Archive for December, 2007
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
“Sometimes they come back” Do you remember that infamous Stephen King short story from the Night Shift compilation? Well this article has nothing whatsoever to do with that story, but the title is fitting so I thought I would open with it. Anyhow onto what we’re here to discuss, breathing new life into old blog posts.
- Why you would want to resurrect old articles
- There are any number of reasons you might want to bring old articles into the forefront again. Some of them might include:
- The topic has become “newsworthy” to the major media and you’d like to capitalize
- You pushed the article before you had the “proper” audience to receive it well
- You’ve had an influx of new readers who will benefit from reading it
- It would rank well on a newly discovered social bookmarking site which would grow your audience
- It has begun generating discussion in your archives
- You’re in a slump and not producing much new content
As you can tell there is no shortage of reasons why you’d want to resuse your old articles.
- How to do it
- The best way I’ve found to get old articles off the ground a second time around is using social bookmarking sites. By that I mean submitting the articles to sites they haven’t been submitted too yet. Put it out there in front of fresh eyes. They’ll pass it along to their friends and family (if it is worth their while).
Another tactic I’ve used to good effect is to link the old article to my comments on other blogs. Instead of being taken to a front page the person is taken to a specific article. This alone will usually get a few eyes new eyes on the article. It’s really effective because you can target your audience. For instance on a blog talking about the stock market I might highlight an article I’ve written about floor trading. On the other hand on a blog about camping I can link it to an article about arctic expeditions. You get the idea.
- What to look out for
- Don’t just throw the article out there and hope people will come. At some point they will and you won’t like it. Unless you’ve taken time to put everything in order. Get into your favorite editor and give the article a through thrashing.
- Spelling and grammar - Yep these still matter. Double check that you’re original posting didn’t have these errors.
- Layout change - If your theme has changed since you original posted the article you might find things are “off” in the article. Take some time and fix them.
- Advertising - If you have advertising make sure it is up to date so you can capitalize on it
- Position - We all change out minds on things from time to time. Be sure the article accurately reflects your position.
Do you ever “resurrect” old articles in order to try and capitalize on them a second, third, or even fourth time around?
Posted in Blogging | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
It is rare, almost unheard of in todays world, to discover a new mammal. Indonesian and British scientists discovered two in the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea in the summer of 2007.
One is what scientists are touting as possibly the worlds smallest marsupial, a possum. The other is what appears to be the largest rat in the world weighing in at a stunning 3.4 pounds!
I was fortunate to be able to procure some photographs of each new animal, but first I wanted to tell you a little bit about them.
- The location
- The location these animals were found is special. The last time scientists made an expidition there they discovered many previously uncataloged plants and butterflies. This time they’ve found two unknown mammals. Something else makes that area of the world special. It is the last remaining virgin forest in the world. Virgin meaning it hasn’t suffered the intrusion of mankind to any great degree and no roads have been built through it for logging purposes. Indonesian rainforests are the most heavily logged forests in all the world and unlike America (where thanks to reforestation projects we have more trees than ever before) these forests are not replanted. Except this forest in the Mamberamo Basin which is the largest unroaded rainforest on the planet. In the satellite image above the red triangle represents the overall general location of the Mamberamo Basin.
- The possum
- Kangaroos have “pouches”. Possums have pouches. They are cousins in the marsupial family. Kangroos are big, possums are not. In America you’re more likely to hear them called opossums while in Australia and points surrounding they’re often called just possum. I also understand that only American opossums play dead. I don’t know if that’s true I’ve had no chance to verify. The possum discovered in New Guinea technically named by science as the Cercartetus pygmy possum. It looks a lot like every other possum I’ve ever seen except for the fact that it is tiny. It’s great they found it, but it’s not exactly something exciting like a new species of giant cat or anything like that. Maybe I’m just too cynical for my own good.
- The rat
- The rat is said to be the largest in the world and is known as a Mallomys giant rat. From the videos and pictures I have to admit it is large, but nowhere near the size of the rats you find wandering aimlessly around Washington DC. As you can see off to the left someone has managed to snap a picture of the immense politicus lyingus rat for your enjoyment and amazement.
Normally the politicus lyingus rat is prone to fits of rage and bitter unprovoked attacks, but it seems he was sedated or otherwise soothed for this picture.
Posted in Potpourri | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
For as much as I bitch about Google I sure do find it to be a useful resource. Today I will talk about intergrating Google Apps with your website. It’s a fairly easy process and shouldn’t take much more than 5-10 minutes. So let’s get started.
- What is Google Apps?
