ShowMeBlog

Sparky Add-on for Firefox

  Last month Alexa released a Firefox add on called Sparky.  Ten years ago is when Alexa first put out a toolbar.  I been a fan of Alexa as you know.. boy have you guys over the years blasted me for it. 
  Now OK I may not be the normal person that surfs the Internet.  I like to find out information about the sites that I go and check out.  I sometimes like to see what sort of traffic they get.  I like to see what their traffic rank is and it helps me often to find related links.

  Here is some information about the Alexa Firefox add on called Sparky.

"Today is the 10th anniversary of the Alexa Toolbar, originally released on July 17, 1997. Do you remember what the Net looked like back then? Netscape was the most popular browser. AOL had released it's first Instant Messenger program in Beta. Jodie Foster's new movie Contact was number one at the box office. Take a stroll through the past on the Wayback Machine to see what it looked like: Netscape. Yahoo. Excite.

To mark this historic day Alexa is releasing our first FireFox compatible toolbar, called Sparky. (Why Sparky?) Here's what it has:

• Sparkline - A very small condensed traffic history graph. Gives you a quick view to show whether the site is moving up or down.
• Rank - Shows the traffic rank of the site.
• Reach Indicator - Provides a qualitative view of whether a site's rank is good or bad.
• Related Links - Provides up to 10 Related links in the browser's File | Edit | View menu.
• Shortcuts - Clicking on Sparky brings up a menu of other handy shortcuts, including Alexa Detail pages, Cached Pages, Search Pages and more.

If you have a Firefox browser, go here to see Sparky and give it a run. Don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues. The more of you that use Sparky the better Alexa's Traffic Measurement data will be.

Here's looking forward to another ten years."

Note from Jim Howard:  This is not a PayPerPost.  I don't get any money if you use Alexa.
Of course the more people that check out ShowMeBlog and use Alexa the better my Alexa ranking might get.  Smile

 

I hope your having a good Saturday

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Make Money With Your Site

  Tomorrow I should get my commission for the adult banners that I run on some of my sites.



  I think I will have about $30.00 go into my account tomorrow.  If you have a set where you can post banners and you don't object to adult stuff you can sign up using the banner above.  Just click on it and sign up.

  Russ got his new computer going.  He built it himself so I can't give you a brand name.  It has an Intel Core 2 Quad in it with 2 Gig of memory.  The video card is a nVidia GeForece 8600 GT OC with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory.  It is a great computer for games.

  So I got my old computer back.  So I have my old computer and my old 19 inch CRT monitor.  I do not have any room here to set up the old computer.  On Wednesday when I get paid I may get one of those cable sets so I can hook it up to this keyboard, mouse and monitor.  Then I can just switch between the two computers.  I have done that in the past and it is nice. 

  Dick, in Kansas City, sent me two tickets for the Missouri Power Ball tonight.  I could win 1.9M in the Lotto but if I get the Powerball it would be 210M. 

Tony Snow going to leave

  White House spokesman Tony Snow will leave before the end of the Bush presidency.  See Fox "news" for full details.  He says he is leaving because of "financial pressures."  He makes $168,000.00 as an assistant to the president but he made a lot more money as a right wing host on Fox TV and Fox Radio. 
  He was named press secretary on April 26, 2006.

  See my blog entry here:  Tony Snow interview on C-Span Q&A

  I think Tony Snow should get out as soon as he can... When your sick, as he is, I think it is not good for your health to be under stress.  I also think it is not good to have to lie all the time.  
  When Tony Snow was off because of his medical problems there was a female that did his job and she did a pretty good job at least on TV in front of the camera.

  

  

Message from Skype - 08/18/2007 @ 0002 GMT

"We are pleased to announce that the situation continues to improve. The sign-on problems have been resolved. Skype presence and chat may still take a few more hours to be fully operational. We know what our faithful users have been going through and we thank you for your patience and kind support.

If you are one of the minority who may still be experiencing problems, please be patient. You do not need to adjust or restart your computer. Skype will start working for you very soon.

We will issue a further update when we know that Skype is functioning normally, or if there is further material news.

We’ve commandeered extra supplies of pizza and coffee, and we can promise that the Skype people aren’t going anywhere until they’re happy that everything is back to normal."

