esofthub's web finds

Mother of all Clocks

2009-12-08T05:45:00.000-08:00

I think this is a pretty cool web find. It is the Mother of all Clocks. I think there are about 50 or so clocks. But I am surprised someone actually took the time to put it together. At any rate, it is an interesting find. Check it out.

http://www.usdebtclock.org

This is another cool clock a friend sent me. It has an interesting layout as you will see.

1st Line is seconds
2nd Line is minutes
3rd Line is hours
4th Line is days
5th Line is months
6th Line is years

http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf

Bulk Manage Direct Messages with Huitter

2009-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a site, Huitter.com, you can use to bulk manage all those automated messages you receive on Twitter.com. Without a doubt, Twitter is a great micro blogging service, but you will receive a lot of terse messages if you are a heavy follower. I receive about 100-200 per day (mostly like "thanks for the follow") and I can only delete one at a time. I glanced over all of them, but I don't have time to delete them all. Who does?

They also have a useful mutuality tool. Check them out.

Jay Leno's Garage - Making Parts

2009-05-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

Amazing NextEngine's 3D scanner technology applied to the real world.

This is an interesting piece of machinery and it is explained in a matter of 8 minutes! It's all MADE IN THE USA!!! Give it a good look. Some of you might even have reason to buy and use this equipment. It's simply stimulating to watch. Check out Jay Leno and crew having this piece of machinery demonstrated.

http://widgets.nbc.com/o/47f1317f105123ad/498ebd00a62edaa0/

Country IP Blocks - Allow a Country or Block a Country

2009-04-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty interesting find. Per their website, Country IP Blocks, they offer Network Data in 7 Separate Formats: CIDR, Netmask, .htaccess deny, .htaccess allow, IP Range, Decimal/CIDR* and Hexadecimal/CIDR. You are in control of who or what accesses your website or servers.

It will help you block a country or allow a country. It lets you control the the network traffic coming to your site. Their site states that IP Blocks are simple and effective in limiting bandwidth hogs, hackers, spammers and other undesirable traffic.

This is a good tool to block those Nigerian 419 scammers and pet and loan scammers.

An interesting subliminal image

2009-03-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

My Korean-American friend asked me to stare at this image for about thirty seconds. He did not mention what I should see but he did look quite surprised after his 3-step experience. After thirty seconds, he asked me to look above the monitor and then he asked me what I saw. Frankly speaking, the projected subliminal image was unexpected.

Here are the 3 simple steps:
1. Stare at the 4 vertically-centered dots for approximately thirty seconds
2. Now look above or away from your monitor for a few seconds
3. Well, what did you see?

Handy Online Calculators and Converters

2008-12-31T04:26:00.000-08:00

I found this site, easycalculation.com, while searching for a RGB to HEX calculator. I was really surprised to see that the site had a number of handy online calculators and converters.

Here is a brief listing:

Math Calci

Numbers

Statistics

Trigonometry

Analytical Geometry

Algebra

Date & Day Calculator

Matrix Calculations

Mortgage Calculator

Unit Conversions

Love Calculator

Health Calculator

Bandwidth Calculator

Hexa, Decimal, Binary Conversions

Physics Calculators

Chemistry Calculators

Periodic Table

Weather Calculator

HEX Color Converter

Html Color (RGB to HEX)

Funny Math

Puzzles

Zodiac Sign

By the way, I found the aformentioned site via hscripts.com while troubleshooting a mail issue with their IP/DNS tool.

FreeHostia - Outgoing Connections Support to be Discontinued

2008-12-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I created an account with these guys awhile ago. I probably used it to promote (not host) FreeAdLists.com when I launched it almost 2 years ago.

It appears Freehostia's free hosting plan will not allow members to use Google Adsense (JavaScript) or similar applications that require a remote connection to a server. I assume more hosting sites with these free hosting plans will follow suit.
----

Friday, December 5, 2008 9:04 AM
From: "FreeHostia" <____>
To: "Roy" <____>
Subj: Outgoing connections support to be discontinued

Dear customer,

Due to the increasing number of complaints about abusive free web hosting account usage, FreeHostia is forced to discontinue the support of outgoing connections to remote servers for all free web hosting accounts. This restriction on outgoing connections will become effective on December 16th, 2008.

If outgoing connections are vital for your website (for example, if you are using RSS feeds or any other information from remote servers) we would recommend you to consider upgrading to a paid account. You can do this using the Upgrade section of your Control Panel.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,
FreeHostia Team

Blog Syndicator BlogRush Is Shutting Down

2008-11-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed my Blogrush widget has disappeared from this blog...well maybe not. The service was supposed to provide instant distribution for blog posts across a network of related blogs. But I guess they ran into a few problems. John Reese, Blogrush’s founder, mentioned a few issues with security and abusive users as some of the issues that limited its full potential. I also remember them having some problems with blog quality guidelines on the initial roll-out. But anyway, you can go to the Blogrush homepage for further details.

He also mentioned saving about $7,000 in server costs on his twitter page.

I thought Blogrush was a pretty decent “4am idea,” and I am sure Reese will roll something else out in the near future.

Free Streaming Video Software - Screen Recorder

2008-10-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

For a particular task, I needed to capture a sequence of screen clicks. I decided to "google" for an opensource screen recorder. After a brief search, I found and tried a few but CamStudio's freeware application seemed to fit the bill.

Here is some more information on CamStudio's per their website:

What is CamStudio - Free Streaming Video Desktop Recording Software?

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

-You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
-Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
-You can create video tutorials for school or college class
-You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
-You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
-You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favorite software program, before you forget them

Useful Google Talk Bots From Labnol.org

2008-08-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a useful article from Labnol.org about Google talk bots. Here are 7 cool things you can do with the Google Talk's "virtual friends" or bots. I found #5 (Translation), #6 (Setting up reminders) and #7 (Transliteration) useful.

Interesting web find - arul john's utilities site

2008-07-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

I found this web find called arul john's utilities site. It is a very handy site to use for IP lookups, telephone tracking, MAC address lookup, IP/CIDR subnet, IP to hostname and viewing HTTP headers. After reviewing a bit more, I noticed there is even a Bible verse lookup.

Here is one use of this web find.

What is Arul's IP Address Tracking Program used for?

1. You get abusive mails from somebody and want to know where it has come from!
2. Someone mails you claiming to be from one place and you suspect that he or she is from another place
3. You just want to track an email you received
4. You want to trace an IP address or do an IP address lookup out of curiosity

The site also provides email addresses so that you can report the abuser to their ISP.

The world's oldest Internet blogger, Ms. Olive Riley, has passed away

2008-07-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

The world's oldest Internet blogger, Ms. Olive Riley, has passed away on July 12, 2008. She was a 108 years old Australian but young in heart and mind and an inspiration to all bloggers from all age groups and all walks of life.

In her final post on June 26, Ms. Riley wrote: "I can't believe I've been here in this nursing home for more than a week.

