WhatAboutBlog.com - Blogosphere Musings

A Website That Allows Us To Get Away From It All

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:35:58 +0000

I was just visiting the a truly beautiful and inspiring website, that makes me want take off and enjoy a vacation away from the stresses of daily life.

When you have a few minutes, I’d encourage you to visit the Florblanca.com website, and consider a visit to their Costa Rica resort. Don’t worry, they offer internet access, so you’ll be able to email home and let everyone know what a great time you’re having. Really though, I doubt you’ll have time to even think about the web with all the luxuries and amenities there are to enjoy.

The villas offered at Florblanca are remarkable, and I know that a quick visit to their website will have you aching to take a trip as well. In fact, wouldn’t a Costa Rica vacation make for a great gift this holiday season?

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Internet Traffic Shaping — Decision To Be Made Tomorrow

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:21:17 +0000

If you’re a Canadian, you may have heard of this. If not, you’re sure to find it interesting anyway, as internet traffic shaping is something that, if allowed, could eventually effect all of us.

Tomorrow (Thursday) an important decision is to be made by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, in regards to net neutrality. You see, this past April, it was alleged that Bell Canada was purposely slowing down the connection speed of of certain users, based on their web activities. Ex. smaller ISPs that lease space from Bell.

Bell’s explanation, is that they are doing this in order to combat those that engage in peer-to-peer down downloading, so that their entire network is not slowed down for regular users. The question to be answered is: what is the truth, and should any type of traffic shaping be allowed? Well, we’ll find out one very important opinion on this tomorrow - the CRTC’s.

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Some Web Traffic Tips (For Newbies)

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:01:04 +0000

We all want more people to visit our websites, and view our content. This is true whether you operate a personal hobby blog, or an e-commerce store. I think about web traffic on a regular basis, and wanted to offer a few tips today. Be forewarned, these are mostly geared toward newbies.

Probably the most important factor in creating traffic to your website is the building of relevant inbound links. One way to do this is by publishing your content on article directories. While you may receive a little traffic and recognition when your article is posted somewhere, the real value comes in the form of the link it will include. You see, most article directories require the publisher to provide credit in the form of a link back to the original author’s website.

Google looks at how many links point to each site, and ranks them based on the number and quality of links. This ranking comes in the form of Google PageRank, and higher search engine rankings.

It’s also important to understand your visitors and deliver what they like. Do you notice certain posts or pages on your blog are much more popular than others? Study these pages and try to deliver similar (but original) content in the future. This approach may not bring in much new traffic, but will create reoccurring visitors and a loyal reader-base.

These are just a couple of thoughts I had in my head today. If you found them interesting, take a moment and subscribe to my RSS feed, so that you’ll be sure to catch future postings.

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A Look At Nouveau Riche University

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:12:15 +0000

A quality education is essential in order to get ahead and thrive in the workforce. This is true for all occupations in all sectors, including those who wish to pursue real estate investment.

I’ve had a personal interest in real estate for quite some time, and often ponder a career somehow related to the field. That’s why when I came across Nouveau Riche University, a college which provides education relating to real estate investment, I was interested and wanted to share it here.

Nouveau Riche University takes quality education seriously, and allows those interested in real estate investment to partake in a variety of courses which will advance their knowledge, as well as their understanding of real estate. The courses offered are comprehensive, and focused on providing students with the skills and expertise required to apply their new-found knowledge to the real world real estate market. That’s very important in order to make a real living, which is what’s it’s all about, right?

One thing I particularly like about Nouveau Riche University, besides their focus on real estate, is that they allow their students to customize an education plan specifically suited their goals and interests. The students have hands-on control of their education, and can tailor such to ensure success.

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Amazon Introduces CloudFront

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:14:37 +0000

Amazon has now released a brand new paid content service, called CloudFront, which targets business owners and developers. The service promises speedy transfers and no minimum fees. CloudFront is designed to take advantage of Amazon’s already-in-place cloud network. Content to be distributed includes software, music, videos, images and more.

Amazon Vice President of Product Management and Developer Relations, Adam Selipsky had the following to say in regards to the CloudFront release.

“Our customers asked us for a way to globally distribute their most frequently accessed content with all the benefits that Amazon Web Services provides: low, pay-as-you-go pricing, high performance and reliability.
Amazon CloudFront provides low latency, inexpensive content delivery, and simple integration with Amazon S3, without complex sales negotiations or upfront commitments.”

