Now that the real title of the final Harry Potter book is out, let's take a look at the other trademarks filed by Warner Brothers with the US Patent & Trademark Office.

A sneak peak of the contents of the final book, perhaps?

"Harry potter and the ..."

• Battle For Hogwarts
• Chamber of Secrets
• Curse of the Dementor
• Death's Head Plot
• Goblet of Fire
• Half-Blood Prince
• Hallows of Hogwarts
• Hogsmeade Tomb
• Hogwarts Hallows
• Mudblood Revolt
• Order of the Phoenix
• Prisoner of Azkaban
• Quest of the Centaur
• Realm of the Lion
• Serpent Prince
• Serpent's Revenge
• Shadow of the Serpent
• Sorcerer's Stone
• Tower of Shadows

"Website redirection" means that when a user goes to one of your web pages, you automatically lead him to another site (or page). This is particularly useful if you have changed your domain name or site structure.

In chette.com, you would notice that I use this. If you go to the URL www.chette.com, you are actually redirected to www.chette.com/main. Main is a folder in my public html. I put my content files in subfolders in order to keep my public_html directory neat, and to enable me to test an upgraded CMS before making it accessible to the public.

The old-school way of redirection was thru the infamous meta refresh tag. However, websites which contain this tag are already being tagged as spam by search engines.

A better alternative is to use a 301 or 302 redirect. These are called response codes. A more technical definition is available, but in a nutshell, if you use a 301 or a 302 redirect, you are just automatically directing your visitors to your new URL.

301 returns a user-agent response that your website has moved permanently to a new location. A 302, on the other hand, returns that your website has only moved temporarily.

What to use

There are a lot of arguments on 301 vs. 302. Some would favor one over the other, claiming that 302 should be strictly used for temporary locations, that 301 is preferred by search engines, etc. etc. However, from my own experience, it is most effective to use both.

Let's say you have gotten a new domain name or URL.

First, submit this to Google's index, but make sure that you retain your old domain (or URL) for the time being.

Then, put a 302 on your old domain name. That way, your old domain name and its rankings in Google are retained. Additionally, whenever someone clicks on a link which still has your old domain, because your server has a 302, it will automatically redirect them to your new domain name.

Wait a few months for your new domain name to "age" in Google. Aging is very important, and it usually takes 2 to 6 months, at the very least.

When your new site has aged satisfactorily, change your 302 redirects to a 301. This will transfer the page ranking of your old site to your new one in Google.

How to make the redirection

The most robust way of doing the redirection is thru .htaccess.

1. Create a text file called .htaccess in your local PC.
2. Put the following in this text file:
   
   Redirect 302 / http://www.newdomain.com/
   
   Replace www.newdomain.com with your new domain name.
3. Save your text file.
4. Upload this file in your old domain name's public_html.

If you only want to redirect users to another directory, try this more convenient method thru PHP:

1. Create a file with the same filename as your old web page file (index.php, default.php, etc.)
2. Enter the following lines:
   
   

   <?
   header("Status: 301 Found");
   header("Location: main");
   ?>
   

3. Upload this file in your directory.

Globe Telecoms's IMEVRYWHR had a lot of hype -- KC Concepcion smiled at us thru the ads, and newspapers & its online counterparts where blasted with the most glowing press releases about its launch & Globe's partnership with Fastmobile.

And they got the spelling right: it's not IM Everywhere, it's IMEVRYWHR! Forget the fact that cellphones have degraded all written communication skills in the country -- they're sticking with it. In all caps.

Weeks after its launch, notice how very little information you can get from actual users of IMEVRYWHR. That's not the norm for a community which practically sleeps with their mobile phones, and I decided to check it out.

I have tried accessing IMEVRYWHR with 2 SIM cards -- a postpaid and a prepaid line. I didn't get much luck on the postpaid line. It kept on giving an error that my mobile has been previously registered in MyGlobe, & that I must use the same username.

Of all the mental retardation in the telco industry, this is probably one of the biggest -- they actually want me to publicize the same username that can access my billing account? And, if a teenager uses a phone which is under the name of his mom (which is common over here, by the way), they actually expect that guy to use his mom's username & password?

Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?

Two things are wrong here: First, the cellphone number is actually tied to one, and only one, account. You can't use another SIM & expect to keep your identity. Lost your prepaid SIM? Tough luck.

Second, they had the intelligent idea to tie it up with MyGlobe, the crappiest website in telco history. It took me 15 minutes of fidgeting around the website, just to figure out how I can retrieve my darn username & password. Until I was told that I can conveniently retrieve my username & password by calling the customer hotline.

But I persisted on ... I wanted an account. I was able to get hold of a brand new prepaid SIM. Nothing like a clean slate, huh?

I was oh-so-wrong.

The new APNs that Globe sent right before Christmas didn't work. But I didn't spend all those years doing QA for nothing: I tried it out with all possible APNs (im.globe.com.ph, internet.globe.com.ph, www.globe.com.ph, etc), removed the proxy settings, used both prepaid and postpaid SIMs, etc.

The error messages just became more creative: connection error with globe.fastmobile.com, connection to proxy server failed, gateway timeout, etc.

Finally, I realized how stupid I was to actually believe that P20.00 of unlimited use is actually a good thing. Heck, I spend less than that using IM+, Agile, or YB -- and they can all connect to Yahoo & MSN.

[Uninstall]

So, does IMEVRYWHR really work? Maybe it does. I probably will never know.

I do know one thing: Telcos over here has a habit of launching half-baked products. Forget repeat customers: They have a quota to meet, and they don't know of any other way except by launching something new. It's an endless let's-launch-and-forget-maintenance game.

