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    Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

    At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.


    July 31, 2012

    It’s Hard To Do The Right Thing

    For anyone who’s ever found themselves blocked while trying to do the right thing, this post is for you.

    Some time ago we were contacted by a company (Eyewear Pros to be specific) that wanted to make a donation to charity.  Now that doesn’t sound hard and I suppose it’s not but there was a twist, the owner of the business is passionate about the need for glasses – especially to those less fortunate and so he asked us to help him setup a campaign in which he would make a donation to New Eyes For The Needy for each pair of glasses he sold off his website.  The folks at the charity were easy to work with and that side of things worked itself out very quickly.  But he wanted to take it further, he didn’t want to simply give money to the charity, he wanted them to end up with more glasses to distribute and so on top of the donation he offered to pay the shipping for his customers to send their old glasses.  In fact, to incentivize people further – he wanted to offer an additional donation based on the number of pairs sent in.

    Once again we found the folks at New Eyes For The Needy to be easy to work with, the problem arose when we contacted both USPS and Stamps.com to try to arrange some type of pre-paid shipping solution.  We’ve all had envelopes sent to us with pre-paid postage so this has to be easy right?  Wrong.

    After weeks of communication with both companies we are still unable to provide any type of acceptable solution.  the best we’ve got so far is a choice between either:

    1. Send full shipping to every client and simply hope they use it to ship their glasses, or
    2. Send them an unpaid shipping label and not cover the costs

    Can you see the problem?  We know it must be possible but there’s no clear solution that anyone we’ve talked at either company to can provide.

    If any of our valued readers know of a solution or a company that we should talk to, your input would be greatly appreciated.  It’s frustrating when you have a client who’s trying hard to do the right thing and can’t, especially when you regularly get pre-paid envelops included with mailings and are doing exactly what you’re trying to.

    If you have any suggestions please feel free to contact us with your thoughts.

    And because our client is so passionate about the charity, here’s a bit more information on it:

    SEO news blog post by @ 8:28 am

    Categories: beanstalk,Misc
    Tags:

     

    July 24, 2012

    Google Earth Engine and 40 years of Landsat data

    As Apple and other companies continue to sue Google to slow/halt their growth into certain markets, Google is still finding ways to help the entire planet by sharing their technical infrastructure.

    NASA started collecting images of Earth using the Landsat satellite system in 1972, and in the last 40 years the amount of data that has been accumulated is quite enormous.

    The Landsat system is capable of mapping the entire planet surface every 16 days which means that there are 912 complete 1.7-terapixel images of our planet at a 30-meter resolution that not only need to be built/combined but the completed data maps also need to be compared over time.

    Google’s infrastructure makes it possible to not only process the data much faster, but they can also make the information accessible to the public web where discovery and analysis can be crowd-sourced for free.

    So far there’s been some very interesting work derived from the Landsat data using Google’s Earth Engine, and here’s three examples of human impacts on the planet that have been visualized by Landsat data analysis:

    This time-lapse, built from Landsat captured satellite imagery from 1999 to 2011, shows the amazingly rapid growth of Las Vegas, Nevada. After watching the video it’s easy to see how Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States for the past two decades.

    Due to water diversion for irrigation and farming needs, the inland Aral Sea is shrinking at an amazing pace. Large portions were completely absent of water by as early as 2009 and these dry areas continue to grow today.

    Providing land for farming, and clearing land for raising cattle, has caused the Amazon rainforest to shrink at a very shocking rate as you can see in this video.

    For more time-line based Landsat data analysis you can go right to the Google Earth Engine page.

    Sadly there’s zero examples of human activity improving the planet, which isn’t startling, but rather depressing. Perhaps someone wants to go take a look for something positive, like a rebuild of coral reef or something beneficial to the planet that humans have undertaken? I know I’d make a link to that.

    UPDATE: Ahh speaking of 40 years of data, Greenland just hit a melt cycle that occurs roughly every ~150 years. The cycle this year will be the first time we’ve had satellite observation of the melt; all previous information is based on ice core samples.

