Geek Ideas

New iPhone App to Search PubMed

2010-01-04T15:05:00.001-08:00

I wrote a new iPhone app to search PubMed medical abstracts from your phone. It is currently available at the iTunes store under the name Mobile Abstracts -

itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-abstracts/id348575624?mt=8 .

The app web page is http://mobileabstracts.com .

Features include:

1. The saving of previous searches.
2. Ability to bookmark specific articles.
3. Highlighting of terms within the abstract.
4. Link out to the PDF of the original articles.
5. A Clean Interface

Feature suggestions and bugs can be records at the Mobile Abstracts Google Groups.

My first Apple Web App

2009-08-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

I wrote a web app to map out a user's Facebook friends on a google Map. Clicking on the icon pins shows a picture of the person and their home address. If other people use this application, the application will allow friends to see their actual GPS location if they gave permission to share the location.

The app is very slow because of all the Javascript that gets loaded. I am working on optimizing it.

Any suggestions for features are welcome.

The address is

http://m.bookmarc.com/fb

Thanks.

Ideas from Mark Stout: Recording your own notes with Google Voice

2009-08-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a clever idea how to transcribe notes to your self. I currently use Reqall. However, google voice may be a better way to go.

Check Mark Stouts suggestion.

Ideas from Mark Stout: Recording your own notes with Google Voice

Google Places Yahoo Button on homepage -- April Fools!

2009-03-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

The Google Operating System Blog published that Google is now going to have a link to Yahoo search on their home page to increase competition and encourage search innovation.

I went ... ahhhh... no! April 1st is only a few hours away. It must be a joke. I am not sure it is a joke by the blog or by Google.

Then, of course, I initially thought that the 1 GB of Gmail storage was a April Fools joke 5 years ago when gmail was unveiled.

Let us know in the comments about other April Fools jokes on the web.

Top 4 New Wish List for for Google Voice.

2009-03-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

In the past I have made wishes for the Grandcentral service that Google bought. I waited and waited and all of a sudden most of them came true in the form of Google Voice which is still in beta.

Now I have a new list to make the service even better.

Accept faxes and store as PDF's. Should be easy to do.
Allow me to chose the order in which my phones are called. Right now, my office phone starts ringing a few seconds before my cell phone. This is a good thing since the land line has better reception. But there might be times that i want my cell phone to ring before my home phone so that I get a chance to answer the phone before my family does.
Give me even more control of when each of the phones rings. Maybe this type of thing should be released as an API so that other developers could come up with cool scheduling applications.
Integrate even further with gmail so that gmail identifies numbers in the email and places links on the left sidebar to call the numbers or offer to add them to the contact information.

Let us know what you still want out of the service.

Upgrades are being rolled out slowly for Google voice

2009-03-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Supposedly upgrades have started rolling out for Google Voice for the Grandcentral Beta users.

We have not seen this yet.

Google Voice Blog: Tips on upgrading

Google Voice Blog: Moving to Google Voice!

2009-03-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Grandcentral corrected the typos on their page and now are l inking to googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com rather than voiceblog.blogspot.com.

See our previous post

Google Voice Blog: Moving to Google Voice!

Finally! The new and Improved Google Grancentral -- Google Voice

2009-03-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Finally releasing the update we have been looking for in Grandcentral. Tomorrow, Thursday, they will have the following new features

1) Integrated gmail Google Voice contact list.
2) Ability to receive text messages.
3) Ability to transcribe voice messages.
4) Ability to turn off the "Press 1 to answer..." feature.
5) Free conference calls.
6) Cheap international calls.

We will see how it is actually implemented, but it sounds awesome!

It may even be free!

The funny thing is that their blog link goes to http://voiceblog.blogspot.com/ which is some blog about Georgetown.

Get Rid of Cable - Get HD TV - Make your own Antenna

2009-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

I cancelled my Comcast subscription last week. I hooked my Ubuntu machine to the TV and I bought a digital TV antenna.

