What Causes a 404 Error

Reasons for 404 Errors
There are many reasons you will see 404 errors in your log files. In
case you forgot, a 404 error means a request was made for a file (or
an object) and it did not exist.

Some of the more common reasons are listed below.

- Renaming Pages-

There a few instances where the name of the page is changed. For
example, you might have originally created "associatedcontent.htm" and
changed it to "ac.htm". In these instances, be sure and create 301
redirects when you do this.

-Moving a Page-
At times, webmasters decide to reorganize their websites, in such
cases references to old pages may still exist. Even though it has been
transfered to a new hosting service or domain. This is especially true
of off-site references - search engines, link exchanges and others.
When you reorganize a site, you must remember to include 301
redirection to the new pages. This informs the search engines that
your pages have moved.

-Case Sensitive Operating Systems-
There are some operating systems which are case sensitive. On Windows
(IIS), the case (upper and lower characters) of files and folder names
does not matter. Windows will match "ThisIsAPage" and "thisisapage" as
identical. However, on Unix and Linux, these names are not identical.
In fact, you have have both at the same time. This will cause 404
errors. It's very common when webmasters move their site from Windows
to another operating system. In general, it's best to stick to
lower-case characters for file and folder names, regardless of the
operating system.

-Misspelling-
A very common reason for 404 errors is Misspellings. Sometimes users
do type URLs, especially if it's been printed on a business card, in a
magazine or in an advertisement. These URLs are often misspelled and
this causes 404 errors. To prevent this, you can create 301 redirects
for some common misspellings, and keep those URLs which are entered by
users short.

-Nimda and other Worms-

Many worms attempt to gain access to web servers by exploiting known
vulnerabilities. These often consist of strange URLs and bizarre
combinations of characters. The result is lots of 404 errors (assuming
your system is secure and it is not compromised). There is really no
way to prevent these errors.

-Used Domains-
If you purchase a domain name which has been previously owned, then
you might find yourself getting strange 404 errors for files and
directories which have no relation to your site. These are left over
from the previous owner. There probably isn't much you can do with
these, although you might set up 301 redirects for some of the more
active pages.

-Used TCP/IP Addresses-
If someone would have used the same TCP/IP address before, you might
be catching some of the old traffic. It wont be for long, but it will
create a lot of 404 errors.

-Robots.txt file-
The robots exclusion standard specifies that web sites should include
a file called robots.txt in their root directory. This file indicates
which parts of the web sites should NOT be spidered. Thus, spiders
will attempt to open this file, and 404 errors will result of the file
does not exist. You should always create a robots.txt file, even if
it's empty.

Thanks a lot, I hope it was useful for you. If you have any more
please let me know on my e-mail address.

Using Google Voice Without a Google Voice Phone Number

Google Voice is on the verge of revolutionizing the way we communicate
with each other, from personal reasons, to business matters and work.
Google Voice gives users the ability to carry on telephone
conversation over the computer, treat email like
they were voicemail, get free international calls (you will still
have to pay for your cell phone or land-line phone provider's long
distance charges), and read your voicemail like it was an email. There
are many very useful purposes for using Google Voice, including
customizing all of the greetings that your callers receive when they
are transferred to voicemail.

Tips on using Using Google Voice without getting a Google Voice phone
number start with knowing that using the Google Voice service without
the Google Voice phone number is sort of like buying a 4-G phone and
not getting text or web browsing capabilities from your service
provider. Google Voice has great features that make using and
organizing your emails and voicemails much more easy to use, and the
features are all customizable. You will not be able to record,
translate or transcribe your phone calls, emails or voicemails without
first getting a Google Voice phone number, but you will have great
options to work with your incoming phone calls and voicemails.

Using Google Voice with your personal phone numbers, either cell (3-G
and 4-G), land-line or computer-based, allows you to receive Google
Voicemail, an email like voicemail service. You can have your
voicemails transcribed by the computer, so that you can read them,
over and over if you so wish, from your computer, or any of your
web-enabled phones. You can also forward, imbed or download any or all
of your voicemails, giving you much more flexibility with dealing with
your voicemail account(s).

One great feature of Google Voice, used without the Google Voice phone
number (which gives you control over incoming phone calls) is that you
can make each separate incoming phone number have a distinct ring, or
have your computer say something, like "don't answer, it's the ex!".
You can
customize the greetings that each separate incoming phone number gets
when they are forwarded to voicemail, and then you can store the
transcribed voicemails for later reading.

International calls are free on Google Voice, but without the voice
over Internet protocol (VOIP) Google Voice phone number, you will have
to pay the normal long distance rates of your phone service
carrier(s). You can even share your voicemails with others, or store
them to your hard drive using Google Voice.

