Hulu

One great alternative to cable television is Hulu.  It’s a website that offers free shows and movies from many of the big studios such as NBC, Fox, ABC, and many other networks.  Hulu usually shows the 5 latest episodes of a given show.  However, Hulu does have commercials, but are very short usually about 3o second commercial breaks. This means a 30 minute sitcom on TV, becomes roughly 23 minutes on Hulu. The great part about these online services is they allow you to watch on your time and schedule. The downside to Hulu is you’re limited to a maximum resolution of 480p. And the internet connectivity, no internet, no TV. The size of your monitor is also important, because most people’s TVs are much bigger than their computer monitors, that will need time getting used to.

Pros: Service is free with a large collection of shows and movies with limited commercial breaks.
Cons: Only the most recent shows are available for streaming and limit the time they can be seen.

NetFlix

How about all the movie fans out there, I know what you’re thinking.  Hulu doesn’t have a huge collection of the latest movies. The answer NetFlix. I know its not free, but at $8.99, you can stream a massive collection of big Hollywood and independent films included in your subscription. These can be streamed on your desktop. laptop, Xbox 360, or PS3. You also get 2 DVDs mailed to you as well. The streaming quality is usually HD, which is great, but needs a higher bandwidth connection or you’ll be stuck waiting for the buffer to clear.

Pros: Massive collection of streaming movies and shows with many at HD quality at no additional cost.
Cons: Latest movies aren’t immediately available for rent or streaming.

ESPN3

To all you sports fans, there is EPSN3.com. Free live streaming sports events ranging from 2 - 15 events on a given day. This isn’t a large collection of sports programming, but most sports is nationally broadcast, which means that you don’t need a cable subscription to watch it.  Actually you probably do need the very basic cable service, because the FCC demanded all TVs to be digitally broadcast, so you will need the basic service. Time Warner cable, my provider in New York, charges $35 for this.

Pros: It’s Free!
Cons: Limited amount of content, noticeable lag with live TV and streaming.

Other streaming services

fancast.com - Similar content to hulu
justin.tv - Content broadcast by random people
blip.tv - Independent shows/films
joost.com - More music/entertainment based content.
vimeo.com - User promoted content similar to youtube.
metacafe.com - Similar to vimeo.
youtube.com - A wide variety user submitted content.

The BottomLine

Depending on your needs whether your a sports fan, movie buff, or just a big fan of a particular show,  there isn’t just one source for that entertainment.  I think most people just want to watch on their own time and schedule, for those I recommend the Hulu/Netflix route.  The sports fan might still have to keep the cable service, but still save money on all those premium channels.  The minimum payment will be for the internet ~$40 plus basic cable services ~$40. Around $80 total, for me that’s much better than paying $145/month, that’s a savings of $65/month or $780/year.

The Apple iPhone also has camera and a downloadable application store where the user can download application and games for the iPhone. Some programs are free of charge while others have charges that vary from $0.99 to $9.99. The apple iPhone glides through the programs with ease and rarely freezes. The phone reception is good and rarely has times with no service.

Now the iPhone also has it’s drawback which includes having exclusive service with AT&T and no other carrier has the iPhone. Now all the iPhone addicts will right away say “the iPhone is unlock-able” which opens the iPhone to any carrier. The problem with unlocking the iPhone is the user can not register the phone nor update its software on the iPhone because it will immediately lock itself.

The Apple iPhone uses an email system to send or recieve picture messages, now drawback to this system is that it does not allow the user to send or receive picture messages which creates a problem for the user because not everyone has an email to send or receive the pictures.

Now the iPhone has a great web browser which surfs the Internet with ease and has great viewing space with its incredible touch screen. The Apple iPhone also has limited Battery Life. Overall I like the iPhone for its ease of use and great screen quality but its limited service to AT&T creates a problem for me. Now the Blackberry Curve which has service for T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint makes it available to anyone.

The Blackberry Curve which I own has service for T-Mobile. The Blackberry Curve has tons of features ranging from Camera, Web Browsing, Picture Messaging, Blackberry Messaging (Exclusive Service where Blackberry users can text message for free), BlackBerry AppStore (Down-loadable application Store prices Ranging from $0.99 to $34.99).

Now the blackberry Curve also has its drawback which includes constant phone freezing, and small screen for viewing web pages. I guess it all boils down to which phone fits your lifestyle? But neither phone is better that we can declare one a winner. So Enjoy using either phone.

There used to be a time when a web startup was seen as something special. Even though this is still the case, the fact of the matter is that things have changed quite a bit. How so, you may ask? Simply put, the barrier to entry for new startups is lower than ever before. There are several reasons for this, some good and some not so good. But no matter what you think on this subject, if you put your mind to it, you may be the next one getting involved with an internet startup.

As more startups have success, more and more people are sure to follow in their footsteps. After all, they too want to get a piece of the action. Even though getting involved with an internet startup is big business that can take up a lot of time, most will agree that it is worth the risk. What do you think is better? Putting the time into a startup, or working in the corporate world from 9-5 everyday of your life?

One thing that a lot of people forget is that as startups become more common, the level of competition will increase. In the past, less competition was around which meant that your chances of succeeding were much better. While success is still possible, there is a good chance that you will have to get past a larger number of competitors.

Of course, most startups have the dream of being acquired by a big company such as Google. If you can make this happen, it is safe to say that a big payday is right around the corner. To go along with this, the increasing number of startups is changing the way that companies such as Google look at acquisitions. They have found that streamlining the process and making it as easy as possible is the way to go. The main goal of companies that acquire a lot of startups is to make this as easy as hiring a new employee.

