Or – Don’t Throw a Great Idea Under the Bus Just Because a Few Idiots Are Mis-using it

by Karen Frank

OK, I am mad! I recently heard a “Networking Guru” talk and what this person said was outrageous.

This person basically said that Squeeze Pages are bad and never to use them – and further implied that anyone who does is dishonest and trying to cheat people out of money by selling garbage products with no value.

Well, thanks very much. I am enjoying my view here under the bus.

For those of you who don’t  know what a squeeze page is, it is a one or two page website designed to capture leads.  Most of us use this to get a person’s name and email address in exchange for information, usually at no cost.  For example, many of you gave your email address in exchange for the 7 Deadly Sins of Networking.

In my humble opinion, this “guru” is confusing a squeeze page and a long form sales letter, and further insinuating they have no place in an ethical, social networking driven business.

Wrong, wrong wrong.

Ok – This deserves a better explanation.

A typical “Squeeze Page” is fairly short and offers the “Squeezee” two and only two choices – Yes or no.  Part with your email address in exchange for information – or not. The reason it’s called squeeze page is not to “squeeze” money out of people, but to “squeeze” an email address and hopefully a first name out of someone who has an interest in more information about a product of service. This is also called a lead capture page or a lead generator page.

AFTER the prospect has opted in (agreed that they want the product or service and provided and email address and first name) on the “Squeeze Page,” they will sometimes be taken to another web page or website with a  “Long Form Sales Letter” on it. As the name implies this page is quite long and is promoting something. The more expensive the item, usually the longer the letter. In the case of 7 Deadly Sins of Networking, you aren’t taken to a long form sales letter. You have probably opted in to some of the “big names” newsletters or teleclasses and been taken to a page like this.

The long form sales letter exists because it is automating the work of a sales person. It’s job is to provide the prospect with all of the information they need to make a yes or no buying decision. That’s why the are so long. If they fail to adequately describe the benefits of having the product or service and build trust, the sale is lost.

The next time you see a long form sales letter, you’ll notice alot of colors bolding and headlines. This isn’t to shout at people, it’s because some people scan only headlines to make a decision and some read every single word.  You will notice that the headlines make sense all by themselves and they integrate with the rest of the copy too.

A great deal of market research has gone into those letters, and usually they are being market tested, meaning sometimes if you go back to that page, the letter will look slightly different.  This is called “split testing.” The marketing person is testing to see which letter gets the highest response rate. They may be using different colors, different testimonials or different copy.

Writing a great long form sales letter (as you might imagine) is an art and not just anyone is capable of doing a good job. That’s why copywriters are hired at outrageous prices to create compelling copy that sells.

I submit that, just like going to a real store, if you don’t know like and trust the sales person (the sales letter) the product, and completely buy into the value of what you’re about to invest, only spend as much as you are willing to lose.

So here’s the deal (and why I am still steaming as I write this)  It’s not the long form sales letter that is the problem, nor is it the squeeze page – it’s the person who uses them to sell junk instead of something of real value.

Many of the people in the audience of the conference I attended use squeeze pages and long form sales letter ethically. They are promoting fantastic products and services that will change the lives of their potential clients.  I am looking forward to checking out ALL of their websites to see what I need to buy next – so look for me on your list! You do have a list – ? ! ?

When you take away the squeeze page and the long form sales letter you take away an important tool that works.  The big names wouldn’t use them if they didn’t work. And remember – it’s always a good idea to  model successful people who have the results you want to have.

So, I steam as I think of that presentation because by making the blanket statement that these things are bad, or used unethically, the audience was basically thrown “under the bus.”

We are not evil if we use those tools and the tools are not evil.  I for one, get incredibly positive comments about the 7 Deadly Sins of Networking.  They are grateful that I choose to share some of my best information at no cost to help them make more money.

I know I am doing good in the world and that my squeeze page is helping me do that.  So, until my squeeze page and long form sales letters stop working, I’ll continue to use them – proudly and profitably.

Networking Expert, Karen Frank publishes Networking News, a semi-monthly newsletter devoted to helping you avoid marketing disasters and networking faux pas.  Get the home study course “The Seven Deadly Sins of Networking and How to Avoid them” Free when you sign up for Networking News at www.7deadlysinsofnetworking.com

What kind of twitter person are you?  Which part of the grid are you in?

My feeling is that sucessful twitterers are in more than one grid.

Twitter

Twitter Grid	Private Lifecasting	Public Mindcasting
Insightful
Insipid

My colleague Karen Frank has re-branded her business to 3E (Elegant, Easy & Effective) Communications with some grand opening deals.

From her announcement:

“So (may I have a drum roll please) announcing 3 E communications! Elegant, Easy, Effective business communications for the entrepreneur.

And while the new look and logo etc. is still in development, my new website is up www.3ecommunications.net and my new email works karen@3ecommunications.net .

And what would a grand opening be without a grand opening sale?”

Karen can help with your business communication.  Check it out now for some grand opening deals.

Who is Dave Winer?  This is from Dave’s blog.

Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

I do not know whether he bumped up the age yet or not, but it is his birthday.

I read Dave’s blog.  I follow him on Twitter.  I listen to his podcasts. I am smarter for doing so.

Sometimes when I talk to people I share Dave’s ideas.  Usually I give him credit.   Sometimes I don’t.   Thanks Dave.

I met Dave Winer once.  Shook his hand.  Said thanks for all his contributions to the Internet.  And I am pleased to add my good wishes today on his birthday.

I have used three different online backup systems.  Here is a quick analysis of some features – and why I am moving to Memopal.  This is not a careful evaluation, just my notes as I move forward.

Online Backups

Feature	Carbonite	Mozy	Memopal
Support External Drive	No	Yes	Yes
Backup as soon as saved	Yes	No	Yes
Keep multiple versions	No	No	Yes
Keep backup when local is deleted	No	No	Yes
Unlimited Storage	Yes	Yes	150GB
Yearly Price	$54.95	$59.40	$49.00
Use to Share Files			Yes

Robin McCain and I gave a presentation on Business Continuity, Security and Backups to PASS (Professional Association of Support Services) on Saturday morning April 11, 2009.

Outline:

• What is Business Continuity.
• Business Continuity for Computers and Networks.
• Backups are the essential tool for Business Continuity.
• Computer Security.

Please leave any questions or comments here.

Robin McCain and I gave a presentation on Open Source Software to PASS (Professional Association of Support Services) last Saturday morning. 

Outline:

• What is Open Source Software?
• What is not Open Source software?
• Why use Open Source software?
• Are there Obstacles to using Open Source Software?
• Where can one find Open Source Software and Resources?
• What are some Open Source Software Products?

Please leave any questions or comments here.

The stories have already started about President Obama that the honeymoon is over.

• Nominated cabinet members have tax problems.
• Buy America will start an international trade war.
• Afghanistan will be the new Vietnam, or the new Iraq.

Democracy is a messy process, and this is not the end but the start of the Obama presidency.  When the going gets tough, the tough will need to get going.

I use Mozy for my offline backups and I am very pleased with the service.  I moved to Mozy because my previous service did not support external hard drives.

