Over the last week I've been looking at a lot of paper, statements for accounts etc and found it really difficult to manage with a laptop, so I've ended up being forced to use my desktop. So I'm now use to having dual screens and lots of things open at once, again.
Which normally I'd only be doing for an hour or so in the morning, which wasn't so bad.
Anyways, this morning I've been doing some client work and found the amount of stuff I can fit on the screen of a 14" screen laptop unbarable. So I thought I'd have a go at making things smaller to see if I could improve my situation.
I've turned my DPI down to 84% and found a default zoom level add-on for firefox, which has allowed me to set all pages to 80% zoom.
Also, I use a add-on which splits pages, so I could loads of pages on the screen.
This all seems to be working quite well, this is until I get eye strain later in the day.
Hopefully these measures and increased productivity will lead to the cash to buy a bigger screen laptop :)
Saturday 16 May 2009
Friday 15 May 2009
A 3rd unlucky technical day
I've been to my mothers today with our son, my plan like the previous two occasions to do some work on my laptop while having my mam look after my son.
The first time I tried, I brought a usb wifi dongle and a wap. I got the wap and my laptop setup fine. The put the dongle in my mams machine, however it didn't work with windows 98. I didn't have any other kit with me so I was stuck that day and got nothing done. Just to explain my mam and my son like to look at train pictures on google images, which keeps them both quiet and out of my hair ;)
My next attempt I brought my wap and had planned to bring an CAT5 / RJ45 network splitter cable, which I bought online and seemed like a great idea. However I forgot it and again had no more tech with me.
Today, I tried to plan for all eventuallities. I brought the splitter cable and an old hub. However, the splitter didn't work as I'd hoped. I had 2 and they both did the same thing, I must have mis-understood when i bought them, one machine would work fine but not the other.
So I thought, I'll just use the hub. However, I was short one network cable. Which by chance I was able to borrow from my mams next door neighbour. Great I thought. However, when I got all setup the hub only seemed to have one port which worked.
So again unlucky. I almost think that I'm not meant to do any work at my mams.
Not sure what I'll try next time, I've got an adsl 4 port router I think I might try.
Its just getting silly though :(
The first time I tried, I brought a usb wifi dongle and a wap. I got the wap and my laptop setup fine. The put the dongle in my mams machine, however it didn't work with windows 98. I didn't have any other kit with me so I was stuck that day and got nothing done. Just to explain my mam and my son like to look at train pictures on google images, which keeps them both quiet and out of my hair ;)
My next attempt I brought my wap and had planned to bring an CAT5 / RJ45 network splitter cable, which I bought online and seemed like a great idea. However I forgot it and again had no more tech with me.
Today, I tried to plan for all eventuallities. I brought the splitter cable and an old hub. However, the splitter didn't work as I'd hoped. I had 2 and they both did the same thing, I must have mis-understood when i bought them, one machine would work fine but not the other.
So I thought, I'll just use the hub. However, I was short one network cable. Which by chance I was able to borrow from my mams next door neighbour. Great I thought. However, when I got all setup the hub only seemed to have one port which worked.
So again unlucky. I almost think that I'm not meant to do any work at my mams.
Not sure what I'll try next time, I've got an adsl 4 port router I think I might try.
Its just getting silly though :(
Friday 17 April 2009
How to keep your home tidy
This is probably an obvious one, but I only just realised how powerful this was they other day.
We often find ourselves in a mess and a lot of the time it comes down the fact that we don't have space to put things. So we tidy things and put them away, but we never have room to put more things. So what do you do. The most obvious answer is to get more storage or find more space.
Right?
No!
We've been doing this for sometime, we even boarded out the rest of our loft and got a bigger hatch and proper ladders. We got a shed the other year too. All of which are quite full.
The answer is to change your life style, don't hoard stuff.
Last weekend I was going through my shelves shreadding and putting paper in our recyle bin, it took me hours and I have nothing to show for it, I've got lots of piles of scrap paper though.
However, it was a start and I now feel a bit better that I did it. I feel now that I need to think carefully about anything I keep.
How useful will that be to me in the future, probably not at all!
We often find ourselves in a mess and a lot of the time it comes down the fact that we don't have space to put things. So we tidy things and put them away, but we never have room to put more things. So what do you do. The most obvious answer is to get more storage or find more space.
Right?
No!
We've been doing this for sometime, we even boarded out the rest of our loft and got a bigger hatch and proper ladders. We got a shed the other year too. All of which are quite full.
The answer is to change your life style, don't hoard stuff.
Last weekend I was going through my shelves shreadding and putting paper in our recyle bin, it took me hours and I have nothing to show for it, I've got lots of piles of scrap paper though.
However, it was a start and I now feel a bit better that I did it. I feel now that I need to think carefully about anything I keep.
How useful will that be to me in the future, probably not at all!
Friday 10 April 2009
How to get a lie in?
We seem to have managed most things with our sons development so far, I think.
On weekdays we make use of a nightlight / clock, which lights up at 6:30am, which means he can come into our room.
However on weekends, he still comes through at 6:30, I guess we could change his clock, but we always forget.
How did you guys solve this problem?
On weekdays we make use of a nightlight / clock, which lights up at 6:30am, which means he can come into our room.
However on weekends, he still comes through at 6:30, I guess we could change his clock, but we always forget.
How did you guys solve this problem?
Wednesday 8 April 2009
My first mobile post
Great, thought i'd log in to that other blog today on my new mobile and do my first post with it.
But it looks like theres some sort of feature / bug, in the earlier version of wordpress. So i'm going to have to upgrade it.
Anyways this is my first mobile post :)
EDIT:Got this far and it didn't submit :(
But it looks like theres some sort of feature / bug, in the earlier version of wordpress. So i'm going to have to upgrade it.
Anyways this is my first mobile post :)
EDIT:Got this far and it didn't submit :(
Sunday 5 April 2009
Final Burner Free
I just want to recommend a program to you guys.
Final Burner Free version, I've just spent 20 minutes trying to re-find it. I installed it a few months ago, then wnet back to a disk image and lost it.
Its a great program for burning video to dvd discs.
by JM
Final Burner Free version, I've just spent 20 minutes trying to re-find it. I installed it a few months ago, then wnet back to a disk image and lost it.
Its a great program for burning video to dvd discs.
by JM
Monday 30 March 2009
Get more work done with noise cancelling headphones
I spend a lot of time in a room where there are two tvs going and my son noisely playing with his toys. Normally I wouldn't be too bothered. However, recently I've been getting a lot of headaches, which are commonly at the same time of the day.
I also spend a lot of time with my laptop, not being able to get much done and getting really frustrated.
I don't seem to be able to work at my desktop pc at all these days again, due to noise and not being able to concentrate.
Its kind of a vicious circle, get less done, get frustrated and then get a headache.
I tried using some normal headphones, but this didn't drown out the noise.
So I discovered you could get noise cancelling headphones, mine have a battery in them and an on/off switch. It causes a hissing sound. Apparently there supposed to be a microphone near the ear which interacts and produces the hissing noise.
When I'm listening to music, it just seems louder, but the hiss, seems to block out some background noise. Not all noise, so I can hear if my son trips over or something, but enough to allow me to concentrate.
Over the weekend, I was sat doing some coding, in a couple of short sessions, where normally I'd have to spend ages trying to concentrate then struggle to do a few lines of code.
Anyways, my life has been transformed :)
I also spend a lot of time with my laptop, not being able to get much done and getting really frustrated.
I don't seem to be able to work at my desktop pc at all these days again, due to noise and not being able to concentrate.
Its kind of a vicious circle, get less done, get frustrated and then get a headache.
I tried using some normal headphones, but this didn't drown out the noise.
So I discovered you could get noise cancelling headphones, mine have a battery in them and an on/off switch. It causes a hissing sound. Apparently there supposed to be a microphone near the ear which interacts and produces the hissing noise.
When I'm listening to music, it just seems louder, but the hiss, seems to block out some background noise. Not all noise, so I can hear if my son trips over or something, but enough to allow me to concentrate.
Over the weekend, I was sat doing some coding, in a couple of short sessions, where normally I'd have to spend ages trying to concentrate then struggle to do a few lines of code.
Anyways, my life has been transformed :)
Saturday 7 March 2009
Credit Crunch: How big is a Billion?
During the recent financial turmoil the numbers being thrown around by the UK and US governments are making large numbers seem like pocket money. Every week it seems like some bank or insurance company is being bailed out to the tune of a few billion pounds or dollars. The thing is, I'm slightly confused about how big a billion really is. My confusion is that historically I think the US and UK definition of a billion were different:
US Billion = 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million
UK Billion = 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million, million
I've been assuming that when some UK bank get 30 billion pounds, they're getting 30 thousand million pounds but lately BBC News have started showing actual figures in their headlines and occasionally I see figures like:
£1,200,000,000,000
Surely this can't be the money given to a bank? It's more than the UK GDP isn't it?
With all these large numbers, it's hard to put into context how much money is actually involved. Another recent trend I've noticed on news programs is to show two stories back to back with the first involving a credit crunch fantasy bailout figure and the second a real world financial figure. For example, yesterday there was a story about Quantitiave Easing (a technical term much more aptly described on Question Time by Shirley Williams as Financial Laxative) involving a figure of £150 billion. The next story told how £140,000 had been allocated to fix potholes in all the roads in the county of Shropshire. To contrast these figures:
£150 billion = enough to fix all the potholes in Shropshire for the next 1,000,000 years
or
£150 billion = enough to fix all the potholes in the UK for over 10,000 years
Where is all this money is coming from? And who does it get paid back to?