Web startups are changing for the better. More and more people are taking the leap, and of course, this results in more and more success.

Paul Graham has more on this issue.

1. Not Proofreading

Not proofreading your post before making it live is a huge mistake. Even if you think that you did a good job, silly mistakes can make their way into your work without you realizing it. A quick proofreading job will catch all of these mistakes.

2. Use Words that Make Sense

Have you ever seen a blog post where there are a lot of big words that make no sense? If so, you know just how annoying this can be. Instead of trying to look smart with big words, stick to ones that you can use in the appropriate context.

3. Proper English

Although blogging is far from an English term paper, you still want to use proper sentence structure and grammar. Remember, the main point of your blog is for other people to read it. If poor structure is keeping them from doing this you are not going to succeed in attracting new readers.

4. Don’t Curse in your Posts

There are times when you may want to slide a “curse word” into a blog post, but these should be few and far between. Even if you think that this is no big deal, a reader may take this more seriously than you. Do not take the chance of scaring readers away because you cannot lay off the four letter words!

5. Don’t Be Scared

You should not be scared of starting a blog because your English is not perfect. This may not be related to the four mistakes above, but it is important to know. If you want to blog, get started. Over time you will begin to catch on!

Avoiding the five mistakes above will help you to become a better blogger in the long run.

First things first, a clarification:

• Client Side: code that is executed by the client’s (user’s) browser, like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the likes. You can see the source code of client side languages.
• Server Side: code that is executed by the server and sent back out to the client in the form of HTML/text, like PHP, Ruby and ASP. You can not see the source code from your browser. This article will not deal with server side languages.

This will be all about the client side languages. Mainly (x)HTML and CSS. I will also be assuming you have no prior experience, and have no idea what either are. Please also note, this is not a tutorial on how to make a web page, rather a guide from one experienced person to someone wanting to learn how to learn, essentially.

The Hyper Text Markup Language

HTML stands for just that: Hyper Text Markup Language. When you put an X infront of it, it stands for eXtensible. The first thing that comes into your head might be, “I’ve heard of this, but what does it have to do with a web site?“.

The answer to that is simple. All web pages output HTML to the browser, which is then read by the browser and outputted to your screen accordingly. Simple, right? All you need to know is that if you want to have a page on the internet, you will use HTML. Whether you outsource the coding and don’t know a thing about it, you still need it.

HTML is like the air we breathe for the web.

Next, with these two seemingly identical ‘languages‘ there must be some differences besides on letter. Of course, there are, but before I can get into that (for now it’s over your head) you need some resources. These links will put you on your way to mastering the most basic of all web languages:

• Basic HTML Tutorials from Pixel2Life
• Your HTML Source (Excellent!)
• XHTML Tutorial Series from W3 Schools

Look like a small list? You don’t need any more than that! It’s that simple. Hopefully you understand.

Cascading Style Sheets

CSS isn’t just a game, you know, it’s what makes websites look the way they do!

For anyone completely new to CSS, I like to get them to do this. This is for Firefox users, and if you aren’t one, then become one I’ll also be touching on the cross-broswer issues of today later on. Anyways, here’s what to do:

1. Go to any website. You’re reading this on one right now, so head to #2.
2. Up top, go View > Page Style and click No Style.
3. What happened!?!

You just saw the affect CSS has on web pages. XHTML isn’t to make websites look good, its just the markup. The canvas, if you will. CSS if the paint. CSS styles web pages using a variety of different methods, and to understand this, here are some more resources:

• Your HTML Source Stylesheets (Again, excellent resource)
• Pixel2Life Basic CSS Tutorials

That’s all you should need, really.

HTML + CSS + Web Browsers

When I said the browser outputs HTML accordingly, I meant it. Different browsers will interpret CSS and HTML differently than others. This is an ongoing issue in the web development world, and always will be, mainly for one reason: Internet Explorer. Firefox and other browsers such as Opera, Safari, etc… display CSS more as intended than IE. It’s like IE tried to fix things it sees wrong.

The problem? Your website may look perfect- just as intended- in all broswers, but when you come around to IE things are misplaced, broken and dithered. This can be very discouraging, so it’s important to remember some things:

• There is usually one solution to a problem, but don’t kill yourself finding it.
  
• HTML ‘if statements’ (conditional comments) can help you to use browser dependent style sheets. Read about it here.

XHTML vs HTML

The differences between the two will be seemingly non-existent or minimal at first, but if you do a little bit of research, you will start to see some differences. This article from W3 Schools outlines one differences, and is a good read for beginners.

Essentially, XHTML is a stricter version of HTML. Today, XHTML is used on the more modern and web-savvy sites. In normal HTML you are likely to come across tables for layouts, animated GIFs and the like, whereas XHTML users are more likely to promote validity and accessibility. All with tons of exceptions of course.

What can these two do together?

A great way to conclude this is to show you a series of websites named CSS galleries. These sites gather the best looking websites from all over the internet that make use of CSS and XHTML properly. Here’s a few good ones:

• CSS Zen Garden - Shows the true potential of CSS. Users submit CSS files to style one HTML file that does not change. Everything must be done with CSS.
• CSS Remix
• CSS Import
• Screenalicious - More basic, but still worth a look.

One of the hardest things about web design is getting over the first hurdle. Making your first design is one of them, and making it come to life is equally ground breaking for someone new to it all. As someone who has been through many websites in all kinds of levels, all kinds of techniques and styles, I’d like to share what I think is the best way to go. The following tips are mainly general and might not work for everyone but remember- you can succeed in this. You just have to give yourself and your talent a shot.

