Cranial Soup

Web Link Captor: A great new research tool and time saver

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:30:00 +0000

Web Link Captor will be a real time saver for any blogger or curator of information that has a large list they need to link to other sites.

It was inspired by my father's Desert Island Jazz Collection...about 700 tracks of what my dad feels is the all-time best of the best that jazz has to offer. Many people have asked him to publish this list on his blog, but the amount of work involved to look up every album and link it to Amazon, with an affiliate ID, is just too much work for him to consider doing.

With Web Link Captor, a task like this will be much faster and easier, with automatic formatting of the output in HTML, bbCode, or Wikipedia markdown, depending on where you want to paste the results.

But it doesn't just link to Amazon. It can link to Wikipedia and a host of other sites. You have full control over everything and can fine tune it to be exactly what you want.

Watch the video and see it in action:

So, if you have any enormous lists of value that you have hesitated publishing on the web because of the amount of work it would take to manually link each item somewhere that would enhance the list and make it much more interesting and useful, give Web Link Captor a shot.

It won't be officially released until January 1, 2012, but you can request an early fully functional beta version on the forum.

Web Link Captor was created by Jesse Reichler (aka mouser) for DonationCoder.com's New Apps for the New Year (NANY 2012) software celebration. Every year the community at DonationCoder holds an event where developers pledge to release a new freeware/donationware application by Jan 1. Most applications are pre-released to give the community time to test and offer feedback, and give the developers a chance to fix bugs, add requested features, and apply some final polishing before the official event date.

Whether you are a developer or just love software, you can be a part of this great community, too. And if you spot a DonationCoder application that you really like, we encourage you to support its development in any way that you can, through donations, testing, feedback, spreading the word, etc.

How to make people want to stop forwarding all those "funny" emails

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:13:00 +0000

I used to have a bunch of friends that would forward me emails almost every day containing jokes and other crap. You know the stuff I am talking about. You have probably received a ton of it yourself over the years and know at least one person that is a compulsive forwarder of such crap. I say "used to" because they no longer send me this stuff. They don't want to. They now want to selfishly deprive me (and their other friends) of it, at least in the form of emails.

I have a reputation of building websites and blogs for little or no reason other than to temporarily amuse myself. My friends know this about me.

One day I decided to set up a blog to post all those "funny" emails that friends were sending to me, and then sent each of them a link to it, explaining that I was not going to forward the stuff they were sending to me.

I told them my intention was to make money off it by slapping ads on the blog. I then asked them to double the amount of "funny" emails they were forwarding to me if they could, because I needed more content for my new site. Most of them complied with my request and temporarily increased the number they sent out.

When they started decreasing them, I sent out emails to the slackers and politely informed them that they needed to work harder to amuse me. I started making requests for specific types of forwards. I included links to items on Amazon.com for stuff I wanted, explaining the ad revenues from my site were being put towards obtaining them. I even warned them when they sent me doubles, explaining that they needed to check my blog and send out only new material that was yet unpublished.

I sent out occasional Thank You emails with photos of myself with some "new item" I had just acquired, supposedly paid for with ad revenue earned from their "funny" emails, and encouraging them to keep up the great work. (I actually made very little from the blog, less than $1/month)

Today I receive very few of these email forwards. :-D

What I essentially did was take what some people view to be a fun activity that annoys their friends and turn it into a boring repetitive task in which they receive no pleasure from, view as work, and I receive profit when they do it.

In other words, I exploited them and let them know about it. I took the fun right out of it.

My actions made them think about what they were doing and some even decided the best use of their time would be to set up similar blogs (that nobody reads) instead of forwarding this crap to others. I exploited their selfish nature by making them think I was benefitting from their actions more than they were.

It was a brilliant bit of reverse psychology.

Free Art Download: Like Us (CC-BY)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:56:00 +0000

(shown actual size)

What you get: This image with a transparent background in both PNG and PSP vector formats.

Font used is Cooper Black which you will need to open the PSP vector file.

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution license suitable for both commercial and non-commercial use. Just give credit by linking back here.

This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Download: Like Us

What Republicans Do Not Want You To Know About Poverty and Taxes

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:12:00 +0000

The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, is one of the most violated of all the federal labor laws.

About 15% of all wage earners in the US are earning at or below the minimum wage.

The average full time minimum wage worker earned about $15,000. ($7.25 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = $15,080)

She paid at least 20% of her income in taxes.

Even though it might be true that she had no federal income tax liability, she still had other taxes to pay.

Payroll taxes such as

Social Security
Medicare
Disability
Unemployment
State income tax
sometimes local income tax

She also had additional taxes such as

sales tax
excise tax on fuel
USF surcharges on
- telephone service
- natural gas
- electricity
property taxes, even if she rents (it would be hidden in the cost of her rent)

Additionally, she pays for her healthcare out of her pocket because minimum wage jobs do not come with healthcare benefits. She pays a higher price for a doctor's office visit than the insurance companies do. ($75 self pay vs. $35 paid by insurance) If she ever needs to go to the hospital, it could easily cost her over $4500*, even more if she has to be admitted.

She also does not get retirement benefits and is looking at a reduction in her income down to about $600 per month when she is too old to work and begins collecting Social Security, and will be expected to pay a portion of that to receive Medicare benefits. And that is only if there is still a Social Security system by the time she is old enough to collect.

A typical minimum wage worker is not a teenager from a middle-class family flipping burgers for some extra pocket cash to buy CDs, movie tickets, lipstick, nail polish, and video games.

Most minimum wage workers are women, standing on their feet all day working various jobs within the service industry. They are some of the hardest working people in this country.

Many are single mothers with more than one child, and many of those are receiving little or no child support to help offset the costs of raising those children. They also have the additional costs of child care, if they have no family support system capable of providing free care so that they can work.

