GDownloadUrl("address.xml", function(data) {
...
)}

Notice the bold area. “address.xml” is the file that contains all the xml data that has been collected and organized. I can pretty much download the file by entering in my address bar:  http://root url/address.xml. Voila, I have basically ripped off someone else’s data to be used as I see fit. Perhaps to create my own map!

I personally do not want to expose the location of my data file and allow others to download it.  To get around this issue, I have implemented a simple solution.

Rather than “address.xml”, I have created a new separate .php file. Let’s call it address.php. In that file, I check the referrer information to ensure that the request comes from the proper location. If it does, write the xml contents. If not, redirect them somewhere else.

<?php

    // prevent direct linking to xml files

 if($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] != '') {

          $xml_string = file_get_contents("xml_location/address.xml");

        echo $xml_string;  

 }else{    
     // redirect them somewhere if they try to direct link to this page
      header( 'Location: http://www.google.com' ) ;

 }

?>

For the Google map, replace xml file with php file

GDownloadUrl(“address.xml“, function(data) {  to:  GDownloadUrl(“address.php“, function(data) {

Simple as that. So if a curious viewer decides to enter “address.php” into there browser, they won’t get any data, just be redirected to some location you decide on.

There are also other ways to do this but IMO this is probably the simplilest and most effective.

Why should you do this even though you don’t actually utilize any programming on the page?

• Browsers cache pages. if a returning visitor comes back to that same page and you’ve made some changes to that page, that person may not see the change. They will only see their saved cache version. Yes there’s meta tags and tricks to try to get around it but it’s not guaranteed and not a very elegant solution. Server side scripting pages always serve up the latest content because when viewed because at each call to the page, the
• Don’t pigeon hole yourself. You never know when you may actually use some scripting on the page. If you suddenly need to add some scripting in the future, you’ll have to delete that page and create a brand new one.  Say goodbye to any links you’ve established with the client-side language pages.
• More powerful, flexible and gives you room to grow and learn. Similar to the above, it just gives you more options. Simple as that. It can also inspire you to learn some programming and more creative/advanced techniques in regards to web development.

In my opinion, creating standard client-side .html pages is basically useless nowadays and prevents your site from growing.

Special thanks to freddie.ca who inspired me to post this.

Unfortunately, the settings that control which email notifications get sent to you were lost. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

To reset your email notification settings, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?notifications

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

When Classmates.com told user Anthony Michaels last Christmas Eve that his former school chums were trying to contact him, he pulled out his wallet and upgraded to the premium membership that would let him contact long-lost fifth-grade dodge-ball buddies and see if his secret crush from high school had looked him up online.

But once he’d parted with the $15, Michaels learned the shocking truth: No one he knew was trying to contact him at all. Classmates.com’s come-on was a lie, and he’d been scammed.

Now he’s suing for being unpopular…oh and lied to. It’s been a while since classmates.com has been in the media circuit so I guess any news is good news?

Interesting news about classmates.com, one of the original social networking sites that just about everyone is a member. Problem is that no one I know has become a paying “gold member” so they can actually do anything on the site other than look at profiles. To me, classmates.com has become kind of a joke and made a huge mistake in not employing a free advertisment based business model like myspace.com or facebook.com as it still holds onto the subscription based revenue model. It does claims to have “40 million registered user” which I am not sure if I believe.

Google has just released today its’ beta broswer Google Chrome. Some have already dubbed it the “Browser Killer”.  I’ve been an avid Firefox user since the beginning, making the early switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox and am very curious as to how Google’s attempt at the browser market will be.

So far very impressed. Very clean, simple and this thing is FAST.  Some cool features include:

• Very clean and minimalistic approach
• Quick search as part of address bar
• Unique home page that displays your most visited sites in mini screenshot layouts
• Incognito browsing, aka Porn View - Pages you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer
• Did I already mention it is FAST?

Missing:

• Minimal customization and advanced settings (at least that I can see right now)
• No add ons or extensions
• Something is a bit off with the scrolling

Overall, very impressed with Chrome in the little amount that I have used it. I still love my Firefox with it’s addons and customization but Chrome is giving me a run for the money as my go to browser. Even in it’s beta stage, it’s already a worthy competitor.  In typical Google fashion, how long will it stay in beta? 1 year or 5??

Note: I posted this via Google Chrome.

I first noticed Rogers hijacking my browser when it first implemented it’s 60GB download cap per month. Once I reached 75% usage, a message would appear at the top of browser page indicating this with a check box to confirm I had read the message. Now I just noticed today that typing in www.asfdasd.com (or any other domain that does not exist) will yield you a custom Rogers/Yahoo Search page.

One thing that I noticed on the bottom was a link to “Learn More About this Page” which provides an opt out option:

These search results were provided because the domain name you entered into the address bar is either improperly formatted, currently unavailable, nonexistent, or part of a key word search. Rogers Supported Search Results is a service designed to enhance your web surfing experience by eliminating many of the error pages you encounter as you surf.

No software was installed on your computer for this service to work.
Click here if you would no longer like to receive the Rogers Supported Search Results service.

I’ve never been happy with Rogers. In fact, my disdain has become worse and worse lately with many of their actions. I’ll at least give them credit for providing an opt out option which I have just done.

You have successfully changed the selected landing page returned from the Rogers Supported Search Results service. If you would like to revert back to the default results page, simply delete your “search.rogers.com” cookie or return to options.search.rogers.com

NOTE: If you delete your cookies, or use a program that deletes cookies, you will have to repeat this process every time your cookies are deleted.

Unfortunately, all it does it put a cookie on your system. Every time you delete your cookies you’ll have to repeat the process of manually opting out. Sad Rogers, just sad.

After some research, I decided to give it a try and so far it has been running fairly well. Yes it is more bloated than previous versions however, I haven’t noticed any obvious slowdown to my computer. A few things to note is that I did not do the default installation and purposely disabled some features that have been known to cause some issues:

Download from the AVG site and not Download.com

From sitepoint.com forum post: I found something a little odd with AVG 8 (at least this was the case last weekend). If you download from AVG directly (rather than using Download.com) then during installation you are able to deselect the ‘feature’ of Search Shield which checks each website for malware after searching on Google/Yahoo/Live/etc. This slows down your browsing experience and is annoying.

How to install AVG without LinkScannerIf you wish to install AVG 8.0 Free Edition without the LinkScanner component, or uninstall this component from your program, please proceed as follows:

Download the AVG 8.0 Free Edition installation package from our website.
* Run the installation with the parameters /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch. One way to achieve this is to:

• save the AVG Free installation file directly to disk C:\
• open menu Start -> Run
• type c:\avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch

* The installation will be started, and AVG will be installed without the LinkScanner component.