    SEO news blog post by @ 11:04 am


     

    July 10, 2012

    Happy Nikola Tesla Day

    Nikola Tesla and his Tesla coils.

    Today marks the birth of one of the finest brains the planet Earth has offered up.  When we think of the great minds of science Nikola Tesla too often gets lost among the names of often lesser minds who happen to have been more marketable (I’m looking at you Edison).  I should note that after Da Vinci, Tesla is my personal favorite among the scientists of the modern world.  As I type that I realize how incredibly nerdy that sounds/is but I thought it relevant to the note my bias. :)

    What Makes Nikola Tesla Great?

    I’ll keep things short and sweet in today’s post and link below to a ton of great resources (many funny and/or edgy so the read shouldn’t be too dry in case you’re worried).  Here’s what he’s known for among those that even know his name:

    • He held 111 patents.
    • He invented the radio.
    • He invented the AC motor.  He was in a battle with Edison who championed the DC motor.  Tesla was right, Edison was remembered.
    • He invented devices for X-rays.
    • Dramatically improved the efficiency of the movement of electricity through cables (basically making it possible to power homes).
    • Robots. (seriously … he invented the first robot)
    • And of course, he invented the Tesla Coil (image above).

    There’s more to the man than just a few inventions.  Reading his story is filled with intrigue (he was screwed out of $50,000 by Edison) to sadness (he died poor and alone in a hotel room) to just curiosities in a “how does a person end up like that” kind of way.  If you’re interested (and I hope you are) you can read more about Nikola Tesla at:

    Nikola Tesla Resources:

    And so very much more.

    You can just search on Google to find huge numbers of resources on a geek who’s known among geeks but very few others.  Credit where it’s due … the world would not be what it is without Nikola Tesla.

    Now rarely do I put potentially questionable materials in our blog but a couple of my favorite comedians hosted a series in which they get a historian drunk and then act out the tale he tells.  One such story is on Nikola Tesla.  Warning: there is some language that may be offensive but it definitely gets to the point.

    Categories: just for fun,Misc
    Tags:

     

    April 19, 2012

    Robotic Asteroid Mining for Rare Elements

    avi neodymium sub

    When I was a teenager the coolest speakers on the planet were made by AVI Sound International in Vancouver BC and they stood out from other manufacturers because of how they used rare earth neodymium magnet structures.

    Using these rare materials in speakers intended for bass was a first in the world of audio products, and AVI has helped many enthusiasts win at international competitions with their exotic products and no-compromise ideas. Even at the time the cost of using these rare minerals was really crazy, and AVI only produced limited quantities before totally stopping production.

    Fast forward to 2012 and US federal authorities tasked with resource forecasts are already predicting a world-wide shortage of neodymium, and other rare minerals, that will be outpaced by our needs as early as 2015! The transition away from these magnets for things like traditional physical HDDs will help, but our needs in just the electric-vehicle industry alone is causing concerns.

    Enter: Planetary Resources

    It is speculation at the moment, but when you take someone with the resources and imagination of James Cameron, pick Peter Diamandis (the X Prize founder) to lead the operation, stir in some wealthy Google executives, and call it ‘Planetary Resources’ you are begging for speculation.

    planetary resources logo

    When Earth runs low on rare resources, the value of reaching into space for those resources starts to match up with the cost of doing so.

    Bruce Willis - Armageddon

    The trick is to find a way to mine without having it cost more than the minerals are worth.

    It’s for this reason that we’re not likely to send Bruce Willis, or any humans, off to space with a pickaxe any-time soon.

    The first industrial space mining is almost certainly going to be done by robotics, and guess who’s behind a new robot fighting show on TV called “Robogeddon”? Yes indeed, James Cameron is lending his experience in robotic battle cinema to the new show which will be hosted by Mark Burnett from Survivor and Shark Tank.

    Is it really financially feasible to mine asteroids?
    Back in 2005 Peter Diamandis did a TED video discussing how a single asteroid full of nickel-iron alloy could be worth “$20 Trillion” on the precious metals market:

    (Oh Canada .. @ 8:35m)

    When you look at the resources we need to continue advancing clean energy technologies like photovoltaic panels, electric motors, batteries, etc.., these items are all based on rare minerals we are rapidly running out of on this planet. By as early as 2020 we will start hitting a crisis of supply that nobody doubts will impact our current clean energy initiatives drastically.