Then I found the follow video on how to make my own DTV antenna. Has anyone tried this already? I think I will for fun. I have lots of extra cash now that I am not paying to Comcast.

Maker Workshop - DTV Antenna & Steadicam on MAKE: television from make magazine on Vimeo.

Connecting your Wii to Linux Ubuntu 8.10

2009-01-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Wii is Bluetooth connected to its console. Matt Cutts recently hooked up his Wii to his Ubuntu computer at the same time as me. We followed basically the same instructions. He seems to stop short of showing us how to use it as a mouse.

I have my computer hooked up to my LCD TV and I am trying to determine whether I can live without the ridiculous $70 per month Comcast cable bill. So I want to set up the internet on this TV is the easiest way to be able to surf TV shows on the web.

First of all, you don't need to spend $20 on a Bluetooth receiver as he suggested. I bought one on ebay for $4 with free shipping. It worked immediately.

The rest of the info here is slightly modified from the following post on the Ubuntu forums.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CWiiD

It seems that the instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 worked for 8.10.

Here we go:

Open up a terminal window.
Type: sudo apt-get install libcwiid1 lswm wmgui wminput
Type: sudo modprobe uinput
Type: lswm to get the address ( XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) of your Wii.

Edit two files using the following steps.

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Make it look like

#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser run level.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

modprobe uinput

exit 0

Save the file.

gksudo gedit /etc/cwiid/wminput/ir_ptr

Find these lines:

Plugin.ir_ptr.X = ~ABS_X
Plugin.ir_ptr.Y = ~ABS_Y

and replace them with:

Plugin.ir_ptr.X = ABS_X
Plugin.ir_ptr.Y = ABS_Y

Using the Wii address that you got above enter the following command and push buttons #1 and #2 at the same time. sudo wminput -c ir_ptr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
The Wii should be recognized and all of a sudden your pointer can be controlled by the Wii. The LED strip that comes with the Wii console must be on. So I turn the Wii console on a head of time. Apparently it is simple to build one of the LED strips. I have not done it yet.

Now I can surf the internet. I have been putting together a web page that gathers a lot of the TV viewing into one page. The text is big so that it is viewable on lower resolution screens and easier to target with pointers like the Wii.

http://www.surftvee.com

Let me know how to improve things.

Surf Internet TV like Cable TV but Better

2009-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

The cost of cable is ridiculous these days, and the price of an "On Demand" movie is at least $4.99. The internet now has a huge store of movie and TV show content.

surftvee.com is a new portal to facilitate surfing the web. It is set up to allow you to select movies and TV shows from multiple sources. In the future, a blog will have tips on how to set up your home system to facilitate viewing TV and movie content on your home TV.

Donor Chain at Stanford University

2008-12-18T11:52:00.001-08:00

Here is a video showing the potential of kidney chain donation.

Movies on Demand from Amazon

2008-10-09T20:26:00.001-07:00

Jott.com comes out of beta but immediately has a flat tire

2008-08-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Jott.com announced that it was coming out of beta today. They now have several levels of plans ranging from a free ad supported version to the pro version that works with your outlook application. Its not clear what ad supported means.

I have loved using the service with Remember the Milk. Unfortunately, this hook up will only be available with one of the plans that cost money.

When I tried to sign up today the website kept giving me loading errors. While this is good news to them because it suggests that their site is getting overwhelmed with interested users, it is also bad news that their site was not able to handle the surge. I don't know the architecture of the backbone of their site. Remember Twitter.

UPDATE 12:06 PM: The site now seems to be working.

April Fools Joke - Announcing Project Virgle

2008-03-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

This is the second April Fools that I found on Google and it is only 11:13 PM on March 31, 2008. Anyone interested in going to Mars?

Official Google Blog: Announcing Project Virgle

They even included a multiple choice test assessing amongst other things whether you like to eat algae.

Custom Time google April Fools Joke

2008-03-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I fell for it for about 20 seconds. I thought, "How could this be useful to me?"