- Google Apps is a service made by Google which allows you to use your own domain name with a number of Google products. For example instead of logging into gmail.com to check your email you’d log into webmail.yourdomain.com, or mail.yourdomain.com, or whatever. Google Apps includes by default the following:
In addition to those included features you can also add on additional modules from third parties. Some are free, some aren’t, but the basic Google Apps default package is free. I’ve seen everything from astrology updates to sports scores to CRM solutions, and beyond.
- Flavors
- There are three flavors of Google Apps that are available. Each one is designed to support a certain segment of the market.
- Family or group
- This one is free and includes hundreds of free user accounts. I honestly don’t know the exact number as I’ve made accounts ranging in size from 3 people to over 500 and not had any problems at all. This includes all of the default modules mentioned above. The email is capped at the usual (and growing) Gmail limit. In other words you have plenty of email space. Support is good if not a little slow, but that’s part of what you deal with when everything is done via email
- Small Business and Enterprise
- This features the same as the Family or Group accounts except the email is set to 25GB and there is a 99.9% uptime guarantee for the email service. Normally Gmail doesn’t offer any kind of uptime guarantee, but that doesn’t overly concern me. After all it is pretty rare that you can’t get into your Gmail (or other Google account). Support is available via phone. I’ve never had to work with them for support on a Small Business account so I can’t speak to speed or accuracy of their support staff. There is a cost of $50.00 per account per year for this flavor of the service.
- Non-profit and schools
- This has the same features as the family or group accounts, but also adds Extensibility API functions as part of the basic setup. This allows you to more easily integrate Google Apps into your current technology.
- I still don’t get the point of it…
- Suppose you wanted to give each and every one of your friends and family a free name@yourdomainname.com email address, but couldn’t due to size limitations. With Google apps you can.
Suppose you wanted to be able to share documents between several collaborators all of them working on the documents, saving, making changes and more at the same time via the internet. With Google apps you can.
Suppose you wanted a company wide calendar that can be shared via the internet with each person being able to edit and control their own entries. With Google apps you can.
- How hard is it to setup?
- Very easy. Of course I’ve done it 100 times if I’ve done it once, but in all honesty it is very easy. Here I’ll even help you out. These instructions are based on the Home edition.
- Step 1
- Go to the Google Apps homepage and click the “Get Started” button (currently in the upper right corner). This will take you to a page that allows you to select the edition of Google Apps you are signing up for. Most people can get away with the “Standard (free) Edition”
- Step 2
- Select the edition you want to use, in this case “Standard”. It will take you to another page that looks like:
If you already have your own domain fill out the information on the right side. If not read the left and decide if you want to get one. If you don’t have your own domain you won’t be able to use Google Apps.
- Step 3
- Fill out the information that is required. Make sure to give yourself enough email boxes as requesting more has potential to be an annoyance. Also make sure you write down the administrator username and password because without them your life as a Google Apps user isn’t going to be long.
- Step 4
- Log into your administrator account by going to google.com/a/your_domain_name_here.com/net/org/etc and on the left hand side put in the administrator name and password you used in step 3. This should take you to your administration panel where you can begin adding users, setting up the sub-domains and other things.
- Things to consider
- You will need to be able to access and manipulate things like your Mail Exchange records, and DNS records in order for Google Apps to work properly. Basically you will be creating DNS records that point things like webmail.yourdomain.com to your Google Apps account and MX records that will route your email to the Gmail servers.
If you are unable, or uncomfortable doing this type of thing most hosts will gladly do it for you if you just request it. During the activation process in Google Apps you’ll be given instructions on what settings to use. Be sure to save that information for future reference.
I hope you’ve found this article useful. If you have any trouble with Google Apps leave a comment in this article and I will see if there is anything I can help you out with.
Posted in Technology and Computers | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Back before every house in America had 3 television people used to gather around the radio to listen to their favorite radio dramas broadcast over the airwaves. If you’ve never had a chance to hear
old time radio (OTR) theater you’re in for a real treat. Think of it as a book that you don’t have to read. And I don’t mean one of those crappy books on tape that so many people seem to “enjoy”. No, I’m talking about true drama, often times recorded “live in front of a studio audience” kind of like
All in the Family was back in its day.
OTR is affectionately known as The theater of the mind because you have to use your imagination to envision what is happening. The craft and audience for OTR largely died down with the arrival of the television, and by the early 1980’s the last great radio drama, CBS’s Mystery Theater had been removed from the airwaves. There are still adherents today who make radio dramas, but in my estimation they pale in comparison to their late great brothers.
So what makes this OTR stuff so “great”? You’d have to listen to it to understand, but there’s nothing like hearing Orson Wells as The Shadow as he hunts down criminals. Listening to the invasion of earth as the Martian menace overran us all in War of the Worlds again with Orson Wells. If crime drama is more your style Dragnet will fit the bill. Maybe you like detective stories in the vein of Mickey Spillane and his hard-nosed detective, Mike Hammer. If that’s the case there are shows like Yours truly, Johnny Dollar, and The Adventures of Sam Spade. You’ll get your share of comedy listening to shows like Fibber McGee and Molly.