    So at this point we already know we can’t afford to not take this next step into space exploration and mining. The gains in science and development of the entire human race alone make the case for this work.

    Another factor is the privatization of space exploration with NASA stepping out of the publicly funded access to space. This lack of a publicly financed effort makes room for all the private companies who now can see the value of the investment and competing for the business in this new sector.

    I don’t need to tell the reader how excited and eager I am to hear the full ‘official’ announcement of Planetary Resources’ plans which should be coming as early as next week!

    Speaking of Competitions..

    April 15th was the final day of our Beanstalk map making contest in Minecraft.

    While we were really impressed with all the effort going into the maps we know that most map makers are still trying to finish the maps they started.

    At this point we have confirmation that all entries past the date of our prize change are interested in extending the competition.

    To make things as fair as possible Dave has agreed that we will give out the original $50 prize to the best map we have now, and then give everyone until May 31st to finish their maps for the main prize.

    This should be plenty of time to finish all those ‘runaway trains’ of details and tweaks that map makers find as they start to complete a major build. I know that on the demo map I could probably spend a week just detailing the cloud structures and leaves on the Beanstalk leading up to the giant’s castle.

    Congrats to Faragilus for his floating castle and beanstalk map submission! We’ve sent out an email to confirm your win and will be shipping out your prize once we’ve confirmed your address info.

    Faragilus’ map will also be featured along with the top finalists, and he is welcome to re-submit an updated map at any time if he wishes to also compete for the grand prize. Because the competition is still on-going we won’t be featuring any winning map content until the May 31st closing date.

    Good luck and have a great time making your maps!

    SEO news blog post by @ 1:49 pm


     

    April 5, 2012

    Google develops ARGs for Pirates

    Google Glass

    “Arrrgh! Shiver me timbers! Mizen the topsail! Be that land I see through my metal eye?!”

    Okay so Google’s new Augmented Reality Glasses aren’t just for one-eyed pirates, heck even a two eyed pirate can find a use for these ‘La Forge’ inspired techno goggles.

    Yesterday Google was showing off a working prototype of their Augmented Reality Glasses which have been a two year labour of love running under the code name: ‘Project Glass‘.

    ARGContactLens

    Until yesterday we had little info on this Google[x] project, and there was speculation that the end project might come out as a digital contact lens instead of the pair of black and white frames we are seeing demonstrated this week.

    At the moment however even the frames are in the ‘styling’ phase of prototyping, looking a bit like a slice of an iPhone, with a very tiny camera hole, hooked up to a thumbnail sized display.

    We also know that they have touch controls on the top of the glasses, one of which is for capturing an image of whatever is in-front of you. My guess is that the first ‘mod’ for these will be a flip down shield that ‘alarmists’ can use to guarantee nobody is spying on them.

    Shut up and take my money

     
    As if pictures weren’t enough to get our hands reaching for our wallets, there was also a ‘concept’ video demonstrating the Android based UI that the glasses will use to interact with the user.

    After watching the video I have to wonder how they would display something in the middle of your visual perspective using a tiny little screen?

    This resulted in me spending about 35 seconds bending a paper clip into the rough shape of the screen. I plopped this mock-up onto my glasses and took a look at what area the ‘display’ would have.

    The current display would actually have quite a bit of space to display info, but there’s no way I can ‘see’ that it would be able to display something in the middle of your view?

    Virtual retinal displays, even the most advanced laser based units, still haven’t found their way into ‘production’, even within military channels like DARPA where such a technology should be very tempting to adopt.

    So for now I’m in the camp of nay-sayers who feel that the tech needs a bit more work before it can deliver what’s in the promotional video, and even then there’s certainly some kinks to work out of the system for obvious safety reasons.

