There you go, a function that will generate a QR Code with the help of a function hosted on the Google API servor.

function generate_qr($url, $size ='150', $imgsize = false, $EC_level='L', $margin='0') {
    $url = urlencode($url);
    return '<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs='.$size.'x'.$size.&cht=qr&chld='.$EC_level.'|'.$margin.'&chl='.$url.'" alt="QR code" width="'.($imgsize ? $imgsize : $size).'" height="'.($imgsize ? $imgsize : $size).'" />';
}

You call it like this:

<?php echo generate_qr('http://blog.zurka.us'); ?>

And get something like this:

Try pointing your favorite code reader at it!

PS: I just noticed that it doesn’t work well because of the dark background, try it here.

Hey guys!

If you still don’t have your invite for Google Wave, I’ve got a good news for you: I’ve got like 25 invites and will give them away.

Just post a comment with your email address!

So, after getting a Google Wave dev preview account, I also got a Google Voice invitation, which I quickly used and got myself a nice Google number: +1 (909) 20 NASAL (+1 (909) 206-2725).

Since I’m not American and Voice is only open to US citizen, I had some fun managing to get one, since they are only giving away US numbers for now and to create an account I had to add at least one phone number and it had to be US because the number has to be verified in order to have your account created.

So how did I do it? Let’s see.

1. Get Hotspot Shield: this is a free VPN connection that will give you an US ip address and make Google Think you are an US resident. You could use a proxy but I didn’t manage to find a working one so VPN was my next choice.

2. Get a free US phone number: Sipgate is your solution. In this case I signed up at sipgate.com instead of choosing sipgate.co.uk or any other variant, since you get a local phone number and I needed an american one. So sign up there, it’s free. You get to choose your own phone number. Do it, configure your cellphone and you’re done. If you get Registration failed, try this out.

3. Activate your Google Voice account by adding your new Sipgate phone number and verifying it.

That’s it, you’re done!

I have been accepted into the Google Wave beta testing. I feel so cool OMG

I also got a shiny new 25gb email account, @wavesandbox.com, oh, so cool!

[wave id="YPlHGxn2%A"]

Google uses an algorithm to determine the search engine results (SERPS). The algorithm is based upon certain factors that include keyword density, Meta Tags, anchor tags, image tags, back links, etc etc etc.

If your site is optimized for specific keywords than you will rank better in the search engines. There are many factors but onsite optimization is a must. You can research and fine out the information yourself or hire and SEO. I have put together some Free Basics on www.seo4dummies.com

Overture shows you the bid price of certain keywords. Wordtracker show you the amount the term is searched. You can use www.nichebot.com a free tool to see all this at once.

You can research keywords free online with these various tools.

www.nichebot.com ( my personal SEO Favorite)

http://www.webmasterautomation.com/cgi-bin/keywordtool.cgi

http://www.keyworddensity.com ( Keyword density analyzer )

Adsense / Adwords.

Google Adwords have a bid price to display certain "keyword terms". Think of Adwords as TV commercials. Webmasters can put Adsense on there websites. Think of Adsense as the TV Program. If a viewer of your webpage clicks on one of your ads, you get a commission. That commission is based upon the price of the Adword. Google keeps about 60% of the bid price and passes about 40% to the webmaster or Adsense account.

The way the Adsense ads are displayed is determined by the Keyword Density of your individual sites. If you site is prominently about "say Dogs" then the Adsense will display ads about Dogs. However, Google in its new business model is now tracking IP numbers and providing more local ads. Think of the local TV commercials. They are not as expensive as the National Ads. Therefore you may have local ads that are displayed on your site that have only a$0.03 payout rather than a $5.00 payout.

If you optimize you site for your theme, or content, then you can generate more traffic to you sites based upon your keywords. The Google Adsense, will display ads relevant to your topics. If they are not displaying ads to our topic, then you must adjust your Density of your keywords in the body of text of the page.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of changing your website, so that it is spider friendly. If your site is brand new it will take a few months for Google to index your site and be visible in the SERPs. This is known as the "Google sandbox theory". Aged sites should already be indexed as long as the site has something for the spiders to grab. Excessive graphics, java scripts, PHP sessions are all not spider friendly.

To get spiders to come to your site often and grab your data, you must have links from outside websites to your site. This is the Coveted Page Rank factor. Page rank is only a factor of the amount of incoming and outgoing links to your site. Only a small percentage of Page Rank is attributed to the Google Algorithm for Search Engine Results at this time.

Spiders follow links, once there are links established the spiders will Crawl, your sites. They will gather minimal information. Several Weeks to months later, the spiders will Deep crawl you site and index all that is available. To speed this process along, back links or links to other sites is a must. The more links the spider can travel to get to your site the better. Linking to like minded topics is always best. You don’t need to buy LINKS. You can acquire links via posts in forums, writing and submitting articles, using a Blog post, submitting to SEO friendly directories.

To view the spider activity on your site, first go to your traffic stats. Look for the googlebots. See how often they come and the amount of data they have "grabbed". You can also go to Google itself and if you are indexed view the Cache of your page. That cache date is a good indication of the last true crawl of your site.

To see if you are indexed go to Google and type in the search box, site:www.yourwebsite.com ( make sure the word site is not Capitalized and you replace he words your website with your actual URL). View the results. You should also repeat the process and this time leave out the www. , and just enter the site:yourwebsite.com Sometime webmasters leave out the www., but then look for Google using the www. Or link to sites using the www. Either way is fine, just pick one version and be consistent with www. Or non www throughout your website career.

As the spiders come to your site they will start to grab information, that information is sorted and returns the SERPS. Did you know that there are different DataCenters throughout the world that Hold that information? If you ask a friend on the say East Cost to search for a term and tell you where you site is in the SERPS, they result on the West cost may be completely different. As much as 5-10 or more positions depending on the activity of that keyword.

Ok that’s enough for today.

If you are new to Search Engine Optimization, you can read what Google engineers suggests you to do, to improve your website ranking. The guide is made for all webmasters of all levels and for sites of any kind, so it will definitely fit your case.

Read more on their Webmaster Central Blog or download the PDF file directly.

Remember that optimizing your site will bring you more free traffic.. which means more earnings if you advertise on your site!

Good luck!

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

2. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

3. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

4. How would you find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory?

5. Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.

6. How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

7. You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?

8. Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?

9. Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?

10. In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. if they have a girl, they have another child. if they have a boy, they stop. what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

11. If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?

12. If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)

13. Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it�s only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slow poke takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?

14. You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?

15. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?

16. You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?

17. You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)

Would you know how to answer them?

Taken from Tihomir‘s blog.