Point being that no matter what your poision might be you’ll find it in OTR if you give it a chance. Hell, you can even hear Churchill addressing the British parliment, news casts from WWII, old sporting events… the list goes on and on. I encourage everyone to “tune in” their favorite streaming mp3 player and spend some time listening to the magic of OTR and let it take hold of your imagination as it draws you into the once teeming Theater of the Mind.
You can find OTR webcasts at the following sites. There are many more sites, but these will get you started. Until you’ve heard Ebenezer Scrooge on the radio in a darkened home with the winter winds howling against your windows you’ve not truly heard A Christmas Carol. Trust me.
Posted in Potpourri | 8 Comments »
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
This morning I woke up and decided to be stupid. I’d like to share that experience with you just incase you too would like to one day “be stupid” in the same way I have. I’ve tried to break down the overall steps into bite sized chunks so they are easier to digest.
- Step 1: Get online
- In order for this to work you need to be online. So pull a chair up to your computer, and get yourself logged in.
- Step 2: Log into CPanel
- Go to your website administration page and log in. If your site doesn’t use CPanel log into whatever flavor it uses
- Step 3: Proceed immediately to the mysql databases
- Make sure you go there right away and have in your mind that “Hey, there’s no need to worry. I know what I’m doing!”
- Step 4: Prove you know what you are doing in mysql
- The easiest and quickest way to do this is to start manipulating tables, and deleting databases. Once you get done everything should be nice and tidy if not a little sparse! If it’s not you haven’t done it right. Please go back and try again.
- Step 5: Realize you’re a dumb ass
- This is the best part of the whole experience. Doing all that work in the mysql databases and then clicking your bookmark to take you to your blogs administrative login page only to be greeted by:
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
Are you sure that the database server is running?
If you’re unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.
- Step 6: Panic
- What good is realizing how dumb you really are if you don’t take advantage of it with a good old fashioned panic session? Unfortunately I didn’t have the benefit of an audience (aside from the dog) to witness my panicing, but if you do be sure to express to everyone the depths of your dispair. It makes for good effect, and it lets everyone know that you mean business!
- Step 7: Come to your senses
- Panic is good, but keep it on a tight leash and come to your senses in due time so you can actually start sorting the problem out. All told step one through step six should only take at the most about 10 minutes. It’s only natural that you dedicate the vast majority of that 10 minutes to panic. Once you’ve burned up your time get to work and fix it!
Now that you’ve had a taste of “being stupid” the time has come to fix the mistake. Please not this is all about fixing a particular Wordpress blog related stupidity. I in no way make any claims about how this will or will not perform in the sorting out of other types of inanity you might be prone to.
- Those backups
- Remember the wordpress backups you’re so diligent about keeping? The ones you have emailed to you on a daily basis using the Wordpress Database Backup plugin? Now is a real good time to download them from your email.
What about your weekly FTP backup you keep on your local computer? Now’s a great time to get that out as well. If for some reason you don’t backup your Wordpress files and folders on a regular basis, start. Don’t ever depend on your host to have backed it up for you. If you’re not sure where to begin with FTP backup Wordpress.org has a good guide to get you started using FTP
- Turn back time
- A backup is essentially a snapshot of what your data looked like at a previous time. It’s a like a picture, except with a backup you can take things back to what they were. In other words you can turn the clock back and fix any screwups you might be responsible for. At least to a certain extent. Some things to keep in mind about restoring a backup:
- The backup only covers from the time it was performed back. Any changes made since then aren’t part of the restoration. Meaning any posts, comments, or whatnot done since the backup was created will be lost when you restore it
- It may take the interaction of your host’s support team to restore the backup. For some reason it wouldn’t allow me to upload the backed up database and the support staff had to do it for me (another reason Hostgator rules)
- Once your database backup is restored you may very well still need to go in and add the db_username and db_password fields and ensure that it matches what you have in your wp-config.php file
- Verify you’re data has been backed up several times a week! I can’t stress this enough. Verify, verify, verify.
- Make sure you know what to do. Having all the backups in the world won’t help you a bit if you don’t know what to do with them. In otherwords practice to make sure you don’t come across any surprises. Trust me there’s nothing like going back into panic mode because you’re clueless about what you’re doing.
- Write an article about your stupidity
- This is where the rubber meets the road! It is almost obligatory to write an article about your experience. To entertain others? To educate others? A little of both? Who knows, but if you’ve just had a good old episode of “Sometimes I’m too stupid to breath” why not capitalize on it by writing an article?!
Posted in Blogging | 4 Comments »
