July 2005 Posts

Looking for Pro Microsoft Bloggers

I am looking for pro Microsoft bloggers to actively blog (let’s say 5 items a week minimum is good as I’m hoping to get a few people in addition to myself) at a soon to be launched unofficial pro Microsoft blog. Now, before we go too far, let me define what I mean by pro. By pro, I simply mean that I want someone who likes Microsoft and who wants them to do well. But, not someone who agrees with everything they do, neccessarily – simply someone who has a predisposition to want them to do well and to like them, rather than someone who has a predisposition to simply hate them and wait for them to fail so they can play Nelson Muntz and go “ha ha.” Basically, I want all stories covered from the perspective of someone who likes Microsoft. This includes stories that portray Microsoft in a good light and stories that (potentially) portray them in a bad light.

There is no monetary compensation for this position. You will be allowed a link on your profile and a full fledged bio that can feature links to your sites, etc. There may also be other perks over time, but who knows… can’t guarantee anything. Your entries must be exclusive to the blog and you will be subject to a set of straightforward blogger guidelines. I expect you have to have a firm grasp of the English language (as it is used in the USA) and be able to clearly communicate. My sites are also family friendly (with tough comment guidelines). You will have input in various blog related matters, from what Microsoft blogs we should link to to other things. As I said earlier, I am thinking of a 5 item a week minimum, so it’s not too time consuming, in all honesty. And if you’re already reading some Microsoft blogs or Microsoft related blogs or are following them at all, it’ll be even less so.

I am excited about this site and am looking forward to getting going. It’s very close to being ready.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment or contacting me privately via e-mail at patrick@ifroggy.com.

May Try Being More AdSense Dependent

I was happy to meet (online) Darren Rowse yesterday. We talked for a little while and he was nice enough to take a look at my sites and give me some thoughts. Seeing as he makes more in two months with less traffic than I make in an entire year, I was certainly interested in what he had to say. :) This was spurred on by Chris who was telling me how great he was just the other day.

We had a nice chat… basically, from talking to him, I am thinking of giving AdSense more of a chance. Right now, it’s basically buried in defaults. It gets served (10s of thousands of times a day), but it would be served more and it could be higher up my chain. So, I am thinking of bumping it up above FastClick, BURST!, etc. (perhaps behind only Tribal Fusion on the one site of mine that they have accepted) and seeing how it goes. I am also going to make the ads have the colors that they are being displayed on as their background color (which I had already intended to try, anyway).

I’m not sure when I’ll do it, but I am going to be reexamining my ads again (even though I just did it not that long ago) and trying to put a focus on AdSense. We’ll see what happens.

R.I.P. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Well, I’ve read the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series. It was certainly a good book. I’m a tad disappointed, slightly saddened, even (given my propensity to root for the greatest good) that Dumbledore was killed. Many of the characters in the books are great, but he was among my favorites, perhaps my favorite.

I’ve posted some general thoughts that come to mind right away over at SP and KF, but some copying and pasting follows…

As far as Snape, I don’t have a lot to say. I would hope he killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore’s orders – otherwise he and Malfoy would have died. Snape told him about the vow and Dumbledore told Snape that he would have to kill him.

One thing that strikes me is how is Harry going to find the Horcruxes? When Dumbledore took Harry with him to get that one… Harry couldn’t have found squat. How would he have known where to look, to swim, to use blood on the door, to find the chain, etc. When Harry asks how he can tell it’s the place, he says it has “known magic.” And he doesn’t know if his shivers were because he was cold or because of the enchantments… he’ll have Ron and Hermione with him and that’ll help, but still…

So, then… he has a bit to learn. But, how is he going to learn it? One thing I thought about was the paintings in the headmasters office. The paintings appear to have memories and the ability to answer questions and converse, so if that is, in fact, the case… then Dumbledore’s painting could get a lot of work.

The Order… is McGonagall the default leader there, too? What was the plan for such circumstances, if there was even a plan? I suspect there was one probably. If the Horcruxes are the key and Dumbledore told Harry not to tell anyone of their meetings, are Harry, Ron and Hermione the only ones who know about them? Being the vital key (can’t eliminate Voldemort without eliminating them) that they are, it is a shame not to have more of the Order working on finding them… did he really mean for Harry not to reveal it even after death? Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t want many people to know that he knew because it would get back to Voldemort who would seek to protect them. Hmm.