And Republicans think they make too much money and need to have their wages cut, by either reducing or eliminating the minimum wage. They also want to cut or eliminate the social programs that help them to survive. They actually think this will help the poor and lift them out of poverty.

* I do not have medical insurance. I pay out of my pocket for all of my medical care. Back in 2006 I passed out in my kitchen, which resulted in a head injury requiring 8 staples to close the wound. I was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, which resulted in a bill that was just over $3000. This did not include the additional charges for physicians fee, lab work, or the MRI. Those were billed separately and were an additional $1500. My town is one of the small number in this area that provides a free ambulance service to its residents, but if they didn't, the ride would have been an additional $300.

If you don't pay these bills, the hospital may sue you, which could result in garnishment of your wages, which has the potential of knocking a minimum wage worker's pay down to about $150/week until the debt is paid off (with interest, court costs, and lawyers fees). There is also the very real possibility that instead of or in addition to garnishment, the court may seize your bank account (woe to you if you just made a deposit to pay your rent) and/or the local Sherriff may come in, seize and sell off the contents of your home, leaving you with no more than $1000 in personal assets and possessions.

Google Accounts Are Restricted to People Age 18+

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:56:00 +0000

It seems a lot of parents are very upset about their children under age 13 having their Google accounts deleted. They seem to think that since Google didn't explicitly ask for an age at the time the account was created, that their young children could have one. It wasn't until Google Plus was launched that they learned differently.

Children are having their Google accounts deleted, Picasa photos, emails to Grandma, school work in Google Docs, and all, for violating the age restriction, when they enter their age when joining the Google Plus social networking service.

The Google Terms of Service clearly states in Section 2.3

2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services.

While most websites have a clause in their contract barring use by those under 13 years of age (there is a law restricting that), Google has chosen to word their Terms of Service in such a way that it bars any US resident under the age of 18, because minors under 18 can not legally form a binding contract with anyone.

Let this be a warning not only for those under age 13, but for those age 13-17, as well. Google may delete your account and everything in it, if they find out that you lied about your age by agreeing to their Terms of Service. If you are under 18 and have a Google account, yes, you did lie to get it.

Always read the Terms of Service. If you don't, it could come back to bite you later.

Gardens of Time Game Guide: Speakeasy Blitz

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:46:00 +0000

In case you were having trouble locating all 62 items in the game, here is a list of their co-ordinates and a screenshot with a grid to help you find them. They are in letter-number format, so locate the letter on the side, then the number across the top or bottom of the image and where they intersect, you will find the item. Click on the image to open it full size.

Even if you memorize where everything is, it will still be pretty difficult (if not near impossible) to click them all within the 60 seconds they allow you. Best I have been able to get is 43.

Please do not ask where any specific item is in a comment. Look it up in the screenshot. It's all there, mapped out for you.

Good luck!

Amythyst ring Q-31
Ankh Q-12
Axe O-2
Banana K-4
Baseball bat Q-14
Bell C-17
Books E-14
Bowl N-15
Bowling pin H-12
Brass trophy N-3
Broom R-6
Buckle E-2
Buddah K-7
Butcher knife M-30
Camera I-20
Cane P-24
Cannon Q-18
Checker board P-7
Cigar N-26
Computer monitor K-28
Cork N-17
Crown B-9
Cue ball M-26
Curtain F-28
Dart G-28
Dart board F-25
Deer mount F-22
Dice O-30
Feather K-18
Fish D-13
Footprints P-22

Gold bars P-10
Hammer K-15
Hat R-23
Heart I-22
Horn N-18
Hourglass P-21
Ladder H-21
Lantern I-25
Lighter P-29
Lock K-31
Mole J-22
Money bag J-19
Monkey L-16
Phantom mask O-19
Piano keys E-9
Pitcher J-24
Playing card M-1
Plug H-31
Scissors P-18
Seahorse F-18
Spoon P-16
Spring G-17
Spyglass K-26
Star H-4
Table lamp H-27
Thermos N-4
Triangle K-21
Wallet R-20
Wheat penny R-3
Wheel L-14
Wrench K-3

I will post other guides like this one, if and when I can find all the items, then find the time to map them.

You'd be amazed at the things you can fix with a toaster oven...

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:48:00 +0000

This is a guest post by a friend of mine that wishes to remain anonymous. His only desire is that this information is shared with the public and that more people can put it to use.

I just baked BlackBerry Cobbler (a BB 9630). It came out perfect.

The phone took a dive into a sink full of water while its owner was doing dishes, and went unnoticed until the sink was drained. It was deader than a door nail when I received it.

I took it apart, rinsed it as clean as I could with tap water, and then with 97% rubbing alcohol. I let that evaporate and then placed the printed circuit boards in the toaster oven, on top of strategically-placed screwdriver bits so-as to space the board off the aluminum foil lining the oven tray. Then I set the oven for 180 F for about 20 minutes. I did not toast the battery in the oven for safety reasons.

Just a tip.

Also I have baked laptop wifi and video cards, desktop pci cards, laptop motherboards, desktop motherboards and xbox consoles with the red ring of death (the larger items in a full size oven). Quite literally, if it's toasted anyhow, what does one have to lose other than 20 minutes? Sometimes items need their solder to be reflown, and this wet-phone-drying/toaster oven reflow soldering method honestly has saved both myself and those around me a ton of cash. Reflowing solder should be done at 230 F or so for about 20 minutes.

Plastic bits on the board? Plugs? Wires? No worries! Heck, part of the BlackBerry cobbler I baked tonight (the 9630, that is) was more than 60% plastic, and I didn't even bother removing the camera before baking it. I kept the temp about 180 F since a solder reflow was not required, but if a reflow might benefit the item I do not hesitate to turn it up to 230 F.

Never leave the oven unattended, not even for a moment, just in case plastic bits start to disfigure - but they shouldn't, as plastic typically melts at a higher temperature point than solder.

