Bitz Blog

Smartly Using Your Domain Name Assets to Survive the Economic Crisis

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:09:20 GMT

During the current horrible economic conditions, many business leaders across the world are scratching their heads trying to survive and looking to find new income sources.
Meanwhile, the new fad that's taking the world wide web by storm is the usage of obscure TLDs (top level domains, that's the few letters coming after the last dot in the web address), such as http://bit.ly, http://cli.gs/ etc.

So, here at pashabitz.com, I will provide a way for existing companies, large and small, to transform their businesses and expand into new and exciting markets, using these obscure TLDs (ideas are free of charge, as usual):

1. An existing provider of services to the enterprise market - bigco.com...
...can reinvent as a specialized adult-content company - bigco.ck (using the TLD of Cook Islands)

2. A restaurant table reservation service - eat.com...
...can increase revenues by creating a site for fellatio lovers - eat.me (using the TLD of Montenegro)

3. Publically traded Beckton, Dickinson and Co, that uses it's site bd.com to sell fine medical supplies...
...can increase revenue by restocking and setting up shop at bd.sm (using the TLD of San Marino)

4. Libraries Unlimited, a fine resource for librarians at lu.com...
...can sell a wide array of products at lu.be (using the TLD of Belgium). Things like... like... for car engines?

5. Matematicians at pi.com, who must also be suffering during these times of economic turmoil...
...can sell software for tech-savvy prostitute managers at pi.mp (Northern Mariana Islands)

6. Sexaholics Anonymous (sa.org) surely don't need my help, but if they ever give up on giving up...
...why not cater for the leather loving crowd at sa.do (Dominican Republic)

And if all of the above doesn't help and you just totally run out of ideas, there's a whole nation in Africa that was set up just to help you out. It's called Benin, and its TLD is .bj.

Update:
Apparently, the Cook Islands have little sense of humor:

"Domains considered profane, e.g. 'blow.co.ck', 'mybig.co.ck', etc, will not be considered on any level"

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.ck)
Thanks, Ofer.

Two New Tools for People Who Like Building Search Engines, Taking Over the World Etc.

admin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:59:10 GMT

Amazon Elastic MapReduce

Amazon Elastic MapReduce is a web service that enables businesses, researchers, data analysts, and developers to easily and cost-effectively process vast amounts of data. It utilizes a hosted Hadoop framework running on the web-scale infrastructure of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

80 Legs
(Still in private beta)

80legs is a platform for running web-scale applications, or any application that requires fast access to data from across the entire Internet. We give developers access to the bandwidth and computing power of over 50,000 computers at prices anyone can afford. With 80legs, web-scale analyis is for everyone.

The Return of the Command Line

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:06:46 GMT

I grew up using the command line. And then with the Mac, Windows and the Internet - it was gone.
But it's been coming back slowly.
I've been thinking about the "web command line" for a while.
Yes, Google Search is a web command line for years now, doing conversions and calculations (to name a few) and not just search.
And there's been some attempts to take this further, like yubnub.org
But recently the command line is creeping back in web's true style - unnoticed, uncoordinated, distributed. Slowly and surely.
It's in twitter where you use prefix characters to denote other users and topics in a text box inside your browser.
It's in blip.fm where you control broadcasting to other sites by a prefix exclamation mark in a text box inside your browser.
It's in aardvark where you interact with other users using text commands in the text box of your IM client.

Fox News is on Drugs

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:39:14 GMT

So, this guy Glenn Beck is live on Fox, interviewing this guy Robert Gellately, author of Lenin, Stalin and Hitler.
Glenn Beck: So, when Lenin came to power through the 1917 revolution, he had all the heads of factories and businessmen killed, right?
Robert Gelatelly: Right.
GB: And, this is sort of like what president Obama is doing to the AIG execs now, right?
RG: Right.
And it goes on.

A little crazy in the head, aren't we?

Video Bitz 14/02/2009

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:48:30 GMT

> > >

Super Bowl Makes Trailer Junkies Happy

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:12:36 GMT

Last night was Super Bowl 43. Alas, I am in a timezone that doesn't allow me to even care. But I love a good movie trailer, and a big bunch of them was released during the commercial breaks last night.

So here are four of them, in a biased order of ascending coolness:

1. G.I. Joe:

> > >

2. Terminator Salvation(sorry, no embed available)

3. Star Trek:

> > >

4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen(better quality here than in YouTube)

Breaking News: Google Claims Everything is Dangerous, Shuts Down the Internet

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:22:24 GMT

Update: this is the Google explanation (thanks Ofer).

While casually indulging in my favorite Saturday afternoon pass-time of Googling for... myself, I was rather surprised by the unusual results:

What? pashabitz.com may harm my computer? *My* computer? How? Wait. Every single result there seems to hold the power of hurting my computer. Do you have something against Pasha Bitz, Google? Or are you just trying to protect me from a severe case of Narcissism? And what happens when you do take the horrible risk and click the deadly link?

At my own risk?? Oh my. Will I be able to resist the temptation? Lets try something else:

Oh-ho. All of this is also extremely harmful for my precious innocent eyeballs and mind. What about Google itself?

Harmful again. Even Google itself! Reader, maps, google.co.uk. But wait, I am in Google right now. So how is this possible? Is it not self contradictory? Does it mean Godel was right? Is the universe about to collapse onto itself at this very moment? I was totally unprepared for this!

Luckily, I know some people working at Google. I examined the source code carefully and traced the problem to the following lines of code:

Why Did People Wear Toilet Seat Covers During the Renaissance??

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:36:49 GMT

Left: Rembrandt, A Scholar, 1631, Oil on canvas.
Right: Me, picture by Aviel Lazar, 2009.

The Right Place

admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:45:24 GMT

> >

All I could think of for the first two minutes was...CSS! :)

Logging Tips for Serenity Now

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:58:45 GMT

There are few reasons to have your code log extensive error/debug messages. One of them is to help with debugging issues on a remote (or worse, production) environment. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of this kind of logging:

Log Actual Values

With a well placed log message you will be able to easily pinpoint the line of code where the problem occurred. Now you're left staring at that line of code and trying to guess what caused the error. This will be so much easier if you include in the log message the actual run-time values that your code worked with. This includes stuff like the parameters to the method, fields of the class, session values etc.

Log at Component Boundaries

A component can be a different .net assembly, code that resides in a different logical layer of your application, a third-party library or a piece of code you communicate with using anything than just a method call (like HTTP or WCF). Wherever there's communication between two components, there are bound to be "wiring bugs". Because most components are well thought-out and tested on a standalone basis, it is very useful to know what data was exchanged to help with debugging the issue. Always log all parameter values, both on the client (caller) side and the server (called) side.

Log at Organization/Responsibility Boundaries

This is a slight variation on the previous suggestion. Whenever a call is made to a piece of code owned by another person or group, you should log all parameter values. When you walk across the hall to ask the owner of that code about the bug you're trying to fix, the first thing they'll ask you is what are the exact values you're sending in.