Adding your Blogger-based blog to Google Webmaster Tools

Oct 15, 2009

Adding your Blogger-based blog to Google Webmaster Tools

First of all, in the Dashboard, add your blogspot.com hosted blog by typing your blog’s URL in the text box and pressing the “Add site” button. Now you have to verify it; just follow this simple how-to: “Add Google Webmaster Tools to your Blogger Blog - TakeOnTheNet”.

Adding the Sitemap(s)

Now the last step: we have to add the complete sitemap. We’ll use the blog’s feed as a Sitemap, but to get the complete feed we have to use some addictional parameters.

Google Webmaster Tools
  1. Log into Google Webmaster Tools, enter your blog’s properties and select e Add sitemap;
  2. select “Add general web sitemap“;
  3. my sitemap url is: atom.xml?max-results=500&start-index=1
  4. press Add general web sitemap.

If you need more sitemaps, repeat the four steps, changing only the url; just add 500 to the last number of the previous sitemap’s url:

  1. atom.xml?max-results=500&start-index=501
  2. atom.xml?max-results=500&start-index=1001
  3. atom.xml?max-results=500&start-index=1501
  4. …

and so on.

Important: in Sitemap > Overview, the “URLs submitted” column will show effective number of articles submitted +1 (so, a full sitemap will show 501 urls, not 500), because, in the feed, the URL of the home page is also retrieved.

Feed’s parameters explanation

  1. max-results: the max number of articles to put in the feed - a sitemap with too many articles could exceed its limits (50000 articles or a sitemap file size of 10 MB - remember: the feed doesn’t retrieve only links, but also articles’ bodies); we’ll use this parameter to split the sitemap in sub-sitemaps;
  2. start-index: the index of the first article to be retrieved in the sub-sitemap: if max-results is 500, then this index is 1 for the first sitemap, 501 for the second (if we have more than 500 articles), 1001 for the third, and so on.

So the sitemap’s url looks like this:
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml?max-results=500&start-index=((N-1)*500+1)
with N the Nth sub-sitemap you’re asking for.
To put it simple, just add +500 at the last number of the url, every time you need a new sub-sitemap. :-)

(for more info, read the Google Data APIs Protocol Reference)

PS: I’ve discovered that another one found a similar solution (next time I’ll search better before reading Google APIs :( ): http://phydeaux3.blogspot.com/2007/10/blogger-feedburner-sitemaps-and.html
He suggests to use a smaller number for max-results; so, if you experience problems with 500, just use 100.

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In my day, we didn't have oscilloscopes ... we used fire!

metiers_cc.jpg oldyCalc_cc.jpg

If you should have the opportunity to visit Paris' Musée des arts et métiers, you'd be wise to clear your schedule for the day. Even after reading Brian Jepson's recent post covering this maker's museum, I was unprepared for the sheer size, depth and general awesomeness of the collection. From early astrolabes and handmade scientific apparatus through to Cray's supercomputer, the museum offers a rare view of historical technology and invention.

acousticAnalyzer_cc.jpg

Being a big fan of cymatics, waveforms, and sound in general, I was quite psyched to see one of Rudolph Koenig's acoustic tone analyzer's firsthand. An ancestor of today's oscilloscope, the device uses a series of brass resonators, with small flames to determine the nearest frequency of a given sound. The attached rotating mirror allows the user to more easily see which tuned resonator's flame is flickering the most, thus indicating the dominant pitch. If that explanation doesn't quite cut it for you, be sure to see the videos on CWRU's Fourier analyzer page

Oh - and for more pics from my visit, peruse the relevant photoset.

metiers2.jpg

READ MORE - In my day, we didn't have oscilloscopes ... we used fire!

antique pocketwatch LED retrofit

led_pw_v1.0_tinyinhand.jpg

So, you may think, somebody took an old pocketwatch and fit it with a PCB and some LEDs. Ho-hum, perhaps? Seen it? Done it? Got the T-shirt? My response: there's concept, and there's execution. The concept here may be of the non-earth-shattering variety, but the execution is exquisite. Must. Watch. Video. To appreciate just how cool this thing really is. It ticks, for one thing, and when the minute and hour "hands" advance they sweep around the face in a visual gesture reminiscent of John Taylor's Corpus Clock. And besides flawless aesthetics and stellar workmanship, the watch has a great story, too. Its maker, Paul Pounds, explains:

My grandfather was a horologist. When he passed away in 2005 I inherited from him a collection of broken pocketwatches. As my skills are in microelectronics, rather than micromechanics, I felt it would be a fitting tribute to him to produce an electronic movement in place of one of the broken ones he'd never had the time to fix.

I never knew my grandfather very well, on account of our living some distance away from him all of my life. He struck me as a quiet, unassuming sort of man, but this fit very well with his astonishing skill as a horologist. In his heyday, he was among the best watchmakers in Australia. His steady and patient hand able to finely adjust the most diminutive gears and escapements of a clockwork mechanism. He was particularly recognised for his ability to perform delicate work in the smallest of mechanical movements, the lady's wristwatch.