Don't bake the outer shell of the phone though - bare boards only.

Never bake a battery unless it is soldered onto the board, in which case go for a higher blast of heat for a shorter period (say, broil for 7 minutes).

Next time your phone hits the sink (one of my older BlackBerry phones took a 20 minute trip into the clothes washing machine) or your laptop video or wifi card dies (these are prone to overheating due to poor cooling, sometimes they can flex some, breaking solder joints in the process, and can benefit from a reflow), etc, pop the circuit board into the oven for a little bit. What's the worst that can happen? I've fixed newer HP laser printers I was literally given because they didn't work, simply by reflowing their main boards. $75 a pop at yard sales is a nice profit for me simply having put my toaster oven to work.

When you're done, do not budge the toaster oven until it has been off for at least 20 minutes. It would suck major donkey scholng to bump a board with molten solder and have an IC with a 500+ solder ball grid array slide just enough to short circuit things even worse than they were, when some patience to let the boards cool down adequately could have had the item fixed.

In this day and age, when things seem so disposable and inexpensive, so much waste gets created and is disposed of. It's a shame if that little toaster goes under-utilized and our broken disposable electronics aren't even considered for repair.

It should be noted I do not cook, thus my toaster oven is solely dedicated to the task of baking printed circuit boards. Tin and lead vapors/molecules in or on my food doesn't appeal much to me. Then again I prefer fast food, so...

Give it a baking in the toaster oven before you toss it, you may be pleasantly surprised at how perfect things come out. And you'll learn how stuff is assembled and disassembled in the process!

And for those of you that would like to use this information but need an inexpensive toaster oven, I found this one for you on Amazon:

The Two Best April Fool's Pranks

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:58:00 +0000

One I did to someone else, the other was done to me...

One year, many years ago, the start of Daylight Savings Time began on April 1st. Before going to bed, my husband and I went through the house changing all the clocks. I waited for him to fall asleep and I pushed them all ahead an extra hour. He woke up that Sunday morning and rushed off to work, without ever realizing what I had done till he arrived at work and went to change the big clock on the wall.

Now what made this one of the best pranks ever is how for 3 days of every year, whenever Daylight Savings Time begins or ends, and on April 1, my husband goes into a time panic, thinking I am going to prank him like that again. He becomes such a wreck and I just laugh. I never have to prank him again. That one time was good enough to affect him for the rest of his life.

Now the one that got me wasn't really a prank at all. When I was back in high school, I received a phone call very early in the morning on April 1, from someone that was trying to tell me that school was canceled because of snow. Even though I was half asleep, I was quite aware of the date, and wished her a Happy April Fool's Day before I hung up. I ended up getting ready for school and going downstairs to leave, opening the front door to a vision of about 2 feet of snow. Yeah, the joke was on me, that phone call was for real.

Creepy Service Wants Everyone That Can See Your License Plate to Be Able to Send You Unsolicited Text Messages

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Bump.com hopes that this video entices you to sign up for their service, tying your cell phone number to your vehicle's license plate. Please don't be stupid enough to fall for it.

First of all, if you see a baby left alone in a car, you should call the police...not send a text message to the parent guilty of child neglect that is putting that baby's life in danger.

And sending a text to the jerk in front of you to give him a piece of your mind for his bad driving is a really BAD idea. It just encourages road rage, which can have deadly consequences.

Reporting a break-in in progress to the owner of a vehicle instead of snapping a photo of the criminal & calling the police, can result in the possible injury or death of the owner of that vehicle if they should come running out and confront the criminal. You do not know if they are armed and dangerous.

And marketing? That's not marketing...that's spamming. It won't take long before you decide to change your phone number and/or plates, if this crap becomes popular. You'll have to, to get any kind of peace. It won't take very long for someone to start collecting license plate numbers and selling them to the highest bidder. The potential for abuse here is seriously high...worse than email because a license plate number is a whole lot easier to get than an email address.

If you want everyone in the world to be able to send you any kind of message they please, whenever they want, including some of the most vulgar filth imaginable, then just put your cell phone number on a bumper sticker and/or wear it on a T-shirt...or perhaps write it on the wall of a public bathroom. (no, I don't think you'd really want to do that, but using BUMP is just about the same thing.)

Finally, as Gail Gardner from Growmap pointed out, this service conditions people to spy on their neighbors and complete strangers, eroding both our privacy and freedom.

A Recipe for Profit

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 04:23:00 +0000

What Exactly is a Business Model?

The short and simple answer is that a business model is a recipe.

Just like a recipe for anything else, it's a list of ingredients and detailed step by step instructions on how to go from ingredients to final results.

If it were a recipe for lasagna, it would be a list of everything that goes into the lasagna (noodles, cheese, sauce, etc.) and step by step instructions on how to turn those ingredients into lasagna. It doesn't leave anything out or leave you guessing about what or how much you need. It's well planned out. You'll know what you need to acquire before you start, what equipment is necessary, and a general idea of how long it will take and how much it will make. If you follow it to the letter, you will make a lasagna.

In the case of a business model, it's all those things you need and how to combine them into the result, which is profit.

Now, how do you determine what ingredients and equipment you need and how to turn them step-by-step into profit? Vivek Wadhwa wrote a great article that will give you a lot to think about as you decide that for yourself and formulate your own profit recipe for your business.

Free Art Download: Bat (CC-BY)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:57:00 +0000

What you get:

This image in PNG format.
An additional image without the background (transparent) in both PSP vector and PNG formats.

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution license suitable for both commercial and non-commercial use. Just give credit by linking back here.

This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Download: Bat

Chop These Up and Have Some Fun (CC-BY)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:11:00 +0000

Here are a bunch of desktop wallpapers that I made way back when I thought 800x600 was the standard. Since desktop resolutions are much higher today, they really aren't suitable for that purpose any more.