(Posted at 00.02 AM GMT)

 

No Telephone Service for me! I use Skype

  Yesterday Darlene attempted to call me and could not connect with me.  I use Skype for my phone service.  Today Darlene, Ken and Russell attempted to call me and could not connect with me.  I re-booted my computer and checked the settings and everything appeared to be OK.
   Well the problem is not here.  I guess it has been big news on the Internet.  

   "...Almost 36 hours after a software problem caused widespread outages in eBay Inc.'s Skype service, engineers continue to work to fully restore this extremely popular Internet telephony and instant messaging service, while many business users deal with work disruptions.

Although steady progress was made throughout the day Friday, the problem, which has affected millions of Skype users, hasn't been fully fixed, .."  Story on PCWorld by Juan Carlos Perez

Russell decided today to buy a new computer and he called me from work to pick him up so he could get it home in the car.  Well he could not get me on the phone.  He had to carry his new computer and monitor home.

  I just did a search at CNN for some information on the Skype problems and could not find any information.  I would think that millions of people losing their telephone service and other communications tools would rate a mention on CNN.

   Skype should have sent out an email to customers informing them of the problem.

   

  

New computer

Russell got himself a brand new computer.  He did not get a case for it because we have a few cases here.  He went into work at 7 am and got home at 9 pm.  So right now he is building his computer.  I hope he does not have a problem.  Sometimes getting a mother board into a case can be a bitch.

He got a great powerful mother board and 2 Gig of memory and a 19 LCD monitor.  He got a big power supply and everything.  I hope it all works.  He is looking forward to playing some games on it.  He has been using an old computer of mine and some of his games would not play on it. 
Russell also has a laptop computer.

If this new computer works I will get my old one back.  I am not sure what I will do with it.  I will also get back my old 19 inch big CRT monitor.  If I get it back I am going to hook it up here so that I will have my 22 inch LCD monitor and the 19 inch CRT monitor and I can drag stuff from one screen to the other.  That makes it very nice for editing and looking up information.

I am working on my new ham radio site:  CQ CQ de N0UWY but it still needs a lot of work.

GOP Greed Reason for Stock Market Problems

I  do not own any stocks.  Hell I don't even have any funds that are invested in the stock market.  But even I have had to take notice of the current stock market problems.
The reason for the current problem is greed from Republican type of people.  That is always the reason, it seems, for recent financial problems.  The Republican/GOP type of people do not put their nation first they put their own pocket book first.  They are not people that put God first they put their investments first.  They do not worship God they worship the dollar (or today maybe the yen).

Portland OR

  The average number of visitors to ShowMeBlog each day is 892.  Today we had 2129 page views.  That is a lot for this blog.  Many of the hits today were from Google in UK.  I told you a few days ago that we are getting a lot of hits having to do with the post about YouPorn that I posted here.
   When I saw all traffic coming here I posted a few links on here to see if I could make a buck.  So far 538 of you clicked on the link and 23 of you signed up for a free membership. 


   
   

  Above is a promotional video.  Maybe a video will get your interest.  Smile

  I messed with Howard's Notebook again today.  I been making changes to it x number of times a day.  If you think I don't have a life I guess your right.  It is sort of sad don't you think?  Truth is I enjoy it.  But I do need to get out of this house and do something.

Howard's Notebook

  I got up about 0415 hours and worked on Howard's Notebook until this time (0745).  I use Joomla software for HNB.  "Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable..."
    I been messing with the design (look) of HNB for a long time.  (I need to be working on the content.) 
   I should not spend the money but I am signed up with two sites that sell templates for Joomla.
   I am signed up with the Template Plazza and Rockettheme.  Each one of them comes out with a couple of new templates each month.  That is my down fall.  I always want to try out a new one.  There is always something I like about one of the new templates.
   I think I am going to stick with the current design for HNB.  (I say that today but God help me when a new template comes out.) 

9 Million Toys Recalled

Mattel is recalling 9 million of its toys because of hazards to children.  All the toys were made in China. Mattel's Fisher-Price recalled 1.5 million earlier this month.  I would tell Americans to buy only toys made in the United States by union workers except you and I know there are almost no toys made in the United States.
There will be more and more toys recalled but I am sure the big corporations still find it cheaper to have toys made in China than by American workers.

