Flash World Map
Flash World Map provides a pre-made high quality and fully customizable world map in Adobe Flash. I’m currently using it right here on my site to show the countries in the world that I’ve travelled to as well as the cities that I have actually lived in for an extended period of time. This is similar to the “Where I’ve Been” Facebook app but hosted locally, fully customizable and without the ads.

As you can see from the above map, it first zooms in on a continent/region to more clearly show the countries, then hovering on a country will popup a custom tooltip with HTML markup. The zoom is helpful since what appears to be 2-3 points in Southern Ontario, Canada is actually 5 upon closer inspection. Individual points can also be labeled with longitude/latitude coordinates, with a description of each point. This lets me point out individual cities I’ve lived in, not just countries. Each country/location can also be hyperlinked to another page, although I have not opted to do this.

Customizing the Map
The map is customized by editing an .xml (eXtensible Markup Language) file to specify individual descriptions and links for each country. The layout and format of the file is logical as it is an XML file so it is not hard to figure out how to make the appropriate changes.

However, with so many countries on the list, I found that the best way to edit the .xml file was with simple Find and Replace commands in a text editor. Manually inputting unique descriptions for each country will be a very time consuming task although I see no way of getting around this if it is a feature you require. One might also consider using an XML editor to make sure you don’t mess up the format of the file.

Incorporating it into your Site
Adding the map to your site could not be simpler.  Simply upload two files (the Flash and XML map data file) and add a small block of HTML code to your site.  One important thing to note is that the map data file must be contained within the same directory as the page calling the HTML code.  If your site structure is complicated (e.g. has directory rewrites), you may need to edit the source to point the Flash file to the map data directly.

Price/Cost
The cost of such a high quality map is $199 which I think is quite expensive but a trial version with limited features is available for non-commercial use. The trial version works indefinitely but is branded with the FlashWorldMap link which some people may be bothered by. You may find that the trial version is sufficient for your needs but if you want access to the source code to customize the flash app itself, then you’ll have to get a paid license. Keep in mind that location/country/style customization is still available in the free trial version.

Summary
What I like about Flash World Map:

• Very slick and clean interface
• Fully customizable through editing an easy-to-read XML file
• Easily stylized via CSS
• Easy to incorporate into the site (2 files and a block of code)

There are several things that I would like to see improved:

• An incorrectly formatted XML file simply displays “Loading data…” It would be nice if it pointed out where the syntax error is to help debug the XML file.
• There’s a little bug where a previously selected continent does not get deselected until you mouseover it again.
• Perhaps a less expensive non-commercial license for those that just want a little unbranded widget to add to their blog
• A more detailed flash map of the US is also available. A Canadian one would be nice to have too!

This is definitely the best implementation (Flash or HTML5) of an embedded world map I’ve seen thus far. If this is a feature you need on your site I would definitely recommend downloading the trail version to test it out!

But what do I do with the 2G? For a phone that is no longer really in demand, it may not be easy to sell on eBay or craigslist — at least not for a price that can justify going through the trouble of dealing with buyers or even scammers.

What is Tech Twurl?
Tech Twurl offers a service for those that have gadgets at home they want to get rid of to sell electronics.  The concept is simple, you send them your old gadget, and they’ll send you cash as payment.  Although prices are generally a bit lower than the best price you could get trying to sell the item yourself, the convenience is unparalleled.

The Prices
Obviously, the newer and more in-demand your electronic is, the higher price Tech Twurl will offer.  The price also depends on the quality of the product and the accessories (including things like original packaging).  Take for example if you bought the latest 32gb iPhone 4 but you are annoyed by the reception issues and have lost your receipt so you can’t return it to an Apple store.  Tech Twurl will offer you $585 for it (at the time of this posting).  That’s about double the subsidized price you would’ve paid for it.

For an older phone that I’ve used like the Samsung SGH-U900, Tech Twurl’s offer is $68, just a few dollars under the current market value on auction sites.  Again, that difference more than pays for the convenience.

How to sell your electronics
The steps to selling your electronics on TechTwurl is easy.  First, look up the electronic in question (as well as answer a few questions about the physical and working condition) and they’ll give you a price.  No bargaining required.