US Billion = 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million
UK Billion = 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million, million
I've been assuming that when some UK bank get 30 billion pounds, they're getting 30 thousand million pounds but lately BBC News have started showing actual figures in their headlines and occasionally I see figures like:
£1,200,000,000,000
Surely this can't be the money given to a bank? It's more than the UK GDP isn't it?
With all these large numbers, it's hard to put into context how much money is actually involved. Another recent trend I've noticed on news programs is to show two stories back to back with the first involving a credit crunch fantasy bailout figure and the second a real world financial figure. For example, yesterday there was a story about Quantitiave Easing (a technical term much more aptly described on Question Time by Shirley Williams as Financial Laxative) involving a figure of £150 billion. The next story told how £140,000 had been allocated to fix potholes in all the roads in the county of Shropshire. To contrast these figures:
£150 billion = enough to fix all the potholes in Shropshire for the next 1,000,000 years
or
£150 billion = enough to fix all the potholes in the UK for over 10,000 years
Where is all this money is coming from? And who does it get paid back to?
Friday 6 March 2009
Wired GameCube Controllers are better that Wavebirds
Since I last spoke to you I was considering buying an expensive used WaveBird wireless controller for my wii and I was about to borrow a wired controller.
I tried the wired controller and found the cable very short. I discovered that I could use a couple of extension cables, which would give me the length I required. However, I was worried about pulling my wii off my shelf.
So I bought a wavebird. Which was much better, but very expensive.
I then discovered that mine didn't vibrate, which wasn't a fault. The reason it wasn't designed to vibrate, was due to power it zapped from batteries. Which I found both odd, as the third party one did and frustrating. It just wasn't the same.
I then had a bit more of a go of the wired controller I had borrowed and decided that I'd sell my wavebird and with the money, buy 2 wired controllers and 4 extensions, 2 each.
My wavebird is on ebay and my new kit has arrived today.
Going to give them a try tonight :)
by JM
I tried the wired controller and found the cable very short. I discovered that I could use a couple of extension cables, which would give me the length I required. However, I was worried about pulling my wii off my shelf.
So I bought a wavebird. Which was much better, but very expensive.
I then discovered that mine didn't vibrate, which wasn't a fault. The reason it wasn't designed to vibrate, was due to power it zapped from batteries. Which I found both odd, as the third party one did and frustrating. It just wasn't the same.
I then had a bit more of a go of the wired controller I had borrowed and decided that I'd sell my wavebird and with the money, buy 2 wired controllers and 4 extensions, 2 each.
My wavebird is on ebay and my new kit has arrived today.
Going to give them a try tonight :)
by JM
Monday 2 March 2009
Summary of my usage data
I'm not going to name my program here, but you guys will know that its my kids programs.
I've analysed my uninstall usage data and have produced some stats shown below. I haven't included stats from bug reports, which I haven't got round to yet.
The summary is based on all 880 reports from the last release in July.
I'm hoping you guys will comment on my findings.
Reason CountOfReason
(Please select) 774
Other 33
Just didn't like the program 33
Trial expired 14
Found it too complicated 14
Had a problem 10
Missing an expected feature 2
So theres not much of a pattern there, except that users couldn't be bothered to select a reason.
--------------------------------------
Whether they were willing to enter into a competition to win a license.
No 796
Yes 84
This didn't require people to provide an email address, provide comments etc.
--------------------------------------
OS CountOfOS
XP 772
VIS 100
98 6
23K 2
I think I'll drop windows 98.
--------------------------------------
I haven't yet analysed my Max Reached Point information, I do have stats but I haven't look to see where these point are in my program. I hope to do this before the end of the thread.
--------------------------------------
DaysInst CountOfDaysInst
0 540
1 43
3 31
2 25
4 22
7 18
-- Snip --
So most people use the program for less than a day then uninstall.
--------------------------------------
MinsUsed CountOfMinsUsed
0 226
2 115
3 68
4 44
5 49
6 30
7 30
8 24
9 26
10 12
11 20
12 14
13 21
14 9
15 9
16 12
17 6
18 10
19 3
20 14
-- snip --
99 25
So that varies.
--------------------------------------
ProgRetryCount CountOfProgRetryCount
1 365
2 173
3 104
4 56
5 33
0 33
6 28
8 16
7 13
9 12
10 8
11 6
12 5
14 4
So users do close the program and retry it.
--------------------------------------
Crash CountOfCrash
No 843
Unc 33
Yes 4
So not a massive percentage of crashes.
--------------------------------------
PrintBtnUsed CountOfPrintBtnUsed
N 737
Y 143
This is how many people used the print button.
I guess I would hope this to be higher.
--------------------------------------
PrintsLeft CountOfPrintsLeft
0 95
1 6
2 7
3 10
4 25
From people who did print.
by JM
I've analysed my uninstall usage data and have produced some stats shown below. I haven't included stats from bug reports, which I haven't got round to yet.
The summary is based on all 880 reports from the last release in July.
I'm hoping you guys will comment on my findings.
Reason CountOfReason
(Please select) 774
Other 33
Just didn't like the program 33
Trial expired 14
Found it too complicated 14
Had a problem 10
Missing an expected feature 2
So theres not much of a pattern there, except that users couldn't be bothered to select a reason.
--------------------------------------
Whether they were willing to enter into a competition to win a license.
No 796
Yes 84
This didn't require people to provide an email address, provide comments etc.
--------------------------------------
OS CountOfOS
XP 772
VIS 100
98 6
23K 2
I think I'll drop windows 98.
--------------------------------------
I haven't yet analysed my Max Reached Point information, I do have stats but I haven't look to see where these point are in my program. I hope to do this before the end of the thread.
--------------------------------------
DaysInst CountOfDaysInst
0 540
1 43
3 31
2 25
4 22
7 18
-- Snip --
So most people use the program for less than a day then uninstall.
--------------------------------------
MinsUsed CountOfMinsUsed
0 226
2 115
3 68
4 44
5 49
6 30
7 30
8 24
9 26
10 12
11 20
12 14
13 21
14 9
15 9
16 12
17 6
18 10
19 3
20 14
-- snip --
99 25
So that varies.
--------------------------------------
ProgRetryCount CountOfProgRetryCount
1 365
2 173
3 104
4 56
5 33
0 33
6 28
8 16
7 13
9 12
10 8
11 6
12 5
14 4
So users do close the program and retry it.
--------------------------------------
Crash CountOfCrash
No 843
Unc 33
Yes 4
So not a massive percentage of crashes.
--------------------------------------
PrintBtnUsed CountOfPrintBtnUsed
N 737
Y 143
This is how many people used the print button.
I guess I would hope this to be higher.
--------------------------------------
PrintsLeft CountOfPrintsLeft
0 95
1 6
2 7
3 10
4 25
From people who did print.
by JM
Sunday 1 March 2009
Strange SERPs results
As I wrote a few days ago, SoftwareLode has been disappearing from Google search results. I did have 3500 pages in the main index in mid-January but over the following weeks most of my pages were dumped from the index and my visitor levels crashed. Whereas I was making a good $5 a day on Adsense I ended up being lucky to make $1.
The strange thing was though that for keywords on the homepage I still did well. For "Free DVD Software" I was still on page 1 and for "Free Software Downloads" I was around #40. In the last week though, I started disappearing for "Free Software Downloads" too. For the last 3 days I didn't appear anywhere for this keyword in the first 1000 results.
Today though the trend is reversing and all of a sudden I have 100 more pages in the main index than yesterday. The other good news is that I'm doing better than ever for "Free Software Downloads" - I'm at #27 on google.co.uk and #19 on google.ca. This compares with SoftTester at positions #49 and #68 respectively on .co.uk and .ca. Why SoftwareLode is higher than SoftTester I'm not sure.
The strange thing was though that for keywords on the homepage I still did well. For "Free DVD Software" I was still on page 1 and for "Free Software Downloads" I was around #40. In the last week though, I started disappearing for "Free Software Downloads" too. For the last 3 days I didn't appear anywhere for this keyword in the first 1000 results.
Today though the trend is reversing and all of a sudden I have 100 more pages in the main index than yesterday. The other good news is that I'm doing better than ever for "Free Software Downloads" - I'm at #27 on google.co.uk and #19 on google.ca. This compares with SoftTester at positions #49 and #68 respectively on .co.uk and .ca. Why SoftwareLode is higher than SoftTester I'm not sure.
What project to work on next?
Over the last year or so, I've been trying to manage my time better to give all of my projects time. However, I've tried to put the big earners first, but still give all my projects some of my time.
I haven't done any work on my kids program since July and I have millions of bug reports and uninstall questionnaires to wade through, then summarise then fixes to make.
It not so much that its been shoved to the bottom of the pile, more that I've felt that other project never get any time where it did use to get a lots.
Now I've not got any great hope that my kids program will suddenly start to make a lot of money. However I still do sell licenses for it every so often.
Should I work on it now?
by JM
I haven't done any work on my kids program since July and I have millions of bug reports and uninstall questionnaires to wade through, then summarise then fixes to make.
It not so much that its been shoved to the bottom of the pile, more that I've felt that other project never get any time where it did use to get a lots.
Now I've not got any great hope that my kids program will suddenly start to make a lot of money. However I still do sell licenses for it every so often.
Should I work on it now?
by JM
Form Editor/ Designer
Lately, I've been working towards a forms designer that can be used with a new version of my main software.
The idea is to let people freely edit their own invoice templates to suit their own business. A fair percentage of people seem to want modifications, e.g. in the colour of text, or they want to add new images and fixed text. This new forms designer should let customers do all these kinds of things very easily. I'm also going to let people adjust the widths of columns as well as add new columns. We do use a version of the template editor in-house to do custom modifications for people for a fee. This brings in a little bit of income but we think that if people could edit their own templates we'd probably get a lot more customers. The thinking is that if 1 in 10 customers asks us if templates can be modified, a lot more must simply reject the package and choose a competitor's without getting in touch at all.