I did run into a situation with my Mozy backups that should have been immediately obvious, but I did not catch it for a while.

The first backup you do with an offline service takes a good while.  I backup about 30G which is certainly not an exorbitant amount, and the first backup took 3 – 4 days elapsed time with the computer not running 24/7.

Each day the backups run anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour.  However, ever now and again the backups seemed to start over, and take  the entire 3 – 4 days again.  It happened again this week so I finally stopped to figure it out.

Every now and again I would start the computer without the external hard drive – which I do from time to time if all that I am going to do is use the Internet.  The problem happened when the automatic backups started during the time the external hard drive was off.  Mozy did the little bit of backups from drive C: and then assumed 29G was deleted, and deleted it from my backups.

The next backup had to start over.  Once I figured it out, it was easy enough to control, but it took me a couple minutes of thinking to figure out what was happening.

A quick email to Mozy support (which is very responsive) confirmed my diagnosis.

There was a turning point in the development of software when it was finally discovered that it took more time and money to maintain a system than to develop it.  The emphasis shifted to creating systems that were easy to maintain.

To make a system easier to maintain the first goal was to create a system with fewer bugs.

To create the system with fewer bugs, there were a number of processes that were used.  One of the most interesting and controversial was the “code walk through”.  Programmers after they created a piece of code, usually a subroutine, sat with their peers for a review of the code.

The goal was to reduce bugs and reduce overall maintenance.  Programmers are not known for their social tact, and it was difficult at first to teach that when you reviewed code, you had to do it with some tact.

Some programming sites made the rule that before you pointed out any errors, you had to say something positive.  There was a famous story that one programmer who after reviewing the code of another programmer struggled to find something postive to say, until he finally blurted out “thank you for writing so clearly so I can see all the errors”.

To deal with the issues of complexity and flexibility in software development, programmers and software developers have tried various techniques.

One technique is to try and make the software as flexible as possible.  It is hard to anticipate each and every requirement for the system, so the system is made as flexible as possible.

There are several methodologies.

• One is make the system is “data driven”.  There is a database or data source that determines the behavior of the system.  To change the system, the data is changed.  We see examples of this when we provide information to a system like Header, Title, etc. that are then used throughout the system.
• The other is to make the system code as easy to maintain as possible.  This has led to various techniques such as
  • Structured Programming
  • Object Programming
  • Reusable Code
  • Modular Programming

All these approaches are designed to make changing the system easier and quicker.

Picture this:

A person wants to buy a car, so they go to a dealer that provides a way to order a car to specifications.

The person makes selections from a number of options

• Car model
• Car color
• Specific Tires
• Interior options
• Sound system options
• and many others

And gets a car delivered  to the specifications.  The person looks at the car and is pleased that it looks like everything is to specifications.

The person gets in the car and says

• The steering wheel is too low.  Instructions are given to adjust the steering wheel.
• The seat is too close.  Instructions are given to move the seat up and back.
• The sound is too loud.  Instructions are given to adjust the sound system.

And then the person says

• The roof is too low.  Please raise it up a couple of inches.
• It is at this point that things fall apart.
• Perhaps instructions are given to lower the seat to no avail.
• Perhaps explanations are offered as to why roofs are not flexible.

The issue of course, is that certain assumptions are made about cars that are general knowledge.

• We know we can add a steering wheel cover with little impact.
• We know we can usually add a CD player with little impact.
• We also know that if we want to ignition moved to the other side of the steering wheel because we are left handed, that is probably a major alteration.
• We know that the roof of the car cannot be raised or lowered.

The same is not true for software.

When someone comes to a software developer, there is not a clear understanding of what features are easily modified or added, and which ones are not.

• Those of us who have developed software know very well the experience of asking many questions about what the system requirements are, developing a sytem to those requirements, and then being asked why the system does not do a certain functionality that was never discussed.
• If we are lucky, the functionality is as easy as adjusting the seats.
• If we are not lucky, we have to argue why it is so hard to raise the roof a couple of inches.

I am spending more time twittering than blogging these days.

• On Twitter, the post size is 140 characters, so it is conducive to posting a quick thought.
• Even though it is irregular, the Twitter responses are usually quicker than blog post comments.
• Blogs are certainly conversations, but they are more deliberate.  Twitter is like chatting at a party where you drift in and out of conversations.
• I use TweetDeck to access Twitter.
• TweetDeck allows you to establish subsets of all the people that you follow.  I have subsets for friends and family and a subset I call Uptweet (upbeat) for people that post positive and joyous posts.  It provides lots of little inspirational thoughts during the day.

Installed.

Some features:

* Automatically optimizes your **titles** for search engines
* Generates **META tags automatically**
* Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs
* For Wordpress 2.3 you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
* You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
* You can fine-tune everything
* Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.

I upgraded WordPress to 2.7 today.

I use the automatic upgrade plugin which certainly makes the process simpler.

I like the new dashboard so far, and everything looks good.

It is quite a study in contrasts to watch President Bush and President Elect Obama.

President Bush does not look harried.

• He is enjoying himself.
• He is getting 6 security briefings a week.

President Elect Obama is looking very busy.

• He is getting 7 security briefings a week.

Doonesbury had a great cartoon on why Bush was relaxing while president.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20081207

I just hope President Elect Obama keeps his perspective, continues to play basketball, and saves the country.

I often help clients set up web hosting accounts.  I agree with the philosophy that you should have three different vendors for each of the following.

• Domain Registration
• Web Host
• Web Master

I find all too often, having one vendor for all means one point of failure if a company goes out of business.

Web hosting companies often are most concerned about the typical web hosting stuff:

• Size of storage and transfer
• Availability of options like PHP and MySQL
• Pricing

But I find that the thing clients are most concerned about is email.  Email is essential to most companies, and it is the email issues that are paramount.

• What sort of Spam Filter does the web host provide? How effective is it?  Where is the spam email stored?
• What web mail services are available, and how easy are they to access.
• How easy is it to set up Outlook or Outlook express for an email account.

In many cases, email is a part of the myriad choices in the control panel, there are multiple spam filters available, and multiple web mail services.

I would encourage web hosts to have a special email button that is designed for clients with just a few options with suggested defaults for spam filters and web mail services.  It might be the only time that the client accesses the control panel.

An “Ask Me” blog can create content, generate more traffic, and help build business.

“Ask Me” blogs are based on Question and Answer.

• Questions are received in an email.
• The Question and the Answer comprise a blog post
• Blog post comments can generate new questions.
• Typical plugins are site maps or search to find topics of interest.

Google Local is a service to help people find local businesses.  I recommend everyone go to Google Local – maps. google.com and search for their own business.

• Search by your business name
• Search by your business function

Then try and find your business in the neighboring towns or cities if they are close.  Are you satisfied with the results? If not,

Find Add or edit your business and follow the directions to add your business.  Some suggestions.

• Add a picture of your logo to make your business stand out in the results
• If there are nearby cities, add them to your website so you are found in neighboring cities
• Consider adding the county to your website if you have the kind of business people search for my county.

I am a member of the East Bay Business Leaders network group.  It has some of the traditional goals of a networking group – to get referrals and build your business.

