Technology Blog



Hughes Web-Walk™ Kit Transparent Flash Player Chroma-Key Green Screen Effects

HughesTech Labs:

We have finished with our Web-Walk™ Kit:

Hughes developed the transparent flash player used on the page you are about to visit.

We wanted it to be borderless and control-less to enhance the Web-Walk™ transparent  effect, this is the same flash player that is included in the kit.

These types of Web Page effects have proven to be a great marketing tool over the internet.

The Kit will provide you with tips & secrets about Chroma-Key (Green Screen) to achieve the best possible transparent video quality.

See for yourself, visit the Web-Walk™ Kit Site.


Advertise By The Day During Weather Events

HughesTech Labs:

We just finished upgrading the Weather Information Network.

This site sees 30,000 - 40,000 unique visitors per-day and sometimes higher!

You can now advertise search engine friendly ads by the day, this means you can upload a 468 x 60 pixel image, select the page you want it to display on such as the Hurricane Advisories page etc., select the number of days to display the Ad,  add the title text for the anchor and the alt text for the image, then pay their cheap daily rates and you have an exclusive Ad at the very top of the page you selected!

The page I mentioned above, is now seeing 1000s of unique hits per-hour due to Tropical Storm Fay and will increase even more if she turns to Hurricane Fay.

Try out this new Ad System by HughesTech Labs and reap the rewards! 

This allows access to any advertising budget!


Transparent Flash Video - Tips and Secrets Of Green Screen

HughesTech Labs:

Well it has been awhile since we posted, why?  Because we have been working on Transparent Video for Websites and Blogs.

I get all wrapped up in these projects and want to teach others what I learned.

That is what we did, we created a new site where you can learn how to create Transparent Videos for your Web Page or Blog and we made it so simple, that you could be on your way to creating these transparent streaming flash videos in one night!

I love this stuff, it is a great Marketing tool for any site!

We give you tips and secrets that can save you hours in producing your first transparent video. We created a FLV Player (Flash Player) that is border-less and Control-less to enhance the Effect.

See the Transparent Green Screen Effects  here and learn how to create them yourself….


Wrong Encoding Can Cause Poor Search Engine Rank

HughesTech Labs:

Webmasters, using the wrong encoding tags can cause poor Search Engine Rank!

The following tag can get you in big trouble with the Search Engines:

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd“>

This tag is fine if you don’t use tables, but if you do use tables, it tends to hide all content within the tables from the search engine crawlers and spiders.

Point in case, we had a website that we did some SEO work on and the site was doing great in the search engine result pages, then the owner of the site decided to add tables without consulting with us. He left all the original content we had added, but the content was now stuffed within tables.

He contacted us and said he could no longer find his website on any search engine. First we asked him if he made any changes and he said no, so we checked his html code against our version and he did make changes, the tables were added!

By removing the tag:

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd“>

His page is now back ranking as before.

That is the biggest thing SEO Companies have to worry about, users changing things we have put in place, then not being honest to you about what they did.

So webmasters watch out using that tag with tables.

  


Free Classifieds Site Is Now Open

HughesTech Labs:

Free Classifieds site is now open, users can view Classifieds or post Classifieds.

It’s up and working, this is our beta release and our Engineers are currently working on a new Search feature.

The system was designed to handle millions of listings and deliver them quickly.

 The Classifieds site has it’s own Secure Messaging System, so users never know a poster’s true identity, which is left up to the poster to disclose if they want.

When a user contacts a poster, the Classifieds poster will receive an email from our system with the user’s comments, name and email address, the poster has the discretion at this point to reveal their true identity to the user.