Take good advice.

When you come across articles like this where someone is offering advice and tips based on experience, read up. Be a sponge. You can never know enough in the web design world. Even the seasoned gods of web design learn new things everyday. Design is a funny thing. You can be from varying talents and techniques and everyone will always come up with a different design, and a different opinion on this:

Your overall skill to design (websites) is a mixture of pure, god given natural talent that can not be learned and the things you can learn, like the tools, techniques and tricks.

Finding your talent and a balance between the learning portions is important. You can’t just walk into this, unfortunately. If you’re the most talented designer this world has ever seen, you’re nothing without your tools. Photoshop (or your weapon of choice) is like a language. A language to communicate your talent and ideas with. Someone who comes to a foreign country with a Ph. D. can’t use their education without being able to speak a word of the language, can they?

So, how do I go about gaining these skills? Well, the aforementioned parts of design that you can learn are widely available on the internet. There are many ways to learn design. The way I went about it was back in the Photoshop 7 days, I would toot over to Good-Tutorials and soak up every cool looking technique I could. Abstract waves, grunge buildings, bubble gum text, you name it- I could do it. But how has all that helped me today? I actually couldn’t do that today if you asked me to. All that helped me learn Photoshop.

I may not be able to create amazing fantasy art work with all glowing and amazing effects, but 100% I am more comfortable with the Photoshop interface and all things associated. Shortcuts, options, panels, windows, I know it all. The only way you can know it all is by just doing it. Here’s a simple quote:

Just do it. - Nike

Now, it may seem cliche, but think about it. You can manufacture experience by just doing it. Make the coolest looking desktop around, and some awesome forum signatures. Learn how to use renders and popout signature effects. Join a graphics community. This all may have nothing to do with web design, but like I said- you can’t just walk into this.

Today when I see a bad design, and I mean realllly bad, I can assume one, or even both of the following things:

1. The person has not used Photoshop a day in their life, and this is what they can do. It’s their limit.
2. They have no design eye. They don’t have that talent.

I’ve been constantly referencing Photoshop here, but that’s only because Photoshop is my tool. Photoshop is my weapon of choice. It may not be yours- and thats perfectly fine. Fireworks, GIMP, paint- whatever. In the end we can all admit that it’s not how you do it, it’s what you do.

So after all this, and you’re into the entire graphics thing, and you can do all this nice stuff, and most of all you’re comfortable with your tool- it’s now time to dip your feet in the water.

First things first. Basic stuff to set up your document.

• Size: Around 1000×1000 is where I always start. 800×600 users obviously don’t care much about how a site looks anyways, right? Also, you’ll find in this market especially, the average user runs 1280×1024.
• Colour: RGB colour. Safest way to go when dealing with the web, and dithering problems for IE users (*spits*).

Alright, great, so now you have this huge blank space. This is where you explore your own creativity, but here are some common mistakes:

• Alignment: If things don’t line up, your design probably won’t look right. Structure is key. If you have to, create a ‘wireframe’ first. This is when you make little outlines of where every element will go before adding an colour, etc…
• Colours: When starting, try to stick to a one colour scheme. It’s best to not add more, because early on it gets a little messy. You’ll be surprised how fast you’ll find how colours match and clash, and even how it applies to clothes, paint, etc…
• Effects: While gaining the first little steps and getting them under your belt, feel free to go crazy with brushes, effects, renders, anything. You’re not going to walk into ‘web 2.0′ on your first day.

Your style is something that will develop over time, and will progress as well. If you’re not one with that talent, or eye, don’t worry about it. It’s not one of those things that you really see in yourself, but something that comes out and is quite obviously there.

You should be on a good path by now, but remember, all the things mentioned here won’t take you a day, a week or even a month for that matter. Give it time. Your designing is like a plant. It needs to grow. With proper nurturing and attention it will sprout up no problem, and people will notice it I leave you with this:

Respect your inspiration

Basically means don’t steal from those you look up to.

1. Mozy - An online backup system for your PC that safely and automatically backs up your files online. For the free version, it goes up to 2GB, but you can pay $4.95/mo to get unlimited storage. Mozy isn’t the best way to store your files online to share with your friends, or to post around the internet, but if you want online backups, then you want Mozy.
2. Box.net - A friendly looking storage system that is more geared towards sharing. It’s mainly a paid service, but you can try them out with 1GB space for free. Upon paying $7.95/mo you get 5GB of space. Box.net has some cool features, like setting up sub accounts for other people to view certain files, backups of certain files, or being very easy to share. Very nice interface as well.
3. OmniDrive - Store your files online and access them from anywhere at desktop-storage-speeds. The free version offers 1GB storage and 5GB bandwidth, but the paid options come out to be much cheaper than the competition. First paid plan is $40/yr for 10GB storage and 20GB bandwidth.The things I liked most about OmniDrive were its cross platform compatibility, and API possibilities. Not only do they have an application for both OSX and Windows, but they have a web version for Linux users or other users who feel like it. The API program also allows extensions and further developments.
4. eSnips - A file uploading and sharing community where you can share, drive traffic to your site and join like minded communities. You start off with a nice 5GB storage for free.The thing that bothers me about eSnips is the fact that they have less than 1000 users, and less than 4000 hosted files. What if they were to blow up and become huge? Could they survive the first part of that? This site only appeals to those interested in a community situation as well.
5. Xdrive - This site had one of the better first impressions, on a design based judgment. You can conveniently upload, share, backup and access from anywhere your files with Xdrive. The free plan comes with 5GB of storage space. If you want to upgrade, it’s $9.95/mo for 50GB. Xdrive has one of the better looking interfaces, so it’s safe to say that AOL (parent company) knows how to hire a designer. As far as features, its very similar, but what sets it apart is its Pro Package, where you get 50GB for $99.50/yr or $9.95/mo.

