Do NOT read this if you don't want to know anything about any episode of Battlestar Galactica. You have been warned. Every time the latest episode is shown in America, someone - lots of someone's - puts copies of it onto the internet for people like me to download. Episode 15 of the second season is due out this week. It's so far away from reaching TV in New Zealand that most people here don't even know there's a second season yet! Admittedly, most of them didn't even know the first season was showing last year....
Anyway, as I was saying, I've been watching it almost religiously. There's a small bit of popular sharing going on at work, with others loving it almost as much as me. Or maybe more than me, I dunno.
The second season of Battlestar Galactica is dark, darker than the first season. Much darker. Emotional and psychological issues abound. A new Battlestar joins in, and the Admiral in command (Kain) is a Bitch! of the first order. She gets medals for bitchiness, even though she'd likely torture the medal maker to make her the medals, and then she'd execute him. She's that kind of bitch. She's the kind of bitch you want dead. She has to die, you know it.
So did everyone else in the show. Assassination plots and edge-of-the-seat kinda stuff. People sweating bullets, and you realise you're joining them.
I love this show so much!
I've been trying to get Deidre interested every now and again, but after the pilot episode last year, she refused to watch it. It wasn't the same as the Battlestar Galactica she remembered from the 80's, so she didn't like it. On the weekend however, I got her to watch the 3-part series with Admiral Kain and Battlestar Pegasus, and now she's converted. She then watched the 2 episodes after that 3-part series. All back to back! She's told me now that I'm not allowed to watch it, ever, except when she's watching it with me. A good sign.
The combat scenes of two Battlestars acting together against two Cylon Basestars was just, oh so amazingly awesome! I don't recall seeing any battle scenes in any other TV show that carried as much energy as this. I've seen some awesome battle scenes in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in the latter part of the series during the Dominion War (you'd need to be a Trekkie to understand...), but this was just truly jaw-dropping awesome.
The scenes of the firepower being brought to bear against the Basestars, and the Vipers flying through the girders of another ship as they're destroying it, with Cylons being blown out into space through the explosions, and Apollo drifting in an ejection seat watching the battle, and the majesty of it.... just blows me away.
This show is the best show on tv at the moment. Without a doubt. I give it 10 out of 10.
You might have noticed I've set the blog network up already. Or you might not have... Anyway, every single one of my blogs now has the 'blog network list' at the top of the right-hand column, with each blog linking to every other blog in the network. However, they aren't all the blogs I'm playing with. There are others as well, but I'm building up the content for them. When they're ready, I'll introduce them.
There's going to be a bit of a change in how I post. Instead of posting multitudes of different topics on this blog, I'm going to spread them out amongst different blogs. Let me ask you a question, which I hope you'll answer for me in the comments to this post. Do you want me to give you a teaser of a post I do on another blog, with a link to it, or do you want me to just not post anything about it on here, with the assumption that if you're interested, you'll be visiting that blog anyway?
My preference, like all blogging, is to link to material on 'other blogs' which is of interest to me. Naturally, what I write is of interest to me, so I'm thinking I'd refer to it in this blog. But I open the forum to you, the public. Tell me what your thoughts are.
Or maybe it began some time ago, and I just never noticed.
I saw this little tidbit about a German executive dismissing blogs as 'the toilet walls of the internet', and, as is customary with me, I could feel the outrage rising.
So then I went and read the 'anti-blogger movement' article. I was amused to find that the 'distinguished' advertising executive, Jung von Matt, was forced to publicly apologise for his anti-blogging comments, which included:
What on earth gives every computer owner the right to exude his opinion, unasked for? ...and most bloggers really just exude.
What really gets me outraged in many of these cases is where these dumbarses get off on thinking that just because they don't like something, that it shouldn't exist. I have only one thing to say to people like that, in all cases, wherever they are.
If you don't like it, don't read it! If it's tv, don't watch it! And especially, don't tell us that you think we're the 'toilet walls of the internet', or whatever it is you're offended about.
If something offends you, stay away from it. Don't be a retard, for frack's sake. You only end up embarrassing yourself.
The irony, for me, is this guy complaining about everyone thinking they have the right to throw their opinion at the internet by throwing his opinion... at the internet...?
Problogger.net has a great article about this, which you can read most of the details at. To summarise, here are the points that are mentioned.
Topic popularity Choose a topic that people are searching for. For example, new services, products or trends can be of benefit, as interest in them will be high at the start. Be the first to blog about it, and you're taking advantage of its initial popularity.
Topic competition and narrow niches Choose a topic which has very little or no competition, where there's no one else writing about it, or if there are, they're of poor quality. Make sure you're better than them.
Availability of revenue streams Ok, so you have a topic that people are searching for, and there's not much competition. Now you can make money from it. Google Adsense should be used for a high paying topic, to give you the greatest return. There are also affiliate programs on the net that you can use and are likely to give you a good return.
Availability of content Research the topic before you start, to see if you can create a lot of content for it over a long period of time. You don't want to run out of content after a few weeks or months.
Measure your energy, passion and interest While there might be plenty of content to draw upon for the topic you've come up with, it's important to appreciate how much energy and commitment this requires. Will you still be energised by this in 3 months time? How about in a year? Only pursue what you are passionate about. That's the key.
Pull it all together It's rare to find a topic that everything above comes together on. Most blogs fail in one or more of these areas. It doesn't mean your blog won't be viable or profitable, but it's good to be aware of any weaknesses.
As a final note... make it happen. It really is up to you.
I've created a new website specifically for publishing the story Federation's End. Click on the name to go there. All future posts will be done on that site and not this one, so please bookmark or subscribe to it via RSS if you're interested in following the story. Thanks.
I've just been thinking recently about what I'm doing with this blog, and the others that I've created and experimenting with. This blog, Life Through My Eyes, was an extension of my online journal and all those various topics that are of interest to me. Over the past few months, however, I've been creating other blogs for other reasons, mainly for more focused content, and exploring the value of those more specialised blogs. Some of the content I've been working with on this has been transferred over to their own blogs. I realised last week that I've been creating a 'blog network', and now I'm looking at how I can take advantage of that too. Mainly by allowing each blog to focus on its own focused content, and yet each blog promoting the network, allowing people to move around amongst the blogs wherever their interests take them. I'll be working on that concept over the next few weeks, developing it better than what it currently is.
Writing the recent Star Trek story on this blog has effectively made me realise that there's too much unfocused content even on this blog. Instead of putting anything and everything on here, I have to remember what this blog is about. Life Through My Eyes. Therefore, stories, technology articles, news, politics, etc, will be on their own blogs from now on. I have a blog network, and each blog and its specialised content will be part of the network.
I'm returning this blog to its specialised content, mainly the spiritual and philosophical musings of life through my eyes. My apologies for the deviations over the past few months. I'll be changing the format of this site in the next few weeks, probably only a little bit, to advertise the network and the various content available on them.
The network, like this blog used to be, will show the various interests and passions that I have. I hope you'll subscribe (via RSS) to the various blogs that will be of interest to you. Thank you.
Mainly, yes. Also because it makes sense to split up content into multiple blogs, and have each of the blogs linking to each other, almost like another form of categorisation. The network will help increase each of the blog's exposure, which will increase traffic to them. That's where the 'financial venture' will eventually come into it.
Any advice or discussion will be welcome. Either on here, or via email. Thanks
Straight away you must capture the reader's attention with the headline, or title of your article. If you're not sure what to write for the headline, then wait until you've finished writing the article. The theme of the article can help you decide what the headline is going to be. Keep it short, but descriptive. Use important keywords. Poor beginning
Your opening paragraph must be a clear introduction to the content of the article. Your headline has to flow into the first paragraph. Don't use this opportunity to talk about what you want to do with the article. For example, "In this article, I will help you understand...." or even, "By the time you've finished reading this you will know..." You don't want to presume what the reader is going to get from it. You have an idea for an article - just write it.
Poor flow
You need to remember logic as you write. Logic dictates that this follows that follows this follows... find the flow in what you write. Our thoughts meander from one point to another, without any logical flow. Don't let your article meander around all over the place. Be clear with what you're presenting, and move logically from one point to another, letting it all flow together.
Poor summary
For a start, do not label your summary as 'summary', or 'conclusion'. Very poor form. Your conclusion has to be like the rest of the article, leading the reader from one point to another. The conclusion must be the final point, and not just a summary of the previous points. The ideal conclusion will be driving the point home and provide the reader with satisfaction that they've read your article. Don't leave them hanging.
It takes practice to write great articles, and you have to stick to a few ground rules along the way. I hope this gives you an idea of some of the ground rules you should be following.
As you write, look for feedback. Listen to what people say about your articles. Remember, they're the ones reading it, so their opinion is important. In the end, those that read your articles will thank you by coming back to read more.
"Freeze!" was the loudly voiced command from the two men that came rushing through the door, pointing large phaser rifles at Duo. They were quickly followed by another 3, all of them wearing Starfleet security uniforms, enhanced with light body armour and tactical helmets.
Duo froze, for a second, then slowly turned to face the security officers. It only took him a few seconds to assess the situation, and it didn't look good. There was no way he could overpower five armed guards, even if they hadn't been wearing armor, in his present condition there was just no way.
"OK, OK... ya got me...." He said sharply, raising his hands and taking a step backwards. "Get on your knees," one of them yelled, keeping his rifle pointed at Duo. The others fanned out in support, all with their weapons trained on the man before them.
Duo frowned. It wasn't in his blood to give up without a fight, but he wasn't as impulsive as he'd once been. He'd wait for a good moment. One opening or weakness was all he needed. But these men were good. They hadn't made a single slip.
"Aw, c'mon... I'm unarmed an' I'm tired as hell. What am I gonna do, bite ya?" He complained loudly, the less experienced they thought he was, the better.