A list of Classified Categories that Internet users can take advantage of:

Community (Activities, Local News, Artists, Lost And Found, Childcare, Musicians, Classes, Pets, Events, Politics, General, Rideshare, Groups, Volunteers)

For Sale (Auto Parts, Games, Autos, General, Barter, Household, Bikes, Jewelry, Boats, Material, Books, Motorcycles, Business, Music Instr., Clothes, Sporting, Collectibles, Tickets, Computer, Tools, Electronics, Toys, Furniture, Video Games)

Housing (Apartments, Storage, Commercial, Sublets, For Sale, Swap, Office, Temporary, Parking, Vacation Rentals, Rooms, Wanted, Shared)

Jobs (Accounting, Manufacturing, Admin, Marketing, Admin Mysql, Medical, Architect, Network, Biotech, Office, Business, Part Time, Cad, Real Estate, Contract, Retail, Craft, Trade, Sales, Engineering, Science, Finance, Security, Gen. Labor, Skilled Trade, Government, Software, Health, Systems, Hr, Tech Support, Management, Wholesale)

Personals (Men Bios, Women Bios)

Services (Anti Virus, Lessons, Auto Detailing, Movers, Auto Repair, Music Dj, Beauty, Party, Catering, Pet, Computer, Programming, Haircutting, Video Editing, Home Repairs, Web Design, Labor, Web Hosting, Legal, Wedding Vids)

Test Drive FREE Classifieds


Perl: Authenticate Web Forms (Anti-Spam Bots)

Technology Blog:

Perl script (MathAuth.pl) to Authenticate Submitted Web Forms (Anti-Spam Bots).

If you have a Website that has forms that are submitted by clicking a button, then I am sure you have been plagued with spam bots submitting to your forms.

We were searching to add the rotating image form of authentication, but after using many of these ourselves at other websites, we found many times you could not make out the letters or numbers that were being displayed.

I was reading an article at Matt Cutts’ Blog (What Google Knows About Spam)
where he displays some slides about spam, in one of his slides he shows how asking a Math question works very well and he uses it himself. 

So we decided to update one of our forms which is submitted to a Perl Script.

Below we will show you how we did it and you can use the same method:

First you must create a file named mathauth.pl that looks likes this:
 @answer = (”",”");

sub question
{
 $r1 = 10;
 $q1 = int(rand($r1));
 $q2 = int(rand($r1));
}

sub answer($q1,$q2,$q3)
{
 $q1 = shift;
 $q2 = shift;
 $q3 = shift;
 $a1 = $q1 + $q2;
 if($a1==$q3){
    $q3=”yes”;
   }else{
    $q3=”no”;
   }
}
save the file and update the permissions to 755 (chmod 755 mathauth.pl)

We use a perl script to populate the form:

In your perl script that builds the form you must add the following line at the begining of your script:

require ‘/full path to mathauth/mathauth.pl’;

Some where in your script where you build the form you must make a software call:

&question;  #this call will return with two integers $q1 and $q2

#Next insert the following lines towards the bottom of your form:

print “Security Question * : $q1 + $q2 = ?\n”;

print “Security Answer * : <input type=\”text\” name=\”Security_Answer\” size=\”4\” maxlength=\”4\” value=\”\”>\n”;

print “<input type=\”hidden\” name=\”Security1\” size=\”4\” maxlength=\”4\”value=$q1>\n”;

print “<input type=\”hidden\” name=\”Security1\” size=\”4\” maxlength=\”4\”value=$q2>\n”;

#Now when the form is submitted, the answer and the question will be passed to #another perl script that can make the final decision.

In your perl script that receives the form you must add the following line at the beginning of your script:

require ‘/full path to mathauth/mathauth.pl’;

Decode your form variables in the normal way, but now you must check to see if the $FORM{’Security_Answer’} field is empty or correct.

The following is what we do:

if($FORM{’Security_Answer’} eq “”){    #If Answer is empty then redirect to main page.
    print “Location: http://search-info.com/\n\n“;
    exit;
   }
 # The following line calls for verification of the values submitted.

#We simply pass the form fields that the user or spam botsubmitted to mathauth.pl

#mathauth.pl will return a string in $q3 of “yes” or “no”

&answer($FORM{’Security1′},$FORM{’Security2′},$FORM{’Security_Answer’});¼br>    if($q3 eq “no”){
      print “Location: http://search-info.com/\n\n“;  #Redirect them, Bad Answer.
      exit;
     }
#If the answer was correct, then the code will be passing by here to your regular routines.

