Since it is freely available to the public, it is limited to 100 searches per day per Google’s TOS. I could have written the software to use screen scraping to by-pass this limit, however, I did not want to risk having the software blocked by Google.

Google keyword ranking report software

As seen in the image above, the user interface is very simple. You enter your keywords in a comma-separated list, which you can keep in a saved Notepad file and copy and paste the keywords into the keywords field whenever you want a report. It will save you a lot of time and effort. No need to manually do the searches and read through all of the results to find your website. Below is a sample report.

Rankings Report for www.mikeskramstad.com

Download report file results-03-28-11-0503AM.csv

Rip DvD using DVDfab8 software program from www.dvdfab.com.

It isn’t free but it let me use it for a few days before requiring a code key to work. I ran it inside a VMware virtual machine running Windows Ultimate 7 on a system running Linux Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.   Is there Linux software to “descramble CSS “enhanced”  DVDs? The man page for the program vobcopy (runs on Linux) states,
‘CSS  is  sold  by  the DVD industry as a “copy protection”, though it’s more of a “view protection” as it makes DVDs unviewable with unlicensed players.  Some people have hacked CSS decryption routines, and one of those  is
available  as  a  libdvdread counterpart.’ On Linux I use vobcopy and libdvdread. The library libdvdcss must also be installed. I downloaded it from http://archive.debian-maintainers.org/unofficial/packages/libdvdcss/current_i386/. The Debian package version 1.2 libdvdcss2 may be  installed using the Package Installer.

Once you have the DVD movie ripped to your hard drive, if you are using Windows, you may use Flask MPEG to convert it to the AVI Divx format, which is much smaller than the vob files on the original DVD. You can download Flask MPEG here.

Download Flask MPEG for Windows systems.

Before running Flask MPEG you must install the Divx video and MP3 sound drivers. Download the Divx driver here. You can control the size of the final file by setting the frame rate, resolution, and sound quality.

Should you want to convert DVD vob files to AVI Divx on Linux you may use various programs, however, I stick to using ffmpeg when I can.  According to ffmpeg’s documentation, “You can transcode decrypted VOBs:

ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k snatch.avi.”

If you are using Ubuntu like me then you can install ffmpeg by typing “sudo apt-get install ffmpeg” in the terminal.

Enjoy your movies!

~$sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10

The default swappiness value is 60.

You check your swapiness value using:

~$cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

I put the code at the end my /etc/sysctl.conf file so that it will boot up with the lower swapiness value. If you have a computer  with low memory, like less than 1gb, then you should probably leave it at 60. If your system is freezing or crashing because of insufficient memory then you could set it to 100, however, your machine will run at a snail’s pace.

To take advantage of the new setting I flushed the swap data from the hard drive to memory by executing the flowing program at the command prompt. You could put these statements in to BASH script to automate this process.

~$sudo swapoff -a

I turned on the swap process back with:

~$sudo swapon -a

Although it is not necessary to flush un-used data and programs from volatile memory, because the system keeps track of available space anyways, you can do it by running the following program at a terminal’s system prompt:

~$sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

The above command really is not required as the system keeps the most recently used data or software in RAM in case you or it needs to use it again and it will be available to use almost instantly, speeding up your tasks or the system’s tasks most efficiently. Tools like free:

~$free -t -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1498 833 664 0 50 318
-/+ buffers/cache: 464 1033
Swap: 0 0 0
Total: 1498 833 664

or, top or system monitor the will show a high “used” amount of RAM, that includes data and programs no longer in use but that might be used in the future.

top – 15:12:47 up 23:31, 2 users, load average: 0.94, 0.81, 0.77
Tasks: 182 total, 1 running, 181 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 8.7%us, 8.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 80.4%id, 0.0%wa, 2.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1534556k total, 866732k used, 667824k free, 51820k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 338300k cached

El Diario, Juarez Chihuahua
www.diario.com.mx Juarez, Chihuahua

El Mexicano, Tijuana, North Baja California
www.el-mexicano.com.mx Tijuana, North Baja California

Noroeste, Sinaloa
www.noroeste.com.mx Sinaloa

Policia Federal Mexicano Secuestraron La Esposa de Mi Amigo

Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico – A little while back when I called a friend he sounded upset. Later, he told me that a couple federales kidnapped his wife, and that he had to pay them $5,000 U.S.D. to release her. The ordeal lasted about two hours. Therefore, in addition to the $2,000/month he has to pay the Arrellano Felix gang, he also has to pay the Mexican federal police to live in peace. That’s business in Mexico, and in the United States.

I don’t want to be accused of just ragging on the Mexican police. Therefore, to be fair, I’ll mention how corruption works on both sides of the border. The FBI and DEA routinely arrest/kidnap the innocent spouses and girlfriends of wanted suspects to encourage them to surrender. The only difference between the Mexican police and the U.S. federal police is that the U.S. federal police don’t ask for a ransom. Instead, they ask their superiors for an upgrade in rank that translates into a raise in their paychecks.

