Sunday, August 19, 2007

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking has become more and more popular with internet users over the past couple of years and Webmasters are capitalising on the growing trend by submitting their sites to the social bookmark sites.

I've found this nice Social Bookmarking list of 100 sites that allow users and Webmasters to participate in. It's an excellent resource and definately one for the savvy Webmasters favourites list.

Personally I use Social Bookmarking in a fairly small way but always submit my sites to the larger sites in the hope of more traffic and therefore also more backlinks if my content is deemed worthy. It's a great way to obtain natural backlinks, which is what we all need for our websites to be successful.

Try out the Social Bookmarking list and submit to a few, if you haven't already tried it and see if the effects are worthwhile for your website.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Pachinko

Every heard of Pachinko? No, thought not, well unless you're reading this blog from Japan where pachinko is one of the most commonest games around with a huge following of players.

However, pachinko is also popular in other countries too and many people collect pachinko machines or have one in their house to play. Have a look on eBay and you'll see many pachinko machines for sale.

So, what is it? Well, pachinko is like a cross between a pinball and a slot machine. Balls are fired into the upright pinball machine at the top, at a player controlled rate, and if they land in the catcher at the bottom, the slot machine element of the game is triggered. The slot machine generally sits in the middle of the game screen and winning combinations pay out more of the small balls. The idea of pachinko is to get as many small balls as possible, obviously to end up with more than you started with.

Anyway, pachinko is facinating and the history and setup in Japan is well worth a read, even if you'll never actually sit and play the games. I've devised a small site to highlight the game of pachinko, the history of pachinko and online pachinko. You'll also find other information about the game at Wikipedias Pachinko page.

Have a read of Pachinko8.com, it's facinating stuff.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

HubPages and Harry Potter

What is it with everyone and the huge amount of hype that is Harry Potter. Sure they're a great read and a thrilling set of stories, but the amount of people queuing up to read the latest Harry Potter book in J K Rowlings series is astounding.

Anyway, not to be one to miss out on the fun, I used a new site I've found to produce my very own piece of Harry Potter magic!

For the uninitiated, the page was created using HubPages and it's great, easy to use and if you want to try it, you'll be producing pages in no time at all.

It really is the easiest way to produce a page on a topic that I've found and to give some idea of the time-scales involved to produce a decent enough page on your chosen subject, see my new Harry Potter Books page.

It took 10 minutes maximum to put together and is a great way to show off subjects that interest you quickly and easily. I've long been a fan of Squidoo, you can see my lenses here : Doolally but I must admit Hubpages is quicker, easier and more user friendly to use.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Stumble Upon

Internet users will love Stumble Upon. I've just started using it to browse the internet at random whilst making sure that the pages presented to me are related to things I like. I'd advise anyone to try it out.

You can even suggest other sites, not already in Stumble Upon, so that other users can experience the best sites.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Great Idea But Too Late

I had a fantasic idea today that I thought could revolutionise the online world!!

What you do is set up an automated system that lets you upload an SMS message or video from your mobile phone to your blog. Think of the numbers of people that would be interested with all the new video and photo capturing gadgets that you get these days.

Excited, I was.

Then I came home and did some research. It seems that this has been available for years but I've never heard of a Moblog, have I. Head stuck in the sand again! :) Never mind. It's a great idea though and I might mess around with it a little and see if I can get something setup on my websites. It would be great to upload the latest snippet of information to one of my sites while on the move and away from the desk.

I can't get wi-fi or any of that other good stuff where I live and to be honest it's not a problem because I can't be bothered carrying a laptop around all day anyway.

Oh well, another great idea 2 years too late. I'll maybe put the thinking cap back on tomorrow - I'll get this internet sorted out yet. Ha ha.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Google PR and Linking

I notice that the Google toolbar has been updated and most of my sites have taken a hit, including this blog that has gone from a PR4 to PR2. Not that I'm a toolbar watcher but I do like to at least be seeing some kind of improvement once in a while.

The annoying thing for me though is I've been really concentrating on providing good quality content on my sites and I've never been one for link swapping. I generally don't bother although I will swap one or two if I like the sites.

Maybe this is where I'm going wrong. Rather than posting unique content and writing hard, I should maybe have been linking like crazy but it seems a bit pointless to me. This whole link popularity thing, in my mind, isn't the way to rank sites but I guess it's not an easy thing to measure, is it?

I have however, added a couple of links to the right hand side of this blog to a couple of new sites that I've been working on, check them out if you like. One is a bingo community site and the other is a Texas Holdem site that I've just started working on. Both are based on Drupal, a nice CMS system that has some excellent features.

Dell Delivers

Finally Dell have sent me my new system, which they should have done in the first place. In fairness, it arrived 5 days ago but in the excitement I didn't get round to posting an update.

They've also put a larger hard disk and enhanced graphics card in it as well as a version of Vista Premium rather than Vista Home. To their credit? No. The new system is cheaper to buy now with the upgrades than I actually paid for the PC that didn't work.

