Sajal Kayan

Make your own cheap charlie CDN

CDN stands for Content Delivery(or Distribution) Network. It is a network of servers usually located in various geographic locations to improve the availability and access speed of a website (or webapp or other media). The main use of CDNs were during the nineteens when inter-continental access was slow, scarce and expensive. Origin server could be in the silicon valley, users from UK would access the node located in UK, so in theory only once the page would be downloaded from the US server to the UK server. Thus allowing the UK visitors to access the page locally resulting in a huge saving in inter-continental bandwidth costs and improved access times for the end users.

CDNs are traditionally a very expensive solution to implement if using any of the established providers. The solution in itself is not very complex. I am in the process of implementing my very own CDN. The benefits are simple.

• It would reduce load on the origin server
• Faster access if user downloads pages from a server closer to them
• Since load on origin server is low, faster access even if cache needs to be refreshed

Some major portions of the CDN I am looking to implement

1. Origin Server(s)
2. Geo targeting DNS servers
3. Squid Cache - Set as Reverse Proxy or web accelerator

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Posted in Linux, Webmaster Things, perl | No Comments »

Twitter logo redesign

I dont think any explaination is needed!

Posted in Humour, rants | 1 Comment »

Goodbye Alexa : Google Trends for websites is here!

Earlier, every now and then I would go to Alexa to see my ranking to massage my ego. Now, Google has come up with a reality check - Google Trends for websites.

Google announced a new layer to Google Trends in an official blogpost. Matt Cutts and Barry Schwartz also blogged about it.

So… How is this different? For starters it gives way more info than other existing tools.

• Regions the traffic came from (OK, analytics and Alexa shows it but this is much better presentation and also you can check it for any website)
• Also Visited : Shows which other websites most users of one website visit. This might be useless to some, but IMHO its the most useful feature.
• Also Searched for :  Very usefull for studying your users. and choosing what words to use.

Upon login, you can see an estimate of the unique visitors. in my case the estimate looked way lower than the actual. Here is how they estimate.

Trends for Websites combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users, powered by computer algorithms, and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information. Additionally, Google Trends for Websites only shows results for sites that receive a significant amount of traffic, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool.

In my case, Alexa puts me way ahead of websites I track. I know for fact that I should be lower than these. (click images to enlarge)

Google Trends does a reality check : Now, these results are more believable.

Posted in SEO, Webmaster Things | 1 Comment »

Open letter to Thailand’s Software Bullies

Kind attn : Microsoft Thailand (Sorry I cant read your Thai only website)
Kind attn : Lenovo Thailand (Sorry cant find name of contact on your site)
Kind attn : Prasert Charoonpaisal - General Manager - Personal Systems Group (PSG) - HP Thailand
Kind attn : Corporate Communications Dept. - Sony Thai Co., Ltd.
Kind attn : Asus Thailand (Sorry I cant read your Thai only website)
Kind attn : Acer Head Office - Acer Computer Co., Ltd.
Kind attn : Benq Thailand (Sorry I cant read your Thai only website)

Dear Sirs or Madams,

This is to bring to your notice that almost all notebooks available in Thailand come bundled with windows preloaded.

I had purchased a Sony VAIO 3 or 4 years ago which came bundled with Windows XP. Due to quality problems in the software provided, I had to switch over to a different Operating System. I have no claims on the licensing fee of the inferior software provided to me as during the time of purchase I had intended to use it, and I did for quite a while.

Now, the time has come for me to purchase a new notebook. A self conducted study at fortune town on June 20th 2008 reviled that almost all notebooks came with Windows pre-installed and the license bundled. On asking any of the vendors that I don’t want to pay for the license, I was informed it is impossible. The very limited selection of notebooks which do come without Windows pre-installed are bottom of the line models which are usually outdated or very heavy.

My questions to all of the addresses :-

1. Do you assume a non-windows user to not be able to afford your mid-segment notebooks?
2. Is your intention to force Linux users into buying a Windows license?
3. Is this an effort to form a cartel against Linux?

Question to all the notebook vendors :-

1. Do you refund any difference amount in case the buyer does not use the license?

Question to Lenovo :-

1. Lenovo USA does offer an interesting range of notebooks without Windows. Does Lenovo Thailand do the same?

Question to Microsoft :-

1. Do you refund any unused windows License?
2. I am aware of the software piracy issues in Thailand, but have you ever conducted a study as to how many non-windows users own a windows license? Do you reduce this number when publishing piracy rates?