Oakland, California – After 18 months of living at Rosarito Beach (really called Playas de Rosarito), Baja California Norte, Mexico, I’m now living in the San Francisco Bay area, and recovering from a 24/7 Springbreak lifestyle. Now it’s time to look for a job and lead a more normal life for awhile, at least until I get tired of leading a “normal” life.

I made my first trip to the Bay area when I was 19 years old. It was 1982 and I was consulting out of the Computerland of Glendale store when someone from the Doctor’s Hospital of Pinole called the store searching for a programmer to program a machine that punch prints on plastic cards. I drove from Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles, to Pinole which is about 10 miles north of Berkeley, California, and I spent a few hours there writing a simple program to print patient information on plastic cards.

I’ll miss the constant 70 degree weather, and the many friends I made, the $100/pound weed, cheap cigarettes,  the young, pretty putas, and the ultra laidback lifestyle at Playas de Rosarito, B.C., Mexico. Maybe I’ll return to Rosarito in a year or two.

In Mexico only anesthesiologists (in Spanish – anestesiólogo) are allowed to prescribe strong opioids. Don’t waste your time with any other kind of doctor. Find an office of an anesthesiologist or go to a hospital and ask somebody at the front desk to call one. Hydrocodone pills are not sold in Mexican pharmacies because they are not included in the schedule of controlled substances. Oxycontin / oxycodone is a Group I drug that can be legally sold along with several others listed here 2008 Drug Laws in Mexico, a list like the DEA’s schedules of controlled substances.

Group I  Fracc I, II Y III del Articulo 226 de la Ley General de Salud
November 2008, Partial List

ANALFIN S.I., (F.F.Sol.Iny.), Sulfato de morfina (injectable morphine sulfate), 10 mg./1 ml
DEMEROL, Clorhidrato de meperidina (meperidine or pethidine, injectable), 100 mg./2 ml
DUROGESIC (F.F. Parche) Fentanilo (fentanyl patches) 2.5,5,7.5 y 10 mg
ANAMORPH Sulfato de morfina (morphine pills) 10 y 25 mg
LIBERAXIM Clorhidrato de hidromorfona (hydromorphone, Palladone, Palladone SR, Dilaudid pills) 2 y 4 mg
MST CONTINUS Sulfato de morfina (MS Contin pills) 10,30 y 60 mg
OXYCONTIN Clorhidrato de oxicodona 10,20 y 40 mg
PLEXICODIM Clorhidrato de oxicodona (oxycodone tablets) 5 mg with Paracetamol 325 mg
RUBIDEXOL (F.F.Tabletas) Clorhidrato de metadona (methadone pills) 5 y 10 mg.

In Mexico I was prescribed injectable morphine and Duragesic® transdermal fentanyl patches. A Mexican doctor mentioned morphine sulphate tabs (possibly MS Contin), however, he didn’t prescribe them to me. Perhaps he believed that I needed immediate relief from excruciating pain. Unlike pharmacies in the United States, only pharmacies like Farmacias Especializadas have morphine for sale to the public, and you will only find such pharmacies in big cities and state capitals. Although I had a prescription for two 200mg bottles of Amalfin morfina ($40 US/200mg which lasts about two days), the only pharmacy, Farmacias Especializadas, in the city of San Luis Potosi in the state of San Luis Potosi that sells it could only sell me one bottle because they had no more in stock. I bought the last available bottle in the whole state of San Luis Potosi. When I asked when I could buy the second bottle, I was told that the laboratory would not be shipping morphine the following week, as if there were only one lab that produces it, and sporadically.  Of course the hospitals where surgeries occur have it, but only for patients in beds. The hospital pharmacies won’t sell their morphine supplies to the public, even if you have the right prescription. Below is a copy of what a valid, real prescription looks like. It is olive green with black horizontal lines from top to bottom that didn’t reproduce when I scanned it for this article. The doctor’s name, address, and professional license number were obscured for the doctor’s safety and to prevent forgery.  It is on paper supplied only by the Secretaria de Salud of the Mexican government. Although regular Mexican M.D.s can prescribe some weak narcotics, only anesthesiologists can prescribe fentanyl transdermal (Duragesic) patches and morphine, the “gold standard” in Anesthesiology.