There is not a lot of diversity in this field, but here are some conclusions.

• Online Backups: Definitely go with Mozy.
• Free File Storage/Share: Try Box.net first.
• Upgraded: Go with Xdrive for best value.

Step 1 - Remove Spyware and Viruses
Viruses and any form of spyware are the biggest cause of slowing down a computer. It is crucial to run spyware and antivirus software weekly. A great program for getting rid of spyware is a program made by Webroot called Spy Sweeper. Another great malware remover is spyware doctor. For antivirus software I recommend AVG Antivirus, which is absolutely free.

Step 2 - Perform a Disk Clean Up

• Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.
• Type, “cleanmgr.exe” in the text field.
• Press “okay”. This can take a while if you have never done it before.

Step 3 - Remove Unwanted Software

• Click start, then click control panel.
• Click add/remove programs.
• Highlight any old software you do not use and then click “remove”.

Step 4 - Defragment Your Computer
What this does is it physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file closer together and in order.

• Click start then click run.
• Type, “dfrg.msc” in the text field.
• Click Defrag to start it.

Step 5 - Make Windows Load Faster

• Click Start, then Run.
• Type in ‘msconfig’ and press enter.
• Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top.
• Over to the right there will be a box labeled Timeout with 30 in it. Change the 30 to a 3.

Step 6 - Speed Up Processing Time

• Go to Control Panel, System.
• Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.
• Select the ‘Adjust for best performance’ radio button, then Apply, and OK.
• The graphics aren’t as flashy, but your computer will run a lot faster.

In a nutshell IPTV is… taking the video stream and breaking it into ip packets simply put; IPTV is television being delivered through computer networking technologies. The leading proponents of IPTV are Telecommunications companies that are trying to reinvent themselves in the consumer’s eyes offering a new product choice while maintaining stiff competition with Cable companies. The main reason being is the continued loss of revenue. FCC Cable service studies show cable rates increased at more than 3.5 times the rate of inflation between 1998-2003 with continued increases predicted. IPTV maybe the saving grace to the dying dinosaurs that are Telco, a multimedia research group estimate IPTV subscribers to be 3.7 million in 2005 and growing globally to 36.9 million around the world with the European market leading the way in 2009. The industry’s revenue could reach nearly 10 billion US by that time –no small chunk of change. Still, the battle is for more than just your television; it’s for the single entry point into your home.

So now there is a very competitive market to get your money from both Cable and Telco’s both are offering bundled services for voice, video and data. The new buzzword is triple play Telephone, Internet and Television all on one bill and all from one company. One source for all your entertainment and communications needs with all the convenience of a one-stop shopping.

With so much at stake Telco’s such as SBC (now AT&T) have spent years and billions of dollars (Project light speed a $4 billion network upgrade) basically trying to imitate a Network that Comcast has already built. “ We’ve seen nothing we can’t exceed.” Said Andrew Johnson spokesman for Comcast. Despite the not so friendly reception by the Cable companies AT&T and Verizon are aggressively moving forward to support the triple play. One such program is AT&T U-verse, another is Verizon’s FiOS service.

Verizon which already is offering 300 channels via fiber to millions of homes is doing this by bringing fiber to fiber this allows for incredible bandwidth, permitting them to stream all channels at once, out of 4.5 gbps available the TV service will only use about 3.5gbps.

AT&T service U-verse is con- currently being tested in Texas and is ramping up for major rollout throughout the United States. Although both have similar product both deliver it in a very different way.

AT&T’s U-verse will use DSL to deliver the video feed it is a multicast system that is only able to deliver several channels at once so when you switch a channel from your home it will be redirected to local Telco’s office and then it will check to see if you are part of the IGMP v2 to join the multicast group. When the request is received it verifies that you are authorized to view the new channel, it then directs it to the routers to add the user to the channel’s distribution list. This assures only channels being viewed are sent from local office to DSLAM and onto to you the viewer.

So even amongst the Telco’s there is some friendly competition, different philosophy as what is the better way to provide this new service. If we look at the companies that seem to be the benefactor by AT&T’s venture the Fiber cable companies, hardware maker Alcatel, (inked a 1.7 billion deal) Microsoft being the major software for the backend of IPTV (400 million dollar deal) and yes finally the consumer. With different options of delivering all in one product there will be price wars and the consumer will have more than just the traditional choices.

So what’s next?

Has anyone heard of a little thing called Ethernet over power lines?

Processor If you are still on a single core processor, now is a great time to upgrade to dual core. With both Intel and AMD having great processors for dual core. Intel has their leading edge Core 2 Duo, and AMD with its Athlon X2. Both these processors are faster than single cores, and much better at multitasking.

Get More RAM If want to run more than one task at a time, you definitely need to spring for more RAM. More RAM means faster load times and smoother running of programs, not to mention multitasking. A single one stick of 1 Gig of RAM just doesn’t cut it anymore, you should definitely go for DDR 2 RAM with 2 gigs of memory. The optimal usage for DDR 2 is with 2 sticks of 1 gig RAM for better performace.

Storage These days hard drives are so cheap that people just buy it because its so cheap. More and more videos, and games take up much more space on the hard disks thats why its necessary to get more storage. If you are an average computer user, just using it for email, music, and work you should have at least 120 Gigs. For people that like to watch movies, and have a huge music collection and like to record TV shows to their computer, I suggest going for the 250 Gigs, and for those that have a vast multimedia collection, 500 Gigs or even more is best.

