Microsonic Development

Web traffic; it’s the “money-maker” for many webmasters. But is all traffic really a good thing? Well, this is a topic that isn’t quite “black and white” so to speak. Traffic can have many affects on a site, both positive and negative. Ultimately, good traffic is defined as frequent visitors, or a visitor who buys your product (if you’re selling something). Bad traffic, on the other hand, consists of mostly anything else: spam, abusers, web-surfers, etc.

We will begin by discussing the positive effects of all traffic. Having good traffic, obviously, cannot hurt you. There is no way that comes to mind that I can think of in which good traffic will hurt your site; be it resale value or otherwise (thus its name, “good” traffic). If you’re getting tons of good traffic, your site is booming, and if you ever want to sell it, that raises it’s value!

Now, bad traffic can also have some (temporarily) “positive” effects. If you’re running a site which does not worry about visitor comments spam hits and robots shouldn’t be much of a problem for you. In fact, they may make your stats look great at first glance, and you may even be able to catch a gullible buyer and convincing him or her (by not saying anything more than to look at the visitor count) that the traffic is great! However, for those serious domainers, etc. they will check those stats down to the IP’s of the visits. When they track back all those IP’s to public proxies, and known spam bots they will throw the name back in your face and your sale will fall through.

So in the end, all traffic does not quite turn into good traffic. It is indeed a great factor for any sale of a site, but visitor turn around is what really matters. So when analyzing your own traffic, check as if you were buying your site up and take steps to minimize spam traffic!

Regards,
Dennis M.

Hey everyone!

As many of you may or may not know, Microsonic used to be a hosting company. From 2005-2008 I ran the site as “Microsonic Hosting.” In 2009, however, I decided to make it a more specialized place consisting of my thoughts and sharing my skills with others. Today, however, an idea ran across my head: re-open the hosting branch. So in this topic, I’ll take you through my head a bit more.

Well, what does this entail? The mere thought makes one wonder what would happen to the current site. Well, it would remain the same. As I mentioned, it would be a “branch” of Microsonic Development. I actually run “Microsonic Development” as a freelance programming company, so I may even revamp this to being much more than simply a blog! A hosting company that is not run by C/O’s who know very little about what they’re selling, but rather a professional selling services to another professional. Keeping in mind the reason I closed up shop in the first place, however, is also very important.

Due to lack of business and trying to keep prices low, costs built up and I ended up taking a loss on the whole project unfortunately. Not that I am in it to solely make a profit, but just like for everyone else, finances are tight. But then again, in retrospect it is important to think about what caused the collapse. My lack of advertising was the ultimate beast that did it in in the first place. All clients I had were extremely happy and very upset when I announced the initial closing of the company, however, had more people known about the satisfaction perhaps more members would have joined.

So now, as I continue to ponder my own thoughts, what are you personal thoughts? Perhaps I should specialize? Rather than web hosting, perhaps I will provide shell or VPS hosting? Let me know what you think! Your thoughts are, as usual, very helpful for me as they inspire my decisions about how to proceed in certain actions and what kinds of articles to write!

Regards,
Dennis M.

I’d like to begin this post with an apology to all my subscribers. It has been over a month since I’ve posted anything! This is because I have been involved in a very large project which I should hopefully be finishing very soon (yes, I’m still not finished with it). And without further adieu:

Server Maintenance. It’s a love-hate relationship really. One never knows how long it’s truly going to take, so you generally lose a lot of precious uptime due to it. On the other hand, it keeps the system running strong and fast so it can keep up with other servers.

This server even has some scheduled maintenance coming up very soon (I believe Sunday October, 11 at 9:00am CST, but I could be wrong). But it’s not always a thing to get angry about. In the time it takes to update the server, most people won’t lose any clients.

Most companies or users try to find a time (analyzing statistics) where their traffic is the lowest. During this time is when they normally try to schedule maintenance if it’s possible. This already minimizes the amount of clients lost. Also, maintenance normally lasts an hour or so (but I’ve had experiences with up to 24) and then you come back to a much faster working network.