"How the days have flown, even though I've been in bed most of the time. I still feel weak, and can't shake off that bad cough.

"Penny, who's in the next bed to mine, had a visit one day this week from her daughter, who's a professional singer. Guess what happened! She and I sang a happy song, as I do every day, and before long we were joined by several nurses, who sang along too. It was quite a concert!"

Rest in Peace Ms. Riley.

Her blog: The Life of Riley

A Dummies Guide to Blogspot or Blogger Platform

2008-07-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a great resource, Tips for New Bloggers, for bloggers who use the Blogger platform. This resource is one of the most popular sites on my top list, TopBlogLists.com. It is a bit aged but still a worthwhile visit.

Here is its description: A dummies guide, blog tips, tricks, and help for all new bloggers on Web templates, Blog templates, designs, widgets, layout, JavaScript, HTML codes, SEO, Google AdSense, gadgets, diagnostic tools, and how to monetize Blogger or Blogspot blogs.

How much is my website worth?

2008-07-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting website I found via compete.com. It gives you a rough estimate of what your site might be worth. Per the Website Valued website, it gives you an estimated value of your online business by profiling your website for technical information, keywords, public visitor stats and then comparing them to the database of previous site and domain sales.

It also gives you an estimate of advertising revenue based on the traffic statistics. When I checked my three websites, two were fairly close to the upper limit range.

11 Rules Graduates Did Not Learn in School

2008-06-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

I received this a couple of days ago from a colleague via email. I think most of the "rules" are on target whether they came from Mr. Gates or not.

In a speech that Bill Gates gave to a high school graduating class, he spoke
about 11 Rules that the graduates did not learn in school.

Rule 1. Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule 2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect
you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You
won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4. If you think your teacher was tough, wait until you get a boss.

Rule 5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents
had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6. If you mess up it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about
your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are
now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and
listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you
save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try
delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life
HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll
give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answers. This doesn't
bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and
very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on
your own time.

Rule 10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to
leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

20 Top Blog Directories on the Internet

2008-05-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here is my listing of 20 top blog directories. They range from Page Rank 8 to Page Rank 4. Most of these blog directories will require you to register before listing your blog.

PR 8 Blog Directories

Technorati is a search engine for blogs. It lists and indexes millions of blogs each day.
Technorati.com

MyBlogLog is a large social network for the blogger community.
MyBlogLog.com

Blogarama is blog search and has over 83,000 blogs listed.
Blogarama.com

PR 7 Blog Directories

Google’s Blogsearch is a search engine for blogs. You can find blogs on your favorite topics
blogsearch.google.com

BlogCatalog is one of the best blog directories on the Internet. It has a good community feel to it.
BlogCatalog.com

Blogdigger is a RSS blog search engine. Check out the NEW Blogdigger Local. Find bloggers in your location.
Blogdigger.com

BlogPulse is a blog search engine that also analyzes and reports on daily activity in the blogosphere.
Blogpulse.com

Blogtoplist is a blog directory that is sorted by the score each blog has received during the week.
Blogtoplist.com

Blogflux is a blog directory, stat tracker, and provides services such as poll and quiz makers.
Blogflux.com

PR 6 Blog Directories

BOTW is directory platform enabling the online community to nominate and vote for best-of-class websites in a variety of categories.
Botw.org

Globe of Blogs is an index directory of weblogs as submitted by their authors.
GlobeOfBlogs.com

Bloghop allows you to tagsurf to blogs that match your interest.
Bloghop.com

Blog-directory is a listing a review site.
Blog-directory.org

Bloggapedia offers tools, resources, information, and news.
Bloggapedia.com

Weblogalot is organized by category, offers a large collection of the best blogs online
Weblogalot.com

Bloggeries is a categorized listing of weblogs from around the world.
Bloggeries.com

Blogexplosion is a portal of popular blogs for blog promotion and help generate traffic to your blog.
Blogexplosion.com

PR 5 Blog Directories

TopBlogLists is a blog directory top blogs in arts, celebrity, computers, geek, humor, money, music, personal, politics, and sports. Free stats tracker.
TopBlogLists.com

PR 4 Blog Directories
Bloggernity is a directory for the latest news, entertainment, humor and politics issues.
Bloggernity.com

TopBlogArea is a top list for blogs only. It offers tracking stats.
TopBlogArea.com

Find out who are Your IP Neighbors

2008-05-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

For a couple of my sites, I use shared hosting. I noticed that one of my sites was sluggish and I suspected that there were too many websites or IP neighbors on the host server. I found this one site that performs a reverse lookup and then displays the total count of My IP Neighbors along with their linked URL. You can view each site serially on the same webpage.

You can check whether your website is crowded with hundreds of other sites or not. I noticed that a few of my neighbors were related to the gambling and porn genre. There goes the neighborhood. I decided it was time to move files and find less and somewhat desirable neighbors.

Is your website sluggish? Check out who are IP neighbors.

Here is an example of the IP for this blog.

softhub.blogspot.com has the IP address: 72.14.207.191
1645 found with the IP 72.14.207.191

1) blogspot.com (view site)
2) valueblogreview.blogspot.com (view site)
3) ayearincomics.blogspot.com (view site)
4) supergengcell.blogspot.com (view site)
5) chubarama.blogspot.com (view site)
6) dungmsteph.blogspot.com (view site)
7) smartbro.blogspot.com (view site)
8) labnol.blogspot.com (view site)
...

This Might be a Promising Way to Treat Cancer

2008-04-27T04:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a video from 60 Minutes about an interesting man named John Kanzius, who himself is inflicted with leukemia. He may have have found a promising way to treat cancers such as pancreas, lymphomas, breast, colon, liver, leukemia and etc.

Here is an excerpt of an article by wired.com.
----
Cancer Therapy Without Side Effects Nearing Trials

A promising new cancer treatment that may one day replace radiation and chemotherapy is edging closer to human trials.

Kanzius RF therapy attaches microscopic nanoparticles to cancer cells and then "cooks" tumors inside the body with harmless radio waves.

Based on technology developed by Pennsylvania inventor John Kanzius, a retired radio and TV engineer, the treatment has proven 100 percent effective at killing cancer cells while leaving neighboring healthy cells unharmed. It is currently being tested at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“I don’t want to give people false hope,” said Dr. Steve Curley, the professor leading the tests, “but this has the potential to treat a wide variety of cancers...” Read more from wired.com...

Play the Sudoku Online Game

2008-04-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

Play the popular Sudoku game. The level of difficulty ranges from easy, medium, hard to evil. I'm starting on easy.

Sudoku Park - Billions of Free Sudoku PuzzlesWidgetbox

Adobe Photoshop Express Beta

2008-03-31T04:37:00.000-07:00

You can now spruce up those pictures on your website or blog. Adobe has come out with Photoshop Express. It is a web based version which makes it very convenient. Of course, this beta version won't have all the bells and whistles of the full blown version of Photoshop, but it is probably good enough to satisfy the basic pic needs of most social networking and blog directory websites such as facebook, myspace, hi5, mybloglog, and blogcatalog.

