SEO Can you Optimize? ballardivan24@gmail.com thinks they can.

September 18th, 2013

So you are wondering if ballardivan24@gmail.com is a scammer that is trying to take your money. They are. Apparently they claim they can increase the search rankings of one of my clients’ websites, interesting since it sits in page 1 position 1 for nearly every keyword related to it.

If you are looking for SEO, or SEM don’t bother replying to someone that sends spam, ignore messages from ballardivan24@gmail.com

Guitar Tabs | SmallTabs.com

September 12th, 2013

So I was surfing around, and found a great source for guitar tabs, visit http://www.smalltabs.com and you will be shocked.

So if you are looking to download a popular songs tabs, your source should be Small Tabs.

HOWTO : Mobile Subdomain Redirection Scheme

August 19th, 2013

So,. you want to have a mobile site, and on it you want to have a full site button. Here is what you need to do to integrate a solution using PHP.

This can be a real pain in the ass, and after I fought with PHP Sessions not passing stuff between subdomains, and hours of server configuration changes and logs read, I can up with a cookie based method.

1) Visitors that have been redirected to your mobile site, will be given a cookie that is valid across the entire domain, by setting it to just the domainname without www. or mobile, etc…
2) If a visitor hits a page in the main site, and they don’t have the cookie, you can send them directly to the mobile site, however, if they have the cookie demonstrating that they prefer the full site, then cancel the redirection.
3) Once on your mobile site, add a page called full-site.html that will set a cookie for their preferred view, you will then be able to test against that variable in the front end main site before redirection.

Avoid a redirection loop and just update the cookies, and redirect only when it’s correct.

I personally used a custom php class to detect the devices, then php to bake/check the cookies. Pretty easy using this approach.

Magento Google Merchant Center

August 12th, 2013

So,. I found myself today trying to integrate the Google Merchant Center into a Magento Community edition store,. This used to be built in, and was a bit buggy,. but since it’s changed.

1) Install the Google Content API from Magento Connect,. (Admin->System->Connect)
2) Nothing happens
3) Go to admin and configure the API,. (Admin->System->Configuraiton->Google API)
4) Enter your check account number, username, passwords etc…
5) Now the fun begins (nothing happens)
6) Next we need to make sure you have a couple of item attributes that google is going to want.
7) Catalog->Attributes -> Manage Attributes
8) Make sure you have a MPN attribute and a Brand Attribute (if not add them)
9) Next we need to map the attributes you have to the ones google wants… (Catalog->Google-Content->Manage Attributes
10) You are going to create a custom mapping based on your config things like the MPN you added to google’s Manufacturer’s Part number field.
11) Save changes, and update cache and indexes
12) Add products to google (Catalog->Google Content->Manage Items
13) Select the products you want and hit “add to google”
14) if they are succesful next you will want to synchronize them to google.

** If you get an error like this “A required attribute is missing. Internal reason: Hard goods must have values for two out of the following attributes: gtin, brand, mpn. See ‘identifier_exists’ for product ‘product name – description’ (in ‘Default Store View’ store)”

You have a bad mapping, or an empty required field, .you can check the product they list, and see what is wrong with it, but if nothing seems wrong check your mapping and try again.

Eventually you will find the key that is wrong and be able to synchronize.

Geocode Addresses,.

August 6th, 2013

The function below if displayed correctly will accept an address string, and ask google if it has an associated lat,lng if so it will return that lat lng as a string.

On my local machine I saved it as geocodeme.php and just push an address to it.

function getlatlng($astr){
// address, city, state, zip
$latLng = “”;
// ok we are going to curl get the lat lng for each
$geoCode = str_replace(” “,”+”,$astr);
$geoCode = urlencode($geoCode);

$csite = “http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=” .$geoCode . “&sensor=false”;

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $csite);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$result = curl_exec($ch);

$parsed = json_decode($result,true);
$lat = “”;
$lng = “”;

if( $parsed[‘status’] == ‘OK’ ){
// echo “Status ” . $parsed[‘status’] . “


“;
$lat = $parsed[“results”][0][“geometry”][“location”][“lat”];
$lng = $parsed[“results”][0][“geometry”][“location”][“lng”];
return “$lat,$lng”;
} else {
// could do something on fail
}

if( $lat != ” && $lng != ” ){
return “”;
}
return;
}

Car Towing Lansing | Tow Truck Lansing

July 26th, 2013

Are you stuck, left sitting in your driveway, or worse stuck on the side of the road, well then American Towing can help.

American Towing in Lansing, is a family owned and operated towing company that does a great job getting you and your vehicle home safely. Need to have it towed somewhere and stored temporarily they can handle that for you also,.

If you need a tow in or around Lansing, visit Lansing Auto Towing, your home for car towing, truck towing, and long haul service.

They have wrecker trucks, rolloff’s and heavy-duty towing.

Solara Parts… coming to car near me soon.

July 25th, 2013

Just wanted to have a nice place where I could track the updates/changes that I want to make to the new Solara.

Stats:
1999 Toyota Solara SE V6 5 Speed Manual 156k miles

1) Wheels and tires -> Update to 17″ or 18″ (picking up Toyota 5 Spoke 17’s today)
2) Lowering Springs and Struts –
3) Cold Air Intake –
4) Headers and Exhaust
5) Turbo
6) Body work and Paintjob

Scam Warning :: United States Trademark Maintenance Service

July 23rd, 2013

So,. as you might assume, from time to time I have to get a Registered Trademark, and when that is the case I go through the normal process, like everyone else.

Once you decide to Trademark your slogan, name, or idea and file using a qualified attorney like JJ Lee TM Lawyer you hurry up and wait.

Well today I received a letter from the “United States Trademark Maintenance Service”, and upon investigation of a very official looking envelope, I noticed that they are trying to get people to sign up for a service to protect the trademark that they haven’t even been granted yet.

This is not a letter from the USPTO this is a bologna promotional letter, and you will recognize it by the ustmservice.com website not .gov, and just for reference their number is (866) 398-8187

Remove Ken Cuccinelli from Office

July 23rd, 2013

In a bit of news that shocked me, attorney general Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia is moving forward in an effort to outlaw oral sex, even for married couples.

For this I say you both suck and blow,. Ken, there are so many other problems for you to worry about, don’t bother worrying about something that isn’t hurting anyone.

Ann Arbor Art Fair Cheap Beer, Booze, and More!

July 16th, 2013

Wow,. that is where we are going to start, but if you are looking for drink specials, cheap beers, and great shots, start by checking DrankBank.

It’s where the ladies are looking for their drink specials, and you want to follow them to the drinks!