The programming language, Ruby, was created in the mid 1990’s in Japan, by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. Ruby is based on Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp and was written to create a programming language that, according to Matsumoto, “was more powerful than Perl, and more object-oriented than Python.”

One of the goals of Ruby is to allow the simple and fast creation of web applications. The language itself satisfies this goal. Because of this, there is much less tedious work with this language than many other programming languages. Ruby is also free of charge. It is also free to copy, use, modify, and distribute. Since Ruby can be modified, programmers can make necessary changes and can code without feeling restricted. Another feature of Ruby is its mark-and-sweep garbage collection which allows programmers the ability to code without having to worry about the need to maintain reference counts in extension libraries. Also, if an operating system allows for it, Ruby can dynamically load extension libraries. Ruby currently ranks as the 9th most popular programming language in the world. There are many online guides where Ruby programmers to-be can learn how to program in Ruby.

Ruby on Rails, often simply called Rails, is an open source web application framework that was designed for Ruby by David Heinemeier Hansson and was released in July 2004. Ruby on Rails makes use of an object relational mapping layer known as the ActiveRecord. Because of this, programmers do not have to specify database column names in class definitions. Rails will retrieve this information on its own from the database based on the class name. Rails also has a testing framework built in which allows programmers to write test cases which helps them create more reliable, robust code.

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When Linux Mint was originally launched, it was a version of Ubuntu that offered integrated media codecs. Founded and developed by Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint boasts as one of the most user friendly and reliable distributions that can be found in the market. Lefebvre started out as just another Linux user in 1996. As he became more experienced in the usage of Linux he felt he wanted to give back to the Linux community which led to the development of Linux Mint. The idea came from a mixture of different Linux distros that he got from what he calls “distro-hopping” which is basically trying out different Linux distributions. “I enjoyed many different distributions and for different reasons,” says Lefebvre. Linux Mint is a mixture of many different popular features in varied distros in Linux.

Features of Linux Mint

The features that Linux Mint boasts of are as follows:

• Custom desktop and menus
• Several unique configuration tools
• Web based package installation interface
• Several different editions to fit individual user needs

Because of these features, many users have found this Linux distribution among the easiest to use Linux distros.

Linux Mint also has WiFi cards driver in the file system, multimedia support and screen resolution features which focus on allowing things to work outside the box. Users are not limited to working just within the box when they have this system, which is a testament to the operating system’s reliability.

There are a collection of packages and software that users can get from the distribution that make it quite compatible. The system also uses the Ubuntu repositories. Ubuntu is known for having one of the easiest to use package manager systems, making Linux Mint even easier to use.

Linux Mint is available in ISO images which can be used to create Live CDs and Live USBs. As is is Free software, it can legally be handed out to friends, relatives, etc.

Linux Mint Editions

As already mentioned, there are several different versions of this operating system. These include the main version which is GNOME, x86-32, the 64-bit Edition, the Universal version, and a handful of community editions.

Some of the configuration tools that can be found on the system are MintInstall, MintUpdate, MintDesktop, MintConfig, MintAssistant, MintUpload, MintSpace, MintMenu, MintWifi, MintNanny, MintMake and MintWelcome. These help users perform most of the functions that they expect to have with the OS.

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Project Honey Pot is a system designed with those who receive spam in mind. What this system basically does is sit on a site and watch for email harvesters. When it finds an email harvester, the honey pot logs information about the harvester into the Project Honey Pot system. This information is then built up into various sets of statistics that are used in court to prosecute spammers. One of the things that makes Project Honey Pot cool is that it shows all this data on their website for the world to see. This allows those curious about their own IPs to check and see if they are considered a spammer. It also offers information on various IPs and statistics such as the average amount of emails sent to the honey pot.

Website owners can do one of three things to help Project Honey Pot catch spammers. A honey pot can be added to any website which will watch for and log any suspicious data on that site. This is for those who have a web host and are willing to install the honey pot script onto their site. Those who don’t have their website hosted or don’t want to install a honey pot can install a QuickLink. When a bot visits a site, they likely visit other sites that the original site is linked to in order to find as many email addresses as possible. A QuickLink is a hidden, secret link that only bots can see and visit. The QuickLink will take the bot to a site that does have a honey pot installed. Another thing that webmasters can do is donate an MX record to the project. What this does is give Project Honey Pot an email address to receive spam. Project Honey Pot will use this email address to see what kind of spam the harvesters are sending among many other statistics. This option is for webmasters who have their own domain name.

Project Honey Pot is a completely free service that survives on donations and tshirt sales through CafePress. They also offer various other services such as a directory where users can look up information about various IPs, including IPs that are known to belong to dictionary attackers.

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According to a newsletter sent by eBay to its members, eBay will allow sellers to list their first five items each month without having to pay a listing fee. In the past, eBay has offered large discounts to bulk sellers on eBay leaving the burden of cost on the shoulders of those who list only a few items at a time. Former users have said, “because of this, what used to feel like an online garage sale where some treasures can be found has turned into just another online store.”