Adding a Google Voice phone number adds more than just the ability to
record any incoming phone calls, something which could be dangerous if
the person being recorded is not told of the recording before the
conversation, and finds out that you are sharing that conversation
with others. This has the potential to be a hot-potato income source
for litigious lawyers, but used with proper morals, and not
embarrassing the caller, can avoid any possible troubles.

Enjoy Google Voice. Try it out, if you really love it, sign up for a
Google Voice phone number to release the full potential of Google
Voice.

Excel Tips for Financial Spreadsheets

Excel spreadsheets are very suitable for financial sheets, with a
variety of formatting features, as well as numerical functions.
Overall, there are a few tips worth considering for Excel financial
spreadsheets.

To begin with the sort of financial spreadsheets that you can set up
in Excel. Typically, financial spreadsheets such as budgets are a good
suggestion for a spreadsheet. Alternatively, other accountancy sheets
such as P & L accounts and also Balance sheets make suitable financial
spreadsheets. Remember that more than one spreadsheet can be used for
any Excel worksheet.

Excel has a few templates for financial spreadsheets. Such templates
as the balance sheet, and sales invoice are good examples. To select a
spreadsheet template click new and then templates in the task pane.
From here, you can select an appropriate template.

With regard to formatting financial spreadsheets, it is recommended
that you use the accounting number format. To format the cells, simply
select the range of cells from the spreadsheet, right-click and select
format. Then you can select the number format accounting, and also
change to a suitable currency as well.

You should also make use of bold lines and borders for a financial
spreadsheet. For example, between various column or row headings, or
alternatively above cells that have numerical functions. Again, select
the relevant cells and then via the formatting menu go to the borders
menu. From here, you can edit the cells borders appropriately.

Cell shading is always good to include, although not essential. With
the conditional formatting option, cells with numbers below zero can
be changed to red shading. To do so, go to format and then conditional
formatting. Then, from here, the condition can be set.

Aside from the variety of formatting options, Excel also has financial
functions. For example, such functions as DDB return the depreciation
of an asset. Financial functions are selected from the function menu,
under the category of financial.

Comments, or notes, can also be added to a financial spreadsheet. With
these, comments and notes can be made for any cell or groups of cells
included on the spreadsheet. To add a comment to any cell, simply
right click and select comment. Then you can add the comment or
notification.
Cells with comments added, will include a small red marker in the top
right of the cell.

Overall, these are just a few tips for financial spreadsheets.
Financial functions, comments, conditional formatting and other
appropriate formatting such as accounting number format will enhance
any financial spreadsheet.

Benefits of Converting PowerPoint to MOV

For some reasons, you may want to convert your PowerPoint to MOV
files. So, what is a MOV file? What are the benefits of converting
PowerPoint to MOV, and how to convert PowerPoint to MOV?

What's MOV MOV is a file extension used by the QuickTime-wrapped
files. The format was created by Apple Computer to work with
multimedia files. Though MOV files are quite often found in the web,
to play them on Windows computer one has to install an extra component
or convert to other
format. MOV is a container format and can contain video, animation,
graphics, 3D and virtual reality (VR) content or text (for subtitles,
for example).

The advantage of MOV files is the ability to contain abstract data
references for the media data. That means that they can be easily
edited - no need to rewrite all media data after editing.

Benefits of Converting PowerPoint to MOV
PowerPoint is commonly saved with PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX file
extensions. To view a PowerPoint file, we will either need PowerPoint
or a PowerPoint viewer installed on the computer. Otherwise, we will
not be able to view the PowerPoint file. By converting PowerPoint to
MOV, this problem can be solved easily.

Besides, converting PowerPoint to MOV helps us to:
1. View PowerPoint files without a MS PowerPoint installed computer
2. Review PowerPoint in MOV format with iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC or Apple TV
3. Upload PPT files on video sharing sites or your own blog for
sharing with others

How to Convert PowerPoint to MOV
Now that there are so many benefits of converting PowerPoint to MOV,
how to do it? Wondershare PPT to video is just such a PowerPoint to
MOV video converter, which can help us easily convert PPT, PPTX, PPS
and PPSX to MOV with all things in the original presentation retained.

Here are the steps to convert PowerPoint to MOV with Wondershare PPT to Video:
1. Download the free trial version of the program here and install it
on computer
2. Click Add to import the PowerPoint files you want to convert to
MOV, 12 PPT files can be converted at a time
3. Set the output video format to MOV, and change the output video
resolution if necessary
4. Click Start to start the conversion process.

Try it now, expand the way you share your PowerPoint by converting
PowerPoint to MOV.

