Well, we did a lot of server hacking before with some MySQL, eAccelerator, and httpd.

There’s a lot of major blogs out there I have checked using Web Page Compression Tool that are not using compression. (For one, I checked John Chow’s blog)

Try to check one of your posts instead of checking your main URL as the tool is funky with root domains. (e.g. Check http://zedomax.com/blog/2008/02/23/never-give-up-especially-your-blog-dude/ instead of http://zedomax.com)

Here’s a screenshow of compression test I did for one of John Chow’s posts:

As you can see, John Chow’s blog does not use compression. As a result, he’s losing out on almost 5 times of bandwidth!!!

With level 9 compression, his site could be loaded on your web browser at 21K instead of the whopping 100K.

Now the compression might not be for all of you with slow CPUs. Our Zedomax.com runs on Quad-CPU server which has a lot of CPU processing power.

Here’s a screenshow of my server under normal load:

As you can see, most of the time, my CPU is idling at 80.8%! That means my CPU is pretty much sitting on its ass instead of doing work for me.

Now, if you have a similar situation, compression will help your site load faster and also bring your load down so you can handle more traffic.

Here’s how to enable compression if you have a dedicated or access to root on your server:

(Most servers have zlib installed, if you don’t have zlib installed, you will have to install that first, you can check it by making a test file and putting <?php phpinfo() ?> and search for zlib)

Add the following lines to your /etc/php.ini:

zlib.output_compression = on
zlib.output_compression_level = 5

and then restart apache! (of course):

httpd -k restart

Now, go check one of your posts on the Compression Test Tool here.

As you can see above, I just compressed one of my blog posts by a whopping 76.1%!

If you are using Super Cache plugin for Wordpress, make sure to go to options and do this too:

Now, your server will run faster since there’s less data being transmitted to your visitors, meaning you save bandwith, time, and most importantly, the ability to handle more traffic.

At 70% increase in bandwidth, that could translate to that many more visitors too as bandwidth is directly proportional to amount of time a visitor stays on your site. (Yes, I did take Calculus in college, I failed miserably before passing.) The less time a visitor takes to load a page on your blog or your site, the more time and bandwidth you have for other visitors.)

I was searching through the web for many ways to use compression for server optimization but I couldn’t find any so I sort put everything together here.

Hopefully, it helps you.

And one more thing, you can also check out this great tutorial on your httpd.conf setup.

You can always check out HOWTO decrease load on your server by 5 times also.

Lol, Mike from Bloggin-Ads posted a review about Zedomax Network. I didn’t ask for one but thanks for the link love Mike.

On the upside, we are actually getting 115K uniques for this blog.

On the downside, I am actually broke as hell but it’s sounds really good when you say I make a lot of money! Lol…

Anyways, David is no longer writing for us anymore because we are really running out of money. (again…)

But, what I’ve experience in my life, is that when you are truly really broke with $100 in the bank, you really start trying hard.

Even lab rats will not follow the cheese unless they are tested with hunger and what not.

Anyways, thanks Mike for the blog post, every blog post helps! I will have to get you back now…feel bad with all the help you’ve given me.

via Bloggin-Ads

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Okay, here’s a funny DIY where you can make your own sound activated party lights.

If you want the non-adult version, you can check out our Christmas Voice Activated Party Lights too. (And yes, you have to use a Magnum for this one)

This project shows you how to make a music light out of inflated condoms and LEDs wired up to the sound out of your computer.

via Make

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A monkey controls a robot w/ his brain! Need I say more?  I wonder what the monkey would do if they hooked him up to a King Kong robot…

In a first-of-its-kind experiment, the brain activity of a monkey has been used to control the real-time walking patterns of a robot halfway around the world, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

The Duke team is working with the Computational Brain Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) on technology they hope will one day help those with paralysis regain the ability to walk.

It shouldn’t be too long before they replace the monkey with humans huh?

