to setup an apache webserver in ubuntu using virtualhosts and apt !

September 27th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

This video will show you how to setup an apache webserver using apt and how to configure a virtual host all using the terminal.

How to get google mail servers to work for your domain !

September 13th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

Hi all,

Just a little instruction on how you can use the free google mail servers to use with your own website and website domain.

A very good way to get rid of spyware – adware Oct 2009

September 13th, 2009 | By Antonie Geerts

Hearing more and more complaints about how spyware is ruining pc’s and how the only solution is formatting your drives I decided to write down a simple 5 step config for getting rid of most of them (With these steps I got rid of the Brittiania Search / Feed Yard Virus for example)

So first up download the following 2 programs

1. GMER (http://www.gmer.net/#files)
2. MalwareBytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.php)
3. Install GMER and start scanning , after the scan remove all items that are marked RED (see this vid for an example )
4. Install Malwarebytes and do a Quick Scan
5. After the quick scan is finished delete the selected “problems” and reboot your pc.

You should now be adware free !