    Pity though, some of the style pics look so cool..
    Borg version of Google Glasses

    SEO news blog post by @ 11:42 am


     

    March 20, 2012

    Start your own Google Datacenter

    headlamp

    Google’s technology has reached a point where they have to take all the light bulbs out of shared data centres and equip technicians with ‘helmet lights’ to keep their infrastructure solutions a secret.

    Long have I pondered how they initially got passed the data storage hurdle during their early years.

    As an SEO, I’d LOVE to have the sort of storage to keep all my data on-hand in a giant database that’s constantly refreshing and crawling for new info. Due to the cost of HDDs I’ll have to keep running Google queries or head over to sites like Majestic where the data runs deep and fast.

    At one point I even hypothesized that Google had a smart-load system that could bring storage medium (magnetic disc platters/DVDr discs) on-line quickly from a very fast storage mechanism. So while all my recent email is stored on fast access media, and when I do a search for old mail that search is running from an index, when I go to open some old mail, that delay you get is from the loader fetching the offline storage.

    I doubt that any of the ideas I had were even close to the real secret, heck Google probably just had a very friendly storage deal with a major manufacturer until they were able to start making their own solutions. Yes, Google makes a lot of it’s own hardware now, and a custom built storage solution would not be shocking to me at all.

    Remember about 2 years ago when REALLY big drives started becoming cheap and common? Remember when it suddenly became impossible to find a drive with less than 320GB of storage? That was roughly the time that PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording) technology hit mainstream hard disk manufacturers.

    PMR drives were not only bigger (the single plater size was suddenly 320GB+) but at the same rotational speeds (~7200RPM) they were also faster, lighter, and cheaper. The instant these drives came to market I took the time to memorize the model #s of drives with the new tech so as to avoid buying the outgoing/older drives.

    Enter HAMR: heat-assisted magnetic recording

    Perpendicular HDD recording compared to HAMR.

    Today Seagate announced significant forward progress with HAMR drives:

    “one terabit per square inch”

    In 2007 Seagate’s own estimates on PMR were that the density would peak at 1Tb/inch², a goal they have only now hit with HAMR. In fact in 2007 when Seagate was actively researching HAMR technology they were estimating a peak density of 5Tb/inch²!

    What does all this really mean? In August of 2011 Seagate was boasting of a .722Tb/inch² capacity which resulted in 3TB hard disk models hitting the market.

    Seagate claims the recent stride in density should ‘nearly double’ the capacity of current drives. If this all pans out I am putting a 6TB HDD on my wish list for XMas this year. :)

    Don’t forget about our Beanstalk Minecraft Map Contest, now with ~$300 worth of prizes going into the competition it’s better than ever!

    I’ll try to get some demo videos on-line this week for inspiration, and until then, good luck!

    SEO news blog post by @ 12:49 pm


     

    March 8, 2012

    Successful Google Hack-a-thon

    For years now Chrome has been staring down it’s nose at the other browsers when it comes to security. In fact for the last 4 years, Chrome has been entered into HP’s Pwn2Own security competition, and nobody has successfully hacked it, unlike competing browsers.
    Chrome finally hacked
    This year Google’s Pwnium competition, which offers $1 million for successfully demonstrated exploits, has managed to finally uncover 2 vulnerabilities in the browser’s ‘sandbox’.

    The successful hacker, Sergey Glazunov, has earned himself $60,000 for demonstrating his exploit, and a heap of recognition that will no doubt ensure Mr.Glazunov of a promising future in the IT industry.

    Sergey’s exploits were patched in just under 24hrs, and now the browser is even more secure than it was previously. Obviously even at $60,000.00 this was a great win for both Google and it’s users. Finding/fixing exploits before they can be used in the wild makes me all warm and fuzzy.

    This leaves $940,000.00 of unclaimed cash rewards to anyone else who can find a way to exploit Chrome’s many layers of security.

    Happy Sun Spot Day!

    Today is also a special day for technology around the planet as we are just getting hit by one of the largest solar flares in 5 years, part of a slightly early 11 year sun-cycle that last ended in 2002.
    NASA Image of Solar Flare
    At the moment the flare activity is a diminished threat based on expectations, or in laymen’s terms it’s currently looking like a dud.

