Network Programming in .NET

When advertising on Google Adwords, it is essential to get the maths right, or you can end up loosing money on it very quickly.

I’m no expert, but this is what I’ve come up with:
1) bid on several hundred keywords at 0.03p each, and let google cancel the ones that are over competitive. This normally creates a spike and a rapid tail
off of visitors, so the success of this plan can only be seen after a few days.
I found that this bottom-feeding approach brings in cheap traffic, but not much of it.

2) Pay the maximum you can afford to bring in as many visitors as possible, whilst making sure the cost per conversion does not exceed nor equal your average profit per conversion.

Google is unusual in the sense of the more visitors you purchase, the higher the cost per visitor gets. Economies of scale are somewhat reversed in this situation. However, if you make £1 a conversion, and it costs 50p per conversion for 1,000 visitors, or 40p a conversion for 100 visitors, then you are still better paying £500 for £1000 profit than £40 for £100 profit.

To calculate your maximim CPA (Cost per Action), then it is take a specific period, i.e. January 2010, say P is your gross profit in January 2010, C is your cost of sales, N is the number of conversions in Jan ’10. Then your Maximum CPA is (P-C)/N

Now, not every click on an ad will result in a conversion, depending on the ticket value of your product, this could be anything from 1% to 50%. Check your conversion rate bettween your visitors (V) and conversions (N) , then divide this into your  Max CPA i.e. CPA x N/V to get your Max CPC.

Interestingly, combining both equations nullifies your conversion rate: (P-C)/V – But you’ll still need to have your Max CPA to hand to ensure that no individual keyword exceeds your MAX CPA.

I uploaded a 1.6 GB database to Amazon Simple DB, and the bill came to just over $5. The most costly part was the upload which took 34 Hours of processing time. US-East (Northern Virginia) Region
		$0.00 per Compute-Hour consumed first 25 hours per month	25 Hrs	0.00
		$0.14 per Compute-Hour consumed beyond first 25 free hours per month	36.419 Hrs	5.10
		$0.00 per GB-Month of storage for first 1 GB-Month	0.931 GB-Mo	0.00
		$0.00 per GB – All data transfer in	1.647 GB	0.00
		$0.00 per GB – first 1 GB / month data transfer out	0.821 GB	0.00
				5.10

Complete breakdowns are available, but don’t have a cost associated with each operation

.	Service	Operation	UsageType	StartTime	EndTime	UsageValue
.	AmazonSimpleDB	CreateDomain	BoxUsage	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	0.0055590278
.	AmazonSimpleDB	PutAttributes	DataTransfer-Out-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	2280
.	AmazonSimpleDB	SelectGet	BoxUsage	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	0.000041146868
.	AmazonSimpleDB	ListDomains	Requests	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	2
.	AmazonSimpleDB	PutAttributes	DataTransfer-In-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	4668
.	AmazonSimpleDB	ListDomains	DataTransfer-Out-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	862
.	AmazonSimpleDB	PutAttributes	BoxUsage	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	0.0001324322
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteDomain	Requests	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	1
.	AmazonSimpleDB	ListDomains	DataTransfer-In-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	836
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteDomain	DataTransfer-Out-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	378
.	AmazonSimpleDB	ListDomains	BoxUsage	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	0.0000143518
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteAttributes	Requests	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	3
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteDomain	DataTransfer-In-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	426
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteAttributes	DataTransfer-Out-Bytes	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	1158
.	AmazonSimpleDB	DeleteDomain	BoxUsage	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	0.0055590278
.	AmazonSimpleDB	CreateDomain	Requests	3/9/2010 16:00:00	3/9/2010 17:00:00	1

If this appears in the Mail enable logs:

Authenticating User: a@b.com using Authentication Provider Credentials
04/01/10 12:43:19    ME-I0129: Account b.com Mailbox a@b.com prevented from sending email as a@c.com
04/01/10 12:43:23    ME-I0070: (recv) socket [780] was gracefully closed during [MAIL] command by the remote client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
04/01/10 12:43:23    ME-I0074: [780] (Debug) end of conversation

Fix:

Start > Run > mailenable.msc

Open Servers / Localhost / Connectors / SMTP

Right Click

Security

Uncheck "Authenticated senders must use valid sender address"

Restart "MailEnable SMTP Connector" from Control Panel / Administrative tools / Services

Thanks to @NWMTUG for this excellent XBox Game!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230455976792

Eh hem, but I don’t have an xBox, so it’s for sale.

Got a Wii game on DVD, but forgotten it’s title? Using ImgBurn here’s how

Open up imgBurn, press discovery.

You get some disc info on the right hand side:

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ880AS 1.50 (ATAPI)
Current Profile: DVD-ROM

Disc Information:
Status: Complete
Erasable: No
Sessions: 1
Sectors: 2,294,912
Size: 4,699,979,776 bytes
Time: 510:00:62 (MM:SS:FF)
Supported Write Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x

TOC Information:
Session 1… (LBA: 0)
-> Track 01  (Mode 1, LBA: 0 – 2294911)
-> LeadOut  (LBA: 2294912)

Pre-recorded Information:
Manufacturer ID: DAXON016S

Physical Format Information (Last Recorded):
Disc ID: 0@P-!-00
Book Type: DVD-R
Part Version: 5
Disc Size: 120mm
Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified
Number of Layers: 1
Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP)
Linear Density: 0.267 um/bit
Track Density: 0.74 um/track
First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608
Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 2,491,519
Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 0

Performance (Write Speed):
Descriptor 1…
-> B0: 0x00, B1: 0x00, B2: 0x00, B3: 0x00
-> EL: 2297888 (0x00231020)
-> RS: 2,770 KB/s (2x) – WS: 2,770 KB/s (2x)
Descriptor 2…
-> B0: 0x00, B1: 0x00, B2: 0x00, B3: 0x00
-> EL: 2297888 (0x00231020)
-> RS: 5,540 KB/s (4x) – WS: 5,540 KB/s (4x)
Descriptor 3…
-> B0: 0x00, B1: 0x00, B2: 0x00, B3: 0x00
-> EL: 2297888 (0x00231020)
-> RS: 8,310 KB/s (6x) – WS: 8,310 KB/s (6x)
Descriptor 4…
-> B0: 0x00, B1: 0x00, B2: 0x00, B3: 0x00
-> EL: 2297888 (0x00231020)
-> RS: 11,080 KB/s (8x) – WS: 11,080 KB/s (8x)

etc.