During the Second World War, his expertise was considered too valuable to allow him to go and fight, and instead he was sent to fabricate precision mechanical systems at the Toowoomba Foundry. He was told that if he tried to enlist he would be arrested and sent back!

Such was his skill that when the Australian Horologist journal issued a challenge to drill a pin from end to end, he achieved it by boring a hole by hand, using tiny drills he made from sewing needles. Not one to let it rest there, he topped this feat by filing and turning down another pin on a minature lathe, and threading it through the hole. Then he raised the bar again with a three-penny piece drilled and threaded through the edge of the coin. He produced a small number of these pins and coins to amaze his clients.

Although he never got to see it, I'd like to think he would have enjoyed seeing one of his old broken watches turned into something new and useful. This project is dedicated to his memory.

[via Hack a Day]

READ MORE - antique pocketwatch LED retrofit

Roundshot Livecam D2 HD has 66 million pixels

Webcams fall into two groups, those junky kind that are built into many notebooks and just don’t work well and the aftermarket kind that can be had in up to HD resolutions. If HD resolution isn’t enough for you, you can get a webcam called the Roundshot Livecam D2 HD with a whopping 66 million pixels giving it two times the resolution of 1080p.

roundshotwebcam

The camera isn’t aimed at those looking to do video chats or video blog though; it is aimed at businesses that want to showcase their location or products online. The manufacturer of the webcam, Seitz Phototechnik AG from Switzerland is aiming the product at hotels, resorts, and other business users.

The camera is round, can scan a 360-degree panorama, and has a 9-stop dynamic range for good colors and high sensitivity. The camera can be programmed to start shooting at any time of the day or night and if you have to have one, you can get it now. The thing isn’t cheap with a price starting at 6,494 euros including the camera, lens, waterproof case, and software.

READ MORE - Roundshot Livecam D2 HD has 66 million pixels

Secret furniture gets brilliant, elaborate physical mechanism [Video]

It’s hard to find a single screengrab to illustrate this great video of craftsman Brian Grabski’s work-in-progress furniture: that’s because it hides a fiendishly clever mechanism by which you can open a secret drawer. The hand-crafted chest-of-drawers demands you pull open each of the visible drawers, before a hidden control springs out and allows you to trigger the secret compartment built into what looks like a normal molding.

custom bookcase with hidden drawer 540x405

Video demo after the cut

To make things more complex, each of the drawers must be pulled out to a certain point before the latches they control slide out of the way, similar to how the pins in a regular lock work. That finally allows a length of wooden dowel to slide out – hidden, normally, as a knot in the wood itself – and when you twist it and then push it back in, a cable tracked around the back of the cabinet allows the hidden drawer to spring out.

So far there’s no sign of the finished product on Grabski’s site, but from looking through the rest of his gallery we’ve no reason to believe it isn’t going to end up looking brilliant. Sadly we don’t think we can afford to commission him ourselves.

[via MAKE]

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MIT create autonomous intelligent robot helicopter [Video]

Obviously blind to the threat of robotic attack from the skies, MIT have developed an indoor helicopter that can not only automatically hover but intelligently navigate through a changing environment. The quad-rotor ‘copter has a laser-scanner and dual-camera array, which can build up a real-time map of its environment and identify small openings such as windows.

indoor autonomous helicopter

Video demo after the cut

That map-creation is integrated with an autonomous exploration module, which allows the robotic helicopter to explore the map, fill in any blind-spots and identify objects or targets. This way, even with no GPS signal the robot can be used for search & observation, such as inside buildings or underground.

It can even do this while being jabbed at by someone with a big wooden stick, as you can see in the video below. The ‘copter was entered into the 2009 International Aerial Robotics Competition – in which vehicles must navigate an unknown environment, fly through a vehicle and then reach, and decipher, a color-coded control panel – and broke a nineteen year record by completing the fifth mission in the first year it was held.

[hat tip to Mike Elgan]

READ MORE - MIT create autonomous intelligent robot helicopter [Video]

Apple hexacore Xeon Mac Pro with 128GB RAM tipped for early 2010


it’s been a while since we’ve seen a significant refresh to Apple’s Mac Pro desktop range, and so a rumor regarding what overwhelming components the company might slot inside is certainly timely. According to Hardmac’s sources, Apple intend to outfit the Mac Pro with a 6-core, 12-thread Intel Xeon (Gulftown) processor, built on 32nm processes and with 12MB of shared cache. The hexacore CPUs will be accompanied by up to 128GB of RAM and a 10Gbit/s ethernet port.

That will be thanks to a newly modified, custom mainboard with support for 8GB and 16GB memory modules. Early testing of the CPUs, at least, have indicated that the hexacore Xeon requires less power than a current-gen quadcore Xeon of the same 2.4GHz clock-speed.

The source continues with the possibility that Apple could have a temporary exclusive on the new Intel chips, with the refreshed Mac Pro arriving in early 2010 while the hexacore Xeon wouldn’t go into mass production until Q2 2010. No word on whether the physical design will get a tweak or not, but we can’t imagine Apple allowing such a significant internal upgrade to go by without at least some polishing of the casing.

