Monthly Archives: June 2007

C’mon…Google Did It On Purpose!

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Go ahead, tell me they didn’t, I won’t believe you. Who knows the whys and wherefores of the all powerful Google (of OZ) but this little snafu of throwing a Google Checkout party right in the middle of Ebay’s annual convention is so against the grain of Google’s usually smart business sense that I smell nothing but a big sneak. They planned it this way!

EBay pulls ads from Google over party

At issue are online payment systems — eBay’s PayPal, which handles roughly 80 percent of online transactions — and Google’s Checkout, which launched last year.
Google invited eBay’s conference attendees to a party, billing it as a “Let Freedom Ring” event and rally against eBay ‘ s refusal to allow sellers to advertise that they accept Checkout payments, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. “When we heard of their plans to have their party and the way they were marketing it, we were disappointed,” said Hani Durzy, spokesman for San Jose-based eBay. Google canceled the party Wednesday.

And immediately after that story was published came this:

Google Cancels ‘Freedom’ Party To Appease eBay — eBay and Google — InformationWeek

Google’s call to “Let Freedom Ring” sounds like a repudiation of censorship. In fact, it was Google’s challenge to eBay to accept Google Checkout.

Google had planned to host its Google Checkout Freedom Party in Boston today in conjunction with the commencement of the eBay Live developer conference. The company wants to rally support among eBay sellers sold on processing their online sales using Google Checkout, something eBay, as the owner of the competing PayPal service, doesn’t allow.

Google’s cry for freedom, however, only freed Google from eBay ad revenue. The online auction site reportedly canceled its search ad purchases in response to Google’s agitation.

Google cancels party? Yah…I bet they did.

Heck, both of these types of reports came out the same day at almost the same time for heavens sake. On Google news of course. Sorry folks…Google may still be a bit young on the scene but they are most definitely not any sort of naive startup that would make this type of stupid mistake. Google didn’t put those billions of dollars in the bank by pulling these type of stunts—not at all.

So why did they want out of a partnership with Ebay? Like I said…who knows? But whatever the reason, Google sure can’t be accused of any sort of breach of contract now, can they? And as for me, all I can say is YEAH GREAT!!! GOOD DEAL!!! WOO-WOO!!

I got so sick and tired of seeing “Buy this at Ebay”, “Get that at Ebay”, “Find the other at Ebay” every time I tried to search for something using Google. No matter what I might type into Google search I could get it at frickin’ Ebay. If I typed “Joe Blow” into a Google web search box I could guarantee you that there would be a Google ad on the right stating “Find Great Deals on Joe Blow at Ebay!“.

Not anymore…

Now all I have to put up with is “Find Great Deals on Joe Blow at Amazon!”

So thanks from me, Google, for eliminating one large eyesore from my favorite search engine. No longer will my insatiable curiosity finally win the day and force me to go find out the “Great Prices on Baby Poop at Ebay!” or fighting the urge to place a bid on “Hairballs at Ebay Auctions!”—Peace at last.

Ah…Life is good!

Note: I just had to do this…I couldn’t resist.

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Evening Bits…On the Mend

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Finally got back to work today after a flare up that lasted nearly two weeks. It would still be going on if it weren’t for the urgent run down to the VA this past Monday with my honey doing the driving.  They ended up giving me the pain med that I initially refused about two months ago ( I hate taking pills). Luckily, this isn’t a narcotic but rather something that affects certain synapses in the brain so if I start typing upside down I’d appreciate it if someone would let me know. So far it hasn’t turned me inside out with side effect which is so often the case with me and it does seems to be doing the job. Still…the jury’s out as to whether it will continue to work through the long run. At this point, I’m really hoping it will. Being out of work does not pay the bills after all.

In the meantime, if I continue to improve, I’ll be able to get back to some serious posting and maybe even get back to work on that poor, neglected series that I got half way through before I was taken out. That would be good, don’t you think?

Yup, so do I.

I’m also considering doing a major overhaul on Just Thinkin’. Something I’ve been thinking about for awhile now. I’d really like to go over to a 3 column theme, give myself a bit more sidebar real estate to spread things out a bit. Unfortunately, I’m real picky as to how the site presents itself (been lucky so far, thanks folks) and up till now, no 3 column theme has really grabbed my attention yet. I’ve worked the backend  to my satisfaction and things in that area seem to be running fairly smoothly under the hood so now’s the time to start working on the front end. No real solid plans yet but a couple of good ideas. I’m also open to ideas from other folks as well. I’m admittedly, not the best when it comes to “interior decorating” and the like.

But now the bed calleth and tomorrow’s another day which includes work, thank the powers that be. It’s so much easier to make a paycheck when you’re able to actually make to your place of employment.

Can’t wait for the weekend. :P

Excellent Info on Oil From Algae

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While perusing through my stats over the past few days, I noticed several searches leading here that led folks to my original Oil from Algae post back in March. It finally got through my thick skull that I had received a comment from Narsi, one of the coordinators of that let me know about the existence of this extremely informative site. I had wanted to write up a follow up post with her comment and the link to the site way back then but for some reason or other, I completely blew it. So here’s to making up for lost time and the info that folks seem to be looking for. I’ve reprinted her full comment here for you to read over before you head to the site.

