December 2005 Posts

Thanks RightMedia!

Wow. Now, the Google gift was at least somewhat expected because I made them a bunch of money this year (not much for them, but a bunch for me). But, today I got a card from RightMedia, who I have made nothing for, basically. So, that was nice. But, I open the card and it has a $25 gift card for iTunes! NICE! Thanks RightMedia!

Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You

It’s George Steinbrenner’s Golden Rule (as well as the HBO CEO’s). It’s something I always say and have for some time. I forget where I got it from. Maybe it was Mr. Steinbrenner, maybe my Dad… maybe somewhere else. No idea, but it’s a good one.

There are some nasty, bitter people (often times banned from my sites) who like to talk about my areas of knowledge. They say that I don’t know the martial arts and I can’t code anything for phpBB. Both assertions are true, of course. But, they use these as a means to discredit me and my sites, which include one of the largest martial arts communities on the internet and the first phpBB hacks site and largest source of phpBB related downloads.

The fact is, there are a few different reasons for them doing so well. It’s not dumb luck. Most of the time, there are reasons that some people are more successful than others. In my case – I work very hard, I give it my best shot and I know how to treat people, how to manage people and manage a website. I’m committed. These things are infinitely more important than simply knowing the martial arts or knowing how to program when it comes to managing communities of this nature. There are a lot of people out there who have the phpBB knowledge required to be on the phpBBHacks.com Support Team, yet there are much less that actually have the right temperment, the right attitude, the ability to treat people kindly and with respect.

But, yet another reason is because I surround myself with good people. People who are experts on the martial arts can create a forum and it will not be as good as mine. Why is that? Because I’m better at managing a forum, better at managing a people – and I surround myself with good people – people smarter than me.

Via Brian.

Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress

Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress was released just recently. The phpBB section of the book was written by my man Jared, a former Support Team member at phpBBHacks.com. I didn’t really have much to do with the book, except helping them find Jared, but that is more than enough! :) If you’re into Drupal, phpBB or WordPress, you should definitely check it out!

Update: Thanked Artists

Just an update on what I posted earlier, as I was browsing the print booklet that comes with the album. The artists that are thanked, but are not on the album or one of the 3 bonus songs are Q-Tip, Too Short, Ness, Babs, Aasim, Redman and Lil’ Webbie. That just happens to be the people that are on the supposed tracks that we haven’t seen. So, that would be about as good as it’s gonna get confirmation wise.

Kendu is Mary J. Blige’s husband, by the way.

Winamp Playlist Rebuilt

Well, it took about 3 weeks, but my playlist has been rebuilt. From over 3,000 songs down to 1,234. Now, to add in the stack of CDs I bought in that time. :)

Target Biggie Duets Bonus Tracks

Just picked it up. The tracks are:

Want That Old Thing Back featuring Ja Rule and Ralph Tresvant.
Running Your Mouth featuring Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Foxy Brown, Fabolous and Busta Rhymes.

Given that all of the tracks on that leaked tracklist have now come out on the album or as bonus tracks except for 4 and keeping the thanks Diddy passed out to the “artists” [on the album] in mind, I wouldn’t discount those tracks not only existing (2 of them are confirmed as existing, I believe, one by Ms. Wallace and one by the fact that the track has supposedly leaked) coming out SOMEWHERE. The 2 “unconfirmed” tracks feature Bad Boy artists Aasim, Ness and Babs – all of these are supposed to have albums coming out in 2006. Could it be that these tracks are being saved for their debuts? It’s possible…

Biggie Duets Bonus Tracks

Following up, Target (in store) has 2 bonus tracks. Want That Old Thing Back and Running Your Mouth. Also, I just got my digital version (iTunes) of the album and Diddy thanks “the artists” and he thanks some that aren’t on the main album or the iTunes bonus track. Kendu (possibly on the Mary J. Blige track since he thanked them together, not sure?), Fabolous, Q-Tip, Foxy Brown, Too Short, Ness, Babs, Aasim, Redman, Ralph Tresvant, Lil’ Webbie, Busta Rhymes.

Some of these are rumored to be on the Want That Old Thing Back and Running Your Mouth bonus tracks. I’ll let you know after I buy it.

Thanks Google!

Just received gift. Excellent! Thanks!

A-Rod Not Playing in WBC

As was reported at YanksBlog.com, A-Rod will be skipping the World Baseball Classic. Anyway, I saw this quote in an article:

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, union COO Gene Orza wrote, “We haven’t spoken yet. We will. And having known and respected him since he was a drafted, my suspicion is that, in the end, fans around the world will see Alex in a WBC uniform.”

How about respecting his decision, instead of implying that A-Rod loses respect for not playing?

Ripping Vinyl Records to .mp3

Anyone done this? I am thinking I will start looking into doing it as there are songs I want that are only on vinyl. I wonder how much it’ll cost me to get a good setup in place that will allow me to rip at a good quality. Hmm.