The forms designer itself isn't specific to my main package and could be used to design forms for any purpose. It could even be used as the data output (print/ email) engine for other data sources. Any ideas on a possible use for it outside my main product line?
The idea is to let people freely edit their own invoice templates to suit their own business. A fair percentage of people seem to want modifications, e.g. in the colour of text, or they want to add new images and fixed text. This new forms designer should let customers do all these kinds of things very easily. I'm also going to let people adjust the widths of columns as well as add new columns. We do use a version of the template editor in-house to do custom modifications for people for a fee. This brings in a little bit of income but we think that if people could edit their own templates we'd probably get a lot more customers. The thinking is that if 1 in 10 customers asks us if templates can be modified, a lot more must simply reject the package and choose a competitor's without getting in touch at all.
The forms designer itself isn't specific to my main package and could be used to design forms for any purpose. It could even be used as the data output (print/ email) engine for other data sources. Any ideas on a possible use for it outside my main product line?
Saturday 28 February 2009
Problems with BT Broadband
Lately we've been having big problems with BT broadband. Once a week or so the ADSL connection drops out leaving us disconnected from the internet. We are so used to spending a few hours a day online - answering emails etc. - that it drives us a bit nuts. I've contacted their 0800 support line and the people try to be helpful but the only guidance they seem to be able to give is to help us reconnect our PCs to the wireless hub.
My suspicion is that there's a couple of problems. The first is that when someone else in my village uses broadband, the ADSL link goes down, i.e. we interfere with each other. In Window's list of available wireless connections, I often see another wireless hub when the service is very ropey. The second thing is that when someone uses a wireless telephone in the village, I have trouble connecting my desktop wirelessly to my hub. I think this is the case since I sometimes see another wireless connection with just a number like 209871245 - instead of a name.
We've been unable to get online for more than a few minutes in the last day. Does anyone else have broadband problems like these?
My suspicion is that there's a couple of problems. The first is that when someone else in my village uses broadband, the ADSL link goes down, i.e. we interfere with each other. In Window's list of available wireless connections, I often see another wireless hub when the service is very ropey. The second thing is that when someone uses a wireless telephone in the village, I have trouble connecting my desktop wirelessly to my hub. I think this is the case since I sometimes see another wireless connection with just a number like 209871245 - instead of a name.
We've been unable to get online for more than a few minutes in the last day. Does anyone else have broadband problems like these?
Thursday 19 February 2009
Adsense Penalty: Is there such a thing?
Since around the time I tweaked the Adsense on my software downloads site the page impressions have been dropping. The number of pages in Google's main index has also been declining in the last month or so. I can't pin the drop in impressions down to the exact date when I changed the Adsense but it's within a week or so. I'm now making about a quarter of the Adsense income I was. This isn't a big loss, since the amount of money involved wasn't great anyway but I'd still like to get back to where I was.
I've been scratching my head trying to figure out whether I've triggered some sort of Google penalty or whether, since the site is only 7 months old, the site is still doing the usual new site dance in SERPs.
I went and read Google's terms of service for Adsense and couldn't really see anything that I was doing wrong. There is a vague warning about breaking the terms of service if the site is purely constructed for the purposes of showing Adsense. If this was my problem though, every download site would have the same issue.
The clause that caught my eye though was one saying you shouldn't have more than 3 ads per page. I had upped the ads/ page to 3 but on my work computer I sometimes got a strange "can't show page" panel appearing below the ad tower on the left of the page. I didn't see this at all on my home computer so I thought it was just a firewall issue or some other weird problem. The company I work for is a large American corporation with big paranoia about security and spends more on firewall protection than they do on the server. Quite often Google ads won't show at all on some websites.
However, it suddenly occurred to me that there might be a bug in my PHP script. I took a look and found a cutdown Google ad script sitting below the proper ad script for the tower. This might have been taken as a 4th Google ad on the page and may have triggered a penalty of some kind. I've now removed the script fragment. With any luck my traffic will return over the coming weeks as the Adsense robot reindexes the pages.
I've been scratching my head trying to figure out whether I've triggered some sort of Google penalty or whether, since the site is only 7 months old, the site is still doing the usual new site dance in SERPs.
I went and read Google's terms of service for Adsense and couldn't really see anything that I was doing wrong. There is a vague warning about breaking the terms of service if the site is purely constructed for the purposes of showing Adsense. If this was my problem though, every download site would have the same issue.
The clause that caught my eye though was one saying you shouldn't have more than 3 ads per page. I had upped the ads/ page to 3 but on my work computer I sometimes got a strange "can't show page" panel appearing below the ad tower on the left of the page. I didn't see this at all on my home computer so I thought it was just a firewall issue or some other weird problem. The company I work for is a large American corporation with big paranoia about security and spends more on firewall protection than they do on the server. Quite often Google ads won't show at all on some websites.
However, it suddenly occurred to me that there might be a bug in my PHP script. I took a look and found a cutdown Google ad script sitting below the proper ad script for the tower. This might have been taken as a 4th Google ad on the page and may have triggered a penalty of some kind. I've now removed the script fragment. With any luck my traffic will return over the coming weeks as the Adsense robot reindexes the pages.
Thursday 12 February 2009
Marketing via new toys for my CD software?
I've finally made some progress with my new licensing functionality for my maths cds.
I can now accept a few of the users details along with a 14 digit numeric key, all of which I will print at the bottom of the customers packing slip. Thus making my life tonnes easier as I can create cds before I get the orders and not waste tonnes of time, when I'm busy.
I haven't really touched the code in the program since 2006 and therefore I was a bit unfamiliar with it. However, the code I have now added provides me with room for some creative marketing.
Firstly, the program only use to work with a license key file, which I included in the setup exe file, re-generated at order time for each CD. If the license key is deleted, they are given a 30 day trial period. Obviously not something a paying customer would do; also not something I'm really worried about, if someone were to want to try and copy my program and use without the key file.
However, this functionality does give me the option to provide users with a period, perhaps a trial or a grace period. My initial thought was to give customers maybe 5 days before they have to enter the key. Then I thought, why should I do that, I'll just lock them out if they don't enter the key etc.
Now, I'm thinking a little about the marketing side of this, if I give people a 5 day grace period / trial and market the cd, so that people are allowed to pass on to their friends, I could get some extra sales.
Secondly, I've kept in my first licensing strategy which either accepts a key file (as provided when i use to burn a cd per customer) or more interestingly, to accept a key block provided as provided by ShareIT online.
So I could add a button to my paper license acceptance screen, something 'Help Options' which would show a screen with radio buttons. Options could be, A) help me enter my paper license info (I'm an Idiot), where I could send them a license block over email. B) Purchase a new license online via ShareIT. C) Maybe purchase a new CD.
Maybe I'm getting carried away with all these extra toys?
I'm just not sure what to do?
Also how to term things, like grace period, trial, etc, after all it might upset customers who have bought the CD?
Lots of questions.
by JM
I can now accept a few of the users details along with a 14 digit numeric key, all of which I will print at the bottom of the customers packing slip. Thus making my life tonnes easier as I can create cds before I get the orders and not waste tonnes of time, when I'm busy.
I haven't really touched the code in the program since 2006 and therefore I was a bit unfamiliar with it. However, the code I have now added provides me with room for some creative marketing.
Firstly, the program only use to work with a license key file, which I included in the setup exe file, re-generated at order time for each CD. If the license key is deleted, they are given a 30 day trial period. Obviously not something a paying customer would do; also not something I'm really worried about, if someone were to want to try and copy my program and use without the key file.
However, this functionality does give me the option to provide users with a period, perhaps a trial or a grace period. My initial thought was to give customers maybe 5 days before they have to enter the key. Then I thought, why should I do that, I'll just lock them out if they don't enter the key etc.
Now, I'm thinking a little about the marketing side of this, if I give people a 5 day grace period / trial and market the cd, so that people are allowed to pass on to their friends, I could get some extra sales.
Secondly, I've kept in my first licensing strategy which either accepts a key file (as provided when i use to burn a cd per customer) or more interestingly, to accept a key block provided as provided by ShareIT online.
So I could add a button to my paper license acceptance screen, something 'Help Options' which would show a screen with radio buttons. Options could be, A) help me enter my paper license info (I'm an Idiot), where I could send them a license block over email. B) Purchase a new license online via ShareIT. C) Maybe purchase a new CD.
Maybe I'm getting carried away with all these extra toys?
I'm just not sure what to do?
Also how to term things, like grace period, trial, etc, after all it might upset customers who have bought the CD?
Lots of questions.
by JM
Friday 6 February 2009
How to make a website template?
Rather than just ask a flat out question without any real substance, I thought it might be useful to others as well as myself, if I discuss my issues. I'm going to talk about the very basics, which is were my site is at. I have mostly hard coded HTML in my php files.
My biggest problem is trying to figure out the holy grail, how to produce template files which are complete HTML files, with markers / tags for where I need to add my data. I can do the basic replace of strings. Heres an example of what I have now.
So here I'm reading in my header file and replacing elements with values, in most cases here, blanks.
However, this is the first use of a template in my file, I'm not doing anything with meta tags, I'm tempted to just leave them hard coded in my php file, but this would make it more difficult, if say in the future I wanted someone with only HTML knowledge to design me a new style for my site.
A) What should I do with my meta tags? what should I put in my template file? Should I keep them all in some sort of settings file?
The most common problem with my hard coded files, is loops, where I have html (perhaps the start of a table), data, more html etc, back to start of the loop.
B) How would I create tags in the template file to handle loops?
Also, I have a lot of similar pages with small differences.
C) Where do I draw the line and create another HTML template file?
