One of my geeky gifts this Christmas was this Monster iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter. With it, you can plug in your iPod in the car’s 12V outlet (cigarette lighter), and play songs through your radio using FM frequencies. It also charges your iPod while you’re using it.

My opinion? I don’t know if I got a bad one, or if the product is just crap, but it stopped working after a day. I hooked it up Wednesday night and tested it out. There was some static coming through on the FM station, but it did work. I tried it again Thursday morning and still got static due to not being able to find a weak enough FM frequency. Tried it again Thursday afternoon and it was dead. The power light didn’t come on, so we assumed a fuse had blown in my car. We tested it in my husbands car and got the same result.

I’m taking it back, but I don’t know if I’ll replace it, because I wasn’t that impressed with the sound quality it gave me. I’m definitely going to look into an alternative.

Part of my job description at work is to assist in software evaluations when we have a new vendor who wants to sell us something. It’s a neat thing to do, because I get a sneak peek in things we may buy and implement before everyone else does, as well as provide my feedback on the product. Last week I got to test a new system for our support requests that impressed me a lot, so I hope we get that software soon - it’s desperately needed.

Something else I saw that intriqued me was this program for tracking corporate performance management. Acorn will asist companies in understanding and improving their bottom line profits, cost reduction, and provide analystics and metrics on those areas as well. The software platform can easily interface with your exisiting system and allow you to get moving on improving corporate results.

One of my gifts for Christmas was a new 30GB iPod. I immediately hooked it up to my laptop and started moving songs to it - over 1200 of them! And even after all of those files, I’ve barely scratched the surface on my iPod capacity. Now I’m looking for the easiest and cheapest way to add music to it. I thought I could pay for Napster and do it that way, but it’s not compatible with the iPod. Is there a similar service that I can use to pay by the month, instead of by the song to get tunes?

I was tagged for the 5 Things Meme for this blog recently…so I’m going to try to keep on topic and keep my 5 things tech related. (If you’re interested, you can read the personal list of 5 things I came up with on my other blog)

1. I started my first website in 1997, a mere 2 or 3 months after getting online. It was done entirely in front page and I paid $25 a month for hosting. Eeek!

2. One of the first websites I met people at was called MomsOnline.com - and although it’s no longer in business, I am still friends with many of the women I met there, 9 years later!

3. I am typing this from my work laptop, which is my 5th computer. I got online in 1997 with a hand me down computer from my husband’s sister. It was a Pentium and it had a 1.5 GB hard drive. Jim’s sister got rid of it because she was getting a brand new, state of the art Gateway with a 6 GB hard drive, and we were sure she’d NEVER fill that up.

4. I started blogging in 2001 on a now defunct domain. I’ve used GreyMatter, PMachine, and now WordPress for blogging.

5. I’ve met tons of people off the internet and even have one coming to stay at my house next week!

Did Santa bring you some new geeky toys? I got a new iPod (30GB) and the thingamajig to play it in my car, as well as Grand Theft Auto (the trilogy set) for our new Playstation. If Santa brought you a toy to “go mobile”, like a Palm, PSP, or Blackberry, you’ll want to check out MobileSoftMarket for a huge selection of tools and toys. Perhaps a little Soduku to keep you entertained during your next board meeting? MobileSoftMarket also has desktop tools and EBooks. Everything is catagorized by platform, so it’s easy to find the right thing for your handheld, but you can also search by manufacturer and keyword. Right now you can save 15% off your purchase by using coupon code “0NGKAE”.

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Palm, PSP, handheld, coupon code, geeky gifts

To all of the geeks and geek wannabees out there, Happy Holidays from me to you!

Love,
Colleen

An important part of increasing traffic and your pagerank is building backlinks. Here are some easy tips on how to build back links. First, you need to understand the point of doing so - by increasing the number of links to your site, your search engine ranking will go up, which means that instead of appearing on the 10th page of search results in Google, you’ll be on page 1 or 2. How many people click through to see results on page 10? Not many, so by being on the first few pages of search results, your traffic will increase.

Don’t buy links from a broker promising placement on 1000’s of websites. Your link will end up on link farms, and the Google algorithm will discount those links. Directories are a good place to start, and most are free, and many directories have a high PR as well. You can also use a system like Blogitive - you pay a one time free and submit a press release, and bloggers will write about your product or service and link to your site. After a few months of working your site submissions and getting the word out, you’ll see an increase in your daily visitors and your pagerank will go up as well!

Have you ever thought somone was lying to you, but you had no way to tell? Maybe you’ve got an employee at your workplace that’s constantly calling in with lame excuses about being sick or attending funerals. (Just how many grandma’s can that guy kill off, anyway?) Now with this portable lie detector, called the Di-Fib-ulator, you can instantly determine if someone is telling you the truth, or blowing sunshine up your skirt. The portable lie detector uses the same principles as the real thing by analyzing a voice to determine levels of stess, tension, or excitement. You ask someone 3 yes or no questions to establish a baseline, and then you get to the nitty gritty. You can even use it on a cell phone! It’s been shown to be 65% accurate.