What is Google Voice?

An Overview of Google Voice
Google Voice is the new name for Google's GrandCentral email
forwarding system, which will give the user a phone number for their
Google Voice account. You can then give this number out to people, and
when they call you, you can then store their incoming number, so
that you can have a different ring tone for them, and store their
number in a group, like "friends", "the boss", or "family". Once
stored, you can change the settings for each individual caller,
routing their calls to specific phones, the computer or straight to
voice mail.

At no cost to the user, except for your normal telephone charges,
Google Voice will forward voicemail to where you have routed the
number to go, so that a voicemail from your wife would go straight to
your 3-G phone, and one from your boss would go straight to your cell
phone or laptop. And the computer can read the voicemail to you, as
long as you have voice recognition software installed and running
properly. Phone calls into your cell phone can be taken at the
computer, and vice-versa, making one number have complete control over
all of your telecommunications gear.

Google Voice has the potential to take over the telecommunications
market with the demographics of people between the ages of 16 and up.
If you have a land-line telephone, cellular telephone, and voice over
Internet protocol (VOIP) phone numbers, you can have all of them ring
at the same time when receiving a call through Google Voice. On top of
your computer ringing as well, in order to amalgamate all of your
telephones into one customizable service, you will be able to block,
avoid or include any incoming calls, from any source, through any
source.

When you combine a Google Voice phone number, at no cost, with your
existing telephone numbers, landline and/or mobile, you can have all
of your phones ring at the same time when you have an incoming Google
Voice phone call. Answer the call
with any, or the closest phone, or leave it to Google to take care of
if you are busy, or just don't want to talk to who's calling. Google
Voice has caller ID, which will show you the name, phone number,
Google Voice number, email address and/or screen name of the person
calling.

For people who are hard of hearing, the deaf, or the simply lazy,
Google Voice will be able to display the name of the person calling
your cell phone on your computer's display. You will also be able to
have a different ring announcement for each number that calls, so you
can have the computer say "Mom is calling" when you mother calls. For
people that you do not want to talk to, you can put their name or
number in the blocked calls list, and when they call you, their call
will go straight to voicemail.

Google Voice's voicemail feature is also interactive, allowing you to
read what the voicemail says, or listen to it. International calls are
offered at extremely competitive rates, and you can share your
voicemails with all of your contacts, some of them, or just one, and
you can download the voicemails as well. This is ideal for when you
enter into contracts over the phone, so that you can prove what the
caller actually told you, making aggressive sales pitches easier to
disprove.

Answer your cell phone with the computer, or answer your computer with
your 3-G phone, it is all the same, and the only costs will be your
normal phone access fees. The best part of Google Voice, though, may
be the ability to have your computer read your voice messages to you,
or to store all cell phone calls for later reading.

There may be a line-up of lawyers waiting to file lawsuits with the
ability to record cell phone conversations without the caller first
being told that the call may be recorded, but the service, if working
as described, should revolutionize the personal phone market.

Google Voice will revolutionize your phone use, and blow your mind.

How to Change Your Gmail Username

Want to change you gmail username? Well you can't. But there is
something you can do. Go and make another gmail account then you can
move your data from your old to the new account. So to do this just
follow the below steps.

1./ Make a new account. (Just make sure you sign out of the old
account so you will be able to click the create an account on the
login
page.

2./ So you have created your new gmail account and are logged in. Look
up the top left hand side of the page and you will see the "settings"
link. Click Account & Import tab. Check mail using POP3. Then enter in
the following information.

Username: Old gmail email address
Password: Password for your old gmail account
POP server: pop.gmail.com
Port: 995
Always use secure connection: checked
Label incoming messages: checked

Now you will have all your old emails sent to your new gmail account
and it will also send any new email you have sent there as well until
you decide to discontinue the old email address.

3./ Now go and export all of your old contacts from the old account
Just use the instructions on the Export Gmail contacts page. Take note
of where you save the csv file. Go to your new gmail account and use
the import to put all your old contacts into your new account.

If you have other goole products you can go to
http://www.dataliberation.org/ where they should have all the
information need to move data from one google product to another
(calendars etc).

Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case

One of the latest new products on the market for cell phone users is
the Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case. These uniquely designed
cases are being advertised to reduce the radiation that reaches the
brain when using a cell phone. For years there have been debates about
radiation
and the damage caused from constant cell phones use. The Pong Cell
Phone Radiation Reduction Case is a product that addresses this
problem. Pong Research has created a radiation reduction case which
currently limited to certain cell phone models but hopefully will
expand the variety of models in the future. According to the
information provided with the product this is the first cell phone
product that is said to reduce the radiation thus reducing the
propensity for brain and salivary gland damage.