Monitor CRTs are old school, if you are reading this article on a CRT monitor its time for an upgrade to a nice LCD monitor. LCD monitors take up less space, and don’t cause strain on your eyes. When shopping for LCD monitors, remember that bigger is better. Don’s settle for a 17 inch, I suggest a 19 inch or bigger with a DVI connection for a sharper image. Wide Screen LCDs are much better for watching movies and also give more viewable area.

Graphics Even if you are not a hardcore gamer, you still need to upgrade to a newer graphics card, especially if you want to see yourself using the new Windows Vista operating system and taking advantage of the cool AERO interface. The GeForce 7600GT is a perfect card for under $150, it will take care of being Vista ready and can handle all the latest games. On the ATI side the X1650 is a great buy for also being under $150, and will handle all the latest games.

Test 1: Being the freak I am, I lined up two identical 32″ HD Ready TVs. Both with Battlefield 2: Modern Combat loaded. The only difference, was that one was a PS2 version, and one an Xbox 360 version. The differences were startling. Realistic fire, smoke, fog, bullets, physics, sounds and movements in the 360 made the experience all that little bit extra. The PS2, great as it is, can only perform these tasks half aswell. The textures are less smooth and when flying in helicopters, background scenery flashes in and out of view. With the 360, none of this ever happens, making the game more enjoyable. I’m not going to tell you all the tech specs of the 360, because if you want to know them, you can simply head over to Amazon or Best Buy to check for yourself.

Test 2: Burnout Revenge is a classic game, one of mayhem and high-speed destruction. Obviously, the PS2 has trouble rendering the foliage and such, but the 360 has no such problems. Just to test this out, I hurled two identical cars off two identical cliffs off two identical TVs. PS2 result, nasty, blurred tesxtures of the mountain side. 360 result, well rounded, well shaded, well rendered, realistic surroundings, even when falling at high-speeds.

In other words, the 360 wins all round. I’ve tried and tested the PS2’s online functions, all of which are, no offense to Sony, abysmal. The Xbox however, has always retained the crown of online gameplay, even if the monthly fee is a bit off putting. Hours of extra fun can be squeezed from games online, and this really is, in my opinion, the 360’s biggest advantage. Will things change however? We’ll find out this holiday season with the PS3 and Nintendo Wii hitting our shelves!

Okay. You’ve read the review above, and I sincerely hope you like it. I spent 3 hours having fun trying and testing them games, so you best have liked it. Who am I though? Well, I’m Delta Taph, age 12 from Tech.co.nr and from now on, I’m going to be working around TheBlogJoint.com on and off, writing videogames reviews and such. First though, perhaps you’d like to know a little bit about me. I’m very weird, and am very good at all my subjects, particularly Maths, English, Science and IT. For me, blogging started off in late July, more as an idea than a real, serious money-making activity. I though that, as I loved technology, gadgets, computers and the internet so much, why not start my own website about them? The idea quickly formed and I hurried over to the folks at Google and grabbed myself a Blogger account. Having been going for quite a few months now, my website, Tech.co.nr is now about as good as Blogger can take it. I’m saving for a dedicated server, on which I can run Wordpress and to do this, I’m blogging for quite a few big names. Profy.com are my main employers. You should check them out my articles there some time. I wrote one about getting lots of visitors to your website, which has gone down very well over there. Seems appropriate since TheBlogJoint is often the centre of attention when it comes to SEO.

Which is the better.

This is how my idea for this Post all got started…

So, I’m invited to my best friends house the other weekend to try and revive an old Dell Laptop that is now experiencing the BSOD I’m hoping to give it CPR and at the very least transfer the important data off of it. When I arrive I knock on the door, he opens it we give each other our customary hugs and he invites me in. When I pass the hall way I can’t help but notice this new toy in the middle of his small living room. A brand new LCD HDTV. It looks very stylish, but the picture resolution is not at all what I expected it doesn’t even compare to his older tv. At that particular moment the only thing I know about HDTV is that it is a Digital signal as opposed to Analog and that the picture quality is reliant on the content. In other words if program is made for HD TV it will look unbelievable. So we try a few tests. First we run the signal through his DVD receiver will it resolve some of the poor resolution he is currently experiencing? Nope…next test if it is made for “Digital” will the quality improve if we view a DVD?

Ah yes because DVD, and CD’s are both digital media. Okay so we have to look at signal, if older TV broadcasting companies use Analog signal processing to your TV how do we improve the picture quality?

Here’s where my wheels begin to spin and I do some research.

I have heard that some LCD TV’s do suffer from picture quality but I have yet to hear of any Plasma screen with the same problems.

Let’s discuss the technology first LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) use millions of crystals, which are suspended in a liquid that is sandwiched between transparent panels. Behind this liquid crystal sandwich is bright florescent light. The crystals are instructed to either let the light pass or not. Color filters are used to determine color. LCD TVs typically can’t display black as well as plasmas; it ends up closer to dark gray. That shortcoming decreases the amount of detail you can see in the shadows and ultimately leaves the picture looking less three-dimensional.

What does this mean?

Sharp picture, vibrant color, better brightness level in bright light conditions, come in smaller sizes, weigh less, sometimes suffer from delay which causes the figures or objects to appear jagged.

In a plasma TV, each pixel is made up of three phosphors – one red, one blue, and one green. These phosphors emit light when struck by beams of electrons. The intensity of the electron beam determines the amount of light emitted. It is the phosphors themselves that create the light your see on a plasma screen.

What does that mean?