I hope this helps, and Matt was right, it is a lot easier and more user friendly than using images for the Security questions.

If you would like to add this to any of your perl scripts, and don’t know how, then contact us and we will be glad to help you.

Thanks,

The HughesTech Team


IRS EMAIL SCAM! 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

HughesTech Labs:

Warning don’t be fooled today by an email with the Subject Line:

2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

  from field: Internal Revenue Service <refunds@irs.gov>

This Email reads as follows:

 INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
United States Department Of The Treasury

Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as
part of The White House program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the
2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by
direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit
before May 17th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be
processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 17th, 2008 or later means that
your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we
anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus Refund, please click here :

          http://210.11.88.209/_vti_rgl/www.irs.gov/0,,id=96596,00.html

© Copyright 2008, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.

If your 2007 tax refund was deposited in your bank account by the IRS, then the IRS  already has your routing numbers for the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund!

Do not click the link within this email, delete the email!


Webmasters Need Help? Programmers Need Work?

HughesTech Labs:

Webmasters have an idea, but don’t know how to program it?

Well HughesTech Labs has setup a new forum called “Lives Lost” that will put Webmasters and Programmers together.

Programmers, have experience with Web Development such as html, perl, php, asp, MySQL, .NET, C/C++ and want to make quick money?

Visit Lives Lost Forums and post your skills.

Lives Lost Forums also has other Categories:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) topics,
Internet Marketing Tips, Strategies and Tool Forums, buy, sell, trade, Domain Names and more.


PC Virus Or Dirt? Internet Explorer, PC ERRORS? Help

HughesTech Labs:

Has your PC been slowing down? Getting errors when using the Internet Explorer and other Windows Programs? Think you have a bad virus?

If your PC Computer has any of the above symptoms, then check the temperature of your Processor.

Just like when you are not feeling well you take your temperature, well your PC Processor has to stay cool also!

How to check the Processor temperature:

Reboot your Computer and before the OS (operating system) boots hit the ESC Key or the F1 Key or what ever Key gets you into the BIOS SETUP.

Next, while in BIOS Setup look for the Hardware Monitor selection and select it.

Your PC will display the temperature of the Processor, if your Processor is running at 130 degrees Fahrenheit or above, the your PC is sick and the most logical cause is DIRT!

No matter how clean you think you keep your house, business, or wherever the PC is located, the PC is a magnet for dust and dirt!

The Fix:

Shut the PC Off and remove the case, do a visual inspection around the fan motor that is mounted to a heat sink that sits on the top of the Processor.

See lots of dirt? If yes, then the best way to clean it is with compressed air.

We have an air compressor, but most people don’t, so go to your Computer store or even Office Depot and buy a can of Compressed Air, normaly sold for cleaning the Keyboard scum, but should work fine for your internal fans and heat sinks.

You might want to get a couple of cans if it is really dirty!

Also clean the Power supply fan and intake.

When the PC looks like new inside, then you are ready to try it.

Reinstall the case and Boot into the BIOS Setup screen again and Monitor the Temperature now.

You should see a major difference and your programs will work now!

You will think the PC is new again with the speed increase!

Note: A Bad fan motor can cause the same symptoms

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, then bring your computer to a PC repair shop and have it done. When doing the above procedure, you do so at your own risk! We will not be held libel for any work you perform on your PC and or damages you may cause bodily, mechanically, or electrically!

I hate having to put in disclaimers!


New WordPress Meta Tag Generator Plugin Released

HughesTech Labs:

Releases MetaMagic Plugin For WordPress

Simple to use and install WordPress Plugin should help Bloggers with SEO!

Automatically creates meta description tags and meta keywords tags for single posts.

Simply underline a phrase in your post while using the Wordpress Editor and that text will be the content for the meta description tag.

The Tags in your post will be the content for the meta keywords tag.

You can also edit in seconds your old posts and add meta tags to them.

You can find additional information about MetaMagic here.

Take note of the underlined text in this post, now check our html source file (just before the head ending tag). You will see that the underlined text above is the meta description tag. And the meta keywords tag is our Tags for this post….

Enjoy,

HughesTech Plugin Team