Check out their new gmail feature.

More Good Grandcentral Suggestions

2008-02-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

As noted in a previous post, Grandcentral now allows multiple GC numbers to the same phone line. This was our number one wish.

Here was our list

5. More interesting Ring Share Options.
4. Improved Interface when you answer the phone. Somehow the call screening process is a bit cumbersome.
3. Better Integration with gmail - the Messages should be in a single interface.
2. Integrate their address book with the Gmail address book.
1. Multiple Grandcentral numbers should be able to go to a single real phone line. For example, if multiple family members have different GC phone numbers, they should be able to forward them to the main home number.

Now we have new list that includes some new thoughts gathered from the web and feedback.

7. More interesting Ring Share Options.
6. Number portibility.
5. Improved Interface when you answer the phone. Somehow the call screening process is a bit cumbersome.
4. Better Integration with gmail - the Messages should be in a single interface.
3. Improve the caller ID system. Right now caller ID only works properly if you use their pc desktop interface to initiate calls.
2. Integrate their address book with the Gmail address book.
1. Multiple Grandcentral numbers should be able to go to a single real phone line. For example, if multiple family members have different GC phone numbers, they should be able to forward them to the main home number.
1. Enable SMS messaging. Messaging has become essential for anyone using their cell phone to manage their lives.

The Grandcentral blog is down. I think this is a sign that changes are brewing. Hopefully, they will be able to address the above issues.

Grandcentral Now Allows Sharing of Forwarding Numbers.

2008-02-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

Grandcentral has finally made an update to their site. They now allow multiple Grandcentral numbers be forwarded to the same phone. This was number one on our wish list for new features. The service now makes a lot of sense. My wife and I can have separate numbers that ring our personal cell phones and our common home phones. Before this feature, Grandcentral was simply a glorified answering machine. Now it is truly useful. The only problem is that I now have to update everyone with my new number.

They keep hinting that a bunch of updates are on the way. I just hope that they don't start charging.

AT&T Behaves like a Junior League Company

2007-12-24T23:51:00.000-08:00

When we moved into our new home we wanted the least hassle and a fair price; therefore, we went with AT&T. What a huge mistake!!!! Let me tell you how bad they are.

First of all

1. Charged almost $3 per minute to call Europe because I did not buy the monthly international plan which they only told me of after I had run up a $450 bill to Germany talking to my brother.

2. It took them three months and many half hour phone calls to retroactively lower my bill to a more reasonable price.

There interstate rates stink and are about 3 or 4 fold higher than some of the smaller companies.

Their webpage stinks. The login page is difficult to find and different apparently depending in which part of the country you are in.. The wireless service seem to dominate. It appears to be down a significant portion of the time. In fact it is down now which is why I am writing this post now.

We're Sorry. We cannot process your request at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please try again later.

I'd like to cancel my long distance plans with them right now, but their customer service center is closed now.

I found much much cheaper long distance plans here. I found prices to Europe were around 5 cents a minute elsewhere without a monthly fee.

Google Gmail taking advantage of their New Platform with New Features

2007-12-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

google has released several new features for gmail over the past few weeks. Either their new platform must allow for more flexibility or once they converted to the new platform it finally became worth it again to improve the software. Gmail was starting to become stale. The most of new additions such as colored labels and emoticons for google chat appear to be pretty superficial. Others such as, group chat, are more substantial but a bit behind the times. Other IM services have allowed this for a while.

Official Gmail Blog: Group chat and rich emoticons now available in Gmail chat

Earthquake in Palo Alto

2007-10-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Wow! we just felt a pretty significant earthquake here in Palo Alto.

Amazon Now Lets You Buy MP3 Downloads

2007-10-28T18:02:00.003-07:00

Top 5 Ways to Improvement Google's Grandcentral Service

2007-10-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Google bought the VoIP company Grandcentral way back in June or July. Since then there have been no significant updates. Let us give them some help. Remember, they are trying to provide the concept of a single phone number for everyone. Its a great idea but it needs work. Here is the beginning of a wish list. Please add your own.