Better viewing angles, wide range of color, accurate color reproduction, greater contrast levels, suffer from burn in effect, weigh more due to size differences.

So here’s what I now know, in order to have a great picture on a LCD HDTV it is critical that you have a HDTV tuner, whether it is built into your TV, supplied by your cable or Satellite company or you purchase it, it is a must have.

Next is a thing called HDMI (High definition multi-media interface.)?

Is the new connector that basis itself on DVI HDCP model, supports uncompressed video and audio through the use of a single cable, transmits uncompressed video so that picture maintains a high quality of color depth, brightness and contrast.

That said I’m sure if we had this type of cable we would have gotten better resolution when we hooked it up to his DVD player but it being a slightly older model well it just didn’t offer that option.

Time for a new DVD player I guess… next I want my IP TV.

Update: Thanks to a tip from “tischzr” I got 2 useful links regarding this article:
Confused about HDTV? A guide to clear things up.
Plasma TV Features: The Useful, the Cool, and the Utterly Useless.

1. Permalink Structure
   This is a great way to get better visibility from search engines, instead of having a site url of “domain.com/?p=345″, it would rather be “domain.com/05/20/06/google-bought-youtube/”. To change your permalink structure you need to login to your Wordpress admin panel, then go to Options > Permalinks
2. Keywords In Content
   Using keywords in your post title is important, but you also need to use keywords throughout your post. Concentrate on the first paragraph then use variations of your main keyword throughout the rest of your post.
3. Header Tags
   The header tags are used when assigning a title, typically within a post. These title tags are have a numerical value associated with them that also indicates their importance, ie. < h1 > is used for your most important header, < h2 > would be used for a sub title etc. Place the same keywords as used in your post title in the < h1 > tag then use variations of your keywords in < h2 > / < h3 >tags for optimum effect.
4. Install the Meta tag description and UTW plugins
   Head META Description - Optimizes the meta description for search engines to index your site properly.
   Ultimate Tag Warrior - Makes it easier by searching through the tags you made for the posts.
5. Related Posts
   When a person visits your blog you want them to stay for as long as you can. One of the best ways to keep visitors interested is to show them other content on your blog that may be related to the post they are currently reading. The easiest way to do this is with the ‘Related Posts‘ plugin. Upload using your FTP client into the wp-content > plugins folder, then login to your Wordpress admin panel and activate the plugin from the ‘Plugins’ page.
6. Use Sitemaps
   To get the most traffic from search engines like Google it is best to get as many of your pages indexed as possible. Make it easier by installing the Google Sitemaps plugin. Upload into wp-content > plugins via FTP and then activate from the Plugins page. This will then create an XML file that Googlebot can spider and then find all your content. You’ll need a Sitemaps account though where you can register your new Sitemap.
7. Use proper HTML Tags
   Using “Alt” tags on your images and “Title” tags not only helps your search engine rankings, but it also helps disabled people with screen readers view the content on your site. It also can help your page be valid HTML (another thing that can help your SE ranking). I recommend simply describing the link/image and not trying to cram tons of keywords to boost your ranking. For more information on doing this, visit W3C’s site and look up the tag for the version of HTML/XHTML used on your site (if you want it to be valid).
8. Build Backlinks
   To get more traffic you need backlinks. Ideally other blogs will like what you write and link to you, but if you are just starting out and need a little exposure then submit your blog technorati.com. Other ways to get backlinks is via commenting on other blogs and using trackbacks.
9. Ping Other Sites Automatically when you Update your Blog
   Pinging other sites allows other sites to get updates from your blog much sooner and automatically when you make a new post. To have your blog update other sites when you update it, login to your Wordpress admin area, select Options > Writing and copy and paste the links below, under “Update Services”
   http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
   http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
   http://api.feedster.com/ping
   http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
   http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
   http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
   http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
   http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
   http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
   http://coreblog.org/ping/
   http://ping.blo.gs/
   http://ping.feedburner.com
   http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
   http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
   http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
   http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
   http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
   http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
   http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
   http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
   http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
   http://api.moreover.com/ping
   http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
10. Spread the Word
    While it may not seem like much, telling people you know can help you build a site. People you know can offer advice on design, topics, etc. and let people they know about your site. People who know you are also far more likely to comment on your postings, making your site look more active, thereby encouraging others to do the same. If you choose to do this step, ask the person to tell 3 other people they know about your site. This will in effect create a small network of people reading and commenting on your site. Plus, if they really like your site they’ll continue to tell others about it.

With the Zune Microsoft is throwing everything at it including the kitchen sink with claims of wireless streaming radio, movie watching, and wireless connectivity to other Zune players and Zune community with peer-to-peer music sharing a sampling of music to near by devices, also you don’t have to wait for the additional accessories such as Car packs, Home A\V Packs and Travel packs. But just how is Microsoft proposing to do all this community sharing is still unclear, we the consumers will just have to wait and see just like so many other Microsoft products. Can anyone say windows…how many attempts did it take to get that platform correct.

The design for the Zune is a bit on the safe side getting their style queue from Apple’s Ipod the only significant difference is making the display screen larger but otherwise it’s a Zune in Ipod’s clothing. (Let’s try some originality next time Microsoft.) Or my guess is the design team at Microsoft is thinking why change a good thing. After all it is Apple’s ability to key in on function and form as the definitive in separating itself from the rest of the industry no other product looks like an Apple. With a three inch screen, 30gb hard drive and a steeper price tag of the IPod the Zune will resale for 249.99 basic colors black, white, and brown.

For now I would still stick to the tried in true Ipod because you can’t compare Apples with Zunes. It is still an unproven device wait a few years then we can sit down and have this same discussion.