I have decided to re-release them under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and let everyone have some fun chopping them up and turning them into new art. Just give credit by linking back here, anywhere that you display them or works created with them.

Click thumbnails for full size images.

A full year’s worth of blog post ideas

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:27:00 +0000

I got this brilliant idea from Chris Whitely a few years ago. You can literally buy 365 fantastic niche-specific blog post ideas, in a single pack. All you have to do is tear off the top page and write about whatever it says, each & every day. Don’t copy them word for word, just use them as your springboard to get you started.

And if you know a blogger that is struggling with ideas for what to write about, it would make the perfect holiday gift. Just be sure to point out that it’s a blog-post-idea-a-day pack, because it might not be that obvious to them to use it for that purpose.

To make it easier for you, I dug up these from amazon.com. If you have a blog related to any of these topics or want to start one, these will be perfect for you.

Yes, they are affiliate links and Amazon will throw me a few cents if you buy through my links, but it won't cost you any more than if you had just gone to the site and found the calendars on your own. And if none of these calendars interest you or you don't like the prices, you are free to look elsewhere.

The Single Most Important Book I Was Ever Exposed To

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:56:00 +0000

When I was a kid, Ed Emberley's Make a World was a library book that my younger sister and I monopolized. One of us would check it out, and keep it for as long as possible, renewing it for the maximum number of times allowed. Then the other would grab it before the librarian could put it back on the shelf, and repeat the process.

We did this for years. I am really surprised my parents never bought us a copy, but to their credit, they remembered this and bought my daughter a copy when she was about 5 years old.

Ed Emberley teaches that if you can draw a few basic shapes (circle, square, triangle, lines, dots, and a few numbers and letters), you can draw anything that you can imagine. From building a heart shape from two circles and a triangle to more complicated things like castles, dragons, and even the Canadian flag, Ed shows how easy it really is.

But it's not "just a drawing book"...it's a whole lot more. It's a child's first technical how-to manual. It sets them on the right path for acquiring the skills needed to self-educate.

Image by Austin Kleon via Flickr

It's really good for teaching kids how to follow step-by-step instructions, especially ones that contain no text...a skill that will come in handy later in life if they have to build IKEA furniture.

It also teaches a valuable life skill by changing how you look at the world. It teaches that anything in life that seems too complicated and hard to do, is made much easier when you analyze it and break it down into much simpler parts. The earlier in life a child learns this, the more doors will be open to them, and the list of possibilities greatly increased.

It's not enough to tell a child that they can accomplish anything in life that they set their mind to. They need to be taught how, and this book is a great place to start.

Purchasing this book through my Amazon affiliate link will not increase your price and is a great way to show your appreciation to me for introducing you to this book.

CaSe Matters

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:14:00 +0000

Budding young web designers and developers usually learn this pretty quick, when creating a page on Windows and not using the same case as the files and folders they are linking to. They often will use lowercase in all the URLs, regardless of the case of the actual file and folder names. And this will work fine when viewed on their Windows machine. But as soon as they upload it to a server that is running something else, like Linux, it stops working. Their page is full of broken images and dead links, because they used something like mypicture.jpg in place of the actual file name of MyPicture.jpg and about.html in place of the actual file name of About.html.

Or they upload an Index.html and wonder why when they visit their site they still see the default index.html page provided by their web host and why when they check on the server there are now two index files and not one.

For the domain name part of the URL it doesn't matter. That part is not case sensitive.

example.com is the same as Example.com is the same as EXAMPLE.com

For the rest of the URL it could matter, depending on what operating system is being run on the server that is hosting the site.

If the server is running Windows, case doesn't matter. The reason for this is because you can only have a single file or folder of a particular name in a folder, regardless of the case used in that file or folder name.

index.html is the same as Index.html is the same as INDEX.html

All three will lead to the same page.

In Windows, adding a file or folder of the same name with a different case to a folder, overwrites the original. Only one can exist.

If the server is running Linux, case matters, as you can have multiple files and folders of the same name within a folder, each having a different case.

index.html is not the same as Index.html and not the same as INDEX.html

In Linux adding a file or folder of the same name with a different case to a folder, does not overwrite the original. Linux will allow all three to exist in a folder, and each are considered different. If you change the case of a file or folder in the URL path and the server is running Linux, and that variation does not actually exist on the server, it will result in a 404.

And if you upload a file of the same name but a different case, it will not overwrite the original. You will have both on the server, and lowercase is the default index file. This is the reason why the place holder index.html supplied by your web host is still seen, even though you have uploaded your Index.html file, and why you see two index files when you view it in your FTP client.

It is always best to assume the server runs Linux when creating links to pages on the web and when typing URLs into the addressbar of your browser. It is the only way to ensure that if case matters, that you are using the correct URL.

It is also best to use all lowercase in the folder and file names of your website when creating the files and folders, regardless of what operating system you are using locally. Always assume the site will be run on a server that is case sensitive. That way there is a set standard of practice you follow that leaves less room for error.

Step 1, before you begin coding, should always be to fix all your file and folder names so you won't have to worry about it later.

Free Art Download: Blame Game (CC-BY)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:03:00 +0000

What you get: This image, about twice the size, without the watermark text, on a transparent background, in both PNG and PSP vector formats.

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, suitable for personal, non-commercial, and commercial use. All you have to do is give credit by linking back to this site wherever you use it.

This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Download: Blame Game

Blame Game by app103
Create mugs at zazzle.com

Free Image: Instant Photo (CC-BY)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:49:00 +0000

What you get:

This image (drop shadow is included), about twice the size, without the text, on a transparent background, in both PNG and layered PSP formats.

On the layered PSP, you can easily insert the image of your choice over the black area.

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, suitable for personal, non-commercial, and commercial use. All you have to do is give credit by linking back to this site wherever you use it.