So overall, this server maintenance thing is really a blessing in disguise. Although you will get some immediate frustration that you cannot access your site, you will be able to come back to a quick server. Not only quick (by way of RAM), but many times a quicker internet speed as well (a connection update!).

Regards,
Dennis M.

It has been a long while since I’ve posted a C or C++ tutorial, but here comes another one! I try to help with programming tips on various forums across the internet. I am a fluent English and Italian speaker, so naturally I work on forums of both languages. While browsing an Italian forum, I came across an interesting question. How does one convert a C++ string to a vector. I decided I would lend a hand, and it bears repeating on here.

Vectors can be used for various things in C++, but they are for the more advanced programmer really. They are not really necessary if it is not a complex program, but this tutorial could serve useful for many I’m sure.

I myself was at first puzzled by the question. I had never thought of a reason to do this and so, frankly, I never have. After some thought, it wasn’t too bad, but still an interesting concept. I’ll post the code below and then explain further below that. Comments are in both English and Italian. The reason being is what I previously mentioned about the original reason I wrote this code.

/**
* String to Vector Tutorial by Dennis M.
*
* un tutorial di microsonic.org
*
*/

// Include files ~ Includere i file
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
// Declare Variables ~ Definire i varibili
string data = "one - uno";
vector<string> vect;

// Insert data into vector ~ Inserire l'informazione in il vector
vect.push_back(data);
data = "two - due";
vect.push_back(data);
data = "three - tre";
vect.push_back(data);

// Loop to view the contents of the vector ~ Loop per vedere i contenti di il vector
for(unsigned int i=0;i<vect.size();i++){
cout<< i << ": " << vect.at(i) << endl;
}

// Memory Management ~ Ci sicuriamo la memoria!
vect.clear();

return 0;
}


Now the code is pretty self-explanatory and the comments I think do a pretty good job. The only thing one may be perplexed about is where the functions and pointers come from. If you examine the documentation (header file?) for a vector, all is clearly defined. This example will also print the vector and clear it before it exits.

So I hope this post is of some service to someone and as usual, I have included the source and binaries in the post!

String to Vector Tutorial

Regards,
Dennis M.

Well, it’s been a very long time since I last updated and I’d like to apologize to all my subscribers for that. I’ve been very busy, but it seems the work load is going down and I’ll have more time to continue writing! Now, on with the article.

So recently, I have just finished a project where one developer had started and then decided he could not finish the work, so I was hired to finish it. The natural thought to one who is inexperienced is, “This will be a cakewalk. Most of the programming is already done!” – wrong. The first thing that went through my mind was, “I wonder how bad this really is.” So, I accept the project (as I had only a few projects at the time) and take a look.

The code was atrocious to say the least. I felt as if this other developer had never learned how to use comments or his tab key/space bar to format. Most of the time on the project was bent around figuring out what the original developer had tried to do. It was a nightmare.

As I started digging through files and files of unnecessary sloppy code, I thought to myself, “I need to write something about this. This kind of work needs to stop.” I was not upset because of the amateur programming, nor the fact that it was undocumented and poorly written. What bugs me is the fact that someone paid for that kind of work. It looked like the developer copy/pasted everything from snippets he or she found online. That being said, one must learn the importance of structure and coding etiquette.

Structure is important for general organization. It keeps code neat and clean looking and much easier for anyone, to include yourself, to go back and fix errors/security holes. Most people see structural formatting as a simple aesthetic quality when in reality it is like formatting a letter. The structure keeps things organized and understandable on a more universal level.

Coding etiquette, on the other hand, is something learned over a long period of time. No new developer can simply logon and expect to program to the standards set right now, but at the same time should begin mimicking the styles of major developers. Examining the work of others is one of the best ways for any developer to learn, so studying (yes, just like in school) the work of past developers, and prominent works of today, one can easily understand how to program professionally. A simple example would be to write functions rather than hardcode functions multiple times. Or rather than using raw MySQL functions, create an SQL wrapper to execute the functions.

There are many resources on learning how to program professionally, and be neat, but it’s up to developers to use the tools. The vast majority of developers, I would say, hold to the standards. However, for those who do not, they are just ripping off their client in the long-run.

Regards,
Dennis M.