5. More interesting Ring Share Options.
4. Improved Interface when you answer the phone. Somehow the call screening process is a bit cumbersome.
3. Better Integration with gmail - the Messages should be in a single interface.
2. Integrate their address book with the Gmail address book.
1. Multiple Grandcentral numbers should be able to go to a single real phone line. For example, if multiple family members have different GC phone numbers, they should be able to forward them to the main home number.

What do you think needs to be improved? I'll send a Grandcentral Invite to the 2 best suggestions.

Google Gears Getting an Update

2007-08-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

I love it. Google Gears is going to lead to major changes on how our software works. Zoho already has a word processor that work both online and offline. Awesome. Hopefully, Google Docs will soon use Google Gears to do this.

Billionaire Asking for Higher Taxes

2007-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting online blog entry describing a post by Bill Gross, the billionaire bond king at Pimco. He advocates that the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes.

Check it out here.

Ultimate Low Cost Home Communication Setup - Grandcentral Invite Available!

2007-07-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

We are moving and trying to figure out the best way to set up a home phone line, high speed internet, and cable.

I am going to tell you how to use the Google GrandCentral phone service to help maintain a full featured home communication service.

Basically we have two choices in our area for wired service -- AT&T and Comcast. AT&T will provide complete phone service, DSL, and DishTV. Comcast will provide Digital Voice VOIP Phone Service, cable internet, and cable TV. The cheapest you can get all that from Comast is $99/month from Comcast, but the price goes up significantly after 6 months. AT&T will give an equivalent high speed internet, unlimited phone service for $60/month. Then you need to get DishTV on top of that and pretty soon you are up to $100/month again.

So this is what I did.

AT&T - Basic Service with unlimited local calls. $11
3rd Party Long Distance ~ 3 cents/minute - no monthly charge
AT&T - High Speed Pro-DSL -- $25
Google GrandCentral Voicemail/call forwarding/etc - free
Comcast Cable - $33/month for 5 months then $56.
Total $69/month.

AT&T charges about $8 for old fashion voicemail and about $11 for fancy digital voice mail that allows you to check messages online. Grandcentral does the same thing with a bunch more features including call forwarding, "listenin", call recording, etc. You can also make VOIP calls using your high speed internet. Comcast's Digital voice costs at least $33/month for similar services.

Grandcentral works by assigning you a free phone number usually in your area code that can be forwarded to 1 to 6 phones at once to get in touch with you. It also works as a voicemail if you don't answer any of the phones. For my Grandcentral account I am forwarding it to just one phone number, the one AT&T gave me. I only give out the Grandcentral number to friends and family since the AT&T does not have voice mail. Grand central will email you if a voice message is sent. I have a filter set in my gmail account that forwards the email to my wife also so that she can listen to the message also. When you go on vacation, you can have all your phone call go to your cell phone instead. The added benefit is that you can take this phone number anywhere you go. Its a phone number for life.

Taking a page from the Lifehacker play book, I have 2 invites left to give to people who leave comments describing the coolest and most creative ways to use GrandCentral service. They are still in beta so there are limited invites out there right now.

I hope google incorporates the grandcentral login into the main google accounts.

In the mean time don't pay for inferior services from AT&T and Comcast when you can get great services for less using modern technology and software. Also look at long distance search engines such as Billzilla

Vonage Business Model Sucks

2007-07-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

I am moving so I decided to try a new phone service. Vonage looks like a good deal. $25/month for unlimited local and long distance service along with all sorts of neat perks like call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID etc.

The only problem is that you need a high speed internet connection like DSL or cable. In my area AT&T is the only provider of DSL. They won't provide DSL without local service. So, unless you want to pay for local twice - once with AT&T (min $19/month) and once with Vonage ($25/month) plus AT&T DSL ($25/month) then it ain't worth it.

