analytics

Hey Folks,

If you’re like me and have a couple of sites and truly use the account snapshot page of google analytics you’re probably changing the listing size (Show Rows) selectbox and then clicking on the sort by Visits twice to see your sites sorted by the most visited to the least.

We’re talking about having to click on 4 buttons everytime you go to your analytics account snapshot page.

Well, there’s a way to change this – Just use the following URL everytime by adding it to your favorites, it automatically adds the GET data needed to sort your site listings by visits and also shows atleast 50 site results on that same page (Now you don’t have to click on any selectbox or link to view the aggregated report for your site

https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/?hl=en#sort=-VISITS&pagesize=50&page=1

BTW, want to truly increase your traffic ?

Now that you have property set up your analytics snapshot page – How about learning how to get more traffic to your website? I truly recommend this great guide for you.

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If you’re having problem connecting to your MySQL server within your PHP files and your PHP / MySQL / Apache are setup correctly, this post might solve your prblem.

Reproducing the problem:

When having a mysql_connect() statement within an executed PHP script – your browser will hang and after the php timeout (default is 60 seconds) pass this error will be displayed in your browser window:

PHP Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): [2002] A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not (trying to connect via tcp://localhost:3306) in xxx.php on line 2

PHP Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): (HY000/2002): A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
in xxx.php on line 2

I have spent all morning trying to setup my webserver on this new PC with Windows Vista, it seems like whatever was changed – PHP couldn’t connect to MySQL.

After thinking what might cause this problem since I have been installing webservers for years and this never happened – I looked into the root cause of the problem which was found to be my OS, Windows Vista (Argh!).

(The following info has been copied from coreygilmore.com – finding out this solution took a really long time)

PHP bug #45150 suggests that this is due to issues resolving localhost on Windows. This is partially correct, more specifically it’s an issue with localhost resolving to ::1 when IPv6 is enabled.

While it feels like Windows has shoehorned in IPv6 support, the blame seems to lie with MySQL, which won’t support IPv6 until version 6.0.

I’m not sure why the timeout isn’t instant, the port is closed, so it could be partially a problem with PHP or Windows.

The Fix

Open up %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts with a text editor and comment out the line that looks like:

::1             localhost

Prefix it with a #, like so:

#::1             localhost

Save it and your PHP/MySQL connections will immediately begin working. You could also use 127.0.0.1 in your connection string instead of localhost, but I didn’t want to change code in innumerable files.

If you have problem saving the document (this could be because of administrator rights or read only) just move the file to another directory (your desktop) modify it and copy it back to your etc directory.

Hope this solution helped,

Resources :

New to PHP? start learning PHP with Robert Plank’s Easy PHP ebook.

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I have found out today that under my installation of PHP 5.3.0 on windows vista with WAMP – PHP just doesn’t want to report parse errors on my browser, even with error_reporting set to “on”. When parse errors occur PHP usually just prints out a blank white page without content or description of the errors. (The errors can still be fetched using your web server’s log or by using a PHP syntax check application)

After doing some google searches it looks like other people have had this problem too. the only fix I found for this was to use wamp and just upgrade php to version 5.3.1 (The latest version available at this time).

Upgrading / Modifying your PHP version is really simple with WAMP:

Left click on the WAMP icon in your system tray, click on PHP -> Version -> Get More…
WAMP’s upgrade page will pop up in your browser, just choose the latest php build or your current version (If you just want to reinstall) – open the downloaded file, install and you’re setup with a new version of PHP.

You might need to use the WAMP menu again to change the active version of  the PHP you’re using. everytime you change the php version with wamp’s menu’s it automatically edits all the INI files needed to run your webserver – like the php directory locaction in your httpd.conf (Apache webserver) file.

To change the active PHP version under wamp ->
Left click on the wamp icon in your system tray, click on PHP -> Version -> click on the version you want to be activated.

* The next time you execute WAMP it will remember your selection and will boot up with that version of php.

Resources :

New to PHP? start learning PHP with Robert Plank’s Easy PHP ebook.