Hope someone can give me some insight.
by JM
My biggest problem is trying to figure out the holy grail, how to produce template files which are complete HTML files, with markers / tags for where I need to add my data. I can do the basic replace of strings. Heres an example of what I have now.
$middleheader = template("tpl/header.htm");
$middleheader = str_replace("SUBDIR", "", $middleheader);
$middleheader = str_replace("[1NEWS]", "", $middleheader);
$middleheader = str_replace("[2NEWS]", "", $middleheader);
$middleheader = str_replace("TEXTADS", $TEXTADS, $middleheader);
echo $middleheader;So here I'm reading in my header file and replacing elements with values, in most cases here, blanks.
However, this is the first use of a template in my file, I'm not doing anything with meta tags, I'm tempted to just leave them hard coded in my php file, but this would make it more difficult, if say in the future I wanted someone with only HTML knowledge to design me a new style for my site.
A) What should I do with my meta tags? what should I put in my template file? Should I keep them all in some sort of settings file?
The most common problem with my hard coded files, is loops, where I have html (perhaps the start of a table), data, more html etc, back to start of the loop.
B) How would I create tags in the template file to handle loops?
Also, I have a lot of similar pages with small differences.
C) Where do I draw the line and create another HTML template file?
Hope someone can give me some insight.
by JM
Monday 2 February 2009
Security license code enter by customer with their address etc?
I'm about to develop a new licensing strategy for customers who buy cds. The customer will get their packing slip / invoice with a box at the bottom of the page, with their details (name, address, email address) and some sort of license code. The idea being that they have to type the contents of the box into a matching screen in the program.
My issue is how secure will the licence code (shown in the box) be? I mean it has to be tied to the the customer detail and the product itself.
I don't want to make this process too difficult. Although it already sounds a little difficult. Also, I don't want to make the code too long.
I do think its worth putting a degree of effort into this, otherwise anyone with a programming language could easily figure out how to build the code.
I don't like Blues approach were he gives people a key, I definitely want to tie in their personal details.
Thoughts?
By JM
My issue is how secure will the licence code (shown in the box) be? I mean it has to be tied to the the customer detail and the product itself.
I don't want to make this process too difficult. Although it already sounds a little difficult. Also, I don't want to make the code too long.
I do think its worth putting a degree of effort into this, otherwise anyone with a programming language could easily figure out how to build the code.
I don't like Blues approach were he gives people a key, I definitely want to tie in their personal details.
Thoughts?
By JM
Sunday 1 February 2009
My first RentACoder request in months
I've just put up a rentacoder request, first one in ages. I was feeling lazy and I need my home page fixing and its a nightmare with some code embedded in php etc.
But I can use winmerge to pick out the changes.
Accepted a big with in 15 mins of posting, £11 :)
by JM
But I can use winmerge to pick out the changes.
Accepted a big with in 15 mins of posting, £11 :)
by JM
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Further gamecube and wii, novice tips
Since my last post, I bought a couple of gamecube games and a wireless gamecube controller for my wii.
I'd just like to bring you up-to-date the gamecube (aka gc from here on) and the wii use an powerpc cpu and the core of the wii is the same as the gc. As you'd expect the wii, has slighlty higher spec.
Also the controllers have been changed so that the standard wii controllers are wireless. However there are 4 gc controller ports on the side or the top depending on how you have you wii angled. Theres also 2 gc memory card slots.
Gc games required this memory card to save game data, I bought a 16mb which on various places on the web say that should be more than enough. Which I also bought online for a few quid.
The gc games themselves are quite good, but obviously you don't have the same interaction with games as you have with the wii, as your not throwing yourself around the room trying to hit a ball etc :)
The gc wireless controller I bought is a third party device which i bought of ebay, it cost me £12. However, as I've never seen / played on a gamecube or a gamecube game I had no idea what to expect. Theres a Z button on the controller (all the buttons have letters on them) which in the games I have is kind of like a shift key, which you press to access a menu or use with another keystroke. However on the controller it doesn't hold the Z key when you hold it, it just releases it in the game.
So after much research I discovered that it was faulty.
I contacted the seller and they said it wasn't a fault but was Ok for most games, but he gave me a refund.
So, I'm now left with two options, to pay a fortune for a Nintendo WaveBird wirless controller aka £30 to £40 or buy a wired controller and a couple of extension leads. Although its mentioned on the net that you can buy wavebirds' on ebay for £15 I haven't seen one. Also people say you can accidentally pull for console off if the controller is yanked, in mid game play. (Thinking about how I can secure the end of the cable, hmmm.)
With my 4 year old around I think thats a certainty, having said that I don't have any games which are suitable for him being around, so I guess a wired controller would be OK.
But I would like a wireless one.
However, my wifes borrowing a wired controller from a friend at work today so I should be able to try it tonight, no doubt I will have square eyes from being so close the tv, with such a sort lead though ;)
by JM
I'd just like to bring you up-to-date the gamecube (aka gc from here on) and the wii use an powerpc cpu and the core of the wii is the same as the gc. As you'd expect the wii, has slighlty higher spec.
Also the controllers have been changed so that the standard wii controllers are wireless. However there are 4 gc controller ports on the side or the top depending on how you have you wii angled. Theres also 2 gc memory card slots.
Gc games required this memory card to save game data, I bought a 16mb which on various places on the web say that should be more than enough. Which I also bought online for a few quid.
The gc games themselves are quite good, but obviously you don't have the same interaction with games as you have with the wii, as your not throwing yourself around the room trying to hit a ball etc :)
The gc wireless controller I bought is a third party device which i bought of ebay, it cost me £12. However, as I've never seen / played on a gamecube or a gamecube game I had no idea what to expect. Theres a Z button on the controller (all the buttons have letters on them) which in the games I have is kind of like a shift key, which you press to access a menu or use with another keystroke. However on the controller it doesn't hold the Z key when you hold it, it just releases it in the game.
So after much research I discovered that it was faulty.
I contacted the seller and they said it wasn't a fault but was Ok for most games, but he gave me a refund.
So, I'm now left with two options, to pay a fortune for a Nintendo WaveBird wirless controller aka £30 to £40 or buy a wired controller and a couple of extension leads. Although its mentioned on the net that you can buy wavebirds' on ebay for £15 I haven't seen one. Also people say you can accidentally pull for console off if the controller is yanked, in mid game play. (Thinking about how I can secure the end of the cable, hmmm.)
With my 4 year old around I think thats a certainty, having said that I don't have any games which are suitable for him being around, so I guess a wired controller would be OK.
But I would like a wireless one.
However, my wifes borrowing a wired controller from a friend at work today so I should be able to try it tonight, no doubt I will have square eyes from being so close the tv, with such a sort lead though ;)
by JM
Monday 26 January 2009
Cycle of incorrect pages
I've been doing some work on softtester and noticed my page errors table was 80mb, I was shocked.
So I picked one record, one from an actual user, not a robot. However both are the same in this discussion.
The record shows a page which doesn't exist, correctly.
However, google and other sites don't get a 404 error, they are presented with a search script which provides them with alternative results.
In this case, its presented with 1 search result of the page they were looking for, however this record was deleted some time ago and a re-submitted program / accepted program is been shown. However this new program although with the same name has the new page name format program-name-program-id.
Lets just recap...
Page requested :- abc-program.shtml
Search page shows :- abc-program-999.shtml
However it could just as easily be
free-dvd-ripper.shtml
with search page shows :-my-company-free-dvd-supreme-ripper.shtml
So I'm in a loop with google / robots.
I don't want to show a nasty 404 error page, but I need to break the cycle, so that google is updated and looses the old url.
Or do I? , it is traffic.
Maybe I'm being penalised by google?
Anyway, if I wanted to break this cycle I guess I could just add NOINDEX,FOLLOW.
Thoughts?
by JM
So I picked one record, one from an actual user, not a robot. However both are the same in this discussion.
The record shows a page which doesn't exist, correctly.
However, google and other sites don't get a 404 error, they are presented with a search script which provides them with alternative results.
In this case, its presented with 1 search result of the page they were looking for, however this record was deleted some time ago and a re-submitted program / accepted program is been shown. However this new program although with the same name has the new page name format program-name-program-id.
Lets just recap...
Page requested :- abc-program.shtml
Search page shows :- abc-program-999.shtml
However it could just as easily be
free-dvd-ripper.shtml
with search page shows :-my-company-free-dvd-supreme-ripper.shtml
So I'm in a loop with google / robots.
I don't want to show a nasty 404 error page, but I need to break the cycle, so that google is updated and looses the old url.
Or do I? , it is traffic.
Maybe I'm being penalised by google?
Anyway, if I wanted to break this cycle I guess I could just add NOINDEX,FOLLOW.
Thoughts?
by JM
Sunday 25 January 2009
How to create an efficient downloads tracking table in MySql?
At the moment I have a "tracking" table, which I use to store both searches and downloads.
TABLE `tracking`
`TID` bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`PadID` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`Phrase` text NOT NULL,
`PageHandle` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`Referer` text NOT NULL,
`Agent` text NOT NULL,
`Lang` text NOT NULL,
`RemAddress` text NOT NULL,
`DateAdded` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
PRIMARY KEY (`TID`)
I think i'm going to just use this table for search tracking and create a new table for tracking downloads, this isn't really a problem as in most cases (apart from basic info like IP and useragent etc) it uses differnet fields.
I'm going to work on the principle that one download equals for unique IP & UserAgent & day. In English one download per user agent from a specific IP address per day.
The obvious thing to do would be to up the IP address, user agent and the day on one field and make it a unique index, but thats going to make the field quite big. Maybe the user agent string isn't important? and I could just use IP and Day, with the day in Julian format.
Whats the table look like that you use Mike?
Comments?