Please respond, via comment form below in English only. The replies would help me decide weather or not to get a new notebook here in Thailand or order it in the States or Singapore, potentially making the Thai Government suffer a loss of tax revenue.

PS : Apologies to other companies who fit my criteria and I missed them out! They are also free to respond.

Regards,
Sajal Kayan

Update 1 : Thanks to @bact for translating to Thai and publishing on blognone.

Update 2 : Online discussions at blognone and ubuntuclub.

Posted in Linux, Thailand, rants | 10 Comments »

My nerdiness!

Seems today I have nothing better to do… or maybe too lazy to do actual work !

via Sugree

Nerd Test 1 :-

Nerd Test 2 :-

Posted in personal | No Comments »

Bangkok Bank is busy sucking Microsoft’s ‘certain body part’

Until today i used to be a big fan of Bangkok Bank. In fact everyone in my family and even their companies have been using Bangkok Bank as the primary bank, in many cases their only Bank. I was quite happy with their service, only recently opened an account in another bank for certain cool features that they have which is not the point of my rant here.

So… what changed today? Well I tried to do my first login to my BizIBanking (yeah lame buzzword) account. Following the instructions in the email, i clicked login and instead of the login screen I got…

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Posted in rants | 2 Comments »

BarCampChiangMai - Only one week to go!

This coming Saturday the geeks of Thailand are gonna congregate at Chiang Mai for the very first BarCamp at Chiang Mai. In fact May 2008 is the month for camping (ignore the heat and rain, geeks camp in Air Conditioned rooms). BarCampChiangMai on 17th May, and DrupalCamp Bangkok on 24th May both of which I intend to attend and probably speak at if I manage to hack up something worth presenting about.

The HUGE success at BarCampBangkok has shown the Thai geeks the need for more such events. In fact some of the attendees of BarCampBangkok have been organizing a monthly BarcampBangkok4Ever which is a smaller casual gathering of geeks at a coffee shop.

FYI

BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. The event will be bilingual, in both English and Thai.There is no audience, only participants. All participants should give a demo, a session, photos, videos or anything else. All presentation are scheduled immediately before the event by reserving slots at the venue.

Anyone with something to contribute is welcome.

The BarCamp at Chiang Mai would be organized on May 17, 2008 from 1000-1800 hrs at Payap University and is sponsored by Payap University, Codegent and Creative Hacker. With one more week to go 59 people have registered to participate. I would be staying the night of 17th at Chiang Mai and am looking for a roomie for the night to share the room expense. In case anyone is interested please leave a comment.

Posted in BarCampBangkok, BarCampChiangMai, Drupal | No Comments »

Me won Google schwag!

On last week’s Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz, Barry Schwartz of seroundtable.com said he would is expecting schwag from a few companies, and he ran a video contest. The contest was to predict which companies schwag would arrive first. The correct entries would get the schwag as a prize. Here was my answer.

great show.
for the quiz id say its Google!

i dont want others schwag

Now, I would get the schwag only if Google’s schwag came first and and it did. I already have one Google Shirt which i won answering an easier question at Barcamp Bangkok. Now this would be my second. Google schwag is not so common in this part of the world where we don’t have many webmaster conferences or events.

This weeks Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz (Winners names at the end) :-

Barry pronounced my name almost right. Impressive for someone who hasnt heard the name before…

Thanks a lot Barry Schwartz and Google, both of you rock!

Posted in SEO | No Comments »

My history

Stolen idea from Sugree…

Posted in Linux, personal | No Comments »

truewifi.net == big FAIL for usability

Today I got myself a true wifi package for 500 Baht/month. Its quite nice as our new office doesn’t have a fixed line yet… and true wifi’s signal reaches here….

I logged in to truewifi.net today to change my password, and found that everything is in Thai, that’s not bad as Thai people prefer reading in Thai. I looked around, couldn’t find a language switch until i found this in the top right corner.

(click image above for full screen shot)

Guessed it was for language switching based on the words in the url… Im sure an average English speaking internet user wouldn’t be able to figure this out.

My question to True is Why have an English version when only the Thai readers would be able to access it? or does True want to show the English version only to the Thai readers to show off. They didnt think anyone would actually need to use it.

The good part is they don’t have any blinking things on it yet.

Posted in Thailand | 2 Comments »