You could order high speed internet through Comcast for $33/month and then get Vonage. However, Comcast also sells phone service for $33/month that is similar but not as nice as Vonage.

Was Al Gore III doing a publicity stunt for the Toyota Prius Going 100 MPH?

2007-07-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

Al Gore III was pulled over after doing 100 MPH in a Toyota Prius Hydrid. I for one did not realize that the Prius could that fast. I wonder if it is still getting over 50 mile per gallon at that speed.

Article

iPhone is Here

2007-06-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Apple iPhone arrives. Will it live up to its billing?

Google Maps on Blogger

2007-06-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Google Docs get new Yahoo email like interface

2007-06-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

The new interface for google doc has been released. Interestingly it kind of looks like the Yahoo web 2.0 email interface. It is wierd that it is so different from the gmail interface. This seems more inconsistent that Google usually is. What's up with that?

Google Docs

Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog: An entirely new way to stay organized

Official Google Blog: More sharing

2007-06-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: More sharing

Completing the Google Online Office Suite

2007-06-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Google has acquired Zenter, "a company that provides software for creating online slide presentations."

This completes their online office suite. I have already started using their documents suite to do online collaborations with colleagues at work. There is certainly no need to buy MS Office for every PC out there anymore. Open Office and Google documents will do 90% of what all none business people need and perhaps 75% of what all business people need.

The Microsoft Toaster

2007-06-06T20:37:00.001-07:00

Rumors are that MS might help build the iToaster. First you might laugh. But then you might realize that the computer needs to come to the kitchen. Busy family schedules should be easy to retrieve. Shopping lists that are intuitive, smart and easily accessible, sturdy touch sensitive monitors.

One big problem with Mircosoft is that their software is so bloated that it takes for ever to load up. my lap top takes about 4 minutes to get going. This needs to change if MS want to be relevant in entertainment and in the kitchen.

Microsoft preps Windows-based kitchen client by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- Microsoft is beginning work on the first of what it plans to make a family of customized Windows platforms designed for specific rooms around the home. The "Kitchen Client" software will extend the Windows operating system and integrate with current and future Windows Live services, according to sources close to the company.

Buying a house in this market.

2007-05-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

We are going through buying a house now.

The market is screwed up.

So much of the information is kept quiet.
Non-winning bids are not made public.
Buyer and Seller commissions go up if the price goes up. Therefore, the buying agent is not incentavized to get a good price for their client.

We looked at the various online discount real estate options such as Redfin and Ziprealty. CBS 60 minutes recently had an expose about the market. Old fashion realtors were upset about the piece claiming several inaccuracies. The problem is -- if all the "inaccuracies" were corrected, it would still be searing expose on the market.

Think about eBay. They have probably the most fair buyer seller market out there. Products go at their real market value. Buyers and sellers have lots of information. If one buyer bids well above all other buyers, he/she also pays a nominal amount above the next highest bid. Not so when buying the house. When your bid is way over everyone else's then you still pay the high amount. In addition, you never hear about the other bids. Therefore, the market is not well informed about the true value of the house.

I am worried that this is creating a house of cards that is going to come crashing down -- especially in California like it has in much of the country.

This being said, Redfin and ZipRealty are not ready to take on the the old guard. We called Redfin and got very luke warm enthusiasm on the other side. Not what I would have expected from a startup company eager to make big changes.

We went with the classic real estate agent who is working very hard for us now.

Google April Fools Joke - Paper e-mail

2007-04-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

Google has their April fools joke out. They will send you paper mail copies of your e-mail.

http://www.gmail.com

Google vs The Daily Show

2007-03-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

A very funny clip of john Stewart making fun of his boss Viacom.

2007-03-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here I am trying to add the Google Talk Gadget.

Vista install in 2 minutes

2007-02-21T16:28:00.001-08:00

Vista gets trashed here.

iRobot Roomba

2007-01-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

I bought a iRobot Roomba for ourselves for Christmas. We let it run through the house today while we went to the park with the kids. When we came back the place actually did look better.