Since cell phones have been a popular item over the past 15 to 20
years it has been thought that constant use could eventually cause
brain damage with prolonged use over a certain period of time.
According to the research provided by the makers of the Pong Cell
Phone Radiation Reduction Case the risk was as high as 80% for people
who have used cell phones for ten years or longer (www.pongresearch).

The Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case is a form fitting case
that at this time is designed to fit certain models of phone include
the iPhone 3g and 3GS. The theory behind the product is that there is
an embedded pong module that provides protection when cell phone users
habitually engage in heavy cell phone use.

The Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case is made of lightweight
silicone and is designed with the protective Pong Gold PCB module.
Again the product is currently designed for specific models; however
the Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case does not interfere with
easy access to the features and controls of the phone.

Currently the Pong Cell Phone Radiation Reduction Case is available
from the official web site for Pong Research for specific phone
models. The retail price for the radiation reduction case is
approximately $59.95. For the owner of an iPhone, 3G or 3GS this is
actually a great gift item
or stocking stuffer to consider for a special occasion or during the
holiday season. For more information on the Pong Cell Phone Radiation
Reduction Case visit the official web site for Pong Research.

www.pongresearch.com

A Guide to Using Bing

Bing is Microsoft's foray into the search engine business, with a
fully customizable home page that has explosively-rich colored
pictures in high definition, with little factoids hidden like the
"Easter eggs" from video games on the pictures. And this is just the
home page, where you
decide what you are going to do. Bing is feature rich and
aesthetically pleasing, and has many great features that start with
the amazingly crisp and beautiful pictures on the home page, of which
when you scroll the cursor around, you will find those hidden "Easter
egg" factoids. A guide to using Bing would start with the home page's
options.

On Bing's home page, the user has the choice between the "Bing", "MSN"
and "Hotmail" links on the top, left-hand corner of the picture. The
Bing link will be inactive, since that is the page that you would
presently be on. Clicking on MSN takes you to MSN's home page, and
clicking on Hotmail takes you to your MSN email page, MSN's Windows
Live, where one Windows Live email address allows you to show all of
your emails on the one page. Sign up, include all of your email
addresses, then enjoy seeing all of your emails on the one page. At
the far-right side of Bing's front page, the user can choose between
the "Make Bing your search provider", "Sign in", "Canada" and
"Preferences" links (for those of you in other countries, "Canada"
will be your country).

Selecting Bing's "Make Bing your search provider" link will turn your
search engine box use the Bing search engine, as opposed to the one
that you had been using before selecting the link, and once selected,
the link will no longer show, unless you chabge preferences and
deselect Bing's search engine. Selecting the "sign in" link takes you
to the MSN Live sign in page. Signing in keeps your searching
preferences saved and your email open.

Selecting the link that is your country takes you to Bing's search
engine for your country, and selecting the Preferences link takes you
to the Bing preferences page, where you can change your preferences
for searches. Your preferences include;

A. General Settings. Apply to all of your searches.

1) SafeSearch. A filter to filter out adult-oriented pictures, text
and video from your search queries.

2) Location. Allows you to input a geographical area, by city and
State (or Province), or by Postal Code. Here, you should enter either
where you live or where you are researching makes sense for logical
choices to change the geographical area to. Searches relevant to the
area
selected will be given priority in the returns.

3) Display. Select the lanhuage that you want the searches to be
performed and returned in.

B. Web Settings. Settings that apply solely to your Web search queries.

1) Results. You can choose how many results are returned per page.
also has a box to select if you want to have all links opened in new
windows.

2) Search Suggestions. Selecting the box will enable search
suggestions, which change as you type, offering the most logical or
most frequently selected sites related to what you have typed into the
search box so far.

3) Search Language. Narrow your search results by selecting one or
more languages that the search engine will use for it's search.

At the bottom of the Preferences page, you can select the "restore
default settings" link to change all of the settings to the way they
were when you first opened the Bing Preferences page.

Bing's search engine box, located near center of the page, has a few
links over top of it that will narrow your search results even more,
thereby giving fewer results to pour over. You can search the Web, for
Images, Videos, News, Maps or "More". Selecting the "More" link adds
xRank and Translator to the options. xPage is like pagerank, where it
shows what and who the most people are searching for. Translator
instantly translates everything into the chosen language.

On Bing's home page, for those of you who are blown away by the
beautiful and crisp pictures, you can browse through a set of
pictures, by selecting the little arrow keys at the bottom-right hand
corner of the picture. Each picture has it's own hidden factoids, so
scroll your cursor over the picture, and learn more than what you had
intended to.

Enjoy Bing! It will change the way you search for information on the Internet.