Maybe if I had small children I would be worrying right now about the unsafe toys.  I worry about all the foods that we get from China.  We have found out recently that a great deal of our food comes from China.  Much of the food we eat has something in it from China.
I heard something on NPR radio a few months back about food in China (I think it was food) and they said that the government of China had a hard time inspecting and checking on the people making the food products in China because most of the places had fewer than 10 employees.  I must have heard that wrong.  It does not sound correct.

There is a story on CNN, I have not read it, that says Reality TV sparks jump in plastic surgery.  It is a video and I did not watch it..but yes.. I am sure that is true... "Reality TV", which is not real, changes the way many people live their lives.  Plastic surgery should not be something that people have done if they can afford it.  Plastic surgery has a place in the world but remember the seven deadly sins.

What are the seven deadly sins?  They are;  Lust,  Gluttony,  Greed,  Sloth,  Anger,  Envy and Pride.  I think having plastic surgery for many would be the sins of envy and pride.

Also do you see all the people getting tattoos all over them?  I objected, back a few years ago, about people getting small tattoos here.  A bunch of you jumped all over my ass about it.
Now people are getting large tattoos all over them.  You see people with tattoos on their faces.
Who is going to hire those people to work for them?   Yes a biker bar may hire them but who else is going to hire someone that has the shit all over their body?
Are we going to have to pay tax money to support them because they can't get a job?

World's Oldest Person Dies

"TOKYO (AFP) - The world's oldest person, a Japanese woman who counted eating well and getting rest as her hobbies, died Monday at age 114, a news report said..."   Yone Minagawa died of "old age" on Monday evening Kyodo News reported.

Happy Birthday to Pakistan. 
"Celebrations are under way across Pakistan to mark the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain and the creation of the country.

Fireworks lit up the sky and crowds filled the streets as clocks struck midnight in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan is holding celebrations throughout Tuesday, while India marks independence one day later.

The violent partition of 1947 saw 10 million people cross borders in one of history's largest mass migrations.

It was one of the most violent upheavals of the 20th Century as the departing British split the subcontinent with India wedged between West and East Pakistan, which later was to become Bangladesh..."

Also we will have to wish India a Happy Birthday. 

Blog Search Sites

  I was doing some looking around the web and did some checking on Blog search sites.

  I ran across Blogs: IceRocket.Com  I liked the look and feel of the site.  If you want to do a search of blogs you might want to check out that site.

  There is, of course, the Google Blog Search (in beta). 

  There is a Zewol.Net (also in beta) that looks interesting. 

   I also found a BlogPulse search site that looks interesting.
     "BlogPulse is a window into the blogosphere… open it daily to discover the people, issues, blogs, posts, commentaries, tidbits and news that bloggers are discussing..."  I looked at this site and it makes me want to change my HNB site and improve it and make it have content like this BlogPulse site.

   Then there is the Ask search site and you can pick Blogs as the place you want to search.

    I am going to be checking out BlogPulse and maybe sort of copying it a bit at HNB.  Well at least that is what I am thinking right at this second.

     I should mention Technorati as being THE blog search site.  I think most, if not all, of the other search sites get their data from Technorati. 

     I got a donation today from a fan/friend in Japan.  Makoto sent $50 using the PayPal (Donation) link here on ShowMeBlog.  Thank you Makoto.
    I went over to the Publix store.  I got some Coke Zero.  I got some frozen microwave foods and a few other items and I spent $26.45 for it all.  I still have a few dollars left over and I am thinking about later walking over to the Daleland Mall and getting a 12 inch Subway.  Thanks again Makoto.

   

    

A rat leaving a sinking ship

  Karl Rove to quit at end of August.  Karl Rove, President Bush's dark and evil adviser will "voluntarily" step down from the White House post at the end of this month. 
  "I just think it's time" Rove told the Wall Street Journal.  It is long past time for him to leave.  I was sort of looking forward to him being taken out of the White House in handcuffs. 

"...Rove also took the opportunity to fire a parting shot at the Democrats, adding that he thought Hillary Clinton -- a "tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate" -- would win the 2008 presidential nomination.

Loved by conservatives but a hate figure for many Democrats, Rove said he expected his rival party to be divided over the wireless wiretapping issue while the Republicans should come out top in economic issues closer to the 2008 poll..."