The leader of the security team made a decision. The unauthorised person in front of them was being uncooperative by not doing as commanded. Accustomed as he was to 'following the book', he fired his rifle. For Duo, everything suddenly went black.
---------------------------------------
"Aaawww... hell..." Duo groaned, popping one eye open and wincing at the stabbing bright light that invaded his already pounding head. He raised a hand to shade his face and looked to the left and right. It seemed he was in a sickbay somewhere, the beds on either side of him were empty and the room was silent except for the faint background humming of medical equipment.
He lay almost still for a few minutes, testing each muscle gently and descovering that aside from the general aches and pains that he was getting used to living with, there wasn't much wrong with his body.
"Uurgh," He groaned again as he sat up slowly and looked around again. He was definitely in a deserted sickbay. "What th' hell..." he grumbled, swinging his legs off of the bed.
The door swished open behind him, and before he could raise the energy to turn around, Duo heard a familiar voice. Not the voice he was expecting, but familiar nevertheless.
"Why the hell do you think you've got to fight everyone in the universe?" Jim Hawkins asked.
"Genetics," Duo said, half groaning as he turned around and grinned at Jim, "I'm made that way. An' I don't wanna fight everyone, I jus' wanna fight th' EGR."
"Last I checked, Starfleet Security weren't EGR," Jim smiled, walking over to Duo. He stopped on the way, picking up a small hypospray and checked it was the one he wanted. "Stay still," he said, and held it up to Duo's neck. With a burst of compressed air, the painkiller was injected into Duo's bloodstream. Jim stepped back and put the hypospray back onto the small table near the bed.
"Nnng.... Starfleet, EGR," Duo grumped, "There isn't much difference, these days." He slid off the biobed and sighed, feeling the painkiller work through his system. "How th' hell did you know I was here, anyway?"
"I didn't," Jim said, leaning against the bed and watching him. "I was here for a different reason. Why are YOU here?"
"Cap'n Aldous," Duo said lightly, a slight frown creasing his brow. "I was tryin' t' get t' Earth t' go see President Spock when I heard he was alive, an' here."
"You were trying to see President Spock?" Jim asked, chuckling. "Ambitious." He frowned. "Where have you been for the past year Duo? You went AWOL."
Duo sighed, leaning backwards against the biobed and sighing. "It's been a long year, but I couldn't jus' sit back an' watch th' EGR take over... they're th' worst kind of race, underhanded an' sneaky, they've got no honour an' no sense of justice." He said sharply, pausing to stare at Jim for a second. "I've been doin' what everyone else should've been doin' right from th' start. I've been fightin', an' runnin', an' doin' everythin' I could t' get back at them for what they've done."
"Have you succeeded?" Jim asked him.
"No," Duo said sharply, "but I tried, 'cause I had to. Tryin' an' failin' is a lot better than jus' sittin' back an' doin' nuthin'." he glanced at Jim again, "It's a lot more than everyone else has done."
"Do you know of others that have tried?" Jim asked.
"Yeah, there's still a few groups out there that are fightin' back." He said lightly, "but there's a lot more dead ones, than livin' ones."
"And how successful are those that are fighting back?" Jim asked again.
"Look, I know what your gettin' at, Jim... it'd probably been better t' sit back an' wait." Duo said, frowning at Jim as he spoke, "but y' know me, Jim, better than most. D'ya really think I could've jus' sat around for a whole year an' watched th' EGR take over? After what they did t' th' Cardassians?"
Jim sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Duo, all those that have tried to beat the EGR have failed. Those races that have tried an organised resistance, they've failed. They've been destroyed. The Borg, Duo... the Borg! They failed too! The EGR destroyed them, so what the hell makes you think you can win!" Jim was yelling, but for once, he didn't notice.
"I know I can't win!" Duo yelled back, pushing away from the biobed and turning to face Jim, his hands balled into fists at his side. "But I still had t' try! There was no way I could've done anythin' else! I couldn't live, watchin' what was goin' on! I couldn't sit back an' do nuthin'!"
"You've always had a death wish Duo," Jim shot back, facing the smaller man. "All you've done your entire life is run away to fight by yourself. Warrior code my arse, all you've wanted to do is die!"
"Do I look dead t' you!?" Duo snapped at Jim, "If you can't understand me by now, you never will!" he said sharply. "If a man can't be true t' his own sense of Justice an' put his life on th' line for what he believes in, then he's not a man at all!"
"And is it worth dying if that death is meaningless?" Jim asked him, trying to calm himself down. "Is fighting a hopeless battle worth dying for nothing? Or is it the mark of a true warrior who understands when and where to fight the battles? Do you remember the Academy training of Sun Tzu and the Art of War, or did you skip that class?"
"How d'ya think I'm still alive?" Duo asked, trying to relax as he spoke, "d'ya think I jus' went out an' charged around attackin' everythin'? D'ya think I'm an idiot!?" He asked, his voice rising again. He paused for a moment, shutting his eyes and scratching his forehead. "Jus' 'cause I was fightin' doesn't mean I was throwin' my life away every chance I got. I spent more time runnin' than I did fightin', but I can hold my head up 'cause I actually went out an' tried t' do somethin'. Even if I only got a few of them, an' only saved a few lives here an' there, it doesn't matter. I tried."
Jim's voice was quiet as he said, "And what about the hundreds or people who were killed by the EGR in retaliation for your efforts? Do you think the EGR just let you galavant around the quadrant without regard? How many people are dead because of you're selfish code of honour? It's great to hold your head up, I'm sure, but what about all those who don't have heads any more?"
"Don' you dare try t' pin that kinda crap on me!" Duo snapped, "People die in wars, it happens! An' if those people hadn't died one way, they'd have gone another," he said sharply. "An' what about whatever you plannin' to do? How many people d'ya think are gonna die when you pull off whatever plan you've got under your sleeve?"
Jim was about to reply when he stopped, shutting his mouth. He sighed again.
"I'm sorry," he said. "You're right, people die."
Duo was about to retort with a stinging remark about facing facts and being realistic when his brain caught up with what Jim had said.
"Well.... well... yeah, I am." He said uncertainly, then paused for a moment. "So... what kinda plan do you have under your sleeve, anyway?"
Jim smiled grimly, and was about to reply when someone else appeared. Literally.
"I have to say, I'm a little disappointed I can't throw you into the brig for striking a superior officer," said Captain Aldous, having just materialised to Duo's left.
Duo grinned, turning to look at Aldous and just spending a minute looking. "Cap'n... you've got no idea how happy I am t' see you," he said lightly, visibly relaxing as he spoke. "If ya like, you could throw me in th' brig for being AWOL for a year, or for conductin' terroist acts against th' Federation an' it's allies..."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll find something to throw you in the brig for," Aldous said, smiling. "Now, is there any reason why you were trying to break into my ship?"
"Yeah," Duo replied, his tone turning more serious, "I've ran outa strength t' fight on my own, my mech is just about dead an', t' be honest," He paused and glanced at Jim, "I'm not far behind. I've run outa ideas an' options, an' when I heard you were alive I knew th' only way I was gonna be able t' survive an' keep fightin was t' come here."
"If I could be considered alive, that is," Aldous said softly, mainly to himself. "But I guess you've come to the right place." He looked at Hawkins, and then back at Duo.
"Alive enough for me," Duo said lightly. Losing Aldous had been hard on him and he'd never really had time to come to terms with the loss. Getting him back and being on the Scorpion again made him feel more secure than he had for a long time.
"We've stolen this ship," Hawkins said simply, looking at Duo.
Duo looked at Hawkins, then at Aldous. "We've stolen th' ship...." he repeated, "But if we're gonna steal th' Scorpion we've gotta make a pass by Mars, I left somethin' there that I've gotta pick up."
"We're not GONNA steal the ship," Hawkins said. "We've STOLEN the ship. And we ain't in Kansas no more..."
"We're what?" Duo frowned. He had no idea what Jim was talking about, Kansas was, or used to be, on Earth. "Where are we?" He asked, still frowning.
"Beyond the rim," Aldous said. "Hopefully where they won't find us while we plan our strategy."
"Hyperdrive?" Duo guessed, settling back against the biobed and still frowning softly.
"Slipstream,' Jim said. It almost seemed as if he and Aldous were tag-teaming. "You've been asleep over a day."
"Oh..." Duo said simply, "Ok... y' didn't happen t' stop by Mars, then, t' pick up my mech? Did ya?" He asked hopefully.
Title tags are those words that you can see at the top of your web browser. They tell search engines what the page is all about.
Search engines love titles. In fact, they love them so much, that they'll reward you for having a descriptive title by taking more notice of it. The result of this little reward is that you'll end up near the top of the search list when people are searching for words or phrases that are included in your title, and you'll get more people visiting your site.
The way it works is that the title helps the search engine decide the topic and the theme of your post. When a search is done for similar topics or themes, your post is more likely to be featured.
Unfortunately, title tags are often neglected, or worse, simply used to highlight the business name. By ignoring the power of the title tag, you're ignoring an easy way of getting more people coming to your site. And you do want more people, don't you?
It's important to remember that every page on your site is unique, and needs its own unique title to help search engines understand what that page is about. On blogs, the title page is determined by the title of each of your posts. On websites, you have to specify it in the title tag.
It's up to the owner of the site to make sure their title tag is used properly. If you don't, then you're simply losing potential visitors, and potential customers. Take advantage of title tags, and reap the rewards.
Change the title tag
To change your title tag on a website, have a look in the HTML coding. You'll see something like this:
<> Page Title < / title >
Please note that yours won't have the spaces that I have in my example, as Blogger won't show the coding unless I have spaces.
Change your titles according to the content on the pages, making them as descriptive as possible.
For blogs, just make sure the titles of your posts use the theme of the post, or include keywords.
Be kind to your titles, and they'll be kind to you. And so will the search engines.