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tinnitus can be cured

Hello friends,

After going out to some parties in my life and dancing to high volume music, I got tinnitus about 6 months ago.

Tinnitus affects more than 25% of the population above age 45.

Whats tinnitus? well you know the ringing tone you hear after you leave a noisy party for a couple of hours? tinnitus is just that but for life, you’re just stuck with that ringing tone.

Currently there are many calming tinnitus techniques but from my experience all the doctors and Internet / ebook searching have shown that there’s a really small percentage of people cured from this state.

Actually the only people who got tinnitus cured did that by having no-treatment at all and just by having a healthy lifestyle and food intake.

Therefor I’m now trying this system and will keep you updated on my status on the blog. If you’re reading this you probably have tinnitus too and you’re invited to test this diet yourself.

Changes made to my lifestyle: (Foods I no longer consume)

1. No more meat.

2. No more chicken.

3. No more processed foods (any boxed food with non-organic additives).

4. No more tuna – no mercury (still eating sardines for protein intake after sports session)

5. No more dairy  (no animal based foods like cow milk, yogurt or cottage)

6. No more foods with unnatural synthetic preservatives.

7. No more genetically modified food (GMO’s), organic when available.

What am I eating then ?

1.  Lots of raw (organic, when available) vegetables and fruit.

2. Whole organic breads.

3. Daily dosage of B-12 (contained in a multi vitamin pill) to complete the lack of meat and chicken diet.

4. Minimal intake of  sardines and organic eggs per week (up to 4 meals each per week).

5. Vegan based foods.

How can this heal me?

I’m trying to help my body regenerate cells and detoxify from years of having really bad eating habits by eating lots or trans / saturated fats contained in fast food restaurants.

Because of cell regenerating happening to all of your body cells which can replace them all after about 7 years, many people might be able to cure this horrible disease just by having a healthy and good lifestyle.

I have been practicing this lifestyle for about 2 months now and amazingly, it’s been really great – the vegetables and fruits now taste better than ever and it truly feels like I’ll be keeping this diet for life weather it works or not on tinnitus.

Learn more & Get resources:

However, I must say that there is a lot more to my holistic healing journey and to really get cured my tinnitus cured, reading books about tinnitus has greatly helped – information in ebooks such as tinnitus miracle (A guideline to cure tinnitus in 2 months) might really speed up the healing process.

Stay tuned to the blog for updates on this.

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I didn’t post must lately because of a change that was made in my lifestyle, probably the most meaningful change in my life.
Today my health is important to me, not only because it can help you live longer but it also makes you feel better – and thats more important.

Doing much research into the source of many of my problems has led me to probably the source of everything which is happening in our bodies -> the food we eat.
From my recent experience in the past two years fast food (especially Chinese) was eaten on a daily basis, it was so delicious and I really didn’t know whats going into my system.

We are the food we eat, the only real change to your physical self since you were born is the intake of food and chemicals injected into your body.
Like many I have decided to take control over this area by limiting or eliminating “bad food”, starting with fast food which are mainly high cholesterol animal based produce combined with “corn sysop” (watch king corn and food inc.).
and moving on to becoming a vegetarian and working out 4 times a week.

I must say, the amount of energy I now have is tremendous – It took a couple of weeks but building the correct formula of breakfast, lunch and dinner while maintaining snack times (with healthy raw fruit / vegetable based products) can be maintained in a daily basis, and with time it’s the yummiest meals you’ll ever eat in your lifetime – you wont miss a thing (watch vegan-gal).

I’ll probably post some health information now that it’s one of my favorite topics – hope you liked this one and tune in for more next time.

The meaning of life

Shana Tova (good year) dear readers,

In the past few days I have come to an understanding that the most important factor about how I relate to my work  is if I feel wheather my work has a meaning…

I have come to this thought after an understanding that if working for money is prioritized as the main reason that gets you to work in the morning – you will be mentally worn down.
We can always gain more money and ask for more from ourselves.

Working for a purpose or an achievement that is meaningful, will keep strong winds in one’s  sails and might prevent work boredom.