TABLE `tracking`
`TID` bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`PadID` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`Phrase` text NOT NULL,
`PageHandle` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`Referer` text NOT NULL,
`Agent` text NOT NULL,
`Lang` text NOT NULL,
`RemAddress` text NOT NULL,
`DateAdded` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
PRIMARY KEY (`TID`)
I think i'm going to just use this table for search tracking and create a new table for tracking downloads, this isn't really a problem as in most cases (apart from basic info like IP and useragent etc) it uses differnet fields.
I'm going to work on the principle that one download equals for unique IP & UserAgent & day. In English one download per user agent from a specific IP address per day.
The obvious thing to do would be to up the IP address, user agent and the day on one field and make it a unique index, but thats going to make the field quite big. Maybe the user agent string isn't important? and I could just use IP and Day, with the day in Julian format.
Whats the table look like that you use Mike?
Comments?
Optimising Adsense: Ignore irrelevant content
Up until the last couple of days I was getting poor click through rates compared with SoftTester. Although I can't be certain I've made improvements that will stick in the longer term, my Adsense has recently improved by a factor of 5 in terms of clicks and earnings.
What I had noticed was that the ads shown on my site were pretty generic. They were mainly for free software or DVD downloads. Ignoring the DVD downloads, I can guess that ads for free anything have pretty poor earnings. I'd often only get 3 or 4 cents a click.
After a bit of research, I found you could guide Google into using certain content on which to base ads. I found that if you put these sections around your content in the page, it might help make ads more relevant:
<!- google_ad_section_start ->
... the real content ...
<!- google_ad_section_end ->
I did this on my site but didn't really notice a big improvement. Then I noticed that you could also tell Google to IGNORE content too using these sections:
<!- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) ->
... content to ignore ...
<!- google_ad_section_end ->
I also read tips on how/ where to place content on a page to make it noticeable for the Google Ads spider. The advice included:
1. Keep the content near the top of the page.
2. Bold keywords you want to highlight.
After reading this, I took a look at my pages. A typical page had a line of navigation links at the top of a page:
Free Software Downloads / Business & Finance / XXXX
This gave me a clue. Maybe my handy navigation links (for the user) were getting picked up by the Google Ads system. Maybe my bold "Free Software Downloads" link was making Google Ads show ads for free software. So I put in the "ignore" section around the line of hyperlinks and hey presto! In the last 2 days I've made about 5 times the income I was making before and the ads seem much more relevant to the page.
What I had noticed was that the ads shown on my site were pretty generic. They were mainly for free software or DVD downloads. Ignoring the DVD downloads, I can guess that ads for free anything have pretty poor earnings. I'd often only get 3 or 4 cents a click.
After a bit of research, I found you could guide Google into using certain content on which to base ads. I found that if you put these sections around your content in the page, it might help make ads more relevant:
<!- google_ad_section_start ->
... the real content ...
<!- google_ad_section_end ->
I did this on my site but didn't really notice a big improvement. Then I noticed that you could also tell Google to IGNORE content too using these sections:
<!- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) ->
... content to ignore ...
<!- google_ad_section_end ->
I also read tips on how/ where to place content on a page to make it noticeable for the Google Ads spider. The advice included:
1. Keep the content near the top of the page.
2. Bold keywords you want to highlight.
After reading this, I took a look at my pages. A typical page had a line of navigation links at the top of a page:
Free Software Downloads / Business & Finance / XXXX
This gave me a clue. Maybe my handy navigation links (for the user) were getting picked up by the Google Ads system. Maybe my bold "Free Software Downloads" link was making Google Ads show ads for free software. So I put in the "ignore" section around the line of hyperlinks and hey presto! In the last 2 days I've made about 5 times the income I was making before and the ads seem much more relevant to the page.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
How to replace outlook, big pst file and access online?
I'd like to try and switch my pc off during the day, at the moment, I'm either at my pc or on my laptop or doing other things. I don't want to have to end switching my pc on and off all the time. Also I don't want to have to buy another copy of outlook. I also have BIG PST files.
My aim is to access my email, of which I have many POP3 accounts, and my PST files from my laptop without having to have my pc guzzling electricty all day.
Ideally I'd like a solution where one day I can access my email online, when I go to work.
Any suggestions?
by JM
My aim is to access my email, of which I have many POP3 accounts, and my PST files from my laptop without having to have my pc guzzling electricty all day.
Ideally I'd like a solution where one day I can access my email online, when I go to work.
Any suggestions?
by JM
Monday 19 January 2009
How to rename and fix your mp3 tags?
I've no idea :)
Thats why I'm putting this post together.
I've got some MP3 which have been ripped without the mp3 tags (ID3 tags) or a good file name. I wouldn't mind but I'd got some duplicate tracks off compliation cds.
I've tried some shareware apps which try to fix the tags and file names, based some information in the file name.
I was thinking, it should be possible to search for the master cd and get the tracks names that way. But I haven't found any software to do it. I'm also not sure if you'd be able to access the internet database of cds.
Also, I guess this is only useful if know where your mp3s came from.
Another idea, I know this sounds a bit futureistic, but theres that service which you can whistle a tune into your mobile and texts you the track name etc, if this could be linked it it would great.
However, i think the search idea is most realistic, but I don't have the time to devlop this at the moment :(
Maybe I could re-write the tracks back on to cd or get my master cds out and re-do the tags in windows media player where I can search or it would detect the cd tracks names.
Thats why I'm putting this post together.
I've got some MP3 which have been ripped without the mp3 tags (ID3 tags) or a good file name. I wouldn't mind but I'd got some duplicate tracks off compliation cds.
I've tried some shareware apps which try to fix the tags and file names, based some information in the file name.
I was thinking, it should be possible to search for the master cd and get the tracks names that way. But I haven't found any software to do it. I'm also not sure if you'd be able to access the internet database of cds.
Also, I guess this is only useful if know where your mp3s came from.
Another idea, I know this sounds a bit futureistic, but theres that service which you can whistle a tune into your mobile and texts you the track name etc, if this could be linked it it would great.
However, i think the search idea is most realistic, but I don't have the time to devlop this at the moment :(
Maybe I could re-write the tracks back on to cd or get my master cds out and re-do the tags in windows media player where I can search or it would detect the cd tracks names.
Sunday 18 January 2009
Welcome Illusion
I'd just like to welcome Illusion (aka Dan) to the blog, me and Blue have known him for a while. Hes a student and studying programming at university, hes done work for us both on RentACoder.
OK, I'm going to set the ball rolling and discuss his software site, which we will call 321 so were keeping some anonymity.
I'm going to start with the basics.
Have you emailed those software submission service providers, some provide web submission and others provide software?
Whats your linking building strategry?
by JM
OK, I'm going to set the ball rolling and discuss his software site, which we will call 321 so were keeping some anonymity.
I'm going to start with the basics.
Have you emailed those software submission service providers, some provide web submission and others provide software?
Whats your linking building strategry?
by JM
Friday 16 January 2009
7 Tips to Consider Before Starting a Home-based Business
There are many attractions to starting a home-based business. Perhaps the main attraction is working to your own schedule. You choose the hours you work without any boss or company rules governing your life. Don't fool yourself though - managing your own business if your will rely on the business as the main source of income will require hard work and effort. If things get tough, you may have no-one to fall back on - you will need to be strong enough to whatevers needed. On the plus side though, you will gain a good amount of satisfaction from any successes you have.
Here are some things to consider before beginning your own work at home business:-
One of the easiest home-based jobs to start is in the area of web design or software development. You still need skills and experience - whether in graphical design or writing software - but the setup costs can be minimal. These days, everyone has a PC and a broadband internet connection. with the right idea - and contacts - you can set up your own business at a very low cost.
If you work at home, you'll soon realise that you still need a separation between the main house/ family and your work. You need to organize a working space where you can work without disruption. An attic or garden room would be ideal. A small degree of physical separation between your family and your workspace will make it easier for you to switch between work and home life. If are considering starting a home-based business, you will need to become skilled at time management in order to balance work and time with your family. If you can get the balance right though, working at home can be an enojayble experience and much more relaxed than a doing a lengthy daily commute to an office job.
Here are some things to consider before beginning your own work at home business:-
- Will your new business pay an living wage? Will you need to continue with your existing job at the same time?
- Will your new business require marketing or advertising - do you have experience in managing these aspects of a business?
- Do you have the necessary funds to invest in your new business? If not, is the business plan for the business strong enough to attarct investment or loans?
- Do you have or need a fallback plan? What happens if the business does not take off in six months for example? Will you have given up a decent, full-time job and ended up unemployed?
- Do you have the full set of skills to run the business? In the past have you always relied on colleagues to fill key roles or supply keys skills? Can you cover these areas adequately?
- When you need help, will you be on your own? Have you identified a mentor or adviser who can help when things get tough?
- While the above points are highly important, do not start a home-based business that you are not truly passionate about. Working for yourself is almost 100% certain to require more dedication - and hours - than working for someone else.
One of the easiest home-based jobs to start is in the area of web design or software development. You still need skills and experience - whether in graphical design or writing software - but the setup costs can be minimal. These days, everyone has a PC and a broadband internet connection. with the right idea - and contacts - you can set up your own business at a very low cost.
If you work at home, you'll soon realise that you still need a separation between the main house/ family and your work. You need to organize a working space where you can work without disruption. An attic or garden room would be ideal. A small degree of physical separation between your family and your workspace will make it easier for you to switch between work and home life. If are considering starting a home-based business, you will need to become skilled at time management in order to balance work and time with your family. If you can get the balance right though, working at home can be an enojayble experience and much more relaxed than a doing a lengthy daily commute to an office job.
Thursday 15 January 2009
MDBSecure 2009 v1.2.0 Released
Following comments from made by customers we decided to look into adding some advanced security settings, as provided in 3 screens within MS Access. However, following our analysis we realised that we'd basically have to copy the screens.