Jupiter loomed large in one of the transport's many view screens; it's rings glistening in the radiance of the distant sun. Getting here had taken more than he could have imagined, and help from places he never would have expected.
Friends, he mused silently, looking down at the identity document that had his face, but another name on it. Even friends who he'd long since given up on... he would've never gotten this far without them.
Duo Maxwell, A.K.A Max Weller, sighed deeply. Justice, the Mech he'd relied on for so long, was hidden in the depths of the Martian wastes. It had taken him almost a week, a lot of credits and every favour he'd ever earned to get from a small town in Mars to this point and he'd learned a lot in the process. Captain Aldous was still alive, for one. That news had shocked him more than anything, and was the reason he'd come to Jupiter now. Aldous, and the USS Scorpion was where he had to go. Aldous would know what to do; he'd have a plan because he always did. Duo's faith in his Captain was unshakable.
He had to admit, it would have been easy to stay on Mars with his friend, and forget about everything. For the first time in months he was clean, properly clothed, uninjured, and not hungry. Quatre had wanted him to stay longer, to recover from the exhaustion that was still plaguing him. Yet he knew he wouldn't have been able to stay for long, it would have eaten at him. Quatre could do it because he couldn't do anything else, but Duo could do something, and so he had to.
Duo looked down at the identity docket, it was signed 'Captain Wufei Chang, Asst. Director of Personnel, Starfleet Command.' He still couldn't believe Chang had agreed to help him at his own risk, but, he supposed, Quatre could always convince him to do anything.
"Now docking at Jupiter Station, please make sure you take all your belongings with you. Have a nice day and thank you for travelling with us today." Said the voice of the transport's Captain, tugging him out of his thoughts and back to the present. He'd made it to Jupiter; all he had to do now was make it to the Scorpion.
As soon as the transport docked Duo stood, he pulled the baseball cap's peak a little lower and made for the exit. A station security officer checked his ID, glanced at him for a second, then waved him on with a nod. He made his way towards the nearest view port and gazed out towards the station's shipyards.
He spotted the Sovereign Class ship instantly, wrapped in the protective grid of a dry-dock. He couldn't help but grin at seeing his old ship. He'd never really became attached to any other ship like he had with the first USS Scorpion, or any other captain like he had to Aldous.
Getting onboard the Scorpion wasn't going to be a problem, his new identity carried the authorisation of a civilian expert. He made his way towards the nearest turbolift.
The dockyard was, as he had hoped, almost devoid of personnel. It was easy for him to work his way down to the Scorpion's docking umbilical without detection. "Open dockin' hatch, authorisation Weller Pie-2-Gamma" he said lightly, using the authorisation Wufei had created for him.
"Authorisation Denied, invalid security code." The computer replied stoically.
Duo froze for a few seconds, this meant that he'd been uncovered, and recently too since he'd made it onto the station without any problem. He cursed under his breath, tossing the now-invalid ID to the deck and frowning darkly.
He hoped he hadn't put his friends in danger as he reached for the control panel and ripped off the display. A few crossed wires opened the hatch and he stepped through. He knew security would be on the way to his location, he was unarmed and exhausted and didn't stand a chance of overpowering them. Duo grabbed a handful of wires and pulled, retracting his hand quickly as the heavy door slid shut.
He didn't pause to think of anything else, but set off down the tube at a flat-out run, reaching the hull of the scorpion in record time. As he had expected the hatch was sealed at this end, too, but he wanted a different approach this time.
"Cap'n? Could y' let me in?" He pleaded breathlessly, behind him; the station’s docking hatch slid open.
Alan, Trek fiction is kind of a sub-genre of science fiction that I don't know well. I was a fan of the first two series and watched some of Enterprise, but it's hard for me to comment on plot elements, fidelity to the Trekkie universe etc.
My main suggestion at this point is that I'd love to see much more specific sensory detail. How big is a view screen on the ship? What do those rings look like? We learn that a chracter is clean, properly clothed, uninjured, and not hungry, but what's that actually look like in this trek reality?
You seem to have a talking computer, but what's the computer's voice like? I'm not quite at the point where I can see the ship or be persuaded to simply "believe" in the scenario and the narrator's credibility as an authority in that reality. My guess is that when some of these acquire more idiosynchratic detail, I, as a reader, will be more willing to buy in.
Thanks for that great feedback chance. It's easy to leave out the small details when you can see it perfectly in your mind's eye. I'll try to be more descriptive in future about the small things. :-)
There's a lot of talk in the 'blogosphere' over the past couple of days, but particularly today, about Darren Rowse of ProBlogger having his paid-for-and-copyrighted design stolen and used by Vince Chan of AmBlogger. A number of people have entered the fray, on one side or another, with one of them being 'chartreuse' who suggests that Darren, instead of demanding the design be changed, should have just asked for a link back to his own site as the inspiration for Vince's blog design. While I can see the value of the argument that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and that imitating something is only increasing the exposure (and value) of the original, I can also see the value of the opposite argument, where someone paid a good deal of money to create and copyright what is theirs, and as a result they don't want that stolen by anyone else.
However, I have my own views on the subject.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. To have someone copy your work is confirmation of its value, and certainly increases your own exposure. I have had people copy websites I've done in the past. They've done this without linking back to my original site. When I've found them, I've asked them politely to link back to my site as the inspiration for their own, or to change the design to something else if they don't want to do this. In each of the 3 cases I've found this, two of them linked back to my original site, while the 3rd changed it completely.
Instead of demanding a change, even though I can understand why he did, Darren should have just asked the guy to link back to his site. Darren's focus was on the money he spent to have this created for him. However, other people around the world, all over the internet, copy content as well, or use it for inspiration. The general rule of thumb is to link back to the originating source, which most blogs do.
All content costs something to the creator of it. Mostly time, but it's a cost nevertheless. Do we demand that no one use our content? Do we demand that any content that's used in any way be removed immediately? No, we don't. We just ask for links. The blogosphere relies on blogs and people linking to each other, sharing content and ideas, and generally being part of a caring, sharing community.
Suddenly the sharing/caring's stopped for a few people, who start talking about how much they've spent and why no one should take advantage of it.
I'd love someone use my design, if they thought it was good enough. However, as chartreuse mentions, it's not the design of a site that makes it successful, it's the content. You can have the world's best looking website, but if the content is crap, people aren't going to come back to it. You can have the world's worst looking website, but if the content is great, people will always come back.
I feel Darren at ProBlogger has lost a little bit of what it means to be on the caring/sharing internet. Instead of promoting community, he's promoting greed. "I paid for this, leave it alone. Don't make me come over there..."
Well, all content we write is paid for in time. Should we take a leaf from Darren's book and stop the sharing?
I read the posts and resulting comments on both sides. Vince knew exactly what he was doing by using Darren to gain publicity for himself. There was no caring/sharing attitude there, either. Just a lust for hits.
On the flip side of this issue, Vince did make some valid points that no one bothered to answer.
Point #1: Darren was ardently defended because he is one of the Big Guns of the blogosphere. Had this happened to you or me, we would be SOL.
Point #2: The majority of those vigilantes linked to his site via their comments. Were they really defending Darren or looking for free advertising for their own blogs? I have to wonder. Some of those comments were embarrassingly juvenile.
There was a link back to Darren's site from Day 1 in every page... in the footer. I also made many posts citing the imitation due to inspiration/homage.
Nobody will believe when I say that it wasn't a lust for hits that motivated me, just a bad decision compounded by more bad decisions.
But what's done has been done. I had to contribute more points/content to the benefit of the Amateur Blogosphere in the future!
I think that in the end, it wasn't about 'theft', it was about Vince's public response. Vince, you should have kept it private. That was probably the first real mistake that took this public - the fact that you took it public.
I'm sure a lot of people have learnt a lot from this. :-)
The Delta Flyer came to a stop on the outer edge of the asteroid field that was just beyond Mars. Inside it, Jim Hawkins was checking the sensors at the same time. He also checked for subspace distortions, which were usually indicative of cloaked ships. There weren't any though, so his reason for being there hadn't arrived. Or their cloak, if there was a ship in the area, was better than his sensors could detect. This wouldn't have been surprising to him, considering that the person he was there to meet was a covert ops agent. Jim knew why he'd been chosen for this 'cloak and dagger' mission. With extensive past experience in Intelligence and covert operations, this made him the ideal choice for this task. It was ordinary for him now, but he'd come to accept it. Every now and again, they would make use of his experience to carry out one objective or another. He smiled to himself, thinking back. Once you're in Intelligence, you're never out of it.
Before he had a chance to relax, his console beeped at him, registering a subspace distortion approaching fast. Raising his shields, Jim waited. He wasn't hiding, so they would make themselves known to him sooner or later.
It was sooner... An encrypted identity request was received by the Delta Flyer which, under normal circumstances, was not likely to be picked up by anyone who didn't know the exact frequency, since it was piggybacking on the background noise of space. Replying with the correct response code, Hawkins dropped his shields and turned around, drawing his phaser as he faced the transporter pad that hummed into life. He hadn't survived this long by not being prepared for anything. However, he wasn't prepared for who appeared on the pad. President Spock.
Jim's jaw dropped in surprise as the President materialised in front of him. He holstered his weapon, standing up to greet the Vulcan.
"Mister President," Jim said, moving closer and saluting. "I can't say I expected to see you here..."
"Subterfuge was necessary, Mister Hawkins," Spock replied, nodding his head in a greeting. "We are alone?"
"Yes sir," Jim replied. "This ship is secure, and there's no detectable activity within sensor range However, I'll take us into the asteroids to make sure they provide interference to anyone that might be trying to detect us."
"Very good," Spock said, moving over to a chair and sitting down, watching Hawkins take the Flyer into the asteroid field. Sitting as calmly as you would expect a Vulcan to sit, he watched the asteroids flying towards them, only to streak past as Hawkins maneuvered around them.