With the new fee structure, eBay hopes to turn around sales on the site. The change allows sellers to list items without paying a listing fee for the first five items listed a month. This is aimed at bringing in new sellers and bringing back many of the sellers who have left eBay because of rate increases. In lieu of the listing fees for the first five items, eBay charges a flat 8.75% commission known on eBay as the final value fee. Those familiar with selling on eBay are probably aware of the final value fee as it is charged on all sales. Because of the flat rate final value fee offered with the first five items sold each month, sellers could end up paying more in fees by using the “first five items listed are free deal” than the traditional fee structure. When a seller surpasses the first five items listed per month, they will be subject to the insertion fees, but will benefit from the tiered final value fee system.

The reaction of the eBay community is mixed with many sellers stating that the final value fee system that goes along with the free insertion fees is “a hidden way to get more money” and “more punishment for the little guy.” Following the announcement on June 16th, eBay’s stock fell 1% closing at $17.23 per share. eBay stock hit its lowest point since 2001 earlier this year, closing at $10.43 per share on March 6th. The fee change has left many to wonder, will the free listings bring eBay out of its slump or will the change in the final value fee structure drive the auction giant further into the ground?

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The Open CourseWare Movement allows students to find courses online that fit their needs. Because of the large amount of schools currently serving free online classes, students can choose from literally thousands of courses. These aren’t just your every day, run of the mill colleges either! Universities such as MIT, Yale, and Stanford are among those that offer free courses online. Even colleges and universities in different countries such as Japan, Israel, and Spain are participating in the program. Because of this, many courses are offered in languages other than English.

For a college to qualify for the Open CourseWare program, they must offer at least 10 courses free online. The courses must contain everything a student needs, including the reading material (students who use this don’t have to pay for books) for it to be a part of the program. Whether it’s a class taken for fun or to learn something new, it’s a good idea for students to look for classes from universities known particularly for that course or major. This helps ensure that the student will get the best education they can. Different courses are taught in different ways. Many courses have video lectures, just audio, or just course transcripts. It’s important for those looking to take a class through the Open CourseWare program to look for classes that fit their needs such as a video class for those who learn better visually than by reading.

The goal of the Open CourseWare Movement is to get as many colleges and universities to participate as possible so that more people are given the chance to learn online. There are many ways that those who’ve benefited from the Open CourseWare Movement can help such as donating, passing on the word, or just taking a course to better themselves. It is usually a good idea to open a search engine and search for “open courseware” to find universities and colleges that offer these free courses.

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FireFox – This isn’t really a SEO tool per se, but more of a requirement. Most SEO tools on the Internet require FireFox and the reason is simple: FireFox allows plugins. FireFox is an amazing browser which has gained astounding ground since its release leaving Internet Explorer to the not-so-tech-savvy and those who are currently using Internet Explorer to download FireFox!

NoDoFollow – This is very handy tool to find whether links on a site are no-follow or do-follow. When doing SEO for Google, Internet marketers prefer their site’s back links to be do-follow. Do-follow back links raise a website up in Google SERPs more so than no-follow links. It’s important to know whether a site gives do-follow links or no-follow links when doing link building. The NoDoFollow Firefox plugin (yes, you’re going to need FireFox for this one) allows link builders to differentiate between do-follow and no-follow links.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool – Anyone looking to earn money from creating and doing search engine optimization on niche sites will have to do keyword research. Those versed in SEO already know this, but there are a lot of SEO newbies out there who have neve rheard of keyword research. This is extremely important. Doing keyword research often means the difference of making cents or dollars online. It’s a good idea to know which keywords make money and which don’t before spending time and money doing SEO for a site. Doing keyword research prevents that time and money from being wasted — most of the time. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who don’t even do keyword research!

SEO for Firefox Extension – This is a major time saver. Those who’ve ever had a full piggy bank as a child and counted out all the change before taking it to the bank where the teller just dumped the change into a machine that counts the change in a matter of seconds can appreciate the time saved with this addon. Those on dial-up will also appreciate this. When doing keyword research it’s important to know the Google Page Rank of a site and how many back links from Yahoo of probably hundreds of sites depending on how many keywords researched. Instead of inputting each site into some online Page Rank checking and manually going to Yahoo to find how back links a site has, this tool allows Googlers to see ALL this information and more right in Google search when they’re researching each individual keyword.

Website Marketing SEO Score Tool – This is actually pretty cool. This tool gives web site owners to see what’s wrong with their website. This tool gives each site a score and tells what could be done differently. Of course, anyone can manually check all this stuff themselves, but this is great for a nice pick me up and it can be used as a learning tool.

All in One SEO Pack – Have a niche site? If so, you probably use WordPress. I’m not making fun of Blogger users, but those using WordPress do have a significant SEO advantage over those who use Blogger. If you’re a niche site person like me, you’ve probably got WordPress. This tool configures WordPress blogs to be very SEO friendly and is highly popular among literally the whole niche marketing crowd. It’s important not to use something because it’s popular, but because it works. However, this is popular for a reason.