Thanks for the article?it is heartening to see algae getting a lot of publicity, something I feel they deserve.

I co-ordinate Oilgae, a site that explores use of algae as a feedstock for biodiesel, and I can say with some amount of confidence based on my researches that algae appear to be one of the most qualified candidates for biodiesel production.

While the math certainly appears to favor algae, there are a number of issues to be overcome. These have to do with (1) choosing optimal algal strains, (2) issues faced in cultivation and harvesting (believe me there are some serious bottlenecks here), and (3) cost-effective methods to extract oil and transform it into biodiesel.

So yes, there is still a long way to go before it can be proven with certainty that algal biodiesel can be cost-effective on a large scale, but it is gratifying to see brilliant minds (not to forget VC money) getting into this field. And with institutes like MIT (Boston) getting into the act, I?m optimistic most of the above-mentioned issues will be overcome.

Time will tell if algae are our future source of energy, but for now, they certainly appear to have many of the qualifications required for the same.

Narsi from Oilgae – Oil from Algae

And if the above site doesn’t satisfy your appetite for this type of information, I’m providing a direct link to the site’s blog where you can pose questions and leave comments if you wish. A more interactive experience as it were.

Both are a definite read for those already interested or working with this sort of thing and even more so for those who wish to become familiar with it.

So with all apologizes to Narsi, whom I really didn’t mean to ignore, my head sometimes resembles that proverbial sieve they keep talking about and my memory simply runs through it. Glad I finally remembered.

Technorati tags: environment, global warming, biodiesel, algae

Been a Heck of a Week! A Needed Vent.

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And it most certainly has indeed. A week ago today, at approximately this time of the day I was throwing clothes and various sundries into my carryall and microwave meals into an ecology bag for a two day trip to the Boston VA in Jamaica Plains. Lodging overnight at the White River JCT, VA so I could catch the DAV shuttle to Boston at 7:00am the next morning. All for a 24 hour test that involved measuring my stomach PH in regards to the damaged area located in the lower part of my esophagus. It was annoying to say the least but utterly necessary and all in all I survived that portion of week without a scratch. More or less.

I arrived home on Tuesday evening after a three hour ride from Boston to White River, VT and another two hour drive from there to Newport, VT and home. I had full intentions to return to work the next day. Well, you now what they say about good intentions.

Since then I have been at home with a huge flare up of the very malady that the aforementioned test was all about. Kind of like having a bad case of the stomach flu…forever. But then again, this is the one service related problem that has worsened over the past 6 months. So like I knew it wouldn’t?

Sigh…

It would have been very foolish of me of me to think that things would remain the same now wouldn’t it? This is supposedly the final test needed for decisions to made as to what will be done to help my situation…most likely surgery of some kind or another. That’s alright as far as that goes, I’m not one of those who tremble at the thought of surgery being done. What does concern me is where is the money going to come from while I’m out of work and during the recovery period of said surgery. There are bills to be met and rent to be paid and it takes both of us to make that happen. And will my job still be there after the recovery. Will I be able to work at all?

Perhaps I should stop worrying about things that haven’t occurred yet.

I’m still waiting on the answer to my request for an increase in my disability compensation for this particular problem. A request that was backed up by my PCP down at White River JCT so here’s hoping some help will come from that avenue.

Of course my ability to crank out a post just about disappeared for days. I can adjust. Really…I can adjust.

But the thing I hate the most is worrying my honey. I suppose that comes with being so completely together as we are but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. She has enough on her mind without me and my health problems adding too it. But then again, I worry about her too when she’s feeling down or sick, feeling helpless that I can’t “make it go away” just as she feels equally helpless that she can’t “cure” me. Little does she know how much she actually helps me just by being there.

So Monday’s just around the corner and another stab at work. I’ll deal with that in the morning.

This is not a pity post. No pity needed or wanted for that matter. But I needed a place to vent and this being my personal type blog that I have worked quite hard to bring to it’s current state, it seemed as good a place as any and probably better than most.

My written word is better than my spoken any day.

Things are going to get interesting over the next month or so. Change is in the air, I can smell it. Hopefully, it will be all for the better.

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Update On Windows Live Writer Bug Fixes

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Just a quick update here of what I’ve found in pursuit of temporary fixes for the new Windows Live Writer problems.

First the dreaded “ArgumentOutOfRangeException” that presents itself when used with any WordPress blog irregardless whether it’s hosted on WordPress.com or your own install. The explanation is here at Andrew Grant Live. Here’s an exceprt:

After installing the second beta I found any attempt to open an existing post or draft from my WordPress blog would fail with a cryptic error of ?ArgumentOutOfRangeException?. After a lot of trial and error I tracked the problem to several posts that used <pre></pre> tags to wrap pre-formatted text such as code snippets.