And by the way whatever happened to the Rio?

backup your data

ZYB is a service that enables you to create a backup of your phone’s contacts and calendar, and then allows you to share them online with the people that you choose. This service doesn’t require a java enabled phone, but your phone does need to have a feature called SyncML, a list of compatible phones can be found here. Like many new services of the web 2.0 generation, this service is still in an open beta.

find your way

If you find your self lost without a map, access to a computer, or lacking in the skills that are required to navigate using the stars, Google may have you covered. Google Maps Mobile allows you to take Google Maps with you wherever you may be.

Combining directions, maps, and satellite imagery, Google Maps is a free download that lets you find local hangouts and businesses across town or across the country — right from your phone.

This is a free program, but it does require a java enabled phone and data access. A list of compatible devices can be found here, and like many other Google services, this is still labeled as beta.

check email and news headlines

One of the biggest features that is missing from normal mobile phones is the ability to easily check your email and news headlines. Sure you can fire up the mobile browser and try to navigate your way around, but that is time consuming and somewhat difficult. Flurry is just the application to make email and news more accessible on your mobile phone. You do have to supply flurry with the password to your email account, but according to their website “flurry is even more secure than using a normal email client since your information is protected at every step of the process.”

A java enabled phone with data access is required, and there is no page to see if your phone is compatible, but there is a list of phones during sign up to check with. If your phone is on the list for Google Maps, there is a good chance Flurry will work also.

browse better

I mentioned in the previous point that using the built in browser on most phones is slow and difficult, and that is where Opera Mini for Mobile comes in.

Opera Mini™ is a fast and tiny Web browser, that allows you to access the full Internet on your phone. Take all your favorite Web sites on the go with Opera Mini!

You don’t have to be stuck with the default browser of your cell phone, and since Opera Mini is version 2.0 it is developed pretty well. This is a great replacement if you feel like your default browser isn’t cutting it. Since Opera is a web browser, you obviously need data access on your phone and to find out if your phone is compatible, check the list here.

If you know of any services or applications that make your cell phone experience sweeter, why not share them with us in the comments section.

Head META Description - Provides an automatic meta description tag for your blog, inserting a dynamic description depending on the query-type.

Ultimate Tag Warrior - Best Tag system for WordPress. You can use categories and tag system on one website which is very cool. Makes it easier by searching through the tags you made for the posts.

Google Sitemaps - Generates a Google Sitemaps compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. The Google sitemaps program is part of the “Google webmaster tools”. Provides info on how people came to your site throught their googles search phrases.

Related Entries - Puts up related entries of your posts throught similar tags, and words. Good for SEO because more links within the site, great deep linking.

SEO Title Tag - Overrides several limitations in creating search engine optimized title tags for blog posts and for Pages in the WordPress blogging platform.

Landing Sites - When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, they are definitely looking for something specific - often they just roughly check the page they land on and then closes the window if what they are looking for isn’t there. Why not help them by showing them related posts to their search on your blog?

Google Sitemaps - UTW Tag Addon - This plugin is a WordPress 2.0.4 plugin that automatically adds the UltimateTagWarrior tags onto the end of the google sitemap XML file as produced by the Google Sitemap plugin.

And if I missed any plugins that help you rank better in Search Engines, and Optimize your rank, please just leave your comments along, with the name of the plugins, and I will add them to the list.

Featured Information

Search engines can bring targeted traffic to your website. Anyone having internet access can use search engines to find the relative information. Suppose you are providing online learning opportunities or selling some products online like camera accessories or you are convincing people to buy canon camera or nikon camera you should present the information in such a way that your visitors should not get lost into the content. Also you should take proper onsite and offsite backup to save the data of your web space.

Akismet - Is a spam filter that checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they are spam or not, also checks the trackbacks for spam.

Ultimate Tag Warrior - Best Tag system for WordPress. You can use categories and tag system on one website which is very cool.

Exec-PHP - Execute PHP code in posts or static pages. When this plugin is on you can add php code to static pages or even posts.

Google Sitemaps - This generator will create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.

No Ping Wait - Speeds up posting by moving generic pings to execute-pings.php.

PXS Mail Form - Creates a mail form with multipart verification, various messages and an auto redirect on successful send. It is much more easy to contact with website author.

Super Archive - Implements a dynamic archive, the best archives system i know.

SRG Clean Archives - Super clean archive. Very simple and useful.

WP lightbox 2 - Overlay images on the current page for WordPress. You can turn it on and all images are now working with it.

fQuick - Sidenotes, short notes for WordPress. You can place it for example in sidebar.

CG-FlashyTitles - Implementation of sIFR 2.0 Flash-based - Nice graphical flash titles for WP. Very easy to install.

flickrRSS - Integrate the photos from a flickr rss feed into your site. Show flickr photos on your website.

Feedburner Feed Replacement - Forwards all feed traffic to Feedburner while creating a randomized feed for Feedburner to pull from.

Gravatars - Adds a nice looking graphic next to the persons comments.

Get Recent Comments - Display the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar or where you want.

WP Paginate - Create pagination for pages. It is the best plugin for that makes navigation easy with many static pages.

wp-notable - Add social bookmark links such as digg or del.icio.us to each blog entry

Adsense-Deluxe - Support for AdSense ads and allows you to add ads to posts.

WP-ContactForm - A way for people to contact you without actually emailing you, saves time, and great way to avoid spam.

PodPress - Got a podcast? PodPress makes it really easy to post podcasts, also includes an inline media player.

Related Posts - Link to related posts on your blog, which is based on the content of the post.