Next, if you agree to the price, Tech Twurl will send you the necessary shipping equipment, entirely prepaid.  Print out the shipping information, package it up in the provided box and drop it in the mail.  Immediately once they receive your package, you’ll see the payment in your Paypal or a check in the mail. Easy as pie.

Types of Electronics
Currently, Tech Twurl takes the following categories:

• Cellphones
• Cameras
• MP3 Players
• PDAs
• GPS
• Camcorders
• and even calculators.

If you don’t find your item on their site, don’t worry, they’re constantly adding more listings.

And coming soon… Textbooks! For all those University books you kept as reference but end up just sitting on your shelf collecting dust.

Conclusion
Definitely check it out, it doesn’t cost anything or even a sign-up to look up your old electronics. There’s really no easy way of getting rid of your old stuff for cash!

On multiple occasions, I’ve stressed the importance of backing up your files and documents. I’ve also reviewed Mozy as an online backup solution. However, there’s a new competitor in town called Dmailer backup and it gives Mozy a good run for its money. Well, it’s not exactly new as the company has been around since 2001 but I’ve just recently found out about it.

What is Dmailer Backup?
Dmailer Backup is a piece of software that lets users automate the backup process, providing continuous incremental backups for specified files. Incremental backups means that you can ‘go back in time’ to previous versions of a file, not just the latest one. This is especially useful for anyone that does any sort of programming as debugging is made tons easier by comparing old versions of files to current ones. Now Dmailer Backup itself is used to manage backups, but you still need to provide a destination to backup to — for example, an external hard drive or usb key.

A handy feature is to select only specific types of files to backup.  For example, for most people, the important files that require backing up are .doc and .txt files.  For a web developer, one could simply add .php, .html, .css to the mix.  This avoids wasting valuable backup space on those large HD movies (unless you wanted to of course).

Also, Dmailer Backup is a single executable file that does not require installation and works perfectly with U3 usb devices, perfect for that portable web development usb key.

What is Dmailer Online?
Dmailer Online is essentially an online storage space that can be utilized by Dmailer Backup.  Upon sign-up, you are provided with 2GB of online storage. Rest assured, the storage is both password protected and encrypted with one of the strongest encryption algorithms available, 448-bit Blowfish. Like some other backup services, the first 2GB is free.  In fact, Dmailer were the first ones to offer 2GB for free, setting the benchmark for backup services everywhere.  Although this is enough for most people, those that have a lot of multimedia to back up may prefer to pay $35 per year for 30GB or $70 per year for unlimited storage. That works out to less than $3 and $6 per month respectively!

The great feature about Dmailer Online is that the files can be accessed simply from a web browser, so you can access your backups from any computer without having to install any software first.  The web user interface for file access is a search engine that’s intuitive, fast, and easy to use.

Mac Compatibility
There aren’t many online backup solutions out there that support platforms other than Windows. Cross-platform support is greatly appreciated by myself and other Mac users. There’s no Linux support yet, but I’ve been told this is a feature in the works, so Linux users can feel included soon.

Mozy vs Dmailer
There are a few similarities between Mozy and Dmailer. Both offer 2GB of online backup storage for free, both are automated and encrypted, and both run on Mac. Unlike Mozy, Dmailer are the pioneers of “‘dual backup”, which can provide you with an offline backup solution in addition to an online one, all from a single interface. Online backups are safe from things like break-ins and local disasters, but offline backups are easier to access and quicker. If you accidentally deleted a large file that you want to recover, it may take a while to download the backup from an online server, so it is always handy to have an offline backup as well.  So I think Dmailer provides a good integration of both types for maximum ease of mind.

A couple years ago, I wrote a brief review of the book Hacking Vim by Kim Schulz. The publisher, Packt publishing seemed to like my review so they sent me the second edition of the book, Hacking Vim 7.2 to review as well.

The latest edition of the book, released just earlier this year, has been revised and expanded to address some new features of Vim 7.2. The good thing about buying such a book is that Vim releases are infrequent and always backwards compatible. There’s very little chance of this book becoming redundant and outdated, unlike that Visual Basic 4 bible you have sitting on your shelf.