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#5 TwitterHolic

The name of this says addiction all over it. Can you guess which part? Yep, you got it, it’s Twitter! As with many Twitter addons, this is one of those “I’m really bored and feel like looking at some stats” addons. It’s still really cool to use and sadly a little competitive, but we’re not quite off the MySpace Top Friends kick so we deserve a little bit of competition in Twitter. It’s human nature, right? TwitterHolic shows users their rank by the number of followers they have and how they rank based on where they live. It also has a line graph showing how many followers a specific user has had in the past and how many are predicted for the user in he future.

#4 Twellow

There are two ways to follow people on Twitter. There is the noob way which is to find a popular twitterer and follow all their followers or they can find people to follow based on their interests. The latter is more fun because instead of seeing a bunch of “my socks smell today, I should change them” or “CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME SPAM SITE ITS GREAT,” tweets users can actually see tweets they care about. Twellow allow users to browse other twitters based on their interests. Twellow only allows users to put themselves into 10 categories which prevents people from stuffing themselves in every category in a sad attempt to get followers. The site itself could use a redesign, but it’s a great tool.

#3 TweetDeck

TweetDeck is great for those who follow a lot of people or the few people they do follow tweet a lot. This application allows users to sort twitters into different groups making Tweets much easier to read. Many people use Twirl instead, but I personally prefer TweetDeck.

#2 TwitThis

This is a tool that more blogger need to use. This allows bloggers to put a little button by each blog post. When a twitter user finds and likes a blog post, they can click the button which will automatically tweet the blog post title and url from the twitterers account. This is similar to Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious icons that are often found on blogs.

#1 TwitterFox

Those addicted to both Firefox and Twitter can save time and be addicted to both at once. TwitterFox makes this possible by allowing Firefox users to make tweets right from their browser. This is great for people who are browsing their favorite forum or editing a blog post and feel the sudden urge to tweet something. Instead of switching tabs, all TwitterFox users need to do is enter their tweet up into the little TwitterFox box that stays in their browser toolbar. Easy peesy!

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The changes don’t come without a hefty price tag, however. Flippa will also be introduced with a new fee structure more expensive than SitePoint’s previous fee structure. Flippa will be charging a “success fee” similar to eBay’s final value fee. SitePoint has not yet announced whether or not they will be offering a marketplace for hosting, link sales, or scripts. User feedback made on SitePoint forums in regard to the change has been mostly negative. Many Twitter users are also spreading news of the change with retweets at the TechCrunch twitter account saying “SitePoint Spins Off Website Marketplace As Flippa, Upsets Users.”

SitePoint co-founder, Mark Harbottle commented, “If you want to come across to flippa and sell your site in the professional marketplace we’re creating for serious buyers, we welcome you with open arms. If not, please do go to digitalpoint. List your site for free and see if the old adage of “you get what you pay for” applies.” This commented shocked and appalled many Digital Point users, many of which felt the remark by Mark Harbottle was “unprofessional” and that it was a “low blow” to the DigitalPoint.com webmaster community.

Mark Harbottle also commented, “Meanwhile while you all whine and complain about the fees, the design, etc. the smart sellers are listing their sites on flippa.com and they are attracting the majority of the buyer interest,” which many SitePoint users found it not only hurtful for being called whiners and complainers, but also that this blow came after the announcement that fees will be rising. It came as a shocker that those who list their sites on SitePoint were insulted and told to leave if they don’t like the changes. This change comes at a key period in the US economy where consumer spending has hit only one point higher than the US all time low

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In a rare occasion, Ballmer apologized to the masses of gamers who were let down after the excitement of the news of an upcoming next generation console. After reports of gamers talking about the “new console” arose, Aaron Greenburg of Microsoft stated, “We’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon.” This devastated many excited gamers who are looking forward to any hints of next generation consoles to come in the distant future.

“I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words,” Ballmer told IGN. “There is no news in my comments.” Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed a date for the release of the add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360, but Ballmer’s comments have led many to believe the “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” will arrive sometime in 2010. Although, the confusion over the “new console” disappointed gamers, many are still excited about the upcoming feature for Xbox 360 which is likely to release in late 2010.

Project Natal, which was announced on June 1, 2009 featured many demos including a game called “Ricochet” where the player can use his or her body to bounce balls at blocks. Natal also allow players to log in to their console faced on facial recognition and try on clothes in 3D. Other demos shown at E3 were “Paint Party” where players can “throw” paint on walls using body motion and “Burnout Natal” where players can race in cars using their body motion to steel the wheel of the car instead of a controller that current gaming technology requires. Because of the new technology behind the project, the announcement has caused the Xbox 360 to gain more ground in the market.

The name Natal comes from Microsoft’s tradition of code naming products from cities. The name Natal, a city in Brazil, was chosen by Microsoft’s director, Alex Kipman, as a tribute to his home country. The word natal also means “relating to birth” where Microsoft shares its view that the addon is the “birth of the next-generation of home entertainment.”

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