A large,tumbling boulder was ahead, the size of a small moon, and was coming straight at them. Matching velocity with it, Hawkins rolled the Delta Flyer to match the tumbling of the asteroid, making it seem as if the asteroid was completely still below them while he brought the Flyer in to land on its surface. He made it look easy, which, to him, it was. Too many years of flying shuttles and small ships in extremely hostile environments had given him skills that most pilots never had, and which would probably fade only when he was too old to dance his fingers across the flight controls.
Turning around, Jim sat back and looked at President Spock expectantly, waiting for the details of what they were out here for.
"Your record is exemplary," the President began. "You have experience leading highly critical covert operations against the Federation in another universe."
Jim nodded cautiously at Spock's statement. He wasn't sure where this was headed, but he didn't think he'd like it.
"I'm sure you are aware of the strategy the Erratan Galactic Republic has engaged in over the past few years to bring about the result we have today." Without waiting for an answer, Spock continued. "The Federation has become a puppet government, Mister Hawkins. To ensure the survival of the Federation, I had to bring about our capitulation. Fighting them was illogical." Spock frowned, looking closely at Jim. "Do you understand the logic in this?"
"Yes sir," Jim replied, nodding. "I never liked it, but I understood your motives. I remember your words, about the sleeping lion."
Spock nodded, and relaxed slightly, his frown seeming to lessen slightly. "I had thought you would. Now is the time for us to start acting behind the lion's back, Mister Hawkins."
"Isn't it too late though?" Jim asked. "They control the entire galaxy, and have eliminated all the races that could have helped us. We don't have the resources to go to any other galaxy, as they control the jump gates, and we've never been able to get hold of their hyperdrives. I know that we lost too many people trying." Jim paused, taking a breath. He was letting his frustration get the better of him.
"It is not too late," Spock replied. "In fact, now is the best time, when the lion is sleeping. They have destroyed all threat in this galaxy, with the remaining races unable to threaten them. The Federation has willingly subjugated itself to them, and now their attention has been relaxed. They are letting the Federation do what it will in regards to maintaining the cohesiveness of its infrastructure, while they are in maintenance mode rather than conquering mode. We have a small amount of freedom."
"I understand," Jim nodded. "But I don't know what we can possibly do."
Spock looked straight at him as he said, "You need to find the Sernaix."
Jim's face went white as the blood drained from it. The Sernaix. The guardians of the alternate universe that he'd spent 5 years in. They were an incredibly powerful race that had the ability to travel between different universes in the blink of an eye. They were also very temperamental about people who came into their universe from outside of it. In his 5 years over there, Jim had very little to do with them, but when they did involve themselves, it was brutal and decisive. They only let him stay there because of their relationship with the wormhole aliens, who had plans for him...
"Mister President, I don't know if they'd be willing to help us. As far as they're concerned we are an inferior race of insects. We're not even in their own universe, so their interest in us would be even less."
Spock nodded in agreement, but then said, "I believe Captain Aldous, from the original USS Scorpion, had developed a relationship of sorts with a Sernaix Ship Mind. You may like to get Captain Aldous in on your mission."
Jim's eyebrows raised. "I thought Aldous was destroyed with his ship at the Battle of Veragnos?"
"The ship, and Captain Aldous, are fine and well at Jupiter Shipyards. They returned only a few days ago, which led me to decide on this course of action."
Jim looked at his hands, thinking about everything that Spock had said. This was what he hadn't wanted to hear, but which he had subconsciously known was coming. If Jim accepted this mission, there was almost zero chance of success, and a high chance of being killed by either the Federation themselves or the EGR. Being a rogue agent would be a threat to the Federation. He knew that. Federation personnel rebelliong against the EGR could result in their retribution against the Federation, and already had over the past year or so. No one on Earth or in the Federation wanted a repeat of the Cardassian destruction, or the various other acts of violence done against the Federation because of attempted rebellions. As a result, the Federation would officially try to stop him.
There were, of course, various Federation personnel who tried resisting the EGR after the Carddssians were destroyed, but they failed, violently. President Spock had been forced to align the Federation with the EGR to avoid further bloodshed, and order all resistance to cease. The past year included some dark times for the Federation.
He looked back up at Spock. "If I accept this..."
"You must, Mister Hawkins," said Spock, interrupting him. "You are the only one who has the experience to do this. No one else in the Federation has led a rebellion of this nature. You are our only chance."
Jim sighed. "Yes Mister President. I understand." He'd never heard a Vulcan beg before, especially President Spock. But this was certainly begging. He couldn't refuse.
I've talked about RSS before here and here, but there might still be a bit of confusion about its value to you. I'm hoping this definitive guide will help end the confusion. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A definition of 'syndication' is: Selling (an article or cartoon) for publication in many magazines or newspapers at the same time. However, in this case it's not actually selling anything. It's providing information instead, for free. RSS provides you with the information of your choice, all at the same time, from multiple websites. Whenever they update their sites, that update is delivered to you by RSS.
In order to receive those updates, you need an RSS Reader. There are plenty of them out there, and they're often called 'newsreaders' or 'aggregators'. Most RSS Readers, or aggregators, come in the form of a free program that you download onto your computer.
You use these programs to subscribe to the RSS feeds of the websites you're interested in, and instead of going to those websites to see IF they've updated it recently, all their updates will automatically be sent to you, saving you the time and hassle of visiting the sites yourself.
There's also BlogLines for all web browsers. Instead of using a program on your computer, this allows you to access your RSS feeds on any computer.
This list does not show all of the RSS readers available. You might want to do some searching to see if there's something out there that you prefer over what I've listed above.
RSS Feeds deliver updates to you. These can be in the form of either headlines, headlines and a snippet of content, or headlines and all of the content. It depends on how the website's RSS delivery has been set up.
RSS-enabled websites will have an address for their RSS feed. You can access this address by clicking on their RSS button or link, and then copying the URL in your browser's address bar into your favourite RSS reader. Some RSS readers will 'auto discover' the RSS feeds on sites you browse, so you don't need to do any cutting and pasting. The documentation for your favourite RSS reader will give you the relevent information.
How does it help? Very good question. As I mentioned above, subscribing to RSS feeds allows you to receive immediate notification of website updates, as soon as they're updated. You get the information much faster than if you had to browse for it yourself, and you also get the updates from many sites via the one RSS reader. The greatest benefit is the time-saving aspect of it.
Use RSS to help your web searches. There are websites that will allow you to search for a particular topic, and you can then subscribe to the RSS feed of that search, allowing you to receive immediate updates when new information relating to a topic of interest is published, from whatever source.
If you would like to subscribe to this site and receive further updates via RSS, click on Subscribe at the top of this website. It will present you with the option of subscribing to varous web-based RSS readers of your choice.
If you would like assistance in using RSS feeds for yourself, please contact me. I'd be only too happy to help out.
I find use in the following ways: - keep updated on my favourite or interesting blogs - keep updated on new entries for my favourite search topics
Naturally, there are still plenty of websites out there that aren't enabled for RSS, and so you're going to have to manually visit them. But for those sites that are RSS-enabled, I can't see why you would choose not to take advantage of the ease of use that RSS allows.
I've been using RSS for a while and I agree it's a technology that can save you a lot of time. When I first started I only had a couple of sites I was monitoring through RSS. However, after a few months the number of RSS-friendly sites that I was monitoring expanded and it became somewhat time consuming. It was still much faster to scan the new RSS entries in my reader than actually going to the sites, but I realized that as I added more RSS feeds to my reader, I was spending more and more time scanning the new posts in order to find what I was interested in.
So I decided to write a program that would do this for me and notify me (via SMS or email) with the post that I was interested in. My main concern was to make the application as flexible as possible. I wanted to be able to control the flow of the RSS data. For example, I wanted to only receive results (called alerts) if a new RSS post contained certain keywords/phrases and only between 8AM and 10PM. This filtering mechanism was very important to prevent information overload. I only wanted updates for "important" posts, not every single update. Now, the computer does the scanning and I only read what is important to me.
I developed the application for my own use, but I have expanded it for the public. I would appreciate if you could check out zaptxt.com and let me know what you think. We are in beta version now and feedback is always appreciated.
I know there are a few writers who read this blog. I would appreciate any feedback you might have about the style of writing I have, in relation the Star Trek story I'm currently writing. If you think it's good, if you think it needs improvement, how you think it could be improved, etc. I'm just talking about my ability to write, rather than on the story itself. :-)
I'd be very happy for your feedback that I'll use to help me write better. Many thanks!
I'm currently at the Auckland airport, at an internet cafe typing this. I flew up from Wellington this morning for a project meeting to assist with the integration process at work, and I return to Wellington as the national team leader for the project.
Wow. It means that for at least the next month (it'll be up for re-election in a month's time) I'll be leading the project. There's a number of teams involved in various project 'streams', and I'll be the one responsible for the 'public face' of the project, liaisoning with senior management about the project and providing updates, etc. The project's exposure will be mainly up to me and how I organise it.
Wow.
What an exciting opportunity for me, mixing with senior management on this major role. I'll be increasing my own exposure, getting to know the people that create opportunities. I think I created an opportunity of my own today.
Nominations were requested for anyone interested in taking on the role. There was over 20 of us in the meeting from all around the country, and 3 of us stepped up to the plate. It took me a little while to work out whether or not I wanted to nominate myself, but I figured that if I was hesitant about it, it meant I should try. 'Do what you fear the most, and the death of fear is certain.' I've never stood up for this kind of role before, so today I figured that I should, as I had nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
We each had to give a speech for a minute outlining why we should be elected for the role, and then everyone voted by secret ballot for who they felt would be the best team leader. I was surprised it was me!