The group is more informal than most groups.  The meetings are relaxed and fluid.

The group focuses on building relationships.  We are encouraged to meet one-on-one with each of the other members of the group.  The process builds richer relationships than most networking groups.

The group is committed to helping the community.  We use all the membership fees to provide scholarships to high school seniors in the area.

I like the group, and I am committed to growing the group.

I am so pleased that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States, but I do not envy him the job.

The headline of The Onion was Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job and unfortunately I think there is some truth to that.  It is going to be very difficult.

I believe Barack Obama is going to have to say many times that this is a long road, and things will not be fixed overnight.

The Republicans are not lining up to support President Elect Obama, but are meeting to decide how to get power back.  It will be difficult.

After 21 months of strenuous campaigning, Barack Obama got up this morning to go to work getting ready to be President.

I wish him well.  For all of us.

Today my daughter was able to vote in a Presidential Election for the first time.  She was excited, she stayed up all night, and she wanted to vote first thing in the morning.

I set my alarm and got up early so we could go and vote together.  We walked to the polling place.  There were no lines. The day was beautiful.

We both had our sample ballots, and we both voted.  Her enthusiasm was infectious.

We went out to breakfast together and talked about democracy and politics.  It was a magical time.

She had been very active.

• Writing online about the candidates, issues and propositions.
• Providing information online on how to protect against voter issues.
• Providing information in forums on the neutral sites to research issues.

She is an ardent Senator Obama supporter.

Tonight we will watch the returns together and celebrate if Barack Obama is elected President.

I did not realize my Adsense was showing an ad that I do not support.
I have stopped the ad, but just to be sure, here is my position.

California

Vote NO on Proposition 8

Equal Rights for All

I mentioned the other day that I do not like to buy software.  The assumption is always that I find software illegally, but there are many ways to find free software.  This is a review of some ways I find free software.

Open Source Software.

Software that is maintained by a community of developers that is free to use.  The foundation LAMP software of the Internet – Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP is open source and free.  Other products I use for web based systems are all free.  Two examples:

• Phorm for form processing
• Audio Player for Audio

There are open source substitutes for Microsoft Office, Photoshop and Quickbooks and other expensive software products.  See List of Open Source Software.

Freeware

Freeware is software that has no cost.  If differs from open source in that it is generally created and maintained by an individual or company. I use the CNET service download.com to find freeware.  Download.com finds all software, but freeware can be filtered out.

Give Away of the Day

This is a service that offers a free download everyday. Many times it is a software product.  Today the software was CaptureIt.  CaptureIt is a powerful, flexible and easy-to-use screen capture software. It normally sells for 29.95.  Unfortunately, each product is available for only 24 hours.  I have been able to collect a nice set of utilities by subscribing to this service and downloading what I want when it is available.

When I discuss RSS and the fact that they can be used to create a virtual newspaper, one reaction I get is that people are used to newspapers.  They read them over coffee.  They take them to the bathroom.  They use them for their pets.

Hewlett-Packard has created Tabbloid, which takes RSS feeds and turns them into a PDF in newspaper format.  The PDF is emailed to you every day at a time you select.  One supposedly could print out the PDF and have a custom printed newspaper.

I am comfortable reading my RSS feeds online, but it is an interesting idea.

Presentation to the East Bay Business Leaders on how to build your Internet Presence.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Outline:

Content:

• Create Branded Content
  • Register Domains for your business name
  • Consider Blogging
  • Manage your RSS feeds
  • Add Audio, Podcasts, and Audio Blogging
  • Add Video, Vlogs (Video Blogs), etc.
  • Consider a Content Management System
  • Add an internal system to keep track of everything.
• Load your Content to other sites 
  • Load Video out to Video Sites using YouMogul or Traffic Geyser
  • Load Text to an Article Management site or Squido
  • Load your photos to Flickr
  • Load Presentations out to slideshare.net
  • Load Data to swivel.com

Social Systems:

• Social Content       : YouTube, Flickr
• Social Networking : MySpace, FaceBook, BeBo, LinkedIn, Friendsters, Okut
• Social Bookmarks  : del.icio.us,
• Social News           : Digg, Newsvine, Netscape
• Social Reference:    Wikipedia, Yahoo Questions

Footprints:

• Comments
• Forums
• Twitter
• Directories
• Sort Engines
• Mahalo
• Personal Information
• Google Local Search
• Reputation management with Google Alerts

Building your Internet Presence means far more than having a website and blog.  There are so many ways to build an Internet Presence, that the idea is to pick the ones that are right for you and ignore the rest.

Do not go and get a Facebook account, a MySpace account, a LinkedIn account, join multiple forums, and try and use Twitter, Ponce and Jaiku.  It is too much.

• Create a branded presence – with a webpage or blog.
• When you create content, load it out to the content sites.
• Join one Social Networking site like LinkedIn and pay some attention.
• Manage your reputation.

Dear Governor Sarah Palin,

I think you got a raw deal from the campaign of Senator John McCain.  I think you were over coached, and not allowed to be yourself.  That is unfortunate.

It appears now you are looking forward to 2012.  However, there are some things that I am very concerned about.

I am sure you have found the response to your nomination gratifying, but please consider.

• You are talking to the Republican base, which is not a majority of Americans.  When you run again, you should consider changing your message to include more of the United States of American.
• You say that Senator Obama is the most liberal Senator in the United States Senate as if that was a problem.  I am supporting Senator Obama because he is liberal.  To win, you will need to get votes from liberals, conservatives, and moderates.  Please see Reagan democrats.
• You talk about being in the pro-American parts of the country.  You cannot divide the country and win.  You need the support of the entire country.
• You allow those at your rallies to defame an honorable Senator of the United States of America.  You must unite to win, not divide.

I am a liberal, and will probably never support you, but I am also an American and wish to see our country united, not divided.

I gave a presentation this morning at the East Bay Business Leaders on Content Management Systems.  It is the fourth of a series of presentations on how to build business by using the Internet.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Websites are built by webmasters.  Webmasters are the intermediaries that create and maintain websites.

Content Management Systems reduce the need for Webmasters.  They are systems that allow direct updates to the website.

Content can include text, images, photos, audio files, video files, electronic documents and web content. 

Content Management Systems empower the user, they cut out the middle man.

Understand, that webmasters can still be used, but it empowers both the website owner and the webmaster to make changes quickly.

Some content management systems are Drupal, Joomla, Elxis, XOOPS, Xaraya, Mambo, and Zikula.

It used to be that when something was broadcast like a tv or radio show, you watched or listened when it was broadcast.

When I was a boy, we lined up our chairs in front of the radio to listen to “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar”, “The Long Ranger”, “The Shadow” and others. You had to listen when they were broadcast.

Now with TiVo, On Demand, Recordings, and the Internet, we can listen to most broadcast shows at any time.  This is called time shifting.  Time shifting typically refers to TV shows, but it also refers to Internet audio like podcasting.

We can now schedule our listening and viewing in the same way we schedule our reading – at our convenience.

On the other hand, with things being time shifted, most every show is available at all times, giving us even more listening and viewing choices.