A little bird told me that the product was indeed rushed -- because Globe received a rumor that Smart was coming up with its own IM service. Did fear of competition throw all common sense out the windows of Globe Telecom?

Pick it up, Globe. It's probably still along Pioneer street.

Picasa Web Albums has just been launched by Google, and on a lot of accounts, beats the hell out of Yahoo Photos, Flickr, Kodak Gallery.

Check out that clean Google-style design. Slick, baby.

Photos can be uploaded thru the browser. But you haven't seen anything yet if you haven't tried uploading thru the Picasa software. Perfect.

It also supports user comments (nothing like a good AJAX to get those responses coming), captions, RSS, and most of the features available in your favorite online gallery.

But wait! Did you know that you can upload videos, too? I love YouTube & everything, but sharing a private video is a real pain in the [bleep].

The most amazing thing about Picasa Web Album, however, is how easy it is to share private photos (called "unlisted" photos).

The usual galleries only allow you to give permissions to existing users. Ergo, if your friends don't have an account in your gallery service, they actually have to sign up first before they can view your private photos. I blame Yahoo for popularizing this idiocy.

Picasa Web Album, thankfully, bulldozed that. Just click on Share Album, and your friends will be sent the "secret URL" of your private photos. All they have to do is go to this URL to view your private photos.

That's it. Seriously.

Their "embed in blog" is pretty cool, too. Hopefully, other options will be available, such as the display of the latest image in an album.

The bad: A measly 250MB of storage (c'mon Google, you gave us 2 gigs in Gmail). Additional storage can be purchased for a yearly fee. Cheaper than Pbase, true, but not too attractive to those who already pay for their own hosting services. Maybe next time.

Funny how the Christmas break can make one discover new timewasters. Presenting: Word Shoot -- the faster you type, the faster you kill your enemies!

Have the time of your life in the Impossible Level. Guaranteed to waste at least 2 hours of your time.

Links:
Word Shoot

There is one application that a development team depend a lot on -- to the point that it is accessed almost every hour: the Issue Tracker.

Before we go on the nitty gritty details of an issue tracker, let's first discuss what an issue is.

What is an issue?

There is no simple answer, because every organization has its own definition. However, depending on your company's methodologies, development cycle, and culture, an issue can be any (or all) of the following:

• a bug
• a feature
• a change order
• a requirement

In our organization, we define issue as a bug or an approved change order.

This has raised eyebrows from the most conservative project managers (PMs). However, we believe that this is necessary to provide a healthy balance between speed & process. Think about it: during crunch time, would you really expect the programmers & the QA team to constantly refer two tracking tools at the same time? Having one tool which keeps all to-do lists provides a simple yet workable system for a team.

What is an issue tracker?

From the name itself, an Issue Tracker is a system which lets you track the status of an issue. Its status can either resolved, closed, needs feedback, assigned, etc.

How does it work?

The workflow starts with a person entering an issue -- he can be the project manager, a QA staff, the customer, or even one of the programmers.

The project manager or the QA then confirms it: Is really a bug, or a change order? If it is a bug, was he able to replicate it? Is the issue too vague that more information is needed?

After confirming the issue, it now has to be assigned -- to designate the person responsible for it (usually the programmer). The project manager, QA, or even the programmer can assign an issue.

As soon as it is assigned, it is now included in the list of tasks of that person ("assignee"). It will keep on appearing in his to-do list, until he marks it resolved.

If an issue has been marked resolved, it is verified by the QA or the PM, and then is tagged closed.

Uses of the issue tracker

From this workflow alone, you can already guess the numerous uses of an issue tracker. It can be used to:

• generate status reports
• provide metrics on the rate of resolution
• provide a basis for work breakdown structures for future projects

Issue Trackers

Numerous issue trackers are available, both commercial and freeware. If you want to go thru the open source route, there is Bugzilla, Mantis, dotProject, etc. Almost all project management applications already have an issue tracker built-in.

Things to keep in mind

In selecting an issue tracker, workability & acceptance is key. The tool must be something that your team is willing to work with. I handled an enterprise level project wherein we simply used Excel -- because that was what the team wants to work with.

The biggest mistake of most PMs (this author included) is forcing a system she thinks is "cool" to the other team members. If, after a few weeks of using the tool, you sense reluctance from your team, take the hint. Reevaluate the different options available until you find one which works best for your team.

Dear Chette,
First of all, thank you for the tips and articles in your website.
My questions is, our year-end bonus is coming up, and I would like to buy myself a new laptop. What brand would you recommend?
- Lisa D.

I'm not usually brand-centric, but with laptops/notebooks, I tend to favor two brands alone because of its reliability: Fujitsu and Toshiba.

I know ... they're not as cheap as the Acers. However, for something that you would use for a couple of years or more, it's probably worth the investment. (As a side note, the notebook I probably won't buy ever again is a Compaq. We had a number of Compaqs at work which kept on experiencing the weirdest problems.)

Nowadays, I'm leaning towards the Fujitsu more because of their hard drive technology. They way they were able to squish a hard disk in a 1.8" is just amazing. I would definitely give my business on a company that invests on this kind of R&D.

The Q series of Fujitsu, when bought in Europe, comes with built-in HSPDA -- no need to lug around a separate 3G data card. Just stick in your 3G or HSPDA capable SIM card, and you're all set. And, at 2.2 lbs, it's almost too good to be true.

But don't take my word for it: Go to your favorite PC store and try out some of the notebooks on sale. Visit some of the popular notebook review websites, too.

By the way, I currently have my eyes set on the Fujitsu P1610. My bitter half is scoffing at the idea (I haven't used a tablet in my life), but I'm pretty much drawn to it. I'm holding out for a while, as it's probably best to wait for Vista to come out before I do any serious purchasing.

Hope this helps.