Google Blog



Happened upon a nice blog which exclusively covers Googlopics (topics related to Google - a word I just coined and is certain to fade into history the minute you finish reading this).



A Google Weblog story pointed me to a capability of serving Amazon affiliate links rather than the standard AdSense alternate ads. I'm definitely going to try this out.



If you serve Google AdSense ads, you'll quickly find out that a significant percentage of the ads are not "real". By default, they end up blank or serve non-profits, presumably because Google's (very smart, BTW) text engine determines that the underlying page doesn't have any good matches.



AdSense gives you the ability to specify alternate ads. But this capability - which I will check out later - also lets you use an Amazon Affiliates account and serve up ads from Amazon instead. Any sales through your affililates link are credited to your account in the form of a gift-certificate or whatever.



Google Weblog



Props to Managed Core



From Managed Core, found out about this neat registry hack that logs all surfing activity on a machine.



"The exact address of the key I discovered:



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\DefaultPrefix



Just change the value of default string value from "http://" to "http://www.YOURSITE.com/log?=" and have a page at YOURSITE recording the query string value and then redirecting to the users site. Transparent to the user. Unscrupulous little tip huh, no regrets, lets do some about that as well. hee ? For the curios, a good site for windows registry modifications and tweaking will be... http://www.winguide.com"



PrivacyBoy 2000



More on watermarked code



I was discussing watermarked code a few days ago in this space. Happened upon That's My Code, a free online tool for watermarking C# code. Seems pretty simple:

Enter your own copyright notice below and click Submit.

Cut and paste the watermarked dummy method into your code.

Call the dummy method from inside your program.

Compile your code to complete the watermarking process.



That's My Code!



Kewl Keys



The VOQ "smartphone" from Sierra Wireless premiers a very sweet feature: a fold-out QWERTY keyboard for those all-important text messages.



It runs on, what else, the Microsoft SmartPhone platform, giving you access to all of your favorite applications. ABC's review indicates that, while bulkier than a standard phone, the keyboard is really quite useful.



Sierra Wireless Voq Professional Phone



Seer as Scriptwriter



From Newsday: Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan jokes that if Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" should come up for Oscar consideration, the nomination for best screenplay should go to a little-known 18th century German nun.



The mystical visions of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) are the basis of some of the more stunning, non-biblical scenes in Gibson's movie - from Jesus' confrontation with Satan in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the explicit details of his scourging by Roman guards, to a crucifixion scene in which his arm is pulled out of its socket, according to a reading of her work.



Gibson has said that he based his film in part on the visions of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich recorded in "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ." "There it is," Crosson says. "Read the book. You could put a camera in front of it. She is the script for the film."



Seer as scriptwriter