This can be achieved this by taking on projects that involve your habits or topics that you care about, then try to think about the actions you can take in this project that have more then just a revenue outcome.

I’m currently looking at projects  that involve helping stray cats find a home, mainly because of my love for cats – Working on this really makes me feel great and even boosts my workload on other projects.

This is a short post, but to me it has great importance – I have now gained an understanding that for long range projects that generate revenue, having a personal feeling of meaning in relation to your projects has to be the most important factor in your mission to create a happy work life.

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So, something is troubling you ?

Everyone has something troubling them all the time, you might come across some people who might seem like every thing’s working for them, but eventually something almost always goes wrong.

Troubles are waiting for us in each step of our lifes, even when you’ll be really rich, healthy and have a girlfriend – Something will trouble you.

From my experience with self help, I have found that the following tips greatly help in dealing with trouble-sum issues:

1. Learn about it, think about it – try to learn what’s really the root of your problem / issue and when or where does it most trouble you!

For example:  For months I had pain in my right eye – I went to more then 4 doctors and an advanced eye mapping procedure to try to find out what’s wrong with my right eye.
After thinking about the problem through and looking at when and where the troubling occurrences happen (and not wasting time complaining and looking at the 100th result page on google for “eye pain”) I have found out that most of the the time, the pain starts when I’m sitting in my office  in the afternoon (which is when the air conditioning begins working). I then found out that all this time the air conditioner was directly pointing (from a distance) to my right eye, I modified it’s position – Problem / Trouble Eliminated.

2. Act on it, make actions -
After looking into the roots of the problem try to build a new daily schedule that helps you deal with the problem, this might mean taking time off from work every couple of monthes to reduce jon pressure from your lifestyle or even take a bath everyday at night if you feel like it helps you sleep better.

Example: 5 years ago I had a job which involved a lot of running and sports, and it was really painfull – after a while everyone who worked with me knew that when this job is done, they will never run again. When I finished the job I found that it’s so much fun not to run and do sports all the time, I actually stopped doing sports for 2 years…
5 Weeks ago, after visiting my doctor, I have found out that keeping my lifestyle as it is – isn’t going to leave me a lot of lifestyle time. I had an extreme level of triglycerides and a really low level  of good HDL cholesterol while a huge amount of bad ones, this might have been caused by the huge amount of fast food I consumed in the past 2 years, and the fact that I didn’t do sports at all.

Now? I had to completely change my way of life, but this time it’s not like I’m going to have a stressful job that requires me to run all the time – I’m going to try doing it in a way which I like:

• In the past month I have been going for 2 hours sport sessions twice / 3 times per week, and went from a phase where I could only run 600 meters to running 2300 meters (without falling on my face).
• I take extra care of what I eat, a lot less junk, less saturated fat, a whole lot of nothing of Trans fat – which I used to eat a bunch – these stuff really kill you, and it’s everywhere!
• I take daily dosage of Omega 3 capsules and multi vitamin with at least 75 MG of each of the B vitamins.
• Healthy and yummy meals, fish, tuna, Salmon, eggs – 3 vegetables or fruits every day.
• Sleep at least 9 hours a day (Well… OK I have done that before too).
• And it’s great! I still haven’t done a new set of testing at my doctor but i really think things will look better – I’ll be sure to update the results here.

These 2 issues have been the highlight of my troubles in the past month, there are many more but I am dealing with each one at a time – and it feels great. I sure hope you enjoyed reading this and that my exprience might have helped you in dealing with the troubling issues in your life.

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Creating content for the web

Most of the time I find myself doing things which were not planned or thought of in advance and that do not create general value for me or others.

As one whose main occupation is the creation process – I must define and understand the word “value” and it’s meaning to me, what gets left by me to this world – what is my creation?

I have found that there are 3 main patterns or levels of creating value which represents the overall usefulness of my creations to either my clients or to me – but more importantly – my clients.

The first level -

Value extraction:

In this level you mainly focus on procedures being made within your projects to create better resource usage on your systems or procedures.

This might involve creating computer algorithms that use less of the resources or even fire unskilful employees to reduce the company’s spend.

