All posts by Ram Sundararaman

Keep the thread thin – An Email best practice

General, Tips

This may sound silly to many of us but very often we tend to ignore this very basic aspect of our daily business or even personal emails. Email threads are identified by the subject line and then of course by the content therein. But over time the focus changes and it’s no longer the subject or any of the content that it carried earlier. Suddenly a new one is looped on to the thread with a question and they see a totally unrelated subject line. They’re also reading a huge amount of unnecessary conversation that brought them in place. And did we mention about all of this irrelevant data clogging the internet pipe. A co-worker helped how to get past this mess and get going.

First, you need to identify and decide when to change the thread. It may have started with a phone call invite that could be running into you providing a proposal, anything.

keep-thread-thin-2015-07-13_19-16-54

1. Open the thread blurb, delete the bulk of the stuff that are no more relevant. Talk to me about the long back and forths about setting up time, what did and didn’t work, yada, yada.

2. Change the subject like to more appropriate one for now.

3. Compose the email and send it off.

Did that help?

Mobile ready websites are a must – not just a fancy feature

General, , ,

arroWebs has been advocating that the web must be mobile ready. As we see ourselves and people around, it doesn’t take long to realise that web is consumed more on handhelds than on desktop computers. But many businesses that build their sites are inclined to review and approve what they see on their laptops or PCs with larger screens.

Google’s announcement last month states, starting April 21, the site’s rank depends on their mobile readiness. So, now, for your site to continue ranking well on web, it is high time that you upgrade it such that it is mobile ready.

There are a few ways web is optimised for smartphones. Most notable ones are;

  • First are the exclusive sites for mobile and desktop. The mobile sites that typically have addresses like m.domain.com. When a desktop link in clicked on a mobile device, the back-end redirects to the relevant mobile URL
  • The second type keeps the same URL for both devices but renders content depending upon the device that is accessing/requesting it
  • The third being responsive web where is the URL and content remains the same but the layout is modified using CSS such that they are rendered correctly on any device that is accessing it. Google recommends this configuration

Here are two tools that can test your website to see how well it performs on mobile devices. The first is the Mobile Usability Report that is found in your Webmaster Tools. The other one is Mobile-Friendly Test that can be run on a specific page.

If your site is not optimised yet, you are already late. Any investment that you’re making towards search engine optimisation is not going to help rank the site better. Contact us today to find out how and when we’ll be able to help you with this situation.

 

Google is not liking Yahoo on Firefox!

General, , , , ,

Most users start looking for things on the internet at Google. That’s what we all believe in and we are in for a surprise. The recent update on Firefox browser has the default search engine pointing to Yahoo and not to Google. And this is seemingly happening only in Windows 10 machines as SEL points out. We didn’t see this on Macs or Ubuntu desktops yet.

Firefox and Yahoo has partnered recently to have Yahoo as the default search provider for the next five years according to the blog post.

Considering the shift and just that volume has already alarmed Google. Now they got a video tutorial posted on Twitter explaining users how to change the default search provider.

Coming back to where we started. It’s not just Google alone that matters when optimizing  content but consider everyone else in the market.

Moreover what matters over any of this is your content. The search engines will take them there as long as it adds value to users and you have the processes in place.

Transfer iOS app to another account – step by step

General, Tips,

Many situations necessitate transferring an app to a different account. Takeovers, Mergers or Handovers to name a few. It used to be a nightmare at one point but staring June 2013, Apple made it possible for developers to transfer the ownership of iOS apps. This news has brought with an ease for developers to move the apps to another account along with user reviews and rankings.

Here are the six easy steps that will guide through the process of transfer.

Step 1

Login to https://itunesconnect.apple.com and click on manage your apps. Now click on the app you want to transfer. Click on Transfer App button.

step1-transfer-app

Step 2

Next is the agreement policy, check the agree check box and proceed. In the next page, you have to enter the Apple ID and Team ID to whom you want to transfer the app.

Step 3

The subsequent screen in the Contracts, Tax, and Banking page.

Step 4

The recipent – the new owner – will see the following screen when they login to iTunes connect.

step3-agreement-update

Step 5

The new meta data needs to be updated and submitted for review by Apple.

 

step4-accept-transfer

Step 6

Once submitted, the status changes to Processing App Transfer

step5-processing-transfer

Sit back and relax. You’ve done all the hard work. If all goes well, the transfer should go through in a few hours.

Internet Marketing – Infusionsoft – API

General

Internet Marketing has always been taking a different dimension with each passing phase. All the time the marketing minds keep coming up with various ways of pushing the limits to make the next sale better than previous one. Though there have been many competing products keep surfacing that plugs various feature requirements, Infusionsoft remains an inseparable entity the Internet marketing world.

The process of setting up a product, a web site, the sales site all are integrated with various points of the Infusionsoft system. The workflow management allows limitless possibilities of what one can do with the system. The newest interface, which is giving everyone a shocker as well as smile keeps throwing up new items to explore everyday. But what is under focus right now is what its API allows developers to do.

What sells is what the product has to offer. The auxiliary services that once can build around the product capabilities, infusionsoft capabilities with the additional services layer can do wonders. The developer intervention starts as early as converting the sales order forms to jazzy looking pages with automated form controls using javascript – specifically JQuery – like copying values to shipping address and hosting the order form as part of your own website and have the system post back values to a success or a failure page.