This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Download: Instant Photo

How can you rank well on search engines, without fussing with SEO?

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:07:00 +0000

If you want to rank well on search engines without fussing with SEO, then pretend it's 1995 and there are no search engines that will list you, because you can't afford the high fees for inclusion.

Now, how are you going to, in an ethical way, make people want to visit your site, stay awhile and explore, come back often, and share what they find with others?

Your site should work well and not be broken.

Make sure all links to pages on and off your site actually lead to where you want them to.
make sure you don't have broken images.
Make sure the content loads correctly in all the major browsers.
Make sure your pages adhere to W3C standards and they validate.

Your site should be designed for people.

Make sure your template is pleasing to the eye and not painful to look at.
Make sure it has good navigation and is easy to discover and find the content your site has to offer. Good use of sidebar links to important stuff. Links to similar content pages on your site.
Make everything within 2-3 clicks of the main page.
Break up huge amounts of text with related images to help the eyes stay focused where they should be,
Your site should load fast. Use real thumbnails for your images and not just merely resizing with HTML.
Don't overwhelm people with ads.
Remove spam promptly.

Your site should invite people back.

Give your visitors multiple ways to be notified and access new content (RSS feeds, email subscription, follow on Twitter, a Facebook fan page.) Make sure new content reaches them wherever it's convenient to them.

Your site should encourage sharing.

Make sure you don't use frames. Every page should have its own unique URL that shows in the address bar.
Use Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Google Reader/Buzz buttons.

Your content should be unique and of high quality.

Don't copy other people's stuff, write your own.
Check your spelling and grammar.
Put thought into what you write.
If you post YouTube videos, add some unique commentary that doesn't exist anywhere else on the web.
For every sentence you quote from another source, write 3-5 of your own. So if you quote 3 sentences, you will have to write 9-15 to balance it. Don't quote in every article. Don't quote any more than what is necessary, less is much better than more.
If you are supplying information, make sure it is complete, accurate, and up to date.
Write about stuff people will care about enough to want read it. Don't write about what you had for lunch unless your a restaurant critic.
If your site is a blog, link out in every article to quality related content. Linking out to pages on other good blogs has the bonus in that it may earn you a trackback link on that page, or at the very least attract the eyes of the author of that blog who will stop by and check out who is linking to him.

Interact with your visitors and make them feel important.

Allow commenting and respond to comments as soon as humanly possible.
Give your visitors a means of contacting you privately, either by supplying an email address or a contact form.

Spread the word.

Become a highly respected member of a large community with similar content.. Put your link in your profile and signature. If people respect you, they will click the links.
Reach out to blogs by reading and participating in discussions. Never leave a "nice post" comment. Put some thought & work into your responses. You want to catch the attention of other readers and the bloggers themselves, and make them ask "Wow! Who is this guy?" so they will click your name and visit the site it links to. Always make your comments increase the value of that bloggers page.
Participate on social media sites and interact with people in a positive way. Get conversations going. Again, you want to make people ask "Who is that guy?" which will lead to them checking out who you are (your profile) and where you came from (your site).
Find an ad network that gives away free advertising. (I happen to really like Project Wonderful, personally)

If you do all of the above, quality inbound links will happen on their own and between the fact that others think high enough about you and your site to write about it and link to it, combined with having a great site, structurally, that makes it easy for spiders to find your content, you will get the ranking in the search engines that you deserve.

Above all, be patient, work hard, and don't engage in any "evil tricks". Good ranking does not happen overnight.

Thank you, Henry Ford, for another fine product.

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:36:00 +0000

Henry Ford didn't waste anything. Wood and sawdust byproducts from automobile fabrication were used to make charcoal.

While he didn't invent the charcoal briquette (Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer did, in 1897), he did found the Ford Charcoal company, which later became the Kingsford Company.

When E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford's, brokered the site selection for Ford's new charcoal manufacturing plant, Ford Charcoal was renamed to Kingsford, in his honor.

Creative thinking and frugality turned a waste disposal problem into a money making opportunity, leading to the founding of a company that today manufactures about 80% of the charcoal briquettes sold in the US, and recycling about 1 million tons of wood scraps, each year.

Thanks to Henry Ford being such a frugal guy, and a smart one at that, Americans have come to enjoy the ritual tradition of going outside on a beautiful summer day and cooking our food there, with a smoky barbeque, rather than in our kitchens and heating up the whole house.

Does picketing family planning clinics really change all of this?

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:17:00 +0000

If you are the kind of person that likes to picket family planning clinics, thinking you are doing something positive that can help make a difference, repeat the following after reading each of the statements in the following list: "Picketing a clinic will help change this."

About half of all pregnancies in the US are unplanned (about 3.1 million each year)
70% of pregnancies to women in their 20's are unplanned.
About half of all American women will have at least one unplanned pregnancy during the course of their life.
About one third of all unplanned pregnancies end in abortion. (about 1 million each year) Very rarely does a planned pregnancy ever end in abortion.
Slightly less than half of unplanned pregnancies are the result of birth control failure.
About 20% of those birth control failures are caused by improper use.
Slightly more than half of all unplanned pregnancies are the result of the failure to use birth control at all.
Many Christian pro-lifers preach abstinence as the best and only acceptable method of birth control, failing to understand that married people also end up with unplanned pregnancies, and abstinence isn't really the best option if you want to stay married.
Christian pro-lifers do not want sex education taught in schools, which includes education on birth control. They only approve of educational programs that preach abstinence.
Christian pro-lifers do not want free condoms distributed to sexually active teens.
Many pro-lifers are also against universal healthcare, which would make birth control more affordable to more people, and make medical care for children more affordable too. They are unwilling to provide any real help to women that choose to keep their babies or help to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
There is a severe shortage of families willing to adopt minority children and children with special needs, and a severe shortage of foster families willing to take those children until adoptive families can be found. Minority women that opt for putting their children up for adoption instead of having an abortion are dooming their children to being raised in institutions. The same goes for any woman that opts to have a baby they know will have severe disabilities, that they know they are unprepared, unwilling, and unable to care for.
Many Christians do not want gay and lesbian couples to have the right and ability to take those children out of those institutions and give them a proper home with a loving family, and a chance to live a normal life.