Since we wanted to provide a stability in this feature we decided to give customers the option to use MS Access and those screens towards the end of the securing process. Then pass back to the program to complete the process.
by JM
Since we wanted to provide a stability in this feature we decided to give customers the option to use MS Access and those screens towards the end of the securing process. Then pass back to the program to complete the process.
by JM
Wednesday 14 January 2009
Earning money from downloads, affiliate bundling
I've always hated it when you see program budling the google toolbar or other program in the setup program.
However, with my kids prog, its not doing much at the moment, maybe I should consider this type of thing.
Comments?
However, with my kids prog, its not doing much at the moment, maybe I should consider this type of thing.
Comments?
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Trial links removal experiment
This month following conversations with Blue I removed the trial links from one of my programs websites. I also added a coupon code for some money off in my january sale.
I've had no sales so far.
I haven't yet analysed my new buy pass through page stats yet, so i don't know how many people thought about buying.
I have an an email today asking for the trial link, which I gave them.
They asked to try the "download a free trial of you mask making template".
I know the month isn't up yet, but, comments, thoughts?
I've had no sales so far.
I haven't yet analysed my new buy pass through page stats yet, so i don't know how many people thought about buying.
I have an an email today asking for the trial link, which I gave them.
They asked to try the "download a free trial of you mask making template".
I know the month isn't up yet, but, comments, thoughts?
Saturday 10 January 2009
What to do about a sore back or muscluar back pain
I have some first hand experience of back pain used before my one year industrial placement at college, the day of an exam, I woke up and couldn't straighten my back. I had the summer to recover before I had to start the placement. I spent most of it on my hands and knees crawling about my mams house.
I went to see an osteopathe and he helped a little, I then went to see another guy and he sorted me out.
This is when I first found out about back exercises and one good tip.
The exercises are firstly to get on the floor on all fours and arch your back like a scared cat. Then do the opposite, dip your back. Hold each position for a couple of seconds. You can increase the degree as you feel comfortable with it.
The next exercise is to lye flat on the floor and put your hand palms down next to you. Then lift your upper torso up with your hands, so your back is arched. Again, does this the degree comfort permits. Then lower yourself down flat and repeat a few times hold each position for several seconds.
The tip I was told about is when your driving your car, use the ball of your foot on the accelerator not your flat foot. Although this more due to some sciatic pain I had.
I always had the pain on one side of my back the lower lumbar muscles.
During this time until my next episode I often got back pain.
Later again, oddly, at a stressful time, I had a back problem after a long period of being unhappy in my permanent job. Same sort of problems as the first time. My work hassled me and sent out a chiropractor, who said initially what are you lying like that for, never lye with both legs straight on your back, always keep one leg slightly bent. I didn't go with him due to cost.
However I found another ostepathe how did lumbar injections, which reduced the swelling in my lumbar muslces. That was about 9 years ago, I haven't had back pain which has lasted longer than a day since.
One tip he gave me was to put some ice on a cloth, I got told off for the bag of peas as it didn't have the water / coldness of the ice and the cloth.
I found a video called a back for life and the back expert spent a long time explaining the exercises and recommended that suffers get a mat and do the exercises everyday to build up muscles and "have a healthy back for life".
In the last year or so I've been going to aerobics and we do the lying down exercise there.
I do find exercise and walking help too.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention a couple of things.
I believe the reason my back problems started in the first place was that, I slipped on the ice in my first year as a student, I did the old slapstip fall, where you feet go up in the air, I landed on my lower back.
Also, yes baths do help, but not because of the heat, but because your arching your back when you lye in the bath for a several minutes.
I went to see an osteopathe and he helped a little, I then went to see another guy and he sorted me out.
This is when I first found out about back exercises and one good tip.
The exercises are firstly to get on the floor on all fours and arch your back like a scared cat. Then do the opposite, dip your back. Hold each position for a couple of seconds. You can increase the degree as you feel comfortable with it.
The next exercise is to lye flat on the floor and put your hand palms down next to you. Then lift your upper torso up with your hands, so your back is arched. Again, does this the degree comfort permits. Then lower yourself down flat and repeat a few times hold each position for several seconds.
The tip I was told about is when your driving your car, use the ball of your foot on the accelerator not your flat foot. Although this more due to some sciatic pain I had.
I always had the pain on one side of my back the lower lumbar muscles.
During this time until my next episode I often got back pain.
Later again, oddly, at a stressful time, I had a back problem after a long period of being unhappy in my permanent job. Same sort of problems as the first time. My work hassled me and sent out a chiropractor, who said initially what are you lying like that for, never lye with both legs straight on your back, always keep one leg slightly bent. I didn't go with him due to cost.
However I found another ostepathe how did lumbar injections, which reduced the swelling in my lumbar muslces. That was about 9 years ago, I haven't had back pain which has lasted longer than a day since.
One tip he gave me was to put some ice on a cloth, I got told off for the bag of peas as it didn't have the water / coldness of the ice and the cloth.
I found a video called a back for life and the back expert spent a long time explaining the exercises and recommended that suffers get a mat and do the exercises everyday to build up muscles and "have a healthy back for life".
In the last year or so I've been going to aerobics and we do the lying down exercise there.
I do find exercise and walking help too.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention a couple of things.
I believe the reason my back problems started in the first place was that, I slipped on the ice in my first year as a student, I did the old slapstip fall, where you feet go up in the air, I landed on my lower back.
Also, yes baths do help, but not because of the heat, but because your arching your back when you lye in the bath for a several minutes.
Friday 9 January 2009
Eureka, how to put safe images in our posts
We were chatting yesterday and I was told the image of my mp3 car transmitter looked good and how we should try and put an image on all of our posts.
Well I've had a bad experience with images where I thought I could use them but a company disagreed and sent me a nasty letter / bill, but thats another story. Needless to say I'm a bit paranoid about using any images.
However, I had an idea, nothing too amazing...
But we could take photos ourselves and use those.
As I say we'd like to try and have an image on every post.
Well I've had a bad experience with images where I thought I could use them but a company disagreed and sent me a nasty letter / bill, but thats another story. Needless to say I'm a bit paranoid about using any images.
However, I had an idea, nothing too amazing...
But we could take photos ourselves and use those.
As I say we'd like to try and have an image on every post.
Tips to Help Lose Weight
It's a bit late for New Year Resolutions but it's never too late in the year to show resolution, especially if you've gained any weight over the Xmas break. Over Christmas it's all too easy to gain weight with parties, christmas dinners and suppers. It comes as no surprise to find that most people's New Year resolution is start a diet and lose weight. Equally unsurprising is the fact that few people succeed. Here are a set of tips to help shed a few pounds.
Avoid alcohol, especially in the evenings
Alcohol is fattening in it's own right. Worse, drinking lowers your resistence to temptation. Have you ever experienced the Midnight Munchies after drinking? Snacking at night after a few glasses of wine (don't cheese and wine go great together?) is a surefire recipe to weight gain.
Don't wear loose-fitting clothing
Don't lounge around the house in causal clothing such as jogging bottoms and a tee-shirt. If your jeans are feeling tighter after Christmas, make a point of wearing them. Feeling slightly uncomfortable in your clothing will be a reminder you need to lose weight and will reduce the temptation to eat between meals.
Don't diet, just eat less
Duh! Isn't eating less going on a diet? Well it all depends. Going on a fad diet, e.g. only eating vegetables, will work for a short while but it simply isn't possible to keep such a diet going. Most people fail within a few days or simply cheat from day one. Unless your diet is particularly unhealthy, e.g. involving lots of sugary food, don't change what you eat simply try to eat less of it, less often. A lot of fad diets are spectacularly boring and the human palate likes variety. Fad diets are a recipe for failure.
Change your routine to make food less accessible
This doesn't mean put a padlock on the fridge! Instead, don't have periods where you are bored around the house. Get out and about, go for a long walk, take up a new hobby but occupy yourself and distract yourself from eating. If you work, it should be relatively easy to drop a few pounds after the holidays since you'll be naturally distanced from food and temptation.
Buy less food
This tactic is childishly simply. If you have guilty foods you know you either shouldn't eat, or should eat less often, then simply don't stock up on them. For example, don't buy biscuits. Try going a few days without bread in the house. Bread is very high in carbohydrates and is a great tempter to keep stuffing.
Try cooking different meals occasionally
Try out new recipes some days of the week. Recipes based on beans can be high in roughage and a great weigh of detoxifying and losing weight.
Don't crash diet
Above all don't go on a crash diet and starve a few pounds off. The weight will go straight back on as soon as you can no longer starve yourself. Crash diets come in different forms. One of the least successful is to starve yourself during the week and then eat normally, i.e. binge, at weekends thinking you deserve some treats after a hungry week. You'll never lose weight with this kind of diet.
Hopefully these tips will be useful and help you lose weight. Early January is the best time to think about losing weight since most people are feeling over-stuffed from Xmas. Try being strong-willed and in a couple of weeks you'll soon have lost any weight gained over the Christmas break.
Avoid alcohol, especially in the evenings
Alcohol is fattening in it's own right. Worse, drinking lowers your resistence to temptation. Have you ever experienced the Midnight Munchies after drinking? Snacking at night after a few glasses of wine (don't cheese and wine go great together?) is a surefire recipe to weight gain.
Don't wear loose-fitting clothing
Don't lounge around the house in causal clothing such as jogging bottoms and a tee-shirt. If your jeans are feeling tighter after Christmas, make a point of wearing them. Feeling slightly uncomfortable in your clothing will be a reminder you need to lose weight and will reduce the temptation to eat between meals.