Black tar heroin (“chiva” or “la negra”) is available in the large cities, especially near the northern border, however, I don’t recommend it because it is dirty and because  users tend to inject into their veins, destroying and collapsing veins. It goes for $30 US/gram in the border cities. There is a place in Mexico, Guasave, Sinaloa, where heroin laboratories are located where a gram of heroin can be bought for $150 pesos or $12.  The opium poppy fields are in the hills not far away. The U.S. government boosted opium production in Sinaloa during World War II because Japan controlled most of the opium supply and the U.S. military needed morphine for our injured soldiers and asked Mexico for help.  See PBS Frontline: The Place Mexican Drug Kingpins Call Home.  Should you go there I recommend passing the city of Los Mochis and staying on the freeway since the cops there love to single out vehicles with U.S. license plates to ostensibly give a ticket for a driving violation,  but what they really want is some money ($200 pesos is enough) to let you continue your trip. While driving through the state of  Sinaloa you should also visit the state capital Culiacan, a pretty city, and Mazatlan. Sinaloa’s intense agricultural business and its pine covered sierras reminded me of my home state, California (See A Gringo’s Mexican Experience for more information about taking a road trip to Mexico).

In conclusion, don’t go to Mexico expecting to find opiate pain killers with hydrocodone like Vicodin® and Norco® or Percodan® and Percocet® (oxycodone) in pharmacies. The muscle relaxant Soma® (carisoprodol) and the useless so-called pain-reliever Ultram® (tramadol) are sold over-the-counter (OTC) in Mexico, and they are very cheap. However, the carisoprodol is compounded with naproxen and the capsules contain 200mg of carisoprodol. For me, tramadol isn’t effective for pain relief, however, your mileage may vary. If you plan to travel to Mexico bring your own supply of pain killers, with a valid prescription, in sufficient quantity to last the duration of your trip.

Valid Mexican prescription for injectable morphine. Receta en papel de la Secretaria de Salud verdadero, válido para morfina inyectable para dolor severo.

PS.  The United States Government does not recognize Mexican prescriptions. If you attempt to bring any bottles of morphine with you back to the U.S.A.,  you must show them to the customs or I.C.E. agents, who might take them from you. Otherwise you will go to jail for a long time if caught. Same goes for fentanyl patches that are not stuck to your body.  How many American medical doctors do you know who prescribe liquid injectable morphine for their patients to buy at the local Walgreens pharmacy?

On another note, buying opiates from offshore pharmacies is risky because the U.S. Postal Service inspectors will open packages from foreign drug companies and they may confiscate any medicine requiring a prescription. Furthermore, there are many scammers spamming search engines with links to offshore pharmacies and membership websites, and their drug prices tend to be triple the cost you would pay at your local pharmacy. Any reputable, honest drug store wouldn’t require a membership fee, it wouldn’t spam search engines, and its prices would be competitive.

Mexican-2008-Federal-Drug Regulations-Laws-Classification-Groups-I-II-Regulations-2008

getlibs -p libnss3-1d
getlibs -p libnspr4-0d

apt-get -f install /home/patrick/software/install_flash_player_10_linux.deb

nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

nspluginwrapper -l
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
Original plugin: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
Wrapper version string: 0.9.91.5
/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
Original plugin: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
Wrapper version string: 0.9.91.5
/usr/lib/firefox/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
Original plugin: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
Wrapper version string: 0.9.91.5
/usr/lib64/firefox/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
Original plugin: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
Wrapper version string: 0.9.91.5

/usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins

Run the player to test it.

nspluginplayer style=”width:400px; height:326px;” id=”VideoPlayback” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” src=”http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7309713943323243972&hl=en-GB” flashvars=”"

Google Ranking Program

Mike’s Google keyword ranking script is for sale. It is written in PHP and uses the MySQL data base to store keywords, countries and cities. Although the number of keywords  are unlimited and the number searches only limited by Google ,  it only runs the report for one domain name. This is intentional because Google does not want automated searches being done on their site.

The basic version finds the positions of web pages  on multiple keyword phrases in Google’s search engine. The user enters a  list of keywords and their priority levels.

The advanced version constructs keyword phrases with location names, either keyword phrase + city + country,  or keyword phrase + country or keyword phrase + city, and in reverse order.

Both versions have a random five to 15 second delay between searches. Despite the imposed delay, the ranking program and generate a report comprised of 2000 searches in a couple hours. The program can be run locally on any PC that can run PHP, which includes running Windows operating systems XP Professional, 2000, Windows 7, Linux and Ubuntu, and Mac OSX.

For 10 servings gather the following ingredients:

• beans (Frijoles)                1  lb.
• Chorizo  (Mexican sausage)                              1  lb.
• bacon                                    1 lb.
• garlic                                    2 bulbs
• tomatoes                            5 medium sized
• hotdogs                              12 dog packet
• onions                                2 medium sized
• cilantro                              a bushel

Boil the beans in a 2 gallon pot for 90 minutes. During this time fry the chorizo and bacon, and brown the hotdogs and toast the tomatoes over open fire. Drain off most of the grease, but leave a little for flavor. When the beans are ready add these ingredients.

Chop the garlic with the onions and strip the leaves from the cilantro and put these ingredients into the pot of beans.

At a low simmer add everything including salt and pepper to your taste and serve.