What is Vim?
For the uninitiated, Vim is an open source editor that has been used by programmers and developers for many years. Although it doesn’t look fancy, it is actually one of the most powerful pieces of software out there in terms of customizability and flexibility. However, unlike your basic text editor, it is difficulty to just jump in and start using it as there is a bit of a learning curve. This book is not for beginners, as it assumes an understanding of the basic editing modes of Vim. If you’ve never used Vim before, the book has a few suggestions on getting up to speed — most noticeably, by going through the vimtutor program that comes with most installations of Vim.

Topics Covered
The first part of the book gives a fairly complete history of the Vim lineage, from the original UNIX based ed editor to Vi, to it’s derivatives, and finally to the Vim we now know and love. Then the book dives right into basic personalization tweaks with an overview of the different configuration files — what they do and where they go. I consider these simple tweaks essential for any semi-serious user of Vim to create their own personalized .vimrc file.

For a lot of readers, the first two chapters may already been enough of a customization but the real meat of the book lies in the latter chapters, to help moderate users become power users with navigation tweaks, recipes to help with code completion and project management. If one follows all of these suggestions, Vim can turn into a full-fledged IDE.

With the sheer number of recipes and scripts, I would suggest implementing them a little at a time in order to get used to using them. Going through all the changes at once may be a bit overwhelming.

The last few chapters of the book teach take Vim customization to the next level by giving a tutorial on how to write your own scripts and configuration files. Most may not need to go into this much detail but if there is functionality that you can’t find a script for, then writing your own may be the only choice. The good news is Vim scripting is not too difficult, especially with the tutorial provided in this book, which is one of the reasons there is such a large community supporting it.

Recommendation
If you’re a user of Vim and would like to work more effectively and become a Vim guru, this book is definitely for you. If you’re already a Vim poweruser but feel there is some functionality lacking, this book is a great place to learn how to write your own Vim scripts to contribute to the Vim community.

If you’ve never used Vim before but would like to start using it, this book may not be your first choice; you may wish to try out Vim for a bit first to see if you actually enjoy the style of editing, and if so then pick up this book to go to the next level.

In order to increase your search engine rankings, the best way is by building what is known as “organic” or natural backlinks. An example of an organic backlink is when a blog links back to your site because of your interesting content or relevance to their content.  Typically, these are done without asking or any sort of trade, hence the term organic or natural.

Trading links used to be a common tactic amongst website owners and I still often get e-mails along the lines of “If you’ll put a link to my website from yours then I will do the same.”  While this has the advantage of potentially increasing exposure to new users, this type of trade is typically very one sided with one site being more popular than the other.  Also, trading links does not increase search engine rankings as the links can be seen as “cancelling” each other out.

Ideally what you want are one-way organic backlinks and LinkWheeler.com is a service that looks to address this issue through the creation of link wheels.

What is a link wheel?
A link wheel, simply explained, is when sites link to one another in a cyclical pattern.  For example, site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links back to site A.  This example is a small link wheel and generally does not work as their short cycle is easily detected by search engines. LinkWheeler.com offers link wheel packages that are much bigger and more sophisticated with links coming from different types of sites.

Their link wheels are also not cyclical, meaning the last node does not link back to the first node. This “open wheel” is more effective and more attractive to search engines compared to traditional closed wheels.

Web 2.0 and Social Media
Perhaps the biggest advantage of LinkWheeler is their usage of social media websites and other web 2.0 outlets in addition to traditional article submission strategies.

I’ve seen other backlinking services, all of which make big promises, but their methodology is pretty primitive compared to what LinkWheeler is doing.  Simple directory submissions and article farms just don’t cut it anymore in this day and age.

Pricing and Features
There are three possible packages to choose from ranging from $149 for 27 backlinks to $359 for 89 backlinks. Not everyone will consider this cheap, but you do get what you pay for and results can speak for themselves.  The lowest package includes linking to two URLs with two different keywords whereas the top package links to eight URLs with eight different keywords.

In terms of value, the top premium package is definitely the way to go in my opinion.  With eight keywords and 89 backlinks, you can be sure you’ll get to the first page of search results at least for low-medium competition keywords.  For those highly competitive keywords, it may not boost you to the top but it will certainly go a long way to help getting you there.