Cool Geeky Traffic Thoughts

2006-11-26T22:56:00.000-08:00

Traffic Theories

The link above goes to an interesting website about how traffic jams are formed and how individual drivers have the power to alleviate them.

The Zune is Here

2006-11-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

I noticed that the Microsoft Zune is now available at most retail stores including Amazon and Frys. The concept seems very similar to the iPod - very restrictive. It has wi-fi which the iPod does not. However, they have not made much use of the wi-fi yet. I guess there are some creative uses that they will be able to come up with. Unfortunately, if it is a closed architecture, then 3rd party people will be slow to come up with cool improvements.

Another digg-like site shares profits with posters

2006-11-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

Yet another website is following Vurbs.com model of sharing profits with visitor who post items to the website. Both Vurbs and Digital Journal use revenue from the advertisers to reward posters.

Link

Cost of the Iraqi War

2006-10-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

Can you believe how much this war is costing us?

Check out this live depressing counter as the billions empty out of this country into the hands of Cheney and his cronies.

Brillian TV's to be made in the US

2006-10-27T14:53:00.001-07:00

Finally a company is making TV's in the US again. Hopefully, this will work.

Google Maps for Your Treo

2006-10-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Google Mobile Maps is incredible. I feel like I am Jack Bauer on 24. You can look at maps and satellite imagery right on your Treo 650. Liek most people, I imediately looked up the satellite image of my house. It is not quite as good as the image that I can look at on my desktop, but it is not bad. I could not find the hybrid satellite - map view like Google' desktop version.

Used Palm Handhelds

Vurbs.com Beats Youtube and Google to the Punch

2006-10-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

Drudge and others reported today that the merger between Youtube and Google may facilitate allowing users to share in the revenues.

We would like to point out that you can already do this at Vurbs.com. When you submit a video to Vurbs.com that is hosted at Google or Youtube, you get credit for 1/3 of the advertising revenue generated by visitors to your video. You can learn how to earn cash for videos here.

Visitors can increase traffic to their submissions on Vurbs.com by linking to their submissions on other blog sites like Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook.

2007 Ford Escape Hybrid has 0% 48 month financing and $1000 off

2006-08-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

We had been looking to buy a Ford Hybrid Escape 2007 model year. It and the mustang are currently the hottest selling Ford vehicles. Earlier this week Ford announced 0% 72 month financing for the 2006 models; however, the Ford Escape 2006 models have a higher starting price and are tough to find since most have been sold. I wanted a 2007 model. And what do you know...

Today they started offering 0% 48 month financing for the 2007 models. In addition there is an $1000 cash back to the dealers that you may be able to get a significant cut on. I have not seen this offer on the Internet yet elsewhere. Make sure that you inquire about it. Two dealers I talked to did not initially know about it until they looked on the Internet. They also did not fess up to the $1000 cash rebate.

With the $2600 tax rebate for buying this vehicle, the Ford Escape Hybrid is probably the best hybrid deal out there right now. I never thought that I would buy a Ford, but today I did.

Manage your Adwords Acct w/ New Software from Google

2006-08-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

Google has released new software to manage your Adwords account from your desktop. It is aimed at users with large complex Adword accounts.

See the following post:

Manage AdWords from your desktop.

AdWords Editor is Google's free, downloadable account management application for your computer. Download your AdWords account to your computer, make your changes, then upload your revised campaigns. Benefits and features include:

Navigate your account quickly and easily
Make bulk changes to keywords and ad text
Work offline, then upload your changes
Copy and paste keywords and ad text
Circulate proposed changes and get feedback

Amazon site down?

2006-08-21T11:51:00.001-07:00

August 21 at 11:53 PST. It appears the Amazon.com site is temporily down. The reason is unknown. The following is the message we got.

We're sorry!
An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're already working on the problem and expect to resolve it shortly.
If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
on the Amazon.com home page

Update: Amazon is up and working again. The Internet is back in alignment.