Don't diet, just eat less
Duh! Isn't eating less going on a diet? Well it all depends. Going on a fad diet, e.g. only eating vegetables, will work for a short while but it simply isn't possible to keep such a diet going. Most people fail within a few days or simply cheat from day one. Unless your diet is particularly unhealthy, e.g. involving lots of sugary food, don't change what you eat simply try to eat less of it, less often. A lot of fad diets are spectacularly boring and the human palate likes variety. Fad diets are a recipe for failure.
Change your routine to make food less accessible
This doesn't mean put a padlock on the fridge! Instead, don't have periods where you are bored around the house. Get out and about, go for a long walk, take up a new hobby but occupy yourself and distract yourself from eating. If you work, it should be relatively easy to drop a few pounds after the holidays since you'll be naturally distanced from food and temptation.
Buy less food
This tactic is childishly simply. If you have guilty foods you know you either shouldn't eat, or should eat less often, then simply don't stock up on them. For example, don't buy biscuits. Try going a few days without bread in the house. Bread is very high in carbohydrates and is a great tempter to keep stuffing.
Try cooking different meals occasionally
Try out new recipes some days of the week. Recipes based on beans can be high in roughage and a great weigh of detoxifying and losing weight.
Don't crash diet
Above all don't go on a crash diet and starve a few pounds off. The weight will go straight back on as soon as you can no longer starve yourself. Crash diets come in different forms. One of the least successful is to starve yourself during the week and then eat normally, i.e. binge, at weekends thinking you deserve some treats after a hungry week. You'll never lose weight with this kind of diet.
Hopefully these tips will be useful and help you lose weight. Early January is the best time to think about losing weight since most people are feeling over-stuffed from Xmas. Try being strong-willed and in a couple of weeks you'll soon have lost any weight gained over the Christmas break.
What to work on when your baby sitting
I use the terms bab sitting and work loosly. Obviously you can't do much work as baby sitting requires most of your attention. Except when hes playing with his toys, then I can do a little work.
Thing is these days I'm mostly on my laptop and not at my desk.
I'm not able to do anything too complicated as I get distracted getting drinks and playing with thomas the tank engine.
So I don't feel as if I can concentrate on programming or read books. Also, I find it difficult to create graphic on my desktop, I struggle on my laptop.
I can do blog posting.
I've been looking at my ToDo list this afternoon and followed all my loose ends, where I'm waiting for replies or need to discuss things.
This just about covers everything on my ToDo list :(
I'm tempted to say, that I should become a professional blogger, but thats yet another project.
Thoughts?
Thing is these days I'm mostly on my laptop and not at my desk.
I'm not able to do anything too complicated as I get distracted getting drinks and playing with thomas the tank engine.
So I don't feel as if I can concentrate on programming or read books. Also, I find it difficult to create graphic on my desktop, I struggle on my laptop.
I can do blog posting.
I've been looking at my ToDo list this afternoon and followed all my loose ends, where I'm waiting for replies or need to discuss things.
This just about covers everything on my ToDo list :(
I'm tempted to say, that I should become a professional blogger, but thats yet another project.
Thoughts?
How, House keeping process to remove blacklisted items from DB?
Theres now a blacklisting feature in place at the point where authors / spammers submit their pad files to softtester, behind the authors page.
This stops quite a bit of spam.
But I've already got spam and things could be determined as spam at a later date.
So I need a process which will look at the softtester MySQL database and deal with them.
However, there are various problems.
1. The black list is a list of domains, the fields in the database are full urls, so I'd have to do a like % ... % query rather than an equals, which will be slow.
2. These fields don't have indexes.
3. Its going to take a long time to scan the database / fields for each of these domains on a regular basis.
Any solution has to automated and require no involvement from me, when its up and running.
Solutions.
1. Create an offline solution which works on a copy of the database.
Pros.
Quick and won't affect the web server
Cons.
To be fully automated it would need to grab a copy of the database, import it to a test database then perform the actual process, then action the live database.
2. Do the process manually a couple of times a year.
Pros.
Erm, not sure.
Cons.
Lots of effort, time and lots of transactions on the live database.
Thoughts?
by JM
This stops quite a bit of spam.
But I've already got spam and things could be determined as spam at a later date.
So I need a process which will look at the softtester MySQL database and deal with them.
However, there are various problems.
1. The black list is a list of domains, the fields in the database are full urls, so I'd have to do a like % ... % query rather than an equals, which will be slow.
2. These fields don't have indexes.
3. Its going to take a long time to scan the database / fields for each of these domains on a regular basis.
Any solution has to automated and require no involvement from me, when its up and running.
Solutions.
1. Create an offline solution which works on a copy of the database.
Pros.
Quick and won't affect the web server
Cons.
To be fully automated it would need to grab a copy of the database, import it to a test database then perform the actual process, then action the live database.
2. Do the process manually a couple of times a year.
Pros.
Erm, not sure.
Cons.
Lots of effort, time and lots of transactions on the live database.
Thoughts?
by JM
Fine tuning the radiators in your house
Our kitchen is always cold, we had another radiator put in before christmas and it does make a difference, but its still the coldest room in the house. We also had one put in our main room lounge / dining room, its walk through. This room get quite warm easily now.
Also upset is always quite warm.
However, we've started putting the heating on at night as our monkey nearly set the house on fire with his oil filled radiator, which we got rid of. We have a wireless thermostat which we put in our room so we don't have to turn our radiator off every morning and so we don't get heated to a crisp each night.
My wife has suggested (not sure where she got the idea, maybe she talked to the plumber) that we turn down some of the radiators and leave the kitchen radiators on full. Thus making the heat around the house for levelled out.
The upstairs ones would be turned down a lot and the lound / dinner and other rooms less so.
Has anyone tried this?
Also upset is always quite warm.
However, we've started putting the heating on at night as our monkey nearly set the house on fire with his oil filled radiator, which we got rid of. We have a wireless thermostat which we put in our room so we don't have to turn our radiator off every morning and so we don't get heated to a crisp each night.
My wife has suggested (not sure where she got the idea, maybe she talked to the plumber) that we turn down some of the radiators and leave the kitchen radiators on full. Thus making the heat around the house for levelled out.
The upstairs ones would be turned down a lot and the lound / dinner and other rooms less so.
Has anyone tried this?
How to avoid colds and flu?
In the past year I seem to have picked up every cold and flue bug going around.
I'm one of these people who is always hot, not like my wife who is always cold, and therefore I often find myself, when I'm outside, cold as I put a thin coat on, when I should have put my thicker coat on.
At the moment, I do where my thick coat and woolie hat as I do the school (well nursery) for our son, so I'm out walking around first thing and at lunchtime, like most people.
I know the fact that our monkey is at nursery and in a hive of bugs and that we're or rather I'm most likely to catch bugs from him.
But I just seem to pick up one bug after another.
I'm just wondering if you guys have any secrets or whether your doing things out of habbit that I'm not?
Or are you having the same problems?
I'm one of these people who is always hot, not like my wife who is always cold, and therefore I often find myself, when I'm outside, cold as I put a thin coat on, when I should have put my thicker coat on.
At the moment, I do where my thick coat and woolie hat as I do the school (well nursery) for our son, so I'm out walking around first thing and at lunchtime, like most people.
I know the fact that our monkey is at nursery and in a hive of bugs and that we're or rather I'm most likely to catch bugs from him.
But I just seem to pick up one bug after another.
I'm just wondering if you guys have any secrets or whether your doing things out of habbit that I'm not?
Or are you having the same problems?
Fixing laminate floor boards
We got laminate flooring in the whole of the downstairs of our house.
We have my brother-in-law and father-in-law do most of the work as they had some experience of doing it themselves, mostly my brother-in-law. Thing is he insisted of chipping off the corner bits underneath, maybe that was the right thing to do, I don't know.
Anyways, turns out a floor isn't level. I understand you can use self levelling cememt to level out the floor, but its not easy to use and acheive a level floor.
We have a few scratches, I bought some laminate wax crayon things, which ONLY work on scratched, no gaps as it says on the pack.
The main problem we have is there one area where the floor isn't level and the joins has cracked off underneath and we level with a board which sticks up, typically need the entrance to the room.
The obvious answer is to take up the floor and redo that area, we have a spare box. But as I say the floor isn't 100% level and we don't have experience of levelling a floor.
This board has also got chips out of it, where furniture has caught it and snagged bits out of the edges.
A week ago we had a party and I decided to try and remove some of the loose joins and get some glue and put a heavy weight on it over night to see if I could fix it. I also put a piece of card (the back of an A4 pad in) to try and make the board level with the other.
The next day, somehow the board had risen, I used a sort of no more nails glue, wish I'd used wood glue.
Today I thought I'd have another look at it.
I managed to lift up the board and found a lot of the NMNs was still wet, so I wiped it all up and tried to scrape the rest off. I ended up pulling the whole board out.
Some of the NMNs has dried and I haven't been able to get it all off in the time I have today, also I needed to put the board back as my 3 year old son witll be running round on it soon.
I had a bit of a panic, as I couldn't get the board back, probably because I'd never had it complete lifted out before and the joins were stopping it. I had to remove more joins to get it back. I've not got a board which most sits in the gap, but it has got joins on the most of 2 sides.
So I'm thinking I might just get a new board and remove the joins like the old board and try and glue that down. I'll also need to remove the dried NMNs on the surrounding boards.
I guess I have nothing to loose, also long as I don't use too many of the boards from the spare pack we have. I mean I could always got the whole floor re-do approach later on.
Has anyone got any tips for me?
We have my brother-in-law and father-in-law do most of the work as they had some experience of doing it themselves, mostly my brother-in-law. Thing is he insisted of chipping off the corner bits underneath, maybe that was the right thing to do, I don't know.
Anyways, turns out a floor isn't level. I understand you can use self levelling cememt to level out the floor, but its not easy to use and acheive a level floor.