According to their website, "Upload, sort, polish, and store up to 2GB of photos. All for free. Resize, tint, distort, and more — add your mark to all your images."

5 Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do

2008-02-27T02:29:00.000-08:00

I recently received these tips via email but unsure if they are true (urban legends??), but they might be worth investigating.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

FIRST
Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobiles is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!'

THIRD
Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits mon your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief change the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally....

FIFTH
Free Directory Service for Cells

Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when the don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

Securely Send and Receive Large Files

2008-02-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

SendThisFile is a web find that will allow you send to and receive large files such as movies, presentations, photos, etc. from anyone and anywhere. I have used the service a few times for files that exceeded my email capability, which is usually 10MB.

I used their free plan. The free plan offers three day pickup, three downloads, progress meter, transfer rate, transfer size and secure transfers. They have plans from Free to Enterprise--which was loaded with features.

At any rate, the service was a no-brainer to use and sign-up was easy. Here is an example of an upload.

File Transfer: 33 Sec (14.97 MB copied)
File: esofthub.txt
Rate: 300 Kbps Elapsed: 00:07:30 Status: Transferring

Note: Most browsers have a built-in 2GB limit; however SendThisFile places no restrictions on file size or the number of files that can be uploaded. They do throttle (slow down) certain files that are uploaded from free accounts.

VOIP Adapter for $20 per year

2008-01-30T03:30:00.000-08:00

A colleague of mine sent me this web find.

This is a pretty cool device. This small adapter just plugs into your USB port and then connect as standard telephone to the RJ-11 port and then you can call anyone in the US and Canada free anytime. If you are outside the US, then you can call anyone in the US free. You are given a 10-digit telephone number. So if you send someone overseas a unit, then they can communicate with them free since you both have your own telephone number. It does require that you have a PC and broadband and will not work with a dial up connection.

All this for only $20 per year

http://www.magicjack.com

Is There a Google Page Rank Update Going on?

2008-01-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

I think Google is in the progress of doing a Page Rank update. I inadvertently noticed a few sites have improved their ranking by one or decreased by one. I haven't read anything about an ongoing update via the better known bloggers, but I noticed their sites haven't been affected like last time, so this should be a fairly quiet update. But I know it's forthcoming soon.

I noticed a couple sites that were 4's are now 3's and one or two sites that were 5's are now 4's and a couple that were 6's are now 5's. One of the interests that operate in the same space I do is now a PR7. A few days ago they were a PR6.

Last year, Google did an update around this same time.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/infrastructure-status-january-2007/

Update:
I've also noticed one site had a PR0 and now it's a PR4.
The link:www.yourdomainname.com operator seems to show updated backlinks, too.

Gotta Digg DOT Com Song by Kina

2007-12-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

Usually, I don’t like watching YouTube videos because I think most of them are made by people who have way too much idle time on their hands -- waste of time. However, I saw this embedded YouTube video on the popular weblog TechCrunch and decided to play it. I was a bit surprised to hear what the performer was singing about…digg.com, a popular social bookmarking website.

Surprisingly, the digg song was pretty good and it's dang catchy. She also has a talented voice to boot. Her two sisters are in the background providing backup support – their gestures are comical, too. This video is viral!

Yahoo's Storage Meter is Now History

2007-12-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

That's the message I found today in my Yahoo email account. I was checking my Yahoo.com email account, which I have had since 1999, when I inadvertently noticed this message: "The storage meter is now history." At first, I ignored it as just another solicitation, but then I observed the storage meter missing at the top-right corner of my email page. When I signed on, Yahoo never indicated a storage increase.

I wonder if newbie yahoo accounts are getting the same deal. Perhaps, as a test, I could create another yahoo account, but then again, I need another email account like I need a hole in my head.

And for Yahoo's competitors that I have email accounts with…

First, I checked my Gmail account to see if they had followed in lockstep. Well, the answer is, Not Yet...

Here's Gmail's storage message: "Lots of space
Over 5986.336396 megabytes (and counting) of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message." I have to agree that almost 6GB of climbing email capacity is "Lots of space" :)

Lastly, I checked my oldest email account (1997), which is on Hotmail. I still have a static 5GB.

Frankly speaking, I was a bit surprised Yahoo jumped ahead of Google's Gmail on this one. It's usually the other way around. I guess Yahoo is giving us unlimited email storage as an early holidays present. :) Thanks Yahoo.com

Is Your Email Message a Scam?

2007-12-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

If you received a suspected email scam, you should use this site’s scam buster software program. It allows you to cut and paste an email message or multiple email messages into one form. Its software program will determine if the email/emails is/are a known scam. Moreover, you can also add additional details in a separate form.

As you already know, beware of messages that mention sweepstakes, lotteries, money-making offers, work-at-home opportunities, pyramid/Ponzi schemes, Nigerian 419 scams, envelope stuffing, drugs/pills, and etc. Remember the old US postal axiom: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"

By the way, the site is aptly called Ask the "Scam-O-Matic!”

One last thing, they do ask for an email address where they can contact you if they later find out that it's a scam. Just be cognizant of the email request.

Determine the Number of Keyword or Key Phrase Searches

2007-11-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Frankly speaking, it is a fairly difficult task to generate traffic to a new website. But there is one methodical way of doing it. It is the employment of keywords or key phrases in content that is unique and well developed.

The key words or key phrases in your content need a strong and relevant affinity in how it relates to your site but without blatant keyword stuffing. This can be done internally (your website), externally (bookmarks, articles, backlinks, etc) and over time while employing white hat SEO techniques. Why? If you cheat (black hat), you'll probably gain additional traffic but the gain will probably be short-lived. Eventually, Google will catch on and remove your site from their index. That is basically a death penalty for your site, especially if your site isn’t well established in its niche.

I know some people will say you shouldn't solely depend on Google for traffic. Yeah, okay...but for new sites it's important.

Here are a few sites you can use to develop a "keyword or keyword phrase" game plan.
SEOToolSet Estimate Keyword Activity Tool
Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
SeoCompany Keyword Tool

Free Email Signature Generator

2007-11-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

If you want to prevent robots from harvesting your email address, you can use this tool to generate an image with your email address. I have used it on a couple sites and noticed a considerable drop in spam. I am hoping over time this trend will continue. I can't believe the crap people will send you. How many Viagra pills or "money-making schemes/scams" does one person need? I really feel bad for all those suckers that get taken on these types of scams.

At any rate, you can use this image for your blog, website or signature.

Popular websites/blogs have dropped page rank

2007-10-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

Some major websites/blogs have gone down in their page rank. There's going to be a lot of speculation as to why these sites were dropped. And needless to say, the discussions will be interesting.

