How Should I Use Flickr?

After I uploaded a picture to flickr and wanted to post it in my blog, I found the flowing tips:

Remember! Flickr Community Guidelines specify that if you post a Flickr photo on an external website, the photo must link back to its photo page. (So, use Option 1.)

Flickr provides two kinds of HTML code. The first links to flickr page, like this:

The second is the URL of the picture, like this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/3133269506_6d6c83b9ac_m.jpg

The flickr guidelines tell us that we must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr. So I think the second code is not allowed. But why flickr provides it?

I used to link the full size picture's URL and show the small size picture in my blog. So visitors can get the original picture directly. Like this:


Up to now, it has no problem. But I'm not sure. Can anyone tell me that can I use flickr like this?

New Site

My new blog site: Programming Note has launched! I choose WordPress as the blog program, since WordPress is written by PHP and there are many plugins to extends its functions. Also, I have added AdSense to that site. I hope it can give me more income.

As its title. Most topics on Programming Note are about programming in the future, since I like programming and like to write something about it. With plugins, WordPress is fit for pasting code. This is much better than Blogger. However, it doesn't mean that this blog is dead. I will update this blog in the future.

Is a Domain Name Important?

One of my friends bought some domain names. He said that owning a domain was very important. One of his domain names is hcn.name and he made a Chinese weblog on blog.hcn.name. However, I couldn't understand how important a proper domain name is and why he was so interested in it. I think domain names are just used to make up URLs. Many people don't want to try to remember your domain name. I think they like bookmarks or Google better. For me, if I want to find something, Google is enough. If I find a good website, I will add it to my bookmarks. So I seldom remember a website's domain name.

Some people advised me to buy a domain name for this blog. But I don't know what and how much a domain name can give me. I mean, owning a domain name, not web space. Traffic, pagerank, or Adsense don't seem to have to do with a domain name. Therefore, I still use this sub domain of blogspot.com.

Is it really important that owning a domain name? Or if you think it would be better to buy a domain name for this blog, what domains names are the best? Thank you for leaving your comments.

Get Traffic to My Blog

Traffic is the life of a website or a blog. I have been thinking of how to get more traffic to my blog these days. I don't like many people's advice, such as submitting my blog to many directory sites or sending lots of links to forums and so on. I'm not good at it. Since I like programming and I am good at web programming or software. Why could I use my advantages to reach the goal? Just now I found an e-book called 77 Ways to Get Traffic. I think some ideas are so good.

• Join Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a very successful website and it has much traffic. Especially, anyone can edit it. Althought Wikipedia don't allow anyone to submit spam likes. Fortunately my blog and articles are related to some wikipedia items, I can add the links into the "external links" section. But be careful, don't add spam links.
• Develop some software. I can make some shareware and freeware and I can add my site link to the software. I believe, by this way, more and more people will know me.
• Make some playful plugins or gadgets. This method is similar to the above one. But plugins or gadgets are much easier to develop. For example, I can make some WordPress plugins and Google gadgets. I think this is a wonderful thing because I like programming and the more people use my software, the more I am excited.
• Contribute to some professional websites. Many technology websites accept users' contribution, for example, CodeGuru and CodeProject. I think it is acceptable that put my website's link in the end of my article.
• Submit some posts to the shareing website, such as Digg or Del.icio.us. I have used it for nearly a month. But unfortunately, the effect doesn't seem good. I think it is more suitable for the websites who have much traffic already.

Certainly, the most is the contents. If you want to build a meaningful website, original and useful contents are most important. Don't think about "garbage sites", whose all contents are copied from other sites. I hate them and I think Google hates them, too.

Inserting Math Formula

Although there has been a markup language for mathematics called MathML, it is not convenient because it needs some browser plugins to display math formula, for example, MathPlayer. Up to now, the best way to insert math formula into web pages is converting them into images.

But how to describe a math formula with pure text? The answer is TeX. TeX is a publishing tool for scientist and it is developed by Donald E. Knuth. To use it, you must learn some things about TeX. For example, the square root of 2 can be written as '\sqrt{2}'.

MimeTeX and MathTeX are famous for converting TeX texts into images. If you have your own server, you'd better setup it on the server, although it is a hard work. But what is you haven't your own server? Fortunately, there is a public server, forkosh, providing MimeTeX and MathTeX for free. e.g. if you want to write the squre root of 2, you need to write this HTML:<img src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetex.cgi?\sqrt{2}" /> or <img src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mathtex.cgi?\sqrt{2}" />. i.e. you need to pass TeX text as the mimetex.cgi or the mathtex.cgi's argument. If you know TeX, inserting formula is very easy.

Now let's have look. The TeX text is 'x_{1,2}=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}'.

MimeTeX.cgi:


MathTeX.cgi:

Make Money?

I have been browsing DigitalPoint Forums these days. Many people are making money with their websites or blogs. So I'm considering whether I can make some money with this blog.