The second level -

Value copying / duplicating:

You have visited a competitor and noticed he has introduces a new feature or a service you do not offer, you then recreate and copy it to your company – this is value duplication.

The third level -

Value creation:

You focus on your clients requests and demands and create new features or services based on your clients. The value originated in this process is usually original.

Each level of value creation mentioned above creates value for your company or service but it has been shown that the amount of value created by the third level is the most useful and because it has direct client orientation – it will help you to disconnect from the never ending competition and create new features your competitors haven’t even started thinking of.

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Sometimes we watch the news a lot, maybe every day and maybe all day in times when something big has gone bad with the world.  In these times, sadly, most news channels show you what they need in order to get more revenue from their commercial break or create more feelings in you for the pictures you see, you might don’t mind or even detect this – But this has effects your mood and sometimes even your personality.

It has been shown that the most successful people in the world, control whatever they see, and almost never watch the news. It’s not that they are ignorant to other people problems – it’s that in most channels / newspapers the news displays itself in an ignorant way which is really unhelpful for anyone, not for you and especially not for the one which the news report is based on.

This can mainly be seen in featured news shows when you get a one hour show which tells you the story of people who really need help, and the goverment doesn’t do a thing about it because thats how the goverment does things these days (they claim). wheater if thats true or not, the news staff was there and never helped these people and they didn’t even give them hints that might help them get out of the situation. They won’t even post a call number from which their millions of viewers can contribute money to solve these problems.

News channels have so much power at these moments and what do they do ? they shoot you off to commercials, that were very well planned before to grab on these feelings of yours and concentrate on the ice cream commercial which is now displayed.

Because of this, I stopped watching TV channels and News commercials, bought a TV on damand box, and only watch the programs I like (without commercials) – I urge you to try it, one you do, you’ll notice that things just look a lot brighter for the world and for you.

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creativity & ideas

Creativity and Ideas

sometimes we have an idea, in most cases we either forget it or write it on some piece of paper and then forget where we put it.
It’s a good practice to have a system for writing down your ideas and not loosing these peaks of creativity, everyone has ideas sometimes no matter how old you are or how creative you find yourself. I know of people who are buried under the same work for over 20 years and still have great ideas.

Manifesting an idea

While many of  our ideas get lost,  some do become a reality – in a times of crises we might find our selves with more free time and even have time to act on ideas we never thought we’ll have time to do. Making room and time for trying to make an idea to a reality is not that hard when you are truly organized and can define a time frame in which you are free to act upon your thoughts.

Ideas on the Internet

Because these days we’re spending a lot of time on the web, many ideas might be related to a website currently unavailable and you just thought of, or an Internet service you think you can really use – but it doesn’t exist.
these cases are truly happening nowadays with many web surfers who build new Internet solutions and services everyday – Even though existing for over 10 years the Internet has been the main item in a new age, the information age. It’s most likely that because everything is still new, your idea has yet to be published on the Internet, or has yet to be published on the Internet your way.

Building projects on the Internet

As a web application developer myself, there are  four main paths to creating a solution (or a web application / site) on the Internet:

1. Downloading a CMS, or a pre written script available for download freely – these includes free blog  systems based on word press, drupal, php-nuke and more.
2. Paying for a complete commercial CMS or web site building system in which the source is not freely available and you might even pay enough to make the seller end it’s sales of the specified code / system.
3. Outsourcing and having a complete human written solution / web application to yourself – there are many forums and websites on this issue on the net, you can go there and find that many people are outsourcing huge projects at cost of well over 10 thousand dollars.
4. Build it yourself – start from scratch, learn the basics and start day by day until you get all things done your way.

Choosing your way

Well,  start by looking at the four item list above and think (while knowing yourself best) what is the path in which you find yourself more attracted to, I personally chose the forth way for my projects even though I chose the first one for this blog. having to build your own project by yourself might take a lot of time, and if your not in the mood for creation, commitment and development work – you might not find yourself choosing this path.

Thanks for reading, tune in for more information about these paths in future posts.

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