[via MacRumors]

READ MORE - Apple hexacore Xeon Mac Pro with 128GB RAM tipped for early 2010

AMD Congo ultra-thin platform launch imminent

Launch details about AMD’s upcoming Congo ultra-thin platform have leaked, this time courtesy of talkative notebook manufacturers in leaky old Taiwan. DigiTimes claims that Congo will now arrive in late October or early November, having missed its original July launch after calls for ultra-thins turned out to be less vocal than expected. As we’ve already seen, Congo will include the dual-core Turion Neo X2 L625, Athlon Neo X2 L335/L325 and single-core Athlon Neo MV-40 processors, paired with the AMD M780G chipset.

amd congo chipset 480x242

For now, though, it seems HP is the biggest advocate of Congo – despite AMD remaining pretty much silent on the whole thing – with at least two notebooks already using Congo-series processors. Meanwhile Congo is only the start of AMD’s ultra-thin assault; two more platforms, Nile and Brazos, are expected to arrive over the coming two years, though there’s no indication of what chips and chipsets they might incorporate.



source: slashgear.com

READ MORE - AMD Congo ultra-thin platform launch imminent

RAY T65 Mobile Phone Indian:Price And Specifications

Friday, May 15, 2009


The Ray T65 is an affordable GSM handset with a 1.8 inch touch screen and a 3-megapixel camera.
The T65 can play MP3s and FM radio, and can record video as well.
The phone also features Bluetooth with A2DP, for listening to stereo music on a third party Bluetooth headset. The Phone is equipped with 32MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 2GB with a memory slot.

Cost In India: Rs 6,399

For More Detail Visit: themobilestore.in
READ MORE - RAY T65 Mobile Phone Indian:Price And Specifications

ASUS EEE PC 1000HE Indian: Price And Specification



Netbook anyone? Maybe you could consider the Eee PC 100HE. The device -which runs on the Intel Atom N280 processor, and os available in pearl white, black ,blue, gold and pink- boasts of a 10 inch LED backlight WSVGA screen, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard disk, 802.11 b/g/n wireless network, 1.3 megapixel Web cam, Dolby speakers and up to 9.5 hours of battery life. The gadget is loaded with Windows XP.

Cost In India: Rs 24,990(exclusive of taxes)

For More Detail Visit: asus.com
READ MORE - ASUS EEE PC 1000HE Indian: Price And Specification

Samsung Jet Indian: Price And Specifications



Fitted with 3.1 inch WVGA AMOLED display and a 800MHz processor, Samsung Jet support the latest smartphone features including a multi-task manager, Microsoft exchange ActiveSync, and a 3D media gate UI. connectivity option include BLuetooth v2.1, microUSB, WiFi, 3.5mm ear jack, ana a microSD slot. The 3D media gate interface on the jet allows users to access multimedia features by rolling a six sided cube on the screen, while touch Wiz 2.0 supports motion UI, smart unlock, and customisable widgets.
Samsung's Dolfin internet browser allows users to view up to five web pages simultaneously, and use a built in ad-blocker while surfing. Samsung Jet also boasts a host of multimedia features including a 5 megapixel camera, built in GPS, DNSe and SRS Sound, and MPEG4 video support.

Cost In India: Rs 24,150

For More Detail Visit: samsung.com
READ MORE - Samsung Jet Indian: Price And Specifications

SPICE S-590 INDIA:COST, FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

Spice Mobiles' S-590 sports a 1.8 inch TFT screen and comes with a CIF camera for video recording. The candybar phone has a new feature called 'POPAT'-a voice prompt application that speaks out incoming calls, phonebook numbers, etc.
The device also features and FM radio recorder, call blacklist, microSD slot and SMS scheduler.

Cost In India: Rs 2,499

For Detail Visit: spicemobile.com
READ MORE - SPICE S-590 INDIA:COST, FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

LG KM335 Indian: Price And Specifications



Just 1.5 centimetres thick, this sleek phone from LG sports a 2 inch screen, supports GRPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and USB for connectivity. Capable of playing FM radio and MP3 songs, this music phone provides easy accessiblity via hot keys.
The gadget is fitted with 3 mega pixel with LED flash to capture photos and videos. Fitted with 90 MB of internal memory, the KM335also boasts of a microSD card slot that can accomodate up to 8GB of additional memory. Its 110mAh Li-ion battery boasts of providing 9.5 hrs of talk time and 600 hours of stand by time.
The phone is available in three colours champagne, wine, and black.

Cost In India: Rs 9,250

For more detail Visit:
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Moser Baer MP 565 Indian: Price and Specification


For those looking for an inexpensive, tiny MP3 player-ideally to use in gym-the MP 565 from Moser Baer would be worthy of consideration.
The device is equipped with an LCd screen(96x32 pixels resolution) and 2GB of flash memory, which can hold around 500 MP3 songs on average.
The USB 2.0 gadget supports MP3 and WMA audio formats, and claims up to five hours of battery life.

Cost In India: Rs 1,490

For More Detail Visit: moserbaerconsumerproducts.com
READ MORE - Moser Baer MP 565 Indian: Price and Specification

 
 
 
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