My public speaking skills haven't been tested before, but they were today. As I was talking, I was trying to remember - and verbalise - the points that I felt were important about the project, and why I was best suited to facilitate the realisation of those points. I was also remembering the important aspects of public speaking, like making eye contact with the people around the room, speaking slowly and confidently about my ideas, and using my hands to accentuate a couple of the points I wanted to make.
When finished, I wasn't very happy with my 'first performance', but happy that I was conscious of how I performed. I was reviewing myself, and seeing where I could have improved. But then I was even more surprised to find that I received a majority vote from the others, considering that I felt the speeches of the other 2 nominees were better than mine!
But I'm excited to move forward with this, and see where it's going to take me. :-)
First of all, I'd just like to say hi. I'm the guy (Thomas Buist) who's going to be writing the other character in this story, Major Duo Maxwell. His story starts on the outskirts of the Sol System.
On the Edge
The Justice Mech rolled over suddenly, rotating through 180 degrees and then flipping back again, before coming to a complete stop. The little machine was tough, but too much had been asked of it and it was beginning to buckle under the strain. Last time it had been a failed engine, which had taken him a week on a barely habitable planet to repair. This time it was an inertial dampener failure; less major but still very much a problem he could have done without. Components were beginning to break down and repairing them was getting harder and harder. He had no spares left to replace the parts and very little material to repair the old ones with. Justice Mech had started out a few years before as the Berserker, one of three concept machines that Duo had introduced to the Federation as his pet project. The Berserker had been a multi-role air/ground/space supremacy combat machine, but the Justice was more than that. It was designed to be faster and stronger than the Berserker while maintaining the same outer shell and dimensions and it incorporated all the latest Federation technology. Plus it had been further upgraded with all that Duo could scavenge or steal, including Borg, EGR, Dominion and Romulan technologies salvaged from various battlefields and graveyards. There had been plenty to choose from, since the EGR arrived.
But now it was in a mess, operating at only around 40% of its capacity and slipping downhill quickly. Its self-repair mechanisms were all but gone and its remaining systems were operating on the edge of failure.
Duo knew, in the back of his mind, that he probably wasn't going to make it to Earth. But the part of him that had kept him fighting for over a year wouldn't let him give up. He hadn't had a wash in weeks, his long braided hair was matted, knotted, burned and, like the rest of him, disgustingly dirty. He had a few broken ribs that he knew of, plus a badly wrenched knee and a burn on his right leg that he was just getting used to ignoring.
A few focused thoughts instructed a dozen or so nano-machines tailored for automatic repair and maintenance to seal the broken system. He didn't have many of the little machines left and there was no material left to make more from. At least he wasn't going to have to set down on a planet, this time.
He'd been on the run for almost a year, after the EGR's massacre of the Cardassians and the subsequent retirement of the Federation President he'd given up hope that the Federation was going to, or was even able to do anything to reverse the mistakes they had made. For over half of his life the Federation and Starfleet had been his home, his surrogate parents and extended family. Even if he did disagree with what was happening, leaving them hadn’t been easy. It had taken the massacre of a whole civilisation to make the difference, a fact he was still ashamed of. But the day after the EGR’s announcement he took his Mech, set course for the nearest uninhabited region of space, and left.
At that time he never had any plans on where he was going to go or what he was going to do, he spent a few weeks on one planet, a few days on another, jumping from place to place without any clear purpose or idea of what to do. The fighting had started with an EGR scout that had found and attacked him, and it had carried on from there. One battle lead to another, and another, and many more as the EGR turned one of their many eyes his way.
The first few battles had been purely for survival, but they had re-kindled something within him that had been dormant for a while. The sense of stubborn, pig-headed determination that had helped him survive in the past was awakened, and it was at that point he’d decided that something had to be done. He'd been fighting and running ever since, slowly making his way towards the Earth, and the President. He didn't know what he was going to do when, and if, he got to Spock. But he did know that he had to do something, and going to earth was the only idea that seemed to make any sense.
The console beeped, something was showing on passive sensors. A single thought highlighted the image and enhanced it, showing an EGR Destroyer passing through a few light years away. The ECM Suite and Cloak installed on the Justice kept him covered as long as he stayed still. The same waiting game had been played a hundred times or more, yet he never really got used to it. His heart still did a hundred beats a minute until the destroyer was out of range.
There was, he knew, only had a few light-years to go. Earth was practically in visual range and yet he didn't dare use the active sensor suite to take a look. Sol was far too heavily guarded to be careless, or for that matter, to make a mistake of any kind. The Justice was in no state for a running battle, especially not with EGR Capitol ships.
The nanobots signalled the completion of their task and the Mech told him that the dampeners were once again working. Not working very well, but working. A thought re-started the engine and he set off once again, at half-impulse, towards earth and his still half-formed plan.
You might have noticed I've just written a post based on Star Trek. This is the continuation of the character I used to write about in my play by email game. I'm now continuing his life as a story, rather than an email roleplaying game. The timeline for the story is in the post titled 'Star Trek: End of Federation'.
The story continues 3 years after the game ended. The Erratan Galactic Republic have maneuvered and fought their way into power, becoming the only ruling force in the entire galaxy. If you're interested in following the story, you might want to read that timeline. More information will be given as the story continues.
A friend of mine, who also wrote his character in the game, will be joining in on this story. He and I wrote exceptionally well together, and we've decided to continue the adventures, and see where we end up.
I hope you enjoy the results. It's an ongoing story, with no deadlines and no expectations. It's just for the enjoyment of my friend and I, as we explore strange new worlds and new civilisations, and boldly go where no one has gone before. :-)
Captain Jim Hawkins, commanding officer of the Federation flagship USS Scorpion, was bored. In fact, he couldn't remember a time when he'd been more bored. You'd think that being the CO for the most prestigious ship in the Federation would be an exciting affair, but it wasn't.
The Federation flagship was used to transport the Federation President around as he travelled from world to world. The only problem, however, was that the President didn't travel anywhere these days, and so the Scorpion spent all its time in Earth orbit. It couldn't even go to Mars for a quick journey, just in case the President needed to be evacuated at a moment's notice.
President Spock never went anywhere without a transponder device, allowing immediate transportation onto the flagship should he be threatened in any way. For that reason, the ship could not go anywhere without the President onboard. As a result of this, the Federation flagship had become the ship that no one wanted to serve on. Hawkins had occasionally pondered how he'd ended up with this command. It was supposed to be a promotion, a reward for his years of service to Starfleet and the Federation, and yet it instead felt like a demotion. The USS Scorpion, one of the best ships in the entire Federation, had been reassigned to earth shortly after the Cardassian crisis involving the Erratan Galactic Republic, or EGR as everyone called them.
After the Cardassians were destroyed and the Federation President resigned, it looked like the Federation was in a shambles, without any strong leadership. When Ambassador Spock stepped up to the plate and took on the role as the new Federation President, a lot of people thought things would be different. And they were, just not in the way people thought they would be. Spock took a more peaceful approach with the EGR, and instead of resisting their influences, as many people thought should have been done, he instead created a stronger alliance with them.
It wasn't until President Spock requested the USS Scorpion as his flagship that Hawkins was able to find out the principals behind Spock's leadership.
"It is not logical to act against that which can easily destroy you," was Spock's comment during a meeting he'd had with Hawkins, the new CO of his flagship at that time. "A wiser plan would be to act only when the lion is sleeping."
"You have plans to act without their knowledge?" Hawkins had asked, surprised.
"Every lion must sleep, Mister Hawkins, regardless of its knowledge about the intentions of those around it. It hopes that their fear of it will keep them subdued."
The President offered nothing more during that meeting, changing the subject to something else. Nor had he ventured any further discussion, but Hawkins had never forgotten, and he had been happy, at least for a little while, to be in a position of usefulness for when the President might decide to act upon his cryptic intentions.
Something else he'd never forgotten was that the Erratan Galactic Republic had only entered this galaxy because of him, and he had not been able to correct it.
Just over 3 years ago, when he had been sent on a mission to retrieve stolen Starfleet technology, he had encountered a new race called the Kaerine. They lived where subspace was relatively nonexistent, which meant warp drives were useless. Instead, they had jump gates that used a technology allowing them to 'jump' from one area of space to another, bypassing the need for warp or subspace drives. These gates used something that was called 'hyperspace', which allowed for almost instantaneous travel over many dozens of light years, from one gate to another.
Upon entering this area of space, the USS Scorpion encountered some problems with their new slipstream drive, which was being interfered with by the subspace 'shallows'. The effect of the interference was such that Hawkins' quantum frequency was altered, and he was transferred into an alternate dimension that matched his new frequency. The universe is made of energy, and that energy has a quantum frequency that makes up everything within it. Hawkins' quantum frequency was altered, which caused him to slip into another universe that matched his new frequency.
Upon finally returning a couple of years later - only a year ago - and finding that the EGR had entered this galaxy and caused so much havoc, Hawkins discovered that the same quantum fluctuations that were caused by his ship's slipstream drive had also activated one of the apparently inactive jump gates, which is how the EGR were able to come through into this galaxy.
Hawkins had trouble understanding how major and catastrophic events could be linked to him. Wherever he went, 'destiny' seemed to follow him, one way or another. He had entered another universe back when he was a lowly Lieutenant, where the Federation had split because of a civil war. In a short space of time, he had ended up not only in charge of that universe's Deep Space Nine, but also as Bajor's Emissary, similar to what happened to Benjamin Sisko in this universe. He not only saved the Bajorans from the Cardassians, but he also managed to reunite the Federation into one single, peaceful organisation, instead of the fractured, warring states it had been.
While carrying out that 'role', he'd managed to meet Sisko himself (who had joined the beings in the wormhole) and discovered that there was only one wormhole throughout all the various universes. He had used that to get back to his own galaxy again, after 5 years as the Emissary. However, he'd tweaked the time travel aspects so that he returned to his galaxy - and ship - only minutes after he had originally left it in the other alternate galaxy. To them, only minutes had passed since they'd left him behind, but for him, 5 years had passed and he was waiting for them as they returned to the home galaxy. Much to their surprise, of course.