The one-click-upsell utility automates the current flow so that more products are added while the session is on. A very important phenomenon while you’re selling your digital stuff online. These are a few things which are mostly done.

But here begins the role of API and the opportunities

  • Get to know which sales page worked and which did not
  • Give your existing users a custom sales page – Just a “Hey Joe” goes a long way
  • Monitor steps, populate forms and shorten checkout time
  • Transaction data to your own database so that you can process access to a membership
  • and more…

Interested in learning more – let’s schedule a FREE call and talk it over?

 

Solved Centos 5.8 Error in php.ini

General, Tips

You could be experiencing this after the cpanel upgrade and here’s how we got this addressed. This was throwing the crons out of gear as well. You need root access on SSH on the server.

[root@host]~ >> php blah.php 
PHP:  Error parsing /usr/local/lib/php.ini on line 793

Open the file /usr/local/lib/php.ini

nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini

Press ^_ and enter 793

Change the following line

url_rewriter.tags = a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset=

to the one below or simply add the double-quotes

url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset="

It didn’t even require a restart.

Weird 500 internal server error on WordPress – Resolved!

Tips, , , , ,

The recent CentOS 5.x systems have mod_security built in and the 2.x doesn’t allow overriding it on .htaccess and this causes a lot of heartbreaks to folks that want some basic things done on wordpress and a lot of other software. This post deals with getting around it for wordpress.

You post something really harmless and you are shown a 500 error page. The local error_log contains nothing in it and you need the server access (root) and if you don’t have it, I don’t think you’re getting anywhere. Stuff explained here on would require shell access. I’m thinking of doing one for using SSH but at a later date. From here on, I assume that you have root access to the server and know how to work with shell access.

Here’s what you do – locate the error_log on the system. Shell into your machine as root.

grep ErrorLog /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

It should tell you where the file is and the next step you need to invoke the error – reproduce the 500 error so that we have it at the tail of the file and

tail /etc/httpd/logs/error_log

You will notice something like — for obvious reasons, I’m not including the whole thing

ModSecurity: Access denied with code 500 (phase 2). 
Pattern match "((alter|create|drop)[[:space:]]+
(column|database|procedure|table)|delete[[:space:]]+from|update.+set.+=)" 
at ARGS:content. 
[file "/usr/local/apache/conf/modsec2.user.conf"] 
[line "352"] [id "300015"] [rev "1"] [msg "Generic SQL injection protection"]
 [severity "CRITICAL"]

What we found here is the security that it is trying to prevent you from doing some SQL injection stuff – Let’s not go into the details – I didn’t even bother to – All that we need to locate is the whitelist file where we’re going to add some stuff.

nano /usr/local/apache/conf/modsec2.user.conf

should tell you the location of the whitelist at /usr/local/apache/conf/modsec2/whitelist.conf – Press Control-X to exit the editor. I used the editor so that you’ll notice the location which is right on top – 3rd line or so.

nano /usr/local/apache/conf/modsec2/whitelist.conf

To this, we’re going to add a set of rules that would allow WordPress to work as desired. I took this from a blog post. In fact, I’ve only added some bells and whistles to what this genius has done already.

# Added for Worpress Operations

  SecRuleRemoveById 300015 300016 300017 950907 950005 950006 960008 960011 960904
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61


  SecRuleRemoveById 300015 300016 300017 950907 950005 950006 960008 960011 960904
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61


  SecRuleRemoveById 300015 300016 300017 950907 950005 950006 960008 960011 960904
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61


  SecRuleRemoveById 300015 300016 300017 950907 950005 950006 960008 960011 960904
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61


  SecRuleRemoveById 300015 300016 300017 950907 950005 950006 960008 960011 960904
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61


  SecRuleRemoveById 960010 960012 950006
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-17
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-20
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-21
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-30
  SecRuleRemoveById phpids-61

Go to the end of the file and paste all this into it. If you’re using PuTTY for windows, copy the content to clipboard, scroll to the end of the file and press right-click and you’ll thank me a million times. Infact, you can paste all of the commands using right click. Press Control-O to save the file and Control-X to exit.

Now, you need to restart the webserver – httpd

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Another weekend to tickle my geeky nerves and the error. I personally prefer to work on Debian but this one talks about CentOS – most customers use CentOS – rather they are sold CentOS.

Hope this helps someone – Please leave your questions, comments and feedback here and I’ll try and come back to you.

We’re hiring

General

Over the next week, we’ll be reviewing the applications that were sent at http://bit.ly/cKgAoz and shortlisting candidates. Please apply using the form and refer your friends. More details on the link provided above.

We’ll be finalizing the hiring process as soon as possible and move on to the ramp up program. The training program for freshers that was planner earlier is still on hold and we intend to get back on it after the project pressures subsides – Don’t know when? 🙂

Skype Startup Blues

Tips

Every time the cool skype gets an upgrade, the start-up nightmare starts. You start getting emails that complain about your online absence. Here’s how you can get over it. Start Skype. Go to Tools > Options and Uncheck the option to Start skype when Windows starts and close.


You can restart at your convenience and skype doesn’t start anyways… Now go right there and check it back again and this time when you restart – you’ll notice that you’re on!

BTW – I know it’s been a while since anything got posted here. But I hope to more regular 😉