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Web 2.0 – Real World Photography Contest

July 31, 2007 By 7 Comments

Jeffro2pt0 Web 2.0 Photo Contest Logo

I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about a contest that will be starting on August 1st and ending on September 30th. I’d love to see if anything dealing with Web 2.0 exists in the real world which is why this is a Web 2.0 photography contest. The idea is simple. Take a photo of anything that resembles Web 2.0. This could be objects with rounded corners, pastel colors, unique billboard advertisements, architecture, perhaps a product name with the word BETA next to it. Anything that you think you would see in the world of Web 2.0. At the end of the month, I will go through all of the entries to judge which one best represents Web 2.0 and the winner will receive a free Flickr Pro Account which will be good for one year.

In order to submit your entries, please visit Jeffro2pt0 the official Flickr Group for this contest and join the group. Entries submitted in any other way will be discarded.

Here is the low down concerning the contest, also known as rules:

  1. 2 Entries Per Group Member
  2. No Photoshopped Images
  3. Do not use multiple Flickr accounts
  4. Nothing Pornographic or Violent In Nature

I reserve the right to determine whether an image is a rule breaker or not and these rules could be updated or changed at any time prior to the contest completion date. Have fun, and lets see how creative you people are!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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FireFox 2.0.0.6 Released

July 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment

FireFox LogoFireFox’s built in update checker happily notified me of the update as I browsing around today. 2.0.0.6 contains 1 critical security fix and 1 moderate security fix.

 

 

Fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.6

  • MFSA 2007-27 Unescaped URIs passed to external programs
  • MFSA 2007-26 Privilege escalation through chrome-loaded about:blank windows

That about sums up what was contained in the update. Considering one of the flaws that was fixed is rated as critical, I advise you to upgrade as soon as possible. You can download the latest version of FireFox by clicking here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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Poll Results Regarding Pownce

July 31, 2007 By 1 Comment

Earlier in the month of July, I asked visitors the question if, Pownce will ever triumph over the competition? After allowing the poll to be published for 30 days, here are the results.

  • 17 of you voted NO,
  • 9 of you voted MAYBE
  • while only 6 of you voted YES.

Granted this poll was created in the beginning of the month before the announcement of Pownce releasing a public API in September.

I personally think because of the type of financial backing in combination with the people who are directly involved with the service, it will be quite awhile before Pownce disappears off of the radar. I honestly don’t use Pownce as much as I use Twitter simply because I can’t tie my Twitter updates into Pownce.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the woodwork in terms of Pownce related plugins/mashups due to the API being released. Perhaps someone will develop a way for me to Pownce through Twitter.

On a side note, please vote on my new poll question which is: Should I Produce A Podcast For This Site? I am seriously thinking of starting up a show on Talkshoe but I’d like to know if there is an audience who would be willing to participate in the show. I have a vague idea as to what I would like to accomplish with the show, so please cast your vote and let me know.

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My Experience With 10Links

July 30, 2007 By Leave a Comment

My first shot at using 10Links happened on Friday evening. While I was participating in a late night podcast on Talkshoe called Techbytes, I opened up a browser window and loaded up the 10Links submission page. I told others in the podcast about the opportunity to self promote their site and or blog by getting their link on the front page and as midnight continued to get closer, I began to feel a bit of excitement because I knew other people that were going to participate at the same time.

While waiting on the submission page, 10Links provides a nifty counter which tells you the amount of time left before midnight. A weird anomaly happened to me when I refreshed the page with a little less than three minutes remaining. The page reloaded and the timer shaved off 10-15 seconds. I’m not sure why it did that but it only occurred once.

Timer Counting Down To Midnight

I wasnt sure how the submission button would appear, so I filled out the form to make sure that all I would have to do is press enter. When I refreshed the page with 15 seconds left till midnight, the submission form entries were erased and the submit button appeared. I’m still not sure why the Submit button appeared 15 seconds before midnight but when it did, I had to quickly re-type my information into the submission form.

As it turns out, my link made it through, but because I had to retype my information into the form, I ended up making a typo or two in my link. After emailing the 10Links folks about the error to see if it could be corrected, I ended up not receiving a reply back. My advice, make sure your information is correct before you press that button.

All in all, it was a decent experience minus those possible glitches. I did receive about 20-30 hits from the front page link while getting a few more hits once the link showed up in their archives. For you bloggers that are trying to get your site out their, give this service a try. Every link counts and the best part about 10Links is that its free.

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Energy Drink Packed With More Than Caffeine

July 28, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I thought I could lighten the mood a bit this weekend with a hilarious video I came across the other night. Sure it’s from May 2007, but as far as I’m concerned, its new. With all of the recent buzz centered around SPIKE SHOOTER, the new energy drink which comes in a 8.4 ounce can and contains 300 milligrams of caffeine, this video seems to fit what I have seen reported in the news as of late concerning the drink.