One of the trends of the Internet is disintermediation – getting rid of the middle man.

• Blogs are writers without editors or publishers.
• RSS feeds are distributed without syndication companies.
• Podcasts are like radio shows without radio stations and transmitters.

You can write, record, and distribute to a world wide audience without intermediaries.

When I work with clients, I create a task database to keep track of tasks and status.  Both the client and I can add and update tasks, and it provides constant visibility.

I create PHP files to drop, define, load, and list the data base files.  I use that technique so that I easily drop, define and rebuild the data base files and reuse the code.

But I had a problem.  The database kept being deleted.  It was very frustrating.  I thought perhaps someone had hacked into the code and was running the database routines to drop and define the database files.

I started to backup the database with any database change, and enhanced both the database backup and restore routines.

Then I put a silent routine into each database PHP routine that sent a silent email with all the information about who was running the routines.

In a few days, I started to get emails showing the database routines were being run and the database files were being dropped.  But when I did a IP reverse lookup I was surprised to find that the routines were being run by the Yahoo Crawl Robot.

I did have a robots.txt file disallowing the folder in question, but that was apparently not working.

I had to add a user id and password.

I did a presentation today on Podcasting for the East Bay Business Leaders networking group.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Today is Blog Action Day.  The topic is Poverty.

I try to relate to poverty.  I remember trivial things in my life.

• Selling books at the used book store to get money for food, but I drove to the book store.
• Sleeping in my car at a rest stop for 3 nights, but only because I was waiting on my new apartment to be available, and I did not want to spend the money.
• Hitchhiking with little money and accepting change from a generous person, but I used the change to buy cigarettes.
• I lived below the supposed poverty line as defined by the government when I was in the service, but we had lots of benefits.

I have never known poverty in my life.  I always had the capability to earn money.  I had friends with money.  My family always welcomed me.  I have been “short”.  I have had “cash flow problems”.  I have never known poverty.

But especially in this nation of abundance, people should not have to live without the necessities of life.

It seems in this country we are Socialist when it comes to big business, Capitalist when it comes to poor people.  I think we should rescue the poor and not wall street.

I add my blog today to the all the blogs that want an end to poverty.

Podcasts

• The word podcast is a combination of broadcast and IPOD.  It is an audio broadcast designed to allow it to go directly to an MP3 player like an IPOD.
• Podcasts are a technology that sprang out of Blogs and RSS.  Podcasts are technically an RSS 2.0 enclosure.  The new technology was getting the audio from the RSS feed to the IPOD using software known as Podcatchers.
• Apple has problem with the term Podcast, so many are using terms like Webcast.
• There is an informal convention that Podcasts should be shorter than 40 minutes.
• Most podcasts are listened to on computers.
• Podcasts are regular radio shows without the need for a radio station.

What sorts of businesses are recession proof?  This is a random list of trends that might happen during a recession or depression.  There are some business ideas buried in there somewhere.

Get it Free or Buy it Used or Buy it Cheap

• FreeCycle.com
• Pawn shops, Thrift stores, Secondhand retail
• Classified including online like Craigslist or eBay
• Used Cars
• Walmart, Target, K-mart
• Fast Foods

Do It Yourself and Repair versus Buy

• Auto parts companies.
• Home Depot and Do It Yourself
• Appliance Repair, Automobile repair

Reduce Transportation Costs

• Bicycles
• Mass transit
• Online meetings (as opposed to travel) On24, Webex, Ustream, Chat Tools

Entertain yourself at home

• TV
• Rent a movie versus Go to a movie with Netflix and BlockBuster
• Video Games
• Comfort Foods

Escape

• Alcohol
• Chocolate
• Internet
• Role Play Games

Deal with the Stress

• Meditation
• Religion

Handle the tragedies

• Vehicle repossession, bankruptcy lawyers, fix repossessed houses

The Presidential Campaign is nasty and getting worse.  It makes me grieve for the United States of America.

The only good news that I can find is that there are so many United States citizens that are passionate about politics.

I have to go on a personal news blackout.  It is getting me depressed.

Senator John McCain started out with the best intentions to run a positive campaign.  The seduction of power and winning is apparently too much temptation.

Senator John McCain needs to be concerned that he leaves the campaign with any honor at all.

This morning at the East Bay Business Leaders meeting I talked about RSS.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Some thoughts:

• The Presidential Campaign is getting far more attention than the Congressional campaigns.  The Congressional campaigns could be more important.
• Those people I know that are not involved in the campaign are much happier at this point in time than those are very involved.
• Sometimes it appears that Senator Barack Obama is the calmest person in the campaign.
• I fear for the country during the next month.  The negativity will bring many down, and create strong rage in others.
• I just want it to be over.

RSS is one of those great technologies that are not easy to explain.

Many people use RSS in iGoogle or MyYahoo and do not know that they are using RSS.

Many people blog and create RSS feeds but they do not know they are creating an RSS feed.

• RSS feeds are part of your Internet presence and need to be managed
• RSS feeds can be ignored, but it should be a conscious decision.

As people start to understand RSS, they become prosumers, which is a combination of producer and consumer.

• They consume RSS feeds in a reader or product
• They produce RSS feeds in their blogs, social media account, or Twitter account.

I belong to a networking group called East Bay Business Leaders.  This month I am doing an educational series on some tech topics.  Today was blogging.

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I read more about politics than I discuss politics.  I read blogs and comments, so I read individual voices, but I do not discuss much.  When I am with people, we are more likely to be discussing business.

Today I was in a conversation that turned to politics.  Even though we were all in essential agreement, the conversation quickly turned emotional, and I heard profanities from this group for the first time.

It was actually interesting to see the heat that it generated.  I have been reading George Lakoff, so I was mentally applying what I have been learning to the conversation.

All in all, I enjoyed it.

A most important debate: Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain.

• Which one looked the other one in the eye?  Which one did not?
• Which one swore quietly while the other was talking?
• Which one called the other by first name? Which one addressed the other as Senator?
• Which one wore the flag lapel pin?
• Which one wore the inappropriate tie?
• Which one had the authentic smile? Which one had the forced smile?

Got to know the important stuff.

The RSS Tutorial:

RSS can deliver current information from the Internet in our areas of expertise or interest.

RSS comes close to fulfilling the promise of a custom newspaper or magazine that is delivered to our desktops.

My RSS reader delivers to my desktop a custom mix of articles on news, technology, the Law of Attraction, personal growth, web 2.0, website development, information technology… and of course, RSS.

I continually refine this daily flow of information, dropping those feeds that get stale, and picking up new feeds for current events like the Presidential Election.

Some RSS feeds are updated hourly (Associated Press and BBC news), some RSS feeds are updated daily, and others are updated weekly or irregularly.  RSS reduces my web surfing time and gives me more reading time.

State of the Blogosphere / 2008 results.

The Blogosphere is the universe of all blogs.

• 133 million blog records indexed by Technorati
• 7.4 milion blog posts in the last 120 days
• 1.5 million blog posts in the last 7 days
• 900,000 blog posts in 24 hours

Google Maps is used by many to find businesses.