Still think picketing a clinic is something positive that will help change things?

The Birth Control Riddle

Bit.ly is Harmful to Your Reputation

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 04:48:00 +0000

It all started with a simple innocent tweet. As Vivek Wadhwa was finishing up his excellent post on outsourcing he tweeted about it and I replied with a tweet of my own:

Note the URL I tweeted to him was shortened using the xrl.in service.

Now, Vivek is a TweetDeck user, and TweetDeck uses bit.ly to shorten links, even links that don't need shortening, like mine. So what do you think happened when he retweeted me and responded?

That's right, my already shortened link was reshortened with bit.ly.

Now what do you think you see when you click that link? The site I was trying to link to?

No, you see a warning page that implies that my original link leads to a malware, phishing, spam, or forgery site.

So my link to a reputable site is being called a bad site by bit.ly because I used a competing URL shortening service in my original tweet.

Note that there is an email link to report mistakes on bit.ly's warning page. What do you think happens when you click it and report a mistake? Do they check the link and remove the flag if the site is ok?

No, they don't. They told me to make a new bit.ly link and give it out to people, as if that would undo the damage that was done, change the links in other people's tweets, and prevent others from retweeting the bad reputation damaging bit.ly link that I never made in the first place.

Then they apologized and told me some day their service will be better, still not removing the reputation damaging flag from the link.

Can something like this affect you and your website? You bet it can.

If you or anyone else ever tweets a link to your site using a competing URL shortening service, and that link gets retweeted with any twitter client that shortens all URLs with bit.ly (whether they need it or not) the resulting link to your site will be flagged as a bad site.

What happens when the average person clicks that link and sees that warning page? Well, the average person believes it and won't visit your site. And if your name is on the original tweet, it will also be on the retweet, giving you the reputation of passing out links to bad sites.

Will a smart web savvy user believe the bit.ly warning page? Maybe, maybe not. But the average person probably will. As a developer I have seen the average person believe a lot of things that were not true, placing their complete trust in things like that bit.ly page and other false positives, and believing the worst, even spreading the word about it as if it were the truth, telling others that a website or application was harmful. They think that companies don't do things like this without ironclad proof, so they believe every word of it.

What alarms me the most is the attitude of bit.ly with regards to this problem and how they refuse to remove the flag from innocent links. They don't care if your reputation is damaged.

And it is in the best interest of bit.ly not to fix the problem, since it makes more people use their service, worried that if they use another service and get retweeted, they could end up with a reputation damaging link to their site. So this whole problem serves to make more people use bit.ly, out of fear, rather than convenience or because they have a better service.

I am not a bit.ly user because it is not convenient for me. I have a browser plugin that uses xrl.in, that with a single click of a button, copies the shortened link to whatever page I am on to my clipboard, ready to paste anywhere I want.

Other links in the stuff I tweet use ff.im, because they are cross-posts from friendfeed. I was pretty sure if I post something on friendfeed, cross-posted to twitter and it gets retweeted, reshortened with bit.ly, it will result in one of those warning pages, too.

But I was wrong, it doesn't. In fact, there are a few other shorteners that don't get warning pages either, probably because they are so popular that they would get noticed pretty quick if bit.ly decided to pick on them.

Bit.ly does white list the following shorteners:

ff.im
youtu.be
goo.gl

There is no reason why bit.ly can't white list the rest of the popular shorteners if they can white list those. But those others are competing services and they don't feel like being nice guys about it. They would rather ruin the reputations of innocent people like you and me.

So what can you do to ensure you won't become a victim of bit.ly's "bad site" interstitial page?

There are only 2 things you can do:

1. Always use bit.ly to shorten your links and make sure everyone else in the world does too. (highly impractical, because you can't control what other people do.)

2. Let bit.ly know this is unacceptable. Tell them to play fair and white list the other shorteners. The choice of url shortener you use should be yours and not theirs, and you should not be punished with a reputation damaging warning page because you use a competing service. (easy to do)

Send them an email: support@bit.ly
Tweet them: @bitly
Spread the word by tweeting this post
Share this post on social networking sites
Blog about it
Tell your friends

Don't stop making noise about this till bit.ly stops damaging the reputations of innocent people.

UPDATE May 8, 2010: Bit.ly has changed their interstitial page, slightly. Instead of the top banner saying "WARNING - visiting this website may harm your computer" it now says "Stop - there might be a problem with the requested link"

But it goes on to say

Some URL-shorteners re-use their links, so bit.ly can't guarantee the validity of this link.

Some URL-shorteners allow their links to be edited, so bit.ly can't tell where this link will lead you.

Spam and malware is very often propagated by exploiting these loopholes, neither of which bit.ly allows for.

The link you requested may contain inappropriate content, or even spam or malicious code that could be downloaded to your computer without your consent, or may be a forgery or imitation of another website, designed to trick users into sharing personal or financial information.

I still consider this unacceptable. If bit.ly can detect a shortened link at the time someone clicks, they can detect it at the time someone submits it for shortening, and just not allow it. That page is completely unnecessary and can still be damaging to someone's reputation.

Come on, bit.ly, just do the right thing! How hard is it to just not reshorten?

Tons of Free Stock Photo Sites – Commercial Use OK – No Credit Required

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:59:00 +0000

When you are a blogger, web designer, developer, or creating a product for resale, you might need photos for your posts, templates, and other designs, but you can't just use any photo you find on the internet. That would most likely violate someone's copyright and get you into a heap of legal trouble.