    This could change at any moment however and tomorrow is expected to be the peak of flare activity coming from sun spot AR1429. This sun spot has been growing since March 2nd and at this point it’s 7 times the size of planet Earth. It is so large that amature observers are able to photograph the sun spot without a telescope. Here’s an image of sun spot AR1429 that David Tremblay of Alto, New Mexico, took earlier today during a dust storm:

    Sun Spot AR1429

    While there’s no immediate health risks associated with these flares, our technology isn’t immune to the interference, and sensitive transmissions, such as GPS and flight navigations systems could be compromised at any moment during this event. There is even some concerns about power failures and large outages in the power grid.

    NASA as always is the best spot to nerd out and view the event, they even have a 2048×2048 resolution MP4 you can watch if your computer can handle it. Just click the image below to get to the current NASA news page.

    March 8th Solar Flare

    SEO news blog post by @ 10:44 am


     

    March 2, 2012

    Beanstalk Minecraft 1.2 Contest

    UPDATE: Contest has been EXTENDED until May 31st 2012 in order to give all participants a chance to finish their masterpieces.

    As I mention on the blog yesterday, Minecraft 1.2x has been released, and today they are already at 1.2.3 (gee that’s easy!) after fixing some bugs.

    Announcing:

    Beanstalk's Minecraft 1.2 Contest

    Minecraft Map Making Competition

    • First Prize: Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) tablet + Minecraft PE installed (~$300 value)!
    • Top 5 entries will be featured!
    • SMP, CMP, CSP, or SSP!
    • The Beanstalk map contest runs until May 31st, 2012
    UPDATE: While we finalize map-upload options, if you want to submit a map for us to download please use this link so we know to send your submissions to the right folks. Thanks!

     

    We really play a lot of Minecraft here and we have always wanted a 3d fly-by of a Beanstalk.

    It wouldn’t be too hard to make something in SketchUp or pay someone to make something in 3DS or Blender, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun or as cool as doing it in Minecraft.

    The problem we had was the man with the $50 to give away really felt that there should be a castle at the top of the Beanstalk, way above the clouds, for a ‘Jack’ to explore.

    Up until recently there were only hacks/mods to make Minecraft maps above 128 z levels.

    Now with Minecraft 1.2x and it’s Anvil format maps that issue is moot. Now there’s LOTS of vertical space to make the beanstalk, and a giant size castle!

    The end result would be something like this without the limits that were in place when this video was made:

    Personally I’d like to go for a giant beanstalk with a hollow interior, sort of twisting as it gets taller and more slender at the top. I’d also want to try and make something giant sized that works.. Like a light cube that’s built so that it still lights up when you hit a giant switch? Or a giant wood+wool version of a bed with a real bed placed just dead center so it looks right and is still functional?

    Maps can be submitted from creative or survival, and it can be a multi-player or single player map, they just can’t require texture packs or mods to be scored. So you could fire up a server, invite a few friends, and raffle off the prize amongst yourselves, it’s up to you.

    Maps submitted are ours, so you can’t send in a link to a server or a video, we want maps we can load up and test in-game. We might even offer the maps for download, but we’d have to confirm there’s zero ‘Easter eggs’ obviously.

    For fairness we’ll pick the top 5 maps just to make sure we have some ‘say’ but the #1 map will be selected by voting (most of us are huge gamers/nerds so anyone can submit, anyone can vote).

    I am trying to get something set aside as prizes for the top 5 (on top of the winner prize), but right now it’s up in the air and the only thing we can offer the runners-up is your name in print and your mapping skills featured/recognized on-line.

    Beanstalk 1.2 Demo Map

    This map was made for explaining the contest and as a summary of the changes in the 1.2 release.

    Sadly we’re also busy SEOs and we can’t be doing keyword research while we’re building maps so I have to push this out ‘as-is’ and hope it’s still handy as a reference and gives folks some ideas, like how to get up a vertical shaft quickly.