I've been using Google Adsense, but the effect is not good. Last year I started Adsense but now my account has only $2.16. What a pity! Of course that blog is written in Chinese. Most people think that English content may bring better ads. Last year I planned to write English but I'm afraid my English level. Now I know, no matter how much I will earn, I will be successful, because I can improve my language level and share my experience all over the world.

I registered LinkWorth for my Chinese blog last day. LinkWorth is similar to Text Link Ads and it supports paid reviews and text link ads, etc. Besides, LinkWorth is more appropriate for small blogs. If your site's traffic is small, you should try LinkWorth probably. But I regret that there are few Chinese ads. It doesn't matter, I think. By the way, LinkWorth provides a tool which can evaluate your site's value. I tried it for my Chinese blog. Surprisingly, it told me a link ads on my homepage values $50 - $60. I don't know how it works. Maybe it's just a joke?

PS: If you want to try LinkWorth, please use this link to register and enter 12368 in referral id. So when you earn $100 I will get $50. Thank you.

I Feel Afraid

When you are using Internet to send information, do you think that your information can be viewed on the Internet? Well, it is technically feasible. For example, if you want to send a mail, after you press "send" button, the mail will be sent to an SMTP server, then it will be transferred among several servers. Don't forget that your mail is usually plain text. Everyone can understand your mail if he can access to the mail server where your mail is located.

I feel afraid...

Maybe the best way is that everyone has a pair of RSA password keys. One for yourself (private key) and the other for public (public key). The passwords is two very large number. For example, if you have two numbers m and n, where m is your private key and n is your public key. Before you send a mail, you can use m to encrypt your message. When the recipient received the mail, he can use n to decrypt the message. Remember, n is your public key so your friend can get it, but you must protect your private key. If your friend wants to send mail to you, he need to use your public key, n, to encrypt the message. Then after you recieved the cryptographic message, you need to use your private key, m, to decrypt the message.

Wrote lots of things regarding RSA encryption algorithm. I think it's safety enough for business. But what if your friends who know your public key betray you, e.g. tell your public key to other suspicious people, then he can decrypt your message? I don't know how to avoid it.

There are some tools which support RSA, such as GnuPG (opensource software), PGP Desktop (commercial software).

What's BBCode?

BBCode is short for "Bulletin Board Code". It is a markup language which is similar to HTML and it is widely used on forums. So it is also called "forums code". Many forums don't accpte HTML code so you can't use HTML to format your text. Most of forums support BBCode. For example, if you want to use bold text, just type "It is [b]bold text[/b]." then the program of the forum changes it into HTML code "It is <b>bold text</b>.".

Below are most useful BBCode markups:

• [b]bolded text[/b]: bolded text
• [i]italicized text[/i]: italicized text
• [u]underlined text[/u]: underlined text
• [url]http://deepbluespaces.blogspot.com/[/url]: http://deepbluespaces.blogspot.com/
• [url=http://deepbluespaces.blogspot.com/]Deepblue Spaces[/url]: Deepblue Spaces

The normal method to parse BBCode is "Regular Expression" which is widely used to handle string problem. I plan to write something about regular expression in a few days.

Blogger.com or WordPress?

I am considering that which is better, Blogger.com or WordPress? Here, "WordPress" doesn't mean wordpress.com, it is the program. In fact, I think that WordPress is the best program for blogging. Besides, Blogger.com is the best BSP. There are lots of plugins for WordPress, so I can extend functions of WordPress easily. Also, maybe I can write some plugin for WordPress to accomplish my goal.

The only bad thing about WordPress is that there are few good free WordPress hosting websites. Almost all WordPress BSPs doesn't support uploading your own plugins. I like WordPress just because of lots of plugins. Otherwise, wordpress.com doesn't put your advertisements such as Google Adsense. But Blogger.com even encourages to use Google Adsense.

Does Google like Blogger.com? I found Google robot visits this blog after a few hours when I publish the first post. That's very soon. Probably, articles on Blogger.com are found more easily than those on other BSPs.

Wikipedia for those with little English

Just now I found an interesting website -- Simple English Wikipedia. It is a special language edition of English Wikipedia for those with little English words. Now it is mucher smaller than English Wikipedia. There are only 27,816 articles right now. They claim that: "We only use very simple English words and simple ways of writing here".

I think it is very proper for many non-English people, like me. At least to me, it is more readable than many other English websites.

LaTeX on Web

Look at these:





They are all produced by LaTeX. LaTeX is a publishing tool which is very fit for people to handle articles which contain a lot of math formula. But LaTeX produces DVI or PDF files, instead of images. So they can not be insert into a web page directly. Furtunately, there is a free software, mimeTeX, a CGI program, can produce image files through LaTeX strings. It runs at server, so it can provide images for any web pages.
Even better, there is a free public mimeTeX service, www.forkosh.dreamhost.com. If you want to add some formula to web, just use <img src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetex.cgi?Your LaTeX text" />. You can use this method to add any math formula to any website.