Here are some popular sites that have gone down in Page Rank.

http://www.yahoo.com PR10 to PR9
http://www.techcrunch.com PR8 to PR7
http://www.engadget.com PR7 to PR5
http://www.johnchow.com PR6 to PR4
http://www.problogger.net PR6 to PR4 but later returned to 6
http://andybeard.eu PR5 to PR3 but later returned to 4
http://www.copyblogger.com PR6 to PR4
http://www.forbes.com PR7 to PR5
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com PR6 to PR3
http://www.quickonlinetips.com PR6 to PR3
http://www.johntp.com PR6 to PR4
http://www.autoblog.com PR6 to PR4
http://pingoat.com PR6 to PR4

Military service rivalry and humor

2007-10-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a dig/joke from a friend of mine via email. He's an Air Force member and he knows I was in the Army at one time--about a decade ago. Anyways, I thought it was humorous.
------------

There's an Air Force guy driving from McChord to Ft Lewis, and an Army guy driving from Ft Lewis to McChord. In the middle of the night with no other cars on the road they hit each other head on and both cars go flying off in different directions.

The Air Force guy manages to climb out of his car and surveys the damage. He looks at his twisted car and says,....."Man, I am really lucky to be alive!"

Likewise the Army guy scrambles out of his car and looks at his wreckage. He too says to himself, ..... "I can't believe I survived this wreck!"

The Army guy walks over to the Air Force guy and says,...... "Hey man, I think this is a sign from God that we should put away our petty differences and live as friends instead of archrivals"

The Air Force guy thinks for a moment and says, ...... "You know, you're absolutely right! We should be friends. Now I'm gonna see what else survived this wreck"

So the Air Force guy pops open his trunk and finds a full, unopened bottle of Jack Daniels.

He says to the Army guy, "I think this is another sign from God that we should toast to our new found understanding and friendship"

The Army guy replies, "You're damn right!" and he grabs the bottle and starts sucking down Jack Daniels. After putting away nearly half the bottle the Army guy hands it back to the Air Force guy and says, "Your turn!"

The Air Force guy twists the cap back on the bottle and says, "Nahh, I think I'll wait for the cops to show up."

Check Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) for your URL

2007-10-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

Shoemoney has a useful tool to check your Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) for Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Alta Vista. See how your URL ranks for certain terms. Here's the SERP utility page.

Removal from Google's Index

2007-10-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received an email from Google regarding some questionable content on my website. I operate a small classified ads site, so the majority of my content is free ads.

The Googlebot found an ad with some hidden text (text using the same color as my site) on the site. Actually, it wasn't the exact same color but the Googlebot found it anyways. After further investigation, I found 3 more ads out of 40k that had some more funny looking text. Also, there was one ad that used a "dash" but it was actually a url -- very tiny font.

I guess I could have cleaned up those pages and then later resubmit for Google re-inclusion, but I simply deleted them.

Here's what Google said to me followed by the hidden text gibberish.

"Google Search Quality <noreply AT google.com> wrote: Dear site owner or webmaster of freeadlists.com,

While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that were outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

In order to preserve the quality of our search engine, we have temporarily removed some webpages from our search results. Currently pages from freeadlists.com are scheduled to be removed for at least 30 days.

Specifically, we detected the following practices on your webpages:

* The following hidden text on freeadlists.com:

e.g.

BA We suffered horribly on the plains of the Cayster, sleeping under tent, stretched deliciously on fine chariots, half dead with weariness. Dicaeopolis [aside] And I was very much at ease, lying on the straw along the battlements! Ambassador Everywhere we were well received and forced to drink delicious wine out of golden or crystal flagons..... Dicaeopolis [aside] Oh, city of Cranaus, thy ambassadors are laughing at thee! Ambassador For great feeders and heavy drinkers are alone esteemed as men by the barbarians. Dicaeopolis [aside] Just as here in Athens, we only esteem the wenchers and pederasts. Ambassador At the end of the fourth year we reached the King's Court, but he had left with his whole army to take a crap, and for the space of eight months he was thus sitting on the can in the midst of the golden mountains. Dicaeopolis [aside] And how long did it take him to close his arse?
....
....
....
....
We would prefer to have your pages in Google's index. If you wish to be reincluded, please correct or remove all pages that are outside our quality guidelines. When you are ready, please visit:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reinclusion?hl=en

to learn more and request a reconsideration request.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team"

Keyword Density Analyzer

2007-09-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool you can use to analyze the keyword density in any web page. It measures the ratio of keyword or keyphrase to the total number of words on a page. This is an important aspect for SEO. One to seven percent is considered to be good.

Which way is this silhouette rotating?

2007-09-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Which way is this silhouette rotating? I've been told it's an optical illusion and it's always moving clockwise.

I was also told if you see it counterclockwise, you're more scientific; otherwise, you're more artistic/creative.

Most of the time I see the silhouette moving counterclockwise. How about you?

If you didn't already know, you will have to double click the picture to get the animation.

Validate your feed

2007-09-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

Many of us share our data via XML feeds. However, I encountered many times when I couldn't ingest a feed because it was riddled with errors. Feedvalidator.org is a site that allows you to validate a feed before sending it live.

10 tips for optimizing your blog

2007-08-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here's an article by WebProNews that is related to optimizing your blog. Here are 10 ways to optimize your blog. Most of the tips are for Wordpress. I've asked the author for tips relating to the Blogger platform.

Determine Backlinks and Anchor Text Pointing to Website or Blog

2007-08-06T04:38:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how many sites were linking to your website or blog and then what anchor text was being used? I was checking FreeAdLists and discovered the anchor text was primarily referencing "forums." That's not exactly what I was expecting or wanting. I was expecting "FreeAdLists" or "Classifieds FreeAdLists" or "freeadlists" or something related.

At any rate, here's the site to check your backlinks.

The Dispersion of Social Media Networks

2007-07-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

The social media networks such as Bebo, Myspace, Orkut, Friendster, Facebook and others have contributed greatly in making the world a smaller place. I was a bit surprised to see which social media concerns dominated the different parts of the globe. From this social media map, there's still plenty of room for growth left.

The Internet TIme Machine

2007-06-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

Go back in time and see what your favorite websites looked like a few months or even years ago. Archive.org has archives from 1996 to present and over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages. Here's the link for the Wayback Machine or type the following in your browser:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/yourURL.com/
e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/*/yahoo.com/

Check out Google Nov 11, 1998 and Yahoo Oct 17, 1996

Next Generation of Mobile Computers -- MiniTablets

2007-06-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting post by Michael Beck (digitalnomad) of Rugged Notebooks.

Military and industrial interests are always looking for ways to leverage technology, and these mini-tablets might be the answer. For a light infantry soldier or a company field worker, someone who might have to "hump" in challenging climates (heat, humidity, etc), weight and durability do count. When I served, I had what was considered ruggedized communication devices in my rucksack and I often felt like a "beast of burden.”

