João Rufino's Blog

For all the reasons in the world (wide web) sometimes we have the need to prove that you are actually you. Sometimes you are prompted for a username and a password to prove who you are (Like in the basic Authentication Protocol that I’ll write more about it later). The Integrated Windows authentication does not initially prompt for a user name and password (It’s more clever than that ). It uses the current Windows user information on the client for the authentication. If the authentication exchange initially fails to authorize the user, Internet Explorer prompts the user for a Windows account user name and password, which it processes using Integrated Windows authentication. Internet Explorer prompts the user for the correct user name and password up to three times. If, however, the user has logged on to the local computer as a domain user, then no authentication is required when the user accesses a network computer in that domain.

Does this sound familiar to you? Yes, it is the NTLM protocol, and also known as Windows NT Challenge/Response authentication and you can find great info about it here.

Please, let me know if you need more info about this

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Posted by João Rufino under Internet | 6 Comments »

Portugal… A country next to the sea… “Um pais à beira-mar plantado”.

There is a lot I could say about my country. It’s amazing history is briefly described on Wikipedia. Dazzling places to visit can be found everywhere and if you are an investor the country has an organized structure to welcome you.

Well… Infrastructure, history and organization are not everything you need to make something work. In the end it all comes down to the people.

“Os Portugueses”

How we Portuguese are as a people is hard to describe. Although we are Latin nation we are not as “warm blooded” as the Spanish or the Italian. For some reason, we got influenced by the long periods of time that we spent traveling the world. We have a word “SAUDADE” that describes the feeling of “loss”, when you miss a friend that is away or a situation that you’ve been through in the past. This feeling allied to the sense of “Fado” that means destiny gave us a different perspective on life and relations towards people and situations.

There are known Portuguese in several fields, from literature to science or sports. However, from the less known people I would describe us as organized, responsible in their work, creative and hard working individuals. Not all are roses and we have some less good qualities such as the tendency to bureaucracy and the lack of long term strategy of some of companies and individuals (ex. Manage personal savings, manage employees etc..). I point these reasons among others to “justify” why we are not a country that drives more innovation and provides better quality of life for their citizens has it could/should be.

I like to add that I think the future is bright because “if we have good eggs… we will make a good omelet”.

Posted by João Rufino under Misc | 1 Comment »

In order to have visitors in your own website is important to have it highly ranked on search engines. As I promised before, here are a few guidelines about what Search Engines are looking for (Google in this case). Be aware that I’m not the author of this exact list but it has the majority of the bullet points to be mentioned.

The List Of Some Things Search Engines Look For:

1. Title tag – You need a relevant title, not just “Home Page” Use it for 5 key words.
2. Headings – The search engines view < h> tags as being terms of emphasis – they give weight to the words within them. Put key terms in them.
3. Bold – Of lesser importance than < h> tags. the < b> tags still emphasize terms of importance.
4. Alt text – Use descriptive short sentences in your alt tags. If it’s a picture of a rose, and you’re a florist try “Red Rose – Available at ‘name’ Flower Shop”
5. Email addresses on page – if you put up an address, make sure the domain name in the address matches the web site domain. The search engines look at it as ‘cheesy’if you don’t.
6. Keyword metatags – Some engines use them directly, some check them as part of a validation process – “do they match the content” If they don’t then is this a spam site?
7. Meta description tag – Most engines look at this tag. Use distinct ones throughout your site, and distinct ones for each page. Make them particular to that page.
8. Key term placement – Terms that are higher up on a page are more heavily weighted.
9. Key term proximity – Terms that are close together are probably related, and thus the site will show up in searches for those terms.
10. Comment tags – Some engines use comment tags for content. Most engines look for them in graphic rich / text poor sites.
11. Page structure validation – proper coding is likely to be of better overall quality, and thus rewarded.
12. Traffic/Visitors – The search engines do keep track of how many people follow their links.
13. Link Popularity (PageRank in Google’s case).
    • How may other web pages around the Internet point to your web site?
    • Do these other pages relate?
    • Are they considered valuable resources?
14. Anchor Text of inbound links
    • Does the link to your web site have relevant keywords in it?
    • Do the keywords used match keywords in your content? Continue Reading »

Posted by João Rufino under Internet | No Comments »

My young page has now been found by Technorati. You can see my Technorati Profile here. The Internet still amazes me after all these years working with it. I know many many forums and websites that I used in the past (and I still use) when I need to find more technical information but it is the first time that the site found me first and included me in their database of websites worth visiting. This is a good motive to my next topic. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)… Stay tuned…

Posted by João Rufino under Internet | No Comments »

Hello World! The first sentence you always use in a webpage…. Well not quite true… My first sentence on a Blog was.. “Tudo o que desejamos é um futuro melhor.. O importante é sermos bons quando realmente interessa”. All we wish is a better future.. The important thing is to be the best when it really matters.”

This was always my motto and I published it for the first time in 2004…

Crazy isn’t it??

Posted by João Rufino under Misc | 1 Comment »