When he was thrown into yet another alternate universe some months later in Kaerine space, he had wondered if fate was playing some kind of game with him. He was close. It turned out to be Q, the God-like being who had played with Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise, and Captain Janeway and the USS Voyager. Captain Hawkins was next in Q's bag of tricks. This one involved more Borg. Luckily he'd managed to come through after 2 years of being stuck there, finally making it back to his home galaxy. He was almost ready to retire, but Starfleet placed him in command of the USS Scorpion again, but this time serving the Federation President.
And here he was, bored. He actually missed the 'old days', where he didn't know from one day to the next if he'd still be alive, or even if he'd still be in the same universe. He also missed his old crew. Most of them had been transferred to other ships, or killed in action, while he was away in the other universe. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to get any of them reassigned to this ship again.
'Captain, you have a message from Starfleet Command,' his XO called over the communicator.
"I'll take it in here," Hawkins replied, sitting up in his chair and wondering what they wanted.
'Aye sir,' the XO replied.
After a moment his terminal beeped at him, and he pressed the button to answer the call.
Over here I was talking about 'what do you do?', and now I'll talk about 'what would you like to do?'
How often are you asked that? Maye only if you express that you're unhappy with what you're doing, and so they ask what you'd like to do instead. But how often are you asked that because someone is genuinely interested in what you'd LIKE to do?
How would you answer? What would you like to do?
Me, I have this vision in my head of where I want to be in one year's time. I see myself spending most of my time at home, working on my online business ventures which, together, are creating more than the income I'm currently getting. I'll be setting up the spiritual light centre in Canberra, and the online businesses will be providing the funds for this, as well as allowing me to focus the time on building it.
That's what I'd like to do, and what I plan on doing. What about you?
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law.
Google has been refusing the request since a subpoena was first issued last August, even as three of its competitors agreed to provide information, according to court documents made public this week. Google asserts that the request is unnecessary, overly broad, would be onerous to comply with, would jeopardize its trade secrets and could expose identifying information about its users.
I think it's great that Google is fighting to protect your privacy and shows that, unlike all the other search engines which complied with the US government's request for search data, Google is actually interested in your privacy.
Now, the interest is double-edged, as handing over all the search terms made via Google could give away a number of trade secrets that Google holds extremely dear, along with violating your privacy. They want to protect you and protect their income.
It's ironic that a day after I was talking about Google and data privacy in this article over here about 'Why Gmail?', Google goes to war against the US government to protect the same data that I was commenting about.
A friend of mine was asking impact it would have for Google to hand that information over to the US DOJ. I explained to him that if the US government gets all the search data that they want, then they can match originating IP addresses to search terms, and if they find search terms they don't like or want to investigate, they can find out who's IP address it is from the relevent ISP, and before you know it you'll have jackbooted stormtroopers kicking your door down and arresting you (or shooting you if you 'resist arrest') for 'threats to national security' or other illegal internet activities.
an outrage! i just can't believe the DOJ would even think about this. it really is big brother and makes you want to anonymize yourself while surfing... and always paying cash as your bank statements show your entire life. sure there will always be a reason to take information but at what cost...
except they're also passing laws to make anonymous internet activities illegal as well. At this stage, it only applies to 'flaming'. You're not allowed to irritate people on the internet any more if you're anonymous, but you are allowed to if you state your identity. This is so people can sue you more easily. Stupid fracking American laws...
Do you get this question? I'm sure you do. Everyone does. My answer usually comes after a moment of thought, where I weigh up what I know about them and their potential technical knowledge against how I can describe what I do. My most common answer is, "I work with computers."
There are so many ways to work in computers, but it's the easiest way to explain what I do. I learnt that most people don't even know what IT is, let alone all the possible careers within it. Many people work within IT and don't even realise it! So how do you explain something technical to people that have absolutely no idea?
"What do I do? Well, mostly nothing. But sometimes I'm busy looking after computer network stuff. What's a computer network? Sigh..."
"What do I do? Well, I'm a Systems Administrator at work which means I setup new users on the network and other admin-related stuff, and I fix any network-related problems that occur, or get someone else to fix them."
"What do I do? Well, I'm a SysAdmin... yes, that's right; I'm glad you understand!"
When you go to parties or out at social occasions, being a 'computer specialist' is very similar to being a doctor. Everyone then talks about their 'problem' in the hope that you can fix it. Unfortunately, no one actually wants to pay for the help, so I haven't been able to turn it to my favour. Everyone wants free fixes.
What do you do when you're not working?
Sometimes this is the same as when I'm working... but of course people don't understand that. How do you explain that whether I'm working or at home, I'm 'playing with my computer'? I usually talk about my interests in photography, writing, philosophy and people watching. Photography is something most people can relate to, but writing, philosophy and people watching are a little too obscure for most of them.
And if you're just not into sports, the conversations often begin degrading from that point.
There's a guy at work who, last year, just didn't want to talk with me because I wasn't into sports. He couldn't talk about or comprehend anything other sports. I don't miss talking to people like that.
What kind of work do YOU do? How do you describe it to others? What do you talk about when people ask you what you like doing? Please share.
hi 'singing house', thanks for your comments. If the question makes you uncomfortable, are you also uncomfortable about what you do, and so don't want to answer the question? ;-)
If you're wondering why YOU should have a blog, wonder no more. Here are the top 7 reasons for you to have a blog.
Share knowledge. You know something. You might not know what you know, but if you think about it for a bit, you'll know what you know. There are other people out there who would love to know what you know! So sharing what you know with those that don't know will be rewarding to you, and to them. You know?
Networking. Those people that want to know what you know, they'll be interested in talking about it with you. They'll also be interested in telling others about what they've learnt from you. All those people become part of your network. Networks are valuable.
Learn new things. Networks can help you learn new things. While you share your knowledge with others, they can be sharing their knowledge with you. You can learn things from them that you never knew you needed to know! And everyone benefits from the win-win scenario blogging.
Improve your writing. If you're interested in writing articles, stories, short stories, or even just journal entries, blogging is a great way of improving those writing skills. Some people have turned their blogs into book deals, but you might just want to become a better writer for the sake of it.
Make money. Once you've improved your writing skills you can use them to make money by selling what you write as articles or books. Or you can even place advertising on your site once you get enough people visiting (it's called 'traffic'), so that the more you write about that's of interest to people, the more advertising they'll be interested in clicking on, and the more money you'll be making from it. You have to find ways of providing value to people though, or they won't be interested in coming or coming back to your blog.
Therapy. You might have a few issues in your life that you want to talk about, but you don't want to be judged for. Having a blog can be therapeutic. You can be an anonymous blogger if you don't want anyone to know you for having your issues, or you can choose to just 'let it all out' and to hell with it. Either way, being able to talk about those things that are of concern to you is an excellent way to get rid of them from your life. Most people who find your blog won't know you, so they might even have some non-biased or non-prejudiced advice for you that could just change your life. Blogging, at least, will change your life.
Be cool. Blogs and blogging are the latest greatest thing on the internet. Everyone's got one, and if you don't have one, then you're just not cool. Be cool and get a blog! :-)
If you're not up on the craze of Numa Numa, where the HELL have you been?! There's a song done by some Romanian group that was very popular in Europe, apparently, and it's been made even more popular by some guy miming to it. You can see the mime video and the global craze in this video. Enjoy! :-)
Over here I explained about tags and tagging, which is all well and good for general internet use. But how might that benefit your business?
There are actually a number of ways that tagging can help you with your business. Please read about tags and tagging first, if you haven't already done so, by following the link above. (It will open in a new browser window.)
Right, you finished? Good, we'll proceed.
The company intranet
If you're a large-ish business with a company intranet, you can facilitate tagging by the employees of your business. Tag clouds will be formed as a result of how people tag content, and you will be able to see what's important to your employees by what tags have the most 'weight'. This can help you manage the content of your intranet to better suit the needs and interests of your staff, and yourself.
This kind of categorisation, which uses conceptual tagging instead of hierarchical links, works well by making content available to users in a way that they can conceptualise. Clicking on one tag will not only show the content related to that tag, but also show other tags that have been used with the same content, as well as other related content. Following tags in this way finds related content in a more conceptual fashion, rather than a highly structured and yet limiting hierarchical fashion.
As an example, someone might tag HR material as not only 'HR', but also as 'party' and 'new_staff'. This would apparently be information that leads new staff to find HR material that's relevent to them, but also to see information relating to social activities, which, in a hierarchical list, might be in a completely different departmental listing altogether and difficult to find.
As an employer, you can see how the tag clouds show what your staff are interested in, and how they group things together. You can use this information to your advantage by changing the way content is displayed, and the area that it's displayed in.
The commercial website
You can inspire your website visitors to tag your content using del.icio.us the same way that blog users do, by having a link titled 'tag this to del.icio.us' at the bottom of each page. You can then use del.icio.us (or any other tagging / social bookmarking website of your choice) as a means of keeping up to date with what visitors are tagging in relation to your site.
You can see which pages are being tagged, and with what kind of tags. You can see the tagging of various products or services you have available, and you can see the 'weight' of those tags, showing how important various areas of your site are to those visitors.
The popularity of a tag shows you the popularity of your product, service or information. By seeing what's popular, it allows you to do more of it, so that it takes advantage of the interest. By seeing what's not being tagged, allows you to get rid of it or change it.
Summary
Being able to understand how visitors see your site, by seeing the tags that they are using in relation to the content of your site, is a major asset for you. By seeing what is important to your website visitors you can shape the content of your site to appeal more to their interests, and ultimately sell more of your products or services. The more they tag you, the more people will see the tags on the social bookmarking site and come and see what the interest is. This will increase your potential customer base, and ultimately the revenue you generate through your website.