Vurbs -Video Submitters to Share in Advertising Profits

2006-08-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Vurbs.com has had another update. Contributors to Vurbs.com can now share in the profits generated by traffic to the videos that they submit.

Now , we will post Adsense ads from your account to the individual video viewing pages a certain percentage of the time if you are the submitter of that video. Currently, about 1 out 3 ads will be from the submitter's adsense account. To do this we need to have your client number and channel number in our records. You can submit these at the time you register

We do not gaurantee earnings. However, there are two ways to increase your earnings potential.

Submit more videos.
Send traffic to the video page on Vurbs. You can do this by sending the link to friends and family to share the video with them, or you can place a link to the video page on your own webpage or blog.

This is a win-win situation for you and us. This is still in the Beta version so we are still ironing out the bugs. Let us know if there are problems.

Use MS Word to improve your writing.

2006-08-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

When writing longer documents MS Word and OpenOffice have under appreciated features that enable you to organize your thoughts and probably improve your writing.

There are the obvious features such as "Spell Check" and "Thesaurus" and "grammar check" that most people know about and use on a daily basis. No doubt these are the most useful on all your short documents and probably in general.

However, it is the thoughtful use of the various formatting styles that can really help you organize your writing. Word has several preset styles including: Heading 1, Heading 2...Heading 9. The cool thing about the headings is that they have specific meanings when the document is viewed in the "outline" format. They correspond to different levels of the outline. Therefore, the higher numbered headings are further indented to give the "outline" appearance.

Title
- Heading 1
  - Heading 2
    - Heading 3

The reason that this is so helpful is that sometimes we get lost amongst the "trees" of our longer documents and forget the forest. Various sections get headers that are bolded or underlined to signify levels of importance. Switching back and forth between the "Normal" view and the "Outline view" is helpful for multiple reasons. Let's use an example of writing a document on the history of the world.

The document may be broken up into sections about the various continents and subsections about the various countries on those continents. I would use a style called "Title" for the title page text. Then use "Header 1" for the the headers containing the continent names and "Header 2" for the headers containing the country names. When you switch to outline view, not only will you see the overall flow of the document, you will also be able to quickly verify that you have included all the countries you wanted and that they are listed under the correct continent. Also you will quickly be able to tell whether you discussed the countries in the order you meant to.

Don't be locked in by the default styles of each of the headers. By right-clicking on the style in the Style Panel you can opt to modify the styles. The beauty of this is that all the headers will be changed at once.

Another benefit is that MS Word can use these headers to make a reasonable Table of Contents. Just go to the desired place in your document and use the Insert menu to insert a Table of Contents. Every time you change headers or add new sections you need to update the Table of Contents by selecting it and clicking "Update."

To summarize, using the Styles feature of MS Word and OpenOffice helps,

Improve the appearance of your document.
Help organize your thoughts and give you a better overall picture of the flow of your document.
Allow you to make global changes of styles through the document easily.
Enable you to create useful Table of Contents without much extra effort.

Have fun.

Vurbs Update: RSS Feeds Available

2006-06-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

Vurbs.com has some new features.

The layout has been simplified to two columns.
RSS feeds are now available for all the top videos inaddition to individual favorite lists.
We are working on a "tell-a-friend" feature so that you can easily promote videos that you have posted.

Major Vurbs.com Update

2006-05-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Many new features have been added to the Vurbs.com video site.

Improvements include:

RSS Feeds Available for your Personal Favorites. You can use this to automatically put links on your my.yahoo.com and/or google personalized homepages.
RSS Feeds added for the most recent videos submitted to keep you entertained with updates.
Videos can now be grouped by tagging them.

http://www.vurbs.com

Technocrati Tag

google-video

2006-05-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Vurbs.com

2006-02-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

Our Vurbs.com site is coming along. I think that we can now say that it is beta rather than alpha.

Technocrati Tag
google-video

First Post

2006-02-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

Here I will post some of the struggles I have had programming.