Piggybacking Google Apps Proxy Servers for Free

June 21, 2010

Thanks to an excellent post on Digital Inspiration, dozens of people (myself included) have set up proxy servers on their Google Apps developer accounts that you can now access freely and easily, as most of them didn’t think to tweak their security settings to protect from getting indexed in Google’s search results: http://goo.gl/pDR4.

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Remixing the Web, Part 2: Using Yahoo Pipes

June 19, 2010

Yahoo Pipes is the Swiss-army chainsaw of remixing the web. It pulls in data from any web pages, spreadsheets, or RSS feeds that you choose and can filter, extract information (like prices or e-mail addresses),  overlay it on a map, and much more. I’ve used it to:

Geolocate Craigslist apartment listings in my college town, overlay [...]

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Setting up and Configuring a Local Wordpress Installation with Mod_Rewrite

June 10, 2010

I recommend setting up a local Wordpress installation to test any new plugins before you install them on your live site because I’m a firm believer in Murphy’s law. I can’t say how many times I’ve run into embarrassing, unexpected compatibility issues with older Wordpress versions or other plugins that took my site offline. It’s [...]

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“Tabnapping”, Murder, and Other “Innovative” Uses of Everyday Technology

June 4, 2010

For the uninitiated, a story that’s been buzzing lately in the tech community is “Tabnapping”:
A Mozilla user interface specialist has published proof-of-concept code for a new phishing technique, which makes use of morphing browser tabs to trick people into giving away login information.
[via ZDNet]
The key phrase here is proof-of-concept. Nobody’s done this yet outside a lab environment. [...]

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Remixing the Web, Part I: Pulling RSS Feeds from Static Pages

June 4, 2010

Real-time data is the future of the web. Unfortunately, this future is far from evenly-distributed, and many times you’re not able to make use of information because of this. Consider the following scenarios:

You’re looking for a new place to live and aren’t having luck with Craigslist. You find several local real estate brokerage sites but [...]

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VoIP Hacks: How to Spoof Your Caller ID as the White House’s Phone Number

May 30, 2010

A fun prank is to call friends, family, or strangers from the White House’s phone number (202 456-2121). The reason that this is possible is that Vonage, Skype, and other VoIP providers fundamentally must be able to fake caller ID in order to route calls from the internet onto public phone networks (so presumably they’ve [...]

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5 Simple Ways to Not Shoot Yourself in the Foot with Dynamic Keyword Insertion

May 28, 2010

Dynamic Keyword Insertion is like a gun. When used responsibly, it can be a lifesaver. When used carelessly, it has the potential to shoot you in the foot (even if you’re a trained professional).

If you stick to the following five simple guidelines, however, DKI can be your best friend. Your ad is exactly what your [...]

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8 Essential (and Free) “Cloud” Apps for Small Businesses

May 25, 2010

Documents/Calendar/E-mail: Google Apps Standard Edition. Google Apps provides Gmail, Calendar, and Google Docs by default and hundreds of optional applications in their Apps Marketplace. I recently moved my e-mail accounts to Google (though this site is still hosted with HostGator) and it was a relatively painless process. Google provides 7GB of storage space shared between [...]

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