Filed Under: Jokes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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10 Links Till Midnight

July 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

10Links.Net Logo

How Does It Work?

10Links.Net is powered by a simple idea. A front page with 10 links on it, one of which could be yours. Every day at 12 AM CST users submit there sites as fast as possible to 10links.net and the first 10 legitimate links that make it into their system are the ones that become displayed on their front page for 24 hours. Simple concept, but I think it will work and gain in popularity.

You may submit as many times as you like and there is no limit to the number of days in a row you could be in the top ten. In fact, 10Links.Net may give out prizes later down the road to those who can maintain a front page presence.

10Links provides a reminder service which will send you an email one hour before midnight. I would advise you to sit on the submit page with your information already filled out so that when midnight arrives, you simply click the submit button and hope for the best. Once the day of links is over with, they are moved into the Archive to forever be preserved on the internets. So asides from the initial boost in traffic, there is a chance that you can receive residual traffic from their archives. You can keep up to date as to who makes the front page by subscribing to their RSS feed.

Conclusion:

Simple idea, with simple execution. Considering this site is brand spanking new, I am not sure how much traffic your site would receive if you did make the top 10, but considering the first two days of links have filled up, their are enough people out their submitting links which has created quite a bit of competition. I’d love to see a traffic log or graphic of 10Links.NET, especially around the midnight hour. I’ll be giving the service try myself on Friday night. Probably not the best time to give it a shot but it’s worth a try.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Kontactr Update:

July 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was kontacted by the folks from Kontactr yesterday in regards to my review and they really appreciated it. They also gave me a small update as to the features they are working on.

We are working on allowing the users the ability to customize the AJAX form too. Also the ability to change the “Sender” of all the mails sent through Kontactr as “message@kontactr.com“. This will let you filter your messages more easily.

The ability to customize your Ajax powered contact form would be a big plus. If they wanted to, they could probably develop a social network where users could share their contact form designs with one another. This may be a stretch of the imagination but I think it’s certainly possible.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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Don’t Blog As Administrator

July 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Display Name As Seen In WordPress

Donncha has posted a WordPress blogging tip which in my opinion, should be common sense by now. Don’t blog as administrator or at least don’t let your display name show up on your blog as administrator. Not only does it send a red flag to potential hackers but it also looks pretty unprofessional too see a bunch of posts on a blog posted by administrator.

To alleviate this problem, log in to your WordPress admin panel and click on USERS. Edit your usernames profile and change the display name to something besides administrator, for example, your real name.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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Get The 411 On Jeffro2pt0

July 25, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I just wanted to let you know that I have re worked the ABOUT page to include more information about this site’s purpose, along with a detailed profile of myself. I think it’s a nice touch to be able to get to know the author of a particular site. It adds a bit of a personal touch.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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Why Are Web 2.0 Sites Compressing Avatars?

July 25, 2007 By 4 Comments

I have a bone to pick with these web 2.0 sites and services. It may not be a huge bone but it’s an annoying one at the very least. Many of these sites and services allow members to customize their profile by uploading an image also known as an avatar. These images are usually .PNG, .GIF, or .JPG files. There is often a maximum dimensions rule as well as a maximum file size rule in place.

I don’t understand why these sites and services have to turn my images into pieces of crap. Most of my avatars that I have created in photoshop look great, until they are uploaded to one of these sites such as MyBlogLog or Technorati. Let’s go through a few Before And After pictures to try and illustrate my point. The first image will be the image as it should be seen, straight out of photoshop saved at maximum quality. The second image is what is seen after uploading the file to the service in question.

First up, Technorati avatars in JPG format.

Before Technorati Before Uploading To Technorati After Technorati After Uploading To Technorati

Now lets take a look at MyBlogLog avatars in .GIF format.

Before MyBlogLog Before Uploading To MyBlogLog After MyBlogLog After Uploading To MyBlogLog

In case you can’t see the differences notice how the second image always looks worst after it’s uploaded to the service in question. The image goes through some sort of compression and the end result is a crappy looking avatar. I have tried changing the images to .PNG and .GIF formats, saving them at the maximum quality level but the compression just rips these images apart.

Why do these sites and services have to compress these tiny images? Why can’t I as a user have a nice looking avatar without compression? I mean, take a look at that example for MyBlogLog, it looks like total crap. I urge you companies to turn that compression crap off. I think the file size limit along with the dimension limit is enough to restrain insane avatars from overtaking your hard drive space. There is no need to compress.

I wonder if I am the only one who has noticed this? Please let me know what you think.

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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