Conclusion
The field of search engine optimization (SEO) is a highly competitive one so it’s nice to have a service like LinkWheeler who are experienced and clearly know what they are doing.  The money invested in building links will show returns within a couple weeks once search engine traffic starts funnelling its way onto your site.  In my opinion, link wheels are a great way to increase exposure of your site or blog, and LinkWheeler is an effective and easy way of creating these link wheels.

Fast forward a couple months later and I’ve received another wallet for review, this time from the nice people at Koyono.  They sent me their View Slimmy SE Front Pocket Wallet.  I’ve mentioned the Slimmy series of wallets in my aforementioned post but I’ve never actually used one myself.

The Slimmy series is one of the more popular minimalist wallet choices out there.  Its selling point is how exceptionally thin it is.  It’s not a tri-fold or even a bi-fold, it’s a front pocket wallet meaning it’s thin enough that its meant to be put in your front pocket, reducing risk of back pain resulting from an off-balanced seating posture.  The Slimmy wallets consist of just a sleeve of leather where cards and cash stay in place through friction alone.

The ViewSlimmy adds a little utility by replacing one of the end pieces of leather with a plastic window for ID cards and transit passes.  The extra window actually doesn’t add any sort of bulk to the wallet, but I do think the regular Slimmy looks nicer if having an ID card slot isn’t a necessity for you.

Now the special edition of the ViewSlimmy, the ViewSlimmy SE, is described as the “Front Pocket ID Wallet with a little nuance.”  The unique thing about the special edition is the red interior which adds a bit of flair to the design.  Personally, I think the color combination looks quite exquisite.

How much can it hold?
In order for this wallet to live up to its minimalist claims, the user must live a minimalist lifestyle by carrying no more than 3-4 cards and some cash.  If you find that you can’t slim down to a few cards, then maybe this wallet isn’t for you, at least not as a primary wallet.

Personally, I get by fine with just a few cards.  Most of the time, I only carry:

• A little bit of cash
• A credit card
• A bank card
• An ID card
• Transit pass

Canadian Friendly
Canadians should be aware that the entire Slimmy series is designed for American currency but all the wallets except for the SlimSlimmy can just barely hold Canadian currency, so it is usable by Canadians.

What may make this wallet not so popular amongst international customers are the large shipping costs involved with international orders.  I’m not sure why Koyono charges so much for international shipping but there is definitely a lucrative market outside of the United States.  Maybe they just need to find an international supplier.

The Slimmy is not a cheap wallet by any means.  A regular Slimmy starts at $30 and goes up to $50 for the special editions.  Some may think that this is expensive for the amount of material you get, but what you’re really paying for is the genius of the design.  From what I know, Koyono is the only store in the world that sells wallets like the Slimmy series.  The quality of the leather seems quite high and the stitching looks clean and strong enough to last quite a while.  Once a card goes in, it won’t accidentally drop out unless you pull it out.

The non-View Slimmy special edition also comes with a hot pink interior, creatively called “Floyd,” no doubt a reference to Pink Floyd which happens to be my favourite band.  It’s too bad that wasn’t the wallet Koyono sent me, but I’m not complaining!

For many network administrators, this daunting task calls for a well-packaged network security scanner and GFI Languard delivers this in baskets.

Features
The feature list for GFI Languard version 9 is huge, but here are some of the more innovative/important features:

• Vulnerability scanning – scans over 15,000 security vunerabilities across all platforms (Windows, Mac OS and Linux).
• Support for virtual machines (running an operating system on an virtual machine doesn’t make it completely secure!).
• Immediately offers detailed analysis of vulnerabilites and offers remedial action.
• Able to script custom vulnerability checks – if your network is running special software you can easily write Python and Visual basic scripts to check non-standard vulnerabilities.
• Tests third party applications (anti-virus/anti-fireware) for adequate protection.
• Patch management – easily install or roll-back Windows patches that may be causing problems.
• Automatically deploy network-wide software installs, patches or service packs.  New Windows service pack? No worries!
• Remote desktop connection support for scanned computers – so you can take the driver seat on vulnerabilites that can’t be fixed automatically.
• Hardware auditing across networks – find out what computers are running what hardware
• Silent installation – deploy GFI Languard across the network without affecting end-users

User Interface
The UI is clean and straight forward.  Given the number of features, it is surprisingly simple.  Take a look at the screenshots on their site and you’ll get a good idea of the quality of software you’re dealing with.

