Top 10 Tech Web Tips

Setting up File Compare in Dreamweaver 8

In my last short article I mentioned a free program available from sourceforge.net that will enable you to compare to files of code (or any text file for that matter).

I forgot to mention how and where to set that up in Dreamweaver so that you can rapidly compare an old version of a file with a new version of a file.

Simply go to  Menu  Edit>Preferences

Then select File Compare

Then simply pick the files exe, which is likely to be located somewhere in your Program Files folder.

Its all relatively simple and easy, but its one of those things that if you are looking for it yourself, you may not find it relatively quickly on any given day of the week. 

It’s never easy to find when you really need it, so hopefully this helped you if you did a google search on it. 

So maybe this little tutorial will save you from falling off the bandwagon and seeking counseling or drug treatment.  If so, please drop us a comment with a thank you if you get around to it.  We would definitely appreciate it.

Diff Utility - Program for Comparing Text or code

This evening I finally broke down and learned how to compare text in code.  This is actually something that I have meant to do for a long period of time, but only got around to it tonight when things became critical and absolutely necessary.

The program I’m using is WinMerge and is supposed to plugin to Dreamweaver 8, which is what I am going to attempt to accomplish next.

Note to self.  It’s just been one of those kind of days.  Database crashed, code went buggy on a different site, my micro sd card died for no apparent reason, and I have a touch of the flu!

Google’s Lost Opportunity to be Friends with Bloggers

It is ironic that Google one of the largest providers of blogging software is unfriendly to bloggers.  Google suffers the common bloggers of the world as a means to an end for serving up more Google Adword/Adsense ads across the internet.  They privately also use the writing of bloggers to help index the internet for their search engine.

However, Google looks at bloggers like a cruel child looks at an ant farm.  Casually observing the coming and going of the ants, and every now and then toying with the ants by channeling some heat from the sun through a lens, just to watch the blogger ants squirm.

It demonstrates a serious lost opportunity for Google.  Google prides itself on its intelligence.  That pride might be one aspect of their undoing and continued attacks on Google’s Adwords advertising platform offers up a glimpse of an example.

There is a virus spreading throughout computers.  The virus is a trojan and infects computers such that when the computer surfs the internet, the computer user thinks they are seeing Google Adsense ads paid for by Google Adwords advertising customers that link out to Google approved websites.  In reality the ads are delivered up by the perpetrators of the trojan virus.

They send people to unintended websites and may install even more malicious code or strip private information from those users. So you may see an advertisement for furniture stores, click on it and end up going to a site that serves up an automatic virus to your computer.

The trojan redirects queries meant to be sent to Google servers to a rogue server, which displays ads from a third party instead of ads from Google, BitDefender said in a statement. 

ITPro: News: Google ads attacked by Trojan

Now if Google were to look at bloggers as an opportunity for public relations as opposed to annoying ants, they could have benefited from the power of millions of bloggers to help spread the word about this trojan that is attacking Google’s primary source of revenue.

In the past, Google suffered from an integrity attack from click fraud, where a limited number of people worked to directly and fraudulently attack the Adword advertising system.  A person committing click fraud had to knowingly act to perpetrate click fraud.

However, this trojan virus has the means of potentially turning and unknowing casual internet browser into the source for click fraud.  This particular attack does not yet appear to be mature enough to cause Google serious harm (more than a billion dollars lets say).  However, it can and will cause harm.

The question becomes what will Google do to prepare for future iterations that will probably be even more dangerous.  It would surely help if Google had the ability to get the word out and fend off these attacks.  Unfortunately, Google has grown into a very large and very bureaucratic company with one silo operating independently of another and this level of coordination may be forever out of their reach.