Posts tagged tips

Starters guide to SEO

Nov30
2011 4 Comments Written by Prasad

One part of my role at Pristine is building up the site traffic, be it via Paid Advertising, Referral traffic or via Search Engines.

Anyone who has indulged in Paid Advertising would know how expensive it can turn out to be if you do not know what you are doing. It can be very effective in the short term, however for long term and more sustainable results, relying on non-paid search results is far better. Hence SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

The problem with SEO is that almost everyone who has a website think that they should do SEO, and SEO is playing around with meta tags. Seems simplistic no? In the past month or so, the amount of people whom I have talked to regarding to SEO has shown how less people know about the workings. Add to it the complexity of the ever-changing algorithm of search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.

The idea behind SEO is to target specific keywords for specific pages on your site, so that when your target audience searches for those keywords, your site shows up in the search results.

Here are some tips which I would have appreciated when I started off. Please do keep in mind, that I am no self-professed expert in SEO, just that like all of us around here, even I am learning, and this post is one such humble attempt to share whatever that I have learned, and what I know works to get results. Having said that, I know it would help all of us if you could point out any errors that i have made, or make suggestions and provide additional tips!

  • Read up on your meta tags, some of them are useful. Make a note of the description and author tags, you would be working with description the most.
  • Do not target more than 2-3 keywords per page, since you have to use that keyword in all the different important sections of the page viz., description tag, title tag, h1 tag, main content, etc. you cannot really target 1-2 keywords without damaging the copy of your page.
  • If you are working with a tight budget, then use a free tool such as Traffic Travis, the demo version is free. If you have a decent sized budget, then I would highly recommend Pro SEO MOz, it not only has a very comprehensive SEO tool, but also it has an extensive knowledge base on SEO
  • Search Engine’s maintain the authority of websites, this is generally a factor of how well you write, and how many sites are linking to your content. Google especially is one search engine which rewards regular content creation, in fact the current search algo (don’t know why its called the panda update) also favors freshness of content. So the same page would rank higher if it were regularly updated.
  • Always look at the different search terms via which people are coming to your site. Those are essentially content creation triggers!
  • Many people swear by backlinking, citing different open directories to publish your site links. However, I am skeptical about this approach. The one thing I use this approach for is to check where are my competitors linking, and get my presence their as well. I think if you can create good quality content, then it will automatically fetch the backlinks that you require.
  • Search engines are also influenced by social behavior, so typically the search results shown in Google would be influenced with what your friends are sharing on your social networks. E.g- If I share this post on say Twitter and if you are following me on Twitter, then you would definitely see this as a search result!
  • SEO is a long drawn game, and it requires patience, practice and discipline. Do not expect magic to happen, it’s a slow and gradual process and does not happen over night. To hope for such miracles, either you need to be Larry Page or Steve Ballmer.
Posted in business, Technology, work - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Crawl tips

Nov07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

Earlier this year, I had blogged about a new Rogue-like game by the name of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Better known as Crawl.

The appeal to this game, is that it’s not a simple grind-based game and it is definitely not meant for n00bs. To them, I would suggest World of Warcraft, which has a simple learning curve, and is currently loosing support due to the ever increasing nerfs to the game dynamics.

The game is not easy, and a n00b can easily die if not cautious. Here are some tips for beginners -

  1. Do your research on the races – It helps if you are aware of each races pros and cons. Pick one which suits your style, for e.g – if you are a melee type of person who likes to be at the fore front of a battle, then it would be foolish to select a magic affine race such as Deep Elf, or a stealthy race such as Spriggan.
  2. Know your classes – The race + class combination is absolutely essential. Certain classes work well with certain races. A Spriggan berserker is asking for trouble, is it not? Even more disastrous would be a Troll Wizard.
  3. Know your skills – There are certain skills which you will be better suited for with your race + class combination. Exercise more of those skills, and become better at them. It helps your attack power and can help you down the largest of the lot.
  4. Worship the Gods – There are lots of Gods to be worshipped in Crawl. Select your God wisely, since there are melee-based gods and magic-based gods. You do not want to be a caster and worship Trogg for example, he prevents magic use. Similarly, you do not want to be a necromancer and worship the Shining One who forbids the use of necromancery.

A list for beginners is here.

I personally favor Melee-based characters, but have done good with casters as well. What about you?

Posted in games - Tagged , , , , ,

Microsoft Livechat on Ubuntu

Sep19
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

If you are just starting out on Ubuntu, then the forums are a good place to search for your doubts. You are not the first person stuck with some problem or glitch. Millions of people out there have faced them, and overcome them. The forums are the intrepid user’s best friend.