There's a trend on the internet to move away from plain, static sites and more to user-interactive sites. By moving forward in this way you take advantage of the high interest in the new trend, and have the advantage over your competitors who haven't seen the trend. Getting a headstart on your competitors is always a wise and profitable business decision.
Contact me if you would like more information, or even assistance, on how you and your website can take advantage of 'tagging for business'.
In line with my 'Why Firefox?' article, I'm doing another one about Gmail. Why Gmail? Because it's great, that's why! :-)
I've been a Microsoft Outlook fan ever since Outlook came out in 1997. It was buggy as all hell though, and Outlook 98, released as a new version, was really a patch for Outlook 97. Thank the Lords! A year of pain was over. Since then, Outlook has just been getting better and better, and has been my email program of choice. I used Hotmail infrequently, mainly because it allows only 2 Mb of space instead of the 'unlimited' space of my own computer's ability to store email in Outlook.
And then along came Gmail.
Get invited to 'the club'
The only way to access Gmail was - and still is - to be invited to use it by someone who already has an account. I resisted for a long time, mainly because it seemed like such a 'geeky' and elitist thing to be part of. All the uber geeks were getting into it and handing out their invitations only to their friends. It then became a brief trend to sell invitations to non-elitists, but that was shortlived when most people started giving away invitations on their websites, and that trend has continued to this day.
I think it was close to a year ago when I succumbed to the craze myself, and asked someone on a website for an invitation. I signed up and started playing around with this new way of using email.
Labels
For a start, Gmail has done away with folders. No more folders for storing your emails by 'category' (eg. with the folder names). Instead, they've created 'labels', which is another form of tagging. You can label an email with as many labels as you want. There's a list of labels, similar to your old folder list, but labels work by helping you search for items.
If you get an email from a friend about a business you're working on, then you might label it with your friend's name, as well as the name of the business. This is all you do to it. You can then access it in future by just clicking on either of the label names you've applied to that email, and it will show up under each of them.
Archiving
Basically, Gmail is just one big Inbox that's sorted by labelling. Or not. You can just leave them in your Inbox, or you can label emails and then Archive them, which 'removes' them from the Inbox. I say 'remove' because Gmail works on the displaying of labelled emails, rather than actually moving emails around anywhere. The Inbox will display unlabelled email and those labelled emails that you haven't Archived. Archiving is mainly a means of keeping it all organised, by assigning the display of items to the labels that they've been marked with. You won't see any labelled emails until you click on the name of the label in the label list, and then you'll see all those emails that have been labelled with that name. Multiple labels will allow the same email to show under each of the relevent labels.
Space available
Hotmail has 2 Mb for free. They go up to 250 Mb if you pay them for it. Gmail has, at the time of writing this article, 2686 Mb. Free. This is over 1300 times the space available on Hotmail, unless you're paying for your Hotmail, in which case it's over 10 times the amount of space available. But still for free.
The good thing is that every second Google are increasing the space available for storage. As I'm typing this I can see that the available storage space is currently at 2686.129359 Mb... no, it's 2686.129413 Mb... no, now it's 2686.129451 Mb... well, you get the picture, I'm sure.
Searching
Up the top of your Gmail page is a search field, similar to the Google search field that you're all used to. This is an extremely quick search tool that you can use to find a particular email or range of emails. If you've got hundreds of Mb's of emails, or even thousands of Mb's (considering you can have 2686 Mb at the moment) then this search tool becomes extremely handy.
If you can't find a particular email within the labels, then you can search for anything to do with that email, and Gmail will find it for you or list all those emails you have which contains whatever you were searching for. And it's fast. Smokin' fast!
Advertising and data privacy
In order to provide you with so much storage space and so many features - for free - Google has placed their advertising on the right hand side of the window. This has caused many people a lot of concern, relating to their fears that the content of their emails may be used against them. If the advertising programs can pick up the content and place content-related advertisements on the page, then the potential is there for advertising firms to make use of the actual email content via 'data mining'. Eg. "Barry Jones, at this particular IP address, received this particular email about buying furniture on eBay. So if we send him spam on purchasing furniture, he'll probably buy some!"
You know what? There's too many people writing too many emails for anyone to worry about looking at your email. Content-related advertising works on keyword detection, rather than someone trawling through your Inbox and reading your personal email. The keyword of 'furniture' is detected by the advertising program and it automatically displays furniture-related advertising for you to see.
But really, how often do you take any notice of the advertising on the side of the Google search pages? It's exactly the same thing with Gmail. It's a very small price to pay for something that actually costs you nothing. And after a while you don't even see the advertisements.
A lot of people worry about their privacy in relation to advertising, and about the potential for abuse. I agree that the potential is there, but that same potential is there in everything. There is a greater chance that your credit card details will be stolen from your bank than there is of your privacy being violated by advertising executives.
In the movie Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, he took someone's jacket and walked through a shopping centre. The video advertising on the walls detected the presence of the jacket and video advertisements marketed themselves to him, calling him by the name of the jacket's owner, suggesting products similar to those that the owner had previously purchased.
This is the way of the future, I believe. Computer programs will be detecting your online presence, and will display advertising to you that's based on your online record of purchasing. This will be of benefit to most people, as it's based on their interests and purchasing habits, saving them time by not having to search for things themselves. The people behind the programs and advertising companies will not care about you personally. What you write about or do on the internet is of little interest to them. Your personal privacy is safe. Your desire for personal anonymity is safe. Your online habits aren't. Your online purchases aren't. And if you don't like it, that's fine. But it means you're resistent to change that will ultimately be of benefit to your shopping habits. :-)
Other features
POP Accounts - Gmail also allows you to continue using Outlook if you so choose, along with any other email programs that you use to access POP accounts. You can download Gmails and reply via Gmail with any POP email programs.
Filters - You can set up filters that automatically apply labels for you and archive them. They'll bypass your Inbox and show up as unread in your Label list. The filters are customisable according to your needs.
Conversations - Gmail allows you to see 'conversations' on one page, by keeping together all those emails - received and sent - that have the same subject heading, allowing you to see who said what, etc.
Gmail Notifier - you can get a browser plugin that notifies you as soon as you get new Gmail.
There are many other features as well, which enhance the functionality of using email. Basically Google decided to revolutionise the use of email, and Gmail is the result.
Because it's so good, with many necessary and useful features not found anywhere else, I use it now instead of Outlook. It's my email 'program' of choice, and I recommend it becomes yours too.
If you want a Gmail account of your own, contact me for an invitation. I have 100 invites available to hand out.
I decided to continue EOTW, as an off-shoot of this site. Any political or news posts I make will be done on EOTW and linked to from here, probably with a teaser as to what the post is about.
The Iranians have broken the International Atomic Energy Agency seals on some of their nuclear facilities. They did this very deliberately and publicly to make certain that everyone knew that Tehran was proceeding with its nuclear program. Prior to this, and in parallel, the Iranians began to -- among other things -- systematically bait the Israelis, threatening to wipe them from the face of the earth.
The question, of course, is what exactly the Iranians are up to. They do not yet have nuclear weapons. The Israelis do. The Iranians have now hinted that (a) they plan to build nuclear weapons and have implied, as clearly as possible without saying it, that (b) they plan to use them against Israel. On the surface, these statements appear to be begging for a pre-emptive strike by Israel. There are many things one might hope for, but a surprise visit from the Israeli air force is not usually one of them. Nevertheless, that is exactly what the Iranians seem to be doing, so we need to sort this out.
Every day, thousands of people die. It's the end of the world for them! Every day is the end of the world for someone, and any conflict with Iran will be no different to any other conflict throughout history. People will die, people will live. The world will go on. :-)
I've actually been reading George Friedman's book "America's Secret War", well actually listening to it on tape.
I don't agree with him on a lot of things, but it's a serious attempt to be objective about current US Middle East policy, though he's convinced that this is "War" and must be strategized only in that form.
I think it's a different kind of war, so I don't think military objectives in the conventional sense work. In Afghanistan for instance, the US took out the Taliban's "command and control" centers which would be a perfectly sensible strategy in a military war. It didn't really get the US what it needed to get there.
Over the past week I've purchased two new domains. 1) www.spirituallightcentre.com and 2) www.alanzphotos.com. As of this moment, the domains are not live. There's nothing there. But there soon will be... I'll be providing updates in future when they go live.
The photos site will be my commercially oriented website to showcase and sell my best photos. :-)
I created a blog for the spiritual light centre last week. You can find it here.
Over at the The White Wall, Terrence just posted about the spiritual battles he had with the invisible tormentors of his young son. I think it's great to see someone open and honest on the internet about the battles they have with those negative entities that are around us on a daily basis. I think it's also great that Terrence is in touch with his spiritual senses and is able to sense the presence of both negative and positive entities.
One of the things that Terrence did, which is what is needed, is using white light protection (or variations of it). I wrote about it in this article, 'Spirituality: how to protect yourself'.
I wrote:
This white light is your protection from any negative and harmful influences around you. The light keeps the darkness away, and so anything 'dark' is unable to affect you.
Terrence wrote:
I focused my mind on the light...
I ensured I kept my defences up and worked with my son and the spirits of light to clear his room.
Good stuff!
One of the things about working with the light, maintaining protection for yourself and others, is that if you consciously do it all the time, every single day, multiple times a day, you will ALWAYS be 'walking in the light'. You'll have God's protection wherever you go and whatever you do. (Within reason, of course. Don't abuse or misuse it and think you'll be protected from your own stupidity.)