Update:

WP-Cache - An extremely efficient WordPress page caching system to make your site much faster and responsive. It works by caching Worpress pages and storing them in a static file for serving future requests.

Featured Information

A lot of people look for work at home opportunities to earn some money. If you have wireless high speed internet you can easily avail work at home opportunity. Many companies that are doing work at home business are usually offering work for home business internet marketing. Normally these companies employ professional hosting and prefer linux hosting to host there site. Furthermore, these companies when buy or sell domain make sure the hosting company takes regular computer backup to avoid any data loss.

1. Create a new document, the size doesn’t really matter, however, if it’s a graphic or title you don’t want it to be big, mine is 252 X 65, and make sure to make the background transparent, not white.

2. Create a text layer, with your text, and choose which ever font you desire, then type the text.
3. If you have any other graphic or logo, add it to another layer.

4. After you are done with all that, and are ready to save it, click file–>save for web

5. When saving you are given options, make them look like this:

7. The matte color should look identical to the background color of which the image will be against. If you have a black bg then you should type #000000, for me it is#333333.

8. Save and you are done!

10. Audacity

Audacity is a free cross platform digital audio editor. Audacity is extremely popular in the podcasting world due to its wide availability, its multiplatform support, and free pricing.

9. BitTorrent

The BitTorrent client is the name of a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution client application and also of its related file sharing protocol, both of which were created by programmer Bram Cohen. BitTorrent is designed to distribute large amounts of data widely without incurring the corresponding consumption in costly server and bandwidth resources. CacheLogic suggests that BitTorrent traffic accounts for ~35% of all traffic on the Internet

8. OpenSSH

OpenSSH (Open Secure Shell) is a set of free software computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol. It was created as an open alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software. The project is led by Theo de Raadt from Calgary, Alberta.

7. PHP

PHP is an open-source, reflective programming language. Originally designed as a high-level tool for producing dynamic web content, PHP is used mainly in server-side applications.

6. The Gimp

The GNU Image Manipulation Program or just GIMP is a free software bitmap image editor. It also has some support for vector graphics. The project was started in 1995 by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis and is now maintained by a group of volunteers; it is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

5. OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org is a free and open source office suite, including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing and database components. It is available for many different platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Unix-like systems with the X Window System including GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X. It is intended to be compatible with, and compete with, Microsoft Office. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange, and can be used at no cost.

4. MySql

MySQL is popular for web applications such as MediaWiki or PHP-Nuke and acts as the database component of the LAMP and WAMP platforms (Linux/Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP/Perl/Python). Its popularity as a web application is closely tied to the popularity of PHP, which is often combined with MySQL.

3. Apache Server

Apache HTTP Server is a free software/open source HTTP web server for Unix-like systems (BSD, Linux, and UNIX systems), Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare and other platforms.

2. Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source, cross-platform, graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers. Firefox includes an integrated pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, support for open standards, and an extension mechanism for adding functionality. Although other browsers have some of these features, Firefox became the first such browser to include them all and achieve wide adoption. PCWorld reviewed Firefox as the best product of 2005.

1. Linux

Linux is a computer operating system. It is one of the most prominent examples of open source development and free software; unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS, all of its underlying source code is available to the public for anyone to freely use, modify, and redistribute. Some of the most popular distributions are Ubuntu, Mandriva, Red Hat, and Suse.

Some programs that didn’t make the list, but worth mentioning.

Gaim

Gaim is a multi-platform instant messaging client that supports many commonly used instant messaging systems

eMule

eMule is a filesharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network but offers more features than the standard client. The most downloaded program on sourceforge.net.

Digg it 

One of the main reasons for a website’s slow download speed is the excessive use of graphics. Therefore, you must try to reduce the number of images and pictures used on each page. Consider repeating the same graphic, wherever possible. This is because once a graphic has been downloaded, it is stored in a computer’s cache and doesn’t have to be downloaded again.

2. USE HTML TEXT

Try to use regular HTML text instead of graphic text, as its size is much smaller. Regular HTML text will decrease your page size, making the download quicker. If possible also try to minimize the use of javascript.

3. USE COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES

Another way to make your website load fast is compressing the images. You can usually reduce a GIF or JPEG image by 40% to 50% without losing any significant definition or sharpness.

4. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF COLORS

To increase the download speed of your website, reduce the number of colors used in the graphics. Using fewer colors will bring down the size of the graphics significantly.

5. HEIGHT AND WIDTH TAGS

Include height and width tags on your page graphics source tags. This will prompt the browser to pre-allocate the space needed for the graphics, enabling a user to see a page more quickly.

6. REDUCE CODING

Spaces and redundant tags in HTML add to the size of files. Therefore, try to eliminate superfluous HTML coding. While scanning your HTML code to check its effectiveness can be a painful task, it can save up to 30% of your download time.

7. AVOID FLASH

Avoid using Flash, unless it is necessary. Usually, Flash files are quite large, and they can significantly increase download time.

8. USE CSS

Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for the website layout. Web pages using CSS are usually much smaller in size than those using tabular layouts. It’s not unusual to see reductions of 50% or more in file size when switching from tables to CSS.

9. USE RELATIVE URLs

Try to use relative URLs instead of absolute URLs if all the pages are on the same server. This will make the file size smaller and reduce page download time.

10. AVOID FREE HOSTING

The server speed of your web site host will influence the speed of your web site’s download. Avoid “free” hosting. Free hosts tend to be oversubscribed and lack the resources to provide fast and reliable servers.
Try 1&1.com, they have great service and very cheap prices.

Digg it