I wouldn’t have minded carrying a more “soldier friendly” communication device like the one shown to the left.

Who Stumbled your Site on Stumbleupon.com

2007-06-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

There is an easy way to see who is stumbling your site. Here's the URL to check.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.yourURL.com

66 different ways to build links

2007-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

As you know, it's very important to link your website to other relevant websites. Here is Brandon Hopkin's 66 ways to build links in 2007. It's a short guide on link building.

Ironic Presidential History -- Kennedy and Lincoln

2007-06-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

Something I received in an email...

History Lesson

Have a history teacher explain this-----if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

An Aesthetically Humbling Moment

2007-06-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I think this is what you would call an aesthetically humbling moment . Here’s the updated story on Ms. Paris Hilton if you haven't already read or heard about it. She has been ordered back to jail. I'll be glad when this circus act is over.

esofthub: "Be all you can be"

2007-06-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm taking a break from my hodgepodge/HOWTO posting. I was asked to guest blog about my military experiences while in the U.S. Army by Steve of HMTK, also a former trooper. Thanks Steve.

So today's linked posting is "Be all you can be." I hope you find it interesting.

Improve Google PageRank and Technorati Rankings with NetTags!

2007-06-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

Got this from The ANiTOKID:

The Internet is all about collaborations, and taking a good idea and mold it into a better one. A few weeks ago, Andy Coates, a new blogger started a link building program called netlinks. So far it has been quite successful with many bloggers getting into the chain to help each other build links.

As nice as it is, however, there is a downside to that chain. It uses no anchor text, but only a * in its place. Andy had mentioned that he tried something else that was similar, but bloggers were slow to ping back (or not at all) with an anchor text. So the stars were used instead.

This program allows anchor text while using an easier way to know what anchor text other bloggers wanted on the matrix. This is more attractive and could be more viral. Here’s what was done to make it better. You will use anchor text/tags of your choice, which are called “NetTags."

Instructions:

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “NetTags” below.

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “NetTags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “NetTags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “NetTags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

==== Copy and Paste from Above this line ====

Host Tag: esofthub's web finds

Important: Once I get a ping back or comment from you below, I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “NetTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copy and paste from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

==== Copy and Paste from Above this line ====

There it is folks. This should help you improve your Technorati ranking, SERP and Google PR. Please leave comment here if you have copied from this matrix so that I can add you just in case your ping back didn’t reach me.

Rules
No Porn Sites
Only 1 link per person (i.e don’t hog the netlinks!)
Please don’t tamper with other peoples url’s

Enjoy guys!

This will keep those love links flowing - definitely!

Yahoo's 4000+ Widget Gallery

2007-06-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Have you tried Yahoo's widgets yet? You can get your favorite information delivered live to your desktop. The widgets allow for convenient at-a-glance view of weather, games, cams and and many other conveniences. There are over 4,000 widgets available at the widget gallery!

I checked out the system utilities widgets, over 350 of them available.

Is your email being rejected by a mail server?

2007-05-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Listed by Spamhaus? Check to see if you are on a blocklist. If the answer is yes, it is probably because email messages you are sending out are being rejected by mail servers around the Internet that use Spamhaus blocklists to filter incoming mail.

Spamhaus only lists IP addresses (they do not list email addresses or domains). To find out if your IP Address is listed on one of their 'blocklist' databases, enter the IP address in the box below and press "Lookup IP."

Btw, one of the top 10 Spammers in the world was arrested yesterday (Wed) by the Feds.

Google's Ranking Factors Examined

2007-05-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I thought a post by TopRankBlog was interesting. It's about a new study done on Google's Ranking Factors. For many of you, it may not be a big surprise but to others it may help somewhat.

What's new on Gmail?

2007-05-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

The folks at gmail have just increased their attachment limit size to 20 MB. That's twice the size of yahoo.com or hotmail.com.

Now you can start sharing more of those home videos, large presentations and files you just can't seem to get smaller. They have doubled the allowable attachment size to 20 MB to make your Gmail space even more useful. Also, you don't need a silly invitation anymore to join gmail.com. By the way, Gmail gives you 2.8 gigabytes of free mailbox space.

Top Blog Skins Available

2007-05-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

Now that you made an insightful post, wouldn't it be nice if someone actually read it. Bloggers will visit your site, but if it's poorly designed, they will be out in a flash. If you are like me, I'm always needing advice (i.e. template) when it comes to color/font/format schemes. I found a site that might be able to help you. It's called BlogSkins. They have some cool skins done by some of best people around in the blogging community. You can instantly and easily download them to your own Blogger, Movable Type, or other-powered site.

TraceRoute Internet Protocol Addresses

2007-05-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

I started this new Forum for FreeAdLists. Not surprising, I'm getting my share of spammers. I can't believe how efficient these spammers are in finding new venues, especially a brand new one, to spam. I was curious as to where some of these spammers were hailing from. I found a tool by Network Tools that does a traceroute to the destination.

Often times, routers will block traceroute packets, but you still can get a decent idea. BTW, most of my spammers were coming from Europe.

FYI: Comprehensive traceroute guide by country: Traceroute.org

Google's Page Rank service has made some changes recently

2007-05-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

There has been some concerned lately regarding Google's Page Ranking service. Some bloggers/webmasters are getting the following message after a PR query:

The Page Rank:

- N/A

IMPORTANT: N/A (not available) - it is not possible to show the pagerank at the moment

The N/A pagerank (grey pagerank bar) might be due to one of the following reasons:

(1) the web page is new and it is not ranked by Google yet,
(2) the Google's server is not able to return the pagerank value at the moment,
(3) the web site is banned by Google,
(4) our PR checking tool is not able to get the page rank value at the moment, etc.

Here's an explanation as to why you might be getting these messages. If you see a grey pagerank bar or N/A rank upon your web page, you should not panic. Your site is probably not banned but do read the explanation to verify.

MyBlogLog Outreach Program -- Join Community

2007-05-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

MyBlogLog empowers authors and readers, i.e., anybody who reads a blog can learn about and engage with one another, and in the process take the conversation to a whole new level. And readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. MyBlogLog enables one to take advantage of his/her existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part.

This is one of the best social networking sites I have been associated with in the Internet space. I have found people that are supportive, serious, and others who are just darn-right humorous.

Found this interesting post from my friend over at The ANiTOKID. It is a links chain where you get to know more bloggers by joining their communities. Being active in the community is a way of supporting one's favorite blogs. I'm adding three friends of mine, Total-Spender, Digital-Nomads and HMTKSteve.

To join the train, just follow the rules below and set it on a new journey from your own blog!

The Rules

1) Write a short introduction about how you found this list and include a link back to that blog.
2) COPY the rules and ENTIRE list below and post it on your blog.
3) Take “My New Community Members” and move them into the “The Original Community Members” list.
4) Find 3 new blogs, join their MyBlogLog Community and add them to the “My New Community Members” section. Remember to also add the “Join the Community” link next to your new blogs. (Example: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/yourblog/)
5) Join as a member to each Community listed here by clicking on “Join the Community”. The goal is that all of the new Members listed will join your community, and hopefully, you should do the same!