So what are you supposed to do if you don't have a camera or any photography talent?

Stock photos? Sounds good, but most stock photos cost money.

Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr? That could be good too, but that requires a link back and there may be restrictions against commercial use. Can you imagine having to put a long Flickr URL on every t-shirt and mousepad you make? How would you go about giving proper credit on a small 125x125 ad? And if you are making web templates it might not be the best idea to trust people that use your templates to keep the credit links intact.

So where can you get a whole bunch of great photos to use, that don't require a credit link, won't cost you a dime, and allow for commercial use, too?

Fortunately for you, I have done some research into this and found quite a few sources.

Fotolia has a section on their site where they give away free stock photos. The selection is limited, but they change the photos offered on a regular basis. Good for web use. Files must not be displayed in a size bigger than 640x480 pixels. Can not be used in items meant for resale (no printed t-shirts, web templates, etc)

freestockphotos.biz has tons of photos with varying licenses, many of which allow for commercial use, including items meant for resale. Check the license terms included on the page with each photo.

BurningWell.org has nothing but public domain photos. You can do anything you please with them, including items for resale.

Creating Online has free stock photos that are 400x600 pixels in maximum dimensions at 72 dpi, ideal for web use, and the selection of free photos is at the discretion of each photographer. To learn if a photo has a free download version, check its preview page. New free photos are added daily, so check back often. All free photos are covered by their standard license.

Crestock gives away one free stock photo each day. If you hit the site every day, you can build quite a collection. Sometimes they even give away a vector instead of a photo. All material they give away is covered by their standard license agreement. They also have a plugin for Wordpress, that allows you to use many of their photos for free in your blog posts, but it does link back to their site.

Dreamstime offers some free photos (RF-LL), but their standard license doesn't allow redistribution, and they consider print-on-demand items, t-shirts, web templates and other merchandise to be redistribution. They also have an additional limitation for the free photos: the number of copies is limited to 10,000 copies. If you need more than that you have to purchase the photo under the full standard license.

Free Media Goo provides free images, audio files, textures and flash files that you can pretty much do whatever you please with them except use them in propaganda, pornography, or anything suggestive, according to their license.

freerangestock offers photos you can use for just about anything. They request that you give credit, but they also say it isn't required if you don't want to. There is a credit and link requirement if you use their photos as part of a web template, though.

Image*After lets you do anything you want with their photos, as long as you don't use them to set up a stock photo site that competes with theirs.

iStockPhoto gives away one free stock photo each week, under their standard license. They also give away a free vector, video file, and audio track each month. Free membership is required.

KeyStockPhoto has a number of photos and retro images available. Photos are approximately 5" x 7" at 72dpi. They are suitable for all you web and graphic needs. They can be used on your web site, newsletter, advertising, articles, brochures, presentations, reports, promotional materials, print ads, mailers, handouts, packaging, greeting cards.

Morguefile has some very generous license terms that even allow you to sell the images, as images, as long as you have altered it so that it isn't identical to the original.

PDPhoto.org has some really nice images that you can do whatever you please with, as they are all dedicated to the public domain. There are a few sections containing photos that are not public domain, but that collection is a rather small part of the site.

Photogen has images that are good for the standard commercial uses that don't involve redistribution or printing on products for sale.

Photo Rack says there are no limitations on the use of their images.

Pixel Perfect Digital has lots of great images, but you can't use them for items for sale or redistribution, and that includes not using them in web templates.

Public-Domain-Photos.com has images you can do anything you want with, no restrictions.

PublicDomainPictures.net is a repository for free public domain photos. You can do anything you want with them, but keep in mind that none of the photos have model or property releases. If you want that type of photo, they do sell some cheap, in the bottom section of the main page.

Unprofound.com was created by designers, for designers and will pretty much let you do anything with their photos except redistribute them as stock photos. The only payment they want is the pleasure of knowing what their work has become. All they want in return is to be able to see what you have done with them, which means either sending them a photo of your product, screenshot of your software, link to your website or template, or whatever other way you can show them what their images have become part of.

Pixmac has a selection of images that you can use, but not in anything considered redistributable (like mousepads, t-shirts, etc.), and at a max of 400x400 resolution on the web. There is an exception to the redistributable rule which would allow for use in web templates, providing they are made for use by one specific client. In other words, you can't use their images in web templates you plan on offering to the general public, where more than one person or company could download and use them.

Do you know of a stock photo site that I might have missed that will allow you to use their images commercially, without credit? Leave me a link in a comment.

Free Music Download: New Century Classics – Natural Process

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:32:00 +0000

I came across this great post-rock album on my travels yesterday.

It's from a Polish band called New Century Classics.

Every track is great, from the first to the last. This is how music was meant to be. It's not like the albums produced by most of the artists signed to the major labels where it is one or two good tracks and the rest are just filler.

This is all good.

And it gets better…

The artist allows you to name your price and pay what you think it is worth, including $0.00 if you don't want to pay or are not quite ready to support their work just yet. And it's high quality audio files. Not only can you name your price, you can choose your file format and bitrate, too! You get your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, OGG, AAC, and more.

So take a listen and then go get the album.

How to Get Google Buzz Alerts Out of Your Inbox (and keep them out)

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:06:00 +0000

Google Buzz is the new social networking and sharing tool from Google that many are now trying out. It has a feature that some may find annoying:

Whenever you comment on an item, if anyone else comments after you, it is sent to your inbox, much in the same way as an incoming email. If you are especially active on Buzz, that could be a lot of stuff in your inbox, and for especially popular items, they could keep coming back like a bad penny.

There are two ways to stop it.

Stop following that item.
Create a filter to automatically label it, skip the inbox, and archive it.

Here is how you set up the filter:

Step 1: Open one of the items in your inbox.

Step 2: At the top, under the “More Actions” menu, select “Filter messages like these”.