“Millions of people search Google Maps every day. A free listing on Google Maps makes it easy for them to find you.
Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. It’s easy, free, and you don’t need a website of your own.”
 

Every business should take advantage of this free service to make sure people have the best information when search on Google Maps. You do not even need your own website.

Blogs and blog posts are organized serially by date, latest one first.  So how are blog posts organized.

Most blog services allow blog posts to be tagged or categorized.

Tagging is a way of organizing blog posts into topics.

There are two basic ways to organized webpages: Heirarchies and Tagging

Heirarchies are top down organizations of greater and greater detail.  Think of the folder or directory structures of most computers.

Tagging is more free form.  Each blog post can be assigned tags. 

• A Blog post might be about the IRS, taxes, and personal finance.  Each one could be a tag.
• Another post might be about personal finance and savings.
• Blog Posts can be retrieved by tag. 
  • The personal finance tag would retrieve both posts.
  • The taxes tag would retrieve only the first post.

Blogging and RSS grew up together.

Blogs and RSS are a natural fit, so it is understandable that there is compatibility between Blogs and RSS.

• Blogs are created an entry at a time; RSS feeds are created an item at a time.
• Each blog entry becomes an RSS feed item showing “what’s new”.
• Most blog services automatically create RSS feeds.

Instead of checking for blog posts, RSS feeds provide automatic blog surfing.

RSS feeds can be full or partial text.  People feel strongly both ways.

MicroBlogging is a new type of blogging.  Users can write brief text messages up to 140 characters and publish them.  They are read using the microblogging service.  The services can be accessed using text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3, or through the web. 

Twitter is the most popular service.  Users can sign on to twitter, leave a short message called a tweet, and read messages from other Tweeters. Tweets can be read using RSS.

Twitter recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in August of 2008, and increase of 422% over the same time last year.

Twitter is open, so there are a number of support products like TweetDesk, TwitterBar, and TwitterBerry.

Many of the articles that review Twitter

• Cannot figure out why it is so popular – until they try it.
• Find it addictive and have to take Twitter breaks.
• Are trying to figure out a way to use Twitter to market.

70 million blogs generate business opportunties.

• Blog Directories list blogs by categories to help people find blogs in their area of interest.
• Blog Templates define the look of blogs.  Change the template: change the look.  Some templates are free.  Some templates are not.
• Technorati is the leading source of information about blogs and blogging.
• WordPress and other blogging services create the opportunity for individuals and companies to create addons.  Addons add functionality to the basic packages.
  • Addons can help add video, audio, and photos.
  • Addons can enhance tagging or blog rolls.
  • Addons can enhance comments or linkbacks.
• People write books about blogs and blogging.  People blog about blogging.
• People sell advertising on blogs.  Advertising companies create ad systems for blogs.
• Companies create widgets and gadgets for blogs.

Blog as often as you like, there is no set time for blog posts.  As a general rule, posting more attracts more readers however.

Blogs can be successful with just a few readers.

• Sometimes only close friends and family read a blog, but that is the intended audience.
• Sometimes a blog is for members of a club or organizations.
• Sometimes a blog is just for personal expression, and no readers are required.

It is customary to leave blog posts unchanged.  If there is a correction to be made, then a new blog post is created to make the correction.

Bloggers are becoming mainstream.  Bloggers attend the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and report on their blogs.  Bloggers do not have editors, so sometimes their posts have radical or unusual opinions.

A blog is a journal, log, or diary that is online on the web.  Web + log = Blog.

It is characterized by sequential entries in descending sequence by date.

Blogs can be written by one person.  They can be written by teams of people. 

There are many types of blogs.

• Personal Blogs are closer to diaries and are often very personal.
• Photoblogs are blogs with photographs.
• Linkblogs contain links to other online articles and blog posts.
• Vlogs are Video Blogs
• Blogs with audio are called Audio blogs or Podcasts.

Blogs can be organized by topic. 

• Political Blogs
• Technical Blogs
• Sports Blogs

There are many blogging services, many of them free.

Blogger from Google is free, easy, and getting better.  It suffered for a while because it was used to create many spam blogs called splogs.   After Google acquired Blogger, it was stagnant for a while, but now there are regular enhancements.

WordPress is another free service.  Wordpress was written so that there are lots of opportunity to create addon products, and there are many.  It makes WordPress popular and easy to customize. Wordpress has features that put it in the category of a content management system.

TypePad from SixApart is the largest paid blogging service.  It is considered to be a very solid blogging platform for professionals.

MSN spaces is the new blogging service from Microsoft.

Many of the Social Networking systems also include blog functionality.

• Vox from Six Apart
• MySpace
• Yahoo 360
• AOL Journals

Blogging is often considered a conversation.  The conversation includes the following:

1. Blog posts and comments.
   Blogs as a default have comments.  Blog readers can post comments about each post.  Blog comments can quickly degenerate into advertising, profanity, and viciousness, so blogging commenting is generally moderated.
2. Linkbacks.
   Linkbacks are a way for the original blogger to be notified when another blogger links to one of their blog posts.  Blogging software supports linkbacks in a number of ways.
3. Websites that gather blog posts on related topics.
   Techmeme is just one of many sites that gather up blog posts and other websites into topics, bringing blogs posts on the same topic together.

Technorati publishes regular reports on the Status of the Blogosphere.

I reviewed the numbers getting ready for a presentation:

Blogs:

• 70 million weblogs.
• 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day.
• 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.

Postings:

• 1.5 million postings per day.
• 17 posts per second.

Languages:

• 37% Japanese
• 36% Enlish
•   8% Chinese
•   3% Italian

This morning I spoke to the East Bay Business Leaders introducing myself and Wizard Creek Consulting.

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The more I use my Treo 700P, the more I like it.

I have used Palms for years, so I like the Palm OS, but I also like the way the Treo works.

Each month I add a new feature or two.  This month was a Bluetooth headset.  I got a very basic and inexpensive headset, but it works just fine.  And it satisfies the new handsfree California law.

I also got a Secure Digital Card.  It is just a 2G, but it enables me to start doing a few other functions.

I like the idea of adding something new every month, it keeps it fresh.

This is my suggestion on what Senator Barack Obama should do about Sarah Palin. Damn her with faint praise.

Sarah is one of the bright young faces of the Republican party … BUT

• John McCain got her on a National ticket ahead of her time
• The campaign will help season her for when the time is right.

Sarah got off a supposedly good zinger about community service in her speech … BUT

• Then John McCain undermined her and called for community service.
• Jesus did community service, Pontius Pilate was the Governor
• All those that do Community Service were unfortunately offended.

Sarah supported the Bridge to Nowhere and then changed her position … BUT

• That is just the process young politicians go through to learn
• At the time, earmarks were OK with Republicans.

Sarah wants to teach Adam and Eve in science class … BUT

• She probably knows better but had to satisfy the the Religious Right
• She only meant for that to be done in Alaska and Alaska does not have that many people

Sarah does not have that much foreign policy experience … BUT

• She does live close to Siberia and that should count for something
• She wanted to make a separate country of Alaska: then the USA would have been a foreign country

The news reporters were joyful today.  The polls show the presidential campaign to be very close.