I have completely shifted bases to Ubuntu for my home system, one of the teething problems I had was using a Microsoft Livechat headset with Ubuntu. The headset is USB based, and Ubuntu does require some tweaking to start using the headset.

This is what you need to do -

  1. Open a terminal, and type

    sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

  2. At the bottom of the file, make an entry

    blacklist snd_hda_intel

That’s it! Now simply restart your machine so all the modules get reloaded, the headset will now work.

About the blacklist.conf file

The blacklist.conf file is used to indicate to the system of which modules to ignore. Sometimes, multiple modules are addressing the same device, and that ensures that the device will not work. So, the blacklist file is used to indicate which module to be ignored.

Posted in linux - Tagged , ,

WoW on Wine

Sep11
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

No, I don’t drink and raid :)

I recently have taken a lot to playing World of Warcraft during my free time (I think this also reflects pretty well on the blog :-) ). I also have bought a good powerhouse of a desktop, and had dual booted it with WinXP and Win7. The problem with Win7 is that I have the 64-bit trial distribution and it hangs a lot, it has driver issues. The problem with WinXP is that its WinXP :-)

I am not that much of an operating system nazi, but the machine slows, down, the wireless network card that I am using is not fully utilized (WinXP sucks when it comes to driving the wireless interface!!). All in all, when it comes to playing an Online RPG, the environment does not deliver it’s 100%. Thus, I tried to give Ubuntu a try.

  • I already had the 11.04 distro with me, so the first thing I did was update all the repositories, include the third party repositories, and install Wine. Wine stands for WINdows Emulator. You can read more about Wine here.
  • After Wine, I went for installing Winetricks, which is a third party software. It’s used to easily streamline commands via a wizard which otherwise I would have been forced to use the console.
  • Somehow the Wine commands that get integrated into the shell (the right click menu of your explorer) are a bit different from the wine that got installed. So at first the program refused to run giving some obscure access management errors.
  • So, refusing to be let down, I went and searched for third party alternatives. You can skip this step, and definitely do not install the Crossover Games application because its just a trial, however, the PlayOnLinux (POL) application is recommended here, since after installing that, at least the icons of the .exe files will be visible
  • However, when I ran the Launcher.exe of World of Warcraft via the custom command console (by right clicking on it and selecting Open with Other Application, and then simply typing wine in the command box)
  • That’s it. Now the World of Warcraft launcher will run, and the game runs seamlessly

Since the game does not use the latest DirectX drivers, instead it replaces them with its own set, the textures and the games will be slightly different. I noticed a different texture for the water in WoW for example. But otherwise, the game is perfect for running. The network card works better, so I get a faster ping rate.

Posted in games, linux, Technology - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

10 things you need to do as a programmer

Jul09
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

Computer Engineer? Software Developer? Programmer? I have been in those shoes for quite some time, and I thought that I might share these tips with you folks. The article was originally published on Crazyengineers, but I have added to those and edited the article a bit.

  1. Read: Not only technical textbooks, but also other material. It gives you a good break from the programming, and it also builds your capacity to read and interpret long business requirement sheets.
  2. Cogitate: Before jumping into any program, think it through. Do you know the exact logic to be written? Do write down on a piece of paper what you intend to do. It may sound trivial but writing down helps clarify the problem.
  3. Communicate: Talk with your team mates, friends, colleagues, seniors, clients (if you get the chance) … talk about the project, talk about the technology involved … it helps solve problems that you could be stuck, it also helps you in understanding the subject matter better.
  4. Collaborate: Offer to help your team mates, understand what they are working on. There is a deep satisfaction in helping your friends and colleagues. Not only do you learn new things, but also you earn the respect of those colleagues.
  5. Why?: Do not be afraid to ask this question. Sacred cows can be slaughtered when you ask questions. One who asks a question may seem a fool, one who does not remains so forever.
  6. Revisiting: Do not cringe from revisiting your own code. It gives you an opportunity to improve your work.
  7. Change: It is constant. Businesses change, systems change, people change, requirements change, and scopes as well change! Do not for once think that a static view of applications is acceptable. So when you work on something do ensure that it is flexible and open to change.
  8. Documentation: This is the key to your freedom. If you do not do enough of this, you will never be able to make your work independent of you. In this case, you will never be relieved of that task. Point number 5 becomes all the more important!
  9. Humility: Do not be ashamed for asking help. Help within the team, to seniors … even asking for help on public forums and IRC networks. Most people are more than happy to help someone who asks nicely.
  10. Disconnect: Sometimes you need to stop the fast pace of work, and take breaks. Go on outings on the weekends, go out with your friends, your family. Connect offline and disconnect from work. It helps.
Posted in work - Tagged , , , ,

Bored in WoW: Things to do

Jun16
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

bored

Have you ever waiting for minutes on end in the dungeon queue? Reached Level 85 and not known what else to do? Gotten bored by playing mind-numbing quests one after the other?