My Results
I consider myself quite computer savvy and like to think that I keep my computer secure and free of vulnerabilities.  I ran GFI Languard on my own system and was happy to see that it only found one vulnerability — having Guest log-in enabled.  I promptly disabled it, ran the scan again and received a clean bill of health.  I don’t have a local network setup to test its networks features on but I’ve heard from some people I’ve talked to that it works as advertised.

Price – Free!
The nice people at GFI understand the importance of security for the everyday personal home user.  As a result, GFI Languard is freeware for personal use (up to 5 IP addresses).  The huge majority of home users and even small businesses won’t have any more than 5 computers so the fully featured freeware offer from GFI deserves a big round of applause.

For large companies with a huge network, pricing starts at $32 per IP address for 10-24 IPs and incrementally goes down to $4 per IP address for over 3000 IPs.

My Gripes
One gripe I have about the software though is that you need to provide it with the administrator username and password for your system.  This is necessary for it to perform some of the required tests but I had to do a small background check to make sure it was legitimate and they weren’t collecting this data for malicious purposes.  And of course, I found that GFI is a well known company having won many awards with many retail products available — otherwise I wouldn’t have installed the program to test it in the first place!

Another thing is that upon starting the program, you get a nag screen asking you to purchase the full version of the software.  It appears that after 10 days, the trial period ends and the software reverts to freeware mode unless you enter a license key.  So you can still use the fully functional software if you close the nag window by pressing the X in the top right hand corner but none of the obvious buttons give an option to continue using the software in freeware mode.

Conclusion
This software is the best network security scanners I’ve ever seen.  Any network administrator would be much better off using it.  Given the awesome price of free, home owners would be doing themselves a favor by running it at least once to patch up any security holes in their system!

Swagbucks is very similar to a search engine I wrote about a while ago: Scour, the social search engine.  I received some comments and e-mails from readers noting that Scour, although they do pay you to search, has a payout that is so low that it wasn’t worth the effort. I agree with this, in fact, after almost a year of use, I just managed to just reach the first $25 payout level.

I wanted to find another search provider to make better returns on my searches and I found Swagbucks.  What’s not to like about getting free stuff from something you do anyways?

How it works
Swagbucks is primarily a search engine that is powered by Ask! and Google so you know the results will be relevant.  By using their site, you can earn “Swag bucks” which can then be redeemed for prizes, gift certificates, or as entry into contests.  There are a few ways you can get Swagbucks:

1. Searching - for every search query through their site, you have a random chance to win anywhere from 1 to 100 Swagbucks.  After using it for a few days, I’ve already accumulated 15 swag bucks.
2. Swagcodes - occasionally (around once or twice per day), the Swagbucks team will post a hidden Swagcode somewhere on their site (usually their blog).  Enter this code into your account and receive a couple of free easy swagbucks but these codes expire after a while.
3. Trade-in your stuff - if you have an old cellphone or console system/games lying around, you can send them in and they’ll give you swag bucks in return.  You won’t be getting a great return for them but if your phone is just sitting around collecting dust then why not make a few swag bucks?
4. Shopping – Swagbucks has an online shopping mall with many online retailers.  If you purchase something from one of them through their affiliate link, they’ll give you 1 swag buck per $5 spent.  With large retailers like Apple, Wal-mart, and Footlocker, you can accumulate swag bucks pretty quickly!  They also offer a lot of exclusive coupons too all of these retailers.
5. Referrals - If you refer a friend, you get an equal number of swag bucks that they earn from searches! Feel free to use me as a referral.

What you can get
You can start redeeming stuff with as little as 3 swag bucks.  There are numerous things you can redeem for but the most popular seem to be the following:

• $5 Amazon.com gift certificate (45 swagbucks)
• Various sweepstakes entries (1 swagbuck)
• Comic books of all types (30+ swagbucks)

What the future holds for Swagbucks
I know of many people that have already received small rewards but I don’t know of anyone saving up enough swag bucks for a large reward yet.  Even if you simply cash out for $5 gift certificates, you should be able to accumulate $15-20 per month very easily just from searches alone.