One news reporter crowed “we have a horse race”.  

We all know that if a sports game is one sided, the viewers turn it off and those in attendance leave early. If the campaign is not close, we tune out the news reporters.

So now we have a contest, and I just hope it not only inspires the new reporters, but inspires the electorate.

Google Chome has opened up the browser conversation again.

People I am talking to are chatting about IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome.  The new entry into the browser world has caused us all to reassess what we really want in a browser.

I have talked to several who have taken a hard look at their FireFox addons to see which ones are really desired and not just “nice to have”.  Many of us now have a hard list of what would have to be in Chome to switch.

This is my list of FireFox addons that I will not give up.

• All-in-One Gestures
• Firebug
• FireFTP
• Google Toolbar for FireFox
• Pronouce
• Web Developer

Tonight was John McCain’s speech at the Republican Covention. 

He was brutal in his assessment of the Republican party and its record in Washington, and he certainly tried to separate himself from the current Republican administration.

But:

• He used the old George W. Bush line about “education being the current civil rights”.
• He outlined a very typical Republican platform. 

But Governor Palin got some nice applause.

Google Chrome is causing system problems.  When I try and view Flash Videos, it takes 100% of the CPU, and then does not really show the flash video.

Screen captures show the results of trying to watch a flash video using Google Chrome. Because all the CPU was being used, I could not stop the video and had to cancel Google Chrome.

Governor Sarah Palin was picked by John McCain to be his running mate.  It is the first time that the Republicans have picked a woman to run for the Vice President of the United States.

There have been a series of stores about Governor Palin after she was nominated, so the question is how she was vetted.  How she was investigated and picked.

The word vetted comes from the word vet.  According to Wikipedia:

To vet was originally a horse-racing term, referring to the requirement that a horse be checked for health and soundness by a veterinarian before being allowed to race. Thus, it has taken the general meaning “to check.”

No matter how much or little research is done by the politicians, the media (including bloggers) seems to uncover new information.

The conservative right was pushing Senator McCain to pick Governor Palin, so I wonder why the press did not investigate her earlier.

If Governor Palin was a potential NFL draft pick, everything would have been known about her.

Google Chrome is the new Google browser.

http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/ is the comic book that introduces the new Google browser. 

It might be the most important technical comic book ever published.

For me, they should turn it into a video and put it on YouTube.  In fact, I would guess that someone will do that shortly.

Tomorrow, Google Chrome will be available.  Any bet on whether there are Google server problems tomorrow?

And for those of us who work with Browser incompatibilities every day, I wish Google would address basic HTML and CSS issues also.

Firefox got so bad I switched to Internet Explorer, and I thought I would never to that.  I cannot switch to Opera, because many of the addons I like to use, like Google toolbar, do not run with Opera.

Firefox runs well enough to use FireFTP and FireBug which I now find essential, but Internet Explorer (gasp!) is now my default browser.

It is probably some combination of add-ons that I have put on Firefox, or some corruption, but Firefox is no longer stable.

Bring on Google Chrome!

I am having lots of problems with FireFox.

• It is not shutting down properly most of the time
• Consequently, it is not starting up all of the time.  Sometimes I have to go into task manager and kill the process before it can start.
• Blog This works in Internet Explorer, but not in Firefox.
• FireFox goes into a loop and uses all the CPU resources.

First I will uninstall and install FireFox.

Already I am starting to use IE and Opera more.

I question the value of doing extended software evaluations. I recommend that people find a product that has the basic functionality they need, and instead of evaluating multiple products, spend the time learning how to use the product effectively.

There are several reasons for this:

• Software products change so rapidly, that extended evaluations are difficult because things are always changing.
• There is usually a price point that is the major factor.  Find the product in your price range, get it, and spend your time learning how to make it work for you.
• Software rarely matches 100% of the need.  Once the product is installed, time can be spent finding ways to satisfy the rest of the functionality needed.

I was once in a mainframe Information Technology company that needed to decide on a database system.  Mainframe database systems cost 100K or more and the usual evaluation period was 6-9 months.  The CIO called anyone with database experience into a conference room, invited them to tell of any mainframe database product, and do a quick evaluation.  We decided on a product during that meeting, ordered it the following day, and installed if with a few days.  At the end of 6-9 months, we had the first two applications running, and we all knew how to use the database product.

A very unprofessional post today.  I am tired.

Every morning at 7:30 the construction crews arrive and begin work in the area.  It has been going on for 3 weeks.

I know many get up earlier than that each morning, but I am a night owl and often work past midnight coding and designing.

I need to make some sort of adjustment.

I am tired.

I do not often just reference another article, but this article was insightful on so many levels that I wanted to point to it here.  The article points up the latest example of “conventional wisdom” in the press that has little to do with reality.

“Hillary Clinton speaks at convention. The press concocts a story

by Eric Boehlert

Within the fast-forward world of campaign journalism, it’s not considered cool to examine the recent past in order to provide context for today’s events. (We know it’s not cool because nobody does it.) Nonetheless, here’s a very brief history lesson that the political press prefers to ignore.”

I signed on to this blog today to write a blog post.  It took a long time to initialize.  When the blog dashboard came up, it said the blog had no posts.

I did the normal debug first step. I shut it down and then restarted.  Everything is fine.

I exported the blog just in case, groaned at the size of the exported file, came back and deleted all spam comments, and then exported it again.  Much better.

It seems to be fine now.  I will assume that the database did not open, or the database server was unavailable, or something else was temporarily unavailable.  I am not going to trace the problem unless it happens again.  But I am glad I have an exported file.

I think I will also go and backup the database just to be sure.

So I am blogging about blogging again.

I support Senator Barack Obama.  I say that in this blog.

Adsense picks up on Bararck Obama and presents ads about Barack Obama, some of them negative.  That creates a quandary.  Do I allow those that are trying to place negative ads advertise on this blog?

I cannot really click the ads to find out if they are reasonable, because that is click fraud.  I do not want to spend my time reading negative Senator Obama ads.  So I restrict the negative ads that I see.

It is simple to go to Adsense and register the URL of those that I would prefer not show on this blog.  It is the first time I have used that service.

I sometimes think that RoboForm is my best productivity tool.

It keeps track of userid/passwords for all the web services that I use, and not only that, allows me to automatically enter them as well.

I find myself looking through the RoboForm list to remember the name for a webpage I have not entered in months, selecting the webpage, and then being signed on and presented with the service.

A fine service done well.

Ran the WordPress automated upgrade process to install the new version of WordPress.

• It is a WordPress plugin and it does make the upgrade much smoother.
• It is a little confusing running the process responding to the messages, but it does work.

The bottom line: the plugin makes it easier.

Helping a client blog.

• Use the blog service
• Send an email
• Use Blog This!
• Use a general purpose blog client

I like to help a client with this sort of research, it is research that I can use.

John McCain speaking today said “In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.”

Senator McCain!  The United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in the 21st century, and John McCain wants to stay for 100 years.

Damn!

I am pleased that John Edwards was not nominated for a Democratic office.  It would have been just too painful.