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Bye-Bye Windows Live OneCare

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:45:25 +0000

Today it was learned that Microsoft is readying to pull the plug on Windows Live OneCare, and is focusing their efforts toward a new and free program which will focus on anti-malware tools.

The rumored name for Microsoft’s new security development is “Morrow”, and it’s reportedly being designed to use less resources — something that can be a major hassle with other anti-malware products. One of the ways that Morrow will accomplish this is by removing most of the non-essential elements contained in Windows Live OneCare. Look for Windows Live OneCare to be discontinued next summer 2009.

The Morrow product is likely to be released late 2009, and will have the ability to detect, protect against and remove spyware, trojans and viruses.

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Reverse Lookup Any Number

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:31:28 +0000

Have you ever had an unrecognizable phone number appear on your cell phone screen before? Being naturally curious, people would like to find out who is calling them. The website for doing a reverse phone search is nationwidephonelookup.com. The service can provides the name as well as the address of such pesky callers as telemarketing and survey companies. It’s better to know who’s calling so you can choose to ignore or answer the phone without being surprised.

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Tougher Times for Hackers and Phishers

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:30:57 +0000

2008 is looking like a good year for federal authorities who are cracking down on some of the largest Internet crime rings.

For example, the secret service and FBI have been working to break up a huge forum for stolen credit cards and shut down the world’s largest spam ring. In addition, investigations have to led to indictments of other high-profile spammers and 11 people connected to the computer break-in at TJX and other retailers.

Although the Secret Service and the FBI don’t offer annual cybercrime data, there is no doubt that high profile arrests are substantially up this year. This is attributed to stronger laws, better-trained agents and prosecutors, and more cooperation from crime fighting agencies overseas.

As any other crime, cybercrime goes up during economic downturns, which highlights the importance of the policing activity that is currently taking place. Cybercrime has an estimated value of $200 billion.

What aids the current crime fighting activities is: 1) more resources - an understanding of the technology and how to infiltrate various crime groups. The Secret Service has increased the training for its agents, as well as prosecutors and federal judges. Approximately 1000 more agents are trained compared to last year. 2) International cooperation- There is increased cooperation with other countries such as Romania, Turkey, Germany. In Romania, for example, 90 people have been arrested by the local police cooperating with US authorities. 3) Harsher cyberlaws - Such laws as the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2008 have helped in prosecuting and sentencing more cybercriminals than ever.

Tech companies are also fighting cybercrime. MySpace filed 5 lawsuits this year against spammers, one of which ended up with a record $230 million judgement for violating the federal anti-spam law.

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Technology To Make Us Fatter And Lazier, Thanks TiVo!

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:38:24 +0000

Just when you thought ordering pizza couldn’t get any easier or more convenient, TiVo stepped into the fray. The company has entered into a partnership with Pizza gurus Domino’s that will allow their users new pizza-ordering freedoms.

If you own a TiVo, you’ll soon be able to order your dinner directly through your tv set. How does it work? Dominos will place small ads shown periodically to TiVo viewers, which users can click on to enter TiVo’s new Domino’s exclusive pizza ordering menu. There’s also a “Domino’s on demand” option through the TiVo menu. So a few clicks here and there, and you won’t even have to leave your Lazyboy until the delivery man shows up!

Is this good news or bad news? You decide.

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High-Quality Nuts Make Great Business Gifts

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:58:25 +0000

Every year my business sends and receives dozens of gifts. When I think about it, though, the majority of them are chocolates, and it would be a good idea to send something different, in order to make the gifts more memorable.

This holiday season I’m considering sending out high quality nuts from Zenobia, as our company’s gift to others. Some of the reasons I’m leaning toward using their services are that they include a personalized gift card with their packages, their packages are very customizable, and they dress them up in an elegant and decorative fashion. I know when my gifts from Zenobia are sent, the recipients will be pleased with both the quality found inside and out — which means they are likely to remember both the gift and the sender.

In addition to the benefits I just mentioned, I am quite pleased with the variety of nut gifts available from Zenobia, as they offer more than just the standard peanuts or mixed nuts. Personally, I know a lot of folks really enjoy pecans, and I believe it would be considered a lot more unique to send a package of such. The ones featured on the Zenobia website sure look tasty! Although, I have to say, the pistachios and macadamias are pretty tempting too.

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