ShowMeBlog

Pinterest is 2012’s hottest website?

  CNN has a post “Why Pinterest is 2012’s hottest website.”  How can that be?  I am Jim Howard and I got my first computer in 1978.  I been online 24/7 since 1982.  I been doing a blog since 1982.
  I never heard of Pinterest. 

“Pinterest is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections. The site's mission statement is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting". Pinterest is managed by a team based in Palo Alto, California…”

 

  They  launched in March 2012.  They never contacted me.  I think they should have asked my permission. 

 

“Design

Users label and create theme-based image boards. Users can populate their own boards with media found online using the Pin It button.^[2]

Pins show up on the homepage through a Pin Feed that takes into account timing of pin, re-pinning activity, 'like' activity, and comment activity as well as your personal interests based on the board/pinners you follow.

Pins may be divided into pictures, videos, discussions, and gifts. A pin is an image added to Pinterest. Gifts are subdivided into: $1–20, $20–50, $50–100, $100–200, $200–500, $500+. ^[3]

Pictures consist of subcategories of: architecture, art, cars & motorcycles, design, DIY & crafts, education, film, music & books, fitness, food & drink, gardening, geek, hair & beauty, history, home décor, humor, kids, my life, women’s apparel, men’s apparel, outdoors, people, pets, photography, print & posters, products, science & nature, sports, technology, travel & places, wedding & events, other, everything…”

MegaUpload Shut Down

  I checked out MegaUpload a year or two ago for some reason.  I think I had a large file that I wanted to send to someone and it would not fit via eMail.  So I used MegaUpload.  So I looked around their sites. 
  I saw that you could download movies.  Some of the movies were just out in the theaters right then.  But everything I saw about how the site operated sent warnings to me.  They had the feel of not being honest and being a hacker site.  I felt that you could not use their site for long without getting a virus or something worst on your computer.  I never went back to them.   I forgot about them.

  Well they got taken off line and all of their sites were taken off line.

  “Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a one-click hosting online service of the same name, along with its sister services. The site was shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on January 19, 2012 during an investigation into alleged copyright infringement,[3][2][4][5] leading to what activist group Anonymous calls "the single largest Internet attack in its history"…”

   

  Well yesterday Russ came into my room and was upset and mad.  I said what is wrong and he said they shut down MegaUpload.  I did not know he knew about the site or used them.

  Here is Boogie2988 from YouTube  and what he has to say about the MegaUpload shut down.

 

  I think MegaUpload needed to be taken down.  I know Russ will not agree with me and I know that many of you will not agree with me.  I could tell from a very little bit of time looking at MegaUpload that they were dirty.  In fact after I looked at their site I made a special point to do a complete virus scan.  I never make a special effort to run it I let it do it in the background.  But after looking at that site I ran it special.

New YouTube Homepage

  I like the new YouTube.  You will notice a change to my channel.  You can also have your own home page if you sign into YouTube.
  I like the new look.  I see comments from a LOT of people that they do not like the change.

 

 

 

  What do you think?  Do you like the new YouTube design?

Fed up with Chrome and Flash

  I have been a big fan of Google Chrome for years.  I have used Chrome under Windows and Linux. 
  But for a long time now it has been giving me problems.  It is a problem with Adobe Flash.  Lots of other people been having the same problem and Chrome does not seem able to fix the problem.

  I am sick and tired and fed up with the problem.
So today I am going to go back and start using Firefox.  I am going to miss Chrome.

Coming soon in 1080p

  I have over 200 videos on YouTube and many of them are in 780p format.  Soon you can see me in living color, with stereo sound, and in full HD 1080p video.

  I have ordered the Logitech 1080p Webcam Pro C910 camera.

  I am using a Logitech Pro 9000 right now.  It is an excellent webcam.  I did a YouTube review of the Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p HD webcam.  I do not recommend it. 
  When I get the C910 I will do a review of it.

‘First Website’ Celebrates Its 20th Birthday

  Yes I am going to rant again.. rant warning on…
No I am not going to say that I invented the Internet, the world wide web or even the blog.  But the stories like “Not So High-Tech Anymore: The First Website Ever Celebrates Its 20th Birthday” piss me off.

  

 

“On August 6, 1991, the first website was launched on the Internet, forever changing the way we browse. (And thankfully, web design has improved just a bit in the past two decades.)…”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/06/the-first-website-ever-celebrates-its-20th-birthday/#ixzz1UJft1kV6

 

  So in 1991 you could type in a url and go to a site.  Well Howard’s Notebook began in 1982.  It was written up in a national magazine (“Link-Up”), in 1984,  and I am not sure of the date but about 1984 you could click on a link at Howard’s Notebook and HNB would dial out on my second phone line and connect you with another bulletin board system.  If I remember correct you could not type in the link you had to hit the link that I had in the text.  Now for sending an Internet email you could on my system type in the email address but I had a number of email addressed written out that you could just click on because people did not know how to write email addresses at that time.  I had to explain to people how to address an Internet email.

  So I am not knocking Tim Berners-Lee or whatever site he had or whatever in the hell he was doing but there were a lot of people doing a lot of things back in the old days.
  So he did something online in 1991 and good for him.  Many of us were doing things back in the early 1980s.

Amazon cuts Arkansas Affiliates

“LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Amazon.com said Friday that it would drop its online affiliates in Arkansas in response to a new state law that would have required the online retailer to start charging sales tax.

Lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year to require out-of-state online retailers like Amazon to collect sales tax from customers if their annual sales in the state exceed $10,000.

The bill applied to retailers with online affiliates, even if they don't have a physical presence in the state. Amazon pays advertising fees to a network of so-called Amazon Associates in the state, who promote the company on their websites.

State law requires consumers to pay sales taxes on items they buy online, but the burden is on them to report the purchases. Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other state retailers say that opens a loophole that hurts their businesses.

Amazon opposed changing the law, and this week, it notified associates by email that it would terminate their contracts on July 24…”

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Amazon-cuts-off-Ark-affiliates-blames-tax-bill-1418998.php#ixzz1PLHACmnB

 

  I have commented on this story in the past.  I remember reporting on Amazon dropping affiliates in Illinois.  Amazon also objected to some Texas law and was threating to drop affiliates in Texas.  But Texas gave up and backed down. 
  Now the Texas matter was a bit different than Illinois and Arkansas.  In Texas Amazon has a major distribution center and it sounds like they should have been paying sales taxes.  But the fact that Amazon has the center also gave them some power here in Texas.  Amazon said they would close the center and move it.  Gov. Rick Perry and Texas gave up.

  I am an Amazon Affiliate and have been since they started the program.  In all those many years I bet I have not made more than $50.00 total.  Now I do not push it big time.  If I blog about some camera or something like that I sometimes put a link to Amazon if they have a good price for it. 
  But I feel very sorry for Amazon Affiliates and others that get kicked from the program.