Russia and Georgia go to war.  An earnest CNN reporter asks the Russian ambassador why Russia invaded a sovereign country.  Wonder if the reporter has heard of Afghanistan or Iraq.

President Bush criticized Moscow’s military violence in Georgia. Wonder if President Bush has heard of Afghanistan or Iraq.

The Olympics have started.  The medal totals are given by country.  China tries to make a good impression on the world.  A citizen of China kills an American man there to see a family member compete in the Olympics.

Malaysia faces another sodomy trial.  Apparently if you get close to winning an election to topple the existing rulers, you get charged with sodomy.

I think I will turn off the news for a while.

If I do not post on the blog regularly, I do not know what to write about.   There are too many things backed up and I do not know where to start.

Seems that is the way with many things.  If you exercise everyday it is a pattern and it generates energy to keep it up.  Getting started again after a period of no exercise is difficult.

It is the difference in a smooth running stream of water versus one that is jammed up or backed up with debris.  Getting the debris out the way is required to get it running smoothly again.

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to join networking groups.  These are the groups that meet regularly and help each other find referrals for new business.

Some for very organized and very large, like BNI – which claims to be the largest business networking organization in the world.  Rules are stringent, attendance is compulsory, participation is required.

Others are local, spontaneous, disorganized and fun.

I have had success finding business by going to business networking groups, but I resist going.  I have to sort that out.

I wrote an RSS tutorial.  I know a little something about RSS, but the RSS feed for this blog is broken.  I have had it on the task list for a while without giving it priority.  But it is getting embarrassing to have this RSS feed broken.

I will update to WordPress 2.6 first, then fix the RSS feed.

OK:

• Used the Automatic Upgrade plugin to upgrade WordPress to 2.6
• Upgraded the plugins to new versions where appropriate.
• Finished or deleted all the drafts

Reviewed the comments, which reminded me of the sixties:

• Sex (All the porn sites, some with dozens of links)
• Drugs (Viagra, Levitra, and others)
• But instead of Rock and Roll – Poker and Gambling.

The RSS Feed is fixed.  Easy enough.  Feedburner was pointing to the incorrect source rss xml file.  Such a simple fix for an ongoing problem.  Oh well.

Google announced that there are now over a trillion web pages, even after the duplicates are eliminated.

I have a hard enough time with numbers already.  Let’s review:

Decimal
Value	SI
10001	k	kilo-
10002	M	mega-
10003	G	giga-
10004	T	tera-
10005	P	peta-
10006	E	exa-
10007	Z	zetta-
10008	Y	yotta-

does yotta mean the same as lotta … as in lot of.

I remember when Teradata Corporation was selling a data base machine.  Seemed like more data than anyone could ever use.

I use logmein.com.  I find it to be a good service. I have no financial interest in the service, although as I write this I think I should sign up and be an affiliate.

I have a desktop and a laptop.  Many are getting away from that combination and just working with a laptop, but I still have both.

When I go out on the road, I take my laptop.  If I am working on the Internet, I just connect directly.  But sometimes I want to access a program that is only on my desktop, like Photoshop.

Then I connect to the internet, sign on to logmein.com, and then link up with the desktop.  I can use all the desktop products.

I am certainly aware that there are multiple products and services that do this, but logmein is my favorite, and for what I described, it is free.

The reason that it came to mind today is that the video card on my desktop died.  I will put a new one in soon, but in the interim, I started the desktop and the laptop, and I am accessing the desktop through the Internet.

So I am sitting here using the desktop monitor and keyboard, but running through the Internet using the laptop.  The laptop and the desktop are a few feet away, but I am sending the packets over the Internet.

Now I know of course there are other ways to connect, but this way was already set up, and so it was the most expedient to do.

It is surprisingly quick.

Keeping computers operating and running well requires regular effort, unless you have an Apple Mac of course.

I have never had a Mac, but people I know that have one tell me the Macs work without fail all of the time, and even clean their own monitor screens, but I do not know if they are exagerating.

I had some work to do on my computers this week, so the first thing you know is that they are not Macs.  Now why would I own something that requires constant effort?  Because I also work on other people’s computers, and get paid for it.  Makes no sense to become an expert on Macs.  No money in it.

This week my monitor was going out, starting to tile, flicker, and behave badly.  So I got a new monitor.  I did not buy a new one, just asked around and got a couple of monitors that other technicians were not using.

Same problem.  hmmmm … must be the video card.  So I gave the video card a little push to make sure it was seated properly, and now there is no signal at all. So today I will put in a new video card and see if that is really the problem.

I am like most technicians, and have boxes of computer parts, boards, wires, and connectors.  I will go through the box and see if I have a video card.  I do not play video games, so any video card that works is ok with me.

My desktop continually gets reworked with new parts.  I wonder if there is any thing original that came when the computer was first put together, other than the case.

Today, in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney is quoted as follows “You think when you open a bank account that the money belongs to you.  That’s not the way the bank sees it and it’s not the way the law sees it.”

I learned this lesson the hard way.  It is a long painful story, but I know now that money in a bank account is not always under my control. I argued with a bank long and hard about this point, but I lost.

The article tells the stories of various people that also learned the lesson.  They were all shocked as I was.  A most painful lesson.

I have had more client work recently.  I like to do client work for lots of different reasons.

• Clients always push me in a different direction.  They want something done differently than I have done in the past.  They want a feature that I have not used before.
• I work too much on my own.  It is good to get out and work with clients.
• Many of the clients I work with are out of town and I work with them using telephone and email.  Recent clients have been local and I have had face time.  I had to get a hair cut.

Got to go.  Client work to do.

I added the audio player plugin to WordPress today, so of course I had to add an audio. I picked out an audio I did some time ago when I was doing a daily podcast at BizIII.

A BizIII Podcast about Les Bain:

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I am pained when I watch the Presidential Campaign.  It seems as a country we move to the lowest common denominator in this process.  I am not sure what it would take to rise above the current process and make the discourse more civil.

The contest between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton was brutal, and there are hard feelings even yet.

It reminds me of the notion that we fight the hardest with those that are the closest to us.

In religion:

• In Islam, the Sunni Shiite divide seems to cause as many wars as Muslims and everyone else.
• In Christianity, and Protestants and Catholics have fought throughout history and recently in Northern Ireland.

In the animal kingdom

• Lions and others are most territorial and fight each other with gusto.
• The battles of Bighorn sheep, moose, and deer are certainly dramatic.

To outsiders, there was probably not much difference between the Hatfields and the McCoys.

And family feuds are certainly common.

So I suppose it is not that unusual.

I have this fantasy that Senator Obama and Senator McCain make a joint appearance and make some of the following statements together.

1. Senator Obama is not a Muslim, and even if he was, it should not matter.
2. Senator McCain should be judged on his policies, not his age.
3. They both believe the other to be a man of integrity, honesty, and patriotism.
4. They both believe that their spouses should not be part of the campaign.
5. They will focus on ideas, and when smear tactics come from somewhere else, they will both address it as an unfounded smear.