We have a few scratches, I bought some laminate wax crayon things, which ONLY work on scratched, no gaps as it says on the pack.
The main problem we have is there one area where the floor isn't level and the joins has cracked off underneath and we level with a board which sticks up, typically need the entrance to the room.
The obvious answer is to take up the floor and redo that area, we have a spare box. But as I say the floor isn't 100% level and we don't have experience of levelling a floor.
This board has also got chips out of it, where furniture has caught it and snagged bits out of the edges.
A week ago we had a party and I decided to try and remove some of the loose joins and get some glue and put a heavy weight on it over night to see if I could fix it. I also put a piece of card (the back of an A4 pad in) to try and make the board level with the other.
The next day, somehow the board had risen, I used a sort of no more nails glue, wish I'd used wood glue.
Today I thought I'd have another look at it.
I managed to lift up the board and found a lot of the NMNs was still wet, so I wiped it all up and tried to scrape the rest off. I ended up pulling the whole board out.
Some of the NMNs has dried and I haven't been able to get it all off in the time I have today, also I needed to put the board back as my 3 year old son witll be running round on it soon.
I had a bit of a panic, as I couldn't get the board back, probably because I'd never had it complete lifted out before and the joins were stopping it. I had to remove more joins to get it back. I've not got a board which most sits in the gap, but it has got joins on the most of 2 sides.
So I'm thinking I might just get a new board and remove the joins like the old board and try and glue that down. I'll also need to remove the dried NMNs on the surrounding boards.
I guess I have nothing to loose, also long as I don't use too many of the boards from the spare pack we have. I mean I could always got the whole floor re-do approach later on.
Has anyone got any tips for me?
Thursday 8 January 2009
Home study for skills, limited time and remembering
I'm been trying for over 6 months to learn a new programming language ( C# ). I've got a basic 24 hour book. I've had to restart the book a couple of times now.
My problem is that I find it so boring and difficult to find the time to learn.
Consequently when I have been good and read for an hour a week, I tend to forget. I end up re-reading.
I was thinking if I had a project where I used the language this might keep my interest, but as I say the book is quite basic and i'll probably need to finish the book and maybe learn more from another source afterwards to give me the knowledge I need.
I just wondered what you guys thought?
My problem is that I find it so boring and difficult to find the time to learn.
Consequently when I have been good and read for an hour a week, I tend to forget. I end up re-reading.
I was thinking if I had a project where I used the language this might keep my interest, but as I say the book is quite basic and i'll probably need to finish the book and maybe learn more from another source afterwards to give me the knowledge I need.
I just wondered what you guys thought?
1.8" LCD 2GB Car Mp4 MP3 Player Transmitter, I bought
In November I was looking on eBay and found a better FM MP3 transmitter for the car. My old one worked with 1gb USB sticks, which is good, but a little limited in space.
Just to give some background, what this device does, is it transmits MP3 onto the FM radio band, it can then be picked up by your car radio. Short distance FM transmitting was made legal in the UK in 2007.
The 1.8" device I bought has 500mb internal storage which works fine. It shows the track name and you can even show the lyrics on the display. You've got a selection of graphic equalizer settings and it keeps the last track you played, and you can set it to shuffle.
It takes a SD 2gb card, so you can add more MP3s.
Unfortunetly I can't get it recognise any of the files I put on the SD card.
Initially, I had a problem where I could only copy 125 files to the card, so I create some folders and put the files in there. But the device didn't like this.
I bought a card reader and formatted the card to FAT32 and copied loads of MP3s on the card, but again the device didn't like it.
I bought the card from a chinese seller on eBay, the instructions are in Chinese but a limited anyway. I have emailed the guy several times and he has tried to help. I've already left him good feedback, so I can't really send it back.
Just wonder if anyone out there can offer me any advice as to how to get the SD card working?
Heres a picture of it..
Just to give some background, what this device does, is it transmits MP3 onto the FM radio band, it can then be picked up by your car radio. Short distance FM transmitting was made legal in the UK in 2007.
The 1.8" device I bought has 500mb internal storage which works fine. It shows the track name and you can even show the lyrics on the display. You've got a selection of graphic equalizer settings and it keeps the last track you played, and you can set it to shuffle.
It takes a SD 2gb card, so you can add more MP3s.
Unfortunetly I can't get it recognise any of the files I put on the SD card.
Initially, I had a problem where I could only copy 125 files to the card, so I create some folders and put the files in there. But the device didn't like this.
I bought a card reader and formatted the card to FAT32 and copied loads of MP3s on the card, but again the device didn't like it.
I bought the card from a chinese seller on eBay, the instructions are in Chinese but a limited anyway. I have emailed the guy several times and he has tried to help. I've already left him good feedback, so I can't really send it back.
Just wonder if anyone out there can offer me any advice as to how to get the SD card working?
Heres a picture of it..
Getting more games for the wii cheaply
Since we got our wii at Christmas we've played all of the games and come back to them. But theres be a couple of days go by here and there where we don't play on it. I know I have some ideas about the sort of games I'd like.
The wife was chatting to a friend at work and he said you can play games from the older Nintendo Game Cube console on the wii. And that you can buy games for it on eBay for a couple of pounds.
Also now you can get wireless rumble (vibrating) controller game cube controllers for the wii. Apparently you have to use the old style controllers to get the games to work on the wii. And as I've mentioned their wireless too, previously they had been wired.
I'm watching a few cheap / used games on ebay and have one of those controllers watched too, so if I find a game I like for a good price I'll buy a controller too.
Just thought I'd share that as I know you've got wii's.
The wife was chatting to a friend at work and he said you can play games from the older Nintendo Game Cube console on the wii. And that you can buy games for it on eBay for a couple of pounds.
Also now you can get wireless rumble (vibrating) controller game cube controllers for the wii. Apparently you have to use the old style controllers to get the games to work on the wii. And as I've mentioned their wireless too, previously they had been wired.
I'm watching a few cheap / used games on ebay and have one of those controllers watched too, so if I find a game I like for a good price I'll buy a controller too.
Just thought I'd share that as I know you've got wii's.
When will people stop using MS Access Version 2003 and older?
I'm trying to evaluate the life span of my MS Access Security program as it relies on MS Access versions 2003 and older. Then I can add a new feature or not.
With the introduction of MS Access 2007 everything changed and therefore my program lives as long as MS Access 2003.
So are you still older versions of MS Access? why?
Has version 2007 not been taken up by database professionals?
What advice can you give me?
by JM
With the introduction of MS Access 2007 everything changed and therefore my program lives as long as MS Access 2003.
So are you still older versions of MS Access? why?
Has version 2007 not been taken up by database professionals?
What advice can you give me?
by JM
Toy boxes / storage, ever increasing
Before Christmas we ordered a second toy box for our monkey, he had one for his Thomas trains etc. We were having the downstairs decorated and decided that the current box worked OK and a second might help keep the place tidy.
In hindsight we'd have been better waiting until after Christmas day as we have more toys that we have space for.
The box we bought was from argos, its a wooden flat pack thing.
Initially I though I might just get some bigger bits of woods and re-engineer the box to make it bigger.
I think sectioning it might help too, as every time he wants to play wit his Thomas stuff he ends up taking everything out to find the piece of track he wanted.
His birthday is in February and I know we may end up in a similar state again.
What do you guys do about toy storage?
His second box is mostly cars all of which he loves.
In hindsight we'd have been better waiting until after Christmas day as we have more toys that we have space for.
The box we bought was from argos, its a wooden flat pack thing.
Initially I though I might just get some bigger bits of woods and re-engineer the box to make it bigger.
I think sectioning it might help too, as every time he wants to play wit his Thomas stuff he ends up taking everything out to find the piece of track he wanted.
His birthday is in February and I know we may end up in a similar state again.
What do you guys do about toy storage?
His second box is mostly cars all of which he loves.
Wednesday 7 January 2009
SEO Tweaks for this Blog
In the last few weeks this blog has lost its PageRank. PageRank as an end in itself has little value but it is a measure of how much Google likes a webpage. A page without an assigned rank is very unlikely to appear in the SERPs. Dipsy made a post a little while back saying that it was hard to find older posts that covered topics we were currently discussing.
I wonder whether both these things - loss of PR and difficulty in finding things - can be improved by one simple tweak. The thing we haven't bothered to do on this blog is do any real linking between posts themselves. We've simply relied on tags and categories.
One of the main SEO tips for placing links between pages is to give a link good anchor text and to place the link within a paragraph of text on the same topic as the target of the link. Looking at Google Analytics, it seems that its mainly the newer posts that get the traffic. If we try to do this in the future then we might pull some of the older posts out of purgatory and get some more traffic.
I believe there is a similar posts plugin for Wordpress that can do some of this work for us automatically. Has anyone come across this plug-in?
It might be a bit tiresome with nearly 200 posts on the blog but I'll try and spend some time interlinking the older posts I've made - where appropriate - over the next few weeks.
by ML
I wonder whether both these things - loss of PR and difficulty in finding things - can be improved by one simple tweak. The thing we haven't bothered to do on this blog is do any real linking between posts themselves. We've simply relied on tags and categories.
One of the main SEO tips for placing links between pages is to give a link good anchor text and to place the link within a paragraph of text on the same topic as the target of the link. Looking at Google Analytics, it seems that its mainly the newer posts that get the traffic. If we try to do this in the future then we might pull some of the older posts out of purgatory and get some more traffic.
I believe there is a similar posts plugin for Wordpress that can do some of this work for us automatically. Has anyone come across this plug-in?
It might be a bit tiresome with nearly 200 posts on the blog but I'll try and spend some time interlinking the older posts I've made - where appropriate - over the next few weeks.
by ML
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