Press Tools > Drive > sector viewer >

Then at LBA 0, offset 0020 you see the Game name i.e. "101-in-1 Party Megamix Wii"

Created with ares, just dropped a "Hello World" label on the form, then pressed Run.

You need to have Sun Virtua Box, and the Palm Emulator installed an running.

This is the source of the main-chrome.js file

opus.Gizmo({
    name: "main",
    dropTarget: true,
    type: "Palm.Mojo.Panel",
    h: "100%",
    styles: {
        zIndex: 2
    },
    chrome: [
        {
            name: "label1",
            label: "Hello World",
            type: "Palm.Mojo.Label",
            l: 0,
            t: 77,
            h: 77,
            hAlign: "center",
            vAlign: "center"
        }
    ]
});

Here’s some code to plug into Google Transate in C# – Not using the API:

 /// <summary>
        /// Translate Text using Google Translate
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="input">The string you want translated</param>
        /// <param name="languagePair">2 letter Language Pair, delimited by "|".
        /// e.g. "en|da" language pair means to translate from English to Danish</param>
        /// <param name="encoding">The encoding.</param>
        /// <returns>Translated to String</returns>
        public static string TranslateText(string input, string languagePair, Encoding encoding)
        {
            string url = String.Format("http://www.google.com/translate_t?hl=en&ie=UTF8&text={0}&langpair={1}&quot;, input, languagePair);

            string result = String.Empty;

            using (WebClient webClient = new WebClient())
            {
                webClient.Encoding = encoding;
                result = webClient.DownloadString(url);
            }

            string strRegex = @"this.style.backgroundColor=’#fff’..(?<Text>[ws+]+)";
            Match m = Regex.Match(result, strRegex);
                      
            return m.Groups["Text"].Value;
        }

Orginal version from dnknormark.net, but I fixed his regex.

Check out http://translate.freebiesms.mobi/ for a demo

Found how to get a With-Follow link from wordpress.org, two pages away from a PR7. Hopefully WordPress doesn’t read this post! 🙂

But, the author URL is with-follow (no rel=nofollow), so if you author a widget, and supply a url, then this will pass rank from WordPress to your site.

Another trick to this, is tag the plugin with a one of the following popular tags:
    *  widget (1410)
    * Post (1059)
    * plugin (850)
    * admin (798)
    * posts (774)
    * sidebar (718)
    * comments (609)
    * images (462)
    * google (444)
    * page (432)
    * links (431)
    * twitter (423)
    * rss (360)

This means that your plugin will get a link from the front of the plugins page, for a week ("Rss" is the best tag for this).

I downloaded VS 2008 SP1, and the Silverlight SDK. Dissappointed to see that there was no obvious "design view" for silverlight, I guess Microshaft wants us all to buy Expression Blend, so I just created a canvas with a giant button in XAML

<UserControl xmlns:dataInput="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.Input"  x:Class="HelloSilverlight.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation&quot;
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml&quot;
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008&quot; xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006&quot;
    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">
  <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
     <Button Content="Send SMS" Click="Button_Click"></Button>
  </Grid>
</UserControl>

Added a reference to http://www.freebiesms.co.uk/sendsms.asmx

Added using HelloSilverlight.FreebieSMS; to the namespace includes.

Then, this as the event handler

 private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Button clicked
            sendSmsSoapClient SMS = new sendSmsSoapClient();
            SMS.SendSmsAsync("Bob", "00447866069537", "00447866069535", "Test from Silverlight", "en-GB");
        }

All downloadable from http://sites.google.com/site/freesmsuk/silverlight

Many affiliate programs give away their product databases, in the hopes that you can sell their stuff better than they can, but it certainly is not the way to create generic content.

I downloaded Beepy’s product database at
http://www.beepy.co.uk/datafeeds/mobile_datafeed_dgm_product_feed.xml.gz, Here’s an excerpt of the XML

w995-black.jpg</largeimageurl><brand>Sony Ericsson</brand><condition>New</condit
ion><location>UK</location><shortdescription>With a model number like 995, you g
et the impression Sony Ericsson want you to know this is a high-end, top quality
 product. So surely with a tag like this, the W995 makes the tea, takes out the
dustbin and prepares a lovely four course meal for you. OK, so it doesn’t do any
 of those things, but this is one phone which brings the best of both the Walkma
n and CyberShot range of phones together in one fantastic package, whilst even f
inding space to squeeze in one of the most requested Sony Ericsso</shortdescript

I picked a phrase that was relatively unique in the description, then put it into google.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=%22So+surely+with+a+tag+like+this,+the+W995+makes+the+tea%22&start=20&sa=N&fp=819eb60ddcc41d13

66,700 exact matches.

of which on 37 got listed, and the other 66,663 got stuffed into the supplemental index.

ergo, if you created a site with this content, you have a 99.9% chance of ending up in the supplemental index.