The whole thing came up very suddenly and is kind of perplexing… to me, anyway. It just seems a little strange for Dumbledore to just drink this unknowing potion, unless we assume a lot of things that weren’t in there (perhaps they were and I missed it). Such as bringing more than one wizard and taking a broom to the green light. Having another wizard drink the potion with Dumbledore and perhaps someone else standing by to help them and transport them. Perhaps only one wizard could step on the island, perhaps brooms wouldn’t have been able to cross the threshold. He doesn’t seem the type to have someone test out things for him (probably feeling that he is as strong as anyone when it comes to fighting off it’s effects). I suppose the fluid couldn’t leave the island. Maybe it would refill the thing with the Horcrux in it if you tried. It all just seemed kind of rushed and strange to me. Perhaps he already knew (or had a good idea of) what it did. And perhaps that is why he wanted the strongest wizard to drink it and the strongest second wizard the boat would allow to make sure that he did. Maybe it was rushed because he knew he’d be dying that night. It just seemed like it could have been planned better or at least researched a bit better. But, maybe the secret of knowing is so important that he wouldn’t want to involve anyone, anyway (I guess he didn’t tell Snape when Snape treated his hand, etc.).

Also, here is a video (bit of vulgarity at the end there) of some doofus ruining the death for some people after the launch at a Barnes and Noble. Bit of a coward. Also, a Flash animation (vulgar language) taking a shot at them and people who do these types of things. I actually had the book spoiled, although I tried to think that they were just joking. When my brother was done reading it, I was joking with him and I said something about Dumbledore dying and his face changed (it was somewhat easy for me to assume he could have been messing with me, though). Then, like someone at DeviantArt, I had someone put Snake Kills Dumbledore in their MSN name. It was a banned user who had just requested that I add him so that we could ask me to unban him. That certainly didn’t help his chances. Stupid stuff.

Via MuggleNet.com.

I am some… woman (not that there is anything wrong with that)

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe.

Hmm. Not sure who that is.

Via Chrispian.

Fox Flash Update, General Thoughts/Updates

Well, the same submission that I thought was rejected has now been approved, nearly a couple months later. So, that’s cool. I took a look around and it will certainly give me a bunch of new content for DGH.

I’ve got plenty keeping me busy at this very second. phpBB 2.0.17 just came out yesterday, so I’m going to work through upgrading my sites today (fun) and implementing a line of code (thanks to Jeremy, a member of my Support Team at phpBBHacks.com) that allows me to block images in signatures in private messages (already in effect in posts, but not PMs). I’ve got to edit a few articles at KF and I want to integrate some of those 728/468×15 Google AdSense link units into my sites, as I’ve heard good things (from Jason Calacanis, as well as others) and the big news is progressing, if not announceable just, yet… (sorry). I’m waiting on some stuff for the first audio blog (not podcast), which I hope you’ll enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I’m not reading any threads related to the book on any of the communities I own or visit and I am going to avoid all articles as much as I can until I read the book (we had it the day it released, but I’ve been busy).

I’d rather not catch a spoiler. I knew who died in book 5 before I read it. I don’t know anything about book 6 really and I want to keep it that way until I can read it.

I’m going to do so ASAP.

SitePoint Redesign

SitePoint launched a site wide redesign yesterday.

I’m kind of letting it soak in a bit before forming an opinion. I think I like it a little better.

ARGH

I missed an item on eBay that I was watching, got caught in my work and forgot about until it was like 30 seconds too late. I’ve never seen it before on there, I didn’t even know it existed before I saw it there and I missed it. And it went for $3.25 when I was probably willing to go to $10.00.

sigh.

My Writing

I have written countless articles (editorials, news pieces, etc.) and reviewed and edited all sorts of documents for a number of different websites and entities. I have written articles, content and site copy for every iFroggy Network site. Some of my work includes:

Editorials, Reviews, etc.:

SitePoint – Author (Profile)
WebDevReviews.com – Author

Blogging:

iFroggy Network Blog – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
YanksBlog.com – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
MarianoRivera.com – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
PhinsBlog.com – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
MicrosoftBlog.com – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
DrGregHouse.com – Editor/Blogger (Profile)
Bad Boy Blog – Editor/Blogger (Profile)

Books:

Building Online Communities with phpBB 2 by Stefan Stoyanov, Jeremy Rogers and Mike Lothar (Packt Publishing) – Technical Reviewer, Foreword Author
phpBB: A User Guide by Stefan Stoyanov and Jeremy Rogers (Packt Publishing – Technical Reviewer
Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright (McGraw Hill) – Reviewer
The PHP Anthology, Volume I: Foundations by Harry Fuecks (SitePoint) – Reviewer
The PHP Anthology, Volume II: Applications by Harry Fuecks (SitePoint) – Reviewer

CommunityPromotion.com Launches

Hey, well… CommunityPromotion.com has launched.

As I’ve said, I don’t imagine it’ll grow to be that big or that highly trafficked (any time soon, anyway), but I am hopeful that it will grow into a helpful site that people can refer to. We’ll see.

For now, we’ve got some basic tips, but what’s common knowledge to you and me isn’t known to all, so you never know. We’ll pick up tips as we go.