Dealing with negative entities becomes a walk in the park. As an example, some years ago I was at the cinema watching a movie and then had to go to the toilet to take a leak. A funny thing happened while I was in there standing at the urinal. I could feel the presence of something 'bad' drift into the area. What a time to be bothered! And that's just it. I couldn't be bothered. So instead of dealing with it myself, I knew that I was protected by the white light I always have around myself, and in my head I just sent out a quick request to my spirit guides to deal with it instead. Instantly, the being disappeared from my awareness, probably whisked away to where my guides could help it 'see the light'.
When you surround yourself with light all the time, you empower yourself and you protect yourself. When you have this unshaken belief in your own power and strength, nothing can stand in your way. Not even confused ghosts.
One of my readers left a comment over here, asking how to encourage people to leave comments on her website. I've been thinking about that ever since I read her comment.
One of the things which I really appreciate is the fact that with almost every one of my entries, someone comments on it. It shows that they're interested in what I have to say and that gives me a warm feeling deep down in the cockles of my heart. I'm yet to analyse which of my entries get the most comments, and why. That'll be a project for me to check out soon, when I come up with a new section - 'most popular posts', which will be based on how many comments the posts get.
Back to the topic... how to get readers leaving comments? I think the method is to first, not alienate your readers. Make sure that you write in a language that's familiar, that's more like how you talk to your friends and acquaintances, rather than how you think you should be writing.
Second, don't worry about people leaving comments. Get yourself a statistics meter like SiteMeter or something, which will allow you to see the number of people visiting your site. This will give you confidence, at least, that you're getting visitors. That's a good thing.
If you're not getting visitors, then you need to do two things: 1) put your blog into a number of directories and search engines that will increase your exposure. 2) POST MORE! You won't get readers coming to your site or coming back if you're not posting anything. You need to be posting often, and posting about stuff that's likely to inspire your readers to interact with you about it.
One of the biggest turn offs for me when I visit blogs is reading crap about daily activities. I don't want to know what people ate for dinner, or what they did when their friends came over. I don't want to know running commentaries about the daily trivialities of life. I want to read about how the writer's experiences have helped him learn something. I want to read about how the writer's life has been changed or enhanced by whatever it is they're writing about. I want to read about how the writer's feelings have been influenced by their experiences.
Everyone has experiences, but it's how we deal with those experiences that really matters, and it's how those experiences make us feel that has such an impact on us. I want to read about the impact those experiences have had.
I know there's blogs for all kinds of reasons, catering to all kinds of interests, and what excites me may be something that completely bores someone else. Each to their own. I'm referring, above, to the more personal blogs, where people talk about their lives and stuff.
Life is mostly boring, but you know what? Everyone has a story. The challenge is to find a way of relating that story to others, in a way that they can relate to and find interesting. It's a challenge that's not for everyone, and not everyone that tries it finds it rewarding. But the fear of writing something boring should never stop anyone from trying, 'cause only through practice and learning about what works and what doesn't, will one find success at writing.
For me, Life Through My Eyes is about what inspires me, excites me, aggravates me, relaxes me, outrages me and helps me. Everything I see, feel or do that somehow makes my life more interesting, is something that I try to write about in a way that might make other people's lives just that litte bit more interesting as well. If you can write with that in mind, your blog will become something that people will enjoy coming back to, and making comments on.
Battlestar Galactica is awesome!
Blogging changes
The anti-blogger movement has begunThe irony is that the guy is an advertizing executive, talk about someone who fills the world with unwanted-unasked for messages!The irony, for me, is this guy complaining about everyone thinking they have the right to throw their opinion at the internet by throwing his opinion... at the internet...?
Choosing profitable blog topics
10 tips for starting a blog
Improving the readability of large numbers of comments
Federation's End - now with its own website
Blogging and blog networksWelcome to the world of blog networks.
Are you looking at this as a financial venture?Mainly, yes. Also because it makes sense to split up content into multiple blogs, and have each of the blogs linking to each other, almost like another form of categorisation. The network will help increase each of the blog's exposure, which will increase traffic to them. That's where the 'financial venture' will eventually come into it.
Any advice or discussion will be welcome. Either on here, or via email. Thanks
50 strategies for making yourself write
4 mistakes to avoid when writing articles
Federation's End (story) - #5
Title tags and optimising for search engines
Federation's End (a story) - #4Alan, Trek fiction is kind of a sub-genre of science fiction that I don't know well. I was a fan of the first two series and watched some of Enterprise, but it's hard for me to comment on plot elements, fidelity to the Trekkie universe etc.
My main suggestion at this point is that I'd love to see much more specific sensory detail. How big is a view screen on the ship? What do those rings look like? We learn that a chracter is clean, properly clothed, uninjured, and not hungry, but what's that actually look like in this trek reality?
You seem to have a talking computer, but what's the computer's voice like? I'm not quite at the point where I can see the ship or be persuaded to simply "believe" in the scenario and the narrator's credibility as an authority in that reality. My guess is that when some of these acquire more idiosynchratic detail, I, as a reader, will be more willing to buy in.Thanks for that great feedback chance. It's easy to leave out the small details when you can see it perfectly in your mind's eye. I'll try to be more descriptive in future about the small things. :-)
Attack of the blogsI read the posts and resulting comments on both sides. Vince knew exactly what he was doing by using Darren to gain publicity for himself. There was no caring/sharing attitude there, either. Just a lust for hits.
On the flip side of this issue, Vince did make some valid points that no one bothered to answer.
Point #1: Darren was ardently defended because he is one of the Big Guns of the blogosphere. Had this happened to you or me, we would be SOL.
Point #2: The majority of those vigilantes linked to his site via their comments. Were they really defending Darren or looking for free advertising for their own blogs? I have to wonder. Some of those comments were embarrassingly juvenile.There was a link back to Darren's site from Day 1 in every page... in the footer. I also made many posts citing the imitation due to inspiration/homage.
Nobody will believe when I say that it wasn't a lust for hits that motivated me, just a bad decision compounded by more bad decisions.
But what's done has been done. I had to contribute more points/content to the benefit of the Amateur Blogosphere in the future!I think that in the end, it wasn't about 'theft', it was about Vince's public response. Vince, you should have kept it private. That was probably the first real mistake that took this public - the fact that you took it public.
I'm sure a lot of people have learnt a lot from this. :-)
Federation's End (a story) - #3
A guide to RSS feedsI find use in the following ways: - keep updated on my favourite or interesting blogs - keep updated on new entries for my favourite search topics
Naturally, there are still plenty of websites out there that aren't enabled for RSS, and so you're going to have to manually visit them. But for those sites that are RSS-enabled, I can't see why you would choose not to take advantage of the ease of use that RSS allows.I've been using RSS for a while and I agree it's a technology that can save you a lot of time. When I first started I only had a couple of sites I was monitoring through RSS. However, after a few months the number of RSS-friendly sites that I was monitoring expanded and it became somewhat time consuming. It was still much faster to scan the new RSS entries in my reader than actually going to the sites, but I realized that as I added more RSS feeds to my reader, I was spending more and more time scanning the new posts in order to find what I was interested in.
So I decided to write a program that would do this for me and notify me (via SMS or email) with the post that I was interested in. My main concern was to make the application as flexible as possible. I wanted to be able to control the flow of the RSS data. For example, I wanted to only receive results (called alerts) if a new RSS post contained certain keywords/phrases and only between 8AM and 10PM. This filtering mechanism was very important to prevent information overload. I only wanted updates for "important" posts, not every single update. Now, the computer does the scanning and I only read what is important to me.
I developed the application for my own use, but I have expanded it for the public. I would appreciate if you could check out zaptxt.com and let me know what you think. We are in beta version now and feedback is always appreciated.
eduard zaptxt.comHi Eduard. Thanks for the comments. I wish you all the best with your new venture, I hope it takes off for you.
Feedback anyone?"help me writer better" could be rephrased as "help me write better" :) (to be pedantic)typo fixed. Thanks!
WowCongratulations, and well done.Congratulations, sounds like an exciting opportunity.Thank you for the congratulations guys, most appreciated.
Federation's End (a story) - #2
A new Star Trek story
Federation's End (a story) - #1
5 Blogging tips on what NOT to do
'What would you like to do?'
Google fights US government to protect your privacyan outrage! i just can't believe the DOJ would even think about this. it really is big brother and makes you want to anonymize yourself while surfing... and always paying cash as your bank statements show your entire life. sure there will always be a reason to take information but at what cost...except they're also passing laws to make anonymous internet activities illegal as well. At this stage, it only applies to 'flaming'. You're not allowed to irritate people on the internet any more if you're anonymous, but you are allowed to if you state your identity. This is so people can sue you more easily. Stupid fracking American laws...
'What do you do?'hi 'singing house', thanks for your comments. If the question makes you uncomfortable, are you also uncomfortable about what you do, and so don't want to answer the question? ;-)
Top 7 reasons to have a blog
Numa Numa is everywhere!wahahahahaha
That was good.
Top 7 reasons to have a blog
Tagging for business
Why Gmail?
Continuing Eyes On The World
Iran's Redefined StrategyDangerous is a light word
mynewsbot.comWhat the fuck are they thinking?
The end of the world is coming.Who are you referring to? Iran, or Stratfor?the IraniansEvery day, thousands of people die. It's the end of the world for them! Every day is the end of the world for someone, and any conflict with Iran will be no different to any other conflict throughout history. People will die, people will live. The world will go on. :-)I've actually been reading George Friedman's book "America's Secret War", well actually listening to it on tape.
I don't agree with him on a lot of things, but it's a serious attempt to be objective about current US Middle East policy, though he's convinced that this is "War" and must be strategized only in that form.You think it's not already a war?I think it's a different kind of war, so I don't think military objectives in the conventional sense work. In Afghanistan for instance, the US took out the Taliban's "command and control" centers which would be a perfectly sensible strategy in a military war. It didn't really get the US what it needed to get there.
New websites
The Power of the Light
How to get readers to leave comments
