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 Posted July 15th, 2010 at 12:11PM
I purchased a HTC Evo a few days ago, ostensibly in an attempt to figure out my internet at home issue. But coverage on Sprint is still shoddy at my home.
Still, it can do a lot of cool things when I’m not at home, so… I’ve got 30 days to make up my mind. Right now, I’m listening to my last.fm recommendations streaming and typing this up on a WordPress app. At the library WiFi.
I received a discount on Sprint, and even roaming (Verizon) at home is hit or miss. Verizon would be a decent chunk of change more, so I might just keep the Evo despite it not solving my home internet woes. It gets reception everywhere else… I live in a mini Bermuda triangle that sucks cell reception out of thin air.
Some day I might get to a 4G area and be really impressed. Rochester and Syracuse have it, NYC will probably be my first opportunity sometime this year.
Posted May 18th, 2010 at 11:05AM
Last Friday I received an e-mail from Google stating that my website was in violation of the terms of service for its AdSense advertising service. They flagged a post from five years ago, where I linked to an interview with the creator of “Real Dolls” and complained that a great deal of my site traffic was coming from search engine searches for said sex dolls (I had previously posted a link and excerpts from an article on them – they start at $5000, and apparently there’s a market. It had piqued my curiosity, what can I say?)
AdSense’s TOS restrict service to websites with “adult, mature, or pornographic” content. I’ve kept this in mind, but guess I focused on the key word of pornographic, as I tend to think of politics or even the weather as “adult” or “mature” topics – obviously there’s little sense in such a vague proscription. And my personal definition of pornography revolves around the express intent of getting off, which this website has never attempted to provide for anyone.
I requested a clarification on how exactly to bring my blog in line with their expectations – was their problem with the content, the linkage to the manufacturer’s site, or the long-broken image anchors? I received no response and my service was interrupted as promised three days after the initial notice.
It seems like Google allows itself to be the premier conduit for pornography the world over, but AdSense advertisers are expected to maintain a puritanical theme of fluffy bunnies and stork-delivered conception, suitable for the rug rat set whom Google’s advertising apparently targets.
I never made a dime with AdSense as this site never generated enough traffic to drum up the required threshold earnings (before they send your check), and I’ve only intermittently displayed ads in the first place. I might investigate alternative services, but for now it’s a low priority. Self-absorbed schizophrenic personal blogs have never been big money makers, after all.
So long, AdSense, it’s been nice sending you what limited traffic I could, for no compensation.
Expect a post soon about my Monticello track day. I had a blast and the car performed without fault.
Posted March 30th, 2010 at 12:13PM
The warmer weather has definitely brought out the ticks already, as so far I’ve picked a big juicy sucker off of each dog. I’ve already dosed them both with Frontline – which typically works for about 3 weeks in our experience, not the month claimed – but our stuff might be out of date. Both doggies have gotten Lyme disease before, and one, Ehrlichiois. Considering that we got a dusting of snow within the past week, the grass and weeds have yet to take off and it’s hard to say where they’re picking up the buggers.
Speaking of parasitic bloodsuckers, I’ve been noticing a new form of comment spam that Akismet is rather hit-or-miss on (they’re mostly picked up, a few get through). They appear to be legitimate comments except for not relating much to the post in question. Usually generic “thanks for the post” remarks, and the only link is entered into the website field, directed toward garbage sites with no real content.
But one of these spam comments was nice enough to point out their MO – linking to a blogger page with an automated commenting software for ‘backlinking’ and building up search engine ranks. It’s at the “dofollowblogcommenter” blogger site for those interested, but my investigation is ending at the trialpay.com link for downloading said software.
For now, I’m flagging most of it as spam, unless the comment text could by any conceivable stretch be considered legitimate, in which case I’ll just strip the website link.
Posted February 8th, 2010 at 1:52PM
I’ve been actively plugging away with both this site and other projects in the past few days. The employment side of things is also looking rosy, so while posts might come slow over the foreseeable future, rest assured it’s not for lack of time in front of the computer!
I completed the promised site redesign here, switching to the Atahualpa theme but keeping the same color palette from the previous incarnation. Everything is running smoothly for the time being but I need to work on the archive page. I’ve been running a pretty sleek plug-in for displaying archives, but displaying all 700-odd posts on a single page is asking too much so I’m on the hunt for a better solution.
In related news, I’m currently working on an e-commerce site running CRE Loaded. While I don’t know if I’ll ever master that particular package or the concerns and issues of e-commerce security, its great experience to get under the belt. I’m making a small sum and its given me the crazy notion of monetizing more of the various coding and design work I’ve played with for years.