This will serve as my warning too - the next time you call out sick, beware if your boss starts asking you silly nonsense questions like “Is the sky blue?” He may be using the De-Fib-ulator!

Technorati Tags: De-Fib-ulator, lie detector, portable lie detector, geek gifts

I just won $1000 from PayPerPost in their RockStartUp puzzle contest. This brings my grand total with PayPerPost to just under $5,000 since July. Is it any wonder why they’re my favorite paid blogging service?

(You can get paid for blogging too - just click on the PayPerPost image in the sidebar and sign up today!)

Technorati Tags: PayPerPost, RockStartup, paid blogging, blog jobs, make money online

Well, despite the page rank predictor promising me some changes, nothing happened with my blogs yesterday. I’m disappointed of course, but I’m still doing all the right things to grow my PR at my new blogs (link exchanges, upping traffic, etc), so it will happen. I just need to be patient.

Did anyone see a PR increase recently?

I’m seeing MyBlogLog in the sidebar on more and more blogs lately, and I’m wondering what those of you who paid for the service think of it? Specifically, what you think of the stats package versus something in a plugin, like ShortStat for WP. I realize that I got a weeks worth of free stats when I signed up for MyBlogLog, but I never bothered to check them to compare the package to anything else.

I’m happy to see more and more hotels adding free wifi as one of the regular services to travelers. It makes bringing your laptop on a trip a lot easier. I have a built in dialup service I can use if I’m stuck, but wifi is obviously a lot faster, and preferred. It came in handy during the 3day walk I was in this October too - we were able to get online from the Days Inn at night!

During my last two trips to Disney, we stayed at Disney resorts, both “deluxe” and “value”. I was disappointed to find that not only does Disney NOT offer free wireless access, they charge you $10 for 24 hours. It’s not even a per use charge - once you start, the clock is ticking, even if you’re out of your room. Additionally, during our stay this September at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we couldn’t even access Yahoo mail from the Disney internet. After calling their tech support, they told me it was a known error. So I paid $10 for a service, and then couldn’t even check my email?

Free wireless for travelers is the wave of the future, and Disney needs to get on board and stop nickel and diming their hotel guests.

Technorati Tags: Wireless internet, WIFI, free WIFI

I’m growing increasingly frustrated with Technorati. I’ve had issues pinging them on my main blog for weeks, and I can’t reclaim that blog there either. I’ve submitted a support request and patiently waited for a week, and I still don’t have a response. I was able to submit claims for other blogs without an issue…

It’s super frustrating to not get a response when you submit a support ticket.

It’s amazing what you can do online these days - from video conferencing to playing games, shopping, chatting with friends - you can even go to school online. One of the bigger online universitys is Capella University. They are accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. This online university offers graduate degree programs in most popular topics - business, education, IT, human services, and psychology. In addition, they offer 76 graduate and undergraduate specializations. Over 16,000 students have used Capella University to further their educations online - they represent all 50 states and over 60 countries. Did you ever think you’d be able to go to school, take courses online, and get a degree, all without having to step foot out of your own home?

My friend Marcus needed some assistance this week setting up PhotoPress, and since I thought this might help others, I’m sharing the info here too. If you’re using the HTML code in PhotoPress (and I recommend it) you’ve probably tried aligning your pictures to the left, or to the right, and noticed that they’re a bit off, like my example above here. Here’s how to easily fix that. Upload your picture in PhotoPress, and then browse to select it. Select thumbnail or full image, and then pick left or right alignment. Once you put the code in your page, you’ll see this if you’re using the HTML editor. (If you’re using rich text, view your HTML source to see and edit your code):

<a href=”http://www.geekyspeaky.com/?pp_album=main&pp_cat=&pp_image=logo_button.jpg” title=”logo button”><img src=”http://www.geekyspeaky.com/wp-content/photos/logo_button.jpg” alt=”logo button” width=”144″ height=”130″ class=”alignleft” /></a>

If you keep the code as is, your picture will look like the one above, where the text doesn’t start until the bottom of the image. If you’d like to make it truly aligned with the few few lines of text, change the code. Instead of class=”alignleft” put align=”left” (or right)

Here’s what that will look like. Much nicer, eh? It makes your text butt up to the image for the height of the image, and I think it looks more polished and professional too. Oh, and if your theme/CSS is set to put a blue border around all your links, you can add a border=”0″ to your code to remove that. So your code would end up looking like this:

<a href=”http://www.geekyspeaky.com/?pp_album=main&pp_cat=&pp_image=logo_button.jpg” title=”logo button”><img src=”http://www.geekyspeaky.com/wp-content/photos/logo_button.jpg” alt=”logo button” width=”144″ height=”130″ align=”left” border=”0″ /></a>

Technorati Tags: Photopress plugin, Photopress, Wordpress plugin, plugins, editing HTML, formatting HTML

I’ve got a few…shall we say, constructive comments for commenters on blogs. Take ‘em or leave ‘em, but these are some things that irk me when I see them.