My New Community Members:
Total-Spender - Join Community
Digital-Nomads - Join Community
HTMKSteve - Join Community

The Original Community Members:

The Fish Story

2007-05-14T02:37:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a cool find. These two are all camo'ed up in a fishy way.

The Makeup

Bite'em my head off

Getting Mouthy

Getting Gnarly

The Tease

Popular SEO tools for website optimization

2007-05-11T01:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some good tools to use in your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. Below is a list of tools available from Build--Reciprocal--Links.com

Fake Page Rank Detection Tool
Google Banneded Checker
Keyword Density Checker
Keyword Suggestion
Link Popularity
Link Suggestion Tool
Multiple Keyword Search Engine Position
Multiple search engine position
Multi Rank Checker
Page Rank Checker
Reciprocal Link Checking Tool
No Follow Link Checker
Search Engine Position Checker
Search Engine Saturation Tool
Spider View
View Http Headers
Google Search
Google BackLink Checker Tool
Dig PageRank Tool
My Text Link Value Tool

Paula's List of Blogger Salaries...Are you on the list?

2007-05-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm definitely not on her list. :) She has compiled a list of the top 60 blog earners who she could find releasable earnings data. The list is a rough estimate but still an interesting compilation.

Who's on Paula's List of Blogger and Webmaster Salaries? She says she has spent hours and hours scouring the Internet for the last-reported information about bloggers/webmasters and their revenue. Some are hard-core daily bloggers, some run sites with lots of pageviews but not much written content -- like dating sites. Wow...I imagine that took a long time to compile.

John Chow: 7 habits of a highly successful blogger

2007-05-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a good post by one of the Blogosphere's A-List bloggers, John Chow. Here are 7 habits of a successful habits of a successful blogger. He should know something about this topic...he's been one for awhile.

As a bonus, here's another post by John Chow. 5 ways to come up with something when you have nothing to blog about. This happens more often than I would like to admit.

Total-Spender gave me some ideas just the other day. Thanks.

This is one smart dog

2007-05-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of a smart dog. You won't believe how this dog retrieved the ball from the pool.

World Internet Users and Population Statistics

2007-05-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

The Internet space is still growing at a quickened pace. Here’s are graphs and a table by Internet World Stats providing the current snapshot of worldwide Internet usage.

The site also has additional Internet information sources and usage statistics.

Google Webmaster Central

2007-05-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Google Webmaster Central can help you ensure that your site is easily crawled and indexed and access tools that will enable you to diagnose crawling issues, study statistics on how your site is doing in our index, and tell us how you'd like your site to be crawled and indexed.

I hope this helps readers who have requested similar information and don't forget to create your sitemaps.

50 Largest MyBlogLog Communities and 12 Communities Visited

2007-05-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here a find that lists the top 50 communities on MyBlogLog. I know the information is a bit dated and the order may have changed as of today. I know the top community has a little over 5100+ members, and the second largest and third largest communities have a little over 3400+ members and 3300+ members, respectively.

Here are 12 communities I visit from time to time. Invariably, the numbers will have changed by the time I submit this post.

The DJ List
5,162 Community Members

ProBlogger
3,465 Community Members

A Blog for Thinkers
3,367 Community Members

Lifehacker
2,766 Community Members

2000 Bloggers
2,299 Community Members

Read/WriteWeb
1,785 Community Members

Boing Boing
1,783 Community Members

John Chow dot Com
1,756 Community Members

The MyBlogLog Blog
1,429 Community Members

Shoemoney
1,332 Community Members

TechCrunch
1,303 Community Members

Random Good Stuff
1,236 Community Members

Classifieds FreeAdLists -- Posting Etiquette

2007-05-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I'm trying to launch a classifieds ad service, Classifieds FreeAdLists. Unfortunately, I got my first email telling me to do something or else. Obviously, I didn't intend for the classified website to be a venue to vet anger or frustration against someone else.

I immediately deleted the inflammatory ad listed below, but I thought I would share its contents with my readers. That’s some heated stuff, right? This is exactly what I don't want.

Well, at least people are finding and posting to the site; I'm hoping it can stay somewhat friendly. Geez!

BTW, I Googled and performed Yahoo searches on "UseAtorzzzzz" prior to posting this article. Nothing returned. ;)

Have a great weekend. :)

-----------------------------------------

The personal information of the complaint has been modified.

UseAtorzzzzz wrote:

This is one of many attempts to deface my company. Please find out who is posting these ads and what ip they are from because I have filed charges against them and they are dragging this site in with them. Please fix this issue

UseAmyzzzzz Corp (A city)
Posted on: 2007-05-02 04:02:12
Poster's E-Mail: Withheld. Use the form below to contact the user.

UseAtorzzzzz is scum. They'll tell you what you want to hear, get your money, and run. No one answers the phones, no one answers their emails, its all excuses after excuses. Someone should report that asshole for not delivering what he says he will. I'd be embarrassed to work for him.

* Location: a city
* Compensation: run for your life
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

Rugged Notebooks

2007-05-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

I thought this was an interesting picture regarding "rugged notebooks." Dang, that notebook is literally dusted. I think my "sensitive" notebook would have been kaput if that happened to it. For that matter, I'm not sure if my notebook would have survived my somewhat humid walk up to Seoul Tower yesterday.

Google Banned Tool

2007-05-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Webmasters/SEO firms who engage (but may not know it) in spammy techniques can find their websites banned from the Google index. Getting banned from the index can be the death of a budding website presence.

A simple way to check is to go to google search and type in your domain name (e.g. www.topbloglists.com). Check to see whether your links come up or not. If they do, your site is probably not banned. But if they don't come up, and they did before, you're probably banned.

Here's a free online banned tool to check if your domain is Google Banned.

I didn't want to make another post for this find, but here's a site where you can create disposable email addresses. Save yourself from a lot spam traffic.

10 dumbest resume blunders

2007-04-30T04:20:00.000-07:00

Here's 10 resume blunders that people actually submitted to hiring managers. It's hilarious. 1. ... attached a letter from her mother. 2. ... used pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border. 3. ... explained a three-month gap in employment by saying that he was getting over the death of his cat...

#4 is a classic

Google Voice Local Search

2007-04-26T05:37:00.000-07:00

Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Convert Long URLs to Short URLs with tinyurl

2007-04-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

Reduce a long URL into a fairly short one. Here's an example below using Google's lengthy WebMaster's Tools URL.

Go to http://tinyurl.com

The following URL was entered (Google's Webmaster Tools):
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps&continue=https://www.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fsiteoverview%3Fhl%3Den%3Fhl%3Den&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nui=1&hl=en

Here's the result of creating the shorter URL.