(click image to view full size)

Step 3: Type “updates.google.com” in the “from” box and then type “Buzz” in the “Subject” box. Now click “Test search”. All of the Buzz items should show below the box. Click “Next Step”.

(click image to view full size)

Step 4: Place a check mark in “Skip the inbox” and “Apply the label”. Then select from the label dropdown list “New label” and type in “Google Buzz”. To archive and label the ones currently in your inbox, place a check mark in the box next to “Also apply filter to conversations below”. Then click “Create Filter” and you are done.

(click image to view full size)

From now on, instead of the messages ending up in your inbox, they will be archived under the label “Google Buzz” on the sidebar.

Become a Jazz Fan

noreply@blogger.com (App) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:12:00 +0000

I wasn’t born a jazz fan, but I did form an instant “addiction” at age 13. How does that happen to some one?
So you heard some music you liked and were told it was jazz, and you wanted to hear more, and you did. Bang! You’re a jazz fan!
But that wasn’t the whole story. Many years later you wound up with a collection of thousands of albums by ten times that many musicians. And now you’re a serious jazz fan. “Back in the day”, that was a hit or miss proposition, but now there’s a mountain of resources to get you there. So here is the shortcut path.
First, there’s radio. Chances are your area doesn’t have much jazz radio on the FM band, although there are many full-time jazz stations around the world. Many colleges in the US support part-time jazz programming, and if you live near a college or university, that may be a resource. Fortunately, many of these stations are also on the Internet and you can find them from New York to Vladivostok and Tokyo and many cities in between, all in a day’s search (or less). My smart phone has an application called WunderRadio [sic] that can pick up in excess of 35,000 Internet stations (I have managed to bookmark 27 full-time jazz stations, without having to even look hard).
Unfortunately, fulltime jazz stations are usually listener supported and consequently have to appeal to the largest possible audience. As a result they tend to exclude almost all but the most widely popular music, which is not always the “best” in jazz.
If you truly want to broaden your interest, you must dig deeper. One example of true excellence is WKCR (www.wkcr.org Columbia University) that has had continuous jazz programming since the 1940’s (the oldest jazz station in America). Although they only broadcast jazz on a part-time basis, their programming covers the entire spectrum, and they run many specials where they sometimes focus on a single player for 24 hours straight or more. Their music is streamed over the Internet, and they also have archived music for your listening enjoyment.
Another good starting point, www.allaboutjazz.com describes itself as the web’s premier resource for jazz-they are, without question, the largest Internet site devoted entirely to the music. They publish news and reviews and conduct forums and include a streaming service. AllAboutJazz also publishes an excellent hard copy jazz newspaper that you can subscribe to for the cost of postage. Like WKCR, they believe in a full spectrum approach.
Internet jazz pages seem almost endless-and not just American music. Run searches for German Jazz, French jazz, Japanese jazz…-you’ll be amazed by how many countries you can come up with. Two of my favorites are Norway and Poland where jazz has really taken hold in a big way.
Many musicians and groups now have their own web page, and, if you develop any favorites, be sure to look them up. In some cases you will find samples of their music along with complete discographies of all the albums they have performed on.
You can also find tons of material on sub-genres of the music, all the way from Dixieland to free jazz and the avant garde…and, subjects you might think would be obscure, like who was the most famous bass clarinet player in jazz or what was The October Revolution of 1964. The answers to these and a myriad of other questions are usually covered in extreme and extraordinary detail.
There are also numerous discussion groups on the Internet devoted to jazz where you can meet other fans and musicians and chat about the music. Some of them can be quite informative, and you will also have a chance to ask knowledgeable people direct questions to broaden your understanding and interests. The largest and most active of these forums that I am aware of is on Amazon.com.
Want to read a book? You could start with Jazz For Dummies by Dirk Sutro . Beyond that, there are history books galore and encyclopedias, some of which categorize the music by sub-genres with discographies bursting from every page. If you need an exercise program and you don’t mind weight-lifting, you might want to build a reference library.
Here are some books I have found useful over the years:

Vladimir Bogdanov - All Music Guide to jazz
Alyn Shipton - A New History of jazz
Ian Carr - Jazz The Rough Guide
Nat Hentoff - Jazz Is
Bill Kirchner – The Oxford Companion To Jazz
Leonard Feather – The Biographical Encyclopedia of jazz
Even if you don’t read them, a collection like this will impress the hell out of any vagrant musicians who happen to be visiting you.
So, after all these years, what are the resources I use most? Well, for one thing, whenever I run across a new musician I particularly like, I check out the other members of his group to see what they’ve recorded. I also look into what other musicians they have previously played with.
My smart phone also has two Internet stations I find invaluable: LastFM and Pandora. With both of these you can create your own “stations” by feeding in the names of a few musicians you like. These websites then stream back to you music that is similar to that played by the musicians you selected, often introducing you to players you never heard of that match your taste perfectly! (Personally, I think that what appeals to me about jazz is that it expresses the entire range of human emotion-the good, the bad, and the ugly-on a truly grand scale.)
And last, but not least, there’s live jazz. I live near New York City so it’s easy for me to find entertainment that suits my tastes. I don’t travel much, but I still attend a festival occasionally where large groups of musicians get together to play-sometimes as long as a week or more at a time. Most large cities today have at least a club or two where live jazz can be heard. Some even have “house bands” that perform regularly.
Jazz musicians often find it difficult to make a living and many of them teach at local schools or take on individual students. In any case I feel these guys deserve whatever support I can give them. They have given me so much.
Oh, and in case you are wondering how a jazz musician can end up with a million dollars? The answer is, by starting out with ten million dollars.

This has been a guest post by Dan Bresnahan. Follow him on Twitter or Friendfeed and let him know if his article has helped you. You can also read and subscribe to his blog, Out to Lunch Jazz.

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Here is how you set up the filter:

Become a Jazz Fan