Would that be something? The two political nominees taking the high road, maybe even calling the media to task for getting away from the issues.

I live in the San Francisco area, East Bay.  In the summer, we get hot days and cool nights.  I understand it is because the humidity is low.  When humidity is high, it holds the heat after the sun goes down.

Yesterday during the day was in the 90’s.  Last night is was so cool I turned on the electric blanket for a while to warm up the bed.  This morning the window is open and it is cool.  I have a light jacket on while working at the desk.

The weather forecast is for the low 80’s today.

In this part of the East Bay, it is regularly hot, so there is Air Conditioning everywhere.  It is always a question of when to turn the Air Conditioning on, and when to turn it off.

And I know when I blog about the weather, it is because I am worrying about things I do not want to discuss.  I suppose it is like making conversation about the weather during ackward moments.  I hope you have pleasant weather today where ever you are.

So what did I learn while moving to a new web host.

• The HTML and PHP code was well organized on my local computer with both a local and remote backup.  It was uploaded to the new webhosting with no problem.
• The .htaccess files did not work the same on the new web hosting site, and had to be tweaked.  It was a simple change, but a significant impact.
• The most significant impact was the email accounts being down.  I should have given the email a higher priority.  But it is all working down.
• Restoring MySQL databases was smoother than I had anticipated.  I wanted to control backup and restore with PHP, but so far that has not worked.
• On the new webhosting, I moved everything to PHP 5 and MySQL 5.  That might have caused some problems.  I have one vendor PHP routine that is not working, but instead of trying to debug it, I am going to download another PHP script.
• Moving the WordPress blog took some time, because the problems were not apparent.  I finally just installed WordPress fresh, and reinstalled all of my theme and plugin changes.  That went quickly.
• The wordpress database restore worked just fine.  I lost two posts, but I remembered them and posted them again.
• Blogger blogs were very easy, I just had to republish.
• In testing everything on the new web host, I found problems that I did not know about.  I have a task list of things to fix going forward.
• Finding the right webhosting vendor is a crap shoot.  Basically, I decided to pick one with no setup and monthly fee so I could check it out and make good notes in case I had to move again, which I did.
• Bottom line was that even though there were system wide problems to start, usually one parameter fixed many problems.

I moved Webhosting provides and had to transport this WordPress blog from one Webhost server to another.  It went pretty well.  There are always wrinkles to work out, but all in all, a pretty smooth process.

The biggest problem was trying to reload the database.  The problem was too many records.  There were thousands of spam comments, once I took them out of the batch SQL file, all went well.

I did not backup over the last couple of days, so I did loose a couple of blog posts.  It is a very minor situation.

I will recreate two and the other one is better not recreated.

Opiophobia is the unreasonable fear of prescribing opiates by both the medical professions and the public.

Opiophobia is responsible for the current situation where people on pain medications suffer difficulties from medical professionals, friends, and family.

I want to know where Opiophobia got started. I am doing research which I am capturing on a blog called History of Opiophobia.

I have identied several papers and books on the history of OpioPhobia, but they are either vary expensive or behind a firewall.   I am continuing to reasearch.

There was a fire in our apartment complex.  We are fine.  It did get our attention.

Senator Obama and Senator McCain give us two different approaches to choose from.

They differ on the Iraq war, diplomacy, economics, taxes, and social issues.

I would like to add my voice to the chorus that is suggesting we look at those differences and vote according to which way we want the country to go.

We do not need to slander these men who want to lead the country. Let their positions on the issues stand or fall on their own merits.  Let the citizenry reason and decide without rancor.

The United States and Iraq are negotiating a new security agreement. Can you imagine.

Iraq insists that the agreement recognize Iraq’s sovereignty. What a concept.

If I was Mr. Maliki, which of the following would I agree to:

• The US wants contract soldiers to be able to operate outside of Iraq law.
• The US wants to be be able to arrest citizens of Iraq.
• The US wants to stay in Iraq indefinitely.
• The US wants to specify what kind of government Iraq has.

And Iraq wants their sovereignty to be recognized.

Sounds like some negotiation.

When Irag invaded Kuwait, the United States came to the rescue. We drove Iraq out of Kuwait.

Then we invaded Irag, but we are the biggest guy on the block, so there is no one to rescue Iraq.

The other day I was talking about Iraq with a colleague, and he could not understand why they did not welcome us with open arms. I suggested that if Canada did not like George Bush and invaded us, would he welcome them with open arms? He laughed and said he would learn how to make Improvised Explosive Devices if we were invaded.

But somehow it was different he said. Saddam Hussein was evil, George Bush is not. How many evil guys have we had ruling countries in this century: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hussein, Amin, Kim Jong-il, and many others.

It is a quagmire.

I am writing PHP code for a project that I am working on. There is good news and bad news.

The good news is that I really enjoy writing the code. But, I enjoy the coding so much that I keep wanting to do the code. I keep putting off more urgent and important tasks. That will end today – today is urgent and important tasks only. The code is important but not urgent.

I wake up thinking about the code and ways to improve it. Maybe it is just an excuse to stay in bed for a few more minutes working out the next routine to be coded.

It is certainly a type of system that I have written before, but as always, things change over time. So I bring some experience, but there are always new things to learn.

OK, I will set a goal for tasks to complete. If I complete all the tasks, I will take some time to code.

I am trying some new things with CSS.

I am taking all the color parameters out and putting them into one file. ../color.css. Because of the nature of CSS, I can replicate names of course, and it is last on the list.

I want to create different files for different color sets. I am not a sophisticated color person, so I use one of the many color sites to find compatible colors. I create the file and then have a “blue” set or a “orange and red” set of colors in different files. I can quickly change color sets to change the complete color scheme of a website.

There are lots of issues of course.

• Matching Adsense code
• Matching photos and logos
• Matching graphics

But overall, I like doing it. I get tired looking at the same colors, and it is a good thing to be able to switch color schemes effortlessly.

The next thing to do is to create one for this blog. I am tired of these colors.

Whatever happened to Windows XP SP3? Did I miss the memo?

I am still on SP2 – I just checked – and I do the regular Windows updates. Perhaps I need to manually choose to install SP3.

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system.

I apply all the updates, so perhaps I am at the equivalent of SP3. I have not heard the customary screaming about SP3, so it is either a clean update, or no one is doing it.

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And what about Firefox Version 3? I signed up for the memorable day to download and install the new version of Firefox. I am still waiting.

I have read some reviews that say it is a fine product, so I will make it a point to download if soon in the big day does not arrive.

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I just have to remember to not do them at the same time, because then if there are problems I will not know which one caused the problems.

When I find myself wondering what to blog about on a particular day, it usually means that what is on my mind is not something I want to blog about.

It is like running into an acquaintance who asks how you are doing and answering “I am doing fine”. There is no reason to speak of the fears, the failures, the problems, and the disappointments.

I sometimes think that I should start another blog – an anonymous blog – so that I can speak about what is really doing on.

One of the things that stops me is that I am not sure what makes it truly anonymous. Seems like one can penetrate the IP address of posts and identify people pretty quickly.

Maybe I can look up Mini-Microsoft and see how he or she did it.