The long URL has a length of 189 characters and resulted in the following TinyURL which has a length of 25 characters:

http://tinyurl.com/yt5ek7

Benefits:
-Redirection to any page in your site
-Hide your affiliate URLs

Cons:
Spamming (don't be a spammer)
No PR or Technorati benefits

Mind Teasers Rehashed

2007-04-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some mind teasers I posted back in Nov '06. Almost daily, I noticed that some of my Google and MSN traffic was referencing mind teasers. Unfortunately, only the horse picture was showing up.

My favorite one is the "11 faces." Did you find them all?

Find the hidden image

Interesting layout

Jail house rock

Intriguing "Waterfall"

Check out the "circle"

Focus on the dot! What happen to it?

Find the faces

What do you see here? Do you see the word "LIFT?"

A face? ...Or, the word "liar?"

Who is the tallest?

Do you see 5 people?

Where does the middle column end?

How many horses in this picture? Should find 7

Cool art that will mess with your head.

Military Retirement Bonus

2007-04-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

If this "find" doesn't make you laugh, you are truly humor impaired!

The Navy found they had too many officers and non-commissioned officers and decided to offer an early retirement bonus. They promised any officer who volunteered for retirement a bonus of $1,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between any two points in his body. The officer got to choose what those two points would be.

The first officer who accepted asked that he be measured from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. He was measured at six feet and walked out with a bonus of $72,000.

The second officer who accepted was a little smarter and asked to be measured from the tip of his outstretched hands to his toes. He walked out with $96,000.

The third one was a non-commissioned officer, a grizzly old Chief who, when asked where he would like to be measured replied, "From the tip of my penis to my testicles." It was suggested by the pension man that he might want to reconsider, explaining about the nice big checks the previous two officers had received. But the old Chief insisted and they decided to go along with him providing the measurement was taken by a medical officer.

The medical officer arrived and instructed the Chief to "drop 'em," which he did. The medical officer placed the tape measure on the tip of the Chief's penis and began to work back.

Dear Lord!" he suddenly exclaimed, "Where are your testicles?"

The old Chief calmly replied, "Vietnam."

Six Day Clay Artwork

2007-04-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

IMHO, I think these are some really cool paintings/drawings. This guy painted them while he was in high school a few years back. Here's a partial listing of his portfolio.

Cool Paintings

Create a Sitemap for Your Website

2007-04-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

It's important to have a good sitemap of your site. It helps the periodic spiders better identify your website. Generate a sitemap with the tool listed below and upload it to your server.

Create SiteMap

For Blogger (Per Commenter's request)

Go to Google's Webmaster Tools
1. Login/password

2.

3.

4.

Blogging Tips for Beginners by John Chow

2007-04-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

When I started blogging (approx 6 months ago), I read Blogger.com's tips on how to get started on blogging. The tips were fairly mundane but for a start--decent.

Six months later, I found a succinct list of fairly objective tips (with pithy explanations) by an authoritative blogger. Most of you might know him as John Chow DOT com, and his blog primarily focuses on making money online. Frankly speaking, making money with blogs is not really my thing. However, I thought his post “Beginner Blogging Tip” was a worthwhile find.

Topics discussed

-Pick a Topic That You’re Passionate about
-It’s All About The Content
-Don’t Worry About The Money
-Build Relations With Fellow Bloggers
-Have Fun At This

How are Your Pages Indexed by Google?

2007-04-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

Index stats: Determine how your site is indexed by Google. Here's an example for topbloglists.com

Samples of my pages in Google. The "GS" stands for Google Search. The "BA" stands for Browser Address.

For Google Search, go to Google.com and type in the following: site:www.YOURURL.com
For the Browser Address, type the following: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.YOURURL.com&hl=en

Note: You will have to change site, link, cache, info, and related accordingly for BA.

site:
Indexed pages in your site
GS:site:www.topbloglists.com
BA:http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.topbloglists.com&hl=en

link:
Pages that link to your site's front page
GS:link:www.topbloglists.com
BA:http://www.google.com/search?q=link:www.topbloglists.com&hl=en

cache:
The current cache of your site
GS:cache:www.topbloglists.com
BA:http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.topbloglists.com&hl=en

info:
Information we have about your site
GS:info:www.topbloglists.com
BA:http://www.google.com/search?q=info:www.topbloglists.com&hl=en

related:
Pages that are similar to your site
GS:related:www.topbloglists.com
BA:http://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.topbloglists.com&hl=en

Google's new "My Maps" program

2007-04-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

Google's new "My Maps" program enables anyone to easily create customized mashups, which are online maps overlayed with additional data. Points-of-interest pins are created by dragging and dropping. This map shows places of interest in Lisbon, Portugal, including the location of a hilltop apartment and a photo of views from the area. Check out these examples, 1-4

Google Map Mashouts

More mashout information on Googleplex (click on pins)

Try the 2007 Microsoft Office System

2007-04-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

Try the 2007 Microsoft Office System. Try out their choice of suites or programs from the 2007 Microsoft Office release for 60 days. The trial programs are supposed to contain the same functionality that you would get when you buy the perpetual version.

For an alternate office automation software suite, check out this post at Digital Nomads regarding OpenOffice.org v2.2. This open source suite comes with spreadsheet, database, word processor, and presentation software.

Try Microsoft Office System

For those of you outside the US, you will need to use the following URL's:
Canada: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/canada
Japan: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/japan
Germany: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/germany
UK/Ireland: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/ukireland
France: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/france

Available Downloads:

Microsoft® Office Professional 2007, Microsoft® Office Small Business 2007, Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional 2007, Microsoft® Office Groove 2007, Microsoft® Office OneNote 2007, Microsoft® Office Publisher 2007, Microsoft® Office Project Standard 2007, Microsoft® Office Visio Professional 2007, Microsoft® Office Visio Standard 2007, Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007, Microsoft® Office Standard 2007

Submit Your Blogs to Directories

2007-03-31T01:10:00.000-07:00

These submission links point to over 100 blog directories. To generate more interest and traffic, submit your blog(s) to these (some are high PR) directories.

I manually submitted to a couple PR6 directories but then I got bored with the submission process. I'll have to piecemeal it.

Blog Directory Link1
Blog Directory Link2
Blog Directory Link3

The 5 Minute Management Course

2007-03-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some humor finds...

Lesson 1:
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies. "Great," the husband says, "did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?"

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:
A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story:
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great
opportunity.

Lesson 3:
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish." "Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Puff! She's gone. "Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Puff! He's gone. "OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story:
Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?" The eagle answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:
BullShit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson 6
A little bird was flying south for the Winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

Page Rank of Popular Blogs

2007-03-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

I was curious as to what the PR was on some of the popular blogs. I was surprised to see some of the PR's were comparable to the web giants such as craigs, netflix, newegg, and overstock. I was also surprised to see johnchow.com at PR 4 but heard Google has changed their ranking criteria again. What other PR 7 and PR 8 blogs are out there? Are there any PR9 or PR10 blogs? I doubt it…

PR checker

Here are a 10 popular blog sites I see often around the blogosphere and their PR.