It will be interesting to see how Google-powered search engines will hold up against new upcoming search engines like WolframAlpha which has the potential to become a threat in the future if they choose to extend beyond being a knowledge based search engine.

Sign-up Bonus
If you use this link you can get a bonus 3 Swagbucks for signing up just to get you started: http://swagbucks.com/refer/bonus

One nice thing about running a somewhat popular blog is that companies occasionally send you free stuff to review!

Last year, I wrote an article discussing wallet alternatives for the minimalist.  The nice people over at Rogue Wallet saw this article and I guess they didn’t want to be left out!

They sent me a couple samples of their patent-pending Rogue Wallet for me to try out, the black leather Original Rogue Wallet as well as the Rogue Red Line Wallet.  I used the red line wallet for about a week and felt informed enough to give a detailed review of their wallet.

Design
Now first of all, the Rogue Wallet is a bi-fold wallet (meaning it folds in half) unlike most of the minimalist wallets I described in my article.  Regardless, it is still thin: well under a centimeter thick.

The most unique (and obvious) feature of the Rogue Wallet is its contoured shape.  This patent-pending shape is designed to sit comfortably in your front pocket because someone finally realized that most pockets aren’t rectangular shaped!  Given this fact, this is indeed a front pocket wallet and would look funny when used in a back pocket.  You shouldn’t put your wallet in your back pocket anyway due to health concerns and pickpockets.

The Red Line wallet that I used has a distinctive line going across the entire outside of the wallet.  I love this little accent but it is simply for show and serves no practical purpose.  It matches my Thinkpad laptop very well though!

Canadian-friendly!
I’m not sure why it’s so hard to find Canadian friendly wallets as there are so many of us!  Our currency bills are slightly taller than their American counterparts so bills stick out unsightly on a lot of wallets, but not the Rogue wallet!  It seems like the designers kept other countries in mind when deciding on the height of the wallet, and for that, I thank them!

How much can it hold
Superficially, it has a bill compartment, 3 card slots and 1 transparent ID window.  Practically though, it can comfortably hold about 8 cards and a wad of bills.  Of course, the more you put in, the thicker it gets so it is still advisable to only hold your essentials to keep the size down.

Comfort
Trying this wallet in the front pocket of my pants that have rounded pockets, it does indeed work as advertised!  It fits naturally and comfortably.  Trying it on my other pair of pants that for some reason have rectangular pockets, you can see a little corner jutting out of my pants… of course, I then simply flipped it around and put it straight edge down.  Comfort problem solved!

As for the size of the wallet, the rounded contours do not provide any sort of extra storage space, in fact they are just attached to the ends of the wallet so it does make the footprint of the wallet larger than normal.  As for the thickness, the Rogue Wallet is thinner than a lot of wallets I’ve tried, but not as thin as the minimalist wallets I reviewed in my other article.  Then again, those wallets can’t hold as much.

Conclusion
The Rogue Wallet is a novel idea and implemented very well.  It is well made and can potentially replace your current wallet.  I wouldn’t say it is a true minimalist wallet though but it comes close, especially if you cannot bring yourself to hold less than 4 cards at a time.

Many poker sites offer sign-up bonuses but you also need to keep in mind that you don’t want to play on shady and non-reputable sites.  If you’re choosing an online casino to do a little bit of gambling online, you’ll find that it isn’t as easy a task as you would have thought.  There are many things to consider!

For beginning players and experienced players alike, online casino bluebook is a free site that reviews a lot of online casinos, ranking them based on:

• Bonus size
• Payout percentage
• Customer service
• Game features
• Number of games
• Software graphics
• Ease of use

The site itself is simple and straight to the point.  My guess is that the site makes money on affiliate commissions but the information and reviews seems to be unbiased.  There is also a forum that is slowly growing in size but the primary topic of discussion appears to be poker.  Online casino bluebook has been around for a while now (since 2000) so you can assume they know what they are talking about.  The casinos they review also aren’t limited to just the United States!

You’d be amazed at some of the sign-up bonuses you can get with some of these online casinos!  Even if you’re not great at gambling, its a good way to try your luck and kill some time.