Anyway, at least I'm up and running. Well partially at least, I have a load of things to setup on the new machine but at least I have a fully working machine now. Fingers crossed.

I do know one thing though, Dell won't be ranking highly on my list of machines to recommend and due to the work I do, I get asked quite a lot.

At least, back to work! :)

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Aarrgh! Guess What!

On Thursday evening I received a call from Dell asking if my PC had arrived. "No," I replied leaving the girl on the phone a bit lost for words. I'll call back in a few minutes she said.

Lo and behold a few minutes after she called, the PC arrived. I knew she was calling back so thought I'd better take it straight out the box and get it setup. A few minutes later, I was ready to go.

I pressed the "ON" button.

... mmm ...

... da, da, dee ...

... nope ...

... nothing ...

... except for ...

THAT BLOODY FLASHING AMBER POWER BUTTON!!

AAAARRGRRGHHH!!!

The PC isn't even passed the problem it had. In fact, giving my own personal opinion, this machine probably hasn't even been looked at. Talk about a Webmaster Worry! I could cry!!! Well, almost, but maybe not because by this time I'm absolutely raging!!

The girl phoned back. "Did you get the PC," yes I replied. "Fantastic" she says, I'll just tell my boss who I'm chatting with about it right now. "Whoa!, wait a minute" I says. "It's got the same problem as before!"

(Whisper) Stunned silence... (Whisper)

"Oh." says the girl. Yes, "oh."

At this point although I was boiling inside, I felt genuinely sorry for the poor girl who could only appologise profusely. It wasn't her fault so I didn't give her a hard time I just asked what can they do about it. She says that they'll get a new machine build and set up! WASN'T THIS WHAT I ASKED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE 3 WEEKS AGO SINCE IT WAS A NEW MACHINE THAT ONLY WORKED FOR AN HOUR!!!!! Get a grip DELL.

Anyway, now I'm supposed to get a new "working" machine soon and to be honest, I've completly given up with Dell altogether. It was bad enough waiting for 3 weeks for a repair on a brand new machine but to get it back without it being fixed is horrendous to say the least!

The new machine is getting a couple of upgrades fitted to compensate but it's not the point, this service is shocking and I'll certainly not be recommending them again. I'll give an update when the new machine arrives and see if it's not working ...

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The PC Saga Continues

After my last post on Tuesday night, I thought I would email the nice girl I had spoken to previously expressing my disgust in a polite way and see if that got me anywhere. It didn't.

I swear my hair is greyer and I've less of it since the past few weeks!

Back onto the Customer Service line where, after being cut off by the first operator (a classic trick on Service Desks to improve their call times, ) I spoke to a friendly and appologetic (spelling) guy who didn't want to tell me anything about the machine except that it would be delivered tomorrow.

After pushing for some time, I was 40 minutes on the telephone, he admitted that the machine was still in the Dell depot. Not, given to the Courier last Thursday or Friday as I had previously been told.

I asked to speak with someone who could give me a refund as I am really regretting ever buying this machine. Eventually after instructing him about 10 times, he let me speak to a Supervisor who admitted she can't give replacements but would look into it tomorrow. I told them that I was going to get Trading Standards involved if a satisfactory outcome was not going to be possible.

Ten minutes after that call, the nice lady I had emailled called to say that Dell don't give refunds to business customers but instead offer immediate replacement. What!! This is what I had asked for originally but was told that the repair would be quicker and it wasn't normal to issue a replacement!

However, she said that the machine had been picked up earlier and was indeed with the courier service that would deliver tomorrow. She will call this morning with an update. We'll see.

I'm pulling my hair out by now and complaining bitterly but they really don't want to hear. It's a case of speak nice and agree to delivery tomorrow, every time I call.

We'll see what happens today. They did send me a USB storage thing as compensation. Little value without a PC to plug it into.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Still Nothing from Dell

Well it's 7pm on Tuesday and the couriers are all done for today and still nothing from Dell. They really are a waste of time.

I'm guessing that the Manager of their Customer Services department knows this as well. He hasn't called like he said he would to check that the system was delivered. I'm starting to presume again that the bloody new PC is still sitting in its box at Dell somewhere, if, of course, they have really managed to find it yet!

What am I to do? I'm behind with work, and with no joy from Dell I'm really unsure where to turn to next. I think I'll contact the Customer Services again and see what they say but it's obviously a waste of time and effort as they've done nothing so far to help me out!

I really wish I had bought the MESH machine now as I know that they give top quality products and a friend of mine has used their Customer Services and couldn't rate them highly enough. Geez, I could kick myself. I won't be caught by this trap again though and I presume neither will any of my friends as they think it's disgraceful that I didn't get a new machine straight away. I tend to agree, one hour isn't really like receiving one is it?

Friday, April 13, 2007

Disgusted with Dell

In case any readers are browsing the site and wondering where I've gone, let me explain. I'm having to type this on a borrowed PC I'm using after buying a new machine from Dell.