This was confirmed when I posted my findings on the Live Writer forum, though the problem isn?t just with <pre> tags. Any post containing multiple <script> or <style> tags within the body will also cause an ArgumentOutOfRangeException.

Fortunately for us WordPress users, Andrew’s latest version of Keyword Tags for WordPress plugin solves this problem and if you happen to use another tagging plugin as I do, then simply unchecking all the tagging options once Andrew’s plugin is installed will eliminate any possible incompatibility issues (I emailed him about this very thing and those were his instructions).

If you don’t use any preformatted text or code snippets within your posts (which I don’t) then you don’t have to worry about the above error. If you do and you find you can’t use the new WLW because of this bug in WLW then this plugin should solve your problem nicely until the next version of WLW hits the streets.

The second problem:

Update 06-16-07: The problem described below turned out to be caused by a Pmetrics tracking script that was placed in my footer which sends visitor data to my stats service. Luckily, I was able to replace this script with a Pmetrics plugin which performs the same functions as the tracking script did without interfering with WLW. Problem solved!

I’ve encountered and found a work around for is WLW’s funky coding for inserting tags such as Technorati tags. Ultimately convenient for the the person writing up a post but causing some interesting problems when uploading an edit. For an explanation of this see my previous review and scroll down to the “Stripped “div” tags section. Now this may only be a problem with the theme I use or WordPress 2.2, I’m still not sure but if anyone is having the problem of a post that was written and posted by WLW and then edited again using WLW causing your theme to render incorrectly, I found a temporary fix that works for me.

Once my tags are inserted and I’m satisfied with them I strip out all the extra code that WLW wraps around the usual tag code (I’ll use Technorati for example) before I first publish the post. This is an example of how a single Technorati tag (same for multiple tags) should look once all the WLW code is removed. You end up with the same code used by any other editor.

Tag code

This way I can edit to my heart’s content without “breaking my blog”. I may no longer have the WLW type convenience of editing my Technorati tags for that particular post but once I’m satisfied with the tags I’ve inserted, there’s no reason to edit them anyway.

Note: I’d really appreciate it if anyone who has seen a similar problem to leave a comment saying so. It would help tremendously if I knew if this was just an isolated incident.

That’s all I’ve found in addition to the work arounds I listed in the original review that really needs fixing in order to make the new Beta 2 version of WLW workable with WordPress. In fact I’ve really enjoyed working with the new version despite it’s quirks. It’s really shaping up to be the best blog editor on the market.

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All the Blog’s a Stage. A Blogging Metaphor

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And we are not merely players but the playwrights, directors, prop managers, stage managers and caterers. We set the stage, the scenery, lighting and the mood and our readers are not only our audience and critics but players as well. And like the theater, attending other plays is a must whether to praise, criticize or just enjoy ourselves. One must always put in our appearances after all. The play of course, never ends unless you choose to end it yourself.

Searches and link love are our playbills.

And it’s not a stage of the type that adorns just one end of a theater with orchestra and seats arranged in front of it, balconies above, but rather a “theater in the round” where you perform in all directions. And all is ad-lib and each page of the script is blank, waiting for you to write upon it. The character portrayed is yourself.

Captivating, boring, redundant, hilarious, sweet, sad–it’s all there for the taking and each one absolutely unique in it’s own right. And we as blogger’s are one another’s audience.

Enjoy the show.

If any of you are wondering why I wrote this little piece, it’s part of a group writing project at Successful Blog about coming up with your own blogging metaphor. Now maybe it was due to feeling so lousy of late but this was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be. Then my past theater background came in and saved the day.

Yeah, and I think my mother would understand it.

If you want to read what others have come up with, check out these lists that Liz has posted.

The first set

The second set

And the third set

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Still Down But "Right-Brained"!

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Another day down and another day to think of this that and the other thing. The first thing that I thought of was that I had to at least make an appearance at the blog today. Yesterday and the day before there was absolutely no way I could have possibly gotten out anything intelligible whatsoever.

Another thing I was thinking about today was one of Liz Strauss’s writing challenges. Coming up with a blogging metaphor ie: Blogging is like…

And yet another thing I was thinking about was an invitation I received from Quasi Fictional to write up and submit a post about why I blog (came with achieving the rank of SOB). I do love this stuff and it’s something I know I can do. Unfortunately it had to be put on the back burner until I get my health in order. Hard to concentrate on things like quality and content when your body is yelling at you if you know what I mean. But I’ll get there. Perhaps this weekend will do.

One thing I did accomplish yesterday besides successfully sitting/laying on the couch most of the day, was take a Silly Left Right Brain Test (thanks Liz).  An explanation of the difference between the two comes after you answer the questions. Give it a try and do your best to be honest. Especially those of you that already know the difference. You might get a kick out of the answer.

As for me I came out 75% “right-brained”. Makes sense. A male that uses the right side of his brain the majority of the time? No wonder I’m always so darned confused. :P

So here’s to feeling better this weekend ay? Might actually get something accomplished for a change. In the meantime, have a good weekend folks.