If you have been playing World of Warcraft for as long as I have been playing, then I am sure that you would have gotten jaded a bit with the continuous onslaught of Dungeons, Raids, PVP and Quests.

I have seen perfectly fine guilds as well as guild leaders throw their arms in despair and just stop playing WoW after getting too bored to play the game. Well, if you can identify with what I am talking about, then read on further … if you are wondering what the hell I am talking about, there’s this super awesome game that you have to check-out. It’s called World of Warcraft!!

  1. Level up your professions – It might seem mundane at first, but the awesome kind of items you get at the higher levels is definitely worth it. Not only are you adding a few Achievements to your belt, but helping out your guild as well. Not to mention the kind of trade surplus you get at the Auction House (AH).
  2. Auctioneering – Speaking of the auctions, the AH is a good place to hunt good items and good trade deals. If you see a poorly priced item, buy it and promptly put it on the AH again. Pure profit!! In fact this point deserves a post or two!
  3. Miss Goody-two-shoes – Become a good-two-shoes in your guild and offer help to anyone who is stuck or lost at any level. There is joy in contribution :-) . Keep a limit to offering a helping hand thought. Like help a n00b a day types :-)
  4. Achievements – Do your research, and go after weird Achievements. Or Achievements which talk of sheer determination like The Explorer, or Loremaster, etc.
  5. Guild Achievements – Try getting towards the Guild Achievements. Your Guild officers will herald you and everyone will be the happier.

I will add to this list, but putting together this list has given me an urge to play WoW!

Posted in games - Tagged , , ,

Indian Services: A bleak future

Jun08
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

With the Indian economy shifting from an agrarian focus to a service-based industry, a lot of foreign investors are attracted to the nation. However, the sustainability of this is under question. As service experiences from bad to worse and consumers are crying bloody murder in the courts, how will the Great Indian Dream be achieved?

The word service comes from the term – to serve, i.e. to work for another.

I am sure you will agree with me that this is hardly the case these days. To measure the quality of service, all service providers have come up with an excuse called as SLAs (Service Level Agreements). What it means is that the service provider is giving certain time limits for each of his failures, and he won’t recognize the failure until and unless that SLA has been crossed.

Ironically, its very logical and you can’t argue against this. But zoom out a bit and think seriously, if you are providing SLAs for life and death services, what would happen? I won’t call you sick, until you have been sick for three days. Dead until, you have been dead for a day.

I won’t spring into action until and unless the given time goes by.

I will ignore your pleas, until you start shouting murder at me. Then I will create tickets, and play the game of the escalation matrix. Then I will care, and once the issue is resolved, I will stop caring.

As consumers, what can we do?

Well for starters -

  1. Read the SLA’s before taking on the service. Do they seem reasonable? Try negotiating on the SLAs and make them sharp.
  2. Clearly define the Plan ‘B’ – What happens if the impossible does happen? What happens if a service promising 99.95% uptime goes down? Who takes the risk and who takes the hit?
  3. Danda works top-down. Sad, but true. Remember that. If you want the cronies to spring into action, knock at the top.
  4. Get a back-up. It’s expensive, it’s redundant, but it’s a safety net ready to catch you when Plan ‘A’ fails.
  5. There’s an interesting start-up Akosha, consider contacting them
  6. Lastly, switch providers and rinse repeat!
Posted in business, work - Tagged , , , , ,

Rise of Nations: Roman Castle in Age I

May14
2011 3 Comments Written by Prasad

Sounded innocuous and impossible to me too. But get this, it CAN be done, and it works well in border push strategy.

If you are Romans in Rise of Nations, then do give this tip a try to put your opponent on the backfoot. No one wants to attack a well defended outpost, even if the outpost is right next to your borders especially because its being guarded by a castle, and god knows how many units are garrisoned in there! Add to the additional territory push that Roman castles have, and you are literally taking away the opponents lands!

The key to this tactic is getting early ruins.

Remember, that Romans have Mil 1 researched at the start. A castle costs 281 wood.