    Beanstalk 1.2 Demo Map Download
    Beanstalk 1.2 Demo Map Download (DX version)
    (DX version has 2 very large Menger sponges, and is very CPU intense. This ClearLightstone texture pack has a special ‘Menger’ Gold Brick texture.)

    NOTE: Due to the differences between the weekly builds and the release versions, this map has some unusual lighting features that are not currently easy to re-produce.

    This was especially difficult for me when I was making the ‘Beanstalk’ sign in the distance and only some blocks leak light. Once the lighting glitches are consistent I’ll re-visit that sign idea and animate it.;)

    Up for entering? You can do so here.

    SEO news blog post by @ 3:14 pm


     

    February 22, 2012

    Rick Mercer on Toews – Nailed it!

    A brand new, previously undocumented, ranking signal that affects both Google and Bing would be a huge topic change for this blog. Sadly the search engine optimization world hasn’t been that exciting lately.

    Heck, tech-news has pretty much been landing on two key-words, ‘censorship’ and ‘patents’, with folks amusing themselves over the similarities between Yoko Ono ruining the Beatles just like China is ruining Apple.

    Lets face it, if you can’t ship your iPads over a trademark dispute in the country they are made, and you are getting international criticism over your decision to leverage cheap labour to make the rest of your wares, you are in big trouble no matter what business we’re talking about.

    Speaking of nailing things, Rick Mercer just released a video sharing his take on the Vic Toews debate:


    Beauty job eh?

    The main goal of this post was to make sure I shared the video that should have been included with yesterday’s Vic Toews blog post.

    On top of not catching the video as it came out, I didn’t post a Week 4 macro image to guess at. (Yeah, I know right?)

    So here’s the final February macro image for guessers who want to hedge their chances at getting picked:

    February Macro number 4Big Hint: This is relevant to the Vic Toews discussion.
    If you think you know what this is, or where this is, send us your best guess via Twitter or G+

    SEO news blog post by @ 11:46 am


     

    February 21, 2012

    Vikileaks – Oh Toews..

    Let me just start this off with:

    Not a Child Pornographer
    While that seems like an odd preface, this is Vic Toews’ style of politics.

    From the beginning of Vic Toews’ efforts to push bill C-30 onto Canadians he’s been mighty unpopular with technologists that understand what such a bill would require in terms of cost to implement and maintain. Further to the technologists complaining about the expense of such a proposal, there’s groups pointing to the missing evidence that the bill is needed, groups asking for evidence that the bill would have any positive effects, and finally there’s the groups of people who enjoy civil liberty without being called ‘child pornographers’

    So when I heard this morning that ‘Anonymous’ was threatening Vic Toews with a leak of information it was an instant blog article.

    Risky VicKeep in mind that since the last blog post I made on Vic (here), someone (allegedly within parliament) leaked his Twitter activity exposing the semi un-known rumour that he’d cheated on his then-wife with his under-age babysitter and still has an ongoing affair with the young girl.

    Now, if that info is already on the wires, what does ‘Anonymous’ have that’s too private to share unless Vic gives them no choice?

    Plus if folks want to defend the freedom to post pretty much anything on-line, why post threats that give merit to the efforts of Mr.Toews?

    Don’t get me wrong, I totally get the hypocrisy of Mr.Toews putting forward a bill that seems more about his own personal evils than any honest need. I can see why Anonymous might feel they MUST get involved to save Canada from this man’s ill considered blind crusade. I just wish they would either give Mr.Toews both barrels or say nothing.

    Perhaps Anonymous was going for a scare tactic because they don’t have any further dirt on Vic? Seems like the minister doesn’t have much fears and won’t be taking the threats seriously at least. In an open letter delivered on the weekend Vic’s crew seemed totally unconcerned about the threat chalking it up to the ‘usual politics’ saying the RCMP would be involved in this any future threats, with no plans to stop anything.

    So while this incident has been a great spotlight on Bill C-30, it looks like a toothless threat to deter a man who’s willing to label people as ‘child pornographers’ simply for not agreeing with him. Anonymous should have seen that one coming.

    SEO news blog post by @ 11:28 am


     

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