My PC which was about 2 and a half years old was on it's last legs. It's been crumbling, crashing and limping along for ages now and finally went to that great chip breaker in the sky. The only thing to do? Buy a new one!

Great I thought and I managed to convince the other half this was a good idea, it took me a while but there you go. Anyway, Dell have a good reputation, or so I thought, and so I went on and ordered one from Dell.co.uk.

Had I known the problems I would have, I've opted for the MESH one that was the same price and specification.

Five days after I placed the order my new Dell machine arrived. I unpacked it, placed it neatly on the desk and started having a look at Windows Vista. My enjoyment was short lived though and after 1 hour I switched it off to go an errand. Upon coming back and hitting the on button, nothing happened. The power light was flashing an amber colour at me and that was it.

I called Customer Support who after 45 minutes told me that the machine would have to go back. I knew this was probably the case but they wanted me to check various things first.

I explained to them that I wanted a replacement machine and as I didn't have any data stored on it, I had nothing to lose. This was my first slip up - I agreed on a repair rather than a replacement. I should have demanded a new machine due to this one only working for one hour but they convinced me that a repair would be quicker than a replacement as they would have to build the entire replacement. This all happened on a Wednesday night (15 days prior to me writing this.)

They came and picked up the machine on the Friday (13 days ago) and they had told me that by the following Tuesday, my new PC would be back in fully working order. Bullshit!

I phoned them on the Thursday night to complain my machine was still not delivered. Not a problem they said, it would be there tomorrow. I called on the Friday night again and was told Monday. By now I was getting a bit jacked off to say the least.

Monday - still no PC. I complained again and this time got a Customer Services Manager who said that he would look into it and call me back. Give him his due, he did, but only to tell me that it would be delivered on Wednesday. A few moans later and after telling him that I'd never buy from Dell again and that the service I was receiving was terrible, he admitted that they hadn't even received the machine yet!!! Can you believe that!

It turns out, or so the story goes, that it was delivered to the wrong Dell service location and was basically sitting there having a rest. Well it had done a whole hours work after all, hadn't it.

Now the Manager guy seems generally ok, apart from a few small discrepancies in his story about the PC not arriving at the right service centre and he has called to give an update every evening. So far the machine has been repaired and on test for the last two days and finally he has now said that the machine has been sent to the couriers!! YEE-HAW! Why it takes 2 days to test a machine, I'll never know, perhaps another small discrepancy? Maybe?

I did receive a nice call from some lady in Customer Services last night telling me that my problem was of the highest priority and that Dell were really a fabulous company and that I should buy from them again. Yeah right! She's going to send me a small token of appreciation for my patience and inconvience. Great thanks. I've not been able to work properly for two weeks now but what the hell.

Of course, it's never as easy as all that is it.

The Manager guy, this evening now informs me that as I live far away, it'll take 4 days for delivery! What! I order CDs from Hong Kong, which is half way around the world and get them in two days! I'm in the North of Scotland by the way.

So, the latest in this Dell Customer Non-Service Epic is that I have to wait again, this time an additional 4 days for delivery. What's the bets it hasn't left the Service Centre yet? (You'll not get good odds on this, by the way.)

I'm going to post here again on Tuesday with an update. Will my machine is finally home? Not if Dells previous versions of events are anything to go buy.

Not a happy customer!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Bingo on Drupal

I recently decided to build a new bingo site called Bingo Genius but wanted to go the route of using one of the proprietry CMS tools available online. A few caught my eye including Joomla and Mambo but I eventually decided to give Drupal a go.

So far it's worked out not too bad. The Bingo Genius site certainly requires some work yet and it was a little tricky to configure but now that it's set up and is running more or less correctly, I'm pleased with the results.

The initial configuration did take some time getting all of the Drupal modules plugged in and working and admittedly some I cannot seem to get to work. I'm currently trying to get the chat room function working. However, adding new sections is fairly straightforward so overall I'm pleased with my first attempt at setting up a CMS based site.

Have a look at Bingo Genius if you'd like to see how it all came together and if you're a bingo fan, feel free to post a message in the forums. It's just been sorted out so there's not many members yet but hopefully with a little promotion the site will be seen as a centre of information for playing bingo on and off-line.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Banish The Google Supplemental Listings

Google has done it again and turned Webmasters on their heads and many websites see their prized work sinking into the dreaded supplemental listings!

So what is the dreaded second index that Google only uses when it can't find anything, or enough, quality pages that match the search query being looked for?

Well Google explains why pages make it to the Supplemental Index. When I say explain, I should probably say, hints at. They never make things that easy for us hard working Webmasters, do they?

This article explains a few things to look out for and also a few things you can try to get your pages back into the main index. Basically, reciprocal or linking out to untrustworthy sites is what most sites will be penalised for, me included.

I've currently got many pages that have hit the index and as my content is all written by me I know, or hope, it's not a content issue. I used to do a lot of reciprocal linking but stopped it a while back so I'm not sure if this is the issue or not. Anyway, I'll have to keep trying, and maybe a little praying too!