Andrew Records’ blog

My sister has been an Associate Commercial Casting Director (I think I got the title right!) for the past few years.  She's decided to go solo, and open her own Casting Studio!  She's got a very simple website up: Laurie Records Casting.  It's very simple, and it will grow quite a bit soon (and the logo should change in a couple of days as well), but it's a good start!

It takes a lot of guts to go solo in this economy, and I'm very proud of my sister for taking the chance!  Go, Laurie!

I'm sure this deal won't last long:

If you use the promo code 199TEST at godaddy.com

You'll get one domain name for $2.19!  ($1.99 + .20 ICANN fee)

I have no idea how long this deal will last, so hurry!

t's been a little while since I posted.

While Sabrina (The Exercise and Health Queen) and her daughter are watching a concert, I'm making sure everything is okay with her other two kids (I'm watching over things at their place).

I'm pleased to announced that everything has gone better than expected! 

A good two thirds of the house should still be inhabitable shortly, according to the very helpful firemen that showed up!  I don't think Sabrina really cared much for the third that isn't, anyway.

I'll write more soon -- right now I need to get my car warmed up so I can make a quick exit when she gets back...

(Yes, I'm kidding.) 

My sweetie missed an interview today because she was feeling awful.  I'm hoping she has a speedy recovery!  (She needs to get well quickly so she can hang out with the rest of you in Las Vegas this weekend!)

Crazy! 

According to Matt Cutt's blog, it's now safe to end a webpage name with ".0" (dot zero).  Until today, a webpage that ended with ".0" (say, "mywebpage.0") wouldn't be indexed by Google.  This wasn't widely known, and caused some problems when seomoz.org tried to post a page ending in ".0". When Google found out, they reconsidered, and made the changes necessary to allow Google to index those pages, too.  Apparently, most files that end in ".0" are binary files, and Google tries not to index binary files.  That's why those pages were originally excluded.

Along those same lines: It's still not okay to end a file in ".exe", ".tar", ".tgz" (and probably more) because these are file extensions for binary file types.  Google won't index pages with names that end like that!

What's this mean to you?  Stick with giving your web page file standard names like ".htm", ".html", or the extension to whatever scripting language you use...

I've been busy finishing a class, so I haven't been posting as much as I should.  I'll get back to writing about web stuff shortly, but today I wanted to share a quote from a leadership book I read for class.  It talks about how people respond to criticism vs. encouragement.  It -- well, the quote says it better than I would: 

It’s human nature:  when we’re being watched by a person who is looking for our faults, we act very differently than we do in a supportive environment in which there’s an opportunity to be rewarded for special achievements.  When we know someone is looking for positive examples we’ll make an effort to reveal them.  Pygmalions don’t so much carve a statue from the stone as release the beauty that’s already in it.

(From The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner)

I’ve been reading other blogs lately, and there’s been some discussion about computers being infected by viruses.  Being infected by viruses is a miserable experience.  If you knew you were infected by a particular website, would you ever visit that site again?  Would you tell everyone you know not to visit that website?

What if YOUR website was infecting your customers’ computers without your knowledge?

Recently, I read an article about a new computer virus that is spreading quickly through the web.  The authors of this virus were apparently using website vulnerabilities to plant the virus in other people’s websites without the website owner’s knowledge!

While only the creator of the virus knows for sure what website vulnerabilities were used, there are two obvious avenues:

1. “SQL Injection Attack”.  If your website is medium size or bigger, it probably runs (or should run) off a database.  This website configuration usually involves a programmer at least setting it up (though there are ways around that – perhaps a discussion for a future post?).  If the connection to the database is set up correctly, the “SQL Injection Attack” isn’t possible.
   
   If the database connection is not set up correctly, the website is vulnerable to attack.  A hacker can use an “SQL Injection” to insert bad code into a website page.  This code could be used to potentially infect a user’s computer with a virus.
   
   From a programmer’s standpoint, there is no reason at all that such a vulnerability should exist.  Programmers that work with databases learn early on something called “SQL Parameters” that make it impossible for a hacker to do this.  It’s easy stuff.  Apparently, there’s a lot of incompetent programmers out there, though, because this sort of attack happens more often than it should.
   
   How does a website owner avoid this?  Talk to the person who set up your database.  Ask that person if they know what an SQL Injection Attack is, and if your website is vulnerable to it.  If the person who set up your database doesn’t know what it is, ask them to explain SQL Parameters to you.  If it appears they don’t know what you’re talking about, your website could be vulnerable.
   
2. Weak passwords.  Of all the passwords you use, the password that you use to make changes on your website should be one of the strongest.  It is amazing how many people use easy to guess passwords.  If a hacker can guess your password (or more likely, has a computer program that can guess your password), your site is vulnerable to having bad code inserted into it.  Make sure you have a strong password protecting your site.

That’s it!  With just a little bit of care, your website will be considerably safer!  And you won’t be loosing customers who got infected by viruses!

We had an attempted burglary in the condominium where I live.  There is a large semi-secure parking garage beneath the building, and every resident has a garage door opener to get into the garage.  The clever would-be thief stole one of these openers out of someone’s car.  He came back later, and used the opener to get into the garage late at night.

The burglar apparently drove his car into the garage.  He got out of the car, and started looking for stuff to steal.  Someone saw him and thought he looked suspicious.  The burglar panicked, and took off. 

On foot. 

Without his car (which was in the garage). 

And without a bag he brought, which apparently contained his ID. 

Both the car and the ID are now in police custody.  

Remember the Andy Griffith Show?  (I'm not showing my age -- I saw it in reruns.. I'm sure it's still in reruns)  The guy that whistled (and wrote!) the theme song passed away on Monday!

Apparently, he was quite a musician!  Who knew?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/27/earle.hagen.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

My sister's name is Laurie, and she is an Assistant Casting Director for a casting agency in Lost Angeles.  The agency she works for casts actors in television commercials, amongst other things. She was visiting Seattle recently, and I showed her the head shots I had taken at Kevin Hogan and Larina Kase's "Image Weekend" in Philadelphia.  As part of her job, Laurie looks at literally hundreds of head shots every day, and I was curious which of my photos she thought would be best.

She immediately chose one where I was looking straight at the camera.  I don't remember exactly what she said, but it was something like this: "When a person looks straight ahead, they look more confident and assured.  I can't think of a case in business where that's not a good thing".

That convinced me, which is why my photo on this page is one where I'm looking straight ahead.  Your mileage may vary, but I thought I'd pass along what she said.

As I said, my sister is in the casting world, and perhaps different rules apply for other businesses?  If you've got any thoughts on this subject, I'd love to hear them!