John Chow DOT com: 4
Freeware List: 5
4sysops: 5
Shoemoney: 6
Method Shop: 6
TechCrunch: 7
MyBlogLog: 7
ProBlogger: 7
Marketing Pilgrim: 7
Engadget: 8

Major web sites and their PR:
newegg.com: 7
overstock.com: 7
netflix.com: 7
craigslist.org: 8
http://dmoz.org: 8
aol.com: 9
msn.com: 9
amazon.com: 9
yahoo.com: 9
google.com: 10

Today's date is 4/4/2007. The verbiage below is a followup to my original post above (12 days ago)

HMTKSteve found another PR10 site, sitecounter.com. I found a blog, Alien Hunter, that lists 19 PR10 sites. I also noticed that http://www.itunes.com (apple) by itself is a PR10 site.

However, I'm still looking for the elusive PR9 and PR10 blogs. Do they exist?

Check your Page Rank with Google's 50 Servers

2007-03-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is a cool find. It shows your Page Rank (PR) on each of Google's servers. It also shows you the average PR, maximum PR and minimum PR. Here's an example with topbloglists.com.

Check PR

Live Pagerank
Alexa Graph

Alexa Rank: 329,106 [show graph]
Google Backlinks: ~2160
Average PR: 5 | Max PR: 5 | Min PR: 5
Summary for www.topbloglists.com

Top Blog Lists provides listings for the top blogs in arts, celebrity, computers, geek, humor, money, music, personal, politics, and sports.

DC: 64.233.163.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.163.184 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.167.115 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.171.83 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.171.115 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.183.81 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.185.19 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.187.44 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.187.107 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 64.233.189.162 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.102.1.93 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.102.1.107 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.102.7.184 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.102.11.19 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.102.11.80 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.81.107 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.89.162 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.91.83 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.91.91 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.91.133 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.93.107 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 66.249.93.133 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.207.91 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.209.84 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.209.115 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.211.83 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.211.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.215.104 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.219.18 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.219.80 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.219.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.235.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.247.115 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.253.44 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.253.80 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 72.14.253.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.129.184 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.135.44 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.135.100 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.143.81 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.143.84 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 209.85.143.99 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.51.19 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.51.104 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.53.80 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.57.99 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.59.17 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.59.19 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.59.104 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes
DC: 216.239.59.107 Toolbar PageRank: (5/10) Cached: Yes

100 SEO Factors that affect Google Page Rank

2007-03-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

There are "over 100 SEO factors" that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results (SERPs). What are the search engine optimization rules?

see 100 SEO factors

Remove the Navbar from Blogger

2007-03-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

Personally, I like it but some people don't.

/* Navbar remove */
#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
margin-top: -50px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none;
}

Google's Hidden Pages. Check them out.

2007-03-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

There might be some rare human being around who has surfed Internet but hasn't used Google in some way or the other. Still there are some great works of Google that are known but to a smaller community of people. They are worth looking.

Google's hidden pages

U.S. government's official web portal

2007-03-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

Some things to start to think about for March.

1. Clocks Go Forward on March 11
2. Women’s History Month
3. Federal Tax Filing Deadline Is April 17
4. Tax Refund Available on Long Distance Phone Service
5. Presidential $1 Coins Now in Circulation
6. National Kidney Month

US.gov

Top 10 Funniest Gadgets

2007-03-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of the 10 funniest looking gadgets around. I think they might make you chuckle a bit.

10 funniest gadgets

Convert a Flash Video / FLV file (Youtube's movie,etc) to MPEG4

2007-02-27T03:10:00.000-08:00

Download online videos direct to PC / iPod / PSP. It's free! This service allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (Youtube's movie,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online.

convert videos

How to Win Friends and Influence People

2007-02-27T02:57:00.000-08:00

Here's an old classic. This is Dale Carnegie's summary of his book, from 1936.

Win Friends and Influence People

Quick Reference Cards

2007-02-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

C Language Quick Reference, Flash ActionScript Quick Reference, JAVA Language Quick Reference, Microsoft Visual Basic Quick Reference, Perl Scripting Language Quick Reference, Matlab Quick Reference, Matlab toolboxes Quick Reference, and many more.

see reference cards

Access Google Mail at Work or School

2007-02-15T05:40:00.000-08:00

How to access Gmail when it is blocked at work or school. This site has a number of URLs to try.

check URLs

A Bubble-powered Computer

2007-02-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a computer that carries out calculations using tiny bubbles instead of electricity and was developed by US researchers. The device was developed at MIT.

see tiny bubbles computer

Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection

2007-02-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Want to learn a foreign language? Here is a podcast link. The languages included are Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai. And by the way, these programs provide a written transcript of the spoken word.

see Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection

Verbose Resource List of Educational Links

2007-01-30T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a site fill with free educational links.

For example, Berkeley course with video lectures, sites offering free courses, educational videos, learn a language on iTunes, free online documentation, reference sites, free ebooks, and several other categories.

See links

South Korea has the Highest Broadband Internet Penetration per capita

2007-01-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

Did you know that South Korea has the highest broadband Internet penetration per capita in the world?

South Korea is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The citizens of this nation of 49 million people are well connected with a myriad of personal communications services.

Here's my article: http://esofthub.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/09/a-comparison-of-data-communications-in-the-united.htm

40+ Ways to Make Money on the Internet

2007-01-06T01:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a blog that has over 40+ ways to make legitimate money from the Internet.

Here's what is NOT included in the list: Taking Surveys, Get Paid to Surf the Internet, MLM, Programs with a ton of negative user experiences (based on researching forums, googling them, etc.), Contest Sites, "Buy my DVD, CD, Audiobook", etc.

read 40+ ways to make money on the Internet

Ferry with 850 aboard sinks off Java coast, navy commander says

2006-12-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

Breaking news: Ferry with 850 aboard sinks off Java coast, navy commander says. I just got this off of MSN.com. I will post the link when it becomes available. The news broke on the same page of Saddam's execution. Must have just happened minutes ago.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/?GT1=8816

Here's the updated link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16401103/

Seven Japanese high-tech gadgets

2006-12-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here are 7 Japanese high-tech gadgets you can not buy. There are videos included for these strange hi-tech gadgets.

see strange gadgets

2006-12-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

There are no downloads or setting changes to bother with. This is a quick reference sheet on how to type infrequently used but often needed symbols and characters.

see reference

Top Blog Lists - Rankings - Top Sites

2006-12-24T03:56:00.000-08:00

Top Blog Lists has hit 100 members in less than 3 weeks. Register your blog and join this growing community. It's free.

join now

67 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena

2006-12-24T03:49:00.000-08:00

This website have some unique visual phenomena and visual illusions. The author provides brief explanations on each of the illusions. Check them out.

see illusions