To that end I’ll be retooling surfingonarocket.com to function as a professional portfolio site. Eventually I’ll be able to point potential employers there for proof positive of various skills, from writing and editing AP style to coding and designing, Web 2.0-style. I want to become more productive to that end, finally putting out some original WordPress themes and completing freelance work of any variety. We’ll see how that goes.
I took the census entrance exam the other day and answered 27 out of 28 correctly. I couldn’t for the life of me determine what I got wrong, since I was able to work through the entire test twice in the 30 minutes they gave us and wasn’t uncertain over any answer. But then when I took the practice I filled out the incorrect bubble on one where I knew the right choice, so its anyones guess. Apparently 10 correct will get you a job so I’m not concerned enough to re-take the test, and hopefully missing one won’t preclude me from an office job or anything besides being an ‘enumerator’ (the people responsible for going door to door, and, apparently, getting guns pointed at them on a regular basis – according to a 2000 census veteran). Office job will pay better too.
The final word? Even without the certainty of employment I’m planning my first track outing of 2010 – it’ll be at Monticello Motor Club with SCDA, May 17th. There will be a MINI contingent and associated discount, and I’m officially pumped. My MINI is still tucked away in the garage (now completely enclosed with very nice electric garage doors!) but it’s just a tech check and fluid change away from being ready for the event. Well, not quite, but close enough.
Till later, intrepid readers!
Posted January 13th, 2010 at 12:13PM
I’ve been playing with the most recent version of WordPress – 2.9.x at this point – and have been pleasantly surprised at each turn by some of the recent changes. The sad thing is I don’t think any of these are “new”; it’s just that I haven’t spent much time back here lately.
- The WYSIWYG editor seems fully functional and reliable. I’ve always used the HTML editor (posts around here tend to be simple anyway). But I could get used to the new editor, especially with the fullscreen mode! (I don’t have much good to say about my PowerBook’s 1024×768 12″ display, going on five years old.)
- I’m also just beginning to install and upgrade themes, plug-ins, and WP itself from the admin backend, and it is a godsend.
- Along the same lines, I discovered the Atahualpa theme, which as a “theme framework” adds a whole new layer of accessibility with complete step-by-step access and control of site design through the WP backend.
- And when reading this, keep in mind that I connect to the internet at a blazing 26.4 kbps. The WP admin still loads flawlessly and skipping my end of the connection speeds up installs / upgrades / theming exponentially.
So I’m intent on making MULTIPLE posts in January. There are a few topics on the burner and I notice the old Twitter hasn’t been updated in nearly two months. Huh. I’d like to refurb the pages, particularly the links and colophon. I’m definitely getting the itch to make some design changes. I’ll either polish the hell out of the current theme (by Ahren Ahimsa), or move to Atahualpa.
Posted August 13th, 2009 at 12:19PM
I’ve been working on integrating a new theme to wmc. Things are moving smoothly and I’m pretty much done with the change over. The archives page is undergoing renovations that’ll hopefully be completed soon.
There is some horizontal scrolling on my laptop, but the menu easily expands and minimizes, eliminating this. I also know most people are using higher resolutions than I, so there’s less wasted space now. Let me know what you think and of any errors or oddities you may encounter.
Still on the ‘to-do’ list is substantial updating to the About and My MINI pages.
“(S)news”? Get it? Snooze? Ah, I’ll post something worthwhile later.
Posted January 18th, 2009 at 1:48PM
I’ve been trying to share media between my Powerbook and Playstation 3 so that I can keep all of my audio and video files on my external hard drive, and watch them on the TV. Haven’t figured it out yet (looks like 3rd party software is necessary). But in the process, I’ve gotten it so my PS3 is now online, wirelessly connected to dial-up! Woo!
So far I’ve been able to log into the Playstation Network and use the PS3 internet browser, but no multiplayer inside a game (keeps timing out, understandably). Also doesn’t help that all of my games are out of date and ask to download updates before connecting. It’d be a riot if I could attempt multiplayer over dial-up though.
Anyway, it took a lot of trial + error to get my laptop to share internet via AirPort (using “DHCP” – whatever that means), so here’s my former stumbling block:
Make Internet Sharing DHCP work with an Xbox/Xbox 360 (or PS3!)
(for OSX 10.4+)
- Start Internet Sharing if it’s not already running.
- Open NetInfo Manager, located in /Applications » Utilities. Authenticate as an administrator using the lock icon in the lower-left.
- Navigate to the /config/dhcp node (so that dhcp is selected in the browser pane).
- In the lower pane, find the reply_threshold_seconds property and change its value from 4 to 0.
- Quit NetInfo Manager and then restart your Mac.
- After the restart, open NetInfo Manager again and confirm that reply_threshold_seconds is still 0.
Hope it helps someone!
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