1. Leave comments in proper English. Now, I understand if English isn’t your first language - I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about commenters who can’t even bother to spell things out, or use cutesy abbreviations like a 12 year old girl. I hate comments that say “Do U knw what i mean?” No, I don’t know what you mean, and chances are, I’ll delete your comment.

2. I’m not the greatest speller. I’m lazy from time to time, and don’t spell check. But proof your comments before you submit them for the world to read, and I’ll try to proof my blogs. Win, win, don’t you think?

3. For cripes sake, don’t argue with me. A little friendly debate is one thing, or sharing your opinion in a tactful manner, but negative comments with a nasty tone will be deleted. Duh. And it’s a good idea to not insult the blogger in the comment - those typically get deleted.

4. Want to exchange links? Or something more? That’s cool - but find a somewhat appropriate entry to comment on. A friend mentioned this week that someone left a comment about a new paid blogging program on an entry where she talked about someone who died. Nice. Very classy. Take a minute to read the entries, and find one more appropriate.

5. Comments may be moderated. If your comment doesn’t immediately show up when you hit submit, don’t resubmit it 3 more times. Chances are, your comment will appear after the blogger has time to moderate their comment queue.

6. Unless it’s relevant to the entry, don’t link back to your blog IN your comment. If I want to visit your blog, I will, provided you filled out the URL field.

7. Make your comment well thought out, or at least a complete thought. People will be more inclined to take you seriously if you do. Heck, if you don’t sound like a complete moron, I’ll probably visit your blog, and maybe you’ll get a new reader or two!

I’ve not experienced all of these situations personally - but I’ve seen quite a few, and they hit a hot button. So there you go.

Yay - Google finally indexed my new blog: BuyMeBlog

I submitted it last week and just noticed google results showing up in the search stats tonight - I think that’s the longest they ever took to send the spiders out to one of my websites. Most of my traffic on Simple Kind Of Life comes from google and their search results (my biggest search string? Anything about Richard C. Davis and Flip This House!) so I’m always certain to add new blogs to Google ASAP - my traffic depends on it!

Technorati Tags: Google, add URL, search engines, search engine results, SEO, search engine optimization, search stats, site traffic, search strings

I finally did it - I upgraded to Internet Explorer 7. I tried Firefox, but I have to use IE for work, and seeing as how I’m on my work laptop constantly, switching back and forth was too much. I finally decided (after seeing errors in one of my other blogs with IE6) to make the switch. It was relatively painless - after all, I’ve already used (and fell in love with) the tabs in FF. I’m not too thrilled with the layout of my buttons and toolbar in IE7, and I haven’t figured out how to move them around yet, but I’ll figure it out eventually. And all of my blogs look ok in IE7, so there’s no stress there. It’s definitely a FF knockoff, but not too bad for a Microsoft product.

I just was thinking back…I remember getting online in 1997 and having IE3. Sheesh, that was a long time ago!

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer, IE, IE7, Internet Explorer 7, FireFox, FF, IE vs. FF, Internet Explorer vs. Firefox

Eve shared a useful tool with me this week - it’s a Google page rank prediction tool. You can enter up to 10 domains, and it will show you the current pagerank (PR) and what they predict your pagerank may change to with the next PR update. You’ll also get a percentage showing the accuracy of the prediction, and you’ll be able to see the # of backlinks for your website.

I use URL Trends to track my pagerank, so I’m anxious to see the next update, as the page rank predictor shows that 2 of my domains should increase in PR. The next update for URL Trends is December 21st, 2006.

Technorati Tags: Google pagerank, pagegrank, PR, increase PR, increase pagerank, pagerank updates, URL Trends, pagerank prediction, track PR, track pagerank, pagerank update, pr update

If you’ve got someone who loves their digital camera, here are 2 gifts sure to wow this Christmas season!

First up, here’s a cool digital camera on a keychain. And yes, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles you’ll find on a regular digital camera, but show me a regular digital camera that costs under $50 and holds your keys! What you WILL get is a camera that is always at your fingertips, so you’ll never miss a photo opp again. This camera, while small, can take up to 26 print quality shots, or 104 email quality shots, as well as short video clips. A USB cable is included for easy downloading, and you’ll love the built-in rechargeable lithium battery!

Once you’ve taken those pictures, you’ll need to be able to display them. How about right on your keychain that doubles as a digital picture frame? What proud parent or grandparent could turn down a gift like this? No more fumbling in your wallet to drag out pictures when the little darlings are on a digital keychain fram! And it’s not just for one picture - this keychain has 8mb of memory and holds up to 56 digital shots, so you’ll be able to carry a whole album of pictures with you. The 1.4″ LCD screen is large enough to display your images without making you squit. Software is included to make transfer of your photos easy. And it took includes a built-in, rechargeable battery that provides 2.5 hours of viewing time.

I’ve found some coupon codes online for Brookstone, so you’ll be able to save some green if you decide to purchase the above items - enjoy!

Technorati Tags: digital camera frame, digital camera keychain, keychain frame, Brookstone, tech gifts, electronic gifts