Anyone up to be the first guinea-monkey?

via HackedGadgets

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This is a funny video of people trying to emulate Palm on the iPhone. What a waste of time.

I could, however, understand it if they emulated the iPhone on the Palm.

This is like emulating PS3 on NES. (not that it is possible)

We give props though for hacking it up. Great job on the hacking. :p

via tuaw

Here’s an interesting concept design for iStick, which is basically box sized version of the iPhone. I am not sure if I will need this, it looks it’s real fragile with displays on the four sides. Neverthless, koodos to designer Alexei Mikhailov for great looking design.

Designer Alexei Mikhailov isn’t out to convince people his iStick concept is the perfect mobile convergence device. In fact he clearly points out the iStick isn’t for viewing movies and the screen is too small for effective photo viewing. What it does have is a visual replication of the iPhone/Touch space inside a device the size of a lipstick tube.

via Yanko Design

Ever thought about embedding that cellphone on your arm? Might as well since cellphone do take up so much of your pocket space these days.

But I wonder, is it good for you body with all that electronic emission embedded in yourself. On the bright side, this new cellphone concept will use your bodily fluids to power it.

…would be implanted beneath the skin on your arm — taps into your bloodstream, converting the oxygen and glucose into electric power.

via TechEBlog

(Your computer will be faster and more reliable using Windows XP vs. Vista)

After testing out Windows Vista on one of my 6 PCs laying around my apartment, I finally decided it was time to scrap Vista for Windows XP.

Well, it turns out my HP a6040n desktop I bought off the shelf at Fry’s sucked at downgrading to XP. Why?

You go to HP’s driver downloads and they don’t even have XP drivers. I think HP has to at least put the specs of all the parts on their site. I had to open up the case and track down the motherboard, and then found a generic Intel ethernet driver just to get the internet working.

What a hassle. I love HP computers but this was probably the worst experience. (Well, I could’ve called their tech support but I am too lazy.)

Another problem I encountered? Basically I got one of those blue screen of death because the harddrive is set to “RAID” on BIOS setup and Windows XP cannot detect that unless you got a driver for it.

So all I did was set the settings back to “IDE” on BIOS setup and the blue screen of death disappeared. Wala!
(Trust me, you really don’t need RAID unless you are thinking about running bunch of servers.)

I also did some research and found you can also completely re-format your harddrive using DBAN. Although it took me some 6 hours to DBAN my HP harddrive, it was worth it. DBAN is great if your harddrive seems to be protected or whatever. Just nuke it and go along.
I also made sure to re-partition with room for Ubuntu, which I will be installing next on this experimental PC.

I used to run all Linux computers with VMware running windows on it. It did pretty good and my computer never gave me a blue screen of death. All I had to do was reboot the Virtual Machine but I might be headed down that path again soon.

Now I feel so good, it feels like I really flushed that “hard stool” that was sitting in my gut for 6 months.

Good bye Vista!

Next up we will be covering a step-by-step transition on how to install Ubuntu and use VMware to experience a new way to access the internet. Of couse, if you get bored of our tutorials, you can always go buy a Mac, we like Macs too. (they are unix based, which is pretty much a fancy Linux machine really)

You should also check out the Vista-XP parody ad we made couple months earlier.

Yey, things have been a little weird on Zedomax.com due to server upgrades and site transfers. We just moved to a new server so let’s see if this site keep runnin’

Alright, we are off to selling another social networking site for almost nothing. You can go bid for PoliceChase.TV here.

This is auction for sale of http://PoliceChase.TV.

PoliceChase.TV is a police chase video social networking site where users aggregate funny police chase videos from youtube,metacafe, etc…etc…

Almost 100% of traffic comes from search engines like Google and Yahoo for search terms, “police chase” and related keywords.

I need to get this site off my hand to someone who can keep it growing due to my time constraints with other sites like SiteHoppin.com.

As you can see, this site runs itself since I haven’t updated it for days. With some updates and user activity, PoliceChase.TV can grow very fast.