Here’s what you do -

  1. Go Sci 1
  2. Do NOT build farms, they consume wood.
  3. Instead fill up on lumber by all the villagers you create
  4. Use the additional villies and scout to capture ruins
  5. Start building 4 outposts (do not complete the building, just start the building so you consume the wood that you are getting via ruins, so now you keep getting wood via ruins). The key is to keep your wood lower than the rest of the resources without really using up wood.
  6. Once you have 4 outposts queued. Now start building the farms, and booming. Target Civ 1
  7. Once you have Civ 1, go near your opponents border and plonk your second city there.
  8. Cancel the outpost building (all 4 of them). This should give your wood back to you!
  9. Now start building the castle!

Now you have a well defended outpost as your opponents next door neighbor. Start booming, build a barracks, and garrison some units in there.

And remember to PUSH!

Posted in games - Tagged , , , ,

Rise of Nations: Raiding

Apr21
2011 4 Comments Written by Prasad

So I was talking to King Ameya (who often comments on my Rise of Nations posts). He was mentioning that the previous post on Heavy Cavalry was actually a lesson on raiding.

For those who are new to the game, raiding is a concept where you use a small armed force to take down the economy of the opposing nation by attacking commercial resources (merchants, caravans, timber mill, mines, etc). That way, you generate resources whereas your opponent is struggling to get off a good start.

At the advanced levels, rushing is considered to be an amateur tactic and a pro can easily fend off a rush. What works instead is constant raiding and an expert can actually bring down opponents by doing this the entire game.

The best way to showcase this is by giving you a recording of a game that I played with King Ameya. He was Iroquois and I was Bantu. It was pre-decided that he is going to raid and I thought that let’s boom for a change and see how much could a raid impact my economy.

See for yourself!

At the end of the game, I had four cities, but virtually zero resources and no barracks to fend myself. Two of those cities fell at the same time and I had to give in. Raiding can be lethal if carried out properly.

Some points to note -

  1. Scout early and scout often; by the 3rd minute Ameya had the entire map scoured and almost all the ruins were consumed for resources
  2. Small attacks, first aimed at merchants and caravans, then at villagers and resources
  3. Raiding gives you resources, having a Despot increases your gains
  4. You do not need a massive force to deal the final blow
Posted in games - Tagged , , , ,

Rise of Nations: Use of Heavy Cavalry

Apr11
2011 3 Comments Written by Prasad

image A major part of all Alexander the Great’s battle strategy included cavalry. The light cavalry for quick raids (which I shall cover in a separate post) and the heavy cavalry (or his Companions as the vanguard unit). In fact the fall of Alexander was largely attributed due to a mutiny amongst his vanguard troops.

Learn from history.

A liberal use of heavy cavalry units right from the start of the game can really make a difference between a well fought battle and a whooping victory. Here’s how -

When I was playing a random map, I was given Mongols (but I mistook them for Lakota!! mea culpa!!). Fortunately, my strategy was unaffected by misinterpretation, I still was going to make Stables, and raid early with cavalry, and then focus on an army of heavy cavalry. The map style was Himalayas, so that helped!

  1. Start booming and race to Age II. Have a barracks ready and some defense troops.
  2. After Age II, go Mil2 and Sci2
  3. Build a Stable, and get a Despot
  4. Have 2 Heavy Cavs, and 2 Horse archers ready. This alongwith the Despot is your flash army.
  5. The flash army can move fast (doubly so if used forced march), ambush and patrol the enemy territory for taking out merchants, caravans and resource buildings
  6. It can also hold a sizeable army until you build defenses and/or send reinforcements
  7. Start building your main army slowly and steadily using the resources from raiding while your flash army keeps the enemy engaged. I prefer to build a separate artillery force (3 trebuchets and a supply wagon) and make an attack on one of the outposts
  8. A small bit of micro-management and you should get one of the computer’s cities
  9. The cool part about focusing on Heavy cavalry on a map like Himalayas is that wood and iron is abundant, so siege weapons come easily.
  10. Even if you fail at doing well early on the game, keep your heavy cavs alive and they turn into formidable tanks!

I myself am not that big into cavalry, but today while mistakenly taking the Mongols for Lakota, I realized just about how awesome they can be. I had roughly 4-5 HI, 2 bowmen, 6-7 Heavy cavs, a despot, 4 cannons and a supply wagon with some heavy archers to spare (Mongols, get them free for each stable, so did not keep a count, although I had 3 stables). Almost all of my food came from raiding and sacks.

Posted in games - Tagged , , , , , ,
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